A New Leaf

Black trees of pain. I've been posting way too much about lost love and giving way too much detail. For a while I'm going to say what I have to say with art and music. With God everything is possible. If the pain leads me back to God it has served God and I'm grateful for it. I'm becoming a regular God Junky. I'll take it.

Church

Well the new year is off to a mighty strange start. I woke up this morning and did something extremely uncharateristic of me. I went to church. Let me tell you, THAT'S desperation. I got thinking about it last night and it was the first (OK the second) thing on my mind when I woke up. I threw on some clothes and drove to St Augustine's. It's right next to where Brenda lives. Yes she goes there (very rarely) with her girlfriend/neighbor that I know she was out with last night. Lest you think I'm stalking her I didn't go there to see her. I went to talk to God. In person, so to speak. Was I secretly hoping she might be there and see me? Probably, although frankly I wouldn't have wanted her to see what I did. I cried like a baby. I walked in about 10 minutes before Mass (I luckily guessed it was at 10AM). I sat about halfway down in the back and lost it. It's pretty hard to cry hysterically and still be quiet but I did a pretty good job. I got down on my knees and cried my eyes out (something I hadn't really been able to do before) and begged God to please give me the strength to make it through this and, if it His will to Please, Dear God, please bring back my Brenda to me. Amen. I haven't been a practicing catholic since I was about 10.
A funny thing:I made it through the service without any major fuckups I guess, except that I forgot that when it's time for communion you walk up there whether you're taking communion or not. Since I hadn't gone to confession I couldn't take communion. That way everyone goes back to their seats in the same order. I just sat there and people had to skootch by me. I would have laughed if I weren't crying so hard. I felt bad when it was time to shake everyone's hand (the 'peace be with you' thing). Firstly, it was clear that peace was not with me and secondly both hands were covered in tears and snot. Whatever, they shook my hand anyway.
I kept crying for a while in the car after we left. Finally I was all cried out. Strange thing though; I was hungry afterward for the first time in 5 days. That's good because I was pretty much starving myself to death. Since I can't smoke or drink anymore food will have to come back into play.

I guess after the greif stage comes the rage stage. Stay tuned for bitter vitriol.

Fuck 2006

This is without a doubt, beyond compare or exception the worst NewYear's Eve of my entire life. I haven't eaten in days, I can't sleep unless I'm drunk which I've been for several days. I can't imagine how I went to work. From the way my stomach feels I'm pretty sure I'm going to be throwing up blood pretty soon. I'm kind of looking forward to it actually. A nice long stay at the hospital should start the year off right. My hands are shaking uncontrollably and I have the good fortune of entertaining my sister and her boyfriend for the next several days. She looks worried.
Laurie gets the best bloggy friend of the year award for checking up on me. I'm sorry the news isn't good but my appreciation for your concern is unparalleled. Send me your snail mail addy and I'll mail you that painting you like. There is an upside here, however pale and pathetic. I've been writing and recording songs. I almost have enough for a post humous album. I'll post some mp3s for your perusal maybe tomorrow. Maybe there'll be a terrorist attack in Times Square and my pain will be instantly erased. Here's hoping. Ciao.

Requiem for my heart

I'm completely cold and dead inside. I shuffle around like a zombie, dead but to stupid to lie down. After years of holding that last little piece of my heart in reserve I finally got the courage to put all the chips on the table but the deal did not go my way. Now I'm an empty shell. Way to go Asshole. Back to your crypt now. Don't mind the rats and the maggots.

Song for the Dumped

I'm totally devastated. For no reason at all last night Brenda suddenly 'needs some space'. After all, it's not me she says. It's her. Yeah right. OK whatever. If anyone wants me I'll be in the corner with my head in a bag and an electrical cord wrapped around my throat. I wasn't going to do an HNT being all destroyed and whatnot, but since it's post your favorite week here you go. This is my fave because it reminds me that once I was so in love I didn't care what happened. I had faith that kindness and complete honesty would carry me through the darkest days. I guess all that evil shit the ex's wished on me how I would get hurt like I hurt them came true.

Hell Yes

I'm digging on Beck's new CD Guero today. Guero is mexican slang for a tall skinny white guy. I've always had sort of mixed feelings about him. I generally really like two or three songs on any given CD and think the rest is dreck. Also, the fact that he's a scientologist kind of puts me off. I really don't give a shit about people's religion since my feeling is that's all pretty much psychotic bullshit no matter what you "believe" whether it's the ghost of a 2000 year old Rabbi or Thetan monsters from outer space or the Id or whatever. I just find myself thinking about Tom Cruise when listening to Beck and thinking about Tom Cruise is never a good thing. I'll say this though, Beck's website is kind of cool. Anyway I was in Barnes and Noble and I listened to the first song 'e-pro' and liked it enough to drop 15 bucks for it. No wonder I liked it so much. It's the sampled riff from Whatcha Want? by the Beastie Boys. Apparently there's a nostalgia for that old school shit as evidenced by The Chronic-what?-cles of Narnia video on SNL. I've got zits on my friggin zeitgeist. Na na! Na na na na na na! Que onda guero? Anyhow in spite of myself I like 9 of the 13 songs so that's pretty good. I just got a package from Amazon.com and can't remember what I bought. Yay! Christmas surprise! Oh! It's the sequel to God's Debris! The Religion War! Good readin'! Puto!

Terrific Tuesday!

Merry Fuckin' Post Christmas! OK, really that headline was going to be Terrible Tuesday, but why be negative? Kinda shot from the weekend and the stress of the holidays but Miracle of Miracles; it's OVER! I love my family, truly I do and individually they are stellar people but when they get together they can be a bit much to take. All sorts of weird interpersonal politics takes over and people get mighty snarky including me. Therefore copious quantities of alcohol were imbibed (by me anyway) and that took the edge off nicely. Now I am back on the wagon by which I mean that instead of getting hammered again yesterday I flew home and made nice with my baby instead. That's progress.
Anyway here's a nice pic of Brenda and I by our Christmas tree taken by her 9 year old nephew.

