Controlled Chaos

So I said I’d talk about Buddhist, and then I referenced the Tao Te Ching, so I thought I’d address that and why my sentences have less punctuation.  I have been reading Jack Kerouac’s “The Dharma Bums,” and also of course the Tao.  Ad while I’m not a Buddhist,, maybe I’m an aspiring Bodhisattva and I just don’t know it. But anyway I think a lot of the truths are applicable and even true, because all life is suffering, but the mind can put an end to all suffering, and once you reach the top of the mountain, you should just keep going, and that’s how I got to page 4 of this blog post (oh yeah, I penned a five-page letter to my friend Cassandra who is in the Gambia for the next two years with the Peace Corps).  And as I read this book I make all these connections between his thinking and my own, and I realize that punctuation slows you down and makes your thoughts seem separate and they just aren’t, but its tricky though because you have to be pretty clear with your writing and I don’t know if I’ve done that but I think and hope so.  So I’ll probably write like this for a while, at least until I start reading Orwell again.

I woke up to a phone call with no one on the other end, and held the phone next to me in case I got another call and that wasn’t the case.  In fact, I did get a call, and it was from Eric, the guy who stabbed my friend Beth 11 times.  I had gotten her number from her mother the night before when shopping for peppers and learned that her mom has breast cancer that has metasticized to the bone which makes me sad, because Mary is a really good person.  But anyway, the phone call.  Eric was calling to tell me not to call his wife, who didn’t want to talk to me, and I slowly put together that Mary’s hesitance in saying Beth wouldn’t be home was due to the fact that Beth had moved out, and testified in the defense of the guy who stabbed her and now they live together in Kansas City, and he’s just as possessive as ever.  I may have done some dumb things in relationships, and maybe I’m stubborn sometimes, but I just can’t imagine what Beth is thinking.  Anyway, after repeatedly reminding Eric that he had stabbed his wife 11 times and had no reason to try to get moral with me, he called me a trust fnd kid and an intellectual elite, and when I pointed out again that he had stabed his wife and was resorting to personal attacks because I hadn’t done anything worse, he told me he was coming to try next weekend and I could say that to his face, so I told him I’d meet him in the parking lot where he stabed his wife at high noon, but that didn’t make him happy.  So he said he had to go and make money to put food on the tables, and hung up, and I dialed the police and put them on notice.  And then, I was pretty good and awake.
So I took a shower in the dark, because my mom’s bathroom lights are on the fritz, bu the flashlight made for kind of a nice shower, but my mind was buzzing so I couldn’t even get much thinking done.  I have taken to exercising every morning and following that up with reading a page of the Tao Te Ching and showering, but I didn’t think I’d be able to focus so I skipped it.
My mom and I packed u the car, and drove to Mattoon, Illinois to meet up with my grandparents and aunt and cousin, whose had it rough over the last couple of weeks.  But we made the best of the day.  We went to the garden, and picked fresh peppers and some tomatoes and I saw some butterflied fluttering around and it was just swell.  So then we left the garden, and I cut up the veggies we had picked and we got a big salad ready and it had greens, carrots, cheese, avocados, peppers, tomatoes, black olives, reb beans, black beans, artichokes, and optional meat.  We ate some bread with oil and Parmesan, and I had V8 with that, and when y aunt and cousin showed up we served all the food up as a smorgasborg with a little cantaloupe on the side, and brownies with ice cream for dessert, and it was right up my alley.
Then I napped a little on a couch with a full tummy, on the blanket that has just the right amount of nubbiness, ad watched birds on the feeder outside.  Those birds can eat some food, because my grandpa had filed up the feeders the day before and one was 2/3 gone, the other half, and I’m wondering how much longer those birds are going to be able to fly as I watch them gorge themselves and I fall in and out of consciousness.
Then I read my book under a tree for a little bit, and my mom and cousin went hunting for rocks and got a few nice ones.  My uncle got there eventually, but we headed off to Big Lots in Mattoon (the one in E-ville where I used to work is gone now…), but it didn’t have the gloves my mom loves of the wire wreath frame that I want to put corks in.  My grandma was with us, so I was in the backseat, and watching the country and the corn roll by from back there was relaxing and the world didn’t seem to have an end for once.
When we got back, we fished some old metal chairs out of the back of the combine shed, and my grandma swept them off and I maneuvered them behind the seat I’m sitting in right now, because I’m typing all this, since last Thursday’s post even, in the car

I woke up and unpacked and organized my stuff, then helped my dad post furniture on ebay and fed the turtle (see below) and got stuff out of the closet to go to Goodwill. Then my dad and I went on a walk through downtown STL and saw a lot of the development coming in, and the convention center, and the baseball stadium, then headed back. My mom came soon after and we went back to troy, and made stuffed peppers and watched happy feet. Then I talked to Felicia, and I thought the conversation went well even if it was just me coming to terms with mistakes I had made, though maybe it was more than that. Then I talked to my friend Donnie for a bit, then Megan came over and we talked a little more about life and whatnot and Buddhism, which I’ll get to a little later. Then she left and I fell asleep on one of my favorite couches.

