Aurora

March 21st, 2004 · No Comments

Just returned home from the late show of Fast Times at Ridgemont High with Neil and Melanie at the Bear Tooth – a nice print, actually – and was blown away by the gorgeous northern lights that greeted me as I turned onto Upper O’Malley. It took the form of a long, waving band of green that undulated and re-formed at an amazing speed. Add that to the sky full of stars and the quiet of the night here, and everything else seems a little sub-par.

Neil and Melanie had never seen the movie, and I hadn’t watched it in a few years. It seemed a lot funnier this time around, and the Cameron Crowe touch seemed more evident as well, with the terrific cues like Tom Petty’s “American Girl” and the Go-Gos’ “We Got the Beat.” Saw a lot of people from high school there, which is always weird, especially since Neil sees a lot of people from high school there as well, only for him, they’re his students. We ran into his brother, who was there with a girl he’s gone on a few dates with, as Neil described it after she left, only Dan doesn’t know her last name yet, and it’s too late to ask. Melanie forgot to introduce herself by first and last name in order to induce it out of Dan’s date, so we missed out chance to help him out of his Seinfeldian quandary. Which I’ve seen spelled “quandry” more than once lately.

This afternoon, after finishing my photo survey of new coffee shacks, I couldn’t resist a quick stop at Benny’s Food Wagon, Anchorage institution located in the vacant lot next to the Metro Mall. I’m never sure what to do there; it’s a van with a door on the side, and I knocked, and stepped half way in. The woman inside told me I could come all the way in, so I did, and after shutting the door behind me, I ordered my taco special, and asked for a root beer. She said I could just grab one out of the cooler on the other side of the van, and as I did, I saw my tacos being prepared and the plate neatly wrapped in tinfoil. The whole establishment can’t be more than ten feet long and five feet wide, with a tv playing soccer on the top shelf and a signed photo of Service High alumnus, former Denver Bronco, and current ESPN commentator Mark Schlereth taped to the wall. Back to the car with the food and my Mug root beer; true happiness.

After I came home and worked on stuff for awhile, Dad and I enjoyed a delicious meal at Mexico, and the winner of tonight’s installment of “which friends will we run into?” were the Gilmores, our down-the-street neighbors from the days of 1410 H Street, whom I hadn’t seen in ages. We talked for a bit, and they reminded us of a funny story of our shared past: when we traveled to England as a family in 1985, we passed through Bath (check out the photo of my pilgrimage back in 1999), and Dad left some comments in the guest book of a local museum that featured a massive diorama of a Napoleonic War battle. A few days later, the Gilmores visited the same place, and as they went to sign the guestbook, found our name just above theirs. And just last week at the dinner table, William Gilmore reminded his parents what Dad had written, a phrase that apparently became a mantra throughout the rest of their trip: “Very complete.” And apparently, at age eight, William said, “You know what? He’s right. It is very complete.” Brilliant.

Tags: Alaska