...though I wish I weren't

listening
Untouchables, Korn
Burning from the Inside, Bauhaus

Don't exactly wish I were still in Virginia, but I definataly wasn't ready to come back to work. Also I forgot the primary rule about going on vacation which is to remember to have something concrete to say about where I went/what I did to the multitudes of people who will ask. So I've spent a lot time hemming and hawing and trying to remember my impressions of Virginia.

One thing though, as time passes I'm getting more and more afraid of flying. I used to think my dad was silly for being afraid of it, but the more I here of planes going down and the reasons get harder to pin down, the more I think maybe Greyhound isn't a bad idea. I swear I purposefully deprive myself of sleep so I can spend the flight asleep, but every little twitch in the body of the plane or abrupt change in the noise from the engines makes me wake up in a cold sweat. Of course that doesn't count the times I wake up because someone is beating on my backrest or some child (or children) is having a hysterical fit.

Visited the Holocaust Museum, Smithsonian's Natural History to see the jems and their Air and Space Museum, cause that shit's just cool. kinda had to hurry through all of them, so that kinda sucked. On the mall there was this show over the course of the week called The Silk Road that celebrated cultures of Asia Minor. One the folks to put it on was Yo-Yo Ma, and he apparently put on a concert there. Course I found out the majority of this from watching CNN on monitors at the Minneapolis/St Paul airport during our layover returning to California. *Sighs* Didn't have any time to drop by much of any parts of the Silk Road show which really sucks. I saw a couple of polo fields but they were abandoned when we went by. We did walk through the displays but they were mostly cleared of poeple. But we did see camels. }:>

All of the places we went into in DC (with one notable exception) we had to go through metal detectors before getting anywhere. Slightly irritating when trying to get into a museum or the Old Post Office (which is really a tiny mall housed in a huge castle of a building), though it did make some sense at the Holocaust museum, sadly. That museum can be a real gut wrencher for obvious reasons and can challenge the most stalwart believers in passive resistence. But they did have some videos that kinda pushed me toward something like antipathy - really, we all know and understand that Hitler was evil. His regime was evil. Nazi German was evil. We get it. So it's kinda overkill to produce a video that portrays the rise of power of the Nazis and have some kind of evil dirge playing every time Hitler comes on screen. The facts speak for themselves, you don't have to clue me in to when I should feel bad with the music.... I dunno.

But like I said it was rushed and I only got to see a part of it. We practically had to run through the last floor. It had the stuff I was interested in the most, information on how people did aid Jews and how the Jews helped themselves escape. I have no idea if it touched at all on the formation of Isreal.

I got some rest in here and there but had horrible, evil nasty insomnia most nights. It was the really irritating kind where if I try to read or do anything productive my eyes start burning and I feel like I should sleep. Then I turn out the lights and just lie there. Till about dawn. Then I get a couple of hours of restless sleep cause the twin bed I'm in is actually a sheet over what feels like cardboard over cinderblocks. My back aches everyday. I only have my glow in the dark watch to tell time by and some time around eight every morning Molasses' mom calls from the door to tell me to get up, but she doesn't come to make sure that I do get up and doesn't allow Molasses to do that either. *sigh* Most days I'm the last person in the house to get up. Only one day do I get up at a quarter to seven and make myself get everything done at the pace I like doing them at.

The parents are nice to me but I was keenly aware that they were tolerating me. I think it wasn't because of approving or not approving of me, I think it just had more to do with me being their son's guest and they expected him to play more of the host. Of course, he didn't know that.

The nasty days of relentless heat and humidity weren't really so bad as I was told they would be. Of course, when I mentioned this I was assured if I came back in August it would be really bad then. The only thing that was really bad was the sheer amount of critters in the air, and size of the mosquitos there (they're frickin huge!). But on the plus side I saw fireflies for the first time ever and even saw dark grey thing flitting in dying twilight between the trees that Molasses assured me was a bat. Fireflies are just super cool. It's hard to believe they're even real despite having inspected them up close. Bioluminesence rules. }:>

Though the weather was kinda weird...The afternoons managed to be hotter than midday and one night around midnight there was lightening. But no summer showers as Molasses was hoping.

Didn't get to do much that wasn't in DC, though there was a whole lot of seeing people. Rabbit came by and stayed with an aunt in Manassas and we got to meet La Rorita. She has the best smile I've ever seen. Stayed just long enough to remember how durned cute the little ones are, and then just long again to remember how very much I don't want one of my own. We took Rabbit out to dinner and dragged Rorita with us back to Reston where we met Faith and Sergei. They had been in DC for the weekend and were about to depart for Pittsburgh. A good time was had by all, except maybe the little one who was getting tired.

That night brought them to Molasses' parents' house but La Rorita was definately displeased at being up so late. So we arranged to meet again the next day.

Monday was brunch with Rabbit, her mom and the kid, Molasses and his younger brother and their friend Erik (for whose wedding we were in town). It quickly schismed into boys on one side and girls on the other as I was told about The Delivery while the boys chatted about gaming and their education persuits. Both Erik and The Brother Man are persuing doctorates. After that meal I went with the boys to DC and Rabbit took her little family back to Harrisburg.

