Getting a New Apartment

Well folks, the apartment we loved, we got. We decided that it was ours and it became ours. Yes!

Applying For an Apartment

As you may or may not know, my girlfriend Sarah and I have been spending the month looking at apartments for our big move on Jan 1. Well my friends, we found one that we really like yesterday and applied today. I don't want to get my hopes up too much, but it's pretty awesome. Little gas fireplace, decent size, lots of windows, quiet. If only it had hardwood floors. Wish us luck!

Reading The 25 Songs of Christmas Blog

For reals though, you gotta check out anything Steve Carey does forever. I'm an avid follower of his summertime-ish blog Saved by the Bell Quote of the Day (see how I'm directing more viewers to stay on Blogspot.com? Check please!) and now he has gifted the world with the equally wonderful 25 Songs of Christmas which should be on your computer right now. No seriously, stop reading this and check that out.

The premise: Steve (I call him Steve now) posts a Christmas song every day up until X-Mas and breaks down its merits as both a song and a Christmas song using ratings like "Jingle Jangle Annoyingness Factor" as criteria. 

The end result is both hilarious and poignant. Mmm. Holidays. Think about it.

Getting Ready to Hang X-mas Lights

Starting tomorrow I'll be hanging X-mas lights all over Long Beach. Not a bad way to get some extra money. Bonus: I am super tired right now, but felt obligated to post something. Man, I'm slackin' on this.

Getting Confused at DiPiazza's

Ok, so, we have to kill Hitler. No, wait, that's the commercial for Valkyrie. Anyone else think that movie looks kinda ridiculous?

Now, for my story:

Last night Cory and I headed out to DiPiazza's for James Boo's band Away Team's final show. Since we were pretty hungry, we thought "Hey, let's go there early, get dinner, and that way we don't have to pay the cover." Now, I'm not saying I'm trying to completely avoid paying a cover, but it does seem crazy to pay $7 to see a friends band when you aren't staying for the other bands, and it just seems good business to waive the cover for people who buy food. I thought this was standard procedure.

So, we sit down and wait for our waitperson. And wait. We notice the two bartenders pay us no heed as we sit there for a while. Eventually they start bringing food out to the other two tables sitting there and still not a look in our direction. By this time we figure we gotta go to the bar to order our food and drinks. Weird for a place that has a sign outside that says "Pizza" super big, but, whatever. We order, sit back down, back on track. Then, before our food comes out, the bartender brings over our (separate) checks. Hmm? 

Naturally I finished my beer before the food came, so thought it would be a good idea to just pay the bill while ordering another beer to avoid any further confusion. The second bartender was working the bar, so we went to him to get our next round. He says to us, "You want another round? You guys got tabs right? We usually need a credit card for tabs." Tab? For dinner? "Uh, yeah, I guess. I'm just gonna go ahead and pay for it all. I'm not sure exactly how things work here," I reply.

Back to our seats. Still waiting for food, the door guy who recently arrived starts going from table to table. He gets to ours and asks if we're here for the bands. "We're here for dinner, we're waiting for food."

"So you don't know the bands?"

"Well, we're here to eat, but we might stay and have a couple more drinks if that's ok?"

"Ok, cool."

Weird?

James' band plays while we're eating and they're pleasant enough. They play a bunch of covers of cartoon theme songs which was kinda funny.

Fast forward: We're out on the patio having another beer, after getting a shot of Fernet at the bar to soothe my stomach. A decision is made to go to Joe Jost's and since we're finished we start to head out. When we get to the door I remember I left my sweater in the booth so I head over to get it and leave. At this point, a guy, I think the owner, says "Hey, you guys gotta go to the door and get wristbands."

"Oh, we're leaving."

"Oh, ok."

What?

Ok, so I realize we were actually there for a band, but we were also eating dinner. I couldn't help but think what if we were just there to eat? Like we looked online for good pizza in Long Beach, went there and then had that experience. How much more confused would I be about the whole situation? So weird. But, what do I know?

Sorry I used a couple different tenses in that story. I am so, so sorry.

Drinking a Wisconsin Lunch Box

Oh Friday nights, why have you turned into a wasteland of drunkenness for me recently? A quick sampling of last Friday's adventures:

Phil came over to the house with a half bottle of bourbon. We took a couple of shots of that before setting out to the night.

We arrived at the Prospector for karaoke. Downed a beer pretty quickly, then sang "Don't Dream It's Over" (which, I believe, is a song only Neil Finn can actually sing). Drank another beer and left for Alex's

Got to Alex's, had another beer and inexplicably, a shot of tequila. This was pretty much the end of the night. Does that mean we stopped? Oh no.

Max's Steiner, the bar across the street from Alex's that has always had an air of scariness to it for some reason. After leaving the huddled masses of Alex's, it was weird to come into a nearly deserted bar. I ordered a beer and Phil and I began chatting up the bartender about who knows what. As the bar is closing, one guy asks for a Wisconsin Lunch Box and so the bartender begins to make one for him and herself. I must now yell out, "What the hell is a Wisconsin Lunch Box?" And so the bartender replies by asking if we want one. The smart answer at this point would've been, "No, I'm way too drunk as it is." But, that's not how I roll.  So, she pours a half glass of beer with some orange juice, gives us a shot of amaretto and we drop it in and slam it.

After that, we got Del Taco somehow and I sat on my bathroom floor for a while and tried to be quiet going to bed which didn't work in any way. And pretty much chalked up Saturday in the loss column.

Getting Back On Track

So there's  a picture of me bustin' up my back now! It's weird looking and the face reminds me of Perry Bible Fellowship, but hey, it's there!

