i pack my case, i check my face...i look a little bit older, i look a little bit colder

My good friend Vidius Chandicus is asleep on my loveseat. The couch is empty, but she refused to sleep on it - perhaps the smaller, more intimate loveseat reminds her of the comfort of the womb? She was also inexplicably loath to look at the mysterious bumps still plaguing my lower back - they're not quite as bad as they were earlier in the week, and the swelling has gone down, but they still hurt whenever they're touching something (which is, of course, whenever I sit or lie down in a normal lounging position).

Anyway, Vidya is shamelessly using me for my couch - it's funny that I am more frequently used for my space in Palo Alto than I use people for their spaces in the city. Usually it's the other way around - most people my age on the Peninsula inevitably end up crashing in the city once in awhile. However, since I despise the place, I usually drive home after spending an evening up there - minimizing the time spent in the evil city is a good way to mitigate the risk of being stabbed.

My parents, however, should not worry - they're coming here on Thursday! And while I typically talk up the evilness of the city, it's really pretty safe, so they should ignore the previous paragraph.

This weekend was pretty low-key. I went up to the evil city on Friday night to have dinner with Jasmine and Michael; due to a combination of leaving late, encountering heavier-than-usual traffic, and circling for almost thirty minutes looking for parking, I was an hour and a half late to dinner. Luckily they were running behind, so they were just finishing the preparations when I arrived. Michael had made a delicious seafood soup (replete with scallops, one of my favorites), and so we ate and reminisced and generally had a lovely time. I also managed the five-block walk back to my car late at night without getting raped or stabbed, thus exceeding my expectations.

The rest of the weekend was spent either preparing for my parents' arrival (by doing some cleaning - which I inexplicably decided meant 'filing my papers' - so my file cabinet is more organized than it's been in a year, while my kitchen and bathroom still need scrubbed) or playing Civilization IV. Yes, I reinstalled Civilization, which was a horrible mistake - I install it every once in awhile, play long enough that I end up destroying my life and my sanity, and then promptly uninstall it again. It didn't destroy my whole weekend, and I still got things done, but it was perhaps regrettable.

Okay, I should really go to bed - the next three days are going to be a hard and brutal slog through my rapidly-exploding minefield of a to-do list before my parents arrive on Thursday. Wish me luck!