A Window, A Light...

I'm looking at our liquor shelf, which was populated rapidly following the wedding through generous donations from friends and a little bit from our own wedding money and has been slowly depleted over time. There's a few things on the shelf (or had been on the shelf) that seem like they're going to become somewhat of a constant in terms of what we've come to drink.

Like, it seems that we'll probably just get another big ass handle of Kraken dark rum when we finish what we've got, because it's an easy (though somewhat dangerous) thing to drink by itself or mixed, and it's just not that pricey for the quality. Handles or fifths of New Amsterdam gin and vodka look to be what we'll be purchasing as drinks of choice and convenience, as well. Our friend Paul gifted us with some Peabody Jones Vodka at the reception, and I really like it, but it looks to be something of a headache to get in this area. I like that, though. It's something to enjoy while it lasts.  Our friend Marie gifted us with some Basil Hayden's bourbon whiskey, and Katie and I both like that as well, but I don't think that we've settled on that as something that'll be on our shelf all the time like New Amsterdam (due to solid drinkability and taste) and Kraken are likely to be.

I also liked the Tanqueray we got. It tends to be a little pricier, but I don't mind that much. I think our gin might end up on rotation, just like we'll sporadically get different or even more than one vodka selection. Our friends tend to be bourbon drinkers (even rotgut, which causes me to make a face these days), but I still like neutral spirits even though I'm coming to drink bourbon and other whiskeys a little more.

As kind of an aside, and I know this comes up sporadically, but I'm kind of pleased at how long our liquor is lasting. Getting a wide selection does kind of spread out what we drink, but getting nicer stuff that I don't just feel like I should blow through makes me appreciate what I'm drinking more. I've made a specific effort not to get drunk as much (in which I mean, I don't want to get as drunk and I don't drink as often), and the times I've kind of fucked up are when I specifically am trying to get drunk. A few weeks ago, I kind of made that connection. I'm a little old to be making such an obvious connection, you know? In my opinion, though, that's not worth beating yourself up about; you come to realizations when you come to them. It's not like you can go back and retroactively tell yourself, or anything like that.

I guess I'm saying that I'm improving myself by degrees, just like I'm eating better and exercising a little more and making the effort to study and write actively. That's really an entry for another day. 

I've been feeling tired and a little under the weather for the last few days, and I mostly have it shrugged off by now with the exception that I got pretty queasy around noon from too much espresso sitting on too little anything else and that was from literally drifting off to sleep in the middle of class. Brent was busy back in Hillsborough, and while he was gone, I got to use his van. There are three reasons why I did not do that except to go to work.

One, awful gas milage. Two, a minivan is still friggin' huge for me, and I have issues navigating it in traffic. Three, I didn't want to do anything, anyhow. Really. I had a friend ask if I wanted to go see Filter live, and I was like, "Thanks, but I really do not want to." I love, like, three-and-a-half Filter songs, so the amount of effort and gas I would have had to expend would have probably put me into a coma. "I think I am just going to sit and look at a wall until Monday." which is mostly what I did, and loved it.

Seriously, my plan involved hanging out and not feeling bad about being unproductive, which was awesome. On Saturday I got my bank account opened up so I can buy plane tickets and took myself out to dinner. On Sunday, I bought a new Murakami book I'd had my eye on for months, went and got coffee at Starbucks, where I just sat around, and around 6 PM, I grabbed a bottle of wine and spent the rest of the evening drinking it. I had a nice, warm glow all night, and around 10 PM, there's 1/4 of a bottle left, and I was just like..." I'm not putting that back in the fridge." and just polished it off. At which point, I immediately got drunk, which was super-weird. Hypothesis? Walking the line the whole night.

While I officially got Friday, the 3rd off, Southwest wasn't offering any flights after 3:45 PM on the 2nd, which put the kibosh on a late Thursday flight. I'm going to have to opt for an early Friday, which is probably going to put me in the area by, well, 3:30 or so, because of the goddamn time zone difference. Just like in conventions past, I am going to go through this epic effort to arrive, only to show up for the tale end of the show. The upsides is, Archon is nearly a 24 hour affair, and I can sleep on a plane flight ok, so I'm looking at driving Friday and Saturday really hard, meeting with family on Sunday, bringing more stuff up then I left with and coming in late evening on Sunday and probably crashing for work Monday. When I was initially trying to figure out my schedule, I was super bummed, but then realized I completely ignored Friday. So, it's not too bad. Not optimal, but I literally wouldn't be able to afford the tickets for another flight line, which makes me wonder why some airlines have double the prices on their tickets. If it wasn't for Southwest, I might not be in Seattle in the first place.

Because of the delay between ticket purchase and flight, I'll have a hard time getting the income up for my plane flights but I'll have a ton of money by the time I get into the area. I'm putting off most of my purchases re: game books just for that reason, but I'll probably end up in the dealer's room and be like, "Man. I want all of these books, and that's clearly excessive. I can have a few of these books, but I don't know which, so I must not really want them enough." and I'll buy, like, one book so I don't leave empty handed. That's almost how I buy everything I've ever bought for myself, with the exception of the rare times when I think, "I want X. I can't think of any other purchases I would like to make." And that's how I got my Murakami book! =D

I'll probably be moved outta Brent and Val's by tomorrow. They're back in town now, and so my tenure here is about up. There's this weird thing where I know they don't really intend to imply that I've been awful to have, but they'd really like me out and I don't want to imply I didn't appreciate it, but I'm tired of being kind of wedged into a closet for a few months, which is what the living environment is like. It's been pretty comfortable, surprisingly so, even. But we're all on the same page on this. Now I need to figure out what I'm going to do for bedding between now and the flight, but I'll come up with something ok.