For Shits and Giggles

2008 – The Year That Barack-ed!

Yes, it is several weeks late.  And yes, I did not post my annual letter to Santa.  But just stow any negative thoughts and revel in the 2008 recap…  or just sit there dreamily thinking about the Jonas Brothers.

Moments to remember: Getting my current job in May, Fredericksburg with the wife and boy on July 4th, the final move to the kick-ass house, getting Bodie (the best dog EVER) from the shelter, hanging out with JP (especially backstage at the Bodeans show at SXSW), the most unbelievable scallops ever at McCormick and Schmick’s (not to mention the crab tater tots!), buying “Champ” (our Jeep), garage sale Saturday mornings with the wife, seeing the bats at sunset for the first time, the “man room” in the garage that is like the Phonebooth II, a weekend here in Round Rock with cousin Hollie, some dude named Obama, and getting back in the habit of reading about 3-4 books a week.  Visits from old friends Ray and Mark around the holidays, though sadly not at the same time.

Moments to forget: The binge.  The slow, painful death of my laptop and all of its music, just waiting to be salvaged.  Hurricane Ike and the craziness at work that ensued.  Rats – giant maneating effers – at the previous address.  The brush with circus clowns that Coleton and I had in Wimberley onJuly 4.  (I’m surprised we made it out alive and unscarred.)  Palin-mania.  Ugh.

Music and sporting events: Our first Round Rock Express game, as Tommy Hunter put on a show.  The aforementioned BoDeans concert at SXSW.  Getting into the Airborne Toxic Event.

Things to look forward to in ’09: Lots more music, like the Morrissey show I mention in the last entry and another show I will mention in the next.  Kayaking again, and maybe even buying our own canoe.  Hiking at Inks Lake.  A real vacation for a change.  Continued opportunities at work.  The Boy’s sister (The Girl?) moving here after graduation.  More visits from friends.  Finally finishing the front room so we can entertain at home.  A road trip to Houston to see the opening of Land of the Lost with family.

One word to sum up ’08? Rationality.  (Ok, I used the dictionary game to choose a word because “Austintatious” seemed kind of cheesy.)

Fancy another?

And Now We Return To Our Scheduled Programming (20 Year Version)

So you read about my high school years (if you did, indeed, read the last entry). And now they are about to happen all over again in a sense.

Yes, this is the year of my 20th Reunion.

Twenty percent of me looks forward to it, and the other 80 percent of my body dreads it. I know that I shouldn’t feel the need to “live up to expectations” when stuck in a large room with approximately half of my 400 classmates. But the pressure is still there, as silly as that is. After all, I know from my 10 year reunion that anyone I give a crap about doesn’t give a crap about “status”.

The odd thing is that I only have contact with two of those people all these years later: my friend Scott (I was president of the computer club in middle school and he was VP) and Cherry (a fellow “gifted and talented” student who is apparantly kicking ass in musicals in New York). Scott found me (or was it vice versa?) back when I had a MySpace page and Cherry found me on Facebook. In fact, I got to hang out with Scott last year on a trip to Austin when Dawn, Katy, and I attended a dinner party at his place. (We inadvertantly brought out the Burleson in him, and I don’t know if his significant other – a female, quit the speculating – will ever forgive us.)

And now that we live in the Austin area, about a half mile from Scott’s Dell workplace, we have yet to get together with him. Truth be told, that is probably a reflection of the way the dinner party went. Some people grow up, others grow down. I was so serious during my formative years that I belong to the latter category.

And Dawn? Well, she can just be shockingly honest, political corectness be damned. I doubt she has ever changed.

So the other day we were talking about the upcoming reunion because of emails I have been receiving. Since we grew up on bordering towns, and within one graduating class of one another, we knew a lot of the same people. And that led to the following conversation about a cheerleader from my school.

Me: She is a “butter” girl.

Dawn: A “butter” girl? What does that mean?

Me: Well, she had a great body… but her face…

It might help to read the above aloud, a common denominator of most of my jokes. In other words, most of the time you have to be there.