affectation.log

The liquor run went well.  Got a handle of Pucker [apple], 750mL of Smirnoff Twist [citrus], and another 750mL of Parrot Bay.  All for about ten each.  Good deal.

I received one of the best compliments ever tonight, from... Scott, I think.  And I also think he said it yesterday as well.  Anyway, when I told him about how things had gone down with Audrey, he called me "genuine".  I can't really say that I have integrity one hundred percent of the time [example: when dealing with roommate Paul], but it's something I aspire to.  And something I kick myself about when I don't live up to the standard.

Not surprisingly, I continue to be clumsy when it comes to girls.  I'm smacking my forehead about Audrey again.  Less funny this time, more... what-the-hell-was-I-thinking.  But once it's out there, you can't just take it back.  Damn.

Today in Writing was awkward.  No talking with Audrey at all.  Just too embarassing. I couldn't break that ice.  I guess it helps that we're not in the same group any more, 'cause if we were, the whole not talking thing would be kind of detrimental to the group dynamics.  Sigh.

This entry's being posted using my hot new admin interface.  Stayed up a little last night and designed it.  Right now it's still rough, but it doesn't matter much, since I'm the only person using it.  So you'll have to take my word for it when I say it's sweet.

Dude.  I just got an email telling me I was nominated for Pi Mu Epsilon, the math honor society.  This is so unexpected.  And pretty fuckin' sweet.  I wonder what I have to do.

ClearCom conversations are fun.  Especially with people you're sitting inches away from.  And for the record, Lesley is totally hot.

Earlier today an email was sent out to the crew of The Rivals that there'd be no cast party, as there was no place to have it.  Well, shit.  So I decided to kick my weekend off and made myself a nice, big Pepsi-and-Pucker to take to the play.

So I'm sitting at the play, running the sound.  I clearly made the mix too weak, as I'm not feeling a damned thing.  Ah, well.  I'd told Zip what was in the bottle when I got there, 'cause I knew he wouldn't care.  But during the play he makes mention of it casually to Kelly, something like, "You should have some of EGo's water."

Kelly, knowing me somewhat, deduces the contents.  Not exactly what it is, but just that it's alcoholic.  And for the rest of the play, she seems pretty quiet, not shaking her head or laughing at the ClearCom banter.

As soon as curtain call's done, she turns to me and goes, "Can I talk to you?" and walks off Techland immediately.  All right, I imagine I'm getting some kind of talking-to.  She goes up to Josie [the producer] and essentially reports me.  I try to lie my way out of it, but I'm a horrible liar.  And Josie's bound by club rules to fire me from the production.  So yeah, I'm fired.

I was clearly not drunk, and didn't miss my cues.  Well, technically, my first cue was late because I hit the "stop" button on the CD player instead of "pause".  They're identically shaped and one's above the other.  But that was at the beginning of the play, when the bottle hadn't been cracked yet.

Oh, well.  Josie's [oddly] not mad at me.  [Odd because she's already mad at most of the crew, including Kelly.  Maybe that's it.]  But she had to fire me, and I don't care.  Actually, most of the others I talked to just didn't care about me drinking.  But I am a bit mad at Kelly, and, I suppose, her boyfriend Paul [not my roommate], both of whom are way too uptight about drinking.  I've projected in much worse shape, and that involves operating close to motors.  I'm not going to injure people with a sound board.  Loosen the fuck up.

To me, the biggest tragedy is that I wasn't drunk.  I mean, if I'm fired, I want it to be over some flagrant violation, not for something shitty like this.  Jordan, my ex-big brother from Crow, was there after the show tonight.  When I told him the story, he yelled "All right!" and high-fived me.  I was certainly taught by the best.

Someone's supposed to fill in for me for the last night, but they didn't tell me who.  So in theory I have to tell this person what to do.  Eh.  I'm definitely going to the play tomorrow night.  I didn't join the crew just to miss out on the only fuckin' cast party.  And since I have no official duties this time, I'll make myself a much stronger mix with which to game.


Lesley's still ridiculously hot.


