« April 2005 | Main | June 2005 »

May 30, 2005

Kissing The Legless: Part Quattro

The drugs are kicking in. Their effects have been increasingly intensifying with every pill that I take, and by the time it came around to pop in my tenth baby I was flying. I like the high that OxyContin gives me; it's a very mellow trip, kinda like that one time I got smoked out by my cousin. I'm listening to the Gotan Project right now and it's the perfect soundtrack.

My surgery is tomorrow and I'm starting to get a little nervous. I'm not really worried about losing a foot or even my life, but just the thought of going under the knife is enough to send shivers up my spine. It's a little comforting knowing that I am in going to operated by a well-known surgeon though.

What I'm most scared of, however, has nothing to do with the surgery. I'm worried that I won't be able to walk normally, to partake in everyday activities that I way too often take for granted. Dancing is out of the question. Cynthia's birthday is coming up, and as much as I would like to jump on her enormous trampoline, I will probably have to skip doing that this year. I wonder what changes I will have to make with my lifestyle after tomorrow. It's always scary, this feeling of uncertainty.

Posted by Charlie at 11:25 PM | Comments (1)

May 29, 2005

Kissing The Legless: Part Trois

I'm on OxyContin now to help deal with the pain in my ankle, and for some reason it's not working. I'm not sure what the deal is... with all the media attention paid towards this drug you would think that it would do miracles for the burning sensations, but all I get is a five-minute drowsy high. So far I'm not impressed.

Posted by Charlie at 01:57 PM | Comments (0)

May 26, 2005

Kissing The Legless: Part Deux

I've been doing a lot of internalizing lately. Well, not such much internalizing as just laying on my ass while staring at the ceiling. Is there some sort of cosmic purpose in all of this? I wonder if my breaking my ankle is a sign that I'm going to have remain in Seattle for just a while longer, or an indication that I must leave the perpetually wet climate here.

On the contrary the weather has been really nice. Or at least that's what I can see from the living room window. It looks like there aren't any clouds in the sky, and it looks pretty hot out, but I haven't had the chance to experience the outdoors yet, save for the time I went to the hospital. If there is one (actually two, which I'll explain later) snag in this experience, it's not being able to enjoy the sunlight. My social life as literally come to a halt, and my world is now revolving around my computer.

Another worrisome cloud over my head is going about paying the medical bills for my [uninsured] ass. This accident couldn't have come at a worse time, when I'm finally adjusting back to everyday life in Seattle, and right in amidst of my job hunting! Looks like I'm going to be spending the next few months/years paying off this hefty bill. I swear, God/Buddha/Allah/Kylie had something to do with this, and I don't like it one bit.

Other than those two little blips, I'm in surprisingly good spirits. Surgery is set for next Tuesday, and I'm having one of the biggest names in orthopedics in the country operate on my foot. It's kinda like having Rem Koolhaas working on the design of your dream house, except on a much more localized and unsexy scale. My crutches are giving me a good workout; my arms are starting to inflate like balloons. AND I'm finally catching up on my cinema; ever seen National Treasure? Don't. It sucks.

Posted by Charlie at 09:01 PM | Comments (3)

May 22, 2005

Kissing The Legless: Part One

Last Saturday, in the most unfashionable fashion, I fucking broke my ankle bone. I wish there was some sort of epic storyline behind to this, like if say Tonya Harding hired her boyfriend to come club me in the the foot, but alas, I just slipped on some wet moss and down I went. I thought I had sprained an ankle - people who sprain their ankles crawl up stairs to get to bed, don't they? - but a visit to the doctor the next day suggested otherwise. Turns out I'm going to have to get an operation to put a metal plate and some screws in my foot so the ligaments can heal properly. Wow, serious news.

I've been smiling and pretty positive through this entire process, and people are surprised that I would be. Why wouldn't I? There's no point in getting depressed about this; shit like this happens to the best of us and can only make us stronger. At least that's what I'm telling myself now. Besides, it's going to be eerily appealing to know that I can put a magnet on my foot and it will stick. Going through airport security is never going to be the same, that's for sure.

More to come...

Posted by Charlie at 10:59 PM | Comments (3)

May 21, 2005

Normalcy

I'm finally starting to situate myself very nicely back in Seattle. After a sweet see-you-later of sorts to the rest of the crew members, I come home to an empty house and an uncertain future. After two months of a fast-paced life of activity fairs, speeches, interviews, and sightseeing, it all seems so surreal to see it finally at an end. I don't have any more obligations from this day forward; my life is now an empty slate. I have so many plans as what I want to do with my future, but I'm not sure I'm brave enough to go through with any of them yet. I think my best bet now is to find a job here in Seattle and save enough to move wherever life takes me.

