Alex Vernon.com

A couple of weeks ago while at a Patterson Hood show, I made up my mind to move back to Georgia. This is something I’ve been thinking about for awhile. In fact almost as soon as I arrived here. I just can’t deal with the people here, or the winters with no sun, or the seven to one single male to single female ratio. Plus I have lots of friends in Atlanta and I’ve lived there longer than anywhere else in my life. And as Anaïs said to me, “You have family here.” not in the blood sense but in every other way. At the end of October it will be a year since I’ve moved here, numerous people here have told me how people hate Seattle the first year but grow to love it by the second. That may be true but I figure why wait for something that might or might not happen when I know Atlanta will be a sure thing. True there are many things I don’t like about Atlanta but then again Seattle didn’t deliver on those shortcomings. I still think this is a great place to visit and I have made some good friends here but the time has come to move on.

Stolen burritos are great but they’re even better when someone else steals them for you.

Why can’t hippies come up with something better than patchouli to cover their stench?

There’s nothing better than finding a twenty in your pocket, unless it’s a hundred in your smokes.

Loretta chats

Originally uploaded by ChrisB in SEA.

Ok, maybe not. I look like a dork in this photo.

On a completely unrelated note, what’s up with all of the cigarette bums in Seattle. I used to call them cigarette whores in Atlanta but I have changed my terminology since the former is derogatory towards women plus more guys ask me here. Maybe is because of the high price of a pack here or more likely since most people are passive aggressive here the majority probably say yes.

Glitzkrieg Burlesque Bombshells

As I mentioned in I’m lost I really need to start creating things. Plus I need to occupy myself so I don’t go crazy, especially since I don’t have a steady job yet. So to accomplish this or at least start on the path I have signed up for a Photography class at PCNW. I have taken some photo classes before (check out The Showcase School if you’re in Atlanta) but have never learned black and white. I’ve been shooting digital for some time now and this would be a nice change. Learning how to develop my own prints will be a lot of fun as well. I have also signed up for Spanish lessons. I have been wanting to learn Spanish and Japanese for some time, I’m starting with Spanish though since I figure it will be easier plus it’s more useful as well. Then in March I’m taking some Go lessons. Go is another thing I’ve wanted to learn for years and I’ve bought books but never had the discipline to teach myself. Taking a class and having people to play against should help me a lot. Finally I also purchased a guitar. A Simon & Patrick Woodland Spruce for the curious. BTW the picture does not do it justice, it is beautiful. Playing guitar is also something (start broken record track) I’ve wanted to do for years. One of my roommates plays and I also have some self study material. I almost signed up for lessons however I thought better of it because three classes a week then four in March might but too much strain on my assaulted brain. I will probably take some lessons after my photo and Spanish classes though. So there we have it, music language and art I also want to start sitting (Zen) and take Aikido again to round things out. Aikido is going to wait a little while though or at least until I can see how I handle my schedule. As I’ve said before I’m tired of thinking about things and not following through. I have decided (sorry Dubya) to stop fucking around and get some things done. Now to see if I have the discipline to measure up.

Women are my greatest weakness. When I have one my creativity is stifled and I get lazy. When I don’t have one I think more but at the same time my thoughts are preoccupied with getting one. My roommate went with me to the Tin Hat the other night and made an astute observation. He said (paraphrasing) “You need to stop this, you’re just wasting time. Coming here and hoping something will materialise by chance. You need to work on your self then other things will come.” As much as I hate to admit it he’s right. I’m letting the preoccupation of getting a woman run everything I do. I could be enriching myself in numerous ways. The again why do I want to do that, to make myself more attractive to women? Maybe that’s part of it, although I would like to think it’s bigger than that. Maybe not though, maybe I’m just an animal at heart and sex until I’m bored then move on to the next one is all that matters to me.

Hey, hey, I don’t know what to do.

I’m tired of appreciating everybody else’s genius. I want to create something myself. I see pictures, paintings, drawings, read novels, poems, hear music but what do I have to contribute? I want to create something that enlightens others like so many have enlightened me. It makes me feel guilty thinking of all that I have taken and what little I have given back to the collective conscience. It makes me sick to think of the time I’ve wasted trying to be Cool or being lazy or just not caring. Sometimes I wish I could cry.

At the bottom of the world…….

Ok about the whole Seattle thing. I have neither the patience nor desire to spout out a long version of this. So here is the condensed Golden Book version for those of the Republican persuasion.

