Author: Keiran

People are strange when you're a stranger

(Originally left as a comment on a friend’s blog)
Hi. I’m weird. I’m a freak and a geek. I march to a drummer all my own… who’s being accompanied by someone on bagpipes. 😉 I’m an oddity of nature. And I’m proud of it. I do not want to be “normal”. Normal is … bleh. It’s too easy to blend into the background and go completely unnoticed when you’re normal. If you’re different, you stand out. You make a mark. People notice. Granted, they that’s not always a good thing, but oh well.

Have I always been this accepting of being different? No. I struggled with it for a long time. I also admit I still have my moments that I struggle with it and long to be like others. But even when I want to be like others… I want to be just enough like them that I fit in, while still retaining enough of what makes me unique. I don’t want to be a cookie cutter image of everyone else.

Hmm. I realised I could actually ramble on and on here – even more than I ordinarily do. So I think I’ll just stop there and keep on going in my own blog later. Thanks for the post inspiration. But, what it boils down to – I think that line in the movie is actually backwards. Being “weird” is usually natural and effortless. It’s the being normal and striving to fit in that takes energy. At least it’s always been that way for me.

So take your fast car and keep on driving

My car is hopefully fixed. I took it up to the shop on Friday night, so they’d have it for Saturday morning to look at. They called me midday on Saturday, because they were having problems recreating the dropping idle. They did finally get it to do it once or twice, though. They fixed the battery – it wasn’t properly installed when the guy put it in for me last week. After more tests, they called me back again. Kelly let me know that the battery/alternator/starter/cables/connections/etc were all fine. The other possible suspect for giving me those problems was some motor (I forgot what), that costs $500 to replace. But, because he wasn’t able to get it to do it more than twice, he didn’t want to condemn that motor and have me be out that much money, when he couldn’t guarantee that was the problem. He told me if this gets significantly worse, then we’ll look at that motor again; but otherwise he wasn’t going to touch it. He did also clean out the system for me, which should also help clean out that motor and keep it going. So far, so good. It hasn’t acted like it was going to stall since I picked it up Saturday afternoon. YAY!

When I was out on Saturday, I lost my cell phone. I didn’t know until about an hour after I’d lost it that it was gone. I called the last store I remembered having it in, but they hadn’t had one turned in. After I picked up my car, I was going to drive everywhere I’d been, and double check to try to find it before suspending service. When mom was dropping me off to get my car – my cellphone called her. It had been found in the PARKING LOT of the store that I’d originally thought I’d lost it at. I got VERY lucky there – since I have a RAZR, I wouldn’t have been surprised if someone kept it instead of turning it in. I also got very lucky that it didn’t get run over and crushed in that parking lot. When I picked up my cell, I tried to give them a reward, but they turned it down. I’m so so thankful I got my phone back. I didn’t wanna think about having to buy another, right as I’m paying out all this money on my car.

I love it when we’re cruisin’ together

A few years ago, I decided that I wanted to do something special for my 34th birthday. Not because of the age, but because of the date. My 34th birthday will be on August 8, 2008: 08/08/08. It’s a fairly unique thing to be ale to celebrate on a day that repeats across the board like that (after all, only 12 days can claim that, and it only happens once every 100 years), and so I wanted to really mark the day.

I’ve been struggling with ideas as what to do for this “Big Event” though. Sure, that’s 2 years away, but I didn’t want to decide it all at the last minute. After all, I didn’t want to just do something “typical” like a dinner party or whatever. Since this is a special date, I wanted a special celebration.

Today, I think I finally decided what I want to do. I’m going on a cruise for my 34th birthday. Emily and I have been talking about going on one, since the other day when I won that 2-for-1 deal. She found a LA-to-Hawaii the other day that would be fun to do. So, yes. Two years gives me plenty of time to save up to go on a cruise; especially if I put most of my income tax refund next year into savings, instead of spending it on a new camera or whatever I was going to end up buying. And if I do decide on a cruise that ports out of LA, I can have a pre- (&/or post-) cruise party with my friends there as well. But, of course, all of my friends are invited to join me on whatever cruise this ends up being. The more friends I have with me, the better to celebrate the day, right?

Speaking of birthdays… I got a gift in the mail yesterday. Daria purchased a little something off my Amazon wish list: the New Kids videos on DVD. Hee!! That has been on my list since 2001, there’s always a place in my heart for NKOTB after all the teen years I spent in obsession over them. Ha. I spent part of last night watching the videos and reminiscing and laughing. I did make one surprising discovery though. In the video for “Step By Step”, Jordan is wearing a t-shirt with a kokopelli on it. I never noticed it when the video was originally out, mostly because at the time I had no idea what a kokopelli was. Six years ago, however, I had a kokopelli tattooed on my left calf, after several years of waiting to be sure I wanted that design. The kokopelli had become a personal symbol to me; representing the wandering minstrel, the gypsy soul I have within. It’s funny the little things you notice when you have a chance to reminisce.