1.27.10 - 2.9.10 & 2.10.10

Wow. How quickly fourteen days can go by. It's actually rather scary how I've thought about this blog multiple times every single day for fourteen days, without one real solid effort to actually post something. It makes me think about so many things that I tend to simply think about, but never actually do, and the next thing I know, BAM, fifteen days has passed and I'm trying to play catch up. Well there really isn't a point in playing catch up for this blog in particular, so I'll leave days 27 through 40 blank, and refer to them as a "Dead Motivation Period" as I'm sure I'll encounter it again at some point. Sad.

What actually happened that kept me from writing for FOURTEEN STRAIGHT DAYS? Absolutely nothing. I wasn't in jail. I wasn't paralyzed. There has been no emergencies. No hookers and/or blow. Nothing. Why didn't I do it then, if there was nothing preventing it from happening? Hmmm. A question that I think I need to remember! Scratch that. A question I KNOW I need to remember AND ask myself on a daily basis. I'm going to BOLD it!

WHY DIDN'T I DO IT? (And, should there still be time, why aren't I doing it now?)

We'll see how well I remember this. Meh. Who am I kidding? I know I'll remember it. The real issue is what I do when I don't have an answer to it and to not create an excuse. Gosh. Excuses seem to rule such a high percentage of life. And I'm not just talking about me. I think we're all guilty. A TV show. Dinner with a friend. I made dinner and watched a movie and just simply lost track of time. Sure some things may actually keep me from doing things, but not for fourteen straight days. Stop putting such simple things off, Kyle. Gosh I hate that guy!

Sigh. Seems like today's blog will be brought to you by the word: Random. And the number: 14.

Just to share, here is some of the stuff I remember (at the moment) from the last two weeks:
o Fundraiser for my friend Tina for LLS @ The House of Blues where Steel Panther performed (4 separate links there - two songs and you definitely need to listen to the lyrics! haha)
o Snowboarding at Bear mountain with Jim
o Golfing with my club for the first time in about six months (and losing my match on the 17th hole) aka first Saturday off since Thanksgiving.
o I didn't stick to my $10/day budget AT ALL!
o I got an early birthday present of Carrie Underwood tickets!! Thanks Marissa!
o I created a new budget tracking sheet for February to stay on top of my finances on a daily basis and see how and where I'm wasting my money
o I didn't get any further on my grad school decision
o Jim and I decided we're going to repaint the living room, cover the couches, and go in on a flat screen so the living room looks nice. (don't you dare bring up the budget. Flat screens are priorities! And so is coming home to a nice home.)
o I only went to Cowboy Country twice.
o I drank too much.
o I ate lots of leftovers
o My body seems to have... lost it's love for milk, and I'm still trying to work on that. I don't think I needed to share that. Just wanted to throw in a little "disgust" to go with the "humor" and the "sad" and the "happy."

That pretty much sums everything up for today and the past two weeks. I apologize to all my "loyal followers" (haha) for making you wait two weeks. Until tomorrow, there's day 41 of 365.

Maybe I'll start taking a picture of myself every day, too. Same pose and place and see how I change! HA!

1.23.10

I woke up late today, shocking, and made it to work in time to realize that the day was going to be long and boring. And that it was. Until around 3:00 when customers actually started to come in. Sold a few things and felt good about my time there today, but couldn't wait for the FUN part of the day to start.

I came home, saved $0.17/gallon on gas -it's the little things, right?- and got ready for the rest of the night. I drove up to Studio City for some nice (free) dinner, some great wine and company, some tax signatures, and then headed to a show I purchased tickets for.

The show, "A Big, Gay, North Hollywood Wedding" was absolutely hilarious, entertaining, and well, gay. haha But anyone that knows me knows I love the gays and they love me. Wait... I guess I mean, I'm open to gays. No! Not that either. I love gay people and think they're treated terrible and unfairly. I support them and their rights 110%. And this show was hilarious and I'd recommend it to the biggest homophobes and even bet them $100 that there would be no way they wouldn't laugh their ass off! So yes, I'm promoting their show (go to goldstar.com and get tickets for like $16) and you should ALL go see it.

After the show, I started driving home and debated going to cowboy country. It was the "official PBR afterparty" and from what I had heard, last year was wall-to-wall people. I'm not a fan of this, so I was 75-25 headed home. I got a text from a friend though saying it was busy, but not PACKED, so I decided to go. When I got there, I learned my friend was a liar. ha! Regardless of the overcrowded place, I headed straight for the dance floor and got about three two-steps in within ten minutes. Worth it already. From here on, the night just kept getting better.

After a few more two-steps and a couple line dances, I took some time to get ignored at the bar, and make some conversation with some people that hadn't been there for a few weeks. I was having a great time having some awesome awkward, hard-to-hear, sarcastic conversations with a new friend and even dancing with some new people. Glad I came.

Then I walked back to my "area" to be greeted with a, "Don't freak out with what I'm about to tell you." I immediately thought my nice leather jacket was stolen, with my car keys inside. Turns out someone just yacked all over it, covering it with what looked like a little vodka-cran, some salsa and chips, and maybe a little Del Taco. Much better than being stolen, right? Win!

Not happy, I tried to get a paper towel and wipe some of the party mixture off, when I realized that this shit had some hardening components added in. Too much detail for you? Feeling nauseous? Yeah, well try having to carry it around with that smell an wondering if your hand is in a safe place. So I shoved it in a plastic trash bag and put it out of mouth's reach and continued having a good time.

I ended up having a brief, but interesting conversation with a super cool chick, who thought I looked angelic and religious at first (ha! fooled!), and she helped me remember what I couldn't remember that I wanted to say yesterday, I think. It was that I felt that while writing this blog I should be working more on entertaining you, whomever you are that's reading, as these posts have been rather boring lately. I feel like these posts are explaining my day, but not ME and the details of each thought and how it affects me. I feel like it's almost lacking personality. It's missing that Kyle touch, that would allow you to better understand me. But at the same time, I also feel like this is a part of me that most people don't know. Like the title of my blog, Beyond the funny, the forehead and the frivolity.

This "cool chick" said that it was like I was a few different people. The in-person Kyle, the facebook Kyle (aka bored as hell Kyle), and the blog Kyle. Meh. Maybe that's where my whole confusion of what to do with life lies. I don't really know who I am yet and which variety and combination works best to merge all my schizophrenic personalities ;). Blech. Sounds like a damn Dear Abby letter. I don't even know if any of this makes sense right now, and I'm not going to go back to reread it. I'm tired. It's 2:39am and I have to be up in about four hours for golf. I'll read this again tomorrow and make any necessary edits! Until then, there's day 23 of 365!

1.22.10

PAY DAY! The only real reason not to call into work sick! Work was work today, no need to get into details. Nothing exciting happened except for one of my bosses telling me to pick up the other boss, who as stranded at the Jack in the Box directly behind our store, because it was raining and he didn't have an umbrella. I'll be damned if I was going to get all wet from it, so I drove there only to find that he decided to walk back umbrellaless. This is the point where I would stare directly into the camera with a look of annoyance, a la Jim from The Office, if I had my own show. But I do not.

There was something I wanted to write about while I was driving home from work, but I don't remember what it was. Phew. So glad I wrote that! :-/ Good story huh?

I got home and ate some leftovers and got ready to go dance at Cowboy Country, shocker, but missed getting there before the cover started! Boooo to $5 cover. Learned another new dance and spent another solid five hours dancing and socializing. It was one of the regular's birthday, and another regular made the MOST amazing blueberry cheesecake. I had two pieces, and I wanted a third. Seriously. Amazing. He does his own little bakery thing on the side, and if you ever need some amazing bakery items, let me know! He has also made some damn good Red Velvet Cupcakes! He should get a website!

I think I danced too hard though, because in the middle of my time there I had to take some Vitamin I for my feet! I guess I was stomping too hard. Oh well. Worth it.

I'm home now, and it's time for bed. Until tomorrow, there's day 22 of 365.

1.15.10

OK. Well, I haven't posted or written anything since Friday, so here is my catch-up. Don't hate when there's not much detail, as the particular thoughts of each day may have escaped me.

Typical Friday at work. Started the morning off with our weekly staff meeting and I spent the rest of the day organizing my "office" for 2010. A fun filled Friday of filing! I still felt pretty crappy most of the day, and was debating whether or not to flake on going to Cowboy Country because I was sore and achy and dancing and jumping around just didn't seem fun. However, they were giving a lesson on the line dance Chill Factor, one of the hardest dances, that I didn't want to miss.

I got home from work after an hour ride home, awesome, and went straight into my bed and set my alarm for 30 minutes. The power nap made feel slightly better, so I took a scortching hot shower and headed to Cowboy Country (CC from here on out).

I got there in time to walk straight to the floor, do one of my favorite dances, and learn Chill Factor. After the lesson, I sat at the table with virtually zero energy and feeling terrible and achy. I took a few Ibuprofen, or as I like to call it "Vitamin I," and started to feel a lot better. I grabbed a beer and and felt like I was alive again. I spent the rest of the night dancing and didn't leave until about 12:30 am. I went home and went to bed. Day 15 of 365, done.

1.9.10

Today I'm going to write my page a little differently. I finally realized that I can write and save it as a draft, then publish it later. So whenever I have a thought I want to remember or something happens that I feel is significant in the day, I'm going to hop on here and write it!

It's been a rather slow Saturday at work and I've been sitting here playing games and thinking about random things. Thinking about how this year seemed to get started on the wrong foot, but has turned around remarkably. I feel great about so many things. I feel like I'm finally meeting new people, making progress on how I'm going to deal with the undeniable change that 2010 is going to bring, and I'm having confidence in myself in nearly every facet of my life.

I began this blog complaining that nobody wrote the book on the late 20's of people's lives. Nobody has detailed the silly stresses and loneliness of suddenly feeling abandoned as your friends start getting married, moving away and having PLANNED babies, while you're still struggling to figure out what you want to do as a career. It seems that everyone that I was close to for so long has a different plan and new interests and I feel like I should too. Well, although it's too early to tell yet, I feel like I'm finally starting to realize that the things that I thought might stay the same forever, don't. Other than the dying grass in my front yard. That seems to be a consistency in my life.

However, I've been spending the last few days smiling and completely content with myself and enjoying the one thing that HAS been consistent within myself; laughter. I enjoy making people laugh and I have enjoyed laughing and smiling and loving life more in the past few days than I have in a long time. I'm going to go smile some more now, as I eat some leftover chili and CORNBREAAAAAAD (you have to say that with Southern accent...DO IT!).

The chili and cornbread was DEEEEEEELISH and work was average. After work I decided to go to my new favorite place again and get some more dancing in. I took a two hour nap after work and headed to Cowboy Country around 8:00. Yesterday and today I met some cool new people, and seem to be getting closer to some people that were merely long time acquaintances. I spent virtually four out of the five hours I was there dancing. It makes me happy and it's a pretty damn good workout! Plus with a live band, you can't beat the atmosphere. This is the first time I've ever gone dancing three times in one week and my feet handled it surprisingly well. I left the bar and now here I am ready to PASS OUT! So goodnight. Until tomorrow, there's day 9 of 365

1.8.10

I woke up thinking it was going to be a good day. Even though Fridays are my Thursdays, I was still going to go out and have a good time and that kept a smile on my face. I don't have a lot to say today as it's already almost noon on the day after and all the particulars about this day have seemed to vanish.

Work was relatively painless today. I worked more on the error I made the previous day and finally got it resolved, which was nice. The only highlights of work was dropping off a new mailer to a good friend of mine, and getting to leave early. After work I did a little shopping with the store coupon I had from buying new boots a week ago.

After debating between two shirts for a good fifteen minutes, I finally picked on and bought a few bandanas (slash sweat wiper offers for dancing) and headed to Cowboy Country before they started charging a cover. This is a first. Normally I'm the type that will wait until the party gets started then show up, however, I had nothing else to do so why not save $5? This turned out to be a good thing, as I was able to partake in the lessons I normally miss, and I learned a new line dance that I've been wanting to learn.

After a few hours, some more friends showed up and it was just hours of dancing and a few beers from then on. Seriously, I think it was a good solid six hours of dancing, as I didn't leave until about 1:30am already dreading my alarm going off for work in a few hours. Oh well. 'Tis the price I pay for being such a party animal. Riiiiiight. It was another great day with great people. Until tomorrow (which is already well underway), there's day 8 of 365.

1.6.10

Today was the first day in a long time that I woke up happy and excited. What a great way to begin. I could only hope that by the end of the day, I'd feel the same way.

There wasn't much thought or action for the first part of the day, as it was just work and I was fairly busy. I spent my lunch eating in my car while sitting the car wash, which is always exciting, then cleaned out my car. Having a new car makes me want to keep it clean, unlike old Geraldine that I only washed once every six months. It also makes it more comfortable to be in. After that, I went back to work and, that's right, worked! Little did I know, I was going to become even more happy.

Being a new year, we finally got to the first payroll. After going through to check every one's vacation time to determine if anyone was getting an increase, we discovered that I was due for an increase in vacation time as of 1/1/09, which was never given to me. That means that I now have about a full week of vacation time in my back pocket. This made me ecstatic. I may be able to actually use that free round trip flight anywhere JetBlue flies that I received from Amex!

Feeling even happier than when I woke up, I hopped on the freeway for a LONG drive up to Studio City for dinner and great wine as well as the always great company. The wine, as always, was GREAT. It was a blend that the host made himself and it was so smooth! I could have spent the rest of the night drinking it, but other plans were on the mind of some of my company. I said goodbye, and drove down to my favorite place right now, Cowboy Country.

It was still early, about 9:00, when we got there and most of "the regulars" were there. I spent the next two hours or so two-stepping, cha-cha-ing, and line dancing. Another great end to a great day. Doing something I love to do to end the day may just have to be a new nightly occurrence.

I didn't spend too much time thinking about what I'll be doing come the end of my job here, but it was discussed briefly during dinner. I seem to be leaning heavily towards trying to get into grad school. I probably need to get into working on that process fairly soon. But for now, I'm exhausted from dancing, driving and dining so it's time to sleep. Until tomorrow, there's day 6 of 365.