All I can say, is thankfully there was an extra hour thrown in for sleeping this weekend, or I'd be in worse shape than I already am. Exhausting weekend, thats for sure. Friday night I went out with my brother and some of his co-workers to see my guitar teacher's band play. They're just a cover band, but they played all good stuff and they were highly entertaining. My teacher said the next day that I really shouldn't take them for their musicianship or anything, and just whether or not I had fun, which I did. Although as for musicianship, my teacher rocked like it was nothing. The guy's got talent, thats for sure. Now if only it'll rub off on me! I know I'm making progress at the thing, and I'm not going to be able to shred like Pearl Jam's Mike McCready overnight, but its good to know I'm taking lessons from a guy that can really play. Makes me feel like its not a waste of $20 every week. If only my wrist would start feeling better so that I can play more. I tried for about an hour last night and it killed when I was done. I'm going to the doctor tomorrow, so hopefully it'll start feeling better once I know whats wrong with it and how I can correct it.

Other than that, it was a pretty dead weekend. I got new tires put on my car on Saturday. It was my birthday present, early. Yay, just what i always wanted, tires! I really did need them. When I got my car last December it came with these ultra performance summer tires, which, as the name would imply, suck in the snow. And we had one hell of a winter last year with storms. Now that I'm out of the parents house, I can't bum rides or steal my mom's truck anymore, so I needed better tires. The ones I got are still ultra performance tires, but they're all season, so the tread and traction should be greatly improved. They better, thats all I'm going to say.

So this should be a relative easy week. I'm taking all of tomorrow off to go to the doctor, as well as Friday. I'm going to see Nine Inch Nails on Thursday at Madison Square Garden with Seth, and I'm really looking forward to it. It should be the last, in a long list of concerts I've been to this year, so I want it to be one of the best. I know they'll deliver. Last time I saw them was in 2000, at MSG as well, and Marilyn Manson came out to finish a song and then they did The Beautiful People, really cool.

Alrighty, back to work. Fun fun fun.

So I think the heat in my house should be OK going forward. I fought with the oil company yesterday to get someone out there between the hours of 6 nad 9 PM, and no one ever showed. I call at 9:05, pissed as hell, and they explain to me that a technician came, no one was home, and that the only thing they can do is re-setup the service call for the same evening, between the hours of 11 PM and 2 AM. I argued and got pissed some more, just trying to make sure that someone would in fact show up when promised, and out of the deal I got us a $50 credit against our account. Bonus! So the tech shows up at 12:30 AM, takes a look at the thermostat, and then I lead him down into the cellar to look at the burner. Turns out, the wires leading from the thermostat in my room to the burner were touching where they connect, so the circuit was always complete, meaning the burner was always on. Nice, right? Seperate the wires, problem solved in two minutes. Meanwhile we had to suffer through two nights of sweltering heat. I had all 4 of my windows open full blast and the thermostat was barely below 80. Crazy.

Then there was a mini-meltdown by one of my other roommates (room stealer!) because the cleaning lady came and left and I saw it all happen. The doorbell doesn't quite work in our place and it tends to buzz a lot, so I disconnected it. They must've tried to ring it, no one answered, so they left. I was in my room at the time getting changed after work, so I was half dressed, with both of my doors closed. I saw them get in there car across the street and get ready to drive off. I couldn't chase them down, as I was half dressed, and there was no way they'd hear me if I screamed, as the church across the street was being landcaped, so all I heard, and quite loudly was lawn mowers and power blowers. So they left, my roommie gets home and throws a fit on the phone, getting all upset. "I don't know what to do?! The house is a mess! When should they come back, when can they come back?!" I just sat there eating my cereal and trying to ignore the drama. Then, she asks me to call back since I was the one home and I missed them. I said to myself, no way. I've had enough phone drama with the oil company (with more to come), I'm not having anymore. She came back in and apologized, and asked what we should do. I said I don't care, as I'm more concerned with living in a house thats properly heated than whether or not my floor needs to be swept. She dealt with it in as an adult-like manner as possible, and the cleaning ladies should be back today. They better not steal any of my stuff, namely my guitar, or I'm gonna be pissed!

