the sentimentally handicapped journey

2007.03.03 13.25

The weekend in Houston was quick and dirty. I used frequent flier miles to book the trip last minute as I was rapidly approaching the end of my time with the rental car in Minneapolis. Emptying my house and driving my car back were my main goals.

On Thursday night, I arrived at 10 PM and had a couple beers with my dad at Baker Street Pub near Willowbrook Mall. The crowd wasn't very interesting. Our waitress reminded me of my ex-girlfriend from last summer. Pfft. After adjourning from the bar, we stopped by his house where I borrowed THE PRESTIGE dvd and said hello to my aunt Sister Zepur. She's in town for a month taking a break from, uh, nun'ing? Actually, she's working in a convent in Lebanon. I was four years old the last time I was there. She informs me that things are about the same. I'll take her word for it.

On Friday morning, I drove to Whataburger to buy a double-egg no-sausage breakfast on a bun ranchero sandwich and an orange juice on the side. I always try to hit up the Whataburger. Mmm! I was then off to work at The Consulting Company where I had scheduled my much feared Exit Interview at 10 AM. It turns out that the interview was more like a focus group with a group of one – me. The hardest question was whether my job had changed from when I first started. That was nearly 10 years ago, so of course it had. I was not the interweb super genius back then that I am now (or at least that I try to be). My web site from 1996 clearly proves that. I recently found some QBASIC code that I wrote in late 1995 that's fairly well organized, although it's also very procedural versus being object oriented as is the current standard. Okay, enough geek speak.

My dad, niece and I saw THE ASTRONAUT FARMER early Friday evening. I'd later contract a wonderful sore throat and cough from the niece thanks to popcorn and Reese's Pieces sharing. I wouldn't find that out until next week, luckily. The movie had some charm to it but there were a lot of 1970s clichés in there that I wasn't too impressed with (the two FBI guys watching the farm is one thing that comes to mind). It was family friendly, though, so that's what counts. I don't think that I laughed once, unfortunately.

After saying goodbye to the niece and fasha, I drove straight to Number's Night Club where I met up with my old school pal Jason. He's recently reentered Single Land and I was ready to reintroduce him to the inhabitants. We had such a good time! There was this one petite brunette girl in a short skirt and tank top that had the entire male population at the club desperately trying to figure out how to dance with her. I saw guys left and right get denied. Jason was particularly impressed by this girl – and I'll admit it -- so was I. Jason took a quick break from dancing at one point and stood on the sidelines. As I was dancing there all alone it suddenly occurred to me that the guys trying to dance with this girl were just trying to worm their way in based on looks and charm. Hah! I don't even have those. Well, okay, I have lucky charms, but little kids keep trying to take them from me. Okay, where was I? When the song I was dancing to ended, I walked straight up to pretty skirt girl and said, "Hi! Could I please dance with you to make my friend think that you like me?" She smiled, looked at her female dance partner for 3 seconds... and then agreed! See? You just gotta ask. So we start dancing up close to one another and I can see out of the corner of my eye all the guys that'd been previously trying to hook up with her looking completely shocked. Jason was really shocked. Heck, I was super shocked. However, after a great one song dance I thanked her and went along my merry way smiling like a Cheshire cat. I have no idea who that girl is, but she's super cool. That dance also did wonders for my ego. I should look into a getting some kind of negotiation job in my next life.

Saturday and Sunday were filled with family times and the packing of my house. I don't recall what I did exactly. Packing. Goofing off. Going through bills. Moving stuff in the truck. During a break, I took my sister to Papadeaux and split a greek salad for two. I had the seafood skewer thing. My younger niece Katelien was there to terrorize me. What'd I do wrong? Did she somehow know about skirt girl and my ruse? Doubtful. She's only, like, 6.

I watched the Academy Awards on Sunday night with my dad on the big screen HDTV in his room. I was originally going to start my drive to Minneapolis on Sunday afternoon, but I deferred. The Academy Awards only happens once a year, after all. Mark Wahlberg didn't win for best supporting actor, but he did get a lot of good lines during the show, in my humble opinion. "You sir, are a bad ass!" comes directly to mind. Once the show was over, I headed downstairs, hugged my family goodbye, hopped into my car and drove off into the night.

I drove until 4 AM when I arrived in Oklahoma. I pulled over to a respectable looking rest area and attempted to doze off for a few hours. I was soon awake and driving again thereafter. I'd loaded my car up with all my exercise equipment which amounted to at least 600 extra pounds of weight. This did not do wonders for my gas mileage. It did help driving through the snow, as I only had to briefly deal with blizzard conditions about 100 miles south of Minneapolis. That lasted for all of 20 minutes. I was soon in the clear and back at home in Uptown. A buttload of snow had accumulated during my absence which made unloading my car a bit tricky. I was fast asleep as soon as everything was in the condo and I'd brushed my teeth. The trip took 21 hours including the nap. Don't try this at home, kids. I'm still tired.

I visited my office for about 2.5 hours on Tuesday only to leave in order to fly out to Philadelphia. Talk about a lot of traveling!? I had dinner with Super Heather at the Race Street Café In Old City, Philadelphia. I was in town to evangelize our portal and portlet application framework. I met up with my boss the next morning where we embarked on a 90 mile drive to northern New Jersey. The trip was made much easier thanks to Howard Stern on my SIRIUS satellite radio. I desperately wanted to go to Nocturne Nightclub on Wednesday evening, but I'd come down with the aforementioned sore throat that my niece donated to me the previous Friday night. I was grumpy that I wouldn't get to don my black trenchcoat and show off my fly goth moves, but figured I would probably be back again another day. That, plus I don't think there is such a thing as fly goth moves. Ahem.

On Thursday, I was back in Ft. Washington, PA where I'd worked previously from 2001 through 2005. Not a lot had changed. I got to catch up with my friends and coworkers. We had a quick lunch meeting and I was back on a plane to return to the land of 10,000 lakes once again.

My arrival in Minneapolis was far different from when I arrived previously. We landed during blizzard conditions. I sat next to a pretty redhead girl on the plane named Stephanie. She didn't lower the arm rest between us during the whole flight so we were constantly brushing against each other. Wow! I know, I'm single and I know this is pretty lame that I'm so thrilled at brushing up against someone, but hey, gimme a break. I am not sure what to attribute my recent lack of rejection from the opposite sex. The Hummer cologne? (yes, there really is a band of cologne called Hummer – and it's named after the car, okay, ya pervert). Anyway, I don't care. I'm happy. I hope something leads to something. It always seems to.