little bird
07.13.03 @ 10:52 p.m.
I'm sitting here staring at what my mom called "a photo of [my] past and [my] future." It's a photo of Chuck Palahniuk and a large fiberglass rabbit that lives on the Tualatin Valley Highway. The rabbit is a friend and a terror from my youth. Every day on the way to preschool my dad would drive me past that huge, frightening rabbit. I can't really remember if I feared it or not. I remember it lost its head for a while, which unnerved me. I think that I liked it, up until its head disappeared. Then it reappeared... held in the giant rabbit's hand.
Chuck is my "future" because I want to be a writer, which, in a convoluted way, is one of the reasons I'm going to the University of Oregon. Chuck Palahniuk went to U of O and graduated from the journalism school back in the eighties. So I rather fancy the idea of following in his footsteps, though I'm not nearly so nihilistic as Mr. Palahniuk.
Another thing. I don't think I ever fully wrote about Odd Remark Guy. A while back, probably March when I kept getting caught in the rain under clear blue skies, I was walking down the street when this odd man struck up a conversation with me, since we were going the same direction. First it was an odd remark: "It amazes me that in this day and age a man can think that just because he has a porsche he can get anyone to take a ride with him." Er, yeah. I guess I agree with that. We walk about three blocks in silence. I go into pensive thought mode and am not aware of any particular expression on my face. Two men stagger out of a bar and up the sidewalk in the direction of the University (where I was coming from). As they pass, one says, "It's okay to smile, you know." Odd Remark Guy kind of laughs and says to me, "You're attracting a lot of attention today." The stunner comes when he continues, "If I had to guess, I'd say you're ovulating." Vwarg? I'm speechless for a moment until I finally blush and stammer, "I wouldn't know." He made a few more comments about sports cars ("You'd look good in a porsche. I bet you've pictured yourself in one.") until I crossed the street to go to a vintage clothing store I'm fond of, though I've only bought one shirt there. While I was walking away, he said, "You don't have to be so nervous all the time!" You know what, dude? When a strange suggests I'm ovulating, I think I'm rather justified in my nervousness.
I had thought I had written all this out and was just going to link to the entry, but I can't find it, so maybe I never wrote it at all. The point in all that rambling is that the more I see pictures of Chuck Palahniuk, the more convinced I am of the resemblance between Odd Remark Guy and C.P. Sometimes I wonder if they're the same person, but I think Odd Remark guy was a little too crazy to be C.P.
Shit! There's a bird in the house! My parents are downstairs trying to catch it or chase it outside. Well, my dad is. My mom is standing in the hall way saying, "Oh, poor bird." Me, I took a big blanket and blocked off the stairwell so it doesn't fly up here. I think my parents are giving up for the night, possibly leaving the door open until morning. I don't think they'll do that. For one thing, my dog is running around the kitchen and we don't want to invite in the bats and all.
There. I went downstairs to use the bathroom and witnessed one of the most comic things I've seen in a long time, which is my dad, broom in hand, spinning in slow circles while this frightened swallow circled his head. He was trying to shoo the bird out with the broom, you see. I kept telling him to turn the lamp out and that the bird thought it was daylight, but he didn't. My only other contribution to the debacle was to open the front door wider and crouch in the hallway in front of it. That was enough, though, the bird flew out to freedom and now the house can be calm again. Damn, though, I've got to take a shower tonight so that I won't be gross in the morning when I go to the dog show--The Brush Prairie Cluster has been moved from Brush Prairie Washington to the Washington County Fairgrounds (which are in Hillsboro, Oregon). Which is but a few miles from my house, so it's no great hardship to go.
Previously
fuck it @ 08.01.05
fanciful imaginary sea voyages to come @ 07.20.05
*dies* @ 07.19.05
more ootp @ 07.17.05
harry potter: driving our children into devil worship @ 07.17.05
