Author: Aaron Pogue

Wednesday night is really my night off (apart from making the arrangements to work out dinner). Now that I’m trying to do six days a week at the gym, Wednesday is my day off, so that alone is a pleasant break. I also get a nice dinner out with friends (as discussed previously), and then T– takes the baby to church, and I spend an evening hanging out with D–, or just working on some project of my own at home. By the time AB gets home, she’s ready for bed and T– and I usually watch a show or two before bed (if I didn’t go somewhere with D–). It’s a break, and it helps me make it to the weekend as often as not.

Last night, a few minutes after I got home (and with dinner plans already in place), I glanced up from where I was reading on the couch, and said, “Is that the tornado sirens?” It was only a faint wail, but given the weather, it seemed worth checking out. We turned on the news and called AB away from the windows, and saw angry red and orange radar patterns growling along directly above our house, with lots of talk of rotations and a tornado spotted on the ground about a mile and a half to the south.

So, we turned the volume up really loud and went to hide in our hallway, using the babygate to lock AB in with us, and waited. Really, by the time we had the babygate set up, the storm was past (it was really moving), but we waited and listened for ten minutes or so, until it had gotten out to I-35 way east of us, and then we took down the gate and got on with our evening.

There were limbs down and a couple power flickers, but apart from that nothing really exciting. The storms passed right between our place and K– and N–‘s, though, and by the time it was clear for them to head that way, it was too late for them to make it to Freddy’s for dinner and still have time for church, so we switched to Arby’s instead. Not even close, in terms of deliciousness, but it was much faster, and we all managed to get together.

After that, the churchers went a-churching, and D– and I went home to play some MarioKart Wii. We’re working on unlocking all the unlockable content, which means playing Single Player mode, and it also means, at times, spending a lot of time frustrated trying to get past really challenging races. I finally finished one that had been plaguing us ever since he picked up the game (Flower Cup on 100cc, bikes only), but it took about two hours of doing. Not so much fun.

Still, it was a good night, and when I finally completed the race, I completed it with the highest rank possible, so we’ll never have to do it again (on that difficulty setting, or on bikes). So there’s that. Definitely a sense of accomplishment, anyway.

Then in the middle of that T– brought home ice cream from Braum’s, and after I beat the level we watched an old episode of Lost, and then, inexplicably, I stayed up an extra hour and a half to finish off the novel I was reading, before finally heading to bed around midnight.

It was a good night.

Other than that, it’s just things and stuff.

I didn’t mention it in my weekend summary, hoping it would quickly pass and be not worth remembering, but I got…sick, I guess, while I was in Tulsa. Sometime in the afternoon, I started feeling an awful pain in my belly, like someone had just punched me.

It didn’t really feel food-related, if you follow me, but I couldn’t guess what might be going on. It hurt, though. It would come and go, but every ten to fifteen minutes, I would just ache. That went on throughout the afternoon and evening, in spite of all the things I tried to fix it.

I was really hopeful that I’d wake up Monday morning and it would be gone. No such luck. I was in enough pain during the day yesterday that I left work early, got home around 4:00, and then slept until 7:30. When I woke up, it was still there, but not nearly as bad.

Same thing again this morning. Now it’s just enough to keep me worried, but not enough to distract me from other projects. I probably should see a doctor about it, but I hate going to doctors. So I probably won’t, dumb as that might be.

Anyway, I didn’t make it to the gym last night, obviously. I really wanted to — end of last week, I was finally seeing some progress — but there was no way. When I woke up, I had a sandwich and watched last Thursday’s NBC sitcoms with T–. That was pretty much my whole night. By the time we were done with that, I took care of the dishes, made up some protein shakes to drink at work today, and then went to bed.

But, like I said, I mostly feel better now. We’ll see how the day goes.

Other than that, it’s just things and stuff.

Another weekend come and gone.

Friday evening, we’d talked about going to see Iron Man, all as a group, but it didn’t seem to be in the cards. We were going to see it at the new Warren Theatre, but we’d have needed a babysitter and T– already had her lined up to cover the crop on Saturday, so getting her for Friday, too, seemed highly unlikely.

