Things Must Change
I've come to the realization that this blog's glory days (if I may use "glory") were tragically tethered to life in Mankato. Since I moved back home in August, this space has been Hurtsville, population: me. At first, it wasn't easy to update. Things were too crazy as adaptation takes a lot of energy and time, and down-time from adaptation is way down. Then, as things simplified, I realized I just didn't have much to report. Furthermore, I felt I couldn't report anything new until I had caught up what had been missed--which was a lot.
But these are vague justifications for what I've let happen to Ants. They are reasons, but there's no excuse. So, things have to change. Ants must be rebuilt, made stronger, given more legs--robotic legs--and antennae lasers, and its gaping mandibles with usher forth a new fire for the world to fear.
The second thing that must change is that I need to write more. I should say, rather, that I need to write, since you have to write at all before you can write more. Right? I won't get into just how naughty (writing naughty) I've been since Graduation day--s'pretty bad, though.
The plan is to use Ants as a rehabilitory writing space. At first I'll publish old, newly edited works that I wrote in school. Many of those are beginnings of pieces that still linger in my brain--the post-graduation bad taste in my mouth that resembles rust and envelope adhesive. Hopefully, Ants will help me get some work done on those. And hopefully, I'll get some feed back from my peeps. Peeps? Are you still there? That doesn't matter so much, I guess, as long as I get anything done at all, right?
But what of that nagging obligation to play catch up? I don't think any change is possible until I've remedied that first.
So here goes:
The Short List of Long Months
[Editor's note: These bullets aren't necessarily in any chronological order, and they certainly aren't in order of importance.]
1) August: I move back to my high school home--The Vortex it was called. I have until November, when Amanda's current lease is up, to find a job and for us to find an apartment.
Two days later, literally the first Monday of being back home, I get a job and our apartment. That morning Dorn calls me to inform me of a teller job opening at The Bank where he keeps the IT department afloat.
Dorn was a teller there many years ago, as was Mal Gust, and both have moved up the ladder. With their shining references and my impromptu, casual interview at noon, the position is mine before the head of HR finishes reading me the job description.
Job: check.
That night, we hit William's to celebrate my finding a job. Before I order my first litre, Mal and Grant inform Amanda and I that there's vacancy at their apartment complex. Dorn lives in the complex too. The Bank is three blocks from the apartments.
I'd grown accustomed to centralization in Mankato--hell, I spent three years in the dormitories. Some of the best years of my life. Three of my closest friends within slipper-distance and my job a twelve-minute walk away?
Apartment: Check.
2) I've been home only three-ish weeks before Cain moves to Colorado indefinitely. My head is swimming in adaptation so I don't notice yet, but his leaving crushes me. The realization sinks deeper in phases, like each time I go to a local rock show that he and I could/should be playing, or every time the Wild win, or every time there's a round of puns but none that are Cain-lame, or each time I divvy up the hockey sticks at the warming house but his isn't in the pile. Times like those.
3) Willow Isa Lutien Tinuviel. My baby's sleeping in my lap as I type.
4) There are two constants since August that don't belong at any specific number. Four is as good as any. 4a) I rejoin Hip Replacement as an auxiliary percussionist. This has also been documented thoroughly. Speaking of which, we have another gig next week, Friday the 6th at O'Gara's Garage in St. Paul. Expect a post for that soon.
4b) I started reading Tolkien in earnest early this summer, but by August and beyond the whole thing has become embarrassingly dorky. So dorky, that I'm more disappointed about the news of a new Tolkien book being published by Christopher Tolkien. I'm pissed because the story is, of course, the one I wanted to adapt into a screenplay--so there goes that idea. Oh well. I'll still buy it and read it three times.
5) September 16th: Amanda and I celebrate our six year anniversary. I could have sworn it had been at least eight, though.
[Editor's note: Please don't read into the fact that I wrote way more about Tolkien than Amanda. I'm trying to be economic here.]
6) Grant and Mal are engaged. Congrats to both of them but Grant especially: You know she's a keeper (and a bit of a dork) if she refuses a diamond over an amethyst ring.
7) Dorn, Grant, and I wait outside Super Target in SLP for ten hours. Our reward: the Wii. It's estimated that Zelda: The Twilight Princess should take an average gamer 72 hours to complete, without devoting an excess of time to fishing and other distractions. I was the first of we three to finish in 80 game hours. I loved 78 of those hours, since there were a couple places here and there that forced me to consult a walkthrough. I know; I am ashamed.
8) My favorite toy poops out on me. Considering how much use and joy I squeezed out of my 'Pod, I'm surprised it lasted so long. Alas, like us, even iPods must eventually go the way of the flesh and burn out our left channels. The good news is that its replacement boasts twenty times the space (from 4gb to 80gb); the bad news is that it cost twice as much (from $200 to nearly $400); and the ridiculous news is that I still can't fit all of my music onto the thing! But even I don't immediately need more than the 13,000 songs I can fit onto it. The 3,000 songs left behind will just have to deal.
9)This next item will juxtapose nicely with the $400 iPod: I bought a '96 Chevy Blazer with 242,000 miles for $150. Siiick!
Well, I feel a lot better. And that wasn't so hard. The hardest part was not going into detail, like the details of the hellish night waiting for the Wii, or the details of the three Lord of the Rings hockey teams I drafted, or what I named my car--OK, I can't resist. I named it "Grond War Machine." Those are details that can wait for conversations--or even specific posts now that the catch-up hump is in Grond's rearview.
