You Look At Me and It's Like You Hit Me With Lightning

So, I haven't posted in something like 2 years.

A few things have happened. Quick recap:

Rebecca moved in, we dated for a year, then I decided to end things. She moved out a little while later. We're still friends.

I (finally) graduated in May '11 with a double major in Math and CS. That was super, super, super exciting. There was a long time where I didn't think I would ever accomplish that. It really scared me to think that I would be spending the rest of my life working at places like Sonic and Domino's, that that's all I would ever amount to. I don't mean to impugn the people that do work there; I only mean to say that it's not where I should be. After graduation, i began applying at places in Austin, and got great responses - I was interviewing with several different place, got a job offer from a place called Starmount, and accepted immediately. I mean, I suppose it might have been prudent to wait and compare the offers, see which one was best, and which company would be the best fit / opportunity for me, but I was so desperate to get out of Domino's, I wasn't going to wait another day if I didn't have to.

It was actually an interesting (well, kinda) story how it happened. I did a phone interview on Wednesday or Thursday, and he said he'd call me back within a week to let me know if they wanted to bring me onsite for another interview. He then called me back 10 minutes later (!) to ask me about coming in for an interview. The soonest they could do it was Wednesday, so that's when I went in. It went pretty well, and again, he said he'd call me back within a week with their decision. I couldn't think about much else the next two days (other than the other jobs I was also applying for), but Friday evening at 5pm rolls around, and I'm very sad, because I thought there was no way I was going to hear from them over the weekend, which meant I had to wait until Monday to hear anything, either way. However, my phone rang around 530, and it was Starmount, calling me to offer a job! I was totally freaked, and accepted immediately. There were some formalities involved, but that Sunday was my last day (ever) at Domino's. That was 8 months ago, and I've been pretty awesome ever since.

I moved out of the house (finally) and got a town house on the upper east side. Well, I'm leasing one in a complex that's literally at 183 and 35. Ended up with Ambra as a roommate again, not sure how I feel about that. Sometimes, it's cool; other times, she can be a little annoying. I mean, I'm sure she'd say roughly the same thing about me, so at least it's balanced.

So, life for the most part is pretty awesome. I've been working out a little and lost some weight, now I just need to lose like 200 more pounds. I have a few goals, and I'm definitely going skydiving as soon as I'm able.

Oh, and there's a girl - Katie. Met her at work (what else is new?), and we've been hanging out a lot lately. Like, she came over Saturday at 9 pm, stayed all the way 'til Sunday at 8 pm, and then sent me a text that says "So yeah that was cool. We're totally weird but I think it's pretty awesome."

I'm finishing this up right now, but don't worry, there'll be plenty of over-analyzing, stupid obsessing, and overthinking things in the posts to come.

Also, I can't believe this is still online.

Ellie Goulding -- Starry Eyed

Take the glitz back, I want the soul instead

Five months.

It's been about five months since I've posted. I'll try to catch up with what I've missed.

School:

School's going really well so far. Took those three classes during the Spring semester, got a 4.0. That was pretty neat. The day of Finals was kind of funny. They schedule like 2 hours for each final, and mine were back to back to back. Each final took me around thirty to forty-five minutes to do, giving me between forty-five minutes and an hour to kill between each final, in addition to the half hour break they already build in to the schedule. The obvious answer would be to use that time to review the material and/or study for the next final; the only problem with that, of course, is that I don't like to count on such intangible, unsure variables like that, so I was completely ready for each final. I went to a dining hall and grabbed some breakfast during one break, and I don't recall what I did during the other final. After the last one, I had to walk to work where Mom was picking me up to give me a ride home.

Something had gone crazy wrong with my truck. Ended up dropping quite a bit on new tires, then I had to have the engine remounted and stuff (they did it wrong during the original installation). That was fun. I ended up only taking three hours during summer school, one class during Summer I. Phil 1305, Introduction to Philosophy and Critical Thinking. The class was okay, I guess. Every morning at 8 am, for two hours, Monday through Friday. I ended up late to work quite a few days because of it, which was fun. I pulled a strong A in that class as well, which was really good, 'cause it was a Writing Intensive class, and I hate writing. It seemed like the more outlandish I made my conclusion, the better my grade on the test was. I don't know if it just did a better job of making my point, or my writing just got stronger as the semester went on, or the professor just appreciated someone who could effectively communicate the material and their understanding thereof, while still making their conclusion fun to read. I hope it was the latter, but I'm not counting on it. Whatever.

