July 2002 Archives

So it's Friday, and things are blurred and rainy -- filtered through a muggy haziness. I'm listening to Stone Temple Pilots and thinking about having some more coffee.

I don't know what is going on tonight...or tomorrow, for that matter. On Sunday, I'm going to my Uncle's birthday party in a park.

I really miss the beach, today. I would like to be walking along the shore, bare feet in the sand. Mug of coffee in hand. I like the smell of the beach, especially if you haven't been there in a while. It clicks right into your brain like a lost puzzle piece.

There are two little birds on my window sill, looking in at me as I type. Ah, they just flew away.

STP have given way to the soundtrack to Prospero's Books. I wonder what David Bowie's new album, Heathen is like? I've been thinking about getting it. I've also been wanting to get a new PS2 game. I wish there was something out like ICO. That game was entrancingly lovely.

I have added to my list of "Cars That I Like". Joining the New Beetle and the Audi TT Roadster, is the Mini Cooper. It's a very cool little car.

Hmm, I seem to be flittering here and there quite a bit this afternoon. Sorry for that: I guess I'm a bit hazy today, too.

And, hey, two white butterflies just floated by my window, tumbling around each other in jumbled circles. My window seems to be attracting flying couples today. Cool.

The disks have swapped again on the cd player. A Tribe song is playing now, "Joyride". Time for me to get some stuff done.

Have a great Friday.

It is very very quiet.

The menu music from The Sixth Sense dvd is looping. The fan in the computer is whispering, to itself.

It's dark.

From this angle, the windows show nothing but flat, empty black...and dim reflections of the room. There, is a translucent super-imposition of a person, typing at a desk. On a screen: words leading up to a cursor that blinks like an unset clock.

And those tidal silences -- moving here, pulling back to there.

There are the vertical blinds, swaying in the currents from the air-conditioning. Here is a pale white sea shell, placed on a keyboard. Each are silent...differently. This night could roar, but it would be a roar under hours of velvet, and distant as doves.

Quiet is flavored, nuanced, like the rumors of a hundred names for snow.

The coffee is cooling (but still rich and groovy). I'm listening to Rufus Wainwright's version of Lennon and McCartney's "Across the Universe". That's cool, too. Differently.

It's Friday, and the sky is deep faraway blue, sunlight playing down weightlessly.

I have a variety of things to get done but wanted to pop in and do a little Tangerine -- like a quick dance step, in the middle of walking down the street.

"Hey Joe, what do you know?"

It's weekending, again. And a bright and pretty one at that. I'm not sure what's on tap for tonight, but I sort of have a hankering for something new. Maybe I'll get down to the Chapel of Blues for a bit.

There's an invitation to my 20 Year High School class reunion sitting on my desk. I know it is cliched but I have to say it: "Wow, where did the time go?"

High School was a behemoth, while I was in it. A huge world roaring around me. Now it's like a sign swept by and dwindling to a speck in a rear-view mirror. A universe away. I can't decide, just yet, if I'm going to go to the reunion or not.

Still. Twenty years. Wow.

Anyway, gotta run. Time for a two-and-a-half day tap-dance in the sun.

I thought I saw a star, in azure. Deep green tree-tops framed the sky. I was watching air and distant planes. In the center of it all, was a tiny fleck of light. Blue-white.

A cool soothing evening. The whir of the air-conditioning unit. Birds flicking by. I thought the star flickered, but that might have been the floaters in my eyes. Maybe it was a satellite, though it didn't seem to move.

So then I guessed a planet, and named it, Venus.

In that endless baby-blue, whispy clouds drifted by. They were tinted pinkish-orange by the setting sun. A breeze moved over me. I looked away, to other places. Tree-tops going gold, a Rose of Sharon peeking out of the woods.

When I looked back, the sky-centered speck of light was gone.

Funny, that. It had seemed so steady.

Perhaps high altitude clouds were screening it from my view. Or maybe it had been a satellite, or plane: perspective granting it seeming stillness in that pale perfect blue.

The sky was deepening, now. Cerulean. The air a bit more cool. A bird fluttered by, way up, diagonal light shining on him brightly. I could smell someone cooking hamburger on an unseen grill.

I stood up, said "thanks", and came in off the deck.

Coffee, smooth and a few shades lighter than milk chocolate (just the way I like it) has me amped up this morning. Though I'm tired at the same time. (I stayed awake too long last night and rose too early today; ah well.) The lack of sleep has me a bit on the "easily distracted" side of the fence this shiny Wednesday. From my window, I watched a deep green convertible go by. The interior of the car caught vivid sunshine like a cup.

Today is definitely a "top-down" kind of day.

The air is velvet with heat and the light summons incandescent color from...everything. I can imagine floating in the ocean on an afternoon like this.

With the windows closed and the air conditioning on, things are quiet. A soft susurration through the air vents, the muted sounds of birds in still trees. The clacking of the keyboard.

And that bright outside: beckonning.

Tonight will be the movies...and then unwinding into a nice extended holiday weekend. Other than that, my plans are free-form, punctuated tomorrow by Pittsburgh's (usually excellent) fireworks display.

At the moment, though, I am anticipating a tomato and cheese sandwich -- and a catnap.

July, and the weather report on my cell phone says: "Dust 70 -- 91".

That's kind of...different.

Summer is bright, heavy and hazy, today. And July seems to have bounded into view with unexpected speed. I'm only partially caffienated at the moment but I feel like I'm getting stuff done, never-the-less.

The July 4th Holiday is always a fun center to the Summer and I'm hoping to get together with friends and have a nice extended weekend. Kelli and I are going to start things off on Wednesday by catching Men in Black II down at the Loews Theater at The Waterfront. I ordered Loews Club seats earlier today -- so that should be cool. I want to find out what Joel and everybody else are doing for the holiday so we can all get together and go see the fireworks or something. I'm kind of amazed that the 4th is only a couple of days away; June seemed to just fly by.

I've been feeling the urge to get out and about more -- especially to parks, lakes, etc. Maybe it is compensating for not being able to go to the beach this year or maybe Natural John has been summoned by the hot and sunny weather but, either way, the great outdoors are calling...

Anyway, Hello July. Here's to sun and stars, warm breezes and good times.