1456 - No Seattle Makes Good Seattle

I've just been sitting around thinking of something to do for most of the afternoon. I just realized that I haven't yet written for last week, and I'm now two days late. Well, I suppose Christmas is as good an excuse as any :)

The Seattle trip was at times fun and at times annoying and stressful. It tended to be more fun the later in the trip it got, and it was annoying and stressful at both ends (due to travel). Monday was a bit scary, because AN and I went to our first day of training. We had no idea what to expect - it could've been anything from a class of thirty people listening to a lecturer, to the two of us sitting down with an ordinary worker being quizzed on things we didn't know. Fortunately, training turned out to be in a small classroom setting. There was a key person attending, and the training had been reorganized at the last minute to fit their schedule. AN and I, as well as a few others, were merely observers, while this person got what they needed. The day passed quite slowly, especially as the lecturer continually got stuck trying to complete simple programming tasks for the program he was demonstrating. He also was constantly interrupted by a loud-mouth ass in the back of the room (his boss) whenever the ass felt a comment was vague or incomplete. The ass proceeded to shout and make phone calls for much of the day. The end of the day was great, with three of the top dogs in the room pitted against each other in verbal combat. It was really quite entertaining, as they went around in circles, trying to convince each other of things the rest of the room had long since understood. Of course, AN and I had nothing to contribute.

AN and I were very tired Monday, as neither of us had slept very well after all the travel. After work, we ducked into a nearby Thai restaurant, ate huge, tasty meals (mine was a spicy coconut soup and salmon in rice with peanut/coconut sauce). We were later told that we'd eaten in the worst Thai restaurant in town. After the restaurant, we took a short drive up and down the main street next to the hotel - all we could find was strip mall after strip mall, each with the requisite tanning salon, hair/nail studio, pharmacy, pet store, grocery and ice cream hut. After the eighth such mall, we got discouraged and turned back. We said our goodnights, and I hit the sack around nine local time.

On Tuesday, the training continued, only it was even more focused on the key person. He asked dozens of questions, but with a new instructor that day, the answers seemed to make sense, and they came without undue effort. The day was extremely boring for AN and I, as we learned very little. The time dragged on for an eternity, and only occasional short chats with JW kept me from going completely insane. After work, C-GW (our supervisor in Seattle) asked us if we could entertain ourselves for the evening, to which AN and I did not reply, as we were already pulling out of the parking lot.

We drove straight downtown to do a bit of shopping. The ride downtown took about forty-five minutes, as our hotel was quite a bit north of the downtown core. The traffic was bad, and in fact it was bad right through the entire week. We arrived downtown and parked at the garage nearest the highway. I had looked up the area on the Internet, and I knew it had several large malls. We walked around aimlessly, neither of us really sure of what we were looking for. We managed to spend only seven minutes in a huge Macy's - we kept thinking we should go into such stores, but then we would realize that we wern't shopping for ourselves, so we'd leave. We tried to eat at one restaurant in the first mall, but in typical AN and LW style, we simply would not wait the twenty minutes necessary to get a table. We wondered to the next mall, where I bought several gifts. I bought JW a little drum made by the native people of the area, and an African percussion instrument at a nice African store. I also got miscellaneous t-shirts, shot glasses and mugs to say I'd been to Seattle. We left the second mall and walked toward a large neon sign that eventually said "Market". We got excited that it might have lots of potential gifts, but it had closed hours earlier. We turned around and walked back; there were poor and homeless people everywhere, and it was apparent that only a short distance separated them from the rich and well-to-do at the malls. We found ourselves starving and back at the second mall again. We went upstairs to the monorail that takes one to the Space Needle, near to where we had parked. Of course, the monorail had stopped running, so we broke down and bought ourselves lousy dinners at the food court nearby.

After the food, we meandered back to the car and headed back. Again, we both went to sleep pretty early. I had gotten a cold that day, and I was starting to feel pretty bad by the end of the day.

I'm going to stop here for now, as I have a party to get to. I'll try to write the rest soon. Party on.

It's two days later, and I'm back now. Where was I? Oh yeah, I'm on to Wednesday now. On Wednesday, AN and I finally felt like we were getting somewhere as our star pupil had departed, and the training refocused on us. We actually used our computers to do things - we installed the product we were being trained on and played around with it a bit. The slightly incompetent instructor had returned, and again there were many hold-ups and hang-ups, but we learned some. We had pizza at lunch and I talked to JW when I could. My cold was REALLY bad and it was making everything else seem worse. The passing of the midpoint of our trip made me feel a bit better.

After work, AN and I were again left to fend for ourselves. We decided to go catch a Supersonics basketball game. We drove straight downtown after work, and parked next to the Space Needle again. We decided to "get the needle over with", so we went up for fourteen dollars each. The top part of it was small and nicely decorated. I took several pictures, and I even took a video during which I walked around the entire circumference of the observation deck - it was kind of funny because I got stuck behind a slow kid, and it was tough to get around her while holding the camera. AN and I grabbed a six-dollar beer, and then we headed back down, after having only spent about a half our in the needle (there isn't much to see). There being no time for supper, we headed straight to the Key Arena, the home of the Supersonics, which wasn't far. Once inside, we found our seats and then headed to the concession stands. Beer was $3.50! We each got a beer, and I decided to try a lumberjack-style sandwich with dipping sauce and potato salad. It cost $10 and it was pretty mediocre. EVERY ONE of the concession employees looked like they'd done a bit of time at one point or another. I half expected my sandwich to be poisoned, and I haven't yet built tolerances up to the key ones.

We sat down to the game. It started quickly, with the Dallas Maverick's star player getting knocked out early and the Sonics building a huge lead. However, beyond the first quarter, the game was a veritible dud, with mediocre play and little entertainment value. We even found out that the beer prices were the half-price prices. We did enjoy watching a remote-controlled Bud Light blimp that would sail around dropping free tickets to future games, and the team mascot actually jumped something like 18 Pepsi trucks with a motorbike (a la Evel Knievel) - the gag was that they were toy trucks. Some world champion BMX bike riders put on a pretty good show. We also took great pleasure out of the video montages for pumping the crowd up - which featured the word "NOISE" being shaken about followed by increasingly quickly-cut videos of the star players clapping. We managed to stay awake to the end of the game, only to see the Sonics lose. After the game, we headed back to the hotel and hit the hay, as it was quite late. We did have a bit of fun not finding the car in the rain.

On Thursday, the good folks at our company decided that because there was no more organized training to do, it would be a good idea for AN and I to do some actual work. We spent the first three-quarters of the day getting AN's system installed to the point where we could actually start working (my system, having an old, non-updatable copy of Windows XP, was useless). We managed to get a bit of dummy data to show up on one screen, and we were done. We went back to the hotel to wait for C-GW, as we were to have dinner that evening at seven. He called and said he'd be by to pick us up at 6:15, but AN and I were still able to sneak in most of the Jackass 2 movie AN had downloaded. There isn't much to say about it - it's just about a bunch of guys who go around thinking of crazy and dangerous things they can do to themselves. Some of them got seriously hurt, and some were still hurt from the first movie.

We had dinner at an upscale Italian place up the street from our hotel. It had been recommended time after time by B-SM and others at B. The first thing C-GW did was order a drink neither of us had ever heard of before (apparently, he likes his liquor). AN and I ordered Italian beers, and we got quite a "what the fuck are you doing" stare from C-GW. I think we were supposed to order cognac, or some kind of wine from 1756. Anyway, we had a couple of drinks and chatted about numerous topics before ordering. C-GW seemed to be a typical American ass. He talked about getting the "Indians" out of his state (MA), and how the people of WA had failed to do so. He made some crack about lining them up so you could kill them with one bullet. He also talked about the problems with Canada (and with the US to be fair). Then he recounted his 9/11 story, as he had worked within a few hundred feet of the twin towers. AN and I talked about our pasts, most of which we'd shared through school, our student company, more school and work at A.

We finally ordered, and I wound up with a mediocre chicken dish. AN had what he described as a good steak, cooked to perfection. I forget what C-GW had, except that he had clams as a starter - we all shared them, and they were delicious. AN ordered calamari, and we all agreed that it was terrble. So overall, the appetizers were okay. We had a couple of more drinks before wrapping up. The bill came to $190, and C-GW's company picked up the tab. It was a fun night, more so than I'd expected because C-GW was a pretty animated talker, and he got going pretty good on a few occasions (one being the Indian rant).

