Except for the "spending money that you don't have" thing, unemployment is officially pretty freakin' awesome. I don't usually type effin' or freakin' or any other alternatives here, but, in this case, the emphasis is warranted.

Let's recap what's happened since I posted last Wednesday night:

Thursday - Nothing of actual note, I don't think. I made one job-related phone call. Receive job-related rejection email, though it was anticipated.

Friday - Job-related phone call from Friday results in interview scheduled for Wednesday morning. Crap packed and moved from one place to the other. Dinner with roomie/three former coworkers. Beer.

Saturday - Sleep late. Watch parts of College Gameday. Do some organizing. Listen to the Cats (the win's the thing). Leave for Ann Arbor. Drink with Rico and super pal Frank the Tank. Join Nemo, Sukach and others. Abandon Sukach.

Sunday - Sleep late-ish. Go to the Tigers game. Distribute rally gum, but ineffectively. Watch TiVo'd Bears. Eat charged-through dinner. Fall asleep while reading at someone else's house.

Monday - Completely confuse host by sleeping with the lights on. Run in the rain. Answer, incorrectly, online trivia contest despite spending an hour on the question. Hang with Nemo, then Nemo and Carrie. Eat dinner with K'Zoo's finest. Completely dig the Mountain Goats. Get pulled over, but not ticketed. Pass field "Is he stoned?" test. 12 minutes later, arrive home.


Details on the above, most interesting to least interesting:

I was pulled over at 2:11 a.m., exceeding the speed limit by "6 or 7 miles per hour" and having "swerved over the middle line" a couple of times. The cop did the "shine a light in my eyes really, really brightly" thing, and asked where I was headed. "Home. Ring Fingernail. I've been on the road all day." I then fumbled through my manual as I tried to find my registration and proof of insurance. That tipped him off that I must be stoned out of my mind. Other than the fumbling through the manual thing, I was completely coherent. Also, he asked the awesome question, "So, you don't think I should take you to jail?" I answered that I did not want to go to jail. "Have you ever been to jail?" I answered that I have never been to jail.

He went to his car, confirmed that I hadn't been to jail, and said, "Is there anything in the car that you wouldn't want me to know about?" "Well, there's a lot of garbage (Nutrigrain Bars, banana peels, an empty box of Organic Wheat Squares cereal, an empty bottle of Mocha Latte, a half-consumed bottle of Wild Cherry Diet Pepsi), but, no nothing else." "No marijuana?" "No." "If my dogs came by, they wouldn't smell any marijuana?" "I sure hope not. Though I was at a concert tonight." "Have you been smoking marijuana?" "Nope." "Look at my light." "[Looks.] I've got hard contacts, so my eyes might be red." "Answer one question [I had answered several already]: Give me a number between 19... and 17." "18." "Good. Have a good night. Drive safely."

Eleven minutes later, I was home. It was harrowing, and could've really sucked.

(By the way, I was about 10 days unshaven last night. I think that's the main reason for the "stopped on suspicion of stoned-ness.")

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Like celebrity deaths and Barber twins (Shaun Alexander's the third), traffic stops come in threes. I'm going to be extra careful for at least the next day or so.

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There was one stated goal for the Tigers game - "Don't get touched by a homeless person" - Carrie got touched. But it was in the doing of a good deed, so it was worth it. Or at least, worth it because it wasn't me.

Skipper is totally offended right now.

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I'm going to give Comerica Park very high marks. A beautifully open-view from street level. The statues are fantastic. The concessions seemed adequate, though not fantastic. I did not get a chance to tour it like I hoped, but I did really enjoy the parts that I saw.

I saw Neifi Perez poke a three-run single, though he took uncovered second base and made it a (less impressive) three-run double. At this point, I high-fived an 80-year-old woman, and she was totally responsive.

We purchased $4.71 worth of Rally Gum, and used three full packs of Bubblicious and three Jum-Blo gumballs. Approximately 13 pieces of the gum were distributed, free of charge, to other patrons in section 338. I think they appreciated it a lot. Nemo distributed one piece to a 65-year-old, which is awesome. The Bubble Tape, for emergency use only, was not used. Come to think of it, we probably should have switched to Bubble Tape down by four in the bottom of the tenth.

