fable (fáble) n.
These are my personal web pages. They contain information about me, by me or things I think are interesting. I spend much of my free time tweaking formatting, adding pages, updating links etc. In an effort to keep you up on the latest changes I will be keeping a running list of updates and will post the most recent ones here:
3/16 added the "Why you should date John." page.
2/22 added trip report for Berkeley
2/17 removed Valentine background and splash page
2/15 added picture of Patrick driving.
2/12 updated the pet's page
2/10 added pictures and lot'o text to my high school page
2/8 updated the man's page and combined it with the man's family page and added a few new pictures of the man.
2/4 added Arizona Trip Report
1/27 added Christmas in New York
12/25 Updated the second Vampire story (thanks to Dunny Pollet for the inspiration)
12/12 added Silvertyne information
There is a great deal of information here and it is not for the weak or those people with '15 second attention spans.' (That would not be you, you're different, but those other people..) The exciting sections provided for your enjoyment are:
| Childhood | High School | College | Art | Jobs |
| Movie Night | Poetry | Cool Stuff | My Short Stories | Three Musketeer's Movie Page |
 Silvertyne |
AD&D | Friends | Summer 97and96 | Ladyhawke Movie Page |
| Recent Pics of Family-1 | Recent Pics of Family-2 | Historical Pics of Family |
| Historical Picts of Me | Our trip to Colorado | Animals |
| Random | The Man's Page | Christmas '96 |
Yesterday (today=2/22) we (Patrick, Janie, the Man, Mindies, Tom, Shane, John and myself) went to see the Flying Karamazov Brothers in Berkeley for John's Birthday. What? I have not mentioned John before? Hrms, well this is not my brother John but one of the people at work with whom I socialize. Where was I? Oh, yeah, in Berkeley. It will be John's Birthday in a few days and we all wanted to get together and do something for him and Patrick suggested seeing the Flying Karamazov Brothers. It seemed like a good idea so we got tickets (a story in itself) and planned to meet at a nice indian restaurant at 11:30 on Saturday. The Man and I spent all morning on Saturday taking calls and giving out directions to the restaurant and then he and Patrick left(they were going to be there early). John had just arrived back from a business trip and had slept in a bit and then got distracted by his email so he was late. I had told him we were going to go shopping in Berkeley so it was somewhat difficult to tell him we were expected to be somewhere at a certain time. The drive was really messy due to the rain and a wrong turn but we eventually got to the restaurant and had a nice lunch.
Since we were already behind schedule after lunch we had to scurry over to campus for the show. To aid us in our quest we had a map Mindy had made and John's memory. Somehow we got sort of misplaced and could not call Mindy's cel phone to get directions but we eventually found parking in this odd parking garage. In the garage you must pay for your parking ahead of time. How you are suppose to know how long you are going to be parked is beyond me! I guess these things only happen in Berkeley. After parking we found everyone else (they had taken separate cars), got our seats and watched the show. The Karamazov Brothers are technically a juggling troupe but they are all also excellent musicians and comics. The show was fantastic and I was in hysterics for most of the time. The only down side was my headache which has been a constant companion since I returned from NY.
After the show was over we decided since Janie arrived late (she got more lost than John and I) and missed lunch we needed to find her food. Tom was our guide in this adventure since Mindy had left early to get her hair done. We walked down several blocks to a Bar which also served food and had a bite to eat. Once we had some food we decided to do some shopping and some of us went to a near by book store while others went to a music store. I was in the book store group and picked up a book called Black Mist which is a collection of SciFi short stories involving Japan or Japanese culture. When we got out of the book store I realized that the streets of Berkeley were crawling with un-bathed, pierced beggars. My headache was getting worse and so my tolerance was very low and I decided I wanted out. I guess I just do not like people approaching me talking at me, asking for money for dope and what have you. I would not do well in a city environment I guess.
I just got back from a trip to Arizona to see the Grand Canyon and I have been trying to decide what words I could use to talk about it. It was completely over whelming. So natural it was unnatural - to which most people have been giving me strange looks. I guess it is ultra-natural or hyper-natural. It is difficult to believe that something so massive could exist.
Anyway, down to the details - on Thursday after noon Patrick and I started out driving to Arizona. He needed to get his car there for a driving school he and my man were going to be attending over the weekend. I guess I was along for the company - that did not really work out very because I slept most of the drive. Sleeping in the car is something that I have always done but I do not usually sleep for such extended time periods. Well, in all fairness it is really not all that unnatural to sleep for a long time when you have up for a long time the day before. (side note: On Wednesday I was up for 22hrs). I guess my body was a little tired. I did wake up for the border crossing into Arizona and a few other times. I was actually awake off and on because I was in charge of the CD player. Patrick had borrowed his brother's portable CD player because the one in his car was in the shop so I had to swap the CDs when they were done. Before the we got started Patrick let me pick the music out, he has a massive collection so I told him to just grab a bunch of female irish-y vocalist and we would be set. It did not turn out too badly, I liked most of the CDs except the one he REALLY liked. I will never understand.
