April 5, 1999.  Monday

    It's a pretty busy day here at work, and I've only been here for forty minutes. Anyway, it was a rather eventful weekend. Not really all that eventful, actually, but lotsa interesting stuff.  Picking up where I left off on Saturday, after going to dinner with Geoff and The Mom, I sat around and did nothing for a while, then called my friend Todd. After going through the usual "So whadaya wanna do?" we decided to basically drive around and eventually hit Wal-mart. I did need to do some shopping.  But first we ran into Mike Quackenbush at the video store, but he had other commitments, so we went over to Borders Books. I'm a sucker for book stores.  It's odd that I love bookstores though, becuase I hate to read.  It's too slow. I pick up a lot more from TV.  What a wonderful invention. I've learned so much from tv.  You can't really read about how to play tennis or baseabll or something from a book.  And stories are so much more entertaining when they have music and cool effects and wrap up neatly in 90 minutes.  Then again, lately i think it stops me from doing anything creative, because it's so easy to just plop down in front of the tv and sit there slack-jawed till i turn numb.  But i read so slowly that i just can't get into it.  I only read out of necessity or, as is the case here at work, boredom. I think that's why i like online journals so much. Just little chapters that i can read for 5 minutes or five hours.  anyway, i mainly went through the "bargain books" section. I just can't stay away from reference books.  especially really big books for 6 bucks.  There were plenty that I wanted to buy, but didn't wanna spend that much. But i do love books that give me little snippets of information and tell me how things work.  I like to have various random facts at hand.  So i picked up a Dictionary of World History, and a book called A Short History of Philosophy, or something like that. They're both basically reference books though. While the philosphy book is really meant for a full read, it's doubtful that I'll ever read it all the way through. It's not a subject that I'm entirely too keen on, but one that i think I should be more familiar with. I don't particularly enjoy or see any real value in philosophy, but people I know do and it'd be nice to have an idea as to what they're talking about. Basically, I bought two books to make me a better conversationalist.  But i don't see the real value in studying other people's thoughts. Besides just knowing them to know, i don't like to be affected by other people's beliefes. I can't say that I subscribe to any particular philosophy, or that i have a personal philosophy. While generalizations and stereotypes are useful and make my life easier, I can't say that I steadfastly believe in a set of ideas or act a particular way in certain situations.  I have different opinions on seemingly similar subjects, just depending on the circumstances, and i'd rather not be influenced by some guy who, while undoubtedly extrememly intelligent, has nothing to do with me or my life. but enough on that.
    There were various atlases, encylopedias, and visual reference books that I wanted, but I've got a large enough stack of those in my room, so i restrained. But i must admit that i find this Yugoslavia thing faascinating, the history, not the killing and whatnot.  Like most people, I'm more than a little confused and would like to know more.  But also like most people, I don't wanna spend a lot of time learning about it. I mean, i have a life too ya know. So i made sure that my dictionary of world history had a little section on Yugoslavia and its history. I also made sure it had something on the Missouri Compromise, because I was flipping through a Civil War Enclycolpedia that i wanted but couldn't afford, but since it wa in this World History book, i fugured it was pretty comprehensive. I also wanted a book on dynamic html, but Todd was of the opinion that html will be obsolete in a few years.  My older brother Garrick, who's going to be teaching an html class, was of a similar opinion. So i said fuck it.

