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February 2002

Randomly Friday

It’s February and I finally have a new calendar, albeit a rather uninspiring one. Last year, I had “Historical Maps of US Cities” at home and “Wallace and Grommit Go to the Movies” at work. This year I waited too late…

No Mark this weekend, which will not be my favorite way to spend a weekend, but will nonetheless allow me to catch up on lots of deferred maintenance, general cleaning, and maybe even some actual creative pursuits. Assuming I have the motivation and attention span to get moving on any of it…

I could spend the weekend crying in my Cheerwine about not winning any of the assorted web journal awards, but that’s not terribly likely simce, well, I just don’t care. I’ll probably just buy a new TV instead…

Congratulations to Becky for 20,000 hits (yes, I was the one), to Rick for a pretty swifty recovery, and to Mark for hiring some help and hating work much less…

My Book

One night about five or six months ago, I was in this used bookstore near 9th and Irving and I saw the most amazing, rare used book on the LA freeway system. It was a tad pricey, and right at that moment, when I was at my most freaked out about the whole hospital thing and my finances and everything else, I couldn’t make myself buy it. I really wanted it and I regretted not buying it for months…

Tonight after dinner with Dan and Jamie, we happened to wander by the very same bookstore. It was going out of business this go-round and everything was a third off. And the damned book was still there. This time, I had money, I felt much better about life, and the book is now in my living room…

It’s a small thing, really, but it feels a little symbolic somehow of my much-improved state of mind since last summer…

The Romance Is Over

The romance is over. This afternoon, I tried everything I could to re-ignite the spark, and I just couldn’t do it. There’s nothing left to spice up anymore. I should just give up..

I’m talking about my long-souring romance with the Bay Area, by the way. I had another of those moments of realization today. I was down in the South Bay and I tried so desperately hard to get lost and see something I hadn’t seen before as I found my way out of wherever I was. And despite my most valiant efforts, I was unable to do so…

Unless you count that ten minutes I couldn’t find my way out of some office park in Santa Clara. And I don’t. That’s just too easy. And unpleasant…

One of the reasons (there were, of course, several others as well) that I left both Charlotte and Greensboro was that I was incapable of getting lost there anymore. Yeah, it sounds strange, but that’s how my mind works. Maybe it’s a thing with us Geography majors. All six of us…

And yeah, the sixth day is the hardest, dammit. But I’m glad I’m getting all this consumerist frenzy out of the way this weekend, since I apparently won’t be leaving the bed next weekend. Not that I have a problem with the idea or anything…

Mmmm. Cryptic.

Many, many things on my mind tonight, but they’ll have to wait until tomorrow, because I spent the whole evening rewiring and making my big new TV fit into a space which was way to small for it. But I did it. And my collection of dirty videos played a very important part…

Yeah, that whole paragraph was suitably vague, and maybe I’ll rewrite it some day. Or not. I’m going to bed now, since I have to be awake again in under seven hours…

Damn, I miss you. And I owe you one (and Jamie too)…

Super Bowl Monday

I got email spam this afternoon inviting me to bet on the Super Bowl. I think even I may have been able to get a successful bet down at this point (20 hours after the game ended), but I still decided to skip it…

I will say, again, that Super Bowl Sunday is a great day to shop, especially in the ‘burbs. There was hardly a soul in Best Buy yesterday. We were also spared the massive traffic jam on the Bay Bridge as we headed back into the city at 6:00…

I guess I could’ve watched it, but I remain convinced that football and baseball are, without question, the two most boring sports in the world, tight and semi-revealing uniforms notwithstanding. How those twenty or so minutes of actual activity or motion can stretch to fill a three-plus-hour time slot is absolutely beyond me…

Pro skateboarding, now there’s a sport I can sink my teeth into. So to speak…

There’s a better journal entry in me this afternoon, but I haven’t really written it yet, so maybe it’ll wind up as a “later still”…

Why is Bravo running lots of “the making of…” movie trailers where “Hill Street Blues” is supposed to be?

Love/Hate

Long, strangely busy week and I’m now in the midst of a new project which may stave off eviction and starvation for another month or so. And no, this is not the “better journal entry” I promised a couple of days ago. I also make no promises that there will be any improvement for several more days. Sorry…

 

Things I love today:

  • Him, with or without a currently functional website.
  • My big new TV.
  • The new Radio Shack signal amplifier which has finally made my cable worth watching on the aforementioned big new TV.
  • Designing websites while listening to KABL on my 1963 clock radio with glow control. High tech meets low tech, y’know?
  • The likelihood that I will soon be revisiting the northwest after a five year absence.

Things I hate today:

  • Moving my car on street cleaning night.
  • My (I assume) medication-induced bloodshot right eyeball.
  • People who, when confronted with the fact that they’re in the wrong lane, decide the proper approach is to come to a grinding halt and hold up everyone behind them until they can move to the correct one.
  • Verio, for fucking over another friend.
  • The fact that my local Simpsons rerun station hasn’t run a pre-1999 meltdown episode in months.

It’s time for bed…

Lucky There’s A…

Two episodes of “Family Guy” in one night. I think it’s a plot to divert attention from the fact that it’s been cancelled. Again. For something like the fourth time…

Having always had the utmost respect for obsessive nerds (you should see some of the Filemaker databases I’ve created), this site gets my highest praise, even though they missed that “Archie, Sabrina, and the Groovie Goulies” vortex. Thanks to Sarah for that link…

OK, I’ve been working ever since I got home from work (what?), and now I’m gonna go watch a movie on my big new TV and rest up for my much-anticipated trip to the land of Mark (and his new site) tomorrow. It’s been 11 days; advance rest may be very much required. So yes, this is the next in a series of half-assed journal entries rather than the long-promised interesting one. Sorry…

I want meat loaf and I want it now…

Dreamy

This is the second time this week I’ve had a dream which involved me being in high school. Last night’s centered around the first day of the semester. I was in math class. The teacher was trying to explain some obscure concept with plates of rather unpleasant vegan food which, for some reason, we all kept eating before she could make her point. All the while, I was trying to keep the attention of some girl I had the hots for…

Y’know, I’m pretty sure I don’t even want to know what that whole thing symbolized…

Weekend in Fresno

 

I think it would be just about impossible to overstate how much I enjoyed this weekend and didn’t want it to end. Thanks. I’m really worn out, so I’ll just throw up some random observations for now:

  • Firsts for me. Lots of firsts. And several realizations as well. More about that later. It’s been kind of a season for realizations. And firsts.
  • Los Creepers and Fastback 69. Yay.
  • Is there ever NOT a wreck on I-580 in Livermore?
  • I have become a designated driver.
  • A really nice Mies van der Rohe book for 90 cents is a wonderful thing.
  • I’m 37 1/2 years old (as of today, which I forgot until now) and I feel about 13, except when I’m taking my pills.
  • Why yes, the left lane IS designed for passing and not for cruising along at your own pace. Thanks for noticing.
  • Should I be concerned that I’ve spent more time in a bar 180 miles from my house than in any of the ones in my neighborhood lately?
  • Dimanche Gras, anyone?
  • I think I could probably live in Baltimore if I had to.
  • If I were a mystery shopper, the Burger King in Modesto would have failed miserably tonight.
  • Fabuloso comes in FOUR colors now?

OK, that probably made no sense at all. Maybe I’ll try again tomorrow. Right now, I’m teetering between happy, goofy, and comatose, so I’m going to bed…