time for a break from debauchery

Holly convinced me and Lindsey and Todd to see a musical performance by Bright Eyes yesterday which was worth it for the nice harp (an actual harp that you gots to pluck, not harmonica you stupid hippie). I acted as photographer on Holly's behalf and as always captured some choice images which she will no doubt post soon.

Mr. Oberst thanked the crowd for their (sparse, I thought) applause and said he was not accustomed to such a gracious response in Athens, Georgia. I very much wanted to shout in reply "Don't kid yourself dumbass!" but an opportune moment of silence did not happen for me in time. To his credit we all realized he didn't stink as much as we hoped but for me it's kind of just not my cup of tea. He gave a good anti-war talk that I thoroughly agreed with (the action taken by our government is immoral but we don't care because we are relatively wealthy and complacent and this type of evil savage behavior will always happen because those who perpetrate it are making money off of it), but which as a result kind of made me really sad.

No matter, the set was mercifully short and although there may have been an encore (hard to tell with such a lukewarm reaction from the crowd) we left for Lunchpaper and more drinks. A late night and drunken silliness abounded together with some sensible pocket billiards from Todd and me.

I have had two hours of sleep and I'm feeling fine on one cup of coffee. I have some homework to do now. I also have some freelance translation work I'm about to turn around so that I can get paid. Probably not in time for Thanksgiving unfortunately but there's nothing to be done about that anymore. Definitely in time for Christmas.

More importantly, now is the most crucial moment for school this semester so far. I can really get even more work done on my final projects over the next few days (i.e. start them not just scratch the surface of starting them), or I can not do that and be fucked later.

Sunday is my last shift at the institution. I couldn't be happier. I haven't gone out of my way to tell people I'm leaving because I don't want to deal with their response. It's kind of anti-social of me but it's a pragmatic psychological self-defense that I won't do without. Those who know me a little better there can track me down after the fact if they truly are sincere.

No classes next Wednesday which is nice, although I've scheduled a tentative recording session for a phonetics project. Thursday morning we leave for Memphis, TN area where we will meet with some of my family for Thanksgiving. That should be fun and interesting and probably at times tedious and scary, but in a good family fun kind of way. Looks like we will have Thanksgiving dinner in a casino, which will be fucking great. I'm not sure why one of my cousins wants to follow that up with a church visit but more power to him and his higher power.

I'm pretty stoked about the possibility of partying with Holly and my sister on Friday after thanksgiving in Memphis. Hopefully we can do so without getting into trouble with the family or Johnny Law.

OK-- time to try to get to that work I mentioned...

I wanted to say, Holly, I do love you so very much. Remember that as you sleep so peacefully on this, your day off.