lemon trees on mercury

I woke up this morning with only fifteen minutes to get ready before I had to walk out the door and meet Terry for brunch. Luckily, I made it to Hobees, where we caught up on our respective lives over coffeecake and bastardized Mexican food (breakfast quesadilla in my case, huevos rancheros in hers). I don't think I really like Hobees; the food is intensely 'Californian', which is to say unnecessarily gourmet and casual at the same time. It has the same attitude as many things here, which is that it is inherently classy and sophisticated, and so it's okay for it to be a little bit sloppy and inauthentic. Anyway, the conversation at least made up for the food, and we went to Target afterwards, where I procured some toiletries. I apparently didn't learn my lesson about leaving things in the trunk of my car, since I just realized that I haven't brought the stuff in yet, but that will have to wait until tomorrow.

I got home and spent some time looking at computers online; I haven't had my own computer since I graduated from college, and I'm kind of feeling stifled by trying to do anything creative on my work laptop, filled as it is with spreadsheets and to-do lists. I saw a Sony VAIO that met all of my requirements, and it came in lovely shades of green and pink, so I decided to go to the SonyStyle store in the Stanford mall to check it out. When I got there, they were offering a big sale, and the green one was just as enticing as I had hoped--so I walked out with a new laptop. I added on two years of accident protection, which the salesman assured me would cover any damage caused by a fit of rage on my part (not that my temper usually extends to harming inanimate objects, but there's always a first), and I spent the rest of the afternoon playing around with it and setting it up. I really like it so far, although the keyboard is much stiffer than my work laptop's due to disuse. I probably should have waited to buy it, since laptops are pretty much obsolete before they even go home with you--but I figured it made sense to buy it before Windows Vista launches. I can upgrade cheaply when Vista does come out, but I'll let some other poor saps be the ones to discover all of the critical flaws that Microsoft's new operating system will doubtlessly ship with.

Now I think it's time for me to go to bed, thus bringing a v. topsy-turvy weekend to a close. Goodnight!