Two Years Ago...

A lot can change in a couple years. Friends get married. Other friends graduate from school. The first African American president in our nation's history is elected and sworn into office. The freaking Arizona Cardinals make the Super Bowl. You move once twice three times (with a fourth pending). You gain people. You lose people.

Things aren't necessarily better...but they aren't necessarily worse. They're just different.

Living
Two years ago, I lived in an apartment in Reseda with ARob. We'd pretty much just moved out of the house on Lanark, and he already had an eye toward purchasing another house (which, of course, would turn out to be the one on Cohasset). A few months later, we moved into that house, and for a year and a half, it was game on. The keg flowed. The grill sizzled. The music room blasted. It was the party house. Parties, hookups, illegal fireworks, magic shows...it was a little bit of everything.

Then Tania moved back to SoCal, which was awesome, but it was also clearly the beginning of the end of an era.

I love them both to death and am happy that they have each other and are able to share their lives together...but at the same time, once it was time for a ring, it was an implicit eviction notice for me. So the first great craigslist hunt began, and it led me to the apartment in Woodland Hills with my first random roommate. All who know me, know how well I fit in there. So after a month and a half of not being able to freaking stand it, the second great craigslist hunt began. This one led me to the much more amicable living situation (at least for the time being) with Annette and Spuds Frankie. W

Friends
One major driving factor in my decision to move out to Ventura, though, was the fact that I was not going to be on an island out there. I had, of course, the C-Squad. Previous trips I'd made to the VC had been fun adventures, and I figured, 'Why would a move out there be any different?' The one obvious drawback was moving further away from the fam and my valley friends, but as it's turned out, they've been more than happy to follow me out here for weekend shenanigans. And in one case, the follow resulted in a relationship and a desire to take the added step of a complete relocation. Worlds colliding...can be a beautiful thing.

Speaking of serendipitous meetings, there is the random occurrence that led to this friend and I wandering back into each other's lives. Who knew a game at CSUN would become a key turning point in life? Jordt and I had gone over there to see Ollie play and ran into Nick Grant. After a short discussion, we realized that all three of us were living in the valley and had no further plans for later that day. That's how it all started. None of this existed two years ago. W

Family
Nor did anyone at Wade Stadium have any idea that life existed without my brother working there for the summer in some fashion, but then he took the LSAT and moved out west for law school. Now he's "Looking California" but still has days of "Feelin' Minnesota." It's not the ideal close option that we had hoped for, and he'd always been an IM or a phone call away, but now it's coming from the same time zone. Furthermore, for adventures this summer, it's a two hour drive--without the three hour flight in front of it. Love it. Also, while mom and dad are further away (boo), they do love Ventura, so they'll visit (yay). WW <--like sweeping a double header

Work
Another thing my readers know about me is that I spend inordinate amounts of time in my office. With the account shuffling, it's been a struggle to keep up, and I've been on the fringe of burnout for...oh...about four months now. This is the same four months that I've been a Sr. AE. I've been in a constant state of chasing and feeling like I'm drowning. While I haven't caught up per se, I haven't drowned either. I still have the same great guidance and help coming from my superiors at the agency. I do need every day of vacation that I'm taking in the next two months, though. All of it non wedding-related. Thank God. W

So, here you have what are essentially the dimensions in my life. The one gaping void, of course, is a relationship (L). It's just something you just can't chase. You can drive yourself crazy worrying about it, or you can just let it ride. Maybe I'm too laissez faire or overly cynical by approaching it this way, but even when you think you've found the right one and you've got it all figured out, sometimes the rug gets pulled out from under you and its gone. The people who are most important stick around. That's what i found out...two years ago.

Happy...

...Birthday to Michelle Moshy! Looking forward to drinks tomorrow night!

...Canada Day!

This is not meant to detract from the great Mosh's birthday festivities, but the DL would be remiss not to post some love for our neighbors to the north on this historic day. I derived this inspiration from my brother's blog, "Looking California, Feeling Canada South Minnesota."

Special shout-out to Adam Hussein, coming at ya live from Edmonton, Alberta. You all know him as "The Hoser" or the continuous victim of racial profiling at Dave & Busters.

¡Viva Canadi!

Fortune Cookie

Dinner w/ Mosh at Mongolian in C Town...quote list and commentary to follow:

"This coming Friday will be an exciting time for you."

OK...so I promised a quote list, but all I remember were my two gems about my car having the measles (because a tree dropped a bunch of crap on it and it had crazy spots everywhere) and about how there was no way Mongolian BBQ could be authentic (because no tribe of nomadic people was going to cruise around northern China with a freaking giant iron plate).

The humor in the fortune clearly links to prom this Friday night, which will be an adventure. Post-prom drinking at Robby's house one of the local bars (probably Dargan's...who's kidding who?) will include Mosh and Jordty. This is going to be a solid evening.

