Just checkin' in.
How have you been?
I just wanted to tell you - frozen turkey meatballs from Trader Joes are stupendous. Go by a bag and you will see the deliciousness you can have in mere minutes.
I don't even use sauce or noodles - just a damn fork!
I was going to write a long annoyed blog about disenchantment and the new Indiana Jones movie- but I think we've all had enough of that.
I am happy to say - I caught a free early screening of YOU DON'T MESS WITH THE ZOHAN - and for the first time in years and years I really had fun with an Adam Sandler movie. It's pretty ridiculous and over the top, but it knows it, and uses it.
One and half weeks into my 6 week Documentary class - it's good - though when it's over I'm probably going to be frustrated I didn't score an internship or full time summer job...
I think the song "Your New Twin Size Bed" by Death Cab For Cutie on the Narrow Stairs album is the most depressing thing I've heard in a while and hope it's not played as I am slowly dying locked in room far from everyone I know.
I miss being a teacher now- because this is the best four weeks of the year.
I'm beginning to flip out over the fact that in about 20 days it will be 10 years since my high school reunion... and I'm totally reevaluating who I was then and who I am now, and trying to figure out who is better or was better off. Yipes. I thought I was too old for these whiney existential crisises!
Also, I'm excited for my one day/night get away to San Diego next weekend, and visits from friends - and a Mets game in So. Cal. But I really want to take a trip up to San Fran and go see the Red Woods in July... But I'm not sure if I can $wing it, if you catch my drift.
Also send me your mailing address to jhersh37@gmail.com and I'll send you something in the mail. I'm in the mood to use and abuse the postal system.
Friday, May 30, 2008
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Hookahs and Belly Dancers
All I want to say is we really don’t have enough Hookahs and belly dancers in restaurants these days.
I’m just saying, if I’m going to eat falafel and I want white peach and blackberry hookah and a belly dancer begging me with hip jitters for dollars I don’t have. In fact, why can’t I go to Applebees and be entertained by belly dancers? Granted Applebees has the devastating effect of all its food tasting exactly the same, be it chicken-fried steak or a salad- it all tastes like the soggy nachos. Perhaps giving me a hookah and having an Applebees gal belly dance would entice me more to go and suffer through half-priced appetizers and twofers. Come to think of it, I don’t think there is an Applebees in Los Angeles… What a crazy world!
A quick note on reading…
Today, before my tutoring shift, I knocked off 20 minutes at the Coffee Bean down the road from the education center. It was just me, a cup of coffee, a fake bagel and a book on the backdrop of the outer limits of Beverly Hills. I’m currently reading David Eggers’ book of short stories How We Are Hungry.
Sometimes I don’t what to think of David Eggers’ works. I’ve read him on and off over the last few years, starting with his classic memoir, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, which I loved – but even though I know loved every word I read, it’s one of those books that I can’t remember much of what actually happened. If I flip through it, the events and emotions come flooding back, but as soon as I shut that cover, it’s gone.
I started his latest, What is The What, right after it came out, but due to a busy schedule I ended up pushing it aside. I was going to read it on the way to L.A, but I left it in NY.
Last year, at about this time, I read You’ll Shall Know Our Velocity! - Again, I loved this book, the world, the characters, the way they thought and lived- but again as soon as I finished I lost it all from my mind. Well, there were a few parts that I stuck to my brain, but for the most part it was gone just as it arrived.
At the same time I picked up How We Are Hungry. Finally, a year later I opened it up and started to read. Right now, in the midst of the experience, I remember exactly why I love Eggers’ work. He takes you into different lives, of people, a little too detached, a little too over dramatic within their own heads, and lets you wander around for a bit, than pulls you out. It connects with my own floating detachment the world a little too much. It makes me annoyed at the nonsensical feelings of lost that you can have, because it’s all in point of view. I want to slap his characters out of their self-conscious subconscious drift through their slice-of-life circumstances. At the same time I want to live with them, thankful that we all exist in some form or another- me in the words on the page, and them in breaths of life.
Then again, as soon as I’m finished with the book, I’m sure I’ll forget it all again.
I’m just saying, if I’m going to eat falafel and I want white peach and blackberry hookah and a belly dancer begging me with hip jitters for dollars I don’t have. In fact, why can’t I go to Applebees and be entertained by belly dancers? Granted Applebees has the devastating effect of all its food tasting exactly the same, be it chicken-fried steak or a salad- it all tastes like the soggy nachos. Perhaps giving me a hookah and having an Applebees gal belly dance would entice me more to go and suffer through half-priced appetizers and twofers. Come to think of it, I don’t think there is an Applebees in Los Angeles… What a crazy world!