Speaking of, I still can't really play. I made an appointment to see the doctor on Tuesday, so hopefully that will yield some positive results. In the meantime, I'm going to see my teacher play tonight with a cover band he's in. I'm sure it'll be fun. And, I made my first payment towards my Guitar Center credit card. My guitar and amp are no 1/15th mine! At just 14 more payments of $112, it'll all be mine! You do the math and you can see just how pricey it all was. But, still cheaper then the cost of just one Gibson Les Paul.

Yeah, so my heat was fixed yesterday. Turns out the air needed to be bleeded from the radiators on my floor of the house. Once that was done the heat was flowing nicely through every radiator on the second floor. The only problem though was that we couldn't shut it off, or turn it down. The thermostat is in my room, and although it was set to below 60, it was reading around 80 in my room. I had to open two of my windows to get some cool air in, because it was stiffling. I woke up this morning, showered and when I went back in my room to get dressed I was sweating to death. Out of control.

So I called the oil company that we have a service contract with and they tell me that since its not a no-heat emergency, the soonest they can send a technician out to us in Monday. I nearly flipped out on them. We're dying in there, wasting oil like there's no tomorrow, and you're telling me Monday because we still have heat, just too much of it? Crazy. I called back furious and after being on hold for 15 minutes, the woman went to talk to her supervisor, who agreed to send a tech our way tonight, between 6 and 9. That guy better show up and he better fix whatever is broken, or I, and three women are going to be pissed. I wouldn't worry about me, but I've seen what pissing off those three can do, and its not pretty!

In other news, my wrist is still killing me. I'm taking medication, icing it, applying heat and wrapping it in a sort of immobilizing thing, all to no avail. I played the guitar a little yesterday, but when it started to hurt too much I put it down. I made an appointment with my orthopedic doctor for Tuesday morning. Hopefully its nothing and it'll heal soon, as I find it really annoying to live with. They know me quite well in that office as I've had plenty of broken bones in my time, along with my knee surgery, which was almost a decade ago. Damn, I'm getting old. I hurt it 8 years ago and it seems like it was just yesterday. That sucks.

So I think the situation with the roommates is going to blow over. I spoke to one of them last night, the one that stormed out of our roommate meeting saying she wasn't going to pay the full rent. She said she realizes that I'm the one who gets screwed, so to be fair to me she'll pay the full rent. She just refuses to make the check out to the landlord. She said she'd give me the money and I can pay. I said thats not too helpful as it takes time for that stuff to clear. I suggested making it out to cash instead, and that should work, I hope. She also said my other roommate was feeling the same way, so hopefully I can pay my full rent on November 1 without incident. That would be nice.

Another nice thing to have would be some heat. The oil burner was finally fixed and switched on yesterday and I came home to heat at the bottom of the stairs. I went up the stairs to my room and read the thermostat, and it said 60, even though it was set to past 90. I probably cursed quite loudly at this point. I went upstairs to Shari's room, since she was home, and her thermostat was set to 70 and was reading about 70, and it was nice and toasty in her room. So the heat worked on the third floor, just not the second. Nice. I called the oil company, and they were supposed to send someone last night by midnight. Never happened, although when I went to leave for work I saw a "Sorry we missed you" thing hanging from the front door knob. I rescheduled for this afternoon and I'm leaving work early to go meet them, and hoping they show up and fix the problem, because its starting to get cold.

Also, my wrist is killing me. I don't know how I hurt it, either moving computers at work, or playing the guiar, but it kills. My mom got me a prescription for some anti-inflammatory drug, but its not helping. I've tried ice and heat as well to no avail, and an ace bandage for good measure. I think I just need to stop playing for a few days and let it heal, which isn't fun, but I do need my wrist to function correctly, you know?

The weekend away from my house went well and was quite good for me. I chilled out at my parents all day Saturday, got drunk by myself Saturday night while I watched the Rangers lose (damn you!), then hung around until about 4:30 on Sunday after my brother got home from his wedding. I took the opportunity while I was home to get all of my laundry washed and ironed (thank you Mom!), get some groceries and caught up on a few TV shows (thankfully there are things like BitTorrent, as all of my shows were on my cable box, way away from my parents). So all in all, very relaxing. Then I packed up my stuff and headed home into who knows what.

