it's now 4:08 in the morning. i can't sleep. what i love to do is read myself to sleep. this elegant plan has one flaw, in that i will stay up the entire night reading if i really enjoy the book. i just picked up "how to be good," by nick hornby, which i had picked up hardcover for only 5.99 in the bargain books section of barnes and noble. i haven't decided if i like it yet... but it is a good book, and it is certainly riveting, seeing as i have been reading it for the past hour and a half. i finally stopped because i know that if i continued i wouldn't sleep until i had finished it, and i'm only about halfway through. jeez... i'm not tired at all now. what do i do?

as for liking it or not, whether or not a book is "good" or not has no bearing on my feelings toward it. much of that is based on the ending of books (and movies, too, but that's besides the point). i really don't like sad endings. i think every book with a realistic ending should have an alternative happy ending. but that's just me.

oh my god, i don't know how i forgot to post about this. but my nieces are SOOOOOO FUCKING CUTE. it's almost unbearable! like the kind where you feel like you'll just burst from their cuteness. this is not bad in any way, it's the most wonderful feeling. Jade, my 2 and half year old niece, and Ivy, my almost 2 year old niece, came over tonight before going with mom (their "gamma") to the JCC to swim. Ivy was holding her doll, and she kept presenting it (her?) to me and proclaiming, "Woozy" (as near as i could make out) in this proud, happy voice. it wasn't exactly woozy either, it was woozy but 412370464758934758934705 times cuter. and she did this over and over, and my face almost broke from the size of my smile, which i couldn't contain. and she kept saying "see my tattoo," in the same infinitely cute voice. don't worry, it was an airbrush stencil tattoo of a bunny on her leg. jade is also cute, but she's getting bigger and therefore not cute in the same incredible, heart-bursting, happy-exploding way. so awesome.

what did i do today? not much. another 3 loads of laundry. some more cleaning of the room and the house in general. this place is so messy that i can only try to help by containing my stuff to my room. towards that end, i went to staples with ariel, where we waited for about half an hour for some poor guy on his first day on the job to look for the bookcase(s) i wanted. he found the big bookcase for my room, but not the folding one i wanted to bring to school. so we left and went to office max, across the street. turns out to be a good thing i didn't buy the big bookcase, as my room is packed enough as it is, and there was a DVD bookcase at office max for $40. it has many small shelves, which is good for CDs or DVDs, but also perfect! for books. little paperback books. of which i have way too many. it's sad that the bookcase isn't advertised as such. i was actually really ecstatic when i found this, and i was so excited to put it together when i got home. i'm thinking of buying one of these to bring to school, even.
my problem with big bookcases is that they are too spacious. the biggest ones (~72") only have 3 adjustable shelves when they could really use 5, or maybe even 6. so i have to stack books sideways to use all that extra height, which annoys me to no end. and i sometimes stack books in front of other books because the shelves are excessively deep. this also rankles my anal personality.

i think i am odd in that i am anal about the strangest things. this is not so bad, except that i am also absurdly lazy. so while certain things bother me (things not being in alphabetical order, wires strewn about all over, living in filth and squalor), usually, i can not muster the effort to do anything about it. i am this way in all things. i never do anything preemptively, it's only as a reaction to something that has become unbearable. laundry - after i've been wearing the same pair of mesh shorts for days... cleaning my room - after i literally cannot take a step without trodding upon something that should not be trod upon... showering - after i feel like i am covered with several layers of grease and oil... et cetera. i'll stop before anyone becomes too disgusted.

yesterday i went to barnes and noble and picked up shadow puppets, by orson scott card. i had read it in barnes and noble, when it just came out in hardcover, but i felt like i should do my part, so i bought the paperback (i think it just came out). i finished it already. when does his next book come out? slow bastard... i thought about buying crypotonomicon, but there was (as in neuromancer) a paperback edition for $8 and a nicer paperback for $16, and i couldn't decide, so i just didn't buy either one.

i'm really excited about this bookcase. it's so _perfect_ for books! fuck DVDs. i'm fantasizing about buying a fleet of them (i don't care if they're bookcases, they're a fleet) and having them lining the walls of my room.

when i own a house, or even a crappy 2 room apartment in some city(god forbid), i'm making one room a study. with shelves. for me to put everything that i collect with my weird anal personality.

i just went outside to look at mars. apparently tonight is the closest mars has been in / will be for (i forget which) 60,000 years or so. if it's the really big, bright sucker in the sky, i can see it from my driveway. when i stepped outside, a pizza delivery guy asked me if i had ordered a pizza (he was looking for 87 brookwood, i'm at 75)... i told him to look at mars in the sky. he got back in the car and drove off. to be fair, i don't think he heard me. i would tell you all to look at it, but i doubt anyone will read this before 1am or whenever is the best time to look for it.

i've been listening to the songs mike downloaded off kazaa from the flcl (fooly cooly, furi kuri) ost (original sound track) since he sent them to me yesterday. the pillows? i have to ask makiko about them. but i really like the music. my favorites are "i think i can," "little busters," and "beautiful morning." mike, you are beautiful for ordering the OSTs. i am full of love for you.

this blog has taken place over a long time span, and is more thoughtful than usual. i don't know why i'm in this mood. eh. i think i'm pretty happy right now. cool.

the ending to igby was sad. i'm amazed the movie was that good, considering the cast.

i just took the emode inkblot test at emode. try it, it's long and rather interesting. here's what they had to say about me.

