So I'm pretty much all packed up and ready for the movers to come grab all my stuff tomorrow around noon. All I really have left to pack up is my work shorts, which I'm not really sure how to fold so they won't get wrinkled, and I'm really not in the mood to iron them, again. I also have to strip my bed, back up all my bedding and take the bed apart, and take the mirror off the dresser. Disconnect my TV and take the power strip all that stuff is plugged into and I should be good to go. Fun, huh? It really wasn't as bad as I thought it all would be. The real drama has been in communicating with my roommates and trying to figure stuff out.

Namely, the rent. The lease goes into effect on the 1st, which is tomorrow. So our rent is due tomorrow. I'm moving in tomorrow, so is Shari. The other two girls probably won't be there until Saturday, but just because they're not moving in until the 3rd doesn't mean that they don't have to pay rent on the 1st. One of the girls decided she'd call the landlord to see if it was OK to pay her share separately and I think he nicely told her to take it up with me, since my name is on the lease (lucky me!). She couldn't get the check to me in time and I was going to lay her share out for her, when I decided if need be I'd swing by her house now and pick it up. She agreed to meet me after work right down the road from my office and I took her rent and gave her a set of keys, so that worked out. The other girl is going to be dropping off her check at the house tomorrow morning. So once I have Shari's check I can go deposit it at the nearest Bank of NY. Fun.

So thats about it. I'm shot from packing, but must gather energy as I'm going into the city tonight to see Our Lady Peace at the Bowery Ballroom. Should kick ass. More moving stories next time. I can't wait!

I was awoken at a little after 2 AM by someone who fits the very definition of a moron, which to me is the following. A moron is someone who does the exact same thing over and over again expecting a different result. My phone rang and woke me up a little after 2, and the person on the other end of the line was looking for Dan. I said, sorry, wrong number, no Dan here. They called again and I let my machine pick up, which said who they were reaching and of course they left no message. They called back, yet again, asking for Dan and someone else. I said sorry, you have the wrong number, there is no Dan or anyone else here by that name, its 2 AM, stop calling me. Then they stopped. But was three calls really necessary? How stupid can you be? I mean, really.

Went to work for a little while yesterday to get a new server online. All went relatively smooth and while I was sitting at my desk watching numbers scroll up on the screen my cell phone rang, and guess who it was? That's right, Elena. We chatted for about 15 minutes before she said she had to go, but she said, call me later, OK? Needless to say I said that once I get home I have a ton of stuff to do, and I did, I just didn't do it all. I had laundry and all that fun stuff to do, and I got through all of it, except the ironing. I may try that tonight, or just put it off till Wednesday when I'm home and then all of my clothes will be clean and ironed before I move. So I still don't know what is going on with Elena. First the 2:30 AM call, then a call the next day. I don't talk to Brett or Seth that much, I mean seriously. We shall be having that talk soon, but most likely after my Montreal trip in less than 3 weeks. It'll give Seth and I something to talk about on the way up.

Alright, back to work. I'm not looking forward to going home and packing, thats for sure. I think I'll start with DVD's, CD's, desk stuff, and some clothes. Fun, right? I'll be glad when its all over, thats for sure.

I must say, I had a sneaking suspicion that I wasn't going to have a good time at this years bash, but I'm very happy to report that it was a pretty damn good time, although it definitely didn't start out that way! I got back from my guitar lesson after 2 and sat down to enjoy my usual post-lesson Italian ice (mmmm, they're so good, especially the black raspberry one) when the doorbell rings. It was a little early for people to be showing up, but there at the door was who I guess should be referred to as my older brothers girlfriend and her friend, who ironically enough, was named Elena. And of course Randy was nowhere to be found, as I think he was at the Home Depot getting something, even though he was already there earlier in the day.

So I'm left entertaining his girlfriend, whom I had never met before, and her friend, who I must say was pretty cute, so it wasn't all bad! Randy had asked that I put all these cushions on all the deck furniture, of which there's only like 30 or so, so much that my dad had a shed installed in the backyard to hold all this crap. So I started doing it, and on about the second to last load of cushions, I hit my head really hard on the doorway of the shed because I didn't duck enough. Sucks being tall, right? Well, it really really hurt, and I was feeling my head, it felt wet, and sure enough, I take my fingers away and they're red with blood. Great. I ran my head under the faucet a few times and kept a paper towel firmly applied to the top to try to stop the bleeding.

