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Saturday, April 29th, 2006
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Pshoooo...
It was a foggy morning and I walked to the University to work on some things. I awoke early because our man Jean-Phillipe was fucking his broad in our room last night, and I can't sleep soundly in these situations. But shhhh...they thought I was asleep. Bought bread at the bäcker and fruit at the grocer and sat by the river talking to the pigeons and the puppies and reading about IMF. Later me and my colleague will drink white beers and write lab reports with beautiful, hand drawn pictures. Perhaps then another sleepy walk along my moody river lined with blooming budding trees that should mean the fucking winter is over even though the thermostat dosen't seem to agree. Go out later? Storm the city walls?
And maybe I will stay in this town longer. Innsbruck suits me well and I love my friends here. Learning a new language is invigorating, travelling is a good way to spend your time and money if you have jusssssst the right amount of style about it. I will see. This is open to debate. I am glad I have done what I have while spending a minimal amout of money. All things must pass, but I can't decide when. I forgot how nice it can be writing things for other people to read.
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Comments: Read 3 or Add Your Own.
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Friday, February 17th, 2006
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In Cork City, the center of town is surrounded by steep hills and if you walk up them it is only a few minutes until you escape the busy atmosphere. Brightly colored rows of houses probably were painted that way to help people forget about the nagging gray days. In the early twilight, the last pieces of sun crash over the cityscape and the rays drive furiously at the cold cement as if in some desperate last drive for consolation. I was hungry and counted my change before I asked the lady in the shop what I could eat for 1 euro. "Aye, a box of curried peas." "Fair. Sounds good."
So, the boy walks along with his carton of peas, and thinks about the town he comes from and all the people that live there and wonders if they think of him, too. If only because thinking about the coming evening of downing pints of Murphy's draught in another hostel bar with yet another band of roving Australians is nice, but seems fresher to him than this time last year when he wanted a driver's license and in the final effort for his secondary studies was devouring information on this country's greatest sons---Daniel O'Connel, CS Parnell, Michael Collins, and Roy Keane.
And for every stitch he sewed in the Fianna na hÉireann and for every time he tried to distinguish between Fianna Fail and Fin Gael, sincere as he was, he didn't think he'd be standing above Cork the same time next year. He didn't forsee a lot of what came to pass, but he felt thankful for that and hoped that the future would be graceful enough to give him all the more fortunate surprises.
I made my way back into town, to take a shower before my rendevouz later that evening in the Bru Bar with people I'd met in Galway. I had been assigned three Frenchmen as roommates for the evening. So so so we make merry by drinking whiskey and water and share some stories. "WE AWE JEAN-PAUL, FRANCOIS, AND MARCEL! VHEE LOOK FOR VERK! HAHA! A MAN MUST HAVE MONEY IF HE VHANTS ZU HAVE WOMMEN, MY FRIEND! YOU AWE YOUNG, WE MUST TEACH YOU OF ZHE WELD! HAHA! ZU LIFE!" WOOO...Everybody is looking for something, I guess it's just a matter of knowing for sure what it is.
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Comments: Add Your Own.
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Tuesday, October 4th, 2005
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| Time: | 8:10 pm. |
| Music: | bob dylan - 'the lonesome death of hattie carroll'. |
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Tommorow morning, I'm flying into Munich. I don't know how many of you knew I was going to Europe, some of you did for sure though. I didn't tell many people because of the fact that I was never really sure myself if it was going to work out, I had so many problems with getting my passport and everything together. However, everything looks to be in pretty good order. So tommorow, it's good evening America, and good morning Europa.
I am excited about going to Europe. I have wanted to go my whole life. I feel really terrible though, because I know my mom is going to worry about me like crazy. But really, I'm only travelling alone to Innsbruck, and once I'm there I will be at university so I shouldn't be in "harm's way". This has all happened fast. In the back of my mind, I don't even really feel like I'm going. I have the notion that at the airport, some customs official is going to hassle me about some piece of paperwork I should but don't have and tell me to go home, or something like that. But really, I'm going for free, so I shouldn't complain.
I'm going to miss you guys tre-fucking-mendously. I'll be home in mid-January, and we'll party it up then.
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Comments: Read 3 or Add Your Own.
