Mar 2004

all good things must come to an end

2004 Mar 01

time to go back to memphis...

it was amazing how there was no traffic! maybe it was because it was 11am, or maybe it was because it was pulaski day but the dan ryan was totally empty which rules!

there was a 50 mile per hour headwind though, and we had to drive against it through most of illinois. the cloud formations were pretty cool though.

i decided to make the best of what is a pretty boring drive, by stopping at rend lake, and watching the sun set and eating dinner in the park. that's a real pretty area, and i usually luck out and get there around sunset on most drives so it's something of a tradition to stop there.

on our second visit to boomland, some shade went down...while brian was in the restroom, i heard the cashier call for a void on a cigarette purchase. now that's a pretty good indication something shady is afoot, because y'all know that the only time you void a cigarette purchase is when someone is underage, or something else just ain't right. because nobody ever picks up that pack, goes to the register, and says "no, never mind, i don't need this after all". if it did, maybe the world would have less lung cancer, but i ain't gonna hold my breath.

sure enough, about 5 minutes later, the cops come. right when we're at the same register. it was cute. the first thing they asked was "what's the address here". huh? it's BOOMLAND we're talking about here. there's no address needed buddy. that's like asking what the address is at Graceland...or Disneyworld...or the Eiffel Tower. It's just one of those things that everyone and their mom knows where it is...at least if they are truckers. (You know, I bet you could put a stamp on a letter addressed to Boomland, Charleston MO no zipcode, and it would get there with no problems). anyhow, the cashiers were dumbfounded, and even the manager didn't know exactly what their address was. they looked all over the place for something with the address, and in the end it was pretty anticlimactic because as it turns out the address is Boomland, Hwy 57 S, charleston mo whatever zipcode...

anyhow, the incident that prompted all of this was that the cigarette purchase was attempted with a counterfeit 20 dollar bill which the cops were handling for a good 10 minutes before putting it in a brown paper bag for "evidence".

the drive back to memphis was totally free of any further happenings except that we were able to see the Union planters building and the pyramid from real far off which was kinda neat.

almost as good as the real thing

2004 Mar 02

so my birthday was really on monday, but if you read the last entry, that day was spent in a car. so today was the day i actually did some stuff.

and what did i do?

first i woke up early and went to class. and boy was i surprised. everyone brought tons of food and two cakes, so i had a real spread going for my in class birthday party. that was awesome!

after that, i came home and it was almost 70 degrees outside and sunny. i hung out on george's porch for awhile, then got on my bike and grabbed my camera and had a photography day. i took a picture of the jesus house on south highland, and the signs on the house in orange mound then went over to the co-op and found some neat stuff in the freebox (my birthday presents, if you will), caught the bus downtown with my bike accompanying for the first time, since i finally discovered an incredibly useful thing...this is one of the routes that has bike racks installed on the buses. what a nice driver too...so i rode around downtown and went down by the river and hung out in parks and just generally enjoyed the hell out of myself before going back home. over by pho hoa bin, i ran into morgan who i haven't seen since i lived in the harbert house. it's funny that we both volunteer at the literacy council but i've never seen him.

i got home just as it was getting dark, and remembered i was supposed to make dinner. since i was in the mood for vegan nachos, i just whipped up a homemade equivalent since i just happened to have most of the ingredients handy.

giles came over, so it was me, brian, jessica, paul and giles. he told me he had been successfully dumpstering stuff from wild goats which is pretty amazing since they guard their dumpsters like the gestapo. jb and paul were baking up a storm, and april came home just in time to finish up the leftovers.

after all that time outdoors i was pretty tired though, so i hit the hay pretty early.

found objects

2004 Mar 08

riding through orange mound, a bunch of kids were out in the street. i gave a couple of them a tow up the street with my bike since they had roller blades on. went over to the literacy council to work on class stuff. afterwards i was going down cooper and saw a bunch of free stuff in a dumpster. got a couple of coffee cups and an earth wind and fire record that i wrapped up in a ragrug.

headed home and walked by the railroad tracks looking for random metal for a sculpture project. it was starting to get dark.

