The ups and downs of the weekend left me grasping at straws, much like Warren G’s unfortunate female friend at the beginning of Dr. Dre’s classic ‘Deez Nuts’:

Warren G: Hey did what’s-his-name done get at you yesterday?

Warren G’s lady: Who that baby?

Warren G: (singing) Deez nuts!

It’s the old misdirection gambit, during which things appear to be going in one direction, but are actually going somewhere completely different. Uneasy feelings that something went completely awry during my party Friday night - think Sublime’s ‘What Happened?’ - strange encounters with people who say ‘I’ve known who you are for years, but you don’t know me,’ dancing with my former bosses (two of them simultaneously), breaking into the apartment of a Northwestern student (in all fairness, he did give us the keys), getting more birthday-wishing phone calls on the 24th rather than on my real birthday, et cetera: Wow. No wonder I’m still getting a handle on events. I leave you with the above: Bar gift certificates and a woman’s shirt. I think the symbolism is evident, showing that despite the guillotine of existential dread hanging over our mortal heads, we find time to express ourselves in frivolous and fleeting orgiastic spurts of desperate grabbing for the threads of meaningful interaction.

In short, despite the nuttiness, the weekend was a good party.

Board game of the month: Trivial Pursuit. So the power went out yesterday afternoon. What the hell was I supposed to do with myself? It was a little hot to head down to the Taste of Chicago, so we broke out the Trivial Pursuit. Did you know, for example, that Myles Standish was the only professional soldier aboard the Mayflower? There’s your next cocktail party tidbit.