Today was really good. And now I'm watching CSI and chillin'. Sleep in a bit. Strange how quickly things can make a turnaround-- but it's more like a new path in an entirely different direction.

do I not have the "what in the fuck is going on here" look on my face?


This is the worst date I've ever been on. This was in high school, my senior year. The senior girls pitch-in-a-ton-of-money and throw this big dance, right? It rivals prom, and most girls wanted to go to this more than Prom, since this was another popularity contest and all. This was an invite-only type of deal, but there were a ton of people, by the time it was said and done. And the girls invite their dates, since they,re paying, and all. Each senior girl gets to invite two people, from either the junior or senior class. Emmy was a junior. </setup information>

So this girl Emmy asks me, right. (after like four other people bail on her, but I didn't know that, or why, at the time) And I figure, hey, wh not, it'll be fun. Dance was in two weeks, at this point.

So we go out to dinner and all that next weekend, and everything seemed fine. dinner, movie, no OH-MY-GOD-I'M-AN-AXE-MURDERESS vibes (i'm sensitive to those, now).

The next weekend rolls around, and the dance is tonight, right.

I'm about to go pick her up, and she warns me that her dad is a little strange, and might not be real personable.

Her dad; the man did everything but offer me a beer, right. cue strange look from me, #1

So we go back over to my house, to take some pictures, since I'm in a tux and she's all dressed up.

Now ANYONE who knows me in person knows that I'm pretty much transparent when it comes to showing-what-I'm-thinking. And I come by that honestly, my dad is the same way. And that can be good, or bad, right?

So we take a few pictures, and then we're sitting there talking to my dad. I think my mom must have been in an exchange in Germany, then. This would have been much weirder with both my parents there, because there's no way I'd have kept a straight face.

...Y'ever have one of those dates where she says "I'm so glad we could do this as friends?"

Happened to me...

She's talking, and that phrase came up. THREE TIMES, in like ten minutes. And the first time, I got the "h'okay" look from my dad. Makes sense, that. The second time, the "....mmmm'okay... right right" look.

The third time got the "ok, where the hell'd you get this one?" look. I would have laughed, if I hadn't realized that THE DANCE STILL HADN'T HAPPENED.

So we leave to go to the dance, right.

As soon as we get there, Emmy meets up with her friends S_____ and Jeremy. Those two were going out, and proceeded to walk over to the table we had and make out for the rst of the evening. Emmy sat down. I sat down. A little time passes, and I asked her to dance. Nope.

Did she want to talk? Nope. Dance at all? nope.

So I went to talk to people. I do that. and this repeats. for five hours. but at some point we went to take pictures. OH WOW. You know how they say "ok, so put your arm around her here, and y'all scoot in" and you kinda draw up? YEAH. That wasn't happening.

I HAVE NO IDEA what her deal was.

going to drop her off, I was going to be nice and walk her to the door, right? hah. no. she was OK walking herself.

I had more fun listening to my CDs on the way home.

---

After I got home, my dad told me about a guy he knew that was at a dance like that. And his date did that, and this guy threw a ten on the table and just left. I'm glad he hadn't told me that, before, because it genuinely never occurred to me, or I'd have done that.

---

her wedding photos look JUST LIKE THAT. It was in the paper at home, a while back. CRREEEEPY.

hearing my father refer to my dating history as "the Prozac-for-lunch bunch" broke my head, tonight.

Y'know... nothing like having an email from the one person you really want to hear from to start the day off right. (that, and now we have stuff to do for the evening, whoop)

And I have to pick someplace cool for us to go to Friday... yay.

---

Started getting back into push-ups and calisthenics, and I like that muscles-are-tired-but-in-a-good-way feeling. Makes me feel sorta productive.

---

I put a ding in my ring, again, yesterday... not cool. right on the year, too. hmmf. see the 3, here?

it has a ding in it, now. my freaking ring will look like I put it in a rock tumbler one of these days...

lunch today with Alexis. fun stuff. Man, she's cute (and if it weren't for the living in other towns most of the time and having no idea what the next few months holds, then, well, you get the picture.) Went to McAlister's and chatted for a good while. fun stuff.

