Current Events Archive 2006
25.12.06 So I suppose I should begin with Merry Christmas, Feliz Navidad, Frohliche Weihnachten. And now that that’s out of the way, let’s go back a couple weeks to round it all up. A couple weeks ago I made brownies to take into work, at the request of one of my co-workers. I was going to do it anyway, for the holiday season. In between checking on them, the usual crew was hanging out in Lilian’s room. The smell was well noticed down the hall. People always love it when I cook. I was planning on doing it Sunday night, but hadn’t picked up the mix on Saturday. They went pretty quick. Det got about half of them.
Tuesday was my neighbor’s birthday. My room was in prime party condition because I was anticipating cleaning up before flying home. We had a couple bottles of bubbly and about 10 people packed into my room. At one point, it was just me and 7 ladies. Of course only the birthday girl was in her 20’s. The rest are all jail bait quality teenie boppers and out of my plus or minus 5 years rule. I mean a long time ago at camp we learned the half your age plus 7 rule, but I’ve tried to pull things down to an appropriate range. Of course they’re more like guidelines. I stand to be persuaded to bend the rules at any time, within reason. Of course I received the usual comments of what an amazing room I have.
The next night was our groups Christmas Market and Dinner Night. It was a great night. I sat with Oliver, Erkan and Daniel. There were lots of good jokes. At the end of the night, it was Daniel, Jessica, Brigitte and myself. Thursday morning came a little early, but I think after nights like that, you walk into work with high spirits and more energy than normal.
Thursday was bowling night. It was a decent night and we made our typical McDonalds run afterwards. It appears as if I’ve been able to maintain my standing with the crew despite my change in rolls at work over the last 3 months.
I find it’s not the challenge of taking on the responsibility and work itself that usually gets people. What I find is that people talk about how so and so used to be. Like everything, there are three sides to every coin; the two main faces and the band that separates them. I suppose if I’m going to get technical, I should call them surfaces rather than sides, but play along with me. It’s usually the case that with more responsibility and work, that there is less time for an individual to do some of the things there was once time for. There often comes more difficult decisions and sometimes trouble comes with the job. The role of anyone who has more than one thing to do, which is almost everyone, is to balance priorities to get the work done. Sometimes that means tweaking blood pressures, sometimes that means working with deliverables for the good of the whole team, sometimes it means a lot of explaining and working to develop a new solution. While people may not always be happy with the way things go, it generally helps if people can see the picture and give their work meaning. There isn’t always a lot of time for explaining, but it’s amazing how a couple minutes can go a long way. I believe it can be related to the soldiers who have a general who will lead them into the fight rather than send them to the slaughter, but a form of respect must exist as well. You have to be hard enough that people will listen to you and take you seriously. At the end of it all, the job is still to get the job done.
Different situations require different styles of leadership. If it’s one of the things I learned doing leadership training at school, it was that. When in a leadership position, I generally try to lead by example, but sometimes there is no substitute for volunteering someone to do something at all costs.
As a general rule, I make it a point not to go into the details of work in my updates. I would probably need a whole different blog and another 30 hours a week to pick it apart if I did, to make the engineering things understandable for everyone. As it is for talking about the people side of things, well, I make it a point to try not to judge people or their actions openly. I am no expert and I don’t believe in doing it, especially if I have not walked a mile in the same shoes on the same trail myself. It’s always easy to be the critic, but I believe in the man in the arena.
All in all, I have to take the remarks as compliments and on Friday there were more for me. Friday was a tough day, the pinnacle of months of hard work and preparation. We ran parts on the line for the first time, and were successful. I received much praise for getting to that point, but I have to say it is not the work of one, but the hands of many that made it work. Having a good team to work with goes a long way and having the right role models make it easier to do things right the first time. My team has showed me a lot of patience and understanding, and for that I am extremely grateful. I take the compliments to heart. It is my responsibility, my honor to my colleagues to work with their expertise, and help me try to make us the best most successful thing out there. Of course that is the big picture, which is in our best interest. But that’s the fundamental truth and I relate it to something my father told me as a boy and what a colleague said to our supplier. My father told my brother and I when we were little, that the things we did didn’t just reflect upon ourselves, but on our parents, and our family name in general. In speaking with our supplier, their project manager was told that in that moment, they are the company to us. It’s nothing personal, nothing to take personal offense to, but it is the truth.
It is the same deal as what I am to anyone I come into contact with. As a foreigner, I am an international diplomat on an informal level. I have the power to change people’s opinions of what an “American” is. And still, if you know anything in this world, you know that no one has all the answers and the one who claims that knows even less. Every country is filled with a variety of types of people. No where is that more evident than in the states. Boil it down to just regions themselves and you can pick out the distinctions. No matter where you are, there are always the good, the bad and the ugly.
So Friday night was fairly low key. After a very stressful day, I didn’t want to do anything. Actually, I had meant to start packing everything up in anticipation of changing rooms, but allowed myself to be pleasantly distracted in the hallway for a couple hours and then chilling with Marcel for another little while. I looked at packing the same way as I did my 6 x 9 journal in AP history back in high school, I knew about how long it was going to take and that I’d be my most efficient when the pressure was on.
On Saturday, it was go time. I jammed to the tunes to get ‘er done. It was amazing, it’s always amazing to do that. I’m always a bit melancholic when I have to tear a setup down. I look at the wall of fame filled with the memories I’ve shared with people, picture by picture and it all comes back, I go back.
It was an early rise Sunday to make the train. I gave my key to Marcel who had offered to help me with the move, and headed out to go “home.” The house and lay of land that will always be the most special till the day I die. People move, and my love for them will always move with them, but home will always be those 5 and a quarter acres. Of course that’s a whole can of worms for a different night. Still, I was excited to say the least. When you’re away from people, from things, you carry them inside, in that special part of your heart reserved for such things, but when you have the chance to go there and retouch the magic, it just builds in you.
My flight was alright. I tried to watch the movies, but my late night left me wanting to nap some, so I came in and out of Scrooged and some Johnny Depp movie where he’s a magician in love with a duchess. The flight attendant was very generous and gave me two extra minis of the liquors of my choice. I don’t know what I did to deserve that, but I didn’t mind. Twas the season.
I came in dead at around
We’d never gone kayaking this late in the year. The lake had always been iced in sometime in November, so this was something new. For me, breaking through the quarter inch of ice covering over 2/3 of the lake was a fun and new challenge. For my own amusement, the Kate Winslet quote from Titanic about the lifeboats and temperature of the water bounced across my mind. Maybe that’s because the last time I was in that boat was a rainy day in April when I dumped it. The water wasn’t much warmer then, and while I probably had the skill to roll it at the time, the stabbing of knives feeling is the honest truth I made sure to avoid this adventure.
Afterwards, we had a nice dinner and the grandparents came down. It’s been a stellar week. I haven’t gotten caught up with everyone yet. And my brother is stuck down at
This year is winding down fast. In the rear view mirror, the miles covered amaze me, but the time has gone by way too fast. It’s been another year where I’ve been able to raise the bar, push harder, do and see things I’ve never seen coming. I’ve been fortunate to run such a rich life, and 2006, with everything to look back on, has been one of the best to date. They are none and all the best, in their own light, judged by and within their potential. You never know what can happen, you can only prepare for the worst, hope for the best and marvel at the surprises, both good and bad. In the right light with the right attitude, it is Christmas all year round. We get to give and we receive. We are consumers and we have our possessions, and yet it is our ability to grasp the unquantifiable value of relationships and feelings. It is this which makes us human, what makes us sacrifice for he who hath not the warmth of family, friendship and camaraderie is a poor soul even if cloaked in the riches of the physical world.
10.12.06 So here we are, back again. I guess I’ll pick up from where I left off, chronologically speaking of course. We passed up sushi last time. We ended up chilling at Journal for a while. I had some Käsespäzle, which are a special type of noodles, with cheese and ham mixed in. Quite good.
The week was busy, but not too hellish. I suppose that’s relative. As I said at work this last week, I’m afraid I’m getting used to it. Of course that was with one of my “I wouldn’t have it any other way” grins. But yeah, there are days when I offset my schedule and go to work at
Bowling wasn’t too bad. There was a little kids birthday party going on when we started and lasted till halfway through the second game. It was somewhat annoying cause I didn’t want to run the one kid over. He was sitting up by the gutters between our lanes, and I stand to that side, the left side, cause I need to. It wasn’t until after they left that I rolled anything too decent. We only played 3 games. I was just getting warmed up. Afterwards we did our usual McDonalds thing.
I didn’t go out last weekend. I took one to do nothing. Part of that is because I forgot to turn my phone back on after a meeting that Friday. If I hadn’t forgotten, Brian and I might have gone and done something. I slept the night away and organized my oldies collection Saturday night.
Work has been rolling away like a freight train. The end of the year goes by fast, and in all reality, there isn’t much left. In a week I’ll be arriving at JFK. It’ll be the second time in the last six months, just for a different goal and purpose this time around. It’s hard to believe. I guess in a small way, I’m almost afraid of it. It’s been since the end of September last year. It’s not like I haven’t done anything like this before, and I certainly got used to things changing at home while I was at college, but wow. 14 months and a couple weeks. It doesn’t seem like it’s been that long.
Of course I have to make it through this week of work. There’s a lot to do and too little time. There’s never enough time. The time I’ll be state side will also go by too fast as well. Before I know it, I’ll coming back feeling guilty about having taken so much time off. People would say I’ve earned it. I’m Frankie 24-7. Maybe that’s because my extension is 247, but maybe it’s more. The boss cautioned me about not staying too late to which I said I had it calculated out to the minute. It’s kinda funny, kinda sad, but true. But I’m single, I have no commitments and I can push just as hard as people will let me push myself.
And that’s it. This week will be filled with our annual visit to the Christmas market and dinner afterwards. I’m scheduled to do one last bowling night for 2006 and I’ve got to get all my crap together. But that’s it. While I’m home, you can reach me at the good old 607 number. And that’s it, short and sweet this time around. The next post should be from stateside.
26.11.06 Well, if you couldn’t tell last time, I had a quiet night on the third. The following night was Honky Tonk here in Wü. I went out solo in hopes of catching some decent tunes and maybe finding a girl to hit on. It didn’t quite work out that way. The music wasn’t that bad. It wasn’t great either, but I figure if you break out how much it costs to see a decent movie these days, in the bang for my buck department I did ok. Sunday was fairly normal, - sleep in till whenever then get up and curse myself for wasting so much of the day. You’ll have that sometimes though.
If memory serves me correctly, the week was fairly average. Must have watched “50 1st Dates” with Lilian and company Monday or Tuesday. After a couple days back at work, it felt like I hadn’t had a vacation at all. It was definitely noticeable during that weeks bowling performance on Wednesday. Opposed to the 195 the week before, I couldn’t hit 100 to save my life. But I was throwing the ball hard, hitting 28 and 29 kmh as opposed to my usual 24. The following night I put together a bed for one of the kids on the floor and then went downstairs to chill with Lilian, Marcel and a couple other peeps. That Friday I spent chilling with Joachim and Clemens. We started off at Joe’s drinking pitchers of margaritas. Eventually, Joe’s closed and we went across the street to Kräuzle for a couple beers. It was getting mad late, and I was fading after a long day at work. We decided to call it a night around 3 or 4. Clemens and I had to go in the same direction, Joachim was going to go to Lobby. Well, on the way we ran into a friend of his and ended up going back. He had to go to the ATM first, and in the cold night air, I woke back up a little. It was enough to get me to 5 or 6. When I got back here, I crashed hard, but it had been worth pushing it that far. So I slept in good on Saturday and for good reason, Joachim, Manual and the rest of the band had a gig. It was the same place they had played at back in the spring, and this time they were opening. I met up with Joachim and Marion at Journal first. Had a couple cups off coffee to make sure I’d be perked up for a while. It wasn’t as crazy as the last time, but it was good. Afterwards, Marion, Joachim and I ended up going back to her place for a couple more beers. I fell asleep somewhere around 4, but they must have stayed up till 5 or 6.
Once we got around to things the following day, we went to Journal again. After that, I came back here and had a hell of a time trying to fall asleep. It wasn’t hard to stay awake at work. There’s so much going on, so much that has to get done. In my case, I was getting ready to go down to
It was a hellish couple of days. I only walked onto this project full time back in September. Over the past year, there had been a lot of history made. Our customer had sent down their supplier quality manager and tooling engineer, but not their project manager. It made for some interesting questions that I received and didn’t have the answers to. It was a unique situation I hope I don’t find myself in again any time soon. Still, we got parts and they are pretty decent. Another interesting aspect, was taking care of our customer evenings. The work might appear to be done, but it’s not. Thus I found myself playing pool after 12 with my colleague and the two of them. Well, there’s a saying, the customer is king. The best part, was at the end of the night when my colleague wanted to get his jacket from its hook in the hotel bar. The bar was locked up for the night. We lucked out because my room had 2 beds. It was one of those things, and regardless of how embarrassing it is, you look back and laugh at it.
We got in fairly late in the afternoon. I checked my email and did a couple odds and ends before calling it a week. I had only been planning on sleeping that night. And I did for a few hours. It was at that point that my presence was requested the Coyote Bar. Think Coyote Ugly. Think chicks in black, dancing on 40 ft long bar with a streak of fire burning behind them as they give out shots. This was better than the movie, better than my first trip down to
Sunday night was quiet, but as always, I couldn’t fall asleep. Monday was Jessica’s birthday. She invited us all out to a café and I stayed out till 2. On a work night, indeed. But I wasn’t the only one hitting the coffee the next day. And while I might be getting older, nothing will ever compare to the nights I pulled in college, where the sleep deprivation went on for days at a time.
Thursday night was bowling and for the second time inside of a month, I beat my old personal best. This time with a 150 something. It took until the 4th game. I threw double 96’s, a 120 something before getting to that point. It’s the same old story, after work I was just throwing it at first. Not a bad way to end the night though. Afterwards we went and did our usual McDonalds run and that was that. McDonalds didn’t have any turkey, but I did have a couple chicken nuggets.
Friday night was quiet. I went to bed around 11 after doing some reading. Yesterday afternoon Brian called me up and wanted to know if I wanted to get pizza with him. We ended up going to Schlemmer Eck for gyros instead. Later on we met up with Marion, Joachim, Clemens and another guy to watch a little bit of boxing. We started out at Journal, watched the match at Kräuzle and then headed over to Joe’s. And now, we might go out for sushi. This will be a new experience for me. As a result, I probably won’t get to post this till tomorrow, but that’s that.
