They call me paranoid

Today Mike asked me if I wanted to go to the Milwaukee Art Museum. I said I did, but felt a small nugget of dread in the pit of my stomach. After all, Liz goes to the art museum.

Y'all remember Liz, don't you? Liz, the woman who spent all last fall telling me what a lousy friend I was; who spent all winter ignoring me except to send long, navel-gazing emails; who tried to renew our friendship in the spring only to freak out when I told her I was engaged and spent the months of March and April wailing and gnashing her teeth because I was abandoning her and refusing to sleep with her.

Yeah, you remember.

Anyway, Liz lives in Waukesha, which is a city right next to Milwaukee. Liz liked to come to Milwaukee sometimes to enjoy some of our more culture-filled or funky neighborhoods, such as the Third Ward or the East Side, which is where I live. I imagine she still likes to come. I wouldn't know for sure...the last time she contacted me was on April 20th.

I'm fairly sure that Liz won't contact me again without provocation. However, if we bumped into each other out in public, I'm not sure what she'd do. I do think, though, that she wouldn't just ignore me and let me go.

Now, I know that we live in sizable cities. Milwaukee has upwards of 583,000 people, and Waukesha has nearly 65,000. Neither of us work in Milwaukee or Waukesha, we don't have the same religion that would lead us to the same church, we don't belong to the same organizations, and she only came to Milwaukee once in awhile for recreational purposes. So it's not like I'm going to bump into her every other week. That being said, though, there are things that we both enjoy that we might frequent...things like Milwaukee's eclectic antique shops, fresh-food market, ethnic festivals, independent bookstores, and cozy bars. I'm more likely to run into Liz than I am your average tourist, just because we have more in common.

So whenever I've been in Milwaukee, I've been worried. Actually, paranoid is a more appropriate word. Whenever I pass a silver Volkswagen I always check the plate to see if it's Liz's. Whenever I feel like a car is following me I always check the driver to see if it's her. Whenever I'm out in public I keep an eye out for her face and an ear out for her voice. And I always, always, worry that somehow she'll find out where my wedding is and crash it. Liz was one of the reasons I didn't bother to send an engagement announcement to the newspaper.

I can't help but worry, but I can help the actions that I take. And I'll be damned if I don't get out and enjoy my new neighborhood because of her. So I still go out walking. I still drive down Water Street, the long street that winds through the Third Ward and offers impressive views of the tall, tall buildings. And I still went to the art museum today with Mike, walking hand in hand and determined to enjoy the day.

YouTube!

This morning Mike and I were making good use of YouTube...I was watching the video for Frontier Psychiatry by the Avalanches while Mike watched the video for Crazy by Gnarls Barkley.

I <3 YouTube.

The Cats Return

I'm trapped in the back bedroom.

Send help, preferably someone bringing me a Mountain Dew.

Today I went and got my cats from my parents' house. I'd been keeping them there until we had unpacked. Well, we aren't unpacked yet but I can only let my little friends intrude on my parents' hospitality for so long, so Mike and I tried to clear up the bedroom as best we could for them.

The ride to Milwaukee was long. It was made longer by the fact that Rusty decided to pee in his carrier where, like an idiot, I had taken out his fleece blanket without replacing it. Why did I take out the fleece blanket? Because he had peed on it during the ride to my parents'. So a passerby at the BP by the interstate would have seen me sitting in my car, weilding a towel that I had found in my trunk, and mopping off Rusty's backside while he looked out the window and meowed at passing 18-wheelers.

Once we got back to the house I put Rusty and Cider in the bedroom, and here we've sat for most of the evening. At first Edison put up a fuss, standing outside the door and saying, "Mrow! Mrow! Mrow! Mrow!" So I went out to see him, and as soon as the door was shut I heard Rusty on the other side saying, "Mrow! Mrow! Mrow! Mrow!" They've kept at it in that pattern for awhile.

It's been a fun evening.

So yeah, send someone to rescue me. And tell him to bring a 2 liter of something...we've been out of soda for days, and I'm so sick of pink lemonade.

Flotsam & Jetsam

Today I moved in with Mike. It's very nice to be under the same roof, and it'll be even nicer when Rusty and Cider get introduced to the apartment on Tuesday. One of the things that I've noticed that I just took for granted before was how strange some of the things in Mike's apartment are. I guess it's more noticible now that I'm moving things around to make room for my stuff, and comparing his things with my fairly dull possessions.

Anyway, here are some of the highlights:

- At least two gas masks

- A skull, possibly from an antelope

- A riot helmet

- An accordion

- An ancient typewriter

- One of those capsules that they send through the air tubes at bank drive-ups

- At least two mannequin heads that beauty school students use to learn to cut hair

- A ROB robot from an old Nintendo game

- A Geiger counter

I think that the most wacky things I have are two Hummel statues that I got when my grandparents died. And they aren't even real Hummels, they're knockoffs.

I like living here.

Dance, dance, dance

This guy has some pretty hilarious dance moves.