We ended up grabbing some dinner with K– and N– after I finished at the gym, and then K– and I took the baby back to his place while the girls did some shopping. We tried to work on my game some, but he spent most of the time trying to figure out process issues with his computer, and I spent most of my time trying to keep AB from falling down the stairs.

D– showed up, and the girls a few minutes behind him, and we sat and talked for a while. Then T– took the baby home, and N– said she was heading to bed, so K– and D– and I ended up going to see Iron Man after all.

Fantastic movie, by the way. Much like Transformers in the structure and feel of it, but better in every respect (except hot-chickness). I highly recommend it. If you know comic books, it’s worth staying after the credits for a 4-second final scene. If you don’t know comic books, it’s probably a long wait for a big reveal you’ll barely get.

Saturday morning, T– and N– went to the art festival in Edmond. I stayed home. When T– got back we had some sandwiches for lunch, did a little shopping (and got her a new phone), and then I went up to the gym to meet K–. After that, D– and I dropped by B–‘s place for a minute’s chat, and then met K– again for dinner (some delicious barbecue), and a lot of awful movies. We watched Blade II and Blade Trinity, which last we’d heard was good, but K– and I could never make it through the awfulness of Blade II, so neither of us had seen it.

The plan was to watch Blade II while working on something else — allowing distraction to shield us from the worst of the movie’s effects — but K– “just doesn’t watch movies that way,” so he took the full brunt of it. I worked on my game, and got my quests stubbed in. In the end, Blade Trinity wasn’t awesome, but it beat the pants off of the second one.

When I got home, around 11:30, I found that T– had invited her friend Rebecca over after the crop, to introduce her to the joys of couponning, and I figured that leaving them alone would make a good opportunity for me to actually get to bed at a somewhat reasonable hour. Just as I was coming to that conclusion, though, T– said she was wanting to show Rebecca one of her favorite stand-up comics, and asked if I would put it on. We ended up watching the Sklar Brothers (the one she’d initially asked about), as well as Demetri Martin and Brian Regan (which last was my recommendation, and the one that got the most laughs).

So, yeah, I can’t resist the call of stand-up comedy that I’ve already seen dozens of times, so I didn’t end up going to bed until 2:30, or something ridiculous like that.

Then Sunday morning I had to wake up early to be ready in time for Toby to pick me up. He needed help moving and a last-minute cancellation by his brother gave me the opportunity to spend some time hanging out with him. It also meant a 14-hour day spent moving him from Tulsa to Norman.

He picked me up a little after 8. We grabbed some breakfast, then headed to Tulsa. I found out he was moving back from Tulsa several weeks ago, and we’d exchanged emails and a couple phone calls since then, but this was the first time I’d really gotten to talk to him much. Norman isn’t right next door (it’s about twice the already-annoying distance away that K– and N–‘s place is), but it’s a lot better than Tulsa. It also gives them some family who can take care of the kids sometimes, so I’m hoping we’ll be able to do a lot more with them.

Anyway, the drive up was fun. We talked a lot, mostly about my game. Then we got in, picked up the UHaul, and then (since his Tulsa friends weren’t showing up to help pack until after church), we took his lawnmower over to my place so I could put the yard back in showing condition.

Unfortunately, the yard was more than I’d bargained for. The back yard is a jungle. I managed to get the front yard chopped down to a reasonable level, and Toby recommended a good lawn service that I’ll probably hire to keep it in order, until we get the place sold.

So, once we gave up on that, we grabbed a quick lunch and then met his movers. They’re leaving the house mostly furnished to improve its sellability, so we didn’t have a lot to do. We got enough furniture for them to get by with for a couple months — two beds, a rocking chair, a dresser and an entertainment center — and then a lot of boxes. Oh, and the washer and dryer. That’s pretty much it. Loading took a few hours, though, between arranging stuff in the truck and dismantling both of the beds to fit them through doorways. We cleaned up afterward, too, to make sure everything looked nice for show, and then headed home around four.

In Norman, we had a crowd ready to help unpack. K– and N– and B– and E– with their baby (whom the Nances had never met), and T– brought AB down, and among us we basically got the truck unpacked in half an hour. That’s less time than it took most of them to drive there. But we had pizza after and there was a lot of reconnecting to do, and I think everyone had a good time. It was a fun little party.