So I didn't take any classes during Summer II, 'cause of the money I had to drop on my truck. I'm registered for 13 hours, 4 classes and 1 lab, for the Fall. Chem II, Chem II Lab, Prob & Stat, Data Structures, and Intro to Fine Arts. I even got some financial aid for this and the Spring semesters. It's pretty awesome. Class starts in about two weeks. I've got most of my textbooks, bought two textbooks online - ebay and amazon are pretty neat, around half price of what the bookstore wanted, *and* I could flip them back for most of the price. I still have to pick up my Chem book/lab manual at the bookstore; the professor wrote both of them. So that's fun. Got my classes blocked Monday/Wednesday, which works out well. I start at 9:30 both mornings; Monday, I go to 6-something, on Wednesday, I'm out around 3-something. Long days, but I'll be taking both days off work so I don't have to go in that night. I might take the occasional Tuesday night off as well, to give me some time to get some real sleep. Of course, that's all depending on the work situation, which will have to get better before I'm able to do so, but we'll get to that later.

And I'm officially a senior.

So I don't feel like going into work just yet, so I guess I'll go with personal stuff next. I finally started a good diet that I'm comfortable with, and I feel confident that I can stick with it, for the most part. Coupling that with the amounts of exercise I have lined up, I hope, I really hope, that I can finally lose some weight.

Socially, it's just as much of an abyss as always. Didn't talk to anyone in any of my classes over the fall semester, or the one I had in the summer. I ended up sitting behind this semi-cute girl over the summer, didn't really get her name or anything. She was a hippie (Wait. Her parents were hippies. I'm not sure?) from Austin. Anyway.

So still friends with Matt, we work out and/or play racquetball in the mornings when our schedules work out. Haven't talked to Cullen recently, though I hope to remedy that soon. Rose is moving out of her parents place, which is cool, getting a little one bedroom; I'm helping her move (no big surprise there). Haven't made any new friends (except at work, but that gets covered in the work section) lately. Maybe that'll change in the Fall. I doubt it, but whatever.

Work's been interesting. Our new GM is working out really well, he's a really cool guy. We're getting pasta and sandwiches in the next few weeks (Sh! Nobody's allowed to know that!), which means we have to regear a lot of things, and find room for a bunch of new products, and retrain everyone on new stuff. It's going to be somewhat more labor-intensive, which kind of sucks. The only good part is that we're getting some good stuff, like sliced provolone, genoa salami, and chicken. Of course, they don't really fit in with my diet, so I'll only taste them sparingly, but it'll probably positively impact sales.

Bill no longer works there; he left to go to Colorado or something, leaving me as the only MiT right now. Jen Fee almost came back, but she went to Kyle instead. I've mentioned to Ambra that she should come back and be an MiT for us; new gm, new dm, there's a good chance they'll let her. They should - she's well trained, she's smart, they let her GM a store for over six months. Oh, and we're NOT DATING, nor WERE WE EVER. They're cracking down ever harder on employee dating, transferred a GM to a completely different district because she was dating another GM. Whatever. We did hire this awesome insider named Becky, but she only worked here for the summer. That made me sad, especially when she left like two weeks ago. Thanks to that, we're still working on improving our inside staff. We need another shift runner or MiT, probably another insider or two. We did hire Janelle as a driver, that's pretty neat. She might be moving back here for her last semester and/or year of school, which would be interesting. Her and Mom don't get along as well as her and I do, so she's a little worried that it might not work out, that they're going to clash too hard much for her to live here. I keep telling her that it was hard for me at first, but that it got a lot better, especially once school started.

Anyway.

So that's what's going on with that.

