what i've been up tp...

1) work - i was promoted to manager at biba's in gainesville in october of last year; in mid-january of this year i transferred to the two-week-opened biba's in braselton. the transfer gave me a few bucks more as well as a few hours more each week. that accounts for most of the past few months time.
2) dating - courtney cunningham, actually. she's beautiful and funny and we share a lot of common interests: theatre, movies, religion and the masochistic life of restaurants.
3) theatre - she and i have seen "twelve angry men" and "spam-a-lot" at the fox and "romeo and juliet" at the shakespeare tavern.
4) movies - the best of the past year: "the departed," "the prestige," "pan's labryinth," "hannibal rising" and "300".
5) reading - "the silence of the lambs," "red dragon," "amsterdam," "survivor" and "invisible monsters."
6) poker - every tuesday night at my place.

yep, that's about all i've done since early november. it's a pretty boring life but i enjoy it.

a book to read

"survivor" by chuck palahniuk. great book. i usually wait until i finish reading a book to write a review but this one i think deserves to be read by many. for those who don't know, palahniuk wrote the novel "fight club" on which the movie is based. it was his first novel and since then he's published many more but none received the critical acclaim of his premiere work. "survivor" is about the last few living remnants of a puritanistic cult that eventually commits mass suicide. as the thousands of missionaries around the country find out about the 'deliverance' they follow suit and off themselves. ten years later, though, there are a few who never went through with suicide but also never learned todeal with life outside the commune. like "fight club," it's written in first person narrative as the protaganist recounts the recent events in his life just before what appears to be his own imminent destruction. (i'm can't say for sure because i haven't finished reading it yet.)

a song for death

i stopped by a coffee shop today to do tenjoy hot coffee during the afternoon showers. i read for about an hour -- chuck palahniuk's "survivor" -- and stopped outside under the awning to smoke a cigarette before walking to my car. as i sat smoking at a table in the corner out of the rain, an employee came out with cigarette and lighter in hand. she said hello and after asking to share my corner to stay out of the rain sat at the next table. "wow," she said.
intrigued, i responded, "wow, what?"
"this is some pretty serious music they're playing," she said.
i had to concentrate to hear a classical song that i hadn't even heard over the sound of the pelting rain. after listening for a moment i said, "someone should be dying to this music." it was a very lonely and heart-wrenching section of string music and i could easily visualize someone standing in the parking lot being gunned down in the rain.
"someone did die to this song," she said, which caught me off-guard. she added, "it's in a movie. 'platoon,' when willem dafoe's character dies. it's called 'adagio for strings', by samuel barber."
"shot down running after the helicopter, right?" she nodded. "good scene," i said as i put my cigarette out in the ashtray and treaded off to my car through the downpour.

it is, in fact, a great song to die to.

this gypsy life

my life by residency up until now:
born: raleigh, north carolina - february, 1979.
moved to homestead, florida
moved to raleigh, nc
moved to homestead, fl
moved to raleigh, nc
moved to adak, alaska - house - kindergarten
adak, al - naval apartment
moved to raleigh, nc
moved to pensacola, fl - ugly green brick house - 1st grade
moved to virginia beach, virginia - townhouse - 2nd grade
virginia beach, va - house in rock creek - 3rd-7th grade
moved to raleigh, nc - apartment at pine winds - 7th-9th grade
moved to lawrenceville, georgia - house on meadow wood - 9th-12th grade
oakwood, ga - house with grandpa hc - 9 months
gainesville, ga - duplex on prior st - 3 months
gainesville, ga - master's commission apartment at the pines - 9 months
gainesville, ga - rented room on dogwood dr - 8 months
gainesville, ga - rented room on atlanta hwy - 2 months
gainesville, ga - one bedroom apartment on skyview dr - 12 months
gainesville, ga - apartment on whitmire dr - 18 months
gainesville, ga - apartment at caswyck on lanier - 12 months
lawrenceville, ga - one bedroom apartment on pine creek way - 2 years
gainesville, ga - hall county work release off candler hwy - 3 months
gainesville, ga - apartment with teresa at north pointe - 6 months
braselton, ga - rented room on braselton hwy - 3 months
gainesville, ga - apartment at mcever vineyards - 12 months
gainesville, ga - resigned lease for another twelve months

