July 2, 2004

No work. I am going to blow one of my fingers of with fireworks in celebration. Before that, Laurie and I are heading out to Vacationland this morning. Where’s that, you ask.

Answer from the moderncleveland.com website. (please note that I did not link anything [when I could have] because I am on vacation)

Vacationland

Cities: Sandusky, Vermilion Port Clinton, Catawba, Castalia, Huron, Marblehead.

Sandusky is worth a day trip, or even a Saturday morning visit to pick up some movie rentals from Satch's. The downtown is wonderfully walkable, has plenty of historic buildings, and is right on Lake Erie! Worth visiting is the Antique Stop, the movie theatre, Great Lakes Museum on Meigs Street, the docks, barber shop, and some of the best diners in the Midwest: Jolly Donut, Markley's Diner and the Port Sandusky Restaurant. Most of these places are all within walking distance.

Cheesehaven: same summer sausage recipe since 1948. Vintage signs on the highway and on their property are worth photographing.

The Blue Hole

The city of Clyde, Ohio: the real-life setting of Sherwood Anderson’s "Winesburg Ohio"

Put-In-Bay: Some vintage views of the island offered by Judnick Postcards.

Marblehead Lighthouse

I used to go out there with my family every summer as a kid and these are my happiest memories of childhood. I will tell you how today ranks against the past with the next BLOG.

posted by Thea at 7:38 AM

June 30, 2004

It comes out of my mouth as frequently as hello or how are you doing. I’m off on Friday. I am off on Friday. I am off on Friday. Said with varying degrees of intensity depending on how much work I anticipate is about to be dumped on me. It got intense today. There was a point a little after five where I did not think that I could go much longer. And then I went to 6:15 p.m. Just one more hour. With my luck (or not being so lucky), I will probably be able to take Friday off without having to use any hours of vacation. I don’t know. I guess that is lucky. I came home. Ate. Walked to the record store. Bought the new Neurosis record. About to do nothing. Slightly more of a day than just working.

posted by Thea at 9:23 PM

June 29, 2004

Although I did not feel like going for a walk just now after working ten hours and having band practice, I did because it is a shame to waste such a nice night. I am glad I did. I blew off a lot of steam. Laurie listened to me steam. The problem is that I am having trouble communicating. At work. At home. With friends. All over the place. Living the song "Communication Breakdown". I have to think that at least part of it is my fault – because I am part of all of it. I wonder what I should do?

posted by Thea at 10:43 PM

June 27, 2004

BLOG. Weekend Edition Plus.

Thursday. All I wanted to say on Wednesday was that now that basketball season was over, I am very disconnected from the world. The only reason that I would turn on television, besides for “Seinfeld”, was to see what was going on with the basketball games. That’s all I really care about – the basketball games. I would tune in for scores and end up getting all of this extra news. I saw George W. Bush talk on television because I was waiting to see more basketball scores. Now that the basketball season is over, and it is a couple months away from football season (and I don’t really do pre-season football although I might this year because I have a line on some tickets), I don’t turn on the television except to watch DVDs and I skim over the newspaper. I am on a break from all incoming information. And they say that ignorance is bliss. Yes, it is. I rocked out on Thursday and I felt like I actually rocked out. It was a good feeling.

Friday. Went into I Can’t Get Fired Mode at work even though I think that there is very little chance (if any at all) of me getting fired. It was one of those days where I motivated myself all day by telling myself that I had to stop being a slacker at work or the jig was going to be up and I was going to be out on my ass. This is because some other guy got fired – not me. I think that the desired effect was accomplished. I worked. Then I went out to the drum store on the Far East Side with Dirt to buy a bunch of parts for two snare drums. Then I came home and did nothing. I think Laurie and I went for a walk. That’s it. I think.

Saturday. I worked yesterday morning. Like a maniac. I got a million things done. I talked to my brother on the phone. I hung out with Dirt. I cleaned two old (35 years) Ludwig snare drums. The look very bright now. I watched that Led Zeppelin live set and the Monterey Pop Festival on DVD. Two things. One is that I have gotten so much pleasure out of watching the Who live my entire life (from Woodstock on PBS as a kid to the Concert for New York a couple of years ago) that I really feel like I owe them something. I might send Pete Townsend a card for his 60th birthday next year with a gift certificate to The Cheesecake Factory. Dude, thanks. The other thing was that they had their art back then and it was cool but I have my art now and it is just as cool but different. Say you want to make Misery and Isolation your art form. Is it any better than Peace and Love? I can’t answer that question. It’s different. That’s about it.

Sunday. I have practice today with the White Hesitations. I want to go to the record store and to the bookstore and take a walk. That is all. Maybe something else will happen. I doubt it. But there is a slight chance I will be talking about doing something else tomorrow on the Assholier than Thou Good Times Happy Friends Monday Morning Radio Show Starring Naked Baby Fea (yea!).

posted by Thea at 7:42 AM