this is not a good way to start the week.

So I had an aggressive bought of insomnia last night which was totally unexpected given how tired I was from my busy weekend. I must have slept about 30 minutes in total...and that was AFTER my alarm went off this morning. You can imagine how productive I've been at work so far. Also, I'm so tired that I keep on twitching.

Friday was wine-drenched, thanks to the friendly Chez Georges owners who had us over for shabbat dinner, although I use the word "shabbat" very loosely. In fact, it was pretty much just a friday night dinner in the cave before the customers were allowed in. Afterwards I headed over to Le Paris Paris to meet some friends, danced until my feet ached and then walked around for 20 minutes looking for a Velib'. Unfortunatly finding a bike on a friday or saturday night is kind of like trying to get a taxi. Impossible. Frustrating. But I've only had my Velib' pass for a week, so it's just a matter of figuring out which bike stands are more likely to be full at 4am on a saturday morning.

Saturday was spent reading. I finally received the book I was waiting for in the mail: the US Marine Corps' updated counterinsurgency field manual. I was sitting in a cafe waiting for a friend, and this twentysomething guy sitting next to me took interest in my book. We started chatting and despite him being a little bit drunk (the rugby semi-finals were on that night), we were having a pretty interesting conversation. Unfortunately it became downright comical when I came to realize how far to the left he swang... You know, like when someone is so far gone that no matter how poorly informed or ignorant they are, they are overly fervent and intense. And whenever you try to introduce some nuance or say, real facts, into the conversation, they look at you as if you obviously just don't "get it". I wonder, do these people ever get tired of always being indignant?

And then there was saturday night. In celebration of his birthday, Mike from Birdy Nam Nam threw a party. Himself, his "bandmate" Crazy B and Belgian pal Colonel were spinning. We got there at 12:30 and there was already a hundred person lineup. But a couple of text messages here and there and we bypassed that shit and headed into the sauna that is Le Triptyque. You know how sometimes I complain about there not being enough hip hop in this town? Well I got what I wished for and more. I hadn't been that sweaty since the Andrew WK show at Richards a few years ago. The walls were dripping, there was no ventilation and people were going absolutely nuts. The dance floor remained packed no matter what tunes were being thrown out: house, metal, rap, electro, UB-40...(no joke)

Yesterday I stayed in bed until 3pm watcing Schindler's List. One depressing movie in a day wasn't enough, so at night I saw L'ennemi intime, ("the french Platoon"), about the war in Algeria. It was surprisingly harsh and violent, and one of those movies that you're meant to say is good because it deals with a part of French history that many people are still unwilling to acknowledge. But maybe I've seen too many Vietnam flicks so I wasn't overly impressed...