Some good things happened today: I finally saw Garden State. Drive somewhere to see it soon. For serious. I had a Steak and Shake milkshake. I walked around a crappy mall without much on my mind. I drove around Orlando with lots on my mind. I went to church tonight. I journaled more than I have in a year. I missed my friends. I got some great emails. I wore flip flops.
All the world was right.
i’m sitting in an absolutely beautiful little old church in downtown fort collins (watching MCD sound check with a hammered dulcimer player for the wedding)… on wireless internet i’m most likely pilfering from some college kid across the street. this building has really great architecture… amazing stained glass… and some woodwork that a carpenter probably spent months laboring over in the late 1800’s. if there’s one thing my father has taught me (and there’s plenty more than one thing, i assure you) it’s been the appreciation for craftsmanship… in everything… but especially in carpentry. i spent the first 30 minutes i was in the building just exploring and, of course, taking pictures. my friends are going to have an awesome wedding tomorrow… low stress, much joy. they make me happy.
from the same mad genius that brought you the exorcist in 30 seconds (and reenacted by bunnies) comes the shining in 30 seconds (and reenacted by bunnies). too much time on their hands…
lucky us.
also… in the not-quite-so-office-friendly genre… dave chappelle is hysterical.
first things first… seattle’s new public library is the sort of stuff that makes me smile real big. just… amazing. the interior shots? what? i want to work someplace that looks this great inside.
also amazing is friend and countryman ryan’s redesign of justwatchthesky and neubix. love that guy.
what a great weekend. relaxing, relaxing, relaxing. i’m tired from so much relaxing. it really wore me out. it’s like i’m going to need to work for six days just to be ready to relax again. (o.k. i’ll stop.) much quality time yesterday after church. enjoying the… joy… of having friends with a great pool. yes, i actually took my shirt off in public… but don’t let that get out. and yes… i’m a bit toasted on my back. but well worth it to not think for a few hours. and then we had some folks over to the house for my first attempt at making big city burritos, which won me over on my trip to fort collins, colorado. not a bad first attempt. we’ll make some adjustments and have a pretty dang tasty (and cheap for big groups) meal. it was so fun to grill… i hadn’t gotten a chance to cook out since i moved to THE 220™… and it was wonderful to hear laughter in my house. that is quite possibly one of my favorite noises in the entire world.
the crew that ended up hanging out, 8 or 9 of us, was definitely a little odd… but worked so well. i watched (because that’s what i do… i watch) us interact throughout the night and it was so refreshing to see different folks talking with one another and see everyone really enjoy being around each other… no favorites. it was awesome. i love my friends.
so… so… bored.
i had today off because we always work on Memorial Day Monday… but i have no transport, because i have been too lazy to take the time to fix my non-moving trooper. and today, when i actually had time to fix it, i couldn’t get to it because it’s sitting at the office… and i have no way to get there. catch 22… boo on that.
changing gears. i can talk myself out of things. and, conversely, i can talk myself into things. an annoying trait. i think i want to go after a particular girl, then i talk myself out of it. then i talk myself into it. etc. etc. ANNOYING. i’ve always been like this, especially when it comes to relationships, the only difference now is that i actually care about the outcome and result of my actions, so i don’t act on whatever whim of feeling i have. keeps me out of trouble… but doesn’t change the restlessness of my heart… which is what really bothers me. it makes me wonder what it will be like when i do meet a girl that i want to be with… all the time. but that’s not a question that’s getting answered right now, so i will try to not think about it.
changing gears again. tonight is wilson’s bachelor party. fun times lay ahead.
for some reason, i want to buy swedish milk today.
i got nothing, really.
i had a great day yesterday… laughed a lot… got a lot of work done… listened to the black crowes at loud volumes.
i plan to do much of the same today. (only 86 the crowes, sub live coldplay)
ooooo… go here for a new tokyo plastic short… for aiwa? why not…
hmm… the aforementioned our common doesn’t have the polaroids up today…. sad. however, he (i.e. peter reid) has some other nice pics of NYC here, here, and here… and a pretty dang impressive design portfolio for kicks too.
spent a few hours last night at the chick’s house… watching her cut and dye brown’s hair. (exciting, eh?) no, seriously…. fun times. …and they washed my t-shirts for me. you might not understand what a massive undertaking that is. a mammoth task. a gargantuan favor. a colossal chore. a brobdingnagian burden. ok… i’m out of large adjectives.
whatever the case, yaaay for good friends.
oh yeah… new york city polaroids… now that’s my kind of photography.
so, i’m working on a redesign of the new spring site these days. (i see photoshop guide lines in my sleep) we’re shooting for a mid-july relaunch. heh.. we’ll see. but all that to say i might not exactly be the posting-king for the next few weeks. priorities, you know…
what a welcome little surprise… michaela has a great article at relevant magazine today. yep… she’s famous.
and… this is just weird. burdette has an article on relevant today too.
also… this. mwahahahaha.
what a great day.
i’ve been getting to the point recently where more and more things make me mad. (i promise i’m going somewhere with this… and it will be related to the previous statement of “what a great day.”) i like to think of this as good, actually… that certain things that didn’t bother me before do now… because i think that means i’m changing… maybe even… gasp!… growing up a little.
i hate… yes, hate… the fact that people can become infatuated with the idea of a person… not the actual person, not who they really are, just the idea of them. if you don’t know them, or don’t want to take the effort to get to know them, no problem… just fill in the details with whatever you want them to be. so… when i don’t fit into the idea of me that someone has… they just move on to someone else… which makes you think… “wow… they really didn’t care about me… just their idea of me.” how selfish… and how completely not based in reality.
