JimmyBramlett Dot Com

Done with COVID

jimmy

April 16, 2021

On Wednesday I received my second Moderna vaccine dose where upon I felt oh so slightly fatigued and out of it, but nowhere near as nauseatingly awful as I did after the first dose. I know in reality I still have two more weeks before I can say I’m fully vaccinated, but symbolically at least I can say I am done. Well, except for the booster shots I’ll need in a year or so or whatever and every year thereafter. And the masks I will still need to wear until we reach some kind of herd immunity (which looks more and more unlikely because of stupid conspiracy-minded cunts not wanting to be vaccinated.) But at least for me the fear of catching full blown COVID is done.

I will say that if what I experienced after the first dose was any indication of what COVID on a much smaller scale is like, then I’m glad I never got it. Now on to the orgies!

Actually, first thing on the list of to-dos was something that I’ve been thinking and talking about for a long time: getting my first tattoo. I figured at this stage of life is the best time to get permanently scarred, so I went and did got it done at Sang Bleu Los Angeles by Collin Gribbons. He did a wonderful job and was very meticulous about it. Here is the slightly blood-seeping aftermath of the tattoo:

Those who know, know.

Being holed up for over a year taught me that I shouldn’t make excuses for not doing things. Since we aren’t guaranteed a tomorrow, fuck it. As long as it’s not harming the world, do it before it’s too late.

Okay, I’m ending my sanctimonious nonsense. Now to eat something since I have yet to do that today.

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This is 42

jimmy

March 27, 2021

Although I insist 41 and 42 shouldn’t count because of the quarantine, alas, here it is. Of course 42 is the answer to all of life’s questions according to Douglas Adams, so does that mean I finally know everything?

I’m starting 42 feeling happy, hopeful and thankful. It sounds so fucking sappy but there it is.

I am feeling happy because I’m living in the closest thing I can ever think of as a dream apartment. It’s pretty big, bright and in a historical building in Downtown Los Angeles. Also perhaps it’s thanks to some chemical aid thanks to escitalopram (20 mg every day,) but life isn’t a complete crushing unbearable act.

I’m hopeful because I’m halfway vaccinated, halfway to being able to start getting life to be a little more normal, to start seeing the people I’ve missed in my life over the last year and to start having penises go inside me. Yes, the penises. Mmmm. Penis.

And I’m thankful because I have a decent job that pays me well so that I don’t have to worry about being poor, that I’m healthy enough and that people tend to leave me the hell alone.

It’s just so weird to say that for the first time in my life things are pretty nice. How weird.

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Half Way There

jimmy

March 20, 2021

My right arm received the first dose of the Moderna vaccine on Wednesday. First I felt like it was a small miracle that I got it since it seemed getting an appointment was just about as easy as trying to purchase a PS5. Elise told me to try doing it through Kaiser, and I was able to get an appointment for the next day in Hollywood. SCORE!

There was a considerable line to get the first dose, but it moved pretty quickly. About a 40-minute wait, I checked in, got the vaccine card and in went the chilly magical RNA elixir. After the mandatory 15-minute observation, I went back home and continued to work.

Sure my arm was sore around the injection, but damn I was tired. Maybe I had a bad sleep? I found myself at my desk sitting up completely asleep with unread Slack notifications blinking on the screen. Shit.

After I finally logged off of work, I sat on my couch completely unwilling to make dinner. Again, I startled awake sitting up on my couch a couple of hours later. Was this the vaccine or was this just me? It’s not a new thing for me to fall asleep sitting up on that couch.

I ate a reluctant dinner, a small salad really, and then just went to bed. At midnight I woke up as my mouth was salivating like crazy and my digestive tract felt like a mosh pit. Fuck. Vomit #1. An hour later, Vomit #2. I was able to sleep after that.

I was out of it most of Thursday though not feeling as bad as I did the day before. I confirmed with my pharmacist cousin Gina that nausea was indeed a side effect of the vaccine and that some folks, particularly Asians, did get it bad after the first dose. Great. But I powered through the day and by the end of it felt totally fine.

I don’t know what I’ll feel next month after the second dose, but if feeling that discomfort for a day is the price to pay to avoid coming down with the COVID, then so be it.

Another thing. If these side effects are like mini-COVID, then there is no way I want the full blown COVID.