Lucky me, when I was trying to determine just how bad my head was, my cell phone rings, and its Elena. At this point I was expecting a "Sorry, I can't come speech," but she said that a friend of hers was having a crisis and that she was in the area, so she was going to stop by now, early, and hang for awhile and then go see her friend. I said OK, didn't matter to me. So she came by, and we went to John Harvards to get some jugs of good beer (that unfortunately never got touched) and then to a local beer place to get some ice and two bottles of this really good strong beer that Seth and I had in the city a few weeks back. I was psyched to find it.

So we get to my house and just relax on the deck and Elena eventually says she has to go. I walked her to her car and said I'd call her when I got settled into my new place and she said something like she can't wait to see it, or something to that effect. So since the party then consisted of just me, Randy, Beth and the other Elena, I chilled with them and got to know them a little better. The other Elena was a pretty cool girl. She played the guitar as well, so we talked a lot about them. They kept asking me to break mine out, but I said no way, not until I was much drunker (and I hadn't even had a drink at that point). Brett called a little before 6 and said he, his girlfriend and her sister just got back from the beach, so they were going to shower and head over. I said OK, see you after 9 (which really isn't a bad estimate when it comes to Brett).

People started showing up that my brother invited and it was OK to just mingle with them for awhile. 8:15 rolled around and Brett actually showed up before the estimated time, along with his girlfriend, her sister and Jeff, one of my best friends in high school, but who I haven't seen or spoken to in more than 4 years. So it was really good to hang out with him for awhile. A couple of other people that I was sort of friends with back in high school and who I hadn't seen in awhile showed up, along with Brett's brother and fiance, and eventually Seth and Shari.

So we all had a good time just hanging out and chilling and drinking. I eventually did get drunk enough to break out my guitar in front of everyone, but sadly, Rand's girlfriend and the other Elena had left at that point. My friends and I just hung around, talked and had a good time. Jeff eventually left on what seemed like a booty call from some girl he met that night that we actually went to high school with, and who was friends with one of Rand's coworkers. Everyone eventually left at around 2:30.

Just as I was running upstairs to look at something for Seth my cell phone was ringing, which was really odd for 2:30 in the morning. I look at the caller ID and its Elena. I was like WTF is she doing calling at 2:30 in the morning? I missed the call but she left a voice mail asking if the party was still going on and how it went. I called her back (not drunk dialing! She called me first) and we chatted for a bit and then I went to bed. But what's up with her calling? I could have been passed out in a drunken stupor at that point in the evening, why call so late? I don't get her. We're going to have to talk pretty soon I must say.

So thats the party in a nutshell. Good time. Here's a pic of Jeff, Brett, Seth and myself, who haven't all been together in one room in over 4 years!

Had myself a fun filled afternoon yesterday. It started at about 3 PM when I got an e-mail from Best Buy saying that the air conditioner that I ordered online was backordered for the next 25 days. By the time I got it, I wouldn't need it until next summer. So I had to call and cancel the order. They had nothing else in stock that was helpful, so I called a local appliance store in town, and once I gave them the dimensions of the windows in my room they said they had one left in stock. I told them to hold it for me, which they did, as well as gave it to me at a discount (either because it was the last one and they just wanted to get rid of it, or because my parents bought a ton of appliances from them when they redid the kitchen a few years back). Either way, I now have an air conditioner sitting in its box in my garage for next week when I move.

Onto IKEA, who really pissed me off. I never heard back from them after I placed my order online for a wardrobe and TV stand. So I called and the woman on the phone checked my order and saw that it was ready to be processed, and shipping would cost $250 and it would get there by mid-September. I was like WTF? I said hell no, thats crazy. I live close to an IKEA store, why so much on the shipping? The woman had no clue, but said that she was showing everything I wanted in stock at the IKEA by me, so I headed over there after cutting out of work an hour early (it was dead anyway) and found everything I needed in the self serve warehouse. Weird place. Hopefully I never have to go back. Although I did see some cool chairs with ottomans I wanted for my room if there's enough space. =)

So that was my fun-filled evening in a nutshell, complete with a visit to Seth's parents house to hookup a different wireless router than the one they had because it wasn't working with a laptop Seth's mom had just bought. All good now. Just unplugged the old router and hooked up the new one. Setup the wireless network and she was good to go. Then onto home to hang with the pooch and watch some Sin City before passing out. Fun times.

I'm about to hop in the shower and get ready to run to the bank for my mom, then head down to my house to meet my landlord. Then back home for a guitar lesson and lunch, then out to get some John Harvards beer in some 64 ounce jugs for the party, then its party time! Have a great weekend everyone!

I just realized, well, not just, as I came to this some time yesterday, that this week is the last full week of work that I shall be putting in for the next three weeks. How awesome is that? Next week I'm only working two days, Monday and Tuesday, and taking the rest of the week off to pack, move and unpack (and see two concerts!). The following week I have Monday off for Labor Day, and then the week after that I am taking off Thursday and Friday because its almost time for Pearl Jam in Montreal baby! Can't wait. I have been dying for this all summer long. You have no idea. Or maybe you do if you knew just how big a Pearl Jam fan I am. So thats pretty sweet if you ask me. Now if only this day would end. I have like three hours to go, and its not going to pleasant. Can't complain too much though, as it beats being unemployed.

Plans for this evening involve going home and then going to Seth's parents house to help them get a laptop they bought on their wireless network. Should be a ton of fun. I definitely don't want it to take all night, so I hope it goes smoothly. I need to spend at least a little time at home tonight. I seriously need to practice all the stuff for my guitar lesson just a bit more. I think I'm going to bring in a tune to learn tomorrow too. I think next week is going to be crazy for me that I'm not going to have the time to learn something serious, so a song will suffice. I'm thinking Pearl Jam's "Black" (see, I'm a fan!) I've always loved that one, especially the lyric "I know someday you'll have a beautiful life, I know you'll be a star, in somebody elses sky, but why can't it be mine?" I may have to save that one for my eventual talk with Elena. I have a copy of the song from an acoustic show Pearl Jam did back in 2003, so I may bring that as my reference, as the track off of Ten has just too much production on it. I prefer live Pearl Jam to studio Pearl Jam anyway.

Tomorrow morning I have to go and meet my landlord at the house I'm renting from him. Shari is the only one of my roommates who will be coming with me, as one is in Greece, and the other (attempted room thief!) is going to Delaware for the weekend. I still haven't heard back from her after I left her a message saying I'm keeping my room. I left her another message saying that the landlord wanted to meet as many of us as possible on Saturday, and I never got a callback on that one either. Nice, right?

Tomorrow afternoon I have my usual guitar lesson, then, that evening the shindig at my house. At the moment, the only person I know that is definitely coming is Brett and his girlfriend. Should be interesting if Elena shows up, but she didn't give me a definite answer when I spoke to her earlier in the week. Not a problem. When it comes to her I've decided that I can't think too much about it. Once I get settled in my new place and probably after I get back from Montreal we'll have our talk, where basically all I have to say is that when it comes to her and I it has to be all or none as far as I'm concerned. I can't be just her friend, because I'm always going to want more, or at least now I do. And I'd rather have nothing if I can't have everything, as it will make moving on that much easier.

I've actually been chatting with two different girls online recently, both with the same name, just one lacking a letter where the other has two. Kind of like how you can spell my name with one T or two. Mathew or Matthew. I've always thought Mathew looked dumb, but thats just my own personal bias there. Two girls with the same name could be interesting. I did like that little indie flick Two Ninas which stars Ron Livingston, the guy from Office Space, as a guy dating two girls with the name Nina. It'll be comical! They're both so different, but I like talking to them both. One is 21, the other 32! How's that for a spread. And there I am at 26 right in the middle. Like all things in my life, it should be very interesting.

Sunday I have to go into work in the afternoon, which isn't so bad as I'll take all the OT I can get with using so much vacation time and moving.

Alright, back to work. Soon it shall be over and it shall be the weekend. And there was much rejoicing, yay!

I just upgraded my blog to latest version of Movable Type and so far so good. Hopefully I won't get a bunch of spam now that the new version doesn't have the spam blocking plugin I was using. It looks cool on the back end though.

