dear diary... part 1

Wednesday, October 14, 10:45pm I was walking home from a friends house, when I was attacked. It was strange.

I was walking toward two young, good looking black kids, we both nodded at the appropriate point before passing each other, and then, as they faded into my periphery, something happened. I got blasted. Hard. Rocked with a fist to the jaw, with what I can only imagine was the full force of someone having the opportunity to prepare a full sucker-punch windup. It knocked me back, my jaw/head/neck area going back and to the side from the rest of my body. It was so fast, but I seemed to be in slow motion. I felt like one of those big inflatable clown things, that you bop in the face, and then they slowly spring back up.

What the hell was that?

I straightened out quickly, my adrenaline kicking in, and I realized a half-second too late from where my confusion and pain originated. It was this fully outstretched fist, connected to a good-looking young black kid, which was a heartbeat from smashing into my face. Again. WTF?

Pow! (emphasis placed on the ow.) This time it was a little further back. The first hit was closer to the point of my chin, but from the side. This one connected fully on the side of the jaw. I saw a flash of white, heard a loud crunch, felt my bottom teeth shift somewhere they definitely did not belong, and tasted blood, and something else I couldn't recognize.

I covered my head, screamed something about not having money, and swung a wild fist in his direction, though at this point he'd turned and started half-shuffle trotting away with his buddy.

What the fuck just happened? Did I get jumped? Am I hurt? Why didn't they try to take my money? Why did they run away? My face doesn't hurt a whole lot at the moment, but I can already tell it's crazy swollen, and my teeth are definitely not where they were a minute ago. Fuck, my jaw hurts. Is it dislocated? It feels dislocated. I move my tongue around searching for the inevitable teeth that I will be spitting out, but nothing comes loose.

I spit on the light gray concrete of the sidewalk in front of the Fireside Bowl, expecting some blood. What comes is a stringy mouthful of brownish red, with darker bits of god knows what. Shit. That's not good. Not at all.

I called 911 as I walked home, looking over my shoulders, and dipping down a side road and through an alley. I mumbled briefly through what happened, the details pretty clear in my mind. My keys make it straight into the lock, and I find myself telling my roommate, a friend, and some foreign girl about what the hell just happened.

I quickly get through the story, and come back to the part where my teeth feel fucked up. Like for real guys, like it's dislocated or something. They assure me that if that were the case, I'd be in a lot more pain, and probably wouldn't be able to tell the story like I was. I consider their input. My cell phone rings. The police are outside.

I go downstairs, where the police are in their truck, and tell them the same story.

"They didn't try to rob you?

"No."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"Well, if that's the case..."

So I could ride down to the station and fill out a report, though for just battery. But they're sporting the same logic as my roommate, friend, and newly friended foreign lady. If it was really bad, I'd be in more pain, and probably wouldn't be talking to them so calmly. I got hit in the face twice, so it's sure to be swollen. Take some Ibuprofen and try to relax.

Ok.

We'll take the description, run it, and keep a lookout for anyone matching the description in the area.

Ok.

Honestly, I was pretty exhausted and didn't feel like going down to the station anyway.

I took some Ibuprofen, had a stiff drink, and went to bed.

shift change.

I've been loving the weather recently, as most have, and I always forget how it affects my mood for the coming season. Not to say that I've felt overwhelmed or sad or anything for the winter, but that my general mood has been getting better and better with the warmer, sunnier days. Obvious though, right?

The warmer days also lend themselves to more socializing, which I think was somewhat lacking this winter. It's nice to get out and see people more often, with less planning. Went over to Nate's house the other day for pork chop sandwiches on the grill and some video games. Riding the bike to work every day, and up to roger's park a bit recently. Rode up to the Heartland Cafe the other day to see Dave Herrero play some blues and have a good time. Also went to see Hot Tub Time Machine, which was hilarious. A pretty solid week.

School's winding down, though it looks like I'll have a lot to do when the class is over, which is ok. I'll intersperse the work with friends, bbqs, and general outside time.

Oh yeah, post title. So Lisa's going to move to her own place at the end of the month, still in the hood, but a bit south. My buddy Devin is going to be moving in here, making it the first time I've had just a guy roommate. I'm expecting it will be buckets of fun. Buckets!

self-five.

It seems that work and school are kicking my ass lately. I get home and I'm just beat. A few weeks ago one of my coworkers wore a pedometer to work just to get an idea of how much we run around during a shift. He was waiting tables in the "easy" section where you don't have to run as far for everything and still logged over 16, 000 steps. His pedometer wasn't calibrated, but we figured about three feet for a good work-stride for someone about 6 feet tall. That put him around nine miles for the shift. Plus carrying shit. No wonder we're all beat after work.

Came home the other day and was in the mood for this:

Easy-peasy and really good. A little butter and salt, pepper, and lemon. Sometimes even I am in the mood for crunchy green veggie-type things. No bratwurst, but I guess I can't eat them all the time.

I don't have photos from my first bbq of the season, but the next day our tree in the back started budding. Literally overnight. That was pretty cool.

And sort of on a whim I decided to take the month of April off from drinking. No real rhyme or reason, maybe just to give it a try. But I figure the side effects aren't so bad. Lose a few pounds? Maybe save some bucks? I can work with that. I already miss that post work beer, (today was awful) but I think I'll get used to it. And it's only a month, so I'm not going to cry about it.

That's about it for now!

food and stress.

I did a bunch of errands yesterday, including laundry which always feels like a small accomplishment, and paying bills and things. Went to the bank to deposit some cash, and worked not quite enough on school work. Dinnertime rolled around as it tends to do, and I realized that I was virtually out of food.

I rummaged through the fridge and found a big portabella cap that somehow I forgot to use. There were a couple green onions in there too, and on the island table thing there was a sweet potato and a bunch of garlic. Bam.

I've been making quinoa in different ways recently, but I like it as a sort of grain-salad side. So I made some:

Threw in some toasted almonds and dried cranberries and a little olive oil and it turned out pretty well. While I was making this, I roasted one of those heads of garlic in the oven.

That portabella went in the broiler with a little cheese and the entire head of delicious roasted garlic. Oh, yeah. It was awesome.

Other things:

-School is more difficult than I remember, but probably good for me to catch up and get with it.

-That, finances, and living situation are stressing me the fuck out right now. It's weird, because I feel like I'm usually pretty cool. Right now though, not so much.

-I'm a little obsessed lately with the take away videos here: http://www.blogotheque.net/-Concerts-a-emporter-?lang=en They're really well done, sound fantastic, and are only a few minutes long. Click on a couple. Be wowed.