2001-06-11 - 4:22 p.m.

the zipper

not that i'm one to quote lyrics instead of writing, but...

when the bible is a bottle/and the hardwood floor is home/when morning comes twice a day or not at all.

amen.

one more from that song...

when alchohol doesn't have much to say.

hmmmm....

i'm contemplating the big show tonight, and all the people i know who i've invited to witness my glory. i'm thinking i'm going to be wanting a couple of beers before i get up there. but of course, i promised myself no alchohol for the whole month of june.

damn me. i hate when i do that.

i'm really gonna want a couple of beers. but i'm not going to have them. i'm just not.

i was thinking earlier today about when jo3 and i were at summerfest in Milwaukee. we went over to the carnival ride area, and jo3 wanted to ride the zipper. it's one of those where you sit in a little cage, and the cage can rotate, and it's on a belt that spins around, and the axle of the belt spins. i'm not describing it well, but the main point here is that it has three axes of rotation, and when your at the perigee of all three you're going like four million miles an hour.

i didn't really want to ride it, but i'd had a couple of beers and i got talked into it. partly by jo3, but mostly by myself.

and i remember sitting there after being strapped in, and gripping the little bar in white-knuckled intensity. reciting the litany against fear (gotta love Frank). trying not to let on.

then we got to rolling, and i was pretty uncomfortable. then we hit that first time where we were at the crux of three axes of rotation, and we were going like four million miles an hour, upside down and falling. and i got this light-headed feeling and a weird tingly thing through my chest.

and i started laughing.

hysterically.

uncontrollably.

oh-my-frickin-god-i-can't-breathe laughing.

poor jo3 started laughing too and neither of us could breathe. he kept saying "stop it" really weakly between gales of laughter. but i couldn't. we staggered off that thing like we were just off the summit of everest. out of breath, and dopey.

if we play tonight the way we did last night when rehearsing, i fully expect to stagger off the stage in the same state.