well i did not see that.

You know what? I am trying to pay attention to my spelling so that i don't sound like an idiot, but sometimes I am just lazy and I don't feel like double checking everything.
You guys, I can not wait to get in the car! I have an almond snickers bar waiting for me, and it will be nice and chilled and perfect.
So can I tell you about why I am really looking forward to this trip? I am excited because every singel day I am on my bike will be one more day than I actually thought I would be on my bike. I have a history of flaking out on the bigger things in life, and look where it has gotten me. So this time, I am looking at it as a series of days, and each day is just one day in a long list of days from now until I reach New York City... and also until I die.
Truen and I were talking about it once, about how you have to work at living each day. Do you ever think that? I mean, no matter what you are doing, you have to make yourself do it, and if it doesn't get done, well, whose fault is that?
I don't know hardly ever what I am doing.
Well, anyways, I ordered some stickers, and I have my shirts, so let's see what happens next huh?
lovematthw

that goes away.

I was reading an article in Newsweek about possible war scenarios with Iran. It is a sad feeling because I don’t have any say about a war. People say that that is what voting is for, but I don’t believe that there is that much difference between the two parties anymore, and even if there was, with so much corruption, it is hard to believe that you are actually being heard.
They talk with the Iranian president, and he is saying, if we want to do something, we should be able to, no one is telling the United States to stay out of other countries business, so what make the US so great? I agree totally. We don’t have some other country parking their war ships in our harbors “just in case”. He “Iranian President” said that he wrote an extensive letter to president Bush about if the US would just act differently towards the rest of the world, we would have fewer enemies and things would be more peaceful. Again, I agree. By the time I was done with the article, I was thinking that Iranian President seemed to have a pretty good grip on the situation.
When I think of all of the other things in the world that are happening right now, all of the bad things, it makes me feel so helpless, like, even if I had an extra fifty dollars to donate, where would it even go? How do you pick one person over another? It almost seems perverse to pick, like, why do I have that option? Do you think that Americans think about that? I don’t think so, and I can tell you that nowhere is it more apparent than in a tourist town where people piss there money away on the dumbest shit.
The other day, there was a scene from Darfur on the cover of one of the newspapers, and people bought that newspaper, and not one person commented on how sad that situation is. And we sold all of those newspapers, and I had to look at that little orphan over and over again and again. But no one said anything. Perhaps it is hard to care about things that are so far away. We care about Iraq because our men and women are dying over there, but that is the only reason really.
Now I feel preachy. Sorry, I didn’t mean to bring you down.
I will talk with you alter.
lvoematthew

the hairy watermelon

I was walking the other night and I was talking with elizibeth. I was telling her about how at my two different jobs I deal with a lot of money. I am not bragging about it, but people buy a lot of stuff, and I have to handle all that money. I don’t like it. But that is not what I was talking about, I was saying how usually I am giving the person in line the change from the person before them, and I will give my current customer’s change to the person behind them and so on and so on.
It is like just, paper and metal, but it dictates so many different aspects of our lives. How stupid. I imagine who ever it was that invented money laughing at me all the time. Laughing from a very expensive coffin.
I feel like lots of people want money to get the things that they want, to get themselves some kind of security. But I just want enough money to get out of it all together. I don’t want to live in an expensive house, or drive an expensive car, I just want to be even steven with everyone, and then check out early. Is that an option? I have too much of a conscience to just leave all of my bills paid off, but I swear, once I get them paid off, I am getting the hell out of here.
The other thing is that I have hardly anything to worry about with money, I mean, I know someone that just finished law school and her bills are like, enough to buy a house. I am not even close to that, but it feels like I might as well be sometimes. So, I guess that is the dream, get out as soon as I can, and figure out a way to stay out.
I always wonder what that would be like, to suddenly be free of my financial obligations. In this scenario, the way that I am freed is by the fall of civilization. I wake up and there is some sort of huge technological crash, or a huge natural disaster that knocks us all back to zero. I am walking through the debris of a city, or I am deep in the woods of wisconsin, it changes back and forth. I am hunting, I am building shelters, I am migrating. It sounds scary sometimes, but it also sounds so sweet and tempting. The idea that I don’t have to care about money or some bullshit retail job. I only have to take care of my family and survive.
I would rather work at that. That seems more desirable.
That is what is so exciting to me about this bike trip idea. It feels like a step in that direction. Give myself a month of just needing to get to the next stop, and only be concerned about that goal. And money? What about it? I learned a lot of things throughout the summer, but the most valuable thing I think I was a witness to was watching how money floats through people’s lives. I am not going to worry about money,
I am just happy to be alive.
lovemattewh

idea for a life.

Hello! how are you doing? I am sore, my neck and shoulders are sore from sleeping in the tent. The cold air makes the mattresses flatten over night. it is a nice little extra incentive to get out of the tent, along with the brisk cold air and painful need to urinate.
Also, Truen has a cold. But she is getting better, and it's a good thing too because we have a plan that does not include being sick.
We are planning on riding our bikes to New York City. Why? I guess because we can, but also to feel alive.
I think we will make it within a month. Who knows.
There is more about it on my website, you can readd about it there.
anwyays, I just wanted to let you know the plan. I will write more toomorrow, but now the coffee place is closing and I got a date with some chips and salsa. lveomathwe
OH! also, if you happen into the brand new whole foods inn milwaukee, you will notice that those are my drawings on the wall.
in your face picasso!

you know you deserve better.

This is an open letter to the "life is good" crowd.

hey, stop rubbing it in. Do you really believe that "life is good"? Do you? I think that if you really thought that you wouldn't need a shirt to remind you of how good life is. Or are you just trying to convince everyone else that you think "life is good"? That would explain the matching "life is good" hat and the "life is good" spare tire cover on the back of your land rover. And let's not forget your life partner's matching "life is good" outfit. I don't think it has ever been acceptable to wear matching outfits, even babies hate it. Even babies can see how ridiculous they look in matching outfits, but not you. And even if you can, you obviously don't care because "life is good".
are you compensating for how un-good you life is? Do you feel betrayed by life? Because here is the thing, I do think that I have good life. I have a loving family and some good friends. I get to swim every day, and I get to breathe fresh air. I don't have to worry about civil war (yet) and I have a nice job. I have a lot of things in my life that I am very thankful for. But I would never wear a shirt to tell people about it. Why would I? What would it accomplish? And what does it mean to the people that are having a much harder time with life? All over the world people have it so much worse than the lowest people in this country, and they still live their lives. I don't think that there is anything about the complexities of life that can be summed up in a stupid sentence on a T-shirt. Well, wait, how about this one, "life ends." how about that? "life is work" how about that one?
I wonder what the creators of this stupid phenomenon do with all of their money? Do they use it to help the mounting numbers of orphans in Iraq? Do they send it to the starving people all over Africa? Do they use it to help stop genocides? Do they use it to help anyone but themselves? Maybe they do. I don't know. But it seems like they wouldn't be any different than the rest of us if we were suddenly covered in money. I can only hope I would do things differently.
I do not believe that life is good". I believe that life is a gift, and it has a lot of bad things that come along with it. And it is up to the individual to determine whether it is good or bad. Right? Doesn't that make more sense than just creating a glossy, corny term and then branding everything in sight to take advantage of all of the people that have a harder life than any T-shirt could ever possibly fix?
think about it.