the company you keep...

i love long weekends!

although my plan was to make this a full-out working weekend, things haven't exactly happened that way. but it's been a helluva fun time nonetheless.

here are some highlights...

1. thursday: "the tragedy of liberalism"
thursday night i went out with andrew. it was only to be a dinner-and-one-drink venture, but it turned into a silly, whiskey-soaked night of silliness. it was all very well-timed: first week back, over the half-way point, neither of us really know what the hell we're doing with the whole job search thing, but both of want to do really good, important things. andrew said, "you know, this is the tragedy of liberalism." i said, "no, dear -- WE are the tragedy of liberalism."

but good news! we found out that harris grille is exactly halfway between our two apartments, at least as calculated by our respective walks home.

2. friday: "we should do this every friday!"
that's what tom said, at 80s night at lava lounge. sheesh! seriously, maybe i showed my age by knowing the lyrics to, like, every song that the DJ played (why oh why can't my brain retain the law like it can the words to every song by the go go's???), but it was awesome to just be out and dancing with my friends. also, it was unanimously decided that i am a bigger spaz than krista (including the opinions of three of her college friends, who at that point had known me for all of 2 hours).

another friday highlight was a fantastic dinner with my friend rachel, who should definitely hang out with us more often.

and there was an unexpected late-night phone call that was like the perfect ending to an awesome night with friends. good stuff.

3. saturday: "go ahead -- google 'the keeper'"
candace and timily might be two of the most fantastic people ever! saturday, after spending a ridiculous day in the sprawl with andrew, we got a phone call inviting us to meet up with c & t in the south side for a drink. not only were andrew and i pleased to have been invited to hang out with those two, it was t's birthday, so we really couldn't refuse. we had a crazy israeli waiter at the restaurant, who claimed rather emphatically that pittsburgh is going to be "one of the most powerful cities in 10 years". most powerful? like a superhero? pittsburgh???

and there were, for whatever reasons, lots of conversations about tampon alternatives, but mostly about this. i'm not sure how i feel about it, really... the environmentalist in me is all "hell yeah!" but the gets-grossed-out-easily part of me is, well, grossed out.

but i think my favorite part of the night occurred later, when "ice ice baby" was played at the lava lounge, and candace discussed, at length, the inadequacy of the second verse of vanilla ice's magnum opus. this was a learned and much-pondered diatribe which culminated in the probing question, "now, why would somebody rap about being a pussy?" brilliant. candace = brilliant!

oh, and since andrew is a big ol' steelers fan these days, i'm totally ratting him out on this. on our way home from the south side, andrew dragged me into a 24-hour CVS on the false pretense that he needed aspirin. well, what he was really buying was...wait for it...black and gold nail polish that he could wear while watching the steelers/colts game sunday! what an idiot!

4. sunday: emily's coolest moment ever...
sunday, i went to watch the aforementioned steelers/colts game with krista and paul and their friends from college who are in town for the weekend to visit. we were a small, but mighty contingent of colts fans in the corner of a bar that was overwhelmed with black and gold...

aside: why are there so many goddamn sports fans who take allegiances so personally? just because i was rooting for the colts on sunday does not mean that i am a disgusting human being who needs to have her mother insulted or be shot dirty looks across the bar. sheesh!

...and as everybody knows by now, the colts lost. the game was rough, a real heartbreaker. paul, a dyed-in-the-cornfields indiana boy, was not a happy camper. but we were all good sports, it's just a game, blah blah blah. until, a little bit after the game had ended, this total jackass kid, all decked out in steelers garb, came over to our table, started jumping up and down and pointing at us, and said, "ha ha ha" over and over! it was obnoxious. ob. nox. ious. so what did i do? i looked at the kid, and yelled right back, "you have no penis!"

seriously, i don't know what came over me! it was a classic no-brain-to-mouth-filter moment for me! but it was awesome -- the kid shut the hell up and walked away, and our small-but-mighty clan of colts fans retained our dignity.

-------

but the point of all this (in typical emily fashion) is that all weekend i've been aware that i know some truly fan-fucking-tastic people, and i feel damn lucky to be a part of such an eclectic and brilliant group. and, if such awesome people all seem to want to keep me around as a friend, or a least they don't seem to find my company objectionable, then that makes me feel pretty cool.

yes, it's all about me. i'm the coolest girl ever. emily = supercool. and hot. i'm hot, too. and i get straight A's. okay, now i'm totally lying...