It's actually pretty warm today at a high of 38F! Let's hope this warm weather lasts at least a week or so. I'm sort of getting tired of this cold weather. Dunno how accurate Accuweather can be, but the next 15 days says it's going to be high 30s and low 40s through the 3rd of January. That's great news, but I highly doubt (although I could be wrong) they can predict 15 days of weather.

PSHHHHH

I didn't realize that I hadn't written on here for 8 days! The drought it over. Yesterday was our little Christmas get together. It was just me, Laura, Ashely, and Chris. It was fun. Chris made dinner (most of it) and afterwards we traded gifts. I got two DVDs. I gave Chris a 2.1 speaker system and Ashley a Denver Zoo membership for a year. I still need to make Laura's, but I need to find the time to do it.

This week is going to be a long week and I already know because I work Mon-Thur this week because of the Christmas schedule. I have Friday off, and then Christmas Eve and Christmas Day...then I have 4 days off...then 2 on and then 4 off, I think.

I am, however, going to see if I can talk to the director of my cottage to see if I can get the Saturday shift taken off my contract hours...that day is just TOO long. 9pm-9pm is just killer. That is probably one of the worst shifts available, and yes, I'm new, but I ain't going to do that shift after this Christmas schedule. It's just killing me. My Wed-Fri shifts aren't too bad.

But yeah, that's all that's happened since the 11th. I think I am going to be playing World of Warcraft VERY soon. Probably after the 1st or so, I'll start playing...it's going to be addicting for sure.

Haven't heard much more about getting a house next year, but hopefully it'll happen so we can get a dog. That'd be soooo fun. I told Laura that after I get a dog, I'm going to try and go running consistently to get back in shape...(chances are that it won't happen, lol, but I'm going to try, maybe when it gets warmer)

Yeah, there was one or two nights a couple of weeks ago where the low was 30F-40F below 0...WTF is up with that!!! My car had trouble starting in the morning and late nights. I had to like keep my pedal depressed for a couple of minutes while the engine warmed up. I hope that's not a taste of what's to come, because that would suck.

So yeah, if I don't write for the next few days, it's because I'm working and I'm tired, so I'm sleeping. I will try and write Friday, though, since I have it off. I think I'm going to finish up my friend Allen's website soon too.

Check it out so far at: http://www.axiomcode.com

Over the next few days we'll be putting up the bios and history of his company too.

But that's all for now. I'm going to take a shower, perhaps get a bite to eat and then head to work!

Well it's Sunday and I said I would write so here I am.

Last night was crazy at work. I guess it's just it being the 4th day and it was a long 12-hour day. I had to grab a kid and put him on the ground since he was pissed at another and going after him. Not a restraint, though (I don't want to do the paperwork!) Anyway, this is my 401st post! That's so many I can't believe I've written that many.

Anyway, this year was another crazy year as ever before. It all started in the Spring, with my FINALLY finishing up my college degree. I remember when I was worried about finding a place to work and such. Ashley and TJ were still together and Chris was whining about no girlfriend (something that is actually better right now, haha). Um, yeah, TJ and I hung out quite a bit before he left for the Virgin Islands, since Laura was with her sister most of the summer. That was fun.

The next big thing was me moving to Laramie, which actually turned out not bad at all. I actually like it here, so that's a good thing. Then Ashley started going out with Chris and Chris got a girlfriend (OMG!). TJ came back from the islands early and is now in Iowa. So yeah, things are moving quite briskly through life.

The good thing is that I (and we) should be grateful for (greatful?) is that at least all our friends are still talking, with the exception of Chris and TJ, but he never really talked to him anyway. Being away from each other is hard, especially when trying to keep in touch since we're all busy, but yeah. That's what a phone is for, although I don't use it a lot!

So again, this year was a big year and the first step toward the next stage of life. I think the coming year is going to be bigger than this year. The good thing is that I think, as far as I know, we are all happy to some extent or getting there.

I guess this wasn't as long as I expected. I skipped a lot of details and certain events, but you really don't need to read that. I'm listening to the new O.A.R. album while I write this. It's pretty good. 6-7/12 songs are really good. I burned a few copies for everyone, but I've yet to send them out. I need TJ's new address too. *cough, cough*. I need to call him though.

Tonight we're headed to go see the Chronicles of Narnia. We went yesterday, but it was sold out. We didn't expect that, but it was. It's like the smallest theater and sells out in like 100 seats. Anyway, we got tickets for tonight, so we're going to get there early. We're going to get dinner beforehand as well.

But yeah, I'll probably write more before the year is really over.

Laters.

I'll be doing my annual reflections on Sunday since that's my day off. Tomorrow is a loooong day, however, but the cool thing is that I'll try and get off earlier than 9...maybe like 8:45, to go see Chronicles of Narnia since it came out tonight. Hopefully it's not crowded.

Other than that, I sort of had to restrain a kid today (not a big deal really), but yeah. Good night...still better than Wednesday!

Just a quick little blog before I head into work. Last night was crazy! Everyone, except a couple of kids, were acting up and two got into a fight in the gym...and I was the one supervising! lol. I actually didn't see it until I turned around and one was on the floor and another staff pulled one away. Crazy kids I tell you.

What else? I don't know. I've been sleeping way more for some reason the last couple of days. Now that I'm back to my regular sleep cycle, I thought it would be 7-8 hours, but last night I slept 11 hours! Maybe my body is trying to catch up from the overnights...I don't know. At least I wasn't tired at all at work until the very end though. We'll give it a couple of more days or so.

I think I'll make my next blog the "reflections of 2005" blog, like I always do at the end of the year. There's a few weeks left and some big events coming up, but I can talk about that in early January.

Laters!

Holy hell it's cold! I just checked the temperatures and with the wind chill it's like 20 below...WTF!!!! My pee just might free in this temperature.

Tomorrow starts my looooong 40-hour work week, but it's nice to be in a regular schedule again (somewhat). I work until 11pm or 12am most nights. Not bad. Hopefully Laura and I can find time to hang out!

Woot! More good news, and some bad. The good news? I got contracted to work at one of the boys cottages full-time starting this week! Good deal huh? The bad news is that I work Wed-Sat, so Laura and I can't go see The Chronicles of Narnia anymore...I'm mad about that, because it would have been fun to go see it and get sushi and spend the night at a hotel and stuff...oh well...hopefully there will be other opportunities.

That's the only thing to report really...a few more blogs until my 400th! Yup.

I can't believe it's already the 4th! I'm excited about this coming Friday. Why? Because we bought tickets for the Chronicles of Narnia at 4:45pm in Fort Collins. We're going to head down there, hopefully get a place to stay so we don't have to drive back and yeah. Should be fun.

Gonna play some Halo tonight with some people. A 3v3 from what I hear.

We've been trying to get some awesome prices on Priceline's bid thing on hotels for Friday. So far we've failed, but we'll keep trying. We're thinking the night before we might have some more luck.

Anyway, I gotta get ready, so I'll catch you later!

A couple of things today!

First of all, happy 4-year anniversary to Laura. I can't believe it's been that long, but yeah, it's 4 years.

Second, I forgot to write about my Phantom of the Opera experience last Saturday. Overal it was good. The 1st half wasn't as good as the second, I really liked the second, but it was good nonetheless. There was an idiot, big head in front of me and his wife or whatever that *THING* was next to him had an ass 10x the size of his head. But like I said, it was good, but nothing I would see again. I might catch the movie version or something. I'm not much of an opera guy I've decided, but some of the songs I did like...is opera called songs? For some reason aria keeps coming to mind. Anyway, it was fun!

So 2 more days until you know what. If you don't, well, too bad and you can try to figure it out. ;)

I've been fiddling with the layout of the blog the last couple of weeks. I think I like it better now. I like the diagonal lines in the background. Subtle, yet noticeable...sort of.

Work's been good. Overnights aren't getting as hard. My friend Allen's been really into Halo and just last night he wants me to help him with a website. I was like, ok, I have fun doing it, so.

It's been so cold lately. The wind is just killer. It's not THAT bad without the wind, but with it, I would rather die. Really. Among other news, we received Chris'...well, his parents' invitation to his graduation. Hopefully I don't have to work, but oh well, not a big deal, at least for me. Other than that, I haven't had time to talk to anyone really. Been sleeping during the day, hanging out with Laura for the little time I have each day. I have the next 3 days off, so that's good, unless another cottage calls me to work, but I hope not, haha.

My csuconnection.com website is doing good, actually. My site's Alexa ranking (popularity on the internet) is like, 220,000...that's damn good I think considering there are over 16+ million websites out there. The statistics say I reach ~10 per million every day. Woohoo!

I took off the videos from my site for now since it was using too much bandwidth, but I'll get those up. I REALLY want to make a commercial website, like have commercial clips from TV and stuff. That'd be funny, but I need to get a new computer with a TV tuner and stuff to do it. No money right now. I have to pay off my loans and then another big expense will be underway most likely.

Oh well, I might be started on some cooking now. Tyler Florence on the Food Network was making this awesome artichoke/sausage dish that just looked awesome. I don't know how it tastes, but it can't possible taste bad!

