The Mad Mex is a place with traditions when it comes to me and my friends. During my first year in grad school, it somehow got nick-named The Tex Mex by Josh, and I always found this nick-name particularly stupid and useless. Anyhow, we were there fairly often. It is easily the scene of some of my most bizzare bar experiences. One night, I won a bet against Joe by chugging down a 16 oz Margarita faster than him, arguing convincingly that my East European genes make me resistant to alcohol; then, I spent the night on Beth’s couch, sick like a dog. Another time, I challenged Rebecca to kiss a bouncer by promising her 20 bucks and she, amazingly, paid him half of her profit in exhange of a smack session!

Tonight, Andreea, Jonah and me revived a dinner circle that badly needed to be revived. Knowing that the food there is not spectacular, I just ordered chips and salsa because even a shitty chef can’t mess up chips and salsa. That is, unless the waiter brings you the wrong salsa. Despite the heat in our mouths (or maybe because of it), dinner was fun. Lot of fun! After a day of craziness, just chilling under the stars was nice. Jonah really made me laugh hard with his story about career prospects in grocery stores. It’s good when some traditions are kept - it gives me a sense of weird belongingness.

On a side note, I am trying to come up with a religion proposal for tomorrow, while also marginally watching Burnt by the Sun for the third time. If you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend it.

If you have the soccer bug, you’ll love the screensavers and clips on
this website. Not to promote corporate greed, but I love their soccer campaign! Once you’re on their website, check out the TV Room section and the Impossible Field Ad. It’s awesome.

The latest spam that I get includes a daily horoscope. I don’t read horoscopes, mostly because of their statistical unreliability - 1/12 of the world’s population shares the same sign! While usually I just delete them, today’s mail caught my attention:

It would be wise to spend some time thinking about your finances today, dear Cancer. Do you have a realistic budget? A budget that doesn’t include such things as entertainment, gifts, and occasional splurges won’t suffice, as these are expenses that everyone has. Take a good look at your spending habits, and see where you could cut back without too much pain.

Indeed, it would probably be nice to think about finances. Maybe I should call one of my rich IB friends on Wall Street and ask for a donation. I could probably initiate “Adopt-a-future-Ph.D.” program. Want to contribute?

But speaking of horoscopes and grad school karma, I turned 25 three months ago and one thought has been haunting me since:

Fun night with Dan, Serena, Rory, Heather and Jonah. With the exception of the disgusting DQ meal that was my dinner, everything was kind of sweet. You know, these moments that you did not plan when you just feel like you are among the bestest friends you can find. Anyhow, we are going to Heather’s cottage on lake Erie in … 2 weeks. Or so I hope. So, start the countdown NOW! Yay, I have not been to a real lake cottage in over 10 years and I am sure it will just be so much fun!

I need to get up real early tomorrow, but at least on Sunday I plan to sleep until 3 pm and then bike and then watch some Formula 1 and maybe, a big maybe, read some and put together my religion proposal. I could even take some photos and, for a whole afternoon, forget about any required work.

This blog is out of control. I have so many things I want to put on here, I just never remember exactly what I planned to post. But I must remember to tell you about The Churching of America tomorrow.