The place was packed. There are three dipshits taking up four spaces at the bar, and there's an old couple eating at the island, and UplandWheatDude is in the living room with some dipshits. I ordered a Delirium Tremens (650) and asked the old people if I could sit with them as long as I promised not to bother them. They agreed, but before I could sit down the living room people invited me to join them. Against my better judgment - such as it is - I went and sat on the loveseat next to some drunk fucker.

After a couple of minutes I picked up my shit and moved back to the island because the various drunk dipshits in the living room kept trying to talk to me.

(Edit: I do not include UplandWheatDude among the annoying dipshits. He's a good guy.)

---

I hope these old people leave before they try to talk to me.

---

These things in my head, these thoughts and memories and inklings - I wonder how many of them are real and how many exist simply to hide the truth. Or to impersonate the truth. I'd like to believe that there's some truth on the surface of me, but sometimes I can't tell. And I've surprised and shocked myself so many times that I don't think I trust myself anymore. It's not the best feeling I've ever had.

---

Fuck I wish these people would leave. They paid their tab 30 minutes ago and they're still sitting there yakking at each other.

(Update: Fucking finally!)

---

Oh shit! I just had an awful idea. What if that one loud bitch is that one dude's new girlfriend? If so, I may vomit.

---

Okay, this was messed up. You need to look at the map I guess.

After the old people left I moved to the spot marked with the "X." A few minutes later, a guy and a girl came in. They sat in the two spots next to me. What made this weird, what made this strange, what made this incredibly fucked up, what totally creeped me out was that - get this - the other side of the island was completely unoccupied! This creeped me out, like I said, and so I picked up my shit and moved back to the living room. Once I got there, people once again tried to talk to me, but that was nothing compared to those two freakazoids sitting right next to me.

About an hour later WomanRepellant came in. I offered him 5 bucks to go sit at the "X" seat. He was going to do it but there was a chick that distracted him and so he ended up sitting across from the freakazoids instead.

---

To write that last section, I took my second Delirium Tremens (660) and moved to the kiddie table. I don't feel like moving back.

---

Some people insist on talking about politics and religion in here. Some people suck. In many cases, these two groups overlap. Coincidence? I think not.

---

FutureDude is funny.

---

Hot girl alert!!!

---

I just figured out why I hate this one fucker. He's a pretentious asshole, but there are a lot of those around. But this guy is also an ass kisser. It's a pretty powerful combination.

---

Oh boy, I get to listen to CoffeeDude tell The Story Of His Home Roaster again.

---

What sucks about tonight is that the place is full of fakers. I find myself painfully aware of SassyGirl's impending departure. She'll join LaptopGirl and Spikeboy in the group of people who used to make this place worthwhile for me, but then moved away or otherwise stopped coming in. HatGirl doesn't come in often enough to make a difference. Neither does DooRagGirl. Once SassyGirl leaves I think that I'll have one friend left here.

---

Sure, there are plenty of people who I like just fine, but none of them are like me. There's something fake about every one of them.

---

Plus, a lot of them are just incredibly stupid.

---

I could probably do another Tremens, but it's Diet Coke time for now.

---

I probably shouldn't say this, but last night was the best night that I've had in a very very very very very long time. Maybe the best night of my life. So there.

---

I am stupid.

---

I wrote that I was stupid because I was 0 for 3 on returned calls tonight. But right after I wrote that HatGirl called me back. So now I'm 1 for 3. I'm still stupid though.

---

Weihenstephaner Hefeweissbier is back on tap! I'm ordering one, but I probably won't drink it all (1463).

---

After that, I quit taking notes because HatGirl came in.

HatGirl!

Yay!

It was very nice to see her after so many millions of years. We ended up closing the place down together.

Then I went to White Castle and then I came home.

I bet, if I had any long-term readers left, I bet they'd be pretty pissed at me if they knew what was going on. What I'm keeping from them.

Good thing I managed to bore them all into a coma a long time ago.

