But you were fucking that girl next door

So I'm on my weekend, I've got tonight, all day tomorrow, and the next morning off; we've already done birthday dinner, so now it's just me, playing WoW. Hanging with the guys, which is always fun; I think they're going to run me through Gnomer. Or something. Whatever.

So Bambi managed to get our hockey tickets moved to December third, which is awesome, since I usually have Sundays off, and even if I don't, I'll probably be able to get Paul or Nolan to switch with me, and even if I can't, it's at four in the afternoon, so I can go even if I have to work. I'd rather not have to work that day, though. Although, I get to bring one guest, and I'm not sure who to bring. Janelle can't go, she has a recital that day or finals the next day or something. David doesn't really care for hockey. Lilie's leaving the next day to go to California. Jarrod's next to impossible to get a hold of, and usually works Sunday afternoon anyway. Ambra doesn't really care for hockey either. Sadly, that about exhausts my list of prospects. I might try giving Cullen a call, see if he's interested in going. Other than that, I'm not sure.

My birthday was alright this year. I mean, my actual birthday sucked - I was at work when it started at 12:00:01 am, was there until around 8:30, went to Mom's for a fantastic breakfast, then went home, crashed, then went back to work at 10. Not the best of days. Today, though, was a lot better. Got off work around eight again, came home, crashed. Woke up, joined the family and David for dinner at Chili's. Had a blast all spending time together, then we went back to the house for cake and ice cream, which was also great. Well, kinda. It was weird - orange cake, orange sherbert. After that, tried to do some work on Janelle's computer, don't think I really accomplished very much - wasn't able to fix the CD drive. It's really weird - it takes in the disc, the system recognizes that a disc is in there, but it won't show any of the files on the disc. Music, data, burnt or original, all the same. However, it doesn't have a problem with DVDs. So, I don't know. I did get her set up with Firefox and Avast, though, so that's a step in the right direction.

Work's been going okay. I think I've finally started to settle in to the job, the routine. It's basically the same from day to day, though we do have a few weird days coming up with the day after Thanksgiving and Christmas. It's definitely not something I want to be doing for very long, but for right now, it's okay. The people situation is interesting - there are people there that annoy me, but I don't have to deal with them nearly as much. I mean, yeah, we're working together and are a team, but the majority of the shift is throwing freight in an aisle, by myself. So even though Brenda annoys the fucking shit out of me, she wouldn't ever cause me to quit, like Mal did. Why does she annoy me so much? Well... I should preface it by saying that I'm a huge supporter of gender equality. I know that humanity has been very patriarchal through most of its history, in some places still is, and the traditions and 'norms' of more liberal societies are still favoring men in many areas. I can understand that. I wouldn't seek to deny women their equal rights, nor lessen the role of those who have fought for them. And certainly, we still have a ways to go. That being said...

NOT EVERY DISAGREEMENT BETWEEN A MAN AND A WOMAN IS A GENDER ISSUE.

For example: There's a palette of cooking oil. Each case has like six big containers; the palette is three or four layers deep. It's on one side of the grocery aisles; the cooking oil is going to be set up as a huge stack in this area on the other side of the grocery aisles. They told me to use a palette jack and move the whole thing over there, that way, we could just move straight from the palette to the display. I go to start doing that; Brenda freaks out. It's her stuff, and she wants to load it onto a cart first, move the cart, then move the stuff from the cart to the display. I tried explaining to her what I was trying to do, but she starts going off, saying rather loudly, "I'm a woman! I'm not afraid of a little lifting!" Which, of course, had NOTHING TO DO with anything. Another point, Nolan had asked her if she was going to get all her freight thrown in time, because she had a lot of it on her aisle; she responds with a rant about how of course she will, she's a woman, they're strong enough to give birth, then her and another female go off into a series of jokes and what-not, the gist of which was that if men gave birth, the human species would die off very, very quickly. Again, I'm not demeaning the incredible experience that is giving birth, nor denying that it takes an incredible will to go through it. It's just... this whole thing is born out of gender inequality, people reacting a certain way towards others based solely on gender; this sort of thing only perpetuates it. It really drives me nuts.

The only other person at work that really merits comment is Conner - he also annoys me, though not as much. He reminds me a lot of JP, and sort of like Uncle Freddie, but twisted in a bad way. He has the sort of "Ooh, I don't care what anyone thinks, I'm extreme and in your face, and fuck you!" mentality, but he likes to flaunt it. I mean, it's cool not to care - I sure don't, but I don't bring it up in conversation every five minutes, either. He also has a tendency to make bizarre absolute statements like "The true gamer will ALWAYS buy Nintendo", then back them up with things that either a) don't support what he just said, b) don't make any sense, or c) are wrong and/or made up. So yeah, that kind of gets on my nerves a little, but overall, he's pretty cool.



Lily Allen -- Smile

'Cause there's nowhere you can run

Well, Christmas is over. I s'pose. It was pretty good.

I closed Wednesday - Sunday. It felt good to be back at the store, and I prefer it there, I think. At least while I'm working the second job, I won't be thinking about taking a GM position. Poor Gina, though, has been really sick all week and was only starting to get better on Saturday, but still couldn't keep anything down. And yeah, we have like *no* drivers right now - 8 or 9, I think. And "Don't worry, things will die off?" Ha, no. I mean, things got kinda slow, but nowhere near as slow as everyone kept saying. Especially Christmas Eve - we stayed open until 10, which was our franchise-designated time to close. We were going to try to close much earlier - 8 or so, if things were slow enough, but people kept ordering. We had a 20 and a 40 pie hour. Yeah. But in short, yeah, I'm glad to be back.

Supposed to be getting my truck back Tuesday or Wednesday, something like that. I have Monday-Wednesday off, so it's not that big of an issue, but I can't really get anything done that involves leaving the house. I want to get down to the Wal-Mart Distribution Warehouse and apply there as soon as possible, so I know whether or not that's going to work out. I *really* don't want a second food-service job; that would suck. Hardcore. Someone mentioned the possibility of going back to Sonic, and I just 'bout slapped them. So we'll see how that goes.

David's still in Denver, and won't be getting back for another two weeks or so. So that's fun. It's really quiet and lonely here.

So, yeah. Got a few cool things for Christmas. David got me a raised, split, ergonomic keyboard, which is a lot of fun, though it does take a little adjusting. Mom get me a full-body pillow, which is something I've been wanting for a while. Those are the two things that really stick out. Oh, yeah - Carrie called to wish me a Merry Christmas, which is just awesome! We talked a little - far too little - and she had to go. I still haven't abandoned my hopes of her coming down some time for a visit.

Lemme see, lemme see, what else? Nothing, really. Been playing some WoW, redid my UI from the ground up. Dropped a ton of CT Mod - the bars, mainly, in favor of Discord Action Bars; dropped Statusbars for Nurfed_Hud and Discord Unit Frames. I moved the stuff around on Nurfed_Hud a little, and replaced the outer left bar. It was originally a casting bar timer, but it was kind of awkward, and eCastingBar fit in just fine, so I changed the outer left ring to track my target's mana/rage/energy/focus. Got Discord Art, but haven't done anything with it yet, and once I play Ihatebrooms more, I'll be playing around with Discord Group Buttons (or whatever it's called). Yeah, the Discord Mods are pretty cool. I'll post a few pictures if they ever release my picture blog back to general use.

Anastacia -- I Do

You do not understand. But you will.

