Come See Everything

Jim just came into the writing room a little bit ago to replay the frustrating conversation he had just had with the water company over why our bill is so high considering we don't water our yard, don't run the dishwasher, and barely bathe -- just kidding. We totally bathe. But the other stuff not so much, so why $80ish a month? I don't get it. It's like the price of bottled water coming through our taps! Anyway, he was sitting there telling me about how inane they are at the water company and I was listening (I swear) but I got a little fixated on his T-shirt, with the above image which he drew for a band three or four (or five?) years ago. I dig it. And staring at it, I started to really dig it. "Come and see everything." They're lyrics from a song by the awesome Portland band, Floater. They go like this:

"And as the sum of all fears
Becomes the drum in our ears
And someone unlikely says
Come and see everything
Come out and see the whole world. . ."

Awesome. The whole world.
So, of course, my mind goes immediately to the latest issue of the claw to my soul that is National Geographic Traveler magazine, delivered yesterday. (Nat'l Geo Traveler, Nat'l Geo Adventurer, and Sierra Club magazines are the triple claws to my soul.) The October issue is the so-painful 2nd annual "Tours of a Lifetime" 50 of the World's Best Trips! issue. Sigh Like: 18 days aboard a three-masted sailboat in the Seychelles with stops for snorkeling to see the rare Aldabra tortoise etc etc (only $11,580!) or -- a total steal at $1,340 for 22 days, my weird obsession with Borneo could be explored, [former] headhunters included (and seriously, if a backpack full of large-denomination bills were to fall out of the sky into my lap right now, I would take any willing friends and family off to Borneo to watch bats and eat weird spiny fruits with [former] headhunters! I am so serious.) And how about this: 42 days of conservation work in Madagascar for only $4000! Or, OH GOD -- a journey through Iran to learn about weaving. They call that one a "Magic Carpet Ride" just to kill me. Claw. to. my. soul.

Come and see everything? Yes please. Or. . . I'll stay here and finish my book. Did I say "sigh" yet? Sigh.

(And yes, sweetie, I was still listening about the water company!)

[update -- after reading this post, Jim said that for my sanity he was going to cancel my subscription to National Geographic Traveler and get me National Geographic Homebody instead. Ha ha!]

So, boo hoo for poor me. Wah wah. Whatever. My mind is in the faerie Himalayas and that's something, right. (not the same!!!) Speaking of song lyrics (was I?), here's this quirky song by the quirky Grandaddy, and it's about an office group winning a day in the countryside as a prize for selling the most stuff and how that day affects them. Love it! Especially the refrain about the sprinklers that come on at 3 am. Check it out:

The tale I'm gonna tell
Is about the group who couldn't say
Together they discovered with each other the perfections of an outdoor day

They had won some kinda prize
For selling way more stuff than the other guys
They were the shrewdest unit-movers
So their bosses got 'em tours of the countryside

Holly saw a certain bird
But she couldn't work up any words
She kinda lost her shoes and lost her mind
And smashed her phone upon a fallen pine

Darryl couldn't talk at all
He wondered how the trees had grown to be so tall
He calculated all the height and width and density
For insurance purposes

And at the desktop there's crying sounds
For all the projects due
And no one else is around
And the sprinklers that come on at 3am
Sound like crowds of people asking
"Are you happy what you're doing?"

And at the desktop there's crying sounds
For all the projects due
And no one else is around
And the sprinklers that come on at 3am
Sound like crowds of people asking
"Are you happy what you're doing?"

Becky wondered why
She'd never noticed dragonflies
Her drag and click had never yielded
Anything as perfect as a dragonfly

And then the supervisor stood
Right in the creek and it felt really good
And that's about the time he finally realised the importance of this day
And that's about the time he realised
That he was with the group who couldn't say
Hey hey
And they felt so good it hurt forget the words
They were the group who couldn't say