Drive My Car

A car sat in the parking lot of my apartment complex since November with a flat tire. It might have even been there since I moved in back in October, but I know it had the flat by November for sure. Anyway, that car sat in the same spot, with the flat tire, and a bunch of crap in the back seat until this past Saturday. That's eight months.Now, what I'm wondering is, did the person who owned it just not have to go anywhere? Have they been sitting in their apartment, unable to move and afraid to leave bed, Brian Wilson style, for the past eight months? Who knows. Interestingly enough, the car hasn't been back since it abruptly disappeared sometime early Saturday.On a thematically-related point, apparently my grandfather bought a new car the other day on something of a whim. And supposedly my parents came to Norman Friday to look at a car. From what Clif tells me, they liked the car and were ready to buy it, but the salesman kept screwing around on the price, and my folks got fed up with the man's crap and left. So, just a warning to all you car salesmen out there: when my parents come around to buy a car, they've done their research, they know what they want, they know how much it should cost, and they won't be jerked around by small-minded simpletons out to try and increase their commission profit. Just a head's up.

Goin' to the Chapel

It would seem that I am quickly becoming part of a minority (bet that sounds funny coming from a white middle class Protestant male, eh?). The number of people I know who are single is dwindling rapidly. The score goes something like this: my roommate and his girlfriend got married back at the end of May. Then another friend of mine got married two weeks later. Prior to this, several people I already knew were married, and many more engaged or in some sort of long-term relationship. Now, of course, we also have the Monkey and Andria engaged. Also, a couple of friends of mine here at OU, Jess and Dom, are going to be getting married next summer. And yesterday I discovered that my friend Amanda E. (to differentiate between the two or three people I know with that name) got engaged and will be getting married early next year. I can also think of another couple of people who've gotten engaged or married recently.Truth be told, it doesn't bother me being single much anymore. I just find it increasingly odd to be single amongst so many people who are in long-term relationships. Not to mention the fact that I'm really entering a discipline that's all about isolation. Reading, research, and writing papers are all rather solitary activities. I mean, I have a tough enough time just typing this newspost with Clif sitting next to me right now...granted, he's playing his ukelele, which is enough to distract most anyone.I'm sure there was a point to all of this. I think it's that, while I don't mind being single, I sometimes get this feeling that I'm being left behind, like I need to catch up with everyone else or something. Feh. This is why I don't let myself think too much.

Something Completely Different

Despite his desires to the contrary, I don't think I'm going to let Clif throw a "Free-Form Ukelele" onto the Cross-Eyed Yeti album (entitled, appropriately, "Delusions of Grandeur"). He's developed something he calls "Kooky Uke," but I don't think it's gonna make the cut...for which you should probably praise whatever superior power you might believe in. Beyond that, we're going to try and lay down a couple of tracks this week, see if we can't get the album recorded by the end of next week. More on that as it develops.