Friday was a perfectly ordinary day, so ordinary that I can already not clearly recall it. I had class again, went to lunch, more class, finally got my laptop fixed, and came back to the hotel finally, relieved that the weekend had arrived. I was still completely undecided about what I would do this weekend, but I'd settled on making a decision the next morning on whether or not to go to Norfolk. The idea was still appealing. The hotel I'd provisionally reserved was practically in the Naval Base, and, according to Yahoo Travel, was within wanking distance of downtown!

For several weeks I'd been meaning to see "Star Wars" again. I guess I hesitated a little about admitting that - I mean I'm not a Star Wars nut or anything - I don't have any action figures :) But I've always loved the spectacle of a space movie on a big screen. And pretty soon it would be gone. So, after work, and shortly after a lovely phone conversation with Hector (a guy I've just started dating in San Francisco), I took myself off into the country roads to find the United Artists cinema.

This town is a strange place, really. As far as I can see, it has no real center - just long roads with housing developments here and there with countrified names such as "Hidden Oaks", and the occasional mini-mall. I'd go completely crazy living here full-time. Finding the cinema was more tricky than I expected. According to the web page, it was on one of the main streets in town. The main problem was that the Yahoo maps page didn't show it. I guessed that I'd find it if I headed in the direction of where Yahoo indicated the town center was, and I did eventually find the street. But fifteen minutes of driving didn't reveal the cinema.

Eventually, I pulled off into a shopping mall parking lot and asked someone, and she directed me to take a left at Taco Bell. So I found it. It was pretty much deserted. As I sat in the lobby, and called Brett on my cell phone, there was nobody but me and a pimply boy in an ill-fitting shirt and tie waiting for customers to come to his concession stand. Where does that term come from, "concession"? By my understanding, a concession is an accomodation you make to a situation in exchange for something, or it's an admission of defeat. Maybe the movie theaters are admitting defeat on making any money from the movies, and hope to make it by extorting $2.50 for a large (here's another weird development - "large" means the smallest!) soda.

I enjoyed the movie very much, once again. Got misty eyed at the same moments I had done the previous two times, laughed at Jar Jar Binks, and fell asleep for fifteen minutes just before the climactic battle.

I got up late on Saturday morning, after a good sleep and knew, in my heart, that I'd already made my decision about what to do this weekend. I NEVER get a weekend with absolutely nothing planned and the thought of having complete freedom to just hang out by myself here all weekend was just too tempting. Besides, I knew that if I did take off for Norfolk, the weekend would end up being exhausting and I'd had enough of exhaustment recently.

So what did I do all day? Well, I idled around my room for the morning, drinking weak coffee, and eating my breakfast of protein bars, and worked on redesigning some parts of my website to make it easier to administer.

Around lunch time, I went to the hotel gym and did an hour's workout. The pool was deserted after my workout, so I went back to my room for my speedos, but by the time I got back to the pool a family with two screaming boys had arrived, and I changed my mind.

After an enormous lunch in the hotel restaurant, served by a young waiter who grinned obsequiously at me every time he approached the table despite my complete lack of an answering smile, I decided to go to a big shopping mall in the metropolis nearby. Hey - when in suburbia ... :)