i have no idea what i'm doing. ever. about anything. that is all i have to say about my current mental state. by the way, anyone ever driven along the gulf coast of texas? remember all those ugly refineries? i highly recommend to anyone reading this that you turn off the computer and go fill up your gas tank. now. if that doesn't completely empty your wallet, come on back when you're done & send some more money to the red cross. or your church's relief fund. or go sign up for volunteer training. having said that, my fingers are crossed that we're over-planning for rita because of all the katrina embarrassment, because most of my extended family is in texas-- many in (coastal) corpus christi. my paternal grandmother, in particular, lives 3 miles from the bay. her 80th birthday is in a couple weeks, and i'll be down there to help her celebrate. assuming her house is still there. back to the world under my nose... i had a lovely weekend, with friends in town and much-needed socializing. sunday evening, dinner with old roomie & some richmond friends of hers, at empire, which my anti-social self had never even heard of prior. a wee too hipster for me, but exactly the right amount of dark & dingy. L came up from norfolk, and stayed here with me that night. in the morning we had breakfast at galaxy-- more hipster scene, but i love the horribly southern food there. our waiter at empire was a guy who worked for/with me at christie's, which used to be where galaxy is now. a reminder of my old life? maybe. later, after we wandered carytown for a spell, L left to get back to norfolk, and i "interviewed" a potential new temporary roommate. a couple nights ago, after yet another crappy shift at the cafe, i poked around craigslist & found his ad. seems a perfect fit-- he'll only be here during the week, for just a few months, he's a day person, a smoker, and he has a long-term girlfriend, who i'll meet on monday. and: on his way out, he asked what i was doing with the dining room space, and suggested that it would be a great place for a pool table! that's exactly what i planned on putting in there once roomie moved out, but i dismissed the idea quickly after considering expense and noise. the new guys downstairs probably wouldn't mind, but my new roomie might rethink the idea once he realizes i'd want to use it at 2am. we'll see. so i showed him the place, which he seemed to like, and we went out to the balcony to sit and talk, and just then, old roomie showed up with a former hottie boy toy of hers who came up from florida to see her while she's in richmond. she immediately went out to the balcony, introduced herself, and said she'd be conducting the interrogation. and she did! good thing, i guess, since i made the decision to let him move in based mostly on intuition-- i really don't care what company he's here working for, or where it is, but i suppose that's good information to have. i've always maintained that she was the best roommate i've ever had-- and not just because she didn't toss me out when i was 9 months behind on the rent-- but i never really knew how she felt about *me* as a roomie. she told him that when folks would ask her how it was living with me, she'd say that if she decided to plant an oak tree in the living room, i could be counted on to simply ask, "ok, where will it be and what should i move out of the way?" of course, my attitude was based mostly on the fact that i always thought of it as *her* apartment, whereas now it's *mine.* still, i'm pretty easy to get along with, as long as you stay the FUCK out of my way. ;-) late sunday night, P called. i'd just gotten into bed (as had L) and when i heard his distinctive ring, for the first time in six weeks or so, i thought perhaps i'd messed up when setting an alarm. but no, it was really him. seems he's a little stressed out & just wanted to talk to me. i listened, managed not to pull a juvenile "la la la i can't hear you" when he talked about his trip to philly, and he even asked me how i was doing (rare), and that was that. that, and he said he'd call later in the week, which he did, earlier today. no apparent reason. says he's stopped drinking (!!) and is planning to transfer to berea. in kentucky. huh? i'm happy for him that he's looking ahead with school (and the drinking, too-- that's huge). this time he mentioned stopping by the cafe to see me sometime... i have mixed feelings about that, but i'm not sure how to mention it. or whether i should. monday night after the interrogation, roomie & her boytoy and i had dinner at 3 monkeys. the food had a lot of potential, but didn't quite follow through. (i decided not to ask for no onions on my pizza because they were supposed to be caramelized. they came out barely cooked at all.) afterward, we went to shoot pool at the triple, which was fun for me, as i hadn't been there in months... okay, i just realized corpus is under mandatory evacuation. enough of this piffle.