in_thegreenroom

So my weekday life here in Louisiana usually goes something like this.

Wake up, kiss Matt goodbye. Walk dogs, feed dogs. Feed self. Look for jobs. Do some chores, but usually end up reading. Curl hair. Meet Matt for lunch. Matt goes back to work. Go to apartment and clean/move things in/check the mail. Chat with Mark or Garth or whoever is around. Sit at Barnes and Noble for an hour or so and read field guides to learn about the new wildflowers I'm seeing. Head back to Matt's house. Have snack. Matt comes home. Long hike with dogs. Find some new plant. Rush home to research new plant. Shower. Feed dogs. Feed selves. Watch BBC's "The History of the English Language" on DVD. Go upstairs. Read. Sleep.

I've officially applied for a job as a library lady at one of the high schools here. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't totally thrilled. There are quite a few vacancies within the school system. I'm getting closer and closer to real live employment every day, but for now I'm enjoying the time that I have to devote to myself, learning on my own free will, spending time outdoors, cooking new recipes, and just generally feeling my way around this brand-new chapter of life.

Last night I took an incredibly long bath until I heard Matt "oh my GOD"-ing downstairs. Apparently the tub drains directly into his kitchen ceiling. This is a new development, and I'm so, so glad to be moving out of base housing. Stifling, manufactured, it's like living in the dorms again, except the people are uglier.

We found blackberries on our hike today with the dogs. They're still too young for eating, but the bramble is enormous and this summer is going to be purple-stained for sure.

I'm totally in love with this place, and with the nature around me, and the good feelings I've been having since I got here. There's nothing I like more than identifying a new animal track in the red mud in the woods or tucking the Smithsonian Field Guide to Herbs into the waist of my jeans, letting the dogs off the leash, and filling my head with the amazing diversity of this tiny patch of land. So far we've found perfume bottles and bullet casings from the 30s, rocks of raw amethyst just lying on the ground, and hundreds of edible (or just really fragrant) plants.

I've forgotten how fantastic it is to get into bed every night, next to someone you really love, genuinely worn out from the day's activities.

So, that's that.

Naturally,
Alex

Well, it seems like I've all but given up my Livejournal in search of greener pastures. But I will grace you all with an update, since a lot has changed.

I've been in Louisiana for about a week now, and I'm beginning the slow process of establishing a life here. I arrived with a few job leads, including a friend of my mom's who works for Cumulus. I also have an appointment tomorrow afternoon at a temp agency. My first priority is income, second is developing my career. Becoming an educator is a long, bureaucratic process, and the money that I came here with will run out long before I'm finished.

Although, amazingly, my new next-door neighbor is a 6th grade teacher with a BA in English. When I first met him, I immediately started grilling him about teaching in Louisiana, since I cannot get a consistent answer from anyone. He has already been a big help, and the more time I spend here, the more I realize that moving here was a great choice.

On the apartment front, Matt and I have been slaving away over there nearly every day. I go over while he's at work, I clean, I repair, I paint. Today is the first day since I've been here that I haven't gone over. But! It looks amazing so far. The kitchen is nearly done--I finished painting it yesterday (save for that awkward space above the cabinets), and we only have a couple more projects to do. The rest of the house is another story, although the kitchen was the biggest project, and it only took us a few days. Mostly it just needs paint and some new hardware here and there. And we have to find some way to get that "old house" smell out.

The electricity still isn't turned on. SWEPCO wants to charge us a $228 deposit to start service, and while we have the money, we're bristling at giving it to them. It just seems so ridiculous to pay that much for some guy to come out here with a screwdriver. Apparently it's expensive because we live in a "high-risk" area and the people who had our apartment before us weren't exactly wholesome characters.

Despite what the power company says, however, we live in an amazing neighborhood that I have quickly fallen in love with. I have already met more of my neighbors here than I ever met living in Tampa, simply by virtue of them coming over to say hey. There's Garth and Mindy, who live next door--Garth is the teacher with the English degree who invites us over for beers all the time. Mark and his partner Richard live downstairs, with their quiet, eco-obsessed roommate Steve, and their dog Dexter. Next to them is Mary and her kids Patrice, Patricia, and Isaiah. One of the daughters practices her trombone on the front porch every afternoon. They also have a dog named Job.

On the weekends, the entire neighborhood is a flurry of activity, with kids riding their bikes, people doing yardwork, or just sitting on their front porches. The best thing about where I live, I think, is that because it's such an old neighborhood, the place is so dynamic. Black, white, upper-middle-lower class, gay, straight, ambiguous...it's just a micro chasm of culture on one block. Oh, and the trees. The trees are nice.

So Matt and I are still in his on-base house, but the move out paperwork has been filed, and our official move-out date is May 1, although I predict we will be out well before then.

