today it was dumping rain in the morning, so i bused to work. the ride in is always nice. the 7:56am from capitol hill to downtown is pretty chill. people reading or speaking quietly to each other are occasionally interrupted by a comment or two from the bus driver. this morning i remembered why i like the bus, the city of seattle, and my life in general.

afternoons are a different beast. settling into a long piece on torture in the new yorker, i was wondering just how much torture i could endure before i cracked. a little? a lot? what variety? but as soon as two separate high-volume conversations erupted, i figured out the answer to my hypothetical torture question: zero.

both conversations were what i would consider oversharing: a dude aggressively whining to a friend about being cuckolded by a woman fresh out of jail (”if she needed dick, she shoulda just called me!”), and a woman complaining in excruciating detail about hiv tests, pap smears and fellas who wanted to be with her while she was away in rehab (”dude said he woulda moved in across the street from the in-patient place just to be near me! but he too crazy, so fuck it.”). occasionally the woman would take time out from her phone call to comment on the cuckold’s problems (”i woulda done it to you too, with an attitude like that.”).

i had my ipod up as loud as i could bear but the painful, painful conversations cut through the painful blaring of rock music in my head until the ride-free zone ended (how can something that’s so good for the environment be so bad for my mental state? i don’t get it.).

mia and i move in two weeks. if the new bus line isn’t better than the current one, i’m going to have to rethink my ride-the-bus-through-the-rainy-season strategy.

i was running the other day and looked up to the sky and was like, oh cool, pterodactyls. and kept running. then i remembered that pterodactyls don’t exist anymore and i got kinda sad. and then yesterday i was running down a hill when the sun was really low in the sky and i saw my 30’ shadow and was like, holy shit i just got really tall! finally! this is so fun!

thinking your daydreams are real is awesome; thinking that this might be an early sign that you’re probably going to lose your marbles is less than awesome.

if someone asked me if i was a gear junkie, my first reaction would probably be to say no. but then i’d think about it for maybe one second and then say yes. i don’t want to be a gear junkie, but i tend to do a lot of things that require a lot of gear. and having your own gear is almost always better than renting.

i knew i was going surfing today, so i figured that i could continue to rent a board or i could buy one. of course, i opted to buy. so now i am the proud owner of seven-feet-and-six-inches of kelly-green fiberglass. i rode it today. it seems to glow in the water, it’s fast and it turns well. the pointed nose does make it hard to catch slow, mushy waves though and unfortunately, that’s what today was. still, i am happy with my purchase. the guy in the surfshop said that this is a good board to build my quiver of boards around. and while the four bikes in the living room might indicate otherwise, i think i’m sticking with one board.

i told my brother that i saw the magnificent seven last night and who knew that yul brynner was so rad? he then further solidified yul brynner’s radness in my mind by pointing me to this:

best. subtitle. ever.

i just ran ~18 miles. i am tired. and i could probably stand a cold bath. it sucks but it helps, and it’s cheaper than a massage.

i just watched bob & carol & ted & alice. i like films as historical documents when the films also hold up as films. i think this one did. that said, i have no idea what to do with it now. i do like me some tense, uncomfortable satire but this one was really rough. i feel worked.

and dude, elliott gould. that guy is always the ILLEST. always.

if i may (possibly mis-)quote hell no:
we are all part shatner, part steve mcqueen
part elliott gould, you know what i mean.

i thought i did. i guess that i didn’t. i do now.

the berg and i are moving. together. to a larger, quieter, nicer apartment in a neighborhood where there are probably zero hipsters. it’s a win-win. at least on the surface. it has a storage space in it, which means that you’ll be able to cast your eyes in any direction without having to see a bike. or tools. or skis. or a soon-to-be-purchased surfboard. and it has a second bedroom where the computers can sleep and where mia can work. also, you won’t be able to hear a freeway. or even a busy street. which means being able to have a window open and have a conversation at the same time. also, it’s very close to very swimmable lake washington. and though my bike commute is going to be much hillier in both directions, it still seems worth it to me. oh, and it has a dishwasher and a working fireplace. i care more about the fireplace, re: winter. the damage: an extra $100 each per month. done.

like i said, fancy:

we have one of four apts in this building. lower right corner.

only potential downside: lots of crusty old-money crusties. unclear whether their mercedes-benz ways are going to be as big of a bummer as fixie-riding 100lb chain-smoking hipsters, but i’m excited to find out on sept 1st.