Weekend @ Irenes.

I went up north this weekend with my dad and my uncle art. Art is rich as shit- but drives a puke brown GMC van because he's cheap and he likes not having to ever deal with packing shit, since his car is so big he can just shove shit in there. It's falling apart but he doesn't want to get a new one since it'll be just as hideous. It's "semi-automatic" meaning he has to manual shift down to first gear because the van straight up refuses to and it causes stopping to be an issue. The drive up was pretty fun. i got Art and my dad to start talking about growing up. My uncle art's first 23 years are hilarious. he was talking about the weird turf battles he got into as a teenager with kids from another Catholic High school. I was like, "are you serious. Did you think you were the Outsiders or something" and he said "pretty much, i mean people would get wood and metal pipes and stuff. I mostly hung out in the back cause i didn't want to get the crap kicked out of me." also we discussed the phenomenon of Hitchhiking.

Art hitchhiked all the way to Seattle and back, and for a while between college and law school drove to Texas and "slept on beaches and was supposed to go into Mexico for a few months but then Dad talked to the dean of admissions at DCL(Detroit College of Law) and got me in for the September semester. He was obviously a pothead. My dad didn't hitchhike such great distances but he did it locally alot and did big month long road trips. I wish Hitchhiking was still a. legal and b. wouldn't get you raped and killed. The idea of it is so romantic but you expect that the reality wouldn't be as great. However, my uncle loved it, My older aunt did it constantly.

My uncle said he used to pick up hitchhikers still until about 8 years ago when he did it for some kid around E Lansing, my uncle assuming he was a student. The kid asked to be dropped off at a truck stop and my uncle didn't get it until about a year later that the kid was probably a prostitute.

Up north we stayed at my Grandma's house, which i think is cute but has alot of issues (open upstairs master suite, unconnected garage, no real road care, poorly constructed, etc). One of these issues with construction is a blower that causes all the bugs to be let in, so I spent most of my night killing Asian beetles and flies. through weird series of thought process provoked by Asian beetles i had a great story idea about the son of a massage parlor operator. I liked it and hope to actually write it one day. also read alot from the new Best New American Voices, including Kevin Gonzalez. I fucking love his reading voice, which i got to hear at Iowa. He just has a weird way of pacing shit that doesn't necessarily make sense. his story was basically a version of part of Cultural Slut, a poem he has. I found this poetry recording site with a bunch of his stuff. I like listening to the live versions better, but the non-live versions have the actual words. Take a listen and be awesome

http://www.fishousepoems.org/archives/kevin_a_gonzalez/index.shtml

The skiing was okay @ Boyne. I'm not a fan of the hill, but i am of the fake town. Nub's Knob is such a better ski hill but it's mainly because they don't worry about forming a resort. They don't own hotels or condos. they have a cafeteria and a small bar. That's it. Therefore, It's kinda boring apre-ski at Nub's unless you rent a big Trout Creek condo with a ton of people. My dad and Art had a race, they keep trying to get me to do it but i don't because i don't like actual competition. It makes me neurotic and ski worse. Even going though a start gate will make me suck more than i would normally. I just like going down the hill, but they don't seem to understand that.

Ate dinner on Saturday with Mike and Lee. I don't really like uncle Mike anymore. He's kinda an asshole to me the last few years, and I don't really think I've done anything to deserve it. His wife is awesome though. Had amazing scallop noodle dish with cream sauce, kalamata ( or whatever) olives and tomatoes. Although, just once I'd like the olives to be paired with something other than tomatoes. Mike is also not really ski/board instructing anymore. Instead he only takes on private lessons arranged through him and then does his dog sled on the weekend. I guess MC is a good job for him but it's kinda sad to see someone who seemed to enjoy being a ski instructor so much just kinda get bored with it. He did kinda get shafted though because once his dad died, Michael was like 21? and basically put his own life on hold to help raise his brothers and sisters. I found out this weekend that apparently at some party my aunt Annie bitched about how Mike and my dad never gave her any guidance or told her to go to college and how terrible they were for that and My dad pointed out that Michael was the one who paid for her to go to Mercy(private catholic high school where everyone goes to college) while she was in Michigan and basically it was her own damn fault for not going to college since most of the kids found a way to make the money for it.

Dan got wasted and ruined the evening with his fucking annoying hiccups that he gets when he's too drunk that sound like vomit. he and art argued politics, which was interesting because my dad has recently revealed himself to be an ardent conservative and Art is a was a communist in college and still votes for the 3rd party socialist candidates most of the time. Art said that either Nixon or Bush was the worst president in his lifetime, with bush taking a lead. My dad said Carter or Clinton- which i was surprised about because i thought he liked Clinton. He also talked about how Clinton would have shit away the entire Reagonomic surplus if it hadn't been for a republican congress and Art pointed out "Umm, Bush had the Republican congress and totally ruined the surplus." to which my dad waved off. That's the real aggravating thing about arguing with lawyers, my dad especially. A lawyer is trying to tie facts together to build a case. If a fact doesn't fit into his presentation, he doesn't necessarily deny the fact, he just doesn't address it. My dad is also condescending as fuck when he argues with you- but i don't think that's a lawyer trait- just a him trait

all in all it was an okay weekend.