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I’ve seen fire and I’ve seen zzzZZzzZZzz…

Maybe this isn’t such a good idea. After waking up from a nap, one of those “I’ll just lie down for fifteen minutes” naps that turns into two hours of unconsciousness I put a tape on the stereo and started writing this journal entry. Which tape? James Taylor. Yes, definitely a bad idea. Instead of waking up all I want to do is find a sunny meadow, hook up a hammock, and sway there while I watch the clouds go by. Time for new music…

There. The Cure. That should keep me awake.

Today I’m going to call my aunt, the one who’s staying within driving distance, and hopefully we can visit with her and my uncle this weekend. I’m a bit nervous; the last time I spent any real time with them was during a family reunion when I was my highly charming teenage self, and on the one hand I want them to think I’ve changed tremendously, but on the other hand, what if I have changed tremendously and they’re not as fond of me anymore? But on the third hand (I’m a three-armed alien. I mean, PRETEND I’m a three-armed alien.) if they prefer Sage circa 1986 their taste is terrible anyway. Like that. Worries that we won’t have anything to talk about too. Worries that they’ll ask me what I’m doing with my life, hear about my web site, and then ask when I’m going to “really pursue getting published” the way so many people do, and not understand when I tell them that I am being published, the web is simply a different medium. These worries have nothing to do with them specifically, I’d be thinking the same things no matter who I was going to see again after ten years of only exchanging the odd letter or two.

Gad, did you see that? I put on the Cure and instantly started being angsty. I see a link.

One of the people who regularly reads Coffee Shakes sent on this parallel parking story which I thought was great, and which will keep me VERY far away from any government vehicles the day of my driver’s license test:

When I was learning how to drive, parallel parking was (of course) one of the difficult things to deal with. (Although I didn’t have to deal with a standard shift car on top of that).

About an hour before my driver’s test, Mom and I were out practicing the parallel parking just one more time. So we’re driving around our suburban neighborhood, looking for cars parked on the street. There aren’t too many, because everyone has driveways, and they leave their cars there, no doubt to be safe from people like you and me. Luckily (for us), a US Mail truck (actually, it was a US Mail station wagon) was parked in the street, so I had a car to practice on.

Note that this is the ONLY car parked on the street, everyone else has their cars in the driveway, or has taken them off to the mall. I pull slowly up beside the car, put on my turn signal, and go through the entire parallel parking procedure, being careful to maneuver the steering wheel correctly… and then proceed to run into the back of the other car.

I did pass my driving test on the first try — even though the car stalled while I was showing off my impressive parallel parking skills. The examiner’s only comment was that I was too tentative. (Like we need more aggressive drivers!)

Todd wants to be David Attenborough when he grows up

for one thing, your voice is too high