Mini-post today. Was in a major funk yesterday, drove around some. Dropped off my uniform at Sonic, should be the last time I ever have to go there. When I went in, I only recognized like 3 people on a crew of ~12. Ouch. Staci was adamant about getting my number before I left, which is cool because unlike everyone else, I thought she was cool (everyone else thought she was a major bitch.) Finally removed myself completely from Feathermoon and moved over completely to Mal'Ganis with David. We're still going to jump on the next server to lanuch with some Horde-side action (Tauren Shaman as my main there), probably with Jarrod, two of David's friends, and whoever else wants to go (Matt, Luke, Bret, Michael... we could have a decent-sized core group). Lilie came over last night, and we had, well, a discussion. About us. Didn't resolve anything, but I did learn a thing or two.

You've washed your hands clean of us

I still haven't gotten around to posting the rest of the follow-up to me leaving Sonic. Luckily, there's not much more to post after that - I've just been hanging out at the apartment, playing WoW and marathoning my way through B5 with David. We're one episode into season 4, which means we've watched 67 1 hour episodes, plus 1 made-for-TV movie. About 60% of the way done, though that's altered slightly with the other movies.

Starting at Domino's tonight, in about 40 minutes. And I'm... nervous. Very much so. It really doesn't have anything to do with Lilie, as some have suggested. It's just... I haven't been the new person in a *long* time. I never moved during school, and I've only had one job previously, and that lasted 4 1/2 years. I'm also scared of screwing things up and upsetting people. I hate doing that through ignorance.

Went and bought pants today, and realized I really need to lose weight. I know I've said that before, but now, I finally have complete control of my life, and can do it my way. Won't be easy, but what choice do I have?

Things with Lilie are still... well, the same, I s'pose. I'm not going to go to in-depth in that here, partially because I only have a few minutes right now, but mainly, because I don't want to spread her business around. Later, when I have some more time and inclination, I'll explain and explore what I can. I don't know how much that will be, and I doubt I'll break any new ground. It tends to go in circles in my mind anyhoo; I don't see much chance of a significant breakthrough anytime soon anyway. But I'm stubborn and don't give up easily.

Got kinda ansy last night and finally got around to cleaning up my room and organizing it some more. It's basically done, except for the dresser and some more boxes that I can't really do anything about until I get a bookshelf, which I plan on doing, well, maybe tomorrow. We'll see. Not sure where I'm going to put it - either in the closet, or between my bed and my desk. Ooh... I could even rotate my desk 90 degress towards the other wall, then put the bookshelf where the desk was. Interesting... I'll have to explore the myriad possibilities. But later.

Started my own guild on Feathermoon - 'Super Duper Awesome Guys'. The name sprung out of a conversation between David and myself. I'll tell the story later, but needless to say, it involved the phrase 'Decimating Ruiners' (though they originally spelled it wrong.)

The club will be shaking, there we'll be waiting, 'cause I don't play nice

So I've adjusted to life in the new place fairly well. Haven't really gotten homesick or anything yet, but to be fair, home is still less than ten minutes away. David and I seem to be doing fine as roommates thus far. No issues so far. In fact, I just asked him if we had had any yet. Got it basically set up like we want. I still have some work to do on my room and bathroom, but the living room and command center are all set up - David just finished mounting the speakers for the Dolby Surround Sound 5.1 setup he has. I was supposed to help, but I was quite asleep from a 10 hour shift that started at six this morning. Got a good three hour nap.

Janelle graduated from High School. The ceremony was very nice. Britney Posey was Valedictorian; Janelle, Saludatorian.

JD and Janelle are here, so we're doing MST3K. More later.

First post

I'm actually writing this post from the new apartment, on my computer. It's all set up, except for the speakers. I forgot the power cord for them, so I'll have them in a little bit. David is, of course, busy showing off his computer and how superior it is to mine. I'll live.

Despite your nets and tuna fleets, we thought that most of you were sweet

So I heard from David earlier - we might be moving out as early this weekend. Which would be awesome. I'm anxious to do so. School's finally done with for now, so my schedule just opened way up. Means the nights will be longer, and harder to deal with.

Man, that means I need to hurry up and get some sheets, then. I have the bed already - ended up buying a new queen from Cen-Tex. Went and saw Kingdom of Heaven. It's... alright. A lot like Braveheart (which I'm watching right now), but with far fewer fights, and Orlando Bloom instead of Mel Gibson.

Work's been going okay. The roster finally seems to be stabalizing - Natalie, Betsy, Lala, Sam, Brenda, Brandi, Staci, Roxanne, and Melanie all seem to be catching on to everything and getting things done. Out of the new bunch, the first three and the last are definitely my favorites. Not that I have those, as a manager. I just mean those I relate to best on a personal level. Or something like that. Anyway.

Kass has taken to calling me a freak lately, which is fine. I am. I mean, the general group I tend to fit in with, I really don't. I've never found a group of more than three people that I'm comfortable with. I think I missed some socialization somewhere. It's hard to explain, but I just don't understand a lot of things that seem to be second nature to people in general. I don't really know if anybody really realizes just how bizarre I am, down to the core. Maybe Terri. Or Mindy. Probably Jarrod. Those are the only people I can think of that have known me for long enough to really understand. Or maybe not. Probably not. I'm just kind of rambling at this point anyway.

If I had just one last wish, I would like a tasty fish

Man, things have been... weird lately. Well, not weird. Bad. Let's do a recap.

Wrote Carrie a four page letter before work on Tuesday; should surprise her when she gets that in the mail. Took Mom's car to work Tuesday morning; Allison freaked out when she first pulled up. She was all, "Crap, who the heck's car is that? I thought I was opening with Will!" I explained the whole thing to her, though. The phones went down again Tuesday. Morgan tried to call in, but she couldn't, so she ended up coming down there to let us know what was going on. She was *really* sick. I mean, her voice was all messed up, she was coughing something awful, you could tell she had massive congestion. She also just found out she has asthma, which really sucks. We couldn't call anyone to cover her, so she kinda hung around. Luckily, we were really slow. Javi got there and sent her home. Not much else notable, though I did manage to get a hold of Mom concering L&S, they would have Chelsea ready to go around 5 or 5:30. For 440 dollars or so. To be fair, that did include an oil change.

So I got my truck back, was running good. Talked to Heather, she mentioned a friend of hers was selling a king bed for like 95 dollars. I figured there was a slight miscommunication, but it sounded like he had a bunch of furniture he was trying to unload, and thought I might still be able to get a good deal. Got David to come along, which is always nice. Mom printed out some thing from the 'net about a rental property that they were clearing out, anybody could just go by and pick up whatever they wanted. I was going to go, but I wanted someone to go with me. Took about three minutes to exhaust the list of potential partners-in-crime in San Marcos. That was fun. Ending up taking Janelle; we got there, and it was... well, kinda weird. It was dark when we got there, and of course, there was no power. We left my truck lights running, but that didn't really help once we got inside. Nothing in there was worth it, though Janelle did get a bag of stress-relief toys, so the trip wasn't a total loss.

Wednesday afternoon, went to Pflugerville with David to meet up with this guy. He wanted 350 for the bed, but he came down to 310 since we also bought a couch with a little fold-out bed. It's kinda small, though - more love seat-ish, really. Two cushions. Though it means people will have somewhere to crash. Or something like that. Loaded up the bed and the couch and drove home. I thought the bed looked a little small, but I figured that that was just my high expectations failing. Stopped at the Buda Sonic, 'cause I really wanted a cherry limeade. I climbed into the bed to check out my recent acquisition. Something seemed kind of off, though - a king bed is supposed to be about 6' 1/2" square, which means I could lie either way without anything dangling off. However, that didn't seem to be the case. I thought it might have just been the way it was sitting in my truck or someting, but I resolved to check it out when I got home.

So we get home, and I pull out a tape measure. Sure enough, it wasn't a king, but a queen. That kind of upset me. I mean, I can get a brand new queen bed in town for like 120. I figured I'd give him the benefit of the doubt; I called him back and confirmed that it was supposed to be a king bed, and informed that it was, in fact, a queen. I told him this, and he reacted... in a bad way. He started saying how we had an agreement, and that I had looked at the bed and said it was okay, etc. I then told him that yeah, we had an agreement that I was buying a king bed. So he scooted around the issue a little bit more - said something about how when you buy something at a store, you can't just bring it back 'cause you don't like it. I told him that yeah, you basically can, *especially* when they lied to you about what you were buying, and in that case, they can face legal action - not that that would have to happen in this case - so that was kind of a bad example. Eventually, he agreed to just give me my money back. He tried offering some of it back, and I'd keep the bed, but after his little thing, I was really pissed, and didn't want him to get anything. I was ready to bring the couch back as well, but David wanted to keep it.

Went to work, got to talk to Lala. She seems cool. Came home, showered, etc. Started to feel a little bad. By 3 or so, it had graduated to full-on nauseua. I knew I was going to throw up, but I wasn't sure how long it was going to take. So I kind of lay there in bed, with Eddie Izzard on, in a half passed out state, 'til it finally came. And come, it did. It was *gross*. Went back into my bed, and just kind of lay there, not quite asleep, but not entirely awake either. I threw up, I think, about five more times. Most of them were just dry heaves, which were terrible. It felt like someone was wringing me out, like a wet towel. I had been drinking water and took some anti-nauseua medicince, but I threw that up as well. It wasn't pleasent. The *really* fun part came a few hours later. My stomach and chest muscles were really sore from all the contractions during the dry heaves, so I couldn't breathe. Well, not really. I'd start to breathe in, and my lungs would start expanding, but the muscles around them were really sore and wouldn't go any further. So that was fun.

'Round noon, I left to get David and go *back* to Pfulgerville (this is an hour drive, mind you) to get my money back from that guy. I really didn't want to, given how incredibly crappy I was feeling, but I didn't really have much choice. So we got there without incident, he didn't really say anything as we unloaded the bed back into his house. I was *so* pissed at him. So we had to stop at a gas station on the way back so I could go to the bathroom. Got back to David's, and he let me hang out there for a little bit. I felt really bad, and just wanted to lie down for a while. I did, 'til he had to leave to go to San Marcos to talk to the guy at Best Buy here. I came home, and fell asleep. Upon waking up, I felt... well, kinda better. Different. I don't really feel nauseous anymore, though I do have a massive headache. But I can deal with headaches. I'm good at ignoring them.

Belgium!

So I went and saw Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy yesterday. Twice - once with David, once with Lilie, and I'm going to see it again on Sunday with Megan.

I can't believe I didn't think to bring a towel.

I could slap myself.

It took three whole hours, and five long days

Lots of stuff going on right now. Definitely gonna move out, as soon as David is ready. Might be sooner than initially expected, which is good. Lilie came back from Houston with a huge headache, I took her some aspirin at like 1 in the morning after work, and was invited to crash there, but I couldn't because of stupid Dave and the crew he gave me Sunday night. Argh.

Lego Star Wars: The Video Game is ridiculously awesome, and the entire design team deserves, at the very least, copius amounts of oral sex.

Janelle's also going to be moving out, probably a month or two after I do. I'm not sure how Mom's going to handle it. I think she'll talk to Gip a lot. Or call us all the time. Or both. She's also throwing a 'Moving-out Party' for me, which is... odd. It'll be bearable, though, 'cause both Jarrod and Lilie are coming. Terri's going to be down for a few days in June, going to a cousin's wedding in San Antonio. Sounds like she'll probably stay a few days in town as well. That'll be cool, get to see her again. Ooh, just realized I'll probably have moved out by then. Interesting.

Dave might be leaving the store, which would mean Javi would become GM, and I'm pretty sure I'd become first assistant. That'd be cool, if it wasn't so sad.

Kind of a sporadic update. One of these days, I'll get a massive update together.

Possibly.

My tear ducts are so completely drained right now

Yeah, that didn't work so well. Went to create a new character... and didn't. I just don't feel like going through all the early stuff again (I can hear Lilie yelling at me at this point "Then why the hell did you delete your characters?"), especially since the environment will be so isolated now. This may be a momentary lapse, or a sign of major burn-out or paradigm shift.

We'll see.

So... let's do a relationship recap. Those are always fun. I'm in tears anyway; dredging up a bunch of old memories and mucking about in the pain of the past seems like the perfect way to spend the next four three hours.

So, without further ado...

Chelsea

Ah, the first one, the one that started it all. We met in fifth grade (?). I think. I know we were in the same group of classes in fifth grade - Mrs. Hirsch, Mrs. Jimenez, and Mrs... Barragon? They sort of rotated around, so Hirsch did Social Studies, Barragon did Math, and Jimenez did Science. No, wait. Jimenez was sixth grade science. Crap. Anyway. There were five of us that they just didn't know what to do with - me, Chelsea, Roland, Stacy, and Melanie. They put us in this little 'enrichment group' and had us do projects and stuff during class, since we were all bored with normal classwork anyway. The one I really remember is we did a 'game show' for the rest of the class. I don't really remember the parameters, but I do remember the five of us sitting outside the classroom, talking about polar bears and penguins and their co-existence. We finally did the game show; I was the announcer; Mel and Roland were the hosts, and Stacy and Chelsea (both were fairly shy in that grade) were the judges. We had two little things that came from a Happy Meal or something; theyw were like little air-buttons, attached to a car, and when you hit the button, the car went foward. That's what we used to have them indicate that they were ringing in to answer the question. It was over Christmas vacation that year (that may be starting a little early... but I've always been a very emotional person) that I thought I liked her. Didn't say anything that year, of course.

Next year, at Lamar/Hernandez, I met David and Michael, amongst others. David's been a very influential person in my life - he's introduced me to a lot of things, including Weird Al, Star Wars, WoW, computers... the list goes on. Anyway. That was also when I made the shift from a very quiet, shy person to a loud extrovert. I want to say we had the same homeroom (Chelsea and I). I know John Brown and I did, 'cause we often played chess during homeroom. I know we had English and Social Studies together (due to specific memories), so I know we were in the same block. But I can't remember if we had homeroom together. So one Friday, I told Michael and David that I liked Chelsea. They both laughed. That should have been my first warning.

So eventually, the entire school knew. I don't know who told who, and this much later, I don't really care. I just remember that *everyone* knew, and they teased her a lot about it. They teased me too, but I've never cared about being teased. Stopped caring... in first grade? Something like that. Anyway. I've never been 'cool' or 'popular'. I've never quite been an 'outcast', either, though. So, I couldn't bring myself to talk to her at all. I was just so devastated that she was being put through all of this because of me. I don't think I've ever really dealt with that fact. I think I still carry around a lot of guilt for that. Maybe. Anyway.

So I didn't really talk to her all year. I went to decent lengths to avoid her, in fact. At one point, they were experiementing with how we sat at lunch. (This may have been fifth grade. In fact, the more I think about it, the more I think it was fifth grade.) Anyway, they had the boys sitting on one side, and the girls on the other. I remember the day I was sitting across from her. Couldn't meet her eyes at all. Isolated little anecdote.

So, yeah, didn't really talk to her all year during sixth grade. I mean, I'm sure we talked once or twice, but nothing of any substance. We were in Horizons together (despite my abbreviated attempt to quit over them forcing me to do a speech in front of the class). I do have a few specific memories of that year. We took a Social Studies test in Mrs... can't remember her name, though I can picture her - 's class. We were allowed to leave as soon as we were done. I was done first, as usual, and left. Apparently, after I left, someone yelled out "Billy loves Chelsea". And yes, she was in the room as well. The teacher didn't really say anything. Also... oh wait, this was fifth grade - we did a play called "Travis in TAAS Land"; I was the bathroom monitor. I lip-synched a remix of "I am the captain of the Pinefor" and got wrapped in toilet paper. Roland, Chelsea, and... Mel (?) were the three sidekicks (this was basically a parody of Alice in Wonderland). Anyway. Near the end of the year, Chris Carrasco - he played trombone, and we hung out a few times - found Stacy's address book. He had a crush on her, so it was fortunate. In any case, I gave him two dollars, and he gave me Chelsea's address out of it. From there, I got her phone number as well.

After the school year ended, right at the beginning of the summer, I wrote her this letter, about how sorry I was about what had happened that year, and everyone teasing her, and I would understand if she hated me forever. The thing I remember is writing "PS. I do like you." Figured she might as well know. So, the summer went on. Sorta forgot about the letter. Near the end of the summer, a letter came, addressed to me. It was in a pink envelope, postmarked Austin, and had a question mark in the return address. We thought it was from my cousin Felicia, but that didn't make that much sense. Of course, she was the only girl in Austin I knew (we'd later find out how stupid I was). So, I open it up, and it says the following:

Dear Billy, I don't think you need to apologize. It's not your fault people do things like that. It's not your fault. I'm very sorry I took so long to write back. I hope we have some classes together next year. -Chelsea PS I could never hate you. PPS I like you too.

To this day, the meaning of that last 'like' is still up in the air. Though, of course, almost ten years later, it's a bit of a moot point.

Anyway. So, seventh grade. That and part of eighth grade are kind of a blur, and I have trouble differentiating between the two, and sorting out what happened when. I do know that we wrote each other three more times, and that my half of the correspondence was quite possibility the stupidest things ever written (I swear that part of one of them was talking about how "Run, Forrest, Run" was stolen from Star Wars: Episode IV. Yeah. I *really* didn't know what to say back then. Still don't, but I'm slowly making progress.) I'll just go with the assorted and sporadic memories I do have.

Valentine's Day, '96. The PALS club was doing this rose thing where for $1.50 (or 12 for a dozen), you could send a rose to someone, and they'd give it to them during last period on Valentine's Day. I worked out a deal with mom where I'd fold all the laundry on the couch (and it was *full*), and she'd give me the twelve dollars. I spent a few hours doing so - watched the Stanley Cup while I was at it - and did it. Lauren Wyatt said she had this huge smile when she got into her car. As for myself, I got two that day. One was actually from Chelsea (From: Chelsea Williams; Have a Happy Valentines Day. Sorry I haven't written. ?) The "?" is actually written on the card; and one was from Michael, Donny, and them, trying to screw with me. The first hint is that they misspelled her name. Though, and I don't know if I've ever noticed this before, Chelsea spelled my last name "Martian." That's just cute.

There was a dance that night. I don't know if I went. Wait.. no, I didn't. Because in her next letter, she wrote:

Dear Billy, I'm really sorry that I haven't written in so long. I'm a terrible pen pal. I have absolutely no discipline. By the way, I never got a chance to thank you for the roses. They're beautiful. It made me feel wonderful. I tried to dry them out, but I guess I did it wrong, because they fell apart. I wish you had come to the dance. I didn't have a partner for the slow dances, so I danced with an invisible person (no, I'm not kidding.) Do you know that Josh asked Rebecca Caudle to the movies. I wouldn't normally write about something like this, but Rebecca's a friend of mine and her mother wants her going on group dates. So Rebecca wants couples so Josh doesn't have to go with a bunch of girls. She wants me to ask you to go along. Would you like to? I don't know what movie they're going to, but I'd really enjoy going with you. Write back soon. Chelsea.

Looking at the postmarks of the envelopes, that would have been the last letter she wrote me, in eighth grade. No, seventh. Anyway. We went to see Sgt. Bilko. I remember a lot of that very well. She was wearing a yellow dress. Josh and I were standing there, talking, while she was standing in front of one of the pillars. I kind of peeked my head around the pillar and asked her if she already had a ticket, and she told me that yes, she did. (Josh was telling me I was supposed to buy hers.) This was back in Cinema 5. It was on the... left side, where there were three screens. She had a Dr Pepper, and I had a Sprite. I spent probably half the movie trying to figure out if I should hold her hand. I never did, for the record - I started not making moves early on.

There were two other letters between the first and last one.

Dear Billy, Hi! It's great to hear from you again. With all this school stuff I never get to talk to you. My report cards pretty good, although I need to bring my grade a few points up in Horizons. As far as my electives, I was in drama, but the class was cut, I'm not sure why. Anyway I was snatched up by art, which also explains the lunch thing. If you like riddles here's one for you. 'I'm just two and two. I am hot, I am cold. I am the parent of numbers that cannot be told. I am gift beyond measure, a matter of course. I am given by pleasure, when taken by force. What am I?' [For the record, I didn't have to look at the letter to type that. I still know it by heart.] I got it out of a horror book. By the way, I do love chess, but I'm not very good at it. May the force be with you too Well gotta go Chelsea Williams PS Sorry, I'll send you a picture soon. I was absent the day of pictures. As soon as I get one I'll send it to you. PPS Thank you for the compliment. You're a really cool guy.

It took me forever to get the riddle. She gave me two clues - it's four letters, and it starts with 'k'. Of course, the answer is kiss. Again, any meaning in there is debatable, but I still lean towards 'no'.

This next one was the conclusion of some drama. Jennifer Hunt told me that Chelsea didn't like me and wanted me to fade out of her life, and I wrote her a letter telling her that I would. I also felt really bad about something Mat did - don't remember what.

Dear Billy, What are you talking about?! I never said anything like that. I don't want you to fade out of my life. Jennifer is not my friend. Not really. My best friend Lauren told me what had happened, she's in your class. I got really mad at Jennifer. I don't blame you for what happened with Mat or Rat Boy. You're probably going to hear a lot of rumors. Please remember that most of them aren't true. I really like you and don't want you to fade out of my life. fade in would be better. How are you doing in school? I'm doing pretty well. I have another riddle for you - What is: 'The beginning of eternity the end of time and space, the beginning of every end, the end of every race?' Bye, Chelsea L Williams.

Of course, that riddle is a lot easier.

So, we did go to the end-of-year dance together. Didn't slow dance, though.

Any memories after that lose all coherence or chronology. I remember during... sixth grade (?) we had a talent show thing, and she got up and sang 'El Shaddai' acapella (?). I couldn't look at her the whole time. Eighth grade, after we were apart, she sang 'Lemon Tree' and accompanied herself on the acoustic guitar. We went on after her and did 'Since You've Been Gone' by Weird Al (David and I). We went to the skating rink.... twice? I broke up with her for some reason in seventh grade, and we got back together like a week later. I called her a total of four times; once, was from Jarrod's - he started attacking me with a spatula, and I fought back with one; once, I called her from my house while Jarrod was over and Mom was gone; we were watching Transformers: The Movie; I don't really remember the other two times. She called and broke up with me some time during eighth grade. I was devastated.

This leads us to:

Shayna

Shayna was... really short. Had freckles, long black hair, dark eyes. Her mom was an english teacher at the high school (had her for a year and a half). This was... probably a week after we broke up. We were in Gamez (Alg. I)'s class, and we were working on some homework. I had already finished, and had my head down on my desk. Shayna raises her hand, and asked, "Can I go see if Billy is okay?" The whole class was like, "Whoo!" But she did, and talked to me, and... things went from there. We talked on the phone a lot. I don't know if she liked me from the start, or was just being friendly and I grew on her, but either way, we started going out. I know we went to the eighth grade Valentine's Day dance together; I'm having trouble remembering what else. I figure we probably went to a few movies, since that's really all there is to do in this town. I do remember that she gave me this old-fashoined key, which represented "the key to her heart". Yeah, I know. My response? Put it on some fishing twine and wear it as a pendant for the duration of our relationship. Yeah, I know. Shayna was a very touchy-feely girl, which was new for me. We were always holding hands, or had our feet together. So... um, how did that one end? Oh, crap, that's right. Totally my fault. I um... sort of had this crush on Barbara? And wrote her a letter to that end - didn't identify myself by name. Shayna found out, though. So that ended that. I have no excuse... other than, well, it was eighth grade. Not much of one, I know.

Barbara

So we ended up going out. Not a whole lot to tell. Went to her birthday party, we saw The Saint starring Val Kilmer and Volcano. Oh crap! We also went and saw Galaxy Quest... which I'm watching right now. Strange times. Those are the things I remember off the top of my head. She was a very quiet, very reserved girl, which was quite a change after Shayna. (Of course, none of that applies now. She's... grown up, I think, would be the best way to put it.)

Um... we were dating for about five months or so. We went to Project PASS together, which was this weird thing between eighth and ninth grade where they helped orient us to high school. It lasted... a week? She pushed me to complete the typing section and get credit for an entire course. That was... nice of her. Fun, too. I have a lot of sporadic memories of her. We went to Academic Pentathlon together. I took the Math category by a substantial margin. Jennifer Hunt, Barbara and I rode together while the rest of the group rode in the van. I remember that was my first exposure to pop music. Before that, I mainly just listened to Weird Al. On that trip, I heard 'Lovefool' by the Cardigans, 'Stay' by Lisa Loeb, and... one other song I can't remember. Yeah, that was a fun trip. We shared a pint of ice cream on the way home... I'm pretty sure I still have the spoon. We were a prolific letter-writing couple, often a few a day. Lemme think... That's all I'm coming up with.

Anyway, so summer band camp started. I remember the day very well. It was about a week or two into it. It was the end of evening rehearsal. I was sitting near the trombone cubbies, putting up my trombone. This was back when the trombone cubbies were across from the door. Josh and Anna came up to me; Josh was holding a note. He handed it to me. He mentioned something like "Don't read it 'til I'm gone, I don't want to get hurt. I'm just the messenger." I hate it when people foreshadow things in the *immediate* future like that. So it wasn't any surprise when I opened up the note and it was her breaking up with me. Something about me being "obnoxious, irratating, and immature." I would later find out that she meant "smothering." 'Cause, yeah, they mean about the same thing. She wouldn't talk to me for the rest of Freshmen year, except when she needed help in biology ('cause our teacher was bizarre, and most of the class had no hope of understanding anything he meant. I carried Josh, Terri, and Barbara through the course.)

Mary

So, yeah. Dumped right before high school started. Fair enough. Within two weeks, though, I heard through the channels (from Shayna, oddly enough) that there was this girl that wanted to ask me out or something. Her name was Mary, and she was a sophomore. After some initial confusion, we hooked up. Red hair, freckles, nice body. She called me once while I was helping Mom carry in groceries. We talked about stuff - she was also taking German, and demonstrated how well she knew the German alphabet. She also gave me a tape with "How Do I Live Without You?" by LeAnn Rimes and "Fly" by Sugar Ray. We went on one date, to a movie. Some chick flick. Sporadicly, thoughout the movie, she turned towards me. I'd note this through my periphial vision and turn to her and see what was up. She'd say 'nothing' and resume watching the movie. Everyone I've ever told this story to has told me that she was basically screaming at me to kiss her. Good to know. She broke up with me within a week. Total time for us? Two weeks or so. I still hung out with her group during lunch a lot, though. I talked to her not too long ago, too. More on that later.

Crap, looks like it's almost time to go to work. I'll get to the later ones - Terri, Kenni, Crystal, Mindy, Nikki, Suzie, and yes, even Lilie later. I might even mention some of the incidental ones - Zara, Sara, and Heather. Hell, I might even bring Dru, Leslie, Melissa, and a few others into the fold. Fun times. I should do this more often.

When you look at me, tell me what you see

A'ight, so it took a little longer than I expected to get back to finishing this. You'll have to forgive me; I worked 3 - 1 (10 hours) yesterday, and 10:30 - 11:30 (13 hours) today. It didn't seem like nearly as long, but I was kinda lazy today. It was *really* slow, though, and I've stopped caring, so the crew doesn't seem to mind.

So. Friday night. Found her journal, found out she lied to me. She lied to me during that entire heartfelt conversation. I expected her response to be something along the lines of "But I didn't want to hurt you." That, of course, is complete bullshit. First, pain is a part of life. Most belief systems paint the afterlife as a place of complete bliss and paradise - in those cases, pain is a remainder we're alive. And for those of us that don't believe in the afterlife, well... denying pain is denying life. Second, when you put yourself out there, take a chance, you're going to get hurt. Another simple fact. But most importantly, that was the point of the entire conversation - that I'd prefer to find out first, and deal with it immediately, then have to find out later. Something like that. 'Cause now, not only do I have to deal with all the pain, but there's other things - uncertainty, for instance. I don't know if, if I hadn't found out, if she would have ever told me. Not that it's really any of my business, but it does have a bearing on our relationship. I have to deal with how stupid I feel, thinking everything was okay, when all the time, the world was laughing at me behind me back.

Fun times.

So, I didn't really feel like going to the Sonic party after that. Kristin called to make sure I was coming, and I told her that I wasn't planning on it. She got really upset - Kristin always seems so happy to see me come out to parties - and she put Bruce on the phone. I pretty much knew what he was going to say, but I let him say it anyway. Yep, Leslie was going to come by the party. Quick backstory: Leslie was a fountain/carhop when I started workingt there. I did, in fact, have a crush on her for a while (for those of you who are starting to think I seem to have crushes on a lot of people, all the time, or something like that, this was four years ago.) This was one of those that I knew would never come to fruitation - I'm not stupid. She eventually became a manager for a while, but she moved. We did hang out outside of work a few times - she went with me to see Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, among other things. Apparently, though, she was something of a slut. I'm *still* hearing about different guys at Sonic she hooked up with, or tried to, or something along those lines.

Anyway.

I hadn't seen her since she had left. So, I pretty much had to go at this point. Luckily, the tears hadn't set in yet. They would come, though.

I got there... saw Marny, who had definitely put on a few years. Leah was there too, along with the old favorites - Rudy, Ray, Freddie, Krisin, Allison, Erica (positioning herself to keep Marny and Rudy apart, since he's dating Allison now, who lives with Erica, except she's moving out to move back in with James, and I think they're getting back together, which is just messed up. Anyway.) I said hey to everybody, but wasn't very socialable. I basically just ended up sitting on the couch by myself, 'til Leslie got there. Kristin was a little drunk, so when I picked her up and hugged her, she tried to wrap her legs around me (didn't happen). Devon came in, which was a surprise. She's *so* tall. She was a giantess on skates - we opened together a few times, back before we did breakfast. Those were the days.

Anyway.

I didn't really mingle with anyone, for two reasons. First, I'm an outcast. Always have been, always will be. I don't fit in with groups, even when it's a group of friends. So, with this group of people I've worked with for years, I really don't belong. It's not anything to do with them - they're always more then welcoming and accepting, despite my proven... contrast. Second, my SaD was coming on really, really strong. Makes sense, given my current mental state. I almost left twice, before she even got there. Oh, and I almost asked for a drink, to get completely smashed for once, since I didn't really care at that point. Neither happened, though. But what did happen is that Leslie did *finally* show up. I got up, hugged her; we talked for about twenty seconds, and she went to say hi to everyone else. I left; it was about all I could take.

I would later find out from Bruce that Leslie was *not* happy. She went into the crowd, said hey to everyone, got a drink, and came back, hoping to talk to me, and I had left. Looking back, it would have been nice to have a chance to talk to her after so long. Of course, I don't think it would have gone very well. I would have ended up just crying on her shoulder for the majority of the conversation. At that point, though, I still hadn't broken down.

It happened on the way home. It really hit me, full force. I started crying like I hadn't cried in a long time. I didn't really relish the thought of going home and lying in my bed, so I called Rose to see if she had found something to do, or if the invitation was still good. I'm not entirely sure how she understood me, since I was fairly incoherent at that point. I don't really know what I said or anything, but I think she understood what was going on. Or rather, what I was asking, or something like that. She told me to go ahead and come up. I stopped by the house, grabbed my toothbrush, my carebear, and some shorts (I was still wearing my green pants, from going to the Sonic party), and drove up there. I balled my eyes out the whole way there. Not a pleasent experience. I just didn't really know how to react, how to deal with it. I mean, the lose, I could handle. But not that she didn't tell me, that she in fact told me the exact opposite, despite having a converation about that exact thing.

So, I got there. Rose had ordered pizza, and we had some pizza. Domino's, oddly enough. I spilled the whole story to her. Again, I don't know how comprehensible I was, though, as I was still crying. She seemed to follow, though. I hadn't seen Rose in a while. We talked for a few hours. That was when she told me that she thinks I might need professional help, and when she told me that my eyes are really pretty when they're all bloodshot from crying. I ended up crawling into her bed (I'd forgotten how comfortable it is) and crashing, while she stayed downstairs packing. She came up and woke me up Saturday morning 'bout 9:45. I came downstairs and saw that I had 2 missed calls from Sonic. I called up there; Adam answered. I asked him about the calls, he said "No, but I do know we're having a meeting right now." and hung up. I had totally forgotten, but even if I hadn't, I don't think it would have really changed anything.

Katie (Fink) stopped by. Another girl in this story I've had a crush on. This was... before they moved up there, so... nine months? Something like that. I think it was in late spring of last year, after we started hanging out together, before they moved up. Anyway. Turns out she married James Bluebird. She's now Katie Fink-Bluebird, which is just awesome. Also turns out not only do we have the same phone, but we use the same ringtone, and the same background! It was pretty cool. We loaded up the black vehicle and my truck with stuff, and drove on down to San Marcos and unloaded it into Rose's room. We also stopped by my house; apparently, Crystal and Mom were having a garage sale (didn't think to mention it to me, or anything). We all had some chips and queso; Rose showed off her tatoo. It was getting to be about 2 or 3 at this point, so we left. I took Rose by the Storage Place to get a unit, and dropped her off. There was one point that came up, though. Apparently, I thought she was getting a ride back up to Austin with Katie and James, but that they thought she was riding up with me.

Hmm...

I told her I could come get her after work and we could head up then. She decided to hang around town, so it worked. Work that night was... interesting. I didn't break down in tears in front of the crew, though I did have to go back to the bathroom twice or three times to compose myself. Picked up Rose after work, and we headed back up to Austin. This was when it started getting all cold and stuff.

Lilie called while Rose and I were driving to Austin. She told me that she had seen my blog, and was curious if I was okay, 'cause it sounded like I was mad or something. I told her that no, I was fine, just tired. She accepted that. Rose felt that I had to get her to tell me about what she had done, but I didn't think she would. So, I called her back about two minutes later. I said something along the lines of "Actually, no, everything's not okay. I don't like being lied to, so I'm not going to lie to you. I read your journal." Her response? "I don't have a journal." Priceless. "Yes, you do." "I haven't written in it in over a year." "Your blog." "How'd you find it?" Then I explained to her how I found it. She said something about not wanting to hurt me (how predictable), and that getting away was still the pervading reason for her trip. It was a really frustration conversation, because my truck is *not* quiet, and her reception was really bad, and she was talking quietly, so I kept having to ask her to repeat herself three and four times.

So that was fun. Rose and I finally got back to Austin; she was really tired, so we both just headed to bed. I hadn't slept with Rose in a long time, and it felt nice. We slept in fairly late, so we decided to finish it up Monday. The problem was that her lease expired at 6, so we would only have time for one load. Since we didn't have time for one Sunday, it would have to have everything. As big as my truck was, it wasn't going to work. I called David, and he said he'd be happy to come lend a hand. Major victory there. So I ended up throwing some stuff in my truck - two tables, three chairs, and the recliner, and took it down and dropped it off in the storage unit on my way to work. Work was... fun. There are five stages of loss - denial, barganing, anger, grief, and acceptance. I don't know the order. I've never had a problem with denial, and I don't really believe in bargaining, which leaves acceptance, grief, and anger. I did grief earlier, but I hit anger head on. I was really, really mad at her. I stayed mad at her for a while.

She didn't come online Sunday night, though she was on Y! briefly, but I didn't say anything. I didn't talk to her until Monday afternoon on WoW. She asked if I wanted to come over and talk, and I told her I'd be by later, after helping Rose move, and I'd have the DVD burner to let her borrow. So I drove up to Austin, and we finished getting Rose out of there. We didn't leave Austin until... 9 or so, though. Delays kept popping up. I felt so bad for David, since I had given him the impression that this would be a fairly minor undertaking, and it kept stretching on and on and on. But we finally got her moved out, down to San Marcos, and unloaded in her room. So after that, I went to Lilie's.

Went in, gave her the DVD burner; her phone rang, so I sat on the couch. She got off fairly quickly, and came over and sat next to me and put her head on my arm. I didn't really respond. She had said she wanted to talk, and it was going to have to start with her (it still does). I didn't really have anything to say.

A'ight, I just took a little nap, and it's 8 am, so I have to leave for class. I'll try later to finish this mighty epic.

It's just one of those days

It's been a few days, so I have a ton of catching up to do. I'm, as I write this, also burning a crapload of stuff to CD.

First off, I forgot to mention two really cool things that happened Wednesday night. Now, for the squeemish amongst you, the following paragraph does contain a direct reference to breasts. Female breasts. In fact, there are at least two distinct references to female breasts, as well as to me being naked. There - you have been warned.

Apparently, Lilie was having issues with her bra that evening, and kept making minute adjustments to it. Well, minute to a point. At one point, she was standing in the middle of the living room; I was sitting in the big comfy chair. She started making a lot of adjustments - she was reaching around, tugging her shirt, going all-out. I have to admit, it was most... visually appealling, watching her tug her shirt over her... generous endowments. I offered to get up and leave at one point if she needed me to or something, but she declined the offer. Which makes a decent amount of sense - we have been completely naked together, and we're still very close, and stuff. Or something like that. Later, I was sitting on the floor, watching The Daily Show and she was playing WoW. A commerical break came on, so I sat up and was playing with my phone, editing the phone book and contact list. A GGW commercial came on, and I guess she looked up and saw me playing with my phone and thought I was deliberately not looking at the screen. Which was kind of humorous, 'cause she then called me on it. (I guess that was more of an indirect breast reference on the second one, then.)

So yeah, opened Thursday, and didn't get out of there 'til fairly late. Came home, only to find that the DVD I had been burning - Death to Smoochy - to take over to Lilie's and watch with her had erred. In investigating the problem, I learned that my copy was corrupt at the end. Bummer. So I left, planning to stop at Blockbuster on the way there. I hit a major traffic jam at Sessoms, 'cause they're doing construction on the Sessoms/Aquarena intersection. It took FOREVER. She called at one point while I was stuck there, asking me if I was still coming over. I explained what was going on, but noted that she sounded very tired. She confessed that yes, she had just woken up. I offered a few times to do this some other time, if she was too tired, but she persisted that she'd be fine.

Finally got over there by way of Blockbuster. They had Almost Heroes in, so I went ahead and grabbed that too. Got to Lilie's, and... she was asleep. I mean, she was asleep before I knocked on the door and she let me in. So we cuddled up on the couch - well, not quite as cuddly as we have in past occurences, but still pretty damn cuddly - and watched the movie. About halfway through, she told me she was hungry, but I didn't catch the hint 'til about 2/3 rds of the way through, when she asked me to go get her some food. I did, and came back just in time to catch the end. Great ending. We chowed down, and she was really tired and wanted to go back to sleep, so I left.

Friday, I opened again, then came home, went to sleep, and woke up... late. That's all I remember. Went and played DDR. I called Cullen to see if he wanted to go, but he was asleep. Fair enough. Oh, now I remember something else about opening. The Coke guy was there really early - 6:30 or so, and started wheeling in the delivery as I was making burrito mix.

Coke Guy: "Making breakfast?"
Me: "Um, yeah."

He offered me "the hookup" for two BLT's, which sounded fine to me. Next I know, he wheels in a case of eight (8) 2 liter bottles of coke. I don't even drink coke, but it seemed like a fair trade. I asked around, and the only person there that really liked Coke was Ashley, so she gave me her keys as I was leaving so I could put some in her car. I put 4 bottles. Gave 2 to Megan as I was leaving as well, since Tracy really likes Coke as well (she didn't tell me, though, since she's trying to stick to Diet Coke. I would later learn she drank like a liter of it in record time.)

Anyway, other that that, nothing substantial. So I went solo to Austin to play DDR. Nothing of note there - no real crowds, no one I knew. I did take the sixth spot on Police Academy 2; put "Polar Bear" there. 'xtigerlily' was still on; I think it was at #2. 'jackalope' had been knocked off. There was one small incident, which I sort of hinted at in a previous post. I was going off on fifth mix; some couple walked up to the PIU machine (which they brought back, right next to the fifth mix - what a travesty!); the girl gave it a try, while the guy watched. She didn't do that well. A little bit later, I went over to play some Crazy Taxi while I was cooling off. As it turns out, they were playing Ms. Pac-Man, which is *right* next to Crazy Taxi. She came over by me and started talking to me. She asked me how you're supposed to do it, and I explained about hitting the pad right as the arrow hits the top - and she complimented me on my 'dancing'. It was pretty cool. Her boyfriend did put his arms around her pretty tight after that, though. As if.

Left there, 'bout 1 and went over to David's. His place is pretty big, and definitely a geek's paradise. I finally saw his computer, which looks even sweeter in person. And it's HUGE. He was in the middle of an elite dungeon, but I got to try WoW eventually. I went with a female Gnomish mage - possibly recreating one of my favorite D&D characters ever, SunnyJoy. I used the random name generator and got "Schlemilly", which is what I'm going to use when I re-create her. I had a blast, blowing up sheep and stuff. Somehow bypassed the secondary town and went straight to IronForge. It was 5:30 when I looked up next. Crazy. I was definitely sold on the game after that. Got home and crashed.

Saturday, I didn't do much except look around town for a copy of WoW, which I didn't find. No one had it. Battle.Net didn't have any; Amazon.com had some... for over a hundred dollars. I put one on hold at Hastings. I also made that really depressed post; that whole thing was just about WoW. Lilie called that night, while I was counting the stuff. I'm trying, but I can't remember exactly why she called. She did ask me about the post, though, and what was wrong. I didn't want to tell her, 'cause I wanted to surprise her when I showed up online. So, I tried to play it all off, but she wasn't having any of that. She did say something like "Left to my own devices, I tend to come up with the worst case possible scenario, and think it's something that's going to make me angry, or upset, or jealous." Which is funny, 'cause I know *exactly* how she feels - I've been going through it the past couple weeks or so. Anyway.

Sunday, I had to work 2 - C. That was fun. Wait, no, she called on Sunday night, 'cause we talked about skating the next day. I think. It all kind of runs together after a while, which is why I hate waiting so long to do these recaps.

Monday, we went skating, which gets its own post. Hint: It contains a kiss.

Tuesday, I worked 11 - 5, came home and slept, then... um, can't remember. I think I went back to sleep again?

Wednesday was the first day of class, which also gets its own post.

Yesterday, I went to Gamestop after work and picked up a copy of WoW, and I've been playing that since.

You can't see it, I'm fabulous

Quick update before I have to head to work.

Went and played some DDR last night; that was fun - had a girl compliment me on my 'dancing' and asked me how to do it. That's always cool.

Hung out with David for a few hours - played some WoW, and I'm definitely sold. Now I just have to find out the name of Matt & Luke's guild.

Finally beat Lord of the Rings: The Third Age. The last boss was Sauron. I'm not kidding. After fighting through the fields of Pelennor, you fight Sauron and/or his gigantic eye of fire on the top of the tower of Barad-dur. Or something like that. Ludicrous. Thought the evil mode re-match was a lot of fun.

...And it brings me to my knees

This is my third posting location. I'm actually hanging out at Shelley and Lilie's apartment. Lilie's making some Tuna Helper for Chris and Shelley (both of us aren't that hungry); Shelley is playing FF X-2 (we'll make a gamer geek out of her yet), and Chris is trying to help her. I'm just sitting here, typing; Lilie is, at this moment, leaning over my shoulder, and kissing my ear. So, yeah. Fun times.

It's been an interesting weekend. Lilie and I had a date Friday night. Well, sort of. I went to class first off; had our first Chem Lab. I have pictures from it, but I haven't uploaded them yet (I actually have about 120 pictures to upload so far, but I'm about to have a ton of free time, so prepare for some massive picture posts). Afterwards, went home and talked to Lilie; we were gonna meet up around 5 or 6 to go to Will's thing, then go to Sights & Sounds. I was feeling really ansy or anxious or something, so I ended up back to the LBJ Student Center and played about an hour or so of DDR. Went fairly well; two girls were watching me play, and one of them asked me if I practiced on the same songs repeatedly. That's always an interesting reaction; the vast majority of the time, I'm sightreading - Nonstop Random All rocks!!

So anyway, Lilie showed up around 6:30 or so. I was watching Red v Blue (which I've started burning onto DVD), and almost asleep. We went over to the Baptist Academy where Will's school was doing a little Christmas performance. It was... cute. I'm not terribly fond of small children, but as far as these things go, it was okay. There was one part where a large number of kids came out in various costumes; Will was a shepherd, and five little girls were sheep. They were SO CUTE. We left a little early so that we could catch Janelle performing at Sights & Sounds at 9. I ended up giving Lilie a piggy-back ride across the Baptist Academy to my truck. It took forever to find a parking spot near it, so we parked off the Square and walked the rest of the way. Turns out Janelle wasn't performing until 9:45, so we had some time to kill. We sampled some of the food available - chicken on a stick, caramel apples, hot cider, etc. They had one booth that had a bunch of interesting stuff available - alligator on a stick, goat, boudin sausage, squirrel, and rattlesnake. I wanted to get some squirrel (not in the sexual way (at least in this instance)), but they didn't have any, which very nearly crushed my soul. However, they did have rattlesnake, so I tried that. And, as much as it pains me to say this, it tastes... well, like chicken.

I never felt like a townie before, despite being very nearly the perfect picture of one. Maybe it's because all of my friends are townies? Well, not really - Josh and Jarrod are, but Luke, Matt, etc., aren't. It was just hanging out with Lilie at Sights & Sounds... it was best summed up as we were standing there, watching the Jazz Band perform. I heard a college girl behind me say "I've never really done any small-town stuff before." It was at that moment when I realized that I'm a townie.

Anyway.

Ran into Barbara and... Mike. I hadn't met him before, and I wasn't particularly glad to do so. It's not really any of my business, but I don't agree with what she did to David. It was fairly shady. The weird part was when Lilie and Barbara were talking about my head and keeping me from shaving it. Really weird. Next, we saw David and Nikki. Haven't seen either one of them since AvP. It looks like David's not going to get the job at Best Buy, so he's looking elsewhere. Nikki's going through her back surgery, so she's not terribly happy. While talking to them, I saw Mr. Mann wondering around, so that was fun.

Briefly saw Beth Matthis and Maggie Hernandez as well. We walked by Elinor, and exchanged waves. I told Lilie the Elinor tale, which is always fun. We had a few interesting discussions while we were there (which I'm not going to go into here). The performance was pretty good - we had a blast screaming for Janelle. I finally introduced Lilie and Jarrod, so they are both now convinced of the other's existence. Danielle was there as well, which is good as well. Jarrod asked me what we were (relationship-wise); we weren't really sure - it wasn't something we had really talked about yet, so Danielle says "Now's the perfect time to decide." I wanted to punch both of them.

Not really.

So we wondered around a little more, and finally left. Sights & Sounds seems a lot... smaller. Or maybe I'm just bigger. Or older. Or something.

***

So I finally got to sleep about 3 or 4 or so. Had to work 5 - C Saturday, which meant I didn't have anything pressing on my time. Saturday was... uneventful, partly. Oh, wait. I asked Lilie out Friday night, and she said yes. So we're official. Er... officially a couple. Or something like that. Anyway.

I was awoken around 11 am Saturday by a phone call from Shelley. She called... to apologize. Seriously. I mean, I'm typing it, and I don't believe it either. Turns out she wasn't aware that Lilie reciprocated my feelings for her. Which kind of scares me. She thought I was just chasing her and putting her through all this just for a piece of ass or something. We had already had that conversation WAAAAY back when Shelley first started working at Sonic, but apparently she didn't believe me. She read my journal where I wrote about Tuesday afternoon, and all became clear to her. I mean, I can't really fault her for acting like she did - it made sense to her, from her point of view. She may have been a little... vehement in being a bitch, but it was at least mostly justified. And she apologized. I still don't believe it either. She explained that that was why she was acting towards me the way she was. So... yeah. Her and I have been getting along much better now. Didn't do much else Saturday, until I came over to hang out with the girls before going to work. More later.

Massive picture dump: D&D, Lunch/Movie with David and Barbara/Nicky, and DDR that night, followed by crashing with Rose

We had a short session Tuesday night. There's the party as the travel through the wilderness.	They rented a private dining room in the inn and began discussing their plans. However, Nadine (who somehow got the highest listen check) heard something outside the door, and Lorm found one of the serving girls listening at the door. They took issue with this, so Davin and Ky'Rinn went to talk to the bartender (played by an air elemental).
Three humans had issue with their taking issue with the bartender, though.	And a fight ensued. Three dwarves rushed Ky'Rinn as well.
Here, they dogpiled Zhao Fei as he pinned one of the humans.	Zhao Xi charmed the bartender and one of the humans and ended it.
I decided to start taking a lot more pictures with my SV/AV. I've got free photo hosting at Blogger, and there's no incremental cost with digital photography. This is the car in front of me at Sessoms and N. LBJ on my way to Mamacita's.	And my registration and inspection stickers. Note how they're aligned horizontally instead of vertically. I like to be different.
Action shot.	Another one.
David.	Barbara.
My chicken fajitas. I took a big bite of the gigantic jalepano that they served with my meal (that no one ever touches).	David's beef fajitas.
Barbara couldn't leave work at work and was on the phone for like ten minutes about some meeting and some guy named 'Chad'. Edit: Apparently, she was talking to Kristina. And they were talking about someone not named 'Chad'.	David taking a picture with his phone cam.
Or something like that.	The picture he took of me.
That's David's truck in front of me as we went to Starplex.	Close up.
My dashboard gauges. Center: Speedomoter and mileage. Top left, going clockwise: Battery, oil pressure, gas, and temperature. And yes, that is a Hawaiin lay wrapped around my steering column visible at the bottom of the picture.	My stuff hanging from my rear-view mirror: A pair of pink fuzzy dice and a garter, give to me by Rose.
Starplex. There're five posters for the new Spongebob movie coming out.	The concession stand.
The video arcade, if it can be called that. David's playing Time Crisis 3 (at a cost of a doller per game.)	House of the Dead.
Air hockey.	The back of Nicky's head.
The machine they use to change out the posters and marquee.	Steve and/or Drew.
Nicky's head back again.	Nicky and David in the theater.
Nicky, close-up.	Front shot. She has an odd look on her face.
Accidental shot of Nicky's chest.	Out front of the theater.
The two of us.	David's truck.
David.	Nicky.
The sky.	Nicky's ear.
He has an odd cross-bar in his bead.	Nice.
Also nice.	Mine is a much more obscure reference.
It was a little more relevant before all the court proceedings, but it still works.	I hope that's not classified.
David's dice, and an air freshener.	Hanging Y-Wing. Cool.
Cell phone.	Barbara called my cell phone looking for David.
Starplex.	The Bourne Sepremacy.
The Village.	I really like this picture.
David and Nicky in front of his truck. They began making out right after this picture was taken. Not really.	Close up.
My guages again as I'm driving to Austin.	Stereo.
Barbara in Le Fun.	And her again outside of my truck, where we stood around for like an hour and a half.
David looks weird.	The car in front of us.
I like her shirt.	She's pushing him, in case you can't tell.
And some more.	?
Random.	Rose & Katie's bathroom. The room was completely dark, so this gives you an idea of my flash.
Rose's bedroom.	Drafting table.
Closet.	Closet #2.
Rose's bed. I love it.