Huff & Puff

I am Joram and I ran the Huff & Puff. Well, most of it. As usual I got lost again.

With the weather finally clearing up and the sun coming out, I decided to go ahead and run on the Huff & Puff trail here in Shelton. I get there and it looks like there have been some changes in the trail since the last time I've ran it. Instead of the 1.5 miles with a 0.5 mile extra loop, it was separated into 5 loops that totaled 1.85 miles. I look over the map as I warm up doing some calisthenics. After a few minutes I decided to stop stalling and just hit the trail. A few moments later I realized that I did not dress warm enough for this run. The sun may be out, but this trail is in the woods so its still a few degrees colder than the street roads.
"I guess I better keep running to stay warm"
Hmm, I guess I was talking to myself again. Anyway, running on the trail felt much better on my joints and legs than on a treadmill. With my legs experiencing less pain, I got to run much longer. I did the first two loops with no problems and not stopping. I stopped/slowed for a moment when I came out of the 2nd loop when there was a map of the loops on the trail. I looked at it briefly and continued on to the third loop. The third loop was the longest of the five loops and I managed to do it without stopping. I finished the third loop at 12 1/2 minutes and I stopped jogging and walked for a minute. I got a few yards into the fourth loop and started running again. No problems and when I walked towards the end of the loop. I then walked to what I thought was the last loop. I started running and about a minute in the trail took a hard right and I was pretty sure I was supposed to go left. As I was questioning the trail, I ran right by a bench by the trail, so I then became pretty sure this was part of the trail. I keep running and then the trail ends much sooner than I had expected. I run over to the map by loop 2 and sure enough, I got lost. Either loop four or five was not even on the map. I decided to just hop over towards the end of the fifth loop and just run out of there. I may have skipped most of the fifth and last loop, but I did run some extra yardage.

Oh well, lessons learned. On another note, I need to remember that spit gets more, hmm, viscous. I ended up getting some spit on me on the run. What? I'm not embarrassed!

Spinning

30 minutes spinning, gawd my butt hurts.

Fire & Ice Ball

Got the invitation for my work's winter ball. Now to find a date.

Friday, Dec 14th
Ran 1.25 miles
Did this after being out all night drinking, not fun, in a lot of pain.

Sunday, Dec 16th
1.75 miles
Mostly walked this since I mixed things up by spinning first for 15 mins and finished my workout on the treadmill.

Tuesday, Dec 18th
1.75 miles
I inteded to run longer, but I was a bit rushed and decided to cut my run short. I did managed to run longer in the beginning, 6+ mins! Yeah, it's not much, but it's an improvement.

Used the Elliptical

Spent 25 mins on the elliptical last night ... right before pigging out at Red Robins in Bellevue. The burger made my workout a bit counter productive, but oh well.

Short term goal;
Run the Huff & Puff in Shelton. It's only a 2 mile course, but I always get lost and some how make it a 3 mile course.

Whoa, dizzy

Visited the apt gym again today, got on the treadmill for 24 minutes. The run didn't as hard as in the past, which is good. I think I messed up the time in my last run, pretty sure I went 1.75 miles, but probably more than 20 mins, since I only got 1.83 miles this time on a 24 minute run. Oh well, nothing too big to worry about for now.

After the treadmill, I started using the machines to lift some weights, and then to finish things off, I jumped on the bike machine again. This time around though, I had trouble, since I started to get dizzy a couple minutes into the spinning. I still got the 6 minutes/~2 miles on the bike, but walking back to my apt was a little hard with my head feeling light-headed. I sat down in the living room floor for awhile, but after a while the dizzyness did go away and after a few hours I seem to be just fine. I was probably just being lame again.

And the Storm Passes

Two weeks without a post?! Failure on my part... Well, what have I done in the last two weeks? Hmm~~~~

Amara's Potluck
A co-worker had a potluck.
Made some chicken adobo.
It starts snowing.
People cancel, I almost cancel too, but the roads weren't too bad.
People still show up - with food.
Lots of food, yummy.
I take some home, yummy.

Crazy weather in the NW
So it started out with some snow.
Then some rain.
Then some winds.
It just wouldn't stop raining.
So much rain that there was some flooding on my way to work
Luckily, that was the worst I got from the flooding, unlike the rest of the NW.
My roommate got stuck on a 4hour back up because Woodenville got flooded and some roads were closed.

Weather affect the resorts that my company owns.
Unfortunately, I work with those resorts, so I got a ridiculous amount of calls from them.
Yes, I know about the winds
Yes, I know about the rain
Yes, I know about the flooding
Yes, I know about the road closures
Yes, I know about the power outages
Yes, I know.
Luckily, things are much better now a week later.

Stefani's err, Broken Stilletos concert
Had a concert at a teen shelter in Bellevue
I park at Bellevue Square and walk the two blocks to the shelted
Oh god its soo cold!
It's alright, but like with most small venue concert, hard time hearing vocals.
Adam and P were there
We plan to see I am Legend at IMAX next weekend.
Well, I just want to see the new Batman trailer showing with IaL.

I visit my apt's gym.
It's small, but it has a treadmill.
I try out the treadmill.
I go a little too hard the first time, I jog/walk 24 mins (Nov. 30th)
Stabalizer muscles ache for about four days.
I go back, jog/walk 15 mins lift some weights, then jog/walk for 5 more mins (Dec. 5th)
I try this 15 min then 5 min at the end again (Dec. 7th).
Then last Sunday (9th) I jog/walk for just over 20 mins and travel 1.75 miles. Hmm, an 11.4 min/mile. I'm back to my 8th grade aerobic physic! I then go lift some weights. At the end, instead of running again, I hop on the bike machine and spin (is that word kids use nowadays?) for 6 mins as a cooldown. Yay for running, but I don't know how long I could do this - my knees start hurting after about 10 minutes. If it was some muscle ache, then fine, I'm just lame, but it's my joint. Then my roommate mentions to me about running at a 10min/mile pace will put a force of 3 times your body weight on your legs. I hear that and I just think of having that 430 lbs on my shoulder for a squat back in high school and oh boy! That was just squat, I wasn't running.
I definitely need to lift some weight with my legs - cause it causes your bones, ligaments, tendons to get stronger, which I will need if I'll be putting that much force on them. Bah I'm weak.

Oh yeah! I discover that with some modification with the weights machine in the gym, move the bar here, move the back there, it has a row lift. Execellent, I've wanted to add some lift for my back to my workout - that was the main reason I went to the apt gym, I can do pull downs on the machine.

Apple Pie
So I was looking for something to snack on towards Sunday evening and could find anything appealing. I go looking through the kitchen for a snack and start finding random stuff in the cupboards. First I find some pancake mix, hmm, yum. I find some spinach, must be my roommates, ooh pudding! Damn, I'm out of milk. What's this?! An apple pie kit. My roommate, Bri, decides that she's had the kit for a while and probably a good time to cook it now. Ohh, pie. Bri then starts making the pie - using a soda can as a rolling pin (that's Macguyverism). I would have stayed and watch, but I take my leave for some video game time. About an hour later, the pie was done. Bri immedietly have some eating a quater of the pie. I decide to have an eighth of the pie, but after finishing I decide to go back and eat another eighth. Well, towards the end of the evening, I see Bri again and she looks at me with a guilty look
"What?" I ask, "You ate the rest of the pie!?" I guessed.
"No! Just some more"
Well, she ate another eight of the pie and was now feeling guilty.
The next night, almost the same even occurs - Bri walks by my room with a guilty face, I ask, "What?".
She replies, "Keep food away from me!"
Apperantly she ate another quarter of the pie. There was still an eighth of the pie left, so I decided to grab that piece and take it to work before she eats it. I was thinking of baking some cake next weekend, but I'm sure she'll eat some and then blame me for being "fat".

So Many Food

If I could have, I would have taken Wednesday off like my roommate to avoid the evening traffic, but sadly, I had to work. After work, I was stuck in the Thanksgiving commute. I really hate commutes like these, I thought I'd make it, but about two hours into my ~100 mile commute, I lost it and just started swearing like a sailor at every little thing on the road. I knew there was going to be traffic, but my mom asked me to come down that night since she'll be making a lot of food that night - Sweet! Well, I do finally make it to my mom's house four hours later. Sure enough, plenty of food to go around (FEAST #1).

I end up sleeping over at my friend's house, Trevor, since he had an extra bed for me to sleep on. My mom had told me the night before that she'll be making a big breakfast the next morning, so as a way to thank Trevor, I ask him to my mom's for some breakfast. We head over to my mom's and sure enough, plenty of food. Eggs, ham, bacon, biscuit and gravy and coffee was all available (FEAST #2).

I take Trevor home and when I go back to my mom's, she's already in the middle of making the traditional Thanksgiving dinner. Around noon she finished the preparations and served the food. Oh wow, Turkey, stuffing, sweet potato, green beans, and a lot of other food (FEAST #3). Oh my, I stuff myself silly. Oh what? There's pie? Umm, maybe later. I skip out on the pie, since I was ridiculously full.

About an hour later, my mom tells me she's going over to a friend's house to just say Happy Thanksgiving and all that. I'm hardly in town and I do know these friends, so I decide I'll make a little cameo to just be friendly. We get to their house and sure enough, more freaking food. My mom's friend greets us and tells us to help ourselves. Oh god no! I do my best to be nice and refuse more food, but then, she shows us a second table filled with all the deserts. Oh noes! Well, good thing I didn't have any pie at my mom's house. On the table were not your traditional deserts, but rather, your Filipino deserts. Since I never get a chance to eat these, I have a few bites (FEAST #4).

