Saturday, September 20, 2008

15 percent fun!

Big, big increases today. It was a bit rainy ... cold, thundery, sad... I missed folks from home, from Whitman... and that felt... emptying. It's terribly difficult to describe my emotions. It's fake-happy, but real-happy at the same time. It's avoiding-thinking-about-something-happy and I guess that's okay for now. I only have a vague sense of what I'm avoiding thinking about. It's a number of unfinished businesses (businesses? Just go with it). I think the best way to describe it is Purgatorial. Is that even a word? It sounds like an editorial you'd write for the Purgatory Newsletter. "The Limbo Letter: News Source for All Those Who Are Stuck in the Middle."

So anyway, I guess the best way to put this is that I'm not necessarily more HAPPY, but I'm CERTAINLY more fun. At least I'm putting forth the effort, eh?

I bought a bicycle. Look at it. That's a photograph of it. Have you ever seen a more adorable bicycle? Maybe that will justify the $200 price tag. But somehow, that's just how much bicycles seem to cost here in New Orleans. I don't really get it. There's a pretty good bike culture here, but it's like GNO never got the memo that used bikes are supposed to be kind of dirt cheap. Otherwise what would the dumpster-diving DIY kids do?

I also cleaned the house, baked two dozen cupcakes, helped my neighbor wax her legs (I went to bring her cupcakes, but you never know when someone is going to be struggling with Sally Hansen), and finally changed the cat litter. I discussed Imagism with Marianne, which was therapeutically pretentious, and that was all great. I went to Kinkos and got my car registered and left about 16,000 voice messages from West-Coasters and Chicagoans.

I spent a lot of time with Joe today, which was really good. Time for a Joe Stadolnik briefing.

This is Joe Stadolnik. I just took that from his Facebook profile. He has no tagged photographs of JUST HIM, so I chose his current profile picture. He is the boy in this picture. That is how you can recognize him. His favorite food is pie and his favorite animal is a duck, and those are my respective favorite food and animal, too. So that's generally how I describe him to the rest of the world. Furthermore, he has heard of most good bands in the universe (possibly ALL good bands in the universe, as I haven't managed to elude him with some little-known up-and-coming group yet, and I can usually do that with TFA people. More boring people than Joe). He eats meat. He is adventurous. He is my best friend in New Orleans, but he's no longer a Teefer. Which I think makes his appeal even vaster. And that's that in a nutshell.

We went to see "Burn After Reading" at the Prytania Theatre (yes, that Prytania Theatre -- and the last single-screen cinema in Louisiana). The theatre had those old-timey commercials for concessions and gift certificates before the "Main Attraction," and that was kitschy enough to make the experience worth it. But I also thought the movie was hysterical, and EXACTLY WHAT I NEEDED. I had forgotten how going to the movie theatre genuinely steals you away from reality from two hours, and it feels awesome. Good thing going to all the movie theatres in New Orleans is on my action plan! Way to think ahead, Johnson. 10 percent bonus.

And then we went to Karaline's to have dinner and talk about Sesame Street. There was more to this, of course, but I hate people who roster all the people they talk to at parties, so I'll skip it. Suffice it to say that it was VERY fun, and I got KIND OF drunk.

Tomorrow I'm going to church and I'm going to the museum and I'm going to lesson plan. I'm going to have another really great day.

At some point, I hope, I will look at my feet and find them firmly rooted on the ground, but I'm just not there yet. At least I am trying.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

You should be excited because this is coming soon. I am jealous.