Don't give away what you can't live without

E-word,

Going back to a conversation we had a couple of weeks ago, getting older is a funny thing. We've been alive for a pretty long time. I'm thinking that wisdom is perspective. Wisdom comes from the distance of getting further away from the past, the ability to be even just a little bit more objective.

I guess a couple of things converged the last couple of days. Yesterday I talked to an old high school friend (J), and just now I read this article. J brought up stuff from our high school days that made me uncomfortable. He's a lot like the star high school football player, I realize, though kind of in the movie Rushmore sense. He was a high achieving agitator, who calculated to not show up for class yearbook photo day, but to be a part of so many groups and clubs that he ended plastered all over it anyway. He still hangs onto that, and brings me into it, which still bothers me. I think I've brought it up before; we're not in high school anymore. High school was not my shining moment. No question it made me who I am today, but reminiscing doesn't make me happy.

And that article (along with talking to J) reminded me even more of old days, and even more how much older I am now. College was- good, I guess. There wasn't any wholesale reinvention. I don't know if I would have been happier at any other college. I sometimes think I might have been happier had I not had the same girlfriend during college, like I would have met more people and made more friends, but I did screw a lot, which I think counts for something. God, even with age it's hard to have perspective. What I'm trying to say is I don't know. We make do with what we have? You just live the life you live?

Anyway, it's getting late. I got back from seeing Iron & Wine, which was like the first concert I'd seen in about 2 years. It was alright, but not so amazing that I understand why I spent so much time as a youngster in smoky nightclubs, dead sober.

September girls do so much

Toe,
You were indeed the Asian guy with the choppy hair. In some sense, you still are. I have a very long invisible goatee. Not to go for further navel gazing, but I feel like there is some essential part of me that hasn't really changed over all these years, and calling it my goatee seems as good a name as any, and calling this essential part of you your choppy hair seems right.

Hey, getting together and drinking, talking, and gawking with you makes me feel like my best old self. I'm going to try to come back more often.

I'm a little loopy this morning. C and I were locked outside our house this morning for 1.5 hours. We went for walk, came back, and as usual, I put the house key that I carry when exercising on the book shelf. Then C remembered that today is trash day, so we went out to the garage to get the cans and recycling bins, locking the door behind us. We had no wallets, no money, and no cell phones. It was late enough that the neighbors we know pretty well had already left for work, and too early for the locksmith. We waited until the latter was open, only to find that the locksmith is out all day locksmithing in the field.

Fortunately, one of our neighbors ended up being home and having a ladder for me to use to climb into the bedroom window. I never felt so happy just to be in the house.

Anyway, that's my story for the day. Be well, man. I'll talk to you soon.
E-word

Screw as many girls as you can

E-word,

Oh, sporadically updated log. We are tugboat captains, brother man. Meeting up was good, it makes me sad that it happens so infrequently, though I just realized I probably meet up with you more often than other folks I know simply for the fact that we know that it is a special occasion when you're in the area!

I had a good time strolling around your old hood, even if I was a bit too heavily dressed. A long-sleeve shirt seems pretty sensible if you're just sitting around in a cold office, not walking around in DC humidity. It's pretty funny to think about the decisions we make, about how proximity (in this case a highly regarded bar) kind of plans our orbit.

I hope you had a good weekend with your sibs, that you did drink excessively as that is a good thing to do with people that you love and can't choose. I'll have to make sure to drink excessively when I'm hanging out with my brothers this Thanksgiving.

Again, here's to our neglected log. Here's to old times. Here's to gawking inappropriately at hot girls in DC. That was so wrong, yet so right. I'm so tied up with work and school (I know I should gawk at students, but being stuck in the engineering building and surrounding area usually means staring at guys) and hanging with the wife, inappropriate gawking just doesn't come up often.

Small regrets about our pasts, but feeling like we've gotten enough of youth out of our systems to move on without BIG regret. Just small ones. Dithering, navel gazing, drinking, writing, trying (and succeeding once in a while?) to nail chicks, falling in stupid love, falling in serious love- I remember when I first met you you had the coolest goatee. I guess I was the Asian guy with choppy hair?

Toe

It's been a while. I don't think I've posted all summer. Between traveling (went East to the beach a few times, as well as South to Tennessee, and a few business trips in-state) and work (took on a few extra projects), I haven't had much time.

I did enjoy your posts.


I'm feeling scattered. I took some time and was looking at You-Tube and found this nice GBV video clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdY-sjG8-vk&mode=related&search=


There's also a great Japanese GBV cover band on there, but I didn't cut and paste the link to their clip.

Anyway, we had a flood here in town a few weeks ago. The picture on this post was taken the day after some heavy, heavy rain. Ordinarily, the bike path runs along this very creek-sized river here. Well, the river overflowed it's bank, across the bike path, and into the adjacent field.

We've been swarmed by mosquitoes over the past week. These mosquitoes are serious--they are out and biting you all hours of the day, even at noon. I spent the past few days in doors mostly, and when I did go out, I slathered on the bug repellent. Still, I got bit up.

They sprayed something around town last night that allegedly halted the mosquito plague. They warned us on the radio that they would be doing it, and recommended that anyone with a breathing problem stay indoors and close all windows. I did as told, although I don't have a breathing problem that I know of.

I went jogging around noon today and found that there weren't any mosquitoes to speak of. The spray did it's job. The mystery is--what was it?

Anyway, looking forward to catching up in person soon. Hope your well and that El is good as well.
Later,
E-Word