Since I’ve started living alone, I cannot tell you how many nights* I’ve spent not wearing pants.  I say this because that number would be embarrassingly high in numerical value.  

- Also: weekends. 

During that time, I’ve spent an also embarrassingly large chunk of time playing Warcraft 3 (the best Warcraft game!) & watching TV series, ‘mini-marathons’ at a time. 

I’m pretty sure there’s something wrong with that, so I’m trying my best to keep this to a minimum by being more active.  Fortunately for me, there’s a good chunk of stuff going on in the summer!  (Summer concerts, etc.) 

I think now I finally understand the challenges of moving to a new city – and living alone, of course.  It’s not that you can’t find anything to do (you can always go out & see a movie), but it’s finding the motivation to leave your house that’s difficult.    

Funny – I always thought of myself as an independent person who doesn’t get lonely.  But I guess I have to re-evaluate that statement. 

Anyway – I’ve been wondering whether or not I should just shut down this Xanga.  I hardly post on here due to being over-worked & not being inspired to write, but I don’t want the posts I’ve written to just be deleted.  Instead, I’ve made a resolution to (hand)write for at least an hour 30 minutes on the nights of the week I stay home: mostly Monday, Tuesdays, & Wednesdays – in hopes of getting my blogging creativity back (and maybe moreso).  I just started last night & started debating the actual professional benefits of social *networking*.  The most I’ve actually used sites like Facebook & Twitter for is scheduling & stalking celebrities. 

And jokes.  Gotta love joke accounts. 

I also read this article about our consumption of media & it just reinforced my desire to ‘get out of the house more. 

But getting back to what I wanted to mention about this blog – I won’t be shutting it down, but I probably won’t be as structured in my formatting like I was for a good 2 years or so ~ prepare for a lot of aimless ‘ramblings’ and rants.     

*“nights” are defined as ‘time spent inside apartment since coming home from work. 

Something really strange happened to me the other night at a Swing-dancing venue I go to all the time & I just wanted to blog it down for records. 

So I stayed out till about 11pm that night.  As the night was winding down & I was getting ready to leave, I heard some guy shouting over the music as loud as he could to the girl (a friend of mine) he was standing next to. 

I had seen the guy around before, but didn’t know his name. He was really loud, so he caught my attention, but I didn’t think much of it because he started talking normally to her a second later.  I figured he must’ve been telling some awkward joke about how loud the music was (we were right next to the speakers) and how difficult it was to have a conversation. 

But then he did it again…..and again.  

At first I figured my friend would simply excuse herself and walk away – it’s a pretty common thing follows (ladies) do when they don’t feel like talking to a guy – but she didn’t, so I thought maybe she was fine. 

Then I saw the guy was holding her arm & she was starting to cry.  I took that as my cue to cut-in and excuse us both (me and my friend), escorting her to the lobby.  I left her with some of her other friends & went back to see if the guy was still out there.  Meanwhile, another friend of mine who had also seen the whole thing went to find someone from the staff. 

I saw him following a couple of other people I knew – again, shouting – so I tried to ‘run interference’ with him as they left.  He eventually started bothering me, getting in my way as I was trying to walk past him, until I asked him to move. 

“Would you please move?” I said. 
 "What?  I can’t hear you.”
“You’re blocking my way.  Can you please move?” 
“Sure.  Go right ahead.” 

One of the staff members soon pulled him aside.  I found my friend (who was still crying) and asked if she was okay.  We could hear the guy screaming a few sentences here & there (didn’t listen that hard though, cuz I never figured out what he was yelling) so someone offered to walk her back to her car so she could leave. 

The staff asked guy to leave shortly afterwards.  It took a while, but then he did…

…and then he came back. 

It was then that other people realized something was up and more members of the staff / other guys started stepping in case there was trouble.  This was around midnight and I really just wanted to go to bed at that point.  The last thing I saw before I headed home was the guy literally jumping up-and-down, throwing a tantrum as if he were a little kid – again, screaming. 

Texted a few people who stayed behind to see if they were all okay.  Someone mentioned that they found out the guy suffered a head injury from a while back which I guess might've explained his behavior.  

I relayed this story to a few people &…..I think I’m telling it wrong or something, because - when I tell it, the reactions I get are really weird.  It makes me feel like….I dunno, I’m doing something wrong by saying all this? 

I dunno.  Just needed to get it out there. 

I’m losing inspiration to blog about ideas or ‘new experiences’ that happen to me because a lot’s been happening that’s either been pretty ‘ho-hum’ or more just a bunch of whining that I’d rather not tarnish this place with.  But now that things are looking up, I thought I’d give a few life updates about what’s been going on: 

TOP STORY:  New apartment (again):  Living on my own. 
Our top story for the day is the recent move into my own place that occurred this weekend.  3 months into living at my old place, I realized that I needed to move out of where I was currently staying.  Sources have confirmed that it was a rather uncomfortable situation during my six month lease & while I haven’t gone into details, I will say that renting a room is not an ideal situation for someone like myself; there was an uneasy tension of ‘me touching THEIR stuff’ that I did not feel with previous roommates.  This caused a lot of stress that was affecting my health (produced a lot of stress-related allergies) & and since the likelihood of finding another roommate that was either a friend (or a cool guy like Rob) was slim, I opted to move out into my own place.  

