Soooo....

It's been an interesting day. My company's been having some financial difficulties, and I became one of the casualties today. Thank goodness I started a part-time gig a few weeks ago, so now I have something to fall back on. But I can honestly tell you, being laid off is NOT an experience I'd like to repeat.

I'll admit...

I never appreciated the sport of wrestling. I maligned it when my brother participated, simply because I saw him starve himself in the name of a lower weight class. I openly mocked it with my best friend for the singlet and homosexual undertones. And then, I met Al.

I didn't understand the importance of this sport to him for several months after meeting him. I still don't fully understand. However, I have finally accepted it as a true sport, and can appreciate the human element. It's so important to him. It was an essential bonding experience for him and his dad, and it has translated to an unbelievable bond between him and his students. And I can only imagine how happy it would make him to have a son that could follow in his admittedly impressive wrestling footsteps.

I've finally conceded. If I end up with Al, I'll gladly give him a wrestler. As long as I get a lineman. Fair's fair, and all.

New York, New York

A long weekend away from Charlotte was exactly what I needed. Sure, part of it was spent with the fam, which at times leads to stress, but it was fairly stress-free, and then on Saturday I spent the whole day with friends!

I met my family on Thursday and headed to Long Island, where we saw my grandmother for a few minutes before heading to the rehearsal dinner for my cousin's wedding (the reason for the whole trip). Whirlwind catching up with family while scarfing italian food - very nice. Following that, my parents, brother, brother's girlfriend and I went to have a cocktail before bed, which led to me finding out that the Braves would be playing at Shea Stadium for the weekend! I honestly didn't think it'd be possible for me to go to the game because we had plans to go to my aunt's house for breakfast saturday morning.

However... one of my best friends from law school decided to fly up for the weekend, and she was staying with one of our mutual friends in Brooklyn - they are both Braves fans, too - and they planned to go! So I was able to arrange to meet them in the morning in Brooklyn and then head to Shea with them. The Bravos lost 4-3, but it was still a fun game (despite $8 beers and nosebleed seats), and they're tearing down Shea after this season, so it was cool to be able to go there. After that, we went to SoHo to do a little shopping, and then to Canal street so my friend could find herself some good knockoff bags. We were even invited into one of the basement 'showrooms' - the only place to find any of the really good knockoffs, where she bought a couple of things. I'd have bought something, but I'm not too impressed by designer labels (or, as in this case, fake designer labels).

After that, we made it back to the house for a little break. We met another of my friends on a different side of Brooklyn for dinner. They took us to this great Oaxacan place, where we drank wine, and enjoyed mole negro all around the table. Following that, we went to a bar called the Cherry Tree, where I introduced the crowd to chilled blueberry vodka shots with orange. One of the guys we were with said I'd left my legacy in Brooklyn, but I doubt no one else has been imaginative enough to come up with that on their own.

Sunday morning I went with my friend to get bagels for breakfast, then quickly hopped into a cab bound for Laguardia. Sadly, we passed the station I'd gotten off the train from Long Island at, so I realized that I'd just gotten my bearings in Brooklyn right as I was leaving. I'll have to go back soon.

I got back to Charlotte and went to eat dinner and drink some beers before picking up the dog. The beers did the trick because I was passed out by about 9:00. All night I dreamt about my ex boyfriend, which did not lead to a very restful night. He always looks a lot better in dreams than he actually is in real life. I don't quite get that - guess my mind enjoys playing tricks on me. Easily enough forgotten when I remember that I get to see The Current Boyfriend in a couple of weeks! And if things keep going the way they are at work, I may be seeing The Current Boyfriend all the time when I move back to GA for work!

This post is badly written and not very funny, and I don't care, because I'm exhausted!

last (last) weekend (part two)

The boy came in town, which was great. It was his first time visiting, and despite the fact that I had a ticket for night #2, I decided to chill with him instead, and I'm glad I did. We went out to dinner and went to a bar I hang out at sometimes, and then went home. Pretty low key but that was okay... Saturday kind of made up for it.

