yes, yes, you got his number

many stories added to the annals this weekend. one of note:

tao, casey, rubes, and i are sitting at road house (i actually typed lion's head there first before realizing my error). i am scrolling through casey's phone to find people to call and berate until they agree to come. i get to esther. i hit send, and show casey the phone because i know he'll be embarassed. the phone rings 6, 7 times. i say, "great job casey. this is what you get for not moving your ass. she's probably fucking some other white guy from wisconsin right now."

she picks up. the table around me explodes into laughter (i am not laughing). there is no saving this. i jump fucking ship and end the call.

i call 2 or 3 other people, with mixed results. then i call esther again. i say i dropped the phone and the battery fell out, which i feel is a reasonably good save, considering. i tell her to come to roadhouse. the conversation runs something like so:

come to road house.
where?
road house.
why?
casey said he misses you, and he wants you to come.
no he didn't. casey wouldn't say that.
yeah you're right, he didn't. i was just fucking with you.
so why should i come to road house?
it'll be fun. come on.
are you really at road house?
what?
are you actually there?
what do you mean? where else would we be?
you're not just fucking with me?
[i give the phone to casey at this point, he confirms, some other stuff happens, she says she'll "stop by"]

at this point i ask my friends what that even means. who would tell someone to go to a bar they weren't even at? what kind of petty evil would that be? wow.

she arrives at some point, takes a seat. i ask her if she was serious when she asked that question. she asks what i mean, and i clarify. "who would do that? what kind of a person would tell someone to go to a bar they weren't even at?"

she considers for a moment, and looking right at me, answers, "an asshole."

well, shit. here's a person i met only one week ago and have had, we'll say, 3 hours of being in the same room. she has sure got me pegged though.

now this is what i was talking about before. what am i, really? an asshole? a nice guy pretending to be an asshole? an asshole pretending to be a nice guy pretending to be an asshole? i don't think i could possibly be a nice guy pretending to be an asshole pretending to be a nice guy pretending to be an asshole, because that would just be far too confusing.

i will die alone. this really is mildly upsetting, no matter how i look at it.

no grading done today. my geometry kids are failing, and i don't have the numbers to show them. so whose fault is it when they fail at the end of the semester? this whole hand holding thing... but how can we do sink or swim when we KNOW that they will sink?