I was going to title this “A quick thought about awesome people I actually know”, but then I remembered that I haven’t ever actually met JR Blackwell (though we were at the same school for an overlapping year).

One of the things I love about the internet is how it allows you to get to know people. This is a dangerously double edged sword however. Sometimes I have to remind myself that I don’t actually *know* Neil Gaiman, though I do know the names of all of his children, his dog, and at least three of his cats. Nor do I know Heather Armstrong, though I have read in depth about her struggle with depression, her marriage, her child, and her poop. I don’t know Hava and Tadd, or their babies but for some reason I followed them through their experience in the NICU, and when they update about the babies now, I smile a little bit and feel happy.

I can’t explain why any of these people would want to share their private lives on the internet. I can look at the individuals and see what their particular motives may have been, and in all of them, it is Dooce’s blog that I feel most closely resembles what I am trying to achieve by writing on the internet. I doubt I will ever be as successful as she is, and that is fine.

Those are all awesome people, but I wanted to come back to some awesome people that I actually KNOW (or almost know).

Meg Favreau of Gladys Makes Things is one of my most serendipitous friends. We met at a They Might Be Giants show in downtown Denver in 2002. We bonded over blue hair and nose rings. She gave my brother and I a ride to our car in her awesome GMC truck. I WANTED that truck. Meg makes (and sells) not only things, but REALLY NEAT things. I own the shirt she is wearing in the picture. It is one of my favorite shirts ever. Right up there with my Batman shirt (little boy’s pj top with a cape).

Jared Axelrod is the creator of Free PlanetX. We were at Guilford College at the same time, and we were in an English class together. It was an English class that met at 9:30 on Tuesday morning September 11, 2001. I think Jared was there that day, at least he was in my memory, cause in my memory he was sitting next to me. The professor had us move our chairs into a circle, and we just talked about what was going on in the world for a couple of minutes before he dismissed the class to let us watch the news. Memory is a fallible beast, but in mine, I was sitting next to Jared Axelrod at a moment that my children will be reading about in their history books. Also, I was on his podcast once.

JR Blackwell is not someone I actually know. She is however, someone with whom I have exchanged electronic communication. She is someone who has followed her dreams, and she is someone that inspires me. Her art is very different from mine, but I love it all the more so for that. She seems very intentional, and I admire that very much. I’d also like to think that if I ever actually trek the two hours up 95 to Philly, I could call JR and Jared and we could probably get a beer or something.

As I have noted recently, I haven’t been around very much. This is for a couple of reasons, primarily that I have been holding down two part time jobs. Which wouldn’t be such a big deal except that one of them requires a metro and then a bus ride into suburban Maryland.

I have been working at the Apple store for about the last two months. It has been an incredibly wonderful and rewarding experience, something I would never have expected to say about retail once I started working in an office.

Last Friday I gave notice to my current employer. It is a feeling that would be familiar to anyone who has stayed in a relationship longer than they ought, the fear of leaving the familiar, the joy of leaving the frustrating, and the apprehension of the unknown.

It helps that I am not leaping blindly, without a plan, in fact I have a plan for the first time since I started college. It is a plan I have held to for a few months now, and it feels very right to me.

I post all of this because if I have any regular readers left, I feel I owe an explanation for my absence. Hopefully as the dust settles I can resume a more regular posting schedule.

PS- don’t ask me about the iPhone, I don’t know anything about it

1. KCRW Podcasts
2. iTunesU
3. Soccer and the pool tomorrow
4. The Corner
5. Margaritas with friends tomorrow evening

I gotta say, if I was a DC taxi driver trying to avoid paying the $1,000 fine I would not be waiting to pick up a fare at the Union Station taxi stand just before rush hour. According to WTOP nearly 95% of area taxis now have the time and distance meters, easily discernible from taxis without by a sticker in the passenger window. Walking past Union Station this morning however, a far fewer percentage of the taxis had the stickers than WTOP polled. By rough estimation I would say that around 60% of the taxis waiting in the queue were meter certified, the rest either were missing their sticker or had yet to make the switch.

Dear Mr. Safran Foer,
My name is Ariel Brandt, you assuredly don’t remember me from that time you stopped in Denver in 2006, in fact I would doubt you remember much other than your stupid book tour took you away from your then nine week old baby.
I was there, and I was thrilled and amazed by your talk, as I have been by your books. I am writing today to appeal to you. I miss your books. I have read everything you’ve written, to the point that I actually tracked down and bought the McSweeney’s compilation from whenever that was that your wonderful essay appeared (hey… I lent that to someone and I don’t remember who. O! Book-borrower! Please return my missing tome!).
Anyway, I am sitting here listening to Sufjan Stevens, downloading NPR podcasts and iTunesU pieces about… well, all sorts of things, and I was thinking “here it is, another summer of working in the real world, after a spring of spectacular non-fiction, and I surely wish there was some Jonathan Safran Foer to read”.
And I guess I could re-read Everything is Illuminated, or Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. And I expect that I will. But oh how I will sob. I will sob and sob and sob. I will be a sobbing sop. And that is fine… but I wonder if it indicates some sort of mental dysfunction that I would choose to cry and cry, knowing that the book will leave me a quivering heap.
I know that life is exciting and important, and so I guess I just really wanted to let you know that I am looking forward to your next literary endeavor, whenever it comes my way (soon?).
Best wishes,
Ariel Brandt (trying really hard to adjust to the mantle of “fan-girl”… ick)