Got my first paycheck in the mail today. Tauntingly, it is dated for tomorrow, so I'm still penniless. I don't mind. Good things come to those who wait.
I need new shoes. Big time. And a plate of chicken paprikash. And a chair. Right now I have a folding camping chair for my computer, and nothing else. One-a these days I plan on making a friend or two or three, and they will need a place to sit when I have them over, other than my ratty computer chair and on the edge of my bed.

Anyhoo, I spent the evening driving around, exploring a bit. Saw a point of interest labeled "Garfield Mall" in my street map book, so I thought I'd go check it out and maybe have a stroll pricing items for tomorrow. 45 minutes later, I finally reached the glorious Garfield Mall: a jankey shopping strip anchored by a Save-A-Lot.

Oh well.

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I've been working 6-day weeks since I started, and some pretty darn long days, too. Well, since I'm still hourly, corporate brought the hammer down on my bosspeople because I'm already into some serious overtime. This means that I'm probably looking at a nice long leisurely weekend. I've already been told that tomorrow is going to be short. Yay!


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I went home last weekend because long before I'd even applied to my current employer, I said I'd photograph Dark Haired Girl's parents' 50th anniversary. Not like I hadn't just seen her two weeks prior, but it still was a bittersweet homecoming. Saturday night I drove in, and Sunday night I left again. For one tense, almost surreal, night and afternoon, we were together again stuck like glue to one another... trying our damnedest to pretend for all the world like everything was all right, and that we weren't really being torn to shreds inside.

God, it was good to see her again.

Phone just got connected, and I'm back online baby!

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It's weird... I've become absolutely fastidious about keeping my place tidy. I let my old bedroom go straight to hell in a handbasket, but now I can't sleep if there's a single dish in the sink, stuff on the other side of the bed, or clutter on the floor.

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A couple of weeks ago, the day before I started work, I took the red line Rapid Transit train into Tower City Terminal. Back when Dad lived on the east end of town when I was a teen, I'd visit and we'd take the green line there. To my dismay, our two favorite destinations, Au Bon Pain and The Nature Company, are no longer there. :-( Otherwise, I used the day to play tourist.

After walking around downtown on vague recollections of the past, I reached the park that overlooks the Browns' stadium, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Cleveland Science Center, steam freighter William Mather, and Lake Erie beyond. I leaned my elbows on the wall to take in the spectacle of it all. All I could keep saying out loud to myself was "I live here, man. I fucking live here. This is my town."

Guy riding his bike through town. I loved how is beard reached over his shoulder.

The Red Line as it approached the platform. Dude... I live in a town with trains that look like New York subways. How cool is that??

At the Rapid station.

Damn tourists. :-P

Now a floating museum. Dad and I went on it probably thirteen or so years ago.

At the USS Cod, a WWII submarine that is now a museum. There's an old periscope held up by a scaffold that you can look around in. You can see the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as well as the Cleveland Browns Stadium. The Lake Guardian is an active duty Coast Guard cutter.

The deck of the USS Cod. Terminal Tower, where I walked from, is the sky scraper in the distance appearing about half as tall as the rest of the buildings, just right of center. I'd hoofed quite a distance.

Entrance into the USS Cod. Yes, it is as tiny as it appears.

Looking up to the entrance from inside the USS Cod. Good thing I'm not claustrophobic.

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It's late now. I have to get my stuff out of the dryer, iron my khaki shorts, and go to bed. Good night.

My phone at home still has yet to be connected. This is pissing me off. Until then, I can only get on at the library, and usage is restricted to 30 minutes. I can't get on AT&T's online order status tool because it returns an error message every time I enter my new number. I sure as hell can't call them. grrrr......

Negativity aside, things are going well. I'm doing great at the new job. Still in training, but they really liked the test session I shot using one of our high school summer job employees as a model. Need to get a few more shoots under my belt before they trust me to do a "live" session.

I'm eating a relatively balanced diet, not just canned vienna sausages and frozen pizza. Lots of mixed veggies and rice, and what proteins I can scrounge up at Save-A-Lot. That was the first question Mom asked when I called her the other day.

Aside from that, I don't really have any fun money, just necessities. I'd be going absolutely bonkers if I didn't tap into it every now and again to rent a DVD or get some beer from time to time, but no big nights out just yet. I now have less than $100 to last me till my first paycheck two weeks from now. I'd have more, but Dark Haired Girl and I swapped cars, and she's still in the Mirthmobile. I totally forgot about insurance, and need to use nearly the last of my money to keep it up. I couldn't bear the thought of her and her girls in an uninsured vehicle.

