The Countdown Begins

I've been doing stuff lately, I swear. Despite severe cutbacks in my family budget (that would be Erika and I), we've been trying to have some fun. Unfortunately, the weather is not cooperating and it has been ridiculously cold this winter. Last year, I bought a new "Fall" coat and I was amazed because I actually went through the whole winter using that coat, so I basically tossed my torn and shredded full-length Manhattan wool jacket and settled on this coat. Well, either last year the effects of global warming were in full effect (to be honest, Bush was still in office), or this year global warming has begun receding (to be honest, I did change a light-bulb in our apartment to one of those low-energy ones and have flown a lot less), because it's been damn cold. It's possible that that wool coat I threw out is buried in my Goodwill closet somewhere and might need to be dug up.

The budget is severely restricted for obvious reasons. Mostly because my company, once the largest bank in the world, is on the verge of bankruptcy. That's not a good thing for my job prospective, and thus my income. Plus, I am doing everything I can to make sure that developing nations remain financially solvent (hey, I do have an investment in ADRE) by spending money in preparation for my upcoming wedding in Lima. The only benefit to this economic situation in the U.S. right now is that sales are amazing at places like Macy's and Bloomingdales, so I have been able to construct my wedding wardrobe for pretty cheap. $500 suits? $160. Studly $90 tie? $38. $45 button-up, slim-fit white shirt? $17. $30 belt? $16. Not bad for a wedding outfit. I will also utilize the developing nation discount for further items in about two weeks. I plan on stocking up on $2 crew-neck undershirts at the infamous Gamarra market in Lima to replace my once-white, now off-white/yellow discount undershirts that I bought a few years back.

Erika has been doing her part as well, as she ticks off each box in preperation for the wedding every day, utilizing those event-planning skills, Skype, and her mother to great effect. The gringo turnout for the wedding remains to be determined, but we are confident that we will have at least critical mass and have some fun events in mind pre-and-post wedding- notably EATING some wonderful food.

Unfortunately, not everything has gone perfectly as I received my wedding band in the mail this week from my mom, only to find that it doesn't even fit me. I forcibly made it fit when I got it and then as I began to feel the pain in the finger after about 5 seconds, I had to run to the bathroom and use a lot of soap and water to get the damn thing off, the whole time watching the veins in my finger pulsate as the ring starved them and my whole finger of blood. So, it's getting shipped all the way back to California so that they can order me a new one a little bit bigger. When they measure my finger with the loops, why can't they be accurate? Makes me suspicious, for sure.

For Christmas, I got a book called Musicophilia that I've been reading lately. It's a non-fiction about a brain doctor who studies the effect of music on the brain and it is quite cerebral (see what I did there - pun slightly intended). I'm not too far in it as I typically do my reading at night before I got to bed and reading paragraphs that use words like (and I just picked a random paragraph) amusia, disorders of skill, synesthesia, and brain lesions is not exactly light reading. Most of what I have read so far has had to do with musical hallucenations in patients, but it has had one significant impact on me - the more and more he talks about music, the more and more fascinated I am becoming with classical music. I remember going to some classical shows at Carnegie Hall and hearing these older, Upper East Side types talking about how moving the music was and how excited they were by the music, while I'm sitting there thinking about what is going on in the viola players mind and where they ate last night for dinner. In short, I'm intrigued by the power of this classical music on the brain and have actually started listening to it at work since I've always been able to listen to it without becoming distracted by it - similarly to listening to house/trance music while writing code back in college. Plus, Euros love classical music, so I should be listening to it anyway.

In other news, Erika and I are throwing around the idea of moving to another part of Astoria, becoming disenchanted with the excessive rent of the apartment we are in. I moved into this building because it is newer and supposedly nicer than most other places in Astoria, and therefore pay at least $200 more a month in rent. In reality, although it is nice having the recycling outside of our door, we suffer through freezing nights and days and having to walk ten minutes to get to the subway. We love Astoria, and it is nice being close to the parks in the summer (free capoeira!), but I should really be paying less out here. And the kicker? They sent me a rental agreement for next year, raising my rent roughly $100 to $1800 per month. I checked their website and they are offering the same exact apartment on the 15th floor, facing Manhattan (awesome view from there) and are charging $1600 for it - $100 less than we are paying now. You bastards aren't going to get away with that! We're in a recession, for crying out loud! I could be in the unemployed line next week!

J. Riley, now back to listening to the classical/flamenco guitar hero playing on iTunes Radio...