Insanity and Beer

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting a different result. I think I'm driving myself insane over Laura G., and for no good reason. I just wish she'd keep in touch better, since I feel like I'm left hanging. I think I'm just getting impatient because I want to spend more time with her and get to know her better. Shit, I know she's into me, and is just really busy and maybe not the best respondent. Time, time, time, time, time. Repeat. Get that into your fucking head, Darren.

I spent over $130 on beer last night, and then had to go warm up the car during Fast n Loud so it wouldn't freeze (the beer, not the car). Travis's beer froze after leaving it out on the steps for 45 minutes. My beer was safe.

I went to my parents' little dinner party tonight, had some super-succulent pepper-crusted filet mignon. Couldn't imagine a better steak. Kamiar gave me half a case of Special Export since he didn't want to take it home. Cheap beer to hand out at Critical Mass, maybe? We'll see. I don't think I've ever bought beer in cans.

Wardrobe (mal)function.

I got dressed today. It's fucking cold. I put on track pants, and thick socks, and my thickest sneakers. And a wool hat. Except my hat and shoes are blue and my socks are bright orange. Today is the Stupidbowl and the Bears are playing. I'm kind of annoyed that I inadvertently dressed to show support when I have none, but fuck if I'm going to change for fashion's sake.

Books, Vitality, and Decay

I went to my parents' place last night, primarily to do laundry, but also a free dinner wasn't looked down upon. I ended up snagging six books off their bookshelves, to add to my to-be-read shelf - if there's any room left on it. Those six are:

Eric Berne, M.D., Games People Play
George Orwell, 1984
Michael Harrington, The Other America: Poverty in the United States
Thorstein Veblen, The Theory of the Leisure Class: The Challenging Analysis of Social Conduct that Ironically Probes Misused Wealth and Conspicuous Consumption
John Kenneth Galbraith, The Affluent Society
Paul Krugman, The Age of Diminished Expectations

Add that to two the two books I'm currently reading:

Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago
Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene

And consider the rest of the shelf:

Making Stuff and Doing Things: A Collection of DIY Guides to Doing Just About Everything
Lost In Darkness: The Journal of Ordinary Thought, Spring 2002
Chicago Review 51:1/2, Spring 2005
Chicago Review 51:4 & 52:1, Spring 2006
Tri-Quarterly 122
Other Voices 43, Fall/Winter 2005
JRR Tolkien, The Silmarillion
JRR Tolkien, A Tolkien Miscellany
JRR Tolkien, The Book of Lost Tales
Lawrence Pintak, Seeds of Hate: How America's flawed Middle East Policy ignited the jihad
Andre Dubus III, The House of Sand and Fog
Paul Krugman, Peddling Prosperity
William Golding, Lord of the Flies
Thomas Gallager, Paddy's Lament: Ireland 1846-1847, Prelude to Hatred
Barry Polansky, DMD, The Art of the Examination: Why Patient Care Goes Beyond Clinical Correctness
Michael Albert, Parecon: Life After Capitalism
Another Chicago Magazine 46
Douglas Coupland, Life After God
Douglas Coupland, Polaroids From the Dead
Robin Shepard, The Best Breweries and Brewpubs of Illinois: Search For the Perfect Pint
Jon Savage, England's Dreaming: Anarchy, Sex Pistols, Punk Rock, and Beyond
Bill Bryson, A Walk In the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail
Hatred of Capitalism/ A Semiotext(e) Reader
Brian Morris, Ecology and Anarchism: Essays and Reviews on Contemporary Thought
Clinton Heylin, From the Velvets to the Voidoids: A Pre-Punk History for a Post-Punk World
Insiders' Guide: Off the Beaten Path: Chicago
Frank McCourt, Angela's Ashes
William Cronon, Nature's Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West

Obviously, I like to list and organize things. Be glad I didn't put that in alphabetical order.

Vitality:

Decay: