"Hello? Is there anybody in there?"

Hi, guys.  Just wanted to poke my cyber-head out of my cyber-gopher-hole and take a cyber-peek around, maybe give everyone a cyber-wave.

That's all ya get...for now.

"Daylight fading, come and waste another year...."

He's baaaaaack! Sort of. I realize that my usual three-month absence was somewhat extended this time. For my ever-anxious readers, I apologize...to all three of you...who are in the other room as I write this. I'm not going to bother delving into details of what's been going on in my life, as I plan to actually do a legit post in the near future. (Also, because the only people who actually read this already know what I'm up to.) For now, though, bask in the glory of my return. BASK! BASK IN IT! YOU LOVE IT!

More soon. Really. I promise. Maybe.

"October, and the trees are stripped bare...."

Well, after another long hiatus, here are my life's latest events. Enjoy it while you can, because I'm sure the next one is - as always - months away.

Since the last time I posted, I've moved back down to Brooklyn. The six of us (me, Natalie, her cousin Nicole, Pete, Anthony and his girlfriend Jenn) are living in two apartments in a brownstone on the southern end of Park Slope. There are a bunch of things I like about our new place, but a lot that I hate also, and the actual moving process was completely horrific. I really want to bitch-slap our new landlord. It's nice to officially live with the girl I love, though; we're sharing a lease and everything now....intense. Our year-and-a-half anniversary is coming up in just under two weeks, but she still gives me butterflies. It's nice. I'm head over heels. Alright, alright, enough of the mushy crap....

Work: I'm doing catering from time to time, but more often I'm working at a Swiss restaurant in midtown. It's pretty cool, a very nice little place with great atmosphere, good food and an excellent wine selection. It's much more laid-back than the executive dining room at Lehman Brothers (where I do the catering), and I like the people. The only thing that really sucks is the timing....Natalie is taking some time off of school and working at MoMA full time, and between her working days and me working nights at the restaurant we aren't seeing each other as much as we want to, even though we share a room. That's really my only problem with working there, but it's a big one, and I really don't think I'll stick around too much longer. It sucks not being able to spend time with her when we live together.

Wes and Jeff (two of my best friends from back in the Yak) came out to visit right after we moved. Wes has been here a couple of times, but it was Jeff's first visit to New York, so it was great to hang with them and show him around the city. It made me miss Yakima a bit, and my friends from Yakima more than a bit. My initial plans to go back for the weddings this summer fell through due to insane airline fares, so I haven't been since last winter. I'll be there for Thanksgiving, though, which I'm starting to look forward to. I'm hoping to see the Seahawks game the following Monday before I head back to NYC. Football season is making me quite happy (except for our ugly loss to Chicago last Sunday). Autumn is in the air; it's getting colder and what few trees we have are starting to lose their leaves. ("AH!" you exclaim, slapping your forehead with your palm. "That explains the title for this post!" You figured it out! Yay for you!) Oh, that reminds me, I celebrated summer's unofficial end (as well as my 24th birthday) by heading to Moodus, CT, where Natalie's aunt hosted the 27th annual Labor Day celebration. Her family and their friends hold a weekend-long party every year which consists of BBQ, bonfires, music, softball and lots of alcohol. Most of them are Russian, so there was plenty of vodka a-flowing. It was fun.

Anything else going on recently....oh, yeah, concerts! Natalie and I went to three concerts last month. First we saw Roger Waters perform The Dark Side of the Moon at Madison Square Garden, then saw a Pink Floyd tribute band called The Machine do an acoustic performance at B. B. King's, and for my birthday present she got me tickets to see Eric Clapton. Turns out he's a pretty solid guitarist....

Alrighty, that should suffice for now. Until next time....

. . . .

Ludwig Wittgenstein once said, "The limits of my language mean the limits of my world."

I could not disagree more.

It is absurd to suggest that reality is limited by mere words; there are experiences and emotions which transcend our finite language. Certain occasions simply cannot be contained by the artificial boundaries imposed by words....so silence shall be a fitting tribute on this day.

"Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day...."

Wow, I really haven't updated this thing in a long time. (There's a shocker.) Alright, if anyone still actually looks at this, they're going to be in for a surprise. Here's what's new in my little universe:

For starters, I'm no longer living in Brooklyn. I moved in with my girlfriend up in Queens a few weeks ago. Speaking of the girlfriend, we've now been together for a year and two months and things are great. I'm absolutely crazy about her, and she's apparantly absolutely crazy, because she hasn't left me yet. Works for me!

Speaking of work, I'm still catering....blah. Whatever, it pays the bills and lets me make my own schedule. I worked at Cafe Wha, a live music venue in Greenwich Village, for a couple of months between now and my last posting. It was a decent job but nothing awesome; the place had a lot of history. Bob Dylan started out there when he came to NYC, and it's where Chas Chandler discovered Hendrix.

Other things that have happened since the last post: I got punched in the face by a drunken friend back home in the Yak....that sucked. Natalie actually came out to Yakima for the end of December and the first few days of January, so she got to witness this mayhem. And while I'm on the topic of vacations, my brother spent this semester studying in Oxford, so for his spring break my parents and I went over to visit him and spent two weeks in Oxford, Italy, Paris and London. It was pretty awesome; I was very happy to get back to Italy. I fell in love with it while studying in Florence two years ago, and even though I'd forgotten most of my Italian it was still incredible to be back.

Two good friends from high school are getting married this summer, so I'll probably be heading back to the Yak in early August and again in early September to attend the weddings. At the end of July we're going to be moving; we're not sure where, but it will probably be myself, Natalie, Pete (the guy who introduced us), Anthony (our other roommate), Jenn (his girlfriend), and Nicole (Natalie's cousin) looking for a four-bedroom apartment or maybe a house. We'll likely stay in Queens, but Brooklyn is a possibility also. Between moving, heading back to the Yak and working, this summer will probably go pretty quick.

