Global Renovation and Gropiation

I found a paper the other day from when I was in first grade. The assignment was to draw a picture of what our perfect bedroom would look like. Mine was all full of balloons and it had a flag from every country in the world. It also had my mom standing over my bed saying, "I owe yuo ten dollars!" The funny thing (besides what a little geography nerd I was) was that the eight or so flags I had drawn in pencil and crayon were remarkably accurate. I had Suriname, Botswana, and Senegal, among others. I thought that was great, seriously.

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Anyway, Wiggle, Pinetree, The Ring Bearer and I stayed up all night the other night and talked about this globe at Vermillion Skies. It was such a funny geography conversation. I had posed the question, "If you had to eliminate one country from the face of the planet, which would it be and why?" We went on for hours debating the pros and cons (from our limited vantage) of each country. I am still not sure I understand why the Ring Bearer was defending China so vehemently, but they did invent pasta, the compass, and gunpowder, right?

Anyway, I think it's a huge blessing that I've found these friends who can get all passionate about the same things that I've always loved. Maybe some day I will get a flag of every country for my room. Starting with Tajikistan. It's like a connect-the-dots! look:




I really think that one is cool.

Anyway, I voted to get rid of the Philippines. I don't know why, but that country just seems kinda dirty to me. And it's weird that it's just an archipelago. No mainland. And the idea of the Philippines conjures up images of rats in my brain, and those darn Portuguese letting the dogs loose on the dodo birds. I know that was in Mauritius, and it was Spain that colonized the Philippines, but still, there is correlation in my brain. Also, didn't the Filipinos eat Magellan? I'm pretty sure I heard that.

Man, it's always good to have a great light-hearted discussion about mass-destruction and genocide at your nearest decafe at ungodly hours of the morning.

The next night I whomped on my friends at Scrabble, also at Vermillion Skies. I have begun to know half of the people there every time we go in. We invented the intransitive verb "gropiate." Words are always coined during such late-night Scrabble battles. I invented a system of rating one's rack of letters based on playability. If your letters look like this (as Pinetrees did at one point during the night): AEIIIUU, you have Irritable Vowel Syndrome. If you have this one: GJKQTTV, you are consonantpated.

There was a couple gropiating in their car the whole time we were there. When we left Ronnie told them that they got an "A" for stamina. Then we went to Beto's, which called upon its right to refuse us service. I swear the rest of this story is on Ronnie's blog, so you should go there and see it. Imade a series of funny phone calls to their customer comment line. Ooh, and I just realized I have leftover yummy burritos in the fridge, so I'm going to cut this short. Not that it was going in any direction anyway, huh?

I just want to say that Vermillion Skies is a beautiful place, but don't go there because there are too many people like you there already. Unless you bring me with you. Then you're invited. Bye.