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strange thoughts on a train

2003-02-28 - 11:44 p.m.

[I wrote most of this entry on my Zaurus while on BART, which was a bit of a challenge. Especially when the same button I use to exit an application would do a "quit and abandon changes" on my half-written entry.]

I woke up yesterday in the middle of the night. Or so I thought - it was dark, I was still quite tired. But then I looked at the clock and it was nearly 6. this wouldn't normally be a problem, but I had to get up in half an hour. 8am is just too early to have to be anywhere.

Not getting enough sleep always has a toll on my day. I was reviewing a paper, and I had just the hardest time understanding it. Granted, it wasn't written particularly well, but my brain was simply moving too slowly. I finally had to give up on work by mid-afternoon. It didn't help that my eyes hurt, from not wearing my glasses for too long, so even the surfing I was doing to take a break was straining. Fortunately, my gf got off work early, so I got to hang out with her for a while, albeit spending much of that time on an agitated debate about affirmative action. She is adamantly opposed to it, while I was arguing the position that it's more of a double-edged sword.

We met up with friends for dinner, after which we trekked up the hill to my friend P's (not the same P I got engaged to, for those keping track) coop room for his birthday party. Except he wasn't there yet, so we had to wait. This gave much surprise to his friends, who dropped by to wish him a happy birthday, and found ten strange people in his room, and no P. They were even more surprised to find out about our social groups admittedly complicated origins, and that we meet every Thursday. I guess it is kind of strange; it just seems completely normal to me, since it's been a constant part of my life for the past four and a half years.

Anyway, eventually P arrived, and a good time was had by all. We even had ice cream with blueberries. We spent some time hanging out, and either I was too out of it then, or I am too out of it now, but I don't remember much of what we talked about. I know it involved pudding... I was so tired that I ended up leaving just as people were getting ready to explore the house hot tub. What a scarilege!

Now reading: The Tipping Point, by Malcolm Gladwell.