The Rites of Spring
DASHBOARD CONFESSIONAL ON A RAINY DAY
Damn, has it really been about a week since i've posted anything? i know i've been busy, but damn, time flies. Hell, i just got around to catching up on my reading last night. Well, for those of you curious enough...here's what i've been up to since last Thursday.
After being gone for a week-&-a-half, i made it home last Thursday evening. Matthew wanted to meet at JJs to throw some darts and relax...it had been a stressful week for him. my flight got delayed, but i was still there by 8. As always, it warmed my heart (and the crotch of my pants) to see him and hold him and smell him again. Even though it was not a league night, some of the guys were putting together a little friendly tourney. At first, Matthew wasn't going to play, but i knew he'd enjoy it, so i put up his five bucks for the buy-in. They had gotten a late start and i had stuff to get ready for work on Friday, so i went on home. He came home a few hours later with 35 bucks that he won off the rest of the guys!! (Do you think i saw any of it? HA HA HA!!)
Friday was another long, fun day of work (yeah, right), but i DID get the Jeep reregistered and they swapped out my laptop at the downtown office of the BACC. Really just a five minute operation: take out a screw, slide the hard drive out, slide it into the new machine, screw it in, crank 'er up!! Easy!! The computer guru said that all the things that had been happening were symptomatic of the Dell Lattitude D600, so if you have one and it starts going wacky...well, now you know why. He wasn't even concerned about the key that i'd broken off in one of my hissy fits! Most of that afternoon was spent writing the annual review on my young apprentice up in Chicago. Now, i've written really good reviews before which led to my guys getting promoted, but i'd never written on in this style before...and i really agonize over them anyway. As the sun was going down, it was finally done, approved and submitted. After all that, it was time to play, so off to JJ's we went. It was a smaller crowd, but just the right friends were there to have a great time.
Saturday morning, after coffee and "Savage Love" on the living room couch (i read it to Matthew every Saturday morning over coffee), we decided that it was time to kick off the season and pull the top off of the Jeep. Matthew and Coco went to clear a spot in the Garage of Eternal Peril while i unbolted the top. We got it stashed, packed up the camera (woofer and his damn camera again!) and a few things and headed north. Once we got on the road, we decided that one of the things that we could have used would have been sweatshirts, but the sun was coming out and we decided to soldier on.
We got up to the Confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers near Alton, IL, and then decided to drive up the banks of the Mississippi to Pere Marquette park. The park is a favorite spot to watch eagles soaring around the bluffs overlooking the river, but it wasn't eagle season. Instead, we explored the backroads of the park and the surrounding hills. Down a side road, i spotted an old jeep trail with a nature preserve sign that didn't exactly say stay off...and seeing as it was an old jeep trail and seeing as we were in an old Jeep (it's an '84!!!), i figured that meant it was made for us and off we went down the trail. Man, i love bouncing around in this thing..."LOOK! A MUD PUDDLE!! WHEEEEEEEE!!!!" About a quarter mile down the trail, it ended in a meadow. It was overcast and so beautiful...so i did what comes naturally: i took off my clothes and danced in the meadow!! Well, Matthew figured he needed to get his woofer under control, so he reached in his bag and pulled out some rope...
...after awhile, a few raindrops began to fall, so it was time to pack up (damn, that tire iron was heavy) and head down the road. We didn't have the bikini top on the jeep, so the raindrops kept falling on our heads. It wouldn't have been so bad if it was a little warmer, but it was more of a persistant sprinkle than a torential downpour. We actually LIKE getting caught in the summer rain, but with these temps, we were just hoping that we wouldn't catch cold right before BP! Coco had it the worst...unlike every other lab in the world, she HATES water and was really hating life that day.
We finally made it down to the river and, in the middle of the Mississippi on our second ferry ride, the rain finally let up. See? Life really IS sunnier on the Missouri side!! We made it home, cleaned up and snuggled up in bed and slept HARD!!
We went out again later Saturday night. i wanted to try out a new "bullgoon look" (as bullneck would say) and wore the white uniform shirt and blue work pants
i picked up at the Dickies outlet with my knee-high jackboots, brassard and sam browne. Not too bad, but i need to get the patches sewn on and a badge. We met up with redhochipe, who's hubby Jim was still tied up with work, and the far-too-reclusive couple of codeboi and buzzedoff who were hosting a very fun and woofy schwarzedrache for the weekend. i took him out to the dancefloor to get things started after asking the yummy DJ John to spin the Killers' "All These Things i've Done" ("...i've got soul, but i'm not a soldier..."). Rich was all over the place and i was able to really stomp the boards in my jackboots and that got some more guys out there and we had it packed by the end of the song. Which is a good thing since i can only move this weight around for so long and while these boots may be made for walkin', they sure weren't made for dancin'!! (Not really sure they were made for walkin', either, but damn, they look good!) So i handed him off to Glen and they had a good time. It was the bon voyage party for Mr. Missouri Leather and Mr. Midwest Leather who are off to IML with us this weekend, so i bought a crotch-to-floor (schwarzedrache's since he's the tallest) length of tix for the fundraiser and we actually wound up winning a new Phillips DVD player!! Fun times.
Sunday was mostly relaxing in the morning, then i cleaned house and started cooking a wonderful turkey dinner while Matt went to run an open house. We had Randy & Jim and Lance & Ken over for dinner and we were all stuffed and happy. That evening, i had to get both work clothes and play clothes for Bear Pride packed before we could finally settle in to watch the Sopranos before bed.
So Monday morning (with the doors and the bikini top back on the Jeep to protect me from the morning chill), i made my way back to the grind in Chicago with bags a bulging. i swear, for a nudist i'm a notorious overpacker!! Oh well...i'm the one that's gotta drag it along. i got a nice, fully-loaded Hyundai Sonata as the rental, so everything will fit and since we'll probably have people with us when we go around town, we'll have enough room. Damn, this is going to be a good time. we haven't been back to BP/IML since i won the Go-Go Bear contest back in 2003 (i raised $500 for our charity!) and we're staying at the bears' hotel too...so it'll be fun fun fun!! i pick Matthew up at 4 tomorrow. Not sure if you'll hear from me until afterwards, but i'll be thinking about you all...
...with my mouth full. YUM!!