Getting Older Doesn't Get Easier, Does It?

I turn 31 tomorrow. Wow. I can remember when I was a kid sitting in class and letting my mind wander (it didn't take much for my mind to wander, by the way, still doesn't-- truth be told) and I would calculate how old I would be at a certain year and then wonder what I would be doing then. I always figured I'd be filthy rich with a pretty wife and a couple of kids. Well, I'm not filthy rich, not even a little dirty rich, I don't have a wife (or for that matter a girlfriend) and I certainly don't have any kids. I'm not complaining, actually. Its just interesting how what we think will happen and what does happen can be entirely different. Heck, who knew when I was sitting in my fifth grade class letting my brain wander that I'd be living in Indiana, or for that matter, that I lived in Texas for six years. To a Northeastern boy Texas was a different planet unto itself... whilst I lived there I confirmed as such.

Recently, I've discovered something: I actually miss Texas. I'm not sure why. I think part of it is because of the blogs I've been reading. Friends I had while in college and at a camp are writing and I think its them I miss more then Texas. I do miss bar-b-que and an ice cold Shiner Bock, but I don't really miss the heat-- actually this winter made me realize that might have in fact missed Texas winters.

I have the movie Slacker in my collection of DVDs. Its a great movie it takes place in and around Austin. I was watching it the other day I noticed something I hadn't heard before. I don't know what kind of birds they were, I used to call them Cow Birds, but they were large, brown, somewhatshiney birds that sounded like they had a very nasty case of bird laryngitis. They didn't chirp so much as scream and squak. These birds were every where in Austin. For as ugly as they were I used to love them. They made me feel like I was at home. They were my friends, that sounds strange, doesn't it? I used to walk around Austin a lot, mainly because I didn't have a car for a goodly portion of my time there, but the other reason was I just liked to walk. I wore out a pair of Doc Marten boots from walking Austin, quite literally. Back to the birds, sorry about the digression. I was watching the movie and I heard these birds squaking (am I spelling that wrong? It just looks wrong... oh well...) through out the film and I just started chuckling to myself. It brought some great memories.

Speaking of my DVD collection. Some of the newest additions:

Branded to Kill. A Japanese gangster movie.


Hamlet. What more can you say about that?


Richard III, probably one of my favorite plays by the Bard.