AUTHOR: Robert TITLE: Oh, my heck. My world's a wreck. DATE: 8/08/2003 03:04:00 PM ----- BODY: So, yeah. Can't believe its been OVER a month this time. I'm actually getting WORSE at blogging. I can't understand it. I really need to get the "email to blog" feature working, because this is just silly. If I could email to my blog, then I could at least write to the blog from the phone, which would be very interesting. :) Now, if I could get ATTACHMENTS working with the email, too... that would be fab. Anyway, here's the standard update: Friends: Going to see Bjork with Peter and Ernie tonight. Very much looking forward to that. I'll send more updates, maybe even a sound clip of the concert. The Chorus: On hiatus, so happily nothing to report Family: Dad and Bob are going to PTown (in fact, I think they're there now!) this week. Mom is OK, but I think she wants to retire, which I can understand. Jeff, Adam's (and I guess mine, now) nephew (or as I like to call him "The Jeffew") came to stay with us two days this week and two days last week, we had a great time. Jeff's 16 years old, sometimes he acts a lot older than that, sometimes he acts a lot younger. While that may seem like a "normal" statement, what's really cool is that Jeff acts "young" about the appropriate stuff, meaning he's into comic books and video games and silly jokes... he's not all grown up beyond his years or anything, and he acts more mature about stuff like money and being able to (for the most part) take care of himself, which is cool. Jeff, if you read this, I hope you don't find it too embarrassing... the neatest thing about this particular trip, in my mind, was that Adam got to teach Jeff how to shave. Now, being Jeff's gay uncles, and being that "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" has garnered so much attention, it was kinda fun. Turns out that, for whatever reason, the input that Jeff has received over the years is that Shaving with razor blades = death by thousands of little painful cuts. Now, if you're a guy (or a hairy lady) you know this isn't true. However, Jeff was pretty freaked out by all of this, and he owns an electric razor, and he really just wanted to stick to that, but didn't really know how to use it and so, had just not attempted the act, up until last week. Also, the adults around him had started to give him some really strong hints like "Jeff! Its time you started to shave!" and other various things that had basically made him feel a bit awkward, but they hadn't offered any practical advice on the matter. Nobody had actually taken the electric razor out, plugged it in and showed him how to do it. Now, I am *BY NO MEANS* saying that his parents or the adults around him were being negligent or even insensitive. I just think its a LITTLE uncomfortable to talk to kids about stuff like that. There's so much we forget is important to know, it seems so easy. Cuz, well, HOW do you shave? You just SHAVE! You've watched movies! There's some white stuff on your face and the water is running, etc and you just shave, right? What we forget is that, in nearly EVERY movie where they show a guy shaving, the very next thing you hear is "GODDAMMIT!" and the razor hits the sink, and the guy comes out of the bathroom wearing a roll of toilet paper on his face with blood seeping through it. Not necessarily the most CONFIDENCE-BUILDING thing a kid could watch. So, taking his cue (or rather his Q) from Queer Eye, Adam went and bought Jeff a nice new razor (one of the Gilette Mach III variety, because those are great.) showed Jeff how to use hot hot hot water, soak his beard with a towel applied to the face for a few minutes, apply the shaving cream and shave WITH the grain of the hair. Did he use a balloon? You bet. We got a balloon. You know why? We thought it would be really important to show Jeff that the razor didn't pop the balloon, so it wouldn't cut him. He was still kinda shaking pretty bad when he tried it at first. Now, the other thing was, Adam did the first couple of passes FOR him. What I mean is, as a guy, you sort of take for granted what the tactile experience of shaving is like. You start to understand little things like the angle at which you should hold the blades, etc. When you're frightened by the blades, it can seem like a less-than-intuitive thing. So having his favorite uncle show him the angle of the blades, and show him how it felt (and sounded) when the blades were at the correct angle was really important. The familiar soft papery sort of scratching noise you get when you shave is something that you become accustomed to, and it tells you that you're shaving properly. Anyway, in the end, we helped Jeff look great and now he knows how to shave on his own, he owns a razor, he can buy blades and he can keep Adults from saying stuff like "Oh, it looks like its time to start shaving!" :) On top of that, it was a really warm and loving experience for Adam to be the one to teach him that. Watching a nice young guy go through the rites of manhood, helping him over some of the rough spots, well there's just no replacing that, its a priceless experience, and we're really glad we can be in Jeff's life for whatever portion of that we can show up for. Since we're not choosing to go down the path of being parents, its kinda awe-inspiring to have a 16-year-old really trust you like that and spend time with you and you can provide for them... that's all really very cool. Work: Things seem to be getting better. I've decided I'm going to really see what I can do to make things work out here. I don't want to leave, that's just silly. Adam's looking at starting his own business, which would be great. I'm helping as much as I can. Stay tuned on that. Me: Lost a lot of weight. Down to 268 now, which makes a total of about 30 - 35 pounds. I also shaved my goatee off, after more than 5 years of having one. Adam says he can see "Me" now, which is great. I'm sortof just letting myself go without one for a while to see how it feels. At the moment, its a little vulnerable, and my chin is a bit cold (seriously). The reason I shaved is that, well, I looked all around me and I noticed that most of the guys I know... MOST of them just don't have any facial hair. Its amazing how out of touch with fashion trends we can get, and if you just look, you can see what other people are wearing, how their hair is, how their facial hair is, all that. It took me forever to figure out (something Adam said to me) "Normal people just don't really eat chicken fried steak!" I was amazed by this. But I looked around. I paid attention. He's right. They don't. Its on the menu at a lot of places. I'm not exactly sure why. Now, once in a while, someone will order it. But not very often. And if I look at the people who are ordering it, well, no offense, but MOST of the time, they're not people I particularly aspire to look like. Same thing with clothing. I've been paying a lot of attention to the people around me. I'm suddenly amazed at the number of people who aren't wearing jeans any more. People are wearing pants! Not jeans. Unless they are those designer jeans with like weird tan spray paint lines on them or something. I believe they're called "distressed" which is what I was when I figured out that my eddie bauer jeans were out of fasion. My general "uniform" (as the lovely ladies of BBCAmerica would say) is jeans, t-shirt (a big one, since I used to have to cover a lot of fat) and tennis-shoes (or "trainers" as they're called in the UK) and sometimes a baseball cap. I'm also partial to a dress shirt (cotton chambray or something like that) and jeans and dress shoes when I want to "dress up a bit" but not fully get dressed for an event. Then, when I want to dress up for, say the office, I put on slacks with my dress shirt and dress shoes. Generally no jacket. For the longest time, I've thought this was a completely acceptible wardrobe. I'm now realizing, it is not. I really need to update it a bit, stop wearing the jeans, get some nicer dressier party clothes and a couple of suits (gasp). Maybe I'll chronicle that transformation. Elphaba and the Car: The scooter again, she's fine, however, the car is not. The car is dead. Adam and I are having to think about buying a car, which is not a fun thought when you're also wondering if you're going to have a job by the end of the year. We're looking at Cooper Mini's as a car, because they'll fit easily in many parking places and in our garage, plus they're stylish, plus they're pretty much under 20k, which rocks. If we don't get a car, we may just sign up for City Car Share and only use the car when we really need it. That's about it for now, we'll keep updating as much as we can. Love, Rob and Adam ----- --------