One small step for man...

Moving in with Ash.

Eight Hours with Hannah

I popped in The Secret Spot around quarter of 9 yesterday morning where I put away a breakfast burrito to fill up for what would likely be a full day of surfing. Hurricane Hannah brought waves that peaked around 7 and 1/2 feet, and were barreling sporadically throughout the day. I have never ridden faster, more terrifying waves.

It was not a good day for beginners, and yet they were out there too. I talked to a couple different people who were both out for their 3rd time ever. I now realize how crazy I must have been to be in their place 2 years ago when I started. When Ernesto and Florence brought head-high waves to Massachusetts, I remember waiting outside the breakers after an exhausting paddle out only to drop in on a handful of waves that would each instantly chew me up and spit me out.

I surfed for 8 and 1/2 hours with a break for lunch at The Secret Spot again. By 5pm my shoulders and back ached like I had been in boot camp all day, ordered to do 1000 push ups and spend 3 hours inside a salt filled washing machine. I managed only a handful of good rides throughout the day. I guess I've got a lot of learning to do on the big waves. Still, National Geographic is predicting a "well above average" hurricane season this year, so there's no doubt I'll be out there tearing it up on my new 6'6".

September

We're on the cusp of autumn in New England, and I'm excited for it. Though I wish our summers could be longer, the fall has historically brought out creativity in me. For this and many other reasons it is a favorite season, and I think most New Englanders agree, even those who spend the winter months in Florida.

So I've decided to make a "New-Month's Resolution", it's a tradition of Ashley's that has rubbed off on me a little bit. The thing about September though, is that this month has ALWAYS felt like the beginning of the year for me. As an academic, yeah it's the start of the new school year. But it also clearly marks the beginning of a new season whereas January 1st happens in the dead of winter. September is a big deal for me, so I want my goals to be good ones that I can take with me into the months to follow.

My first goal is simple. I plan to do all my shopping at Whole Foods and Trader Joe's. In words, this goal sounds a little lame, but it's not. Whole Foods' business model is one that people should be proud to incorporate in their communities. For 8 consecutive years, Whole Foods has been on Fortune's "100 Best Companies to Work For" list. They promote sustainable farming, and pride themselves on selling natural foods free of toxics. If their food costs more, it's because it is worth me, and I'm willing to pay for something I believe in.

Goal number two: Staying in shape. Ashley and I have joined Bally Total Fitness, and I plan to make the most of my membership. It'll be good to get back to lifting, but I'll probably try out some different classes like yoga, plyometrics, hula-hooping... y'know, stuff like that.

And finally, I plan on surfing every hurricane and tropical storm that makes it's way up the east coast. I plan on putting a lot of miles in on my new 6'6" and hopefully I'll be picking up a new longboard for some quality noseriding at Nahant.

Laura Upstairs

It's a stereotype of sorts, maybe a little slice of the American dream, to move into a new house and be warmly welcomed by the cookie cutter couple that lives next door. One day there's a knock on your door and there they are, partially obscured by some gargantuan gift basket filled with fruit, pasta, vegetables, margarita mix and the rest of the elements of the food pyramid. Six months later, you're borrowing cups of sugar from each other and playing drunken Pictionary together one weekend a month.

Laura intercepted me in the shared stairwell of our newly shared house as I was moving in about a month ago. She welcomed me to my new home with a shy smile the obligatory basket full of food. I was taken aback by her gesture, and accepted the basket excitedly. After I introduced her to my family who were in the midst of moving me in, she mentioned having a lot of extra stuff she was getting rid of that we could have if we wanted it. We talked briefly, and she explained that I should take a look sooner than later because she was going away tomorrow. Anxious not to leave all the moving to my family, I made a quick trip to the 3rd floor with her to see if she had anything that Tim and I might be able to use. I ended up taking a small rack that I could use to get the most out of my minuscule closet space.