OK, enough of being geeky. Less than a half hour to go and then only one more day at that! Busy weekend coming up. Moving Out Party Saturday, packing and maybe work on Sunday. Fun Times!

So I've made no progress in packing to move, but the one thing I did accomplish, cleaning my room, should make packing easier. Thats not to say that my room is messy per se, its not. I'm a very tidy person most of the time. But I'm still a pack rat and have been holding onto too much shit for who knows how long. So Tuesday night, I spent a good hour or two, and six or seven garbage bags, going through my closet, drawers, desk, under my bed, anywhere and everywhere really, throwing out stuff that I don't need, will never need again, and definitely don't need to take with me. The rest of the stuff that is left over I will either pack and bring with me, or leave behind (Mark's going to love that one when he moves his stuff into my room, but who cares?). I think I'm going to get started on the actual packing on Sunday night.

I completely emptied out this tall and skinny dresser I have. I think its officially referred to as a lingerie chest, but since I'm a guy and have no lingerie, it's just a tall and skinny dresser. All my bedroom furniture is my ex-girlfriends that got left behind when she left, so I'm sure at one point it was used for women's underwear. Now, it shall be used for mine, or socks or t-shirts, or something, since I'm losing a closet and need as much drawer space to store clothes as possible. I have these two under the bed storage bins that were full of what I like to refer to as my fat clothes. Hopefully, I shall never be that big again, so I figured I won't need them, so I bagged them up to donate to charity or something. If I ever get that fat again, shoot me, it'd be easier.

Speaking of the diet, I've taken the opportunity with my parents in Hawaii and having no food in the house to get back on it in a big way. I've totally stuck to it since Monday, and it feels good. And when I mean stuck to it, I mean zero cheating. The only extra things I've put in my body besides the shakes, tablets, my lunch, and water was one cup of tea at work on Tuesday. Thats it. My goal is that when I move I will have very little use to go food shopping. I'll just drink the shakes for breakfast and dinner and eat lunch at work. Then, when I'm home, since little to no food in the house will be mine, I'll be less tempted to eat someone else's. So that should help too. My goal is to waste away to nothing. Yeah, right, that'll never happen. I just want to get back to where I was, which was nice.

Alright, back to work. Enjoy people.

After a weekend that wasn't nearly long enough, its back to the usual routine at work. Thankfully, despite being just me and one other co-worker today, its been pretty dead here. Compared to the craziness that was last week, I think I deserver a slow week. I'm just hoping the week doesn't drag on endlessly, because that would suck. Party is Saturday night, and despite the fact that it'll probably suck, I'm sure I'll just get drunk and have some fun anyway.

Not looking forward to packing. In fact, I think I'm just going to keep procrastinating in that respect for as long as possible. I think I need to go through and toss a lot of stuff before I get to the packing, so I know that I'm only packing stuff that I need. Sounds like a plan to me. I'll get right on that, tomorrow, or Wednesday. I need to swing by my aunt's apartment at some point and get her kitchen table from her. Then I need to buy two chairs for it too. Fun times. I ordered what I needed from IKEA's website, as the store was a madhouse yesterday. Hopefully it'll come in time, along with my air conditioner.

Now on the really fun stuff. Elena. She called me this morning on her way to be an extra in some indie film in the Hamptons. It was just your usual boring catching up with other chit chat. But it seems that without fail, every time I talk to her I get weird vibes that go in all kinds of directions. Today she seemed happy and back on track with her life, so good for her. But the more this drags on the more it seems like I need to confront her on this. I'm of this opinion, and I hate to make it sound like an ultimatum, because I hate ultimatums, but if thats what it has to be, then so be it. Basically, I don't think I can take being her friend any more. At the time it seemed OK, but there's still just too many feelings there that will never get dealt with if I keep talking to her in a friendly manner. I think to get past her I need to cut it off with her. So basically there's only two ways for this to go, we get back together, which would be cool with me, or we go our separate ways and wish each other well in their lives. I know it sounds harsh, but I think thats what its going to come to. The only thing is I don't know how to talk to her without making it sound like an ultimatum or without making myself sound desperate. Thoughts, anyone?

