<p>I got random text message one day:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>Mormon Vegan Straight Edge girls are hot!</p>
</blockquote>

<p>I tried calling back right away to talk to the person to see who it was. It went straight to voicemail. So I ignored it expecting to be one of my prank calling friends from Salt Lake City.</p>

<p>About a week later, I called again. Voicemail, again. The outgoing message was just the default robot voice "You have reached the voicemail for 2066357611, please leave a ..." So whatever, definitely a prank call, right? But here's where it takes a weird turn to crazyville on the coo-coo train making stops at what-are-you-about-talking station and who-are-you junction.</p>

<p>I got a text back right after that second call that went straight to voicemail. So to me that says, I want to talk to you, but not quite reveal my identity. The text came from the number above with a +1 in front of it, meaning it's instant messenger on a phone. The replies were fast too, a little too fast if you know what I mean. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danger_Hiptop">Sidekick</a>, I'm looking your way.</p>

<p>We went on a bit texting back and forth. Here's the entire verbatim transcript of our conversation.</p>

<dl>
  <dt>Him</dt>
  <dd>What's up?</dd>
  <dt>Me</dt>
  <dd>What are you up to today?</dd>
  <dt>Him</dt>
  <dd>Work, then poetry tonight. You?</dd>
  <dt>Me</dt>
  <dd>Who is this?</dd>
  <dt>Him</dt>
  <dd>Your greatest admirer.</dd>
  <dt>Me</dt>
  <dd>I can't think of any admirers i have. Let alone my greatest. Sorry. Have we met?</dd>
  <dt>Him</dt>
  <dd>You ride fixed gear, and you are straight edge. How could I resist admiration? And no, we haven't met yet. Want to come to poetry in Fremont tonight?</dd>
  <dt>Me</dt>
  <dd>If we've never met. How do you know about me?</dd>
  <dt>Him</dt>
  <dd>You were selling a fixed gear on cl. (editor's note: cl = craigslist.org. the listing has expired now, but there are <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/veganstraightedge/sets/72157600084026699/" title="flip flop fixie / free wheel for sale - blue schwin - a photoset on Flickr" rel="me">photos of said fixie</a> on my flickr account.)</dd>
  <dt>Me</dt>
  <dd>Do you know that i'm a boy?</dd>
  <dt>Him</dt>
  <dd>Nope. Haha!</dd>
  <dt>Him again</dt>
  <dd>Do you know asian brian?</dd>
  <dt>Me</dt>
  <dd>Nope. Why did you assume that i was mormon?</dd>
  <dt>Him</dt>
  <dd>The Utah number.</dd>
  <dt>Me</dt>
  <dd>Man, you're just full of assumptions. Next time, you probably want to try a different approach.</dd>
  <dt>Him</dt>
  <dd>Haha!</dd>
  <dt>Me</dt>
  <dd>Don't write me anymore.</dd>
  <dt>Him</dt>
  <dd>Okay.</dd>
</dl>

<p>Um... awesome? Or something.</p>

<p>I never learned who he was. His phone number / instant messenger / text address is 2066357611 / +12066357611, ya know, just in case you wanted it for a bored rainy day or long ride from some random town to some other random town with some random stranger who just happened to pick you and friend up on the side of the road. Or whatever.</p>

<p>Be sure to report back any new developments.</p>

<p>I was at the comic shop the other day when I realized I had forgotten my bus pass at home. Oops. So I asked around the room real quick to the people (the fanboys who hang out at the shop <em>literally open to close every single day</em>) who I knew had a car if any of them were going south towards Cap Hill. No dice across the board.</p>

<p>Then someone (who will remain nameless, let's call him... Fanboy McGee) pipes up.</p>

<dl>
  <dt>Fanboy McGee:</dt>
  <dd>"Shane, do you need a ride to Cap Hill?"</dd>
  <dt>Me:</dt>
  <dd>"Yeah. You going that way?"</dd>
  <dt>Fanboy McGee:</dt>
  <dd>"Yeah."</dd>
  <dt>Me:</dt>
  <dd>"When?"</dd>
  <dt>Fanboy McGee:</dt>
  <dd>"Whenever you're done here."</dd>
  <dt>Me:</dt>
  <dd>"Cool. I can just wrap it up now."</dd>
</dl>

<p>So then we're in the car driving toward Capitol Hill.</p>

<dl>
  <dt>Fanboy McGee:</dt>
  <dd>"I need to stop and get some gas."</dd>
  <dt>Me:</dt>
  <dd>"That's fine. I'm in no hurry. Take your time."</dd>
  <dt>Fanboy McGee:</dt>
  <dd>"You think you could give me a couple dollars for gas?"</dd>
  <dt>Me:</dt>
  <dd>"...<em>sigh</em>... I don't have any cash. I just have my card, sorry."</dd>
  <dt>Fanboy McGee:</dt>
  <dd>"Ok, then maybe you could put like five bucks in."</dd>
  <dt>Me:</dt>
  <dd>"...<em>sigh</em>... Sure. I guess."</dd>
</dl>

<p>Now in hind-sight I should've told him to go straight to hell and gotten out of the car. <strong>$5!</strong> Granted, five dollars isn't a <em>lot</em> of money in the grand scheme of things, but there was a principle here. A few principles, actually.</p>

