trip, part one | 12:56 AM >

Well well well. Clearing the two-week mark on being back in the states and no posts from yours truly. I, dear friends, am a slacker. Yesterday I got back to DC from New York. I ended up missing seeing Blue. She wanted me to come to a bar out about 50 blocks from where I was staying, at around 11:00pm. Normally this isn't something I'd not do, but I had a really bad feeling about going, so... Well, I punked. I'm probably going to kick myself over it for a while, and I'm sure she's (rightly) angry at / disappointed with me, but I couldn't shake that feeling. I've found that when I go against that feeling I end up in trouble. Not that that's going to be a good enough excuse. I hope that, eventually, she'll forgive me. I stayed with Mike. The area he's in is really nice and safe-feeling. Actually, it's amazing how every time I go back to NYC it's a little cleaner than the last; I didn't smell any kind of human waste material, anywhere, on any subway I took the whole time. And the subways were miraculously graffiti-free. I guess to people who've been going to NYC a lot over the past few years this is not a magical revelation, but to me it was a lovely surprise. Back to my birthday. We reserved the Pope Room at Buca di Beppo (my favorite Italian place in DC), which comfortably seats 16 people. Somehow, between moms and sisters and friends and extra relatives, 25 people showed up. (That's 25 people for my 25^th birthday, for those of you watching out for Interesting Coincidences.) The party was terrific, and people gave me lots of stuff: music CD's, a Clash of the Titans DVD, a leather-bound journal (the kind with blank white pages, a flap, and a small tie), and Rollos, among other things. The food was excellent as always, and it was just so nice to have everyone in the same room all at once. It's not often that my parents are able to eat at the same table (although the tables were separated). In fact, lately it seems to happen only during my yearly return home. After the party, Dave, Caroline, Dave's two "dates" and I hit Ozio. We had a seat out front and continued drinking. Then Caroline dropped me off at Dave's. All in all I've had a wonderful time. And this post is terribly borring and disjointed, so a second one will certainly be forthcoming. If any of you are curious about photos of the trip, have a look. If you're interested in larger versions of any of the pictures (possibly for a desktop wallpaper) just mail me.