welcome, 2009

Man, have I neglected this thing. Every once in a while I feel the urge to write, but something inevitably comes up. But since our system is down at work, I have absolutely no excuse.

My holiday season was a good one. I have tons of pics that I took with my new Sony digital camera (10 MP, which seems good to me!) that I will post later. Cool thing: this camera has a feature that will stretch someone's mouth into a smile if they were not, in fact, smiling. It is kind of creepy, but also hilarious.

The diet was put on halt, as there was no way I could possibly keep up with it what with the visits to grandparents and other various friends/family. I mean, good food was raining down from the heavens for two straight weeks. But now I'm trying to get back into the swing of healthy eating/exercise. Not exactly easy.

I have also cleaned my apartment and it feels good. I went to an auction with my parents on Saturday to buy things to accompany my newly clean apartment and found a huge clock, a shelf, and a lamp to hang on the wall. It was really great.

Also at that auction, I met my mom's gay friend Nathan. Knowing my mom (and especially my dad), it's pretty funny that she has a gay friend. He seemed really nice, though, and helped my mom buy some facial cream. He also was telling her about botox, which I'd rather her not do. Don't need a fake mother running around, no matter how "fabulous" she would look.

But something else I've been considering is: moving. Not far away or anything, but actually just down the street. This guy I know is buying a house, and his current house is going up for rent at only $50 more than what I'm paying right now. It would be nice to have a house rather than an apartment that requires climbing 2,000 stairs (and braving the alley-cats behind my house). I'm putting the numbers together to see if it will work out.

Well our computers are back up and running, so I will leave you with my latest musical favorite.

That's right. It's Kanye West's "808s & Heartbreak". Before you nay-say, it's really quite good. Kanye has been through a tough year, and this is his release. If you liked him before but got tired of the cockiness (as I did), you'll enjoy this. Try it out.

why i hate the local fair

I don't know if anyone remembers, but last year on my old blog I complained about this annual fair being held literally in front of my apartment. Well, it's back, and this time they've gone even farther in messing with me.

It's called the Kudzu Festival (kudzu is this terrible plant that originated in China and was brought over here to help stop erosion. It didn't, but instead took over other plants and trees and looks ugly). I hate it. When I was a kid, I loved the festival. You could ride all the rides and they looked, sounded, and felt like they would break at any second...which of course made it more exciting! But the festival soon soured itself to me not one, not two, but three times.

The first time actually started off nice. I was a kid, probably about 10 or 11 years old, and just starting to like girls. This one girl in particular seemed to like me, too. It was great...we played that game where you pop balloons and we both won these cool drawings framed in glass. I was so proud...mine was of Taz (my uncle loved Taz...therefore I loved Taz) and hers was a bunny or something. It was really girly. Anyway, we decided to ride this one thing that would jerk us around for a bit. I put our framed pictures beside me and we began. One sharp turn later and I smashed into the pictures...glass went all in my leg and cut my arm. I cried.

Second time was also with a girl. I was in high school now, and was skipping work that night to take my girlfriend out to the fair. I know, I'm so romantic. We were having fun until my boss saw me and made a very snarky comment to me. He then proceeded to make my life hell until I finally quit that job.

And so here we are. Third time. They say it's the charm...I say it breaks the camel's back. Last year the Kudzu Festival moved to the courthouse lawn/parking spaces. I live right across from the courthouse and park in those spaces! I was a little upset. My landlord gave me a pass to park beside the building but I still got hassled by police every night. And then the carnies. The carnies would walk along the square at all hours, howling and drinking and being...carnies. They really are a different breed.

This year it's all back, but with a twist. I can't have a parking pass! So now I have to park a block or two down and walk home. And the festival is staying open later, which means the loud music and flashing lights go on all night. I have to sleep on my couch (in the room furthest away from the insanity). Awesome!

So I hate it. And I think I have good reasons.