1.25.10

While I woke up super excited today, I was still moving pretty slowly. Even though I was going snowboarding, there's only two things that get me up from bed quickly and one of those things is golf. Don't worry about the other ;). After getting all my things loaded up, I headed to Mt. Baldy, skipping the stop at the bank to put some money in.

Last night, a friend of mine said she and two of her friends were going to be at Baldy today too, so I figured I'd meet up with them at some point on the mountain. While nice to have some company, I was going to be snowboarding regardless of whether or not I was alone. After all, it's been three years since I last strapped in and this was one of the biggest snow dumps SoCal has seen in years. I wasn't going to miss it!

After driving up to the parking lot twice - once not knowing I needed a special pass since my puny two-wheel drive wasn't allowed into the parking lot, which required me to drive back down ten minutes, then back up - I got to the lift ticket line, $10 off coupon in hand. This was probably my only real complaint of the day; the line for tickets took FOR-EV-ER!

Ticket attached, I headed straight to the top, wondering if I'd remember how to do this and how many times I'd look like an idiot. Fortunately, after a few cuts, things started to come back and I got back into it in no time. It was a perfect day! Sunny, warm and not very crowded. I was glad I wore a T-shirt and light windbreaker, because I was getting hot! In fact, there was a "dude" wearing shorts and a tank top skiing around! I got a few runs in, then decided to look around for my friends. As I was looking around I heard, "Hi Kyle!" from the chair lift up from the ticket line. What timing!

The three girls, Kacie, Breanne and Laura, got off the chair lift as I took pictures of them falling. The four of us took a couple runs then stopped at the bar for some beer and food! This is where the fun began!

After drinking a few beers, we decided to get back out and do a few more runs before it got too cold and started closing. By now, the clouds were creeping in. Kacie and I were standing outside waiting for the other two girls, when she started complaining that her brand new DC boots were already missing a decal. This is when she told me something along the lines of, "That little logo missing is like fate. I have something to tell you, but I'll wait till the end of the day. But you're going to adore me forever." After a few minutes of me pestering her to just tell me now and that they'd probably leave or get separated so she should just save the drama and tell me, I gave up and we all started off down the hill.

After the first run, Breanne and I decided to go up, while Kacie and Laura decided to call it quits. Coming down the very first run, Breanne and I got separated, so I did about four more runs on my own.

It was getting cold and looking like rain, so I headed down to my car. Upon arrival of my car, I noticed I was missing something. My wallet. I F-R-E-A-K-E-D! I immediately grabbed my board, went up to the ticket office and asked them to call up to the bar and see if they found it. They didn't. :( I nearly cried. I had my entire paycheck in there! As I was filling out my information, in case it was turned in, the "dude" with the shorts and tank top, who was standing there listening, said, "Hey. What'd you lose?" I explained and this was the next few exchanges:

"Where's the blonde that was next to you?"
"We got separated, why?"
"She didn't tell you?"
"Tell me what? WAIT! She told me that she had something to tell me, but she was going to make me wait, and that I'd adore her forever. Does she have my wallet?"
"She really didn't tell you? What a bitch!"
(Nodding in agreeance) "Seriously!? That would make sense!"
"I saw her pick it up, and asked her how much was inside so we could split it. She said it was her ex-boyfriends and that she had to give it to him. So how much was in there anyway?"
"Well over $1,000!"
"WHAT?!!? She screwed ME too!"
(awkward laugh by me) I thanked him for telling me, so I didn't have to cry the entire way home.

I headed back to my car, both relieved and thinking about how I'd act when I saw Kacie next. While changing, Laura came up to me asking where Breanne was. I thought she was joking at first, and was really coming to give me my wallet, but she wasn't. I headed up to their car to get my wallet, and found Kacie sleeping. So I pounded on the window to startle her, then gave her a little sign language. I think I wished her a merry christmas, I could be wrong. ;) She laughed.

It turns out that when she noticed that her logo was missing on the boot, she went back in to try and find it and while looking around the floor, found my wallet that fell out because I didn't zip my pocket. I told her the story from the "dude" and asked her if she looked in the wallet. She said nope, so I opened it for her, showing her the cash that I decided NOT to deposit on the way up. Laura and her both yelled in unison, "Why do you have that much cash on you! Who does that?" I'll tell you who. This guy! The guy that thinks, "What are the chances of me actually losing my wallet?" Well, now I know! A very, VERY, valuable lesson! Funny to them, not so much to me!

Kacie being Kacie, told me that I owe her! I couldn't deny it. She saved me big time. Losing that much money around the first of the month is the worst thing that could happen to me, financially. Laura voiced her opinion, that I should take BOTH of them to sushi, to which I nodded sure, but I'll wait to see what Kacie demands, as she is the one that saved me.

Breanne finally came down to the car and we parted ways. While walking back to my car, in sandals no less, I was trying to be careful to not step in puddles and completely soak myself. My cautiousness backfired as I flailed around for a solid five seconds (that I wish I had on tape) and BAM! down I went. And what do you do when you fall? Put your hand down to brace yourself. Well my hand was holding my iPhone, and the two went straight into a puddle. Although it's working OK now, it was freaking out on the drive home with random vibrations, the ipod coming on and off and other little issues. I did get a few sympathy claps from two guys getting in their car though. I needed to get home and go to bed to avoid any more disasters! That is, if I could make it down this slippery road!

I made it home intact, unpacked my car, popped a beer, and watched some TV. Overall, a great day with some great luck thrown in. And boy am I glad the three stooges came! Otherwise the "dude" would have a whole new wardrobe of tank tops and shorts to ski in! Until tomorrow, there's a very interesting, up and down day 25 of 365.

1.24.10

Crap. It seems that when I have the most time to actually write my blog here, are the times I don't. Oh well.