Vanessa Carlton -- Nolita Fairytale

Seemed like you and me could wait forever

I was feeling pretty depressed, so I asked Bill to close for me tonight, I ended up leaving around 9-ish. Came home, took a nap, been up since around 3-ish. Been kind of puttering around ever since. Managed to finish 5-starring everything on Medium on GH2, thanks to Ambra. She did 5 stars on all the easy and about 95% of the medium. That made things a *lot* easier on me. I've now beat GH1 on expert, GH2 on hard, I just have Free Bird to beat to beat 2 on expert, and two songs in the final set on GH3. I'm not sure where I'm at on Rock the '80's. I think I'm going to deactivate my WoW account once school starts back up, I'm not sure that I'll have any time at all to play, other than the occasional evening I happen to not have any homework. At some point soon, I plan to post a list of things I need to do before January 14th, the beginning of the spring '08 semester. I know I need to redo parts of my room, work on my current paperwork filing system, clean out my dresser, and get below 300 pounds.

Alex Megane -- Hurricane

And if it's written on my face, I hope it never goes away

Man, it's been a while since I've updated - not one substantial one this year. So, as is customary when I have a long break (5 days) and am going to post, I'm going to start with a big list of topics I need to cover.

• Why I moved my blog and listed it as deleted
  
• The final break between Lilie and I
  
• WoW: tBC finally launched
  
• Work
  
• New Year's compared to previous ones
  
• Arlington
  
• How I've failed at life
  

Ashlee Simpson -- Pieces of Me

Cover me in ecstasy

Guess I'm in a posting mood today. I have an hour, maybe two, before I have to spring into action and start getting some errands taken care of - deposit my paycheck, drop off rent, purchase a bird bath for Bam and Greg, go do some clothes shopping at the Outlet Mall, courtesy of the gift card Mom got me, and I think that's all? Oh! I also have to drop by Mom's, grab my cell phone and get some food out of the fridge that expires today. My phone's been missing for a few days now, it was in Janelle's car. Turns out it fell out as I was getting in. Or out. Whatever. It's funny, 'cause there's going to be about five missed calls from the apartment, a few from the house, a few from Rose, and probably a bunch from Mom.

The thing that complicates all of this, and prevented me from doing any of it yesterday is that my truck's in the shop again, for the same old issue. It's starting to get really, really annoying. I don't know how this guy managed to get Bill Mann to give him the SMAC contract, but he really, really doesn't deserve it. I definitely won't be going to him for any of my mechanical needs, once this thing is done, which are coming up - I need a new fanbelt, probably could use an oil change... good stuff.

So yeah. The thing that complicates this... wait, did that. The other thing that complicates this is that I have to pick Mom up at 2:30 to take her from one of her jobs to the other. I think she might be dropping me of at the apartment instead? Something like that. Either way, I'll be leaving at noon, or when Femaledwarf hits 52 (41k xp to go!), but not whichever comes first. I'm not sure.

So, New Year's is coming up. To be frank, Christmas wasn't that great this year. I've already done my disclaimer on bitching about it, and I'd like to just reference it and say it holds here as well. Hell, let's just have it as my standard disclaimer to every post I've ever made in which I bitched about things are, in the grand scheme of things, relatively minor (Note: everything I've ever really bitched about). I don't think New Year's is going to be any better. Well, it won't be worse, but it won't be good at all, because it's going to be a normal work day. We go on break at midnight, which means I'll probably have to deal with a bunch of co-workers being all "Happy New Year's!" I hate that. Well, I don't hate that. I hate random people wishing me a happy New Year's. I guess it's just one of those little idiosyncratic things about me, like how I hate salespeople coming up to me and asking me if I need any assistance in a store. It's polite, it's a nice way of showing compassion for your fellow human beings, and it drives me nuts. Now, I love being wished a happy New Year's by important people.

But I'm going to reminisce about past Christmas/New Year's, and why they sucked. I mean, I don't automatically assume it's going to suck, but I don't shy away from the reality of the situation.

jakalope -- Feel It

Nothing gets me off the way that you do

I'd like to correct my previous post.

It is, in fact, a plot, not a scheme.

Lindsay Lohan -- Who Loves You

I'm falling apart, 'cause you're walking away

Things to post about:

• A review of how badly I've failed at life
  
  
• My new life philosophy
  
  
• This week in review - work, my two days off, all that good stuff
  
  
• Racquetball!
  
  
• My new genius plot - nay, scheme - the first phase of which I've already begun initiating
  
  
• 
  
  Astrada -- Just Another Day

I search for you everywhere we've been, but you're not there

Got a few posts done today that I'd been meaning to do; what does that leave?

A review of how badly I've failed at life, mainly.

My new life philosophy.

I think that just about covers it.

