a new year
2005-01-14 - 9:09 p.m.

Conclusion, and a New Beginning
2004-11-06 - 1:54 p.m.

-
2004-09-01 - 6:19 p.m.

midnight
2004-08-23 - 5:24 p.m.

where I went, and where I'm going
2004-07-27 - 8:05 a.m.



blue muppet needs water badly
2004-03-13 2:19 p.m.

It's a beautiful day, but my hangover kept me stuck in bed for several hours. Blue Muppet needs water badly.

Last night, we had a gathering for some friends (evite title: "Goodbye [nameoftown], Hello Drunken Stupor!") as the second and last party in this apartment.

The attending guest list turned out to be Larn, Obi, VA, D, and Suz. (Ray, Laura, and VA's boyfriend couldn't come.) The plan was to eat at a local Indian restaraunt and then adjourn to our place to hit the liquor.

Larn and Obi drove up from San Jose - it took them over 2 hours, in the ridiculousness that is Bay Area traffic - and met us at our apartment, where we picked them up to take them to the restaraunt.

While we were driving, I made mention of plans for once we had moved closer to them in the South Bay. "We can go to Bucca all the time!"

Larn made a sad groaning sound, and paused awkwardly before speaking:

"You guys, I know this totally sucks, but we're moving back to Pennsylvania."

Dude. What the fuck is going on here, seriously? Why the hell is everyone moving? Is this a conspiracy?

In Larn and Obi's case, she's been fed up with Big Blue for a long time, and she's been having a pretty miserable time there (with the small consolation that she's at least getting paid well for her misery.)

Then yesterday their landlord called them and said that they could not renew their lease because she was selling the condo, and they had to be out by April 16th.

It should also be noted that Obi's family lives in Pittsburgh, and Obi in fact WORKS in Pittsburgh, as he is telecommuting for a tech startup back there.

Faced with moving in the South Bay and insane apartment prices in the areas they would like to live, Larn and Obi decided it made sense to move back to Pittsburgh, where you can buy a house for $60,000 that would cost you $500,000 in the Bay Area.

Of course, this decision just happened yesterday, so maybe things will change, but none of us believes that. Larn was miserable and Obi was 3,000 miles away from his job. Where's the sense in that?

Happy as I am that they have the guts to take their life back into their own hands, I'm still fucking pissed that they're leaving (in a totally athena-selfish sort of way.) Not at them, but the situation and how ridiculous this all seems, like a conspiracy - 3 months of contentment to get us complacent, and then the universe rips our friends and our new home away from us just like that.

Of course, this news hit right before we got out of the car to go to dinner, so it was time to Put On A Happy Face and pretend like I wasn't upset that one of my best friends is going back to the Colder Coast. (As the girl who was praised for her sunny disposition at work while her dad was feared dead, this was no particular challenge.)


Dinner was nice - Larn and Obi hit it off pretty well with our bosses (they were slightly disturbed when we revealed that we were dining with BOTH bosses.)

Incidentally, when that subject came up at dinner, VA was insanely gracious. Hunter said "And VA is Athena's boss," to which VA replied "Not her boss. We're a team."

The woman is something like 5 promotions above me, but she still treats me like a near equal. Awesome.

The restaraunt was pretty good - we were almost the only Caucasians in the place, as there were a large number of Indian families dining there with us. (Always a good sign.)

Afterwards we all headed to our place, where Hunter proceeded to make "Lemon Lime Bombs" (10 lemons, 10 limes, sugar, Grey Goose, and ice.) Damn, they were tasty tangy little concoctions - like something you would get from an ice cream truck.

We sat and talked for an hour or so - D and Suz were the first to go, and VA stuck around for another hour. Everyone got along great, and there was much merriment. After D and Suz left, Larn started making more frequent trips to the liquor. I did a Grey Goose shot with Obi, and soon after I did a vodka-and-apple-pucker shot with Larn. Considering the deceptively high vodka content in the Lemon Lime Bombs, it was probably amazing that I was still standing. I also had a glass of wine, which was most likely a mistake.


After VA left, it was just Larn, Obi, Hunter, and myself. The old college crew. I took out my old photo albums and for a while, Larn and I cooed at pictures of our Golden Years in the dorms. Good times.

After photo albums and some drinks, we attempted to play a game of "Life". To say this was a miserable failure would be a gross understatement.

Larn and I had consumed so much at this point that the motor skills had left the building for the night. The task of fitting a microscopic pink or blue person into a tiny plastic minivan proved far too difficult.

We put all of the plastic pieces into the slots on the board and forged ahead anyway. It wasn't 2 turns before Larn had removed all of the plastic bridge pieces from the board, and was in the process of removing the spinner.

We did manage to get past job selection, but the game really started to fall apart at the Marriage space. An allegory? Perhaps. We pleased Dr. Freud by throwing our hands up after the Marriage space and giving up on the game.

The next game of choice was Mario Party, and Obi fired up the old GameCube. Again, miserable failure. Larn had never played, I don't think, and the vodka was hitting me so hard at this point that I don't remember most of the evening from this point on. Except that Hunter kept trying to turn the game into Strip Mario Party, but Obi didn't want to strip, so the game ended with Hunter in his boxers and Larn and I bra-less but not shirtless.

At this point I started to feel very much as if my body was rejecting the vodka, and I think after Mario Party fell apart we all ended up adjourning for the night. (Larn and Obi crashed on our extra bed.)

It was a good time. I wish we had time to do more of this, with slightly less vodka so that I'd remember the whole night. Note to self: hanging out with old college buddies does NOT give you back your old astronomical alcoholic tolerance. Shot glasses are not your friend.

But all I had was a mild hangover headache in the AM. Unlike the last attempted drunken sleepover, which ended in Larn leaving in the middle of the night with a vague tequila-induced sense of needing to be home, Larn and Obi survived the evening. They had to leave really early to go plant trees in the South Bay for some volunteer project Larn had agreed to. I hope she didn't have too much of a hangover...

Now Hunter's at work, and I'm deciding between walking to the gym (the last day of my ill-fated membership is today) or shopping, or packing.

Ew packing. But we're moving a week from today.

Did I just say that out loud? We're moving in a week?

YAAAAAAARGH. Screw it all, I'm buying a Winnebago.



playing:
nothing

reading:
nothing

feeling:
better than this morning

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