Current mood:	mutable and kerouac-ky
Current music:	Calexico - A Feast of Wire - 01 - Sunken Waltz

"Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgiastic future that year by year recedes before us..."
"It eluded us then, but that's no matter--tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther..."

The last week or so has brought upheaval to the world of ches.

Last saturday Hunter and I were fired from Cherry. I've never been fired before, and it was pretty liberating given the stupidity of the situation. We had a big thug party on friday and left the restaurant at 4:30 in the morning, so we were all at the pool the next day having a nice, relaxing time and Hunter decided to call Timm and ask if the two of us could come in at 5:00 instead of 4:00, since saturdays are slow to start and we worked so late the night before. Timm said no, he was working to clean the place up. So we came in on time and started doing some of the bullshit labor that always has to be done after these parties because Timm won't pay anyone to do it. Timm was in a pissy mood and I guess Hunter and I were both being smart asses and didn't help the situation. I'd say that the two of us voluntarily take on more extra responsibilities with no form of compensation than anyone else who works there, so neither of us was particularly interested in moving tables and doing other such crappy tasks for $2 an hour that day. I told Timm precisely that. I thoroughly cleaned and closed down my bar the night before, and that is the scope of my duties as far as I'm concerned. I've done the next-day-clean-up enough times now, I'm burnt out, let the new people have at it. So Hunter and I sat down to eat food we ordered from Charlie G's after a bit of choring, and Timm saw us and bitched at us. So we did a few more things that he asked us to do, and sat down again to eat. This time when he saw us, he decided to tell us to go home, we were fired. I laughed and said, "Ok thanks, I'm going back to the pool, peace," and we went to Charlie G's to finish our food and have a beer.

So I'm unemployed. I've looked around a bit and I have a job if I want it at Tijuana Garage, but I don't really think they're making any money over there so I told them I was still looking and would let them know something this week. If anyone knows of a decent place where I can get a bartending job, drop a bro a line. A neighborhood pub type of place with a steady crowd would be great.

My rent's paid and all, I'm not stressing the loss of employment and I should have left Cherry long ago, but looking for a job always sucks.

Here's my Wind-Up Bird Chronicle-inspired tattoo that I got a few days before I got fired.

As usual the picture sucks because I had only momentary access to a decent digital camera. Speaking of which...

I might have an opportunity to go to Italy and Greece for 11 days or so at the beginning of august. I say "might" because I was invited by my friend Erin who can get buddy passes for the flight, but after I told her I'd have to think about the logistics and called her back to say I wanted to do it, she called me back and said that Donna, whom I stayed with in NY in march, wanted it to just be a girls' trip, yadda yadda yadda. So I was slightly insulted, irritated at Donna for being a self-centered princess, and irritated that I spent an extra $60 for expedited passport service when I'm jobless. Then Shira talked to me and said that Donna had tried to be controlling since she was first invited (Shira and Erin were originally planning the trip for Shira's birthday) and apologized profusely just as Erin had. I told them it wasn't their place to apologize and Shira said she'd try talking to Donna and that they wanted me to go. So we'll see. I'd love to go, but I'm not interested in being at the center of stupid drama.

Since the two people he was closest to at Cherry were fired in one fell swoop, my roommate Jeff has decided he's pretty damn sick of doing the bullshit that Timm subjects him to as well, and he's ready to carry the banner leading the trip to Thailand that I've been wanting to take for the last year. So if I can secure a decent job to save a little money in the next few months, that might finally become reality. I've got to make it happen somehow, because I'm wasting far too much time out of school and that trip has been the supposed reason.

I've been at home in Rome since Saturday afternoon and will be heading back to the ATL tomorrow. Cook out/booze-swilling at my house all day for the 4th. Call me.