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Friday, September 30th, 2005
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I got hit by a car while I was riding my bike this afternoon. A fellow about 25 or 30 was pulling out of the Jesse Duplantis Mega-Church (Jesus Christ, Inc.) on Ormond Blvd and didn't bother to look right in front of him for potential pedestryians or, in my case, bicyclists. I already knew "eveangelical" Christians sucked...but damn. The guy got out of his car briefly, but once he saw that I was able to stand up, pick my bike out of the street, and begin yelling obscenties at him, he promptly drove off. I'm just glad he wasn't driving faster when he hit me. The fraction of a second when you realize you are going to get hit by a car is surreal. I had never given much consideration to wearing a helmut, mostly for asthetic purposes I guess, but when I was getting run into by a car I wished I was wearing one. Thankfully, I didn't need it. I was able to land pretty well, and he realized what he had done before he ran over me or picked up much speed. I felt fairly light hearted about the incident as I was walking home...I was pretty much fine except for a gash on my leg, and the damage to my bicycle didn't look that bad. However, when I was laying in the bathtub 45 minutes later, I couldn't help but wonder what would have happened had the car appoching on the Boulevard not realized what had happened and stopped. The image of that white SUV travelling at 40 mph running over me, sprawled out in the middle of the street, was chilling.
I just hate how driving a car can give people the aarogance that they own the road. Frankly, I think it's terrible that so many people routinly get in their cars, burn gasoline, and put everybody at risk if only to save a mile long walk or bicycle ride. It just dosen't make any sense to me. Surely, I'm not perfect when it comes to transportation, and I honestly regret the fact that I didn't ride my bicycle to high school every day when I still could. Whatever.
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Comments: Read 5 or Add Your Own.
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Monday, September 26th, 2005
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I really am sick of always having $5.00 in library fines. Especially when the fee is only 2 cents a day.
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Comments: Read 3 or Add Your Own.
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People in their ways filling up their days, but then what am I doing?
Sharing the same days looking for new ways, but then what are they doing?
...
The sun will rise the same tommorow, but will you?
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Comments: Read 2 or Add Your Own.
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Monday, September 12th, 2005
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I ride bicycle early in the morning. I peddle until I'm tired or until I'm bored but by then I'm far from home...St Rose or Kenner.I stop and stand with the frame between my legs. I stop and watch the cars going by on the windy road beneath me with all the souls and the lives I'll never touch and stories I won't know. The way that riding your bicycle for a while can steal your adrenaline is so nice and I let frustration and remorse flow through me like water although it gets stuck sometimes. I peddle home against the wind and it's hotter outside now and the birds aren't singing as loudly. Industry is everywhere and beatiful and horrible at the same time and reminds me of when the cops took my camera for taking a picture of a refinery. Chemical fires burn down the road. The ships on the river come from places I want to go but probably never will...Uruguay, Holland, Brazil, Panama, Korea, and one from France called Le Etolie. I buy travel manuels at library sales.
I used to ride bicycle with my best friend, but he moved away to his college and I stayed here for my college and now I only see him sometimes, and usually not on a bike. I think I like riding by myself better. Sometimes. It's getting hotter and there are more cars now and sometimes I don't want them to see me. I'm just tired now and hate people who drive like they own everything. They don't know anything. When I come home the cicadas are roaring. I make a fried egg and listen to NPR. I wonder if the rest of my life will be like this, and if so I think I'll be okay.
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Comments: Read 3 or Add Your Own.
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Friday, September 9th, 2005
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| Time: | 1:59 pm. |
| Music: | the refused. |
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True to my mother's predictions, the storm none of us were even talking about when it first entered the Gulf really did turn out to be the one that hit us hard. It seems like this storm really came out of nowhere, but it will be a while before any of us forget it now. Thanks to a last minute jut to the east, my house and really the rest of my neighborhood survived without much structural damage and pretty much no flooding. But Jesus Christ...poor, poor New Orleans...I can only hope that the charm and character of the city won't have to be bulldozed and replaced with some Houston strip mall archipelago.
