I don’t wanna grow up!

blue chucks :: lawrence, ma :: sometime in two thousand four

My dad used to make fun of me for wearing Chucks.  He used to make fun of a lot of the things I did in high school. 

There was a song by King Missle whose name escapes me, but there’s a bit in it where the guy goes “I want to be different like everyone else I want to be like.”  Once my dad heard that, it was all over.  I don’t know why I did the things I did - I was a teenager! Somethings came and went.  My fascination with The Cure is better left in the 1990’s. My love for Chucks and flannel shirts? I was grunge before grunge was ever cool.  Now I’m into Doc Martens again (better for the corporate world), but as I order them off the web,  I find myself thinking about how hard it was to find them “back in the day”.

Seriously.

Kids have it too easy.  They want to dress all punk rock, they buy it off the rack in their neighborhood mall. I used to spend hours in Army Navy stores, buying shoes out of magazines… I even went to the pet store for a dog collar at one particularly alarming point in my life. (Now I hear you can buy them at Hot Topic, with or without the optional padlock.)  There was no internet - there was only word of mouth and you had to hang out with the totally freaky people if you wanted to find out where they got those cool plaid combat boots.

It’s a good thing I like being a dinosaur.  I’m just going to sit here doing my homework in my flannel shirt with Chucks on my feet, and a little Poison pumping out my speakers.  I’m partying like it’s 1986-1992 over here tonight.

Reflections…

There’s so many lessons I’ve had to learn the hard way, that I am becoming amazingly aware of what I have, what it took me to get it and how it compares to others.  I may complain a lot (too much), but I know I have it good.

When people hear my life story to this point, they are almost always sorry for me.  I don’t get it.  I really don’t.  Sure, I was dealt a bad hand, but you have to play it.  There really isn’t much of a choice… besides forfeit and I’m not one to quit.

So anyway… this land we own in Maine is now my number two obsession. (There’s something going on with the Goo Goo Dolls, but I don’t want to discuss it.)  One of the first times we drove out there after we owned it outright, I looked at our neighbors and all the other houses on the other lakes nearby and I wondered if they knew how lucky they were.  Then it hit me.  I was one of those people now. I was lucky.  I worked hard and I would one day have one of those houses…

It put everything into perspective. And I haven’t looked back since.

I took this pic while sitting on the shore of GKP, watching our neighbors play in the water, on the water and near the water.  It was, without a doubt, one of the most fulfilling moments of my life (and the pic didn’t come out half bad either!).

Downy Woodpecker

downy woodpecker :: gkp :: july fourth two thousand seven

We went back to the land in Maine today to clear a path to the water.  We’d like to bring the kayak up there sometime - never mind actually use the land we pay a gazillion dollars in property tax for.

So anyhoo, have camera, will travel.  No sooner did we get out of the car, than I saw this little fellow.  We have (at least) one in Seabrook, too.  When he made his first appearance in our backyard, he created quite a ruckus. Just with his name alone— J and I reverted to Beavis and Butthead mode:  “Heh-heh.  You said wood.”

I’m tired but I still have to finish a take home exam and start some other homework.  That’s my exciting fourth.  Maybe if we’re lucky one of the neighbors will keep us awake all night (again) with their fireworks.  Have a happy and safe remainder of yours!