i'm getting too old for this.... shennanigans
prepare for a random post
It's time to play catch-up for the weekend and because memories are precious, precious commodities, I will try to write all the important things and some not-so-important filler. My brain is definitely going though, so I will only attempt to be clear and concise. Take, for example, that I was just at the gym and spent the better part of a few minutes frustratedly looking through my locker for my towel and almost cursing beause I couldnt figure out where the HELL it was. I finally had to stop because it was falling off and I had to readjust it. Yes, that's right... I was wearing it. I'm a big dumbass. I guess I have a lack of sleep to justify my madness. Today should be an interesting day, I'm still trying to get both workouts in (cardio and weights) and save time for some recreation in the evening. This is DAMN hard working from 8-5 and not getting home until 6:30. We got our 24" Wega Trinitron (flatscreen) today and I'm looking forward to watching Willow on it late. Justin says he's leaving me for the TV... bastard. We've also been invited to a 21st b-day party for a friend later in the evening that I should make a social appearance at, time permitting. Of course, I really just want to chill. Not that work is particulary stressful. Today I set up the cam software at my office. It will probably go live tomorrow but for now all I have is a capture to show you. I may end up toting it around with me to various work locations and home permitting that the server setup can handle that. Now time for some reflection on the adventures of the weekend:

Saturday:
Got up way too goddam early and left with Justin and 5AM to drive to Corvallis. We met Dave (one of the other Knights) at the deserted HP(Evil) parking lot and drove the rest of the way up to seattle. I crammed myself into the jumpseat of his pickup and slept a lot despite the fact that it made me slightly nauseous. We got to Marc's place around 11 o'clock, I showered, and we went to see Minority Report. Seeing movies in the middle of the day is always disorienting but especially then because my sleep schedule was already messed up. It was a pretty damn good movie though, except for a few major obvious plot holes and a rather cornball ending. And someone tell me this: why wasn't the main issue of the movie whether or not it was ethical to hold the "precogs" there as tools? Knowing ANYTHING about today's society, I would have figured that's what people would be bitching about, not whether the system itself was infallible. Human rights struck me as far more relevant to the situation. In any case, I'd give it four stars. There was some discussion about going to Toyoda's afterward for sushi but we decided against it because we were in Redmond and driving at 3:00 over to North Seattle and then back by 5:00 to make a ferry in West seattle (all while the 520 bridge was closed) didn't seem smart. It's a good thing we didn't try either, given that Toyoda's opens at 5PM. Der. We ended up eating at Cucina Cucina, just around the corner from where we saw the movie. By then, Marc wasn't looking too good.

Marc used to do martial arts and was forced to retire after he was thwacked in the head and started to experience some rather painful post-traumatic symptoms. First off, he's REALLY light-sensitive; his apartment is kept dark most of the time. Light gives him headaches- and indicator of his biggest problem, pain. Apparently he's in a lot of pain and the docs don't know why. He's been prescribed valium and morphine and his body still kicks his ass. They're starting him on steriods and hormones because his own body is consuming his muscle mass. Not a good idea for an already aggressive person to be on those meds, if you ask me. Honestly, having never experienced anything similar and being told there was no apparent cause, I can't sympathize. My reaction is to chalk it up to being psycho-somatic and tell him to go homeopathic and get off the habit-forming drugs. Having seen what they do to him now, I feel even more that way. Must be my suspicion of modern medicine kicking in. I hadn't seen valium or morphine tablets before. It's strange, they're tiny.Even stranger, the effect. After suffering through the taste of them dissolving, Marc changed almost instantly. It was like he was uber-stoned and hyper-emotional. He had a hard time focusing but could still talk and, at about the time our food arrived, he was heading into his life's story and getting pretty worked up about it. There was this awkward silence at the table. I think Justin and Karl were trying to maintain a respectful masculine stoicism... that, or they just didn't know how to deal with it. After Marc told us about his accident and how it taught him about humility, he started to cry. What was awkward even for me to witness suddenly became extremely touching, especially how he tearfully explained his belief that no one can live alone. I almost cried. It really is true, I guess... we can't live without each other, though some of us try. And we really deserve to be loved. I'm a fiercely independent person, yet something about seeing a grown man cry (be he extremely doped) got through to me.