It's weird, not being around the rest of the crew. We were so quickly placed in a situation where we had to work, sleep, eat, and drive together for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and now, just as quickly, they're gone. I'm very impressed that we managed not to kill each other. As a matter of fact, I'd like to think that we became really good friends. I'm going to miss Ashley's laughter, Geetha's impeccable acumen, Aaron's dance moves, and Jamie's cooking. I mean, I'll still see them around -- we're planning on a little reunion of sorts in Boise this summer -- but to not be able to indulge in a random inside joke whenever we wanted is going to take some getting used to.

Like Geetha, I'm still going through the processing. While I sincerely believe that Generation MIX was a huge success in raising national attention and dialogue on mixed-race issues in America today, I don't think we'll be able to see any sort of quantifiable measurement of impact until months, years into the future. It will be interesting to observe what comes out on the national level because of programs like Generation MIX...

Posted by Charlie at 02:43 PM

May 16, 2005

Playstation 3

Yeah, I know Microsoft introduced the XBOX 360 last week, but I think Sony's design for their upcoming next-generation console is so very sexier. It's supposedly 35 times more powerful than the Playstation 2. Now that's hot.

Posted by Charlie at 10:05 PM | Comments (0)

May 15, 2005

Sydney, Australia

I didn't find this out until just recently, but my parents had originally planned on moving to Sydney, Australia when I was around three or so, but for whatever reason still unbeknown to me that plan obviously didn't happen. It's a little weird, thinking that I could've been raised with an Australian accent, and a little hot, knowing that I could've been raised in a world of perpetual sunshine.

Posted by Charlie at 11:29 PM | Comments (0)

May 10, 2005

Home Sweet Home

We're back! After driving through the Cascade Mountains in the rain and fog, in pitch darkness and with one working headlight, I am more than euphoric to see the familiar Seattle skyline over the horizon. Even though it's pouring rain and a dense fog is covering much of the city, Seattle has never looked more beautiful in my eyes. It's good to finally be home.

Work is far from over, however! We have one more event Tuesday, May 10th at the Garfield Community Center, as well as a few more speaking engagements in the Seattle area. We also have an evaluation period with Mavin to hammer out any nicks so we can make potential subsequent Tours be even more successful. Maybe it's just me, but if I had to change one thing about this Tour it would be the opportunity to spend more time in all the cities that we visited.

It's hard for me right now to articulate all that I've learned and shared in the past five weeks, as I still haven't had the time to process all that has happened while embarking on this Tour. Questions about Generation MIX's influences, consequences, and aftereffects still linger in my head, and I don't think they can be answered until weeks, months into the future. I do hope that Generation MIX succeeded in their mission to jumpstart dialogue, in that people who came to our events would go back to their homes, sit around the dinner table, and begin the converation with, "Guess where I was today..." That will be totally worth it, to me.

Posted by Charlie at 01:35 AM | Comments (2)

May 03, 2005

Teriyaki Children

Apparently I feel that there is an analogy pertaining to chicken teriyaki and multiracial children. Check this article out. It is sooo out of control.

Posted by Charlie at 09:15 PM | Comments (3)

Spring Cleaning

While in Ann Arbor we took advantage of our down time to finally (FINALLY!) clean up the RV. From the mildewed carpet, broken blinds, scattered clothes, the pork tamales leftover from Texas, and the occasional wafts of odor coming from the toilet, this place was in dire need of a makeover. We vacuumed, organized, scrubbed, fixed, polished, wiped, sprayed, and dusted. Now the RV is clean again, and all is right with the world.

Posted by Charlie at 08:13 AM | Comments (0)

May 01, 2005

Gwenihana

I posted something about this a while back, but it looks like people are starting to take note on the four inconspicuous fashion dolls that follow Gwen Stefani around like lost puppies. Even Salon.com has an article about this trend of the most racist proportions. Let's free the Harajuku Girls!

Posted by Charlie at 09:31 AM | Comments (0)

Wham Bam

Between driving from Boston to DC, from Philadelphia to New York, New Haven to wherever, the days are rapidly starting to blur with one another. This morning as we were on the George Washington Bridge I am staring at the Manhattan skyline thinking that I've seen it before, when in fact I was just there the prior morning. I'm not really sure what day it is today - is it Friday already? I can't tell.

While I may not know exactly what day it is or what city we're in, one thing's for certain: I am very much enjoying this wonderful opportunity, educating others and sharing personal stories, hopefully changing people's views on race in that it's much more diverse, complex, and beautiful than just a black/white binary. Although the keynote speeches and discussions have been very productive, I am more enjoying the one-on-one conversations with everyone. Just taking the time to listen in-depth to people's stories is very inspiring to me, and it is, to me, a more comfortable environment for interaction than in a group setting where I'm just mostly listening.

It feels funny that this trip will soon be at an end. We have something like a week left on the Tour, I think, and it will be weird saying goodbye to my fellow crew members. For the past six weeks we've been eating, working, sleeping, and driving together, and I consider it a real miracle that we didn't get at each other's throats (yet). We've gotten pretty close in those weeks (I hope), and life after the Tour will be pretty surreal in the following weeks because they're not going to be around...

Posted by Charlie at 08:11 AM | Comments (0)