We found out that day that the "boss" had given everyone at the company Friday off. We had been told on the way out the door that we should continue working on our assigned tasks - we could then let everyone know what we'd gotten done. Fortunately, C-GW told us to forget all that and just drive to Mt. Rainier. And drive there we did! Well, not that night.

We got up super early Friday morning in preparation for our return trip the next day (with a flight leaving at six in the morning). We had a quick breakfast and hit the road for Mt. Ranier. The clouds magically parted as we drew near, with the sky becoming almost perfectly clear at our nearest approach. The landscape changed rapidly from bustling city (in the midst of Christmas anarchy) to hick towns. The city was more bustling and the towns more hick than any in Nova Scotia. It was a dramatic change. We could see the mountain occasionally as we approached it. The trees were amazing - very tall and hanging over the road. There was no snow at first, but as we went up, there was more and more snow. It was very beautiful and we were very happy to have been there, except that we found that they'd closed the national park containing Rainier, so we had to turn back without getting close. We stopped on the way out at a lookoff point, and took some great pictures. The mountain was breathtaking, even from a distance.

We headed back into the city, blasing R&B and rap. It was funny, because we'd accidentally left an R&B radio station on while navigating early in the week, and it stuck. We started to enjoy the songs, especially their ludicrous lyrics and subject matter. They became a sort of theme to our adventures in Seattle. We couldn't change the station anymore - they were as much Seattle to us as anything else. We stopped at the "Super Mall" outside of Seattle. It really was super - it was massive , and it took us a long time just to walk it, only to buy nothing.

After the mall, we drove all the way to downtown Seattle (through traffic jams and accidents) to go to the Sci-Fi Museum, which, amusingly enough, is located at the base of the Space Needle. The museum was interesting, and it had quite a few items from Star Trek, including Captain Kirk's original chair, some uniforms, and many props. I took pictures of some of them even though pictures are not allowed. It's not as if they were enforcing anything, as we walked in without anyone even checking for our tickets. We'd beat the place to death after only forty-five minutes - a lot of it was devoted to literature and comics, for which we had little interest. Still, it was neat to see.

After the museum, we caught the monorail from the Space Needle to the mall we'd been to on Tuesday night. It was a fast and short ride, and I managed to lose my two-way ticket. We left the mall and walked down to the Market that had been closed on Tuesday - fortunately it was open - and it was amazing! There were hundreds of vendors, and it must've been miles long. There was every type of food you could imagine - and a lot more, I'm sure. There was art, crafts, building materials - EVERYTHING. The place was full of weird and wonderful people. It was very multicultural. We stopped into an old-looking tavern for dinner. The menu was six pages long, and all of the ingredients for the items came from market vendors. AN and I split a pitcher of local brew, and a large order of clams to start. AN had a salmon dish as his main course, and I had a spicy seafood/chicken/sausage paella. It was delicious.

After dinner, we walked back to the mall and caught the monorail back to the Space Needle. We walked back to the car and headed for Redmond, WA, the home of Microsoft. Unfortunately, we hadn't bothered to get directions any more specific than that. We took one of three Redmond exits, and drove along another highway before reaching the "downtown" area. There were no Microsoft signs and we had no idea where we were. We took a couple of turns and found ourselves going along a Bedford Highway-like road. About ten minutes in, and after we'd realized it was going to be a long way around the water, we decided to turn back. We did see a huge fenced in area surrounding several large buildings - I suppose that might have been Microsoft? AN later looked up the actual location, and, not surprisingly, we'd gotten pretty close.

After our random jaunt through Redmond, we headed for a liquor store close to our hotel. We got there just in time, and a rather sour employee warned us that we had to be out of the store (puchase paid for) in four minutes so she could go home. We checked out the rather high prices and decided to hold off until our trip home to get our liquor fix. Back to the hotel we went, liquorless. We agreed to meet the next morning at 3:30 AM in the lobby of the hotel. I went into my room and packed everything up so I'd be able to sleep in as late as possible. I was already preoccupied with getting to JW's Christmas party on time the next evening. I got to bed around nine, and slept until 3:18 AM the next morning.

At 3:27 AM, I'd gotten dressed and I headed downstairs with all my luggage. AN was there - he'd already checked out. I checked out, and we were on our way to the airport. AN had gotten directions, but we still managed to take a wrong turn, and it was five turns (and twenty minutes) later by the time we'd gotten back on track. We ditched the rental car and headed upstairs to check in. The line was huge, and we thought we were in trouble, but it turned out that we were in the wrong line because some other company was running our flight on a Continental plane - so the Continental lineup wasn't the right one. We tried to process our own tickets at the other company (Horizon I think), but again, as had happened on the trip to Seattle, the computer was unable to process our request. We waited for an eternity while the single ticket agent tried to solve another customer's problem. Finally, they were able to process us, and we headed to the security area. The line was again huge, and we were a little worried about catching our flight.

We passed all the ridiculous signs saying we couldn't have gels or sprays over three ounces - fortunately my nasal spray was only half an ounce! We also discovered toward the end that there was a much shorter line for people like us taking short flights to nearby destinations - Seattle to Portland in our case. Of course, the lack of proper signage, a constant barb in our respective backs, caused us to waste our time yet again. We went through the security area, and I put my shoes on top of my laptop, even though you're not supposed to (I learned this afterward). One of the guards called for a bag check on my bag. Another guard came over, after which they spent a few minutes trying to identify the bag they wanted to look at. They took it out of the machine a couple of times, ultimately putting it back in without even opening it.

Having cleared the security area, AN and I walked for about twenty minutes, without taking a wrong turn, to the proper gate, where we sat and waited. I blew my nose quite a bit, as I was still feeling fairly bad from my cold. As we boarded the plane, we presented our passes and got on. The funny part, as we later realized, is that we presented passes for the second leg of our flight - the Portland to Newark leg. I guess the Seattle airport personnel don't bother to look for the name "Seattle" when checking tickets, because it wasn't there :) They also didn't bother checking our passports. I'm now convinced that I could've gotten on that plane with an old ticket I'd saved, no problem. So much for increased security after 9/11!

The plane was very small - it actually had propellers on it, and it was the first time I'd been on such a plane. It was pretty loud, but otherwise it wasn't much different than the other planes I'd flown on. The flight was delayed by about thirty minutes, and we arrived in Portland twenty minutes late. AN and I both thought we had time to kill, but checking our passes soon had us racing through the airport to the next gate. We managed to take a wrong turn and walk about eight minutes in the wrong direction, before turning back. We ultimately got to the gate, where we didn't wait long for boarding. We used the same passes to board the flight we'd used to board the last flight, and we were off without too long a delay. I knew we had time to spare in Newark, so I wasn't overly concerned.

The second leg was very long - about five and a half hours in total. I didn't feel like I could waste it away trying to sleep as I'd done on the first leg, so I watched "Talladega Nights", as it was being shown (yes, I realize what I've just said - I didn't want to waste the time, but I did). The movie was mediocre and it had a few good laughs - it was enough to pass the time fairly quickly. It really seemed (to me anyway) to be poking fun at the American way of life. The plot was based on a line early in the film that went, "If you ain't first, you're last." The main character bases his entire life on this. He does everything he can to finish first. He treats other people like dirt when he becomes a superstar NASCAR driver. He wastes away his fortune on garbage he doesn't need. He is mean to other people, and he teaches his kids to be mean. When he crashes and loses his nerve, his wife leaves him because he isn't the best driver anymore. He does learn the folly of his ways at the end at least.

I can't seem to see the screen now, as I just stared at the sun to make sure it was still above the horizon :S I just checked again, and it's gone now. :( Oh well. I think my eyes have recovered enough. Anyway, after Talledega Nights, they showed a series of sitcoms. I decided to do a couple of sudokus, and I listened to some music. I wanted to do some reading, but I was too high strung and too excited about going home to focus. I was also pretty tired. The flight attendants served us a meal (an egg McMuffin like thing in a sealed package) and a couple of rounds of drinks to fill the rest of the time. The end of the flight was fun because I got to look at beautiful New York city over the insatiable bitch woman next to me. I saw the Statue of Liberty, and a hell of a lot of buildings, bridges, ball fields and water. The place is massive.

We landed, but this time we had about an hour and a half to kill before boarding our final leg. We foolishly (as it would turn out) decided that food was the first priority, so we scoured the airport, looking for a pub-like place with some meat. Having looked over the "entire" airport, we settled on a place that sort of fit the bill. We sat down at a table and waited for twenty minutes until the waitress didn't come. It turned out that the place was a serve-yourself type place, and we'd missed the counter. AN and I agreed that we didn't like the way the place was run (no table service), so we just left. We are very indecisive, and we do that sort of thing a lot. Even the smallest piss-off can make a decision for us. We wound up at a serve-yourself sub place (this time we were expecting it)! I had a pretty tasty soft taco-like thing, and a sub to boot. I also got a bag of chips and a mini loaf (that is now rotting on my microwave) for the trip home. I'd forgotten to save the receipts for a couple of meals, and so I felt like I should charge the company up, especially where this was going to be my only meal of the day.

