'Well thanks for waiting this long to show yourself...'

Well I just got back from a six day vacation in San Diego yesterday. Had an excellent time while I was there. Most of the time there we just relaxed by the pool, but we took a little time out to drive around a bit and took some pictures which you can see here. We stayed at Matt's uncle's house in Rancho Sante Fe, which is just north of San Diego, and is a really high-dollar area as far as mortgage rates go. Matt and Ketti were watching it for him for a few weeks while he was on vacation in Europe with his family.

Going to watch Wall-E this morning with Daniel and Alicia and their kids. After that, hang out at Dennis, and sleep. No plans for the weekend just yet, but I should find out today if I have a date this weekend or not. It was Mike's birthday yesterday, so we'll probably celebrate that this weekend as well. Have no clue what to get him... Tami's birthday was on Tuesday, and I'll give her her gifts tomorrow.

It's Sam's last day at work tonight. I'm going to miss her quite a bit. She's been an awesome friend the last year or so since I transferred to conversions, and helped me get through some really rough times. She's going to be an elementary teacher, and I wish her all the best in her new career.

'the more I scream, the more it seems, that now I'm through, with the new you...'

Well the last week was fairly uneventful, as is this weekend so far. Most of my time is spent at work, or at home watching movies, and playing Oblivion or the Civilization: Revolution demo. I'm at work right now, bored as hell, and hope to get off in about an hour. Kaylea invited some people to hang out at her place tonight, so I'll probably stop by there and hang out for a couple hours.

It's Father's Day tomorrow, and Dennis' birthday, and somehow I'm going to have to find time to sleep, hang out with Dennis, hang out with Mike, and call my parents, all before going to work by 10pm again. Also need to pick up a copy of Metal Gear Solid 4, which came out Thursday. The reviews for it look pretty good, so hopefully it'll be something I can get in to.

50 more minutes... Yeah, I know you're not supposed to watch the clock... but there's literally nothing else to do right now... thank god I don't have to be here the full 8 hours...

Edit: Ugh... it seems they're not letting any of us go early :(

"I hope you're as happy as you 're pretending..."

So here's a proper blog entry about what I've been up to lately. Well I went to see Metallica a few weeks back with DJ and Dennis. We drove all the way down to Tucson to see them. Got tickets for only $35 each thanks to Tami. While there some chick wanted to sit on my shoulders. I honestly was skeptical if I was even strong enough to lift her. Not that she looked heavy at all, I was just unsure of my strength. It was actually surprisingly easy though, and she was up there for a good 15-20 minutes before I had to put her back down. Apparently she was flashing people, but of course, her being on my shoulders, I couldn't see shit. Then while getting in line on our way out, some chick backed into me with her PT Cruiser. Just a tiny scratch though. Mike says it can probably be buffed out. Took us 2 hours just to get out of the parking lot. I'd planned to go to work that night, but I would've been late, and LaDonna said to just take the night off.

For memorial day I went quadding up at Saguaro Lake with Daniel, Alicia, and some other people from work. Flipped my quad in the first 10 minutes of riding and scraped up my elbow pretty bad. It didn't hurt much though, and I got right back on and continued riding. Unfortunately I was out in the sun for about 8 hours or so that day, and no sun block, so my arms and knees got burned real bad. Add to that the 4 hours or so of riding around on a quad, and I could barely walk the next day. Still had crazy amounts of fun though. I'll have to remember sun-block and gloves next time. It'll make the whole experience quite a bit more enjoyable I'm sure.

Saw Indiana Jones. I read that a lot of people didn't like it because of the whole 'alien' thing, but I liked it anyways... granted, aliens aren't exactly what I would ever picture in Indiana Jones, but the movie as a whole is definitely worth seeing I think. Also saw the new Chronicles of Narnia movie, and liked that quite a bit as well. Seems like they did a better job of acting this time around.

Just signed up to take Spanish 101 at GCC in July tonight. $260. Hopefully it ends up being worth it. Thankfully it's only a month long, 3 hours a day, 4 days a week. I figure I need to start getting back into the idea of school and shit. Would've signed up for photography, but they won't have any classes until next semester. Also went to the eye doctor, and the cardiologist. Contacts should be here any day now, and I go back to the cardiologist for more tests on Friday. I need to sign up for a dentist appointment now as well.

'Wasting words on lower cases and capitals...'

Wow, it has been a while hasn't it? Lots have happened since my last entry, but I'll go over just a few recent things briefly.

Saw Foo Fighters last weekend, and they kicked ass. Bought a new car, 2008 Mazda 3 s GT. You can see the pictures here. Sold the BMW to Emilio for $3500. Started seeing a girl from work a few weeks back. Her name is Shannon, and it seems to be going quite well so far. Went to the Renaissance fair on Sunday. Saw some comedy shows there which were hilarious, but otherwise mostly just walked around and checked out shops. It's proxy season at work, so I'm working 50+ hour weeks. I've gotten quite good at Rock Band, and play all songs on Hard, and about half on Expert, all on the guitar. Re-signed my lease at my apartment complex for another year. I'm really enjoying living there. It'd be tough to find something better at a similar price. Helped Ron move about a mile and a half away from me, so I should be hanging out with him quite a bit more, especially since he has weekends off now. Haven't really taken any pictures lately, but hopefully that will change soon. I need to get out on the road and go somewhere.

That's all for now.

'Cause of you I can't figure, what I'm all about...'

So Christmas is just four days away, and I've yet to buy gifts for even half the people I plan on giving to this year. I always slack until the last minute and then try to pull ideas out of my ass. Not because I'm lazy, per se, but just because I'm horrible at thinking of stuff to get people that I know they'll like.

Oh yes, and I'm back from vacation. Have been back for a couple weeks actually. Had a kick ass time, and can't wait to go back.

Tonight I was talking with Samantha (Sam) at work about how I've always wanted to join the military, and be a fighter pilot, or attack copter pilot, but because of my eyesight and heart condition, that's pretty much impossible. I've always assumed that 'any' career in flight would probably be impossible because of my heart condition actually, but after talking with her, and briefly with Ian, who's going to school for helicopter aviation, we did some research and it turns out that, worst case scenario, I might only need a doctors note, if even that. We found some information that said there were restrictions, but the article seemed to only talk about events that happened in the last six months or so, and I haven't had any serious problems since my surgery, at least eleven years ago. Ian said he'd talk to someone at his school as well, and I already requested more information about a flight school that's a mere 8 miles from where I live.

I'm really looking forward to finding out more information on this though. Since at least my sophomore year of high school, I pretty much just assumed I'd eventually have a career in computers, but the last year or two I've really started to reconsider that. I even thought about seeing where photography could take me, but the photography market is probably extremely crowded, and I already killed one hobby by trying to make it a career, so I think I'll save the other one. Flying though... I could definitely do that for the rest of my life. Sam thought that it was the male obsession with violence that made me want to become a fighter pilot, but I told her that honestly, I really just want to go fast, and there's not much faster than a fighter jet (is there?).

