Grinding Forward

    Good night last night. A nap, followed by a long talk with a close friend, followed by several hours of excellent sleep.
    Tough morning. Restless.
    Lunch out with Mom. Chinese buffet. What's the deal with 'those of a certain age' and buffet restaurants? My parents can't get enough of them. I don't understand the fascination, but if she's buying, I'm eating and not complaining.
    Major, serious, heart-to-heart discussion after lunch.
    I think she understands my perspective now. She might not agree with me, but she's not looking at me alternately with veiled confusion and fury.
    Our conversation ended when I left to meet A&E (and their unbelievably gorgeous son) at a restaurant. They were eating dinner and I just had a drink and sort of grazed off of their plates. It was so great to see E, with whom I haven't had a chance to really talk in forever. This was my first visit with 'Junior,' too, and he's just irrationally cute. Sort of boisterous, but not in an annoying way at all. Endearing, really. And it's always good to see A. I wished for more time to spend with them.
    Isn't it funny, though? While driving back here I realized that I've known E since I was 9 years old. That's 25 years, people. Twenty-five years. How many other friends have I had for that long?
    Easy to answer: one--J.F.
    But E's different. (In more ways than one, really.) There's no way to explain it without getting into more than I want to share, and more than you'd want to read. Suffice it to say, I'm utterly amazed, still, to be the recipient of that light.

[side note: A's brother Josh, a.k.a. Two O'Clock Man, is single again. Hmmm. Not that I'm thinking anything in that direction, but if I were, that would be interesting information. Which, of course, it isn't, because I'm not. But it was mentioned to me, more than once, just incidentally.]

    Post E&A, dinner with Mom & Dad. Basically the same as last night, only Mom was copacetic with The Situation. We watched the Nextel Cup (i.e. Nascar) race during and after the meal. And in a desultory fashion spoke about...things. Not in any real way, of course. So Dad's officially out of the loop until Mom fills him in, presumably tomorrow [evening] after work.
    Departure tomorrow around 1:PM. Should get me back to the homestead around 6-ish, assuming I'm slackin', which I probably will be. As weird as this weekend's been, it's still home, and I fucking hate leaving. And there's no great fire in the belly to get me back there. My bedroom's a disaster from packing in a frenzy, I've one hellishly confused bathroom (tiny tubes & bottles strewn on every available surface) in need of some organization before use on a work day, and oh, yeah, Monday's a regular work day. I also have a book checked out from the College that's so overdue that I have fines due--'cause their overdues trump my staff privileges, although my cataloging authorizations trump their overdues, so I don't exactly have fines due anymore, and it's no longer due when it had been due.... But I really should get it back to them on Monday. And it's a book of Indian [i.e. from India] poetry, thicker than my arm and more dense than a statute, so it's not exactly 'skim' reading. Yargh. What was I thinking? Another late night.
    So. Grinding forward, indeed. The progress may be slow, but it's still progress, yes?