Well, There It Is.

Last week, my father, his friend Anna, and her two sons went to Rome.

In the mean time, I watched the Audrey Hepburn movie, Roman Holiday. As much as I liked the movie, I’d rather do some real traveling.

Fridge is out. Freezer’s out. Washer and dryer are out. Who needs that stuff anyway? Who really needs food? Loyal long-time readers will hearken back to ye good olde days of September when my appliances sucked almost as much.

Important addendum which is actually now the bulk of this entry:

I checked out another abode candidate this evening. It is in Woodbridge, about 50 driving minutes from my place of work. It was a large house, and its owner is renting out the basement as well as a bedroom or bedrooms on the top floor. While I was there, someone agreed to take the basement for $400/mo. I was mainly interested in the upstairs anyway. The rooms were small. And pink. In my opinion, it is not worth the $500 each or $700 for both. And the search continues with another “house” appointmet Wednesday night…

All of this would be made a thousand times easier if someone I knew was looking for an apartment as well — in the same state.

I’ve also started thinking about possibly going back to school. That would allow me to curb debt for a while longer (though the debt will get much larger). I’d also need to figure out what I want to study, and make sure whatever I do study will provide me with a job that will actually allow me to pay off my debt. Yes, that would be nice.

This DSL problem is starting to be a big hassle at work, between the email workaround we have that works only some of the time and the fact that we can’t connect to our temporary dial-up server any faster than 32kbps. It’s looking doubtful that we will have our connectivity back by the end of the month.

Today’s horoscope:

Don’t wait for a personal invitation to speak your mind. No one is apt to come right out and ask you what you think. Express yourself fully. Tell people exactly what you have to say. You have given other people plenty of time for them to say their thing. It is now time for you to chime in with your opinion. Don’t be a background observer. Be an active player and help shape the conversation and ultimately the events of the day with your powerful words and thoughts.

Alissa and I are announcing the opening of starrynight, our new Dream Log. While I was in high school, I kept a pad by my bed so I could write down my dreams in the morning. Before long, I was able to remember an average of four dreams every night. I think that has a lot to do with the fact I was writing them down, and therefore paying close attention. Hopefully this new Dream Log will help me get back to that point.

Also, through writing this site, I’ve come to the quick conclusion that I like PHP much more than ASP for programming websites.

Today was a busy day. I finished up my taxes, and it worked out so I get a little bit of money back. Not much, but it’s better than owing money to the government. I attempted to visit an apartrment complex in New Brunswick. When I called them yesterday they told me to stop by since they had an apartment available in May. But when I got there they wouldn’t even let me in the door, and they said they had nothing available until June. Basically they wasted my time. After getting over my rejection, I drove around other areas of New Jersey including Highland Park, Woodbridge, Edison, Rahway, Union, Maplewood, and Newark. Every town I saw had some very live-able places, except for downtown Newark and just outside of it. While in these various towns I stopped into grocery stores to pick up local newspapers and those free apartment guides. Tomorrow morning I will be doing a lot of circling ads and a lot of making calls.

After my Jersey drive, I saw Bridget Jones’s Diary (which was very good — even Hugh Grant was believable in his character) with Becca and her father, followed by Sliding Doors (which I had already seen). I would say it’s bed time now.

I’ve been blessed with a four-day weekend for the holiday. I’m spending my time intensifying my search for apartments, but I’ve also been working with my budget, and trying to determine exactly what I can afford.

I am quickly realizing that I cannot afford to live in my own apartment. Even if I were to live in the town where I work (no tolls, little fuel expense, assuming $750/mo rent), I would come out at the end of the month not making any money. Consider the fact that I do not want to live in the area of North Jersey close to my job (it’s generally a hole, and an expensive hole at that), living further away with similar rent payments would leave me with more of a debt at the end of the month.

A solution might be to live with someone else and share the rent. That would be a great solution if it weren’t for the fact that no one I know needs a roommate at the moment, and I’m not a fan of living with a random person. Even if I were to live with a random person, which I have looked into, I’ve discovered that my choices of location are severely limited.

I don’t think I’m being greedy, I think I just have to start making a living.

It looks like my recordings of They Might Be Giants songs I made with a modular band during college have garnered some attention. Word has it that Hide Away Folk Family is being considered for a TMBG Tribute Album. I only wish now that the recording sounded better.

While being anti-drug, a radio commercial I heard this morning on the way to work was also “anti-band.” The commercial was sort of like this:

Funny, I was able to pick it out. I had hoped it was going to be the Chess Club kid, but it’s always the band geek. 🙂

Here are some pictures from Passover at Gwen‘s house. I haven’t had a chance to work on a neat little interface for the photo gallery, so you’ll just have to deal with that for now. Take a look to see how cute Alissa‘s friends from high school are. Unfortunately, my digital camera has problems and does not like to display the correct colors. I’ve done the best I can to fix them up in Photoshop, but I think maybe I’m going to stick to regular photographs from now on.

The temperature is in the seventies today. The weather needs to be timed with the weekends better. It’s 5:00 at work: meeting time. Looks like I may be doing another website redesign…