Class was canceled, the workshop class that is. It was an huge let down. I was really looking forward to monday nites. Now all i have is the publishing seminar. oh well must make due. Last weekend was Irish Day in Long Beach. What a party. I guess the irish population in Long beach figured that St patricks day was not enough so every year the first weekend in october, they have a huge parade, and then wild partying ensues, well actually it begins most times before the parade even steps off. It was one of those days, where you are in bed at 8, sleep a few hours, then get back on your feet and go until close. Work is lousy, really lousy, and slow. Trying to find a halloween costume, though i am not really big on dressing up, there are a few parties that require costumes. Sitting here typing this, i am looking at my beautiful typewriter. Its a black glossy Underwood Noiseless Portable. Just got it back from the typewriter repair man. he had to tweek the space bar, clean all of the mechanisims, put new roller rubber on it, and a new ribbon. the guy does a great job. He worked on a desk top Royal that i have. That is a monster of a machine. The Underwood though, whew, its gorgeous. Sounds odd speaking that way about a typewriter, but anyone who has come into the apt, sees it and is impressed. It was manufactured in 1938, if i remember correctly, it came up from Greensboro NC as a gift, and i have been using it often since getting it back. Enough of that, sat in on a texas hold em poker game last nite, well actually i was like the bartender. Took place at one of the bars we hang out at, and after close, the tourny happened upstairs. It amazes me the amount of gambling that goes on down here in long island. Not to say that there isn't a fair share of that going on at home, in buffalo, it just seems more prolific down here. Everywhere you go, my friends are like, who do you like on the games today, or i took these teams and the under, you wanna play hold em tonite? the bet on darts, flips of a coin, just really insane. One of my friends ended up in the whole BIG, i mean really big, and every week, the book would send one of the guys to come pick up, almost like in a movie. shake of a hand and the money passes. For me i don't see the allure of it. I want to feel tangible results if i am going to spend money, food, drink, something that i can taste touch feel. I guess they do it for the high they get. Its funny how different things give different people highs. Just last nite, a simple phone call saying hi made my nite a lot better. The voice on the other end, that alone can change my day. it doesn't have to be that only though, something you write, a movie, shit like that, a sports game (though the NHL has royally fucked up) and i never understood how betting on a team made the game more exciting, i think they are mixing something being exciting, causing excitment, with something causing anxiety. i am going now, there is an fall arts festival in Huntington on the north shore, going with some friends from the city. should be good. talk to you all later.

Well what do you know, i got a little tech crazy and uploaded a pic for my user pic. Its a shot from my buddy tim's front porch. in the background you can see the ocean. its not a bad spot where he lives, one of our favorite watering holes, aptly named the Saloon is on the corner of W Beech and Indiana, and then at the other end of the street is the ocean. pretty good i'd say. Just got done watching a show, the Question of God; Sigmund Freud and C.S. Lewis. It was really very interesting. i have jumped into it before, the show that is, but never watched from the beginning or in its entirety. God, or the existance of god, well i believe in god, and that i guess you could say was reinforced this past weekend when i went to Allentown for my godaughter Emily, and her twin brother Nicholas's first birthday. they are so cute. growing so fast. it seems like you can see them developing right before your eyes. last i saw the two rugrats was end of july, and now they are both getting up and trying to stumble on their own, unsuccessfully of course. but its amazing to watch them. their development is so quick as we watch from a distance, i have to wonder if our development continues on that same rapid pace, or does it invert and become a kind of decline, well obviously it does i mean, we reach a lets say terminal velocity on our physcial growth and then however many years we are able to maintain a homeostasis then on to decline and death, but what i wonder is that can others see from a distance in relation to time passed the speed of the rate of decline? the speed at which we race towards death?Also another thought, how active is god in bringing people to your for relationiships. not to sound like he runs match.com, or is a personal personals shopper, but its just something i have been wondering a lot about lately. sometimes i find that the wheels have too much time to turn, and all of the smoke clouds my ability to reign in my imagination, conscious, and it becomes a runaway train. jumping the tracks and killing the cows. ego, super ego, id, talk amongst yourselfs. I signed up for a class at NYU, its a poetry workshop. seems like it will be very interesting. You have your work critiqued and there are guest speakers who come in and read, also help with your work, and how to get published. that class is every monday nite, i also have a saturday class that is about careers in publishing. something that i have been trying to break into unsuccsessfully. More so that i would like to start an independent press. i am really looking forward to this class. hopefully it will motivate me another option i have been contemplating is an MLS, masters in library science, its required by all of the museums, seems like you need that even to get a look forthe most basic job at any of those sort of institutions. dee i will be home for thanksgiving, so hopefully we will be able to get together for a drink or two. the run the next morning, eh, doesn't sound so appealing. goin to read and then sackout. gnite all

