a boy and his robot

Ok, so the last post was kind of a run-through of what has been going on for the past few months, but I'll try an elaborate here because I didn't really do justice to some things.

( Collapse )

I just got a raise at work, 1k more a year, which is promising. Still trying to determine whether or not I think it's worth sticking around for, but when it comes down to it, I don't have too much of a choice right at the moment. That's ok, though.

Our roommate, Justine's brother, is moving out. At first we were concerned that it would leave us in a bind, but now we're starting to see it as a blessing. We'll have two bedroom apartment at a very good price and in a nice neighborhood. It's the perfect size for a couple, and then rather than getting a roommate, we're going to try and go it alone, and turn the extra bedroom into a reading room and relaxation space. We're both really excited about the extra space, not to mention the extra privacy and control. Ninety percent of the troubles we've had over the past eight months have been due to disagreements with roommates. We both feel it's about time to ditch the extra baggage and try living on our own, so this will be a good opportunity, I think.

I'm in the process of getting my highschool and college transcripts, so that I can apply for school again in the fall. I'm going to finish up my AA, with a discipline change to art, and then when Justine starts looking into colleges with a poetry program, we're going to be looking for art colleges for me in the same area. I'm excited about going back to school - I feel like my life is starting to get back on track again. It feels good.

My spiritual path is unfolding too. I think the next six to nine months are going to be really good. Good things happen when you follow your spirit. Good things happens when you follow your heart.

Today will begin my 4th week living and working in St. Petersburg. Work is going good so far - finally starting to get into the swing of things. In essence, I work for the company that makes the registers used at CiCi's pizza.

I've been sleeping on the couch of Justine's brother for the past 3 weeks. This past weekend, Justine and I loaded up my car with all of our smaller possessions and are now, at least partially, moved in to our apartment. We're living in Old Southeast with Justine's sister until at least December when the lease runs up. Then, depending on how things go, we may renew the lease or we may find our own place. We live about a block from the Tampa Bay. The neighborhood is working class, but nice and quiet. I work, however, in the ghetto, next to a CiCi's. But! At least it's only 10 minutes from my apartment, instead of an hour like when I was in Orlando.

Small stuff is moved in, as I said, and furniture will be coming next week. Following that, we'll probably organize some kind of housewarming party. Let me know if you're interested in driving 2+ hours to hang out. ;)

Anyway, this is it...


Now that I have a computer at home, I might be able to get online a little more, but it will still be sporadic until I get my own box in place. For the time being though, I am more than satisfied with having my g/f, a room, and my records.

I got the job. I start on the 24th.

For those who don't follow me on twitter,

I have a job interview on Monday in St. Petersburg for a Linux support position. The company is called R-Stream. I've already had a phone interview and was told I had a pretty good interview. I know it's not a done deal, but I'm pretty excited. If I get in, I'll be in St. Pete within 2-3 weeks. Justine's brother has offered me a place to couch surf for a month or so until I have enough cash to get an apartment. Speaking of, there are a couple of nice downtown apartments on craigslist for ~$595 a month.

Anyway, wish me luck! This is it.

Happy Birthday, orcapotter! Did you think I would forget about you?

- As mentioned in a previous post, my car has been officially paid off and I now have the title for it. Gigantic weight off my shoulders. In celebration, I put my first sticker on it - a Park Ave Cd's "I ♥ Vinyl" sticker (because I do!).

- A had a friend here, Chris, who I went out for drinks with a couple months back. Him and I had been freinds since highschool. On this night however, he got particularly beligerant, and despite me dropping him off and offering to come get him to pick up his car in the morning, he bolted drunkenly for his second car, drove going about 80mph all the way to my house, peeled out in my street and ran over my mailbox. At this point, he jumps out of his car, I grab his keys from him and toss them into the brush, then we start duking it out, rolling around drunk in my driveway. Needless to say, I was pretty livid after that whole experience. Him and his girlfriend were my last two longterm friends in the area (with the exception of orcapotter, with whom I don't talk on a regular basis anymore, but not due to dislike), but that just made me realize how much I had outgrown both of them. Neither of them have ever really been great friends to me - when my mother was ill, they were the ones calling me lazy, rather than making an effort to understand. I have not and have no intention of ever talking to either of them again.

- Which brings me to my next point. Having nothing tying me to the area any more, I've begun to investigate the idea of moving out of Florida entirely. In the process of this, I made a forum post on OKCupid asking for opinions of nice places to live. Through this post, I met a quite stunning girl from Chicago, who brews her own beer, reads comic books, is a philosophy major and without a doubt one of the most intelligent and analytical people i've ever met - seriously, her ability to cut through bullshit makes, what I always thought to be, my scalpel-like analytics look like a plastic spoon. Her name is Kristie. She is fantastic, and despite promising myself after the last time that I would never ever ever do long distance again (it's too rough on the emotions)...well, so much for that. I'm moving somewhere other than here anyway, and had been planning on taking a trip up North to visit Dan and reesie626 since they moved to Lynn, MA last September.

- Now that time has come. I'm leaving on Friday the 6th in the evening by train from Winter Park. From there I go to DC and then should be arriving in Boston's South Station on the morning of the 8th. I'll be staying two nights there, then taking the train to Chicago on the 10th and arriving on the 11th. I'm looking forward to it immensely. I'll then be leaving in the evening on Valentine's Day from Chicago, to DC, to Winter Park again. A total of about 10 days give or take a few hours. A much deserved vacation from a job that I've been working pretty much non-stop at for the past 20 months. If Kristie and I get along well in person, then there's a high possibility that I'll consider moving to Chicago, otherwise, potentially Boston, Seattle or Portland. The future is open!