Merry Christmas!

No mouth! Well, Christmas is just about here and I can't wait for it to be over. Bring on 2006! New year's resolutions: Get over it. Go sailing. Quit all my bad habits. Paint, write, and play music more. Finish and sell my book and film. Start a new book and film. Maybe get married. I think I'd be satisfied if I could just get over it. I'm off to Richmond VA tomorrow morning at 4AM for two glorious days with the family. Wish me luck.

Missing Comments and HNT

Seems I enabled comment moderation. I don't recall doing so but you never know with me. Anyway something is busted. A few people emailed me to say "Hey I commented but I'm getting a message about how they're moderated now!" That's news to me because there's nothing on the moderate comments page. Methinks blogger is focked. Anyway, for HNT we supposed to write what we'd give our three favorite bloggers. Therefore Laurie gets a sunny day to ride her motorcycle, Lori gets more time to do all the stuff she likes, and Gigi gets a bodybuilder to f*ck her all night long every night for a month. That should do it! Happy HNT.

Wicked Whacky Wednesday

And here's a picture of a red tailed hawk! I'm very excited today! I just signed up for Intro to Raptor Handling! No, I'm not kidding! To quote Strongbad I've a passing interest in falconry! Teatown wildlife preserve in Ossining where I live has a $25 program for a 1 day class where you get trained how to hold and handle hawks, eagles, falcons and owls. I have a real thing for birds so this is quite a treat for me. Hopefully I won't get my eyes pecked out! Anyway it's a month from this Saturday so I have a while to wait. HNT is cancelled this week but I might post anyway. I noticed people haven't been commenting much. I guess the holiday season is upon us. Meanwhile, my three favorite blogs get a plug for Xmas. The ever fabulous and gorgeous Gigi, the erudite and never rude Stephen, and my favorite hot biker babe Laurie! Merry Christmas y'all! Can you tell I learned to link? Welcome to Wicked Whacky Wednesday!

Christmas Tunes

Here I am playing Christmas songs by the Christmas tree at a party in Queens Saturday night. Some friend of Brenda's had about 30 people in a teeny tiny apartment. It was about 100 degrees in there but we had fun anyway. I sounded pretty good in spite of being about 8 beers into the XXXmas spirit. People were singing along and digging it so I guess 'twarn't too bad. Ninety three hours to my flight to VA. Can't wait.

Monday A.M First Thing

It was a Monday A.M. First Thing, I got a letter from Pachabel's priest saying if they wanted to use the canon for Rambo V he couldn't care in the least. He wrote of how the courts installed a statue of LA in Florence and his scrawl was strained as if he wanted write "Danny can't come out to play today Mrs. Torrance." He signed his name in blood, but you know what was the worst thing? It was when the boss said "Hand copy it in triplicate." Monday A.M. First Thing
-Think Tree (now Count Zero: http://www.count-zero.com/ )

Please click on this link and read Scott Adams' short story God's Debris. http://www.andrewsmcmeel.com/godsdebris/ It's a thought experiment by the guy who writes the Dilbert comic strip. It's sheer genius and only 130 pages. It will make you think. It's a PDF file so you need Adobe Acrobat Reader.

And now, apropos of nothing, a ship:

Weekend was good. Slept late, great sex, food and beer. That is all.

Now THAT'S BIG!

This picture of depresses me because it was taken by an old friend that I really miss but can't talk to anymore. There are some things you can't take back and you can never really go home again. Once a bell is rung you can't unring it. I can't wait until this holiday season is behind us. I shouldn't bitch. Life is going well and I'm very happy all in all. I just want to have my cake and eat it too. It has been said before that my problem is I really want to make everybody happy and sometimes that's just not possible. I hate to hurt people. Sometimes it seems I just can't help it. My inability to please everyone makes me hate myself sometimes. That's kind of weird, isn't it?

Everybody's Doing It!

Reposting old pictures that is. I know I've been hinting that I'm going to show a bit more than ever before but since I got hurt I haven't been in the best shape. I don't want to disappoint! This one seems especially appropriate since it's now negative 12 degrees in New York. I want warm sun! Please notice the nice big Johnson...hanging off the back of the boat! Cheers & Happy HNT!

Money AND Sex!

Sorry, I'm only picturing the money right now. However, I noticed that pretty much everything I do and everything I've ever done boils down to those two things. I think that basically means that I'm a total whore. That's not really a surprise but it aggravates me sometimes. Well, lots of times indirectly, but sometimes directly. Wouldn't it be nice if, just once in a while, I did something that wasn't either for my wallet, my dick, or both? Oh well. Maybe I'll flap my arms and fly to the moon too. That's seems about as likely, if not more so. Don't mind me. I've been in a bad mood for days. See me around January 3d. I should be better by then. L'chiam y'all.

Typical Tuesday

Lisa over at http://recreationaluse.blogspot.com inspired me to do this long ass self indulgent bloggy meme thing "100 things about me" which I posted on my web site to save space here:
http://www.andyt13.com/100things.htm - I find it annoying that if I post every day things from two days ago disappear off the main page. Who's kidding who? Y'all come here for those hot HNT pix. :-) If I was a better person you'd all go look at www.andyt13.com and be so impressed you'd buy all my art, music and novel and I could retire to the Caribbean to drink rum on my sailboat, fish, play my guitar and make sweet love with Brenda all day long in the sun. Yea.

Bondage Tango Titans

This morning I dreamed that should be the name of the new music project. On the cover I picture a line drawing of three couples in 1950's clothes smiling and dancing hand in hand, but with ropes tied to their wrists and to the ceiling, against a light blue and pink background. Where do I GET this crap? I'll try to come up with a picture and post it later. Weird. Teenage Bongo Titans? Bondage Tango teens? Bingo Bondage Teenage Titans? What the fuck? Bondage Tango Titans. OK.

