Shoot

Today is Thanksgiving. Now that I've proven I know it, I'll move on to something else. Yesterday, I did something I've never done before. When I was a boy, I shot rifles at summer camp and at some Boy Scout activities. They were bolt action 22 caliber rifles, and I think we always shot in the prone position or in a sitting position. We never shot from a standing position that I can think of, and we never shot handguns.

Yesterday, I shot a handgun. It wasn't something I was planning on doing, and it probably wasn't something I ever would have gone to any trouble to do, but it was nothing that I was against doing. In any case, I found myself at a gun store and shooting range that has previously made headlines for its Yuletide tradition of giving its clientele the chance to pose with their guns and Santa Clause. I did not get the chance to do that this time.

Quick Break

Yesterday was an interesting day for me. I seem to have hardly anything else anymore. On this day, it was a bit up and down. I started off with a typically enjoyable Toastmasters meeting. It dipped a bit after that, as I was caught up in the frustration of struggling to get my writing done. I was in a genuinely foul and frazzled mood by the early evening, at which time I was planning to attend a variety show at a local nightclub. I reasoned that afterward I'd be tired, but perhaps in a better mood for writing anyway.

A friend and I headed over there, meeting up with a third friend before settling in for the show. They have live music, pole dancing, burlesque, and comedy, all of which I enjoy a great deal. The show was great, but it turned out to have more in store for me than I guessed. I did know that if I dressed well, there was a chance of getting extra attention. As it turned out, I was drafted into the best-dressed contest, ultimately triumphing in a dance-off. That got me a $50 dollar gift certificate to someplace that sounds subversive.

Keeping Time

My mind often turns toward the very mundane. It's frustrating that there are so many things that a person must keep to themselves not because it's obscene or necessarily secret, but because no one is interested in hearing about it. These things are just too small to be shared. You could say them to the people closest to you in the most idle of moments, I guess. There are a lot of things like this for me, and they are chronicled here.

Something I do sometimes is snap my fingers. I snap along with music, or without. If it's with music, there's a beat to snap with. I come and go on that. Sometimes I'm at least thinking of a song, and I can keep to the beat on that. Sometimes I'm snapping to nothing at all, in which case I wind up snapping to the pace of my footsteps. Other stuff can throw me off and I wind up going to something else for a while.

Come Marching In

While casting about for a subject that I might write about, somehow I got to thinking about parades. It occurred to me that I haven't been to many in my life. I can think of one that I've definitely attended, although there may be more that I can't think of. Parades are not something that were of tremendous importance to my family. I think maybe there's a narrow range of town size where parades are of interest. I was in too big a city and not big enough of one for parades.

When I was a boy, I recall that the Phoenix Suns held a parade after what we called their "Silver Season" of 1992-93. They had gone to the NBA Finals and met their match in Michael Jordan's Chicago Bulls, but they held a parade after it was over anyway. I watched that on television. I did not do so when the Chicago White Sox held a victory parade upon winning the World Series, nor did I even attend. I was about a block away shooting a student film at the time.

Merits Of A Cruise

Something rather rare happened the other day. I was watching television, and a commercial came on for some cruise being planned. Cruises never sound too good to me. At best, it seems like you're around a lot of retirees and obnoxious families with money to through around. That's at least who I imagine to be taking a lot of cruises. At worst, you're confined to a giant, floating petri dish of disease, and God knows the thing could sink.

This one cruise sounded all right, though. A couple of former Olympians are supposed to be competing in a decathlon aboard the ship. I think that's what they were saying, although maybe it was just some commercial gimmick to emphasize that they would be on board. I think it was real, though. It sounded rather interesting, and I just about could imagine going for that if I had cruise money to throw around. I certainly don't, but maybe some day.

Penny Wise

When I was a boy, somehow I wound up with an interest in collecting coins. I pursued this somewhat, and today still have the pair of books meant to contain the many types of pennies manufactured since 1909. I believe there is at least one volume which I do not possess, as those that I have carry me only to 1974. As with many childhood interests, this one dropped off for me after some time, although it remained in a latent form all these years. After all, I still have those books.

I have now recovered them from their remote prison in the closet with the intention of renewing the hobby, if only to the extent of filling out the books I have now. There are in them many empty places for coins, but today I can say there are fewer than there were, as I went through my change jar (a repurposed, now very heavy former pasta sauce jar) in search of any pennies on the list. Happily, I found that there were a number of them, including a number from the fifties, sixties and seventies.

Staying In

As I believe I've made plain in the past, I have at least the opportunity to go out and do something about every night. I take advantage of that most times, which is a major change from years ago. I still can't bear to go out on some occasions. I remain something of a homebody at heart, and can't override that instinct every time. This has something to do with the fact that I've found being social to be considerably more expensive than being the isolated, socially stunted hermit I once was. Periodically being a jerk and coldly rejecting all entreaties to hang out goes a long way towards ensuring my solvency all the way through each month.

There are more practical reasons why I hole up for the night sometimes. Not so long ago, there was a long string of rainy days, and while I was brave enough to go out and face it at first, it was the second day which had me declaring an unwillingness to leave home except by necessity. This is just the perfect situation for staying in. Ideally one has all the trappings necessary. Such items as a hot beverage, soup and traditional indoor activities like jigsaw puzzles or a movie are good, and it's best if whatever you settle on is done within sight of a window showing just how dreadful it is out there.

Mother Of Invention

I've repeatedly observed that in the absence of cable tv or especially reliable internet access, there is an entertainment vacuum of sorts for my roommate and I. When the things we can do hold little appeal, we tend to make our own fun. I remember doing that when I was a little boy. I hadn't gotten into the habit of watching television- we didn't have cable, and it's to the credit of my parents that they did not exactly work assiduously to get us started on it. Eventually we did get cable, but until then my sister and I playacted and invented games that depended on no more equipment and facilities than a cardboard box and a disused room in the house.

That kind of imaginative play has come to the rescue on occasion in times of dire crisis- when I've been working, and could not do what I wanted to entertain myself out of some sense of propriety, it was time to make a game from the materials on hand. The swelling of one's pride that comes from such inventiveness often outweighs the sense of pathos that comes from such desperation. Actually though, there's nothing to be embarrassed about when one is merely following in the revered footsteps of Calvin and Hobbes. I only hope to someday make such a lasting contribution to mankind as Calvinball. We have here at our place a golf club. If I understand correctly, it's a putting wedge. Maybe it's a sand wedge, though. I really don't know. It's not a driver, I'm pretty sure of that. Obviously we don't have a putting green to make use of, and if we're honest with ourselves then we openly admit we're never actually setting foot on a real course. We don't even have a ball. I figure really we ought to have several of those. I envision us doing that complacent business exec thing of putting balls into a mug, but we just don't have those resources.

Tuesday and Wednesday

I have not historically been someone who spontaneously gets called up to hang out, but that kind of popularity seems to be developing. After we finished shooting the movie I've been on Monday, I was advised that such a hanging-out session was in the works for the following day, and that I should expect a call. That remained in the back of my head, but come that evening my conscious plans were to watch the opening night of the NBA season. When the chance to go out and do things comes along, however, I know that the healthy thing to do is not to pass them up in favor of privately watching basketball games on tv at home.

Therefore, I went down to Hollywood to meet my friends at their place, where we placed bets on when the last confirmed member of the group would show. I had no confidence in his capacity for promptness, so I went with a later time than anyone, and won with 10:05pm. In fact, he did not turn up until 11:20, and then only at the bar we went to rather than the apartment. It was a good time, although one wonders what sort of Hollywood recreational establishment closes at midnight.