everything I never liked about you is slowly seeping into me

It is a rare moment when I actually look forward to spending a Friday evening on the Peninsula. Berkeley on a Friday night is logistically taxing, but completely fine with me. Anywhere in San Francisco on a Friday night is a go. But the Peninsula is a place I usually avoid like the plague. I do not even know why. It is not as though the area ever caused me trauma of any kind (besides the hellish traffic that builds up at certain unfortunate hours on 101). But I do look forward to heading out to see maisnon this evening, regardless of place.

All of this reasserts something that has been happening with alarming frequency of late. I keep having these role reversal experiences- behavior I never understood in other people is now my behavior. My brother used to live in Manhattan when I lived in New Jersey. It was a 45 minute maximum train ride, but it always only happened in one direction- me hopping on the train to New York. He rarely could manage to drag himself out of the city. But now I'm on the opposite side of that coin, and I behave the same, exact way. I am always forcing people to come to San Francisco rather than meet elsewhere in the Bay Area. Hell, most of the time, I am forcing them to come to my very neighborhood. This is what happens when you truly like where you live and where you are: you have difficulty fathoming why anyone would feel differently.

Also when I was younger, I used to really get miffed at friends who did not keep in touch regularly. And wow, have I ever switched to the opposite end of that pendulum. I am the worst offender on earth these days of not responding to extended emails, not returning phone calls, and not letting people know where I am at with my life. I realize now that I am the bad guy of the situation that no one means for it to be taken so personally. If I get an email from someone I have not actively kept in touch with, and they are not experiencing a tragedy or emergency, more often than not, I file it away to respond to at a later time. Then, of course, time passes by, and the response would have to be longer and more involved, even more explanatory. And the amount of effort gets insurmountable. It is incredibly lazy, I know. I am not saying this absolves me of any reproach. The fact is, I am a bad friend, and probably will continue to be a bad friend for a number of years. But I know I'm a bad friend. Do I get any partial credit for that?

Did anybody else watch Everybody Hates Chris last night? I made a point of giving it a chance, but was not holding my sides from laughter. It was, however, sweet, and it taught me a great new threat-- "I will slap your name right out of the phonebook." Hee! I think I just ruined any chance I may have had of babysitting any of your future children.