and now, one week after my last post, i shall attempt to recount significant recent events:

on wednesday, we had a day game. we were on the road. nemo was in the area (where he lives). nemo drove an hour to see me. then he brought me back to his home. then we made small talk. (we had also made small talk, and listened to automatic for the people, while driving.) then he went to work and, after spending some time speaking with carrie, i went for a walk. his area is beautiful, although perhaps to "suburban neighborhoody" for two early twentysomethings. but i really enjoyed my walk. then i read newsweek about cardinal ratziger, and then i fell asleep for a bit. and then i went to watch bulls-wizards game five at a bar with nemo and his daddy. and it was fun, not awkward at all (even before nemo arrived...i pretended to be well-informed about the derby, and told him about 'the life' that i live). and while i loved jannero pargo and hated gilbert arenas, i've gotten over the loss. (i haven't watched game six yet...that's my plan for sunday night...i do know what happened, however, and i still love that club. i hope they stay together.) i don't know if anything that actually happened for the rest of wednesday night (darts, beer, big buck hunter, the first four minutes of anchorman) was actually significant, but i've determined that nemo is one of the top three people i know, i think. but i already knew that. he drove me back thursday morning, but first made me eggs.

on friday, ben the intern joined me for what is a 'commuter' trip - we went to our opponents' yard and returned in the same day, owing to the fact that it's only 50 minutes away. ben called the middle three, then i let him do a fourth, then i blew the call on the game-winning homer for us in the top of the eighth. but it was okay. and then i was doing the post-game stuff - finishing the press release, updating the website with the appropriate things, and the like - and i asked ben to 'go check on how the bus was doing.' shortly after, he called: ' where's the bus usually? because it's now where it dropped us off.' me: 'it's not there? where it dropped us off?' he: 'no.' me: '[lots of f-words, as i called our trainer six times, then left a message on the seventh call.]'

then, after frequently using the phrases 'bush' and 'bush league' to the home team's radio guy and to ben the intern and to our award-winning beat writer, i asked the local (and award-winning) newspaper reporter if he wouldn't mind driving us back to the qca and, owing to the fact that his office is two blocks away from the yard, he said that he wouldn't mind.

then the trainer called back - from the pitching coach's phone: "we 'dirty-bird'-ed it back...i just realized that you weren't [in the seat] behind me." [note: they hadn't told me about their plans to leave immediately, and unshowered, post game.] me: "well, you've got to f***ing tell me. i don't mind. but you'd got to f***in' tell me. i can adjust, but you've got to f***in' tell me. just f***ing tell me. i don't care, but you've got to f***in' tell me." he: 'we just realized.' me: "f***in' tell me." he: "you've got a ride or something?" me: 'yeah. just f***ing tell me. [me hang up now.]

needless to say, i was pissed. and, because our coaching staff has developed a 'reputation' for being disrespectful and generally difficult, i also thought that the act was more malice than just flat stupidity.

saturday, of course, was the follow-up to friday night's "i get ditched at the yard" disaster. so i arrive. and i ask the bus driver what transpired. and he says that he thought it was absent-mindedness, and not a desire to screw me over. i wasn't convinced. i do my work, return to the bus. skipper arrives. "good to see you," with a laugh. i say "are you planning on leaving immediately today?" he says, "yeah. sorry about yesterday." i'm pissed and stern-faced: "that's fine, skip. just make sure you tell me." he says, "we'll make sure to do that." later on the ride up, he offers to pay me back for any cost i have incurred. the whole coaching staf seems legitimately contrite and apologetic.

i buy it.

sunday morning [early morning...extended saturday night], i'm out with ben the intern (who did not come on saturday...only got ditched friday) and his girlfriend wendy and, by pure happenstance, we run into skip and the trainer. skip does a fascinating magic trick in which he puts out his cigarette on the shirt of wendy (truly, just a dirty old man's ploy to see if the young girl has a pierced belly button...she does, and he's happy at learning about it). he leaves. later in the course of the evening (20 minutes before closing time), i confront: "skip, let's be honest...there was a small part of you that was a bit happy that you guys left me, wasn't there?"

he: "no. i like you, because i can tell you've got class."

and i think that's a nice way to end this vignette.

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there's a not-great-but-new-to-me article about joy division in the current issue of spin. i learned not much, but enough to make me want to listen to closer, which i bought shortly after interpol or some such band was mentioned as being a ripoff of closer, which i had never heard of. sadly, however, i unthinkingly left my backpack - with my ipod - in the car after the game. because my cd player is no longer good for anything but 'receiver,' i can't listen to the cd version. therefore, i'm listening to belle & sebastian's if you're feeling sinister in downloaded form on the old [non-broken] computer. it's tremendous.

on thursday morning, while the new computer was still functional in michigan, i ordered the new mountain goats record, as well as the ultra-positively-reviewed-by-pitchfork new record by architecture in helsinki. perhaps i'll later report back on both.

on a related note...flax: don't worry about negative reviews. what matters is your beautiful thoughts about the new record...enjoy it, and don't worry about what other say. they trashed the hot hot heat record...and we know that one's fabulous. they ejaculated over mia, and we all know that that's just annoying (i've not heard, i'm just assuming....)

and thus, we close the door on this too-long post.

p.s.: friends, please offer a word of response to this post. it's been done between 2:40 and 3:40 a.m. and i need to be at work by 11 a.m. on sunday. i'd appreciate the acknowledgement, you know?