1.11.06 So what’s new? It’s been a couple weeks, but I think I get get it down for your reading pleasure. On the 16th, I went out and checked out ties. I needed one to go with my cobalt blue shirt that I was planning on wearing Tuesday with the new suit. I had a supplier coming up and wanted to try the set up out. I ended up going for a red, white and blue striped tie. Tuesday, I was pimpin. After work I came back and stopped by Marcel’s. I had Lilian take a couple shots in the stairwell. They didn’t turn out that great, but it’s all good. We chilled for a while in Marcel’s room till I decided I had to crash for the night. Wednesday I decided to try and play soccer. I still wasn’t feeling 100%, and spent most of the time in the goal.
Thursday would have been laundry night. While walking back from laundry, Marcel was talking to the one blond girl on the hall. She didn’t have any food and needed something to eat. Marcel recommended she talk to me, but she was somewhat shy about it. I had already eaten, but offered the pasta I had. I decided it would be fun to show off and even mixed in some spices. Apparently it was pretty decent, but I know how teenagers are. Any free meal, as long as it is not cooked by someone in the family, is decent, unless of course it tastes like total crap.
Friday was spent chillin with Marcel. His brother was down and we had picked up some bottles of wine to try out. I didn’t make it too late, and fell asleep between 12 and 1, woke up around 1 and dragged my butt upstairs to a nice warm bed. Saturday and Sunday were fairly quiet. I opted not to go out, but stay in to ensure I was well rested for my vacation and to clean up. I did a little bit of playlisting, reading and watched Johnny Dangerously. On Saturday, I continued my current theme of personifying things with Capristo by creating my own cigarette brand. If a Capristo were a car, the ad slogan would be… Look for the postings coming soon to a website near you.
And that’s my current situation. I’m become quite the smart ass once again. It’s a phase, and once again, I’ve come full circle. I’m somewhere between DGAST (Don’t Give A Shit Today) and DGAFT (use your imagination) with some stuff. I feel the need to entertain myself, any way possible, regardless of how off color I have to be. This is most likely due to the inverse proportion that exists with sex. The more sex one has, the more mellow one is. This is common for all male engineers attending a college where “the ratio” tips severely in balance of the opposite sex. The over supply of men lowers their value. It’s a woman’s market and as a result many males sit on the lot getting antsy. You may know these symptoms by the highly technical medical term used to describe them, TSB or toxic semen buildup. Other symptoms may include, but are not limited to the loss of DC, or dick control, in both the metaphorical and literal meanings.
If you were to turn to your college dictionary for engineers, you would find the following meanings for DC: a. A member of the male gender who will chase after any two legged (and sometimes single or no legged) member of the female species, regardless of what standards she does and does not meet. b. A member of the male species who, once has found a member of the female species to take pity in him and grant him his deepest dreams of sexual inhibition, can only last for 2 minutes. See also “the two pump chump.”
Anyways, I went into work on Monday and Tuesday because Pam wasn’t getting into Würzburg until after dinner. As it turned out, she wasn’t getting in till around 11 cause of all the delays she had on the way down.
She was kind enough to let me know she was going to make the second train without a problem, but that it would be a half hour late. I came back here instead of going to the train station and chilled with Marcel and Lilian, made it to the station and two minutes later would be the start of our grand adventure together.
I let the girl sleep in a while the next morning. Might as well, I didn’t feel like getting up right away either. We went to the one café I usually go to with people from work. We had coffee and an early lunch. I figured we would bounce back to my place before checking out much of the city, but we ended up going up to the fort (Festung Marienburg) instead.
At least she was smart and had her camera along. The weather was perfect, blue sky, sunny, and the air was just right for drinking. That would come later. That night we had dinner at a very nice Italian joint, “Bei Peppino.” We felt slightly underdressed, but it was all good. I was catching up on all the latest and greatest of what I had missed over the course of the last year. Did just about everyone get married in the last year? We went over to Escalera for a drink and called it a night.
The next day we went and did the Residence. We went and checked out a couple of the rooms I had missed the last time around. This time I was armed with my camera and got a couple nice shots off in the garden. That night was Thursday. Joachim was going to come into town. We met up at Joe’s. It wasn’t quite a repeat performance of the first night my brother was here, but we sure as hell tired.
The next day was more or less of a bust. We had been debating about going to
We wanted to go tour the wine cellar by the residence, but I kept getting us there just a little too late. After the second time, we decided we should do something productive with the day and took the train down to Rothenburg. 
Rothenburg is one of the cities on the old
“Hi, can I speak to Bethann please?”
- I wouldn’t have cared if the pope had answered the phone. Male voice, not my sister. I’m going to use a polite tone, but I’m calling from overseas on a fucking cell phone. I don’t have time to play around and be all cute. Apparently I wasn’t fully understood.
“Hi, yes, this is Bethann’s older brother Frank. Can I speak to her please.”
- It took him a couple of seconds for him to get his head on straight, but then he replied:
“Frank! You’re the brother I haven’t met yet!”
- I tried to be nice, but it’s going on 9 and I haven’t eaten yet. He’s lucky I didn’t say something like “Congratulations, I’m glad you now know who the f I am. Would you like a gold star? No, I haven’t seen your baseball.”
What I really said was something like:
“Yeah, that’s me.”
- Luckily at this point he hollers to the next room for my sister to come, that it’s her brother on the phone. Judging by the sounds, she really was in the next room. It’s not like they were in bed together or anything. Of course it was the middle of the afternoon too.
So she gets on the phone and I wish her a happy birthday and gave her some brotherly advice about enjoying the last year as a teenager, but that she’s still too young for sex and better be keeping it to first base. It seems like only yesterday she was turning her sweet 16 and I had posted the following in my instant messager Info:
“In light of my sisters 16th that is tomorrow. (yes, I remember) I leave you males that might be interested with these simple guidelines, call them rules if you wish:
1. If you pull into my old mans driveway and honk, you better be dropping off a bottle of something nice, cause you ain't leavin with anything.
2. If you touch her in front of us, or look at anything below the neck, your hands and or eyes will be removed. Yes, eyes can be removed, think Full Metal Jacket.
3. If I feel your clothing is too lose, and may fall down at some point, I will remedy the situation with my nail and staple guns.
4. Any sex will be by the barrier method. My father, brother, Rex and myself along with the Ruger and Ithicas are the barrier. Do not try to cross our bridge.
5. Make her cry and we make you cry
Have a nice day:-D”
Anyway, all the restaurants we tried to go to were full and we ended up having to settle for Doenner. Well, we could have gone for McDonalds, but I didn’t feel like taking one of my best friends to a Mac when she’s flown over the pond to come and see me. That ain’t right. Of course Pam felt the need to get some jabs in on me for my sister and all I heard for a while was how innocent she probably isn’t, especially if she’s been with a guy for over a year. There was something about how just because I was a late bloomer, it didn’t mean she was too. Pam must have enjoyed the comments and colorful language that was coming out of my mouth while she said this, cause it continued for a little while.
We went to Café Journal to meet up with Joachim, Marion and crew. We got there early and took a seat in the corner and had a beer before they caught up with us. It was way too damn hot in there. Well, Joachim went straight after it again, and before you could bat an eye, there were two tequilas in front of everyone. Pam refused the second one, and that meant that I got three. I was already overheated and my ears were a few shades red, I also a bit drained due to the weather. Marcel called and came and met up with us. He was after my wine glasses again. His woman was getting in around 11 and we went with him. I didn’t really want to go, but I knew we couldn’t stay up and party all night. I knew my body wasn’t up to it either. We were going to catch a train to Nürnburg the next day and didn’t want to have to do any late night praying. Her train in was half an hour late. Must have been something going on with the trains that day. Needless to say, I dropped right off to sleep that night.
We got up and went to Nürnburg the next morning. It didn’t look like
things would get off to a good start when the main entrance to the train station was completely locked down with cops. I don’t know what had gone inside, but they weren’t going to let us get close enough to find out. We had to walk around the outside of the building to get to the gates. It looked like the weather was going to be more confused than an art student taking calculus. We had a coffee on the market square and with time to kill, went up to another bakery like place for some sandwiches. Our city tour of the “old city” wasn’t to start until 1 and we didn’t feel like having to wait so long for food like the previous evening. Our tour guide was a Scottish woman who was a few planets short of a solar system. Oh well, it was still interesting. I swear we had taken the same tour as an exchange student, but I didn’t remember any of the stuff. Maybe I had been too busy checking out the other exchange students. It had been the first day of our trip. I had been out drinking with Tony and Joe the night before at that point in time.
We walked around a little bit afterwards before catching a quiet train back. 
Once again, I hit a couple of the restaurants the wrong way, but it worked out perfect because we ended up at another Italian joint I had be aching to try. I wasn’t sure what the waiter had meant about the blue cavern, but they had room down there so I figured what the hell and went with it. Well, it was decorated in a crystalline like cavern that had been painted a sort of baby-neon / royal blue in the shadows color. It had a really interesting glow and the tables were like miniature sandboxes with glass tops and sea shells inside. The food was pretty damn good. I followed my standard practice of ordering cappuccino and tiramisu after the meal. I told Pam that if she wanted tiramisu, she better order some of her own, because I tend to be territorial when it comes to my desserts. Hey, blame my mother, where one bite meant half the piece. I guess it runs in both sides of the family, my father always wanted just one “little kiss” and ended up married with three kids. These things happen. It was a good meal, a short night. We wanted to make sure we got an early start for
We managed to get up early, but it was almost all for nothing as the ticket we wanted to use wouldn’t be good until after
So it had been a little over 4 years since the last time I was in 
around a couple blocks. At that point we decided to catch the subway up to the Olympic Park from the ’72 Olympics so we could take care of that while it was still daylight out. It was somewhat overcast and hazy in the 
Science and Technology museum and go check it out. Well, they had the first functional diesel engine (from Rudolf Diesel who came from
It was after that, that we decided to go find the one and only, true Hofbräuhaus. I wasn’t going to let Pam come all this way without having a good Bavarian weat beer, white sausage, meatloaf, potato salad and pretzel. Of course we split all of that. We probably would have been better off just having a beer and going somewhere else for food, but I didn’t feel like messing around. At first I thought we were pressed for time, but actually, we were pretty good. Afterwards, we walked up back towards the train station. I stopped into one of the big music stores in search of the new Hinder album, but to no avail. It would have been better if we had just gone straight up and caught an earlier train, but it didn’t work out that way. I was still hungry, so I picked up a double whopper at Burger King. We had another coffee, knowing full well it would be close to 1 by the time we got back in. I was shot and Pam let me do the half doze off thing on her shoulder most of the way back.
We slept in Tuesday, but it was alright, cause we hadn’t really planned anything. It was more of a catch up day, grab some last minute postcards and all that. Once we had taken care of the post card bit, I thought that even though we were both sore from the previous 2 days of walking, we could get some nice pictures of the city with the fort in them from one of the wine hills. The day to do this would have been the first day, but how was I to know? Anyway, we got some alright pictures before Pam asked me to get a few of her. It was at this point in time that I found my big lens is great for portrait shots. The lighting was still halfway decent, and well diffused with light cloud cover. It was a good time creating our “new” senior pictures.
After making the trek back down, we went out to the Greek restaurant I had been to with the parents. It was a good meal. As I experienced on my last visit, we received complimentary shots of Ouzo to top off the meal. This time I understood what he was talking about as I hadn’t heard of Ouzo until then. Pam managed half of hers, but the taste was not to her liking. I wasn’t about to let any alcohol go to waste, and I was nice and tasty warm as we walked back to my place.
We opted not to go out with a bang that night. No trick or treating, although I was treated to dinner. We went Greek, not Dutch, but we had been trading on and off with everything the whole trip, and she makes about 4 times what I’m getting these days. In my opinion, 
Luckily for me, all I had to do was wake the girl up and throw her out of the bed before saying wake me when you’re ready to go to the train station. Well, no sense in getting up and in the way while she’s packing up all her stuff.
Anyways, it was cold out that morning. It must have gotten down near freezing. We got Pam her ticket, and on the
Did I go back to bed? Hells yes! My last day of vacation and I was going to use it. Not only that, but the weather was really finicky. It was rain shine all day long, and I was already feeling a little down, like I always am when someone leaves. We had some real good fun and games. We had some good conversations of the type we used to have on our Sunday night dinners. If Aaron had been there, we would have had the perfect threesome back together again, but things are the way they are.
Thursday I was back at work. For a change things had run fairly smooth in my absence. Fairly smooth meaning that no bombs had exploded. That only happens when they do road work on the autobahn and manage to set off a dud from WWII. No joke, it happened right before I went on vacation. They found parts of the equipment, or what was left of it 800 m away. We have a hard time building a decent car in the states, but are bombs are… the bomb, a super bomb bomb bomb. Eh, it’s a sad state of affairs when your country can produce bombs that last longer than cars.
It was good to be back. I always miss work. It’s another one of my sick demented traits. I had a fairly low number of emails to deal with, but the amount of work hadn’t diminished. Late afternoon, the guys informed me that they were going bowling and asked if I wanted to go. Of course! Well the only explanation I have is that I actually managed to rest up over the one week. I wasn’t completely burnt like I have been. I missed our minimum goal of 100 the first game with a 95, 104 the second. It was a poor example of not even being to average 100, but halfway through that game I had switched balls and felt a little more comfortable. Up until the last frame, it was either strike or spare the whole way. I couldn’t believe it. I kept waiting for the magic to run out, but it didn’t till the very end. I beat my personal best of 148, which I set at Honda two years ago with a 195! This will probably stand for another 2+ years. I wish I had hit the 200 mark. That would have been too much. Maybe next time.
And today, well the boss was in the office today and happy to see me. I was happy because my transcript request had processed and arrived. He opened it up, we made a copy for me to keep track of. He’s got that for weekend reading material, a copy of my diploma and on Monday will get the latest update to my resume. After that, it’s up to the powers that be to decide if I stay here a while longer, or if I should try to pass go and try elsewhere.
It’s an interesting place to be in these days. Like I said, it’s somewhat of a DGAST life I’m living. I mean, I’m living the life I’ve chosen, and loving it. This is the path I’ve decided to go down, but like everything else, has its own consequences. My standard mythology hasn’t changed much over the years. When the goin gets like this, I generally put my head down, and run hard, without trying to expect anything from anyone. I’m just going to let it all ride and see what shakes loose before I go to buy the next lottery ticket. And somewhere in the madness, I’ve found my own nirvana. I’ve proven enough to myself to know what I’m made of. I’m entering the time of my life where it’s time to let the tempering and fine tuning of conditioning start.
I’ve been playlisting something fierce these days. I’ve decided to go through my collection and pull the best of modern rock out of the last 15 years or so. I say forget those retards who believe Metallica is the best rock band ever in the world. To that I say the Fucking Stones!!! Hands down the best band of all time has to be The Rolling Stones. And even if you want to go modern, as Wiklipedia puts it, ’92 was a pivotal year for music. For modern rock, it was the year Nirvana broke through. You remember it, that video with the little spermies swimming across the screen. Something about Teen Spirit. And while they broke through, I don’t want to pay them too much credit. My credit goes to the bands like the Offspring, Stone Temple Pilots and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Who else has kicked has much ass, been the inspiration for, copied and done so much for modern/alternative rock as these fine examples of artists. All three have managed to stay true to their roots and put out quality music time and time again. You can play something of theirs from over 10 years ago and think to yourself, damn, you could re-release that today and it would be current. Or you find yourself flipping through the cards in your head as you compute other bands who you see as having been influenced by their style. It’s all fantastic. Even Pam agreed I pulled out a lot of good stuff. Of course I’ve always had a playlist to jam to. If it’s one of the things that keeps me going when the man has got me down, it’s the music.
15.10.06 I’m back, ready to write and entertain you. Let me entertain you. Ladies, forget Robbie Williams. If you want to be satisfied, get a Capristo to do it.
“If you want to pick up lots of chicks, become a pop singer.”
“Are you a pop singer?”
“Don’t ask a man if he’s a pop singer, if he is he’ll let you know. If not, don’t embarrass him.”
“Pop pukes make millions, Capristo’s make satisfied women.”
Well, I wanted to build that up better, but that’s the best I can do at the moment. Some of you will know what movie I’m borrowing from, most of you won’t, but that just means you haven’t been spending enough time with a Capristo lately.
Personally, I’m just happy a Capristo is a quality piece of machinery. If a Capristo was like a Ford, I’d have to have a slogan like “Have you ridden a Capristo lately.” If that was true, well, I don’t even want to think about it. Ford means fix or repair daily. I’d probably never get past second base. Of course getting to second is better than not getting on base at all I suppose.
Alright, enough with the antics. So last week was just the way I predicted it. Bloody murder. I should have worked longer on Monday, but I put in a bit of time as it was. I got out of work Wednesday and was requested to play soccer. It was perfect soccer weather. A little chilly, damp with rain threatening. There was a little bit of a hint of falls leaves in the air. We got spanked because the teams were a bit uneven. Maybe not uneven, but the people on our team didn’t believe in running back to play defense. There was a lot of 4 on 1 action. This may be ok if you’re into the orgy scene, but not for soccer. Marcel and I did our best, that was all we could do. Eventually, I decided to say screw it. I came out of the goal to try and even up the defense a little bit. If they’re going to score anyway, might as well try and make a fighting chance out of it. And then I got so frustrated I had to do some running around. I managed to score an ugly goal, but it counted. Ugly by me almost falling over the ball, but hey, a goal is a goal.
The next day I woke up with a sore throat. I thought I had beaten it earlier in the week. With everyone coughing and sneezing at work, well, I guess I was bound to get it. I know, I probably shouldn’t have played soccer. So sue me. The only question was how bad and when. I couldn’t be sick on Thursday, I had to run down to one of our prototype part suppliers to check on the status of things with our customer. Shirt and tie, everyone was asking “hey, where are you going?” It was successful. That night, Franzi and I were going to watch a movie. We ended up changing plans and watching tv for a little while. I was getting worse.
Friday was going to be tough, and it was. By the time I got out of there, I wasn’t much good for anything. I passed out for a while and then Marcel knocked at the door. I went down to his place with a couple peeps for a little while, but kept it to an early night. Saturday I was still feeling like crap, but doing better, or so I thought. It was sunny out, I went out picked up some food and tee. Found a couple movies I had been looking for. Still no Young Frankenstein yet, but Men in Tights. Yeah, that takes me back. It was Orrin, dad, Tony and I that night in fifth grade. It would be about 10 years later when we’d use that for our waterfront theme skit song. So yeah, I kept it on the DL (down low – for you who are not familiar with the term) Saturday night. Sunday was more of the same, reading with tee in hand.
Monday I opted not to play soccer. I went down with tee in hand, and watched a little. I made brownies – Betty Crocker. I had been meaning to do it the week before, but Gitte had the whole week off and I wanted to make sure she was around to enjoy them as well. They were a big hit, and everyone wanted to know if I could make it a weekly ritual. Tuesday I got out of work and packed my bags. It had been 2 weeks, it was time to go back down to
On an average, I work over 9.5 hours a day. I’ve got my system down. The daily battle takes place between
Anyway, last night was nice. I threw on some Robin Williams, his sketch from 4 years ago, and munched on some Pringles while deciding what I wanted to do for dinner. Marcel came by. He was going to go get a Doener. I hadn’t had one since back in June when I was out running around one night. I decided I’d go have an extra spicy one. We came back and had a couple glasses of Merlot while watching the last half hour of the routine. I woke up early this morning, but managed to stay in bed a few more hours. Was in the writing mood, so I figured I’d do this. Damn, I can’t believe the month is just about half over. Of course I say that about every month. It doesn’t seem possible, but of course it is. It always is.
Yesterday I went out and did a little shopping. I’ve been in the need for a second suit for a while. I had a good idea what I wanted, a dark grey one. I found a nice 3 piece for the right price. It’ll look dead sexy, especially when I throw my cobal blue shirt on under it. After some dinner I watched Gattaca and dozed off with the light on. Lilian knocked on my door around 12. He boyfriend was coming over, did we want to chill. Of course, and Marcel managed to find his way up the stairwell as well. We chilled till 2 and then I called it quits.
Today, just some playlisting. I thought I was over this coughing thing, but every once in a while I find myself coughing up a lung. Sonoffah bitch. Oh well, it’s not enough to keep me down. I’m sure it’ll get better soon.
I’ve been working for over a year now. I’ve gone from not knowing a hell of a lot about engine cooling modules to knowing more than nothing. I’ve done a bit of apps work, had my hand at a little bit of quoting, but decided that business development is not my thing and that I belong more on the apps / project management side of things. At the moment I’m driving 3 major projects and when I catch a minute, trying to keep up on everything else. Someone recently gave me the nickname of “edel Praktikant” – The noble co-op. Me, I make jokes about how I need to sub-co-op, or as I recently put it, I need a tier 2 co-op. I’d like to say I’d win co-op of the year for all I’ve managed to accomplish, but I’ve graduated. This is what I would expect from myself. Forget people telling me I’m doing stuff people wouldn’t expect from someone after two years, I know what all of my experiences up until now prepared me for. Of course it’s nice to hear, and it means I’m not screwing the pooch, which is always a good thing. I don’t know, I just go at it, the best way I know how, and hope shit works out. It’s the way I’ve been operating for over a decade now, and it seems to work for me.
And with all that, I can’t help but looking back in time. Last year, I was just getting set up here. In 2004, it was the Honda co-op crew all the way. 2003 was the October Tony, Erin and I went to the Reel Big Fish concert and Tony won the lap dance competition. The year before that, was the first formula Halloween party. In 2001, I was trying my hand at being and RA. In 2000 I was still in my first quarter at school, working as an RSA and just starting out on the race car team. In 1999, was on my exchange doing the environmental week, with Scott playing Bad Touch as the morning wake up song. In 98, I was mackin it up with Joe and Tony in
3.10.06 The world is an interesting place. Of course that’s nothing new, and something I learned a long time ago. So what’s been going on? I can barely remember myself, but for a good reason, there’s been that much going on. Maybe not quite as much outside of work as at work, but none the less.
So it would have been 2 weeks ago on the 19th that we went out for one of our annual breakfasts. I walked over and got a ride to work with Jessica. Oliver was in good form that afternoon and decided to bust on me a little. Erkan left at the same time as Carina, and as someone always jokes about who’s going where with who, Oliver said “It’s better to leave work early with someone that come into work late with them.” I, of course, had to crack up.
It was a hellish week. I’ve been working hard to get one of the projects back in line, so what else I did, I can’t really recall. Was bowling that Thursday. I couldn’t bowl for anything, I was too stressed out. I got dropped off at home and went into town to meet up with Erkan and some people he was meeting up with. We had a good time. I wasn’t really planning on doing much of anything Friday. Brian was having a little something going on, and I took a little nap before getting called a couple times. They were going to go into town. It would be Jessica, Brian, Daniel and some other guy. We were at Schönborn on the market square. In looking to expand my understanding of mixed drinks, I had a rum runner and then switched to Jack and Coke. It had been one of those weeks. We then went to the Boot (boat) and danced it up. I couldn’t believe my ears when they played Big Bad Voodoo Daddy. I’m like I know this, I have this.
Saturday I went to a club in
Monday was spent on the road down to
Bowling was not to be that week. Giles was down on Thursday and we went out to dinner that night at Joes. I’d be there the next night with Marion & Jochen. I made it till 1 and called it a night, enough play for Frankie. On Saturday I found Grand Prix, which I have been waiting patiently for. I stayed in that night. Was feeling a little like shit, and for a good reason. We had some nice thunder boomer action that rolled through around 1.
Sunday, wake me up when September ends, well it had. I cleaned stuff up, posted some stuff online and came back here to chill before going to work Monday. The office was pretty empty. Most people had made it a 4 day weekend with the
We started off at Brauhaus around
17.09.06 I meant to start writing this a little earlier in the day. It’s dinner time and I’ve finished my 10 hour addiction. I happened to stumble across Band of Brothers on sale for 25 beans, in comparison to the 50 at the other local retail store. Tom Hanks, Spielberg and HBO, their reputations come before them and so I picked up my copy at about
Brian wanted to go check out the city festival that was going on, so we went and had a beer and checked out eye candy. I must confess, I wasn’t really in the mood, but tried to make the best of it. Afterwards, I came back and got caught in the hall by Marcel, who had also been at the festival and come back inside of the time frame that I had been out. The only difference was that he had had a little more cheer than I. My presence was requested in order that we could finish the bottle of wine we had started Thursday night. We kicked that and the half empty bottle of Merlot I had started Friday night. I went to bed
Being that that it was, I didn’t get my lazy ass out of bed until about 1. Shower, shave, cup of coffee and I was back at it, unable to let go until it was finished. And here I am, floored by the story. Floored after seeing the part about Zell am See, having passed through there myself on the road trip to
So what’s new Dorthy? Well, let’s see, the rest of that weekend was fairly quiet. I don’t understand it, but lately the weeks have been busy as hell and the weekends quiet. And I thought it was supposed to be the way around. Such is life.
Monday the 4th was fairly entertaining. Brian called me up to tell me he would be picking me up shortly. Shortly was in a nice silver Mercedes 2 door convertible. Yowzers. We went to Zaubergarden for a few brews. On the way out, and perhaps prior to but unnoticeably by me, this chick was making eyes with me. So much in fact, that I had to nod and smile while asking myself if I knew her from anywhere. After getting outside I made the mistake of asking Brian if he thought she was trying to pick me up. Yes, and I should go back in there and get her number, she was dying to give it to me. Whatever, I didn’t want to believe my own fortune. Well, he was going to go back in and get it for me, but the back door which we had left through, was locked from the outside. So then he drove around to the front. Fuck. I couldn’t believe this was happening. I had flashbacks to the night Joe, Katie my girlfriend at the time and myself want to go out to the movies with another
We ended up at Brauhaus, where Brian proceeded to procure more company for us. Nadia & Christine. Nadia was looking for action. As Brian said, it was obvious. She had been eying me and I had noticed, of course she was obvious. But not my type, and so I made sure Brian talked to her while I kept company with the blond. All in all, we walked away with 3 numbers that night, as the chick from Zauberberg had sent me a text before we got to Brauhaus.
Tuesday night was the night my group from work went bowling. I peaked with a 130 something. It’s the best I’ve managed since Honda. We all had a good time, playing a few rounds of darts in there afterwards. It’s nights like that that I cherish the most later on. I think it was that Wednesday night that I was at the internet café till late, taking care of some online business, chatting it up a little. Thursday night Jessica, Brian and I watched Duece Bigalo, European Gigolo. It was entertaining. I had to explain to Jessica what it means for a guy to be dressed left or right. “You see, when a guy puts on a pair of pants, he has to pick a side…”
Friday I went to Brian’s and went to A3. Brian rented a car and I drove, because I owed him a couple nights. It was more of a wale watching expedition than anything else.
Brian wanted to go to
Of course I couldn’t fall asleep to save my life Sunday night. Monday I went to work in all black. It’s something that is stylish here, but I had other reasons. 5 years. 5 god damn years since I walked out of my statics class that morning, heard the rumblings on the quarter mile walking back to my dorm and saw everything fall to pieces on live television. It doesn’t seem possible. I was to beat after work, and napped most of the night. I managed to write a piece which I’m still editing.
Tuesday went bowling with the people from the sample shop and manufacturing. We went and played a few games of pool afterwards, hit up Burger King because the McDonalds in that part of town is being renovated. By the end of the last game, I was getting my feel back. I had a couple of nice runs where I was dropping balls in and making some good shots. Tuesday was the day that everyone had to be back here in the dorm. I came back to find quite a few people still up, chilling. It’s good to have the place back alive again, even if the music they blare sucks balls.
Wednesday was soccer. I came late out of work, shoveled some food in and went out to play because “I had to.” At least that’s what I was told. It wasn’t the greatest of games. The golden time was last year. We lost half the guys who had moves. The new crowd kicked the ball from one end to the other more than anything else. Of course us old timers kept things going as best we could. I had two scoring chances and just barely missed on both. Out of memory came back something I remember hearing a long time ago; “Jesus Capristo, you could fuck up a wet dream.” How I do indeed still manage to amuse myself.
I was supposed to go out with the girl from Zaubergarten on Thursday, but she had to cancel. A 30 year old school teacher interested in me. “I can’t believe it’s not butter.” Of course I go back to the last couple years of high school, to a substitute teacher we had for study hall a couple times. Those who where there know exactly who I’m talking about. And yes, an older woman. Eh, whatever. It hasn’t gone anywhere yet and I’m in that age bracket now, so there’s nothing to boast about. If you’re scratching your head right now thinking “But Frank, you’re not in your 30’s,” you’re right. But I’m old enough to be in the +/- 5 years category. And a school teacher, if it does work out, at least I’ll have a girl used to dealing with people of my IQ. All of that in good humor of course.
It worked out, we moved into the other office building that day and after getting her message, I stayed a bit later to get everything unpacked. People say the same thing I always say, when you first move in, it’s the one time when everything will be clean and rightly picked up. It’s a good setup. I’m going to miss not sitting next to Jessica, but she’s only a stone throw away. I’m sure we’ll still be helping each other figure out the best grammatical way to say things in each others emails.
Friday night was movie night with Franzi. The guys called me up and wanted me to go to Lobby with them, but I was way too tired for that. I barely made it through the film. Yesterday I was in a fairly creative mood, so I went and picked up a new ink cartridge and did some Photoshop work. I made Spanish rice for dinner. I had forgotten how good it was. Maybe one of these nights I’ll make chicken biscuit with mashed potatoes and peas, but I’ll need company for something that big.
So that brings us up to speed. Action wise at least. What about work? Well, work is its own world full of action and I’ve recently been introduced as the guy who knows how to do a bit of everything, a guy who is really intelligent and shows a lot of promise. It’s stuff like that, just as much as a girl trying to pick me up that catches me off guard. I’m always just another human being in search of life, liberty and the pursuit of… a lot of things. I’m just a guy trying to get it done as good as possible. I’m doing things people aren’t expected to do after 2 years. I’ve been told I have the correct thought process down that some people never grasp. People always seem to be impressed with me, and I still think I need to improve a lot. I’m sure a lot of people would say that their not surprised at any of that, that I’ve always been that way.
Well, some things never change, but I have to wonder if some have. When people ask me my age, I always ask them to guess. Lately, people have been hitting it smack on. It used to be I got credited with a couple years younger. So I wonder if the last year has made that impact on me, if I’m still the same old me, but somehow carrying myself a little older. All I know is that I know who I am and that I’m comfortable with that. I think I always have been, I’m just aware of that now.
I was recently told that I’m cool now, and I thought later on, “I always have been, you just never knew it.” I think a lot of people have experienced that from me over the years. I let people discover me at their own will. Of course I liked what Marcel said last night as I was enjoying the atmosphere the best; “A gentleman is quiet and enjoys (what’s going on).” I suppose that’s characteristic of me as well. I’ll get a good jab in or share a story every now and then, but yeah, I like enjoying everyone’s company and what not. Of course my best line of the night came when one of the girls was going to get her water and asked the rest of us if we needed anything. I responded with a “Not anything you can bring back with you.” It was a typical me comment, made loud enough to be heard only if you were paying attention. The guy across from me started to ask me what I said and then started laughing. I smiled with a quiet satisfaction.
It’s a crazy mixed up world, it’s a doggy dog world and I’m still just a monkey with a football, if you know what I mean. I can’t believe the month is more than halfway over. Walmart already has Halloween stuff out for crying out loud. Guess I better start coming up with my next pumpkin idea. The mornings are getting darker, and I half wish it would just get it over with, but I do enjoy seeing the sunrise as I go to work. Anyways, that’s about it. Tune in next time sports fans, I’m out.
02.09.06 Well, it never stops. It’s been 3 weeks since the last update. I’m a week over due, but with good explanation. The weather hasn’t been all that great, but that hasn’t stopped the clock. For whatever reason, it seems to have taken a little bit of a jump. We haven’t gone plaid yet, but we’re working on it.
So that week there, of the 13th, was pretty entertaining. Went to Joe’s with Jochem and a few peeps for margaritas. There are 14 or so different ones on the list and before I called it a night, we had been through 4 of them. We were out to Standard, a little café/bar place the following night. On the 18th, Brian asked me what I was doing, and we went to go up and check out the A3 club. It wasn’t open yet, so we cruised back into town for a bite to eat. On the way back into town, the sunset was gorgeous, and I was sad that I didn’t have my camera with me. We ran into Rainer and his wife outside of Enchilada and jointed them before going up to the club. The club was good. 4 different dance areas, bars on the second floor overlooking the dance floors, a couple pool tables. We played a game, but I was horrible. Must have been too tired or something. Anyway, there were some very nice specimens of the female persuasion. Brian and I enjoyed ourselves quite a bit. I had a quiet night of it on the 19th. Did some writing, had a few glasses of wine and fell asleep. Sometimes you gotta do that kind of thing. It can’t be all go go go,. You can’t always go out every night. And the ladies need a break from nice ass Capristo’s every once in a while. The next day I’d go down to a theme park with Jochem, Stefan and Marion. It was a decent day of things. Any time I can get into a rollercoaster and feel some g’s, I’m a happy guy. We came back, went out to a café for a while before I drove everyone home. I had driven Jochem’s car, so that everyone else could enjoy finer beverages. He told me to keep the car for the week since he can’t drive at the moment. It was late when I fell into bed, but I was back and ready for more action Monday morning.
Brian, Jessica and I went to the movies on the 21st and saw The Beach 2. It wasn’t what you would call worthy cinema, but we didn’t know it was going to be that shitty. For a brief moment it was nice and sunny out, and I went straight to the beach after work to have a beer and sit in the sun. Ended up meeting up with Brian and Jessica at a café for a little while. Wednesday was back at Joes with the gang for some more margarita action. Friday was the start of the wine parade behind the church. We went there for a while and then over to lobby. I was in good form by the time we got there. Things continued and at some point there was some girl making eyes and smiling at me across the bar. It may or may not have been a good thing that I decided I was too phased to go over and talk to her. Brian told me the next day that she wasn’t good enough to approach, but I’ll never really know.
Saturday Brian and I went up and checked out this war museum. We got there a little late in the day so the guy gave us half price on everything and would let us in for free the next time. That’s what’s always nice about small hole in the wall places, the people are much chiller. So we needed to go to Schweinfurt to fill up, and Brian taught it would be cool to hit up Bad Kissingen and Bamberg. Bad Kissingen was nice. There are a few natural springs there, where the water is naturally carbonated and has lithium among other things in it. It’s supposed to be very healthy. We strolled around the park and headed over Bamberg. What we found when we arrived was that there was some sort of festival going on. It was wall to wall people. Some streets were so packed, you couldn’t get anywhere. We taught, are they giving out free beer or what? We found this beer tent with live music down by the river. Brian got a radler and I decided that I didn’t need any more alcohol that weekend. We got in late, but had had a good night at it.
Sunday’s are normally quiet, but we had been planning to do something, mini golf or whatever. I was planning to write and post my next update when Jochem called, they were at Café Journal, come on down. So I finished hanging up laundry and met up with them. We decided with the weather the way it was, bowling and pool would be better. Brian and Jessica came as well and we all went to Heuchelhof up on the hill where I do my bowling with the guys from the machine shop. My pool game was still in the gutter. I can’t explain it. It never used to be that bad. Even Jochem noticed. Bowling wasn’t much better. I was being too self conscious, but it was still a good time. We dropped Jessica off and Brian decided he felt like walking home from her place. That left me to drive Jochem home before crashing myself.
Now what I noticed in college, and still holds true, is that sometimes your system is like a computer; you have to reformat and reinstall sometimes. At least do the occasional reboot. Friday night had been just that for me, and late Sunday evening my system was up and running nice and clean. So much so in fact, that I couldn’t fall asleep that night.
I went over to Brian’s after work on Monday and we chilled for a little while. He explained to me some of the mad scientist stuff that he does and I picked up some good info. On Tuesday, I went bowling with the guys from the shop. My arm was still sore from Sunday night’s performance. I was still playing like crap, but I was playing a better game. Wednesday night Jens and I decided to go out for a beer or two. We went to Haupeltshofer, our favorite café from work where we all go for breakfast every once in a while. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen that many cute waitresses in one place. I might have to frequent the place more often in the evenings. Jens and I had a good time, exchanging jokes. He’s got his pilots license, and we’re planning on flying around one of these days before the weather turns shitty. So now at work, we have a couple inside jokes. Thursday after work, Jochem called me. The one guy in his band was celebrating his birthday, he needed a lift down to Kitzingen, could I drive. I know Donny as well, and said sure, but that I wouldn’t be able to stay too late. No problem. Got in, went to bed at my normal time. And yesterday, after one crazy week at and outside of work, the weather was acting like summer again. Gitte had been wanting to go to the Wine Parade and we hit that up with a couple other people. It was nice evening. I wanted to continue the night with Daniel and his crew, but I was too beat. A typical Friday, I had made it till 12 and was perfectly comfortable to call it quits. I was out in no time, and ready to get up at 7. I hate Saturday mornings. I mean I love them, but I hate them. I can never stay up late enough on Friday to want to sleep till an acceptable level. It always ends up that I doze a few hours.
Today has been fairly relaxed. Went and walked around with Jamin a bit. He’s got a week left before he flies back to the states. Insane. I remember when he and the rest of them got here. It’s the turn over period I guess. I imagine with school starting back up, we won’t get anyone till next spring. It’s kinda crazy; a year ago I went golfing for the first time. Orrin had helped me move my shit home the weekend before.
September was a mixed up time knowing full well that I was going to have my chance. I was going to go to the next adventure. It meant saying a lot of good byes, which even to this very moment still weigh heavy in my heart. This month will fly by, and I’ll find myself singing Wake me up when September ends all over again. It’ll have been a year, a year. Have I done what I set out to do? Did I find out what I wanted to know? Where am I going from here?
For the most part, yes, yes and tbd. I know what I want to do for the next 5 years, and in the mean time I hope I’ll have found someone to plan things with. And still I can’t help but look back on it all. Last year, the year before, the one before that. A lot has happened in there. It was 6 years ago when Joe, Tony and I got in a car and drove out to see 12 Stones, Days of the New (the original members) and Creed. I moved into the dorms the next day. Seven years ago tomorrow, I left the family standing at Albany to set out on my first big adventure. None of it seems possible, this life extraordinary. The bad times made me just as much what I am as the good ones. If nothing else, they proved the character I claim to have. Like all things, things take time. It wasn’t till winter quarter second year that I found all of my true friends from school. And the one I met, but wouldn’t really get to know her till a year later. So things go like that. I’m just settling in. And I hope that when people look back, it’s like in The Shawshank Redemption, where the guys in the prison are remembering Andy and the stuff he pulled. It goes like that sometimes. The seasons change and soon I’ll be riding to work to the smell of cold damp leaves. It’ll get darker and I’ll have to ride with my light. There are a lot of good times that have turned up and there are plenty more. And tonight’s the night to reflect and marvel at it all.
13.08.06 It’s 09:30 on a Sunday morning and I got up at 08:30. What’s the 0 for? Oh my god Frank, are you sick? You don’t get up before 10 on the weekend. Not unless something is going on, like you’re camping, at the races or your girlfriend is sitting on top of you naked telling you she’s horny. Yeah, then I get up and she goes just kidding. But before I explain, let me back up.We were talking at work about how somebody went and flew around the world twice, with a clock that was accurate down to the whateverth of a second (damn accurate) and that when he came back, he was ahead of the corresponding clock here. If you went somewhere fast enough, you could arrive before you even left. Theoretically. I’m not sure if I quite agree with that. I mean sure, from an observational perspective, if you can fly faster than the speed of light, you could watch yourself doing shit just like a tv show, but to pick up time? You mean I could go give myself lottery tips and stock advice?
So yeah, jumped back into work. It was interesting, then again it’s always interesting. People thought I was a little crazy (duh), and of course I said that I wanted to come in check up things, read email, get a head start and all that. It’s true, but then to be more honest, I missed everyone. The people I work with are always more than just people I work with, to me anyways. And sure there is one set of eyes that I enjoy seeing above the rest, but that’s a different topic.
I went out and saw Pirates 2 that night. The one I wanted to go see it with had already seen it, so I said fuck it, and went solo. Spent some time catching up on my photoshop efforts tues night. Was jamming to the new Stone Sour I had picked up the day before. I had heard Through Glass while I was on the Mexico Expedition and it finally came out here. I believe I was just chillin Wed. night. Watched Hitch and fell asleep early. I was beat on Thursday and had one of those nights where I went to doze for an hour and woke up at 12. Damn. If it wasn’t going to be Friday, I might have gotten up and just offset everything by 6 hrs, but we had decided at work that a few of us would get together after work and I lost out on getting anything done that night. A bunch of us went to Rainer’s that evening and sat around his kitchen table talking about everything imaginable. I saw a couple sides of people I hadn’t seen yet, much to my enjoyment I must say. We had pizza, beer and later on ice cream. Somewhere around 2 I was loosing it. I wasn’t too surprised. It’s been like that for quite a while now. If I’ve gotten up at 6 and been at work, I have a hard time staying up past 12. I’m getting old. It takes some feminine stimulation in the form of dancing or something like that to make the adrenaline flow and keep me going after that. So I started dozing. It was kinda embarrassing, but that’s the way it is. I had the same issue when I was going out with the O-Town crew. I could go to 6 am or better on a Saturday night, even if I had gotten up relatively early that morning. I just can’t after a hard days work. I guess that explains the clock speed my brain runs at at work. It was a really good time though.
Brian called me while I was on the verge of getting up. For those of you who don’t know me, that means it’s probably somewhere between 10 and 11, I’ve already woken up and gotten rid of my morning wood but have decided that at the moment, it’s much nicer to lay in bed and listen to whatever play list is on. I hate to waste the day, but I love staying up till 4 or 5 am as well. Anyway, he had rented a 5 series BMW and was going to go up north for the 4 day weekend. Did I want to come? Absolutely, but I couldn’t. Giles, our project manager in England, is coming back from vacation and there are things I need to take care of with him. So I’m going in on Monday. I could have blown it off till Wednesday, but that could jeopardize meeting our deadline and I’m not about to let that happen if I can help it. Not on my watch. Besides, I need to do laundry and shit. Not too long after that, Joachim called me up. We could go with Brian, rent a car and come back, but I wasn’t up for that either. I cleaned stuff up around here, made the place presentable and went downtown to walk around, pick up food for the weekend. Phone rings again, Joachim. One of the guys in his band is playing in Schweinfurt doing blues. Bibo might drive, did I want to go? Sure. Called back a little later, Bibo was doing something else. Did we want to rent a car, a convertible or something hot and do it? Now we’re getting complicated, but I’m game.
