unless you count all the emails back and forth, back and forth between people I will be visiting in the coming weeks. oh and I wrote a silly thing for the magazine at work about what albums I’ve been listening to. by the way, get the new R.E.M. album (out as of last Tuesday). and Jamie Lidell (out April 29). everything else I think is already noted on my sidebar.
Last week though I did have a great time meeting with my neighbor Coleen to go over poems and her short story. this was our first time hanging out without other neighbors around. we decided on the neutral place of Common Market. before we had been thinking of coffee or just sitting on one of our couches, but we were like, wait a minute. there are places with beer. places where the beer is endless – rows upon rows of imported beer in a refrigerated section. and this is where you should go on first dates. or first dates with writers. or women. and so we sat out on the patio at CM and commenced with the beer, cigarettes, and writing talk. guys, I must tell you - I am such a lightweight when it comes to beer. liquor and wine are better friends to me. they are like old cousins. but I tell you that the excitement of workshopping for the first time in four years brought out the Irish in me and I drank five beers on an empty stomach. and close to 2 packs of cigarettes. we were ON FIRE. and people kept calling us or sitting with us and we kept blowing them off and then Scott showed up with his friends and ordered a pitcher. one look at me and he started laughing, and had to point out to everyone what a rarity it was to find his girlfriend drunk on a Wednesday, much less out in public. it was 11:30 p.m. by this point. usually when I am whining to brush our teeth. that’s when I realized that I had not eaten since noon. Coleen hadn’t either. so she called the Penguin on speed dial and we ordered grease takeout. then brought it back to the market and chowed down before trolloping home. I am writing about this a week later because that’s how much fun I had. on a Wednesday.
and then last night I also went out with people for Linnea’s birthday. I ate a veggie plate and had a Baker & Ginger and smoked 3 cigarettes and went to bed at midnight. Wednesday is becoming my new Thursday, and Thursday is becoming my new Friday. except for that whole getting up early the next day.
so I guess this is to say that I have been socializing. more is better.
and my free cable TV went out last month and it’s become one of the best things. I do not pay for cable, just network TV. but I had become hooked on the free cable that showed up when I rearranged my furniture 6 months ago. I watched Bravo almost every day, folks. and Food Network. it became a ritual to me, for no good reason. Sure I love Top Chef and I hate that I’m missing this new season but really this is all preparing me for grad school and perhaps a lifetime of better media consumption so I am thankful. I’m still on with network TV, though. the only thing I care to watch on network TV is Jeopardy!, Saturday morning PBS cooking shows, and Wednesday night Top Model, the latter which I’ve missed the past two weeks so I guess it doesn’t matter that much.
oh, and I started painting again. for the first time in four years. this is my new painting (in progress):
