This weekend has turned out to be quite excellent, a bit to my surprise.

My Friday started out well. I only got about four hours of sleep because I had to get up for my radio show. I'm so happy I decided to do the KRLX thing. Even though I'm not a particularly charismatic DJ, it's a massive amount of fun, and a great way to start the day. I get to play a bunch of music I love at full blast (because it doesn't matter how loud it is on the studio monitors) and I get to feel hardcore for getting up at 4:30 AM. This week's playlist:

From a Motel 6 -- Yo La Tengo
Risingson -- Mezzanine
Black Cab -- Jens Lekman
Bottle Up and Explode! -- Elliott Smith
Fox Confessor Brings the Flood -- Neko Case
In the Deep -- Bird York
Kicked it in the Sun -- Built to Spill
Suffering -- Jay-Jay Johanson
Old People in the Cemetery -- Of Montreal
Johnny Appleseed -- Mia Doi Todd
Resurrection Fern -- Iron & Wine
Blame it on the Tetons -- Modest Mouse
Far Away -- Cut Copy [new music]

I decided not to go to bed after the show, because past experience told me I wouldn't get much more sleep anyway. So I went to Blue Monday for the first time since early last term. The rest of the day became increasingly mediocre, however. PoCo was alright, though discussion can still be frustrating, though I give props to Arnab, who has taken concrete measures to improve the class. I'm also excited about our extra weekly meetings to discuss selected postcolonial theory and associated readings. We're reading Hegel's Reason in History for this week, which thus far has been pretty interesting, and surprisingly readable considering it's fucking Hegel. The rehearsal for Steph's piece was good, though I seriously messed up my knee because of a fall that I made up for a floor combination. My own damn fault, I guess. Then I made my trip to the record libe and found some good stuff, and went home feeling depressed about my social life.

But then the day got infinitely better. I  went to the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra performance with Jenny and Tomoka. They played a couple of works by Stravinsky and one by Haydn, and the performance was amazing. From what I've heard of Stravinsky, his counterpoint is detailed and requires really crisp performance, and the SPCO delivered beautifully. Their violinists and their oboist were certainly the highlights for me. After that I hung out with Steph and Rachel for a bit, the first time I actually saw them this week. Then I went to Battle of the Bands around midnight to see Fuctape (because I figured I wanted to experience the terror before I died). Even though I knew what to expect, they were still remarkably bad. I also caught a bit of the act before them, which was also pretty lackluster. I left after about 15 minutes, and I'm glad I decided not to go earlier/stay longer. (Listen to outstanding musicians play nuanced, complex music or spend an evening getting drunk, ravaging my cochlea and wasting precious stereocilia on mediocre bands. On my way home, however, I ran into a friend who was apparently in an awkward situation with two other people interested in each other. She called me a few minutes later and ended up coming over to my place, where we chatted for three or so hours. I need more of these great conversations (and conversationalists) in my life, I think. I feel like I come alive for a brief time. It's hard, though, to find people with whom you feel you can be completely candid. I have very few people who fall into that category, and it's nice to feel like I've found another. I guess I just hadn't realized how compatible we were before. Funny that. I fell asleep listening to Talking Heads, I gave Remain in Light to someone recently, before I had listened to it, and he didn't seem to enthused, but I'm not sure why; it's great stuff.

Today has also turned out to be really good. I got some reading done in the morning, had brunch with a friend, and went to Semaphore. Although we weren't very productive today (we ran Sarah's piece, worked some more on Liz's piece), it was low-key and it felt nice to spend a couple hours conversing and diddling around. We also got our sweatshirts today, which are both green and fuzzy (i.e. splendid). I got a little work done between "rehearsal" and shopping for/making an Indonesian nut stir-fry for dinner, which turned out pretty well, though I spilled some molasses on my shirt. Fuck (but it'll come out). After that I reconvened with some Semapeeps for the Indian dance show, which was gorgeous though severely under-attended (and shockingly, considering the last Indian dance performance at Carleton, which was packed). I went to the library after the show, but didn't get much reading done because I kept on running into people and getting into long conversations. Thankfully all were pleasant. Around 11 I decided to go to a party I had been invited to, had a good time for a couple of hours, and then I came home.

Tomorrow should be good too. Katie and I are headed up to Zenon in Minneapolis for a rehearsal for Sarah's piece (with a different cast) to be performed at the Ritz sometime in May. It should be cool. And I get to bring my car to Northfield afterward, so I can get out of this godforsakenn town whenever I want/need to.

Now I'm going to listen to music and maybe watch some Aqua Teen Hunger Force. I've a craving for Meetwad.

This week's moment of self-discovery: For a long time I've felt in crisis about my own particular balance of introversion and sociability, and I've been afraid of the idea that I've often claimed to prefer solitude only because I lack social graces. I don't think this is true, though. True, there are certain people to whom I turn off immediately, but when I'm around people I actually like (familiar or unfamiliar), I can actually be very extroverted and energetically social. That said, I still think I require more time alone that a lot of people to be happy. So often when I'm alone do I feel free to explore/think/read/watch whatever I want in my own time frame, and it's really liberating. As I've said, though, there are definite limits. I've explored some of that this week, and while I'm still trying to figure out where my depression/emotional distance from certain people fits into this equation, I feel like I've made a good deal of progress this weekend. I've connected with a number of different people both familiar and unfamiliar with various intensities and I've still had a good enough amount of time to feel like I'm still cultivating and individual self.