When I got home there was only one roommate there and she was getting ready for a date. She commented that it was getting chilly and asked if we could turn the heat on, if there was heat. I explained the latest to her. Our oil burner is now repaired. Unfortunately, the gas burner that the guys downstairs use is still waiting on a part, that should be coming via UPS today and installed tomorrow. Normally that wouldn't be a problem, but both burners are connected to the same emergency cut off switch. So the switch can't be thrown until the other burner is fixed. Which will hopefully be tomorrow. So only one more night and morning being a little chilly. Lets hope it doesn't start another war, as everyone seemed to be much calmer. Hopefully the weekend did everyone a little good. We still can't talk to the landlord again, as Hurrican Wilma is currently pounding his general vicinity. So we'll see what happens in a few days. Thankfully rent isn't due until Tuesday of next week.

In bad news, my wrist is killing me. I don't know what the hell I did to it, but I can barely move it or lift things or generally do anything without ther ebeing pain. Unfortunately, this is my left wrist, which is my fretting hand on teh guitar. So I can't really play too much without it really hurting. All I can do is play stuff where I don't have to move my wrists so much, just my fingers, but those are no fun. I want to try new stuff, that involves a lot of motion, now that I'm getting good. My mom is going to ask her boss, my doctor, what he thinks and if need be I'll come in after work for him to check it out. I need a flu shot anyway too, might as well get that too. I hope it goes away soon, because it really hurts and its taking away a major joy in my life, and thats my guitar. I just finally figured out how to overdrive my amp too, unfortunately it causes the tubes in the back to run really hot, but I guess thats why they call it overdrive.

Also, I don't think I'm going to go out with that girl again. We went on two dates, and while they were both fun, I had a good time and she's a nice person thats great to talk to, I'm just not feeling it, you know? Whatever IT is, I'm not feeling it. So oh well. I was going to give it one more date, and that would've been last Friday, but I was so out of it from the situation with my roommates that I didn't want to go out. I figure I won't reschedule date three, as its probably just going to be a waste of her time, my time and someone's money.

In the meantime, there is always at least one prospect on the horizon, and I'm definitely looking forward to Friday night, when I'm going to go see my guitar teacher's cover band play at a local micro-brewery. Should be fun. He said they don't really play any Pearl Jam, but just for me, the guest of honor he jokingly called me, they just might.

Alrighty, back to work. Have a great Monday everyone!

Mostly because I'm sick of talking and thinking about the situation with my roommates. I figured the best thing to do was to get the hell out of there and clear my head. I talked to my dad about it and he suggested that the best course of action would be to talk to the landlord again in a few days when cooler heads can prevail (and preferably when the hurricane stops hitting Florida, where he's located). If after that conversation he's still an ass and we still feel strongly that our rent should be adjusted, we send him a nicely worded letter explaining our position and along with some legal stuff to back it up (I found this extensive tenant's rights guide on the NY State Attorney General website). If he doesn't evict us, he'll probably just take the money out of our security deposit (which basically equates to us paying full rent this month anyway, just not now). But if we follow that route, the two of us (Shari and myself) which have expressed the desire to stay past the year, probably won't be able to. Again, we all just need to sit down and talk about it some more and hopefully a few days past the situation and we'll all be in a more reasonable mood.

So in the meantime, I'm at my parents house, chilling with the dog. I also had some errands to run around here this morning, like get my haircut early, so I figured it would be best to be here anyway. I also went to Best Buy with my dad to buy new portable phones for them, then had my guitar lesson (great again, so much more fun with the electric), then onto Petco to redeem a free dog food coupon and get Keyser a new name tag as his old one was MIA (the ring that attaches to his collar got way stretched out and they all went flying, only his rabies tag was found and I need to get a new one with his microchip number) and then lunch with my brother's co-worker after my guitar lesson. I got her taking lessons from the same guy, so we meet up afterwards. This time it was with a friend of hers, who's cool, but a little odd. Regardless, it was fun. We grabbed some lunch at John Harvards and I got a 64 oz growler of Pumpkin Spice Ale to enjoy tonight while I watch the Rangers game.

