Sunday, 8/19/01

Well, I'm in Boston right now. My pre-purchased, non-transferable flight coupons were on the verge of expiration, and I figured it would be silly to waste them just because their intended target is no longer relevant. I only know two people outside of this state, and I just saw Andy. And Michele was just so excited about the prospect of me visiting, that, well, here I am, for a week. Today was certainly fun, I will admit. For some reason that I haven't quite figured out yet, I really enjoy being with Albert and Michele, and it seems like they enjoy being with me. But there was one aspect that I found somewhat awkward and uncomfortable -- namely, Albert and Michele were really enjoying being with each other. Enough to prompt the classic "Good lord, Joanne and I weren't that bad, were we?" reaction. Well, of course we were that bad and worse; the height of hypocrisy would be for me to complain about a Public Display of Affection. But I certainly don't think we were like that when hanging out with friends. I think we toned it down quite a bit to avoid inflicting the "third wheel syndrome" on anyone. Then again, I suppose the situation didn't arise that much because we didn't hang out with friends that much. On account of me being an antisocial loser. Um, anyway. The odd part about all this was the feeling of deja vu. When I went down to LA a couple months ago to visit Pete, I discovered that he and his girlfriend are very happy with each other. And they similarly felt no need to withhold any of the indications. Today was almost a rerun, just with different actors. I dunno. It's not the PDA so much as the DAFBWALM: Display of Affection in Front of Bret Who is Already Lonely and Miserable. I don't find it disgusting, like some people do... just discourteous. When Michele explicitly asked my opinion about the matter and I suggested that their actions might be insensitive toward my current situation, she started screaming that my situation has been current for six months now, and it's time for me to get over the past and find myself a new relationship. Followed by a lengthy and unconvincing diatribe on how I'm such a wonderful person and that there are actually plenty of girls that would be happier with me than with, say, malaria. Of course, Andre has been saying the same thing for five months now, and if I don't believe him, why should I believe her? Anyway. I was unable to finish my secret software project before I left, so its unveiling will have to wait another week or two. But it'll be worth it. Yeah. And there's a fairly significant (at least to me) musical project that I am planning to start when I return home. Its details will be revealed later as well, but I'm hoping it'll put mlawg to shame. It might just end up putting me to shame instead. We'll see. This dialup connection dropped five times while I was typing this. Thank goodness for emacs autosave.