Rent is playing this weekend at Ruth Eckerd Hall.

Of course, I’m broke until next Wednesday.

ARRRGGGHHH

Today is going to be a long day. I can tell already. There are times at work when I feel like I’m out of my skull. My eyes feel like they are going to bug out of my head, my ears are kind of closed up and everything seems slightly unreal. I’d say it was like claustrophobia, but I don’t know what claustrophobia is like, so there you go. It might have something to do with my glasses. I really need to get my eyes checked and get a few new pair of glasses. These have to be at least 4 years old, if not older. They don’t fit my head properly anymore at all, and I always feel like my eyes are open too wide when I use them. Of course, my eyes have relaxed to a point where I can no longer effectively use a computer without them. Things are just too blurry.

There was something else I wanted to write about.

Oh! I finally finished American Gods last week. What an absolutely amazing book. I’ve always been impressed by Neil Gaiman’s storytelling abilities, but this book went above and beyond anything of his I had read in the past. There were parts of it that were troubling to me, as I’ve talked about before, but that was part of my overall enjoyment of the book in the end. I felt that I could relate to some of what Shadow went through. At least emotionally. Not really sure I can relate to running around with Gods. If you haven’t had the pleasure of reading any of his work, I highly recommend this and Good Omens (a book he wrote with Terry Pratchett). Then if you’re feeling really adventuresome you can read some of his Sandman comics from D.C.

In the music front, I’m all about the new Linkin Park album Reanimation. It’s a remix album, and I’m generally not so thrilled about them, but the things they did with the songs from Hybrid Theory really fall more into the category of reimagining. The remix of Crawling is by far the best track on the album, and it gives me goosebumps every time I hear it. Can you say haunting? I knew you could. Reminds me a lot of a friend of mine who is going through some serious depression at the moment.

And one final pop culture thingy here – Can I be even more excited after seeing all the movie trailers during the super bowl? I think not.

My city is steeped in madness at the moment.

I sat on my back porch after the game, listening to the sounds of a community unified in the spirit of celebration. I hear fireworks and car horns. I hear people laughing. I here singing. I’d be willing to bet the game had somewhere between a 90-95 Nielsen share here (the NFC Championship game had an 80 share).

Essentially, it is chaos.

I hope we keep our cool and that there isn’t any rioting. I really don’t think we are that kind of community, but you never really know. I can guarantee you that Gasparilla next weekend will be utter and complete chaos.

My reaction is quite sedate in contrast.

I’m not sure what exactly it is that I’m feeling. Part of me doesn’t really believe it’s true. I’ve been a Bucs fan since I was in preschool. My mother and father brainwashed me into becoming an entirely different creature when I watch the Bucs. I scream and holler and swear and my friends think that I’m going to have a coronary.

But here. Tonight. I’m kind of numb to it. I don’t feel the elation that I thought I would. (ahhh…watching the news…fight near the stadium…hope it wasn’t bad)

Maybe winning isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

Or maybe I’m just tired.

34-3?

And it isn’t over yet?

My god.

Happy news! I get to see Robin this weekend after all, jiltos and I are driving up tomorrow afternoon!

*happy dance*

So, after a hearty dinner at P.J.’s (ahh, those grouper sandwiches) we trekked out to The Castle yet again. Strange vibe in the group tonight, though. Nobody seemed really interested in being there. I danced to two songs, if that. More like one and a half.

I did, however, notice an odd phenomenon in myself.

I didn’t dress up tonight. Hell, I didn’t even shave. Had on jeans, t-shirt and my converse. Trish started giving me shit about it, and my response was “hey, I don’t need to impress anyone tonight. I’m not on the prowl anymore.” Not that I don’t enjoy getting all fancied up for the club, but it wasn’t quite the pressing issue tonight. Anyway, I noticed that when I got on the dance floor in my converse I did a lot more bouncing.

A lot.

Like doing all that jumping around on one leg and flailing the other around shit.

I’m sure I looked like a complete goober when I did it, but I just couldn’t keep my feet on the ground. My chucks are considerably lighter than my boots, and it made a real difference when I was dancing. I’ll have to remember that. If I’m in a mood to really dance hard, I’ll have to wear the chucks.

And I was in a mood to dance hard tonight.

Actually, I was in a mood to do one of two other things…but as neither of them were an option I settled for dancing.