I was going to go home tonight, but my older brother is at a wedding in New Jersey for the night and my parents are going back to Brooklyn to see my aunt, so Keyser would be by himself all day, which isn't good, so I was going to come back anyway, I figured might as well save gas and just stay the night again. Shari and Seth are in DC this weekend, so its just the two roommates who are refusing rent at the house, and I didn't want to be around them. I barely said hi to one before I packed some stuff and came here. Fun, right?

My guitar lesson was great. I learned some techniques for lead playing, like bending notes. You basically jam your fingers way up to change the tone of the string as much as you would a fret or two down the neck. It was fun. I brought in a Ramones song that Pearl Jam does, and the chords are easy, I just wasn't sure of the solo and I thought we were going to work on it, but my teacher started writing something else out. I was like, the paper says this. He goes, "Don't worry about a Ramones solo, you're already a better guitarist then Joey Ramone ever was." I said, "Don't you mean Johnny Ramone? He was their guitarist." He said something to the effect that they weren't that talented, just wrote catchy songs, and I replied have some respect for the dead! All joking around of course. I mentioned that the Pearl Jam concert in Montreal was the one year anniversary of Johnny Ramone's death and that Eddie Vedder dedicated the show to him. Joey died a few years prior of cancer. Sucks. But great lesson anyway!

So the plot thickens in my and my roommates problems with our landlord and how he handles things. We finally have our hot water back on, after going a week without it. And there was much rejoicing, yay! And that was followed by a whole lot of bitching, mostly from two of my roommates, neither of which are my friends girlfriend. I think she's sort of on my side, which is a good thing.

Basically, the two bitching are refusing to pay the full amount of rent that is due come November 1. That leaves me in a very delicate position. While I agree with them on principle that we shouldn't have to pay the full rent, we can't just deposit less than our rent and expect nothing to happen, just because we want it that way. I spoke the landlord, and he wasn't willing to give us a discount, so the way I see it, especially because my name is on the lease and I'm the one liable, we should pay the full rent. Yeah, it sucks. But life isn't always fair and you can't always get what you want. Thankfully I have my signed guaranty agreement amongst myself and my three roommates that basically says, they have to pay their full share. If they default, the remaining, non-defaulting tennants have to make up the slack equally. And then I can sue them to get the money back. So if two of them think they can each knock $125 off their share of the rent, that means its an extra $125 Shari and I have to pay, or an extra $250 I have to pay if Shari just wants to pay her share and nothing more.

Its all a big mess, and I see it getting ugly. They still want to talk to the landlord, and they can if they want. He probably won't talk to them, and me talking to him was like banging my head against a brick wall, so I really don't want to go through that again, because its just not worth the frustration. So, if the two bitching refuse to pay full rent, I'm not comfortable shorting the landlord and risk getting tossed out or legal action. For the small dollar amounts we're talking, its really not worth fighting, but I still have to live here for 10 more months and maybe longer and really don't want to burn any bridges.

We'll see how it plays out. Worst case, since my name is on the lease, when he issues the security deposit back, it will go to me. Before I divide it up to distribute to everyone else, I'll take what they owe me out, plus interest. So either way, they're out the money, its just a question of whether they want to pay it now or later.

Its all just messed up and has put me in a really fowl mood. I don't even think I'm going to stay there tonight. I may just go to my parents house. Shari is going to DC for the weekend, and that leaves me living in a house with two people that are about to screw me over. No thanks.

I paid about $100 for two hot showers. Outrageous? Yes. Worth it? Yes. Would I do it again? Hell no!

I have been without hot water in my house/apartment since Friday morning, so thats one week or 7 days, depending how you cut it. Thats a long time to go without hot water and take cold showers. More like cold hair rinses as thats about all I could stand to subject myself to. Top that with the fact that the oil burner in my place doesn't work right either, and the house has been pretty much inliveable for a week. The only downside to that is that we have been living there, despite the problems. Had we all picked up and left it uninhabited for a week, then we'd have a leg to stand on for requested an adjustment in our rent.

