so this is what i do when erik is out of town:
after working for oh, about a six hour day, i step out into the sunshine at 4:30pm.
just in time to get home, breathe, and meet cool-music-friend-and-neighbor janine. i've never done anything with janine that didn't involve music or alcohol. or paint (long story). after seeing her at every single concert for a while, i finally introduced myself at the something corporate/young dubliners show a year or two ago. turns out she has an unhealthy obsession with pete yorn and we're neighbors. hell yes.

anyway, our intent was to walk to the excruciatingly close karl strauss brewery garden. apparantly there's a rain gutter, a hill, a fence, and a huge amount of hedge and fucking pseudo iceplant in our way, but for some reason, i'm convinced we can scout out a short cut. half an hour later, after several wrong turns and dead ends, we finally arrive at uncle karl's. janine slyly takes off her cardigan and works her clear-some-space-at-the-bar magic, and before i know it, i've drank an entire russian imperial stout. oh, by the way, i'm generally toast after an inch of the dark beer variety sipped slowly with dinner.

we both had plans for later in the evening, so we decide to get up (oh gees) and attempt to find a short cut again and go home. of course, it was right in front of us. success! drunken success! i can't believe i made it over the fence without breaking something of mine or the fence's!

here's my final in-depth cost/benefit analysis on the new short cut:

pro: you can quickly stumble home, emission-free, while slightly immobilzed by stout.
con: you may not want to stumble home while slightly immobilized by stout if it involves hopping over a 10 foot fence/wall thingy. and getting pieces of pseudo iceplant in your sandals.

oh what the hell. these things make us stronger.