Oh!

So this weekend was ... everything. Everything, I tell you!

A very Readers Digest version:

Hanging out with unixd0rk, watching Goonies (I'd never seen it), old SNL episodes (William Shatner, Frank Zappa, and Shannen Doherty, making fun of Antioch in the infamous "Is It Date Rape?" sketch) ... then dinner with him and lilostitch at Quiet Storm, where The Hat Man gave me a bracelet, We Can't All Be regaled us with stories of hedgeclippers at the Pigface show, and lilostitch blew my mind by spelling "PENIS" when we played Scrabble (backstory: every time I'm anywhere near a Scrabble board, someone spells the word "PENIS." n0thingman did it when we played, and, when he and I were hanging out with The Hat Man and Jordan when they were playing, The Hat Man got all the letters for "PENIS," but opted to spell "SPINE" instead because it was worth more points. Sheesh.).

Then Saturday was The Pittsburgh area Antioch Alumni/ae Gathering at Tavia's gallery. The gathering was good times. A whole bunch of Antiochians showed up -- alums from both from the college and from the now defunct Antioch Law School. People from the 1950s on through now, graduates and drop-outs, and friends and partners ... a good mix.

Favorite things overheard: "This is Antioch -- we HAVE to recycle," and "The hallway smells like Antioch" (a joke I didn't understand until I walked back to the hallway and smelled the weed).

One man who entered as a physics major described how different Antioch was from the other school he looked at by saying "The Science Building smelled like a zoo and the guy who gave me a campus tour was barefoot." And unixd0rk found it wholly appropriate that the two bathroom choices at the space were "Out of Order" and "Unisex" with no door.

I had a hard time just relaxing and enjoying it because I was still in planning mode -- making sure the food people brought all had "meat," "vegetarian" and "vegan" tags, making sure the chip bowls were never empty for long -- but by the end, I was sitting and schmoozing and just generally having a good time.

Anyway, you might notice that I'm restarting the quitmeter yet again, because yes, I was smoking again this weekend. Actually, I think I decided that I've become a weekend smoker, which, while it's not exactly what I was going for, is still better than what it was when I was smoking full time. I did also notice that this weekend I smoked less than I usually do -- bought two packs and they lasted me a lot longer than they usually do, until about fifteen minutes ago -- so maybe that's a good sign as well. So here I am, without any more cigarettes, and willing to give it yet another try. We'll see how it goes.

Random other stuff: Dan called and wants to go check out Bob's grave next weekend and see what needs to be done headstone-wise. H.W.S.R.N. emailed and apologized for not attending the Antioch event. Saprina made me ridiculously happy by switching shifts with me for this coming Sunday -- I was scheduled for 8:00 am -- ulp! And when I was five minutes late to work yesterday, everyone was apparently really concerned because I'm always really freakin' early -- I suppose that's a good thing, right?

And n0thingman: How was your trip?



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