Maybe my 2.0 builds as well, for those that are curious.

Amber G -- Sugar Storm

Taking all my life all at once, not too bright

So, my posting has been sporadic as of late, primarily due to my new job. First and foremost, I tend to get into this mode of work-sleep-work-sleep. I have a few hours between the two, but that tends to be WoW, eating, that kind of stuff. So, I'll probably shift to long update posts on my days off.

Second, I tend to blog about work a lot, and that's not nearly as interesting at this job as it has been at previous jobs. I rarely deal with any customers stocking overnight; the few that I do interact with are just asking where stuff is; the sum total of our conversation is usually;

"Where's [random item]?"
"Aisle six."

That's not blog-worthy, except to note that it's not blog worthy. The only customers that I remember interacting with eight seconds after the conversation is over are the cute girls, and there aren't that many of those. I mean, there are, but most aren't noteworthy either. None really stand out. Of course, that's their worst nightmare, which is kind of funny.

As a tertiary point, my coworkers aren't fun, either. I mean, I'm sure they are, just not from my perspective and in regards to me. They're not really my peers, and I couldn't really see myself hanging out with very many of them outside of work, which is a big contrast from Domino's. I mean, I'll probably post the occasionally bitchy post about Brenda, or if Mindy and I have a weird conversation (we haven't talked, nor seen each other, since I started there, save twice, and both lasted a total of maybe five seconds. So not much material there.

Finally, my job isn't very intellectually stimulating. It's predominately physical. Downstack palettes, put stuff on shelves, make the shelves look pretty. Also, you tend to be on the aisle by yourself, so there's no one to talk to. No real music to listen to; there's the stuff playing on the pa, but it sucks, and it can be kind of soft at times, and it really sucks.

Also, it sucks.

Anyway, moving past how much late night radio sucks, not a lot to think about while working. Focusing on the job sure, but that doesn't occupy me entirely. So, I think about a lot of stuff. Lilie, to be sure, WoW, but I end up talking to myself a lot, about issues I'm having - stuff I'd normally be blogging about. I work through various issues, examine them in detail; I even find myself doing it in the manner in which I'd be blogging about them. So, by the time I get home, I feel like I've already had my cathartic rant about whatever issue is bothering me, and don't really need to write about it.

So, yeah.

Got my membership to SMAC. Mom's gonna buy me some rackets, Mat and I will be playing racquetball. I hope to make it there at least five times a week, we'll see how it goes.

I still need to post about the hockey game and that whole awesome day, and things about Lilie, but I'll probably post that elsewhere.

Amber G -- Passing Time

On your shoulder, out the storm I rode

So it looks like, at least for a while, I probably won't be posting very much during my five day work cycle, then doing massive posts during my weekend. Of course, as I type that, I realize that's not how I prefer to do things, so we'll see.

Had the PS3 launch, that was fun. We had people lined up right outside layaway a few days ago, we made them go line up outside. It wasn't that many - six, maybe? Of course, we only got 10, so it's a good thing they lined up when they did. We went on break right as we started selling it, so Paul and I wandered over to watch it. It was... underwhelming. They were selling them, no noise, no confetti, no balloons falling from the ceiling. Yeah.

Finally realized the existence of, diagnosed, and fixed the NAT problem I've been having with Azureus since I obtained it. Turns out it works much, much better once you do that. Most amazing. Got a dvd rip of Pirates of the Caribbean 2 and a cam of Dead or Alive, working on aXXo releases of Tristan and Isolde, John Tucker Must Die, The Break-Up, Beowulf and Grendel, D&D2, and I think that's about it.

I was talking to Paul, and he mentioned how much he didn't like the Daily Show and the Colbert Report, then compared them to Dane Cook, who he described as the "unfunny, white version of Eddie Murphy." He then did an impression - "Man, I was walking, and someone stepped on my foot! Then there were some french fries!!." I was laughing.

My birthday is in less than twelve hours. I'll be at work. It ends in less than thirty-six hours, and I'll be at work then too. I, personally, don't care - I've always worked on my birthday, and don't feel the sense of entitlement that some do (Lilie, Heather) just 'cause I was born on this calendar date. Bam bought some hockey tickets, was going to take me to a game, but I couldn't get the day off - and I told her that'd happen. She managed to get them for a different game, so we'll see if I can get that day off.

