A week's worth..

I haven't updated at all in a while, haven't been motivated to I guess. Last weekend was fun, I took Diana to see Randy Latini at the Comedy Cabaret in Philly for her birthday. The show was pretty good, the host was very bitter because he wasn't funny. It was the first comedy show I've ever been to, but now I'd like to go to more. Sunday we played home run derby for a while, Ryan won the title. Watched Sopranos.. worked, worked. Last night I went to A.C. with Maureen, Dave and his dad. Not our usual trip, as there was no trip to Hooters or long cold walks on the boardwalk. I played roulette the whole time and was up some for a while, but ended up losing that and eventually just breaking even. I'll take that over losing money. I cashed in my cup of change yesterday, too, with a total of $125.15. Not bad for spare change, but a little disappointing cuz I thought there was about 150 in it. Today was kinda hectic but it went by fast. Lou is out for the rest of the week, so I took over his patient runs at work and I have to do my stuff, too, so I keep busy. I saw Carolyn for the first time in months today. We had lunch at Saladworks. I'm just waiting now to go to Dave's to see what we're going to play tonight at the Oarhouse.

While it's on my mind, I feel like writing about this. Someone told me today about a girl who has every opportunity at her feet-- that is, college paid for in full and an apartment the same-- and doesn't show one bit of appreciation. Of course she's a rich bitch, so she's never had to live like the other side and know what it means to have a job or responsibility or have to pay for herself. I hate people who are born into money. They are nothing but snobs because they are spoiled and never need to know how to do anything but criticize others for wearing last month's fashion or shopping at Old Navy and not Abercrombie. And they complain about the most asinine things. This girl just dropped out of school because she didn't feel like going anymore. If only she knew how many people, myself included, would kill to be in her shoes and not only have the opportunity to go to school in the first place, but to not have the financial burden that most do. These kind of people make me sick. I know you're just a product of your surroundings and your upbringing, but anyone with common sense can see the world from another point of view. I guess if you've got that kind of money, you can afford to lack common sense.
And while we're on the subject, I just found out that you can get a college tuition paid-in-full if you're a young girl that has a baby. How does that work? Intelligent girls make sure they use protection and go to every length to not have a child because they know they are in school and can't handle that responsibility right now while they're paying out their asses for college, but some gutter slut can get knocked up and suddenly they're riding the free boat to Rutgers? I just don't get it. I never will, I should probably stop thinking about.

Kill me now.

I'm excited now

First of all, I'm feeling much better, even though my dinner came back to see me again last night. But, the reason I'm really excited is because I have tickets to the Bamboozle... not that exciting? It is for me, Thursday, Saves the Day, Fall Out Boy, Taking Back Sunday, Hawthorne Heights, Senses Fail, Panic! at the Disco, and I just found out AFI! Okay, I'm done being excited about that, but I can't wait.
So after I got over my sickness, for the most part, I worked yesterday and then came home and had dinner. I had gnocchi (for those of you who don't know, they are these little potato dumplings. They're really good going down, just not coming out.. yea), maybe not the best choice of cuisine after being sick all day the day before. So after watching some Law & Order and Lost I was feeling kinda uneasy. I went to Dave's to play poker anyway. Sometime in the middle of the game I excused myself to blow chunks off the back deck. I felt quite a bit better after that, but still didn't feel up to par. I finished losing my 5 and then headed home to bed. I felt fine today, I hope to keep it that way. I gotta find something for dinner that will keep my face out of the toilet bowl. Well, I'm off to class now, let's find out what I missed the other day.

Butabup.

It's hard to enjoy yourself while pissing out the ass..

So I left work early today. Fun, right? WRONG! I'm fucking sick and it sucks! I vomited thrice at work, once where I had to pull over and get out of the car. I'm pretty sure people thought I was pissing, when all I was actually doing was draining every other orifice on my body. I haven't eaten anything, and I hope you're not eating anything right now, and all I've been able to do is drink my ginger ale! But I'm glad I got that at least. It's still the same as earlier, everytime I start to feel better, it only comes back to feel so much worse, I really hope this ends soon, I'm not good at being sick!

