The Summer of George

Beat the Heat

Today was one of those days where I found myself drifting from one project to another. I woke up a little before 9am to a raging hangover that kept me homebound all day. I could not function well enough to do anything but sit at the computer for the first part of the day. I won a $50,000/27-person tournament in the process, which was kind of nice. It totally boosted my self-esteem.


After that I got bold and decided to tackle the dishes in the kitchen. I always talk about how much I hate washing dishes (which I do), but in the end, when all is said and done, I realize that I kind of enjoy the mindlessness that comes with the project. The little details always captivate me. I find myself setting up a process: utensils, bowls, plates, cups, pots & pans. I like to go from small to big for the drying rack we have. Then I work on the cups, because there is never any room for them in the rack, and then I make my way to the bigger items because I normally let them dry on the stove. At the end of the project I always find it immensely satisfying to look over and see a rack full of clean dishes.

After dishes I tackled cancelling my AOL account, which I've had since I began travelling for work in 2000. This clip on Break.com actually inspired me to make the leap. Annie and I have been talking about cancelling it for awhile now, but it just seemed like a huge pain in the ass to have to go through all of the services I use on the net to change my email address. I finally made the leap today and spent about an hour and a half going through them all and putting in my new address. It felt refreshing, even though my phone conversation was very similar in nature to the clip from above.


Now, I know that Annie made a big deal about picking me up yesterday, so I want to let it be known that I pick her up from work all the time without prompt or provocation. I made my way downtown this evening to pick her up. She's in the red walking towards the car. Unlike her, I give her rides out of love. It'll actually be kind of sad when we move out west of the city and her job won't be on my way home from my work. We always have time to talk and decompress before the long night ahead.


We stopped by Jimmy John's on the way back, and we ran across this guy. He was roller-skating down the sidewalk wearing parachut pants, and his skates had no laces on them. Every time he hit a bump his skates would wobble a bit on his feet. Plus, he was obviously on something. He was one of the real fluid skaters who moved from side-to-side and in-and-out very smoothly, and would kind of seem to float down the sidewalk. We were so intrigued by him, we actually followed him for a few blocks trying to get good pictures of him. At one point, we pulled into the Target parking lot on Logan Blvd. with Annie standing with her head out of the sunroof. He was coming right for us, and he smiled and waved at her as she tried to grab a shot of him. Brilliant.

Libbi and Scott stopped in later tonight. We'll be heading out there tomorrow. Annie and Libbi are going to hit up the garage sales in the 'burbs, Scott's going to a track meet, and I'll be in their basement laying down some new tracks.


Annie proudly displays her new handy-work on her bike. Notice the seat, which still remains firmly attached. Also, check out the new crate safely secured to the back of the bike. She took it from the grocery store around the corner this evening as we pulled in from picking her up. It made me nervous taking it without permission, so I made her throw it in the trunk before we zoomed down the side alleys towards home.


Fight fire with fire. That's always been my motto. Libbi, Scott, Annie, and myself stopped over at Dunlays on the Square for food, drinks and conversation. It's always nice to sit out on the boulevard late at night and gab away. Somehow we ended up having a conversation about boobies and boys in junior high. You had to be there for any of it to make sense, so I'll spare you all the details.

Off to bed. Maybe I'll read a bit, because I don't think I'm going to be able to fall asleep easily in this heat. Tomorrow means recording and a bbq at the Baird's household.

posted by The Nightmare @ 12:52 AM