Here I Am

This morning I got a text message from a friend:

I saw you in my dreams last night...
weird that i wake up and see that you had called

The phrasing was almost poetic. But stranger still is that this is the 2nd time recently that someone has dreamt of me. I'm always intrigued to find out what my appearances in other peoples' dreams are like. Am I like myself? Totally different?

When people tell me they were talking to me in a dream, or we were walking along a beach, or robbing a pet store, it almost feels like I was there. Some non-corporeal part of me just dropped in to say hello; make an appearance.

Yes, we're all concerned about gas prices reaching $3 a gallon, but today I'd like to write about something we should all be much more concerned about.

We can all live without gas. Those of us who plan on being around for the next 70 or so years might even have to. One thing we as humans can't survive without, is clean, drinkable water.

I, personally, am disturbed and outraged that bottled water prices are now up to $7.50 per gallon. Aquafina, the most populer bottled water, sells for about a dollar a bottle, and it takes 7 and a half of these 500mL bottles to make a gallon.

PepsiCo is making a fortune off of thirsty consumers. Someone must stop these billionaires from further lining their pockets!! Before it's too late. Perhaps our government should impose fines or taxes. Or perhaps subsidize water prices.

And!!!! To make matters worse. I was at Disney world, and their vending machine charged me $2.50 for one bottle of water. That is a whopping $18.75 a gallon. Price Gouging!!!

OK, Enough Silliness, read the rest here.

So, I found a car today while doing some internet shopping at dealerships in in St. Petersburg. Well, I found several cars, but have recieved emails from the dealership that they have been sold. But not the one I want.

OK, I should possibly give some background info. My first car was pretty much a piece of junk. I bought it myself, and didn't have it for too long. It was a Ford Escort, named Christina, after some lyrics in a Christina Aguilera song. It's a long story, but here's a summary:

I'm a genie in a bottle baby,
Gotta rub me the right way, honey.

Yeah, Christina had to be rubbed the right way.

So, then there was school. I didn't have a car while I was in school. When I graduated, my dad gave me my current car. A '94 Toyota Corolla, which was in very good shape, as my dad is great with cars, and did a lot of the work on it himself. Anyways, a week after I got it, I was on my way to school to help a friend, and this giant truck randomly backed up onto my hood while we were at a stop light on Smithfield St.

The Corolla was never a car that looked particularly nice because of that accident. Yes, I could've gotten my car repaired, but at the time, it wasn't that important to me. Now it has other problems that any of you who know me are aware of.

One other thing that I should add: I DO NOT like domestic cars. There are many reasons for this. Did anyone ever notice how the only hybrid made by an American company is an SUV???!!!

So, I realize it's been over a week since I've made a personal update on here. I've posted some articles that I had done work on previously, but never finished. Until now. So, check them out.

So, last time I posted was last Wednesday. I was supposed to hang out with Chris, but it got late, and I fell asleep.

Thursday was 4/20, so I, um, well... You know. And then went to Alibi, where I had a less than fun time. I came home kind of early, smoked, then went to bed.

On Sunday, my friend Robert was on Hogan Knows Best. He told me to watch it, so I huddled in front of my roommate's TV (I got rid of mine a while ago since I never watched it ) and tuned in. It was really surreal to see someone I knew on TV interacting with someone famous...

"I aim to be a competitive nation."—San Jose, Calif., April 21, 2006"

Out of the rubbles of Trent Lott's house—he's lost his entire house—there's going to be a fantastic house. And I'm looking forward to sitting on the porch." —Mobile, Ala., Sept. 2, 2005

"I'm looking forward to a good night's sleep on the soil of a friend."—On the prospect of visiting Denmark, Washington D.C., June 29, 2005

Marriage for all, or Marriage for no one. You decide...

Let's think about this rationally. Rather than ban gay marriage, it makes more sense to leave such a silly thing as holy matrimony to the church. And the church alone.

We won't have to vote on whether or not gay people should be able to marry each other. Some guy with a white robe and a big hat can decide for us. Well, you, since I'm not catholic. Then gay people can go to, say, a unitarian church, and get married. Everyone's happy. Well, except for that one gay guy who was raised baptist and always dreamed of getting married in the same church his parents did. But he'll just have to deal.

So, this might sound like a strange and confusing concept. But what business does the government have in sanctioning the marriage practices of a religious sect, while shunning the churches that will marry gays.

Should the constitution be ammended to include discrimination against gays? No!

Your marriage should be sanctioned by your church, and recognized in the eyes of your god. Just not by the U.S. government. Want to get married to your spouse legally? Move to Canada. I hear they do that there.

With all the hype about banning gay marriage, several changes have been made to laws across the country degrading marriage for everyone. In texas, broad legislation has been approved (known as proposition 2) that could ban all marriage in the state. The wording of the ammendment: the state can't recognize any union "identical or similar to marriage." So... marriage is similar to marriage, in fact, it's identical to it as well.

In Oregon, Benton County has banned all marriage until the state can decide who can and can't marry.

