February 21st, 2006.

So, finding the bathroom in the dark is becoming a recurring theme. Heather and I got into Savannah last night after a hideous fight with I-95 traffic. I think I’ve griped about the non-charm of the entirety of Interstate 95 before, but it seems particularly prone to having stuff strewn across it by truckers as well, so not only is there nothing to look at, there’s also invariably some stretch of it that is impossibly impassible because (in this case) someone has run an 18-wheeler into a wall and spilled huge steel girders all across the road.

The sign for the Skylight Nightlight & Exchange in Chapel Hill, NC.

Our chance encounter with one of the cooler trios I’ve ever encountered in the used record and book and coffee smelling interior of the Skylight Exchange. Huge speakers, old books… does it get better? Well, yeah – we could’ve sold some damned CDs! Death.

So, we didn’t end up going to an open mic last night, because we wanted to play with Chris.

Going to GEORGIAAAAAAH!!! Sigh. Stuck in traffic for two hours while steadfastly failing to make any progress towards Georgia. We’re stuck behind a car whose license plate reads “wah hoo”. After a while the unrepentant and at the moment unjustified joy of this grates at my soul.

Heather doesn’t know how to deal with animals, and I think we’ve had other pictures similar to this in the past – rather than picking them up and MOVING them, or just shooing them places, Heather invariably uses my sock in an effort to TEMPT them. Artemis enjoys our warmth and our gentle strokings and believes that it’s her right as a cat to sit there and be Loved. Heather feels otherwise, but is having only marginal success at undermining Artemis’ belief structure. Unfortunately, this marginal success is being accomplished with the use of one of my favourite socks. Of course, rather than fighting, like any good documentor, I take the picture first, THEN fly into action.

Chris is an old roommate from college, and one of my favourite memories from MICA. I know he reads this, so perhaps I HAVE to say that, but I actually mean it. A quick sketch of him would involve angular features, a quick wit hidden by a calm voice, gaunt ribs, honey and bizarre cartoon figures. I associate him with indie rock and Johann Vasquez and the Nightmare Before Christmas.

An interesting observation – when I encounter friends of friends, you invariably see old photographs and then you meet them and they’ve changed their hair, their manner, their mode of dress. One thing that I’ve really Loved about reencountering most of my friends as we’ve travelled is that they’ve remained pretty… well… “stable” isn’t the right word… but “static” sans the arrested development type overtones to the term. Heather noted it and made the hypothesis that artists specifically are such visual people that they latch on to an image of themselves pretty early in their Lives and stick with it. Maybe. I don’t know. Maybe our exploration of self just focuses on what we do rather than who we are cause we’ve given up on that so early, simply giving ourselves up as freaks.

Heather vs Artemis. Heather doesn’t win.

Chris takes us to the beach. There are lots of signs up warning us to stay of the “jetties”, but none of us are sure what a “jetty” is. At first we thought it might be these rocks, or something, but climbing on them didn’t bring any official ire. We tried climbing on other things too, but none of them seemed particularly dangerous nor did they earn us reprimand. We think that perhaps a jetty is like a “herd” – a plural form of rocks. Caution was obviously necessary, but since it’s not mating season for boulders, we just had to be sure not to wake them.

There’s entirely too much thought going into that. Heather’s enjoyed meeting my friends, and likes the fact that she hasn’t really been caught by surprise by them. They look and act pretty much as I remember. I’m pleased that I sort of return the favour. Chris’ voice is a little deeper, I think, and he’s perhaps a little more serious, but he has cooler toys, and we spent an hour or so flying X-Wings and TIE Fighters into one another, trying to blow up one another’s capital ships. I’m still not quite sure how he managed to win. Shooting Ewoks in the head was also pretty satisfying, though not nearly so much as death-hugging a Wookie with a Wampa. It was a good night.