I just had to go and write about how my sleep was back to normal.

So, just to teach me a lesson for being too satisfied with my life, the universe decided to knock me out at 7:30 and not let me wake up until 12:30.

So now I'm sort of upside-down again, at least for tonight.

That'll teach me.

Now, now I'm going to drink a beer. A good one, but not the Alaskan Smoked Porter. Not yet. I'm going to drink a beer and then I'm going to try to write a decent entry.

I still haven't been able to get close to the new black cat that lives under my deck, but the neighbors who had their house burn down have a cat, and he's been coming over to see me lately. So that's cool. I like cats.

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It's supposed to be 90 degrees in St. Louis this Friday. I guess I'll be wearing shorts and blinding everyone.

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It's been almost 14 years since I've explored the area around Scott AFB Illinois. I'll probably get totally lost.

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I think I'm taking Thursday off too. That would mean that tomorrow will be virtual Friday, so yay!

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I've got one bottle of Alaskan Smoked Porter left in my fridge. I really really really want to drink it, but it's the last one, and hhere probably won't be any more until the Fall, so I have to wait. Waiting sucks. ANd don't give me that good things come... bullshit either. I'm not in the mood.

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This time of year is that annoying season when I still need to have the heat on at night, but if I forget to set it to A/C before I leave in the mornings I roast to death when I get home.

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I used to have this friend named SassyGirl, but I'm pretty sure she must have died in the storms last week because she hasn't fucking called me back to let me know she's alive.

She was cool. I'll miss her.

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HatGirl told me that she's got some classes or something coming up so she's basically never going to Rich O's again in her life. I'm thinking that this doesn't change much.

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My sleep schedule is totally back to normal now.

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People are PMing me to yell at me for not updating my pool 'blog very often. I wonder how come nobody yells at me about the cat 'blog. That damn thing hasn't been updated since like last Summer.

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If I were truly the stat whore that some people think I am then I'd have posted each one of these tidbits as a separate entry.

I wonder why it is that the only people you see eating Lean Cuisine are fat people. Shouldn't there be some skinny people eating it if it's such a great product?

I also wonder if fat people are ever embarrassed to buy the stuff. It seems to me that when you're loading your shopping cart up with Lean Cuisine you might as well wear a t-shirt that says Danger, wide load or something.

Or maybe it could be one of those shirts with the arrows that points to the side but instead of I'm with stupid or whatever it could say I was with somebody. He was delicious.

I think that Lean Cuisine should be sold in plain brown wrappers so fat people aren't forced to call any extra attention to themselves.

And don't even get me started on those adult diaper things.

(response to message)

You choose, I can't decide.

Doesn't matter because they're all hot.

Okay, you dream experts figure this one out for me. I have no clue.

I was a black kid. This wasn't particularly important and I probably wouldn't have even noticed it at all except that my mother and my grandfather and my older brother were black.

I got the sense that I was around ten years old.

We were living in a trailer park somewhere in New Albany, and we were all outside. It was a warm day. My brother and I were playing on the jungle gym and my mother was grilling steaks, and my grandfather was listening to something on the radio.

He had headphones on.

The sound of gunshots filled the air!

One of the neighbors called out, "They've got guns! Everybody DOWN!"

So I hit the ground and pretended like I was dead while the sounds of running and screaming and bang bang bang moved past me.

When I raised my head, I saw that my mother was lying on the ground with blood pouring from her head. My grandfather was still sitting in his chair with his headphones on and a small bullethole in the center of his forehead.

I looked around for my brother, but I didn't see him anywhere.

At first.

The gunshots started coming close again, so I laid back on the ground and tried to stop breathing so it would look like I was dead.

That's when my brother walked up to me and said, "You always were a little shit."

Then he shot me.

The first thing I noticed last night was the hot girl sitting in the loveseat.

The second thing I noticed was the other hot girl sitting on the sofa.

The third thing I noticed was that there were about a dozen other people crammed into the living room area. All strangers. Some kind of wedding reception or something. Classy.

