"Caviar is like a good explosion in your mouth!"

After lunch, I hung around my brother's for a few hours before we went to Regent so he could drop off a couple of books while borrowing some more. He was reading Right Behind: A Parody of Last Days Goofiness (a parody of the Left Behind series) by Nathan D. Wilson, which I now want to read. We were also listening to Nude on the Moon: The B-52s Anthology while waiting at Nathan's, which is a great CD. Then we went to Videomatica, where he rented Control Room and Breathless. After that, we met Nathan at Danielle's so we could carpool to the restaurant. (Vivian, Karen, Dawn, and Jen joined us for dinner... Phil and Erin joined us later) I gave Dawn a Bathroom Reader, but I don't know if she'll have time to read it, given the condition of most Chinese washrooms! (we joked that she could read it in prison when people took her for ransom!) Nathan got her a blacklight currency detector (perfect for spotting fake money in China!) and a ScapeGoat thing.

I ordered a Rasputin vodka, which came in a little shotglass. Jon and Jen got more bang for their buck with beers on tap, but you can get that anytime! For the one time I'll probably be at the Rasputin, I want it to be authentic. *nod* (this explains why I also ordered borscht and chicken slashlik... the latter came on a REAL sword kebab, which posed danger problems!) There was SO MUCH food that we couldn't finish it all! The sampler appetizer plate that Danielle and Karen split was huge already! (never mind that they couldn't tell what Russian salads or meat they were eating, since it was so dark in there!) Then Nathan, Jon, and Jen split some salmon caviar... Danielle said that the caviar was like a good explosion in your mouth! (thus the subject line) Vivian had some blinis, and Jon had cabbage rolls. Nathan said that we could save one dollar for each caviar egg we found and ate.. yup, we can be Chinese when we want! ;)

A bunch of us want to see Broken Flowers, so I hope Jon lets me know when they decide to see it. I found out that he couldn't have invited me to the Cat's Meow dinner a couple weeks ago, since it was Justin's birthday party. (Justin DID invite me to his birthday party a few years ago, but that also happened to be Billy and Stella's banquet... contrary to popular belief, I did NOT get sloshed on Napoleon Brandy that night.... :P But Mel DID say he could smell the alcohol on me from a foot away... *blink*) We talked about how Nathan wants a whole bunch of groomsmen at his wedding... his brother Daniel and HIS best friend Vernon has precedent for it! (and having a bunch of bridesmaids would help balance it out) The most Jon has ever seen is six, but Nathan was talking like he wanted 14! ("Uh, where's the congregation?" "Oh, they're all up on stage!" haha) Then we got into who WE wanted as groomsmen / bridesmaids at our own weddings... let's just say Nathan has some picked out, but this is a man with many close friends! We were also discussing who we wanted as pallbearers at our funerals, haha!

Danielle was saying how it would be fun to be pregnant (another life growing inside of you would be great... and we don't mean bacteria, either! :P ), and Jon warned Jen that she couldn't drink or smoke during pregnancy! Of course, being pregnant in the academic world doesn't mean much: they'll give you a year's maternity leave maybe as specified in law, but you're still expected to publish and make a contribution! Parental leave for fathers has been improved, but no place is very likely to give you two years' maternity leave! Then Nathan said that he was glad to not be like Arnold Schwarzenegger: a pregnant man would be really fat and not able to see well when he peed! (that led us on a tangent about squatting / covering toilet seats when we went to the bathroom) We talked about trips, bubble tea (after all that food?!), the pouring rain outside, conferences, weird names (Chastity Belton?!), drinking alcohol, phone calls from both Erics, plus other assorted subjects before we paid the bill and left. (I almost forgot my knapsack in there... good thing we loitered! I think alcohol makes me ditzy lately... o_O )

We had to drive illegally since there were six of us in the car: me, Jon, Nate, Jen, Dawn, and Danielle. Luckily, three of us were discharged at Danielle's... we experienced perfect timing at Dawn's since my knapsack was in Nathan's trunk. (reminds me of the last time I was in a car with more than the allowed number of passengers, on the way to MissionsFest 2003: me, Nathan, Jon, Eric M., Jessica, and Yazmine) On the way home, I told my brother that the B-52s didn't quite fit the buckets of rain outside. He switched to Loretta Lynn's newest (Van Lear Rose), the one that Jack White helped produce. Then we discussed farting, Wikipedia, world records, and such before finally dropping me off. I think I've found a way to open the front door: turn right, then left. Something like that, anyhow. :P


I can only please one person a day.
Today is not your day.
Tomorrow isn't looking good, either.
(Nathan's quote on his T-shirt that he got for $10... very angsty!)