Rough Recesses

The last and only time I was hit in the face didn't happen. I was in the 7th or 8th grade and little Stevie took a swing at me but I saw it coming and dodged it. Stevie always was a bit physical when provoked, but never without warrant. This particular time he definitely had just cause but I can't for the life of me remember what I was doing to egg him on. It was during an indoor recess we had (must of been in the winter time) and we were in Mrs. Bonner's room in the basement. I'm sure I was doing something really stupid that upset him, as I was a rather terrible child. And because of this, even though he tried to sock me, I didn't swing back. I knew I had deserved it so I didn't feel any reason to make a scene of it. That and when I dodged his punch I accidentally knocked over the this metal stand that was holding up some books, so I had to pick that up before the teacher caught me. My friends tend to be like that. If you're being stupid they let you know, by simple effective means of communicating, like hitting you in the face. And communication is the key to any successful relationship. That was the only time anyone took a swing at my face, though I've been slapped in the face plenty of times before and after that incident.

Even in terms of physical fights, I haven't had many. I suppose the last one of those happened on my first trip to Italy back in my Sophmore or Junior year of highschool. We were in the hotel and one of the guys traveling with us was being really annoying the whole trip. And I finally got sick of it. I can't remember who started it and remember little of it. We were in the hall, and I kept telling him to stop coming at me because we were also right in front of our teacher's room and he was inside. I didn't want this guy making a lot of noise and getting us both in trouble. I remember getting frustrated because he kept coming at me even though I kept knocking him on the ground. He was like one of those large inflatable balloons or special sippy cups for toddlers that just keeps bounces back up when you topple it over. In any event, that was a one time thing that probably lasted for less than a minute and was more a tussle or wrestling than a fight.

The shortness seems to be a common theme in the few fights I've been in. In fact they are so short one could question whether or not they should even be called fights. The reason they are so short is because they escalate so quickly into crazy violence. My freshman year, I stabbed that guy with a pencil. That was over real quick. Another time Peter hit me in the knee with a Sobe bottle after I threw a snowball at him. That took me out for the count. Those bottles are really thick. But they aren't just my fights. Tim was going to throw a brick at Stevie after Stevie made fun of him, and had his arm cocked to do so, but stopped when some of us pointed out that his leg was wide open from the fall he had after I accidentally pushed him into the pile of bricks playing two hand touch. The guy had ginormous feet and I tripped over them and fell on top of him which caused him to fall into the pile. It's not like I purposely pushed the poor guy into a pile of bricks. We didn't even know the pile was there because the grass around them was so tall. Which we were later told is why that part of the playground is off limits. Live and learn I suppose.

Don't go getting the wrong impression though. My friends and I are not violent, we just tend to let our squabbles go in that direction, but none of us have ever actually been seriously hurt. Not even majorily bruised. Usually we just wrestle around until we get tired out or forget what it was we were arguing about in the first place. In any event, we are all still very close.

So while I have never actually been socked in the face, I am currently feeling what it might feel like. My face is so sore from yesterday.

It Was Just An Eye, Now It's An Entire Face

The words of the day are plum, probably, and bumble-bee. Today I went to the dentist and got 6 cavities filled. I cannot feel my face. It's sort of intriguing but at the same time a bit worrying. For example, I can sit here and pull on my goatee hard and not feel a thing. I could probably start ripping hairs out and I'd never know. But that's the worrying part. For all I know I'm sitting here chewing on my cheek and have no idea. Which is why I cannot eat any solid foods for the next several hours. I like blowing air out of my mouth making it sort of flop around as the air passes through. And saying those first three words is a blast. They just sort of plop out. I called home and Mom said I sound like a bunny with a lot of food crammed in its mouth.

The major problem with everything was that the dental hygienist I had last time was there today. Although I took that as a blessing, because laughing would have been very bad. Instead I did about the opposite. On cavities 3 and 4 I started falling asleep. There were a few times where I was entering into dream mode, which is sort of like day-dreaming, but in a dream-like state so anything can happen. Cavities 5 and 6 hurt a bit which really worries me because if they are hurting now, I can't imagine how excruciating things are going to be when this stuff wears off.

I left rather impressed. My cavities were all inbetween my teeth, but they managed to put the filling in such that my teeth are still separated. Enough to get dental floss through. That is such a small space to work in, I was just impressed that the light-activated gook they spread around doesn't bridge from one tooth to the other.

The beginning was terrible. I felt everyone of those shots I got, and they hurt. I tried not to squirm but it was really difficult. I like to think I have a high tolerance for pain, but just sitting there and allowing myself to take it is hard to do. In actuality I'm probably just a big baby who likes to be mothered, but I did it, I'm still breathing here. The best part is that I was given strict orders to go get a milk shake. Any doctor appointment that ends with milk shakes makes everything alright.

Dance to success

Today I was talking with a co-worker about cicadas and how loud they can get at night. Basically they're large grasshoppers and they make that noise rubbing their legs together. The only reason we could come up with for why they do that is that it must be a mating call. Well I don't have a mating call or dance. Maybe this is why I have had such a difficult time attracting any attention. Like maybe if I were to jump up and down a bunch and put on some really bright colors that would help. I think the Massai really have it right. But even that might not work too well as just jumping up and down isn't the loudest of activities. So I should probably do some hooting while I am it, or at least do it right in front of somebody. Yes, I think that will work. The next attractive lady I find walking along, I'm going to run up to her and start jumping up and down while making hooting noises. If it works for the rest of the animal kingdom and apparently some humans it ought to work for me.

Vic Reeves Would Say The Two Are Related

Vertigo is messed up. This morning I was pulling into a parking space and got a spot next to another car. I didn't think anyone was in the car but at the moment I stopped my car the car next to me started to back up, which gave me the sensation that I was actually moving forward because I had thought no one was in the car. Oh man, did that feel weird.

But in other news I wanted to talk about yesterday. Earlier this week, Whitney called me and gave me a ton of advice on how to better approach that girl I'm currently interested in. And yesterday I we were at a breakfast together. Now as a bit of background, the day before I had to e-mail about something related to this group I'm in. The reason I had to e-mail her was because she was looking for any sort of sacrifices or service any of us might have done that we could offer up for some college students over at UIC. I just so happened to some some. So I rattled off an e-mail, and she wrote a pretty nice response back.

The next day was Friday and this was when Whitney's advice was supposed to come into play. Over all I think things went pretty well. I did talk to her a bit, and we wound up sitting next to each other. But the conversation was more chit-chat and it's not like any fireworks went off. She probably isn't all that interested, but at least this wasn't a fiasco. Maybe over the coming weeks things will pick up a bit. In any event, Whitney needs to get some credit here.

Modern Day Slides

No one likes slide shows of their friends' vacations. Fortunately I have made it easy for you. You can either read this post or not and I will have no way of knowning. Brittany sent me her photos from Kiawah so I thought I'd share some of them with you. The first two are of yours truly. When you come out from the water the sand will stick you, and that gave me the idea to try and be an African tribesman.

Next up are some scenic shots she took of the island. The houses are pretty neat. The most expensive I know of is currently being offered at $14 million, usually they go between $5 - $10 mil. But you never really see those really expensive ones. They have these really long driveways that go off into the distance and get hidden away by the landscapes. Some of these houses have elevators. Many of them have guest houses that are attached to the main house. The guest houses themselves are large enough to be stand-alones.

Next up are some action shots of me and Brittany. The first one is of me playing a casual game of tennis with Dad on the beach. The next is of Brittany and me. See we can get along just fine. The bottom four are from the Aquarium and the nearby petting zoo at the local farm. I love Zoos and Aquariums. That cow, or whatever it is, did not like Brittany at all. But he didn't seem to mind me all that much.

Here's a glamour shot of us. Awwww.

And finally we have the piggie trough.

Metal Spikes Are A Blast

Bill Cosby's stand up 'Himself' is hilarious. The man is a genius, and in this particular stand up one of the topics he discusses is his experiences at the Dentist office. Today I found myself at the Dentist office for the first time in a good number of years, and this little stand up of his sprang to mind. When I first thought of it I wanted to smirk. But I had the dental hygienist probing my delicate flesh with a metal spike so I had to sit still. So I tried to contain the smirk. But that only makes things worse. Trying to contain a giggle only brings on fits of hysteria, which is what happened to me. I couldn't help it, and then the dental hygienist started laughing too. And it wasn't like it was a funny situation or anything, it's just impossible for me to contain a little giggle. The whole cleaning process took a very long time, she had to keep stopping so I could get my laugh out and wipe away my tears but as soon as she'd stop I'd stop. Then as soon as she'd touch my mouth I'd start up again. As a child I would get in trouble all the time for not being able to stop laughing on command. Back in school we would pull our shirts up over our noses to try and pretend like weren't laughing.

Fortunately the dental hygienist had a sense of humor. Maybe something could come from that. She's 25, personable and attractive. Although putting up with me and my 4th grade mannerisms may be a part of her job too, as I suspect she also see's a lot of little children. In any event, it would be hard trying to pursue this further since it's not like I'm going to be seeing her all that often. Or it would be, if I only go back once a year. However, this is not the case for me, because I have 6 cavities and will be going back next Tuesday.

I'd Hit That

My online dating account is nearing the 6 month mark. So far I have had about 375 hits. Note that those 375 hits are not necessarily unique, meaning if the same person clicked on me 10 times, that counts as 10 hits. But nevertheless I'm pretty happy with that number. That's a whole lot more than I ever thought I'd have. I was expecting more like 50 or so when I first signed up. After she found out that I have an online dating profile, my sister signed up for a free 3-day trial to try and find me. And in just those 3-days she had over 1500 hits!

Wooden Beams

While I was away I got a call from a friend asking if I would give a talk on Christian Living to some college students on a retreat in November. I told him I would, but I am a little apprehensive about it because it is a difficult subject to present. As a concept, Christian living is rather straight forward. Afterall, one of the first things the majority of parents instill in their children is a sense of Christian values. It's not exactly rocket science. But I think presenting it may be difficult. We live in this silly relativistic culture where people have their own sense of what's right and they do not like being told otherwise, especially by someone who is clearly no better if not worse than they are. So in order to reach these students, I think a great deal of sensitivity is needed. Which makes my friend an idiot for asking me to give this speech.

A part or me is also on the fence simply because I do not want to be hypocritical and know good and well I'm no saint. But maybe that can help me give plenty of examples of how not to be a Christian. For example, say I'm getting ready to go with someone to the ocean. And let's pretend this person I'm going with just got a new swimsuit because this person lost a lot weight after a good deal of hard work. It would be rather un-Christian of me to point out the stretch marks that show while this person is wearing the swimsuit and thereby reduce that person to tears.

Nevertheless, I'm fairly excited about the speech because I have some ideas about how to present the material that I haven't tried before in front of an audience. But it will be challenging. Because it's a speech and not a conversation everything is a one-way street. Which is fine since I'm sensational, because no one else will have anything of more value to say on the matter than what I've already said, but the problem is that there is no room for questions. So the way I see it, I need to try and make my points so obviously clear that there is little need for questions or rebukes. Like I can't just say, going out to purposely get drunk is a sin, and leave it at that. Instead I need to explain clearly why this is not a good thing to do and the damage it causes.

Then there's the problem of me. People may retort that I'm no saint myself so I shouldn't tell them what to do. The purpose of the speech is to inform people of what it means to be a Christian but it may be hard to find any listeners if they do not think I'm a good one to begin with. I hate that mindset, even though I find myself falling into it as well. It doesn't hold. For example maybe our high school teachers cannot derive everything mathematical proof they present to us. But that doesn't make the proof any less true just because they can't follow it themselves. Or the opposite can also happen. People may think I am being judgemental about them, or I have some 'holier-than-thou' attitude. This is actually fairly common and I've never understood it.

I'm thinking about posting the speech once I get it done, but that will be sometime in November. In the meantime keep in me your prayers so that I can say something that does touch these students in a meaningful way.

Like Hawaii Backward

Hi everybody. The library is about to close so I do not have time to write anything too detailed but I thought I'd at least say "hello". The trip was fairly great. Like all family vacations it had highs and lows. But overall I'd say their were only two major lows. The first was when the 2nd floor of the hotel we stayed in the first night found out that Dad does not like loud teenage girls. The second was on the first full day when I managed to make both my sister and Dad cry. But other than that we all had a blast and a very relaxing time off.

We went to Kiawah, South Carolina. If you look at a map, generally Kiawah is by the 'E' in Charleston. Kiawah is a private island that is well known for it's golf courses, but my family doesn't golf. Many years ago, when I was in the 3rd grade I think, my parents bought an oceanfront oceanview (there are dune views) 1 bedroom condo. They rent it out, but from time to time we go visit. And this past week was one of those times.

For now, since I'm short I'm time, I wanted to post a few pics, and a random quote as a caption to go with them. I have a bit more that I want to say than what's in this post, but I also want to wait until I get the rest of the pictures from Brittany.

The first one is of an alligator. Here in cornfield Illinois we get squirrels and rabbits trampling through our backyards. Maybe a deer from time to time. In Kiawah, they too have squirrels and deer, but they also have alligators. They get to be about 12 feet and have no problem sunbathing in your yard. However, they tend to be quite scared of humans and will run usually run away if you approach them (like the one in the pic). Usually is the key word here, sometimes they simply will not move, which can be incredibly scary when they are just lounging around on the bike paths. The two we saw this time were very small, maybe 6 to 8 feet and were probably babies.

Well what do you suggest; look up 'Earl' in the phone book? - Mom

The next pic is of a picnic Dad, Brittany and I at a secret lookout tower we know about.

Get some man in you!! -Brittany is very pro-alternative lifestyle.

The next pic is of Brittany flying a kite on the beach. You can just make out the kite.

It's fine, aside from the gory rape it's fine. - Me

Taking the Taste Out Of Peanut Butter

Oh, what a fiasco. I held off writing last night in the hopes that this morning's events would be a bit more cheery. But let's start at the beginning. On Wednesday I went to the Mass on campus. Nerves were running high as this was the first time I would be seeing her after receiving that reply from her which we over-analyzed last time. When I got there, she was with a bunch of friends but said 'hi' which was very nice. Mass was fine, and then afterwards came the social. For awhile I stuck with my friends, but then they decided to leave, and I hadn't talked to her yet. I had one goal in mind, and that was to ask her if I could keep inviting her to various things or should I back off. A very simple quick 'yes' or 'no' question. Once my friends left, I was left standing there feeling awkward. A lot of people were still around but I don't talk to them. Not wanting to look silly I decided to go over and talk to her even though she was surrounded by friends.

After I made my way over, I got her attention and asked her very quietly if I freaked her out by my offer in the message. She said not at all, and that she very much liked my joke in it. At this point my nerves got the better of me and the conversation broke down. Personally I think I am very good at holding conversations, but not that night. In short, every time I wanted to ask my question something came up. We did talk for a short while, which was nice, but it was very much chit-chat. Nothing solid or substantial to build off of. Eventually she got bombarded with her friends, and at that point I was very much feeling like that puppy in the shadows who wanted attention. That is about the most annoying state I ever see guys in (it's a pet peeve of mine to see guys just hanging around a girl hoping she'll notice them), and realizing that I tried to get myself out of there by finding someone else to talk to. But then at some point it becomes apparent that I'm merely trying to hang around for an alternative motive. Anyway, in the end I did not get to ask my question, and thought I probably did more damage than good by the night's end. My plan at that point was to drop the issue, keep doing what I do and maybe by some great grace things will progress naturally. I have found this to be the only way things have ever worked for me. Whenever I try to take some initiative on my own, things always, without fail, go wrong. When I just let them progress naturally everything works out. For the Christian fan base this would be better phrased as when I keep my eyes on God much sucess, when I try epic fail.

So with this new mindset of no longer actively pursuing her I went to Mass again this morning at 7. I knew at least one other of my friend's would be going too so I had a buffer (okay this sounds a lot like 'actively pursuing' so let's call it 'passively pursuing'. But that's a pet peeve of mine too so let's try to call it 'sensational passively pursuing' since I'm doing it which therefore makes it okay because Nietzsche was right along). A bunch of my friends go to Mass on Friday mornings and then head over to a special pancake restaurant here in town for breakfast. And things did go much better today. I didn't talk to her but it was fun with my friend and the other people I became better acquainted with. In general this is called the 'if you can't be her friend become friends with her friends technique'. However, in my defense these people are not her friends so there. I would call this the 'if you can't hang with her, hang with people who go to the same gathering as her but are not necessarily her friends technique.' Which I am equating to letting things happen naturally since I very well may have gone anyway if I had never met her and only knew my friends were going to be there.

Throughout these ordeals I have gotten much loving support from my friends and family. My sister for example has offered me some insightful relevations. "Bromo, it's not from lack of effort that you can't make friends. You can't make friends because you're a loser."

What a week. I need a vacation from all that. And it just so happens I'm going to South Carolina tomorrow for a week. How convenient. Although this sadly means that you may not hear from me for awhile. I'll tell you what though. I'm going to go throw Orca at an alligator and post the pics and vids I take of it all along with some first hand impressions.

Flower Petal Picking

Did you place your bets? So far I've been about 50/50. I am amazed at how many people thought this was a lame cheap date. Maybe I really am missing something. Just because the outing would have been cheap doesn't mean the quality would have been. The pizza really is quite good. Like say I have free tickets to a tropical paradise weekend getaway. It would not make any sense not to use those tickets simply because they were free. Although the differences between the two scenarios is not lost on me. My thoughts on the matter were that it would have been a pressure free fun time to meet someone new.

I received her response early this morning at work. I could have flown considering the butterflies I had upon opening it. Here is the response in full: I'm actually already going to dinner with someone Thursday night. Sorry I can't make it; thanks for the invite.

Sigh.

Still I was able to make reservations for a friend of mine and his fiance so that was nice.

For fun (and for adding a bit of length to this post), let us go back to our immature insecure years and grossly over-analyze these two sentences. The biggest problem with the response is how to interpret it. It's not like she said "Oh I would have loved to but..." The best I get here is that second sentence. This makes it difficult to determine if she means go ahead and invite her to other things, this time just doesn't work, or if she's trying to politely say 'stay away'. Essentially 'half full or empty.' For further evidence I looked to the other parts of the response. In this case there were none. In other words no greeting or signature. That to me indicates a certain level of coldness, but at the same time she wrote it at 1:30 this morning which may mean she was just in a rush to get to bed but wanted to pay me the courtesy of sending a response. But on the other hand maybe she was up till 1:30 because she was trying to find someone else to go to dinner with on Thursday so that her response wouldn't be a downright lie (I'm guilty of this). The semi-colon is curious. It means she's either a fantastic writer or she re-read her response a few times. For me, semi-colons always come after the fact. Like I'm never just writing along and say "oh, I think it's time for a semi-colon." The comma always comes first, and then upon reflection the semi-colon replaces it. Now she did get into Northwestern which I'm told is a fantastic school (remember I'm from another State where we don't hear about these fancy schools), so she may really be just that smart to use semi-colons the way many of us use commas. But on the other hand if she isn't that smart then that means she did reflect on her choice of words. Which brings to question what was she thinking about. Especially to get out two sentences. Maybe there was a great inner conflict here of possibly canceling her other plans. Maybe she was purposely trying to be vague, to her success as I'm clueless on how to interpret this. Maybe she was trying to politely let me down and was trying to think of chartible phrasing. Or maybe, and likely, she just really couldn't make it, appreciated the invitation all the same and didn't consider about any future plans as it was 1:30 in the morning, so trying to answer this question of 'she loves me, loves me not' by getting into her subconcious is almost impossible. Oh the sweet joy of over-analyzing.

In any event I will see her at Church tonight and just ask her. Which means I can spend the rest of the evening letting my nerves get the best of me. Good grief.

Cheesy Opportunity

'Old Chicago' is opening up a new restaurant in town across from the mall. If you're like me, and have never heard of this place before, it's a pizza joint. Last week, they brought two pizzas into work and they were really good. As it turns out, a guy at work has some connections with the restaurant. His wife is the head manager there. It opens on the 14th but as a special promotion, people at work can make reservations to eat there for free this Thursday - Saturday sort of like VIPs. So I decided to try my terrible luck and ask out that girl I've been talking about. Because I have no private life at work, two of my managers decided to talk to me today about my lady situation. I explained it hadn't changed much since they last talked to me, but I do have this my newly brewing circumstance with this girl from Church. When I told them about my dinner date idea they screamed at me. "Taking a girl out for free pizza is cheap." "Well, yeah that's sorta the point." "You can't do that, there's no way she'll like that." "Oh come on, the pizza was great, and it is an exclusive event." "No, you can't take her out for free." "So then you probably wouldn't have a favorable opinion of my idea for dessert which is a Steak and Shake buy-one-Shake-get-one free coupon. I figure I can be out the door at around $2.95."

Fortunately, I am employed based on my skills as an engineer and not as a gentleman. Still I think the whole thing is a good idea (okay maybe the Steak and Shake coupon is a bit much), and I just wrote her an invitation on Facebook. That's right, I didn't ask her point blank. I would have, however I will not get to see her until tomorrow evening (which may be to late to make a reservation), and I do not have her phone number to call her. Not surprisingly, even though I took the wimpy e-mail way out, I'm about to have a heart-attack, but since I'm at the library writing this I'm doing my best to remain composed. Hopefully I'll have an answer for you tomorrow. Place your bets.

Bright Blue By-product

A while back I wrote about one of my more inspired ideas. Last Friday I had another such idea. This time someone in the building I work in brought in a big basket full of tomatoes from the garden, and I swipped one. After work, I found my arms were full with my all the items I wanted to leave with, and carrying the tomato was becoming difficult. Then I had the sensational idea to put the tomato into one of the tubawares I had stored my lunch in earlier in the day. I was so proud, you don't have to store only your lunch in tubawares. You can put a whole slew of things in them. Now that's thinking outside the box. Hah, that's funny, cause tubaware's a box. Whew.

Unfortunately, the other day I saw a un-sensational idea. While I was at Mass the other day I needed to tinkle and I went to the restroom. And there in the urinal was a piece of gum someone had spit out. I'll never understand this phenomenon. The urinal is not a gum disposal system. But for whatever the reason people seem to think it is. People say I'm unempathetic but this is a mis-characterization. Take this case for example. I would never spit my gum into the urinal because I'd feel bad for the guy who has to reach in there to pick it out. But at the same time maybe I am unempathetic afterall because I cannot figure out any possible reason why someone would think it's a good idea in the first place. Then I tried to think about the possibility that maybe it fell out of the person's mouth. Maybe they got shocked or awed at some incredible sight. Like maybe they had blue tinkle or something. I imagine if I had blue tinkle my jaw would probably be dropping too. Or maybe they were doing something slightly unorthodox whilst standing there, someone walked in on them, and in their shock the gum fell out. I could definitely see that happening. But at the same time, even if the gum fell in accidentally, the person should take a paper towel and fish it out. Oh what a tragedy the world is coming to these days.

Tuesday Afternoon

Last Friday I talked about my one step above complete failure encounter with some new people I met at the sweet corn festival. In particular I became better acquainted with a girl I see all the time at various Church activities but had never actually had an occasion to talk to. The next day I ran into her again. This time it was at the freshmen retreat. Remember I volunteered to both drive them to and from the retreat. It turns out, she did to. I noticed that she said 'Hi' first, although we saw each other at the same time so it wasn't like she went out of her way or anything, but by acting like a highschooler I can read into these things all I want. We didn't talk though. On the spot like that with nerves running high I couldn't come up with anything to talk about so instead I ended up talking to another friend of mine, Sandy (in case Sarge is reading, she is still around doing an internship).

