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| Life has been better than ever. I am living with a friend from school for the rest of the summer, staying here in Ann Arbor. It's fantastic, rent is cheap and utilities are all paid for, the room already had plenty of furniture from the previous tenant and it's a great location. The house itself is very nice and spacious, albeit dirty since my friend doesnt like to clean up, but at least I keep my living areas clean. Once I got settled in I started applying for jobs, which didnt take too long since the local Little Caesars saw that I already had previous work experience there so they set up an interview with me on the spot. I'm going in for a second interview on Monday, but I'm 100% certain that I already have a job since they've already got me scheduled for training on Wednesday, which is when I start making the bling. I'm scraping the bottle of the barrel right now, I need moneys.
Living with Colin has been great. He's a really nice guy and doesnt seem at all bothered by the fact that I havent payed rent yet, I make up for it by cleaning up around the house whenever I can (hard to make progress when a new mess always replaces the old mess, but I am NOT complaining). It's really cool living with him though, he vapes me down all the time and doesnt expect me to pay for it, and he plays Halo all of the time and I join in every once in a while. It's done good things for my social life as well, since Colin has alot of friends and I can meet alot of people that way purely due to the fact that I live in the house.
We had a funny exchange the other day. I had gotten back from my interview at Little Caesars, it was dark when I unlocked the back door to the kitchen and walked in and turned on the lights. There was a moped parked there. I went to the living room and was like "Colin, why is there a moped just chillin in the kitchen?" to which he replied "Eh, these things happen sometimes".
On Friday morning I helped move a few pieces of furniture for Lia's dad since he's moving into a new apartment. They didnt want to have to rent a truck, and since I have mine with me it was no problem at all for me to help. Easy as pie, and he gave Lia some money for us to grab some lunch, which is good because I'm broke. We went to Espresso Royale and ordered Jasmine tea; she got vegan zuchini bread while I got banana bread. I wasn't keeping track of time, but we had a great time enjoying each others' company and just chatting about stuff that was important to us. Gay rights, gender identity, breaking down stereotypes, music that we enjoyed, books that we liked reading. I see eye-to-eye with her on so many topics. I dropped her off while I finished setting up my room and moving stuff into storage. Before I left, I asked Colin if I could borrow some money, he asked what it was for and I let him know that I was going on a date. He said "Good luck", to which I replied "It's not luck". Later on that night I picked Lia up to go out on a date.
She looked drop-dead gorgeous in her outfit, she did her hair and wore a very sexy dress shirt. We went to eat at Earthen Jar, a vegan-friendly restaurant since she's vegan. Food was great as expected, I need to work on my eating habits, I'm a sloppy eater. Afterwards we wandered around downtown Ann Arbor, if I remember correctly the next thing that we did was go to Pangea Piercing studios, where she got her ears re-pierced with a very lovely pair of earrings. I held her hand incase she needed something to squeeze onto, which she didnt need to do because the piercer informed us that tensing up would cause it to hurt more. Before he went through with the operation, I wished Lia "Good luck", to which he responded "There is no luck involved." We've decided that we'll make another date there when they check on how her ears are adapting to the new piercings, and on that day I'll get my lip pierced. It was sorta funny because the owner of the studio was pissed off that day because apparently clove cigarettes were banned in all public establishments, the entire time we were there he was ranting and raving to whoever would listen. This guy went on and on and just would not stop. Definately a smart guy, there's just only so much listening I can take though.
Afterwards we walked around downtown Ann Arbor a little bit more and looked at a few art galleries and stopped by a bookstore where we looked through all of the books and chatted more. We came up with another date idea in which we go to the local library and recommend a book for each other to read. It's worth noting that while we were there I recommended that she flip through the simple yet classic children's book "The Missing Piece" by Shel Silverstein. If you havent read that book (and it's sequel), you most definately should. There was a small cafe in the upstairs of the bookstore and we shared a vegan ding-dong, which was absolutely delicious and much better than a regular Hostess ding-dong. We got lost in conversation a bit more and when we were finished with our dessert I asked Lia if she wanted to be my "Missing Piece", to which she accepted.
I had spent the last of my money on the ding-dong, but I made the suggestion that we go dancing at Necto. Friday nights at Necto are gay pride nights, which means that a majority of the people dancing are gay, but since Lia and I were already a couple at that point and since we both love gay pride we both were excited to go dancing that night and it wouldnt have felt awkward at all. Unfortunately neither of us had enough money for the both of us to get in, haha. We ended up just going back to my house.
We went up to my room and I showed her a computer game, but that's irrelevant. We sat down on my loveseat and spent an undeterminable amount of time kissing and cuddling. Neither of us have had an actual relationship up to that point. I felt what love was like for the first time, I realize now that any and all attractions that I felt towards women up until that point in my life had only been lust. Nothing could compare to what I felt right then and there, it felt like universal peace. Nothing else mattered. She told me how glad she was that Necto didnt let us in and that we did this instead. I agreed and we laughed about the absurd entrance fees and clothing requirements, but then we decided that we would try to go again on Monday night.
I love Lia, and I wont let anything bad ever happen to her. She is so special to me, one-of-a-kind. She doesnt have absurd relationship requirements, she and I both agree that height and skin color requirements are immature and shouldnt be relevant whatsoever. She appreciates the little things that I do for her, like when I hold open doors and my attempts at being a gentleman. And as evidenced, she understands that I'm short on cash at the moment, and that doesnt matter to her. Our relationship happened so naturally that there was no effort involved, I now realize what having a girlfriend and being in love is like.
