8.13.2005

Weekend Evening

It's Saturday night. Just hanging out at home, logging a bit of personal time and loving the sub-90-degree evening weather. Lauren and I returned to Boise this afternoon after a quick jaunt down to Salt Lake City to attend a wedding.

Danny Ortega and I met each other around age eight, perhaps nine, as a result of our fathers working on the same shift at a gold mine in Elko. I won't go into the history of our friendship, but somehow we have managed to let eight years slip by without visiting one another... without evening corresponding. Enough time for me to go to college, to Spain, to Elko to California to Boise to Seattle to Boise again for school. Sadly I do not know his path, aside from pursuing his dream of throwing clay and casting a golden relationship with Heidi, whom he married yesterday.

On the drive down, Lauren asked me about my relationship with Danny, which I defined as "one of those soul connections that never fades, regardless of time or miles apart". He and I formed a bond through hours of trampoline and video game time, and I felt robbed when his family returned to Salt Lake City for personal health reasons during our junior high years. That fairytale definition of the impenetrable friendship seldom exists, and as I spoke to Lauren I found myself worrying whether or not the connection did survive; what if too much time had passed and we both had changed too much?

I could not believe my apprehension as we walked down the dirt drive, toward the humble tucked-away home in Midvale, Utah. I realized I would likely see him from afar, perhaps catch his eye, but remain unrecognized through his filtered haze of wedding jitters/stress/sleep deprivation. I did not expect to see him come strolling out the front door to mingle amongst the surrounding family, smiling and habitually readjusting his glasses in the same style he always did. I wormed my way through the family, stuck out my hand and waited for his eyes to register my presence. There was no handshake; instead a mutually initiated strong embrace between two men; two men who last interacted as two boys in an entirely different phase of life.

The wedding proceeded in a surreal, magical blur. Danny and Heidi spent an entire year fashioning beautiful metal structures, string lights and lamps, amassing unique chandeliers and lights and throwing personalized bowls for the guests to take home in remembrance of the ceremony. I did manage to speak with Danny for a brief spell before we returned to the hotel, and the conversation was light and did not touch on the hollow regret of not keeping in better contact. He was so happy, so happy. I have not felt that vicarious happiness for any friend before.

Lauren and I returned at 5:00pm, having jetted home to attend sister Drew's going-away-to-college party at The Reef downtown. I opted out at the last minute, feeling a strange sense of something unresolved or neglected. I suppose this was it, the need to digest the experience and resolve a strange melancholic mood. These moments instill such perspective... you begin to wonder why you pursue certain avenues and catch a brief glimpse of the threads running through the years; threads of contentment and satisfaction and that strong, nauseatingly powerful sensation in your gut reminding you that the relationships, the love given and received is what substantiates our existence.

The sun has finally set and the summertime noises warrant investigation. I'm headed out for a walk. Thanks for listening. -Calvino

8.06.2005

(tin)Foiled!

The quest for free wireless internet becomes more unattainable daily. Coffee shops and book stores across the nation are joining the financial revolution to charge innocent wi-fi addicts like myself to establish connections.

I’m at Barnes and Noble, having just bid adieu to Lauren and preparing to dig in to a research project I was recently assigned. I am not in summer school, but the NPD Lab that employs me put me in contact with the PEET Shoe Dryer Marketing guru; seems he wants some credible research done to better push their product at the masses. The situation is as follows:

1) Humans have feet, feet get hot, heat promotes sweating and moisture production.

2) Fungus created this planet (according to Darwin), fungi prefer to procreate in warm and moist environments, fungi also prefer the dark.

3) We all wear shoes, shoes get sweaty and moist, we become ONE with bacteria and fungi.

4) Peet’s Shoe Dryers prevent fungus/bacteria/mold growth in today’s modern tennis shoes by rendering the living conditions intolerable for such organisms, by forcing hot, dry air through the shoes’ interior and thereby making the world a better place (Sha la la la).

Common sense, but Mr. Marketeer at Peet’s wants a University to publish a paper saying that all humans need dry shoes. Suddenly Calvin gets no more engineering projects and gets to play scribe for three months (three*3*three). Now, if you’ll permit an interjection of personal opinion, such research belongs in the hands of another department. How about the Biology department? The Chemistry department, or the Kinesiology department? Hell, I think an art major is more qualified than a mechanical engineer.

But, such is life and I should revel in the opportunity to broaden my base of knowledge and earn some cash in the process. Perhaps I will make it on Jeopardy someday and kick ass. “Yes Alex Jr. (Alex will be long gone), I’ll take Tinea Pedis of the Dermatophytoses Class for 2,000.” Yes, fortune and fame.

What else is going on? Calvin must be happy and content if such satire so readily spews from his fingers, yes? Well, mostly yes. A lot has come to pass since my last string of blogs some months ago; and although I will look back and appreciate the situation, I am experiencing a substantial let-down in the cycling-side of my endeavors. The season is a bust, officially “one for the training journal” and not much else. I’ll be filling you in on how that came about, and its implications in my life, in the following blogs. I need to write about to decipher and deal with my feelings, and I might as well keep you informed along the way.

OK, off to study some fungus. Email me if you’d like a final copy of my paper once I complete it… Jokes.