Weekend rewind

It could be subtitled "Through the past darkly, part 1", as this may be a long entry after a whirlwind weekend.

In spirit with the (now arrived) vernal equinox, I took Friday off from work. Originally planned as a day to myself to do nothing but putter around the house, that was negated as I made a lengthy drive to Princeton to see my uncle who is just out of the hospital. It was a pleasant, yet disturbing visit, since he's still convalescing and not at at all well. Saturday was a blitz of activity: out the door early for Starbucks and groceries (us and my dad's), then a drive through most of Hudson County to get a feel for the lay of the land re: potential houses/apartments--Bayonne, Jersey City, Union City, Weehauken, Hoboken. Took Liz for a lovely lunch at Pita Grill on Washington Street--fantastic food at terrific prices. Did laundry and spring cleaning by the time we got home and were asleep (after watching a not-so-great film with my beloved Julianne Moore) by 10:30 p.m. And no, I won't be missing the black & white Adidas shelltops. I also have a feeling that by summer's end, my Fred Perry's will be for the ages as well.

Yesterday, hit the gym early and left immediately upon arrival because a) I forgot my damn key to my lock and b) every asshole at the gym was using every machine possible, thus making all equipment unavailable. Headed to my dad's, where he had a box of old family photos for me. Took those and made another quick jaunt to New Jersey--Target, coffee, clothes shopping, lunch. Once we got home, we started to sort through the pictures. Amongst the memories brought back to life were shots of myself and my cousins when we were little children and when we were around 9 or 10 (which I had been searching for over the last two years); my parents and my uncle when they were young and most surprisingly, a couple of photos of myself and my ex-fiancee. Although I am not prone (as is well known) to false sentimentality, I was pleasantly swept up on a wave of nostalgia by seeing her after all these years. I have to admit that I could no longer remember what she looked like; I couldn't help but smile and yet it was sweetly sad. She was a lovely girl and after 7-plus years, it had to reach its' natural conclusion. But I'm glad to have had a chance at reliving the past for the few minutes I allowed myself to.

So here I sit at work, trying to sort through the things left undone by my absence on Friday and trying to arrange the next Punch Line recording session (tick tock, tick tock) as we won't be doing anything this coming weekend. In place of not being with the band, I am focusing on a disciplined round of demo work. I want to wrap this album up and get to working on the songs for the next one--new (old) material is far more exciting after laboring for so long on this record. I also need to get back the cassette which has a good portion of these songs so I can revisit them as I've been working from (surprisingly good and sharp) memory. Something to look forward to. The end of one album and the beginning of another--kind of like with those photos.

(P.S.) I'd written a complete entry prior to this, but server errors/problems lost the fucking thing in the ether; this is the variation from short-term memory.