2003-03-01 - 3:31 a.m.

What a wonderful day! It feels so good to say that once in a while, ya know? It started off, well, actually I guess it started off last night when I went over to JnK�s to have some margaritas and perhaps watch a movie. We ended up playing the Lord of the Rings version of Risk into the early hours of this morning. Excellent game, but my battalions of elves were absolutely massacred, first by the kinda darkish-grey, morally-challenged minions of Kim, later to be vanquished at the hands of the dark and evil power of Jess. I think I�m gonna take to calling her Balrog from now on. Or maybe just Satan incarnate. The essence of wickedness. Anyway, I went to sleep at about three, set the alarm for nine, woke up at seven, absolutely aching to get going. Messed around with various, err, hobbies until ninish and made it to the office by ten. It was really wonderful to see Donna (she�s gonna pop soon!) again � she looks so vibrant and full of life. I�m really getting excited about meeting Hannah. So we had our meeting and I gave my business proposal to the family and explained the essence of what I dreamed up the other night. It went much better than I expected. On the drive over to Applebee�s for lunch Sam told me that he felt that this was one of the best business ideas he had heard. We had a dynamite conversation about the process I used while brainstorming the idea. As usual I had been thinking about society, politics, activism, etc, that night but with the work I�ve been doing on the new website the stuff in my head formed a strange brew of fledgling political/social opinions and, for lack of a better description free enterprise(?) or business ideals, I dunno how to describe it. Basically I was trying to figure out ways to improve the website and business in such a way as to prove the benefits to be gained by decreasing competition and promoting cooperation. Yeah, I know, the born-again socialist. Whatever. Anyway, it worked and voila � a fantastic business model for the family business. So, with both my appetite for food and my need to see the family well sated, and my ego super-inflated, I came back home for some reading. I ended up running over to Albertsons where I noticed some ladies having a bake sale for their church around the corner. I thought it had a nice community feeling to it, so I bought some cookies and a loaf of banana-nut-bread. As I was paying, one of the older ladies asked where I went to church. I thought it was funny that she assumed that I went to church, but there was something about her sincerity and charm that got the better of me and we started talking about spirituality and religion. It was quite pleasant until she started insisting that I quit my sinning-business or else I was going to end up in the fiery torment of a literal hell. I mean, if I don't have my sinning-biz, what do I have? I vindicated my feelings later when I bit into one of the rock-hard chocolate chip cookes and realized there was no way they could be preaching the truth. What kind of a truth produces cookies that can't be broken even with the biggest pair of bolt cutters? Could God make a cookie so hard that He couldn't even eat it? I must be right. :) Overall, though, the experience did add a nice spice of social intercourse to the day. The evening ended up with James and Jenny, eating pizza and watching some really horrible made-for-the-masses comedy(?) with so much product placing that my dinner nearly did a backwards bungee. In addition to this, I couldn�t help but feel overwhelmingly sad for my friend that is so saturated with popular society that he is compelled to spend his pittance pay on an enormous, high definition, wide screen, ultra-deluxe, super-dooper, state of the art television so that he can watch one of his hundreds of movies or to play one of his hundreds of video games. Ugh. I can't get into. There�s so much more. So much more. I wish he could only understand how he�s locking himself into an incredibly vicious cycle; one that will never give him the satisfaction of a life well lived. But the evening wasn't entirely sad. I mean it was nice hanging out with them, but I just, god, I just wish he could see. Heh. I wonder how many people have thought the same way of me. �If he could only see.� Later, I spent a wonderful hour or so, just listening to Brahms� music and nothing else. It was such an incredible experience to turn off the lights, close my eyes and visualize the dancing music in my head. If I could only communicate the feelings in writing. Ah, perhaps not. I�m rambling on and on. It�s 3:30 in the am and I could use an overdose of sleep. Hopefully my dreams will be as sweet as my day was.