August and Everything After

Damn. August. What a month. A month that lives up to its namesake, an emperor of a month, August. Many celebrate August because of the great Perseid meteor shower, or the fact that it is the birth ground of the greatest of Astrological signs, Leo, or because the clash of football gear cracks again on those distant, great, sprinkler-soaked swaths of manicured grass. Some love it because it heralds a return to college and the hazy daze of keg parties and text books, lascivious looks cast across library study room tables. The chlorine of the swimming pools takes on a pungent wanning shimmer, the lawn boy looks forward to the day he can stop hedging, the great locust cacophony swells and rattles, a crescendo before the end of summer. That dumb dog star howling his love for great Helios, who can barely reign in his earth diving steeds. God bless that smoldering bitch of an end of a season of a month. It's something else, no denying.

Sitting down to sketch out a quick review of the past months blogs I was surprised at all the activity. I had a friend from Italy come and visit. We drank scotch and watched the Hold Steady. I played Scrabble in my home and drank Sangria. There was a Lobster Burger at the Bryant Park Grill, gratis, care of the company. I aced a part time job interview, no doubts in my mind. A year ago I was a bumbling pickle, now I'm just a chilly cuke soaking in my smarmy brine. I met a young lady, we exchanged glances, had a few dances, and now there may be romance in the air as autumn sails in. I turned older, celebrated a birthday I was showered with good love from friends of many quarters both familiar and forgotten. I sipped Jalepeno Margaritas, scotch with a senorita, and beer with the fan base at the premier Leo McKegger. Whoo hoo. I made my own Skyline chili, performed admirably at a presentation, starting reading more poetry, and watched a few movies. The sky opened up and flooded the subway, I ate herring on a Sunday at Aquavit and chased it with beer. This is a lucky little life I've got over here. I learned that the White Horse Tavern sucks, Frodo wanders the streets of NYC (but is not lost) and credit card companies are Satan (care of Maxed Out, go watch this now). All in all it has been a pretty exceptional month. And even though we are more than a third of the way into September, this month is turning out OK too.

As far as the function of the blog. Well there's no denying that this month was a failure. I'm more than $150 behind and even that wouldn't put me on a free and clear track by 2008. Now, in the last 2 months I've been able to pay off $1200 of my bill. But I started at $4500 and if I was to be on track I should've knocked $1500 off. We'll see how well this new job helps out. If I can pull down about $400 more a month, I should still be on track to make it. I also need to come up with a way to get back in the green. I'm thinking Freegan. But we'll see if I've got the guts for that.

Updates coming. G'night, sweet August. G'nite Moon.