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Erie Journal, 5/27

I love my new city.  I love my new apartment.  I’m quite pleased with my decision to move here, although it is still early in the emotional as well as physical process.

I am happy.  But not just happy, of course.  Life is not simple like that, always.  Mind you—sometimes it is simple like that.  Don’t let anyone tell you life is never simple, or easy (or complicated, or difficult, for that matter).  At various times, life sure can be just about everything.

I’ve always been equally as comfortable in the center of a crowded room as I was all alone in a darkened apartment.  Too much of either makes me uncomfortable, as does too little.  (this could be why I’m a 32 year-old bachelor.)   Even a woman I am desperately in love with, after 4 straight days togather, she’s got to go to her place for a bit.  But don’t leave me alone for too long, or I will say some messed up stuff to get you to spend time with me.

So what is a man like me to do when transported to a new place where he knows absolutely no one?  At first, as you saw in my previous entries, I live the solitary high-life.  Not once during my initial explorations—the zoo, downtown Erie, the art museum, etc ettc—did I wish someone was with me.  I hope no one takes this as a slight.  It does not mean I love you less.  This is just the way I operate.  I do love having a shared experience, but I in no way find it necessary.  Turns out that I am pretty good company for myself. 

But I suppose there do come moments, now, when I become what I would term ‘lonely’.  They are fleeting moments, and far between, but they are real.  And they are mildly vague: they do not make clear if they crave a woman’s presence or a man’s, whether a simple phone call would do the trick, and there is no specific guidance about who I miss, if in fact I miss anybody.  Part of me thinks I might just need someone other than my landlord to see how cool I’ve made my apartment.  Or I might need laid.  Or somewhere in between.

Regardless, the lonliness is good, for a few reasons.  Primarily it proves I’m human, and not a sociopath, which is good to know.  Secondly, it will force me to do something about it.  There are tons of ways I can ‘make friends’ in this town without the seemingly all-important ‘bar scene’.  One could already say I’m ‘friends’ with Shawn down at the art museum, and the lady down at Erie Books was quite persuasive about me attending their poetry open mic night on Fridays.  Then there’s the Presque Isle Society and the hot single mother who lives downstairs from me.  And just living a life out-of-doors, moving around, entering and exiting buildings; after awhile you can’t help but know people.

But for the most part, I’m still pretty darn happy doing just as I please, all by myself, thank you very much.  I still have very little desire to sleep.  There is way too much I want to do to be sleeping!

I know I talk and write mostly about movies and music, but that’s because almost none of you care about poetry, but let me tell you, more than any movie or song, the beloved poetry of my favorite writers is really what has kept me sane and even during this time of upheaval.  I’m sure when most of you picture me—if you picture me—it is laying on some couch somewhere watching a movie, and for sure, I do that for about two hours a day, but for the rest of the non-working hours when I’m at home, these past 2 weeks, you’d find me sitting in that old red chair that my parents got lord-knows-where when they are both quite young, and then which I somehow inherited (I doubt anyone else wanted it) and which I can’t imagine I’ll ever stop owning (the past is alive in it), hunkered down with my face in a book I probably bought so long ago I was drunk when I bought it, reading lines I’ve read so many tmes they feel like a kind of home in my head, or like this familiar red chair I’m sitting on, sometimes laughing, sometimes crying.  There is always a way home, and it is poetry. 

For some reason I can’t understand at all quite yet, I keep coming back to this lesser known poem by Billy Collins. It is, for some reason, resonating with me quite  a bit these last 2 weeks.  It’s called “Brightly Colored Boats Upturned on the Bank of the Charles”.  Here it is:

What is there to say about them
that has not been said in the title?
I saw them near dawn from a glassy room
on the other side of that river,
which flowed from some hidden spring
to the sea; but that is getting away from
the brightly colored boats upturned
on the banks of the Charles,
the sleek racing sculls of a college crew team.

They were beautiful in the clear early light—
red, yellow, blue and green—
is all I wanted to say about them,
although for the rest of the day
I pictured a lighter version of myself
calling time through a little megaphone,
first to the months of the year,
then to the twelve apostles, all grimacing
as they leaned and pulled on the long wooden oars.

