how to be social and still feel like a failure

thursday after dealing with the parking tickets i headed over to the bopho studio. i helped sue change out the old door lock for a nifty new one with a numeric entry pad. mission accomplished, i headed back to my place.
a little later i went over to natalie’s. i got to play mario kart on her kids’ game cube, which i’d never played before. i’m not sure i’d ever played with a game cube at all, actually. she’s also got a really cool, mellow cat i hadn’t met before. we went and ate at an asian food place (which was pretty good), then we went back to her place and watched scrabylon. i’d been holding onto it for some time, waiting for the opportunity for us to watch it (since she’s a big scrabble fan). the documentary was actually really short. i think it came in at only around 45 minutes. but there was quite a bit of extra footage in the extras that didn’t make it into the actual…well, i would say “movie” but it was more like a documentary tv show due to the length. it was interesting and had some funny stuff in it, but i think word wars was better. and of course, as is almost a prerequisite now, natalie started falling asleep. but she lasted until almost the end of the night, so that’s not bad. 😉
friday after work a co-worker and i headed to sig’s lagoon. he’s a fan of lounge and 50’s kind of stuff, so i had been wanting to show him sig’s for some time since there is some of that kind of stuff there. while there, i picked up a couple of cds for myself:

• frankenchrist – dead kennedys (manifesto)
• bedtime for democracy – dead kennedys (manifesto)

i also told them to order a cd for me. i wasn’t sure the one they mentioned was what i was actually asking about, and when i got home i checked and it really wasn’t. but it’s not a cd i have, so i think i won’t mind having the one they ordered either.
later, i met up with emily and we decided to eat at the macaroni grill. i wasn’t sure where the nearest one was, so i went on their website and checked. i didn’t realize they’d dropped to only two stores in houston. i remember a number of years back when there must have been at least 5 or 6, if not more. it had been a number of years since i’d eaten at one though. i sat facing a couple who looked like they were what was referred to in eternal sunshine of the spotless mind as “the dining dead”. i kind of felt sorry for them. she seemed despondent and they didn’t really talk or make eye contact pretty much the whole time. at another table was a bleach-blonde, tanned sorority girl that was doing all the right things with clothes, makeup, etc. — but didn’t have the starting foundation to really achieve exactly the end affect other girls can and do. i think part of it was her face looked a lot like a child, so she looked more like one of those scary girls from a pre-teen pageant than a college age girl. but maybe that’s just me. she certainly talked like a sorority girl, and about the kind of things they seem to really enjoy talking about.
saturday i ate lunch at the house of pies. i think this is the evening emily and i watched a lot like love. i wouldn’t have picked this movie to watch, but emily had brought it over and wanted to watch it. it wasn’t as bad as i’d feared it might be. the girl definitely looked the best during her punk phase, which of course was when she was supposed to be the youngest in the movie.
sunday i ate lunch with a few people who had been at kaleo. from there i went by an aaron brothers frame store to pick up a couple of frames. when i got there, i learned they were having a “buy one frame, get a second of equal or lesser value for a penny” sale. i bought a frame to put a copy of the Texas land grant document my great great grandfather had signed in 1848, and i also bought a long skinny frame with 4 4×6 holes to put some postcards with pictures of old Texas flags in. i’d bought the postcards back in 2002 or whenever the mfah had the Texas flags exhibit there. i also made a mental note to measure a few things i’d been meaning to frame and go back before the 27th (when the sale ends).
that evening i went over to the bopho loft. i met sue and the kids there. i ate with them and played some with the kids, then sue and i watched a movie she’d rented: next. i don’t know that it’s a movie i would have picked on my own, but it was actually pretty decent. nicholas cage plays a character who can see about 2 minutes into his own future.
monday i had off of work for the mlk holiday. i ate lunch with the potts family at chick-fil-a, then i headed back to aaron brothers. i picked up frames for my going away posters from my nasa jobs at lockheed martin (1995-1999) and dyncorp (1999-2001). i also got a frame for a certificate i’d gotten commemorating phase one of the shuttle-mir program. it includes a flag that was flown aboard the shuttle discovery to mir on mission sts-91. they flew a lot of those little flags and gave them out to a lot of people who worked on the program, but i still think it’s kind of cool to have. as my penny frame, i picked up an 8×10 frame i thought looked cool that i’ll figure out some use for. monday evening emily and i ate with shannon and her daughter at jason’s deli, then emily came over to my place and we watched one of my dvds.
tuesday after work i met up with emily and a few other people at pei wei for supper, then i went by border’s to take advantage of a 40% single cds coupon (limit 3). here’s what i eventually picked:

• the gilded palace of sin and burrito deluxe – the flying burrito brothers (a&m)
• kid a – radiohead (emi / capitol)
• de stijl – the white stripes (third man / sheridan square)

the flying burrito brothers disc is a single disc with their first two albums on it (digitally remastered). these are the two fbb albums with gram parsons. i bought the radiohead album because i really feel like i need to give them a chance. i’m still worried they’re going to be one of those bands it seems like i should like, but i just can’t ever seem to make it happen. and now i only need the first white stripes album to have all of their earlier albums.
at lunch today a co-worker (same one as mentioned above) and i went to taco bell. it was freaking freezing! it’s almost always cold in that taco bell, but today the vents never stopped blowing air and it never stopped being cold. i think maybe the heat was broken, but they left it running so it was constantly blowing outside air that was unheated into the dining area. everyone in there kept their jackets and coats on. i kept my hoodie over my head. the funniest thing though was at one point i was talking and i saw a slight quick motion in my vision, then again near my co-worker. i realized i’d had one of those moments where you spit while you’re talking and eating. then i realized it had hit him right in the eye. well, it would have, except he wears glasses so it was just sitting there on his glasses. we both sort of fell silent for a couple of seconds, then he pulled his glasses off and said “i was going to try and not say anything, but i couldn’t really…do…that…” and we both started laughing. i’m certainly glad it was someone i know, and they have an odd sense of humour like myself.
after work i met sue at brazil for supper. she’d originally been planning to watch a movie and i was going to join her, but she had to work later than planned so we just ate supper instead. i had to be at kpft by 8pm for the radio show, so there was a window of opportunity that needed to be met. we split a large pizza and talked about life, future plans, etc. it was an enjoyable time.