GIRL ON GIRL = Entertain Me

Its been one of those nights, the kind that leave you wobbly in the morning, filled with eighty percent smiles, ten percent regret and another ten percent of stuff you’ll realize later down. I’m at the GIANT food store in Columbia Heights, and my mini shopping cart reminds me that I’m not really that aware of what I’m doing. A quick peek into my basket would reveal a bag of Tostitos, shredded cheese, oatmeal cookies, Raisin Bran and some spaghetti. My head is throbbing a bit—Fridays will do that to you—and I realize I’m hobbling around with a post-inebriated gait. Ignoring the occasional glimpse I get from people (they must be wondering why the dude in the really cool jacket is walking so funny) I gather my things and prepare to leave, when I run into a friend of mine. He gives me a once over.

I don’t live in Columbia Heights. He does.

I’m sharply dressed doing afternoon shopping. He is in a hooded sweater with jeans and dirty sneakers. I save him from having to ask any questions.

“I’m still drunk.” I say.

“Nice.” He replies.

I briefly run through the events of the night. Girls kissing girls, me getting entangled with one of the girls who was kissing a girl, lots of drinking, hanging out with friends and eventually passing out on a couch.

“Nice.” He says again.

I notice that he has typical party material in his basket: Two cheap sodas, cups and some vodka. He tells me to come by his party later. I say “sure…” and wish him a good day. There are two parties slated for tonight. If I go, I won’t be drinking.

In the grocery line, I find myself staring at a place outside that says “Georgetown Valet” for what seems like an eternity, then I pay for my items and go. I sit on my bike, and my mind briefly flashes back my friend’s apartment. We were pre-gaming before heading to a bar (I was pre-gaming more heavily) and the conversation was about boys. It was me, Miss J and Miss M.

“So I met this guy.” Miss M says. “He is such a Jew… and you know I love Jews!”

She chirps a cute laugh.

“Yes, you are a Jew lover. But you know his mother will never let you marry him because you are Italian.” Miss J replies.

“Ah… my Jew boys, I love them.”

“What’s his name?” Miss J asks.

“Eli.” She replies.

I raise an eyebrow. Well it could be a Jewish name.

“Hrm, is he as Jewish as you know, Jesus?”

(she pronounces ‘Jesus’ as “Hey-soose”)

“No, no, no, “miss M replies. “He isn’t Mexican.”

I laugh to myself, watching the drunk conversation. We are almost ready to head out, and Miss M explains her rationale for the guys she dates. Apparently, as an Italian, she wanted to rebel against her parents by dating more Anglo-esque guys.

“I like pale, freckly boys with no hair. “ she says, flashing me a quick smile.

“No hair… you mean bald?” I ask.

“No, I meant no body hair.”

I laugh again, I really am a guy. She continues.

“Yes, every boy I’ve brought home my parents don’t like. All these blue-eyed hairless boys.”

She we go through a series of discussions about body hair, including information on how hairy her father is, which I find hilarious. She also mentions that her parents are “probably totally racist”. She said that when she told her mother she supported Barack Obama, her mother replied. “You know he’s black right?” Miss M says she then said: “Oh, he’s half-black mom.” To which her mother replied. “That’s half too much.” She then tells me a brief story about New Jersey and the migration of blacks into certain communities which threatened jobs and such. The information comes out in a stream—I drink all the while she tells me this—and for some reason I keep thinking about the Sopranos while she’s talking.

Miss J returns from her bedroom and sits on the counter of her kitchen sink.

“Don’t you rebel Marcus?”

I think about it for a second while the girls discuss another friend of theirs.

“You know,” Miss M says, “That friend of mine, in high school she had a black boyfriend, that was her rebellion.”

Miss J tosses the question back at me.

“Are you rebelling against your parents by dating white girls?” she says.

“Well I can’t say I’m rebelling per se.” I reply.

“I’ve always been an equal-opportunist, and I think who you date sometimes depend on who you hang out with the most.”

I make mention of my “Asian period” when I hung with a ton of Japanese people pretty heavily, a pleasant side-effect was a number of Asian girlfriends.

“So I think its relative…. But I must admit I probably shy away from some things that remind me of Jamaica. So in a way, socially I guess we all rebel in one way or another.”

By this point I’ve had two glasses of wine and three beers in the space of ten minutes.

HOME : I think about the conversation briefly as I carry my bike inside. Then I think about the bar.

