Tuesday, January 29, 2008

(Almost) done pissing blood

That's right. Almost. Luckily I'm FINALLY home for good. After three trips to the emergency room, five prescriptions, two overnight stays, and a surgery... my kidney issues are done. I'll be taking the rest of the week easy, trying to get back on my feet. My mom came up to stay with me, along with Brianne, during the past few days. 

It sounds lame but I'm really glad she did come up. Not because she went completely out of her way to get me a shit load of groceries that I necessarily didn't need. But because it just made things a little easier and a little less stressful. I love her, a lot. And Ms. B, too.

Oh yeah... and this little piece of sports news 

http://insider.espn.go.com/espn/blog/index?entryID=3221258&name=law_keith

Law makes some decent upsides.... but this is just a flat-out terrible deal for the Twins. The Mets get the best pitcher of the past 10 years, solidifying their starting rotation with Santana, John Maine, Oliver Perez, and this guy named Pedro Martinez... I think he's pretty good. With Beltran, Reyes, Delgado and Wright as their offensive core, they're probably co-favorites with the Chicago Cubs (*sigh*) to take the NL. 

Although they lost Paul Lo Duca (which leaves them needing a catcher), and still could use a right fielder... their team is close. They're going to beat the ball all over the field and give their starting rotation some serious run support to work with. Santana, Maine and Perez should all win 15 games without breaking a sweat. Pedro, too, as long as he's healthy. Which means their bullpen (which already had some depth, not to mention Wagner closing things out) should stay rested for most of the year. Yikes.... this team went from being iffy to extremely serious contenders.  they seem probably to get to the NLCS.

But where.... if this deal goes through (pending a physical and extension for Santana) leave the Twins? They don't get either of the Mets top two prospects in the deal, Fernando Martinez or Mike Pelfrey. They skimp on the much more attractive offers from Boston or the Yankees. Seriously.... do either of these looking inviting:

Yankees: (Pick 2) Melkey Cabrera, Phil Hughes, Adam Kennedy, Joba Chamberlain + 2 average prospects

Boston: (Pick 2) Jon Lester, Jacob Ellsbury, Clay Bucholz + 2 average prospects

Seriously? Could you imagine Cabrera and Hughes could do. Or Ellsbury and two of those average prospects blossom into solid everyday players? Sure, I understand there's no guarantee in prospects, even grade A ones, but all of the guys I named all have superstar potential. Even if one of them turn into a great player.... and one of the other prospects turns into a solid player, I'd say the Twins made out well both right now, and in the future. 

For one, they shed some serious salary. With the recent signings of Michael Cuddyer and Justin Morneau, they spent over 100 million bucks to add a cornerstone to their offense, which is imperative after they lost Torri Hunter in free agency. And let's face it.... nobody is going to top Detroit in the AL Central. Cleveland is good, but they don't have the all-around depth to handle Detroit in a 162-game season. Not to mention, they give those prospects a chance to develop and blossom in a pressure-free environment. Well... no pressure aside from them being counted on to turn into perennial All-Stars.

Either way, it'll be interesting to see what happens with Santana. With Erik Bedard looking like he's going out west to Seattle for a few prospects, the two biggest pitchers are now off the market. The season can finally get underway. I personally cannot wait. Spring training is almost here.

Sunday, January 27, 2008

Healthy?

Not quite. But I feel a bit better. Much better then the past few days. This sounds lame, but it took up until me barely being able to stand on Thursday morning to realize I haven't been taking care of myself, physically. After I get back to 100% (which I'm still not sure how long that'll be), I'm definitely making some changes.

No more soda, no more fast food, and I need to take a look at sodium and other crap when I'm buying food. I had been feeling great when I was getting to ride my bike to class and work everyday, but that's kind of impossible when there's snow on the ground and never above freezing. My back started tightening up when I stopped riding my bike, which also led to my back pain reoccurring. 

At this point, I just hope this crappy streak passes me in a few more days, and I can get back headed in the right direction.

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

It's a bowl of cereal.

She wants to eat breakfast together
today.
Two slices of toast, one dry.
One lathered generously with a spoonful of seedless jelly.
And cereal.

The cupboard is full of her cereal.
A color-wheel line of Mini Wheat and Chex varieties.
She pours whole milk into a plastic purple bowl.
“It tastes like unwisked frosting,” she says with a spoon
hanging from her chapped lips.
I smile and return to my newspaper advertisements.

She talks about cereal to get my attention.
About the wilting azelea in on the windowsill,
with the buds that look like crumpled paper.
The table is a long off-white rectangle,
we’re seated at opposite ends, wearing each other’s slippers.
Her voice is weak and cracks on back-to-back vowels.
She continues to sip milk from the plastic bowl.

~
“What is this?”
My eyes crawl to the top of the advertisement page.
She’s holding a blue box of cereal.
“It’s Crispix. They only taste good with sugar. And raspberries.”
“This is our relationship,” she whispers.
The coffee pot shuts itself off with a robotic tick.
“And I’m hungry,” she’s crying now.
I reach for my piece of dry toast,
and shove a corner into my mouth.

She pours a second bowl, pieces of cereal
floating like boxes from a sinking ship.
“This is our relationship,” she says again.
“I know,” crumbs fall from my beard.
“It’s delicious.”

Sunday, January 20, 2008

(somewhat) Wasted Weekend

After work on Friday, I drove home to my parents' house with Brianne. Even though I was only going to be at my parents' place until late on Saturday, I had planned on getting a lot of shit done:

  • bring home my NA bumpers so I could sell them to Brendin, a local VW kid
  • get new glasses and new shoes for "Fitness Walking"
  • see PT Anderson's new movie There Will Be Blood at the Baxter Theater
Sounds good, right? Everything was going great.... until mile marker 56.5 on Interstate 65. Suddenly, my car jerked, and it started making the "Guess what?! Something just broke noise." I pulled over to the shoulder of the road and got out, only to be greeted by a shredded right front tire. Completely gone. I kneeled down, and looked into the wheel well: the inside seam of the tire was completely bald and gone... one of the steel belts on the inside must've just gave out. Of course.... I told my parents about three months ago I needed to get new tires for my car, and I just needed to get them while I was up in Muncie, but of course, a necessity always gets pushed to the backburner in the Minutillo family. 

I called AAA. The lady was nice.... plus we only had to wait about 40ish minutes for the rollback to get to us. Although, it sure was a chore seeing the guy try to get my car up onto the rollback. Luckily, Euro VR6 lips are fucking indestructible. It bent at a 90 degree angle... but didn't break. Plus, the ride with the guy was fun... him and I talked about cars and shit. Brianne was totally enamored that we were in a tall car... so she wanted to touch all the shit inside. I'm glad she didn't... something was bound to break.

So my car gets towed to Ken Towery, a service/tire place filled with enough backward-ass, inbred pieces of shit to recreate Deliverance eleven times over. They only had ONE brand of tire that fits my Golf, so I got stuck with two piece of shit tires that I completely had to overpay for, but the car can actually move again.

This crap kinda put me out of the mood to do anything. I forgot to mention that before I even left... my bumpers wouldn't fit in my car, so I couldn't sell those. Strike. I couldn't get my new glasses. Strike.  And, I was too sad to drive in the shitty weather 20ish miles to go see a movie. Strike.

I did, however, get my new shoes for walking. That was a plus. And Brianne bought me the new Geometry Wars game for the Wii, which kicks an unnecessary amount of ass. We got to spend time at home with my parents, and Heidi and just relax, which is always nice. Definitely didn't get everything accomplished that I had wanted to, but it was still a nice break, this past week was fairly busy. Plus, no class tomorrow. All I have to do is work for four hours, then get to spend the rest of the day getting head in Poetry, Non-Fiction, and the stinkin' Flannery O' Connor class.

/vomit


Monday, January 14, 2008

Cleaning (figuratively and literally)

It feels good to clean. Really good. Brianne and I went shopping today. Got a DVD rack for my pile of shit. Got a plastic container for my XBox/Wii stuff. The living room feels a lot less cluttered. Not to mention, it gives Juice quite a few less opportunities to chew on shit. She's already ruined two of my XBox headsets by chewing through the cords. Too bad she's not a person, otherwise she'd owe me 40 bucks.

Oh, and maintenance decided to do their fucking job today and come and fix my window. Although, talking to the ass grab they sent over here was about as enjoyable as shoving a nail into your piss hole. He's just a flat-out dick. Oh well, at least it's warmer in here, and the douche saw that the track on my window is broken, which is why my window wouldn't seal. I'm not kidding... my window has been partially open. They better get here in the next few days and fix it, because I don't want something to happen and jar it back open.

Yeah, and the semester workload.... WOW. Started today. Christ. At least I got a small head start in my poetry class.

Imma keep chugging along, though. The second part of my list will be up tomorrow.

Sunday, January 13, 2008

100 Greatest Albums of All-Time List (#100-#75)

I'm using this list as a part of my Creative Non-Fiction 2 class. Here's the first quarter of it.

100. “Enter the Wu: 36 Chambers”: Wu-Tang Clan, 1993
99. “Unplugged”: Nirvana, 1994
98. “Pink Flag”: Wire, 1977
97. “Talking Book”: Stevie Wonder, 1972
96. “Wish You Were Here”: Pink Floyd, 1975
95. “Milo Goes to College”: Descendents, 1982
94. “In Rainbows”: Radiohead, 2007
93. “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot”: Wilco, 2001
92. “The Sun Sessions”: Elvis Presley, 1976
91. “Spine of God”: Monster Magnet, 1992
90. “Dub Housing”: Pere Ubu, 1979
89. “Weezer (The Blue Album”): Weezer, 1994
88. “Things Fall Apart”: The Roots,
87. “93’ til Infinity”: Souls of Mischief, 1993
86. “Damage”: Black Flag, 1981
85. “Bakesale”: Sebadoh, 1994
84. “Ramones”: Ramones, 1976
83. “In the Wee Small Hours”: Frank Sinatra, 1955
82. “Giant Steps”: John Coltrane, 1960
81. “The Marshall Mathers LP”: Eminem, 2000
80. “Houses of the Holy”: Led Zepplin, 1973
79. “There’s a Riot Goin’ On”: Sly & the Family Stone
78. “Who’s Next?”: The Who, 1971
77. “It Takes A Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back”: Public Enemy, 1988
76. “Talking Heads: ‘77”: Talking Heads, 1977
75. “Rumors”: Fleetwood Mac, 1976

