Hola! For those of you that read the same Book as me, I hope you had an awesome Xmas; for those of you that do not, I hope you had a great holiday.

I'm not sure if I mentioned this but I've been working on an online sitcom with Rain for the past several months now and it's rapidly coming to fruition.

I humbly submit that the poets are wrong when they say that the sweetest words are, "I love you."

The way we use it these days ("I love that place;" "I love that show;" etc) cheapens it a lot.

December 2006 has been a horrid month for several friends of mine - some suffered the worst shock one can get, others had lesser shocks that still brought them to their knees. Five days ago, I got a call from a girl I only met once who said that she found out her boyfriend cheated on her. I got the call only because I was close by but I'm ok with that.

Four days ago, I got a call from a very close friend of mine who told me his mother passed away.

The time from Thanksgiving to New Year's Day is usually the best time of year for me. The best time. It's so sad.

When my breakup happened, I called my brother, my sister and my friend Tommy.

• My brother lives 1286.44 miles away but he caught the first flight here.
• My sister is nearer and caught the next train.
• Tommy, who had just returned from four months in China that morning, arrived at my place first.

I'm surprisingly toungue-tied at times where people's hearts eat them up from the inside out. I think I'm at my best when I keep it simple and say what my brother, sister and Tommy said in one way or another:

I'm on my way.

Now I submit that those words...those words will make a grown man cry.

11:46:25 PM

My brother sent me this article from the NY Times called: Questions Couples Should Ask (Or Wish They Had) Before Marrying. Even though it's one in the morning, I'm going to answer the first five. I'll answer the rest in another post.

• I need to have kids. Three ideally.
• I would like to stay home and take care of the kids because:

1. I make enough money working from home to survive, nay flourish (ok, survive) for seven years in Manhattan
2. I'm constantly cooking and am willing to mash anything for them
3. I'm a big kid myself

• I'm a firm believer in fiscal responsibility (see 1, above).
• I rarely cab, and walk whenever possible
• While I love to cook, I do like to go out about two times a week. I'm much more local restaurant than five-star, hot-place-of-the-week.

• I'm messy but oddly germ-a-phobic.
• No shoes in the house.
• No dirty clothes on the bed
• We would swap chores weekly
• I can't stand dirty dishes in the sink.

• Clearly, I'm a bit nuts. I put my entire life on my blog that no one reads (but you - hey, thanx!)
• I'm an insomniac and have been for at least two decades. It means I get moody and irritable and may lash out (never physically but I do yell). Please ignore and take a walk or encourage me to. It'll all work out.
• I have been depressed before - actually, if you've been reading this blog, you know all this.

5) Is my partner affectionate to the degree that I expect?

• Ah, look at the time! Gotta run - sorry...

I woke up at 1PM today - I fell asleep at 5Am or so but I had to take something to help me fall asleep.

Yesterday was full of little but expensive annoyances:

• it was the first day of a shoot for the sitcom that totally bombed. We ended up canceling the shoot and taking the barebones crew out to eat breakfast
• I got a $100 ticket parking ticket
• I cracked the screen on my ultra-compact camera that I've had for a while - this may mean no pics for a bit

It's all those little annoyances that make you want to scream.

I think people like to read blogs because it gives insight into their own lives.

Another blogger, undergoing treatment for her own things, wrote that she saw an old man on crutches struggling to walk, despite it being easier to be in a wheelchair. She observed that, "We do not make ourselves worse by walking. I say walk while you can."

I say, she's right, so off I go...

I watched with glee
While your kings and queens
Fought for ten decades
For the gods they made

I believe that people are bad at heart. What with historical events (like Nazi Germany, the Inquisition, the Great Leap Forward), psychological evidence (the Zimbardo and Milgram experiments), and current events (pick up a paper) I'm fairly disgusted at our species as a whole.

However, that's not entirely a negative sentiment. I think a bit of kindness is nobler against the backdrop of our craptastic-ness.

So I had four recent bits of kindness:

1. I met a girl that lives in France a while ago who shot me a sweet email. She's seeing a French guy now. It's ok, the late night conversations were enough for me.
2. I got another very personal email from a co-worker wishing me a happy holiday. It was nice to get because, while we work closely together, we've never actually met (like you and me).
3. I met a girl tonight that I found refreshingly honest about life. Honesty without meanness is so rare.
4. Finally, today, I got an Xmas card from a reader amidst my usual bills. As an aside, she looks completely Caucasian but she's got a Chinese last name. It turns out that four generations ago, her grandfather was Chinese. I find that so cool.

It started going downhill when Mikey bought a round.

• Post a pic and edit this entry tomorrow.
• Rum is your friend.
• Tequila is not your friend.
• Buy a new hat.
• Tequila is not your friend.

(c) AP Photos

• "It's about your younger brother..."
• "I'm sorry to have to tell you..."
• "I thought it best that I be the one to tell you..."