BAR: The hours that followed after the pre-gaming session were a blur. All I know is that I think I was grossly overcharged for my tab (I had three Guinness’s and a PBR….wait I think my tab was right!) and then my friends bought me a few more drinks. I touched the hair of a bartender I know. It was normally blonde and it was an interesting brown colour. Kind of hot. People buy me drink while I do the same, which creates a nice sprialling effect for the next few hours which—

I’m in the Bar standing near the wall with my friend. We talk about the usual stuff, the week, work, life etcetera. I’m surveying the room, thinking of who, if anyone I feel like approaching. I approach anyone I want to generally, and with my growing buzz (which would lead me to certain ruin) my confidence was much higher than normal.

“I’ll be back.” I say to my friend, and head to the bar.

At the bar, I meet a girl named Erin, and accidentally call her cheap. (Note: Do not ask a girl if she works at a non-profit after she tells you she is buying the drinks because they cost much less money. )

I run into Liz, a girl I’ve been seeing at this very spot once a week. She gives me a perfunctory smile as I walk by. I run into miss J and miss M, who are hanging with this guy named Dave. Dave is wearing a full khaki suit, which I find interesting. The conversation lags a bit, then I return to my friend. The conversation goes into BS some more, then I’m ready.

A set of girls are in front of me, one or two of them give me a little smile. Suddenly, the crowd erupts into a roar of cheering and whooping. Apparently its someone’s birthday—and my buddy and I exchange confused looks.

“What’s going on?” I say to the group directly in front of me. A short girl who reminds me of an Elf replies.

“Its Beth’s birthday!” she says.

In seconds Beth arrives. I wish her happy birthday and she extends a hand to shake mine.

“I don’t shake people’s hands when its their birthday. Come here!” I give her a warm hug and chit-chat with her and her friends for a few. After that last Guinness, the night gets a little blurry. At some point during the night, a hand touches me on my back. It is Sam, a cute girl I met at a REALLY wack party last week.

“Marcus!” she says, giving me a hug.

“Sam!” I reply with equal gusto.

Another body floats by us almost a little too fast, its Tara, another girl I met at the same party. She’s Sam’s friend. I squeeze the muscle behind her forearm gently. Always gets attention.

“I sent you an e-mail this evening.’ I say to her.

“Ah, no way man! Nice try!” she says, and walks off.

The truth is, I did send her an e-mail. Regardless, my buddy decides to leave and I realize that I’m getting drunk. At this point I know I cannot safely ride my bike home, creaky and non-functional as it is. I touch miss J, letting her know that I’ll be crashing at her place. In the next thirty minutes, not only do I hit on Miss J, prompting her to say “If we do that, we won’t be friends anymore,” I hit on the girlfriend of a guy I know in a very roundabout way. She reminds me of an Actress on TV and I always remind her of it. I went just a bit too much this time. Then shortly before I left, a lot of girls started to kiss one another. (This tends to happen a lot at 2 a.m I realize). This time I wasn’t going to be left out. On of the really friendly ladies is Liz. With alcohol fueling me, I try to initiate a three way kiss with the girls, but the friend isn’t’ having it. She smiles at me then darts across the room and begins kissing another girl. I settle for Liz.

Soon afterwards, Sam tells me I should totally go for Tara and try to kiss her. I repeat this statement to Tara verbatim. She reminds me about the e-mail while grabbing her coat. I laugh. At this point I THINK I got a girl’s number… but for the life of me I can’t remember. I think I remember saying “So yeah, we should hang out.” But everything else is fuzzy. By the time I reach back to miss J’s place, (they almost left me) I’m hit full-on by the effects of drinking twelve or so dense beers in the space of an hour. What follows isn’t worth typing.

HOME – I’m drinking water and preparing to watch an episode of Stargate Atlantis. Two parties tonight? Hrm… can anyone say, “Rock n’ Roll?”

Asian Invasion and the Jesus Cock Block

Alas, it is Saturday, and i'm a little pained up after a long day, and an even longer night. Hardcore soccer after six months of not playing will do that to any man, but going to a club and fighting the futile fight is also a pretty draining experience. (At some point in the night someone WILL be cockblocked by "Jesus").

