So I leave for the airport in a few hours and I cannot wait. I'm a little worried about getting a good comfortable seat on the plane, but I'm gonna try my best to get them to give it me. I mean, come on, I'm 6'5" and a big guy, and its my birthday on Friday, if I don't deserve it, who does? Seriously.

So I'm so psyched about going to London to see Elena again I can't even put it into words, so I'm not going to. I'm gonna go grab some lunch, come back, kill some more time, change out of my work clothes into plane clothes (no pun intended, or maybe there was) and head to the airport and begin the long wait that is checking in, waiting to get on the plane, waiting to take off, and waiting to land. Its a lot of waiting. Waiting sucks, especially when you're amped to go see the woman that you love.

So, I'll write back when I have more to say, or maybe when I'm in London, or maybe when I get back. Not like it matters, who reads this anyway? Adios.

Current music - Hoobastank "Crawling in the Dark" (Acoustic)

Well, yesterday was painfully boring and today looks to be more of the same unfortunately. I've done exactly one thing of substance today, and it was the exact same thing of substance I did yesterday, just to someone else's PC. Other than that I'm working on installing a new Virtual Server to replace one we already have. Nothing more interesting than installing Windows 2000 Server on the thing, something I've done so many times I could do it in my sleep.

So, I can't wait for Wednesday night, and more importantly Thursday morning to get here. I can't wait to see Elena. You have no idea. I'm pretty much all packed up aside from the last minute things like razor, shaving cream and toothbrush, and a frozen loaf of pumpkin bread. I know its going to be an exhausting weekend, but I think its going to be a blast. Can't wait to celebrate my birthday with Elena either. I have no idea what she has planned for me and whatever it is I'm sure its going to be great. I'm just happy to be spending the time with her.

Other than that I have to go home tonight and pack up my carryon bag which is the trickiest part. Have to pack enough stuff in there to keep myself occupied in the airport, the flight, the tube, the train, etc, but not too much that its way too heavy and a pain in the ass to carry around. I know I'm bringing my laptop, iPod, some books, my herbalife tablets, digital camera, charger and cables for my gadgets and whatnot. Other than that, maybe a DVD or two even though I doubt my laptop has enough juice to play a whole movie.

Besides if I have to sit behind someone, and my plan is to get to the airport early enough so that I don't have to, I won't be able to open the laptop if my life depended on it. I hate flying coach. Good thing is after this flight and after my miles get processed from my credit card I may actually have enough miles to go business class next time. My dream realized. How pathetic is that?

Oh well, back to work and trying to find something to keep myself occupied with. I'll check in tomorrow with the final countdown. Adios.

Current music - Bush "Everything Zen"

Ok, hopefully the shortened holiday week will help the time at work pass by faster, but I doubt it. Its dead here at work so far, and its only 10 AM. I don't have a good feeling for the rest of the day, or the other two I have to endure before I head to the airport to jet over to London to see Elena.

Once I get to London I'm going to have to navigate the Underground, or tube as they call it, to get to the London Bridge train station to hop a train to Elena's flat. She's leaving me the key so I can drop off my luggage, take a quick shower, then head back to the train station to hop a train back to London Bridge, and then catch the tube to her school and hopefully get there by her lunch break. We'll see what happens.

I'm pretty confident in my navigational skills and in my overall excellent sense of direction that I'll be able to find my way to everywhere I have to go without a problem, so I'm not worried. And I'm OK with the fact that Elena is going to be busy with class and rehearsals that I'm not going to be able to spend the bulk of my time there solely with her. Its all good. I told her as long as I have her for the evenings, one of which is my birthday, that whole Saturday and Sunday until I leave, I'm happy. Besides, she'll be home two weeks after I leave anyway. And if being apart from the woman you love for three months has taught me anything, its that two weeks is nothing and can fly by. Thats a pay period for me.

So thats where we're at right now. I have about 48 or so more hours to kill and then I head to JFK to board a plane for jolly old England. Can't wait. I'm out for now!

I leave for London in a few days. In fact in a week from now I'll be in London with the woman I love celebrating my birthday. I cannot wait. Its going to be a short trip and Elena's going to have class and whatnot but I think we'll still have a great time together. I think it'll be a good little breather for Elena and then she only has two more weeks of school and then she'll be home for 4 weeks, which will be good for her and us I think. I miss her like you wouldn't believe, but I deal with it because I know in the end, when she finally comes home it'll all be worth it.

That's about all I can think to say right now. I'm psyched to be going to London and hopefully the next few days will fly by. One can hope. See ya.

Well, paradise with the new laptop is over. It's flawed. Its developed the infamous white spots that have plagued other new 15 inch PowerBook owners. I went to the Apple Store over the weekend and they said to wait until there is a definite fix and a quick turnaround time to send it in. I thought about and said F-it. I called Apple today and they're going to send me a box to send it back in. I'm going to wait until after Thanksgiving and then I'm going to mail it back to them to get fixed. And while they're at it I want them to take a look at the hard drive as well and it clicks for no reason and is really annoying. Other than that, I love the thing, still.

I bought a cool set of JBL Creature Speakers to go with it. They're silver and match the aluminum of the laptop nicely. And, they look cool, with some green LED's on the bottom of the satellites so it kind of glows in the dark, goes along with the ambient light sensing screen and keyboard. I think thats the coolest. I can see what keys I hit in the dark, thats just too cool. I mean, I'm sitting in the dark now, watching Joe Millionaire (guilty pleasure, can't help it), and I can see the keys perfectly and I know I'm hitting the right ones when I want to. It's great.

Anyway, I leave for London in like 9 days and I cannot wait! I miss Elena sooooo much and I just can't wait to see her, despite the fact that she has class and rehearsals and such, but thats OK. As long as I get to spend those nights with her and that Saturday together, and the night of my birthday, I don't care. Its going to be awesome and then she'll be home two weeks later. I really need to kick my planning for my little shindig into high gear though. Get the final guest count and whatnot. We'll see what happens with that. I know I can just turn it over to my mom and she'll take care of it. She lives for this type of stuff. Lives for it.

Anyway back to the trash TV. Adios!

I'll be in London in two weeks and its my birthday in two weeks and damn I can't wait. Not like I'm getting anything for my b-day. Actually all I'm going to ask for is cash for my trip because thats all I want and need. Everything else I want in life I somehow manage to buy myself because I can't stand waiting for things. Hence my recent purchases, laptop, laptop bag, RAM for laptop, new speakers for desk, new cell phone and who knows what else I've bought recently. I'm sure my credit card company does.

Anyway, so I can't wait to see Elena. I know it will be good for her and for me too. And then she'll be home two weeks after that. I'm putting together, with the help of my mom, a bug dinner party thingy with every other couple we know so that everyone can get together and have fun and Elena and I don't have to worry about not having the chance to hang out with someone while she's home. It'll be fun, I hope!

Anyway, got a long night of work ahead of me tomorrow as we move some people to new offices and I finish moving mailboxes from our old Exchange server to the new one I generated weeks ago. Not many left, then I need to retire our old Exchange servers and consolidate. Its confusing and geeky, but its my job, so I think about these things. Enough said. Adios.

Can't help it, you can't help thinking about the people that you love. Especially when those people are thousands of miles away from you and you can't see them everyday. I worry about her. What she's doing, if she's OK, if she's happy, if she's safe, what she's thinking about, if she's thinking and worrying about me too. Its hard. It really is, but I know that we'll get through this.

I must admit though that I've been worrying a little more about her lately. I know its not easy for her being in a strange place and doing something as intensive as graduate school. I'm sure its even harder for her because she's the only American in the program and I hope her classmates don't treat her any different for that. I doubt it, but from what I've heard from Elena it sounds like some of her classmates on treating her different because she's more talented than her, and thats a pain in the ass thing to have to deal with.

Elena's there to improve herself, just like all the other students. She can't help it if she's got something talent wise that they don't. As a result, some of her classmates and supposed friends haven't included her in some things. From what Elena told me it started back earlier in the semester and has just escalated. I know it sounds petty and cheap, and I know thats just human nature, but thats just a shitty thing to do, plain and simple.

Elena says that she has to get used to it because thats just the way the business is, but that still sucks. She shouldn't have to be made to feel like an outsider because of a difference in culture or talent level. I hope it all works out for her because it makes me feel bad that she's unhappy and having a hard time.

I just hope I can brighten her up a little when I go see her in two weeks. I know she'll be busy with end of the term rehearsals and stuff like that, so we won't get to spend as much time together as I'll be there for, but thats OK. I understand that she's there for school and thats more important. Then two weeks after that she'll be home for the holidays and I think it'll really do her good to be home amongst friends and family that love her, to not have to worry about school and everything else. To just relax and recharge. It'll be good for her and good for us.

Anyway, I'm going to stop babbling here. I just can't help it. I love the girl more than anything in the world and I just want her to be happy with what she's doing. I know it will all be OK in the end, but I can't help worrying, thats just me. All I can do is support her as best I can and make her feel as comfortable as possible away from home and everyone. I'm just good like that, or so I'm told.

OK, seriously I'm done.

Current music - Jewel "This Way"

And no I'm not talking about Mc Donald's, even though that's their new slogan, even though its retarded and asinine. I'm loving the powerbook obviously. I've been using it at work as my sole machine today. I just use the remote desktop connection to remote connect to my PC at my desk and its like I'm there, almost. So its very nice.

I thought I had some problems with the hard drive making a weird noise, but according to Apple its fine, powerbooks make noises because they're so small and everything is so tightly packed away in there. Its all good.

What's even better is that in three weeks from now I'll be in London with Elena. I can't wait. I know she's going to have class for the first two days I'll be there, but thats OK. I just want to spend time with her and I have to watch her rehearse for school its fine with me. I like watching her perform because I know its something that really enjoys doing with all her heart. And then she'll be home for like 4 weeks. I have my cousin Lauren scoping out Elena's Christmas present at a Tiffany & Co.'s by her in D.C. Once I get the OK from her I'll go ahead and place the order for her. It's nice, enough said.

So thats about it. Gonna have a very geeky weekend filled with computers and computer related activities. Going to see the Matrix Revolutions with Randy tomorrow I guess. Then I have to redo XP on my old PC for my mom and my mom's old PC for my Grandma. Nothing more fun filled than installing Windows on old hardware. I love it!!!

Speaking of old hardware. I reinstalled Panther on my old iBook last night in preparation for giving it to Seth and man it was slow and it just sucked. Don't know how I ever used it so much or for so long. This PowerBook is a dream compared. You have no idea.

And thats all thats in my head at the moment. Adios.

Current music - Hootie and the Blowfish "Time"

So far I'm loving the new laptop. Its awesome. Everything I thought it would be and more. Well worth the year or so of waiting. Way to go Apple, you rock! I now know just why people are fanatic in their devotion to a computer company no less. I mean, my iBook was great and I love my iPod, but this thing just kicks all kinds of ass, plain and simple.

Only downside to the thing is this, I need a new laptop bag. My backpack that I got back in February just isn't going to cut it. This this is way to wide to fit in it. I mean it fits, just the wrong way. And after spending practically $3000 for this thing I'm going to treat it right and make it last. Plain and simple. The bag I'm looking at though will probably run me close to $250 after all is said and done. Plus the company makes iPod cases and I really need a new one of those since the last two I got sucked after the original one that came with it broke. We'll see. I plan on giving Citibank a huge payment that should cover this beast and then I can spend a little on the peripherals.

I also need some cool looking but good sounding speakers and I've been looking at the JBL Creature Speakers. They look cool and come in silver to match the aluminum of the laptop and they're not too expensive, under a hundred from Amazon. Then the last thing I think I need is some more RAM, but I think that can wait awhile. The 512 is working just fine right now, unless I run Virtual PC, but I think that's going to run like ass no matter how much RAM I have. I mean, I have one of the fastest G4 processors you can get, not the fastest, but one of the fastest and Virtual PC says I'm using a PII 300 MHz. OUCH! Oh well. I just need it to check my work e-mail because I can't seem to get the Citrix client to function correctly on a mac. Oh well.