Sickness

That's me... I'm fucking sick. I hate it because I never get sick and it's hard to be peppy whilst sick. So I'm sitting here deciding what to do, cuz I have a patient at 10:30am, so I can't really not be at work. I think the last time I was actually sick was last January when I worked at Wawa. It's pretty horrible right now.. everytime I think I'm feeling a little better I just end up feeling like 10 times worse.. ok I'm gonna stop now so I can vomit.. later

Was that snow?

Yes, yes it was. And why wouldn't it be, it was 80 degrees a week ago. I'm listening to the HiMyNameIsMark podcast and there's this band called The United States of Electronica, and they're really good if you like that kinda thing.
So the other night, we went out to eat and then went to search for the birthplace of the Jersey Devil, the house in the woods. So Diana, Jackie and I get to the area where you take the trail into the woods and they say "I'm not going in there.. I didn't know we had to go in the woods." So.. without the being able to go into the woods thing, it didn't really work out. So we came home and watched Forrest Gump. So those three sentences sum up the night, but it was actually a lot of fun.
Yesterday we played flag football. We got out there early to practice a little, it was very windy so we had to practice throwing into the wind. We got the old guys out there and some young guys too. We had a great time, well most of us did anyway. I was on the team opposite Dave, Cory, and Terry, so that kinda sucked cuz I didn't know any of my teammates. Our team lost twice too, so that also sucked. Cory tackled me one time because he doesn't understand the term "flag" football. We plan on playing every other Sunday so that will be awesome if it actually happens. We're gonna play softball again this Sunday if everything works out right.
So, after football, I went home, showered and headed to Maureen's. We went to Angelo's Diner and had dinner. They have really good food for a diner. Afterwards, we went back to her house and talked until The Sopranos came on. I watched that.. not a lot happened as usual. I stopped at Sidelines for about an hour on the way home to play pool. Work is boring today, I had a chance to take the doctor back to Philly, but Louis insisted on going, so I'm stuck with nothing to do. Oh well, I'll find something.

I wanna be on you.

Poker update

That's basically what this is.. and update about how we've played a lot of poker. Since Sunday night I think we played 5 times. Yep, every night except last night. That's what we've been doing. Dave, Cory, Terry and I went to the casino Tuesday night. We used up the remaining free wings tickets for Hooters and then went off to try and win. I lost about $60 on roulette and saved my last $20 for slots. I ended up hitting a couple times and breaking even. I went on to drop 20 of it on more slots and roulette, but I played for a long time and only came home 20 dollars lighter, that's pretty good. Actually, I think we all did ok winning back most of our money. Maureen and I have hung out a couple times this week, but I don't really want to get into personal stuff on here, so I'll just leave it at that. We watched a lot of National Geographic or Science Channel programming, that's all I know. I wish I had those channels, there's so many interesting things I'd like to watch. Last night was St. Patrick's Day, which I celebrated by doing two caramel apple shots with dave at his house. That was the extent of my Irish holiday celebration. Diana and I went to Philly and got lost for a little while trying to find Penn's Landing. We finally located it and parked to walk around. It was freezing by the water, so we walked up to South Street. Nothing new there, but I got a slice from Lorenzo's. Actually that's not true, Mako's got a makeover and has glass windowfronts now with doors. That place should be awesome in the summer when they open them up. We left Philly after a while and went up to Liberty State Park, which unfortunately was closed, so we just saw the city and the statue from the car and drove off. To make up for the disappointing trip there, I took the Parkway and stopped off in Leonardo at the Quick Stop from Clerks, as you can see above. Diana was surprised, if nothing else, she hardly recognized it. The first time I went there it did surprise me about how different it was from what it seemed in the movie. On that note, I'm looking forward to Clerks II, even though it doesn't take place at the Quick Stop, I'm sure it will be good. Anyway, after that we went home and went to bed since it was late, but we had an awesome time, getting there was about 9/10ths the fun. I haven't really done anything today, I got some lunchmeat and rolls from Wawa, had a sub and finished watching The Village. Maybe I'll have something else exciting to write soon, maybe not. Until then.. so long.

