'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.

'I could never be the one that you want, don't ask. Well, here's to living in the moment, cause it passed...'

So vacation's been great so far. The day after Mike and I arrived, we took a tour of Whidbey Island where I grew up, along with my brother and Sabrina. To get there we took the ferry to Clinton, then drove north through Clinton, stopping off to get Pete some baking powder for heart burn, and getting some hot chocolate at a drive-in coffee house. We then drove to Greenbank Farms so my brother could pick up some wine. When we got there, we noticed they had some kind of swap meet or something going on in one of the buildings. We went in to check it out, and while looking around I spotted a tiny violin on one of the vendors tables. I went and grabbed Pete to show him, and he found out it was only $25. That was a steal, and he thought it looked pretty cool, and Sabrina used to play violin when she was younger, so he decided to buy it.

We left the farm, and headed north to check out Fort Casey. We walked through there a while, with my brother and I talking a little bit about the fort, and taking a few pictures here and there. After Fort Casey we drove toward Oak Harbor, taking the back road around by West Beach, and passing the most recent house that our parents and us had lived in before we left Oak Harbor. Driving downtown we passed our church and the first apartments we'd lived in when we first moved there, which at the time my dad only paid a mere $80 a month for a three bedroom, two bathroom, two story apartment. Then we drove down Pioneer Road downtown and decided to stop in at Mi Pueblo for lunch. It was dark and empty inside on the first floor, and I almost thought they might actually be closed or something, but we walked upstairs and someone who looked like he was about to fall asleep at the table he was sitting at, jumped up and helped us. The food wasn't bad. Your basic Mexican restaurant stuff.

After eating we went up the street to a house we'd lived in for a number of years which we refer to as 'The Big White House'. The house is well over a hundred years old. I think it was probably one of our favorite places to live just because it was kind of unique. We have a lot of good memories of living there. The compost bins my dad built were still in the back yard, though the apple tree looked like it had been recently trimmed back. We left Oak Harbor and went by Christian's Auto and Metal Recycling, where my brother and I had both worked at one point, though at different times. We drove by the Naval Base, then turned around and headed to Deception Pass.

When we got to the bridge, Sabrina stayed near the parking lot as she's afraid of heights, while Mike, Pete, and myself walked out on to the bridge and over to Canoe Island which is between the two bridges of Deception Pass. On our way across the bridge, Pete noticed a giant splash in the water below, and thought someone had just jumped off the bridge. Turns out there as actually a number of Sea Lions swimming directly below the bridge, and one had jumped out of the water and cause the splash. At first we thought they were seals, but they were much too large. After watching them for a bit, Pete decided to turn back and stay with Sabrina, while Mike and I walked down on to the Island. We took a few pictures and tried to get a better look at the Sea Lions, but we couldn't really see them from the angle we were at. We headed back to the car, and drove over the bridge to Fidalgo Island, and on to Mount Erie. When we got to the top, it was much too cloudy for a good view of Puget Sound. We took a few pictures anyways though. Finally the tour was over, and we headed back to Seattle via the I-5 freeway over the mainland.

The next day Mike, Peter, and myself headed to the Cascade Mountain range, while Sabrina stayed in Bellvue to pack and do some cleaning. We drove up to a campground that we used to camp at frequently called Colonial Creek Campground, which is next to Ross Lake. The campground had changed quite a bit since I'd last been there, but most of it was exactly the same as it had been for decades. We left and drove up to Washington Pass to check out the snow. None of us had brought any boots or anything so we couldn't really go in it. That was the end of the trip though, and we headed back to Seattle.

The next morning I got a phone call early in the morning from my parents. My dad said that they were out of power because it had started snowing the day before around noon, and hadn't stopped since. At the time of the phone call they were up to six inches, with no sign of stopping. This is pretty much exactly what my brother and I had hoped for, minus the lack of electricity of course. Still, I wasn't that worried, as we had at least a nine hour drive to their house in Hamilton, Montana, and we weren't even planning on leaving Seattle for another three hours or so. My dad recommended I get chains for the rental, so while everyone was still sleeping, I drove to Les Schwab and picked some up, making sure I'd be able to return them if they were never used. Filled the car up with gas, and went back to Pete's house. We packed up the car, hit up McDonalds for breakfast, and were on the road by 9:30am. The mountain passes were all clear, so the chains stayed in their bag. Only a couple miles from Hamilton there was a bad accident and we had to turn around and take a different, much slower route. We stopped in at Hamilton to pick up some things for my mom at the store, and made it to their house by 9:30pm MST, so all in all, an 11 hour trip.

When we got to my parents, the power was still out, and it stayed out all until the next morning when finally it came back on. The rest of the week went well. Most of the time we stayed inside, with temperatures constantly dropping, at one point even hitting 0 degrees Fahrenheit during the night. To keep entertained we watched movies, TV series on DVD, played video games, and even did some snowboarding on the hill next to the house. Thanksgiving came and my Uncle Jim and Aunt Gidget came to have dinner with us. That Saturday we took a tour of my dad's new workplace at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) in Hamilton. Finally on Sunday it was time to head back to Seattle. The trip back didn't seem to take quite as long, I think only 9 or 10 hours. The passes were a little more icy than they were the first time through, but there was still no need for the chains, and I returned them the next day before taking the rental back. Speaking of the rental, we'd tried to get a discount on it by going through our friend Justin, who works as a concierge at a local hotel, but when I returned the rental, it apparently didn't get applied, and it ended up costing me nearly $500 for 10 days. Still, that's pretty much what I'd expected to pay going into it, so no big deal.

It's now been about 5 days since we got back. Much of the time has been spent at my brother's house playing Guitar Hero 3 and Assassin's Creed, though I did manage to go out to see Beowulf 3D at the local IMAX along with Clarence and his girlfriend Niessa, which was pretty interesting. Monday before Mike went back to Phoenix, we went downtown and walked around Pike Place Market, and later that night when Sabrina was driving me home, we got into a car accident when her car was rear-ended. Thankfully nobody was hurt, and the girl that hit us actually stopped, and had insurance. Also ended up playing pool at a dive bar up the street called Piper's a couple times. This weekend I'll be heading to Sabrina's parent's house while Pete is introduced to them. They're having enchiladas apparently, so I'm really looking forward to it :P Sabrina and I went Christmas shopping today. I didn't buy anything, just came along to get out of the house and keep her company.

Yesterday my dad called and said my mom was going in for open heart surgery today, which took us all by surprise. Apparently she hadn't been feeling well, and her temperature had risen to 105, and heart was beating very fast. The doctors discovered a hole in her heart, with an infection nearby, which had spread into her blood. The surgery was successful, and they replaced one of the valves in her heart. She'll have to be on IV antibiotics for the next six weeks.

That's all for now, other than Niickiey text messaged me a couple times. Once the night I first arrived in Seattle, wishing me a fun vacation and happy Thanksgiving, and another on Thanksgiving, saying Happy Thanksgiving. I didn't reply to either, as much as I was tempted to. At first I was angry, then the same old thoughts of wanting answers came up, but I ignored them as best I could. If she wants to talk, she can apologize first, then I'll think about it; but honestly, that's not likely to happen.

Pictures of the vacation so far can be viewed here.

'There's truth in your lies, doubt in your faith, all I've got's what you didn't take...'

So this weekend I slept a lot, played a lot of video games; namely Oblivion for PS3, and FF: Tactics for the PSP; went to the Arizona State Fair with friends, watched a lot of American football, and unfortunately, did not work any overtime.

I also got my car back yesterday. The repair work looked fantastic. The back left side of my car looks brand new. They even fixed my driver's side door, which had been catching on the sill whenever you opened it, and had become incredibly annoying. Unfortunately, in repairing the side panel, they'd somehow caused the seatbelt not to retract all the way.. so I've basically traded one annoyance for another; but the door was more annoying I think... It also seems that the weatherstripping has ripped off slightly from around the drivers side window, and what used to be a slightly audible hiss, is now much louder. Need to try and find out if that's easily repairable.

My PS3 Hard Drive extender finally came in, I think 3 weeks after ordering, which is a little ridiculous. I dropped by Fry's Electronics and grabbed a 500GB SATA drive to use with it, and an SATA-to-eSATA cable. Using my Nextar external enclosure, I attached it to my PS3 after removing the 60GB 2.5" drive, and putting in the extender. 500GB PS3 FTW!

Also ended up buying the new slim PSP. It's crazy lighter than my old one, to the point where it feels like one of those cell phone displays that don't actually have anything inside them. Still, should be much easier to hold for long periods of time. Haven't tried TV-Out yet. I was going to trade the old PSP in for credit toward it, but it seems to be missing the serial # sticker, so I'm going to try and get rid of it on eBay or Craig's list. Seems like I can get around $100 or more for it if I can find all the accessories, etc, which is great, considering EB Games/Gamestop was going to give me $50-60.

Picked up Oblivion:GOTY. Traded in my 2 month old Oblivion that I paid full retail for ($60). They were going to give me a mere $9 for it! Thankfully the clerk said he'd give me $15 cash. Brand new the original game is now only $30, so 50% is a pretty decent deal, so I guess I can't complain. They're reselling them for $26.99 used.

Oh yes, and there are pictures from the fair. While there, there was an older lady who wanted to ride the ferris wheel, but they wouldn't let her because the rules are you must ride with another person. I was just sitting on a bench waiting for my friends to finish riding, so she asks me to ride with her. So we go up there and they tell her there are no tickets left on her card. Turns out she bought an 8 ticket card ($4), and already had ridden one ride. Well she thought each ride was a single ticket, but they're actually multiple tickets, usually 4 or 5. They told her she didn't have enough left on the card and she started getting upset, so Dennis let us use his card.

Pictures

'I got my head checked, by a jumbo jet, it wasn't easy, but nothing is, no...'

Woo hoo! Moving day has finally arrived! Well, ok, it's not until tomorrow, but seeing as my PC will be disconnected tomorrow, and won't be back online until at least Monday, I decided to write this today, even though I should be packing and cleaning my apartment.

So anyways, started cleaning a couple days ago and discovered that half my belongings really belonged in the trash, and that's where they're headed. The hallway leading from my front door to my bedroom is piled high with shit that needs to go down to the dumpster. Should make moving a lot faster, and a lot of it is shit I've held on to for some stupid reason or another for the better part of three to five years. Unfortunately the office to my new place doesn't open until 9am, but that will give me time to finish throwing things away or do any last minute packing. I don't know when I'll be able to get the U-Haul truck tomorrow either, which I'll need for the large stuff at any rate.

On a side note, I went to an airshow at the local Air Force base this last weekend, and spent five hours under the Phoenix sun. The result was not in my favor. So now I'm dealing with the consequences. Thankfully most of the pain has gone away, though the skin is now cracking and peeling. It's not a pretty sight, but it could certainly be worse. Hopefully it'll all be done in the next week or so. Once I get some time, I'll post up some pics from the event.

April has also (almost) arrived. This could honestly become the best month of this year, due to a number of things, most importantly being that Rage Against the Machine will finally reunite and headline the Coachella Music Festival. My brother's coming down for the concert as well. We may also be going over to California for a few days before the concert to visit a friend of ours that recently moved there to continue his education as a helicopter pilot. I've also purchased tickets to see Static-X next Wednesday, and Sevendust two days later. Should be a great start to a potentially excellent month. Hopefully the weather stays (relatively) cool.

Now back to packing...

'Come on over, roll on over, I just need to feel you breathe...'

Had a good weekend. Bought Chevelle tickets on Saturday at a mere $25 each for myself and DJ. That night I went with Dennis to see the band "Hurt" at the Marquee Theater. They put on a great performance. I think they sound better live than their on the CD myself. Especially liked when he broke out the violin for the song "Danse Russe". Always cool when rock bands break out instruments normally not used in rock. Korn and the bagpipes, for example.

Tickets were cheap, like $17 after taxes and 'convenience' fees, etc. That's the least I've paid for tickets so far next to the $12 P.O.D. tickets. Got to love Marquee Theater. Cheap tickets, and it's standing room only, so you're pretty much guaranteed a decent seat. Especially because there probably wasn't more than 100 or 150 people there at best. I noticed that the lead singer of Hurt really looks the part of a rock musician as well, in the same way that Sully from Godsmack does. They both just really look like they were 'born to rock' if you will. The band stayed after and signed autographs etc. I should've bought a CD and had it signed. Oh well...

Sunday I didn't do much during the day. Mike called in the late afternoon and invited me over to his place. Tiffany was going to be studying all evening, so we decided to leave her to herself, and drove out of town to some hills to the west of Phoenix and hiked around a bit. I should definitely get out hiking more; I just hate going by myself. While there we had a good long talk about relationships, etc. After talking to him about Brandee, and explaining why I was so confused about the situation, he brought up that basically something I might find intimate might just be a 'Hallmark Card' to the other person, and while this wasn't totally new to me to hear, putting it with my recent experience gave me a different view of it, though still didn't quite answer my questions. He did remind me that relationships are mostly a 'total mind-fuck', which is certainly true...

After hiking, he asked if I had any plans that evening. I'd originally had plans to have dinner with Stacy, but she had to cancel so she could study for a test. I'd thought about calling in to work to see if they needed some additional help, but decided against it. So instead we decided to barbecue over at his house, so we went to the store and got some steaks and a few other things, then went back to the house and he cooked them on his grill. It was some damn good food. Certainly beat whatever I would've got on the way home if I hadn't eaten there. It's too bad I'm so lazy, or I'd cook for myself more often...

So I went home and surfed the net a bit, then fell asleep listening to music. Woke back up around 2am because the music was still playing, and decided to play Tekken 5 for a few hours, and then went back to sleep.

I can't wait to finally move out of my apartment. I should start packing things this week, and throwing stuff away. I imagine I could probably get rid of half the stuff in my apartment just by throwing things away that I've kept for years, like the three or four computers sitting in my closet, and clothes that I never wear. I need to contact SRP and set up my electric at the new place, as well as call Qwest about getting the internet set up. I'm holding off on getting any kind of TV service until I get moved and see how finances go with the added expense of a bigger place. I never watch TV anyways, so the $40+ a month could probably go to better use.

'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

'Tidal waves they rip right through me...'

Well, another entry, another set of pictures. These were taken last Sunday when I went up to Flagstaff to play in the snow with Daniel, Alicia, and their family. Had a great time up there. It was insanely cold, apparently around 16F, but that was a good thing because the snow didn't melt and get us all wet.

Saturday I thought I was supposed to go to Stacy's sisters birthday party, but turns out that's not until this Saturday, so instead I just met her for a drink at the restaurant she used to work at before she and her boyfriend went to see a movie.

Speaking of Stacy, I'm taking her friend Brandee out to dinner tonight. Originally supposed to be a blind date, which I wasn't too thrilled about, she actually introduced her to me the weekend before last. Probably going to go to P.F. Changs for dinner, as I haven't been there in a while, and I wanted to go somewhere I hadn't taken anyone yet. Hopefully I can get to sleep as soon as I get home from work so I won't be tired.

Pics with comments are here.

'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

'Our hopes and expectations, black holes and revelations...'

Just got back yesterday from a four day trip to California, or, more specifically, Disneyland. My best friend and his girlfriend were going, and had asked if I wanted to come along for a few days. I hadn't been to Disneyland in like 8 years, for my sister's 18th birthday, so I was pretty excited. Plus, I don't get to hang out with them enough, so it'd be good to spend a few days hanging out.

They were going to stay until Friday, but I was going to only stay for a couple days, and leave Wednesday in time to make it back for work that night. I didn't have any paid time-off anymore, so not only was the trip going to cost quite a bit for the hotel, tickets, gas, and of course, food, but I'd be losing money not working for a couple days as well. So we decided to take separate cars, but drive together. I technically could've taken a plane back, but I love driving, even if it's by myself, for six straight hours of nothing but desert.

So anyways, I won't write down every detail of the vacation. We all had a great time though. I've never walked so much in my entire life, and I used to walk everywhere before I had a car. My legs were completely shot after two days of walking through Disneyland, Downtown Disney, California Adventure, and to and from the hotel, not to mention walking along the beach, and around the shops, etc. We went on a lot of rides, much more than I went on the last time I was there, including Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, Pirates of the Caribbean, the Haunted House, the Matterhorn, Indiana Jones, California Screamin', and lots more. I was a little wary of riding the roller coasters (of which most of the rides are), but once I rode them at least once, it was a lot easier, and I ended up enjoying them quite a bit.

We stayed at the Anaheim Hilton and Towers hotel, which was pretty nice, especially for the low $89 a night price. They even accidentally threw in a free mini-fridge as well, but I didn't end up using it because I was never at the hotel other than to sleep.

The only bad part about the trip was that there were three of us, which meant on rides that only sat two people per seat, I was by myself, which wasn't very fun at all. I already knew that would happen, but it didn't ruin the vacation or anything.

So now I'm back in Phoenix, and frantically trying to balance my finances, and who's going to get what for Christmas, and if they're even going to get it by Christmas, or if they're going to have to wait until I get more money. Mostly I'm focusing on getting everyone here in Phoenix their gifts by Christmas, and I've done surprisingly better than I thought I was going to do (which doesn't really mean much). I still have quite a few gifts to think of and buy though, and that will probably all be done today, or this weekend, which I actually took off for once, not only because of the holiday, but because Stacy wanted to hang out one night, so I promised her I would.

So, now for the pictures! Some of these turned out really well, and I can tell I'm getting more used to using my camera and it's different settings, particularly the aperture and shutter speed settings.

As always, you can view them with comments here.

'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.

---

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...