February 2009
February 10, 2009 at 7:30 am
Do I need to keep the Corn Chex branded Rubik’s Cube with blueberries and strawberries on the side? What about The Bangles EP for “Hazy Shade of Winter?” Is it worth storing all these young adult novels in the closet when I haven’t read them since I was a young adult?
I’ve been asking myself these questions the past few months as I clean out my closets and bookshelves. I hate having too much stuff. Stuff sits around, taking up room. Stuff is heavy to lift and carry down stairs to a moving truck. Stuff consists of very little I need.
I enjoy getting rid of my stuff. When I went through my file cabinets last year, I was tempted to keep all the notes I’d taken in college complete with doodles. The more doodles, the more boring the class. It reminded me of that time in my life, but I don’t need those notes anymore. If I needed the information in them, I would turn to Google before my file folders. I hadn’t even looked at [...]
February 9, 2009 at 9:02 am
I am old enough that I remember when movies didn’t play ads or trivia slides before the show. You sat in the theater and listened to an endless loop of pop music before the trailers finally came on. I’m not a fan of the ads, particularly considering that I have paid for the privilege to sit in the theater and watch them. Don’t get me started on how stupid the movietickets.com ads are.
However, this weekend I saw an ad before the show that actually made me laugh because it was so true. Tell me, is this not the perfect man? (Well, perfect for as long as he lasted, which would not be long in my house.)
February 6, 2009 at 9:03 am
I looked into the baby boy’s bright blue eyes and thought, I knew your parents before they started merging their DNA. I knew Courtney and Adam when we took 6th period AP English together. Courtney sat to my left and Adam sat behind her, the position to best tease her from. And even though Courtney went to the prom with another boy, here they were now, married and laughing and making goober faces at their little boy. It was sweet and adorable and the sweet potato fries dipped in honey made it even sweeter. They were a perfect little family, or if not they were very good at faking it.
And still, I have no desire to have children.
I’m 28 now, so babies are popping out of the vaginas of half my friends (POP!), or being cut out of their bellies, or being picked up at adoption agencies. It’s baby-making time! Time to make the babies. I am happy for my friends, and gladly buy them fuzzy blankets and cute lil’ onesies. They’ve got buns in [...]
February 5, 2009 at 7:15 am
I watched a woman pull into the driveway where I had my first car accident which involved a blue Ford van and a sideview mirror. Then she carried groceries into our old kitchen and I looked through the windows to see they’d had new cabinets installed. I wondered who lived in my old bedroom now, and if the BB gun hole was still in the window, shot there by the previous owners’ sons. I bet the woman in the driveway didn’t know they used to grow pot in the basement.
I don’t get down to Louisville that much anymore. Almost all of my high school friends have moved away, just like me. But it is one of the few cities in this country that has my memories seamlessly integrated into its edifices. I can’t drive down a road without triggering a memory. There’s the house where my best friend in 8th grade lived before her family moved somewhere only the army knows where. There’s the music store where I learned to play flute and met the [...]
February 3, 2009 at 9:46 am
I haven’t stopped by the northern YMCA lately, opting to walk through the snow to the apartment’s fitness room rather than drive through the snow to the shiny Y. But I’m tempted to stop by again because they’ve installed a free arcade (for members). There are no tokens or tickets to exchange for cheap prizes, no stuffed teddy bears to win. However, all the games involve physical activity. According to the newsletter “Dancing, boxing, and snowboarding are just a few of the awesome activities that you can do in our new XArkade.”
I just hope there are other adults playing the games, because I would feel a bit odd being the only 28-year-old launching a Dance, Dance Revolution in a room full of teeny-boppers. I’d be so old in comparison I probably wouldn’t recognize any of the music and I might break my hip break dancing. Regardless, I’m happy to see my YMCA creating the video game room, even if they gave it a weird name. (XArkade? Really?) Fitness is best when it’s fun and this [...]
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"What distinguishes us one from another is our dreams and what we do to make them come about." - Joseph Epstein
