It’s raining in Baltimore and all through the house not a creature was stirring except our cat who has navigated through a full 360 degrees on the carpet sans any actual lateral movement. I feel that there must be some way to harness this power for good purpose, perhaps there’s a clock face we can get him to sleep on or something? I THINK there’s some semblance of order to his rotary wanderings?
Heather’s conducting birthdays, Kristen’s conducting sales. My friend Brandi is somewhere apparently digging a hole and my friend Jesse just formed a band. The internet keeps me abreast of many peoples’ actions but more immediately I’m interested in the wind and the rain and in having a very Sunday kind of Saturday, perhaps not richly deserved, but certainly deeply appreciated.
For the last couple of weeks I’ve been having some searing pains in my left elbow – I feel that I’ve had these before, they’re familiar, the joint’s sensitive to the touch and my grip and my lift is weak. It hurts to squeeze things and it hurts to move things and it really ramped up this past week. It happens around this time of year – when the combination of Takoma Park Folk Festival and a video game mean that my left hand is spending too much time on the computer Alt-tabbing and AWSDing around some fictional space. I have no-one to blame but myself but I’ve been cautious for the past 72 hours and sure enough the rage in my arm is subsiding – still, I’m definitely looking forward to TPFF coming to a head, subsiding, and leaving me some time in which I can legitimately swear off my computer for a week.
I’ve been writing a lot, but it’s all self-hating drivel. I’ve been playing a lot – and it’s all rediscovered bass riffs applied aggressively to my new baritone. It’s a whole lot of growling, slapping joy and I’ve been working through a couple of covers that I’ve been half-heartedly trying to get a handle on all year (jeezoflip, why do I learn so SLOW?!!), a couple of new songs I’d written and most interestingly a Bob Dylan tune that Susan had laid in my ears a number of months ago.
It’s a joy to jam on all of the above, though I sort of feel I learn slow because “jamming” on things tends to be such a solitary activity. Since communication and language has always been my joy with music, playing solo and actually practicing are things that I have frustratingly limited patience for.
On a more positive note – Kristen and I just celebrated our Decadateaversary yesterday. It’s hard to believe that it’s 10 years since our first date. I’m not quite sure at what point it got serious, but at least at that point it got structured. We celebrated with a lunch and walk through Ellicott City and a bit of Battlestar Galactica (which we’d used as our initial excuse for hanging out together). The latter is as strong and stunning as ever and the latter is extremely bittersweet.
I find it strange to see the disaster markings of building triage reimagined into a stylish Ellicott City t-shirt. At least, in the midst of all this destruction, a triceratops and a bear have found Love. So… though this area has survived pretty much intact, it sure seems like Tongue Row is in danger of having its foundations stripped from beneath it. Shmoo.
Knowing that the lower half of Main Street’s going to be demolished and made into a “community green space” so that the damage done to the historic buildings done by the damage to the environment done by the construction of the NEW buildings up the hill can be ameliorated horrifies me. The new construction is what caused the destruction. Deconstruct THAT, don’t demolish the beauty of a 250 year-old mill town… and so the bear no longer blows bubbles on top of the Forget Me Not Factory, and though I knew I’d no longer stroll here on a first day, this may be my last stroll here on ANY date. Happy Decadateaversary indeed.
Well Ellicott City, formerly eternal town of childhood wonder and glitter, I’m trying not to get bitter and old, but you’re just not holding up your end of the bargain.