The move itself took a total of 2 hours (record time!) on Saturday & I am now happy to report that I am living comfortably in a one bedroom in Glendale, CA.  I hope this will be the last move. 

However, living alone comes with it’s own challenges: having previously lived with roommates all my life, I’ve found that I only own half of the necessary belongings needed to survive on my own. 

Those who wish to donate to my new independence are encouraged to leave comments below.  I am accepting dinnerware, glassware, lamps, & extra chairs.  They are much appreciated. 

TRAVEL:  Summer Trip to Des Moines, IA….and Seattle, WA? 
A vacation was deemed necessary this past month and, coupled with a promise to visit old friends, instigated a trip that is set to occur some time this summer.  I will be traveling to Des Moines, IA to visit college colleague, Dr. Maren – plant Biologist (or something).  Details at 11pm. 

News about a second vacation afterwards planned for Seattle, WA has yet to be confirmed.  Stay tuned for further updates! 

And in related news – my car’s “check engine” light has come on…..AGAIN. (4^th time so far this year!) 

I’ve noticed a general “pattern” amongst TV shows that I like to watch that I want to put out there on the internet in case anyone else has noticed it too.  Presumably, you all watch a lot of TV shows & can keep track of the different story arcs / seasons for each show and validate this theory enough for me. 

My theory is this: 

for any TV show popular enough to last at least 3 seasons, the 3^rd season is arguably the best
...…especially if the show is a ‘mid-season replacement.’ 

Think about the 3^rd season for Buffy The Vampire Slayer: this was the season that introduced Faith, brought back Angel, featured Seth Green as a main cast member, and where Buffy got to blow up Sunnydale high school at the Finale.  Sure, there were episodes like “Hush” and “the Body” in the seasons 4 & 5, but Season 3 was the best by comparison….by far.  

Or how about The Office Season 3?  That has got to be the strongest season of the show in it’s 8 year run: the finale of the Jim / Pam relationship drama, Jan’s mental Breakdown, the introduction of Andy Bernard, & the merger of the Scranton & Stamford Branches. 

Even Lost had it’s best run during season 3: the season that heavily featured “The Others,” showed how John Locke ended up in a wheel chair, and (spoiler alert!) basically moved the show forward after that awful 2nd season of theirs....!  

Of course, there are exceptions to every rule.  The Simpsons is obviously one (my favorite is Season 7) & shows like It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia & South Park tend to get better with every run. 

And then there are shows like How I Met Your Mother or Community that started off great, but got bad right around the 3^rd season….!  Season 2 of both these shows are thus their best - in case you were wondering.  

OTHER SHOWS THAT FOLLOW THE ‘RULE OF 3^RD SEASONS:’

• 3^rd Rock from the Sun
• Roseanne
• Futurama
• Arrested Development
• Fringe

CAN YOU GUYS THINK OF ANY OTHER SHOWS THAT FOLLOW ‘THE RULE OF 3^RD SEASONS’? 
ANY SHOWS THAT DON’T? 

As I mentioned previously, I wanted to do something big for my 30^th birthday.  So I called up some old friends (Amos & Rosa) to see if they’d welcome me on a road trip to visit in San Fran & Berkeley, CA! 

TRAVEL TIP – I prefer to travel only to places where my good friends live. That way, I always have a place to crash & a guide to show me around. 

So on Friday (took the day off from work), Amos & I took a 6 hour drive up the Interstate 5 (rather than the longer, but scenic, 101 Freeway) to Berkeley, where Rosa (his GF) lives. 

And I gotta say – I thought I would enjoy San Francisco, but Berkeley seemed like the far cooler town.  Sure there were a lot of ‘homeless hippies’ sitting on the streets & begging / playing songs for spare change, but there were just *so many* coffee shops & neat places to eat….! I’m not sure I can describe it, but I really liked what I saw there. 

Unfortunately, I seem to have lost what picture-taking abilities I had back in the day & have little to no pictures to show you of my trip. I think Rosa was our ‘official photographer’ of the trip & she has yet to share them with me.  Here are a few of the ones I personally took, so I can show you a couple of things I saw on my trip:

 Just a few pictures of the marvelous view of the Golden Gate Bridge.  We walked along it (back & forth) in the morning. Took us a good 2 hours to walk / see everything we wanted.  

There was also this really cool model of the bridge that Rosa played with for a bit (That's Amos in the background) 

 Here's another picture I took in a museum off Fisherman's Wharf. It housed nothing but old "arcade games" of the 'Love Tester' or 'Flea Circus' (where the model moves!) variety. I found an old "Fortune Teller" machine that I thought was pretty hilarious:

Got back Sunday night & came in to work the next day…..only to find this waiting for me! 

Apparently, my Boss found out my real age (I’d been telling her I was 60 for years!) & decided to make a big deal out of it while I was away. Everyone signed the giant card left on my desk & she brought out an enormous cake that afternoon.
 

People even sang to me! 

The “dust” has settled on most of my b-day festivities, but I am one of those people who likes to ‘stretch their birthday’ & still have a few more events to mark the occasion. 

This.....has probably been the best Birthday that I’ve celebrated so far. 

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My

heart

is

Full.

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I feel like Logan Lerman at the end of “Perks of Being a Wallflower”  (also one of my favorite books / movies).