The T-I-T-L-E

Well, I got the title to my SUV today, so it's officially my car. No more payments, no more anything. It's an odd feeling, for the most part. I've only owned one other car in my life and that was the old Camry that was ten years old when I got it.

It's amazing how quick life has turned around for me in the last year. This time last year, I was barely getting by and had next to nothing to show for most of it. Now, I've got a new car, and stuff all over the place for retirement and investments. I have to say that my stess load ever since I got the car and got that check from my lawyers practically flatlined. I have nearly no stress at all. It's great. No major drama going on either because most of the people in my life who generated drama isn't around anymore and that's more or less by design. I took my friend Kym to see Dany last night and afterwards, she basically said she has no need to go back to see him for at least three years.

In other news, I'm heading back to Virginia next month for the last time to help Megan and Tai get the kids here and move back. Very excited and very happy for them.

It's a good day.

Spectator sports

For some reason, the closer we get to November 7th the more concerned I get about the outcome of this election. If you'd asked me a month ago, I would have told you the Democrats were going to retake both houses in a rout. They had the momentum and the drive, from what I was seeing and the Republicans just kept giving them gift after gift after gift all the way up to the Mark Foley scandal. For the last two weeks, the GOP can't help but stumble on their tougne whenever they open their collective mouths. And the president seems to be living in some weird alternate universe where clouds are made of cotton candy and any problems just float away on the wind.

But it seems like the tide is starting to shift a little closer to the middle to the point that, I'm not entirely sure the Dems are going to manage to pull it off. I'll give them that they're more than likely to retake the House. In the last week, the number of vulnerable seats went from somewhere around 18 to 40 depending on who you talk to. Out of all those seats, you'd think that somewhere there's 16 seats for the Dems to pick up. But the Senate... That's whole other thing to peer into and divine the future.

While I do love football (yes, Megan, I do) my first love as far as spectator sports go is politics. And, after following it for the last two decades or so, I think I got a prett good feel for it. I have my list of races to watch and I'm taking the night off because I figure, one way or another, I'm going to end up drunk. My love of politics actually came from the speech Ann Richards gave at the 1988 convention. I remember watching it on television and just being glued to the set, watching her and thinking that I was missing something and I desperately wanted to know all about it. After that moment, I followed every presidential election and I honestly couldn't wait for my first chance to actually cast a vote. I think, in some small part, watching the political trends over the years had a hand in how I deal with people. Jason and a few others claim it's just the evil side of me. I wouldn't qualify it as evil, just devious. And that's how I can tell people with some air of certainty that the democrats had no hand in busting open the Mark Foley case. If they had, trust me, they wouldn't have let it run wild over the land until around now. At this point, just two weeks away from election day, there would have been no way in hell the GOP would have been able to circle the wagons or hold any kind of comittee meetings about it prior to the election, which would have just made them look even more like scam artists trying to ignore or cover up the whole mess. And if definately would have halted a few people from out and out campaigning and that would have been an even better hit to the gut for the majority.

So, here I am, hoping that the Democrats manage to keep going strong and not fall into the more obvious traps the Republicans have set up for them and, for the love of the gods KEEP HOWARD DEAN QUIET!!!

Safe and Sound

So, I got back from Seattle to see Jason Thursday night. The flight back was mostly uneventful except for the small thing were it was possible that I may have had to spend a night in Minneapolis because the flight from there to Peoria was overbooked. I honestly thought about taking them up on the offer of the free round trip anytime in the next year from anywhere and the free hotel room. I thought about it for about five minutes before I realized I would much rather go home, snow or no snow.

Oh, yeah, it was snowing in Wisconsin. I'd left Seattle with it's only slightly chilly morning weather and stepped into that all too familiar ice box we know and love as the midwest. But, I took it all in stride because I was coming home from a great vacation. However, that whole vacation feeling came to a crashing halt becuase I had chosen the #1 wrong person to pick me up at the airport. Oh, mom was happy to see me and all, but even before we got into the car, she started in on all the things I needed to do at the house in the next few days. Seriously. I almost wanted to run back into the airport and offer a thousand dollars to any airline that would get me back to that happy feeling I'd had only a few minutes ago.

Seattle in itself is a beautiful city. I took pictures, but not many. Mostly of the arboretum and the Freemont Troll. Once I figure out how to post them I will. We went shopping to Pike Place and that alone was worth the trip. I really can't describe it because it's so unique. Think of a strip mall, but ten times better with a farmers market and great resteraunts up against a night bayside view and you'll have something of an idea of what it's like. I loved it. The campus Jason goes to school (which he skipped all week despite my urgings not to) was just as nice as the rest of the city. Gorgeous gothic style architecture and nice wide open spaces with a nice view of the mountains. Totally worth seeing.