We drove back to the apartment and then to West Seattle to catch the Vashon Ferry for the Knights' Library show later that evening. At that point I fell asleep and was extremely zonked until we got on the ferry. Sleeping with one's contacts in is not a good idea. The next day I saw an ad for these contacts you can supposedly wear for a month. I don't buy it. I'm not keeping anything that's not part of my eye in my eye for more than a few hours. ICK. My contacts were all dry and shit, so I tried to moisten them in my h2o bottle (not that sanitary, I know) and ended up ripping like a FIFTH out of one of them. That PISSED me off. So then it was either wear a ripped lens or go half blind. If you don't already know, I'm legally blind without the damn things, so I chose to wear the crappy lens. Boy, did THAT make my eye irritated and my mood foul. As it turned out, I didn't have reason to complain for that long. My eye sucked for a while, felt better, sucked more, etc... but the show itself was fun. I noticed, afterward, that a few people were looking dejected, Justin included. As it turns out, there was a little accident during Justin's fight with Marc. This fight involves Justin beating Marc in the helmet three times with his demi-gauntlets. At Bridle Trails, Marc claimed Justin knocked him momentarily unconscious and requested that Justin hit him softer. This time, I think Justin did but he also failed to notice that the visor on Marc's helmet had come open mid-fight and so nailed him in the mouth with a backhand... and broke Marc's tooth. No faking that, I tell ya. I guess Marc's just lucky he had a bit of residualal morphine in his system. Justin felt like shit after that and got REALLY down on himself. He isn't the humblest person but I'm sure he apologized. Marc was trying to be all nice about it but being who he is, just ended up sounding like a dick. I guess he has the right, though... he does have a snaggletooth that's going to cost him $1500 or so to repair and I bet it hurts like a b!tch. Lucky him, at least he has the drugs to help. =p I'm worried he's a little too dependent on them. Of course, I'm skeptical of most people except my closest friends. But Marc was nice enough to put us up for the night and all I had to complain about was a ripped contact, so I really can't complain.

Another one of the Knights lost a ring on the field and we set out to find it. After offering kids in the audience $20 to find it we gave up and left it to them. They found it eventually and I was out some cash. Oh well, at least John got his ring back. We missed the ferry that we were shooting for on the way back, so while Justin and Karl wandered about sullenly, I sat in the car and talked relationships with Marc. It was interesting, talking to someone whom polyamory was actually working for. Imagine that. Ach, only in a perfect world could I have my harem. When the ferry came, I escaped the tension in the car by going up to the deck and watching the moon on the water. It was a blessing to take the long way home, stopping off at another of the San Juan Islands before coming back to Seattle. There's nothing like standing on a ferry deck and communning with the ocean. I talked to another of the Knights out in the open wind before coming back down to cower in the car where it was at least warm. I think I'll like hanging with this crowd during show season. Maybe I should create another blog dedicated to the Faires. This weekend is GreeneWood in Tri-Cities! ^^ We finally got back home and just crashed on the couch. Marc was generous with drinks and made up Whiskey Sours for Justin and I. That sounds NASTY, I know, but they were really VERY good! Justin's a puss so he couldn't finish his (it was "too sour" ; ) so I drank it. We watched Rush Hour II, a drank some tequila, ate some fries and fell asleep before the movie was over. DAMMIT. I guess it was 3AM.

