Life Update

What's been going on in my life since the last update?

Well, we made it out of the apartment in time (though it was fairly close) with some help from my parents and Naveen. Didn't leave it quite as clean as I wanted to, but it was pretty good. The condo is pretty awesome, even though it's still, technically, not quite finished. The laminated-wood floors look really nice and the paint job is pretty good, overall. We LOVE having the extra room; in the condo, we have an actual kitchen as well as a larger living room and a second bedroom that we're calling the office (and which houses the computers).

Steve and Matt have been preparing for rush; Rik decided to become associate for a while because he was afraid the commitment would be too much to keep up with his schoolwork. I am, at long last, an alumnus (woohoo!) although the distinction is pretty much a technical one since I have to take Steve to almost all the events anyway. We have two very promising rushees signed up already, with a supposed 2-3 more from Marcus. Also, Florencio and (hopefully) Efrain are planning on coming to some events, as well as the regional governor, Robbie, for induction.

Denver Pops Orchestra and BrightonMusic Orchestra have both started up again, good in that I enjoy both, but bad in that I once again have a regular schedule that I must follow. DPO has a bunch of good music for the upcoming September concert, which is an animal-themed childrens' concert, including Flight of the Bumblebee (from the Tale of Tsar Saltan), Peter and the Wolf, and the Overture to The Wasps. The Brighton pieces aren't so interesting, but, on the plus side, we are growing again, which is definitely a good thing.

A few weeks ago, I was hired by a programming startup in Boulder, which is incredibly exciting for me. The good news is that, although I had no real experience with C# (the language of choice) before beginning, I think I've picked up at least the basics pretty quickly.

Got together with Rader last week for the first time in a long time. We hung out, went to dinner and played some Illuminati. (Steve and I think there should be a Futurama Illuminati game, but we can't come up with enough Illuminati groups.

The refrigerator doesn't get as cold as it should, so it's been moved up on the priority list. We've had to throw away some milk and some lunchmeat already.

WarioWare: Smooth Moves (Wii) is a very bizarre game. Metroid Prime 3 (Wii) is pretty cool. Resident Evil 4 (Wii) is cool, but I heard that RE5 won't be available on the Wii, which is ridiculous because the control system on the Wii is the best I've encountered for the style.

Went to a family party last night in welcome of the Wayward Travelers, Amy and Terry, who had been away all summer (more or less). Also, mom's half-brother Dean was there, which was nice. Played Wise or Otherwise, Guillotine and RoboRally. Someday, I will win at RoboRally. Really.

I can't think of any other news that's fit to publish, so I'll sign off for now.

Okay, let's see... Christmas was good. I got what I asked for (with the exception of scores as my parents don't know what I have), which means I have new ties, a new toaster, a nose hair trimmer (mom refused to buy one either for myself or dad... so we bought each other ones ;-) and some books, two Terry Pratchett Discworld novels, which I've already finished reading. I love having no work and no classes. I can just read to my heart's content. After present-opening, we played the brand-new Lord of the Rings Trivial Pursuit. Until we were late for dinner at my aunt's house. Hehe, but we made it not too late. Dinner went well, and Amy, Terry and I played Lord of the Rings Risk, which was actually disappointing. So Amy came up with a bunch of new territories and stuff for it based on maps she found in the novels. We'll have to give it a try soon. Another problem with the game is that the "continents" and territories aren't easy to see, like in regular risk. It seems poorly designed to me, but oh well. Mandy even called while we were there, so I got to talk with her a bit. I never seem to know what to say, though. I've always looked up to her, but I don't feel like we ever quite connected like we could have.

Friday went well. Long quartet rehearsal. Eizo brought Cannon (odd name, huh?), who Eizo bills as a friend but I suspect is his boyfriend. Cannon doesn't play, and to be honest kinda freaked the rest of us out by walking around Bobbette's house and generally being creepy. Oh well. Eizo seemed... not quite himself, but not as mopey as we had feared he might be. I wanna give him a big ol' hug but I'm not sure that's what he wants. Plus I wouldn't want Cannon to think I'm trying to steal him away...

Saturday was Grandma's birthday. So, we got up bright and early and made our way down to the nursing home after picking out some clothes for her. She was in a bad mood when we arrived, but we managed to cheer her up, I think. Her mind is almost completely gone, though. I don't want to live like that, so if you come upon me in such a state and it's likely that I won't recover (ie, I'm not drunk or something like that), put me out of my misery. Quickly. Anyway, in the evening was the wedding gig. It sucked. Badly. We didn't fade well or together, and we had a hard time seeing and hearing... but they were happy with it, so who am I to say anything? We learned a bunch, though. We need to learn to play in sub-optimal conditions, for one thing.