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Day 365

jimmy

March 14, 2021

Exactly one year ago today we started to work from home. I had expected this to last only 3 months, six months tops. Yet here we are exactly one year later still working from home, but at least there is a little hope with the vaccines out. Here is everything that’s gone down in the last year:

I moved twice: the first 364 days ago from San Pedro to DTLA, and the second a month ago down the hall to a larger and brighter apartment.
My mom went missing again. Turned out she was stuck in Cuzco, Peru because of the pandemic.
Spent a month essentially in bed unable to do anything. Got on Lexapro and now feel a lot better.
Went on vacation to the middle of nowhere Montana twice because I needed a vacation but was afraid of the Covid — felt that was a good compromise.
Because I was mostly at home, there was no exposure to anyone else’s colds or flus or other ikky diseases, so no illnesses. The last time I was sick was when I caught the flu in Amsterdam/Brussels back in November 2019.
Spent way too much money on furniture and appliances. Really with all the cardboard boxes I amassed in the last year, I honestly could’ve had my own condo on the streets of LA.
No sex. My fucking virginity has grown back.

It sounds like I should be getting the vaccine pretty soon. I can’t wait to have people over in my apartment. I can’t wait to meet people in the bars, restaurants and events. I can’t wait to have tons of penises and other assorted goodies inserted into my anus and lots of seminal fluids all over my body whilst being a sweaty heaving mess.

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Goodbye Trump

jimmy

January 20, 2021

Good riddance! What a dreadful four years in our country. We endured the following:

Muslim travel ban
Attempted revocation of the Affordable Care Act without an alternative healthcare plan
The rise of white supremacist groups with Charlottesville and the Insurrection at the Capitol as their lowlights
Collusion with Russia and attempted collusion with Ukraine for his own personal campaigns
Child separation policy
The attack on truth
Lying about COVID and absolving all Federal responsibility allowing over 400,000 people to die unnecessarily
Tax cuts for the rich
An economic crash not seen since 1929.
And a lot more.

I guess on paper I probably should have voted for Trump because personally I am doing better than I did four years ago. And I guess I should like tax breaks because it means I can spend more money on me me me (even though as well off as I am, I’m still not rich enough to be in tax bracket that gets all the breaks.) But seriously, if other people can’t survive what’s the point? What good is it for me to do well when the rest of society is in the tank?

So for the first time since the 1993 Clinton inauguration when I was first becoming politically aware, I watched today’s ceremonies. It felt like a much needed moment of therapy. And can we talk about native Angeleno Amanda Gorman who stole the show?

Don’t get me wrong, I’m no fan of Biden. He’s far too right wing for me, but anything is better than what we had. It will be refreshing to hear the truth every now and again.

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Moving Again?

jimmy

January 19, 2021

So after about one year of living in my apartment in Downtown LA, I’m moving. After staying in one place for about 10 years in San Pedro, I’m now going to be packing up my things and moving to a brand new place. I’ll be moving…

Down the hall and around the corner.

Yes, I’m not even moving floors. I’m just getting a bigger place with more closet space. So I’ll be going from 824 square feet to 1057 square feet, and instead of a courtyard view I’ll be facing the street. You know what that means: I’ll be flashing a lot more people.

As for leaving Los Angeles, I don’t think so. If you search on YouTube, you can see a whole list of whiny-ass bitches talk about leaving the city. For the most part, they were mere transplants to begin with, so goodbye! You were only clogging up our freeways and being the sort of person you bitch about in your videos: opportunistic social-ladder climbers with fake personalities and even faker bodies.

Being born here and having lived here since I was eight-years old (with a four-year escape to Santa Barbara,) what these people see in LA is not what I see in LA. LA is a tough place, sure. All big cities are tough. All big cities are expensive and overpriced. Where the fuck are you going to go? New York? Boston? Chicago? And don’t tell me Austin because it’s not even in the top 20 metropolitan areas in populations in the United States.

Most of these people need to admit it: they couldn’t handle living in a big city. They couldn’t make it in what they were hoping to make it in when they originally moved out here and decided it would be easier to live while working as a restaurant server in Nebraska than in Los Angeles.

Whatever. Watch me in a year move to Montana. HAHA!

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Home Sweet Home

jimmy

January 14, 2021

I got home Saturday night, and there was a strange feeling I had: I was so happy to be home.

When I lived in San Pedro, I did not love the place. It was cheap as all hell which is why I stayed there for as long as I did, but I did not love it even though it was the same apartment I grew up in. But as I stepped out the elevator, walked down the hall and through my door, I smiled and thought: I really love where I live.

Not to say this was a bad vacation. It was very peaceful and picturesque just as I expected. Perhaps the biggest disappointment was that the weather was too nice — I wanted to experience some bad Montana weather that would make my fingers fall off from frostbite. The highs got up to 40F, the lows dipped barely below freezing and there was maybe a little dusting of snow during the middle of one night.

I mean we did have a sloppy-ass coup attempt that occurred during my vacation which did bring things down a little. I don’t know.

Well now that the work week has gone on, life has returned as normal. Well, at least we have a three-day weekend.

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Gripes

jimmy

January 2, 2021

While at the airport yesterday, I noticed a lot of guys wearing sweatpants (or joggers if you decided to overpay for them.) I find it appalling. I understand you want to feel comfortable, but one doesn’t need to become slovenly. I’m not asking for a three-piece suit or anything, but at the very least some jeans.