Rainy weather

I took a walk last night. The weather was great, it was the perfect temperature so I decided to walk around the neighborhood and listen to music. It was all good until the very end when it started to rain. It was a perfect metaphor for my weekend.
Friday night I met Dave early and had a few drinks before going to the Comedy Showcase at the Elks. It was a beef and beer so there was good food and Miller Lite. I had an in with the bartender so we got to hang out in the members only section, cheap mixed drinks and free pool table. There were three comedians, although the opener upstaged the other two in my opinion. His name is Randy Latini, check him out. So after the show, Maureen came over and spent the night since we weren't going to get to hang much that weekend. We slept in Saturday and then got up and made eggs and sausage for breakfast. After she left, I rode my bike up to Ryan's.. that was a very hilly ride. We planned to play tennis, but his car battery died at Best Buy, so we spent a few hours waiting for the tow truck and trying to get it working. We got it started, but when we went to Wawa it died again, so it had to get towed to his house. That night was Dave's birthday party. It started slow, but once a few more people showed up it was cool. We played some beer pong, I'm pretty sure me and Dave won. After it died down a little, we turned it into a poker tournament. We had 7 people to start, I believe. It was good, I ended up being one of the last 2 in it with Cory. I came out a little bit ahead.
Sunday afternoon, once we had all woken up, we got together to play some home run derby at the Senior High. A few guys came over and asked us if we wanted to play a game of softball, so we jumped at the chance. Ryan came out and we made our teams. We thought we'd get killed, but we actually hung in and won 13-11. It was a lot of fun, and the guys play every Sunday at Bacon School, so we'll probably end up going out for some more games. So once I finished getting a shower I went to Maureen's and we went to Uno for dinner. It was all good, we came home and watched the Sopranos. Then as I was going to leave, we had a "fight" about something stupid. It wasn't even a fight, cuz it lasted for about 10 seconds, but she told me to leave and I did.. probably the wrong thing to do. Gotta love hindsight, but anyway I haven't talked to her since, even though it's only been like 12 hours, it feels like longer. So hopefully I'll talk to her today and work some things out. Until then.. I have to get to work.

Farewell.

I'm going to hell for this one..

I'm pretty drunk still. We had dave's birthday party tonight at his house, it started off really slow, but built into a pretty good poker tournament. Matty J stopped by for a while. We played beer pong for a while, doing a lot of shots in between games, thanks Dave. I had a good time, I won 2 dollars in poker somehow, I was pretty damn drunk when we started. Now I'm home, not that tired and listening to the new NOFX ep. We had fun tonight, thats all that matters, tomorrow I'm hoping we can play some home run derby if it's nice out. I really don't know what to say. I'm not thinking about anything really except that it's 4am and this CD is pretty good. This summer needs to be a lot of fun, so anyone who wants to play sports of any kind let me know, cuz it needs to be done. I'm gonna go watch tv till I'm too tired, so g'night everybody.

