Not your average little red wagon.

I say Berrybrook Farm, but most people say, “the place with the red wagon in their parking lot”?  It is worth the time to visit BBF for many of your health food store needs.  Not only to they have the best veggie burritos around, also veggie brats, tofu dogs, a peanut butter grinder, bulk nutritional yeast, amazing fresh juices, organic fruits/veggies and a huge selection of healthy snacks and great vitamins.  BBF also plays host to a slew of interesting personalities ensuring your experience there will be unique every time you stop by.  Fuck bad customer service at Talley’s.  Berrybrook’s info can be found here.

They also have one of the nicest places to sit and enjoy your freshly made food.  The porch at BBF is equipped with two swings.  Yesterday I met Eugene on the porch.  He is a self proclaimed “recycling man”.  He had some great stories about his permanent leave of absence from his corporate job so that he could work full time for himself picking up pallets and cardboard to resell to someone else.  He was enjoying a mean green juice when we began to talk.  He has been buying from Berrybrook Farm for six years.  Super nice guy.

-Lastly, someone should write a song about BBF.

Its not polite to stare.

“Stare with your mind, not your eyes.”  (maybe someone else said it first)

-I like answering my coworkers questions with something that sounds like it came from some teen emo song lyric.

This is an amazing post on Craigslist!

Yes! There is an alterna-mom group in Charlotte! (CLT)

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Reply to: comm-727566743@craigslist.org
Date: 2008-06-21, 12:22PM EDT

Feel like an outsider in mainstream mom groups? Then check out ViaMaterna, Charlotte’s diverse online community for progressive, attachment-parenting moms. If you feel like the only mom of color, the only lesbian mom, the only mom breastfeeding a toddler, the only mom without a McMansion and a minivan…. ViaMaterna is for you!

That is all I have.

Andrew

This is the second day in the rain for me. Two days, two walks in the rain. What could be better? How about a friend to walk in the rain with me.

I had an English class where the teacher would discuss the forms or rebirth or cleansing of a character within a novel. “Purification by fire”, doesn’t necessarily mean a character is burned, but rather it could be a fire within a scene or chapter. Of course there would have to be a change in actions or a character becomes sapient from the experience. Sometimes it is rain. For me, I don’t feel any change despite this recollection coinciding with my time in the rain. There do seem to be some external changes in my life though. I approached a friend of mine regarding his recent difficult behaviors. I asked him not to respond or defend himself because I wasn’t attacking. I also considered the current situation with his family and how that could be an impact on his life. All these things being made clear, I hope that he is able adjudicate our conversation and return “cleansed”.

My other roommate Eric is making large steps forward with his family. I think it is nice he has given himself sort of a time line of progress he is looking to achieve in order to reunite with his wife…but it does mean I lose a solid renter.

Diego remains one of my strongest bonds currently in my life. Although I don’t always regard his advice, I know he is looking out for my best interests.

-I am really inspired by all of the birds nests that I notice this year. There is one in the “o” in the Bicycle Sport sign above the entrance.

-This week I begin plans for my garage behind my house. It is one step closer to “January First Freedom”.

-I am still wet from my walk in the rain!

- With the exception of a few too many meals out, I am doing quite well with my plan to be a horrible consumer. Fuck American values, I want to be the worst consumer I can possibly be!

Goodnight!

Andrew

Two the tutch.

I like dictionaries. We used to look up words in a Dictionary all the time when I was in elementary school. I like how the old school ones have little finger indents to mark the letters of the alphabet. The pages in old school dictionaries are very thin and are nice to fan your fingers through.

Today I thought of this because I stumped these kids with some simple math questions. They are twins (actually triplets, but only two were in the store). They must be eleven or twelve years old and were unable to do basic arithmetic. They went for their phones in order to utilize their digital calculators. What a shame. Then I thought that maybe they didn’t know how to use a dictionary either! I wrote it all down so I wouldn’t forget. As I looked over my notes about the children who couldn’t do simple subtraction, I remembered how fast I would look words up in the dictionary. I would go faster than any other kid in the class and it was so much fun.

I feel mostly frustrated today, the incident with those children didn’t help either. Today, there didn’t seem like a very clear path to solving problems at work. Everyone was difficult, everything was difficult. I am continually faced with personal hurdles as well. At least I got some good hard training in this morning, and made it though the day without too much battle damage. In the end though, I felt like it wouldn’t have taken much more pushing to get me over the edge. I am calm now, no drinking, and am going to look up some words in the dictionary!