Half Nekkid Again

I was going to do a special HNT this week a là Tyler Durden but I got shy at the last minute. So instead I bring you another Half Nekkid post from sunny Miami Fla. Enjoy! PS if you missed Tuesday's post below take a look. Cheers!

Miscellaneous Wednesday

The previous post has a really interesting conversation going on in the comments but here's some miscellaneous crap stolen from my bloggy peeps. Thank you bloggy peeps; you know who you are! I've been meaning to post these but haven't had a chance. First:
"Strawberries and chocolate, fine champagne and a broken rose who knows how to play games." Lyrics from the song "Marrow" about Pacé Rabiola nee Marrow.- Visit www.AndyT13.com and download the tune for free! OK, they're all free right now but soon ye'll have ta pay ya wee bastards!
Next: Yes if this was middle Earth I'd be an elf. No duh. Patrict was a Saint. I Ain't.
Finally: My very favorite of these: South Park AndyT13!

I laughed for a full minute when I finished making him. So Me! Now, please read and comment on Tuesday's post? Kthx.

Low Fidelity

I ganked this from www.postsecret.com a while back. I don't feel bad reposting the image because a) I bought the book, and b) it was posted on the internet and since it was possible to download...you get the picture. I'm not getting into copyright issues today though there are plenty to talk about. I recently filed the copyright paperwork for my first novel so that's on my mind but a picture of the form would be boring. My problems with this image are many.
I have "had" numerous women who were married. Never having had any faith in the institution of marriage (my parents being on their 5th spouse each) I didn't feel guilty. I still don't feel terribly guilty since they all had "good reasons" to "cheat". Historically I haven't been the most faithful lover in the world myself. Instant slut, just add alcohol. So now that I'm thinking about getting married myself these issues are bugging me some. I feel I've learned my lesson. Winners never cheat and cheaters never win. I have faith in my mate as well as myself now, but I can't help getting the nagging feeling that we're all fooling ourselves and that the genetic predisposition of both sexes to be unfaithful is greater than the bonds of love can bind. Your thoughts, my bloggy peeps? And what's that whistling sound I hear getting louder?

Bikini Monday

Well! After a weekend of schlepping Brenda, her sister Chris and Chris' 3 children around it was time for a break. We needed some beach time so we flew in my private jet out to St. Bart's for...wait...*blink-blink*... Oh. It's Monday. It's snowing in New York. I have to work. Right.
This picture is from Islamorada Florida 3 weeks ago. Damn. This time next year I want to be married to this girl and living somewhere warm. That's not too much to ask, is it? Really?

Ideal Birth Control

Yes, my darling Brenda's sister has arrived in town. She brought her three children, a daughter and two sons, ages 3 5 and 7 respectively. You couldn't ask for better birth control. Now don't get me wrong, it's not that I hate children, but they really must be properly cooked for me to truly enjoy them. Actually, the eldest boy is very well behaved and I even like him. We played Halo2 on his Xbox (I've never played before) and we did very well. I enjoyed it. However, taking the three of them to lunch and shopping was an experience not to be repeated. I wore earplugs and STILL I have a headache. They are loud. They are underfoot. They are on me like white on rice. Yes, they are children and that's what children do. Can I go home now? Please? Jesus jumping Christ. When I was young I was obdiant, quiet and respectful to all and sudry because I believed I had good reason to fear for my life if I was not. I was rarely struck but it was clear that if I stepped out of line far enough or often enough that a severe ass whooping WAS an option. Anyway, it's now time for sex. With a condom. Possibly two. Bye.

Arrr, Pussy and Rum! A Pirate's Dream!

Arrr! This be NOT what I meant! Belay that feline! OK, I ganked this picture from last year's "Thank God It's Over party" photos that were posted on www.NANOWRIMO.org I didn't attend THAT party since I didn't know about it then, but last night we all went out to San Marcos on St. Mark's Place in NYC and Thanked God It was Over. There were some nice folks though I'm amazed at all the people who didn't finish. I started 10 days late and STILL I finished. Whatever.
Of the 60,000 people who tried about 10,000 people made it to 50,000 words. I didn't stay long. My friends Seth and Gina came out and after about two beers we were like "OK we're bored." So we grabbed Brenda and went to see a band at Otto's on 14th st. Then we went up to Seth's for a little jamming. Finally, when it was time to go home Bren pulled me into a corner of the stairwell and...well you can figure it out. HOT! I mean she is JUST SO FUCKING HOT!!!!!!!

Strong Like Bull !

Look! Out on the beach! It's a freak! No! It's a tweaker! No! It's...Half-Nekkid Man! Faster than a speeding double mocha skim latte! More powerful than a steaming local barrista! Able to leap short Brenda's in a single bound...Half-Nekkid Man! Dedicated to sex, beer and smokables of all kinds...What? That IS the American Way! Thanks for your kind words of congratulations on my success at finishing the novel for www.nanowrimo.org - I'm going to the "Thank God It's Over" party tonight but frankly I'm not really glad it's over. I want to do it all again and I don't want to wait until next November. First I need to find an agent and get published though. That is the next task. I feel confident someone will buy this thing. Donations are accepted. :-) Email me or leave me a comment with your email if you want a copy. Be forewarned though: LOTS of sex and violence. There's a articularly brutal scene towrds the end that even grossed ME out. Pax.

Success!

I did it gang. Fifty thousand words in thirty days.




I'm not surprised that I wrote 50,000 words in 30 days. I'm surprised that I wrote what I think is a pretty good story. I've written over a thousand poems and recorded about 60 songs as anyone who's seen my website can attest, so I can churn out the bullshit, no doubt about it, but I think this is something special.

It really only took about ten spurts (mostly nights between the hours of 10pM and 2AM) and about 120 beers to produce. I just started writing to see what would come out. To my surprise, reading back, it's actually pretty engaging. I was pretty unsure of things in the beginning. I had no clue what it was about or where it was going. I'm pleased to report that I'm happy with the end result. There's plenty editing to be done for sure but but I actually wrote more than I needed and that was the whole point really. Now I have a fifty thousand word novel to work on.
That's a whole king hell fuck of a lot better than "Gee, I'd like to write a novel someday."

Now comes the hard part: Selling this bitch. I'm going to get an agent and start shilling this thing to the publishing houses and see if I can make it fly. The hard copy is in the mail to the library of congress with the form and the fee to secure the copyright so I can send out advance copies to my favorite bloggy peeps if you ask me nicely and provide an email address.

Much love to you my bloggy peeps. You got me through it and for that I thank you all profusely.

47,750 Words

I only managed about a thousand words last night. I wanted to just go home and finish off this giant beast but events conspired against me. I had to return some crap to the ex and then make dinner. The holiday visiting season is upon us and everyone's hating it, especially me. My own flight to VA to visit my parents is soon. I'm looking forward to seeing them but it's stressful, no doubt.

I'm still really troubled about Pacé's recent death but I decided to leave her picture up. I hope her former boyfriend will send me some better digital pictures of her. I hate that one. She looks like she's already dead in it. I'm going to paint it. I don't know why, but I hope it will be cathartic. Either that or I'm insanely obsessed. She was the inspiration for the most popular songs I ever wrote. It was all bad and painful inspiration, sure, but that's how it goes sometimes I guess.

These lyrics from Mike Doughty's song 'Sugar Plant' come to mind:

"I dream you up on the vast dark bed, believe I love you for each hair upon the back of your neck and I want to kiss you but I can't down on the river by the sugar plant. Earrings weighing down the lobe and nose a lovely slope and your mouth turned down. Shoulders pale and beautiful and angle of the throat your sweet sad stare. I dream you up on this vast dark coast, believe I see you walking towards me arms outstretched like a ghost and I want to kiss you but I can't down on the river by the sugar plant"

http://www.mikedoughty.com

Tonight I will finish come what may; Hell or high daughters.

Rest In Peace Pacé Rabiola

This is my friend and former lover Pacé Rabiola. I hate this picture of her but it's the only one I have. Anyway it's a long sad story but the short version is she died last Wednesday night of a heroin overdose. She was fucked up but I loved her very much at one time and I'll miss her.
She had been trying to get her life back on track, had finally gotten an apartment with her 5 year old sonand moved out of her parents' place, had finally gotten the UNIX admin job she had been studying so hard for and in the end she lost it all. Further proof that if you chase the dragon long enough he eventually catches you. I could drone on endlessly about the evils of heroin but she'd hate that. She loved the fucking stuff. Besides, everybody's got their thing. What's yours?

It's an entirely unimporatant point but in case anyone is wondering I have 45,500 words and two days and thirteen ours to get to 50,000. The bad news above actually inspired me and I did 7500 words last night. So thanks Pacé. I'll consider it your parting gift. You always were a difficult and mostly unwilling and unwitting muse.

32,500 words = 8 days to write 17,500 = 2185 words per day

And that is my score for today! Sorry no post before now, but I have been Super Sick for two days and I couldn't write Jack Shit. So I had two huge word days over the weekend and then lost all the ground I made up by alternately sleeping and moaning miserably on the couch in front of the TV. The price of tending your loved one when she is sick is getting the dreaded bug yourself. Dammit! Whatever. I can still make the deadline. I can't wait for the Thank God It's Over party. Rock on my diamond hard bloggy peeps, rock on. And all you Nanowrimo freaks out there quit reading this and write! Woot! Woot! Here's a pic of us disgustingly happy in Islamorada Fla:

Let the captioning begin!

Mine is "Which way is the nearest bar?" Minor cause for celebration today. It's Saturday and I have exceeded 24,000 words. It's a cinch I'll be past the halfway mark by tomorrow. That means I'll need just 2083.3 words per day. So far I seem to do 2000 words a day fairly easily between 10PM and 2AM. 500 words an hour does not seem particularly onerous. That's less than ten words a minute. Also, lest you think I'm being disciplined about this, that includes copious amounts of pacing around wondering what happens next and regular cigarette breaks. Yes, I fell off the wagon at the wedding in Miami. I'm not giving up quitting (quitting giving up? whatever) but I feel I need the extra stimulant during this process. New quit date: Dec. 1st.
One more thing: I recently went back and read what I wrote so far and you know what? The shit ain't half bad, yo! I'm a bit surprised. Anything else? Thanks to everyone for being so nice to me about my HNT posts and my life in general. I love you all, truly and not just because you like to see me naked. :-) Y'all rock harder than diamonds.

20,034 words down, 29,066 words to go

But only thirteen days to write them in. That's a mere 2235.8461538461538461538462 words per day. No, I'm not kidding. That's what the calculator came back with. It would really help if I could manage to start writing before midnight but I have a beautiful girlfriend who's sick and needs tending to. One must have one's priorities in the proper gear. Lovin' comes before writin'. OK, love comes before anythin'. At least one hopes it does! Another hindrance is I've been doing a lot of this on my laptop and laptop keyboards suck major ass. And don't get me started on the so-called 'mouse' control. Fucker. And finally, as if these excuses for being nearly 10,000 words behind schedule aren't enough, I submit to you that the bottom half of my entire right arm has been oscillating between intense pain and tingly numbness since before I started this fucking project. Needless to say this is not helping. And there's that pesky work thing to consider as well. I hope I can get some big word days in this weekend. Banging out 10,000 words in two days would catch me up. I hate being behind. Unless it's behind Brenda! OK enough yak. Pic:
God how I love this woman! By the way, for those who were asking, this picture was taken at our friends' wedding in Islamorda Florida, between Key Largo and Key West. The HNT post below was taken on South Beach in Miami Florida the day before. The Northeast sucks, we're outta here ASAP. Give me hurricanes ocver snowstorms any day. Booya!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm Feeling Sexy!

