Category: Daily Life

These are my daily rants, stories, and what not.

A Cure Morning

meisajDaily Life

Last Saturday I got up, picked up the living room (as I’m apt to do on Saturday mornings) and put on a record.

Most weekends when I get up I put on some background noise of some sort.  Usually a TV show while I read the news, clean, or futz around on the internet.  Instead of TV last weekend I thought I should put a record.  I have a nice leather bound Califon record player.  Its pretty ancient.  I saved it from a dumpster when I was in college at Niagara University back in 2000.  Originally it was going to be a gift for my dad, however it grew on me and I kept it for myself.  It’s a Califon 1430k Solid State Phonograph.  What all that means is a loss to me… what I do know about it is that it plays records well, looks good open or closed, and sounds as good as I’d expect my records to sound.

So last weekend I listened to Beethoven.  I have a 7 record collection of Beethoven’s Symphonies that I picked up for three dollars a few years ago.  I got through four records that morning while drinking a French Press of coffee with Sam.  It was a nice, lazy, relaxing way to start the weekend.  We went out after that to the zoo, got some food and just enjoyed the day.

Standing on the BeachToday it is the Cure starting my weekend.  I have a few Cure records, but chose their greatest hits album Staring at the Sea.  Actually its called Standing on a Beach.  Interesting fact I did not know about til today (and it shows how closely I looked at the record when I bought it), on vinyl (record) and tape cassette it was called Standing on a Beach.  On CD it was called Staring at the Sea.  Ahhhh Wikipedia…. you teach me so many things.

For a long time I considered the Cure my favorite band.  Smashing  Pumpkins competed with the for top spot in my musical tastes for all of my formative music years (late high school and college).  At one time I owned more Cure cd’s than all of my other cd’s put together.  Granted it was like 22 out of 40 total cd’s I owned at the time, but I was that interested in all things Cure.  I bought all the singles I could find, t-shirts and other memorabilia.  Aside from Wussy, and maybe Patrons of Sweet – that’s right Matt… you count – the Cure are the band I’ve seen most in concert. But that doesn’t say much, as I don’t go to too many concerts… particularly bigger names.

The Cure have been out of my listening rotation for a while.  I’ve been on a Wussy, Guardians of Galaxy Soundtrack and Angel Olsen kick. Yeah… The Guardians of the Galaxy soundtrack is as good as everyone says it is. Angel Olsen I found after Google Play suggested her on some playlist.  A quick view to watch her Tiny Desk on NPR concert and I was hooked.

Anyways… yes.  The Cure is a great way to start my weekend.  Up until Wednesday I actually thought we had school on Monday.  But we do indeed get Labor Day off.  So yeah… Long weekend.  I can dig it, and the Cure are setting it up as a good one.

The first week of school….

meisajDaily Life

Hey I.....The first week of school is a long one…. and usually only has three days with students there.  So it’s good that today is Friday.

However this week has been full of bizarre dreams.

Last night I had a dream that Pat wanted to go to Germany.  And we were at an airport (my titanium set off a metal detector).  I got through scanners and caught with Pat only to tell him that I didn’t actually buy a ticket, and wasn’t going to Germany with him like he had hoped.  I”m pretty sure I had never said I was going, Pat just assumed that if he was going to Germany I would be too.  Pat, Sam and I then drank at an airport bar for a long while.  And this was a real airport, not some Portland, Maine Jetport (that thing is tiny).

Not sure what made it so strange.  It could have been the part where we were short 1 penny of our bar tab, and we had to jump in the dumpster behind the airport and search through the trash to find a penny.  It could have been that Pat was able to pick up the giant dumpster with one hand.  Or that despite being a huge airport no one was there but Pat, Sam, the bartender and myself.

Whatever.  It was a dream.  Pretty good one.  Seems like the shenanigans Pat and I get into on occasion.  Sam didn’t seem to mind.  That’s what makes her awesome.

Eyes Covered

meisajDaily Life

sleepphones-comfortable-headphones-for-sleeping-3I feel like I’m going old school again with my sleep habits thanks to SleepPhones.

When I was in high school I started falling asleep with a hat covering my eyes. It was a long sky blue knitted hat, and I pulled it down over my eyes to sleep. I loved it. I’m not sure where the hat is now, but that was it. Pull the hat down and I could fall sleep.

It was the start of me basically making a sleep routine for myself.

It evolved over time. To falling asleep with music on. That comes from old neurosis about hearing people talk as I lay in bed. I used to think I was hearing TV or voices while I was trying to sleep late at night, but when I would get up and search the house I wouldn’t find a TV on, or radio on, or anyone awake. When I’d lay back down I’d hear it again. I’m pretty sure my mind was playing tricks on me. Either that or someone was awake and didn’t want to be caught. Either way it led to me sleeping with a radio on. Come to think of it, this may predate my long blue hat.

In college I started sleeping with a pillow over my eyes. I called it Special Pillow. It was an old beat up down pillow. Almost nothing left to it. Older than any pillow had a right to be. But it was light enough, and malleable enough to just lay over the top of my head and block out any light in the room.

Special Pillow died a horrible death two years ago. It was basically disintegrating into nothing. Which considering how old it was, probably was a good thing. But it left me with nothing to put over my eyes or head.

sleepphonesEarlier this year I discovered SleepPhones. When Sam and I moved in together I had to start phasing out my sleep routine. I always fell asleep to Futurama. I’d put it on my laptop and pass out. It was at the point where if it was a dark room, and Futurama was on, I was falling asleep. I trained my body well to recognize that. But Sam needs quiet and darkness. A video on a laptop doesn’t work for that. I had gotten into the habit of putting headphones on and falling asleep to watching Futurama on Netflix through my phone. Headphones aren’t that comfortable to sleep in. But it was a good compromise. (Not the only one, I also sleep with my own sheet, as Sam wraps herself in blankets at night. We each have our own covers essentially.)

SleepPhones are amazing though. Essentially a light weight head band with small, thin headphones built in as ear pads rather than bulky ear buds or phones. And I can pull it down over my eyes. Old school style. I love it.

 

Portland

meisajDaily Life

Welcome to PortlandYears ago, 13 years ago in fact, I told my mom that all I really needed to do when visiting a new place was get a cup of coffee and walk around. That stands true today. I wanted to plan a trip to see Angie in Boston, and threw in a quick couple days in Portland Maine to visit my friend Pat as well.  Unfortunately Pat couldn’t get the two days off work.  But I wasn’t concerned.  Like I told my mom years ago, I don’t need to be entertained. So after he picked me up at the airport – sorry, Portland doesn’t have an airport, it has a Jetport…. which according to the dictionary I looked at is an obsolete word – so after Pat picked me up at the Jetport he dropped me off in downtown Portland.

I walked more than a few miles exploring Portland.  I loved it.  I walked down by the water, up by some bridges, got my feet in the ocean, had some fizzy homemade old fashioned soda, visited an art gallery and of course drank some coffee.  That is my idea of a trip somewhere. Walking around, exploring and generally enjoying myself.

After Pat got off work I got to see his house, eat Mexican at an interesting restaurant, and relax.  Pretty good day indeed.