on the drive home today saw lightening for the first time...in, i can't even remember when the last time i saw lightening was. okay, so it was weeny California oh my did you see that flash in the sky huh? lightening. but it was lightening just the same.
i'm famous. actually i'm not, but i think i might be in a movie out there somewhere. I was living in Farmington, New Mexico for a summer internship and over the 4th of July I drove down to Roswell to visit my friends Gina and Dave. This turned out to be an interesting weekend and not only because Andi ate my beeper from work. Little did I know that on July 4th, 1997, the 50th anniversary of "the crash" there would be a big celebration. Through Dave's connections, I somehow ended up in the middle of quite a bit of the activitiy.
That started with direction cars for parking at the Mayor's party and not being a local I attempted to have not only the mayor himself, but some senator park way out in the middle of the field. They pretty much parked whereever they damn well pleased...without much direction from me. I also got to see the most cheese ever (at that time at least...that honor goes to the Tillamook factory now). A 500 pound slab of milk product...evidently that part of the country is big on dairy. There was the unvealing of the Absolute (Vodka) Roswell display that was used to shoot a print ad. Speaking of Vodka...got to meet the mayor of Roswell while he was drunk.
Now I haven't even mentioned anything about a movie have I. Gina had mentioned before hand that there was going to be this parade, the Crash and Burn Extravaganza, and the Boy Scouts (who Dave worked for) had an entry in this...now I didn't have to be in it, but if I wanted to I could. So I bought some of the supplies needed for the costume...punch ball balloon, dishwashing gloves, black tights, paint and some other miscellaneous things. Cutting to the chase, Dave did an amazingly true to alienlife job on the heads (oh my, the detail in those eyes) and before I knew it...there we were...Dave in the rollerblades, Gina with they sneakers, and me with sandals of course. You can't see it, but there were 2 of the Diet Dr. Pepper guys ...you remember, the two guys with the cases of Diet Dr. Pepper that get chased down the street...yea, them...anyway, we were chasing them down the street.
It was the most unusual thing I have ever done in my life and so surreal to be this character...people were coming up to us asking for photos and to talk to us. One guy had a video camera and interviewed me...asking where I was from and what I was doing there...well, I think it was a guy from this movie.
i usually can't remember my dreams, but I happen to remember a snippet of one last night.
I don't know if I was kayaking down the river or what, but all of a sudden I was swimming in it (which isn't a surprise since I'm prone to taking a spill and bailing out instead of rolling back up). anyway, so there I was, "California Lounge Chair"ing down the rapids, only I was wearing my bunny slippers instead of Tevas. Finally make it to the end and when I climb out onto the river's edge I've survived the trip, but the bunnies didn't fair as well. Tattered and missing parts of their ears...that's it. The end.
it shouldn't have the best Monday of all time, but it should have been better.
at the spur of a moment i decided to go to this class for work that a friend of mine at college was going to be at. yes, i did have alterior motives to attend but it was something that i was going to do anyway later in the year. that's not the problem. i was able to hang out with a friend the weekend prior and the week of was both educational and damaging to my liver at the same time. in a way, the week was reviving as i've been feeling a little loaded at work. i was reminded that i actually like the industry in which i work for the most part (not a real big fan of the oil spills and all) but as a whole the work can be challenging. just in my job i feel more like a project manager at times than an engineer. i'm not saying give me a partial differential equation to solve, but something more than compiling data would be nice. other things happening at work too that haven't helped my mood.
on the return trip i swung through denver and realized that it has changed much in the past 4 years since i lived there. made for a great weekend still...got my music fix seeing Dispatch play a couple of shows in the area, met someone i'd been "talking" to for a while, got attacked by two very loving black labs, and finally found some hiking boots at the very VERY large REI.
so you can say that i pretty much set myself up for Monday to be the dregs. well, that and my ability to mull over fractions of seconds of time and project scenarios into the future, rehashing the past....blah, blah, blah. am i the most boring person on earth.... enough of the rambling drivel...not like anyone is listening anyway.
it was only 2 seconds...but during that time my heart was beginning to race. i've experienced 2 earthquakes since moving to California. the first was at 3 am and i was groggy, just waking up to drive to Fresno to catch a plane. it took me a short time to figure out that the clock was ticking funny...the tick of the clock is the same sound the blinds make when they tap against the side of the window. in those same moments i realized that a muscle spasm in my leg wasn't causing the bed to shake but in fact it was my first earthquake. ended up with an adrenalin rush that lasted the entire drive to the airport.
the second experience was in napa where we were 6 miles from the epicenter of a 5.2 earthquake. here's the experienced summed up in these words: backyard. tents. sleepingbags. sliding around? rumble? shaking? glasses? fire? fire! no fire. sparks. broken glass. heart racing. earthquaked.
ever since then I will occasionally check the blinds or touch the wall when if i think that the room is moving. most of the time it is just in my head but not this time...
it was my new printer shaking my desk that got my heart to pound. oh how foolish...
yes, i admit it...i downloaded a country song and i don't even feel the need to defend myself although it was "old country" which is to mean i heard it growing up. the song? Looking for Love by Sawyer Brown. While Poison and the similar hair bands of the '80s were all the rage in grade school (ok, i don't think anything was all the rage at that age...work with me ok?) i was listening to Alabama. This is going nowhere and I feel the need to listen to The Highwaymen.
Howie Day is going to be playing not only in Montana, but in Butte where i went to college. yea, so AFTER i'm gone they get some good music to come through. eh, that's not completely true...i didn't know some of the great bands that hit Bozeman and Missoula while i was back at Tech...guess i'm making up for lost time now though.
