"went to best buy, met up with gene, got the new tori amos double album, went to chapel hill, ate cheap mexicanish food with aziza, went home, watched buffy the vampire slayer, listened to the cd, taped tori on tv, went to sleep."

clearly, things went differently. hence, i'm now 'forced' to write an indecent amount of text about it instead of the simple paragraph above. would i trade the real yesterday for the one above? not in a million breaths. off we go:

soon enough though i was overcome with 'must have new tori cd' urges and simply couldn't sit still any longer. on the way out i got sucked in by the marked down books and ended up with a $2.99 copy of a book of sylvia plath poetry. argh. is that place pure evil or what?

and so we entered The Other Hell known as best buy, where i found the tori double cd for $16.99 (as opposed to $24.99!) and almost went into shock as i realised this meant i could also buy the new nine inch nails album and still be under $40. i also spent several minutes fingering the new adam sandler cd but sadly had to agree with gene that i shouldn't even think about it. (gene only got the nin album(s)).

i can tell you it was pretty damn exciting sitting in gene's car ripping off plastic and getting to inspect the artwork and booklets. yum. plenty happy with both (though i hate that digipack's aren't as resistant to everyday use as regular jewel cases.) and eager to get home to give it all a listen.

however, finding myself extremely hungry for some reason we ended up going to applebees. i felt a bit bad as i was supposed to go eat with aziza later on, but simply couldn't hold off food any longer. i called and left a message and hoped i wouldn't seem too rude.

applebee's is a weird place: the waitresses are amazingly great, yet there's very little for a vegetarian like me to eat there. i ended up with a broccoli/cheese soup, a caesar salad and thin pizza wedges to dip in a marinara sauce. divine. i express a wish for the balloons i see tied by the door but resist the urge to ask for one.

as we left i expected gene to take me back to the apartement, but he said he wanted to go check his e-mail so we ended up at a unc lab around 5'ish where i spent 2 hours waiting for him to say he was done, amazed that for once i wasn't the one clinging to the computer while the others are itching to leave.

at cn i found a message from aziza:

Subject: boo
To: alanis
From: Iris

How about we meet at the apt around 7:15 or so?
see you then :):)

Aziza

and after having flopped around dawson's desktop (i am so addicted to dawson's creek - it hasn't reached the level my felicity obsession so far, but still.) and some e-mails, we left the lab around 7.

i felt a bit drowsy, and gene was struggling with a massive headache, so the walk to his car was rather quiet... until... "gene, do you recall if my backpack is in your car?"

it wasn't. i realised i had left it by the table in barnes and noble 5 hours earlier and only now remembered it. fuck. i asked gene if he could drive me there to look for it, but he suggested we go back to the apartement so i could call and ask first. i thought that sounded reasonable, so to the apartement it was, with gene wincing along with his headache, and me cussing at myself.

once we got there i looked for aziza's car but couldn't see it. while gene went upstairs and checked for mail thinking maybe mom's bday card finally arrived, but it hadn't. i slugged my way up the stairs and noted that the lights were off in the apartement indicating that neither aziza nor gabbi were there.

i turn the light on to find aziza, kelly, kelly's boyfriend, jesse and gabbi all inside, flashes going off and balloons everywhere.

i can't begin to tell you how shocked i was. it turns out gene was my decoy with a job to keep me away from the apartement. he even had a signal to let them know i was coming in - he coughed by the window while i checked the mail.

bastards. it makes me grin just thinking about it.

summary of the night: