St. Patrick’s Day Parade
Rochester, NY 2:02 AM As I have said, this is my first winter in Rochester since high school. I didn’t know what the big deal was for the St. Patrick’s Day parade. The papers were writing about it. All of my different groups of friends were asking me if I was going. “We’re getting started at 9 in the morning,” they said. These guys don’t do anything at 9 AM, so I knew it must be a big event. I had been set to go for a week or so. There were many friend factions that I’d meet downtown. As is the case, nothing was really set, other than we knew the cell phones would ring and...
Read MoreDrug
Rochester, NY 2:05 PM I have found a drug that takes you to different states of mind and feeling. It’s something that is available in your house, in any city, in the suburbs, and in any downtown. I just reupped for some this week. It had been many months since I had a steady fix of it. I can’t describe how it good it felt to finally go in and tell the dealer I was committing to them. I joined the YMCA on Tuesday. Today I write feeling better than I have in a while. There is something about a sweat and some strain on your muscles. It does the mind and soul good. You can’t control it, but...
Read MoreGui Con
Rochester, NY 1:38 PM When you are used to food and you don’t have it, you feel different. It’s kind of an off feeling. You’re not sick or anything like that, but your body just craves it. I have that with pretzels. And ham sandwiches. I need them as part of my food cycle. I found out today I may need some Vietnamese food. When I lived in Charlotte I had many excellent ethnic eateries at my disposal. Cuisine Malaya had the best Malaysian food around. From what I’m told, that place is one of the best in the country. I miss it. Pho 98 is the Vietnamese place we used to go to. They had...
Read MoreHats, hats and more hats
The World 1:05 AM The 1st of March is the sign that the NCAA basketball tournament is on the way. All of the excitement of college sports is summed up by this. The little guys against the big guys. The 15 beating the 2. The sub 500 winning their conference tourney to sneak in. I wasn’t thinking about that today. “Andrew, are you sure you want to come out today,” my 10:30 interview said over the phone. We were supposed to get 10 inches of snow. If I were back in Charlotte, we would have a snow day, maybe bundle up and take a walk, maybe start a fire and grab some wine, but here in NY,...
Read MoreTaxes
Rochester, NY The glasses hang down low on the nose. The keyboard crunches. Paperwork shuffles about. “Anything else?” he asks as I fidget across the desk. He writes down a few more things. After what seems like an eternity, the words roll out of his mouth like a slow motion, “NNNNNOOOOOOOOO,” from a TV show spill or accident. “You look pretty good,” he says softly, not looking at me as he pecks away on the ten key. I pause, process, and smile. I normally don’t smile when a guy tells me I look pretty good. But when it is the tax man, you go with the flow. We concluded. I stepped...
Read More