Paul Simon Weekend

If you took all the girls I knew. When I was single. And brought them all together for one night. I know they'd never match. My sweet imagination. And everything looks worse in black and white. Kodachrome. They give us those nice bright colors. They give us the greens of summers. Makes you think all the worlds a sunny day, oh yeah. I got a Nikon camera. I love to take a photograph. So mama don't take my kodachrome away.

I always loved that song.

Did you know, according to January's Good Housekeeping (I read it at Sears today, but I'll get to why I was there in a bit), that Olympus is recalling 35mm film cameras? These cameras might overheat and burn users when turned on. The hysterical part is that these cameras were sold between January 1989 and December 1995. So, has Olympus just ignored the problem for the last 7+ years? Just wondering.

But, anyways.

The weekend was quite the colorful adventure. Missdy had everyone over for dinner on Friday night. I left around 9:30 and headed up to Rockville to chill, watch television, and play Scrabble with friends for a low-key alternative to a night out. I left around 1:30am to drive home, dead sober (fyi Mom).

I was making sure I understood the directions and driving pretty slow on the local side of 270 South when I felt my driver's side tire blow. I pulled over to the shoulder, and stepped out to see the damage. My tire had popped right off the axle.

On the phone to a friend:

"Isn't this how the horror movie starts?" I half-joked, "The killer slashes my tires than follows me until I pull over on the side of the road. Then he kills me."

"I'd be more scared of the mechanic coming to change your tire in the middle of the night," he said to calm me down. Wonderful. I was jumpier than Hayden Panettiere in a cheer leading skirt.

After an hour of waiting, I'd gotten in touch with my mom who'd called Allstate and found out that they couldn't find one garage out of 20 in the area that would come before 4 hours. Lucky enough plenty of tow places take Visa. 411 gave me the number for Steve Geyers Towing and Transportation in Germantown, MD. The nicest man ever was there in less that 20 minutes. All ladies reading this, right down the number and save it.

I'm still irritated at Allstate. The exact purpose of a motor club membership (what the commercial would totally show) is a single, attractive, 20-something girl with a flat tire on a dark highway in the middle of the night. A 45-year-old man who walks out to his parking spot during the day in the suburbs to find a flat tire doesn't need the motor club.

That's why I was at Sears today. 2 new tires and 1 new battery.

I went to be at 5am on Friday night. I woke up at 2pm on Saturday. Kate and I spotted a mouse in the apartment. The damn girls up stairs bought a used couch which we're sure was a cocoon for this little grey thing. It ran from the kitchen to the living room... then into the bathroom... then down the hall and straight into my bedroom. I screamed at the top of my lungs and jumped on a chair with my cell phone. My landlord was over to put down glue traps an hour later. Our options are limited.

1) The mouse eats poison and dies somewhere. Probably in the walls. Worse, in my sock drawer.
2) The mouse gets stuck to glue and lives until we find it. Then what? Do we let it free or feed it to a snake?
3) The mouse goes into a trap meant to catch him. The trap door 50% of the time comes down too soon and chops the mouse in half. Mouse guts.

Kate's promised me she'll deal with the glued mouse. My apartment has about 50 traps throughout it. The mouse has avoided all of them.

I met Vive and Kix at the Dupont Metro to go to a CAN flag football party at the Crystal City Sports Pub. Luckily, the Master had let me pretend to be her so that I could get in without paying $15 (for non-football players). All that was included for admission was food and beer. I don't drink beer and only ate a hot dog, so I'm glad I didn't have to pay.

The bar was packed full of a wide variety of ages, diversity, and looks. JK and JM met us there. JK has declared that this year she's getting herself on a winning football and softball team. She's intensely competitive. She's also under five-foot and 100 pounds. Reminds me of the Giant saying last week that he knows he's in trouble when himself 10 years ago could definitely kick his ass now. That's sort of where I am these days.

After Crystal City, we metroed up to a gathering in the Camden Roosevelt's gorgeous party room to meet AM and his Bama friend (my new favorite person). Several more alcoholic beverages later, we wandered up to Bossa in Adams Morgan for salsa and 90s music. The Pea left a work function and met us there. I was so excited when my new Bama friend said, "okay but before we do anything, I'm going to need a drink!" Ah, Alabamians. Best thing since Bud Light.

Kix and I left Bossa around 1:30pm. The Pea-nut gallery was still there. I can't say why I'm calling them that now. They're reading this. They know. AM texting Vive. Can't bring ya'll anywhere, tehe.

Anyways.

And today, I drove through the snow to Sears. It's beginning to look a lot like winter. Finally.

Oh, and one more thing, check out PlanetLove by CARGO completely all purpose lip gloss at Sephora. The Lindsay Lohan color is so nice, and "the outer carton is made of biodegradable flower paper, infused with real flower seeds - simply moisten, plant, and wait for a bouquet of wild flowers to grow!" Is that not so gogo Gadget!