In other news, work is making me deserve, so updates have been few and far between. I apologize. Especially, since there is the story of last Saturday and me almost taking the first ejection of my coaching career. I was right. The umpire was wrong. I kind of wish I had gotten tossed now, because that zero actually admitted it after the fact. He could have spent the back end of that game knowing he ran me for being right. Garbage.

Revisiting an Old Favorite

In getting back to what was once a standard feature of the old myspace blog days, I've decided to blog about fortunes...not the cash money variety, though. The kind that come out of cookies and feed us inane "wisdom" by which we are supposed to live. Don't thank me. Thank Panda Express.

"A note full of cheer is coming from a loved one." Well, I am having lunch with my dad tomorrow...the purpose of which is so I can sign a criminal subpoena that states I am on call to appear at the Van Nuys location of the Superior Court of the Los Angeles Judicial District on Cinco de Mayo (Can you say fiesta?!), so I guess somewhere there is accuracy there. [Insert your own punchline.]

"A much needed vacation will bring a great deal of enjoyment." I don't think anyone will debate that should happen. I just don't think anyone believes that it will. Ever. (Even on the last multi-day vacation I had, which was the cross country roadie with Toph D last August, I took a conference call...from Iowa. This story is 100% true, and I am sure my brother will corroborate it with a comment. Sorry, again, about all the good songs I made you miss because we had to mute the XM.)

"You will always have good luck in your personal affairs." Uh...false.

"An admirer is too shy to greet you." I struggle with this one, as I find it hard to believe anyone could admire anyone else without interacting with said individual. Really...it makes no sense. Plus, I'm about as threatening as a teddy bear. If you're too shy to talk to me, that is going to be a sticking point regardless, so, this is probably a wash anyway.

"Someone is speaking well of you." Good for me. Unfortunately, someone (and probably multiple someones) is (are) also off talking smack.

"You are admired for your adventurous ways." This must be the admirer who is too shy to greet me and thus, doesn't realize that I'm really not that adventurous.

"Past inspirations and experiences will be helpful in your job." This one is actually very true...except that the driving factor is fear. I have a fear that I will be plunged back into the black hole if despair that was my first job. I loved coaching (still do), and I wouldn't trade that experience for the world, but the only purpose my first job served was to drive into my head (brutally at times) that I am not cut out to work in education. I'm glad people do. God bless them. I am not one of these people.

"Beautiful things await you." Proooooooooove iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit.

"People find it difficult to resist your persuasive manner." I can think of at least one person who has no such difficulty.

This link is unrelated to my persuasive manner, but please hit it anyway. I don't care if you watch it, but it will be help with a school project. Thanks! [doooooo iiiiiiiiiiiit]

Michelle "Mu Shu" Moshy

PF Chang's may not get my business again, though not necessarily through any fault of their own. (Other than the shitty excuse for "Chinese" food and horrendous prices, but that's a different deal.) I just got back from lunch with best friend: college version. No, we did not get hammered on this occasion...that photo is for illustrative purposes only but gives a good indication that some sort of chaos is to ensue.


This is mu shu chicken, which is what we ordered but not at all what it looked like. Our waitress wrapped it to look more like this, which is not a big deal...until they fall apart.

SCENE: table at PF Chang's Thousand Oaks...in the dark (more on that in a second)

Michelle takes bite, contents of mu shu burrito wrap thing spill all over onto plate

Michelle looks at Dale with angry face (angry face is key), and says,

"OK...my burrito just shat on my plate."

Dale attempts to keep eating but is unable to as he laughs and spits food all over the place.

END SCENE

This is 100% true, and it just happened. Why were we sitting in the dark? Well...the great "city" of Thousand Oaks has difficulty keeping the power on. Good to know it's not just on the block on which my office is located.

Anyway, this presented a giant dilemma for our mu shu deficient waitress, as it is/was apparently her policy to confiscate drinks as soon as customers had taken more than one sip out of them and bring new ones. Well, with no power, the soft drink machine was obviously not functioning, so she freaked out and apologized like 15 times when our drinks were halfway finished.

I really am not bitching at PF Chang's for the power outage or even the drink policy, as the service was actually quite good. But anything known as a "China Bistro" is a serious red flag. Bistro is a French word that indicates "a small restaurant serving moderately priced simple meals in a modest setting." So, then, this is a French word in the name of a Chinese restaurant that is heinously overpriced for the food you get. Oh yeah, and the place is giant. So I don't know who this PF Chang character is, but he's a liar. And if you're going to go by your initials, please have better initials than PF. Honestly.

(And before any of you post that I'm a dumbass for going there if I'm just going to complain, I had a giftcard, so save it.)