Unshelved by Bill Barnes and Gene Ambaum
comic strip overdue media

Friday, June 27, 2003

It's been a long and busy day...

...but I couldn't go to sleep without posting a Friday Five--and they made it adaptable no matter where you are in the world. :)

1. How are you planning to spend the summer [winter]?
It's sort of sad--my summers really aren't any different than the rest of the year these days. I'll swim more and go walking of course, garden, etc., but the days of just doing fun things over the summer are long behind me. I am looking forward to the Fourth of July festival next week. It's my favourite 'public' holiday--I usually spend it downtown watching the parade, sifting through the booths, and listening to the music. Later I catch fireworks; I used to watch the ones downtown when I lived there; now I can go over to work and watch the ones that the golf course down the street has.

2. What was your first summer job?
Volunteer-wise I gave tours at the Ephraim McDowell House and Apothecary Shop in Danville, Kentucky. (Dr McDowell performed the first successful surgery to remove an ovarian cyst at the turn of the nineteenth century. He is considered the 'Father of Abdominal Surgery'. Ironically, his patient outlived him and he died of--appendicitis.) In terms of money, I processed incoming freshmen meal cards at UK, but that only lasted a couple of weeks during the conferences. The first all-summer job was dressing in an orange-striped blazer and stocking toys at Toys 'R Us.

3. If you could go anywhere this summer [winter], where would you go?
Ireland and Britain.

4. What was your worst vacation ever?
A trip to visit family, then the Smoky Mountains, followed by a giant pagan gathering. We were invaded by Ku Klux Klan and hit with one of the worst thunderstorms in recent memory--and having standing in water during lightning strikes trying to save lunch (Beanie Weenies) during a campout--and you happen to have brontophobia. Imagine having your Chevette full of five people die whilst crossing a four lane highway returning from getting menstrual pads for one of the kids who'd just started her first period. Imagine taking a Chevette over fields whilst patrolling against the KKK, or guarding the gate and having guys with rifles in their trucks drive up. Imagine trying to find a place in the bushes to urinate when a Georgia State Trooper is just 20 yards away whilst your friends chant 'Lisa has to pee!' Imagine having dogs running through the camp (again, the KKK) only to be chased off by the local pagans who are just as gun-happy. Imagine having a guy with a sword tucked in his video equipment catching fireflies to read his watch (this was way before those Indiglo commercials). Imagine people running seminars on Welsh paganism who can't even pronounce their Craft names and string together stupid shit that when translated means So-and-so son of (but a female) the husband's name, indicating a bizarre incestuous homosexual relationship just because they didn't get their facts right. Imagine Lakota crashing the party and idiots who don't know the difference between sage and sagebrush getting all huffy because he was explaining (rightly so) that they were stealing Lakota culture and debasing it--like running 'sweat lodges' for so much a pop. Did I mention this was my honeymoon?

5. What was your best vacation ever?
Same one, actually. It was so awful, we all bonded.

Okay, heading to bead now. I have three cats lined up asleep--one between my hands, one lying on my wrist, hanging off the shelf nearby, and one curled up with his head on the middle one's rear. I wish I could snap a picture, but I can barely type--they've taken all the circulation out of my hands, I think. :)

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