Awkward Existance

Been about a month since I updated this…once again completely forgetting that I should be posting something now and then. Maybe the title should have been something more along the lines of “Absolute Forgetfulness”, though this one works out.

So what has happened since my last update? Well, I did get paid before the wedding. I took the money and used it towards a new camera, the HV30. I also purchased another battery and a few more tapes. I’ve also already finished and actually brought the dvd in with me to work today. He hasn’t stopped by to pick it up, so I’ll probably end up just dropping it off at his desk in a little bit. I get kind of nervous before giving someone something that I’ve worked on…makes me feel under pressure. I feel like he’s looking for more than he paid for, which is funny because I do not charge enough to warrant something like that. That’s not to say that I don’t put hard work into my video projects, it’s just that I’m a one-man crew and it probably shows.

The new camera works much better in lower light than my old HV20. That’s not to say that it works great in super low / dark rooms, and that shows (exactly the reason why I cut out any of the dancing that took place in the dark). The throwing of the bouquet happened while the lights were still turned off for dancing, which made for a very very dark scene. I turned it black and white with Looks (as I did with the garter belt tossing, though the lights were on by that point), but it was still super dark. It’s one of those “it can’t be helped” moments though, so they’ll have to deal with it.

I’m quite pleased with myself, though I still have yet to see what Bill and his wife think of the video. This puts two weddings under my belt, video projects in the past, and also got me a new camera (and a nice backpack to store all my stuff). I don’t want to do weddings for the rest of my life though. They’re a decent source of a quick buck, but also a lot of work. It’s helping fund videomaking for now, we’ll see how that goes.

It snowed a ton on Sunday night / Monday morning. When I woke up Monday to head off to work, I opened the door to see what it was like outside…it was just snow everywhere. By the time I was ready to leave, I had to shovel a path to my car, to the car blocking me, and from the cars to the road. I also shoveled the snow off my car, it looked like it was a foot deep, it was pretty crazy. There were only about 10 people at work when I got there, with a few saying they were leaving by noon, and some coming later in the day filling in their spots. It was an incredibly busy day despite the weather.

The new season of Lost has definitely become my favorite as of yet. The 3rd season was my original favorite, showing more of the Others and delving deeper into the happenings of the island. This season sort of mirrors the 3rd season in that it’s actually giving answers to what is going on in the story. Sure there are still tons of questions being given every episode, but at least more information is becoming available instead of just questions. If the show continues on this path, the rest of this season will turn out to be the most informative, entertaining season of all of Lost. That will lead us into the final season 6, hopefully tightening the story even more, or at least leading up to a movie or something along those lines. I could go on forever about theories and my thoughts up to this point, but I’ll leave that for a later time.

Schenectady New York, a Charlie Kaufman film starring Philip Seymour Hoffman and Catherine Keener, was absolutely breathtaking. At times I was watching the film in complete awe, taken aback as to what was actually happening on my monitor. Such intense acting, such an incredible story with the mastermind of Kaufman at the wheel, driving us into a world that only a genius (or a madman) could come up with. This movie takes you everywhere you want to be, and just when you think you’re finally there, you’re taken somewhere else without warning. I’ve got to watch it again, there’s no question to it. And beyond that, I can only recommend it to everyone who is not only a Kaufman fan, but even if you only enjoyed Eternal Sunshine…or you just want to watch a new, interesting movie.

I also watched Son of Rambow last night. Adorable and quite a fun movie. I’m not the best at writing reviews persay, but I’m all for discussing different topics. Maybe I’ll make a post that includes some random discussions I’ve had on my guild’s forums at some point.

I saw Chris over the weekend. It’s been years since we’ve seen each other and really had no communication (besides a facebook message or two) since he first left for Japan. Gavino had originally called me saying that there was supposed to be a comic book convention in Asbury at the Convention Center. At first I was hesitant to go with him, but he said that they (him and April) wanted to check it out, so I said sure. At the time I was heading home after visiting mom on Friday and only had a little bit left to do for the wedding video, but I figured why not.

By the time I got to his house and we were on our way, he got a call from Chris saying the convention was lame. So I suggested we go get something to eat, great idea. Him and Gavino complain about where to go, finally settling on Houlihans (god only knows if I spelled that right). We get there and Chris is at the bar. After a few pleasantries (including one involving Carl being invited), we move to a table. We get a few menus, Carl shows up, and the conversations start. Things turn from normal -> to bad -> to worse pretty quickly, ending with us being in the car after lunch (which really was just a few beers and some appetizers), driving back to G&A’s apartment, with Gavino being pretty pissed at Chris for what had gone down. Without going too into it right now, we’ll just say that Chris said some stuff that Gavino really didn’t agree with.

Not much else going on. Arena Tournament realms opened up last week. We’ve been hopping on them off and on, checking out the teams and playing a few games. It’s really interesting to see what sort of players there are out there and how we stack up against them in the best possible gear. Having everything available to choose from is actually pretty cool, it also let’s us figure out the best makeup to choose, with specs that work closely together to give us an edge over our opponents. We’ve still been doing live arenas and whatnot in between, though they haven’t all been going too well. Haven’t played 2s on the paladin in quite a while, dropped down to around 1960 in 3s, though 5s finally hit 1800, so that was nice. Druid’s 2s got up to 1710 or so, which is nice as well, but 3s and 5s are lacking currently…could probably fix that, but we haven’t really focused much on alt teams just yet.

That’s about it for now. I won’t make any promises about posting or anything like that, I’ll just hope that I remember to more often (especially now that I’m free for the time being with video projects).

I just dropped in to see what condition my condition was in.

Dance in the Sparkling Snow

I cancelled my Gamefly subscription a few months ago, if only I could do that with WoW, lol. I haven’t turned my xbox 360 on for a long long time now…figure the last game I played through and beat was Fallout 3 and just recently they released the expansion for it. I think that if we didn’t raid at all until Udular came out, it would offer me more time to not think about WoW. I could hop on certain nights for pvp (arenas and BGs) with friends, maybe the occasional heroic here or raid there, but not much besides that. Nowadays, raid nights just feel like they drag on and on for me. I know that a few others probably feel that way, at least 2 people that do. But PVP keeps me coming back for more, what can I say.

I’ve been drinking more tea on my own again. It usually was any time I went to mom’s house that I would have a few cups of tea, or the rare times it was offered to me at home. But ever since I got dad and Carol the Keurig coffee maker, I’ve been making tea like crazy, and it’s awesome. However, I still don’t think I’ll ever be a coffee drinker.

I forgot to update last night. The thought even crossed my mind, but I blew it off. Sure, by the time I got to bed it was like 3:30AM, but for some reason I just wasn’t in the mood to log on and post something. I did finish the last half hour of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button however. I enjoyed the movie, I agreed with the whole “it’s like this generation’s Forest Gump”. I did feel that the movie could have had less sex scenes (they weren’t exactly nudity and full on sex, but just making out and falling down in a “sex position” of sorts, with the “putting on clothes” scene afterwards). This would have shortened the movie by at least 15 – 20 minutes, still leaving it over 2 hours. Though being 2 hours didn’t seem bad, the story carried the viewer across the time quickly and never really tried hard to be over-dramatic just to get tears or smiles/laughs. Someone asked me if I liked it better than The Wrestler. No, not at all. I did like it better than Seven Pounds though…I should ask the same person that question.

I’ve had two bagels today. They’re so delicious. First one was just a quick one around noon since I knew I wasn’t going to get lunch, just with plain whipped cream cheese. Second one was around 3:35-ish, toasted with some butter. Both amazing in their own ways, what a great invention the bagel is. First one I enjoyed with a Sprite, this second one was devoured while drinking tea.

I wish I could draw. I knew about and have read Hourly Comics long before the ex, so when I saw she posted one, I felt a mixture of anger/jealousy/frustration. Anger because it felt like she had shuffled her way back into stuff that I enjoyed (though she talked about Waltz with Bashir like she could care less, so that’s good…great movie, so she can suck it). Jealous because as I mentioned I wish I could draw. Of course, there are a few people, especially the originator of hourly comics, who don’t really draw to draw well, just to draw. I should have done that…didn’t even think about it. Though what would my Feb 1st comic have been like? Frustration because I still read her fucking comic, I still read her FUCKING comic. Why do I do that? Why do I enjoy causing myself pain? Well, I guess it’s not really painful unless I see her mention her current boyfriend. I need a girlfriend. It’s very frustrating that the girls I’ve been meeting online have all been crazy. Sure, people might take a look at that and say “well maybe it’s not the girls, maybe it’s you?”, but guess what LADIES, it’s not me alright? I’m not going into the list of failures right this moment, but the most recent one just continues to prove that it’s a fucking nightmare trying to find someone to be with.

