i no longer have an excuse to stay up all night waiting for an email reply from england. everyone i mail is on the east coast, sleeping at 5 a.m. maybe now i'll start emailing my pal in belfast. they're five hours ahead, right?

the radio is such a neat thing. i love listening to all this rem i've never heard before.

just wanted to announce i'm back in town, but only for a little bitty bit. stressful time at home and that's why i ended up staying for much longer than i intended. i don't even remember when i left. i've been living without dates for a long time now. i don't really mind, but it's tough when i'm trying to figure out how long i've been away from buffalo. 2 weeks maybe? maybe more? i don't know.

my last journal was 7/8. was that the night i went to many different bars and had a little adventure? i think i left the next day after that.

anyway. i'm back. i'm thirsty. are thursday nights at the pink still on?

p.s. tops is for me. wegmans feels too yuppie or something. i feel like a poser when i go there. that's just me, though. it's a good store.

folks, another thursday has arrived. i'll be there, will you?

back in the day, when i lived in dorms, i was never suprised by the fire alarm going off, never thought it was a serious event. even when there was an actual fire in my friends' room in another building, i still didn't take alarms seriously. i would put on my slippers and shuffle out into the night like everyone else, without a worry that my things might be destroyed.

now i'm in a similar situation, in a large building where you have no clue what's going on in other apartments. tonight was the 2nd time i've heard the alarm go off since living here -- not bad for a one year period. mostly it's a hassle, but now i have this worry that there might really be a fire and i should leave as if i won't be able to come back.

still, i waited a while after the alarm first started to actual put myself in action. before, the first time, the alarm stopped just as i was about to leave my rooms. i was hoping for a similar situation tonight, and just kept putting off actually leaving and facing a gathering of my neighbors. when i heard the sirens of the fire trucks, i decided it was time to go.

then there's the "what do i take" question. everyone knows that the answer is "nothing," that you should just get out as soon as possible. but i'd already dallied quite a while, so i felt i had time. i grabbed my purse (containing wallet and cell phone), my computer and my portable hard drive, then threw in a pair of clean undies for good measure.

what does this say about me? i did consider taking photo albums, but my bag was already full. i figured that most family pics have doubles with my mom or someone, and i don't really look at photos of old friends any more, so i left them all. my computer/work and clean underwear. hmmm.

when i joined neighbors on the lawn, most people had nothing, some women had purses, i saw one guy with a six pack. there was a low probability of fire, but what if the building was burning? am i crazy and materialistic?

what would you take?