Nothing like threesomes, public nudity, and office sex get you to come out of your shell, a little.
Aislinn (dancetheorange)
Shortly after my last entry I was invited to attend Sasquatch with this girl, who I had just met at the party mentioned in said last entry. I didn't know who was playing (or really care), but in a matter of seconds it was decided I would be going on the trip. Since the Thursday before this event I've been living at her new place (I think I've spent about 3 nights home since). It's nice, because while I do only work in Redmond roughly a day a week, the commute is far more tolerable. This isn't why I've been staying here though. We're seeing each other, more or less. That is to say, we act very much like a couple, only we haven't donned the usual titles since I will only in town until school starts back up. Of course I can come back on weekends, but it would be foolish to think that would work in the long run. It would be equally foolish to not do anything at all simply because I won't be around indefinitely. At any rate, she's quite awesome, and yes, I guess I can finally say I am "giddy" over her (damn you Kate, and your spy network). I've had a lot of interesting and/or first-time experiences with this girl already. Dare I say, I think she's good for me. To any ladies chasing my nuts: you have just been vagina-blocked.
Sasquatch Festival
En route to this event I was crammed into a Volvo with Aislinn, Liddy, Tom, and Jake - all great people. I was rather beat, and perpetuated my antisocial habits by nodding off for most of the ride there. Figuring out where to camp turned out to be quite a headache, since we only had a ticket for the second night, and were trying to spend the first at a different campground, etc. Ultimately we spent both nights at the gorge campground.
The heat at this event, it was something else. You could not escape the sun. Aislinn and I both burn easily, but liberal splashes of sunblock allowed us to survive the day unscathed. We actually put serious thought into bailing on the show and just spending the day in the tent, but that spelled heatstroke. I'm terrible in the sun, really. Too much and I feel like a wilting pansy, on many levels. Luckily we snagged some shade and snacked on overpriced vendor foods. As for the actual event, I will say this: the sound system at the gorge blows, hard, and the only bands I thought put on a good performance were Aqueduct (they did a rad cover of Damn it Feels Good to be a Gangster), The Arcade Fire (though it did sound rather shrill at times over the speakers), and The Pixies (even though we left in the middle of the set because we've both seen them before).
The nights at the campground were far more entertaining than the festival. Lots of drinking, good people-watching, drunk cooking, etc. That reminds me, the best bread I've had to date was dumpstered by Tom, though we didn't eat it until after the trip. Had some fun with Aislinn and Liddy in the tent at one point too ;). I swear, I've been doing a lot of things recently that I thought I never would. So very un-me, but change is good, right?
Eye Infection
It started on Thursday. From my best guess I got something in my left eye after a fort that Aislinn and I were rolling around in imploded in an onslaught of blankets and boxes. That evening my eye we so irritated that I took out my contact, and later fished out something resembling very hard rubber cement from under my eyelid. Over the next few days I experienced varying degrees of pain as my condition alternated between hellish and tolerable. On the ride back from gorge I could hardly open my swollen eye, and we almost went to the hospital to have it looked at. At a St. Vincent's somewhere along the way I fished out an inch long chunk of rubber cement-like grossness. My eye kept oozing a highly sticky fluid that sealed my eye shut every night until I was able to wash it out again. Gross, I know. On Tuesday (nothing was open for the Monday holiday) I had my eye looked at and was given a prescription for TobraDex. For those of you who have not experienced this drug (likely everyone but Nichole), about 8 minutes after dropping it in the eye you get a very acrid taste in the back of your throat that nothing will wash out. My eye has finally recovered, but I'm still taking the drops until I'm sure it's safe to stop.
Living in Seattle
I still haven't decided if I could live in a city like this or not. At the moment I'm living in Queen Anne. I like the city, but it has its share of pros and cons. For one, I'm not used to driving on such confusing streets. I drive by sight, and never really bother to remember street names, so I've upset Aislinn many a time by asking which way to turn when she feels I should already know by now. On the plus side the good food and events are abundant. Had some great Mediterranean food at Cedar's on Brooklyn (Aislinn spotted the singer from Aqueduct there and said hi), good burritos at Casa D's, cheese sticks and garden burgers at Charley's, and, last night, some more great Mediterranean at Mediterranean Kitchen. I also had my first bubble tea at WOW Bubble Tea (note: I've always hated how much emo kids rave about bubble tea, but it's actually quite good). I'm not fond of the fact that WOW continually plays Christian music, but their tea is far superior to that of Pochi, which is where we went last night. Oh, and someday I will live next to a Whole Foods Market. Their prices rip, but the selection is almost enough to make me sport wood. Spent one night at The War Room. Best bar I've been to (according to The Tablet, is "new and swanky bar that all of Seattle is talking about"; I'm sad to say this now includes me [side note: when did The Tablet just start writing about homosexuality?]), even if it was full of an inordinate amount of hipster trash. Three levels, lots of dancing room, young crowd, open air roof bar. I'll go back someday, unless the hipster trash overrun the place. For those of you know how shy I am about dancing, it was good enough that I actually danced. Kind of makes me wish I were a bartender. The cost of living sure is higher here. Higher city gas prices, bar covers, and the tendency to eat out often add up quick. Still, there are such beautiful people here.
