jvanjura11

08:36 am: Church Tour Sunday
I feel pretty great today, but I woke up - for some reason - with that Fastball song stuck in my head. The one with the lyric "Anyone can see the road that they walked on was paved in gold, etc..."

Gina and I went to this neat church in Troy Hill yesterday with my parents, sister, aunt and cousins.

It just occurred to me how Italian that is.

We didn't go for the service, but to take a tour through it.

It's called St. Anthony's Chapel and contains a bajillion relics. Bits of bones of Saints long passed. Skulls. A strand of hair that is supposedly Mary's. Piece's of - what they say is - wood from the cross.

Im not really as ready to believe in most religious schtuff as I once was - but it was neat to see, and the building itself was beautiful.

After this we met up with Flann and went to Tandoori Indian Grill in Oakland and it was delicious.

'bout it.

11:56 am: Update on Recent Schtuff
I havent updated this thing in fo eva.

Recent events of interest (at least to me):

I've been temping at this Appraisal Management Company and I think I might possibly be hired.  Its kind of uncertain but vaguely hopeful.

I think.

Nothing says Jason like home appraisals, mortgage brokers, and lending institutions.

I started DRUMMING in a band.

This was presented to me by a friend of mine and at first I was really apprehensive.  Ive never drummed before. 

I explained this to Andy, the friend in question who wanted to start the band, but he was okay with that. 

It's just the two of us.  He had already named the project Shadow Rats.

Having no idea what I was doing the concept of having an entire drum kit to work with was way too stressful - so I knocked out the entire set except for the snare and the floor tom.  In our last practice I added the high hat but I still hardly use it - its hard to get your hands over to that one and keep in time.

We now have enough songs to start booking shows which is super exciting. 

Andy is thinking we should book primarily with 28 Whores and The Fitt - both of whom I would be really into playing with.  He also mentioned booking out of town for some weekend shows which I havent done in years.

As mentioned, the band is just the two of us.  Andy plays bass and sings.  Its kind of a bluesy/metal-ish/rock thing that I cant describe very well.  I'm excited about it.

Other than the job thing and the band thing I've been pretty much just hanging.

Gina and I keep trying to accomplish that trip to WILKES BARRE with no luck.  One of these days...

I've been reading a shit ton.  Tom Robbin's has definitely been the author of choice in 2009 so far.  But Chuck gave me this great book Veronica Decides to Die that was pretty impacting.  Right now I have reverted back to Virginia Woolfe and am really happy with that decision.

Gots to get going.

02:59 pm: Frustration in a mostly constructive light

This week feels kind of weird.  I guess thats to be expected, there are a few big changes coming up.

1.  Gots to find a job soon when this assignment ends.
2.  Need to either start writing songs solo or start a "side" project. - I wish I could just say that the band thing is a thing of the past, but for some reason I sort of need it.

- The job thing I'm not so sure about.  I dont want to work in design, so customer service is probably what I am next most suited for.  Who knows.  Maybe verizon is still hiring.  Maybe I should go back to school and learn something else that I could do professionally (though to be honest I really dont want to). 

Ive thought about learning to do something like drywall or flooring.  Even housepainting or wallpaper.

Nothing, really, is out of the realm of options I'd be willing to go for - its just finding one that is the problem. 

- The band thing is weird because it was always an outlet for me that gave me much greater satisfaction than any other artistic pursuit.  I still get more excited for shows than I do about anything else right now.

I like having that to look forward to - jobs never did that for me, and personal projects are too, well, personal. 

Though, I do understand why it's come to a stand still and I fully support that.

I tried to weigh all this by looking into what I was feeling and I guess I feel pretty frustrated in general, though by nobody's fault - not even, really, my own.

Thats okay, people can deal with frustration constructively (even this posting was on the verge of being passive aggressive - which is decidedly NOT a positive method of dealing with frustration)

Its hard to find a way to move all the road blocks out of my way right now - the things keeping me from being in a place where I feel content.  Thus the frustration. 

I have caught myself several times this week alone projecting my frustration at people and things that had nothing to do with the problems at hand and that is certainly a road I never want to go down again.

I guess I've felt this way before, and got through it - though I managed things pretty poorly at first.

Ugh.  I just want to feel like Im actually doing something for once.  I want a sense of satisfaction in what I have going on. 

01:40 pm: Neato
It was so hard to get up this morning.  Even Bob only gave a half hearted attempt at waking me up to feed him before just giving up completely and laying on my arm.

Last night Claire and Josh made awesome grilled cheese sandwiches and soup - they were awesome.

We then watched 30 Rock, The Office, and Obama on Leno.

Seeing the President of the United States laugh it up with Leno was very interesting.  I have to say that I was nervous at first about how it was going to seem:  I mean, we ARE in a pretty intense situation as a country and I didnt want him to come across as seemingly wasting his time.

