two credit checks and a new roll of packing tape later...

Yay, I'm going to have gas. No electricity.

The other downside is that I am more broke than I imagined possible. In the course of two days I have written five checks, which have really decimated my bank account (balancing my checkbook, I found that after all these checks clear I will have four. dollars. to my name.). Maybe I should sell some knives. In reality, though it's against my religion to do this, I'm going to have to ask my parents for some cash. Otherwise it'll be living off Soba staff meals and the half pound of pasta I have remaining for the next two to four weeks.

holy fucking knives

Big move is today!

Unless someone else's wireless connection is very strong,

I will not be using the internet anytime soon.

There is also a good chance,

that my apartment will not have electrical service this weekend,

or gas for my stove.

We will see.

basil's blooming

Holy great week, batman. Having free time in the morning is an enlightening experience. Yesterday I woke up at 10:30, went out and got a paper, and sat down in Starbucks with coffee and a scone. Today, I made buttermilk pancakes with blueberries and walnuts for my roommate and I. Who knows what I'll do tomorrow? And Thursday and Friday I've got off so I can move into my new apartment. Once I have a copy of my lease and maybe my cooking gas bill, I'll have proof of PA residence. All I need after that is a social security card, a copy of my birth certificate, and a doctor to fill out the back of my learner's permit and I can get my license as soon as I'm ready. My roommate's beautiful and let me drive her car yesterday, and said she'd teach me how to do stuff with it.







Being a college graduate rocks. Now all I need is a vacation--I'm looking at September to take some time off and see my freakin' family, since, you know, I haven't for seven months. Forty-thousand dollars doesn't buy buttermilk pancakes as good as my mom's, and "Chef Breslin's Chili" doesn't really compare to the venison crock-pot creation of my dad's.

~no, it wouldn't.
Everything would be so dull.

Today was my last day of being a student.

hmm...

When I'm sober, I want to write but I can't find the inspiration. When I'm drunk I write things like this, coherent or not:

Stepping out the back door of the kitchen into the thunder and rain, knife kit over his shoulder, he decided to enjoy the walk home rather than spite it. Weather was not something to be scorned for its existence but rather appreciated, like work or anything else that cannot be helped, and the lightning coarsing through the vast violet sky was so brilliant that it sent the cook into a state of awe rather than disgust.

An electric flash of blue made an American flag on the armored knife kit explode with color as the grillardin walked away from it all, away from the 48 hours a week and full-time studenthood, away from the lack of love, lack of family, lack of friends. Nothing really matters, is what Queen said. Maybe they were just narcissists too obsessed with their own notes (the costumes would imply as such), but then again, maybe nothing really Goddamn matters. It's quite possible for lightning, the hot grill, the deep, skin-searing Frialator, the rain and sex and love that cannot last, the dark rum, the fake forty-thousand dollar education, the strong religious godlessness, to be the only things that people like Junior the grill cook need to live for.

It is indeed, quite possible that nothing else is needed at all. Life is it, really, and America whispers this to its dwindling counterculture, freedom seeming pointless for everyone else in a passionless era.

Ever feel so awesome that you just had to wear your aviator glasses?

Because today, I do.

imagine all the people living life in peace.

Seven and a half hours overtime this week is going to make paying rent a little bit easier.

Unsure if I like the new Chili Peppers album. The more I listen to it, the more I just don't think it sounds like the Chili Peppers. It's not that it's bad at all, but it sounds contemporary and also somehow not as real. The solid sound is still there but it just doesn't rock as hard, and when it tries, it sounds way too rehearsed, or manufactured, or something. Dani California's a good song.

Tomorrow I'll be baking a big sheet cake for my roommate's brother's graduation party. I get to write stuff on it, I guess.

Not much else is going on, I guess. I really just kind of wanted to make a new post.

~burn out the day
burn out the night
I'm not the one to tell you
what's wrong and what's right

my blog is now a photodump. I swear.

I was up today at five for inexplicable reasons, so I decided to go out and watch the sunrise. Unforunately I realized that I live in a state with hills and I was on the wrong side of one to see the crack of dawn, but I saw some neat stuff anyway. The two photos above were supposed to be really sweet landscape shots but they turned out blurry, so I sized them down to use here. The only problem with the digital camera is that it's pretty much all automatic, and although you can look at your pictures after you've taken them, they look a lot sharper on that tiny screen than they do full-size. It's possible I just need to hold my damn camera still too.

:(

...but why is the rum gone?

tomato sauce w/ banana pepper, apple, shallot, smoked ancho and pinot grigio

My new apartment building in Shadyside.

Schenley Plaza. Not sure why there's a giant squirrel.

Tonight, I finished a sauce with basil that I grew with my own hands--I picked leaves off and put them right into the sauce. It was a different experience. I'm anxious to see what my habaneros will look like, and my tomatoes as well (if they enjoy the windowsill).

worst. day. ever. kthx.

Ever have one of those days that starts out with you splitting your thumbnail down the center with a boning knife? I did not think so.

Shortly after the aforementioned trauma this morning, which didn't so much bother me at the moment as it made me unhappy about having to go to work Sunday with more injuries than I already have, I walked out of class and discovered that I'd left my wallet on a 500 to Bellevue. As of yet the Port Authority hasn't found it, and I've little optimism for such a miracle.

While I was busy getting a new student ID, freezing my debit card, getting cash to pay bus fare home, etc, I was called by my new renter telling me that the apartment I was renting is now unavailable--turns out it wasn't vacant, but rather mysteriously uninhabited by a soldier on a tour of duty in Iraq. It's cool, because I'll be renting a place with the same floorplan in the same building. But now I've got to move in July 1st rather than August, which puts a little pressure on my financial situation. My roommate that I'm living with now happens to be awesome, and I agreed to pay the rent for the month of July when I'm able to because I originally intended to stay until August. I've just got to figure out how to get my stuff to Shadyside, and how to pay a 600 dollar security deposit and a 300 dollar loan payment fairly soon. It'll all work out, as things like this usually do, but I won't be roasting any pork loins or buying any new olive oil anytime soon. I did, however, buy a new plant today (Marglobe tomato) to cheer myself up. It was a buck fifty.

Otherwise, I've made a goal to get a bike and my PA motorcycle license within a year. I've always had notions of trekking across the U.S. with only what I can fit in my saddlebags, so I figure I'm going to go ahead and do that--now's as good a time as any, when I'm young (I don't want to be a middle-aged familyman that buys a Harley during his mid-life crisis and rides it around the suburbs). Once I'm established in my new place I'll be saving some money, so I'm looking at used mid-80s and early 90s Honda cruisers right now like the one shown above.

Remember what I said about the gelatin content in stocks? This is what I mean. This chicken stock has been strained and slowly cooled off like a batch of jello overnight.

Rainy day in the strip. I was caught in a thunderstorm walking towards downtown with many many pounds of produce, chicken bones, etc.

Contemplating the stock.

With nearly nine pounds of bones, I used mine and my roommate's stockpots and made two batches of chicken stock. It was a massive undertaking, especially the straining, which involved a plastic dresser drawer taken from my cheap dorm furniture. Someday I will own a giant All-Clad stockpot and a chinois, but it's not going to happen on eight dollars an hour.

This was dinner while the stocks simmered--a curried red lentil ragout with banana peppers, onions, celery, garlic, and apples. It's simmered with bruised stalks of lemongrass and cinnamon sticks. I had a sauteèd chicken breast to go with--at 2.19 a pound, I bought a giant sack of them today at Wholey's, so there's enough for Mulligatawny tomorrow at work, and enough to subsist on for awhile.

I work at a restaurant that plays Dzihan and Kamien in the dining room.

The habanero is blooming. Imagine such a cute little flower turning into such a potent pepper...

The one on the far right is basil. The plant has grown amazingly fast-- nearly quadrupling its size in the past week, providing me with more fresh herbs than I can use. I'm going to have to collect more herbs soon. Maybe some chives, thyme, rosemary, oregano, savory, etc.

So I got paid (for 89 hours of work) just in time to pay first month's rent on my new place. I'm really excited about the apartment, even though I won't be moving in until the beginning of August.

On the agenda for this weekend:

Figure out dinner tonight. Going to the grocery store with the girlfriend shortly to see what looks good--really don't know what I'll be doing yet. I've got plenty of onions, shallots, garlic, the basics, but no stock left.

Do a whole bunch of laundry. Ugh.

Get five pounds of chicken bones, make chicken stock. Work on mise en place for mulligatawny soup to be made Sunday at work for staff meal. It's an Indian soup with chicken, curry, lentils, and tart apples and I've really been wanting to do it at home for awhile.

~rex tremendae majestatis
qui salvandos salvas gratis