H Correctable

I just had one of the most story-like experiences of my life.

I was writing a short letter on my typewriter to a friend who I saw last weekend. When we saw one another I was hoping to tell her that I think her eyes are beautiful but I had no way of leading into that statement or out of it. I ended up saying nothing and leaving the gathering we were at shortly thereafter. The letter was a short "hello" to her, as well as an excuse for me to tell her that her eyes are beautiful. I wrote, "I meant to say this the other night: Your Eyes are Beautiful." The next thing I was planning on writing was, "I had no way of preceding or following up that simple statement, so I stayed silent." What actually happened was this: my typewriter ribbon ran out of ink after laying down the period after the word "beautiful".

I scrawled a hurried apology for running out of ribbon, signed the note and sealed it in an envelope. It is now waiting to be taken to the nearest mailbox.

Movement

The other day I absolutely destroyed my left thumbnail with a screw gun. It slipped off of the screw I was attempting to put into a two-by-four to create a door frame and my thumb got in the way. It made a horrible crunching noise and bled for a day and a half. My thumb is still swollen, and I'll have a hole in my thumbnail until it grows out in the next few months. I was upset because it was my second to last day of work for the summer and I had gotten through every other day without injury despite climbing rickety ladders in old barns, using huge saws, working with lighting equipment and electricity in the rain (just once) and all sorts of life endangering things. Then a screw gun ground my finger into a mess. God damn.

In other news, I think I'm finally getting a typewriter. I've been looking for one for months and the other day at a small gathering someone overheard me say that I'd like one. He told me to call him so I can take a look. I hope it works out.

The power went out early yesterday morning. I was sitting on my patio with a good friend when suddenly all of the street lamps clicked off and every air conditioner powered down. We had the only light for blocks thanks to a couple of torches I had lit. It was an incredible feeling: we both felt like we were the last two people on earth. I wish it would have lasted longer than five minutes.

I spent far more money today than I planned...

I went record shopping with my friend Sam, which we have been planning for about a week now, however we only went to about half of the places we had planned on going to. That was my fault. You see, I found four Tom Waits records on vinyl at the first place we stopped. The Heart of Saturday Night, Foreign Affairs, Nighthawks at the Diner, and, what is one of my favorite Waits records, Rain Dogs. All of these were in two adjoining rows. Music by Tom Waits, especially on vinyl, tends to be far too expensive for my tastes (usually running about thirty dollars, at the cheapest), so when I found Rain Dogs and the Heart of Saturday Night for fifteen dollars each, I jumped on them. Then Foreign Affairs turned up for ten, and shortly after that Sam found Nighthawks for five dollars and I nearly wet myself.

Of course I didn't stop there. I picked up a stack of other records. Most of that was less than five dollars each, and most of them were just a dollar. Still, I spent a ton of money. Oops.

While we were out, Sam and I stopped by to see our friend Ben at his place of work, Choo Choo Bob's Train Store and while we were there saw Dave King, one of the best drummers in Minnesota, and possibly one of the best in the nation. I thought it was him but I couldn't tell until he took off his sunglasses. He was in buying a toy for his son who loves trains. It was adorable. And fucking awesome. He was super chill about being recognized and thanked us for listening to his many bands (Happy Apple, Halloween, Alaska, the Bad Plus, and the Gang Font featuring Interloper) and asked us what we were up to. When we told him we had been out record shopping he got excited and asked us if we'd been to the new Eclipse Records location, where we had just come from. He started telling us stories about when Happy Apple used to play at the old location but his son was getting restless so he took off with a final, "Thanks. Nice to meet you guys!" It sort of felt like that really cute guy or gal you've had a crush on stopped you to say they like your outfit. Except it was a jazz drummer and he told us to have a good afternoon.

This weekend in general has been really great. Gringo and Grinaldo as well as our friend Ali came over last night and we just sat passing around a bottle of wine on my patio. It was wonderful. Then I slept outside. No joke. I decided it was a nice night and the moon was a nice nightlight, so I dragged a couple of pillows and my sleeping bag out onto our upstairs balcony/deck. The sun woke me up early and I spent the next few hours drifting in and out of sleep until I decided it was probably time for breakfast. I haven't had breakfast all summer due to monetary constraints. (Here's where you tell me that food is more important than music, and I reply "Screw you.") The weekend will continue to be stellar when I attend a birthday/going away party for and hosted by my friend Adam. Formal attire is required and all of my closest friends who remain in town will be in attendance. I can not even begin to explain how excited I am.