On the contrary - he really used the situation as kind of a neat way to explain himself to the entire country - even many of those who likely do not support him and/or are suspicious of his intentions.

It was pretty cool.

Anyway.

I feel much more awake now.  And as such - Im going to get going.

07:32 pm: Moving Forward
This week has been pretty decent so far.

Things of interest: 

A) St Patrick's day Dirty Limerick contest at the cage.  Claire read the dirtiest Limerick EVER (hands down) but the night was stolen by some bald dude with a tame, prudent limerick.
A2) When Gina and I got home from the Cage that night the toilet would not stop flushing.  I dont mean that it would flush, stop, and then flush again - what I mean is that there was a whirlpool of continuos water rushing down the drain.

It was loud.

I called the emergency help line and they said that there was nothing that they could do until morning.  I am vaguely convinced that if I had said that my bathroom was on fire they would have said the same thing.

I didnt sleep, really, because I was convinced that the toilet would overflow and that the girl downstairs would then kill me.

And it would hurt.

B) The BOWHUNTER show last night at Shadow Lounge.

This was really fun.  They get tighter as a band every time I see them.

Sleeping last night - and this morning - felt wonderful.

Claire and Josh are having Gina and I over for Dinner and 30 Rock/ The Office tonight. 

Im looking forward to it.

10:49 am: This is the most interesting thing you will ever read

I have had a very (weirdly) healthy passed couple of days.

Sunday started out with, what I feel, was a much greater punishment than the crime required.

The crime in question:  Trying out Sparks again at the Ukiah show Saturday night.

Gone are the days, apparently, when I could drink this shit.  It ripped my stomach to shreds!

I was dead to the world until around three in the afternoon, Sunday - at which point I decided that I was going to become super healthy (at least for a while).

-Cutting out the casual smoking.
-Cutting down on the coffee.
-Sleeping more.
-Making sure I drink tons of water all day long

I know - I know.  This is only tuesday, so really I have been super-healthy for one day.  But lets look at this as a LONG TERM GOAL.

Or at least until next weekend.

Anyway, when I got home from work yesterday I made some rice, collard greens, zuccinni and tomatos and ate that for dinner.  Then I did all the dishes and put them away.  Wiped down the table.  Cleaned the bathroom.  Played with Bob.  

I did some minimal grocery shopping and picked up:
-more collard greens
-mixed greens
-a bag of rice
-black beans
-pinto beans
-frozen broccoli
-frozen bell peppers
-salsa

For some reason I picked up Baking Soda as an impulse buy.  I have no idea what I will use this for, if anything.

I then went down to Claire and Josh's to pick up a bag I left in their car after Mad Mex on thursday.  We shot the shit for a while and it was all good. 

After the shit was good and shot I returned to my place upstairs and finished a movie.

I went to sleep around 10 and woke up around 5:30 and couldnt fall back asleep, so I got up and fed Bob.

I decided that Bob was bored with his food (though he has given me no indication of this at all) so I bought him some cans of wet food to mix in with his dry food.

He loves it!

So then I was up.

I ate some breakfast (rice/greens/beans - my meals are all kind of similar for some reason these days), had a cup of coffee and a glass of water. 

I then did some writing (a few weeks ago I finished that novel in a month story and am now continuing work on a project I gave myself last summer and never finished). 

Then I did dishes, brushed my teeth and talked myself into going out to the busstop in the freezing, tundra - surface of mars - cold that we have been experiencing.

And thats all I gots.

10:58 am: Weird Night
Mad Mex after work yesterday was a good time.

I woke up in the middle of the night last night - around 3 - and felt oddly unsettled.  I dont know why.  I kept thinking about those gigantic centipedes.  The ones that are capable of eating mice.  I was imagining what one would sound like on my floor if it were to somehow get into the apartment.  This kind of scuttling, clicking sound.

I looked at my phone and was confused to find that it was now 1:00am, not 3:00am anymore.  While I was trying to figure out how I mistook 3am for 1am a radio alarm began to go off in the kitchen and it was unbelievably loud.  I was so frustrated with myself for setting the alarm both at that volume, and also in the middle of the night.

I was certain that my downstairs neighbor was going to throw a fit for this.

I rushed into the kitchen - my neck hurt, my head was at an angle and I couldnt raise my head up.

The alarm was a very old fashioned radio - probably from the sixties - and it was brown and bulky and I had no recollection of ever having seen it before let alone placed it on top of my fridge like that. 

But then, I remembered that it was probably from the cabinet full of old things that werent mine in the apartment and I unplugged the alarm killing the huge sound and tried to shove the radio back into the cabinet on top of a wicker basket.

