...And Now for Something Completely Different!

Fourteen hours and nine minutes from start to finish.
Seven hundred forty-eight miles.
One hundred ninety-nine dollars and forty cents.
Fifty-three ounces of water.
Twenty-two ounces of Vault.
Three CDs.
Three cookies.
Two sticks of gum.

Proving I can still do crazy road trips: priceless.

Wow, that was pretty fun! What does it all mean, you ask? Friends, these are the numbers from my trip to IKEA in Woodbridge, VA, to purchase a loft for my, ahem, cozy room. To illustrate, my trash can is still sitting atop my bookcase because there's nowhere else to put it. Now I can finally settle in and add a few personal touches like my Thinker poster and chalkboard.

The trip itself went pretty smoothly, considering I wasn't sure I'd even take it until I woke up completely unprompted at 8am. When I saw the time, I said to myself, "I guess today's the day," and off I went! I enjoyed myself so thoroughly that when I walked in the great fortress that is IKEA, I had to keep myself from grinning like an idiot. I tell ya (and it's weird for me to say this), sometimes there's nothing like a good ol' spontaneous adventure. My aunt Kate would be proud... in fact, I should call her! This daytrip was particularly special in that I'd never been to IKEA, plus I ended up driving US 29 and Interstate 64 on the way home and was delighted to see the Blue Ridge panorama draped with fog... if only I'd had a camera! Oh, and I almost forgot: I nearly had to leave the loft in Woodbridge because it was an amazingly tight fit in my Camry. I knew it was a risk going in, but thankfully all those trips with Mom, Jennie and Granddaddy paid off with the combined experience of packing/cramming/come-on-just-a-little-bit-more-there-we-go.

That's all for now - just wanted to share my lovely excursion with you. Hope to write soon!

Late night thought

As a preface: Clayton's friend Sam has been visiting from Florida for the last few days, and tonight he said, "Yeah, tomorrow I'm gonna go back to my real life."

That got me thinking: Why do we call our mundane lives 'real'? I've used that expression several times myself - "Well, back to reality" when I'm talking about leaving something fun; usually to do schoolwork or chores or something. I guess we dream of being free from our responsibilities and create a fantasy world of Pleasure where we get to do what we want 24/7. However, few, if any, of us actually live in that world, leaving 'normal' people to work until we can visit Pleasure on the weekend. Kinda puts a new spin on 'living the dream,' doesn't it?

Well, back to reality... which right now means it's time for bed! Oh, and I'll probably post later this week as a follow-up to my first post, so check back soon!

Overflow

My mind is racing at a million miles an hour... where to begin... perhaps I'll just copy from my journal and then continue on from there. Please hang on through this series of examples and vignettes...

I just got back from The Simpsons, and of all things, it got me thinking how immersed we are in our entertainment. In the film, the first big joke is on the audience itself: Homer launches on a tirade against the silliness of paying to see a movie about a show that we could easily watch for much less on television. We all laugh at our absurdity, but nobody left the theater and wanted a refund, which would have been a logical response.
A few minutes later, Green Day performs a concert and then tries to talk about the environment, only to have the crowd erupt with vigorous booing. As their stage sinks into the acidic lake, my friends and I laugh again, but how many of us will proactively protect the environment?
The same question applies to the witty shows of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, because we all laugh at how screwed up our country is, but how many of us viewers act on our beliefs? Sure, there's voting... I guess that just seems inadequate.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, brings us to the present, when I feel compelled to do Something with what I think, but I don't know what. Whom do I tell? Where do I go? In light of this yearning for a more productive intellect, I'm starting this new blog, which will be more political than my old one. I fear it may consist of little more than this post... but I sincerely hope this is the beginning of Something New.

Until next time, valete.