Hello folks,

I realize it's been FOREVER since I wrote last in this blog. I think it's a natural progression. When E-mail went big back in the mid to late-90's I was all about Eudora and Postini... Then blogging came around in the early 2000's and I was all about Blogger. Then in the social networking explosion occurred in that 2003-2005 period. I was all over MySpace and Facebook. Blogging became secondary, then.

And since, Twitter has come around. I have two separate accounts, a personal account I use to provide random messages to friends and a second I use to expand on one of my favorite hobbies... Photography.

I grew up loving the outdoors and pretty much everything about it. Meteorology was my calling, because I loved anything and everything about the atmosphere and what came from it. But, I'm learning that even though Meteorology may have been my calling, photography is something I enjoy and love; immensely. It began, I think, when I began storm chasing back in 1996. Yes, 13 years ago!

While some find photography a strict art, initially, all I thought of it back then was a way to share what I saw on a chase with the storm chase community. I posted the photos up on my web-site and allowed others to view them. It was an innocent hobby and one I didn't really take too seriously. At least, as far as the quality of my photos was concerned.

Once I upgraded to digital in January of 2005, my interest expanded greatly and I began to appreciate the art of photography on a grander scale. No longer did I pay money for rolls of film or to get them processed. I could snap off hundreds of pictures a day and not even blink an eye. I snapped twice that, in fact, in the Badlands of South Dakota in late July of 2007. That record still stands, actually - 274 pictures in a single day. It may seem meager to the professionals in the crowd, but for me that's a lot!

Twitter takes me away from Blogger quite a bit. I communicate with most of my friends with it and those friends who aren't signed up, Facebook is a great alternative.

Twitter also provides a great opportunity to network with other photographers. And that is mostly the reason it distracts me from writing in my blog. Networking and receiving insight from these guys has allowed me to really grow into this industry. I'm coming into it self-taught and I realize that's not the ideal way of doing it. But, I've learned a lot about the in's and out's, the do's and don'ts and everything in between.

These photographers provide a lot of inspiration, just looking at their work. It provides great opportunities for me to diversify my photography portfolio. The ideas I get, the compositions I picture in my head, it's almost becoming second nature already. I'm certainly not just taking pictures of clouds anymore. In fact, I'm involved in a 365 Project currently, which is taking my camera and I on a wonderful journey through an entire year of daily photo-taking. It's been a great experience so far and I'm learning so much more about my camera just carrying it with me everyday. I'm learning how to look at the environment around me and what it would look like through a viewfinder and a lens. It's kind of neat, really...

What I'm getting at with all this... is that I really have become quite distracted with it all. It pushes me away from my computer and sitting and writing on the Internet. I almost feel it's a waste of time. It's been 25 minutes now that I've spent typing this entry, itself. I could have taken 50 pictures in this amount of time. Maybe more! ;)

Anyhow, so that's where I've been over the course of the last 2 months. I'm still meat-free, if you're wondering... :) I actually celebrated my 4-month anniversary of vegetarianism yesterday. I've got someone in my life. She hasn't exactly tugged at the strings of my heart yet, but we haven't exactly met in person, either. But, I've made some new friends outside of work and I've been hanging out with them quite a bit lately. We went hiking a couple of weeks ago and they've invited me to a couple of cookouts. If I had been a little more open about this earlier this summer, we could have been at the lake every weekend. Jared and Jason both have families with lake cottages - one is at Devils Lake, the other at Maple Lake, east of Grand Forks near Mentor, MN. They've got about a 4-5 member group that tend to hang out a lot. They're mostly friends of friends. Emily, a girl I dated about a year ago and have started to hang out with again, introduced me into the "circle." ;) So, my life has been going fairly well.

Work has been a little busy and will likely become even more so, with fall starting. We've got contracts winding up for the winter and that will make things even more hectic. Should be interesting, but I'm excited at the same time.


Well, I've got a couple of left over veggie burgers to warm up and some corn on the cob to cook. Dinner-time!

Also, if by chance, you are interested in following me along on this "Project 365" journey, hop on over to my photoblog. It's being updated everyday. In fact, I just posted my photo for today about an hour ago...!

Toodles for now...

Yeah, so it's been over a month since I wrote anything in here. I apologize...

There has been plenty on my mind lately... I just don't know if writing about some of these things would be appropriate. Mainly because they involve work, the people that work there, and some negative things I would really like to see addressed. Oops, did I say too much already?

Either way, I just wish people would stop complaining and just do their jobs. Is that too much to ask for? I don't think so, but apparently it is.

There are some changes coming for me at work and this should help a lot of the above. One, I'll get away from most of the negativity that's been festering about the Operations Department. Two, I won't have to forecast these big, nasty, mixed-precipitation storms any longer. Three, I'll be jumping into something new and exciting in the Road Weather Department. And finally, four, I'll be involved in the company a little more. The latter, of which, is something I've wanted for well over a year now.

I was a part of the lead forecasting try-outs, this winter and really thought I had a leg up on my competition with my management background. If I had continued down this path, I probably would have ended up with an offer for the position this Spring. Once, I returned from my unfortunate trip home in January, I had some serious reservations on my long-term plans with Meridian, however. I had to rethink what I really wanted and even considered applying for positions elsewhere. Fortunately, I didn't even get to that point.

I spoke with my sister on several occasions on what the wisest choice might be and spoke with my supervisor, as well. When the position for the Road Weather Specialist opened up at work, I didn't initially look at it as a option. Further consideration, came however, when management stated that internal candidates were being accepted. I looked at the position and saw two major draw points. One, having a normal schedule for once... and two, moving on to something new, challenging, and exciting.

I haven't necessarily lost interest in forecasting and I didn't especially want to leave the forecasting department at Meridian. At the same time, however, I felt to achieve what I really wanted (to have a bigger role in the business), that this was a great opportunity for me. I didn't want to let it slide and took some initiative in applying.

Since accepting the position, I have been very anxious to start this new venture in my life. I will miss forecasting, I know... and I will miss working along-side my fellow co-workers. The times we get silly during shift, listen to all sorts of music, laugh and make the occasional joke - I'll miss. There are perks of this position, though, that I'm sure will make up for some of that. Again, having that normal schedule - Monday through Friday - and having a normal sleep schedule will pay dividends. I'll have weekends off, now... I'll have holidays off. I'll have every single evening open, now. And lest we forget, the new job may take me out of the office occasionally.

For someone that immensely loves to travel, this will also be a great opportunity to possibly see parts of the country I have never seen.

So, yes, you can say I'm very excited... I have seven forecasting shifts left. My last forecasting shift will come April 15th.

In the meantime, I continue to live my life, much in the same routine as I have in the past. Nothing too new in my life, otherwise. With the exception of a couple of things...