i say all that to get back to the fact that today was a great day because my friend hope has always been pretty adamant about wanting to know me… not some glorified, romanticized idea of me… just me. (massive faults and all…) after almost five years of friendship (through our early twenties no less… how much do people change during those years?)… we still don’t really know each other all that well… but we want to… and on the rare occasions when we get to spend time with each other, i think we do a pretty good job of leaving our preconceived notions of the idea of each other behind and just enjoying each other’s company.
rare… but good.
i am thankful for the few people in my life that want to know me. i don’t really understand why they do, i’m just thankful that they do.
highlights of the day (boy details… you don’t get girl details… sorry) included: a great little picnic (the woman packs a mean lunch) at hilliard park in asheville, much conversation about just about everything while laying on a blanket under a huge, old oak tree in hilliard park, having a very honest homeless guy ask us for change to buy him and his wife “some beer”… with no wedding ring on, getting lost while trying to find a bathroom… settling for the taco bell bathroom (gross)… but then finding a goodwill (bonus) with some great shirts (”western north carolina singles club, inc.”)… and then spending the last hour we were together driving around asheville looking for (i kid you not) two safety pins to make hope’s dress she was wearing to a wedding that night “a little less hootch.”
relationships are all about shared experiences…
after a take-it-slow, beautiful drive up from sc (thanks to MCD loaning me the jeep… my poor trooper is out of comission. again) i’m sitting in a free parking spot in downtown asheville (free parking is rare around here) waiting on hope. she flew into knoxville last night from minneapolis, and apparently chatted with the mom a little too long this morning (can you blame her?) and got a late start from knox towards here… and is now stuck in one-lane construction traffic on I-40. no big deal… i’m not a stickler for punctuality b/c that would be pretty hypocritical of me… but the picnic food she has in her possession sounds tasty right now, considering i skipped out on breakfast and opted for more sleep this morning.
asheville is an interesting place, to say the least. thus far, i have seen a dude sporting a well-groomed rat-tail… oh yeah… and also a guy walking down the street rocking out to whatever was playing through his headphones… walkman in one hand… ornate japanese sword in the other hand… what?
i listened to something corporate’s leaving through the window for most of the drive up here. they just write good songs. although, admittedly, the singer’s range tops out a little higher than mine and my throat is killing me right now from singing all the way here. i sing in the car… got a problem with that?
while wandering around asheville when i first got here, i met the drummer and singer from new orleans funk band galactic, who i love. that was a nice surprise. they’re playing at the orange peel tonight. too bad i didn’t know that until now… or i’d stay for the show.
tuesday night i had fun hanging out with some of the anderson college boys… burdette and matt mantooth (coolest… name… ever) and brown and lynch and love. we cooked cheap wal-mart filets (that actually aren’t half bad) and had potatoes and onions. you know… man food. and then sat outside in lawn chairs and told stories and enjoyed the easily-entertained-ness of throwing pop-its at each other. ok… mainly it was me throwing pop-its at everyone else. do you remember pop-its? the little-bitty rolled up gunpowder things that you throw on the ground (or on your friends) and they pop? 50¢ per box of 75 at the grocery store. cheaper and more entertaining than a movie.
last night i actually watched TV at LB’s for a little bit with some folks. every time i watch TV…. i am thankful i don’t own one. but it is a nice break from reality every once in a while. and what’s more of a break from reality than American Idol? where people who can’t actually hit pitch consistently are treated like they’re talented vocalists? i must admit… i find it interesting that this year’s final two (and, from what i understand, last year’s final two) are from the south. what are we, the land of amateur non-talented singers and the callers who love them?
i’m working today so i can take tomorrow off and go to asheville to have lunch with a friend who’s coming into town from the grand state of minnesota. working on thursday is officially weird. i hear horror stories from the office ladies about how quiet it is on thursday with so many folks off…. but this is my first time experiencing it for real.
by the way… it’s come to my attention that 16% of visitors to this site are mac-users (good for you)… that’s way higher than the average percentages across the board for computer users… but only 12% of you are using safari as your browser of choice. mac people… please don’t tell me you’re using internet explorer… or we simply cannot be friends. this is not a mac/pc thing. i am by no means a pc hater. however, internet explorer is of the devil and is an inferior (albeit ridiculously widely used) product. get with it. (or at least get mozilla firefox.)
can i say how much i love my job? the #1 thing on my “stop-doing” list that i made while i was on vacation… is no longer under my job description. i love serving under wise leadership… who take the time enough to care for you and for the body as a whole to move you where you need to be. i am happy.
other news of note:
the younger MCD has entered the blog world… guitar ninjaz… who knew?
and after a conversation with ryan on IM this morning (i have a note about IM… we’ll get to that in a bit) about how we’ll both download just about any app that will help us save time or make life easier… i found teleport… an absolutely amazing app that lets me control my desktop G4 and my laptop G4 using the same keyboard and mouse… for free. i’ve got dual screens on my desktop… and you get used to seeing the mouse scroll from one to the other. but going from one screen to another to my laptop… with the same mouse… is infinitely cool… and extremely useful. yaaay for smart computer nerds who make great software.
the IM note is that IM is now a no-go at work. i could see it coming… a few of us were using it to talk to people 50 feet away from us and that’s bound to be unhealthy for the office culture at some point. but it does kinda lack merit for chatting with folks like ryan or michaela or casey… who aren’t exactly 50 feet away. (heck… they aren’t even 50 miles away…) nonetheless… now that i am portable… i’ll be around after the 9-5… if anyone really misses talking to me on IM that much.