The Life & Times of B

Where to begin...?

2006-01-06T02:45:00.000-08:00

It has been quite some time since I last wrote in here, and for that I apologize. However, that isn't the reason for the title of this entry.

My cousin Josh died tonight, from an apparent suicide.

For those of you that don't know, other than my immediate family, he was the family member I was closest to. I really can't remember the last time I cried this much. Although we aren't blood related (his grandma married my grandpa ~6 years ago, but they've been together since I can first remember), he was 16 days older than me and our close proximity in age meant we ALWAYS hung out together whenever I was in Othello. He was my only cousin that was my age, and we were pretty much inseparable. Once we got the freedom of drivers licences, we would always cruise "the L" in town, hang out with his friends, or head on up to Moses (Lake), all the while causing trouble. Even though he was slightly older, I graduated a year before him. He came over to my graduation, met a bunch of my friends, and went to a graduation party down the street. A year later, I watched his and his friends' graduation ceremony and went to a few of their parties (even the senior class one at the bowling alley before my other cousin Shannon and I were kicked out). He was there and helped me when I moved to WSU for my freshman year. Whenever I was spending the night in Othello, I always stayed at his house even though my grandparents live about a mile away. We'd always stay up late talkin about or doing who knows what. The last time I saw him was the day after Christmas... I had spent Christmas night at his house and true to our style, we were up late BSing. He called and left a message for me (my phone never rang) on New Years, but when I called him back his phone was off. Now, I'll never get the chance again.

The worst part about it is that I NEVER saw it coming. Granted, I don't get to see him much since we're normally 2-3 hours away from each other, but I just saw him 10 days ago and he seemed so happy. He had just installed a new $200 clutch in his "new" car that he was really excited about... we went and bought an adapter that turns a jumpdrive into an mp3 player for his car stereo... he had a stable full-time job working for his dad... he had a girlfriend who he seemed happy with. And now: nothing. I don't know what happened since then, but now my family has lost a beloved grandson, son, brother, and cousin, and on top of that I have lost a close friend. I feel so helpless for his family... I stayed with them so much they are like my second family. Behind the house in Pullman for school and my mom's new house in Spanaway, their home was literally my third house. I'm going to stop there for quite some time on Saturday on my trek back to school, but it's going to be the saddest trip of my life. I have this strange and discomforting feeling that everytime they see me, they're going to see Josh too. Holy crap it's gonna be hard...

To make matters worse, this past year has been pretty bad for my family. First, back in the beginning of March, my Uncle Scott collapsed in his apartment and was VERY close to dying. Fortunately, his daughter Kendall was there to call the paramedics. Unfortunately, he spent the next 30+ days in the ICU and underwent NUMEROUS surgeries to fix internal organ damage that apparently stemmed from his drinking and smoking. He then spent time in a nursing home, and wasn't able to come home until July. He then stayed with my grandpa in Othello until the end of November, and has been staying with my mom since. THEN, a couple weeks ago, he was feeling really weak so my mom took him into the ER. They diagnosed him with diabetes, and he had a blood sugar level of over 700. (FYI: around 10o is normal, and 800 results in diabetic coma). After a few days in the hospital, they got his blood sugar under control and now he has to take insulin shots and, like my mom (who has a less severe case of diabetes), monitor his blood sugar levels. Shortly after my uncle's problems started, my "cousin" Al (on my dad's side, I'm not exactly sure of how we're related) died in his sleep on March 26th at the age of 77. The summer and beginning of fall were mostly uneventful... until October/November. Shortly after being diagnosed with cancer, my grandpa's wife's mother (Josh's great-grandmother) died after suffering a collapsed lung. Then on Veteran's Day (Nov. 11th), my aunt's best-friend's husband died while driving his motorcycle to work after an SUV turned in front of him in Seattle. I've known him most of my life as well... and at the age of 43, he left behind a loving wife (Judy) and two adorable daughters. Needless to say, we were hoping for a better 2006.

I got this from a friend a while back, and now is as good a time as any to share it with you:

If I knew it would be the last time, I'd see you fall asleep, I would tuck you in more tightly and pray the lord your soul to keep. If I knew it would be the last time that I'd see you walk out the door, I would give you a hug and a kiss and call you back for one more. If I knew it would be the last time I'd hear your voice lifted in praise, I would videotape each action and word and play them back day after day. For surely there's always tomorrow to make up for an oversight, and we always get a second chance to make everything seem right. There will always be another day to say our, "I love you's," and certainly another chance to say our, "anything I can do's." But just in case I might be wrong and today is all I get, I'd like to say how much I love you and I hope we never forget. Tomorrow is not promised to anyone young or old alike, and today may be the last chance you get to hold your loved ones tight. So if you're waiting for tomorrow, why not do it today? For if tomorrow never comes, you'll surely regret the day. That you didn't take that extra time for a smile, a hug or a kiss, and you were too busy to grant someone what turned out their one last wish. So hold your loved ones close today and whisper in their ear, that you love them very much and you'll always hold them dear. Take time to say, "I'm sorry," "please forgive me," "thank you, or "it's okay" and if tomorrow never comes, you'll have no regrets about today.

Rest In Peace Josh. I'll never forget you cuz.

This is for Ryan:

2005-11-22T00:00:00.000-08:00

STOP KILLING MY FRIENDS! You Myspace Phantom you. You'll get an update over Winter Break... if I don't do it then, you have my permission to resume your activities until I do update it.

Finally hit 10

2005-08-30T21:36:00.000-07:00

So, since I've had such tremendous outpouring of support for this blog (aka: 10 different people left a comment), y'all can expect a nice long entry sometime in the near future (but not too near because I do have schoolwork to do and I'm a slow blog writer).

Can I get a w00t w00t?

Psst...

2005-08-22T00:00:00.000-07:00

Hey you...

Yeah, you...

IT'S MY BIRTHDAY!!!

In other news, I'm thinking about writing a post recapping the events of my life since the last update, but to do that, I'm gonna need to see some comments from EVERYONE that checks this with some frequency. I'm talkin, at least 10 people. If I don't get more than that, I'm probably going to stop using this thing entirely, because it honestly feels like I'm writing in here for Ryan (since he's pretty much the only once that comments, which I love him dearly for), and he already knows everything that's in here. So... yeah.
Oh, and if I catch anyone using aliases, checking this in the future would be incredibly futile as well. (When people lie = big pet peeve of mine)

House Update

2005-07-15T00:37:00.000-07:00

Before I begin, a quick update on the house situation:
Ours: SOLD
New one: PURCHASED

So yeah... we found out on Sunday (the 10th) that the buyers had agreed to buy our house for list price. So that means, our house sold in ONE WEEK. Just another example of how crazy the market currently is.

Because of that, we spent Sunday afternoon looking at a couple houses... one of which had an indoors hot tub and a couple sun rooms but needed some work done on the walls, and the other was in great condition and a very nice house. My mom was very excited about the 2nd one and decided to put in an offer on it, but we found out the next day that someone else had put in a bid $5000 over list price... and she couldn't go there (financially). So... she spent much of this week looking online for more houses and printing out the listings and such.

Yesterday morning (Wednesday), she calls and wakes me up to ask if I want to come check out another house that's about 6-7 minutes away. I reluctantly agreed... and wasn't all that impressed with it. We left there, and decided to go look at another one nearby... only to find out that it had already been sold. So... having nothing else to do, I came back home. A few hours later, my mom calls me and tells me she's gonna look at a house in Classic View (it's a gated neighborhood really close to my high school), that had only been on the market for 2 HOURS! I get another call a short while later, telling me she loved the house and was planning on putting in an offer on it. We found out last night, that they had accepted our offer! That means, that their house was only on the market A FEW HOURS! INSANE!

So yeah... since I hadn't seen it yet, I drove by there today to check it out. I had a little problem with finding it (cuz the street that was listed online doesn't exist), but I talked to the neighbor across the street and even the homeowners... and they were all VERY nice people. I'm excited to move in now. Anywho... I thought ahead and brought my camera... so that means pictures for you loyal readers. Here ya go :)

The front of the house

The kitchen

The large, dual-level back deck

The path between a couple rose gardens on the side of the garage

Whatcha think?

Going for the record books...

2005-07-08T01:40:00.000-07:00

Okay, so our house has been on the market since Sunday (July 3rd), right? We've already had 5 different couples come look at the house (one M, T, W, and 2 today)... and the second couple today made us an offer that is 98.3% of the list price (I don't want to reveal how much that is cuz I don't know if mum will like that...).

FOUR DAYS after it went on the market and we already have a pretty solid offer, if you ask me. I'm encouraging my mom to take it... so that I 1) can help pack/move MY/our crap (I actually kinda like doing that), 2) will have something to do other than yardwork for the next few weeks, 3) will get high-speed internet, and 4) won't have to worry about leaving every frickin time someone wants to come look at the house (that's SOOOO annoying). We'll see how things turn out in the next few days though...

And, as for my Independence Day...

I started it off by going to my friend Bryant's house for a BBQ, then we played some Xbox and just hung out. At about 7:30, I headed over to Shannon's aunt's house in Spanaway for a country themed partay. Of course, I was all decked out in my new cowboy hat and new dancing shirt (Whatcha think?). Shannon's aunt, who was a little trashed by the time I got there, absolutely LOVED my "outfit" and seriously offered me a shot of some sorta alcohol within a couple minutes of my arrival.

The party was pretty fun though... we played a game of "backyard" volleyball, there was a "horse" in the backyard (it's was a few bales of hay with a saddle on top, as seen in my picture), and of course, lots of fireworks. Not only did I get to hang out with my good friend Shannon again, but my friend Nick (who I've known since 1st grade) was there cuz he knew Shannon's cousin, and I got to know Lauren (Shannon's best friend and maid of honor) and John (Shannon's fiancee). They're some cool kids... I can see why she likes them.

It was a low-key 4th, as far as me and fireworks are concerned (compared to years past), but still A LOT of fun.

Now, if we could only work on our terrorist relations to eliminate future happenings of today's events... :(

So true...

2005-07-02T15:36:00.000-07:00

Sometimes a friend will ask me if I want to get together. Me, being a person who thrives on relationships with other persons and yet has related with hardly anyone so far this entire summer, am generally happy to oblige and respond in the affirmative.

But then comes the dreaded question. "So, what do you want to do?"

Nobody wants to answer that question. My problem is that I'm most happy when I'm spending quality time with people. And quality time can mean anything, from the planned outdoor activity to laying on the floor and staring at the ceiling for a few hours. I appreciate being in the presence of people that I care about and I want them to be happy. What we're doing truly has little bearing on how I feel about the situation.

This lends itself to a problem, however. Because my response has a habit of being something along the lines of, "Oh, I don't really care, what are you in the mood for?" I think that, to many people, this kind of response tends to convey the idea that I am uninterested or don't really want to spend time with the person. If I can't even come up with something I'd like to do, I can't really care if the interaction takes place at all, right?

Wrong. Dead wrong. Absolutely brimming over with wrongability. The fact is that the context of quality time means so little to me that I would rather leave the decision up to people who might be more affected by it. I just think that it puts a lot of people off when I don't care about the setting or the activity as much as the fact that I'm just spending time with people.

Those are the words of my dear friend Ryan Scott Douglas (there's a link to his blog on the right, in case you didn't know), and they couldn't be more true for myself as well. That's not such a good thing, considering many of the people that I spend most of my time with are the same way... but oh well. It's the quality time that matters, right?

Anyways... I don't really enjoy writing a recap of my life's events, nor do I have time to actually write it, so my posts are likely to be few and far between. I'd expect one sometime soon about moving (as in, houses) though... since that's what's currently transpiring.

I'm going to alter the GUESSING GAME for this entry, and make it a "GIVE ME A NICKNAME GAME." You should be able to figure out what to do...

Oh, and this is for Peter: If we could just keep the comments more appropriate from now on, that'd be great...

All right!

Change

2005-05-28T21:30:00.000-07:00

A photograph never grows old. You and I change, people change all through the months and years, but a photograph always remains the same. How nice to look at a photograph of mother or father taken many years ago. You see them as you remember them. But as people live on, they change completely." -Albert Einstein.

Lately, I have noticed that last sentence to be more and more true. And I'm not sure it's change in a good way (although, what is meant by "good" is subjective).

Some friends no longer resemble the people I remember them as, for whatever reason... and it's something that honestly saddens me. It's tough to see those close to you change into people you never thought they'd be. And it's even worse when it's someone you're interested in or involved with romantically, but realize that they have changed into someone that is no longer appealing as a spouse.

It's really hard to hear about friends that used to vow to live sober lives but have turned into alcoholics and partiers. I'm not trying to disrespect those people who live that lifestyle, but it's just not for me. I could go on for hours why... but we'll just leave it at this: the logic behind it doesn't make sense to me.

Similar to this is how people change because of relationships, whether that be while they're in one or after it's over (I know I'm guilty of this). It may be because of personality dispositions or control issues or whatever, but I just feel helpless when people change (for the worse) into someone they aren't. I've witnessed this numerous times with friends who were/are in bad relationships and 1) is one of the worst feelings out there, and 2) makes me want to severely injure their spouse/ex. (I'm kinda protective of those I care about, in case you couldn't tell)

Change is a natural process in everyone's life, including my own, and is required for progress. However, not all changes are improvements.

I ask of all of you that if you notice a negative change in me, do not hesitate in confronting me about it. I like to think of myself as having a good understanding of who I am and what I want, but I know I'm far from perfect. I'm always open to suggestions of ways to make myself a better person and friend.

A somewhat boring but great week

2005-05-13T23:44:00.000-07:00

Where to begin? I think I'll start with the winner of the last guessing game: Peter. The real answer was 44 pages, but had all of it been double spaced, it would've been around 60! While I'm on the subject of school, I earned a 3.93 this semester. Those of you that know how much homework I had probably realized that I specifically chose the word "earned" and not other synonyms like "got" or "received." This semester SUCKED, but I pulled out A's in all my classes (even bowling, which is mostly pass/fail) aside from Social Psychology (A-). It's kinda strange how I took more credits this year (31; which included 2 lab sciences, english, and five 300 level classes) than last year (28; all intro classes), yet got better grades (3.88 all last year, 4.0 and 3.93 this year). Next semester should be interesting though, with my first semester of Chinese and all.

Anywho... onto what I've been doing since the last update.

Wednesday (5/4): Had a group presentation (from 8-10 am) as my last "final." Went home and started packing/rearranging my room, then went and sold back most of my books... I still have a social psychology book if anyone is looking for a good read, lol. I then went bowling with Peter, Ben, Steven, and Matt... good times even though I sucked hardcore. Now, both knuckles on my right ring finger (the one I'm supposed to put in the ball) are sore and wayyy bigger than they're supposed to be, so I couldn't even put my finger in my ball if I tried (unless I wanted it to hurt real bad, of course). Anywho... on the way back I stopped off and said bye to Erica and Stefanie in WD. Later that night, I ended up hanging out with/saying bye to Shannon, Katy, and Stephanie, Laura, and Dani too.

