How it goes

At some point I will add new pictures, maybe with regularity...maybe. And I keep meaning to post the series of pictures of the Glowing crucifix belt buckle...

Over the past week or so, my boss comes into my office each day and we have a conversation that goes something like this:

"Good morning Gabe."
"Good morning boss."
"How are you today?"
"oh, I'm fine"
"Really?"
"Well, I know that good things will come out of all of this. I am viewing this as a opportunity to explore new things."
"Really Gabe?"
"Yes."
"Come on Gabe you can tell me, I know this situation sucks."
"Well I know it sucks, things are bad all over. But really, I'm fine"
"But you should be upset."
"I suppose I could be, but I don't really see the point."
"You can be upset, it's ok if you are."
"I know."
"It's me Gabe. You can tell me..."
etc.

Really the main thing I'm upset about is how much I'm getting from unemployment, and most of that I blame on the Americorps VISTA program.

In other news, I have been working at my application for PhD school. I don't think that is the correct term, however, I'm pretty sure you don't call it "grad school" or "doctor school."

I hear there is a party involving funny hats going down this eve. I think I will try and make a hat with a glitter fountain on top so wherever you go there is a constant mist of glitter.

Ok, I think I need some more coffee now.

I think this happened already

As a tribute to my TWO YEAR anniversary in Roseburg and also because of my lack of posting recently I am going to give you a tour of how I got to Roseburg and then some.

Yesterday morning, I picked up Laura in the Bronx, we headed to New Jersey to get a replacement temporary registration. Somehow, we ended up at the least helpful DMV in the universe. The woman working was so un-helpful and so un-friendly. We went back to New York, I tried to get a temporary registration but, in the end I got an actual registration. I had to give them my Brooklyn address, even though I no longer live in New York, or anywhere really, because one cannot register a car in New York unless one lives in New York. A woman, also in line at the NY DMV, said I could use her address.

Several hours later and $250 dollars lighter we started on our 15 hour drive toward Chicago. Driving through Pennsylvania, the "check oil" light went on, we took the next exit at the end of the off-ramp the car stopped and all of the emergency lights came on. Me and Laura sat there for a while with the idea that if we let the car "rest" then all would be ok. blah, blah, blah... Not much further in the future, a guy named Tony came by, it was suspected that our timing belt had broken. Tony had a chain in his truck and towed us over to the Snappy's parking lot. He had to go visit his mother in the hospital, he gave us the number for a mechanic and said he would stop by after his visit to the hospital. Tony kept remarking on how much the people in this town were jerks and how they won't help anyone. Tony said we could stay with him and his wife. The mechanic was closed. One of the women working at Snappy's, managed to get a hold of a mechanic named Sean. So, Sean from Shawns Auto Repair came with a tow truck that already had two recked cars on it and checked out the car. It was in fact the timing belt. While he talked to me he kept getting side tracked by other people passing through the parking lot. Sean made fun of the women working at Snappy's and the made fun of Laura, then he gave her a hug.

It was decided that we would call him in the morning.

Me and Laura walked to the four different hotels near by in search of the cheapest one. We made bet's as to the prices of the different hotels, I think I won once and Laura won twice. We ended up staying at the Super 8 Motel in Clearfield, PA, it was $52 for a double. We lied about not having any pets (Laura's cat is joining us on our trip).

I talked to my mom and said I was in Virginia or maybe Pennsylvania. We had dinner at the Taco Bell/Pizza Hut/KFC. I had KFC, Laura had some side orders and then some nachos.

This morning, we had some continental breakfast, I didn't notice a copy of USA Today, but, maybe I wasn't looking hard enough. After Sean came to get the info on the car, me, Laura and the cat walked up the hill to the truck-stop cafe. We had the all you can eat buffet. In the bathroom was this soap dispenser.
Awesome.

Sean came and towed the car to his garage. We re-checked into the Super 8. The same women from last night was working the counter, so Laura did not mention the cat.

We took naps. I woke up when Sean called. He told me that the broken timing belt was the least of my worries. Other parts had been put out of commission, either because of, or the result of the timing belt breaking. Long story short(er) it wouldn't be ready until Tuesday and it would cost $1000 (far exceeding my already dwindling emergency budget). The other option...he had a Buick for sale, the car belonged to an old women and only has 50,000 miles.

Me and Laura went through our options. I borrowed money from my parents. I wept a little. So, as of tomorrow, I will be the "proud" owner of a Buick (I don't know what year or model), I hope all of my stuff fits.

We had Burger King for dinner.

here is a post from when I got here:

Left Berkeley. Got fined $30 for not having $4.00 to cross some bridge, if they really think they are going to see that $30, they are sorely mistaken. I got my car referred to as "silver". The cats cried during most of today's drive. Every time I thought I was almost out of California, the state would extend another hundred miles. I made it to Oregon, eventually. About 30 miles from my final destination I was pulled over for not moving into the left lane while passing a emergency vehicle on the shoulder. The officer asked about the dry-wall sculpture on my dashboard. I stayed with Adam, who will be one of my co-workers at the art center. As it so happens, one of Adams roommate's has a pittbull who allegedly once ate a goat, the cats were thus quarantined to Adams room. I had Thai food for dinner, the food was good, the service was bad and I ran into two of the other Americorps VISTA's at the restaurant.

This is from our VISTA welcome party:

There was a slightly awkward and slightly strange party for the incoming and exiting VISTAs. Maybe party is the wrong thing to call it, maybe it was more of a mixer, it was definitely not an ice cream social. After said event we went to a bar/restaurant that didn't have enough room for us so we congregated in the "poker room", this was a room filled with various coin operated gambling machines and extra-bright florescent lighting. Later we went to the Sugar Pine, on, what is lovingly referred to as, the wrong side of the tracks. The Sugar Pine has karaoke four nights a week hosted by a very large woman who's name may or not be momma. It's awesome, all week I've been trying to think of more songs to sing.

I started work. This has mostly consisted of me rearranging my office. In the process of rearranging I have noticed that there seems to be hay on my floor.

Once I got acclimated:

It gets very dark here in Roseburg.

This, as you may have guessed, is my awesome car, soon to be the theme of a similarly tittled blog.

I ran into Maggie & David at the drug store. Luckily they got there shortly after the part when I was smelling all of the scented candles.

We all went for a hike in the woods.

It is still pretty cold in the woods. I wish I had brought my hat.

Although I have never thought of myself as an outdoorsy type, I do like to believe I have an appreciation for the out-of-doors. I believe this is what is referred to as flora.

We walked down to the water, sans trail. I think we destroyed several ecosystems.

This may be a place for me to fish at some point. There are allot of places where you can watch salmon "run" (I think that's what it's called). I figure if you can see the fishes, it probably makes them easier to catch.

Let us flash forward (possibly backwards) to the Roseburg anniversary of 2008

We/I had a welcome to Roseburg/MLK day party. I put up balloons.

This is VISTA Steve, not to be confused with Teacher Steve. Me and Megan thought it was hilarious.

Folks were slow to arrive, I guess everyone hates me.

I even plugged in the chirping birds, you know; for ambiance.

I guess many of the new folks are old and thus, have no interest in our shenanigans.

Here is Lindsey; I think this was one of the rare occasions that I did NOT manage to offend her.

There's always next time.

All types of alcohol were represented; here we have cans of Pabst Blue Ribbon.

Here are bottles.

And finally we have tall boy cans.

So much has changed in that time... I might have felt bad about the fact that you have already read all of these posts, however, I'm pretty sure you haven't. Anyway, I doubt most people will even make it to the end of this post.

p.s. I am being laid off at the end of the month. This marks the beginning of the end of an era. I am going to try and go back to school (much like Rodney Dangerfield did in the film of the same name).