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Here’s the weekend update… thus far. Friday night I found something new to do in Princeton. I went out to a dance club called Polly Esther’s. The funny thing is that I danced, and I liked it. It could have been the fact that I was surrounded by four of my female friends who are all quite attractive (hi there), and the only other guy I was with (hi there) doesn’t dance. Princeton is full of great stuff to do… and good friends to do them with. I hate to leave the area.

Today I ate too much fast food and drove 375 miles basically to pick someone up at a hotel, drop him off at a show, and then take him back to the hotel. I guess I was sort of useful at the show as well since the hosts were kind of clueless (but accommodating).

Now, bed time. I’m too tired to change my clock to standard time. I’m too tired to even type an entry for my website, but I guess that’s too late.

Songs of Leonard Bernstein (lyrics by Stephen Sondheim) fill my mind as I read this article. I like to be in America… where we are (generally) free to be as kinky as we want.

Who will the next president of the United States be (following W.’s second term if he gets one)?

1. Hillary Clinton
2. Christine Todd Whitman
3. Al Gore
4. Tom Ridge
5. Other:                    

Note: I don’t really care about politics.

I visited the apartment in Prospect Park again today. The person who is renting the place to me took some time to clean it up a little, and I confirmed my committment to moving in and to staying for at least two months. She seemed happy. I think I’m happy. It’s a pretty nice house, but some of her old roommate’s stuff is still around.

I’ll probably have to get some storage space for my random furniture however.

Well I’m just happy I made a decision. This place may not be the best place to live, but it will save me some money and time over the next few months. And of course, it will get me out of other people’s way.

This weekend we held one of our larger events. I was able to spend some time talking to my possible future employer. He introduced me to either the supervisor of music or the superintendent (super-something) from his school, who seemed to be a little too happy to meet me. I guess that can’t be a bad thing. This possibility looks better and better each day.

Today, however, I was taken aback as our boss actually thanked us for the work we did in pulling of Sunday’s show. It wasn’t something anyone expected. Immediately following, he ditched us while we were supposed to have a department meeting.

Later today, he invited me to go to a seminar with a few other coworkers. This seminar was basically an introduction (or sales pitch) for the “Forum.” I had heard some horror stories about the “Forum” but I decided to take a look anyway. I’m not quite sure what to make of it… the presenter seemed to use a lot of terms that didn’t make much sense, but “felt” good, such as “yes to life,” “possible possibilities” and some other random catchphrases. Since my boss offered to pay for half, I decided to go ahead and register for the “Forum” which is three days of intensive soul-searching, followed up with an evening session two days later. I could gain something out of this. We’ll see.

Now that I’ve bought and got accustomed to a new notebook computer, my old desktop has mysteriously stopped having problems.

The other day I found out my grandmother has Parkinson’s disease. She was very cheery and positive on the phone. She’s taking drugs that slow down the effects of the disease, but there are side-effects. She gets dizzy once in a while. I don’t know if I should be sad; she seems happy, so I’m happy. I should try to see her sometime. She only lives an hour and a half from me.

Speaking of living, my goal is to be out of my current place by November 1, for the sake of the sanity of at least three people involved. However, different things keep being thrown into the works. I found a decent place in north Jersey, not far from my current place of work. They’re willing to take a month-to-month lease. However, things are looking increasingly good for this teaching position in south Jersey. The current music teacher called me the other day, while I was at work. The conversation stared like this:

Him: Hi, Spike (only he didn’t call me Spike). Can you talk?

Me: (Glancing at the six people sitting and talking in my office at the time.) Not really at the moment.

Him: Okay, well I’ll talk and you can just nod.

He went on to say that he spoke to the music superviser (or was it the superintendent? Super somebody…) and everyone was very excited about the possibility of me working there. He wanted to get an application in the mail to me immediately. If everything goes well, I’d be able to start right away instead of waiting until April.

Now this puts me in a position where I could end up moving north and working further south within a month. On top of this, a friend has offered to find a two-bedroom apartment with me, but she can’t move in until December 1.

Why does life have to be this complicated? And no, I’m not looking for anyone to post a “solution” right now. (That means you, Mr. Darren R. Sussman, who always seems to have an answer for everybody’s problems. 🙂 ) I just wanted to share my situation with the world.

A few months ago, we decided that in order to better serve our customers, we should take on the same work schedule as them, namely beginning work at about 7:00 every morning. We did not finish this thought by deciding to end the day at 3:30 as our customers do, and remain in the office until 6:00, 7:00, 8:00, even later on some days. This is the thing: nothing ever happens between 7:00 and 9:00 in the morning. No one ever calls. No one sends us email. We know our customers are out there working at this time, but maybe they just have something else to worry about in these two hours.

Thus, coming in at 7:00 in the morning is a complete waste of time if we end up staying late anyway. Of course, there are tons of other stuff we do between 7:00 and 9:00, but the reason behind coming in this early was to be there for our customers. Where are they?

It seems more to me that the decision to be in early was nothing more than one co-worker’s effort to display her “power” (which she confuses with “managerial ability”) over those about whom it is well-known they are not morning people.

It’s shiny and silver. It opens and shuts. It has blinking lights. It playes music and movies. It does a whole lot more, and I can take it with me. Yes, I bought a notebook computer. I just couldn’t deal with my desktop anymore. How can I afford it you ask? How could I not afford it?

It’s got a 1 GHz Pentium III CPU, 128 MB RAM, a 20 gB hard drive, a DVD-ROM/CD-RW drive, FireWire, USBx4, standard ports, a built-in modem and built-in Fast Ethernet. On top of that, I get to take it where ever I want. I can access the Internet from hotel rooms and watch my own movies on airplanes!

Happiness costs about $1500. (Thank you Mr. Best Buy Financing Guy.)

So, I flew this weekend. It really wasn’t too bad at all. I did my best to enjoy it, while I wasn’t asleep. When it comes to airplanes, my favorite feeling happens right at the moment of lifting off. The acceleration, the feeling of weightlessness… it is quite relaxing.

On the other hand, my computer at home is starting to really get on my nerves. It won’t stay on for five minutes (sometimes much less) without freezing or complete shutting itself off. I cannot do any work, I cannot burn CDs… it is affecting my emotional stability. At the moment I am using an old laptop I borrowed from work, an AOL account I borrowed from work, and a phone line from the dude who is letting me live in his house. It’s not a happy situation.

So I took an extra-long lunch break today. I sat down in a diner to eat a chicken caesar salad. I spent my lunchtime on the phone talking to a high school band director who is looking for an assistant music teacher for his expanding program. I don’t want to get my hopes up, but this sounds like a really great place to be.