i feel like making a q-esque entry that's just a list of what i've been up to. my scrapbook is suffering, neglected all month and i don't even know all the things i need to scribble and stick into it. i have been writing small moments and little captured bits of heart and head, but not so much what i've been up to.

and there has been so much going on.

tuesday buffy re-run night. watching most of smallville because even though everyone says they don't like it, talking got shushed and i giggled to myself. the best friend and the swede and i went to meet q at manitoba's, but she was on her way out, so we peered in the windows of the fishbowl the bar had become and then parted ways with the swede and the best friend, who were going home. q and i decided to go out, preferably to somewhere neither of us usually goes. i suggested the sly fox, but then, at the corner of first and seventh, something struck me. "burp castle!" i said, and off we went to the bar across from my old dorm, where the sign says you have to be over 25 to enter, the bartenders wear monk outfits, and the paint on the window proclaims it a "temple of beer worship". there had to be over a hundred kinds of beer and they had swedish pear cider, so i was thrilled. we sipped our unusual drinks and talked about boys and all was very good though it was a little odd that last call was at eleven. and that we were the only non-date pair in the bar. but it's such a good little place, q and i both saying, "i need to bring someone here..."

but who? i couldn't figure that part out for me.

wednesday, to stella with toby and ben. the hosts were funny. janeane garofalo was funny. the rest of the night left a little something to be desired but flying carpets and tipsy midnight record shopping more than made up for it, to my mind at least.

thursday. what was thursday? popgirl's birthday. dinner at serendipity and spending most of the time talking to margie and sh, stealing fries. we went to johnson's after but i lasted for one drink and a lot of laughter at the talking elliot (from ET) doll that johnny handsome and his girlfriend gave popgirl. there is a long, long story to that one, but i'm not going to be the one to tell it.

friday. artboy's opening down on ludlow street, drinking beer on the sidewalk and talking to friends and artboy's friend who is illustrating a book to be published by my place of employemtn. and then to see the detachment kit at the self starter foundation holiday party, with toby and the swede and the best friend and parkboy and his ladyfriend. too many budweisers and the nice bartender promising me a free one and remembering (and throwing in the last of the wine for the best friend for a dollar). they and toby's friend luke were heading to johnson's afterwards, to catch up with artboy and company, and i found out later that some other friends were there as well, but though it was barely midnight i was desperate to pass out. so after stopping, unwisely, at san loco, that's just what i did.

saturday. brunch at enid's with artboy, his girlfriend, his visiting friend, and toby. laundry. yanking cds out of my old cd book to swap it for fiona's cd tower. putting on semi-nice clothes for jt and winegirl's houseaversary party, where i only knew a few people so i stayed in the kitchen and talked to those few, glad to see skippy and k, catching up, swapping stories, talking about boys and books and movies and comics and dd saying "last chance to touch the pants!" on my way out cracking me up totally (i had previously told him, "i know what corduroy feels like"). good wine and tasty beers and pacing myself because that was only the beginning of the night.

from there to northsix where ted leo hadn't gone on yet. i like him alright, but i'm sorry, to me his falsetto sounds like geddy lee, and i don't like that. but it's a good thing i like him at least alright because the rainer maria set was such a letdown. i like them for her voice, mostly. for the interplay of their voices. and she gamely fought her way through four or five songs but then they had to give up, so just the boy was going to play and i was disappointed and hence eager to leave. so we did, toby and i, as popgirl had already run off somewhere else.

we went to party #2 of the night, where for a good while i was inarguably the oldest person there (then newmyer showed up and i was comforted knowing that at least there was someone older'n me). sh was talking about wanting to be engaged, wanting to get married and have a baby, and i asked her why she wanted kids, which led into a discussion wherein i kept saying, "i'm not trying to be combative or argumentative, and i'm not trying to win you over, i just really want to know why. because i think people should have a really good reason before they have kids." and i mean that. and i geniunely want to know what people's reasons are. but it's hard to ask that without it coming off confrontationally, like i'm challenging their decisions, and i don't mean it to be like that. i just want to know, i want to know what the reasons are, and i want to know how they made their decisions.

i guess i'm just nosy. i like to ask questions i probably have no business asking.

popgirl got there eventually and i was watching a friend of hers and sh hug her affectionately, and when she came to join us on the couch, i said, "that boy likes you!"

"but he lives in chicago!" she shrieked, and i cracked up.

"i was talking about a different boy altogether!" i told her. oy. she vanished at some point and i do wonder whether she is having fun or complicating herself. sh and i discussed this concern, at length, and i find it is still definitely on my mind. but she will do what she wants to do, and if there is fallout, well, we will deal with it, because we're her friends.

(also at that party, seeing the missed-in-this-forum kittenjaws, and deciding that we must make plans to hang out at some future point. definitely.)

so then. on to party #3, artboy's friend's house, which was emptying out rapidly as toby and i arrived. the beverages were all but gone and as there was nothing to do but stand around in the nearly-empty loft space (a lovely space the residents were moving out of), we didn't stay long, but took off for the pourhouse, where i played pinball and read the bad poetry on the wall and discussed neil gaiman and whatnot with the four friends i was there with until last call made me decide it was time to go home.

none of this is particularly interesting but i need to keep my days in order.

tonight, hot dog circus (hot rod circuit), the alkaline trio, and the get up kids - who i am still listening to incessantly - at irving plaza, with johnny handsome and his musicwritergirl girlfriend. and then the weekend comes to a close and there are only two definitive plans before i go home: buffy night and a haircut/redye with princess leia on tuesday, and the fellowship of the ring on wednesday.

just a few more days.