g-book

Gary Schwartz's Facebook profile

7.31.2006

1st stop, houston

i'm leaving in a few hours for the airport- the only part of the trip i'm nervous about is taking the silver line through the tunnel to the airport. i think i may ride in my portable sharkcage for added structural integrity:
Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

i've never been to merida before, but it looks lovely-
Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

hopefully i can keep my bluestateways undercover and pass through houston undetected- lys, i'll be sure to take an appropriate photo or two of your former homeland for sentimental reasons.

so that's about it- time to go finish packing. hope everyone has a good week and i'll catch up with you on friday.

-g
Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

7.26.2006

this is a test of the emergency broadcast network

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting


and i wonder why i haven't slept the past few nights:

j.mo: slightly stressed and a little anxious over the work situation. trickles down to me feeling crap for not being able to fix it for him.

dad: passed out again last week, whisked away by ambulance. two days in the hospital and sent home- this time put on leave from work until someone figures out what is wrong with him.

grandma: in the hospital with pneumonia.

mom: 4 rounds of chemo down, 2 to go. collapses in the parking garage of the hospital while going to see grandma. 2 days in the hospital and 3 blood transfusions later she may be coming home soon.

have i mentioned how glad i am i didn't take summer classes?

when i look around
i think this, this is good enough
and i try to laugh
at whatever life brings
'cuz when i look down
i just miss all the good stuff
and when i look up
i just trip over things
-ani

my big backyard

so as you're all beginning to know well that there's a little bit of everything and everyone in our small corner of dorchester. many languages, a pu-pu platter of parking skills, stray cats, skunks and kids, someone practicing on their trumpet, firecrackers, spanish nanas, and on and on. i'm starting to wonder if maybe instead of a semester at sea we could offer a semester in dot- unparalleled exposure and real-life experiences without the $10,000 tuition or the seasickness.

but one thing in the neighborhood i've yet to understand is in our backyard. well, to be more exact, it's not really in our backyard-- it's the yard that abuts our back yard:
Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting
huh?

here- take a closer look:
Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

pipes, 2x4's, bricks, a tarp or two... and voila- there you have IT. but what is IT? is IT some sort of quasi-complete gardening set up? an unfinished extension of the house? someone who never quite got over the fact they never made a sequel to this film?
Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

??

7.25.2006

paint fumes

oh dear- the travelocity gnome just flew by on his balloon-propelled lawnchair to let my office know that the paintfumes have reached dangerous levels:
Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting
the other half of our floor has been undergoing renovations for a couple of weeks now. first up was a week of new carpet aromatherapy. our office canary didn't make it through that one. and now we've moved on to eau d'paint. there's also the non-stop 'hum' of powertools, hammering, and aerosmith to keep the workday moving on along. and getting on/off the elevator has become something of an obstacle course a la sarajevo with random pieces of wood, tangles of wires and stray light fixtures everywhere. if j.mo worked here he would have been injured long ago. oh, and let's not forget the intermittent plumbing interruptions... nothing brings co-workers closer together than passing a bedpan around.

so i'm going to blame my inability to blog for the past 10 days on all of this workplace upheavel. don't these construction guys know we're trying to browse the internet across the hall??

there's also been the whole lack-o-sleep issue. could it be our concrete-filled mattress that leads to all of the tossing and turning? after 5 years on the thing you would think we would have managed to break it in by now. or perhaps it's a little stress over the infinitelycrap family situation? every morning i wake up with a stiff neck and feeling rather grumpy. that was especially true this morning because above and beyond spending the evening on a bed of nails, j.mo was awakened from his slumbah at 2am by the sound of a dying smoke detector chirping away every minute or two for a new battery:

j: 'g- wake up... do you hear that?'
g: (rubbing eyes, looking at clock, wondering why j.mo is not in bed) hear what?
j: that beeping noise- i think it's the carbon monoxide detector.
g: (getting out of bed, i'm already feeling dead so what's the big deal if we're breathing in 100% carbon monoxide?) ok, i'm up.

