magid

i got bitten by the straightening up bug this weekend, so managed not only to hang 2 pictures (one of which i'd gotten matted and framed at least 3 years ago, and had been propped up since then...), but also tackle (some) areas in desperate need of attention around my apartment. who knew that not only my desk, but also my bureau had horizontal surfaces on top? thanks to queue for the other painting, which i now look at as i type, as it hangs over my computer. it's amazing how satisfying it is to look around and see some order where there had been mess. there are still corners where drifts of paper rule, but i have some hopes of conquering them soon...

an old friend came in from nyc this weekend, partly to see me, partly to go to the massage party. it was great to see him (hadn't since june, the last time i was in nyc), though we didn't have a lot of time to hang out and catch up, since he arrived later than planned for dinner, then off to the party. one or 2 stressful moments there, but mostly a lot of fun. i don't know if i know more people, or am more comfortable with the ones i know, but it felt easy to be there, chat with people, give head skritches or backrubs. and i finally got to see the amazing painted back stairwell. wow. that party was winding up when we headed to the other party i'd been invited to. i was too tired to be going to another event, but my friend really wanted to go, so we did. we got there as things seemed to change tone... i felt like i was, on average, older and more private about personal preferences than most of the people still there. or maybe it was just that i was overtired, still fighting off the cough that's been dogging me all week, and didn't know most of the people there.

luckily caught (mostly) up on sleep today before the concert pheromone had invited me to. it was great: i'd not gone to a da vinci's notebook concert before, barely knew any of their songs (cthulhia had mentioned title of the song before), and it was a fun show. they're great performers, in addition to having fun material. and it was nice to run into other friends i hadn't expected to see.

i was thinking about treacle_well's comments on how she hadn't thought about how other people she knows would read what she posts (ok, i've mangled that. sorry). and realized that i'm managing to write much more in my (paper) journal these last few weeks, around when i stopped making as many entries here. i can only blat stuff so many times, and it feels less imperative to do here if i've written it there (unless it's stuff i specifically want to share). maybe i do view this more as tigerbright does, a way to keep up with friends who may not otherwise hear the day-to-day stuff.

this weekend was full of them.

a quiet shabbat at home, reading (the best of which was The Shadow of the
Hegemon by Orson Scott Card, truly a gifted writer). it was the first
night in a long long time by myself; it was good to have a break.

saturday night (ok, i almost wrote motza'i shabbat, which is the same thing,
essentially) cthulhia and queue and i went to see the 2nd night of a
festival of 10-minute plays (some of them were a bit longer...), which was a
lot of fun. some were merely ok, while others were great. and boggle
happened afterwards, and i managed to win some :-).

today was totally scheduled (i really have to return some phone calls some
day, some time when i'm home at a reasonable hour....), a visit from queue
followed by Gosford Park at harvard sq with other friends. (no
spoilers i can think of to come) it's a beautifully done movie, all the
details just so, rather understated in dialogue, plot devices (no bashing
you over the head with conversations including direct details. lots of
innuendo used). i found the sheer number of characters a bit hard to keep
track of (10 houseguests, the host family, the myriad below-stairs
characters).

home for some (rather late) breakfast (leftover tilapia & onions. (it's a
kind of fish)), then off to cthulhia's for an epiphany of gift giving. i was
surprised & pleased with much chocolate (some from burdick's), and
(essentially) an invitation to host a (small) party, one of the how to host
a murder things.... now i have research to do on the correct sort of meal,
costume, etc; this definitely won't happen until february - january is far
too full already (at least the weekends, and i'm not going to figure out how
to fit this in on a weekday. oh, wait - there's a long weekend in january.
maybe that monday? hmmmm.). thanks to cthulhia and pheromone (also to prog -
i got to see his hair :-).
some games afterward, too. one involved smashing rats with anvils (all
cards, no real rats were used in the production of this entry), then a game
of guillotine (i finally got to play a whole game; last time (the first
time) was interrupted when the friends-in-the-hospital finally got to move
to share a room.)

but wait, the day is not done. i'd missed the jim's big ego concert cthulhia
had gotten people to go to, so she invited me along to hear him solo at a
house concert in arlington. i had a great time, crammed into a livingroom
with 25 other people to hear him sing & play guitar & recite poetry & talk
with an audience of fans...

(and now, despite tiredness, i type here. why can i not just go to bed?)