XM Radio is going to be charging me extra a month to listen to their service online soon. What a stupid idea, of course it’ll make them tons of money, but it’s so dumb. I’d be better off now just bringing in my boombox that has the XM radio attachment and hooking that up. Maybe I will…might as well save myself some money eh? It’s just so easy to hop on the website and toss on the radio rather than go through all that trouble. Whatever, by the end of the month, I’ll lug that shit into work and do that.

Tonight is the newest episode of Lost Season 5. I’m pretty pumped up to see it, it’s always fun to get excited for something and then actually being satisfied by the end. Sure the show is filled with questions and constant twists and turns, but it gets people talking. I’d rather talk about Lost than just listen to people babble on and on about football or their kids or animals and all that boring nonsense. I guess that’s a bit selfish, but who cares. Isn’t that the whole point behind making social contact with people? If you’re not interested in the same stuff or have anything to talk about, then you really have no reason to talk to that person or group of people. But once you find some solid ground, then you can have enjoyable conversations and skip all that fubar, filler nonsense that they can discuss with other people who would be more interested.

Once Bill pays me for the wedding video, I’ll go head back to Circuit City and pick up that Canon HV30. It uses the same batteries, same tapes, and will work just like my HV20, just slightly better. What a great camera my HV20 is: light, reliable, great quality…perfect little piece of technology. So I figure the new HV30 is about $720 – $500, I’ll take the $220 bullet and soak up the knowledge that I will now have a 2nd camera to do everything that I do…not only weddings, but personal projects once again. It’s going to be interesting seeing how I’ll work with 2 cameras at the wedding though.

It was nice and snowy yesterday and last night. My cell phone takes decent photos, not the highest quality, but good enough to capture a moment. Sometimes when I leave work, there are perfect sunsets, incredible moon and stary night shots, and I just wish that I could have my camera on me at all times. At some point I’ll make enough money off weddings to buy a sweet digital SLR camera and I could bring it with me wherever I go. The snow was so sparkly last night, this doesn’t show it completely, but it’s still nice. I love the snow.

Snow outside work

Anyway, I think that’s all for now.

Listening too long to one song, listening too long to one song.

A New Challenger Approaches

So, it was nice to finally update for the first time in a while yesterday. Only thing I forgot to do was remember to post last night so I could start getting into the swing of things. Sure I do get some time at work here and there, but I cannot think of it that way. I need to collect my thoughts at the end of the day and post it then, and if I think of things during the day, then I could jot them down to add in my entry at night. So I’m going to make a short post now in case I do end up forgetting to say something tonight.

Let’s go backwards and see how that goes: The night ended late with me winning a warsong gulch on my druid (spec’d boomkin). I originally rolled the druid in BC to get into some arena teams with friends back when resto druid / anything was the way to go. Luckily paladins have come into their own in this expansion and this arena season specifically, so I had been playing the paladin more. Having already grinded all the gear I could with honor and arena points available to me (only having a weapon/shield/libram left to get before I’m pvp gear capped), I decided to level the druid and do it all over again. I’m leaning towards still being a healer, but for now, I’m boomkin and enjoying it.

Before that, we were running Brandon (one of Goochy’s friends) through The Nexus and Azjol’Nerub. He recently hit 70 and we thought it’d be cool to run the instances on our available level 70 toons with him…but after some problems in Utgarde Keep the night before (last boss), we decided it’d be easier to just run him through with 80s and be done with it (except Jace who was on his DK). Right before helping him out, we had finished a Wintergrasp and AB, which gave me enough honor points to snag up my hateful neckpiece.

Recently we had regrouped our 5s team HUGAG with Carl (Grizzlylimon – DK), Jace (Errand – Holy Paly), Goochy (Hunter), Will (Ret Paly), and myself (Holy Paly). We did our last few matches for the week last night, starting with a match where Jace was actually bugged out with a death grip. It was in everyone’s favorite buggy arena map, Orgrimmar Arena. The pillars that come up and go down now and then will cause people to disconnect from the game if they are feared near them, or in my case just walk near them to get out of LoS. Jace however was death gripped and somehow pulled down into the elevator that normally brings the teams up to the actual arena. It was the first time that I’ve ever been in a 47 minute long match, and the reason we took it out that long was because the last patch put into place the “45 minute rule”, meaning any matches that reach that long will automatically cause both teams to lose 16 points. Why it went over 2 additional minutes is beyond me (I guess the initial minute pregame and for the elevator to rise up?).

Ugh, I can’t stand some of the people I work with.

I have a few movies I’d like to watch this week, at least one tonight after raid. Last night’s The Big Bang Theory wasn’t too bad, I always enjoy Sheldon and Howard, they’re my favorites. Ooh, I was able to use my Circuit City gift card last night after work. I got a pack of 4 tapes for my camera, ended up being like $19.50 or something, so the entire card paid for it, leaving a whopping $0.50 left! They had an H30 at the store (my camera is an H20) for like $720-ish. Not a bad deal if I do say so myself, but let’s go check Amazon…Hmm $615-ish. Maybe I’ll wait to see if the price goes down anymore. Either way, If I do or don’t pick up the camera (which I would really like to, especially since I’m getting $500 for the gig anyway, it’d be a nice investment), I’m gonna need additional batteries (ran quite low last wedding). And if I do get the camera, I’ll need to not only still locate the attachment piece to my current tripod, but purchase another tripod for the new one. I could theoretically use one on the tripod (new cam) and the other on my shoulder mount…that wouldn’t be too bad.

Ahh well, that’s it for now.

*listening to The Bird and The Bee – Again & Again*

Why the Fuck Not?

I need to get back into updating my blog. It’s been about 3 1/2 months since my last entry, and I haven’t gone back to read them all yet, but I’m saddened. I’m saddened by the fact that I was able to actually update the thing from July of last year to mid-October (2 1/2 months), but not keep up with it. I think if I can even try to post *something* each night, I’ll be able to get back into the whole thing and actually have it as something to do, something I stick with. That’s not to say I don’t stick with anything, it’ll just be nice to have something that I constantly update.

You don’t know the amount of times I’d either think about coming back to my blog to make a post, or how many times I’d actually come back to the blog just for the links section to check out some webcomics and whatnot. What actually got me back into it? Nothing persay. I was about to skim through my old entries and figured I’d stop being so lazy and finally update it. Mom said she’s had journals for a few years now…the fact that she can keep up with it for that long makes me think that I suck for not being able to even make it HALF a year, let alone a full year or multiple years.

So do I go through what happened in the last few months before I continue on? Well for one, I’m not going to continue on in *this* post persay. Mainly because I could probably add a decent entry (hah, yeah right) and don’t really feel like typing that up right now, but I’ll add one for maybe what I did over the weekend later tonight.

But to say what happened since mid-October to the beginning of February? Well, we have a new president, Barack Obama. World of Warcraft came out with it’s 2nd expansion, Wrath of the Lich King. I finished my first paid wedding video and am actually preparing for my 2nd one soon (14th). I’m a bit nervous for it, but we’ll go into that at another time. Tried to get to know 2 girls in that span of time, both I met through OKCupid, and both didn’t work out. Hmm, anything else I’m forgetting? Saw a plethora of movies, which sucks cause I would have liked to have typed up something for them, but I definitely won’t do that right this moment. Maybe when I do my nightly blog update, if I didn’t watch a movie that night, I’ll review a movie I had seen since then as a little bonus to myself. Yeah, that’s a good idea. Oh, and last but not least (since it just occurred to me), Lost season 5 has started up and it’s been amazing as expected.

If you can’t guess, WotLK (Wrath of the Lich King) had taken most of my time up since my last update. Obviously not between mid-October / early-November, but once it did come out, it was like an obsession. I didn’t stop doing everything else in my life, but I did play the game a lot more than I had hoped I would. Up until the expansion’s release, I doubt I was really doing anything that exciting with my life anyway, but now that the game is in a lull again, I can and will hopefully tranverse other aspects of life. Not that I will be going to clubs and bars and “doin’ ladies left and right”, but I’ll hopefully be getting myself out and maybe coming up with ideas.

I mention that because my resolution to myself this year was to come up with, shoot, and edit my own short film that I could possibly submit into a film festival. Sadly I wouldn’t be able to make it into this year’s Asbury Park film festival which I believe is in April with submissions being due a few months ago, but just to be able to create something from my own mind…that’d be incredible. Not that I haven’t ever filmed and edited anything on my own, but this is more of a personal project that I would like to do, something that would make me feel like film is my path in life and that I won’t be JUST a wedding vidoeographer for the rest of my life (or work at this engineering company for the rest of my life either).

I’ll end this post with what I need to do very soon: I need to go to Circuit City and use this gift card that Matt & Brenda got me for Christmas ($20) before that place goes completely out of business. Sure it won’t get me much, but I could pick up a pack of tapes for my camera. Speaking of which, since I’ll be getting paid before making this next wedding video, I’ve been thinking of investing in an additional video camera. Before that, I need to clean out my car and see if I can find the damn piece that attched my cam to my tripod. That way I can have one stationary camera filming something and a second camera filming from a different angle (mainly for things like the ceremony and family dances). With that I’ll need to pick up a few extra battries as well. Then after the wedding (if I can’t muster up the strength to start it now) and after I finish and give them the video, then I need to work on the Halloween video that I filmed last year. I also need to pick up some nice DVD cases so that I can make the video somewhat more presentable.

That’s just a taste of what I’ve gotta do in the next two weeks. Anyway, I’m out for now.

-John

We’ve got nothing to worry about, we’ve got nothing to worry about.

Foam Monster in Emotional Reunion

Let’s see how this entry turns out. I have from last Monday (6th) to Sunday (12th) to go over. It seems like so much longer than that has gone by, but then when I write about what has happened, I realize that for the amount of nothing I did, it’s surprising that it feels that way.

Monday (6th): I honestly cannot remember anything from this day. This is the exact reason why I said I should update more often, daily even, like I used to when I started this blog. *sigh* It’s funny to look back and think “How many days have gone by, forgotten and lost forever”.

Tuesday (7th): We did the usual BT rush to Mother. Wanted to get some Council shots in so we’d have less to worry about on Thursday, but we sucked it up on Mother for some god awful reason. It was going really well too, 1 shotted everything up to her. Ah well, we’ll get a 1 night clear of BT some day.

Wednesday (8th): The guild thought it would be fun to go do Vashj and Kael to get vials for those who didn’t finish the quest 800 years ago when we were still doing tier 5 content. So, we headed into SSC and smashed our way to Vashj easily and pretty quickly. Then we proceeded to wipe about 6 billion times, finally downing the stupid bitch close to the end of our normal raid time. It was really sad and ridiculous, but what do you expect when everyone wants to bring their alts. The only reason we finally downed her was because most of the people who WERE on alts (me included) hopped on their mains. Soon as that atrocity was finished, I went to bed.

Thursday (9th): Going to talk about what happened at work first. Because I do not wish to really go over it again (due to the fact that I explained it to everybody a billion times), I’m just going to post the letter that I had to type up after everything happened:

To Whom It May Concern,

I was recently asked to deliver an envelope containing a bid for land surveying services to Mr. Mark Bowcock at Ocean County College. Liz Brady had given the request to me between 10 and 11AM on October 7th 2008 and the bid opening was to be held at 2 PM. When I say that she had given the request to me, I mean to say that she informed me thusly:

“John, has Art told you about the fun trip you will be going on today?” I replied “No”. She stated, “Well, I’ll let him explain it to you then”. Then after a few minutes of her being up in the print room, I asked her what was going on. She said, “Someone, it doesn’t have to be you, will be going to Ocean County College today. They will be dropping off a package and sitting in a bid opening, writing down bids from other companies that will be there” and she began listing off different companies. She then gave me the envelope with trip slip and said “Whoever is going should get there around 1:30, giving them 30 minutes just in case”. I then walked the package into Art’s office and asked him where I should leave everything for the trip. He told me to leave it on the stool, immediately to the left when you walk into his office.