It was starting to turn into an adventure. Alright, so I get to go pick up the rental car, which turned out to be a Smart because there wasn’t anything else left. It wasn’t as bad as I thought. If you’re not familiar with the Smart, it’s a stripped down over sized roller skate. It’s not bad for what it is and you can park it anywhere. Joachim figured if you had a stiffy you wouldn’t be able to get in. His complaint: no glove box. No power steering, which I thought was cool. It had an autostick, which was ok, except that it was backwards for me. The race car had a sequential gearbox, as taken from the motorcycle drive train, and you pulled back on the shift lever to go up a gear, not forward. The Smart protects you from over revving, but there was more than once when I went up a gear instead of down and dropped a few choice words while pulling back twice on the lever. I picked Joachim up and we went to Joe’s (Mexican) for dinner. It was a 45 minute ride up to Schweinfurt. I topped the Smart out at its limited 140…kmh, which is about 85 mph. Not bad for a roller-skate. It took us a while to find the joint, but we got there.
The music was good. I’m not a musician, so I don’t pick up on the details of things like Joachim. But I know cars about as well he knows music and we both understand that about each other. In conversation on the way up, he asked if I had found a woman yet. That was followed up with a so you haven’t slept with any Germans yet? And I shook my head. Joachim speaks very good fluent English and said “So you’ve been here for almost a year and haven’t had any sex? – That sucks man!!!” Tell me something I don’t know. So it was a we need to find Frank a woman night. Why does this seem strangely familiar to me? Aaron was the same way. It’s funny. Joe and the boys back home used to give me a mission, but it was Joachim who turned to me and said “tonight my mission is to find you a lady.” I had made some eyes with the brunette working behind the bar earlier. You know, purposely getting caught looking, smirking and looking away but watching to see if she smiled too. I should have winked instead, but I’m out of practice of flirting. Anyway, either she wasn’t interested or had a boyfriend. I didn’t care either way. I hadn’t planned on mackin it, just wanted to chill with my boy and listen to some good live music. Of course I then made the mistake of telling him I thought she was cute. “You can order me one of those in Würzburg.” - Fuck that, I’ll introduce you to her right now and here. “Ohh shiiiit!” Here we go.
Tina, Tina with a boyfriend. Was that just a line? She certainly had advanced warning and time to think of something, a couple hours worth. But I was looking dead sexy, who could resist the Capristo? My guess would be she was telling the truth. The rule is, you can have one drink and still be legal. My one was a shot of something that wasn’t too strong with her. And originally, I had said that I couldn’t cause I had to drive, to which she said come on. So I gotta believe she woulda been interested if she hadn’t had a boyfriend. Now, maybe that was just a line to see if I would still talk to her, I’ve heard of girls playing games like that. According to Joachim, I should have kept talking to her. But she was working and I had been sincere but not serious about the whole thing. I’m not about to try and pick up a girl that has a boyfriend. People talk about “ausspannen,” where you make a girl leave the guy for you, but that’s not me.
There’s a code between guys, which just as in Pirates, is more like a set of guidelines. You don’t go and do something like that, not on purpose. If you meet a girl, become friends and she does it on her own, that’s one thing, but you don’t actively pursue her. In the book, it’s right before the line that says you don’t take a leak in the urinal next to someone if you can help it. You don’t cross swords or look. You’re allowed to stand right next to someone if it’s a trough type urinal and full, or you’re standing on a bridge and peeing for distance with your buddies (intoxication optional). That’s the way it is. – A little guy education for you ladies who didn’t know all that.
We left somewhere around 1, I dropped him off and got in around 2, got up and took the rental car back and that’s why I got up so early. I got my 6 hrs in, so I’m good to go. If I feel like it, I can close my eyes for a few this afternoon, but I’m hoping that won’t be necessary.
So why can’t I be serious about trying to find a lady friend to help keep me warm at night? It looks like I’ve given up and out of the woodwork, I’ve got the old man pimping me out via my website. Joachim, Manuel and Erkan have been working on things since March. I have to stand back and laugh at it all. It all goes back to hearing from women how shitty it was to be played and swearing I would never be one of those jock assholes who mistreated the type of women I would have loved to have had a chance with. That was the mentality I integrated in middle/high school. As such, I never developed “the game.” Things like “don’t hate the player, hate the game” and “don’t playa hate, participate” come to mind and I could never buy into any of that. And I can’t be interested in just sex or hooking up. It’s a real curse. So I don’t know how to hit on women and I don’t want to be some lame ass come on. If I meet a girl through mutual friends, we talk and I like what I see, I’ll try to see more. If she hits on me, I might be interested. Things will go from there. I have a game, it’s just not the same one most guys have, and not one most women will play. The toughest part for me is getting that far and trying to figure out if the feeling is mutual. If it is, it will probably take a while because I will miss signals. I know it’s retarded, but all I can say to that is “Have you seen my baseball?”
Now it’s true, there is this girl who has my attention. She has had for quite some time now. It’s probably to the point where I’m trying to gauge the signs and maybe missing some. Maybe I should swing for the fence. In improper English; you shouldn’t not swing just because you’ve struck out the last 20 times. I know that. Either something will happen there or it won’t. I’ve got a 50-50 chance. If it could have or should have happened sooner, well I’ll judge that when it happens. My opinion is, things happen at the right time. I’ve seen that the quality of relationships is usually proportional to the amount people know each other ahead of time, at least for the first part of the relationship.
Sometimes I feel like I’m going crazy. I get that feeling like I need to be in a race car, out on the track, pushing the limits just to get a little bit of that feeling and let the passion out. Having a girlfriend is the only thing better than having a race car. I’d probably be blasting around the track more than driving for the first lap or two, but then I’d settle in. Regardless of mood, I could always reach the same nirvana after a few corners. The brakes and tires would come up to temp and we’d dance. There was at least one time when they left me in the car till I felt like coming in. I could have stayed out there for forever. There were times when I’d get in the Breeze and be gone for a while, till I had run whatever gauntlet I’d come across. Sometimes that’s what I feel like I’m doing now, just outside the car. That I’m out there running a course alone, flat out having the time of my life, but alone on a certain level.
It’s true, having a girl would probably perk me up and put more of a hop back into my step. I’m not really worried about it though. I know what kind of a man I am. I know what some ladies still remember and think about me. I know I can still dig deep and go the distance. If it’s still like this in 5 years, then I’ll marry a race car. Problem solved. Everything in due time. Until the next adventure, party on.
7.08.06 Three New Posts. Read Carefully: Anyone who knows me knows how torn I am right now. Mom, dad and Bethann are probably in the air by now. The nearly 2 weeks of quality time spent together, all too quickly gone. What we have are the memories made. It’s been one crazy adventure, like most of my life. And at the moment, it’s a mixture of melancholy and astonishment. If I wasn’t planning to go into work later today, I might consider going getting a bottle of wine and getting buzzed. Something to take the edge off. But it’s a beautiful day out. The sun is shinning, the air isn’t too warm and in the sun it feels just right. Somewhere in the back of my mind I remember it’s MILF week at scout camp. Alas, another memory of times gone by.
So the trip to
Yesterday was the 10 hr. haul back here. There was at least one hot girl working the tolls that I would have loved to make scream obscene things in French. Maybe next time. We went out for some food when we got back in. Dad had his last good dark beer for a while and we called it a night. This morning it was get up and go to the airport. The time had passed. I dropped them off, said my good byes and came back holding a solid 200 kmh / 125 mph part of the way. They can’t be more than an hour in the air, and there’s a part of me that mph wishes I was with them. Of course that’s only natural. I’d miss them just as much if I was in
He told me last night that I went above and beyond, which was very nice and heart felt. I don’t know. Them (“The 3 reminders of why you came here.” – another dad line) coming here to see me was all I wanted. I just tried to show them a good time. Tried to show them a little slice of the world I’ve found and made for myself. Was it really a vacation for me? Well, I didn’t have to cook for 2 weeks, that was nice. And if I had gone home, would it have been any different? No, hell, I would have tried to go through the house and everything else and get things done. Go out at night and try to visit a few people, and there will probably come a time, where if I stay here longer, I’ll do just that.
So what to do now, how to kill the sadness that always comes when you say good bye to the ones you love? I’m thinking sex shop and strip club, but that’s the Capristo humor talking. I’m going to go post these, take care of some shopping and probably go into work. I’ve got a desk that is so long over due to be cleaned up it’s killing me. After that, I don’t know. I’d like to go see the next Pirates movie. Tomorrow, it’s back to work. We all know how much I love work. Sure, I like work, I like to challenge and push myself. But what it really boils down to, is that I like to put my heart into whatever it is, work, relationship, hobby, you name it. And that’s how I do it. That’s how I can drive myself to accomplish things people are surprised about. I can’t burry my feelings, but accept them and use them to keep going. Pictures to come later. I’m out.
5.8.06 Here we are again, live, from southern
I had taken 2 and a half weeks off with the rents coming. Monday I decided to go into work anyway. The rents weren’t coming until Wednesday, and I wanted to catch up on some things. So that was Monday. Tuesday was more or less the same. It ended up being a full day, and I didn’t get to clean out my filing cabinet like I had been planning. Our rental car had been changed from a 118 series BMW to a Passat wagon, but I was ok with that. Wednesday I got up early and picked the parents up from
Thursday we headed down to
Sunday was the F1 race at Hockenheim. My guy Kimi was on the pole, but it would be of little help after some sort of error. He managed 3rd, behind the Ferraris. The crowd went wild for Schumi, who could indeed win another championship if things continue to go his way. It looks like they finally got a good package together. It looks like Michelin needs to get their tires back. The race itself was fabulous. I had picked a good corner, where the first car of the race went off, and where Alonso had his little off roading experience. It wasn’t the ideal place for pictures, I would have been better off in the Sachs-curve, but I’ll have to come back for that. It took us forever to get out, onto a shuttle bus and back to the parking area, but parking itself was free. We went to a nice little German restaurant with a beer garden that evening and ate outside before it started to rain. Monday we slept in then went and did the residence. We had a bit of ice cream and went out to the Argentinean restaurant with Brian. The rents slept in and managed to go get breakfast on their own while I blew up to the airport to pickup the kid sister. I don’t know if she’s ever done 200 kmh ~125 mph before, but we did briefly that morning. We went up to the old fort on top of the hill in the afternoon and met up with Jessica for dinner. It was another night of german food. I made my father get Schweinehaxe, another typical Bavarian dish with witch he was pleased with. It was a very good meal, and good conversation. I still believe no one tells stories like my father. If ever I could tell a story, I don’t know, I always feel like mine have no point, but that they we as amazing as ever to live. After dinner, we changed locations to a near by café. Dad got his rum and bitter lemon, mom got Bailey’s and I made the kid sister get a jack and Coke, which I also ordered. Jessica had to drive and didn’t get anything alcoholic. Bethann was crashing at my place and Jessica gave us a ride back while the rents took a nice stroll back to the hotel.
Wednesday we made the trip down here. 9 hrs to end up in the middle of no where, on “roads” that make the roads at scout camp look like 3 lane highways. I love it. These are oil and gravel all the way, but no wider than the width of the car itself. If you meet someone on the road, one of you has to either pull over or back up to a spot where one of you can pull over. Before things narrowed down, I had enjoyed trying to bomb up the curvy wonderland until everyone started getting car sick. Damn, and I was only driving 25%. Mom has been having fun catching up with her second cousin. Dad and I did a little hiking, but after 6 weeks of extreme heat, the weather has turned cool and thus not lending for all the other things one might do. One positive side to things is that it has made things more comfortable for hiking. I provided the motivation, and the old man and I hiked all the way up to the radio tower on the hill, to get an extraordinary view of the valley in all directions. It was nice to get past our previous point, and I was happy that my sense of direction allowed us to take the most direct route. Although I’ve neglected my boy scout skills for some time now, they are still in good form. It’s been so chilly I’ve built a fire for us to play cards around in the living room the last two nights. I’ve still got my pyrotechnic skills that I first started honing 10 years ago at camp.
Although it’s taken till now to write about it, I’ve thought about camp every week since June started. That was the June I earned my brotherhood. I was 15 and about to spend my first summer on staff working under the legendary Pete Miller. I recall how the weeks went by. Staff week we were manual labor. It didn’t take long for us to set up the skills-campcraft areas, we were the first crew in the new building. Tommy made us all name plates to hang from the gateway. Pete was complimenting me on my ideas to get something done, saying “Ah, always thinking, that’s why I hired you. You’re a good man Capristo.” Later on it would be changed to “You’re a sick man Capristo,” but anyone who knows my father knows where that came from.
22.07.06 It’s always the same bloody thing. It’s Capristo Live, but a tamer me. Out here, on this thing, I can level, I can go deep and expose it all if I want to. The question is, should I? Should I level and let everyone know exactly how I’m feeling deep inside? People might judge me, find me weak or think less of me. My old man taught us long ago, you should be honest, but you don’t have to be too honest. If your girlfriend asks you how she looks in a dress, you don’t tell her she looks like a hippo on the loose.” And still, I think you can always level, and as long as you understand that, and are comfortable with that, it doesn’t matter. There are some who only care about what other people think and say about them, there are some who don’t care at all. In reality, there’s a balance in there. You have to be who you are and use those around you as a check.
People are different. Everyone has their own method, their own better way, but sometimes that can only work for them. That’s what makes us people, individuals. It’s what adds spice and flavor to the world around us.
So where am I at, spiritually, grammatically, or any of that? Life seems to be a double edged sword at the moment. I’m here, living it up, living it large. It always seems like there’s someplace to go, someone to chill with, or I’m so tired I have to take a night and sleep. We went and watched the soccer game that Saturday.
Wednesday I’d be at Kiliani again on a week night with Joachim, Bibo and Marion. Bibo would get something started with Marion, try table dancing and stripping a little until security came over and made him get down. Joachim and I chilled while they made out. I just about got up to take collection for the show. People are funny, but it was also slightly disturbing how they stared. I had made my own pass at the girl about a week before, but hadn’t pushed. Bibo had pushed and gotten somewhere. I decided to have a second liter. When something like that gets thrown in your face, you have to have something to put out the fire. I wanted to get completely smashed, but wouldn’t allow it. I gotta be clean at work, I have to keep it going, I have to pull through and deliver. The next night after work, I’d go and pick up The Girl Next Door. It’s not a knockout film. I can think of films on my list of ones to buy that have more deeper themes, but after that night in
Joachim called me mid afternoon. Might be in Wü that evening, would call me back later. Things were starting to shape up like our last adventure. I got out of work, had made some dinner and no word back yet. I was considering going solo up to the Brian Adams concert when Dom asked if I was interested in playing some pool for a little while. It was still early and I thought that maybe in the mean time Joachim would call back and I could have a run at a decent Friday night right up until 12, get my 6 or 7 hrs of sleep and be ready to roll at
Got up the next morning, threw some stuff together and we were off. It took a few hours to get down past
08.07.06 So what’s new, who’s where? I learned along time ago that people go places, do things, but rarely do they change all that much themselves. Some may not agree with that, they might say “I never thought so and so would do blah blah blah.” Would people have thought at the time when I was in 6th grade that I had it in me to make it here, to the point where I am now? Maybe that’s too early, but even 10 years ago?