By 8:30, everyone but T– and I had melted away, and T– was ready to follow after so she could get AB to bed. We were on our way out the door when someone pointed out that Toby would need somebody to drive him home from dropping off the UHaul. I’d thought of that earlier in the evening, but it had slipped my mind before I said it out loud. Anyway, I volunteered, and when we found that the nearest UHaul place was seven miles away, in the wrong direction, T– went ahead and took the baby home.

It took us a while, but Toby and I finally found the UHaul place his GPS device was recommending, and it turned out to be an old abandoned lot. He made a call, got some directions, and we headed a couple miles away to the nearest actual UHaul place, and then he took me home. I got in a little after 10, so it must have been almost 11 before he got home.

So, yeah, it was a long day. It was mostly fun, though. I was glad of the opportunity. Still, I was exhausted when I got in. So I spent a few minutes getting some stuff ready for work this morning, and then I headed right to bed.

Other than that, it’s just things and stuff.

I found myself in a pretty bad mood yesterday, driving home from the gym.

Here’s what I was thinking about. Most weekdays, I have to wake up at 5:45 to be at work on time. If I sleep fewer than seven hours, I really can’t get out of bed at all, so that means I’m going to bed by 10:30 at the latest, and desperately hoping to fall asleep quickly. It’s much safer to go to bed by 9:30, but I never really manage that.

5:00 is the earliest I get home, in spite of my early start to the day, and then going to the gym (which I’m now trying to do six days a week), means the earlier I really get home is 7:00. 7:30 is a lot more common.

That leaves me two hours to have dinner and relax (or, under more normal circumstances, try to get something important accomplished at home), and I usually take at least three hours to do that, so I’m tired all the time.

I get weekends, when I’m not in Tulsa or Wichita or Little Rock (or hosting family from Little Rock or Wichita). I do get a regular day off, every other Friday, but it’s usually spent taking in large part taking care of all the responsibilities of life outside work that I don’t have time for on any of those incredibly short evenings.

I complained about all of this to K– recently, and he shrugged and said, “That’s life.” And I get that. It just sucks. What a miserable life that is. I get two hours a day of it, plus occasional weekends. In a week where I get all my evenings free (after the gym), and have no responsibilities incumbent on me for the weekend, I get to look forward to about 49 hours of time at liberty, doing as I will, in a week. That comes to about 30% of my life that I get to lead.

I’ve got a good job. I get that. I understand that going to the gym and getting in shape will add years onto my life (and increase my quality of life in the meantime). But it chafes, having so little free will. Driving home from the gym last night, I got myself into a pretty bad mood over it.

Then the storm certainly didn’t help any. Most of our sitcoms for the week come on Thursday nights, and every single one of them was preempted for storm coverage that didn’t impact us. We watched an old Lost instead, and then a new one (that, at least, they chose to show), and then two more old ones before I was ready to go to bed, and by that time it was already 11:00 and I had no chance of being anything but exhausted today.

The wind and the thunder kept me awake until after midnight, anyway, and I was late getting in to work this morning. Fridays are pretty laid back around here, so I’ll get away with it, but I hate being late at all.

Then on the drive to lunch today (D– had to cancel on plans for Bennigan’s, so I went to Mazzio’s on my own), I passed a little dentist’s office with a duck pond out front the more frequently sports geese, and out right by the edge of the road was a big mama goose resting in the sun and half a dozen little baby geese running around, their fur-like down all fluffed out, just adorably cute. That made me smile.

Then, at the light, I waited patiently for the long passage of a funeral procession. That was sad. Then I finished Watership Down while I was there, and, let me tell you, it’s just about the best book I’ve ever read. It’s an amazingly-crafted story, and I think pretty much everybody should read it.

So, that’s good. I definitely like the book. I don’t think we’ve got a lot scheduled for the weekend, so I’m going to take a valiant stab at getting my game finished before I pick up another novel sometime Sunday afternoon. I’m not making any promises, but it would be fun to put finished to it.

Other than that, it’s just things and stuff.

My freshman year in college (so, 10 years ago, now), I started a tradition because of my deep, life-long love of cheap Mexican food.

