Joe's Blög

http://www.theonion.com/content/opinion/if_youre_ever_in_florence_you

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Let’s see…So the nice vigilante man came to my flat yesterday morning at about 10 til 8 (am). Asked some questions…wrote something down…made me sign it…shook my hand. It was kind of like a job interview or something. I was kind of nervous, but he was very pleasant.

I still have a flat tire, so I was waiting for the bus this morning and a colleague happened to see me and gave me a ride to work (thanks Cristina!)…the italians are so nice. Massimo gives me a ride home whenever I need it, so I’m lucky for that.

Matteo keeps saying I look like Andy McKee (damn…I am fat and ugly)…or maybe it’s my guitar playing that makes you think of him
More amazing is that anyone in Italy knows of Andy McKee…he’s a’ight

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The police have to come inspect my flat (I guess) to make sure there aren’t multiple people living here. They’re supposed to come tomorrow morning or the next. Once that’s done I can finally get my scooter…which with my luck will have 2 flat tires.

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So I cleared off my phone and have a few pics (hence the quality)…the office ones were not taken by me. My phone was hijacked and when I got it back unfortunately I found Massimo flipping me off in a very blurry manner.

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I spent literally hours today flipping through my music looking for something to hold my interest for more than 2 minutes and ended up listening to The Cars…seriously?!? The Cars?

Ric, you have the biggest adams apple EVER!!!

Also had an hour+ skype video chat with Matt until about 2am…That was fun…It’s the future now….How about next week we bust out our guitars

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Today went to what I think is the one music (instrument) store in town. In search of something exotic, but didn’t buy anything.

2,0 tells me he may be in Berlin this summer for something to do with school I assume. This means I’ll finally be getting to Berlin as well. Another item off the proverbial to do list.
and…
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/08/the-best-animal-photobomb_n_416065.html?slidenumber=nWGTdlXg1N4%3D&&&&&

See Matt…I could have gone on for several paragraphs and described my week in detail, but I spared you.

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So I had a flat bike tire this morning. ugh! I go upstairs and get my pump. Pump up the tire and dally a bit as it seems to not be holding air. Öܧ€§äÄÜkkkk (cursing my bike in german)…

I grab some coffee and a pastry, then wander across to the bus stop…I’ve never ridden the bus here, so I have no idea how it works. It seems complicated and I notice that the bus I would need only runs at 8:05 and 2:30PM and 6 somethingPM…great! It’s about 8:15. In fact all the buses but one have a bizarro schedule like this…Go back to the bike and figure I’ll ride to work and just stop to pump up the tire a couple times on the way and worry about getting home when it’s time to get home (immigrant life)…so pump up the tire and go about 1,5 meters before realizing that this isn’t an option…the tire is flat again after about 10 seconds of me sitting on it…
Lock up bike again and take pump upstairs so I don’t have to carry it around all day. Go back to bus stop and try to buy a ticket at the machine there…after putting in €1.20 I notice the machine seems to be non-functioning…whilst looking cool hanging out at the bus stop I ponder getting another coffee – whilst pondering…the one regularly scheduled bus arrives…
get on even though I have no ticket…Bus drives around for a while…and we end up in central carrara??? I’m not quite sure where I was as I’ve never actually been to this part of town…I just got off where most of the other people got off…Good strategy when lost.
I was just hoping for a taxi queue at this point, but don’t see one…read the bus schedule for about 10 minutes and see a tabacchi (tobacco shop). In rome the tobacco shops also sold bus tickets to I have a mosey and they do sell bus tickets…I bought 5.

Wander back to the bus stop and notice that some other bus seems to be going somewhere else…attempt to follow that bus – still looking for a taxi queue or a different bus stop. Find no taxis, but do find another bus stop that seems to go to Massa Centro…that’s only about 5k from the office. great…ballpark! There is more likelihood of finding a taxi there i suppose to i hop on…as I am some dude says somethinge somethinge somethinguhhh Massa? (good thing he was inflecting or I would not have known it was a question)…I sorta know what he’s asking, but I just said…”I don’t know…english???” We get on the bus together.

Bus gets to Massa Centro driving through some area that is vaguely familiar. I think I’ve driven this route when I was here in May….anyways. Wander around Massa Centro and find a cab with no driver. Hang out there for a few minutes and finally some guy with keys comes over…This is the worst taxi I’ve ever been in…There is no heat and the inside of the windows are condensated. No worries. he gets me to the office. It only took like 2 hours from when I first found the flat.

I’m taking tomorrow off to fix the tire and Wednesday is a holiday here as well (European random holiday generator – beep – boop. bip. bop. – beeeeep).

I only used 22 of my 30 holidays last year, so I guess I’ll have to work harder this year on my vacationing skillzzzz.

Mundane as ever

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So today I watched 7 pounds with Wil Smith…well…that’s a cryer.

When a girl drops something like “I’m all alone here”. Is this the opposite of when a girl drops a “My boyfriend and I blah blah blah…”. Is the “alone” thing intentionally dropped to tell you she has no boyfriend? Mystery deepens…

I was listening to the Avett Brothers (bluegrass) all day Friday and Saturday and now I’m listening to El-P (hardcore trip-rap-I don’t know what)…
I’m curious what the neighbours think?

I did meet the neighbours. They don’t speak english, but we tried. This is so different from Germany. Trying harder now…

We get Wednesday off here…another one of those european mystery holidays.

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How did you not get a pic of the Italian teacher???

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So for the past few days I’ve been copying and pasting old entries (pre 2008) into this new format. It’s kind of a time consuming process because I have to reupload all the photos (with my crappy half an internet connection)…anyways if anyone is interested you can find links on the right by month going back to 2006…Not all old entries are up yet so give me another day or two. You can now leave comments on the old entries.

It’s very strange to go through 3 and a half years of memories in a few days. Kind of overwhelming. I’ve laughed a lot and been sad a lot.
This is me taking a break because I can’t look at the old entries for a minute…ugh! by this point I just want it to be done…

I took a break earlier for a bit of shopping. Bought razors, face cream, toothbrushes, and a laundry basket (I had been using an ikea bag). Now all I really need is a dresser and a thing to hang my wet clothes on.

I also played a bit of guitar today. I somehow feel like I’m getting slightly better…

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