In evacuating, we fled to the nearest point we could find that was out of the storm's path. With no family in the area, that place turned out to be the Mississippi Delta. Greenville, Mississippi was a strange but endearing town, all the more so being that it was refuge from a strong hurricane. The first two days were nervy as I worried about the fate of New Orleans, Destrehan and my own neighborhood. I took lots of walks and tried to call friends to no avail. When I found it hard to sleep at night I would just think of the mid-eighties at Anfield Road...Souness to Dalglish...Dalglish to Rush...Rush....
After the storm had passed, we still couldn't go home and found ourselves making the best use of our time that we could. We stumbled around the Delta visiting civil war battlefields and state parks where my father picked up the habit of having long conversations with inmates who were allowed to work during the days on state grounds. I allowed myself the luxury of eating fish and soon became quite enthused over Mississippi's fried catfish, okra and cold iced tea. I made the friendship of a six year old boy from New Orleans at the hotel who would wait for me to come outside and play his Gameboy with him. I passed the slow afternoons downtown at the William Alexander Percy Library on Main Street reading over Walker Percy and Shelbey Foot books, wondering how this small town had somehow produced so many Pulitzer Prize winning authors.
I'm at home now, and thankful to be here. How I'm going to spend the rest of the semester is up in the air right now. A quick transfer to LSU was on the cards originally but got scrapped due to several reasons (Baton Rouge is a zoo, Ryan is a flake, etc...). Hopefully UNO will be functional by the start of the spring semester. I have had some contact with the local Red Cross, and I hope that at some point I may be doing some work with them. Aside from that, I think I'll be doing a good bit of reading, studying, working (? [MAILBAG?]), perhaps some travelling to Canada, and I may even do some writing. Right now, I really don't know.
Oh, and by the way, I hope all of you morons who thought Bush's foreign policy made any sense realize now just where all the money to pay for foreign wars really comes from. If appropriations funds to Louisiana hadn't been consistently cut over the last few years (to pay for Iraq), I'm sure there would have been money available for necessary strengthening of the levee system and we wouldn't be in this mess. That's all.
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Comments: Read 12 or Add Your Own.
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Sunday, August 21st, 2005
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Today was the kind of day I like in New Orleans. It was hot earlier on, but then the rain began to come down in the afternoon. Everything got real cool and damp, and I sat out on my porch drinking coffee in the wicker rocking chair and listening to the rain fall on the roof. I really love how everything stays so green in the summer here. On the porch I felt as if I lived in the tropics as I was encased by all sorts of bright green leaves and exotic plants from the garden. The grass is lush and thick and matted and such a deep of green. In Seattle, the grass got dry and brown in the summer. For all our mountains and hills and ocean views we never had grass like this. But ohhh...when you found yourself in those far off places with all the space and distance and cool air, it could be something really special.
I start university tommorow. This summer I left the Mailbag, got a driver's license, hung out with Kathryn almost everyday, and Brittany flaked out on going to the beach. That's pretty much it.
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Comments: Read 7 or Add Your Own.
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| Time: | 6:03 pm. |
| Music: | elvis costello - 'no action'. |
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Anthony and I took a drive to UNO the other day so I could return a library book, and while we were there we decided to pay a visit to Privateer Place to see if we could see our room or something. When we got there, we found that Anthony had accidentally marked an effeciency unit as his second choice, and a two-bedroom apartment as his third choice. Being that all the four-bedroom apartments had filled up prior to us submitting our applications a few months ago, this restricts me to a two-bedroom apartment and him to an effeciency unit. Despite our polite protests, and the current availibity of two-bedroom apartments, the management refused to even put him on a waiting list. This essentially prevents Anthony from moving into Privateer Place due to cost issues, so today we began our search for off-campus living arrangments.
Newspapers, high-lighters, "check this out", "get that phone number", yah yah yah...We set out at about 2 this afternoon, and had only made it about a mile down Airline Highway when Anthony's car ran out of gas before we could reach the Race-Trac station that he was counting on us getting to. So, our quest took a step back as I found myself pushing an SUV on the side of the highway, hoping my life wouldn't be claimed by a reckless driver. Salvation came to us in the form of an elderly black man who was kind enough to...uhhh...as you say...more or less rear end the car all the way to the gas station. I bought him a root beer to show my gratitude.
