From Kentucky!!

Whew!! Been a while, no? Sorry about that. Been busy with work and the woman. Seems I had the same problem keeping up with the blog the last time I had a girlfriend. But I'll do my best to keep up regardless. As far as the woman is concerned, things are going very well. We're both coming from the same place with regards to our past relationships, so while we're playing things cautiously, we both really like what the other person does and where they are going. Good times. But I'm in Kentucky right now!! Fun in the sun while my cousin gets married. Right now I'm by myself on my grandfather's farm. I think I'm really lucky to be able to come and feel at home at a place like this. It's very cathartic to go to the country from time to time. Peace, quiet, a sense of connection with nature you don't quite get in a city. I love it. Would love to retire to a place like this. Maybe some day I will. ;) As for now, I need to go do some drawing. First time in a while I can just relax and doodle. :) Yum!

Yummy! :P

Had a great time last night. And it's Fondue, not Fondu. Now I know, and knowing is half the battle! G.I. Joe!!!

It was a pretty cool place. Not as expensive as I feared, but that's probably because I had built this $100 ticket in my head. :p It was about $60 which was fine. The guy made our cheese dish right there in front of us and I was surprised that as hot as the cheese had to be to melt and stay that way, that once you dipped something into it and pulled it out, it cooled immediately. Then we had some salad, and finally they brought out this very flavorful pot of broth and an assortment of raw meats and fish. Didn't know I had to cook it myself though!! Sheesh. That's all I need. I can either give her e-coli or salmanila. Pick your poison!! But I think everything cooked up well enough, except the potatoes. I kept pulling them out, thinking they were done, but they never did completely cook. :p So that was all wonderful. Then we went to the riverfront area downtown. It's been built up over the last few years and has outlet stores and nice restaurants, but the main feature last night was the walk along the water. Very nice. Very romantic. Had a great time. We were going to do something on Saturday together, and still are, but we both can't wait to see each other again, so we're going to chill at her place on Thursday, which is tomorrow!! Yikes! I just realized that! lol. OK. Must try to work now.

Busy Weekend

http://personals.yahoo.com/us/personals-1093401040-078375

Whew. Finally have a few minutes to sit back and reflect on the weekend. Friday nights at home don't get much better than they did this Friday. :) Good times. Saturday was fun. Although the seminar was geared more toward writers than illustrators. Which I can see why, as there were probably 6 or 7 writers for every illustrator. YAY!! Less competition for me! So I made some connections there, got some questions answered and had some of my own ideas on how to market my work validated by some people in the industry. Overall, a productive, albeit non-job-creating day. Got home and got to randomly talking to this girl who I met through Yahoo Personals. The conversation went something like this.

Her: I'm hungry.
Me: What are you going to do about that?
Her: Are you asking me out to dinner?
Me: Eeerrrr.....I am?
Her: It sounds like you're asking me out.
Me: I am?
Her: Where are you going to take me?
Me: Uuuhhh.....where do you want to go?
Her: I don't know, you're the one who asked me out! :)
Me: I did?

And so we ended up at a bar near her around 10ish and talked till about 1 in the morning before she decided it was dancing time. I think I was the only white guy in the joint on the floor, but I held my own pretty well. :) I still can't lead though. Wiggling my hips works for me, but not in time with a woman! We're working on it though. Tonight we're going to a place called the Melting Pot. One of those new-fangled Fondue restaurants. I hear it's pretty good, but a little on the expensive side. Oh well. She's a lot of fun, and scarily like me in her thought processes. We were up till 5 in the morning talking last night. Exciting! Strange and new, but exciting!

Resolutions

So I didn't drink at the party on Saturday. Wasn't too happy about it, but I was feeling vindictive and wanted to really stick it to my brother for thinking I'm an alcoholic. But, after talking to some people I trust, I've decided I'm right and I shouldn't handcuff myself to make someone else feel better. So I had a few beers on Sunday during the games. I'm glad. And while I'm glad my brother and others care, I shouldn't have to tailor my life to accomodate them. The therapist agrees wholeheartedly. I was almost wondering if he was going to say I don't need to see him every week, but he wants money, so he didn't. :p In other news, I will be going on a date Sunday morning. I know, the morning? Me? Should be interesting. But I like pancakes on Sunday morning, and there is a gallery up in PA that's free till noon on Sundays, so it'll be a cheap date, and I can kill two birds with one stone. :)

Rant Time

Can I just say that I fucking hate it when people try to be the voice of my conscience. Now I will admit, that I like a drink from time to time. I probably drink once or twice a week. On bad weeks, I might drink once every couple of nights, but I feel that I am in no way an alcoholic. Typically I can't even drink at parties because everyone is so busy getting drunk that I have to stay sober to drive the older folk home. No one remembers that shit. They only remember that I end up having like 8 six packs lying on the floor next to my computer because I'm too much of a lazy ass to go and recycle them like I should instead of just throwing them in the regular trash at home. I tend to like to build them up a bit so I'm not making crazy trips there every week, but even that's dumb because I could walk there from my house! So that's my fault for being a slob I guess. But it makes it look like I /always/ have beer lying around. And even if I did, at least I'm not driving anywhere and doing that! I'm at home, having a few beers at the end of the day! Fuck me if I have a few vices. But, in the interest of fair play (and to show these fuckers up for their high and mighty fucking attitudes) I'm done with the drinking. At least a year, maybe more. Who knows. Maybe I won't touch a drink till my bachelor party or when I get my first book published. That sounds like an honroable time to have a drink. But with all the fucking parties this family has, and all the alcochol they shovel down their throats, to call me an alcholic seems just a teeny bit hipocritical. Just a bit. Fuckers

REALLY Deep Thoughts

I have come to the conclusion that I am not a multi-tasker by nature. Oh, I may force myself to do a couple of things at once during working hours; like listen to someone speak and write what they say down, but I obviously can't think and do something else at the same time. Or do that something else in conjunction with anything else without thinking. I was driving home from therapy the other night, thoughts flying around in my head, and before I knew it, I was home. I don't even remember making turns, changing lanes, anything!! Thank god for automatic pilot.

In a bit of interesting news, it seems my past is finally catching up to me. In the few short months I have been working at the flooring company, I have run into more people from my past than I did in the 25 years I've lived in the 2nd smallest state in the union. My old scout master, the wife of my cousin's asshole dad, the son of my parents' best friends from their early days together, and the younger sister of a girl I was in grade school with. She's married and has 2 kids!! Sheesh!! But in each case, it was good times and good memories, which I feel is a good thing. :) It's all good.

My Holiday Weekend

Friday Night: Nothing much happening. Don't remember anything significant.

Saturday Night: Took care of the Pops. Made sure he stayed as sane as an 84-year-old man can.

Sunday Night: Went to the cuz's hourse for a while, saw some peeps, ate some food, got another call from the grandparents to geriatric sit for the night. Did so. Good times.

Monday (Labor Day): No geriatric sitting. Plenty of good food, good fun. We had a full dance card as everyone called to invite us over. We did the appropriate thing, and spent some time everywhere! Oh yeah!!

Tuesday: Confront boss about not getting more than one week of vacation next year.

And they wonder why I drink?

So here I am, on a Labor Day Saturday, painting diligently (well, mostly diligently), trying to see what the peeps are up to tonight (though I would have appreciated someone calling me and letting me know if anything was up, but I've come not to expect those calls) and now I will be spending the night at my grandparents house. To preface this, my grandfather went to the hospital earlier this week with some coughing fits and what not. Didn't stay more than a couple of hours, but he's scared something might happen, so I got conscripted. Now I love my grandparents, I'm going to do it regardless, but they're not MY parents! What about their 5 kids, my mom and aunts and uncles? Why can't they stay the night? What about the 11 other people I call cousins and siblings? My sister says she can't because she has to worry about paying for gas. SHE MAKES MORE IN A WEEK THAN I DO!! Fucking excuses. Everyone's got 'em, I'm the only one who chooses to ignore mine I guess. I mean, I can read my book, talk to the pops (always an interesting time now that he tells me how much he misses "putting the root" as he calls it, to the ladies. So while other people get to run around doing their random crap, leaving me out in the meanwhile, I get to geratric-sit. Again, I don't harbor any ill will toward my grandparents, I just wish people would pay all three of us a little more attention.

Random Crap

Some highlights over the last week:

Sleep is good. Thinking about doing more of it some day.

Therapy is going well. The Doc is a nice guy, has good suggestions, the whole trust thing is coming along nicely.

Must find ways to work harder on being consistent with painting, working out, creating schedules. HOW DO YOU PEOPLE DO IT?!!! Must be willpower. Need to pick some of that up at WalMart

Gas prices are just insane. It's not even funny anymore. Want to see riots? Wait till you see $4 a gallon.

What Time is It?!! It's Game TIME!! Go Eagles!!