It's officially "Christmas season" I would say. I can't wait to get the few DVDs that I ordered from my bro's friend in Paramount/Disney. That brings me to the topic that those DVDs, coupled with Laura's that she's probably getting for Christmas, will overwhelm our DVD rack. Doh! Don't know what to do.

Been playing Halo with a new friend at work. It's pretty fun. The FUNNY thing is, that he's black and his friends are too. Lol. They're all street fighters and stuff, fighting with sticks, knives and stuff around the country...scary, but they're nice, but if anyone fucks with me, I'll send them off, haha.

But yeah, the weather's been mucho cold lately and the winds aren't helping. It's like 20s, but with the wind it's like in the single digits. Cold, cold, cold.

I work overnight tonight...I slept overnight last night and not sure if I should have done that. Although, it's only a 6-hour shift, so yeah, it shouldn't be too bad if I take a nap this afternoon.

That's it for now.

This blog is for TJ. Sorry I haven't answered the phone in a few days/the couple of times you've called. I've been either working or sleeping, but I have the next few days off, so I'll try and give you a call then. Thanks for the reference check...if I get fired, I'll blame it on you! Haha.

Anyway, hope you had a good Thanksgiving if you celebrate it. I can't remember if you do, but yeah, talk to you soon.

Ok, as I sit here and listen to some Carbon Leaf, I'm going to make a milestone blog.

What milestone? Well, today is the, not 1, not 2, but 4 year anniversary since I started this thing called blogging. Back then, blogging was sort of new. Not anymore, but that's a tangent.

Anyway, wow, 4 years ago. SOOOO much has happened in 4 years that it's really hard to even think about it. I can put it in a list, but that would take a long time. Haha, just now the song from Rent came into my head. 525,600 minutes in a year...that means over 2 million minutes has passed. That's crazy.

Here are some big events during these years:

1. Got kicked out of CSU ;)
2. *something* made me shape up at FRCC
3. 12/1/01 - Laura and I officially start dating
4. The Rod/Derek/etc. fall out
5. Ben/Chris/roommate fall out
6. Ashley/TJ stuff
7. Camp stuff
8. Alaska internship (whoa, big jump in time!)
...um, I don't want to write anymore, lol.

I guess not much happened between, oh 2003 and 2004, but I can't even think about it it's so far back. Think about it, I was 19 still...a teenager! I had a lot of problems going on late 2001/early 2002. Turned out for the better, though.

Lots of stuff has happened, like I said, but then again, lots of stuff has still stayed the same.

I think I've been pretty good in the blog thing. I'm pretty sure that I lost a good amount of blogs like from 2003, June-October or something, but not counting those, I have around just under 400 blogs. That's about 1 every 4 days. That's amazing! This is so much better than a journal, you know? You know I would never write that much out, and some of these are long!

But looking back, I don't think I regret anything from when I was 19. Things happen for a reason you know. Have I grown up? Lol, I would like to think so. I think I'm definitely more responsible. One thing that I would have liked to do is to have started bloggin when I started college. That would be a better starting point. Oh well.

Sometimes it's hard to think where I've lived:

Fall 2000/Spring 2001 - Dorms w/ Chris
Fall 2001/Spring 2002 - Chris' house with Ben
Fall 2002/Spring 2003 - Sumac house with Laura and Ashley
Fall 2003/Spring 2004 - Collins West with Laura
Fall 2004/Spring 2005 - Chris' house with just Chris
Fall 2005 - Laramie with Laura.

That reminds me, the big ordeal with Chris telling Ben to leave. Wow, I remember that night pretty good. I think Ben and I are still in good terms, though I haven't seen him in a while. I should call him or something. I think Remi is done after the Spring semester, so before then. He will probably move out to Seattle or something. At least wherever Remi goes for sure.

But anyway, I have to admit, it was fun back then. Smoking up (lol), hanging out with Rod/Derek/etc...through all the things that's happened, they were pretty good friends. They really were.

Another interesting thing that I could do is look through the e-mails that I have from back then. I have this weird habit of saving ALL my important correspondence e-mails from friends, family, etc. My earliest saved e-mail is from like Oct/Nov of 2001 I believe. It's interesting to see how Laura and I talked and stuff like that. We talk A LOT different now. It's a weird change. We were like, sort of giving attitudes to each other via e-mail. Haha.

I should put all these things, including this blog in time capsule or something. I've always wanted to create a time capsule, but I never knew where to bury it. I mean, what if a building was built above it? I don't know.

