Sometimes, even I wonder if I’m just making it all up

97. I chose the wrong career.  Twice.  But I’ve never been blindsided by this.  Jobs and money were just never important enough for me to care that I was heading in the wrong direction…  that probably explains why I’m sleeping on an air mattress tonight.

In June, while walking down a dangerous street in the most populous city in the world, I lost my wallet.

“Oh noes!”  you say, “how much money did you lose??”

Pfft! Silly goose, I don’t keep my money in my wallet!

“Oh noes!  Did you lose any of your IDs???”

Pfft! Silly gander, I don’t keep my IDs in my wallet!

“…  well, what DO you keep in your wallet?”

Mostly used business cards, actually.  I mean, I did lose two credit cards, but I canceled one of those within three days of the event, and plan to cancel the other really, really soon now.  Honest!

So, I had finished the shoes I mention’d in my last post, when somebody mentioned

After my last post, I decided to make myself a wallet:

I still need to modify it, but this story isn’t about my wallet, though it does come in at the end to save the day.  This story is about the fact that I bought a roll of duct tape on Monday and I’ve been using it daily ever since.  I still had a good chunk left this morning, actually, when we realized that the hose on the back of my dryer wasn’t attached very well and was leaking moisture into the air. (Is it called the moisture hose?)  My roommate jumped over the washer and was trying to reattach the hose.

“Do you have any duct tape,” he asked, half-jokingly.

I laughed and went to go find the duct tape…  But I couldn’t!  I couldn’t remember where I’d put it!  I went around for fifteen minutes before I gave up and started deconstructing my wallet and handing the pieces to him so that he could reuse the tape to attach the dryer hose.

Ten minutes later, I found the roll of duct tape and started repairing my wallet.

I’ve never used this term on my blog before, but I think this adventure qualifies:

Epic fail.

Last Year: P: P exists, Pavlov had too much time on his hands
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SO LONG, SUCKERS!!

I mean that in the nicest of ways.

94.  I was never a very black & white kind of person, but I definitely believed there were fewer shades of grey.  I guess getting older has taught me that most things can be explained if you’re just willing to listen.

I’m leaving today.  I’ll be driving across the country in a few short hours.  In about a week, I’ll be busy buying stuff for my new home at 924 Carolina Ave in Durham, North Carolina.

What this basically means is that I’ll be offline for another week or two.  Sorry to keep doing that to you all.  It hurts me as much as it hurts you, honest.  Except, I probably wouldn’t call myself a sucker… and I’m not going to be having fun like I did last time I was gone for an extended period.  In fact, this next stretch, where I drive across the country, will likely suck pretty profusely.

You can call or text me words of encouragement, if you want:  +1 915 867 8669.  I’ll probably be awake whenever you decide to do that.

… Man, I really give a lot of information out online, don’t I?  This is the fifth time I’ve given out my cell phone number on here and second time I give out my address.  That is maybe not so good.  But hey, when has the Internet ever hurt anyone?

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The score to beat is 2

91.  I am not competitive by nature.  By which I mean I am, I just win all the time, so I have to pretend I’m not.

My friend Daniel came up with a fabulous thought experiment:

In a given month, what is the maximum number of days you could spend with someone you know before they start wearing on you?

I should probably say that I was second-highest on Daniel’s list.  His live-in girlfriend rated 2 days.

Continue reading The score to beat is 2…

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Why does everybody love Pixel?

90.  I’ve never made more than $7 an hour… yeah, I was getting ripped off for years, then I graduated and couldn’t find a job I liked or that paid well.  I’m ashamed of that.

Dear World,

So… I’m back.  But not really.  This next week I’ll be busy packing and then I’m going to drive to Duke to start graduate school.  So I won’t be posting regularly for another few weeks and I might not be able to return to daily posting at all depending on how hard this Master’s degree is going to be.

But first, an update on my vacation:

It’s difficult to visit people you really care about if they live so far away.  I never feel sad when I visit Trumpet Rob, for instance, because I know he’s just a few thousand miles away and I can hop over whenever I get the urge (which is often enough).  With a few of my cousins and with all of my Australian friends, however, I know I won’t be able to go back for quite a while.

Especially now that the US Dollar is worth so little overseas.  In Australia, I was spending nearly $50 a day on food and drinks.  Yikes.  So it’s hard.

Knowing that you’re with a person you really care about, but after a short while you won’t be there anymore and life just has to move on.

If I were a better person or a worse writer, I’d look for some sort of message or metaphor in that statement.  I haven’t thought about it too carefully, but I think it’s referring to cheese.

Anyway, in my time away, I went to three graduations, stayed in eight different houses, caught up with a dozen of the best people on the planet, had deep conversations, had silly adventures, helped people moved, went broke three times, saw a goth wear pink, had ecstatic greetings, and had heart-wrenching goodbyes.  Also, I think I swallowed a bug.

It’s good to be back, but it was fucking terrible to leave.

[Warning: this post contained a swear word.  My mate Anson would say that's c**tastic.]

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Wanna see what I’ve been doing during my vacation?

89.  When I was 14 I made a conscious decision to be honest and stop making up stories.  As a direct result, I’ve become a terrible, terrible liar.

"... Dad??"

…  And now, back to semi-retirement.

Last Year: I'm not an idiot, I swear!
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