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The tension builds
Tuesday, August 17, 2004
This continues to be a couple of weeks of anxiety-inducing hurdles. This is what I tried to write about for last week, only to have the computer eat it, but basically since last Monday things have periodically cropped up that initially seem to derail my entire plan. The threat of having to stay until February has been a constant source of worry.
The abridged version of all this is: I found out that I might not be able to double-phase after all. Then, in addition, I was told that if I quit my job (necessary for double-phasing; there are only so many hours in the day, after all) I would likely not get into the BMW program, dorky web-based portfolio or not. This information freaked me out for about a day, after which time I cleared both hurdles by clearing the double-phasing with the school and convincing the shop to let me work Saturdays only after the end of August. All seemed well, other than the fact that I won't completely escape Freakshow until much later on.
Then, today I found out that there may be yet another large obstacle to dobule-phasing, this time something having to do with financial aid. Whether or not this will be an issue won't be apparent until Friday. So it's possible that the double-phasing will be nixed, meaning February, and also meaning a very awkward situation at my job. And on top of all of this, I still haven't heard back from BMW of Manhattan, which is not a good sign, and may well mean they're not interested in interviewing me at this point. Which would mean that my New York trip, which I've already bought plane tickets for, would basically be pointless. Although it will get me out of Phoenix for a bit, so not entirely pointless.
Anyway, at the end of this week, I should know a lot more. Wish me luck.
You stupid hipster doofus!
Sunday, August 15, 2004
Fuck. I'd written up a long entry reviewing the week and today, but somehow I deleted it. Usually when I compose stuff for the blog in my mail program, I have to delete it three or four times before it works, but this time it just disappeared. Dammit.
Anyway, I don't have much time to redo it all, but if nothing else, I should say go see Garden State. Sean and I went to Scottsdale to check it out today (Dane was up in Portland for the weekend). I really liked it, but it was another "I'm 26 and I don't know where my life is going" movies, so how could I not? And Natalie Portman... I think that's what's missing in my life. I need to meet and fall in love with Natalie Portman. That would make it all OK.
Tomorrow I hope to find out whether or not BMW of Manhattan is willing to meet with me in September. Annoyingly, it doesn't look like I'll be able to see the Sox while I'm there (the games are sold out), but we can catch it on TV at a bar or something.
Sean's horribly addicted to a playstation game called Gran Turismo 3... he spent almost literally every hour, all day yesterday playing it. Not as much fun as his Max Payne period, at least in terms of watching it as a third party.
Anyway, that's all for now. I'll try to write at least a couple of times this week.
Make-up day
Sunday, August 8, 2004
OK, now that I'm done (pretty much) with my portfolio, hopefully I can start using the time to resume some form of regularity with this blog. Below is a bit of a recap of some of the time I've missed. As far as this weekend goes, on Friday after school Sean and I finally got ourselves over to the BOB and saw a Diamondbacks game. Which, of course, they lost... the Diamondbacks are beyond awful this year. But we were easily able to sneak down into decent seats after paying only $10, and quickly found ourselves behind D-Backs LF Quentin McCracken in the bleachers. This necessitated a call to New York to obtain instructions from Vicky, who declared some time ago that she would one day become Mrs. McCracken. I wussed out on running out into left with my cell phone so she could propose to him herself, but I'm sure there'll be other opportunities.
Last night Sean and Dane and I made it over to the Four Peaks for the first time in a while, and we all three ate way too much. Our stomachs have shrunk to the point where we really can't eat a normal meal without bloating, but only Sean seems to have adjusted accordingly. Dane and I still stuff ourselves and then regret it later... get it while you can, I always say. When we got home Sean and I watched Beautiful Girls, which made it three depressing Satruday night movies in a row (following Mystic River and Annie Hall). Actually, neither Annie Hall nor Beautiful Girls is all that depressing, but the latter particularly hit home for me, considering almost every character in it is 27. Not a great movie by any stretch, but not bad, and very sweet.
Then today we did absolutely jack shit until rushing out of the apartment to barely make it to a showing of The Bourne Supremacy, which of course we've already seen, but was worth seeing again for the car chase alone. As a former taxi driver, I appreciate the David Vs. Goliath battle between the Daewoo and the Mercedes G-class.
Anyway, below is the make-up stuff from before... enjoy.