>eric, your subconscious mind is driven most by Curiosity
>You are full of questions about life, people, and your own potential. You spend more time than others imagining the possibilities for your life — and
> you're open to things others are too afraid to consider.
>You have an almost physical need to know and do more. It's only through new experiences that you feel a greater understanding of yourself and the
> world. You also have a rebellious streak that shows up when you feel unable to truly influence the world or circumstances around you. Your appetite for
> novel experiences also shows an openness others don't have, but wish they did.
>Your psyche is very rich; the more you learn about it, the more you will understand who you really are.

on the subject of tests, those quizilla ones annoy the hell out of me. i'm getting sick of the 5 question tests that are so transparent one can guess one's results beforehand. and usually one's answer only depends on one or two of the questions anyways. i took the romance movie test after seeing it on tricia's profile, and it's terrible. the multiple choice answers weren't applicable to me at all. and i got when harry met sally. what the hell?

time to do laundry. more laundry. i did 3 loads yesterday before deciding to give the poor appliances a break.

i'm currently watching "igby goes down" in my house. it's really funny. really dark. it's going to be really sad, i can tell. and i hate depressing movies, with sad endings. the way things are going now, i'm probably going to buy this on DVD. not to watch it repeatedly, but so i can share it with others. it seems worth seeing.

just got back from the medallion, which is pretty bad, and ruby tuesday, which is always good. the waitress was kind of cute and kind of funny. she managed to sass pardo and steiner and zhu all before taking our orders. i ordered the garlic mushroom burger and a strawberry mega-rita. the mega-rita was weak, but that meant it tasted good. i had to split the 32 oz drink with zhu, on account of the unrelenting brain freezes. i bought devil may cry for $20 (ps2 greatest hits), and steiner picked up an xbox system, along with a wireless controller, tony hawk 4, the two towers, and knights of the old republic. austin told me it was an rpg, but i didn't realize it actually uses the d20 system. it looks like it'll be pretty cool. good for the suite.

i went to NYC on tuesday, and stayed til just now. it was a lot of fun. accomplishments:

watched the anime series FLCL. really cool. really crazy. the music is lots of fun.
watched the first 12 episodes of scrubs. i need to catch up on this show.
tossed a lot. i think my tan is better. my throws suck.
finished my circuit! and by finished, i mean i cleaned up the lab and brought the breadboard home so the professor has no idea of my progress.
went to the housing office and found it's too late to switch rooms with yui.
i played poker last night with mike, jess, raj, and ben. since i didn't keep records, and i'm going to have to remember this later, i'll keep it here.

eric + 12.20
mike - 3.20
jess + 1
raj - 5
ben - 5

we played from 11 to 2:30, about.

i just got back from foxwood's tonight. lost $55 on texas hold'em, 2/4. my luck was terrible... yes, i blame it on luck. i started off with an 8 9 suited, got an 8 and 9 in the flop, and lost to a woman with a pocket pair of 6's and a 6 in the flop. i won a single hand, a flush in spades. i got two pair one other time besides that first hand, which i folded before the flop on, but it's a good thing because someone else had a higher two pair. i didn't get any straights or 3's of a kind, and only a few pairs. i think i only stayed in 4 times and lost, and those were good calls on my part, i'm sure. the rest was just a slow death.

when i left, raj was up $60+. ed won $130 on blackjack. dammit. i must go back.

this email from Corey, dated Tuesday the 12 of August, simply must be shared with everyone.

Subject: Thank you for all your loving words last night!

You two fuckin shitheads. Did you have nothing better to do than
call my ass and bitch? After the first one i just turned off my
phone and let the messages accumulate. Can you really not get to
a higher level of drunk without me? That is sweet.

Well at least you provided me some entertainment this morning at
work.

The gems i remember in no particular order:

"I hope you fall down a flight of stairs."

"You gay vegitarian slut."

"Cum buster piece of shit"

"cum rag piece of shit." (very similar to the previous one, which
is a good sign of erics lack of creativity)

"I hope you are drinking wine coolers while somebody is licking
your asshole."

The best proposal must have been to have sex with austin!

Thanks for being dickheads and inviting me out about ten times
last night. I will be sure to drink your asses under the table
while leaving you messages on your phones.

corey

i claim credit for gay vegetarian slut, cum buster (although i think he misheard me saying dumpster), and cum rag. austin and i are debating who said the wine coolers/asshole licking line, but it could have been me.

the story: austin, dave, and i are at lion's head monday night with steiner and rache. a bunch of other people made cameo appearances as well, raj jaydip zach kim zoe and judy. the thing about any size group is that it's easy to drink up until a pitcher per person. after that though, one comes to a fork in the road, where a decision must be made that will determine one's destiny. as austin so eloquently put it, we reached that crossroads after 3 pitchers. would we choose to stay, and get HOUSED, or would we choose to go home with a pleasant buzz? after dave was vociferously outvoted (rache and steiner contributed their opinions as well, rache's involving much name-calling), we get 3 more pitchers (i think) between the 5 of us. somewhere during our sojourn at lion's head austin and i each leave corey some rather recriminating voicemail. we leave the bar around 3 am, a giggling dave in tow, we stumble along until dave collapses on a stoop, at which point austin pulls out his cellphone and starts calling people. it's around 3:30 now. we each leave corey about 3 more messages - utilizing much obscenity and derogatory, hurtful words - each, the highlights from which corey was kind enough to send back to us. austin talks to amanda for about 10 minutes on the phone. i call... (and i only know this from my call log the next day) kelsey, london, yui, mara, !austin!, judy, to name a few. dave is lying down on the stoop giggling this whole time. after we finish our various calls, austin and i go up to broadway 12, and POUND on judy's door for 5 minutes, until i try the handle and it opens!!, revealing a sleepy and much annoyed judy. austin and i realize how much asses we're being and go to sleep.

i think i had some troubles with the tenses in that narrative. i don't feel like going back and fixing it though. all in all, a good night.

sorry judy!

so i went to the bronx zoo on wednesday with dave, austin, jon, and judy. wednesday is suggested donation day.

_NEVER_ go on suggested donation day. even though the suggested donation is only $5, and you could donate nothing if you were a cheap bastard, it's worth the $11 admission fee to go on a day not PACKED with sweaty, loud children underfoot wherever you go. anything with a line was ridiculous, as were all the indoor exhibits. it was impossible to stay in one for long without collapsing from the heat, with so many people inside.

nevertheless, i had a lot of fun. this was helped not in the least by the presence of anden's/tom's friend Lena, a Parisian girl of Chinese ethnicity. being both hotlittleasian and having a thick french accent hurts not at all when one is a girl. and as i so callously pointed out, her difficulty with English makes it even easier to view her as an object. a sex object. for sex. you know.

highlights:
one monkey humping another 3 separate times at jungle world.
the cute monkeys in the monkey house.
the baboon whacking it.
the sea lions.

lowlights:
not going on the monorail because the line was too long.
trying to find our parking lot and ending up back at the restaurant/ zoo store area _three_ times.
the penguins and polar bears looked kind of sad, to be honest.
leaving the red panda exhibit seconds before he crawled out from under the trees.

i bought a red panda stuffed animal from the zoo store. so cute. austin and i also bought a snuggle buddies polar bear for london, in part because she couldn't come to the zoo and in part to thank her for the jets preseason game she took us to. i haven't named my feller yet, Kleiner is a likely candidate since a red panda is a "kleiner panda" in german. london, i still think Polo would be the best name for your bear.

my nieces discovered my red panda in the car on the way to friendly's this morning for breakfast. they seem to enjoy swinging him around, hugging him, and exclaiming "Kitty!" in a high voice. amusingly enough, a red panda is a member of the cat family. i halfheartedly offered to give him to the girls, but thankfully ed declined. heh, reminds me of Hugsy from friends.

i have nothing to do at home - besides post.

oh man, i just ordered $379.07 of DVDs from deepdiscountdvd.com. austin, you're so going down.

conan the barbarian
conan the destroyer
dirty work
falling down
galaxy quest
mad max beyond thunderdome
my cousin vinny
say anything
die hard: ultimate collection

that's 11 more movies, asshole. i'm up to 93 now.

i also ordered
blue seed perfect collection
outlaw star collection
escaflowne tv set (limited edition)

chug that down, slut. although you're blatantly winning in the TV shows category. i don't think i even want to compete there.

seeing as my 21 hours/week office job basically covered rent for the summer, you might be wondering where i'm getting the money to pay for these new dvds... the answer is, i have no fucking clue.

i win.

mary, you suck. suck suck suck. suck.

2 more dvds for me. south park and beavis and butthead for $15 from best buy. i also bought an a/v cable switcher with 5 inputs for all my systems ($20). and 5 tshirts from foot locker for $20, 3 of which are the same columbia blue with white collar.

at costco, steiner pointed out new editions of the 4 books out so far from the dark tower series, by stephen king. they have those beautiful glossy covers and a bunch of freakish illustrations. i actually started salivating as i looked at them. so, despite owning all 4 books already, i bought the new editions. i did save a bunch of money, they were each 9.99 instead of 15.95, 17.95, 17.95, and 18.95. steiner also bought them, due to my effusive praise.

short one:

the volume of emails sent while i was at the FCR office this summer is pretty huge compared to while i wasn't. and the emails i received back were also high in number. that was kind of nice. being stuck in an office with nothing to do motivates you to keep in touch with people you are otherwise too busy (well, maybe not busy, but too something) to remember. i had some nice correspondences going with different personages that probably would never have happened had i been in my room all day. it's too bad they all stopped once i stopped going into the office. of course, all you people share the blame as well, blah blah blah, i'm always making the effort, rant rant. oh well, maybe i'll make the first move again later. basically, my point was that work is good for something.

