now October can truly begin

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I’m back, peoples.

My vacation is over. Things pretty much went as planned… i flew up to DC, and spent five days hanging out with John, and we just did stuff. Nerdy stuff? I’ve now officially seen every episode of the original Star Trek series. Who wants to be the first to fuck me?

We also watched Robocop, Starship Troopers, and Masters of the Universe because why the fuck not.

I ate a Chipotle burrito for the first time. I rode on a train for the first time. I saw the White House and the Washington Monument for the first time…

…although i couldn’t go into any of the museums, because the Teabaggers continue to be lunatics and John Boehner continues to be a spineless yutz.

We were about a block from the Capitol when that Miriam Carey incident happened. We saw about a million cop cars zoom by and thought, damn, something really tragic just happened.

We went to a theme park, and i learned that… i actually don’t like rollercoasters that much. They make me feel sick, dizzy, and scared. I think i was more impressed by the simple miracle of air travel and seeing the earth from above the clouds. Rollercoasters, you just can’t get excited for them because they’re so phony, they’re just there for no purpose, it’s like someone designed them to be like that…

….and that’s my Holden Caulfield moment for the week.

The worst part… was the heat. My god, it was sweltering. I chose the first week of October because it was supposed to be cool up there, but it was actually HOTTER up there than it was down here. Virginia in October should NOT feel like Tennessee in July.

The best part, of course, was just seeing old John again. He’s the same old ‘sassin. We spent a lot of time watching Star Trek, playing Street Fighter IV (which i don’t know how to play at all,) and talking about life and stuff. His girlfriend, Anna, is still in Syracuse, but might come back soon. She has all those problems with pills and debt and eating disorders and mean parents and unemployment and self-esteem, but… i hope things work out?

And as usual, John hooked me up with some insane electronic music, this cutting-edge Gravitas Recordings stuff, this Androcell and Soulular madness that is far beyond anything i’ve ever heard. Apparently, dubstep is lame now and glitch-hop is the new hot thang — and it’s a lot chiller and more melodic than the name implies.

^__^

Five days without drawing. I’ve never done that before.

And now… i’m back. It was fun, but i’m so ready to be home. Boy, did i miss my dogs. Mason and Mary picked me up at the airport and they brought Luna along and we had the type of glorious reunion that is only possible between human and canine. We have a Shining thing going on, this dog and i.

Home. Home is good.

The ‘Boro and Reston are about as different as night and day. The Reston area is modern, clean, and fast-paced, and full of massive buildings and metropolitan areas that i’m just not accustomed to seeing. It’s huge and glorious, but still alien to me…

…while the ‘Boro is calm, languid, and spread out. A bit funkier and chunkier. I sometimes find the place to be boring, but i do admit that i missed its laidbackness. When i was boarding the return flight to Dulles, i saw a bearded redneck wearing overalls, and the sight of him was strangely comforting. Those Northern people are different, hoss.

The cool thing about seeing the capital and all the splendid things there is that you realize it’s just the same shit as everywhere else, and the place you come from is pretty much the same. Buildings, grass, air, people, cars, food. It’s all the same shit, just in slightly different shapes. I always thought i was a City Mouse trapped in a Country Mouse’s life, but now i’m not so sure?

The good thing about being in a boring place is that it gives you more time to draw.

Like, we went into this grocery store called Wegman’s, which is some kind of ultimate grocery store that has every trendy thing you can imagine, but the prices are insane and everyone is in a hurry. It killed me. Holden Caulfield would know what i mean.

It was strange, John had the exact same paperback copy of Catcher in the Rye that i just read. I didn’t even know he was into things like that. It killed me, old John with his Catcher in the Rye.