Let the Good Times Roll

Lunch with my buds Matt and Clif at Viejo on Thursday, where I gained the nickname, "Bird Dawg."

Lunch my buds Alex, Vani, and Bridge at Viejo on Friday.

Is it possible to OD on Viejo? I didn’t want to believe it, but yes. I think so. Until next week, of course, when I will be begging all of you to meet me for muy delicioso chips y salsa a Viejo.

Lunch on Saturday at Chae’s with Bridge and her mom. Whenever I leave Chae's, I always think of a short story by Augusten Burroughs where he writes about this tofu, rice, lentil dish his partner makes and they call it, "Lesbian Expander," because:

a.) only a lesbian would cook something like that
b.) their stomachs swell from all the rice.

And so, I leave Chae's and think "oohh ... rice ... expanding ... lesbian expander!" And then I say to myself in my Hulk voice, "Lindy angry!"

And I wonder why I’ve gained 8,197 pounds since coming back to Vtown.

I’ve been hunkered down at the Coffee Shop grading, and have been visited by many, many lovely people. Got together with Laura and Co. for a fun, Leinenkugel-filled evening recently. Went for an awesome walk all through town, (and I’ve got these new street shoes that have the tiniest bit of heel on them, and they make an exceptionally cool, hollow sound when I walk, and this makes me very happy, which causes me to take extra long strides and swing my arms in a purposeful fashion) and shoveled the drive.

Again.

You know, when we first moved in to this house, I was totally gung-ho about painting and raking and shoveling and putting together bookshelves and all that. And I still like that stuff. I do. But, I gotta say, I am so over shoveling.

Our (ridiculously huge, but I was first kinda excited about it because of all the parking possibilities, but now I’ve come to understand that driveways are for suckas) driveway is beginning to look like a freakin’ Olympic Luge tunnel. I would almost like to carve into the built up sides and make some sort of relief. When I worked on the trail crew for the Forest Service a few summers ago, we used to carve faces and words into the sandstone walls of Badland switchbacks. Since the medium was sandstone, though, and since North Dakota is all sky and wind, our work would be washed away the next time we were back to work that particular trail.

Now, though, there is just no more physical space for the snow to be shoveled on to. It is just not possible for it to snow anymore. I’m sorry—it’s not.

I met some friends, and some new international friends, dtown for karaoke—or just for the sheer pleasure of watching all the American Idol hopefuls massacre Fiona Apple. Over and over and over. When we got to The Eagles, there was a 30th birthday bash for someone named Amy, who I am pretty sure is The Amy of Amy’s Whoopti Do Hair Salon. Anyways, there were all these abrasive, drunk 30 year olds in Mom jeans belting out Gretchen Wilson songs. Don’t get me wrong, I know plenty of women over 30, over 40, over 50, who are mind-blowing, but these women? I don’t know, they were just really aggressive and defensive about the fact that they were 30—they kept grabbing the mic and yelling, “yeah, we’re fuckin’ 30 and you better love it.” Um, okay. Please don’t body check me with your mom-jeaned hips. I whispered to Alex, “If my 30th birthday bash is like this, please plant a high heel into my temple.” She swore she would.

Sara K lent us the documentary, Wordplay, and We. Are. Currently. Fascinated.

After watching it, I dug out some old Argus Leaders from the recycling pile (and let me tell you, I’m a little indignant about recycling, but that’s another story), and tried to do some crosswords in under 2 minutes. A slight glitch, though, as I kept reading the word, “polish” as “Polish” (like the nationality) and I was all, “I don’t know what they call poetry in Poland!” Turns out, the answer was “edit.” Go figure.

Monday is President's Day! Bridge, Alex, and I (and maybe Vani and Matt) are heading to Omaha so I can stare at the orangutan!

Hey, all my smart New Mexico friends—welcome back! I hope you had a fab time! But I missed you!