littleroom

I made a few job calls today. I put my name on the mailbox. I did half a load of laundry. I made a batch of tuna mac, using the fancy organic kind of macaro.
Incidentally, Jenny said tonight that she only eats the grilled or spiced forms of tuna. I didn't understand that kind of strange talk. It's too bad she hates the future and will never read this.

We went out for alli's birthday tonight, an evening of appetizers and truth. Good stuff.

Now I'm back at 20 Lincoln Parkway, in my little room in the half light. When I got home, the heating pipes had some little men sitting on them, banging out an Irish drinking song. Or something by John Mellencamp. I'm not sure. All I know is that the pipes are noisy, if you catch them when they're down. I think it's Spring and they know they'll be obsolete within a couple of weeks.

I will be out of my office from mid-day April 27 to mid-day April 28. Nicole helped set up an awesome art show and I'm going to New York for opening night. Bye.

Stonegarden

I live in Somerville now, on a cute little deadend street called Lincoln Parkway (it's next to a park.) Some things I've noticed:
-whoever designed boston's roads was drunk, plain and simple. driving=accidents. my truck is hedged away at the back of a driveway, for use in emergencies only. The train will do the trick just nicely.
-people here pave their yards, not wanting to get bogged down by the complications of nature (in lawn form.) this seems a barbaric practice to me. I was raised right.
-bangers and mash are served at many restaurants, so boston can't be all bad...

Julie's First Grandson!
Hot off the presses, it's the in-your-face sensation from the very heart of the heartland--- Hays Josiah Faul! (he's ready to do something crafty, can you tell?)

No cat, no cry

I had a cat that I loved very much. She died after eating an unwound cassette tape I left out.
My first night in Boston, I left alli's cat outside overnight. Apparently I locked the same cat in a basement storage closet last night. Also I elbowed beth's cat in the face as soon as I woke up today.


I take care of a jade plant. That's about as much nurturing as I have to give.
(p.s. sue, please do not call PETA)

Arrival

so instead of going straight to boston from wisconsin, I went to visit Nicole in New York. it was lovely as always to see her but it allowed me an evening to freak out about moving to the big city without a job or an apartment. I slept poorly and woke up Monday morning feeling grim. everything bothered me about the world we live in, including:
-construction
-cell phones
-fashion
-my parents
-coffee
-sunshine

I left new york at 2:00 and stopped by my mom's house in western massachusetts. within 5 minutes I was asleep on the couch, tuckered out like a little boy who has one too many adventures.

I woke up refreshed and ready to rock the casbah. unfortunately my boston tourguide alli had been drinking champagne all day while watching the Marathon and was 5 minutes from passing out when I arrived at her place at 9:30. so when her roommate tiffany, who I had never met before, asked if I wanted to go out for beer, I was game. the night started moving quickly, but I do recall:
-conversations about Nalgene bottles, regurgitation and Sheboygan
-doing shots with a burly Russian named Sergei
-witnessing a true Boston Irish streetfight
-getting locked out on alli's porch and breaking a glass climbing in through the window
I also suspect I lied about my age at some point but I can't figure out when or why I did that. In fact, Figuring Things Out is today's theme. My head hurts.

swallowed

I was talking to katie derksen on my cellphone right before I reached New York.
KD- Get off your phone and pay attention!
JH- What's the big deal?
KD- I just got the mental picture of you and your little truck getting swallowed up by the big city. It was a bad picture.
JH- Why's that?
KD- Dude, it's sca-ry!

it was kind of scary. I got lost at some point in Newark, New Jersey, which is no place to get lost in (danger, death, etc.) Using modern technology, I called Nicole on the cell phone, she got on the "Inter-net," typed in where I was and talked me through to safety. The future, it is now!
It's not just about safety, though. In a bigger sense, the whole idea of me and and my petite truck versus the big cold urban world is a little terrifying. I forgot about the world's harder edges in Wisconsin.

travelling light

seven and a half full bags of trash, thrown into a private dumpster that threatens fines for sneaky rascals like me.

one bag of non-perishable groceries given to tori and drew, with the understanding the poor will be eating the food, not tori and drew.