---

Since I'm off work for several days, I of course went to Rich O's Thursday night. I'd expected the place to be packed, what with the holiday weekend and all, but it was only about half full. I sat on the throne and ordered a Smithwick's (1152).

Then WomanRepellant came over and pointed out that they had Delirium Tremens on tap.

Yay!

So I ordered one of those (650) and drank it first.

This is the part where I don't say anything.

Finally, I'd had enough "me time" and I went up to the island and listened to WomanRepellant and CoffeeDude and some dude I don't know talk about music for a while. It was boring, but it was better than having more time to think would have been.

At 11:30 or so, even though they were clearly kicking everyone out of the place, I wasn't quite ready to leave, so I had a Diet Coke and listened to some more boring music discussion.

Then I came home.

And this is another part where I keep my fucking mouth shut.

Now I'm off for five days.

That's the good news.

The bad news?

Same thing.

When I have nothing else to do, I tend to think. And that's always a bad idea for me.

Especially because I feel like I'm close to something. I mean, I'm right on the verge of something big. Problem is, I don't know what that thing might be.

So I expect, sometime over the next five days, I expect to spend some time thinking and trying to figure out why I've felt so strange lately. And then, once I think I know what that big thing looming on my horizon is, I'll do something.

Whether I do something to prevent it, or to help it along, I can't say just yet. Not until I know what it is.

All I know for sure is that whatever I do, it will be something stupid.

Yes or no? Fast or slow? Stay or go? Hide or show? Force or flow? Now or later?

I know, that breaks the pretty pattern.

So sue me.

These are some of the questions that occupy my mind these days.

There are no answers, only guesses.

And, if I get a single guess wrong, then there won't be any more questions.

Not ever.

It kinda sucks to be me, right about now.

I went once.

I don't know why.

Something to do I suppose.

It's not like I really expected to meet anyone special, even though that's what the brochures kept promising.

After all, anyone smart enough to be there would have been smart enough to stay the fuck away from me.

And so it was.

There were some pretty strange people there though.

Most of them were pretentious assholes.

I guess there wasn't any room left in their heads for social niceties.

I thought I'd already written this entry, months ago. I distinctly remember writing bits and pieces of it. But a search of my old entries finds nothing, and a search of that folder on my desktop where I keep drafts of entries finds nothing, so maybe I'm insane. Again. Still. Whatever.

What I want to write about represents a pretty big divergence from my usual drivel. It's also a pretty big divergence from anything that I'm even remotely qualified to write about.

But, as they say, oh well.

I want to write about writing.

Please stop laughing.

Seriously.

Okay, thanks.

Every now and then I'll write something that I like. I mean really like. Every now and then I manage to impress myself, and if you know me at all then you know that this is a precious and improbable feat. Not only because I'm not easily impressed, but also because I know that I'm capable of much better.

In my head I'm a fucking poet beyond compare.

Anyway, what I wanted to write about was one of the components that those things which I like have in common.

Rhythm.

"But Dave," you might say. "You're white! By definition, you have no rhythm."

And I'd have no argument for that.

Maybe rhythm is the wrong word. Maybe flow would be better. Don't ask me, I just winging all this anyway.

These three sentences, for example, they flow. They dance together. They have rhythm.

These two sentences are boring. They just sit here wishing they weren't so lame.

I used to know a girl. Well, maybe I still know her, and maybe I never knew her at all. Whatever. The point is that everything she ever did had rhythm. Every word she said, every move she made, everything just flowed from her onto my soul like syrup onto pancakes.

See that there? That's why I don't like similes. Because I suck at them.

This girl fancies herself a writer. Or at least she used to, back when I might have known her. Now, I gather, not so much. And that's a shame.

I've never read anything she wrote, the reasons for that are unfortunate and numerous and probably boring to everyone but me. I never got to read a single word. And that's a disaster to me.

But I've gotten sidetracked. This entry is supposed to be about me and some of the things that I write. And that rhythm thing.