My hair's grown out fairly long. It's been a little over 2 months since I last cut it, and it's easily the longest it's been since I first shaved it my senior year of High School. I'll put up a pic later. Will probably get it cut next week by someone Dennis recommended, and if I don't like it, which is likely, then I'll just end up shaving it off again.

Yet another message from Niickiey tonight, this one by AIM, of all things. Again wishing me a "wonderful holiday, hope it's everything you want it to be"... Honestly it's getting a little ridiculous. She left me... arn't I supposed to be the stalker? Leaving simple messages here and there to try and get her to talk to me? I mean shit, if she wanted to talk to me all she'd have to do is talk. There's no need for this ass-backwards cryptic bullshit. The message coming through AIM was a bit strange at first, but then I realized that she knows I'm at work, and on AIM, and that this way I can't message her back, seeing as she logged off immediately after sending the message. I can't reply via text, at least not immediately, because I'm at work. Part of me wants to say something to her, and part of me says just ignore her and eventually she'll get bored, or finally grow up and talk; and that's probably what's best.

Oh yes, and I bought Rock Band last Saturday, and wow, definitely one of the best games out right now, hands down. Addicting as hell, and an excellent playlist, with weekly content being uploaded to the PSN/XBL. Daniel and I have been playing it a ton, and we're now ranked around #350 on the top bands list on PSN. A week ago I'd never thought I'd be playing songs on Expert. I have to say though, the drums are quite a bit harder than the guitar. Can't wait until Harmonix starts selling complete albums.

'Oh and you come crash into me, yeah... Baby, and I come into you...'

Well I'm not happy at all. Someone decided to roll their car/truck/whatever into the side of my car today, and then take off without telling me, so now I have a giant dent in the left-rear quarter panel. Thankfully the most I'll have to pay is $250 thanks to full-coverage insurance. We think it might have been the garbage truck, because the car was parked on the side of the street near the garbage cans at Dennis', and not really in a position to get hit by a car coming around the corner, and too far away from the neighbor's driveway to be backed into. Plus the paint on the other car was white, and there are no white cars near Dennis' house.

'I see your picture, I smell your skin, on the empty pillow next to mine...'

The last couple weekends have been excellent. The weekend before last I went out with some friends Saturday night to celebrate a co-workers (Shawn) birthday. He'd rented a limo to take everyone to the club and we were there until about midnight when we drove to Mill Ave., which is kind of the hotspot of downtown Tempe where the streets are lined with bars, restaurants, and shops. We were going to go to a place called The Cherry Lounge, but just as we were about to get in, Shawn, who'd had a little to drink that night, walked directly into a pole, and the bouncers wouldn't let us into the bar. After going to another bar we headed home. The next day my friend Ian flew in from California to watch the Seahawks/Cardinals game. I'd bought tickets for Ian, Dennis, and myself, and Ian brought an extra Seahawks jersey for me to wear. In the end the Cardinals won by a single field goal in the last 5 seconds of the game.

This last Saturday was my 26th birthday, and Stacy decided to invite a bunch of my friends to have dinner at a Japanese restaurant in Scottsdale called Benihana. The restaurant has you sit around a table which is also a giant skillet, where the chef cooks your food right in front of you, while also providing entertainment in the process through tricks, jokes, etc. There were 11 of us at a single table, and we barely fit. Most of the menu included seafood, which overall I'm not a fan of, but I still ended up eating some sushi and shrimp.

Daniel and Alicia ended up buying me one of the 'mugs' that were available for purchase. The mug is white, and in the shape of a crouching ninja (pic here). Your supposed to pour liquid in through a hole in his back, and drink through a straw placed in the sword scabbard hole at the top of his shoulder. Other gifts include tickets to see Static-X from DJ & Melissa, tickets to see Chevelle from Tami, cologne from Dennis & Nicole, some shirts and a gift card to F.Y.E. from Angi, and Stacy ended up paying for dinner for both myself and Niickiey, which was considerably generous of her, especially considering that the food at Benihana is by no means low priced, and the fact that she'd already given me DVDs of Resident Evil 1&2 the weekend before (which also contained a movie ticket to see #3).

Pictures from Benihana

Pictures from the Seahawks vs. Cardinals game

'How long? Not long! Cause what you reap is what you sow!'

So, I saw Rage on Sunday, and they played a damn good show. We ended up getting there perfectly on time to get a half decent spot (about 200 feet from stage). We’d actually left an hour earlier than planned, but ended up arriving about 40 minutes before the show was supposed to start. There was a lot of people there, but looking around, it wasn’t quite what I was expecting. I figured there’d be like 20,000 people all in front of the main stage, but there were probably only a couple thousand. They also didn’t seem nearly as excited as they should be for a band that hasn’t played together for seven years. I was expecting the place to explode once they came out on stage, but I think I saw more excitement at the Static-X concert last month, and it seems like they’ve played in Phoenix like four times in the last two years… That’s not to say people weren’t excited. A co-worker pointed out that most people were probably too drunk, high, and tired by that point to have as much energy as if they’d just arrived 30 minutes before, as we had.

The one thing I was disappointed with was how long they played. They only played for about an hour, almost exactly, which isn’t bad for your standard band playing a standard concert, but when you’re a band that had potentially broken up for good, hadn’t played in seven years, and have four albums of which 95% of the tracks are downright excellent, and now you’ve gotten back together, and are headlining one of the biggest concerts on the west coast… I expected a little more… maybe I’m being negative. I thought Zach would’ve made some sort of speech about the concert, the band, etc, but the best I got was him talking about the current presidential administration needing to be hung and shot. It made a lot of other people happy, but for someone who doesn’t give a fuck about politics or the current administration… Still, what do you expect from Rage Against the Machine. Their music is all about politics.

So when we got to the area where the main stage is, Dennis and my brother wanted to get something to drink. Problem is there are a few thousand other people wanting to get something to drink as well, and we have 30 minutes to find a good spot before Rage comes on. Also, because it’s not a 21 and over show, they have a designated drinking area, so you can’t take your alcohol with you to watch the concert. So I try to explain all this to Dennis and my brother, and I’m getting pissed off as I’m doing it because I don’t understand why it’s necessary to be drunk or even buzzed at the concert to enjoy it. They both had just downed a 40 each at the gas station just 20 minutes earlier. Anyways, somehow or another they give in, and decide to find a spot in the crowd rather than trying to get alcohol. My brother probably wasn’t happy at all, because now he’s without alcohol ‘or’ anything to smoke. So we make our way into the crowd, weaving around people until we finally come up as close as we can get before we begin pissing people off. As chance would have it, the guy standing next to my brother pulls out a joint, and after a few words, my brother is smoking with him. Not 10 minutes later, my brother is telling me he is “too high” to be in the crowd when Rage comes on.