I got up and immediate I got to work packing, and I woke them up and we eventually got on our way. Even though I got to the airport with plenty of time, it was crazier than an Indian airport, and I ended up missing my flight, but it was no matter because I got transferred to a direct connect that got me back 10 minutes earlier than I would have gotten home otherwise. When I got in, my dad and Laura met me at the airport, and we headed back to the loft, where my friends Sean and Megan were already waiting. We got something to eat, and then went to the concert at the Savvis Center (or whatever) that my dad had tickets to featuring the Gin Blossoms, Stray Cats, Pretenders and ZZ Top. It didn’t match up to the concert the night before, but it was good and the company made it worth it. Then we went back home, and Megan came in and talked with my dad and I a while, and then she left and I went to sleep, again exhausted.

Angad was supposed to have shown up the night before, but he didn’t because American had canceled all the flights to NYC even though there were none. He got in at 11:30, and we all ate at Strictly Roots, then got ready and headed out to Rock the Bells, the concert they’d come to town for. So we went to 125th and Lenox, and found a line almost an avenue long, and that related the experience to India because of all the people hocking shirts, water, bud, pills, tickets, rides…anything else. After some drama and confusion we eventually got on a bus and headed to Randall’s Island, and got into the venue (after removing the caps from our water bottles). We went to the bathroom and I took off my undershirt it was so hot, it was like it was raining heat. Then I walked up to the main stage by myself to watch Mos Def and Talib Kweli, and they were great. When Public Enemy came on, I went back out to find them, and then found out they’d gone in, and there was a huge line at that point, but I got in it and got back in just in time for them to realize there was no water in the inner corral, and so then Angad went out. But not before we watched the Rots, who were good but not as good as I’ve heard they usually are live. It’s a good thing that we got water, though, because I saw no less than three people fainting from dehydration, and Harley even had someone pass out on him and he spent a lot of time trying to get him help. While they were out, I sat in the grass and relaxed a bit, and noticed that the crowd at this mostly rap show was predominantly white frattish guys (a newspaper article actually called them the cargo shorts crowd). When Angad and Harley got back, we headed back up, and saw Public Enemy, and watched Flava Flav’s clocks bounce around, but they weren’t that great. After them was Cypress Hill, and they were OK. Then came Wu Tang, and everyone had their W’s up, but as I’m not a big fan, I wasn’t that into it, plus Angad was feeling tired and had to huddle down for a while. Finally (after almost 45 minutes of waiting), Rage against the Machine came on, and their set started with favorites like People of the Sun and it was just great. For the first four songs, everyone was just jumping, and I was jumping but also holding on to Angad so he wouldn’t float away. Then the show cooled down a bit, or the audience tired out a bit, maybe, and we did a little less jumping, but Rage is electrifying, so every once in a while we were airborn again. Zach De La Rocha clarified his statement, misrepresented by Fox Lies, and said that president Bus should be tried for war crimes, and hung and shot. It’s good to know that people are free to say this, especially since it’s a pretty justifiable statement.
Then when the show was over, we headed out and got in one of six lines to get onto buses headed back, and that was a nightmare we lived through, if only by the providence of the MTA, because the ladies were doing more to keep order than the donut-eaters. Eventually, we got home, and ate a little bit, and then everybody passed out from sheer exhaustion.

I woke up and exercised and made some Indian food and whatever else, and then headed downtown to Chinatown to meet up with my friend Harley who was just getting into town and actually, he got in early but it was no matter because he walked around China and compared it to his trip to China.  I directed him to the Seaport, where I met him, and we walked up to the Turkish restaurant I like ad I got some food and Snapple and shared a little bit with Harley.  Then we met up with my fried Tanu and made our way to Queens to meet up with Harley’s friend, now my friend as well, Dave Mazur.  Dave had some blueberry beer and a hookah, so we relaxed on his balcony and looked out on NYC and talked and laughed the time away.  When it was time for Tanu to leave, we headed to a nearby sculpture park, and looked at some lawn art.  The park had areas where people could actually come and make their own art, and a group was out in a grassier area putting up steel rebar and punching grommets into what looked like big ta tarps.  Dave asked what they were up to, and it turned out they were recreating a house from New Orleans.  They had wrapped it in a kind of plaster that, when removed, puled off a lot of the paint and even some wood with it.  They were punching the grommets into this, and were going to hang it on the rebar to recreate a windblow house from N’awlins.  A pretty cool project, I’d say.  We walked around a little more, then headed back, and ordered some pizza and also some tickets to the Simpsons movie.  Our pizza arrived, then we got on a train to the east side, and we watched the Simpsons movie.  It was great, but it was like watching one long episode .  Nothing profound, just good jokes and lots of humility.  Then we parted ways, and Harley and I ate some food at my apartment and then fell asleep.