job job job

2004 Mar 09

i need me a job.

woke up to the sound of the unbalanced load of laundry. i wish people wouldn't do laundry at 8 am or 12 am. it's inconsiderate as hell.

brenda came to class today. i haven't seen her in awhile, and was kinda worried about here. she seems to be doing better now. david did really well today too...everyone did, actually.

i went to the coop after class and worked on the sushi handouts for the cooking class. then i came home and didn't do too much else because it had gotten cold outside.

spent most of the time cuddling with brian and reading.

it was announced later that we were having a potluck at our house. cool. i didn't know about it, but hey if people want to bring food over to my house, i'm all for it.

spent the rest of the afternoon looking at job postings. some are interesting, others are merely okay, but all are a thousand times better than the stuff you see around here. i swear it's like there's nothing going on in memphis in the way of jobs. and i'm tired of it...

everybody came over around 8 and josh and tim and suzie played music pretty much al evening. then river and ky and nick came over. tim's sister arrived. then casey, tj and april surfaced. it was an all raw foods potluck, and everything was really pretty. after overcoming some personal skepticism, i enjoyed myself.

"today you can call me phoolan devi, and I go by 'arr'."

what's your pronoun? does it change?

on the road to texas

2004 Mar 15

who knew what all i was getting into, at the time. i had only made up my mind the day before, really. and i had no idea where i was going exactly, except that it would take a long time to get anywhere in texas, and that one always hears the scariest things about texas...

Cruzando el desierto en la noche,

las Criaturas extrañas,

los Armadillos y el misterio,

Mansiones de los rancheros extraños,

Cada uno usa "el sombrero",

él Cuenta historias sobre conductores de tractor trailers,

No deseo "Mess with Texas",

Era un extranjero en una tierra extraña,

Pero usted me compró una cerveza,

y nos sentamos sobre el mundo,

Reído los pacos,

y bailado al ritmo de nuestras bicicletas,

Beber "Lone Star",

que Cualquier otra palabra,

referente a Jorge Bush,

y tratando "ruegue para su país"

love feast

2004 Mar 24

i think today i realized how much i hate pieces of paper and id cards. blech. and yet people think these things are SOOO important, just like you are nothing without your pieces of paper. i don't know who's bright idea it was in the first place, but i know i could have come up with something better in my sleep...

the previous rant was kinda pisces specific and the resta y'all probably don't need to worry about it.

today was the first really nice weather we've had since i got back from texas. i hope i get to the point where i can sit down and talk about texas, but for now i am kinda restricted to just alluding to the fact that i was in texas the other day...

so much stuff is blooming. If you go out into my yard/garden, there's an iris just peeking out, as well as the last of the jonquils, violets, dandelions (we like ours because we make wine with 'em), a shrub that i still don't know the name of, forsythia (almost bloomed out), the peach tree, and some miscellaneous weeds that we like to eat in our salad but don't bother to learn the names of.

today was kinda interesting, but i did get most of the stuff accomplished that i had hoped i would.

probably the highlight of my day was finding a bunch of books on the way home from the co-op (including one that i've always wanted), getting paid, and making sushi in the kitchen with ky making spring rolls right next to me and the delicate balance of space equations.

tonight was the lovefeast, which is a party where you can't feed yourself, but rather you have to get people to feed you. We had sushi, spring rolls, various snacks, hummus, spinach/artichoke dip, salads, deserts and so forth. It was a lot of fun actually...I wasn't sure how it would go but there were some really funny moments.

one of the things i like best about living in this house is the variety of experiences that i've had...or rather have on a regular basis. the kind of stuff you thought you'd never see or do again once you got out of college, i still get a lot of it, I guess. i dunno...some people probably would rather put those days behind them. i'm from the school of thought though, where there's no rush to "grow up" and the best things in my life seem to spontaneously errupt whenever i surround myself with other creative people.

but anyway, i'll quit overanalyzing the moment. it was beautiful for its own sake.

wow, i just realized that today is Jenny's birthday. I should send her an email...

alright, i can crawl off to bed with a clear conscience....