yowza. what a weekend.

What a.... wait whoops, forgot to turn on itunes to random before I started typing, you almost missed out on my song for this post. John Mayer as the first song? Oh yeah, this is going to be a good post. You should be excited.

What a weekend to end spring break. I should mention that my sister graduated from cosmetology school on Tuesday, so I drove up to Ames to see her and the rest of my family who was also there. I couldn't be more proud. She's gone through so much to get where she is, and she deserves all the awards given to her during her graduation. I fully expect her to make a bang in the industry, and who knows, maybe even move out to NYC or LA and get all famous and stuff. But really, I couldn't ask for a better squirt sister - she means the world to me and I'd do anything for her. We've grown tremendously close ever since I got into college, and I honestly don't know what I'd do without her advice sometimes. Oh, and I expect free haircuts for life.

After that, I ended up staying at Jon's place for the night to catch up since I hadn't seen him forever. He's another one of the groomsmen in Andrew's wedding, and another of my 5 best friends from my childhood. We sat around and played black ops, then decided to go to the bar for a bit. Skyy vodka mixed with arnold palmer afterwards made playing black ops again nearly impossible, but we sat and talked for a good hour about girls, school, and life. No homo.

After that, Jon and Tonna came to Iowa City Friday night so we could all do some FAC and pregaming at my place before downtown. This again ended in karaoke at saloon, and we knew chawn was wasted because he was sitting off by himself and "pondering" while he consumed numerous saloon appetizers.

Saturday was probably the busiest of all. The wedding party had events in Muscatine - the guys a tux fitting, and the girls a wedding shower. Katy (andrew's fiancee) insisted that we crash the wedding party, and since there was free food we were more than happy to oblige. After numerous cupcakes (check out the first video of Jon... he ate about 4) we made our way to Katy's family's farm where we played football, drank numerous beverages, and got to play on their mini ferris wheel.

SO awesome, I had a blast. We also had the great idea to chug beers while being spun on their merry-go-round. Bad idea. Tonna puked after about a minute.

After we ate, the guys decided to go back to Andrew's for some ping pong, homemade beer which his dad made and was delicious, and a game of poker. I hadn't seen their new house since they moved from Pella, and seeing Divella and George is always great - they're some of the kindest people I know.

Sunday consisted of driving back to Iowa City, and cutting Jon's large fro off of his head. Conor did the honors while Tonna and I lounged around. Jon also never had had a shorts burger, so Tonna and I picked one up for him. A fried egg on a burger? What's not to love?

I can also say that the apartment is spotless, thanks to yours truly spending about 4 hours last night cleaning. Score.

All in all, such a refreshing weekend. I've been in a bit of a rut lately in my life due to various events with girls, work, and school. A weekend with my closest friends was just what I needed. Besides those five guys knowing everything about me, we're always able to bounce ideas and thoughts off each other and expect an honest answer. That's what you need in light though, someone that sees through you justifying situations and decisions and just tells you when you're being retarded, or simply wrong, and gives you another idea you never would have considered. I have the best friends anyone could hope for.

I read a quote again the other day and it really stuck out to me, and really fits my mood right now. "happiness is a mood, not a destination." I guess to me it just means that if you look for it and try for it too hard, you're never going to get it right. Just let it happen, live your life and don't try to force your way into happiness - it's not real if you do.

hitting next on itunes brings up... wow. for tonights song we have Lifehouse - all in all. I honestly can't think of a better song for my mood right now. The chorus is perfect.

"Stand tall

It's going on
It's going on
It's gonna be just fine
You're holding on
Holding on today"

goodnight world.

sb

in Iowa City is boring. The end. I'd much rather be sitting on a beach sipping on a corona than hanging in IC doing nothing.

Oh well, it's St. Patties day. Time to drink

blah.

Sunday funday makes monday hurt.

In other news - this weekend was great. seeing Tonna and Conor was awesome, and I even had a little bit of a blast from the past with Kelli showing up to hang out with Conor. Great girl, and they're awesome for each other.

I didn't go to milwaukee (long, long story there) - but having my friends from home here made it a very memorable weekend. A select few got to see us karaoke at saloon on friday night, as well as dance battle asians at union on sunday. Tonna and I went out to the rec fields on saturday to throw the football around. Got to talking about high school ball and how much we miss it. On the drive home I started getting pretty nostalgic and really missing playing college football too. Stupid back, why did you have to give out on me? Hindsight is 50-50 though; i've made so many friends and such good memories at Iowa that I wouldn't trade it for the world. Also, not paying 32k a year in tuition is kind of nice for a change.

Spring break has consisted of nothing but work so far. I know it's only monday, but my roommate Ty is already in PCB and sending me photos of the beach, and Jake leaves for colorado on wednesday with his girlfriend. I have half a mind to call off work and just drive down to my parent's place in siesta key for the week.

Uhh, I think that's about it for now. I'm going to go play some NCAA before I have to go back to being a corporate slave at OG tonight.

itunes song playing right now - relient k - hope for every fallen man

rollercoasters, ricochets, and redoubts

What a day.

I've been up since about 9, and I didn't really get to sleep until about 4ish last night from what I can recall. Social life issues during midterm week can blow me. At the very least, I've gained a little more clarity and purpose on recent happenings from bouncing ideas off some of my friends - albeit those friend's own social lives are far from a shimmering example of excellence, but i'll take what I can get.

I think that if there's one thing I've learned about relationships and friendships this week it's the volatility of them. One action, one word, even one little thought that was seemingly innocent can come back and blindside you on some idle tuesday.

Life is simple. You make a decision to do something, or to do nothing. There's no point in feeling guilty when the wrong decision is made - what matters is what you take away from it. Will I make the right decision? I don't know... but 'right' is in the eye of the beholder. A quote came back to me while I was writing this, I think Teddy Roosevelt said it - "In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing you can do is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing." I need to do a better job at looking before I leap. Sure, spontaneity is a character trait that I value within myself, but I'd rather look where I was walking than step in a smoldering pile of life's dog shit.

Just my two cents. Back to studying.

song of the night - drake & coldplay (october's very cold mix) - the fly scientist (GREAT song)

midterms, madness, and a melodramatic outlook

Let me just preface this post in stating that the first few paragraphs makes me sound like a whiny, stubborn asshole. I'm okay with that - the story has a good meaning behind it.

Well, leave it to yours truly to completely disregard others situations for his own. I'm not sure if the realization came between being called a liar and fake by a girl that was genuinely interested in me whom I didn't give the time of day for over two years, or when I almost single-handedly ruined a friend's relationship. It's all become pretty murky.

I was sitting in the library around 1:30am this morning trying to cram more information about scottish nationalism in my head, but there were so many other emotions and thoughts swirling around it was like a wet sponge that inevitably wouldn't be able to soak up any more school information with it being completely saturated with the ridiculousness life has become lately.

Dating and I have never been the greatest of friends - and now I know why. Blown off by two separate girls that I was foolhardy enough to think I had somewhat of a "connection" with just doesn't seem to rationalize the effort. I'm not saying that these responses weren't warranted given the certain circumstances regarding each lady, but honestly, to all women out there - it's fucking dinner. If you can't (or don't want to) deal with my company for an hour or two, then I'd rather you get up and leave than give a false, or even worse, fake sense of interest.

Karma is a huge bitch, isn't it? Taking something for granted and playing with peoples emotions is an asshole thing to do - even if you don't know you're doing it. The same goes for you being the reason two separate couples are having disputes is even more pathetic.

This isn't a "boo hoo, look at me pity party." This is a wake the fuck up and quit meddling in others lives just to entertain your own whims.

In other life news, I was going to be going to milwaukee to visit said friend listed before this weekend for spring break. We'll see if that happens. I am, though excited for next weekend, where I will be reunited with all the guys in andrew's wedding (minus troy, because Savannah blows and has to be a gazillion miles away) for tux fitting. Should be interesting.

I guess my ending comments are going to relate to something I tend to see every time I'm driving to work. Around 4-5:30, (depending when I have to go in to work) I literally have seen the same man standing on the side of the road in the same general vicinity. It was a bit leery at first, but the more I paid attention, I noticed that he was, in fact walking slowly in the direction I was coming from. I'm assuming he had just gotten off work, and was on his way home. The part that really strikes me is that every time, without fail he is smiling and waving at every single car that passes. It doesn't seem to matter how long it takes him to travel those 3 blocks along that road, but the most important thing is for him to say hello to everyone that crosses his path. I've come to make the assumption that the man is most likely a little bit slow or handicapped.

Listening to slow music, feeling sorry for myself and being downright pessimistic, this man was able to make me laugh and just smile. It was raining and below 30 degrees out, and he was still there, making sure I knew he wanted to me to have a good day. I thought to myself, "How unselfish is that? That's incredible" and immediately got me thinking about how selfish I've been lately, and what I needed to do to quit being so ridiculously pessimistic and self-loathing, and just have a sense of selflessness towards others. It was a really cool feeling.

Thanks side-of-road-guy, you did what you were trying to do - you made my day.