I’m finally back in Ohio after spending an exhausting two weeks up in Grand Rapids for work. I’m kind of feeling like a zombie today after getting in late last night and still coming in at my regular time today. It’s going to take me a little while to feel comfortable at my apartment again. Last night — because I didn’t unpack and basically just took a shower and went to bed — it still felt like I was at a hotel. But a much nicer hotel, with a queen-sized bed and comfortable pillows.

It wasn’t a bad time or anything, but whenever I go up there I don’t feel entirely comfortable. Like I’m just out of sorts. Last week I was up there by myself for sales training. I went out a couple of night with some guys from work, which was entertaining, and the rest I spent holed up in the hotel, drinking my two free allotted beers a night, or at the Panera down the road. This week, I went up with Mike and Steph. Mike drove, so my freedom of movement wasn’t greatly impacted. He went out with his bosses two nights, so he had to drive. Steph stayed in her room, drinking beer and talking on the phone. This left me without many options for entertainment. I ended up taking my laptop and walking the half-mile down the road to Panera. Tuesday night, I was hiking down the side of the dark road in the freezing cold, my shoulders hunched under my leather jacket, laptop slung over one shoulder. The occasional passing car would throw up a moment of gloomy lighting, and then I’d be alone again in the darkness. Idly, I started humming the theme from the Incredible Hulk like a yuppie Bruce Banner. It made me realize how glad I am that I don’t have to take the bus everywhere.

Let’s see, what else have I been up to?

I’d been reading WATCHMEN over the past week. I’ve tried to read it before, but couldn’t get into it and would abandon it fity pages in. This time I am actually enjoying it quite a bit. It’s a little dense, and I still can’t stand the way the books of the time were colored, but it tells a really cool story. Especially since it was really the first comic to deconstruct superheroes. TIME lists it as one of the top 100 English-language novels since 1923, which I think is a bit of a stretch. But it is good. Makes me actually look forward to the movie opening in January — that is, assuming it actually comes out.

FREAKS AND GEEKS has been in my laptop’s DVD player the past two weeks. I’ve only made it through the first three episodes, but it is damned entertaining. It stars pretty much every actor who has ever appeared in a Judd Apatow movie, which is fitting since he produced the show: Jason Siegel, Seth Rogan, James Franco, and a few others whom I recognize but can’t put a name to. The show occasionally wanders close to the “too awkward to watch” precipice, but never plunges over the side. On a whole, it’s funny as hell. I think a bunch of the same people were also in UNDECLARED which aired a year or two later, so maybe I’ll give that a shot too.

That’s pretty much it. Sarah is having a halloween party Saturday night, so tomorrow and Saturday morning I need to put the finishing touches on my costume. It’s a Heroes and Villains-themed gathering, so I am going as someone who suits me. I’ll put up some photos on Facebook/MySpace on Sunday.

JAB