Dear St. Valentine, Make This Day Great

Valentine's Day Weekend!

I'm so excited. Leslie and I have been teasing each other all week, keeping "top secrets" and not telling each other anything about what we're going to do for each other, but hinting at things. I'm making mine really hard to guess. I even told her I was working on it at 7:00 in the morning one day this week, which I was. She's so stumped. It's going to be awesome!

This is the first Valentine's Day of my life where I've had a REAL Valentine (other than a family member) and I'm really looking forward to it!

I am prepared with her favorite types of candy (which are random, I still could never find that pesky Nerds rope), a book, a picture of us, and a scavenger hunt/walk through the house with cards. I can't wait! Suprises kill me, I have a very hard time keeping a secret.

I'll post back with the results!

Vacation Over Means Blog Posting Is Back On

The Christmas break is over, and it's time to get back to work. Alright, I hate that attitude. I just want to ease back into it all. It feels like being gone for summer and going back to school. I even got a whole new wardrobe for Christmas so it really feels like back to school. Two weeks is a long time, and at the same time it was short. So, I'd like to do a list blog post of sorts, hitting the highlights.

Events:
Roundtrip driving: MI to SC back to MI = ~ 1,300 miles
My 25th birthday
Christmas
New Year: 2009
Cosmo's death after 13 years
My car being fixed, finally

Movies:
7 Pounds
Singles
An American Crime
My Cousin Vinny
Roger and Me
Anti-Trust
The Day The Earth Stood Still

Books:
I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell
Crank
Atlas Shrugged (still working on this one)

Friends:
Paul
BJ / Laura
Scott
Maryann
Megan

Other Events:
Keeping a "talking" relationship going while away = successful return!
Flipping a Saturn in 2 weeks


I feel well rested and rejuvenated. Everything feels in order right now which is good. I feel like now, I have a little more going for me than just a career which is a relief, and something else to focus my effort on. Here's to starting a great 2009!

1/4 Century

I made it back to South Carolina for Christmas. Today I slept until 11:30, which I haven't done in probably 2 years or so, but it felt amazing. I'm so happy I have 2 weeks of this. 2 weeks of no alarms, no work, no nothing but being lazy. It's awesome.

I'll be 25 in a few more days. 1 more day to be exact. It really feels like the past few years have just flown by. I wonder if it's natural to stop and think how old you are before you answer? Sometimes 23 comes to my mind really fast, but then I remember I'm 24, about to be 25. Weird.

Dusty Wood

Time to dust off the blog, and write a new post. What's it been...too long?

Instead of making up an excuse for why I haven't posted I'll just get right into it.

I have a roomate now! Paul is my new roomate, and he is in my small group at church. Paul needed a roomate because the condo he was living in had too many people, according to the condo association, so he had to find a new place to live. Which works out well for me, because I wanted to get a roomate, but didn't quite know how to really search for one. I was sort of holding off until someone I knew needed a place to live, and it all worked out.

I'm also seeing a girl now. We're dating, but we've only been on 3 dates so until we go on more I wouldn't call her a girlfriend just yet. I do know we get along really well, and that I'm attracted to her, and I'm pretty sure she's attracted to me, so it's going well. The dates are fun and she is laid back, and has a good sense of humor which I enjoy.

Work is work, not much to update there. I'm thankful I have a job now with the economy, but I am still working on getting my resume all cleaned and polished and will keep an eye open for other opportunities that may arise. Until then, I'm trying my best to go to work, do my best, and leave out all the rest.

I'm really looking forward to Christmas break, really, I am. I'm looking forward to spending time with my family, friends, and a break from frigid air.

Something else is that I've been having problems with my Honda. Some observations about Honda:
- They don't like to admit when their products exhibit a problem
- They don't have good customer service (not as good as Saturn)

I told the regional manager, when he called me to talk about my problems, that one of the reasons I bought a Honda was because of the repuputation for reliability and good service, but that hasn't been my case so far (4 times to the dealership in 12,000 miles). He said "Well, Mr. Smith, that's your opinion, not a fact and I work off of facts". Ooof. I forgot, you can tell someone their feelings are opinions and not valid, because that's the right thing to say as a customer service representative. Anyway, my Honda is at the dealership overnight tonight being fixed and I have a loaner car, which I am thankful for, although it's a Nissan.

I'm off to bed now, I need sleep to finish out 4 more days of work until freedom.

Thanky G

This past Thanksgiving was one of the best I can remember, for multiple reasons (these are the things I'm thankful for):
- I suprised my family with a visit
- I went to Florida away from the snow for 4 days and saw the sun
- I didn't throw up this year from overeating like I did 2 years ago
- I watched Home Alone on TV
- I saw 2 great 80's movies - Mannequin and Karate Kid
- I finished my book, "The Curious Incident of the Dog in The Night-time". It's REALLY good, especially if you like math and/or you're midly-severely autistic
- I slept on a comfortable couch
- Walter was happy to see me
- A 14 hour "welcome back" workday - I'm thankful I have a job and money since apparantly my house tax went up $1,200 for 2009. I think this is a mistake, so I need to get that figured out soon

Anyway, I'm back, and I feel refreshed, and 14 hours of work (see past posts for about 3 months of how much I hate it) can't bring me down today. Welcome home.

Happy Easter; Love Your Friend, Michigan

Instead of lillies, buds, and spring air we got this Friday for the Easter weekend. We had a nice week previously of actually seeing the ground, and the ground was starting to thaw out finally (i.e. it didn't feel like you were walking on a rock while walking on the grass). Then we got this. Luckily Saturday it started to melt but it was strange to see snow on the ground at Easter.

I didn't have to work Friday. A 3 day weekend should happen every weekend, if life were fair. I celebrated by sleeping later than usual, reading, teaching someone from work how to play Smash Brothers, reading more, then going over to Alex's to play more Smash Brothers, then I played 2 more hours with Paul online through Skype using a webcam.

Saturday I took Walt to the dog park. We had missed 2 weeks for whatever reason, but he was happy to go back and play with his dog friends. I also went rock climbing Saturday. I REALLY miss being able to do it for free at Clemson. Now I have to drop $25 every time I go. Friends from work go once or twice a week because they have year memberships (that's like $900). I try to go twice a month. I justify it because it's SUCH good exercise and a mental challenge as well.

I joined a program at work called "In Shape". The whole point is to be on a team, and encourage people to loose weight. Our engineering group formed a small team and I decided I would do it. Basically it's a 6 month long comittment in which you set a weight loss goal, and try to achieve it by the end of 6 months. As a team you're supposed to support each other. It's pretty strict, you have to keep a log of food you eat, and basically monitor calories in vs. calories out. I set my goal for 10 pounds in 6 months which I know I can do. I don't want to loose a tremendous amount of weight, but just firm up some. I lost 10 pounds in college, then another 5 pounds when I moved to Michigan. I attribute it to eating smaller portions, but still being healthy. I ate WAY to much when I lived at home. The portions were larger than I needed and there was always a snack of some sort on hand. So this program officially starts tomorrow.

Dan and I went to Easter service at church today. After that we went to Ruby Tuesday for lunch. I had Easter dinner with another friend from work, Paul, and his family.

I found this picture below online. This is the exact car I want to get in May. It's the same model and the same color I want. That's only about 2 months away now so it's getting closer.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas. Walter got a nice Clemson sweater for Christmas. It's a little too large for him now, but he looks so cute in it. All Walter's Christmas presents are back in Michigan from me. He got a new crate, a new bed, and dishes.

I got Super Mario Galaxy for Christmas. Dawn and I also got Guitar Hero 3. I got some nice clothes and some gift cards also.

Matt Sr. and I went to see "I am Legend" the night before last. It was one of the best movies I've seen in a long time. It was a lot scarier than I thought it would be. I'm suprised it got a PG13 rating and not R. It was very good though.