Yes, I'll admit it: I'm feeling hot. I have 18,000 plus words. Some of y'all may prefer eight inches but you've got to flaunt what you have. I'm only 10,000 words behind schedule and it's starting to look like I might actually write 50,000 semi-coherent words in the form of a novel by Nov. 30th. I'm only 2000 words shy of 2/5ths done. That's 40% y'all. Anyway, here's my entry for Half Nekkid Thursday. I'm feeling every inch the happy pirate that this picture looks. I really appreciate the support you all give me. You've helped make me a better man and I thank you.

12,500 words = 25% done or 75% not there

Well, I'm halfway to where I'm supposed to be right now. I guess that's something. I keep settling in to write and then getting distracted by sex. Mind you I'm not complaining, just letting y'all know I'm not slacking for crappy reasons. For all you (3) writers out there reading this and wondering how I do it, I'm cheating. No, just kidding. I guess I just have a fertile imagination.
That is to say I have only a passing relationship with reality so it's easy to come up with bullshit. Besides all musicians carry an actor in minor...er...I mean a minor in acting. Also, I hit on a plot that lends itself well to improvising in my natural voice. What else? I mixed my metaphors in my last post. I meant to say I don't want to give away the milk since I'm hoping to sell the cow. Leave it to me to choose a metaphor for sex when descibing my writing AND then fuck it up.

10, 500 words = 21% done

Ack. At this rate even daily I'm not going to make it. I need to up my daily word count or start hitting some big days. My fucking right hand is killing me. I need drugs. Arrgghh! I'm toying with the idea of posting a preview but I really don't want to do that until I'm ready for some feedback. Right now too busy trying to get done. I don't want to get sidetracked with minor points unless I beat the deadline. Plenty of time for edits later. Also I don't want to give away the cow. After all, maybe someone will buy her. Ciao bellas e bellos.

9,437 words down...40,563 words to go.

Yes, I failed to crack 10,000 words this weekend. I suck. I fully intended to write every night, but as it turned out I only wrote during the 2 and 1/2 hour flights down and back. You may say 2500 words in 5 hours isn't bad, but I'm a little bent. Today is the half way point and I'm supposed to have 25,000 words. Suck it. On the upside I had a fantabulous time! Brenda and I travel well together and that was by no means certain before we left. That's especially impressive since the theme of the entire weekend was "Just In Time". As in we made it just in time for everything. One minute later and we would have missed both of our flights, the wedding, etc, etc... if it was possible to be late we were exactly on time. Usually that makes me nuts but I maintained a coolness with my bad self. I took about 150 pictures including a number of highly pornographic ones which I do not have permission to post. Nevertheless I shall provide some eye candy as I go along. The shot above is the quay at the South end of South Beach.
There were a million surfers and more silicone than silicon alley. I much prefer all natural.

7000 Words!

Short post. I stayed up until 3AM writing last nght and got to 7000 words. I'm 1/3d of the way to 1/2 way done. :-) Or, if you prefer, I'm about 88% not done! Thak you all for your love and support. Leaving for the airport. Miami here we come! I hope to have some cool pix. Love yiz.

2500 words!

Well I've now written in brief spurts (mmm brief spurts) for three days in a row and I have a whopping 2500 words. All of 4 freakin pages. That's 5% of the required 50,000 but already 1/3d of the alotted time has passed. I sort of wish I had figured out what the heck this was all about and gotten started on time but that would be so out of character for me it's ridiculous to even think of it, so fuck it. I didn't respond to any of y'all about what it's about because I don't really know yet. I'd give you a breif synopsis but I'm going to wait until I'm stuck or I'm finished before giving it up to the blog-O-sphere. It occurs to me that at this pace 50,000 words will only be 80 pages. That's more of a novella than a novel, don't you think? Most novels I read are at least 300-400 pages. Hmmm. Incidentally, not that I'm looking for sympathy, but I hurt myself working out last week and my right arm has been alternating between screaming agony and total numbness. The Dr. said I strained a muscle that's pinching a nerve and I'll be fine. That may be so but let me tell you it's hard as fuck to type. BTW thanks again all you HNTers for your nice comments. I'd love you all if you'd only stand still. Oh and if I didn't worship the ground my lover walks on. See y'all Mundy, hopefully with at least 10,000 words in the bank.

HNT!

OK, since I'll be in FLA for a wedding working on my NANOWRIMO novel I won't have time to take or post a new HNT picture. Boo, hiss, I know. SO! I have decided to post this picture of me playing bass Half Nekkid! I love this picture but really wish I had taken off the socks. Then I would have been COMPLETELY NEKKID! A little background: I'm playing with the Spanish punk/metal band J&B (Juergistas Y Borrachos) in Madrid Spain. It's the first show of the tour and I decided during the last song to strip WHILE PLAYING. I didn't miss a note. This was such a hit that the band insisted I do it every show, so I did. Thus I got to live the Red Hot Chili Peppers line : "Travel 'round the world gettin' naked on the stage, bustin' people out of their every day cage!" www.tripirecords.com for audio & such. Enjoy. PS- Please visit two posts ago and submit a caption. So far they're a scream! UPDATE: 1261 words in the new novel so far!

610 words!

1 whole page! OK, only 100 more pages at one page per day and I have 61,000 words! Oh wait, that's three months and change worth of days. Rats. Write more; write faster! And hey, don't forget to go to the previous post and leave a caption for the photo! Some good ones there!

So Much To Do!

