Browsing Tag

fun

Month of fun: Day 9

September 9, 2011

Today I was stopped at a traffic light in downtown Palm Springs when a vehicle pulled up next to me. The driver made a halfhearted and awkward attempt to parallel park. She eventually gave up, leaving the car jacked against the curb like a knife sticking out of a ribcage.

This girl got out of the car, growled with feigned ferocity, then slammed the door shut. The skinny boy in the passenger seat mimicked her, snarl and all.

Oh. My. Goth.

They were a couple of goth kids and — I know how much they would hate me for saying this — they were totally adorable. They had it all: The slightly bored and glum look. Leather arm cuffs and torn fishnets. Wispy black hair, teased and sprayed into sculptural swans. Thick black eyeliner, like piped frosting on a morbid cupcake.

It was as if I’d ordered them right out of the Hot Topic catalog.

If only they’d had a Walkman and a couple of Cure tapes, they could have been dressed like me for Halloween. Or, you know, any Tuesday of my sophomore year in high school.

I loved them. I wanted to adopt them. It’s easy to pull off boho or surfer or preppy chic in the California desert. But dedicating yourself to a face full of powdery pancake makeup when it’s 110 degrees and your hair gel is melting into your eyes? Well, that requires enormous devotion to self-expression, and I gotta admire that.

As for me, I’m not so goth these days. (Or what are the kids calling it now? Emo?)

For instance, my fun thing for the day was curling up with my guilty pleasure/Sookie Stackhouse book.

 

Yeah, it’s vampires, but it’s a far cry from when I used to dress in black, growl at the world and scare all the old people at the mall. Sometimes I really do miss that corseted, blood-red-fingernailed, melancholy part of me.

Turns out I’m not too far gone, though. As my lil’ goths crossed the road in front of my car, I gave them a snarl of solidarity. Keep on despairin’ in the free world!

Month of fun: Day 8

September 8, 2011

When I was little, I put swimming pools in the same category as tiaras and castles. Pretty, but completely unattainable. And whenever I saw a TV show where the kids had a pool at school, forget it — that was as fictional as Charlie’s Chocolate Factory.

The only pool I knew was at the Huber Heights YMCA, a dangerous bike ride away from where I lived. The pool was so thick with kids and crumpled Funyuns packages, you could barely see the water. Lusty, greasy teenagers humped against the metal bars that lined the stairs. The smell of urine overwhelmed the chlorine.

My parents sacrificed a lot to get me a summer membership, so I went, albeit reluctantly. It’s not that I didn’t like to swim. I just didn’t like to swim there.

So now I consider it the ultimate luxury to live in a place with a swimming pool — clean and hump-free! — where I can cannonball, dive and doggy paddle 365 days a year.

 

It is not my swimming pool, but it feels like it is. Nobody in the complex really uses it. Maybe for people who grew up with sunshine and swimming pools, the shockingly teal ribbon has faded into the background. Maybe it seems too boring and familiar. Maybe they don’t remember the sheer joy that comes from floating on your back, drifting, watching the palm trees.

 

For me, it’s a baptism. The pool is my River Jordan. It’s like getting a slippery new skin.

The Husband doesn’t understand. He doesn’t like doing laps. He doesn’t like splashing around. He doesn’t even like floating. Whenever I coerce him into the pool, he just stands there and looks at me expectantly, like “Now what?” Until I hit him over the head with a pool noodle.

 

Today, after packing and hauling boxes over to the new apartment, just when I thought I couldn’t move another muscle, I jumped into the pool and was instantly reborn.

 

Month of fun: Day 7

September 7, 2011

My husband and I picked up the keys to our new apartment. Whee!

 

In our whole 8-year relationship, this is the first time we’ve moved into a place together.

First, he moved into my apartment in Cincinnati. Then I ended up moving to Palm Springs by myself, and he had to stay behind for a while. And when I went on my trip, he moved into a one-bedroom bachelor pad.

But this? This is our little nest.

Month of fun: Day 6

September 6, 2011

I mailed my old iPod to Nepal!

My friend Jehan works at an orphanage with some of the most wonderful kids in Kathmandu — and those kids love to boogie to Bollywood tunes. When Jehan put out a call for a couple of iPods to help entertain the kids, I had just the thing for the job.

Nepal, meet my old mini, Bootsy.

 

 

I just love doing something fun for someone else, and I cannot wait to see photos of the kids shaking their groove thangs, Bollywood-style.

Now here’s a great tune for the rest of you.

 

 

Month of fun: Day 5

September 5, 2011

I missed a lot of movies while I was traveling, so I’m trying to catch up.

Luckily “Bridesmaids” is still playing at the dollar theater.

 

As I’ve said before, I’m not crazy about weddings, so I don’t even enjoy watching movies about them. But this flick is different.

It’s hilarious. It’s messy. It’s downright awkward. Just like a real wedding.