peanut sauce

Yesterday I complained to Jesse that I had some fresh ground peanut butter in the house but nothing to eat it with (bread, crackers, apple, etc). So he suggested we make a peanut sauce and eat it with rice. It turned out pretty well, and today I bought some soba noodles and made some more sophisticated peanut sauce with what may be a key ingredient of sesame oil. The noodles with sauce are chilling in the fridge at the moment. My (temporary) roommate is making mustard tonight.

Last night I went to local bar The Pencil Factory. It is one of 3 bars at the same intersection that I had never been to. It is by no means a dive bar. Drinks seemed to average $6, but some are probably $5. They serve sandwiches, too.

monkey business

I spent over an hour at a bar called Monkeytown the other night waiting for a reading to start. I was under the impression that Ian Svenonius would be reading from his collection of essays “The Psychic Soviet.” I’m sure it’s pretty rad; I want to get it. He kept wandering around chatting with people. It turns out the reading happened earlier in a different location and I was waiting at the after party. We sat in the back room of Monkeytown which has couches lining all four walls with giant screens. Some Bollywood movies were projected onto the screens and I felt like I was tripping. It was dark and Calvin Johnson was DJing. Hipsters were reclining on the couches drinking wine. I left at 12:20 because I had to get up early for work.

beans

I ate so many beans this weekend! Saturday I watched some World Cup games at Steve’s new place and he made beans with bacon pieces. They were very good. Later that night I went to Bonita and had a delicious steak burrito. Today I went to another friend’s house to watch some more World Cup games, and he made beans and rice with sausage. For dinner I had a burrito from Loco Burrito. I’m going to spend the rest of my night watching Undeclared.

the tracks

I came into work this morning to find someone had left cinnamon flavored Tea Tree Australian Chewing Sticks on my desk.  It must have been an intern, as they use my computer when I am gone. 

Jesse went to Belmont on Saturday and lost $100.  I think he's been enjoying saying "I lost $100 at the tracks."

I had an upset stomach last night for no reason I could discern.  Unless it was from the sort of gnarly Mexican place near my house where I got a (meatless) burrito for dinner.  We went in there to find very loud music blaring from stereo and 5 or 6 drunk Mexican guys who started interrogating Jesse about the World Cup.  I also watched part of Shop Girl, which is enough to make anyone nauseous.  What a terrible movie!

Greenpoint is a rather debased and foul place, I'm reminded basically whenever I leave my apartment.  I need to get a britte water filter because I am afraid of what Greenpoint tap water will do to me.

Luxury

I would like to spend a day at a spa. Massages, facial/body cleanses, steam rooms. I’ve never been to a spa and it never occurred to me until now to go to one. Maybe I can make it happen around my birthday (till then seems unlikely!).

I would also like to start doing yoga and/or pilates. I don’t know how I would find time to do that.

horoscope experiment

I looked up "sign explanations" for everyone in my band; the results were amusingly accurate, in my opinion! 

1. Traditional Virgo Traits:

Modest and shy
Meticulous and reliable
Practical and diligent
Intelligent and analytical

On the dark side....

Fussy and a worrier
Overcritical and harsh
Perfectionist and conservative

LIKES
Health foods
Lists
Hygiene
Order
Wholesomeness

DISLIKES
Hazards to health
Anything sordid
Sloppy workers
Squalor
Being uncertain

 2. Traditional Pisces Traits

Imaginative and sensitive
Compassionate and kind
Selfless and unworldly
Intuitive and sympathetic

On the dark side....

Escapist and idealistic
Secretive and vague
Weak-willed and easily led

LIKES
Solitude to dream in
Mystery in all its guises
Anything discarded to stay discarded
The ridiculous
like to get 'lost'
 DISLIKES
the obvious
being criticized
feeling all at sea about something
know-it-alls
pedantry
3. Traditional Sagittarius Traits

Optimistic and freedom-loving
Jovial and good-humored
Honest and straightforward
Intellectual and philosophical

On the dark side....

Blindly optimistic and careless
Irresponsible and superficial
Tactless and restless

LIKES
Traveling
getting to the heart of the matter
Freedom
Laws and meanings
the general 'feel' of things
DISLIKES
Off the wall theories
being tied down domestically
Being constrained
cooling your heels
bothered with details
4. Traditional Cancer Traits

Emotional and loving
Intuitive and imaginative
Shrewd and cautious
Protective and sympathetic

On the dark side....

Changeable and moody
Overemotional and touchy
Clinging and unable to let go

LIKES
Hobbies
Romance
Children
Home and Country
Parties

DISLIKES
Aggravating situations
Failure
Opposition
Being told what to do
Advice (good or bad)

2am sandwiches

I suppose a lot has happened in the past few weeks.  Spring is here?  I recorded an album in Michigan.  Going out there sort of made me want to move to the middle of nowhere and have a giant house and dog and build my own recording studio.  Not right now; maybe when I reach my early 30s.

 Tonic is a nice venue.  We played a good show there.  Feathers is a good band.  They play sophisticated, carefully-crafted music.  Compelling and enjoyable.  Interestingly, Feathers shares members of Witch, the "stoner metal" band with J. Mascis as the drummer.  I saw them months ago open for Dead Meadow, a band I've since lost interest in.

 Last night at the gym a woman accused me of stealing her timeslot on the treadmill.  It's really ridiculous because I watched her sign up for it 15 minutes after I did.  It's this kind of daily bull shit I have trouble dealing with.

Going on a trip

I’m going on a trip today. I woke up unnaturally early; perhaps I am feeling anxious. I’m going on a trip with 3 dudes for a whole week. Tonight I will be at my alma mater, likely crashing on someone’s floor, a stop along the way to Benton Harbor, MI. I might be back at my alma mater in a month to play a commencement show with 2 other alumni bands. I made a list of items I need to pack. I will likely pack while my travel companions are attending Easter brunches.

The other day at the Greenpoint Y, I put my clothes and headphones in a locker with no lock. When I was ready to leave, I returned to find a lock on my locker, presumably also stuffed with someone else’s exercise gear. I notified the Y attendant (“fitness expert”?) who was infinitely unhelpful. She said, “Well, I guess you’ll have to hang around for a while until someone opens it…” I was angry at her attitude and how little she was willing to do. The last thing I want to be doing is hanging around at the Y. I left and returned in an hour, luckily to find that the fool who had locked up my locker was gone and my stuff was intact.

an extra key

This weekend I handed over the keys to my old apartment.  4 keys.  But there was 1 key left on my keychain.  I have no idea what it is for.

Summary of an O.C. episode

season 2, disc 3, episode 4, for my benefit:

seth, summer, and zack go to pitch their comic to a publisher and seth
freaks out because he has to sleep next door to summer and zack…he
stays up all night and blows the meeting, then takes a bus home alone on
valentine's day cause they are mad at him…ryan tries to win over cal
by beating him at pool…sandy's old law professor dies and his daughter
goes into hiding again, not before she and sandy kiss, on valentine's
day…sandy comes home and kirsten shuts the bedroom door on him….alex
gives marissa strategies for dealing with her mom, who is plotting how
to leave cal with a bunch of money…marissa and alex start making out
at the end of the episode.