It's a bit warm

I feel like kind of a wimp complaining about the heat considering I've been bitchin' about the cold and damp for so long and considering 102 is on the mild side in some parts of the world. But goddamn have I been useless these past few days. The peak day for the heat I woke up unusually sick and hungover from the not-so-heavy drinking the night before. I tried to stave off further ill effects by guzzling water, only to get sick about a half hour after crawling out of bed, so I ended up in the hole as far as hydration was concerned. In the evening we had an indoor soccer game at the facility with no air conditioning and even though it had cooled to about 90 outdoors, inside it was probably still 120. And we had no girl subs, so I had to play the whole game. As soon as the other team scored I felt spent and looked at the clock... a whole minute and a half had ticked away. By the time the game ended - we lost, of course - I was entirely useless, having spent the previous fifty minutes or so lumbering in front of our own goal hoping that if the opposition shot the ball, it might deflect off me and away. All that seemed to accomplish was to cover me in bruises.

The cat isn't enjoying it either. He keeps sprawling on the kitchen floor, making himself about four feet long, and shooting me disgusted looks and hollering whenever I'm within earshot as if I've done something to make it so miserably hot. I continue to assure him that it's not my fault, but being a cat, he's got to blame someone. He did seem momentarily cheered up earlier today though, when I caught site of him gleefully flinging some poor dead sparrow up in the air, feathers swirling all about, then pouncing on it again, tearing chunks of fluff and generally acting like some tough lion who's caught hisself a zebra.

My roommate got a Wii, ostensibly for his little boy, but we've played it more than the kid has even seen the thing. I have to admit, the boxing game actually made me sore. I mean, my muscles actually hurt, lame as that is. It's the same part of my back where I was shocked to discover recently that I could feel my ribs. It's not that I've ever been fat or anything, it's that I used to have muscle there. Enough of it and for so long that I wasn't aware that one could ever feel ribs in one's back. What a spindly sack of wimpitude I've become.

Friday

Why did I agree to babysit on a Friday night? Ok ok, I know the answer to that: the kids' mother is a long time friend of mine and she just got a new job and couldn't find anyone else available. Even with only a promise of pay sometime in the future, I still can't turn down a friend like that.

Normally, I hate Friday nights on the town. Clubbers, once-a-week drinkers from the suburbs, drunk drivers and all other obnoxious types flood the streets and I just really don't like those people. On the other hand, I could use a cute drunk boy to stagger my way, if ya know what I mean. He doesn't need to be a *cool* cute drunk boy - he could even be from the suburbs - as I'll take what I can get at this point. Guess I'll have to wait for Saturday. Sigh. There'd better be shows galore.

Summer tiiiiiiiiime

School's out, the sun's finally out, and I'm not doing a whole lot other than watching Euro 2008 in the mornings, reading a bit and walking around in the sun. I'm taking the summer off from school to have a real summer vacation for once. Should be fun! I plan on fishing, camping with the family, traveling (within N. America), going to lots of Timbers games, and actually playing a few shows with my band.

Yeah, I'm in a band. It's embarrassingly nerdy. It's an Oi! band with songs inspired by our local soccer team, the Portland Timbers. That's right, it's a Timbers Oi! theme band. Told you it was embarrassing. I'm the drummer and terrible.

I applied for graduation today. I'm not necessarily done with school after that. I still have a few months of benefits left on the GI Bill (possibly a whole year's worth), and I do eventually want to use that up. The thing is, I'm bored. And when I get bored I start to do poorly at whatever it is I'm working on at the time and right now my grades suck. I need a break until I get bored doing something else and school starts to sound like fun again, but I want a degree in my hands before venturing out to the work world, in case something great comes up and I don't ever get around to more schooling.

So that's me. Haven't felt like blogging much either, but perhaps that will change as the summer progresses.

Dear Timbers,

Are you not aware that my emotional wellbeing is dependent on your results? Please stop losing. Please score some goals.

Thank you,

Fighting 106th Regular