---

um... online defensive driving isn't as bad as i thought it might be.

---

pretty much it...

the ads for the M3Power razors are a lie. i couldn't see any way at the time that a "vibrating" razorblade would shave better, and not to mention the damn things are expensive. There was nothing i could see that would help. Not out of a volt-and-a-half. the damn thing didn't even connect to the blade-- there was no juice running thru the blades...

And that article says that "well, okay... they don't actually work..."

A fool and his money, eh?

---

Sancho Erik and Michelle's wedding went well. Anne and Philip's wedding went well. (I had two weddings to go to yesterday). they both went well, everyone cleans up well. The brides both looked beautiful, and damned if the guys didn't look spiffy too.

---

went to see Star Wars Episode III today. many people have bitched and moaned about this movie. I liked it. Yoda is awesome. Natalie Portman is hot. Now, Natalie Portman in the slave-girl outfit that Leia wears in the later movies...woops, that was out loud, wasn't it?) Contrary to normal movies, the black dude does, in fact, not die first in this movie. And, um, I like Coke. (yay, random string of facts.)

---

going to dinner with Alexis later in the week. whoop. being in College Station was good this weekend. But it's still weird as hell to not live in the house anymore. And now I'm back in Temple. Lots to do tomorrow.

Coffee with Ranie, a friend tonight. We sat and talked for something like an hour and a half. it's strange how sometimes time can zip along like that. Another person to stay in touch with her after i move off. It occurred to me tonight, as we sat at Sweet Eugene's, a coffee shop in College Station, that i have time to relax in the evenings now. I almost never went there during school times, since it was always more of a sit-and-chat place than a studying-type place. Now I can go there. *smile*

--going to bed before midnight, awesome.
--dinner with Alexis tonight, always good. can't beat dinner with a cute girl.
--talked to lots of people on the phone tonight. good stuff. y'all rock.


ok, off to sleep. test in the morning. bleh.

In Temple for Easter. Went for mexican food ("wo, nachos" < /beavis-n-butthead>) and to see a movie (Miss Congeniality 2; movie was good, Sandra bullock is hot; that is all) with Whitney, a girl i went to high school with. hmm. maybe if i have to move back to Temple after college (in a month and a half) it won't be all bad... *smile*

Montgomery Gentry was the concert Thursday night at the Houston Rodeo. The concert was great... they sang all the good songs, and a couple that were either new or a cover. The rodeo was good. I went with Ali, and that was fun. The cover they did of "wanted Dead or Alive" by Bon Jovi-- straight up awesome. Especially cool since the last rodeo concert I saw, in roughly the same seats in 2003 (whoop), was Bon Jovi two years ago with Andy.

"Speed" was distinctly my favorite of the ones they played. I love that song.

I wish we'd known better when the concert was goign to start. We's have liked to gone to the market and stock show, too, but after the concert didn't start til 930... (tickets said 7:00 pm, we figured 'surely it's starting soon' for about two hours.)

Lots of fun, though...

---

yeah, what I really need... is an open road, and a whole lot of speed...

*grin*

going to the rodeo, with Ali, on the 17th to see Montgomery Gentry.

She called tonight, with a "you always call all late right before i'm going to go to bed and so i'm calling early" at 715-ish. And so i got to talk to her for something like an hour and fifteen minutes tonight before I went to mig_unit's birthday thing at Bennigan's.

And this will be my first concert this year. which is weird... since i went to... 13, 14 concerts last year. I better get started...

Cowboy Mouth is coming to CS on May 9th... going to make that one. Crossfade will be in Houston on march 27th... might try to make that one. that'd be three...

i'm having a good night, too. yay. I should go to sleep now...all early and stuff, i know.