After my mom finished her wine and whatever drinks she got at her friends, we went back home. I looked at the clock and I was already late to my friend's Trevor's mom's house - she had invited me to their Thanksgiving dinner. Sure enough, more traditional Thanksgiving food (FEAST #5). I somehow found enough room inside me to fit the turkey, stuffing, potatoes and many other goodies. Oh gawd, I'm so fat.

Leading to Thanksgiving

So, some quick updates;

Went to a bar on the 16th
-I'm farking short
-These 21 y.o. have baby faces, they can't be 21
-My co-workers start drinking early, real early
-I suck at dart

Work on my dying comp
-Backed up my crap on 5 DVDs (no porn! lots of Warcraft junk though)
-Formatted computer
-Upgraded my video card
-Take 2 hours to reinstall WoW
-Blue Screen of Death... sigh
-Back to the old video card

Watching some Husky Football
-Huskies won
-Huskies have a running game without Locker?!
-Huskies lose Apple Cup
-FFS, so many WSU gear being worn

Had a dream the other night
-A college crush was my new roommate - oh hai (haven't even thought about her in years)
-Had a 2nd roommate - irrelevant
-Crush comes into my room to water 6 plants that she had placed there - oh hai, sure
-Suddenly there's a party at our place
-Two drunk guys are in my room and playing video games - aight
-Time to decide who has the best wig - oh what?! contest?!
-Time to wake up - aww, I want to know who won the wig contest
-Brain, what are you doing?
-Hmm, time to do some stalking on this crush... hmm, second thought, nah, it'd take time away from gaming.

So a Year...

So my birthday came and went with not so much accomplished in the last year. Let's see, what have I done in the last year?
 
Went to Hawaii
Went saw my nephew get baptised
I'm still addicted to WoW
Still working at WVO
Got a new roommate
Sister found me on the internet
 
Hmm... I need to just freaking set some goal and get out of this funk. FUNK!
 
...I don't even know what I want, hence no goals...what do I want?

Anything you can do I can do better

My roommates keeps making fun of me for my eating habits (I don't inhale my food anymore). What?! I've proven myself in the past, I've scarfed down the Husky burger and the Stadium extreme at the Ram (I'm sure both took away 3 months away from my life), I don't need to do these eating challenges anymore!
"Burrito Challenge!"
"Fine!"
Oh hell, my roommate challenged me to a burrito challenge. I'm not even sure what all the details are; do I just eat the burritos for breakfast, lunch, and dinner or is there running involved in it too? Cause I remember the KFC breakfast before the Saturday morning football practice and 'oh boy' is all I got to say. Good thing I was on a lot of pain killers then! Wait, I can't even run, seriously, my knees are dead. If this challenge drives me toward more unhealthy eating, then I'll be very unhappy.UNHAPPY!

I'm cold, I'm tired

I'm finding myself cold and tired the last few weeks. I maybe getting sick, which would just plain piss me off. I don't like getting sick, I DON'T.

Shanghai Kiss

So finding out about my sister last week kind of just made me stop for a moment - the last time I was in the Philippines I had a lot of fun. Do I want to go back? I told myself a long time ago that I just couldn't live there anymore, things would just be so different.
 
And then I watched Shanghai Kiss - I bought this a few weeks ago, but I only watched it last Monday. It's an alright film, a rental or just wait for it on AZN tv, but it's about;
 
A struggling Chinese-American actor, who unwittingly finds himself involved with a high school girl, learns he has inherited his grandmother's home in Shanghai. The American-raised character moves to China in an attempt to connect with his ancestry, leaving behind quite possibly the only girl who has ever loved him.
 
(Straight out of IMDB). Anyway, yeah, I found myself thinking, "Yeah, I should attempt to connect with my ancestry."
This film is sooo about me! Asian in america, finding a connection in his homeland, crying in bed when with a woman, girl... well, no I'm not involved with a girl. Ok, only a few parallels.
 
Lost my thought...

Sister (cont).

I sometimes ignore the fact that I had another life for the first eight years of my life in the Philippines (PI). Sure it was brief, but many things happened. One that usually think about is that I have a godson in the PI and I haven't seen him in over seven years. The last time I saw him, I promised him that I would write him, but I didn't write one letter. Bad me. Of course I have a lot of family over there too, a lot I've never even met or if I have, it was when I was young and just don't remember.

I don't usually think about my extended family or just family outside of my Mom and little brother. Well, coming to my mom's for the weekend made me think about my extended family a bit more, since she was telling about my cousin this and cousin that and just several stories. After hearing those stories, I decided to check out friendster.com, since I have three cousins on there that I could check on, and sure enough they have a few things on there about their life - One is expecting his first child, and one has been climbing mountains left and right in the PI. After reading looking through a couple of my cousin's account I notice had some messages. I check out the message and it's from my SISTER. Wait, what?!
~~~~~~~~~~~
I don't normally talk about my dad, mainly because I don't know enough about him and some of the things I do know, well, I kind of just go into denial - My mom was not my dad's first, wife(?). Before I left for the states, my dad took me to the country side there I met another woman and two boys who were a little older than me. I'm pretty sure their my older brothers, but I've never confirmed this with anyone - not with my mom, dad, or other relatives, no one.
~~~~~~~~~~~
Back in 1993, I went back to PI, after being in the US for four years and I got to see my dad one evening. One of my cousin, me, my dad, and a bodyguard(?) went out for some food and some nightly activities. At the end of the evening, he and my mom talked and I don't know what happened, but my mom ended the conversation crying. I would later hear that my dad had found another woman and already had a baby girl - I only heard this story once, I never confirmed this story from any other source. Well, this baby girl, is probably the sister that is now contacting me through friendster.com.
~~~~~~~~~~~
A few years ago, I received this letter from PI address to me at my mom's house. I open it and find two pictures. One boy and one girl. On the the back of the pictures are short written message calling me kuya (a term used from brother at PI) and saying their names. What?! If the pictures didn't creep me out enough, there was a middle eastern address inside the envelope. What? What? What?! I hid this envelope with these pictures (probably in one of my shoe boxes in my room) and never told anyone about this. Yeah, that's right, all five of you of my audience, know something very secret about me. I never received another letter, but now, since those kids are now old enough to use and surf the Internet, one of them have found me.
~~~~~~~~~~
I questioned myself if I should reply back to my sister. I mean, is she really my sister? What kind of person would get a kick about pretending to be my sister? How many people know I have other siblings?! What?! What?! what?! ... Our dad has passed away and it seems her mom is in Qatar (I may be mistaken, my tagalog is not up to par). I've decided to write her back. I hope my gut feeling is wrong (This is going to end badly), but she is on the other side of the world and it's just communication through the Internet.

A Sister?

Umm, ah, yeah, she found me on friendster. Hmm ... Dad, how many, how, but, geez!

I Am Not a Bum - I Am a Jerk

I am Joram and I am not a bum - I am a jerk. So Halloween came and went by and for this year, I dressed as Navin R. Johnson from The Jerk. If you don't know, The Jerk is a movie from 1979 starring Steve Martin - it's brilliant!. I got the chair, lamp, paddle game and even my pants around my ankles! A few people knew who I was going for and for the rest just thought I was some creepy guy with my pants around my ankles. I did wear this outfit to work since we did have a little costume contest. Luckily, one of the judges, knew what I was going for and liked it. Liked it enough to get me 2nd place in the company. My prize for 2nd place? $75. Whoo! I guess I'll spend some of the money to buy a new can opener in the break room, since I kind of broke the last one.

Last Weekend

Just a quick overview of last weekend;

Halloween party at UW.
I dress up as... well, I'll post on Halloween, so later on that.
My costume gets some looks.
Saw Susan and Stefani.
Introduced them to Kitty Litter Cake.
Different crowd at party - tattoos, piercings, and metal, oh my.
We leave early, around midnight.

Halloween party at Kenmore.
Co-worker's party.
My costume gets some weird looks.
"You might want to stay away from the cross-dressers"
Karaoke happens.
I don't win a prize for the costume contest.

Shopping at the mall
Shopping for some new clothes.
Bri comes along.
I look at three pants, I buy two.
Bri looks at 37 pants and buys zero.
"Apperantly designers think I'm fat."
I buy more clothes.
I buy more stuff - shoes, whey protien, cologne.
I think I'm broke.

Measuring Body Fat

No calipers? Don't want to buy them fancy new scales? Well, this site shows a way to measure body fat and all you need is a measuring tape.

http://www.the-fitness-motivator.com/body-fat.html

I've spent some time on the site and it has some good reads too.

Sugar in Disguise

Trying to avoid sugar? Well, pay attention to these names too;

Other names for sugar:

barley malt
brown-rice syrup
corn syrup
dextrose
evaporated cane-
juice invert syrup
fructose
fruit juice
galactos
glucose
high-fructose
corn syrup
honey
lactose
maltodextrin
maple syrup
molasses
organic cane juice
sorghum
sucrose
turbinado

Good Eats #1

I've made this a few time already and it's good stuff. I've also tried it with turkey instead of chicken and it's all good in the hood. Yes, peanut butter can go with chicken. I do want to thank Men's Health for this recipe.

Asian Chicken-Salad Pitas

Servings:
2 people

INGREDIENTS

4 tablespoons peanut butter
2 tablespoons teriyaki sauce (light)
2 chicken breast halves, baked and diced
1/3 cup canned pineapple, drained and chopped
1/4 cup celery, chopped
1/3 cup canned water chestnuts, drained and chopped
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 small red onion, chopped
2 6-inch Whole wheat pita bread

PREPARATION

Mix together the peanut butter and teriyaki sauce in the bottom of a large bowl. Dump in the other salad ingredients and stir everything together. Split the pitas in half, pop 'em open, and fill each half with a quarter of the salad.

NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION

Calories: 595 calories
Carbs: 63 g
Protein: 43 g
Fiber: 11 mg

http://www.menshealth.com/cda/recipe.do
?site=MensHealth&channel=nutrition&category=food.for.fitness
&conitem=06e099edbbbd201099edbbbd2010cfe793cd____&pageLocation=true

Bad Mood

As usual, I got into a bad mood at work today and decided to do a little running log of my craziness;

12:00
My chest hurts. Headache. I hate this.
12:10
Why don’t you die in the fire already! A resort from Southern California checking on some information for the umpteen time today, so they are not on my good side. Yes, I know about the situation about in SoCal, but "Die in a fire" is popular insult that many people that have been using. Fine, I probably booked my one way ticket to hell because of these thoughts today.
12:15
Screw this, I’m going to lunch.
12:16
Kronos is down?! Tap dancing Christ!
12:54
Someone thinks something is funny, I’m not laughing.
1:33
Time to feed the sea monkeys. Stop with the sex for a moment and eat!
1:36
Who’s giving our numbers out?! Gah!
1:38
Can our system get any slower?!
1:45
FFS, another call that doesn’t belong to me. I don't know you! You don't know me! Stop calling me!
2:15
Oh yeah! I’m a spin master genius.
“Do you mind me calling?”
“Yes”
I wanted to follow with, you suck! But said, “I don’t want the owner to get there and not have a reservation”.
I could have berated the caller, but spun it to caring for the owner.
2:18
I need more Mandy Moore. Hmm, “Crush”, I haven’t heard that in a while.
2:25
"You have a crush on Mandy Moore?" my co-worker asks me.
"Just a little."
2:43
Oatmeal time. I make myself some insta-oatmeal. What? It's good for you. Don't judge me!
3:17
I want 13 ½ minutes of my life back. Just spent over talking to a resort that 5 departures + 5 arrivals = all good.
3:25
A call for Dave from Boise. He's taking the Rockies to win in 6 games in the World Series, I choose Boston in 7 games.
3:35
What am I still doing here?! Got caught up in some last minute emails and work, well, I'm forwarding this last one to my co-worker and let her deal with it.

Yeah, so I get pretty moody at work and in a constant state of "Kill All Humans" mode.

This Isn't The Old Me, This Is A New Me

Well, I finally got rid of the emo hair, err, I mean I got a hair cut. I realized over the weekend that I haven't had a haircut since mid July. For over three months I have grown my hair out. I wasn't really sure what I was going to do with my long hair; I thought I about using for Halloween or growing it long enough to donate to wigs for kids, but today I got it cut. I got the same ol' clipper on the sides and back and short enough for some spiking on top.

A Day In Shelton

-Shelton
So I drove down to Shelton to update the tabs on the truck. I get to Shelton, but by the time I get there, the DOL is already closed for the day, so I will have to go back some other time. While there, I decide to call up a couple friends to see if what they are doing for the day. I call Trevor first.
-Trevor
I drive over to Trevor's parents house and find him and his dad in the garage working on a dirt bike. Not really sure what they were working on, but it looks like they've just gone through changing the liquids of the dirt bike. I later find out that Trevor drove it through some deep water and water got into the engine. As Trevor was running the engine, some oil started to spill in one area. The engine is shut off and Trevor opens up the oil well. He finds that the O ring has been compromized. Trevor then decides to head to Napa to get a new one.
-One Ring
I join Trevor on his drive to Napa for a new O ring. We get there and get some help pretty fast. The girl breaks out a few boxes full of O rings and start trying to find a match to the ring that Trevor needed. We find two close match, but not a match. Trev buys the closest one and we head back to the dirt bike. Trevor tries the O ring and unfortunately it's too thick. We then try another auto store. Again, we find some O rings, but not an exact match. He tries an O ring which is slightly smaller, so when used, it'll be stretch and hopefully it match the thickness. We go back to the dirt bike. Once again, the O ring isn't a match. We then head out again to try a few other stores and this time, Trevor isn't buying it unless it is an exact mach. The first stop we make is Lumbreman's. Just like the other stores, they don't have a match. We go down the road and try another auto store and the clerk tells us that he doesn't have any O rings of that type and suggest a couple places. We go up the road and try a dirt bike store - nope, they don't have a match. We try another hardware store. We get pointed to the section with all the O rings and things start looking up. We find a match. We return to the dirt back and Trevor tries the O ring. It fits. Finally, an afternoon of trying to find a $1 replacement for his dirt bike.
-"I hit a deer"
As Trevor and I were driving around Shelton finding an O ring we BS around and one of his stories just stuck out, just because it is very Trevor. The stories goes a little something like this;
"Did I ever tell you that I hit a deer?"
I reply, "You went hunting?"
"No, I hit a deer while I was on my dirt bike"
"What?!
I couldn't believe it, I had to actually say it outloud myself to believe that sentence. He continues to tell me the story. I guess, he was out riding his bike aroundwith his brother on some gravel road when he noticed a deer on the side of the road. He tried slowing down, but with the gravel road, it made it difficult to stop. He was going ~50 mph when he hit the deer. From the story I end up hearing from his brother, Trevor and his bike ended up flipping in the air a few times. Unfortunately for Trevor, it was a hot day that day, so he wasn't wearing as much body protection as he would normally would. Trevor ended up going to the ER and ended up with a road rash all over his body. He is fine now, so as he told me this story, all I could do was laugh. The deer? Well, after getting hit, it pranced off into the woods, surely to taunt Trevor another day.
-Adam
After eating some pizza at Trevor's place, I head over to Adam's parents' house. I heard they got a new house and was interested in seeing it. I get there and they seem to just have started dinner. If this was the old me, I would have joined right in, but I declined since I just ate and looked around the new house. After Adam was eating, he showed me around the house a bit more. After the tour, he showed me the latest Zelda game on the Wii.
-Planet Terror
After his parents were done eating, they joined us in the living room. Adam then started a new DVD he just got, Planet Terror. For those that don't know, it's a film by Robert Rodriguiez and like his other films, it's just pure entertaiment. How can you go wrong with a movie with zombies and a stripper with a gun for a leg?
-I haz cheezburger
At some point in the night, Adam tells me that he has accepted a job for the website, I haz cheezburger. I was quite surprised and excited at this news. This internet cat phenomenon is getting out of control, funny, but out of control. I tell him that the internet geek world is just eating up these cats and I offer him my roommate's cat as a cat he can use for the site.

Well, that's my day in Shelton. I only came down to renew my tabs, but unfortunately, I couldn't get that done, but instead just hanged out with a couple of friends.

I am Eating a Dilly Bar

I am Joram and I'm eating a Dilly Bar. Yummy. Brings back memories. I remember my first Dilly Bar from Dairy Queen; I had just moved to Shelton and the 3rd glad class I was in was having a little math competition. The teacher was giving a timed multiplication table problems and you had to get a 100% to move on to the next one. It started with the 1s, then 2s, then 3s and so on. Well, being a math whiz back in the day, I zoomed right through the lower #s and finally reach the double digits. I stubled a little with the 12s, since I only practiced up to 10s. Anyway, at certain points, the teacher would take you to DQ for a treat if you past the quizzes. I think there was one after the 7s and then after the 12s, I'm not sure - I can't remember as well in my old age. I pass enough of the test and at lunch, she took me and another person to DQ since we were the victors that week. I've never been to DQ before, the only fast food places I knew then were McDos and Jolibee. I get my Dilly Bar and then I realize, people get treats for doing well in school in this country. Oh snap! I would later earn an outragous amount of awards that I don't even want anymore. Seriously, I got tired of awards, it was like, "oh, another one, put it on the pile". Luckily, I ran into more smart people as I progress through life which made earning awards a little harder. So that's my story of my first Dilly Bar.

Now the last dilly bar I had was, hmm... Pretty sure it was from the summer of 2000, the last days of summer, with Michelle, after our trip to Wild Waves. Has it really been seven years since I've had one? There was that time with Adam and Danielle, I think I ordered a Blizzard. Ok, this is just gibberish now.

Overfat vs Overweight

Overweight does not mean fat. Coming from a football background, I've played with many athletes who were overweight. Did that mean they were fat, some - most, sure, but not all. Everywhere I turn, it's I got to lose weight this, I got to lose weight that, at work, on tv, at home (roommate's going to read this be like, "WTF?!, I'll kill joo!"), everywhere. Just because someone weights more than the norm doesn't make them fat. People are so concerned about weight so much, that they start working out with weights (because they hear from the media, muscle burns more fat!) and what happens - they gain weight, unfortunately not many will notice oh, I'm more defined or I'm bigger in the right areas and smaller in the problem areas. A couple stories about weight and sizes;
#1
I weight the same as I did in high school. I wore these jeans which I had in hight this past weekend. I use to be able to shake those jeans off of me back in high school. Those jeans now can stay up all on their own without a belt. I'm the same weight, but my waistline is bigger.

#2;
My roommate wore some jeans she had back in college this past weekend. Apparantly she weight the same now as she did in college. She had extra room in her jeans. So much extra space that she could fit both her hand down the front to the crotch (oh, yeah, she'll be killing me soon).

These examples show how weight shouldn't always be a gauge of progression. Record your workouts! My roommate has her "Bible" and I have my spiral notebooks. If you run 1 mile one week, then 1.1 mile the week after and still weight the same, that's progression. You only ran 1 mile this week, but you ran it faster than week one, progression!

Use weight as a guide, but not as the only measure in your progression.

