2010.

This past year, in condensed form:

-Finished out senior year, and graduated high school. Gotta say, those were an awesome four years, made some long lasting friends and good memories.
-Turned 19! Almost two decades of my nonsensical ridiculous self roaming the planet.
-Crazy summer adventures. Pipeline. Downtown. Hardcore beach style. Late nights. Waffle house...soooo much waffle house haha. New friends. Way too much to remember really, but it was awesome, honestly one of the best summers in recent memory.
-Started college! VCU Rams 2k14 baby oh lezz do it. College has been really fun so far, I've made a bunch of new friends and become way better friends with people from high school, and the work and stuff is good too.
-Went to easily 50+ shows and a festival (so stoked for United Blood 2011), saw hundreds of great bands, and made a ton of new friends down at The Warehouse. It really is awesome having that consistant group of thirty to forty friends down there who will have my back and who I get to go crazy with.
-Learned a lot about myself. I was definitely a more confident person this year, and feel like I've really become who I will be for the rest of my life more or less...I mean people change, but as for my basic personality, I feel like that's set pretty much.
-Started, after a long convoluted road, finally dating my girlfriend, who is also my best female friend. Honestly not many people make me as happy as she does, and it's an awesome feeling to have someone like her who I can talk to about pretty much anything...I'm a lucky guy. We've spent an amazing six months together, and hopefully she won't get too sick of my nonsense in the new year!

This year really has been excellent. Everything has gone well for me, and though there's been a fair amount of change, it has been for the better mostly. Hopefully 2011 will treat me as kindly, and HAPPY NEW YEARS!!!

Oh the times they are a' changin'

I'm going to do my best to be a better person this new year. I'm going to stop judging people, or at least do my best to try, and give people a chance. I want to be more giving. I'm going to do my best to be understanding and be a better boyfriend and friend. I'm going to get into the shape I want to before the summer.

Let's do it.

CHRISTMAS EVE

I love Christmas Eve. You have so much leading up to the actual event of Christmas, and it all culminates with Christmas eve. Don't get me wrong. I love the actual Christmas day, presents and all and family and friends, good times!

But.

Christmas Eve is when I personally really "feel" the Christmas spirit the most if that makes sense. For example today, I went out, shopped a bit with my mom (craziness, eff walmart), got Starbucks, came home, played xbox and relaxed, then our family friends Bruce and his daughter Kelly came over, along with a couple of my friends for dinner and just catching up and chilling.

After that, it was time for church at 10:30. Christmas mass is by far my favorite service my church offers. The whole church is decked out in wreathes and candles and poinsettas and other festive stuff, we sing Christmas carols, hear the story of Jesus being born, all that good stuff. Plus my friend Gray came with us. He's not Catholic, so he was a little out of his element haha, but it made for an even better time. After that, we came home, and I went over to Kim's house to pick up my Christmas present from her and to get to see her for a little bit on Christmas Eve. She got me two awesome shirts from two of my favorite hardcore bands, they're definitely gonna be worn/moshed with heavily.

Speaking of her, it really is a great feeling to have someone who cares about you during this season. Couldn't ask for a better girl to be with, just sayin'! Lucky hombre right hurr.

Merry Christmas to the like...3 or 4 people who read this!

Nevermind.

Snow Style

Ella esta aqui y tengo felicidad :)


Since I'm clearly a VCU hipster, I'm going to write about the start of my break in dissociated words and phrases, artsy fartsy style. If you weren't there, this won't make too much sense.

Friday: Hugging/tackling Kim into snow. Short pump. Friends. Vans. El Cap. Carne de Perro. Snowball fight. Kathryn scaring me to death. Lights. Frozen toes. Blockbuster...twice. Starbucks. Jenga aka Jumbling Blocks. Elizabeth bumping the table. Laughing, a lot. Teeth. Couch/stage dives. Elizabeth farting on me, probably sharting. Napping. Hugs goodbye. Sleep.

