July 27 - Great Eastern Tour Day 11

Piano pieces: 10
Pizza slices: 3
Introductions: 1

10:35 a.m. - The humidity is nearly unbearable. Any attempt at a long run will render me incapable of breathing not long into the process. Take a shorter route, just going around the neighborhood. The run is more for the sake of not feeling lazy than anything else. Given the rate and distance, it served little function more than an accelerated heart rate.

12:25 p.m. - House to myself - brother is working and Mom is at lunch with former boss. Perfect opportunity to make love to the piano. The sound is excellent as it was just tuned a week ago, despite Dad's protestations. He doesn't understand that the piano must still be tuned even if no one plays it, or else it will be untuneable in the future, something I find totally unacceptable. Get through only a small portion of the books before fingers start to cramp. Curse my weakness and fervently wish the piano were more easy to move to Missouri.

4:30 p.m. - Meet Dad at mechanic's after dropping off my car. The goal is to figure out why reverse lights will only work when gear shift is jiggled. Pray they find nothing else wrong in the process, as is typically the case with my car.

5:04 p.m. - Baby brother and his girlfriend are walking back from swimming as I pull into the garage with Dad's car. Avoid awkward introductions by scooting inside to escape mosquitos. Brother forces introductions after bug bites are tended to, and girlfriend tentatively goes in for a handshake. The moment is awkward as I'm not expecting a handshake from one who is significanly younger than me, and a girl. Girls tend to not do those things. But the gesture is appreciated. However, I'll still break her if she hurts baby brother.

6:34 p.m. - "Carina Wyzmerski's in love with me."
"What?"
"LOL - doesn't that mean 'lots of love' or 'lots of luck'?"
"No, Dad, it means 'laughing out loud'."
"Okay, good. I was beginning to feel a bit flattered there for a minute."

7:07 p.m. - Pizza finally arrives. Feel bad for delivery guy once we hear he was stuck by 3 trains. Recall one time a stopped train cut the town in half and I couldn't get home after the SATs. It's the only reason I forgive delivery boy for causing me to starve so long. We confuse the girlfriend with half an episode of The West Wing before Dad returns and we start Pirates of the Carribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl.

10:11 p.m. - Having seen the first Pirates movie again, am now feeling more prepared to view the second one this weekend. Wonder if Dad has inherited some deafness from Grandma, as he had a very hard time hearing what the characters were saying. Hope it will be better in the theater, since there is no pause button.