We left the sub joint unsatisfied, but full. We wondered down to our waiting area, making sure we knew where it was, then went for a walk to kill time. As fate would have it, we discovered the other half of the airport! There were pub-like restuarants with meat galore, steakhouses aplenty. Each one made us sadder we'd eaten where we did than the last. We also found a duty free store, and decided it was time for liquor. The cruel hand of fate dealt us yet another blow, as we had arrived five minutes too late to get any alcohol. You have to get it one hour and fifteen minutes ahead of your departure time. As I would say, what a joke! AN and I, thoroughly defeated, lurched back to our departure gate, heads down - only to find a few minutes later that the flight had been delayed! Unfortunately, enough time had passed, and we wern't able to make it back to the store in time. Another forty-five minutes passed, and the flight got delayed again, and again there was not enough time to get our liquor! We were both furious. I was especially furious because I was starting to think that I would miss all of JW's party. I thought she would be sad if I didn't make it, and the thought of that was unbearable. I hadn't realized beforehand that, if the flight had been on time, I might've gotten in a fair bit of partying. I had thought that, regardless of how on time we were, I'd be arriving at the party fairly late. Chalk it up to a math error... a math error that made me very angry. I really wanted to make the party. I wanted to be a part of Christmas before it passed me by. I am not always a patient person, and the thought of wasting time away sitting in an airport had me stressed out worse than I'd been in years. My heart raced as I sat, waiting. The ticket agent made it worse by mistakenly announcing boarding for our flight, when he meant New Orleans. Then he did it again fifteen minutes later. People laughed. I told AN I thought he should be fired and then killed. I was too stressed out to realize the humour in the situation - to just relax and know that nothing really bad was going to happen if we were a bit late. Looking back on it, it seems silly that I'd gotten so wound up. I guess I was just really angry at my company for sending us, so close to Christmas, on a trip that was largely useless. I almost wanted us to be severely delayed, so that I could lay into them about how stupid they were when I got back. I wanted to tell them so.

I don't think I have the make-up of a good corporate citizen. I don't like talking business close to Christmas. I don't like it that people only get one or two days off for Christmas. I don't like it that people are expected to work overtime. I don't like it that people who don't buy into all of the corporate crap are left behind in the shuffle. I feel threatened by "eager beavers", willing to do whatever it takes to get ahead in the world - whatever it takes to get money. I don't want to do that. I just want to enjoy life. I want to experience life. I can't do that while I'm working. I want to have a wife and kids - I want to experience that. I want to travel around the world and experience life as other people experience it. I can't be afraid of breaking down communication barriers, afraid of what people might think of me. I think I need to do something that means something - something that I can take a step back from and say, "I've made a difference." I want to be proud to be me. I know I've gotten horribly sidetracked here, but the words are just coming out and there was no point in stopping!

Anyway, I'm going to continue on with the week's events despite a terribly strong desire to analyze my life! So yes, eventually the final leg of our flight, from Newark to Halifax, took off. I spent the bulk of it trying to watch a DVD commentary, but I couldn't get the volume up high enough to hear all the words. I guess my cheap headphones aren't any good with a laptop. I gave up and pretty much vegged out (stewed?) until we landed. Of course, AN and I were in the last row, and that made me furious. Then, being the last ones off, we wound up being last in the customs line, and that made me furious. My fury was tempered by fast moving lines, and the realization that I probably would catch part of JW's party. I was feeling better. We got through customs, only to find that our bags had been lost. Well, not lost, just removed from the plane for weight balance. I was so happy they'd picked our bags for that honour. Fortunately, there was an attendent right there to tell us this, so we didn't have to sit around waiting for an hour as I'd done the last time this happened (my last trip). We filled out some forms and met Dad in the airport. I wouldn't even let him go bring the car to the door to pick us up and save us getting wet in the rain. I insisted that we walk, and walk we did! My Dad offered to let me drive, and I gladly took the keys.

