Shanghai

A friend of mine is moving to Shanghai, China tomorrow. He’s a large, blond dude who loves Brian Urlacher. He’s engaged to an Australian girl. It’s a new chapter in his life. I know all about that excitement but of course the only and major different in our new chapters is that he chose his and I didn’t. But that’s okay, they’re new chapters anyway and we’re both going to try and make the most of them.

I also saw another friend who I hadn’t seen in awhile, a couple of months and now that there is no more smoking in bars so he has no more excuse about not coming to hang with us for football. I don’t go to O’Kellys Irish pub as much as I used to for various reasons. I think the prices keep going up, the menu gets smaller and the service gets worse. I got there, went to the bar and ordered a beer. I gave him a 10-euro bill and jokingly asked if I’d be getting any change. He said, “That’s a good way to get kicked out of here.” I told him, “Dude, there have been plentyof guys who have been kicked out of this place but come back the next day.” And he said something to the effect that that is not true. When did people get so sensitive? I caught a buzz tonight and asked the Spanish waitress in Spanish that I’ve known for probably 3 years if she still had a boyfriend. She said, “No, not anymore.” And I replied, “How is it possible to see you without clothing?” And she said, “It’s not.” And it made me laugh. I love knowing other languages.

I did meet a girl tonight but it was brief and of my own doing. She was sitting two tables from Rolf, Whitney, Erik and I. We were waxing poetic about world economies, history, philosophy and the future. I kept noticing her somehow, wearing a green tanktop and her two friends were wearing black (big surprise in Europe! hahah). I saw her laughing or smiling a couple of times and I thought, Jay, you gotta go talk to her. You have no reason now not to go over to that girl, introduce yourself and ask if she wants to go out sometime. I thought about it for about 20 minutes and when Whitney went out for a smoke, I left Rolf there and went over to their table.

(in German)
Can I disturb you girls for a sec? I asked.

Uh huh.

Yeah, well, I just wanted to meet you. I saw you smiling a couple of times and thought it was really cute. What’s your name?

Ina.

Jason.

I introduced myself to the other two girls so they wouldn’t think (it’s midnight at this moment while typing, I have an important private lesson in 11 hours) I was ignoring them. I asked where she was from.

Near Frankfurt, and you?

California.

Oh, that must be cool.

It is.

(all 3 girls laugh)

I wanted to know if you’d be interested in going out sometime.

Maybe.

Well, I can give you my number and then it’s up to you.

Ok.

What do you do in Freiburg?

I study.

What?

Law.

And you don’t study English?

No.

Because I’m a teacher at the university and it wouldn’t be cool to date girls who are students of mine.

(One girl rolls her eyes and I call her out on it.)

Hey, I saw that. I live with 2 girls, I know that look.

(all 3 girls laugh)

—-
I asked to sit for 30 seconds to give her a better chance to know if she wanted to call me or not. I stayed about a minute and had pretty good timing to get out when I did. She has my number now and it’s her “beer”. It’s funny but I have to at least get myself out there. It shouldn’t be a problem, as a wise Japanese woman, Wanaka, wrote me on rice paper:

You meet many persons and you talk them into human being.

I’m listening to live Ryan Adams from a month ago and it’s perfect, meloncholy yet real. “True love aint’ that hard to find, not that you’ll ever know.” Ouch. hahahaha

Chick A

Chick A just left. We have hung out the last two days. She’s someone definitely worth knowing. You’ll remember that she was the girl that I “hung out” with just before I left Germany for the States at the end of July.

Yesterday we lunch together and then went and chilled out at my place, trying to make some sense of the chaos of my room and trying to get to know each other better. She seems to understand that I’m not in the right head space for a girlfriend but I can be a great, uncomplicated person to know. We definitely have some stuff in common but she’s shy, something I haven’t been in probably 25 years so it’s interesting how different we are as well.

Today she came over for dinner but first we had to go shopping for food. We decided to “pimp” spaghetti bolognese and put some green olives, onions, garlic and fresh peppers (long thin peppers with some punch to them). It was great just getting to hang out and talk and make food with someone. I can’t stress enough how much it has meant to me to have someone really cool (and sexy as hell to boot) to spend time with. I could potentially feel as alone as I’ve ever felt, what with living in a foreign country without what’s-her-face, far from home and yet here I am, hanging with a super cool chick. Tonight she definitely opened up some more, told more about her life growing up in Italy, about her siblings and stuff and while it might sound mundane to you, I am in a completely new position in life and I enjoyed having a totally normal conversation with a woman and it was sort of like we were on a date but there was no pressure. After dinner we went down to Walfisch for an espresso and a jaegermeister, the culmination of her german and italian roots I suppose, hahahaha.

There’s actually a lot more to tell about her but not all of it is appropriate since my mom and some of the family occasionally read this blog but don’t worry, this isn’t some dream and it really happened. She’s walking home now and I’m saying hi to her now. Hi.

Juliana, beautiful Ukranian girl extraordinaire

Zach, Me, Chris, KC

I like being single

Maybe single life ain’t so bad…

Me on the deck before leaving OC

Nate and I riding bikes in Pacific Beach

New York

Can you really make the title of the post any more interesting? No.

I arrived in New York on a hot and humid Friday afternoon. It took me almost an hour to get across to Brooklyn, to a party of town called Greenpoint. It’s a Polish neighborhood as my host Mike was soon to tell me. On the subway over, though, it was cool to meet two people on their way to Hungary and another guy who works in photography and said I was going about it the right way, whatever that meant.

Mike, who I met through Wibke, arguably the glue that holds Hospitalityclub in Freiburg together, and I had a piece of pizza and then went to his place, a spacious apartment very laid back in its decorating. I got cleaned up and headed down further in Brooklyn to meet one couchsurfer for some middle eastern food. An hour later I was at Lorimer stop to meet two other couchsurfers, Lizze and Johnny Rocket. We had a drink at the Brooklyn Tea House and then went to the liquor store to buy 2 6-packs of Pabst Blue Ribbon and then took teh subway all the way down to the bottom tip of Manhattan, walked another 10-15 minutes to South Street Seaport where a live band called Camera Obsura was playing. We met a bunch of other couchsufers there, including people from 2-3 German cities including Freiburg, Belgium, the States and Canada. The music was good, the atmosphere even better and after the show we headed back up to Bedford Avenue, what Johnny Rocket called “arguably the hottest strip in thh country”.

We went to Black Betty, then another bar and then the Country Club where you got a free pizza with each beer. We met more people and we got more drunk and it was basically an epic night that ended sometime after 2am and me wandering around Brooklyn trying to find my host’s place. I found it sometime before 3am.

Yes, there was a hangover the next day and I was quite uninteresting for the next couchsurfer I met and went to Union Square with. I had some more middle eastern food I wasn’t sure if I could keep down while it was hot and humid and I only could sweat out alcohol and grunt occasionally. Not surprisingly, she left me soon after and I went back to my host’s to chill out. We watched some of the Dodgers/Mets baseball game on TV and then I had to head back into Brooklyn “south” to meet my friend, Gina. I met her at her restaurant Babbo where she’s the pastry chef and we went to a wine bar around the corner from there. I drank pineapple juice. We had a really good talk, discussing the end of my relationship with what’s-her-face and her impending move to Rome in January. We spent another an hour and a half there and went over to Bergen Street, a better connection for both of us to get back and had another drink at a place called Sample and then I went back to hang out and try and recharge the batteries for Sunday which I knew was going to be a long day.

I woke up Sunday sweating, and packed up after having a nice breakfast with my host and then took a bus and then an elevated train to 30Avenue in Queens. I walked the 7 blocks to my new host, a singer in a groovy country band called Modern Earl. His band played in Swamp, the bar below my house in Freiburg and I kept in touch and was stoked to have the connection. He’s a super cool dude and his German wife Geli is really nice as well. I showered and then went to the Met to meet up with Carolin.

Carolin you’ll remember was in a class of mine at the university a couple of semesters ago. She’s a really nice person and it has been great the past month to have someone “nice” to talk to, especially because what’s-her-face wasn’t naturally the nicest person in the world. Carolin and I had a great time at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, then walked around Midtown for awhile before going back to the host’s place, cleaning up a bit and then wandering around until we found some Mexican food and then took the train out to Shea Stadium for the Dodgers/Mets game.

