weekend

So I kicked off Friday with an afternoon get together with the girls from school. Later that night I had a date with a hot hapa dude who turned out to be a total tool who took 10 years to finish his degree because he got kicked out for engaging in some very questionable activity. He also lacked the finer points of going out on a date that most men over 25 who aren't idiots don't miss. You know, like not making me get out of the fucking car to see when the restaurant closes or complaining I slammed his car door when I didn't. Somehow he thinks we're going to meet up again but good looks only get you so far when you're a broke cocky loser who acts like he's 18. Oh well, the movie was excellent. We saw In the Valley of Elah which I highly recommend. Man am I ever glad I was able to salvage my evening by watching the first season of Weeds on DVD. Last night I met Denny's cousins at the birthday party of one of the cousins. It was a roller rink party 80s style. I brought my own blades and got to try them indoors for the first time. It was pretty fun and I managed to escape any injury. I even won a 3-lap race around the rink without pushing anyone into the wall. Just got back from a happy hour at Norm's in Fremont where appetizers were all $5 and beer I think was $3. They had good wings, bacon wrapped shrimp and brie. Not a bad weekend altogether. Could use another day though. I do have a goal to work towards though. We'll be heading out to Neighbour's in Cap Hill for 80s night on Thursday.

day 1

First day of school today and it was not a lucky day but I survived. I thought my spirit friend had left the apartment with my roomate who went to Shanghai for the quarter but last night after I double checked that my alarms were set for 8:45 am and not pm, the alarms were indeed not set properly this morning and I was lucky I woke up around that time anyways. I headed out to catch the 9:39 bus which gets me there a half hour before. No bus, the next one scheduled for 9:49 doesn't come either, and the woman standing next to me says she arrived to catch the 9:15 bus which didn't come either. Finally 10am rolls around and I get on the already packed bus. I arrive at 10:20 and don't even have time to go to my office to get my attendance list. I was lucky I had the room number scribbled on a pieced of paper from the night before. First class of the quarter and I had to wing it.

detox

I spent the weekend in Vancouver for my best friends' wedding up at Westwood Plateau. The day was spent going from Burnaby to Stanley Park to the Wall Center in a big limo for photos. Drinking in the limo started at 11 am and continued until we arrived at the ceremony at 5 or so. The bride and groom did a fantastic job of keeping us fed and comfortable and all of us in the wedding party did a fantastic job of keeping them and ourselves entertained for the whole day...and night. It was only my second time being in a wedding party but I have to say this one really took the cake. I never had so many laughs (mostly at dirty jokes) and so much fun getting photos taken for 5 hours. Most memorable of the many funny things said in the limo came of course from my friend Dan. Tasha and I were showing off the incredible dexterity in our own toes while the others marveled. Dan says, "damn you girls could put a condom on a guy with one foot while making rice with the other."

Wedding highlights:

The first dance http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLgexf_irYs (woohoo Dirty Dancing)
The wedding party's dance routine (video coming)
The incredibly funny speeches
The videos
Good friends

I'm really not looking forward to seeing the photos and videos of me acting like a loud obnoxious asshole at the reception, although I have to give myself credit for not dancing on any tables and not falling down (like I did the other night last week when I came crashing out of a bathroom stall). Food highlights from the weekend: Dozo Izakaya in Richmond, the wedding food, the double teen burger combo from A&W at 2am that night, a great gyro from a place in Port Moody, and Kiyo for sushi in Richmond.

It was also fun to go on a mini roadtrip with my two closest friends in Seattle. Love you guys.

And after a couple summer months of being pretty much fubar more often than not, I'm feeling like it's time to tame things down a bit and drag myself kicking and screaming back into complete sobriety, at least for a week. I might even exercise or something.

composure

It's funny how awkward and uncomfortable it feels to return to a big room full of my colleagues. Actually it's not an issue with my colleagues but rather one of being in a professional setting, sober, and attempting to be articulate after three months of using the word fuck as either a verb or a noun in every other sentence I spoke, sentences that were never more than 6 words long.

Today was TA orientation day. All the incoming grad students and returning students introduced themselves and listened to the talk about how our funding works and our responsibilities to the program. For whatever reason, I was just not mentally ready to be back in that building, in that meeting room, talking to all those folks, especially all at once. A little overwhelming. I've seen my close friends from school over the last two weeks but having 50 of us in one room staring at one another after being away for three months was just heart rate elevating in a not good way.

I need another month off. Seriously. There are seven boxes of my shit from Simon's house laying around waiting for me to stub my toe on them. I've got some new school year resolutions though. I am going to focus on not losing it. That probably entails scheduling myself time to exercise, watch Heroes, The Office and My Name is Earl, and even go out to see people. These things did not happen in year 1 of this program. I watched almost no TV except for the news during dinner and very rarely went out. Relaxing it was not. I'm determined to make this not the worst 4 years of my life. I want to have a life this year, just a little bit.

the end

Where did summer go?

I saw The Devil's Backbone (2001). Fantastic movie. By the same director who made Pan's Labyrinth. Also saw Hard Candy. Interesting story. Bit gory and hard to watch though, especially for dudes. Denny had to leave the room. Sorry D.

Week and a half to go until classes start. So not ready for school. My head's not in the game and I really don't know what to do to get it there.

17 days

17 days is a long period of blog neglect. In that time, I ended a long term relationship, moved completely out of an ex-partner's apartment, went to LA to party like a rock star for a bachelorette party, detoxed from the partying, unpacked, packed, returned to Seattle, unpacked, saw my therapist, and gave myself a couple of other panic attacks over other shit going on my life and now I'm here. Back in recovery mode. Again. Despite my wishes for stability all I ever find is another adventure I never signed up for. There is never a dull moment in my life but I quite often wish for one. Dull would be a fantastic thing right now.