so i got back home last night (saturday) around 8:30. pardo came over around 9, and josh and his girlfriend around 10. of course, first thing i want to do? go to barnes and noble. i don't know what's wrong with me, or rather, i do, but i'll pretend i don't. so we go there, they walk around looking kind of bored, and i pick out:

neuromancer, which various peoples have recommended highly (amanda and maybe austin?), by william gibson. he has a lot of other books too, are those any good? i wrestled with a dilemma of sorts for about 5 minutes, a newer $13.95 edition - you know, those big paperbacks with the covers that are fun to just run your hands over - or the cheaper $6.99 small paperback. i chose the newer one, it was mostly a tie-up until pardo suggested i look at the fonts; the more expensive edition was much larger and more spacious and elegant.

red mars, by kim stanley robertson (i think?). i've been meaning to pick this up for a while, i've heard good things (from online book reviews, i think). i also toyed with the idea of ordering the 3 books in one edition from the science fiction book club (ok, ok, i know, shut up), but i ordered "the chronicles of thomas covenant the unbeliever" (or some weird title like that) based on glowing web reviews and hated it. so i'll read the first book of the trilogy before i buy the other two.

how to be good, by nick hornby. impulse buy, saw the hardcover in the bargain section for $6.99. i really liked about a boy, and high fidelity, so i thought i'd support the author. not high on my reading list, but i'm a sucker for bargain hardcovers.

the short life of the brown oxford, and other stories (not sure about the title), by philip k. dick. bladerunner is awesome, albeit confusing (for me, at least). i liked minority report, and other stories, in the same vein as this collection. and i saw a preview for some other short story by p.k. dick being adapted to a screenplay. i didn't really like minority report (the movie), maybe because i had read the story before, but i was impressed with how the screenplay writer can make a movie out of a piece of literature without cutting anything out, simply because it's only a short story. that's what i hate most about novels turned screenplays, is the cutting. god, michael crichton books get torn to shreds in the adaptation process. anyways, the movie always still comes out inferior, so i like to know what i'm talking about when i disparage this upcoming film (as i undoubtedly will).

ariel picked up something, i forget what. i pointed out an autobiography by joseph heller in the bargain section, which josh bought, along with something else i forget. i felt pride - actual pride!! - letting them use my membership card to save 10%. not only am i a dork, i'm a cheap bastard.

i love books so much. one thing i detested about this summer is i barely read myself to sleep. i think i read one book over the entire summer, which is pitiful, or pitiable, take your pick (stephen king's "the eyes of the dragon"). as soon as i came back home i picked up and reread "shadow of the hegemon." i just finished that tonight; i'm going to start neuromancer next, but i've only read the first few lines. as far as rereading books, that can get me started on a whole nother topic about life being just one long wait until you die, but i don't think i want to get into that now, if ever.

enough for now.

concentrated blogging activity:

outline of topics (that will most likely never be followed up on) -

bronx zoo on wednesday

blackout on thursday

moving into hogan on friday, jess's arrival, bar

moving out of broadway on saturday, bar

air show at westfield today

yankees and lab tuesday, atlantic city or foxwoods sometime this week

montreal in the weekend

un schedule topics -

books, or reason #538 why i'm a dork

response to austin's post in response to my post, or more guardian provider related rants

amanda, or that girl is _weird_

keeping in touch, or why work is good

thoughts on people, and why i hate them, or why i'm an objectionable, obnoxious ass

all today, while i was sitting in the car, or at the air show, or hanging out with my friends, or sitting on my throne, or taking a shower, i was thinking of all the things i wanted to blog. now that i'm actually here, blogging, i don't feel like doing it right now. of course, as referenced by jess, i once said something about motivations and desire and it being either self-fulfilling or self-evident in the first place. meh, i'll do it later.

today i saw 3 movies at 34th st loews.

swat - decent action flick. colin's girlfriend was hot, but she had about 2 minutes of screentime. and right before she left, they let you see her tongue stud. bastards.

american wedding - i like stiffler. without him this movie would have sucked. worse than it did. you sort of have to see this just so you can say "go away" to the series. it was funny, and gross, and everything i expected. the 2 strippers were hot. i need to do some research.

freaky friday - REALLY funny! i was very happy with it. favorite movie of the day, and none were bad, not even american wedding.

tomorrow i'm going to the bronx zoo.

about amanda's blog: you adore me?

about jess' blog: "although latent thoughts of her tripping and falling on matt's dick usually kills any type of comfort i feel around her :)"

fucking great. jess, i don't know what to say to it, really, but, yeah... good stuff.

read austin's blog. i'm not going to link to the blog, or to the particular post, but he's over on the menu left. good post. now i've got all these thoughts swirling around, and trying to sort through them so as i can blog them. but i'm retarded. let me think about it some more.

this week = not as eventful as last week. definitely burnt out. and telling both my jobs that i was leaving a week earlier than i really was, gave me a lot of work to do in both those jobs to finish up. it's fine, i'm done now! except i'm not done at lab...

friday - steiner brought together a great cast for dbq, and then psi u was fun. i just wasn't feeling the keg. mike, thanks for having us over on saturday.

i beat super mario bros! i only died once, by somehow falling into a hole in level 1-2. the rest was a breeze; all you gots to do is pop bowser with 4 fireballs and he flops over like a beached whale.

