by Michael S. Kaplan, published on 2007/11/10 10:01 -05:00, original URI: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/michkap/archive/2007/11/10/6043706.aspx
Nothing technical whatsoever.
Last night was another night out with Annette, Marla, and Dan.
Though not just any night.
It is [in all likelihood] our last night.
Annette is moving back east, and Marla and Dan, lacking their third roommate, have decided to strike out on their own.
Apparently after the last time we all went out, they came home and kind of hooked up.
Ah to be in one's early to mid 20's....
Anyway, they want to make a go of it, and he is looking at a job offer in San Fransisco.
Annette pretends to be angry at them hooking up bheind her back but tells me she is secretly delighted by the whole thing.
"They have been sliding around each other for half a year now. And Tom Cruise had a point about how Sometimes you just gotta say 'What the fuck.'"
"Fair enough," I tell her, "but Liz Phair had a point to when she sang It's harder to be friends then lovers, and you shouldn't try to mix the two. Cause if you do it and you're still unhappy then you know that the problem is you."
"You're one to talk, Michael -- didn't you spend your 20's buried in two-point conversions like that?"
I wonder if she made up the use of the "two-point conversion" term or if it is more youngster slang I don't know about; I decide she made it up.
"That isn't how I'd describe it at all, really. But it makes me sound really studly so I guess I can live with it."
Marla looks at me curiously.
"What are you so sad about?" she asks.
I wonder if we're ever going to leave this apartment, inertia seems to be holding us all here.
I decide to go for the safe answer: "Well, the three of you are leaving, so I go back to not having a life!"
"There is that," Dan admits, "though you do have all the music stuff too. Where will we get free tickets now?"
Annette decides to change the subject again. "Maybe we should get really drunk tonight" she suggests.
"As the designated driver," I respond, "I'd have to suggest that I leave the drinking to you youngsters."
A lot of irrelevant banter then happened, and we ended up all getting drunk and never left the freaking apartment.
"We're not taking alcohol when we move," says Dan,"so we have to drink it tonight."
It may be that we did that, truth be told.
Marla and Dan are all over each other. Boy it changes the dynamic of a group when half the group is dating each other!
On the way out, Annette gives me a big hug and suggests that I leave myself a bit more open to possibilities around me. I tell her she is just wasted and hug her back. She smiles and I can tell she is wondering if I'll ever grow up.
I hope not.
I stumble (well, the scooter equivalent of a stumble) home around 1:30am or so. I am way too old for this kind of thing, maybe it's just as well that I can go back to being old again.
As I read this post I have just written with the start of a hangover that I have decided to embrace rather than offset, I realize that most of the night we were actually laughing yet I only seem to have collected the unhappy (or at least non-laughing) moments.
I don't want to change it now, but take my word for it when I say that it was not the wake that I made it sound like; it was a party.
The end of an era.
Life in General is playing, and Change just came on. How apropos:
House of wonder, house of pain
Looking out for all the things that I have tried to rearrange
Boiling water, burning sun
Holding onto memories of everything that I've ever done
Change is coming and change is good,
It's done everything that I ever wished it would
But it keeps me awake at night.
Worn-out shoe soles, hurting pride,
Making sense of all the places that I've been on the inside
Hands are hurting, waking nights
Now I wonder why I ever wanted to start this fight
Change is coming and change is good
It's done everything that I've ever understood
But it stands so tall, it walks so strong,
It's taking over me
Change is coming and change is good
It's done everything that I ever wished it would
But it keeps me awake at night.
And red-orange leaves fall into love
Watching as the wind fills the wings of my very own turtledove
Change is coming and change is good
It's done everything that I ever wished it would
But it stands so tall, it walks so strong
It's taking over me
Change is coming and change is good
It's done everything that I ever wished it would
But it keeps me awake at night.
Yes it keeps me awake at night.
Bye Annette, bye Marla, bye Dan. Give me a call if/when you make it back to Seattle. :-)
I doubt I'll be BWI again any time soon....
This post brought to you by ䷣ (U+4de3, a.k.a. HEXAGRAM FOR DARKENING OF THE LIGHT)
John Cowan on 11 Nov 2007 2:29 AM:
Fred Small may not be the Liz Phair of the folkie circuit, but I happen to like his take on the subject a lot better:
I wake up early in the cool of the morning
Magenta and purple over Casco Bay
Sleepless with yearning reason returning
I send you this song like a summer bouquet
I want to be
CHORUS:
Friends first before we are lovers
Friends first taking our own sweet time
Friends first lay your head on my shoulder
Tell me your story and I'll tell you mine
We've both tasted the passion of reckless abandon
Drinking our pleasure like blackberry wine
Wakened in panic in the arms of a stranger
Darlin' let's do it different this time
CHORUS
Two aged lovers sit by the fire
A look carries meaning only old friends can know
A lifetime together come down to embers
And their faces are filled with the light from below
Tell me your bad dreams sing me your lullabies
When did you run away and when did you fight
Show me the caterpillar show me the butterfly
We'll get as close as the wind and the nightCHORUS
Gale and I just celebrated our 28th.
Michael S. Kaplan on 11 Nov 2007 7:43 AM:
Ah, but Liz is singing to people on the outside of success in the area -- and she is much more accurate about the ones that don't work out....
But congrats for being better than that. :-)
John Cowan on 11 Nov 2007 10:41 PM:
The lyric isn't about people who are on the inside of success; it's about people who are trying yet again to succeed: "Let's do it different this time."
But thanks anyway.
(Could you fix the typo "won" for "own" above?)
Michael S. Kaplan on 11 Nov 2007 11:18 PM:
Ah, fair enough.
Of course the Liz Phair song fits more with my cynical interior....
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