ok, so--so far, so good with the pledge to post once a week. here i go.

today, cat and i were on the way home from the pool, cause it was hot, as it will be here in a-town until approximately thanksgiving, and we were coming down route 71 into del valle and we got to talking about trucks. of course, we get to talking about trucks a lot since trucks make up about half of all vehicles on the texas roads. (actually, this is not a big exaggeration--1/3 of all pickups sold in the u.s. are sold in texas. granted, it's the second biggest state in land area, and near the top in population, but it's just one state of the 50 in our union.) so, we're talking trucks, and cat brings up truck murals, which are awesome. truck murals are usually airbrushed paintings on the sides or back windows of trucks, most commonly representing the owner's pride in his truck in some form or another. cat mentioned this one truck she saw in the (rio grande) valley that had a particularly memorable mural on it, depicting the selfsame truck in an exalted light, being adored by two awed "monkey-ladies." cat went on to explain that the monkey-ladies were supposed to be regular scantily-clad women--fairly common features of truck mural visual language--but that their artistic execution left something to be desired, and they had ended up looking strongly simian.

i thought about this for a long time. it had the ring of the bizarre that so many of my best conversations with cat have. and like any brush with the sublime, i felt satisfied and deeply grateful to have been there.

in other news, steiner got a job. awesome. and it's not as a male stripper. awesomer. and it's not in worcester, ma. wonders may never cease. get thee up, abraham, gird up thy loins and go forth to the land of milk and cheesesteaks. congrats, chief.

annie and christine, even though i haven't called you back yet, when you called me last night, even without looking at the phone, i said to myself, i bet it's annie and christine and they're drunk. and they were. and i was pleased, though i did not answer. i fell asleep with a smile on face and a song in my heart--well, more of a boozy woooo-oooo of the type only annie and christine (and leah and lish and my other d.c. lasses) can muster. thanks, ladies, for doing your part to keep in touch. i'll get my act together and call you back before we're middle-aged, i promise. keep rocking our nation's capital for me.

marissa, if you're reading this, i love you and antonio in the least-offensive way possible for me. you are my people, and i say ciao. i miss you both and i have two contradictory wishes vis-a-vis your geographical future. either one will make me happy, so i am indeed lucky in love.

be blessed in a shower of loved ones with me,
TR