My back is still sore, by the way. Now it's more of an all over sore though, so... progress?

Being Excited For a New President

Man, I really can't wait to have a president that doesn't make me nervous every time I hear him speak.

So awesome.

Watching Football/Reading About Propositions

Man, another pseudo-political blog, what's up with that? Or, as the kids say, Double You Tee Eff? So, I'm trying to figure out what and who to vote for tomorrow. I know I'm voting for Obama, or, B-Ozzle... no, that is just stupid. But, other than that, I haven't decided on a lot of stuff. 

To go to the first part of what I'm up to for a moment, the Steelers beat the shit out of the Redskins tonight (side note, I'm all for tradition, but how does a team in this day and age still get away with calling themselves the Redskins? Really?) and, as you may know, with the exception of the 2004 election, every time Washington has won the game they play before a presidential election, the incumbent party wins. So, good news for Obama. Also, how do the Washington fans let half the stadium be filled with Pittsburgh fans? Bad form, D.C.

So, with that done, I try and decide voting. An awkward sentence you say? Well, may I direct you to the previous paragraph. Read the 'first' sentence. 

Indeed, this has descended into nonsense, and yes, I have no drawing for you (I've decided to point this out every time I don't have one to encourage myself). My back still hurts and I'm using that as an excuse to not draw. Suck it.

Go vote!

Carving Pumpkins

Ok, so this was last night. And, ok, so I don't have any drawings for this either. My back hurts, get off it already!

I can't think of any points of particular interest right now either. Worst blog ever!

Bustin Up My Back

OK, sorry for the delay. And sorry that there's no picture to go along with this. I swear there will be later. Check it out, there is totally a picture now!

So, Saturday night Phil and Carrie came over. The combination of them plus Sarah and I always leads to drunkenness. Always. This night, Phil and Sarah decided it was a good idea to ride a speaker (yes, speaker) down the front porch steps. So, of course, when I went outside and they related this genius idea to me, I thought, "That is a horrible idea... so... yes, I will surf this speaker down the steps." 

With nobody to deter me from this thought I hopped on top of the speaker, leaned forward... and... promptly let it slip out from under me and fell backwards, slamming my back into the steps.

At first, the fall knocked the wind out of me. I crawled over to the grass trying to get my breath back and trying to decide if my back was broken. After a bit of deliberation, I confirmed that no, in fact, my back was not broken, so all was well. Apparently the booze had dulled my senses enough to not realize how bad I had actually injured myself.

I woke the next morning in excruciating pain and went to sleep on the couch to keep from waking Sarah. Over the next couple of days I decided that I must have pulled a muscle and it would slowly get better. Now that some time has passed and it still hurts pretty damn bad, I'm weighing an alternate possibility: a cracked rib.

Naturally, being the mild hypochondriac that I am, I scoured the internet for verification. All of the symptoms I've found match mine entirely: pain when I move a certain way, pain when I cough or clear my throat (which is one of my Tourette's induced tics - I told you, mild hypochondriac), horrible pain when I sneeze (and I just did, trust me, don't crack a rib if you have allergies), pain when I take a deep breath (luckily this one isn't that bad, apparently if you can't take deep breaths it can lead to pneumonia).

The solution for this malady (according to various web forums): rest and painkillers. The same solution for a pulled muscle.

So, all that to end up with the same course of action I'm already taking. And I assume that whiskey is considered a painkiller, yes? 

Getting Into the Weekly, Perhaps.

I went to the "Best of Long Beach" party for the District Weekly the other night. For the last year I've been petitioning them to put me in the paper. The funny part being that I am not that big on attention, and really, not that interesting in many ways. 

Since I didn't make the "Sexiest People in Long Beach" (I'm openly campaigning for next year) or the "Best of," I pitched the idea of "What's Dave Gooch Up To?" The idea being that it won't take up much space and can't hurt. 

Well, my friends, the time is at hand. "WDGUT" has been approved and soon(ish) a print variation of this will be appearing. It remains to be seen what kind of format it will take. Probably not exactly like this.

Thank you all for your dedication.

Eating a Grilled Cheese Sandwich

Sometimes I make myself a grilled cheese sandwich for lunch. This is partly because usually all I have in the house is cheese and bread, partly because I'm lazy and mostly because they are delicious.

This also reminded me that I don't like drawing people, and I can't say this really looks like me. More than that, I hate drawing hands (don't we all?) and so the sandwich is magically floating which is really a more ideal situation for everybody.

Mmm...

Getting Windows Fixed on the Ice Cream Truck

 Yesterday I took the truck in to get both windshields and the side window replaced. The windshields have been messed up for a while from wear and tear, but the side window was recent.

I had left it parked in front of Ralph's across from my house (street sweeping) and at some point in the dark of night some hooligans came by to bust shit up. I can only imagine the scenario, but all signs point to an asshole.

Or maybe it was a monster? I guess it would still be an asshole monster though...

Working on my blog (blaugh?)

I'm still trying to figure out this whole process. Eventually there will be pictures that I draw (comics?) for each post. We'll see how that works over time. Bear with me. 

Watched the debates

I'm not entirely sure what they were debating about, but they both seemed to smirk a lot when the other was talking (ok, McCain smirked to keep his anger in check and Obama made more of a condescending smile). 

I find myself thinking Obama would make a good Joker. Also, I am surprised I haven't heard anybody call him "Brobama" yet.

Apparently Carrie says McCain looks like a bridge troll... I can't argue against that.

I'm working on a better way to incorporate pictures into this. Give me time.

Drinking Coffee

I made myself an espresso with sugar in it. Almost like a Cuban coffee, but not really. I'm up to boring stuff most of the time.