Job Hats, New Tats, and Murdered Bats: an update of life's silliness.

Hello faithful readers, all 3 or 4 of you, there are some life updates to report.  First of all I now have a new retail job which is technically part time but I have been working 38 hours a week.  Most of my day involves dealing with customers and shoving metal polls up chicken rectums (not a favorite thing to do if you are vegetarian).  Now you may be saying to yourself, "why jump back into retail?"   Well, its for the great salary, scheduling, and benefits of course!  That being said, it is nice to have every Sunday shift be considered overtime and to be working with one of my housemates.  Oh yeah and they gave me a black hat with a corporate logo on it.

Having an income has also given me the opportunity to plot out my third tattoo... and how fortunate I am that someone I know in Providence is a political comic book artist and fantasy nerd.  Here is his tumblr of sketches and less finished products: http://dgorringeart.tumblr.com/

  In exchange for a ride to Boston I will get a design and will be posting the final picture when I actually get the tattoo.  Excited :)

The last new thing to report is that the cats have murdered a second bat in 2 weeks.  I dont know where they are finding these things.  Is there a bat cave secretly in my apartment or on the ledge outside of our windows that I dont know about?  I am a bit scared that they may get rabies from this but they passed the initial period where symptoms show so I suppose as long as they dont keep up their murder streak, we should all be ok.

Current Observations About This Place Called Providence

Having been here two weeks I have noticed a few things about my current abode:

• Almost everything is cheaper here than most other places I have been in the US.  I like this, particularly the price of rent.
• I am located in a very walkable part of town, right near their "little Italy".  Yet having a car has still proven useful because some of the nearest department stores are in Massachusetts..... but still only 20 minutes away.....
• As for Italian food, had the best eggplant parmasan I ever had in my whole life at this place called Meditearraneo.  Amazing!  just Amazing!  
• Unfortunately despite hearing and reading otherwise, there is no good pizza in Providence.  I went to locations listed as The Best and it wasn't.

This is called a "pizza strip"  it is definitely a strip, but it is not...pizza.  I still haven't tried it yet because look at it... I mean look at it.

• Another weird food that is quite common here is coffee milk...or rather coffee flavored milk.  Its not bad.  *Thumbs up!*
  

• As for the people I have met here so far, total sweethearts!  To make hangouts more fun, I bought a bunch of board games and a soccer ball (because we are going to play some games).  My friend Javier also wants to watch the under-20 world cup and the latin american cup... so plenty of soccer and beer to go around.

All in all a pretty good report, I have a job starting in a week so will have a bit less free time, but its only part time..

One More Week in NJ

Since I am heading out of New Jersey back to New England again i thought I would take a look back on all of the stuff that happened and things I accomplished in the year I have been living in New Jersey:

• Lost my partner/best friend and my father within a month period.  Did my best to be strong for family and my dad's friends.
• Reconnected with many amazing NJ/NYC/DC friends and comrades.
• Paid off all my student loans!
• Bought a car
• Spent quality time with family including my brother and his amazing partner.
• worked at a warehouse here for over a year and really learned a lot.
• Really upped my game in soccer and scored goals playing against former professional players from Colombia.
• Substantially improved my Spanish and Mexican slang.
• Read a ton of books... both political and fiction. 
• Did a ton of writing and thinking and believe that I have a much better conception of my politics.  Gave a talk on this at a bookfair in Scranton and was very happy with the results
• witnessed some badass black lives matters demos.
• Saw a bunch of sick shows with bands such as Electric Wizard and Pallbearer.
• Greatly improved my mental and physical health from where I was a year ago.
• Ate soooo many pupusas and pizzas.

Mistborn: The Only Slave Rebellion I Wasn't Enthusiastic About

Mistborn is a book about a slave uprising led by some former slaves with Jedi powers and written by a Mormon. Parts of the book are excellent and I found myself cringing in others..particularly at the awful politics of the lead character. 

Despite descriptions of utter class oppression in addition to massacres committed by the godhead,  there seems to be constant reminders that "not all the nobility are bad.  As a result (spoiler alert)


...the rebels decide to preserve the nobility and create a monarchy to prevent the "economy from collapsing and the slaves from committing wanton acts of reprisals against the nobles.  As I said, a Mormon wrote it.

In addition,  besides the main character, there is barely a female character in the story...which is more excusable in Tolkien than a modern story. 

Seeing Electric Wizard!

In less than a month I will be seeing the infamous doom metal band Electric Wizard with my friend Steve.  Unfortunately, we waited too long and we will have to see them in Baltimore, rather than Philadelphia or New York city.  Regardless,  it should still be really fun and their latest album is pretty good.

I've also been digging on a bunch of retro doom bands lately such as Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats and would love to learn about new bands if anyone has any tips!

I love this song!

Ian Chinich on Moving Out, Leaving New Jersey, and Being Accountable to Your Loved Ones.

I haven't updated this blog in a while, but for those of you reading it (if there are any), I am looking to change things up a bit.  The Chinich family has definitely gone through crisis in the last year, with my father succumbing to his pancreatic cancer in October and the emotional toll that this obvious has had.  That being said, I moved back to New Jersey from Los Angeles with the sole purpose of taking care of my father and while it has been really nice to be around family and NJ friends--I dont think I can stay.

The emotional support and friendship a lot of people have given has been amazing, but it is dangerous to be living purely for my father's memory and in a house that still bares his images like a mausoleum.  That being said, some friends in RI have offered to take me in and develop a change of scenery.  Im thinking around May 1st.  For more information, "Ian chinich the Blog" Reports:  (i just wanted to say that :P  )

New Jersey has many things I still really like.  It has amazing food (Im a serial- pizza eating fiend...which probably isn't healthy), it has friends from both high school, college, as well as easy access to NYC and Philly.  Lastly it has my mother, brother, uncle, cousin, my mom and dad's partners, and others who have been really close on account of my fathers situation.  Being accountable to them and supporting them emotionally is a huge responsibility that I plan on continuing.  However, that does not mean I have to stay here and live in limbo either.  

RI has coffee milk, a really working class environment, cheap rent, new people to meet, and a group of supportive friends who already know all the circumstances of what I have been going through.  Despite the ridiculous unemployment that is there, I am also pretty confident I can find work.  As a result it seems really appealing.... and its still in the pizza belt--for the Win!

Ian Chinich at a Pizza Joint in Buenos Aires