Sunday
Next morning we got up around 11 and realized that we needed to get our butts out the door if we wanted to have any fun before Knights practice at 3. We still ended up sitting on our asses for two hours just to watch the first Next Generation on TV before we got out the door. Yes yes. I had forgotten. As much as I love Wil Wheaton.... why is Wesley Crusher so DAMN annoying? We considered sushi for dinner again but realized that we couldn't do it this weekend because of the stupid hours. Saa... Oh well. Instead, we decided to go to the Freemont Fair in Seattle. I've always wanted to go these past years and always missed it! I love fairs! This one wasn't as big as I expected and we missed the Solstice parade on Saturday which, now that I think of it, might have been worth going to. In fact, I damn near missed the Solstice altogether. I've been bad about celebrating my pagan holidays lately. I really ought to learn myself some actual Wicca so that I can actually practice the Old magik. I've been kind of a Wicca-by-default the last few years and too much of a wuss to go hard-core. But every time I miss Beltane or any of the Solstices or a full moon without doing some dance or tribute to the Goddess and the old Gods, I feel a little sad. It's part of me, I think. It was worth going to the Fair though- very celebratory, in it's own way. The weather was great and I learned to Hula Hoop!!! You don't understand the greatness of this. I've never been able to Hoop before. I SUCKED at it as a kid and all it took was 30 seconds for a flagrantly strange street performer to show me how. It was great! Fun booths, good food. A bit of serendipity occurred when I took on the public painting canvas... strange "writing on the wall" (pun intended) that made my day a little more surreal. Funny, sometimes, how life makes you do a double-take. After that it was off to practice, where the guys got ready for GreeneWood and Justin got even more discouraged. We left Seattle around 9PM and after a few hours I suffered to cram myself into the jumpseat for a nap so I could get up for work at 8AM. When we got to HP in Corvallis at 1AM I had to have Dave smuggle me in to use the restroom. It was some serious sneaking around to avoid security since I didn't have clearance. Fun times! Rupert missed us, I think.

Anyway, that was my weekend... in a way that I never wanted to present a weekend: the timeline. How dull. Somehow, it seemed fitting too. I'm still not sure whether or not I'm glad I went up there this weekend. It was kind of a bummer, but I think it ended well. Hopefully Justin will get over the tooth thing now that he has the TV to ogle. I finished The Rules and have gotten into Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. It's much more my style. Anyway, because I know you love it so much, here are some more quotes from the evil book:

- "Dating is like slow dancing. The Man should take the lead or you fall over your feet.... He should be an open book, you should be a mystery." (p. 88)

-"Of course, a playboy type who falls in love with you because you did The Rules will automatically mend his ways." (p. 91) Oh...of course.

-"Love Story is a movie you should study like the Bible." (p. 110)

-"Dress better, a little sexier. No man likes coming home to a woman wearing sweatpants or a bathrobe all the time. Try wearing tight jeans, a miniskirt, or a deep V-necked shirt in a bright color. Put on some makeup and perfume. Wash your hair." (p. 127) This is for after you're married. When you're a doormat. Ok, I know men like these things... but I know men who like sweatpants and bathrobes just fine. They're "easy access," after all!

-In case your friends nag you about The Rules, don't listen to them. "The fact is that your friends and others might not have the burning desire to get married and have babies. They may be perfectly content in their careers and hobbies. You, on the other hand, can't imagine life without a husband. Neither could we. That's why we did The Rules- to ensure that the right man didn't get away." Or the wrong one. Welcome to divorce, Ellen Fein.

-To high school girls: "Notice what kinds of clothes, shoes, bags, jewelry, and hairstyles the most popular kids in high school are wearing. Don't try to be too different or frugal in this area. You'll feel lousy, so it's not worth it." (p. 136)
and in the same vein...

-"(Strange how women think that men are attracted to women who dress like men- sporty and even grungy. Yet, it's always the girls with cute jeans and fashionable shits that get the guys.) The Rule is don't wear clothes to copy men, but to attract them." (p. 139)

Don't we all love how utterly shallow and wrong this is? Great. I'm off to lift weights with my muscle-bound self in "sporty" clothes in a gym full of men. Guess they don't want me. Doesn't match my perception of things...