I half wrote this so I don't forget what I'm doing....

So, it's been over a month since I've written here. Somewhere in there I caught a nasty stomach/sinus bug from hell (well before this swine flu BS), spent 4 weekends filming on an independently produces science fiction movie set in the Firefly/Serenity universe (of which I have a production journal from and will be released on here at a later date), got overwhelmed at school (which sucks because I'm not particularly motivated to learn APA format and how to write for a counseling/psychology degree) and had one hell of a busy April at work with my seniors graduating and wanting to know what's the deal with college. So yeah, free time = nonexistent.

As it is, on Wednesday I'm leaving for Los Angeles for the second and final Battlestar Galactica Prop and Costume Auction. I'm not sure what, if anything I'll bid on, because if I'm anything resembling responsible, I've got no money like that to really spend. That being said, I'll be sure to report what I do buy and how much my bank account will be crying about it. Also be seeing a good friend from a summer program we both volunteer at since he lives out there and I'm all about crashing on couches!!

Friday I head to Vegas for 4 days to hang out by the pool and do/think about absolutely nothing except where my next drink is coming from and if I want to jump in the water now or later. I anticipate a lazy, relaxing, awesome good time since our hotel just got upgraded to directly on the Strip down the street from the Bellagio!!! Also meeting up with some friends who will be out there already too.... it's a party in Las Vegas!!!

Then it's a red-eye flight back to work on the Wed after this one and back to the daily grind once again.... at least for two days and then I'm down to Virginia for the weekend when my fellow Browncoats and I invade a Dave and Busters for some good old mischief and mayhem.

Finally to round out the month, our 8th annual camping trip with all my closest friends from HS and starting work on building a spaceship called Redemption. Already purchaced and dumpster dove for items that we'll be using to help make her look awesome. When people ask me what I did after this coming summer... I can't wait to see the look on their face when I say, "Well, I helped build a space ship!"

November 14: Awesomeness and Confederate adventures pt. 1

So, Dzia stayed over last night. I really didn't expect her too, and it' one more reason that maybe this time is different than the last.... She had planned on coming over so we could go swimming at my gym and then maybe play guitar or watch a movie or something. Well, in a fit of Alzheimer's I left the free pass for her in my gym bag, in my car, locked in the Honda dealership. Awesome. Instead we went out for dinner with Surfer and his gf, both of whom I'll be heading to Richmond, VA with to visit Surfer's brother and sister. When we got back to my house, I stopped into my parents room to let them know she was staying (which they thanked me for and asked if she needed anything before they went back to bed. I love my parents) and then went to sleep. And yes, just to sleep.

In the morning she drove me to get my car since the part was finished being installed and then off to work. Work went by quickly with the anticipation of leaving for Richmond that night. I was supposed to meet Surfer at his parent's house and then we'd all leave from there around 6:30. Well, 6:30 somehow mutated into after 8pm and it started raining and being all sorts of foggy. We stopped for gas, Windex, and other necessities and headed to the Capital of the Confederacy. Around midnight I was done and since I actually had someone in the car whom I felt comfortable with driving my car, I let Surfer finish the drive. We pulled in front of his sister's place at 2:30am. We all had a Magic Hat #9, and were asleep by 3:30am.

Blogmark - California

Like the scores of books sitting on myself with colored tassels hanging out of their tops and down their spines, marking places I've long since forgotten that I've read to, so this blogmark holds a place in my blog for my trip to California. This will be where I will explicate the following potentially confusing list of events.

In only a minor representation of no particular order, where:

- I met Gaius Baltar, the harbinger of death to the 12 colonies of Kobol, all for a hot blond and glowing spine;

- I met one of the most significant contemporary musical influences in my life currently;

- I learned that geeks everywhere can bond anywhere;

- Sleeping in an airport is an acceptable means of overnight accommodations;

- I walked 2 miles uphill because 1. I said I would and 2. was too stubborn to stop anywhere but the top;

- I decided to watch a tear-jerker of a movie on a plane surrounded by 5 adult women from the same eye doctor's office coming back from a conference of some sort, presumably having to do with optometry;

- I helped DS successfully think up a good excuse to play hookey from work and spend the day roaming her world, meeting her friends, and enjoying her company just like the old times;

- I traveled the countryside to have lunch with far off friends, because they weren't so far off anymore;

- I decided it was a great idea to take a 10:25pm flight to get me home at 6:45am after the appropriate amount of time and time zone adjustments, and then go right to work at The Agency (my blind co-workers can't see me sleeping, so I won't actually be sleeping then, right?)

- I now go to sleep to rest for my last day with the ocean on the wrong side me and turn off DS's iTunes I've been enjoying listening to (I forgot how much I missed my Robert Miles cassette tape, which I should probably get on CD now...)

Rock around the clock...

Sun 10am: Wake up in Chicago to spend the last time of day with Actress before Surfer and I head back east.

Sun 12pm: We put in Office Space to watch for the first time. I thought it was ok, but thought the plot was super weak and couldn't relate at all. I actually love my job and love working in cubicles more than I ever expected to!

Sun 3pm: Get to airport and bid Chicago farewell.

Sun 4:30pm: Run into same Relationship Girl from Philly that we met on the flight here (what are the odds we all picked the same flights). If I didn't explain this before, I'll clarify later.

Sun 8pm: Back in Philly safely, got Surfer's luggage, and took taxi back to my apartment

Sun 9pm: I get the key that E left for me after he finished installing our new door, that actually closes and locks now! It'll be nice to feel safe in my own apartment again. Took out the garbage and showed Surfer my finally repaired car which he was mighty impressed with

Sun 10:30pm: Spend time at Surfer's house talking with his parents and helping him pack for Costa Rica which he was leaving for tomorrow

Sun 11:30pm: Finally decide that I'm going to drive Surfer and his friends to the airport in GW's truck once he gets back from NYC but after we drop Surfer's sister's car off to get fixed.

Monday 12:30am: Drop Surfer's sister's car off to get fixed. Narrowly avoid 3rd major accident by not getting hit by idiot who decided to run the red light when I was making a left turn on green. Unanimous decision to officially name my car "Lazarus" or "Laz" for short as a result of it's death and resurrection experiences. Finally, after 133,476 miles my car has an official name. I'm happy.

Mon 1am: Go over to GW's apartment to pick up his truck. Hang out with a random German and GW's little sis for a while.

Mon 1:30am: Back to Surfer's house where he makes pancakes for us to eat cause we didn't get dinner really and were still kinda hungry from the day's events. Realize at this point there will be no sleep tonight.

Mon 2:30am: Leave Surfer's house all packed, get gas for GW's truck, a Red Bull (the big 12oz) for me, and go to his friend's house to pick everyone else up.

Mon 3:45am: Pick the 4 of them up, load 11 surf boards and 5 bags into the bed of GW's truck and head to Newark Airport

Mon 4:45am: Get to Newark, drop Surfer and friends off safely and I head back to GW's with his truck since he needs it for work at 6:30am

Mon 6am: Drop keys and a $20 off at GW's place. The genius he is locked the front door, so I had to break into the back sliding door to leave the keys and money inside.

Mon 6:30am Get back to my parents house to change, get what I need for work, and write this post, because blogging is starting to become a minor obsession... and I like it.

PRESENT TIME: Finishing this post, making lunch, and getting ready to go to the train

For those of you keeping score, that's correct, I will have gotten exactly 0 hours sleep for work today! Luckily my main task for today is moving the contents of my cubicle across the office to be closer to the rest of my Executive Services Unit people. This means that I will now have a large black lab randomly wandering over into my cubicle during the day to say hi when he feels like it.... and that's made of awesomeness. I'd like to take this moment to once again thank my father's genetic history that allows me to do these crazy things to help out my friends. I'm really really glad that it's something I'm capable of doing.

And now, I'm off to work! Have a good day everyone!!!

Pre, during, and post weekend updates.

My day started at 5am today… after going to sleep at 2am (my own damn fault, but the pilot episode of New Amsterdam showed real promise for the rest of the series). I power-walked it all the way to the train station from my apartment (which is not easy to do that early in the morning) and made it on the train with 2 minutes to spare. For the first 5 station stops I think I seriously just contemplated what was going on in my head when I decided to move to Philadelphia. If E had said Hoboken, well now, that would have made an infinite amount more sense for me… but he didn’t, and I’m in Philly.

I’m not sure what’s going to happen when it’s Actress, E and I starting in August. If the 3 bedroom units aren’t available at the complex we’re at now, my time in Philly may be drastically shortened simply due to the cost of commuting to Newark. If I didn’t mention yet, that’s the plan starting in August. Actress is moving from Chicago to Philly to live with E and I which I think I’m excited about. At the very least it means that Surfer will be around more since they’ve got a ‘thing’ going on, and it’d be cool to have him around more. I love her to death and she’s one of my best friends, but if there’s one thing the apartment won’t be anymore, it is quiet :-P I don’t mind saying it here, cause it’s something I’ve said to her before, and she knows well. I try not to say anything I wouldn’t say to that person directly. Unless it’s one of those “I like you but I don’t know/doubt that you like me” situations… but that’s understandable.

The sun didn’t come up until I was already in Trenton, or get through the morning fog until I got to Newark. The ride from Trenton to Newark was a load of fun though. Two women and 4 little girls were all taking a trip to NYC, and the one woman was as talkative to strangers as my father is. So we chatted the entire ride. I explained to her how the trains work (they were from Delaware), talked about jobs, kids, teaching, and the progression from childhood through adolescence. It was exactly the positive experience in the morning that made up for having the off-peak train ticket, when I thought I had the peak ticket, which forced me to give the conductor my last dollar bill, and fish out 5 quarters, 4 dimes, and 2 nickels to complete the rest of my fare. I think he thought I was being an ass by giving him change, but that was seriously the only money I had with me… today’s pay day thankfully.

Tonight I leave for Chicago for Actress’s birthday! No, if you’re wondering, I really didn’t have the money to afford this plane ticket but fortunately and unfortunately it was bought before I realized the predicament that I was in. I’ll be paying for nothing but train tickets, gasoline, and bills for the next two months at least. Oh well, on the positive side, maybe they’ll be a financial incentive to start working out more and eating a bit less to get in ‘summer shape’ a little earlier this year. I’m starting to feel optimistic about even that. My car is finally back, fully repaired and running flawlessly so I can go rock climbing again and E and I are going to be joining a city indoor soccer and kickball (yes, an adult kickball league) starting the end of this month. I’ve missed organized sports.

Somehow that last paragraph went from Chicago to kickball… anyway.


Post Script:

I’m fully convinced that the copier on the second floor, not only has a personality of it’s own, it spites me for coming down only to print out more copies of my report, and is developing the means with which to strike back at me. I think it might be Skynet… details to follow if today isn’t Judgment Day.

Post Post Script (on Sunday at 3:31AM) Everything written above was from work on Friday when I was actually being productive in the office as well as writing a blog. I can't do much else when the copier is churning out 50 more coppies of my report... Apparently other people in the office liked it so much when the walked by my cubicle and saw it that they wanted some to give out to the trainings and things they're hosing in the coming weeks. That's on top of the 150 we're sending to every NJ state senator, state assemblyman, and county freeholder.

Right now I'm in Chicago and it's been overall a good time. Yes, I had the tendency to get in my usual overanalyzing mood, but other than that it's all good. After our plane got delayed 5 hours and we finally got to Chicago, we went to sleep. Saturday we went to the top of the Sears Tower, out to Giordano's for stuffed pizza for lunch, dropped Actress's sister off at the bus station to head back to school, then went out to dinner at a place aptly named "Stuff Yer Face", and then finished the night out at the Chicago Brauhaus which was the most kick ass bar I've ever been to. Nothing but true German beers on the menu, polka music (or polka renditions of familiar songs), and lots of musicians and waitresses and friends who spoke German! It felt really good to use it again... and to drink liter glasses of "ausgezeichnete Deutsches Bier"!!! *roughly translated, "awesome German beer" Now, it's time to sleep, because once again I decided to travel on the weekend where Daylight Savings Time changes (I think this is like 3 out of the last 4 times, no joke) and then we're cooking breakfast in the morning! Plane leaves for home at 4:25pm on Sunday and then work on Monday!

Twice in one day... a record

I know, I know. I saw the pig fly in the backyard. So, updates of sorts. Car search still sucks. I've fully expanded into looking for not only Honda Accord Coupes, but also Acura CL's. Maybe that's not all that much of a full expansion considering the multitude of other makes and models out there, but it's huge for me. Once I find something I like I stick vehemently by it, living or mechanical. My father's calling about one CL tomorrow, and I'm probably going to look at one by the Agency. So yeah, of my initial list, there are 4 more Accords and 4 CL's to look at. I'm sure I'll find something.

