So...

...it appears I have more than a few followers of this blog. (Andrew Crowley, I'm looking at you.) I don't really know if I can carry this one on. Like I've said before, there's plenty I could write about if I had no respect for my privacy or Shelley's privacy.

Don't worry, she and I are doing quite well. Better than ever, in fact.

It's just we have lots of grown-up issues we're dealing with (parents), and...I don't know, it's not as fun as it was once, to revisit some of the bad things we've both experienced in the name of putting it in prose form and putting it on my blog. Never mind that, I'm still super paranoid (as with last time) that my parents will stumble across this again. I could probably do a little better than to have my name as the URL, but whatever.

I'll say this: my last week at home (in Seymour) was not fun. Very uncivil behavior over my getting rid of the PT Cruiser. In all fairness, though, we were able to patch up before I left. When Dad hugged me goodbye and said, "I love you," he was choking up...which in turn made me choke up. I fought back the tears, which completely dried as I approached the security checkpoint. I changed planes in Atlanta, since as you know that is totally on the way between Indianapolis and New York City. Still, doing that saved my parents a couple hundred bucks.

I'm liking school, though having two night classes once a week doesn't exactly feel the same as the campus life that came with Indiana University. Maybe it will be better when I actually move into my apartment, which will literally be a five minute walk away from the school. Why, dare I say it, I can go to the campus in the daytime!

One thing I thought we'd have to sacrifice was mine and Shelley's penchant for late-night walks, seeing as Bloomington at 3 A.M. is considerably safer than Brooklyn at the same hour. We still go on walks, just in the daytime. It's a 55-minute walk from her place to the campus, so we're not lacking in exercise.

I can tell you already there are some things I miss. In fact, let's make a list of it:

10. Honestly, I miss Kroger. The grocers here are slightly overpriced, and their selection is quite limited. As an upside, though, is that the Big Banana grocer on King's Highway also has Turkish, Russian, and Hispanic cuisine - I bought caviar for $4.99. And you know what? It's delicious. I've also got some terrific Russian soda called Kvass, which is made from malt flavoring.
09. I miss driving. But at the same time, I couldn't drive in NYC. The traffic here is abysmal, and there wouldn't be any place for me to park. Besides, being 13 hours away from Seymour would have been a real pain in the ass of a trip.
08. The smattering of parks (aside from Central Park and Prospect Park) don't really do much justice to nature. They're just places to play basketball or play on the playgrounds. There's trees on the street, but there's usually dog shit underneath them.
07. I can't believe this, but I miss Shelley's cat Phyllis.
06. Let me just go ahead and predict that I'm going to miss autumn in Bloomington/Indiana. I love the fall, it's the time of year that everywhere you go things are orange, red, or yellow, and the delightful smell of leaves burning and bonfires. Yeah, I'll miss that. I will NOT be missing the drive between Bloomington and Seymour. That sucked, whether you took 37 to Highway 50 or 446 to Highway 50 or Highway 46 (arguably the worst in terms of deer and tailgating assholes) to I-65 (easily the best part of the drive, as you can go eighty without worrying about critters).
05. I hate Seymour...but I sort of miss my parents' house. It's an old house, and it has a distinct smell to it.
04. There's more than a few professors I miss: Glenn Gass, Michael McGerr, Andy Hollinden, Joan Hawkins, and Paul Aarstad from the IMP.
03. This one's more of the idea of it than the actual event (due to my own dislike of most of the losers I went to high school with, and the fact that some bridges were burned by some of my former friends making some dumb choices), but I think I'll miss Seymour's Oktoberfest.
02. My friends (Graham, Andrew, Jordan, and others)
01. The sense of community with Bloomington? I'll miss that, for sure.

It isn't unsafe here. I'm not dodging bullets every time I go out...though my mom's former boss tried to make it sound like a nightmare. Of course, what he was describing to me was the Bronx in the early/mid 1990's and not present-day Brooklyn. Like anything, you just have to be smart. Don't be out piss-ass drunk at 4 in the morning, which is advice I'd give if I was in Bloomington.

I don't know how the weather has been in Indiana, but after a couple days here, it's like summer came to an abrupt end. It might have been around 80 or 90 degrees my first few days in NYC, but then it rained and it's been in the 70's, never going above 80, since then. Maybe autumn comes early here? I don't know.

Another thing I'm excited for is that I'll be speaking at the Mid-Atlantic Popular/American Culture Association (MAPACA) conference in Boston this November. My topic is "Rust Never Sleeps And The Death Of Classic Rock." Like my previous work on The Kinks, I'll see if I can get it published online somewhere. I wonder if hyperrust.org still accepts submissions.

It's so late it's now early. I've been combating the early stages of a nasty cold - aches and a peppery throat, mainly - and my solution tonight was to sleep under two comforters. I had a dream that I was being smuggled through a Middle Eastern city (I'm not sure which one exactly) in a wooden box with an oxygen tank so I could breathe, which in turn was covered in rags. Naturally, I woke up literally drenched in sweat and somewhat dehydrated. I had two glasses of water, some cashews, a grapefruit (vitamin C, dammit!), and a surprisingly good flavor of Kosher ramen: tomato beef.

Anyway, I went to bed at 11, woke up around 3...I'll eventually get the rest of my six to seven hours' worth of "a good night's sleep" and hopefully be up before 11. I just hope I don't feel achy tomorrow, as the art gallery where Shelley is interning is having a show open tomorrow evening. I'd like to go because 1.) there will be free food, 2.) being an arty crowd there will most likely be some decent cheese and some decent wine, and 3.) Shelley and I haven't really had the chance yet to actively make friends here, so that would be nice.

Ah, the Hell with it. I guess I'll keep this blog up. I can't guarantee regular updates, but I'll be around.

Alex

PS - Don't laugh, but I'm in the early stages of doing some James Bond fan-fiction. It won't be anything dumb - like a lot of fanfic can be - but just a straight up story. I'd like to think I have a knack for writing, so hopefully it will be a step above the average fan fiction? We'll see. Not being English I feel puts me at a slight disadvantage.