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January 12, 2000 |
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Another morning day; this is starting to become a nasty habit. The white
death came for a visit today. Not much, mind you just a little. It all
started last night while I was driving home, I really didn't know whether
or not it would stick, but I was hoping it wouldn't. As I looked outside
my window, I saw it sitting there quietly, while it secretly tried to choke
my lawn. The stuff is evil; it is vampiric in nature and tries to steal
life from anything that it touches.
Did I neglect to mention I don't like snow? That's okay, it would
probably die today by noon or so. I would be defiant today. I put on a
new University of Miami muscle shirt I got recently and wondered out into
The Cold. Okay, I was wearing pants, boxers, shoes,
etc… pervert! I just wasn't wearing a coat. On my drive to
work, I played Endless Summer Nights by Richard Marx on the
stereo. [Ha! Snow, I thumb my nose at thee!]
I had to carry a number of things to work. Once being some of the parts
for one of my Christmas presents. As I'm putting the thing together, I
realized that I need an extension cord and distilled water. [Uhmm…
What is it?] Needless to say, I didn't have those with me, and I
would be getting them later today. I would be leaving in the afternoon for
a while, I'd pick those up while I'm running a few errands. Having lived
in Florida for so long, I had developed a particular fondness to palm
trees. I even have a palm tree neon sign. The best way to describe this
thing is… it is a Lucite palm tree. No joke. You fill the trunk up
with water, and when on, it lights up any one of a number of different
colors and runs bubbles through the water. Here's a picture… And yes,
that is Wile E. Coyote hanging from the trunk. It's about seven feet tall,
over two meters if you're on metric. I like this palm tree. I think I'll
name it, she looks like an Carla. That's what I'll name her for now, if
you have any suggestions, feel free to send me mail.
I know this is a terrible thing to say, but if I can't be bluntly honest in
my journal, where can I hope to bury my soul? Okay, now confession time.
I really like this palm tree. It is fun. The problem is that my
sister Terry (among others), got me
this thing. You see our relationship is a bit distant. To be fair, I
can't hope to be objective enough to assign blame, so I won't try. Let's
just say that we are not the closest of siblings. I don't feel very
comfortable accepting such a grand present from her. I can't help but to
feel that maybe there's a part of her that's trying to buy my affection.
Yes, I know that sounds terrible, but that's the way I feel. I
have pictures in my head of fathers who abandon their kids and come back
years later bearing great gifts, and then the kids simply let them back
into their lives, almost forgetting the years of neglect. There's a part
of me who feels like the kid who just got the big present, but there's also
a part of me who feels betrayed like the other parent. So I feel a bit
little cheap for accepting it and liking it.
Uhm… Sorry, to darken your mood. Moving along…
I had dinner plans with Nancy tonight. We weren't sure where we were going, just that we were getting together for dinner. So she drops by my office and sees my new palm tree. [Woo Hoo!] Although, I had long since decided that the hot pink lighting looked better than the blue, which I had on originally. I gave her something I picked up (quite literally) for her in Florida, and we discuss where we want to go for dinner. After throwing around a few ideas, we finally decide on Dead Robin. Okay, technically it is Red Robin, but some of us affectionately call it Dead Robin.
We would be stopping by Circuit City first. Since she wanted to pick up a CD. I think it was the Jewel Christmas CD, which incidentally they didn't have anymore. [Sigh] I look around a bit as well, they also didn't have the older Savage Garden album, which I would've considered picking up. They did have the new Dream Theater album. I hear it is supposed to be an exceptional concept album. I like them. I'm not sure if they've reached the threshold of liking where I would implicitly buy their album before hearing parts of it. So I didn't. I'll probably end up asking Tom if he has gotten it, and if so what he thinks. He is also a Dream Theater fan. Coincidentally, I was playing Images and Words, another of their albums, in the car on the way to the store. Maybe that was why.
Oh, the evil white death, better known as snow, did meet its deserving demise somewhere in the afternoon… and didn't come back, at least not today. [Insert evil laughter here!]
We finally made it to Dead Robin. No near misses along the way. [Driving in Seattle is so boring!] Nancy vetoed the first table; we ended up getting a cozy little table for two. Cozy? I mean literally, it was immediately under the heating vent. [Snicker] We wound up talking about our holidays and catching up since we last saw each other. She's good company; I enjoy talking to her. I told her the infamous escapade less than a week ago. She laughed.
Note: I don't feel really comfortable talking about other people yet in this journal. So bear with me if I don't disclose a whole lot here. There's a part of me who is very particular about his privacy and out of respect for others, I disclose very little. I'm sure that over the course of the next few months (years?) I'll get a better feel for what's appropriate, but for now, I'd rather err in the side of caution.We finished having dinner. She ended up picking up the tab. [Thanks, I'll pick up the next one…] We headed back to my (work) building, where we had met. We came inside and chatted for a few minutes. That would be it for tonight and I walked her out to her car. Yes, still wearing only the muscle shirt; it was probably mid to upper 30's.
My rebel days are short lived. I think I'll wear sleeves tomorrow.
January 12, 2000