So the story is this. Tuesday night I got home from work, and there was no hot water, still. So I got packing with enough stuff to last me through the end of the week at my parents. I had just finished packing up my car when I spotted a guy packing up stuff into a plumbers truck. I went over, asked if he worked on hot water heaters, he said yes, I asked if he could come and take a look at mine. He did, said he'd be back in an hour to fix it and I went back inside all jubilant and triumphant that I had saved the day and gotten our hot water restored. He came back, fixed it, I wrote him a check out to cash for the $100, got a receipt and went on my merry way. Sure enough, 45 minutes later, I took a hot shower, at the cost of $50. The next morning I woke up earlier than my roommates, took another hot shower, for the other $50. My next roommate got lukewarm water, and the third (the fourth was elsewhere) got cold water.

Turns out the caretaker went down to the basement later that night to start pumping out water and noticed the hot water heater gushing out water, so he switched it off. The hot water I got the next morning was whatever was left in the tank. So I proceeded to call the caretakers and explain again that I had no hot water. I called my landlord later in the day to air my grievances about the whole situation, he just chalked it up to natural disasters and the environment of the south shore of Long Island. Not only was he unwilling to adjust our rent for living in an unliveable house, but he wasn't willing to reimburse me the $100 I shelled out either. He said its his house and he wants to use people that he trusts to do the work. Problem is, his people suck. They don't show up when they're supposed to, do a half assed job, and generally just suck. I really couldn't get a word in with the guy. But basically he said if I wanted to expedite things and use my own guy I was free to do so, but that I shouldn't expect him to pay for it. I mean, honestly, his plumber sucks. It took him a month to fix the drains in our shower and bathroom sink, that was nasty, so who knows how long it would take to fix the hot water heater.

Turns out, he never did, the gas company finally can take credit for it working. The same plumber, who my landlord grew up with and has been friends his whole life with, supposedly fixed our hot water yesterday. I got home from work, no hot water. I got home from a date, no hot water. I packed clothes for work and went to my parents for the night. The plumber came back today, to again fix it, and it wouldn't stay lit. The gas company that deals with the guys next door heat, finally replaced a bad part or two, and as I last checked in with Shari, we had hot water. Lets see how long it lasts.

Last night one of my roommates, Karen, the one who has trouble remembering who I am, was livid. She was ready to call the landlord and curse him out, thankfully I don't think she did. We still have to live there for 10 months, I don't think its the best idea to burn our bridges. I spoke to a real estate lawyer in my firm today and he said, if the place was really inhabitable, the only way to even attempt to get an adjustment on the rent is to not live there. As for my $100, since the hot water is back on its not worth pursuing it and ruining my relationship with my landlord over it. Going forward if his plumber or anyone fails to get things fixed in a timely fashion, we can take it upon ourselves to fix it, send him a letter by certified mail explaining it, along with costs, and deduct it from the rent (or at least thats what I understood of all the legalese). It sucks, and I'm out $100, but I've learned my lesson. Next time something major breaks, like the hot water or heat, I'm just going to call, explain that its broken, pack up some stuff and go to my parents. Thats it.

Its so frustrating, but at least I have hot water again. For now. Who knows how long it will last. The heat is another story. We reported a problem with the oil burner two weeks after we moved in, its been a month and they still haven't fixed it. Heat only comes out of one vent at the bottom of the stairs, and thats it. Its going to get cold really soon around here, and we better have heat, thats all I have to say.

I apologize for the lack of updates. Its been a little nuts around here the past few days. In short order, there was a monsoon for about a week that caused massive flooding in the cellar of my house (thankfully we're on the second floor), but that caused the washer and dryer to become inaccessible, as well as knocked out the hot water heater. The oil burner still isn't working at the moment, and the hot water hasn't been turned back on yet, so we're without heat and hot water, so basically my house is almost unlivable at the moment. If I don't have hot water when I get home, I'm packing up some stuff and going to my parents, because I can't live like that. I think I may have to call my landlord too, to just air my grievances, and ask how he can compensate us (mainly in the form of discounted rent, so we'll see about that, it should be a fun conversation, thats for sure!)

