I’m up late again, and this time it’s my sister’s fault. I’m still in the middle of doing her job for her. Family.

I feel like a big load lately, and I’m sure it’s because I’ve been drinking more than usual. I’m limiting myself, when I can, to two drinks, but there are times when that’s not quite possible. When Il and I are splitting a bottle of wine, for example, I had more than two. And hanging out with Matty G for his birthday required, “Just one more drink.” But Sean said yesterday, “If I had abs like yours, I’d just sit around with my shirt off, eating chocolate cake.” It’s nice to think I could pull that off.

It’s now Tuesday morning and I should be asleep. So much for planning.

I had a Monday. Work was work all day long and I even had a 6:30PM conference call that stretched to 8PM with customers in a foreign country who didn’t appear to speak English. Just before the call I was told that I needed to go over to my sister’s house and email some files to her boss because she forgot to do it or because someone changed a deadline.

I finally made it to Matty G’s birthday party two hours late. I’m not sure who thought it would be a good idea to go to a 26th birthday party on a school night, but about 11PM I heard, “Just have one more drink!” as I headed out the door. It’s a good thing I did, and it’s already way too late for me. Another night with 5 hours of sleep. I’m afraid I can’t survive this sort of nonsense.

I thought I was quite coherent last night until Trevor told me that he couldn’t understand anything I’d written. I guess half a bottle of wine with my dinner was enough to push me into incoherence. Overeating also made my stomach hurt and I wasn’t able to sleep too well. I was wondering if I’d even make it to the gym, but I did, and I didn’t have a chance to slow down all day.

I spent the afternoon tearing out the flooring from my dad’s old bedroom and I think I’m going to save myself several hundred dollars, but I’m not quite sure it’s worth it. I suppose it is an experience and I really don’t have anything better to do this weekend. While it is a mess, being cooped up in a hot, dusty bedroom tearing out a floor, it does keep me out of other kinds of trouble.

I usually try to get the heck out of Dodge a little early on Fridays because the later you’re there, the more likely it is that a customer gives you a last minute Friday afternoon present. That means you have to work on the weekend or at least into the evening. Today I couldn’t leave early because I was waiting for the Honda dealer to call me to tell me that they were finished with my car. I was stuck without a ride home and they didn’t call until after 4:30PM.

I did, however, see the object of my new car lust today: the Honda Insight. Yeah, I know, it looks a little tinny but it has this “gutless” button you can push and you can get 60MPG! And the rear seats fold down so you can carry more crap! Just what I want!

Il and I had our non-isochronal semi-annual birthday dinner tonight at the Ringside and I think I was right when I said we both paid $230 EACH for Il’s dinner in January. Tonight we decided to impose some austerity measures and it still cost us $120 each. Actually, I just didn’t want to drink as much as we have in the past because I’m signed up for the gym in the morning. So while dating is expensive, hanging out with Il at Ringside can possibly be worse.

The workout at the gym today was kind of hard, but there wasn’t all that much leg involvement. This made things seem a lot easier and thank goodness. I got up this morning and didn’t just hit the snooze, I just turned the alarm off. Fortunately, I didn’t sleep in more than 5 minutes. I was tired when I got to work and I realized I forgot my coffee cup. They’re trying to get us to quit using the paper cups at work and they’re using cheaper cups, making the Thermos cup a necessity. In any case, the morning kind of started off poorly.

I also had my check engine light on, and once again there was a bad oxygen sensor. I guess there’s more than one, because they told me a different one needed replacing, along with my blinker fluid. That’s what I get to do tomorrow morning.

I’m really behind on my TV shows. I just watched Chuck from last week and noticed I have three episodes of Bones to catch up on. Plus I have those GreenCine DVDs I’ve had since early March. My goodness I’m behind. I better check to make sure my bills are paid, too. Sheesh.

I was a zombie at work today, but what would you expect? After sitting through a 2 hour-long post-lunch meeting (having a hard time staying awake) I had a huge headache and I went home early. I got in a nap and went to the gym where I stumbled around and lamented the fact that my quads were so sore that I couldn’t walk down stairs today. And just for the record, Jeff kicked my ass.

After the workout, though, Sean and I were talking hamburgers. He was a vegetarian for quite some time, and he just started eating meat. He said his favorite was at “Lovely Hula Hands” and we showed up there with me still wearing my gym clothes. They didn’t really seem to mind and Sean bought me a delicious cheeseburger for my birthday. I’m not sure what my favorite hamburger is any more because there are so many different kinds of hamburgers, but this one was definitely in the “excellent” category. No added condiments were necessary and they can cook it rare for you. Certainly it was worth resetting my counter for it. I did avoid having a glass of wine, as I think my soreness is a combination of dehydration and lack of sleep. Why push my luck?

I took the day off to clean out my dad’s room and I had no idea I’d be at it until 11:15PM. I also had no idea I could move so much heavy stuff by myself with a hand truck. Well, I guess I cheated and just moved things from one bedroom to the next, but still, it was a chore. The bad news is that most of the stuff didn’t get sorted and is just in boxes to be sorted later. I’m hoping my mom will look at it and agree with me that most of it looks like garbage.

