woke up, online'd a little, helped someone on lambda that i know with her resume. got a random call in the morning about a standard toyota corolla at a mitsubishi dealer. after getting ready and hand copying te 'twenty interior and exterior things to check for' bits from the used car guides, we hit the road.

test drive. uneventful. verbose salesman who 'wanted to sell a car today!' when he asked what he could do to have me in a new car today, i said, 'nothing, really.' and grinned. no sense being hostile. he wasn't bad, really. a nice guy from the looks of it, older with a reedy look that reminded me of the political consultant from the book primary colors. but without the perverse undercurrents.

swung by compusa, got system 8.5; geek and loooooving it! no dice on a 4.5 gig internal drive, though; i want to have 8.5 running on that, mom's 230 running as my temp/swap drive, and my 500 in her machine. playful reshuffling of the house's storage resources. i'd also like to nab a copy of 'return fire II' for juanita, but we can't always get what we want.

upon return i got my hair cut, started cleaning, had system 8.5 installing. zow, it's big! zow, it's sexy! i cleared off a jaz disk for it.

no call from alison.

cleaned more, called the guys (on the data line so i wouldn't miss a call), and discovered that the hardcore show stared at *6* rather than *7*... aich! i doubted, somehow, that there would be time to get there. but as time stretched on and my desk became infitessimally clearer no phone call came. at 4;30 i was getting concerned; we were to meet on the steps of BGC museum from 4-5, and now... who knows?

finally at 5:00 i was freaking. not yelling screaming but bouncing around and gritting my teeth and /scrambling/ to finish the house stuff and cursing myself for getting system 8.5 when there was so little TIME. i cruised off in the rain, backpack stuffed, mentos in my pocket, 'love songs' playing on the tape deck.

made it, with rain getting heavier. parked and jogged to the steps, wishing i remembered what her car looked like and fearing that she had waited and left. "do you reall want this?" she had asked me the night before. "just /be/ there," she had joked when i said yes. imagining the repercussions made me bite my cheek.

so i walked inside, thinking she might be in there. tapestries were on display and every movement in the corner of my eye caused a jump. i wandered around and as my eyes swept over the card for two of the tapestries, i stared. that artist's name was 'alison faith bixler.' one l, perfectly spelled. i stared, for the briefest second thinking that she had left some sort of note to express her annoyance and eternal abandonment of the idea of meeting me. but it was inside the case, preserved forever like art, and after a few shakes i realized it was only a strange coincidence. an omen or a sign of something.

i walked through the BGC exits -- jogged more like it. emerged and looked around the foyer again, chewing my lip. 5:15. pushing the heavy doors aside, i walked back out into the rain.

I heard a gasp.

and she was there, standing in the rain, and i laughed out loud. she had lost my number, called home, failed to find it there, called information, discovered my number was unlisted, and hijacked a library computer to send me email. but lo, my 8.5 install left me email-less for the afternoon -- i never received it. we laughed and smiled and i was nervous and natural at the same time.

we walked towards the cars and it started raining; hiding under a tree we talked about what was up, what her plans were, and danced around anything substantial. re-acquainted ourselves with each others' speech and smiles and shrugs and movements. finally we were home, and she met mom briefly -- then off to bob evans where we sat and talked. we had the corner table, and a light was directly ove rher head. we joked about being in the spotlight and i got to watch her and talk and listen to her childhood stories and daily foo.

she ordered cinnamon pancakes and blue kool-aid!

there was a lot of joking. wisecracking on my part. i don't know why; either i was scared of what was under my jokes or i loved hearing her laugh or both. she had ten dollars to her name and the bill was only 11.56 so i covered it, writing it off as 'my lemonheads budget.' by the time we got outside, it was cats and dogs again. we ran to the car and got soaked and laughed and hid in the front seats, warming by the heater.

we went to borders and wandered, smiling and talking and browsing and laughing. kellen was there, unexplainably, and stalked me until alison noticed him. we odered chais and wandered until we found places to sit.

"Don't look!" she turned around to adjust her contacts.
"I'm staring."
"You wouldn't dare!"
"You'll never know."
She turned around and mock-glared at me. "You are. I should've known."
I looked down self-consciously and toyed with a calendar, smiling as if it didn't mean anything.

on the way back to the house i told her about Caleb. she laughed.
"It's you, Jeff!"
"No it isn't! I'm not bipolar, and i'm not a hacker!"
"But you could be. A hacker, that is. If you used your powers for evil instead of good." she remembered, then, the part in microserfs about hackers being cool, because they were able to create a new crime.

we watched veggie tales and she laughed often and enjoyed it. she sang along with the larry boy video and giggled at mr. lunt's love song for a cheeseburger. she asked if she could take off her shoes, and i said i was about to -- "My, that's quite forward of you!" and I laughed. she took hers off, and i offered the couch, realizing she was on the rocker; we curled up on it, i on my side and she on hers. and watched.

after the videos ended we talked and laughed and she asked about kansas; i told her why i was afraid of moving but didn't tell her i hated the distance it would put between us. she stole my mentos while we talked, and yawned, and I poked her shoulder.

"You're tired."
"no I'm not!"
"You yawned."
"I didn't."

I poked her blue-socked foot and smirked; she stood up and stretched to prove her point, and we slid around on the hard wood floors. sock-skating!

eventually she had to leave; i said she was my friend, and she had a long drive ahead. i couldn't keep her and would have to push her to the car. i hugged her tight and shook her, and then walked her to the car and hugged her awkwardly as she sat down, praying for her trip and her heart and her family. i was soaked in the downpour, water running down my face, and she kissed my ear and smiled. and then drove off.

11:15. six hours.

i wish that it was a book. then i could flip the pages back and read the best parts over again and never lose a moment.