I know its been a couple weeks since my last post. People have been asking if I’m alive. And I didn’t think anyone read this thing! Anyway, here is the 411 on my life right now.

I’m in the process of moving to my new apartment. I’m maybe about half-way moved. Maybe more. I should be done by today or Saturday I think. Of course then, I have the unpacking to deal with. Luckily my friend Tiffany came over yesterday to help me out. She’s an awesome packer. A pro I tell you.

While I’m excited about moving to my own place and being about 1 mile from work and living alone, its going to be interesting for a while (the living alone part). A lot of my friends are moving or have already moved. And when I say a lot, I really mean A LOT. Not just any friends, two of my friends that I spend the most time with are moving away. Alisha leaves Tuesday to go be with Alex in Japan who happens to already be in Japan. Tiffany is leaving early November to go live in Texas (Kenny of course is already there–gotta love the military). On top of that, a couple, or three of my friends from work, Tashieka and Errin have already moved to Tennessee and Texas, respectively, and Roberto moved up to Santa Cruz. I have one other friend that is moving away too, in December, but I don’t know if I can share that yet or not. On top of that, I’m moving away from my roomates and Keva is busy having a baby. It’s a little scary. By Thanksgiving, its gonna be a lonely place around here. Yeah, sure, I got Sara Wilson and maybe 1-2 others, but they are the only ones I see on a regular basis. And Sara W. lives in Salinas, which sucks. Anyway, its just kinda sad to see them all go.

On a more positive note, some exciting plans are being made. So, if you don’t know already, I’m coming home for a week at Thanksgiving–Nov 21-28. Mark your calendars if you live in Kentucky. I think its like a Tues.–Tues. I also got a 3-4 day trip to San Fran coming up for a conference, and during that time, I’m going to be staying with some friends of mine who live up there now. That is at the end of October. Then, Dec 27-31 I will be in St. Louis for Urbana ’06, which is a missions conference. I’m very excited about getting to go to that.

And okay, this is a secret. If you see or talk to anyone in my family, DO NOT TELL THEM!! I’m flying home for Christmas on Dec 23 to surprise my family. I couldn’t bare another year of not being home on Christmas, so I just booked a ticket and made the plans. I’m only here for less than 2 days (Dec 23–Dec 25, yes, I’m leaving on Christmas evening…I have to work on Tues), but it will still be worth it.

Oh yeah, I’m still dating that eHarmony guy. We got some plans for a couple weeks down the rode (what can I say, we’re busy). I’m looking forward to them. He’s a cool guy. And that, my friends, is all I’m gonna say about that

I’m going to Urbana this year. "http://lads.myspace.com/videos/vplayer.swf" flashvars=
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I’m making a list.

All you “list-making” people can rejoice. But just remember, I still think they are stupid and not a means to make any decisions by.

I’m in a mood tonight. I just got through telling one of my best friends that I don’t think she should move to Japan to be with her boyfriend. She is set to leave in about one month. Already bought the plane ticket, put in her notice at her job, etc…And to top it off, I don’t really have that much of a good reason. I just don’t want her to be dissatisfied with her life (even though they would only be there one year–well, less that one year now).

I also talked to a new guy on the phone tonight. We’ve been corresponding on eHarmony for several weeks now. Tonight was our first phone conversation. We talked about an hour. He seems like a nice guy. We’re going to try and meet up in a couple weeks. What is weird is that Monday night I was freaking about because he told me that he had met another person on eHarmony that happens to be one of my co-workers and that I go to church with. How messed up is that? Not just any old person, it had to be “that” person–you know, the last person you would want your boyfriend or whoever to have dated. Nothing against her. I’m just a prideful person that way. Don’t get me wrong, I can see how they were matched. They seem to have similar personalities, and they are both great people. But come on, I have my matches set to “anywhere in the world” and I get matched and end up liking a guy that she met. Today I decided I could deal with it. I talked to her. She told me he was a cool guy, just that it didn’t click. Thats fine. I don’t suspect we have the same taste in guys anyway. But in general, I think its just weird. I’m not sure how I’d feel about it if we did actually start dating. But at the very least, so far, so good. We had a nice conversation tonight and I am looking forward to getting to know him more.

Which leads me to decide that I need to quit stringing along with 2-3 guys at a time. Not dating or doing anything else with. Just talking. But the talking keeps me distracted enough that I don’t have to worry about getting too emotionally attached to any of them. Good in the sense that I don’t move to fast. Bad in the sense that either they end up getting bored/frustrated wit me, or I get bored with them. I don’t’ take the time to get to know them and focus on the potential like I should. Yeah, I know, its all my defensive mechanisms going up to keep me from getting too close to people. So, I’ve decided that I’m just going to focus on one guy–this eHarmony guy, until I figure out if we have any potential or not.

We’ll see how that works out.

So, I was reading through an old email to Crystal tonight and found a link to an old blog post from June 19, 2005 (last year). It was called “Good Confessions”…wanted to see how many of these I still think is true.

At any rate, as Jeff said the other night, confession is good for the soul, or something like that. So I’m going to make some “good” confessions. Yeah, it may not be as juicy, but the good things are so much more important that mistakes or bad things we’ve done. So here we go.

