My parents are traveling to Turkey, so I've been spending most of my time trying to avoid telling them how long they should stay in Cappadocia.  I don't know guys, stick around until you get bored.  There's giant stone penii in every direction - you should be happy for a few days.

The bike's falling apart more than usual.  My cassette teeth are so worn down that a few of them are more round than square.  And somethings wrong with my right shifter - I think I can probably fix that.

Halloween parade yesterday, and Halloween things afterwards.  It was fun.  I realized that I shouldn't be around my musician friends when they've got instruments.  I realized for the millionth time how much I love October.  I realized that drunk people love bathrooms even more than they love shots, traffic cones, hamburgers, or promiscous members of their favored sex.

I got tricked into going on a date Friday night.  It was late, and I was confused, calling around to see who was still up at 10:40 pm.  I reached an old high school friend I hadn't talked to in months, they said come meet them, I did, and was introduced to this girl they'd been trying to get me to meet all those months ago.  It was pretty awkward (surpise!) - The girl and I are sitting next to each other, there's three other people at the table, and the whole time I get the idea that my "technique" is being closely inspected.  I wanted to leave very very badly after ten minutes, but I didn't want to insult the girl or my friends, so I invited the girl to come for a walk, which ended up being a bad idea, as the walk lead to my place, and a long drawn out morning the next day, and probably another week or so of journal entries along these lines.

I'm planning a Halloween pre-party on the day of.  It will be at my apartment from 6 until 9, there will be weirdo foreign horror movies (with an emphasis on Lucio Fulci's ripoffs of American zombie movies), hunch punch colored orange, and probably a smoke machine.  Maybe sandwiches too.

I am trying to find a way to organize all the parties and stuff happening over these next two weeks.  Halloween night is especially bad - Critical Mass, my pre-party, an alleycat at 9, the alleycat afterparty, Black Lips at Star Bar, and then like three different house parties.  I would like to try and be at all these things.  I would also like to get fairly trashed and makeout with a girl dressed as a sexy cat (this is my goal for most nights, but October is the only month it actually happens).

Oh, and a camping trip sometime in the future, but inside the city.  I'm thinking along the beltline - there's a few really nice spots that are far enough away from people that campfires can be set up with no problem.

Work still sucks, still looking for a new job.

Haven't felt any real inclination to eat lots of acid for three weeks now, which may or may not be a good sign.  Though, now that you mention it, I currently do want to eat lots of acid.

Whatevs.  I'm gonna go be in a pillow fight.

Spent the last few hours lying on my floor, petting the cat, marinating my tonsils in red wine, and listening to music.

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I went to the optometrist a few hours ago and learned that I was having an allergic reaction to my contact lenses. I'd been having the reaction for the last few days, and, from what I could tell, symptoms = inflamed eyeballs, constantly dilated pupils, lots of pain. The diagnosis was a good thing, even at $120, as it let me know that I wasn't going blind.

Instead, I'll be taking eye medicine for the next few days ($28) and not wearing contacts.

Which meant I needed to buy a pair of glasses to replace the ones I'd lost in an airport a few months ago.

The cheapest frames I could find (that day) were about $50, and the heaviest/cheapest lenses were $70. Really enamored with the way my face has been transformed by these things - most of me is covered by thin metal frames and huge fucking expanses of lens. My nose is there, sticking out like the shnozz on a Groucho Marx mask. And then the rest of my face is sort of sketched in around the glasses as an afterthought. But really, the thing you'll be staring at is my eyeballs, magnified 1000-fold by these aquarium glass lenses.

I love it.

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(Pictures soon. And, if I told you I'd be in Charleston this weekend, it turns out I was lying. Plans have falled through.)

I was walking with Boris and a student he was tutoring.  This was last night, and it was probably still at least 98 degrees.  Tutoring is one of Boris's many jobs - he also delivers flowers, occasionally works at a deli, and teaches SAT prep for Kaplan. 

The tutoring is for high school aged students attending one of those schools for kids who use drugs too frequently or too conspicuously, and the student he currently tutored was much more a case of the latter.  His dad had caught him smoking weed once.  Then his dad hired a team of professionals to "kidnap" him one day while he was home playing video games - he was kept under constant surveillance in the team's van until they reached Arizona.  Then he spent the Summer doing farm work with another hundred "at risk teens".  In Arizona.  In the Summer.

He was fourteen at the time.

Of course, he still smoked after leaving the camp, and now he studied at a private boarding school just outside of Atlanta.  He's sixteen.

So, we've been walking for the better part of an hour.  We had stopped by the botanical gardens earlier, but then we were escorted out by security.  Then we had stopped by the High Museum, but it was closed.

