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Well folks, while people might have tuned in to find out why I was in Tallahassee this past weekend, I’m not going to indulge that one just yet… Instead, I’d like to share a tale of apartment hunting.

Sarah and I had a great 1,200 sq. ft. apartment that we were living in up till the end of March, but the problem was, the lease expired in the middle of a school term. So with that, we were faced with finding a new place to stay till August when I’d be done with school. Not too bad, when you think about it, but when you add in a few key things, well, it makes it all the harder:

Two people living in one room

Cats allowed/not minded

Close to the campus because I have no car

While that doesn’t sound like a lofty list of demands/issues to take care of, well, it’s definitely plenty. And when we were looking, well, there were a few trends that we noticed occured on a regular basis… I’d like to go over them here because it shows just how much of assholes and stupid people can be.

1) We Have Cats: That means that we’re not getting rid of them. That means that if you don’t want cats or pets, don’t advertise pets allowed. Also, don’t back up on things.
2) Two People Doesn’t Mean…: That we’ll pay twice the rent because we’re sharing half of your space. If there are three people living in one apartment, we’ll pay 2/3rds of the electricity, but if we’re using half the space, we’re only paying half the rent. Yes, I’ve had people want to charge us twice the price because of three people in one place.
3) When We Say Close…: We mean close. Seriously. Don’t offer me something 5-10 miles away that I’m going to have to ride an hour to school on the Orlando bus. And also, when I say I have no car, don’t offer me something that’s not on the bus line, even if it is cheap.
4) And When You Post An Ad…: You need to follow up on it. That means if you’re on Craigslist, check your e-mail. If you’re on Facebook, check your Inbox. If you left your phone number, listen to and respond to your messages. Even if its to tell me that you’re busy, that’s alright. And make it timely, like 24-48 hours. You need to follow through or you’re not getting me in because I’ve tried and its in your hands, buddy.

And that’s where I have the greatest stories…
1) A guy had a 2/2 condo that he was looking for a renter for one of the rooms. The real estate agent himself thought we were a great fit, but when he contacted the condo owner, he didn’t think it was fair to the guy already living there for two people to move into one room. All of this after we already agreed to pay twice the utilities. We weren’t even shown the place. In all honesty? If you’re the owner of a place and someone’s going to pay your mortgage for a few months? In this market? Take it!
2) One guy was going to rent out his room in a 2/2 to us, and we’d have to pay all of the deposits to transfer things into our name, but his lease was through October. With us not needing it past August, it was a bit weird. It got even weirder when he stated that he’d be living on the couch in the living room. So in essence? It’d be 4 people in a 2/2 apartment, and we’d be paying his rent for a few months.
3) One girl replied and everything was perfect, absolutely perfect. I replied to her about her place and I didn’t hear back from her… until two days before our lease expired, a good two weeks after I replied to her. She apologized stating that she doesn’t check Facebook much. That’s sort of sad, seeing I replied not 2 hours after I got her message. Oh well, that’s not as much my loss but her loss.

So all of that said, like I had mentioned late last month, we have moved. Ironically the roommates we have now? They graduated one of my alma mater’s rival high schools c/o 2004. They were freshmen at Hernando High when I graduated Springstead High in 2001. Talk about interesting coincidences…

Hey folks, today’s blog is another one that I’m posting from my cell, and rightly so. See, its sort of hard to post somethign from “home” when you’re not really there.

Last night after I got out of class, Sarah picked me up from campus and we started driving and whammo, we ended up in Tallahassee, Florida. With an 8am commitment up here, we had to make sure that we got into town with plenty of time to spare. But that being said, we’re going to have a heck of a time and do our damndest to enjoy it as much as possible. And that being said, I’m going to sign off for now, but when I’m back on Monday morning, you’d better believe that all will be revealed…

Until then? Just pop on a good CD… Personally, I’d recommend the new Panic at the Disco or the new Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin. Reviews of both coming soon…

…is getting up early the next day.

For the past few weeks, I’ve been juggling a completely horrendous schedule that has me up till 2-3am and then waking up at 7:30am and running a fully normal day. Thusly, its no wonder that I’ve been drinking as much energy drinks as I’ve been finding around me and looking for other alternatives…

Normally this rant would include a complete disclosure of what my week looks like, but I’m waiting till Monday to make a fairly big announcement for myself and Sarah. A few friends have heard it in real life, and I’m making sure that its expressed to those whom I care about before I just go blabbing it openly online to whomever might stumble across this blog.

Still, with my lack of sleep, its no wonder that just now after watching my Countdown from last night? That I passed out on the bed for two hours.

Naps? You are my friends…

Last night when I was shopping at the Wal*Mart Neighborhood Market where I used to work, I was going to buy a 4-pack of my usual Amp Sugar Free Tall Boys that I’ve switched to after the fallout that I had a few weeks ago from too many sugared energy drinks… And then, I saw something that had half the caffeine at half the cost.

If you haven’t heard yet, Aquafina has four new fitness/flavored water types out. I had actually tried one of them a few weeks back when I tried the Peach fiber one, but last night I decided it was time to try some caffinated water. Yup, caffeine in water. And personally? I can tell you that its nothing to toot your horn at. The caffeine boost is minimal at best. The flavor from the water isn’t too bad, but there’s not much reason to get it. Well, I guess there is seeing its only $2.50 for a 6-pack. Not too bad price-wise.

Then again, seeing Starbucks is giving away some samples of their new Pikes Place roast of coffee today (Source: MSNBC.com), well, that’s enough to energize me to action… Even if that action was just to post it on HeyItsFree.net… Man, I should really write my post and plug Goob there, seeing I haven’t posted about that site or on that site in ages. I can only wait till things quiet down for me…

And with a final exam tonight? I’ll need all of the caffeine I can get…

My wife and I have taken an affinity to a new show we found called Torchwood. When the first season debuted on TV, we watched it non-stop. DVRed every episode, and watched it as soon as we could. Beautifully written British sci-fi.

And then, as the first series drew to a close, there was a Doctor Who reference… And I sort of knew that Torchwood was connected. I mean, afterall, Captain Jack Harkness was a character that had roots in Doctor Who. And then at the end of series one of Torchwood? Jack leaves with the Doctor. Oh sure, he comes back for the first episode of series two, but still…

The thing is, the more I read on Wikis and other sites, the more I get drawn in. And that’s not the half of it…

So after a brief stint of a character named Martha being over on Torchwood and her being a very likeable individual, Sarah and I got interested and decided to watch an episode of Doctor Who. We were lucky enough to catch “Blink,” and did one of those “Holy shit” double-takes on the episode. Although, according to most ratings, its one of the better episodes of the series as a whole. Even still, it was enough to make us want to watch it.

But there, sort of lies the problem. You see, we can start watching this new series from 2005, but in actuality, we’re coming in on the “end of something bigger than that.” Because of the way Doctor Who has evolved, this series is sort of only a continuation of the other 9 series/actors to play Doctor Who.

And look at me, thinking we finally got in at a good point. Even still, its a show we’ve added to our “must watch” list… And to give you an idea how indepth it is and the connections of the shows are? You can start googling one thing for the show and end up on Wikipedia, and the whole half hour plus that I’ve been writing this entry? I’ve been flipping between about 10-20 different articles. Its just that well tied in. Beautifully done.

In light of my post from yesterday about health, I’d like for this Sunday’s Share to be a fun little website that I’ve had bookmarked for a while…

WalkJogRun.net

I was directed to that site almost a year ago on one board or another when I mentioned a goal of mine was to someday run the Disney Marathon, and I’ve used it since. Its a great way to map out trails or paths to continue running to best train yourself with the roads you know and not have to take your car out and reset your odometer to check to see how far you’re going. You can tell the site how many miles an hour you’re running, your average speed you wish to maintain, everything, and it’ll tell you the length of the route you’ve chosen and how long it takes you to complete it at that speed.

And I still use it. Its shown me that I live about 1.67 miles from the center of my campus if I were to walk, my old apartment was 1.92 miles, and that if I were to jog around my apartment complex, two laps is two one-hundredths short of 1 mile.

So when I went for a jog on Friday? I know that I ran a mile. Of course yesterday was 3.25 miles, but that’s because the treadmill told me so…

9 Things to Stop Worrying About Right Now - Source: MSNBC.com

It seems that every single day there’s some new study that’s well founded that tells us what we should and shouldn’t do in regards with this or that diet or food concentration. One day its water, then eggs, then salt, then sugar, then fiber, then meat, then…

You know what? I’ve got the secret to healthy living right here:
1) Laugh
2) Smile
3) Love
4) Live

1) Laugh - Like the Readers Digest column, “Laughter, The Best Medicine,” there’s a truth to that. If you can laugh at the stupid things and see the lighter side in life? You’re starting things out on the right foot…
2) Smile - Okay, so some of us have shitty humor. If you do? I’d advice that you at least smile about things if you can’t laugh about them. A smile invites another smile, and we feel good when we see someone smile and have to smile ourselves. Contageous and healthy.
3) Love - Share yourself in any way possible with anyone possible (except for beastiality, infidelity, and incest). Love is something you never run out of. And when you do, you can always find more in what people give you in return.
4) Live - This is the most important one and what we often forget. With all of the talking heads on TV and the new secondary glowing idiot box of our computer monitor, we forget sometimes that there’s a world outside… We should be active, energetic, and come back here and then tell all of our friends the cool things we’ve done away and invite them to join us next time.

And with that, its time for me to depart and get on to the four steps so I can enjoy my own healthy living…

He makes sure that everyone gets a present…

No joke, folks, today–April 1st–is the 3rd birthday of Sarah’s and my cat, Wooster.

While we adopted him in August of 2005 after Sarah’s graduation, because he was a foster kitten from the moment of his birth, we know his birth day. Half siamese and half tiger-tabby, we couldn’t ask for a better cat. And I don’t just say that because he’s on the bed behind me, reading this post over my shoulder.

So, like I said, he made sure that his humans both got gifts. First off, yesterday someone saw to it to finally get his paw up into my Lexmark 1150 printer the way he liked to do. And when I went to change the print cartridge? Well, his little furry paw had pulled the control wire to the carriage, so it made that pointless. Dead printer. Stupid cat. In its place, I replaced it last night with a new HP C4280. With a bit better ink economy, faster printing, and a paper feed area and catch tray that he can’t get his paw up into? Its a better printer for me.

Sarah sort of got the bum end of the deal in his gift to her. She went out to her car this morning and found that the right rear tire was flat. Called Roadside Rescue from Sprint and they put on the donut and pulled off the tire (seeing I was on campus for advising and couldn’t play the role of macho man). A quick ride to Costco and then to Tires Plus, and they’ll be taking the bolt out of the tire and patching it up. So she got a patch and a half of a day off of work. Of course all so she could spend more time with him. Or so he thinks…

So here’s to you, our little furry buddy… For all of the gifts you give us–and I’m not talking about what you and Cassie leave in your litter box–we love ya…

First of all, to all of the well wishers throughout Sarah’s and my move–via either text message, AIM to my cell, MySpace, or Facebook–thank you. Things went smoothly, for the most part.

The full story, however, involves me cutting myself on two different metal objects and profusely bleeding the second time to the point of feeling like I was going to faint; willingly riding in the trunk of a moving car; and hanging out with some Russians. I’ll tell the full story later, but seeing its 3am, its well time for me to sleep, I’d say.

I did want to apologize for lack of formatting in my prior entries because something messed up that I have no idea what it was. When/if I ever figure it out? I’ll let you know… Also, because I noticed a lot of Splogs taking my feed, well, I followed my friend Mel’s advice… So enjoy the nice little copyright information at the bottom of your feed now… Thanks for understanding.

Alright, I’ve used enough ellipses in these past few sentences that I should give myself and my period key a rest… I’ll be back to my usual posting later today… Unless I drown myself in the sorrows of my homework because Duke lost, completely screwing up my bracket…

Well folks, this weekend is a bit different of a weekend when it comes to me pre-drafting. As you read this, I’ll be really grumbling over boxes and all of Sarah’s and my worldly possessions, and be somewhere in the process of our first move together. While you might be able to count our first move together as being a year ago when we moved into this apartment? That was more along the lines of two people moving into a place, not moving together.

This time around, its about US and not a HIM and HER. There’s a bit of a different dynamic when you do that. Sarah’s moved each year since when she graduated in 2005. Me? Since 2002, this is only my third move. I lived on campus from 2002 through 2004, then from April 2004 through till March 2007 off campus in Pegasus Landing, and then from then on out in GrandeVille at River Place. Needless to say, it’s not easy. It means two people assigning different values to various things that we’re both not wanting to get rid of, etc. So far, we’ve been good on the packing. Well, Sarah’s been better than I have. I’ve been trying to juggle getting our sublease set, my school work, and then packing coming third.