    After that, we headed over to the State Hill Road Wal-mart.  From the parking lot, the sight was surreal.  An old couple was sitting in an old Dodge or something and just looking forward. Next to me, a dog was sitting in the car by the window, and looking in  towards the car. That seemed really strange to me, since almost every dog i've encountered in a parking lot is always barking its head off at whatever is on the other side of the window. I did everything short of banging on the car to get this dogs attention so i could take a picture, but i got nothing back.  Anyway, the scene inside was really weird.  it was almost 11, and all these people were dragging their little kids around. All sorts of freaks were out.  I really wanted a picture of the scene.  So we left Wal-mart and eventually i dropped tood off and i went home. Back at home, Garrick had just arrived. He has many cool gadgets that i 'm really envious of. One, of course, is his neato digital camera. So i convinced him to come to Wal-Mart with me and take some pictures.  One photo that i didn't get was probably the best of the night. Some woman, at midnight mind you, was shopping with a cart full of pet products, and we found her in the raw-hide bone section. i stood with her for a while. When she turned, I picked up a large bone and followed her with the bone raised about my head, as if i were about to club her. But garrick missed the shot. I hope security did too.  Anyway, the photo essay can be seen by clicking here.
   I also wanted to get a picture of this "woman" who works at the A-Plus on Van Reed Road.  She's a fat, disgusting individaul. I'm not saying that to be mean either. It's really not a matter of opinion.  For starters, the last time I was in there, she was freaking out that she was the only one there and there were like 15 people in line, so she was nervously chewing on this yellow pen, the kind that has soft rubber filled with glitter on the outside. Anyway, i foolishly paid by credit card, and when i was waiting for the card to clear, i noticed something quite disturbing: there was no other pen in sight.  There was a display of fancy Bic Pens, but they were a few steps away and it would've been awkward to get the pens. So she tears my receipt from the register, and I'm thinking Oh god no, and i look behind me and some of the other people start to see what's going on.  She takes the pen from her mouth, and with saliva dripping from the pen, hands it too me.  I didn't know what to do, so i grabbed the bottom 1/8 inch of the pen with the tips of my fingers and signed the receipt and threw the pen down and ran. I looked behind me to some shocked looks, and ran out to my car.  I was gonna rinse my hand off with the lemon wated I bought, but when i opened it up, it exploded. Turns out, i'd bought "sparkling" water. It was all over me and my car. Curses!  So i went back inside, soaking with lemon water, to the scene of my recent saliva-induced humiliations and went to the bathroom to boil my hand.  I hate that woman, who from now on I will label as the "Disguting A-Plus Woman  (DAW)."  So this time i went there with todd and she was even more disgusting. She had all sorts of stains and whatnot on her ratty gas-station shirt directly under her chins.  and she didn't really talk as much as she just mumbled and made funny noises.  She looked like she was overflowing with some weird, gelatinous liquid and was ready to burst.  When i told garrick about her, he realized that it was a girl he went to school with. He wasn't sure if she'd recognize him or not, but she wasn't even there. I was pissed, but garrick  said "She doesn't live here, you know."  But i was sure that she did.  Oh well.
    My younger brother geoff told a me a sad, but extremely hilarious story over lunch yesterday. two years ago when he was a freshman in college, he was sitting in the quad.  There was this girl there that had a pet bunny rabbit, which was clearly a violation of dorm rules. In an ironic twist of justice, while the bunny was just hopping around or something, a hawk suddenly swooped out of the air, came down, and scooped up the rabbit with it's powerful claws. it probally killed it right away.  Apparently, the girl and others were left screaming and shocked. How wierd is that? A hawk jsut comes down and snatches a rabbit out of the freshman quad?  Had the story ended there, it would still be a sad, gruesome tale.  However, to further add to the horror, the hawk, after picking up the rabbit, flew his carrion all of twenty feet, where he landed in the quad, and started ripping the bunny apart with his feet and beak.  It must've been quite a site.  And he didn't even finish it. How wasteful. He just left the carcass in the quad. I wonder if the girl had to clean it up.  I think it would've been perfect if vultures and hyenas suddenly came outta no where and finished it off. But no such luck.
    But anyway, it was a good trip home. Always good to see the fam.  Very springy.  Geoff and I played a little basketball on Friday night, which we used to do a lot of.  While at my grandmother's house he also made reference to my "girly legs." he's just angry cos he put on 20 pounds in college. So i had to show him who was boss.  I had him tied up in a pretty good headlock, and was employing various moves that i picked up from tv, until he started clawing me with his fingernails. Personally, that seemed pretty girly.  But he denied doing it.

    All in all, i did lotsa stuff this weekend that i wanted to do, but didn't do a lot as well.  I wanted to buy soem clothes yesterday.  But when i woke up I forgot that we turned back to daylight savings time, so i lost an hour and was well behind schedule.  Of course, it didn't matter, because I also forgot it was Easter and everything was closed. Why waste a perfectly good holiday on a Sunday? What a waste. Religion, my ass.  Why don't we get ash wedneday or good friday or whatever off? What's so special about Easter that I can't buy shorts?  I orginally had some rather scareligious (if you believe in that sort of thing) thoughts, but thought i'd better now. I don't really believe in any particular, specific idea of god, but i do believe in a god. And he's a vengeful, spiteful one.  So we'll play it safe.

    So of course, after a weekend of beautiful, warm spring weather, it turned cold and cloudy shortly before I got on the road back to DC.  I drove through monsoon like conditions almost all the way back.  I tell you, i really don't think i'm supposed to be living here. As i've said before, and i'm sure ai'll say again, almost everytime i drive back here form wherever i've been it's raining or snowing or something.  There's a fine line between unluckky coincidence and bad cosmic omen, and i think i crossed it long ago.  But i did stop at Garrick's place to use his scanner, another of his possesions that i covet. I scanned lotsa stuff mainly for the index of Nouns, which will be updated later today, I hope.  i also used his Cosmopolitan Virtual Makeover program and gave myself all sorts of fashionable 'dos.
I've never felt so pretty...
 
 

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