You know, I'm not much of a man hater. You'll never find me saying "Men suck!" espcially not just cause one man did something dumb, but sometimes... Sometimes, males surrounding me can really, really piss me off.

but anyway, Molasses' family is really into playing games - things like Rails or Catan-type things - so of course I got play a lot. Especially when Molasses and The Brother Man took off to Dave and Busters in Maryland for Erik's bachelor party. Earlier that day one of Molasses' cousins had flown in. She stuck around after we left on Sunday, I think for another week or so. She's one of four girls so we were wondering why she'd spend time with her aunt and uncle alone. Turned out she liked the area a lot, really loved them and at her home in Tacoma, WA slept in the same bedroom as her three sisters. I guess I'd be with that too. Molasses and I wondered about her because she was so quite, but after a couple of days she opened up quite a bit. She slept in the same bedroom as I did so I was nervous that I would keep her up while I was reading but she seemed to be able to sleep just fine. When the sun rose so did she. *grumbles*

On the Fourth I had initially hoped we could participate in some of the parties around town, see a parade or something, but it was the day before the wedding so I got to sit around the house while Molasses attended the rehersal. Then his brother drove me to the rehersal dinner whic was actually quite fancy and yummy. Then we loaded up on a big air conditioned bus to DC to watch the fireworks. We staked out a spot right in front of the Pentagon and sat on the edge of sidewalk/wall against the Patomac. There were lots of geese and ducks and I tried to skip rocks but sucked at it. The fireworks were definately something else but I can't quite say that they were the best ever - certainly some of the best but I've never made a real effort to quanitfy how much I like a certain disply so I'll know how to compare it later. Leaving the site was exactly as much fun as leaving the arena after having seen U2. Molasses took a small nap.

Then a bunch of menfolk gathered up with the groom-to-be and traipsed around the town center where the dinner had been held to try to meet with other folks. I tagged along cause MOlasses said I could, but I think the guys were maybe not sure what to do with/about my presence so they decided to ignore me. When everything was set we headed back to the city to a place called Camelot. It was about midnight when we got there and still fairly warm. I had dressed nicely for the dinner and hadn't thought to bring a change of clothes either for watching fireworks outdoors (where the concrete was still quite warm), and honestly hadn't even taken anything to Virginia that would be...good...to wear to Camelot.

Erik was friendly enough to me but the other guys were mostly indifferent. I think The Brother Man tries to fit in with his fellow males which occasionally causes him to say some stupid-assed shit, but all of that was easy enough to ignore when the drunk people came up and tried belligerance to get into Camelot ahead of us. The doorman was nice enough but the guy with the actual power to let us in was a big tub o' lard and about as slimy. He let us in about one, which was none too soon, really. At night with no breese, I think is when the weather was really getting to me, with sweat rolling down my back and between my legs I just wanted out. fortunately, Inside was air conditioned, naked-lady-goodness. mhhh naked ladies. the place was *very* friendly to chicks who wanted to see other chicks get naked, eventhough the ratio still favored men to women heavily. And of course we got to sit behind the guy who had to stand to hi-five every guy who took a chick up to stage to inspect the dancer up close and personal.

I felt kinda bad for not tipping but one of Erik's friends more than made up for it. He did some kind of stock-something-or-other and made a cool 300K a year. So I stopped feeling bad after the third girl he gave a twenty and a smile to. Molasses says he doesn't like going to places like that because it's slow torture, seeing all the flesh and not having an outlet. Boy, I sure know how he feels. Look but don't touch. whew...

Let's see, the wedding was very nice, though *really* short. But I don't think either the groom or the bride had any particular kind of belief system and just wanted a "traditional thing...few, if any, mentions of God." I think the overwhelming part of their wedding and their reception was built on the concept of appeasing the family. Which really just means it was huge, elaborate excuse for having a family reunion for two families. The DJ relentlessly played smarmy love songs and some novelty songs that set my teeth on edge. He had maybe two disco tracks in his set up and _nothing_ I liked. I tried to take easy and ask for New Order or Depeche Mode. No dice. Jeez.

My promise, here and now. If it should ever come to pass that I, by some nasty twist of fate, end up getting marred, I forbid the following song's presence at my wedding: The Funky Chicken, The Macarena. If either song is played I *will* leave.
Oh, and I promise there will be at least one tango.

But at least Molasses and The Brother Man got down and boogied, ocassionally they boogied so hard Erik was bent over double, his face red from laughing.

that covers most all of it, except that both Sunday's I attended service at Reston Bible Church with the family. BOY! Molasses' dad is an *amazing* singer! I felt so lame holding on to the hymnal trying to guess what the song was supposed to sound like and just tried to hide under his masterful tenor. There's something about attending church in a setting where I don't know what's coming next that makes me squirm. Mass in any Catholic church is purposefully set in a specific order so that it's the same no matter where in the world the mass is held. At this church it seemed like the meat was listening to the minister read from the Bible and then expound on a given theme. But it often took a while to get to that point, working through hymns, listening to solos, or a missionary would get up and talk about what a certain place was like, etc. by the time it got to Bible time I was eyeing the exits. A huge part of what this church does is witness and attempt to convert non-believers. so a huge part of the sermons were about getting the folks to evangelize wherever and whenever the Spirit led them. *REALLY* different from what I'm used to hearing at the churches I've attended.

I gave up following along in the Book since I don't know how to find most of it but it set my mind to whirring thinking about my particular view on the world and God and stuff. but this entry is plenty long...I should probably finish my work.