Saturday, September 24, 2011

sand and regret

Today was somewhat lovely, but it has ended with a bang, so I'll take it. I got more than eight hours of sleep for the first time in several nights, and since I didn't dream of children being eaten by machine aliens, I rather enjoyed lazing about in bed for a few minutes after I woke up. I spent the morning taking care of a variety of tings around the house, none of which would be of interest to you. I also made breakfast, following Alyssa's plan for me (since I'm getting back onto a plan now that I'm here and staying here for at least a couple of months straight) -- bacon, eggs, and oatmeal, which is no sacrifice. We're waiting anxiously to see whether the ulcer makes a comeback -- so far, no strong signs of it, although the fact that I consider some small amount of stomach pain to be normal is probably an indicator that I've been having problems for a long time and never acknowledged it. I'm sure I'll have a better sense of it by next week, and hopefully it's fully healed so that I can stop regaling you with tales of my health woes.

After I took care of a variety of tings, I went to the grocery store and stocked up on the necessary items to follow Alyssa's plan for the next few days. Then I came home, put everything away, and spent a couple of hours doing a thankless task related to the contest I'm coordinating. I also printed out a fresh copy of my first manuscript, which I haven't touched in years; if we don't get an offer on the second book, I'm thinking seriously of self-publishing, but I would want to rewrite the first book before doing that. Eventually, I had to scurry out the door and drive down to the south bay to fulfill my glorious destiny for the evening.

My first stop was the gym to do cardio, as per Alyssa's orders. Post-cardio (and post-shower, naturally), I spent forty-five minutes in traffic but eventually reached the abode of Heather (aka dear respected madam) and Salim (aka dear respected ma'am sir). Heather and I had conspired to have a sleepover, and ended up inviting Durand as well, which made for a v. entertaining evening. Salim got out all the fixin's for making our own pizzas (while the rest of us watched the end of an earlier season of "Project Runway" - Salim encourages sloth, and encouraged it even more by pressing an amaretto sour in my hand and telling me to stay on the couch). The pizza and the amaretto sour were not Alyssa-approved, but the company was vastly entertaining. Salim yelled at me for eating raw dough, but we were able to get beyond that and enjoy a v. pleasant evening.

After pizza and "Project Runway" were over, we got a movie via on-demand. Tonight's screening was "Salvation Boulevard", which I'd never heard of, but we agreed to it because it starred Pierce Brosnan, Greg Kinnear, Jennifer Connolly, and Marisa Tomei. I have v. fond memories of the time that Pierce Brosnan and Greg Kinnear teamed up in "The Matador", and while I didn't think that this was quite as solid, I still really enjoyed it. If I start saying "aw, man" a lot, you can blame this movie. While the storyline kind of fell apart a little bit, all the actors were so great that it didn't really matter.

Post-movie, we flipped through channels, watched a bit of "Get Shorty", and discovered that "Sahara" was on (which was promptly vetoed as I put Heather and Salim through it last time I was here and they weren't about to do it again). Heather and Salim went to bed around then -- but not before the best moment of the evening (nay, my life), when Durand asked if they had any heat-stimulating lotion for his back (he's having back problems) and Salim forced him to take his shirt off and then massaged some kind of thai oil into his back. This amused me vastly, and almost made me wish that I was having back problems too.

Durand and I stayed up a bit longer and watched some Kathy Griffin, but I want to get some solid sleep before another fun day tomorrow, so I'm going to go to sleep (in this wonderful, totally lovely guest bed -- Heather and Salim know how to entertain). Goodnight!

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