     My friend Julia just got back into town, and as I always enjoy her company I asked if she’d like to grab a bite to eat with me. She suggested the Ayurveda Café in the Upper West Side. Painted in all kinds of gnarly colors, we hopped into a table and sat down to a 6 course meal, something like an Indian thali. The owner picks out the menu every night, and that’s what you get – no choosing, and since it’s ayurvedic, the meal slakes all 6 of your tasting desires. They meal was delicious and so was the mango lassi we got along with it, and we left peachy keen, filled up on tasty food and scrumptious conversation. As customers leave, they are encouraged to pull a paper slip with a message on it from a box - something like a fortune cookie.  Mine said “Do everything with so much love that you wouldn’t want to do it any other way.”  Julia was in the process of moving and had to head home after dinner, but I headed downtown to meet up with my friend Tiffany.
Tiffany Ellis and I go way back, to the Speakers Committee at college. Our memories from that time abound, and we put another on the list tonight. I met up with her at GallerybarNYC, which is, appropriately enough half-gallery, half-bar. Downstairs were plush leather couches and a lower volume level that allowed for talking, which we did a little of. Her friend Punji was about to move to Boston, so most of Tiff’s friends were there (Punji and Tiff were roommates n Columbia). I met her friend Allison Payne, who’d been to India, and is from Glen Carbon, and we hit it off quite well. When we got out of the gallery/bar, we headed to City Hall Park to sit by the fountain. Ahh, memories. Then, the three of us headed to a corner, where they caught a cab all the way back to Jersey for $41 bucks. I spent the next hour riding the train back uptown, and fell asleep some time around 4 am.

My plants are still rocking so hard:

I made some art!

My mom grew up in Mattoon. But the article seems like it could just as well be about Troy.

Mattoon IL

I wanted to get out of NYC for the weekend, so I planned a trip to D.C.  I’m glad I did so.

It started Friday morning. I packed, and headed off to Washington Square Park to meet to students from my school, one of whom is attending an NYU summer program. We talked for a while, kind of played frisbee, then went and got pizza. On our way, we couldn’t help but take the following pictures:

We made a nice afternoon of it, and I even got them to try both Ziti pizza, and Spinach, tomato and olive pizza.  From there, I caught a train to Chinatown, where I had to catch my 3pm bus…

…which didn’t leave until 3:51! They were trying to fill every last seat, and were soliciting people walking down the street for rides to D.C.  And that worked.  Anyway, the ride took quite a bit longer than expected as well, so instead of getting in at 7:30, we got in closer to 9:30. But it mattered little if at all. I ended up sitting next to about seven cool people, and we talked the entire time, about anything at all. I sat next to an accountant from the Phillipines and behind an artist from Rwanda. And for what it’s worth, no the way back, I met a guy who’s girlfriend was in TFA, and we talked most of the way home as well. Thank goodness for open seating and mandatory neighbors, as its one of the only places in NYC where you actually meet people nowadays!

When I got into D.C., Harley met me at the bus stop, and we took a cab back to his place. When we got there, he broke out the Merlot, and we made some rice and veggie salad. Then, we worked on his collage for a while. Then, we passed out.

The next morning, we got up, got ready, and got to the International Spy Museum. It was very cool. I got myself a souvenir - a little device with a mirror in it that allows you to look around corners. Then, we ate at Chipotle, and finally parted ways at the metro. No worries, though - Harley is coming to NYC for a concert Friday!

I rode the Metro to the Stadium-Armory stop, where Jonnel, Joey and Satchel picked me up. We rounded the corner, parked, and headed into the Robert F Kennedy Stadium to watch the Nationals defeat the Rockies 3-0. Satchel told me the rules, and let me take some great pictures, because he is the best-behaved little boy I’ve ever met:

Satchel shows off Ryan Zimmerman:

Jonnel holds Darth Vader:

Joey holds a giggle box:

And what Nationals game is complete without the a Bighead race? (Teddy is still on his way…):

After the game (we stayed for all of it!), we headed to Maryland where my hosts lived. After playing a little hockey in the basement with Satch, and feeding him, he was put to bed. Then, we went to the veranda, ate some take-out Indian food, and talked. I also FINALLY presented them with their souvenirs from India. Eventually, I went to bed.

The next morning, I got up, had some tea, and played a few innings of baseball with Satchel. Then we played cards. Then we played with some cars. Then basketball. Eventually, our fun had to come to an end, as my ride arrived.

Erika Lachance, a friend from Mizzou who now lives in the D.C. area, came and picked me up. Using a fancy carrot-eating GPS device, we headed to Teaism to get Bento Boxes, something we did often in CoMo. The D.C. bentos were good, but just couldn’t match up. After that, we walked around a bit, through a farmers’ market, and down the street. Then, she drove me to my bus (in a roundabout way), and I headed back.

Upon my return, I met up with my friend Ben, and spent some time figuring out how I was going to get home, as the 2-3 and A-C weren’t running. Sweet.

And now, Monday morning, I’m off to the dentist!