Its odd when you realize what is happening in your life, when you really don't see it happening. It kinda feels like watching that movie where the deer, or any "helpless" little animal is standing alone in the woods, and the wolf, or coyote, or lion slinks up to its quary, and BAM, the little guy fuckin gets it. The difference is, in this instance I am completely alright with getting it. I am almost hoping that it is happening the way I think it is. Though I have had to make some tough decisions in order for this to happen, some of which have not been an issue for me in oh, i would say close to7 years. trying to make the right beach mtv call, knowing that whatever way you go is going to influence the rest of your life in one way or another. I mean in all reality, the reason I am in this current situation is in direct relation to the last time I was faced with a choice. It seems at the time i made the right pick, and then it seemed as if i had been foolish. Now however , perhaps, it is what i was supposed to do looking back . It reminds me a little of that cusack movie serendipity. yeah i watched part of that between catching some winks the other nite, though i missed the ending. i don't know, i have been thinking about fate and choices, and moving, and reunions, and where i am, and where others are. I have come to the conclusion i really don't give a fuck where i am in realation to others, i am happy where i am right now, and would like to move up, and when i say move up, i mean better myself, not really move up the tax brackets. there is a lot of things that i would like to have happen with this new relationship, (thats the thing stalking its prey) all in a good context of course, seriously.something that is difficult for me to think about at times, as i don't want to jump the gun, but also i don't want to be so aloof due to the past that there is the perceived lack of effort/interest/passion reciprocated. history, repeating itself. the irony of things that happen in everyones, in my everyday life.

Fell asleep to whitman's serenade
!oh democracy! lovers and friends
freedom, mornings dew upon your loins

rocking side to side along the rails in a rainy august nite remembering the first time i could remember, consciously remember a bittersweet realith of past happenings, hopenings the reason one or all remember is for the feeling, the sensation involved with the action the sensation of loss that begins in your stomach as if an ember was placed gently, quietly inside of you for the purpose of irritation to be quenched at your favorite watering hole or through the sweat of lust. the empire state building comes into view as the lumbering sliver in the nite rain train whisked along to its final destitnation, or was that the a momentary stop along its own rememberance of the tracks Penn Station Manhattan last and final stop for the westbound train filied with young dewy cunt eyes and old withered pricks waiting to stick out in the rainy nite glow electric like the magnificent Empire State, looking around i see everyone quiet with their mouths yapping noiseless yawns of blabber that do not interest me specifically but the din that rises from the motion of the lips and tounges and vocal chords while briefly interrupted by the swallow of bottle beer concealed foolishly in wrinkly brown paper, or not hidden at all.

written june 5th 2004


and so it was today, of june
two halves of an acorn did fall,
soon to blossom, an oak
in fields of southern suns

buddha sits quiet
beneath gangly green canopy
i stare out from behind frances' tears

Well, I did happen to get one response to my query on favorite dishes, and while it was quite helpful it does not look like i will be slaving away in the kitchen. Yesterday evening, while speaking to my date, i asked if there was anything that she did not like (ie. food, beverages) and it was then that she let me know that she is a vegan. So it does not look like i will be firing up the griddle. whew. now i just have to find somewhere that has vegan options on the menu. I don't forsee it being that difficult. Long Beach has a diverse selection of restaurants. I am finally nearing the end of the road with Visions of Cody, and last nite as i was tidying up the place, i ended up reading little gulps of this book i picked up while visiting my sister on the jersey shore. the books is titled HOBO. its by eddie joe cotton. looks really good. almost a modern day on the road, sort of. this job i have right now, well its, it drains you. i have not written a haiku in a couple weeks. i get home, usually after 12 hours and just crash. tonite i was so beat that i missed a party, and everyone going out in the west end. no good. feel asleep after getting halfway through some shrimp lo mein. didn't even put a dent in my beer. such a shame. it also seems like i do not see anyone much anymore. though i guess thats what happens after being a man of leisure for....oh....close to 10 months. though i did manage to make it out last nite to the whales tail to see one of my friends do an acoustic set and watch this drunk woman fight, literally fist fight her friends out front of the bar. it was really entertaining. she then though she could ride her bike home, yeah well that didn't happen, as she rode right into a parked car. fuck reality television. think its about time for me to hit the rack. hopefully soon this big blockage i am having will explode and i will burst forth with furious anger and you will know my name is the lord...forget it.. i just need to get typing.

As noted in my last entry, a few min ago, i met a beautiful Brit girl this past weekend, and well this weekend she is coming back out to long beach for our date. i'm going to cook dinner ( yes i am capable ) however, i wouldnt mind some ideas. Any fav dishes? i figure after that we would head out to the beach and then for some drinks. supposed to be nice this weekend.

So who here wants a mortgage. I was reading the Village Voice the other day and there is an interesting series about being young and in debt in america. it stated that most college grads end up paying off a "mortgage" as a result of their college years. Of course this is between those lovely student loans, and the credit cards we all signed up for to get a t-shirt or a mug. A mortgage. the other day while watching tv a commercial struck me very funny, it was about this guy who, well, was being portrayed as making it in america. one of the criteria he offered as a benchmark of being successful was a mortgage. Yup thats how i would like everyone to know i have made it, being in fucking debt. well if thats the case, by golly i am already there. of course not in the upper strata of debtors. luckily i am still in the small pond. On a brighter note I did meet a beautiful girl from London this past weekend. saturday nite to be exact. At a block party in Long beach. it was funny though, i was supposed to be in VA Beach for DMB. oh well. anyways.