That said, I'm gonna take a stroll after work - I doubt I'll walk all the way home (home's 100 blocks away) - but maybe halfway home. I am just feeling the urge to be outside and taking everything in. I love the fall; I just wish I had heat on in the office.

So yesterday Ben emailed me to see if I wanted to have dinner with him tomorrow after work; if this actually goes through, it will make an actual second date. As many times as I've met men with whom I had really enjoyable times recently, none of them have ever materialized into a second date. I'm the tiniest bit nervous (what will I wear? what will we talk about? will he kiss me again?) which I suppose I just have to take as par for the course in dating.

Something about him I found terribly endearing: as we were walking down 110th (it's also called Cathedral Parkway as you go past St. John the Divine ) toward the B/C train, he was telling me how he used to smoke cigarettes but quit, and I was telling him how the only ever time I tried a cigarette I pulled a long drag off of it as if it were a joint, and he told me that he doesn't smoke weed much now, but he first tried it when he was about 16 (I was 22!), and he would try to do his math homework while high to see what it was like to solve math problems while under the influence. That totally tickled me and my geeky heart.

So I'm a touch nervous, as I always am at the prospect of liking someone. And I've got a little of that waiting to hear back from him stuff too. That's all okay. I'll ride it out just fine.

More than anything, I'm totally super psyched (and what? 14 years old?) about my upcoming mini vacation! Whoo hoo, I leave Friday after work for Connecticut, Saturday is the wedding, then off to MA to hang out with Marty & Family and then to venture into Boston. I am so very much looking forward to this little outing.

Nothing new on the roommate front - Cynthia still hasn't stopped in to see me. I'll remind her tonight if I see her, but hey, I'm sure she wants the rent check, that's gotta be motivating enough, you'd think.

Oooh, oooh, I totally forgot to mention about Saturday - Doron and I conspired to throw Andi a surprise party (I didn't mention it before because she reads sometimes) and it was a resounding success, even if I spent all of Sunday feeling totally drained and vaguely hungover.. :-) I would show you all pics from the party except that I don't feel totally comfortable posting pics of other people in my diary. So you get to see a totally random pic of me in the middle of a giggling fit: