magicbeans. nothing if not awkward.

Last night was one of those terrible nights of little sleep where my legs ache and I can't get comfortable and when I do fall asleep it's into a half-aware state where my discomfort is being caused by supernatural forces completely beyond my control if not understanding. And hence, I was in a fog all day.

I had been planning on leaving work a little early anyway, to do laundry, but by 3 o'clock I realized that I wasn't going to accomplish anything, and I'd be best served by going home and taking a nap for an hour or two. On my way out of the office Bret called, 'I'm coming to New York. I'll be there about six, if you've got some free time and want to hang out.'

Half an hour of sleep on the train on the way home actually perked me up quite a bit, and I decided to hit the laundromat right away to see if I could finish that up in time to meet Bret for dinner. He called again about 6, 'I haven't heard from Amanda, but I parked my car near her house in Queens, since there's always street parking out here. What are you up to?'

'Laundry.'

'Sounds fun.'

'Like a barrel of monkeys. I've got another forty-five minutes or so, if you wanted to take the subway up here, you'd probably get here about the time I finish, and then we can go downtown and maybe meet up with Amanda if you hear from her, and get dinner.'

'And I could see your new place.'

When he got to Inwood he told me that Amanda had called him back, she was really sick, and at her parents house in New Hampshire. 'Good thing you parked your truck all the way out in Queens.'

We got Indian food for dinner. 'What do the three stars mean?'

'That it's really spicy.'

'Well, I'm going to order it, and then it's going to be too spicy to eat. That what I do. I was in Boston a few weeks ago and we went out for Indian food twice and both times I ordered something much too spicy.' This time proved no exception.

After dinner we saw The Jacket. Not as bad as I expected, although it was edited in such a way as to try and make the viewer as uncomfortable as possible without actually making them sick enough to leave, which was all a bit heavy handed, and for the first half of the film, before the plot really all started tying together and making sense, just sort of dragged things out in a tedious way. I liked the second half though, and was curious pretty much the whole time as to where it was all going.

The N train out to Queens to retrieve Bret's car. The Triborough Bridge back into Manhattan. And he tried to unload three boxes of glasses, pots and pans, and random kitchen utensils that Amanda hadn't wanted from him the last time he was in New York. 'You may have to dig them out, they've been in my truck a while, and I've been piling stuff on top of them.'

'Can I take your iPod? It's in one of these boxes?'

'No, you can't have my iPod. Or anything else that looks like it might be important.'

'Like this pile of mail?'

'My pay stubs. You can't do much with those. Except maybe steal my identity.'

Other than the iPod there really wasn't all that much useful stuff left. 'I just bought plates and glasses last week.'

'Damn my waiting. Now I've got to cart them all back up to Massachusetts again. And they're going to be clinking together the whole way, making all sorts of noise.'

'Well, I'll take that spatula. And two of those cloth napkins to use as dish towels.'