All Nighter in the Air

Saturday, March 6, 2010 at 8:34 PM | Posted by Howitzer

It’s now 7:06am Eastern time. I’ve just arrived in Detroit Metro Airport from spending five wonderful days in Seattle. After one failed attempt to leave Seattle (mechanical failure!), I finally left on the red-eye flight to Hartford via Detroit. I’m so tired from barely sleeping the previous night, on top of the little sleep I got in Seattle. It seems important that I’m passing by my hometown while en route to my next destination. I’m not sure what symbolism to draw from here. I had a great time in Seattle with great friends, and my spring break trip is not even half over.

Everything seems slightly surreal right now. Coming in from the air, I couldn’t recognize anything from above. Must be the snow and the time. Everything before the past few days seems to be from another chapter of my life. Perhaps I’m just too tired. However, I do feel a new beginning rising within. Already, I feel ready to go back home and pick my life up again, with my vacation only a third over.

I feel as if I’ve been given a second chance in life to figure out what I want to do with myself, albeit somewhat forced upon. Everything seems positive at the moment, though I can’t tell if this is just a momentary feeling. I will do my best to remember this feeling, so that I can call upon it if I feel aimless again.

At the same time, I feel strangely nostalgic. I’ve been around airports all my life; I probably fly at least six times each year (12 in 2009). I will always remember the sunsets I watched while waiting in the terminal during layovers. Right now, the sun is rising, and gets brighter each minute. I guess I associate this moment with a feeling of anticipation, of something to look forward to.

In Hartford I visit my cousin and a buddy, both of whom I owe a lot. It’ll be good to see them both again. Hartford here I come! What disguised blessings will I find?

- Howitzer, 3/4/2010

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Seafood Feast!

Monday, March 1, 2010 at 8:20 PM | Posted by Howitzer
Appetizer:
  • Clams and mussels steamed in a wine and butter broth with thyme and tomato.
Entree:
  • Grilled giant scallops with garlic and pepper seasoning, drizzled with a wine and butter sauce seasoned with rosemary and basil.
  • Grilled shrimp, paired with lemon pepper linguine. Topped with a basil tomato wine sauce, with fresh basil sprinkled on top.
  • Steamed chilean sea bass, garnished with scallions and garlic.
Sides:
  • Dandelion greens panfried with a wine and butter sauce.
  • Asparagus panfried with a lemon and butter sauce, tossed with tomatoes.
Wine:
  • A 2008 cabanon from Chateau Maylandie, located in the Languedoc.

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In Seattle! The eating begins....

Friday, February 26, 2010 at 9:37 PM | Posted by Howitzer
Thursday Night:
1 St. Bernardus Abt 12
1 Duvel
2 Bavak Lagers

= 1 trashed night

Friday:
2:00pm - Pad Thai noodles with scallops
3:30pm - 1/2 lb of fries and a strawberry milkshake
5:00pm - 4 oyster shots with cocktail sauce and lemon juice
german chocolate mousse with merlot blueberry sauce
7:00pm - 10 oz Argentinian style filet mignon with a bleu cheese and rosemary sauce
pureed potatoes with black pepper
grilled mushrooms, asparagus, and other vegetables
9:00pm - caramel almond gelato with a "Lenny scoop" of spicy azteca chocolate on top

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Can't shake this weird feeling...Part 2

Tuesday, February 23, 2010 at 5:43 AM | Posted by Howitzer
Here I am, 15 minutes before my interview. I don't know if I've quite shaken my melancholy, but I have to toughen up now. I tell myself that possibilities in the future depend on how I seize opportunities in the present. It helps me concentrate a bit, though I still feel as if there's so much I've done that I've forgotten about.

It's been a digressive and incoherent few posts. I wish I had something valuable to say, and perhaps I'll come up with something in the next few days.

Until then.

-Howitzer

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Can't shake this weird feeling...

Monday, February 22, 2010 at 9:50 PM | Posted by Howitzer
I have a job interview tomorrow morning, my first in over a year. There's no way I'm taking the job, if I get it. I guess I'm just doing it for the experience, and because I have nothing else to do. Taking this interview is the smart thing to do, a "just in case" for the future. Yet, I find myself strangely uncaring, and detached from everything.

I've thought about all the things I've done in college, in internships, in grad school. I'm proud of my accomplishments, and I really feel I could impress the recruiters tomorrow....if only I cared. Here lies the core of how I feel. I feel strangely detached from everything in my life at this moment. Perhaps because I have no direction at the moment?

All of a sudden, I feel sad. Strange...even this sadness feels numb to me. I was talking with a friend earlier tonight, and I realized that we are both finding our post-graduation experiences to be more eye-opening than our college experiences. For me, I broke out of the mindset of school -> graduate school -> job. With all newfound freedom, such as this break I'm taking, there also comes a requisite loss of stability, of safety. For me, I've lost an ideal life path to cling to. I suppose that's why I'm sad.

Where does the future take me? MIT? An industry job? Homelessness?

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Ode to Michigan

Monday, February 8, 2010 at 12:12 PM | Posted by Howitzer
Michigan. The name has become synonymous with the great American fall from prominence. The worst economy in all the land. The disappearance of manufacturing from the Rust Belt. The decay of Detroit. Where people once looked to Michigan as a symbol of American innovation and prowess, now people scoff at it as a crippled lion. Dilapidated, broken down, withered away.

I speak today to show how much Michigan still represents the US. The people, the heritage, and the culture; though financially ruined, we still remain true to the foundations of being American.

Everyday, we get up and emerge from our homes to head to work. Some of us put on our work boots, grab our gloves, and pack a large sack lunch, and then head down I-94 towards the endless operation of Detroit's factories. Others button up their white shirts, knot their ties, and pull on their italian shoes before rushing off to the latest meeting with executives to decide the company's future direction. From the most humble blue collar worker to the high flying executive, we all travel on the same roads, and face the same bitter winters. You will find all manners of people in working side by side here.

You will find here some of the most unassuming and friendly people in the country. There is no pretentiousness, just plain down-to-earth people. We enjoy the simple things in life. A family, a house, and of course a car, all earned by working hard and reaping the rewards. This culture comes from when we were just poor farm boys who saw the arrival of the burgeoning auto industry to our state. An opportunity arrived on our doorstep, we seized it, and saw a renaissance flower in result. This is America. Humble, hard working, and opportunistic.

The oft derided American auto industry still churns out the most complex mass-produced product man creates. Michigan is full of classic American icons such as the block GM and the script Ford. I've seen massive factories more than a million square feet, more than a mile long, vast enough to require bicycles for transportation inside. Some of the skills and knowledge found in south east Michigan are simply unavailable elsewhere. American technological might is still here.

We may be the poor, the huddled masses right now, but we still have things to be proud of. It is not our status in life, but how we conduct yourself that shows our nobility.

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Nostalgia

Thursday, February 4, 2010 at 11:09 PM | Posted by Howitzer
Spent half the night reflecting on my highschool and college years. I guess the older you get, the more selective your memory gets. I just started thinking about how great those years were, and how much fun I had. I think going to BI helped trigger some of it. Just remembering all the people I met back then.

I know I had some low points in highschool, and in college too. Perhaps I'm just realizing now that in the general scheme of things, they really weren't that serious. I got "depressed" about girls, school, my social status, and my parents. Basically what any teenager goes through.

I wonder if any of them remember me (doubtful). Oh well. At least I have these great memories now.

- Howitzer

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