Five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred Tic Tacs

Friday was fun. I went to Red Lobster with my boss, Nell; her partner, Coraline; and our senior analyst, Ricky. I gave Coraline a Sarah Palin bobble head, since she's a fan. It was a totally enjoyable time.

Saturday was sweltering. I just sat in my room after having bought a new fan since the old one broke, and sat there sweating like a crackhead.

Then there was Sunday and the attendant Crushing Sunday Evening Depression. And last night's Crushing Sunday Evening Depression was aided by a cavalcade of downer TV programs that I shall list for you here now:

1. "The Five People You Meet In Heaven" A poignant, tearjerker of a flick based on the book of the same name, "The Five People You Meet In Heaven" is the story of a curmudgeonly amusement park maintenance man played by Jon Voight who dies, and how the story of his life affected so many others, including his disease-stricken wife who died prematurely; an old army buddy; and the legions of people and their children whose lives he'd saved in the park by all the rides he'd fixed. Very charming movie, even though you're in tears for most of it.

2. "Culture of Hate: Who Are We?" This is a documentary about the white power youth movement in Lakeside, California, a podunk, piece of shit, cowpie, cowboy town near San Diego where I had the misfortune of going to middle school. Revealing, interesting, and altogether sad, it's the sort of thing that makes me so afraid of the world outside of San Francisco.

3. "The Grey Zone" Why this gruesome Holocaust film adapted from the play of the same name was playing around midnight at night, I don't know. But it's about concentration camp prisoners who basically served the Nazis in the systematic cremation of the other prisoners. Really grim stuff with some pretty unsettling scenes.

Aside from that, I heard from Gideon again after a nearly two-week absence. He's been crazy busy with work. We are hoping to do a dinner this Wednesday where I plan to pop the question, but his schedule is ungodly. So we'll see.