> What have you been enjoying or hating lately in...
>
> -Music

Michael Nyman, Elliot Goldenthal, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Glenn Miller, Louis Armstrong, Norah Jones, Eva Cassidy, soundtracks to The Talented Mr Riply and The Mothman Prophecies.

> -Movies

The only movie we saw in theatres this month was Pirates of the Caribbean. It really was very good - a rollicking adventure. Johnny Depp really carries the movie with a rare and brilliant comedic performance. Pity there wasn't more eye candy for us guys too.

We've rented sooo many movies in recent weeks, including:

The Weight of Water - ignore the reviews, this is a great story, great cast, good memorable movie.

The Shaft - a horror movie that's intentionally over-the-top, hilarious and a lil bit scary.

Just Married - can't believe I'm admitting to watching it, never mind liking it. But I did. It's a cheesy and not-so-funny romantic comedy. But it's sweet.

Happenstance - featuring the star of Amelie and a similar mood, a quirky, sweet tale of love and the little twists of fate that affect it.

Phone Booth - ruined by a crappy ending, and there wasn't enough Katie Holmes.

Waiting for Guffman - still hilarious after all these years.

Gangs of New York - I regret not seeing this in theatres. It was an extremely enjoyable old-fashioned epic. Great story, Daniel Day Lewis was amazing, the others were pretty good, and I loved the muusic.

Ghost Ship - I've been apprehensive about some of Vic's video choices recently, but this was better than expected. Standard horror flick, slightly marred by it's ridiculous ending.

Darkness Falls - speaking of bad choices, this one was mine. But even the worst horror movies are enjoyable when Vic's there to poke fun at them.

And we've still got Jaws, Lone Star State & Final destination 2 to watch this weekend.


> -TV

Blame the lack of choice on Network TV - Vic and I are becoming reality TV junkies. So far we're hooked on Cupid, Paradise Hotel and even *hangs head in shame* Who Wants To Marry My Dad? God help us. Besides that, there's the daily reruns of Seinfeld and Friends to keep us entertained.

> -Books

Finished The Dead School and Carn by Patrick McCabe - preferred the former. He's a unique and very disturbed author - I can't remember comedy this black.

Flood by Andrew Vachss was great. I love the mood of his books, all dark and murky with revenge being the light at the end of the tunnel.

The Anatomy School by Bernard MacLaverty. If you want a realistic portrayal of Irish life, MacLaverty's yer man. This was a great coming-of-age story, sometimes hilarious, sometines heartbreaking. I've read all his novels, and they're just brilliant, so they are!

Now I'm reading No Great Mischief by Alistair MacLeod. Fall on Your Knees whetted my appetite for another Cape Breton novel. And this is an excellent one.


> -Life

Well, all the interesting people are being weeded out at work. Lisa quit after months of persecution. Her girlfriend Shauna is still hanging in there - I doubt she'll last much longer. I miss those that have left - Kyla, Kerra, Nichole, Lisa. Work is now just one long boring day followed by another.

My first dental work in 10 years was a nightmare. To a soundtrack featuring Barry Manilow, the Bee Gees and Bette Middler, my unfriendly dentist jerked on the tooth he was to extract for about 10 minutes before I heard a crack. Ooops! The stubborn root didn't want to come out, so after more pulling and levering against my sore lips, he brought in a drill. Lovely. Afterwards, I looked in horror at my blood splattered bib and his assistant had to wipe my cheek and nose. And the horror didn't end there. I had to subsist on a liquid diet for 24 hours! Aaaaaaah!

Such fun.

In other news, medical insurance did not cover my recent 20-minute doctor's visit ($166) or the ensuing blood test (surprise, you have high cholesterol! That'll be $199 please). So lets add another $300+ to our debts, shall we?

Bizarrely, Vic insists that I've been pleasant to live with in recent days. Either the Lexapro is kicking in, or it's the multivitamins I started this week. In either case, hurrah for me!

It's been a weird week. The nausea and sleepiness continued, and the anti-depressant hasn't kicked in yet. I really don't think I can stay on them unless the side effects subside. I yawn all the time, and can barely keep my eyes open to read.
Vic's been sick. The Doc said today it may be Pneumonia. I stayed home 2 days with her. Raise time is coming up at work. I hope they'll consider the first 6 months when I didn't miss a single day.
Our dinner with work friends was great. Lisa likes to sing, and we're hoping to have a karaoke night out sometime soon. I haven't in front of an audience like that since Ireland last March, and I've never sung karaoke in this country except at home and a friends house. Lisa and Vic had more in common than I expected, and it was just a nice time. Lisa quit her job this week - I hope we can keep in touch.

We found out that Florida is no longer a vacation option, so we'll probably stay at Carolina Beach. I'm etting excited about visting Cape Fear and Wilmington, the setting for many TV shows and movies including Dawson's Creek and A Walk to remember.

I've been revelling in the language of Patrick McCabe, finally getting around to reading The Dead School. You can't get much more Irish than this - he's off his rocker, out of his head, mad, so he is.

I've also been reading the excellent hard-boiled detective fiction of Andrew Vachss - starting with Flood. I've already got his next 4 books lined up. And I got a shipment from bookcloseouts.com today including books by William Trevor, Stephen Dobyns, Richard Matheson & Emer Martin.

Just watched The 25th Hour, which was powerful. It was very stylish, with some great performances. But not very memorable. I'm looking forward to reading that book too.

Damn the weather's crazy here. House-shaking thunder and lightning and rain.