The lack of hot water really sucks. It started Friday, and I basically just washed my hair and that was it. Saturday and Sunday I went to my parents house to shower. I spent the whole day there on Saturday, doing laundry and whatnot. I couldn't really shower yesterday or this morning because of the freezing cold water. I could barely bring myself to get my hair wet enough to get the gel out of it from the previous day. Nasty. I just want it back on, then we can worry about the heat. One of my roommates really needs to call the oil company to setup a contract for the winter. They've been so lazy about it. I'm not doing it because I already have the lease in my name and the cable bill. Another roommate has the electric and gas bills in her name, and Shari has already done plenty as far as the house goes, like finding it! That just leaves my attempted room stealing roommate, who doesn't seem to want to do anything except complain (although she did find a cleaning lady for cheap!), but how hard is it to call and set it up. I would do it, but out of principle I refuse. Hopefully someone did.

In other news, I had a fun filled day on Friday. I basically worked for like 2.5 hours, got an IM from Randy saying I needed to drive my mom into Brooklyn because her uncle was in the hospital and her aunt was a mess because of it, and the fact that she has intestinal cancer on top of it. So that was really pleasant. I got to spend the afternoon, during the monsoon, in an emergency room in Brooklyn. I highly recommend it. Basically it just sucks getting old, and my mom needed to be there to take control of the situation, otherwise my great aunt probably would've needed to be admitted as well. Thankfully my boss was cool and let me take a half day. I left at about 3:30 once everything was under control and we were sitting and waiting. Took my two hours to drive home in the rain. Horrible.

But, then onto the better part of the day, and that would be my date. We had a really good time. We went to Dave and Busters, which is big place, with a restaurant, mini-bowling alley, pool tables and tons of video games. We're probably going out again sometime this week and Friday as well. Should be fun. And its nice because this girl is normal, and has a normal job, unlike Jen, who was basically a bit of a whacko (a fun whacko, but still a whacko nonetheless, its probably a good thing we don't hang out anymore, as whacko and me don't mix), So thats all on that front.

The new guitar continues to be awesome. I had my first lesson with it, although in a new venue as my teacher is no longer partners with his friend in their shop, and turns out they never really were to begin with. So basically his friend screwed him, which really sucks. But, I had a great lesson. He saw me walking up with a new case and asked:

Him: You buy an electric?
Me: Yup!
Him: Fender Strat?
Me: YUP!
Him: American Standard?
Me: YUP!!!
Him: Nice!

We played a little of Pearl Jam's Betterman, then turned up the distortion on the little amp he had and rocked out to some of Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit, Green Day's American Idiot and Black Sabbath's Iron Man. Really fun stuff. The only problem is, one, I can't play that loud at home, and two, my amp at home, while nice and powerful, only has what is called a clean channel. So all the distortion and stuff thats needed to play a lot of that stuff, just isn't possible with the amp. Thats where effects pedals come in. He lent me one that will overdrive my amp, which produces a different sound. I just have to return it to him next week, as he needs it for a gig he's doing at a local brew-house that I am definitely going to check out next Friday. I already went ahead and bought the same pedal off ebay for cheap, along with another one for cheap that will give me some distortion. That should hold me for a good long while on the gear buying front.

So thats all thats going on. Busy at work with the usual stuff, and praying I have hot water back, and soon!

I swear, I've barely put it down since its been home. And I mean come on, look at it, its beautiful, isn't it? How can you resist?

I went ahead and changed the strings on it Monday and proceeded to freak out as it wouldn't stay in tune, and the more I tightened the tuners, the more the strings pulled on the bridge (the spot at the bottom where they come through) away from the body. I was worried that if I tightened it any more that the bridge would just snap off, and I'd really be in trouble. So I loosened the strings and after consulting my manual, Fender's site, and the Pearl Jam forums (thank you fellow gearheads!) I found that I needed to tighten two screws behind the body of the guitar, to increase the tension on three springs pulling the bridge back towards the body. Turns out I went with strings that provide just a bit more tension than it was originally setup to use. So that corrected it. A few little minor adjustments should still be made, and I'm debating whether I should make them or let my teacher do it Saturday.

