2 more days checked off the endless doldrums of being employed with no work to do. Its really not something you will EVER hear me complain about. If I could stay in this situation for the rest of my life I'd be nothing but smiles.

But I'm beginning to wonder if days filled with little or no human interaction are beginning to have an adverse affect on me. I kind of enjoy the quiet, taking my time, not doing much once the work is banged out, but it feels...odd. Tonight I went to the grocery store not because I needed to, but because I felt I'd go crazy if I didn't have at least some kind of social experience. Which turned out to consist of:

Credit or debit?

Credit.

...

You saved $11.53 today.

Thanks.

Stopped by the new restaurant across the street from us today - new being the operative word. In the 3 years I've been here this is probably the 4th proprietorship to give it a go in this very location. It looks good on paper - high visibility, right at the corner, residential developments completely surrounding it. But its a death zone. Two guys kicking it off - they seem nice. I almost felt like I was getting too attached to a pet you knew you were going to have to put down soon, talking to the poor ambitious fellow, so I thanked him and took a take-out menu with me.

You know what I just do not get? When people call me and ask me to call someone else for them. Why are you calling me? Why don't you just call them directly? The one that really puts me off is when someone is calling me to find something out.

I don't know.

Does Matt know?

Probably.

Can you call him for me?

I guess so.

And I'm thinking great, so now I get to call Matt, then call you back. Thanks for that. Or the times when someone calls me and asks me to relay a piece of information to someone else, and none of it concerns me. They're only calling because they don't have the third party's phone number. They don't ask for the phone number, instead they ask me to call. What is the deal with that?

/cease rant mode

So yeah, Star Wars ended with a serious firecracker. Very good #3, almost made up for the prior 2 atrocities. Left me yearning to pull out 4-6 and watch them straight through. If I had them on DVD I probably would have by now. #3 was a sad one - it was kind of weird watching a sad Star Wars, but you knew it had to happen. I'm giving best acting award to Ewan MacGregor for a bang-up job on Obi Wan. Sammy Jax wasn't bad as Mace, but he didn't have much screen time.

Other sad movies seen recently: Finding Neverland. What was I thinking netflixing that? I hate sad movies (truly sad ones, Star Wars was sad in a more...Star Wars way). I don't watch movies to be sad, unless I think there's some morally good reason for the grief (eg. I think its important to see movies like Saving Private Ryan). I watched this movie with Keanu Reeves and Charlize Theron once where she's this chick who dies of cancer or some such malady, and that was the whole gist of the movie - they fall in love then she dies. You don't even see her die, you just see her leave him for the last time. That's it. I felt like I wanted to puke. Only women could be sadistic enough to enjoy being brought to tears by a freaking movie.

Oh and I never got around to talking about the BBC series The Office. Simply brilliant. Totally winds you into an incredibly real but incredibly hilarious situation. I was actually depressed after finishing the series, half because it was over so quickly, and half because of how readily I identified so readily with one of the major characters, I won't say which. They only ran it for two seasons, and had a 2-part follow-up special, and the brevity only adds to the brilliance. Some crude humor laced in, but for the most part hysterical.

And that reminds me that I never blogged on Atlantic City (AC). We (Russ, Paul, Phil, Rob, Ben, and I) met around dinner time in China town and got some cheap Chinese to eat. Then we had an extra hour on our hands because Phil had us all show up 2 hours early for an 8:30 bus. Phil does these kind of things. I'm not sure why. And did I mention it was China town? Not the prettiest part, either. So then we get on this bus with a bunch of, well, Chinese folk. 2 hours later, welcome to neon lights, tight slots, loose women.

I didn't like it right from the start. Its on the water but there's no ocean smell there. Something very wrong about that. And everything I saw had a very aesthetically clean feel to it - but the entire feeling itself felt contrived. You go the impression there was a VERY seedy underbelly to this town, just around the corner. I think the fact that I was there from 11pm til 5am had something to do with that - the dark kept things hidden. I dropped some cash early on at the hold-em tables, and then dealt very briefly and very acutely with the urge to throw the AmEx in the machine and head back for a serious go at it. Brains got the best of me and I spent the rest of the night milling around with the guys, looking at things I wanted but couldn't have - primarily large sums of money. I didn't like that feeling and I didn't drink because nobody I was with was drinking and I didn't want to cloud my judgment when it came to touching my wallet.

Got on a bus back to the city in the morning and dealt with an interminable commute back to the 'boken. When I got here, my phone nearly snapped in two when I flipped it open, so its been a touch on the ginger side ever since. I ordered the new one and it should get here soon, but that's for another blog post. Went home, slept a couple hours, hung out with K-train and Evonne before they headed into the city. Baby-sat Titus that night while his folks saw Star Wars. Sunday was church, golfing in Pennsylvania (Cregan drives to these way-out there courses but they're nice, and they're not expensive, so its worth it), then got back late to see Star Wars for myself with some friends.

Oh and while golfing, we had a couple and their kid on the back nine that were playing ridiculously slow, and by 12 or 13 we were just yelling in agony from the tee. On 15, after they were off the green, Cregan hit his approach, and apparently the dad wanted a reason to fight. He gets out, drops a ball, and actually hits it back at us. I hear it whiz by my head and go into the trees behind me. That guy was lucky I was golfing with two sober guys who work in ministry, instead of other crews (in other mental states) I've golfed with, because I was tempted to wrap his golf club around his neck.

Memorial Day I hung out on the UWS with train and Evonne, lunch at Gray's Papaya then shopping at Urban Outfitters. Shorts, CD, and a couple books. Lusting after over-priced t-shirts. Home to ribeyes on the grill, up on the deck with Chris.

May was fast. I didn't do a stitch of real work, beyond looking for open positions and begging for advanced training classes, and I'm not too sure how the month melted away so quick. Lots of sunshine and I've been able to see a good bit of it for a change.

Welcome to June.