OK, the day is almost over. Time to go home and spend some QT with the pooch before I'll only be able to see him once a week, if that. I'm not happy about that, but I know its for the best if he stays with my parents. =(

Even though I took a half day on Friday and left at about 1:30, there still isn't enough time in the weekend to get in enough relaxation to recharge for the upcoming week. It doesn't help when I haven't slept all that well either. Hopefully today should be really quiet and boring. My parents left the house at 3 AM for Hawaii, and won't be back for 2 weeks. By that time, I'll be gone as well. My little brother leaves sometime today to go back up to school, so that just leaves myself, and my older brother and Keyser, and at the moment Randy is still at his girlfriends (I guess she's his girlfriend, he doesn't really say much about it.)

OK, so what is new the past few days? On the work front, I have our replacement server ready to go. All that is left is to transfer any data that changes daily and move some hardware from the old one to the new and it should be good, I hope.

Friday afternoon I met Shari in Babylon to check out the house. Its definitely a lot different than I remember from my five second walkthrough two months ago. I didn't even see the room that Shari claimed as her own until Friday, and had I known, I may have fought her on that one (not really, but she got the nicest and biggest room). I decided that I'm going to keep the room we all originally agreed on, only because its smaller than I remember, and the other bedroom in question is even smaller and I don't think it would fit all my stuff comfortably. As it is I'm having a hard time imagining my room setup. My only pet peeve in that arena is I have to have my dresser on the same wall as my bed, because I don't want to see myself in the mirror while I'm in my bed, its creepy, especially if there was a girl in my bed with me (lets just say I made that mistake once, and it wasn't pretty). I have the room measurements and measurements of all my stuff, I'll figure it out.

I'm hoping Randy will want to head over to IKEA with me this afternoon to check out some armoires. I'll need one to store my clothes in, as my room has no closet. I'm also going to need a new TV stand, but thats not a big deal. I'm not going to go crazy with a huge entertainment center, I just need something big enough to hold my TV, DVD player, cable box and Game Cube, thats it. Thats about it on that front.

Had my guitar lesson yesterday and it went well, and long. It almost went an hour, when I only pay for a half hour, so I feel kind of bad that I only paid for the half hour, but honestly, I don't wear my watch when I go or play as I'm afraid it gets in the way. This week I'm working on the opening to John Mayer's "Why Georgia" which as my teacher put it, its both harder and easier than it looks. OK. Also working on the intro to Tonic's "If You Could Only See" to work on getting my rhythm back after a few weeks of not really focusing on it, and damn do I need to get it back. I'm also just working on some ska chords from Sublime's "Santeria" as practice for that. I'm supposed to do a full up and down motion with the pick in my right hand, but only hit the strings on the upstroke. I'm not too good at it, so a little practice will be nice.

Last night my parents and my brothers and I drove over to the apartment/house to check it out, but only from the outside and we grabbed some dinner and a restaurant/bar that is right around the corner from my place. Like a five second walk, no joke. And there's a branch of my bank right next door. Not a good combo if you ask me, but oh well. Food was good though, so thats a bonus. Then we all headed home and I passed out. From what, I have no idea. I've just been tired all weekend. Maybe it was all the shopping I did yesterday with my mom. I used her last day in the lower 48 to get her to pay for any odds and ends I thought I would need. Only thing we didn't get was an air conditioner. I may just order one online.

Thats about it over here. Going to try to relax today. Hopefully buy some stuff I need, then enjoy the series finale of Six Feet Under and the latest installment of one of my favorite shows at the moment, Entourage. Have a good rest of the weekend everyone!

I have this odd, sneaking suspicion that my dad is a little too eager to get rid of me. I still can't believe that I move in two weeks, but my dad gave me a check today to cover the cost of the movers. Add to the insane, more than I needed amount he gave me to kill off my credit card debt, and a little bit he gave me to cover my security deposit and you can see why I might be of this opinion. I know thats not the case and that he's just trying to help me out as much as possible, but still. I'm grateful, as money was going to be just a bit tight between my paycheck tomorrow and my paycheck on the first of September when I move in.

