The four day Independence Day weekend is somewhat marred by a persistent sore throat and cough, but I make the best of the time away from work.
Thursday I get out for a bicycle ride and read the newspaper. Person J_VKPI comes over and we go down to the beach to rollerblade. Except that the place that I usually go will not rent rollerblades due to insurance liability issues. I plead to purchase a pair of used rollerblades (for Person J_VKPI) with the agreement that the shop will buy them back from us in two hours. This final attempt is turned down, so Person J_VKPI and I go walking and wandering around the pier. I consider, again, whether to keep walking off the end of the pier, but Person J_VKPI talks me out of it.
Later in the day we go home and surf the Internet together and then do a few other activities. It seems that the neighbors may have heard us during the other activities because they are gathered outside the front of their house as we are leaving and they are giving us a strange look before one says, "Having fun?"
I know that they know. So I just give the, "You know it!", answer. And they start smiling knowingly.
As I'm returning home there is a gorgeous sunset with oranges, reds, purples, and pinks framing the tall buildings in downtown Los Angeles.
I return home in time to protect Nopey from the real and imagined threat of the firecrackers, bombs, and noise-making gizmos that people have at this time of year and that Nopey hates. He is terrified, but he does make it through the night unscathed. (Though he did break all of the "no carpet" rules - as is allowed during this holiday.)
Friday sees a good morning walk, more newspaper reading, a bicycle ride, and rollerblading near the ocean with Person N_Y. We rollerblade for two hours while absorbing the sun and the wind. We grab a quick dinner and I head off to prepare for the remainder of the evening.
The telephone is ringing off the hook with phone calls from Brandon, Joe, Person J_VKPI, Person Roy, and somebody else (though I can't remember who now). Soon I'm picking up Person Roy to head over to Fire Island to listen to music. It is crowded and the music is pretty good, but I don't really enjoy myself that much. At the 1am designated leave time, Person Roy and I are headed for home.
After dropping Person Roy off I come home to find that Nopey has had a little accident. As I clean up after him, I console him and have a heart-to- heart talk with him. "Nopesterini, I'm going to assume that you were excessively scared from the fireworks. But you need to promise that when you know that it is time to leave, that you do it. I know that this is sometimes a sign that "the time" is getting close, so you can go ahead and leave when you feel that you need to." I'm almost in tears as I say this to Nopey and stroke his head and ears.
I'm up at 6:30 am on Saturday to do the laundry, lift weights, and read some email before embarking on the 40 mile bicycle ride with the neighbor. We go exploring near the Whittier Narrows Dam and have fun.
I grab a quick blood sugar fix and head to the Convention Center in Long Beach for the Anime Expo (Festival of Japanese Animation). I am absolutely staggered by a line which is literally one mile long! An expected delay of more than an hour to get in. Instead I take a seat and watch people - trying to plan my course of action. I notice that these are my kind of people: multi-colored hair, artists, techno-geeks, flakes, dorks, and those beyond repair. I'm sitting down when the cutest ChiChi walks by as he stands in line: dark black hair with blue neon streaks, cute smile, enthusiastic eyes, compact size, and energetic. I can do nothing now except stare. The ChiChi sees me staring and gives a courtesous smile back and continues talking with his friend. I remain seated. I am not about to jump into this situation. I am committed to someone else.
And I plan to get to the convention center early on Sunday to beat the final days' crowd.
There is a telephone call from Person M_USC. Person M_USC is someone who I have never met but who is in Long Beach looking for an apartment and who I offered to go around with. We meet up at a coffeehouse and have refreshments before looking/searching for a number of places. Three hours later I am saying goodbye as I need to prepare for the evening out.
This is to be an interesting evening at Club Asia when Person J_VKPI will be meeting Brandon, Joe, Person Roy, Person Ray, and other friends and acquaintances. Most of us arrive near 11pm and introductions are made. Person J_VKPI and Person Roy go off and have a side conversation while Ralph, Brandon, Joe, and I go wander through the club. Brandon and Ralph hit it off well and they have a lot of fun on the dance floor. Eventually Person J_VKPI rejoins me after a very long and sincere discussion with Person Roy. The club closes at 2am and has to throw some of us out in order to get us to leave. We continue the discussions on the sidewalk until late.
We make it to bed at 3am on Saturday night. The alarm goes off at 6am on Sunday morning as Person J_VKPI has to meet his grandfather at 7:30 am. Seeing that I am awake, I watch the British Grand Prix (in the partial wet conditions) and then head for the Long Beach Convention Center for the Anime Expo (with digital camera in hand). This time the line is longer! It winds back upon itself a number of times from the entrance of the convention center to Ocean Blvd and back and forth and back and forth. But 40 minutes after the doors open I am walking inside the expo.
I buy some souvenirs and talk with some people and enjoy the people. These are my type of people! And I also take a lot of pictures of people even though I haven't the faintest idea who most of the characters are. There are about 10 ChiChis who I would usually ask, "Wanna f*#&?". But because I am committed to someone else, these conversations are only imagined in my head.
After a quick lunch I'm out mowing and edging the lawn with Nopesterini wandering (leashless) around the neighborhood. It is in the middle of the day and it is hot, but he enjoys himself and doesn't mind getting tired if he's off the leash. Person Roy calls and pretty soon I'm back down near the ocean rollerblading. After about a half hour, Person Roy and Ralph are waiving to some other rollerbladers - not people that they know, but people that they want to know. After we discuss the situation for 10 minutes, I am designated to go chase them down so that Person Roy and Ralph can be introduced to them. The rollerbladers now have a ten minute start, but the "patented Manning power stride" is soon pulling back huge chunks of time despite going into the wind. After about 2 or 3 miles I have caught up to the rollerbladers and explain that they may not know me or my friends, but my friends want to meet them. I give a few more details and soon the rollerbladers say that they will be returning to where Person Roy and Ralph are in a short amount of time. So I head back to where Person Roy and Ralph are - and I'm starting to crash because I've been on my feet all day after just three hours of sleep. Now I explain to Person Roy and Ralph the story and tellthem that I need to leave because I am crashing.
But the weekend is not over. No, it could not be that simple. Sunday evening, after taking an Actifed a few hours earlier to help me sleep (like I need the Actifed to help me sleep), the house turns into Grand Central Station. Mom and Dan come by to borrow the camcorder. (And they both say that I look beat.) The telephones are ringing off the hook. But fortunately there are no police officers or state department officials knocking on the front door. I am asleep in bed by 9pm.