NOT Like Riding a Bike

There's plenty of things you can go back to after years away - particularly stuff that's bad for you like smoking, and poetry slams - but school definitely isn't one of them. Another weekend, another cram session, made that much more stressful by a week laid up with something flu-like and all day yesterday taken by Isaac's 5th Birthday party.

The party was worth the delay, though, as Isaac had a blast with his first birthday/costume party, and even India got in the on the fun.







What? I used to own the real thing! :-P

Now, back to the unrelenting dungeons of higher - as in, "What was I smoking?" - education...

Like a bad penny...

Me and poetry, together again for the first time in ages!

Tuesday, October 25, 2005 @ 7pm
Barnes & Noble Bookstore
3105 East Main Street
Mohegan Lake, NY 10547
Helping Zork bring poetry to Westchester. Cover: FREE!

This is right near where I graduated High School, so I'm paranoid I'll bump into someone I once knocked on the door of during my two-year stint as a Jehovah's Witness! How times have changed...

MEMO: Co-Worker, Two Cubicles Over

SHUT THE FUCK UP!!!!!!!!

I'm sick and tired of hearing you constantly reference your Greek heritage like a leper explaining his lesions.

On every single phone call.

Don't blame Greek culture for your inability to communicate with people in a respectful, civil manner. It's not a Greek thing, it's a YOU'RE A SOCIALLY MALADJUSTED IDIOT WITH EXTREME SELF-ESTEEM ISSUES thing!!!

Stop it now!

And I don't want to hear any more about your terminally ill "roommate" you played lovelorn caretaker for when his family turned their backs on him for "being a loser." I'm really starting to think he stepped in front of that train to get away from you, not his illness!

Why you feel the need to tell this story several times a day to every person you're on the phone with, I'll never understand.

And it was almost TWO YEARS AGO!

SHUT THE FUCK UP!!!!!!!!

SHUT THE FUCK UP!!!!!!!!

SHUT THE FUCK UP!!!!!!!!

SHUT THE FUCK UP!!!!!!!!

SHUT THE FUCK UP!!!!!!!!

Holy Cow!

Just finished polishing off the first draft of my first official paper of the semester, for my Schooling in America class. Like 5 minutes ago, at 1:45am, when the last of 9 pages came out of the printer. Because I tend to edit as I go along, and do most of my research as I'm writing (thank god for Google!), it's really more like a second or third draft. We'll see what I think about it in the morning (well, later this morning) when I read it through with fresher eyes to see if it all makes sense, but I have to say I'm feeling a nice burst of energy right this minute that's not just from the two cups of coffee I had a couple of hours ago to keep me awake.

If this one is as close to finished as I think it is, and I can polish off my other paper - a presumably easier artist's interview with an artist I've yet to identify! - I'm thinking I'll be all right this semester after all and that going back to school wasn't a presumptuous mistake on my part.

Because in all seriousness, I was having my doubts this morning. I mean, yesterday morning. :-/

A Rare 2005 Political Moment

In the 2004 Presidential election, Bush wasn't the only winner. Apathy struck a critical blow, too, in the non-action of the 40% of those eligible to vote who chose not to. Pretty much broke my spirit, even with accepting that not voting can be considered a vote in and of itself, as opposed to the more cynical "silence = consent."

Anyway, I received an email this morning from the Working Families Party, asking members to support Fernando Ferrer's bumbling Mayoral run the old-fashioned way...with cash. Of course, I wasn't terribly pleased...

--- "Dan Cantor, WFP" wrote:
This time, we urge you to directly back the WFP-endorsed candidate for Mayor, Fernando Ferrer. He needs and deserves your support.

Dan, et al,

While Fernando Ferrer may NEED my support, I hardly think he DESERVES it, especially not simply because he's running against a solid incumbent with deep pockets.

I supported Ferrer in 2001, when he seemed to actually stand for something concrete, but this time around, he's pushed me to the sidelines as he's become little more than a figurehead for the business-as-usual Democrats. Frankly, I am disappointed in WFP's endorsement which, because it didn't have the 2/3rds support necessary to award him the party's ballot line, comes off as seeming rather wishy-washy. Better to have simply stayed out of the race this time around.

If the election were held today, Mayor Bloomberg would receive my vote without hesitation. If Ferrer wants to change that, he needs to stop complaining about Bloomberg's bank account and focusing on non-issues like his "snub" of Harlem, and instead take a good look in the mirror and start talking clearly about what HE stands for, not against.

Sincerely,
Guy LeCharles Gonzalez
Bronx, NY

I now return to not giving a fuck.