I must go comfort my terrified wife and cat :)

There's not much to report this week. I've been nauseous and fatigued, which I assume is a reaction to the new antidepressant - the first pill in my life I've had to take regularly (with the exception of a week's supply of antibiotics). I hope the side effects will pass. By the way, I'm on Lexapro. Comments are welcome if you know anything about it.

The atmosphere at work is really negative these days. The lesbian couple are still being persecuted. They were both moved to opposite ends of the room, and yesterday they were told they couldn't take their breaks. We've been invited to dinner at their house today - I assume it will mostly be bitching about work but I'll let you know if anything interesting happens.

Most of the women I work with are over 30, many are over 50. The only young one left is the back-biting ditsy blonde Emily. The only guy left has smoked away 90% of his brain cells. Seriously, he's the dumbest person I've ever met. And in WV, that's saying something. Shit, am I turning into a bitch?! I've been relegated to sometimes reading Cosmo. I've objected the lack of 'manly' magazines so much that some workmates brought in some Rolling Stone and Newsweek magazines for me. So I'm much more educated this week than I was last week :) My requests for Maxim and Stuff were denied.

Anyway, there was a stress test in Cosmo (shut up!) that told me I was very stressed out, and recommended I write about my day. So I've started to write again. I kept journals for several years until I got my computer and wrote about everything in emails. I don't do that anymore, and it's good to have an outlet.

I'm becoming a reality TV junkie. Having only network TV, it's hard to avoid. This week I watched For Love or Money, Paradise Hotel and Cupid. Plus Primetime with J.Lo & Lisa Marie, and 20/20 with Angelina. Movies this week - I watched Living out Loud, which was quite enjoyable, though not brilliant. Queen Latifah's performances of jazzy standards were a revelation - check out some soundtrack samples at Amazon. Danny Devito's a surprisingly okay singer too. And I saw my second (the first was Some Like it Hot) Marilyn Monroe movie - Don't Bother to Knock, which was a surprisingly suspenseful thriller. I've added several of her movies to our Netflix list having become intrigued with Marilyn while reading Blonde by Joyce Carol Oates.

I started my first Stuart Woods book - The Short Forever - which is okay, and I've been delving into The Porcupine's Kisses by Stephen Dobyns. It was an impulse buy at the Bargain Books store in South Bend, and I may not have bought it had I taken the time to discover it was a book of poetry. Great book though, full of thought provoking prose and aphorisms. Perfect for delving :)

In music, I've been alternating between some favorite jazz artists - Thelonious monk, Art Blakey, Count Baise, Duke Ellington - and some contemporary favorites - Beth Orton, Fiona Apple, Alanis Morrissette, Joan Osborne.

Vic and are debating going to see a movie. My top pick is Terminator 3, Vic's is The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. We may compromise and see the Pirates movie. Or none.

And that's all I have to write about this week.

Mountain Stage was great! The acts performing included:
The Jim Kweskin Band & Samoa Wilson (wonderful blend of jazz and folk - I especially enjoyed 'What a Little Moonlight Can Do').
Hammel on Trial (loud, crude, entertaining, hilarious and touching (I cried during his song about Brandon Teena & Matthew Sheperd).
Xavier Rudd (fascinating, multitalented Australian, powerful vocals, great sound - including that of digeredoos!)
Ben Taylor (a little too much saccharine for my tastes - kinda cool hearing that James Taylor voice though).
Ani Difranco (so that's what the fuss is about?! This chick is a great singer & guitarist, opinionated and strong, original.)

This week I 'ave been mostly:
listening to chillin' and relaxin' music
reading The Anatomy School by Bernard MacLaverty, Demolition Angel by Robert Crais, The Face by Dean Koontz, finally finished the entertaining Sayville by Tom Panerese
watching The Hours (overrated), Frida (intriguing), Old School (hilarious), The Royal Tenenbaums (good), and the South Park movie (yes, they said that Fucking Shit on Comedy Central).

Wonderful Weekend

Visited friends in South Bend, Day 1, was driven around in a convertable with the top down, experiencing the Blowback for the first time. And I saw that it was good and rested.
Day 2 was spent shopping, eating at Ruby Tuesdays, getting drunk with friends and watching movies. Good times.
Day 3, there was more eating and shopping and movies - Irish food, bargain books and Old School hilarity.
Day 4 - a lengthy breakfast and a lengthy drive home.

Thanks for the hospitality Coble & T-Bone!

Thinking of moving again. Seems we have 2 worlds. The utter contentment of home, pet, family, enjoyable things to do, peace. And the horror of outside, of stressful drives and crappy weather, often intolerable workplaces and delusional family. The ignorance of WV.
So we are seriously considering the move. Friends we can have fun with, a more pleasant environment, a younger population. Maybe we can move our home there.

Vic got a bonus last week - I was able to enjoy the weekend without wondering when we'd hit the insuffiecient funds level. Redid my budget today and signed up with Yahoo Billpay, which should ease frustration in one area of life.

I had my first doctor's appointment in several years today. The doctor sent about 10 minutes with me. She glided over the ear, eye, breathing, throat knee thing. Asked me about 5 questions before deciding what anti-depressive medication I need. Didn't mention my bulk (which has reached a frightening number), said I should return next week for bloodwork. Told me it's unlikely I have colorectal cancer, probably IBS, and I should be more woried about testicular cancer anyway. Thanks. It seemed very impersonal, though it's a relief to have done something. And maybe I'll stop feeling worthless for a while. Next step - a dentist.

After years of misleading questionaire answers, I can confirm that I'm 5'6''. Vic was right.

It's 1am. Work tomorrow. Today.
It was nice to have a temporary reprieve from the irritation & monotony. More than this?