we're both now standing in the spare room in our underwear, blinking up at the ceiling

j: see? and it's blinking red too. where did you put the instructions?
g: i have no idea where the instructions are. (meanwhile we're not dying and the beeping noise happens again and now i'm sure it's *not* coming from the spare room. not to mention the fact that the heating unit hasn't been on in weeks... so there's more carbon monoxide coming from the goldfish than there is from heating unit. it's 2am- you want to read the instruction manual?)

we both spent the next 10 mins circling around the house and couldn't figure out where the noise was coming from. fine- whatever, back to bed. except now not only is j.mo being kept awake by the beep, but so am i. finally we stuck our heads out the window and discovered that it's coming from the neighbor's house. and despite the fact that we can reach out the window and touch their siding, there really isn't much we can do about their dying smoke detector at 2am.

things went downhill from there-now i had been awake long enough to get hungry. and the windows are closed, and the temperature is a balmy 94 degrees. 3.36am... 4.14am... 6.40am and alarm #1. 7am and alarm #2.

feeling fresh today. upwards and onwards.

so now we have bigboy cable and are no longer limited to PBS, wifeswap, NECN news and random on-demand tidbits. why we did it to ourselves for so long was beyond me. yeah, we have netflix and all 5 seasons of six feet under and not a ton of time for tv anyways, but it's so lovely to turn on the tv and scroll through nothing but listings for a good 10mins before settling on anything.

my new personal favorite is the midget channel. seriously, TLC must have been hijacked by broadcast savvy primordial dwarves armed with cameras and 18inch hems. it seems like everytime we flip past we get sucked into a tiny vortex of little people sitting around a table at the outback steakhouse as they discuss their jobs as software designers or their latest helicopter ride (truth be told, i'm a tad bit jealous that my full-size life is not half as exciting as theirs) seriously- check it out. it's actually amazing to watch. and i was absolutely furious last night when the dad & mom were at the hospital with their sick son and mentioned they would have to pay for everything out of pocket- no one will provide health insurance to little people. how wrong is that? how american is that?

ok, so i started this post talking about the travelocity gnome and finished talking about TLC's 'as the midgets turn.' clearly i've come full circle and should go now.

sorry i left you all by your lonesomes for so long. and sorry this post was so long. hope you're all having a good week and stay tuned for impending travelshananagans- i'm off to merida, mexico on monday for work. and then costa rica at the end of august.

7.15.2006

while folding laundry this morning...

i nearly died watching this on comedy central- the best are the two pimps... 'we gonna hook you up with this hotstuff makeup kit from rite aid'

7.12.2006

tv tea

rustlight settles
between the days
and eases up from below
i'm double-hinged on greengrass strong
and walking home
these softshore bends
hold knowing
the long-tossed written letter
brings an unsure tidal wave
braced and bobbing
upright
while moths spin miles
through me again
moving over rainwet glances
and circling above our orange grove lanternfaces
they eye my spraypaint future hands
shake the sand asleep
and rattle this shortened stay
rustlight filters in
and eases up
with tv tea leaves floating
resting over folded hands
resting over folded plans

7.05.2006

my 4th

j.mo and i enjoyed a lovely day off together with next to nothing to do yesterday... it's pretty rare that we don't pack all sorts of things or projects into our time off- painting, yardwork, parental care, blah blah blah. it was the first time in years i can say i got up *just in time* to watch the price is right. besides the fact that barker has a cord running from his left leg to a car battery (seen just off stage when the camera pans out over the audience) it's pretty much business as usual for bob and the beauties from 11am-noon. although we did note that the quality of the prizes seems to gave gone a tad downhill- i mean really, an old fashioned nacho warmer??

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

after a trip to hyde park we were back home just in time for our 4th of july festivities- central AC, 10 lbs of leftover vegan stuffed shells and a movie. nothing says red, white and blue american patriotism quite like an awesome film about a thai s/he kickboxer and faux dairy stuffed pasta...

7.03.2006

first tortoise in space

thankfully the shuttle launch keeps getting pushed back, giving hampton that little extra time he needs to get from boston to florida...

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting