i slept late for a change today, though still not as late as i wanted to. i really want to indulge in the unconsciousness, totally binge on sleep for a day. you'd think that since i'm unemployed, i can get as much sleep as i want, but since i sleep late and wake up early, i actually get very little sleep each night, on the average about 5 hours, which i don't think is enough.

i woke up and did some cleaning, finally throw out the used roller brushes that had been sitting in individual plastic bags on the kitchen floor. i organized my cabinets one more time, this time putting in the non-slip rubber pads on each of the shelves. breakfast was simple, two piece of toast.

in the afternoon i went across the street to star market to buy some groceries. i didn't think i was getting too much, and i always opted for the generic (i.e. cheaper) star market/shaw brand over some name brand, but i still ended up paying $50 for a shopping basket worth of items, mostly ingredients for a fruit and nut pilaf recipe i'm going to be making. the recipe calls for ground cloves, which i was surprised to see was one of the most expensives spices at something like $8 for a small jar. i ended up buying a medium sized bottle of chinese five spice for $5, which includes cloves and cinnamon (cinnamon was ingredient item on the recipe list). although i don't live very far from the super market, it was a real feat of strength hauling back the bags of groceries the 200 yards distance to my house (since i don't have a car, i have to walk it). my arms felt like they would rip off and the final few yards i did one of those quick shufflestep run so i can put down the heavy bags. after loading everything into the fridge, i noticed i have a real guy's fridge, where i have a whole shelf filled with cans of beverages, just the bare essentials.

later, my father dropped by for a few hours to help me hook the cable for all the rooms. he ended up going to radio shack to find the cable connectors of the proper size (rg-6). they were twice as expensive as the home depot variety, but they were 24k gold-plated. now i can watch cable in the bedroom (only regular cable though, no premium channels because the only decoder box in the house is in the living room). now i need to get 2 more tv's so that every room (including the kitchen, but not the bathroom) will have cable access.

later in the evening i waited for amanda rawson to show up. i hadn't seen her all summer long, and i was pretty sure something bad must've happened to her. but after a long hiatus, a brand new season of amanda appears to be in the works.

when she finally showed up,i think i stood there for a few seconds in utter disbelief that she was actually here in my house, alive, well, not in a cult, not horribly disfigured, not disowned by her family. we watched some television while waiting for our chinese takeout delivery from zoe's to arrive: sweet and sour soup, general gau's chicken, and spicy chicken with hot pepper. we ate on the newly configured dining table, 98.5 FM friday night all 80's music program playing on the stereo in my bedroom. when she asked for some water, i poured her a glass from the brita, and in an attempt to be the best host ever, i added a slice of lime, as seen in your local restaurants! amanda told me about the joys of wearing the patch and her own sordid summer of love 2002. afterwards, some light web surfing, followed by a bit of television. before she left (had to wake up early tomorrow morning to work), we made tentative plans to meet again next weekend, maybe a movie, maybe a good old fashion sleepover.