I'm Back.

So this past week was nuts. Moving was an ordeal, and the beach house weekend was just what I needed to unwind. I'm very tired and the new place is in shambles, so tonight I'll just give you the link to the weekend in pictures.

Moving Along

Well, I have been steadily plugging away at moving the past 4 days and I am nearing the end of the rainbow so to speak. My bed is over at the old place along with some kitchen shit and my food, but that's it. Everything else is in it's new place at the new residence. My cable got turned on today and I'm back on the internet with little problems. I even had time today to sort out that sticky Walmart business with the glasses situation and the Walmart in Evans, GA is in the process of getting me new specs and new sunglasses for a nice $300 price tag for the set.

Oh, the black cloud that exists over my head at all times did show it's face this morning when the cable man informed that the reason my HDTV doesn't show HD channels in HD has to do with the TV and not the cable company. Sweet. I bought the thing 10 months ago, never bothered to watch HD even though I pay for the extra special HD cable and now I find out it's fucked.

I have been harassing CompUsa as well about not getting me my desktop back for 5 weeks now. How fucking hard is it to put in a new hard drive? Idiots. Okay, I have more shit to unpack and put away so that's it for now.

By the way....2 days until my beach vacation! Hot tub here I come!

Mostly Moved

At this point, 6:30 PM on Sunday, I am moved out of the apartment and into the townhome. Eric came through with the pick up today and we made 2 trips. He's coming back Thursday night to help me haul my bed and one more bookshelf, so this week I'll be sleeping in the vacant apartment while unpacking over at the new place. Why you ask? One reason...Cable TV. I still have it here in the apt and not yet in the new place. Who can live without TV these days?

Syd was a big help today as well, carrying stuff with all those muscles we've developed at the gym of late. And her Volvo Wagon fit a nice amount of shit to cut down on trips. I'm exhausted, I think it was a hundred degrees today? But the concensus on the new place was good from my helpers, so I'm pumped about the move. The place is perfect for a roommate situation, so I think I may pursue that angle. However, it's nice to have all the room and to be in a position to afford it easily.

Fittingly enough I will end my stay in this place the way I started it. Sitting on the floor right now, chatting on my computer. Mattress is in the living on the floor in front of the TV. The place is sparce as hell. Ah, memories...

All Systems Go

Keys for the new place were acquired this morn and it's time to get my move on!

Plan for today: Pack, make a couple small trips over with junk. Pack some more. Go see American Dreamz to unwind.

Last night was a modest night, girl drinks with Syd and Tena who has shaken her illness, a brief stop at the Firehouse and a sideline view of an insane car wreck on Broad Street. Standing outside of a bar the 3 of us witnesses a car completely get air and flip over and land on it's roof in the middle of the street. It was completely out of a fucking movie or something. Insane.

I feel like poo today. Frigging frozen drinks are killing my insides. I'm shitting Slurpee today.

Nothing is Easy

Yesterday I made my scheduled appointment to pick up the keys to the new house and what do you know? Oh yeah, the woman isn't there. Unreal. I have to move this weekend, like literally I have no choice since I am out of town next weekend and I'm out of this place by 4/30 @ noon by law. So naturally this kind of shit just has to happen to me. I called from outside the office, left a frantic voicemail since I knew I couldn't get them today with me working and them closing up at 4 PM. Today at work I wait for a callback. And wait. And wait. Finally I call her at 3:30 and it's like she has no clue why I'm annoyed. "Oh I had an appointment at 5 PM so I left early yesterday."

Huh? You made an appointment with me at 5:30! She tells me that I can come over tomorrow between 9 and Noon to get the keys, no big deal. I said "you will definately be there between those hours?" The reply of "well call me ahead of time..." leaves me less than secure.

So assuming she is there, tomorrow I get my keys. And Sunday I excute the move with Eric and Syd at my side. I have done some packing, but honestly I cannot seem to light a fire under my ass to get organized. In fact, tonight I'm having Syd over for frozen blender drinks and she is gonna do her wash. I know I should be packing, but it's fucking hot and I need a frozen drink. And this week has been mega rough, see Walmart post, and I'm just spent. Tomorrow I will have all day to get shit together and I might even take some car trips on my own.

The weekend will be lowkey, but I do want to see a movie at some point. Syd's new man friend is in Costa Rica, Tena is sick and Joolie is working, so it's a me and Syd weekend. And that's fine by me since she is swell. Oh...that's her ringing my bell now. Ding-dong.

Fuck Walmart

So I finally had my straight up eye exam this morning and got my script for glasses. Remember I went to Walmart to get a replacement pair when my glasses broke a couple weeks back? Well, after work today I went by to grab the specs I liked and make it happen. The same chick who busted my balls last time I was there, "we can't sell you glasses without a recent prescription" was there and within 2 minutes was up my ass with "can I help you with anything?" Here's a fun fact: Don't ask me if I need help unless you are prepared to give it. I was ready to go in 5 minutes and had to wait 25 minutes for the jackoff she was assisting to wrap up his purchase in slo-mo. When all is said and done, 2 weeks later, prescription in hand, the chick says she has never heard of my eye coverage plan from work. This is despite the fact that I tell her the website listed on the back of the card will show you that Walmart accepts the coverage. Then she goes on to say that it might just be her inexperience since she has only been there a month, and asks me to come back tomorrow. So I flipped shit.

I yelled, something I rarely do in a public setting, and told her she was an idiot. I felt good telling her that she just lost a customer because she is a stooge. I'm not sure but I'm almost positive there's either an instruction manual she could consult or a manager she could call instead of making me sit for 30 minutes on my second fucking visit there only to deny me again. God damn I hate people some times.

American Idol Revisited

Several weeks ago I posted this as my prediction on the top 5 of American Idol:

1. Ace Young
2. Elliott Yamin
3. Katherine McPhee
4. Paris Bennett
5. Chris Daughtry

I went on to say this, Of course, these selections mirror who I think America will predicably vote in to the final 5 and not indicative of who I think should be there. My top guy is Taylor Hicks and my top gal is Kellie Pickler, but neither will make it all the way.

So in essence I mentioned 7 top finalists and what do you know...I went 7 for 7. Now here's the rub, I think tonight's show made it very hard to cut down to 6 because everyone showed up tonight. Except my girl Pickler who at least was humble and goofy by telling America that she butchered her selection. Sidenote: Boy did she!

As the show draws closer to the final 5, I thought I would throw out who I think will make the top 3 just to see if I can do it. Of course I get nothing for being right other than the status of American Idol nerd, but I'm so fucking competetive I have to make everything in my life a competition to even enjoy it. As a result....

1. Chris Daughtry
2. Katherine McPhee
3. Taylor Hicks

Oh, that's right. I have changed my tune on Taylor Hicks in that I think America is embracing him as a talented, yet strange fella and that he probably has more fans that Elliot and Ace at this point. It's honestly a Chris/Katherine contest at this point, but a top 3 showing by Taylor would give me hope that watching this show isn't a waste of time. I can honestly say while we are on the topic that I officially have McPheever. The girl is sexy, has some curves and a wonderful voice.

So Sad, or Is It?

I was reading an article in the new issue of PASTE magazine, if you like music I recommend this mag, it's better than the shitty Rolling Stone/Spin/Blender variety, and I'm confused about how I feel. One of my favorite bands Grandaddy has called it quits right before they release their 5th full length album in a couple weeks. Jason Lytle, the singer, laments that the decision was based on the 14 years committed to becoming "the next big thing" all the while never making a cent at music. Most of the members just tired of making music for the same fans and have taken up real jobs to pay the bills.

Now as a fan of the band, I'm sad to see them pack it in, but as a former starving musician I have to respect the decision to give up something you love to get control of your life. I made not one red cent for 6 years of my life, and although I didn't exactly appreciate what music I was making, I did enjoy the life. And then again, I frigging hated it. Not having a clue when you will get your next sum of money all the time can really dillute your sense of worth, and it's a rough life living on the road or in a house like a prisoner because you have no money to go anywhere.