So as you’re reading this, I’ll be getting to what I hate doing the most. But we’ve already donated three carloads worth of stuff we don’t need to Goodwill, so if you’ve been dying to own a piece of Adam J. Cohen personal memorabilia? In a few weeks you could take me to Goodwill and I’ll tell you what used to be mine. Or, you could just do the easy thing and download some mp3s from my music page. When I’m back with live posts on probably Tuesday? I promise it’ll be good…

Don’t go to Jared. Goob, this is my response to you.

About two years ago around this time, my father-in-law was helping me shop for his daughter’s engagement ring. Well, it was actually in June of 2005, give or take, but even still, that’s beside the point. At this point, Sarah and I had looked around at numerous shops in the mall, which is the worst idea that I could tell you.

So, let’s start at the basics when it comes to buying a diamond. Men, this is a key thing. Do NOT go out on your own and say “That looks pretty, I’m going to get it.” No. No sirree bob. What you need to do, is you need to find out what your woman wants. While you might have that friend who’s ever so right and tells you “Well man, you’re broke. You can’t afford to get her the best thing out there.” Yeah, that’s true, but gentlemen, this is the woman we love. We can afford to do anything we possibly can for her, so why not try to push ourselves that extra limit? When you find out what she wants, don’t take your eyes off of it. And with this, I mean the 4 C’s.

I’m no gemologist, so I won’t go into them, but you can find good articles online. Noteably, I’d recommend this one for information on the cut and this one for the color, carat, and clarity. There used to be a really good one that I was reading a while back that had all of them and was nicely presented, but I removed all of my linkage.

So, when you’re at the mall and you’re looking at all of these shops, they’ll push you these diamonds that are lower down. You’ll be getting somethign that’s an H or I, SI1, .6 carat, excellent cut, for about 2 grand. If you’re the uninformed consumer, a lot of that might sound pretty good. I mean, you only hear about the carats of the diamond when you hear about the celebrity rings, and to have over half a carat, you think that’s great! Fact of the matter is, its far from it.

See, the trick to buying a diamond ring is to get the diamond and the ring parts separately. Find a jeweler friend of your family that you trust, or you can shop around for the separate diamond, and there are actually plenty of internet websites that you can find your diamond on.

This is what leads me to Jared.

One of the many places that my father-in-law and I stopped at in looking for individual diamonds and settings was Jared’s. And the salesman was just that.

When we were looking for a diamond for my wife’s engagement ring, I was glad I had my father-in-law along for the help. He had done this before–obviously, if he’s my wife’s dad, you know?–and also he had done a bit of work with jewelers and custom jewelry in the past. So he knew what to look for. And me? I kept quiet and listened a lot. And at Jared’s, that was useful.

We were looking for a princess cut diamond, perfectly square table (top of the diamond), and at a high quality and colorless, roughly around half a carat. This is the woman I chose to marry, so I didn’t mess around with what I got her. I got her what she wanted. And when we were looking at Jared’s, the employee who was helping us out, he was helping us find these perfect square ones. And he turned to me and he said “In the twenty some-odd years that I’ve been working in the jewelry business, I’ve seen maybe seven perfect square ones. The one you have is beautiful.” Of course, this is a diamond that alone costs about $4,000 that we’re looking at, which was one of the more expensive ones in the case we were in front of. Makes sense that he’d try to make it “special” for us. Then, I looked down in the case, and I started counting. You see, there were some perfect square ones in the case. Five of them, to be exact. I guess he’s only seen two others over the past twenty years? When we were looking online to find diamonds as well, we probably found a good twenty or thirty in various ranges of color and such.

Hmmmm…. Yeah, I don’t think so.

Needless to say, whenever I see any Jared’s commercial or I hear someone talking about them? I immediately end up talking about the one and only time I went there. If the guy went to Jared’s? He wasn’t smart. He wasted his money.

There’s a very funny thing about marriage that I’d like to share as my post for the day. Its something that the more and more I look around me and the portrayal of it in pop culture that I really have to sadly shake my head at.

See, growing up and all throughout our lives, the institution of marriage is something that’s instilled as a bit of a “final goal” for successfulness in our lives. We’re set up with dreams of the marriage and a “happily ever after.” Disney has done a great job of placating this in our heads, as the rest of the media does as well. Seriously. Cinderella gets her Prince Charming, the Beast is really a prince, and Snow White only goes to sleep but doesn’t die from the poison apple. And the one true love and its kiss. All of that stuff.

