Our honeymoon is now looking to be either Vietnam or Barcelona, depending on if we can swing the airfare to the East. Pamela fell in love with Vietnam during her producing a show on the book, "The Art of War;" I love the fact that it is two-wheeled madness in an exotic jungle setting. So we'll see. If not, the Mediterranean coast of Spain sounds great with me.
My 35th was a fun birthday. Pamela threw me a great dinner party with sushi (I got two pieces, it went quick) and Middle Eastern dishes. Alot of people came and brought some awesome gifts. Very nice, thank you all. Birthdays for me don't really matter now (after 30). My "give a shit meter" broke after that one. It has to do with the last breath of youth leaving my body and all that. I still don't see myself as a man, however. The other day I was waved over by a cop after being caught lane splitting on my motorbike thru traffic in a construction(destruction) zone tie-up on the freeway. As he was bitching at me I felt like a teenager again, sitting very quietly under my helmet hoping no ticket book would come out. Fortunately, it didn't and he didn't call my parents, either. Screw him. But I just never really feel like someone "this old." Life is like that, I guess. Boy, does it move fast. Oh well, let's not worry about such geriatric shit today.
This weekend I think we'll buy the wedding bands. I got Pamela's engagement ring at Tiffany's because she so loved that movie about Breakfast there. Tiffany's is so nice because they make you feel so comfortable about dropping big coin. I remember I walked in with a budget of $xK to spend and left with a rock three times that (bought with my brand new "T and Co." credit card). Talk about sweaty palms. But it was fun; its also much easier to buy the best. You don't have to know the definition of "very small inclusions" when the rock doesn't have them. Well, the wedding rings will be alot easier to swing anyway.
Thursday (6/20/96):Well, we had a picture perfect Shuttle launch this morning. Hopefully our wedding (one month away today!) will go the same. We met our judge yesterday, we took him to lunch and went over "the script." He is an awesome man. Everything with this wedding continues to work so well, we are verry lucky indeed.
We went and got our wedding bands yesterday. My felt a little tight but that's apparently the way its worn. Hard to get off. I guess that's the intent, huh? I felt like Ringo in the movie "Help." Pamela's ring is gorgeous! Platinum to match the engagement ring with diamonds all the way around it. It was thrice over my budget but its only once that we buy these, so why not? Tiffany's is always so nice. It's so easy to buy the best. The person I deal with there, Bill, is so wonderful, too. I guess its helps when one is not "just browsing, thank you." So yesterday the peasants were playing society people. Another sweaty palm event because I wasn't sure the downpayment check had enough overdraft reserve behind it; ah, grand larceny. But I lucked out. As Bill jokingly said, "I'm sorry, John, but your credit was approved for the purchase." So I'm stimulating the economy as these weddings tend to do.
Well, the olympic torch is coming thru our neighborhood today. Hopefully the thunderstorms we're getting won't put it out. I can't wait to see it.
Fri (6/21/96):The torch was tres awesome. I got home about 5:30PM last night, tuned into the TV to watch the helicopter camera coverage of the torch approach to my 'hood. Then suddenly I heard that helicopter hovering up the block so Pamela and I ran out to the corner just as "it" passed by. It was excellent. We immediately went to the local bar to celebrate and I had quite a hankerin' for a Coca-Cola, wonder how that popped into my head. Could it perhaps be the 32 million "Coca-Cola Olympic Torch Route" banners?
The torch went thru our 'hood down to Dupont Circle then up Embassy Row on Mass. Ave. past the Vice Pres's house then down thru Georgetown, and on over to Northern Virginia.
At 9:30PM last night it came back across the Lincoln Memorial bridge on its way to the White House. My night bicycling buddy Paul and I then caught up with it among the throng running along side of it and we snuck in right behind the motorcycle escort directly beside it and rode along with it all the way along Constitution Ave., then up 17th St. as it then turned onto the pedestrian walkway in front of the White House. It then proceeded onto the the south lawn of the White House where it was placed for the night. Bill and Hil came down and marvelled at it for a few minutes right before a GIANT thunderstorm caught all of us out on the Ellipse. An awesome event, all the way around. There was much positive energy buzzing around it. Being swept along with the crowd as we all ran and rode next to it was almost as good that energy that preceded the East Coast Dead shows (I loved the West Coast shows, too, but the vibe was different in CA; I think because Californians are more used to and therefore comfortably mellow about letting their hair down, here in the pent up hateful East, one feels the contrast of good energy so much more).
When bigger than life things like that go thru here, it is always so cool to be next to it. And today is Friday, what a banner week!!
Hanging out in the city when such exciting events happen makes me lament the days of working downtown, so much better than Prince Georges County, Maryland, for a city boy like me, anyway. Fortunately, working on-site at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center at least I'm on federal Government property. There is an employee-only exit right off the parkway so I don't even have to venture off onto surface streets in the 'burbs. I guess because I grew up in them, I get very anci when I'm out in the 'burbs. A certain melancholy and anxiousness sets in over me if I have to associate with suburbanites on their turf.
I guess because I see reflections of my life growing up, sort of like "It's a Wonderful Life" in the parts George Bailey sees when he was never born, except in my movie, I'm there and the people are talking to me. The movie in my mind is, "Johnny K kicking around on piece of ground in my hometown." One bed I'm glad I'm not lying in now. The 'burbs was my parents' American Dream, not mine. I remember as a kid getting on the express bus on a Saturday morning and riding it twenty minutes into downtown Pittsburgh to bum around in the shadow the big buildings. I remember the feeling of emptiness getting on the evening bus to come home to dinner and spending Saturday night in the dark, quiet 'burbs. You'll NEVER find me going out there now on a Saturday night. Give me no parking spots, wheel boots and tows, muggers, hookers, crack heads peeing in the alley, 40 oz. St. Ides' bottles in a bag, creative stories for spare change, drunken hispanic men sleeping on the sidewalk outside the liquor store. I'll be out amongst the liberals, the gays, the people of color. The Religious Right can have their Stepford world. I did my time in Utah.
Well, on that note I'm off to be very afraid at the McDonald's down the street, I try not to look around too much 'cause I always see that "through the looking glass darkly" version of my double if I observe too closely.
Wednesday (6/26/96): This past Sunday Pamela and I walked down along 17th st. to the Mall cheering the riders from the Philly/DC AIDS ride. Boy, how did they do it? It is great that they raised $4.5 Million. It is a shame that our country instead chooses to buy B-2 Bombers at $0.5 Billion each for a plane that does not accomplish its objective to be stealthy for a mission that is not needed. All this craziness in life.
It was very moving assembling on the Washington Monument grounds with the riders. A senior couple in front of us were down from Philly wearing T-shirts and holding a banner in memory of their grown son who died of AIDS. Why can't we have a disease that afflicts and kills only people with hate in their hearts? That would make too much sense.
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