today is some football game? thanks london :) rawr, still have to finish up in lab. maybe i'll do it tomorrow?

man. i've been working too hard yesterday and today to post. i'm not kidding. ouch.

weird. whenever i try to type "conservation" fast, i type "conversation." and whenever i try to type "alfred," i type "alred." stupid fingers.

wow, all i do on this blog is talk about drinking, as if that makes me cool, and rant. rant rant rant. maybe a bitch once in a while. i'm sorry! i am nice sometimes. a nice thought:

i love this raining in broad daylight. it's absolutely beautiful. the cool rain and hot sunlight really complement each other well. and if you look carefully enough, you can see a prism in every individual raindrop. raining in cloudy skies, not so cool. drizzling on a cool night, pretty cool. raining in the middle of a beautiful day, perfect.

other things that i love (that i think qualify as "nice"):

fireflies
nighttime
cats
meteor showers
stuffed animals
that laundry smell
sappy wussy girl songs
lauren kaplan

i think the guardian provider profile is an extremely accurate description of my persona. i don't know anyone else that even tries to get people together in groups of more than 2. or rather, with regular frequency and for no special occasion. karen did her dinner because it was her last night in new york, pooja organized her party because it was raj's and ken's birthdays. i managed to evolve the dinner into a heavy night of drinking and getting kicked out of bars. i took over a lot of the party when pooja gave up and no one else knew what to do. granted, judy and sara would've taken care of it, but i liked my plan better.

i organized all of my spring break freshman year. because i was so fed up with doing everything, i refused to organize anything for sophomore year, and judy, rubes, zoe, and sara took care of it. junior year i made everyone get together to buy tickets after waiting for SO FUCKING LONG for people who could not make up their goddamn minds about whether or not they were going, and i took care of the hotels, and the cars too. although sara found the rent a wreck and helped a lot with that. and i handled the money every year. oh, and that's another pet peeve, people who fucking sit there vacillating and inconveniencing the group as much as they fucking possibly can while everyone else has their shit together and is waiting for them. i hate them so much. moving on...

and for the people i email about lunch everyday, or the movie marathons every other week, or the tuesday night and weekend drinkins, or the pokers (which haven't been happening enough) - i don't understand what you would do if i wasn't around. would someone else be doing this? or would people be spending a lot more time alone, in their rooms? i like to think i've had a decent impact on my friends because of all the gatherings i have organized. sometimes, though, i get very frustrated when i put a lot of effort into something, and no one responds to the email, or no one seems to appreciate all the work i've put into planning it. i think the best example would be people who come to dinner without washing a goddamn thing. that hasn't happened in a long time, which is very good, mostly because i won't ask anyone like that a second time. i was upset (mistakenly, it turns out, so i am glad i said something about it) when tricia and her friend lindsay seemed ready to blame me for almost having to leave after paying 10 dollars for that steaming puddle of green diarrhea known as "the hulk," and only thanked me, as an afterthought, when we walked out of the fourth movie. it felt like i was performing a service for them and i was subject to their blame if it went badly. it made me feel like i was a tour guide or a servant rather than a friend. something something, that's not what they meant, though, so it's ok.

obviously, i do this because i enjoy it. i think i need it, even. and i am wary of events that other people plan, because i don't trust them to do it as well as i. so what am i even complaining about? if someone else offered to organize all of the things, i would probably be resentful and biased against attending anything.

so what am i writing this all down for? i don't know, really. whatever. the next time i get pissed off and refuse to handle everything for everyone, you'll know why, at least. for now, i'm having fun. oh, i guess i can say people should FUCKING RESPOND TO MY EMAILS, or ask to be taken off the list. if i'm going through the trouble of organizing something and inviting you to it, the least you can do is give me the courtesy of a GODDAMN REPLY.

there, i'm done!

it's already tuesday! i've been slacking in my blogging. for some reason, the past week was really busy for me. and by busy, i mean drunk.

i'm just going to do a short recap for now... i doubt i'll ever go into detail for these things that i've missed.

thursday night - karen's place for dinner. ZHU arrives in the city. we go to lion's head. lots of people, oddly. zhu's friend RACHE makes out with STEINHOUSE. we get KICKED OUT when LONDON shoves RAJ into a table, and raj falls into it, breaking a table leg. we (wrongly) assume steiner WENT HOME with rache. we go to west end. i am very DRUNK by the time i go to sleep.

friday - really HUNG OVER. go to work. SANDY, zhu's GIRLFRIEND, arrives at some point. we eventually go to amcafe. sandy is much BITCHIER than i remembered, spending much of the night being a BITCH. rache arrives at amcafe after we all sit down and zhu makes a big, AWKWARD deal of moving so she can sit next to steiner. rache wants PUNCH BOWLS. it gets HAZY after this. zhu VOMITS outside. i PUNCH zhu in the NUTS. something something... i PUNCH zhu in the NUTS again, maybe. AUSTIN and MIKE pick 8 songs from the jukebox. i repeatedly nominate ECHO, it gets cut. i go up with steiner at some point, and forget to put in ECHO. we get KICKED OUT because zhu's head is on the table and he has obviously had ENOUGH. people part ways, some go to koronet, some go to west end. i and whoever is with me get to west end, order one glass of water. i VOMIT repeatedly like my LIFE depended on it (in the bathroom). i quickly transform from a HAPPY drunk to a MISERABLE drunk. we leave without ordering anything besides that glass of water. rache GETS OFF on steiner's floor. sleep.

almost all of this is gleaned from the recollections of witnesses... them being austin, mike, judy, and rubes. i remember the events of maybe 3 of those sentences myself. people who booted that night: me, zhu, sandy, rache, steiner.

saturday - really, really HUNG OVER. MIKE comes over to make omelettes because i BEG him to. eat omelette, feel sick. watch PREDATOR, feel sick. go to saji's with SAI, don't eat food, feel sick. play some NWN with austin and mike, feel sick. go with mike BACK to saji's, eat food, feel ok. go to GAMESTOP with mike, buy BILL DAUTERIVE action figure for TWO DOLLARS, feel pretty good. make last minute arrangements for raj's and ken's PARTY, feel sick. go with raj and ken to rite aid, then to pooja's place, SURPRISE them, sit down and feel SICK. eat some dumplings, feel sick. drink some beer, make austin drink some beer, NOT FEEL SICK!! drink more beer. stare at pooja's HOT ROOMMATE dancing to BILLY JEAN against one's own will, drink beer. play QUARTERS, drink beer. play king's cup, drink beer. eat ZOE's instructions, drink beer. run OUT of beer, breathe SIGH of RELIEF. GORGE on DUMPLINGS with austin. take the last 2 (fused together), show them to austin, and shove them in my mouth. win 2 games of EUCHRE with austin (before or after dumplings?). get ride home with daniella, go to bed.

sunday - not HUNG OVER!!! so happy. go to TOMO with steiner. watch SCARY MOVIE 1 AND SCARY MOVIE 2 with steiner, austin, mike, and various others. drool over kathleen robertson's HOTNESS and BREASTS. ZHU arrives again, stopping by on his way home from philly to pick up his cell phone charger. convince zhu to STAY for another night to DRINK. watch EQUILIBRIUM, drink 1.5 beers with GREAT difficulty. zhu BITCHES (with just cause) that steiner and i convince him to stay so we can drink, but are not (steiner will not touch A beer). take shot with zhu to SHUT HIM UP. tricia calls up, wants to HANG OUT because this is her last night in NEW YORK. go with tricia and zhu and austin and mike to TOM'S, to meet tricia's HOT FRIENDS saffiya and alexis. SAFFIYA is REALLY hot - she looks egyptian hot with her hair. eat. go to west end. west end is dead, go to 1020. buy one pint of ROLLING ROCK, beat zhu in DARTS, win in POOL. darts i started out really badly and then improved. pool i started out pretty WELL and then SUCKED until tricia and alexis scratched on the 8-BALL. tricia doesn't want to sleep, go to steps. kelsey JOINS us in robe and PJs. can't stay awake, go to bed around 3am.

monday - m2m for lunch. lab from 2-6:15. 20 cent WINGS at lion's head at 6:30. eat WINGS with dave, austin, london, mike, kelsey, pooja. drink pint of guinness for some dumb reason. play ms pacman and galaga, both BADLY. go to west side and buy pint of ICE CREAM. watch tv in lounge, GORGE on ice cream. feel sick. finish leftovers from m2m, feel better. play NWN with mike and austin, things all SCREWY. austin gives up to do WORK, mike and i keep trying, lots of fun. go to sleep around 2am.

tuesday - work.

this week has been ridiculous. i drank enough to be hung over on tuesday, thursday, and friday. and tonight is raj's and ken's birthday party. sometimes i wonder what the fuck i'm doing. am i having fun, or am i just trying to convince myself? am i really thinking these things, or am i just hung over? i think that nauseous feeling in my stomach has me being cranky. god, i can't form a fucking sentence for shit. there, again. this is terrible, i'm sorry.

good note! i saw lauren kaplan coming out of the elevators in broadway. holy god. she's so hot. she was wearing a dress, too. i sound like a sex offender. i'll stop now.

i know i'm skipping thursday, which was actually pretty good too. i don't mean to go out of order but i'm going to post this before i lose it.

friday night: (this conversation takes place saturday morning, ~10:30 am.