While going around here in Missoula and Butte, people were talking politics. “Oooh look what they did to Pelosi,” this one guy said while I was waiting for a table at the Lolo Creek Steakhouse. Of all the subjects to talk about in this planet, you’re going to talk about politics? Yuck! Get a fucking life.

Now that I got that off of my chest, I woke up late and got some granola, yogurt and fruit from Catalyst Cafe in downtown Missoula before driving 119 miles to Butte. I wanted to go see the Berkeley Pit, but despite what the Googles said the viewing platform was closed. Boo. But I went into the historic uptown Butte and snapped some photos including the Pekin Noodle Parlor, supposedly the oldest continually open Chinese restaurant in the United States which opened up in 1911. In a seemingly recurring theme, that was also closed but until dinnertime.

Peking Noodle Parlor — The oldest continually running Chinese restaurant in the country, est. 1911.

I also took some photos from the historic uptown area.

Metals Bank Building, built in 1906, just a year after my apartment building in Downtown LA.

After the disappointing stop in Butte, I head back towards Missoula but stopped off in Anaconda first to see the Washoe Smelt Smokestack. The motherfucker sits at the top of a hill and can fit the Empire State Building.

That’s a little of what I got up to today. Oh, there was dinner at the Lolo Creek Steakhouse which is arguably the best steakhouse in Montana. You can see the picture and details on Instagram. I won’t bother with that nonsense here.

Since there is going to be some rain (and maybe snow?) tomorrow, I’m going to head to some local shops and do a peekaboo. And maybe get dinner at a French café a couple of blocks away that’s supposed to be pretty good.

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Escaping 2021

jimmy

January 1, 2021

I guess this is one way to start the new year by running the fuck away.

To be honest, it’s not so much of an escape but rather taking some time off since I probably won’t be able to do it for a while. My boss is going on maternity leave starting in February and is due to come back in June, so I’ve got to take the time when I can, right?

On the mass text last night when I told my family that I was going to Montana, my aunt said, “I’ve been there. Nothing to do there!”

I guess that’s true on one hand. You’re not going to find a metropolis, a raging night life, tons of cultural events or anything like you can find in big cities around the world. But that’s one reason I like the place. I mean, I live in Los Angeles one of the cultural capitals of the world. I can get that stuff anytime at home.

The flight to Spokane was uneventful, and I picked up my rental pickup truck — a Chevy Silverado. The reason I flew into Spokane was because renting a pickup truck from there versus renting one from Missoula was a difference of over $1,200. So you bet your ass I will drive the two hours just to save over a grand.

Despite the recent snowfall the roads were mostly clear, and I came across minimal ice. I’ll admit there were a couple of moments in Idaho where I took things slowly just in case. But there were no surprises, and I got to my hotel safely. I’ll be in Missoula until Monday where I will drive over close to the Montana-Idaho border near the towns of Thompson Falls and Talc. Then I’ll head back to Spokane on Friday and stay there overnight until leaving next Saturday.

So far 2021 has been good.

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This was 2020

jimmy

December 31, 2020

Well this has been a shitshow, hasn’t it? It’s really easy to bitch about what happened this year. Low hanging fruit. But rather than focus on that, here are some good things that happened this year.

I was forced to move out of my San Pedro apartment and moved into a place in Downtown LA. Fortunately I was given a buyout.
I basically spent June in bed. I was prescribed Lexapro, and now I feel a lot better. Amazingly enough this is the first time ever I’ve been prescribed antidepressants (although I probably should have been on them a long time ago.)
Learned working from home is just as productive as working in an office. So fuck going into the office. No more!
Went to Montana in October and fell in love with the place.
Started listening to music again. No. REALLY listening to music.

Here are some things I’ll be working on in 2021:

Montana vacation starting tomorrow, actually. My boss is going on maternity leave in February, so I’ve got to take the vacay when I can.
Be healthier overall.
Move. I’m actually going to move within the same apartment building, but I would like to have more closet space.
Better clothes. I used to consider myself a bit fashionable. What the fuck happened to me?
Maybe start creating music? I’ve never been much for writing music. Maybe I’ll remedy that this year.
Once travel restrictions lift, get my ass over to Berlin. And have sex. Tons of sex. If I don’t get an STD, I will have done things incorrectly. Shit, I want a fucking prolapsed anus. If I’m not sitting on a rosebud, 2021 will be a huge bust.

I’m not one to whine about how awful 2020 was and have any sort of naïve illusions that 2021 will automatically be a better year. Hell, I’m not expecting to be in a post-COVID world until deep into next autumn. I guess with age comes wisdom, and since I’ll be turning the ripe old age of 42 in March, I will have the answers to all of life’s questions? Hm. Whatever.

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