Vacation

So, as Day Two of my vacation hits its midpoint, I find myself with time to shake out the contents of my brain.

• Given all of the times that I've made lists of things I hate and posted them here I am shocked that I never mentioned Cream Soda. How can something supposedly so closely related to Root Beer be so bloody awful? I think it's just one of those "old people" sodas like Ginger Ale that people haven't actually had since the Depression but somehow recall as being good. I am not fooled.
• I am newly single. I have mixed emotions about this. There may be more lengthy posts on this in the future, but it's only been five days and I haven't quite been able to put all of my thoughts on the subject in to a nice neat package.
  
• I actually went out and bought "throw pillows" ("accent pillows"?) for my relatively new (and stylish) IKEA couch. If they hadn't been so inexpensive I'm sure I'd feel much more emasculated than I do. A few more episodes of this nature and it will no longer be possible to mistake my apartment for a dorm room, which is good, right?
  
• I was looking forward to playing soccer tonight, but alas, there is none to be played.
• It's hot today, not as hot as was forecasted, but still, Africa hot.
  
• I'm reading three books at the moment- down from four a mere week ago. First, a book on the history of the English language (my third such book in the last year) by David Crystal called, not shockingly, The Histories of English, a summer "page turner" in the National Treasure mode by Brad Metzler called The Book of Fate, and FINALLY, after what appear to have been endless publishing delays, Chris Salewicz' The Ballad of Joe Strummer: The Definitive Biography. The long wait for this last one was made a bit more palatable when it arrived in hardcover!
• My most recent musical purchase is Rhino's Lightnin' Hopkins Anthology: Mojo Hand.
• It's late June and my beloved Red Sox have managed to maintain a double digit lead in the American League East. It is too soon to rejoice, but there is some snickering going on already at the expense of a certain other team in the AL East.
• Just a question: could there be a less interesting slate of movies out at the moment? I give you the following:
• Spiderman 3: What a disappointment, my Spidey-sense did not tingle...at all.
• 1408: Shouldn't Samuel L. Jackson and John Cusack make me want to see it?
• Evan Almighty: Catering to the LCD of the fundamentalists didn't result in the expected ticket sales- good.
• Surfs Up: Another animated penguin movie?!?!
• Fantastic Four...: The first one was so bad I will not give this one any of my money.
• Knocked Up: Very good, but I already saw it.
• Nancy Drew: Um, no interest. Now if it was the Hardy Boys...
• Shrek the Third: Nope.
• Oceans 13: It was okay.
• Pirates: Nope.
• That's 6 sequels out of 10...somebody isn't trying very hard.

Okay, I lost my train of thought, so I guess that's about it for now.

Good news in a bad week.

Turns out Joe Strummer was half-Scottish.

It's June 20th

So Happy Birthday to me...

Memorial Day Weekend

So...over Memorial Day Weekend I took some time away from work and drove six hours down I-95 (does it have a nickname? "Boredom Alley" might work if it doesn't) to meet up with my best friend of 20 years* for a two day 25-30 mile hike. We drove another two hours to the Savage River State Forest in western Maryland and commenced to hiking.

Beauty of nature...lots of exercise...interesting "locals" (we were dangerously close to West Virginia after all)...the phrase "rugged intellectuals" was even uttered at one point.

Any-who...the larger point being that the hike was the longest time he and I have been able to spend together since we overlapped for one year in college (he finishing his BA, me making my first attempt at my MA) and it was great! I forgot what it was like to not need one's "inner monologue" at all!

We then returned to the Baltimore 'burbs where I got to know his two-year old daughter, enjoyed talking with his wife (whom I've known for two decades as well), and attended a Memorial Day "block party" sort of thing.

We've decided to make the hike an annual thing and I am gladdened by that.

Finally, I apologize, this post is terribly written. I had a great time bonding with my best pal and I blame the fact that the connection he and I have does not lend itself well to articulation.

*a topic for a later post maybe.