1/20/03

I've decided that I need to start having more fun. And no, finally making a 2003 index page for this journal, cleaning up the site and writing this entry do not count as fun, but I was suddenly overcome by a compulsion to fix my site up, which is how I get most tedious things done. The last few months have been relatively low on the compulsion-o-meter, which is why this site has been abandoned and my apartment is really dirty.

Anyway, getting back to fun, I really had very little this weekend. The only explanation about it really is that I've been pretty passive about what I do in my free time, which mostly means that I wind up at home playing computer games, watching season 3 "Buffy" DVDs, hanging out in the Usual Suspects' chat room, and listening to MP3s on my beautiful, new 20 GB iPod. All of these things are fun in their own way, but I really need to start getting out of the house more often, especially on the weekends. I can even bring the iPod with me.

Actually, I did go out on Thursday and Friday evening. Thursday, I went to the symphony with Phil. Our subscription calendar is such that we hadn't been to a concert since November, but now we have tickets for four concerts in five weeks. And Friday night, I went to go see "25th Hour" with a couple of classmates. And I had a beer beforehand, just to make it extra crazy.

Since I last wrote so many months ago, not too much has happened. I went to New York in early November--I had the plane ticket because I was supposed to be there to run the marathon, but my injury caused me to stop running in mid-October, so I ended up just hanging out and seeing people. It seemed like it was just as well, because I was there for five days, but I felt like I spent the whole time rushing from social event to social event. My sister and her boyfriend were there for the marathon, and my aunt and uncle live there, and a bunch of my high school friends, and of course, all the internet people. It was the first time I'd been to New York in a while. Well, no, actually, I was there in March to check up on Alvin, but that doesn't count because it was only for a weekend and I didn't get to see anyone except for him.

I went back East again for Christmas, and wound up spending two more days there than I'd planned, thanks to America West Airlines. There was a big snowstorm on Christmas day, and even though the snow stopped that evening, my flight home the next day was cancelled--and they couldn't get me on another plane for two more days, and because my delay was "weather-related," the airline was not obligated to do anything for me. Anyway, I've since learned that America West has the highest rate of customer complaints of any U.S. airline. I highly do not recommend flying them, unless you're not in a hurry to get anywhere.

Hmmm, what else? Ivan Brunetti came to visit, and gave me a piece of artwork that I need to get framed. My mom is coming out next month. I don't know what we're going to do other than eating well--I got us a reservation at the Chez Panisse Café for her birthday and we're first on the waiting list at French Laundry the next night. Just managing to get on the waiting list involved frantic speed-dialing starting at 10 a.m. when they open on the date two months before I wanted to go. It was a bit odd to go through that whole charade, finally get to speak to someone, tell her that I wanted to make a reservation for dinner and to have her say "I'm sorry, I don't have anything." Not "I don't have anything at 7 p.m., or "I don't have anything that night," but just nothing at all. They start taking reservations at 10 a.m. two months to the date beforehand, and by 10:15, they're all booked up for the evening. Anyway, I knew this to be the case to start with, so I was actually pretty excited to wind up first on the waiting list. Now I just have to hope that some unforeseen event befalls someone with an actual reservation that night.