Thursday (5/5): Woke up at 7 am and left for home at 8. Why so early, you ask? Because I had been telling people back home that I was coming home on Friday, and wanted to surprise them. The first person I was planning on surprising was Jessica (my senior ball date who came and visited me at school a month ago). I was planning on waiting for her at her car when school got out at 2 pm, thus why I needed to leave so early. The drive over wasn't bad... made a stop in Othello to say hi to my grandma Char, and made a quick phone call to my grandpa Mel. Anywho... got back to Bethel in time, and was sitting out on the hood of her car for like 15 minutes after school... but no Jess. Finally, I go inside and try looking for her. No success. Then I call her... no answer. She calls me back a few minutes later, upon which time I find out she's in Seattle with her friends cuz it was Senior Skip Day! DANG! With my cover blown, I tell her that I'm back in town and was going to surprise her... I don't think it had quite the same effect, but she still thought it was sweet. After that, I went out and hung out in the dugout (I knew like half the guys on the team and the coaches) while the Bethel baseball team demolished their district rival, Spanaway Lake. I then decided to head on back to my friend/neighbor Adam's house (who also was under the impression I'd be home Friday). I kinda got a little scare out of him cuz he was trying to sleep when I burst into his room... he thought I was his dad coming to yell at him, lol. After that came the best reaction of all though.
My mom called me while I was at Adam's to tell me that I had a fine for dropping my forensic bio class, and that I should "take care of it before I leave tomorrow" (Friday). Well... the phone kept cutting out since I didn't have the greatest reception, so Adam and I decided to head on back to my house, which is only a couple blocks away (see diagram below). Well, as we were on the way there, my mom called again, and I found out that she had just pulled into the driveway. So, being the funny guy that I am, I pulled in behind her (she couldn't see me since she was facing the house and the trees made her mirrors useless) and started honking my horn while I was talking to her. It startled her a bit, then she yelled out a "YOU LITTLE SHIT!" Oh man, I almost died laughing. The rest of the day was pretty uneventful, but for those of you that haven't been to my house, hopefully this will clear up any questions you may have, lol:

Since Then: I really don't remember what happened on specific days since then, but I know I went and saw "The Interpreter" (great movie) with Jess and had dinner with my dad at Kanpai (Japanese restaurant) sometime last week. This week has consisted mostly of doing yardwork for my mom in preparation for selling the house. I mowed and raked the yard (a time consuming task, even with a riding mower), pressure washed our 180 foot driveway (mainly just to get pine needles and random grass clippings off of), moved a pile of rocks, moved 5 or 6 huge bags of OLD peat moss (that had been in the same spot for a good 12 years), sprayed bleach on the roof of our house to kill moss, and cut some branches off the trees overhanging the driveway. All in all, not too fun. I also applied to be a yard loader at Lumberman's... but I haven't heard back from them yet (*crosses fingers*). There has also been some hanging out with Adam and Jess... but they're both still kinda busy with school so even that's been sparse.

What's up next: Tomorrow morning/afternoon I'm going to hang out with Jess. Dunno what we're going to to yet, but I'm sure it'll be a good time. Tomorrow evening I'm going up to the 'Hood, the Fairhood, to hang out with Ryan after he gets off work. Then on Sunday, its up to the UP (University Place) to hang out with the soon-to-be Shannon Dorsey (I'm assuming she's taking John's last name)... and maybe catching a free drama performance at Bethel that evening that a friend told me about today. Then, next Saturday marks the return of me donning a tuxedo... for Jess' senior ball. I'm REALLY excited for that... it should be an awesome time with an awesome girl. Oh, for those of you visual people, check out my myspace (on the right)... my picture is of Jess and me a couple summers ago. Then, in a week and a half, I'm supposed to be going to an M's game with my pops... we'll see though.

That's about all I have for y'all... except my new email address is bkoe22@gmail.com, so hit me up on that. But, before I go...

Guessing game: What did I find on the very top of our roof (yes, I mean the apex), some 40 feet off the ground?

Summer is almost here...

2005-05-03T19:09:00.000-07:00

After tomorrow at 10 a.m., my summer will officially begin. Three and a half months of no schoolwork, projects, or tests. It will be GLORIOUS!

Today was my only final... in PSYCH 311 (Statistics in Psychology). It was by far the longest final I've ever taken here. It took me just over an hour and a half... scheduled to be three hours long. And when I left, 2/3 - 3/4 of the class was still working on it. It's all good though, because I'm pretty sure I did fairly well on it... which is good since I started studying for it at around 11 last night and it was cumulative. It was my ONLY final and I started studying for it 13 hours before it began... so much for reducing the procrastination.

However, I would've started on it earlier had it not been for my STUPID English 101 writing portfolio. If any of you read my away messages in the past week, you'd have noticed that they consisted of "writing a paper" or other negative statements about English 101. That'd be why. It's all good though because I turned that beast in today too.

Speaking of, guessing game for this entry: how many pages were in my writing portfolio? I highly doubt any of you will guess this exactly, but we'll see who gets closest. To provide some background info, at least 22 pages are required by the English department.

Mmk... well it's time to head off to a group meeting to finalize our project for my class/final/presentation tomorrow. For those of you here at WSU, good luck on the rest of your finals. If you're done, have a great summer and keep in touch! For those of you elsewhere (aka: back home), call me up and we'll hang out soon!

Ahh... Miranda Lambert.

And the winner is:

2005-04-17T23:47:00.000-07:00

Jess.

But, the double major thing is no longer gonna happen. Now the plan is CrimJ major, Psych minor, and 4 semesters of a foreign language. And that means: another guessing game!

Same rules apply as before.

Sorry guys...

2005-04-11T14:35:00.000-07:00

I've just been incredibly busy and haven't had time to sit down write anything of substance. My friends Jessica (HAPPY BIRTHDAY!) and Dani (from high school) came and visited me and checked out the campus last week, then I had papers to write and a quiz to study for, then my mom came this weekend for Mom's Weekend. Speaking of, I just want to say that I love my mom, family (HAPPY BIRTHDAY to you too Ash!), and friends (yes, that means you... unless of course I don't know you, but I may still love you regardless).

Anywho, I've decided that I'm going to try to double major... but you're going to have to leave me a comment and guess what my second major is going to be. For those of you that don't know, the first one will be Criminal Justice. For those of you that know both, don't tell.

But yeah... I have a 10 page draft of a paper due on Wednesday, so I need to go start that so I can play softball with Ben and his brother Will's team tomorrow night. After that, I have a test on Thursday, and a paper revision due on Friday...

As I've said about 20 times in the past 2 days: summer needs to hurry up and get here.

What else is new?

2005-04-11T00:39:00.000-07:00

Again, it has been many moons since my last post. No real surprise there.

So what has gone on in that time? First there was my cousin's funeral... man was that hard. Right after that was the fall of a relationship. Right after that was the start of a new relationship... which also just fell. Most people would recommend that I not write about my feelings or women right now, but really, I'm not like most people and I'm gonna do what I want. And right now, I want to write about it. If you were hoping for more details about my life, just to forewarn you, you'll be disappointed.

A thought crossed my mind the other day and has stuck with me ever since: we ALWAYS hear about all the relationship advice books/columns for men and how men need them, but why (in comparison) are there no relationship advice books/columns for WOMEN??? I mean, think about it... who does Dr. Phil (although I really don't care for the guy, he illustrates the point effectively) almost always give the relationship advice to? Men. Are there or are there not articles in just about every women's magazine (let's just name an example... COSMO) written for MEN on how to have a better relationship with women. An article FOR MEN in a magazine which 99.99999% of men DON'T read!!!! Hmm... that makes LOTS of sense.

Basically, my point is this: women are always saying how men "act like they know it all." If you think about it though, as far as relationships are concerned, WOMEN are the ones acting like they know it all and don't need any help or to do anything to improve relationships. It's either that, or MEN are the only ones willing to admit they need or accept advice when it comes to relationships. How else would you describe the lopsided ratio of men's and women's relationship books/columns?

Really, sustaining a relationship isn't very hard if two people are attracted to each other (physically and emotionally) and really try to COMPROMISE with each other. The crappy thing is, though, that most women don't compromise because they don't have to. Most guys, or at least guys that are worth keeping around, would do just about ANYTHING for the girl they care about. So if a girl's mad at her guy, he'll do anything she says (aka: give in) to make things happy again. Unfortunately, this is what most relationship books/columns say: the guy is usually wrong and is the one that should change/give in. Excuse my language, but that is total bullshit. Why should girls be the only one who will have someone that would do just about anything for them? Why aren't girls willing to do just about anything for their guys? If there are girls like that, where the F*** are they?

If you've been around me long enough, I'm sure you know that I'm not afraid to say exactly what is on my mind. In other words, if I'm mad at or frustrated with someone, I'm not afraid let them know that. In a relationship, it's pretty easy to see how that can cause fights (especially so if you're with someone who can't take criticism). Then, of course... when it comes down to fixing the problems, it's "compromise"-time. Really, I'm tired of always having to "compromise" in a relationship.

A quick check of dictionary.com will yield this definition of compromise: A settlement of differences in which each side makes concessions.

Seeing as how that is pretty self explanatory, take note of that definition and hopefully you'll remember it the next time trouble comes along in your relationship.

Cough "*WOMEN*" cough

More stuff I "love"

2005-03-16T23:58:00.000-08:00

I really, really, really hate it when people are contradictory. When people say one thing and do/say something that directly conflicts with that statement, what are you supposed to believe? It is human nature to try to predict what will happen in the future (through the use of previous information) and that can't be done if you have two pieces of contradicting information.

I also really hate it when people change their story when presented with evidence that their original story was false. In my opinion, thats the same thing as lying... which doesn't sit well with me. I am a very factual person who notices details and has an above-average memory (does anyone else see why I think I'd be a good detective?), so lying to me can be pretty challenging sometimes (if you're someone I'm close to). I don't know if that's always a good thing... I guess time will only tell.

Anywho... in other news:
Reread what I wrote on February 21st (it was only 2 entries ago).

Although I haven't exactly done much homework (which I knew was going to happen), I have been spending time with quite a few people that I haven't seen or talked to in quite some time. Its cool to come home and find out what old friends have been up to... what lies ahead for them... who's getting married or having kids... and all that good stuff. I'm pretty sure I've spent well over a day (as in: 24 hours) just hanging out with friends... which is crazy considering how much I've slept, how much I usually just laze around while on breaks, and the fact that break is just over half over. I also love how while I was hanging out with them, we didn't have to do anything extraordinary to have a good time. Most of the time was just spent talking about the most random stuff... which is something I absolutely love. I'm happy that I'm not the type of person that needs to go out and always do something different every night, get drunk, and/or have to spend money (since we all know college students have no money) to have fun. In fact, as long as I'm with those that I care about, I'm having fun doing anything, even if it's the same thing over and over.

With that, I just wanted to say that Adam, Amber, Jess, and Ryan, you guys are awesome and it was great to see all of you this week. I'm going to try my best to keep in contact more often so we can get together more often. And to T-Lo: congrats on the new job opportunity and I wish you the best of luck in Chi town.

Before I head off to bed, I wanted to give a quick update on my uncle. He's still in the ICU, but he's doing better now (thank God). He's awake now, but still heavily medicated... and it looks like he'll be in the hospital for another month or so, which is good news considering how lucky he is to even be alive.

So on that good news, I bid you adieu.

FINALLY!

2005-03-13T01:02:00.000-08:00

So although I just came back to the Westside yesterday after class, my last two nights have been spent at the Tacoma Dome watching the 4A Basketball State Playoffs, specifically my high school team (Bethel). For those of you that don't follow high school sports anymore, THEY WON THE STATE CHAMPIONSHIP!!! It was a sweet game (read about it here) and as an added bonus I got to talk to some fellow alums whom I haven't seen in a while. We've been sooo close since my freshman year for both football (state every year since, including a 2nd place and two 3rd place finishes) and basketball (state every year, including 2nd in 2000 and 3rd last year), and they finally won it. Too bad their streak of reaching state will likely end next year, since pretty much EVERY point scored this year was by the 5 main seniors and our school district is opening up a new high school in the fall. Oh well, it was pretty much now or never and they delivered.

Anywho... in other news: most of you don't know this but my uncle Scott has been in the hospital for around a week now. My cousin found him collapsed on the floor of his apartment, called 911, and it turns out he would've died had she not been there. He's had a couple surgeries since being admitted (I don't really know the details) and I'm going to go see him sometime this week. He's in pretty bad shape still though, so your prayers would be appreciated.

So yeah... thats all I've got for now.

Oh wait, did I mention IT'S SPRING BREAK!

This one's not getting deleted this time...

2005-02-21T04:30:00.000-08:00

Ok, so almost all of you don't know that I wrote in here on Wednesday night... seeing as how I deleted it Thursday morning. Well, what I wrote then applies now too, so here's a brief summary of what I wrote:

Amy and I broke up, it looks like it's for good this time, and I'm not going to talk about it on here so if you want to know more, IM/email/call me.

The only difference is: this time it IS for good.

And that still means I'm not going to talk about it on here.

Something I Don't Understand

2005-01-24T13:30:00.000-08:00

Why is it that when you get into a disagreement/fight/argument, whatever you choose to call it, with someone (usually, for me, it's a girl), they "don't want to talk about it right now?" This is likely because they are "too angry" and don't want to discuss it further at the current time. This is something I've heard called "running away from a fight." My question is this: when is the appropriate time to talk about it then? Some other time when they're mad again? Some other time when they're happy? Something in the middle? (Is that possible?) Let's take a look at what usually happens in each scenario.

When they're mad again: You're probably already fighting or arguing again and you bring up an old, unresolved fight. Reasonable thinking is that 1) the fight will get even bigger and out of control and you'll both get even angrier, 2) they'll run away from the fight again, or 3) somehow you'll resolve one or both fights (yeah.... right).
When they're happy: You both are having a good day and you decide its time to resolve the fight. Reasonable thinking is that 1) they get mad at you for bringing up something negative and you both end up getting mad again and don't solve anything, 2) they'll run away from the fight again, or 3) you both manage to keep your cool, understand the other's argument, finally resolve the fight, and all is well.
Something in the middle: I don't know what exactly this might entail, but see the above two scenarios.

