I’m ready, willing, and perhaps now able to be getting into the 8 to 5 grind.  I’m looking forward to looking back and wistfully missing these carefree days of unemployment.

So, where did I leave off?  Oh yeah, I was talking about my so-called social life which revolves around the interesting characters I encounter in the bars of Itaewon.

One of my favorite people is Bradley who happens to be a scientist by trade craft profession.  Neuroscience to be precise.  And what I know about neuroscience is pretty much what I read on the link above.  I don’t know why smart people tolerate me, but I’m glad they do.  I’m always learning hearing about the most intersting things.

For example, I encountered Brad on Wednesday at Shenanigans and he was celebrating a pretty significant discovery in his field.  In his attempt to explain said discovery he re-purposed the dart scoreboard and drew scientific diagrams replete with arrows, lines, and circles demonstrating how the nervous system, or more precisely, the brain, responded to specific electronic probes in ways they had never previously observed, and well, hell, I was pretty drunk by then so all I can say is it was like being in the presence of Einstein or something.  Brad was very excited and animated as he tried to get my mind to wrap around the concept, I know that much.  When I asked him about some practical applications for this discovery he indicated it was far too soon to know, but one possibility being better able to target drugs for various disorders.  Suffice to say, he’s doing some big stuff and is getting recognized for his work in high places these days.

Of course, given my limited expertise we talk about more than science.  Like politics for example.  It should come as no surprise that Brad having been indoctrinated educated in some of the best institutions of higher learning (including Yale) America has to offer, leans more to the left than I do.  But we both seem to enjoy the hell out of going back and forth on whatever topic we put on the table for discussion.  And our debates are always pleasantly respectful, which is all too rare these days.  No Othering whatsoever.

Wednesday we got into how (in my view) science has frequently become politicized, and I threw out global warming as my prime example.  He disagreed that that was the case, but conceded that in today’s politically charged environment, contrary views on the subject tend to be drowned out.  I in turn granted him that pumping pollutants into the air was not an ideal situation, irrespective of whether it is causing the earth to warm.  My big gripe is that the “solutions” being proposed by the warmists disproportionately impact the poor and downtrodden in the third world, and that we should be pumping more fossils fuels to drive prices down and invest those savings into research for cost effective renewable energy sources.  Well, you get the idea of how our discussions go.

We keep it lively by talking about women and religion as well.  I’m going to say this right here and now–that whole “the lonely lives of scientists” meme is pure bullshit, unless Brad is the happy exception to the rule.  The stories he tells about some of the people he meets are beyond fascinating and I must admit evoke within me more than a fair amount of envy. Lucky bastard.

I’ll go for that ride!

Met another guy at the bar who is “biking” around the world.  He started in Japan, is now in Korea, and leaves next week for Russia.  I had to admire his passion.

Last week I enticed Young Chun out to Itaewon.  I’m not sure he was impressed by my drunken persona.  I let loose some of the lamest jokes in my repertoire and he just smiled. A sad smile I do believe.  Still, I enjoyed his company and some of my bar buddies engaged him as well.  One even bought a book on the spot.  Another friend kept calling him “Arthur” which Young managed to take in stride, or at least ignore.  I’ve ordered up a couple of more hard copies of the book at his request.  Will he come to Itaewon to fetch them?  We shall see.  Speaking of the book, Young’s doing a free download promotion through this Sunday (May 31).  So now’s the time to order!

Ran into another fellow (didn’t get his name) at the bar and he professed to be a big fan of LTG, which is always nice to hear.  I pretty much assume I’ve got 3-5 regular readers, but another guy I know saw me in Dolce Vita and said he had read about my trouble there and was happy I had made a reconciliation after my disappointment a couple of weeks ago.

Also got a nice email from a Matthew in Florida who is also waiting for his security clearance to finalize so that he can take a DoD job in Korea.  He’s also a scientist so I reckon we’ll get along just fine.  He said he finds my blog “helpful and pretty funny”, so of course I like him already!

The wife is off with the family tonight and I reckon I need to find something to do to keep me entertained on a Saturday night.  Itaewon beckons!