Looking back, I think I had the means way back when. I can remember certain instances that hinted at my potential. I was still a major geek. I didn’t know style from a hole in the wall, but I think that part of that was that I gave up on it before I even tried to stay with it. The dollars and cents didn’t make sense, not at that time.
And 10 years ago I was at camp on staff for the first time. I’d say that that is one of the things that made the rest possible. I’m not sure if any one person was Robin Hood, but we were merry men. I’d love to try and explain it, but I could write a book about the experience and still not be able to convey it. Some things you just have to live.
So why have I started off with that? Why the trip back? Cause the past can be used to predict the future. They don’t teach you that in English or foreign language class. You have to be able to understand history and follow trends over time. I could do that in my sleep.
I think that a lot of people have underestimated me at the start of things due to my interpersonal approach to people. It’s usually laid back. I usually expect more out of myself than others, and people don’t see that right away. It usually takes time and a few oh shit situations before people see that my fiber is soft, but strong as hell. And I think the last week has showed that more than anything.
Last Saturday wasn’t all that interesting. I crashed that evening, got up at 12, made a playlist for my mp3 player and then went out on the town for 3 hrs, camera and tripod in hand. Got some real decent shots. I always love how quiet things get in the wee hours of the morning. I always loved doing homework then. I had my fleece, but didn’t need it. The stars were out, and while there was a lot of light pollution from the city, it was still nice to see them. I went to bed around 5, it was already light out.
I should have been trying to get my body back on Wü time after my traveling escapades. Oh well, I think I got up around 1. Around 4, Joachim called. A few of them were going to Kiliani – the city carnival, did I want to come? Hmm, Sunday with Joachim, that could be dangerous. I could end up having to go into work late or possibly having to call in sick. So of course I said yes. We went to the beer tent, to of course get beer. A liter of festival beer, or a liter of half beer – half sprite. Well, beer of course and we had dinner there while whatever band was playing. It’s not all umpa umpa music. Most of the time it’s American covers and German schlager which I would describe as a cultural form of 80’s and country music combined. So after a few liters, we decide to go on a few rides. A little bumper car action and what not. I think it was around quarter after 1 when I made it in bed. Shit.
But I got up to my alarm clock on Monday. I started picking things up from where I had left them before
Although I was pretty tired, I had enough time after work to catch a nap before playing soccer. It had been a while, I’ve been so busy or beat, I hadn’t played in a couple weeks. I was so tired, I was playing defense like shit. I hadn’t eaten yet, and was down on E. That’s energy not ecstasy for you users out there. Anyway, I couldn’t run, so I went in goal. People love and hate me in goal. No fear, although I fear that one of these days I’m going to catch a ball that’s going to prevent me from having children. But things are going, and then, I catch one in the nose. He couldn’t have been more that 6 feet away. I was charging to have a better shot at the ball and he got under it, with power. It should have broken my nose, it was strong enough that I landed on my back. I could go into the mechanics of how the ball must have hit, but I’ll save that and say that it hit just right that it didn’t break my nose. So I’m hitting the ground and was probably saying something like SOB of Mother-F… Well, it hurt. After a minute, I got up, shook my head the way a dog does sometimes and said alright, let’s try that again. I stayed in goal. No big deal, other than it hurt for the next 5 days. Anyway, after the game I was going to go make dinner and the one girl was looking for an open shower on one of the floors. She’s pretty, got all the right curves. I was going to the kitchen to make pasta, but stopped to talk to dom for a minute. We nodded in agreement. Then he tells me how glad he was that I was able to play that night. How I bring a great “Stimme” to the game. Stimme is voice/atmosphere. If I was in the middle of a test and had to translate it, I would translate it as energy or aura, maybe feeling. You get the point, and can see how my English is slipping.
Next day, busy as hell. I think I ran over my 10 hours. What a pain, but it’s good, or else I’d be there till 11 every night. I have a hard time saying no. So Tuesday was world cup,
Today, nothing too crazy yet. Going to go watch
01.07.06 Call me Indy, but not for my racing talents. Call me Indiana Capristo cause I’m the guy with the talents to take on mission impossible and be able to pull it off, style and craziness included. It all started off about 2 weeks ago. I was starting a weekly conference call with one of our boys in
Monday morning I came in prepared to travel but unprepared for what would await. Our timeline to build that morning was shorter than anticipated. The afternoon flight discussed was a morning flight. We built as fast as possible, I got driven to the airport, but to no avail. I had already missed the first flight. We got me on a flight to JFK. In my mind I was debating if I should rent a car, drive home, stay for 2 hours and drive back. Pam agreed with me later that I would be crazy enough to do something like that. If it had been on the way back, I would have. As it was, I couldn’t afford to risk hitting a deer somewhere and missing the next flight. I had that figured out before I got on the plane, while I was charging up the company cell phone on an obscure outlet I found near the woman’s bathroom. Wasn’t my idea of an ideal location. At least it didn’t smell bad out there. The girls at the counters were hotties. They assume you speak English and start off with that, I played along and switched to German. An American that speaks German like that? I got the eyes and wished we were at a bar rather than the airport. I had to go to two counters, one to check the parts in (2 suitcases) and the other to pay the overweight charges. They were 82 and 84 lbs each, and I was iron manning them around.
Caught a couple movies on the plane. Business, I better not get used to that. I don’t understand why you need all that foot room, but I did enjoy the seat and quantity of available drinks. Every five minutes, “Would you like something to drink?” Well sugar…. No massages though, dout.
Monday night on the island. No biggy. The landing was interesting. I had never been on a plane that had to abort a landing before, but I knew it as soon as it happened. The little voice in your head goes “This isn’t normal, what’s going on?” It was only the low cloud cover. They gave us one of the other runways and we were all good. I tried to sleep the 5 hours I had, but I was too afraid I’d fall into a deep sleep and oversleep the alarm. It ended up being 4.5 hrs of dozing, before I said screw it and got up before the alarm.
Tuesday - 2.5 hrs to
Wednesday - I knew I was going to miss my 8am flight that morning, but was hoping I’d still be able to catch an early afternoon flight and catch up to my evening Atlanta-Frankfurt flight. Well it didn’t work out that way, but I made the trip down and back without racking up any speeding tickets. I had to get a hotel in
Thursday - My remaining flights were to take me over
Friday - I caught the
Today is laundry day! I don’t know what will happen tonight. I played last weekend fairly low key. It might be time to spice things up a bit. Who knows, I might even get lucky. But I know better than that. It’s going to be a tough couple weeks at work. Sometimes you feel like you’re on top of the world, sometimes the world feels like it’s on top of you. There’s more than a lot to do, but hey, that’s life. I’m just happy at the moment. I think I’ve been able to show my character once again. I didn’t get fed up with stuff, didn’t freak out, I did what I always do, when the goin got tough, I put the pedal to the metal and saw it through.
25.06.06 And just like that, a day after getting my last update up, I find myself due to write the next. How did that happen? Where did I drop the ball? It shouldn’t have taken me the two weeks it did to get it up. Have I been busy? Have I been that busy? Absoultely and not really. I’ve been constantly pushing my 10 hour mark at work. I suppose it’s no surprise that I had over 100 hrs of overtime saved up at the start of the month. I suppose it’s no surprise that I should pick up another 30 or more this month, including the day I had to spend in there. My number of hours, divided by the 7 hr. 27 min. standard work day, yes, I believe that’s a few days. I think I can utilize that sometime.
I guess I have to blame being social, that and the world cup. If people are going to invite me to drink beer and go watch soccer, what am I going to do, say no? If I had a race car to build it would be a different story. If they didn’t kick me out after 10 hrs it probably would be too, at least during the week. But hey, it’s a different world, at least at the moment, and I have other hobbies and interests to fill up the time.
It hasn’t all been soccer and beer. A couple of us went and saw The Omen the other night. There was a music festival last weekend that took up most of the weekend of the 17th. Music and beer is also a good combination. The rock star crew was in pretty full form last Saturday. Manual was driving and so I had to fill in for him. More recently I’ve been so tired after work, that I’ve just been crashing. Have I been pushing too hard? Well, with one of my boys out on vacation for a week, I’ve been trying to pick up the slack in a major way. Of course there’s baggage with that as well. You pick up the stress. I can’t just say fuck it, it’ll get done later. And I can’t start smoking, regardless of how cool people think it would be. When people give me the impossible to accomplish, I usually try like hell to make it happen. Sometimes I pull the ace out of my sleeve, sometimes you just need more time. Everything costs something. Being involved in six major projects and having a handful of other things that need to get done at some point is like that. You can’t live at work, your life can’t revolve around work. I learned that one a long time ago, or a summer ago more like it. You can try it, and eventually something inside will die. You become scrooged. It becomes just another lifeless day. I never hit that last point, but I’ve seen it.
Of course just as bad for the body is too much party. If you need a vacation after your vacation, chances are you’ve been playing too much. You can usually do it that way, if you go on detox, and play it cool the weekend before going back to work, but most people can’t convince themselves to do that. I usually try to walk the fine line between the two. There’s enough passion in me to mix both of them. One usually makes the other go better. All the while, I have my own poison, the third leg of the triangle that’s missing. I need a woman. Sometimes I find myself in a bit of recklessness in the face of it all, but it’s still calculated risk and I always did well with those kinds of odds. For all the miles I exceeded the limit, and truly exceeded it at that, the price cost breaks down to a fairly cheap and reasonable form of entertainment. It’s one of the only ways to let the passion out. It’s one of the closest things to being in love.
10.06.06 I do believe summer might just be here. It’s a good thing too. World cup started and it’s much better to watch the games outside on a big screen than inside on tv’s. In fact, after yesterday, I’d say the scenery is much more interesting than the games. Sure, there’s the occasional break away and goal, but there’s instant replay for that. People are out in droves. It’s great, I love it. People get as hyped up for this as redneck football fans cheering for the Vikings. No beer dispensing helmets though. As an engineer, I’ll go so far as to say that for most, it would be uncomfortable to have a liter of beer in glass bottles riding around. Even 2x the 0.33’s would be a little much.
I called it an early night after the second game. I had been up late the night before getting rid of some spare change I had laying around. Damn it though, I still have all my 1, 2 and 5 cent pieces. You’d think that being in such a practical place, they’d have simplified things down to the basics like in the
So anyway, to back up a bit, things have been busy at best and downright hellish at work. It’s my kind fun. I keep running into my 10 hr. ceiling, and always have to worry about it. It’s kinda annoying. I miss the nights when I’d come back from getting pizza at Guidas and rock out to web radio for a night every now and then. I wouldn’t mind a 50 hr. week, just let me flex it. I suppose then you’d have people leaving half days on Friday though, and sometimes that’s not advantageous. 50 hrs. is about right though, anything more than that is a very slow suicide. I know there are people back home who live(d) off the overtime, but it’s no way to live. I lived my own madness last summer. It used to take a stiff Jack and Coke to mellow me out while I made dinner somewhere between 8-9, watched a movie, went to bed and did it all over again. I’m not blaming anyone or anything, it was my life, my choice. I’m glad that I did what I did and was able to contribute in a meaningful way.
So that’s work, the way it was then, the way it is now. With the energy I still have, I can afford to enjoy a modest social life during the week and the weekend. We went bowling again on Tuesday. I didn’t embarrass myself as bad as last time, but they joke around about my game and say that I shouldn’t tell anyone I’m an American with scores like mine. “Just tell people you’re Canadian.”
Last weekend was a blast. Friday was Weindorf (
Saturday would be even more entertaining. My rock star buddies were in town for some hard core boozing. We started out with a few bottles at Weindorf. This good looking blond showed up. I didn’t who, if anyone she belonged to, but she wasn’t acting like she was anyone’s, so I dialed my game up to 90%. Not the full on mack, just in case, but being flirty and suggestive as hell. And why not, she referred to me as “der gut Aussehender im rotten Hemd,” the good looking guy in the red shirt. I was impressed when she knew what an Irish Car Bomb is. Three of us went down to the local Irish pub to have one. After that and a Guinness, we headed up to Nachtwächter to meet back up with the rest of the gang. They were in full swing. I stayed with the blond. We were having a good time. Eventually I had to take a whiz. As I was coming out, Joachim was going in. He asked me if I had gotten with Clements’ old lady yet. At that point everything became clear to me. I had seen her picture one night when we were pre gaming for Airport the one night. Shit, that’s not cool. I’m an asshole! At that point the dial got turned from 90% mack to 0 mack, it’s time to start drinking heavily. Well, as I was on my way back to everyone, she was on her way out. So we said good night, and I didn’t have to worry about getting myself smashed. We closed the place, I walked back and made myself breakfast.
It was an early morning when Brian called me between 9-10. We had decided that he, Joachim and I would rent a car and take a road trip to Zürich. We all had Monday off for the holiday. It would be cool. Well, Joachim never answered his phone, and after a quick shower and throwing and overnight bag together, the two of us were on the road. We went down past
We hit up Lichtenstein. You can do Lichtenstein in about 4 hours if you waste as much time as you possibly can. We didn’t and before long we were cruising across the border into the Switz. We hit Zürich somewhere around 10 or 11 if memory serves me right. We walked around a while before going into an American restaurant. Well, we had already eaten in
21.05.06 I am Jack’s pent up testosterone. If none of the girls at a bar meet Jack’s standards, I lower Jack’s standards. Say my name! Tyler Durden! Tyler Durden! Hehehe, I love that movie. Not only for the way the story is constructed, but the commentaire it makes about our society. Recently, I lived my own Fight Club experience.
We were down on river grilling. It was a beautiful sunny Friday. It had been a hellish week and I was ready to chill out with everyone. So we were having a good time. I had ridden up to the gas station and picked up another case of 20 (bottles). It had to look hilarious. I had the case crossways on the frame of the bike and had to ride with my knees out. I’m pretty sure it looked like that part at the beginning of Goonies, where he takes the little girls bike, except for the training wheels of course. Anyhow, it was somewhere between
The last time I was ever in a fist fight was with my brother when I was in the 6th grade. This caught me a little off guard. They weren’t Germans, but Turks or Russians. They were kids, no more than 18. They were dressed semi preppy. A couple of them are local soccer starters.