The craziness continues as work, but hopefully it'll get better in the next few days. I'm hoping things go smoothly with what I have on my plate. Prayers on my behalf to whatever deity you believe in are greatly appreciated. Between work and sorting out things for moving, its just a wee bit stressful. I'm going down to the house with Shari on Friday to take a look at it, empty, and take some measurements and decide whether I want to keep the room I have dibs on, or if I want to let my housemate A have it. I'm inclined at this moment to keep it, I just don't want to cause any problems before we move in. She called me today to give me the number of the houses owner and I guess that makes him my new landlord. He wanted to one of us, according to the leasing agent we dealt with, so since my name is on the lease, or maybe because she just didn't want to deal with him she passed it off to me.

I called the guy up not knowing the first thing to expect, and he was surprisingly very nice. I don't know why I was expecting worse, maybe because the leasing agent was just so damn ambiguous about everything, that I had the feeling this guy would shoot down a lot of what we wanted to do. He said first off that he apologized for the state of the house when we saw it. He said the old tenant and her kids were just a little bit on the slob side. He said that had he known the place looked that bad that he wouldn't have shown it to anyone. So they're sanding down the hardwood floors and refinishing them, replacing the fridge, oven and stove. He also said that him and his wife will be in town towards the end of next week, and that he wants to meet with us. So that'll be cool. He said he wasn't too big on the idea of moving the existing door, but would have no problem with us hanging a new one, as long as an experienced carpenter did it, and thankfully thats my parents best friend. So all is good.

OK, time to relax for the evening. More craziness tomorrow to look forward to.

Wow. I've barely had time to catch my breath for the past two days at work. We had an application server crash and spent a good chunk of Monday trying to fix it, get a replacement part that may or not fix it when it came in, restore a partial backup from Friday or Thursday night and pray it had what we needed and order and configure a new server to replace the broken one. Thankfully the replacement part came in, we installed it and the server came back up. The only disheartening thing is we did the exact same thing less than two months ago when it had the exact same problem. Hopefully this one will last long enough to get the replacement into production. We shall see. Regardless, the last two days have been quite busy, and hectic, but at least have gone by pretty quickly.

Unfortunately I wasn't sure what time I'd get out of work on Monday, so I had to cancel my get together with S. I'm not sure if I'll even bother rescheduling, as like I said, I just wasn't that into it in the first place. Besides, I have bigger things on my plate at the moment, like work and moving. I move in two weeks, and I haven't even begun to think about packing. I have my mover set, and I have boxes to pack with. Now, all thats left is the packing. I spoke with Shari yesterday and today and we're going to try to get into the house on Friday to check things out, take some measurements, that kind of thing. I need to order the cable tomorrow morning, as well as call the realtor guy to see if we can get in to do what we need to do.

Also, on a similar note, the living with women thing just got its first strike against it today, well sort of. One of my future roommates, the one who I have the most degrees of separation with, I shall just call her A for now to protect her identity (for those wondering, I know Shari, Shari works with K, and K is friends with A, so thats the chain), called me today to talk about a few things. Shari and K are taking the two rooms upstairs, on the third floor, so there are two rooms on the second floor. When we all went out to dinner we decided that A would take the official bedroom with a closet and I'd take the living room and just convert it into a bedroom. That would involver moving a door onto the empty door frame and buying an armoire, as there's no closet. Well, A called me and said she was able to get into the place to take measurements and whatnot and she decided that she likes my room better, and has better ideas for decorating it than the room she agreed to take. I was like, huh? I told her I'd tell her if I was OK with switching after I get to have another look at the place, because honestly, I barely remember my one and only walkthrough.

But, according to A, the place looks nice. They refinished the wood floors, and are replacing all the kitchen appliances, not just the fridge. Turns out the people we're renting from eventually want to live there, so thats why they're doing it while there's no one in there. I don't know how I feel about someone trying to steal my room.

I had plans for it too. A claims that its not much bigger than the bedroom she was going to have, and each room has its pluses and minuses. But we'll see. I was kind of hoping that my room would be big enough for like a futon or something, so it could be like a bedroom/living room. I don't know, I wanted someplace to relax and watch TV and movies and play videogames and play the guitar that didn't involve my bed. Why? I don't know. I just do. So we'll see after I take a look at the place. Technically, I had first dibs on it, and I did shoulder a whole lot of risk by putting my name on the lease. So we'll see. I hate to pull that card out, but dammit, if I want that room, it'll be mine!