First (I've had several numbered reasons tonight, haven't I?), there's Twitter. This new little "device" for communicating has taken a hold of my life the past couple of days. Yes, I finally jumped on the bandwagon. It's getting addictive and I can see why a lot of people use it. We'll see how often I actually use it.

If you would like to "follow" me, simply visit


And second, I have someone new in my life that may just turn into something special. I'm trying like the dickens not to get my hopes up too high, but it feels a little different this time around and she seems genuinely interested. She seems like a sweet, intelligent person and not only is that attractive, but her personality and mine seem to mesh really well. We've been communicating back and forth for the past couple of weeks and we just moved things off eHarmony very recently. We'll see where it goes, but it is something I'm excited about.

Enough for now, I suppose. It's been so long since I wrote, I had to catch you all up. Take care of yourselves and for those of you in the Valley, stay warm and dry. The river seems to receding, for now, but I could easily see further problems again, with the melting snow-cover, especially over the southern Red River Basin. More flood issues... Just what we need, right?

The notions and gut feelings I felt all day yesterday hampered the excitement somewhat for my trip to Fargo yesterday morning. It's hard not to be super-excited for Thai food but deep down, that seemed to be the case.

No, unfortunately, I had other things on my mind and why I always let these things bother me so much, I really have no idea. Maybe it's the fact that I'm turning 30 in a couple of months... Or to put it more bluntly, that I can not get anywhere with women up here in North Dakota.

Yet again, have I been fooled by my opposite sex. Another conclusion I've come to... I have never understood women and I likely never will. They play too many games to get inside their heads and misconception and manipulation simply come second nature.

I had to ask this evening, after getting back in touch with this newest "person of interest," if she was involved with anyone. To which, I received the answer I was fearing... and one I don't even need to elaborate on here. I'm sure you all know the answer. All I want to understand is, why would you even leave a profile on eHarmony, if you're in a relationship. And even more, why would you communicate with someone on eHarmony if they have expressed an obvious interest in you?

For those of you who may not know, when meeting someone for the first time on eHarmony, you typically go through what they call "guided communication" with a new partner. It's eHarmony's unique way of getting two people close to one another. You ask each other questions, you answer each other's questions, you get to read what kind of person they can tolerate and the type they can't. It sounds rather simple, but it can be a drawn-out process sometimes...

So, you see, when you go through that much effort just to get to know a person, you would think a light would turn on in your head. You know, one that would flash, "Hey, this person is INTERESTED in you!"

Apparently, some people don't have any of these lights in their heads and mislead others that may just want to pursue something with you as if you are single and looking, as well. When you, in fact, are not at all! That's what I call down-right deception, right there...

So, what do I have to show for two, almost 3 weeks of trying to communicate with this person? Just another lady-friend that will probably only stay in touch, occasionally. I have enough of those, god-damnit.

Maybe this one will be somewhat different, but I really doubt it. Or maybe she will realize that someone close-by that will actually care for her and respect her is a lot better than dealing with someone that lives 200 miles away.

We'll see... I still feel burnt, either way...

I've come to a conclusion today...

There are two kinds of men in this world - one, that tend to have all the luck in the world... and another that doesn't have any.

I just so happen to fall into the latter.

I could elaborate, but maybe I shouldn't until I get the full story. My notions may be incorrect...

If my past is any indicator, however, and it turns into a confirmation, rest assure, I will have an entire blog post strictly dedicated to you women out there. And believe me, there will plenty of name-calling and naughty 4-letter words.

Let's hope it doesn't come to that...

I'm not sure what to blame it on... My age, my lack of being in shape... Whichever it is, I haven't ever felt the pain I am in late this evening.

We had our scheduled game of softball this afternoon near University Park again. I was really looking forward to playing today. I was anxious at work all day to get out, swing the bat, and play some ball.

Apparently, my legs had other plans.

After my first at-bat, I felt what I thought was just some minor cramping in my upper legs and seemed to overcome most of it in the field. My second at-bat, didn't fare so well. I came immediately out of the Batter's Box with excruciating pain in the upper portion of my right leg and nearly collapsed by the time I got to 1st base. I knew something was wrong almost immediately cause I had never in my life felt anything this bad. After slowly returning to the bench and consorting with my fellow teammates, the general consensus was that it was something with my right quad.

I'm not sure what exactly happened, but from what I explained and what some of the other guys concurred with was that it was likely a strained quad and later this evening Shaw tried to scare the bejesus out of me and mentioned it could be a minor tear. I sure hope it isn't, because if that's indeed the case, I'll likely be in some pain for several days.

I've pulled muscles, sprained ankles and even injured a knee and this is still the worst pain I've felt in any sort of muscle injury.

I took a couple of Advil PM and have an ice pack on it right now and I'm hoping this will help heal things somewhat over the next few days.

Otherwise, life has been going fairly well, I guess. There are aspects that could be much better, but I'm leaving one of these, in particular open right now. If you know anything about me, you probably know exactly what I'm referring to.

The relationship front, of course... KF and I finally agreed to be just friends the other day and I think finally, this will stick. I think I wanted things to work out between us but we were both realizing that the chemistry just wasn't there. We were both a little naive, I think, in overlooking the signs that kept pointing us in different directions.

It works out in way, because I have had a few options that I have wanted to keep open lately. I'm not sure where either of these are going to go, but the one seems to be interested in me, so we'll have to let things happen naturally and see where it goes.

I'll certainly keep everyone updated on how things proceed. It's very early in the "process," so to speak, so it's really hard to tell right now.

Anyhow, hope everyone is doing well and hopefully your legs are still under yourselves, unlike me! :)

Later gator!

Dear Mr. "I-stole-your-debit-card-number-and-tried-to-charge-over-$800-to-it," you are a dipshit!

How the hell someone got a hold of my debit card number is beyond me, but it happened. A couple of days ago, my bank calls me to ask if I had authorized a charge of $860 to Photo Vista (a photo service, of some kind) in Paris, France... I've never heard of such a place and likewise, had the card canceled right away.

So, while it actually does me a bit of good, it has been a little inconvenient. I do need to save money for my vacation in a few weeks! But, I now have to wait for a new card... and a new account number. Of which, I'll have to change with every bill I pay online. Which happens to be all of them.

If I ever was able to meet this person, I'd personally take my shredded card and feed it to him by shoving each little sliver down his throat.

On a brighter note, things are looking up - as your's truly may just have a little something cooking on the relationship front. I met a woman about a week ago over the Internet and since, we've been enjoying E-mails and have, twice now, talked on the phone. The first call, last evening, went nearly two hours and tonight's conversation went almost an hour and a half. We seem to find things to talk about and it seems that we both have become rather comfortable with each other rather quickly. So, hopefully, that means something... We've planned a dinner-date for tomorrow evening, so we'll see how it goes.

I'll certainly keep you all up-to-date... On the debit card and dating situation!

Yes folks, I have returned... The world can go back to spinning the way it did before I left, the sky can turn cloudy, the temperatures can go cold again, the air - cool and stenchy, and happy people everywhere can return to their gloomy outlook on days ahead.

Heh.

What a negative way to start out a post.

Nah, deep down I'm actually in a fairly good mood. I'm just not showing it very well. I have mixed feelings right now but don't really feel this is place to share that. I desperately want to write about certain things that have transpired over the past few days and why these feelings are bubbling up.

The only thing I can do is live my life - enjoy "The Office" tonight on TV (yippee!!), eat dinner the way I always did before, drink my water, blog occasionally, and listen to the Embassy CD I finally got in the mail last week.

Boy, you know, if only more people knew about these guys. What a great CD. It's been playing non-stop in the car, on my Chocolate, and in my head since I opened the thing. Since I was in direct contact with the band, they even sent me a song that's coming up on a future album. If there was a legal way to post it to the blog here, I'd do it. It's that good. Also, apparently, they are undergoing somewhat of a a transformation; attempting to rename the band and getting a new web-site together and so forth. The main reason it took so long for them to process my order and get the CD mailed out. Busy times for them, I suppose. I can understand that. I hope they are still playing gigs in August when I get home, because I really want to check them out live. I really do.

The workshop went really great. Lots of great presentations, lots of notes I want to go back through, and lots to information I have yet to really mull over. The "Frontogenesis during the warm season" presentation was very interesting and the Northwood, ND tornado re-analysis case was one I enjoyed very much. I saw some familiar faces, got to reacquaint myself with them, met some new people and made some friends. They didn't announce where next year's workshop will be held, but I'm pulling for Rapid City to step up. That would make for a longer trip next April, but that would be awesome to take a few additional days off and stay out there and enjoy the area. Do some hiking in the Black Hills or Badlands, maybe? Bismarck was very new to me. I hadn't ever been out there. We familiarized ourselves with the area around the Ramkota, though and Turcotte, Lawson and I had a pretty good time. We were able to upgrade the room to a poolside one, so we enjoyed some time in the pool and especially in the hot-tub both nights.

I WILL own one of those one day. Just wait, you'll see.

Hey, you know what, I'm finishing up here during the commercial break. I'm gonna sit down, enjoy my Lean Cuisine and "The Office."

And look, the Cubbies are winning! Ahhh, the Earth IS spinning, once again.

I'm always pleasantly surprised where people find me and how people find me on the Internet. I guess after years and years of plastering my name all over the web, I really shouldn't be.

Lately, I have been consistently checking my stats through StatCounter to track the use of my weather-cam network. But, at the same time I've sporadically been checking my stats for my blog and web-site. Today, I came across this nugget:

http://wcuvax1.wcu.edu/~strauss/personal/bobmark.htm

And all due respect to this guy for including my web-site, out of the millions and millions of web-sites in the world, but I love how he title's the link to my web-site. "Mr. Weather." hahah... I love it. And "Mr. Weather's Blog..." Hilarious!

Not much else new has been happening lately and is really the reason for the lack of posts. I guess the most excitement is the involvement of a new friend in my life and the recent joining of a volleyball league.

The new friend? She's someone I've known for a little over a year now. Recently, we've decided to hang out much more. I'm not quite sure yet where it will go, but I'll let things take their course for another week or so and reanalyze things then. I'll fill you all in, in due time, I'm sure.

The volleyball league? Yes, I'm giving up my "lying around and doing nothing" time in the process, but really, this is something I need. And something I've been wanting to do for a couple of years. I had a strong desire to join in on a league of some sort last summer but lacked the motivation to do it. With just a little persuasion from a couple of co-workers, I've decided to do it. Our first game is tomorrow night at Center Court, so I'm getting anxious to see how out-of-shape I really am. I'll certainly find out on Monday.

So, it's a late Saturday afternoon and I have a few things to do before taking my nap before work. Perhaps, I'll get my errands completed...

Later 'tater -

Hey folks,

I realize it has been a long time since I last wrote in here. I also realize that I've promised before that I would make the attempt to write in this thing more often. Lately, though I guess I just haven't been in the mood to write much.

A lot has happened though, since I last made an entry to the blog. My feelings for Lu have faded and I'm finally getting on with my life. In one way I'm relieved that those feelings aren't there anymore, but in some ways it still makes me feel a little sad that things didn't work out between us. Life is pretty much back to what it used to be. The one advantage of having a relationship is that it gives you someone to get out and do things with. I don't know why, but to me it just isn't the same when I'm out with the guys... When you have a significant other, you can do more personal things. Like going out for dinner, taking a walk, camping... You know, things like that. I don't know if it's an insecurity of mine, but asking some of the guys from work if they would want to go somewhere for dinner just seems awkward. Maybe it's just a guy thing... ;) Anyhow, digressing a bit, I'm getting lazy again. Much like I was before I met Lu and spent 80% of my time alone in my apartment. I don't feel that motivation I did when I was involved with Lu and I'm finding myself sitting and lying around watching my god-damn "Friends" season-DVD's again. It's driving me crazy and I wish I could just keep myself motivated to get out and stay active in some way.

I think I'm going to start using the stupid exercising "facility" we have in the apartment building here. We have this converted apartment down on the 1st floor that contains various exercise machines and I haven't used the damn thing but only once since I've lived here. Since winter has decided to arrive a month early this year (yes, we have even had our first snow already!) I may just start using it. It would keep me active to some degree and it would get me out of the apartment for, at least, an hour. Winter sucks ass up here in North Dakota - because typically it's so damn cold you literally can't do anything outside. And, of course, since there really isn't much to do up here, to begin with, being outside and enjoying it is one of the main activities for residents in Grand Forks. We'll see how the winter pans out and if I keep this "idea" of exercising more this fall/winter in mind...! ;)

I did attend "China Night" this past Thursday at the Cultural Center on the UND campus. Since Lu is the president of CSSA (Chinese Students and Scholars Association) and organized this event, I really wanted to go. I initially had to work Thursday evening, but I was able to find someone to switch shifts with me. So, I was able to make it. Lu really wanted me to be there, as well. I'm really glad I went. It was really nice to see some familiar faces and I was able to spend some time with some of Lu's friends that I had met when we were seeing each other. Plus, the food was excellent! Lu did a great job at organizing the event and they had a tremendous turn-out... I took some pictures, so if you're curious to see what it was like, I have all the photos uploaded to my photo gallery.

