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Saturday, Apr. 06, 2002 / 11:39 a.m. ~It All Went Surprisingly Well~ Here's what it sounds like he's saying: "They know what is what, but they don't know what is what, they just strut. What the fuck?" It's "Star 69", by Fatboy Slim, and it sticks in one's head, or my head, so I just heard it. Currently listening to (I like the way PartyJesus always let's us know what he's listening to) Fatboy Slim. I have email. I should check it. But should I check it now? Or when I'm through with this latest outpouring? Later. And thanks for all the Birthday wishes, and Roadiepig and Tattoobelly, thanks for the "shout out"s!! That was real nice. Whew, enough linking, that's tedious. Yesterday went surprisingly well. (my nails need to be clipped so this is harder to type than I thought, but onward anyway....) I did shower and get out, and getting out on a day off means I leave my apartment around 3:00 or later. That's "first thing" for me. I drove a bit, to get my car's juices flowing, deposited a couple paychecks (yes, I still had last week's check in my possession), got some gas, and drove around looking for an emissions inspection station. Fun. Beautiful day, kind of cool, blue sky, windy, just perfect really, and lots of traffic, the interstate was clogged, at 3:30 on a Friday. Our normal rush hour seems to be from 4:30 to 7:00, but on Friday I think it's 3:00 to 7:30, or later. Must move along with the details or this will be very long..... So I went to one place, but the guy told me I had two people ahead of me, which is kind of crazy, but well, this is a populated area, heavily so, and I asked where the nearest alternative might be, so he says, "Behind the Big Chicken". Now, if that rings a bell with you, you found me, if not, well, can you believe we actually have a landmark called "The Big Chicken"? We do. And it's quite the landmark. This is all very remarkable, and you may not see it my way, but errands can be quite difficult to accomplish when one has a day off, when one sets out late, etc. When one is me, and I am a born procrastinator. It went well, I'm telling you. Behind the large structure with the "beak" that is perennially opening and closing is a little trailer park. Crazy. I know it's there, I've been through it, driven through it, I know it's there. Small, 20, 30 trailer homes. Tucked away, just there, and normally you might not know, but there are also two used car dealers. Crazy also. One has an emissions inspection station, and tomatoes, tomatillos and peppers for sale. This is a largely Hispanic neighborhood. Mexican, I'd guess. They work at the chicken abattoir. I prefer to call it that. It sounds exotic. So, to make this long story ever longer and longer, I pull in, no one's ahead of me, but Gino is moving a van with some guy's help, the some guy is pushing it forward with his pickup truck. Gino knows I'm waiting, and finally comes over and begins inspecting. I'm nervous, as I always am, and as he gets the vehicle up to highway speeds I see the white smoke coming out of the exhaust, and I'm trying not to think the worst. Time flies, the wind blows, I see the blue sky through all the nearby pines, and there, in the shadow of the Big Chicken, the Large Artificial Poultry, only yards from the Chicken Abattoir, I pass my Emissions Inspection, and Gino had said, "Esta bien" when I was pulling the vehicle forward, but he finally speaks English to me, and says Toyotas are good cars, they use good parts, and I haven't driven too many miles, have I, and I park it in a good spot, don't I, and it's good for another year, and I'm smiling and thanking him, and giving him $25, without him asking, and I'm thinking, Hey, Gino is very handsome, I don't see a wedding ring....... This is like 4:15, right? On a Friday. The tag office closes at 4:45, and I'm thinking, right. Right. Pshaw. No way. Etc. But I go anyway, I have to try. I love a challenge. And for the first time in the history of people getting their tags renewed, I walk in, I'm behind three people, they move forward, and before I can write my Emissions Inspection number on my tag renewal form I'm called over, "Next in Line, Please"...... $27.01. And I'm Audi. I tell the woman, "I've never not had to wait in line, this is wild!", and she's telling me to have a great day, and I'm thinking, yeah, I will. This is great, it's been great. Whoo. Hoo. And past the strikers at Lockheed, and I want to honk or shoot a peace sign or raise a fist, because I think striking is so cool, but I just look, and they look back, those men walking around with their signs, and I'm thinking of Lulu's husband and how he's a scab. To the convenience store for 5 more Big Game tickets, and there is this man two ahead of me, this specimen, this Adonis, and do I spell Adonis correctly?, and he has these broad lumberjack shoulders, and this narrow waist, this small ass in these perfect jeans, not too tight, not too loose, and they fall to the perfect length above these black work boots, but he looks freshly showered and coiffed, and he has this long ponytail, with not one hair out of place, not one piece of frizz atop his head, and the hair at the neck is cut