During one of my few lucid moments I did observe some pretty neat scenery, if you can call it scenery. What I mean is scenery is usually classified as landscapes and things of that nature but the coolest things we saw during the trip were the MASSIVE factories. We could not really get a good look at them since it was night but they were lit by hundreds of lights which made them these glittering islands in the dark. It was very surreal.
We stopped in some smallish place to get fuel and food at about 6:00PST. Patrick had a chef salad and I had some chicken. It was actually pretty good. Then we were on our way again. I napped for a while and when I woke up we were high in the mountains and it was SNOWING. This would not be a big deal normally but since Patrick has performance tires it is not that much fun to drive on snow. We stuck it out for a while but decided to stop for the night in Williams, AZ. Believe it or not after sleeping for the whole day I was tired and went right to sleep. In the morning we woke up late, although Patrick claimed he was up at 6:00 he did not look very awake at 9 when I woke up, and had some food. Ewwie, remind me never to eat at Denny's in any state - it was disgusting. We finished our food and got some fuel and headed to the canyon.
The drive there was about an hour and then we were there. As I mentioned it was so mind boggling I was totally speechless. It was much colder than I expected it to be but the little bit of snow on the ground made for a nice contrast. The rocks were very red and the sun was coming through the clouds in places highlighting the tops of the canyon walls. We walked along most of the west rim and that is all we had time for before we had to head down to Phoenix to meet the man and Crystal (his cousin) for dinner. We were estimating it would be an hour or so to Flagstaff and an hour to Phoenix. Whoops! We got to Flagstaff and saw the sign for Phoenix - 140 miles we were tweaked. The distance-time meter thingy in Patrick's car said it would take up a little over 2hrs to get to Phoenix and we only had a little over an hour until we were suppose to meet the man. Well, Patrick is a very skillful driver and as I napped (of course) he drove. We managed to get to the hotel with 10 minutes to spare. We had dinner with Crystal and her mom and step dad and then crashed cause the guys had to be up early for the driving school.
In the morning they headed out to driving school and I caught the shuttle to the airport for my flight back to San Jose.
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| Patrick on the Firebird International Raceway |
Christmas in New York
We left on the 26th since I had to work Christmas day. It was not really work on Christmas because nothing happened and I played scrabble with Patrick and Marcus but I did have to be at work. The trip out to NY was great - the flights were on time and all that good stuff. We stayed in a motel outside of town which was very clean but had a small bed.
On the 27th we had Christmas proper with presents and Christmas dinner. I received lots of wonderful gifts including a pearl necklace and earrings, a nice jacket, earrings, a throw blanket, assorted clothes and more! I would not even attempt to list them all here. It was quite nice and everyone seemed to like the gifts I got for them. The sweater I got my father was a bit too large but we exchanged it for a smaller one.
The holiday party was nice but was marred by the man being sick. He got the flu something terrible and was out for most of the day of the party and the next day too. The party was at Jen and JJ's house and they had it decorated nicely and the food was really tasty. I made lasagna which was quite delicious. After the party we played a game which I cannot remember the name to but you use word clues and people guess which word you are have. It was kind of the new game this season.
The next day the man left for California. I hung out with my family and gave my sister a brief overview of the web so she can use it more. My mom, dad, myself and my sister played lots of scrabble. It is a really fun game and it makes your brain work a little bit. I went to lunch with my Aunt the next day and by the afternoon was sicker than a dog. Nothing I like more than being violently ill. Luckily it only lasted a night and I was pretty much better, although tired the next day.
The day after the ice storm hit! It was quite intense the first night. There was blue lightening lighting up the sky as the transformers blew up and the wires snapped and fell to the ground arcing all over. Later in the night we lost the cable and then the lights. I did not realize how total the destruction was until the next morning. There was ice everywhere, layer upon layer, all the radio stations but one were out and there were estimates up to several weeks for power to be returned. We were without heat or lights. The first night was somewhat difficult because we were not use to it. We did have a lantern and a gas stove so we had warm food and a little light. Everyone was a bit on edge the next day trying to get things done. We played more scrabble (by candle light) and read (by lantern or candle light).
The days kind of blur after that until my brother and his wife decided they were going to try to go to Syracuse. There was a state of emergency declared and all non-emergence travel was prohibited but they did not want to stay without heat for fear that Ashler would get sick. An understandable concern. So, we set off and it was scary! The roads were covered with ice still and there were downed power lines on the road and trees falling all around. I have very rarely been as scared as I was during that ride. We basically got to Canton and turned around.
The next day was sunny which helped the repair crews, who had driving in from as far away as Pennsylvania, a great deal. I stayed in and read and played some more scrabble with my mom. We get a call late in the afternoon from my brother (we never lost phone service) saying that they had made a break for it and were in Syracuse. Oh, well. So, we decided that we could head out the next day for Syracuse.