one bag of perishable groceries given to my landlord, with the understanding he will be eating the food, not the poor.

one trip to the lodi library with stacks of videos and books, because suburban madison is ready for more john irving and stanley kubrick.

one large truckload of clothes and housewares to St. Vincent de Paul's Charities, where the looks on the workers' faces said "we don't want your broken Christmas ornaments and filthy cat litterbox but it would be awkward if we told you to go away."

one yard sale, sparsely attended, save for my friends and a generous neighbor who bought my entire CD collection.

one visit from julie and her manfriend don, true wisconsin kind souls, who picked up my ratty-ass 987-pound orange and green sofa and other similarly attractive furniture for disposal.

one enormous space-age TV console, replete with wood paneling and speakers, now the property of my landlord, although he doesn't know it yet. he is also the unwitting owner of my painfully uncomfortable bed, which is actually stuffed with hogshair (just ask nicole.)

I refuse to end this post with something like, "but the biggest thing I left behind was my heart" or something hokey like that. each and every person here knows how much I loved them and what an incredible adventure this has been. so let's leave it at that.

good bye wisconsin, hello boston!

mi amigos

a hearty farewell to my newer friends marlene, tori, sue, julie, craig, andy and katie. (paul is cool too, just missing)

mi familia

goodbye teri, gail, carrie, harvey, linda and all my other good friends in mauston. You guys rock.

connect the dots

Today a dove flew right up to my window and looked at me as I sipped my morning coffee. Then on the way to work there was a trampoline sitting in my lane on the Interstate.
coincidence? I think not.

Sirens Blare

It shocked and dismayed all of us in the newsroom to hear that our good friend and esteemed co-worker was fired today, effective immediately. I hope she knows we're all rooting for her.

Into the Shelter!

This morning, I'm sitting on my front stoop, talking to Nicole on my cell phone while unwrapping a care package she sent (Pez + rollerderby t-shirt.) weather is fine, not a care in the world. all of a sudden, the most terrifying noise I've ever heard emanates from the fire station. At a volume of 9 billion decibels, it's kind of air raid siren meets Jumbo Jet engine after inhaling helium.
so I freak out and run into my house, ready to tell nicole my final regrets (I never rode in a hovercraft) and eat one last slice of pizza before the apocalypse.
nicole then calmly tells her ninny boyfriend – "Jesse, it's the first Wednesday of the month so they're just testing their tornado siren. They always do this during tornado season in Wisconsin."
excuse me, a test?!!! this is a noise they should reserve for when the zombies are at the gates, to drown out the sounds of the Four Horsemen's hooves! bloody hell.

Jesse's World

I went jogging yesterday after a winter of lethargy, fried fudge and buttersausage. After about a half-mile, the scene looked something like this.

Passing of the Pontiff

No, I don't feel obliged to make some self-serving statement on the passing of a man who is completely irrelevant to my life. In fact, I was just thinking about how I've always had a hard time caring about high-profile death. when I was in third grade and the Challenger crashed, I cracked wise: "what, did it crash into (similarly irrelevant news phenomenon) Haley's Comet?" hey hey, tough crowd!
this weekend, I felt as much emotion about the Pope as when I heard Britney Spears is preggers. sorry, it's true.

at least I'm being honest. Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin released a statement Friday afternoon to the media, saying "the world mourns the passing of this fancy dude, blah blah, insincere platitudes." he wasn't actually dead yet, but we were supposed to print her statements when he actually kicked it. my co-worker craig guessed Baldwin didn't want to work the weekend.
I think it's because she's an out lesbian and a canned statement was all she could do for a guy who hadn't sent many big shout-outs to her people.
honestly, maybe she shouldn't have bothered.

rocker Bono also chimed in with some words of wisdom:
BONO remembered Pope John Paul as the "best front man'' the Roman Catholic Church ever had, the Irish rocker said in a statement yesterday. The U2 singer also dubbed John Paul "the first funky Pontiff,'' referring to the time when he once gave the pope a pair of his trademark sunglasses to don during a meeting.