May 4, 1999. Tuesday

 
    First off, I'd like to say that I have the utmost respect for the men and women in the United States Armed Services.  They serve their country proudly and with disctinction, something I couldn't or wouldn't ever do.  Now, having said that, I can laugh.  i must describe what I saw in the elevator this morning.  I feel awfully sorry for some of those Navy guys.  It's pretty hard to look tough in a pristine white uniform.  They've got their little white hat, their nice white shirt and pants, and their shined white shoes. Even white socks.  How do I know about the socks?  Well, as i got on the elevator this morning, some Navy guy was getting on as well, in the aforementioned white uniform -with a twist.  He was wearing shorts!  HA!   First of all, it's about 56 degress outside right now, with a high of about 66.  While that's nice and springy, it hardly calls for shorts. Second of all, if i had the choice between pants and looking like I just stepped out of some Broadway musical, I'd probably reserve the short white shorts until it was about 112 degrees.  I mean, he even had white knee-socks.  The socks and shiny white shoes really made the ensemble. You just knew that he was gonna get ripped once he got out of the elevator. There was even another navy guy there cutting him down.  I mean, this was just ridiculous. I didn't even know that the Navy issued short pants.  What is this, UPS? I'm afraid my description doesn't do this absurdity justice. I mean, pardon my, French, but it looked so fucking gay.  There's no other way to describe it.
    Anyway, I actually found my way home after work yesterday.  After a few wrong turns, that is. I guess the commute won't really be that bad.  At least if I leave around 6:40AM. But I suspect that if I left half an hour later, it'd take at least another half hour to get here.  Plus, while it's closer to home, it's another 20 miles further from Lexington, which will just make my drive that much more of a hassle. But it's not like I'll stop going or anything.  I think it's gonna be a pretty tough month.  I kinda miss Rodzilla more these days. I guess I was so use to seeing her every weekend. Hell, it's only been 9 days since I've seen her.  I'm not quite sure how i'll handle 5 or 6 months.  Especially the lack of communication for those months. That should be interesting. Well, on the bright side, I seem to write a little better when I'm miserable i think. Well, maybe not better, but I sure seem to write a lot more.

    I'm supposed to have dinner with Nicole this evening. I'm actually kind of looking forward to it, if you can believe that.  It's a lot easier to see her now that I'm living in Potomac.  I think her house is only about 10 miles away from mine. I drove around last night after dinner exploring the area. I've been in the area a lot before, but I never really learned any streets or anything.  But to my surprise, I don't think I'll have that much of a problem finding her house.  And I think I can stay out late tonight. I think I'm staying at work till about 7 tomorrow, so I don't have to come in till 11 or 12.  But I'm looking forward to actually speaking with someone tonight. One of my friends, that is. Haven't done that in a while. So dinner should be a welcome distraction.
    Speaking of dinner, I ate with my aunt and her parents last night.  The meal itself was tasty.  The food, of the Chinese variety, as were the people.  Of course, her parents didn't speak much English, and I felt weird conversing with only my aunt.  Yet another example of how my ignorance in my parent's tongue makes me really uncomfortable. I mean., I could understand everything they said, but i couldn't really answer them. All i could tell them was that, yes, i do understand, but I couldn't really find the proper words to have an actual conversation. Mostly head nods and grunts.  I felt like a savage, just grunting and gesturing while shoveling food into my mouth  "More beans, Greg?" "Ungg...oooggg..aaaag..."  "Goooood Boy!"  I mean, I'm a pretty introverted guy as it is, mainly around people I don't really know.  So I usually don't say much, which makes me a little uncomfortable. Of course, there's always the option to speak.  Except last night at dinner, I didn't really have that option either.  So that was especially awkward.
    After I got back from my drive, I watched a little tv. Well, a lot of TV. I was flipping between both wrestling shows, and The Rock, which was on ABC.  I guess at some point my aunt and her parents, who were sitting in the kitchen, were watching too, because they would comment, especially about the wrestling.  I didn't really hear them talking about it until the monstrosity Nicole Bass (don't click on that link if you've just eaten) came out. She's well over 6 ft tall I think, and really does look like a man.  They looked up from their sewing and all did this Chinese equivalent of "AAAAAA!!!" to denote shock and terror (just picturing that makes me laugh), and I quickly changed the chanel. Of course, WCW wasn't helping matters much either. I like wrestling, but it's not exactly wholesome family viewing.  Especially on their big-screen tv.  So I just watched The Rock for a bit.  A decent film I'd seen before, starring Sean Connery and Nicolas Cage, when he could still kinda act.  The film was, to use Jed's term,  what he'd call "Joe Action-movie."  Just your standard, run of the mill Summer Blockbuster.  It's by the same people who did Top Gun and Bad Boys and whatnot, so it's full of low-angel, rotating  camera shots.  It's a really cheap way to add drama, but it always seems to work for me.

Besides that, not much else happened yesterday. I ate some Jellybeans, and read another Kafka story that I didn't really understand, The Judgement. It was a little more straightforward than Metamorphosis, but probably only because it was much shorter.  But I don't want to pretend or posture as some reader of fine literature. I was only reading because Rodzilla had let me borrow the book, and the TV downstairs from my loft was occupied, and I had no one to call.

    Anyway, I'm still a little uncomfortable with my housing situation. I don't know whether to feel more like I'm like a boarder or a guest.  Maybe once I actually have my own room I'll feel better. But I actually kind of like sleeping in my little loft. It's kind of cozy.  And I'm sleeping in the bed I moved from Berry's HGA (Happy Girly Apartment), so it feels almost like home.  But I think I'm still going to try to stay at Rick's in Alexandria while Nora is here. It's closer to DC, and closer to Matt's.  And closer to work, too. And closer to the airport. In short, it's in the perfect spot for the coming week.  I'm really looking forward to Nora's visit. I haven't seen her in ages. Way too long.  She'll be here till wednesday, and I'm taking off Monday so we can hang out in the city.  I don't get to hang out in the city very much during the day either, which is sad. It's really very nice on a nice sunny day. When Rodzilla was up here once we just hung out in Georgetown for an afternoon, which was really quite pleasant.  We just sat on a curb and chatted. Of course, we talked about her going to France, but it was still a pleasant time and a good memory.  Plus, now that it's spring, it'll be even nicer out.  The only thing that sucks about Nora coming is that she's only coming because she's stopping by on her way to Europe. That sucks. I mean, it's cool for her and everything, but now who am I supposed to call from work everyday? Well, at least whoever it is, I won't have to wait till 11 to call them. Damn west coast people. always making me sitting around and waiting.  Not like I have that much to do. By the way, this entire paragraph was just added, because I felt like I hadn't written enough. There's something else i really wanted to write about, but I can't remember what.  So if it seems like an unfocused bit of rambling, it should.
 

Hey Rodzilla, this make three days in a row that I've actaully READ this before uploading it. Shockingly enough, there weren't my usual myraid of mistakes. at least, i don't think so...
 

And Lastly, A big hip hip hooray for Jason, who's 23.  Actually, i think it was yesterday. oh well. Better late than never. And i don't seem to remember him remembering mine. So there. Anyway, happy (belated?) birthday, jackass.
 

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