i got out of bed. for this.

I should have known right off the bat that today would be filled with mixed blessings and mental lapses of staggering proportions.

I woke up with barely enough time to get dressed and call a cab for work. I had no cash, so I had the driver bring me to the ATM right down the block from my office. When I reached into my walled, I found that it was missing my ATM card. Wonderful. I limped back to the cab and told him my sob story. I offered to pay him with a check or my credit card, but he refused both and said 'no problem.' He didn't even look the least bit upset or worried. It was like he was just driving around for the heck of it. I reached into my wallet and pulled out the lonely dollar amidst the wad of ATM receipts and thanked him profusely.

A free ride caused by my own carelessness. Where was this headed?

Today was deadline day and just the thought of it kept me awake all night last night even though I was pretty beat and even exercized beforehand. Still, I tossed and turned and couldn't even doze off until past 6am. However, I was surprisingly calm until the work started rolling in hardcore. There was a 5pm deadline, and there was no chance we were going to make it, but we kept plugging away anyway. Around 8pm, I got a hankering for burrito...super burrito, and told the lone coworker remaing that I was going down the street to get a burrito and asked him if he wanted anything. He handed me a $20 bill and gave me his order and I threw on my jacket and left. I got about a block and a half away before I noticed that the place was closed. I didn't want to believe it, so I walked about half a block closer before I gave up all hope. I thought maybe they were just working with the lights off, but then I saw the Volkswagen-sized closed sign in the window and cut my losses. I called the office and told my coworker that we were shit out of luck, but he seemed to be hardly surprised about it. Apparently he was having one of those days too. We opted for fast food crap, and as I approached the office to meet up with him, I noticed that the money he had given me was nowhere on my person. Maybe I left it in the office, I told him, if not I'll write you a check. See, I would have pulled a 20 out of the bank machine myself...if I had my ATM card.

I had to get Jack in the Box...again...because it's the only fast food place in walking distance that takes credit card. I got the ULTIMATE cheesburger, which is actually a damn fine hangover cure.

Back to the office; sure enough, I left his 20 on my desk. Dodged another one there. More work, but luckily it didn't take us till the wee hours of the morning this time. We were done by about 11pm, which left time to grab a couple of drinks at this bar I can't stand and go on my way.

Unfortunately, I forgot the second disc of Carnivale that I rented and was stoked about watching tonight at the office. I watched the first two episodes last night and am crazy hooked. They seem to make TV shows with the DVD format in mind lately. They're like really long movies that you can watch in small installments. Carnivale combines a lot of my favorite visuals: carnivals, old Americana, dust and sepia tones. It's pretty crazy. It's some wacked out battle of good and evil that revolves around this dude who was picked up by a carnival. It takes place during the Great Depression in the Dustbowl of America, and the moments are pretty fuckin' wheelchair.