I have a GREAT collection of friends.

The people I've seen and heard from in the last couple of days... the ones from my childhood, HS, and college I can count on my hands. A lot of those friends have been living outside of this area for awhile.

Three years ago, I didn't know any of the people who celebrated with me on Thurs and Fri nites, except one... and I met all the others directly or indirectly through that friend. Maybe most of them were there because I'd gone to their birthday dinners, but evenso...

I am SO grateful to know such good people.

Just so I don't forget this weekend, here it is...

Thurs nite. Had dinner at Max' Opera Cafe in PA with the "rollerhockey group," which consists of the friends I met when I started playing rollerhockey, and their friends and significant others who I've subsequently gotten to know. I got two cool and befitting gifts... a Dyna-Flex, and a book titled Hot Sex: How to Do It.

Fri nite. Had dinner at Straits Cafe in PA with the "Cornell group," which consists of the Cornell alums that I met through Dave, the last ex, and their significant others who I've subsequently gotten to know. More gifts, one thoughtful and one a bit baffling... Bobbi Brown pressed powder in Warm Natural, and a stuffed fluffy yellow ducky.

I got a stuffed fluffy yellow ducky from my brother for Christmas too. What's up with people giving me stuffed fluffy yellow duckies as presents? Do I subconsicously emit some sort of an affinity or connection to ducks? I don't like ducks in particular, but I don't not like them either...

After dinner, I was up for drinking or games or both. I couldn't tell if the majority of the group felt like hanging out into the nite, and I didn't want to push anyone into staying out past their budgets and/or bedtimes. So the two of us headed over to another friend's place to play poker.

He got me a Victoria's Secret gift certificate, a check to use toward a new laptop, and a card with a meaningful note on the inside.

Saturday. We watched Fast Times at Ridgemont High on DVD when we finally got out of bed. I'd never seen the movie before. I think it's pretty good (I give it a 7), especially for it's genre and for its time. Though it was made in the early 1980's, and it portrays more-or-less typical high-schoolers and typical issues at that time, it's surprisingly very real and timeless. The characters are real and timeless, and the issues are real and timeless. The clothing and hairstyles in the movie aren't too glaringly 80's, or they don't make up a huge part of the plot or the success of the movie, which I appreciate. I mean, one didn't have to have a good knowledge of or get into the mindset of the 80's to understand and enjoy the movie.

And maybe this is because during the early 80's, when I still hadn't come out of the bomb shelter that was my parents' home... but I find the movie admirably bold in its presentation of certain issues. During a time when "just say no" to drugs, abstinence, and pro-life sentiments were everywhere n media and entertainment geared toward youngsters, the movie dares to show these issues in a matter-of-fact way... almost condoning or excusing them as part of the growing up experience. I like that.

Or maybe now I enjoy movies and shows about typical or caricatured typical teen life more and more, as my own teen era moves farther and farther away into the past.

We drove down to Mountain View. First stop Fry's. Next stop In 'N Out. I've had the cheeseburger "protein-style" twice now, and I recommend you try it that way, if you haven't already. Without the bread, you can taste the meat better. And the extra moistness from the lettuce brings out the freshness of the other veggies. It was a really warm afternoon, so we ate lunch on a park bench.

Whenever I spend time in Mountain View and other South Bay cities (like Sunnyvale and Cupertino), I feel a little uneasy and resistant to liking those areas. I'm reminded of the years I lived down there, right out of college. For days and more days, it was just me and my ex in the middle of the bright, sunny, slow and sprawling suburbia. I felt settled and married. Domestically blissful? Hardly. It seems as if more of my friends are migrating further and further south each year. They've bought houses there. One day, I may feel compelled to return...

After dinner at Hotaru, we watched Strangers on a Train on DVD... another movie that pleaseantly surprised me (I give it a 7.5). I thought it would be a strange and hardly believable, melodramatic and cheesy, embarrassingly sexist, black & white movie because it was made in the early 1950's. The movie turned out to be a lot more visually captivating and suspenseful than I thought old movies were cable of being... and it seemed quite well-directed. It's a Hitchcock movie, after all. Beautiful lights & shadows cast in fantastical scenes. Faces and eyes sparkled and glimmered in the forever twilight. I'd watch more of these oldies but goodies in the future.

Around 1am, I had a bout of food poisoning. Those of you who have had it before know it's utter misery. Stabbing pains in the gut. Cold sweating. Sitting and shitting. Moaning on the floor in the fetal position between waves. I was on and off the toilet seat a buncha times... and about seven flushes later and one and a half bottles of water later, I was all done.

Sunday. For mom, on Mother's Day, I went to church. That's what she said she wanted for Mother's Day. The church my parents currently attend has a really small congregation, with under 20 regular members. I usually nod like crazy during the sermons. But this was Mother's Day, so I tried hard and managed not to nod more than once (I think)... all the while, zoned out and thinking about sex and other exciting and sinful subjects.

We watched the Survivor: The Amazon finale. It's the best Survivor show I've watched to date. Beginning with a male team vs. a female team was ingenious, and really brought to the surface the differences in the way the two genders behave among the same gender and the opposite gender. Also brought to the surface are the effects of different individual characteristics within single-gender and coed groups. The social hierarchy. It was how it is in real society...

The young, dumb males are at the bottom of the barrel among the other males. The fat, old women are the first to go among the other females. In the coed group, the smart, old women and the old-fashioned, cocky men go first. The young, smart, yet not-as-beautiful are beat out by the young, smart, strong, and better-looking. The strong and crafty men battle it out alongside the young, beautiful women and those who are lucky to have escaped the chopping block. The crafty, yet wimpier man eventually falls to the strong, yet smart man. In the end, if the woman wins, it's because she got lucky or a man carried her up to the top with him and let her win.

Jenna didn't deserve to win. She didn't do jack shit to get herself to the final two.

I noticed Matt from the beginning, and rooted for him until the show started making him appear to have lost his marbles. I read this about Matt's strategy, and I believe it... I believe he really had everyone fooled, played the game for the adventure and for the thrill of making it to the final two, and never planned or cared to win the sole survivor title. In the end, he wanted to bring Jenna to the final two... because the idea of setting her up to win, the girl who couldn't do anything by herself, was just as big of a thrill as winning Survivor himself.

Matt seems like a unique and interesting guy with a killer bod, a kind heart, and a genuine "to give is better than to receive" attitude. I like him even better than I liked Ethan Zohn of Survivor: Africa. I am so starstruck. I'd really to meet the Matt, learn from him, go on one of his adventures with him. I tried to find his contact information online... an email address or an address. Not surprisingly, I couldn't find anything.

Matt, if you've found this and you're intrigued, take me with you on your next adventure!

I feel as if, all my life, I've shown other people my world, small though it is, and I've shared with people all that I know and think and feel. I am so ready for someone to come into my life and show me his/her much bigger world, and share with me more than I've ever had and/or experienced. Now I've put Matt on a pedestal, imagining he is someone who could do so, if he cared to...