Actually I like Golden Books, used to at least. I should read some now and make sure they aren’t Nazi propaganda material.

Anyway back to the point. I’ll call this the Short and incomplete version of events because someone, whom shall remain nameless was to lazy to blog about them in a timely fashion as the forthnamed events occurred.

Now that I’ve gotten that out of the introduction out of the way, on to the center of the Tootsie pop. Have you ever heard about the free tootsie pop story? In the past supposedly if you got a wrapper with an Indian shooting a star on it, you could turn it in for a free tootsie pop. I was never sure about this story, especially because almost every wrapper I got had the aforementioned Indian on it. Of course they could have printed more after they stopped the promotion. Or it could of just been an urban legend. I suppose I could Google it but I kind of like not knowing something in this time of immediate reference gratification. In some ways it’s great but then I also tend to spend large amounts of time looking up random useless crap just because I can.

Ok I’m done with the tangents now. On to the point of this post.

My time in Seattle started on October 2nd. I wanted to leave Atlanta for multiple reasons. I was tired of all the traffic, republicans, the rat race mentality, overbearing summers, friends moving away, the city council and mayor killing bars and restaurants but most of all it was wanderlust. I moved around a lot growing up and I won’t lie to you, it sucked. Always being the new kid (on the block) and having to fight to establish myself. Having to make new friends and acclimate to a new school. A byproduct of all this moving around is my boredom of a location after awhile.

Cue melting screen while gentle harp music plays……

I originally moved to Atlanta in late ‘96. Eddie a really good friend of mine had moved there from my previous city of Charlotte. I had visited him during the Olympics and was wowed by the plethora of nightlife and women. I was also told the ratio of women to men was 4:1, add to that the large gay population it made it even better. Of course that was probably bullshit but it convinced my horny nineteen year old mind. The kicker however was the job market. This was during the Tech Boom and Atlanta was hot (insert chessey Hotlanta joke here). Atlanta’s high tech want ads were as large as a small phonebook. Conversely Charlotte’s were composed of a just a couple of pages. Off I went to the phoenix and received two jobs offers my first couple of days there. I accepted the second one because Eddie worked there. Things were great for awhile, lots of parties and work was fun (gasp). But alas all good things….. Some of my good friends moved away, I fell (actually jumped headlong) into drug abuse and ended up quitting my job. I’ll save the specifics for another blog but eventually I was getting close to scraping the metaphorical bottom. Somehow I managed to crawl out of the pit of my own creation and started to put my life back on track. Once again I was a respectable member of society and hated every minute of it. With fewer good friends, disillusionment with life, my fellow man and even computers I knew it was time for a change. Previously I passed up on a possible move to San Diego and negotiations fell apart on a transfer to Ft. Lauderdale with another company. I probably could have went to Tampa as well. Finally I was at the point where I was tired of stagnating in my personal and professional life. After visiting Boston and Chicago as possible candidates, Seattle was decided upon. I was with my ex at the time (yes I’m single now, control yourself ladies) and she vetoed Austin which was also in the running for me. Looking at things now I might have been better off in Austin but I’m willing to give Seattle a chance. So Seattle it is and has been for the past couple of months.

End under-dramatic flashback sequence…..

This post has already run on much longer than I intended so Seattle details will have to wait. In the meantime you can read some of my Yelp reviews. Incidentally *self plug alert* I am now a member of the Elite squad. If you read this on Atlanta Bloggers I will be removed soon. Have no fear though, you can still read me via my Feedburner feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/AlexVernon or on AlexVernon.com of course.

Ok kiddies that’s it for this post, be cool and stop stealing your grandmother’s pills.

At my friend’s house last night after seeing Snakes on a Plane (yes I succumbed to the hype, though I still haven’t seen Titanic yet) I was offered a ginger ale. This got me thinking, almost everytime I fly, I order a ginger ale when the flight attendants push around the cart o’ knee death. It also never fails that most of the passengers around me order the same. Now I can’t speak for them but I never buy ginger ale. I don’t buy many softdrinks in the first place but when I do, it’s always root beer or cream soda, possibly Coke in a pinch but never ginger ale. Same with parties, if I’m through drinking or want to take a break (not often enough) I will always pick ginger ale over the other carbonated sugar water choices. So listen up terrorists, if you want to take out planes go to Canada and poison the Schweppes and Canada Dry factories. Ok, maybe that won’t take planes out but at least you’ll get me.