i love it when a plan comes together

so i woke up this morning feeling a little bit better, not much though. fed the cats, took a shower and managed to not get sick, so i guess the stomach bug had passed.

mom wanted to go to Waffle House for mother's day. not exactly my first choice, but my sister loves it and is paying so i don't have much say in the matter. i didn't eat much, just wanted enough to be able to get me through the day without spending hours on the toilet.

got home in time to see all of the Manchester United match. it was very nice to see them win 2-1 with of all people, Rio getting the game winner. it was like his first fucking goal in i think 5 years. and then to watch Sir Alex speak and celebrate another trophy with the boys, water works on my end. there will never be another. next season will be a weird one to say the least.

that game and post game festivities went right into the Yankee game for me. the Yankees got great pitching the last 2 days and ended up sweeping the Royals. and holy shit, the Yankees are in first by themselves in the AL East. funny how the more things change the more they stay the same.

that game went right into game 6 for the New York Rangers. a gutsy, skin of their teeth 1-0 win over Washington. game 7 is tomorrow night back in the nation's capital. i guess all my Monday shows are going to get the cold shoulder from me. highlights below:

so that made 3 victory beers today. i really don't drink as much as i used to as i can still feel a little headache from the third one, and that was about 4 hours ago.

i need to get some sleep. the Yankees play a doubleheader in Cleveland tomorrow and i really need to get the grass cut as well. decisions, decisions.

i suppose it depends on how my sleeping goes. i really want to have a good vibe going into game 7 tomorrow. i don't want to have any reason to blame myself for a loss. and yes, i'm a weirdo like that.

and for some reason i now have a LinkedIn profile. not that i really plan on using it much.

"The reason I talk to myself is that I'm the only one whose answers I accept." - George Carlin

a rainy Friday

so i raced home from the post office because i got a video idea racing my head. it was just starting to rain and i have a poem called "what is rain" in my NEW book, Sofisticated White Trash. so i quickly shot it, posted it, but for some fucking reason i can't post it here on my blog. so, if you go to my YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/user/jjthepoet1) or if you go to my Google+ page, you can find the video there.

i believe my sister is coming down for the Mother's Day weekend. hopefully my sports teams are winning so i don't play the role of asshole as usual.

the Yankees had a rainy 3-1 win yesterday to take the series in Colorado. and holy shit, they are now tied for first place in the AL East. not bad for a team of replacements. they start a series tonight in Kansas City. hopefully the shitty weather doesn't follow them there.

not sure how much of the baseball game i'll watch tonight as the New York Rangers play a fucking HUGE game 5 tonight. the winner tonight basically controls the series. let me just say that i have the vocal chords warmed up and i will be probably pacing or rocking the chair violently at some point.

i did catch a live concert last night of the Zac Brown Band performing at Red Rocks. it ended right before the storms knocked out the satellite feed. i tuned in about 20 minutes late, which i'll try to find online i guess. the concert was awesome. any time i see a country band do songs from Metallica and Led Zeppelin, my ears are definitely interested. and if you can find the encore of them doing songs in glow in the dark skeleton costumes, i highly recommend it.

i'm hearing from more people who have received copies of my book. glad to see the postal service can still do something right. i've lined up a couple of reviews as well. if you'd like to do a review for the book, please email me and we can exchange some info.

i would like to write a few poems this weekend if i find the time. 5 days in a row of rain have got some thoughts floating in my head that eventually will need to find a home.

i hope everyone has a great weekend. i hope any mom that happens to be reading this has a really great weekend.

music today:

Leonard Cohen - The Future

"All generalizations are false, including this one." - Mark Twain

a case of the blah blah blah

you'd think i'd be pissed after just watching Baltimore win and take a 1/2 game lead in the AL East. but, i'm not. the Yankees have put themselves in this situation. if they can't get out of it, then, by all means, blow up the fucking team. god forbid some youth for a change. a man can dream. they'll play like shit, somehow win the division, get blown out in the first round of playoffs, have some wonderful excuse that none of us fans will buy, and then the fun starts. but i have a few months until i will bitch and moan about that. a must win in Boston tonight if the assholes actually give a shit about being in first.

personally, i'll be flipping between the NFL, Big Brother, Wilfred, Louie and whatever the fuck else i can find to avoid watching the Yankees tonight. i did a good job last night of doing that and they won. fingers are crossed.

typed up the 3 poems i wrote about the music festival i attended over the past weekend. i imagine i'll have plenty more to write about it in the coming weeks. i'm thinking these 3 will be going out later this month.

enough babbling from me. i have fantasy rosters to go check before the game tonight.

music today:

Nine Inch Nails - The Fragile
Loretta Lynn - Van Lear Rose
Social Distortion - Somewhere Between Heaven And Hell

"Most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be." - Abraham Lincoln

testing my patience

after 130 games, i don't think i can call anything a trend or just a bad streak. things are simply the way they are by now. after watching the Yankees lose a series to a team that had won 6 of their last 28 games, i have resigned myself to a few things. this team can't do anything fucking easy. they can't get big hits when they need them. they can't get runners over. all the injuries have role players becoming platoon players and in other words, being in spots where they can't succeed. that's really a case of bad fucking luck more than anything. but , sadly, even with that, they can't blow teams out. they can't score runs to expand leads late in games. and they are the only fucking team not to win when trailing after 8 innings this season. the only fucking one. when you only have 3 reliable starters that aren't injured and only 2 reliable relievers who don't have arms made out of rubber, more games than not are going to be tricky to say the least with all these elements involved. they are off tomorrow. tongue in cheek i tell you, they have been off for over a month now. if Baltimore stays hot, the weekend series will basically be for the division lead. i will give the Yankees credit. it's really fucking hard to piss away a 10 game lead in a division. they are close enough now to taste it.