Today, I'm getting a few friends together to have a cookout at my place. I'm about to go pick up some vegan hamburgers to grill for my girlfriend. The fact that Lia will be there is better than any 4th-of-July fireworks that money can buy.
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| On Saturday, my friend Lia and I went to Toronto, Canada to attend Edgefest '09 and see AFI. We left at noon and made the 4.5 hour drive to Toronto and arrived right-on time for us to see Alexisonfire (another band that she is a fan of) and AFI (the reason why we both came).
My beautiful friend Lia. We listened to AFI the entire trip there and back.
Crossing the bridge into Canada. Customs gave us a little bit of trouble, but nothing we couldnt handle.
We met up and hung out with other AFI fans.
Lia and I were both very muddy and sweaty after the show, but she still looked absolutely fabulous!
It was raining all day that day. As we were leaving the venue, we helped a car get unstuck from the mud. It took all of us! Notice Graham on the far left, he's silly =P
We got on the subway to downtown Toronto
We ate sushi! Graham's hiding from the camera again.
Afterwards we went to a bar. A few members of our group, including Lia, live a "straight edge" lifestyle, meaning that they dont partake in recreational drug useage. I deeply respect her strong will against succumbing to peer pressure, and that she lives this way without looking down upon those who choose to live otherwise.
This trip was by far the most fun I've had since I moved to Michigan. I made a ton of new friends and memories that I will never forget. We disbanded that night, knowing full and well that there was a connection between all of us that could only exist through our love of AFI.
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| Tonight I celebrated my 20th birthday in more depth by having a dinner party with friends at Bar Louie. Joel, Eric, Ariel, Starla and her boyfriend, Ashlei, and Andrew K. all showed up and we ordered drinks and food. I offered to pay for everyone's drinks, but instead Ashlei was nice enough to pay for my meal =) I tried to not let her though, ROFL. I was hoping that I could pay for everyone's drinks this year so that next year, when I'm 21, I could cash in those good-karma points and have my friends pay for my drinks all night long =D We had an excellent time though, and I'm glad that we ended up going there because they kept playing all the music that I like listening to in my spare time anyways. I heard a couple of Jack Johnson songs, all of which I really like, and there was even some Red Hot Chili Peppers in there somewhere. I really wish I had taken pictures, but I was so overwhelmed with happiness that I was too much in shock to remember doing that. I'm so fortunate to have so many great friends.
It's funny, I chose Bar Louie because I had heard that they served big and delicious slices of cake that are intended for two people. And, my Facebook event page for the event was themed off of a videogame called "Portal", where the running gag is that the player is constantly reminded that there will be cake at the end of the game, but it turns out that "the cake was a lie." Check out the event page here. It turns out that Bar Louie was out of cake, the cake was a lie, so they brough me a cut-up fudge brownie with ice cream on top of it instead. Later I was still hungry, since I expected to be full off of cake, so I ordered a steak quesedilla. I'm a big-time steak quesedilla fan, but this one was pretty terrible. I had to eat it with a fork because it was falling apart, and overall it just didnt taste very good, I should have just gotten a cheese one instead.
I had asked for my friends to bring their Nintendo DS's so that we could play them while we ate, and they did so it was good fun. Our selection of multiplayer games was lacking unfortunately, but I did get to gloat as I pwned everyone at Tetris DS. Afterwards, I thanked everyone for coming and I ended up chilling over at Andrew's place for a bit and watching Dancing With The Stars, which one of Andrew's childhood friends is currently participating in. He advanced to the next round, and he danced very well, he deserved it.
Currently I'm in the Ugli working on physics for the night. I want to get ahead on my work because our final exam is next Friday and I plan on being super-prepared to dominate that exam. He also assigned us some extra credit so I'm hoping to burn through some of that for some extra points.
Take care everyone, and never forget that it is the quality of your friends that counts, not the quantity.
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| Today is my 20th birthday. I am officially no longer a teenager. I've had a great day so far today. Pretty average day to be exact, but no complaints here. All pro's, no con's.
For my birthday, my parents sent me some protein powder to help my muscles develop after an intense workout session
I also asked for one of these, which is an external harddrive/card reader that can read two harddrives at once. Very nifty, very handy, a much needed gift.
I've gotten tons of birthday wishes on Facebook from all of my friends, I'm fortunate to have such good friends. My sister called to wish me a happy birthday, along with my parents who sang for me over the phone. I wish I could have gotten the chance to see them today, unfortunately they're all the way down in Arkansas while I'm up here taking a spring Physics class in Michigan. I even got a few birthday cards in the mail from my family, they were all very nice and I'll be glad to have some money in the bank to tide me over until classes are finished.
The real birthday celebration will hold off until this Thursday. I plan on meeting up with some friends at either "La Dolce Vita" or "Bar Louie", both in Ann Arbor. I'd rather try out La Dolce Vita, but it's "Restaurant Week" in Ann Arbor and since alot of the restaurants have lower prices and also because La Dolce Vita is a sister-restaurant of the impossible-to-book "Chop House" steakhouse, so it might be impossible to get our large group in there.
After classes are finished here, my friends James and Ben from Conway are coming up here to Michigan and we hope to go on a trip to Canada. I'm greatly looking forward to seeing them. Afterwards, I hope to find a fulltime job and to sublet an apartment for a few months. I'm not sure if I'll try to find these things in Ann Arbor or if I might as well just go to Ypsilanti since it'll probably be cheaper. Ann Arbor housing is expensive but I've found a few decent deals for housing on Craigslist. I hope that there are jobs in Ann Arbor. I'd definately be dropping my resume off at all of the videogame places in Ann Arbor, although chances of getting hired are slim. Working at someplace like Meijers would be alright with me. I need to start spending more wisely.
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