Tiny Dancer is back again after successfully coming out of surgery. We've expanded communication lines to txt as well so we'll see how that goes. I'm glad she's alright. I'd have really not been cool if something happened before I really got to know her. Anyway, writing letters and txting are two things I don't do enough of anyway *hah* so the more the merrier! She brings up a good point with relationships (in the conversation we're in the middle of right now) that she and her friend are on the same level. She's so right, having two people be on the same level, the same page is the key to any relationship really working out for the best. So often it's when there's an imbalance that things go awry and people get hurt. Anyway, she's fun, and new, and different... and in those aspects, just I was looking for. It's still infinitely regrettable that GMDN was involved, but things don't always turn out quite as one plans them... just ask every other one of my past relationships.

Distracted Spunk is back safely and that's always good to know. I'm looking forward to my trip out there for sure. And OR, and NC, which, come to think of it, I'd better buy soon or else it's not gonna be that affordable. NC and OR right now, then CA x 2 for March/April. Now that I stop and think about it, I may have to postpone NC with all this car stuff. Either 1. I'm still going to be looking, or 2. I'm gonna just have it back and want to stay in Philly and not go flying all over the country just yet. We'll see.

So, this week up: five wonderful days working at the Agency, looking at 2-7 cars and hopefully buying one of them, court for the accident that totaled my car, trying desperately to spend time in Philly, and spending at least 3 hours on some kind of creative outlet or another. I'm going to try and set a goal a week, either photography, writing, musical composition, inventing... something with a creative twist to start making that a part of my regular life. I'll post updates of what comes, or doesn't come of it. For my own records, as much as for at least the one person who I know reads this...

No, I'm not doing a reflective post on the recently passed year...

I want a car. I want to take a nice, long, leisurely drive over to Lake Erie or somewhere really far away just to get back out on the open road. I definitely wouldn't say it's anything other than just wanting to drive again, but I'm keeping an eye on it. That's kinda how it started last time... maybe I should take some D.

In other news, I think the reason I don't know who/what type of girl I want, is because I'm not quite yet set in who I am. Like I'm not set physically who I am, mentally, certainly spiritually, perhaps some emotionally, etc... I'm still wandering this world trying to figure it all out. I spent 6 years with someone else there, and now looking back I don't know if that helped or hindered me getting to where I am right now. Either way, I'm not positive it helped, and I sure don't feel like having anything hinder me, so there.

Rose and I went to go see I Am Legend tonight. Will Smith is the freaking man. He climbed to the top of the world and is now just sitting on it, enjoying the view. The movie really is only starring him... and some special effects. It's bleak, it's dark, it's plausible, it's a picture of who I'd hope to be in that situation, but then again, there goes my hero worship. Oh... still haven't had a full post about that... well, maybe coming up soon. Anyway, now it's time to read the book.

I sent Tiny Dancer a letter the other day. Took the time while waiting for people to proofread my work at the Agency to design my own return address label. I like it a lot actually, more than I thought I would. It's a picture of me sitting on the edge of a cliff, with the sky and a deadly drop that I'm way to close to in the background. Just the way I like it. If you ask nicely I'll even send you a letter with that label on it. I'm kinda interested to see what she thought of the contents. I wrote it at work, and included a poem that I had published back in college. I'm sure she liked just getting the mail, but I'm also interested in her response to the content. I haven't talked to her in like 3-4 days.. probably the longest since we've started talking.

Tomorrow is dinner with Distracted Spunk and about 40 other people. Well, not 40, but a lot. Meeting up in the city and then going from there. I'm looking forward to it. It'll probably be one of if not the last time I see her before she goes and flies back to the wrong coast. Not cool. But of the 10 states I'll be visiting this year, her's is one of them so it's alright, sorta. I laughed out loud the other day, when she asked me to make sure she doesn't stay in the state she's in. I told her I'd promise to kidnap her if she ever decided to settle permanently. I'd probably do it too if she ever did really move out there. There are some friends who can move away and stay, but she's not one of them and neither is Actress which is why I'm so freaking excited that she and I and BigE might be all roommates in a sweet 3-bedroom setup next August. That would set me for the next 5+ years and move me much more permanently to Philly than I am right now, and I think I'd really like that. It really surprises me more and more each day just how much I miss not living in that city and being stuck at home till I get a car again. And now that this post has come full circle.... Bed.