Alrighty, that's enough for now. I'm signing off to go watch the World Cup. The U.S. plays Italy today....hopefully it's less of an embarassment than the 3-0 loss to the Czech Republic last week.

Peace!

"Take me to the place I love, take me all the way...."

Alright, haven't done this in a while, so let's give it a go. It's three a.m. and I don't feel like sleeping just yet. I just poured myself a fresh drink and therefore have a bit of time to kill, so here, blog-heads, is your fix:

News, news, do I have any news? Not a whole lot, truth be told. Still doing the catering thing, still disliking the catering thing, still keeping my eyes open for a way to get out of the catering thing. My work isn't difficult, it's just boring, mindless and tiring. The fact that I'm not paid very well sure doesn't help matters. Truth be told, though, I've definitely worked worse jobs. I just keep telling myself that this is temporary....

I saw Death Cab for Cutie in concert about a month ago. I saw them two summers ago at the Sasquatch Festival at the Gorge. The festival was incredible (Coldplay, Jurassic 5, The Flaming Lips, Jason Mraz, Modest Mouse and about 10 or 15 others) but I didn't really remember anything about Death Cab. I didn't get into them until about a year ago, but having listened to their "Transatlanticism" album innumerable times I was excited. It was a good show....nothing mindblowing, but a good show. The other recent music has been The Arcade Fire and Antony and the Johnsons. (Check out Antony and the Johnsons, if you haven't heard of them. Their album "I am a Bird Now" is quite excellent.) I was also listening to some Johnny Cash recently in anticipation of "I Walk the Line," which I saw last night. I had a minor gripe or two, but overall it was definitely pretty great.

On the topic of music, my roommate Richie played a show tonight at a club up on 34th. It was with a jam band called Dr. UHall, who are - fortunately - changing their name. (They haven't settled on a new name yet, as evidenced by the fact that I'm not telling you their new name.) The show was very solid; I'm looking forward to hearing what they sound like after a few more months of rehearsals since they've only been playing together for a few months. Watching them play made me wish that I was better at guitar....although not hard enough to make me practice a lot and actually improve significantly. I dunno what it is, but I am apparantly just too lazy a person to really sit down for an hour a day and work on my scales and theory.

Any other interesting stuff to report? Well, not really. I'm still thrilled by every moment I spend with my girlfriend, and still shocked that she seems to feel similarly about me. I'd go on, but I'm sure that all of my NYC friends are sick of hearing about it and that my Yak-town friends soon will be. I'm heading home for T-giving as of next Wednesday. I'm stoked. It's gonna be great to see my fam, chill with my HS buddies and hang at home....not to mention spending time with the entire extended family (on my mom's side, at least) and eating obscene amounts of food at Grandma and Grandpa's house. To my Yakima guys (who are pretty much the only ones who even read this): looking forward to seeing ya soon, boys. It's gonna be fun.

That's pretty much all I got. I'll let ya know more whenever I decide to....but don't hold your breath.

Happy Turkey Day!

"Wake me up when September ends...."

Greetings to all who've been impatiently waiting for a new post (all one of you...Zack). It seems that I've settled into a routine of very rarely updating this thing. It's not that I'm particularly busy, it's just that I don't feel that updates are a huge priority. I figure that if you want to know what I'm up to, you should simply make some attempt to contact me. Besides, my life really ain't all that amazingly interesting. Having said that, here's what's new:

The trip to Alaska with the family was incredible. Gorgeous scenery and fun times hanging out with everyone. It was nice to get back to NYC, though. I returned in time to get slammed by a monstrous heat wave, which really sucked because we didn't have an air conditioner. Fortunately, we (eventually) rectified that situation. The last weekend of August we threw a toga party at our loft. It was a hell of a party by all accounts, although some lousy excuse (or excuses) for a human being stole money. What the hell is wrong with people? We went to the trouble of setting up a great party with free alcohol and a live DJ and this walking fecal matter steals money from A) my brother's friend Ryan (who came all the way out from Washington state!) B) my girlfriend and C) the small amount we'd gotten in the tip jar. What a rotten thing to do. Aside from that - and the inevitable people who needed to be taken care of after imbibing too much - it was a pretty good time.

The week after that I went to see Green Day in concert. They were amazing. I really need to see more concerts. (I would love to see U2 tomorrow night, but the tickets are just too expensive. Maybe when they come back in November....) That weekend was also my 23rd birthday, as well as Labor Day, and I went to Connecticut with my girlfriend's family. Every year they have a Labor Day party with a bunch of friends, and it was awesome. We got drunk (most of them are Russian, so we had a lot of vodka shots), played softball, BBQ'd and bonfired. Speaking of the girlfriend, things are going very well. I'm absolutely crazy about her. We've been together for almost six months now...unreal. My longest relationship prior to this was about two months, and that seems to be where most of them ended. This is still going strong, though, which kind of blows my mind. I'm confident (arrogant, if you wanna be a jerk) enough to say that I'm a decent catch, but this girl could honestly have anyone she wanted. She hasn't left me yet, although there's a pool running if you want to bet on how long it'll take before she does. Contact Richie if you want to get in on that action....

Aside from that, not a lot to tell. I'm still catering, which is starting to get old. The job situation may change soon, in which case I'll update this website as soon as anything happens. *Bursts into laughter* Okay, in reality I probably won't post again until winter. I hope that this one will satiate your Byron-related curiousity for the next couple of months. If not...tough.

Have a wonderful day!