Since that’s all I did all day (besides sleeping in) there’s not much else to talk about. My legs are incredibly tired from yesterday, which I suppose is good. It means I’m actually doing something when I go to the gym.

We did something similar to the Crossfit benchmark workout “Fran” today, but instead of using a 95lb barbell I used two 40lb dumbells. (It’s easier for the trainer to use dumbbells in large classes.) It truly sucked and once again I proved my abilities by coming in Dead F*cking Last. I wish I could say I was impaired by drinking all weekend, or from the dust in my dad’s room, or staying up too late doing my laundry, or even just stressing out about all the crap my dad had packed into his desk. But I think Fran always just kicks my ass. The front squats didn’t help, either. I ran up the stairs after the workout and my legs almost gave out.

I came home early to continue clearing out my dad’s room and after an hour-and-a-half I realized I had to take a day off from work to finish. Not only is Jason the Contractor waiting on me to clear out the room, but it’s been two years since my dad died and the room still hasn’t been completely cleared out. At this point I’m getting crazy and am just shoving things into boxes to get them the hell out of his room, but really, we need to sort through all the stuff. Eventually. After I clear out the room and get the carpet replaced, that is.

I forgot to finish laundree!

I think that’s the whole rhyme for the day. Yesterday I was going to a birthday party for a friend of mine, but I had to skip out when my sister got in IM from Japan. I had to take care of some travel changes for her. I was also busy reading a mystery that kept me from doing anything worthwhile. I did go out to the Rogue Brewery for dinner with a bunch of people and while I don’t remember drinking all that much, I didn’t feel all that great in the middle of the night. I got up and my stomach and my head hurt. I stayed in bed until 11 or so and felt much better.

I spent the afternoon boxing up my dad’s old bedroom and I’m not close to being finished. Unfortunately, OfficeMax and the hardware store were closed for my birthday, and I wasn’t able to get an extra dust mask or more boxes. I did have lunch at the new Kenny and Zuke’s in my neighborhood which has a much smaller menu than their main store but is quite good nevertheless. I finally knocked off around 7 and made it to the Rogue again, because you have to go through a lot to get a free beer on your birthday and this I was finally going to do it. I had dinner by myself since it is Easter and everyone was busy. By the way, the hot fudge sundae at the Rogue is surprisingly good.

All I have to say is that it’s more expensive than I remember, and the desserts are going to make my feet fall off. Back to my Kindle.

I a dinner of Bagel Bites while standing in the kitchen. It was suitably awful, but I was too lazy to do anything else. And I’m having problems with my web server, so I’m sitting here trying to figure things out when I should be doing SOMETHING like washing the dishes. OK, so I use like two dishes when I’m here by myself and I actually did wash both of them already, but the reality doesn’t make for good copy. Plus, you’re going to notice that my web server is locked up once in a while, not that it really matters. There was a time, in the past, when my sister would knit or sew or cook and blog all about it and my web server actually mattered, but she decided to do something else obsessive and so no more regular postings. Nothing else on this web server matters that much.

In any case, I’m in the house by myself and I really should be back in my old routine, but there are several things that have derailed that. My mom is gone. I got a Kindle 2. I usually spend Friday night catching up on TV but last week I had a blind date. I could spend Saturday and Sunday watching TV, but I have to clear out another bedroom. You see how my life is all confused now.

I think I’m going to sit quietly and read a book now. Even though I should be sleeping.

My mom and sister left for Japan today so the women in my life are all gone to a place where it’s a toll call to tell me what to do. I have instructions, however, to do things I’ll probably forget. Water the camelia. Forward some email. I’ve written it down and I’m already close to forgetting them.

I now have spent a day with my Kindle 2 and I suppose I have a few complaints. It’s expensive, you have to buy books from Amazon to keep things easy, and the contrast isn’t that great. But really, I didn’t get it to be a gadget, I got it to read books. An English prof once talked about how many of the people in the department were there because we’re readers. We can’t help it. We read cereal boxes. We read newspapers. We read scraps of notes that we find on the ground. So when you think about it, the Kindle 2 is perfect for us. We don’t have to stash books around the house. It’s easy to hold. It’s not that hard on the eyes, even with the lower contrast. And it has MANY books inside!

I guess I forgot to write on my narcissistic blog last night. I have a blog for many reasons. One is to give purpose to the server in the basement. Another is to practice writing. And, as I alluded to before, one is the pure self-centered joy I get when I find out that I’ve subjected someone else to my writings. HaHA! All this empty rhetoric and SOMEONE ELSE READ IT. Yeah, it’s not that big a deal. Really, there’s the whole practice aspect which is the main point. That and the giving the server purpose thing.

OK, I have to go read the mysteries I have on my Kindle 2 now. Michael Connelly, do your stuff.