Where Is Hawkins?Where travel is cheaper than psychotherapy.

1) I’m off to London in 30 days with Tim and Holly. I’m excited about that even though Scott bailed on me. Oh well. I’ll have to drink for him.
2) I got off my ass today and booked the hotel via Priceline and am happy that I am ending up at the same place Tim’s at. That is kinda nice. I’ve stayed there before like 6 times so I am happy.
3) Oh, and we’re taking a day trip to Paris. Eurostar from London, which will be fun and admittedly, more exciting than arriving at CDG.
4) I bought a Treo 650 since my phone was stolen in Africa and have pimped it out for travel. And I figure I can now be an asshat and mobile blog when I am on the road.
5) I have been starting to rip my entire DVD collection to DivX, which will eventually allow me to have all my music and videos on demand. That would be sweet -to sit on my couch and with a wireless keyboard and play everything I own without getting up.
6) I feel like a tard, but I just discovered that through Fotki, I can print my own photos. 15 cents per 4″x6″, which is super sweet. Now I can print out all the incriminating photos I have that are stored on my hard drive and have fun with them. Of course, it only took forever for me to learn that.
7) I need to go bachelor shopping tonight – after my nap.

So anyway, the birthday weekend is over and I guess I am officially older now but not quite approaching 30 and thus, no crisis.

I did solve the mystery of the flowers, and you would have thought by now that I would have gotten used to questions with no answers and not understanding motivations. But if life wasn’t maddening it would suck.

I got off my ass and bought my London ticket over Halloween so I can go with Tim and Holly. I figure since I used miles for their ticket, I should go along. The problem is that if I am leading the tour, I’d like to know what people want to see otherwise I will drag them to boring things. I mean, I’ve seen the Tower of London 4 or 5 times now so I’m not sure how much I’ll be for doing it again.

The birthday was rather boring. Had a drink with Jackie who was nice enough to bring me cupcakes in lieu of some disgusting cake which I’d just slowly eat. Watched Gandhi and drank shiraz.

I wish I knew who sent me the flowers. It’s driving me more nuts trying to figure out who they are from than getting them at all. I need to know.

So I got some flowers from an unnamed individual with the card stating:

May your birthday wishes come true.

Someone who thinks of you often.

Naturally, I’m confused on who would send me flowers. Someone who thinks of you often could be a lot of people. Naturally, it’s not an ex-girlfriend because it would have said “Happy Birthday – I hope you die” or “Thank you for ruining my life you fucking asshole.”

Anyone care to fess up?

Today is turning out to be the big suck thus far. I will keep you all 3 readers apprised if anything exciting happens, like Philly Girl calling or getting a big present or something. Other than that, expect this day to suck.

One of my coworkers brought in his child into work last week and for some reason, most of my team is feeling sick and has the coughs and chest colds. I got hit with that too, and have been drinking Vicks 44 like it’s going out of style. During work yesterday, I took 4 doses and ate a pack of Halls cough suppressants in order to get through the day then came home and slept on the couch for a bit. I don’t know how I am going to get through today. This sucks.

Last night was a good night. Went to have Chicago’s Best Burger again at Rosebud Steakhouse. It’s like a meat orgy. You have no idea how good this thing is. And I also went to go see The Aristocrats, which is hilarious and offensive beyond description.

Today should be a laid back day. I might go see the Notre Dame game with ND Girl. I also have Rolling Stones tickets for tonight as a gift and I don’t have a date as of yet, so I might ask ND Girl.

Oh, and I’ve completed the upload of pictures from my vacation to my space at Fotki. And I also made a 35 slide Powerpoint presentation if you just want some random pictures.

This is the last weekend to conceive if you want a child born on 6/6/6. You need to spend the weekend indoors procreating.

I’m pissed that AA hasn’t dropped European fares. Halloween is still ago, but at $550, it sucks. I’m hoping it drops. I burned 30k miles today to upgrade my mom to First on the way out to California for this conference this weekend. I think this gets me out of giving her and my stepbrother 4 upgrades to London, so that’s a good thing. I’ll be able to save those in case I need them myself.

I’m going to figure out what to do for my birthday dinner. Last year it was quiet because I was in Sydney by myself. The year before, it was a quiet dinner at the Club and a drink before bed at PJ’s. I don’t really remember a birthday that I really enjoyed. I just feel a lot older. My hair is more grey, and I’m starting to realize that the older I get, the less I know.

I wrote my letters to British Airways today, and as much as I want some compensation, I just don’t care at this point. In a way, I’m just in shock still from the trip and how I put a lot of effort into the journey and not the trip. Bad things happen, so I’ll just try it again on a different trip. I wouldn’t mind taking my next birthday and going to Sydney in First.

I got an email today from my Mystery Girl today and that brightened me up. She’s trying to figure out where to go – Kosovo, DR Congo… places that would require you to let go of things and be slightly insane to go to. And I’m half tempted to ask if I can visit.

I haven’t been sleeping much lately, which is pissing me off to no end. I’m starting to wonder if I don’t have sleep apnea because that would explain why I can’t get a solid night’s sleep to save my life. The advantage of me having that is I would be able to pimp out a C-PAP machine and figure out how to mod it some way.

I did get screwed out of going to see the Rolling Stones this weekend because of family drama. So I might take Scott‘s advice and go see Particle play.

Since I have missed out on movies, I did see Transporter 2 and The Constant Gardener and hopefully I’ll see The Aristocrats this week sometime (I’ll need someone to go with me because most people are like WTF?).

And I need to get off my ass and write my letters to British Airways and book my airfare to London over Halloween.

So much to do, so little motivation.