despite the fact I've been away from work for over 9 days now, I continue to check my work email. I am compulsive about email checking, as all contemporaries should be. the only thing that continues to pop up in my work email are m-w.com word of the day mailings, yet I continue to check. why? it's not like I could actually accomplish anything work-y from here. ehh bllleah, stupid.

so I went out last night with Stacey and James P. we started out at the cheap hole in the ground bar, where pitchers of Yuengling Lager (the sweet Pennsylvanian elixer which I can never find in Chicago) are $3. yes, $3 for 3-4 pints worth of heaven. this is one of the great benefits of coming home, for sure. anyway, we had some beer there and then a shot, and I saw a few more high school people. two of the guys I saw came up to me at one point and asked for MHD's phone number and then asked if we were together, thanks to one of JP's blabbermouth friends. I didn't give out the number and I shook my head violently at the suggestion we were together, and then I sternly requested the blabbermouth not mention MHD and me in the same breath again since we are no longer in junior high and there's no need to start spreading any sort of retarded rumors like that. I felt very adult after that incident.

another one of the guys I saw used to be really cool or whatever and is now a dull, dull zzzzzzzzzz... he talked at me for 20 minutes about his job in construction and how he doesn't want to get married anytime soon and how he wants to move out to Seattle. and all I could think was "stop talking stop talking stop talking!" Stacey and I left not long after that.

the second place we went to is probably my favorite bar in my home town, mostly because there's a dearth of stupid frat boys and lame-asses. while there, I ran into one of MHD's friends who I knew kind of well in high school. he sat down with us and chatted for an hour or so. and then his older sister, who used to babysit me and my sisters, sat down and talked at Stacey and me about her job teaching kindergarten and first grade in California. she was very drunk and apparently doesn't have a lot of people to talk to because MAN she certainly couldn't stop telling us lots of details! she also sang us some of the songs her students like to sing. glorious. after Stacey and I left, Stacey announced, "I hate that girl." funny.

I found out from MHD's friend that he's no longer in town, so, yeah, that's done for now. I've decided he's kind of a bastard for not calling me after all that good-to-see-you-touchy-feely blah blah. but even I've become tired of this subject by now, so I'll stop discussing it any further from here on out.

dude, I am soooooo glad that I have changed a lot from who I was in high school. when I graduated I had a boy's haircut (which is a constant source of hilarity to anyone who knows me) and was just kind of a friendly, goody-goody girl. in college I dropped the boy's haircut and started drinking and smoking pot and cigarettes, but I still studied my ass off and didn't really focus on anything apart from school and the occasional boy. the year after I graduated college I went through this big personality transformation, I guess in part due to really being away from home and friends for the first time in my life, and in part due to having to argue with three pre-teenaged children on a daily basis and to defend myself from slimy Connecticut guys on a nightly basis. so that was a nice jumping-off point. and from there I moved to Chicago and although I'm starting to have this "what the fuck am I going to do with my life" minor panic, things are going relatively well.

finally, it's been nice to hear people say, "oh my God, you look great!" when they see you for the first time in years. especially when you can say, "aahh, thanks!" and think, "hmm, you're looking rather the same, young lady/man."

anyway. being home continues to be interesting.