b'fast @ tiff's

so i finally broke down and rented the much-adored classic film made even more eternal by that catchy song, "breakfast at tiffany's". i have to admit that i spent the whole first half of the movie expecting to see a coffee shop or bakery within the tiffany's. and yet there was none to be found. but the movie was still splendid and worth all of the praise. (even though the dvd i rented had the sound off by about two seconds for the first thirty minutes or so.) i have always thought audrey hepburn to be a beautiful woman but i'd only once seen her in film before today. she was a truly adorable actress. the movie, based on truman capote's novella by the same name, is not at all what i expected from a movie of that era. i've seen quite a few older movies but none that really had characters in such unglamorous lifestyles at the start of the film. paul (george peppard) is a writer who's afraid of the sophomore slump so he acts as a boy-toy for a wealthy married woman instead of writing. holly golightly (hepburn) was an aspiring actress who, upon entering new york years before, gave up the dream. she realised she could live as a socialite, jumping from one man to the next until she landed one of the top fifty wealthiest men in america for a husband, without ever actually having to work -- even as an actress. so she lives for herself and mooches off different men each week until she meets paul. but even then she cannot break apart from the parasitic creature she's become. and it goes from there. if you haven't seen it, go rent it today. if you've already seen it, go rent "funny face" -- it's the one with the dance number currently being used by 'the gap' to sell tiny black pants and next on my list of films to see.

for becca

you know, becca if you want to see my face so badly you could just come back to georgia more often.

at last...

...i have started reading a really good book that everyone else in the world has already read. i started "jonathan strange and mr. norrell" yesterday.
...laura, on of my servers, had her baby boy (parker john daniels) yesterday. she was due this past saturday. hey, frø, isn't "parker" a great name for a baby boy? so much cooler and hip than old "william."
...i have one day left of serving. starting monday morning, i'll be one of two managers running the biba's in gainesville. the new store opens in braleston in early november.
...i rented "breakfast at tiffany's" which for some unforgivable reason, i have never before seen.
...i finally broke down and bought a album for my photos so i can keep my stuff organised.
...i finished paying the irs what i owed them for last 2005. now, i have to start paying back the georgia department or revenue.
...i can wear jeans and a jacket without sweating again.
...i get to see my wee sis' in her debut theatrical performance. ah, the li'l tyke's taken after her big brother scøüpe. see you tonight.
...i have begun what may come to be known as my triumphant return to posting at large. now becca and chris can both stop their whimpering about my absence. seriously, crawdaddy, when was the last time you posted anything, eh?

"This above all: to thine own self be true" -- shakespeare

the new film "accepted" deals with issues that most young people will be forced to face at one point or another. not just acceptance into a good college but acceptance of a different way of thinking. even given the financial advantages of going to an academic college directly out of high school, it's not the right choice for everyone. it's a problem i wrestled with during my junior and senior years of high school. i'd been conditioned all of my life to desire to attend college and believe that it was the right thing to do. yet, nearing the end of my junior year, i was no longer certain i believed all of the things i had been taught growing up -- especially college. i wanted an experience not a classroom. i wanted to follow my passion, not a textbook curriculum. as such, i looked into many different state colleges and a few out-of-state options trying to find one suitable for my goals. i found none. it wasn't the money that became the problem; i qualified for hope and even had a couple small scholarship offers. Lee university in tennessee was willing to pay my first year's tuition for me. but even the religious schools didn't offer what i desired. i was looking for hands-on ministry experience. i didn't know what i wanted to do for the rest of my life but i knew what i wanted for the immediate future. in the end i entered into a church internship program that lasted nine months. for the next five years i interned and worked at the church and earned an associates degree in biblical studies and leadership. was it the right choice for me? at the time i believed so. now i'm not so sure. they say hindsight is a great teacher and i agree but even hindsight is limited for now. even on my deathbed i may not be able to say with surety if i chose the better of the two options. but today and every day until my death i can say with a clear conscience that i chose for myself. i reviewed the options i had and listened to the advice of others but in the end i chose my own path. and while this path has given me many opportunities which i otherwise would never have had it has also left me with numerous regrets. do the gains outweigh the losses? i do not know. were the accomplishments i achieved worth the sacrifices i made? some days my response is an adamant "no". but i will never really know, will i? all we can do in life is that to which our conscience leads us at the moment.