Bless me diary for I have sinned. It's been about two months since my last confession.

In that time I have lied once or twice (shit, that's a lie), but only to protect someone from something painful (misplaced loyalties). I have used just about every name in vain (including my own). I've had impure thoughts and done impure things (but only to myself, diary, i'm not sure how much it'll cost otherwise, got a pricelist?). I've been evasive when questioned about my feelings (Did I ever tell you about the time I wrecked my dad's car in Germany?). I've been mean to the dog when she's woken me up at 0530 by not taking her for an extended stay at the dog park with all her dog friends (I don't think she noticed, she's pretty happy to have me run through the desert with her and take cactus out of her paws). And I've spent money on women that will only ever be friends simply to see them again because I've missed their smiling faces (I'm a sap, but a loveable one!). I'm not sure that's a sin but the impure thoughts definitely were (holy crap, i should write this stuff down). I've coveted my neighbors backhoe and my other neighbors pool (and while we're at it, could it have killed you to let us win just ONE softball game?). Sure would like one of each for myself (think I need a raise, got one up your sleeve diary? Is that why we won that 22 million dollar contract?).

And quite frankly diary, I'm going to sin again. It's tough to be sorry for living my life the only way I know how. I hope it's not too much for the law to allow.

I'm excited to hear that SG is coming to Tucson. Maybe I'll take a rest from my full-on active lifestyle for a brief respite of drinking, laughing, and women smearing sugary substances on themselves and other women (one can only hope).

Incongruent lapses of memory.

Remembering all that I have given up.

Remembering all that I have not said.

Remembering why I get up in the morning.

But forgetting.

Again.

Two weekends ago I was in San Diego. Got lit up, talked with a woman, Adrianna, for 2 hours. About an hour into the conversation her friend came up and said "she's a lesbian you know" to which I replied "so what, The Dude doesn't care about sexual orientation, the Dude abides?" Adrianna laughed-we were discussing the greatness of The Big Lebowski at the time. I think her friend thought I was hitting on her. She had told me about five minutes into the conversation that she was a lesbian. I said "cool, then the pressure is off to impress you, now we can just talk." Bad part is, I left my buddy to fend for himself for a bit and he ended up puking later, guess he didn't pace himself and drink water like I told him to.

This past weekend I was in Las Vegas to visit with a friend that was down from Anchorage. She brought her mom so I brought my mom too. We had a good time. I didn't go home one night and instead roamed the strip. Got solicited by prostitutes, proposed marriage to a woman in a bar and sat for 2 hours talking with a couple from Manchester, England. The lady kept telling me that I should come to England and meet her daughter, that I was perfect for her. It was a fun night. Stumbled into the room at around 8 in the morning and my mother was not pleased. I was drunk, manic, and super-chatty. Didn't have much of a "shouldn't say that when your mother is around" block going. I ended up eating, passing out, and waking up when the ladies were done shopping, just in time for me to drive over and pick them up.

Other than that nothing much going on in the social calendar. Rico from Australia was in town a few days after the Fourth so I took a couple days off work and had a crazy time with him too. So the weekends, I've found things to do...the weeks are pretty tame (and allow me to recover from the weekends).

Going to see what Sindy is up to this weekend.

Having lunch with a girl I used to play "doctor" with when I was a kid. I got a "we're not kids anymore, we're going to play for real this time" vibe from her. She kept saying she remembered all the fun we used to have. I was trying not to blush with my mom standing right there. We were going into the grocery store as that girl was coming out of it. Should be an interesting week.

What's up in your neck of the woods?

happy 4th of July.

have spent the morning in a daze raking mesquite beans, raking cactus, hauling cactus, walking the dog and now it's nap time.

wish me luck, it's going to be a rough one.

i worked yesterday and will work tomorrow too. then on Thursday my friend from Australia is flying in and we've got some old haunts to investigate. already been to the Shanty for a beer. they've got guinness on tap and also Bitburger Pils! i'm sure we'll be shooting a bit of pool one night. other than that it'll be good to hang out. he'll be sans wife and kid so I'm sure he'll want to get some sleep too. said the kid did well on the long flights over.

ciao!

First week of work went well. Nothing too out of the ordinary. Not that I would expect it to be. There is a Y just down the block and I've signed up for a membership. They've got a nice pool that's outside but completely covered so you get the heat but not the burning sun. It's heated in the winter too. Should be fun. There's a little deli between the office and the Y. I've gotten a fruit bowl there several times and a V8 once. I'll be bringing the V8's from now on. The fruit bowl I could bring too, but it's nice to get out of the office every now and then.

I just got done bringing most of my stuff inside the house so I can start going through it and figuring out what I can put in my room and whatnot. Need to get a monitor so I can set my computer up. Think I'll wait for a full paycheck before I tackle that goal.

