Contrary to what it may seem from reading this, American Idol is not the most important thing in my life. Food and shelter come first. But AI comes in a close 3rd.

Okay so, Kimberley has been voted off the show. A shame, though not entirely unexpected. Although I liked Ruben the least our of the 3 remaining contestants, Kimberley was obviously the one most likely to leave. As the offshore betting oddsmakers predicted, she was less likely to win than Clay and Ruben. A lovely voice though, I hope she gets a contract of her own. At least Clay (my favorite) is still in it.

But in every life some rain must fall. For the first time in the year and a half I've been living here, I saw a mouse in my kitchen. I'm horrified.

Yay! Josh has been voted off of American Idol! It's about time. He wasn't that good and frankly that Marine thing had been milked waaaay too far. Now I am keeping my fingers crossed for Clay. I like Kimberley next. But I think that Reuben will probably win. Too bad.

In other news, I attended my first Howard Dean Meetup. It was at the Baltimore Brewing Company-- that's right, returning to the scene of my drunken escapades from my birthday last Saturday. The Meetup was pretty interesting. My favorite Howard Dean quote: "The reason people don't vote in this country is that we don't give them a reason to vote. This campaign is about giving all of you a reason to vote." --> obligatory link to official Howard Dean website <--

Well, I am newly 30. The flood of knowledge and wisdom that comes to you when you turn 30 is really awe-inspiring. Yeah, whatever.

I spent my birthday with some of my old college friends, we all sang together in the Johns Hopkins AllNighters as undergrads. This weekend was the AllNighters 10th anniversary, and the current group invited the alumni to come back and sing with them at their concert on Saturday night. It was so great seeing these guys again. We spent so much time together in college, rehearsing, touring, working to make the AllNighters into a good group. After spending the weekend with them, I felt like I had recharged a part of me that I didn't realize had run down. I hope we don't have to wait another few years for there to be a "special occasion" for us to get together again.

Of course, we partied too hard and drank too much. It started off Friday night at the Baltimore Brewing Company and ended up at 4 AM Sunday morning in Peter's living room, with circuit party music blasting (his poor neighbors), dancing around with our shirts off and drinking vodka straight from the bottle. It was fun in a hedonistic sort of way. Besides, it was my birthday, dammit!