Scattershot and Inconsistent

It's tough to always maintain a topical focus, no matter my intent. I have at least three subjects I'm working on, but I'm missing the uninterrupted hour or so for each to make it happen. I checked out Saturn, a wildly popular blog done by one of the guys (Jack Saturn, hence the name) over at Pyra. It's quite good. I enjoy the length of the posts; my preference for content over appearance is one reason I always try to write more than I link. However, Saturn is done in a more personal focus, very few links. I am impressed that he has that many personal vignettes to share. I was thinking about what it would be like here on Hobbsblog II if I did something like that (cue daydream music here, like in Wayne's World). . .

i emailed with Aleava the other day and found out that she and haygruh are getting married. it was done in a very new millenium sort of way. first a normal email in my inbox, then one
with the subject line "are you sitting down?" i kind of expected the news at that point.

maggie and i had been together for three days shy of seven years when we got married. several times during our relationship we went to weddings of people that were together for a shorter time than us. one of those was jp and carmen's wedding in eugene. we drove down there from portland in our old crappy 92 black escort. it was ugly, had bad air intake, guzzled oil, was loud, ate tapes, and had no air conditioning. we loved it. after driving down, i'm sure we went to sam's sub shop. it was by the u of o campus and is the best damn sandwich spot in the world. no kidding. i always had the #15, the turkey and avocado on wheat, with provolone cheese. the lewis & clark debate squad would generally eat there on tournament trips at least twice. our old coach ladd wiles used to work there, and the nice lady who ran the shop (with a funky accent, too, i might add) would ask about him. at last check he was an assistant district attorney in coos bay, oregon. "hey, you're in luck, norm," he said the last time i talked to him. "if you get busted for drugs i'd be the one going after ya. after all, your last name starts with h, which fits into my alphabetical range." thanks, ladd. so we grubbed and then went to the church. it was a very churchy wedding, with at least ten members of the wedding party, and short and sweet. i love short weddings.

i wonder what happened to jp and carmen. we loved debating them, and it was fun to see them get hitched. there's also mike and jen; they went to western washington and we also debated against them quite a bit. when we went to their wedding, the drive was even longer and no avocado and turkey subs awaited. we did, however, go to their bachelor(ette) functions, which featured the groom puking in the parking lot of a casino we went to and much secrecy from the women about what they did. i remember a couple of things very vividly from that wedding. the first is a long discussion about a book I hadn't read made into a movie i hadn't seen (both failures corrected now): contact by carl sagan. we hung out in a small house with debaters from all over the northwest and the most trippy acting of all of them was sean purdy, who i think was pretty well straight edged anyway. the other memory is going to see there's something about mary while killing time the day of the wedding. mag and i hated it. it was stupid, appealed to the lowest common denominator, and was generally a worthless waste of time. everyone else seemed to love it. we walked away shaking our heads.

i remember people from high school getting married right out of high school. what's wrong with people? you have to experience life before locking into something like that. i guess that's what i was thinking when i heard that about aleava and haygruh, yet i'm genuinely really happy for them. they aren't getting married straight out of high school, and they've been together for a few years now, why shouldn't they? not everyone needs to wait seven years to make sure their head is screwed on straight. i guess because they're younger than me that means they're really young, right? not really; as i get older, the space between too young and just younger than me gets wider and wider. things in my life seem to be radically realigning now. first maggie's dad died, a man i had more respect for and loved more than just about anyone; then maggie's brother jeron and beth are getting married, josh and angie too, jeff and kari are hitched, now this. crazy.

i wrote aleava back and told her i was really happy and excited about it. and i am. congrats. you two kick mucho ass.

Odds and Ends

That wound up much longer than I thought it would. Nice!! I think this is a fine idea: a Car Driving Service that gets the drunk and his/her car home in one piece. The service personnel ride to the car by way of a foldable scooter that fits in the trunk of the car. Now that's cool. Also worthy of a mention: recent studies show that the "Stay Virgin until Marriage" movement doesn't work and can be counterproductive. Tell me something I didn't know. Finally, I just saw that one of the best damn weblogs in the whole world linked to me (The Null Device). I am honored. I may not be A list, or even B list, but dammit, I'm fully C list now.