Baton Bob
When I first started dating my wife, there used to be a street performer named Baton Bob.
He was a bald black man who wore booty-shorts, usually with a matching vest, but sometimes shirtless. He usually had a top hat and almost always a baton.
Bob would march down the street in one of the busiest in St. Louis with his bedazzled outfit, spinning his baton and blowing a coaches whistle. Everyone’s head would turn.
He disappeared from St. Louis sometime ago. Now i know where he went.
Running Behind
I woke up for work an hour and thirty minutes before I had to leave today and was still thirty minutes late.
All I did was exercise for twenty-six minutes, then I marinated some chicken for a Hawaiian dish that I make about three times a year. I then took a shower and got ready to leave. As I was walking out the door, my daughter woke up, so I had to make her some chocolate milk and turn on the T.V. for her. I then kissed her goodbye.
More snow had fallen overnight, so I shoveled off the driveway so me and my wife could get in and out. Then people were driving especially slowly with all the snow on the ground…and the beat goes on.
I guess tomorrow I’ll need to get up two hours early
Hurt
I heard this song on the way home today. It was originally recorded by Trent Reznor from 9 Inch Nails, but Johnny Cash covered it and made the video right before he passed away.
The video is heartbreaking, covering Cash’s entire career right up to the old man sitting on his, “Empire of dirt.”
Click here
to see the video
TMI
It’s amazing what a fresh set of sheets can do for your love life after not washing them for so long you’ve forgotten how long it’s been. They are almost like an untouched wall in the ghetto, begging to be graffitied.
Snow Day
I took a picture of my driveway and sent it to my boss. I added the water bottle for scale.
He wrote back and said, “Work from home.”
In the Northern states this would be nothing. In Missouri, it’s called a snow day.
Snowmagedon
This is what grocery stores in the Mid-West look like when you tell people there’s a snow storm coming.
(Picture from my friend Lori. We both grew up and went to high school together in Hawaii.)
P.S. I’m posting twice today because I didn’t post anything on the third. I did write in my notebook that day though. And now that I have an app on my phone for my blog, I am going to try to post something almost everyday.
Ugly Sweater Party
Ugly sweater parties are quite the rage these days. People get together and eat, drink and vote on the ugliest sweater.
Here is the runner-up of the party I went to. I didn’t feel comfortable asking the winner if I could take a picture of just her sweater. Especially after this model said, “Are you just wanting a picture of my boobs?”
Behind the 8-Ball
Sometimes life is like an 8-ball tournament. You get your first match under your belt and move on to the next. You win a close cat-and-mouse game on the next match and then have to win the third game for the whole team to win the series.
You’re playing a guy who you are literally 2 ½ times better than. You know that because he’s rated a two and you’re a rated five. (The best you can be is an eight.)
Sometimes you completely lose your concentration. Your game falls apart with four balls left on the table and then you scratch the cue ball in the side pocket.
With ball in hand and only two balls left, your opponent sets up for his easy out. But he ends up drawing the cue ball so far back he leaves it on the head-rail when all he really needed to do was stop the ball. You know he doesn’t understand the game, that’s why he’s a two and he shouldn’t be beating you and knowing that, makes you play worse.
He has a pretty easy cut shot to the corner. But he comes down on his stick, cue ball flies and it looks like the eight is going to roll in easily. But then the 8-ball hits a small piece of chalk that is on felt of the table that must of broke off when someone was chalking their stick. The ball swerves to the complete opposite side of the table and leaves you a perfect shot in the corner for the game and match.
Your opponent drops his head and is pissed and salty as you call, “Eight in the corner.”
You both watch the eight as it slowly rolls in and your team screams as they know you’ve just put them in the finals.
Lucky or not, a win is a win and you will take it when you can.
Project Rules
I decided a few days ago that I was going to start a new 365-Day Project. I’ve written about this a couple times and completed one the year my daughter was born.
For that particular 365-Day Project, I wrote my daughter a note every single day from Jan. 1st to Dec. 31st. My wife even joined in around Jan. 3rd and we both finished out the year only missing writing something to her once or twice each for the entire year.
For this 365-Day Project, I’ve decided to continue with my theme of, “Observations on the human experience.” But I’ve decided that I can use not only my own writing, but also: videos, art, pictures, music, quotes and whatever else strikes me for the day.
I read or write almost everyday, but I have not been very good about getting on my blog and publishing things. Mainly because I don’t think people want to see stuff in their email boxes from me everyday.
I haven’t decided if I’m going to publish on my blog everyday or not. But expect to see a lot more things pop-up in your email box from douglasthomaswallace.com if you decided to sign-up. Sometimes you will get two pieces at once depending on if I published it before 11:00 am. (If it’s after 11 am, it shows up the next day.)
And if you need inspiration to start your own 365-Day Project just remember this, you don’t have to wait until New Year’s Day to start something new. Just make sure it’s something that you like.