I don't know what the odds are for each situation happening, but I do know that it pisses me off when people run away from disagreements. Chronic or habitualy "runners" really piss me off... essentially, they're inviting whatever it was that started the fight to come back up and start another. It has happened to me SOOOOOOO many times and I'm sick of it. I mean, who likes fighting? I think it's safe to say that nobody, especially myself, would answer "I do" to that question. I have always been one to resolve a conflict right then and there, and always will be. I don't like dragging it on because 1) I don't like thinking about it and unfortunately, thats all I can think about, 2) the elapsed time causes you to forget things that you wanted to talk about, 3) it gives people time to make up lies and excuses for their behavior (it's much harder to make them up on the spot), and 4) as said above, if you don't get to it soon enough, it will just come right back up.

Okay, enough ranting for now. Hope ya had a good weekend and have a good week in class/at work/doing whatever it is you do.

Where to begin?

2005-01-21T00:48:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I'm pretty pissed off about a few things that have been happening lately, but I'll get to those in a little bit.

First, a quick update on me. Classes have started to pick up and I'm starting to feel the pressure of my schedule. I have NUMBEROUS assignments to do this semester, lots of papers, tons of required field work to do in April for Forensic Science, more projects than I've had the previous three semesters combined, and SEVEN quizzes and a final for my stats class (and in the instructors own words, the quizzes should be thought of more as tests). Not to mention I actually have/want to keep up on the readings... which is no easy task for this non-"social reader."

My car was busted last week... it wouldn't start on Sunday when I had to pick up Amy at the airport so I borrowed Dane's car (I don't think you read this but thanks a ton dude). My car was towed Tuesday afternoon... didn't get it back until Friday evening. Turns out there was a torn gasket in the engine or somethin like that and there was moisture in the cylinders so the gas wouldn't spark. In addition to that, I had to get the thermostat replace cuz mine was stuck open or somethin and it was causing my car to run rich (more gas than normal and less oxygen), which combined with the broken gasket meant it didn't want to start. They also did an oil dye test where they put a flourescent dye in my engine oil and ran my car, then used a black light to see where it was leaking oil. All in all, it cost me like $460 and I still have to replace the oil pan since thats where it was apparently leaking.

As far as good news goes... Danny and Ben moved into the house and everything is great there. We finally got that desparately needed second fridge, which was quite some fun getting into the basement. The new bathroom down here FINALLY has flooring... the guy finished it today. Now it just needs to be painted, the towel bars and tp holder put in, a mirror would be nice, and curtains over the window to block out any peeping toms and it'll be all set.

Ok, now onto the nitty gritty...

I was browsing through one of my friend's journals yesterday and thought that what he wrote about himself REALLY applied to me as well. The basic gist of what he said is that he likes to think of himself as a very logical person and one who likes to think rationally before making decisions. I've thought this about myself for a LONG time now, and although I know I'm not perfect and sometimes do illogical things, it is definitely something I strive to do. I almost expect it out of the people I know also, which oftentimes isn't a healthy thing to do, but I don't think it's a completely unreasonable thing to do. One of my biggest pet peeves is when people do illogical things intentionally, i.e. they KNOW it's wrong but do it anyway. I'm not talking about underage drinking or smoking pot or crap like that, I mean things like making statements that have no truth or validity to them whatsoever or taking the long way when they're pressed for time. Just stuff that doesn't make sense. I often encounter this when people make false statements, like saying something didn't occur when it really did (and I don't mean the time of day that it happened). I absolutely cannot stand that and will call ANYONE on it, I don't care who you are. If someone makes a false statement to me or while in my presence, I WILL call them on it. Usually, this results in them getting mad at me, even though they were the one lying. To be totally honest, I could care less because I choose to live my life as honestly as possible. I take pride in the fact that I don't bullshit with people and I tell it like I see it. That is something that I expect out of others as well. I don't care for liars. In fact, I hate them. Espeically ones that lie to hide things. One thing about me is that I'm very inquisitive and I ask A LOT of questions. If I ask someone a question (barring anything too personal) I expect an answer that is the 100% truth because unless I'm given a reason to think otherwise, I'm going to trust what they say. If you don't have the kahunas to say what's REALLY on your mind, get lost. And for those people that I'm close to, hiding something from me or omitting relevant information is, to me, the same thing as being a liar.

On a somewhat similar note, I ABSOLUTELY HATE IT when someone tells me what to do/think, WHAT I'm thinking, or WHAT my current mood is. I wasn't fucking born yesterday and as mentioned above, I'm someone who strives to make logical decisions. I'll do whatever I deem is right based on the knowledge I have, not what someone tells me. And for those people that think they have me all figured out and know what I'm thinking: FUCK NO YOU DON'T! Are you me? Are you somehow linked into my brain? Do you truly know where my heart lies? Do you possess the exact same knowledge that I do? Have you experienced the exact same things I have? If you answered no to all of those questions, thank you for proving my point. If you answered yes to one or more, then you are a fucking liar... so reread the previous paragraph. Just about everything I say, do, and think was said, done, and thought for a reason and I am the only one that knows the reasoning for it. As for those who think they always know or can tell what mood I'm in, you too are wrong. I am very good at hiding my emotions, unless I'm INTENTIONALLY trying to cue people in. Usually, if I'm just sitting around and doing nothing (i.e., watching TV or doing something quiet), I have a serious look on my face. SOOOOO many times has this look been perceived as me being angry... or bored... or something. IT'S NOT! It's me being content! Content with who I'm with, what I'm doing, where I'm at... life in general. I am, except in some situations, an extremely serious person. I take work seriously and always do my best. Out on the field, I leave it all on the field. I've always taken responsibility for my actions. And finally, I've never been one to mess around with random girls because 1) that's not who I am and 2) I want to find the one girl that is perfect for me.

While I'm on the subject, I just want to point out what I believe makes a relationship great. For those of you currently in relationships, maybe this will help. For those that are single, think about this for your next relationship. For all: I'd appreciate your feedback.

Honesty and communication are vital. You have to be COMPLETELY honest with your partner and have open lanes of communication to have a successful, happy relationship. Dishonesty and hiding things from your spouse (and suspicious behavior) on your part is THE source of distrust in your partner. And if something is bothering you, whether it be about life or something your partner did, tell them immediately. Then, they can (try to) do something about it then and there, as opposed to telling them hours later after you've been pissed off and end up arguing. I guarantee that if you tell them something they said hurt you, and they truly care about you, they'll apologize and do anything to make amends. If they don't, then they don't care as much as they should and you really shouldn't be with them.

I'm sure there was more I had to say but I'm tired, it has been a long day, it's getting late, and I have to get up for class soon.

Bring on the comments...

An early Christmas present to myself

2004-12-22T01:36:00.000-08:00

I decided to type up a quick update for my loyal readers (using only the sight from my left eye... I apparently have an eye infection in the other as the lower half has been completely blood-shot for the past day).

I GOT A NEW PHONE!!! After going through three of my old POS, I finally have a new phone (its the same number). It's the LG VX7000, and it cost me a whopping $25! Check it out here!

Other than that, the only other big pieces of news are that I'm going over to Othello for Christmas, where I'll be picking up a bowling ball I ordered on my way home :), and down to Amy's in Vancouver for New Years Eve/Day, for some suprise that she refuses to tell me about.

If any of you aren't working, and want to hang out... gimme a call on my new cell :)

Ben wins the award for "Least Updated Blog"

2004-11-17T01:58:00.000-08:00

Soooo... I finally have a night with nothing to do (except for study for my chem test on Thursday, but we all know I don't want to do that) so I decided to finally blog. Go me!

So most of you loyal readers out there already know the biggest change in my life since the last update: I have a girlfriend. To answer the questions in your head right now, her name is Amy, I met her online, she's a sophomore "Forensic Science" major (it's in the process of becoming a major here apparently), originally from Vancouver, Washington, she lives in an apartment near Jess & Laura (for those of you that know where they live here), and she's cool! That being said, things are going well and most of my nights have been spent with her, usually while we're both doing homework (sucky, I know, but she's taking 18 credits and I have 17... Peter: 6). Also, it was kinda weird because we found out that we have 3 classes in rooms right after each other (i.e.: she has class in a room, I have class in that same room right after hers).

As for school, I've been doing well on my tests (knock on wood) and I finally certified as a Criminal Justice major when I met with my advisor last Friday. I woke up this morning at 8, which may not seem too bad to some of you but I'll explain why later, and registered for next semester. I have English 101 (finally), Psych 311 (stats class for my major), Psych 350 (social psychology, GER), Sociology 320 (for my major, and the prof was my 101 teacher... cool dude, huge BoSox fan), Bowling (with Peter), and Billiards (for now). I'm going to drop the billiards class if I can get into a Forensic Science class, but you have to contact the teacher personally, and she hasn't emailed me back yet so I'm going to try and pay her a visit tomorrow. As for the 8 o'clock thing, both of my CrmJ professors are out of town this week for some convention so those classes are cancelled. Meaning: my first and only class on Tuesday and Thursday this week is MicroBio lab at 2:50-"4:05" p.m.... On a related note, sleep is good.

In other news, Cougar football has been extremely disappointing this year. We are 4-6 heading into MY FIRST Apple Cup this Saturday, which I am EXTREMELY excited for. Being 11-point favorites to the 1-9 Dawgs, if we lose, I have vowed to not attend another Cougar football game until we win the Apple Cup again. Six years in a row is just ridiculous. Because of the game, my Thanksgiving Break is being cut down by a couple days, since we get the entire week off (WOO HOO!), but I think I can live through it. What's weird is that Thanksgiving last year was the 5th time I had gone home... this year: 1st.

As for the house, things are going great. Everyone's getting along, even moreso now with the release of Halo 2 (which I still suck at). The rooms downstairs still aren't done, still waiting for carpet. We got our second washing machine and dryer, so laundry isn't as time consuming anymore. The fridge/freezer for downstairs is reportedly coming soon via Levi, who could possibly pass off as a fridge (j/k, John and I were trying to describe him to Dane today when he called, haha). Yeah... that's about it.

Oh yes, how could i forget: Peter ordered his green iPod mini (which to my joking suggestion has "spank nuts" inscribed on the back, for those that don't read his blog), so now I'm using his minidisc player. I must say, quite an improvement over the ol' CD player. It holds 40 songs, runs off 1-AA, and the battery life indicator has yet to lose a bar. Ridiculous. Now I can only hope for my own iPod, which will put the minidisc player to shame (songwise, not battery life-wise).

I've also seen some pretty good movies lately. We went with a grip of people a while ago to see Friday Night Lights, saw Ray with my dad when he was here, finally saw Napoleon Dynamite, and of course, bought Shrek 2 the day it came out. What's in store next, you ask? In the theater: National Treasure, Nov 19; Alexander, Nov 24; OCEAN'S TWELVE, Dec 10; Meet The Fockers, Dec 22. On DVD: Spiderman 2, Nov 30 and Bourne Supremacy, Dec 7; and the semi-distant future, Troy, Jan 4 and The Notebook, Feb 8. For those of you that were hoping to get a gift idea out of that list, don't plan on it because I'm planning on buying those DVDs the DAY they come out. Speaking of, the current DVD count is 109 with the addition of Love Actually (Keira Knightley) and the aforementioned Shrek 2. That number should see an increase soon, if last Christmas is any indication (11 DVDs, including the 2nd James Bond set).

I do believe thats about it, since I actually have class in the morning and a test to study for tomorrow night. Hope that satisfies all of you out in blogland. It better, since it took me an hour and a half to write, haha.

"If not, you are an idiot and you deserve to die!" (name what that's from!)

Grins

2004-10-23T04:32:00.000-07:00

So I know I've been slacking on updating this thing again, but I just wanted to say that I just had an AWESOME night. Seeing as how it's 4:30AM, and I just got home (haha) if you want to know more about it... feel free to call or IM me or something.

I hope everyone has a great weekend, with Peter meeting the parents and Ryan having the Super Sale at IKEA and mine thus far (and it's only Saturday morning!), among others, I'm sure there will be many stories to tell.

Boo Yah!

2004-09-28T14:07:00.000-07:00

Just found out I got a 113/120 (94%) on my Microbio test and 93.15/100 (don't ask about the .15, I found that quite hilarious too) on my CRM J 330 test. That's a 95% average for three of the tests I took last week...

Looks like not having a life for a week and a half actually paid off.

Now, to steal something from my good friend Ryan (who also stole it), in hopes that someone other than Ryan or Peter would post a comment (not that I don't love it when you guys do, I just KNOW there are others out there who read and don't comment...*tear*):

Post anything that you want, and post it anonymously.
Anything.

a story,
a secret,
a confession,
a fear,
a love,
ANYTHING.

Be sure to post anonymously and honestly. Post more than once, if you'd like.
(You don't have to post anonymously if you really don't want to.)

The only restriction is: no talk of morning wood (Peter).

Finally, a weekend to relax

2004-09-26T19:15:00.000-07:00

So I made it through my "he-double-hockey-sticks week" and can live to tell about it... which is what I shall do.

Of the four tests, I'm really only worried about my CRM J 330 test... we'll see how I did on Tuesday. I don't know my scores for Microbio or FORL 101, but I'm pretty confident about those. I already know my Chem 101 score since it was on a scantron, and I'm happy to report a 98/100!

Obviously, I was looking forward to this weekend so I could relax for a change. Unfortunately, I found out Friday afternoon that the mock homicide investigation scene I was planning on attending yesterday was full... and it was too late to go on the CRU Fall Retreat. I was rather upset, moreso with myself for repeatedly forgetting to ask about the homicide scene earlier this week, because I would have gone to the retreat if I hadn't known about it. It would have been a great opportunity to learn and grow, and I would've been surrounded by all my friends (I hope you all had fun!), so I'm PROMISING everyone now, I'm going to Spring Retreat.

Anywho... Friday night was very uneventful. I was extremely tired since I averaged around 5 1/2 hours of sleep each night this week. We (the guys in the house) had many impromptu wrestling matches... and it was always Peter vs. whoever else was interested. Needless to say, he received many a titty twister that evening.

Saturday afternoon was spent watching the Cougars play Arizona, of course. For those of you that didn't hear or watch the game... you TOTALLY missed out! We were down 19-14 with less than 1 1/2 minutes left in the game when Arizona got a first down, and we had only one timeout remaining. On the next play, their running back fumbled and we recovered. A few plays later, Swogs found Jason "Big Time" Hill in the endzone and we won 20-19! Oh man... Peter, Dane, and I were screaming at the top of our lungs (which probably explains why my throat has been hurting today).

Shortly after that, we went and played a huge game of tackle football of our own. It was SOOOO much fun... Peter was an offensive machine and I held down the defense with a couple picks, passes deflected, and numerous open-field solo tackles against guys that were definitely bigger than me. I think one of them may have given me a very mild concussion when he landed on me, but it's all good. My entire body aches from that, and probably will for another three days, but it was definitely worth it.

