Time to lay off the absinthe

Some weekend highlights…

Highlight #1: So much to my surprise, I ended up at the bar on Friday night. I know, I know, how unusual. I fully expected to be discussing Wittgenstein at the institute but instead found myself at the end of the bar once again. But sometimes you just need to sit at the end of the bar and experience life. And quite possibly one of the funniest conversations that I’ve ever been in.

See, people pretty quickly realize that I’m the type of guy you can just talk to and not really worry about anything. Or at least this girl did as within two minutes of her sitting next to me she was discussing how she had just ended a date in which she had fallen asleep while watching Saw III. Much to the chagrin of her date, I must say. So, this had us discussing (with the staff as she also is one of the regulars) what were the worst moments of our dating careers. Mine was calling a girl by her roommates’ name at the end of the night, which probably isn’t my worst but it’s the one I’ll readily admit to. Yeah, even though I have no problem with embarrassing myself there are some stories that you don’t get to hear unless you are paying me.

With that as our first topic, it was fun to see where we would go from there. This was a discussion of Halloween costumes and my complete non-interest in costumes. Or at least my saying that I didn’t know what to dress as. My Waldo idea wasn’t well-received but she thought I could go as a math professor, which to be honest isn’t much of a stretch. She had the idea because a) I do give off that vibe and b) her brother was actually using that as his costume and was planning on using all sort of lame lines at the party. This meant that for the first time in the fifteen years since I thought them up I was able to break out the math pick-up lines. I’ve waited a very long time to just have a chance to use the “Hey, want to see my twelve inch slide rule?” line in conversation and have it actually be acceptable. I knew that brainstorming session at the math contest would come in handy someday.

(That would be the only thing that ever came out of a math contest that was useful for me in my later life. Well, that and the knowledge that being the coolest guy at a math contest isn’t something to be proud of.)

Anyway, it was a really fun bar conversation at the end of which I looked out the window and saw a rather large penguin staring back at me. Just standing on the street corner, looking back at me and waving. This makes me really wonder if any of this ever took place, especially given that every store I was in today also seemed to have penguins scattered around the place. For all I know I spent two hours talking to the cash register again. However, if anyone runs into someone dressed as the Morton Salt girl this week, tell her I said hi.

Highlight #2: Best costume of the weekend was the girl dressed as Rainbow Brite. It’s a surprisingly attractive look. Well, that and the guys with the signs that said “Being married to a divorced woman is committing adultery” and “The party ends in hell.” Sadly, I don’t think they were costumes. But any party that ends in hell has to be one kick-ass party.

Highlight #3: In football news, the Beavers upset the Trojans this weekend and…and…and if I comment on this I’m just going to end up on yet another HR list. I feel confident that you can come up with your own punch line.

The five random CDs of the week:
1) Liz Phair “Exile in Guyville”
2) Josh Ritter “Hello Starling”
3) Neko Case “Canadian Amp”
4) John Mayer “Any Given Thursday”
5) Big Head Todd and the Monsters “Beautiful World”