i love it when you read to me,

and you can read me anything.

i've been in a writing slump. it eludes me why i even have readers. here are five snapshots from the mess in my brain.

i awoke in the middle of the night with stephen merritt's "the book of love" in my head. why this happened, i have no clue; i don't remember what i was dreaming, nor do i recall when i last heard this song. i sat up, gave it a listen, then retreated back under the covers.


speaking of love, i've rekindled relationships with two past loves. the first one being with turkey sandwiches, the second with snood. concerning the former, i simply seemed to forget how great they are. more than anything snood reminds me of my second year of college, when at any godawful hour of the night i'd stroll a few rooms over to play snood at tracey's desk for hours while she and cindy were sleeping or not studying. everytime i'd look at the snood hall of fame on her computer with envy and say, "what if i delete your high scores?" to which she'd reply matter-of-factly, "then i'll punch you in the face." this is the closest i've ever been to having been punched in the face. cliff, if you're reading, just know that i heard about that high school kid punching you in the face. if i were there i would have definitely backed you up, but i don't promise that my 14-year-old-girl frame wouldn't elicit a 'are you fucking kidding me, daawg?!' from said thugs.

yesterday i came up with my halloween costume. it's not clever at all, and that coupled with the fact that i came up with it 5 days after the day for which it's intended reveals the uncreative state i've been in. the easiest-yet-most-creative costume award goes to my brother, who was a grad student hit by a car. all you need is a bike helmet plaid shirt and khakis with a rolled up pant leg and a neon velcro ankle reflector and fake blood. when he was at stanford he actually did get hit off of his bike by a car; he somehow managed to jump off his bike and land on his feet and was okay for the most part. anyway all i could come up with was sherlock holmes. that way at parties i could smoke pipe tobacco and someone would tell me to do that outside and i'd say no, because i'm sherlock holmes and it's part of the fucking costume, motherfucker.


i saw squid and the whale and enjoyed it quite a bit. jeff daniels does his best impression of bill-murray-as-delusional-self-absorbed-daddy. my favorite part of the movie is when his son and his son's girlfriend invite him to watch short circuit ("johnny 5 is alive!"), but he recommends blue velvet and they end up watching that instead.


i finally started work and the oki dog on fairfax is right across the street. perfect for the half-hour lunch break. i have to be up somewhat early, which means that i have to go to bed 5 hours earlier than i'm used to. so i hop into bed at around 1 or 2 and listen to david sedaris on this american life until i fall asleep. my all-time favorite has to be music lessons.