trendymatt's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- \"Aww, hell no! I ain't makin' no' mo' MILKSHAKES!!!!\" I drove a total of about 350 miles yesterday. The first 150 were for work, getting up before sunrise to be at a school at 7:40 in the a.m. in time for first period. The last 200 were an absolute blast, courtesy of Vivarin, Keith Boykin, McDonald's, and my hetero lifemate. After my morning spent surveying kids in the ghetto, I spent a few hours in the office tying up some loose ends before heading out for an oil change. You see, I figured it would be a grand idea to spend my morning driving to and from Louisville, then drive straight to Cincinatti with Alyssa without even stopping at my apartment to change clothes. The reason for our spur-of-the-moment trip up north? Keith Boykin was giving a gay rights/marriage equality/all-around warm & fuzziness talk at the University of Cincinnati. I've been wanting to see him speak in person since I missed his last speaking engagement in Lexington a couple of years ago. I was fine for the first half hour or so of the drive to Cinci, but roundabout Crittenden, KY I was fading fast. To counteract this, I stopped at a truck stop for a bottle of Ale 8 and the aforementioned box of Vivarin. The caffeine overload transformed me in about ten minutes to a chatty, festive person once again. My Vivarin experience was, however, nothing like the groundbreaking "very special" episode of Saved By The Bell in which Jessie was reduced to jumping around the middle of her room under the influence of caffeine pills exclaiming "I'm so excited!! I'm so excited! I'm SOOO SCARED!" Admittedly, I was a little disappointed at my rather mild reaction to stimulants. I had one of those moments that will forever be etched in my mind as a happy memory, though: cresting the hill on I-75 at Covington at sunset, the bright lights of downtown Cincinnati filling the panoramic view of the windshield, the Indigo Girls' "Closer to Fine" blasting over my stereo* while Lyss and I harmonized with Amy and Emily... yeah, that was a moment when all was right with the world. Keith Boykin's talk was incredible. I can't even find words to quantify the empowerment I felt just letting his words soak in over the course of the evening. I'm always jealous of people who can express themselves well through speaking, because I don't feel that I've ever been able to do that. I have never had a problem writing down what's going on in my head and turning it into something worth reading, but for me to speak intelligently about anything even remotely emotionally charged is a near impossibility. It's like my brain tosses in a block whenever I feel passionately about something that won't allow my thoughts to be expressed vocally without stuttering, nervous fidgeting, and sweaty palms. That's something I need to work on. Let's just add that to the laundry list of self-improvement points, shall we? After the lecture, Alyssa and I were jonesin' for a late-night snack once we hit the Interstate, which was an ordeal in itself. I would go into that story, but I've gone off into more tangents than a Geometry book in this entry. We settled on McDonald's, and went inside to get our food to go since we both were in desperate need of a potty break, or in the language of James's world, we had to make tinkle. After taking care of business, we ordered our food only to find that we were being handled by the most incompetent fast-food employees OF ALL TIME. I mean, I don't expect white-glove service at Mickey D's, but damn. These people were clueless. After screwing our orders up so severely that we weren't even entirely sure of what we ordered, we ended up leaving the restaurant with the following items, all for roughly five bucks: two double cheeseburgers, a six-pack of McNuggets, two large fries, an apple pie, a cherry pie, two large drinks, and five packets of honey mustard sauce. So much for a quick snack. To maximize access to our unexpected bounty, Lyss and I set up the Makeshift Mazda Buffet, utilizing every square inch of space in my car's cramped interior. Fries were wedged between the seats and in map pockets, drinks were in the cup holder and center console bin, a pie and a burger were sitting inside the gauge cluster... basically anything that was a flat surface or could open up to hold something was used. It was a thing of beauty. Beauty and saturated fat. I get to go home from work after lunch today. Thank god for flexible work schedules, because this boy's gotta get his nap on. *Edited at 10:14 a.m. to acknowledge that the Indigo Girls song was actually "Shame on You," not "Closer to Fine." Just thought I'd toss that one in there before my girl's elephant-like memory decided to kick in :-) 9:20 am - 02.24.04 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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