Of Pressnall's, Bad Music and Anemone.

So, recently, in the newspaper, there was an article about the band Tilly and the Wall. Apparently, they played at the Granada theater in Dallas, and my Dad was reading this article and noticed something intriguing: two of the band member’s last names are Pressnall. (The newspaper spelled it Presnall, of course, because we of strange last names tend to have them slaughtered.) Now, while Pressnall is an uncommon last name, and that would be enough to connect our family to theirs, the fact that they are from Nebraska, sealed the deal. My Dad was quite interested in this, and went to genealogy websites to see how we’re related. He said that my Great Great Grandfather, John Riley Pressnall had eleven brothers and sisters, and Derek Pressnall (of Tilly and the Wall) is one of their descendants. Also, Derek Pressnall has a standard issue Pressnall Nose.

Since I like this band, (I probably would be posting it if it were some awful metal band, or something.) I find this pretty exciting. I mean, how many Pressnall’s do you know? Probably one. Me.

Speaking of awful metal bands:

Wes is going through his “liking awful music phase”. I think we all had them. I know I did. Green Day. Ahem.

Anyway, I think it started out with him getting Guitar Hero, because he would try and do that Dragonforce song on expert. He then went to the internet (a scary, metal filled place) and looked up other Dragonforce songs, and downloaded them. At first, I was vehemently against this new strain of music. Like, whenever he’d mention it, I would answer in a disdainful, condescendingly disgusted tone, and talk about how terrible they were. He usually listens to my opinions, and I figured that if I was mean enough about it, he’d stop liking it. But no. The phase persisted. More Dragonforce, Ozzy Osbourne, Michael Angelo Batio, Megadeth, and other cacophony spilled from his room. And each time I heard it, my heart sank. I’ve spent almost twelve years meticulously controlling his music taste. I didn’t want him to do what I did. But then it came to me: he needs this. He needs to be able to look back and say “I cant believe I thought that was okay!” And I guess my underlying fear is that he’ll grow up to be one of those kids who don’t shower, wear the same Pantera shirt everyday, and creep you out when you have to talk to them.

But you know what? At least it’s metal and not rap, or country. I think Wes and I grew up with so much 80’s metal, it’s ingrained in us. Every once in a while, I go and listen to UFO’s Doctor Doctor. And I genuinely like it. And that scares me a little.

But I think to myself, “What if Wes was a huge country fan?”

I would disown him:

I recently spent a week on a boat with a family who had a son that was a country music fan. Before this, I was not abhorrently against country, I simply did not like it. But I felt no sort of angry feelings towards it. However, this all changed. On the boat, there was a stereo system in which you could plug your iPod. One of the family members plugged his in, and played country music. For a long time. At first, I just dealt with it. Not wanting to insult his music taste (if someone genuinely likes bad music, it feels cruel to make fun of them for it) I politely ignored it. But eventually, I could not tolerate it anymore, and I turned it off. I can only handle so many songs about exactly the same thing, that sound exactly as bad as the one before it.

Also on this boat trip, I got stung by sea anemone. I never expected it to hurt as bad as it did. Anemone don’t really look that harmful. They just sit there in the ocean, flowing with the waves. They’re sort of like flowers of the sea. But when I tripped and my leg ran into one, causing the worst skin-pain of my life, I thought differently about them. At first, I didn’t know what had happened. I thought my leg hurt because I tripped. But no, this was a different pain. It felt like someone took a torch to my leg, and then stuck a million pins in it. And there was really nothing I could do about it. I just had to wait the pain out. I watched (in mild horror) as my leg got all bumpy, and eventually turned into strange red dots.

I’m very aware that this is my first post in months. Things have been... different around here, and I had to let some things settle themselves out.

But I actually finished a post.


Be proud.