The loss was a bummer. But, if you have to see a ten-inning loss on an unseasonably warm day, Carrie, Nemo, and Josh are a pretty good threesome to see the game with. I'm definitely looking forward to two weeks from now, when I return to Detroit for the season finale.

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It's been a productive morning - I've spent $640 that I don't have on Tigers playoff tickets. Need one? Nemo, Josh and I have 26 of them. (Four for the first home game, 12 (12!) for the second, and ten for the third.)

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It's been a long time since I've seen a rock show (well, I saw BRMC in February, so, yeah, that's a long time), and John Darnielle is one of my three or four favorite songwriters, so I was totally, totally geeked for The Mountain Goats last night.

The show lived up to my hopes, I'd say. (It was short, though. On at 10:17, off at 11:24, 16 songs. GbV spoiled me to no end.)

John Darnielle was very, very funny between songs. Told a story about recording The Coroner's Gambit near a train station - "So, when you're listening to that record and you think you hear a creeepy, fantastic train sound effect...that's a train. Near my window." At one point, stated "One day, there's gonna be a rumble between people who like loud Mountain Goats songs and people who like soft Mountain Goats songs. The soft fans will get slaughtered by the tens." Made jokes about people (read: me) changing the tenor of their shouted song request when they know it's not going to be played ("Cubs in FIIIIVE!" "Cubs. In. Five!" "Exactly!"). And closed with "The Best Ever Death Metal Band in Denton."

I was stunned by the Kalamazoo crowd - a line out the door when I arrived at 8:30, a half-hour after doors opened to a venue/bar that I enjoyed quite a bit. And the fans were so, so responsive. Whispering, not singing along, during the quiet, meaningful songs ("And I will get lonely. And gasp for air.") Shouting during the expected-to-shout ones. ("I am gonna make it. Through this year. If it kills me," and I wasn't the only one bouncing and flailing my fists.)

Setlist, culled from listening to my iPod on the way home (and therefore swerving over the middle lane, officer, when driving with my knee and checking song titles):

The first three songs:
Get Lonely
Half-Dead (both from Get Lonely, the current record)
Love Love Love (I made eye contact, and he appreciated it, when he/me whisper/sang/lip-synched "and Sonny Liston rubbed some tiger balm upon his gloves")

After this song, I apologized to the WMU freshman next to me... "I'm gonna have a dumbstruck look on my face all night long. I'm sorry."

Others:
Dance Music
This Year (my two favorites, perhaps, ever)
New Monster Avenue (current record)
You or Your Memory ("St. Joseph's baby aspirin. Bartles and Jaymes.")
Dilaudid
Lion's Teeth
Maybe Sprout Wings
Get Lonely (whispered along, of course)
Game Shows Tough Our Lives ("Oh, but look at this showroom, with fabulous prizes!")
Soft Targets, which might be a cover, I don't know (I've googled lyrics to find out the title)
One more that I didn't know, I think the last song of the main set

Encore:
California Song (from Sweden, which I don't have)
The Best Ever Death Metal Band in Denton

It was just John and a bassist, and it was fantastic. I left very happy.

Of the 15, six were from The Sunset Tree, four from the current album, one from Tallahassee, and none (none!) from We Shall All Be Healed.

The t-shirt I bought is kind of crappy, but I wanted a Mountain Goats t-shirt. I haven't bought a rock show t-shirt since The Flaming Lips in February 2000, so I think this was appropriate.

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Coffee shop internet is cool, but kind of sucks. I've been here 2 1/2 hours, getting Tigers tickets, balancing my checkbook, and doing other assorted crap.

The rest of the day includes:
A haircut
A three-days late postal stoppage
To the library for more free internet
Picking up my clothes at the cleaners
Learning about, you know, the job I'm interviewing for, and the company I'm interviewing for, and, um, life insurance.

I'm hyper-qualified, I'll have you know. Or, I'll have the person doing the hiring know. Wish me luck. (Wednesday at 10:30, and I'll be on time.)