Other than that I'm well. I miss Alaska and my friends. It's been like a vacation so far but now it's sinking in that I'm here and I'm not going to see them for a long while. Karen is coming down to Vegas at the end of July so I'm planning to go up there for the weekend and hang out with her. My mom's coming up so Karen's mom will have someone to hang out with as well.

We've figured out that my mom's dog is probably an American Dingo Mix aka Carolina Dog or Indian Dog. She's very dingo-looking but has a few differences from what I've read on the internet. The funniest thing about her is that her ear-tips bounce as she walks along. She's got forward facing upright ears but the very tips of them aren't upright and kind of bounce along as she walks. I'm going to do a quick movie of it because it cracks me up.

Hope all is well with you and yours.

Aspen is beautiful. Expensive, but beautiful. Surrounded by mountains, large towering green mountains tracked with ski slopes, ski lifts, and snowslide chutes.

Wedding is about 2 hours away. We had a BBQ last night as the rehearsal dinner. It was the first time the parents of the bride and groom had met. I grilled vegetables and meats. It was a good time. It's taken a bit but I'm getting used to the altitude. I had a headache something fierce and everyone said "altitude headache" so I guess that's what it was. I took some advil and was cured.

It's a beautiful day and I'm going to take a walk down to the John Denver memorial.

Have a good one!

I'm in Denver. A friend of mine is getting married in Aspen on Wednesday. Originally I had planned to visit the Denver office of the company I used to work for and so I agreed to pick a friend up at the airport this morning so that she wouldn't have to rent a car. I met the bride-to-be and her man yesterday for lunch and to get the buckets for transporting the flowers to Aspen.

After lunch yesterday I found myself requiring some items and since I had seen a Wal-Mart on my way to the restaurant, I decided to forego my usual animosity towards The Evil Empire and dropped by said Altar of Consumerism to do some praying. Holy shit was it a big temple. Bigger than the Egan Center in Anchorage (though that's not a difficult thing to do). I began thinking it was larger than the Sullivan arena in Anchorage too. I might be for sheer floor space (go to a graduation ceremony there and you won't disagree). I was lost for a while. I had the layout for most Wal-Marts down, but then they started making these Super Wal-Marts and now I just wander around in a over-stimulated daze. I can't find a damn thing either. Shouldn't you put some tape near the wrapping paper? When I asked about tape the guy directed me to the paint department (masking tape) and so I looped around the stationery section for a while before finally finding the tape (back part near the glitter, but not the glue??).

Dever is not a pretty city. It looks like they went a long time before deciding to plan things out. It has some nice green spaces but I think I'd get pretty sick having to drive by the refinery and grain towers every day. That's just me though.

So I'm off to the airport.

I guess I should mention that I drove straight from Tucson to Denver over Saturday night. I was a mess by the time I got to Denver. One of my gatorades had leaked so I had orange stains on my shirt-then as I was driving to find a hotel I opened a recently purchased root beer only to have it explode all over me. I walked in to the hotel lobby looking like a wreck. It only took a 1.5 hour nap to get me ready to face the rest of the day. I wasn't tired until around 11 either. It was weird.

So I'm employed again.

The company that interviewed me in their Anchorage office and then again down here gave me a verbal offer. I go in Friday to get the offer letter and sign some forms. Yay!

The extra most special bonus part about it? I'm only earning a little less than I was in Anchorage-where the market is supposed to have inflated wages. I guess not as much as they used to. Or maybe I wasn't earning as much as I should have been up there?

It was funny though. He asked what I expected for salary and I gave him a number. He said "that's lower than I was thinking, why don't we raise it to thi$ number?" I stammered "uh, sure, okay." Haven't even started working and I got a pay raise!

Hope all is well in your universe!

Wow, quite a coincidence that I decided to log back a month (to the day!) later.

The trip was great. Had a great time. I really need to win the lottery, working sucks compared to driving around and visiting people. Is that job somewhere? I mean I'd like to visit friends, but I guess I could visit other people too, might as well if I'm getting paid for it no?

I suppose I'll have to change my location too. Wonder if there's an SGTucson group. I'm nervous though...EvilFlapJack turned out okay but would I be pressing my luck to try it again?

Time will tell. If that had been a typo it would have said "Tim will tell." That Tim, he's a bastard!

So anyway. I guess I could look at the pictures. But dial-up internet is so painfully slow. It could take days to download one set! I do hope the Broadband fairies stop by soon and leave me a Broadband present!

Hope all is well in your neck of the woods.

jAZbstrd?

NOPE!

jAKbstrd!

Powering down. I'll be incognito for a bit, at least until June or so.

Be Good.