I decided tonight that eventually, Amy and I are going to travel the entire Trans-Canadian Highway in a single road trip. It's only 4,700 miles or so, starting in Saint John's, Nova Scotia and going west until Victoria, Vancouver. I think it'd be a swell trip. Money money.

Poor Amy's having problems with an ingrown toenail. Since we're completely without insurance and without money, we can't do much but soak it, put anti-biotic cream on it, and then hopefully cut it out, pain and all. Maybe I'll get her drunk first? That's what they did in the olden days, right?

I'm really wanting to make sure that, in the future when (of course) we have money, we have a kick-ass rumpus room in our basement. Why? For when we entertain our... zero friends. Still, I think that an awesome basement with skeeball, foosball, pool, and a comfy couch-filled game room would kick ass. And I just can't wait until my senior prom!

I'm considering my options for taking out a massive school loan to pay off some nagging debts. I still owe Ball Memorial Hospital nearly $1,000 for a surgery I had two years ago. I've been refusing to pay it out of principle, but they're jacking my credit. Like I've said before, I hate that you can't run out on things anymore. They held me ransom: without that surgery, I could have died. So, my surgeon recouped enough to buy a car. Surely the 90 percent from the (then-existing) insurance was enough for him? Fuck doctors. No, fuck greedy people, a category into which 90 percent of doctors fit.

The ancient Italian neighbor mowed his yard yesterday. He's so old. He used to be kind of cute in his yard-obsessing. Now that I'm home more, it's just annoying. I can't go outside without him being there, and he always wants to talk and I can never understand what he says. He definitely speaks Italish. Either way, whenever he mows, it makes my yard look like shit, so I'm going to have to mow. Damn him. He could've just left well enough alone for another week.

The newest Riverboat Gamblers album rules hard. I know I've said this before. Jon turned me on to the album when we were in Indiana (by handing me a copy), and Mike's been in on the gospel since 2002. I think that To The Confusion of Our Enemies, their new release, is probably in the top three of the decade to-date. Admittedly, though, this has been kind of a crappy decade for music, or at least for my being turned on to music. Go download it. Why not buy it? Jon said they get nothing out of their album sales.

We may hit the show on August 11 when they hit the House of Blues in Cleveland with the Rollins Band. Would it be bad form to walk out before the headlining act?

The Reds kept their winning streak alive tonight with another win. It's up to eight games. And Bronson Arroyo is 8-2, and his ERA is down to a sick 2.21! Those are Cy Young numbers! He should be an all-star! Ludicrous.

Oh, the War on Terror kill Al-Zarqawi or whatever the fuck his name was. Bush et al. tried to play it up like a big deal. Um, Al Qaeda wouldn't have been in Iraq if we hadn't gone first? Say what you want about Saddam, but he managed to control terrorism pretty well within his borders... and the U.S.-created definition of terrorism is that a state cannot be a terrorist, so created to protect the U.S.'s actions. Oh, that's right... he was a rogue state. Discourse makes my head hurt.

Tomorrow is Friday, which means the second-to-last day of vacation as we know it. Sucks in a way. But, the Indiana book is making significant progress, which means it may well be ready for press by July, and able to be in the classroom in August.

If a world bully that hates soccer wins the World Cup and none of its citizens care, does the World Cup actually happen? Or would people pay attention for about 20 minutes like they did when the women won and the one girl ripped off her shirt? She was gross, and I don't understand the obsession. Girls with six-packs and bulging veins? Ewwwww. Not for me.

We're still anxiously awaiting financial aid. With aid, we can catch up bills, pay rent, and buy things we don't really need. We've been better about curbing the latter lately, though mostly out of necessity. I'm sick of this culture that's obsessed with bankrupting everyone by over-tempting with material goods, just to make some rich fucks even richer. We don't need it. We don't want it. Let's all live modestly, and fuck corporate America in the ass. Oh, it might hurt the economy? Too bad. Good news for me, as professors become more in demand in downturns because enrollments climb. Put that in your pipe and smoke it.

I want to do something nice with Amy for our anniversary, but I don't know what. I'm afraid I can't afford anything really worthy of the effort, but this will be determined further as the summer progresses.

I wish I was capable of writing music. And playing backbone instruments like piano or guitar. But alas... I also wish I was worthy of joining a folk band. I can play the fiddle and I can mandolin... though I'm still (impatiently) waiting to acquire the latter. I fell in love with a Fender A-style in Indianapolis but had my credit rejected because of the aforementioned surgery bill. Ain't that a bitch? I will still get that Fender. And eventually, I want to buy a violin again. I haven't owned one for a while. And a banjo. Maybe I'll start a high-tech folk band with Amy in which she can sing and play guitar (she's better than me, and she used to play) and I can fill in the bass, fiddle, mandolin, a few piano licks. Ooh, I need an upright bass, too. Yay for GarageBand and iBooks!

Musical instruments are my weakness. That, and baseball hats. And abandoned dogs. If a store opened with all three of these things, I would sign over each month's paycheck and resign myself to living in a box and eating from the dumpster.

Really, I wish I knew local, trustworthy musicians who wanted to start a folk band and needed a mandolin/fiddle (me) and a vocalist (Amy). Then, we could post our tunes on the FolkAlley.com Open Mics and play gigs.

I will never be a successful musician. I've tried that before and always crashed.

Oh, and if you're still lagging, you should click on my profile to have your location tracked. And do it again if you go somewhere else with net access. I like seeing all the little dots! I'm a loser. And thanks to all of you who already did. I'm not sure who came in from Geneva, Switzerland, but I'm assuming it's one of the Kent geography kids over in Europe for the summer.

Either way, I like it.Random Thoughts, Volume 10