sunday january 27 2002    |    3:37 a.m.

this week i finally got that excitement i was looking for two entries ago. at least a mild version thereof. i've managed to get out of the house every night since tuesday, which is both liberating, when out, and maddening, when returned back home.

most notably, i suppose, at least for myself, i met a guy on wednesday. johnny took denise and me out to dinner at his place of work, the melting pot, and our waiter turned out to be very very cute. and we started talking and pretty soon he'd just come by for any or no reason, to ask me a question, whatever. and as it turned out we had all these things in common ( and, yes, he was very very cute ). and he's kind of shy and very dry-humored and just the right amount of pretentious ( an english major, after all ) and cynical and we smoke the same brand of ghetto-fabulous cigarettes and there were tattoos peeking out from under the long sleeves of his shirt and rowr. right.

so we were his last table and then he was going home. he was clearing things away and he handed me a comment card. ( you have to appreciate the cheesy slickness of these maneuvers, now. come on. ) i asked him who'd see it and he said usually the server and the management, but in this case, only he would. hey now! so i wrote down my phone number and city of residence in the designated places and a little note about hanging out and whatnot, and he took the card. a few minutes later he walked by and said "so i'm gonna have to drive to miami beach, then?" cute, right? somehow johnny talked to him before he left, and waiterboy was supposedly all excited. ok.

well, he still hasn't called. sigh and a half. he's officially exceeded his swingers-the-movie allotted guy time to call a girl back ( two days ), which is ridiculous anyway, but hey, i'm flexible. figures that i'd meet a seemingly cool boy after a million months of meeting no boys at all, and then nothing. no follow-through. bleh.

but back to the good things. denise and johnny and i have spent almost every waking second of the week together, which has been lovely. driving around coconut grove tuesday, dinner and boy on wednesday, free movie screening courtesy of tickets from my workplace and then drinks on thursday, johnny's motel room birthday bash friday.

tonight was low-key coffee night on lincoln road with papo. peoplewatched, smoked too many cigarettes as usual, had overpriced espresso-and-liquor drinks, talked smack, windowshopped.

and i'm afraid here ends my week of leisure and debauchery, since tomorrow johnny's starting work again and i don't go back to the grind 'til next thursday. this is where the maddening part comes in. the routine waking up cooking lunch for dad sitting around whittling away time. i could be doing semi-productive things like continuing the odyssey that is cleaning and reorganizing my room, or looking for work, or putting together the application for a certain freelance writing possibility, but no, of course not: me, productive? that's a good one.

at least i'll have time to pick up dave eggers again. to be heartbroken and staggered. oh dave.

papo has successfully managed to weasel that no doubt "hey baby" song into my sub- and conscious mind. the beats are playing loop-like in my head way way too often. the sly and robbie production makes me feel a little less like a loser, and there's the whole bounty killer breakdown. but still. no doubt? dude. what do you think, dawgus? all of this reminds me that at some point i should read the spirit of '69 book that's been moldering away on my bookshelves for a couple of years now.

anyway. shouldn't've had that espresso after all, huh.