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March 2001
Got to work about 10am. Not enough sleep. Dinner at Doc Chey's Noodle House with Lauren , Jen, Michael. Had Pad Thai and a Sapporo. It was good.
I dreamed about Amanda last night. One vivid bit that I can remember is sitting a table somewhere with a group of people and seeing her walk past and thinking "Hey, that looks like Amanda" and then being unable to speak. Very odd.
Today was an odd day for horoscopes; both Lauren's and mine were a little strange. First, here's my Swoon horoscope:
Those of you who feel as doughy as Pillsbury's alabaster pitchman should vow to slim down once and for all. You'll need the strength of the abominable snowman and the good looks of a model to make an impeccable impression. Compensate for a less-than-ideal look with plenty of charm. See your smile mirrored in the faces of others.
And then my Iwon.com said this:
You thought you had the perfect plan all worked out, but things are starting to fall apart right in front of your very eyes. The Moon's new Sign has a tendency to scatter you and spread you thin. Be clear that you're acting randomly rather than following a course of promises. You can handle a few days of this freedom, although you sense that it will get old. In the end, your plan may just come to fruition on its own.
I went to the Local after work, just for a change. Billy turned up, which was really great because I hadn't seen him there for a long while. Lauren turned up later and then when Lauren and I went to the Vault, Billy went home.
The Vault was really fun. More drinking, dancing, and maybe just a little flirting. Heaps big fun.
Went in to work for a couple of hours. Finished reading The Bone People. Met Tim at the Local and then went to the Variety Playhouse to see Luna. They were great. And a cheap show - $14. The new bassist is also a member of the band thay played support - Super Baby Fat. They were pretty good, too, so I should hunt down some of their stuff.
After the show we went back to the Local and at the time I would normally have gone to the Vault I decided I'd had a little too much to drink to drive up to Buckhead. So I stayed at the Local and had a grand time.
Brunch with Sarah, Alice, Keri and Lauren at The Earl in East Atlanta. Salmon omelette. Very tasty. And a Texas margarita. Rebecca (from the Local) was working so I said hi to her and promised to come visit again soon.
Came home and watched The Three Musketeers.
The participants in Sunday night TV were: Sarah and Alice, John and Charlotte, Lauren and Tiffany, Clair, Kim, me. It was fun. Alice made all the ingredients to a build-your-own-taco feast. It was great. Very tasty. Good TV, good people, good food.
At 7:30 this morning I got a call from my dad to say that I had newly become an uncle. Welcome to life, Kees Bonar Burgess. Well done, Celise.
When John got back in after the gym tonight, he said a funny thing to me: "I think I have a girlfriend now." Charlotte appears to have tidied his room before she left this morning. Oh how cute :-)
Scott recommended some books to me. He's good like that.
Tonight we celebrated Vanessa's birthday at the Local. Being a Monday, it was also karaoke night, which is a recipe for disaster. John very quickly got stuck into the John Specials (whisky and Coke, more emphasis on the whisky...), downing two before I had finished my first beer. That was going to be par for the course tonight...
The second song that was performed was The Dead Milkmen's classic Punk Rock Girl. I was quite blown away by the fact they had that. But I was also impressed that the Ramones' Sedated was also on the list. John and I sung along from the bar to these classic tracks. Demetrius performed Roxanne; John and I had to sing backup and scull at the same time (if you don't know the Roxanne drinking game thing, ask me later). Towards the end of the night, John and I did a really really REALLY bad version of Wannabe. It was fun. John was so drunk he couldn't read at the appropriate time. Heheh. Eventually it was time to go home, and as John was in no state to, I drove his car home. Wee, my second manual transmission in the US.
John was supposed to go to an eight o'clock meeting this morning. He told me this last night. He missed the meeting. This was partly my fault, because when someone rang and asked for John, I had assumed (erroneously) that he had gone to the meeting and told the caller (his work!) that he had gone to work. Oops. It was only when I was getting ready to leave that I realised that there was a very good chance that he hadn't gotten up. Oh dear. I drove to LaVergne and back to check out a project I am running at MTSU.
When I got back, I had dinner with Lauren at a very pleasant restaurant called Virginia's. I had the veal special of the day: veal cutlets, covered with crab meat, asparagus and a bernaisse sauce, and potato croquettes. It was very tasty. We started with bruschetta and then caesar salad. The wine was a Turnbull cabernet sauvignon. Freshly opened, there wasn't much to the flavour, but as it aerated, the flavours grew. All in all, the meal was very pleasant. Lauren finished with a desert of strawberries and cream and an Irish coffee, and I with a Cointreau on the rocks. Yummy.
Long day at work and then off to Local for Trivia. John, Linda, me. We sucked. Our worst performance ever. Lauren and Clair joined us later. Also saw Jessee and Shane. Stacy and Dill popped in after going to Japanese steak house for Dill's 35th birthday.
At about 1ish, Lauren and I wandered over to MJQ. Unfortunately we had to pay. I never used to have to pay; I'd just walk on by, maybe say "hi" to the bouncer. But they've changed the people who work on the door. Quite rude really. The vibe inside was a little weird. But there were good people: Shane and Jessee, Heather, Michele. Unfortunately there was no Billy, which was unusual. Apparently he couldn't get a ride over. Steve from the Local was there and very drunk. I danced to a couple of songs, and Lauren and I talked for a fair bit, and at around 2:15, Lauren and I left to go home.
My mum's birthday. Except that I should have rung yesterday since NZ is a day ahead of the US. Oops. So I sent email and left a phone message.
I had another dream about Amanda last night. I've had several recently. Well, the dream wasn't about her, she just came wandering through, said "hello," and was gone again. All very odd. In talking with Lauren today I worked out that it's four years since I last saw her, just before I moved to Masterton.
Another long work day. My left nipple has swollen up again. Even worse than before. I think I'm going to have to lose that piercing. I'm applying hot and cold compresses, but the swelling isn't going down much. I will go see Brian at Piercing Experience tomorrow, after work.
Very soon I will properly update these pages rather than just put notes. This evening is difficult seeing as I can only use one hand to type. A relatively early night to bed - 11:30, after The Daily Show.
The Cliff Yablonski Hates You site has been updated. Check it out, it's harsh. Oh, and Michele has started a LiveJournal, so everyone can see what naughtiness she has been up to.
The day passed quickly and busily. I spent quite a bit of time in going through my email folders, deleting obsolete emails and bringing together useful notes and information into a couple of reference documents. I should have done this months ago, but you know how things get. At 4:30 or so, Jason, Brad and I went off to the Dixie Tavern for a sales team drink. This was quite pleasant. They had run out of Newcastle so I tried a brew called Turbodog. This was very tasty.
At around 6:30, I headed home and after getting changed and watching a little bit of TV (Star Wars was on), I headed down to the Local to meet up with Clair and Lauren. Clair had brought his brother, Avery, who was in town with his parents, visiting Clair. After playing Roxanne, Clair broke out the dice and we played a few rounds of Mexicans. Kelly, Walt's wife, joined us for a few rounds, which was really cool.
After the Local, Clair and Avery headed home and Lauren and I headed up to the Vault. I drove for a change, which was a good idea, because Lauren got way the hell fucked up. Poor Lauren. Well, she had a great time. After the Vault I crashed at her place to make sure she was okay. We had one last shot of vodka before hitting the sack around 5am.
I hung out with Lauren for a couple of hours, talking about last night's festivities, and then I went home. Lauren, I think, was going back to bed for more sleep. I don't blame her.
When I got home, there was a huge pile of mail sitting on the front door step, so I decided that the first thing I should do today was sort out my mail for the week and pay all my bills. This took a little while, and my pile of periodicals that need reading grew some more. Bother. Oh well, no biggie. I'll get there someday. Hopefully. In amongst the mail was my 2001 season tickets to the Atlanta Opera. The line-up this year is four operas by Giuseppe Verdi:
- May 3, Otello
- June 7, Un ballo in maschera
- September 27, Falstaff
- November 1, Il trovatore
After dealing with mail, and bills, and deciding not to buy any mail-order stuff this month (must save money) I made a light-hearted attempted to tidy my room. I didn't get very far with this, seeing as I was (quite pleasantly) distracted by Michele. Then it was time for a shower and then off to Kroger to pick up some supplies. When I got home I realised I had forgotten to pick up light bulbs. Ah, no matter.
I need to get more Tegaderm patches for my nipples. They didn't have any at Kroger, so I will have to stop in at CVS sometime to get some.
John is making dinner for Charlotte this evening. I think I will absent myself so that they can have a nice, romantic dinner. I'm a good roommate like that.
Well, as it happened, I did not absent myself. John made chicken in mango sauce on pasta with broccoli. It was good. It was yummy. He even had wine. Groovy eh.
After dinner we watched some TV and then went down to the Local for a few drinks. There we also learned how to play cribbage, with Stave and Charlie, and played a few games. John and Charlotte went on up to the Vault and after loosing another game of cribbage I ran over to Lauren's to join Miss Appel, Heather, and Jessee. We shot up to the Local and continued to festivise. It was fun, until all of a sudden I realised that I was way drunker than hell. I'm not quite sure why I suddenly went from happily drunk to being incoherent, but it happened. I was having a really good time up until that point. Oh well.
Feel like utter crap. Tired, lacking in sleep, dehydrated, ugh. Not a happy sensation. John made eggs. John rocks.
Today went very slowly and wastefully. It took me most of the day to read a 162-page book (Ex Libris by Anne Fadiman).
John, Alice and I played Scrabble and I won. Quite convincingly. My first word (TATTOOING) netted me 77 points.
Ugh. Still not feeling too well. My sleep was kinda rough, too. Ugh. I had a dream that I was leaving to go for work, when on my way through the laundry I noticed that people were fencing (as in the sport with pointy things) in the gymnasium outside my laundry door. I was not at all concerned with the fact that my second story metal landing had been replaced by the inside of a gymnasium hall; rather I was interested in who I needed to talk to in order to join the club. Aren't dreams silly. At least it wasn't another Amanda dream.
After work, I came home and lay on the couch watching TV for a couple of hours. Felling well was not a happening thing. I munched on Cheezits and drank some water. Then Alice came over and then Sarah came home from the gym, and then John came home. Then we all went on a family excursion to Harry's In A Hurry to get food. Then we came home and watched more TV. Very lazy sort of evening. Just what I needed.
Still not feeling well. Not sleeping well. Ugh.
John's car was broken into when he was at work so when he got home, I took driving duties and we went down to the Local for dinner. Then we headed over to the Clermont for some Hot Clermont Action with Lauren, Andie, Russ, Joe, Heather, Christian, and another couple of people I didn't know. It was an entertaining evening. John and I left around 11:30ish, because he had an early start and I was oh so very tired.
So this is what my Romance horoscope on Iwon.com has to say today:
Don't be surprised if someone asks you out tonight. If you're feeling shy, you can always decline. It feels good just to be asked, though, doesn't it?
Then, at 10:45 this morning, I got a call from Christin, who I had seen at the Vault a couple of weeks ago for the first time in over a year, asking if I was interested in coming out for a while tonight. I called her back and arranged to meet her at Innovox, since she was going to see them about displaying some of her paintings there. Cool.
I'm still feeling the effects of this lack of sleep (and another Amanda dream - I wish I could stop that, too). But I went down to Innovox and caught up with Christin. I also met a friend of hers (whose name I foolishly can't recall) who Christin said she'd like to hook me up with. We'll see. She was friendly and cute though, so I have no objections...But it was good to catch up with Christin and talk about stuff.
After they left, I stopped in at Camelli's to pick up a pizza (chicken, garlic, onion, mushrooms) and made my own way home. Yes, I would normally be at the Local on a Wednesday night, but Lauren and I are going to the ballet tomorrow, and we don't want to be nursing the effects of a big night out previously. We've done that with some of the operas last year, and it just doesn't work.