I can’t believe my fucking ears at what he’s saying. I spent a lot of money (I paid for both his concert and plane tickets) and vacation time to bring him down here specifically for this concert, and now he’s saying he can’t even enjoy it with me. Surprisingly I keep my cool and tell him to wait by the fence and we’ll find him after. About half-way through the concert, however, I get a text message from him telling me to stick my phone in the air and wave it around so he can see where I am. Although he never makes it all the way to me, I can see him about 20 feet behind me, with a pretty rough mosh pit going on in between us. So, I feel a lot better that he decided to join us after all, but even as I’m writing this, I can’t completely forgive him for it. Even though I smoke on rare occasion, I still get angry that he always seems to have to get high before he does anything. He claims that he doesn’t actually smoke much back in Washington, and that it’s just because he’s on vacation, but the entire week he was here he would get high before we did ‘anything’. Before lunch, before hanging out with friends, before hiking, before watching a movie; the list goes on. It’s pathetic. It makes no sense to me whatsoever. Earlier he had made the statement that “sober concerts aren’t fun”, but how is it fun to get high and not even be able to be there to see it. Sure, he could see it from the sidelines, but he may as well have just come by himself doing that…

The trip back was tough. I’d been awake since probably about 9am the morning of the concert, had driven all the way there, wore myself out walking to and from the concert, and jumping around while it was going on, and now it’s 2am and I had a 3 hour drive back to Phoenix. I made it, but not before nodding off a couple of times, at one point driving half way into the neighboring lane before waking up. Both my brother and Dennis were asleep though, and the highway was virtually empty, so all was good. We got back to Phoenix just after 5am. I dropped Dennis off, and then headed home to get a few hours of sleep before waking up at 9 to wake my brother up so he could get ready to catch his plane at 11. Only his plane wasn’t at 11, it was at 10:20 according to the email that I double-checked while my brother was in the shower. So we now have an hour to get down to the airport. The drive alone, with good traffic, takes 30 minutes, and it’s 9:30 am on a weekday, so we’d be just catching the end of rush hour.

We actually ended up making it by 10am, and I dropped my brother off and headed toward the nearest gas station, having about 5 miles of gas left in the tank. While on the way there, my brother calls and asks if I can pick him up, as he’s missed the flight after all, and they’ve rescheduled one for him at 7pm. So I fill up on gas, and start heading back, only I notice my car has a slight shudder to it that hadn’t been there before. As I’m driving to the airport, I can hear that something is definitely wrong with the engine, and by the time I pull up to the drop-off point, my car is shaking like crazy, and sounds like an old muscle car that nobody bothered to take care of. I can smell burning oil or something, and there’s a definite loss of power. I pick my brother up, and tell him we have to take my car in to my mechanic, which thankfully was only a few miles away from the airport. I drop the car off, and have them get me a rental car, which ends up being an ’07 Chevy Malibu… not my 1st choice for sure, but at least it was blue…

We start heading home, and I give Stefanie a call to see if she wants to have lunch with us, and we decide to go to The Olive Garden near my place. After lunch, she came over and checked out my semi-new apartment, and played some Tennis and Bowling on the Wii before taking off. I get a call from my mechanic, and he explains what’s wrong with my car (spark plug blew out, stripped the threads, bunch of other stuff I can’t remember) and that it’ll cost roughly $800 to fix, not including tax and my car rental. L Thank god I happen to have some extra money in the bank. Was supposed to be used to buy a new bed, but that’ll have to be pushed to the side for now. My brother and I decided to spend the rest of the time watching episodes of Firefly before heading back down to the airport. After having my brother there for nearly a week, it felt a lot different being by myself in my apartment. It was nice having someone to hang out with every day, but I know from having roommates that eventually it gets on your nerves as well, and as good as my brother and I get along, we can occasionally get on each others nerves. So now I’ll look forward to going up north in a few months. My brother wants to do a road trip to Montana again, possibly in July, though we’d have to rent a car this time, as taking mine isn’t much of an option, and his has a ton of problems as well. I go to bed to get 2 hours of sleep before going to work, and life goes back to normal.

'My hopes are so high that your kiss might kill me. So won't you kill me? So I die happy...'

The Date

So, last Wednesday I had dinner with Brandee. I'd originally wanted to go to PF Changs, but when we got there, there was an hour wait to be seated, which I was surprised to hear, since it was a weekday. I decided to check next door at The Elephant Bar, as they usually have short wait times, and sure enough, the wait was only 20 minutes. After getting our name on the list, however, I noticed a table in the bar section that was empty, and joked about how we should just walk over and sit down. Brandee asked if maybe those tables didn't have wait times, so I asked the girl at the desk and she told us that they were first come first serve, so we got to sit down right as we got there. I kind of liked the table we were at anyways, as it was just a small personal booth for two people.

I ordered some lamb shanks, as I hadn't had lamb in years. She had some kind of chicken and rice dish, that I thought was a lot better than my lamb, which wasn't very flavorful. Basically tasted like pork, and it had tons of fat on it. She didn't eat very much, and had the rest boxed and told me to take it to work that night. We talked about various things throughout dinner, though I can't remember exactly what at the moment.

I drove her home, and on the way she said that we should go to some place called Famous Dave's next time we go to dinner, and then she quickly added "if you want to go again that is", which I definitely did. Not long before we got to her house she said that it was too bad I had to go to work that night, which made me feel really good, because to me she was saying she didn't really want me to go. When we got to her house, we hugged in the car, and my lips touched her neck and I noticed she didn't try to pull away, so I decided to kiss her, and after I stopped she kissed me again, letting me know she wanted to. Then we said goodnight, and I went home and to work.

John Cooks Breakfast

That night while I was at work, she called me around 4am and we talked for a while. She had originally planned on going to the airport with her best friend who was flying to New York that morning, and had gone to bed at 11, woke up, and couldn't go back to sleep. I found out she had Yahoo Messenger, so I told her to add me to her list and we could chat while I was at work. So we talked back and forth until it was time for me to get off work, and I told her I'd be back on as soon as I got home. So once I got home she told me that her friend didn't want her to go to the airport because it would be too emotional.

She mentioned that she kind of wished we could hang out now, so I told her we could go get breakfast if she wanted. Her reply? "I think we should go to your house and you make us breakfast"



Ok, that was unexpected. I had no idea how to respond to that. On one hand, I wanted her to come over, and on the other hand, although my apartment wasn't "that" bad, it wasn't as clean as I'd like it to be if I were to have a girl over either. At first I told her no, that my apartment looked like crap, and that I didn't have any food anyways; but she wouldn't buy it. So after thinking hard about it for a few minutes, I told her to let me do some quick clean up, and then I'd come get her. So I cleaned as much as I could in the next 20 minutes or so, mostly just throwing stuff away.

I picked her up, and we went to Wal-Mart and bought some breakfast food, and went back to my place, and I made French Toast, scrambled eggs, and sausage links, and we had OJ to drink. All in all, it didn't turn out bad at all in my opinion. Thankfully breakfast is one of the easiest things to cook. I ended up burning my finger on the pan, to which she replied "You'll live"

We ate breakfast in my living room, sitting on my futon. I have no table and chairs, and even if I did, my apartment is so small that there's no place to put them anyways. When we were done eating, she wanted to lay down. So we both laid down on the futon holding each other. I really wanted to kiss her, so I said "hey, come here", and she turned around and we started making out. Eventually we stopped, and just held each other for a while, and she would fade in and out of sleep.