Well, I'm going to get back to being lazy. Bye.

Per Your Request

Before I begin: Kiki, Ann Arbor is your kind of place. Period.

Well I guess I haven't posted anything since Monday? Tuesday was just work, and an annoying day at that. Not my job's fault, just me not knowing the proper way to do everything yet and what should be a 30 minute task takes me 3 hours and I get frustrated with myself. I still have so much to learn. There are so many confusing ways to use the database, and pull drawings, link them, save them...it's a lot to remember. It's going to take practice.

Katey invited me to go to Wyandotte with her and her family Wednesday for a 4th of July parade and then to her house for a cookout. I had to get up early on Wednesday (around 7:00) to be at her house by 8:10...and then to the parade at 10:00. Her and her family live about 30 minutes south of me. When I was leaving it started to rain pretty hard, so I didn't know what was going to happen. By the time I got to her house though it had stopped and was actually really nice out. Her family was really great. They were all really welcoming and really funny to be around. They all asked if I was her boyfriend, but she made it clear that "no no no we're just friends". More on that another time...I guess.

But the parade was fun and I got to see Wyandotte which is like a blue-collor working town south of Detroit. The cookout was a lot of fun also. She had a huge family...5 sisters and like 3 million cousins. She asked me then if I wanted to go to Ann Arbor with her, because she works in Ann Arbor and her work was having a party for the 4th of July at a park. It didn't start until 4:00 but we had to be there by 2:00 to set stuff up, and to the store and buy vegie burgers for the two lesbians that were going to be there...more on that below.

Ohhh Ann Arbor. How do I describe it? Bums, lesbians, beatnicks, non-realists...it's like Asheville X 2. It was ok to visit, but I just can't take being around that for an extended period of time. It's like everyone it not in touch with reality. I like Detroit better, the people have actual jobs and aren't so flighty. The party/cookout at the park was a lot of fun. Katey's boss's daughter is a lesbian so that's who the veggie burgers were for. Although, she smoked, so what's the point of being a vegetarian? Animal rights I'd assume, but you never can tell.

When we got the pavilian to set up there was a homeless guy there reading, and charging his DVD player. Katey eventually said hi to him, and then he started to talk our ears off. He had crooked eyes and missing teeth, so looking at him while you talked was hard because you couldn't make eye contact. He introduced himself as Gilbert. He was apparantly in the army, and used to be a manager at Subway, and now lives under a bridge. Katey said "Aww I'm sorry, is it fun?". She almost implied that him and his homeless friends played "fort" under the bridge which I thought was funny. We had to go to the store and Katey asked Gilbert to watch the decorations. He did and he stayed there the entire time through the party, off to himself. When we were cleaning up we gave him all the left over food we were going to throw away and he said thank you. He was actually nice and not all begging-like, which I don't have much sympathy for. The party was fun though because she works with mostly hispanics and they danced and spoke a lot of spanish so I got to practice what I remember.

Katey said we'd go back to her house and watch fireworks, but by the time we got back it was around 9:45 and we were both tired, so I came back home and went to sleep. It was a really long day. Work today was pretty good, I'm glad tomorrow is Friday. A lot of people aren't there because they're on vacation.

Tonight I met Katey and her 1 year old niece for dinner at Chipotle in Farmington Hills. It was really good and it was fun to go out with her again. I offered to pay for her food and she just smiled and said "no I'd like to pay for my own, but thank you". It was weird because she said it in a very nice tone, but also clear and that was code for "just to be clear, we're only friends and I'm not going to give you the opportunity to think anything more". It was strange, but she's really nice, I guess she just wanted to be clear. Yesterday she would just talk about how she's in love with a guy her cousin introduced her too...another way of saying "we're just friends". That's fine, and I hope I don't come off as being creepy, but she can just relax and not worry.

Katey is a lot of fun though, I like doing stuff with her. After we left I stopped by a used book store in Novi and got a book to read by an author I like since I haven't read a book in so long and have free time to do so now.

I'm still addicted to grapes!