I Swear One Day We'll Get the Money Straight

After having four days off in a row last weekend, and spending them pretty well in my opnion, I've begun another three day run.

Staci's new job starts today at Ulta Beauty. I hope she likes it. I'm probably taking her to work in the morning. I might go to the college afterward to see what kind of hoops they'll make me jump through in order to attend again. I'm undecided, but I may not go back this fall if I can't get financial aid. I just don't see how we could do that again. But I don't really know yet. I would really like to go back. Maybe I'll just deal with the money stress in order to do so. I don't know. I want it real bad, though.

Last Saturday, we went to the water park over in Alma that almost nobody around here has been to or even knows about, it seems. It's both surprising and unsurprising, really. It's only got four water slides, but I think they're well worth the five bucks it costs to get in. I really did have a blast going down the toilet bowl. We immediately called it the toilet bowl, feeling all proud of our wit, and heard, pretty much right away, from the kids running past us in line up the stairs, "hey, are you guys going down the toilet bowl?" Supposedly, based on our answer, they would run past us, thinking it was okay to do so. I didn't really care. But I still thought it was hilarious when Casey sort of confronted a not-so-small boy about it.

I've been walking and jogging for the past two weeks. Last night, I jogged for the longest I've been able to do so for quite some time. I'm pretty proud of myself. It took two weeks of fairly consistent walking for almost an hour a night for me to get to this point. I still can't jog far, obviously, but if I were to attempt something like that a few weeks back, there would have been a good chance I would have ended up in the hospital. I have been feeling a lot better about myself lately, though. I think less negatively, I think.

Next up on the agenda towards being more active is to fix my bike, which is incredibly hard when every last bit of your money, and then some, is spent before you get it. It's also incredibly hard to spend money that a pending transaction at a gas station has kept tied up for almost 4 days. How the hell is that legal. And I'm asking this in all total and complete seriousness. If it isn't posted for the correct amount soon, I'm approaching somebody about it. Though I can't imagine the kind of wall I'd run into there.

Oye, I should'nt be up this late.

We've all had a late night here at the Holloway residence. Friends sitting around the table outside talking about religion and philosophy. Playing some Magic. Crazy singing my voice out of commission on Rock Band right alongside Lance. God I love singing Journey and other random songs you wouldn't think I would love to sing. Guess I just gotta be in the right mood.

Staci's sis Kindle (spelled wrong) and her friend Katie have been down for a visit the last few nights and will be until Sunday. I think they've been having a good time, even with Staci and I's especially rough money situation lately. We sure risked more than usual for the A-kon trip this year.

But the last few days, as I said, have been very fun. I somehow managed to get 4 days off in a row this week not asking for it, and I feel like I've used them for the best. We're actually all planning on going to the Alma water park that we haven't visited yet. Looks like they've got some awesome slides. I'm down.

I'm running out of deck ideas with my Magic deck. But I still love artifacts.

I guess I never really posted those A-Kon pictures, so I think I'll do that tomorrow. It was a fun A-kon this year. It's always fun and memorable. I would go so far as to say this year's was indeed better than last year's. It's not really hard for that to be true.

I'm glad that Lance has come around and has been open-minded. Not just about his beliefs, but with people. And in particular, Staci. For the longest time it seemed I would have had to officially say goodbye to seeing Lance on any sort of a regular basis, but he sure seems to want to be around and do stuff here lately. Plus, he just feels more relaxed. More relaxed than even our roommates right now. Which, that shouldn't be too hard considering the awkward situational and disrespect problems we've been having.

They're moving out at some point in the future. We know that much. I guess it doesn't really matter. I'm good with it, of course. Actually, I am excited about getting my own room for a study, video game, and card room. It's going to be a blast. And Staci gets her craft room, making the house totally and officially under our complete control. Don't get me wrong, it hasn't all been bad, it's just that here lately things have been annoyingly awkward and disrespectful with some people around here...

Well, that's all for now. It is ridiculously late.

The more I listen to John Vanderslice's new album, Romanian Names, the more I like it. I give up. I love everything he does.

Approaching A-Kon, Money, Respect, and Poo

A-Kon is just a few days away. We're both a little worried about money, of course, but it's nothing new. We are, indeed, used to being worried about money. I think we probably waste half of our life worrying about damn money.

But I always feel like we'll be fine. And it's because it's the truth. We're always slightly a step ahead. Everything will work its way out.

Staci keeps getting more and more excited about A-Kon, too. To the point of scaring us all.

Just kidding. But seriously.

I do feel like all of her planning and work for this trip had gone under appreciated, however. I almost wish that next year she would let someone else take the slam for the whole trip. I don't remember people turning down Matt's itineraries, for example.

