This is Really Happening

You May Have Noticed

You may have noticed that I stopped blogging here. I've decided to phase out TIRH after, lo, all these years. Basically I wasn't writing enough to justify paying for the privilege--and I nearly never availed myself of all the cool features that typepad makes you pay for. So, I'm hoping by the end of April to have saved all my writing elsewhere and to sign off of here for good. If you ever want to know what's up with me, you can email me at: thisisreallyhappening (AT) gmail (DOT) com. And I'll surely write back. It'll be like your own personal blog entry! Thanks for reading. See ya!

This Weekend

Okay, so, all I'm asking is that for the next four days that time slow down a bit so that I can enjoy my favorite weekend of the year. It always flies by and that's not what I need right now. Even though the weather isn't going to be, ahem, ideal, I'll still enjoy being outside all day Saturday and Sunday. Hey, it's all part of the fun. So, anyway, that's all I gots to say about that.

I'm a Suckah!

Well, I had a whole other blog written, waiting to be formatted, but I think I'll write what I'm writing now instead. It doesn't really matter what I write about anyway--precious few people even bother reading my blog nowadays. But that's okay.

Okay, so first of all, I'm a suckah! In the past two days, two people have hit me up for money that wouldn't be paid back and both times I was more than happy to help out. One person I knew; one I didn't. At any rate, I hope the karma gods noted those transactions so that I can in some way cash in on my niceness and all.

I had written a lot about the skunk. But I think you've heard enough about it anyway.

Tonight I went to B's and E's (these are both places and not people) and had yet another surreal experience. If noogies hadn't been part of the night I wouldn't know what else to say. But all in all a nice night.

And so I'll move on. I saw the boys for a while today. They played in the park while I hung out with the other parents. When they decided to play a game there (capture the flag) and found two empty water bottles on the ground to use as flags, I knew that I wouldn't be all "north of route 9" and make them immediately turn that into a recycling moment. Gotta love living in Holyoke. They played in the mud and muck and loved it.

Well, that's all for now except to say that my next happy thing involves Jane's Addiction!

Luckily

Luckily, today started out as a good day because otherwise opening the front door and stepping out onto the stairs only to find myself ten feet away from a startled skunk would've have been a bad start to the day. And luckily, as I jumped back toward the door, the skunk chose to flee rather than to spray. Phew!

And, luckily today started out as a good day because otherwise it would've hurt to overhear a student say: "Mr. M. looks real old today."

Ouch.

But hey, I laughed it off. I know that I am in fact looking older and older. Not just the gray hair, but also I can see it in my face at times. I gotta stop living the rock n roll lifestyle and get me some of that Blue Lagoon lotion. Thinking of the Blue Lagoon reminds me that I wanted to write about more "happy things" so I'll take this opportunity to mention Iceland: Grand Rokk, Cafe du Paris, the Tower, the Blue Lagoon, the cats, the Canadian guy in search of racial purity, tiny little pebbles smacking us in the face at Geysir. All wonderful experiences.

Okay, maybe not the pebbles, but still it was a great reminder that I was in Ice-frickin-land!

More soon!

Happy Things

I'm in a good mood today and I feel like thinking back to some of the happy things in my life. I'll write about a few today and maybe at some point continue the theme in other posts.

First of all, I hafta start with Dee and Packy. Not only are they great kids, they are also great sources of amazing (to me at least) anecdotes.

Let's see, well, with the Parade coming up I can't help but think of that first. I live and breathe the parade. If you don't know me well you're probably wondering what the hell parade I'm talking about. Here in Ho'yoke we have one of the biggest and best St. Pat's parades in the country. And it's coming up quick, woot woot!

The beach. I love the frickin beach. I loved weeks in the summer there with my family--both when I was a child and later going with my own family. Family time + the beach = happy me. Misquamicut. The Cape. All great.

I also love the few times I've done the beach/casino double header. We even went once in February. Beach in February = awesome! And that trip reminds me of how much I love Shane McGowan and Sinead O'Connor's "Haunted".

There are so many other things--mqny of them even happier, but that's a good start for today.

Why I Need a Place to Live

So, I got home tonight and found this terse memo taped to the computer:

POWER OFF COMPUTER WHEN YOU'RE DONE.

That's just great. I feel the need to be bitchy for a moment and mention that when I was asked to help shovel a part of the driveway the last time it snowed, the note had a smiley face on it--and I ended up doing the whole sidewalk and driveway, without a word of thanks afterwards.

This is why I need to find a new place to live. Now.