Amateurs!
My car was broken into, again. Same window smashed out (now covered in high-end, superior quality cardboard and silver tape). Total amateur job. They were only able to get the faceplate, but not the rest of the stereo. Here's the funny thing: they pulled some papers out of my glove box, but failed to notice a 40GB iPod sitting in it. They also accessed the trunk, but didn't grab giant travel bag containing a few hundred dollars of electronics and other goods. There was even a cable TV box in the back window, and a cell charger in the front, both left untouched. Because of everything left behind all I could do was laugh, which really confused Aislinn. Instead of replacing the stereo just to have it stolen again I'm going to get portable iPod speakers. I gave some people a ride yesterday and had to have them sit on pillows because I still haven't cleaning all of the broken glass out of the back seat.
Miscellaneous News
Near Future
Shortly after my last entry I was invited to attend Sasquatch with this girl, who I had just met at the party mentioned in said last entry. I didn't know who was playing (or really care), but in a matter of seconds it was decided I would be going on the trip. Since the Thursday before this event I've been living at her new place (I think I've spent about 3 nights home since). It's nice, because while I do only work in Redmond roughly a day a week, the commute is far more tolerable. This isn't why I've been staying here though. We're seeing each other, more or less. That is to say, we act very much like a couple, only we haven't donned the usual titles since I will only in town until school starts back up. Of course I can come back on weekends, but it would be foolish to think that would work in the long run. It would be equally foolish to not do anything at all simply because I won't be around indefinitely. At any rate, she's quite awesome, and yes, I guess I can finally say I am "giddy" over her (damn you Kate, and your spy network). I've had a lot of interesting and/or first-time experiences with this girl already. Dare I say, I think she's good for me. To any ladies chasing my nuts: you have just been vagina-blocked.
Sasquatch Festival
En route to this event I was crammed into a Volvo with Aislinn, Liddy, Tom, and Jake - all great people. I was rather beat, and perpetuated my antisocial habits by nodding off for most of the ride there. Figuring out where to camp turned out to be quite a headache, since we only had a ticket for the second night, and were trying to spend the first at a different campground, etc. Ultimately we spent both nights at the gorge campground.
The heat at this event, it was something else. You could not escape the sun. Aislinn and I both burn easily, but liberal splashes of sunblock allowed us to survive the day unscathed. We actually put serious thought into bailing on the show and just spending the day in the tent, but that spelled heatstroke. I'm terrible in the sun, really. Too much and I feel like a wilting pansy, on many levels. Luckily we snagged some shade and snacked on overpriced vendor foods. As for the actual event, I will say this: the sound system at the gorge blows, hard, and the only bands I thought put on a good performance were Aqueduct (they did a rad cover of Damn it Feels Good to be a Gangster), The Arcade Fire (though it did sound rather shrill at times over the speakers), and The Pixies (even though we left in the middle of the set because we've both seen them before).
The nights at the campground were far more entertaining than the festival. Lots of drinking, good people-watching, drunk cooking, etc. That reminds me, the best bread I've had to date was dumpstered by Tom, though we didn't eat it until after the trip. Had some fun with Aislinn and Liddy in the tent at one point too ;). I swear, I've been doing a lot of things recently that I thought I never would. So very un-me, but change is good, right?
Eye Infection
It started on Thursday. From my best guess I got something in my left eye after a fort that Aislinn and I were rolling around in imploded in an onslaught of blankets and boxes. That evening my eye we so irritated that I took out my contact, and later fished out something resembling very hard rubber cement from under my eyelid. Over the next few days I experienced varying degrees of pain as my condition alternated between hellish and tolerable. On the ride back from gorge I could hardly open my swollen eye, and we almost went to the hospital to have it looked at. At a St. Vincent's somewhere along the way I fished out an inch long chunk of rubber cement-like grossness. My eye kept oozing a highly sticky fluid that sealed my eye shut every night until I was able to wash it out again. Gross, I know. On Tuesday (nothing was open for the Monday holiday) I had my eye looked at and was given a prescription for TobraDex. For those of you who have not experienced this drug (likely everyone but Nichole), about 8 minutes after dropping it in the eye you get a very acrid taste in the back of your throat that nothing will wash out. My eye has finally recovered, but I'm still taking the drops until I'm sure it's safe to stop.
