Transportation

Ok, so, today was finally d-day on getting my ass a new ride. I went to the local Toyota dealership to check out a yaris in person. Long story short, the idiot dealer who spoke to us convinced me to never buy a car from them in about 3 minutes. So, off to Markley Motors, who my parents, Paul, and Dave all highly recommended. The result was this 2006 Cobalt. It's fast. I love it. Yes I'll let you ride in it.

External Memory

So, tonight was Keisuke's last night in Fort Collins. Tomorrow morning he'll head down to Denver and rally with the other Japanese students he traveled here with. They'll be doing a big ceremony to thank the host families and wish the kids good luck and all that. I won't be able to make it because of work, but, Kei's real host family invited my mom, and she'll be going at least.

After a big neighborhood dinner at the Texas Roadhouse, I took Kei downtown for his last bit of exposure to my world. If any of you know my friends here, you know how eager they are to welcome someone new. We've all grown pretty attached to the kid in the 10 or so days we had him. We're going to try to figure out how to get out to Kawasaki for his high school graduation in 2 years, hopefully we'll be able to get a group discount. Maybe I'll just tough out living with my parents so I can afford to jetset around the world. ^_^ Right...

On a more somber note, I still suck at goodbyes. And I hate how it seems like the way to measure a good visit is by how difficult it is to say goodbye. I'm glad I got the chance to meet him. He commented frequently about how he was amazed at how we all opened ourselves to him, but, I was never able to convince him that it was more demonstrative of his personality than ours. I don't like to do the whole misty-eyed thing, but I just wanted to get some evidence of my thoughts tonight typed out before they fade.

Have a safe journey home, Keisuke Yamamoto, we'll be waiting to hear from you soon!

A quick 2am vent.

On the new movie "World Trade Center"

Oliver, Nicholas, who the fuck do you two think you are?



Told you it would be quick. :P

Accidental Hospitality

So, yesterday we found out that there was a Japanese student staying next door. Through a still unknown series of misfortunes, he's been stuck at the neighbor's house with their two teenage children, and nobody else. One of the teens works full time and isn't home except to sleep, and the other won't get off the couch except to use the bathroom. It isn't a completely gloomy story though, as a family on our cul'de'sac has been taking him up into the mountains for morning hikes, and tonight we took him with us for my dad's birthday celebration up at Terry Ranch, a sprawling bison and other animal ranch/restaurant up on the Wyoming border. It was so fun, his name is Keisuke Yamamoto, and I've never had a better guest to entertain. At least, not since Dawn was here. It was a long drive, but well worth the trip, as our new friend earned the title of Cowboy by single-handedly destroying a 20 oz. T-bone cooked rare (or not cooked by my opinion), and all the other trappings of dinner. My dad seemed glad to have the company of someone who could pace him at the table, even if the kid is half his size. My Niece and Nephew adore him, and he seemed too happy to be engaged by other humans to be annoyed by their persistent attention. The adventures at Terry Ranch could take me all night to go over, so I'll paraphrase in extreme fashion. Large animals + Japanese guy who's bravely facing such beasts for the first time + small children = gutbustingly funny. After dark, and a careful perusing of the gift shop for a knick-nack for mom back in Kawasaki, we loaded up and came back to the Kramer Ranch for pie. Kei brought over some scrapbooks he had put together with family pictures and magazine clippings and gave us a tour of his home. He's seventeen and a second-year high-schooler, with designs on the prestigious KO(?) university in Tokyo as a political science major. We had all bonded pretty fast, and I was honored that he said he hoped we would be able to make it over for his graduation and to wish him luck on his entrance exams. I think tomorrow night or Wednesday after work I'll try and steal him away from his adopted families and show him around CSU's campus, then take him downtown and show him all the cafes and spots that my friends and I have occupied for years.

It's sad and kinda weird that his actual hosts won't be home until the 20th, and he leaves to go back home on the 25th, but it gives us the opportunity to play our favorite roles as tour guides.

On the drive home he told me, "You are all very nice. Americans are so nice."

"Oh, not all of us. Lots of people here like to keep to themselves, mind their own business."

"It's not like back home, everyone is a secret. I like the American way better."

I was tickled. So, not all foreigners hate us, just most do. I hope we have the decency to elect a president who'll work to undo Bush's legacy. I get so delusional when I'm in a good mood.

Monthly Update

You ever get that feeling like everything is going ok... Like, toooo ok? You feel comfortable for a minute or two and then your skin starts to crawl. Some people might call it paranoia, I call it 'The Way Things Are'.

I guess it was two or three weeks ago things started to get weird. On consecutive days, my monitor exploded and sent sparks and flame all over my bedroom, my car faked a seized engine (though it's still inoperable because the vehicle isn't worth the cost to repair the real engine trouble it's having), and I had the worst allergic reaction to a still unknown substance in my life, bad enough a friend and my sister wanted me to get medical attention (I just wound up eating half a bottle of benadryl and slept it off). Aside from the beautiful real-life interpretation of a Shakespearean comedy of errors, it made me realize things are never as good as you think, and Murphy was right. At least nothing ultimately important or life threatening has happened to me. But every time I try to engage my brain I just wind up making myself more confused and/or paranoid. Maybe I just need to find some sort of spiritual exercises that don't clash with my fierce distaste of all things religious. I'm not a big fan of holistic things, either. Guess I'm fucked, so I should try to get back to sleep.