Another one bites the dust

I barely remember work this week. I just lost myself in some technical writing for work and the next thing I know it's Saturday morning. MFM is playing Tony Hawk's American Wasteland while we do laundry... and then we're going to the mall to find some clothes for me. I like to live simply, but I think I have taken it too far. After that, we're hanging with friends to ring in the New Year. Staying indoors to avoid all the crazy drunk drivers.

Christmas was good. Pretty stress-free. Hung out with MFM's family on Christmas day. They spoiled us so badly! MFM gave me some awesome stereo recording equipment so I can capture weird stuff that catches my ear... I gave her a couple cameras and so forth. Although her "big present" (that I bought on Ebay) never came. The USPS last had record of it in our state on December 20th and then it seems to have disappeared. At least I insured it, but it just sucked giving her a picture of it for Christmas instead of the real thing. The only other sucky thing is that I called my dad on Christmas and he was completely drunk by himself. He said he took a Prilosec the day before and it had knocked him out. What a sad disease that makes people lie and act like that. I never, ever wanted to hear or see him drunk again, so that was difficult.

I have some exciting news that I'll share next year, if anyone's interested....

Happy New Year to everybody! Be careful out there... and if you're spending New Year's in D.C., watch the alcohol! (Personally, we don't enjoy the nightlife in D.C. too much anymore. I'm kinda waiting until they quit their no tolerance policy for drinking/driving. I hear people are landing in jail for having one glass of wine with dinner and then driving a couple hours later. D.C. can have our spending money when they straighten that sh*t up. Go catch some murderers instead of jailing normal people who happened to have a tail light out. I stopped riding street there because the cops are such as*holes... [and because I hate cement...] now I feel like I can't even go out to eat there and have one beer with dinner....)

Anyways, HAPPY NEW YEAR! Best wishes for 2006!

I'm so excited

I've been writing these bitter blog entries about my father... but I plan on forgetting about it and having a very merry Christmas. I am extremely excited about the gifts I bought for My Fair Maiden. I literally cannot wait for her to open them! I think she will be so pleased. These are, by far, the best gifts I've ever bought for anyone. There's this one that I really think will blow her away. If it comes in time!

We were supposed to come up with a "solution" to heterosexuality?!

First Civil-Union Couple Parting Ways

The author(s?) seems either surprised that a lesbian, civil-union couple decided to split up, or delighted to point out that a same-sex couple civil union couple broke up, and I'm thinking it's the latter. I was taken aback by the article. "Oh, my God, I had no idea that to have a legal same-sex union gays had to promise to be better than eveyone else," I thought.

I don't think any of us in the sexual minority who want to marry someone of the same sex are calling our intended unions a solution to heterosexuality. I had no idea that some heterosexuals out there thought that by fighting for same-sex marriage rights we were trying to say we had come up with something better than heterosexual marriage! I've never heard a lesbian or gay say that they want to marry someone of the same sex because he or she thought the marriage was guaranteed and was some sort of "solution" to heterosexual marriage... that it would last longer. I had no idea people expected so much of us. No one expects heterosexual couples to stay together forever; why would we expect same-sex couples to? People are people. The beautiful thing about same-sex marriages is that many of us same-sex couples would like to stay together forever, just as much as any heterosexual couple does. But I had no idea that people could be out there waiting for civil unions to dissolve in order to tell everybody, "Look! The gays failed once! They'll do it again!" It is certainly not a valid argument for disallowing same-sex couples to have civil union and marriage rights, and I seriously hope no one is foolish enough to try to argue it.

Maxxxxxxissssssss!

I've always used Maxxis tires exclusively. In '04 I went to a cornering clinic lead by Marla Streb in which she talked about Maxxis tires being "the best tires in the world." My bike came with Maxxis tires, and I've chosen Maxxis replacement tires because I dig them. The one thing I haven't been able to afford is to swap out tires depending on trail conditions... until now...

Thanks to Maxxis for their 2006 sponsorship offer!!! Now I will be able to afford at least a couple sets of tires to choose from, and I won't ever go scooching around on balding tires.

15,000 super balls can't be wrong

Sometimes I listen to field recordings in my free time... fields recordings are recordings phonographers capture when they hear something that really speaks to them and have the equipment to record it.

quiet american hosts sound files called one-minute vacations. Ever wondered what thousands of bouncing super balls sounds like? Scroll down to the sound file for Dec. 27th, 2004 to find out.

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T i m e p a s s e s s l o w l y
a s I w a i t t o s e e i f
I g o t a h o l i d a y
b o n u s

Whoops, I called my mom "babe"!

I accidentally call my mom, "babe" Friday night. That's never happened before. That's boiling embarrassing.

What happened was my mom called me Friday night after I had four beers and not much dinner. So when I said to her, "Don't worry about it," I was so used to calling MFM "babe," that what came out to my mom was, "Don't worry about it, babe." "Babe," attached itself to my sentence like a booger. I willed it off the end but it hung tight. There was a pause. Horrified at my word choice, I tried to verbally chastise myself by exclaiming, "Jesus H. Christ!!!!!" but I don't think Mom was impressed. I think she began to worry I had Tourette's, so I quickly got off the phone before anything else unseemly was said.

Antarctica or Rockville, Maryland? I can't tell.

Sometimes I wonder if I have seasonal affective disorder (S.A.D.) because I get so bummed out in the winter. And why shouldn't I be bothered by not seeing much sunlight? Sitting around in the dark sucks.

When I think about it, the only time I see natural light during the work week is when I get up in the mornings and am in the apartment, and when I drive to work. So that's about an hour, hour-and-a-half of daylight. Then I sit in a windowless room for eight hours. When I leave work it's dark.

Years from now I will look back on this time (in this job) as, "Ha, ha, remember that time I worked for the federal government and turned down a window office so I could, 'be closer to my co-workers?'" I'll probably remember it as the time I took a contract job in the Antarctic.

Rich Land

I love the way I feel when I am visiting Richmond, Virginia, because I feel at home there. It makes me feel relaxed yet stimulated. In short, being there pretty much guarantees I'll be in a good mood. I was seriously considering moving there in fall 2003, but I got a good job offer in Rockville and ended up staying in the D.C. area. While I was disappointed I wouldn't be moving to Richmond any time soon, I was confident that there was a specific reason I was to stay in D.C. I know now that the reason was that I could meet My Fair Maiden. Only time will tell if we are meant to live down there.

Last weekend MFM and I went to visit my friends from college, Tommy and Teresa, at their turn-of-the-20th-century home in Richmond. They just had a baby earlier this year and it was nice to meet her. She's the happiest baby I've ever seen--she makes having a kid look not so difficult! Another friend from college and her husband and baby stopped by, too, which was fun.

On Sunday we went shopping in Carytown, Richmond. I love all the stores there because each one has a very indie feel to it. There's not a Gap to be seen. And although there is a McDonald's in Carytown, it's the nicest one I've ever seen--it had stacked stone fencing and a fireplace inside! The most unsettling thing we saw in Carytown was a bizarre holiday window display that featured a female mannequin in some sort of wintry distress. I don't think that was the window's intent--to scare or alarm, but snowflakes were falling in her mouth and the whole thing freaked me out.

All in all we had a really good time. Just as when we were visiting friends in N.C. last month, it's always nice to see our friends doing well for themselves. It also causes us to really think about our goals as a couple when we see our friends so comfortable and happy, having kids and whatnot. This is not to say that we aren't happy, but our high-rise early thirties renting bliss can't last forever.