Feelin' Just As Faded As My Jeans
Now Playing: Lush--"Lit Up"
It was good to see the family again, although we all would have obviously preferred vastly different circumstances. The funeral was... well, a funeral. It was a nice service, anyway. My dad's holding up pretty well, and my two half-brothers, both under ten, seem to realize what's happened. It would have been weird being back in the first place, but I had the first consciousness of Baton Rouge being something of a foreign place (the weather wasn't really all that much different, which shouldn't have surprised me). Under the circumstances, I took a break from my dietary experiment of the past month (eschewing meat and poultry--curious to see how it affects my health). I spent most of my time with my dad's family, my brother, and my sister-in-law, but stayed with my mom and visited some with my grandparents. I don't know if Thomas Wolfe was right or not when he said "you can't go home again," but it doesn't make his writing any more intelligible.

As a result, the past week's been fairly low-key. I decided to go to the last Plastic Passion at Oz but didn't dance, simply having a couple of beers and staying in the metaphorical corner. It was still good to hear Josh's splendid final set list (under other circumstances, I certainly would have hit the floor for XTC's "Generals and Majors"). I felt more myself by the weekend, though. Work helped enormously (never thought I'd write that sentence in the recent past), even with the mysterious disappearance of my fun new co-worker. "A business decision," whatever the fuck that means. It can go in the corporate doublespeak pile with "quantify" and "assistance" and most goddamn particularly "utilize." I finished the WRAP library for check-out Friday evening, half an hour into the Jim Roll show at Crazy Wisdom and the day before the open house. That was good--I'd been going in there as often as I could, and it's taken a while. There are still a few kinks in the system, but for now I'm treating it as a fairly proud achievement. I dropped in on the Jimmer show, right amid his awesome Uriah Heep cover. Effin' sweet as usual, electric and all, with excellent guitar backup from Neil Cleary, and the oft-mentioned Matt Jones on drums. I had some good chats with people, decided I needed a beer, and went barhopping with Greg, Amy, Matt, and Carol, later joined by Neil. I got drunk (despite a clearly remembered declaration to Matt at Leopold's that I wasn't drunk--or at least didn't feel like it; sound familiar?), but it was a good time, much needed, and I didn't really have much of a hangover the next morning. The weather was rather windswept and cloud-staggered, encouraging me to take a walk along the Huron from Argo to the Arb. Sari Brown made a wonderful return to the stage Saturday night at Espresso Royale. Congratulations to Brandon and Erin (and anyone else reading who finished at U-M last weekend)! And last but not least, Darren, my online chum from Wales, is engaged, so congratulations once more.

All for now.