And Matt and I are doing well. Surprisingly, even after being trapped in a car with him for two days, and almost immediately diving into a huge home improvement project with him, we've only snapped at each other once or twice. I guess it's easy to be optimistic when everything seems to be working out suspiciously well. When he gets home from work, we take the dogs on long walks through the woods. The other day we went out to a construction site here on base, where land is being cleared for houses. The site looks to be a 60 year-old landfill. The gross stuff is long gone, but the red dirt is rife with old bottles and jars from the 30s and 40s. Nothing's really worth much, but once they're cleaned out, the tiny milk glass cold cream jars look pretty cool. This weekend I think we're bringing shovels.

Anyway, that's what's going on with me right now. Pictures will be posted soon. Hope everyone out there is well.

-Alex

I don't understand how people have the audacity to flaunt their materialism anymore. The other day I overheard a woman mention how "you gotta start 'em early" in reference to her kids and designer handbags. Being materialistic is no longer en vogue; the attitude has overstayed its welcome and the rest of us are paying for it.

I spent a lot of time in college in a vain pursuit to live a lifestyle that my parents didn't have until they were in their forties. And I sank myself into a lot of debt in the process. Now that I've paid everything off and take care of my own bills, I have a little more perspective.

I was always surprised in college to see how many kids drove new or almost-new cars, lived in "luxury student apartments" and were able to afford new outfits, frequent bar visits, and superfluous activities like manicures and vacations. While I didn't support myself completely in college, I had a part-time job and still struggled to help my roommate pay bills, buy groceries, pay the rent and keep my car (a 1993 Toyota Corolla with one hubcap) maintained. I don't get why, even now, "in these times," people are still throwing their money around on ridiculous designer bags, and overpriced, shitty home decor. While the recession may have not impacted all of us yet, I think most of us are touched in at least a secondary way. Less hours at work, higher credit card payments, more expensive groceries, etc.

I am about to move out on my own, to my first post-college, no-parental-involvement apartment. This time I'm ready. I've cut up my credit cards, I clip coupons. I shop at Goodwill for things like plates and lamps and weird, retro wall art. I visit at Walgreens instead of Sephora (and, to my surprise, my face can't tell the difference between Cover Girl and NARS). I'm at the public library at least once a week. I make a lot of food at once and freeze it. I use Craigslist, eBay, and my front yard. Most importantly, I have a savings account...and there's something in it. I am scared, but I'm excited. I've given up the fantasy of Carrie Bradshaw and adopted the spending habits I should have had all along. I realize now that everyone has to start somewhere, and for most of us, it's at $0. And I feel better, and safer for it.

Frugally,
Alex

For Christmas, my boyfriend got me The Culinary Institute of America's textbook and perfume that smells like paperbacks. I love him.

I am moving to Louisiana in the spring.

That is all.

File cabinets with draws, dressers with draws, desks with draws. There are ads all over Craig's List for furniture with "draws." Do you folks by any chance mean "drawers?" A drawer is a box-like thing that is housed in a piece of furniture and that rotates in and out. It's used for storage.

A "draw" is many things, but it is not a "drawer."

Are there really so many people who are confused about this? People in the Marina and SOMA? You don't know what a drawer is? I mean, I hate to be a stickler, but come ON. Not knowing how to spell drawer means you've never read *anything.* Not a work of classic literature, not a pulp novel, not a comic book, not a catalogue, not a magazine, not a newspaper. The word drawer is everywhere.

Literature: Madame Bovary kept things in drawers. Jo March used drawers. Franny and Zooey used drawers. Portnoy used drawers. Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, and the Three Investigators all solved mysteries by striking an old desk, thereby unlatching a "secret drawer."

Drawers aren't only in old literature; they are in recent, highly regarded and prize winning literature: staggering geniuses use drawers. People for whom things are illuminated use drawers.

Even in current best-sellers there are drawers. According to a millisecond-long A9.com search, on page 31 of The Story of Edgar Sawtelle (#62 in Oprah's Bookclub), "...[at] odd moments she might discover Trudy rearranging the chest of drawers..." And in Extreme Measures - a Thriller (2008), on page 271, someone opens a drawer to take out a pack of Marlboros. There are many, many, maaaaany others. It's more likely than not that any work of fiction will refer to a drawer at some point within it's pages.

In advertising: have you never heard of "top drawer service?" Even the newspaper is full of advertising references to Cost Plus World Market weekend deals on rattan wine bars with iron bottle-racks and MDP "utility drawers." Or Macy's blowout furniture "events" where bedroom sets include several items with drawers. Bed, Bath and Beyond sells things with drawers. Instructions for putting together IKEA furniture make references to these things called "drawers."

