Back-ish

Wow, July is already gone and it has been a long rough month. I was traveling for work for 2 weeks and in between that I had to travel for other things. In the past 5 weeks I have been in...

Chicago
P-Town
Boston (5 days)
Rochester NY (2 times)
Washington DC
and Wappingers Falls NY

I was going to go to NYC as well but I figured that may be too much. I have no idea how people travel this much. I was exhausted and I have never been so happy to be in my house.

I have a lot of things going on in my life as well, most of them I can't share quite yet on this blog but needless to say some changes are coming. Change- while I should be used to it, scares the ever living shit out of me. As soon as I know what is going to happen and I can share things I will.

Other things going on... yeah I really don't know what else is going on, well I guess I do but I can't formulate sentences at this point. I have tons of open positions in my store, if you want to work in a bookstore in the Boston area please let me know!

While I was doing all of this traveling I finished a couple books

1) I Was Told There'd Be Cake- it was freaking funny, she is the same age as me and I related to a lot of her stories and her cultural references

2) Candy Everybody Wants- It was good but nowhere near as good as I'm Not Myself These Days. But it was good trash to keep me entertained while I was busy and traveling. Which reminds me- holy plane delays Batman- I spend about 20 hours this month stuck in airports because of delays. Flying home from both DC and Rochester was a nightmare (stupid US Airways).

3) I am about 80 pages into Our Man in Havana- it is quite good I am enjoying it.

I will try to keep you all involved in what is happening and I will try to post more regularly but right now I am not making any promises, but I will try!

A DC Wedding

No, I didn't get married in DC, but somebody did!

But first, here is some back story- I have been away for work, as a matter of fact I was away all last week, and then I flew to DC to help the Doctor with some things, and now I am sitting in an airport on my way back to lovely Rochester for a store opening. Basically, I have been home about 24 hours in the last 10 days. While in DC, which is the hottest place on earth, I am now convinced of it, we stayed in a hotel on the South West side, not a nice hotel, a really cheap hotel that was found through priceline.com. It was a Best Western, I hate to admit it! And for those of you unfamiliar with DC, the SW side is not the nicest area. We spent most of our day away from the hotel conducting the business that had to be done.

When we got back to the hotel on Friday evening we were burning up, covered in sweat, and in immediate need of some form of refreshment. We look out our bedroom window which overlooks a somewhat grungy pool, but it looked amazing. We quickly change into bathing suits, pulling our sweat laden clothing off and practically run to the elevator. In the elevator we run into a group of people who are all dressed up for the evening, we assumed they were going out for a fancy night on the town, or a wedding in the district. They must have been stuck in this crappy hotel by those evil people at priceline as well. As we get into the luke warm pool we feel slightly refreshed, its kind of like taking a warm bath in dirty bath water. We wade around in the pool for a bit and notice out of the corner of our eye that there is a photographer taking pictures of a woman in a pink dress holding a bouquet of flowers. The backdrop for these pictures is a lovely blue and white concrete wall around this grungy pool. I wish I had taken a picture of this so you could appreciate how beautiful this picture must look.

The doctor and I look at each other and slowly swim down to the other end of the pool so that the woman and photographer can't hear us. "Is she really getting married here?" "Are they really taking pictures in front of that?" We are totally confused as we go grab our towels and head back up to our room. We look down at the pool later and sure enough an entire wedding party of ladies in bright pink and men with bright pink ties are taking pictures in front of that pretty wall.

We head out for the evening for dinner and drinks with a few of the doctor's friends and when we return in the late evening the party seems to have died down but when we get off the elevator on the third floor we find this...

No, I am not kidding you, we get back to the hotel, ride the elevator up to the third floor, and what do our surprise and chagrin is there... ah yes rose pedals leading the room 311 at the Best Western Skyline in Washington DC. I couldn't help but laugh. I know its mean, and maybe this is the nicest place they could afford, I just think that it is weird that two people got married and spent their wedding night at this grungy hotel. I mean if you can't afford a fancy wedding go to city hall, or get married on a beach, or in your backyard.
Maybe it's not funny to them but I just found this picture absolutely hilarious. It made my night. I know I am a mean person, I get it, and I am stuck up. I just wish I had the wedding pictures to post here as well... what its funny I swear!

Attack of the Gnomes

A short but funny story from vacation... a lot of our friends call us gnomes... not for any other reason then we are short. When we were on the cape we walked into the house and up to our room which was the loft with a view of the ocean and the monument and a nice deck off the front. We look around and what do our wandering eyes see...

A framed picture of a garden gnome on our dresser, apparently marking the spot where gnome clothing should be deposited.

A picture is circulating of us with that picture somewhere!