Virginia's governor recently declined to sign an ammendment to the state's constitution banning same-sex marriage. The state already does not allow same-sex marriage.

I recently became aware of the Hubbert Peak Theory and wanted to know more about it. I have been reading numerous articles and doing some research about the issues that I have found. Open this window, and minimize it, forget about it until you finish this article.

The Hubbert Peak, or Peak Oil was proposed in 1956. It predicted that US oil production would peak between 1965 and 1970. That happened in 1971. It predicted that world oil production would peak in 2000.

In the spring of 2004, according to the Association for the Study of Peak Oil & Gas (ASPO), global production of conventional oil peaked at a rate of 23 Billion Barrels a Day. After the loss of Gulf of Mexico oil rigs following Katrina, Saudi Arabia admitted that it could not increase production.

The Energy Curve of Histoy

So, I woke up on Monday feeling icky, so I stayed at home.

Shane came home early from work, as his Dad had died. He actually wasn't doing too well as of Sunday night, so I guess it wasn't totally unexpected.

Well, I hung out with Kevin for a bit on Monday evening. Yesterday I became addicted to Buffy: Chaos Bleeds for a couple hours after work. Brandon came over to hang out with Walt, and we all watched Buffy Season 5. So yeah, lots of Buffy yesterday.

Earlier, on my lunch break, I talked to Chris. He has today off, and we may do something later on.

I had a pretty good weekend. I ended up staying in on Thursday, thus avoiding a Long Island Hangover on Friday. I was still kind of unrested on Friday though. So, Brandon wanted to go to Chambers on Friday, and Walt asked me to come along.

After work I went for a haircut, then back to the house to shower and dress for the evening. I was under the impression that we would leave a little after 9 to get there before 10. No one wanted to pay the cover, and Walt was driving. However, for some strange reason, we didn't go until much later on.

When Shane and I first came to David's bar for a drink after arriving, he made us both our drinks without us even having to order them. I had a couple drinks, got a nice buzz, which is necessary for me to stand that place.

Brandon brought his friend, Josh, with him, who didn't want to dance. I didn't really feel like it either, so I talked to him for a while.

Walt was ready to leave, and I was too. It was still somewhat early. So, we gathered everyone up and left. Back to Swaying Palms for the evening. Josh had gotten sick in Brandon's car on the way back. The rest of us had another drink and hung out on the deck.

On Saturday evening, I was gonna hang out with Chris. I was under the impression that he was gonna come over and spend the night; he had said that since he had Sunday off, Saturday would be a good day for him to do something. So, we actually only ended up hanging out for a couple hours on Saturday night at Starbucks. It was still fun though.

After I left Starbucks, I came back to the house and tried to find something to do. Robert had text messaged me and said he was at Suncoast. In the meantime, Justin had IM'd me to see what I was doing. He was all about going to Suncoast, so he said he was on his way to pick Shane and I up.

We went out to Suncoast, had a drink, it was boring. Didn't see Robert anywhere, he text messaged me again and said that they were at Grand Central. So Justin wanted to go there. We did. It was fun. Both Robert and Patrick were there.

I just got back from my lunch break, and I am so tired. I ate, and somehow all of my energy drained out of me. lol

I was up pretty late last night watching King Kong, which was a pretty good movie. Walt wants to be Kong for Halloween now. With a little miniature city around him at all times.

I think I am going to go to Alibi this evening. Or not. It could change. I also got approved for a car loan today. Yay. So, I'll be doing the car shopping thing this weekend, with Shane. It should be interesting. It'll be good because I can get an idea of what I'm looking for.

Well, I had an interesting weekend.

I had a kind of bad day on Friday, I was upset about an email that had been sent the previous evening. Shortly after I got home from work, it was resolved, though it did put a damper on my day.

I talked to Chris on the phone after work. He was also just coming home from work. So, he asked if I wanted to do something. I did. So, we planned on meeting at Starbucks. He actually fell asleep while I was in the shower, so I waited for him to call me, then called him and left a message. Finally, he called and got me on the phone. I guess he called a bunch of times and got a message that all circuits were busy. Cingular, raising the bar, my ass!

We met at Starbucks and hung out there for a couple hours actually. I kinda thought that we were only gonna hang out for a little while, but then he asked if I wanted to hang out and watch a movie. I did. We left Starbucks and he drove to my house. I stopped at a gas station to buy some beer and cigarettes.

We finally got to watch some Robot Chicken. Walt had it with him on Wednesday when I wanted to watch it with Chris. It is such a random and amusing show. We cuddled and made out, and then eventually went to sleep. Chris had to wake up early and go to work.

I slept in a little bit and then woke up. Shane and Walt were in the yard doing some work, cleaning or something. I went immediately to the new deck, smoked a cigarette and took a wonderful shower. I love that whole area. It really turned out nice.

