WRTIV

Got back this morning at around 7am, I think. WRTIV was pretty cool.

Write On Your Blog, Not On Your Butt

I’ve taken a few weeks of vacation to sort out my house (henceforth referred to as The Compound), prepare for Wacky Road Trip IV ™, and clear my head. I, with the help of Broken Little Person Sitting On A Tree Limb, have done much furniture shopping. It amazes me how much you can pay for a simple platform to place your ass on.

I sat on Library Mall yesterday, facing up State Street with a view of Madison’s capitol building. When I first walked onto the mall, I came to realize that I was standing on a big, ten foot wide chalk-drawn swastika! My first thought was, ‘This is odd for Madison, and stranger still on campus.’ My second thought was, ‘So, here I am, a guy with a shaved head, standing on a ten foot wide swastika. This can’t look good.’ I removed myself from the swastika and sat down nearby. (I took a closer look later, the swastika was in a circle with a line through it, it was for a rally against hate groups.)

Initially I was drinking coffee and reading Arthur C. Clarke’s ‘Rendezvous With Rama’, but then the people watching became too interesting so I put the book down and just gave in to it.

A woman sat to my left, carefully placed some religious pamphlets around her and pulled her guitar out of it’s case. Oh boy, I thought, this could be really, really bad. She strummed and sang and surprisingly she had a high clear voice with which she sang some hymnish tunes. ‘Blessed be the merciful, blessed be the peacemakers, something, something, something, blah, blah, for they will be killed.’ It is unfortunate that my attention wandered to a woman who walked by, whose black shorts declared ‘I HEART NY.’ I considered asking the Hymnster, ‘Uh, I apologize, I was distracted by that woman’s butt-message, which, similar to your song, was a message of love. Could you clarify who exactly is going to be killed?’ But, another guy walked over to the Hymnster and dove right into a theological debate with her.

I proceeded to focus my attention on the heat-dressed women. Saw some hot muslim women; hot because they were wearing head coverings and long sleeves and it was a hot day. They may or may not have been ‘hot’ as my people use this word, but again, they were all covered up, so who can tell? Lot’s of women with Ipods, hardly any men sporting them. Several women were sporting shorts with butt-messages, but like the Ipods, no men with butt-messages that I noted. For whatever record you’re keeping, I’m not going to feel badly about reading something someone has on their body. And I’m not going to feel badly about reading it two or three times. Or however many times it takes!

I enjoyed watching bicyclists race up to the signs stating: ‘No Bicycle Riding on Sidewalk’. Some abided this decree; others stuck it to The Man and slalomed through the brightly painted juice vendors at ridiculous speeds.

A very relaxing morning indeed! I could continue, but you get the idea. I’m on vacation. I’m relaxing and being somewhat productive. Tomorrow I leave on Wacky Road Trip IV ™, so I won’t be posting for at least a week. Two thousand miles of road, three days in Seattle, then two thousand more miles of road. Sweet. Could this vacation be any more relaxing?

The Marble Is Moving

Breaking up is a learning process, and my learning curve is skateboard-ramp steep right now. For the prior nine months, I guess it’s been flat enough where you’d be lucky to get a marble to roll on it.

Saturday, after Lis vacated, I had to go to Target to replenish my stores of many things. Then, as indicated in my last post, I went to IKEA to further round out my stuff. Is it just me, or is it kind of funny that I didn’t own any pillows, sheets, hangers or towels? I find some humor in this, but humor is sometimes difficult to explain.

I asked Lis about the towels. “I don’t own any towels?” She sort of shrugged and said, “Those were mine before we moved in.” OK. Fine. We haven’t bought any towels in nine years, I guess.

It’s weird. I get incandescently pissed off for a moment, then clamp down on that feeling and think. This is what you want to discuss? This is what you want to argue about? Nine dollar towels? So, I go and buy new towels. I’m wondering if I’ve ‘moved on’ when I stop getting that flare of angst. I’ve had these weird dizzying headaches for the last month and a half; I wonder what my blood pressure is at, and if it’s dropping now that We Can Move On.

Independence Day

Since my last post I have celebrated Independence Day, gone to a minor league baseball game (Madison Mallards v LaCrosse Loggers), gone out with the workies a few times, saw X-Men 3 (liked it, but I'm a sucker for super-powers done well), went to Art Fair on the Square, Concerts on the Square, Jim's 4th of July picnic and Lisa moved out. My friends have done an admirable job of distracting me, especially lately.

She moved out yesterday with the help of many friends and from all accounts, it went well.

The house is bare, so today, I head to IKEA to refurnish. Must go, maybe I'll post more later.