I promise to not write only about Ebola.
October 15, 2007
And I’ll try to move those posts to a health/science news subsection. Since those are currently my favorite news stories. There’s only so much one can read about the Bush administration and Congress… it gets rather depressing after a while. Although I need to find a widget clock that will count down the days, hours and minutes until Bush leaves office. That thought always cheers me up a bit.
My most cheering thought right now is buying Bruce tickets in a little over an hour. I’m damn near hyperventilating because of it. If I weren’t so tired, I’d be positively bouncing off the walls in anticipation. His entire tour sold out within days of tickets going on sale, so I wasn’t able to find available tickets for any of his California dates. Then he added another night to Oakland! Which means I’m going to have to go to Oakland but it’s for Bruce. And I’ll bet it’s easier to get to his Oakland concert than it was to get to the Giants Stadium concert that I went to a few years ago.
Devin was rather resigned when I told him we’d be seeing Bruce again, and that I wanted to spend the weekend in the Bay Area. It conflicts with his Sunday disc golf tournament (which obviously means that anything planned on a Sunday would interrupt his disc golf). To which I said fine, I’ll go alone.
Which he would never let me do in a million years, so he’s coming along. His insistence that I not go anywhere without him is one of our most on-going, major fights. And we’re talking relatively small trips here–up to San Francisco to see the ballet, for example. Devin would rather gouge his eyes out than sit through an entire ballet but he won’t let me go alone, either.
The fight got tabled during the year of me not driving because I was still trying to regain vision in my left eye (which would have been two years ago, for those of you who’ve lost track of the medical melodrama that is my life). Which falsely lead Devin to believe that I’d given up wanting to fight him over his stupid belief that it’s not safe for me to go anywhere alone. He says that my parents were far too lenient with me, and that I’m a horribly spoiled brat (which is true). Since usually the fight devolves into me yelling about how I always went on such trips on my own long before I met him. Subscribing to the San Francisco Ballet and all that jazz. Which is when he tells me that I’m spoiled, and lacking in common sense.
Then again, it wasn’t like my parents were thrilled with the idea of me driving all over the state on my own, and wandering San Francisco alone at night in a not-so-savory area. (It was actually very safe, there were always large groups of people leaving the ballet for BART, like I was, and they would see that I was alone and adopt me into their group.) I am simply much better at managing my parents then I am my husband. My parents think it’s wonderful that I have someone in my life who actually stands up to me.
Ha. It’s only a matter of time before I get in my truck and tell him that I don’t really care what he thinks, I’m going anyway. Especially since he is spending the rest of the year playing disc golf tournaments all through-out California. Get this! We’re going to Hawaii for a week in December (with his parents but the trip is completely free for us, and only an idiot turns down a paid trip to Hawaii) and Devin’s first thought was that it would conflict with a Southern California disc golf tournament.
Speaking of all of that time between now and Hawaii… it’s going to be a busy end to the year. Bruce is on the 25th of this month (not so very far away and thank goddess we have the money for it). On November 1st, I’m being arrested by the March of Dimes and, if I don’t want to spend my time in “jail” making phone calls trying to drum up money for them, I need to get off my lazy ass and get some pledges.
Then, less than a week later, is the event that has me almost as excited as seeing Bruce again. Jury Duty. I’m the only person I know who’s actually gone to the courthouse and asked to be put on Jury Duty. They have a list of people who are willing, and eager, to serve, and we get called on at least every two years. And it’s finally my turn again! Father-in-Law wasn’t too pleased because he knows I’m going to do everything in my power to get onto an actual jury this time (which mostly means dressing professionally and keeping my damn mouth shut this time). He’s not pleased with the idea of me getting stuck with extended jury duty. And I certainly don’t care what he thinks. It’s not my fault that I actually enjoy performing my civic duty.
Bruce and Jury Duty. Two guaranteed highlights of my year. I’m strange.
Bruce’s new album is fantastic, since I’m sure you all were wondering. I’m almost enjoying it more than The Rising, which is one of my favorite Bruce albums. I bought it yesterday when I got the notice about the new night in Oakland and then proceeded to listen to it twice. Although I’m not sure if it will appeal to people who are not already fans of Bruce and the E Street Band. I played some of my favorite songs for Devin and he just shrugged and muttered that all Bruce starts to sound the same after a while. Which is a fair point, really. Although Devin is a huge fan of Nebraska, so there are some Bruce songs that he enjoys.
Even though, as much as I like Nebraska, I have a much greater love for Bruce’s albums that he did with the E-Street Band. Darkness on the Edge of Town and Born To Run are my two absolute favorites. Damn near every single Bruce fan has to love Born To Run, otherwise we can’t really call ourselves fans, but there aren’t so many who are as enamored with Darkness… as I am.
(What else can I yammer about while waiting for Bruce tickets to go on sale? Thankfully there is not much work to do today, unlike last week, when I actually earned my pay. Today I just have some minor bills to deal with, and some website work. The business site is an ugly thorn in my side and I should really endeavor to make it less ugly. Thankfully, though, when I get worn out with the ugly, ugly site, I can switch to work on this one. Since I still do all of my stylesheet, and html work in Notepad, and when it’s boiled down to just a bunch of code, it all looks the same to Father-in-Law. He didn’t even realize what html was until I started working on the business site. He thought I was typing gibberish.)
I know. How’s about a general update of the past few months? Something I should really have done at the beginning of this entry. In August, Devin and I went with the in-laws and grandparents to Tahoe for a week. I’d never been to Tahoe in the summer, just in the winter, when it’s buried under eight-to-ten feet of snow. I had no idea how quaint and charming the town is when you can actually see what the shops and stores look like, as opposed to only seeing massive walls of snow blocking everything. It’s also nice to walk around Tahoe without having my swollen, arthritic knees exploding with pain. Snow and arthritis are not friends.
We ended up having a fantastic time. I wasn’t so sure that I would enjoy myself, since I was exhausted, feeling sick and not really wanting to spend a week running around Tahoe. But, of course, it was great. We rafted down the Truckee River which was somewhat fun. For a pagan, I am distressingly unimpressed with nature. Probably because I take the beauty of California for granted.
Devin, Ryan (brother-in-law) and I went to a Jerry Garcia Band concert, featuring Melvin Seales, who was a member of the Grateful Dead. My brother is a huge Deadhead and he was incredibly jealous that I got to go a concert featuring one of the few remaining Grateful Dead band members.
I think I’ve finally exhausted myself with my own ramblings. Thankfully, Bruce tickets go on sale in less than fifteen minutes. So, I’m going to go stake out Ticketmaster now.
Posted in My So-Called Life 
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by Richard Preston. I’m so in love with that book. It integrates the history of Ebola with current (at the time) research being done on the virus. One of the most suspenseful scenes that I’ve ever read is when Preston writes about a researcher (Nancy Jaax) who makes a mistake in the BL 4 lab while working with Ebola.
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