I'm Fairly Sure I Have Developed A Verbal Tick

While looking over my last entry, I noticed I used "OK" on three different occasions. This should probably stop.

It's funny, really. I picked up using "OK" in that form after reading David Foster Wallace's piece in Harpers a couple of months ago, in which he discusses grammar, dialects, Bryan Garner's Dictionary of Modern American Usage, and the democratic process of language evolution. In this article, he says that according to Garner's dictionary, using "OK" in that form is now acceptable. I guess in obsessively trying out this new standard for the English language, I got carried away.

But oh, well, it wasn't the first time.

For the Fourth of July, my sister and I went to Milton Wisconsin, to visit some family friends who I've known since I've been able to know anyone. It was interesting this year, because we went by ourselves, whereas usually it was a family thing, in which we, the kids, were dragged along by our parents as they went to visit old friends. But it was interesting. People talked about how "grown up" we were, how great it was to see us both "doing so well." For the first time I noticed such discussions were less empty platitudes and more an indicator of how old I might actually be getting. Not that I'm greying or wrinkling or anything (at least not physically), but still, such discussions mean something different now than they did before. They carry more weight, maybe; have more meaning.

So I should explain something about the party, about this weird little tradition that's developed over the years in little Milton Wisconsin. A couple of years ago this friend of the family, whose name is Steve, devised a game in which everyone at his party who wished to participate gave a dollar, and in exchange laid claim to a single square within a grid, which was drawn in chalk on the street in front of his house. If you see the figure above, you will notice that had I participated in the game this year, my square would have cost a dollar, as would have the other participants'. Now: there is a parade that goes down the street, right in front of our friend Steve's house. And, as is common with parades, there are many horses involved. Do you see where this is going? Yes, if a horse goes poo on the square to which you have laid claim, you win the pot of dollar bills everyone bet.

Sounds stupid, right? Well, get this: he's been doing this for like five years now, and it's caught on. Along the entire parade route, there were about ten families/parties playing the exact same game this year. He's started a Wisconsin tradition, as insane as it may be.

And it is on that note that I announce I will be leaving this state for a week, going on a vacation. I don't think I've needed a vacation this badly in a while.

As I'm sure you've noticed (unless you are using Lynx), I've interspersed some rural-looking photographs with the text you've been reading. These pictures are from Vermont, from when I was there last year. I will be going there once again. I love that state. It's open, relaxing, the people there are accepting, kind, yet give you space. My experience there has seems always to be the exact opposite of everything I have grown to accept about my regular life. Including the lack of advertising on the Interstates.

Then, if all works out well, I'll be down in New York City for a few days, visiting friends. Then Back to Vermont for a day. Then back home.

Finally, finally.

OK.