One of the coolest verses ever

I wanna make a deal with you, girl,
and get it signed by the heads of state.
I wanna make a deal with you, girl -
be recognized round the world.
It's my nonalignment pact.
Nonalignment pact.
Sign it!
Nonalignment pact.

-Pere Ubu "Nonalignment Pact"

You better believe that they'll be in the Top 100 list. How many times? Who knows? It'll be done soon.

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

...making a comeback

After careful consideration, I decided that my '100 Greatest Albums of All-Time' list needs to make a comeback. I've got a lot of the major players instered, right now it's a matter of going through everything with a fine-toothed comb. All I can say right now is that the top 15 is crazy. It hurts my butt just thinking about it.

Pass the vaseline.

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Can you dig it?

Two days into the semester it's apparent that this'll be my toughest workload yet. All of my English courses are writing intensive. What a fucking way to go out. I can already tell in a few weeks I'm going to be wanting to pull my hair out. Hell, at least my sixth class is walking.... so I'm going to wager it won't be too labor intensive. Show up, stretch, walk around a track, go home and nap.

My schedule is also a lot more conducive for school this semester. I hated having to get up before the sun's in the sky last semester. I never got enough sleep, and I always felt dead half way through the day. Each of my days has a decent break half way through the day, so work and class shouldn't be a marathon. Oh yeah... not to mention: NO CLASS ON FRIDAY. Victory.

A little overwhelming right now, and I don't have any real assignments yet. Having to plan mentally for the ass kicking I'm gonna have to endure all semester sucks. Then gain, it is only one semester, so it shouldn't be too bad. Then one more class over the summer... and I'm done. As long as everything stays under control, 2008 should go straight foward.

Let's hope.

Sunday, January 6, 2008

Vacation

It's funny that going on a vacation always leaves you more tired than you were before you left.

The semester starts tomorrow, meh. But yay?

Yes. Let's go. One more semester + 1 class. August can't get here soon enough. I'll give a more thorough update later today/tomorrow. Right now, I'm gonna nap or something.

Tuesday, January 1, 2008

It's 2008

Sorry for the lame title.

So, 2008 is here. 2007 was the most disappointing, hardest year of my life. I lost my Grandpa and Uncle John. I ended a five and a half year relationship with somebody who meant the world to me. I struggled (a little bit) during the Fall semester. I was broke beyond words (still am) and it's safe to assume that October is a month I'd like to forget. It was definitely a low point. But everyone needs perspective. And that's what 2007 gave me, especially the last six months of it.

I can't complain too much though, I did have some high points. I did some solid writing this year in both of my creative writing classes, which kind of justifies the fact that I'm dumping 60 grand down the toilet so I can call myself a 'writer.' Still won't pay the bills, but hey... I'll have a diploma in August, and I actually did it in four years, which is something most people can't say anymore. I really enjoy my job at the library... when I'm not getting irritated by Adballa or get forced to shelf read for an hour. It's a nice, relaxing way to make money, even though I don't make shit, and it barely pays the bills. Plus, I have Ms. B now, which has been wonderful.

I'm growing up. Shit gets harder. Classes get harder. You have to start managing money, and actually consider that the future.... being "an adult," and all of that nonsense is the new reality. Each day can't just be a facsimile of the one before it like my first few years of college were.

Hobbies actually matter now, which is a catch in itself. I can't watch movies now, or listen to an album without sitting there, thinking about thematic musing, composition, what 'emotions' are being drawn from me VIA the art itself, and vice versa. I hate it, but at the same time, it's given me a far greater appreciation to entertainment. Too bad I can't convey my thoughts in an academic paper, because I'd love to discuss film theory for a living. But it's much harder to convey yourself through speech (even though I'm better at that) then on paper.

And thank God I can retain myself and not come off as one of those ridiculous assholes on Facebook or MySpace that have 581 'favorite bands' or talk about how Requiem for a Dream and Eternal Sunshine changed their lives forever, because they're so deep with meaning! Don't get me wrong, both are fine movies... but the cultural saturation and de-emphasis on what is "actually going on" in the movie just kills them.

I digress....

I just want 2008 to be a step up from last year. Hell, it can't be much worse. With graduation only eight months away... things are bound to change. For better? Worse? I have no fucking idea. The journey is the destination, man.