Well, what now? The next 4 years? 10 years? 20 years? Will I be blogging then as well? Who knows. I very well may be. I think the next few years will be a lot more change-ridden then the last, if you get my drift. My life is starting to become just that, a real life. College days are like, you know, having fun, working jobs, and just eeking through. The next few years will really get you thinking I think. Hardships will follow for sure, but then the rewards are that much better I think.

I can't wait to get started on my life. I really can't. I love Laura so much and I am lucky to have to her love me back the same. Sometimes things are hard, like school, bills, etc., but it's good that we're there for each other.

I'm grateful, as well, for all the support that I've gotten from friends and sort of family (mostly my Mom since I don't really talk with any others, maybe my brother more recently these past few months).

Here's to the next stage in my, and everyone else's, life. Let's not try to regret a single thing that we've done. Just keep in mind that stuff happens for a reason, even if you might not think it. It could be for better or for worse, but in the end you'll be a more *complete* person, if you get what I mean. Let's all try and have the opportunity to experience all that life has to give us.

So I just had to write this. I've been watching the All Star Thanksgiving on the Food Network and man, I CANNOT stand Paula Deen...I had it on while I was playing Halo and her Thanksgiving special came on...my god!!!!!!! I just about broke my TV because I couldn't stand it. I don't know why. Maybe it's her attitude. Maybe it's her accent. Maybe I just don't like her??? I really wish they would discontinue her show...I would rather watch Emerial Live over this show. And that's saying a lot.

It's 10:42 and it's time to stay up until the wee hours of the morning. Why? Because that's my new schedule. Sleep during the day so I can do overnights without falling asleep! Last night we good. I don't think it'll be a problem. Now to get other shifts.

Got an iTunes gift card from my bro. I'll have to look around and see what kind of new albums are out and stuff. I haven't been really keeping up with the latest music and stuff. I need to do that.

This is pretty short, I don't have much else to write, so. See ya later!

I think this is my first blog from Laura's new computer. I really like the way text appears on this laptop. It's really, well, smooth.

Laura is having fun I think on her trip to D.C. She was a little scared of the subway, and who wouldn't since D.C. is such a crime ridden place. :) Anyway, I think she gets back tomorrow and she's going to stay in Denver until next week. I'll be going down there (what a looooong drive!) on Friday and spending the night and Saturday is Phantom of the Opera time. Should be fun since I've never seen it before.

What else. I stayed up until around 4 am today so I can sleep most of the day (I woke up at 2pm actually) so I can be ready for my overnight shift tonight, beginning at 12am until 10pm. It's a long day! Yeah, I think I might actually take another nap because another hour or two would be better than none. I don't want to be yawning all day. I just hope the suicidal girl doesn't run away or kill herself. lol.

The Christmas season is starting to bloom. I sense it everywhere. Grocery stores, commercials, shows. They're all Christmas themed. It's pretty cold out right now, it snowed a bit last night, so. Not at all today though.

I'll end it right here. I'm going to see if I can sleep after a bit of Halo.

:)

I thought I'd do a quick post. Today while I was visiting my cottage and getting off work, I look outside and see the best sunset I've seen yet here in Laramie. It was the most purple-rich sky I've ever seen. It was crazy. I was inside and I wanted to go out to see it but I couldn't. I think tomorrow I'm going to head out there and take a few snapshots and post it. It was just awesome. Sort of gave me the feeling that living here isn't so bad. ;)

I have some time before I head to bed and get some stuff done online. Things are going good though, life overall that is. Laura left today (tomorrow morning actually) to head down to Denver and then off to D.C. for about a week for a conference. I miss her already! I'm pretty bored right now, even at 11pm. I might even head to bed before 12pm...I don't think so though. I'll probably end up watching some TV (I found the Sci-FI channel recently, although Laura insists that we've had it here AND in Fort Collins...). They have some good UFO stuff sometimes.

Work is good. Tomorrow is my policy quiz, which I hope I pass. I've read over all the material except the last couple of packets. And then Friday's the last real training for meds and diabetes stuff. I have a couple of more things to get checked off after that and then I'm off training. Things are starting to pick up, though. I picked up 40-hours next week for some people taking time off for the Thanksgiving holidays. It's at the girls cottage and they're all overnight shifts, but oh well.

Once the regular schedule starts, I am hoping to pick up part-time overnights at the girls cottage and some day part-time at the boys cottage which I'm familiar with so I can have some interaction with the kids. We'll take it one by one I guess.

But that's all for now. I'm going to go read the rest of my packets.

Our internet is slow right now! Wow.

Holy shebang! I was wondering when my "anniversary" (haha) for my blog was and it's the 21st of this month! I'm going to have to write a good one for that day.