---

Class was interesting today-- identifying machine parts and purposes. i'm good at that... yay. and class tomorrow won't be a big deal. and then that's it for the week, again. I like 4-day weeks.

lessee...

went to eat chinese with three of the geekiest (no seriously) people i know of. I seriously needed the Dixie Chicken afterwards...

watched Garden State. Natalie Portman is really good in that movie.

got prepared to go to Houston tomorrow later today. I need to go to bed.

talked to Adrienne for... nearly an hour last night. I haven't talked to her in a long time. I'll see her in a few hours tho.

Went for drinks with a buddy who's in from San Antonio. good stuff.

listening to Blue October.... good stuff too.

finally cleaned my work pants from bonfire. these really are comfortable. ('course, they've had three months in the weather to soften them up, too...)

All right. I concede defeat. I'm goign to sleep. busy day tomorrow. going to Houston... gonna see my buddy Daniel, and his girlfriend Keiko (who i haven't seen since Bonfire) and Ali and Adrienne... should be a fun day.

hmm... watching the Super bowl this weekend with Ali. yay! Probably going to play some dominoes and/or cards too. that should be fun. have to keep up the "gone to the chicken X days in a row" streak.

off to class...

yay! Ali'll be here at the end of this next week. *grin*

Might be going to see Cirque du Soleil with Ali (and maybe her mom, not sure) pretty soon. that will be cool, I've never been to a Cirque show. I've seen the recording of "Quidam" before, and if it's anywhere near that cool it will be worth the money.

---

cleaned part of my room and did a crapload of laundry tonight. sorting out stuff and filing things, too. kinda nice to get things organized.

And now it's time to sleep.

I left College Station to go to Clear Lake to go see Ali for the day at 11:00AM. yesterday. It's currently 5:30AM-ish. I'm freaking exhausted. But it was worth it, in a "damn, that was a massive amount of fun" way. Went for Chinese at about 1:30 when i got there, and then bummed around Galveston for a while. Lots of talking, laughing, flirting and all that. Went to the confectionery on the Strand, she bought her friend some taffy; she always does, apparently. The automatic-taffy-wrapping-machine was neat to watch. We saw "Assault on Precinct 13", which was a good, if violent, movie. Then, while driving, we saw that there was a Rocky Horror Picture Show showing at midnight. So we had dinner at Joe's Crab Shack and then drove back to Clear Lake to see RHPS. On a certain level, God bless the RHPS people. Ali's "RHPS-virgin experience" wasn't very cool, she said. So she we both did the "RHPS-virgin experience" that they had the newbies there do. hah, awesome. That's all that's getting said there. Played pool for about an hour before going to the RHPS show, since we got to the area early. Dropped her off at her house at about 2:30-ish, and then headed back to CS.

A beautiful girl who likes action movies, Rocky Horror, and all different kinds of music. Wow. I like. </understatement>

Random things...

She thought the guy who played Rocky tonight at the show was, though a little young, kinda cute.

I thought the lil' emo girl there with the "pixie" shirt and the emo-pixie haircut was cute, but kinda young. I'm a sucker for the pixie-haircut thing. (yes, any other time I hate emo. I know. Eh.)

miles today: about 350-375. At least it gets good mileage on the highway.

hours spent: gone for about 16 - a solid five of that, on the road. 11-hour date. Good deal.

money spent: ...i'd rather not add it up.*cringe*

The "Club Mix '99" CD I have in my car (in addition to a crapload of other CDs) is good for a laugh-- the techno remix of "My Heart Will Go On" (the song from Titanic) completely broke her head.

met her dad...nice guy, works at NASA. Apparently they've "heard a lot about me." heh, *eep*. Good stuff. *smile*

I saw an Excursion limousine on the way down there. Yeah, an 8-window version of an SUV. wtf.

It really, royally, six-ways-to-Sunday sucks that she's likely leaving in a few weeks for a job up in New England, if it works out. I honestly hope that it does pan out, since it's what she wants to do and where she wants to be. But... rrgh.

She said she's going to do her best to make my graduation, though. *smile* And we're doing something in between now and whenever she leaves. I'll go with what we can get.

All right, more on all that later today. I'm going to sleep, now. The sun is coming up, and it's wrong to be awake for that, before going to sleep again. Jeesh, it's cold in here. brrr.

Lessee... Going to Houston (ok, south of Houston, really) in the morning to see Ali. Movie, dinner, all that. yay. And it's a full moon tomorrow night... Might try to go to Galveston and bum around the Strand. That's always fun. It's been a while since I've been to Galveston. And it's a lot more fun with someone. Even better if taht someone is female and cute.

*smile*

And then coming back to CS tomorrow night, since, well... no place to stay in Houston. (she lives with her parents...)

Yay, road trip!

Time to sleep... long day coming up.

k... in the past... while...this all has happened.

lunch with Alexis (who was peeved to know that I know a bunch of other Alexises... she likes having a unique name. And her middle one is. heh. that was fun. Dinner at some point releatively soon with her again. heheh.

um... party at my place yesterday. fun stuff, overall. was over a little earlier than i figured, but apparently everyone (me included) was wiped.

classes start soon. I mustmustmust whoop ass this semester. Else i won't graduate. and that's bad. </understatement>

one step closer to having a job in Clear Lake, apparently. it seems they need people soon. And that's good for me. whoop.

looking forward to this upcoming weekend. Going to visit Ali, in Houston, I think. and it;s a short week, too. even better.

ok... off to Kevin's. more drinking shall ensue. whoop.

hmm. cold here today, what the hey. just when i got all used to shorts and flip-flops again. wtf. stupid weather, all cold in the winter and stuff...

---

Ali called... I'm the person she calls, it seems, when she has time to talk on the phone. *smile* She's got friends coming in from New England, so she's going to be out of touch for the weekend. Need to make a Houston field trip soon... lots of people to see. I can think of 3 or 4 people right off...

---

watched "Reservoir Dogs" and "Van Wilder", both for the first time today. (yes, I know i should have seen them both. I have now...) And, well, more than you know, I do now identify with Van Wilder. ( more on that here... )

---

this has turned out kinda long... heh. first entry in several days... I don't have a lot to say, that's very profound or anything. Part of the reason breaks like this are nice, is that I lose track of the day. I love that. I think I need to go to bed. i got all industrious and did my laundry today, which means now, dammit, i have to re-make the bed. and typing on here allows me to delay that. heheh...

---

This is a good song. It's a cover, and I can't place who sings it originally. *goes to look* Lynyrd Skynyrd. Hah, knew that sounded familiar. Thanks to ernunnos for showing me allmusic so that i could find out in one search.

Night, y'all.

so... talked to Ali for something like a hour tonight on the phone. Her truck, apparently, has decided the starter should go out. About 18 hours before she has to use it to pick someone up, and about 2 days before needing it for a trip.

She had such a bad day, in addition to that... it was terrible to laugh, but it was so absurdly bad...

And at any rate, it's nice to talk to her. One of those people that I like hearing her voice. (a lot.) *smile*

---

May throw a party later in the week... Anyone interested? I'm just looking for things to do. nothing going on, yo.

heheh... I'm having lunch and spending part of the afternoon with Hope tomorrow. Good stuff. Haven't seen her in a long time, and we don't get to talk much, so it'll be good to catch up.

(and maybe, in the time since we've last talked, she's become single...) </evil>

*jspurlin realizes, well after the fact, that once again, he managed to dodge a bullet...*

Crazy women abound. Eek.

I always like talking to certain people on the phone, even if just for a few minutes. *smile*

(and i can't wait to graduate, and get to Houston. that is all.)

woohoo! dinner with Alexis, sometime the middle of next week or so, when we both get back to College Station. *grin*

Good stuff...

*grin* yay to phone conversations.

it's weird, those reflex grins we get, when someone mentions that special someone...and you grin, despite yourself. heheh. And talking to them on the phone is good too. Now, to get there to see her, soon-ish...

man... short hair really is attractive on girls. heh.

