Your Geek For A Day!

Yo! And good afternoon to you cats as well. It’s another rainy dreary day here in Austin, which means I am royally screwed in the allergy department.  I snuck out of work about 45 minutes early today and forced myself to nap for an hour or two.  I don’t feel much better, but I don’t have a fever so hopefully it will pass when the rain lets up tomorrow. 

I did, however, hear a neat song on the radio on my way home from work.  Thank you KOOP for playing a funky new version of “In the Flesh” (you know, from The Wall) by Fol Chen.  I heard it right as I was pulling into the driveway and sat and listened to the whole thing before going inside.  It’s not even that the song was amazing or brilliantly redone, I just couldn’t remember the last time I had heard it.  And what surprised me the most is I found myself singing along to words I thought I’d forgotten years ago.  I guess they might be hard-coded into my brain by now.  I blame my 13th summer. (I’m estimating here, because I’m not sure how old I was and the amount of time I wasted meant there couldn’t have been school at the time.)  We had just moved to a new city, 3 hours away from everyone I’d known my whole life.  I didn’t fit in, didn’t have many friends at first, it was just me and Spud (that’s my brother, btw).  And my dad bought us a computer game: Star Wars: Dark Forces.  It’s a pretty standard first person shooter, at least for the time it was out, and Spud was savvy enough even at 11 to dig up cheat codes for us.  I would put that thing on invincibility mode and play for hours and hours and hours, the whole time listening to The Wall in the background.  Over and over and over.  I’d play through the entire game in one sitting, then do it again the next day.  So somewhere rattling around in the depths of my brain is every note and every word to The Wall, etched into a lobe like graffiti on a bathroom stall.  And, on days like today when I hear something that brings it all back, I don’t even have to think about it.  My mouth says the words almost involuntarily without my brain even being involved.  It’s a strange feeling when I’m aware of it, even stranger when I’m not.  Sometimes I talk without realizing I’m talking at all, and if you asked me what I just said I’d tell you I didn’t say anything.  But that’s another story for another time.  I also have a twitch, but that’s not important. 

I’m not sure what was important about that little diatribe.  I guess it says something that my formative years were filled with sci-fi and psychedelic rock, seeing that my later years are too.  And then I married a man who also cherished these things, who also happened to be my absolute soul mate.  So I guess not fitting in at 13 gave me the awesome life I have now.  There’s probably some after-school special moral to the story, but I’ll skip that and just say this: you gotta play the hand you’re dealt, because you never know what you’ll land on the turn.  Maybe you’ll get lucky on the flop, who knows. 

Or maybe you’re fucked, it’s not my call.  I don’t know everything.  I just write shit on the internet. 

And here’s a sponsor for ya today: you know how when you’re sick you get that horrible dry nose thing going on, where it hurts to touch it with even those really expensive tissues with the lotion and the aloe and various oozes?  Best cure ever: Burt’s Bees Lemon Butter Cuticle Cream.  It’s normally formulated for, well, cuticles, but it works great on skin all over.  It’s not greasy and slimy like vasoline, and it’s all-natural and non-toxic so it’s okay if you accidentally eat a little.  And it smells awesome.  It works great for chapped lips too!   Plus it’s inexpensive and you can find it at most drug stores.  Sometimes if your skin is really bad it might sting a little at first, but it’s totally worth it. 

And with that, I think I’m going to force some food into me.  Maybe my favorite sick meal of eggs and toast, or maybe just a cup of applesauce.  Not sure how I’m feeling just yet.  Hopefully I’ll be better and raring to go tomorrow, just in time for THE HOLY DEUCE at the Alamo Drafthouse this weekend! See y’all there!