She slept for the next couple hours, occasionally waking up to change positions, or to turn off her cell phone which rang every now and then. After a while she asked if we could open up the futon, and I asked her if she just wanted to go into the bedroom, since the bed was probably softer. So we moved into my bedroom, and she slept some more. I couldn't sleep at all, even though I was absolutely dead tired, and still had a wake to go to that evening, and work after that, and then a funeral the next morning not long after I got out of work.

So I just enjoyed holding her while she slept. She snores, which I found cute at the time, though I realize that if it's something that will keep me awake, then it may get annoying, so hopefully it won't. It's not what was keeping me awake at the time. I'm realy not sure what was. I didn't feel nervous, though I realize that doesn't mean I wasn't. Could also be just because I'm not used to someone being with me when I'm sleeping. She also has little muscle spasms, where her arm, or leg, etc will twitch while she's asleep, which I thought was cute, though I don't know why.

She had set her alarm on her phone, and I think it went off around 4pm, but she didn't want to leave yet, so we kept lying there for another ten minutes or so, and then got up and I took her home.

The Wake

I was going to go back to my place and try and get an hour or so of sleep before the wake I had to attend. Originally I'd planned on going in casual clothes, but DJ gave me a lot of shit about it, and Dennis didn't sound too thrilled either. I'd been to funerals before, and plenty of people dress casually to them, so I didn't see what the big deal was. However, after thinking about it for a bit, I decided to hit up the mall and see if I could find something nicer to wear.

It's a pain in the ass to try and find nicer clothes that I'm comfortable wearing, and this was no exception. I found a shirt that I kind of liked fairly quickly, and though it was only a large, and normally I wear X-large, it would do well enough. The pants were another matter entirely, and after trying on 5 different pairs, I settled with some black Dickies. They weren't dress pants, but they still looked nice, and they were the only pair that would fit around my giant shoes. They also felt a lot more comfortable than dress pants, since they had some weight to them. Most dress pants feel like you're not wearing anything at all, which to some people might be exactly what they're looking for, but I personally hate it.

So I check out, and quickly get back to my place to change, and then drive to DJ's to pick him up. I'm a few minutes late, but still on time enough to make it to the church by 7pm, which was just down the street. When we got there, the church was packed with people to the point where there were already plenty of people standing because there were no seats left. We found a little room off to the side where we could see by looking through the doorway, and could sit down if we needed to. I didn't stand for very long, and instead just listened to what was going on through the door, even though I couldn't see the stage. We were there about an hour and a half before we left so we could get home in time to change and grab something to eat before heading off to work.

The Funeral

Once I got out of work the next morning, I headed home to get an hour or two of sleep before having to wake up to get ready for the Funeral. By the time I fell asleep, I'd been up for 38 hours. I'd set my alarm for 8, and didn't wake up until nearly 8:30am. I dont know how I woke up, but I'm glad I did, because I could've easily slept through the entire morning, probably even through phone calls. I quickly took a shower and got dressed, and still made it to DJ's house before he and his girlfriend were ready to go.

The funeral was at the same church as last night, though not quite as long. This time there were a lot less people there, and we easily got seats up front in the "Family" section. It was a lot harder to get through the funeral than the wake, having to see all the emotion from people speaking about Dennis' dad, all his accomplishments, and how much he meant to everyone. After a couple hours, everyone got into their cars, and followed the motorcade to the gravesite a few miles down the road. This was the first motorcade I'd ever been in, and it was kind of interesting watching the city being stopped for you as you drove through it. When we got to the gravesite, the hardest part was watching when they lowered the casket into the ground, and watching Dennis and his family say goodbye, especially his mom. I can't imagine the kind of sadness caused by losing someone you love so much. My greatest fear is the day it will eventually happen to me.

I stuck around for a while afterward, until Dennis walked up to me and talked for a few minutes. Then I went home and collapsed into sleep for five hours until it was time to wake up for work.

Saturday

Saturday after work I went home and did laundry. Brandee wanted me to call her, but when I did, I got her voice mail, so she was probably asleep, which was unfortunate as I was hoping for a repeat of the previous day. So instead I went over to Daniel's house to help him set up a wireless router he bought for his Wii. Got that working, and played some Wario Ware: Smooth Moves on the Wii, which is weird as hell, but makes for some very good use of the Wii-mote. After hanging out there for a few hours, I headed over to Dennis' to play some Guitar Hero and tell him about the last few days. Was only there for a couple hours, as I had to get some sleep, as I had plans to go to dinner with Stacy that night. We were going to hit up Carrabbas, since she could get a table easily even if it was packed, so I'd probably end up seeing Brandee there. Unfortunately, after sleeping for a few hours, I got a text from Stacy saying she wasn't feeling well, and we'd have to have dinner a different day, so I ended up getting a couple extra hours of sleep before waking up to go to work.

This weekend was a mandatory work weekend for me. It actually works out though, as I didn't have any plans anyways, and Brandee was going to be spending Sunday with her parents, so at least I'll end up making quite a bit of extra money. Speaking of which, all my tax refunds were deposited this weekend, along with my paycheck which had a few hours of overtime on it, so I went from being nearly broke, to temporarily 'rich' in a matter of days. Good to be well into the green again though.

The Super Bowl is tomorrow. I'm really not sure where I'll be going to watch it. Dennis usually has a barbeque, but with the death of his dad being so recent, I'm not sure if that will happen, but I'll probably give him a call to see what's going on. Otherwise I'll probably be hanging out with Mike, or head over to Daniel and Alicia's to watch it with them.

Sorry again for the absolutely insane amount of reading. Most of you will probably skim the hell out of that, which I don't really blame you, as I tend to over detail most things, more for my own records than for your entertainment

'I cannot believe we'd ever die, for these sins, we were merely freshmen...'

Well, it's been sort of a roller coaster of a weekend for me. It started Friday night, when DJ got a call here at work around 3am from Dennis, that his (Dennis') dad had stopped breathing. He'd been in the hospital since before Christmas due to his foot being amputated because of diabetes, and his health had progressively deteriorated since then. Dennis was on his way to the hospital when he called DJ, but not long after, he called again to tell DJ that his dad didn't make it. Both of us were taken completely by surprise, as I'm sure Dennis and his family were as well. Although I knew his dad was in bad shape, I never thought it was anything the doctors didn't have a handle on. I took my break about half an hour later, and called Dennis, but all I could say was that I was sorry. It was really hard for either of us to talk, so we kind of sat in silence for a bit, and eventually he told me that they weren't letting them see his dad yet. After that he told me that he'd talk to me later.

Saturday was a lot better. I'd originally planned on going to dinner with a friend, but those plans pretty much fell through, so I decided to go to a birthday party for Stacy's sister, as she'd invited me a few weeks ago. I'd only met her sister once, like four or so years ago when I'd been living with Stacy and Stefanie, but I had nothing better to do, and at least I could hang out with Stacy for a while.