Ibiza is a relatively new club on first street in DC near the greyhound station. When we pull up, the line isn't very long, but then again we are hellishly early for club time, being there at 10:05 to get in free. The first thing I notice is that at least 70% of people in the line, or working at the front are Asian. I know a Korean girl I met over the summer said she had a job at Ibiza, but I didn't realize it was part of some, unseen Asian coalition. After a few minutes of idle conversation in the line, we enter.

I was 25% impressed. Only 25 because I don't like going to clubs for a myriad reasons. Secondly, when you step in there is a HUGE dounut shaped lounge area recessed into the floor. It looks pretty cool, but unless I was lucky that night, I probably wouldn't be sitting there. I didn't walk into the club going "wow", but more like "hrm". It was part warehouse meets hotel lounge.

The crowd at first was pretty mixed. A smattering of Black,White,Asian and Latino people. However, this would change drastically within only an hour of reaching the club. After another 45 minutes passed, I felt as If I was at a club in a foreign country. Almost everyone in the immediate vicinity was Asian. Many of the bartenders were hot Japanese-looking chicks, or part-time Asian male models, and a large number of the patrons on the dance floor were Asian as well. Now, I don't mind the Asian thing, I've even dated a few Asian girls, but this was taking the club thing to an extreme. Not only do I dislike clubs because sometimes being a minority in certain clubs either really goes in your favor, or makes you the really awkward sweaty black guy dancing too fast in the middle of the club, but this was crazy.

I was in a majority minority situation.

I didn't want to go to the club. I dislike clubs because they are very impersonal, overtly superficial and 99% a waste of my time. Though I might be wrong, I'm convinced that the nature of clubs only work for people who are (a) extremely attractive (b) a part of the social group in the club (c) club owners and affiliates. Either way, as the night went on my friends and I had a few stilted conversations with girls that ended up ignoring us (go figure) and then, jaded and disgruntled, I put forward the option to head to Wonderland.
Wonderland, as usual, was supposed to be my Friday night outing. Wonderland's weird, almost Dimension X feel draws me in and makes me feel relaxed. There I know I can have fun. Big club full of cute Asian girls in the middle of DC? No chance.

When we are heading out we find out they have lost my friend's credit card and his driver's license. This adds another 30 minutes to our Wonderland departure time. For our wait, we are given a few bottles of water to drink( I swear someone got maced somewhere in the area, but they say that's not club policy), but then a bouncer tells us we can't leave the club with the bottles of water. At this point I don't care. I've already resigned myself to the fact that I won't go to a club for a long, long time. I can never understand the atmosphere. Maybe its just me. Sometimes I think I am a cell-phone/club pariah.
Yes, a pariah.
Its not the most inspiring thought, but its all I can come up with. The club scene is a bit gay. Gay in the way that makes a guy feel like a loser when really he's only a loser at big clubs :p
We head to Wonderland and reach there around 1:45 a.m. Even at that late hour, things are still swinging and I feel like slapping myself for going to Ibiza and spending too much money on drinks that cost half the price at Wonderland. The after effects of a work-laden-patronage-out-on-the-town are obvious. People are still chatting excitedly, a lot of people are drunk, and all around people seem "happy". I know if I had come there at 11, I might have been there just in time to meet a nice little lady, just itching to chill with a Jamaican.

Sad.

We go upstairs and my friend follows this Filipina looking girl with a great body. She was wearing something that loooked like Moccasins, which was odd for early Fall fashion, but it worked. My friend kept commenting on her ass, and how great it was. Personally, I was in a blurry place. After a long stressful week, my Friday was completely wasted. The images that kept running through my head were seeing the single Asian guys that came in, all have girls on their arms about the time we were leaving.
"Argh!" I shouted.
My friend was trying to squeeze in on the girl with the indian boots, when Jesus (I kid you not) zooms in front of him, effectively creating a wedge between them both. "Damn," my friend said.
"I got cock blocked by Jesus." I laughed when I heard this. The guy was the splitting image of the stereotypical white-jesus. Long hair, fuzzy beard, calm-ish demenaour sans the halo. He was wearing a faded read shirt that read "Do it for the cookies!" (whatever that meant).
Wonderland started dying down and I ended up sitting on the stoop of my friend's place a block away in a group of five, delineating on the discourses of attractive people and how much easier their lives are(I did not initiate this conversation). We sat and we drank beers. My friend who was previously cock-blocked by Jesus found a good chatting companion in the sister of a friend of my friend. As they were talking, I could see her comfort level rising. Even being cock-blocked by Jesus wouldn't stop him this night.
After another forty-five minutes of pointless conversation, everyone was asking for food.
"Where is some fucking food!" the sister of the friend of my friend asked me. After scratching my head a bit, we ended up going to a 7-11 up the road (but not after trying to jump and grab onto a tree branch 19 feet above us...Twice.) During this time period, the sister of the friend of my friend calls my friend "cute" and shows him definite signs of interest. He is definitely "winning" as we like to say. I smile to myself, marveling how the after effect of Wonderland is so powerful, that good things flow even when we aren't there.