So now I'm going to go back to watching the Next Joe Millionaire. I don't know who is worse on this show. The women, who are all money grubbing euro trash whores, or the guy, an idiot cowboy from Texas. Should be entertaining. Adios.

From my new 15 inch PowerBook G4 baby!!! I'm so psyched! It's a sweet machine, thats for sure. The keyboard is so comfortable to type on, so unlike my brothers wannabe imitation PowerBook Dell laptop. The speed is nice but I'll definitely need to bump up the RAM to a nice even gig soon enough. Haven't tried messing around with the Superdrive to burn a DVD or even a CD yet, but I am liking the built in Bluetooth. No more USB dongle to get my mac to talk to my cell phone, and that I like! Gots an 80 gig hard drive in here that should take a good long while to fill up, unlike the 20 gig in my iBook that was pretty much at capacity. I just can't get over how beautiful this machine is. I love it! It was worth the wait and then some!

So, had a very pleasant evening out last night. Seth and I took Brett and his new fiance out for dinner and then some post dinner beers to celebrate their engagement. I'm happy for Brett, I really am. Christine (unfortunately the name of my ex as well) is a great girl, and I actually like her, unlike his previous girlfriend who I couldn't stand because she was a little child. Very immature. Anyway, it was good to go out, celebrate, act like adults. Seth and I treated and as much as Brett protested we wouldn't let him pay. I said he can treat us when we get engaged, which came out really bad because I made it sound like Seth and I were going to get married. I had to quickly rephrase, but it was all good.

Seth even has something cooking in the romance department. He went out with this girl he's actually known most of his life on Friday and they had a great time. I'm hoping for the best for him. Elena thinks its a shame he's not dating anyone, so hopefully now he will be, and good for him.

Thats about it for me at the moment. Gonna play around on my PowerBook for a good chunk of the day. Adios!!

Current music - Billy Joel "A Matter of Trust"

Hopefully it will be from my new PowerBook. I'm going later this afternoon with Seth to the local Apple Store and hopefully they have the top of the line 15 inch Aluminum PowerBook in stock so I can just walk out of there with one, and a couple thousand dollars poorer. But thats OK. I've been wanting a new computer for a long time now and I figure that now I'm working, and working my butt off I deserve a little sumpin sumpin for me, you know? I know if the ex was around there would be no way I could get away with spending a few grand on a laptop, but thankfully she isn't. And, although she doesn't care about these things, Elena is excited for me. She knows how bad I want one and she's happy I'm getting what I want.

In a few weeks I'll get something else I want, seeing Elena! I can't wait. Its like three and a half weeks until I go over to London again and the days can't go by fast enough. I'm not looking forward to the whole flying thing, but you do what you gotta do, you know? Its the necessary evil. Too bad there's no more Concorde. It may have cost 10 grand just to go round trip, but I think its worth it if you can make the flight in 3.5 hours instead of 7 and not sit in coach! Thats just me though. So I'll see Elena soon, and then two weeks after that she'll be coming home for the holidays and whatnot and that should be good. Always nice to have the person you love more than anything in the world on the same continent, country, state and county as you, ya know? So, its all good.

Should be going out to dinner tonight with Seth, Brett and his fiance. Its weird to think that one of my best friends is going to get married. I knew it had to be one of us eventually, just didn't think it would happen before I turned 25. I'm just glad it wasn't me with the bitch. That would have been bad, very bad, like crossing the streams bad. But I'm happy for Brett. He's in love, they're perfect together and hopefully they'll have a very long and happy and healthy life together. Thats all anyone can ever really hope for. So cheers to them.

I don't feel like typing anymore now. Going to go back to watching movies from Netflix, my new cool thing. I love it. Beats buying DVD's and I'm too lazy to go to Blockbuster. Adios!

Current music - A Perfect Circle "3 Libras"