TGIF

god, i hate that acronym and it's expanded saying. there's even a fucking restaurant named after it (and one so derivative and annoying what with the kitsch and overjoyed servers; i'd rather puke than eat there). and, to make it even worse, some fundamentalists deemed Thank God It's Friday too sacreligious, so they changed it to Thank Goodness It's Friday. the ultimate sign of stupidity is taking a lame idiom and making it even lamer. god damn. but, it IS friday and if there were a god i'd certainly thank it. this week was long.

i need to conduct 5 interviews next week, so maybe i can find some qualified people and quickly fill these open spots. we need the help. we are barely keeping our heads above water, and that's only because someone in my department has cashed in their savings of luck thereby allowing the volume of tests in our department to suddenly shrink. if they build back up again, which they inevitably will, we are in dire straits. i fear this.

plans this weekend: clean out my basement writing room, finally. box up all my shit, finally. finish the minor repairs the house needs, finally. find time in all of that to relax, finally. worry, more and continued.

gyro breath

one thing i'll miss when we move to our new house, out in the boondocks, is this great Greek restaurant called Mad Greek Too. it's a second restaurant owned by the people who own Mad Greek. anyway, their gyros are amazing. it comes with a small salad (with 1000 islands dressing, which no salad would be complete without!) and a heap of basmati rice that tastes like heaven (if one actually existed).
well, my wife picked up some Mad Greek on her way home today and got me a gyro. oooh, doggy. the only drawback, for my wife, not me, is the horrible, garlicky, oniony, lamby gyro breath that i will be sporting all night. no amount of brushing or mouthwash will remove it, either. and, the only worse is about 3 hours from now when the gyro burps start working their way out. that's when the room clears.
but, it's oh so worth it.

well, just when i thought things were getting better at work, i lost my second employee in as many weeks. and, we were already down two people. so, the three remaining employees i have, plus me, will have to cover for seven people. this is an impossible task, and i imagine the defections will ripple on down until it's just me; curled up in the corner, in a fetal position, crying.
i have some interviews set up next week to fill the spots, but it'll take time to get them in, trained and ready to go. maybe i should jump ship while some of it is still above water? i don't know. it's all just so damn overwhelming.

oops! or eating crow

well, my buddy Glenn W. Cooper has informed me that i made a rather glaring (and embarrassing) grammar error in a previous post written on July 31. the error was in the sentence:

"...the assholes that took the couch and chair just inconsiderately dumped..."

please forgive me my trespass. obviously, the sentence should have read:

"...the assholes who took the couch and chair just inconsiderately dumped..."

what's even more embarrassing is that Glenn has corrected me on more than one occasion about this very error in a number of my poems. for some reason i have a horrible that/who agreement issue, THAT no amount of correcting or humiliating can correct.

not to self: it's WHO when referring to a person or persons; THAT when referring to a thing!

well, i suppose i can take heart of the fact that none of us are perfect. my problem just resides in the fact that i think i am.


now, onto poetic matters. i received word today that two of my poems will be featured in the new issue of The Flatlands due out at the end of this month. it was a nice surprise after a busy day at work.

remarkable

i received issue #35 of remark., the old online poetry journal i started and edited until just recently, when i handed over the reigns to Kat. anyway, she did a great job with this issue. my review of Glenn W. Cooper's first chapbook, First Touch, from Bottle of Smoke Press appears in this issue. also included are some great poems by Luis Cuauhtemoc Berriozabal, Charles Nevsimal and Nescher Pyscher.
i also received a book from my friend, the aforementioned Glenn W. Cooper. he is a big fan of Muhammad Ali and knows that i am as well. he accidently ended up with two copies of a biography of him, The Tao of Muhhamad Ali, and was kind enough to send me one of the copies. thank you, Glenn. i look forward to reading it. it is going in the pile of books i mentioned below that will be accompanying me to my apartment. i've a great assortment of books of varying genres to keep me busy until my house is built.

off with his hair

nothing really new today. lazy Sunday. we packed up some more of our shit, segregated more things, threw more things out. we're trying to take things slow so that we don't get too stressed out. so far, so good.

we took time out to get haircuts, too. i always look like a goofball after a haircut. some people look their best right after a haircut. me, i look best about a week later. so, right now, i look like some super-coiffured idiot. next week, though, i'll be at my best.

one more story about the pile of garbage on our curbside. it has now been whittled down to no more than a tenth of what it was. we had an old, torn and overused couch and chair out there, on top of which were piled most of our junk. on our way back home from our friends' house for dinner, we noticed that they were both gone. we figured they would be. BUT, the assholes that took the couch and chair just inconsiderately dumped all the shit onto the parking strip and crushed the bushes and flowers my wife spent a long time planting. ASSHOLES! man, i wish we were there when it happened and my wife could've gotten hold of them. one thing, all. DO NOT fuck with my wife. the fiery Italian in her flares up and you will be sorry. oh, that would've been so great. but, as it is, we had to clean it up and luckily the plants were unharmed.