I prayed today. I haven’t prayed today yet…only 25 more minutes of today left too…:(
I cried this week (more than once). I have not cried this week, but I wanted to last night.
I’m an impatient person. Yep, still impatient
God likes to test my patience. Still testing it
I’m tired of being single. Hm, not so much
I have faith that God will take care of that. Still have faith, most days
I think I’m a forgiving person. Maybe I’m not as much as I think I am
I’ve received more forgiveness and grace than I deserve, or that I’ve given. Still true
I have the best friends in the world. Still true
I’ve been the worst friend in the world to more than one person in my life. Definately still true
One of those people is my best friend, even still. yep
I can sometimes be the most loyal, sweetest person I know. yep
I can be the biggest jerk I know. No, I AM the biggest jerk I know
I can be pretty darn funny. Yep, I’m still pretty darn funny…heh
I cross the line sometimes. I cross the line all the time almost
I push boundaries all the time. Still pushing boundaries, although I’ve accepted that they are good sometimes
My grandparents (both sets) are some of my best friends. So True
My parents are getting there. Eh….
I love my brother more than any other person. Definately still true
I still think he’s 5 years old (he’s 19 now, going on 20). He’s 21 now, and yes, I still think he’s 5
I love my job. New job. Yes, I love it too.
Those difficult kids are the ones that make me love my job. Well, no kids, but I still agree with this statement
I’m turning into a computer geek. I am a computer geek
I don’t mind. Still don’t mind
I try to love people unconditionally. Yep
Sometimes it hurts. A lot of times it hurts
It’s always worth it. Hm, I’m not so sure its always worth it anymore.

16 random things about me that you may not have known.

1. I’m a sympathy puker. You can blame this on Jessica.

2. I know the words to random (and new) country songs despite not listening to the stuff. This one could be Alisha’s fault.

3. When I get married (if), I want the very traditional American family. You know, 2.3 kids, white picket fence, dog, SUV driving soccer mom, kind of thing. Oh yeah, and dinner every night at 6pm, at the table, with everyone present. (Speaking of, it looks like the avg. # of kids is going down. It also seems that the higher number of kids you have, the higher the level of poverty. So it seems to me that the cause of poverty is simply kids…heh).

4. I never wanted to play the trumpet. I wanted to play the Sax or percussion. My band director needed brass players, so I picked the trumpet because I had a crush on this guy who had picked it (5th grade…Derek Gregory).

5. I tend to get crushes on my male co-workers. Usually not serious ones, just more flirty stuff.

6. If you ask me “Whatcha doing?” I always respond, “nothing chillin’ at the Holiday Inn“. For over two years straight now. No, it never gets old.

7. I’ve seen The Monster Squad approximately 100 times. “kick him in the nards!”…”What?”…”kick him in the nards!”…”wolfman doesn’t have nards!”….”just do it”…wham! “whoa, wolfman’s got nards!” Heh, I love that line for some odd reason.

8. My favorite book of the Bible is James. My favorite verse is Micah 6:8.

9. I have owned 8 cars (not counting Alex’s that I am renting/driving for the next year). All but one have been stick shifts (that was the last one that I only drove a few months).

10. I have twin half brothers (James and Richard).

11. My favorite bigger size city is Nashville.

12. I want to get married in the Florida Keys.

13. My brother Stew is my most favorite person in this world.

14. I still keep in touch somewhat with a decent number of people I went to elementary or high school with.

15. I hate brown ducks. I once killed my cousin Heather’s duck when I was a kid. I think it might have been brown when he/she grew up.

16. I shot a bird with a BB gun to see if I could hit it. I felt bad, so I nursed it back to health.

I ordered "http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0785263705/104-1313050-3165547?v=glance&n=283155">
this book over the weekend. I’ve read tons of reviews, many
very good, and some bad ones. It seems people either love it or
hate it. So at this point, I’m not sure where I’ll be. I’m guessing
somewhere in the middle. I’ll let ya know.

It started out as a joke. Ask out one random guy a week. Meet them whereever (except not gas stations according to Errin). That was it.

So, as I said, I’m hanging out with Nathan this weekend. Not a date. We’re friends. But since we used to date, it’s questionable. He counted at the guy for this week. Except then, I met this guy online tonight. The plan is to meet up around San Jose next week for some dancing (he’s been taking lessons). Don’t worry, I’ll take someone with me. So I think he counts as next week. Although I guess I can’t really say I asked him out, but if I’m getting dates, or at least hanging out with guys that have potential to be dates, then it works, right?

Oh yeah, I renewed my eHarmony subscription tonight too.

Yesterday was the first day since I moved here that I haven’t seen and enjoyed the beautiful ocean bay out here. Now, sure, there have been days when I haven’t seen it, either because I didn’t leave the house or was out of town, or didn’t drive near it. But I’m talking about, I drove past it on the way to work, spent the day in town, right on the coast, and never even thought once about it. It wasn’t until I was driving home last night, in the dark, that I realized I didn’t take the time to look at it on my way to work that morning. Of course, by then, it was dark, and I couldn’t really see cause the moon wasn’t out.

I need to start re-thinking some of my priorities here. I say that as a joke, but in some ways, as a bigger picture, I really mean it.