Pretty goooood.

Mad science

Sept. 18, 2010

My memories from Friday night were strangely coherent as I woke up Saturday morning: the coffee shop, the girl with the wax on her face, some hippie bar with cheap beer, the caveman guy with a wide-open Hawaiian shirt, a bigass red Cadillac, too much talk about money and science, a near hit ('n run), very loud vocal impressions of dub-step music, a free ride in some dude's pickup truck, a fall into the river, creeping through the woods, being chased off by security, a handful of aggressive drug salesmen, and a long trek through a loud canyon.

I was wide awake, but stayed in my sleeping bag at least a half hour anyway. The basement smelled like greasy broccoli.

It was 10 a.m. and I was in a mad scientist's den. Next to me was a tall stack of mason jars, some random parts of electronic equipment, a few scattered pieces of clothing and a couple curious-looking (closed) boxes. Also there was a Pop-tarts wrapper – I ate a couple s'more-style snacks the night before. Strewn throughout the rest of the apartment were several plastic tubes, a doctor's mask, a couple 5-gallon containers full of brown liquid, a partly disassembled CPU, many more jars (some empty, some not and some I wasn't sure about), a variety of plants, a projector, a scale, a box full of what appeared to be torn pieces of cardboard, six small bottles of hair spray (colors: red, green, orange, yellow, violet and indigo), compost in a small plastic container, a box of OxiClean, an Einstein quote on the wall, a few bottles of liquor and a paperback copy of "Adventures in Space and Time."

By the time I finally stood up there were people talking in the other room. Someone was cooking.

These notes begin a few minutes after I walked into the other room and discovered the broccoli smell was indeed broccoli — and eggs, onions, bacon and who knows what else. It tasted good. Anyway, someone said something about energy/life/matter/physics/etc. and that triggered my first note, labeled 10:43 a.m.: "I need to write this shit down." Here's the rest.

10:50 a.m. - "We are spiritual beings in biological jumpsuits."

11:02 a.m. - Dub-step impressions, McDonald's commercials..."right when I connected with the mothership. Woo!"

11:15 a.m. - Walking towards downtown. Discussion about investing in gold. Money is worthless. Glenn Beck.

11:17 a.m. - "A bird doesn't come up with a new way to catch a fish!"

11:40 a.m. - Talk of the worthlessness of money is peppered by stops at ATMs.

12:06 p.m. - DIY Fort Collins. Homemade beer, other intoxicants.

12:25 p.m. - Tourist shop. Cowboy hats and dreamcatchers. I'm back in Santa Fe.

1:01 p.m. - Sustainable Living Fair. Little girl to her mom: "I'm going to start eating healthy foods."

1: 07 p.m. Wind turbine. P = 1/2 x M x A x V(cubed). Everyone is wearing dirty sandals.

2:06 p.m. - Got a beer. Author: "Some people say the sustainability movement is just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. If it is, let's put all the chairs in a circle and have a good time."

2:15 p.m. - Sitting on a hay bail. Author: "Pretty much all ya'll are going to have to live in a shack and shit in a bucket if you're serious about this."

3:01 p.m. - "I was getting such a sick vibe from her. When I sat down, I could just feel her presence."

3:12 p.m. - Plants. "What we want to do is harness the life force." (2nd IPA)

3:56 p.m. - One of the hippies stole my beer glass. Big surprise.

4:12 p.m. - Worm lady: "You just want to know to help you grow your pot plants." Wrong, lady.

4:40 p.m. - "Karma killed the bee."

5:11 p.m. - Banjos. Mead.

5:40 p.m. - "It's like eating a sandwich, if me and the sandwich are both drunk."

6:50 p.m. - Little girl falls off a hay bail on her face.

LOTS OF DANCING AND BEER

7:54 p.m. - "The earth is too big to stay in one place."

8:12 p.m. - "I don't have a problem with smart people having a butt ton of kids."

8:16 p.m. - "I should just open a credit card and fucking go apeshit." - one dude. "You don't have to pay it back." - another dude

10:46 p.m. - At the coffee shop. "We're trapped in this life to figure something out about the proclamation of God. And when we do, we know why."

11:15 p.m. - "This third dimension is such a small part of what there is. Hey, what's up dudes?"

11:16 p.m. - "Egyptians, three pyramids, clones and shit."

1:22 a.m. - Drunk. Eating chocolate chip pancakes at a Christian coffee shop.

2:22 a.m. - Back at the house. It smells like puke. Tired of conversations about (illegible) and the law. Who does jury duty anyway?

The puke smell, apparently, was caused by the oven being left on all day and night. Presently, I'm back in New Mex and about to fill out the forms for jury duty. Peace.