Airports and Clementine...

Friday's commute home from Knoxville provided me with hours of reflection at the Chicago O'Hare Airport as our flight was delayed by three hours. All of these airports I've been to: spouses kissing each other goodbye, crying babies reunited with a parent, flight attendants picking up shuttles to airport hotels. The airport is a strange place to live part-time. It's wierd to brush your teeth in a bathroom full of strangers. Company becomes the newspaper or a paperback author. If you're lucky, you'll be stuck in an airport with Big Buck Hunter II: Sportsman's Paradise.

Waiting at Chicago O'Hare

Finally, after a turbulent flight that made me wonder about what happens when you die, I made it to SeaTac airport. After a quiet cab ride home, I was happy to find Andy and Adam waiting for me with a 12-pack of PBR. We watched Adam's newest production about muralist Ryan Henry Ward that can be watched here. We also watched an awesome piece on Mr. Yuk & the Poison Control Center that friends Harry Calbom and Austin Wilson produced that everyone should see as you never know when you might drink too much cough syrup (like I did when I was four).

Saturday was a day of errands including getting a new phone plan and buying this amazing fake cigarette that actually draws what looks like smoke! I'm going to use it for the next couple of months (after this job is over) to finally end my expensive and discusting habit that has interrupted my "nice-guy" image. In the evening, Andy and I had a bit of pre-party fun at the BalMar where friends John and Walter took good care of us:


After a couple of Sea Breezes we were off to Adam & Kelsey's, where I got to meet their newest kitten, Clementine. It was a great time seeing some good Seattle friends who are not happy about my decision to move back to Minneapolis after a 4+ year stint (give or take a few months building fences or lulling around Chicago).

The plan is to load up the minivan and head home some time in August, after a summer of taking in what I've missed about the Pacific Northwest, including camping and Vancouver, BC. In the fall, I'm heading back to school to get my teaching license from Metropolitan State University, and hopefully pick up a Masters in Education before re-entering the real world with a whole bunch of stories to tell about my "passage into adulthood." Until then, I'll enjoy the ride.

Clementine and I enjoying a cocktail at Adam & Kelsey's on Saturday night

My Week Off Catching Up With Doing Nothing

The first half of my final break from being a Nickel-Plated Wayfarer was spent in Seattle, where I enjoyed watching many movies and generally loafing around. It was, as Seattle is until July, cold and rainy and when I wasn't watching movies I was most likely sleeping.

On Wednesday, Andy drove me to the airport and I flew to Minneapolis, where my old pal Ryan was nice enough to take a break from school to pick me up. His class was canceled so we headed to the Electric Fetus to meet his brother and see an in-store performance of Justin Townes Earle, the son of Steve Earle. After the show we pre-partied a bit before heading to Big V's in St. Paul to see Matt Kunes perform as Dos Taco. It was a great welcome home and I woke up Thursday feeling like a ten-dollar bill.

Back in Burnsville, not much has changed. Murphy the dog is still restless, only now he's humping everything, but especially this blanket:


I spent much of my time at Champs, where I brought my grandma Alice May out for brunch and bloody marys. I also did some good catching up with Dave (da Boosh), drinking Miller Lights and talking about our lives since Vista View Elementary School.


So that's about it! I know it's been a couple weeks since my last post (thanks Adam), but there's just not that much to say. I could talk about the wonderful job I did picking up Murphy's poop from the backyard or how I talked shop with the neighbors about the retaining wall I'm building for my parents.

Whatever the case, I'm lucky to have friends that will drive me to and from the airport.

Joel Osteen and a Six-Pack of Silver Bullet....I Miss My Friends

Sitting with a Silver Bullet I'm drinking at my bed, flipping through the television trying to find the Twins vs. Mariners game. It's ironic that the opening few games of this MLB season begin with the city I live in batting against the city I'm from. Of course, the Minnesota Twins are my team, and that says a lot seeing that I couldn't care less about "March Madness," "The Final Four," or some hockey team skating around an ice rink trying to keep their teeth.

Here in Waltham, MA, my presence is less than welcoming, and the first sports bar I entered wouldn't even serve me because I have an "out of state license." I don't understand what that has to do with drinking a beer and watching baseball, but let's all just shun The Common Cafe for being a bunch of Massachusetts elitist assholes. Of the three bars I dropped by, none can accommodate my humble need for some good baseball that doesn't play on Eastern Standard Time.

Anyhow, I'm stuck in the East Coast with bad accents and no sense of home, which is much needed in these last days of running around as a Nickel-Plated Wayfarer. Yes, I'm homesick, and nothing will alleviate this perpetual problem but a good old game of American baseball, especially when it's opening week with my favorite sports team at bat. The real knee-to-the-groin is that I am no sports fan but baseball is somehow a solace and I am without a nut cup.

Tomorrow I fly the six hours home to Seattle, where I'll spend a good week before heading to Minneapolis, where plans are already in the works to spend the weekend with my dad and his childhood friend Clancy at the cabin, along with Murphy the Dog. I'm looking forward to shedding this nostalgia and getting into the thick of home, with its pawing puppies, Twins fans, and acceptors of out of state licenses.

Joel Osteen on Larry King Live talking about J.C. I am really far from home.

Martinis, Oysters, and T-Bone Weekend

I flew home Thursday night from Dallas to meet up with my brother and Adam Bale for a nice evening at the BalMar, where John Staley treated us to some sort of lemon drop shot he invented that was delicious because it was free. That reminds me, John's working on a blog for the Ballard Tribune called Notes From the Bar Room Floor. For those of you who don't know John, he was the guy in Deadbeats with the chops.

Friday morning Andy and I changed the brake pads on the minivan! Of course, we had help from a guy named "Dan the Baker" who Andy works with. The only request Dan had for helping out was that we provided beer, and we enjoyed a number of them during the process. It was a good feeling to get my hands dirty and actually fix something myself.

Choppa taking the caliper off the rotor of my Bahama Mama

Friday night there was no squeaking from the wheels of the van as Andy and I drove to the airport to pick up my dad, also known as T-Bone, Timmer, or Papillon. It was bar time by the time we got back to Seattle, so we had a quick one before falling asleep and preparing for Saturday. And what is there to do on Saturdays in Seattle when out of towners come to visit but go to Pike's Place Market!? We wandered around town looking for a gift for my mom, and in the meantime bought some King Salmon and oysters. Also, we took some pictures:

T-Bone and I at US Bank in Pike's Place
Timmer and Andy in front of the Gum Wall!

The bus ride home for martinis and dinner

It was good to have my dad as a guest over the weekend. The salmon turned out pretty good, even though I left it on my football-shaped grill too long. The oysters were terrible and it was tramatizing to watch my dad smash them with a hammer because steaming them wouldn't do the trick: