"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.

'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

'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 the riot be the rhyme of the unheard...'

Well, it's been an incredibly long time since I made an entry, and I'm really not going to go over all that's happened in the last month and a half, but I'll let you in on a few things that have been happening lately, and will be happening in the near future.

To start off, I haven't taken many pictures lately, as much as I've meant to. When there are opportunities to take them, I've either forgot my camera, forgot the battery, or forgot the flash card to store the pictures on. I do have a couple pictures to put up though, one taken with my cell phone, and the other by DJ's girlfriend Melissa, as well as a handful from the Halloween costume contest at work.

The first one is a picture of DJ and Melissa's son Nathaniel, as well as Daniel and Alicia's daughter Niya. This was taken at the company picnic which took place near the end of last month, and ended up being a lot more fun than I originally expected.



The second is a picture of DJ, myself, and Daniel at the Arizona State Fair, also at the end of last month.



This is when I forgot my battery, which really sucked, because there were a lot of things to take pictures of. I could've used my phone I suppose, as it's a 1.3mp sensor, but the quality of the image compared to a dedicated camera is still crap, and seeing as we were there in the evening, most of the images would've turned out horribly anyways with the lack of a flash. The fair wasn't bad, but not excellent either. I tried some deep fried cheesecake, which wasn't worth the $5 it cost, and a normal piece of cheesecake would've been better I think. Daniel loves the stuff though. Rode a couple of rides, eventually getting a little motion sickness.

These are the pictures from the costume contest at my work. At first I didn't want to dress up, but then a couple days before Halloween I actually kind of got excited about it, but by that time it was too late to find what I wanted, which was either a Jack Skellington costume (Nightmare Before Christmas) or Captain Jack (of Pirates of the Carriban). The second picture is of my friends Alicia and Angi. I took their picture separate from the group because they had the most unique costumes in my opinion, although the "Cereal Killer" costume was pretty unique as well.



So those are all the pictures I have. Other than that, I've just been working non-stop since my birthday. I've meant to use the extra cash to buy a new exhaust and short-ram intake for my car, but I think that might have to end up waiting until next year, as I ended up spending about $250 fixing some bad belts and pulleys in my engine, and I've also recently made plans to go to Disneyland with Mike & Tiffany during the week before Christmas. That's not to mention my vacation coming up next week to Washington/Montana for Thanksgiving, or various birthdays, the PlayStation 3 (providing I can get one), and of course, Christmas.

'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...

'All is numb, I've been lost too long...'

Ok, I realize not all of you want to read a lot of minor details, so for those people, here's the summary of last night....

- Went to a club for a co-workers birthday
- Lots of alcohol involved
- I actually danced for the first time in my life
- Went to hang out at a friends mom's house afterward until 5 in the morning where someone gets naked in the pool, someone else throws up all night, and being the only one sober, I get to take in all the details, most of them written below.

Now either read the details, or skip to the bottom rule below that start out what happened today, which is quite a bit shorter.

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So last night got a little crazy. I'd been invited to go to a club in downtown Tempe, called Grahams Central Station, for a co-workers (Shawn) birthday party. He'd rented a limo, and was going to go around and pick everyone up in it on the way to the club, but I decided to take my own car, that way I could come and go on my own schedule. Also picked up a few friends (who also work with me) on the way (DJ, Daniel, and Alicia). When we got there, we couldn't find anyone, so we walked around forever trying to find them. The club is pretty big, as it's four different sections, one for hip-hop, one for country, one for misc (rock, oldies, hip-hop, etc), and a kareokee room. Finally the people that came in the Limo all showed up (Shawn, Lisa, Nicola, Marquis, and Yvette) and we found them in the hip-hop room, where we pretty much stayed at the rest of the night.

So everyone's drinking and talking etc, and Lisa starts trying to get me to go and dance, and this is after I'd told her the previous day that I wasn't going to, etc. So I keep telling her no but she wouldn't give up and she grabs my arm and tries to drag me out onto the dance floor. So anyways, I figured it'd be less embarrassing to just go and dance than to try and fight with her about it, so she starts teaching me how to dance, since I've never tried before, only we're not dancing how everyone else is cause she starts out with basic stuff like steps like it was country line dancing or something, but then on to more... intimate (?) moves, pressing her body against me, so I can feel what she's doing, etc, and try to follow it. Having an attractive woman's moving her body against yours certainly helps take your mind of the fact that you feel like a complete idiot. Sometimes she'd cover my eyes with her hands, I guess in an effort to get me to concentrate on how she was moving, etc. Not sure if it helped me dance, but it was kind of hot, lol. Anyways, after my first "lesson" she got me to go back out two other times, with less resistance on my part, and I definitely had fun doing it, however, I still felt like an idiot, especially when she would move away and try to get me to dance on my own.

The club closed around two in the morning, and Alicia called her mom, and said we could all go over to her mom's house to hang out. Most everyone piled into the limo, but Daniel (Alicia's husband) said Alicia had to ride with me to make sure I got there ok, although I already knew how to get there. Alicia and I arrived well ahead of the limo (I have kind of a heavy foot) and so we waited out front for them. The limo finally arrives about 15 minutes later, and we open the door to find Shawn sprawled out on the floor in the back of the limo, passed out. We wake him up and help him out of the car, and he can barely stand, so Daniel and I stood behind him, trying to hold him up. Everyone's kind of randomly talking and laughing for like 20 minutes, and the limos still there, and eventually we decide that Shawn needs to go home, so we tell the driver to take him home, and Yvette and Marquis say they're going home to, so they hop in the limo as well. They argue with the driver a bit on how much time they have left, but eventually they take off.

Then I find out Nicola's getting worried about getting a ride home, and she's on the phone with her (ex?) boyfriend trying to get him to come and pick her up but she doesn't have a clue where she's at, so I give her the address and directions, and offer her a ride home, but I think she wanted to go home immediately, so she kept talking on the phone. We go inside the house, and out into the backyard where there's chairs and a pool etc. Daniel tries to dump a bottle of water on Lisa. Nicola's still on the phone. Someone suggests we all get in the pool, but nobody wants to be the first one in, everyone wants to make sure everyone else is going to get in to, and nobody has swim suits except Alicia who borrowed some shorts from her sister. I don't want to go in at all, and Lisa says she's not going in if I don't go cause she didn't want to either, so everyone starts trying to convince me to go in but without a pair of shorts, it just wasn't going to happen; though, for a minute, I considered just saying fuck it, and jumping in, but my boxers arn't exactly tight around my waist, and I don't think they'd stay on too long in a pool, lol.

So Alicia and DJ get in, and Daniel almost does, but then comes back and grabs Lisa to try and drag her in, but Lisa grabs me by my front pants pockets (I'm sitting in a chair) and this would've created a pretty interesting picture had someone thought of taking one, anyways, I tried prying her hands from my pockets, which wasn't easy, but finally got her to let go of me, but both her and Daniel flew back onto the ground and into a plastic bucket filled with empty beer cans. So that ended that (for the moment anyways). After a few minutes Daniel went onto the side of the house and started throwing up pretty bad. While he was back there, DJ and Alicia are still trying to convince me and Lisa to get in the pool, and start giving us shit about not going along with the idea. Lisa mentions that it's not like anyones naked or anything, and says if they get naked she'll get in. So then a couple minutes later, after more arguing, DJ slaps his wet boxers on the side of the pool and says now that he's naked, she has to get in. So now everyones laughing and Lisa says she's not getting in, and goes around the side of the house to see if Daniels ok, cause he's been throwing up for the last 30 minutes or more, and DJ puts his boxers back on and him and Alicia get out of the pool. Nicola comes out from inside the house, grabs her purse, and leaves. We think she was mad, but we're not sure why...

Then Lisa and Daniel come back around from the side of the house. He looks ok, and is smiling and everything, and his eyes are barely open cause he's so wasted. Then all of a sudden he grabs Lisa and starts pulling her toward the pool, and then Lisa grabs me, and I grab a wooden post that's holding up the porch awning and Lisa locks her arms around my waist, and everyone else is pulling Lisa trying to get her in the pool, but its no use, and they finally give up. Eventually Daniel goes back on the side of the house and starts throwing up some more, and Alicia and DJ go over to see if he's ok. Lisa and I just sit on the porch talking about dancing and other things. Finally, around five in the morning, we leave Alicia's mom's house. Alicia and Daniel stay there, and I take Lisa and DJ home, stopping to get something to eat on the way. DJ's girlfriend calls right before we get to her house, wondering why he's not home yet. I drop him off, go home, and go to bed for 4 hours, since i'd woken up right before going to the club anyways, I wasn't real tired.

---

So then today I went and exchanged my DS Phat for a Onyx Black DS Lite. This thing is so much better looking than the original DS. EB Games has a deal going on where you trade in the old DS for the new one, and get it for only $70, which is nearly half price, and a hell of a lot better deal than I thought I was going to get. Also picked up Starfox Command for it, and pre-ordered the collectors edition of FFXII for the PS2. On the way home I picked up some Chipotle for lunch, and went to Safeway. Tried calling Mike to see if he and Tiffany wanted to hang out, but they were up in Payson visiting his mom. I have softball at 6pm tonight. Hopefully I do just as well (or not any worse) than last time. My brother called today to recommend the movie "It's all gone Pete Tong". (IMDB) Anyone ever heard of it?

'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...

'so fall into my eyes, and fall into my lies...'

Well, I had another good weekend. They seem to be happening quite often actually... that's kind of odd. Anyways, Saturday was DJ's party. There wasn't too many people there, but I remember DJ saying he was only inviting a handful of people this time. Just to hang out at his house, eat pizza and cheesecake (yumm), etc. Sunday I hung out with Mike and Tiffany. Went to Arrowhead Mall and walked around a bit, then dropped my car off at her parents, and headed over to Chili's for dinner. They've got pretty decent food there.

After that we drove to downtown Tempe, which is where ASU is at, and all many of the bars and clubs, etc. We were going to a club called Margarita Rocks, but it wasn't open for another 20 minutes or so, so we went next door to The Tavern, and they had a few drinks, and we talked for a while until the other club opened up. It was pretty dead for a little while, but picked up soon enough. An older hispanic lady tried to get me to dance because she thought I looked bored, but I wasn't going for it. Not enough alcohol or self-esteem for that type of thing (probably doesn't help that I don't drink, heh). Lots of great looking women at the club, which makes sense, seeing as ASU's practically across the street. Left there not long after midnight, picked up my car, and went to bed.

The next day I headed up north to check out some landmarks in Arizona that I haven't been to yet. I drove up to a place called Tonto Natural Bridge, which is essentially a short, but very tall cave that goes through a cliff, forming a natural bridge. Hiked around there for a while, then drove up to Winslow to check out the Homolovi Ruins. I thought they'd be more well preserved than they turned out to be, but it was interesting just the same. Got stopped by a Park Ranger while up there, cause I forgot to put my pass in the window. After that, I drove back to Phoenix, and over to Dennis' house. Watched "Firewall", then went home and to sleep.

Got up early today to go to work. I'm working days this week to get additional training at work. I hate driving in traffic. It's so different than driving at night, where there are little to no accidents, and the freeways just move along without any problems at all. Coming home was even worse. Took me an hour or more, when it normally takes 20-25 minutes.

Anyways, here are some pics from the weekend. The dogs are from Tiffany's parents house, the middle one being Tiffany's dog Rowdy. The rest are from the Tonto Natural Bridge, and the Homolovi ruins.

'To put my arms in fragile hands!'

Well, the trip is over, and all is back to normal. The rest of the pics from the trip are below.

Sunday I'll be going to yet another Arizona Diamondbacks game. Lynn got more tickets through work, so she invited myself, DJ, and his g/f Mellisa to come along.

Other than that, don't really have many plans until August, which is coming up soon. Oh yeah; I forgot to mention that I forgot to pay my rent before I went on vacation, and now I don't have enough money to until this weekend, so I'll be owing an extra $125 or so in addition to the $450 I normally pay. Oh well.

Pictures from the trip.

'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...

'Did I drive you away? I know what you'll say...'

I'm bored as hell...

This day's been going by so slow, but thankfully, only 1.5 more hours of work. Ordered a new cellphone this week, a Samsung SGH-T809. It's light years ahead of my current Samsung SGH-E105. I was able to talk the T-Mobile rep to giving it to me for a mere $189, when the original upgrade price was $250, and the MSRP is like $379, so not a bad deal at all. Kind of cool how much money you can save just by asking =P.

My brother's coming to visit in a week. He'll be flying down from Seattle next Saturday, and staying until the Saturday after that. I took the week off from work so we'd have plenty of time to hang out. I need to find stuff to do though. I need to get the heater fixed in my car as well. Thought about buying some new wheels and tires also. Would cost me just over $1300 for the ones I want though. The ones I'm looking at are the 17" Enkei DM5's, at Discount Tire, with Yokohama tires. Just got my first oil change the other day. The bottom of my car ended up scraping on the retractable "bridge" (not sure what it's called), so I had to sign a waiver saying they weren't responsible for damage to the car. Didn't scrape too much anyways, and it's not like I can just go without getting my oil changed =P.

Had lunch with Stacy on Tuesday. We went to a fancy Mexican place (Abuelo's), because I thought we should go somewhere new, and it was rated the best on citysearch.com. The food wasn't bad, but no different than most other decent mexican spots. The restaurant itself was pretty nice though. Prices weren't bad at all either, not cheap, but not expensive. While we were there, she asked about Stefanie, and if I'd heard from her yet. I told her I hadn't, but that it was her birthday tomorrow (Wednesday), and that I planned on calling her. Then she said something that caught me a little off guard. She said I'd been taking things out on her, like my frustration about the situation with Stefanie, which is why she (Stacy) hadn't called me in a while. I'd been trying to get a hold of her for a month and a half, with no luck, until she called me while I was in Houston. I apologized, and told her if I did, it certainly wasn't intentional. I tried my hardest to remember having said anything mean to her. The only thing I could think of was some remarks about online dating though, which she had tried a couple months ago. She must've accepted my apology though, because she insisted on paying for lunch. After lunch we went shopping at Walmart. I bought the DVD "Lord of War", and ended up letting her borrow it, because she hadn't seen it yet.

Wednesday I hung out at Dennis' for a while with him and DJ. Played a little pool, and then watched American Pie 4, which was about as bad as I thought it would be. After that I went and got my oil changed, which took a lot longer than I thought, because I had to go to Napa to buy my filter, because Walmart didn't carry it, then drive back to Walmart to get it changed. It took 30 minutes just for my cars turn, and another 30 to get it done. I just walked around Walmart the whole time. Wasn't really interested in looking for anything in particular though, since I'd just been there the previous day with Stacy, so it was pretty boring. After that I went home and told Stefanie's voice mail Happy Birthday.

Thursday, I started watching my "Firefly" box set, and now I love the series more than ever. I really hope Fox, or anyone really, picks this show back up.

And now we're at today, which I don't really have any plans other than renewing my apartment lease for yet another 7-15 months, depending on if they'll give me any months for free for the longer leases. I thought about moving, but I'd have to move the week my brother was here; plus, I'm not even sure if I really need to move. My rent is being increased by $30 a month if I re-sign, which is hardly much more money, and certainly cheaper than where I thought about moving in to, which would be somewhere around $200 more per month, though it's quite a bit nicer there, and certainly bigger.

Today's pay day, so I'll have to make the decision on whether or not to get the wheels and tires, or if I should build a new computer. I think I'm going to go with the wheels/tires though. The new Elder Scrolls doesn't come out for a couple months, and that's when I'll need my new PC, so I can hold off on that. I need to look into getting refunded for the money I spent in Houston as well. Turns out my employer will reimburse me for my car rental as well. Too bad I didn't know that before I went; I would've got it for the entire two weeks, instead of just the weekend. Would've made things a hell of a lot easier, and funner. Oh well, I'll know better next time.

XM Radio and other good stuff...

I got XM Satellite Radio this weekend. I was planning on getting it around September, when I bought my car, but it turns out someone at my work was selling their hardware, which was still in the package, for $50 less than what it would cost me if I bought it from the store, so I got the XM SkyFi Receiver, Vehicle Kit, and SkyFi Audio System for a mere $200. Plus I didn't have to pay tax or shipping. If it were up to me I would've got the SkyFi2, which has a built in wireless transmitter, but the wireless transmitter only works when in the car kit, and even then I'll be buying an XM compatible stereo for my car, so the FM transmitter would be useless. Even though XM radio has 150+ stations, I only really listen to about six or seven of them. Two rock stations (ch 47, 48), three electronica stations (ch 80, 81, 82), and two hip-hop stations (ch 67, 68) which I very rarely listen to. Most of the other stations are pretty much crap. I might add the 90's station later, but whenever I've turned to it, there wasn't ever anything I liked playing. They shouldn't just have a "90's" station, it should be like "90's Alt Rock", or "90's Hip-Hop", etc, not everything ever made in the 90's all rolled into one station... You can't have Celine Dion come on after Tupac....

Got some excellent news this week/weekend. I've been trying to get my best friend Mike to go with me to Washington on vacation at some point, and he keeps blowing me off, but DJ said he'd love to go up when I go for Thanksgiving this year. Mainly he wants to smoke some Washington and/or Canada grown marijuana, as well as hang out and see the sights, etc. Apparently Jimi Hendrix is buried in a cemetery in or near Seattle, so we're going to check that out, as well as go to Kurt Cobain's house, which I think is right up the street from my brother's apartment. Kurt was cremated, and his ashes put in three different places, so he doesn't have an actual grave. According to what I read, when Courtney Love asked around to a couple cemeteries, they refused to put a grave for Kurt in their cemetary because it would generate unwanted traffic (aka immature teens).

Not only is DJ planning on going, but yesterday Stefanie mentioned she was going to drive up to Washington with her ex-boyfriend at some point. I got a bit angry because I had just asked her a few weeks ago if she wanted to go up with me and check it out, but she made an excuse about how she wouldn't because she'd probably end up not coming back because she liked it so much. I thought she might actually just be thinking it was a little forward of me to ask her to come because we're not dating or anything. Apparently she had just said that because she thought I was going at Christmas time, and she had to be here in Phoenix for Christmas. When I explained to her that I didn't have any actual dates set, and that I was planning on going up for three weeks anytime around Thanksgiving through Christmas, she was a lot more open, and seemed genuinely excited about going.

I'm a bit wary about how long that excitement will last though. November is quite some time away; and, since we're driving up, she'd have to take quite a bit of time (at least a week) off from work, because it takes a minimum of 2.5-3 days of constant driving to get to Seattle from Phoenix. She would only drive up with me on the way there, and then fly back to Phoenix after staying there a few days. I'm still remaining optimistic that she'll end up coming after all though. There's so many places to go, it'd be pretty hard for her to get bored in only a few days (*knock on wood*). Now to wait out the four months....

'Happy and free inside a world of misery...'

Time to catch up on yet another week, this one happened to be particularly busy for me. We'll start at the beginning...

Last Monday night was great. I went to my 2nd concert, this time which happened to be Static-X. The three opening bands were a chore to sit through..particularly because we were forced to stand, since there were no seats. All three bands were basically heavy metal or death metal, not sure what you would call them. Basically a hell of a lot of screaming that made absolutely no sense at all. All of the songs sounded quite similar to each other, and the only reason you could tell you were listening to a new song was because of the short pauses in between each one. The 2nd band was actually a Hispanic death metal band, and all their songs were in Spanish, not that it made any difference, because as I said earlier, you couldn't even understand the ones that were in English. Had we have known there were going to be three opening bands before Static-X, we probably would've came later, but oh well. Once Static-X came on, things got much better. They played quite a few songs from their previous two albums, Wisconsin Death Trip, and Shadowzone, as well as a couple of tracks from their album that came out that night, Start a War. Every song was damn good though, and what made the show even better is that the band actually performs really well, in that they didn't seem like they were there to just play a few songs and then get the hell out of there. I went to the show with my friends Dennis and DJ for Dennis' 26th birthday, which was on the 15th.

Tuesday and Wednesday passed without anything extraordinary. When Thursday came, I went with Stefanie to school early in the morning, around 7:30 I think, to help her with her CIS 105 work. She had to take a test on Excel later that morning, and didn't have a clue what she was doing. Unfortunately we didn't get through too much of the practice exercises she had to do before the time to take the test came around. Eventually she convinced the teacher that she didn't have enough time to take the test anyways, as she had to be at work by 9. The teacher agreed to let her take the test the following Monday (today) instead. Later that day I went to The Cheesecake Factory with Stacy for her 24th birthday, which was actually a week earlier on the 8th. We were there for about two hours, and there wasn't too many long moments of silence, so hopefully she wasn't completely bored.

Friday was really fun. Started off playing tennis for the first time in my life with Stefanie. I sucked ass at it of course, and kept hitting the ball much too hard, or not hitting it at all. We didn't play for very long because Stefanie said I was going to give myself a heart attack, so we went swimming instead, which I haven't done for a very, very long time. Unfortunately that didn't last very long either, as the maintenance man came and said he was closing down the pool for the day to clean it, so after changing, I went back to her apartment and just hung out until Dennis called. He was having a barbecue at his house, and was on his way to pick me up. Stefanie wasn't too pleased, and she told me I shouldn't go, and I should just hang out with her instead, but I'd already told Dennis that morning that I would.

Saturday morning, Eddie (friend from work) and I were going to go to Fry's Electronics as soon as it opened up at 9am. Since we got off work at 6am, we just hung out at my apartment for a couple hours talking, and showing him my apartment, computer, etc. Then we went to Fry's and he returned a few things, then we just walked around the store for a little over an hour just looking at stuff. After that I went home and sat around the house for a few hours until around 5:30pm when DJ came and picked me up to go to a restaurant called Fuddruckers, which is basically just a sort of "homestyle" burger joint. We were going there for Dennis' birthday party. The food there wasn't all that great, at least not for the $10 it cost. I could've got better, and more food, at any fast food restaurant for half the price. It was fun hanging out though. I got home around 9:30pm and called Stefanie to see if she might be bored and wanted to hang out, but I couldn't get a hold of her. I really didn't want to go to sleep so damn early, but I'd only had roughly 8 hours of sleep in the last three nights, so I was extraordinarily tired. I'd just finished downloading roughly nine or ten Pearl Jam albums, so I added them all to my playlist and fell asleep listening to it. I woke up once or twice during the night and tried to stay awake listening to Pearl Jam as long as possible, so I wouldn't have to wake up at 6am from too much sleep. Not the easiest thing to do, as much of Pearl Jam's music is a little on the slow side. Somehow I managed it though, and didn't wake up until 10 or 11am the next morning.

Sunday is usually the day I try to hang out with Mike, so I gave him a call. We ended up going to the mall, along with Tiffany (his girlfriend). Usually we just end up walking around looking at stuff, but we actually did a bit of shopping this time. I probably spent much more money than I should've, but I needed the clothes just as much as I needed the money. One of the stores we went to was JC Penney, where I used to work. Only one person recognized me, which doesn't surprise me since I worked nights there. He actually didn't even know that I'd quit my job there, even though he hadn't seen me for more than 3 months.

After that we went to Fuddruckers yet again, although one in a different part of town than the one I'd went to the previous day. The food wasn't any better, and this time it was with Tiffany's parents rather than a bunch of my friends, so it wasn't quite as fun either. The day only got worse from there. We went to Best Buy so that Tiffany's parents could buy her sister and her sister's kids cell phones. The fact that her parents had to buy her and her boyfriend and kids cell phones pissed me off enough, but the fact that we spent three hours at Best Buy waiting for them to pick out their phones was fucking ridiculous. This is of course, one of the many things that won't happen once I finally have my own car. After that, we went to Tiffany's parents house, and nearly everyone went swimming. I wasn't really in the mood, so I just sat in the living room watching TV until Mike and Tiffany were ready to leave. Dennis had called earlier in the day and was having another barbecue for Father's Day, but I told him I wasn't going to be able to come because I was hanging out with Mike. I really should've gone. Other than the fact that it was hanging out with friends, the day was a complete waste of time.

When I finally got home, I called Stefanie to see if she wanted to hang out. Couldn't get a hold of her again, but she called not too long afterwards and wanted to know if she could come over so I could help her with her CIS work again. Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on how you look at it, we couldn't get her software to work, so instead we just ended up talking and listening to music for 4.5 hours, which made me forget about the horrible day I'd had earlier.

Finally we come to today. I woke up around 8am because Stefanie wanted to go to the computer lab at the college to see if we'd be able to get the software to work there, and she could practice for an hour or two before having to take the test. Unfortunately the software still didn't work, so I tried to think of stuff on my own to try and teach her to use Excel, but I couldn't think of much, so we just went and ate breakfast at Jack n' The Box instead. She got a 100% and 70% on her last two Excel tests though, so hopefully she'll do relatively well on this one. I told her to call me as soon as she was finished with it, but it's been a couple hours since she left to take the test, and no call. We're supposed to go to the optometrist later today to see about getting me new glasses though, so I don't have to wear my contacts all the time while at home, which would be really nice, particularly at night, and when playing games, so my eyes don't dry out.

I really should start doing these blog entries on a semi-daily basis so you don't have to read all that text at once =P

Getting off this Wisconsin death trip...

This weekend started off slow, so I prepared myself to waste it sitting around my apartment being bored, but thankfully, that wasn't the case. Friday night was my last night in the mentoring program at my work, so Monday night I'll be a full fledged employee, which comes with no additional benefit, in fact, quite the opposite. While in mentoring, if I screwed up, it didn't matter quite that much, as I had someone to turn to and ask questions, as well as take the blame or make up a story for the Supervisor, so that I wouldn't get into too much trouble. The next couple weeks should reveal fairly clearly if I'm going to be able to make it through the year without getting fired.

Saturday I did nothing, just sat around the apartment. DJ called me up and said he was planning on going to see "The Longest Yard" with Dennis, and wanted to know if I wanted to come, which I did. Unfortunately Dennis couldn't get his mom to watch his three kids while we went to the movie, so we ended up not going. I stayed up Saturday night until about 5:30am, as I figured I probably wouldn't get any phone calls to do anything until at least 10:30-11:00am. Turned out I was wrong, as Dennis called up at ~9:30, so I only got four or so hours of sleep. I didn't feel all that tired though, so wasn't too bad. I got up, shaved my head and got ready for the day, and walked over to his house, which is about a mile away, in the 95 degree heat. Thankfully there was a slight breeze, so it wasn't completely horrible. August can't come any faster though... Played six or eight games of pool at Dennis' with him and DJ. Only won once, but came extremely close every other time. I'm getting quite a bit better at it lately. They used to win with nearly all of my balls still on the table =P. After that we watched "The Aviator", which was a pretty decent movie, though slow at times. Probably wouldn't hurt to cut at least 30 minutes of footage from it, being a 3 hour movie. After that we went to Blimpie for subs, and then Blockbuster and rented "Finding Neverland", (also a decent flick, especially for one tailored to children) and another movie, which I forget the name of, as we haven't watched it yet.