Now Boris is discussing cheap ways to get drugs.  The student mentions that he's supposed to be picking up some weed from a guy who lives about a half-mile from the Museum (which we were walking away from).

I point out that Boris may be the worst possible tutor I've ever met.

In Boris's defense, the student points out:  "Well, he did smoke me out this morning."

Today was really great - I'm even looking forward to the sleep part in an hour or so.

8ish:  Woke up.  Let cat in, wrastled cat, asserted dominance through complex daily ritual tail measuring contest.
8:30 - 9:  Made burrito's for breakfast, avoided looking at Art and Culture study sheets.
9 - 10:  Showered, put on luck test taking panda shirt, packed bag, read paper (comics and section A, in that order)
10:20:  Still waiting for train.
10:50:  Make it to Oglethorpe talk with security a bit, complain about new rentacops.
11-1:00:  Didn't study for Art and Culture midterm, sat under a big tree and read about Henry James' imaginary people.
1:15 - 1:25:  Got to class, studied for midterm
1:25-1:30:  Read more Portrait of a Lady (which basically reminds me of about the most interesting 1/3 of the women folk I know)
1:30 - 2:45:  Bent midterm over, preformed obscene act culminating in midterm having to change contact lenses.
3:00:  Really thought about going to Core.
3:01:  Left Core, went for a long walk around campus.  Everything was the most beautiful it had ever been.
4ish:  I think I sat around w/ Zack at some point around here.  Details are hazy - we may have visited some people, or gone for a walk.  I believ we also happened upon a hidden stash of food, and an umbrella.
5ish:  Walked more.  Ran into Robert (the really big haired guy), chatted, agreed to frisbee until ultimate team could be formed.
5ish - 6ish:  Various other hairy types wandered through, never gained more than [(team size x 2) -1] people.  Discussed situation with girl who had been in Israel last year.  Found girl sort of enchanting, in that she seemed to find me enchanting, was basically agreeable, and such.  Reached conclusion that we were playing "Really Very Good Frisbee", as opposed to Ultimate Frisbee.  Sad face.  Am now part of official Ultimate Frisbee team.  Happy face.
6:40 - 8:30:  Met Zack on the way back for my stuff.  Commandeered portable DVD player and watched 1.30 hours of Dog Day Afternoon.
9:45 - Traded Maz flask full of surplus vodka for ride home.  Discussed whether strippers really travel 16 hours per day.
10:04 - Find Elizabeth in process of afixing note to my door.  See Zack and Maz off, go for long long walk.  Have head butt fight.  A quote from me "Je ne voudrais pas un coup de tete".
10:55 - share hot chocolate and oatmeal.  Escort Elizabeth to street.
11:00 - Watch Daily Show, exercise.

Going to improv in the park tonight with Stu and Anna.  Don't really like improv, at least not the sort which is preformed in the park.  But, it's been a few weeks since I've gotten to hang out with Stu and Anna (aka 1/3 of my geek friends) at the same time.  Plus, the park people give out free iced coffee.  This is an awesome idea.  Life should be like that.

Like, you're walking to class around 11, sleepy, so you stop by the coffee stand in the middle of Ogle-quad.  Drink your coffee marathon runner style, with half going into your mouth and the other half poured over your face, then keep on truckin' to class.  Repeat with roving coffee cart on Marta train, stands set up at all four corners of the High Museum, and then another cup from your own coffee-making-device to help you sleep.  Awesome.

In other news, I was reading this scifi book from the 60's called Earthworks, and it refused to make any damn sense.  So I'm switching it for Speedtribes, which I burrowed from Anna.  Speedtribes is cool.  Written in '94, which makes it dated as a source of Japan cultural info.  Sort of started the modern trend seen in many articles about Japan where author examines one of the mini-societies (flower arrangers, ecchi kids, Shibuya runaways, etc) which make up Japan as a whole.  I'd like to see the same sort of analysis applied to other cultures/countries.

In other news, my mouth tastes like dead animals.  Am currently brushing and flossing.

I'm in the mood for walks with old friends.  You neboulus peoples, come to Atlanta.  We will walk, and possible sit on the swings and other assorted playground equipment.  Avoid wearing skirts, as we may be breaking into the Botanical Gardens.

Yes, this means you too Big Adam - why have you decided to join the clergy?  We should probably discuss this.  Also, Elizabeth, your family doesn't love you.  Come back to Atlanta and we will eat fried corn.  Young Heather, I really am busy.  Sunday night?

Everyone else walking = awesome.  Night time = double-awesome.  City = better than your podunk town/suburb/tract.