While it's possible you are confusing drawers with "draws," those flat, pull-out trays that might be on a taboret or tool chest, that's still doesn't contradict the fact that you don't read enough to know how to accurately represent that storage-box part of the furniture you are selling. You don't recognize or spell correctly the word "drawer."

Is this such a big deal? Not knowing how to spell a word? Maybe, maybe not. Though I'd perhaps be less concerned if you were having trouble spelling, say, "Czechoslovakia," or "appliqué," or even, "biscuit." Those words aren't as ubiquitous in our lives as the word "drawer."

But not knowing "drawer." It says something larger. Something not good.

I'm not trying to pick on anyone here. Just to say, this seems to be a disturbing trend and I hope it doesn't mean what I think it means.

This is my first piece for Metromix Brevard. Take a looksee...

http://brevard.metromix.com/restaurants/photogallery/inside-coconuts/748648/content

My very first paid news article was published yesterday. Yeah, kind of an inopportune day for my maiden column, but I'll take what I can get. I'm a professional writer now. I have achieved my childhood dream, one way or another.

http://www.floridatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200881104047

Tomorrow is The Big Day and I am scared shitless.

Without this post turning into one and biased long diatribe, let me say this:

Know the issues. Know the candidates. Know where you stand. And make the right choice.

If not for you, then for the country. Cut through the hype, the myths, the lies, and the outright bullshit.

This past election season has been one of the most exciting times in our country, and while I'll be sad to see it end, I do hope that we can wake up on November 5 and remember that there are still some things worth getting upset about. George W. Bush has herded us into glazed-over apathy, and it has been so refreshing (and, I won't lie...sometimes incredibly frustrating) to see people really stand up for what they believe in, whether or not I think it's "right" or "wrong."

I had a long talk with my best friend (and lifelong Republican) Rachael the other night, and I think Americans in general are more alike than they are different. It seems to me that we all more or less want the same things, but have very different ideas about how to get them. However things turn out tomorrow, remember that we are not a country of Republicans and Democrats. We are a country of Americans. Until we start behaving as such, things will only get worse.


-Alex

So life back in Melbourne has been okay so far. My freelancing really started to pick up, and staring next month, I will be reviewing restaurants and bars for the Space Coast version of this: http://newyork.metromix.com

So now eating and getting buzzed is a requirement for my job, and I really can't complain.

It would be nice to meet people this way. Since I moved back last month, I have done a total of 0 activities with my peers. I'm stuck in that same old quandry that I was at fifteen, wherein I believe "everyone here sucks" and all the cool people must be elsewhere. Well, after living "elsewhere" for the past four years, I have come to realize that there are indeed losers everywhere. The trick is wading through them.

Anyway, Jen designed my business card, which I am pretty excited about:



And that's it.


-Alex

It may come as a surprise to some of you that I consider myself politically moderate. Sure, I've had my share of homosexual liaisons, test drives in foreign automobiles, and organic, free-range hamburgers, but what patriotic American hasn't?

I believe that the democratic process is what makes America America, and, while the fact that I get to disagree with my neighbors can be frustrating, I also find it exciting and extremely patriotic. (Except for their goddamned McCain signs.)

I am voting for Obama this November because I know what America can be at its best, and I believe that he can coax it out.

I believe that the war in Iraq is not a war that can be won or lost. I believe that we have no business being there, and that there are far too many domestic concerns to be dealt with before we assume responsibility of other countries. With that being said, we are in way too deep to leave recklessly. We need to get out, but we need to do it cleanly.

I believe in my ability to make decisions about my own body. I believe that the value of life extends beyond unborn humans to include women, men, children, animals, and Republicans.

I believe that a rape victim should not be forced to be reminded of her own personal tragedy every day for nine months (and beyond).

I believe that the constitutional rights of marriage should be extended to all couples, not just those who were born heterosexual. I believe that every type of love is valid and sacred. I believe that we cannot withhold basic civil rights simply because we do not personally agree with a lifestyle.

I believe that parents need to be equally accountable for their children's education as teachers are. I believe that the thirst for knowledge and the love of learning are values first introduced at home, and certainly some of the most important qualities a person can possess.

I believe that the United States is an incredible mixture of religions and spiritualities, and that one should not govern them all. These beliefs are personal and should stay out of the government at all costs. However, I also believe in the freedom to worship as one chooses.

I believe in helping our fellow Americans. I believe that the bootstrap theory is an outdated myth. I DO NOT believe in handouts, and I certainly agree that there are plenty of abuses of "the system" going on presently. But I agree that we are one country, fifty states united, and that neighbors helping neighbors is a hallmark of the American dream.

I am truly proud to be an American, and I believe that with some help from the right candidate, our country can reclaim its status as the greatest in the world. But it will take work, patience, and an open mind.

Please don't forget to vote on November 4.

-Alex