Really... Are We Really Fighting Here... Really

I have been back from vacation for a week now, no I am not dead, but coming back to work is always tough especially when you are away for 10 days. And when you return your boss is not in. And after a week of being back you are required to go away for business for a week (to lovely Rochester NY). But since I have been back for a week i figured it was time to share a few stories from vacation, or at least one.

This is my favorite story from vacation because while it could have ended completely differently and it would have been my least favorite story with people being hurt etc, but instead it became the "highlight" of our time on the Cape. Also, keep in mind that this definitely was not my favorite story until at least the day after it happened. So here it goes...

It was our first night out on the cape, and being that I have been there for about five years in a row now I know the deal, when the bars close at one you wander over with the entire mass of people to the pizza place to continue talking and hanging out (and a few of the daring and possibly drunk gays go inside and order a slice of pizza). Because this is the only social thing to do after one o'clock in town there is an unbelievable mass of humanity squeezed into the outdoor patio in front of this pizza place and overflowing onto the road so that the cabs can't even pass. I decided that I didn't want a piece of pizza so I stood outside with a group of friends talking, but the doctor was being adventurous and wanted to get a slice. He goes inside to order, braving the crowd that is pushing in the door, and disappears in the mass.

About 10 minutes later he re-emerges, slightly pissed off, but with a slice of greasy pizza on a plate. Its late and the pizza looks good, so I have a bite or two and ask why he is upset. Apparently inside the pizza place the guy behind him was wanting to have two feet of space around him and was being an asshole the entire rest of the group. He was yelling and pushing people around. Us short folk have had a lifetime of being pushed around and we don't tend to like it, so when the doctor got pushed he told the guy to stop being an ass. Most people in line appreciated the fact that somebody had said something (except for the ass). The guy took offense and told the doctor that they should take it outside, the doctor ignored him, ordered his pizza, and met up with the rest of his friends outside, ate his pizza, enjoyed in and went across the patio to throw out his paper plate in the garbage can.

I hear the doctor yell, I turn, I see the ass with his fist in the air and i charge across the patio. No punch has been thrown yet as I reach for the assholes neck and pull him back breaking his necklace and taking him by surprise... "Back the fuck off" I spit as he turns towards me. The doctor has his fist up, he has his fist up as I push him away towards his friend and grab the doctor and pull him behind me. The doctor begins to pull me back and tell me to relax and the assholes friend pulls him back into the mass of humanity. The space between us grows. The crowd goes back to eating pizza, and we head back to our house on the hill. Crisis averted, although I am still fuming at the fact that the asshole almost did damage to the doctor's pretty face, over a crazy line for pizza I mean really.

Now, you are wondering why this is my favorite story of the trip aren't you. Well like I said didn't appreciate the occurrences until at least a day after. The next day we are at the pool sitting down and talking when a guy comes up to me and goes, "Hey your that guy that stopped the fight last night, that was amazing." I play all humble and say. "Oh, it was no big deal, I was just making sure nobody got hurt." The story is rehashed as he introduces himself and sits down to talk for a bit. Sweet I am a mini-celebrity, I love it! A few days later we meet a couple of guys from New Jersey, who are hilarious, we hang out with them for a lot of the night and towards the end of the evening a light bulb clicks on... "Hey wait, you are the guys that almost got in a fight at the pizza place, you were awesome swooping in there and pulling that guy off..." Again, all humble, oh yeah that was us, not a fun night really. "No really that was awesome, and it was like the most memorable story of our vacation."

And that is how this story became my favorite story from the entire ten day vacation. Sometimes it is what appears to be the low-light of a vacation that you will remember. But if you look at every day as an adventure you never know what will happen. And at least we have some fans now, and we gave some guys some memories that they will look back on and enjoy. Next year when I am walking past the pizza place I will laugh to myself a little thinking about that night and I will think, really, are we really fighting here... really!

A Story in Just Six Words

Well, if I can get the title of this post done in six words then I guess I can come up with a story in six words....

I've been tagged by Jennifer over at Bibliolatry (http://bookworship.blogspot.com) to write a story in six words. I thought about this one for a little bit and much like Jennifer I tend to over analyze things. I decided that I would continue on her them for a six word story. (And if you think six words is easy you are wrong). Her story was:

Smiling grimly, she plotted her revenge.

My story which may be immediately connected or come some time in the distant future is:

Evil laughter was heard for miles.

OK so its not creative but it captures the essence of me, which is that of an evil man.

So now I guess I need to tag a few people so I am going to tag kea over at Kea's Blog (http://crackedpepperandbooks.blogspot.com) and Andi over at Estella's Revenge (http://estellasrevenge.blogspot.com). Well that is two at least and if anybody else wants to give it a shot please feel free to do so.

Enjoy!