Personally, I think it’s part of that generation. I know that generation, I spent enough summers at scout camp to know that there’s something wrong with generation R. Why R? Cause they’re the Ritalin generation. They’re part of the generation that grew up without ever being hit by their parents and would threaten to call the police if they ever were. They watched too much Barney and Teletubbies. They can’t remember what it meant not to have internet, let alone what people did before the modern age of computers. They’ve grown up thinking they deserve ever modern accessory; game cube or playstation, mp3 player, cell phone, palm pilot, laptop. There’s still one thing they’re lacking, the maturity. They’re all dick and no brains. Maybe that’s just men in general, maybe it’s the modern era of MTV that has turned their brains all to crap. Maybe it’s all of that.
So what else is new? Well, the eye didn’t swell shut. He got more of my cheek bone than anything else. Wanker, I hope it hurt so bad he had to switch to the other hand for a few days. So I was hurting a little bit the next day when I got picked up to go play in a soccer tourney. We started off with a weiss-wurst(white sausage) – Bavarian pretzel – Weizen breakfast. We lost all three games, but we had never played together and none of us were ever soccer stars. It was all for fun. The guys had made what I can only describe as the best kings cup I’ve ever seen. It was about as big around as a 2 liter soda bottle, about as high as 2 of them, a narrow stem on the bottom with a flange to keep it upright on the table. Maybe our playing would have been better if some of us had laid off the sauce a little bit.
Sunday was quiet. Watched Fight Club with a couple people on the floor. Monday was soccer. Wednesday was spent watching the final game of Champions League. Thursday was my birthday. 25 years now. Wholly cow. Well, that’s supposed to drop my car insurance rate down to the next level, right? A couple of us went out to dinner and a couple beers. It was pretty quiet because I wasn’t going to take Friday off. Not this month. Not when we’re a man down. Work has been busy as hell, but I’m into it even more now. I’m rockin it out and having a good time. Sure there are those days when I come out of work beat as all hell, or completely stressed out. That’s the life of an engineer. That’s why engineers drink. If it keeps up like this, I’m going to spend this summer like last summer, drinking jack and coke to help me unwind after a long hard day. If only the nights were long and hard too-.
Friday night I went out with Brian. He’s our PhD fan design specialist from
He’s going to be here for a few months, so it looks like I might have found my summer drinking-pimping partner. Now the question you’re all asking, is if I got the girl’s number. No, but I’m sure I’ll run into her again. And to be honest, I don’t care one way or another. I can’t and if it’s one thing I learned, it’s better to get to know people slowly over a little bit of time rather than running/rushing into things. So I’ll let things take their course, as I’m sure they will, wherever that leads me. It’s hell turning 25. I didn’t think I’d be doing it with a black eye, but hey, another experience.
5.5.06 So here it is again. For once I’m not completely burn out on a Friday. The sun is shinning, it’s warm out, and the air is just right for drinking. So what am I doing here? Well, I gotta couple minutes to kill before going downtown. The week’s been good. I can’t believe it’s already been a week, been a month, been a year, been 3 years. Ahh, 3 years ago Wednesday was the F11 unveiling. I drove that car all day on the 4th and had a deeply religious experience that night. I have to smile and think back on it all. If only I had read Jackie Stewart’s book a little earlier, I might not have blown that time trial for the
Work’s been insane this week. It was only a 4 day week, but what a week. Tuesday was the only night I worked on pictures. Wednesday we had a customer visit. They were from
I went out for shopping and a beverage with one of the girls from work Wednesday. That was entertaining. I suppose most men hate going shopping with women. It never seems to end, you usually have to carry crap. It wasn’t like that. Stores here close at 8, and I didn’t have to carry anything. I kinda wish I had a reason to go into women’s stores more often. If I came up with the right line, there would be a never ending supply of women to use it on. But seriously, it was cool and I enjoyed chilling out. I went with the boys to see Hostel that night. It wasn’t as bad as Blair Witch, but it was. The first 15 minutes were full of naked eastern European women and I was thinking, “Where does the scary part come in?” It never came, it just got graphic and gruesome. The plot was about as good as Blair Witch. I wouldn’t ever watch it again, not even for the sex scenes. There’s kinda a cool idea behind the film, but it was done all wrong. Of course that’s just my opinion, I could be wrong.
Yesterday was a lot of running around, and after two late nights, I crashed for the whole night. Was kinda bummed, I had wanted to get some stuff done around here. The weather was beautiful. I shoulda been out in the park running or reading, enjoying the scenery.
7.5.06 Ok, so to pick up where I left off, Friday was just as busy as every other day had been. But of course, I like it when it’s hellish. When the worst is going on, I’m usually keeping a cool head and focus even better than when things are running normal. I kinda hate that. I ask myself why can’t I focus more like that all the time, but I know that it’s just like my driving. I’m more on autopilot when I’m just driving around. I mean sure, I pay attention to what I’m doing, I can pick out an unsafe situation and what not, but it’s nothing like how I am when I’m pushing it. That’s when the processor picks up the duty cycle and goes full bore. The nerves come alive, eyes widen and the information gets transferred into foot and hand movements. Rather than just a stroll in the park, things become a dance, poetry in motion. That’s what drives me, I need tempo, I need something to tap my foot to.
So I had to leave in the middle of things on Friday. We went and played Kubb down by the river. I had never played before, so it was something new. Underhand toss these sticks at blocks and repeat until one team wins. That’s my very short version. So we did that, went to the café for a little while. I love it, warm sun, beautiful women, and the air is just right for drinking. It was a short night, but not too shabby. I find it amusing, when I was in high school, the old usually wanted us home around 11, it was so constraining. We wanted to stay out at as late as possible, even if it meant just walking around Walmart for an hour. And granted, now that I’m a big kid, I usually stay out to two or three, one if I’m having an off night or got up too early that morning, but 11 is also acceptable on occasion. I’m sure it would be more agreeable to me if I was also going home with someone. We all know why couples go to bed earlier. It’s so they can get up and go to breakfast the next morning, right? I came back and fell asleep to a movie, so much for romance in my life. Saturday was kinda an off day for me. Even though I got plenty of sleep, I felt like I just couldn’t wake up. Maybe I was fighting off a cold or something, maybe it’s a touch of hay fever, maybe I just need to get my pipes cleaned. But I went and rode up the hill to the super wally world and the media store up there, all before
29.4.06 Hockenheimring
Well, if there’s one way to close out April, going to the track with one of your buddies for the Jimmy Clark Vintage Weekend is a pretty good way to do it. It’s unfortunate that I won’t be able to make Nürburgring for next weekends GP, but there’s always next year. I have indeed scoped Hockenheim out and if funds allow, I will be there to close out July as well. I think it’ll happen.
The track is nice. Size wise it falls somewhere between The Glen and Indy. There are a lot of good places to watch from, but I was surprised there aren’t more seating areas, permanent anyway. I’d love to give a summary of the days’ events, but that would take too long. I’ll just say that I walked around with a stiffy all day long, mostly at the Sachs Curve. I didn’t get to see a lot of my favorites, the mid 60’s formula, but there was a lot of other good stuff there. There were quite a few women drivers, more than I’ve seen in the states, another reason I love this country. I’ll try to put up a few pictures for you people who are interested (of the cars). CD’s will be available upon request via email. Before I move on, I will say how much I miss being in the cockpit, out there pushing a car to its limit. I will definitely have to get behind the wheel of a vehicle that was meant to go to the track as soon as I can afford it.
So what else have I been up to? Well it’s been a crazy week that’s for sure. Thursday was Shuttle Party again. Went and hopped a couple bars, drank some beer before calling it quits around
Wednesday night was a going away party for one of the girls. It was a nice time with everyone outside of work. It’s nice to be able to just shoot the shit, talk about getting tickets (yes, speeding) and fun stuff like that.
Tuesday we went bowling again, me and a couple guys from the prototype/machine shop. I got to use the band saw a week or two ago, that was fun. Maybe I can convince them to let me get on a mill or lathe, just for old times sake. It wasn’t a good night on the lane for me. I’m rather embarrassed, but I was a couple beers short of where I would have stopped thinking about what I was doing, and just done it.
Monday I was out to a club that has live music every now and then. I had been invited (more to come on that in a moment) to see The Toasters, a ska band from NYC. They were good. They belong to the 80’s generation of ska, so they’re not my Reel Big Fish, but they rock out with their you know whats. I think my favorite point was when the sax player goes “Do you know what this is? This is the shocker….” I just about died laughing.
So what was I doing there in the first place? Well, if I hadn’t been invited, I wouldn’t have known about the concert, but it all started last Saturday. I was planning on not doing anything. It was
So that’s the run down on recent events. It was such a full program I haven’t even had time to play soccer during the week. At least the pick up game on Sunday was alright. Marcel told me afterwards, “We lost because you went in the goal.” I grinned and replied “That was the general idea.” I will be the first to admit, he’s a good shot and got a few by me. He and Jonas have the give and go passing that reminds me of the way Orrin, Mark, John and Brian used to play soccer back in high school. Work is going well. Things are busy as hell. I could easily be working a late night or two if I was allowed to. In fact, I kinda miss that. The late nights, when I was in the lab trying to work some magic or up stairs writing a report, when I’d walk out half burnt with the “stoned” tiredness hanging in my eyes, but felt like we’d just taken a good step forward, they were the nights I felt alive. Of course that’s the perception looking back. And I know it’s true, but that was right after I’d gotten left behind and was in full workaholic mode. It was pre Honda Co-op Crew, before the end of the triumvirate, of Sunday night dinners and the era that was college. I’m sure I could push myself that hard again, just give me coffee to mainline and some good tune-age to jam to. Just give me something on the weekend to get me through the next week, like the O-town crew and the qt that made the second half the summer more exciting than a barrel of monkeys. Just give me time to keep in touch with the best friends that are miles away, but will still say the right things to keep me burning from both ends of the candle.
But I like a balance, a balance of craziness/chaos, passion and relaxation. I want things to be insane, so that I can try and make sense out of them, and then I want to sit back and admire how cool shit is. I want to go out dancing with a lady, maybe watch a movie with her the next time around and then admire how beautiful she is while she’s sleeping. I want to go crazy in preparation, hold on to the adrenaline through a race course on the hairy limit, then polish her up and take her home. I want to jot down plans and measurements, buy the boards, chop and screw them together, stain and varnish and then use the piece of furniture. I want to throw all my camping gear in my pack, go hiking through the woods with the 40 some odd pounds on my back and then sit back and enjoy being away from everything except my thoughts and good company.
And I know that no matter where I am, no matter what I’m doing, I’ll have all of that. It’s just a matter of proportions. And right now, I go to work, I play soccer, I have time to go running, reading or writing in the park. I go out on the town, to the cafés and the race track. The ski slopes are a few hours away. It’s not any different than what I had over the summer, but it is for me. It’s another challenge; it’s a test for me to see if it’s the right mix and if I’m right for the mix. It’s all about options; it’s all about wine, women and song. And before too long, I gotta buy into something. I’ve just always been one to take a good look at what’s out there before going in with all my chips. I’ve been happy just about every where I’ve been, and I’d like to think just about everyone’s been happy with me. So we’ll see.
19.4.06 Well damn, it's been a lot longer than I planned. The snow melts and time seems to shift into the next gear and floor the pedal. So let's see, one of the women from work retired, so there was a nice dinner the one night. She closed out my coffee account, this month is going to be bad, but not too bad, cause I've decided to give up coffee at work. I'm not quite a week in, but we'll see. Went out with Johann & Manuel a few times. We saw Basic Instinct 2 before going out the one night. I went bowling last Thursday for the first time in over a year. Best was a 120 something. Kinda weak. Soccer's been good. We had a pick up game the one night. I enjoy it. Watched Brothers Grimm the one night with a couple guys from the floor. Been doing some chilling with a couple on and off. I was talking to the recently arrived American from Cinnci the one night and as I went to make dinner, one of the guys was like, "I didn't know you were American. I thought you were just from a different part in Germany." Now obviously he hasn't had too much of a conversation with me, but it did feel nice to hear. I was sick for a week too, so I wasn't really doing much that week. The weather continues to improve, although we've had enough rain the last month to make me wonder if I'm in Rochester. But everything is pretty green. I went reading out in the park a couple times. That's about it. Be sure to check out my new section with serious writing. I would like to thank OB for the request. And of course my thoughts are with my brother as he goes off into the wild blue yonder... whoops, wrong branch, but off for his basic training in the Army. Love you bro!
24.3.06 So here we are again. A couple weeks later. I’m having a hard time looking back on the last month and thinking, “Damn, it’s been a month already.” So let’s see, inside of a week, I had 2 flat tires. The last one was two weeks ago tomorrow and I still haven’t made time to fix it yet. Well, the week was rough. I started playing soccer in the hall with other people in the building. Mondays and Wednesdays, and with all the adrenaline flowing again, it was hard to sleep that week. I’m still good at defense, although the hall is too small for me to show my speed. It was nice to hear that I play well. I was like, yeah, for an American and the response was no, you play good ball. They also like having me in the goal. No fear baby, but doch. One of these times that ball is going to be 4 inches higher and I’d still like to have children. The shot I took square in the neck was fun. It hurt to chew the next 2 days cause it must have loaded up my jaw too. But I do love the action and running around. I love taking the ball away and thinking in my best Johnny Dangerously Polly voice “Crawwk, you missed f-face.” Of course then one goes sailing by me from 3 yards away at a mile a minute and I never had time to put my hands out.
It was also tough that week cause I was fighting off a migraine. I did, but one of these days I just might have to find another drug. Narcotics are narcotics and I spent the first part of this week going “What kind of drugs was I on last week?” And then I went, “Oh yeah, those drugs. Must have been some good shit!” Work has been hopping. I’ve got a full plate, and the appetite to go after all of it. Walking to work has been refreshing. With the sun coming up earlier, I wake up earlier and have a cappuccino before leaving. It’s been quiet the last two weekends, but I can’t complain. Might go out with Johann and Manuel tomorrow, it’s still up in the air.