Alright, I'm exhausted. Going to relax for the evening.

Learned a new technique in my guitar lesson yesterday, finger picking! Basically, its what it says it is, instead of using a pick, you pluck the strings with your fingers of your right hand (or your left if you play lefty, but I don't.) Its kind of interesting as it allows you to play somewhat differently, like hitting two strings on opposite ends at the same time without having to mute all the other in-between. It took a little getting used to, but I have a few things to practice using this new technique, including snippets of The Beatle's "Blackbird," Collective Soul's "December" and Led Zeppelin's "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You." No way to intimidate someone thats been playing the guitar for only two months than to get the Led out and try to imitate, at best, Jimmy Page, guitar God.

In the meantime I made the mistake of ordering a few songbooks for some of my favorite artist on Amazon, and damn, its a lot harder than I thought. I'm not going to get discouraged though. I mean really, what did I expect? Two months and I can pick up a book and play some Pearl Jam? Hell no. Thats some complex shit, or at least it looks like. I thought I'd fare better with Dashboard Confessional, since its mostly simple acoustic stuff. Acoustic, yes. Simple, no. Although only a pro can just pick up and play. Us mere mortals have to actually practice. And practice I shall.

In other news, two and a half weeks until I move. I need to get in touch with my housemates because I need to order cable service (really, its the only thing thats important to me!) and we never made a clear cut decision on that front. I sort of know what we loosely agreed upon, I just don't want to order too much and spend other people's money like that. I'll have to call Shari on Monday and see if we can't organize a get together and maybe even check out the house to take measurements and whatnot. Should be a blast.

Plans for today? I need to shower, get my car washed, practice and veg. Sounds like fun, right? Have a great rest of your Sunday everyone!

Isn't that a title of a women's self help book, "He's just not that into you?" Damned if I know, but thats about how I feel about my current lovelife, or really lack thereof. Details are as follows. I have been talking to this one girl, I shall call her S (Thankfully not the same S from a few months back. I don't even want to be reminded of her, or I may get ill), and I've been talking to her online via IM and e-mail and a few phone calls for two or three weeks now. She wants to meet up on Monday, as she's leaving for Vegas on Tuesday. I said I would, I'm just not excited at all by it. I figure I owe it to myself to at least go and see if there's anything there, and at least if there isn't, I'll know, and if there is, bonus for me. I'm just not feeling psyched about it at all. So there's that.

Then there's still the wonderful Elena situation, which I feel has been talked about to death amongst my co-worker, my friends and most of all here. I still don't know what to do. My co-worker was saying to think long and hard about whether or not I'd want her back, and I think that if she came to me and said, "I want you back," I'd take her back, but I'm definitely not going to put myself out there again like I did that night on the train. While I was proud of myself for expressing how I felt, it just sucked to get shot down after laying it all out there. My co-worker thinks I should sit back, play it cool, not always be available to her and let her come to me. She still thinks we'll be back together by the end of September. The last few times I've spoken to her or she's left a message for me, she doesn't seem to be too happy. About what, I don't know, but I'm not going to act overly concerned about it. If she's not happy, she's not happy, its that simple.

I ordered and picked up some diet stuff from her mom yesterday and we started out with the usual chit chat of how are things. I said a little crazy and asked if Elena mentioned to her that I was moving, she said no, so I told her all about it. I guess she must've turned around and told Elena that I called and placed an order, because two hours later she called my cell (I missed the call, but not on purpose) and left a message stating that she was able to get off of work the night of my party (great, so far the only two people that have RSVP'd yes, are her, and Brett, and Brett hates Elena. Fun times), that she was generally having a bad day, and wondering if I have the DVD I made for her to drop off when I pick up my stuff. I knew I was going to swing by her house on my way home, and purposely left the DVD on my desk. My name is not FedEx, not anymore. She called again, and this time I did miss the call on purpose, but left no message at about 4:30, just about when she was probably driving to work. I left her a message on my way home saying it was cool she got off of work, and that sorry, I left the DVD at home amongst a pile of crap on my desk. Have not heard back from her yet.

My co-worker thinks that once I move out of my parents house, and especially without Keyser, Elena just may come around. I'm not going to bet my life on it, so we'll just have to wait and see. What does everyone out there think? I know I ask this all the time, but I really am that clueless. In the meantime I'm just going to play it cool, even though I hate to play these stupid games to begin with.

I apologize for the lack of any recent entries. I could say I've been busy, but thats not entirely true, its more like a half lie, and I just don't like not being completely honest with people. I have been a little busier at work than usual for a summer, but at least it helps pass the days, in a good way. Been kind of busy at home too, getting ready to move and whatnot, but there are also periods of time with very little to do except pick up my guitar and strum.

I went into the city last weekend to hang out with Seth. We met up with another friend of his, actually the guy I went to U2 with, grabbed some pizza and headed uptown to this bar Seth likes to frequent called The Dead Poet. They served this beer called Three Philosophers, which is thankfully brewed right up in Cooperstown, NY, near the Baseball Hall of Fame. After drinking one bottle of this stuff, which is like 28 oz, with a 9.6% alcohol by volume (most beer has like 4 or 5) Seth was ready to plan a trip to the Hall of Fame and the brewery all in one weekend. Good stuff, huh? After one more beer which we really shouldn't have had (it was weaker, but not weak enough) we headed back to Seth's place where I tried to sleep on an uncomfortable sofa in an un-air conditioned living room. Not fun. Seth fared worse as the too much strong beer caused some dire results.

The next morning we were both useless so I figured I might as well get home and to my nice comfortable bed in my air-conditioned house as soon as I could. Seth actually called me last night to say he was pretty much useless all Sunday, which I found rather comical. I just chilled out for most of Sunday, trying to get some rest after a long Saturday night. I was still out of it when I woke up yesterday and was greeted with the morning from hell at work. I got through it though, so its all good. Today is better, so I'll take it.

On the personal front there is no news. I haven't really spoken to Elena, aside from an IM here and there, in about a week. Which continues to confuse the hell out of me, but I'm trying not to think about it, and even when I do, I think that I should just try to move on as best I can. I did hear some good news from Seth that one of my future roomies broke up with her idiot boyfriend. I met the guy when we went looking at other houses, and the thought of him hanging at our place, a lot, bothered me. Not that I'd ever try to get with a roommate, its just a bit of good news, thats all. In the meantime I've been talking to a few people online, not sure if any of it is going to pan out, but we'll see.

All I know is, the end of the month can't get here soon enough, which reminds me that I need to call the mover after I sent him measurements of all my stuff to get a quote.

Have a great day everyone!

In terms of a few things, I think I'm almost there. Its almost the weekend. Wednesday is almost over, and it'll be Friday afternoon before you know it. I should have my car back from the body shop today if all goes well. That would be nice as I'm sick of driving Mark's truck around. He's in LA on a class trip at the moment, for the next two weeks actually, so at least I have something to drive. I'm just used to my car and don't like the slow pickup on the truck. It rides nice, but its got no oomph, no power, you know? I gotta really slam on the gas for it to do something, whereas in my car if I tap the gas the wrong way I get a nice burst of acceleration. I guess thats just the difference between a big GMC Envoy and a little VW Jetta.

Its almost the end of the summer. And this summer has sucked. In less than a month I shall be moving and I cannot wait. Enough said there.

Thats about it with the almost stuff.

In other news Elena called me on Sunday night and we had a nice long talk, about 30 minutes. Most of it was about the usual BS, nothing of substance, although I felt that I was doing most of the talking, about how good things are now that I'm moving soon, now that I'm playing the guitar. Stuff like that. I'm still getting a weird vibe from her. She was either really tired or unhappy when we spoke, and I think it was probably a little of both, even though I was the only one audibly yawning as we talked. I asked her how her audition for the tour of Wicked went and she said she didn't even go. She only had one audition this week, today in fact. I just think its weird that two months ago she was so happy going to all these auditions and now she can't even be bothered to go. She's not going to get a role and pursue her dream like that. But thats her life, not mine. I have enough to worry about. I'm still going to see what happens as the time goes on, but in the meantime I'm not going to put all my eggs in one basket. A week or two ago I renewed a subscription or two to some dating websites and I've been talking to someone, just through e-mail in IM, but so far so good. More details to come as things develop.

Alright, back to work for one more hour!