Sadly, my teacher left me a message on Monday that he will be giving lessons elsewhere. He said his friend and him were dissolving their business partnership, so I'm guessing they're closing their shop. I feel bad, but its not like me buying one guitar from them would've saved the place. And I'm still getting lessons, just elsewhere (just a little further down Main Street, not too bad). So we shall see what happens with that.

In other news, I have a date on Friday night. I'm pretty psyched. Lets hope this girl isn't crazy! But in all fairness, the crazy ones are fun, just for a limited time only!

So I bit the bullet Friday night, went to Guitar Center and walked out with my brand new electric guitar. A Fender American Stratocaster with a Fender Junior Blues tube amp, all paid for on my new Guitar Center credit card, that I won't have to pay interest on in 15 months. I think I can pay for everything in that time frame. I better, or there is something seriously wrong with me! I love the thing. I brought it home Friday night, plugged it all in and proceeded to just play and mess around for a good hour or more. Later in the evening I picked it up again and played minus the amplification for another half hour. Then again on Saturday morning, Saturday afternoon, Saturday night, this afternoon, later this evening... you get the point. I love it, I love playing it, I'm so happy I got it.

Only downside is I couldn't bring my new toy to my lesson on Saturday, as it was canceled. My teacher called me up on Saturday morning and sounded like absolute crap. He said he caught some fever from a kid he was giving a lesson to and decided to keep his germs to himself. So lesson canceled. I'm off from work tomorrow, so I think I'm going to call, see if he's feeling better and if he's open and try to make a lesson for tomorrow sometime. We shall see.

In other news, I know I said I was done talking about her, but this is for final this time, I swear it. So I was at work Friday night, I go to leave and see I had two missed calls on my cell, mostly because I turned the ringer to silent, so it didn't even vibrate. First call was from Brett about going out that night or later in the weekend, which we did yesterday and had fun. The second was from Elena, asking for help in downloading TV because her tape or DVR screwed up. I was like, no thanks, and never returned the call. She called again yesterday, and although I heard the phone ring I didn't answer. Then she IM'd me again today and was asking how to download these shows. I was dreading talking to her because I knew I'd have to tell her that I couldn't be friends with her anymore, and I'm not good at confrontation to begin with. So I told her, call me and I'll explain it to you. I gave her just enough info to point her in the right direction, but she was like, can't you just explain it in further detail. I said no, she asked why and I said it wouldn't be fair, to me. I then went into that our friendship works much in the same way our relationship did, in a very one sided manner. I said that 9 times out of 10 the only reason she calls me is when she needs a favor or something from me. I said thats not fair to me, and that although I've tried my best to be her friend, its just too weird and uncomfortable for me, so I can't be her friend anymore.

You'd think after hearing all that, she'd have some kind of reaction or something to say, but nope. It just went in one ear and out the other. She said to take care of myself, I said the same thing, said goodbye and hung up. So now I'm officially done with her. Its a good feeling.

I think there is a very big chance that I'm going to go back to Guitar Center at some point this weekend, hell, it could be tonight, and buy that guitar. I've been trying to rationalize it all week, coming up with various pros and cons towards buying it, but in the end, I think I'm just going to get it. Life is too short to not get the things we want, especially when its totally doable. Its not like I'm lusting after a vintage instrument that fetches $25,000. Its $1,000. Over a year, with interest, its $100 a month. Thats really not too bad when you think about it. I like it, I want it, getting it will make me happy, so I'm going to get it. I just may not bring it to my guitar lesson for awhile. I'd feel bad, since the place I take my lessons at is a small guitar store owned and run by my teacher and his friend. They just have a limited selection, all of just one brand, which is not the brand I want. Its currently the brand of acoustic I have, and while its a good guitar, its just not what I want. I hope he doesn't get too upset over it. I don't think he will. He's a cool guy about that stuff. He felt bad about pushing a 3 dollar book on me to write all my lesson stuff in. And when I asked him if I was ready for an electric, he said get one whenever I want to, there is no ready, and he said he was saying it as my teacher, and not as a guy who sells guitars.

