A Friday Hodge-Podge

With no particular topic at the forefront of my mind today, I figure a posting of various musings would be adequate for this entry.

1. Tonight, myself and my girlfriend (Wow. Did I just use that word? I had almost forgotten how to say it, much less spell it.) are going to see American Gangster. The word is that Denzel Washington's performance in this film is Oscar worthy. Don't let me down Denzel. I paid $8.75 for this ticket.

2. Speaking of Denzel Washington, I think he's my favorite African American actor of all time. Two others come to mind: Morgan Freeman and Sidney Poitier. The three couldn't be any different, yet they all bring some very endearing qualities to the big screen.

3. I got the most random voice mail in the middle of the night last Saturday. It went something like this: "Patrick, this is [insert name here]." My mind was slow to process this information after being awoken from my slumber. Who is [insert name here]? I thought. Do I know you? I listened further. "I'm laying in my bed and...nothing. And you're not having sex with me, which you should be having sex with me right now, but you're not. Oh well, your loss. Or maybe it's mine, I don't know. But anyway, you're not having sex with me, and you should be having sex with me. Talk to you later." It took me about ten minutes to figure out who the girl was, because the encounter we had was nearly 18 months ago. Does this happen to any of you other guys? Is this one of those epiphanistic moments where I'm supposed to realize something? Am I a...a man whore? Maybe. In my past life.

4. You know that bubbly, giddy, excitable, can't sit still feeling you get when you first embark on a relationship with someone? You can't wait to see them, you want to spend every second with them, you want to ask so many questions and learn so much about them, etc. I think you'll all agree with me when I emphatically declare the following: that's the best feeling in the world.

5. Another Halloween on Franklin Street in Chapel Hill has come and gone. Although this year's experience was rather tempered and abbreviated (in order to appease a certain someone who I coerced into tagging along with me) compared to the drunken debauchery I was a part of in years past, I did discover one thing Wendesday night. I have a fetish for slutty nurses. Or, at the very least, a fetish for good girls in slutty nurse clothing.

6. United States senator and Democratic Presidential hopeful candidate Barack Obama was in Durham yesterday, stumping for votes at NC Central University. I like Mr. Obama, I really do. He's my candidate for the next four years in the Oval Office. With that said, apparently Mr. Obama didn't get the memo. Bloods and Crips don't vote.

7. I was in the mall the other day, several days before Halloween. That meant it was still OCTOBER. The mall was already decorated for Christmas, as were all the storefronts. Christmas became over-commercialized a long time ago, but for the first time this really pissed me off. Somehow I don't think one of Jesus' thoughts while hanging on the cross was "I'm dying for you so you have a reason to camp outside Nordstrom at 4 AM on the day after Thanksgiving".

8. College basketball is officially underway. The Tar Heels are #1 in the preseason poll. I'll be in attendance Saturday night at the first scrimmage of the season. Go ahead and mark my prediction down for two losses this season, a trip to the Final Four, and another National Championship Banner and Naismith Trophy in the Dean E. Smith Center come that first Monday night in April. While you're at it, go ahead and place the over/under line for items I throw at the television and/or break this season at 4.

9. I'm looking forward to winter so I can go snow skiing, but damn it's going to be a long few months waiting to skydive again.

10. Writing a book is harder than I thought. Writer's block sucks.