my plan was to just stay in bed today, but i decided to get up. i’m not sure why. maybe because it’s so beautiful outside. but i was really, really enjoying sleeping.
i hurt my hand swimming today. this is the same hand with the weird, painful bruise on it. as i swam, i got too close to the wall and then i SMACKED into it with my hand, and now it has a big red scrape in addition to a bruise. how can a person scrape themself swimming? if there’s a way to hurt myself, i’m all over it.
yesterday while doing weight-training (which continues to be a fairly boring endeavor, but at least it doesn’t last that long), i heard two guys talking. one was going on and on about the music he’d selected to listen to, a compilation he’d burned. he talked about how he’s always screaming when he works out. not literally screaming, of course, which would be slightly unsettling for those around him, but screaming in his head, all the time. because he’s so angry.
gee, and i thought it was bad inside MY head. but there’s usually no screaming in there. lots of whining and complaining and other unpleasant emotions, but the screaming anger would be even more draining, i think. the guy talked about the kind of music he’d picked – i think Sting, and maybe…Alan Parsons Project? and a couple of others that sounded like they might be kind of gentle. hopefully they are, to try to calm the screaming.
there was an article in the paper yesterday, or maybe the day before, about the drug meth, and how it’s becoming the drug of choice for lots of teenagers. i don’t know a lot about this drug, except that it seems like it’s a particularly nasty, addictive one, one of the kinds of drugs that makes you sell all your possessions in order to buy more. or else you can make it yourself, hence all the houses exploding all the time because of the meth labs. but they compared meth to pot, about how those are the two things kids are into. isn’t this like comparing, ah…that date rape drug to…a watery white wine spritzer? i’ve never met anybody who became addicted to marijuana, became gaunt and a horrible mess and ended up either blowing themself up or selling all their stuff or robbing people to buy more.
the museum dedication was good. i’m glad i went. there were lots of people there. when we went in, they confiscated our water. a Person Who Knows About Such Things told me that somebody could put some kind of clear explosive in a bottle, that’s why they confiscated it. Then why don’t they do this at airports? There, they just make you take a drink of it. The Person Who Knows About Such Things said if somebody wanted to blow stuff up, they wouldn’t care if they got poisoned by drinking the water. well, isn’t this also true on airplanes? i’m just asking. I’m glad they don’t take my water on the airplane, because sometimes i have uncontrolled coughing, and water is critical for me.
we sat close to the front, and the crowd was very orderly. at different points, a person would stand up; there was one woman in particular who kept standing up, sometimes standing on her seat, in order to take photos, but then she wouldn’t sit down again. people did not take this lightly. a guy in back of me was particularly virulent about it. “SIT DOWN NOW!” he’d scream hoarsely at the woman, “YOU’RE BLOCKING THE VIEW! SIT DOWN! SIT DOWN NOW!” i mean, he was clearly a very angry person. definitely lots of screaming going on in his head, all the time. plus spilling right out of his mouth.
But at least the woman did sit down. some women in back of us also cried out for people to sit, but when they did, they said “thank you.” very polite.
there were many official people on the stage, including Senator Obama and Dick Durbin and a couple of Representatives. Plus, the girl who won a contest sponsored by C-Span. You had to write an essay that was exactly the length of the Gettysburg Address, 272 words, i think. Her essay was quite good, about Lincoln and the importance of words and stuff like that.
Gov. Blagojevich also spoke, and even though i don’t really like the guy (is there anybody in Illinois who still likes him, i wonder?), he did say something funny. He said he didn’t know what the contest winner’s SAT score was, but his ACT score was only 18, pretty average, and he’s the governor, so he’s sure she could be President of the United States. He was fairly engaging the whole time, and not too long-winded.
Actually, none of them really went on too long, except the cumulative effect was a little wordy. Lincoln, freedom, etc etc etc. They should have all had a limit on the number of words allowed.
President Bush was also interesting to listen to, at least initially, until he talked too much. but he talked about how Lincoln’s use of language was written about disparagingly in the press, and this got a big laugh.
Dad saw Air Force One flying over the house as it took off. he also told me that there is enough food on board for 2,000 people. he said he thinks this is for an emergency, in case they have to fly away. food for 2,000 would last them quite a while. i wonder what the food it – cans of stuff? that would be awfully heavy, wouldn’t it? frozen food? hmm, that doesn’t seem quite as safe, because what if they had to crash-land somewhere, and the food spoiled?
a guy wrote to me about how he was going to go out on his motorcycle one night. i was reading the e-mail quickly, and i thought he wrote “i might dress in full feathers.”
this sounded somewhat odd to me. full feathers? is he a native americn indian, proud of his heritage, and only rides his bike in a big headdress? is this some kind of Illini fan thing? But i didn’t think much about it till i finally wrote back to him, and re-read the e-mail more carefully. full LEATHERS is what he wrote, not full FEATHERS.
that’s all the random thoughts in my head right at the moment.
actually, there are MANY more, but that’s enough for now anyway.
ok then,
grace all over the map as usual.