(well, and overalls, but that's a whole other deal...)

So i'm in the other room, being all quiet, and I hear my phone ring with the "someone cute is calling" ring. (the number of people on this ringer-group fluctuates, and right now really is only meant for the girl who called tonight...)

And, man, it's nice to have a 45-minute conversation about... basically nothing, again. I like having those conversations. Something about just talking to someone...

It's hard to explain the concept of "whoop!" to someone... but it's fun to try. (<I've tried before, here) And there was a bunch of "shh i have to be quiet, everyone's asleep" from both of us, whenever we'd start laughing.

And we've got plans, whenever I manage to make it to south Houston again...

Happy Thanksgiving, y'all. I'm officially having a good one.

(big long post later today, inspired by someone else.)

Studying was actually productive. test in 8 hours, roughly. And hanging out with Blythe was fun, as usual. I like that.

And that's kinda the thing... I like her in that wanna-ask-her-out kind of way. but, i suck at this.

I know how to ask. It's sacking up enough to do it. That, I'm always bad at. this is the third time in... reasonably little time that I've done this "asking a girl out" thing, you'd really think I'd have it down. And I know how and all that... after the weekend, since we're both going to be gone.

And finding out little things... very entertaining.

Blythe thinks that Dr. Pepper, that nectar of the gods, "tastes like ass. cut up, fried, on a stick." I laughed so hard I'm glad we weren't moving. The people at whataburger, since this is Texas, assume that you want Dr. Pepper. and 99% of the time, they're correct. Whataburger and Dr. Pepper, what could be better? but she likes diet Dr. Pepper, for pete's sake. The sugar is half the reason to drink Dr. Pepper. the other half is that Dr. Pepper tastes awesome.

Anyone who disagrees.... you get out of my state. Right now.

She likes Shiner, though. I'll give her that. That too, is good stuff.

Bedtime, getting up in a few hours to finish studying. bah...

Studying turned into going to IHOP. Studied about half an hour, then sat and talked with Blythe for something like 3 and a half hours. That was really cool. Lots of stuff I was curious about... good deal. The more i talk to her, the more we seem to have in common.

---

heh. this test... I must study. sometime. reasonably soon, since the test is Friday.

eh...

---

and... hmmm. this may be more complicated than i thought.
what to do, what to do.

going to be helping Blythe with math tonight. Maybe I will get some (for real, honest) studying done. that's good stuff.

blah. raining outside. I think i'm going to have a beer and watch it...

class in a few minutes. yay.

Movie with Blythe tonight. yay, for real though. *smile*

---

My test on Friday will probably not be as hard as I previously thought.
that means the rest of the week will be all right.

---

I think the reason I like this song so much (it's lived on my MP3 player for months) is that the ending is almost exclusively violin. yep.

y'all have a good rest of your day...

talking to someone while watching TV, I think, is a really good way to get to know someone. You find out lots of different stuff, since TV is designed for people with short attention spans. Y'know, the "ooo, shiny!" demographic. So there are commercials that come up that you can have things in common with (hatred of the 'girls gone wild' commercial, for example), and there are things you have the polar opposite opinion on-- TV car-chase shows, for example... i like 'em. Her... not so much. *grin* And just chatting about nothing in particular is a good way to find stuff out about someone you don't know very well.

Yeah, we were gonna watch movies. that kinda fell through. turned out she came over and did crafty sorority-big-sis stuff and we watched TV. CSI, then random channel flippage, then a good chunk of Chris Rock's routine on Comedy Central.

good deal... now i need sleep.

idn't it cool how hearing one certain person's voice just makes you smile?

(yes, Blythe just called to say hey, just now...)

*grin*

Football game was good. WE WON. Reggie McNeal is nerve-wracking as a quarterback. but we won, 41-30. Gig 'em, Aggies!

