and so it goes. . . .

It's always hard to say goodbye, whether it be to a person or a place, especially when it's been so much a part of your life, whether it be

Last night I officially turned the lock for the last time at 1661 Bush St. after a six year stay. I realized that in the 28 scant years I have been roaming the earth, I have never lived in one place so long.

I've had seven roommates in those six years, boy Loren, girl Lauren, Jacob, Maria, Alan, JB, and Brendan. Each different, crazy, funny, psycho, caring, sensitive, outlandish, prissy, loving, tattooed, freaky, anal, disturbed, clueless, brilliant, and loyal in their own ways. I'm still friends with six (Alan and I were just not meant to be. . .) and they have had their own impact on me, opened my eyes to worlds I didn't know existed, and have seen me at my highest and my lowest . . . and were still there the next day.

I've fallen in love too many times to remember in that apartment, whether it be for a moment, a night, a week, or year. I've had my heart broken there more times than I wish to recount as well. With great happiness can come great pain, and I have experienced both while living at 1661 Bush St.

I've had my share of drunken nights, sober nights, and. . . . other kinds of nights. My stay started during the Starbucks days, where every night after close, 1661 Bush St. was the place to smoke pot and watch the Simpson's. . . two great and simple pleasures of life. As the years wore on I went from Starbucks lackey to Direct Mail guy, then had my Dot com fun, was laid off, got engaged, got unengaged, got laid of again, took a 'time out' for a year or so with sabbaticals in Kentucky and Florida, started a kids camp of sorts, did some free-lancing, rejoined the work force, and fell in love . . . which brings us up to now.

There's a lot of history in that apartment. A lot of people have come and gone from my life, many that I miss, and a few that I don't. It is time for a change though. It is time to start the next chapter of my life, and even though the chapter has not been finished, the title is "Brendan Goes to Cow Hollow." As much as I hate to admit it, I have outgrown 1661 Bush St., something that became more and more evident after I met Ewa and started meeting other people my age who had moved out of the 'starter' apartment phase - the post college, entering the work force, rag tag furniture, hard drinking, I'm never gonna slow down phase. I am ready to move on, move out, move forward.

I am starting a new phase of my life, one that involves the love of my life, and I couldn't be happier. We have a great place and we will make a great home there, and living next door are a couple of 24ish guys who are still living the life, so I can always head over there if I need a fix. I am happy to be where I am, and it is time for me to be there, and to be there with Ewa, but saying good-bye is hard. I will remember those times, those people, those experiences, those lessons in life, and I bring them with me into the new chapter, ready to learn some new lessons, to see what this change of scenery has to offer. I look back on my years at 1661 Bush St. as the crazy party fun time, the anything goes time. . . with that as my jumping off point, who knows what will happen next. . . All I can say is, watch out Cow Hollow, Brendan is coming to town. . . .

this is why clowns scare me. . . .

i couldn't have written it better myself. . . .

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0526042clown1.html

moving on the brain . . .

well, it's done. . . well, about 95% done. i've moved - no longer will i be a resident of beautiful bush st - catherdral hill is no longer my home. i am now a memeber of the cow hollow community . . . this will be a big change for me. even though the two neighborhoods are only ten blocks away, they are very different . . .but i will adapt. . . it's pretty quiet though. . . a little too quiet.

saturday was the official moving day. we went to get the uhual, then ewa and i were joined by our helpers, gary and blaine. we actually got everything out pretty quickly, to my surprise. after a quick break for some cheesesteaks, we got everything unloaded. after our second trip to the goodwill, where 'willie' from the goodwill told us he couldn't take my old dresser, but if we went to a hotel on turk in the tenderloin next to the fried chicken shack, we could leave it there. . . how could we say no?

after a hard day od moving, we decided to go over to blaines for a bbq with gary in tow. we ate, we drank, and we ended up playing 'taboo' which became that much more fun when the wine caught up with ewa. . . she was great - my love was the life of the party. we were later joined by one of my clients, and we departed to north beach. after putting the fading ewa into a cab, we had a few drinks and parted ways.

sunday brought, besides a hangover, a thrashed apartment in need of unpacking. we spent the entire day on a variety of tasks, and with the help of my sister sarah and stepfather paul, got quite a bit done. we ended the evening on the couch, with a beer, some friends, gnocchi, and the season finale of the simpsons. . . they get the simpsons in cow hollow, so i guess i'll be ok.

unsafe driver

i was very unsafe for about a quarter of mile on 101 going south, right past the 280 exit when i look up at one of the overpasses and see a big sign attached to it which read, "Now We're All Wearing The Blue Dress."

it took me about 15 seconds, then it hit me, and i was laughing my ass off, and almost took out a van full of 'special' kids.

for those of you who are still wondering what the hell this means, think clinton, think lewinsky, and think about what he did to that blue dress . . . .

a bad night for sports. . . .

so last night as i skipped out on packing up my old place, i found myself firmly planted i front of thr tv for wht my friend gary called, 'a bonanza of sports.' the giants were playing in chicago, the san jose sharks were playing an elimination playoff game in calgary, and the sacromento kings were in minnesotta facing a similiar fate. well, they all lost. . . such is life. the season is over for the sharks and kings, but at least baseball will march on until october! ewa is not pleased. . .

i must confess, not to much else going on besides my adventures in moving. i'm getting the big u-hual truck saturday and doing most of the heavy lifting that day with the help of a few reluctant friends, and just spending the next few days stressing about it. . . ah, i'm sure you are all so pleased to see my blogging again . . .

oh! there is one thing. my gmail swap is complete, and apprently i will be receiving a fedex tomorrow with chicken fried steaks, gravy, and trimmings packed away in dry ice. . . i love the internet. . .

also, heard about the "church of fools" this moring on morning edition - if yuo get a chance, check it out and click on 'enter the church' - very interesting.

google swap

so as a blogger i was blessed with the chance to be a beta user of the new google email service, gmail. i'm sure i could have thought of some kickass name, but was feeling none to creative when i signed up and just took brendanjackson@gmail.com. what i didn't realize until today is how badly people want to be gmail beta users, and the fact that as a beta user you get to invite to friends two friends to join, and that there is a site where people will swap there wares with you for an invite. there has been some funky offers. . .

so, after much soul searching i have traded my two invites away for 4 chicken fried steaks with gravy (homemade, frozen, and fedexed in a cooler with dried ice from texas) and a bottle of 12 year old scotch. . . what a deal. . .

in my rooting around and checking out the swap site i came across some other interesting things, like a site that has all the south park episodes from every season - www.mrtwig.net, and a site that makes customized joke receipts, like the one below(find the site here):

god i love the internet . . .

baseball and booze

the old college roommate was in town this weekend. . . mmmmmmm. . . .booze.

we all went out to some good sushi friday night, and then planted our asses on bar stools at the bucaneer on polk st. to ressurect an old college tradition, brendan and thad getting drunk. the good old days. . .

we ended up reliving that tradtion with ewa, sensa chris, and nick (accompanied by the very lovely young lady he is dating). we were at the buc until midnight when we all stumbled down the street to our new place (first picking up a case of beer and bottle of vodka of course) and make some stiff drinks before heading up the roof where we got really drunk . . .

saturday of course had a much slower pace - after breakfast at polkers, thad and I were joined by gary, and we sat around and relaxed with the help of our herbal friend, some beer, and some pizza. . .we watched smarty jones, what a horse.

the night found thad and i eating at axum, having two drinks, but not able to rally - we were back by midnight, and both passed out watching kill bill vol. i, which was intense.

sunday saw thad, ewa, and i at pac bell watching the giants lose. . . it's still to painful to talk about. . . i will say we all drank a lot of beer. we headed back to the house after the game where naps where taken and some good indian food was had for dinner. we took thad to the airport at 10pm to catch his redeye, and the weekend came to an end. . .

monday i worked and recovered and started the unenviable task of packing my apartment up . . .this will be my task this week. . .never any fun, it is almost over though. . .

slowly but surely

*****update****
ewa put in her editorial two cents and gave me the final go ahead to release all the surfing pics - click here and enjoy!!
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we returned from our trip to hawaii over three weeks ago, and i am finally getting around to posting them . . .yes, i am a lazy bastard. i just posted all the pictures from our surfing day, but can't share them all with until ewa goes through and tells me which ones can stay and which can go . . .

until then, you can go here and see a picture of me surfing a nice 3 foot wave. . .

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took a half day yesterday and went to pac bell park (it will be a cold day in hell before i call it scb park) to watch the giants and phillies. . . the giants lost, but it was good to get out the yard with my dad, and it was his first time at pac bell.

after a long post game walk, we ended up in the mission checking out the murals at balmy alley then walking over to valencia and grabbing a pint at the phoenix before we meet ewa for dinner at esperpento which was some of the best tapas i have ever had. . . .

two big pitchers of sangria later, we made it back home with a 12 year old bottle of whiskey under my arm, and joined by my friend gary, we drank and shot the shit well into the night. . . . yesterdays adventures has turned into todays headache. . . but pain is good, right?

all new

wow - the good people at blogger have refreshed with a pretty massive redesign that i mist say is quite nice. maybe this will entice to be a bit more dillegent with my posts. my life has been in so mcuh flux lately that taking the time to write a blog hasn't really been a top priority. the number one thing is that i'm in the process of moving in with ewa, which is a good thing (as marth would say), but it has also made my life a bit more chaotic. hopefully as things settle down and i get my act together over the next few weeks, i will have more to share.

We did get pictures back from our trip to hawaii - links to follow soon. . .i promise.