So I'll most likely head over to Guitar Center after work, play it some more, and most likely just buy it. I have a nice three day weekend coming up, although I have to go in on Sunday morning, and I'm taking Thursday off for the Jewish holiday, that'll give me time to bond with my new buddy. Its so beautiful. I can't wait.

Unfortunately not with a girl, but with a guitar. I have my heart set on one, and I'll be damned if anything stands in my way of getting it! I went back to Guitar Center yesterday and played the guitar I took a liking to on Saturday a little more, and after about a half hour of playing around, I want it even more. Everything on it just felt right. It sounded great, was easily playable, and I was able to do some things that I haven't been able to pull off on my acoustic, like barre chords (basically, you fret more than one string with just one finger, and I couldn't do it for the life of my on my acoustic, but I could on the electric). The object of my desire is a Fender American Stratocaster, in Tri-Color Sunburst, with a rosewood fretboard and a tremelo (whammy bar). The link is basically what it looks like, but with a darker fretboard, and with the whammy bar. I can't wait to get it, the question is just when? The grand total cost will be about $1,000. Cheap hobby I've found myself huh?

The cost has created a slight need to fully examine the situation though. On the one hand, I loved playing the thing. Yes its expensive, but I'm the time of person who likes to do things right the first time. I'd rather spend big now, then get something cheap (both in cost and quality) now, and wish I had gotten something better to begin with. Knowing going in that it is a quality instrument, it should last me a good long while. Now, on the off chance that I hate it, or just generally lose interest in playing in general, these things hold their value, so I could always sell it, albeit for a little loss, but not enough that I wouldn't have gotten my use out of it for the time I had it.

As far as where the money is going to come from, I have a birthday, Channukah and a holiday bonus coming up, and soon. So I could buy it now and use all that money coming in to pay it off later. I mean, if I love it and want it so much, why wait? Life's too short, you know? I'm going to continue mulling it over for the next few days and maybe try to get back to guitar center next weekend to play it some more, see what they suggest (although I know they're going to say, buy it! We want a sale!)

In other news, I spoke to Jen again last night and its officially done between us. She gave no good reason, other than that she knows herself and knows she doesn't want to pursue it anymore. I said OK, and goodbye. It was fun for the week that it lasted and I think I've effectively gotten she who must not be named out of my system, so Jen was good for one thing. OK, two, but I'm not saying anything!

So this has definitely been one hell of an interesting weekend. Been all over the place, thats for sure. It started out promising enough. I hung out with Jen on Friday night, and actually stayed the night at her place. She had to work Saturday morning and I had to deposit my rent for October, take Keyser to the vet and had my guitar lesson on Saturday. We hung out again last night. I wanted to go to Guitar Center to check out some electric guitars and then we went to see Serenity, which I loved and she hated. I took her home, came home and passed out. I had to go into work for a little bit this morning, and on the way home Jen called me and gave me the old, I want to talk line. Basically, although we were having fun, she just thinks that all the little things that are different between us, like interests and traits, although OK now, further down the road could really be a problem. So I'm taking it we're not going to hang out anymore, which kind of sucks a bit, because I did like her and I did have fun with her. Who knows though, as it wasn't really a definite thing. At least I finally have what's her name out of my system for good now. That was one good thing to come of it.

In other news, I'm fighting every bodily urge I have to run back to Guitar Center right now and play the hell (or as close as I can play) out of a bunch of guitars again and take one home. I really liked the Strat I played yesterday, and its a lot cheaper than the Les Paul I wanted. Plus they're having special financing deals this weekend, no payments and no interest for a year. And I so want an electric. It was so much fun playing it. It feels so different and sounds so different and plays a whole lot different, but in a good way. We'll see if by the end of the day I can control myself.

Thats about it. My plan is to catch up on all my TV for the week, do some laundry, make my shakes for the first part of the week, grab some dinner and relax for the rest of the day, and hopefully not buy a guitar (although I really want one!)