Almost A Month Has Gone By? Shit.

How does this happen? I really don't mean to disappear from my blogs for so damn long, it's just that I've been busy with school, music, and friends. I especially didn't want it to seem like I wrote my last entry and said, "Okay, that's it, I'll be all but shutting this thing down soon." Far from it. Think more of my accidental hiatuses as a sign that things are going well.

Who am I talking to? Who still reads this?

*Camera pans out to reveal our hero, a lit match in hand, surrounded by nothing but darkness*

Ever since I changed the URL unannounced (let's face it, alexdiblasi.blogspot.com is a pretty stupid web address for someone who'd love nothing more than for his parents to never read this blog) the only comments I've gotten have been from Andrew, Jordan, and Shelley. I'm sure she won't be back here anytime soon...though I'd love to know what she thought of my last entry.

Frankly, I hope the next time I hear from her it's after she's found someone. I'm sure it will be her on some level doing the whole "look at me NOW" bit, but I really think there's someone out there for her who is infinitely more patient than I am, who actually likes television (the entertainment, not the band - I love the band Television), and doesn't give a shit about her parents. I guess I have a little more of a traditionalist streak in me than I'd like to own up to. Maybe it's because on some level I've had a largely positive relationship with my parents and my brothers; it also has something to do with my hatred of drama. Okay, be fair...it has everything to do with my hatred of drama!

That said, people are mixed when I tell them I wish Shelley nothing but the best.

Earlier this month I spent about an hour making this big playlist of psychedelic tunes mainly from the 60's and 70's...it makes for a nice little jukebox-type assortment of songs to have on while I'm doing things. "Blue Jay Way" came on; it's one of my favorite Beatles tunes...although it's bright and sunny out, making the juxtaposition an incongruous one.

Anyway, lots of stuff has gone on, good and bad. I'll do the bad first.

I have two papers and two finals, yet I'm only in three classes. My last final is going to be the toughest. The papers should pretty much write themselves.

My mom's sister-in-law was found dead in her home earlier this month; another of her sisters-in-law has been diagnosed with Stage 3 breast cancer. I'm not terribly close with a lot of my extended family, but this isn't easy on my mom. At all.

That's the bad stuff.

On with the good stuff:
+ I met with the program director to talk about my next year of study. Everything seems to be going pretty well. She was on the brink of bouncing in her chair when I expressed my interest in a Zappa thesis, suggesting topics and potential sponsors.
+ I have a job with the Census Bureau now. It's fun work and the hours go fast.
+ In researching my ethnomusicology paper on The Plastic People Of The Universe, I've realized that this is not just a topic I need to revisit...this could turn into my PhD. dissertation.
+ This week, after talking about it since October, I finally decorated my apartment. Lot of stuff now up on the walls.
+ I've interviewed with a babysitting service that said I can work as soon as I take a CPR class and get my fingerprints entered into the NYPD's database should I ever decide to moonlight as a kidnapper. That will be my first order of business upon completing this semester. Babysitting, not kidnapping!
+ Over the past few weeks, I'm finding myself regularly calling my friends (Graham, Bray, Andrew) and talking with them for extended periods of time...so much for me saying I hate talking on the telephone, I guess.

Things are going really well here, don't worry about that. Hopefully as the semester ends I'll be able to regularly write here.

Later,
Alex