Things were pretty ho-hum until the moe. show... We went to a movie and then met with my only Charlotte friend prior to the show so she could meet the boy. As we were heading across the street to the show, "Waste" came on, and I booked it for the door, prompting strange looks from both my boy and my friend. That just happened to be the song to which Wally first said "I love you", and I was in NO mood to be hearing that shit. Little did I know bringing up his name would come back to haunt me.

Once we were safely in the venue, beers in hand, and had found a decent spot to stand to wait for the show to start, I was pretty damn content. Exactly where I wanted to be, hanging out with exactly the person I wanted to be with. And then, out of nowhere, Wally. I turned really quickly so he wouldn't see me, and then he came back by, and I had to turn again. He'd told me several months ago that he wouldn't be able to come to the show, so I definitely didn't expect to see him there. And if he'd been there, I expected him to have CC with him. He came with his guy friends that live in Charlotte, I presume. I ended up texting him later (that was dumb) and talked to him the next day, but it certainly threw me to see him there. For a very short while I was reminded of good things with him. But the shitty stuff came back, too.

Plus, other things were happening which effectively diverted my attention. During set break, the boy was talking about his friends and the sighting of my ex had prompted some discussions of his former girlfriends/people he'd dated. I couldn't really get upset about it - the cause of many an emotional problem for the last two years for me was standing somewhere within the building, sharing the same oxygen we were. Either way, I certainly didn't expect to hear some of the things that came out of his mouth. Strangest, by far, is when he said he'd tried to find reasons not to like me, but just couldn't. Umm, thanks? He redeemed himself after the second set started, however. He gave me a reason to have happy memories of a different hippie song, because he decided that was a good time to finally say I love you to me. The funniest part about it (and he didn't have any clue what song was on, either) is that he said it to me during "Happy Hour Hero", and given how we met (through a bartender, at a bar) and how we first kissed (St. Patty's Day happy hour madness), it seemed fitting. Certainly memorable.

The rest of the night was great - he was perfect - not overly emotional, but completely devoid of it either - it was nice to be able to grab his hand if I wanted to, and not feel weird about it, or give him a quick kiss. The somewhat jerky progression of our relationship has left me feeling somewhat strange about things you normally take for granted in relationships, but I am starting to feel more secure about it now. So I'm pretty happy.

moe. shows + visits from the boy = WIN!

last weekend (part one)

Last weekend was fantastic. I'm disappointed that every weekend that follows it is bound to suck because it was so awesome. It effectively started on Thursday evening, when I left work and stopped at home to sign an additional 7-month lease at an astronomically ass-raping rent of $765 a month for a stunningly small apartment in a phenomenally boring suburb of Charlotte. That part wasn't so great, and neither was the harrowing drive over to NoDa, where the Neighborhood Theatre is. I made it okay, parked directly in front of the venue, picked up all of my tickets (two of which didn't get used, but that's okay... I spent Friday night a better way and the man's friend couldn't make it up), and went across the street for drinks. I sat there and got to know the few patrons who were sticking around (one of whom was working the door at the Theatre that night) and sampling their great beer selection. I met some friends of moe.'s drummer, who'd flown down from NY to see the 3-night run, and met some kids from PA who'd come down for the same reason. Pretty decent folks. In the show, I was pretty amazed at the youth of the better part of the crowd, and not too surprised by the conversation I heard, since I'd heard it a million times before at a million shows. ("Dude, I'm SO high", "Dude, this is my 16th show, I'm, like, so badass", "Oh yeah, well I got some Dead recordings from my dad, man, and they're ...", etc., etc., ad infinitum)

The show was good - I don't recall most of the setlist, but I do know they played Crab Eyes. And I just kept thinking to myself how great that was because my ex used to HATE that song. Strangely it reminded him of my past and he always hated when that song got played at shows. So when I heard it, I was like, hell yeah, that Crab Eyes is for you, ass. While I sometimes miss him, for the most part, I'm glad we're over... the good stuff we had is hard to forget, while I so easily willed away all the annoying shit from memory; there was PLENTY of annoying shit. Anyway, so that was pleasing to me. I went home at the end of the show and had to go straight to bed because I had to work on Friday, which really sucked, but I took a half day, which was cool. Speaking of work sucking, I get to leave now, so I'm gonna follow up with Friday's activities another time.