I also attended the first Fighting Sioux hockey game of the year, Friday, October 6th. It only took me two years to finally get a ticket to a game! Justin Shaw (a co-worker of mine) mentioned getting tickets and since he and I met up with Jeff and McQuade, we all decided to go together. It was actually pretty great. I hadn't ever been to a hockey game, but it was fun and I quickly found out that the Ralph Engelstad Arena is quite a place. It reminds me of Conseco Fieldhouse back in Indianapolis - how its seating is laid out. And it seriously looks like a real NHL arena (from what I've seen on TV, anyway)...! It really is an amazing facility, especially considering it's only an athletic facility for a university. The ARC (Athletic-Recreation Center) at Valpo has nothing on The Ralph. Nothing!

Then on the 27th, the Minnesota Timberwolves come into town to play a preseason game against the Milwaukee Bucks at the Alerus Center. Jakin (another co-worker) is getting tickets for several of us at work and we're all going together. Lu seemed interested, as well, so she will be coming along. So, that should be fun, as well.

So, yes, like I said before, I'm just trying to get out more this year... I made a few New Year's resolutions this year and with this, I know that I've indeed upheld two of them, for certain. One of them was to take better advantage of days off work and to spend time outdoors and get in shape... And I feel I did a fairly good job of that this summer. I did spend a lot more time outside this past summer than I had the previous year. I took advantage of the pool we have here at the apartment complex and swam quite a bit, I walked and ran the Fitness Trail near my apartment, and I got out a lot more and played sports. Surprisingly, I actually lost some weight in the process. Imagine that! I know at one point I was down close to 150 lbs and I'm pretty sure that was around mid-July. When I went to the doctor's office last month, I was at 165 lbs... Can you believe I gained back nearly 15 pounds in about a month and a half? Crazy! So, again, now I'm just trying to stay active and even though I am finding myself spending more time in front of the frickin' TV again, I do want to make an effort to minimize that. I'm trying! Ah, and by the way, that other New Year's resolution was to meet someone, have at least, a semi-serious relationship, and to have a woman (not a co-worker or of any relation) inside my apartment - at any point during the year. And, obviously, I have upheld that resolution...

It makes me feel really good, thinking about it... That I actually made resolutions that I actually followed up on this year.

It wouldn't be the same, however, to write up an entire post here without sharing some sad news, though... Tonight, I learned that one of my best-friends at work is moving on to a different job. I never really hung out with Adam a whole lot, but I got along with him and his wife really well. I would always look at my work schedule and find when we would work together - and would really look forward to it. Maybe it was his personality... He was a really nice guy, we would always have something to talk about, and he was just fun to shoot the shit with, you know. He's one of those types that you can just sit and talk and joke around with... I'm happy for him - that he found a different job that he and his wife (and family, I suppose) will be happier with. But, I will miss him... I really enjoyed working with him.

Well, it's getting a bit late here and I'm craving ice cream. ;) I may just go for a bowl!

Take care everyone and I hope everyone is doing well...

Hey everyone...

It's Saturday and I'm just now getting around for dinner and things. I figured I would jump on here and do some writing, since I have a couple things on my mind. Well, okay, I only have one thing on my mind...

Is it bad that I'm still pining over Lu? Is it bad that I still have feelings for her and that I can't get rid of these feelings? I'm giving her the space she wanted and I've tried like hell not to call her every stinking day. You have no idea how hard it is for me to get through an entire day without, at least, talking to her. I've wanted to call her almost every night, but I've been resilient and haven't.

I'm just confused at how I'm adjusting... and why I can't get her off my mind. We went out for the first time "as friends," Thursday night. I thought it would be incredibly uncomfortable, but it really wasn't. We went to "Japan Night" at the Cultural Center on campus. It was really interesting to learn more about the Japanese culture and the food they offered was fantastic! One of the Japanese students was writing down people's names in the Japanese language and in Chinese calligraphy, so I had her write mine. It was really interesting to watch her write it out. I scanned it yesterday (Friday) so I have it shown to the right... Apparently, the first (top-large) character means "magic" and the second (bottom-large) means "smart..." I found that humorous. The smaller characters to the right are the actual Japanese characters composing my name.

Anyhow, the night went well... and it was wonderful to see Lu, again.

I still miss her. I've felt a little down all week. A little depressed and overall, just not feeling all that well. Probably because I haven't slept well all week and haven't really ate all that much, either. I guess one good way to lose a few extra pounds is to go through a dramatic break-up. It seems to be working on me, anyway.

Well, my dinner is about ready, so I should hop off here. I'm sitting here chatting with Lu, right now, anyway. Maybe we can find a time that we can get together to talk more about this... I'm hoping we can - soon.

Take care everyone... and have a goodnight.
- Matt

Hey everyone,

I realize it's been quite a while since I last wrote anything here... It's been for good reason, though, I can honestly say. It's simply because I've been keeping myself busy lately. Work hasn't been too bad recently, but Lu and I have been spending a lot of time together over the past couple of weeks. We went camping last weekend (even though we nearly hit the freezing mark that night!) and have seen each other pretty much every other day for the last week.

It's been a very depressing day for me, though... And I guess the only reason I'm on here writing now is to try to find some solace right now. Even though I tried to put a light, happy twist on the time that Lu and I have spent over the last week in the last two sentences of the previous paragraph - it seems that our relationship will not last to see another day. It's been incredibly hard to swallow the realization that the relationship over.

I guess it all started with a text message from Lu early this morning. She wanted me to check my e-mail when I had a chance. The cell phone woke me up with the text message alert - and of course, when I got her message I immediately checked my e-mail. It was very hard to get through, but the gist is that her parents are very worried about how the language barrier could affect the relationship between themselves and me... and that apparently, she's not quite ready for a serious relationship. I got a sinking feeling in the pit of stomache as I read the e-mail and I, as of yet, haven't been able to get rid of this feeling. First of all, I didn't want to end things in an e-mail, so I called her about an hour later in attempt to talk, but I got her voice mail. While I was online checking some football scores, she logged into MSN and we decided to get together tomorrow to talk about things... The more I thought about it, though, the more concerned I got and I knew if I had shown up for work tomorrow with this on my mind, that I'd be incredibly preoccupied with "us" and wouldn't stay focused on my work. Granted, it's an office shift, but still... I gave her a phone call about a half-hour later and got her voice mail again. I left a message for her about getting together tonight to talk things over - and probably sounded like a long, lost sap...

I was actually in the process of writing this entry when she eventually called me back. I wasn't anticipating her call, since it had been quite a while. But, I just got back from seeing her. It was the hardest thing I've been through in a long time. If anyone knows me at all, they know I'm a pretty sensitive guy. In true fashion, I broke down, just trying to say "hi" to her... Plus, it's always hard to start a conversation, when the first thing you say to someone is, "I've felt like crap all day..." In hindsite, I don't think we really talked about much... but I did tell her that all I want is her to be happy and that I never intended her to change anything just for me. Apparently, she has and she feels that she needs to get back to who she really is and to dedicate more of her time to school. Which is good enough reason. I can't argue with that. I asked her about her day, but that didn't seem to help lighten the mood any. We both are taking this hard and even though I still feel partly responsible for all of this happening, she wants to fault herself. Even though deep in my gut I want to feel upset about her wanting to split up, I don't want to fault her. There are a few things I would go back and do differently, if I had the opportunity. And I fault myself for probably letting the relationship evolve much too quickly. I'm not typically the type of person to jump right into a relationship, but with Lu... things did progress fairly quickly. We got along great right away and I just wanted to be around her all the time. I see now that I should have let things evolve more naturally. I didn't.

So anyway, here I am now, in front of my computer letting loose... pouring out my feelings on my keyboard on how much I'm going to miss Lu. She was someone that opened my eyes, made me happy, made me feel like getting up in the morning, and was someone that proved to me that I could still fall madly in love with a woman again. I've had such a hard time meeting women up here and I honestly thought that with Lu I wouldn't have to worry about feeling alone anymore. Even though we've agreed to remain friends and "hang-out" every once in a while, I'm still going to miss her. A lot. Even in the short time that we knew each other, we had some great times together. It was fun getting to know her and her friends... and it was fun going to Winnipeg with her, going camping with her, going on a picnic with her (we did that last week, as well) and taking numerous walks just talking and holding hands.

I'll miss everything about you, Lu... I meant everything I ever said...
Goodnight... :_(

I guess while I have the opportunity and am thinking about it, I may as well let all of you in on a new "development" in my life. I have a rather solid history of really blowing these sorts of announcements so I have been trying to keep things a bit quiet to let things transpire and develop further, but since most of my family and closest friends know already... I have met someone up here, finally, that I can honestly see a future with.

Her name is Lu (yes, she is Chinese), she's 23 years old and is pursuing her Master's degree in chemical engineering at UND. We met about a week and a half ago and already we've been spending quite a bit of time together. We've been out on several "dates" and we even took a trip up to Winnipeg this past Sunday. It turned out to be a fun trip, as it wasn't just both of our's first time to Canada, but we also were able to spend all day together. Soon, I'm hoping to have some photos up in my photo gallery from our trip, so stay tuned for some new pictures there.

She's very nice, sweet, and in general, we seem to get along great. She is chinese, yes, but the language barrier isn't really an issue, at all. Most of the time I can understand what she's conveying - and likewise, she seems to understand english pretty well - so I don't find that I need to explain things to her very often, either.

The chemistry feels right and that's something that has severely lacked from other relationships I've pursued since I've lived here in Grand Forks. Don't get me wrong, I realize it's only been a week and a half... I don't want to get my hopes up too high on things truly working out between us, but the relationship we've built already has felt a lot different than those I've had over the past couple of years. It's very strange, as well, that over the past few days that there have been times where I have actually missed having her around. I haven't felt that way in so long that I'm not sure how to handle it. Should I just sit down and find something else to occupy my mind? Do I call her? It's probably been 6 years now, since I last felt this way about anyone.

Hopefully things work out... I'll keep you all informed on how everything goes!

Anyhow, I should get back to work. Hope all is well with everyone.
Take care!

So this is what it feels like to be truly sunburnt. I haven't felt this in a while. It isn't quite as bad as it looks, but my skin feels fairly warm on the back of my neck, on my ears, my face and my arms. A couple co-workers and I went out to the Grand Forks Air-Base this afternoon to catch the "Thunder Over the Red River" air-show. It was pretty neat to walk around the tarmac and check out some of the US Air Force transport jets, the classic planes, and the fighter jets. The air performances were entertaining as well. We made it out there around 12:30pm and caught a few solo performances and walked around looking at exhibition aircraft, then watched the USAF Thunderbirds perform their manuevers. They were very entertaining... I hadn't been to an air-show since I was probably 10 years old, so it brought back a lot of childhood memories of seeing the US. Navy Blue Angels. My parents took me up to the Fort Wayne International Airport on several occasions to see them when I was younger. Ah, the memories... It was fun for something different. We were out there until around 3:00pm, so figure 2 and half hours in the scorching sun and yeah, that's about how red we all are.

It's not hurting yet... but I may need some aloe vera or some calamine lotion over the next day or two if starts burning at all. After I got back to the apartment, I went directly for the pool. That felt so damn good I didn't want to get out. Of course, though, I virtually have no food in my apartment, so I had to hit up the grocery store.

Otherwise, not much new is going on up here in the wonderful city of Grand Forks. It's been a very warm last couple of weeks and with the exception a few interspersed days of slightly cooler temperatures, it's mostly been in the 80's and 90's. We experienced a stretch of 6 days straight of 90°+ temperatures and even hit a record high on Sunday the 12th and 16th. I'll have more information over in the WeatherBlog shortly, regarding the recent warmth and the continuing drought conditions we've also been experiencing over the past month or so.

In my personal life, not much new there either... CT and I have been talking much less than we used to. This woman finally (again, I repeat, FINALLY) gave me a phone number so that I could call and talk to her. But, get this, it was some 1-800 number. Apparently, because she had so many problems with her previous ex that she had to get some sort of security service that transfers phone calls to her. It sounded rediculous, but I gave in to the $1.89/min charge (yeah, totally insane!) the once, just so I could, at least, talk to her. We didn't really get anywhere and from what I gathered, she had no other way for me to communicate with her, besides our continuing e-mail correspondence. So, that turned me off immediately. I don't know what it is with me meeting these total spaz-oids... I'm beginning to think meeting women off the Internet is a waste of time and that I should just grow a pair and actually try to meet a woman the traditional way. You know, the way that normal men do.

I'm kind of tired of being alone and single... but at the same time, it's probably better that I am. Especially, now, when I can hardly afford to support myself on the bills I already have. I can't really afford to be going on dates every weekend or so. It's sad, I know. I just wish I could get a few things paid off. Getting my car paid off will help tremendously... and getting the one student loan of mine paid off, will be nice, as well. I've got about a year left on my car loan, so I'm very excited about that!

Anywho, I have more to write over in my WeatherBlog before I log completely out of this Blogger thing. Maybe I'll drop by in here again tomorrow to show off some pictures from the air-show today. I took a bunch!

Ta-ta for now...

It's been quite a while since I last wrote in here, so I figured I'd drop a note this evening. I guess I just haven't been motivated enough to write in here - and really, there hasn't been much to write about lately. Simply put, there hasn't been much excitement in my life over the past few weeks.

Work has been a little slow and I've been working a lot of office shifts lately. I won't complain. It's been giving me a chance to work on some research I've been wanting to work on since, well, college. Pretty sad that I have research I started as a junior at Valpo and am still not even half-way through. I've managed to generate the surface charts I need via Digital Atmosphere. And I'm now in the process of touching up my boundary layer vorticity theory with some research articles I've been stock-piling over the past several years. My research involves vorticity (the tendency for air to "spin" within the atmosphere) generated within the lower 1 km of the atmosphere (mainly at the surface), it's proximity to mesoscale (microscale, maybe?) boundaries, and the coincidence of both to tornadogenesis (the formation of tornadoes). I have six different cases I'm looking at, however, unfortunately a few of them were small events - where only a few tornadoes occurred. This may uncover some other clues, so I'm not overlooking them. I have three other office shifts this week, so I'm going to be taking that time to look over the papers I have. Hopefully, I'll be able to start writing up some conclusions and/or findings after, by closely studying the charts I've created. I have the raw data I need, so I may even have to look at other surface or possibly upper-air data/analysis. We'll see how it proceeds. Maybe if I can actually complete everything, I'll have something to present at next year's Northern Plains Convective Workshop.

Not much else is really going on, personally. I haven't really had the liberty to be out running around. I've been puting money back for my trip home in August, so as if I wasn't broke before, I'm even more so now. I'm pretty much pinching every cent out of my paycheck and haven't been spending it on anything. I'm cutting back on a lot of things. I haven't been eating out but maybe once a week or so. Yeah, surprisingly that makes a huge difference! I haven't been spending as much at the grocery. I used to spend quite a bit... thinking that since I only go about once every 3-4 weeks that it was justified. But, recently, I've spent much less and am finding that I can make "supplies" last just as long. I unsubcribed from match.com. That stupid service was withdrawing $30 out of my account a month. I've "sorta" met someone anyway, so it's been pretty much a waste of money for the past couple of months. CT and I have been e-mailing back and forth for a couple of months now and even though we haven't actually met each other or talked over the phone, it's been great getting to know her. I hope things start moving forward, but we'll see... It's never a bad thing to become friends first and I think we're getting towards that point.

Has anyone heard that Tom Delonge from Blink-182 has a new band? I didn't realize, but I heard the song "The Adventure" from them the other night, so I downloaded the CD earlier today. It's actually really good... It's certainly much different than his Blink albums, but it's still worth a listen. The band is called Angels and Airwaves... I've been listening to all the songs over and over this afternoon. I'm hooked...

Anyhow, I just got back in from taking a walk. It's been pretty warm up here the last few days, so I've been trying to take advantage of the great weather. I love these warm summer evenings...! The mosquitos are out there, but I didn't have too much of a problem with them until I got down towards Sertoma Park. They were a little thicker there, since the coulee winds through there. I'll have to start looking at the "skeeter meter" once again. Heheh, seems like such a silly thing, but the city of Grand Forks actually has one of these!

Think I'm gonna grab a snack and put in a movie...
Hope all is well!

I'm up at 5:30am again... I was extremely tired after getting home from work yesterday afternoon, so I ended up taking a nap. After the nap, what else did I do? Well, went to bed, of course. What else? So, I suppose my getting up early this morning is justified, to some extent - much the opposite from yesterday.

I've been pulling the day shift at work (8:00am - 4:00pm) which is good in a couple of ways. I've had some things I've wanted to get done around here, plus I have errands I need to complete. I missed my appointment for my car last Thursday, so I still need to get it in for maintenance. Yes, I'm still having issues with the cruise control.

I've also been checking around for prices on enlargements for the lightning photos I shot during the evening of the 7th. I'd really like to get an enlargement or two to hang on my walls here. I have some interest at work to get some enlargements made to hang up there, as well. If you can believe it, we're a private weather forecasting company, yet we have not one weather picture hanging up in that office - anywhere! So, maybe I can start a trend here - and start getting some photos up on those walls. We have plenty of people in that office, especially among us forecasters, that chase and take photos. So, I'm sure we could all contribute.

Anyhow, it's been a little cool around these parts and especially rainy this morning. This upper-level cut-off low is still spinning around the Great Lakes and extending this shield of rain/showers over the eastern part of the state. It should taper off this afternoon, but it will likely keep things a little dreary through a good part of the day. It will, at least, be a good day to be inside at work. I'd rather have it that way, than have a beautiful 80° day and have to work.

I'm looking forward to this next week. A friend of mine will have her week-long vacation and I'm hoping we'll be able to get together and hang out. I managed to meet this woman a couple of months ago and have been e-mailing her back and forth for a while now. She's a little paranoid when it comes to sharing phone numbers and everything, which I can respect and can understand... But, it has been over 2 months now! Hopefully, we'll be able to find a time and finally meet each other.

I haven't talked to Amanda in a while... I should call her to see how she's been and what she's been up to. You know, I'll be honest here -- I understand that some women think that it's the "right" thing for the man to make the first move in a relationship... and to be the one responsible for "calling back..." In very nearly every relationship I've ever been in, that's been mostly true. But for you women (if there are any that actually read this) I'll let you in on one little secret. Us guys like it, too, when you call us! We like to feel wanted too, from time to time. I can recall a relationship while I was a Sr. in high school where this woman, in particular, would call me (out of the blue) and ask me if I wanted to come over, go on a walk, or simply to go out for ice cream... Don't get me wrong, I would call her plenty - but I'll just say, I enjoyed that. It's sad that it doesn't happen anymore - and especially sad that it hasn't in over 4 years.

Anyhow... Any more of this and I'll be forced on anti-depressants for the rest of my life. What I need is to be around my real friends... and I wish I could be. I'm getting very anxious for my trip home in August. I miss Brian and Amy. I miss Justin. And I miss my family. I can't wait to see Brian and Amy's little girl. They sent me a picture the other day of little Zoey... She's getting big and she's staying healthy! Check out this little cutie:


More later...

So, I realize it's been like forever since I've updated this thing... Sincerely apologize, by the way!

Anyhow, not much new up this way. Work has really slowed down lately. Our contracts with Alberta and Iowa ended about mid-April and our responsibilities shifted only to the Northern Indiana districts about the same time. The contract with Indiana ended at the end of April as did Wisconsin. So, we're pretty much into our quiet season at Meridian. My schedule is fairly reflective on that. I only work two seperate shifts the whole month (8:00pm to 4:00am and 8:00am to 4:00pm shifts) and work 4 days of office shifts. So, at least there's some consistency with this month's schedule.

I've really been under a serious crunch financially. After a few unexpected expenses over the past couple of weeks, I'm literally broke. Even though I got my raise a couple weeks ago, it really hasn't helped much in the short-term. Hopefully, it'll start to make more of a difference in a couple of months, when (hopefully) I can get back on my feet. In the meantime, I've been trying to cut back on a few things. Amanda and I are still seeing each other off and on and even though it makes me sounds like a cheap-ass, I'm trying not to just go out everytime, when we do see each other. I've been trying to find ways to spend time together without having to spend money. I had her over the other night and I cooked dinner for her and stayed in to watch a movie. So, see... We can find things to do that don't cost money! Plus, it was something a little different for me. It was (if you can believe it) the first time I've ever cooked dinner for a woman! Neither of us keeled over, so I guess the food turned out alright. The grilled chicken could have been better had I started the rest of the food sooner!

The trip down to Aberdeen for the Convective Workshop went great! The presentations were top-notch and were very interesting. I was very impressed with it. Even though a majority of the folks that were there were NWS employees, I still had a great time. It seemed like they accepted me as an employee of the private sector, so it wasn't as uncomfortable as I thought it would be. There were a lot of nice and intelligent people there. I learned quite a bit from the presentations and I honestly feel I left having taken something away from it. The only part of the whole experience I could have done without was who I went with. The guy is a co-worker and I get along with the guy for the most part, but I'll be brutally honest (can't help it), he was simply embarrassing to be around. I don't know what it is, but he has some serious beef with the NWS and he deliberately criticized the NWS and many of it's practices - AND openly. He criticized the Grand Forks office on numerous occasions when it was clear that the Grand Forks employees were standing very nearby. It was embarrassing and it made me feel very uncomfortable. I don't know if he actually realizes that what he says sometimes can be very offensive or not, but frankly, it is. So, yes, if you haven't taken anything from my rant here, I am implying my attendence next year will not be with him. Which, by the way, I learned that the Grand Forks WFO will be sponsering next year!

Thursday, April 20th, I also attended the basic and advanced Skywarn training here in Grand Forks. Adam Lowe (a co-worker of mine) and I went down to it. Even though we're both rather extensively trained in the science of meteorology, it was still nice to be at a training session up here. I'm not sure, but it may have been the first session that Adam had been through. This will make the 8th or 9th time I've been through Skywarn training and the 2nd time I've been through the advanced session. I met a couple of the Hams at the session and also met the vice-president of the ARES (Amateur Radio Emergency Services) network up here. He had invited to their monthly meeting, but I couldn't make it because of work. I haven't looked close enough at the work schedule, but hopefully I don't work the last Tuesday of this month... They hold their monthly meetings then. I've never been a part of ARES, so I'm a little green on how it runs and all. It would be interesting, however, to sit down and meet everyone and see what it's all about.

Since then, not much more excitement to speak of. The cruise control on my car has been malfunctioning over the past couple of weeks... and I should probably have it looked at. Which I would, if I could afford it - or if I had the time. With me working these 8pm - 4am shifts, I haven't been getting up until 3 or 4pm and by the time I get around and get my shower and everything, the dealership is closed. One of these days, I need to get my ass up and drive it over there.

Anyhow, speaking of which... I still need to get my shower and it's getting to be about that time. Hopefully, everyone has been doing okay and hopefully you're not mad that I haven't been updating this more often. I apologize. In the future, I'll try to get in here and write more.

More later...

In the meantime, though, for you guys out there... You better be voting for your Hometown Hotties for Maxim. Their annual contest has been going on now for 10 weeks!

C'mon, you have to support these hotties: http://www.maximonline.com/hotties/

Personally, I think it's a toss up between the two "Christina's." Christina (Dallas, TX) from Week #1 and Christina (Orlando, FL) from Week #8. You're votes will decide!

Edit: 19 May 2006 @ 1:35pm CDT

Hey folks,

I haven't written much lately... and mostly, because of the work schedule and well, being lazy. This past weekend, I did a lot of catching up on some sleep and got some things done around the apartment. I was tempted to go driving around some of the smaller towns around the area Saturday to take some photos, but got busy doing laundry.

I haven't been sleeping very well lately, just because I've had some things on my mind. My mother mentioned to me some sleeping pills she's taking the other day - I may just look into those. *grin

I've been slowly working on getting the Gallery all put together and just tonight, I worked on getting the rest of my VACUUM and VUSIT photos all uploaded. All I need to do now is upload my photos from the 350D. And I may just try the batch-add feature to do it. It's so much easier doing it that way, but grudgingly uploaded the rest of the photos through the Coppermine user-interface. It works, it's just a little slower. When using the batch-add it uses a completely different directory, so I'm going to use that for the 350D photos. I have a few new ones to add to the gallery, as well, so I'm getting anxious to get them uploaded.

Other goings on... Not much else is new up here. Things with Amanda are going alright, I suppose. I really need to call her and see how she's been, since it's been a few days. It sounds silly, but sometimes I kind of like it when a woman calls me... And she just doesn't call me all that much. I find that I call her most of the time. But, either way, it doesn't really bother me all that much. I've been tossing around the idea of sitting down with her to talk about where I think this is all going. She has a right to know, and I realize that. I need to talk to her - I just keep puting it off. I kind of met someone else over the 'net the other day, but don't really know for sure where I want that to go either. It's weird that I have options and find it awkward that it's tearing me apart trying to figure out what I want. A month and a half ago, I was bitching because I was sick of being single and wasn't getting out to meet anyone. Now look where I'm at... I need to sit back and re-evaluate who I am and make a decision on who I can see a future with. It can't be that hard of thing to do, can it?

Anywho...

For those of you back in Indiana that read this thing... I turned in my vacation for August last Friday. Since Cory worked with me last night, he told me he would take note of the request and that it shouldn't be a problem. I'm not sure exactly how much vacation I'll have by then, but hopefully I'll have enough to be able to take a couple of weeks off. I've asked for the time between Friday, August 18th through Friday, September 1st. That should be a great time to be home... My friends, if they go to the lake again this year, will likely be going up the third weekend of August and that should be the first weekend of my 2-week vacation. It's always a great time going up there... I'm anxious to go home. I haven't seen my friends or my parents in so long.

Well, I'm getting hungry, so I'm gonna go find a midnight snack and watch some TV.
More later...

Hey folks,

I haven't written in here in a while, so I figured I'd drop a note. Things have been pretty busy at work the last few days. We had a fairly potent system push through the upper-midwest this week, resulting in all different precipitation types and some heavy snows, as well. Especially over Iowa and Wisconsin, where some reports have up to a foot of snow.

I've been working day shifts most of the week and since I'm a night-owl, I've been going to bed late and getting up early for work. This hasn't done much good to my health lately, as I haven't been feeling very energetic or motivated lately. And the weather hasn't helped.

