Today was an adventure
May. 30th, 2004 11:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
usernamenumber...an adventure in which I was reminded of many reasons why I love my wife, three of which I would like to write about here:
Reason 1: We finally made it to Ikea and got 3 bookshelves for $80. Woo (though that's not the reason for the love, I'm getting there). So we were finally able to unpack the wall o' book boxes and make the place look like we've actually moved in. As we were unpacking, the following exchange took place:
ME: Put your hand in the box!
HER: What's in the box?
ME: BOOKS!
...well, I thought it was fantastic.
Reason 2: She bikes at about the same speed I skate, so today we had a lovely little outing. We spent about two hours out biking/skating around Mission Beach and Pacific Beach, alternating who had which vehicle regularly. She's been practicing skating and is getting good enough for us to split the time about evenly, so as often as not she would be riding my foot-wide, ancient skateboard as I followed on her yellow beach cruiser bike that fits me like a BMX. Somehow I find this all unbearably romantic.
And she's proving to be a tough one about it, too. As I write this she's icing numerous bruises sustained over the last few days, including a few sustained this evening in a collision with something that for some reason I thought I'd never encounter: a drunk bicyclist. *sigh*. At the time I was biking behind her and she was watching the board, not looking where she was going. Well, along comes this guy biking slowly and staring unblinkingly at the ground, headed straight for her. Somehow I figured one of them would notice, but then *bam* she sort of ragdolled over the guy's handlebars and they both went down. The guy was extremely appologetic and when we asked him if he was hurt he replied "Dude, it's all good. I can't feel anything right now!"
*Sigh*
Sometimes, as much as I like living here, I really feel like we don't exactly fit in, y'know? Yeesh.
Anyway, she was bruised up but ok and the rest of the trip proceeded without injury. Not only that, but she kept right on skating. Cool.
We took the boardwalk further along the beach for a while, then crossed the street to the bay side and headed in the opposite direction. We were feeling envigorated enough that, at her encouragement, we kept going past our house and followed the bay further into PB than we'd ever gone before. We finally switched to city-streets and found ourselves at this lovely little coffee house/cafe that we'd eyed many times before and split a mexican hot chocolate.
Reason 3: We took the beachside boardwalk home. This being Memorial Day Weekend there had been even more people on the beach than usual today and there has still been several when we rode by earlier in the day. Now it was about 10:30 and the beach had pretty much cleared out.
It was COVERED in trash. Beer boxes, coolers, clothing, bags of junk food and even the skeleton of a big tent-thing that had broken and just been left there. Take whatever you're imagining right now and multiply it by at least two. It was disgusting. For good or ill, Lizbeth and I each have seriously overblown senses of responsability and corresponding distastes for irresponsability. As we talked, the levels of contempt for this culture of children, who have benefited so much from our successes as a country that they expect the good life to be handed to them on a silver platter, or at least for some underpaid Mexicans to come and clean up their parties in the morning, was just making us sick.
So we got back to our place, four or five blocks from the mess, stuffed our pockets with trash bags and went back. And damn it, we cleaned that beach up (or at least most of it -- there were bits further down that we did't get). We were both honestly expecting people to start helping out once they saw what we were doing, but no one did. Few people even noticed. One guy told me I was "the man", but when I offered him a bag said "Naw, I'm not gonna clean it up, but you rock". Yeah, thanks.
Before I start to sound too selfless and civic-minded, I don't know about Lizbeth but I really realized as I was doing this that my motives were selfish -- I enjoy a good dose of feeling superior. I mean, let's be honest: It feels good to look at what you're doing and know that you're doing something good that many others (manifestly) are not. For the first time I feel like I can refer to this area as "my community" and "my beach" because I know I've taken a hell of a lot more responsability for it than so many other residents (or visitors or whatever).
So yeah. I love the fact that I share my life with someone who will spend an hour with me cleaning a beach, technically in the next town over from us, because it feels *right* to do it, to live the Golden Rule or to "be the change you wish to see in the world" or whatever similar sentiment feels right to you.
Tonight we shall sleep well. Tonight we shall sleep the sleep of the self-righteous.
=;)
ADDENDUM: Oh, another random literary reference, which I guess constitutes reason 3.5 for my enamored state: We'd just finished reading "Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom", by Cory Doctrow (highly recommended and available for free here, so you have no excuse), aloud to each other that afternoon. As we were cleaning up, Lizbeth expressed the sentiment I wrote about above perfectly (for the few of you who've read it): "It would be so cool if Whoofie existed right now". Damn straight. And hey, it does for me, dear.
Reason 1: We finally made it to Ikea and got 3 bookshelves for $80. Woo (though that's not the reason for the love, I'm getting there). So we were finally able to unpack the wall o' book boxes and make the place look like we've actually moved in. As we were unpacking, the following exchange took place:
ME: Put your hand in the box!
HER: What's in the box?