Good Night!

Andrew John

Howdy is an interesting way to great people.  I think people take a “Howdy” in many different ways, but mostly positive.

Charlotte doesn’t completely suck partially because people like Bob Perkowitz live here.  Check out his site and things he has done.  www.perkowitz.com

Good night,

Andrew

Just so i don’t forget.

This isn’t a good post, but I saw Allison, Evan, and Abraham at the Common Market tonight.  Diego and I stopped in to get some dessert treats.  “Probably the same as you” was Abraham’s response when asked how he was.  He also wished me good luck with my situation.  I don’t imagine luck will help me at this time.  The point of this post was that throughout my relationship I have always felt like Abraham looked at me as a person rather than an intruder.  Regardless of his current feelings for me, or support for his sister, we looked at each other understand the pain of being broken.  If i never speak to him again I won’t be surprised, but I respect him and hope that his brother hasn’t fucked up Abraham’s marriage, as I feel he negatively influenced my relationship.   Of  course I don’t believe there are many decent interesting people out there, and Abraham is one of them, I hope he goes after his estranged wife and is met with the success that I am unable to achieve.

-It was nice that Evan said it was always very nice to see me.  I like him too,  and am glad he is a happy father.

Tomorrow is the NC State Championship and I am nervous that I am unprepared.  We’ll see what happens.

Andrew

Typical Phone Call at Work.

This is what I do about 25% of my day at work.  Don’t get me started on answering questions from the next table over about campy shifters while at dinner with my girlfriend.

[phone rings]

Katie: “Thanks for calling Bicycle Sport, this is Katie”

Caller: “Uhh, hi Katie, is Andrew working today?”

Katie: “He sure is.  Is there something I can get going for you?”

Caller:  “Uhh, Well, Yeah, may I speak with Andrew?”

Katie:  “Sure, he is just finishing up with someone right now”

Andrew: “This is Andrew”

Caller:  “Ohhh, hi Andrew.  This is Mike Jboff.  You sold me a set of Vittoria tyres a few months ago.  I was wondering if you know what size tubes those tyres use?….and uhhh, do you have them in stock?”

Andrew:  “Are they rode tyres?”

Caller:  “Yep”

Andrew:  “Well yes, as a road shop, i have road tubes in stock.”

Caller:  “Great Thanks..errr well how much are they?”

Andrew:  “A tube is five bucks.”

Caller: “ohh wow, thanks for all your help.  My friend Dave told me always to ask for you and not to bother anyone else in your well trained staff.”

Andrew:  “I guessed that.  Thanks for the call.  Cheers”

Caller: “umm, bye”

Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something, and that this thing, at whatever cost, must be attained.

Marie Curie – French Physicist, twice winner of the Nobel Prize.

The horizon isn’t so far away really.

Figuratively speaking.  Inevitability is all around.  Reid and I are watching a movie about a brother and sister who have a father that they are putting into a nursing home.  I couldn’t watch it more than 45 min because I am thinking too hard about the future.  Lets back up.  I dread what is coming.  When I was younger, my mother used to warn me about conversations we would have “later!”.  I would think all day long about what the conversation would be about.  Did I fuck something up?  Call from a teacher?  Caught in a lie?  Or worse!?  So I have a long standing relationship with the future, mostly me worrying about it.

I have a secret about a friend, something is about to happen in their family that could devastate them and perhaps even cause them to fall off his path.  After the race today, I realised [again] that the inevitable is going to happen for everyone, the future is coming and I can only do so much to be prepared.  There is really nothing I can do to stop this from happening to my friend, but I am equipped with knowledge that perhaps will help them handle it in the best way possible.

I can train hard, be a good employee, eat healthy, and try to move away from the things that have hindered me in the past.  History is good for is to learn from, and subsequently move forward.  Move toward inevitability.  It is coming for us all.  Lets all make good decisions with this in mind.

- Lastly, did you know there is a National No Make-up Day?  March 27th.  I love seeing women without make-up on.

AA gets an A+!

If you are looking for a really solid and well developed counseling program, check out anything sponsored by AA. Its more than just for drug or alcohol addiction. The three meetings I have been to are more about personal improvement techniques and strategies. Maybe it will help me get through doing six months of shit work for someone who doesn’t want to be with me anymore. Anyway, its time to get to it.

Andrew