About Me

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North Haledon, New Jersey, United States
There isn't much about me worth knowing...unless of course you disagree?

Monday, July 31, 2006

Good Ol' Mel

I've always liked Mel Gibson, even when I was bothered by the whole "Passion of the Christ" thing, even when he became overtly anti-semitic, even when he made those two movies with two completely different kids that absolutely no one can tell apart even though they really have nothing to do with each other. Yeah, you know which two I'm talking about.

Anyway, I haven't really been doing the whole social commentary thing on here in a long while. It just doesn't seem my place anymore. I'm no longer that bastion of pop culture knowledge, that hellion of social causes, that minion of media, that onion of...well shit, you get the point. I used to be and now I'm not. Have I even mentioned Hezbollah? Hizbullah? Bachagaloops? Whatever the hell they're calling themselves now? I didn't say shit about any of Georgie's latest indiscretions or North Korea's missiles. I'm not that guy anymore. But for some reason I want to talk a little bit about Mel.

See I liked the Mad Max movies, The Bounty, The Lethal Weapon movies, Maverick, Braveheart, Ransom, Conspiracy Theory, Payback, The Patriot, We Were Soldiers, I even tolerated What Women Want even though I really wish I hadn't.

I just think the guy is...

...decent. Not even decent in the Kevin Costner sort of way where I watch his movies because the movies were good but I really wish he wasn't in them. Or the Dennis Quaid sort of way where I watch the movies even though their questionable mostly because he's in them just because he's in them. Or the in the Kevin Bacon way where I probably don't watch them period even though I have nothing against the guy. Just normal old fucked up decent.

And slightly anti-semitic. But hey I've never faulted anyone for being racist, not because I don't think it's a horrible horrible thing, but just because I understand that most people are stupid...and don't know any better.

And an alcoholic. But hey let's remember drunk is a reason, not an excuse. And Mel did say he was sorry even if he maybe didn't completely mean it.

And a pedophile. I think I may have just made that one up, but while we're pouring it on...

You know, maybe I don't like Mel all that much...I'll have to think some more about that one. But you know what? I definitely still like Lethal Weapon...definitely.

So anyway...

My father has completely lost his mind. Today he complained about how much water people drink...think about it, seriously, it was 90 degrees out yesterday and 90 degrees again today. But according to him people shouldn't be able to drink that much water. It was a fantastic tantrum...in part because we've always joked that one day he would realize how much the water cooler water cost and he would lose his mind. We'd strut around the office joking that it was time to "cut off the water, and next we'll cut off the air! That will teach them!" And it was infinitely more funny when it actually happened then we were just joking about it. But it was kind of sad...

The house is ALL fucked up...

My puppy is insane...

I worked late, picked up chinese food on the way home. The lady didn't seal the lid properly on something and it leaked through the bag and onto my lap ruining a new pair of pants. God damn.

You have got to love Mondays...I need a drink, and a lapdance, and some heroin.

Night All.

Thursday, July 27, 2006

Pandemonium

"Is That Thelonious Monk In Your Pants Or Are You Just Happy To See Me?" - Lazarus Jones

"You should seriously consider laying off the pipe Jones, can't you see you're scaring the poor girl?" - T.O. Hob

Sometimes I think Jones and Hob don't run together enough. They'd make one hell of a team.

With Rigby and Kong gone and King deep in hiding it's almost like Lazarus and T.O. are the only friends I've got left.

~

There are so many papers on my desk I can barely see the desk.

My father's only purpose is to ruin others like he ruined himself.

My puppy is sick and I'm a little nervous.

There's a cute girl in the deli but she's probably like sixteen.

~

It's not that this is a busy time at work, it's just that it's always busy for me. I've been coming in pretty late in the morning lately, but staying for hours after everyone leaves. My secretary is shit and I just hired a girl to eventually replace her but I was forced to rush into a decision and I'm not entirely sure I made the right one. We're probably letting one of the managers go because he gets more and more useless every single day. He's slow, overpaid, annoying, and he doesn't do anything right the first time. He makes things harder for everyone else, but he's not a bad guy, so it sucks having to let him go. And even though he doesn't get things right the first time if you keep an eye on him he eventually gets them right. Now that will just be one more thing I have to do by myself. We're going to be short people in September, just like always and that makes me a little pissed off. Every chance I have to fix something gets crushed under my old man's stubborn and ignorant feet.

~

I love my father because he's my father. If he wasn't I would probably just think that he was one of the most miserable human beings to ever walk on the face of the earth. He's stubborn as hell, all Palombas are (myself included), but none can find the exact mix of stubborness and ignorance that my father has. Not having a fucking clue what he's talking about has never stopped him from insisting that he's the absolute authority on the subject. He makes a decision, one that has great potential for disaster, and while we're all generally smart enough to avoid telling him he's wrong we very often try and warn him. Over the years I have become so used to the agitated look on my father's face when he realizes that exactly what everyone was expecting to go wrong has gone wrong, and that everyone knows it, that it doesn't faze me anymore. What still gets to me is the fact that he never, ever, will admit that he was wrong. Or that things didn't go exactly as planned. When I was a kid it never really mattered, I could ignore his decisions because I really didn't have a right to argue with him. When you're eight years old what the fuck do you know about anything? But I'm 25 now, an adult in a lot more ways than I care to admit. I'm smarter then my father, I know more about a lot of things then he does. Not about everything, certainly not about this business. But I know more about what's going on right now, and I know enough to know that things are quite different then they used to be. But he asks me to report everything to him, so I do. But no matter how much I tell him...I just can't make him understand. He likes my damn puppy more than he likes me. I told him the other day how the dog was having a hard time getting used to his leash, making it impossible to walk him, making it difficult to house break him. So my old man asks how long after he eats do you wait before you take him out. I say about 15 to 20 minutes. He says, "That's not enough, wait 25." I chuckle a little at how silly that sounds but figure maybe he knows something I don't. So then he asks how long do I stay outside waiting for the dog to go, I say 25-30 minutes. He says, "That's not enough, you have to wait 35 minutes." He doesn't know why I'm laughing. If I said I waited 14 hours he would have said wait 14 hours and five minutes. That's just how my old man is.

~

I took The Tuck to the vet today, his first trip with me. Turns out he has an ear infection (which wasn't even why I took him there). Every one of the girls at the vet has to come visit the cute puppy, one of the girls even hints that maybe I got the dog because I knew he would get so much attention. I laughed, if I wasn't me I could have gotten some mileage out of that. So they give him a few shots and check him out and then we're on our way. At first Tuck is fine, tired, but fine. But then I get him back to the office and he starts to act a little funny. Won't stand up, kind of wobbling on his side when he lays down. It's making me a bit nervous so I call the Vet, we run through everything and they say he's probably fine. I call the breeder to see if he had any problems or if there were any shots or medication he had that they didn't tell me about because I'm starting to suspect he's having a reaction to something. They swear he didn't but they seem sort of confused. It all made me a little nervous. I've been nervous a lot lately. So unlike me...I've also been spelling nervous with an "e" at the end, which is wrong...also so unlike me.

~

So I've been going into this deli for lunch lately. And the other day there was a girl behind the counter. From the other end of the deli I thought she looked pretty cute (which is something guys notice even when we aren't trying to, it just sort of jumps out at you.) When I get up close I see that she is really cute...but in the really young sort of way. She was probably seventeen. And of course I'm me, so my mind doesn't go the first place most guys minds do. First I do the stories, something I've been doing since I was a little kid. I just make up background stories for people I don't even know. (She must be a young college student working her way through school by making sandwiches at the deli, she must be the owner's young and rebellious daughter reigned in by her job at the family shop but secretly yearning to break free by writing poetry and playing the harmonica, she must be an alien sent to earth to observe the lunch habits of what passes as sentient beings on this planet.) Ok, so really I didn't think of the alien one, but of course there were six thousand others. Then I start to guess how old she is, which is probably a thing most guys do, except that I was doing it because I was trying to gauge exactly how old I think I am. See when you think someone is older then they are it's usually because you're feeling young and when you guess someone is younger then they are it's because you're feeling old. Then I start to think "Oh shit she probably things I'm staring, which means she probably thinks I'm perving on her, and she probably thinks I'm like 40 years old which means she probably thinks I'm some sort of pedophile who is going to be waiting out in the back alley to kidnap her and hide her in my dank dark basement with all the random body parts of my previous victims which means she probably thinks I'm a murderer which means she's probably going to call the cops who will most certainly believe this cute little seventeen year old more than they'll believe me and then they'll find that unpaid speeding ticket in my glovebox which means I'm probably going to jail...oh shit what will my mother think." Which all made me sort of nervouse which was compounded by the fact that now I was staring...and she definitely noticed. But then she sort of smiled in that "I clearly pity you so don't get any ideas" sort of way which made me pretty sure she probably wasn't calling the cops...but I didn't waste any time leaving just in case.

~

"I feel like I've jumped off a bridge and forgotten where the ground was." - Palomba

"Don't worry buddy, just keep on falling and it will find you." - T.O. Hob

Sunday, July 23, 2006

Of Puppies, Houses, And Other Semi-Remarkable Changes

"And Jesus said, 'Wherever two of you gather in my name I will be present.' But seriously I think he expected a bigger fucking crowd." - T.O. Hob

My father had surgery just the other day, I'm happy to report he's doing well, but I'm even happier to say that you never really get used to being worried about your parents. My father and I don't always see eye to eye on things, but at least we have the opportunity to disagree.

Outside some mortgage complications the house is pretty much all locked up. We won't be closing on the 11th, but we'll be closing soon after. I got to wander around a bit during the home inspection and I'm very happy with what I'm getting...even if it did cost quite a bit too much.

So I jumped the gun a little bit and bought a dog before I could actually move into my house. I made a few calls and managed to find a French Bulldog puppy in Northern Massachusetts, just a few minutes outside Vermont. So I took a few hours off and hauled ass up to the sticks, had lunch with two very gay but very nice gentleman, discussed the responsibilites of having a dog, picked out my puppy and headed back. I had thought of so many names for the little guy but none seemed to really fit him. They called him Tucky, which is far too...you know. So I think I'll call him Tuck for now. See if it takes. Little guy has some learning to do, he won't take the leash and while housebreaking has turned out to be an adventure. He took a nice little shit on his training mat, then waddled off and pissed on the floor. Can't win sometimes.

Youth Mass was small again today, only two kids showed up, good kids the both of them. I wish there was something I could do to make people understand how important that community is, even though I'm not a huge fan of the place the community happens to be tied to.

Lot going on at work, but it's Sunday night, I'm tired and not entirely optimistic about the upcoming week. We'll just have to see how it goes though...see which way the ball bounces and the whatnot.

Night All.

Monday, July 10, 2006

Zidane Giveth, And Zidane Taketh Away

"Call me gay but I'm dreaming of Fabio Cannavaro and Gianluigi Buffon tonight!" - Lazzaro Jones

"Ok, you're gay." - T.O. Hob

AZZURRI!

So the Italians pulled it off, World Cup Champions 2006. Congrats boys, nicely done.

My old man is back at work after being out for a few days, he's been a total pain in the ass since the minute he walked in the door this morning. I've learned to live with it.

Goldberg called off the show tomorrow night, which is good because I'll most likely be a complete mess by then.

Italy won the World Cup, did I mention that?

The little guy thinks I'm taking him to South Africa for the 2010 World Cup, I hate to disappoint him so I might just have to.

I made an effort to talk a little with some people I haven't talked to in far too long. It was nice, but I need to try harder to stay in touch.

Did you hear? Italy won the World Cup.

I bought a house. That's a pretty big deal. I should be closing within a month.

But seriously...Italy won the World Cup.

I implore the French fans not to be too hard on Zidane, he's still (probably) a good guy but everybody has their moments. It's not his fault France lost, it's FIFA's. If shootouts were abolished it was still anyone's game and France had me might scared down the stretch there.

So yeah...new house, good mood...Azzurri!

Whaddya gonna do?

Thursday, July 06, 2006

The Little Lost Dogs

"I don't know man, it seems like I'm getting older every day."

"Could be worse, you could be not."

Westwardly. How's that for a direction?

I don't even know what that means.

Wow.

What a couple of days.

You know what I need? A reason to hang out at strip clubs more. And wanting to see naked women isn't a good enough one (and it's not entirely true either). I need like a scientific experiment so I can call it "research", or I need to write a story so I can call it "background". You know something. Just...something.

But serioulsly folks I've decided to act like I do drugs. Not actually do drugs, just act like I do. People who do drugs just seem to have more fun, so I'm going to pretend like I do them to. Enjoy myself a bit.

Makes sense, right? Right?

Italy's in the World Cup final on Sunday, I'm so excited I'm erect.

I'm still hunting for a house, I am making several offers at once and the tension is palpable...if palpable means "I wouldn't give a flying fuck except for the fact that I don't have a place to live after next month."

I saw "Click" the other night. It was surprisingly good, and with a little time and a favorable career turn by Adam Sandler it could become the next "Groundhog Day". No really, I'm not kidding. Seriously.

Been driving for C@mp R@m@quois the last couple of days. That place must be amazing for little kids, but the noise they make is driving me absolutely nuts. We drive through a lot of really rich communities (I think parents pay like $10k to send one kid to camp for the summer and some of them send like 4 kids). So we're rolling down a side street yesterday afternoon when a little white Scottish Terrier comes sprinting down the side of the road. He's this perfectly groomed little fucker running ripshod all over Tenafly. He's bounding out into the street like he owns the road, cavorting through perfectly trimmed ridiculously green grass, enjoying himself thoroughly from all appearances. It made me laugh just a little. This morning there was a pug doing just the same thing. Roaring all over town blissfuly unrestrained without a care in the world. It's like the rich folks forgot to lock their doggie doors and here were all these expensive little mutts excercising just a few minutes of rebellion. A stray dog in Paterson is likely to try and kill you, a stray dog in Tenafly might tickle you a little bit. I was disproportionally amused.

Anyway, I gotta fly, it's hot out and I'm thinking of blowing a hole in the middle of the parking lot and starting my own little pool. By the way my father was just in the hospital, but he might be ok so I'm glad of that. The Kid is going back to school which hopefully will be good for him and keep him out from under my feet, and I'm slowly loosing my mind...so yeah, that's where we're at.

Thanks for reading.

"I don't know where we started...I just got a sort of good idea about where we're ending up." - Palomba