<ol>
  <li>We had already talked about the economics of taking the bus versus gas prices. So he knew full well that this bus ride cost $1.25. Markedly <em>more</em> than the amount of gas it takes (even at current prices) to travel that distance (yes, I know that for the same $1.25 I can go very, very far and sometimes do, so it all kind of comes out in the wash). I had even explained to him that sometimes my girlfriend, Emily, has to take the bus four times a day because she works both morning and evening but not afternoon. For non-math nerds that's there in the morning (1), back in the afternoon (1+1), there again early evening (1+1+1) and finally home again at night (1+1+1+1=4). ["There and back again and there and back again <em>again again</em>: A gymnastics coach tale" by Bilbo Baggins]. I digress.</li>
  <li>I told him I forgot my bus pass and didn't feel like paying for the bus.</li>
  <li>He said he was going there anyhow! He said that he lived there! (So it shouldn't've cost him ANY gas.)</li>
</ol>

<p>Anyone I've told this story to that knows me and my ...what's the word ...brashness? ...tactlessness? ...confrontationalness? has said "What! Why didn't you just get out of the car?" I'm sorry, my friends, I was off my game. I was really, <em>really</em> hungry. I wasn't thinking clearly. I ponied up the five duckets and grumbled the whole way to Vivace for Nerd Party. I have secretly (not so secretly now that I'm putting it on the The Interweb Tubes) vowed to never ever give him another cent for gas money and I will jump at every opportunity to get a ride out of him in the future. Not because he got $5 out of me, because he was sneaky and manipulative about it.</p>

<p>The double punch line of it all is this is the second time that a fanboy from the comic shop I work at has pulled this wait-til-we're-already-in-the-car-going-to-ask-for-money bullshit. Fucking sneaking fanboys.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/veganstraightedge/565947117/" title="photo sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1181/565947117_8412ef78a6_t.jpg" class="flickr-photo" alt="cherries growing on our cherry tree in our backyard"></a></p>

<p>cherries growing on our cherry tree in our backyard. i just planted this tree three months ago.</p>

<p>I was hanging out with <a href="http://blog.fallingsnow.net/" rel="met friend colleague">Evan</a> yesterday after. We watched <a href="http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0381061/">Casino Royale</a>. I saw that he had <a href="http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0185906/">Band of Brothers</a> on his shelf. I told him I had been wanting to do a Band-of-Brothers-a-thon lately. So we started watching it. After a couple episodes worth, Abbie pointed out that it was the D-Day anniversary. Weird. I wonder how many people were watching it on that same day on purpose.</p>

<p>Several months ago I wrote someone on <a href="http://seattle.craigslist.org/">Craigslist</a> about a listing for free composting worms. I was too late, though. Someone had gotten them already. Then a couple weeks ago I got an email from her again saying she had more and if I still wanted some I could have them.</p>

<p>So I called her up and work it out to meet up with her. Then on the day I was supposed to meet her, I was going to be later. So I asked Brooke to go by this girl's house in Capitol Hill since both  Brooke and Lauren (the girl with the worms) lived in that area. But Brooke was a couple hours away and couldn't.</p>

<p>Then I rescheduled to come by her house after <a href="http://seattlerb.org/">nerd party</a> on Tuesday. Since her house was ride around the corner from <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&amp;hl=en&amp;q=321+Broadway,+Seattle,+WA&amp;sll=47.642723,-122.330017&amp;sspn=0.22715,0.466919&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;ll=47.605266,-122.32079&amp;spn=0.007104,0.014591&amp;z=16&amp;iwloc=addr&amp;om=1">Vivace</a>, Evan and I walked over to her house. This is where it gets weeeird.</p>

<p>I thought "this seems familiar..." The boy that answered the gate was named Benji. Then it hits me. Brooke lives here! Turns out Lauren is Brooke's housemate and I had asked Brooke to go to her house to pick up the worms.</p>

<p>As I was reaching for the gate handle to open it, someone on the other side opened it and lo and behold it was Brooke! Weeeird...</p>

<p>A couple weeks before that Emily and I went to the <a href="http://www.myspace.com/waywardcafe">Wayward Cafe Bike Collective</a> to start work on her new bike (which is gonna be sweet). I was wearing my tshirt that I made that says "<a href="http://theresistancearmy.com/" rel="me">The revolution is just a t-shirt away</a>." When Joel (the collective volunteer that day) showed and saw my shirt he said "I was on <a href="http://theresistancearmy.com/" rel="me">the website for that shirt</a> last night."</p>

<p>What? How'd you find it?</p>

<p>"I don't know. I was just killing time on the internet and I stumbled across the tshirt site somehow."</p>

<p>No. Seriously, how'd you get there? What was the link that sent you there?</p>

<p>"I don't know. You know how it goes sometimes... I was looking at some bike on craigslist, I clicked on the pictures that took me to <a href="http://flickr.com/photos/veganstraightedge/sets/72157600084026699/" rel="me">flickr</a>. Then I was looking at <a href="http://flickr.com/photos/veganstraightedge/sets/72157600084026699/" rel="me">these other pictures</a> and there was a link to the <a href="http://theresistancearmy.com/" rel="me">tshirts</a>. I guess it's based out of Seattle."</p>

<p>I know it's me!</p>

<p>"Whoa. Whoa! Whoa!..."</p>

<p>That's the bike.</p>

<p>"Whoa. Whoa! Whoa!..."</p>

<p>...</p>

<p>It was really pretty bizarre. I had just put up both that craigslist posting and the <a href="http://theresistancearmy.com/" rel="me">tshirt</a> site. Crazy.</p>