Nights at home and how to use them

You can forget how much you appreciate little things - like just coming home after work, cooking a good dinner and spending the evening with a book. Last night i came home after work and stayed here all night for the first time in weeks. Am in the process of doing the same thing tonight - 2 nights in a row (!) for the first time in... i don't know how long. Wouldn't want to make a habit out of it or anything, but i gotta tell you it feels pretty good to be able to chill.

Reading a great book called 'interpreter of maladies' by jhumpa lahiri - collection of short stories, very sensual, very full inner lives in brilliantly drawn landscapes, compelling as hell. Was asked to read it for lori's reading group (whatever that is) tomorrow. I guess the deal is that people get together and have food and drink and talk about a book that everyone has agreed to read at least a good-sized chunk of. Well, ok. I suppose i have enough literary game to keep up with the conversation. Anyway, my streak of nights in ends tonight, unless i punk out and blow off the gathering tomorrow.

A relative (ok, it's my ex's relative, but i feel like he's family) is dj-ing an 80s party this weekend. This fact has resulted in a little project i've been working on the last couple nights: compiling a bunch of cd's of 80s music. This was made much easier by the birthday box set i got from miss g, but i'm punctuating the whole thing with a custom-made mix of songs that weren't included in rhino's set for some reasons (having to do with copyrights, i reckon).

So here's a list of some tunes NOT included in the birthday set i came up with for a fantabulous 80s mix:

Let's Go Crazy - Prince
Add It Up - Violent Femmes
Melt With You - Modern English
Should I Stay Or Should I Go - The Clash
It's The End Of The World As We Know It - R.E.M.
Goody Two Shoes - Adam Ant
Hit Me With Your Best Shot - Pat Benatar
Rock Me Amadeus - Falco
Money For Nothing - Dire Straits
Safety Dance - Men Without Hats
Sunday Bloody Sunday - U2
A Million Miles Away - The Plimsouls
Can't Stand Losing You - The Police
Sledgehammer - Peter Gabriel
Purple Rain - Prince

Figured it'd be fitting to bookend it with the first and last tracks from the purple rain album. It's a mainstream group of pop songs (very hard not to include, say, the replacements), but that's what the guy is looking for - and i'm guessing he's got all the michael jackson and madonna he might need. Let me know what i shouldn't ignore and if i have time i'll include it in the set (and i'll let you know if it didn't make the list because it was on the gigantobox). The college students of providence, rhode island will thank you!