a whole four or so days without an update. i've apparently left some of my stalkers without so much as a subtle clue to my whereabouts or what i've been up to. and for that, i'm truly apologetic. because as scary as the concept of stalking is (and this i know, like, for real), it's one of the more flattering affronts you can commit towards a person.

did i just commend stalking? whoa. so let's see. where did i leave off?

when last i wrote, i believe i was complaining about the soreness i had from working out and the last glen burnie sidebar i was struggling to write. well, i hope you're all sitting down. because i have kept up with the working out, and i have also completed the glen burnie sidebar. the former is a great thing, because i'm reminded of a couple summers ago, when i actually exercised my way through the season and actually got results. i feel better than i have in a few months (hell, maybe even a year or so), and while i need to start making myself get up early and start my day off with exercise in lieu of waiting until 9 p.m. or so, this is a good start. meanwhile, the latter is terrific because i can put glen burnie behind me. far behind me. faaaaar behind. like, i never wanna go there again. OK, except maybe for open-mic country night at carol's western wear, which is too much fun to resist.

kidding.

friday was a blast. i took michelle out for her birthday. in the pouring rain with shitty melting snow and car accidents everywhere. but truly, the weather was the only downside to the night. the evening made me feel like such an adult, which, despite pushing 25 and having a white-collar job and all, doesn't happen often enough.

i picked her up at campus, which looked far worse than i remember it, mostly because of the filthy mounds of encrusted snow at every turn. then we made our way to main street for dinner at tiber. we looked pretty spiffy, and we dashed to the tavern from the adjacent parking lot up a slick hill that was covered in slush and black ice, stumbling over each other in ways that we ideally would've reserved for when we left the tavern.

we got a cool little table in the corner, and proceeded to inhale a plate of spicy chicken wings delivered to us by a waiter we nicknamed "winky" due to his affinity for winking at us even when he wasn't making a suggestive joke. (OK, we actually didn't give him that nickname. but in retrospect, we really should have.) it took a while for us to get the wings, though, as winky gave us menus that didn't include the more-affordable light-fare list, only the dining-room roster with an average price of $25 per entree. (still, that's not too shabby, but she's in college and i make heaps less than i should, so that's about 150% more than i'm used to paying for a meal at a dine-out restaurant. know what i mean?)

we talked, drank, joked and created general merriment. then one of our servers recognized michelle from an english class she had with him several semesters ago, which reinforces her character in my version of coupling having a "slew of male admirers." this is one trait she cannot refute. ha! she had the lasagna, which was to die for (and i don't even like lasagna), and i had this strange sandwich made with turkey, ham, brie and cole slaw on rye. unusual but nonetheless yummy, and a nice change from my usual chicken fingers and honey mustard. (for the record, i probably would've ordered chicken fingers and honey mustard, but they weren't on the menu.)

then we slid back to the car, entertaining ourselves with a conversation about the girth of urine (it made sense at the time), and hightailed it to arundel mills, where we caught a semi-late show of daredevil. oh man. do not even think about going to see this flick. unless, you know, you like stupid movies. however, on the plus side, watching the movie really made me want to get back into reviewing. so i think i'll save my comments for a future entry and see if i still have my movie-critique mojo.

but i will say there's this totally lame playground fight/foreplay scene between ben affleck and jennifer garner that should've been groaned out of the script. (i can hear the director saying, "OK, ben, now you use the seesaw to flip over her, then jen will spin around on the tire swing, and then you both race across the monkeybars, and then you make goo-goo eyes at each other! action!") their characters haven't been introduced, so as jennifer exits the scene, ben requests her name. she responds, "elektra natchios." michelle says, "did she just say 'electric nachos'?!?" i thought i was going to leave the theater to get my laughs out.

so yeah. it was amusing. but not in a good way. in an i-can't-believe-i-paid-for-this-shit way. we departed to my car, where i gave her my eagerly-anticipated birthday gift (that sounds dirty, doesn't it?), and then i took her back to her apartment and drove home. in seriously poor visibility. i kept thinking of that kara's flowers song "the fog." i literally couldn't see more than 20 feet in front of my car. halfway down telegraph road, something leaps out of some trees, hits my windshield and bounces off. i hope it's OK.

there's less to report about saturday and sunday. braved the downpour to run some errands. worked comp time. rented some interesting DVDs (rules of attraction and one hour photo). talked to steph and felt bad because i screwed up her weekend day off. caught up on queer as folk. became exercise-impetus buddies with ryan. re-established exercise-impetus-buddies status with dimitrios. mocked the grammys with blake, which was far too easy, even for an awards show. i mean, come on. when a performance by eminem ranks among the better parts of a grammy telecast, you know the rest of it must've been absolute horseshit.

all in all, a fun, busy weekend. and now i'm on a mission to top it this weekend. can i do it? probably not, so don't hold your breath.

that's dirty as in "sweaty" or "well-exercised" or "i just got done working out and my shirt has whore-neck and my hair is going in all sorts of crazy directions and my feet are warm inside why socks." that's not dirty as in "obscene" or "filthy" or "an extra consonant shy of christina aguilera."

now, a few things.

i chose some weird music while i was on the treadmill. radiohead's live album, the one with the piano version of "like spinning plates." beautiful song. not easy to treadmill to, but it makes me wish i'd never given up said instrument.

this something corporate DVD is neat, mostly because i'm a sucker for music videos in which bands just jam. i have an odd feeling i'll be listening to leaving through the window on loop tomorrow.

blur's new album is due in may. i'm scared. it's called think tank. the tracklisting is as follows: "ambulance," "out of time," "crazy beat," "good song," "on the way to the club," "brothers and sisters," "caravan," "we've got a file on you," "moroccan peoples revolutionary bowls club," "sweet song," "jets," "gene by gene" and "battery in your leg." i like the eighth title the best. but what happened to "don't bomb when you are the bomb"?

while doing a follow-up interview with maryland bartending academy this afternoon, they told me about this shot that sounds interesting. one-half part lemon vodka, one-half part frangelico, chase with a sugar-coated lemon wedge. (allegedly) tastes exactly like chocolate cake. there you go, folks. all of the taste and none of the fat.

becky aumiller e-mailed me today. that makes me smile.

the future is going to be full of music.