Beautiful people

We were standing there, Katie, Chris and I, waiting for the Envy Corps show to start. "Oh, there's the Juice photographer," said Chris. We then proceeded to avoid eye contact with said photog. You see, Juice is this newspaper/magazine [Lynette help me out here, I don't know the correct term] that caters to the twentysomethings of Des Moines. But it isn't like the Willamette or Cityview, which cater to the hipster/intellectual/music lovers; Juice, I would like to think, caters to the bar/club hoppers. Maybe I'm wrong, but I get this impression anytime I actually look at Juice, which is rarely. There's a section in it that is photographs from bars that is taken on the weekends, usually they contain pictures of very blonde, very tan, very beautiful people. So, you can see why we were avoiding her, or at least why I was avoiding her. I didn't really want to be including in such a product [kind of like the "candid" shots for a yearbook].

She was standing there, looking at us, with me being the closest one. Though I didn't want her to take our picture, I couldn't help but the nice guy that I am and I turned to her. "Can I take your picture for Juice?" "Sure, why not." We laughed and Chris lied about his age, and eventually the bands played and the show was great. On Wednesday my co-worker Dayna was reading the latest issue of Juice and I made her turn to the photo pages, and sure enough....



..there we were. But, as you can see, I made no attempt to hide my contempt for Juice. I put on my best angry face and took the world [Des Moines] by storm. As Chris said, "We are the beautiful people of Des Moines," and he's a soothsayer, so it's gotta be true. And that's how life in Des Moines goes. In all honesty I've been a busy and stressed guy, and I have at least two more posts written [in my head], so please excuse the blogging lapse. enjoy the weekend, kill you television. you have my love.

Going classical

I was at the house of ware this afternoon, shuffling boxes from here to there with my co-worker Vanilla. Then he left and I made quick move to change the radio stations from "The Capital" to my number one preset, the local NPR station. This station, out of Ames, plays classical music most of the day, rather than the assorted shows that are usually associated with NPR. Several years ago if I had caught myself purposefully changing the radio to an all-classical station I would have berated myself with not-so-witty remarks about my own lameness. What changed?

I'm not exactly sure when I decided that it was okay for me to listen to classical music, but I can say that it was somewhere in between listening to a lot of Sufjan Stevens and my friend Heidi loaning me a Yo-Yo Ma cd. Maybe Sufjan doesn't make sense in this context to anyone else, but to me I see his albums as beautifully orchestrated music, with a myriad of instruments and voices, and it reminds me of a symphony or whathaveyou. Then there was the pianist Christopher O'Riley's albums of Radiohead songs. And then the classical station in Portland while I was studying. And now I listen to classical music while lifting heavy, dirty boxes.

I suppose it would be a funny sight to see me covered in dust and sweat, swearing at boxes and two-wheelers, all while listening to concertos and sonatas, but it's important to me. The warehouse is what God is talking about in Genesis, about the toil and pain of work; it's an ugly, dirty, scary and lonely place. But having such wonderful music flowing across my ears reminds of the beauty in the world. It's easy to forget in such places. But sometimes, if I catch a good breeze from an open window and the music is just right, I don't mind the toil so much.

Aside from these deep thoughts, life has been pretty good. A lovely weekend, with the slight bewilderment of a morning snowfall. Watching basketball as I've never seen it [projection screen, high-def., stadium seating, surround sound] and doing alright in the brackets. And the sun is warming my skin and I'm enjoying it. I'll miss the cooler weather come August, but it's time for a change. Enjoy the days, sing and make merriment. you have my love.

The sun came out to destroy our grumblecakes

What a week. I meant to post four or five times this past week, but it's been seven days of busyness... and the fourth season of two-four. Okay, I have no excuses, but I can backfill some posts.

Last Tuesday. I started working out again tonight, beginning with a very slow jog of a mile. I've learned my lesson; my past two "spurts" of working out have been heavily concentrated in the running department. This has led to leg injuries that I didn't give time to heal and derailed both of these movements toward healthiness. So this time around I'm crosstraining. Tomorrow it's biking and then switch it back up on Friday, then maybe swimming on Saturday. One thing I do miss about running/Portland is being able to see Mount Hood on my run, it was pretty cool.

Friday. Decent week at work, mostly spent at the warehouse. Ryan and I constructed a metal ramp to help us complete a large project that we are working on. When we are both there I load up a two-wheeler and pull it up the ramp until he can grab it and pull it up the remaining distance. It's a brutal way to do things, but it's the best thing we could think of. He was gone most of this week so I did things on my own. I grab a box, take two lunges up the ramp, deposit the box at the top creating five stacks of four boxes, after depositing the box I slide on my feet down the ramp and repeat. It looks sort of like I'm on a half-pipe with those wheelie-shoes. It's also quite brutal, and I'm sure that if I keep doing it I'll nail my head on the doorway, but until then I'll keep up with the work. Also this week I was able to grab lunch with my friend Jennifer while she's working in my building. It's fun being able to eat lunch with someone other than my co-workers every once in a while. Unless it's fish tacos at El Bait Shop.