Happy Days

Although I could think of today as an incredibly stress-filled day, I don't. Overall, it's been a happy day. Right now I'm feeling like I'm in a good place in my life. Although the future isn't certain, I feel everything is going to work out. Today I had a great time with Dee and Packy, playing video miniature golf. Boo-yah--I won! I also got to meet up with some of my committee buds at E's. While there, I got to laugh over an email exchange I had earlier in the day. It went something like:

N: "What? you didn't include 'so-and-so' in the email?

Me: "Oh (surprised she cared) do you have his email address?"

N: "Yeah. '[email protected]'"

Ahhh, you have to love the closeness that committee work brings.

And I got to have a nice conversation about everything from a student who shoved me to children in horrible home situations. That's okay though, American Idol was on to ease the pain.

So, what else can I say. Sunday will be a big day for me, what with meetings and post-meetings and, who knows, maybe even post- post- meetings.

I Don't Know What I'm About To Write

Ok, first of all a joke I heard the other night. It's a classic from a classic jokester...

"How was your blind date the other night?"

"Perfect--36-24-36."

"Oh really?"

"Yeah, and the other leg was the same."

Cha-chang! Yeah, jokes like that are money in the bank.

Well, tonight I had a lovely dinner at a new sushi restaurant in Northampton. Sadly its location will probably be its demise. Well, that and the fact there are 452 sushi restaurants in Northampton. In fact, the wonderful place I usually go to was closed because they were off somewhere but I was aching for sushi so we decided to give the new guy a chance. And let me say, a sushi place desperate for business is the place to go. When I ordered I asked if they had beer but the waitress said no, though they did give free sake with the meal. Oh baby.

But then a little later on the chef asked me if I liked Budweiser. I said sure (though you know I'm more of a Heineken man). Next thing I knew a waiter came out with a can of Bud (Must've been the chef's private stash?) and poured it into a glass. Oh yeah, also totally free. Also free were some Korean condiments: some sprouts, kim chee, some potato thing, and broccoli with spicy sauce. Mmmmm.

Anyway, I got me some spicy tuna maki--very good--and a maki roll of eel and avocado with roasted yellow tail on top. Tasty, but I'm still tasting the yellow tail right now. I'm still not sure about that combination. And I also tried some sea urchin. On Tony Bourdain's recommendation no less. Damn you, Tony. Why don't you remind me that you eat things like chicken anus!? The sea urchin tasted fine, but the texture did not bring me to my happy place. That's okay, it was an experiment. I'm glad I got it.

The chef also gave us a free taste of some sort of salmon thing. The salmon was briefly roasted and (I think he said) surrounding some crab meat. And it had roe on top. It was tasty and, may I reiterate, free! Gotta love sushi bars!

Let's see, what else. I headed off on my own to see Fancy Trash and Cordelia's Dad at the Elevens. How can you not love Fancy Trash? Oddly, I had'nt seen Cordelia's Dad before, though my good friend Linda--back in the day--had been a fan of theirs (also back in the day). They were pretty damned good I must say. The opening band, whose name I don't recall, were, I don't know, speed metal or something. Not exactly a good intro for Fancy Trash, but I thought they represented their genre well. I missed Spouse because I was so damned tired. I was up at 6:30 AM--long story.

Okay, so, what else? I'm hoping to move soon. But, I guess, more on that later.

So, dear readers, have a good night or a good day or whatever it is you're having right now.

The Battle of Holyoke

Well, things didn't end well for Dee's team tonight. The Battle of Holyoke is over for the MD boys. But that's okay. For a C Division team playing a B Division squad you probably couldn't expect much else. I think Dee had a good season. Some great defense, a good number of points (considering his team's inability to pass inside). All in all, a good year.

So, now we're on to baseball. Last year, as you regular readers know, Dee played on the championship team, whose 20-0 record is a rare triumph in the competitive world of the HYBL. This year, he's hoping to play for a different team--one that a friend's father is coaching. I hope he's happy with not being part of a youth baseball juggernaut.

I don't know if I spelled 'juggernaut' correctly, but I'm too tired to check.

Packy will also be playing some baseball. It'll be great to see the little man out there as part of a team. He's a natural lefty, so I'm thinking he'll be drafted by the pros in a year or two.

I have a lot of other topics to cover, but for now I'll just say good night. Oh, and, two weeks to the parade! Woot woot!

Cha-chang

Well, me and a whole bunch of my co-workers have tickets for the lottery tonight. So if you see a local school advertising next week for forty or so faculty, staff, and cafeteria workers, you'll know why. Okay, okay, so with so many people in the pool maybe the final amount won't be enough to retire on. But who knows?