short, not like a mullet, it's all one length, but the hair at the neck is short....... and he turns, and his face is not perfect, but he's polite to the cashier, and he has this tiny cell phone strapped to his belt, and he gets a call and tells the caller he will be in his truck very shortly, he will call then, or he can be called then, so polite, and I can't stop looking him up and down and up and down, just amazed at this person's visage. Wow. Hardee's for chicken sandwich and fries, home to eat quickly, feed cats, out again. Driving downtown on a Friday is not too hard, most traffic goes the opposite direction. I park under the Arena, worrying I won't get a ticket, not a $10 ticket, that I'll be late, but I find a great spot, I get in the $10 ticket line, and get this, no, really, do you believe this?, I get the last $10 ticket. There's a line behind me too, but they say there's one left, it's mine, I get in the line to get in, get my Ilya Kovalchuk bobblehead collectible and a Black and Tan (Bass with a Guinness floater) and watch people. There's even a Neil Diamond tribute band playing! Thrashers suck, as they most often do, and it's a couple hours of watching us try to keep New Jersey from scoring. Up in the cheap seats there are two birthday parties, lots of little boys, and the Mascot comes up and shoots silly string at them, and they blow whistles and shout out stupid things and generally have a lot of fun. And during one bout of fun the Thrashers score, so they watch it on the instant replay. Luckily, I see Joe and his paramour on their way out, he has a hockey game to play, he actually plays in a league now, so they're leaving and he gives me his ticket so I sit down lower, and we lose, the Devils scoring an empty netter, always embarrassing, 3-1. After though, after I wander through the team shop, where everything is 50% off, and buy a little stuffed dog wearing a Thrashers sweater, and two cool Thrashers fridge magnets, I go back in to watch the New York City Fire Department hockey team play the Atlanta Police Department/Fire Department hockey team. I don't know who to root for. But it's crowded, a lot of people stayed, and we've all moved down low, by the ice. NYFD scores early, and when I leave, after the first, it's 2 or 3 to 0. I can't remember. The Black and Tan made me sleepy early on, very early, or just relaxed, but I could've sat and watched more, just watched them skate back and forth, all night. I was worried about being alone, there, going down to my car underground, alone, sitting there in the crowd in the stands alone, having this highly coveted Bobblehead in my possession - no kidding, as I sat there someone walked by and stole someone else's Bobblehead, a woman sitting with her baby in a stroller, the thing must've been in the bottom. The woman next to me turned to her companion and said, "Did you see that?! He stole her Bobblehead!!", and I kind of saw it too, saw the man walk by and reach down, come up with it under his arm, and she never noticed, so I started to wonder if maybe he hadn't just dropped it. I couldn't tell. I was so disturbed though, to think that someone would reach into a baby stroller to steal someone's stupid giveaway, that it could mean that much, and I kept thinking about the guy's Karma....... Bad, bad Karma, bad juju. And I wanted to tell the woman, ask her, and her husband, "Hey, did you have a Bobblehead in there? Some guy walked by and stole it! No, didn't see him, can't describe him, why didn't I do anything? Uh, I saw it out the corner of my eye, um, sorry." See. Wouldn't have done any good. Anyway, I left after the first period, the men from New York, the men with "Bravest" sewn on the backs of their jerseys, the men who make me want to cry when I think what they went through only months ago, how many of their brethren they lost.... were kicking our asses, and rightly so. Home, bed, popcorn, and "Cool Hand Luke", for the millionth time, but I fell asleep before the eggs. After the car wash, before the eggs. One of the best movies ever, on so many levels. A story that encompasses so much, so much of what it means to be a man, to be alive, to struggle, to bond, etc. *Sigh* And this morning I'm awakened by a phone call, from Hermione, wishing me a Happy Birthday, and I hear S. in the background wishing the same, as they leave me a message on my answering machine, and she says Lil is readying to ski so she's not participating in the Happy Birthday message, and S. is going snowboarding, and she, Hermione, is on her way to work. I guess this means she got a job. But I wanted to sleep, and now I can't, so I'm up, and here I write. Copious amounts of details, because sometimes I'm "detail oriented" and because yesterday went well. Except we didn't win the Big Game. But I did get three Birthday cards in the mail, including one from Mark, and that was a nice surprise. Veronica said I should go get free food at a couple restaurants nearby, places that feed you for free on your birthday, but I don't know. I might rather have good food, than free food that might not be good. Truth is I have no plans for today at all. Cost of the War in Iraq
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