Then we met Jackie, Amanda, and Jenn at Nuthouse, which was funny as always. We came back here and ate a bit, then we (Dane, Stacy (his gf), Molly (her friend), Peter, and I) headed up to Up All Night at the CUB. We ate some buffalo chicken wings, corn dogs, cheesy fries, and orange sherbert ice cream cups (which are AWESOME) before heading down to the games area. It looked like we were going to luck out and get a lane to bowl on, but some punk@$$ guy cut in front of us, while we were in line, and took it. That pissed me off since only 6 of the 10 lanes were working in the first place. Since no one else was going to finish bowling soon, Peter and Dane started playing ping pong, I practiced some pool, and Stacy and Molly went and got their picture taken with Chunk from the Goonies. We all went to "the Flix" (haha) after that since the girls wanted to rent the Goonies, but they didn't have it.

By this time, it was well after 1 a.m., and I'm pretty sure you all figured out what happend after that if you happened to read someone else's blog (he was the only one, I swear!). We were blasting some music, including "I'll Be Missing You," "Regulators," and "Ice Ice Baby" while dancing around and chatting, until we decided to play Monopoly (at 3 a.m.). We played it to where if you have to pay money for something that would normally go to the bank, like properties, taxes, and chance/community chest cards, it went into the middle and whoever landed on "Free Parking" got all the money. Soon, because no money goes back into the bank, we were forced to eliminate the $1 bill and use it as $500 bills. Peter quit within half an hour, and I took out Dane another half hour later. After that, Molly and Stacy "joined forces" against ONLY me. They had hotels on the Yellows, Light Blues, and Purples, while I only had hotels on "Park Place" and "Boardwalk" (we were actually playing the Seattle edition). We played until around 5:30, when they realized that they weren't taking me out... and we ended up quitting with almost equal amounts of money (which is surprising since at one point they had at least $10000 more than me).

Today was spent sleeping in (it felt SOOO good) and watching Star Wars: A New Hope on DVD (it's the first of the original trilogy). I could be doing homework or studying, but as Ryan pointed out... I deserve a break since I was doing that exact thing for a week and a half straight. All I have this week is chem homework and pre-lab due on Wednesday, CRM J 320 (criminal law) test on Thursday, and Chem quiz on Friday.

This upcoming weekend, my sister and possibly my friend Adam are coming over to visit, so I'm excited for that. I also have an induction ceremony thing for this National Society of Collegiate Scholars (I think that's what it's called) on Saturday.

That's about all I have for now... and sorry to disappoint, but no pictures this time (I'm sure you all loved the last ones). I could really go for a massage right now... even my face muscles hurt from football yesterday.

And that's no laughing matter.

Busy, busy week

2004-09-21T02:14:00.000-07:00

Ok, so for those of you that don't know, I have four tests this week... which also means I won't be having much of a social life (and haven't really as of late). In addition to that, I have two case briefs due tomorrow (I finished them half an hour ago), and a LONG chem lab report and homework assignment due on Wednesday (which I intelligently did this weekend). I had one test today, Microbio 101, and I'm pretty sure I'll get an A, B+ at the absolute lowest (despite studying for it for a mere 2.5 hours total. Tomorrow night will consist of a Chem review session and studying with Molly (not to mention going to get the Star Wars trilogy on DVD at Wally World after class!). Wednesday will be more studying, since Thursday is a CRM J 330 test at 10:35 a.m. (I haven't opened any of the three books for that class yet!) and CHEM 101 test at 6 p.m. Immeadiately after that is CRU, then I'm back here to study for my FORL 101 test on Friday morning at 10. That means no dancing for the first time this school year ;(

Anywho... that's whats up with me this week, so don't be shocked to see away messages through the weekend.

Oh, and I thought I'd share with y'all my scientific adventures from Microbio lab... The following pictures are of an agar (nutrient) plate that had been sitting at room temperature for FOUR days after I rubbed a QUARTER on it.

WARNING: If you just ate, you might want to come back in a few hours...

Mmm, Mmm, Good.

My Room!

2004-09-13T01:22:00.000-07:00

So I finally took the time to download that stupid program and attempted to understand it's unorthodox methods... all so I could follow through with those pictures I promised of my room for those of you that a) live in Pullman but haven't come seen it yet, and b) live on the other side of the state and haven't been kidnapped by someone and forced to come see it and our house.





Yeah, there's 10 things plugged into ONE outlet (including a computer, stereo, refrigerator, and microwave). And those are French chopsticks and a French hotel towel with the letter B embroidered in it on the wall... courtesy of Peter.



Yep, thats POOH.





So, the top three rows of the DVD rack are all mine... with 3 more to be added soon. Oh, and notice the red 3-wheeler and books that I likely will never read... nice touch, eh?





Anywho, does anyone happen to know of something that will erase memories from your weekend (that doesn't involve alcohol)?



I could sure use it about now.

Back to the days of old...

2004-09-06T22:53:00.000-07:00

Indeed, I have been neglecting my blogging duties as of late. For those of you regular readers out there (Ryan), I apologize. I really should be doing this more often now that I'm on the other side of the state, and it's not everyday that you get kidnapped by your step-dad and get to come visit (Ryan), so I will try to update on a semi-regular basis. My 17 credit schedule might have something to say about that, however. Speaking of, I'm going to try and pull some trickery and add my class schedule to the links (aka: post-date an entry with my class schedule on it and use a link to that... if you know of a better way, lemme know).

Okay, so here's the short version of what's happened in my life since the last update...

With the help of my dad, I moved back over to school and into our house on August 14th. Peter had been here for like a month, yet nothing was setup because he couldn't move it from storage, so we all did that. My dad left for home the next day and the ensuing few days were spent setting up my room. I'll put a couple pics of it later, for those of you that haven't have the fortune of seeing it yet. John moved in on the 17th and Erik came on the 18th. Their friend Dane moved in around the same time, but because the basement construction isn't done and we only have four bedrooms, he's been sleeping on the couch since. He doesn't acually go here, but his longtime girlfriend does and he plans to next year after establishing residency. The rest of the week was filled with poker nights and a trip to Lewiston to get Quizno's and area rugs for our rooms, but I also smoked Peter in bowling and won a couple bucks out of it. Woo hoo for friendly wagers and gambling!

The 21st (the Saturday before school started), Peter, Laura, Jessica, and I went to Up All Night... where we ran into tons of friends, including the awesome RA Ben Doornink (who joined our little group). We all watched the hypnotist show... those are always a good time. Afterward, us guys bowled a game, which I won, of course. The 22nd was my birthday and also the day before school started, which meant EVERYONE was busy with hall meetings and such. We ended up playing poker again, but I lost $5 because I couldn't catch a hand/flop to save my life. I did get happy birthday calls from a few people, but that was limited to about four or five people. All in all, it wasn't one of my favorite birthdays, but probably not the worst either.

School and hanging out with friends has consumed most of my time since. CRU and country swing dancing on Thursday nights have been awesome as always. Other major things include: Jackie's birthday party last Saturday (got to hang out with her and her friends... definitely a good time), poker (pretty much every other or every third day), a certain someone being kidnapped and coming to visit Peter and me (sadly, for only a day... but once again, it was still great to see him), my introduction to the game of racquetball (which is tons of fun... except for the lame goggles you have to wear), and the arrival of our 36" High Definition flatscreen TV and 6.1-channel 700W surround sound system on Tuesday. It's a great way to watch college football games, as I found out while watching WSU come back to beat New Mexico 21-17 on Friday night. GO COUGS!

Anywho... I chose to spend my Labor Day weekend here in Pullman... getting my Chem homework (aka: busy work) and FORL ASL assignment done. Now all I have to do is a political socialization paper and chem pre-lab and I'll be caught up... ugh.

So yeah.... that's about it. And unfortunately, those pictures will have to wait for another day as I'm too busy to figure out Blogger's picture uploading program thingy.

On a final note: Nuthouse and bowling this weekend anyone? Leave a comment if you're game.

My Weekly Schedule:

2004-08-23T10:10:00.000-07:00

MONDAY:

10:10 - 11:00 = PSYCH 490 (Cognition and Memory)
12:10 - 1:00? = CHIN 205 (Intermediate Chinese Conversation)

TUESDAY:

10:35 - 11:50 = PSYCH 312 (Experimental Methods in Psychology)
12:10 - 1:00 = CHIN 203 (3rd Semester Chinese)
2:50 - 4:05 = POL S 300 (The American Constitution)

Wednesday:

10:10 - 11:00 = PSYCH 490
12:10 - 1:00 = CHIN 203
3:10 - 5:00 = PSYCH 312 Lab

Thursday:

10:35 - 11:50 = PSYCH 312
12:10 - 1:00 = CHIN 203
2:50 - 4:05 = POL S 300

Friday:

10:10 - 11:00 = PSYCH 490
12:10 - 1:00 = CHIN 203

Changes are abound

2004-08-12T00:18:00.000-07:00

The first and most obvious change is that I'm actually updating... and it HASN'T been a month.

Seriously though, many things have changed about my life very recently and more is still to come. Yesterday was my last day of work for this summer (which means I should be picking up a nice paycheck on Friday that will go directly into savings, sadly). I also hung out with my friend Amber from high school. We went and saw Collateral (its a sweet movie!) and just caught up on life and such. It was great to spend some time with her again.

Today was spent packing up things from my room in preparation for Saturday's big move back to Pullman (more change!). I am terribly excited to go back though. Get to hang out with everyone again, hopefully meet new friends, go country swing dancing (no change there), live in our HOUSE... all that good stuff. I also met my mom at Costco, where we proceeded to buy MORE stuff to take over there, including: easy mac, top ramen, laundry soap, socks, and Famous Amos cookies! My mom also bought me my birthday present... a Microsoft wireless desktop (which is SOOOO TIGHT, I might add... see it here). I also purchased my first ever track jacket, of which I'm sure there will be more in the future, and Norah Jones' "Come Away With Me" CD. My friend Jackie, who I met online this summer and will also be going to WSU this fall, got me interested in her music. As Jackie says: it's the type of music that's incredibly relaxing and great for listening to while lounging on a dock.

For more change, I bought 6 more DVDs on Monday after work... bringing the total to 96 (if you're confused because I told you I previously had 95, I somehow counted 5 too many a while ago). I got Master & Commander, XXX, Zoolander, Training Day, Tomb Raider, and Cheaper By The Dozen for a total of $54 and change, including tax. As I've told some of you already, I'm really going to miss Best Buy and Target while I'm at school... ;^(

In other news, last weekend was definitely memorable for entirely different reasons. On Saturday, Peter and Jessica came and picked me up and we all headed down to Centralia to see Laura. It was great to have the gang back together again. I miss all those 11 pm trips to Flix that we made last year (and the grilled cheese sandwiches I ate in 4 bites... good times). That night was spent "fighting" over who would eat the last piece of lasagna (which was oh so good), driving out to the river and watching Peter and Greg (Laura's boyfriend) jump off a rope swing, watching most of Fight Club at a friend's house, and catching up on everyone's summer lovelife (or lack thereof in my case) before heading to bed. Sunday morning, we went to Laura's lovely church (my first time going to church in probably 10 years... that's going to change) and helped out at a carwash before having to head home.

Sunday night, I went to a party with my friend Adam and his family. It was no ordinary party, however. Adam and I were the greeters, basically. Our job was to open the doors to the limos that pulled up out front of the stone house that we were at, which happened to have quite a bit of Gravelly Lake waterfront (its in Lakewood). The guest list was pretty much 200+ old & rich people (the party was for friends of Adam's dad), the outdoors meal was 3 course and catered (with two bars around the pool), and the cheesecake for dessert was delicious. We got home at around 10:30, and foolish me thought my weekend was over... but it wasn't.

At around 10:50, I heard shouting coming from across the street and assumed it was my neighbors fighting... It turned out to be my neighbor fighting with a police officer that was trying to arrest him. In the 15 minutes or so following this, I gathered that his wife had called the cops because they were having a domestic dispute (which means someone's getting arrested, yet she was standing there yelling at the cop to let him go...) and when the cop got there, my neighbor put up a fight and I believe was pepper sprayed. Anywho, the cop finally got him handcuffed and with the assistance of a female officer that showed up a couple minutes later, they dragged him to the back of the police cruiser. There are a couple funny stories about what I saw/heard with the lady cop, but those you'll have to hear in person. A third cop showed up, but didn't really do much, and they all left a short time later. At around 11:30, I hear my neighbor's son, who is 16 or 17, taking a baseball bat to his garage door. So yeah... quite an eventful Sunday night out in Graham.

A little more change for you before I sign off for now... my mom also bought Sheriff David Reichert's book "Chasing the Devil" today. For those of you that don't know, he was the lead investigator in the Green River serial killer case and that's exactly what his book is about. I started reading it while we were eating the new Twisted Crust pizza at Pizza Hut for dinner, and even though I'm not the biggest casual reader on the planet, I'm enthralled by it. The fact that I want to become a criminal investigator might have something to do with that as well.

Oh, and I cut my hair too.

A lot has happened in A MONTH

2004-07-31T13:55:00.000-07:00

So sorry to all you loyal readers that check my blog on a daily basis hoping I'd write something thought provoking... for future reference you've probably come to the wrong place because 1) I don't update this thing NEARLY as much as I should/could (it has been pointed out to me that it has been over a month now), and 2) me? thought provoking? Right....

So although it has been over a month... I really haven't been doing all that much. I've only had 4 days off since Father's Day, which isn't a whole lot. Because of that, I turned into an old man (going to bed before midnight) for a while there. Don't worry though, the past few days I've been getting back into my old habits by talking to new friends online (I even stayed up until 3:30 the other night, which wasn't such a great idea since I had to wake up at 7). Anywho... work is just about over for the summer (which is fitting since summer is almost over as well)... only 7 more days left. I "quit" McDonald's on Wednesday after one last GSF (truck), so my weekends are free now (the whole two I have left, and one's half taken up already). I really can't wait to get my last paychecks and be done for a little while, because I've been doing so many BS jobs for my construction job lately. Touching up paint on a house that's being finished is incredibly boring, and that's pretty much all I did for two days straight.

Lets see... what else is there... This is quite random but I've been ticked off at my sister (who is 16 months older than me) for quite some time now. It really started because of financial aid. See... she decided back around February that she was going to move to Minnesota with her boyfriend Kevin (who happens to be deaf, yes she knows how to sign, and they started dating in Jan. 03 and have been living together for a while now) to enroll his 7-year old daughter Sunshine in a top-notch deaf school (Kevin's 30, by the way). So, she decided she was going to take Spring quarter off from school, and because they were going to move in August, she wasn't going to go to school at all next year until she established residency. This means we had to change the part on MY FAFSA regarding the number of children attending college from 2 to 1. Well... when WSU's Financial Aid office got the updated FAFSA report back, they decided to change my financial aid in the sum of taking away $1000 in work study for each semester and around $1600 in grants. With that and my scholarship money, I could've paid for about $9000 of the $11000 or so I'll be paying this year on my own. Instead, they raised my parents' expected contribution a couple thousand dollars and replaced the aforementioned money with loans. So yeah... not too happy with her.

It gets better. Around the beginning of July, it was becoming more apparent that they weren't going to move. On top of that, my sister began talking to her ex-boyfriend from high school again (neither one of them knew why they broke up... smells like unresolved emotions to me) and a rumor circulated that she was going to break up with Kevin. After Ash's car required a new $600 radiator, they decided for good that they weren't moving to Minnesota. Instead, they would move to Edmonds, which has a better deaf school than the Seattle SD. Well... they did indeed break up and last week, my sister's car was totaled in an accident. Soo... that left them broken up, not moving, and without a car. Well, my sister wanted to change one of those... so she bought a 99 Honda Civic for $10K yesterday and was proudly showing it off to me last night (for those of you that don't know, my car is a 91 Honda Civic which gets me from A to B, so that kinda feels like a slap in the face, saying "look at my newer car", but I'll get over it). And apparently, she's moving back in with my mom now too.

So thinking about all this, I realized just how important goals are in life to me. I'm sure my sister has them, but it really seems like she either loses sight of them often, or just isn't entirely sure what she wants to do in life. In all honesty, I don't want to do that.

I know that I want to graduate from WSU, I want to find the girl of my dreams and marry her (after I graduate) and start a family, I want to have a career in law enforcement (specifically, investigative work) so I can bring closure to victims and their families and friends (and to keep the rest of us safe), I want to take my kids to their baseball games or soccer matches, and most importantly, I just want to be happy knowing that I lived my life with no regrets. While that list isn't exactly what one would call extreme, it is almost a guarantee that there will be variables that will, in one way or another, sidetrack me from my goals. I can only hope that I remember to see the big picture.

While writing this, I've realized that a majority of the people that I'm closest to right now, I haven't even known for SIX months. I don't know exactly what to make of that, but it's kinda crazy to think about. I have met and gotten to know some awesome people this summer (and spring) that I truly hope to keep in touch with for the rest of my life. Although I haven't done much besides work, I'd have to say that this is the "Best Summer Ever" (thank you, CMT) because I don't think I could be happier with who I've become and who I've surrounded myself with.

I also realized that life itself isn't guaranteed and therefore shouldn't be taken for granted, and I should know that more than most people after how lucky I was with my 3-wheeler accident. Because of this, I want to spend more time with those I care about, so if a day comes where I find myself without them (which I hope it doesn't), I can look back and cherish the times we had together.

Also, with Peter's recent talk about love, I've been meaning to find out how many of you think there's a difference between loving and being in love with someone. I personally think there is, but I haven't been in love so it's hard to know.

Well, that's about it for now but I'm pretty sure there will be more soon. I've been sharing deep conversations lately, which usually gets the brain juices flowing.

Ryan and Peter: I will try my hardest to update more often for you, especially since we don't get the chance to hang out much and you're one of the big reasons I started this thing in the first place.

Until next time...

Almost two weeks... Oops

2004-06-28T18:26:00.000-07:00

Ryan: you say your posts are going to be sporadic... Ha! I think I've been established as the King of Sporadic (and infrequent) Blogging.

So yeah... there's sooooooo much to talk about since it has been technically 12 days now (but that was just a quick update). Lets see what we can remember:

The Kenny Chesney, Rascal Flatts, and Uncle Kracker concert was absolutely amazing. Definitely worth the money spent, but the seats could have been more desirable. I'm for sure going to see Kenny any future times he comes to town because he was seriously awesome. I'm going to have to buy his older CDs though, because there were a few songs he did that I've never heard before. I can't not know the words to my favorite country artist's songs... thats just unacceptable.

Anywho... most of my time lately has been consumed with work. No joke. I started working for a friend's parents (Sandi and Rick, I'll probably mention them many times in the future) doing construction work, in addition to McDonalds. I make $10/hour there and it's full time+, start at 8am M-F and work until I'm done for the day (anywhere from 4:30-6:30). It's pretty cool because I work with four guys that I knew from high school with and the work isn't too terribly difficult. I have been doing quite a bit of grass and weed cutting in these wetland/field areas. I was told today that I'd probably be doing a lot of that this summer since I'm one of two people who isn't allergic to grass and the other guy broke (shattered is almost a more appropriate term) his middle finger just over a week ago and is supposed to be out for 6 weeks (but is back at work and "taking it easy.").

I worked 44.5 hours last Monday-Friday for Sandi, then worked at McDonalds 8-4 on Saturday and 5-11 am and 2-5 pm (unloading our stock truck). That means I worked around 61.5 hours last week, earning about $570 before taxes. The plan for the rest of the summer is to work for Sandi during the week and at McDonalds on the weekends. With another 6-7 weeks left of summer that I'm willing to work before heading back to school... that has the potential of meaning lots of money is coming my way. I estimate about $4000 total this summer, in just over two months :)

I really haven't done much other than work. I went and hung out with Peter and Ryan and the gang up at Lake Meridian and Alex's house a couple Sundays ago. That was a pretty fun time... nevermind the facts that I confirmed that I'm not much of a swimmer and Peter spilled most of his Big Gulp on the floor of my car.

My mom also rented "Chasing Liberty" and I watched that. Its the movie with Mandy Moore playing the President's daughter. Despite the fact that it is indeed a chick flick, I really enjoyed it. Seeing as how it is now my favorite chick flick, and my DVD collection is lacking in that department (as Katy pointed out to me back at school), I'm planning on buying it soon.

Ok, its dinner time (tacos!) and thats really all I have for ya. If you want to hang out or something, you might want to give me a weeks notice at least because I'll probably be working everyday for the next month and a half otherwise. Or, if you're closer to me, I'm almost always off work by 6 during the week and 4 on the weekends. Feel free to give me a ring though, look to the right of your screen if you don't know my number.

Oh yea, if you have something uber fun planned for the fourth, GET AHOLD OF ME and I'll be there!

I hope you all are having a fun and safe summer, and not working too hard/much.

Because... I'm the king of that too.

Guess what tomorrow is...

2004-06-16T23:46:00.000-07:00

If you guessed the Kenny Chesney, Rascal Flatts, and Uncle Kracker concert at the Tacoma Dome, you're correct and win... a hug, handshake, and/or high five, whichever you prefer (one person is excluded from redeeming this prize, and if you don't know who that person is, it's most likely not you). Can ya tell I'm excited for the concert?!?!

Okay, so this is going to be a short entry because I'm freaking tired because: 1) I got 3.5 hours of sleep last night, 2) worked from 6am-2pm today at McDonald's, and 3) pressure washed our driveway for a couple hours after that (it hasn't been washed in the 12.5 years we've lived in our house, so it's taking FOREVER... very tedious work).

But yeah, I went back to work at McDonald's this week... it's a job and I need the money like no other. Fortunately I was scheduled for quite a few hours but I've managed to pick up a few more to bring the first-week-back's hour total to a whopping 29 (before unpaid breaks). I worked 3-8 on Monday and 6-2 this morning, and work 6-2 on Friday and 7-3 on Saturday. So I won't be getting much sleep this weekend, but at least I'll be able to do something with my afternoons. Unfortunately, I have to work with a certain person (who will remain unnamed) for at least a couple hours during all of my shifts, including all of Monday's (WHICH REALLY SUCKED). I didn't realize it before but this person has an incredibly annoying voice (at least at work), but that could just be my biased hatred speaking. There are a couple things to write about that later, but I really need to get some sleep before I crash at my computer desk.

Look for a much longer entry Friday afternoon/evening.

Maybe the concert will cause some anger to be temporarily forgotten (but we'll see about that, because that person will also be there... and I'm not talking about anyone I'm going with).

Only time will tell.

It's the moment you haven't been waiting for:

2004-06-09T01:17:00.000-07:00

Settle down all, I know you've been waiting for me to tell the stories of my weekend in Othello (Laura especially, if she still reads this).

We left Friday at around 12:30ish (had to wait for the new dishwasher to be installed, woo hoo for that!) and got there around 4:30. Traffic sucked incredibly bad... people in the lefthand lanes were going less than the speed limit (and it was sunny outside, mind you), got stuck behind a semi going down the construction infested Vantage hill... you get the picture. I went and hung out at my cousin's before heading off to his high school for pre-graduation pictures and such.

The big event started at 8pm with the guys and girls walking in from each side individually, with the guys handing each girl a rose... some called it "cute" (mostly girls). A few guys got to walk with 2 girls since there were more girls than guys... straight PIMPIN (and probably one of the only times they will ever be thankful for having a last name that starts with W-Z). One would think that could get pretty pricey... one rose for each girl... fyi: the graduating class was a mere 150 kids (it is just a 2A high school after all). The most memorable thing about the ceremony was the salutorian's speech... not really because of what she said, but because of the 200 times (no joke) the mic cut out on her while she was trying to give her speech. She said she was told by classmates to keep it short, and that certainly didn't help, but it would've been 6-7 minutes long without the breaks. It got old uber fast, but I'll forgive her because she's gonna be a Coug.

Afterward, we made a quick trip back to the house so Josh (my "cousin", who's actually older than me) could change, before he, Shannon (his real cousin who turns 19 today and I'd never met before), and I went to the town bowling alley for their graduation party thing. All the seniors that wanted to go on the senior trip (which was to Silverwood) HAD to be at the bowling alley until 2 am (they had sign in/out sheets to verify it, which we all signed)... so Shannon and I went along to see how they do it in O-Town. They had some pool tables there (which you had to pay to play), lots of free pizza, and eventually they started up bowling on the whopping EIGHT lanes. I played a couple games of pool with Josh's friend Scooter (who is uber good) and had some pizza before they started up bowling. There were probably 70 people there, and 8 lanes X 5 people per lane = not everyone could bowl... so Shannon and I sat and watched/got to know each other... she's really cool. Some details: she calls Montana home, she's finishing up her first year at Seattle U (biochem major), and she has had a bf for a year and a half. Okay, ready for the funniest part of the night? Too bad if the answer's no.

So after watching a few frames of bowling, and being there for an hour, two ladies walk up behind Shannon and I and tell us that we have to leave because the party was for graduating seniors only. We didn't put up much of a fight, told Josh they were kicking us out, got his car keys, and left. For those of you that missed that: we were in an EIGHT LANE bowling alley, in a town of 5000 PEOPLE, with 150 graduating seniors for AN HOUR before anyone noticed. It gets better: one of the ladies that told us to leave was the one that WATCHED Shannon sign in on the sheet. We had a few good laughs about that when we got home, and all weekend for that matter.

Anywho, we sat and talked with Josh's mom Darla and Shannon's aunt and cousin for awhile before they headed off to bed. It was around 12:30am so Shannon and I went inside and watched some TV and talked some more before I went to get Josh at the bowling alley at 2. From there, we headed to his friend Bobby's house... where they had a little get together (aka: bonfire in the backyard with beer). For those of you that don't know, I don't drink so I was the DD (designated driver) for the weekend. Two highlights from that: Their fire consisted mainly of a wooden bike jump and was maintained with a routine splash of gasoline (oh how I love those eastern Washington kids). Mother Nature put together a dazzling display of lightning for our viewing pleasure (along with a full moon that Josh thought looked "really cool" behind the clouds. He had consumed quite a few beers by then). We ended up getting home at 4:45... sweet.

Saturday afternoon (I emphasize afternoon because I sure as heck wasn't waking up before then) wasn't too exciting... there was a small family graduation party, Josh went and bought a pair of 5.25" speakers for his car (and had some trouble installing them because the one's he took out were 6.5"... gotta love him), and Shannon and her aunt and cousin left (which sucked because she was my only hope at having a fellow sober person to talk to that evening... continue reading).

Saturday evening was a different story, however, for it was the main graduation party. Seeing as how we were in eastern WA, I'd say it was rather fitting that it was held in an apple orchard clearing, owned by the family of a guy nicknamed Cowboy. They had a keg, HUGE cooler of beer, and once again started a bonfire (this time without the use of gas). I'd say about 70-80 people showed up, but estimating crowds isn't exactly my forte. It was alright... got to meet a few new people that I'll probably never see again, talked to a girl I'd met briefly the night before that's going to WSU this fall, watched people spill beer on each other, do keg stands, beer bongs, etc. I drove a couple of Josh's tipsy friends back to Bobby's to their car, followed them home to make sure they'd be fine, then retired for the night at sometime after 2:30.

Seeing as how my mom wanted to leave at 1 on Sunday, I woke up with enough time to get my stuff packed up before heading out. The traffic coming home was almost equal to that on the way over there (add in A LOT of rain on this side of the mountains), which wasn't making me too happy... but we made it home in one piece. We even had time to check out some of the houses my mom is looking at buying once we sell ours... oh wow those are small yards.

Today, I had to meet my mom at the Verizon store so they would replace my POS phone (the speaker wasn't working so people couldn't hear what I was saying... they replaced it under warranty, for the second time in less than a year and a half). I was going to take Adam with me, so I drove to his house to pick him up, and when I tried starting up my car to leave... that decided it didn't want to work either. After 5 minutes of checking the fuses I know about, we decided to push my car out of the way and Adam drove. We went and got the phone swapped out, so that works (for now), and when we got back my car started right up. I really, really, really hate that thing.

So yea... other than that I've been doing more stuff around the house and yard. I also turned in an application at the movie theater (haven't heard from them yet, surprise surprise), and picked up an application at Old Navy today to be some sort of stock unloader (which is what I'm looking for).

I really hope someone calls me back soon because I really don't want to go back to Hades (aka McDonalds).

It's FINALLY here!

2004-06-02T02:27:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I know it's technically not the day I said I'd post it, but as Peter says, "I don't consider it tomorrow until I wake up" (or something like that). Oh and Peter, you posted your comment like 3 1/2 hours after mine, so you were basically a day early.

So yea... lots to comment/update on. Well, sorta. Let's see what I can remember, shall we?

Ryan: Excellent work on the counter... yes, I think that was deserving of a BOOYAH. Lets just hope the change in visible numbers lasts for a while (you'd have to get it into the 10 billions, so hopefully you aren't TOO bored during your last week). I totally agree with you about the abortion stuff. I always find it funny how on TV shows (take OC for example), they seem to forget about the whole putting your baby up for adoption alternative. There are tons of couples out there that can't experience the joy of creating life... so I think others who either were too stupid (didn't use birth control) or just unlucky (those who did and still got pregnant and other rare circumstances) should at least give them the chance to be parents. Also... honestly, if the girls weren't having sex in the first place, there wouldn't be a problem. Before you say how guys partake in it also, answer this: who has the most control over what physical activities take place? That is directed mainly at those girls that we all know get around, so I'm not meaning to sound as harsh as it probably does. I also agree that more education is needed to teach ALL the risks of getting it on, but I'll end this here.

Peter: I'd have to agree with you on just about all of your lists. Some comments: Raspberries are good, but strawberries are wayyy better. I know all too well about ripping your favorite pants... remember at the Roto before the bball game? Saying the wrong thing... hmm, like SHOES? Country swing dancing is Awesome!!!!! (Notice the capital A). I'm hoping to go sometime here, but we'll see. On another note, is the writing on the chopsticks in French or Chinese?

Ok, so now onto what I've been up to.

I went and visited with my favorite junior high (Mrs. Bell, math) and elementary teachers (Mr. Lorenzo, 6th grade) on Thursday. Always fun times there. I was invited to go help teach junior high kids math, since apparently I was pretty good at it back in the day, so I might do that later today or tomorrow. I also made my sister promise to come visit all our old teachers one day before she moves to Minnesota, so that's what I'll be doing next Friday the 11th (which also happens to be the 1 year anniversary of my graduation. Woo hoo, I know).

I got tired of waiting for my WSU job reference to come in, so I turned in my Costco application on Friday morning. Have I received the job reference back yet, you may be asking. As a matter of fact I did, Friday afternoon. Sucky, but oh well. I haven't heard back from them yet, but there was that whole Memorial Day weekend thing.

Saturday was my aunt Nancy's 40th Birthday so I was up in Port Orchard for most of the afternoon. I got to see my apparently now "ex-girlfriend." Haha. For those of you that don't know, that would be reference to my aunt's best friend who used to jokingly call me her boyfriend WAY back in the day. Why I'm telling you this I'm not quite sure, but I'm sure I'll be getting some crap about it. After that, I hung out with my friend Karli for a bit since she broke up with her boyfriend Saturday morning.

Not much to report about from Sunday, so onto Monday's news. I FINALLY bought Pirates of the Caribbean (on sale for a ridiculously low $12.99 at Best Buy this week. That's $8-10 cheaper than I've seen it since it first came out!). I probably haven't written it on here before, so I'll take the time now: Keira Knightley is ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS. If I had a celebrity crush or whatever they're called, it'd be her. Anywho, after that I went and visited with my friend Ray (I wrote about him a few entries ago). His mom (Renee) married my old baseball coach (Kris), who also has a son Ray's age that is also named Kris (who I also played baseball with). So yea, now that you're probably confused... I stopped by there and got caught up with them for awhile. I even made myself useful and helped create their graduation party invitations. My afternoons are taken up next weekend now because Karli's graduation is Saturday and Ray and Kris' party is Sunday. I can't remember the last time I planned this much ahead... crazy.

Today consisted of quite a bit of housework. Oddly, I was in work mode when I woke up, so I installed a towel bar in my mom's bathroom, put together a little bedframe for my bed (yes, it's actually a bed now), and installed not one, but TWO of those padded toilet seats (look to my mother for that lovely decorating idea, I'm just the resident handy-man). Upon learning that there wasn't much else to do, I proceeded to watch my favorite movie of all time: The Italian Job. That movie makes me want to: 1) put Charlize Theron as my second favorite (aka hottest) actress, 2) buy a Mini Cooper, and 3) become a thief. No worries, the third won't happen... I'll be on the other end of the equation catching thieves.

Now for the random stuff:
I've been having trouble going to sleep lately. I've yet to figure that one out, but I think it's because I have lots on my mind (such as finding a job and thinking about how much I wish I had a girlfriend to confide in).

Since I've been home, I've been remembering my dreams infinitely times more than before, which is very strange. I used to be lucky if I remembered one a month. Now I remember one (sometimes more) a night. They aren't elaborate or anything, but I did dream last night that Costco called me and offered me a job, haha.

I'm going to my cousin Josh's graduation in Othello (it's 25 miles south of Moses Lake) on Friday and will be gone at least the weekend. He wants me to stay for a week or so then come stay with me for a week (like we did last year for my graduation), but details for that have yet to be determined.

THE KENNY CHESNEY/RASCAL FLATTS CONCERT IS 15 DAYS AWAY!!!!!

Feel free to drop a com-bomb, or phone call for that matter. The cell isn't getting nearly as much usage as it should considering the seasonal status, and I'm ALWAYS here to listen to problems or stories, offer advice, or go out and do something (provided it doesn't cost too much).

Speaking of: whoever thought of money needs to be shot.

I really need a job...

2004-05-26T02:42:00.000-07:00

So I still haven't turned in my Costco app yet, but that's because I can't get the job references done. My madre faxed one to WSU today so one of my supervisors can fill it out, but she has yet to get it back. The assistant manager I was going to have do it from McD's hasn't worked since Sunday apparently, so I'm going to go have her fill it out tomorrow. Hopefully I'll turn in my app on Thursday.

Other than that, not much new to report on here. I went to Operation Husky Stadium on Friday night up at the U. You may want to read what Ryan already wrote about that, so see the link to Ryan's Journal on the right. There are a few hilarious moments he didn't mention, though. First: the really animated girl was HISTERICAL. Yanno in hypnotist shows how they tell them to sleep, right? Well this girl really took it to heart. She seriously fell out of her chair, onto the floor, at least 5 times. Once, the hypnotist was making sure all the people were "sleeping" comfortably and she did it so he just kinda walked over her and said, "looks like you're doing just fine." And then, if she didn't fall off her chair, her head usually ended up in her neighbor's lap (which was usually a guy). Another part: the hypnotist made them think that his front was naked, so whenever he faced them most people would turn away or cover their eyes... Not one girl. She instead laughed, pointed at him with one hand, and signaled with her other hand how long his *you know what* was (her fingers weren't very far apart either, LOL). Also, the guy who looked straight at his crotch for the favorite body part bit... fyi: redhead. The hypnotist told them twice that it doubled in size, and he just kept staring in amazement. Then of course, the hypnotist made that fav. body part disappear. He and the others' stare changed to disbelief as they frantically looked for their beloved body part (the thumb guy just bent his thumb down and stared at the back of his hand, haha). When the hypnotist asked the redhead what he was missing, his initial delayed response was "I think you've seen one before." When asked for further clarification, he replied "well it has red hairs on it." SOOOOO FUNNY!

So yea, I spent Friday night up at Ryan's since his roommate was gone. Went to bed after 4 am, slept in until after 1 pm, haha. We went shopping in downtown, I FINALLY bought that pair of blue Old Navy shorts with the number 22 on them... Peter, Laura, and Jessica know what I'm talking about (Yakima Road Trip!). Only like $10 too, sweet deal. Ryan, Lindsay, and I went and saw Shrek 2, which was TOTALLY AWESOME. That is one very funny movie, one that is definitely getting added to the DVD collection when it comes out. Speaking of the collection, I went and bought LOTR: The Return of the King today for $15 at Targét (you have to say it the french way... but yea, I got 10 free AA batteries and a 4-pack of Kettle Corn too. Tight, I know).

After dropping off Ryan at his sweet house and returning my sister's CD's, I made a stop by Quizno's again. I talked to Jess for about 20 mins or so (I knew she was getting off work at the time I was going by there, sweet, I know). For those of you that don't know, I like Jess A LOT. I have since the first time I talked to her last year, and always will. Problem is: she has a boyfriend (It's my curse. No joke.) and has been going out with him for like 3 years now. I know that seems like a long time to most of you, but its kinda complicated/weird. Reasons include: she's only a junior in high school, she just turned 18, he just turned 21, there have been a few short breakups, and the biggie: he's her first boyfriend. According to her, things are kinda on the rocks right now and the relationship part is going to be over soon. In the couple months we got to know each other last year, we grew pretty close so I want to be there for her.

Jess has told me before that she too cares a lot about me (just read any of the 2 pages she wrote in my yearbook) and that if things were different with her and her bf, we would probably be together. As much as I want that, I kinda don't. She has been in one relationship her entire life and for the past three years. She still has another year of HS, of which time I'll be at school at WSU (she told me that if she stays in state, she'll most likely go to WSU though!) I had one long distance relationship last year, and the memories from that are still fresh and scarring. I know I'd be faithful in a long distance relationship, but I wouldn't want her to be tied down in one when she just got out of an extremely long one and could be out having fun. Does that make any sense? I know that somehow, someway, things will work themselves out and her and I will get our chance. Honestly, if I was forced to pick someone to spend the rest of my life with right now, it would WITHOUT A DOUBT be Jess.

Ok, now that that has brought back a whole mess of memories (good ones, mind you), it's time to change the subject. I did some yardwork yesterday... finished mowing the yard (not lawn, yard), borrowed/used a neighbor's yard "scraping" thingy to get rid of some of the moss that makes up part of our lawn, and spread tons of fertilizer and grass seed (so I'm kinda happy it rained today). I also went and bought American Wedding on Sunday night and ended up watching it with Adam and laughing our @$$es off. I also bought The Hunted sometime last week (it was $10, and goes well with Peter's poster), so for those of you keeping track at home, the DVD total is now at 61. I went with Adam to go buy Conflict Desert Storm: Back To Baghdad for his Xbox last night, and we seriously played that until 4 am. Played for another 4-5 hours today... fun game.

Seeing as how I wanted to go to bed 45 minutes ago, its time I bring this to an end.

Since I don't know how to put pictures in this thing, if you want to see a pic of Jess to associate a face with the name or whatever, send me an email.

Oh yea, who decided to go wacko on viewing my blog/jacking up the counter number really high? I believe it's someone from the U, but that could be any number of people.

Have a good week everyone!

Never fear, I'm still here

2004-05-21T01:28:00.000-07:00

So it's been a while, AGAIN. Nothing new. Those two words basically sum up my life since the last update, but I'll fill in the gaps since "nothing new" is rather vague.

Mostly, I've been doing odd jobs around the house to get it ready for selling. Painted my room, cleaned my room for the first time in AGES (its more like I moved stuff into the hallway that I plan on throwing out, but minor detail), sprayed weed killer, installed some blinds, and mowed the lawn (and broke our riding lawn mower because it doesn't move anymore unless you push it). I watched a little TV too, but that didn't help out the house much. It did teach me one thing though, the girls in SheDAISY are HOT!

Moving on... My sister, her bf Kevin, and his daughter Sunshine (Kevin and Sunshine are deaf, for those of you that don't know) came down here on Friday night so she could "clean" her room a bit. I was hanging out with my friend Karli, trying to convince her to country swing dance with me (unsuccessfully I might add). My friend Adam has been over here a bunch also (since he lives just down the street). He recently was accepted into Bates' firefighting school so he's just waiting for that to start (and for his boss to call him into work every now and then). Woo hoo for that!

Today, I went and picked up an application at Costco and have been trying to fill that out as much as possible. I also stopped by and talked with my friend Jessica at her work (Quizno's), which turned out to be very interesting, in a good way. I saw my friend Ray there (I played baseball with him a few years ago), and his girlfriend was working at the time also. I talked to him for like half an hour before he had to go. It was really good to see him and catch up on things. Then, I talked to Jess inbetween customers until they closed at 9 (mind you: I got there just after 7 and didn't order a single thing). There were a couple funny incidents: I thought Jess looked at the door (as though someone was coming in) and then toward me and muttered "Go away" a couple times so without asking, I "went to the bathroom." Seriously, the way she looked and said it I thought her manager or bf/ex bf (its in a weird stage) had just walked in. So I proceeded to look at myself in the mirror for like 7-8 minutes, thinking they'd be gone when I came out. Well... when I finally came out, it turns out she was just kinda saying "go away" to customers that were coming in and she didn't really feel like working. The other time was what Ray's gf, Rachel, said about this other guy that I know that works there. To steal a line from Ryan, the quote of the night was: "Who would want to kiss that?" Good times at Quizno's.

Ok, so its 2am and I have to get up early tomorrow (early for me at least) because tomorrow is OHS at UW! It should be quite the time, for those of you that aren't going, try to find a way in, or call be before 5 (thats when it starts) and Ryan might have an extra ticket for you, but you'll probably have to find your own ride up there, fair warning. Oh yea, I'm trying to install a counter on my blog too, cool huh?

I hope everyone has a great weekend (and that I can finally view my blog... it hasn't let me for the past couple days).

Yo

2004-05-13T03:15:00.000-07:00

So as predicted, it has been awhile since I last wrote on here... but I'm sure ya'll didn't really mind. I've been keeping busy since school got out, so it's all good.

Friday after finals, Peter and I went up to my uncle's in Coeur D'Alene. It was kinda funny because we left at 11:25 and my last final was scheduled to end at 12:10... oh well. When we got there, we just kinda hung out for a bit and went on a 10 minute bike ride (exciting, let me tell you) before heading up to the driving range since we were planning on going golfing Saturday morning and I'd never really swung a golf club my entire life. That turned out be be a bad idea, as 3/4 through my bucket of balls I BROKE MY UNCLE'S $400 DRIVER. Went to hit it, kinda sorta hit the ground before the ball and the head went flying down range like 100 feet... needless to say I felt horrible. It's going to cost about $150 to fix it, fortunately for me he's footing the bill (I believe) but he also has WAYYY more money than I (his house is on 300' of Spokane River waterfront, mine's in the middle of nowhere... you do the math). That night, we had some uber tasty steak and potatoes for dinner, and I watched a little of the movie JFK before going to bed. If anyone wants to surprise me with a present, that movie would be AWESOME ;).

Upon waking up Saturday morning, we realized that it rained overnight, thus nullifying our 9 am tee time. Bacon, eggs, and french toast were the menu for breakfast... it was infinitely times better than Roto I might add. Peter and I just kinda lounged around all morning (he went back to sleep until like 11:30, surprise surprise). We decided to leave at like 12:30 since there wasn't much there to do (bowling was out of the question since there was a tourney at the only alley my uncle likes and the water level of the river wasn't nearly high enough for them to have the boat out). We made a stop at the Spokane Mall, walked around there for a couple hours or so but really only bought food. I drove until we hit Moses Lake, and Peter drove the rest of the way home since I felt kinda tired. We tried stopping by Michelle's and surprising her, but she wasn't home :(, so we left her a note, haha. I got to meet Levi and Jocelyn (sp?) when I dropped Peter off, then came home and unloaded my uber packed car (the trunk was completely full and the back seat was almost piled to the ceiling).