Been hearing mixed things about FF XII. Hope to borrow it, and between David and Pual, have a decent chance.

A'ight, this was a somewhat scatter-shot update, but it's better than nothing.

Alex Megane -- Hurricane

Update coming soon

So, uh, watch for that?

Artist -- Title

Get out of my brain because you drive me insane

Wow, almost an entire month with no new posts whatsoever, not even a half-hearted "I'm still around, just haven't felt like posting lately." blurb. I think that's a new record for me, not including the like six months immediately after I signed up for a blog on Zara's urging, but never used it.

I'm about to do an update on what's been going on lately. (Hint: Not much). I'm going to the HEB Warehouse tomorrow, they've got an add in the paper right now. Their starting pay is 11.65, which is pretty good, and they've got decent benefits. Now, I'll just have to see what kind of hours they're offering. Also have my third appointment in North Austin (ARGH) tomorrow at 1:30. I have that drive. I just hope that it being this early, and on a Thursday that's *not* the day before Labor Day Weekend will help me not have to deal with traffic as much as I've had to the past two appointments. At least this one is my last one. We'll see what kind of effects it'll have on me, if it'll actually help.

Things with Lilie are the same as always, same as they've been for the majority of the last year or so.

Oh, and Chelsea moved back to San Marcos.

More tomorrow, when I know more.

Michelle Shaprow -- If I Lost You

The night is young, and you're so beautiful

I haven't abandoned this yet. I just haven't done anything of note the last few weeks.

Well... quit Domino's, which I don't think I've really written about, and don't plan to. Gina's a bitch now, and I don't want to work there anymore. Chilling on my savings, between working 40 at Sonic while living at home, and working 60 hour weeks at Domino's. So yeah, getting the time back right now.

Anyway.

I had the weirdest dream last night. I stopped by Sonic, and went inside to hang out with everyone. I don't know why. It was so very, very weird. I like went in, and was working in the kitchen? I wasn't in uniform or anything, just an old-times-sake type thing. Dave was there, we were laughing and cordial. Mostly new people, which is a weird thing in a dream, a bunch of people you've never seen before. It would match current conditions at Sonic, but it still freaked me out. Am I possible of generating mental images of people I've never seen before? I doubt it. But yeah, I was just hanging out, helping cook shit, making drinks, catching up with Dave and Javier. They kept asking me if I wanted to come back, and I was like, "Nah."

The ramifications are bountiful. If you subscribe to the theory that dreams are a microchosm of your own mind, it shows that this whole job thing weighs heavily on my mind. Which it does. Kinda. Granted, I need to get a new job, and soon, but I'm not terribly worried about it.

So yeah, that's the only noteworthy thing lately. Lilie still ties my heart in knots, and Lucas is down here now. Rose is, well, Rose. Ambra's Ambra. A equals A, damn it. I don't know.

Maybe I'm the one to blame, to think that you could be the one

Quick post, since I only have ten minutes before I have to start getting ready for work. I'm just trying to organize my thoughts, make sure I get everything in my next post that I want:

• Rebecca
  
• Momento / Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
  
• Kyle and David
  
• Ambra
  
• Lilie and Rose
  
• (Not playing) WoW
  
• My truck
  
• Ray and his daughter (!)
  
• Work - Manager meeting
  

Maybe more. We'll see

Jojo -- Leave

I'm a freaky girl

So, here goes another attempt to make a massive posting, catching everything up. I'm still debating whether to try to tackle things categorically or chronologically. Each path has its own benefits and drawbacks. I find it easier to think categorically most of the time, so I'm going to start with that. We'll see how it goes from there.

Let's see... it's tough to figure out where to start, which is one of the areas that chronologically has a decided advantage. In fact, I think it has enough of one that I'm going to switch to chronologically, with the occasional switch to categorically when it's warranted.

Looking back... it's been a while. I've had little posts here and there, but they've been largely insubstantial. I'll start with the Monday Ambra and I planned on going out together. This was like, late April. It was something fairly 'normal' - out to dinner, and V for Vendetta, which she hadn't seen yet. It's my plan to make sure everyone cool has seen that movie. I came close, but failed on one count. Well, for now, but I'm sure I can remedy it, given time. So yeah, we took Sunday night paperwork like always, then she crashed over here, like always. We crashed, like always. It's when we woke up that things weren't like they always were.

