I just wrote this nauseatingly vague boring entry about introspection and observance of the human nature... but seriously, boring and self-indulgent.

So we'll move on to other self-indulgent things :p

Poor boy is incredibly hungover and head-achey at present, so I'm just chilling, hoping he feels better soon. And hungry. Sigh.

Anyway- yesterday night was a blast! We all went out to Jupiter's and rocked it to celebrate Chuck's bday. It was a small (for us) group of people that Chuck invited. Not "invite all friends" but "invite a select group who all basically know each other."

It's weird how invites can change. I think Chuck just didn't want to have to make people feel comfortable the whole time- you know? Sometimes it's just nice to have a group that all gets along.

Anyway. Randomness-

Since I'm stuck in the room, I just went on OKcupid. I had finally changed my status to dating (because I just hadn't been on in forever and kept getting annoying emails so Chuck asked me to either delete it or say I'm in a relationship) back in May, and I hadn't gone back since (and had turned off email notices.) Turns out- I actually got a lot of interesting messages that weren't all creepy.

So that was kinda cool. Maybe it can be a useful friend service. I dunno.

Note to self- no more cigarettes while drinking and still kinda sick. Annoying cough going on.

I can now play lead guitar on hard about 70% of the time, and bass guitar on hard about 95% of the time. So that's kinda nifty.

Next weekend= thanksgiving here in town with friends, then friday until sunday with relatives. Whee...

Work is still going awesomely. As posted last time, though now I can say it publicly, I am going to Ecuador for a conference which should be pretty nifty. It will at least be January 3-8, with dates around that being up to whatever I work out with business/co-worker I am traveling with. If all I have to pay for is the hotel room, I could probably go up January 1st or stay until the 10th or 11th, as the rooms are inexpensive, it's really just the flight that gets pricey :)

I will be working the conference while I'm there (the 5-7th, with getting things going before and after), so it's not just a pleasure trip, but I'm very excited about it. AND I'm totally going to try some cuy (guinea pig), which I have wanted to try since I first heard of it, years ago in Spanish class.

The two concerts over the weekend were amazing. Enter the Haggis is fantastic, and if I have another chance to see them, I will do so in a heartbeat.

I was less enthused about AFI, because they just aren't really my scene, but they played my favorite songs as their encore, Miss Murder, Silver and Cold, so hey, works out well. And we ran into some random folks we knew, which was fun. And Chuck had a blast, which was the main part of going.

I met Chuck's sister, who seemed nice, as did her husband. We stayed at his parents' place, which was cool, as they're in France and it's a really nice house. Atlas' birthday party was nice, with Jaros, Katie, Mikolai and other folks there that we knew, so that was cool.

I got to see my family, and will be visiting again Thanksgiving weekend, though not Thanksgiving.

Girl who applied to my work ended up getting the job, and it looks like she's going to take it, so that's super exciting. It'll be fun to work with her.

Danielle is coming to visit this weekend, which is SUPEREXCITING and I'm happy about it.

And... I think that's about it. I've been playing Bioshock, and Chuck is being sweet and helping me work through my fear with it... When things jump out at me, I tend to scream and throw the remote.

Doesn't work extremely well with getting past levels. Sigh.

I have a million bday parties to go to the next few weeks. Eeks. Apparently lots of pregnancies happen in February. Who would've thunk.

So I meant to post earlier in the day, because I felt I had a lot to say, and now I have forgotten, so... *shrug*

Oh well.

The party last night went incredibly well. Many people showed up, I would estimate about 70% made some effort at steampunk, which I was very surprised by... much larger percentage than I figured.

There was nonstop people having fun, which was pretty great. I fell asleep in a chair around 2:30, which is actually a first at a party for me- normally if I am hosting, I make it to the end, but this time, I just zonked out. Chuck shooed me upstairs at this point and made it up after an additional hour, where he assured me all candles and lights were extinguished.
-Note- that was my big worry, as we had mainly lighting by candle and oil-lamp light, so I just wanted to make sure they were all put out before I was willing to call it a night.