Goodbye, Nomar
So last weekend I returned home from work to be greeted by the news that the Red Sox had traded Nomar Garciaparra to the Cubs for the proverbial bag of balls. I had heard on the radio earlier in the day that Randy Johnson had not gotten traded to the Yanks, so I thought I'd made it through the trading deadline safely. Boy, was I wrong. This is more complicated than the insanely stupid desperation move it appears to be, but still, l don't see how you can trade your best player, just when your team is starting to play well, for anyone other than a stud pitcher. Certainly not for two players who are not only not particularly good, but considerably worse than two bench players your team already has who play the same positions. The whole thing reeks of desperation and mismanagement. Oh well. You never know what could happen... they still may make the playoffs, in spite of it all.
You too, JFK (Jack Fenway Killen) the Lincoln Continental
The other major thing that happened last Saturday after I got home from work was that I sold my Lincoln. Actually, my parents did all the work, but I got to talk to the guy on the phone to sort of close the deal. He's buying it for his 14-year-old daughter to drive when she turns 16, so he's got a couple years to sort everything out. But even so, a 16-year-old girl driving that car? It's like 50 feet long! The poor car may be in for a nightmare. But maybe not... apparently she's "always wanted" a '61 Lincoln. 14 years old seems like two young to use the word "always," but I guess it's all relative. If she's truly wanted one since 1990, she's been into them far longer than I have, and it's probably better off in her hands. The new owners have agreed, at least, to leave my Red Sox sticker on the instrument panel in place until November. Just in case.
But the upshot is, I got $1500 for the car, which is way too little considering all the time and money I've put into it, but that's the way it goes. That will allow me to borrow less money in order to complete the last couple months of school while I'll be double-phasing, and anything that allows me to get out of here in November is well worth it.
Dreaded job nears merciful end
My last day at work it three weeks from yesterday. No one at work knows it yet, but it is. The only mixed feelings I have on this at all are that the mechanics are really pretty good guys, for the most part. It's the service writers (Freakshow in particular) and parts guy who are ridiculous and evil. But I think they'll all understand me leaving and not be too pissed about it. Or at least I hope not, because I may need a recommendation at some point.
The other work story lately was also last Saturday (an eventful day), when I was accused once again of locking keys in a car. I had gotten back to the shop after about 45 minutes helping some old lady try to figure out what was wrong with her Buick, and had gone into the office to check in with Freakshow. We had a short, normal (relatively speaking) conversation about the old lady, and then he mentioned that he needed me to take a guy home and pick up his extra keys so "we can get into that car you locked the keys in." Here's how it went after that:
Me: What? I didn't lock the keys in any car.
FS: Whoa, calm down. It's no problem. Just take him home and get his keys. It's not a big deal.
Me: No, what car? I didn't lock the keys in any car. I've been gone for 45 minutes. I don't even know what car you're talking about.
FS: Hey, easy! That Mazda out there, remember? You're not in any trouble; he's got a spare set of keys.
Me: I know I'm not in any trouble; I didn't lock the keys in that car! That Mazda wasn't even here when I left. I'm not getting blamed for another one of these key things again!
FS: Don't worry about it, it's cool, everyone makes mistakes. It's not a big deal; you're not in any trouble.
Me: I'm not leaving this office until you admit that I didn't lock the keys in that car.
(pause)
FS (looking away and lower his voice) Ah, I guess I might have been the one who did it.
What is the most depressing about all of this is that I am having arguments over car keys with a weasely cokehead (recently confirmed cokehead, I should say - apparently it's been common knowledge around the shop for some time) in a crappy little repair shop in really crappy Phoenix at the age of 27 with no money, no girlfriend and no star shortstop on my favorite baseball team... wait, I was talking about the job, right? Three more weeks.
Other people exist besides me
Dane has had a pretty good run lately, starting with his motorcycle getting knocked over a couple weeks ago. This sounds like a bad thing at face value, but it actually worked out great in that about $3000 worth of damage was done to the bike, and it was fully insured. Furthermore, none of the damage made it undriveable. So Dane can basically pocket that money, which is a huge score for him because he has been worrying about how he's going to pay for all his upcoming expenses if and when he has to live alone after Sean and I leave. So talk about a silver lining... I hate the insurance industry, but I guess apparently it does sometimes pay off.