So, the preceding post was twice as long.  I had added to draft I had previously saved. But everything I wrote after opening the draft failed to publish.  Curse you WordPress!  I ain’t got the time or inclination to attempt to recreate what I’ve lost, so you’ll just have to take me word for it that it was perhaps the most outstanding material you’ve never read.

Damn it.

A dart buddy back home in Columbia had a heart attack and died yesterday.  I’d only known him a couple of years, but I always admired his sarcastic sense of humor.  Even after I moved back to Korea he was cracking me up with his FB posts.  I don’t think he could have been more than 45 years old which is way too young to go.  You’ll be missed Martin.

Life as I know it goes on and that’s a good thing given the above referenced alternative. Not that I’m doing much with the blessing of waking up each day.  My purpose of late seems to be drinking and darts, which for the most part is enjoyable if not particularly meaningful.  I think getting back to work will be a good thing as I’m craving some purpose and structure that I can’t seem to carve out on my own.

Now, when I drink it’s a social activity.  In other words, I don’t drink just for the sake of drinking or to get drunk.  In fact, I almost never drink at home.  I’ve many bar friends and acquaintances that I genuinely enjoy spending time with.  In fact, those folks constitute probably 90% of my human interaction these days.  So in may case it might be said that drinking cures loneliness.  Which now that I’ve said it does strike me as being pretty fucking pathetic.  Yep, I need to get back to work!

Here’s what’s happening.

Security clearance paperwork submitted.  Man, what a pain in the ass that was.  Took me over five hours to complete.  They basically wanted to know everything I’ve said, everywhere I’ve been, and all that I’ve done (or didn’t do) for the past seven years.  Well, not quite.  Where I’ve worked and lived had to go back ten years.  And then I had to provide basically the same info on my dead parents, my brothers, my kids, my wife and my in-laws.  The latter three being foreign nationals opened up a raft of additional questions.  Oh yeah, they wanted to know about my ex-wives as well.

It was especially frustrating because for every place I’ve lived and worked I had to provide the name, address, phone number and email of someone who could verify that information.  Later on, they asked for the names and associated information of three people who “know me well” (i.e. for seven years or more) that preferably live in the USA, and they couldn’t be anyone I had previously listed.  Hell, I’d used up my limited circle of friends for my address verification.  Which made me feel kind of sad.  Anyway, it’s done and now I wait.

What else? Some day I’m going to write the story of my life. Already have the title.

Sunday I was on the escalator at Gireum station and two women stood side-by-side preventing me from walking down as is my custom. Sure enough, when I reached the platform the subway doors were just closing. Two minutes later I’m on the next train. Arrived at Samgakji and just missed my connection to Itaewon. Eight more minutes waiting. Which by my reckoning is ten minutes of my life I’ll never get back. Not counting the time I’ve spent writing about it now. Guess I need to learn to say “get the hell outta my way” in Korean.  And after all that, I got a message between Samgakji and Itaewon that my dart opponent was canceling. Nothing to do but drink some OB Lager’s, right?

Said dart match was rescheduled for Monday night.  A friend was jonesing for some beers after a stressful workday so I agreed to meet him at Shenanigans at 4:30.  We drank some OB Lager’s and threw some darts.  When it was time for my dart match at 7:30 I was feeling pretty buzzed.  Of course, I drank more OB Lager during the match, which finished around 10:30 with me taking home a 13-3 victory.

Except I wasn’t finished and didn’t take it home.  At least not right away.  I decided to pop into Dillinger’s where my pub league teammates were purportedly practicing for next week’s playoffs.  They had all already left, but I sat down and chatted with the owner and his partner for a bit.  They bought me an OB Lager.  And about the time I finished that one, they bought me another.  And then it was midnight and I’m like oh shit, I’ve got to get home!

Well, I figured my best bet was going to be the 110B bus.  So, I sat down and waited. Pretty soon the 421 comes by.  So I wait some more, and another 421 comes and goes. I figured the 110B would surely arrive soon, but nope, the next bus was once again the 421. It’s 12:30 now and I deduced there weren’t gonna be any more 110’s on this fine Monday night Tuesday morning.  So, I stopped a cab and told him Gireum station and he didn’t give me any crap about it.  Of course, during the week there are more cabs than people wanting cabs.  It’s Saturday night that’s tough.