Living in Seattle
I still haven't decided if I could live in a city like this or not. At the moment I'm living in Queen Anne. I like the city, but it has its share of pros and cons. For one, I'm not used to driving on such confusing streets. I drive by sight, and never really bother to remember street names, so I've upset Aislinn many a time by asking which way to turn when she feels I should already know by now. On the plus side the good food and events are abundant. Had some great Mediterranean food at Cedar's on Brooklyn (Aislinn spotted the singer from Aqueduct there and said hi), good burritos at Casa D's, cheese sticks and garden burgers at Charley's, and, last night, some more great Mediterranean at Mediterranean Kitchen. I also had my first bubble tea at WOW Bubble Tea (note: I've always hated how much emo kids rave about bubble tea, but it's actually quite good). I'm not fond of the fact that WOW continually plays Christian music, but their tea is far superior to that of Pochi, which is where we went last night. Oh, and someday I will live next to a Whole Foods Market. Their prices rip, but the selection is almost enough to make me sport wood. Spent one night at The War Room. Best bar I've been to (according to The Tablet, is "new and swanky bar that all of Seattle is talking about"; I'm sad to say this now includes me [side note: when did The Tablet just start writing about homosexuality?]), even if it was full of an inordinate amount of hipster trash. Three levels, lots of dancing room, young crowd, open air roof bar. I'll go back someday, unless the hipster trash overrun the place. For those of you know how shy I am about dancing, it was good enough that I actually danced. Kind of makes me wish I were a bartender. The cost of living sure is higher here. Higher city gas prices, bar covers, and the tendency to eat out often add up quick. Still, there are such beautiful people here.
Amateurs!
My car was broken into, again. Same window smashed out (now covered in high-end, superior quality cardboard and silver tape). Total amateur job. They were only able to get the faceplate, but not the rest of the stereo. Here's the funny thing: they pulled some papers out of my glove box, but failed to notice a 40GB iPod sitting in it. They also accessed the trunk, but didn't grab giant travel bag containing a few hundred dollars of electronics and other goods. There was even a cable TV box in the back window, and a cell charger in the front, both left untouched. Because of everything left behind all I could do was laugh, which really confused Aislinn. Instead of replacing the stereo just to have it stolen again I'm going to get portable iPod speakers. I gave some people a ride yesterday and had to have them sit on pillows because I still haven't cleaning all of the broken glass out of the back seat.
Miscellaneous News
- I've been spotted again.
- And again.
- I just got a $194 ticket for expired plates (plates, not tabs). Guess it was a bad idea to wait 6 months to get around to taking care of that.
- One of Luke's girlfriend's wiener dogs totally chomped my shoe. I crashed at Luke's (yousk8) a few weeks back while I worked in Redmond. Very amusing dogs, and it was cool to see Luke after friggin ages. I was supposed to crash at Luke's a full week, but I finished all my work by Wednesday, thus returning to Bremerton.
- I just got certification! (I may now take upper-level Entrepreneurship courses)
- Since I was unable to register for classes due to not previously having the certification to do so I've been enrolled into a random mix of classes. Good news: I have Friday's off, and I'm only taking 12 credits (I think the lowest I've ever taken before that was 15 credits)
- I've moved out of my old apartment, but have yet to move into the new one. All of my stuff has been crammed into my old roommate's room while he is away for the summer.
- This house has cable internet. Needless to say my new 300GB hard drive is now over 50% full. I'm stocking up on music for the next year, just in case I find myself on another shitty network.
- When I return to Pullman I'm going to sell: my old server, heaps of books, my stereo, my camera, etc. Blowout sale. I don't need money, I just have too many things.
- I'm joining Toastmasters fall semester, because it finally fits my schedule.
- Our family now has 3 new kittens. Kittens rule.
- I still haven't eaten at The Cheesecake Factory or seen Garden State. You know what to do.
Near Future
- Mr. Robinson (quadhome) has informed me that our new apartment will soon be open. Right now it looks like I'll be heading over there next weekend with Aislinn to move my stuff in.
- My optometrist was shocked that I was still wearing disposable contacts that were a good 10 months past their prime. Need to set up an appointment before I return to school.
- I'm kitten-sitting for the last week of this month. Sweet.
- Should I find the time, I will be collecting new clothes and assorted ethnic foods for the following school year, since both are lacking in Pullman.
- Designing new business cards. I plan to get back into working on small tech projects this year. Right now I'm debating if I should open a Pullman PO box, since I don't want to have to order new cards every time I move, and apartment addresses are in no way professional (not that PO boxes are much better). I'm reluctant to do any of this until I revamp my personal site, however.
- I'm upset that I didn't have a good internship/job lined up for this summer, so I'm going to start looking into my options as soon as I get back to school. I don't want a good summer internship, I want the summer internship.