6.10.02
Did you know there's a city in Virginia called Bumpass?
I discovered that on a waiver today and it cracked me up. How old am I again?
Last night was an adventure, and I didn't get nearly enough sleep. I got offline around midnight thirty, and headed upstairs to get several hours of good sleep; I had to be at work at nine today. So I get into bed and get all comfortable and start drifting off...
And hear a buzzing around my headboard. I cleaned my closet yesterday, and he probably came out of there. That's kind of disturbing, but whatever. So I'm all dozy and convinced there's as many as four of these things buzzing around my head. Excellent. I finally wake up enough to realize that there's only one, and it's between my bed and nightstand. So, being the intelligent person I am, I got up, crossed to the other side of the room, turned the lights on, and realized I couldn't see because my glasses were elsewhere. I see a brown dot buzz out of darkness, hit the light, and fly into my bathroom. Fine. I paced around for a few more minutes, wondering if I was going to go back to bed with that buzzing horror in my immediate vicinity. I decided yes. So I put on Stephen's CD, turned it up enough to block out the noise, and closed my eyes. It took forever to relax, and right about the time I did (it's three AM by this point, and I have to be up in five hours), I hear a soft 'thud' next to my right ear and a buzzing. Holy shit, it's on my pillow. In less than a second I was out of bed and across the room, fully awake and pissed. I'm exhausted, and there's a brown thing flying around in my bed. I watched it for a moment, letting my sleepy brain try and process this unfortunate chain of events, and finally decided on a plan of action.
I went downstairs and grabbed the first glass I saw, a wine glass, and returned to my room. I daringly nabbed my glasses off the nightstand, just inches from the buzzing terror, which then decided to dive behind my headboard. I can hear it back there, but I can't see it. So I'm brandishing my wine glass and trying to figure out what I'm gonna do with it when I trap it.
(Set fire to it.)
It's now three thirty, and I have to be at work in less than six hours. I'm beyond sleepy; I'm just pissed. So I jump up on my bed and start shaking the headboard and jumping around, swearing softly and trying to chase the damn thing out of hiding. It buzzes a bit, and then stops. I either killed it or it's in hiding.
I don't know, because at that point I put the glass down, grabbed my teddy bear, pillows, and blanket, and camped out on the couch. I was kicked out of my room by something the size of a quarter. I don't put up much of a fight at three AM.
So that's the bedbugs story, and while it really sucked at the time, I've been enjoying telling it all day because it gets a good laugh.
Now I'm going to back up a bit and talk about what I've been up to since last update. Work on Saturday wasn't much fun - I was on a party from Hell - but after eight, everyone left, and Laura and Roberto and I played around in the gym and stuff. And cleaned and got out of there at ten thirty. And I found a pair of rock shoes for half price in the gear shop. I marked 'em as mine and told Laura I'd be back with cash as soon as I had it. Then I went to a graduation pool party at Kitz's. I was thrown/jumped in with all my clothes on, which was fine until I realized it was cold for June. I shivered in a towel and pulled warmth from whoever was nearest to me, and was alternately amused by and disturbed by Kitz's amazingly geeky friend Adam. Ah, well. I got home nearer one than my eleven-thirty curfew. In fact, it was one.
Yesterday I got up earlyish, given my escapes of the night before. I showered and went out to lunch with mom (dad and Matt were on a camping trip) and then emptied my closet with the intent of cleaning it. I left midway through to pick up those shoes (yay) and came back to people in my house. I was offering up my home for a viewing of Dogma, and Carter and Noah showed up at four, I showed up at four fifteenish. The reason was that on the way out to Peak, I stopped at Taylor's house to chat with him because he's leaving for camp in...well, tomorrow. We talked for twenty minutes or so, he said he'd stop by (he didn't) and that he'd call me today (Monday) and we'd get together. (He didn't, we didn't.) I won't see him until August. Bah.
Stephen and Allen came over a little later than expected and a little later than Noah and Carter and Kitz, and we watched Dogma. It was as funny the tenth time as it was the first; I see something new every time I watch that movie. Allen and Stephen booked it outta here fairly fast after the movie ended; Noah and Carter and Kitz stayed around for a bit and we goofed off and put people in my trunk. The usual.
Then we had the bug thing. Skip to one today, when I got off work. I called a few people, looking for someone to lunch with, and I decided Stephen would be an appropriate person to bug. Allen was at his house, and he told me to give him an hour to play music and shower and such; I busied myself with showing Kenji some drawings for the wall of his I'm designing. Got there a little late, and could hear the bass and drums from the street. I ambled in (having been let in by his sister) and found the two of them playing in the family room (they were easy to find.) Not wanting to interrupt, I plopped myself down in a chair and watched and listened. I was impressed, and enjoyed listening to them. When they paused for breath, I said 'hi' and Allen looked at me, noticed I wasn't Whitney, and said so. I just laughed.
We went to Ukrops for lunch, which was fine; good food, and cheap. I laughed a great deal. Coming back to Stephen's house, the boys were belting out some song in the front and I was just listening, enjoying being there. I feel totally at ease with them, which is odd since, as I've stated before, I don't know either of 'em that well. It's really nice, though; we have common interests and loves, and they're both great people. Stephen's sister is cool, too.
Allen left us to go find his ex-girlfriend-type, and Stephen and I blinked at each other for a few minutes, and then he took me to find some of his friends and plug his show. (I'm convinced that was part of his motive. I don't blame him. I'm frustrated that I can't go, but Rent isn't in town that often.) So I met two people I'd heard of in writing, and then we wound up back at his house, talking and listening to music and amusing ourselves. I think I could have talked - and listened - with him all afternoon (and maybe [hopefully] we will someday), but I was already late for practice. Since this is nothing new, I didn't get in trouble when I got to the pool; just did my laps and listened to kids quote Monty Python incorrectly. I didn't get a warm up, I just kinda did the workout, and I did a hundred IM in 1:30. That's not a good time, I don't think. And I had to do a few laps cooldown before I could even think about pushing my out-of-shape self out of the pool.
There's a meet on Friday. It's going to be interesting. I came home, got in trouble for lacking to pick up my brother, and curled up on the floor and napped for an hour or so. Now I'm here, it's past midnight, and I think Stephen's about to launch into a conversation about penguins. Ah, well, I bring it on myself.
This entry got long, considering it only covered three days. A lot has happened, and none of it was really significant to anything. And I suppose that's the best part. I don't have anything riding on anything I do. I can make new friends (and I am), have fun at work (and I am), return to a sport I love (and I am), and daydream constantly about how I'd like things to be (and I am). Maybe they won't be perfect (I'm too romantic for anything to work out like it does in my head, but such is life), but they'll be really fun. I plan to laugh and smile a lot this summer, to drop time and make money, make friends, and do a lot of writing.
I can't wait.