I Am a Pumpkin Artist

I am Joram and I am a pumpkin artist. Went to the pumpkin patch this morning with my roommate and some of her friends to pick out a pumpkin. It didn't take long to pick one, but we all got a pumpkin to take home (some two). After taking home my pumpkin, I take it to the kitchen and wash off the dirt (aww, his first bath). I laid the pumpkin on the ground to dry off while I watch some football and other stuff. Later in the evening, I start the pumpkin carving;
This is the pumpkin at the beginning.
I cut open the pumpkin and I start gutting it out. This part actually sucked. Check out my emo hair.
I draw the pattern I want on the pumpkin using an oil pastel. Inspired from my addiction (World of Warcraft), it is a Night Elf rogue. Don't ask.
She starts to take shape.
Almost done. I clean up the edges from the inside and decide to give her a 2nd ear.
Here is the final product. Night Elf Rogue.

Now where to put it?

I am Overwhelmed

I am Joram and I am overwhelmed right now. Lots of going through my mind right now, let's see if I can keep this blog organized.

Birthday
My birthday is coming up in three weeks and I don't know if I want to do anything for it. Can I just eat some ice cream cake and call it a day? I don't know, last three years, I've planned stuff and they've all just been eh.

Citizenship
I need to freaking finish the form and turn it in. The application is expensive enough, but it goes up soon. Really soon. I've started filling out this form four times, yet have yet to finish. So sad.

Weight loss
Still doing the Tae bo and lifting weights to try to lose some fat. I stepped up the intensity last Monday when my defunk scale told me I was obese, but that just tired me out. I was so exhausted through the week, I couldn't even complete the Tae bo DVD on Wednesday and on Thursday, I just took a nap instead.
On top of the exercise, I've been trying to eat smarter. Yes, smarter, I don't do any of these fad diets. YEAH, YOU HEARD ME, FAD DIETS. When I say smarter, I mean, avoiding sodas & candies and snacking on an apple or some oatmeal at work. Other things are stopping to eat when I'm full, rather than finishing the plate (most of the time, omelete night doesn't count).
To kind of help me on this venture, I have been using menshealth.com, reading its article to learn about nutirtion and recipes. I've actually tried a few of its recipes and they turned out well. The site also has plenty of new workouts to try. Another site I do use is fitday.com. Fitday has a calorie counter which tallies from food or exercises. Is it accurate, probably like my scale, it's off, so I only use it as a guide.

Computer Problems
On top of everything else, my computer is giving me some trouble. Whenever I play some games, an alarm starts going off. Some have suggested that it is overheating. I've opened the panel up and put my fan, but sadly its not working. I do need to back up all the information on it soon, cause, I don't know how long it will be able to keep running. I've had this computer for about two and a half years, but in that time, I have put LIZ, (short for Elizabeth - yes, I named my computer) through some tough situations. Backing up dozens of DVDs in one weekend, playing thousands of hours of games and just a lot of stress.

Balance
Balancing work, working out, and playing Warcraft (I still haven't retired from it, eh) everyday is hard. I didn't even include socializing, ugh. I pretty much have to save my socializing for the weekend, maybe its good I don't call up too many friend right now. Just trying to do those three things is tiresome - mentally and physically.

Ugh, I'm pretty sure I've had more stuff, but my mind's mush.

I am Fat

I am Joram and I am fat. According to the scale I just got working (batteries finally came), I am extremely obese! Dammit! My roommate Bri just tried out the scale and now she's thinking she's fat now too. Hmm, maybe the scale is off? Oh, it has to be off, Bri's not fat. Excuse me, I have to make sure the roommate doesn't become bulimic and I have to lose some fat now.

Red Robins has Pasta?!

It all started out as any other day on Saturday until I got a call from Susan - All I planned on Saturday was do some Tae bo and laundry - did Tae bo in the morning and I was in the middle of doing laundry. Earlier in the day Bri asked me what I was up to? Laundry, video games and... that was it. What can I say, I'm boring. Bri goes out do to some shopping (laptop and pants) while I continue to do my laundry. Just as i was to go down for a nap, that was when Susan called me. She tells me that she and Stefani are meeting at Red Robins and invites me along. Having no other plans, I agree to meet them. Trying to avoid eating too much at Red Robins, I eat some salad before heading out. I then get ready and head to Red Robins.

Something about driving alone on the highway, I start contemplating about life; where I am heading, how'd I ended up here and just a lot of random questions... It was then I realized I missed a call. Really?! I was daydreaming so much that I missed a call, yet still managed to stay on the road. Anyway, I checked the voicemail and it's Melissa. I haven't seen her or talked to her since her birthday last December. Well, she wanted to have dinner, but unfortunately I was headed to another dinner. Man, I feel so needed (let me relish this for a moment)...

I ended up calling Melissa today, on Sunday, and ended up just leaving a message. Yay, phone tag. I would have called earlier, but I got to some heavy congestion on I-405. I hate traffic! After a long wait in the slow downs, I finally made it to Red Robins. As I'm heading into the restaurant, I see the lobby area, completely full. Oh, god, I hope the wait isn't long. I find Stefani and Susan in the crowd and they immediately stare at my long hair. I guess I've had short hair forever. After their initial shock from my hair, I ask them if they know how long the wait was. Stefani says about 20 minutes (LIES). I look over the crowd and I notice a bunch of teenagers all dressed up. I realized its homecoming week, hence the gaggle of dressed up high schoolers. Stefani notices one of the girls have way too much make up. I see the girl she's talking about and JEBUS CHRIST! Too much eye shadow and bright red lipsticks, yeah, she needs attention. I tell the girls to give her some advice on make up. They hesitate. I ask them if they're scared of the boys. I offer them protection, since the boys look like...kids. Did we really look that young when were teenagers? Anyway, after a long wait, we finally get our seats.

The waitress comes to our table fairly quickly and asks if we're ready to order
"No"
"Yes"
"Yes"
What?! The girls were ready, I wasn't. I tell the waitress to take their orders first. I decide to try something different and something I could save later. I fine a pasta dish. Red Robin's only pasta dish. With my order, the waitress disappears. We then play catch up. Well, mostly Susan, since Stefani and I have boring lives; we work and just hang out. Susan tells us about her busy life, grad school, and part time job. She also tells us about her stay in Victoria, B.C. She tells me of the hotel she stayed at had a strip club in it. What, what?! They is such a place in the Northwest?! She then tells us it has no cover charge. What, what, what, what, what! Hmmm, I'm really having trouble remembering what happened for the rest of the night.

Anyway, we enjoyed our meals and tried to make plans for another outing; Stefani has a halloween party and I also suggest we go to the haunted corn maze. The party is set for the Friday before Halloween, but we still have to plan the corn maze. I think we have to do it next weekend since Bri also wants to go and she'll only be free next weekend. Well, time for planning for next weekend and probably continue the phone tag.

Mental Illness Awareness Week

Mental Illness Awareness Week is October 7-13th. I think we all have had experience with mental illness, I think most call it the "teenage years". Naw, really - if it's not ourselves, then maybe a schizo friend, an ex with bipolar (lol), or someone we know who is or have been depressed. Well, next week is a way to observe these issues. NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness), seems to have a lot of information and treatments if needed so - So yeah, learn it, know it, love it.

YOU ARE NOTHING!

YOU ARE NOTHING! I knew you couldn't beat me, never have, never will. Are you giving up already? You think you did all the exercises yesterday? No! You missed the Gilad abs, hahaha! It's only been a week, fine two weeks and you're going back to your games already. You really think you'll have time for both? That game can take up to four hours of your nights - hence I have gotten better... and you, at best stayed the same. Are you giving up on foods too? I see you eyeing that coke, go ahead, drink it, it'll give me more edge over you. Yeah, go ahead, walk away. I'll be over here, always getting bigger, faster, and stronger than you.

Email Flashback II

From: Yoon-Mee
Sent: Mon 8/02/04 9:05 AM
To: Joram
Hey hun,
So yeah I went camping with my kids for three days and it was fun. This weekend I went to nice pool party at a ritzy hotel. I can't wait to go home. It's SO hot and humid here. I swear I shower twice a day because I get really sticky with sweat. Plus I am getting sick of the people here. In other words I want to go home and rest.SO, do you like traveling around the Northwest because of your new job? Well, it's one in the morning here. I need to sleep. Talk to you later...
~Yoon-Mee

Then There's Yoga

...Well, Bri's Yoga DVD came today and we, yes we decided to give it a try. Totally unprepared for it. After moving some items in the living room, we started the DVD. I initially didn't want to try it, but since it started at some easy stance or is it called pose? Whichever, I started along with it. Sure enough, things got more complicated. I ended up not being able to bend in certain ways, Bri ended having some weird bowel movement or whatever and we called it quits after just under an hour of doing the poses. I actually called it quits about 10 minutes earlier when the "Eagle" pose came and the human body was just not meant to bend that way! Anyway, I'll probably give yoga a few more tries, being extra bendy wouldn't hurt!

I am Tired

I am Joram and I am tired. I'm still having trouble getting through my head that in high school, I did weight training for 60+ minutes then had 3+ hrs of football practice and be pretty ok, but now, I do about 35-40 minutes of aerobics and I'm exhausted. Sure, I've been sitting on my butt for years and only decided recently to try to be active (no WoW!), but for over a week now, I work out and just be exhausted. Maybe more caffiene would help.

Things Are Missing...

I am Joram and things are missing from my life. What am I talking about? Well....

The McDonalds down the road is gone. Sure, I go to McDonalds only a few times a year now, but having the convenience of having it just down the road was nice. Knowing that if I was in need for some fries, I could just go down the street and get it. Unfortunately late night walks to Mickey-Ds won't happen again. There is a Dairy Queen next to the site and a Safeway, but that will just not be the same.