Arte got me a gift, too, so I'll try my best to remember her birthday (the 13th of January, I believe) and get her something. She got me a pride treble clef pin and a pride bracelet, which I will now wear everyday in the hopes that a) someone will see it and it will be a ray of hope in their lives to know that they're not alone and b) a cute guy will see it and ask me out ;-). I still need to talk with Brandon. Find out what he thinks of the situation. 'Cause I'm starting to get attached, and that's bad when the other person isn't even around (believe me, I know). She also let me borrow a couple books, one of which is the Front Runner, which is "the most celebrated gay love story ever." We'll see, but it is good so far.

Today, well... jazz rehearsal is about it. Dinner tomorrow with the quartet. I need to work on the ASSG website, and I'm really distracted right now so if I feel like it I'll finish this later.

Hey everyone (yes, all three of you ;-). Well, I'm back at my parents' house now, so that probably means the updates will be less frequent. But, on the plus side, they will probably also be longer. Well, maybe that's a plus. Do you like snippets or novels?

Anyway, since Thursday morning: I had lunch with Tony, and it was a good lunch, he'd had his review Thursday and one of his staff had given him poor feedback, so he was a little upset about that, but otherwise things were going well. After that, I called Scott and we had coffee with Todd (where we ran into Clay, who later IMed me to tell me that they are both cute, which I was aware of). After coffee we stopped by my apartment, picked up my (old) computer and played some AoE at his house. It was fun, though it took me a little while to get into the game and understand what I needed to do. Afterwards, Sarah showed up since they were going to a movie with some friends that night, and we were on the way to my apartment when I somehow mentioned that I was going clubbing that night but didn't really have suitable clothes. So Scott and Sarah decided it would be fun to help me pick out new clothes, and I admit it was kinda fun, though I think they forgot that I was going to a gay club since they insisted that I wear a white shirt underneath an unbuttoned shirt. Silly folks.

Anyway, after I got back to my apartment and took a shower, I headed over to Jason's apartment. I was right... as soon as I walked in, they started picking at my outfit. They had me lose the white undershirt and wear one of David's shirts instead of my button-up shirt. They also made me change me shoes from my admittedly not-that-comfortable brown "tennis" shoes to a larger but ultimately less comfortable pair of near-boot clown shoes. Or at least, that's how they felt on me. But, apparently I looked good, so who am I to complain? At about this point they decided that they wanted to see my physique, which I admit is not quite stunning. But, they asked for it, and I had already had at least something to drink following no dinner, so I'm sure my judgment wasn't the best at the time, so I unbuttoned my shirt and showed them. They decided that I needed to work out with them since I had a relatively decent body already and I haven't been working out.

Anyway, after a few more glasses of rum and coke, or who knows what they were fixing by then, Jessie called and asked if we wanted a ride. We immediately accepted, and were fortunate to have a DD for the evening. Thanks Jessie! The club, Dream, was alright. I've decided that it's much more fun when you're drunk because the flashing lights are pretty instead of annoying and the music isn't too loud. So I danced, and danced, and lost a cup of ice and a poster to the dance floor because of my drunkeness... And eventually a number of folks had shown up. And it was fun. But despite his promise, Jason did not pimp me out to anyone, so I still haven't ever kissed a boy. Oh well.

As we were leaving the club, we were standing outside talking, and apparently I looked cold because Brandon offered (practically insisted) that I take his jacket. I wasn't cold, so I refused, but he's still such a sweetie. More about Brandon in a bit.

After the club, we went to Denny's, and there was nearly a fight in the restaurant when some guys came in and picked a fight with an apparently random table. It was not us, fortunately.

Then we went back to Jase's and I picked up my clothes and Jessie took me home (to my home, silly). Oh, Jessie, if you read this, and I say this while completely sober: I think you're hot and you are the reason I joined the fraternity (though the one is not the cause of the other).

Friday morning I found out about what happened to my Big Brother, Dusty. While I was out dancing and being drunk (though not disorderly, unless you count the dancing), he was attacked at a gas station for the ostensible reason that he is white (the other was black, though I count it likely that the other was drunk, as well). To make matters worse, the police that arrived on the scene refused to do anything about it, neither make arrests nor even look at the video footage. And I can't express my sadness about our world that such things happen in it, probably several every hour. It's a senseless world. And I don't know what to do about it.

Anyway. I played a while longer with the GIMP before Brandon called to see if I wanted to hang out a while before the "Round the World" alcohol party that the sixth floor was having. So, I headed up, and "Buddhist" Brian was there and so were Kyonee and Papu, and we had a fun time. Some other people came and went, and the party never really got much beyond Brandon's apartment. But that was alright with me. We had tequila (don't even bother. Yuck!), vodka (yay!) and rum (yay!). So suffice it to say I was very drunk that night.

I must say that I'm very impressed with Brandon, whether he was drunk or not, in the way that he managed us and kept us from drinking too much. He even knew how to stop Papu, which was a very good thing, since Papu doesn't quite know when to stop yet. There was some dancing (yes with Brandon), which was difficult since there wasn't much room, but we made it happen. There were some charades. There was Geoff trying to decide whether he should make a pass at Brian so he could at least have a kiss before the New Year (didn't happen). And towards the end, when I was quite drunk, I got emotional while talking with Brandon. And I admitted that I like him, but that I'm scared of him. And that I wanted to be with him. And I stand by that now. I am scared, but I have seen that he cares deeply for us, and that he is a good man. I must not do anything for now, because we are both pledges in the same pledge class, but that will only be for a few months. I enjoyed my drunken cuddle-time. :-)

Anyway, eventually I stumbled home (which meant down the hall to the elevator, then down another hall to my apartment) and collapsed into bed after hearing a message from mom saying that they were going to be by about noon to pick me up the next day. Not something you really want to hear at 4 in the morning.

Anyway, I woke up drunk, which was a surprise to me. Saturday was shopping with Amy. Sunday nothing out of the ordinary happened, except that I found my knitting needles and yarn and am trying to learn how to knit. Monday Amy had her wisdom teeth out, which put her our of it for most of the day, though the surgery went really well and she's actually doing really well right now. Today (Tuesday despite the log entry date) I mostly hung around the house, except for going to a rehearsal for a Christmas eve service I'm playing in. No, no, I'm not Christian, but I am a musician, and musicians are notably mercenary. A gig's a gig, after all, and even if I'm not getting paid (which I believe is the situation) at least some folks know about me and I might get some gigs out of this. For the gig on Saturday, well, Bobbette hopefully got the music back from Chan today, and I still haven't heard from Eizo, so if I don't hear from him soon I'm going to have to try to find a substitute and fast.

Okay, well hopefully that kept you entertained as long as it did me. Have some happy holidays and wish me luck.

Wheeeeeeee!!! So... now I have a blog.

Wheeeeeeee!!! So... now I have a blog.

This weekend: whew. Busy as ever. Okay, well not really, but here's what happened.

Friday night, I go to my parents' house to spend the weekend. Watched television, went to bed. Fun. Oh, and my sister's engaged. With a ring and everything. Looks like the One Ring to me, only without the creepy Mordor writing. They're going to get them engraved when they're married, and then they'll become wedding bands.

Saturday, I get up about 9, shower etc, head over to Bobbette's about 10 to have quartet rehearsal. She had just found out about Arte really being a girl on Wednesday, and is cool with it but thinks Arte needs to make a decision as to whether she's going to portray herself as a man or a woman. Anyway, they had a long talk about it, and then Bobbette called me back and we have a relatively long talk about it as well. Anyway, so I decided that I should come out to Bobbette and Eizo, who are also in the quartet. Well, I came out to Bobbette, but I didn't quite get the chance for Eizo. We also had a couple extra violinists that came, Chan and his girlfriend Jen. Chan's okay, but not as good as Eizo. And Jen's not as good as Chan is. But, they're both decent players, so we'll see how things turn out. I also got to play with Bobbette's new digital recorder. Yay! That was fun, but I couldn't get it to play out to her sound system (we think we hooked up the cords wrong). Well, more to play with next week.

At 1, Bobbette and I went over to Orchestra rehearsal. The director, Kat, was out of town, so I lead this week. I think we had a good rehearsal. We went through all the pieces we're going to play in the Christmas concert, and had time to really work on a few. It was definitely a good rehearsal.

Then, after that, I went back home. Mom and I went out to get some food for dinner (chicken) and a couple movies for the night (The Hours and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat). Mom made dinner and I watched. Then we watched The Hours, which I had to watch for my Intro to LGBT Studies class. It was good, not as good as the book (by Michael Cunningham), though. Then, we watched some tv and eventually went to bed.

Today, Sunday, I got up, read the comics (which is definitely something I miss when I'm at my apartment), and had a breakfast of croissants and omelettes. Yum! Then, eventually, mom and I decided to watch Joseph, which... is... weird, but very good. I like the music (but then, it's Andrew Lloyd Weber, so what should I expect?). Costuming was very good also. The settings were... weird. Weirder than I thought they'd be for a story from the Bible.

Anyway, then I took my shower, watched some of Nightmare Before Christmas and went to jazz rehearsal, which I was again directing. It was okay, but not the best rehearsal I've led. Oh well. Then, home again for dinner and back to my apartment to drop off some of my stuff. Then, to Delta Lambda Phi Interest Group meeting. It was... actually pretty boring this week. Oh well, that's what I get for walking in late, after the gladitorial combat. And now, I'm writing this blog instead of my french homework, which I'm not going to do anyway tonight. So there. And that's my weekend.

In hopes of starting a tradition, a bad limerick:

What is it that I've I never done?
I've never had sex with someone.
I've never been drunk
A class ever flunked
Or turned down the chance for a pun!