Erie Journal, 5/25

Having now been in Erie for going on two weeks, and having met some of the locals through work, I am ready to make some pronouncements about the city:

I absolutely don’t understand how the city works.  There is absolutely much, much more blight and econimically depressed areas than there are succesful and wealthy areas.  And yet, EVERYWHERE you look, over every square mile of Erie (which is vast) there are more businesses (density-wise) than anywhere I’ve ever seen.  And I’m not just talking about shoddy, run-down corner stores.  I am talking about nearly every chain of everything you’ve ever seen or heard of.  In the middle fo a slum, here’s a mega-CVS.  In the middle of an upper-class neighborhood, here’s a Value City Furniture.  I mean shit is just everywhere and I don’t understand where all the people come from to go to these places.  I simply do not understand the econimics.  But I love the choices!

In addition, Erie-ites (I don’t knwo the real term for them/us yet) have no idea they are a big city.  Anytime I bring up the differences between Harrisburg and Erie, the Erie-ite invaruiably says “Yeah, but Harrisburg is so much bigger than Erie!”.  This is quite untrue.  (Current Erie population: 103,000.  Current Harrisburg populationL 47,000.)  Harrisburg has a half-decent skyline that makes it look like a city, but it’s only like 3 miles square or something like that! 

There is alot of really great history here that I’ve only just begun to dig into.  It’s not as rich as the history in Central PA, but it’s a tad more unique.  You’d be surprised how interesting things can get when there’s a HUGE lake in your history!  More to come as I uncover it.

In short, I must say, I love it here.  It’s got just about everything I want: a metropolitan area (that is quaintly self-deprecating) with a surrounding area of rich and storied nature, important American historical sites, a thriving arts community, pretty ladies, rock and roll venues, and on and on.  It really is quite nice!

And there is just soooooooo much to do!  For instance, this morning (after I got off work following an overnight shift), I stopped by Presque Isle State Park for a few gorgeous, relaxing early mornign moments, then I drove down to the pier and paid 3 bucks to take the elevator to the top for a breathtaking view and some great pics.  Then I stopped into a quaint little place called The Erie Book Store and bought two books (I was the only customer the whole half hour I was in there).  Then I swung by the Erie Art Museum, where for four dollars I spent a very, very satisfying hour and a half perusing a surprisingly mature and daring collection of art.  Then, what else?  A chinese buffet!!!  And now I’m home before 3pm and tired as hell but quite satisfied.  It was sunny all morning and my body is covered in dried sweat—a feeling I am quite fond of.  Here are some pictures from today (a more comprehensive collection will be posted to Facebook):

The Bayfront Convention Center as seen from the Pier tower

"Drama #15" by Rachel Burke

"Untitled" by Jaimee Lindvay

"Sea of Kinnereth" by Justin Sorenson

A door that was supposed to be locked in the museum had been left open. I peeked in. Inside was a wheelchair and about two case's worth of unopened beer bottles.

And some new footage I took of the lake:

click here

Erie Journal, 5/19

Having all this space for the first time in my life has already provided some interesting results.  For instance, the room I am using as my bedroom is functioning only as my bedroom, whereas anywhere I’ve lived since I left the nest, my sleeping room has always doubled at least slightly as a living room or entertainment hub.  This fact may or may not account for the fact that for the first week I’ve been here, I’ve slept better than I can remember in my adult life.  I am waking up feeling so rested and refreshed, it is reminiscent of those sleeps you might have had when you were a child.  Sometimes it feels as though I’ve been asleep for a week when I wake up!  And oddly, I’m not even sleeping that long at a stretch—6, 7 hours at the most.  This may also be due to, perhaps, simply the move itself, and whatever emotional things (good or bad) are going on associated with it, and/or the fact that I’ve been incredibly active since I’ve been here, but I think almost certainly the “seperate” bedroom must have something to do with it.

Also, having my computer in a room seperate from my television (yes, there is definitely a TV in the computer room, but my flat screen and blue ray player and surround sound and all that is on the OTHER living room, hence any serious movie watching will usually but not always take place in the room without the computer) has resulted in, quite simply, more silence.  When my computer is in my entertainment hub, I almost never experience silence, whether it’s the TV, stereo, or record player making the noise.  Now, sometimes I just want to check my e-mail and I’m not going to bother turning on the TV in “living room Jr.” (as I just decided to call the computer living room), so I’m spending more time in silence and so far it’s going rather well.  I’m feeling really, really emotionally healthy.

