when I sneak to your bed to pour salt in your wounds

I was totally psyched about the idea of doing NaDruWriNi, and then I just flat-out didn't do it. Which in the long run is maybe for the best; my sisters read this journal, after all. Maybe next year.

I did a lot of driving tired this weekend. I mean that literally rather than metaphorically, although its a good metaphor, and apt. Saturday night I drove over to Somerville to hang out with war_pug and his sister Mel. Mel cut her losses at a comparatively reasonable hour and went home, but Steve and I stayed up fairly late talking about nothing in particular. That would not have been a problem for me except that I had assured my mother that I would be in CT before lunchtime the following day, which meant getting up significantly before noon. So finally I made my excuses and headed out the door, at least an hour later than I intended to.

And then I got lost. I don't mean a little lost, I mean more lost than I've been since I moved to Boston. For those of you familiar with Boston, in trying to go from Somerville to Brookline I somehow ended up going most of the way to Quincy. And it was late, so I would have felt bad calling and pestering Steve. I just kept driving until I found something familiar and was able to get home, which I was little proud of, even if it added an hour to a drive home that should only take twenty minutes. This wasn't about the male inability to ask for directions, so much as it was an opportunity to think and drive (an activity I enjoy for its own sake) and reasure myself that I have learned at least a little bit about the geography of the city I, for the moment, live in.

I awoke the next morning a scant five hours later and drove home to Connecticut. My mother and father took me out for lunch and then to the mall, where my mother had agreed to buy me a coat of the type that can be worn over a suit as an early Christmas present. Being my mother she went wholly overboard and actually purchased not one but two coats for me, and would have happily bought more if my father hadn't needed to hasten home in order to turn around and catch a flight. Initially I was planning on getting out of there fairly shortly thereafter, but it transpired that my baby sister would be home shortly from a lacrosse tournament and my mother was offering to feed me dinner as well. So I stayed to visit some more and eat a home-cooked meal, and then of course I had to stay and watch the West Wing live episode. So I didn't get back on the road until around 9 PM.

It was raining when I left. Not raining hard, but hard enough to saturate everything, to make the roads wet and visibility low. Wet enough that whenever I was driving behind anyone they kicked up a sheet of water that made me feel rather like I was driving without my glasses, rendering everything I saw suddenly indistinct. My little car hates the rain, you see. Its windshield wipers are a touch lackluster, and anyway its low enough to the ground that I feel as though all other, taller cars are forever pouring buckets of water onto it as I drive. I am always slightly amazed when I use my car for any amount of highway driving, at night, in the rain, that I don't just die. Add onto that being tired and cranky and its a goddamn miracle I'm sitting here typing this entry.

All in all it was a good weekend. I didn't get a lot of sleep, but such is life, and on the plus side I got to see people ranging from new friends to much-missed family members. Also I have two nice new winter coats, at no cost to me, and as I am not-so-secretly a clothes horse, that is just stellar.

four more exits to my apartment but I am tempted to keep the car in drive

Oh, insurance. The excellent word of the day is definitely tortfeasor. Its a real word. Just ask a lawyer. You probably know a tortfeasor yourself. Heck, some of you out there in the world might even be tortfeasors.

So I'm doing a bit of relatively arcane research for a prospect I won't mention by name. Just off the top of your head, on what date would you guess the last American civilian nuclear incident occurred? When was the last case of substantial health damage, property damage or contamination directly related to radioactive material?

If you're like me, you assume it was a while ago. But there have been two this Fall, one in New York and one in Connecticut.

wasting words on lower cases and capitals

On the train ride home it occurred to me, not for the first time, that I am nothing but an accumulation of people I know. Or used to know, in many cases. That I will probably forever find myself staring at blonde & blue-eyed girls who bear a passing resemblance to one I knew in high school. We are what we love, but maybe more essentially than that we're what we can't let go.

And on that emo little note, I'm stealing a meme-type-thing from a_leprechaun. Comment with a number between 1 and approximately 2,700 and I will tell you the corresponding song on my iTunes playlist (or rather, a sub-section of my playlist which does not include audiobooks, music I've never listened to, stuff I arbitrarily left out, etc.) If you comment anonymously you must leave your name or nickname.