About Evergreen
Something new I just finished for Evergreen's Web site. Got a skatepark that needs buildin' in your town? These are your people.
October Gets Me
This year my birthday mostly slid by unnoticed, and that's how I wanted it, by god—but Cathy did buy me tickets to see Jeffrey Eugenides speak at the Baghdad. It was one of those gifts that keeps on giving, because you got a copy of Eugenides' new book The Marriage Plot upon entry, and I just started reading it right this second.
But about the live reading, it was kinda a new experience for me. Basically, we drank beer and listened to the author read something from the book, and then persevered through the "question and answer." One thing many of the people who stepped up to the mic had in common was a love of hearing their own voice. They'd blab on in the face of an award winning author, all about their own half-baked interpretations of everything he's ever written and what it has to do with their own small lives and ideas. Catherine and I exchanged many an exasperated glance through all this. Just let the guy fucking talk. That's why I came here.
As a whole, though, I liked the show. It was more interactive than a movie, and a little more civilized than a rock show. You have to like reading those book thingies to enjoy something like this, but if you do, I'd highly recommend it.
Although my schedule's been pretty tight, work-wise, I squeaked out to Tigard skatepark the other day because, well, it musta been over a year since I was here, and that's saying a lot since we used to localize this place. Anyway, all the same kids were lurking. Nick, Carlos, Kelly ... the usual suspects. I'm down for those kids. We kinda watched them grow up. I tied Lefty up in a corner and did some laps under the autumn foliage, remembering why I love this place.
Self-Induced Literature
I was just thinking, I've read all of these within the past year. On the one hand, I'm proud. On the other hand ... what's wrong with me?
Dog Blog
Among the many changes in my life during the past year, perhaps one of the biggest was getting a dog. Or "having a puppy" as I like to think of it since many people I know are having babies and we all seem to complain about the same thing—can't get a full night's sleep and spend all day cleanin up poop.
It's amazing how you learn to love something. At first, young Lefty created chaos in my life. But then, slowly, he created stability. When you have a dog, you have to do things every day, like walk them and feed them and such. Pretty soon, those things became things that prevented the world's chaos from pressing in. On really hot days, we'd walk under the cool pine canopy at Mt. Tabor, both moving kinda slowly—me pondering the quiet, him I can only imagine pondering the cacophony of sniffs brought on by the breeze. Next thing I knew, I couldn't live without him.
Look at 'im! He used to be so cute. That's what I tell him now that he's in his awkward, lanky phase.
The feet in the waterbowl thing is cute but actually pretty annoying since it creates Lake Superior on our kitchen floor every time he does it.
What can I say, Lefty is a child of the skatepark, just like the rest of ’em.
You see, he's even down to pose with me when I'm dressed as a German tourist. Now that's devotion.