Forcing the madness down

I seriously had to fight the urge to pull the fire alarm. I was waiting in line to give R.C.C. money so I could park my car on campus without getting a ticket. As if there won't be plenty of parking in a couple of weeks when half of the kids stop showing up. Which I thank them for, because their inability to keep off of their cell phones in class drives me crazy. But back to the alarm...

While standing in line I glance over and it's as if the thing is drowned in heaven's light. I can't believe that no one else has pulled it. I mean, it is almost begging for someone to do it. In thinking back on it, I have no idea where this feeling came from. Wherever it came from, I fought it down. I had the image in my head of pulling it and instead of people running all over the place they just stand here in line with me. They don't even twitch. I don't think I was looking to pull it to get people out of line. It just seemed too quiet and too calm in there.

I suppose I could have screamed and yelled and gotten some sort of effect, but I was so wrapped up in the alarm that I wasn't thinking about why, just that I needed to pull that alarm. Thankfully the girl in front of me decided to call her boo and talk at length about her surprise purchase for him. She then proceded to tell him what it was, and complain about how much she didn't need to come to school. At least the guy now has all day to dredge up some fake thanks for his suprise.

Stars and lightning

My summer has been awesome, thanks as always to my friends and family. I saw some of the most amazing things, met some of the best people, and had some of the best times that I can remember.

I sat with my brother Kevin and my sister Elizabeth in the rain at Millenium Park, listening to the Decemberists and Grant Park Orchestra celebrate music in Chicago. I got to see The Black Summer Crush rock the hell out of the Troubadour for the first time, and see them tear up the Viper Room the very next night. I watched the sun turn the sky to liquid gold as we left a raging lightning storm behind before landing in Chicago, and no one else saw it because they were asleep or hiding. It was kinda hairy. (Which reminds me... Midway is possibly the shittiest airport in the world.) I got to sit down to dinner, for my birthday, with almost my entire family and enjoy not only one of the best meals I have ever eaten, but also each others company for the first time in years. (We missed you David) I got to celebrate my birthday with my second family, with less eating and more drinking. I got to wander the streets of Vegas with a three foot margarita. I got to eat at some of the best greasy spoon spots that Chicago has to offer, and some of the choicest spots in L.A., as well as hitting Quark's Bar in Vegas twice.

I got to spend time with the best people that the world has to offer, and I feel priveleged to have known any of them for even the shorted period of time. Even more so to know some well enough to call them friends and family. Through them, because of them, these experiences were better. Or happened at all.

This summer I got to watch the lightning as it chased the stars.