Friday night

Was planning to spend Friday night with Glenn and Iain and Tiina after their company party, and went to Kappeli after getting the message that they are there.

When I came in some woman greeted me very enthusiastically. I responded with appropriate enthusiasm, all the time thinking "oh my god, who is that?" After having a drink with her I decided that I like her, whoever she is, and later I did in fact remember who she was, even though still don't remember the name. She found it very romantic that I was born in Russia, and I kept thinking "just you wait till the paper strike continues a bit longer and we run out of toilet paper, and then you can have a taste of genuine Russian romanticism too". I liked her anyway - would want to hang out with her again, but still can't remember the damn name.

She introduced me to my ex-project manager, whom I had never seen in person, and by that time I was in a condition where meeting one's ex-project managers seems like a good idea. He turned out to be quite nice, even though at some point he tried to convince me that a person my age should not play role-playing games. But that was about 4 o'clock in the morning, so he is forgiven.

Was really good to see Glenn again. He is one of the most immediately pleasant people I've met in my entire life. And this is not just the question of personal compatibility either: everyone who meets him seems to like him immediately and a lot. In spite of that he seems just as concerned about whether or not people like him as the rest of us, and probably more. I wonder if everybody in the world is afflicted with some degree of social paranoia. But more about it later.

All their company was in Kappeli, except Tiina who went to check out that place called Base. Not a very nice place, but they make good irish coffee. After collecting Tiina, her keys, Glenn, Kai, everyone else who still could move and the remains of my sanity we moved to Teatteri. There the degree of surrealism was much enhanced by a strange man who came up to me and started talking Portuguese, and by the fact that I was drunk enough to talk back to him in Portuguese.

Later we moved to the dancing part of Teatteri for awhile, and got out of there at four in the morning. People (a whole lot of them, at least 15 or so) wanted food, and I (all the other locals had gone home) led them to a kebab place much in the manner of Moses leading Jews to the Promised Land, and they strayed on the way about as much. The Promised Kebab Place only sold take-out at that point, and we drifted to Carrolls, where people got food and at some point went home.

Glenn came over for coffee after that (the regular variety and not irish one) and we talked a little about life and then he went home too. I looked at IRC, saw Anu who had just woken up, and told her that I would probably be in no condition for the dog show I was planning to go to on Saturday morning.