I spent a great deal of time looking for Heather G’s blond bob among the sea of dark hair.
I stood by her print, titled “Upper Pisang”, to hear what people were saying about it. An hoary old woman and her effeminate nephew (to whom she was sure to introduce me) enjoyed the colours and the glimmer. She decided to make a bid on it, and I took this shot.
We cover a lot of ground on the drive, stuff I wouldn’t admit to just anyone. It’s good to have a set amount of time for some one on one. We see each other at parties, but it’s never time by ourselves.
We get there a few hours early because it isn’t so much about the game as hanging out with the two friends I don’t see enough. There’s a cooler full of snow and beer, and the food is coming in protein; pigs-in-blankets, ground beef nachos, chicken fingers, crab dip, meat balls.
For a night, I’m with guys who punch arms, exchange verbal jabs, and laugh at blue collar jokes. Two little girls run around, and no one ever lets that change them. Now they’re fathers, but they’ll always be real men.
Cause stuff like this can happen any time.
(I love Audra’s laugh. Conversely, I hate mine.)
(+50 bonus points if you get the song reference.)
I’m getting a haircut today. I tend to look a great deal frumpier when a month has passed, which is also around the time my hair starts to piss me off, in a “WHY WON’T YOU STAY LIKE THAT?! NO, LIKE THAT. AAAAARGGGHHGH” kind of way.
My last one was on Christmas Eve, in the middle of a rushed holiday schedule, and I remember exactly the frame of mind I had when I went for that haircut. It feels like I’ve been through so much since then; emotional changes, personal epiphanies, and life experienced. It’s only been a little over a month.
Sometimes, I wonder if it would be scary to be my friend or lover, because of how much transformation I can go through in short periods of time. Julie once said I had changed a lot in the year that I knew her at the time. I wanted her to quantify that for me, but I didn’t, hoping it was generally for the better.
I can only hope it’s always an improvement.
Edit: Wow, I found an old photo I took in 2004 of the CD in Trolley’s CD player.
Modest Mouse used to be the best kept indie rock secret. Then they let Gravity Rides Everything be used in a Nissan commercial. Then they did Saturday Night Live. Then they did The O.C. (Really, Modest Mouse? REALLY?). Then they appeared on Rock Band 2 and Guitar Hero World Tour, and now I wonder if they were just sellouts doing it for the money to begin with.
But before all that happened, or perhaps as it happened, they came out with Float On.
This was the song of 2004. It defined the year for me. I was picking myself up off the floor after a torrid relationship, and settling down alone, finding my own little bit of peace.
That was six years ago, and I’m back there again. I had an odd moment of serenity as I left the staircase to the Tai Chi studio tonight, and walked into the frigid, calm air. Sort of like I had no hope, but that didn’t matter because I didn’t need hope; I had my hands, my senses, my wits, and my camera, and that was good enough.
I’m sure the fact that I’ve starting working from home four days out of the week has something to do with it. I can work on projects with my music loud, and my pjs on. I don’t get interrupted, so my productivity is great.
Okay, so I’ve been avoiding any movies or TV shows with dating or romance. I’m sticking strictly to Babylon 5 and The Sopranos. It’s been working, because I’ve been feeling better about myself and my current situation. Thinking: “Maybe I’m a nice secret right now”.