Losing money is fun

Hello masses.. it seems like it's been a while. There's been a lot going on, but not a lot to write about. I never really touched on the whole NOFX show that we went to and the gambling that we did prior to it. The night itself was a lot of fun. We started off at Hooters and got some more free wings, always good. We then headed to the Wild Wild West casino and started on roulette. I can just say that things didn't go quite as well as last time. And the "plan" didn't work either. That would be the one where we spend $40 and then walk away from the table if we're losing. We were up and down, but we probably spent that much in the first few minutes we were there, but in the environment, not to mention the fact that we'd be bored for 3 hours, we kept betting and said plan went out the window. I don't think I need to mention how much we lost, but suffice to say it was several times more than our original limit. After the bank accounts were lowered slightly (god damn in-casino ATMs), we headed to the show. We walked in right about when NOFX was going on stage. They opened with their 18-minute long opus "The Decline." It was a good way to open the show, but in retrospect, Fat Mike's voice could have used a break. The show was all energy, the crowd never stopped. I got a big bruise on my side, but I saw a guy bleeding profusely from the head, so I'm thinking I got off easy. I was alone in the pit, as my friends took their seats in the balcony from start to finish. After the show, we got some food and water and headed home. It was all good.
Tonight we're playing open mic night again after our one week hiatus.. I know, I know you all missed us and we can't disappoint our fanbase, so not only are we back, but we're back with a saxophone player! Six Inches Between Us is growing... so to speak.
While I'm on the subject of bands and shows, I'd like to share something about the reason I don't like going to shows as much anymore (especially with radio pop bands.) The crowds suck ass, and the band is a big part of the show, but the crowd is an equally big part of a show. When I used to go to shows, it would be a lot of guys, a good amount of girls up front, and some parents/older people that don't fit the categories. Now it's wall-to-wall girls and/or guys with their girlfriends that will get pissed off at people moshing because their precious little sweetie might get bruised. Then there's people like us, a good couple handfuls of them, that still get up through the sea of screaming 14-year olds and start a pit only to be given dirty looks and have the crowd overtake the pit the moment the song is done. Granted, this doesn't happen at every show, but shows just aren't the same. I'll give the example about the "secret" Fall Out Boy show in New York. And for anyone counting, I'm not bashing FOB, I still like them as much as I did before they blew up. Pete did a stage dive into the crowd, only to be greeted by blank stares and cold concrete floor. That's right, the young concert-goers had no idea what to do when a guy gets up on the amp and dives towards you. Catch him maybe? No, he probably saw someone drop a contact lens and he just had to find it before it got stepped on. Makes sense. Shows just disappoint me anymore. So sad. I gotta go to class now.

Rock on.

Best friends...

"It's funny how your worst enemies always seem to turn out to be all of your best friends.." ~ brandnew
I guess everyone's the same. They kind of just put up an act when you're around and then act completely different behind your back. Okay, maybe not everyone. I know there's a few people I can trust completely, namely Dave and Maureen, but that's about all. Okay, probably Cory, too, but he doesn't really have anything to hide from me anyway. The point is, why would you completely lie to someone's face when they're ABSOLUTELY going to have to find out about it sooner or later?? You're just setting yourself up to look like an asshole. And you've succeeded, congratulations, both of you. And for the record, when I say both, neither person is James. The people I'm talking about know who they are, and they probably don't care anyway, but I'm pissed at them. I mean, some people lie because they know they'll get away with it, but don't act completely sincere when I'm around when you know damn well that what's coming out of your mouth is total horse shit. It's good to know that some people can be honest and come clean about these things, but it kinda bothers me that people that I considered some of my best friends can't tell me the truth. I don't paint myself as any kind of saint, but I mean, use your head, what's better in the long run; disappointing me by telling me the truth now, or wrecking me by lying and letting me find out on my own from someone else? Anyway, that's all I have to say about it, so long.