We kissed.

Not really.

But it would have been weird if we did.

There was a fire.

I'm serious about that part.

We woke up to a really, really loud knocking on the door. I went and answered it, and there was no one there. The door across the way was open too, and the guy pokes his head out and says something to the effect of "The lady was going around, telling everyone there was a fire and they should get out." So Ambra and I got up and went and sat in the grass towards the complex. Sure enough, there was a fire. Fire trucks, firemen, the whole fire-people thing. It seemed very well contained to the apartment at the very end of our building, so we eventually just went back into the apartment and commenced chilling, as it seemed neither one of us was really going to be able to go back to sleep. Sergio called at one point, at Gina's behest, to make sure we were okay. I would later learn she had told one of the office staff that one or more of her managers was in there, and that they had to knock extra-loud, since I would sleep through just about anything. But yeah, Sergio talked in that way he does when something is being really weird - "Gina wanted me to call you and make sure you were okay, something about a fire." I assured him we were fine, and that was that. Ambra received a call not too long afterwards, from Jess. Turned out she wasn't feeling very well at all, and needed Ambra to come in for her. That kind of shot our plans down, since Ambra had to go in and all. I ended up going and picking up Amplitude (which is an AWESOME game), and a few books from Half Price Books.

The only bright spot was that Jess agreed to come in for Ambra on Wednesday, since she had come in for her on Monday. So yeah, we went and had our little date-thing. Her choice for dinner was Outback, which turned out really well. Awesome blossom appetizer, always good. We both enjoyed our meal. At one point, I made eye contact with one of the people at the table of six to our right. That person was Murph, our owner. I mean, the owner of all the San Antonio, San Marcos, and Seguin Domino's. He was with Eileen, Walter, Stan, Rex, and Mike. It was... kinda weird. They didn't come over and talk, we didn't go over and talk, nothing. They did, however, end up picking up our tab, which was *very* nice of him, and unexpected. Let's see... V for Vendetta after that, which was AWESOME. Nothing notable after that.

Then, it's kind of a blur. Not much more I can say on the Ambra front. We haven't hung out a whole lot lately; she's been having to work a lot, and our schedules haven't matched up nicely like they did for a while. I did talk to her about the whole "I had been thinking about it, I just didn't want to say anything 'cause I didn't want to be tease' thing that she had said one Sunday evening. It may have even been that Sunday, right after we ate out. Not sure. But yeah, that's what she said, which was interesting. I mean, the chances of us hooking up are, well, fairly small. In a lot of ways, I think we'd be a good couple, but there are enough points of contention that it'd be interesting to see if things work out. I mean, hell, I'm in the middle of moving in with her, which is pretty cool. So yeah.

So, we'll come back to Ambra in a little bit. On to Lilie. Good stuff. So, quick recap - found out she was dating [], I kind of mis-reacted.

Freaky Girl -- Thomilla

Update coming soon

Once I can force myself to care enough to actually type it all out. It'll be a doozy.

Or not.

Artist -- Title

Argh. Wrote a fair amount detailing my misadventures on Monday, the successful second attempt on Wednesday, working Tuesday and Thursday, and the consequences earlier yesterday morning.

Then my computer crashed, and I thought Blogger had a periodic auto-save, but it doesn't, so the whole thing is gone. I might retype it later, but probably not.

So... yesterday was a lot of fun.

Let me just add to the list of things I need to post about... the *awesome* dream I had last night, wherein I took on the Mexican Mafia at our high school and won. And by 'Won', I mean, I beat the crap out of a bunch of people. It was kinda cool. Cameos by Roland and Lilie.

Move your arm up and down, and make that choo-choo sound

So, things I want to post about whenever I get around to posting a real post:

• The weird dream I had last night involving Carrie and a space shuttle.
  
• I finally met Alaire last night.
  
• Patch 1.10 hit.
  
• Ambra and I are moving in with each other in a month and a half.
  
• Lots of new people at work right now, massive hiring cycle going on.
  
• People still being incredibly immature when they call us after close.
  
• Hanging out with Ambra last night.
  
• Possibly hanging out with Ashley (Hughes) later on this week.
  
• And it's kind of annoying, working with all those new people.

Quad City DJs -- The Train