We had a fire out back, pretty candle-lit deck, downstairs of Rock Band and candles, upstairs of amazing food (many people brought contributions which was nice) and much alcohol in the kitchen and music in the library and lots of talking in comfy chairs in the living room. The cider was fantastic too... I have to do more of that for winter drinking, as apple cider and applejack= strong but really tasty in that "is there alcohol in this?" kind of way.

Rin made her announcement which was really exciting. Lots of people showed up, which was great. Roommates all did a lot of contributing, which really made Chuck very happy, as I think he missed having roomies help out with ideas and effort, and ours were just fantastic. Today, everyone contributed to cleaning the house, and now, other than needing a vacuum and for the trash to get picked up so we can put the rest outside, it's all cleaned up.

I wish I had taken a roomie-steampunk picture, but oh well. We all had great costumes.

Our home is a nice one. My guess is next year living with just Chuck in an apartment, which kind of bums me out, as I'm really enjoying this year thus far, but it sounds like roomies have other plans (darn Jenna and Zack with the wanting to have a home together thing), so we'll have to give up awesome house, as it's too expensive and large for just the two of us.

Work is going great, still. Person I know has an interview there on Tuesday... and if she is offered it, I hope she makes the right decision for *her*, because I'm not sure if there pros outweigh the cons. Obviously it's fun to work with people I know and like, and I think the job is a great one, but if it pays less *shrug*, maybe it's not the right choice, unless it's *nice* enough that it outweighs the cut in pay. So who knows.

I've been thinking more and more about having cats lately. I'm looking forward to having them again next year.

I've had a slight windfall in money, so I can pay off some debts which is very nice. Makes it a lot easier to do a few fun things, like the AFI and Enter the Haggis concerts in November.


As far as this Saturday- we've had invites to a few parties, but after this awesome party yesterday and the Pirates vs. Ninjas party last weekend, I just think I'm kinda done. If folks are bored, I'm thinking fall cooking and movie watching this Saturday that others can join in on, but I am done with parties for a while.

On the bad news front- just lost a load of laundry to a pen in the dryer. Sad panda.

I've been cooking a decent amount lately (obviously.) I'm pretty happy about it. Yummy food, and man, eating out less really saves a lot of money. Whoo.

I worked out today, and will do so again on Friday before game.

Work is *still* awesome, and I'm looking forward to P-land's schedule coming out, because my boss seems amenable to the idea of me taking accounting classes (on the company's tab,) which would be awfully nifty.

We had a nice work lunch today at Monical's, which was a little odd but nice :)

I was planning on going to the I:Scintilla concert on November 7, but Chuck and I might be going to an AFI concert in Chicago that night... His friends are having a bday party on that Saturday, so we might go up Friday, possibly catch an Irish music show at a bar, then go to the party on Saturday followed by AFI.

Went to a fun party last Saturday. Our party is this Saturday. Halloween should be a blast. I'm hoping to check out the C-Street Halloween party next week.

And yay for Thanksgiving. Looking forward to a fun time with friends there.

So I made these recently and thought I'd share.

( Butternut Squash Soup Recipe #1 )

I love it. This was voted better than the next recipe by the group. It makes a ton of soup, though. Stores well though.

For future recipes, I might reserve some of the squash and apples and mash them, adding them to the pureed soup for more texture along with some corn.

( Butternut Squash Soup #2 )

( Winter Squash Mac and Cheese )


( And last but not least- French Apple Bread Pudding )

How do people get such good friends?

I'm in a group of people who like me. I feel closer to people in my life than ever before- I miss seeing my brother, but that's just kinda how life is sometimes... My roommates are wonderful, my friends are amazing.

Fall is coming, and it will be glorious.

There will be red and yellow and orange flowers, some kind of craft like knitting, scary movies, walks through leaves, honey and pumpkins (though perhaps not together except in drink flavor or perfume form), and a lot of coffee.

Work is still great- yesterday I began feeling sick as I left work, today, I started out strong and quickly started getting worse and worse. I ended up taking a half sick day and came home.

Bad news- super sick. Good news- my sweet boy has been taking care of me AND I now know that I can play Rock Band guitar on beginner lead, medium bass. I'm pretty proud of myself.

I've been dosing with tons of chai, though I stopped adding milk due to the influx in my body of mucus. Sigh.

That's really about all I've got. Lots of fun, lots of love, happy times, despite current illness.

Man, I feel so boring. Life is still awesome.

I've finally been having time to read more lately.

First up was The Way of Shadows by Brent Weeks. Pretty good, I liked it and will continue reading the trilogy. According to Mike, it only gets better, so whoo.

Then I read a Twilight Zone anthology with a lot of recognizable writers, and that was pretty awesome.

Now I'm on to a Living Dead anthology, full of awesome authors.

I am STILL super happy that I did not go back to Borders, as the current management seems keen on running it into the ground, but on the bright side, besides loving my job, I'm also developing a newfound love of Barnes and Noble, so that's cool.

I am still unsure when/if the Krannert Wine Tasting is, so I'm hoping to call and ask them today.

I had an amazing time last weekend, consisting of rocking out with Rock Band, going to Pygmalion with my honey, going to the Philo F(ph?)un Fest (really?), having an amazing time at a party Friday night that I was not expecting to make, and finishing with Lindsay's baby shower. I'm so happy for her and Joe.

And I'm *super* happy that I have nothing really going on until our party on October 24. It's steampunk! Whoo! Should be a blast- people are putting a lot of effort into costumes or they're wearing their halloween costumes *or* they're coming costumeless and rocking out, all of which I'm totally down with :) Super-excited about it all.

I made dinner for Kiki, Casey and Chuck last night... it was nice. I made yummy pizza and mint brownies.

I'm really ready for fall. I want to wander around with a latte and enjoy the fall bite. I want to see if we can actually go to fall things this year, like pumpkin museum and corn mazes. *crosses fingers* I finally seem to have a decent group of folks that might join me and the time to do it. This is all very exciting.

If people have ideas about cool stuff going on this season, please let me know. I love this time of year.

Ok, not really about truffles. It was just the first random subject line that came into my head.

I just changed my facebook status to: I did not realize how miserable I was the last few months until I had a week full of pure joy.

It's true though. Seriously, I'm just unbelievably happy right now. That's not to say nothing bad has happened. A few friends have been randomly bitchy, and I'm not in the kind of mood to back down right now, so there's been a couple blahs, but life is just so fantastic right now.

My job= still awesome. I have to think a lot. I feel like my mind is actually being *used* and my skill set is *growing*, which is definitely different than it's been.

Today I was asking for details about some of the benefits, and *gasp* looks like I might be helping write the employee handbook, which is nifty in that a) good for my resume and b) I'll actually get some writing experience. That's pretty nifty.

I really, really, really enjoy my job. My coworkers rock, the hours are perfect, I'm just super-happy.

Sunday was a fun time with a firepit and a bunch of friends around a fire, with alcohol involved.

Monday was a great time at Corey's, getting to play some euchre, followed by me making a ton of Indian food (which was AMAZING, if I do say so myself) and having over great people and enjoying DDLJ, which was good, per usual.

Tuesday was more euchre at Wings, which was nice :)

Yesterday, Chuck and I went to Old Chicago, because a friend (thanks, Malaika!) told us about a free dinner thing going on due to "practice" for servers and whatnot. AND OMG, food= amazing. I think it's probably the best pizza I've had down here. After getting super full there, we did drinks at Esquire with the lovely Malaika and Eric, and from there went to 9 with Sarah, Joe and Bethany.

It was enjoyable. I liked it. I've heard a lot of criticisms, but here are my feelings
( possible spoiler cut )

Anyway, life is great. I hope my friends are doing well. I'm lucky in that I've been seeing a lot of people lately, and I'm so thrilled to be getting my life back again. Thanks those of you who put up with my depression and bitchiness the last few months. Some of you are just unbelievable in your patience.

Welcome to the world of never-ending Law and Order marathons... my roomies and I can't seem to get enough.

Monical's is almost done. Today is my last split shift, Friday is my last 11-hour shift, Saturday is my last closing shift, and Sunday is my last day!

I get off at 2, then it's hanging out with the roomies. I want to drink and maybe get some wood for the firepit.

Monday is my first day at my new job, as well as Labor Day. Go figure. So after stopping by Corey's party early in the day, others are coming over that night and rocking out.

Things are making me amazingly happy right now. Life is going really well.

Made falafel last night, which was yummy. Instead of the normal yogurt/cucumber/dill sauce only, I made that sauce along with red pepper and feta mix. It was really yummy.

Also, made some maple buttermilk bread. I think it turned out well.

New job is great. The guy who recommended me for the job, a friend of mine, just got a promotion to interim CEO of the company... so that's kinda cool.

Looking forward to dying my hair again and getting a manicure. Also, thinking about getting my traigus-es pierced again. Man, do I miss them.

Latest things on my mind:

Pygmalion, super excited about it, have to look up groups and listen to them on youtube to get all ready
need to get some more books to read, seems like I'll finally have time to read them
Lindsay's baby shower coming up, it'll be nice to see her and Danielle again
Chuck's bday is coming up... have to figure out something awesome. I did well last year, but he rocked out this year, so now gotta be even more awesome! Argh!!
holidays... I'm guessing I'm going to stay here for them, now it's just a question of whether I should try to go crazy cooking for them or not

Life is rocking out right now. Now to go finish my last split shift... whoo.

So, update...

sushi party went amazingly
housewarming party went amazingly
trip to Chicago was great

I love my roommates and my house.
My house bums me out at present because of all the construction, but overall, it's a great house and became home-y immediately.

After today, I have 8 more days of work at Monical's. My co-workers all seem awesome at my new job (one of whom was my friend in the first place and the reason I got referred for the job.)

Life is going really well right now. I was thinking lately, and I'm just so unbelievably happy. I have great roomies, a nice home, and a great new job.

I hope all my friends are doing well, and that life is rocking out for everyone.

I am excited about:

my new digital camera
the party on Saturday
sushi club on Saturday (Scott, do you have any idea who some of the people on the list of people coming are?)
the trip to Chicago
being off for Saturday until Tuesday
seeing friends

I need to:

apply to jobs
figure out if I can afford to go back to school without moving back home to my family next year

I'm Queen of the world
I bump into things
I spin around in circles
And I'm singing, and I'm singing I'm singing
Why can't I stay like this?
Dear God.
Oh let me be young
Let me stay, please
Oh let me stay like this ohhhh

And I'm singing, I'm singing I'm singing

Man, I am just so beyond happy/excited right now about plans and everything... :D

I'm loving the house. My roomies are all awesome so far, and it feels like *home* already. I love it so much. Tonight, we made enchiladas and watched Ratatouille, which Chuck and Zack had not seen, but which Jenna and I love, after I got off work hours earlier than I was expecting, which was awesome.

This week, I work a lot (argh) but it's for a good cause. While I have to miss game Friday (le sigh,) I am off work on Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.

Saturday= my housewarming/birthday party, which should be a blast. It also= sushi club for the month, because it's the one Saturday I have off that I have time to host it. 2-5, then kicking everyone out so we can be ready for party!

I realize now that the party is scheduled for 7, though on the reminder email, I said 8, but whatever, people all show up 8 at the earliest anyway, and we'll be ready by 7.

It's going to be chill, no real theme, and should be a lot of fun. If you aren't on facebook, email me if you want info, because you're all invited :)

Danielle is going to be in town this weekend along with my brother, so that'll rock. Sunday, we recover from party and clean up a bit (and there's rumor of crepes, but that all depends on timing because...) then off to Chicagoland at noon! Around 2 PM, Chuck and I will be in the suburbs to celebrate my birthday with the parents and bro. Leave around 4ish, get to Lindsay's area to visit and have coffee, then up to see the Broz's, if possible, for dinner/evening.

Whoo. Then back to Matteson for hotel, then Monday= Chicago day!

Start out, Aquarium and Planetarium, followed by Museum of Contemporary Art and possibly the Field Museum, but only if we feel we have time before leaving by 4 PM to head to Navy Pier. Once there, rocking out the Architecture River Tour, followed by (hopefully) meeting up with Danielle for dinner somewhere in the Navy Pier area, having a nice evening, and heading back to the suburbs. Reason so much is packed in? Besides how much I want to do, I found this neat pass which offers a ton of options which makes the visit a lot more flexible for spur of the moment changes of mind.

After another Matteson hotel stay, up to Brookfield Zoo, and then back to Champaign, where at late afternoon/early evening, Jenna and I have a nice dinner, followed by meeting up with Amy for Julie and Julia, as long as we can find a time that works for Jenna and Amy's work schedules... Then back to work the next day.

But short story= fun, packed week starting this Saturday, which will (hopefully) all be documented by my new/awesome camera which was my birthday present from Grandpa/parents.

I also had a great past weekend, where I had a great evening with Mike and Chuck going to Boltini's to help celebrate Corey's engagement. Then Saturday, I hit the Farmer's Market with Jenna and Zack followed by brunch at the bistro that Chuck intro'd me to a few months ago, which Jenna and Zack hadn't been to and apparently also enjoy :) We gotta go on a Sunday morning so we can do the mimosas. After that we stopped by the art gallery across the street which had such beautiful art, including paintings by Jenna's mom. Man, she's talented, and VOILA, outside was other talented friends hawking their jewelry :p James has such great stuff. Then work, then hanging with friends last night before I crashed, since Chuck was in Indiana for his best friend's PhD ceremony.

Anyway, I'm off for now. Annoying work week followed by whirlwind, which I'm sure will be documented in my facebook albums.

All of my stuff is moved to the new place!

It is awesome. We had a very cool informal gettogether to celebrate the new place after our amazingly-short finish-up of the move.

Translation: We did such a fantastic job moving stuff on Thursday, that Saturday, we were done with the rest of the move (Chuck and Amy's places) within two hours. So we had a lot of chill time and then informal party which turned out awesome :)

Thursday:
Mike, Joel, Katie, Jenna, Zack and Chuck rocked out the move. Irene joined in later along with Scott. They were so good... all of my stuff done within an hour. Z's place moved as best as possible... they were still working on getting stuff together. Then lots of Chuck's stuff moved. In those three trips= tons o' work done. I grabbed Monical's, we all rocked out and then crashed hard.

Friday:
Move boxes, organize stuffs. Then work.

Saturday:
8 AM, got truck, rock out the move with Corey, Joel, Theresa, Amy, Greg, Chuck, with Tim joining in just in time to eat some pizza at Monical's *rolls eyes.*

Then, Danielle get into town *squee* and she, me and Theresa went around doing boring shopping errands, culminating in mucho people over at the new place hanging out, drinking, chilling, talking. Good times had by all :)

I just posted about our housewarming party in August. That should be nice.

Stuff is shaping up well in the house. I had a wonderful time at Carmon's this morning with Danielle, Jenna, Zack and Chuck. I had never been there, so nice times had. Followed up with a lot of moving and organizing, and we totally have a kickass basement (with a sticker tree... oh Ikea, what can you not give me?) and a great place and eeeee. I'm very happy.

Just watched the first two episodes of Castle too. Silly show, but fun.

Errand list for tomorrow:

Make breakfast
Go to Espresso and fill out downtimes/catch up on emails
Finish putting away all of the clothes
Unpack boxes
Forward mail online
Figure out food to make for dinner/get said food as well as fruit
Put out ashtray/Halloween bucket
Fill more bookcases
Organize comic books
Do a last run through old house
Make out last rent check for old house
Print out picture/put it in frame

I'm sure I'll figure out more :)

So Chuck and I wrote each other all of the lyrics to "Swing Life Away", line for line, recently. Like, texted one line to each other until the whole thing was finished.

The next 48-72 hours will be very hectic... and I'm super-happy and excited for a multitude of reasons.

Tonight was hellish, but all now is exciting and sparkly until work until it sucks until it's exciting and sparkly again until work until it's exciting and sparkly for the whole weekend with Danielle thrown in. And I found a disposable camera in my stuff while packing that I'm going to finish this weekend.

Done now.

Let's unwrite these pages and replace them with our own words.

Life has been super-hectic lately, but here's the main stuff...

My friends are great, and I've been getting an amazing amount of social time. Yesterday was Malia, Mike, Pancake, Tim and Mary, besides a split shift. Today was Mike, Katie, Couch, Tim and Mary with guest appearances by Malia and Scott.

Also of note: wonderful guy helped me pack up EVERYTHING! Not looking forward to the move next weekend, but with lots of friends and beer and pizza, I'm hoping it will go fairly painlessly.

Work is still work, I'm applying for jobs and not really hearing anything back, which sucks.

And that's about it.

Good things in life right now:

packing all done
super excited to live with roomies
got a beautiful bouquet last week
had a crazy informal get-together that got pretty big and had a blast with when Danielle visited
Hunter game is fun, though we need another player or two
got to see fireworks on the 5th of July because they were canceled the fourth
finally made it to the Farmer's Market and got awesome honeycomb and goat cheese
pretty addicted to Ida Maria AND have tickets to Pygmalion

Life is going pretty well. I haven't written in a while...

Went to Chuck's sister's wedding. It was fine/kinda boring. It was the first time in a while that I've been to a wedding that wasn't by choice, if you know what I mean. I mean, I chose to go with Chuck but it wasn't anyone's wedding that I cared about, which makes it a much different feel. None of the inside jokes apply, nothing is particularly poignant. It's interesting to watch. She and her (now) husband seem pretty happy, so go them. I really liked Chuck's brother and sister-in-law, they were pretty funny/nifty and we got along pretty well, so I look forward to seeing them in the future.

Game's been going really well. I have this GREAT setup for the next character, but it requires other folks to be a part, and right now we're all playing characters we're enjoying so no big rush, I hope.

I have a terrible sunburn on one side of my body :( Sucks. Particularly as it's JUST in time for Jaime and Josh's wedding. Sigh. I don't wear a dress very often, and now I get to look like a half-lobster just in time. Oh well.

Chuck and I have been having a movie night with friends on Sunday nights recently. It's been a lot of fun. Yesterday was Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, which I had never seen before. The week before that was Seven Brides For Seven Brothers, which I used to love and is slowly losing its charm.

Work still sucks. *shrug*

Going to miss Emily terribly. Wish she wasn't moving away but I'm happy for her. Looking forward to moving into the new place.

Tired of growing up.

I am chilling at Espresso, waiting to have to go back to work (15 minutes, sigh) and listening to Bad Religion.

"I finally get them," I texted Chuck triumphantly. In my case, I just have to be alone and in a decently bad mood about the world, and voila, the lyrics suddenly become clear and the absolutely UNmelodic voice works.

It was 21st Century (Digital Boy) that did it.


Anyway, life is life. I'm grumpy at the present, because work is sucking. Poor co-worker (other assistant manager) is working on his day off because a guy called off, AND, he might be stuck working tomorrow too. A guy called off today, so he's filling in because we needed someone, and I offered to do a split tomorrow but he seems to be willing to work the extra day. I dunno why but *shrug* he's just wanting to be miserable currently, I think, which I can empathize with... sometimes you just kinda want the world to kick you while you're down so you can be like, "See?" and gesture triumphantly to onlookers.

Hmm. I was going to write more, but here's the highlights...

Chuck's sister's wedding this weekend. Super-not excited about it and kinda gloomy.
Trivia haven't been able to make for two weeks now. Should be there next Tuesday.
Tired of my job, but glad to have one.
Looking forward to Star Trek tomorrow night, but damn, it's going to kill my sleep schedule (or lack of one.)


I'm off to get some source of sugar and/or caffeine for my long shift tonight.

And when the farm is good and bought, you'll be there without a thought,
And eternity, my friend, is a long fucking time.
Because there's no time for fussing and fighting my friend,
But baby I'm amazed at the hate that you can send and
You... painted my entire world.
But I... don't have the turpentine to clean what you have soiled.
And I won't forget it.

EDIT:

Lol, I forgot to mention key stuff.

a) Bollywood night on Sunday went really well. About 6 people, which was actually a bit more than I was expecting, but amount of food worked out perfectly. I sadly picked my one Sunday off, which involved the Amasong concert, so I missed out on inviting a few people that I otherwise would have liked to (sorry), but it went well and I'm sure I'll have another in the near-future.

b) Game is going really well.

c) Goth prom was fantastic. I was a total dork, but I was surrounded by tons of friends, there were fun pictures and there was great music. So much better than I was expecting... I'm really glad I got myself to go.

d) Boy is busy next Saturday, so if I'm off that night, would anyone be around to hang out on the 16th? I was thinking Esquire chilling or something.

Man, livejournal really is dying off. I barely see any posts by people anymore.

However, since I miss seeing others writing, I might as well try to set an example (as boring as it may be...)

Life is going pretty nicely. I'm currently sitting in the sun in a comfortable chair at my favorite coffee shop, sipping a soy latte (which has replaced the cafe au lait as my favorite warm drink of choice, I believe...) and just finished a great book (Too Many Curses by A. Martinez, if anyone was interested.)

Tomorrow, I'm off work and hoping to make it to Allerton. I think it should be awfully pretty right now, and as of yet I've been there twice. Once during winter (not too special) and once during fall (nice but not very flowering.) Tomorrow though, I have hopes. In mind= picnic.

I'm still working as a manager at a pizza place. Whee.

I've made it to the gym once this week (Tuesday) and hopefully tomorrow and Saturday.

I cooked food Sunday, didn't eat out Monday (though didn't cook), had Boltini's last night with Malaika, Eric, Emily, Shaun and Amie, and had Basil Thai today with Jen, but hopefully that'll be the extent of eating out. I'm tossing around the idea of sushi tomorrow night, but I think I might prefer trying to cook.

Sunday I'm going to be hanging out with Jenna and Zack, and that should be fun. I'm really looking forward to living with them and Amy. I keep meaning to check out garage sales but really haven't done it with much enthusiasm. First off, I can't really afford it right now, and second, we're going to have SO much stuff.

I enjoyed seeing/hanging out with Shaun yesterday night. It was great to reconnect with him. There are a lot of people I need to do that with... It's just hard, you know? You work 45-50 hours a week, you spend time with people who invite you out, you try to make time for people, and besides all that, there's errands and family and stuff you *have* to do... not super easy.

Tonight I'm going out with Shaun (I think) and hopefully that'll be fun. If anyone else wants to join crazy karaoke time, just call. It won't start until about 10:45 (or whenever my job is all closed up.)

Hmmmm, dunno what else really to say. I'm surrounded by sweet, loving people who can also be obnoxious and annoying in only the way that friends as close as family can be.

I promised my parents I'd visit them in the next few weeks. I'm looking forward to my day off tomorrow and LARP on Friday.

Same old thing while still being pretty nice.

I'm back to reading new things/listening to music and hearing it, so I suppose my depressive areas are calming down again. In other upbeat news- I made it to the gyno today, so equipped with some new prescriptions of which the most important is IMATREX!!!! I've been out and haven't made the time to get to a general doctor yet for that prescription, and when I mentioned that off-hand to the gyno, he wrote me one. I'm super excited about this, as migraines never bother me until they do, you know?

Anyway, I might as well do a quick "things that are making me happy" list again.

1) my friends (in particular of note: the trivia group is great to see on Tuesdays (even if yesterday sucked), having coffee with Charles was nice, grabbing a beer with Jen and Eric last week was great, and seeing Jenna and Zack on Sunday should be great, as well as LARPing with folks on Friday.)
2) day with Chuck tomorrow should be a lot of fun. He continues to be sweet and wonderful in ways I don't even expect (for example, text at 1 AM last night of "HUNGRY" got back a "want a grilled cheese?" in less than a minute. Awesomeness.)
3) weird adventures, such as the karaoke following the normal trivia night, with new friends made (and probably soon weird facebook photos up detailing it...)
4) Sorrow by Bad Religion and Girltalk for the win last saturday night.
5) my brother. I haven't seen him in a bit, but I love the kid and I'm looking forward to when we both have free time again. It's nice not having any argument between us and to see that he's keeping his head on straight in regards to finances, working out and doing his schoolwork, even if I feel neglected by it at times.

That'll do for now.

On list of things to do:
1) continuing to work out 2-3 times a week
2) eating out less/cooking more (thus, spending less)
3) fly a kite
4) picnic at Allerton
5) have a Bollywood/Indian food night in the nearish future, before Emily leaves :)

Am I still your charm or am I just bad luck?
Are we getting closer or are we just getting more lost?

I'll show you mine if you show me yours first.
Let's compare scars, I'll tell you whose is worse.
Let's unwrite these pages and replace them with our own words.

I don't know if I particularly wrote about it, but I saw Rise Against a few months ago for Chuck's birthday (back in November). I didn't realize they did songs like this one until the night of the concert, but it was fantastic to hear them slow the set down and play this song, which just blows me away everytime I hear it.

I'm in that dreaming mood again, where I'm sitting in a cafe and thinking and listening to lyrics too closely.

We live on front porches and swing life away.
We get by just fine here on minimum wage.
If love is a labor, I'll slave till the end.
I won't cross these streets until you hold my hand.

I've been making random acquaintances lately, and I'm realizing that I've been holding myself back from things that maybe I shouldn't. I need to go out more, regardless of if I have a partner in crime or not... and I need to force myself to get things done instead of watch the time pass me by. It's getting to be a rut of a life again, and that's not good enough anymore.

Ignoring bills and events and invitations only works so long.

I've been here so long, I think that it's time to move.
The winter's so cold, summer's over too soon.
Let's pack our bags and settle down where palm trees grow.

I've been apathetic too long, I really need to start making plans about the future. At the very least, I need to start planning for weeks ahead of time instead of days.

I've been having a lot of mini-epiphanies lately. At the very least, realizing that what's clear to me isn't clear to everyone else.

I know it's lame, but I'll say it again. You never have to do anything.

You never have to do anything.

You don't need to be trapped in a relationship, where the person treats you badly. No investment of time or effort is worth that. When a girl I like told me that, I just wanted to shake her.

You don't have to be in a situation with family that you don't want to. If they love you unconditionally, then stop trying to meet all their conditions. If they love you conditionally, they don't love you.

My parents love me and I love them. I don't often like them, and currently, they probably don't like me too much. I'll give them respect and efforts at keeping in touch, and when they don't repay that, we'll take a break until the reboot can happen. Don't let your parents treat you like crap. Give them the respect that they give you, and if they're nonstop negative, realize that and give yourself some time (and give them some time.)

I've got some friends, some that I hardly know,
But we've had some times, I wouldn't trade for the world.
We chase these days down with talks of places that we will go.

We live on front porches and swing life away...

I want more nights of talking and chilling and feeling that intimate conversational feeling that only comes with people who just don't care anymore about the silliness of conventions.

This Sunday, I'm going to try to have that feeling of community that keeps getting alluded to. I need to keep doing this.

Lately, I feel like I've been sacrificing for rituals I don't believe in anymore, and I'm done with that.

Here's to trying harder.

So I'm off for the next two days, and want to be out and about and doing stuff.

If people are available, you should definitely call or text me :)

Adventures might involve:

driving to Allerton
mucho caffeine (who am I kidding? Tons of caffeine...)
trivia night at Boltini's
mucho hanging out stuffs
random vegetarian/vegan cookings (I'm going back for April...)
working out at the FC


of the past few days:
hanging out with friends at Seven Saints was surprisingly awesome
Snickers and Milky Way wraps= gross
Real Hacienda now= Guadalara's? What's up with that?