a veritable force of nature

yesterday was one of those days that was just a veritable force of nature.

it started slow with a humid 88 degree ride into work and quickly kicked into gear when I had to defend my position with my boss against this terrible woman who is impossible to work with on this fucking powerpoint that I have to work on with her every six months. she always hands me a file of 97 xeroxed pages with highlights and lettering and her illegible cursive and demands a powerpoint presentation, usually in under a week and a half. It goes this way each time. I hate it. My boss was pissed because he had thought that the material needed to be completed this week, when in fact it wouldn't be needed until next week... and was an unorganized, rambled mess. I had put the shit off because I had 6 other projects to wrap up and tend to prior to my week away. Fucking vacations: there's never a good time to take them when you have a real job. It's always more work to work ahead, and then more work to catch up when you return. I am an indentured servant to a board of old rich white men.

speaking of which, I was somehow drawn into telling the CEO about my trip to Colorado while I was standing in line at the cafeteria... rather, I mentioned where I had gone and then smiled and politely listened to the CEO tell me that he liked to take his kids there when they were younger, and that he might prefer Colorado during the summer over going in the winter.

I enjoy communicating with people on a human level, especially when there's a caste system involved. I remember once reading an interview with Jack Nicholson from the mid-70's where he described starting out working for the studios as an errand boy and purposely greeting all of the upper-management (as well as all other employees) by their first name. I've always liked that.

after work I had a smoke and decided to ride the lake path back instead of the usual city route. it was a good idea. I stopped in olive park for a smoke and looked at the thick humidity drifting among the cityscape and abruptly ending at the cooler lakefront. getting on my bike I began to pedal behind a fat guy in all road gear and a nice road bike huffin' and puffin' in the 85 heat. I think he was waiting for me to pass, but I liked the pace he set and decided to keep two feet behind him, weaving through pedestrian and bike traffic at 20 mph.

I pulled over at a drinking fountain to wipe the sweat from my face and catch a drink, and Jen, an old acquaintance jogged up. we agreed that it was hot. she was nice, and then she jogged off saying that she was on her way to beach volleyball. Jen is a girl who is a friend of one my friend's now wife. when I moved here in 98 she wasn't all that cool to me for some reason,.. but as time has past, and she hasn't gotten married, and she doesn't have any kids, and she's on a husband-hunt,.. she's gotten nicer everytime I've seen her... and she's out jogging! good for you, Jen! really though, Jen is a pretty girl who's just gotten older and isn't a hot 25 year old anymore. she knows this. we started to drunken make out in a cab last winter but she hated my beard and I remembered that I hated her, so we stopped. anyways,.. further down the path there was a Nick's co-worker sighting,.. maybe it'll be reported/I'm betting on it.

when I got home I was a sweating piece of shit. I checked the cellular and saw that Sarah had called and wanted to go riding right away. the message was left an hour ago. I called her back and told her that I needed to gather supplies and would be over in 30. I had a thing for Sarah about two years ago, but she would blow me off so I stopped trying. but now we're kind of in the same boat and have become kind of friends.

so I hit the liquor store for some Miller High Life tall boys, packed the dugout, hit the road. she'd told me on the phone that she was wearing her riding pants. I wanted to see this. we rode down to the lake path via roscoe ave. I was secretly pleased to see how well she handled her bike. There's a difference between people who know how to ride their bike and people who ride occasionally. Sarah can ride. We decided to ride down to the marina across from the fountain to crack our tall boys and have a smoke. it was good. it was funny. we rode through the park to where the city was showing "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner"... the accoustics were excellent with the soundwaves bouncing off the ampitheater behind the crowd and the delay reverberating.

we caught a smoke by the fountain and was suprised to see that they have a fucking lighting display going on in the water. by now it was around 11pm and the girl wanted to get back. we rode the lake front north and caught some lightening and light rain approaching on the horizon. we could have cut across to the city streets, but decided to carry on. the rain gradually got more and more intense. sarah told me that she was soaked. I told her she looked good.

there was this hum and hightened energy in the air to welcome the fucking crash and mad assault of the full-on downpour that hit us fast. it was the most intense rainfall that I've ever attempted to ride through... I would see a wave of rain hitting the pavement a few feet ahead, and would cut through it and be nearly knocked off my bike by the fucking wake it pushed at me. it was an absurd amount of water and downfall. Sarah and I nearly collided a couple of times due to the force and uncontrolled laughter.

we took refuge under a beach house and some middle aged dude pulled in behind us. if we'd been alone, I would have rolled it and kissed her, but that didn't happen. we waited 10 minutes, the rain died a little and then we rode out again. she kept saying how she couldn't wait to get home to a hot shower and lay down to sleep. we got to her door and she gave me the go home now kiss on the cheek. that's cool, I've still got the image in my head, and there'll be another time. and if it goes it goes. it probably shouldn't with this one, she's a lot of fun, but she's a tad insane... and that joke isn't funny anymore.

ok, see... no pussy post. in fact, no pussy at all. so there.