Friday 4 January 2002 // 1630 EST

Seeing: Amusing local bands on a baltimore stage

Hearing: NewOrder -- True Faith

Touching: A new keyboard and new monitor...now if only I can keep them both clean

Tasting: Bacon Cheeseburger Hamburger Helper, Mixed veggies, and Cheddar and Bacon AuGratin potatoes.

Thinking:

Whoa, I totally vanished for a VERY long time. Sorry about that, shortly after I wrote last finals took over my life and I managed to finish my next-to-last semester in college happily and having passed everything I needed to, and actually having brought my GPA up a bit, thank goodness. Anyway, finals took over, and then the end of the semester rush happened, and then the holidays came around, and we all know how that goes. This is probably the beginning in a long list of updates I'll wind up doing. I'm trying to get things in shape around here, when I get home, if I have the energy, I'll play a little dress-up with my digital camera and take some more interesting pictures of myself to put on the splash areas of the site...some of the pictures around here have been deemed "drama queen"ish, and to be honest, I think they're right, I mean some of the pictures are kind of eh. So it's time for a little sprucing up.

So where was I? Final exams were, of course, a stressful time, what with me having to be up in the morning way earlier than I should have to be in order to take my mother to werk in the morning...yeah, I'm still ferrying my mom to werk at like 830 in the morning and then coming home and killing time and being bored until I managed to get to class, and lately she's agreed(without asking me, of course) to go to werk earlier, so I have to wind up taking her in earlier than normal every day, which is a pain in the ass, if you ask me. Anyway. Finals happened and the semester ended, it's been an interesting time what with trying to keep things together with the Electronic Dance Music Club even though they can all be a bunch of spoiled brats sometimes, and organizing a party at the Edge Nightclub for the EDMC on the 19th of January. Either way, the club has become, in a lot of ways, a pain in the ass, because no matter how hard you try you can't make the little whiners happy, but to be honest, I do it because I love to throw parties and I love the music, and that's what it's all about to me. I'm not losing any sleep over the whole Edge fiasco, which I'm not even going to go into here, it's just not worth it. If you're really interested check out the EDMC list archives and see for yourself. It's rather retarded and egotistical, so be forewarned.

In other news, I've been spending a lot of time with Katie, hanging out and doing fun stuff, mainly because noone else really wants to chill, and that makes me happy that we're getting along so well, she's a cool chica when you clear out all the stuff that gets in the way. We've been chillin a lot lately, and while her apartment is an absolute total mess, it's part of her charm, and I'm in the process of egging her on to this art duel thing she's really interested in that we stumbled onto one night trading links over AIM...we managed to find HalfProject.com, a designers' site, where one of the features is this kind of dueling designer thing where you start with an image and then you toy it up and do some fun stuff with it, and send it back and forth...so right now it's my turn and I have to think of something to do with the image I have sitting on my computer at home...in the meantime I'll try and distract her from the whole issue with a cheeseburger or something.

Same with Vixen, I haven't talked to her in a long time and the two of us just started talking again sort of...it's nice to hear from her. She got a new cellphone, so I'm allowed to nag her more often...that girl, I swear, she's going to wind up in Colorado at some point in her life...send her out there for one week to visit her mother over the holidays and she has a life-changing experience. I wouldn't be surprised if she moves out there the first chance she gets. Oh well, she's a sweetie most of the time ::giggle::, and I miss spending time with her. If only we both didn't have to werk our asses off to make ends meet.

The holidays were nice, Shiny Things Day(also known as Christmas) was a huge success, I got some cash I desperately needed and some other things from my parents that were horribly useful(you know, socks, more socks, some aftershave lotion I thought they didn't make anymore, so that was good, etc...), but it was my friends who managed to come through with the interesting and amusing gifts. eMily bought me a chinese character rubber stamp set, so I can sign my letters with the symbol for wisdom or something of the like, so that was really nice, but the killer was that she sat down and drew a tribal phoenix, colored it in, and then framed it...she's going to sell me her scanner, so as soon as I get my hands on it, I'll scan the beauty in and put it online just before I put it on my wall. Katie bought me Paul van Dyk's Columbia ep, 2 records full of absolute yumminess, of which I managed to make sure I played two tracks of on the air this afternoon...it was amazing. I got some great Christmas presents.

New years was nice too, I went down to First Night Annapolis street festival, I saw the street performers, caught some music, some interesting stuff going on at the docks, some music and some comedy, drank lots of cocoa, watched the firewerks and laser show at midnight, and all in all had an excellent time. After that we hit a liquor store, got plastered, and slept it off till the day after....it was such a wonderful New Years...way to ring in 2002! I kept telling people that if New Years was any indication, then the rest of the year will be wonderful.

In the meantime, I'm still looking at having to move out of my house soon and everything, my parents are still leaving for their house in York in April, and I'll have to find a place to be, at least until the end of the semester, when I graduate and will most likely move into Rob's townhouse next to Arundel Mills Mall...sounds like a perfect place, I really should get out there to see it sometime. I'm entertaining the idea of buying a new car, but I suppose I'll keep driving my little Volvo until it drops out on me...I've kind of had my eye on a Honda Accord EX or maybe a Civic Sedan...something four door and nice, something fast and powerful. Let me know what you think. The only down side to looking at a Honda is knowing that you can't drive it ANYWHERE, since they're the brand of car most likely to get stolen or broken into...yeah, how much does that suck? Anyway, I'll keep shopping and keep you posted. If you have any suggestions, let me know, I'd love some suggestions. I was thinking Mitsubishi.... maybe a Galant, but then you have to worry about having a relationship with a dealer, cause random people don't know how to fix Mitsubishis...you can't take it to the closest place and get it looked at, you have to take it to a specialist. Bleh. Oh well, damned if you do and damned if you don't!

In other news, I'll be getting around to all the other updates very soon, hopefully tomorrow, when I have a chance to get my shiny new monitor up and running and I can play with a bigger screen...this 15 inch has got to go, heh. I managed to get myself a new keyboard, I just need the software to make the hotkeys work...but it's yummy and quiet and I like it. Now I just need the deskspace for it. Ah well. Today was payday and I have a few bucks in my pocket, hopefully my bills will get paid and everything, and it'll be good-I made a killing over the holiday, I suppose they give us bonuses or something, and that's really cool, heh, now I can pay all my bills, buy eMily's scanner, and have a little cash leftover. Good good. But right now, I'm dreadfully hungry, and would love something to eat...wish I had a beer or two. Maybe I'll run out and hit over a liquor store and grab a few. To be honest, I wish I had someone to run and hit a diner with...ya interested?

By the way, if you want to know if I made any New Years resolutions? Well, essentially I'm going to reaffirm my commitment to the resolutions I made last year, and through them do everything little I want to do...through them I'll do what I want, live how I want, be who I want to be. This year is going to be full of opportunities and possibilities from the getgo, and I'm going to take hold of that. It's going to be a great year.

In still other news, I like pie.