What else is missing? All the Coca-Cola products in the vending machine at work are gone. Not sold out, but absolutely gone. I knew that vendor was slowly phasing it out, but to absolutely get rid of it is farce! Sure, I don't drink coke that much anymore, but knowing its available if I wanted one was nice - that's gone. I haven't checked all the vending machines in the building yet, but hopefully coke is still available at the other machines.

I'm certain I could rant on and on about other things missing in my life, larger things, but I won't, these two small things will suffice for now.

I Watched TV

I am Joram and I watched TV. Another Sunday gone and I spent most of it just watching the tele. I tried to get some excercise in, but I was plain exhausted, so I decided to give myself a day off. Oh, I'll definitely do some aerobic or what not tomorrow. I watched the Seahawks play againsts the 49ers. Hooray! They won.

While watching some TV, I ended up seeing this Old Navy commercial. It had a girl singing as the background about a sweater. That voice and song ended up getting to me. I did a little reasearch and found out the singer's name is Ingrid Michaelson and the song's name is "The Way I Am". I'm not sure if the song has been used in other medias, but it is from her album, "Girls and Boys". In any case, I am like this this song and the whole song can be heard here.

This isn't the first commercial with a song that I just had to find and listen to. The last one that got to me had to be the Christmas commercial for DeBeers. Go ahead, click on the link. Awww, yeah. This one is by Cat Powers and sadly there is no copy of the full song out there. Its commercials like these that makes me want to start learning to play the guitar. I wonder if I can make memorable music like these with my clarinet? No, no, no, that won't work, I can't sing and play the clarinet at the same time.

I Played Halo 3

I am Joram and I played Halo 3. I finally got my hands on Halo 3 by going over to my friend's house and playing the story mode. We've made a little tradition of playing through the story mode, even though, most people play it for its multi-player deathmatches. The game was released last Tuesday and we have already heard stories of people beating the game in one seating, it's short, it's too easy, well we decided instead of playing it on the normal difficulty, we'd start "Heroic". I suggested Legendary, but with some thought, we decided against it. It started out pretty entertaining, run around, kill some bad guys, same ol', same ol'. Then we noticed it was getting late and thought about stopping and just continueing the next weekend, but unfortunately, we were in a middle of a level and we needed to finish it to be able to save it. Fine, this shouldn't be too hard. We were wrong, it took us four freaking hours to finish the level. It was pretty frustraiting, but we're glad we don't have to deal with that again (except maybe in Legendary). Like I mentioned, it was late, so we decide to call it a night and finish the game next weekend.

Halo 3's gameplay is fun, but the story mode is quite lacking. From what I've played through so far, it is pretty similar to the Halo 2. The graphics were pumped up and things look amazing, but I wish they could have gotten a better story line - they did have three years to think of one.

I am all scratched up!

I am Joram and I am all scratched up! This cat who's been nothing but a prima-donna has given me a new cut from his claws just about every night. Just this week, I have been scratched on both my arms, stomach, and right leg. I have a feeling he'll be going for my head or left leg next. Luckily, none of them have been infected (yet?), but the latest one was on my wrist. I've told my co-workers of these attacks and all they do is laugh. I finally showed them a wound easily visible, without taking some clothing off, and one of my co-workers immediate reaction absolute laughter. I guess she just likes seeing me hurt. Well, I'm glad this amuses them, since I'll be a bloody mess by the end of next month!

Other than all these scratches, I am also aching from all these Taebo and lifts I've been doing this week. Let's just say, I have lost access for my outlet and have found Taebo and weight training as an alternative source. Luckily, these aches I have haven't caused me to walk awkwardly like the long walk to McDonalds, but my core, back, and lower joints are hurting. I'm not too worried about the muscle aches, but the joints one I am concerned about. I have had bad knees since high school (left = horrible, right = bad), not excersicing all these years I know have done nothing but made them worst. I guess, it's good that I get some extra movements on them, but I am unsure of their capabilities. I don't want to just start working out and then be out from a blown knee after a few days. I guess, I'll just take it day by day and take extra care of my knees.

I do Taebo

I am Joram and I do Taebo. After last night's brain stress, I needed to get my mind on other things. Normally, I'd just hop on my computer and play some Warcraft, but unfortunately that is out of commission for a bit, so instead I pop in Billy Blanks and do some Taebo. I've done his 8 minute workout a few times over the last week and I wasn't sure if I could handle the entire workout, so I skipped over a few parts and got about a 20-25 workout. A little out of breath, I decided I needed some more, so I headed downstairs and set up the bowflex. Did a few sets there and then organized the dumbells for some lunges. I finally ended everything on the lunges - I was tired, out of breath, and my hamstrings were ready to snap.

*pant*
*pant*
*pant*

A much needed workout.

The Stalker

I am Joram, the stalker -
In the midst of my internet surfing, I ran across www.peekyou.com. It seems to be search engine that specifically searches in social websites (ie. myspace). Sure enough, I give it a try... Not even a second thought I enter Michelle's name. Zero matches. Well, duh, she's married, now what's her new last name? I enter what I think it is and a few dozen matches. Let's just say I spent about an hour looking at several old and unused myspaces pages that had matching names, but no one has logged on it for months and some even years. It's getting late, so I decided to just stop. Sure, the old me would have kept going, I did manage to find her in New Mexico, then Fresno - shhhh, she doesn't know... bah, like I'll run into her again.

Flashback Email

Date: 10/25/99 8:40:13 AM Pacific Daylight Time
From: Michelle
To: Joram

I'm glad that you're having a lot of fun, so am I. Although, I still do not party, but I have a good time anyway. I hope that your friend was okay. Did he have alcohol poisoning or something?? I'm taking 17 credit hours this semester, isn't that a lot?? I'm taking calculus, physics, english, computer science, calculus lab, physics lab, computer science lab, and strategies for the successful student. I do own a computer, but I am not hooked up to the ethernet yet. I have an ethernet card and an ethernet cable, but nobody has been able to get it to work yet, I'm not sure what's wrong with it. I passed the english A.P. exam so my english class is english 112, the second year college english class. The guy that reminds me of you is asian, but it's his personality that reminds me of you. He seems to have the same sense of humor. My picture is on the internet if you want to see me with some of my friends. The address is http://www.vietcity.com/PhuocLe , go to the NMT Picx section, it's to the right. I look funny so don't laugh too hard. I was in the room next door to mine, my hall is coed. Sometimes it's weird because there are so many more guys than girls here, but oh well I'm not complaining. I guess that I will take off because I have physics to go to, write me back!!!!! P.S. sorry it's so long.


--Shell--

Fair Food, Yummy!

It started as any other day on Sunday until I volunteered my truck to help move some extra furniture that Bri had to her mom's house. We had two main items to move, a recliner and a futon with its parts. Loading the items on the truck was easy, but making sure that they stayed there on the drive was a challenge. We initially loaded the futon stuff first and to have the recliner lying down on top of it all. That did not look to promising as the recliner could easily roll off on a turn. We looked at the furniture and the space we had to work with and using our superior, college-educated minds we figured out a solution. Actually, anyone who's played Tetris could have probably figured out a better layout for loading the furniture than us. Using some bungee cords we tied the items down and made sure to not loose any loads on the drive. Before we left, Bri called up her mom to make sure she was ready for some extra furniture to be stored away. After talking to her mom, Bri found out that her mom had a couple of ticket for Puyallup fair. Ooooh... fair food, yummy!

We then drove to Federal to drop off the furniture. We helped Bri's mom make some room in her storage shed and then moved the futon and recliner into storage. With that, we then grabbed the tickets for the fair and headed to Puyallup. After being stuck in some horrendous traffic, we finally made it to the fair. We didn't get too far into the fair (ohh, about 37 ft from the entrance) before we stopped at a place to eat. We took a moment to decide between a burger or some bbq. We both decided on a burger. After getting our food, we found a little area out of traffic to consume our burgers. Yes, consume. After some food, we then continued in to the fair with the plans of just seeing some farm animals and buying some scones. We find a scones line early and find it to be ridiculously long. Maybe later.

We roam for a couple hours, laughing at some of the crazy clothes at people wear, being intrigued by the crazy sized prizes people were walking around with and wondering who the Jonas Brothers are as they were in a middle of a show and we would occasionally get interrupted by teeny bopper screams.

We eventually found some farm animals. We looked at some cows, sheep, goats, and rabbits. In the midst off all the animals we found a baby sheep named "Brie". Bri was immediately mesmerized. We took some photo-op, Bri petting Brie and continued with the rest of the animals. We also got to watch some goats butt heads with each other. I'm sorry, violence is plain entertaining. We watch this head butting for a few minutes as we were cheering on the smaller goat, who was just minding his own business until the larger goat started shoving and pushing. Pure entertainment!

With food and farm animals out of the way, the only thing left was to get some scones. We look around to hopefully find a scones stands with a short line. Yeah, never happened. Bri even asked the information booth for some help, but all the guy could tell us was there are better scones at the grandstand because its cooked with gas. Ok. We head to this scones stands hoping there would be a short line. Oh geez, the line was just as long as the others. We walk by the preparations area and see teenagers lazily making the scones and that was the deal-breaker; there was no way we were going to eat scones from these lazy punk teenagers. We thought, "Let's just make our own". We see a sign at the nearby shortcake stand which said they sold the scones mix. There was a very short line and it has been a while since we ate the burgers. We try to get the mix, but unfortunately they were out (geez, our luck sucks). We buy our strawberry shortcake and eat it as we headed out. I don't know how Bri ate on the move, but I had trouble getting that spoon in my mouth while walking. With the shortcake gone, we left the fair and headed back home.

Before we got home, we stopped at a Safeway and bought the scones mix. We haven't made the scones yet, but that should be another exciting adventure on "I Am Joram"!

