Four Consecutive Saturdays

A lot of Chinese food. Much more turkey. 9% of the time was spent with my guitar, 1% of the time was spent realizing that I need a Piano, 2.5% of the time was devoted to auto repair, 2.5% of the time was spent in a suburban-sterile "Cribs" type house, 5% was spent with two Milwaukee friends with whom I spend 90% of my non-parent time with, 10% is spent feeling relaxed in the apartment, and 70% of my time was spent with the parents. Said parents like to spend 65% of their time shopping, 25% of their time dining out, and 15% of their time watching movies. To win the prize of getting to read the rest of this post, determine the exact percentage of time I spent in a goddamn mall.

- Work people showed up to my local birthday gathering. They drew the invisible line and kept to themselves the entire night. That's exactly how I drew it up.

- After celebrating the Wauwatosa version of the birthday gathering, I ran into an old friend. We were pretty tight during "Leftover Chinese '97!" but haven't spoken since early 2002. I couldn't tell if he was 'salty' about the way we abruptly dropped communication...but I was damn glad to see him. Seeing and old friend doing well makes the encounter a good thing.

- Friday night equaled this Miramax film. After this movie, I wasn't really questioning whether or not seeing a family movie with my parents on a Friday night was pathetic. The film was a lot better than I expected. The fine storytelling made a lot of people cry in the theater. Mr. 21 Jump street continues a streak of decent movies. Nothing in the movie creeped me out so I guess you could say it was effectively entertaining.

- This Warner Brothers Movie was seen two nights later. Oliver Stone continues to miss. Most of the main actors weren't believable enough. The fact that every scene was either oedipal or homoerotic wasn't enough to save this movie. The war scenes are pretty good, but I was extremely underwhelmed by this one.

- The new El-P album was accidentally left behind. The jazz enthusiasts of the world might like this album. This hit my 2004 top-10 list pretty fast. Curses for leaving this behind.

- My buddy Dan was housesitting a place on this lake. It was a wide open space, had fancy floors, a huge kitchen, whirlpool on a deck that overlooks the lake, spacious bedrooms, a cool dog, HDTV with caller ID ability, pictures of smiling kids on the walls, and from what I gather, a housewife who really likes to bake. Where do I sign up to get that life?

- Quote of the weekend: "By the time your dad was 26, he was in America and reached his dream."

- Thought-response of the weekend: "...and I'm in Brookfield, Wisconsin."

- Suburban Panhandler situation of the day: "Hi, I'm like from Bowling Green Kentucky, and I'm staying at a hotel down the street, and I'm fourteen dollars short on another night."

- Thought-Response to Suburban Panhandler: "Where's your Kentucky accent?"

- Entering your bedroom after a long weekend out of town to hear your upstairs neighbors bouncing springs is the new forgetting your DVD collection, Ms. Pac-Man, razor blade and vitamins at your parents house.

...and now, back to the grind.

. . [~] . 0 (Grumble) Grumbles .