Well, I haven't made any progress on my NANOWRIMO novel. I thought 1500 words a day or so would be a walk in the park. So far 7 days elapsed and not a word written. Not for lack of inspiration. I just haven't had or made time. Hopefully on my long weekend to Key West Fla at the end of this week I can bang out enough to at least catch up. 15,000 words? Piece of cake.
And now for your amusement; Caption contest! Best caption wins...uh...a prize to be determined.

I'm Psychotic

OK, so making music and writing poetry and painting and drawing and photography and sailing and filmmaking AREN'T ENOUGH! I signed up to write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November. And I'm four days late getting started! ARRRRRGGGGGHHHHHH! Details here:
http://www.nanowrimo.org/

Naked In The Rain

See? Last weeks HNT entry got me a whole 26 comments. This week's much tamer entry? A mere 16. I guess we'll have to go whole hog next week. Oh! Hahahahaha! Sorry. Pun. Thanks to all you lovely people for your nice comments. I tried to say hello to most of the HNT folks who signed the Big O's comments. I bet he'd like being called The Big O. Anyhow I don't expect to be around here much this weekend as The Beautiful Brenda is back from a week of travelling for work so we'll most likely be...busy. See y'all Mundy. Meanwhile enjoy this sailing pic from The Mystic Seaport photo exhibit I went to in Connecticut recently. http://www.mysticseaport.org/ Dig!

I Am Remiss

Big, Long, Dumb, Useless Post yesterday and I didn't get around to taking a new pic for HNT. Here's one from September. One problem with putting up a really good HNT picture like last week it's it's hard to top. I mean, what am I going to put up next? A Nice Fat Cock? OK.

Long and dumb list/meme thingy

I usually avoid shit like this but for some reason I felt like doing this one.

10 Favorites
Favorite Season: Summer
Favorite Sport: Sex
Favorite Time: Midnight
Favorite Color: Red. No, Blue. Ahhh!
Favorite Actor: Mickey Rourke
Favorite Actress: Kirsten Dunst (cause she looks like my girlfriend!)
Favorite Ice Cream: Chocolate
Favorite Food: Thai
Favorite Drink: Beer
Favorite Place: Anywhere on my boat
9 Currents
Current Feeling: Sore
Current Underwear Color: None
Current Windows Open: Word, Outlook, IE
Current Drink: Coffee
Current Time: 11:15 am
Current Mobile(s) Used: Verizon (God they suck!)
Current Show on TV: None (I don't watch TV much)
Current Thought: Sex
Current Clothes: jeans, black T-shirt, black Doc Martens
8 Firsts
First Nickname: E.P.
First Kiss: Nursery school. She said "I bet you're afraid to kiss a girl in school." Not.
First Crush: Tracey McCardle (see above)
First Best Friend: See above
First Vehicle I drove: Suzuki 450 Motorcycle
First Job: Dishwasher at a fancy restaurant in Cambridge Ma.
First Movie: Cinderella maybe? Some Disney shit.
First Pet: Chihuahua named Penelope (Penny nipper).
First Shave: 13? I don't really recall.
7 Lasts
Last Drink : Beer
Last Kiss: Two days ago (she's travelling for work) :-(
Last Time I Drove: 9:30 am
Last Time Shaved: two hours ago
Last Web Site Visited: http://jennatl.blogspot.com/ where I stole this meme.
Last Movie Watched: Sin City
Last Pill I Had: Advil
6 Have You Evers
Have You Ever Broken the Law: Yes
Have You Ever Been Drunk: Duh!
Have You Ever Kissed Someone You Didn't Know: That used to happen a lot
Have You Ever Been in the Middle/Close to Gunfire or Bomb Blast: Yes. In Madrid and NY
Have You Ever Skinny Dipped: Yes
Have You Ever Broken Anyone's Heart: Yes
5 Things
Things You Can Hear Right Now: people talking, fans, etc
Things on Your Bed: sheets, down comforter, pillows, clothes, condomes, lube, uh...
Things You Ate Today: a pop tart & coffee
Things You Can’t Live Without: family, friends, books, music, sleep, food, sex..gads I need a lot!
Things You Do When You Are Bored: See above
4 Places You Have Been Today
home, work, on the side of the road after being rear ended by a dork
3 Things On Your Desk Right Now
wallet, keys, shades..I have ton of shit on my desk
2 Choices
Black or White: black
Hot or Cold: hot
1 Thing You Want To Do Before You Die
Play and sing for a stadium full of people

There you have it. Pointless and useless information for a Wednesday morning. Wear it.

The Cold Winds Of November Remembered

Bah. Winter is upon us. Yes, yes, I know, it's only Nov. 1st and the first snow hasn't even fallen in NY yet. I cannot comfortably walk around in shorts, sandals and a T-shirt. Ergo it is winter.
I'll brook no argument. I like skating and skiing and snowboarding as much as the next gen X-er but I still frickin hate the cold. It's going to be shitty non-sailing ass weather from now until about April. I don't care whatchyall say that be suckin' huge big ol' donkey dick. There. I said it.

First Comes Love...

You all know the rest. Here are a couple of quick pictures of Brenda and I at the wedding of my friends Mike and Jill. The first one is the alter where they were married 20 minutes later.
The second one is us sitting together after the ceremony. We look joined at the hip. Yay!

HNT!

OK, for all my bitching and blathering about getting off cigs and booze I still have a long way to go. Nevertheless here's my HNT submission for today. Hopefully in a month or two at my current rate I'll start looking like Chris Evans below. I wish this pic showed more of my arms and shoulders. Oh well. Maybe next week. Have at you!