After work I went to the pub to meet up with Lauren and Clair. Glenn had turned up at Lauren's place, so he came over, too. I ruled the jukebox for excessive amounts of time (that's what $9 will do to a jukebox). We played Mexicans. It was very fun. So much fun that when midnight came around, we established that we were in no fit state to drive to the Vault. So instead we played some more, then went to Kroger to get supplies and then bounced back to Lauren's to watch movies. Dead Alive (aka Braindead) was the movie of choice as Clair had not seen it. I trundled off home around fourish.
Tidied my room, did laundry, cleaned up around the place. Sarah and Alice and I decided to have a wee Saint Patrick's Day party with food. It was good. Then Clair, Lauren and I went to the Vault.
An early start today, after a poor night's sleep, and it's off to the airport to catch a plane to Greensboro, NC. Today's mission is to visit the headquarters of Marconi Commerce Systems to set up a couple of vending machines and learn about the system we are going to demonstrate at the NAMA show in Las Vegas at the end of the month. This turned out to be a really fun trip - the facility there is great.
The flight back was late due to rain and other nastiness, so when I got home I went straight to bed.
After work, I caught a flight up to Raleigh, NC. My rental car was quite nice - a 2001 Mazda Millennia. It was expensive, too. But there wasn't much available. When I was at the airport I signed up for Delta Crown Room membership. Now I can relax with a drink when waiting for flights at Delta airports, not that there's many in the South East, which is where I'll be doing most of my travel this year. The Hilton where I stayed the night was quite nice and not too overpriced.
Awake in Raleigh, have breakfast with the new Project Manager and then it's off to meet with Cingular. This was a really good meeting; decisions were made, actions were delegated. I intend to keep right on top of this little project. After lunch I met briefly with my main customer and then made my way to the airport and an early flight home.
Dinner was taken with Lauren at Waffle House, where we discussed many many things. This was fun. Afterwards we went to Nomenclature. The plan was that we would go for an hour or two and then go home. That didn't quite happen. We got drunk. Lauren flirted. I flirted. (By the way, that was not with each other.) I had a good chat with Glenn about various literature-based topics. It was much fun. Mike reminded me about a gig tomorrow night. Russ gave a good review for GothCon, which was this past weekend. All in all, too much fun. It was after two when we left. Ugly.
Feeling very rough this morning. I got to work a little late (and I left late), but I think I got one or two things accomplished. I brought home some stuff to work on, but I dunno if I'll do any of it. Maybe a little. I'm not going to the gig tonight that I thought I might (Boo!), as I spent way too much money last night, and I could do with an early night. Yes, I'm a wuss.
Yay! John just got home from California. Woohoo!!
A long day at work. Charlotte made heaps and scads of lasagna for dinner for everyone tonight, so we had a big family dinner (me, John, Charlotte, Sarah, Alice). Alice made the salad to go with it. It was great. While the cooking was in progress we hung out and had a good family bonding. Awww...
After dinner I went over to Lauren's and we went off to see Snatch, the new(ishy) film by the director of Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. It was very entertaining; a couple of the actors from Lock... were in this one, and Brad Pitt was great. Clair joined us at the theatre. The theater was really cool, as they had people coming round taking orders for drinks. More theatres should do this, it's a splendid idea.
After the movie, Lauren and I went back to Lauren's place (Clair had work in the morning) and played Uno until Heather turned up with supplies. Then we spent the rest of the evening hanging out and getting trashed. I think we crashed out around 5am. It was a fun night.
Woke up early, came home, slept some more, got up. Ugh. Played a bunch of CivII. John's parents turned up and John and Charlotte went to dinner with them.
I went to the Local for a feed and played some Cribbage with Willy and Charlie. I won the second game and then had to take off to pick up some tequila from Green's before it closed. Tequila in hand, I bounced over to Lauren's to meet her and Glenn. Lauren was still feeling off from last night and didn't want to drive. I wasn't feeling too hot myself, but I took it on myself to get us to Brandon and Stacy's, with the warning that I might not be able to get us home. That was acceptable.
