I’m going to let you in on a secret, my post (The things we never do) was a ploy. My intention was for you to give me some awesome ideas of things to do on my birthday. Well, I guess that doesn’t necessarily make it “ploy”. Don’t feel bad though. It’s not too late to go back and comment. Also, your comment doesn’t really have to be something we could do on my birthday (or birthday weekend.) It’s really just nice to get these things out, it will make them more likely to happen. Believe me.
Speaking of my birthday, it’s next Monday. The only plans I have so far is that I want to go to the Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me taping. Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me is a weekend radio program on NPR and it is very funny. On Monday they will be taping the pilot for the TV show and you can request tickets on the KPCC website. I requested tickets and really want to go. Do you want to go? Say yes.
There’s always a handful of things that I put off. Put off until when? Some mysterious time in the future? Some special occasion that never seems to happen? I would like to air some of these ideas out.
I’ve thought for a long time about doing an Azusa/Glendora beer ride. I’ve thought about it since the Hot Knives beer ride. Although this really wouldn’t work anymore, it was a pretty good plan. There are four really good liquor stores in the Greater Azusa area. They actually make a really good loop and tour of the area. And you know what? The Brown House would have been the perfect ending destination. Why did I never get this to happen you ask? I have no idea! I thought about it being on my birthday last year, but it felt like a lot to ask of people. But would it have been? Probably not. Would it have been really fun and doable? Probably.
A lot of the other things I put off have to do with food. Making soy chocolate milkshakes? Apple pies? French fries? There never seems a good time to do this. These are the quintessential special occasion foods to me. They are my absolute favorite items. Are any of them hard to make? Not really. Well, croissants would be. I should add croissants to the above list. I love croissants.
It’s also like why don’t we have people over? Why don’t we have a special occasion roof party? I don’t know. There is no time like the present people! It’s like the roller blades you got for Christmas but kept in your closet because you didn’t want to get them messed up. One day you pulled them out to go blading and they didn’t fit anymore! True story. Well, not really, but probably.
What are the things you put off? What are the things you always want to do but the time never feels right? Comment away friends. Let it out.
I remember learning in Psychology that dreams sometimes act as a way to process our day. Let’s say my dreams don’t always follow this model, neither does this one completely, but this dream was pretty close to that overall idea. So here we go…
The premise was quite similar to 28 Days Later. There was a lot of wandering and evading the “infected.” I don’t remember who exactly was with me, but we were wandering around L.A. This could have been the soundtrack:
I don’t remember where the story began, but the earliest memory I have was that we were in a huge parking lot outside a smaller version of the Universal Studios tram ride/the tunnels on the 110 freeway. We walked inside and it was very similar to an underground subway system for walking. Dalas V. was our host for the tunnels. It was scary because tons of the “infected” were in the tunnels and we had to go through in a white canvas jeep/VW van, looked like something that would be parked at an oasis in the desert.
At one point, we met Barbara Jean (Nashville) at her run down mansion on Mulholland Drive. When we were on her porch I noticed one of the “infected” was this one, but she was no longer “infected”. Another “infected” scratched my thumb, but I was OK. Barbara Jean gave us the keys to her Volvo so we could get away from the zombies. But she lied to us because she didn’t have any Volvo. There wasn’t any car that had keyless entry at all. We walked around her stable looking at all these old dusty cars. We found a Lexus with no engine. Her servants told us there was no car, so we walked off.
I woke up around this time, turned off the fan, and saw the sun rising. There was definitely more, but it’s been too many hours now to remember any more.
I woke up this morning and it went like this and this. It had something to do with a retired baseball player. Or at least I figured he was. But he was our friend. The last thing he said to me was “you can do anything if you believe you can.” So I got up at 7:10 instead of hitting snooze for 30 minutes. I made oatmeal, cleaned the kitchen, took a shower, ate a plum. I really think this is what he wanted for me. To feel good about getting up and going to work.
“Hand shaking can signal a greeting, farewell, agreement, acknowledgment, respect, or closure of an arrangement.”
It doesn’t sound as legit as it did in my half asleep logic. I felt, at that moment, the universe and I were ready. I wasn’t ready to fight fires, save babies, or cure cancer. But I could make oatmeal.
I wish I could say it was like this, but it was more like this.