Saturday: Awake at noon. Xbox. Tree. Stringing lights. Carpenter's Christmas. Ornaments. Writing music. Gray hangs. Hunan Beef for dinner. Xbox. Kim. Cookie bars. Downtown. Lights and deer and glass and marble. Pictures. Capital. Big tree. Cold. "Sad and happy". House hunting. Good talks. TBell. "Guardian". Kiss goodbye. Sleep....at 5am :)

Definitely an awesome start to the break. I'm seriously so happy that everyone is home, and that I'll have 3 whole weeks with my friends and Kim and her friends, and with no school worries. Everything feels right. Good times my friends, good times.

Can't do anything right. And I'm getting sick. Cool.

Snow

Love it, love driving in it. But when my girlfriend can't get home and my friends aren't allowed out in it....fuck off, snow.

This should be added to my pet peeves post.

Pet Peeves.

^Me making my annoyed face. I'm bored and trying hard not to have my cough get worse, so to distract myself, I feel like writing about annoyances haha.

1. Armchair philosophers/politicians - The WORST. Talkin' bout the people, we all know them, who are horribly misinformed and lack little knowledge on a topic, yet insist on going on about said topic and make horribly biased/incorrect generalizations.

2. Forgetting a jacket when it's cold, happens to me all the time. Especially when it's windy. Eww.

3. Powdery snow getting thrown at you and stinging your face, often going down your shirt. Biggest bummer.

4. Immaturity. Completely different from acting goofy or crazy and going and doing crazy stuff, cuz most of that is just fun. I'm talking about people who handle situations in a completely selfish way, people who judge others at first glance, those who are posessive of others, people who can't be content with present situations, those who feel a need for overbearing inclusiveness, stuff like that. I don't know if immaturity is the right word, I dunno, but people like that need to get real.

5. Militant straight edge people. Just...no.

6. People with zero holiday spirit, lame.

7. Spin kicks. I mean, moshing in general looks stupid hahaha. But twirling in a circle? Unless you're a small person and nimble, you're gonna look horrible. Especially the larger people who go for it. Actually I don't mind spin kicks, they provide laughs. Kicking back into the crowd is annoying, mainly because the sole purpose is to hurt people. Weak.

8. My lack of music theory knowledge. I need to work on that, it bums me out when someone's like "Just write something in the key of E" for example and I don't always know what to do.

9. And finally...the worst thing ever....FRICKIN' FRUIT DAYS AT SHAFER! WHO WANTS TO SUBSTITUTE A STUPID BANANA FOR A COOKIE!? NO ONE! :D

Major Change pt. 2?

Already went from mass communications/journalism to political science, I've been thinking though, definitely not the most practical of majors.

Kim's gotten me all interested in psychology. I've always though criminal psychology or just psychology in general would be an interesting job, and really rewarding too if you're able to help someone. Not to mention it's a practical field, people will always need help. I really like listening to people also, and (too often) I like trying to give advice. That and it seems a lot of (sometimes sorta random, or at least unexpected) people generally tend to confide in me for whatever reason, maybe that'd work in my favor? Who knows. Seems like it'd be fun though, might take some psych classes at least.

I wish I could work in the music industry too or run a recording studio.

Too many choices haha.



ALSO CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!

Long distance blows sometimes.

Long and deep talks are the best. I'm happy :)

Wintuh

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^Snowflakes falling. I. Love. Winter. It seriously made me so happy when I was at JMU when it started to snow. It wasn't a lot, but still, just seeing that puts me in a good mood. I hope it snows a lot in Richmond! I have plans with a bunch of my friends to grab sleds and go riding down the Shockoe Slip hill and down Broad Street when it snows, before the plows come. That'll be awesome, it better snow!! I really like being out in the cold too, it feels invigorating, especially when I come back to my house in the west end and get in front of the fire...awesome.

Also, just the whole Christmas season makes me so happy. It's not even getting presents really, it's everything else. The music, the food, being with family and friends, the general happy feeling, it's all good. And baby Jesus. Nuff said.

On top of all this, it's seriously awesome to have someone to share it with :)

Good mood thinking ahead to break.

Really good weekend, got to finally see Kim for a monthaversary! Every time those roll around one of us has been busy or something haha, but we got to get together for our six month. I had a lot of fun meeting and hanging out with her friends, and just getting time to lay around with her and talk is always nice. The past six months have been amazing. I feel like with her I've obviously had an great time, but also matured and changed for the positive as a person, and made new friends. I was sad to have to say bye to her, but then again we've only got a couple weeks till we see each other again.

On a more negative note, bleh weird mood all day. I think it's just because I'm tired, and I think I'm getting a cold or something. Just kinda had a bleak outlook on things today, felt weird and negative about myself, that no one gives a shit about what I do, and just didn't feel good in general haha. Sigh. Whatever. Seeing and hanging out with friends helped some I suppose, I tried to put on a happy face them and stuff and we had a good time. Oh well. Just one of those days.



^Kinda how I felt. I know the lyrics don't apply, and not trying to sound emo, but I just felt melancholy and useless all day. I'll stop bitching about it, I don't like complaining it generally makes me feel worse.

And finally on a more random and happy note, I love the winter. I don't have a jacket or warm enough clothes (gotta go shoppin!) and it's freezing, but hey I like it haha, just makes me feel better being outside, so excited for Winter Break, we better get some snow!

Looking Forward

I talked on the phone with Kim for a couple hours today about just life in general. Besides being a really good conversation, it had me thinking about what I want to accomplish and where I want to be in the future, and my goals in general. Right now I'm pretty pleased with how life is going for me. I'm doing solid in school (though I need to work on motivation), I have wonderful friends and an amazing girlfriend, am fortunate enough to be receiving a college education courtesy of my parents, and I'm generally just happy.

Howabout the future though? I know that I'm only 19 years old, but doesn't hurt to think ahead you know? That's what me and Kim were talking about primarily. Some goals.

-Finish college first off, then potentially grad school? Dunno where.
-TRAVEL!!! And before I work. I'll have the rest of my life to work and live in the United States. There's no way I want to die an old man without getting out and seeing the world...I definitely want to travel for at least a few months before I start completely focusing on a career.
-Marriage. Pretty self explanatory. Besides being obviously the woman that you love, I feel like your wife is your best friend when you get married (well, if you married the right person haha I suppose), I mean you know everything and do everything with that person, and it'd be awesome to have someone like that and get to travel the world and stuff with them.
-Kids. I never understand people who are against having children. I mean...it's like a whole independent little person that you help create, and you get to watch them grow and be an influence on them, pretty amazing.
-Career. I honestly have no idea where I want to end up with this. I love writing...I love music...I love global cultures/history...I love to read...just a lot to think about in terms of what I want to do for the rest of my life. I just want to be sure to have a job that is flexible and fun, and with which I can support my wife and children so they can be happy and be able to do whatever and not have to worry.
-Music. I'd like to create music up until the day I die. Good stuff right there.
-Religion. I have kind of unorthodox views on some things, but I of course still consider myself a Christian. I'd like to explore the religion a little more and become a stronger Christian, but while retaining my own views on things. I dunno. It's complicated.

If I can manage all that, and probably other stuff I forgot, I'll have lived a fulfilling life. It's a bit overwhelming when you consider that some of the decisions you make now, while in college, can really affect the course of your entire life. Hopefully I don't screw too much of it up! Haha.

Inked.

Yesterday was busy. Too busy honestly haha, ended up with a huge headache, hopefully today I can just chill and do work. Last night was fun though, some words to describe it: naked, tattoos, cops, medians, shots. If that doesn't sound fun I don't know what does. Also, it makes me really happy that my girlfriend feels comfortable enough to talk to me about pretty much anything, and that I feel the same way :)

Also (and yes it's real, don't tell my mom...seriously. I'll tell her but not yet, and she should find out from me haha.):

If you couldn't tell, says 804, looks better in person plus it's bruised in that picture, not to mention it's a homemade tattoo, so it's not expected to be perfect haha. Stick and poke done with needles and india ink done by Ryan Burns haha, good times.