sleepover

I got a grand total of five happy birthday wishes, you know. Outside of work, that is. Everybody at work had gotten around to informing me that they wished me well; one of my coworkers materialized at my cubicle, solemnly shook my hand, kissed me on the forehead, and announced that I looked quite well, despite the grey hair and wrinkles. I got irregular email through the day from people that I had had meetings with, once or twice. How is it that half the people in my office don't know how vital systems work, but everybody knows when my birthday is?

Tara sent me a web happy birthday, my mom and sister called to inform me (in case I forgot) that they loved me, and my roommate left a quick message on my machine. I got an emailed happy birthday from someone else, who promised me presents -- Presents! Yay! -- as soon as I got him a mailing address, (Yuhri Hirata, c/o Excite@Home, 1st floor, 430 Broadway Avenue, Redwood City, CA 94063) and a glass pen from Tara that's way cool. I've put it someplace safe to take out and stare at from time to time. Oh, and my sister is promising me "Henry V", starring good ol' Kenneth.

...and that was it.

In retrospect, it's kind of sad how few people I know outside of work. Where are all my friends, my loved ones, my comrades?

(sniff.)

RealPlayer is blinking at me from the lower right-hand corner of my screen. It's mad because I'm using something else altogether to listen to the radio today. German Klassik, in fact; once in a while the music breaks off so the radio announcer can say something in Deutsch, with those mellow, "I'm a classical music DJ" voices.

No matter what the country, classical music DJs always sound the same. Soothing. The natural world's answer to Valium, I suppose it is.

August 29, 2000

Binky called and left a message on my machine, which I didn't get until late last night. She wished me a happy birthday, too.

I'm up to six.

On Sunday I dashed around like a headless chicken, getting a present for a co-worker, socks for myself, (didn't buy any of 'em), and then picking up my friend to go to the Dojo for an Open House, after which I got driven down by a fortuitous coincidence to Palo Alto, where I met up with Tara and Remington, visited the Palo Alto fair, spent no money, then ganged down to Cupertino for Henry IV (Part I) in Cupertino and back up to Redwood City to paint stencils before going to sleep at around twelve.

I actually got to sleep in on Monday, though. I didn't get up until 7:30. It was a sinfully luxurious experience, actually getting more than six hours of sleep. I'll admit that I'm pleased that I'm able to get by on less and less these days, though I'll also acknowledge that once in a while, without warning, my body will decide that enough is enough and crash, willy-nilly.

Henry IV wasn't terrible; it was a few hours of entertainment, and decent enough that I didn't begrudge the five dollars I ended up putting in one of the actors' baskets. It was Free Shakespeare in the Park, and any little bit helps. Besides, it was a nice night, and I hadn't ever seen Henry IV before. The guy who played Falstaff was pretty damn good, though a little of the staging seemed overdone, and the actors wore a bizarre mishmash of pseudo feudal samurai gear and GI fatigues that made them look like culturally adrift homeless people.

I'm tired. I don't really have anything to write about, do I? Except that I was tentatively planning on coming back to Seattle for a weekend, when my mother's birthday rolls around. My sister and I have it sort of planned out, where she'll arrange to have me picked up at the airport and shipped secretly to a restaurant. She'll invite Mom and some of her friends to dinner at the same restaurant, and Mom will walk into the place and find me sitting there.

I thought it would be a nice surprise. What do I get her for her birthday, anyway? It's coming up. I'm poor, though I can't understand how that always happens. I'm literally surviving on a hundred dollars a month, right now. My tremendous pay is all going towards Japan, (in November), and a sudden surge of student loan payments that have suddenly wrapped their fists around my throat. C'est la vie. Last night I ate a piece of toast and put little crystals of sugar on it for flavoring. Tonight I think I'll try red pepper flakes.

Starving and single in San Francisco. There's a song in that somewhere. If it weren't for the fact that I own a computer, I could sing the blues.

Had some tremendously bad, disconcerting news last night left on my answering machine. Ho hum.

I want more plants. Posted by yhirata at August 28, 2000 12:28 AM