Giggle. Those last two lines. Always. Make. Me. Smile.

Disease is subsiding, as I expected. I still love you.

I've started reading The Riftware Legacy, which encompasses either part or all of one of my most favorite videogames, Betrayal at Krondor. I've read one of the books already, but I don't remember which, and nothing is really jumping out me like, ‘Oh yeah’. Only the characters are somewhat familiar, and even parts of the videogame are coming back to me. Sometimes I imagine playing the game at some points while reading. The silver spider. The spyglass.

I feel like I should read The Serpentwar Saga first, since it took place before the Riftwar, and there are little spoilers about the ending I've already come across.

Gorath was my first online handle, some 12–13 years ago.

Unless you use a different browser or computer.

Or erase your cookies.

Or don't have cookies enabled.

I just didn't want to. Not really a big day, except that I no longer have to pay some lame fee for being 24.75 years old while renting a car.

The ‘festivities’ were good though. Asma's family took me out to Levante's for dinner. I loaded up on the bread and olive oil and had some mediterranean shrimp pizza (pide).

We all went back to the apartment and saw the jetBlue plane come down without incident. It was newsworthy.

Mona made me a cake, and I got a kickass Timbuk2 bag. It's the size of a carry-on, almost, and it goes right on my back. So, once I learn to properly wear it, I'll never have to take two bags with me to work. Laptop, lunch, books – it all gets tossed into the bestest messenger bag I've ever owned. (Thank you, moosh.)

My eyes then failed me before midnight after several nights of not enough sleep.

One of my dreams involved Ryan and Hannah visiting Springfield.

I love Papaya.

I feel exhausted and fat and want to go home.

Yesterday I bought a mocha, and one of the workers was handing out a free drink coupon. So, feeling tired and sluggish this morning, I used it to get myself a pumpkin spice mocha. Caffeine has little effect for mein terms of alertness, but mochas have generally helped pick me up the mornings.

I celebrated being in DC for a year on Sunday. Asma and I went to Ikea and spent way too much time on an item whose measurements and floor sample deceived us.

I shouldn't say this publicly, but Catholics are so messed up. Muslims too. Jews as well. Hindus, etc. But there's something unsettling about a single church representing over 800 million Christians, with one man at the top who issues decrees as if he was god. Bad, bad idea. It's like legal Scientology.

In the afterlife, my friends.

Two words, Kaiser Shahid, two letters, B.A., lungis 'round my waist, doing 80 on the freeway.

My journal is a testament of sorts as to the imbalance I've been gravitating towards: worky worky blah blah. Asma and I have been working out consistently for over a week now (she more than I), and it looks to be sticking, so maybe it's not spiralling out of synch.

I am employed at the National Retail Federation until the end of the first week of October, contrary to the two weeks I had mentioned in my last post. Ahem.

The work is okay. May or may not develop into something more significant or permanent or better. I went for a job interview today and didn't actually get to talk to the guy I was supposed to meet, because he was held up in a meeting. So I talked to two other people and will probably receive a call from the main guy later today.

If this works out, I think I'll actually get to telecommute part of the time. Yay.

People on the Metro don't have a grasp of logic or whatever. You're on a crowded platform and a crowded train pulls up. Another train is anywhere from a few seconds to two minutes behind and, more than likely, will be at half capacity. Would you wait a couple of minutes, or cram yourself in?

90% of those observed like to be impatient.

A little bit of salad last night went a long way in pooping this morning.

So what's been going on? I'm on day one of official unemployment. It ends Friday when I start a short [2-week] assignment at the National Retail Federation. For the time being, I think it will entail more or less the same work I was doing at AARP, except that I will be getting paid a little more. There are also some upcoming projects they will be tackling, but I don't know many details at the moment. By Friday.

AARP was a bittersweet departure. It might've been something close to an ideal job if I'd just gotten interesting/creative work. Asma was there with me on the last day, so leaving the building wasn't too depressing.

Labor Day weekend has been pretty good for the most part. I didn't do much of any work this weekend, but I ate too much on Sunday (cook-outs with hamburgers, hotdogs, and chewy chocolate chip cookies? Nuff said), and Asma and I started what might be a regular workout routine on Monday, plus a good amount of apartment cleaning.

Our bedroom will forever be a mess. My chinchilla needs to learn to fold clothes in a timely fashion, but she is getting there.

The weather has been gorgeous the past few days. Windows are open more often and the air conditioner is running less. Candles and incense are filling the air. The feeling in the air sometimes reminds me of Urbana and Philly.

Katrina was a bitch. The White House is a piece of shit in blaming local government for the bad response. People are reverting to either a primitive or desperate self. I don't know what else to say about it.

On a much brighter note, here is Elton John and his happity hoppity wife Papaya:

Here they are on their first day together after Elton was brought home. Quick bonding. Heart melting.

Stay tuned for when I'm not as stressed or busy.

not even electives? not even prerequits?
you mean i missed my major by a couple of seconds?
…
like the eskimos, what would you do for a klondike?
or two dykes that look christina milian-like?
hmm, i'll be on time for that!
—Kanye West, ‘Late’

19 days until a quarter-century old.

Very auspicious.