floorpie

I don’t really understand how Americans can be optimistic about marriage and children. It’s possible, even probable, that it won’t work out, but you do it anyway. I don’t get it. We don’t idealize family life. We never had a Japanese version of ‘The Brady Bunch.’

Quote from an interesting article from the NY Times (I assume you’ll need to sign-up for free…which segues to another point: why do I need a password for free information?) about so-called “Parasitic Singles”: unmarried Japanese women who still live with their parents. In this arrangement, they have basically 100% disposable income and are therefore able to live their lives in as decadent a way as possible (I can’t say I blame them).

At any rate, the story is an intersting peek into the sociological differences between our cultures.

Is there anybody…out there? -Pink Floyd

Riding in to work today, absorbing the smell of watered asphalt drying in the sun, brought me back to both olden tymes and days of yore, when we were playing in the street, doing 180’s on our Big Wheels, in-between summer squalls.

I never realized how difficult logrolling was until reading about it from JR. It always seemed to me that it would be pretty straightforward: get on a log, roll it.

Apparently, there’s all these other ephemeral concepts like athleticism and skill… Whadya know?

So, I saw Radiohead last night. Two words: awesome.

Tara was also there if I recall correctly, though it’s hard to remember what with all the strange smelling cigarette smoke floating around. The best part, in my opinion, was the trumpet player for the opening act, The Beta Band. He appeared in the middle of one song for about two and a half minutes, played his piece, and then disappeared backstage, never to be seen or heard from again. How do I get that job?

Have you ever seen a picture of yourself sleeping? I always find them fascinating for a couple of reasons:

– You will never be able to see yourself like that through your own eyes. It’s a facial aspect that you have absolutely no relationship with, but anyone who sees you does.

– Pictures of you sleeping represent portions of your Life that you know nothing about, but the witness does. It’s as if there’s this entire missing section of your existence that only other people can clue you into.

Well, it strikes me as odd anyway…

Water is weird. In looking down into my cup, I see very little of interest going on with the water. It just kind of sits there inert, lets light pass easily threw it without a fight, doesn’t bubble, gurlge, or fizz, and all around just hangs out.

Pepsi, on the other hand, has things going on. Let’s take a look at the ingredients:

– carbonated water

– high fructose corn syrup and/or sugar

– caramel color

– phosphoric acid

– caffeine

– citric acid and natural flavors

Now, compare that to the ingredients of water:

– water

Nevertheless, water is good for you (somehow), one of the most powerful solvents in existence, and turns white T-shirts in Cancun virtually invisible. Water is weird.

A friend of mine on running her first marathon:

You know I did a marathon this past weekend in Stockholm, right? What an awesome experience! It actually started raining (+hail!) 3 hours into the run, which made things all the more exciting. That slowed me down a bit, though…

I dunno… it made me laugh.

I do not know my next-door neighbor.

I’ve lived here for almost a year, and have never said more than “hey”, or done the ubiquitous guy-nod, should I ever pass him on the stairs. I wouldn’t recognize him in a line-up, and I don’t even have an inkling of an idea what his name might be.

Nevertheless, I know that he works a great deal, and is never home, preferring to stay at his girlfriend’s. He buys the paper, and likes to let them pile up outside his door in roughly one-week increments; when he then, presumably, throws them all away. Sometimes I stack his growing pile neatly next to his door. I wonder if he thinks the paper-boy does that. I know that my neighbor is slightly out of shape and doesn’t belong to a gym. He does, however, have an unused, rusted-out weight bench on his balcony. He doesn’t watch much TV or listen to the radio…at home.

This weekend, I had the chance to meet my neighbor. You can attribute our mutual disregard as a function of us both being guys and never really running into one another. Saturday, though, was a different matter. I was on my way to put my clothes in the dryer, and he was evidently on the way to the pool (and he is slightly out of shape). At exactly the same time, we both opened our respective doors (which face each other), began to step out, and then stopped abruptly, hands still on our doorknobs, staring at each other. Our eyes locked, and I realized that this was my chance to say something outgoing like, “we don’t seem to run into each other very often, but for the next time we do, my name’s Dave…”. I’m sure the same idea was going through his head, too. Instead, we both said “hey”, dropped our eyes, and I went down the stairs while he waited for his girlfriend, both of us somewhat defeated.

I noticed, even though he was home, that there were 3 days worth of papers stacked up…hmmmm.

Last night, sitting on my porch, swinging in the hammock, playing with the lit citronella candle and a stick that had as recently as 5 minutes ago been a handle for a popsicle, I discovered something:

Popsicle sticks don’t like to burn.

Don’t get me wrong, engulf that bad boy in flames, and, it will burn to a crisp; but sticking it in the candle flame, I found that it took a very long time to actually ignite. More often than not, it wold just kind of smolder with no flame to speak of, until it finally took light.

This should bring a sigh of relief to you all. The next time you’re stuck in a Towering Inferno in the middle of a delicious Creamsicle, never fear, though your face will be charred, that orangey,creamy, goodness will survive unscathed.

I’ve not been doing anything too terribly Bloggable as of late, or so it would seem.

I did however, by a hammock last week. That means that time otherwise spent out amongst humanity has been instead spent in a recumbent posture, wiling away the hours reading a book or nodding off to sleep. To tell you the truth, it’s been a rather idyllic existence. If I can just find a Lazy-Susan to point my TV towards my balcony, I’ll most likely move out there…