Armed with a full tank of gas and astute navigational skills, we found our way to Lakeview to investigate some of the places for rent. Milne to Colbert, Colbert to Fleur de Lis, Fleur de Lis back to Colbert, here to there, there to here, yeah. A few interesting prospects, though I'm not sure what's going to come of anything yet. I think we'll be looking Uptown in the next few days. To have my plans tampered with this late in the summer ranges from annoying to enraging depending upon my mood, but all along the spectrum it isn't good. Living off campus is an option, as is living in Privateer Place with a roommate assigned to me by the university, and in the background of all of that, living at home is seeming more attractive these days.
On another note, my little cabbage is going on a big trip in the morning, I hope I won't get lonesome.
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Comments: Read 6 or Add Your Own.
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| Time: | 1:19 pm. |
| Music: | madeline - 'machina de bella'. |
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Okay, so I went back on my word and ended up going to Plan-It-X fest. I had a blast, it was awesome seeing you guys. Also, yesterday, the captain of my beloved Liverpool FC, Steven Gerrard, announced he was reversing his decision to leave the team and is instead signing a long term contract to stay at Anfield. What a day.
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Comments: Read 8 or Add Your Own.
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| Time: | 7:49 pm. |
| Music: | bloc party - 'helicopter'. |
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It's kind of weird, but I don't think I'm going to Plan-It-X fest. Last summer, I wouldn't have been able to believe the notion of me not wanting to go. Hell, back then I even wanted to find a way to get to the first one in Bloomington. But you know, I still really like This Bike Is a Pipe Bomb and Madeline, so I might swing by. I took a picture of this bike today, I think it is so cool.
--ACL
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Comments: Read 5 or Add Your Own.
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| Time: | 10:22 pm. |
| Music: | orchid - 'lights out'. |
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Preemptive celebrations of Erica's birthday took place today and consisted of a trip to the aquarium and merrily meandering about New Orleans drinking beer.
( summertime )
Summer has been very pleasant so far. I've been having fun with some of the people I didn't see nearly enough during the schoolyear, and that's good. Everybody should arrange to eat a snowball with me. Yummm
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Comments: Read 10 or Add Your Own.
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| Time: | 6:16 pm. |
| Mood: |  good. | | Music: | simon and garfunkle - 'boxer'. |
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As the final days approached we snapped up the pictures and told the old stories time and again, and though I was sad, sometimes it was for the wrong reasons and sometimes I was faking it. Still, leaving high school was emotional, and though I never have to go back again, it's not over. Nothing is ever over; life seems to resemble space travel. You can escape the atmosphere, but the gravitational field will always pull on you in some way. If I got my science wrong, pardon me, and please just try to take it for what it's worth.
There are people who I will be terribly sad to not see again, or even just to see on a occasional basis when our paths cross here and there. Destrehan High School will always remind me of the freezing gymnasiums I sat reflectivly in as I waited for my PE teacher to walk down the line and record attendance, just as well as the sweaty, dusty woodshop where we contested in slap boxing and who could punch through the thickest wood plank. I'll remember the schoolbus, sticky and uncomfortable in the muggy heat of September mornings, yet raucous with laughter at the end of another day. The sweet southern girls I loved from both near and afar will always have a place in my heart, and I think it will be a long time before I part with the American history books whose pages were once so wet from my yellow pen. I'll take all this away with me, along with all the places I hung out at lunchtime and all the friends that I grew to love there.
Sometimes I was so uncomfortable with Destrehan High School, and it may be best that I now have that distance I wanted so much sometimes. The notion that this represents the end of when I can justifiably act as a "kid', and when, rather I like it or not, I must become an adult, is precarious. The sense of responsibility that I am inheriting is something that's hard to know how to feel about, but I'm leaning towards excitement. On the final day of school, after senior project had been finished and the textbooks turned in, my friends and I took an ambling drive through New Orleans and as we made ridiculous gestures at the people in the cars we passed, I felt the kind of excitement incurred by just driving in a car (usually to fast) and listening to music (usually to loud) that made me feel as though I was in sophomore year again. Later that night, as we poured over our Southern Comfort and Coca Cola, I wondered if this was to be the last hurrah of my childhood experience. However, a few days later when we ran wild and giddy through the Palace, hours and hours before the premier of the new Star Wars, I knew it wasn't over yet. So that takes me back to the force field analogy, but it isn't really the same.
I always thought I had you one better, but I guess you thought the same. Neither of us were right.