So the cabbie did what I told him–he got me to Gireum station.  He went some weird ass way I didn’t recognize and dropped me at the subway entrance furthest from my apartment.  Well, no big deal.  I did a nice walk through the park and took a leak there just like any drunk ajusshi would do.

And the fact that I had a massive hangover on Tuesday had nothing to do with the amount of time it took me to complete my security clearance paperwork.  I swear.

This is me at 21. Could be I was more suited to massive amounts of OB Lager back then.

that happens.

Ah, it’s been a week since I last posted.  You ain’t missed much, trust me.  Truth is I’ve been in something of a funk.  Just tired and unmotivated and generally out of sorts.  But here I am and here you are so let me share some random-ass shit.

Jee Yeun’s aunt died on Friday.  Her favorite aunt, the one she used to stay with in the countryside.  Heart attack apparently, so she went quick at least.  I’d never met the woman, but it’s sad to see Jee Yeun grieving.  Well, I’m not seeing it now because she’s left for the funeral, which in Korea is a three day affair.

Today makes four weeks without a cigarette.  I have done some vaping when the urge for nicotine is especially strong, like when I’m out drinking throwing darts.  The new anti-smoking laws here in Korea apparently include vaping, or at least there’s enough confusion about the law’s applicability that most bars make me take it outside.  So far, my favorite bar has allowed me to puff inside which is nice.  The other day a guy came up to me and asked me what flavor oil I was using.  I honestly don’t remember, I’m all about the nicotine.  He laughed and said he and his buds had been smelling what they thought was someone baking cupcakes.  I was surprised because I was intentionally sitting near an open window so as not to be offensive.  I apologized, but he said no, it’s actually quite pleasant although he said he was now hungry for something freshly baked.

I had filled a prescription for Champix several weeks ago in anticipation of the day when I would again attempt to quit cigarettes.  So I added it in to my daily pill ritual.  I’ve taken the drug before and the only side effect was having some pretty vivid and intense dreams. This time around I found it difficult to fall asleep (my mind seemed to always be racing with random and disjointed thoughts).  Once I managed sleep, the dreams were much more intense (and more nightmarish) than what I’d previously experienced.  So, I’d wake up and repeat the cycle of trying to get back to sleep only to be reawakened by another bizarre dream.  Needless to say, it did not make for a restful and satisfying sleep.  Hence, I was always tired which may explain my lack of motivation.  I finally had to give up on the Chanmpix a couple of days ago, and things are going back to normal nocturnally speaking.

I’m between jobs which has also disrupted my weekly routine.  Who knew I’d actually miss getting up and going to work?  Presumably I’m still on track to start the new gig on the 18th.  I got an email on Thursday indicating that a security clearance has been initiated and I should stand by for further instructions.  And I’m still waiting.  It’s frustrating because I just did all that security paperwork (everywhere I lived and worked with names and addresses of people who can verify those facts) a couple of months ago.  But whatever, I have no choice but to go along to get along.

I’ve also been feeling grumpier than usual.  It’s just too bad that I don’t have a yard so I could yell at kids to  “get off my lawn” now and then.  Instead, I got a little angry at darts on Monday night when a hot-shot Korean was more interested in running up the score than in winning the game.  And then on Friday night I got pissed at Dolce Vita and walked out without playing in the tournament.  Here’s the thing.  I’ve been a patron of DV for ten years now.  That doesn’t make me special, but it does make me a regular.  And I’ve been ordering the same goddamn thing every time I’ve been there–a mug of Cass beer.  There were two other people sitting at the bar, but I set myself up at a table near the dart boards. Now, although the bartender (who happens to be the owner’s niece) made eye contact she didn’t offer a welcome or a greeting.  I don’t require those basic courtesies, but I do expect to be served.  And for whatever reason, I decided to take a stand by refusing to go to the bar to place my order.  It’s her job to come to me.  So after several minutes of a Mexican standoff, I packed up my darts and headed for the door.  One of the guys at the bar asked me where I was going.  I responded “somewhere where I will be served a beer” and walked on out.  Shocking, eh?  Keeping it all in perspective, I was no where near this angry.

