doonesbury
KICKING BUTTS

The wellbutrin is still making me feel goofy but it wasn't as bad today. It appears you build up a tolerance pretty quickly. Still, I was glad when my prince of a landlord showed up this morning and asked for my car keys. He had a bucket loader in for the day and dug my car out of the snow for me. He wasn't even mad that I had missed yesterday's message about moving it out myself by 10:00am.

The parking lot was a sea of mud. I don't know about the groundhog seeing his shadow, but it sure felt like an early spring today. There were geese flying and the sun felt warm without the north wind. Most unusual for February in New England. I figure either the groundhog was wrong or the January thaw is really late and we'll be getting snow right through to May. I hope it's the former.

Meanwhile, day three and cigarettes are still winning but I gained some psychological distance today. I'm beginning to be able to imagine myself as a non-smoker.

I practiced at City Cafe. I went out for my daily dose of human contact at around 6:00 and it was surprisingly crowded. I snagged the last open seat at the bar and found myself next to Brian from Amherst, who I met a few weeks ago. Nice young guy, very clean cut, who comes into town occasionally to catch some music.

This time I found out he is a chemist who is doing research on nanotechnology at the local college. The science went over my head but I thought it was pretty cool that he gets to use an atomic force microscope every day. He tells me there's no money in the field at the moment, nor are there many employment opportunities. "All the money's in organic chemistry," he said. "The pharmaceutical companies are always hiring. People love their drugs."