Then I remember that I haven't been called "cute", "attractive", or much less anything for as long as I can remember (even when I was dating ). So again, my Friday night was a waste.
But I learned two things.
(1) There are a LOT of Asian people in DC
(2) If Jesus-cock blocks you, its to point you in the direction of something garaunteed.
Today is Saturday, hopefully I can "win" this weekend, or I will jump into a pot of boiling oil, or just watch C-Span for hours on end to torture myself.

peace

Nancy Pelosi is Hot

Okay, Okay.

I'm not trying to call the Speaker of the house a total babe. I'd never do that. But she did come to my school recently, to talk about all things cool and congress like. She gave us a cool little chart (it looks like it was designed by a first year graphic design major) which outline the various things she's been able to accomplish thus far since she took the seat earlier this year. One of her main focuses are children's issues, and she even said she's trying to get a bill passed that would provide universal health care for all of America's children.

I found the presentation interesting. Firstly, I've never seen a speaker of the house, which is really cool. Secondly, the last time I was in the auditorium in the School of Business (where the presentation was held) I was listening to John Edwards speak about being president. So its back to back political speeches tosses at malleable young minds. (John Edwards does kinda 'look presidential'.... whatever that means).

I think these are the little things that make college interesting, the people who might visit, or seeing a lone squirrel run across campus trying to find a mate. Next week Barack Obama is slated to speak at Howard University's convocation, and it looks like a rough deal for me. Firstly, there are NO tickets available to students, and the few that are available are being tossed into a lottery for incoming Freshmen. I personally want to see Obama speak, but I don't want to have to sleep with the scariest looking lady in the administration building to get it.

Well....it is Obama.

Either way, this has been a very 'political' week for me. With Bush saying Mandela is dead,

watching a massive Jena 6 rally on television, talking about politics and commerce in pretty much all my classes, I feel less like a Film production major and more like Poly Sci. Hopefully next week will be easier. I've been running up and down so much (literally 10 hours a day ) that I feel fried. Just before I started this blog I had to draw up two cartoons for my school paper (which are due at 5 by the way) and then now I still have reading to do, and my stomach is completely empty.

But i'm alive and well aren't I? That's enough to be glad about. I'm thinking of turning tonight into a pre-friday Friday, meaning i'll head out and have a few drinks to loosen up a bit before the weekend REALLY starts. In terms of writing, I've been trying to plot my project for National Novel Writing month. I'm stuck right now between a few ideas, about an Immortal, something to do with a game indians used to play, or another non-fiction project. Time will tell.

Maybe I should just sleep, and dream about Sirens giving me foot massages shortly before they eat me.

peace

The Futile Fight

The project i've been mentioning intermittently in these blogs (Three Weeks and Hurricane) is my first real attempt at writing non-fiction. It has to deal with me, and me trying to find out my next step in life, by using a month in Jamaica for that EXACT purpose. Now, to make life easier next time I feel like writing non-fiction, I will write essays (probably short blogs) to capture some prevailing thoughts of mine, so that as time passes I'll find it easier to write non-fiction. To me, even non-fiction must have some kind of story, or a framework someone can follow. I'm not sure if I have that specifically in TWAH. I'll have to polish the story, and do some heavy re-writing (like any book) but I think the "theme" of non-fiction needs to be captured in a certain viewpoint, consistently over time. The Emotion can't vary too much, nor can the feel.
So, I think this is me trying to document my thoughts for another project possibly in the future.