Oh Destrehan, you'll forget me but I'll remember you.
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Comments: Read 7 or Add Your Own.
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| Time: | 4:19 pm. |
| Music: | You'll Never Walk Alone. |
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ISTANBBBUUULLL!!!!
Oh God, that was the most beautiful, dramatic thing I have ever seen.
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| Time: | 11:09 pm. |
| Mood: |  impressed. | | Music: | You'll Never Walk Alone. |
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2-1 to Liverpool at Anfield.
Now, it's on to the Delle Alpi in Turin, and I'm pulsating.
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Thursday, March 24th, 2005
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| Time: | 4:47 pm. |
| Music: | matty pop chart - 'springtime'. |
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Spring break, Day #1.
I got home early from school today, and then went to the library to take some books back. I ended up talking to this cool girl from West Africa for a while. I love meeting new people, especially those from other parts of the world. It's so ammusing how they seem to think Americans are total idiots, but try to express that idea in more polite, subtle ways. "Some Americans...do not value education." Gah! Fucking awesome!
Anyway, after that I laid out on the backside of the levee, took off my shirt, and read F. Scott Fitzgerald for an hour or something like that. I hope this weather stays with us for a few weeks (or eternity). Right now, I'm going to Anthony's and later tonight I think Kathryn is going to come over and cut my hair.
I hope everybody else is pissed off as much as I am that we, the class of 2005, have to graduate to that Fantasia Barrino song.
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Comments: Read 5 or Add Your Own.
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| Time: | 8:44 am. |
| Music: | explosions in the sky - 'snow and lights'. |
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I woke up early yesterday to drive to Mississippi with my dad to get a gas tank for the old car that nobody makes parts for anymore. It seems that my dad and I get along the best when we're in the car together for long periods of time. It's always been that way, ever since I was just a little boy, when maybe we were going to the hardware store or he was taking me to the shipyard or something like that. He never spoke to me like I was a kid, though he always would at home. In the car, we were just two men, and though we shared silence, it was a very comfortable silence that was only broken by talk of auto-mechanics, fruit juice, the color of the local soil, and mild driving advice.
When I came home yesterday, I rode my bicycle to the library. I can't wait for summer vacation, so I can just ride my bike and eat snowballs all the time.
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Comments: Read 8 or Add Your Own.
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Thursday, March 17th, 2005
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| Time: | 7:52 pm. |
| Mood: |  pensive. | | Music: | dear nora - "i don't know what to say". |
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School threw the senior class a picinic today at the park on the Westbank. It was a nice idea, but why they decided to have it in March rather than April or early May really confused me. It was very cold and I ended up moving around alot just to distract myself from the temperature. It turned out to be awesome because it made me realize what I want to do with my life (( become a tennispro )
Woahh...that being said...financial aid letter came yesterday. I'm really confused as to whether or not I want to move out and go to UNO, or live at home and go to Loyola. Moving out would probably be fun and exciting, but for the major I plan on pursuing, Loyola has a better program. Also, UNO would be free for everything, whereas Loyola I would have to take out a few loans, though not very big ones. Bahhhhh....fuck it. Maybe I'll just open up a shipping outlet and follow in the footsteps of Chris LeGrange.
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Comments: Read 2 or Add Your Own.
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Sunday, February 20th, 2005
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| Time: | 1:48 pm. |
| Music: | the sunburned hand of the man - 'head dress'. |
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I need to find a new record player. I have come across a fairly large collection of excellent vinyl, and as of now I have nothing to play it on. If anybody has an old one kicking around or something, you should sell it to me and then come enjoy the soothing sounds of Herb Albert, Miles Davis, George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Frank Zappa, and Charlie Brown and the Great Pumpkin.
If anybody is interested in an update on my life, outside of that, I suppose I should mention that I'm engaged in bitter warfare with Mrs. Thompson (a battle between the good and the bad[/ugly]). In the last few days, I've hung out with Russell Moran AND Seth Rudesill, and it's been to long since that went down. I've been dreaming of Argentina, trying to be more creative, and last night I went pop-punk.
PS, my sister accidentally destroyed my favorite jacket. Please, find me a new one I can buy.
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Comments: Read 1 or Add Your Own.
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foggybottom's journal