Hello? Is this thing on? Cool, yeah, good. It’s, uh, it’s Jason. Remember me? Yeah. Hi. How’s it going?

Well, okay, let’s see. As I mentioned, the strike is over. I’ve been back at work (which has basically been normal) for the last three weeks. The contract is expected to be approved by the membership, but the Republican-“led” House may hold it up because of same-sex domestic partner benefits. Bigots.

* * *

In happier news, I’m heading off to Columbus, Detroit, and Cleveland at the end of next week for an awesome Sloan-fest with Will. We’ve got tickets to see them in Detroit on Friday 11/15 and in Cleveland Saturday 11/16. It promises to kick ass. In Sloan’s words, “Are you one of the ones who went and gave up on rock and roll?” Nope, not me.

Typical: I have this friend in Detroit (Cheryl), whom I’ve seen once since college (geez!). I figured, hey, it’d be a great idea if I invite her to the concert and, heck, see if Will and I can crash at her place. No such luck—the one weekend I’m going to be there, she’s going to be in Madison for the UM-UW football game. Ah well. Typical. Oh, and yeah, she likes Sloan. (Sloan is one of the bigger bands in Canada but barely gets any airplay in the US, which is fine with me. Detroit, being so close to Canada, of course, gets a bit more cultural crossover than does the rest of the US—hence Cheryl’s familiarity with, and moderate preference for, said awesome band Sloan. Actually, she wrote, “Sloan rocks.”)

* * *

Exactly 2 years ago, I spent my first night as a resident of Minneapolis. Where will I be a year from now? I don’t have any idea.

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Today I was chatting with Nick over MSN Messenger (bleah—he prefers it—though I do like the extra weird dingbats [send the string “(D)” while using it, for example] and the fact that it can tell when the person you’re talking to is typing a message), and discovered that Nick has become some sort of Zen master. He claimed not to realize that he was, but of course he would.

The incontrovertible proof?