Adrienne didn't go want to go to Yell last night; something came up with her classes and she was in a bad mood. Thus, I didn't go to yell either. This getting-stood-up-in-person-for-previous-plans shit has got to go; it's getting really old.

---

Bonfire cut was canceled this (saturday) morning, since it was raining like nuts. I'm insane, since i'm going to try to go tomorrow (Sunday, three hours from now at roughly 6AM) and go cut trees for 6 hours. aaaaaaa.

---

And Blythe should be back in town tomorrow. whoop. *smile*

---

my ticket to K's Choice is in Temple, waiting for me to pick it up. I'm going to go home this coming weekend and go get it. It'll be good to go home... going to a gun show with Daddy and that'll be fun. I like going home. amybe i'll actually get to shoot a little while i'm home. Haven't shot in a long time. hehehe.

AND-I-GET-TO-SEE-K'S-CHOICE-IN-EIGHT-DAYS. hahahahhahahahahahahah. awesome. hahaha.... I've waited like... eight years for them to come close enough I could go. Like, in this hemisphere. And I get to go in 8 days. I'm a bit twitchily excited...

and then in nine days --yeah, the day after K's Choice-- I go to Vienna Teng with Adrienne and her mom. yes, I know, meeting her one of her parents. I'm starting to get confused on the "females" situation, myself...

---

gah. sleep.

Blythe came over to watch movies and stuff last night... ended up that we played a bunch of Super Nintendo and had chips and queso. fun stuff. And then we watched about half of The Princess Bride, which according to Blythe is a "sexy" movie. heh.

It seems girls are more attentive to little details than i'd previously thought. (yes, i'm oblivious to some things, in some degree. Yes, this should be a foregone conclusion. I know.) I'm glad I cleaned as well as i did. i missed a little bit of my room, and I'm not gonna do that again... she noticed. eep. woops.

but last night was fun. I'm starting to figure out what kind of movies she likes, which is good. It's always a new thing, getting to know people from scratch... I like it.

hehehe...

But she's gone for the weekend... that's no good.

---

Going to Midnight Yell tonight. Game tomorrow. whoop.

*grin*

yeah, i've had a grin on my face all day. excited, yes.

hahah. went to see "Napoleon Dynamite" with Blythe tonight. it was funny. I thought it was going to be really strange. that was the case, but it was funnier than it was strange... so... good stuff. Blythe's doing homework, and I ought to...

but instead, we're chatting on AIM. yay productivity-killing-software.

*grin*

Going to the movies with Blythe tonight. good stuff. *grin* I love it.

well... that was a lot of fun. Blythe and I went to this place in downtown Bryan called Square One. Was a nice place to eat; she had something with parmesan and chicken and pasta, and I had a chipotle beef pasta dish. Ice cream for dessert. Talked a lot over dinner, random stuff, but it's nice to have someone you can keep a conversation going with.

Went to Hastings to rent a movie. She likes old movies, dislikes scary ones, and enjoys funny ones. Came back to my place, watched Super Troopers, then drove around for an hour or so and talked. Took her back to the sorority house at about 12:45, since the doors lock and she can't get in easily after 1:00.

Blythe's pretty cool. Small town east Texas (yes, she has an accent sometimes, *grin*). And she is distinctly not your stereotypical sorority girl. Good stuff. A good evening.

it's weird... no matter who i meet, who i get to know that's new and less complicated...

setting up dates with Adrienne still makes me grin.

*grin*

Apparently I'm meeting her parents in a couple weeks. hmmm. "Meeting parents" always kinda makes me nervous, even though it always seems to go well.

but hey, i'll be there. *grin*

---

Going to meet them at the Vienna Teng concert in Houston. whoop! that's two of her concerts we'll have been to see this year.

I love this year. So cool. And jesus, my hands hurt from chopping this past weekend. They'll be better by this Saturday, to go again. hahahaa.....

I do, indeed, have a date to Midnight Yell. Whoop! good stuff.

um... not a lot going on other than that... going to go study in a bit, after I take a nap. that will be good.