ericthehodgeheG: i can't keep doing this
Austimus Prime: I'd recommend against it
ericthehodgeheG: there is some blood
ericthehodgeheG: god, i'm in pain
Austimus Prime: heh
Austimus Prime: no blood actually though, right?
ericthehodgeheG: no blood
Austimus Prime: ok
Austimus Prime: yeah, so in retrospect, was punching zhu in the nuts a good idea/
Austimus Prime: ?
ericthehodgeheG: when did that happen
ericthehodgeheG: i remember hurling like my life depended on it
ericthehodgeheG: i don't remember much else
Austimus Prime: see, that part I don't remember
Austimus Prime: because you had the decency to go to the bathroom
Austimus Prime: or maybe outside
ericthehodgeheG: bathroom
Austimus Prime: oh, wait, was that at stend?
ericthehodgeheG: god fucking christ
ericthehodgeheG: yes
ericthehodgeheG: fucking ow, man
Austimus Prime: zhu went outside to puke with sandy
ericthehodgeheG: are you hung over?
Austimus Prime: only a little
Austimus Prime: took a shower, drank some water
Austimus Prime: I'm ok
Austimus Prime: sandy came in to say they were leaving because he was sick
ericthehodgeheG: memory loss means black out?
Austimus Prime: you and rachel went out to see if he was ok, and try to make him stay
Austimus Prime: you apparently told him that he should stop being a pussy, and stop worrying about puking
ericthehodgeheG: hahahhaa
Austimus Prime: and so you punch in the balls so he would have something else to worry about
ericthehodgeheG: sounds in character
ericthehodgeheG: i did this??
ericthehodgeheG: ahahhaa
Austimus Prime: so say the spectators
Austimus Prime: he came back in
ericthehodgeheG: that's fucking incredbile
ericthehodgeheG: i rule
Austimus Prime: couldn't sit up straight, head on the table
Austimus Prime: don't know if it was the drunk or the balls, but he claimed it was the balls
ericthehodgeheG: he didn't complain about that this morning
Austimus Prime: waitress came over and said he couldn't be in the bar if he was _that_ drunk
ericthehodgeheG: oh, this was at amcafe?
Austimus Prime: had to ask him to leave
Austimus Prime: yes
ericthehodgeheG: wait, that was why we had to leave?
ericthehodgeheG: so it's my fault?
ericthehodgeheG: haha
ericthehodgeheG: shit
Austimus Prime: well, also zhu for getting too fucking tanked to sit up straight
ericthehodgeheG: i punched him in the fucking balls, tat's great
Austimus Prime: so we tried to settle up, but you only had 8 dollars
ericthehodgeheG: i owe someone money
Austimus Prime: so steiner threw in $20 for you
ericthehodgeheG: he just wanted to get home with rache
Austimus Prime: basically, sandy and zhu threw in $50 between them
ericthehodgeheG: we did go to west end, did we not?
Austimus Prime: I threw in $30
ericthehodgeheG: did rache put in money?
Austimus Prime: steiner threw in $20 for you and $20 for him
ericthehodgeheG: those punch bowls are expensive
Austimus Prime: she said she did
Austimus Prime: but I never saw it happen
Austimus Prime: the check was like $134
ericthehodgeheG: good god
ericthehodgeheG: what about the staton island people
Austimus Prime: you thew in your $8
ericthehodgeheG: hahah, i rule
Austimus Prime: sandy said it was included in what she and zhu put in
Austimus Prime: we paid exactly $134, since tip was in there
Austimus Prime: and they were kicking us out
Austimus Prime: and ended up with $20 extra
Austimus Prime: which I made steiner give me so I could go to koronet's
ericthehodgeheG: hahaha
ericthehodgeheG: why didn't i go?
ericthehodgeheG: what kind of state was i in?
Austimus Prime: you had just finished puking and wanted to die
ericthehodgeheG: hahahahah
Austimus Prime: judy and rubes took you home
ericthehodgeheG: YES
ericthehodgeheG: i remember being at west end
ericthehodgeheG: am i just making that up?
Austimus Prime: did you wake up in judy's bed?
ericthehodgeheG: i woke up in my bed
Austimus Prime: no, you wanted to go there
ericthehodgeheG: wait, so i'm making up west end?
ericthehodgeheG: i really remember being there
Austimus Prime: I made you wait for me while I signed zhu and sandy in
Austimus Prime: I made you give them your key
Austimus Prime: and told them to sleep in your bed
ericthehodgeheG: then how come i slept in my bed?
Austimus Prime: don't know
ericthehodgeheG: i need some water, brb
Austimus Prime: I went back out and you said we were going to stend
Austimus Prime: wait
Austimus Prime: you went to stend while I was in bway
Austimus Prime: I got there, and you were sitting at a table with other people's glasses on it
Austimus Prime: and had ordered 1 cup of water for you, judy, rubes
Austimus Prime: I sat down
Austimus Prime: you went to puke
Austimus Prime: rachel and steiner came with koronet's
Austimus Prime: that made you sicker
Austimus Prime: you went and puked some more
Austimus Prime: pretty soon you just announced that we were leaving
Austimus Prime: judy said she would sleep with rubes and you would sleep in her bed
Austimus Prime: where were eric and sandy when you got back?
ericthehodgeheG: so we were at stend!
Austimus Prime: yes
ericthehodgeheG: and i threw up a shitload!
Austimus Prime: yes
ericthehodgeheG: my version of the night...
Austimus Prime: without ever paying gratuity, no less
ericthehodgeheG: drinking punch bowls with rache at amcafe
ericthehodgeheG: we get kicked out cuz zhu is sick
ericthehodgeheG: weird impressions of west end
ericthehodgeheG: lots of vomiting
ericthehodgeheG: rache goes to steiner's room
ericthehodgeheG: i wake up
Austimus Prime: go steiner
ericthehodgeheG: lotta blanks to fill i
ericthehodgeheG: n
Austimus Prime: like punching zhu in the balls?
ericthehodgeheG: i am the fucking man
ericthehodgeheG: the man
ericthehodgeheG: he was throwing up
ericthehodgeheG: so i punched him in the balls
Austimus Prime: when he already had a bleeding scrotum, no less

