Dominic Deegan & The Fourth

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Guess who I sat next to all day and into the evening on the Charles River?

http://www.dominic-deegan.com/view.php?date=2010-07-05

“I drew today’s comic while sitting on the Esplanade in Boston yesterday. It was my attempt to continue an old Fourth of July holiday tradition where my friends gather on the shore of the Charles River and relax all day long until the fireworks light up the night sky.

I was the only one of my friends there this year. Still, I got some sun, got some work done (as much as was possible in the blistering heat) and made some new friends who were not only nice enough to keep me company but made sure I was nice and hydrated as well. Thanks John, Cindy, George, Francine, Alonzo and little Isabella.”

Yes. I’m that Cindy who insisted that our fair web comic hero drink our water.

On the flip side, we played Apples to Apples and Settlers of Catan while I broke out into hives from the sun. The fireworks were even more amazing than last year. A lot happens in a year. While I was watching the fireworks in the same place with many of the same people, we had changed.

The Boy was there; even though he and I have been split since the beginning of last October. It sounds like it’s the last time I’ll see him, however. Apparently I missed the memo that I’m not allowed to continue my pursuit of happiness and companionship after he dumped me. I’m seeing someone we’re both friends with and he’s decided this bothers him. He managed to take it out on a friend of ours more than me who is in no way involved. Classy.

Before anyone jumps to conclusions, we’ve been good enough not to kiss and whatnot when we’re around him. But apparently even just our meaningful glances and an arms around me as the fireworks went off was too much for him.

He wants to be the victim right now. He says we’re no longer friends.

I guess I’m supposed to pretend he didn’t dump me and that it hasn’t been many, many months since. I should feel we did something wrong and let him wallow. He tried to tell me we were being inappropriate, but hugging just doesn’t really capture the menace of what we did. He tried to make it sound like this was new or sneaky when its not. He’s known, but now it bothers him.

I don’t know why now. I don’t know why we even tried to be friends after at all. I told him I was going to pursue this guy and I did exactly that. I told him that I thought he’d hate me for it and he insisted that he might be a bit mad at first but he’d get over it. He insisted we’d still be friends.

So now comes the part where he either disappears from all social gatherings or tries to make it so I’m not welcome at them. This shouldn’t involve our mutual friends, but it will. That bothers me a lot.

I’m just trying to figure out where me and the guy that I AM seeing are, and instead I’m dealing with someone who dumped me quite awhile ago. I know it sounds like good riddance, but it’s like being dumped all over again. I am very loyal to my friends and I don’t take losing them well.

I hate to focus on the negative. The fireworks were amazing. The day was great fun. I stayed up into the wee hours of the morning with the guy I spent all day not kissing.

The good with the bad, it’s how the world works.

Fusion

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I’m supposed to understand your feigned confusion
at why I’ve moved on to try to find fusion,
find something that I thought we had until you ended.
I should stay solitary for you, ripped, raw, rendered.
I should let you play victim and pretend to play the victor.
My prize is that I lose you all over again, this time as a friend.
My reward is an uncertain something with a someone that could end.

Done Training

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Sometimes when I’m done training, I feel like a bobble head,

during a training, a sloth versus monkey.

The fish out of water, the kid in the corner,

the under dog, too old for new tricks, stolen thunder,

two seconds too late, over thinking what should calm contemplate,

the beginners mistakes, lessons sticking and slipping away.

Some things I enjoy, I have a natural talent in.

Some, I lag behind in.

On rare occasion, I have to remind myself I do it for the fun,

train for the challenge,

compete with myself no matter who is on the mat with me.

Colorblind to the belt, immune to the envy,

sometimes a single sweep a victory,

or just the heart I have to try and be here.

Sometimes when I’m done training, I feel like a better me,

who is never done training.

Kitchen Gadgets

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I enjoy kitchen gadgets and have several friends that do as well.

Lori just got a ‘newish’ coffee maker with a bunch of buttons:
http://chikblog.blogspot.com/2010/07/i-am-trying-out-my-new-coffee-maker.html

Some of us spend a lot money on fancy kitchen things, and then people like me get them from the thrift store.

I still am sad about the death of my four dollar thrift store electric iced tea maker. It met its untimely demise when it was plunged from the top of the refrigerator where many things lived due to having a very, very tiny kitchen.

RIP iced tea maker. Maybe I’ll find you reincarnated in a thrift store some day, and I shall again enjoy your iced lazy beverage.

Because I refuse to spend a lot on my kitchen gadget habit, some kitchen gadget friends can’t even cook in my kitchen. How do I get by without a fancy peeling device? Where is my flour sifter? (It’s in the studio being used to sift ceramic material… you don’t want to use it for flour). I didn’t have a garlic press for the longest time.

I like the gadgets because I find them fun much more than I find them a necessity. I got a very nice food processor this past Christmas, but before that I was more than content to use my blender or just chop finely in times where I did not have one.

If I could have a very expensive kitchen, I’d probably have one, but I really don’t mind using what I have.

I have a kitchen gadget friend who doesn’t have a lot of money but has always found money to spend on Stuff. For her, Stuff makes her happy, so much that I feel like I should capitalize it. Kitchen Stuff is one such category of happiness. She has a small toy car you can place garlic into to be chopped. There are rice molds to put sticky rice into fun shapes. A very tiny frying pan is a perfect size to cook a single egg in it.

I guess the flower carrot cutter does make the dish look like it came from a restaurant. A julienne machine certainly speeds up the cutting and likelihood of losing a finger, but a knife suits me fine.

She has a bamboo cutting board shaped like a fish, and I have a wooden one shaped like a cutting board. The only reason I own a bento box is because she gave me one out of her bag-full.

Don’t get me wrong, they’re fun toys, but they’re toys and I don’t need them in my kitchen to cook or bake to my heart’s content and enjoy the food produced. The basic tool gets the job done.

…however I do hope to plug in an iced tea maker again some day.