Thank you for corking!

Ah, so birthday week comes to an end...but it was a good end.

The Vic show on Wednesday was great, and I'm glad people came out. I think it was good the music had the potential for such wide appeal. Katie was nice enough to make me cookies, *and* take me out to dinner, *and* buy me drinks, *and* pay for me to get in the Germs show afterward. And come over to hang out for a while afterward and help me finish the bottle of Bordeaux we started last week. Of course, the other free beers bought for me were just as well appreciated, and the free tequila drinks at the note worked pretty good too.

I blame that wine for the headache I had the next day. The *only* times I've gotten a headache from drinking is after drinking that wine.

Yesterday Jamal and I had sushi, then I went to Delilah's for a beer and talked to Chuck for a while. I got to know Eric who was at the Vic show the night before. I'd actually met him before, but in the context of a large group of people. Vic was outside on the sidewalk when I was leaving, so I talked with that group a bit before they went in and I (reluctantly) rode home.

Today it was fucking hot. And Shana and Rob joined me for the Critical Mass ride. Then we ran into Jmi Basset, who coincidentally is dating their neighbor's ex-husband. I wasn't expecting to, but I ended up corking a lot, several times with drivers getting irate. But there were lots of nice friendly people too, who generally got with the party atmosphere riding by. Some guys in Pilsen opened a fire hydrant, so my right side got drenched...my left joined it by the end of the ride, though. I ran into this kid Eric I went to high school with, which was cool. Carl had his sound system at 31st St. Beach, and a bunch of us were having a little dance party.

The cops were cracking down a bit at the end, though. It was usually alcohol-related things, and predictable. Although I heard one cop say someone threw a beer bottle at their car. Of course, this same guy was also practically running cyclists off the rode a minute before that, directed at lots of different people. He scared the shit out of me, let me say.

Overall, a good night, with that feeling of invincibility you get from breaking the cultural mores with a large group of people. Plus wishing people a Happy Friday and good weekend hundreds of times puts anyone in a good mood.

No specific plans for tomorrow, although I'll go to school to beat the heat, and also get things done. As in work things I've been putting off. Hopefully I'll get some cleaning done too. I also need to hang out with Liv before she leaves for Madison.

Right now I need to sleep, though. I need write these a little sooner, methinks, so I don't always feel like I'm cutting them short, and so I'm awake and alert enough to philosophize more clearly.