freedom to do what I want any old time

I would have slept longer but Slate started meowing and biting me at 7am. It's hard to be mad at a big fluffy kitty, but I sure did try. Thanks my fortunate consumption of fast food, soda, water and aleve this morning finds me in relatively good shape. I doubt Alan will be though. He took a cab home from the bar and he was pretty toasty by night's end.

Brett didn't cause any more trouble on his last day of work. We did find out later that the powers above were hunting for the person responsible for a little subversive office action and would like nothing more than to fire the employee responsible. Hah! We laughed so hard that our waittress in Trudys must have thought we were already wasted at 6pm. I heard a lot of fun gossip about a guy named Dean who nearly destroyed the company, and various other really interesting stories that go a long way to explaining why my office is the wierd place that it is.

So yes, we went to Trudys for happy hour because the drinks are cheap. I don't care much for Trudys unless I'm eating there, because the bar seems to attract a certain clientele I don't care for one bit. Sarah and Richard joined us and we took off for the dive bar of choice. Long live the Canary Hut. As I told Sarah, we could always count on being the most fashionable people in the place. (Hookers notwithstanding I guess, but who the fuck wears those shoes in a bar?) We did see a middle-aged woman with obligatory big Texas hair wearing just a fringed dishtowel as a shirt. It was a vaguely diamon shaped piece of blue cloth with fringe tied on only by a string in back. Her bottle blonde friend wasn't much better in a baby pink tube top. As Sarah said, please shoot me if I ever become a middle-aged woman trying to wearing teenage girl clothes because there is no coming back from that.

So we had cheap drinks and silly conversation. The bartender was that same crazy chick who flashed her tits one night after a few too many jager bombs. We cheered Brett's freedom from the tyranny of the office. He's going back to Dallas for awhile to save money for school. It makes me so angry that Austin has a higher cost of living than Dallas or Houston these days! Whiskey Tango Foxtrot? I lay the blame squarely on the dotcom disaster and the Californians.

Interesting factoid of the morning: Brett went to the high school where the events that Pearl Jam chronicled in "Jeremy" happened.

By the time karoke rolled around I was already feeling pretty wiped out. The loud, loud, extremely fucking loud karoke didn't help my headache. Sarah, Rachel and I took off for McDonalds, because it was the closest thing open at 10:30 on a Friday night. Thank heavens for the fast food industry I suppose. The only times I ever eat McDonalds would be on road trips and when I'm hungover or have been drinking. I felt like we were all in a weird John Cusack film, sans Mr Cusak. Shameful as it is to admit, the chicken nuggets tasted really damned good. I was starving.

Afterwards I knew I couldn't do any more drinking if I wanted to remain sober and sane enough to drive home. While looking for Brett at the bar, I stepped outside and a large redneck guy held the door open for me. He looked at me funny and then asked if I had gone to McNeil high school. A long time ago, I replied with a slightly bitter smile. Me too, he said, you looked familiar and then he went back inside. I'm a little weirded out by the fact that someone could recognize me 75lbs and hairdye later. Maybe it's time to cut my hair again.

I smoked so much I never want to smoke again.

(no subject)

Vandals destroy Mangiazilla Ugh. People disgust me! Some days it feels like there are people in this city who would destroy everything unique and wonderful about it, from tree filled parks at the mercy of developers to fucking morons who vandalize Austin icons. If you're going to be an asshole and destroy someone else's property, go after the damned corporate monsters like Walgreens! Leave our businesses alone. Ten to one odds that it was drunken frat boy types.

observations of the morning (with emphasis)

- Doing signal work on the access road to I35 in the middle of the city on a Saturday morning directly in front of a major shopping center is a really bad idea.

- If your vehicle can not exceed 50mph for some physical reason, you should never even think about getting on I35. This also applies if the driver is unable to exceed the speed of 50mph.

- Jacking up your Suburban on giant truck wheels is just about the stupidest damned thing you can do and it makes you look like a total asshole. Don't do it kids.

- If you can not see the car right in front of you that you have been staring at for five minutes as it approaches, you completely deserve to be hit when you pull out in front of them.

- I saw an entire family (five people) dressed entirely in green on their way to Sears. (Hopefully to buy new clothes) It ranged from olive & forest greens on the father to electric neon lime on the mother and youngest daughter. This is also a bad idea folks, and makes your family look scary.

- Outside it is cool, grey and windy. Autumn is the best of all seasons.

- Listening to the Counting Crows makes me feel alive.

joy!

The upstairs neighbors must have truly skipped out! I just saw one of the apartment complex office women having a maintenance guy carry a bike and some other stuff out of the apartment. Delight!

quiche

There were a dozen things I could have done today, things that perhaps needed doing. But instead I wound up cleaning and making quiche. I sauteed the spinach and onions, baked my crusts and now the happy quiche are baking away.

ETA 719pm - Quiche came out very, very nice. Yum.