blog.eliduke.com

at this point, i’m not really sure what to think. i know that i’m going to miss this place, and when we had our toast this evening i felt a deep sense of pride rise within me, but right now it’s hard for me to know what it’s really going to be like without it. i’ve never actually felt this before. sure, i’ve been proud of the manhammer, and i’ve had a great time living here, but when we were surrounded by all these people cheering at us, i think i almost cried. it was beautiful.

it was at this point (during the last manhammer party ever) that i became too tired and stopped typing this post. i saved the draft and went to sleep. now… a week later i come back here to finish what i started. the last manhammer party was awesome. we sold out of all of our tshirts and people still want more, people had a great time, and it was wonderful.

so the party ended and the next day we started the final move out. that final move out process continued through monday and into tuesday afternoon. tyler, meredith, and i were running around cleaning and emptying the house from about 8am until 3pm. we gave away quite a bit of stuff to the cleaning ladies that followed in behind us, including the second refrigerator that we had in the living room. that was a crazy day, and the three of us all took naps that afternoon for about 2 hours. that morning was ridiculous.

at this point, drew and tyler are sort of homeless. tyler is storying some of his stuff at anne buttery’s place, while crashing there and at applecore’s place with drew. both of them have a duffle bag of necessities and go where ever the sleeping ghosts guide them. during the end of this moving frenzy meredith and i moved our stuff into the new place on hillsdale and tried to make it as comfortable as possible. over the next couple days i went through all of my crap for the 4th time and trimmed even more off the top. hopefully i’ll be able to break it down enough and fit it all in a small car for the trip out to seattle.

so after about a week of this craziness it was about time for me to get my tatoo. right now it is healing so you’ll have to wait for the picture, but it is a 5 inch version of “the ManHammer” and it is on my left forearm. you’ll see it shortly.

i got the tatoo at 2pm at New Breed in bloomington, indiana. it was a really cool process of getting the tatoo and all that, but it did get a little ridiculous at one point. so, for those of you who don’t know, this was my first tatoo, and whether i liked it or not, my mind/body/spirit was not prepared for this process. the tatooist did a few lines quickly to see how i could deal with the pain, and it wasn’t bad at all. it just felt like a cat scratch (which i’m plenty used to… Banjo!). but for some reason after only a few minutes of him inking me i got really hot and light-headed. he had to stop and bring in a fan and let me cool down and regain my composure. it was crazy. he said that if i’d stood up right then, i’d have passed out. weird. so, after i cooled down, i was totally cool the rest of the time. it took about 2 hours total, and he wrapped it up and i went on my way. it is wonderful, and i’m very happy with it.

on a side note:

part of the healing process with a new tatoo involves cleaning it with antibacterial soap and keeping it moist with lotion. that night meredith and i went to CVS to pick up the soap and the lotion. for those of you who don’t live in bloomington or don’t visit the CVS near the mall that often, you need to understand that there is a very attractive girl that works there. she’s petite with long dark hair and is generally all around attractive to either girls or boys. seriously. so, the second that we walk into CVS this night, meredith spots her working at the counter and starts doing this cough/sniff thing to get my attention. but what i soon realized is that she’s not just getting my attention, she’s actually sassing me, and i hadn’t even noticed the girl yet. she was pre-emptively sassing me for a cute girl that she new i would think was cute and would eventually “check out.” and now, she’s started doing this more often. whenever the two of us are together now and she sees a cute girl, she starts sassing me before i even have the chance to check her out. ridiculous.