Lotto update: I invested $3 in lottery tickets, and I won $4. After the 37-cent stamp to mail in the ticket, that brings my winnings to a grand total of 63 cents. Yeah baby!! Now I can retire!

I spent all yesterday afternoon cleaning my apartment from top to bottom, and then afterward, I really wanted to go out and do something because it felt pathetic to stay home on both Friday & Saturday nights. Unfortunately, Scott had plans, Nate is out of town, and Krissy wasn’t answering her phone. Hmm. Then I remembered Chris G., who I almost never see these days because he’s so swamped with work. So I called him at 6:30-ish on Saturday evening, and he was at the office (see what I mean?). I talked him into leaving work to go out with me, which didn’t really take a whole lot of coercion on my part. So we had dinner and then went to see “Mystic River”. I thought it was awesome. Sean Penn reminds me more & more of DeNiro as he ages, and he was incredible. Tim Robbins was great, too. That movie haunted me, I’ve been unable to get it out of my head all last night and all day today. I think that’s one way to measure a great film. Now I’m definitely rooting for Sean Penn to win Best Actor tonight.

Last night Nate & I chilled out and channel-surfed for a while. We watched 2 movies that I hadn’t seen in years. First was “The Crow”, which I absolutely loved when it first came out. In fact, it was the first movie I went to see in the theatre by myself because no one I knew was interested in seeing it. (Did the same thing with “Trainspotting” a couple of years later.) The strange thing is, when I saw it again last night, it occurred to me that it’s really not that great a movie. The concept is pretty cool, and I suppose that if you’re into that whole comic-books-on-film genre, it’s probably one of the best ones out there. And of course there’s the added real-life tragedy of the whole Brandon Lee thing. But other than that, the dialog was pretty lame and some of the characters were pretty ridiculous. It does have one of my favorite soundtracks, though.

The other movie we watched was “From Dusk Til Dawn”. I think I only saw that once, and it was years ago, so I didn’t remember most of it. (Except, of course, Cheech Marin’s famous little speech outside of the bar about the variety of female anatomy, which most guys I knew in college could recite by heart.) Anyway, it’s kind of a lame movie, if for no other reason than Tarantino should never cast himself in his own films. He’s a horrible actor and someone just needs to make him stop. In fact, the best thing about “Kill Bill” was that Tarantino wasn’t in it. But, “From Dusk Til Dawn” does have one major redeeming quality… George. Ah George. Sweet sweet George with his painted on tattoos. Yum. He could do damn near anything for 2 hours & I’d watch it happily.

This past weekend, Kris ran into a guy that I once made out with in the front seat of my dad’s car. I had the biggest crush on that guy for ages — I think it was about 5 years ago (late ’98/early ’99). Kris once kissed him too, now that I think about it. I know some people probably think that’s weird, but I don’t. She & I have shared more than a few guys over the years. Must say something about our discerning tastes…. Anyway, she said he’s still cute. He bought a house that’s only about 8 blocks from her place. They exchanged numbers & she said she’s thinking about inviting him out for a beer sometime. I think she should, he was a really good kisser if memory serves.

Not much else is new. We moved to a new office as of Monday. It’s ok, just different. It added a couple of minutes onto my morning commute, which I’m less than thrilled about since I’m always 5 minutes late anyway, but I’ll adjust.

Did anyone else watch that Paris Hilton reality show on FOX tonight? Wow, that was hilarious. Just to recap all the things that she said “what’s that?” to because she didn’t know what it was:
* roadkill (a possum, specifically)
* a well (as in, where water comes from)
* Wal-Mart
* a soup kitchen

I know that my brain is rotting while I’m watching it, but damned if that isn’t one of the funniest & simultaneously most painfully awkward shows I have ever seen. And Lionel Richie’s daughter is blonde?! We’ve all seen the mullet-fro that her pop sported in the 80’s, does she honestly think she’s fooling anyone?

Tossed back one too many last night, I think. Nate & I watched Wonder Boys — he had never seen it, and I love that movie (“Vernon, go home to your mother!” “Why is he calling you Vernon?”). And we started to watch Old School but we got distracted by I Love the 80s Strikes Back on VH-1. It was 1982 — the recap of Wrath of Khan alone is worth the entire episode.

Oh yeah, and I invented a new cocktail last night:
* 1/3 Orange Stoli
* 1/3 Orange Bacardi
* 1/3 Orange Juice
* Splash of sweet & sour just for taste

It’s surprisingly delicious — the orange flavoring in the liquor really makes it taste like there’s almost no booze in it at all. Which is, naturally, what will get you in trouble. I made Nate barf — I swear it was not my intention, but I do feel a little bit special about it since he’s never gotten tanked to the point of yacking before. We kissed a little right before that. I’m hoping that’s not what induced the vomiting.

So sometime around 3 a.m., I left Nate on his bathroom floor — I felt pretty guilty about that, but I brought him a bowl and asked him to go lie down in his bed, and he wouldn’t. And you can’t really argue with a guy who’s a foot taller than you. So I started to leave, but his cat Spike made it out the front door ahead of me, and he’s supposed to be an indoor kitty, so I spent several minutes chasing him through the parking lot before I was able to retrieve him, toss him back inside Nate’s apartment, and leave. I walked the 1/2 mile back to my place, and I realized that even though I live in one of the safest neighborhoods in the Seattle area, my street is very dark at night and a little creepy. Then I finally make it to my apartment, and there’s a downhill slope right as you enter the parking lot, which would be where I slipped & fell. Skinned my knee (it’s also swollen & bruised at this point), and tore a hole in my jeans in the process. I repeated lots of bad words over & over as kind of a mantra while I hobbled to my front door. I’m actually more pissed about the jeans than the skinned knee. They were really comfy, dammit.

Anyway, I’m off to get something disgustingly greasy for brunch.