I mentioned the experience to Tim, and how she was pretty determined to get rid of all of her stuff. As it was, I didn't really think we needed anything else, but maybe Tim could find something. We found her later, and I introduced them to each other. She showed us around her apartment as if we were at some sort of liquidation sale. Still, something was strange. She even seemed to want to get rid of things that she liked. There was no clear line between what she wanted to keep and what she would leave out on the sidewalk if we didn't take it. Even some of her clothes were up for grabs, as she said they were too big for her now.

I just met this woman. She was nice. I liked her. But I didn't know how to react to some things. When I asked her how long she was going away for, she said she didn't know. "Maybe a couple weeks... or a month, if my dad will take care of me." I think she said her father lived in Acton. Anyway she offered only the vague explanation that she had been sick, but I didn't want to pry. In retrospect, it seems like she somehow wanted to be asked.

Tim and I took a bunch of items off of her hands, but when Tim returned to the apartment, I stayed and talked with her for a while in her kitchen. How did this 35-40 year old woman come to live alone in this place in Lynn? What did she do for work? Who was her family? We talked about anything but the answers to those questions, and her apartment offered only the faintest hints. An old "guy couch" as she put it. A photo of her and what might have been her niece. A few plants that Tim and I took. An ashtray filled with cigarettes on the porch. When I finally left, I was convinced that she had some sort of terminal illness. Still, I wanted to see her again and get to know her, maybe bring some zany color into her apparently quiet life.

Days later, I came home from work to find a note from her that Tim put on my desk. It said she'd be staying in Somerville for a while with someone, and that we should get lunch sometime if I was free. She left a number, which wasn't the same as the number I had already programmed in my phone as "Laura Upstairs." I wanted to call her. I was going to call her. I wish that I had called her.

Laura killed herself a week or so after she was gone. Days later, a moving truck was there and a couple people were upstairs taking away the rest of her things. I paused in the driveway that night and stared up at her porch where I locked eyes with someone who evidently knew her... or not at all.

Tales from the MUP Hut

So much is happening I don't know whether to shit or go blind. I'll be brief.

My parents are redoing the house I grew up in. Siding, roofing, doors, windows, front steps, shrubs, and even the entire kitchen. It's pretty cool to go home each week and see what's changed.

My cousin Jamie headed back to Korea with the Air Force a couple weeks ago. We had a little cookout in Salisbury with my aunts, uncles, and grandparents to see her off. That morning I hilariously bumped into Jon, Kevin, and Alyssa at Stop & Shop in Amesbury whilst holding 4 pounds of hamburger meat.

After work the next day, I bolted to Beverly to see Ashley's kids at Camp Mitchman put on a stellar production of The Aristocats. It was adorable and hilarious. I was amazed to see what Ashley and Emma were able to do with a rag tag group of hooligans. Well done, fiend!

Marmaduke's birthday was on the 29th. I drove home and joined the rest of the family getting dinner at Not Your Average Joe's in Newburyport. We ate out on the patio, then surprised Gram and Daba at the concert out on the waterfront. It was a fun night!

Last weekend, Ashley and I snuck away to Maine. On Friday night we headed up to North Conway and where we grabbed dinner at Friendly's. As we walk in we notice the night manager... Don freakin' Bryant! Hah! Last time we were up there hiking Mount Chocorua with Jamie and Julia, we stopped at the same place and cracked up over this guy's name tag. "Friendly. You bet we are Don Bryant!" Still funny. Don't ask. Theron, our crack-up of a server, even got ol' Don to make a cameo appearance at our table. The awkward factor was minor, but we ramped it up a notch by getting a stellar photo of Ashley and DB.

The weekend was amazing, although it seemed like it might rain the whole time. Saturday night we crashed in the MUP Hut, Mean Uncle Paul's cabin that he built in the woods. Unfortunately, this meant we had to trek two mattresses down a muddy, sluggy path. Of course this was accomplished barefoot on my part, while Ashley found yet another use for those orange Crocs she bought for color wars at Camp Mitchman. Sunday turned out to be gorgeous. We went swimming tubing, rope-swinging, and soaked up every possible drop of sun.

Monday was our monthiversary. We celebrated with sushi at Bangkok Paradise where I finally asked our friend what his name was. Ben! Funny guy that Ben fella. We capped the night off with some painting and photos.

Wine and Design

It's been a good long while since I've gotten propperly tipped off of a bottle of wine, so here I am... PROPERLY tipped. As of word #10 of this entry, I've decided not to correct my spelling mistakes unless they are due to "fat-fingering." So what's new boys and girls?! What has been ricocheting off of the interiors of my skull like a well aimed bullet? No clue. But I'll take a stab at rememberizing things nonethelessly.

Primero:: the surfing rampage is over, so don't ask. Poseidon has seen fit to banish me to a a topology of infinite dissatisfaction. --If I were only closer to Haptron.

Segundo:: I caught The Dark Knight Tuesday night with Conor, Ashley and 5 other people. The movie was insane. Go see it. Wear two pairs of underwear.

Tercero: On the topic of psychological mind-f***ing. I finally finished House of Leaves... the book was good, but very intense and dense for my slow mind. Imagine reading three books at once and being expected to link subtleties between them all in some sort of big conspiracy, except there really is no conspiracy, it's all just a big, beautiful, self-recursive metaphor. I would love to start describing the premise of the book, but even that would take about 2038974 pages, so I'll just quit while I'm ahead.

Que mas?

Ashley has been enjoying working at the summer day-camp. She gets to be creative and teach kids dance routines. They put on shows, and in the time between it all, she swims like crazy. I actually just wrote about this in an email to a friend:

"...Work is kicking along well. I've started rewriting our HCS analysis software (CellProfiler Analyst) in Python. This language is AMAZING. It's everything I've ever wanted in a programming language. Never again will I code in Java -- BLEH! Of course, maintenance of our old code is already making a liar out of me. Whatever, work is going really well... and yet not perfectly. It's funny, because this job is almost the perfect fit for me. I get pounds of coding experience; am surrounded by brilliant people; have many opportunities to learn about the state of the art in biotech; get flexible hours and vacation time. Still, there's a very elemental part of me that resents being cooped up in an office 8 hours a day, 5 days a week while Ashley is swimming every day in the sun while teaching kids to dance at a summer camp. Maybe it's the artist in me that feels like he is being neglected. I'm almost certain of it. I told Ashley about this and she says she's sure she'll see me go back into graphic design in the long run, but I don't know if that's what I want either... For some reason, I feel like you probably get the same essential feeling -- that you always have to be moving and changing, because as soon as you sit still, then the grass is suddenly greener on the other side."

Writing about this stuff at least seems to help me get a perspective on it all. Now that I've finished House of Leaves, maybe I should get back into drawing on the train. For some reason or another that made me feel ridiculously happy. Whatever it is, I've got to find the holes and fill them, because there's seriously no excuse for even slight discontent with my current situation.

Al Final: I took some photos recently and felt completely inept. I keep up with photography, even if my camera does need a serious overhaul. I miss art.

Uprooting and Replanting

My arms and back have a good ache going on after surfing four times in the past two days. The sets today should be rolling in around chest high, but you won't find me out there. Nope -- I'll be spending the day uprooting myself from North Chelmsford and replanting in Lynn.

To be honest, I feel kind-of anxious about the move. Money could be a huge factor, but there are other subtleties that give rise to my anxiety. Whatever happens, I need to make this location work out for me. This move will plant me much closer to Ashley, work, and the ocean, not to mention the fact that I'll living with my best friend since forever. If there are so many blatantly positive aspects, why then is it that I still feel a bit uneasy?

"Don't worry. Be happy." Bobby McFerrin, you always know just what to say to make me feel good.

So the entourage (my family) should be arriving hopefully within the next 30 minutes. For now, I'm sitting the the rubble that is left of my room. It's a sad sight, for a site that I put so much time into making my own. I remember telling Gary once that I wished I could paint a mural on one of my slanted ceiling-walls, to which he laughed and replied, "Don't worry, I don't think you're room could possibly have more character than it already does." For whatever reason, I took this as a massive compliment.