Around 12:55PM, Art brought the package out of his office and placed it on the table next to his door. He told me not to forget about it and walked out of the room. Raou was already leaving for another delivery, so I took the envelope, grabbed some keys, went downstairs to get a notebook and pen (to write down information from the bid opening as stated by Liz), and headed out. I left the LGA office around 1:10PM as to arrive on the campus with sufficient time left. I arrived on campus around 1:30PM.

After pulling into the campus and finding a parking spot (which isn’t the easiest thing to do during school hours), I made my way to the Administration building as per the transmittal letter attached to the envelope (I mention this because there was no room number or anything else on the transmittal letter except the name of the man I was looking for and the department in which he works [Mark Bowcock, Purchasing; Administration Building]). Upon entering the Administration building, I immediately entered the room ahead and to the left of me marked Academic Planning & Advising, hoping I would be able to ask someone for their help in locating Mr. Bowcock. The young lady available informed me, after confirming with another woman who she called in, that Mr. Bowcock could be found in the Kean Office in the Library, Room 110. I left the office around 1:45PM.

I thanked both women and quickly headed off to the Library, finding the room they had mentioned and asking the gentleman at the desk if he could help me find Mark Bowcock. He told me that Mr. Bowcock would be in the Purchasing department in the Administration building (as stated on the transmittal) for Kean-Ocean, located across the street. So, I walked back to the car and drove around the campus to where I was directed. Once there, the help behind the desk (a man came to the front and two women were working at their computers) informed me that Mr. Bowcock was in a bid opening in the Administration building, where I had gone to in the first place. I left this office around 1:55PM.

On my way back, I had called Art Sorian to explain what was already going on and that I would most likely be late for the bid opening. I again had to find a parking space and make my way to the Administration building I went to the first time. By the time I made it back to the Administration building and up the stairs to the office I was pointed to this time, it was around 2:05PM. I asked the secretary, who asked another secretary, if I was able to go into the meeting or at least give the envelope to Mark Bowcock. Both secretaries discussed this for a few minutes and then called for another woman named Joyce Ann Lamparello. Joyce took the envelope from me and after a minute or two of reading it and thinking, she finally knocked on the door, said a few words to the people inside, closed the door, looked at me and shook her head.

She began telling me that I was too late and that the bid was denied. I immediately called Art to explain what was happening. He asked me what the woman’s name was (whose name at the time I did not know). She rudely told me that she would write it down, which I told Art. He asked if there was anyone he could speak to. I asked Joyce, who finished the note stating that I had arrived late (2:11PM) and that the bid was denied. She said, “No, they are all in the meeting right now” and immediately started walking away. I asked if he could speak with her, but she exclaimed that she was too busy at the moment.

Afterwards, Art told me to try and get the names of the people who I had spoken with, those who had given me false directions throughout the campus. I returned to the Planning & Advising room downstairs, but the woman whom I had first talked to was not around. They did give me the main campus phone number to call if I had any questions: 732-255-0400, and said that I could contact the office at a later time. They also gave me the extension of Mark Bowcock (Ext. 2046). I proceeded to make my way to the Library to ask the name of the man who had tried to help me earlier, but there was no one in the office. I spoke to the receptionist in the front of the Library and she gave me the extension for his office (Ext. 356 or dial direct 732-255-0356).

Finally, I gave Art all the information I had received. He told me to head back to the Administration office where they were having the bid opening and to wait until Mr. Bowcock had finished, to try and see if I could get a word with him. When I got back to the office, the door where the meeting was being held was open. I asked the secretaries if I could speak with Mr. Bowcock, but they didn’t know where he went, just that the meeting had ended. I sat around for a few minutes before he showed up. He was a very nice gentleman and greeted me immediately, listening to my story of how I had traversed around the campus looking for him. However, he told me that, “Once the door is closed to a bid opening, it’s against New Jersey state law to let anyone else in. I’m sorry”. I shook his hand and left, calling Art and telling him the details of what took place.

After checking Ocean County College’s website, I found Joyce Ann Lamparello’s extension (Ext. 2383). I gave the note she had written and transmittal to Mike Giuliano upon returning to the LGA office. Looking back, the only person who gave me any problems was Joyce Lamparello. She was very rude while I was there and I felt as though she thought I was wasting her time being there. I tried to explain that I had arrived half an hour earlier than the bid opening, but she just kept shaking her head and saying “Too late, too late”. Everyone else was helpful, although they gave me incorrect information, which led me to be late.