these are the days where i'd rather stick a rusty fork in my eyes than breathe.

so what was a really nice, sunny, low humidity, comfortable late August day has now turned into a pissed off fuck the world what the fuck do you want day. i won't kid myself into thinking tomorrow will be any better.

music today:

AC/DC - Let There Be Rock (Bonfire Box Set)
Thelonious Monk - Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane
Street Sweeper Social Club - The Ghetto Blaster EP
Johnny Cash - My Mother's Hymn Book

"Between two evils, I always pick the one I never tried before." - Mae West

one of those days

got back up into the 90's today. i'm afraid we haven't had a good rain here in so long that if we did it would totally fuck what crops we do have left. i only mention it because there's like an 80% chance of rain in the next 2 days. fun.

was totally weird watching the high school i graduated from playing high school football on ESPN. but some things don't change. i didn't make it to the end of the game. now, i just change the channel when they are getting blown out. back then, i would leave the stadium and go smoke a bowl underneath the nearby bridge. memories.

good win by the Yankees today, 4-2. a great job by the bullpen after Sweaty Freddy could only go 4 2/3 before imploding. a run of games against the AL East coming up. time to put the foot on the gas again. hopefully.

it was another Messi and CR7 Sunday on tv. incredible job by Messi to score 2 goals in about 4 minutes to rescue Barcelona. CR7 and Real Madrid obviously had their minds on the second leg against Barcelona coming up in a few days. lose 2-1 to a team i had never heard of before. not good.

a little dinner and some mindless tv tonight. then, i'm hoping for a nice long sleep. not quite death, but something close to it.

music today:

Ray LaMontagne and the Pariah Dogs - God Willin' & The Creek Don't Rise
John Prine - In Person & On Stage

"Here I am trying to live, or rather, I am trying to teach the death within me how to live." - Jean Cocteau

so there's a few good ones left after all

i want to start this off with a big fat THANK YOU to Russell over at The Camel Saloon for recommending a poem i sent him would be better off at Jellyfish Whispers. i can probably count on one hand the number of editors/publishers that have done that for me before. whenever i'm near your neck of the woods, the first round is on me my friend.

not exactly sure what my feelings are about the Yankees signing Derek Lowe. it's bad enough that my mind won't let the 2004 epic collapse ever go away, but to see a member of that Red Sox team wearing pinstripes makes my stomach turn a little. of course, if he wins a championship here like Damon did, i'll get over it.

big home stand this week for the Yankees. get some timely wins over Texas and Boston and that should help put the AL East to bed. struggle this week and the last 6 weeks of the season will be nail biting time.

another rather cool day here. the weather this summer has been totally bizarre. and each day i drive down the lane to get the paper and mail i try not to look at the corn. just too fucking depressing.

hoping to have another writing session sometime this week. i feel like i have some good ones coming given all the shit going on in the world. let alone going on with people i know. i need one of those couple of hours where i bust out 10-15 gems and my fall will be looking good.

i did catch a little of the closing ceremony of the Olympics last night. hadn't seen Fat Boy Slim in quite some time. when he popped up my mind quickly thought back to my drug filled teens/20's. good times.

music today:

The Chemical Brothers - dig your own hole
Metallica - Beyond Magnetic
Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
Placebo - Without You I'm Nothing

"Always make the audience suffer as much as possible." - Alfred Hitchcock

a Tuesday in the blistering sun

Another day in the 90's. Heat index is supposed to hit at least 100 today. There's a rumor that it might rain on Wednesday. I'm not going to believe it until I actually see it.

I'm pretty proud of Phil Hughes. It really looks like he has turned the corner. Only 2 real mistakes last night, only one of them a home run. He's really cut down on his walks this year as well. It always helps when Raul "I may be 40 but i can still hit a 3-1 fastball a country mile" Ibanez hits a grand slam in the bottom of the 8th. Nice 6-3 win last night. Sucks for the Blue Jays that Joey Bats injured his wrist last night. Hopefully it means he'll miss the next 2 games but be back in time to crush the rest of the AL East.

Side note, the Yankees have scored more than 3 runs in 40 straight games. A team record for a single season. That kind of shocked me considering all the great teams in the past. Of course, according to my superstitious ass the streak will end now that I've talked about. CC comes back tonight, so hopefully they won't need a ton of runs in case it does.

My cat Rita Dove made a rare appearance this morning. I haven't seen it in over a week or so. Not sure what it was eating because it looks really good.

Chuckled as I watched Monday Night Raw last night. I'm really hoping the writers are smart enough to make John Cena the first guy to cash in the Money In The Bank contract and lose. As a fan of CM Punk for years now, I'd love this title run to continue for over a year. The 1000th episode is next week, I'm hoping for 3 hours of good memories and some great wrestling. I fear a lack of both as age takes a toll as the last month of stars coming back has shown.

Not exactly sold yet on this Big Brother cast but I'm slowly getting there. Just enough drama and stupidity that I can laugh myself to sleep each night. Now, if there was only a little slutty activity...

music for today:

Of Monsters And Men - My Head Is An Animal
Walk The Moon - Walk The Moon
John Mayer - Born and Raised

"Genius does what it must, and talent does what it can." - Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton