I am quite well. Life has gotten much more exciting for me over the last few months. I am going to school again, and school is way cooler when you are actually old enough to appreciate it, I must admit. Plus I am actually doing quite well, something I hadn't really expected, so yay.

I also have a side job teaching english to adults a handful of hours a month (19 to be exact). It is borderline "business english" (not really business english really because we have quite a fair amount of both retired people and high school students, but I suppose "practical english" would be more like it) and therefore not the most passionate of subjects, but I enjoy teaching in itself and it is feeding my desire to teach at the university level. Which means at least four and a half more years of school. Which is a pretty scary thought. But for the moment I'm taking it one step at a time. I'll have my equiv. of a BA in two and a half more years if all goes as planned, so yeah.

Other than that, a lot of the same ol' stuff really. I am really looking forward to the new Mates of State album in March, which is being released on BARSUK (yay for MOS!), so yeah. That'll be good. I'm watching some show called Medium that only started up over here a few weeks ago, and digging on it (plus it takes place in the metro-Phoenix area and last week they were totally talking about an intersection very close to my parents house and perhaps its homesickness or something, but I find it to be quite cool). We are planning a trip to AZ in April. That's about it.

Lets see, since I have posted last, which I really don't remember, but can guess was in the summer some time, I have gotten married. I have also interviewed for three new jobs and gotten none of them, I have bought a fucking mini van and I am thinking about buying a new MacBook Pro tomorrow.

Now the wedding was a great thing. We went to Niagara Falls, Canada and got married on the Maid of the Mist boat. It rocked. Plus we got souvenir's of our actual wedding site. The best is of coursed the keychain. That or the Christmas ornament. It was wonderful cheesy cool...

The minivan is shit. But it is the ideal vehicle for having a child. I am frightened that Calvin may one day play soccer though. The thought of being a "Soccer Dad" is really terrifying. But the fact that I am a dad is not. Even after 18 months, being a father is really fucking awesome. Even better, I have almost no "OH SHIT, I am REALLY A DAD!" moments. Those were scary ass moments...

As for the new job, I really hate where I am at, I want out but the economy in Michigan SUCKS BIG HAIRY BALLS. So people that are hiring have a large pool, and even more, they have a lot of unemployed creatives willing to take less money. Which leaves me as less desireable. But I shall push on. Besides, Lisa started a new job three weeks ago, and it was a REALLY nice pay raise, as well as only being three miles from home.

Lisa and I are looking for a new home, but don't plan on moving until this time next year. We aren't planning on moving far, as I like that her work is so close, as she is not the best driver and hates commuting. In fact, we may move within walking distance from her office. (She works in a nice little community with a little "small town" downtown area.) We just have to do more investigation of schools.

Finally, I am actually going to go back to school. Amazingly enough, I have decided that I need to finish my degree. I have only taken 12 years off, so I figure I should have no trouble getting back into it. Afterall, I don't have any of those distractions or responsiblities I had in my early 20's. All of that drinking and fucking and drinking and smoking and socializing really made school tough. Being a husband, father and full time employee is much easier to deal with.

This may hold a negative connotation to some, but life's on cruise control right now. That's not a bad thing though.

I've had the same employer for almost seven years now. but in that time span I've been given more responsibility, more compensation and more importantly more freedom. I still have to anwer to someone, but luckily, that someone is a person whom I respect and is a very fair and easy person to work for...it makes selling out a whole lot easier . Aside from work, I've been getting into video editing (home movies and such) , teaching myself Vegas as well as working with some more mass-market, consumer friendly editing tools (Pinnacle Studio) and I've also been able to get back into some of my other old hobbies that kind of took a backseat to being a new dad.

On the home-buying front things are very, very positive. The Mrs. and I have formulated a more solid gameplan and feel like in the next two years we may be able to afford a new home. We're renting a 3 bed/ 2 bath in a really nice, neighborhood with a good school district for a very reasonable amount right now so we're not in a huge rush, but we figure that within the next two years we'll have a bit more money freed up (Caitlyn will be out of day-care and we'll be able to save aout $800 a month) to put toward a mortgage. Fucking houses are expensive.

Speaking of Caitlyn, she just turned four in January. She's started reading and spelling simple words. She's very bright and quick to pick up on things too. She like to sing along to songs in the car (Her favorite song is One For The Razorbacks by Green Day because she knows it reminds me of her mom). She's very into music and loves to dance. She likes learning video games and love her V-Smile system. She wants to figure skate and learn Kung-Fu. I'm so amazed that I helped create something as cool as her. Being a parent is the best.

The Mrs. is also doing really well...she's up for a promotion at work and has turned her penchant for arts and crafts into something more lucrative by designing and assembling wedding/party/baby shower invitations for a small but growing client base. She's really good at it too.

Like I said, life's kind of on cruise control...but we're doing things we like to do and are rediscovering the concept of free-time, which kind of fell by the wayside when Caitlyn as an infant.

It's weird how comfortable and fun this all seems when just a few years ago (well perhaps more than just a few) the very concept of "settling down" seemed foreign...almost alien .

It's good to hear you two are doing well.

Congrats on going back to school Kim, sound like you're really into it! School really is more fun whe you want to go...or when you're drunk, but you don't learn as much that way, and I do speak from personal experience .

Congrats on your wedding Norm! I was wondering whether you and Lisa had taken the next step. Sounds like you guys had fun and did it your way, kudos! Sorry to hear that the job isn't all it could be...hopefully you cn make it work for you, besides a job's just a job, right? Hang in there. Sorry to hear about the min-van too ...kidding...really...I was once eyeing one myself...I went with a station wagon, well sport wagon (or so I tell myself). Fuck it, I make it work for me...we're cool enough to pull it off .

Well. Yeah.

Norm: Maid of the Mist is the SHIT. I went there with my family when I was little and totally loved it. But did you guys have to wear the raincoats? Or did you just get wet in wedding clothes?

RJ: Sport wagon!! I've been dreaming (literally!) of buying a VW GTI lately. Dude, it even has option for PLAID seats. You can't get sportier than that.

Speaking of grown ups, everyone's all getting married, talking about houses, and mortgages! Quite surreal. 4 years ago, we would have internet fights about random shit like dr. pepper vs. cherry pepsi. I guess I will contribute by saying that my dad is making me look into retirement plans and keeps telling me its never too early to contribute. Eh.

I graduated from college last June, and have been working full time since September. I actually got a pay raise yesterday, so that was pretty awesome. The job is a bit high-strung, but the people I work with in my office are awesome. Unfortunately, for the time being, I have moved back into my parents' house to save up some money. My plan is to save up and get myself into graduate school within the next year and a half.

Gotta love BASEketball. Anyway -

I still work at Texaco, where I have reached the dizzy heights of Store Supervisor.

I drive a MkII VW Golf, rollin' on some phat 17s. That's right, I'm totally gangthta.

I still play guitar and sing weak songs badly in my shitty groups. The last one folded, there'll be another shortly.

I did not manage to get tickets for All Tomorrow's Parties this year. Which is a shame.

I bought a computer today. Which is nice.

I have not had a cigarette since Wednesday. I don't know how long giving up will last...

I am very single.

I am going to drink some beer tonight.

Also, I certainly do flash a lot of drivers a lot of hand signs, though they are rarely VW related. Also on the receiving end have been pedestrians (like the woman stood in the road flapping her arms at me earlier tonight - in retrospect I hope she wasn't in trouble & maybe a killer was after her) and cyclists, who are just about the most annoying, disrespectful and downright drunkenly law disobeying bunch of shitheads ever. Damn them all to a cyclepath in hell.

I also realized it's the 3rd time I go to the USA and, for the third time, Bush is still president. I'm beginning to think I'm no good to this country. I prolly bear bad luck.

Maybe everything got better and Mr B. bought himself a brain and, more importantly, a morale.

April 06 has been the weirdest month for me,.. EVER. Bar none.. its been really weird, wacky and wild.

Started on April 1st.. my girlfriend of 4 years broke up with me, which was kind of sad. I had to cancel our plans to go to Vegas for a week vacation together. Then she dropped off all my stuff she had collected over the years (pictures, clothes etc) a week later. Then my best friend almost died from a heart complication, and I got into an accident the next day. Then I found out my ex was already dating someone new, and may have left me for that person. Ugh. THen I got a three day visit at work from my district and regional bosses nitpicking my store for every little thing. Then I found out my Assistant Manager at work might need to get his arm amputated due to some lingering infection from when he was in the army... oy.

.. and now its April 23rd. SEVEN more FREAKING days to go.. at this point I just laugh when something happens, i've resigned myself to the fact that april 06 is the weirdest month ever. On the upside.. I've managed to reconnect with a lot of friends I lost contact with, getting to do a lot of things I wanted to do before but never got around to. woo!

Also.. May is shaping up to be a little better, I get my car back, I was not at fault so it's all paid for, and it'll look better than it did before the accident I'm going to E3 from May 10-12 so that should be fun too. An old high school friend from back east is coming out in early may so it'll be nice to catch up with her and talk about old times. X-Men 3 comes out, which looks good.. and I'll finally be back in shape by May I hope.

Whew. There is Paul is a nutshell. How did I get in this nutshell?? Ahh... hope all is well everyone..

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the Bored lives FOREVER.