So, there was no place to sit at all. I stood at the end of the bar for a while and talked to some of the PBDs. I had myself a Spezial (1170). Once this one lady left the other end of the bar I went and grabbed that seat.

So, I'd been there like 15 minutes, and I was already sitting in my new favorite seat. Not too bad I suppose.

My second beer was a Stone Smoked Porter (220). I sat with my back to the strangers and didn't talk to anyone for a long time. That's the way I like it though.

The strangers kept getting louder and louder. Eventually they progressed beyond simple loud talking and entered the WooHoo Zone.

So of course I decided that I hated them.

I hated them so much, in fact, that I'd pretty much decided that I would leave when my beer was gone.

I felt a tap on my shoulder.

It was HatGirl and LuckyFucker!

Including HatGirl! Yay!

There was only one seat open at the bar, and HatGirl was going to take it, but this old fucker that I already hated made me hate him even more by taking that seat so he could eat.

So the three of us went out front and sat at a table for a while and talked mostly about the vacation they just finished.

I had myself a Weihenstephaner (816).

Once the WooHoos left we went in and sat in the living room area.

It was nice I guess. It's kind of hard work pretending that I'm talking to both of them with equal interest.

ElPresidente and FirstLady came in and joined us. Then ExBartender and Bubbles joined us. I started to get claustrophobic and I stayed that way until the crowd thinned out a little, but by then it was time to leave anyway so that's what I did.

For a while, you distracted me. But now there's nothing to distract me from, and you shine as brightly as ever.

So now, now you threaten to blind me and so I cannot risk looking at you the way I long to look at you.

Don't act so shocked. You're not stupid. This should not surprise you.

Timing is everything, they say.

I think I might have that engraved on my tombstone.

I had a bit of a realization a short while ago. Nothing Earth shattering, but surprising nevertheless.

I'm not going to tell you what it was.

Well, maybe some other time. Right now I'm just trying to kill a few minutes while my shirt dewrinkles.

I can't get this one song out of my head. It played on the radio while I was on the way home last night, as the universe was trying to be funny or ironic or something.

I'm not going to tell you what the song was, either.

At least not any more than I already have.

Man, I'm just full of secrets this evening. And shit. Can't forget that.

Hmmm, Secrets and Shit. There's my entry title right there. Cool, that's one less decision I'll have to make.

Right now, at Rich O's, there are three of my favorite beers on tap. Plus there are a few more than I can stand. This is very rare, especially lately.

I have to work tomorrow morning at 6:00, so that blows. But at least I can connect in from home so I don't have bother with clothing and I can sleep right up until the last minute.

There's a new cat living under my deck. It runs away whenever it sees me though. It's all black, so it might even be related to Spook, the cat that used to live there that died last Spring. I think I'm going to name this new cat Spook Jr.

I'm mildly apprehensive about tonight, but I'm no longer expecting to drop dead. I think I'm more worried about making an ass out of myself. There's probably nothing to worry about though. I just gotta make sure that I don't ever get back into that when I least expect it mode again. 'Cause that's when it will happen.

Tonight I'm going to wear my WTF? shirt that RockGirl gave me for my birthday. It's certainly appropriate for me these days.

Well, thanks for reading.

This morning I went and had my oil changed in my truck in preparation for next weekend's St. Louis trip.

There was a dude in the waiting room with me and, I shit you not, he kept mumbling over and over and over, "You are my world Jesus I trust you with all my heart."

This guy mumbled this phrase every 15 to 20 seconds for the entire hour that I was there. At first, I thought he was talking to me, and I figured he was in for a huge disappointment soon.

I was also thinking that, if the guy had looked Arabic, and if he'd been mumbling to Allah over and over like that, I'd have figured him for a suicide bomber about to blow the Valvoline Instant Oil Change place off the face of the Earth.

This bothers me that I felt this way. I mean, this fucker was obviously insane, but he was also clearly harmless. Give the same guy a different religion and a darker skin tone and I'd have been nervous as fuck.