So off we trundled to Ross Manor for the celebration of Christian and Genevieve's marriage. They make a beautiful couple. We proceeded to drink plenty (Jeff was making stronger drinks than I realised). We decided to go to the Vault for a while. I rode with Lea, to make sure she could get there, and the others went with Clair.
The club was fun, albeit quiet, but we did stay until closing. We went back to Ross Manor and hung out there for a bit longer, and then Clair dropped us all home. Thanks, Clair; you rock!
Feeling rough. Feeling very rough. John gave me a lift to my car. I did washing and stuff in preparation for the coming week where I will be out of town. I had to go into work for a while at 6pm. Sunday TV appeared to be cancelled (Fox was not playing any of the regular stuff) so we (John, Charlotte, me) watched American Beauty, then The Man Show, and then I went to bed. Need sleep.
Up early. Bright and early. Earlier than I care to discuss. But with reason, for today I have a journey.
I got to the airport and headed down to the gate and onto the plane to Baltimore, MD. I had a bit of a snooze on the plane and read some of last week's The Economist. The flight was an hour and a half and the service was crap. Some budget muffin and a banana and an orange juice was the "snack" provided. Air New Zealand have a much better domestic "snack" on the one hour flight between Auckland and Wellington. Delta really do suck on these mid length flights.
At Baltimore I was met by Joe, who drove me for a little over an hour, through eastern Maryland, the top of Virginia (all of ninety seconds worth - oh and trivia: did you know that radar detectors are illegal in Virginia), and then into West Virginia to the headquarters of American Merchandising Systems (AMS). Here I was to give a presentation to the company about our product. It was an interesting and enjoyable visit. I was also brief, as I was whisked away again back to the airport to catch my 4:30pm flight back to Atlanta. Woohoo
I slept a bit on the drive back, and on the flight. I really did not get enough sleep this weekend; you'd think I'd learn, but no. I also slept a fair bit on the plane. When I got home, I packed my bag for the trip to Las Vegas and then headed on down to the Local for some dinner. I caught the start of karaoke, but went home because I needed to sleep before Tuesday's early start.
06:00 Off goes the alarm. This is unfortunate, because I did not sleep well last night. Ah well.
06:15 I really should get out of bed now. Yes, okay, where's the shower again?
06:55 All packed and out the door.
07:25 Checked in. Time for breakfast. Wendy's it is; not great but it is food.
07:45 At the gate.
08:20 On the plane
09:10 In the air and on the way to Las Vegas!
So I slept for the first hour of the flight. I needed it. It was good. For the next two hours I listened to mini discs and read the latest issue of The Economist.
10:30 On the ground and in Las Vegas!
Off the plane and there are slot machines in the terminal. Yep, this is Vegas. I collected my bag without too much fuss, and found my way to a taxi with no difficulty, and then made it to the hotel in one piece. On the way to the hotel I could see some of the famous sites: the Eiffel Tower, the Pyramid, the Sphinx. I shall see more over the next six days.
Didn't do a lot today beyond preparing for the show. I did get paged by Lauren at 10pm (1am ET); she had just been at the Clermont celebrating Brad Baker's birthday. I wish I could have been there, but oh well, I'm in Vegas.
I slept reasonably well and after breakfast in the hotel went off to the Convention Center to finish getting everything set up for the show. There are plenty of exhibitors, so it should be interesting. In the afternoon, a big group of people from Marconi and our partner companies, USA Technologies and AES-Intellinet, got together for a big pre-convention meeting.
The British contingent and I went for a drive along the strip. It was amazing - the casinos, the hotels, the lights. Truly another world.
Later, Brad and Jason went off to Mandalay Bay; I went for a wander with Peter, John, Vanessa and Yvonne, and we ended up having dinner at a fancy Italian restaurant just round the corner from the hotel. I had a caesar salad and veal shank, and a lot of very good French wine, and a creme brulee to finish. Peter knows his wine very well. It was a good fun dinner. Peter and I closed the night out with a bloody nice cognac.
This morning was rough. Yesterday a news crew had been sweeping the convention center and set up a time for an interview with one of sales people. The time of 6am meant that I had to be there at 5am to make sure everything was running correctly and up to date. The work was worth the effort - the broadcast was live and the demonstration of dial-a-vend went without a hitch. It was the first of many interactions with the press (see the MSNBC story.
