the princess is in another castle

i made it! today was the last day of my contract and for having done absolutely nothing that's worthy of being paid money for, i've had a really long day. my day started by showing up about half an hour late to work and then chatting with my colleague until almost lunch time. having fulfilled our deadline last week, there wasn't much for either of us to do and the two people who work there full time were out of the office today. as they say, when the cat is away, the mice will play.

following about thirty minutes of writing last emails, faxing in my timesheets, and reading about obama's inauguration, my colleague and i set out for lunch at buffalo wild wings for $0.40 wings. we sat there for another hour and a half making fun of the inauguration ceremonies like all good cynical smart asses should and then headed back to work. is it me or does the presidential limo look like an awfully slow, long, diesel powered substitute for the batmobile? sorry, i was one of those who'd show up at high school pep rallys and make fun of football players and cheerleaders with the potheads.

it seems everyone else thought my last day was supposed to be the end of the month. according to the papers i signed, the contract was to start on 10/20/08 for a duration of 3 months, which by my understanding means that today was the last day. in any case, i walked out of work today with nothing but a big smile on my face. no papers, no notes, not even any stolen office supplies.

after getting home, i took a walk downtown to have some tea and write a little bit. then, i stopped into a restaurant i've been meaning to check out and had an overpriced slice of pizza. i think i can safely say that the only two cities in the US worth buying pizza by the slice are new york and chicago. next, i went down to the bookstore to pick up virgina woolf's "orlando" as part of the new writing project i have with my friend i-shuan. it's something like a book club except we're going to write an essay before we have our discussion. i think it will be really interesting to compare notes. it will be like an east meets west sort of thing that i expect to be fun and enlightening.

after doing some somewhat intelligent activities this afternoon, i went back to buffalo wild wings to get a little stupid and celebrate my new unemployment. i met josh up there again and some new friends named keith and shawn (with a "w"). i don't know keith's story, but shawn is an ex-army guy who's been in korea, texas, taiwan, iraq, and somehow ended up in this one horse town because of a girlfriend he eventually broke up with. honestly, i don't think i've met anyone originally from this place. they all seem to have made some sort of compromise to end up here.

having met so many nice people while drinking, i've been invited to new year's in denver, skiing in breckenridge, and a birthday party for some guy i don't know. i skipped out on new year's, but i think i'm going to take up the other two offers. after all, everyone i've met so far is new here and just trying to meet friends, so why be so anti-social?