Another side-effect of all the space is that I now have room to adequately store some items, like boxes of mementos from my childhood and teenage years.  Previously, I had to shove these items into closets or under beds, etc, causing them to always be very much out of reach or out of mind, and I just continued moving them with me every time I moved (always shedding a bit more of them as I moved, throwing a bit more out every time).  But now that I have an attic, a basement, and a few closets all for me, some of these mementos are actually closer to the surface of my daily life.  As I’ve found I have some spare time in the evenings I am not accustomed to having, I’ve been going through these boxes for the first time in many years and it has been really amazing, because—and maybe this is just me, but maybe this has happened to you, too—I seem to have already forgotten a whole lot about that time of my life.  I’m 32 and I’ve forgotten a fair amount from when I was 17 and 18.  And I don’t just mean minor events, because that’s natural, but like, whole freindships.  I’ve uncovred some stuff and I’m like, I was friends with him?  And then I DO remember it.  And I’m amazed by a piece of my life being re-revealed to me.

But no memento has been as eye-opening and fun to find as the stack of movie ticket stubs I found in a box.  For a few years, I kept the stub from every movie I went to and wrote on the back who I went to that movie with.  I had actually completely forgotten that I ever did this!  And looking through them is just nuts!  Alot of them I remember clearly—some of them were parts of landmark events in my life—while others are truly baffling.  (I seem to have gone on some dates that I don’t remember.  I also seem to have been “movie pals” with some dudes that I do not recall being more than mere acquantances with.  I also had forgotten that my mom and I used to go to every adaptation of a Michael Crichton book together.  Mom, are there any coming up????  I haven’t been paying attention to Crichton for a few years.  I do know he died.)  Anyway, I scanned some of the stubs, front and back.  Here they are (this is just a minor fraction of them):

Seth’s Favorite Poems, 5/19

The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner
by Randall Jarrell

From my mother’s sleep I fell into the State,
And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze.
Six miles from earth, loosed from its dream of life,
I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters.
When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose.

Previous entries in this series here and here.

Erie Journal, 5/18

Woke up early today to “explore”, as I’m finding that most of the stuff I want to do in and around Erie closes at 5 (and leaving the apartment at noon still wasn’t ample today, as there were still plenty of things I missed).  Today was pretty much just spent going to the zoo and the pier/ bayfront, as well as hanging a new clock and then cleaning the broken glass from it after it fell, watching “2012” (I’m running out of options at the Redbox), and taking a very nice nap.  So there’s not a whole lot to write about.  I’ll post some of the pics, but a more complete pictoral journey from today is up over at Facebook.  Also make sure you check out the links to my YouTube videos from today at the end of the entry:

I am not even joking; I think this giraffe and I had a connection. Not even joking.

wild african dogs!!!

This giraffe---the one I had a connection with---pretty much kissing this black swan (apparently black swans only occur in Australia)

shitload of kangaroos!

Red Panda

Mommy and Daddy Orangatan with baby OMG

Halfway out on the pier pn the bayfront

The tower you are supposedly able to climb to get an amazing view of the bay, lake AND Presque Isle, but it was closed to the public

Looking back toward downtown from on the pier

I tried my damndest to get in to see the Flagship Naigra, but I was too late to buy a ticket and without a ticket you can only take pics through a fence, but I got what I could. This ship is BADASS. Remember on my first day in Erie I saw it actually sailing on the bay! It fought in the War of 1812!

semi-decent view of the Niagra. Hopefulyl I have time to get down there tomorrow and get some good shots.

Moments after buying my sub at Mr. Subs, I turn and see this sign, for a $4.95 chinese buffet!

Some video I got at the zoo:

Really good video of the baby Orangutan!

Badass video of the white tiger

Secondary footage of the baby Orangutan

Holy crap.  According to my blog archive, I’ve been doing Notes From the Fire for more than a year.  I’ll be dipped in cheese.

Erie Journal, 5/17

Popped into my new restaurant today and I really liked it!!!  But I’m not going to talk about work much on the Erie Journal or I’d have to password protect the entries, not to mention work is not a major way of how I define myself.  So that will probably be the last time I mention work.  It looks like it’s going to be a very positive experience.

Some random observations about Erie:

1.  It has very little “downtown”—no real skyline or anything—but the city itself seems to just go on and on forever.  It must be the largest example of sprawl ever, anywhere.  You can just drive and drive in any direction and, unless you get on a highway, you never seem to actually get out of Erie.  Odd.  Interesting, but odd.

2.  There are no Dunkin Donuts.

3.  There are a shitload of small Wal-Marts.  I would estimate that there is a Wal-Mart for every 2 square miles, but they are about half the size of the Wal-Marts I’m used to in Central PA.

4.  There are more newspaper machines here than I’ve ever seen anywhere, and they are always empty.

5.  Erie cares alot more about thier minor league teams than Harrisburg does.  Their (our?) baseball team—the Erie Seawolves—are a TOP news item, both in print and on TV, and I see shit for them everywhere I go.  I’ll have to attend a game or two (especially when Harrisburg is in town!).  Oh and their hockey team, the Otters, seem to be this area’s hockey focus.  So far I haven’t seen or heard ANYTHING about the NHL, despite being knee-deep in playoff season (did I just sound like a sports fan?)

6.  There is a Subway and an Arby’s every 3 blocks.

7.  People have no qualms about parking their cars on the sidewalks.

8.  Generally speaking, people here are more nice than I am used to.

9.  I can’t find a street mailbox.

10.  Nobody mows grass here, not even in the parks.

Erie Journal, 5/16

Picking up the story from where I left off yesterday, all you really need to know about after I woke up here my first morning is that I spent essentially the next three days getting my apartment in order, the way I wanted it.  It was an enormous task and I didn’t really do anything other than work on it, other than semi-regular trips to Wal-Mart to get things I hadn’t anticipated needing  (25 feet of coaxial cable, more and more blinds, electrical tape, etc) and a few trips to Marci’s Eat ‘n Park (this is NOT the one I’ll be working at) to visit with a familiar face and eat some (free) familiar food.  I really did have a grand time, sequestered in my new but increasinly beloved apartment, making all kinds of decisions and lifting and moving things and staying up all hours of the night and never, ever setting an alarm clock and all kinds of great neat things.  Just a few things of note that I’d like to mention from those few days:

1.  I HATE Time Warner Cable.  Perhaps once I’m finally done with “Erie Journals” I’ll post a blog detailing my hatred for them.

2.  If there were more drive-thru/delivery methods of procuring espresso beverages in the world, I’d be giving the world alot more of my money.

3.  I’m sad that I don’t have more physical photos of the people I love that I could hang up.

4.  Having an attic is one of my most favorite things ever.  I can finally keep non-neccesities such as childhood mementos, etc, without jamming them into closests (which then results in never having enough room for clothes).

5.  I basically designed my apartment to have one bedroom, two living rooms, and a “great hall”.  This is very, very neat.  I do not consider the room with my computer an “office”.  It is much cooler than that (but don’t call it a “man cave”; I do not need a man cave as I live by myself, this whole place is a man cave!).  Ah hell, I just decided to video tape the apartment and show it to you.  Here it is (it’s a tad dark, sorry).  Also I’m currently having some trouble embedding so you’ll have to click through:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9HxSJv8-SQ

I actually just finished the apartment this morning (Sunday) by hanging the remaining artwork and putting a few more extraneous items into the attic.  After finishing up around 2pm, I finally felt free to venture out into Erie and do some exploring.  Now, I’ve been motoring around this place a tiny bit for Wal-Mart, food and other minor things, but I still really do not understand how the city is laid out or how to get anywhere.  My GPS has really been a savior during these days (and I can and will finally say, with authority, that OnStar GPS is far superior to your handheld or mounted units).  If I needed to go to Wal-Mart, I’d get in the car, press the OnStar button and tell the operator I needed to get to the closest Wal-Mart.  That is all I have to say, and then the catr just narrates me there.  I don’t even have to look at anything.  Then, since I’m not sure how to get home, after I’m done at the Wal-Mart I just give the OnStar people my home address and it takes me back home!  So although I’ve been here for 4 days I have no idea how to get anywhere.  I know two things: which general direction the lake is in, and which general direction Marci’s Eat ‘n Park is in.  So when I left the apartment this afternoon, my agenda was thus:  to see the lake (probably from Presque Isle state park), to see whatever downtown there is of Erie, and to get some non-Eat ‘n Park food, cause I was hungry as hell.  So I just started driving.  Here is a pictorial representation of my journey:

One of the first things I see as I approach the lake BLEW MY MIND: The Niagra, a ship from the War of 1812, actually sailing on the lake!!! I need to learn more about this.

Stumbled upon an aging (an obviously close to failing) amusement park, Waldamere Park. It's the kind of park you can just walk into. You pay as you ride. It is incredibly quaint and mildly sad.

Bumper cars at Waldameer

ride at Waldameer

sad waldameer parking lot

This is the BAY side of Presque Isle, not actually a view of Lake Erie

A pretty awesome attribute in a state park: public restrooms

uh-oh

The Perry Monument, commemorating the Battle of Lake Erie in the War of 1812

another view of the Perry Monument

The base of the Perry Monument

"downtown" Erie, essentially deserted on a Sunday afternoon

The park in the center of downtown. I was unable to find out what the park's name is

more of the park

I almost walked right past this place, which claims to be "Erie's Home for Rock and Roll", and it looks legit. Their immediate schedule includes the band Saving Abel---a band I'd never listen to, but a national band. I have a feeling Sherlock's and I are going to have a friendship.

And since I’m having trouble embedding, click throguh to see my video of Lake Erie: (halfway down through th epictures, because apparently I cannot control where this text goes)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kEkwtHaQgQ

And my video of a baby goose on Presque Isle:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFjzYTXA-W4

So, although I feel I’ve skipped a lot of great details, that brings us up to this moment.  I don’t start work until Thursday, though I am going there tomorrow briefly to meet my new Regional Director.  Other than that, the next three days are mine to do whatever I want. 

I might be all alone (and I do miss all of you!), but I am also, for like the millionth time in my life, having the time of my life and loving, just loving, being alive.  I’ll keep the Erie Journals going for another week or so until life starts to roll along with work, etc, and then we can get back to some regular pompous blogs that nobody reads.  :)  Love you, Fearless Reader!

Erie Journal, 5/15

I know, I know, I can hear what you’re saying, fearless, intrepid readers:  how dare I give you such exhaustive detail of all the activity leading up to the move and then abandon you for DAYS as the event unfolds?  It must have been like the cruelest of television season-ending cliffhangers!  Well, eff you.  Life got in the way of blogging.

(I don’t know why the Erie Journals have a tone of distaste for you, the loyal reader.  I swear, I love you.  It’s just the tone these entries seem to want to take!)

Anyway, as usual, I’m gonna have to skim over some details because just too much has happened since I posted last.  You saw the picture entries of the move itself, and I would like to once again thank Burke, Paul, Liz and Michael for helping me move. Also, thanks go to Mom and Mary for helping me clean, Dad for letting me crash at his house at a very crucial and odd moment for me, Duane for his last minute computer help, and probably somebody else who helped and I’m forgetting and I’m sorry I’m forgetting you.  I truly do have some amazing friends and family!

Long story short, the move was difficult.  It essentially went off as I had planned—and believe it or not, I consider myself something of a good planner—but what I never considered during my planning was that there was very little time for me to sleep, recover, and be sane.  And despite that, I would have made it work if it hadn’t for some godawful reason taken Michael and I eight hours to drive back from Erie after unloading all my stuff into my new apartment.  It was like we drove into some sort of black hole/time warp/weird thing.  I just kept driving that U-Haul, pointing forward and pressing the gas, and it was like nothing was happening…

So anyway, that drive forced me to change my plans a tad, and instead of ending up here in Erie Thursday morning, I rolled in here around 10:30 Thursday night.  So yeah, the plan had to be altered.  Still.  I claim this as a triumph in my life, as I single-handedly planned all of it.  This is not an attempt to be egotistical here folks.  Those that have known me since my teen years will know this is just a monumental achievement!

I’ll tell you what was friggen strange was walking into this apartment in Erie Thursday night.  It was dark.  A thunderstorm had just passed through.  The world was chilly but not cold, and becalmed, and silent with a hint of breeze.  I’d just been here, in this apartment the day before, but that had been in blazing sunlight, with one of my best friends, doing heavy, sweaty work and grunting and counting to three and lifting.  So now I approach the front door for the first time ever in darkness, and I am all alone, and I am not going “home” that night, and it is quiet everywhere as my brand new key jingles in the lock and I open the unfamiliar door and the room is pitch black and all I can smell is fresh paint and the afterscent of rain and I get lucky guessing where the light switch is and the overhead light pops on and there in the midst of all this unfamiliarity is, quite all of a sudden, the entirety of my belongings, sitting in a massive disarray, exactly how Michael and I had left them just a little over 24 hours before.

I know that may sound like a NOT great experience, but that is only because I’ve failed as a narrator.  Yes, it was surreal, and perhaps somber and disquieitng, but also rather thrilling, not like a roller coaster but my own personal fun house—my life as a hall of mirrors.  If, in 24 hours, one’s life can become so utterly different (and yet, so entirely the same), it makes you question just what it is that defines your life.  Oddly, during those first few moments inside the apartment door, it became clear to me that stuff does, in fact, play a role in my identity, but thankfully, just not a very large one. It was a relief to feel the sensation flush through me from head to toe that the truly important element in this equation was me, no matter which TV was sitting in the corner (though I loved the fact that it was my TV).

The first few minutes after entering the apartment were a flurry of activity, marked by one observation and two activities.  The observation was complete silence.  No television, no radio, not even any incoming text messages, and no neighbors making noise of any kind.  In such an unfamliar setting, I really did need something.  And so my first two activities were:  getting the TV hooked up to the DVD player (cable and internet wouldn’t come till the next day) and—actually the very first order of business—getting some blinds up on the two street-facing living room windows.  As I said, it was night time and the windows are facing the residential street and the only light I had to work with at this point was the bright overhead light, so I felt very, very exposed.  I had actually anticipated this and had even brought two cheapy Wal-Mart vinyl mini-blinds up with me right away.  I had never in my life put up a blind of any kind, so less than two minutes after entering the apartment, I was opening and attempting to figure out these blinds.  It is perhaps of note that the apartment is FULL of stuff, so I have very little room to work.  As a reminder, here was how Michael and I left the living room:

The day before, right before Michael and I left, I measured the windows in anticipation of the blinds, and stopped by Wal-Mart immediately before leaving for Erie that afternoon, to buy the blinds.  Well folks, turns out I’m not a champ at measuring.  Luckily, I over-measured, so the blinds I bought were too long by about two inches.  I did not see this as a problem.  Believe it or not, I have a toolbox, and in that toolbox is a saw.  So less than ten minutes after getting there, I’ve got these vinyl mini-blinds sitting on those white Gonella bread boxes you see in the picture above and I am sawing one inch off both sides.  (mind you, I am just sawing the bar across the top, not the actual blinds.  I’m  not a maniac!).  Amazingly, this worked like a charm and I very quickly had privacy, at least from the street side of the apartment (and only when in the living room).

After that it was the TV, and the couch, as my chair were all entirely buried underneath God-knows-what and I was definitely craving a sit-down.  As you can guess by looking at the pic of the living room above, getting the couch to in any reasonable way face a television would require some finagling.  But I managed it very quickly.  I had procured a few movies from the Redbox in Carlisle before leaving for Erie, and I quickly had the new DeNiro flick “Everybody’s Fine” playing, and I was laying on the couch, and I was just gonna watch a few minutes and then get up and start the long, arduous process of getting the apartment in order because after all, I didn’t really have to sleep at any reasonable time and obviously I had no plans in the near future and then…I was sound asleep.  I woke up at 10am the next morning feeling like a million very, very confused bucks.  And then the work began.

As this is a fairly long entry already, I’m going to end here for now so as to not tire you out, Fearless Reader.  Since everything I’m saying is in the past, it’s not really of the essence to tell it all now, so I’ll bring us up to the present day in an entry tomorrow.  Thanks for reading, shitbirds!

Erie Journal, 5/13

I still have no time whatsoever to write abou the move, so photo entries will continue to have to suffice.  I’ll just take the time to say this: eff Time Warner cable.  Now, without further ado, pics from actual moving day yesterday with Michael and I:

First thing in the morning, in the U-Haul

Early morning in the U-Haul

Rest stop!

I am the king

What will be the dining room

From the dining room, looking into what will be the living room

In the larger bedroom

bathroom

in the smaller bedroom

Michael in the kitchen, as seen through the window from the enclosed balcony

the enclosed balcony

Michael carrying some stuff off the U-Haul, as seen from my entry stairs

the u-haul

we were victorious over the couch!

yoga

The dining room, packed full

Michael feeling the burn!

Erie Journal, 5/12

Burke during the U-Haul packing

Burke leaving the chinese buffet with an ice cream cone, post-U-Haul packing

Erie Journal, 5/11

Putting the finishing touches on packing.  Homies Burke and Paul will be here soon to help me get it on the U-Haul.  I still have some stuff on the walls and some stuff to throw out but otherwise I’m mostly done:

Erie Journal, 5/9

Odd feelings abound.  The apartment gets more and more sparse (and the boxes pile up).  I say more and more goodbyes to people, so many goodbyes I am sick of saying goodbye.  I drive down certain roads for the last time in a long time, realize there’s people I haven’t been able to see, restaurants I haven’t eaten at, hikes not yet taken.

And yet.  And yet things aren’t as sad as they should be.  Perhaps I’m growing cold in my old age.  Or perhaps it’s just that one can only feel these things fully, deeply, intensely so many times in their lives.  I’ve already moved away (when I moved to New Jersey in 2003), and lord knows I’ve moved from apartment to apartment plenty of times.  Perhaps as we go through events like this in life, we build up coping mechanisms for future times, to the point that even wrenching life events can begin to seem rote and ordinary.  My vote is still out on whether this is good or bad.

Or, it could just be the fashion in which this move has happened so far that prevents me from feeling any profound sadness.  It’s been somewhat rushed, filled with long workdays followed by an hour or two of packing.  Then, after only 3 days off work, I’ll be moving (Weds. the 12th).  If, in fact, any great sadness is to beset me, it probably hasn’t had any room to do so yet.

Regardless, this lack of sadness has got me feeling just as strange as actual sadness might make me feel—which is as nonsensical as it sounds.  Things will probably settle into some semblance of emotional correctness after I’m firmly anchored in Erie.

As far as the more practical concerns of the move go, the apartment is now about 85% packed.  Only my DVDs, toiletries and wall art remain, with a few odds and ends I can’t pack yet (like alarm clocks, lamps, trash bags).  BFF Mary has just left, after helping me clean my kitchen, which at this point really shouldn’t need any more work.  Mom is coming over tomorrow (well, technically today at this point) and she is going to help me further, though at this point I’m not sure what we’ll do.  I hate to say it but we might have to clean my bathroom!  Then Tuesday afternoon/evening I’ll be loading up a U-Haul (I have yet to assemble my team of helpers, though…maybe YOU would like to help?), and then Wednesday morning other BFF Michael and I will be actually driving the U-Haul to Erie and unloading it.  We will also be driving said U-haul back home that very day, as I’ll have some last-minute cleaning left to do at the apartment here in Carlisle.  I’ll be sleeping at Dad’s house Wednesday night, cleaning the apartment Thursday and then driving to Erie Thursday and then…um…staying there!  That is the grand plan, at any rate, though I am always open to plans changing.  I am quite flexible.  Not physically, of course, but emotionally I am like a freakin’ gymnast!

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Erie Journal, 5/5

The pictures did not cooperate with where I wanted them placed in this entry but I don’t have time to fix them.  You’ll just have to figure out where they’re supposed to be.

Naturally, when you have to wait days and days to post something that at one point seemed of note, or especially interesting, once you sit down to write it, all those terribly interesting details begin to fade away and it seems much less important to dpcument what happened a week ago.  So the super-interesting blog I teased about the last week isn’t really going to matrerialize.  I’ll boil that week down for you like this:

1.  Computer breaks on my only day off in 13 days, the day I was going to begin searching for apartments online.

2.  Work 6 straight days (of dayshift…the worst) following computer breakage. Order part my buddy Duane thinks may fix computer.  Wait.

3.  Crazy stuff going on at work.  Often too tired to pack when I get home at night.

4.  Part comes in.  Duane installs.  Doesn’t work.  Have to go to Best Buy, buy a new computer, set it up at night between dayshifts.

5.  Call my mom to do an online apartment search for me as I can’t do it myself.  Then call the numbers she gave me the next morning from work.  Set up 6 apartments to look at on Monday, May 4th.  Was trying really hard to split them between the 4th and 5th, as I was going to Erie those two days (my ONLY two days off in a row since I found out I was moving), but all the damn landlords insisted on Monday.  So, starting at 2pm, I had an appointment an hour to see apartments up until 7pm. 

Maybe it doesn’t sound so complicated and stressful to you now, but try living it, assbrain.  The whole week I would just occasionally stop to think, I’ve gotta move in a week or so.  I guess I’ll do something about that in a week or so.  It was a very unpleasant thought.

So now, yesterday:

A fellow EnP manager, marci, has already moved to Erie, so the idea was that I’d get to Erie a little early (1pm, which meant leaving around 7am), meet her at her EnP where she was working a dayshift, I’d go to the first few appointments myself, then after Marci got off work she’d come to the last few appointments with me so i could get her 2 cents.  Then we’d have some dinner or something, then I’d spend the night at her place, then Tuesday I’d decide which apartment(s) I wanted, fill out applications or whatever, and hiopefully maybe finalize something.

First, the drive:  it is long.  Very long.  No matter how you slice it, it si a five hour drive.  I found that even a five hour drive is not long enough to bore me or make me stop dancing in my seat.  However, it was quite rainy and that was annoying.  I had the interesting experience of driving through areas of my state I had never been to.  That who upper-center area was completely alien to me and seeing all the new place names and the new geological features was quite intriguing.  It’s odd.  I do a lot of travelling but it’s always to, like, the same 10 places.  And now that I’ll be living in Erie there are a whole new slew of options within reach…I like this revelation.

After about four hours I finally saw my first sign for Erie:

Eventually I arrived at Erie.  It does not have the look of a city, really.  It’s size and population appear to derive mostly from an epic sprawl, though it does have a concentrated downtown area with a tiny bit of skyline.  On the way to Marci’s Eat ‘n Park I saw this and got excited:

That’s right folks:  public transportation.  I’ve never lived anywhere that I could take the bus.  (I hear you:  Harrisburg has public transit.  True, dickballs, but I’ve never actually lived there, either!)

I got to Marci’s restaurant right on time and she showed me around and introduced me.  (this is not the restaurant I’ll be working at).  I was quite impressed.  It’s a really nice building, the employees are super nice, and they were REALLY BUSY.  On a Monday afternoon!  And the one I’m going to be working at is BUSIER!

After a brief stay, I had to leave to go to my first appointment, with the plan for me to call Marci after each of my appointments to see if she’s been able to get out of work yet and could meet me for the next one.  I left the restaurant (the weather was now really beautiful), set my GPS for the first appointment’s address, and off I was.

Ten minutes later, I was there.  The area is quite residential and if you hadn’t just driven past a thousand warehouses, you’d have no idea it was in a city.  I took some pictures of the street it is on:

Looking down the street from my apartment

The house my apartment is in. I have the top floor.

A seemingly abandoned baseball field at the end of my street.

Long story short, I met the landlord, really liked him.  Looked at the apartment and LOVED it.  It is seriously about twice the size of my current apartment.  I have an entire attic, use of a shared basement, two bedrooms and a dining room and a large living room, the kitchen is really nice as is the bathroom.  I even have an enclosed balcony!  As you may have already guessed, I told him I wanted it and I asked for an application, and he’s all like…”really, to be honest, I don’t do applications, you seem trustworthy.”  So the landlord and I shook hands, and it was mine!  I took a few pics.  Not many and not good ones but here’s what I have:

Dining room looking into living room

Pic taken from in the dining room looking into living room

The smaller of the two bedrooms

So the landlord and I were all gaga over each other and the apartment and all that, and he asked if I’d like to return to the apartment later that night to sign the lease rather than wait until the next day.  I said hell yes cause then I could just go home that night and have an actual day off tomorrow (even though I’ve been doing tons of shit ALL DAY).  So I drove off, driving aimlessly around Erie while calling the other appointments I had and cancelling them.  Then I met back up with Marci and she gave me the grand Erie tour.  Quite honestly I don’t have enough time right now to write a satisfactory description of everything on the tour, though I’m sure I’ll be exploring those things at a later date, but of course the biggest attraction is the lake itself, and Preque Isle State Park, a peninsula jutting out into the lake.  Now, Marci just gave me a quick tour, moslty via her car, but I can assure you I am going to love this place.  Here are the limited photos I was able to get:

a crappy view of "the bay" at the beginning of Preque Isle...this isn't quite the lake yet

Presque Isle out a car window

Lake Erie

Lake Erie

If you’ve never seen any of the great lakes, folks, may I strongly suggest it.  These are the largest freshwater lakes on earth.  The pictures do not communicate the gravity of things.  Sure, it kinda looks like your looking at the ocean…no big deal, right?  But it’s not the ocean.  It’s a lake, and it has a palpable presence.  Honestly, I felt kinda freaked out by it, and Marci knew exaclty what I meant.  More about that when I have more time.  I really must run for the time being, but there are many more interesting blogs coming!

Seth’s Favorite Poems

Previous entries in this series here.

 

Not Waving But Drowning

by Stevie Smith

Nobody heard him, the dead man,
But still he lay moaning:
I was much further out than you thought
And not waving but drowning.

Poor chap, he always loved larking
And now he’s dead
It must have been too cold for him his heart gave way,
They said.

Oh, no no no, it was too cold always
(Still the dead one lay moaning)
I was much too far out all my life
And not waving but drowning.

Erie Journal, 5/2

I go to Erie tomorrow for two days to find an apartment.  This is my first time actually being there!  I’d have loved to post more leading up to this event, but as you may know, my freaking computer died essentially the same exact day I was about to start searching for apartments online.  Now, when you are moving as far away as I am, the searching must be done almost entirely online.  It’s not like I can just go out and buy an Erie newspaper.  Anyway, I am really really crunched for time, and I can’t wait to blog more to tell you just how difficult my last week was (if by difficult, I mean how I had very little free time while living an amazing life).  Anyway, I’m off to Erie tomorrow through Tuesday and should have a significant amount to report come Wednesday evening.