wednesday:

so i wake up at 8:20, go back to sleep. wake up at 9:15, decide not to go into work. i call my boss to ask her if i can just come in thursday instead (she always says yes, she's so nice!), get her voicemail. she won't be in today or tomorrow... sounds good to me. i just don't go in. of course, yesterday we'd made plans to eat lunch at the ICC so i have to go anyways. we go to lunch, i narrowly escape notice by a coworker, eat the turkey with mashed potatoes and stuffing - NOT as good as m2m! the turkeys were from 2 different universes. i tell kelsey we should see the mariko mori exhibit before it ends (july 31st), it's her day off, and mine too, sort of.

around 2 o clock, we take the 1/9 M79 to the whitney, at 75th and madison. cool building. they have some very cool stuff: Sarah Sze's Triple Point of Water in the downstairs area, and the American Effect - too lazy to find a good review or article on it. among my favorites were air raid on new york city, which looks much much better in the exhibit. that's only a portion of it in the picture, and you can't see the holographic paper. and the winner of the exhibit is: Hisashi Tenmyouya, Tattoo Man's Battle, which is the fucking coolest thing i've ever fucking seen. the super giant ROBOT DEMON is so totally fucking sweet!

we walk down to the IBM building, sit in line for 20 minutes before the attendant tells us the line has been closed. bitch. on our way out, we see a japanese woman who is probably mariko. damn, she's weird. i mean weird too, not hot.

we go to fao schwartz, hug the GIANT puppies, kelsey buys some pop rocks, we both drool over hello kitty paraphenalia. kelsey talks to some guy wearing a cape and mask who lets her hold a replica of darth maul's double lightsaber. i think it cost $489 in the store.

walk to wendy's. i spoil myself and get the bacon mushroom melt. yum.

subway back. i get back to my room to see an IM from krishelle, tricia's hot little asian friend. i had IMed her from work a few days ago, on account of being on the verge of stapling my hand to my chest to feel something besides this soul draining boredom. we have a pretty good conversation, i think. i manage to sound really interesting, having just come back from the whitney. and because i just took a jazz class with washburne last semester. we establish common likes: pool, neither of us being good at it, aquariums, zoos, jazz and jazz clubs, artsy art, maybe others. she's in LA for the summer, and before she signs off, she does the "we should hang out sometime" thing. ha! i know i'm making too much of this, but it's nice to hope. there's no way she could read this, right?

end wednesday.

let's start with tuesday. tuesday night is trivia night. for two weeks or so, it was binge drinking night at lion's head. but tonight i was going to make trivia night, which is usually this excruciatingly slow, boring, torturous affair, into binge drinking night. to that end, kelsey and i bought 3 40's from UFM (judy came along too, but not for the drinking so much), and got to the stend around 9:30. we look inside and corey tells us it was only dave, mike, and ben, and they left about 10 minutes ago. i call dave, he's at koronet, they left because no one showed, a gas leak meant no burgers, and the theme was music (meaning they weren't going to win). austin finds us while we're outside stend. being the guardian provider i am, i decree that we are going to lion's head. we swing by koronet to pick up mike and dave (ben had already gone home), and sit ourselves down at the benches by the front window. tuesday is good because a pitcher of yuengling is $7. that's not too shabby. 5 of us, 5 glasses a pitcher, means we go through 5 pitchers fairly quickly. there was a good amount of jukeboxing, a good amount of bad singing, a good amount of galaga and ms pacman comments. through the night, we lost judy, got raj and lost raj, got tricia and lost tricia, got karen, london, and london's eerily cute friend leslie (i don't quite trust her, i don't know why), and lost them as well. we got up to maybe 7 or 8 pitchers for the table, not counting the bud light karen got. the night ends at 1:45... i had been dying to go to koronet before they closed, but austin had put 3 KILLER songs into the jukebox and we waited for them for at least 20 minutes (i know, i was watching the clock) before we couldn't wait anymore. it's just me, mike, austin, and kelsey by this point. so we get to koronet - stopping when i had to sit down because they kept scraping mike's disc on the pavement, oh god, it hurts - in time to see them lock the door. austin, who had a ton of work to do before his presentation tomorrow, and really had meant to be at trivia night for maybe an hour, proclaims we might as well stay up the whole night. i go to my room, bring my pillow and blanket down to austin's lounge, and he brings out his dvd player and a stack of movies. i remember the intro, then -

i wake up, look around. austin's staring right at me, and all he says is "yeah." i'm on the couch in his lounge. it's 6:30 in the morning. i go up to my room to sleep some more. end tuesday.

bad people go to hell. good people don't. why should it matter whether or not they believe in the lord jesus christ? people have been killing each other because of what they believe in for forever. i'm going to continue hoping that god doesn't care if we pay him lip service, as long as we live happily, and that happiness doesn't come from making other people unhappy.