Socially, I had just begun to get to know the people at the studio I was training at, but now have to go and continue my training at my regular studio, so now I have an entire brand new set of people to figure out. It'll be a good long time before I find another Ruben. I keep telling myself that solitude is freedom, and honestly 95% of the time it feels almost euphoric. It's just that other 5% of the time that I get attacks of the lonelies. Nothing desperate or big or dramatic. Just wistful.

In the mean time, I'm going to find some DVDs here at the library, hang out at the apartment today and tomorrow, and maybe try my hand at reading one of those "book" things. No exploring for Andy. Gas prices, you know?

Greetings, all, from my new neighborhood: Parma Heights, Ohio!

Found the cutest studio apartment you could hope for, in a complex called "Camelot". I don't have internet service yet, so I'm typing this to you from the library. Hence, no photos. I've been so busy, though, that I haven't really taken very many, just of the interior of the new apartment.

Things are going well, and I'm making new acquaintances everyday. Most recently, the night that I signed on the lease, I had a great time at a little restaurant/bar around the corner. Stuffed myself senseless with a plate of their award-winning Chicken Paprikash, and spent the night chatting with Jimmy the bartender and his gregarious friend Doug.

I mean, come on, I live in an old immigrant neighborhood that has an annual paprikash cook-off. How cool is that??

Tuesday morning when I drove back to Troy to get more stuff, I stopped at Samosky's Home Bakery where I bought Mom a custard filled roll and Dad a Hungarian nut pastry. Dark Haired Girl and I swapped cars Tuesday. She's tooling around in the Mirthmobile as I speak, and I'm in her car. (BTW, it's a Mazda 5, not 6.) I don't know how she did it, but Tuesday night she managed to stuff an entire computer desk, king size bed and frame, stereo with two floor speakers, three boxes of stuff, my computer and monitor, and a three-drawer dresser into something the size of a Chevy Astro. I couldn't've stuffed half of that in there.

Met a couple of my neighbors, most of whom looked to be 80 or older, and who made sure to explain to me what a nice quiet place Camelot is. I get the hint. :-) Have you ever seen that Tom Hanks movie, The Terminal? One guy I met was actually named Victor, and his accent was identical to Tom Hanks'. "Andy! Pleased to meet you. I am Veector! Veddy qviet place. No rabble rousers." And then he said, with a shake of his finger: "And no bleck people. Is veddy good thing."

The things you want to say, but don't. Just smile and nod.

So yesterday, after decompressing all of the contents of the Mazda into an explosion of crap all over my new apartment, and then reassembling my Sleep Number bed, I drove around for a bit. Picked up some needed housewares at the Wal-Mart at the nearby ParmaTowne Mall. On the way back home I stopped at a place down the street curiously named "Fancy Food" I had to check it out.

Turns out it's a Polish and Ukranian grocery store, and only half of the stuff in there has secondary English markings on the packaging. Otherwise, I was left only to guess from the pictures. It was great! I picked up a 16-oz can of something called "Kvass", which had pictures of wheat, and asked the (incredibly attractive) young lady what it was. She said through her peanut butter-thick Ukranian accent that it was like root beer, but she couldn't think of the exact description in English. I picked it up as well as some strange kind of ham bologna that was on sale at the deli counter. I asked about it, she said "I geev you taste." and ran me off a slice. Very delicious. Lighter in color than American bologna, and very smooth, so I bought a pound. Picked up a package of frozen peirogi and checked out.

I have an entire new city to explore, so I'm going to hop off now. I get the phone hooked up tuesday, so I'll at least still have dial-up. DSL to come later.

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... and the Kvass tasted like beer and sweet lemon iced tea. Very strange.

Happy trails to you, 'til we meet again.

Well kiddos, as happened two weeks ago, tomorrow morning I make the trek back up to Cleveland. This time I have a better idea where I'm going, six appointments to see apartments, and enough cash on hand to put down rent and deposit. There is no foreseeable reason why I wouldn't end up in one of them, key in hand by this time tomorrow. Plan B is to spend the night at the same Motel 6 I was at the last time and look some more. I will not come back until I have an apartment. Period. Until I start at the new gig, my time is no longer productive. Until then I'm only rapidly depleting what money I've managed to save.

I'll have to come back in a day or two so Dark Haired Girl can help me move my larger items with her spacious (don't you dare call it a mini van) Mazda 6. In the mean time I've loaded the Mirthmobile's trunk with boxes of my old kitchen bric-a-brac which hasn't seen the light of day for three years, and a few more boxes of miscellaneous garbage that'll go in the back seat. The first load of my move.

I'm not sure how fast AT&T takes to hook up services, but until I'm online at my new place, this is going to have to be my last post for a while. If it takes too long, I'll find a library at which to hop online and let you know I'm ok.

Till then, and I hope it isn't longer than a week (which isn't an unusual gap between posts anyhow), keep checking back. I'll have lots of stories and pictures to share.

See ya.