Meat and spinach in a pita with a side of fries definetely grease the wheels. One cool note was that the waitress took the iced tea off the bill and--when I pointed it out--told me not to worry about it. This may have been due to her wanting to cash me out early, or the curious jiggly side to side smiling deal she did after mentioning such to emphasize such. Some combination? I'll assume it was because she thought I was cute.

Beforehand I'd been feeling like something wasn't at all right. I still get the lingering intuition something somewhere is fucked up for someone I know, but fuck if I know the sum of those somes. And whatever it equates to.

I'm spending a weekend night with the girls. In one corner, perpetually on the couch/makeshift bed is Dot. She's about 14 years old, with unkempt hair and the tendency to mrowl much the same way Moonbeam or Sandy (a long-dead 25 yr old) did. And on my bed/Nicholas' usual bed is the atlas of fatness, Bugwee/bweeeeeee/bwee/bug/atlas. She's a 3 some odd year old charmer. Lovely disposition, curls up next to my shoulder at night, and hops into my lap at odd intervals.

I could make several obvious jokes here. You know them all.

The last few days have been either pretty chill or just old-fashioned good.

I visited Seester a few nights ago, over out at a golf course past the grayscape archipelago of downtown. She seems happier nowadays after the divorce. Bob was an interesting sort--got my ass into a Ford plant and wanted to give me guns to shoot at things--but I can see how life with an obssessive-compulsive obssessive would've been. Well. Yeah.

We rode over to Roosevelt's, enjoyed a brief bout of complete power outage with some of then hooting patrons, and proceeded onto a lost tribe of food. There were deluxe nachos, a pizza, and a cookie dessert thing big enough for two. I ate all of these. I don't quite know how. We talked about some of the usual, some of the unusual. When I got back the subject shifted some to my photography, then random unexpected to her paintings. It'd really been the first time I'd gotten to see them. Truth be told I was impressed, and I normally get bored with canvases (canvasi?). It's of an abstract sort, some of which heavily compliments certain mindscape patterns I have. She was happy to give those favored ones to me. She has to make room for more. I suppose it's like a vastly more interesting used car dealership like that...if used car dealerships gave their cars away...

I meandered home circa 2am. More Neuromancer reading, then bed.

I think that lead to today. Maybe.

Today was straightforward: get up, talk with Nicholas about this and that, makes plans with J and Tom, then head out to make said plans happen. Nicholas has been recovering and wanted to rest, so it was solo down Woodward and to scenic Town Whose Name Escapes Me (TWNEM). I first saw Tom. He smiled happily, said he had a present, and bestowed me with a permit sign for my car so it wouldn't get towed.

Best present I'd gotten all day.

J was also all hugs and smiles to see me. We talked in the kitchen for awhile about how the conference went, what Nicholas was up to, what I was up to, some photography jazz--basically catching up. Somewhere in there I was introduced to Tom's Tom, a guy named Tom who works with Tom at Tim's. (Who's on second?).

Wait a sec, Bwee wants lap access. Oof. Ok.

Tom's Tom struck me as an agreeable world-savvy sort: girlfriend in Canada he'd met at a between concert venue, a recent comer-backer from a 7 week European vacation, and a chemistry/engineering sort. The kind of guy you could always rely on for sugar, or ammo in case zombies suddenly overran the midwest. He, me, Tom and J enjoyed some homemade soup while talking about: Tom's Europe trip; funny things related to J's son; light politics; Canada; etc. After food came cards. I've always been kinda 'eh' at playing Bullshit, but I won one round at least.

After I bid everyone goodbye and came back I found a dark, strangely silent apartment. The TV is usually on, or the lights, but yet both were off. Nicholas was gone. I've had free co-reign with the cats ever since. I'll send Dot out to Mexican Town to forage for rumors in case nothing crops up by tomorrow.

I know what you're thinking:

When in the HELL are you going to tell us about that damn conference?

Well I'd really meant to the other day. But then I got an email from my advisor with my immediate supervisors CCed. The details aren't important, suffice it to say that it was something I already had under control. I emailed back and mentioned the specifics. It took me about 40 minutes. Not because of carefully wording things.

No.

I nearly flew into a rage and had to use every drop of willpower to keep myself at just exceptionally lividly angry. I'd wanted one straight week away from the micro-management miasma of all that jazz, and it'd cropped up anyway in a "I think it should be this way" email that was based off of a misunderstanding. Later on Gabe would say to just enjoy my vacation and not worry about lab stuff. And my advisor offered a reiteration but as more suggestional than firm and slightly chiding.

Like I've said: only work-related things get me that angry.

So I forgot to update amidst the next 4 hours. It took me that long to get it mostly out of my system. Even then it changed the tempo of my vacation, but only slightly.

Long story short: I'll write a 3/4's assed update about the conference now just so we can all get closure.

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