Journals : 2006 : October
1 October 2006 | Link this
Among the interesting things I've found in the many boxes of stuff I've liberated from my parents' storage building:
- Several of the long-lost journal entries of 1988 and 1989, covering my decision to go back to school and some of my seemier "Farewell to Charlotte" escapades. I'll post some of them here if they turn out to be interesting.
- A toy supermarket I had as a child and had almost forgotten.
- Credit card receipts from my trip to New York and Boston in 1988.
- My exciting seventh-grade report entitled "The Hummingbird".
- A whole shitload of letters to various people that I wrote but never mailed.
- Band flyers, band flyers, and more band flyers.
- The very strange object you see pictured above. I'm not entirely sure what it is. Or was. I'm thinking pre-Columbian art, but I could be mistaken.
Pictures and text from two recent visits from friends yet to come...
2 October 2006 | Link this
With something as fan-damn-tabulous as this in it, how could Carolina Circle Mall ever have closed?
Yes, you're probably going to be subjected for the next couple of weeks to lots of random photos of stuff I'm uncovering in the big pile o' boxes. Best learn to cope.
3 October 2006 | Link this
If you're patient (lazy?) enough, you can just wait for someone else to post things and save yourself all the effort. That's how I'll handle my visit from Rick last week. This way, you also get to read about the other stuff he did, in case you're not interested in our cafeteria run, our Krispy Kreme run, and our quickie tours of Greensboro and Winston-Salem.
I also ran into Taylor last week for the first time in about nine years. Said meeting involved Stamey's and a walking tour of downtown Greensboro, including the recently-restored downtown train station. Alas, I can't rely on his website to provide details, because he doesn't have one. I can, however, promise more pictures of the train station and downtown Greensboro will be coming soon in the Photography section.
I'll be off now, in search of someone else's content I can link to in lieu of creating my own. But here's one last picture to tide you over:
3 October 2006 Later | Link this
As promised, the first Triad installment and some additions to the Charlotte page are now available for your perusal in the Photography section.
4 October 2006 | Link this
Well, gosh. Who knew?
It wasn't really Winston-Salem's oldest leather bar as I'd originally speculated, but a clothing store. Yet another exciting revelation from the big pile o'stuff, in this case a complete Winston-Salem Journal from Christmas Day 1947.
I've also just uncovered an ad for the premiere episode of The Partridge Family, and I've read untold installments of The Ryatts, none of which seemed nearly as funny as they probably did when I was five.
I think I need to do something twenty-first century (and not dusty) tonight.
6 October 2006 | Link this
It's such a nice change of pace to go to a doctor's office and fnd out that something is less serious than you'd expected, especially after you've been rather worried for several days. For clarity's sake, it was actually a dentist's office, but still...
10 October 2006 | Link this
Only four more days till the Great Midwestern Road Trip of 2006. Any suggestions of things to see along the way, particularly dumpy diners, vintage supermarkets and shopping centers, and relatively safe examples of urban decay are always appreciated. Our social calendar is already full, alas -- or at least as full as misanthropes like us are ever likely to let it get.
10 October 2006 Later | Link this
Is Mark Foley a slimy closet-case and a major-league hypocrite? Absolutely.
Is he a pedophile? Should he be branded a criminal? That depends.
As Joseph points out, the Congressional pages involved in this ongoing "scandal" were all above the legal age of consent in the majority of the United States. In the eyes of the law, at least, a man in his fifties who hits on a 17-year-old is a different thing entirely from one who hits on a 12-year-old. While Foley's attraction to guys in their late teens may be a bit creepy or distasteful to some, not to mention rather undignified, it's no more illegal than hitting on a 25-year-old secretary or a 60-year-old society matron, at least in most of the country.
Of course, the controversy is officially about the actual email and text messages rather than any specific sex act. Ironically, that may be Foley's only actual crime. In the US, it is very much against the law to send "pornographic" messages to a 17-year-old. However, in most of the US, it is also quite legal to actually have sex with that same 17-year-old. There's just something wrong with that logic.
Or is it just me?
10 October 2006 Even Later | Link this
I fixed my own garbage disposal tonight. Yay for me.
Sorry. Sometimes the little things really excite me.
13 October 2006 | Link this
Early tomorrow morning, we're off to Chicago, Detroit, Toronto, and assorted points in between and on the way. I will not be answering email and I will not be posting from the road. So don;t expect this space to change much in the next two weeks.
Au revoir.
28 October 2006 | Link this
We're back. More to come.
30 October 2006 | Link this
So is there any delicate or easy way to tell someone whose identity you don't know -- and who apparently bought you something from your wish list a few months back -- that you never received it?
What exactly is the etiquette here?
30 October 2006 | Link this
Random thoughts for a Monday morning:
- Any Tornotoans out there? On vacation, I discovered that SunTV (channel 52) is airing King of Kensington reruns at 11:30 AM on weekdays. I remember this show from when I was a kid, and I was apparently the only person in the entire country who watched it during its brief American syndication run. Anyway, I'm dying to hear the theme song again (the vocal version from the early seasons) and would be really excited if someone could record it for me.
- Circulating hot water baseboard heat is the coolest thing in the world. There's no blower spewing dust all over the place and drying out your skin, plus the baseboard units aren't even hot to the touch, so it's safe to put furniture next to them. It's so warm and toasty.
- Road trip stats: ten states, one province, 446 still pictures, eight hours of video, $650 in car repairs, $71 in dental triage fees, $50 in Canadian antibiotics and pain pills, $30 in assorted over the counter medications at Loblaw's, six bucks worth of Kosher Hungarian Hallowe'en candy for the neighborhood kiddies, two reunions with old friends, and a tons more fun, despite the occasional bits of drama to which I have just alluded.
- I missed the K&W, though.
31 October 2006 | Link this
Because we were on vacation and all, I never got to mention that Mark and I celebrated the fifth anniversary of the night we met Thursday night. The milestone was marked at a Denny's overlooking the New York State Thruway. We always do Denny's on our anniversary because we went there that first night back in 2001, the night my life changed so dramatically.
I'll try not to get too mushy and make everyone start retching. I just wanted to thank the most wonderful boy in the world:
- For putting up with my snoring and mumbling, my other assorted quirks, and my constant need for food.
- For coping with my moods when I quit smoking, when my thyroid went out of whack, and when I occasionally lapse into midlife crisis mode.
- For always offering to turn around at the next intersection so I can snap a picture of that vintage supermarket we just passed (and maybe even go inside).
- For understanding me so thorughly and completely, and for supporting me in so many ways.
- For helping me to drag myself out of San Francisco.
- For having the ambition, drive, and motivation I too often lack.
- For standing out in the rain that night in February 2004.
- For loving cafeterias and dumpy old diners as much as I do.
- For being able to converse intelligently on subjects that interest me.
- For taking me to Disneyland. And across state (and national) borders for immoral purposes.
- For maintaining the assorted databases around which our lives revolve, even when I slack off on my end.
- For being a perfect fit, physically and intellectually.
- For giving me a wonderful home in a beautuful city.
- For making me realize that, even though I might have been quite happy spending my life alone, I could be even happier spending it with someone else.
I love you, baby. Happy anniversary. Happy Hallowe'en too.
31 October 2006 Later | Link this
As a new homeowner and a fairly new adult (despite being 42 years old), this whole switch from end user to service provider in the "trick or treat" game is so new and confusing to me. Since I never really see kids much in my neighborhood, I didn't know how much candy to have on hand. And I'm still not sure what an appropriate disbursement per goblin actually would be.
It's 7:22, and the doorbell has only rung three times. I may be stuck with lots of candy. That's probably not good either.