We missed the first inning but had good seats, great weather and the Dodgers won! It took us awhile to get back and we hung out with Chris and Geli for a bit and then went to bed around 1am. I sweated and slept and got up at 9.30am. We showered, had some coffee and then got a manicure and pedicure from a place down the street. I hadn’t had one since Lima, Peru about 11 months earlier so it was definitely time. That was nice but of course strange because it’s new to me and then we found a great Greek restaurant that had been recommended to us called S’Agapo which means I Love You in Greek. Great food, nice atmosphere and then we did a bit of shopping. We got her stuff back at the room and then went down by thet train stop to have a drink before she left. We had a really good conversation, mostly with me babbling and her offering objective opinions about my situtation but it was good for me. She got on a train and left.

So, my month in America ends tomorrow. What have we learned? Well, I’m certainly doing a lot better than I would have had I stayed in Freiburg for all of August. I got to visit with a lot of friends, had a photo exhibition, visit a bunch of cities I hadn’t seen since the summer of 2005 and kissed a couple of girls, talked to a shitload of others, went to a strip club, drank a bunch, saw my favorite band, cried a couple of times, and ironically, I didn’t take ONE picture with my good camera on this trip, can you believe that? It’s been years since that’s happened, probably since before I started dating Jennifer which was January 2000 so you can do the math.

This trip has been the best therapy I could have had. I am most definitely not over the relationship with what’s-her-face but I don’t want to be with her anymore. I am over her but not the relationship. I’m very open about what happened and that’s helped the recovery process immensely. I need to have some fun for awhile, figure out what I want and more importantly, don’t want from the next woman I date seriously and continue to live my life almost exactly how I’ve been living it.

I’m going to buy a new bed at IKEA. I’m going to buy a new comfortable desk chair, a printer and rearrange the room. I’m going to work on a synopsis, sample chapter and outline for my newest book, inspired by Gina to get me off my ass again, titled the same as this blog. The goal is to have that package done by the end of the year and it shouldn’t be a problem, as long as I don’t travel too much and have too much fun on the weekends and oh wait…

See you back in Germany, friends…

Cheesesteak and Thomas Jefferson

hey ya’ll,

Just have a couple of minutes left here at the library, wanted to tell you I took the train into the city, met a guy who works in a hospital and is going to Germany for the first time next week to Heidelberg for his brother’s wedding. I went into Chinatown and bought a small tambourine because I decided to get my drum out of the living room and have it in my bedroom and create a little creative corner where people can play the drum or tambourine when they will, create a little lovin’, ya know what I’m sayin?

It’s humid and icky today and I walked down Market St a bit and then turned right and accidentally found the house where Thomas Jefferson composed most of the Declaration of Independence and what’s so cool is that it was considered “outside the city” at the time but it’s in the heart of the city now. It’s inspiring to think of that period of history, the ideals and morals and intelligence of the men who founded this country. They would be sick to their stomachs to see what their ideal turned into but that’s another blog post.

I asked one of the park rangers at Independence Hall where I should eat my one cheesesteak and he said Jim’s on 4th and South Street. It took me 10 minutes to walk over there and it was the same place we (my parents, Assiyeah and I) went to 2 years ago when we were here visiting. It was good but a bit pricey and then I went in search of a bead shop where I’d been twice before. It had moved and I found it at 2nd and Market. I got another cool ‘J’-shaped pendant, this time made from bone and had a cute girl named Rachel put it on for me. No, she didn’t want to go out for drinks with me and my friends after work. Then I walked up the street awhile and got a call from my buddy Mooney. It was about getting the taxes on his ex-girlfriend’s flight back but it involved my credit card and it’s a bit sticky but it’ll all work out for the best. Without a doubt he and I are going to have a blast in Spain together without the women we had planned on bringing, that’s fo sho!

I’m meeting Corrie soon and then 2 hours after that we’re meeting Danielle and we’ll have some drinks and some early dinner and go from there. Tomorrow I’m on a bus at 11am on my way to NYC. I can’t wait but there’s still some of today to enjoy!

Ciao!