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

ok fine! a tag

List 5 things in my bag:
Which bag? I picked the first one on the floor in my room. This is the travel bag, the part that detaches from the top of the backpack that I keep with essentials.
1 first aid kit
2 deodorant
3 Emergency-C packet, orange flavored
4 D-ring, "not for climbing", green
5 roll of toilet paper

List 5 favorite things in my room:
1 window - big, easily openable, weatherized window. totally out of place in the non-insulated, poorly wired bedroom, but I'll take the view out to the yard/garden nonetheless.
2 desk - it's one of those Ikea things, meant as a dining table that folds down against the wall when it isn't being used. That's a nice option, but it's never uncluttered enough to fold it down. It's listed as a favorite because of all the labor that went into make sure it was straight, getting the right damn screws (Ikea and it's European measurements and shitty screws!) and working with the weak battery-powered drill.
3 London Calling poster - probably the third iteration of this particular poster, due to plumbing leaks and hurried moves, etc.
4 my plant, lily thing - my last housemate wouldn't let me have pets and now I'm not sure if I'm going to travel and stuff, so I don't want to own a dog. Hence the plant. I put a lot of effort into rehabing this thing after I left it in my room with the heat off over Thanksgiving weekend last year. When I came home, it was nearly black and droopy. Then when I brought it with me over Christmas my sister's kitten ate all the outer leaves. It's lookin' pretty good these days.
5 the book "shelf" - a system of milk crates and particle board. It kind of forms and "L" shape and I can sit on it. Real shelves are expensive and I don't have the patience or equipment for carpentry.

List 5 things I've always wanted to do:
1 time travel
2 go to Alaska
3 tour with a band
4 win the lottery
5 see North Korea other than at the border.

List 5 things I am currently into:
1 being a lazy piece of shit
2 not blogging
3 playing Civ IV
4 Timbers!
5 relearning the drums and trying to not bring down the rest of the band.

Good God

...but is the news depressing! It's a wonder there's anyone still left alive in Asia, what with floods, earthquakes and bombs bombs bombs. There are also tornadoes somewhere in America, a drought in Spain, and Clinton won W. Virginia.

The amusing story of the day for me though is the "Terror Law Used to Spy on Fishermen". It's amazing how irate people get when they realize that the laws they so fervently clamored for actually apply to them. "What? You mean you're not just using this law to spy on brown people as they come back from the mosque? You're wasting my tax dollars and abusing your authority!" Wahwahwah...

Seattle was a Riot

The last time the Timbers Army invaded Qwest was an enjoyable experience, and a lot less nervy than the previous two trips I've made there. On the other trips, all of the security in the entire building surrounded the Portland fans, taunted us, and randomly threw out people for "swearing." The Timbers management warned the Sounders FO about our treatment up there and this time they backed off a bit. Overall, I'd give them a C. It'd have been higher save for the incident at the end of the game when they let all the fans out at once, instead of escorting the away fans after everyone had left like they do abroad and like we did when Seattle fans came down a few weeks ago. Instead, the concourses were packed with drunk rowdy boys and girls of both teams, families from Seattle and hordes of preteen soccer teams. The Timbers contingent had at least three different chants going, teenager Seattlites ran up to me and screamed in my face, and a few wannabe hooligans from Seattle ran through the crowd, shoulder charging people and knocking over kids of their own fans. The Army gathered outside in a sort of formation, scarves held over head and sang "We'll be coming down the road" for about ten straight minutes. Even the Seattle families were impressed, smiling, shaking hands and taking pictures. The same few assholes who charged through the concourses then tried to start a fight in the middle of this formation, but were outnumbered about 100 to 4, and it ended like a tame mosh pit with nothing but some shoving.

In all, about 400 Portland fans made the trip north, sang, danced and drank to witness an otherwise inglorious 0-0 draw. Portland may never get an MLS team due to market size and economics and blah blah blah, but soccer means something to people here, and I feel like I was a part of that history Saturday night.

Ok, enough sappiness. After the game my army buddy Owen and his girl took Tim and I out to a rugby bar where his sister's team had just finished a lube wrestling contest. The tap selection was superb, but I couldn't turn up the Strongbow, so I sipped a few of those while drooling over a hot guy across the room. Back at Owen's apartment we tried to watch the film Military Intelligence, but Owen and I, perhaps because we once were military intelligence, were the only ones to find it the least bit amusing and both Tim and Laura were passed out about five minutes in.

For whatever reason I couldn't sleep at all, and gave up at about six, surfed the net and waited for the Premiership final games to start. What I wanted to happen from these games was for ManUtd to win, Chelsea to spontaneously combust, and Fulham to miraculously beat Portsmouth to avoid relegation (I've got a soft spot for Fulham due to all the Americans on their team). All of that happened except for Chelsea combusting (but it was apparently really hot there), but honestly the most exciting part of the ManUtd game was watching the bizarre weather unfold - heat! deluge! ponds! rain! monsoon!

The drive home was uneventful. We stopped at a Denny's for breakfast and were served by a sweet old woman, which made me really sad. No one that age should have to work in a shitty place like Denny's anyway, but especially not an old lady on Mother's Day! Please, if there is a god, do not let me be serving at Denny's on a Mother's Day when I'm that age. I hope someone takes me to the tar pits before it comes to that.