So I got to the place where the party was being held. It was called the "F.O.P. Lounge", and basically its a bar for police officers (F.O.P. standing for Federal Order of Police). When I got there, everyone was sort of standing around talking, waiting for Laura (Stacy's sister) to arrive. Once she got there, we all quickly moved into a back room until she came in, and everyone yelled 'surprise', but she'd already figured it out after seeing her dad's SUV in the parking lot.

For the next hour Stacy, her dad and myself just sat and talked and watch people sing karaoke. We also looked through the song book to see what they had available. Stacy was planning on singing a couple songs, but karaoke isn't for me. After a while, Stacy got a phone call. When she hung up, she told me that Brandee had just got off work, and was going to try and get a ride to the party. I wasn't too thrilled about this at first, as I hadn't shaved in a couple days, and I don't do very well around people. Stacy tried to reassure me that the 'rugged' look looked good on me, and that I probably didn't have anything to worry about anyways, as she probably wouldn't be able to get a ride...unless I went and picked her up.

Well, after a few minutes of thinking about it, I tried calling her, but no answer. So I text messaged that I heard she needed a ride, and would be willing to pick her up. She replied asking if I was serious, and that she'd feel really bad, but I told her I didn't mind at all, and was on my way.

So I left the party and headed to where she works, though she was actually at a bar next door. I picked her up, and she asked if we could go by her house so she could change, as she was still in her work uniform. So we drove to her house, and then back to the party, talking quite a bit on the way. So, to make this already long story a bit shorter, I didn't talk much to her while at the party, partially due to the noise; however, I did end up singing karaoke , without even getting pressured into it; though it was partially in an attempt to try to get Brandee to sing something, which failed . I know you're all interested as to which song I sang, so the song is 'The Verve Pipe - Freshmen'. I actually submitted another song to sing, this time 'Linkin Park - Papercut', at the time, not remembering how crazy fast it is, so I'm glad we ended up leaving before my turn came up, lol. Because my voice is so deep, Stacy and her sister wanted me to sing 'Crash Test Dummies - Mmmmm Mmmmm'. I haven't heard that song in years though, so another good reason we left

Brandee's sister had called her and told her to come over to her new house, so I drove her there, and on the way we talked a lot more, about all sorts of things like music, food, etc. Stuff I probably should've saved for Wednesday when we go to dinner (the previous date didn't end up happening), so better think of other things . Turns out we have really similar tastes in music, which didn't surprise me much until she said she was into electronic music as well, and had even been to some of the same shows I was at, such as when Paul Oakenfold played at the closing day of Club Freedom downtown. She's also a big fan of World of Warcraft and Diablo II, though not a hardcore gamer or anything. She also loves breakfast, so, providing there's a second date, I'm thinking of going to breakfast rather than dinner, since we're both more available in the morning anyways.

So I dropped her off at her sisters and drove home, and then browsed the net and played FFXII until five in the morning when I went to bed.

Sunday I went to lunch with Mike and Tiffany, and then we went and saw the film 'Smokin Aces', which I liked quite a bit. It's a really crazy film that you'd probably enjoy if you like films such as 'Snatch', etc; though it's not like Snatch aside from the violence and the number of characters in the movie. After the movie I went home to get a couple hours of sleep in before heading to work.

I filed my taxes last week, and should be getting about $1,000 back from Federal, and $1,500 back from State. $1700 or so will go to Dennis for the PS3/Wii/HDTV, and the rest will go to my escalating credit card debt (about $6,500), in an attempt to try and get rid of it by the end of this year.

Sorry for the length

'And be a simple, kind of man. Be something, you love and understand...'

Well, I've finally reached my 100th blog entry. The first entry was nearly a year and a half ago, and my life has changed quite a bit since then. Not like "I'm a new man" kind of changed or anything, but it's certainly not the same, thanks to a new job, new friends, and all the things that come with them. I've actually been kind of slacking on the entries lately, due to a few reasons I won't discuss, otherwise I would've written blogs about them

Hopefully more things will change in the future. I plan on moving at the end of March. Not out of state or anything, just to a new apartment. It'll definitely be something bigger than my current 450sq ft box I live in at the moment, and hopefully with a garage, and laundry machines. I'm also seriously going to try and get rid of my debt this year. I've already been in Arizona for over six years, and the need to get back to school is really in my head lately, but I can't do it without getting rid of the debt I'm in, so I don't have to constantly work overtime to pay for school.

Anyways, this weekend was a good one, I can definitely say that much. Dennis' daughter had her 2nd birthday party on Saturday at Peter Piper Pizza. After that I went to dinner at Garcia's with Stacy, which included Fried Ice Cream, which is the shit. Not quite as good as Oaxaca's in Sedona, but good nonetheless. After dinner we hit up Harkins and saw "Children of Men", which was excellent. Definitely a unique theme for a movie.

Sunday I hung out with Dennis and his family as they went shopping at Wal-mart, and Arizona Mills. I'd originally signed up to work that night, but nobody ever told me that they would need me, which turned out great because Tami had free tickets to the Trapt/Shinedown concert at Westgate Center. Trapt wasn't very good at all, but I didn't really expect them to be. I enjoyed the stuff that I'd heard on the radio, but after downloading their CD, I wasn't impressed with the rest of it, and the concert wasn't any better. Shinedown, on the other hand, made up for Trapt's lacking performance, and then some. I'd probably pay to see Shinedown again.

This was actually my 2nd time seeing them, as they played the Godsmack show last September as well, but they made a much bigger impression on me this time around. Especially loved the songs "Shed Some Light", and "Simple Man", which is actually a Lynyrd Skynyrd cover, and where the title of this blog comes from. I've always had a soft spot for acoustic stuff though, especially when it's from bands that are normally accustomed to playing harder music, like Shinedown and Staind. It's a nice break in the albums from all the hate music

After the concert Tami, her cousins, friends, and myself, headed over to Six Shooters to get drinks and play some pool. Had a great time there, but they closed around 1, so we headed over to the Metro Sports bar to hang out a little while longer. Ended up getting home around 2:30 in the morning, and didn't feel like sleeping, so after browsing the net for a bit, I popped in "The Beach", which I've probably mentioned before is a great movie. Didn't quite get through all of it before going to sleep around 5 though.

Going over to Dennis' later today for a barbecue, and to watch Ohio State kick the shit out of Florida. Sometimes I wonder why I don't follow football... I love the sport. I guess I already have too many hobbies to try and keep track of another one, especially one that has so many people and stats to keep track of.

Edit: Well... the game didn't quite go the way we wanted it... That was a great first touchdown though Ohio! Way to stay #1

'Theres only one sure way to bring the giant down...'

Well, after a string of great weekends, this one tops them all. Starting with Saturday, I go to arguably the best concert I've been to yet, consisting of downright perfect performances by Shinedown, Rob Zombie, and Godsmack. Dennis, DJ, and Dennis' cousin came with me, and Tami came separately with friends and cousins. We all had pit tickets. There's no better way to go to a concert than to be in the pit. Before the concert itself, I wasn't real excited about Rob Zombie, but I've got to hand it to them, they played a kick ass show, even throwing in some 'old school' White Zombie shit that the crowd went crazy for. Before the show I'd even told Dennis that there was no way they were going to play anything from White Zombie. Guess I have to eat my words on that. During the song "More Human than Human" they brought out a giant 'robot' on stage that danced around on stage and tried to attack the band members as they played. That's got to be the coolest stage prop I've ever seen. After Rob Zombie came Godsmack who kept ripping out kick ass songs, one after the other, and nearing the end, Sully rode out on a 2nd drum set, complete with bongo drums, and he and drummer Tommy Stewart played a kick ass drum solo (duo?) while the remote controlled platforms would move around on the stage.

After the concert we were supposed to go to Macayos down the street to hang out with friends, some who went to the concert, and others who were going to show up. Sort of for my birthday I guess, but I just wanted to hang out, so I wouldn't have to go home. So we dropped off Dennis' cousin, and then went back to Dennis' place to pick up my car. Dennis said he wasn't going to go. I figured it was because he had work in the morning, and/or just because it would be a bunch of people from work, who he didn't really know. I'd originally planned on going home real quick to change clothes, but we were already running kind of late (it was already 11:30pm) and we still had to pick up Daniel and Alicia from their place. They were going to ride with us so they could drink, and not have to worry about driving home. Besides, the temperature at the concert had been really cool, so I wasn't really sweating at all. So me and DJ got in the car and headed over there. They actually only live a couple miles from my place. When we pulled up, Alicia said to park the car. I asked her how long we were going to be here and she says all night, and laughs. So I'm like, whatever, and park the car, get out, and follow her toward the house. Daniel's standing out in the front yard, along with Nicola and a couple people I didn't know (Daniel's Uncle and Aunt). I didn't know why Nicola was there, but figured she was just waiting there until we all headed down to Macayos, and would follow us.

So I walk in the house, and Angi's sitting there at the table with a friend, and Alicia turns and explains to me that they're throwing a party for me, which apparently was the plan all along. Nobody was waiting at Macayos. Angi had brought Taquitos, and there was chips and nacho stuff, soda, and their fridge was packed with alcohol. I was in a bit of a shock at first. I'd never have guessed this was going to happen. They'd kept it a very good secret. DJ said he thought I might have known, and was just playing around at first, but when I said I didn't even know we were supposed to "pick up" Daniel and Alicia, he knew I didn't have a clue. Tami and her friends took a while to get there. I guess they'd waited at the concert until everyone had pretty much cleared out of the parking lot, and then got lost on the way to Alicia's house. A few more people showed up, including Yvette, Shawn, and Lisa. I kind of wish I'd known about it, just so I could invite friends that weren't related to work, but then there'd be no surprise.

Everyone was talking for a long while, and then around 1:30 or so, I was sitting by myself, as I'd been on my feet for the last 6 hours, and Lisa came over and asked me if I wanted to join the party in the other room. I complained that the party kept moving, but she grabbed my arm and dragged me to the living room where most everyone was sitting and had me sit down in a chair against the wall. Then out of the corner of my eye, I see a bunch of people in the hallway, and I look over and theres a girl in a police uniform, and I realize what's going on. So she comes out and asks who's birthday it is, and everyone points at me. So she comes over and sits on my lap facing me, takes off the uniform, and the next hour is filled with an innumerable amount of lapdances and 'games', most of them for me, but she also gave other people dances as well. People kept giving me bills for more dances, Tami in particular, who was the one that ordered the dancer in the first place. She was damn good looking. No complaints from me at all. Apparently Tami had actually picked someone else, but for whatever reason they'd sent this girl. At one point Tami yelled "Just wait until you get married!", so if your reading this (and I know you will), I'm going to hold you to that! =P.

After she'd left, Tami was telling me how nobody was sure if I'd be cool with getting a stripper for my birthday. They thought I might walk out or something. I told them I'm not sure why. I'd been to a strip club before, it just wasn't my thing because you drop tons of money just to see naked chicks tease the shit out of you. It just doesn't seem like a worthwhile way to spend my money. Every once in a while is fine, but some people go f'ing crazy, going to strip clubs every other weekend or more. They also thought I might be uncomfortable with it, since it was around a bunch of people I knew, but I was actually much more comfortable in that situation than at a strip club.

DJ had to be home by 3am, and most everyone else left by 4. I went home and tried to sleep, but since I'd slept right before the concert, I wasn't very tired, and ended up waking up around 7 or 8 in the morning. Daniel and Alicia had invited me over to watch football at their place, so I headed over there around 11am. I had softball at 4, so Alicia and I left her place and picked up DJ on the way. We lost both games this time =( . I still ended up scoring a run, although I was running for someone else. After the game, I went home and took a shower before Stacy came and picked me up to go to dinner for my birthday. We went to The Cheesecake Factory and had a great time talking about various stuff. I told her about the party, and about my brother, who's thinking of moving to Hawaii next year. After that, she wanted to go play pool, so we decided to go to Six Shooters. She called her boyfriend; who, until that moment, I wasn't even aware of; to see if he could come, but he was about to go to sleep. So we started driving to Six Shooters, which was some ways away, but on the way there, she decided she just wanted to go home. She said she was feeling kind of sick, but for whatever reason I didn't really believe her, but I didn't say anything about it.

So I took her back to my place, which is where her car was at. We'd taken my car because her tags were expired. I opened her gift, which was a Blockbuster movie pass, microwave popcorn, sprite, and candy, which was pretty cool, cause I love movies. I have a monthly rental subscription pass at Blockbuster, but I told her I could still use it to buy some movies. I also not too fond of popcorn, because it's pretty much all I ate the first six months after moving to Arizona (that and ramen noodles), but I didn't mention anything about it, cause it's hardly a big deal. So then she left. It was around 10:00. The weekend supervisor had called me the night before about working this weekend, but obviously I wasn't going to work Saturday night, and I didn't really feel like going in Sunday night, as I'd been up since 7am already. I might start working again next weekend though. I could really use the money, especially with Christmas right around the corner, the IRS breathing down my back, and the PS3 / Wii launch in November. GameStop is starting to take pre-orders for the PS3 the first week of October as well, so I need to get in on that ASAP.

So, that ends this weekend. Most of the pics from the party are NSFW, so I can't post them here, but there were a couple that I could, including this one below. The quality's pretty shitty, as it came from a photo sharing site (I wasn't able to take many pictures with my own camera). I'm hoping to get the higher quality originals later though. I didn't take any pictures at the concert either. I did get some video with my phone though, and may upload that in the near future if it's half decent looking.

Edit: Pics have been removed, as I seem to have deleted them from the server at some point...

'und keine eier...'

Well, I think my streak is wearing off... This weekend had the potential to be great, and it ended up only about average, though I did have a lot to do, so I suppose that's better than just sitting around all weekend.

Saturday I went to softball practice in the morning. Yeah... decided to play softball, which is like the first sport I've played in at least 15 years or more. I need the exercise, and it's something to help get out of the house, etc. Practice was ok I guess. When I first got up to bat I was actually hitting pretty good for the first 5 or 6 pitches, then I just kept missing them one after another. I'm not sure if I got too cocky or was just trying to swing harder or what.

Later that evening I went to see Tool play at Cricket Pavilion. Tool has been one of my favorite bands for years, so I was really looking forward to this concert, but unfortunately, was disappointed in the end. We got into the venue just in time for Tool to take the stage. It was just me and DJ this time. Dennis was off in Flagstaff for his and Nicole's Anniversary. Anyways, when Tool came out on stage, I was pretty hyped up, along with everyone else, and then partway into the 2nd song some idiot threw a plastic water bottle and it hit Maynard right in the head, and he walked off stage. The band kept playing though. I don't even know if they were aware what had happened actually, except they must've known something was up cause he wasn't on stage anymore. After they finished that song (which I believe was "Forty-Six and Two") they started the next, even though Maynard was still off stage. Didn't matter much to the crowd, cause they started singing it themselves! Anyways, on the last verse of the song, Maynard came back out and started singing again, which was a big relief cause I thought for sure they were going to stop the concert for a second there. Even though he came back though, I never really got hyped up the rest of the concert because they kept playing songs with long instrumentals in them, and/or songs that weren't really big hits. In fact, I don't think they played any songs off their first two albums at all, even though they played for two hours.

The next day I hung out with Mike & Tiffany. Went to the mall for a little bit, then Chipotle for lunch, then back to Tiffany's parents house for a little while. Wasn't there for very long before I had to go pick up DJ for softball. Didn't do terribly bad for my first two games. Hit the ball 3 out of the 5 times I was at bat, though two of them were caught, but that's still better than striking out, which is what I was pretty much expecting to do.

Yesterday (Monday) I pretty much just sat around watching movies and playing Oblivion. Got a registered letter from the IRS telling me I owe them money, and they're going to repossess my car if I don't pay them $1.5k in the next 30 days. Thankfully I just happen to have some extra money. I was kind of hoping to be able to hold out until February, and just have them take it out of the taxes they're going to owe me, but I guess I won't get that lucky.

Stacy called in the afternoon to say hello, cause we haven't talked in a while, and as per usual, she didn't talk much. Even when I was telling her what I'd been doing lately, she didn't really sound interested in continuing any conversation I tried to make, which is why I wonder why she bothers calling to begin with. Talked to Stefanie again as well, albeit through text message still. I wonder how long she's going to keep this up... maybe she's wondering the same thing about me, heh...

John's car get's an unwanted paint job...

So, this isn't exactly what I wanted to blog about, but as it just happened, and I'm still a bit annoyed by it, I will. Got off work early tonight to come home to cracking sounds right outside my car as I'm driving up to my apartment complex. At first I thought some idiot threw fireworks in the road and/or at my car, but once I was parked, and went to look if any damage had been done, I was unfortunately, or fortunately, wrong. Turns out some idiots thought it'd be funny to shoot paintballs at passing cars in the alley behind the complex. They're idiots because it would've been quite a bit smarter to do it where you don't live, or even better, do it at random spots where your continually moving, and thus, harder to find. After getting a bucket of water, a couple wash clothes, and a towel, I went down to quickly wash off the yellow paint that was splattered all over the passenger side of my car. I'd only been directly hit twice, and I'm pretty sure at least one hit the street in front of my car, as there was paint splattered all over my front bumper as well. The paint came off surprisingly easy, which leads me to think that the companies that manufacture paint balls thought ahead and made it more of a thick colored water rather than actual paint. Either that, or after a number of incidences similar to mine, they changed it from standard paint. Anyways, I probably looked like an absolute idiot, washing my car at 2:30 in the morning. Took about 30 minutes to get all (hopefully) of the paint off. Right before I'd finished, the complex security officer rode by on his bike, and I waved him down and let him know about what happened. He went and checked it out, but didn't see anyone, but let me know the cops had been called.

Bad luck didn't stop there, however. I went back to my apartment to find the door locked. It's been broken for months, and I was just in my apartment 30 minutes earlier, but now all of a sudden the lock is working, and of course, I don't have my house key. So I call up the office, which is just voice mail at this time of night, and left a message that I'd been locked out, and then I waited for someone to get a spare key to unlock it for me. As the guy shows up about 10 minutes later, the security officer comes by and tells me another car just got hit right in front of the police, but of course, they didn't see it happen, or who did it. Even so, as I waited to get my key, I saw two cop cars driving around the parking lot, and all of a sudden about 5 or 6 shots could be heard. The cops stopped and got out, and it looked like they were looking around, but I didn't bother to go and see if they'd caught the people or not, for fear of retaliation if the idiots found out I'd reported them, and who I was; particularly since I'm pretty sure they live here.

Anyways, here are the pics of the damage, which was a lot worse than you can see here, as there was paint all over the side, and front of my car. You can only see where the balls actually hit in these pics though, as they were taken with my phone's camera, which lacks flash, and obviously isn't going to be the greatest at taking pics in low light. It completely skipped my mind to grab my DSLR... oh well, next time, LOL.



So, on with the rest of what's happened since my last blog entry...

My vacation's been approved, and after spending somewhere around $1,100 on repairs for my car, it should be ready for the trip. My bumper "still" has not been repaired, and I'm extremely annoyed that it's taken this long to get fixed. I'm going to call the body shop this week and try and find out what the hell is going on, but at this point, I'll probably have to wait until after I get back from vacation to get it fixed. My brother will arrive on Thursday, and we'll leave Friday, though I'm not sure what time yet. At first I thought it'd be best to leave at night, so we wouldn't have to deal with the Los Angeles traffic, but my dad said that since we won't really be driving "through" LA, I shouldn't have a problem at any time of the day. Night might still be a good choice, as we'd be going through the hottest part of the country without the sun beating down on us. Anyways, I imagine we'll figure it out by the time my brother gets here.

Lots of birthdays this month. Stacy's was the 8th, Dennis' was the 15th, Angi's was the 10th (I think?), Tami's was today, and Mike's is on the 26th. With all the birthdays, car repairs, and a very long road trip ahead of me, not to mention I haven't worked overtime for months until tonight, my bank account's looking a little thin, and my credit cards are maxed. Not a good position to be in. Sure, the trip is unnecessary, but I got the car all fixed up because of this trip, and I'm really looking forward to it, so I don't have any plans on backing out unless something serious happens in the next 6 days.

I've been sort of avoiding the girl from work a bit since deciding not to date her. We still talk when we see each other at work, and we've gone to a couple Arizona Diamondbacks games together, but haven't gone to dinner or anything like that. Stacy says I'm being a bit of a dick by not telling her that I don't want to date her, but in my opinion, as the idea of dating was never discussed in the first place, I don't really feel like I'm obligated to say anything. That'd be like having to tell every girl I started hanging out with that I didn't plan on dating them, which is ridiculous.

Been playing a bit of Battlefield 2 lately, and doing quite well at it. Playing on an unranked server, I was able to get the 2nd to top spot, and the game after hit the top almost immediately, and stayed there for the rest of the game. Because of it, I've decided to play on ranked servers in order to improve even further, as I'm sure those are more challenging.

On another note, I was recently able to get a hold of Stefanie. I'd text messaged her one day when it was raining a few weeks back, about how I loved rain, and she replied with "me too". We texted each other a few more times, and I found out that she was actually moving that day into a new place, so the rain wasn't really helping. She said she'd have to invite me over once she was moved in, but I took that part with a grain of salt. Still, I was thrilled to finally hear from her after 8 months or so. Hopefully I can salvage this friendship after all.

Viva, Las Vegas!

Well, over the weekend I took my first trip to Las Vegas with Dennis, Nicole, and Issac. We left Friday afternoon, and I think it took about 6 hours total to get there, with some stops in between. We stayed at the Four Queens, which is a hotel right on the old strip. I don't really feel like typing up the whole trip at the moment, so instead, I have pictures!

I put comments about the pictures in tooltips, so just hover your mouse over each thumbnail to read them. Unfortunately some of the comments are cut off in Firefox, so you'll have to view the page in IE to see the entire comment.

'Emotion fills the sky, Erosion clouds my brain...'

I really don't feel like blogging, but I'm f'ing bored here at work, and I haven't been blogging much lately, so...

Last weekend was...different. Saturday I went up to Flagstaff. Dennis and his family were taking a mini vacation up there over the weekend, and I decided to drive up for the day to hang out. Ended up meeting them in Sedona, and spent most of the day there, checking out shops and sights, etc. Went to an estate sale and ended up finding a Pioneer turntable and equalizer for a total of $30. Found a matching turntable on Ebay for $20, so once I get that, I just need to find a simple and cheap mixer, and I can start mixing. Just for fun of course, always wanted to give it a try. The turntable and EQ are in prime condition, especially for being nearly 30 years old. I was really tired that day, as I'd worked Friday night through Saturday morning, and then left for Flagstaff only a couple hours after work. Drove home later that night with the help of loud music and energy drinks. Would've been a lot funner if I'd had someone with me on the way up and back, but everyone was working, or, in Dennis' case, already in Flagstaff.

Sunday didn't go so well. It started off ok. Went to lunch with Mike and Tiffany at Garcia's Mexican Restaurant. We made plans to go to see "Inside Man", at the 4:15 show. I had to go to a baby shower first though (explained in a bit...), but I said it probably wouldn't take long, an hour, hour and a half at most, so should be out of there by 3:30 at the latest. Unfortunately things didn't quite turn out that way.

So yes, I went to a baby shower. Many of you may know that only women go to baby showers, and I tried explaining this to DJ, who already knew that, but he kept crying about how he was going to be the only guy there (as it was for his soon to be born son). So Dennis and I agreed to go and hang out for a while. Well, Dennis didn't even get back from Flagstaff until 3:00, so we didn't even make it to the shower until 3:30. Mike called me not long after I got there, and I told him what was going on, and so he said we'd go to their place and just watch a DVD or something. I got a bit pissed at him, because we could just go to a later showing, but he just made excuses about having to drive to the theater, and how he had to work tomorrow etc. I wasn't really as pissed off about going to the movies as I was that the whole baby shower thing had f'ed up my weekend because I hadn't planned on going, and really, I wasn't even supposed to be there in the first place because I'm a guy! Dennis being late didn't help either. I would've gone earlier, but I didn't know where it was at, and DJ wouldn't answer his phone, as always.

Anyways, Mike ended up calling back and said we'd go to the 7:00 show at a closer theater to his house. I apologized for being an ass and said it wasn't necessary to go, but he said they really wanted to. I called Stacy, because we were supposed to hang out some time that day, but she didn't pick up. I left her a message telling her what time the show was, and to call if she could come. That was 1.5 hours before the movie. Right when we were walking in, at exactly 7:00, she text messages me saying "What time?", even though I'd told her what time on the voice mail. That's women for you... I told her we were already there, and asked if she wanted to hang out after, but she said no, so I pretended to get pissed off, and then told her we'd hang out some other day then. The movie was good, just as I had heard, and they both liked it as well, so I didn't feel guilty any more =P.

The rest of the week went just as any other week until Friday. There's a girl at my work that had talked to me a couple times in the past few months, and I'd been considering trying to talk with her more, hoping something would come out of it. I never got around to it though thanks to low self-esteem, and giant schedule differences. She works 2nd shift, and I work 3rd, so she leaves right when I come in. One time we passed each other on the stairs and I didn't even look at her, and DJ gave me all sorts of shit about it because I didn't even say hello, lol. Anyways, Friday I went up and started talking to her. She'd talked before about becoming a typesetter (my position), and so I started talking about that, and asked her when she was going to start training, etc. We must've talked for like, 10 minutes or more, but I told her I should probably get back to work before they start yelling at me. Anyways, hoping to talk to her more in the future. Not sure if I should just ask her out to dinner at this point or not. Any thoughts? Dennis says I should just ask for her number but I hate that shit. It's too f'ing typical, and too many jackasses do it. Better for me to ask her out to dinner, and if she says no, then tell her maybe some other time, and give her my number, yes? Fuck if I know...

Speaking of women... Stefanie's apparently looking at houses and engagement rings with her boyfriend. No, I still haven't talked to her yet. Dennis called her last week and talked to her about various things. She asked how I was doing and he got on her ass about it, saying she should just call me and find out, and she said she couldn't call me, as it'd been so long (well over 6 months now).

My apartment needs cleaning... bad... I've been slacking a lot lately. Keep telling myself I'll do it on the weekend, and then the weekend comes and goes, and still, nothing gets done. My cars dirty as hell now to, thanks to the brief rain we had, ending our 150+ day drought. Arizona's probably one of the few places where rain actually makes your car dirty, rather than cleaning it...

Yesterday I went over to Ron's house to help him fix his computer. He called me before I left my apartment. Apparently he'd been up all night, and was walking home from the west side of Phoenix (he lives over on the east side, in Tempe). His car was on the other side of town, as he'd been hanging out with some friends that night, and they'd ended up going to someones house after hitting the bar. He was still half drunk when I picked him up, which was kind of funny. He was all sorts of pissed off about some girl. We ended up going to eat breakfast at IHOP before going to her place for him to vent, and then heading to his place to fix his computer. Got it up and running...sort of. It POSTs at least. Didn't even boot before. I can't quite remember what fixed it... probably a couple of things. It was a good team effort though, and had fun doing it.

Didn't do shit today. Called Mike, but he said they weren't going to do anything, so I just slept, played some Oblivion, watched a movie, talked to my mom on the phone, and then headed off to work again, and here I am, on overtime, making $32+ an hour to write this giant blog entry... now to surf the net...

'Listen to the boulevard, listen to the fallin rain...'