I came home after spending some time at the Sole with some theater people to the apartment, where there were more people drinking, including Ben "Fiveball" Lucas.  At some point, Fiveball and I go out for a smoke.  I'm out, and I figure it's time to buy another pack, so we walk down to the convenience store to get some.

On our way back to my apartment, we encounter this black guy.  At first, he's walking behind us.  We cross the street.  He follows.  I'm kind of freaked out, 'cause I'm scared of getting jumped.  I do feel somewhat safer, as Fiveball's a relatively large guy.

The guy seems in somewhat of a hurry, so I step aside so he can pass by us on the sidewalk.  He says not to mind him, passes us, and slows down so he's keeping pace in front of us.  Then the fun begins.


Around here I'm reassessing him as either a drug dealer or a pimp.


He asks us, "What do you like?"  Fiveball says that he doesn't like blondes, that he does like redheaded girls, and that others are pretty much equal.  I say stupidity is a major turn-off, to which Fiveball agrees.


I'm already consciously avoiding dark side streets on the way back to the apartment, because I definitely don't want to be somewhere dark with this guy.  So we're at the corner of Highland and Park, where Price Chopper is.  I push Fiveball into the parking lot of Chopper, both because it cuts time and because it's brightly lit.  The guy's walking in front of us, so he doesn't notice us turn for a while.  He follows us.


When I look back he's not following us.

In four years, this has got to be the most fucked up thing that's ever happened to me on the streets of Worcester.

I didn't notice it before, but the Google toolbar's mocking me.  Like the site, it must be programmed to detect the computer's clock settings and alter its appearance on holidays.  It's covered in hearts now.  Damned programmers.

Anyway, it's been a long night.  I'm going to sleep.

I'm bleeding from my knuckles, so I'll be brief.

I gave Lesley flowers, what with it being Valentine's and the last day of the play.  As it seemed to be known by everyone but me, she has a boyfriend.

So I got extremely drunk at the cast party, which she did not attend.

I'm bleeding from multiple points.  Mouth, wrist, arm... it doesn't matter.  All that matters is that in a few months I'll be out of here, and all the girls won't be either bitchy or taken.

I got drunk with Zip and Joe Reinsch [master carpenter], which I count as accomplishments.

All right.  I'm going to see whether I can tend to my wounds while drunk, and go to sleep.  Later.

Yeah... the night I got fired I had this brilliant idea to buy Lesley flowers for closing night.  So last night I went down and bought some.  But when I got to the show I just didn't know how to get them to her.  I ended up having one of the running crew guys take it to the dressing room.

I'm not sure of what happened then.  My running crew guy told her they were given anonymously, and there was apparently some uproar about who they were from.  I'm then told that Ian [one of the actors] told Lesley who'd given them to her.  How he knew, I have no idea.

She never looked at me or talked to me about it during strike.  One of the other actresses told me that Lesley had a boyfriend, but that I shouldn't let him get in my way, and the flowers were a good idea.  I think she was joking.

As strike was winding down, I was sitting on the stage with some other people, and Lesley was talking to house manager Chris.  About how her boyfriend was waiting for her, and how she wouldn't be going to the cast party.

The party was good.  Nothing noteworthy, but relaxing.

Oh, right, the bleeding.  I caught a wrench in the face while taking lights down during strike.  And after the party, I slipped on some ice and a bottle broke inside my bag.  I got cut repeatedly cleaning it out.

Yeah.  Show's over.

A more complete picture develops.  Lesley and her boyfriend are "practically engaged".  I was told that if I'd asked a girl about her beforehand, I'd know this.  I did ask Sasha [tech director and actress], and yet was not told.  Yep.

Also, the reason Ian knew who had given Lesley the flowers was because he had been on ClearCom a couple times and had heard me going on about her.  Well, then.

Just one of those things.

Loud, obnoxious people piss me off.

The explanation of this most recent affirmation follows.  As some people know, I signed up for a pseudo-Jedi RPG run by Craig Perko.  In my experience, Craig is a good GM.  When he mentioned it, I jumped; I was the first to sign up and create a character.  The last time he ran a game, though, many people flaked out.  So this time, he signed up a bunch of people, expecting most of them to drop out.

