I can now say, perhaps for the first time in the history of makind, that something positive has come out of my recent consumption of alchohol:
Heather and I have quit spending so much time on our computers in search of a more interesting and full lifestyle.
Thus far it has been a strange process, but not altogether unpleasant. At the moment I’m installing the new suse on my laptop, and working on cleaning out the closets and such in the house to help them to become a bit more organized. I spent the afternoon coloring with Ellie, but aparently my goodwill was somewhat punished when she scribbled in ballpoint pen all over my 24″ LCD computer monitor.
Such is the cost of parenting. I imagine that it will come out with windex just like last time.
I’m on vacation now, officially. It has been three days now without cigarettes down from a pack a day habit. My release from the shackles of work has been supplanted by an annoying physical withdrawal that keeps me from sleeping or having a good time no matter what I’m actually doing.
I’ve been considering doing something like spending money, while eating pizza, while watching my favorite show, while playing with my dog…just to see if it can break through this misty haze.
Sudden freedom from the pressures of a professional life can often create a sort of negatively reinforced humdrum feeling in me. In the weeks leading up to the vacation, my mind was alive with plans to accomplish quite a few things that have been in the back of my mind lately, but I now find myself laying about and complaining about my lack of cigarettes instead. I have done a few things that I was planning to do, but thus far on the “third day” of vacation, I’ve accomplished almost nothing that I planned apart from not going to work.
One thing that I have done is to get our dog all set up for his immunizations and for his future genital mutilation. On the way into the pet store, where he was being dropped off for grooming (a bath and a clip of the nails) there were roughly 20 dogs in small kennel cages barking their fucking heads off. I had to wonder if anyone would come to the front of the store and think, “Wow, I’d really love to have one of these insanely annoying and boisterous dogs in my house for the rest of its weary days!” I do believe that the pet adoption people should work hard to bring dogs that seem at least somewhat well behaved, or, well, like pets and not livestock.
I have been thinking about getting a vasectomy, as my ingenious plan to this time make Heather sign a document regarding her exclusive changing of the diapers has backlashed miserably and rather than me getting out of the changing, this has resulted in a doctor cutting my balls apart at some indiscriminate point in the future. I think I’ll wait until after Christmas and take a day or two off from work, I’m not sure I’d want to sit in front of a computer with swelling in that area, though that is likely what I will do at home as well.
On the bright side, I’ve reopened my audio scrobbler account, and plan to have a plugin for the songs to be listed near the right hand of the page, so that you can amuse yourself at my proclivity for George Michael “Everything She Wants” and Heather’s newest discovery which is the theme song from the Sea Ponies titled “Count Upon the Sea Ponies” which is the most amazingly awesome song I’ve heard in months despite the purchase of a new Pocketdwellers album!
Pocketdwellers, for those of you who don’t know, are a Canadian group that has melded all the best elements of funk, hip-hop, and rock, and mixed it up with some turntablism and a bit of jazz. Pocketdwellers is like the America of modern black musical heritage, the mixing pot where the sum is certainly at least equal to its parts. Digitally Organic, one of their first released records, turned my head completely around when I heard it on garageband.com of all places! I encourage anyone who likes party music to check it out asap.