In addition to the freshmen retreat, I also had signed up to give a talk for a highschool freshmen retreat here in town. Five of us were asked to e-mail the Priest who is putting it on if we felt like participating. When I got an e-mail of confirmation from him, I saw that she was also in the e-mail list. Wow. Maybe the planets are aligning here. The next day, I went to Mass and again I saw her there. Although, I sort of planned that one knowing she was going to be there, but the benefit was that this time I had something to talk to her about. I wanted to ask her about the retreat, because I hadn't done it before and was curious if she had and what it was like. So we talked for a few minutes after Mass and that was nice. Then on Tuesday we had our first meeting for the retreat. The five of us who volunteered were to meet the Priest at Panera Bread to have our initial get-to-know-you meeting and figure out who was going to be doing what. We met up at the campus Church and then walked over from there. On the way I got to talk with her quite a bit. Again, this was great. Amazing, no major fiascos yet. Clearly someone up above is looking out for me.

At Panera Bread, we started by going through the formalities. The Priest told us that "the retreat is going to be held on Thursday, Sept 17th from 8 - 2." "Wait, what was that date?" "Sept. 17th." "No one told me that." "What, you weren't told at the announcement? I specifically gave that information." "No, this is all news to me, and I'm going to be out of town." Oh yes, someone up above certainly has a sense of humor. I can't do the retreat with the girl. The Priest was understanding and said I was more than welcome to help out with the Sophomore - Senior retreats being held the rest of the year, and I said I would. I stayed for the rest of the meeting, and walked back with them. And that was that. Drat.

Now you may be thinking, oh that's alright, I still have plenty of other opportunities to hang out with her and it's true that I do. However, on the way to Panera Bread she told me she is leaving at the end of the semester to go to Northwestern to finish her masters in Orthodics. Double Drat.

Still I don't perturb easily. Hopefully this story is not over yet.

Now in other news, I have decided to cancel my internet subscription, and most likely the online dating subscription. I'm canceling the internet subscription for a number of reasons. First off I hardly use it and when I do, probably 1% of the time is for something actually productive. The rest of the time I use it for getting video game news, typing these blogs, and shopping. I also didn't like being constantly tempted to misuse it all the time. Finally canceling it will help get me out of my apartment and bring me to other places that do have it such as the library. So I'm going to try out not having it for a month and see how it goes. The reason I'm canceling my online dating subscription is because I tried it for about 6 months to no avail, and it wasn't like I didn't try. Anyway, this post is being done at the library and already I've got a story. Sitting at the computer right in front of me is a bald, middle-aged man wearing a lady's pink dress and 5 year old girl pink sunglasses.

Michelangelo pwned

A little while back I told you all about the event of the year that was going to take place. But apparently all of you have no appetite for amazing as not a one of you came. Totally lame. Well I went to the event of the year and have some pics to make you cry.

This first sampling is quite telling of the artist's mastery. So often we hear about Michelangelo's amazing sculptures, but none of those were in color. They were in just lame white. How dull. Here the artist has created a symphony of art, mechanics, and color. The artist, Jake, has successfully captured the essence of the tropics, thereby drawing the viewer out of his urban mindset and into the primitive wild. One can almost hear the monkey's call. Notice that even the scenery spares no detail as the bananas call to our stomachs, but alas they are only balloons and are not to be eaten. Finally, since this is Tasteful Thursday, notice the fine specimen of art on the left showcasing 'The Polyphonic Spree'. But this is no surprise. Like Jake's still-life, only the finest gatherings of art, music and literature should be expected here.

Here is the master himself. His deft hands are simply too fast to be captured by technology. He is a blur of genius. Watching him uplifts the soul and motivates man to strive for his greatest potential. Actually this is true. Jake said that here he was at one of the finest universities in the world, an alumni graduated summa cum laude in mathematics. If this doesn't motivate you to hit the books hard and get into a real major nothing will.