None of them did.

So he broke it into two sessions: one on Tuesday and one on Thursday.  I picked the one on Thursday, as it had fewer people.  In this case, fewer meant six.  That'd be somewhat manageable, I thought.  Then some people from the Tuesday session showed up and drifted in and out of gameplay.  The total at any given time was about nine player characters.  This meant chaos, essentially; the loudest voice reigned.  There were times where I just said to Craig, "My character's just going to go off and meditate until [insert upcoming plot device here]."

I'm thinking of dropping, which is sad, because I was really looking forward to this game.  And I liked playing my character, in those brief moments where I actually did something.  I just don't find a large party either fun or relaxing.  Especially one of the guys who, in character, smoked a lot of pot.  He described his character as a "hippie Jedi".  I wanted very much to hurt him.

But I'll go next week, and hope other people drop in between now and then.  Or maybe...  So there are these light Jedi who act as a sort of Internal Affairs.  We've run into a couple of them, who have taken care of dark Jedi without us.  When I spoke alone with the second one we ran into, he said I should join them.  So I'm seeking them out.  Maybe if I find and join them, I can play in a separate session from everyone else.  That'd be much better.

Remember that essay I wrote for my Elements of Writing class, the one about Abbie?  Yeah, well, I read that to the class today at my professor's request.  I had to pre-game class to reduce the nervousness.  But it went well, and it bolstered my confidence in it.  So if people want to read it, let me know.

Of course, given the turnout last time I asked, I'm only expecting one or two responses.

Also, cute girls distract me easily.  I went into Price Chopper for the sole purpose of withdrawing money.  The girl at the self-serve checkout line was extremely cute.  Dark hair with blond streaks.  Heavy eyeliner, but otherwise minimal makeup.  Kills me.  And she had a nose ring, which was I thought worked for her, despite my lack of love for the piercings.

So I walk in to Chopper and walk out about fifteen minutes later with two bags of groceries and no cash.  Heh.

Reminds me of that time Chad and I bought magazines we didn't need because a cute girl came by our apartment and asked us to.  She totally had us by the balls.

I'm getting in better shape.  Every Tuesday, instead of drinking, I've been playing ultimate frisbee until about one in the morning.  The first time, my leg cramped up after about a half hour.  It still kind of twinges, actually.  But tonight I played a solid hour or so straight.  Feels good to run again.

I need a shower.  I'm going to go get on that.

It's been a fun weekend.  Friday night, played some games with the Science Fiction Society.  I'd pre-gamed starting that afternoon, but it'd worn off by eight.  But the gaming was still fun.

Got called by three people that day: Jon, Chuck, and my sister.  That was nice.  Made me feel popular.

There was this guy, Chris, at Gaming Night who seemed cool, but a bit on edge.  He was visiting his cousin, who goes to WPI.  Pat Malloy, Chris, and I left Gaming Night as it was winding down.  We came back to my place and sat around, drinking and playing some cards.  Until four-thirty in the morning.

I was supposed to wake up at eight Saturday morning.  Woke up at 0920, and only then because Jon had called me twice.  Oops.  Massive hangover headache.  Chugged some water and Jon and I headed down to Providence for SUMS [Symposium for Undergraduate Mathematics Students].

Jon had also been up late drinking, so we both had trouble paying attention to the lectures.  Some were interesting, and I caught some bits of them, but there was no lecture I saw in entirety.  Probably the same for Jon.

There was one terrible presenter.  He'd just write something down and say, "I'm short on time, so I won't explain this.  Just take my word on it."  Sigh.  And some teacher from Holy Cross was presenting, so there were a few Holy Cross undergraduates were in attendance.  I recognized them from some joint math club meetings.  That was nice.

One of Jon's friends from URI showed up and the three of us cruised Providence.  I got into a spot of trouble for underage drinking, but it was fine.

A good weekend indeed.  I should get some work done now.  Before I go out tonight.