"I love this bar." - Toby Keith

Went to the bar last nite and got trashed on $5 pitchers of Budweiser with 2 old friends and 4 new ones. It was awesome.

I was having a bad day - I've been having a string of them - and it was confounded by a too-much nonfiction readings class with Lee Gutkind. There's something almost erotic about listening to people reading things they've written. It's interesting enough reading other people's stuff, but to hear them read it is almost overpowering - it's vouyeristic, but not listening-to-the-people-next-door-doin'-it vouyeristic, it's like creepy, emotional vouyeristic. I don't know. . .you can learn a lot about the way someone acts or carries his/herself from listening to them read something they've written. When you're doing that, you can't hide your insecurities, you can't always keep up the act you keep up the rest of the time. So I don't know, I was just struck by a sadness in people around me, an emptiness, a numbness, that rubbed off on me. It makes me think about whether or not I can actually write this San Francisco memoir I'm planning to do. . .the other day, I couldn't even get through reading some old notes and drafts on my computer from a story I tried to write about Doug. But anyway. . .

So after class, Jut, Josh, Thomas and I went down to P.D.'s, and had just finished a pitcher when Caitlin and Jen showed up, and later Jen's friend Greg. We had a good time getting drunk and gossiping about nonfiction and laughing and trying to figure out how old the bartender was cos she looked about 14. I haven't gotten that drunk just on beer in a long time. It was a fun, stereotypical social situation that was just really good to be a part of.

I'm listening to Rent and enjoying it - a lot. It's so cheesy, and it's a flippin opera, but it's great.

Giving myself a snow day today and getting stuff done around the apartment, getting some schoolwork done, working on internship and study abroad stuff, and maybe getting my hair cut.

Just got this joke in a stop-paying-high-prices-for-your-meds piece of spam:
Three brothers bought a ranch in Texas and planned to raise cattle. They couldnt think of a name for their ranch so they asked their mother, who said, You should name it Focus. The brothers were puzzled. Why? they asked. Because, said their mother, Focus is where the sun's rays meet. (Note: this joke is famous because it is a triple pun! In physics, a focus is the point at which rays of light come together or meet. The mothers sentence also sounds like, Focus is the place where the sons raise meat.)

Wow.