Ad Infinitum

A year ago today, I updated my webcam picture. Since then, Brent has aquired it and uses it to communicate, perhaps through dance, to his significant other. There is a new picture now, shot by the dutiful aim of my iMac’s iSight. Take in the warm, rich atmosphere of my shared office. Marvel at my ridiculous mustache. Yes, I am getting it trimmed soon. No, I am not doing it by my own will.

Looking at my old photo was weird, primarily due to the time in which I took that photo. Obviously I was on a big D&D kick, playing with all sorts of miniatures as my 3.5 real-life campaign was mid-swing by then. It was also around this time last year that my uncle Scott passed away. At times it feels like it hasn’t been very long, while other moments it seems like a long while has passed since now and then. Funny, how some memories seem so recent and others so far away.

Two years ago I had a blazing hot summer with Austin’s grad party and all sorts of fun. There was a rob campaign at the tail-end of May, but that ultimately burnt out before my own did. I recall, and you may as well, how fervent I was at trying to make last year’s summer as fun as the one prior to it. I tried very hard and at the end of it all, felt like I had failed somehow. Looking back on that summer now that we’ve arrived at this one, I can safely say that I am a fool. Last summer saw me kicking off my first full party D&D campaign, the complete revising of the garage thanks to a combined effort on several people’s parts, and many smaller parties instead of one big fuck-all grad party. There were sorrowful times interspersed, and I suppose that is what made me feel like it wasn’t as fun. Compared to last summer, what we have going on now is peanuts. By this time last year, we were knee-deep in reconstruction.

Now, that isn’t to say we aren’t doing anything between now and the end of summer. Or, hell, now and the end of June, when summer “officially” starts. With Brent’s grad party looming, we have a lot of yardwork to do. I’ve stressed that before, sure, but there’s also going to be some focus on the interior as well. We’re having new doors put up throughout the house, and I am going to hopefully buy a dutch-door for the garage. The current door is a thorn in my side and a sore on the eye of any who look upon it. I’d very much like the garage to be used more, and I feel the summer may allow for this. I know it would do well to ease some of the issues my mom has with feeling like her house is a 24/7 frat party. I always thought of it more like a big dwarven feasting hall, but I concede to her point come the morning after when the place is trashed and there are few beards to be seen but many a drunken, passed out HS senior. Back to the main point, we’re also re-carpeting the living room area, which no one uses and indeed serves only as a repository for dog urine. That fact alone would persuade me to simply cordone off the area and leave it to it’s own hellish devices, but then there is the worrisome issue of it being the first major room when you walk in the house. The aroma, nay, the very essence of our house has been so explicitly tied to that smell that we cannot remember an age otherwise. This, I feel, cannot be remedied but may at least be reprieved for the time being.

Big purchases, an office move, legitimate college for some, new jobs and new homes for others… Summer has a lot in store. I do need to try out D&D 4.0′s combat sometime, if you’re interested. Any actual campaign this summer would fall weekly on a Wednesday, I wager. I am not sure if one would even be feasible. Time will tell, as always.