Yesterday I convinced Mike to go with me on the free shuttle bus to Ikea in NJ. Mike wanted to get in touch with his proto-fag memories of visiting the store as a child. I had never even heard of Ikea until a few years ago, let alone seen the catalog. If I had, I probably would have come out of the closet long before college.

I wanted to get a TV cart with wheels (so I can face it toward my couch, kitchen table, or bed), and wound up schlepping this one home via taxi. Mike and I also had the scrumptious meatball special in the cafeteria.

Later, I went back over to Mike’s and we watched the first season of Coupling on DVD. Hopefully the upcoming American version won’t water down the humor. And speaking of British TV shows, I’m really digging the new spy show MI-5 (which can be seen on A&E).

Friday, I met up with my old friend Melinda from grad school in Indiana. It’s kind of funny how we’ve kept in touch, because I ended up moving to Kirksville for my first job (where she had grown up and her parents still lived) and now we’re both living in NYC. I took the recklessly fast and scary J/M/Z train up to her apartment in Chinatown, and we visited her favorite bar and (logically enough) Mexican restaurant.