We're finally experiencing winter up here in the Northern Plains... I guess we should have expected this - coming off the warmest January on record here in Grand Forks and many other locations across the country. An arctic front finally dropped through the region Tuesday, simply dropping our temperatures like a rock. We dipped to as low at -19 Wednesday morning and hit -21 this morning (Thursday morning). Tonight, we'll likely see temperatures even colder with clear skies and deep snow-pack. We'll probably see temperatures between 20 and 30 degrees below zero. In fact, as of right now (2:13am), it's -22 at the NWS office here in town. Wind Chill Warnings are in effect until 6pm this evening, for possible values of -40 to -60 degrees. That's just down-right hellish...

My car had an extremely hard time starting tonight when leaving for work. It struggled... I had to hold the key for several seconds before it turned over, but at least, it did... And even after letting it warm up for nearly 40 minutes, the heat still wasn't as warm as it typically is by that point.

God, I hate the cold! Someone please explain to me why I moved up here, again... It reached well into the 50's and 60's back home in Indiana on Thursday. And they saw a bit of severe weather, as well. Oh, what I wouldn't give for just one 50-60 degree day up here - or a good thunderstorm! ;)

Other goings on... Not much else has been happening up this way. Amanda and I are still seeing each other off and on. While I'm still having personal issues of how far I want to take this relationship, I think I can say that I'm beginning to like her. I finally met her two daughters, Noel and Anna... and they seem like they're good kids. Amanda and I went out for Valentines Day to Fargo, to check out a restaurant we found over the weekend. It was more formal than I expected... they wanted reservations - something I didn't think about until the last second - and when ordering wine for the both of us, they brought out the whole bottle and a bucket of ice. That's something new for me... I hadn't ever been to a restaurant where they did that. But we had a good time and ate some good food. I spent a little more money than I really wanted to, but seeing to it that I haven't had a reason to celebrate Valentines Day in years - I felt it was justified and deserved, to me and her...

And while I haven't been taking as many pictures with the new camera, I still have some new ones to post in the Gallery. It's been too cold to go out and take pictures lately, so that's the main reason why...

Anyhow, this entry is getting a bit long, so I'm gonna hop off here for now.
Hope everything is going well for everyone!

So, what's up folks?

There's been a little excitement up here the last few nights, so I figured I'd let you all know what's been going on... Friday night, I finally met Amanda... She's a woman that I had met online a couple weeks ago. We've been swapping eMails back and forth and had talked a few times over the phone, so finally decided to meet each other for dinner Friday. She seems real nice and we seem to have some things in common, but there are some minor things I'm concerned with. I'm a little reluctant to start things up with her, since I found out she has a couple of kids. I've known about it for a while, but thought, I'd at least, give her a chance. She has two daughters - one is 7-yrs old and the other turns 1-yr old this week; and found out they're from two different men. I suppose it shouldn't bother me as much, but it makes me think twice on how far I want to pursue any type of relationship. I'll warn you ahead of time that this may sound a little shallow, but, in addition, she isn't exactly Maria Sharapova. And even though, I'm not exactly looking for a trophy, I do want a woman that takes good care of herself.

We ended up going to see a movie after having dinner at Paradiso. We ended up seeing "Munich" and I'm glad we chose it. It's probably one of the most intense movies I've seen in the theatre in quite a while; and probably the most interesting movie I've EVER seen. I'd strongly recommend seeing it, especially if you're into historically-based movies. It's a long movie (2.5 hrs) but well worth your time.

Saturday night, we had our Christmas party for work at the Osborne home. Yes, I said "Christmas" party. December was a fairly busy time for most folks at work, so Cathy decided to push it back into January this year. It was a good time... Lots of co-workers showed up, so I had a chance to see everyone outside of work and just converse, hang out, and eat (and drink!). Cathy and Leon treated us with all sorts of snacks, beer and wine! They even had some Pinot! So, I, of course, had a couple glasses of that. I couldn't drink a whole lot since I had to be at work at midnight.

Now, I'm just sitting here waiting to go home. Practically all areas have been looked at, and most forecasts are out through 00z or later, so I don't have much else to do right now, other than to sit here watching the clock. That's when time goes the slowest!

I'm anxious to get home, sleep, then get up to watch the Colts. They play the Steelers today at noon for the AFC semi-finals. I sure hope they win, cause I want them to go all the way this year. For as well as they have played this year, they deserve it. I was so relieved last night that the Bronco's beat the Patriots. As you all know, I'm no fan of the Pat's at all, so to see them fall to Denver was a sweet surprise. It makes it slightly easier for the Colts, as well, to become the AFC Champions and move on to Super Bowl XL.

We'll see how things go today... Go Colts!

Hey folks,

What a lazy day... I've had the entire day off of work and as such, I haven't felt like doing a whole lot. Yes, it is Friday and I realize that I should be cutting loose on a 20 gallon mug of Killians, but well, I just don't have the money (or motivation) to go out tonight. You see, I sit around and bitch about being single and this is what I'm doing about it. I can see the edge of hermitville just over the horizon! *grin

I did leave the apartment once today, but only to return a PS2 game to Blockbuster. With fundage running low, the last thing I need is a late charge on a stupid game. Upon stepping outside, I realized I've picked a good day to sit around and do absolutely nothing. What a dreary day... It's relatively warm today (as opposed to what it's been lately) but still cool; I'd guess in the mid to upper 30's or so. It's wet all over and just feels raw out there. Oh, and you know one thing that annoys me more than ever? Friggin' wet roads! Cars and trucks in front of you splashing dirty road water all over your windshield... gah! Nuthin' annoys me more than to use my windshield washer fluid every 2 minutes just so I can see. After I returned, I threw in some Friends (Season 5), fixed a couple sandwiches and lounged some more. Damn, am I pathetic. Friday night and I'm sitting here on my laptop writing to you.

I hate being an adult... I just wanna go back to when I was 17, living at home, and didn't have 8 different bills to pay! And a time when I was dating a sweet, beautiful girl named Christy. Have you ever wanted to get in contact with someone so bad and you have no way of knowing how? That's the way I feel. I wonder what she's doing with her life now... if she's married... has kids... if she's happy? In hindsite, I think at the time, I was in love with this woman but never realized it. And even though I did have strong feelings for her, I don't think I ever did truly tell her how I felt about her. Now, over 10 years later, I honestly regret not telling her. Because I really do think if things would have worked out between us, we'd still be together. I really have no idea why or how she would be reading this, but if she was, I'd want her to know that even though it's been years and years since I've last seen or talked to her, I do still think about her often. When you've been without a truly committed relationship for so long, you tend to reflect on past relationships, and that ONE, seems to bubble up to the surface most often.

Well, that's enough sappy commentary from me for tonight. Think I'll check some eMail, maybe chat some, then laze around some more!

Cheers -