Dane also had the first of his interviews with BMW on Friday and it sounds like it went pretty well. From his descriptions it sounds like all three of us are probably in pretty good shape as far as getting in there goes.
And did you hear? Springsteen and others are touring for Kerry... sadly, not coming to Phoenix. But awesome nonetheless. There's a really good interview with the Boss at a site called backstreets.com... the man simply does not disappoint. Go Bruce!
Excuses, excuses
Thursday, August 5, 2004
Here's what I've been working on the last couple of weeks that's usurped the blog:
Comments and/or edits are welcome, if anyone still reads this.
I am very, very tired
Wednesday, July 28, 2004
If there's anyone still reading this, I really am sorry about my complete inability to update with any regularity. It's taking all my energy these days just to get through the days, drive home, make food for the next day and get ready for bed. That, and not too much interesting has been happening. Over last weekend we saw The Bourne Supremacy, which was awesome. We also fixed a couple of things on my car.
One significant thing about today is that it's exactly a month until my expected quit day at my job. That will be a good one. And then, hopefully, it's off to New York for a weekend in September to interview with BMW Manhattan. Baby steps. Each thing to look forward to is one more step towards November.
I have renewed hope for the Red Sox after their crazy weekend against the Yankees. Hopefully the brawl is what they needed to get them going. Our catcher beat up your metrosexual!
And my John Kerry bumper sticker is a huge hit in Phoenix. I can just feel the love.
Are those Bugle Boy jeans you're wearing?
Thursday, July 22, 2004
Not much to report so far this week. I had a shitty day at work, but consoled myself with the fact that I've only got about a month left there. Freakshow was is rare form today, and I dearly wanted to punch him in the face, to the point where it was actually difficult to hold myself back from doing so (it would feel so insanely good to just blast him in the nose that it really is hard to resist). But I didn't do it... yet.
I'm definitely at the point where I'm coming up with all these baby steps towards November that will help me stay sane. The next goal on my list comes up tomorrow when The Bourne Supremacy opens. We're probably going to wait until Sunday to see it, but since Spider-Man 2 came out, this has been what's been getting me through. Next up is that Michael Mann movie that comes out on August 6th... I'm looking forward to it, even though it stars Tom Cruise (strike one) and Jamie Foxx (strikes two and three, you're out).
And the quote of the day: "Distributorless ignition is the best thing since the extra-large condom."
Also, am I the only one who finds VH1's "I love the 90's" really, really depressing? Were they really that long ago? I'm so, so old. I miss my youth, back when my knees and back didn't hurt all the time and I still naively assumed I had a bright and successful future ahead of me.
P.S. - to all of my friends who have emailed me recently only to get no response - I'm sorry. I just haven't had the energy... it's like 112 these days, and it saps your strength. It's better to call me on the phone at this point.
Sean's car rises from the ashes, like a... a... something.
Tuesday, July 20, 2004
I'm trying to keep this thing going, but this week in particular it may be tough. I'm trying to put together a portfolio of work I've done on BMWs over the years for my interview with the BMW reps at our school. This is a ways off, but I need to make sure I have something impressive because I'll have only 5 months of official work experience, rather than the 6 they prefer. So my very limited computer time each night is going mainly to that this week.
This weekend we discovered that Sean's car is actually not dead. In an amazing display of ineptitude, none of the three of us had ever bothered to even open its hood at any time in the last month and a half. The way it was running, combined with the known weaknesses of the engine, seemed enough to conclude that it was on its way to that great junkyard in the sky. However, on Sunday Sean and I got bored, and in spite of the 110 degree heat we decided to go take a look at the car. Step one: open hood. Step two: notice that oil cap is not on engine. Deduce that it had not been since Sean and Dane added oil upon leaving Las Vegas. Confirm with an embarrassed Sean. Find oil cap miraculously still under hood of car. Install it in valve cover. Step three: start car. It runs great. Smack selves in foreheads.
So now we technically have two cars again, although the tires on Sean's car are so crappy that there's no way we're driving it in this heat until we get some new ones. One bright side of this idiocy is that my car was forced to step in and prove itself, a la Pedro Martinez in game 5 of the 1999 ALDS, and did splendidly.
Other than that, typical school and work crap has been going on on a daily basis.