When Joram Met Bri

A few people has asked me about my roommate, how I met her and how long have we known each other; well, to my knowledge I met her one night when my former neighbors, Susan and Stefani, had invited me for a little get together.

It all started out as any other day except I have been invited by Susan and Stefani to come to their apartment for a little party. Being someone who just graduated and who just started job at a sales position, I needed to see some old friends and to just get away for a bit. I headed up to Seattle to Susan's and Stefani's apartment. Now, my memory is pretty hazy, so I'm not even sure which party it was (Susan and Stefani had several parties that year), but it was in the audience I overheard Bri talking about text messaging. She was talking about not initially paying the extra for text messaging, but after she was sending dozens of text messages a day, it was more than worth it to pay the $5 for the service rather than the 10 cents a text. Bri had attended the party because she was friends with one of Susan's friends. Now, I don't remember really talking to her that night, but the seed had been planted.

The first time I remember actually hanging out with Bri was one Summer night when Susan, Bri, Jeremy & me decided to spend some friends night out together. That night, we ended up bowling, playing pool and eating at Denny's. Since it was a long night and it was fairly late for me to drive home from Seattle, Bri offered me her 2nd bedroom to sleep in. I accepted the offer and spent the night at her place in Edmonds. I was so exhausted that night that when I woke up the next morning, I totally didn't know where I was. It took me a few moments to realize where I was and what I was doing there. I remembered that Bri was going to go to the work in the morning, but I could stick around longer. When I woke up, Bri was still in sleeping. I then decided to just make myself at home and started watching some TV. This was 2004, the year of the Olympics. We ended up watching some track and field off the Canadian station (I enjoyed their coverage more that NBC because their coverage was actually live!). Anyway, the Olympic entertained us for a few. Now, there was one event, where Bri couldn't wait to find out who won, so she decided to go online to find out the results... I reminded her that it was live, so there is no way in hell the results would be posted yet. Either she ignored me or just didn't hear me, but she kept refreshing the page to see if it would update. This would be the Bri I know today :).

Actually, you know what? I think the first time I met Bri was when she came over to Susan's apartment to plan out their Hawaii trip. I remember them going on Susan's computer, looking up car rental and trip information. All this time, I was sitting on Susan's bed freaking out about finding a career. Oh hell, my memories not so crystal clear anymore. I should talk about something more recent - tomorrow, I did the Puyallup!

I Hear Things

I am Joram and I hear things. Passing out apperantly wasn't as easy as I wanted - late into the night last night I started hearing voices, nothing satanic or anything like that, but it was rather tranquil. Lovely as it was, it just kept me up, because right as I am falling asleep, I think I heard someone talking to me and I want to talk back to them. I'd hear it say something like, "why'd you leave me?" What?! who are you? I'm not even sure who's voice it was. There are lead runners, but I am not quite sure, I blame the alcohol for that, but it was similar to the time where I was locked up in that bedroom and all I had to keep me sane was some voicemail messages. But I was under stress and freaking out then and i used those voices to calm myself down. Oh jeez...
My brain seemed to just go crazy last night because I started having flashbacks of things I was never involved in. I'm pretty sure they were scenes from movies or tv and I just put myself in them somehow. Ok, enough of talking of my disfunctional brain - i guess now I know why I started keeping a journal, to keep track of the reality and the fantasy. Sigh, why did I leave her?

I hate babysitting purses

I am Joram and I hate babysitting purses. That's all.

I am drunk

I am Joram and I am drunk. Went out drinking with my roommate tonight and now I am drunk. Strong urge to play some video games, but I am drunk. I think I'll just watch another episode of Dexter and pass out.

I Live With a Cat

I am Joram and I live with a cat. The cat is actually my roommate's, but we do have to share a common dwelling. As much I'd like to describe the cat, I can't. The cat has been hiding under Bri's bed or under the recliner in the living all this time. Bri basically had to force him out to come out. The other night we spent about half an hour trying get him come out from the recliner. Offering him food, water and his toys, he would just look at us and then turn away.
I was ready to be cool with the cat since he finally came out last night let me pet him and actually hanged out with us, but that seems to be the end of that. He's back under the bed and when Bri brought him downstairs, he just ran into the recliner again. This cat is soo a jerk!

Long Walks on the Beach

It started out as any other day yesterday until I was at home hungry. I told my roommate of my hunger and she suggested that we walk to McDonalds.
"Oh heck no! That place is like a mile away! And we live on a hill, so we'll have to walk uphill on the way back."
With my objection, we decided to just sit around and watch some TV instead. So we sit around and flip through the stations. Unfortunately, there was nothing worth on TV to watch, so with gritted teeth, I agreed to Bri's idea. We grab some walking shoes and prepared for our trek. I decide to leave my keys behind since I didn't want to take any extra weight along with me, also Bri was going to take hers.
We head and out not more than 2 steps from the door when she has an even better idea and suggest we run to McDonalds.
"Oh heck no! I'm going back in. Wait, I don't have a key."
I had no way to get back into the apt. so I had to keep up with her. Well, fortunately she agreed to just walk. We make our way down to Micky-Ds, carefully avoiding traffic and crossing streets all in the dark. Sure, a few cars came pretty close to us, but they were probably thinking we were crazy for walking on the sidewalk-less streets at night.
When we got to MDs, I order a double cheeseburger and a sundae, while Bri ordered a diet coke and a sundae herself. We find a table sit to eat our food and sundaes. I later learn that those two items I order contained 770 calories, which was quite considerably more than what I burned on the walk down and on the walk back. Even if combined with what Bri would have burned on the round trip, the double cheeseburger and sundae would still have been more! Anyway, after we were done, we started to head back.
Avoiding slugs on the road, a late night biker and more crazy drivers, we make it back to our apt safe and sound. The next day, my chins are stiff from the walking and I walk funny at work all day. Gawd I'm fat! Well, another fun-filled night! Next time, I'll talk about the prima-donna cat!

I Drive a Truck

I am Joram and I drive a truck. Anyone who drives a truck will know that when one of your friends is moving they will come to you for help - this was the case today. My friend Adam who has been looking high and low for a couch was finally getting one from his sister. He called me up to help move it. I put my shoes on and headed to West Seattle.

Now, Adam recently got into a car accident, so he was not going to be able to help move the couch, luckily he has a roommate who is capable of lifting heavy objects. I picked up Adam and his roommate, "P", and had them tell me the way to his sisters. I got led through unknown parts of Seattle and I'm pretty sure, I would get lost if I tried to take that way again, but we did get to his sister's place without any trouble. His sister wasn't home, but the couch was on their patio/deck area and they were on the first floor. Adam took the cushions and shoved it in the back of the cab while P and I moved the couch. As we were loading this, we realized that to an outside observer, we are strangers in the neighborhood that just grabbed a couch from someone's patio - I'm just glad we got out of there before any cops where called. We tied down the couch, luckily I still knew some knots, and headed back to Adam's place.

Once back to their place, I really started to get worried of getting it up the stairs. Adam and P lives on the 3rd floor of this apt. complex and there isn't an elevator. Let's just stay moving that couch up those stairs was strenious. Like I mentioned, it had to go up three floors and we had to move it back and forth with the stairs and it was too tall to stand up... it was heavy and ugh!

We did finally make it up to the third floor and we looked at the door way and the hall way the couch had to go through. Oh my... another tight fit. We realized that the only way the couch could get around some of these corners was to stand it up. We then took some measurements and found out that we had about an inch to spare. We did have to take down some light fixtures because those were in the way. After more strenuous moments moving the couch, we finally got the couch to their living room and Adam and P finally has a couch. In return they gave me a box of animal crackers and some gas money - score!

Now I know this won't be the last time I will have to help move somebody as I have done it already with Adam before, Bri when she was moving and once again Bri needs to move some large things to her moms soon. Ehh, I guess it comes with the truck - if you use one, expect for requests for help.

Donut Bread

It started out as any other day, until I opened the door to my room to go downstairs. Standing near my door, brushing her teeth is Bri. She was going back and forth from her room to the bathroom and I caught her in mid-room. Sure, nothing unusual, but she started to give me the stare-down. I thought maybe I had bed hair, so I try to feel my hair, nothing too crazy. I try walking down the stair, but she's still giving me the stair down. I later found out that she was still half asleep and just confused; she didn't realized I normally wake up at those hours too.

Anyway, the rest of the day was mostly normal, until Bri decided to make some chocolate chip bread. We were still unsure of the oven's availability, but once turned on, the bottom part was heating up. Bri then mixed the recipes and put in the batter. About 45 minutes later, she takes the bread out of the oven. Looks good! She then tries to put in on a plate, but it seems two things happened;

One - she didn't grease the bread pan enough, so it wasn't sliding out onto the plate.
Two - the oven is still acting funny and it didn't cook the bread completely, rather, the outer part was cook and when she turned it over to put onto the plate, a huge chunck in the middle drooled out from the bread.

Donut bread is created! Disappointed, Bri turns the oven back on the puts the remainding bread back into the oven. The batter that got dumped onto the plate, well, Bri found it appetizing and decided to eat it. Apperantly it was good. Well, 10 minutes more in the oven and she took the bread back out. It looked cooked, but like I mentioned, the pan wasn't greased enough, so the bread didn't come out pretty from the bread pan. Even though it looks like it had a harsh life, it did taste good. I ended up taking the bread pan and eating the pieces of the bread left on the pan, while Bri was more civilized and grabbed an extra plate to server herself some bread.

Well, tomorrow is Friday, I need to plan for something to do this weekend.