Then I heard the foot steps rushing angrily up the stairs and my stomach shot up into my chest.  My neighbor was pissed, I could tell.

"Who was it!"  he was yelling.  He was storming up and down the hall.  He was frantic. 

"Who the fuck is making so much noise."

And just as he says this the giant basin in the kitchen - the one with the rusted metal spouts - shakes loudly and one of the spouts begins to spew water.

I step into the basement, terrified of how loud it all is, and begin searching for the mechanism to stop the water.  I know that I have done this before but for the life of me I truly cannot remember how.

The water rushes out seemingly forever.

Then I see it - of course!  The lever!  The moment I adjust the lever the water stops and the silence that slams down on me is startling.  Beyond that, I can hear the angry footfalls of my downstairs neighbor as he stalks up and down the hallway searching for the source of the sound that woke him up.

I become convinced that he is going to break down my door and then -

And then what?

Maybe kill me?

He seems just about that angry.

But I wake up again, before my alarm actually goes off and the apartment is so warm that its almost hot and Bob curls up besdie me purring and I have no idea if that - the hot apartment and Bob next to me - is a dream or not.

12:29 pm: Cookies and Vino
Gina and I made cookies for her co-workers last night.

They were oatmeal raisin and they were awesome because we are awesome.

The cookies probably turned out so well because of the JUG OF WINE that we worked on while making them.

I work late tonight so was able to sleep in this morning.  It rocked, to be honest.  I slept like a champ.  Again, I dont remember if there were any dreams attached to that sleeping.  Recently I havent been rememberng them.

I made an interesting breakfast.  Here's what I did - (keep in mind this is ridiculous)

I combined vegetable broth and water and brought it to a boil.  I boiled spaghetti in that.  I added left over curry rice and spinach.  I added tomato paste.  I cooked the shit out of it.  I then used an extra package of Ramen seasoning.  It was fantastic.

I let this cool for a little while during which time I washed dishes, hung out with Bob, and drank cup after cup of black coffee.

I ate it and it was wonderfully awesome.

Done and done.

Tonight Gina and I are meeting Joe D and his prospective lady friend at Mad Mex for Margheritas.  I am looking forward, really, to chips and salsa more so than the libations - not to say that they arent delicious.

06:36 pm: Waiting to Eat Food

I'm so freaking hungry!  I wont be home for over an hour and a half though.

That is no good.

I am debating just eating in Oakland after work, tonight, instead of waiting until I get home but as I think about that I am simultaneously realizing that I dont want to spend my money on food just yet.  Not while I still have some at home anyway.

Who knows, I may cave.

I've been rocking out the collard greens recently.

I'd never had them before and decided to give them a try a few days ago and good god damn are they delicious.

Mixed greens were good too.

Turnip greens probably would be good cooked with other stuff - but do not really stand up to the test when eaten alone. 

They are bitter.

Mustard greens rocked.

Lots of greenery recently.

Lots.

Anyway, I have off tomorrow so Im not really sure what to do with my evening. 

Part of me wants to be lame and just go home and go directly to sleep - Im not going to lie. 

Another part of me wants to go somewhere, and oddly, that somewhere keeps being the Brillobox in my minds eye. 

I have no idea why.

Maybe its the gigantic Straubs.

For some reason when I picture myself out and about tonight, I picture myself in the Brillobox.

I havent been to 80's night in forever.  Thats thursdays.  I dont know.

All that matters right now is eating.

Thats all that matters.

03:43 pm: Nothin' Fancy

I think I'm going to go for a hike in Frick Park tomorrow.  It needs to be done.

Im getting excited, probably because of the nice spell of warm weather we just had, for being able to take really long walks again.

It's good for the noggin.

Last year I started taking Urban Hikes. 

They're just hikes to various locations in and around the city.  For instance, one day I decided to go to the Science Center and back. 

For that one I walked down Blvd. of the Allies to Bates Street in Oakland, down to the Jail Trail and took that into the city, continued again down Blvd. of the Allies to the Poin.  Took the stairs up to the bridge, crossed to the North Shore and took the sidewalk to the Science Center.

They're fun.

I have a passionate, deep, and burning desire for Tofurky Beer Brats. 

Yeah.

In a hotdog bun.

With lots of mustard.

Mmmmmmmmmmm.

Maybe even with sauerkraut.

It just occurred to me that I cant remember anything that I have dreamt this entire week.  Not a single dream.  This is odd because normally I remember my dreams.

Anyhow, I have off tomorrow and that is wonderful.  I also get paid tomorrow which is also wonderful.

Additionally wonderful - I found both Birdmonster and Dirty on Purpose albums in my closet the other day and have been listeing to them (Dirty on Purpose is what my neighbor did not appreciate quite as  much the other morning).

They are still great.