As a male, I'm supposed to be allergic to shopping for anything other than the barest of life's necessities. My whole goal vis-a-vis commerce is supposed to be get in, get out, and get on with it. Whatever "it" is.
And I used to be like that. Please GOD let me NOT go to the mall unless I'm going straight to the arcade to lose myself in a flashing crescendo of beeps, blips and flashing lights.
Woo. Kind of dated myself there.
But this Saturday was rainy, cold, and pretty much miserable as far as the May Long Weekend is supposed to go. And my mom dropped by to take care of 15-month-old Peter for the day so, armed with a hundred dollar gift certificate to The Gap and the desire to hang out in the sweet Corporate Haven of Bliss that is Chinook Mall.
We met up with Marci's parents and had coffee, then separated and shopped. AND shopped. AND shopped. We began at The Gap, where I did my best Carson impersonation and finally ended up with two shirts, a cherry red and a popsicle blue, before sojourning on.
Met a cousin of mine at Old Navy. She used to direct voice talent at A Channel here in the city, and she is just freaky-fabulous. We have a coffee date for this week. Marci shopped for jeans, and I thought I had found the MECCA of cartoon-imprinted underwear, until I realized I was in the boys' 4-16 section and that adult men STILL do not wear cartoon underwear unless they're boxers.
Underwear fascists.
We went to see if Home on the Range, the latest Disney movie, was playing-- but no, it's gone out of theatres. And the theatres were PACKED. We're talking CHRISTMAS packed. As was the entire mall. But I laughed along with one lady in a line-up behind me-- we had all found something to do on a dreary day. We were suckling at the teat of Consumerism with Fancy Labels and we were loving it.
Saucy Bread Company for pizza pretzels. Spencer's Gifts browsing. Chapters. Starbucks. Warm glowy diffuse lighting instead of cold cloudy bone-chilling humidity. Buttery beige instead of grey. Manufactured and Filtered vs. Raw and Untamed.
I popped into EB games and bought TWO used Xbox games. They were not only SUPER cheap but they were ten percent off, to boot. For the Xbox enabled among you, they were an adventure game named "Azurik" and the multiplayer standard "MechAssault." To Agent ACK: Me LIKEY the Poom Poom.
All told, I think we spent about five hours in the mall. Normally this would seem like a death sentence to me; I'd wonder how anyone could survive the cloying, recycled atmosphere that long, assaulted by the smells of marketing, manufacture and lies. But this Saturday, this rainy Saturday--hell, LIE TO ME, I said. Tell me lies, O Corporate Shills. You comfort me as the cold May rain cannot.
I spent Sunday playing Azurik. Once again avoiding the dreary weather and being immersed in my electronic fantasy world. Marci was out with Peter, so I had some "alone time," just me and my --what am I on now, three? -- third wife, the Xbox. Then Marci and I rented Secondhand Lions to watch. Haley Joel Osment is growing into a fine teen actor from a fine child actor. Robert DuVall and Michael Caine were fantastic. And hey, illustrations by Berke Breathed! It's a great coming-of-age film without being overly sappy, and with the injection of the two crazy uncles makes for a fun adventure tale as well.
Sometimes, being inside is just...so rewarding. God bless the Mall for being there in my hour of need. And my mom for allowing Marci and I the freedom to spend the day there. And Marci for giving me a quiet Sunday morning.
I feel so cozy.
Today is my tenth wedding anniversary. Not coincidentally, it is also my wife's.
Ten YEARS. A DECADE. In today's fast-forward NOW culture, that's an era.
I was looking through our wedding pictures today; I barely recognize the people in them. Seriously. Who WERE they? Didn't they know how silly they looked? Those crazy kids with their theme wedding and their hair:
This is Marci and I on our wedding day. Robin Hood and Maid Marian. Yup, a theme wedding. The cool thing about it is that the pictures don't get dated as the years go by; it's a theme, in-character, no worries about "What were you WEARING?" or "What was up with that HAIR?" At least, insofar as the era we were from; I'm sure there will be lots of "Dad? Why were you wearing TIGHTS?"-type questions.
Robin and Marian aside, I look at those two people, Michael and Marci. And I wish people would have told me that acid-wash was SO over as to be ridiculous and that...oh, y'know what? Don't even get me started. I don't know many people that wouldn't be embarrassed when faced with themselves ten years younger.
The redeeming factor of all these decade-ago embarrassments is that these two people in the picture are still together. However embarrassed I may get, however I may wince at choices I made back then, I'm still married and, more importantly, still in love. That woman playing dress-up with me is my friend. She's my partner, in so much more than matrimony. She's my life partner.
When we were younger we used to speak in terms of "soulmates" and "lifemates", the terms we picked up from our shared mythologies of books and comics and inner poetry; but regardless of how we saw them then, the truth of those terms has been borne out over the past ten years.
Today we live together in a new house with a new offspring; we are parents-- another thing to add to the list of "partners" activities. Our union has produced the ultimate joining of two people and the world that surrounds them: A child. Did the 1994 me expect children? Only as some ambiguous "someday" thing with cool names like Rain or Brenwyn. I still like those names but I blush when I think of how serious I was about them.
I've learned that our joining is a forward motion; it sets our lives rolling and there's no possibility of backing up. Nor should we ever want to. Most of the people in the wedding pictures are not people we know anymore. Some of them have moved on, some of them have stayed behind while we did the moving. There's bittersweet regret in that, viewing one thing as lost forever while knowing on the other hand that it's merely the growth and change of people. Perfectly natural.
I'm as happy now as I was then, less giddy but more understanding of what it is I truly have. It isn't as abstract; it's much more concrete. 1994 me would be overwhelmed and confused by how I got to where I am today. He would have no idea how I did it, and probably wouldn't believe me if I told him there was nothing to be afraid of.
We have different circumstances now. Different friends, different priorities, different goals. And amidst all this change is the security of each other, and the excitement of each other's change to grow with the circumstances. Ten years ago I did not write. Ten years ago I did not care about my future, the present day was enough. Ten years ago I existed for other people. Ten years ago I thought I was God immortal and immanent on the Earth.
What a fantastic change ten years brings. I appreciate it more now than ever. I think the next ten will be even more magical-- because we have the perspective to appreciate it.
I love you, Marci. Then and now. And to our future selves: Try not to be too embarrassed by us.
Birthdays are great. A year ago I did a blog entry entitled "ONE OF THE COOL KIDS" about getting an XBox for my birthday.
A year later, I'm still heavily into The Box and I swore that this year, I was going to get XBox LIVE to complete my gaming experience.
Everything worked out wonderfully, too: Tony gave me a gift card for Future Shop, Joel gave me a gift card for EB Games, and then I had birthday money on top of that.
So yesterday afternoon, I went to Future Shop to pick up a game: Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow. And when I got it home, out fell:
That's right. TWELVE FREE MONTHS of Xbox Live. So then Tony drove me to EB Games where I used my gift card and bought the headset, rather than the entire Starter Kit for $89.99 (ten bucks cheaper than FutureShop, kids!)
So I'm up. I'm Live Enabled. My GamerTag is: Wolfblood317. (Diaperman, Diaper Man, AgentM, Agent M, Thunder, and even Bedwetter were all taken. Sheesh.)
And once again, I'm One of the Cool Kids. And I gotta say, we Mac Guys don't often get to be in that circle as far as games are concerned.
Thanks to one and all for making this birthday spine-tinglingly happy.
I learn by doing.
I adore comics; I have my own brainchild, Diaperman, on hiatus while I save up money to produce it. The Twilight Detective Agency, which I co-create with Mike Rieger. That's being re-written as we figure out what format we want it in.
Mike and I actually had a comic in mind a few years back, a little strip thing we were calling "Mike & Michael." It was basically us. Because the lives we live in our in-head commentaries and circle of bizarre observations is comicworthy.
I took it a step further and created this strip, "Everything's Porn." Which basically, as Mike puts it, sums up my attitude towards all popular media. Which I can't deny.
So here we have the first strip. I can't promise it will be regular, but I will be producing them from time to time to keep practicing my writing in panel format, in short joke-spurts (ew!), and refining that skill by doing.
Here's the premise as I wrote it. Comments are welcome, as are criticisms.
Cheers!
It’s a “review” comic of pop culture; tv shows, video games, movies, cartoons. We often see the sexual imagination of Michael, and what he sees when he looks at the media du jour; Mike is the one who points out that his friend and roommate is, in fact, obsessed in very sarcastic or ranty ways. Humour is dry or sharp, depending on the mood.
These are two very 21st century geeks (but not nerds) who are savvy about the world and whatnot but can still sometimes be squicked by just how far each other can go with their viewpoints on things.