The convention started properly at 11. We were busy. Very busy. There was a lot of interest from all sorts of people and companies. No chance to eat, so when the show closed for the day everyone was feeling rather exhausted. But did that stop us from going out? Hell, no!
No, first stop was a reception held by Marconi and our partners. Open bar and hors d'ouvres. Yummy. I started with a couple of beers and switched to whiskey. I chatted with a lot of intertesting people, and I also got to know a few people a bit better. Don gave me a glass of red wine, so I switched to that until we were thrown out at around 6:30pm. Then a group of us went back to the hotel to soak in the hot tub while others headed out to dinner. After a couple of beers and a chat with with John, Jason and Vanessa, we (with the exception of John) headed off to the MGM Grand to meet up with the rest of the mob.
We got there and wandered around for a bit, checking out the scenery, including the lions in a great glass enclosure. We also wandered briefly over to New York New York before hunting down the rest. We arrived just in time to order food (rosemary chicken and garlic mashed potatoes) and beer (Anchor Steam). More social interaction and then it was time to gamble.
Quick stop at the ATM for money ($100) and let's start with Roulette. I'm not a huge fan of Roulette - it is pure luck and it's very difficult to play the odds. I managed to order one drink and came away having lost only $5. I wanted to play Black Jack. We found some tables and over the next couple of hours I beat my way to $75 ahead (and three or four free Jack and Cokes). I put away my initial $100 and continued to gamble at another table. This was very up and down, and I closed the night at $80 ahead. I was happy. It had been fun.
Didn't feel too rough when I got up this morning, but I had a big breakfast, based on the fact that once again I might not get any lunch. The day was long and busy again. By the end of the day my feet were feeling really bad. I also got a great massage - Coke had provided free massages. Rock on!
After the show, it was once again a a case of soak the feet (and/or body) in the hot tub at the hotel with a few beers and then it was off out for dinner and gambling. We went to the Venetian, which has, oddly enough, a very Italian (and more particularly, Venetian) feel. We found a restaurant, drank a bunch of cocktails, and then had dinner (bruschetta, New York strip, wine). Feeling very merry, and very full, we then went exploring The Grand Canal. This was upstairs and was fantastic. This huge area had been done out like a piazza in the late afternoon, and there were many restaurants and shops all around. We then wandered along the canal and took a gondola ride around the place. It was fantastic.
Then it was time to gamble. I took my original $100 from the night before and entered into a long run of Black Jack. Peter and I drank Cadillac Margaritas (aka Texas Margarita) and got slammed. I ended the night without my $100 (well, I had scored a fair few half-dollar coins which I just pocketed, but nothing big) but I didn't mind - I'd had a great time. We went back to the hotel via McDonald's and then it was time for bed.
Ugh. The last day of the show and it starts early. Definitely feeling rough from the night before. Very rough.
After the show had finished, we went back to the hotel and had some beers to relax. DOn then took me out for a tour of Old Las Vegas, where I met (briefly) The King, himself. Well, someone claiming to be Elvis, but definitely looking the part. The casino area of Old Las Vegas has been converted into a covered mall, with lights set up through this covered area such that it can be used as a giant video. The show was pretty good. I wandered through the Golden Nugget, which was packed (being a Saturday...).
We then went back to the hotel, had some more beers and then we all went to Mandalay Bay. We had dinner at the House of Blues (gumbo, filet mignon, more red wine) and watched a band. Afterwards, Jason, Don and I went to the Bay's night club, Rum Bar. Jason payed $100 for us to skip the exceedingly long line. The place was packed, and playing bad house music (although all the punters seemed to like it). I danced a little, and then drank a lot of vodka. I chatted to a couple of chicks, but they were all either with someone or pregnant. Not going there...
Then Jason and I went gambling. This was my night of doom. I blew $240 in two hours. Then I stopped. At 5:30am I left Jason and went wandering over to the Luxor to check out the pyramid, and then went looking for a cab.