See what I have to work with here?

Katelyn asked me to take some cute couple pictures of Brian and her. This is the last one. It is blurred because Brian can't stand still, and we're outside in the dark.

But seriously.

Reinstated: TV Thursday

Just in a new locale: the girls' apartment.

It's not quite the same as Ryan's. There was a feel to Ryan's apartment that just screamed, "Bring your laptops and recipes and watch hours worth of television while sipping delectable Coke Zero!"

We've got the laptops. We do not have the hours of television. Just one little half hour, watched in real time. The Office, we've decided, is worthy to carry TV Thursday all on its own.

(We also have caffeine free coke instead of Coke Zero. See? Everything's changing.)

More blog entries to come, because for some reason TV Thursdays always make me post more often than usual. Like, five entries in one night. I think that was my record back in May.

I was at Cosmos, and now I'm at Starbucks

Because that Dead-Last Brian or whatever I re-named him two posts ago, actually picked to go on last tonight, even when his name didn't come up last for once. What is with that?

So I hit the road.

Actually, Ryan and New Friend Chris showed up, because I had promised them ample room to read peacefully, and it turns out an overwhelming crowd of Cosmos open night mic-ers made a liar out of me. (Next week I'm getting there at 5:45 to get that darn corner table! You watch me. Just watch me.) So we walked down the street to calm, peaceful, apparently smelling like a nail salon, Starbucks.

Fifteen tries to get online later, and here we are. You gotta love that Starbucks.

PS- Sorry, Brian, for ditching you. You may not know yet, but I've left. And we'll see about next week.

PPS- Katelyn, wish you were here. I might have suffered through for you. But not for Brian.

So me.

Also titled, What I Did on My Day Off:

1) Slept to 9:30am
2) Went to work. I know, what's a day off if you still have to go to work. Don't worry. I was only there for a 20 minute meeting. Then I had the entire day stretched ahead of me, with no plans. So I improvised.
3) Went to Costco. I'd searched from 10am-10:30am for my box of contacts, as I am currently in desperate need of a new pair. I searched high. I searched low. They were nowhere to be found and I was starting to panic. (Contacts are expensive.) Then I thought to myself, Did I even pick them up from Costco last month? And the truth of the matter was that I had not. Fortunately, Costco keeps them for you, even if you're a goof like me and don't pick them up for thirty-seven days.
4) Went browsing at Barnes and Noble. It was crowded.
5) Went to Cutter's Point with Jenna and Jenn-without-an-A. We're still here. And I remember all the reasons why I love Cutter's Point more than Starbucks, besides the free internet and glorious natural sunlight. And yes, I'm working on my writing... in between checking facebook and reading other people's blogs... I've got like 125 words written.
6) Uploaded a few POTDs from the last week.

Explanation: Britt was going to toss this magazine cutout of John Krasinsky, but graciously asked if I wanted it. I told her if I found an 8.5 x 11 frame I would. I did find said frame, and said John is now displayed very prominently over my desk.
Explanaton: Time was running out for this POTD, so I simply set the camera up to take a picture of the room in general, where Ryan and I had been watching How I Met Your Mother episodes for hours. And Jenna came in right in the middle, and totally made it in the shot. I love it.

Explanation: None needed.

The wonder

of purple summer

RIP Spring Awakening

The New York Broadway company of Spring Awakening closed tonight. I'm not sure how I feel about this. On the one hand, I LOVE the touring cast so much, I don't think I'd even care to see the current NY cast. But it's the principle of the matter; the show is closing. Tony award winning shows should not close after just a year and a half. It's not right. 

Stinking economy.

I've got a secret. A good one.

Ten points to the first person who can tell me who said that quote!

In the words of Jo March (from the musical, not the book), "I've made an important decision today."

Also, something is afoot.

This vague and noninformational message is brought to you by Ryan Prades' Facebook status updates. And the letter Q.

I am normal.

Went to Cosmos tonight with Katelyn and Brian. As is the case on Tuesday nights, Brian was playing for open mic. I've gone a total of three times since July. "Dead Last Brian" as he will henceforth be called, of course was slotted to play the grand finale. The picture of the day comes from the first ten minutes of our three hour wait at the coffee shop, and I just love Katelyn's face so much here that it beat out a picture of Brian actually playing. Such is life.

So while waiting for Dead Last Brian to do his thing, I hunkered down at a corner table with a book just in from the library: The Forest for the Trees (An Editor's Advice to Writers). It's good. Definitely kept me entertained for three hours and about 10 not very good performances. (Seriously. One guy was singing about dinosaurs.)

According to this book, I'm exactly the type to be a lifelong writer:

1) Have a new idea almost every day for a writing project? Check.

2) Begin sentences in your head while walking to work or picking up dry cleaning? Check.

3) Everything strikes you as a story to be told? Check.

4) Always writing, if only in your head? Check

5) Impulse to write at a very young age? Oh, those long, lone ten-year-old nights with the typewriter.

6) Intensely verbal or intensely withdrawn? I am both of those things to an extreme, in case you were wondering.

7) Accused of being too reflective? Do you people not know me at all?!

Congratulations to me! I am normal by the writing standard!

I really liked this quote, by Martin Amis: "You develop an extra sense that partly excludes you from experience. When writers experiene things, they're not really experiencing anything like 100%. They're always holding back and wondering what the significance is, or wondering how they'd do it on the page." Is Martin Amis reading my mind?

I guess that quote translates into my life somewhat like this: I often wonder how differently I'm seeing things from other people. For instance, when my roommate and I are in the car, driving through the neighborhood, and there's a boy and girl walking out of their house and disappearing behind a vine covered wall off the side of their yard, does my roommate automatically come up with the story that the vine covered wall is their secret passage to a secluded and restful garden, one where, in the midst of all the slummishness and graffiti covered signs of our La Mesa neighborhood, they can find a truly peaceful atmosphere to share their deepest secrets and past histories, because they are best friends in the truest sense of the word, having met only a week prior through a series of destiny defining events?

Or does she just see a boy and girl walking across the yard? Or does she even see them?

Cuz that's my thought process all the time.

Maybe it's just me and Martin.