Tales of Ordinary Madness

So I’m new to Jeffrey Lewis but god damn is he good…

The song is called Williamsburg Will Oldham Horror

Well, thanks to my buddy Tim — I now have my very own hackergotchi. I attempted one, but it looked like crap. In a matter of moments Tim had whipped one together for me that looks just great.

Wow — how time manages to slip past. I can’t believe it’s been almost two months since my last blog. A lot has happened in those two months…

First, on October 28, 2005 Jess created a most awesome Halloween costume for me. Pictures are below of Jess and I pre-party and JustBill and I at JustBill and Jaimee’s Halloween party that night:

Second, on October 30, 2005 I earned my class M endorsement from the state of Pennsylvania, which means I am now licensed to operate a motorcycle. I signed up for and completed the Motorcycle Safety Foundation course. The course was fun and challenging; I was surprised at the amount of coordination and thought that is required to operate a motorcycle. I went into it thinking it would be a cake walk, I left with a healthy respect for the art of motorcycle operating. I’m hoping that over the winter I can acquire a nice “starter” motorcycle and start riding in the spring.

Thirdly, I ran for and was elected to the board of directors for the Western Pennsylvania Linux Users Group. I will be serving as the Director-at-Large for the upcoming year. We’ve already had our first board meeting and I’m excited to see how things progress. We have also started a ErieLUG revival committee. I’m hoping JustBill will join the committee and help us kick-start ErieLUG again.

Today is day one in a new decade of life for me. Today I am 30 years and one day old. I’m not sure what exactly it means to me. I spent sometime over the weekend listening to some bands I used to adore in high school, realizing that the albums are over a decade old themselves. I reminisced about hot nights in the Roadhouse Theater on State St, screaming back lyrics to Apollo Onion from Magoon. Long nights at Perkins talking to the waitress with the bad teeth about her muscle car, sharing silly games with Rob, dreaming of being an alternacool band with Phil and Matt, and wondering why the hell the object of my affections was spending so much time talking to Bill. Coffee, Camel cigarettes, sweat and teenage hormones.

I should not ache for these times; my practice has tried to teach me to look at these memories and then let them go. This is obviously a lesson that I have yet to fully learn. There was a time in my life when I would have lain in bed awake, mourning the passing of these times, the exiting of some of these people from my life. While I am no longer losing sleep, I am still aching, longing to recapture that which has slipped through my fingers like so much sand.

I know that as I long for the sand of yesterday, the sand of today is sliding into the past unnoticed. Tomorrow, on day two, I promise to pay attention to now, however I think today, I’m going to spend sometime on yesterday.