Jimmy.Brainflush.com

Since the Super-Size menu is going away, I thought it proper to pay homage to the 3-person servings of french fries, the 1.4 liter plastic jug of carbonated sugar water, and the heartburn guarantee which is making Prilosec so dang profitable.

It’s raining in DC and snowing in Cleveland. It’s a cold bitter rain and I’d prefer the snow provided I didn’t have to work, and that I might sit idly on my balcony with a giant cup of hot cocoa in the ‘brother’ mug my sister got me for Christmas.

It’s a heart-tugging mug that makes me homesick and initiates my umpteenth leaving of a voice message on my sister’s voicemail.

I think it’s becoming an issue, because mom is now relaying that sis gets my messages and will try to call soon.

Just sitting there on the slowly rusting cornered balcony chair watching the birds bathe in the puddles or mini-ponds that are created in this halfway point between winter and spring when the ground’s frozen solid but the grass has some give.

Met a fellow last night who chauffered me from the airport to the hotel who is finishing pharmacist training, and who is excited on the 3x pay raise he’ll receive upon doing so. Upon my sharing of his excitement, he and I spoke of many things - the move of white collared jobs to India, the war in Iraq, and the many driving adventures he’s had in 4-plus years on the road. We had a nice ride, and I didn’t even realize how tired I was until I got to the hotel.

Luckily, I had a room, and a thank you gift box of nuts in an oddly carved reverse-cardboard box, which exposed all of the ridges on the outside as decoration.

Had a stir in the night at about 4:30AM - I believe I was dehydrated. I share this only because I had the most terrific tornado dream I’ve had in years! It took place at mom’s but dad was still living there, and we were in the back yard on the ol’ driveway commenting on the mini-funnels that the wind sometimes kicks up, and in the middle of our revelry, dad shouted “In the house! Now!” So we ran to the basement and sure enough a whopper of meso-cyclonic activity, maybe an F3, flew over the house.

What was weird about it was afterwards I’m watching television (still dreaming) and Michael Moore is on BBC America, and suddenly they experience a tornado there, too - in Oxford England!

I woke up refreshed. Got into the office early this morning, and am feeling the strain of the rain just now as most do after lunch on a day like this.

I’m reading Og Mandino’s Secrets to Success & Happiness, and I enjoy exploring his home in New Hampshire, and can vividly picture ‘Little Walden’ and all of the people he meets during his travels.

Also reading “Gentleman’s Game” on the plane, and it’s turning out to be a pretty good read-if you like golf stuff.

Hope all is well with you, fair reader - where ever you may be.

Plane flight late, train late & crowded, and hotel forgot I was coming. They put me in this makeshift conference/hotel room, the ones with the collapsable walls that allow you to see the streaking light from the room next door. I toyed with the idea of putting “The Honorable Mr. Broniec” in the little paper meeting room slot in front of the room, but was too tired.

When did I turn into this person who cares about simple trivial stuff like that? Why can’t I just be appreciative of everything good? The bed was soft, and the shaggy blanket was shaggy, and the room has a balcony overlooking the awning entryway to the hotel. So I can step out to smoke without having to go down to the bar and stare into the ceiling to avoid the single guy alone hysteria.

I added an automatic document feeder to the scanner this morning. The thing was gargantuan! I may have skipped a step in our backup rotation. I came in this morning to a video conferencing problem that made the morning tiredness fog disappear.

It’s sunny outside and about 50 degrees. I’m alive. You’re alive. These are very good things. A person will be hired here in the next few weeks. I’m glad. Good for the unemployed person in need of a job. There was talk about hiring someone internally, but I think it’s our patriotic duty to add one up to the employed list, regardless of whether or not I have any say in the matter.

I’ve got to go eat food now. Besides, I think the little IBM laptop I tend to is about finished replicating. Good boy. This old ThinkPad makes me nostalgic for my old butterfly keyboarded thinkpad that I used to have. It was my first laptop. My buddy Zack used to work at CompUSA and got me a good deal on it.

Time for lunch.

Sorry I’ve been missing for a while. I’m just on my way out to DC and wanted to let you all know that I actually miss posting here and the opportunity to talk to you all.

In these little quiet moments amidst all of the noise and distraction around us, you and I get to spend quality moments. Fair reader, you really are a good listener.

Your attentive eyes that gloss over my words and thoughts in all of their discombobulated glory keep me going on days like these - where the snow pellets sting just a little more not because of the wind but because it’s March and 3 days ago it was in the seventies.

Trying to wrap and ramp up simultaneously has been the biggest challenge of this DC as a home away from home experience. I’m sure that when I get off the DuPont Circle Metro, and see the little theater and bookshop and the happy people walking about I’ll have secondary home nostalgia for the moments in the future where I’m not travelling anymore, when DC will be, like all memories, snippets of buildings and faces and moments of interest - like the old of counsel attorney who teaches at GW University and wants to chat about things.

The man asks of me valid questions of technological law and carries my suggestions into a tapestry that he will proffer to his client. His eyes are inquisitive and excited, like mine were when I thought the world was new and full of opportunity. In some ways he reminds me of a grandfather or great uncle I’ve not had.

In the cafe I frequent for lunch I hear stories about Hilary Clinton and NASA and the FCC told as first hand accounts, missing the pre-junctory “I was reading on CNN that..”

These are the real movers and shakers of the world, and being among them makes me quieter and a bit more introspective - not a bad thing to those of you who know me.

I’m smoking again. I hate eating alone and walking alone. It is what it is.

It’s as if my life is a DVR and I’ve paused it to handle this thing in DC, and in a parallel universe I’ve completed boot camp and looking at the world differently. It’s very perplexing.

I’ve got a flight to catch.
Talk to you soon,
Jimmy

Ever just get that feeling that the dark cloud of doom’s been lurking around you? No? Me either. I mean, I remember once while living in Dayton Ohio I was walking back to my apartment on Creek Water and I saw this old Winnebago and the fight or flight part of my brain said this is bad, very very bad.

Other than that though, not lately, not here.

It’s in the seventies out here in DC and I feel spoiled for being here. I think I’ll get out and do something tonight if I’m not too tired. I don’t know yet.

Four days without smoking and already my inner demons are telling me what a schmuck I am. The womenfolk aren’t going to find you attractive smoke free or not, so why not settle in your misery with a little smokey? Sad, eh?

The title “Cloudman’s Coming to Dinner” reflects a comment an over-drunk man made at the Max and Erma’s restaurant in Cleveland Hopkins Airport last night. They were, for the record, some really neat clouds. I saw some outbursts of mammatocumuli in the reargrade of the storm system. They were painted purple and the only deep orange that matters of sunsets and really ripe tangerines.

The dude who said this last night had the look that he had said something coherent and proper. That’s how I knew he was drunk. That and his 87 dollar tab. (Lorrack, if you’re reading this.. see? Jimmy’s a good boy.)

Well, gotta go. Work calls.