Specifically, it was Enchilada Night at El Chico’s. They used to offer a Wednesday night special enchilada platter for $2.99. These days, I’m pretty sure it’s running $4.99, but any time I’ve been to El Chico recently, it’s been the tamales for me.

Anyway, every single Wednesday night I went to El Chico’s for the enchiladas, and as I gradually invited others to join me, it became something of a Thing. I’m not saying that I set a trend, but my whole group of friends knew that Wednesday night was Enchilada Night.

Yeah, no big deal, college is about stupid stuff like that. But, since then (and even since El Chico fell from its place of honor), Wednesday night has remained an opportunity to share dinner with friends. If I have the opportunity, I pursue it.

Obviously, anyone reading this blog knows that I manage to spend a lot of time doing stuff with friends, but Wednesday night is the only real scheduled weekday get-together. Now that I’m going to the gym regularly, I see K– and N– on Mondays and Thursdays fairly often, and the rare week that D– doesn’t stop by for at least one full evening is a lonely one, and from time to time we’ll devote a whole season to getting together to watch each new episode of Lost or Stargate, but those come and go, drifting on the whims of various conflicting schedules. Wednesday night dinner, I think, everybody knows about, and knows to plan for. It’s not that everybody always makes it (actually, that’s pretty rare), but everybody knows, and there’s always somebody to share the evening with.

Yesterday, we found ourselves with a buck fifty in the bank, and going out just wasn’t in the cards. I called D– after work to let him know things weren’t going to work out, and he said, “Pshaw,” and went and got dinner for us. He’s a hell of a guy.

After dinner, T– took AB to church, and D– and I spent the evening playing the new MarioKart. It was fun. We unlocked all the race circuits on 50cc (easy mode), and unlocked two new characters. Also: the new Rainbow Road is ass. But what do you expect?

We also got tickets yesterday for K– and N– and Toby and Gwyn (say that out loud) and T– and I to go see Jim Gaffigan when he comes to town in July. That is going to be awesome.

I found out about the appearance at work several days ago when I heard a coworker mention it to another coworker over the cubicle wall. Rather than joining in the conversation (right, because I’m me), I went to jimgaffigan.com and looked up details, then emailed everyone I thought might want to go.

That day, on the drive home, I heard a commercial advertising it. They opened with, “Jim Gaffigan one his new tour brings all new, never-before-heard material to OKC….” Then they played about a minute of clips, all of which I’ve heard dozens of times over the last ten years. I laughed anyway. I really can’t wait.

Word has it B– is having an even worse week than usual. Keep him in your prayers. If you hear of an opportunity for me to go hang out with him, let me know.

Other than that, it’s just things and stuff.

I keep labeling these “Journal Entry” because, in theory, it’s possible for me to log onto my blog one day and write something other than a mundane description of what I did yesterday (which was, in almost every case, also what I did the day before).

Since I don’t ever actually do that (writing something else, I mean), it makes the little link list on the right look pretty damned silly. Sorry about that.

One project I’ve been considering working on is building a script to scrape all my blog posts off my old Xanga and post them here, timestamped for their original posting. It should be easy enough, but it would take me a big time investment to get it working smoothly, and I’d probably want to do that so I could share it with others.

So, yeah, dunno if I’ll ever actually do that. I kind of plan to let my Xanga site wither, though, and it would be nice to keep access to a lot of the stuff I wrote there. Blogger seems like it has better archiving tools, too. So, yeah, maybe I will do it. Someday.

I’d also really like to write up a clear explanation of my idea of Science as “The Cannibal Magic.” I’ve been working on the concept a lot lately, and I think I could do the idea justice, but it would help to link back to some of my old essays instead of just repeating everything.

Anyway, yesterday I did what I did the day before. Got a lot done at work, accomplished some programming over lunch, and then went to the gym and then watched TV and worked on my game until bedtime. The big difference was that “worked on my game” last night consisted of looking at pictures of dragons all over the internet for four hours straight. I may end up using three of them. It wasn’t terribly productive.

Also, I’m strongly tempted to ask, “What is the deal with all the naked ladies hanging out with dragons?” Except, as a student of literary symbolism, I know exactly what the deal is. Still, you’d think we’d gotten past that by now. One glance at the internet, though, proves no.