We took off the next day pretty early - although my plane was not scheduled to leave until after 5. We drove most of the way there when we had to take a pit stop and at the convenience store they were selling generators. Whee! My dad bought one and plopped it in the back of the car and off we went. We got to Syracuse with very little hassle (slight snow storm on the south side of Watertown) and I checked in and was ready to go. My parents left the airport and I found some food and settled in to wait. As luck would have it the radio on the plane I was scheduled to leave on was broken and they were not able to fix it in time for me to leave that night. So, I was shuttled off to a hotel where I took a hot shower, watched some TV and slept in the HUGE bed.
The next day the plane flights went fine and I was on my way home.
Less recently:
The man started his new job and is currently at a conference in Las Vegas manning a booth. I have decided that it is not that much fun when he is gone, although I have gone out to dinner with Patrick and Rodney and that was cool. Patrick just got back from a trip to the Grand Canyon. He had an ok time - it snowed and he did not get to see as much of the canyon as he would have liked but at least he was not at work. Also, driving in a sports car with sports tires with rear-wheel drive is a little more fun than most people want to have.
A few weeks ago we went to San Francisco Symphony. The concert was good and we went out to a nice dinner afterward. The best part was buying the dress the day before. The dress is black and sleeveless with a black jacket with fuzzys around the cuff and lapel/collar. I figure that I can use the dress again for whatever Christmas party I go to!
I have recently received some mail from Max, the poet who wrote these poems. It is strange how people suddenly decide to track you down to talk to you.
Even less recently...
July 1997
I have also recently enacted the great experiment. Keep hold of your imaginations - I just had a picnic and invited a bunch of people. It took a days worth of preparations but the results were worth it. There was lots of tasty food and for entertainment we played Uno and frisbee. Everyone seemed to have a good time. You may wonder why I consider this to be an experiment - well, I was not sure if it would be fun or if people would enjoy themselves. I wanted to find out if it was possible to have a party where there was true interaction. Most of the parties we go to are based on watching movies and drinking. There is nothing wrong with that but I just keep thinking there must be something more. Why would you get together a bunch of people and not interact with them? It does not make sence to me - hence the experiment. Since it went so well I have been thinking there will have to be further exploration of the possibilities.
Part of the theory of the picnic was to get Kim, David, Ruth, Peter, the man and I all together but Kim was out of town. It was way enjoyable with the folks that showed up but I would still like to get together with the non-irc gang sometime.
One of the other groups I do stuff with is from work and consists of Patrick and Dave. There are many myths concerning our little group but the real reason I hang with these guys is that I enjoy being around people who are really good at what they do (or seem to be). I am slightly disturbed by the fact that a majority of people seem to be incapable of grasping the possibility of male/female relationship which isn't sexual. Although I must admit when I see a man and a woman together frequently I might think there was something up. Aside from the assumptions Patrick and Dave are interesting to hang out with. The main social activity with them is food. We usually have lunch mon-wed and the man and I often have dinner with Patrick once or twice a week. Between the man, Patrick and I - finding someplace we will all dine is somewhat difficult. Patrick has this thing against new things - they are to be avoided as much as possible. The man is a vegetarian and is picky about the food quality - so often it will take us half and hour to figure out where we are going. The things I put up with! Although, there are certain types of food I have aversions to (recently Chinese) and that does not really help matters either.
I have been wondering recently why society seems to scorn enthusiasm. Why do people have to be so cool about everything? Why are things 'good' and not 'great!'. It seems that our society is very self-conscious and we have problems expressing our true feelings. Perhaps the reason for this need for cool is a defense against scorn or disapproval. If you only 'sort of' like things then you will not have to defend them if someone decides they dislike it. It is far easier to slide from 'ok' to 'bad' than from 'great' to 'terrible.'
I just had a thought that the phenomenon I have experienced could have to do with the type of people I hang out with. I suppose the artists and writers out there are passionate about many things. I remember when I was talking to j8a a great deal my emotional level peeked - I was happier, sadder and wrote more poetry. All in all I felt more alive then. It brings to mind the bad candle analogy - the candle which burns the brightest burns the shortest. (something like that if you know how the real saying goes please let me know!) If you have any feelings please drop me know a line.
Somehow I doubt if I will get as many comments on this subject as my concern over mortality but I think this is a good forum as any to talk about my concerns. It would be ok if you surprised me.
Recently, while painting a miniature, the full impact of my mortality hit me. I started to shake and cry. The SO did not know what to do and I could not even voice what was wrong. Ever since then I can feel the edge of that mortality - the thought is never far from my mind. I keep thinking about the end - where is all just stops and you don't exist any more. I am beginning to see the draw of religion because the longer I stare at that abyss the more I need something to tell me it will be ok. I think this sensation might be one of the reasons people have children. Having children is in defiance of this sensation - declaring to the world, "Although I maybe gone, my children will live on." This is all speculation though. I was hoping that I would feel better after writing about it - that is yet to be seen. If you have come to terms with this inevitable end please let me know.
I have had an over-whelming response to my plea and I want to thank everyone who has taken the time to write. Please do not stop sending me your thoughts on mortality. I have also set up a page with the responses I have received. Take a second to see what other people are thinking...