Ruminations on Nerdery

Well, I'm back at the blog. I feel badly about missing a few entries but that will happen from time to time.

Yesterday, was an amazing day. I went to bed at 4am on Monday night and I decided that I would sleep late late late just because I could. Alas, the phone rang three times to wake me up.

Call Number 1: Interview at a private school for a subbing job. Though I have no interest in subbing, I am hoping that it is simply their way of interviewing people and getting them into the classroom for a trial run before they promote them to their own classroom. That happens at 9:00 am tomorrow morning.

Call Number 2: Real estate agent informing me of a showing at 2:30.

Call Number 3: Real estate agent informing me of a showing at 5:30.

I slept until 12:30 and then rolled out of bed. I sat on the computer for a while and decided that I would wait for the showing and then as soon as I heard them upstairs, I would go for my run. I heard the step on the stairs at 2:45 and then the alarm was on so I had to zip upstairs enter the deactivation code and then sneak back downstairs without having to face the agent and the prospective buyers in my running sweats, knee braces, and mouthguard.

My run was great. I felt so good afterwards I was perfectly tired, and exhilarated.

When I got back I took a nice hot shower and shaved for the first time in four days. It was nice to get that scruff off and to feel human again. Andrew came over at 4:00 and we played vids until 5:30.

So I got kicked out of my house at 5:30. I was planning to play poker at The Rivoli at 7:30. That meant that I had 2 hours to kill. Though I did consider sitting in my car during the showing, I instead wandered down to the Rivoli. I really wandered and was really slow and airy-fairy; stopping to look at cars parked on the street, looking at the tulips, browsing the windows of shops, watching girls on their way home from work. I stopped at a few bookstores, and just putzed around and tried to enjoy things.

I arrived at 6:45 and ordered a Pad Thai and a 50. The beer tasted great, and I love all the peanuts in the Rivoli's Pad Thai. They have some great food there.

Anyway, poker started a little late, and after not getting much in the way of cards, I managed to win a couple of big pots by catching flushes on the river and flopping two-pairs. I was having a lot of fun. I'm really talkative at the table since I know most of the people there pretty well. It's a lot of fun to just chat with the other players and get to know them. I don't take the poker too seriously. Even though I like to do well, I know that sometimes it just comes down to luck and knowing when to play and when not to (thanks Kenny). I figure if I'm going to go out on stupid luck, then I might as well enjoy the conversation during the evening. No sense in being sour all night.

I made it to the final table and then won a monster pot by hitting a 6 on the flop with pockets. I took three players out at once and had a huge chip lead. I kept getting great cards. On the very next hand, I pulled pocket Jacks. I put two people all-in and they had nothing. I flopped a Jack, but lost on the river to a flush. I still had a ton of chips to play with so no harm done. I put it behind me.

The cards kept coming and the final table evaporated. I took out 5 players at the final table even though I hadn't taken out a single one before then. I won the tournament (there were 30+ entries). My final hand was pocket Jacks and the other player had Ace-Six; nothing hit on the flop for him and then I hit my Jack on the turn. It was a huge rush, and I felt supercool. I've been brimming with confidence ever since, not enough to go up and talk to attractive women, but confidence nonetheless. I won a $25 gift certificate to the Rivoli and will qualify for the bar finals for the month. That should be fun.

Today was work and I started early. I arrived at 10:00 so that I could leave at 6:00 so that I could go to the Harvey Pekar talk.

I realized a couple of really important things:

1) Comic books are not taken seriously primarily, I think, because of the very people who take comic books seriously. Now comic book people are great, kind, generous people, but no one wants to be one of those guys.

2) The euphemism "graphic novel" doesn't change the fact that it's just a fat comic book.

3) Comics are way more than superheroes (muscular men in tights) and fantasy (women with giant pert breasts wearing spandex and wielding axes).

4) I always knew that Harvey Pekar was the shit, but I realized that my blog is a lot like his comics. They are about everyday life with all its good and bad. It's about the everyday. It's about the ideas that strike him. They don't have to be fancy, they don't have to be pretentious, they don't even have to make sense, but they are ideas and they are important.

I don't want to build things up more than they ought to be, but I really think that there is value in the mundane. Sure it's ordinary, but it is the commonplace that has value, because there isn't a moment when we all don't feel like sitting on our cars during a showing of our house, but instead wander through the city looking at cars, and tulips, and storefronts, bookstores, and pretty girls. It is that commonness that is relatable. It's all right to like doing those kinds of things. It's okay to just be happy with who you are, whether you drive a racecar and sleep with beautiful people or go to a comic book discussion and sleep with no one.

I think that that's just the way things are for me these days. I feel very calm and content, and though everything isn't perfect, I'm doing the best I can. I'm happy with that.