After my early exit from Dolce Vita I hiked over to Sin Bin, the bar that has a competing Friday night tourney.  They’ve been trying to get me out there for quite some time, but I’ve stupidly always been loyal to DV.  And even in my pissy mood I couldn’t quite bring myself to play their tourney.  Fact is, I’ve been unhappy with the fact that Sin Bin chose to split the crowd on Friday’s rather than do a tourney on another available night (Saturday for instance).  Anyway, I chatted with some folks and enjoyed the promptly served beer. Afterwards, I went on an old fashioned Itaewon bar crawl, visiting some of my favorite old haunts from days gone by.  Got good service everywhere and had a pretty good time before heading home satisfyingly inebriated.

Last night I met up with my nephew Justin at Shenanigans and we had an enjoyable time shooting the shit, drinking beers, and doing shots.  I’m always trying to hook the boy up with one of the cute bar girls, but have not had much success in that regard.  There was a new gal last night so I got the ball rolling for him.  Turns out she has a boyfriend in Canada, but she still seemed to enjoy the attention.  She got off work about the time I was leaving and she invited Justin to join her and her friends for a drink.  He seemed pretty happy about that.

Living in Gireum is a bit of a pain in the ass sometimes.  The thing I like least is having to rush out of Itaewon with ample time to catch the last subway home.  I was taking no chances last night, so I headed to the station well before 11:30.  Got to Itaewon station just in time to board the train for my connection at Samgakji.  Where I waited and waited until a train finally arrived, which proved to be the last one of the night.  And it was only going as far as Hangsun University station, two stops prior to Gireum.  And so like magic, my foul mood returned.

So it’s after midnight, I’m without my Korean guide, and wasn’t exactly sure which exit would lead me to the right bus stop.  At least I knew I needed to catch the 143 bus.  The thing is, once the subway stops running you have hundreds of people exiting the station at the same time.  I guessed the exit that my drunken sense of direction told me was right, and sure enough there was a bus stop.  Swarming with people so thick it took my several minutes of salmon-like maneuvering to get anywhere near the place where buses were loading.  And there were lots of buses, but no 143.  I glanced over at the electronic sign announcing arrivals and didn’t see the 143 listed.  I figured I was at the wrong bus stop or the last 143 bus had already come and gone.  So I crossed the street in search of a cab. Ha!  I’m such a dreamer.  There wasn’t an empty cab in sight, and even if there was one coming, I’d reckon at least ten people were on the street in front of me hoping for a miracle.

My leg was hurting again so I was not feeling good about the prospect of finding my way to Gireum on foot.  As I stood there mentally cursing my foul luck, what should appear out of the blue–the 143!  Of course, now I was on the wrong side of the street from the bus stop. Decisions, decisions.  Do I risk jaywalking in heavy traffic or play it safe and potentially miss the only bus I knew was coming.  Fuck that, I ain’t missing the bus!  There was a fortuitous gap in the cars and I used my Frogger skills to make a successful dash for the bus.  Which I boarded and then stood (no seats available of course) feeling foolish while the driver waited for the passenger’s who had the good sense to use the crosswalk with the light.  I made it home though, so there’s that.

And that’s pretty much what you missed during the week I couldn’t be bothered to write a post.  You can thank me in the comments.

Took my last bus ride out to the K-16 Air Base in Seongnam yesterday.  I was accompanied by my newly hired replacement so that I might show her the ropes.  Such as they are.

It was a relatively busy afternoon as we needed to change the passwords on every computer in the Multi-use Learning Facility (MLF).  The printer finally got fixed, so I had to set up all the computers with the printer’s IP address.  And at around 1430 we got our first customer of the day!

Said customer was a newly arrived soldier who had some stuff he needed to print, so I was very pleased that for the first time in weeks I was able to accommodate his request. He was having trouble with one document and he called me over for assistance.  Now, I’m the original techno-peasant so I was fearful the problem would be beyond my limited capabilities to resolve.  Seems he needed to print out a copy of his lease so that his state-side wife could receive payment of the basic housing allowance (BHA) benefit.  The problem was only the first page of the five-page document would print.

My resolution was to download and save the lease as a PDF.  And sure enough, all pages printed out just fine.  The soldier was happy/relieved and he told me “you just made my day”.  Which of course made mine.

