Friday, April 11, 2003

A Measure

This town has decided to be beautiful for a while.

I'm sure it doesn't bode well when a post begins with a reflection on the weather, but I make no apologies. I'm pleased that I noticed.

My drive home from MCC takes me past an elementary school playground where children fight and frolic behind a chain-link fence with the words, "Build Peace" weaved in with colored ribbons. Today, I saw a group of them running excitedly out to the field, each clutching the outer edge of a circus-colored parachute. A teacher plodded after them, looking as if she hadn't the energy to hold her whistle up much longer. The parachute bubbled madly as the children began to flap their ends up and down and up and down, faster and faster until I half-expected them to rise completely off the ground and catch a slipstream to some fantastic world. They may have, for all I know. I was just driving by and only saw them for a few seconds.

I turned down one of the next streets, past the house where a little girl gets dropped off from school by her bus. I don't often see her arriving home, but I usually notice because she screams and cries and yells and falls on the ground and refuses to get up.

Apparently, all that separates Heaven and Hell are a couple of blocks and a chain-link fence decorated with faded ribbon.

Thursday, April 10, 2003

Still The Big Brother?

My little brother, Donaldo, is somewhere in Iraq right now, possibly inside a liberated Baghdad. I am proud of him. I don't honestly know what he thought of the war, or what he's seen and done since I haven't received a letter from him since it started. But I can't wait to hear it.

I am a bit worried about what he will be like when he comes back home. For me, I mean. What if he takes every opportunity to rub it in?

Donaldo: "Yeah, so I liberated a country."
Me: "Um, I started a weblog."
Donaldo: "Hey, that's cool."
Me: "Not really, I still don't even know how to put pictures on it."

On a less global note, I interviewed for an internship at Walt Disney World today. I had to attend a presentation at 6:00 pm down at ASU. If I didn't attend the interview, I would be ineligible to apply. So a little after five I had gotten all business-casual and hopped in my car. I turned the key. The engine made a half-hearted attempt to start, realized that it was only lying to itself, and quit. I harnessed all my mechanical knowledge and plotted my next move. I sat for a minute, then turned the key again. An interesting noise, but little else. My car was not going anywhere very soon.

But I didn't share my car's stationary aspirations. I popped the trunk and whipped out my discount skateboard. Best 14 dollars I've ever spent. I grabbed the folder containing the printout of my online application, the resume I had worked on until three this morning, and of course, a pen, and rolled triumphantly towards ASU.

The interview was to be held in the Student Services Senter Ampitheater. I straightened myself up a bit and proceeded towards the entrance. As I was walking, I heard the enthusiastic voice of a certain Mikey Rodriguez. He was speaking to a a group of people in maroon shirts outside of Student Services. He finished whatever he was saying and began to walk in the direction opposite from me. Well, I would have none of that, so I sprinted towards him and tackled him. We talk for a minute and then he goes on his way. I was disheveled again, so I straightened myself out and walked in the Center. That's when I noticed that the glass walls, though difficult to see into from the outside due to the sunlight, provided a fine view of the outside to whomever might be gazing out of them. The one's gazing out this particular evening were the people I was going to try to impress in a few minutes. I played it cool, though.

Yeah, I tackled that guy. What, you want some?

No, the Disney Representatives just introduced themselves and bade me take a seat (probably for fear of being tackled.) I did just that, and the rest went as well as could be expected.

I don't know if I will be accepted. If I am, I don't know if I'll go. Seven months is a very long time. Orlando is very far away. Disney is very Disney.

Eh, I will burn that bridge when I come to it. I've just been running around setting up my options the way a little kid sets up dominos. I may not have much time, and there is still one domino, the most important one, yet unplaced.

I used to like dominos.