Cruising on the Lake

It started out like any other day, except I didn't have be in at work until an hour later. I thought I could sleep in, but after some drinking last night, I kept waking up in the middle of the night thinking I was late for work - which I was later on. Anyway, I did wake up with plenty of time to get ready for work, but apperantly, leaving an hour later for work doubled my commute time. I expected some extra delays, but not as much as I experienced this morning. I came into work an hour later than usual because today was my company's annual cruise. Our company treats everyone on a little cruise around Lake Washington as a little thank you. The cruise started an hour later than when I usually start work, so I asked my boss to let me come in later, so I didn't have an hour of just sitting around.
Well, as work ended, school busses pulled up by our building which was going to take us to Kirkland, where our cruise ship was waiting. I got on the first bus, so I was one of the first people on the boat. And one of the first people to get food! After some food and drinks, me and a few other coworkers just sat up on the top deck. I tried going down on the lower deck with the music, but when I first walked in there; the place reeked of alcohol, and it was just hot and muggy. It was like a frat party. I then decided to pretty much spend the rest of the cruise on the top deck, getting some of Seattle's last sun. Overall, it was fun and nice to enjoy some sun on the company's wallet.

Drunken Monday

It started out as any other day; woke up, head to work, come home for some relaxation, but things took a turn when my roommate came home. Ok, she first found me singing to some Britney Spears, what?! I don't care, you'd start singing with "oops I did it again" if you heard it yourself. Anyway, after Bri laughed at me for my performace, she went to the kitchen to make her dinner. It was while eating that things got interesting. She was having some wine with her mac and cheese. After a short discussion, we decided to go to Trader Joe's to get some more wine.
We headed out and as we were getting into Bri's car, a moth or some sort of bug come flying out at her and she lets out this "RAWR", which was quite amusing. Pretty sure half the apt complex heard her. I know, our neighbors heard her since they were in the parking lot. It was a noise not easily consiviable of coming out of Bri, I mean, it was, "RAWR!" We laugh about it on the way to the store.
After some crazy driving and getting a little lost, we came back home with four bottles of wine. Yes, four. We open one each and proceed to enjoy our Monday night. Wow, it was about then I realize it was Monday. I will be drinking on a Monday. Ok, I'll keep it civilized. It was for the most part, but around 9 o'clock we decided we should stop drinking. Bri compares our bottles of wine and sees that I had drinking just slightly more than her. She then remembers that she had a drink before we went to the store. Just then, our competitive sides really kicked in. I pulled the cork from my bottle and proceeded to pour more wine into my glass. Bri decides to do the same thing. We pour about the same amount into our glasses and after she corked her bottle again, I pour just a little bit more in my glass. Shocked, Bri grabs my glass and takes a drink to match the amount in our glasses. I then just said screw it and took a drink from the bottle of wine. After a few laughs, we put our bottles away and walk back to the living room and drink our last glass of wine. We reminisce about drunken past and good times in college. After we finished our drinks, we throw our glasses in the dishwasher and decide to head to bed, since it still is a Monday and we both have work in the morning.

I worked today

I am Joram and I worked today. It has been over a week since I came into work. I had taken the week off to ease the stress of moving, so today I came into work. My coworkers wasn’t expecting me to come in until tomorrow, but I figured today was a good day to catch up on my last week’s emails and other work. As usual, I had a lot of email that I have been stacking up in my inbox since last week. Luckily, I got through all of them before lunch. Although, I did ignore all the ones that had my other team members CC’d. I figured, if they got it, they would have the request or answer the question or whatnot.

Since my coworkers wasn’t expecting me come in tomorrow, I was surprised that they had a little pot luck going. I lucked out though, since one of my cubicle members was heading to the store to pick up some stuff and I decided to come along. We picked up a few items for people, including my cinnamon rolls. We had a lot of food and they were only four of us. At the end of the day, there was still a lot of food sitting around.

After work, I headed straight home to find Bri painting her toes and watching Friday Night Lights, finally back from her trip to her mom’s in Federal Way. After the movie, we headed to Safeway to pick up some food – I am not really sure why, since our cupboards are over flowing with food right now. We exited Safeway with our food and Bri headed to the gas station. I’m not really sure what has going through her mind, but somehow, she pulled up the wrong side of her car to the pump. She said that her mom’s was on that side, and that is why she got the wrong side.
“Riiiiight”
After a little embarrassment, she swung the car around to get the right side to the pump. We got the gas and headed home. After we put the food away, Bri decided our place needed some decorations. She was right. She brought down her pictures to the living room and I brought mine down. We then proceeded to put a few pictures up – well, she did, I just continued eating my dinner and watcher her use her pink hammer… yes, she has a pink hammer. We didn’t get all our pictures up, but we agreed that we do need more in our living room. We then started talking about getting our cable hooked up tomorrow and we hooked up the TV to the wall. After that, we were going to talk about the setup upstairs – the cable outlet is in her room and I need it in my room – but somehow we got distracted by the TV and we started to watch Old School. Actually, I started to watch Old School, Bri had a call and she missed most of the movie. Well, another ho-hum day at work and an interesting night at home. Right now, we are still continuing organizing our place and hope to have it ready as soon as possible so that we may have a little house-warming party. That of course is still in the works.

I attended Bumbershoot

I am Joram and I attended Bumbershoot. For anyone that doesn’t know, Bumbershoot is Seattle’s Music & Arts Festival that happens every year on Labor Day weekend. My friend Adam was going to it, so I decided to head down to it and see what the festival had to offer this year. Now, normally, when people go to this festival, everyone has an idea on what they are going to see – unfortunately for me, I had no idea on what band or festivities were being offered this year.

I knew there would be a ridiculous amount of traffic downtown Seattle. I immediately saw signs of it as there was a 1 mile backup on the exit for the Bumbershoot. Luckily, I know enough of Seattle roads, that I took a different exit and avoided most of the traffic. Not wanting to deal anymore traffic and waiting, I ended up parking at Denny park, a good walk from Seattle Arts Center. I walk the mile or so to SAC and even though the gates have only opened for about half an hour, there was already a line that was looping around the sidewalks. I give my friend a call and tell him I’ll be in line for a while – he suggests getting into the cash only line since it moves faster. I check my wallet and I have $34, but the tickets are $35 – freak! After a long wait in line, I finally get in and start roaming around.

It takes me about 2hrs to find Adam (my cell phone kept going out) and I meet his friend Melissa. We try to a comedy show, but that was unfortunately filled up already. We walk over to a stage and watch some five scantily clad ladies dance for a bit. We get bored and move on. We look over the schedule and try to plan out the rest of our afternoon. After aimlessly walking around for about half an hour, Melissa decides to go home and take a nap. She tells us that she’ll join us later in the evening after the nap. After wandering around for a bit more, Adam and I get in line for a comedy show, Next Week’s News with Andy Borowitz. Other than Andy Borowitz, there were two other guys on stage and they were hilarious. The joke of the moment seems to be about the Senator being caught in the bathroom soliciting sex. I haven’t had internet or TV all week, so I knew nothing of the matter. After the show, we went out and get some food. Overpriced food.

After a quick break, we went in line for the Michael Ian Black comedy show, an hour and half before it began. So, in line we waited to be let in. The wait paid off as we got into the show and we walked right by these unfortunate souls who would have to miss the show. Michael Ian Black was funny and he had a couple comedians show up with him. The show only lasted an hour, but it was hilarious. After the show, we decided it has been a long day and to just head home. Since Adam rode the bus down, I gave him a ride home. I drove back home to find that Bri has unpacked a few more things. Also she stopped by the office to fill a work order and pay the entire months rent. In the slight chaos of the last few days, I forgot that today was the 1st. I guess summer is pretty much over, at least I got one day for Bumbershoot in me.

I am nostalgic

I am Joram and I am nostalgic. Without the internet to entertain me, I started going through some older folders in my computer. In my search, I run into a folder filled with IM and email transcripts I saved back in my college years. Quite intriguing. Intriguing enough to keep my attention until 3 in the morning. There are quite a lot of things on there that are surprisingly enough still affecting people. Hmm, it is hard to describe without showing the conversation. I do want to share some of them, but I’ll have to edit them a bit to not show our old emails or AIM account.

I smell of bleach

I am Joram and I smell of bleach. I spent most of my day cleaning my old apt today. Luckily, my mom had come up and helped me clean the place. I also got rid of the cable modem from Comcast, so one less thing to do. I also went to the post office to do my forwarding address, but I guess we can do that online now (which I’ll have to do later). With my old place cleaned, I plan on turning the keys over tomorrow, although I probably should report that the garbage disposal is on the fritz (again).

With the place cleaned, I lead my mom to my new place and show her around a bit. I wanted to her to stick around for a bit, so that she could meet Bri, but my brother was bored and wanted to head home. Unfortunately, about 10 minutes after they left, Bri arrives.
“I missed Mommy Major.”
Ok, I’m not sure if that was her exact words, but something like that.

Anyway, I guess, they’ll have to meet each other another time. Bri once again come over, directly from work, to unload more of her stuff. I offer to help, but she says she could do it herself. Man, those uppity women, soon they’ll want to vote too!

With more stuff moved in, Bri asks me to help her move some large objects from her apt using my truck. We jump in my truck and head over to her old apt. About three miles from her place, we get caught up in some congestion. Apparently there was an accident that was causing a back up. I tell Bri to get out and just start running and I’ll catch up with her at her place. Even though it was a joke, it was also true. With Bri’s training, she definitely could have made it to her apt to pack up some more stuff.

