October 1, 1999

I'm feeling much better today. Yesterday was good for me. I highly recommend just taking random days off every so often. It's best if you don't plan them, because if you plan your days off, you'll just wind up filling them with plans for stuff you need to get done. Forget that stuff. You can do that stuff later. On your unplanned day off, go to the bookstore. Go eat sushi. Watch bad TV. Read a book. Do fun stuff. It's worth it, I promise.

I did all of those things yesterday. After I decided that I wasn't going to work, Keith and me showered together (more cleanliness-oriented than romance-oriented, but still fun) and then I played Civ II for awhile. Keith pointed out that since I was home and we had the car, this would be a good day for us to get the tires replaced. I said, sure, that sounds okay.

We went to the first tire place and wound up not buying any tires, but we did buy a wheel (we needed it for the full-size spare we want to get. We hate donut spares). After that, I thought we were going to drive straight to the next tire place, since Keith seemed pretty into the concept of shopping around to find a good price. Instead, he drove home so that he could "call around to various places".

There was much sighing on my part. This was not how I had envisioned my day off. So Keith spent maybe half an hour tooling around on the Internet looking for tire place web pages with quotes and estimates, and then I interrupted him.

"Hon," I said. (Whenever one of us starts out with "Hon" or "Darling" or "Light of my life" and nothing else, it's a sign that there's an issue coming up in the next sentence).

"Hon. I really don't want to go to a bunch of tire places today. Can't we just go to one and get our tires and leave it at that?"

Keith said, "Well, I guess we could, but even if we did that, I think we have to make an appointment or something. Doesn't it take an hour or so to fix tires?"

I pictured myself spending an hour sitting in a tire place. I was not happy. Luckily for both of us, Keith realized that I was unhappy, and suggested that perhaps we could put off the whole tire-finding expedition for another day when I was in a better mood, or maybe even at work.

I said that I thought that was a good idea. We spent the rest of the day doing fun things that did not involve tires in any way, shape, or form (except that we took the car, which has tires on it, but you know what I mean).

We went to the framing place to get the jigsaw puzzle framed, and right next door there was a used bookstore. Used bookstores are like black holes to me. They draw me in, and I cannot escape their pull, and then I disappear for a long time until it spits me out again. Actually, I think that's a wormhole, not a black hole. Anyway, it was a cool little bookstore.

They had a bunch of old software in a rack out front that was selling for two bucks apiece. Keith and me picked up some old Sierra games and clip art and stuff, because who can resist software for two bucks, even it's old and crappy and probably won't run on your machine? Not us, that's for sure.

We also got a Kim Stanley Robinson book and.. "The Happy Hooker" by Xaviera Hollander.

What can I say? The bookstore had a great "erotica" section. They had a copy of "Justine", "Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure", and a whole crapnacopia of other good erotic literature. It was really outstanding. I settled for "The Happy Hooker", but promised myself I would be back later for more.

After the bookstore, we went in search of food. I hadn't eaten since a bowl of Cocoa Puffs at like 9AM, and it was now approaching 4PM, so I was pretty hungry. I was sort of in the mood for sushi, but the only sushi place Keith felt good about eating at was all the way in the U-district ("not very close", for you non Seattleites), so we drove for awhile more and thought about our options.

Suddenly a sign loomed before us for a sushi place, and we were both so hungry that we decided to stop. Keith doesn't really like sushi, but heck, sushi places have other stuff to eat too, and we were getting desperate. We got out of the car, walked up to the door, and... it was closed. Lunch ended at 2 and dinner didn't start until 5.

Back into the car. Keith asked me how hungry I was, and I said I was ravenous. He said, OK, then we should go ahead and go downtown to the Mongolian barbecue. I said, that sounds like a good idea. Even though it wasn't particularly close, I was in the mood to eat a LOT of food.

After what seemed like several days, we finally made it downtown. There it was, looming before us like Mecca, redolent of sauces and chicken and all sorts of other yummy smells. Finally, we were going to be able to eat!

I got out of the car without waiting for Keith and headed toward the door. It was locked. Closed for lunch at 3 and not open for dinner until 6.

You know those movies where they show someone screaming and the camera pulls farther and farther back until it shows that the whole world can hear the scream? Okay.

Back into the car. We were now not too far from the original sushi place that Keith had suggested, so we headed for that section of town. Because there is a benevolent God in the heavens, it was not closed for lunch. I ordered a plate of sushi AND a big ol' plate of tempura vegetables, and finished them both. It was most satisfying.

On the way home in the car I read from "The Happy Hooker" to Keith. It's not exactly great literature, but it sure did keep us entertained until we got home.

Then we found ways to keep ourselves entertained.

Happy October, everyone!

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