"Go placidly amid the noise and the haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence."
    Desiderata

Well the Time of Moving is upon me. This site will be down from this Wednesday until whenever I get broadband hooked up at my new place. TTFN!

"I believe in the soul, the ----, the *****, the small of a woman's back, the hanging curveball, high fiber, good scotch, that the novels of Susan Sontag are self-indulgent, overrated crap.
I believe Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone.
I believe there ought to be a constitutional amendment outlawing artificial turf and the designated hitter.
I believe in the sweet spot, soft-core pornography, opening your presents Christmas morning rather than Christmas Eve, and I believe in long, slow, deep, soft, wet kisses that last for three days. Good night."
    Crash Davis, Bull Durham

I had another lukewarm second date tonight. Its really my fault that it didn't go all that well. I think on some level I wanted it to. I do think that this girl is great, but there wasn't really any chemistry on the first date. I wouldn't have proposed a second date, but she seemed to want to see me again. I don't know... I figured if the positions were reversed that I would want a second chance, but since my heart really wasn't in it it was probably a doomed venture. Do you think its better to just tell someone you don't think there's any romanitc potential after one date or to go through the motions of a second?

Now don't misunderstand me: I wasn't a bastard to her. We DID have a good time, but I really wasn't holding up my end romanticly. I didn't flirt or flatter. I think we can be friends and that's great, but... ugh.

Dating sucks.

"I wish I was the brakeman
 On a hurtling, fevered train
 Crashing headlong into the heartland
 Like a cannon in the rain
 With the beating of the sleepers
 And the burning of the coal
 Counting the towns flashing by
 In a night that's full of soul

 With Light in my head
 And you in my arms"
    The Waterboys, Fisherman's Blues

So I think I've got this softball thing figured out. You just need to get on a team full of guys who know what they're doing and cheer a lot. We won 30-0 today. Crazy.

Word from the bank is that all the money and paperwork is in order. I just need to inspect the place one last time, sign the documents, say goodbye to a bunch of money and the keys are mine! I'm going to take off next Friday to move in and then we're having a little party next saturday. I have high hopes for this summer.

Well, I've decided to go another round with the online personals. There are some fantastic sounding profiles out there, and to be honest all the girls I've met so far have been as cool as they seemed, but that chemistry is a fickle thing I guess. One thing that surprised me: I really perfer people who DON'T post a picture of themselves. Probably for the same reason that books will always be better than movies. Well good books anyway... and maybe not ALL movies. I don't think the book version of Caddyshack would have reached the shear poetic genius of the movie. :-)

"So rosin up that bow for 'Faded Love' and let's all dance.
 If you're gonna play in Texas,
 You gotta have a fiddle in the band."
    Alabama

Ugh... we got ROCKED in the puzzlehunt. We finished 29th (worse than last year). Probably didn't help that some of us were in a Casino till 3:00am the night before. C'est La Vie. :-) There's always next year.

So I've decided to keep trying with these online personals. I contacted a couple of people last night, but I'm not holding my breath. I understand that I don't posses a lot of "Wow"-factor and that the first few dates are always going to be the hardest for me. Its all about the Patience I guess.

Closing is one week away. Still a few potential landmines on the Road to Home Ownership. but the end is in sight! I was going back and forth for a while on the relative merits of having my own places versus having roommates, but I think I'm finally firmly planted on the "need my own space" side of the argument.

Send me good "the bank will lend you money" vibes!

"Its like wiping your ass with silk"
    The Merigovinian on cursing in French, The Matrix Reloaded

Yes we saw The Matrix Reloaded yesterday, and yes I loved it. Hugo Weaving is the coolest man on the planet... even when he's not being a drag queen.

Played in my second softball game yesterday, and it taught me that softball is a lot easier then you would think. We had lost our first game 16 to 13 (mostly due to my fabulous fielding skills), and I figured that was pretty much how the rest of the summer would go. However, that team we lost to was apprently the best team in our little Rec league. Sad. We won yesterday by something like 27 to 4. Strange game.

Puzzlehunt this weekend! Its my third and this time my team is made up entirely of my co-workers and their friends. My goal is just for us to beat the team I played with the last two years. Shouldn't be too hard. We've got some real "in-the-bone" nerds this time around. Have a great weekend!

"Knock me down, back up again
 You're in my blood; I'm not a lonely man"
    Tom Cochran, Life is a Highway

So I had back to back first dates last night and tonight. They both went pretty well, but I'm starting to feel like I shouldn't have to put up with "pretty well". This is either A) a healthy self-assertion on my part that I should waste my time on anything that isn't earthshatting from the get-go or B) a sign that I'm too impatient to deal with the fact that people in their mid-twenties are already so guarded that its hard to learn much about them on the first date. I'm leaning towards the latter, but either way its frustrating. I don't have the emotional strength to play games or (lead someone/be lead) along. Maybe I should just put the whole dating thing on the back-burner for a while.

In other news: I'm less than three weeks away from moving. Seattle, here I come!

"The first ninety years or so... they go by pretty quickly"
    Grumpy Old Men

Guess what? I've got about two months to grow up or I'll be below average:

http://reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=oddlyEnoughNews&storyID=2712913

Ah, who wants to be average anyway?

"That doesn't look comfortable"
    Carl, upon finding me asleep on the floor of the bathroom... again.

Wow, this week has certainly taken quite a nosedive. Sunday's date was decidedly mediocre. I don't think she had a good time, and I'm pretty sure there will be not third date. Note to self: dancing may be too ambitious for a second date. Oh well, can't hit it off with erverybody.

In other news... there's something about people who work at Microsoft that makes them come to work when they're "almost over" being sick. A couple of my co-workers were in that state Monday and Tuesday so I spent all last night sitting up in a cold sweat, and most of this morning placing collect calls to god on the Great White Telephone. Now I'm sitting around in my sweats trying to get well... and to stop spitting up blood.

Well the week has nowhere to go but up. Ever forward!

"in truth it was hard not to feel at least some affection for something capable of providing such unexpected pleasures as
'bacon' and 'murder'"
    Stephen King, Dreamcatcher

Opportunities gained and lost. On the lost side I missed a chance to go bar hopping with a bunch of my co-workers. I seem to have this curse such that whenever I DO go out with them we have a really boring time and whenever I don't go they have a good time. I must be a killjoy I guess. :-) Sounds like I missed my manager blowing off paying cover to a couple of bouncers by confidently walking passed them onto the dance floor and starting to dance. Another teammate apparently had a few drinks and then began trying to grab every ass in the place (gender indiscriminate). Most surprising was that some of our extended teammates were out as well. In other words: I missed my chance to see Robert Hawking (Stephen's son) two-fisting with 18 year old Scotch and Guiness. Nerds on the town.

On the lighter side I'm taking my date from last Monday out dancing tonight. She's done a bit of dancing in the past and seems excited about going. I'm actually a lot more nervous about this than our first meeting. I guess its easier to be intimidated by someone once you have a inkling of how cool and high quality they are, right?

Anyway, time she keeps a flying. I paid what very well may be the last rent check of my life last week. Time to start putting my life in boxes again. Have a great week.