Then, we all smoked on the deck and planned what we were gonna do. Shane and I wanted to paint. Mike was not around, and I was kind of mad about that, because he had said that he would buy a piece of furniture for the bathroom sink and also hook up the dish washer. I texted him to see if we had any paint. We had a very small amount, and Shane couldn't find any paint roller things. Walter also wanted Mike to move things out of his room so he could get a little better settled in...

So, I gathered up a lot of the dirty dishes from around the house and cleaned out 2 large coolers. I filled one up with hot soapy water, put it in the shower, and started doing dishes, or bathing the dishes, as I got quite wet while trying to rinse off dishes with a shower head.

Mike came home and hooked up the dishwasher as I finished the dishes that I had started. Then Shane and Mike went to Ace Hardware while the dishwasher ran. I was doing laundry also, and was surprised to see a river of water gushing across the floor. I found the source of the flooding- the drain to the sink is right next to the dishwasher, and since we don't have a sink... Yeah, it was open. So, I placed a bucket in front of the drain to catch leakage and mopped for quite a while.

After Shane and Mike got back, Shane and I painted the office and bathroom. We primed the office and bathroom. They look so much more finished after that. Mike hung up lights in the kitchen.

So, none of us really felt like going out, so Shane made Martini's and we hung out and watched Robot Chicken. Around 2, I got a call from an unknown number. Anyone who knows me I don't answer phone calls from unknown numbers, so I clicked the phone open and then closed again. A little while later, I had gone downstairs for a cigarette. While I was down there, I was preparing a new batch of chocolate martini goodness.

My phone rang again. I answered and no one was there. Well, someone was there, breathing all heavy. So I asked who it was, no answer... just the breathing. So, I was like, fuck this, I put the phone on top of the fridge, turned on the stereo (one of the speakers is on top of the fridge), made my martini, went outside, had a cigarette.

OK, so, anyone with the wrong number, or someone who tried to fuck with me would've hung up. No, the phone was still on. I should've just turned it off completely.

It was Matt. After a couple more minutes of him speaking in Spanish and French, he said hello and started talking. I haven't heard his voice since September. He had called me a couple days after Bob died. I was sorry that he called me to create drama. Like I said, I haven't talked to him or seen him in ages. He just wanted to be an asshole. He wanted to brag about himself, put me down and call me names. He kept bringing up Joe, and accusing me of talking to him, and things that happened between Matt and I over a year ago. It just made no sense.

He kept lying to me, or telling me blatanly contradictory things. He graduated with a 4 year degree (yet he just turned 20), I was the last person he slept with (though his boyfriend is so hot, and has such a big dick), he doesn't read my blog (but he knows a hell of a lot about my life).

Honestly, I don't feel like he has any right to judge what I have or haven't done. He hasn't been around. By his choice. And everytime he does something fucked up like this shit, he makes me aforget a little bit more of why I cared for him in the first place, his good qualities.

He admitted to calling me several times over the past week. I just hope that he doesn't call me again.

Quite some time ago, I stopped thinking of people as good or bad, and just try to just see them as people. People with their own issues, pain and fears. When I was 20, I had been with Joe for almost 2 years. We broke up shortly after I turned 21. I went through a lot of the same things with Joe. I hated him for a long time, yet desperately wanted to keep in touch with him. I stopped talking to Walter, one of our mutual friends, for a long time. Time heals a lot of wounds, but some of them you have to live with. Maybe it's how you deal with them that defines who you are...

Eventually I started talking to Joe again, and unfortunately, when he moved down here, it felt like some of the old spark was still there. As I was trying to grasp what was going on between us, what I was to Joe, I met Matt. If Matt ever did anything for me, he got me over Joe. I was crazy about you, Matt.

This is kind of directed towards him at this point, so... Apologies to everyone else who's probably bored to tears.

You can hate me as much as you want, but don't think you know me. Go ahead and read my blog, you can find out what I write, what I do. But you do not know who I am... I don't think you ever did.

Regardless, after the phone conversation, I went upstairs and was sitting by the iMac, talking to Walter, explaining what had just happened. I heard the familiar pop sound of iChat and vanquished my screen saver. With impecable timing, Chris had said hello, and said something that immediately made me feel better. I didn't finish telling Walter what had just happened. I no longer cared.

So, I had a date with Chris last night. It went well.

I was able to go home after work and take a shower and get ready (this has been an issue lately... water has been sporadically turned off so plumbing can be worked on in the house...). I called him and we decided to meet at Dish, in Baywalk. I'd never been there, but I've heard good things about it. Chris said he hadn't been there in a while.

We met at Dish, which was pretty interesting. You pick out your own food and then the chef cooks it on a giant round grill in the center of the restaurant. The food was really good and both of us were pretty hungry. Afterwards, we went and got tickets to see Ice Age 2, and then got some coffee at Starbucks.

Ice Age was pretty funny, and Chris and I cuddled in the back row of the theatre. Afterwards, we went back to Swaying Palms and listened to Goldfrapp, made out (hehe) and then made some ghetto mixed drinks and watched Family Guy. Walter had taken the Robot Chicken DVD with him...