veni, vidi, bibi

went out last night to see the reunion of the Termites, although actually it was pretty much just the Boddingtons calling themselves the Termites for the name recognition. i mean, it's three of the same guys anyway, so who cares?

it was good to get out of the house and see people. spent a while talking to Jeff, who's having even more job trouble than i am, and has been selling off his unused gear on eBay and is thinking about going back to bartending. ran into JB from the Back Pages and hung out with him talking about famous people he's worked sound crew for (Isaac Hayes! Jefferson Airplane!) and drinking too many margaritas. spent some time talking to Ron as well, and invited him and Jeff to my James Coburn Memorial Film Festival, but i'm sure neither of them will actually show up.

oddly enough, several guys talked to me. one insisted on high-fiving me for no apparent reason and then asked if i was with the band. i said, "no, but i know them well enough to tell them when they suck." but he seemed uninterested in continuing the conversation, so i went and sat down. later, some birthday-partiers dragged me onto the dance floor to dance with one of their friends, but the song had just ended. later in the evening, though, he asked me to dance, and we did. and it was fun! but afterward he just hugged me and said thanks and went back to his friends, didn't even ask my name.

then a very cute guy sat down at my table and introduced himself as Jason. he asked if he could try on my hat (i had my Greek fisherman's cap on, and most of the band ended up wearing it for at least one song, although it looked hilarious perched on Ron's big ol' head -- i only wear a size 7 hat). the hat looked pretty silly on Jason too. but we chatted a bit about the band, and he asked what i was reading. so i showed him, and he said, "heavy!", and asked what it was about. after i explained it to him (it's a memoir of a south african surgeon who's spent a lot of time working in war zones), he said "heavy" again and then got up and said he had to go.

i'm still trying to figure out what these interactions were about. i mean, it was nice to be chatted up, and to dance with someone, but i couldn't figure out whether any of these guys were actually expressing interest or whether they just noticed me because the band kept sitting with me between sets or what. i guess they were just being friendly. i have so little clue in social situations. i'm always trying to read something into every interaction, and i make it stressful for myself.

anyway, thanks to JB i had more margaritas than i really ought to have had, and when i left i wasn't really feeling up to driving, so i thought i'd take a walk around the neighborhood. and while i walked, i got to thinking about when i asked Jeff out and he LJBF'd me, and about those guys who talked to me in the bar and wondering why none of them seemed to want to talk for more than a minute, and suddenly i was hit by this crushing loneliness and ended up sitting down on the steps to a building and crying my eyes out for about 15 minutes. people walked by but ignored me, thank god. so eventually i pulled myself together, and walked around a little more, and then i felt better so i got the car and went home.

but i'm still analyzing, even though i know i should just write off all those guys as "just being friendly" and enjoy the fact that i had some social interaction with people i didn't know already that didn't involve being drooled on or pawed. it was a fun evening. but i can't stop wondering if i did or said something wrong, and maybe one of those guys would have wanted to talk longer if i hadn't done this mysterious wrong thing that i think i did.

argh.

dinner report

took a chicken breast (bone-in), brushed it with olive oil, sprinkled some salt and pepper, and sprinkled it liberally with finely chopped fresh thyme, rosemary, and parsley (my sage plant died). put it in the oven at 350F for 55 minutes. about 20 minutes in, i peeled and cut into thirds two small potatoes and put them in water to boil, and another 10 minutes later i took two cloves of garlic (unpeeled), drizzled with olive oil, and wrapped them in some foil and stuck them in the oven next to the chicken.

when the the timer went off, i took the chicken and garlic out of the oven. drained the potatoes and tossed in a tablespoon of butter. while i waited for that to melt, i squeezed the roasted garlic from the cloves and minced a little more parsley. mashed the potatoes, then added the garlic, parsley, a little milk, and plenty of salt and pepper. i poured the juices from the chicken breast over the potatoes and devoured.

it was good.