Dennis dropped me off back home around 11:00pm, and I decided to give Stefanie a call so she wouldn't complain about me never calling. Turns out she lost her job as a server at The Olive Garden on Thursday, just for not ringing up someones desert, so that sucks. She was going to go get something to eat at Taco Bell, but asked me if I was hungry, and wanted to go to TGI Friday's since their appetizers were 1/2 off. I wasn't particularly hungry, as I'd just eaten a foot long sub only a couple hours earlier, but I'd rather hang out with her than sit around my apartment, so we went. Originally she was planning on just buying some cheap $2 appetizer, since she just lost her job, and was trying to conserve money, but I thought that was pretty ridiculous, and told her to order whatever she wanted, as I would pay for it. She objected of course, so while we were looking at the menu, I just asked her what she thought was good to eat, and I just ordered a few things she said, which ended up being chili cheese fries, mozzarella sticks, and some giant salad, as well as an alcoholic drink (called a Tidal Wave) that she suggested I should have if I ever started drinking alcohol. So we just shared all the food (except the alcohol, which was hers of course) and talked for a long time about her old job, school, friends, etc. Good times.

Yesterday I was thinking about how hard it seems to be to maintain more than a couple of friends as an adult, particularly with a schedule that's completely the opposite of everyone you know because I work nights. I have roughly six friends that I like hanging out with, none of them which work with me, and none of them hang out with each other. I used to spend every Saturday with Dennis, and Sunday's with Mike, and the others pretty much got neglected, as I have a hard time calling people to just talk to unless they're a really good friend (which are the two people I already hang out with). Week days and nights are virtually impossible to hang out with anyone because I sleep during the afternoon/evening, and then go to work at night. Having to work on Friday nights certainly doesn't help either. Thankfully Stefanie's sort of a night person herself, so after I'm done hanging out with Dennis or Mike, there's still a chance to hang out with her for a few hours on the weekends even if it's around midnight. My friend Richard, who, before today I hadn't spoken to in three months, recently bought a house and sent me the pictures a couple days ago, so I called him up to say Hi and congratulate him, and catch up, etc. He'll be going to Texas next weekend, but he wants to buy and install a new surround sound system in their house for their new 52" HDTV, and asked me if I'd help him out with it in a couple of weeks, so that should be fun.

While at Dennis' I talked to my parents for an hour or so about various things, including taking a trip up to Alaska next summer. I get three weeks of Paid Time Off a year, and since I'll have my car in a couple months, I really want to drive up to Washington, which is about 2.5-3 days of virtually non-stop driving. If no one down here wants to go up with me, then I'll probably end up flying my brother down or something so we can take turns at the wheel. I'm extremly excited about that, as the longest "road-trip" I've been on was only about 13 hours, from our house in Washington to my Grandma's in Montana. Plenty of opportunity for pictures though, and thankfully, my battery recharger came with a car adapter =P. The Alaska trip would probably have to be separate. My Dad said it'd be best if we had at least two-weeks of time to do it, and that's probably best, as it's about a 2-2.5 day drive non-stop my parents house to Fairbanks, where we used to live. Then we'd probably head past Mt. McKinley, and to Anchorage, and possible a couple other places, then head back. I really want my parents to come visit Phoenix again as well, and I told them if they could find the time, I'd have no problem paying for the tickets.