11-9

This morning, I had a heart attack. Probably not great for my health, but... sure was tasty.

Mmm, pumpernickel...

Of course, the 'heart attack' in question was Taylor ham, bacon, sausage, egg, and cheese on a pumpernickel bagel. Not the sort of thing I should consume with any regularity, but since I've lost five pounds (weight, not currency) since last month, I decided I could afford it. Seems the move has taken a lot out of me, figuratively and literally.

Movin' Right Along

What move? Keep up, peruser. Some days before my birthday, I (and my former fellow tenants) got less than a month and a half's notice that our new landlord was not going to renew any of our yearly leases, all of which ended as of October 31st. For those keeping score at home: I moved in to that apartment in November 2003 and started working at Microwize Technology in January 2004; I lost the job in May 2025 and lost the apartment in October 2025. "Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans..." Anyway, after a few quick bouts of panic and depression, I managed to find another place.

While my new abode is not very distant from my old abode, numerous trips down and up the stairs of the old apartment (my Apple Watch registered a whopping 56 flights climbed on October 29th!) carrying more than I should have alone no doubt contributed to the bit of weight loss. I did get assistance from my friend Joe with bringing some of the heavier and/or bulkier items down, and my friends Barbara and Tom helped with the last-day sprint on Halloween moving the last dregs over; none of us were dressed for the holiday, but I was wearing a Planet Express T-shirt. Gina came over on Saturday and we did some organizing and rearranging before having my/our first meal (sushi, natch) and first glass of wine in the new apartment. I appreciate all the aiding and abetting.

Nothing Is So Painful to the Human Mind as a Great and Sudden Change

I'm still working on setting things up (three IKEA runs later), but the place is already quite comfortable and liveable. And hey, I've got a back yard and squirrels I can see through the living room window now. While the novelty of being unemployed has long since worn off (no, I haven't found a job yet, and wouldn't mind help if you know of anything), it was certainly convenient that I had more daylight hours than usual to plan and pack and move things than I normally would have. Losing the job and then the dwelling has shaken things up for me, and I have to admit it's for the best, even if it was briefly painful to even my mind.

Speaking of Mary Shelley, I watched Guillermo del Toro's "Frankenstein" last night. I'd have preferred it if Netflix had released it two weeks earlier so I could have watched it pre-Halloween during spooky Sazón, but I suppose I can understand the financial reasoning behind doing the theatrical release first. Regardless, I enjoyed it a lot. The mood, the performances, and the creature's loneliness made for an impressive if somber film.

I don't know why it took me so long to check it out, but I finally started watching "Orphan Black" on Netflix recently, and I'm hooked. HBO's "It: Welcome to Derry" is quite good so far, too, looking forward to the third episode. I still don't want to sit in front of the tube screen for too long each night, but two episodes seems to be working out for now.

Yesterday would've been my friend and former colleague Sally's birthday. Can't believe she's been gone over ten years now, and the last time I saw her was a few years before that, but yeah, I miss her still.

"'But I'm feeling quite weak,' she said...
     'Will you comfort and forgive me?' she said..."

NaNoWriMo Failure

(...and yes, that's "failure" and not "fail."  I know it's trendy to use and misuse mono- and di-syllabic words these days, but I do my best to avoid that sort of thing without fail.  Snarky man is snarky.  Because snark.)  I'd fully intended to write a 50,000-word novel (at least) last month, but... things happened, and on the morning I'd intended to begin penning "They Might Be Roses," I found myself driving across Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, and Kentucky instead.

As you may have heard, a bit of wind and rain called Hurricane Sandy (or "Post-Tropical Cyclone Sandy" or "Superstorm Sandy") came ashore in the Garden State at the end of October, and while Laura and I only had to deal with a few hours without electricity and a day and a half without cable/Internet, the storm did end up causing our flight to Kentucky on November 1st to be cancelled. As we'd both already requested some time off for the trip, rescheduling wasn't a realistic option, and so I decided to rent a car and drive us 700 miles each way, and we left on Halloween evening instead of early Thursday afternoon.

We ended up getting there earlier than we were originally scheduled to depart from Newark Airport, but of course I was exhausted from driving all night, and I wasn't able to start writing while at the airport and on the plane like I'd planned. I never did any writing while we were in Kentucky, either, but we had a wonderful time with Laura's dad and his wife, and Laura's sister Amanda and her kids.

Amanda, Sofiah, and Silas

I thought that maybe I'd finally get going on Monday after a good night's sleep back in my own bed in Jersey... only we found ourselves going to the Bergen County Humane Society in town that day instead, and I was selected by a young tortoiseshell cat to bring her home. Three-month old "Fluff" was quickly renamed Preeti, and even more quickly became a part of our family (though her older sister Meggy, the chinchilla, doesn't like her much at all and has made it clear that she's not going to be intimidated).

It's Caturday!

Tuesday saw me going back to work... but because New Jersey Transit was still reeling from Sandy's damage, the Main Line train was still not operational, and I opted to work from home. On Wednesday, I felt out the buses, and while the commute was longer, it was doable. Unfortunately, I don't usually have the ability to take out my laptop and use it on the bus the way I do on the train... and anyway, I was stunned by a phone call from my mom telling me that there'd been a fire and she and my dad were at a neighbor's home because they weren't allowed back into theirs.

I was shaken, understandably I hope, as was my sister when I called her (to give her the news after wishing her a happy birthday). She and I met my parents at the house on Saturday and surveyed the damage, then mom and dad came home with me and spent the night with Laura, Meggy, Preeti, and me. At least they finally got a chance to sample my Big Easy shrimp (it went over well), and they would've stayed another night, but the insurance finally located a hotel for them.

I didn't get any writing done that weekend, either, although I'd been thinking that I could've gotten a few hours in (before the fire happened).  I did finally get over a thousand words written the following weekend, but the damage was already done, in my head at least.  Work was keeping me busy and stressed, I started reading Stephen King's "11/22/63" (great book, but bad idea for me to get invested in someone else's novel, and a big one at that), and then came Thanksgiving.  We visited my parents at my sister's house before heading to Laura's aunt's for the big turkey dinner.

My parents, sister, nephews, 'n me

We stayed away from the stores on Black Friday (well, other than the local Dollar Tree), and I suppose I could've done some writing that day, but instead we went to the park and fed the squirrels for a while.

Thanks for the nut!

Then came Laura's birthday, and the requisite sushi/sashimi dinner at Momoya in Bloomfield...

Sushi and sashimi

Before I knew it, the month was over.  Yes, I could have managed it, but it just would've been too hard with the lengthy delay in starting, and while I wanted to make it happen, there was too much going on in November already.  I still want to write the novel, though, and I will, but December is another crazy month, so although I'll hopefully get some writing done before the end of the year, I don't expect to finish "They Might Be Roses" before February or so at the earliest.  I intend to finish writing and recording the eponymous song as well.  There's that Web site overhaul to complete, too; I'd really like to get that done before 2013.  I think the resolution for the New Year is going to be better time management.  There's a lot I want to do: I haven't picked up a guitar in forever, I may start writing short stories again, Laura's teaching me to knit... but I have to set aside time for such things and actually use it.

Lastly, the holiday season is rapidly approaching, and while its lyrics certainly don't represent the way I feel anymore, my song "Christmas Lonely" is still a pretty good tune, or so I've been led to believe.  I'd appreciate it if you gave it a listen and maybe invited your friends to do the same.  Hey, ask your local college radio station to play it.  ;-)