And so ended my tenure with the Army Education Center.

As depressed as I was on Friday, I was equally manic yesterday. Which is not a commentary on the state of my mental health.

I can’t imagine anything else going wrong at this point, but I’ve been disappointed before. Gonna keep thinking positive thoughts though.  I’m looking forward to rejoining my DHRM family more than ever.

Out and about taking care of business today.  Awhile back I mentioned the fiasco involving an insurance company issuing a check for roof repairs in the name of my dead father.  Thanks to some sleuthing by my son we found the potential fix.  It involves submitting a petition to the Probate Court to reopen the estate for the purpose of depositing said check (it’s over $14,000 so it’s a pretty big deal to poor folks like us).

So, I completed the petition (which to the county’s credit was in a handy PDF format).  I’m just hoping I checked all the right boxes.  Once I had filled in and printed out the form I needed to get my signature notarized.  I had checked with my bank on post and was disappointed to learn they did not offer that service.  Plan B was to visit the office of the Judge Advocate General (JAG).  And that’s what I set out to do.

I arrived at noon only to discover the *ahem* JAG was off.  Until 1300 anyway.  So the wife and I enjoyed us some Burger King and then sat outside soaking up some fine spring weather.

That’s me being patient.

At the appointed hour I scored ticket #2 in the waiting queue and soon enough I was at the counter.  I dutifully showed my Army contractor ID card and the soldier/notary asked to see my “orders”, by which he meant the paperwork I was provided when I was granted SOFA status.  Well you know, I just don’t carry those around with me and I haven’t even looked at them since I arrived back in Korea.  The soldier explained that unless my “orders” specifically included access to legal services he was not authorized to help me. I told him I assumed they did as I had been granted all the normal rights and privileges. He didn’t want to take my word for it though.  I explained I’d made a 45 minute trip in from Gireum and I really needed to get this done today.  He said he’d check with a higher up but he expected the answer would be no.  Shortly thereafter he returned and said there was no higher up available.  I gave him my best woe-is-me routine and he finally relented and notarized my signature, for which I thanked him profusely.

Next stop was the Army Post Office where I utilized Priority Mail to send the documents off to South Carolina.  Easy peezy.

Then we moved on to the bank and withdrew money to pay the rent.  Long line, but it moved fast enough I reckon.  While I had been taking care of business with the JAG, Jee Yeun had been looking through the PX circular and spotted a purse she coveted.  I pointed out that she already had a perfectly fine purse but she said it was a “winter” purse and she needed a new one for summer.  Finding it hard to argue with a logic I didn’t understand, I agreed to go to the PX after we finished our bank business.

Alright, I’m not much of a shopper.  And shopping for purses is just not something I have much comfort level doing.  But I had a picture from the circular, so how hard could it be? Excruciatingly difficult as it turned out.  I eventually found a rack with the brand of the desired purse on display, but no purse that matched the picture (or the price) of the one in the circular.  Finding a salesperson in the PX is like looking for water in the desert, but after awhile I snagged one who was hurrying by (probably trying to avoid me).  She also could not find the purse so she called out to a male employee who gruffly stated “not in stock” and walked off.  So Jee Yeun still doesn’t have a summer purse and I wasted precious minutes of my life.  (Ha, sorta like you are doing by reading this post!)

We walked back to the Dragon Hill Lodge gate to sign off post and my left leg was screaming the whole way.  Yep, it’s still doing that.  Comes and goes, and usually if I sit down for a few minutes the pain lessens and I can move along.  I needed to get to the commissary and Jee Yeun was heading into Itaewon to do the money exchange thing, so we shared a cab.  While shopping I ran into my soon to be former boss and he confirmed that legal services was included in my “orders”.  So, there’s that.

Having purchased exactly $135.00 in groceries I wasn’t feeling up to lugging them out to the bus stop.  So I grabbed one of the waiting cabs and told the driver “here’s the deal, I’m going to give you a very short fare but I’m going to pay you W5000 for it”.  He was down with that (and even turned off the meter) and five minutes later I was at the bus stop.  The 143 arrived just after I did, and we were on to Gireum-dong.

And the gaenalee is blooming.

And that’s how my day went.