Idiot son of an asshole

Can someone tell me again why anyone would re-elect George W. Bush? Besides the fact that so many people in the country are completely ignorant to anything that's not on MTV or the latest new way to send text messages. We just keep letting this guy get away with murder, literally. Hurricane Katrina, act of "God" or nature right? This part is true, Bush didn't create the hurricane, but he may as well have considering the fact that he did nothing to warn or save the people of Louisiana. The video came out yesterday of warnings to the President several days before the hurricane made landfall. All the disaster experts, FEMA people, and hurricane experts were saying "This will be a hurricane of epic proportions, it will be in the top 10 or 15 worst hurricanes recorded in the US, people should evacuate and be prepared." This was several days before the hurricane hit land, so there was plenty of time to flee the state. After receiving this warning, however, our so-called "leader" got up and delivered the statement that was very confident that everything would be okay. He was warned before it happened also, that THIS HURRICANE HAS THE POTENTIAL TO BREAK LEVEES IN NEW ORLEANS!!! After the hurricane had wreaked havoc on the city and state, Bush obviously got up and gave another statement, including this message: "I don't think anyone knew this would have the capacity to break levees." Unbelievable that we will impeach a president for cheating on his wife and lying about it, although that hurt noone besides the First Lady's feelings, yet we will let this piece of shit millionaire daddy's boy hypocrite kill all the Americans he can in an 8-year term. And after all the devastation, it was said they didn't realize the severity of the storm because of the "fog of war." So Bush starts a senseless war because he's bored and wants to make good with daddy, then when a real emergency happens, he uses his war that's already killed a thousand Americans to excuse him from blame of the deaths of thousands more on our own soil that could have been prevented easily??? Why is this man running our country? I would say it's time to take this guy out, but twizzler dick Cheney wouldn't be any better, he's already shot one man in the face, I'm sure he's just waiting to stab us in the back.

Fuck the government

...has a gambling problem

"It's bad enough we have drinking problems, now we're gonna have gambling problems, too!" ~ David Aron
It's funny, but could be coming true. Okay, so we've only actually gambled once, but we're going again tomorrow... I'll get to that though. So I've been dormant for a few days, that's basically because I haven't really had much to talk about I guess.. or haven't had the urge to talk about it anyway. Friday night we went to Hooters in Atlantic City to get our free wings from the Philly Soul tickets. Dave and I got the second to hottest wings they had and our mouths were on fire. Cory, Maureen & Jen got "hot" wings, which were not hot at all. These wings were too hot to actually know what they tasted like. I wanted to submerge my face in our pitcher of beer to cool off my throat. So we had wings and beer and a decent looking waitress this time, too. After we finished with that, we played a few slots around the Tropicana, I played a dollar at a random machine and won 10 back, which was nice. Cory won about 25 dollars or so. Then we walked down to the Wild Wild West casino because they're supposed to be cheaper... not so, just farther away. Dave and I emersed ourselves in roulette after winning 20 dollars off the bat. We played for quite a while, I was up and down while Dave was just up. I came out 15 dollars ahead, Dave made off with 130!! He was ecstatic, I was happy for him and me for coming out ahead at all. The girls didn't have that great of a time since they couldn't gamble or drink, but we left and headed back to Dave's. Dave called everyone in his phone book to let them know on the way back to town.
Once we got home, we figured we should play some poker. So James and Luke came over and we played for a while. I hung in with my original 5 dollars for quite a while. Dave was on a winning streak again; he and Cory cleaned up most of the money from us. We got done playing at about 3AM... isn't that matchbox 20 song?... anyway, after that Maureen and I came back to my house, had a lengthy conversation and went to bed for like 8 hours.
There was really nothing going on Saturday, so after some procrastination, we picked up Diana and drove around to nowhere in particular. I ended up at a lake in Egg Harbor, so we took a walk and some pictures there. We headed to Glassboro for some slices and then went bowling, where I got beat by a couple of cheating girls! I wasn't feeling bad long though, since it was cosmic bowling and all the pretty lights and 80s music took my mind off of it. The rest of the night consisted of watching Little Nicky and a bedtime of 12.. on a Saturday.. pretty lame, but I was beat for whatever reason.
Sunday was a day for Nintendo at Ryan's.. and I mean Nintendo, no Super or 64 attached. We played Hogan's Alley, Blades of Steel and another horrible hockey game before ditching the old school and playing Gamecube. Ryan got a new bed, which is actually his aunt and uncle's old bed, so he was giving me his old bed, which also was his aunt and uncle's old bed. We took it to my house and somehow maneuvered it up the stairs. Later on, I got together and played a few games of pool at Sidelines with Luke followed by some Goldeneye at my house and Family Guy. I went to bed early last night too, for lack of things to do.
And besides work today, I watched Analyze That and took a nap. Very boring day, but tomorrow will make up for it, I believe. NOFX in A.C. with Dave, Luke and James... can't see that being bad in any way. Well I'm off to bed, I'll need my rest for tomorrow.

