Ugh.

I woke up this morning when the alarm went off and dragged myself out of bed. I made and consumed coffee and a cigarette to get me moving. I got to work and stayed awake by running back and forth to the bathroom all morning. I actually ended up having a fairly productive day, surprisingly, although the afternoon did stretch on interminably. At 5:30 I did the Fred Flintstone down the dinosaur's tail and hied myself homeward.

I stopped by Office Depot on the way home, because where my new desk is, I need rear-view mirrors for my computer. Apparently they are called something else, because when I asked for them they looked at me like I was crazy. I did get some recycled paper towels though. Publix has had some kind of dispute with their provider and has stopped carrying them temporarily.

I finally finished House of Leaves today on my lunch hour. It was much more interesting when I got to the end and they started explaining what they had been doing. When the penny dropped it was very gratifying. I suppose that was a construct on the part of the author - to leave you feeling disoriented and not sure what was going on in a book about a labyrinth. The end was poignant, but I did feel like they took an awfully long time to get to the point. To make the point feel more hardly won, and thus more resonant? I can't help but weigh the added weight to the point by having it be so difficult to obtain against the number who miss the point entirely by giving up on the fairly bewildering text before reaching it. I suppose the author figured that only the more diligent readers deserved the closure of the end; and that perhaps there are enough books that are more direct. Fair enough. Don't know if I would read anything else by that author or not though. Justin said it was the scariest book he has ever read. I did find it scary, although not in the way that I was expecting. Overall though, I just found it to be very sad. Among the saddest books I have read, although admittedly I am not a big fan of sad books. I am not one of the "beautiful death of kittens as art" crowd.

When I got home, I called Tom, the guy from Knoxville, and we talked for a while. He seems like a really nice guy. He has some issues, but then most people do when they're single at our age. We did end up having the Big Talk, and he wants to come for a weekend. If nothing else, I think we'll have a fun weekend. He was married to his wife for 20 years. They are separated, but still living in the same house while they work out financial stuff. He has two boys, 20 and 17. The older boy is diabetic. If I hadn't seen Michael and Joe so happy together, I'd be heading for the hills, but I'm re-thinking my previous hard-line stance on not being "Gay 101". I'm at least going to attempt to meet the guy before I make up my mind.

After that, I had a salmon salad and watched Michelle Obama on the Daily Show. She is a lovely woman. But then I'm not threatened by empowered sassy women, which she clearly is. She was obviously holding it in check for the campaign, and surprisinly at ease after having been under the microscope of the press and public for two years (!!). That alone was impressive to me. I think I like her more than I do him. But then I usually like the First Ladies more than I like their husbands.

After that, I went to BED. I was really beat.