Woke up early to golf today. Shocking right? I ended up playing like crap today, but still enjoyed it and was lucky to have the other two guys play equally as crappy, thus saving me what could have been a really expensive day!

After golf I headed home to watch me some NFL playoffs. I really wanted to watch them outside somewhere though, because it was SO beautiful out. Seriously. The rain washed all the stink away, and it was perfect weather. BUT, I was alone and decided to just go home and watch it with a nice cold beer! :) I was in a very good mood.

After the game I took a shower and got ready to go out to dinner with two great friends, Ryan and Ralph. The three of us used to go out a lot more, but schedules and living situations have made it more difficult. It was nice how easily this dinner was set up, though, and I was excited to see them. Both of these guys have always been there for me. They give me advice, call me out when I'm making excuses, and are both hilarious and good people. Plus, we were going to one of my favorite restaurants, Z'tejas!

The dinner, the company and the conversation was great, as expected. I was particularly interested to hear Ralph's views on my whole "late twenties crisis." He reminded me that it doesn't matter what other people are doing, what I think about where they're at in their lives and how "made" it seems everyone else is, because I don't know the particulars of their lives and their feelings. For all I know, they could be thinking that I have everything figured out and they're the ones that are lost. So simple, yet so hard to keep in mind. I need to figure out what I want to do with my life FOR ME, not because of what everyone else is doing. Unfortunate part is I haven't really got a clue! I need a little luck and/or someone to help me find that golden egg haha!

After dinner, I headed home and simply hung out with Jim watching TV. I smiled looking back at a fun day doing the things I love and with good people on an amazingly beautiful day. Until tomorrow, there's day 24 of 365.

1.13.10

Day thirteen and things seem to be going along just fine. My morning started with a little bit of traffic, most of which I avoided thanks to a tip from a friend, and I got to work about fifteen minutes late. I was pretty busy for most of the day with work, so there wasn't much going on upstairs.

I did, however, take a long lunch and go to dinner with a great friend of mine, Ryan. It's always fun hanging out with him. We're pretty similar, minus the fact that he works like 90 hours each week. I really only got to see him because he played hooky from work. So thanks, Ryan! (I know he reads this because everything I started to talk about initiated an, "I read that on your blog.")

After work I headed up to Studio City, as I do most every Wednesday, for some dinner and wine. Ribs, broccoli slaw something, grilled brie and pear with cinnamon sandwich, and beans! It was all really good! After dinner we sat and laughed at American Idol until it was time to go home.

That pretty much sums up today. Not much happened. I'm going to go put my "pants on the ground. pants on the ground. Lookin like a fool with my pants on the ground." and go to bed. Until tomorrow, there's day 13 of 365.

1.11.10

I woke up today around 11 am and boy was it nice to sleep in. I probably could have slept until 12, but I was going to go play golf! I got ready, ate some more leftover chili and coooooooooornbreaaaad and headed to the course. I met up with my buddy Mike, and we teed it up. I was playing pretty well on the front nine, a double on #1 - had to take a drop - and two bogeys, and the back nine was just awful. I didn't make a par until 17 and 18. A decent 84, but not any better and I feel SO CLOSE to being good. That whole not-practicing thing probably doesn't help. Either way it was a fun round. I also played with the owner of THE SECRET SPOT in Huntington Beach. Cool dude and a super hip vegetarian restuarant. Go there!

After golf was over, I came home and changed and headed out to volleyball, since I missed out yesterday. I didn't get to play as much, but it's always worth it even to play one game. It's getting me back in shape, along with the dancing, walking the golf courses and eating better. And yes, chili and cornbread is eating better! hah.

On my drive home from volleyball I got a sweet tooth, which I don't think has ever happened. I headed into Vons, with Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia on my mind. I left with two pints, some iced tea - OH CRAP. I just brewed some. BRB......

MMMMMMMMMMMMMM delicious!

and some of those amazing pink and white animal cookies! It made me think about how we used to have them as a kid, but I'd only get to eat like two. That bag will be lucky to make it to Wednesday!

Today was a great day. I love my Mondays. Going out and playing golf with a good friend and then volleyball with a good friend is more than I could ask for. Well, doing anything with good friends is more than I could ask for. I also thought about myself, as a friend to others. I hope people think of me as a good friend too! I'm going to work on that a little bit, just in case.

Now, I'm going to go eat this entire pint of ice cream, to negate all the exercise I got today, and watch me some House! Until tomorrow, there's day 11 of 365!

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

1.7.10

I woke up today well before I had to get up, so I went back to bed, which always ends up with me waking up late. Rushing to get ready for work is just NOT the right way to start the day off. However, having NO traffic and making it to work on time quickly evens things back out.

Work was frustrating today. I made a stupid error in accounting - why is putting the right year so difficult to remember? - and posted some stuff that was supposed to go into 2009, into 2010, then when trying to fix it while talking on the phone, managed to royal screw things up. I spent much of the day trying to rectify this error, as well as do the other "Thursday" tasks.

On top of working, I was trying to coordinate a pseudo-reunion with a group of friends I used to hang it with in high school. I think it's 90% finalized and should be an awesome time. From what I gathered from the responses, everyone is as equally excited as I am!

After work I came home and made some chili and cornbread and watch the NCAA Championship football game, hoping Texas would think they had a shot only to get CRUSHED! I could have gone to a friends house and enjoyed THEIR chili, and in hindsight probably should have as they had brownies for dessert, but decided to relax at home instead.

Now it's about 10:30 and apart from some good conversations with new friends, there's not much going on, both upstairs and in my house. I think I'll end the day doing something I love doing: watching stupid funny videos. Until tomorrow, there's day 7 of 365.