last night the owl was a success at the holiday party. I was quite pleased. I myself walked away with a festive light-up ball that will hang from the kitchen ceiling during our party tonight.

since our party is tonight, the roommate is gradually working herself into a state of anxiety. this means that any suggestion of change brings huffiness and/or defensiveness. annoying. fortunately she's going to her work party this morning. while she's gone, I'll be putting raw chicken on skewers (not looking forward to that), forming bean fritters into patties, and cleaning my bedroom and anything else that needs to be tidied. the bedroom I'll probably do first, since it's in a grave state.

back to last night's work party. there were two revelations made to me: 1) robot is a lesbian, and 2) a male coworker has a crush on me.

now I always knew robot wasn't the most feminine of beings. I often suspected robot was gay, but the fact that robot had a vocal crush on an male ex-coworker of mine always had me seesawing as to whether robot liked the men or the ladies. then robot's ambiguous female friend moved in with robot. the friend moved to Chicago from another country and was, according to robot, trying to get started on her own and staying with robot in the meantime. this was probably about a year ago now.

the friend started going on business trips with robot this year. this raised my suspicions further, but then I remembered the old crush and robot's vocalizing something about "when I find my husband..." right around the time I started working with robot.

fast forward to last night: I noticed the friend stroking robot's back at one point and that the two were sitting very, very, very close. but I wasn't completely convinced until Amy's husband came up to me and told me that the friend introduced herself as robot's "partner." A-HA!! satisfaction. but now I'm in an awkward position--robot's never plainly said to me or even suggested to me that her friend is her (ugh, gross) lover, so I'm uncomfortable asking questions about the friend, just as I've always been. you see, robots do not enjoy inquiries into their personal lives, just as I do not enjoy robot's inquiries into my personal life. but oh well. at least now I know for sure. that's good for robot--I'm glad robot has some joy in its life. since robot is age 35, it's about time.

now onto the coworker who likes me. he's only worked there about 6 months and Amy and I call him "broken record" because he says every goddamned sentence in the same upwards lilting pattern. he's pretty boring, on the whole. I think he's fresh out of college and he definitely has that "this is the first time I've not lived with my parents" vibe about him. I've noticed him making special efforts to talk to me lately, and then last night at the party, my fears were confirmed when he stuck around me like a fly on dung. maybe inviting him to my party was dangerous? anyway, yeah. he likee me and this has been corroborated by others who saw the fly on dung action. this marks the second unwanted coworker affections in two years. since I'm bad in these situations, I expect I'll continue to act aloof but polite until the poor boy gives up. I just pray he doesn't start asking me to do things with him. uncomfortable.

p.s. I am an adult.