Don't touch my bike!

I was at work today updating the website from the front desk of our office facility. My desk had a great view of the front door which is made of glass and is good for seeing things through. One such thing I saw through this door was a woman very interested in my bicycle. I had ridden my bike earlier in the day and it was locked up outside. I watched as she took hold of the seat and pushed it back and forth perhaps checking the stability or softness of the seat. She took a step back for a bit to think, and then came back to give the tires a little squeeze. My face adopted a contorted puzzled look. I didn't know what her intentions were going to be with my bike. It wasn't for sale or anything. I knew it was locked up, so I decided to keep watching her to see what she would do. She eventually walked away. Maybe she just really likes bikes. I don't know if she needed one or not. Sometimes when I need something like a set of plates or a jacket or something I'll notice every set of plates or jacket I encounter. She was in bike mode, man, and nothing was stopping her. I can see that, but I also feel like there's some bubble of privacy around my bike. I could take it as compliment. My bike is pretty cool.

Lawn care and tattoos

Today I tamed my lawn. I just moved into a new place downtown and while the location is great, it's kind of a crummy place, but maybe I'm just snobby. Anyway, because I'm probably not living there for more than two more months, I'm a little indifferent about common maintaining procedures. This resulted in the lawn becoming an evil monster that would eat my bicycle from time to time and conceal lesser monsters within. So something had to be done. We borrowed a lawn mower from our lovely neighbors and hacked away. It felt good because after we had gotten done, I could feel proud about my place again. Plus, I didn't wear my shirt at all when I was working, which is always a plus. I haven't gotten to do that a lot lately. Either I've been working or it's been too rainy to shed said shirt. What made it even more cool was the fact that I had these wicked awesome tattoos on my arms from a rock star party I went to the night before. Don't worry mom, these were fake tattoos for my rock star costume; we all had to come dressed as a rock and roll god (or goddess). I applied them yesterday and they'll stay for another week or so. It's interesting because I now have a little bit of an idea of what it's like to live with a tattoo. I think people treat you different with a tattoo. I even had to cover them up for a job interview. I've always wanted a tattoo. Just something to show off at the gym when I'm curling big weights. Maybe like some elemental thing with dragons with a cross in it somewhere, you know, so it can be a Christian tattoo.

hashbrowns!

I had the best breakfast this morning! Usually I'll just have eggs and toast and, if I'm lucky, some smaller than average sausage patties on the side, but this morning I added one more food group to the mix and grilled up some country-style potatoes. This might not sound especially spectacular to you, but I was thrilled. They taste great and I got a chance to use my Maltese steak spice, which I always use on my potatoes, even though it's called "steak spice." They can't tell me what to do. It became a tradition one day when I was working at the cafeteria at school, making breakfast, when a friend of mine came in and started making hash browns (it was a very public cafeteria kitchen). There was a readily available Maltese spice jar, so he capitalized on it and sprinkled it over the browns. It was love at first bite (see what I did there with a little play on words). Anyway, that's the story behind my hash brown love and that's why I was so excited to make them this morning. It was really easy actually. I don't know why I don't do it more often. I have to use my potatoes more anyway. I bought them a few weeks ago and now all these weird things are coming out of them. Radioactive alien tentacles on my potatoes.

Music

Have you ever wanted music to follow you wherever you go? Or maybe have that certain song come on when you enter a room? I've always thought that would be the coolest thing. That music that plays when the hero enters a room; priceless. Well, the other day I was browsing the isles of hodgepodge glory that can only be found at your local Goodwill. I came across a few interesting items, including a ship in a bottle, the Titanic box set, and a certain electronic turntable toy that allows even the youngest child become a master mixer. Well, I went to the checkout and paid for my items and starting walking out the door when music started coming out of my grocery bag. It was the awesome turntable toy and at that moment my childhood dreams came true and music followed my all the way from the store to my car. I passed a few people on the the way and I'm pretty sure I got my point across.

Piiii-Kaaa-CHUUU!

I hope all you bloggers out there remember playing Pokemon. Back in the day it was so awesome! I remember the day my friend introduced it to me for the first time. My life would never be the same. I had the red version and my brother had the blue so we could trade all the time. We fought a lot, but it was the one thing that brought us together. My favorite one was Polywrath. Amnesia Hydro pump combo--boom you're done. I remember at one point in the game, Ash got the opportunity to get a bike when he got the "bike voucher." I've never heard of a bike voucher before, but I knew you needed it to get a bike in the game. Well, I stopped playing the game after about five wholesome years and that time is behind me now. I haven't thought very much about the game until today when I was talking to a roommate about our bikes. I said, "well sometimes I don't lock it up, but it's just a cheap bike anyway." "Well mine was free," he replied. Curious, I asked him how he got a free bike. He said he got it with a bike voucher. When I realized what he said and connected it in my head with pokemon, a dormant child inside me lept for joy.

weird day in Bend

Today was a weird day; it seemed very surreal. For some reason, people everywhere were talking to themselves (way more than the usual day). It all started early this morning during my usual Goodwill shopping run. I was picking up some weird stuff for raffle prizes and I was heading to the sporting goods section when I passed by a lady singing a song to herself. I guess that's normal, but I remember it coming across as weird to me. I think she was singing about what she was doing at the moment, like her life was a constant musical and she was the star. She worked at Goodwill and she was putting away some items on the shelf singing her heart out. "Hmm...?" I thought. Later I found myself in Safeway picking up bags of candy for later and came across the same thing. I heard at least three people talking to themselves throughout the store. Well, I thought it was funny and quirky, so I didn't mind. I went down to where the candy was in search for the right bag of candy. "uh, this one looks good." I said out loud. Then I realized I had become one of them. It was spreading, and pretty soon others would be contaminated. It is a phenomenon and it's spreading across Bend as we speak...to ourselves.

My new living arrangement

I moved into my new place the other day. My very own place. I've never actually had my own place before; I've always lived with roommates or my parents. Honestly, it's pretty boring (it doesn't help that I don't have wi-fi). Before I moved in, I went over to the place because the landlord said the doors were open (he's an old timer who grew up in the days when they trusted people). So I walked in and checked the place out. The place fit the definition of musty and reminded me of the creepy temple from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, but there weren't any ghostly blades darting out at me and there weren't any grails in the back room. It mostly reminded me of the temple because of an ancient dust blanketing everything and dirt on the walls (it had these blackish marks on the wall that looked like either smoke stains or remnants of the last mud-flinging party they had). Besides that, the place wasn't too bad. It felt really weird to just walk in the place though. I felt like a burglar; I was in someone else's place, but they didn't know I was there. So I'm walking around groping for light switches around every corner and I had to go to the bathroom. OK, this'll be a good chance to check out the bathrooms. But, alas, the toilets were either empty with no water or filled with the excrement of perhaps a passerby or the previous tenant. So, now I live there and I'm optimistic. All it needs is a little love.