Pizza – BALD JASON'S GAY GOTH BOY BLOG

I got outside on June 3. I walked about half way to the park and back and then around my block a few times while I spoke on the phone to Michael Slaughter. Probably less than a mile total, but I just wanted to get outside and I did. Mission accomplished.

^ Before the walk, after the walk (sweaty) and then after a shower.

I didn’t sleep well Wednesday night. I get in the phases where I don’t sleep a lot at once, often in 4 hour shifts, rather than 8. It’s not the temperature because we keep it cool in the bedroom, the way we like it. But for whatever reason that’s just what happens.

My sister Janice reached out. She’d been in a car accident with her son, Jordan. They’re both okay but she doesn’t have a car now, which is a problem.

On Thursday, June 4, several of the packages that I ordered the other day were scheduled to arrive. One of them was promised between 4 & 8am. I woke up around 6 and figured I’d stay up until the package arrived. Around 7:30 there was a message saying they’d tried to deliver it and failed. In order to get into our building they either need to be let in or we can buzz them in when they call our apartment. I had my phone and was awake so I didn’t miss any calls. About 20 minutes later it said that they had delivered it but, annoyingly, they’d left it on the floor downstairs. We have lockers there that delivery people can use because before we had the lockers packages were stolen constantly. I figured it was probably fine because it really had been like 20 minutes. I ran downstairs but it was “gone”. I contacted the Super and asked if the cameras there might have captured who took it because I had very specific times but it turns out they delivered it to the wrong address. The building behind ours (which is on Broadway, rather than Wadsworth) is also owned by our company and he could see that they’d left it on the floor in that building and he got it for me. So the problem they likely ran into is that we didn’t buzz them in because they were not calling our apartment but someone else’s. Anyways – I got everything. And later got more. So I got some fun shirts, lots of jewelry, some other accessories and 2 pairs of shoes – one of which fit. I’ll send the others back but I have another pair coming and might wait to see how those fit, because if they don’t I can probably send them back at the same time.

Later I went for another walk, intending to go the park, I realized I hadn’t brought anything for the squirrels. I also realized that I was starving, so I decided I’d go get pizza instead. On the way there though, I ran into an old Starbucks customer of mine, Gem Gor, who was also the neighbor of one of my coworkers, Crissida. Gem is always good for long and entertaining conversations and this was no different. I think I chatted with her for over an hour, and it was fun.

After I parted ways with Gem, I ordered my food, but ran into one my neighbors, Alec, who lives in our building, on the 2nd floor (like “Luka” from the Suzanne Vega song – although according to my neighbor, he’s less abused, which is good). He was doing his laundry at a laundromat and chilling outside. We spoke for at least 10 minutes but I begged out of the conversation to get my food. On my way to get the pizza I spotted this classic image of the open fire hydrant on the street, that you see in movies or TV but seldom see when living in the country as I did, growing up in rural Michigan. I got the pizza and headed home, but ran into Alec again as we approached our building. More good natured conversation followed. It was nice running into people that I knew in the neighborhood. It’s not usually like that for me. When I got home I had a couple of sliced and put the rest away. I finished an episode of Star Trek: Discovery; I’ve been slowly rewatching the series and I’m about half way through, I think. I got ready for bed and went to sleep around 9ish.

I woke up a few times, when Aaron joined me, and again around midnight. I got up, hungry. I had a snack, read the news, and now I’ll be getting ready to go back to bed. I have a doctor’s appointment tomorrow at 1:30. And then later, I have a party to attend. Hopefully that all goes well.

And when I go out later today that will be 34 days in a row.

Today’s journal song quote if from the already referenced “Luka” by Suzanne Vega, from her 1987 album, Solitude Standing. The song, which is about child abuse, was based in part on a child that Vega had met / seen near where she lived who seemed to be apart from the other children; she used his distinctive name and his otherness, but the abuse was actually based on her own experiences, so she was able to talk about a subject that was very personal to her but without getting the attention for the topic that she didn’t want. The song tends to stick with you. When we first moved to New York, we were in a sublet on 173rd and we lived on the second floor. I would catch myself humming that song all the time.

I ask those questions a lot lately. Mostly related to this place, but in other contexts as well. Sometimes I think have answers but other times I don’t know.

I like video games but it is difficult for me to find games that I love. I lucked out when during the pandemic, through a group plan on Nintendo Switch, I had free access to the then 3 year old game, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. I had played a few Zelda games before, including the original, but the last one I’d played, Twilight Princess, had so frustrated me that I’d basically sworn them off. I didn’t think I’d play Breath of the Wild for long, but I’m still playing it 6 years later and I’ve played through the entire game 7 or 8 times. I love it. But hearing that I love this game, people ask me what else I like and there isn’t much. Aaron plays many, many video games and enjoys them all. I like Mario Kart, due in part to Aaron training me on some of the basics that I never would have picked up on my own. Also during the pandemic I played through Super Mario Odyssey, which I enjoyed at the time. I played the first 3 Spyro games. I beat the original Metroid game and the first sequel, which was released for Gameboy. I like Injustice 2. I love the old Playstation game The Unholy War. But in the last few years it has mostly been Breath of the Wild and it’s spin-offs.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom will be three years old next month. I started what I think is my 4th playthrough of the game yesterday. So far I’m taking my time. The first 3 times I played I sped through the opening sky island until it was finished before taking a break, but not this time. I intend to take the game slowly and try to enjoy it over a longer span of time. And I want to try to play it in the story order that the game clearly wants you to go in. I don’t know if I’ll be successful. I always get distracted and want to do other things in these games, and in “Breath of the Wild” / “Tears of the Kingdom”, you can, which is probably why I love them so much.

I got dressed yesterday evening and was thinking of going to Boxers, a gay sports bar in lower Manhattan, but I was also hungry and thought getting pizza and then staying in for the night to chill might be nice. But then I thought I might go get the pizza, take it home, maybe have a slice and then going to the bar, but walking to the restaurant made my decision a lot easier. For about a year, maybe a little longer, I sometimes get these horrible pains in my ankles when I walk. It isn’t all the time. But when it happens it is really difficult to keep going. I p[lan to discuss this with my doctor at my next appointment, which I believe is in June. I should have mentioned it before now, but I often have a hard time speaking coherently to doctors and need to take notes and things beforehand to remember what I need to say, and this is on the agenda. And on top of that, it was a lot chillier than I expected, even having looked at the weather and having worn a jacket. So once I was home I was in for the night, which is what led to me playing Zelda.

When I’m sitting in our office, I’m pretty quiet. I don’t usually have a lot of noise around me, and it is then, late at night when I can hear the mice. We’ve had mice in our apartment off and on over the years, but we haven’t had them since we had our apartment redone. This is likely due to many of the holes in the original floor, near the old heating registers being sealed and many of those pipes being removed. But I thought I heard one. I told myself I was probably just hearing the normal noises of a home. Later when getting ready for bed I thought I heard it again, but it stopped. I thought maybe I was hearing some residual noise from the downstairs neighbors. But while sitting on our bed, a mouse came under the bedroom door right below me and I screamed like a little bitch. I think I said “Get OUT!” The mouse stopped then scurried under the bed. I found the one trap I knew we had and set it out. I then ordered a box of 20 more. These traps are brutal but they seem to kill the rodents instantly. And then I sweep them up and throw them away. It’s kind of ironic that I’m only hearing this mouse after Aaron left for L.A. because Aaron is deathly afraid of rodents, which is problematic in NYC because rodents often run across the sidewalks or over the streets, or through the subways. They don’t bother me when I see them outside. Not even a little. But when they’re inside my house I am bothered. But if they are in the house, it is left up to me to deal with them because Aaron can’t. He doesn’t even like to hear that they are there and if I catch them or kill them or barely miss doing so, I can’t talk to him about it because he gets very upset. Hopefully I can get rid of this one before he comes home, partially so he doesn’t have to deal with it at all, but also because I just want it gone. I’m not sure what it is doing in here. Our apartment is very clean and is even more clean than usual as I tossed a lot of junk out recently so there are even more open surfaces with less hiding spots. Still, I think I’m going to clean the bedroom later.

Due to the mouse, I ended up going to bed much later than I had planned, well into Tuesday’s morning hours. I didn’t sleep well. I also didn’t take my Ambien, because I’m trying to take it less often. Hopefully this means I’ll sleep better tonight. I’m falling behind on my TV shows. I haven’t watched LOTR: The Rings of Power in over a week. I’ve not watched more of Daredevil or Tales of the City. I never finished last week’s Maul episodes and 2 more came out yesterday, but the latter series might work better as a binge anyways. And I want to watch and review some queer films soon. I’ll try to catch up on that stuff soon. Possibly later today. There is a new Daredevil: Born Again episode tonight, which I will likely watch as soon as I can; sometimes that’s the night it airs and other times it is the day after. We’ll see. Maybe I’ll end up doing nothing.

Tag: Pizza

“I Live Upstairs From You”

“What am I trying to do? What am I trying to say?”