November 4th, 2001. Sunday
I didn't do shit today. Which is just as well. It will make this shorter.It's November now, and I was about to say I'm not happy about it, but then reconsidered. Why should I be upset about it? There's nothing inherently wrong with this month, and it's only my usual lamenting about the passing of time that makes me say such things. So let's not worry about it so much, huh?
On friday, I thought I had plans for a lengthy evening. I met Caryn for dinner at Sandobe on East 11th, and James and Caryn's friend Marrianne showed up as well. After a filling meal of fish, Caryn and I went into Brooklyn to attend a party at the apartment of her friend John's friend Alisha. All these spellings might be wrong. Anyway, it was some sort of 80's cartoon themed party, complete with color printouts of various cartoons on the wall. The apartment itself actually reminded me a bit of the SHOE, not because it was a mess, but because of the color scheme. As with the SHOE, the apartment's maing living space was painted a deep red. And the color of one of the bedrooms was the exact color of Dan's room. Anyway, most everyone was dressed up. While we were there, Caryn showed us the copy of the new Michael Jackson cd she got from work. If you were to make some kind of cheesy song name generator, you'd be harded pressed to top the songs on this album. Titles like "Unbreakable," "Heartbreaker," "Heaven Can Wait," and my personal favorite "Butterflies." "Rock My World" and "The Lost Children" are winners too. Anyway, it's absurd.
So after that, Caryn had to go back to the Upper East Side to her friend Susan's party. I'd told Susan a few weeks ago that I couldn't go because I was supposed to go to Jen K's birthday bash in Atlantic City. Since I didn't end up doing that, Caryn thought I should go to the party. She was right, but I just couldn't muster the strength to go all the way up to 90th street. So i returned home. Then I'd found that I left my keys at the party. It was because I'd used them to open that stupid Jacko cd. Anyway, once I go inside the apartment, I found that they hard drive I'd ordered had arrived. I'd actually known it would be there, through the magic of FedEx online tracking. Anyway, I devoted pretty much the rest of my night to computer stuff. With the help of several calls to my brother Garrick, who was in Springfield, Illinois, I finally managed to get the damn thing working. It should've been much easier, but I there were all sorts of complications. I actually didn't get it working for real until yesterday, and even now it's still giving me problems. But it's nice having an extra 60 gigs of space. It's so nice, that I've got Matt's digital video camcorder here with me, and now I can make all sorts of movies without putting much of a dent in the space. Basically, I've spent a good portion of the day making little videos of myself. it's a wonderful way to fritter away the time. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
After wrapping up the computer geekfest, I went down to Great Lakes with Dylan and Jed. One of the funniest things I've ever heard in my life was a story Dylan told about when he was a child. He said he'd once made a collage of women's asses out of catalog pictures and whatnot. One day, after coming out of the shower, his sister came screamed "What's this!?" Hehe. That fucking cracks me up. I also like the fact that Dylan is perfectly willing to tell these embarrassing stories.
So I slept till about 2 the next day. I woke up in a really shitty mood, due to this dream I had. I was making a bundt cake, and because the oven door wouldn't open all the way, I dropped the cake when I was checking to see if it was done and I dropped it, causing most of the cake to fall out into the over. I got so pissed off. I started screaming "Fuck!" repeatedly and started kicking everything and breaking stuff. Weird.
So in the evening, Jed and Dylan and his girlfriend Kelly and I went downt Long Tan on 5th Ave. A nice night to be sitting outside. Only recently have I actually been conversing with Kelly, despite Dylan having lived here for over a year. Nice girl. Plus, she works for a publishing company and is getting me some free books. Caryn's friend John has also gotten me several free books. It's nice to know people who work at major publishers. I need a new book. Jen K suggested I borrow her Proust or Flaubert, but it looks really dense. though I guess I'll give it a try. Anyway, I got up to use the toilet as we were getting ready to leave Long Tan, and I saw the gril Susanah, whom we went to school with and often see at Long Tan, standing at the bar. She's a cute girl. She'd just gotten her hair cut, and was looking pretty good, I must say. She was with the girl Erica who was last saw here there with, and one of Erica's friends. I told her we were getting ready to go to Great Lakes, and while her companions were enthusiastic about the idea, she was really against it. She says the place is too dirty and dark and shitty. Which of course are three of the main reasons I like it a lot better than Long Tan. And it's really not shitty or dirty. It's just not Manhattan hip. Eventually we all went to the Lakes though. Various conversations were had. I saw a few of the regulars there that I'd seen on Friday night and talked with them for a while. I sort of enjoyed talking to Erica and her friend. I guess it would be more accurate to say I didn't not enjoy talking to them. She likes some of the same music I do. But she's a little to forthcoming with her opinions and enthusiasm, like she's looking for approval or legitimacy through her musical tastes. She's also the kind of girl who gets cuter as the evening gets later. Last time we saw her, I thought the same thing as the evening progressed. Dylan and Kelly left around three, and Erica and her friend left shortly after that. Jed and Susanah and I ended up staying till after four. I don't really remember what we talked about. A lot of talk about ex-girlfriends I think. I guess we decided to be gentlemanly and walked her home around 4:30, then got a bagel and came home.
When I woke up this morning, or afternoon, I was feeling pretty well rested. I'd spent most of Saturday totally dehydrated, but Sunday seemed to be ok. And another thing I was thinking was that I was really glad to be waking up alone. I mean, it's cold and coldness makes lonely lonelier, and a warm body is always nice, but I was really glad this morning that no one else was there. Not like I've had unpleasant experience where someone else wasthere. I guess I'm just glad where i'm not at the point where alone is sort of terrible at night, but a blessing in the morning. Ok, that's not true at all, and truthfully I don't know what the hell was going on this morning. I'm terribly lonely. I guess the fact that I talk to marginally attractive girls and talk them up and be all funny and whatnot makes me think about imaginary scenarios where I actually brought them home. And i don't like how these scenarios feel. Ok, I think i've figured it out. We all know that someone looks a lot more attractive at 2 am after many many drinks than they do in regular daylight, and this morning I was glad that I've never had to find that out through first hand experience. And I doubt I ever will. I'm just not that kind of guy. And by "not that kind of guy," i mean "guy who couldn't get a marginally attractive drunk girl to come home with him."
Moving on, I was just looking at this flashlight that I was using while installing the drive on the old G4. I took it from my summer job in the WTC, when we were all clearing everything out, along with a lot of pens and tape and folders. I was surprised it still worked. It was under all sorts of crap at the bottom of the bottom drawer. Anyway, the flashlight has come in real handy lately, and I'm very glad I took it. But it wasn't until now, in a distracted moment where I was picking my toes, that I noticed that on the side opposite the power switch, it says "W.T.C. Fire Safety Team." I don't know why, but it's kind of eerie. Dylan just came in, and I showed him the flashlight. He said "Oh, nice. You could sell that on eBay.If you have limewire or something of that sort, I highly suggest download the new Stereolab album, Sound Dust. It's excellent. Wonderful doing-other-things background music.
Want to see a little movie I made this afternoon? It's fairly unattractive, but it makes me laugh.
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