Pick up the tempoN's been out of town for a week. In that time, I've made a concerted effort to bring my personal hygiene to new lows (Related: The empty bourbon and whiskey bottles) and generally behave in a manner unbecoming of your average longshoreman (Related: See above). Have been successful +/- 67% of the time. Not because of the symbolic/milestone nature of the birthday, but because if I had realized this sooner I wouldn't have stopped drinking on Saturday night. Saturday night I was at the Underground Hipster Tearoom Bar to see my neighbor, who plays bass in this band/performance, uh, troupe when I decided, at 1:30, that I wasn't going to get any drunker. I found myself very bored and sober at 2 am, sitting at home, watching some unintelligible movie on IFC in which Chloe Sevigny speaks six languages and has a microchip in her vagina or something. I should've just ridden the wave. I threw in the towel too early. I have been turning 30 my entire life and now, allasudden, I have only one week left before it really happens. There is NO way that I'll be able to build up the drinking momentum I had this past week without going into a coma. It would involve too much double declutching. (Oh, and for the record, I fully blame Maud Newton for really bringing me down yesterday afternoon when she called me--sounding all like Rip Fuckin' Torn--to tell me that if all goes the worst it possibly can, Hurricane Katrina's going to kill 50,000 people and the entire Gulf Coast will be washed out to sea. Why do you tell me these things, Maud? I had only just gotten the worry of Suge Knight's shooting out of my mind.) Posted by Dana at 09:16 AM
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Shit from an Old NotebookIt's a gift, Dana. Both the Cotton Mather fire-and-brimstone predictions and the ability to call precisely when you're about to piss yourself.
You can, if you want, thank your lucky stars that I've (so far) managed to avoid the other part of the Puritanical sermonizing (i.e., invoking Jesus' displeasure with the direction of the world) that usually runs in my family. But then, if my life took that kind of turn, you'd have a concrete reason to break off the friendship!
By the way, I finally started reading that Ellen Miller book this morning. It's fucking great, but talk about bringing you down....
Posted by: Maud at August 29, 2005 12:19 PMHappy happy. No, seriously.
And I'm thinking (when I do indeed bother think) of Katrina as a couple things the Red State South could use: A healthy dose of God's vengeance, and a decent bath.
Posted by: J at August 29, 2005 12:25 PMI was kidding about the Jesus stufff. But them's fightin' words.
Nobody deserves to live through a hurricane like that. And anyway, New Orleans hardly typifies the South.
Posted by: Maud at August 29, 2005 12:31 PMeverybody say a prayer for my peeps and their stuff (including my corvette, damnit, if god takes my corvette back to heaven i'm gonna be pissed!).
Posted by: reeves at August 29, 2005 01:07 PMDana: Do not fret. After about one year of this thirties business, I have failed to mature on several levels (albeit without becoming one of those disgusting Klosterman-like manboys). With thirty comes focus, a greater sense of the absurd, and a determination to get things done. I should point out that one can be just as readily irresponsible in one's thirties as in one's twenties.
Have no fear. You will still make plenty of bad decisions!
Posted by: ed at August 29, 2005 01:59 PMD-Spot: Don't think of it as another birthday, think of it as another baby step closer to the grave.
Posted by: sakebomb at August 29, 2005 03:28 PMNow, I never meant I wanted anyone to die. We like the hurricanes b/c it makes for the good TeeVee. And there's zero karmic logic to 'em: After all, they were pounding Florida in an election year and the state still went the wrong way; if there's a God s/he knows there's just no l'arnin' them folks, that way.
Posted by: J at August 29, 2005 05:42 PM