A quick note on reading…
Today, before my tutoring shift, I knocked off 20 minutes at the Coffee Bean down the road from the education center. It was just me, a cup of coffee, a fake bagel and a book on the backdrop of the outer limits of Beverly Hills. I’m currently reading David Eggers’ book of short stories How We Are Hungry.
Sometimes I don’t what to think of David Eggers’ works. I’ve read him on and off over the last few years, starting with his classic memoir, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, which I loved – but even though I know loved every word I read, it’s one of those books that I can’t remember much of what actually happened. If I flip through it, the events and emotions come flooding back, but as soon as I shut that cover, it’s gone.
I started his latest, What is The What, right after it came out, but due to a busy schedule I ended up pushing it aside. I was going to read it on the way to L.A, but I left it in NY.
Last year, at about this time, I read You’ll Shall Know Our Velocity! - Again, I loved this book, the world, the characters, the way they thought and lived- but again as soon as I finished I lost it all from my mind. Well, there were a few parts that I stuck to my brain, but for the most part it was gone just as it arrived.
At the same time I picked up How We Are Hungry. Finally, a year later I opened it up and started to read. Right now, in the midst of the experience, I remember exactly why I love Eggers’ work. He takes you into different lives, of people, a little too detached, a little too over dramatic within their own heads, and lets you wander around for a bit, than pulls you out. It connects with my own floating detachment the world a little too much. It makes me annoyed at the nonsensical feelings of lost that you can have, because it’s all in point of view. I want to slap his characters out of their self-conscious subconscious drift through their slice-of-life circumstances. At the same time I want to live with them, thankful that we all exist in some form or another- me in the words on the page, and them in breaths of life.
Then again, as soon as I’m finished with the book, I’m sure I’ll forget it all again.
Sunday, May 4, 2008
Running for the Hills
Greetings, my faithful reader (I say reader, because I'm sure at this point there is only one of you. I know who you are. Oh, I know...
Alright, so the first weekend of May has come. Today, thankfully, the Pittsburgh Penguins eliminated the New York Rangers from the Stanley Cup Playoffs, leaving the world safe again, for now. This means we only have two rounds left. Typically, the raising of the Stanley Cup is the true kick start to summer for me. Especially the last two years, where the cup was hoisted just as the ol' teaching year came to a close.
The other important aspect of the first weekend of May -in regards to Summer kick-off- is the first summer blockbuster event movie of the season. This year, it's Marvel's Iron Man - after being denied access on Friday night through massive sell outs, and not mustering the excitement to get to a theater for early openings on Thursday night, I finally caught a late Saturday night movie. This is a big change from last year, where even though I had to teach at 7:20 in the morning on the following day, I was at the midnight screening of Spider-Man 3 that opening Thursday night. Of course, at this point last year, I needed such distractions, and for some reason, be it I knew I had to be even more on my game, I always found days I taught after being out late the night before some of my best days of teaching. It was kind of like I tried even harder to kick ass because I knew how it easy would have been to find a janitor closet and pass out. Spiderman 3 also turned out to be a painful disappointment, not worth the lack of sleep.
But not this year. Not in this town.
I failed at seeing the movie Friday night at this place called the Grove, which is like an uber upscale yuppie center of an outdoor mall. From the outside it looks like a fortress of stone, but inside, it looks like main street of Disney Land meets the Cheesecake Factory (which in fact they have there) It has high end stores, restaurants, and a parking structure that's as much as an event as any of the locales on the inside. Actually, if you know the new portion of the Smithaven Mall in Lake Grove, it's like that, only fancier and more extravagant. One day Smithhaven Mall, one day you'll have your ultimate victory.
However, when your movie is sold out all night, you're not hungry, and have little money, it's kind of like hell.
But, like I said before, I did finally see it. And I loved it. And with all the big geek-event movies on the way this summer, it feels like it's just the start of these kind of crazed opening weekends.
So this week my classes finally close out - ( I say finally, but really, this semester flew by, seeing that it also included that transition phase of moving here, I figure I'll be adjusted in about 16 more months.)
So it would seem summer is almost really hear for me. What am I going to do with myself?
