Saturday, October 25, 2008

Realization #1:

I am probably the only person in the world who actually *enjoys* having no life.

Seriously.

I feel really productive right now. I'm watching movies I've been meaning to see, I'm cooking exciting foods, I'm getting out of the house a lot, I'm exercising, I'm making artsy shit for myself and my friends, and I'm planning a gigantic European/Asian road trip. And the truth is, I would not have time for most of these things if I actually had a life. Sad, but undeniably true. Occasionally I get jealous of my roommates, who have people to hang out with, and I'm so thankful I have them around for fun human interaction, but in many ways it is kind of comforting not having to worry about 20 bajillion friendships. I like not having to micromanage people. I like knowing where I stand with the people around me, and while it would be nice to have a lot of flitty new friends to hang out with, I'm mostly just happy that I have a few close friendships. And I'm happy that one of those people is living 3 feet away from me! Huzzah!

Ok. So that whole thing sounds like a massive rationalization. I suppose in some ways I am trying to make myself feel better about my current situation. But for the most part it's all true! I guess I just find it miraculous how good I feel these days...I find it sort of absurd that I am not terribly depressed.

Anyway, I had a terrific day today. I got up late (Oscar was obnoxiously batting at my door), made my breakfast specialty (eggs a la cubana), and then hopped on my bike. I actually had a hard time convincing myself to ride today - riding through downtown to Lyndale (where I was going) makes me really nervous, since going there requires going uncomfortably close to two major highways. Lyndale is one of two major streets in the Southern area of the city, and it's always packed with traffic going way too fast. And if you're riding there from anywhere North of the city, you usually end up encountering hoards of cars exiting the highway, forcing you to ride hard and fast, since most cars aren't really looking for bikes when they come off the highway and are driving way too fast to stop. It always freaks me out having to get over there, but I managed to make it over there without killing myself so whatever. My destination was the Highpoint Center for Printmaking (http://www.highpointprintmaking.org), which was hosting a Free Ink Day in honor of the Day of the Dead. And let me tell you I had so much fun it should probably be illegal.

Seriously, it was great. As soon as I came in the lady at the front handed me a sheet of lino to carve, plus a free pin and sent me on my way. There were tons of families with kids and everyone was busy getting covered in paint. After I carved a skeleton lady with sombrero into my sheet, I then printed off a bunch of copies in twenty different colors. I also made a bunch of prints of work other people had done - the staff had carved a bunch of Day of the Dead themed one including skeletons playing baseball, on the moon, and riding fancy bikes. It felt so good to be participating in something totally fucking free and totally for the community. And it was so busy! There were all these little kids twittering about, as well as parents, hipster college students, middle aged peeps and you know, everyone in between. There was also a pretty good mix in terms of race...which is nice, since it's obvious High Point actually reaches out to the community around it, not just rich white liberals. Um, yeah.

So that was pretty awesome. The rest of the day was boring and requires no comment.

Fin.

No comments: