narrenschiff: official crew member

last saturday (25th) i went to discovery green park downtown for dietrich’s birthday party. there were a few people there i knew, and a number i didn’t. the hrc and her daughter went as well. afterward, i accompanied them to the apple store in the galleria so she could get her first gen iphone fixed/replaced. i managed to keep from buying anything. her daughter wanted to eat at subway, so i went there with them. it was the one right by crescent city beignets, so afterward i convinced them to walk over and i got some beignets. i don’t think her daughter was too impressed by them.
last sunday i had a new experience. through a raffle at work, i’d gotten two free tickets and a parking pass for the texans-bengals game. the tickets were for nov 9th. being the meticulous pre-planner that i am (heh), i (miraculously) made plans early. the first person i thought of that might truly appreciate going to the game (if she wasn’t already going) would be natalie. so i emailed her, and she very quickly called me back and accepted. she was already planning on going tailgating there with some friends, but she didn’t have a ticket. however, she thought my date was off. the texans were playing the bengals in a couple of days. i looked around online and it turned out the bengals game had been moved to the 26th as part of a shuffle because of hurricane ike. man, i’m glad i tried to make plans early, otherwise i would have completely missed the game. natalie asked me if i’d like to tailgate with her and her friends, and when i said i never had she said i had to. so i did.
they came by and picked me up around 11am, and we went to reliant and parked, then walked to the tailgate location. the people had three parking spots in use. they had several big tents, a tailgating trailer, several tvs, some satellite dishes, loud music, etc. they were making chili, and there was a lot of beer. around 2:30pm or so we left there and went into the stadium and watched the game. it wasn’t a particularly exciting match, but it was a good game because the seats were pretty good (and in the shade) and the texans won. and i saw history, as it was the first time the texans had won three games in a row. which would be much better for them if they were in the 4th or so week of the season. oh well. after the game, we went back out to the tailgaters and stayed there for a couple more hours. then we walked back to the car and they drove me home.
in a rare turn of events, someone even got a picture of me not covering my face. and looking at the camera, in fact. i was hoping it wouldn’t make it out into the wild. but since it did, i might as well acknowledge it.
a while back, i finished reading downtown owl by chuck klosterman. i enjoyed it. i thought the ending was kind of abrupt. after i read it, i went around and read some reviews. other people thought it was good, but not as good as his other works. and a common thing was people seemed like it was too long. maybe since i’m not familiar with his other stuff i enjoyed this one quite a bit. i don’t know. i like his writing style, and i thought his characters were interesting. i recommend it.
i also read no country for old men by cormac mccarthy recently. i’d never read anything by him. but i had seen the coen brothers film. i was pretty surprised by how faithfully the movie followed the book (both visually and plot). (not that it was perfect, but much more than i figured it would.) i could almost replay the movie in my head as i read the book. it was a good read, and i recommend it as well.
on halloween day, i decided to dress like i had last year. basically, black motorcycle jacket, skeleton gloves, and skeleton mask. i put goggles under the mask so it didn’t poke me in the eyes, then put goggles around the outside but on the forehead (to keep the mask in place). i rode to work that way. unfortunately, when i hit about 70mph on 288, the mask caught a bit of wind and the goggles came off. i didn’t stop. during lunch we went up 288, so i asked my coworker if on the way back we could stop and get my googles. i wasn’t sure what shape they’d be in, but on the way back we saw them and they looked to be in one piece. so he turned around and make a big loop. the goggles were right before an on-ramp, so he took the on-ramp and then stopped a ways up and i got out and walked across the on-ramp and up 288 to get them. just as i was getting to my goggles, a police car pulled over. “great!” i thought. “they’re going to hassle me.” as i bent down to pick up the goggles, they rolled down the window and said “what are you doing out here?” i held out my goggles toward them and they said “you dropped your glasses?” “yeah” i replied. “where’s your car?” i pointed and told them i was up ahead, but i was a passenger and it was a friend’s car and he was driving. “well, we got a report of a 12-year old out on the highway.” i paused and looked at them, then i looked down at myself, then i looked back up at them. “huh” i said. they said “get in back and we’ll give you a ride.” i opened the door and then tried to get my feet in. there was only a few inches (like 3) between the backseat and the plexiglass separator. “how…uh…how do i get in?” i asked. “just turn yourself and sit back in” the female passenger cop said. i always wondered why they put people in that way. i figured it was because they were cuffed. i guess maybe it’s because you can’t get your feet in. i got in (awkwardly) and said “i’ve never been in the back of a police car before.” i’m not sure if they believed me. i’m not sure they even heard me — they didn’t respond or react at all. they drove me up to my co-worker’s car, and the whole time i was laughing internally thinking about how my co-worker was probably responding. he can be kind of highly wound about some things, so i figured he was going “oh great! the cops showed up. oh man, he got in the car. oh great! now they’re coming up here! i’m probably going to get arrested or something!” (and for the record, i told him that later and it was pretty accurate. i still laugh thinking about it.) once they stopped, the cop rolled down the window and told me to lean out and open the door from the handle outside. which was difficult, since i was leaning on my legs toward the door. eventually i managed to get my body contorted enough to get my hand to the handle and open the door. i got out and thanked them, and they drove off.
my goggles were scratched some on the lenses, so i’ll probably have to buy some new ones. (scratched mirror tinting ain’t so great to look through.) but it was worth picking them up for the experience. and, yes, i did wear my mask with them over it on my trip home after work. however, i didn’t take the freeways. : )
yesterday i went by stubb’s on telephone road to pick up a license plate support mount kit, and to see if they had any of the same goggles. they had a license plate kit i liked, but not the goggles. i guess i’ll be ordering some goggles over the net soon.
in the afternoon, sue stopped by with most of the kids and we watched return of the jedi and went outside for awhile and such. later we met jack and jackson at the house of pies on kirby.
yesterday and today i went by office depot and picked up some containers. they’re a size i was searching for a month or two ago when i bought the storage unit from ikea. i also bought some more bookends. maybe one of these days i’ll actually get organized.
today in the midst of trying to do some organizing, i decided to try going through some of the crap tamara left behind. it sucks that it still ends up making me cry. i don’t know what i’m crying for. for what she was, i guess. or what i thought she was. for what i thought our collective future was supposed to be. for the painful things we went through. i’m not even sure if she liked me anymore. ever. much less loved me. i don’t know. maybe she just loved the ideas of things, and i seemed like i would be able to fill the role. who the fsck knows. i need to get that crap out of my house.
how bizarre. in the middle of writing that last paragraph, i got an email from john leatherwood. i haven’t talked to him in years. they were friends of tamara’s and mine back years ago. (in fact, that 77 vw camper bus i have used to be his.)