This week’s been good. There was a bit of stress at the beginning of the week, but my coworkers helped get me to the point where I can accept certain personality traits of others without taking them out on myself. It’s nobody’s fault, we are who we are, we are all a blends of things. Me, I’m a perfectionist delivery boy – read workaholic, when it comes to work. I’m no lawyer, but just as in The Devil’s Advocate, “I’m an engineer, that’s my job, that’s what I do. You got a problem, you need answers, you need them stat, I’m your guy.” I gotta be “Frank, Frank baby. You gotta problem, yo I’ll solve it. Check out the Excel while the hard drive revolves it.” -ok, enough with the lame jokes, but you can’t be the thunderstorm that rolls through in 15 minutes at 2pm on a sunny summer day, dump so much rain so fast the sod can’t soak it up and then ask me why there are so many puddles and the lawn isn’t completely mowed. The runoff doesn’t move that fast and I can’t be that kind of storm to everyone else. I was meant to be that tailwind that’s moving somewhere and tries to carry everyone along with it as much as possible. Maybe blow up Marilyn Monroe’s skirt if possible. Of course I’m still going to try and suck it all up and carry it on my shoulders. I’m not going to say anything about it, just try and do it swifter, faster, like I’m out there on the edge where no one can touch me. At least I know the rest of my coworkers are right there beside me, that it’s not just me. And I know me, I like the pressure, I just want to know that I’m delivering, that I’m not just some pudknocker. I want to be the kinda guy who’s going to tell Sean Connery “At least we tired,” in the basement of an old prison. That’s right, you know exactly where I’m going with that one.
It was also the last week for one of our secretaries. She closed out my coffee account for the last time, which was nice because for a moment, it felt like a cheap month. We went out to dinner Tuesday and had a nice time. I know in the blink of an eye it’ll be 40 something years down the road, it’ll be my turn. I just hope the next 40 will be as good as the last 10.
Sunday I had the discussion I promised my brother and a couple of ladies I would have. And as I suspected, I got shot down in a blaze of glory. Those of you who know me, know exactly who and what I’m talking about. But to that I say, I’m not worried about it. I’ve had enough relationships and fallen in love enough to be able to put it into perspective. I know the ladies that have experienced the quality moments this Capristo has to offer would call her crazy, but that if she’s got someone she’s blind to all that. Rightly so. I know what I am, maybe I’m the best she ever could have had, maybe just average, but I’m not counting and it doesn’t matter. You never know what the tide may bring. I saw it coming a long time ago and if it’s one thing that I learned in college, it’s that women aren’t worth the chase. They’re going to do what they want and although it may take time, there will be another. And I know that guys aren’t worth it either. Things will happen or they won’t, simple as that. And I say that if a girl feels the need to test me, to see how deep my love is, then she doesn’t know me well enough, cause I wouldn’t be there in those moments if my heart was somewhere else. Homey don’t play that game, she can keep walking if playing’s her game. I know Risky Business; I’ve learned to say wtf. “Wtf gives you freedom. Freedom brings opportunity.
It was a good Friday. I get the feeling like the guys down in the machine shop and prototyping have respect for me, as an engineer and a person. I think just maybe everyone else too, and that’s good. It’s a good sign and it’s more racing fuel to keep the fire burning.
It’s no excuse to slack off, but a responsibility to keep pushing myself, to keep trying to do it better. To know that it’s not just dumb luck that gets me around this racetrack called life, but the passion and drive to do it the most righteous way possible, to do it right on the border between recklessness and control, to jam to the tunes that play in my heart and laugh at it all with a sarcastic twinkle in the eye and grin from ear to ear. Ain’t nothing but a g-thing baby, but I’m no player, just another guy trying to chase down some dreams, and live with strength and honor, just another dead poet trying to suck the marrow out of life. This is no PhD bs, just an educated country boy cowboy who knows what it means to look up at the stars, to look out on that horizon as far as the eye can see and say “Let’s go have a lookey, I think we might be able to do that.” Don’t expect me to take the road less taken, or even think for a moment that I’ll follow everyone else, but instead to blaze my own. And I hope you don’t know it from hearing my own arrogance, but see it from what I have left behind and given you, for then I will have truly done it right.
10.3.06 Well it’s about that time again and a lot has happened since my last update. Manuel and I went out for a night on the town on the 23rd. We had a good time. He’s the first guy who every really set me up with a girl. He started talking to her then went to go buy the both of them another drink and then I had to start talking to her. It was cool, I can do things that way. I just cant go up to a compete stranger and start talking to her. Anyway she was cool and I managed to ask her for her number.
I was laughing at myself before I did it. I could just picture everyone telling me to do it and I wanted to, so I did. And while that might be a big step for me, it’s still nothing. I mean, it’s only a number and she goes to school in Innsbruck. I still don’t have any land points here, but that’s alright. Everything at the right time, just like it always happens.
I went skiing for 2.5 days in the 
I had a good time with him, his roomies and a couple of guys who came over. We watched The Transporter 2. Lots of action. I stayed up till 2 something talking with his one roomie then got up at 5. I figured I’d sleep in the car on the way down, and I kinda did, as best as I can. Once we hit the 
I was in the mood for it that day for sure. I hadn’t driven or raced in about 6 months and so I was a little pent up. They asked me how much skiing I’ve done in the last 6 years and were surprised when I said one day a year. Apparently I ski deliberate and with confidence and must have some natural talent. Talent? I’m a Capristo. We don’t f around. We had one of my favorite dishes, Käsespäzle that night. It’s similar to mac and cheese, but better. I was dead tired that night, the previous two nights had worn me down. The weather the next day kept us slow, but we were feeling the previous day anyway. That night was fun and filled with games. We managed a half day the next day in decent weather before heading back. It had been great to see everyone again and I’ll never forget the sled riding. I’ve always wanted to go down ski slopes on a sled. The 10 mile run wasn’t always the fastest, but fun enough racing side by side with people.
The ride home that Monday evening was a mixture of a lot of feelings. It had been a great time and the week was only going to be filled with more action, but it was the end of February and I was paying homage to Mike. The next day I moved into my new place, kinda. Johann and I threw all my crap in there and we went to party. His and Manuel’s band had a gig in a small town bar that kinda reminded of Nancy’s and The Fox back home. They are really good and I had a good time. I crashed at Manuel’s that night and we got up the next day to pick up Tony from the airport in
I hadn’t driven in 6 months, but I didn’t stall once. Of course it’s kinda hard to stall when you’re doing 180kmh (about 110mph) down the Autobahn. It was a first for me, the Autobahn not driving that fast. I suppose I’ve done all the touristy things here now, or almost… ;-) So we came back, and Tony crashed while I tried to make some sense out of my room. It had been my intention to go out with a couple people from work to dinner, but they couldn’t. In all honesty, it worked out the best that way. Tony and I had a good bros as one, second to none dinner. I wanted to take him out to Brauhaus after that, but it was closed. We went to a café instead and had a couple rounds of hot wine and another Weizen before hooking up with Johann. We went a club I hadn’t been to yet, but has a 2 for 1 deal on Wednesdays. We had 4 rounds of 11 tequila and 3 rounds of B52s. After that I switched to water. It was a good night.
We would miss going out for coffee with a friend of mine that next morning. Luckily she understood. Late afternoon Tony and I caught a train down to
I got up around 10 to talk to Johann, then 11 for good. Tony was still sleeping and I went with Christopher’s girl and the French chicks to get some food and walk around. I miss that city. Tony and Andi were up when we got back. We chilled and had dinner before Tony and I went out to meet up with Melanie. It was a good three hours of hilarious and great conversation. After that, we went back to Christopher’s and chilled with them some more. We watched
Sunday was laid back. Tony and I ended up back at that café from the first night, just relaxing over a couple beverages before going to the movies. We went and saw the new Underworld movie. Tony had seen it already. It was good. It wasn’t Harte Jungs, the German American Pie, like last time, but it had Kate Beckinsale in tight leather. I made pasta and we opened the Merlot. After dinner we went out on the rooftop and smoked our Cubans under the starry sky with another glass wine. The fat lady was singing. We watched another movie before calling it a night.
Neither of us slept well. I looked at the clock at least once every hour. The next morning was sad, 5 days and no international incidents. I think we both didn’t want the time to end, but didn’t want to drag out the whole sequence of saying good bye either. It was harder for me than back in September when we said our good byes. I had the afternoon free was driving myself crazy the whole time. Going out to dinner with the gang from work was just what I needed to keep my mind off of things. It was a good end to my first real vacation since the 3 weeks I came here to visit in 2002.
22.2.06 So be sure to check out Random Thoughts - Who is this Frank Guy. I put up some stuff on there that's not exactly current event material, more my outlook on life. Hey, according to Google, this thing is my pulpit. Who calls it that anymore? I think podium is more common. And Google, damn, they're turning into Pinky and the Brain. I never watched it, couldn't stand it, but I know the catch line; And tonight, we're going to take over the world. Of course to that I say good, give Microsoft some competition. So let's see, I'm missing the Olympics cause I don't have TV, but I see Germany is kicking some ass. Outside of skiing, there isn't a whole lot that entertains me. I watched the Cutting Edge and all that, but if I really wanted to see chicks in cheesey costumes and chessey music, I'd go to the red light district. I am counting down the days until the next F1 season. I'm interested to see what this years McLaren will do. I hope to see Kimi be Champion. I don't know if I'll get to go to a race. I hope at least 1, but I'm definitely going to the Jimmy Clark weekend in April. That will be hot. There's something about the old cars that just strikes me. The days when it was still more of an amature sport, before money was such a factor, when drivers were men and still got killed on a regular basis. Not that I like guys dying, but I just think that says something more about what kind of men they were and I respect that. So I'm really excited. Skiing in the Alps this weekend, the move on Tuesday, a week with my bro. It's going to be good to spend time with everyone. I always miss that. I'm going to try and get a comedy section up. Be sure to look for it. Outside of that, keep it real and remember to drop me a line. Crack kills, but emails don't.
14.2.06 I remember last year, I was going completely anti Valentines Day in regards to what happened the previous year. This year, I don't know. I'm not too worried about it. I haven't been up to too much. People haven't been around, or wanted to do stuff. Outside of going out for a brew last week, I've been saving up some $ in anticipation of the Capristo Reunite for one week of craziness celebration. I've been playing around with Photoshop and whatnot, been doing some writing. I love touching up pictures, making them come alive. Looking back at the moments and remembering it all. A lot of it all seems like just yesterday, but is already 6, 12 or 18 months ago. Time marches on and we are sucked along with it. My idea of heaven would be to take everywhere I've been in the last10 years or so and combine the places and people into one daily life. Of course that's the dreamer in me. It's one hell of a dream though. It's been that vivid, to put it shortly.
Recently, I've been going out of my mind. My appartment is being renovated and I found out the rent is going up by €100, or about $125. I can't afford that, so I'm moving. Don't send me anything until you hear from me through the email-vine. I'm moving into what I will describe as a dorm. I'm not crazy about it. It's alright, it's cheap, I should get to meet some more people, save-have more $. I don't have to stay there. It's just the lesser of two evils at the moment. I'm going to try to add more to random thoughts and what not, time and internet prevailing. So, I will be in touch. Till then, rock out...
5.2.06 Greetings ladies and gentlemen. I know it’s been a while. You are all probably wondering what the heck happened to me. Some of you are wondering or hoping that Frankie found a lady to keep him busy. I’ve been hoping for the same thing. Well, I lost internet and it hasn’t come back. I’m wondering if it’s something with my settings, cause I can’t even see the secured networks I used to.
So what have I been up to? January had it’s good and bad points. To start off with, I love New Years here. John had a house party and was kind enough to invite me. I had my first taste of Mexican Lasagna. There were also Tostidos that he had brought back with him from Mexico. Ummm Tostidos, definitely one of the food things I miss. More so I miss the dips. Anyway, around 12 we all went out into the street, cause it’s legal to shoot off fireworks here, everyone does it. So were out in the street, setting off fireworks with the rest of the city, drinking champagne and having a good time. After a half hour of that, we went into the city to Brauhaus, a nice bar. We had a good time there and then somewhere between 2-3 I walked home. That’s the nice thing about living in the middle of the city, the social scene is only a walk away. Sadly enough I haven’t been using that to it’s fullest, yet. So it wasn’t quite Trevor’s party last year. I didn’t end up playing any iron man beer pong, or anything like that.
Was talking to Melanie that week, telling her how crazy it is. 2006, I remember 1996. We were still going to party like it was 1999. But yeah, had just lost my first almost kinda sorta girlfriend, interviewed for camp and all that. That was 9th grade, the “big league” of high school. None of the American Pie films had come out yet, but we all knew it was suppose to be something like that. It was the start of what I’d like to call the next era. I think back on the start of 96 and everything that happened since, amazing. Melanie agreed and said that we would probably never again change as much as we have in the last 10 years. That got my mind rolling even more and before I knew it, I started writing what has pretty much become my own autobiography.
It’s still a WIP (work in progress), but it’s cool. To borrow from Great Expectations (the film), “I’m not going to tell the story the way it happened, I’m going to tell it the way I remember.” Every now and then something comes back to me and I have to jot it down on a piece of paper so I can add it later. It’s been fun doing, it’s nice to remember. I mean sure, every once in a while a certain smell or sound will come to you and take you back, but those moments are too far and few between as far as I’m concerned. There’s also the marble theory to deal with. You can only put so many marbles on a plate before one falls off, and memory is like that too. You think “Awe yeah, I’ll remember that,” but you forget, or forget all the details. So when I get to the end, I’m going to go back through and add commentary to everything. I’ve got 40 pages in word of things I remember doing. Of course I didn’t start with 96, I wanted to go back to the start of things I remember, cause those are the fuzziest. So that kept me busy until work started back up on the 9th.
January was pretty quiet. Went out a couple of times with people here and there, so that’s been good. I don’t know though, it’s too quiet for me during the week. I get out of work and probably till the end of the month, it’ll be too dark out to really go for a real bike ride, though I have been exploring the trails on the weekends. It’s not bad, it’s just different. All my life, I’ve lived with people or in the close proximity to them. This last summer was similar to the current situation, but I was so beat after work that it didn’t really matter. Internet helps too, staying connected to people and all that.
I suppose the things that’s the strangest is that I’ve got me time, time just for me. This is not normal for me. Most of the time I’ve been doing things for other people, or indirectly for myself. I guess I can’t say I did homework for the professors, that it had more to do with me getting through school, but that’s just being technical. I can hear Johnny Depp’s words in my ear “You need to find yourself a girl mate. Or perhaps you’ve already found one and are otherwise incapable of wooing said strumpet.” Indeed.
They’ve started with the renovation of this joint. It’s cool cause at the end of it, I wont have to live with the Chinese girl any more. Nothing against Chinese mind you, just her. Still, I don’t know what the rent is going to be afterwards. I might end up looking for a new place to live. Time will tell.
My thoughts are with my guys at B&L. I hope the line validation goes well and goes as planned. I will be ecstatic to hear word of your success and have a nice bottle waiting to be opened in your honor.
posted by CapristoIII at 3:52 PM
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