On LEGO dinosaurs and books by Haruki Murakami

You know you probably party a little too hard or drink a little too much when you're invited to a birthday party with lots of people you don't know and no alcohol and you feel a bit weird and apprehensive about it. I'm a little self-conscious around meeting new people and I'm shy, so meeting people is hard unless I'm in a really good mood or if I'm a little loosened up. Not slobbering drunk mind you, but like the comfortable one-beer-kinda-almost-tipsy. Still, was a lot of fun. They had an entire room devoted to LEGO, what more could anyone ask for?

I built a yellow LEGO dinosaur.

Anywho, it was a lot of fun and birthday boy Smiling Simon loved his birthday present.

Carrot cake cupcakes!

Yes, those are tiny chocolate bikes. I made them. Yes, I am in fact pretty damn awesome. Got talking to one of Pony's friends from her school and we had a really fun time beating each other (I say each other, but I'm too much of a nerd to be defeated most of the time) at Tekken 5. Nice to meet new people, even if I whine and complain about how awkward it feels both before and after.

I've been reading a lot this weekend (because when I wanted to go out running today, it snowed. I hate you, Swedish winter.), mostly Haruki Murakami's book After Dark, which has turned out to be just as captivating as his other books. I'm a huge Haruki Murakami fan and I read everything he writes that I can get my hands on. I'm always blown away by the slightly creepy but highly engaging way he writes about supernatural occurrences, how real he portrays emotion and how much he seems to be in love with women wearing navy blue. Seriously, every single book has some mention of women in navy. Jokes aside they're superbly written and he's probably my favourite author by far.

I've been thinking I should get around to see the Norwegian Wood movie.



The book is amazing. It describes both how wonderful it is to be in love, and all the feelings that go with it, but also the emptiness of knowing that the person you're with doesn't love you the way you love them, or how it feels when they go away and leave you alone to fend off a world of loneliness, or doing stupid shit to block out pain, or what it's like to have someone you love feel terrible and there's nothing you can do about it. I'm afraid I'd be disappointed though. What if the movie fails to affect me as deeply as the book did? Will I end up liking the book less because I found the movie less enjoyable?

I don't know. I hope not. In any way, I don't have time to think about it too much right now. Tomorrow's my first day of school since Easter, and I'm actually feeling excited about getting back to my project (albeit a little apprehensive), so there isn't much time for movies or thoughts. I'm going to kick off the morning with a zombie jog though. Morning endorphins should make the world feel pretty good, even if it's a tiring place.