Only if I could turn back time, I'd give my heart again, do it all again

"You know that place between asleep and awake , that place where you still remember dreaming? That's where I'll always love you, Peter Pan. That's where I'll always be waiting."

-Tinkerbell (Julia Roberts), Hook

I love that quote. I've been spending a lot of time there, which is why I've been remembering my dreams lately. I'm just off-kilter, unable to find my center, and that's a place of refuge for me.

Anyway.

The one I had last night (Tuesday night) was really weird. I was back in high school, at a football game with the band. But there weren't that many of us, as would be evidenced when we went to march and there was only a tiny portion of our formation. But I'm jumping ahead of myself. The first oddity is that our band and the other band were sitting on my front lawn. Well, our band was sitting on Ms. Adam's yard, and the other band (Hays?) was sitting on my front yard. They kept playing this one song to taunt us, and Mar called me, Chris Freshour, and some other guy over to figure out how to play it. The football game was going on at an NFL-caliber stadium, which I guess was connected to my yard. Just one of those dream oddities. Anyway, we went to march at halftime, and a lot of our formation was missing, but I could still see what it should have looked like, had anyone been there. I think I recall Mar saying something about how it was still a preseason game or something, and that's why so many people were missing.

Work was... interesting. Dennis is being an unbelievable bitch; I'm going to have to talk to Dave tomorrow about him. Speaking of which, I found out tonight that there's a manager meeting at 2 with Todd, which will be fun. Dave said we didn't have to dress up, so I fully intend to go wearing what I'm wearing now - sleeping pants and a really comfortable t-shirt. Or maybe not... maybe I'll change into my green pants. We'll see. Anyway.

I just fell asleep, then woke up; it's like 10:40. Adam just called, asking if I would come in for Dora. Hell, no. Usually, I would - I'm fairly good about coming in to cover other people's shifts; however, I don't like him. It's not just that, though. It's more that I can't stand that place right now. I feel it as soon as I walk in, and it stays with me until I leave. Argh, and I have to go to a manager meeting at 2 as well. That'll be fun. It's just... I've lost my center right now, and I can't find it. That's always been very important for me, and without it, I tend to be thrown off-course a lot.

Anyway.

Lord of the Rings: The Third Age is great. One of the most compelling RPG's I've played in a long time. Star Ocean 3 is cool, but I can only take it in small doses. FFX-2 is cool, but can get repititious at times. People have accussed them of stealing elements from other games, but it works out just fine. The battle system has definite elements of FFX - you see the action order on the upper right, and actions happen immediately, and have a cool-down time, as opposed to a charge up time. You can also press L1 to switch party members in and out, as you get 3 people in the active party during battle. The battle engine is very reminiscent of FFX and X-2 as well. One change I really like is that you get to equip your characters with a full suite of equipment, something that's been missing from recent FF games. I'll post a list of the different slots, but I suspect it's almost 10, not counting accessories. There's 109 FMV cutscenes; you can access any previously earned one at any time. All o f them are edited scenes from the movies, though, with voiceovers. There is a lot of in-game cutscenes as well, which I also enjoy. Overall, I feel like I'm playing D&D. And that's just great. Fitting, too, since D&D is more or less based on Lord of the Rings.

Had a weird conversation with Suzie last night after work. She was playing the part of the relentlessly upbeat optimist, and I, the depressed apathetic pessimist. Not quite a reversal of roles, but odd enough. I think it might just be the pregnancy. Come to think of it, I don't know how pregnant she is, or when the baby's due, or anything like that. All I know is, she didn't waste any time - we broke up February 1st, and I think she was married within three months. Something like that.

Anyway.

Not much else going on lately. Haven't played DDR since before Christmas, which is bad. Haven't played D&D with the guys... damn, it's been a while. However, I have already let them know I want to come back, and they've been quite receptive. I think I'd also like to run my own campaign again at some point.