Saturday. Perhaps you've already heard of this via NPR, but I was informed last night by Mr. Saldanha and Ms. Carlston that Big Candy is behind tonight's time change. I know that Big Oil, Big Tobacco and other Bigs were up for destroying the world as we know it, but how could you Big Candy? Apparently if Daylight Savings Time is extended, that creates more daylight for Halloween, thus making Big Candy more of a profit. Even more apparent is that DST encourages all spending, so it's good for the economy. My socialist tendencies and losing an hour of sleep make me incredibly weary of this time change... viva la revolucion?

Sunday. I think Jason drugged me. After broomball [and career goal number two] JBro and I talked for an hour or so. With the so-called time change I got to bed at two am, enough time left to sleep and get up for church in the morning. I wake up around one in the afternoon. What happened? I'll tell you, JBro slipped me a mickey and before he could take advantage of me I fled his advances. Or I was just really tired from playing broomball. I'm not sure what to believe. And yeah, I didn't go swimming, I was far to engrossed in season four.

Monday. The Drake Women's bball team is going to the big dance! With an amazing comeback, overtime win the women are headed to the dance, where it's presumed that they'll be a sixteen seed. Who cares, they're going! And with that the bracket madness has commenced. I've changed my bracket three times today already. Usually when I fill out a bracket I feel as though I've created the prefect bracket, not this year though. I just don't know what to do. The madness is over for the DMC Lions though; they had a great season, made it to state and just couldn't get it done. Next year anyone? This just in, Drake plays Tennessee in the opening round... yikes. Although football and football are my favorite sports, this is my favorite time of the sporting year. So many good games and much cheering to accompany those games, it's quite fun.

Today. And the snow is gone. For the most part. Two days of seventy degree weather has melted the snow and thawed our ever-frozen hearts back in the realm of the living. It feels good. I even thought about running outside this evening, but decided not to only because I wanted to lift as well. Ryan isn't helping me at all with picking a winning bracket. Every two minutes he declares that Kansas will either a) go to the final or b) lose in the first round. It doesn't help one bit. Anyway, I finished World War Z last night, it was alright, at least it was fun to read after Les Miserables. I'm not sure what to read next, still narrowing the selection down. Alright, time to go rest my head in order to read, sleep and/or go over my bracket again. I'm ridiculous. you have my love.

We got a man down

The EHBS will never survive... but was it ever supposed to? I ran a mile tonight, and it felt alright for the most part. We'll see how I feel tomorrow though. What's the deal with energy drinks? I feel like there is this idea that most Americans don't sleep more than four hours a night and therefore have to consume strange drinks with weird names. Me, I'd rather sleep nine hours a night [taking up three-eighths of my day] rather than filling my veins with odd amounts of caffeine. For my boss' birthday [a couple months ago] I really wanted to write a Wikipedia article on him and make it totally ridiculous. My notes for it ended with him being the cyborg that finally brought down the Canadian invasion. It would have totally kicked ass, but I was feeling pretty apathetic the couple of weeks before his birthday so I didn't get around to it. Maybe next year, but hopefully I will have moved on by then [crosses fingers and toes]. So misunderstood. Why do random people leave argumentative comments on someone's blog and then remain anonymous? This happened to a friend of mine and I think it's pretty ridiculous. Maybe there should be some waiver of blog-etiquette before one can sign up for a blog. That will never happen though. From what I've heard of the new Wilco, it sounds pretty incredible; ten more weeks to wait. Absurdity prevails, keep a diligent watch. you have my love.

I need a thaw

Iowa got hit pretty hard this past week with a wicked blizzard. Katie and I counted fifty cars in the ditches in between highway thirty and iEighty on the way home from Ames this afternoon, three days after it hit. Craziness [not to mention the guy getting out of his car at gunpoint from the cops... wtf?]. I've written that I love winter, and it's true, but this one has to end soon 'cos it's been brutal on me.

Call it 'seasonal affective disorder' or 'winter doldrums' but I just haven't been myself, most notable in the social arena. I've spent too much time by myself and living in my head, and I've lost some of my social skills. This isn't to say that the past four months or so haven't been completely awful. The time that I have spent with my friends has been, for the most part, terrific. If only I could persuade myself to join them more often. But in my own selfishness I choose to be a recluse, which only makes things worse.

The remedy is that I need to get out more, and on more than one level. I need to stop avoiding friends on the weekends and get out in the social realm, even if only for a couple more hours. Secondly, I need to get out and be active. In the past few weeks I've been itching to get out and run again [even if my knee is hurting]. But this snow/cold/global warming/tundra keeps me from it. That should change this week when I sign up to workout at the Y. Some endorphins could do me well.

I'm not entirely convinced that this will strike at the root of the problem, but it could be a good start. I'm not necessarily looking forward to summer, but I'm starting to look forward to it not being winter anymore. Anyway, to provide more substance here are some lyrics from a fitting song, Pedro the Lion's "The Longest Winter," enjoy. you have my love.

Is it special when you're lonely? Will you spend your whole life in a studio apartment with a cat for a wife? The seasons, when they call you, do you barricade the door? Are you stubborn, stubborn, stubborn to the core? Is it your way or the highway? Is it your way or the highway? Is it your way or the highway? Is it your way or the highway? Then the longest winter is on her way, you called her without knowing it, but now it's too late.