Butabup.

JJ can rot in hell..

I went skiing yet again yesterday with Maureen. I was a little worried at first that she was going to show me up and embarrass me by how good she was, but she didn't show off. We had a good time, besides the slushy snow. We're going to play at the Oarhouse again tonight if everything goes according to plan.
I've been thinking about moving out lately.. well, I guess I've been thinking about it for a long time, but I'm considering it now. I have saved some money, so once I save some more and make sure my car will make it to summer, I may move in with Dave & Renea. I really hate my dog. He is such a jackass, not just to me, but to anyone and everyone he meets. His first reaction is to bite people's legs. He'd probably bite other parts of people if he weren't a fat little shrimp. He tries to bite me all the time, and I just want to stomp on him. My mom defends the dog like he's a little angel. She should be doing something about the fact that even when people are nice to him he snaps at them. I like dogs a lot, that's why it annoys me that I'd rather see the dog I live with hanging from our flag pole. Out of everyone I know that has dogs, they're all nice and I like them. I get stuck with the little ankle-biting fucker that belongs tied down in a soundproof room. Yea.. so that's why I'm moving out.

Good day.

Count the stars...

I went out last night, had some hot chocolate and looked at the stars. It was really clear out, so I could see all of the ones that are usually hidden. That's the kind of stuff that gets me thinking about life and our place in the universe. There are so many stars that we can see with the naked eye, it's amazing. But then you think how many there are in our galaxy that you can't see, and that every one of them could possibly be a solar system, even if the habitable planets only have country music, it's still crazy. Then I think about the fact that there are other galaxies out there too... I wonder if we're just one universe in a larger group of many. It's like in the Truman Show where the stars are just holes in the outside wall or in Men In Black, where the universe is contained in a marble around the cat's neck. Who knows really. Maybe we're just a big experiment and the people in the "real world" are out there laughing at us. "Look at those stupid fucks, we would never do that." They're probably watching us having sex, laughing at the faces we make. Fucking aliens. Anyway, something to think about. Gotta go to work.

later.

So long and thanks for the skis!

It's Monday morning, the ski weekend is over. It was a lot of fun though. On our way up the turnpike Saturday, there was a girl in front of us at the ticket booth, reaching out to get her ticket. She was reaching as hard as she could, leaning out of the car and everything, but she just couldn't get to the ticket. Meanwhile, Ryan and I are laughing our asses off because we could tell she's really trying hard but not even getting close. To top it off, the guy in the booth came out and handed her the ticket.. maybe you had to be there, but it was hysterical. We stayed at the luxurious Red Carpet Inn. Honestly, it was a really nice motel. It seemed much nicer than most any I've ever stayed at. Not to mention, the Indian girl that was running the front desk had the most American accent ever, if you only heard her voice, you might think she was a blonde white girl.
We skiied our first day at Camelback. There were a few trails there I liked a lot, we stayed for 4 or 5 hours. It was crowded, but not as bad as I expected. After we left, we went to K-Mart and bought Scrabble for entertainment that night. We dined at the J & R Smokehouse, I had BBQ Ribs & Chicken. It was awesome, they gave you a soup AND salad with bread. It's the first time I've gotten a complete meal and eaten all of it without feeling really filled. So, we rounded out the night with a couple games of scrabble and Jurassic Park.
The next day we went to Big Boulder. We had the whole day there. I didn't know where to pay for my rentals, I figured you paid after you got the skis, so I got them, but there was nowhere to pay and it just led out to the slopes, so I got a free rental. We skiied all day up to about 7:30 I think. I think I fell 3 times, but 2 of them were at the bottom by the lift lines. I still feel like I've gotten a lot better, I helped someone get up and got their poles for them. It's nice not being the one needing help. At the end of the day, I got a pair of used skis at an end-of the season cheap rate. So now I own skis, and I hope I'll be able to go once or twice more before the season ends.

Nothing personal or political to talk about today. later.

Warning: Sentimental

T-Minus 5 Minutes and counting until I leave to go skiing. I just felt like updating before I left. I guess it's not really an update per se, but I've been thinking about things. I miss a lot of things I used to do, and thinking about them makes me really melancholy. I miss hanging out until the sun would come up just because. I miss not having anything to do and then taking drives to Philly or North Jersey. I especially miss drives around stow creek and the areas of pitts grove that I'll never be able to navigate without getting lost or heading towards a nuclear testing zone. I miss laughing until my sides hurt and my eyes water and I can't breathe. I miss late night drive punk-rock sing-alongs. I miss fighting. I suppose I should stop dwelling in the past and try to be happy with the present or look to the future for better things, but these things are always on my mind because I had such a great time doing all of them... Now that I'm bummed out, I'm gonna go to Ryan's and get going to the mountains. Take care, until Monday.

butabup.

It's raining on Friday

When I woke up this morning, the sun was out. Now, it's dark, rainy, and lightning.. is that the right way to say that it is lightning? Looks strange. So, anyway, last night was great. We played our set, adding "What Went Wrong" by blink and "The Innocent" by GC, Goldfinger & Mest. The former was excellent, we thought, but the latter, not so much. Overall, I think we played really well last night. There were a lot of people there, not so much reaction, but we got more claps than the shitty band before us. I quipped last night that having our 10:30 on-stage time for open mic night is like having a 9AM appointment at a doctor's office, you can get there any time you want, you won't be going in for at least an hour.
After our set, we came back to Dave's and started our poker game. $5.00 buy-in, 5 guys. The first hand, I had 4 aces. Cory and Ryan had full houses, so they both went all in. I matched their bets and took all of their money right off the bat. The rest of the game, I did pretty well, only trailing off towards the end, but I ended up being $15 dollars richer than when I started, so I was happy. I know there was no skill involved, it just feels nice.
So, Ryan and I have amended our plans, we're going skiing at Camelback tomorrow night, then staying over and going to Big Boulder the following day. It should be a good weekend, I'm ready for it to start any time now.

butabup.

Pizza Day

It's pizza day at work. It's funny, my office has a pizza day once a month and the first month I was here they had 3 parties for whatever reasons with giant cakes and soda. Conveniently they also offer a discount gym membership.. I think they're in cahoots. Anyway, we tried to practice last night, which was successful, I suppose, since we did learn 2 new songs. Tonight will be the real practice, shortly before playing at the Oarhouse. We're playing a handful of the same songs as before, but it's nice to add some new ones. It doesn't matter that much anyway, we're just providing the background noise soundtrack to drunken fights and cheesy pick-up lines anyway. Anyone want to start a band?
I'm in a weird mood today, between having a cold and just having too much to think about. I don't ever feel content, I always want to be doing something else or planning something, or else I feel like I'm missing out. Speaking of plans, Ryan and I are going skiing this weekend at Jack Frost. We're gonna spend the night up there so we can have all of Sunday to ski. It should be cool. This will be the first time I've stayed in a hotel with Ryan since like 9th or 10th grade when he came Dorney Park with my family. We prefer the more manly activity of camping over a hotel stay. But it's going to be freezing this weekend and since at least one of us plans on having kids one day, we'll just stay where there's heat and cable tv. So, I'll have another busy weekend, as for tonight, open mic night and poker at Dave's.

butabup.