- Additionally, I took all my loose change to a coinstar machine recently, thinking that I would have maybe $50 or enough to buy some gloves and a hat for my trip. Turns out I had nearly $200 in change! Some of the coinstar machines let you redeem your cash in the form of an Amazon E-Certificate in the same amount, no charge for using the service. I did that and ended up having enough money for 5 books (The Book of Lies, The Satanic Bible, Crash, London Orbital, and City of Broken Dolls), a hat, gloves, a bag, a dvd (last life in the universe), and a t-shirt of a band I like (death in june). Most of it has arrived already with the exception of two of the books and the t-shirt.

- Despite the fact that I am not promiscuous in the slightest and have never had any symptoms, my first year of being sexually active has come to an end, so I went and got tested for STD's last week. It cost me $40 from the health clinic to get poked in the arm and have an old nurse tell me she would spank me if I had chlamydia. My results come back on the 19th.

- I finally found a button-up shirt that fits me right! Express Men's 1MX Modern Fit in small is great except for the sleeves being just a tad too long. Looks fantastic in either case though. I find myself getting more and more into fashion lately and my tastes have grown up significantly. In essence, I am aiming for a classic look (think Kennedy or Sinatra), and so far so good. My biggest difficulty so far has been finding clothes that fit me right, being so short as I am. There are some resources out there for short men, however, and I recently started a new LJ community, small_style, as well. Hopefully it will eventually take off as well as food_pill has. I bought a gorgeous vintage tie from Goodwill the other day - brown with dark brown and gold stripes.

- I have a new beer to add to the list of ones that I adore - Hitachino Nest's Japanese Classic Ale. If you like Wheat beers or IPA's, I cannot recommend it enough.

Just thought I'd share with you a band I've really gotten into lately, Antony and the Johnsons. It's rare that I find a band that makes my heart swell quite like this.

I just made the last payment on my car this morning. I am now $8500 closer to freedom. :)

I'll try to post something more in the near future.

...
Feeling a bit better today. The ER doc gave me some nice drugs (40mg prednisone, 250mg zithromax) and my cough seems to be getting better. My glands are still a little swollen, but not so much as before.

Thanksgiving was pretty uneventful. I called in sick to work so I could rest and in the afternoon I went over to finedaytoexit's apartment for dinner with her, her b/f, and two of their friends. It was nice. I think I forgot to post about this, but I've gone back to vegetarianism. I stopped eating meat in late September and only caved once since (Bratwurst and Saurkraut at Oktoberfest). I've been doing very well with it, and have even lost some weight. I went down a whole notch on my belt. :) finedaytoexit was kind enough to prepare some extra meatless sides for me to eat.

In case you're wondering what inspired the whole vegetarianism thing again...well...it's a long story. I posted a couple months back about a nice girl I met, Maria. We played well together for about a week, but then her apparent relationship anxiety got the better of her. I had gotten calls from her after 1:00am a couple times in a row, so I didn't think too much about sending her a text message asking me to call her when she got off work, but apparently she felt differently and freaked out a little. I haven't really heard from her since with the exception of a rather bland note over myspace explaining how she "didn't want to hurt me". What a cop out! In anycase, the general consensus seems to be that the girl is just crazy, but that being said, I still wouldn't object to seeing her again. So anyway, vegetarianism. Maria was a vegetarian for 13 years or so, and after hanging out with her, I realized that seeing as how i'm buying/making most of my own food now anyway, I have no excuse to not eat that way, and I'd been intending to anyway...so yeah.

I now have only $500 left to pay off on my car. Woo! There's a nice little apartment right off of Park Ave in Winter Park that I'm looking at maybe renting if I can get it in time. It's in a 75 year old apartment building called El Cortez. All the units are 450sqft, have wood floors, and clawfooted bathtubs, and they're currently advertising at $635 a month. Yeah it's small, but the location is amazing, and only two blocks from the local farmer's market. I wouldn't need much space for myself anyway. It becomes available in early January so I'm hoping I might be able to just slip in, though I'm not going to get my hopes up or stress over it.

Also forgot if I mentioned already that I started collecting records a few months ago. I inhereted a bunch from my dad, and then I've been steadily building my own collection. It's really a lot of fun, and despite what some people say to the contrary, records really do sound better. Really.

I'm going to be getting my long hair cut off again in the near future, which i'm pretty excited about. I'm also intending to go and get some new clothes soon, and change up my look into something a little more adult. Not so much trendy, but more conservative and timeless, with maybe just a touch of anarchist in there for good measure.

Sorry for the lack of a serious post for a while - my paper journal has been filling that roll. It's currently about 1/2 full.

And oh yeah, one good thing did come from the whole thing with Maria. It made me realize that I've been using some cop outs of my own, hiding behind my own irrational fears. I tried to make an example out of myself and be brave for a change, but I stumbled. Next time I will know better though - no hesitation, no regrets.

One last thing - if you're not already reading the beatonna webcomic, please check it out. It's hysterical! :D

coughing up pink, frothy saliva. going to the ER, hope it's nothing too serious. >_>

Edit: A bad respiratory infection. Gave me steroids, anti-biotics, a shot in the butt, and told me to get some rest. Sorry to alarm anyone. -_-;;