Very ridiculous all in all. Funny thing, this was 2 1/2 pages originally, until I was asked to revise it and include more details. I had the new stuff in bold, but then I just figured I would keep it all normal and not pretend like I was asked to do more than needed.

After the fun day at the office, it was time to finish off Council and Illidan in BT. We didn’t have the best makeup for Council (a lot of healers missing), so like the day before, we had a lot of alts. After a few wipes, some healers started getting on finally and we were able to normalize the fight once again and continue on. Illidan went down after one or two attempts and I was able to call it a night after that.

Friday (10th): Still on edge at work, figuring I’d get fired at any moment. My boss felt it necessary to tell me that he was getting his ass chewed out (multiple times) by the higher-ups. Fun stuff.

After work I headed over mom’s for Terry’s birthday. I picked him up a card and gift certificate for Home Depot on the way ($25, mom already picked up the $40 heater, so with the card and whatnot, it was about $70 total). We had dinner (Joan was there), then played cards afterwards. Terry enjoyed his gifts, and in the end, mom realized we never sang “Happy Birthday”. No political discussion (amazingly), so it was a good night

Came home, hopped on WoW. We did some arenas (3s – my paly, jace’s warrior, carl’s lock). Wasn’t too bad, though I really hope that when WotLK comes out, I can work some arenas with people where we’re getting points every week and actually trying to be decent. I hate being stuck in the 1500 – 1650 bracket.

Saturday (11th): Planned on going to Gavino’s early today, but I wasn’t feeling well. I got up around noon-ish and got ready finally. When I got to his house, we watched some stuff on the computer and then headed out to Collingswood auction to see our asian media friends from the Rt. 18 mall (recently moved down here). After hanging out there for a bit and buying 2 dvds a piece (gotta love $10 movies), we headed to the mall for some bubble tea. I got delicious coconut and Gavino picked up whatever for him and April. We headed back to his place, he got a phone call to do some maintainence work (of course the day we hang out he’s got the phone, when is that different from normal) and headed out to take care of it. I played some Castlevania: Symphony of the Night and April came home. After a little more playing, I said we should play Castle Crashers…so we did. Gavino came back finally and after hours of trying to decide on where to eat, we picked Panera Bread.

Now, usually when you go out to eat, you go out to fucking eat. Well, when we got there, I was told I should order first since I already decided what I wanted. Should I have asked if we were eating there? I figured, since they both said they WANTED TO EAT OUT that we’d be EATING OUT. Many times we brought up the idea of ordering in, but it came down to going out to eat…UGH…not that I mind, I love to eat out…but okay ==> So, I go up to order, move to the left to get my drink, and then they go up. I hear them say “to go”, and I say “what the fuck?” (not exactly, but I give them the look and say “Um, we’re not eating here?”). They both start laughing and tell me to quickly say I want it to go to the woman putting my food together. After all that nonsense (there’s more, but I really don’t feel like going into it), we head back to their place? Of course not. April wanted to go to Toys R Us. So we went there, checked out the board games (which is cool, she probably wanted to buy one since Gavino told her how we were checking out the sweet board game store in the mall). Of course, we didn’t buy one, and they proceeded to walk around for another 6 hours.

Finally we headed back to their place. I started to eat my soup (which was all kinds of delicious – cheese and broccoli) and noticed I didn’t have any extra bread to eat it with (besides my sandwich). So I asked if they had any bread, went in the kitchen to get some, came back and proceeded to smash my soup to the floor by accident (obviously). After cleaning it up and deciding we had time to watch a movie, I started eating my 1/8th of a soup and sandwich (still amazingly good). We tried watching 2 movies, but Gavino’s had no subtitles and my first selection had LITERAL TRANSLATION (worst thing ever…”WE ARE ESCAPE!”). So, it’s time to take those back. But before that (and not until some other day), we watched my other choice: “I’m a Cyborg, but that’s OK”. I really enjoyed it, and they did as well, so it was all good.

Gonna do Sunday another time, gotta leave work!