Poker, Beer & Gas

Last night was our "poker night." We played for money, only $5, but I lost it all anyway. But, before that Dave cooked Steaks and potatoes for me and Cory and various "vegetarian" cuisine for Renea and Luke. We played cards for about 4 and a half hours before everyone cashed out. It was a good game, despite me losing all my chips. We're playing again Thursday night, I believe. It's funny that we just started playing about a week ago and now we're hooked and planning to play every other night. It's just a lot of fun... I think it would be more fun to take money from my friends next time, but still it's a good time.
So today is Valentine's Day, everyone is walking around with oversized balloons and stuffed animals. I've heard the phrase "it's the thought that counts" quite a few times today, further proving why I didn't do anything for it.. if I can't do something right, why do it at all?
I got gas yesterday, for- gasp!- only $27.00. It's still a lot, but it has gone down. The new Wawa on Delsea has it for $1.94 as of this afternoon. The only problem is that's still pretty high. I'm no different from anyone else, I still buy gas and don't limit my travel because of how much it costs. What I think is funny is that since gas was in the $3.00 range not so long ago, everyone is smitten with paying $2.00 for gas, when it was still nowhere near that high before the whole hurricane situation. The hurricane/"gas shortage" gave the oil companies a big break actually, despite what they'd have you believe. Perhaps the raise in price was warranted, probably not the extent of raising they did, but still the natural disaster did shut down oil rigs and refineries. The genius of it was, after the "shortage" was over and all the refineries were up and running again, the prices didn't drop. They stayed where they were for quite some time, before they started dropping slowly. Then they started to hang in the low $2 range. The gas companies didn't receive too much animosity about that because it was a good dollar lower than it had been, so they capitalize on the ignorance of the public that believes that they are getting a deal on gas now. No one seems to notice that gas should have, but didn't, return to close to it's original price after the hurricane. The prices are finally dropping, hopefully they'll keep going this time until it's reasonable again. Wishful thinking probably.

butabup.

Don't make V-Day VD-Day

Let me just start by saying any girls reading will probably think I'm a completely heartless, un-romantic, anal dwelling butt-monkey for saying these things.. but they should be said anyway. I'm referring to Valentine's Day. It's the biggest joke of a holiday ever. First of all, it's a FACT that this holiday was created by Hallmark (I believe, it was a greeting card at least), therefore giving it no merit in my book. No great leader died, no great savior was born or ressurected, and... no Irish people distributed green beer on this date. I understand the capitalist needs of business owners, but to create a holiday simply to guilt customers into spending whole paychecks on, when it comes down to it, worthless items to show their affection, there's some kind of wrong in that. All you hear right up to the 14th is "Personalized Teddy Bears! Diamond Necklaces half off at only $1400.00!!! Gold plated vibrators!" Aside from the last one, none of those things are really useful. We've just been conditioned to believe that they're the way to show someone you care. I have to say, if you need a special holiday designed for you to show how much you care about someone, you don't care about them anyway.. besides we already have those things in anniversaries of significant events. You should show your affection anytime you feel the urge to tell your significant other that they really mean the world to you, and you should show it creatively, not by getting them the biggest diamond or the most expensive watch. Have some imagination, people, don't let yourself be led by the nose by jewelers and electronic stores... that's what they want.
I also want to bring up one specific banner/billboard I witnessed. It was for a jewelry store. It had a woman's face, a ring and a quote saying "Honey, my present is ready." What this subliminally suggests to the average man with a girlfriend or wife driving by is "You know she's expecting something from you.. you better not disappoint her by getting her roses or chocolate covered cashews." That just annoys me to no end. I mean, it doesn't bother me SO much, just because I don't buy into the marketing bullshit, but I know others do and it's annoying. The guy in the relationship shouldn't be any more required to do something for V-Day than the woman should. So, don't buy in to it, just be yourself.

Honey, my vomit is ready.