We finally made it past the congestion and to her apt. We end up moving a TV stand, a chest and half of an IKEA chair (the other half has been sitting in our living room). The TV stand got a little dangerous because Bri just started laughing right before we were to go down the stairs. I don’t know if it was my statement,
“Sure, its funny to watch a fat kid fall down some stairs”
But she did mention about another time she was moving a couch with her friend Spring and she was laughing uncontrollably then too. We make our way back to our new place, luckily, there weren’t anymore traffic problems. Driving back, we go by this golf course and Bri mentions that she’ll probably meet her Mr. Right here; she’ll get hit with a golf ball as she is running by.

“Time to take up golf”, yeah no, that’s not what I said. That would be flirtatious, but instead, I mention about knowing someone who was hit with a golf ball and it was just bad times.

A few minutes later, we were back at our place. We start unloading and Bri starts out with her IKEA chair. Bri was finally glad to have her IKEA chair in one piece again. We move the rest of the stuff in. She decides to go back to her place to pick up more stuff and with her going back to her place; it was my job to organize. She left and I started to organize the TV stand – putting the TV in, hooking up the DVD player and putting all of our DVDs in the cabinets.

Bri came back for the last time for the night to drop off more items, including some canned food. I told her to leave it on the counter and I’ll store it for her. With her gone, I finished putting the DVDs away and then went back to the kitchen to unpack her food. After I was done, I was pretty proud of myself with how the kitchen is turning out. I stayed in the kitchen to clean and organized some more stuff. I ended up moving the microwave to a different corner of the kitchen. I’ll show the changes and moves I’ve made to Bri tomorrow and hopefully she’ll approve.

I hate moving

I am Joram and I hate moving. After moving some more boxes from my old apt, I find that I still have a bunch of crap to move. I did two trips today and I think I have one left which I’ll do tomorrow. I finally called up Comcast to cancel my subscription. I swear, I was an awesome customer – I’ve worked in customer service, so whenever I am a customer, I try to take it easy on the servicer. Anyway, I only have to pay six bucks and changes, turn over my cable modem tomorrow and I’ll be done with Comcast…for now.

Back to moving – I am close to being done to moving, so I started organizing the new place. With Bri not completely moved in, I wasn’t sure what else will be bringing over, so I am being conservative on taking up spaces in the kitchen. I did have to consolidate our spices in the cabinets, but I’m pretty sure she’ll be ok with that. Other than moving, unpacking and organizing is just as annoying.

I am not working this week

I am Joram and I am not working this week. I took the week off from work, so I could have less stress for the move, and because I had a lot of vacation hours that I was going to lose at the end of the year if I don’t use it. After getting ready, I went over to the old apt to move some more stuff. When I got to the old apartment, I was unfortunately distracted by the internet. I check my emails, and browse around the web for a bit, I even log on World of Warcraft for a few. After a while, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to move some of my stuff first or take a shower first. I decided I’m going to get sweaty moving and waited on the shower. I finally grab some things to load my truck. I then head back to the new apt. Stairs while moving sucks. Moving already had me tired, but unloading up and down the steps exhausted me. I decided to just chill out for a while. This while ended up a few hours. I would have kept lying on the love seat if Bri hadn’t called.

Bri called to let me know she was on her way to the new apt to unload a few things. She also notified me of the crappy news that cable/internet won’t be available at the new apt until the 4th (ACK!). Bri came over and dropped off some boxes. We then headed over to Target to pick up a shower curtain (hooray!). I’m pretty sure, she could tell, I hadn’t showered that day, sweaty, greasy face, matted hair, oh yeah, I was a sight. After picking up the new curtain, we installed it and I was ready to be clean once again. Bri went back to her old apt and I continued unpacking (the boxes I have moved).

I went to church

I am Joram and I went to church. I work up early this morning so that I could attend my nephew’s baptismal in Port Orchard. Sounds simple enough, but I am still in the middle of moving, so I had to do my morning routine through two different apartments.

I slept in the new apt, but that was the only thing I could do at my new apt. My breakfast was some leftovers, but the microwave was at the old apt. I could have taken a shower at my new apt, but my roommate and I have yet to purchase shower curtains. So when I woke up this morning, I grabbed the clothes and shoes I was going to wear at church and the leftovers in the fridge and headed to my old apt. There, things went well and I left around 8am and I the baptismal started at 10am – plenty of time. Since it was early in the morning on a Sunday, there was very few traffic. I was heading to my aunt’s in Port Orchard instead of my mom’s in Shelton, so on the way down, I had to keep reminding myself that I have to exit to a different highway. Thankfully, this part of the story has no mishaps – I take the right exit at Tacoma towards Port Orchard. I see the new Tacoma Bridge, nice, and I get to Port Orchard around 9am. There was still an hour to go until the ceremony.

I call my mom to see how close she was to my aunts. She tells me that she has barely started getting ready, and that my younger brother was still in bed. It’s been a while since I’ve commuted from Shelton to Port Orchard, but I knew she would be cutting it close if she wanted to be there by 10am. I question my mom about getting there on time and she tells me the ceremony isn’t until 11am. I was an hour off. Thankfully, my aunt was already up and had some extra breakfast food for me. I try to decline, but that does no good in the Filipino family. I sit down and join my cousin, John (Jaypete) for breakfast.

Jaypete is from Virginia, but he flew over to be the godfather of my nephew. His friend Ryan had joined him on the trip and from the stories he told me, he had a good time up in the Northwest. They went to Vancouver, BC, my other cousin, Neil (the one who was having his son baptized), showed them around Seattle and I guess even took them down to Rick’s in Lake City.

Tita and Tito, or any family members, if you are reading this, yeah, that’s what he told me, but leave him alone, he is 21. Sorry to snitch on you Jaypete.

Anyway, we finished breakfast and got ready for church, except me, I tried to get a few more minutes of sleep on the breakfast table. When it was time, we left for church. I joined my cousin in his rental, so we could take one less car. His friend, Ryan, gave me the front seat, ahh, I love Philippine traditions (respect your elders, even if they are just a few years older). We follow my aunt and get to church. My cousin, his wife, the baby (Tio), and the in-laws joins us in the parking lot. We head in, my cousins, with the baby, have to talk to the priest so they could be briefed on the ceremony. Meanwhile, I try looking for a place to seat and my aunt just shoves me towards the front – Ohh, reserved seating! Wow, I’ve never been this close to the alter during a ceremony. After getting seated, I quickly notice there’s no crucified Jesus in front. I check the ceremony sheet with songs and hymns I got at front and sure enough, it says Catholic Church. I let it go, and start thinking of all the little things I have to do at certain parts, like saying “amen”, or “and also with you”. I reminded my cousin that the last time I was at church was probably Christmas of 2005, while he was a regular attendee. I guess I’m just a bad Catholic.

Things get going, the priest does a little introduction to the two babies who are being baptized and walks to the altar. In the middle of the mass, the two babies are baptized, those babies had the most surprised look on their faces. I guess being tipped over and then having water poured over your forehead would make anyone get a, “what just happened” face. Everything so far is similar to other church ceremonies I go to, including the little saying that I don’t know about. YES, I don’t know Church. I don’t know the all the cues for the “amen” and whatnot. My ignorance really came about when the collections came around and a girl stood right next to me with a basket. I leaned over to my aunt to tell her I have absolutely zero cash. A good 10 seconds go by and the girl with the basket is still there standing next to me. I think, “OMG, they are getting pushy about getting some money”, then I realized, maybe I’m suppose to pass it down. I ask the girl if I’m suppose to pass it down and she nods. “Oh!” I grab the basket and pass it down the pew. My aunt shakes her head and says, “Someone hasn’t been to church”. It’s true, but I tell her that at the church I go to, the baskets have handles and the person in the aisle sticks that through the people, there’s no basket passing. Fortunately I managed to wing the rest of the ceremony including going up to the priest to eat the body of Christ. Oh yeah, I at Christ. I skip out on his blood (wine) and go back to my seat. Now normally, there would be some kneeling for some praying, but this church or our seats, didn’t have the little pads on the ground to kneel on. I stay standing, like the rest of the crowd, but I get tired and sit down. Me and Ryan and maybe three others are the only ones seating (2 were disabled!). Towards the end of the Christ eating, there has to be a term for this, I stand back up and that was the time everyone sat down. I really don’t know Church. The mass ends and we head out to regroup with everyone.

Throughout the morning, except at church, I was keeping my eye on the clock. I wanted to get back up in Seattle and continue moving and probably help Bri move also. As I was pacing at the front of church as we were waiting for all the family members, Bri calls me.

“Dude, where are you at?”
“Umm, in Port Orchard”
“What?!”

Bri continued and asked me if I had moved in and that her dad was going to help for a bit to move in.
“Your dad?”
If memory serves me correctly, she and her dad weren’t in the best relationship. Anyway, I told her that I had moved the big items already and I just have a bunch of boxes and little things to move over. She hears the commotion in the background and I tell her that I was heading to lunch with my family, but I planned on heading back up to Seattle afterwards. She tells me to just give her a call when I got back into town.


I had originally planned on being back up in Seattle to move the rest of my stuff and help Bri move some of her larger items, but my cousin Neil got to me. After lunch, he comes to me and asked me what I’m doing and why aren’t I hanging out with the family more. He used the “family” card. With that I decided, we hardly see each other. I saw my cousin Neil about 18 months ago, maybe more and my cousin Jaypete, hmmm, Nov 20, 2004 – ahh, yes, Grand Master Flash Night.
Agreeing that we never see each other, I decide to join them for the rest of the afternoon. I say afternoon, thinking I would still get back in Seattle probably around 6pm. We went bowling and had some laughs. Bowling lasted until ~630, and then we went back to my aunts and had dinner. That was some more fun times. I finally left Port Orchard ~745 and I went straight to the new apt. I was sweaty and disgusting from the long day, but once again, there was still no shower curtain, so that would have to wait.