We raced back into town. I was unwilling to waste even a minute. I was determined to get to JW's at a decent time. We drove to my parents' house, transferred to Mum's car (AN and I), and I drove AN home. I then raced down to JW's. My arrival there cut the first slit into this massive balloon of stress inside my head (does that read badly, or what?). JW and I hugged for a while - it was great. I had really missed her. I think I sort of felt like I was being left behind when I was away - everyone's lives continued on, but mine seemed to be at a standstill. My focus all week was getting back, so that I could continue to live. I think I mellowed out a bit toward the end of the week, when AN and I did indeed live a little, and I think I'll be better on future trips. But I think I'll always have this feeling that I'm going to miss something in the lives of the people important to me. Then of course, I'd feel guilty that I wasn't there. Well, I was very happy that I'd made JW's party. I would've hated to have missed it. It was sad, though, that some of the guests had gone home, as it was past eleven. I had missed something, but seeing JW made me feel better.

The party was fun, while it lasted. There were some fun stories told, and some good laughs had. There was great food that JW and I would enjoy for several more days. The party ended just after twelve, and JW and I went to bed. We were both incredibly tired, but I couldn't sleep. I was still wired from my trip, and from the time change.

We woke up quite early, and neither of us could get back to sleep. It was Christmas Eve, and JW and I wasted our time in bed just being. Finally, she broke down and called her brother to come for her, as we both had big days ahead of us and we couldn't afford to be lazing about. In classic JW style, her period started at almost the precise moment she discovered she'd lost her father's cell phone. In a scene of comedic terror, she cried and shrieked while on the toilet trying to insert her Diva cup. She counted aloud the number of times the cup failed to go in properly - the entire neighbourhood was getting a lesson in numbers. Then, just as the last of her neighbours had fled to the bomb shelter, it went in. JW emerged from the washroom, victorious, before beginning again to look for her phone. I decided that the going was good, and so I took off, to leave JW in her brother's capable hands. There wasn't much I could do about her phone, except offer up my Dad's identical phone that he'd apparently trashed years ago (as I later discovered). Fortunately, she soon after discovered that the phone had fallen out of her pocket into her friend's car.

I left JW's and went home to effectively move some of my clothes from one suitcase to another - I always spend the evenings of the 24th and 25th at my parents' house. I got a call from the airline - my bag was to be delivered that afternoon. I wrapped presents and waited around for it to be delivered. When it came, I wrapped the presents within and finished packing my other suitcase. I left as soon as I was ready, arriving at my parents' house just in time to leave to pick up my grandmother. We brought her to my aunt's house, where we always go for Christmas Eve. We used to go to church beforehand, but that had ended when it became too difficult for my grandfather to get to the church. It didn't start up again after he died. My aunt still went to church later that evening, but no one else did.

The food on Christmas Eve seems to be the same every year, but it's good. We ate quite a bit, took some pictures, and had a drink. My aunt's boyfriend and his son arrived later. As usual, the boyfriend grilled me about my personal life, taking great interest in my answers (I generally throw a comedic light over everything when speaking with him, and he is always surprised to hear my candid, though sometimes exhaggerated answers). By half past seven, my grandmother was tired (I was probably more tired), so we packed up and headed out. As is traditional on Christmas Eve, we drove through Fairview to look at the lights. My parents spoke of a house in Fall River (I think) they used to go to see many years ago. They compared it to a house in Fairview well known for its lights. There were models everywhere, blow up orbs with snow in them, moving parts and of course literally thousands of lights. There are many houses in the area that are nicely decorated - it seems like they inspire each other to do more, as I've never seen a part of town with more lights.

After the show, my parents dropped my grandmother off at her place, and then me at ours. They continued on to another party put on by friends. I usually go, in part for the great food (the most seafoody seafood chowder in existence), but this year I was much too tired. I layed on the couch, watching some old golf event. I fell asleep on the couch, which is unheard of for me, waking up after the event had ended. There wasn't much else on TV, but I stayed up to say goodnight to my parents on Christmas Eve. I finally did get to bed around midnight, and again I couldn't sleep because of the time change, but also due to the windows blowing loudly in the wind. I finally got up and closed the windows, and angrily drifted off to sleep.

I'm currently listening to: "Triad", from "Lateralus", by "Tool".

Movies watched this week: "Jackass 2", "Talladega Nights"