The Futile Fight

My friend and I are heading to a party called Wet in Georgetown. Its Saturday, and I spent Friday night at their place in Silver Spring to escape the noisy ravages of the Northwest DC. I like Silver Spring. It has a clean, well-combed vibe to it that always makes me think of family and kids. This is probably a biased perspective, because there is a particular area in downtown Silver Spring where they have Astroturf setup. On any given sunny day, you will see parents with their children roaming about, tossing projectiles and spilling liquids. My friends live no where near this area. They are about ten minutes up the road in a quiet housing complex. A friend of mine, a cool Italian guy who uses "Fuck" after every tenth word, tells me to head to this place called the Blue Gin for a free party.
"Come man, its gonna be great you know, fucking hot bitches and what not my man. " I laughed as he said this. However, it was Saturday night and like many stressed out college seniors, I needed something to do.
Whenever I think of Georgetown, two things come to mind. A certain smell, and an image of a certain strip on Wisconsin Avenue. I'm assuming these two things pop into my head first because when I went to the Georgetown Mall for the first time, it had a very odd smell, like someone sprayed Gucci No.5 in a bathroom occupied by a troop of red bull-amped chimps. The second image i'm sure is based on my previous French Connection obsession (possibly 30% of my wardrobe is french connection) and that was one of the first stores I would frequent. My two images aren't the common representation of the town. I'd say that most people (who dont' live in Georgetown) think of two things when they go there, Money and stuffy people. I personally don't like to cover everyone in a demographic under a certain blanket, but being at a club in Georgetown really does remind me of some of the really "uptown" parties I go to in Jamaica. The normal setup seems to be a lot of very nicely dressed people standing up, talking with people they are familiar with, and then ignoring everyone else. I'm sure this formula doesn't hold all the time, but like most people who don't live in Georgetown. I don't care. That's just how it seems.
I'm venturing to the club this night simply because the week has been filled with stressful night and annoyingly long classes. Like most parts of the city, finding parking is next to impossible and I end up going to the club first while my friend looks for parking. For September 15, it is unusually chilly and I frown slightly thinking of the grisly winter about to come. Blue Gin is in an alley between an Abercrombie & Fitch and Benneton store. I recognize the spot, the last time I went there was with my very assertive Moroccan friend who scoffed at the prices of the drinks and demanded to go somewhere else. After I schmooze with the bouncer a bit, he checks my name on a list to get into the private party upstairs and I go inside. Its a very nice, high-endish lounge with soft lighting, a few nice bars with plush leather couches and glass tables. The crowd is relatively mixed in the usual Georgetown way, a delicate sprinking of mostly white, mostly Middle-eastern people then a drop of two of any other minority groups. I go upstairs and greet my friend Mr. B who's with his girlfriend. We have a few moments of small talk and in between I survey the crowd.
Everyone seems like the white collar types, milling about on their third drink. I see a lot of cute girls, but i'm not inspired. Its only 11:30. I'll have to see if the mood of the place changes in an hour or so before I can dub the event a "flop" or "hot". I get a drink and sip on it while I watch the crowd some more. The birthday girl is a slim, attractive blonde with pretty eyes. She walks around almost on her toes, smiling and taking pictures. I hear its her twenty-fifth birthday. I immediately assume she is wealthy, has a GREAT job and would never speak to me.
I tell her happy birthday the next time she walks past me.

By the time my friend finds parking and comes into the club, I've been talking with Mr. B's girlfriend and her two friends and found some interesting information. One friend will be leaving on Tuesday to go to New York to be a producer for the MSNBC show HardBall. The other girl, when I asked her "What do you do?" she smiled, looked to the left as if to say ' How do I say this?'. Then her friend, Mr. B's girlfriend touched me and said "She's a dancer." "A dancer?" I said repeated. "No, she's actually a stripper."
They both laugh and I take another look at her friend. She is attractive, with long jet black hair, and a shapely body, but I wouldn't have pegged her for a stripper. I hadn't even been to a strip club in DC yet. In between calling a strip club a "Gentleman's club" and laughing amongst each other about something happening near the bar, I left and went downstairs. The music had started to pickup now,( meaning the DJ got smart and started playing Hip-hop) and I headed to the dance floor. This is where the "Futile Fight" begins. The first thing I notice is what I call the "defensive formation". Like the Roman Phalanx, women who go to clubs have a formation I call "The Ring." Its pretty explanatory. The girls form a ring and dance and laugh amongst each other while any guy who tries to break this formation generally gets rejected. The only thing I've noticed with this military exercise is that as 'the ring' grows in size if two or three guys come in all at once, its hard for the other friends to help them reject the fellow,s.

I'm on the dance floor and I see three rings. In the corner six very cute girls dance with themselves with their backs turned to everyone. Beside me, a gorgeous Euro-looking chick and her two Indian girlfriends are dancing three millimeters apart. Behind me, a gaggle of black chicks dance in a similar ring. To the left of them, a mixed bag of Asian and white girls are dancing as well, also in a ring. I see four guys try with different groups to get a dance, or to get in, and they are all shot down. I don't try anything. I'm dancing by myself and having enough fun to not be depressed. I've seen "the Ring" so many times that if I go to a club where there are more than five rings I either dance by myself or leave shortly after. A friend of mine once told me, "Guys are so grimy in the club. All they want to do is grab your ass and try and sleep with you that night. When I go to the club, I go to have fun, so I don't dance with anyone."
To this, I chuckled. Of course there are guys who go to clubs to do just that, but most guys are insecure, working and have little time to socialize. They go to clubs to meet women, end of story. So i'm thinking, If I go to ten clubs in a night, and let's say 90% of the girls who I like don't want to dance/meet anyone. Then no matter how good looking you are (this actually might help ) you might be fighting an uphill battle. Add to that the fact that a lot of people dress and act the same, so there is nothing really to distinguish you from anyone else. 99% of the black guy in the club had shaved heads and had on similar outfits (light coloured dress shirts, nice pants). 90% of the white guys in the club were dressed in a similar fashion also. What distinguishes everyone? Well, for the black guys they had different heights, skin tones and builds. For the white guys, they had different color hair, heights, and builds. But let's say for the most part everyone looks "the same". What's going to make you anymore interesting than me? Since all black men supposedly can dance, what's to make a girl want to dance with me more than the next guy? Or, what's to make a girl think this guy over here has a better job than that guy?

Futile fight? Who knows. But I left the club after an hour and headed to Wonderland, on 11th Street in Northwest DC. I headed upstairs to the dance floor and a slovenly looking man in a red shirt rested his hand on my chest.
"You're overdresed." he said.
I glanced at his hand. He patted my chest again.
"You're overdressed."
He walked away and I smiled to myself. In a Sports Jacket I was overdressed for Wonderland, which is a residential bar in Columbia Heights (everyone was wearing a t-shirt). But I was more comfortable. Wonderland broke the mold. There were no rings. I might not have a victory, but its not that much of a futile fight.

* * * *

SRT 101 IN THE HOUSE!

Its been a long day. Particularly because I've traveled at least thirty miles via metro, and walked another five. I was up and down trying to get a few things accomplished. Mainly, buying a few new dress shirts (i'm preparing for winter) and I had to get an SLR for my Cinematography class. I checked Craigslist and found a popular older SLR, the Minolta SRT 101. It has been used to take some pretty awesome pictures over the years, I was hooked by how it looked. I love those rugged, ancient looking cameras that can be used as a blunt instrument of death in a fit of rage. Well not really, but I like a camera that represents a former zeitgeist. Lower functionality, more praciticality. When I hold this camera in my hands (its a whopping 1.5 pounds) I feel like I MUST go forth and document life. I'm eager to buy some film and take a few pictures, but I really have no idea how to use the camera. As a film student, I've learned a few of the basics about photography, including f-stops and footcandles, which are forms of light measurement... and apeture and that stuff. But I haven't done much hands on stuff. So in the selection of my SLR I wanted something almost beastly. A device so veneered by the photographic institutions that it would make me something I am not right now, A capable photographer.
The camera was used by Eugene Smith (a photography GOD ) to shoot photos of the Minamata situation which was a mercury poisoining situation in Japan a few decades ago. One of his pictures, (taken with MY camera!) is here. The picture is "Tomoko bathing with Mother", a very disturbing and beautiful photograph of an unharmed japanese mother bathing her 16 year old daughter who is crippled by mercury poisoning, blind and horribly deformed. Check out that picture here :
http://www.geocities.com/minoltaphotographyw/williameugenesmith.html
The picture disturbs me in a very genuine way. There is so much love in the eyes of the mother, and something else in the daughter's eyes I can't really sense... but I feel it, and it doesn't feel good.
In a little while I'll be looking for some online manuals, and reading up on the basic of photography. I know Howard has a lab that is free for use by students, so I might even try my hand at developing some of my photos. I'm heading off to Wonderland now (the title of an as yet unfinished novel ) to have a few drinks with friends. I'm tempted to bring the beast with me, but I doubt they'd let me in with it. They might think its a fire hazard or something.
My inner nerd is really smiling right now. :)