And so when we head away to college or we move out of our parent’s houses, we see marriage as one of those things on a “to-do” list. Not everyone, I know, but a good number of folks. And because its so culturally infused, we have it subconsciously whether we’re really thinking about it or not… For me, I thought that. I’ve always gone into every relationship I’ve been in as if it was my last one for the sole reason that there was no reason for me to “line up” replacements–it meant that I wasn’t giving the person I was with my all and I would be setting us up for sabotage.

With marriage, we’re always shown it as a final beautiful snapshot. Everything in white and black and floral and colored and beautiful…

And the truth is, a shot like that is a moment in time. I look at that picture and I’m only 24. Sarah’s only 25 there. It’s almost been a year and now I’m 25 and Sarah’s 26. What about next year? And the year after that? And after that?

We look at these pictures and we forget that a marriage is work. Its a relationship. Its people working together to make what they have between them work. And its two people who have a shared love for each other, for life, and for sharing everything that comes between them, as one.

We overlook all of those things when we talk about marriage. It’s the final scene in a movie, it’s the coup de grace, the big cheese.

No, its not. Its only barely the beginning… There are always pictures we take after it, and there’s things that need to be worked on from time to time. Keep it as a well oiled machine, just keep on keeping it on… We can’t let life get in the way of a marriage or things like this. Not at all. Life is meant to be shared with those we take into it.

And that, is what a marriage is.

The thing I hate about going to sleep after doing something where I’m hurt the day before is waking up the next morning. All the time being awake before, you have a chance to start pushing at the pain and making it where you don’t hurt as much. Well, where you try not to hurt as much. You’re still fighting the pain, but you have a chance to really push against it. The same goes for my foot, of course. It still hurts, but as the title suggests, I’m dealing.

So why am I up so bloody early? Because its Sunday, and I like breakfasts. And I do them big. Especially on weekends that my sister is here, I’m a breakfast machine. Right now, I have the cinnamon rolls just left the oven and have been iced, the hashbrowns on the stove top, and I’ll be starting my wife’s hardboiled eggs and everyone’s turkey bacon soon as well, and then my sister’s over easy eggs, and my omelete comes dead last. And this will all be done within the next 30ish minutes. I’m just that good.

I could be a cook. But that’s for another entry…

As a whole, I’m a fairly mellow type person. It takes a lot to work me up, or just stupid things as a whole. But when I get worked up? Usually not a good thing.

Take about an hour ago. Stupid small argument where I was the one raising my voice. I walked out of the apartment after Sarah and I slammed the door shut. Feeling particularily violent, I kicked the door frame.

Door frames don’t kick back, but they do a very good job of standing still.

Needless to say, my right foot hurts, and I’m suffering for it: the apartment we visited in looking for our upcoming sublease was on the second floor. So after walking down our stairs, I had to walk up theirs, walk down theirs, and walk back ours. Not fun.

I think this evening bodes some Tiger Balm, ice packs, and my homework. And a lot of resting it and taking it easy.

There’s a line in one of Athenaeum’s songs, appropriately titled “Haircut,” that goes “If you fuck it up then you’re gonna get a haircut too.” Sadly, when you’re wife is the one who’s cutting your hair, that line doesn’t apply.

So tonight, I got a haircut. First haircut I’ve had in a while. If you’re a friend of mine on Facebook, you’ve probably seen my album of past cuts and styles that I’ve gone with, but for those new to me, they’ve mostly seen my promo shoots with my friend Karen Z. Needless to say, if it’s a hairstyle, I’ve done it.

Today, I was just going to go with a regular trim. From that, though, Sarah asked me then for the 1/8″ blade cover for the razor. I thought she just wanted to trim the back bottom edge. Believe me, my hair looked pretty darn good at that point. However, we weren’t clear in our communication, I guess. She thought it would be a bit longer than it actually was. And when she started doing the back and it ended up short, well, I said “Fuck it, let’s just do it all.” I almost went with a faux-hawk for a bit, but I figured I’d just shave it all off and start anew. My hair grows back fast enough…

Picture is after the jump…

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About The Site


Thanks for stopping by, folks! My name is Adam J. Cohen, and I'm a guitarist/songwriter in Champaign, IL, recently relocated from Orlando, FL where I'm a UCF grad. Here, you'll find vignettes on my life, setlists and show reviews, and whatever else crosses my mind. Enjoy!

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