I've been tagged to do this by stardancer2023.

1. I'm not really sure what I've been tagged to do. Write random crap, I guess. Just like always.


2. I'm going to count that last one, and this one too.


3. I told EwokGirl that some chick came by her desk to see her yesterday. I told her that she had brown hair and smiled a lot. This wasn't good enough for EwokGirl. Some people are just never satisfied. I mean, what does she want, the girl's name or something?


4. SassyGirl called me last night and told me that Rich O's had reduced the seating in the living room area by getting new, smaller, furniture. This strikes me as a wonderful idea. Not.


5. My surprisaphobia will peak this weekend, and then hopefully fade back to normal after that.


6. Is there a minimum number of these I'm supposed to do?


7. I'm going to count that one too, and this one. So ha ha.


8. This weekend is the start of Gravity Head at Rich O's, and I have to work. Just like I had to work in December when Saturnalia started.


9. I've got like eight hours of American Idol on my TiVo that I haven't watched yet.


10. I think that's it.

I'd normally just blame EwokGirl for this, but I'm sure that the fire drill we had at work yesterday morning had something to do with it.

She's right, of course.

I sometimes wonder what I'm doing here.

I mean, I know why I started doing this. I started doing this just because I wanted to keep an online diary. Nothing fancy. Nothing special. Nothing interesting.

But sometime over the past couple of years my reason evolved into something else. Something much more difficult. Something much more rewarding.

At some point I went from wanting to write, to wanting to be a writer. Every now and then I feel like I manage that feat, but not as often as I'd like. And certainly never without some emotion behind it, fueling the words.

So I let my feelings start to flow again, and I wait for inspiration. Beyond that, I wait for new inspiration. And I get nothing but the same old crap that I've already rehashed so often that even I'm bored with it.

And this makes me wonder. It makes me wonder what I'm doing here.

This is a BaggyDraggs.

In four minutes, I'll have gone another birthday without a greeting from her.

It astonishes me that I somehow manage to be surprised by this.

Again.

I'd actually been hoping to leave work early today, because of my birthday.

But nooooooooooooooooooo!

We had a 1.5 hour meeting that magically turned into a 3 hour meeting, so I didn't get to leave until normal time.

After work I went by Rich O's to see SassyGirl, who I didn't get to see over the weekend at my pre-birthday thingy because she had to work.

I had a couple glasses of t Smisje Wostyntje Mustard Ale (74).

I got a Happy Birthday text message from HatGirl!

Yay!

And then, HatGirl called me!

Double-Yay!

And then, after a while, HatGirl came into Rich O's.

Triple-Yay!

We didn't talk much though, and she left rather abruptly.

I finished her Guinness (1097).

Then I went to Pizza Hut and then I called HatGirl to make sure she wasn't too pissed at me (To be fair, I had warned her that my recent reversion would turn me into a dick.) and then I came home.

Happy Birthday to me!

Okay, so the house in the lower left is mine, and the house in the upper left - two houses up from me - that house isn't there any more.

Pretty messed up.

Weird.

The house two houses down from me is burning.

At least that's what we all assume. The six fire trucks and the four police cars are sort of a dead giveaway. They've blocked off the street at my driveway, and again about a mile down the road, so you can't actually see any fire. A couple of hours ago the smoke was impressive though.

So I went down to Buckhead's for my birthday dinner. I was alone, but I kinda had a point to make, so I did.

With my meal I had some Newcastle (1854).

I came home to find nothing changed except that there's no more smoke. All of the fire trucks are still there, and the road is still blocked off. I walked out and asked the cop in front of my driveway if everyone got out okay, and he said that they did, so that's good. I don't know those people but their cat used to come and eat some of Spook's food back when Spook was alive.

Just a couple of things that I didn't write about already.

In December, when I was in Las Vegas, My friend Eric and his wife were, unbeknownst to me, also in Las Vegas. This sucks that they were there and I didn't know about it. It would have been so much fun to hang out and do touristy stuff with them!

One of the nice things about this, um, emotional reversion I've done is that not much can really bother me. It's given me a nice sense of perspective. Stuff that a couple of weeks ago would have pissed me off or made me sad - it is all nothing when I compare it to what I've already been though, and what I'm going through again.

So, world, throw your worst at me, you fucker. I can take it.

Having said that, it is a little annoying how I continue to find myself attracted to women that are inappropriate or unavailable. This is a defense mechanism that I'd really like to shake off.

I guess that's it.

(Part two)

Up to this point, we'd all still been sitting in the red room, but maintaining watchful eyes for any other seats to open up. I still didn't know who was going to show up, and the red room - even with both tables - will hold about ten people and that's it.

Once a couple of strangers (ha ha, take that, FutureDude!) left the island we moved there and took advantage of the more compact grouping to bullshit about various fluff.

I showed everyone my new rock.

My next beer was a yummy Weihenstephaner Hefeweissbier (510), which has I guess switched to twelve-ounce bottles for now. I actually had two more of these (534).

At one point my friend Eric came in. I hadn't seen him in like a million years. His wife had to stay home with a sick child, so Eric ended up completing the attendee list. So, to review:

1. My lovely self


2. SpoonsGirl


3. SpoonsGirl's husband SirTalksALot


4. My sister Dina


5. Dina's Fiance Kenny


6. My oldest friend Eric

1. MusicalHippyDude


2. GlassesGirl


3. HotRedHead


4. This other hot girl that turned out to have the worst taste in ex-husbands I've ever seen

1. HatGirl


2. LuckyFucker


3. SassyGirl


4. SassyBoy


5. TacoBell


6. SpikeBoy


7. My cousin Jeff


8. DooRagGirl

Eventually, as nights tend to do, this one wound down. Eventually it was just me and Eric. I had myself a half-pint of Guinness (1092). We were joined, at various intervals, by NoNicknameDude and ElPresidente and FirstLady, though they were there for their own reasons - not for my pre-birthday thingy.

Several people wanted to go over to Jack's once Rich O's closed. Eric was one of those people, and because it's so rare to see Eric anymore I agreed to go as long as nobody tried to force me to drink shots.

(SCRIBBLERESQUE PARENTHETICAL THOUGHT: There's still only one person one Earth that I'll do shots for, and her name is Holly, and she wasn't there last night. I miss Holly.)

So Eric and I and NoNicknameDude and HotRedHead all went over to Jack's. I had a couple of Diet Cokes, and we played a few games of pool. We ended up closing the place down. I'd planned on going to White Castle but the temperature was in the single digits so I came straight home instead.