Personal

The stuff about me and my life. The “diary” side of blogging.

North to Alaska

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Just when I’d reconciled myself to the fact that I wasn’t going to be able to afford to head up to Alaska this summer like I’d been planning to see James and Stacy get hitched, what do some of my friends do but chip in to help me out with the cost of the plane ticket.

Pretty cool, eh? My friends rock. R-A-W-K rawk!

I got the flight confirmation e-mailed to me this morning right before work. As it stands, I’ll be flying out of here at 12:25pm on Friday June 21st, arriving in Anchorage that same day at 3:01pm. I’ll be up there all through the weekend, flying back down Monday night, leaving at 8:30pm and arriving back in Seattle at 12:45am.

In other news, I got two more small packages from my parents. Knowing my sweet tooth all to well, one was a bottle of Nutella. The other made me laugh — a climbers D-ring with a key ring attachment that has a compass attached to it. Given the fact that it came with a note that said, “Don’t get lost!” I’m pretty sure it was inspired by my lamenting my lack of a compass back when I was first trying to find my way around the Microsoft campus.

Y’know — my friends and my parents rock. Too cool.

Birthday presents!

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I’ve got some very silly parents.

I’m sure that this is just an entirely mindblowing revelation, for anyone who knows me well, or has met them.

I got my first box of birthday presents from them a couple days ago. Two items, both of which made me laugh a lot. The first was a black t-shirt bearing the text, “I’m only wearing black until they make something darker.” They know me so well….

The second I’m almost positive was primarily, if not entirely, my mom’s idea. See, my mom has a fascination (and an unhealthy one, at that, in my slightly smart-alecky opinion) with silly little noisemakers — for instance, some of our family trip back in December of 2000 was devoted to searching for things like the “Big Mouth Bass” or whatever that singing fish was that was so popular a while ago. Now, these little gadgets happen to annoy me to pieces, so I teased mom mercilessly about this during the trip.

So what do I get for my birthday? I got a “My Pet Ferret (With realistic Movement and Ferret Chatter) — Touch and Sound Activated!” I laughed pretty hard when I saw that…both because of the teasing I’d given mom over toys of this sort, and because for a time before I moved to Seattle, I used to have two ferrets of my own. So now, every so often, when I make enough noise, I’m greeted with some happy little ferret chatter coming out of the corner of my room where he sits.

As I said — I’ve got very silly parents.

Why I don’t give my phone number to people who fry anymore.

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3:45 am:

RIIIING…RIIIING…RIIING…

“Hello?”

“I just saw Gurbymurble!”

“You saw who? Who the hell is this?”

“James! I saw Gurbymurble!”

“Who the hell is Gurbymurble?”

“That Russian dude!”

“You mean Gorbachov?”

“Yeah, that dude!”

“You’re calling me at 3:45 in the morning to say you saw Gorbachov on TV?!”

“No man, not on TV! I saw the dude at the 7-11!”

“What the hell would Gorbachov be doin’ at the Darkville 7-11?”

“He was buyin’ a pack of smokes!”

“The only reason Mikhail Gorbachov would be the 7-11 buying a pack of smokes at 3:45 in the morning is beause you dropped five hits of acid at midnight and have in fact seen Willy tryin’ to hold up the store again. What, praytell, did this Mr. Gorbachov look like?”

“Uh, he was a tall black dude holding a .45.”

“And when was the last time you saw Gorbachov holding a .45?”

“Tonight at the 7-11!”

“Uh-huh….”

“Hey dude! It’s almost 4! What are you doin’ up?”

“I’m talking to a moron.”

“Aw fuck him! Listen, you won’t believe what I saw!”

“You saw a black Mikhail Gorbachov holding up the 7-11….”

“DUDE! Did I tell you about that?”

“Yes. Yes you did, thank you.”

“I saw a 400 pound spider eat a cop!”

“Oh? And where did this little atrocity happen? Not at the 7-11 by any chance?”

“No, man, on channel 31! It’s a movie called ‘A Big Ol’ Fuckin’ Spider Eats a Cop.'”

“More like ‘5 Hits of Acid Eats a Loadie’s Brain.'”

“I haven’t had 5 hits of acid!”

“My sincerest apologies….”

“I’ve had 6!”

“Hang up the phone or I’m giving the Jehovah’s Witnesses your address.”

“Who do you think I got the 6 hits from?!”

SLAM!!!

Why blog?

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Some days I sit back and wonder just why I do this. My site doesn’t get a whole lot of traffic — primarily just my folks and a few friends who stop by from time to time when they remember. And, admittedly, much of what I write probably wouldn’t be of any real interest to the world in general. Bits and pieces of my life, what I’m doing, what’s going on. Heck, I don’t even get personal enough most of the time to make for any real good drama!

I found the following quote over on Peach’s site after she left a comment to one of my posts, and it seemed to sum up fairly accurately why I keep banging away at this — because, whether or not it’s seen all that often…it’s fun.

I am very pleased with my (o.k. and yours too) blogger. I feel like I have fallen down the rabbit hole; just falling and falling in a blissful state, sans the drugs. I love IT! It is peering through my own looking glass at my own ego and my written word. Whether you are an amatuer or a professional; whether you are an exquisite artiste or you stink, it makes no difference. Most people who create at some time or another, have a strong sense of who they are in the images they create. Mediocrity is the scare word for us. Your word or my word, we all checked off ‘public’ for a reason. We would like to be read and responded to.

Sometimes, though, I feel that I shouldn’t be ‘published’ unless I am very, very good. And then again, who cares? It’s my Journal and if you want to read it, be my guest.

Ugh

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In brief — I saw Spiderman, it rocked. More later. I’m currently battling off a really nasty flu bug…hence why no updates for a few days, and only this really short note right now before I curl up in bed.

I’ll get more up when being vertical doesn’t seem like such a bad idea. ;)

Dancing is not a crime!

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Well, today ended up being something of an interesting day. I needed to get out of the house for a bit, so wandered into downtown to see a movie. Now, Westlake Plaza seems to be the focal point for most (all?) of the protests in Seattle, and it’s becoming somewhat second nature to swing by and see who’s protesting what each weekend.

Today, though, the protest was something that actually interests me! There’s been a lot of political struggle here in Seattle recently over the Teen Dance Ordinance (lots of background information can be found via this Google search). A local organization called the NorthWest Late Night Coalition was in the plaza today, holding a rally to gain support for their part in the battle to repeal the TDO, with an information booth, speakers, and DJ’s playing. It was pretty interesting, and I stopped by to watch for a while. I ended up chatting with two of the volunteers helping out (Dolly and Chloe, if I remember correctly) and let them know a bit about my history in Anchorage working with Gig’s and the Lost Abby.

Once I got home, I stopped by their website and signed up — mayhaps I’ll start getting involved in things down here! Would be very cool…here’s hoping!

Happy birthday Kevin!

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Happy birthday to my little brother! Kinda scary to think that he turns 26 today — in some ways, scarier than me turning 29 yesterday. Yikes. Hey — he’s still my little brother, though. :D

May Day!

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Happy May Day! Or perhaps Beltane would be more to your liking.

Either way, I’m sure you know the real reason today is so important.

Because it’s two days before my birthday, of course! :D

What did you think?