Sunday, I went and talked with a couple friends from work that I hadn't seen since Spring Break and will hopefully get to hang out with sometime soon. After that, I headed off to one of my favorite places: the mall. Despite being there for a couple hours and Best Buy for another hour, all I bought was a polo shirt (which I used to hate but strangely like now) and pair of athletic shorts from Aeropostale... clothes from there would be another good surprise gift idea ;). When I got back, my mom made steak and shrimp for dinner (Mmm Mmm good) and my friend Adam came over and we rearranged my uber messy room. For those of you that don't know, my mom is trying to fix up our house so she can sell it, since for 8 months out of the year it's just her in a 2000+ square foot house PLUS a 3-car garage. I also set my computer up BUT since my mom only has dial-up and disposed of our second phone line, my online time is severely limited.

On Monday, Peter and I went up to visit Ryan at the U. Except for the rain, it was a nice change of scenery. It was really the first time I got to walk around the campus, and it was fun to hang out with Ryan and finally meet Lindsay (Ryan's gf). Lindsay, a few of her friends, Peter, Ryan, their friend Louie, and I ate at their sweet@$$ dining center (it's called "8" since there are apparently 8 restaurants in there). Most of us got these huge bowls of pasta, myself included, but I was the only one to eat it all... and then some. Louie ate maybe 1/3 of his, then poured another 1/3 on my plate which I also devoured... So now I have a reputation of eating A LOT (which is usually followed by questions about how I stay so "skinny"). After stuffing myself silly, we walked down and got some some bubble tea, where us guys played 4-way chess... which is a rather interesting game if people have truces (cough *Ryan and Louie*). By the time I was eliminated by those two, I had taken 2 Queens, 3 Rooks, 3 Knights, 3 Bishops, a few pawns, and I believe I checkmated Peter (aka: I was kicking major @$$). Oh well, it was all in good fun. Afterward, we went and played poker with Louie and his friends... I ended up winning $9, which is A LOT for only a $3 buy-in. Highlight of the night I'd say was my straight-flush, FIRST EVER! I was INCREDIBLY excited, needless to say. We went back and said goodnight to Ryan, who unfortunately had to study, and headed home.

Tuesday, I went into my high school and talked with a few people. First was my senior ball date, Jessica. It had been quite some time since we last talked, which makes me sad because we were pretty close last year. I missed her tons when I was at school, but she informed me that she MIGHT be coming to WSU (which won't be for another year since she's only a junior this year). Then I sat through some sophomore registration thing and talked with my old baseball coach. They scored 31 runs in 5 innings against Rogers earlier this year... yes, you read that right, no typo there. After that I went and visited with Mrs. McKeown (guidance office secretary and awesome lady) and Mrs. Wetherington (my junior high honors teacher, high school newspaper advisor, and favorite teacher). After I left, I went and hung out with Karli (an ex-flame/fling). We went to a park and played a little frisbee, then came back to my house and watched Fight Club. I had never seen it before... very weird movie.

Today, I finally got to sleep in which was nice. Karli called me at noon since the crazy folk at Rogers get out early on Wednesdays, and we ended up talking for about 3 hours, mostly about how bored and broke we were. I did absolutely nothing today, which felt good and bad at the same time. Oh well, it had been quite some time since I last did that. OH YEA! I checked my grades: I got a 3.86 for the second semester in a row and made President's Honor Roll again! A's in Bio and Psych as expected and A-'s in Poli Sci and Gened 111. On another good note, Ryan invited me to come up to the Operation Husky Stadium thing they're having next Friday which I plan on going to (but I have this strange feeling that I have something to do that day, but have absolutely NO CLUE what it is).

So yeah... that's what I've been up to. Visiting with people I haven't in quite some time.

Now I think I'll pay my bed a visit... disregarding the fact that it is really a couch since my mom sold my bed.

Whaddya know: 2 days, 2 entries:

2004-05-06T19:57:00.000-07:00

First off, don't be expecting that trend to continue. I'll be unplugging and packing up my computer here in a bit, then it'll be Coeur D'Alene, so it'll be back to the normal few days gap.

Secondly, this will be my final blog entry of my freshman year of college (sad, I know!). I'm almost tearing up as I type (ok, so maybe not).

I just got back from my Political Science 101 final... Took me 1/2 hour to do 42 multiple choice and 5 IDs, so it was easy stuff. A few tricky questions, but I'm sure I'll pull AT LEAST an A-. One odd thing though: IDs were 20 points each (for those of you that aren't math majors like Peter, that makes 100) and the multiple choice were 7 (for those same people: that totals 294, with a grand total of 394 points). The test was supposed to be 350, so I don't really know what to make of it and I didn't want to stick around and ask what the deal was. Smells like extra credit to me though, and I'm not complaining cuz that should raise my grade to a solid A (it was a 91.2% before the test for those of you keeping score at home).

I have my Bio and Psych finals tomorrow morning at 8 and 10:10, respectively. I'm anticipating those to take 35 (75 multiple choice) and 20 (50 multiple choice) minutes, respectively. I'm probably not going to study much for either of those tonight, since my grades in there are 224/225 and 149/150, respectively. I'm going to be packing all my stuff up and throwing it in my car so Peter and I can basically just leave after my Psych final. If ya'll want to get ahold of me tonight to say goodbye or whatnot, the digits are on the righthand side.

Love y'all. Peace up, A-Town down.

Ok, so this one's for Ryan...

2004-05-05T23:39:00.000-07:00

Yes, it's been awhile since my last update again, no surprise there huh?

There hasn't been much going on in my life as of late besides studying and preparing to move out, heavier on the moving out. I had my GENED final yesterday morning, and I think I did ok. MLK Jr was one of the IDs, so it couldn't have been too bad. As I write this, I'm over at Megan's studying for our psych final on Friday morning. We've been doing more watching TV (2nd to last Friends, OC finale, and now Elimidate) than studying however. That was the theme yesterday too... Went up to my friend Steven's to study a lil for Bio but we just ended up watching TV (Jeopardy Kids Edition! Made me feel smart since I knew all the answers). So yea, nothing really all that new to talk about.... Poli Sci final night (7-9) which I plan on studying for tomorrow. Anywho, gotta go make fun of the girls on Elimidate so more. I'll update ya'll tomorrow after my final, since it'll be my last one for a few day (because of Coeur D'Alene!!!). Good luck on finals or midterms, depending on who you are! Au revoir!

Let's see how much I can type before passing out on my keyboard

2004-05-02T03:20:00.000-07:00

Ok, so its like 3:20 in the morning right now and I decided to catch y'all up a bit. Forgive me if there are errors or it sounds like crap (refer to the last sentence for my excuse).

These past few days have been A LOT of fun. Lets start with (what I can remember of) the old stuff first... Wednesday night, Peter and I watched the OC down with Dori and Deena. They bought us pizza since they sorta invited us over and ditched us last week... The pizza made up for it though, pepperoni and buffalo wings style (it was pretty good!). The drama of the OC is just great... Too bad the first season ends this week. Friends also ends this week, but for good... :(.

Thursday evening was the CRU barbecue/picnic. It was great to be outside on a great day, with lots of friends playing sports or sitting and talking or doing whatever. We went and got our own food to BBQ at Safeway... mmm... steak... Except I didn't have a knife to cut it with, so that made it interesting. Right after we got back from that, it was off to THE BEACH for COUNTRY SWING DANCING! Man, I'm really going to miss that this summer. I can only hope that I remember all the moves and such when we come back in the fall. It was SOOOOO crowded though, since everyone and their mother was there (or so it seemed). I don't think there was a single time when I was dancing that I or my partner didn't get hit while we were dancing, but it was still really fun because all my friends were there. We left there at around 1:20 and headed down the street to Daylight Donuts with Aaron, Alex, and Kathy. Is it odd that a restaurant's hours are 9PM-1AM? I'll let you be the judge.

Friday was the day of review sessions for 3 of my 4 classes. Psych was definitely my favorite class of the day because not only was it the only class I learned new stuff in, but I FINALLY met Megan (for those of you that don't know: we met online through HotorNot and had been talking on MSN for like a week). After class, Erik, Peter, Bryan, and I went and played ultimate... no, it wasn't 2 on 2, we joined a game in progress. I had a couple hard collisions with opposing team members, resulting in a small cut on my lip and I think a minor headache (I've never had one before, so I'm not too sure what they feel like). I was also bleeding from my shin but thats because a scab from ultimate a couple weeks ago opened up. We went down to the Down-Under for the Stephenson South luau (aka free food, drinks, and prize drawings). Peter and I played a game of pool on a slanted table, which wasn't so much fun, and I watched Stephon (my RA) get pied in the face by 5 guys from our floor with whipped cream. Later that evening, I'm sure most of you already know what happened (which may or may not be because of a certain 6'2" red headed fellow that I am living with next year): Megan and I went on a "date" (I'm neither confirming nor denying that, that's just the word that may or may not have been used to describe my evening by that same red head).

We decided to go see a movie, since she was going to go with her friends but they left without her when she was taking another friend to the airport. We made a quick stop at Arbys so I could get a strawberry shake (trés bon, by the way) before heading off to the semi-new theaters to watch "Envy" with Jack Black and Ben Stiller. The movie was kinda cheesy/unrealistic, but still kinda funny. After that, we decided to go to and drive around Moscow, eventually ending up at Jack In The Box. We sat there for a good half hour talking (and I ate a couple Breakfast Jacks), then headed off to show her the house I'll hopefully be living in the next few years. We wound up going back to her dorm and sitting out in the hallway talking until about 3am. So there you have it: all the juicy details (if thats what you choose to call them).

Today, I got absolutely nothing accomplished in the way of studying, but I really don't care. Megan came over at about 3:30 and I showed her my room(s) and introduced her to Peter. After hanging out for about an hour, she left and Peter and I headed off to Moscow to eat at Applebee's! I tried Peter's favorite, the fajitas, which were incredibly filling and delicious. We browsed through Hastings (I would compare them to another store here, but I can't think of any because of the current hour, so: they have movies, CDs, books, movie rentals, video games, and such). Then we came back and went to the the final Nuthouse of the year. It was funny as always... one of the best ways to have a good laugh with your friends on Friday/Saturday nights if you ask me. Then it was Flix with Ben, Laura, and Jessica, where we played some pool. That was about it for my evening... other than hanging out here and talking to people online/playing poker & minesweeper.

So yea... it's now 4:25 and I'm dead tired so I'm off to bed. Tomorrow, I'm going to move my big electronic stuff into storage (which we were planning on doing today, oops) and I need to start studying for my GENED 111 final on Tuesday. Hope everythings going well for all of you and good luck to those of you here that are preparing for finals.

Oh yea, I called my Uncle John today and he said that its cool that Peter and I go up there (Coeur D'Alene) on Friday after finals and hang out for a couple days! WOO HOO!

New and improved but same great colors

2004-04-30T16:59:00.000-07:00

So I hope y'all (I've noticed that word sounds more and more acceptable to me, must be a result of the whole Eastern Washington living situation) like what I did to my blog.

Sorry this one's so short and it's been awhile, but we're going to play ultimate. I'll hopefully catch up later tonight.

C'est trés beau! Au revoir!

Hey Hey!

2004-04-28T00:18:00.000-07:00

Well whatdya know? I'm updating twice in the same DAY (technically not, but you know what I mean).

So today didn't start out as planned, at all. No worries though, it was pretty awesome nonetheless. I decided not to go to work, since that will be what consumes most of my summer. So I slept in until after 11, then got up and hung around in Peter's room for pretty much all of the afternoon talking to people and reorganizing the music on my computer. That kinda took awhile since I have almost 1500 songs... and went through just about every one of them. I didn't end up meeting and playing catch with Megan since she got called into work for a few hours... :(. Oh well, hopefully I'll finally get to meet her in Psych tomorrow.

Anywho, Peter and I went to dinner at Roto and saw Katy, Karissa, Stephanie, and the crew. The food was SPECTACULAR (yes, I know that's hard to believe considering it's Roto). I had flank steak (trés bon), princess shrimp, and caesar salad. SOOOOO yummy. Sorry bout that, just reminiscing a bit. We went and hung out in Goldsworthy in Tom Finn's room, sitting around his gigantic spool table.

After that, we came back here and watched some of the 2nd season of Sex and the City. Absolutely hilarious! I talked to Megan some more before heading up to Regents with Peter to watch One Tree Hill with Julie and Katie. That was fun... "I got you a present... do you want your high-five now or later?" We stopped by McCroskey and got some Jet Teas, then went up and hung out in Michelle and Carla's room and watched most of Shrek. It was hilarious tho, because Katie was going to drive us back, but Peter suggested we do that instead... all so he could get out of the car and not fart in front of 2 girls... CLASSIC. And when we were in their room, Peter was playing with my phone and called Michelle, but he just had it in his lap and kept pushing buttons so Michelle didn't think it was him. She answered it and when she realized it was Peter, she got soooo mad and threw her phone on the floor! It was so great!

So yea, I've been playing poker since we got back, and it's 2 am now... So I'm gonna hit the sack. Not much insightful stuff here, but hopefully ya'll enjoyed it anyhow.

What a fun weekend....

2004-04-27T01:07:00.000-07:00

So I still need to work on that whole updating more often thing... oops.
This weekend was really great. Friday night, I hung out with Katy a little. We went to Dairy Queen, got some blizzards, and saw John, Erik, and Russ there. That was fun, talking about hair (and how I don't grow any on my face, legs, or arms...) and the movie they just saw and how chicken strips cause heart attacks (that was all John). Then I came back and went to the Stephenson formal dance for a while.
Saturday, I had to be at work to setup for the track meet at 7am! That was fun, I ended up mowing the soccer field for the 2nd time in 5 days. (I've certainly never mowed my lawn at home at that frequency). I came back and Peter and I went to the baseball game again. It was a lot closer, but they lost that one too. Kaeo hit a home run and did pretty well the entire series, so that was good. After that, I had to work some more for track takedown... lots of fun let me tell you. I ended up working 6 hours tho, so that means money in my pocket. I got my tax return back too, $104 BABY! Anywho, Peter and I went up to Streit at around 10 to hang out with a couple of his friends from high school, including his 8th-grade girlfriend who was in town visiting from Central. We hung out there until like 1:45ish, sitting in the hallway talking about life and eating some mighty fine popcorn that Melissa made (just met her, she's pretty cool). Oh yea, this Hawaiian dude that was here partying from Seattle U busted the glass on the fire extinguisher and almost got yelled at by this big dude. I kinda wanted to see him get his @$$ beat cuz he's one of those stupid/immature drunks.
Sunday morning, Peter and I went and played softball for the Crim J club end of the year get together. That was sooooo much fun. I really, really, really, really, really, really, really miss baseball. Highlights include: Peter hitting a home run his first AB, a running catch down the left field line by me, and me throwing out this girl at first base from LEFT field. That last one was hilarious... She hit a blooper above the shortstop's head, and I caught it on a hop and threw it from shallow leftfield to Peter, who was standing on first, and barely beat her. She wasn't too happy about that but we certainly got a kick out of it. Our combined team of students and faculty beat the "defending champion" grad students, mighty handily I should add. We had a nice little BBQ there in the park after the game with burgers, hot dogs, chips, cookies, pop, beer... ya know, the works. And no, Peter and I didn't have any beer... or at least I didn't... Peter got a mighty bad sunburn on his neck/shoulders also, since he was running around with only a wife beater and shorts for most of the game. It looked/still looks like he was wearing a bra or something, so as he put it: he was an underwear model.
Since I had yet to start my paper, we came back here and I began my research of finding 5 newspaper/magazine articles published within the past year and dealing with my subject: nuclear waste disposal. Let me tell you... not so much fun. After dinner, Peter went and got his hair straightened by Laura and Jessica... it was.... in a word: different. I really don't know how to describe it, but combined with his sunburn, it was HILARIOUS! He should have pics of that up on his blog here soon, so check that out. Anywho, we watched Viva la Bam, Pimp My Ride, and the new Punk'd (as I had still yet to start the paper). Then after that, Peter borrowed the first season of Sex and the City from Stephon (our RA, who was borrowing it from our hall director or something like that), and we started watching that. Meanwhile, I was talking to Megan online... she's a really cool girl that I met through HotorNot that goes here. We ended up talking until after midnight (I still hadn't written a word toward the paper), and Peter and I ended up watching 8 episodes before he went to bed. I stayed in here and worked, until 7:30 AM!!! Somehow, I managed not to wake him up the entire time, even though I printed out like 15 pages cuz we had to print out our sources too.
After my longest day in recent memory, I decided to take advantage of the 45 minutes or so I had to sleep before having to wake up for class. Only, I ended up turning off my alarm and accidentally slept in until 10:45! Yea... paper was due at 9, so needless to say, I started freaking out. I decided to skip Poli Sci too and just go back to sleep until 12:20ish. Then I went and got my syllabus out of Peter's room and after calling my prof, went to Bio. Despite my lack of sleep and tendency to nap during that class anyway, I managed to stay wide awake. That was more likely than not due to the mocha frap and bag of skittles, however. Afterward, I came back here and talked to Megan and Capri for a little while. I hadn't talked to her in a LONG time, and I found out she's getting married this September, so I'm really happy for her. Other than that, I just hung out until we went to Flix at 10 with Laura, Jessica, and Ben, except for a break for dinner at Roto. After flix, Peter, Ben and I headed back to Waller and played some classic NES. Super Techmo Bowl and Excitebike... ahh the good ol days. We also watched a video of some guy beating Super Mario 3 for NES in 11 minutes, which was ridiculous. Dude needs to get a life if you ask me, but you probably didn't. After also watching the Chapelle's Show with Rick James, we decided to come up with our own nicknames. Ben is now "The Baldness," Peter is "The Whiteness," and I'm "The Yellowness." (Its because Rick James called Eddie Murphy and his brother "the darkness twins" in the show). Yea... then we came back and I talked to Megan until about 2 and just chilled. I got paid for work today too... only $69 and change, but money's money. I'm pretty sure I'm over the workstudy limit now so I'm at minimum wage... sucky.
Tomorrow, I have work and then I'm going to go play catch with Megan/teach her how to throw a baseball. That should be lots of fun... I'm excited to actually meet her in person.
So yea... thats what's been going on in my life for those of you that were wondering and had enough time to read all that. I'm outtie tho, since it's after 3 am and I got 4 hours of sleep last night (but am surprisingly awake right now). Hope everything is going well for ya'll!

Yes, I know there are 24 hours in a day, not 72

2004-04-23T19:32:00.000-07:00

So I've been averaging about 3 days inbetween posts.... and thats just too long. I REALLY need to work on that. At least I've been busy though.
Last night was CRU and country swing dancing at the Beach, always fun. CRU was really interesting tho, because for some strange reason, all the lights went out when the band was playing. Everyone finished the song acapella, which was really awesome. Then cuz of the lack of electricity, they ended it. Final CRU of the year.... considering I only went like 4 times, it was really fun. Definitely going more next year.
Peter's mom had been here since Monday, it was nice to finally meet her. Tuesday, we unloaded bunches of furniture for the house next year into a storage unit, then went for pizza at Pizza Pipeline. Mmm Mmm Good. Wednesday was dinner at Regents with the caesar salad bar, also Mmm Mmm Good. Peter forgot he was supposed to meet his mom too, which was pretty funny but at the same time, kinda not. We watched OC in the 3rd floor lounge, cuz Deena and Dori ditched us... Supposedly it was Dori and her bf's anniversary and they "totally forgot." They said they'd buy us pizza next week tho, so I'd say its all good. Thursday, Morlene took Peter and me out to Applebee's (Thanks, by the way!). It was Mmm Mmm Good (could ya guess that was coming?). Plus, I got to chat with her a little bit and learn some more stories about my good friend Peter.
Today I didn't have Psych, but I don't know if that's good or bad cuz it's my favorite (easiest) class. All the other classes were: boring. I went to the baseball game against Arizona State with Tim, Jessica, and Peter, and Katy showed up a little later. It kinda sucked tho cuz it was cold, windy, and we were down 17-2 after the 4th inning. Needless to say, we lost. We stayed the entire game tho because we were trying to win $200 (every Friday game, 5 people win $200), but we lost that too. Woulda been nice, but oh well.
Peter wants to go check out the bands at Waller and probably the dance there, so I must end this one shorter than planned. Have a good weekend everyone.

I'm still new at this thing...

2004-04-20T00:26:00.000-07:00

So it's been a couple days again... my deepest regrets go out to those of you that were anticipating an update in the past couple days. Hope this one satisfies your insatiable hunger...

Today was an overall great day. Classes were: boring. Surprise, surprise. After class, I had a nice little chat with Ryan about relationships and such. Ahh the drama. I'm so glad I'm not in high school anymore, not just because of that, but because I know I've grown as a person here. I feel like I've learned tons about myself since I've been here, and looking back, I didn't like some of the things I would do or the way I acted. There's my personal thought for the night...

Then I finished ripping my CD's onto my computer. I'm up to over 1500 songs now to go along with my 57 DVDs. Oh wow... Then it was off to dinner at Regents, a nice 15 minute walk up and over the hill they call campus. It was nice... had 5 tacos and 2 cornbread muffins. One of the tacos was a Choco Taco tho, those are bomb! We came back here and Katy showed up a little while later. She only hung out for a few before Peter walked her back and helped someone with math (she picked the right helper cuz if it was english or public speaking... he'd still be over there).

Since Laura and I were both abandoned (j/k), we hung out for a while and talked relationships some more. We were just sitting in her room when Jess came back. I was sitting on her bed, which is in plain view of the door (fyi) but we were planning on scaring her when she got back, so since I felt like being lazy, I just yelled out "Boo!" and still scared her! It was awesome! I was going to hide behind her closet door and jump out, but I think this way was much better.
Then we hung out for a while and Jess decided to create a blog (Look what I started...). I helped her set it up and do all the colors and fun stuff, then Peter came over and brought me a strawberry Jet Tea... YUM! I love those things! Thanks BORB (if anyone remembers what that stood for, could ya remind me?)! Then Peter took over the production of Laura's new blog (it's gonna reach epidemic proportions soon, I'm almost positive). There are links to those on the left if you're interested...

Yesterday... my mom went back home, but not before scavenging Pullman and Moscow for some breakfast. It was good to see her... it's been just her in our big ol' house for almost all of the past 8 months. I drove up to the baseball game after she left, just in time to catch the... rain delay. I almost left, but am glad I didn't. Got to watch my fellow Bethel alums tear up USC. Garrett Alwert pitched 8 innings, gave up only 4 hits and no runs and my boy Kaeo Rubin hit a leadoff homerun (which I didn't see, but that's a minor detail). We ended up winning 5-0 to avoid the sweep. Unfortunately, we may have lost one of our top pitchers (Bryce Chamberlin) for the rest of the season because his jaw was broken Friday morning.

After dinner (Roto of course), Laura and Jessica came over and we watched Minority Report. Good movie... kinda weird with all the futuristic ideas, but good. Then Peter and I headed off to Waller, where he played Ben in some classic NES football. I hung out with Katy and Justin for a while... good times. I wish them the best of luck.

Anywho, the yawns are becoming way too frequent so I think its time to get some sleep. I get to work all day tomorrow, assuming they have stuff for me to do. I need the money...

Oh yea: If anyone knows of a good summer job for me, lemme know! I'm done with McD's.

Ok, so it's been a few days...

2004-04-18T01:38:00.000-07:00

Here you go Peter, and everyone else that was waiting for my first REAL blog:

So I created this thing on Wednesday night/Thursday morning (about 2-3 am) after finishing my GENED Cultural Event paper (woo hoo!), mainly cuz I know summers coming up and hopefully people will care what I'm doing this summer (and cuz Peter and Ryan have one's too, and they're cool guys). I have a few days to make up, here goes:

THURSDAY

Got to sleep in a bit (10:30) which is ALWAYS nice, then went to my third and final psych experiment, so I'm guaranteed a passing grade in that class (have 149/150 points so far and the final's only another 50). The experiment was kinda long and weird, but aren't they all? Then it was off to Bio lab, which lasted a whole 50 minutes of the scheduled 3 hours, and that was mostly because everyone was dinking off while taking the final measurements for our lab report which is unfortunately due on Thursday. Shouldn't be hard though, just actually sitting down and doing it is the boring part. Then came back and inspired Ryan to take a shower at 2 pm. That could possibly the highlight of the day. Keyword: possibly.
After that I went and visited my friend Steven from high school up in Perham. Haven't seen him much this year so that was fun. I tried learning the poker chip shuffle and I was helping him with the Bio report. Peter and I headed off to CRU, which was awesome as usual. The speaker really hit home with everything he said. They sang a bunch of new songs too, and I got to see some people I haven't seen in a while, mainly girls :). We brought Katy back from CRU, and went and got Jet Teas. It had been three days since I last had one so I was beginning to feel the deprivation.
Then it was off to country swing dancing at The Beach... third time I've gone. It was awesome despite the fact that there weren't many people there I knew. I taught Aaron a few line dances, which made me feel like an established country dancer (yea right!), and me and him went and asked a couple strangers to dance. First time for both of us! I'm definitely going to miss that this summer, now that I'm starting to get "good."

FRIDAY

After going to bed at 2:30 because of dancing, had to get up at 8:30 to turn in my GENED paper. Didn't have psych at 10, which was nice. Don't have it next Friday either, for some reason. On the way to Poli Sci, I was giving Dani a hug and she accidentally knocked my CD player out of my hand and broke it... sorta. Once in Poli Sci, my Crim J 150 teacher from first semester came and guest lectured. That was fun... among other things, he brought up some cop lingo. For all you that were wondering, if a cop says FIDO, they aren't talking about their new puppy. It means F*** It, Drive Off. Bio... boring as always.
After class, I tried fixing Dori's computer by reinstalling Windows, but that ended up being a waste. Anyone know why a new computer would always be running at 100% usage? Left there and headed up to the baseball game. On the way, had to stop by work (Athletic Maintenance) and to find a screwdriver so I could fix my CD player. Peter and I sat with Stephon (our RA) and Stephen (his identical twin brother, except his head is shaved) and talked about people walking by and thought up more things that are only considered appropriate when said at a ballpark. One example of mine is: "find a hole and poke it there." I know it's bad, but it's soo funny! Unfortunately we lost, 4-2 to USC, and I had to work afterward. Then... funny story. We got pulled over by a cop after we took the trash bags to the dumpsters. If you want details, get ahold of me because it's late and I still have to write about Saturday.
Then, my mom came and picked me up (well, her friend that she rode here with did actually) and we went to Moscow and ate at Taco Time. They skipped over our order and it took forever so I now have am "Oops" coupon for a free Taco Time combo meal. Score! Now when I get sick of Roto one of these days (we'll pretend that I'm not already), I can just walk down there. Or drive. Drive sounds better. Anywho, we didnt get to do much after that, just came back here and they went to bed. I went to Flix and played Peter and Ben in pool, good times there.

SATURDAY

So I was supposed to be at the track at 7 am to setup for the track meet this morning. Had both alarms set for like 6:30 and 6:35. Somehow, I turned them off and don't really remember doing so. I think I may have thought it was in a dream, and since I don't remember those, that explains the not remembering part. Anywho, I ended up waking up (too many "up"s) at 8:30, and rather than show up 2 hours late, just went back to sleep. Slept in until 11:30, which felt great, then my mom bought tickets for the Kenny Chesney & Rascal Flatts concert at the T-Dome on June 17th. My mom, my sister, Jessica, and I are going... I can't wait! My first country concert! (It'll probably be a little different from the Nelly one last August). I took my mom up to Laura and Jessica's room, since they've been dying to meet her for a few weeks now (I'm still not quite sure why, but oh well). Then it was up to the house next year, didn't get to look inside tho because the people were out of town or something. Can't wait for that either!
Mommy and I headed up to the Bookie next... can you say CROWDED?!?! She got a 1/4 zip sweatshirt and T-shirt and bought me another Cougar baseball shirt. You can never have enough, you know. I talked to Whitney for a while too, that was fun. I felt/feel sorry for her because she had to work all day (8am-6pm), and she has to work all day Sunday too. So I gave her a great big hug and all was well. We headed off to the baseball game, a little late though... got there in the bottom of the fourth. It looked like we had a chance of beating them, until their 4-run inning. We lost 10-7, our third in a row. Not so good, but I'll be back there rooting tomorrow.
For dinner, we went to Cougar Country... my first, but surely not last, visit there. I really liked the food, so it will probably be a frequent dining location in the upcoming years. Then, the showcase of the night/weekend: The Jim Belushi concert. It was pretty fun, considering our seats were pretty far away. He went out in the crowd and was singing and dancing with them, had 4 girls onstage dancing once, and like 30 more during the encore. All the while, stating how much "he loves his job." His band, the Sacred Hearts, was awesome, and the backup singers were spectacular too. One was crazy good at harmonica, the other dude was a pretty good singer, and the girl was amazing during her 2 solo songs (one was "You make me feel like a natural woman"). And yea... thats about it, except for Flix with Peter, Michelle, Kate, and another Stevens girl I don't know.

Ok, so that was really long, and probably pretty boring... hopefully I'll catch on to this blog thing soon. Later y'all.

Woo Hoo!

2004-04-15T01:56:00.000-07:00

So yea, this is my first blog, and I'm mainly just writing this so I can get all the colors down and such.