But, for the most part, the best part of my vacation was that I got to sit and do nothing most of the time. Not just do nothing, but I didn't have to sit there contemplating what I needed to do next or hear someone screaming for me or have someone call (although Megan's husband Tai called one night because he must have not been told I was on vacation and decided to chat with me about Warcraft) for one reason or another. It was totally and completely relaxing. I still power napped through most of my days, sleeping only about four to six hours at a time, but that's just become habit and I wasn't about to give myself a free ride on that since I knew eventually I'd have to go back to that soon enough. But, I was totally relaxed and I got a chance to see a good friend I hadn't seen in years. You never know how much you miss someone sometimes until you actually see them again in person. So, all in all, it was a booming success. Oh, Zach? That whole idea about the car thing was totally unnecessay I realized once I got there. for the most part, we walked everywhere we went because it was that close. So, waste of money there. Also, I took five hundred dollars with me and managed to still come home with a hundred and eighty of it, so i guess I did't splurge that much.

All in all, it was a great vacation. Next year, I may go back, but I have to keep in mind tthe friend in L.A. New York, and Florida who I still haven't seen and want to see. Maybe I'll do a round the country tour sometime. ;)

Just so you know, I'm not dead yet.

So, I made the trip ok, thanks to copious amounts of alcohol at the airports.

The trip so far has been fun and entertaining. Jason and I have spent some time just catching up and meeting some of his friends here who are equally as fun to be around as he is.

Right now, nothing much to report because, I am indeed on vacation and I really am not running on a schedule of any kind. I called Alex earlier and talked to him and Megan which was good. I miss seeing them and can't wait for them to come back home.

Other than that, nothing else to talk about. Well, there was the fact that I was extremely jet lagged and also under a general cloud of fogginess due to severe lack of sleep, but I was just too excited about going to Seattle the last day or so that I couldn't sleep. Plus the running around and getting the last minute things that needed to be done did nothing to help my state of confusion when I got here. So, while I did meet his friends, I don't remember any of the names, except for Joseph who came back to Jason's place with us and was highly entertaining in his own right, and Lucas who had a little birthday celebration at the place we ate at last night after getting off the plane.

Since I was low on sleep, I expect I was pretty strange to most of Jason's friends and I couldn't help making a few odd comments here and there just because they were floating around in my head and my filter had already gone to bed, or it was still somewhere in Montana trying to catch up. I feel more like myself now that I've gotten to watch a few football games (both games I didn't care about since the Colts game wasn't able to be seen all the way out here, the bastards) so I think tomorrow, I'll be more up to going out and exploring. Lucky for me, I have money for bail should it be needed.

Next post will probably be when I get home. See ya!

List of things I will do while on vacation

1. I will hold my shit together on the plane.

2. I will charm the pants off each and every person I meet.

3. I will indulge my kender curiosity and explore everything I can while in Seattle.

4. I will NOT indulge in my kender curiosity while on the plane.

5. I will try to keep a running record of notable events while I'm there in the hopes that I can get Zach as jealous as possible.

6. Pictures, pictures, pictures.

7. Relax. That's the point of going.

8. Oh, yeah. Enjoy being with a friend I haven't seen in years.

Ok. I'm ready.

Four more days to go

Well, four more days of work left until I leave for Seattle.

I have to tell you, Internet, I'm really excited about going. Tomorrow I'm going shopping for some new clothes and paying off my car so that I can go there totally and completely stress free.

For those of you begging for an update, about two weeks ago, the settlement money FINALLY came in and it was off to the races as far as how fast I could conceivably blow through it. To date, I've spent roughly $5,000 of it. Yeah, I know that sounds like a lot, but it's not like I blew it on whore's and whiskey (though, the thought did occur to me.) I paid off just about every bill I have including the first credit card I got and paid my cellphone up to November just to be on the safe side. Also, $1,800 of it went to paying the taxes on the house so mom can continue to keep the deed without the city coming down on us. I'm seriously going to talk to her about putting a new addition into her will, making Ryan and Laura have to pay me back all the taxes and any and all improvements over $1,000 I make to the house after mom passes and we end up selling the house.

One thing I need to let you know about how all this money has changed me. Because it has and that shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone. The main way it's changed me is that most of the stress that was hovering over me a month ago is suddenly gone. I realized most of my problems were financial in nature and being able to take care of them in one easy step has gone a long way to bringing me back to my happy self once more.

So, happiness right now is the fact that I'm going on my first real vacation in four years in a manner of days. I'm going to try and not think much about the means in which I'm going to Seattle because my control issues aren't happy that I'm going to be thousands of feet above the planet for a few hours on Saturday with no working knowledge of how to fly a plane or fly period. Maybe this will be a good thing in that it may help me learn to not try and control everything around me or at least accept the fact that some things are out of my ability to shape and control. Or, I could get ripped just prior to getting on the plane and then Jason can have a fabulous time cleaning out his car after we get back to his place.

Either way, it's going to be an interesting adventure and the little kender in me just can't wait to see what happens. Maybe I'll be lucky and scare the shit out of whoever is sitting next to me. Oh, the pictures I will have to share will be priceless, I promise.