Originally published at Durosia.com. You can comment here or there.

After what somehow turned into a moderately stressful day at work, I trudged across town in the cold, misty, rain to pop in to the apartment warming party my co-worker was throwing.

Even leaving work later than I planned and getting stuck behind people who were walking way to slow for my tastes (especially for what the weather was doing), I ended up being the first person there. But only for a few minutes... others were close behind.

Before long, the modest (and well decorated--she is a graphic designer and stuff) apartment was full. Mostly of people I didn't know.

Thankfully, as is often the case, my friends have good people in their lives, so it was an absolute joy to meet everyone.

And since they were all new, I could easily fall back on a number of things that people I've known for a while have heard me talk about way too much. ;)

Woodstock (which I never did get around to writing about here back in August). Horror films (which I need to write more about over at ToobTalk). We even somehow segued into race relations, gentrification and economics.

It was almost like being back in college again. Except for the whole not going until sunrise part... the party dispersed a little before 11 p.m.

After weighing my options and factoring in how tired I've been lately, I decided to just head home... where I was more than happy to walk in and find Tank Girl on cable.

Yay Tank Girl and Jet Girl! (Even back in '95 it was clear I was into the "unique" ones...) :)

Friday night was a game night. As usual, it rocked. Lots of time spent having good discussions with good friends I don't do anywhere near enough with. That ran until about 4 a.m., when corpse_light mentioned that his brain was about melted and I realized that, having had a full day at work, mine was well on its way there, too. Headed home and finally got to sleep around 5:30 or 6 a.m.

Then the phone rang at 8:10 a.m. It was a wrong number. I surmise it was a collection agency, as they didn't respond right away when I picked up, asked for two different people, and never identified what the call was about. It took me another hour to really doze back off.

Next thing I knew it was nearly 3 p.m.

This severely cut into the time I had planned to do a lot of things. Like a handful of work on personal and freelance projects. Once subtracting showering and eating time and then removing the time spent fighting with the printer (and running out to get more paper for it and having to not let myself just buy a new printer), I had time to do next to nothing.

So, nothing checked off my To Do list, I made the trek out to bid farewell to beatnikbetty who's heading off to the left coast. I'll miss her, even though I never worked quite hard enough to spend time with her. She holds the distinction of being one of the people I most certainly should have fallen for but never have. Always seen her as more of a sister. So, doubly good luck to her on her new adventure!

The party was good. I had a chance to reacquaint myself with some very spiritual people and meet some new ones. Hopefully our paths will cross again, even without B in the area.

This is especially true of the one lady who showed up shortly before I had to leave. She caught my attention as soon as she entered, but I was wrapped up in conversation with other people and watching the clock. On my way out, she caught me for a moment and told me she knew me. "From where?" I asked. "Not anywhere now," she said, "probably a past life." I affirmed that such a thing could very well be the case and that I very much would like it if she continued to find me again as I gave her my contact information and (now so much more reluctantly) rounded up the people who were heading to the next event with me and hit the road for Fairfax.

It was, of course, plans to see The Rock Horror Picture Show that pulled me away from a party I would have stayed at all night. (And if I hadn't committed to meeting people at the theater, I would have skipped the movie all together.) Things got off to a little bit of a late start, but I found the presentation and evening as a whole quite entertaining--again having good conversation with people I don't see anywhere near enough. Made for home earlier than I would have liked (though I don't know what other than standing in the parking lot talking would have happened otherwise) and finally dozed off at about 5 a.m.

Sunday was dedicated to D&D gaming, starting between noon and 1 p.m. I had made it a point to set my alarm before I went to sleep. I woke up wondering how long I had before the alarm was going to go off. Checking the time, I was annoyed to find that it should have gone off about thirty minutes earlier. Checking more, I discovered that the truth was actually that it was set to go off in about 11.5 hours. Stupid AM/PM setting....

Made it to the game on time. Kick much animated skin monster ass and avoided having to deal too much with the animated internal organs monster (ewww). Another bunch of hours of fun.

Of course, I managed to not be able to get to sleep Sunday until about 3 a.m. or so which made Monday's alarm (which did go off properly) so much more painful.

And now, here I am, up too late again. Mostly because I'm determined to get back into writing more. I've really let myself slide from most of my goals. (Granted, mostly for good reasons, but sliding none the less.)

The only thing that would have made the weekend better is if I had been able to coordinate plans with Cristina (she who I met randomly about a year ago and kind of accidentally asked on a date) so she could have been along for some of the ride. Haven't seen her in person in nearly a year now. Still kind of shooting for that third date... and doubting more each day that it'll happen before a full year of sporadic contact has elapsed.

