I woke up in a Soho doorway; a policeman knew my name

oh, oops, look like I lost my posting momentum again. I meant to post when I got back from Santa Barbara, but I forgot. Ah well. Few days ago I went up north for a UCSA Exec Retreat, which was pretty good, even though I didn't do an especially great job finding us a room and a car...I got 1) a Chevy HHR, which was reasonably cute but severely weird to drive, 2) lodging at the Oakland Economy Inn, about which the less said the better, and 3) a healthy degree of trepidation about Southwest's all-in-one travel booking service. I'll be back up in San Francisco for another meeting next weekend.

And then yesterday I went on a minor geek binge at the comic and game stores. At the former, I got another X-Statix trade, which I'm really enjoying. For those of you who aren't already familiar with it, it's a Milligan/Allred title (formerly X-Force) about a manufactured celebrity mutant superhero team. They're dysfunctional and self-absorbed, and get killed off constantly. It's wonderfully satirical and silly. An example: one of the original team members' mutant power was the ability to generate shockwaves when drunk; her codename was "Gin Genie." Any comic book whose characters are David Bowie references is okay by me.
And then at the game store I got the recently re-released Waterworks, because seeing it brought back fond memories from my early childhood. The slightly weird thing is that I have no idea whether these memories are real, or even my own. I have had this problem before, for instance when I remembered taking a class, but wasn't sure whether the memory was about me or my sister. More generally, I have trouble identifying with much younger versions of myself. For example, I can remember thinking or doing things (misbehaving, as often as not), but my own thoughts at the time are totally alien. They're unfamiliar and often inexplicable and I feel little to no personal connection to them. It's kind of unnerving when I think about it too much.