Pig Roast (2 of 3): I see a friend, unexpectedly.

When I get to the actual pig roast, I lock up my bike and drop off the beer I bought and the pasta salad I brought, and then I look over, and just beyond the edge of the party in the park is my one (half-British) (half-African) (Muslim) (and vegan!) friend, hanging out with some of his classmates.

So, I walked over and cordially invited him to come join the pig roast and grab some food.

"Uh," said one of his colleagues, "Don't you know he's a vegan?".

Pig Roast (1 of 3): Greekfest.

On my way to the pig roast, like halfway down to that part of the city the stretch of street I usually bike was closed off for a Greekfest.

I was getting hungry, so fortunately that was there, and I got a gyro.

After that, I strolled through the fest, which was a bit corporate...  The banners, for example, were all the same font and size, so you can tell the local business association coordinated them.

But, there was one booth that had "COFFEE READINGS", and this older, plump, wild-eyed Greek woman was just sitting there staring intensely at person after person and telling them all about themselves after she looked at the coffee grounds in their cups.

2nd night of the DNC.

Last night I went to the student bar to watch the 2nd night of the DNC:

1) My one hippie friend from Michigan joined me and someone else I bumped into at the bar joined me as well, and then someone else popped over from watching the football game, like around 7:30pm CST.

When the old gruff (white) bartender turned on coverage for us, he had said that they might need to turn it on to football, if the front room filled up.

At 9pm CST, the one quiet (dickish) (white) bartender came in to the back room bar to open it up, and he plugged in his iPod and turned it on very loud, to where it drowned out the coverage (though we could still read close-captioning).

My friends elected me to ask him to turn it down, and when I asked, he said that he was losing money by having us in there - but he didn't ask us to leave, and he turned down his music just a bit, though we still couldn't hear coverage.

"You remember the Indiana primary four years ago?", he asked me, which I only vaguely did...

(I think I had asked him to watch it, but then they turned music up and there was no closed captioning, and he and the other bartender were bitches.)

After like another half hour, he said the central TV in the front bar was on for us, and he turned on football, which he began watching.

During the middle of all that, I took my $1 tip away, since I'm not going to thank someone for being a total cockrag to me or pretend like I don't notice.

Later, right before I left, he came up to the front bar and approached me and said that he would probably make $15 for being in there all night.

2) During the Clinton speech, besides me and my one hippie friend, an old guy and a table of four younger masters students from my division were watching, as well as a couple younger (black) women who were strolling by.

One kept her boyfriend waiting, since she was just riveted by reading the closed captioning of the speech...  She especially loved Clinton's "Arithmetic" comment (in response to how he knows that the GOP budget is awful).

"That goddamn Bill Clinton," she kept saying, smiling and shaking her head.  "That's my new word for the week, 'Arithmetic!'", and she laughed.

3) Everyone I know who saw a bit of any of the speeches was just totally hyped up for Obama...  I particularly loved the speeches by former employees of companies taken over by Bain Capital.  They lived their whole lives probably wanting to give a speech like that, and they finally did.

Follow-up: Deciphering undeciphered manuscript.

I was talking with the (young) (African-American) (female) graphic artist my one lawyer friend from Missouri had hired, to see if she would get together high-contrast .pdfs for me so I could print them out and use them as scratch paper when trying to decipher the Voynich manuscript, and I asked her if she thought it would get me some ass, if I deciphered it.

"Well," she was like, "Probably.  There's always someone who goes for something."

Pricey meal (2 of 2): Story.

One of the people at the meal told a story when they were on the topic of horrible dates:

His (female) friend was going out with this actor guy with not much of a career, it seemed, who kept going on and on and saying that celebrities like Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson didn't impress him.

"Like what were you, an extra in Zoolander?", she was like.

And he was!

Pricey meal (1 of 2): Meal.

Since my one friend from Buffalo has gotten a fellowship to study abroad for a year, some people gathered for a $25 prix fixe menu at this one French bistro a few Tuesdays ago.

The meal actually turned out to be $27.50, and between that, my $4 beer, getting one glass of wine and thus having to chip in on the bottle, and paying for my departing friend's meal with everyone else, I ended up shelling out $52.

And, the meal wasn't even good -

- the pate was just bland and ho-hum.
- the duck and wild rice was okay, but nothing to write home about.
- the berries with cream was good, esp. the cream, but how hard is that?.

So many times I feel so disappointed by restaurants that are supposed to be nice.  I hate to be a downer, but they're not worth the money, I think, usually.

Unpleasant beach bar.

The other Sunday I worked a full day on academic sh*t, and then had to go swing by a friend's to take of some stuff.

But, I set aside an hour to go to this lakefront bar with nice tables, to catch a beer and read and watch the city skyline at sunset.

I did that, only -

* despite there being 8-9 workers and only a couple tables, I waited 5-7min. for a beer, then went up and asked someone and she said she'd bring it right out to me, and then she did some other shit and it was another 5-7min. before I got my beer.

* despite the peaceful evening, they had these 2 small speakers with the music cranked up way too loud.

An older (in-shape) woman with dyed blonde hair sat down near me, and I told her to flag a waitress since she might have to wait a while.

She said she would, and she was trying the place out, since she had always seen it.

She finished her beer (a Corona) before me, and I asked her what she thought; she thought the place was pleasant and you couldn't beat the view, but that the music ruined everything.

"Maybe no one has complained," she was like.  "Or they assume the people who come here are too drunk to notice?".