goob

Despite my worries last night, both parties were awesome. At the first party, they hooked up the laptop to the TV in the living room, and our friend Mat who is in Japan teaching English got to join the party via Video Chat. He was even in costume- as Max Headroom! Pretty fucking cool.


The second party was crazy. There were probably about fifty or sixty people there, and nearly everyone was in costume. I stopped drinking really early, but most people didn't. I had a great time, though. So did these sexy bitches-

I met some new people, ran into old friends, got hit on by my sister's ex, and won second place in the costume contest. Woo hoo! I was there until 4:30am, which became 3:30 when I changed my clock back. The extra hour was much appreciated.

I worked this afternoon, so I missed kickball. After work, I stopped by and said hi to the kickballers and then went home to change. While I was home changing, everyone decided to leave and didn't call me. So I stayed home. I think what I missed was just sitting around playing video games. I wanted to go to my bar, so I made some calls. Nobody wanted to go out. I think everyone was out last night, so they pussied out tonight. So I chatted a bit online and looked up pictures of trees.

Here are my favorite trees, listed by season:
Spring:
Weeping Cherry.


Summer:
Sycamore.


Autumn:
Maples that are bright pinky-orange; that color that just doesn't seem of this world.


Winter:
Cedar.


That was a lot of work, searching for those pictures. The easiest was the Weeping Cherry and the most difficult was the Cedar. I wanted a Northern White Cedar or an Eastern Red Cedar, and I kept coming up with pictures of furniture. The saddest part was while looking up Sycamores, I found a lot of examples of a disease called Anthracnose which is spotting the leaves terribly and making my canoe trips less shady. I worry for my trees.

Here is an interesting fact about Sycamores: Did you ever notice how sycamores grow so often on the banks of rivers? For my they are my favorite canoeing trees, with their white patchy-bark branches and broad, shady light-green leaves reflected in the water on a backdrop of blue sky. I always thought they were so abundant by the water because they liked the water. But I heard that is not the case- they are not any more likely to grow on a riverbank than most other local trees. Sure, they need the water, but the reason they grow all along the rivers I know is because they were planted there. The Native Americans in this area planted sycamores on the banks of rivers on purpose. The white branches grow high and bright, visible from a distance. This way, the location of a river is easier to see from far away by the row of sycamores lining the banks. After so many generations, those trees still shade my rivers.

My previous journal entry was bitter and depressing, so ignore that and pretend this was the only entry for today. But there were some nice replies there, so I am keeping it.

Currently playing on Random Shuffle: "Lie to Me" by Jonny Lang. # of songs remaining: 4127. Upcoming date with the ex: Thursday.

Oh yeah, sorry about the profile pic. Boo! I thought I'd scare you. I just feel like being naked for a while.