When I'm in a blimp looking down from up above you

[austin_dern]

Now to start talking about the event which had me late all last week and so wrapped up in my own cheer: bunny_hugger visited me, right here in central New Jersey, after months of our drawing closer together and wondering when we would meet and in what circumstances they would be. Ideal would be having my own place and maybe a whole city to show off, the way I was able to when spaceroo and skylerbunny visited, but we live in what we have. As she approached I worried about the hotel where she would be staying -- the reviews online rated it slightly worse than the plague -- and whether I would prove to be insufferably annoying in person and all the sorts of fears that accumulate around meeting someone you've known online since back before they created shoddy replicas of Usenet for web ``bulletin boards''.

Moments before heading out my father suggested I might use his car, which has air conditioning, since it was so hot. And before I got out the door he remembered it needed gas, and gave me his credit card to fill it. She was coming down here on a New Jersey Transit bus, and I was hoping to get there early, but the unexpected need to fill up meant I was a few minutes late. But I figured likely enough the bus was late, and I waited, worrying only slightly as other buses came by but not the correct number, and I was filled with that dread that one is at the wrong bus stop while the daylight is dying. But I knew she'd call my home if she arrived, and my father would call me (I borrowed his hand phone) and I didn't get any calls so ...

After a long while, as I read and fretted, a lovely young woman approached and asked if I was waiting for someone.

She'd gotten there on time, and assumed I couldn't possibly be late, so she checked into the hotel (about a block away), and there were indeed two ``missed calls'' on my father's phone which it apparently decided I didn't need any sort of audio cue for. So we drove off, looking for a diner at which to eat, and I managed to miss every one until we reached the shore, when it was after dark and we couldn't really see anything, and then drove back to one which was barely a mile from where we started. It made for a rather happy night.

Trivia: In preparation for the new constitution, which provided for a House of Representatives and a House of Peers, Japan began to create peers in 1885. Source: A Modern History of Japan, Andrew Gordon.

Currently Reading: The Go-Go Years: The Drama and Crashing Finale of Wall Street's Bullish 60s, John Brooks.

Comments

[bunny-hugger.livejournal.com]

Best song lyric title ever.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

I haven't forgot that I still owe you a performance, you know. It's just that I haven't figured how to sing it yet.

[captpackrat.livejournal.com]

Your subject line reminded me of an old Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Instead of entering the picture from the side as he usually did, he entered from the top, standing horizontally. One of his lines was "Twice I've been mistaken for a dirigible."

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

I don't believe I've seen that episode, although that certainly is in line with his sense of humor.

The promotional materials for The 39 Steps, playing on Broadway, bill it as `Hitchcock Meets Hilarious', which suggests the person doing the promotional materials was unaware that Alfred Hitchcock loved being funny.

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

Heehee.

Well, having someone that you're eager to talk to in the car does make driving miles out of the way by accident a lot more fun.

[bunny-hugger.livejournal.com]

I didn't notice or mind.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Me neither, particularly since we had a car with good aircon.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that has a way of making the travel time simply melt away. Even better than having a good audio book to read/hear.

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

I can't listen to audio books. I mean, while driving... they're no substitute for music for keeping me awake.

Maybe if they had lots of clever sound effects, like a radio play?

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Audio books are usually pretty light on the sound effects -- my favorite publisher uses nothing more than a declaration that one's reached the end of the CD to warn that it's time to go to the next -- although there are quite a few old-time radio shows which are easy to download (archive.org has roughly a godzillion of them) or are in libraries on CD form. Those have a particular advantage over audio books since if you can't stand one, the most you can lose is a half-hour or hour of time, depending on the show.

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

Congrats on the git-together!

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Thank you. It was really a grand time; you'll hear a lot about it in time.

[blither.livejournal.com]

Yay! Yay!

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I was kind of like that for the week.