Chris Evans

OK, I'm posting these pix of Chris Evans (The Human Torch in Fantastic Four - fun movie!) for several reasons. One: Let's face it; the guy is freaking hot already! Two: He's my new role model. Since I quit smoking and drinking and started working out THIS is what I want my tired old body to look like. I'm doing well in the shoulders and arms. Still got a ways to go on the abs but who doesn't? Oh. Him. Let's see, what else? Reason three: My friend Laurie over at http://strandedinsuburbia.blogspot.com/ posted a pic of a buff guy with no body hair that grossed me out immensely. Now THIS guy is hot. THAT guy was just weird looking. I probably offended half of the internet saying "Eh, he looks GAY." Whoops. It just slipped out (pardon the pun). Anyway I guess this is a prelude to HNT. Tomorrow I'll post a hint of my progress if I have time. I might not because the lovely Brenda is coming home after 4 days and I plan on pouncing on her like a starving tiger on a wounded wildebeast. How's THAT for an image? OK, I'm outtie.

My Favorite Mistake

I've been smoking Marlboro reds since I was 14 years old; approximately 23 years. I went without them a few years here and there. Inevitably I would start sleeping with a woman who smoked and I'd start back in on the reds. Then she'd be gone and the reds stayed.

So, once again I am trying to give up my favorite mistake. I often say that I have few regrets in life, but that becoming addicted to nicotine is one. If I had one do-over in life that would be high on the list of candidates. The untold thousands of dollars toward compromising my health for no other reason than addiction...UGH!!!!l!

I started at the bus stop in December 1982 waiting (with wet/freezing long hair) when fellow idiot Ed Gaffee (a neighbor) proferred me a Marlboro light saying it would "help keep me warm". Indeed that little flame and the hot smoke in my lungs DID seem to alleviate the cold somewhat. Soon I was a full fledged smoker. Packs of cigarettes were (ready?) 50 cents. Now they are routinely $5-$7 in New York. Yikes! Anyway, Nicoderm CQ patches are helping ease the craving. I haven't had so much as a drag since before my last entry here. I've eased off the beer intake pretty dramatically and have been working out quite a bit. I'm very pleased with my body's new look and feel. Now if you'll excuse me I have to go kick the cat. "REOWR!" I hate cats.

My heart skips a beat when I see her

OK, to offset the previous post about my nightmare I'm putting up this picture that stops my heart every time I see it. Man. I've got it some kind of bad up in here. Jeebus.

Nightmare before Halloween

I had a really nasty nightmare the other night. Generally my dreams are very vivid and detailed and I have excellent recall, especially if I write it down upon waking. Even better if I don't move and just recall aloud. Anyway this concerns my grandmother. She's driving, my grandfather is in the front seat and I'm sitting behind her. We are talking, everything seems fine. Then we are somehow being cut off/shoved into oncoming traffic by a car next to us. That car is struck head on and quickly disappears past us on the right as we crawl to a stop. Another car approaches, hitting yet another oncoming car. Body parts are flying and hitting our car with sickening wet thuds. Suddenly we are struck. Somehow I am now in the front seat next to Grandpa. He says "Where is Grace?" and he looks in the back seat. The look of absolute horror on his face says it all. I don't dare look in the back but the blood spatters tell the story. I am trying to hold him and comfort him and he says (in a WILDLY uncharateristic expression of emotion) "I can't even hold her!" his eyes are brimming with tears and I'm telling him it's crucial we don't move her (even though I haven't looked and her head could be missing for all I knew). At that point I woke up rather upset, heart pounding, etc... Hopefully not prophetic... I haven't called for fear of finding out something bad happened. Silly I know but what can I say? Why can't my erotic dreams be this realistic and detailed? Oh wait...they are.

HNT!

OK, short post. Apparently I had a little premature Half Naked Thursday this Monday. Since Pixel http://inthemeantime3719.blogspot.com/ posted her tattoo I'll count mine two posts below as my first HNT submission. I have a really much better one but it's totally NSFW and the lovely Brenda would kill me if I let anyone but her see. :-) An anchor tattoo! Rawk!

Little Black Dress

WOW!

Another Brenda Pic

I just had to post this picture of Brenda because I love her SO MUCH.
The next 4 weeks are going to SUCK with out her. 10 days in the Dominican Republic, back for one day, then 4 days in Cooperstown NY for work, back for one day then another 4 days in Albany. WAHHHH! WAHHH!! WAHHH!!! *sniff* At least after that we go to Key West for 3 days for a wedding! Not ours though. Damn!
Now the bad news; she wants me to quit drinking. I knew that was going to come up. Not that I'm a nasty drunk or anything, She's just worried that I'll get liver cancer and die. I explained to her that everyone dies of something but she wasn't convinced. Therefore no more 12 packs of bud to wash down those Marlboro reds. Fuck it. She's worth it and a half. Wish me luck fellow bloggers. I fear I'ma need it, yo.

New Tattoo!

Just a quick update: I finally got my anchor tattoo this weekend. I'm very happy with it. It's on my upper left arm. It hardly hurt at all. The pic's a little fuzzy but it looks really good and I'm very happy with it. Go Big Joe's Tattoo in White Plains NY. Adam, You Da Man!

New stuff

Well, sailing and racing season is coming to and end (Wahhhhh!) so it's time to return to some less outdoorsy pursuits, to wit: http://www.andyt13.com my painting and songwriting stuff.
Then there's http://www.bonomania.net my U2 tribute act. Good fun.
Also I need to finish the movie I wrote and shot this year. Still have a few scenes to shoot and a pant load of post production work to do before it's ready for the film festival circuit next year.
In short I have lots to do before the boat season starts up again, including numerous boat renovations. All this of course take a back seat to my sweet beloved Brenda, pictured here:

Yes, she's all that. I'm a lucky man.
She didn't believe that all my new bloggy friends said that she was HAWT! So I had to send her the link to prove it. She got all flustered
(GOD. SO CUTE!) but she said thanks to all you nice folks who agreed that yes, she's babe-a-licious and that I'd be a total nugget head to let her get away. *Sigh* Tra-la-la-la-la. Ain't love grand? *Uh-hunh! Uh-hunh! Whoop! Whoop! OK I'll shut up now. Whoop!
Andy, Brenda & Gala - Out.

WOOHOO!!!

I wanna tell you all that we came, we saw, and we KICKED THEIR ASS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! However that ain't how it went. Up at 6AM motored to Nyack between 8:30 and 10AM. Postponed until noon. First race: They did a different starting sequence than I'm used to. I got it wrong. Over the line 1 minute early. FUCKED the guy who was following me. :) Got buried. On the first leg Charlie (from the wednesday night crew) having admonished me to take the life lines off so the jib would set better promptly fell in the water. By God's grace I grabbed his ankle. I almost dropped him. I was laughing so hard at holding him by the ankle towing him whith his head underwater. To my complete amazement HE SAT UP and grabbed my hand. At the same moment we said "DON'T. LET. GO."Next he says "Take off my shoes!" I almost dropped him again laughing. I did as he bid and he caught the side of the boat WITH HIS TOES and I muscled him back on the boat. We finished the race. D.F.L. OK! Next race I was RIGHT ON IT. Went over the line at the gun and they called me "Over Early". FUCK!!!!!!!!!!! Got buried. Downwind sucked especially hard. The kevlar sail I borrowed didn't fit so we were stuck with my dinky #3 sail. Bad. Worse: after all was said and done I sailed home with my balloon jib and went faster than my motor can go. Should have done the sail change. Oh well. Now I'm too fuckin' sun burnt to race tomorrow, but just as well. Forcast for tomorrow: 2 MPH. I love sailboat racing. Andy & Gala; Out.

Going Racing!

Well, now that Wednesday night racing season is over and it's getting cold it's time for The Last Chance Regatta in Nyack, NY. So this weekend OCt 1st & 2nd I shall take Gala and Charlie and a new friend Chris out on the water for two races Saturday and 1 on Sunday. Hopefully Gala will like racing. I'm sure she's been raced but never by me. With luck we won't bust anything or hit anyone. I'm pissed I couldn't get a spinnaker and a halyard up in time. Hence I'm stuck in C fleet.
My PHRF (handicap) number came back as 210. That sucks. Higher numbers are better and in San Francisco I'd be 240. Oh well. It'll just be more challenging. Hopefully I learned something this season and I can make a good showing of it. I hope I don't DFL (dead freakin' last).
"And they're off!"

Yowza!

Well, well, well! Here's a shot of the Shattemuc Yacht Club's regatta.
Gala and Brenda and I had a fabulous sail and it was a gorgeous day as you can see. Last night I went out alone and it was HOWLING. 25 MPH South wind gusting to 35. That may not seem like much in these hurricane days but lemme tell ya on a 27 foot sailing yacht single handed that's PLENTY. I should have reefed the main (that's making it smaller) but I had full sail up. She carried it OK but I had a rough time. Gotta make that easier to set up. I wish I'd had my camera as the wind and sea state were a thing to behold. Alas, even if I'd had it I probably couldn't have taken any pictures. 'Twas all I could do to hold on, steer and handle the sails. Whoof! More pics soon.

Sailboat Racers Fear This!

The Race Team! L to R: Me, Huong, Bob, Charlie and RC.
We race on Bob's Cal 30 sailboat. We went 22 and 0 for the season.
Who the hell goes 22 straight wins, no losses at anything?
We set a new club record. No one's done it before.
In short, we rock. Do not race us.
You will be stomped like a narc at a biker rally.

True Love At Last

And here they are; the loves of my life. Brenda the Blonde and Gala the Blue. How I love them both. <3

Sweet goodness

Well, it's been a weird week. No sooner do I fall in love when literally every woman I've slept with in the last year has called and wants to 'get together'. Sheesh. Some took it better than others that I'm really not on the market anymore. The one who had claimed to be pregnant decided that was a good time to confess it was all a lie just to hurt and freak me out. Lovely.
I hope she doesn't think this means I'll be glad to hear from her in the future. Whatever, my shit is squeaky clean. I've been honest with everyone about everything (as opposed to being the opportunistic dog I usually am). I hope the Gods will reward my honesty with a long healthy relationship. My best friend decided my new nickname was "SuperDawg." I said "No way man, I'm all in the clear now." He said "Too late man. The reputation has been established." Well, I suppose so, but God dammit I'm going to let this woman make an honest man of me.

Hope

I feel...different. Sorry, differently. Well, wait, both of those. Different than everyone else AND differently than before. I'm in love. That's new. I haven't truly been IN love in a long time.
Oh I've loved people and had people love me...this is hard to explain. I'm with someone new that I feel so close and connected to that I'm actually chasing all the ex's away. I'm no longer looking for the next thing. She's incredible. I look at other chicks and think "Pfft! My girlfriend's WAY hotter than you." And you know what? They eat that shit up. Nothing like being totally unavailable to make one more attractive to the opposite sex. I'll never understand that, but my experience has proven it to be truer than I ever could have imagined. Anyway, whatever, my karmic shit is completely clean. I told everyone everything about what's going on, I'm not cheating on anyone or doing any of my normal Modi Operandi and you know what? That feels good as hell. I feel like Jack Nicholsen in "As Good As It Gets"; she makes me want to be a better man. Amazingly, it seems to be working. Developing...
EDIT: As evidence of the above I totally forgot to mention that I got my boat in the water (with her help) and she lies (hopefully) peacefully at anchor as I type. I will visit her tonight. The boat that is. Shows where my head is at.

Decisive moves

I'm cutting everything loose and starting in a new direction. Um...again.
Got my insurance and registration which means I can get my boat in the water this weekend.
Except I can't because my DAMNED car is STILL in the shop. $1000 and counting and still no sticker. Labor day weekend with no car. Joy. So the only way I can work on the boat is break my resolve in line #1. *sigh* Today is a momentous day. Let's hope it doesn't kill me.