I just get really sick of people not giving a shit about anything. Like they're too goddamn cool to feel anything. I get so sick of it. Sometimes I feel like I'm the only one trying to avoid a fight or awkward, annoying situations. I'm not really trying to point fingers, it's just how I feel about a good chunk of my friends at times. Just a complete lack of respect.

Brahhg, respect. Not that I or anyone really deserves it.

The biggest accomplishment recently has been figuring out how to keep the dogs from poo-in all over the carpet in the dining room. Slam, take their food away from them after 11 or 12. And put them out one last time before bed every night. That was easy. Too bad it took me a year to figure it out. Too late for our dear, clean carpet.

Deanna, Brandi, and A-Kon Preparation

I've called in the past few days to visit family and friends since Deanna's been in the hospital. It's really helped my mood to do so. And it also gave Staci and I a chance to clean up before Brandi's family came to visit. It really needed it... we had been neglecting it from being fairly busy the past few weeks, what with getting ready for A-kon, many new Magic deck ideas, and just general partying. Nonstop partying. Well, not really... but the usual.

By the way, I thin Deanna is going to be just fine. It was a double bypass, and she is stable. :)

I did a lot of yard work the day before yesterday, and every time I do so, for some reason, I think of King of the Hill. The way Hank takes such great pride in lawn care. He looks at lawn care and general hand-man-ness the same way I look at a great sci-fi movie or video game. Thing is, I kind of feel that way about yard work, too. It's just a lot harder for a 25 year old to find time for all of his hobbies, I suppose. I know it's kind of silly to get ideas like this from an animated family, but I don't really think it's that strange. I think your brain finds and grasps whatever ideas it can from anything, no matter how potentially silly it may seem.

So I think I want to do much better this year in lawn care. I need to take better care of my lawn equipment, always have plenty of gas and gas mix on hand, and and build up a decent tool box for around-the-house work.

A-Kon is but a mere 1 week away. I've got 5 days off next weekend to attend, and I think this year will be the best and most memorable one yet. I'm going to be taking a ton of pictures and video. I'm bringing 2 SD cards and my laptop, as well as plenty of extra and rechargeable batteries. I'm definitely going to nerd out with the other nerds, take in all of the sights, sounds, and otherworldly nature of things that A-Kon provides. This year also holds a different spectrum for me and possibly a few of my friends. I might actually play Magic with a lot of different people, and see how well my artifact deck does. I really don't know why I had such an obsession with artifacts. I just thought they looked cool, and suddenly I'm hoarding all of the cards. I feel like my interest might be slowly waning a bit now, though. I think there is only so much you can do in the way of cool combos and strong plays in a standard artifact aggro deck. Though they are, indeed, strong combos and plays.

Well, that's all for updates for now. Tomorrow I'm off. Brandi's taking Staci and I out to breakfast first thing, and then I pretty much have a free one. I'm hankering for some Wii time. Excitebots and Zelda. I'm going to go for 100% on Twilight Princess. Wish me luck.

Deanna, and Music

My sister Deanna is having an operation today. I randomly get to see my brother, which is a great thing. The surgery is not a great thing, but we all believe she'll be fine. So does her doctor.

I really enjoyed getting to talk to my bro again, though. He's exactly the same. Didn't realize how much I missed him. I hope in a few years he's around so much that I can't stand him.

I'm calling in to work tomorrow to go back over and visit and see how Deanna is doing.

So far today I've listened through Say Hi's The Wishes and the Glitch a time and a half and through their new one Oohs and Aahs once while driving. I'm listening now to Romanian Names again, however. It's all sounding good to me now.

What does D.I.A.L.O. mean? Let me look it up... Defense Intelligence Agency Liaison Office

Well, that's interesting. And it's more likely than Urban Dictionary's definition, which says it's the equivalent of a typo on a telephone.

I've had the chance to listen to John Vanderslice's new album multiple times now. It's the album entitled "Romanian names". I think it's pretty good stuff. It is, indeed, a lot slower than even his past few efforts, but the good melody that I've come to love about Vanderslice is still there, and I don't think that it's something that could change about his music. I'm not sure if the sounds that highlight the melody would seem strange to a new listener or not. To me, they sound too familiar to be strange at all. Although I believe some of the sounds through his masterpiece "Pixel Revolt" ring strange till this day to me, but in an amazing way.

A-kon is just a few weeks away, and everyone, especially my wife, is getting pretty excited. I think this year may turn out pretty great. Almost anything could be better than last year, with its angry people and sour, awkward internal struggles. It was mostly terrible, yet I still missed it when I left.

Work has been killing me lately. I'm not sure if my back is hurting more or just the same lately, but I think it's really dragging me down. And my feet hurt immensely. And I'm so angry so much of the time from what I feel is unneeded stupidity. So much shit just directly aimed at me because I'll put up with it.