1) Make some money - this is critical - there isn't much free things to do here, gas prices are making me cry.
2) Take a class or two - this is something I'm currently planning to do, this will take care of at least 6 weeks of my summer, and hopefully be beneficial down the line.
3) Get an internship - we'll see how this works out - I mean, money making is my center concern, so giving my time away for free probably won't bode well, but it seems to be the only way to eventually get a job, so if I can find one that'll take me for a day or two a week, I should be able to make it work.
4) Write. I probably have that there every summer, but seriously,the next few years I'm giving myself the time (or the excuse -there's never time) to write.
5) Ehrm?
So, basically, I don't know what else to do with my summer. I mean I should be thrilled to spend a summer in So. Cal, go to beaches of something, but I'm not. I just don't know what I want to do for fun and excitement. I know some people are coming to visit on various weekends... but I can't expect people to come to town to entertain me. So instead I'm putting the pressure on you, the reader, to give me suggestions of what I should do to keep myself from going insane of the next couple of months. What are things you think I should do, see, go to, take on... etc.
My life is in your hands, so don't mess up!
Alright, so the first weekend of May has come. Today, thankfully, the Pittsburgh Penguins eliminated the New York Rangers from the Stanley Cup Playoffs, leaving the world safe again, for now. This means we only have two rounds left. Typically, the raising of the Stanley Cup is the true kick start to summer for me. Especially the last two years, where the cup was hoisted just as the ol' teaching year came to a close.
The other important aspect of the first weekend of May -in regards to Summer kick-off- is the first summer blockbuster event movie of the season. This year, it's Marvel's Iron Man - after being denied access on Friday night through massive sell outs, and not mustering the excitement to get to a theater for early openings on Thursday night, I finally caught a late Saturday night movie. This is a big change from last year, where even though I had to teach at 7:20 in the morning on the following day, I was at the midnight screening of Spider-Man 3 that opening Thursday night. Of course, at this point last year, I needed such distractions, and for some reason, be it I knew I had to be even more on my game, I always found days I taught after being out late the night before some of my best days of teaching. It was kind of like I tried even harder to kick ass because I knew how it easy would have been to find a janitor closet and pass out. Spiderman 3 also turned out to be a painful disappointment, not worth the lack of sleep.
But not this year. Not in this town.
I failed at seeing the movie Friday night at this place called the Grove, which is like an uber upscale yuppie center of an outdoor mall. From the outside it looks like a fortress of stone, but inside, it looks like main street of Disney Land meets the Cheesecake Factory (which in fact they have there) It has high end stores, restaurants, and a parking structure that's as much as an event as any of the locales on the inside. Actually, if you know the new portion of the Smithaven Mall in Lake Grove, it's like that, only fancier and more extravagant. One day Smithhaven Mall, one day you'll have your ultimate victory.
However, when your movie is sold out all night, you're not hungry, and have little money, it's kind of like hell.
But, like I said before, I did finally see it. And I loved it. And with all the big geek-event movies on the way this summer, it feels like it's just the start of these kind of crazed opening weekends.
So this week my classes finally close out - ( I say finally, but really, this semester flew by, seeing that it also included that transition phase of moving here, I figure I'll be adjusted in about 16 more months.)
So it would seem summer is almost really hear for me. What am I going to do with myself?
1) Make some money - this is critical - there isn't much free things to do here, gas prices are making me cry.
2) Take a class or two - this is something I'm currently planning to do, this will take care of at least 6 weeks of my summer, and hopefully be beneficial down the line.
3) Get an internship - we'll see how this works out - I mean, money making is my center concern, so giving my time away for free probably won't bode well, but it seems to be the only way to eventually get a job, so if I can find one that'll take me for a day or two a week, I should be able to make it work.
4) Write. I probably have that there every summer, but seriously,the next few years I'm giving myself the time (or the excuse -there's never time) to write.
5) Ehrm?
So, basically, I don't know what else to do with my summer. I mean I should be thrilled to spend a summer in So. Cal, go to beaches of something, but I'm not. I just don't know what I want to do for fun and excitement. I know some people are coming to visit on various weekends... but I can't expect people to come to town to entertain me. So instead I'm putting the pressure on you, the reader, to give me suggestions of what I should do to keep myself from going insane of the next couple of months. What are things you think I should do, see, go to, take on... etc.
My life is in your hands, so don't mess up!
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