Time To Move On (Again)

In a little while, I’ll be taking my lunch break to check out an apartment. It’s on the third floor of an office building in a small town called Elmwood Park. The apartment was described to me as being a two-room apartment on the third floor of a building that also houses stores and a law office. Most of the heating is provided by the law offices, and there is no central air conditioning. It does have a full bath. The rent is $725 each month.

The place would be about fifteen minutes from the office where I work, I think. I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s just not feasible to live in south Jersey and work in Bergenfield. Unfortunately, I’m still not saving much money by moving. The current costs of transportation will be replaced by a much higher rent and higher utility costs.

Last night Becca told me about someone who had people sponsor him to ride his bike through ten states. He used the sponsorship money to go to a foreign country. At the time, it seemed kind of selfish to take other people’s money for traveling since the guy would be the only one benefiting from the money. I thought the sponsorship idea is good for a “cause,” like research for an AIDS vaccine.

I’m going to spend this weekend in Buffalo (for drum corps championships) trying to come up with creative solutions for paying off my debt. There must be some way I can figure out how reducing my debt will benefit the rest of the world in order to find sponsors.

Always an Adventure

Since Becca will be leaving this weekend for graduate school in Texas, she’s been spending some time with Darren, Ali and me. Tonight, after a pizza/sushi dinner, she and Darren attempted to go to the local 7-11 to pick up some ice cream. Darren didn’t drive because his Pimp Van of Death is now missing tires, so Becca had to drive. They got to the end of the street but no further. Darren called me from the stalled car to request that I come meet them and the car at the end of the street to help push her stationwagon back to the house. After a little bit of physical exertion, a lot of waiting, and a little bit of yelling at and kicking the car on Becca’s part, AAA (after getting lost) eventually came to tow the car back to the place that “fixed” it two days ago. This place incidentally is the same dealership where I bought my car and where I bring it when I need a tune-up…

Reek And Wapup

Lunch break weekend update. Yesterday I worked at another [DELETED]. Alissa joined me to help out. I have a lot of respect for the kids in the corps, spending every day of the summer working hard in the hot sun for 8 hours every day and ending their day with a performance under the lights. (Unless it’s an afternoon show, like yesterday’s.)

I arrived on the scene at 8:00 in the morning, the same time The Cadets took the field to begin rehearsal. After a few minutes, it was determined that rehearsal would not be possible. The field was covered in goose droppings. The staff picked up shovels as they told the corps to leave the field for a little while. Is there something ironic about seeing some of the biggest names in the marching music activity shoveling and picking up goose droppings?

A little while later, the corps came back on the field, but the field was still not clear of the stuff. So the corps members lined up with shovels along the 50-yard line from one sideline to the other and traveled down the field like a giant piece of farm machinery. All in all, the day went extremely well.

After the show, Alissa and I stopped for dinner at The Big Fish restaurant in Princeton. Wow. It was really good. Go there. Now.

What Do I Really Believe?

So I took the Belief-O-Matic test that Alissa linked to. Apparently I am 100% Unitarian Universalist and slightly less of a Liberal Quaker, Liberal Protestant, Secular Humanist and Neo-Pagan. Interestingly, Taoism was number 12 on the list at 57% and Conservative Judaism didn’t even make the list (though Reform (49%) and Orthodox (25%) did).

This page has turned into a Not Weblog (which I had been saying all along) since I don’t really link much. Instead I write mostly about myself, as one would in a journal. Due to the lack of linkage (well, except for this entry), I have set up a new weblog (using the ever-popular and hopefully more reliable Blogger) called Leftover Bits of the Web. It also uses Dan‘s dotcomments for feedback. Please go there. I don’t have lots of time during the day to “blog,” but every once in a while (more frequently than here) I’ll get to throw something up there.