well, here I am

Man, it's been a long time. There's so much I could write about, blah blah blah, but truth be told it's just not worth the time to go back and create a novel out of the last few weeks. It would take another week or so, and I could be out doing stuff instead of writing about stuff that already happened. So here's a quick way of being kinda interesting and providing some idea of the grand adventure that my life currently is without taking up too much of it in the telling - a list. Here's some of what I've done and seen and experienced in the last while, in no particular order.

• saw a man on the sidewalk flip off and scream obscenities at a passing ambulance.
  
• met a guy who was looking for his pet mountain lion and gazed in due wonderment at the very deep scratches all over his arms and legs. yes, they were from his 'mountain lion,' and he was fresh out of the hospital, drinking 22s of Alaskan Amber, and looking for his cat. he seemed really genuinely concerned that nobody was helping him find the beast.
  
• applied for a job at the Alberta Cooperative Grocery two blocks from my house.
  
• found graffiti on the outside of the fence around the back of my new house.
  
• found cat shit/vomit on my rug in the bathroom - not my cat's doing, either.
  
• hiked through the International Rose Garden with Abra.
  
  • memorable moment - after hours of making fun of the crazy names people give their roses, I was totally noticed acting like a stoner by some guy with dreads and a camera. I was standing there with Abra and we were talking about the roses, and I said something like, "ah, yes, 'The Poet.' Fresh, vividly colored, yet maintaining that literary depth which earned him his name." (yes, I'm talking about a rose bush) And the guy was walking by and overheard me and just grinned at Abra and I and was like "hey guys, how's it going" and oh man, I was embarassed. I think I blushed.
  
  
• got lost at Washington Park with Abra, wandering along unmarked trails and crossing the intra-park railway several times.
  
  • at one point we emerged from the underbrush just as a train was starting to go by, and I just stood there in my torn jeans and flip-flops, Abra on the hill about ten feet behind me, picking her way down the trail in ballet flats (yeah, we have great hiking footwear). the train was full of tourists and families 'seeing the park' from the safety of a wee train. I just stood there, smoking my cigarette, avoiding direct eye contact, feeling totally on display and trying to be cool. The exhibit was titled "hipsters taken out of their natural habitat" and it was awesome.
    
  • it occurs to me now in trying to describe that that maybe you had to be there. but it was amazingly funny at the time. I looked back at Abra once the train had passed and she was just doubled over laughing, and imagining what it must have looked like from the train - I mean, there was no reason for us to be out there, we were following tiny little dirt paths, and there was nobody else around. Anyway. Maybe you had to be there.
  
  
• I've been carded maybe eight times so far, either buying beer or at the bar, and only one person has ever seen a uniformed services ID card before. They've all asked and been reassured when I confirm that no, I was never actually in the service myself.
  
• walking with Abra & Megan back to my house from the Co-op, overheard the following: A guy gets out of his car and calls up to a few people outside on the porch of a house three down from mine, and he says "hi there! I don't mean to be rude, but I just got back into town from Washington DC and I grew up in that house (points across the street at a house) and, well, I just have one question... what happened to the neighborhood?" (everybody, on the porch and in my group, laughs) He looks over at us with a flicker of concern that he's pissed us off or something and Megan says "yeah, I KNOW!" (more laughter from everyone). I should explain - I'm in a neighborhood where people seem to act very stereotypically proud of their race. That is, black people live around here, and they seem to actively enforce certain stereotypes of what being black is supposed to mean. Like talking loudly and at all hours in very ebonics-tinged vernacular, and acting suspicious or demeaning towards the white people. The white people, in turn, reinforce other crappy stereotypes by acting aloof and holier-and-richer-than-thou, and it's a bunch of hogwash. So I'm guessing that 'the neighborhood' being referred to was one where it was pretty much racially homogenous and there weren't all these honkies hanging around. Anyway...
  
• while driving, I was stopped at a light, and a guy comes up to my passenger window and asks if I can give him a dollar for four quarters, and I'm stuck behind a bus and the light just turned red, so I figure okay, I can help somebody out here. well, he tried to scam me eight different ways and then asked if I smoked pot right as the light was changing, and said 'hey man, come back here!' and well, I just waved out the sunroof and said 'later man' and drove off.
  

Well, so it goes. More to follow!