And most importantly, now I can write and share my childish pieces of writing with whatever small chunk of the world still remembers Ants' url address. Now I just have to decide which relic to dig up first. Some have sifted pretty deep into the topsoil, some are pretty deep in the dark, and some aren't worth the excavation--but it's about the work, right?
-Mason
But these are vague justifications for what I've let happen to Ants. They are reasons, but there's no excuse. So, things have to change. Ants must be rebuilt, made stronger, given more legs--robotic legs--and antennae lasers, and its gaping mandibles with usher forth a new fire for the world to fear.
The second thing that must change is that I need to write more. I should say, rather, that I need to write, since you have to write at all before you can write more. Right? I won't get into just how naughty (writing naughty) I've been since Graduation day--s'pretty bad, though.The plan is to use Ants as a rehabilitory writing space. At first I'll publish old, newly edited works that I wrote in school. Many of those are beginnings of pieces that still linger in my brain--the post-graduation bad taste in my mouth that resembles rust and envelope adhesive. Hopefully, Ants will help me get some work done on those. And hopefully, I'll get some feed back from my peeps. Peeps? Are you still there? That doesn't matter so much, I guess, as long as I get anything done at all, right?
But what of that nagging obligation to play catch up? I don't think any change is possible until I've remedied that first.
So here goes:
The Short List of Long Months
[Editor's note: These bullets aren't necessarily in any chronological order, and they certainly aren't in order of importance.]
1) August: I move back to my high school home--The Vortex it was called. I have until November, when Amanda's current lease is up, to find a job and for us to find an apartment.
Two days later, literally the first Monday of being back home, I get a job and our apartment. That morning Dorn calls me to inform me of a teller job opening at The Bank where he keeps the IT department afloat.
Dorn was a teller there many years ago, as was Mal Gust, and both have moved up the ladder. With their shining references and my impromptu, casual interview at noon, the position is mine before the head of HR finishes reading me the job description.
Job: check.
That night, we hit William's to celebrate my finding a job. Before I order my first litre, Mal and Grant inform Amanda and I that there's vacancy at their apartment complex. Dorn lives in the complex too. The Bank is three blocks from the apartments.
I'd grown accustomed to centralization in Mankato--hell, I spent three years in the dormitories. Some of the best years of my life. Three of my closest friends within slipper-distance and my job a twelve-minute walk away?
Apartment: Check.
2) I've been home only three-ish weeks before Cain moves to Colorado indefinitely. My head is swimming in adaptation so I don't notice yet, but his leaving crushes me. The realization sinks deeper in phases, like each time I go to a local rock show that he and I could/should be playing, or every time the Wild win, or every time there's a round of puns but none that are Cain-lame, or each time I divvy up the hockey sticks at the warming house but his isn't in the pile. Times like those.
3) Willow Isa Lutien Tinuviel. My baby's sleeping in my lap as I type.
4) There are two constants since August that don't belong at any specific number. Four is as good as any. 4a) I rejoin Hip Replacement as an auxiliary percussionist. This has also been documented thoroughly. Speaking of which, we have another gig next week, Friday the 6th at O'Gara's Garage in St. Paul. Expect a post for that soon.
4b) I started reading Tolkien in earnest early this summer, but by August and beyond the whole thing has become embarrassingly dorky. So dorky, that I'm more disappointed about the news of a new Tolkien book being published by Christopher Tolkien. I'm pissed because the story is, of course, the one I wanted to adapt into a screenplay--so there goes that idea. Oh well. I'll still buy it and read it three times.
5) September 16th: Amanda and I celebrate our six year anniversary. I could have sworn it had been at least eight, though.
[Editor's note: Please don't read into the fact that I wrote way more about Tolkien than Amanda. I'm trying to be economic here.]
6) Grant and Mal are engaged. Congrats to both of them but Grant especially: You know she's a keeper (and a bit of a dork) if she refuses a diamond over an amethyst ring.
7) Dorn, Grant, and I wait outside Super Target in SLP for ten hours. Our reward: the Wii. It's estimated that Zelda: The Twilight Princess should take an average gamer 72 hours to complete, without devoting an excess of time to fishing and other distractions. I was the first of we three to finish in 80 game hours. I loved 78 of those hours, since there were a couple places here and there that forced me to consult a walkthrough. I know; I am ashamed.
8) My favorite toy poops out on me. Considering how much use and joy I squeezed out of my 'Pod, I'm surprised it lasted so long. Alas, like us, even iPods must eventually go the way of the flesh and burn out our left channels. The good news is that its replacement boasts twenty times the space (from 4gb to 80gb); the bad news is that it cost twice as much (from $200 to nearly $400); and the ridiculous news is that I still can't fit all of my music onto the thing! But even I don't immediately need more than the 13,000 songs I can fit onto it. The 3,000 songs left behind will just have to deal.
9)This next item will juxtapose nicely with the $400 iPod: I bought a '96 Chevy Blazer with 242,000 miles for $150. Siiick!
Well, I feel a lot better. And that wasn't so hard. The hardest part was not going into detail, like the details of the hellish night waiting for the Wii, or the details of the three Lord of the Rings hockey teams I drafted, or what I named my car--OK, I can't resist. I named it "Grond War Machine." Those are details that can wait for conversations--or even specific posts now that the catch-up hump is in Grond's rearview.
And most importantly, now I can write and share my childish pieces of writing with whatever small chunk of the world still remembers Ants' url address. Now I just have to decide which relic to dig up first. Some have sifted pretty deep into the topsoil, some are pretty deep in the dark, and some aren't worth the excavation--but it's about the work, right?
-Mason
posted by Mason @ 3:13 PM
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