Ah, well. Not dating just leaves that much more room in my schedule for other things. (And I'm very good at not dating.) :)

Originally published at Durosia.com. You can comment here or there.

Because they look damn good when they're a little evil.

That's Vail holding a nicely wrapped package with a little origami demon head on the front. Inside? A book of Charles Addams' illustrations. Appropriate, in this case.

Vail and Jesse celebrated their 13th Anniversary the other weekend with an Addams Family themed party. They were, of course, the perfect Gomez and Morticia--virtually unrecognizable as their normal much more fair-haired selves.

The cake and creativity, combined with the obvious love they still have burning hot and deep after more than a decade, made the long drive on a Sunday more than worth it.

I. Don't. Bake.

I barely cook. (And I only do that because it's cheaper, in the long run, than buying all sorts of prepared stuff.)

The best I normally do is grill. (Mmmm... grill... how I miss cooking over an actual open flame outside...)

But, today I baked.

And it looks like there were only two of the cupcakes that didn't quite make it. I'll attribute that to putting them somewhere to cook where they should not have been (underneath the lower heating elements on the microwave/toaster oven/conventional oven thing I have... the ones on top, between the two sets of elements, did just fine... the ones in the regular oven seem perfect).

Never made this particular recipe before. Going to see how it actually tastes before posting it or subjecting others to it.

Or, at least, subjecting others to it without warning. It's not like I have time (or tools) to whip up anything else. Seeing as how the party, technically, just started, uh, now. Thankfully, it will be going on for a while and showing up a little late won't hurt.

No Spellbound for me tonight... but if you're not doing anything else (or looking to get out of doing something else) you should head out there. It's one of the two other places I'd like to also be tonight.

Alas, I can not bi-locate, let alone tri-locate, and my teleporter is still not functional (nor is the time machine). :(

Hope everyone has a fantastic night. I'm not exactly sure what I'm in for (other than fun people and damn fine desserts.)

Today was the day of eating.

After a purposefully light breakfast and a whole lot of jam-packed work, the first holiday shindig was at about 1:30 a few block from the office at Loreal Plaza. Mmmm... Mexican-ish food. That was hosted by the marketing department for one of our main clients (the main client who's going to keep up good and busy with their site transition until at least the end of the first quarter of 2008). It was fun. Of the seven people there, only two of us were male--me and my boss. The other two or three people from their department who weren't there? Female. In many places I've seen, that sort of all-woman group can lead to some real bad things. Not so with that crew, though. Even after a few margaritas, they were all getting along just fine.

The three of us from my company, with one of the client's graphic designers in tow, shuffled back to Connecticut Ave and lumbered up the stairs to our office to get a little more work done after the two or so hour lunch.

I don't have to tell any of you who've tried to get back to work after a fun and (over) filling food endeavor how difficult it is to get back to work.

But I did manage to get back into a bit of a groove. Before I knew it I was three more revisions in to a client's site, fighting with Flash (which I really don't know how to use at all... now I have an excuse to learn) and still a little behind where I wanted to be.

Around half past six, people started showing up for our office party. It was a joint venture between us and the company who used to share office space with us. Included in the mix were friends and significant others (where applicable). All in all, eleven people.

Alcohol was consumed, cookies and snacks were devoured (mostly by people who weren't at the client's lunch shindig), Secret Santa gifts were exchanged and, a little before 8 p.m., we decided it was time to figure out what we were doing for dinner.

In short order, a call was placed to Bucca di Beppo to make sure they had space for us. With that confirmed, we made the hike a couple blocks up the street and were led through the over-decorated (and yet comfy) halls of Bucca to the main dining room where we ended up between some big family dinner (complete with at least three kids running around the table at one point or another) and some semi-dressed up group of 20-something couples. Somehow, our crew managed to not get too obnoxious before the kids left. There was at least one loud conversation late in the evening that was not family friendly.

It was a good time.

But, oh my gods, FOOD!

Way. too. full.

Almost fell dead asleep on the Metro on the way home. They would've had to roll me out of there.

Tomorrow is going to be a slow-ish, but busy, day. Boss is leaving for NYC in the morning. Graphic designer is leaving noon-ish for birthday stuff (hers) and errands. I pick up my rental car at about 5:30 p.m., so I'm out of there a little after 4 p.m. or so.

Going to do some last minute shopping (because, really, I feel like I should get my niece more than just a little game). Then a load of wash or two so I have clean clothes to wear for the coming week. Going to try to get a decent amount of sleep and hit the road noon-ish or sooner. (I wouldn't put money on that, but I can try, right?)

Yep. It's been a week. And next week is going to be something else entirely...

Ren Fair: too frelling hot to fully enjoy. :(

But it was really nice to see everyone I saw. :)

ceosanna's party after re-hydrating (and changing hats for the benefit of hotfix): Totally awesome.

I love my friends. I love the fact that my friends are very friendly with one another. And that so many of them are so comfortable with their bodies (and those of their friends).

This holds true over just about all my groups of friends.

I know this because the same exceptionally entertaining (and, uh, titillating) things seem to happen at every party I go to (to some extent or another).

And now... sleep. As all the outside time and fun seem to have activated some random allergy somewhere and I can't quite breathe right... *sniffle*

I never made it to Evil Disco Friday night. I was having way too much fun over at entropicalia's place. So many people I haven't seen a while. So many little, unexpected surprises.

One thing I didn't expect (though on reflection it was probably mentioned to me at some point... I think parts of my brain have liquefied over the past few weeks...) was that wondermojz was going to bring her guitar and sound rig and entertain us a bit before and after the main event. That was a pleasant surprise. I always love seeing/hearing people I know perform.

There are pictures, but I have yet to sort them. There are observations and stories, but I'm too tired to tell them.

For now, I will leave it as having been a damn fine night to spend out with people.

And, of course, with wishes of happy birthdays to all those celebrating. :)

...because I've been officially talked into going out Tuesday night to Spooky.

Guess I'll see a bunch of you there.

Unfortunately, one part of my Halloween costume won't be making the trip. I figure leaving the very real looking replica revolver at home is a good idea. Because, y'know, being arrested would make work in the morning even more difficult than it will be already.

Fantastic party tonight. Got to see some people I haven't seen in a while. Full stories from this week (some with pictures) very soon.

At about 2:30 this afternoon, I set foot in my apartment for the first time since I left for work on Friday. Friday saw me up for more than 23 hours, more than half of that on my feet and/or walking around.

Work was immediately followed by running some errands (like picking up my watch with the fresh battery in it and extracting some cash from the ATM) and then the Small Press Expo with pakgwei.

The Expo was in a different location this year. The new space is one big room, as opposed to the few smaller ones I've become accustomed to. I suppose that's better for everyone since you can't forget about an entire room. Unfortunately, it does seem to increase the ambient noise level just enough so holding a conversation with the people behind the tables can sometimes be difficult. There was a lot of neat publications there, but very few that actually caught my eye. Some of them are just way too "arty" for my tastes. And some of he artwork in the graphic novels, while stunning, just didn't even come close to my personal tastes. Or at least not close enough for me to spend money on them. I ended up picking up two collected editions: Captain Gravity and Para. They look good and will, of course, earn full reviews once they are read (which will be soon, I swear!).

A quick food stop at McDonalds was in order after that, then it was back on the Metro for Pat to head home and me to head on to Greenbelt to party with devolutionary.

One minor communication snafu later, I was at devolutionary's place (which was absolutely packed with bunches of people I didn't know) having a grand old time. I met so many people, I can't even hope to remember their names (as usual... also as usual, I didn't collect usernames or anything, so someone's going to really have to put me in touch with some).

That grand old time lasted until about six in the morning when I finally sacked out on the couch after being the last man standing.

In the afternoon, I caught a ride back to the Metro station, hightailed it down the Green Line and onto the Red Line (where I ran into someone who works in a different department at my office) and, finally home.

Now, after catching the latest episode of Battlestar Galactica and slogging through e-mail, I'm about ready to head back out the door, back to the Metro station and back out to Greenbelt to meet up with spirit_o_fire so I can catch the Rude Mechanical's presentation of Antony and Cleopatra again.

It has been a very long--and very fun--couple of days so far.

I'm going to be soooo tired on Sunday... :)

After yesterday's complaint about no Halloween parties going on, everyone seems to have decided to finally send out their invitations (including people who don't even come near LJ).

So now I've gone from having one post-Halloween Halloween party to attend to having three on one night. They are, of course, scattered all over the damn place. :|

This, of course, causes it's own set of problems. There is no way at all that I can make it to any more than one of them. And each one is with a different group of people I don't see anywhere near enough.

Again, I am wishing for my instantaneous teleportation device and a good way to split myself into multiple complete parts.

*sigh* Such problems I have... ;)

Today after work is the Small Press Expo.

Tonight is fun with devolutionary.

Tomorrow is getting some sleep. Then it's all about getting to Greenbelt (again) to see Antony and Cleopatra (also again).

Next Friday I'm going to hit Night of the Living Dead at the DC Arts Center. I want you to come along. We could fill the place. (Seriously, it's tiny it wouldn't even take all the people that may be reading this!)

Next Saturday, I may do a movie night for those of you interested and not otherwise involved. It will, of course, be horror films. Probably the more classic ones. Still nothing set in stone for that, though.

Hope everyone's enjoying their Friday the 13th!