Grandaddy make their mark in my mind. I became a fan. And I'm sad it's over. But the reality is that you can't make money doing music unless you are appealing to the 12 year old set anymore. 14 years is a lot of time to devote to experimental synth pop that will never get radio play. Not everyone gets to be Madonna.

In my case, I appear to have left my band right before the dividends were reaped, and so it would seem I lost out. I'm not convinced of that since here's a band that did great music for 14 years and never truly succeeded, and I was in a band that did terrible music and have moderately succeeded in Europe. Who really is the winner and who is the loser? All I can say is that for me, I would have preferred to remain part of a band no one knew outside of their intensely devoted fan base if it meant that I could really focus on making great music. But in all reality I would not have enjoyed being poor for 14 years.

And so it ends. So long Grandaddy.

Easter

Mike and Erika had a BBQ today to celebrate Easter, and by celebrate I mean drink. Horse shoes, beer, burgers...not exactly what I am used to for Easter, but I'm also not sure I've ever had 90 degree weather on Easter in my life. I had a swell time. Even though I'm not in 1 photograph. Click the photo or the title of this post to see the day in pictures.

Inside Man

I spent the early part of my Easter going to see the latest Spike Lee joint Inside Man. I'm a sucker for heist movies like Oceans 11 and Italian Job, so my interest was there. I was however suprised by just how much I enjoyed this movie. Spike Lee's influence could be felt at times, his camera tricks and the sprinkling of racially charged dialogue, but not enough to deter me from watching. Here's my thoughts about the killer casting.

Denzel Washington is a really good actor. It's easy to say he's a good black actor, but I think that's kind of shitty considering I am white. At this stage of his career, I will see anything the guy does on the basis that I find him to be very talented and one of the more charismatic actors of this generation. When he teams with Spike Lee, he always delivers and his take on this crafty NYC detective is some of his best work in the last couple of years.

Clive Owen plays a good villian. It was great to see Clive move into playing a villian without going the superhero movie route. Clive has always impressed me, but now I like him even more. He makes being bad seem cool....but not ruthless or stupid.

Jodie Foster is hot. My God. I know she is probably a dyke and is older than my usual tastes, but she exudes a sexual energy in this role in this movie like I've never seen from her. Some old guy calls her a cunt in the movie and she loved it, so it was interesting to see her play a nasty broad for a change. And the chemistry between her and Denzel is surprising, Spike filmed their scenes as if they have no room and as a result they are in each other's face and it works.

If you like the double cross thriller, then this one is not goint to disappoint. Especially since it has a better cast than most fare of this variety.

I No Longer Want My MTV

Okay, I spent some time this morning watching some music videos before I had to head out to work and I have some issues I would like to bring up.

1. Bow Wow is now a thug? This kid is sporting platinum teeth and has a song that is straight up dirty south junk. I saw Roll Bounce, so I know this kid is an actor. Fake Thug might not be the best direction to head Bow.

2. Hilary Duff is the new Karen Carpenter. The girl is dying before our eyes and we do nothing. And what kind of world would this be without Hilary's songs? Benji please feed that bitch.

3. Hawthorne Heights. These kids have a video that I cannot figure out. I feel retarded. And the song just sucks. I am denouncing my emo-ness immediately as a result. The end is nigh.

Lame Day

Today I just felt off. Sure I did my taxes finally, I went to a photo exhibit to see some of Tena's work on display here in town and I got some food shopping done, but honestly I feel like I accomplished nothing. I don't know why, but lately I am having problems with following through on stuff. I guess I could have packed some stuff today for the impending move. Or I could have finished the wash I started 3 days ago.

Here's a nice for instance...

I got a letter in the mail today that my license in Georgia will be suspended in two weeks. All because I'm too lazy to mail off my speeding ticket with a money order. I guess I am fortunate that I paid some bills that just happen to be due tomorrow and Saturday so I could avoid late fees.

Oh well, here's a pretty photo I took today.

Tax

Ah, April 15th you stare me in the face. So yeah, I finally decided to sit down and file the old taxes on my mid-week day off. This year I was lucky to have to file taxes in 3 states as well as the Fed, so you can see why I put it off so long. Not to mention that I eyeballed the federal return a couple months back and noticed I had to pay, so why rush? Well as per usual, the joke turns out to be on me.

I went to the Georgia government website to see how to file my taxes in my new home state and came across this link for free tax prep sponsored by the government if you make between 10 and 50 grand a year. Okay, you got me curious. So in completing all the information rather easily into their website, I was able to file for all 4 returns in like 20 minutes. 2 of them were free to E-File direct from the site (Fed and GA) and they gave me print outs for SC and PA returns for free as well. But that's not even the best part...

Somehow this Tax Engine jawn figured out a return for me from both South Carolina (a lot of relocators who live in Georgia were telling me they got returns...but the figure is higher than expected from a state return.) and the Fed. No payment needed this year by me is music to my fucking ears. I'm only getting a pathetic $74 back from Uncle Sam, but I'll take it.

When all is said and done, I spent 20 minutes of my precious time, 2 days before the deadline and manage to earn myself about $350. Sweet relief.

Things I Think I Want...

I am reminded of a lyric by the great Mason Jennings as I attempt to jot down some wants haphazardly and shit.

I don't know what I want, but I know where I want to be.

Deep. Well, I feel the opposite now. I feel like I know what I want, but I don't know where I want to be. Don't get me wrong, I am happy where I am in life, regarding my job and location, I'm thinking more like where I want to be in life. Crap. Here I go again getting all off the topic of this post...screw it. Here's my list of wants:

1. A tattoo. I've been trying to get Joolie to whip me up a design giving her only the direction that it feature a scorpion, but she is either so fucking lazy, like beyond comprehension lazy, or scared to be responsible for something permanent on my body coming from her hands and mind. In any case, I'm struggling with the scorpion thing anyway myself these days. I'm way into astrology and the scorpion represents that part of me. It also could represent my mother who was a Scorpio as well. My grandmother (deceased/paternal) was also a Scorpio, so I could throw that in there too. But it just seems cliche to me, a fucking star sign tattoo. So I started thinking maybe the scorpion is fighting something, that would make it look different. I was riffing on ideas of how I could incorporate other people into the concept so I could forever be reminded of them in addition to my deceased relatives, but then things got crazy and the tattoo idea became like a giant scorpion fighting a squid on the cover of a science book located on a table featuring beakers and shit you find in a lab with one bottle on shelf labeled poison...whoa, whoa, whoa...perhaps this is too ambitious for a first tattoo I started to worry. And here I am still yearning for some ink, but completely confused as to what I could get that would make me proud to have it. And maybe even pay respect to some important people.

2. A real vacation. My upcoming trip to Tybee Island will be great, but the reality is that a 3 day weekend is nothing. And it would be nice to go somewhere for 4, 5, 6 days and not have to worry about money, work, all the normal shit that keeps us busy as beavers most of the time. I'd love to jet over to Nashville or down to Orlando, something kind of cheesy, but perhaps fun. Or dare I say a summer's end trip to somewhere tropical? The idea has been talked about aloud...

3. The ability to do sit ups. I've been hitting the gym hard lately, 5 and 6 days a week and the results are starting to show thankfully, but I still struggle with doing sit ups. It's a combination of my back being a mess and my gut not quite playing fair with the process of performing the sit up. I tried this inverted bench thing at the gym today, barely made it through 20 sit ups and had to basically roll off the damn thing when I was done. And my stomach hurts bad from doing those 20 tonight. I know, baby steps. As long as I keep at it I'm sure it will come. I'll tell you what, I don't mind people telling me I look good. That's something I can get used to hearing.

4. A roommate. I'm going through that phase again where I loathe the silence of living alone. I am moving into the new place in a couple weeks and it does feature two bedrooms. Maybe the time is ripe to find someone to try their hand at tolerating me and my incessant chattiness and penchant for horrible television shows? The idea of reducing my rent to under $300 a month for a nice townhouse is staring me in the face, I just need to find the right victim, er I mean roommate.

5. A real haircut. Tonight I informed Sydney that I was going to spring for a real haircut tomorrow on my day off. And I might actually stick to that plan. I have gone a year without a real haircut. A year! I've had two cuts in that time, both by non-professionals and both basically mohawk variations. Since I'm dying my grays anyway, I might as well go the whole way and get a trim by a real stylist. Yeah I said dye...deal with it.

End Game

Today is one of those unexpected days where you get hit with something that you could have never prepared yourself for. I recall when my mother became sick and we were told that she would never wake up from her coma, utter fucking shock. You feel helpless and confused. You try to scream but instead hang with mouth agape and soak it all in. Let the sadness wash over you slowly and consume you completely.

Today a girl I thought I loved attempted suicide. And I honestly don't know how to react to it. Do I make a joke because she was kind of crazy and most folks think she is a loon? Do I brush it off since she isn't my worry anymore? Do I even give a shit at all since basically she fucked me over and I was trying so hard to help her? Do I blame myself for not trying hard enough to help her?

Recently she jumped off a bridge into the Savannah River and when she survived claimed she was just going swimming. When I first met her she had just gotten out of the hospital after an attempted overdose of pills. So this event today would mark the 3rd attempt on her life since I met her in June of last year. Can you imagine the fucking sadness that she has to want to keep doing this? Can you imagine the depths of her inability to cope with life? It so sad to me that a 20 year old can't find the strength to just give life a go.

I cannot understand why someone who has such potential would down a bottle of Xanax instead of enjoying life. Yeah, life blows sometimes, but death blows worse. Like I said, I'm not sure how to process this at all. All I can really say is that I'm in shock.

Word on the street is that she is in Intensive Care now. When she wakes up, I sincerely hope this time she gets help and fixes whatever is broken.

Slither

I had basically no expectations for the movie Slither, Syd chose it and we recruited Tena to come with us. I was pleasantly suprised...it's pretty funny in a Shaun of the Dead kind of way. Sure, it's gross and all, but the humor was strong enough to down play the gross bits. I laughed a lot, most of the time at Tena's crazy laugh, but sometimes at the actual witty dialogue.

So yeah, go see this shit. It's good.

Japanese Steak House

Yesterday was a pretty crappy day here, lots of rain. I think the Master's had some serious delays as a result, but considering I am not keeping up on the goings on in that department, I woud be merely guessing. I am pretty sure you don't play golf in thunderstorms though, and we had a terrible one around noon yesterday.

My day started out promising enough, I immediatly hit the gym upon getting out of bed and came home showered and got back out on the road. A new friend of mine, Erika, who is dating a guy I met when I first moved here named Mike, was celebrating her 27th Birthday yesterday. As a result, I was invited to join them for a nice dinner at a place called Miyabi's which is a Japanese Steak House/Sushi Bar. We had a nice group of people assembled, Nikki (Erika's best friend), Karen and Greg, Mike and Erika and Joolie and Eric. Since it's rude to show up empty handed, I spent some time looking for a cool gift to give her. I finally settled on a gift card to Barnes and Noble since she likes to read a bunch, and I think that was a good call. During my search I went by PJ's Coffee House twice to grab a cup and perhaps speak with Tena since I hadn't seen her since we had dinner last Sunday, but the first time I was there she wasn't on yet and the place was dead and the second time I came by the place was LOADED with Master's folks and she couldn't even speak to me for more than a minute she was so busy. Oh, I am pretty sure the first time in there some of the partons were actual goflers in the tournament, but I am horrible at recognizing golfers unless it's Tiger, Phil Mickelson, Ernie Ells, Vijay Signh or someone equally as famous. The guys were bantering about there performance the prior day and didn't look poor, so I am making a guess here that they were somewhat famous in that world.

Dinner was pretty fun, although we made it more fun than the cook did. Traditionally at these steak houses you get a wacky show while the guy is preparing your food, but we have comatose cook who didn't really showboat too much. Might have been that we were drinking, might be the lack of children at our table, not sure. We had a lively conversation and I think Erika quite enjoyed her birthday dinner, so we brought our own fun to the place instead of having it manufactured for us.

After dinner we all rolled back to Eric and Joolie's house for a little night cap until they had to hit the sheets. Then the remaninder of us went to the bar in town which was modestly crowded despite the Masters in town. I guess the bar looks shady enough to keep out the polo shirt crowd. I bored of the evening around midnight and made my way home.



The series.

Chest Tattoo

Joolie's Bitter Sweet tat.

(taken at work today)

The Freakin' Weekend

Tonight is 1st Friday, a big deal here in town, and naturally it's bigger with the Masters going on down the street. We all know what that means for me...staying put inside my apartment waiting for it to all pass. The crowds on 1st Friday are usually enough to make me sick, so I can't imagine what it will be like tonight. I've had a shitty week anyway, and I have been feeling like junk from this allergy situation. Staying in won't kill me.

Tomorrow I have some dinner plans with friends and some errands to attend to. Might have some coffee, definately hitting the gym up for some workout action. Especially considering I won't be hungover tomorrow, might as well take advantage of that rare weekend situation.

Sunday, according to Sydney, has become "our" day, so we will probably go see Slither and eat some dinner together. It's nice having her make time for me, especially considering that her door is literally being beaten down by men now that she is officially single.

Three weeks from today I will be heading to Tybee Island for the weekend. Man, I need it so bad. Hot tubs, Pina Coladas and nothing to do...

Not 100%

Today I found out I have choroidal melanoma in my right eye. This after tons of testing, x-rays, massaging, prodding, eye drops and 3 plus hours of sitting in a doctor's office. Apaprently the mention to my family doctor of some spotty vision I was experiencing back in early January prompted him to make me a referral to a retina specialist. Here I thought I was going in for a routine eye exam and with my glasses breaking last night, I thought how perfect. No such luck. Instead, I got no prescription for glasses, and I have to wait two weeks to get an eye exam now, but an ultrasound that will be looked over with my x-rays to determine the severity of the situation. Yeah for me.

In the meantime, I grabbed some crazy glue, put my glasses back together with a skull and crossbones band aid as support on the corner and decided to look up choroidal melanoma. That should take the edge off of my allergies turning into a full blown cold of sorts the past 24 hours no?

Choroidal melanoma is a primary cancer of the eye. It arises from the pigmented cells of the choroid of the eye and is not a tumor that started somewhere else and spread to the eye. Malignant means that the tumor is a cancer which may metastasize, that is, spread to other parts of the body. Although some choroidal melanomas are more life-threatening than others, almost all should be treated as if they were malignant.

Fucking cancer of the eye?!?! For real? Guess I can't do anything but wait to see if it's malignant or not. It's not like it was something I could prevent. I asked. Just shitty luck is all.

For now, I am too busy sucking on cough drops and blowing my nose to worry too much about the diagnosis, but it did find it blog worthy. Much more so than So Notorious on VH1, which by the way is horrid. In my weakened condition I did not go to the gym today and I feel lousy for not going. Can't tell if that's a good thing or not.

My Life Sometimes Stinks

How funny is it that you can go to a post called Happy to a post called this in like 4 days? The last two days have been anything but fun. My allergies are killing me, apparently the pollen here is 10 times worse than up North. Now my fucking glasses broke on top of having to sneeze all the time. Tomorrow I'm off from work to go hit up ironically enough, the eye doctor followed by a visit with a nutritionist. I guess I'll be spending the afternoon shopping for glasses...I have the broken pair rigged with some skull and cross bone band aids and it's a piss poor job to say the least. I just killed a fucking tarantula sized spider in my apartment with my Doc Marten boot and scuffed the wall up pretty bad...not doing much to get that security deposit back am I?

Let me make it through the week...please.

Oh did I mention that it's Masters Week here in Augusta? It's not the Mardi Gras that everyone says it is at this point, but the town has become a wee bit strange the last couple of days. Traffic is slightly heavier, strange men are holding up signs asking for Practice Round Tix in the style of the Will Work For Food look and my gym today was empty. No seriously, I was there alone at the gym. Me and Dorothy the girl who works there. She informed me that most locals actually take vacation this week or barricade themselves in their houses. Strange. Sydney and I are driving separately to work this week since we live on opposite sides of the golf course and the congestion of traffic takes place between us, as such I am hitting the gym alone this week. And man does it suck. I need someone there with me or else I get bored easy. But I think she is happy to not have to go this week anyway since she is heating up things with a new man in her life. Yep, there goes another of my friends finding Mr. Wonderful here in the Augusta. It sucks having shitty luck with women. Especially when you start to become the odd man out...which will eventually happen.

Like I said, it's funny to go from Happy to this in a couple days. Not funny ha-ha, funny sad.

Photos from Saturday Night

Ah, the South. Only here would you find someone with a mouth tattoo that says Grits. This is Lauren, a girl from Columbia, SC that was at my apartment on Saturday night. To see more, click the photo or the title of this post.

Chow

I'm rediscovering a lost passion of mine in cooking lately and tonight I put together a sweet and delicious menu for Sydney and Tena. Italian Baked Salmon, Fresh Green Beans with Almonds in a Dijon Sauce and Mashed Potatoes was the dish and boy was it tasty. I had never eaten Salmon, let alone cook it, but the ladies said I did a fantastic job. Yeah for me.

I love making food for people. It's so fun to whip up a dinner party and just hang out on a beautiful Sunday evening. Today it went up to 83 degrees and I spent the majority of it indoors, so relaxing on the balcony was a great way to cap off a pretty good meal and weekend.

Er, I think I neglected to talk about last night. So yeah, I wasn't going to do anything since today I had a full agenda. Sydney and I went to see The Hills Have Eyes and then hit the gym for a couple hours today, so the plan was to just meet up with Eric for one drink and possibly some food around 10 PM last night. So, I wandered over the Firehouse bar a little before and decided to grab a special since I was only having 1 drink (maybe 2) and plopped down $4 for a pint of Long Island Ice Tea.

Well, 1 turned into 2 turned into 4, soon enough I had found myself at another bar watching this crazy punk band The Decrepits and getting a little punch drunk. After the bars closed down, a couple of folks from Columbia and some other locals decided to bring a keg back to my place and we partied until the sun came up. I'm impressed that even with my wicked hangover today, I managed to still go out and accomplish what I needed to. And I cooked a fucking amazing dinner.

Art Exhibit Photos

I only took a couple shots last night, but here's the piece I was featured in. Click the image or the title of this post to see the rest.

Happy

Tonight I am happy. Why?

I put down my deposit on the new abode and I should be getting the keys on 15th of April. This gives me a sense of relief, and I'm very excited to start anew here in Augusta. The change of scenery will hopefully do me good.

I drove out about an hour to Louisville, GA to see an art exhibit tonight after work. My friend Tena had a couple of pieces in the show, one featuring my ugly mug, so it was kind of thrill to be part of it. Sydney and I ventured out there to support Tena and had a very delightful car ride both ways in which the conversation ran the gamut. The last few weeks have been a really good time, I'm getting closer to Sydney and Tena and taking our friendship to another level. Syd has helped me with my quest to be a better person, letting me know when I'm an asshole, listening to my whining and forcing me to stay with the gym stuff. It's finally hit me that because I have so many sisters and I miss them immensely, I am "creating" sisters with Joolie, and now Sydney and to some extent Tena. These girls are very special to me, and I enjoy spending time with them, learning about their love lives and giving them my opinion perhaps a little too often and a little too honestly. I take comfort in being around them, and that makes me happy.

I am not dreading working tomorrow. In fact, I have a lot to accomplish and Saturdays are the perfect catch up days for me since no one who works for me will be there. It's not the best way to spend a Saturday, but I'm okay with it.

I'm anxious to have a good Sunday. The plan is to hit up The Hills Have Eyes, go to the gym and then make a delicious meal consisting of Salmon Steaks, Green Beans and Mashed Potatos for Syd, Tena and myself to munch on. These dinner get togethers are quickly becoming traditional and I'm cool with that. I love to cook, and they love to eat. A marriage made in heaven.

Well, there are a few reasons for the sudden happiness bug. Spring ahead tomorrow...I'm ready for it.