My heart, like that of most people I suppose, is possessed of a very short and very specific memory. I know that I've written about this before. It will remember the facts surrounding a series of events, but it will not, cannot, remember what it was actually like to actually feel that way it felt when those events took place.

Did that make any sense?

Probably not.

Okay, example time.

In 1988, my mom died. I was sad. I remember being sad. But what I can't do is just conjure up that sadness from memory, except in an abstract and objective way. What I have to do, if for some reason I want to bring that sadness back and experience it subjectively, is I have to relive it. So I wrote an entry about that night my mom died. And now, now I can relive that night and that pain and that sadness whenever I want to.

That entry, I like. I like it because it not only allows me to do what had been denied for almost 20 years, but also because it flows. It has rhythm. It reminds me of that girl that I maybe used to know.

I can read that entry and, in my head, the words dance together. They glide through my head as I silently mouth them. That entry, and a few others, are a joy to read. Though they tear at my soul, they also lift my spirits.

They do this because they have something special that lets them move effortlessly through me. Not ripping and tearing and bullying, but flowing, caressing, soothing.

Man, I'm really rambling now. Oops.

I think, without really looking back and checking, I think that all of the entries that I've written that I really like have been sad. This is, no doubt, partly because most of the shit I write about is sad, but it's also because I think the sad subjects are the ones that I let my heart write instead of trying to force my brain to write about things that it knows nothing about.

Well, fuck. My Internet connection is down. I think, if it ever comes back, then I'll just post this damn thing and get it over with. I've completely digressed from my original point anyway.

Some of the questions I've been asking myself a lot lately have been those that I never thought I'd have reason to ask again.

Will I be able to tell when enough is enough?

So far, I've bitten my tongue. I've restrained my writings. I've tempered and censored my very thoughts. So far, the need to simply stay afloat has been my driving force.

Will I be able to see that thin line between need and want?

But that will change. It's already started. It's changing right now or I wouldn't be writing this, this drivel. Once the needs are satisfied the wants will take over. The wants will consume me.

Will I see the edge between far enough and too far in time?

It's a funny thing. I know that I cannot fly. But I stand here once again at the edge of this abyss with my arms outstretched. I dream. I crave. I hope.

Will I make the same mistakes all over again?

Just turn away.

I've had enough. I got what I needed. I will never get what I wanted, but there are no brakes on this thing. I cannot stop it. I don't want to stop it.

Turn away. Walk away. Run away.

It's too much. It's always been too much. The smallest gesture sets me aflame.

Yet it's still not enough.

Just go.

Please.

We'll see how well this works. My laptop is broken, and I'm sitting in the New York New York casino, in the shopping area. At a little table with a pizza design painted on top. I'm sitting under a fake tree, surrounded by fake streets. Above the storefronts are the illusions of second and third story windows. It's all fake, but still very convincing. I half expect to get mugged.

What was I getting at?

Oh, yeah.

This place certainly has style, but there's no real substance behind it. Concrete and cold steel. Plaster and paint. Break through these facades and the illusion is revealed.

I had a conversation last night. At least it started out as a conversation. It ended up being more of a sermon, or an impassioned plea for understanding.

The things that you read, the things that I write, they're not fiction. I am not a storyteller. I'm not even much of a writer most of the time.

My writings describe my thoughts and my feelings and my life. Strip away the facades of flowing phrases and you really lose nothing. What you're left with may not be as refined, but it's no less real. Hell, it might even be more real.

The point I need to make is that it's often too easy for people to have a disconnect between the words that they read and the people and events behind those words. I see this reflected all the time in the comments and emails I get. People complimenting me in something I've written.

But the thing is, I'm am not an actor performing in a play. This is my life. These events are real. And beyond that, they're happening right now. This is not an historical account of my life that you're reading. It's a play-by-play description.

So, if I write about pain, then I'm hurting.

If I write about confusion, then I'm confused.

And if I write about being in love, then I'm in love.

Just not with you.