ME: BOOKS!
...well, I thought it was fantastic.
Reason 2: She bikes at about the same speed I skate, so today we had a lovely little outing. We spent about two hours out biking/skating around Mission Beach and Pacific Beach, alternating who had which vehicle regularly. She's been practicing skating and is getting good enough for us to split the time about evenly, so as often as not she would be riding my foot-wide, ancient skateboard as I followed on her yellow beach cruiser bike that fits me like a BMX. Somehow I find this all unbearably romantic.
And she's proving to be a tough one about it, too. As I write this she's icing numerous bruises sustained over the last few days, including a few sustained this evening in a collision with something that for some reason I thought I'd never encounter: a drunk bicyclist. *sigh*. At the time I was biking behind her and she was watching the board, not looking where she was going. Well, along comes this guy biking slowly and staring unblinkingly at the ground, headed straight for her. Somehow I figured one of them would notice, but then *bam* she sort of ragdolled over the guy's handlebars and they both went down. The guy was extremely appologetic and when we asked him if he was hurt he replied "Dude, it's all good. I can't feel anything right now!"
*Sigh*
Sometimes, as much as I like living here, I really feel like we don't exactly fit in, y'know? Yeesh.
Anyway, she was bruised up but ok and the rest of the trip proceeded without injury. Not only that, but she kept right on skating. Cool.
We took the boardwalk further along the beach for a while, then crossed the street to the bay side and headed in the opposite direction. We were feeling envigorated enough that, at her encouragement, we kept going past our house and followed the bay further into PB than we'd ever gone before. We finally switched to city-streets and found ourselves at this lovely little coffee house/cafe that we'd eyed many times before and split a mexican hot chocolate.
Reason 3: We took the beachside boardwalk home. This being Memorial Day Weekend there had been even more people on the beach than usual today and there has still been several when we rode by earlier in the day. Now it was about 10:30 and the beach had pretty much cleared out.
It was COVERED in trash. Beer boxes, coolers, clothing, bags of junk food and even the skeleton of a big tent-thing that had broken and just been left there. Take whatever you're imagining right now and multiply it by at least two. It was disgusting. For good or ill, Lizbeth and I each have seriously overblown senses of responsability and corresponding distastes for irresponsability. As we talked, the levels of contempt for this culture of children, who have benefited so much from our successes as a country that they expect the good life to be handed to them on a silver platter, or at least for some underpaid Mexicans to come and clean up their parties in the morning, was just making us sick.
So we got back to our place, four or five blocks from the mess, stuffed our pockets with trash bags and went back. And damn it, we cleaned that beach up (or at least most of it -- there were bits further down that we did't get). We were both honestly expecting people to start helping out once they saw what we were doing, but no one did. Few people even noticed. One guy told me I was "the man", but when I offered him a bag said "Naw, I'm not gonna clean it up, but you rock". Yeah, thanks.
Before I start to sound too selfless and civic-minded, I don't know about Lizbeth but I really realized as I was doing this that my motives were selfish -- I enjoy a good dose of feeling superior. I mean, let's be honest: It feels good to look at what you're doing and know that you're doing something good that many others (manifestly) are not. For the first time I feel like I can refer to this area as "my community" and "my beach" because I know I've taken a hell of a lot more responsability for it than so many other residents (or visitors or whatever).
So yeah. I love the fact that I share my life with someone who will spend an hour with me cleaning a beach, technically in the next town over from us, because it feels *right* to do it, to live the Golden Rule or to "be the change you wish to see in the world" or whatever similar sentiment feels right to you.
Tonight we shall sleep well. Tonight we shall sleep the sleep of the self-righteous.
=;)
ADDENDUM: Oh, another random literary reference, which I guess constitutes reason 3.5 for my enamored state: We'd just finished reading "Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom", by Cory Doctrow (highly recommended and available for free here, so you have no excuse), aloud to each other that afternoon. As we were cleaning up, Lizbeth expressed the sentiment I wrote about above perfectly (for the few of you who've read it): "It would be so cool if Whoofie existed right now". Damn straight. And hey, it does for me, dear.
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no subject
Date: 2004-05-31 04:56 pm (UTC)These are all things that have sprung into my immediate consciousness over the last week from two (or more) completely random and unconnected sources, and all of which were already in my own head before being referenced by someone else.
WHAT IS GOING ON?!?!
But on a sidenote - T-Rex piloting UFOs is hilarious. Cory Doctorow's work (DOMK in particular, but also be sure to read his short story 'Crap Hound', it has the most satisfying ending of any short story I have ever read (No, I'm SERIOUS, and with my adoration of short stories that is saying a LOT)), and ...
...
maybe you don't eat monkeys.
Good on you for cleaning the beach, too. It hasn't come up besides you (which adds a special lift to your superiority, I suppose) but I am very proud to know such inherently good, civic-minded people. Hugs and ale all around.