Chapter 56: Brand New Key

This blog is coming a little later than usual because, frankly, it was New Year’s Eve and I had shit going on during the hours I would normally be writing the blog. We are now officially 6 hours into 2010 and I have to say, I’m pretty into it. I am anticipating a much better year than 2009 was for me. Not to say that 2009 was a bad year, per se. It was considerably better than 2008, but nowhere near as good as 2007. It was one of those years that wasn’t amazing, but wasn’t awful. It was just a middle-of-the-road kind of year. 2010, on the other hand, I am anticipating will be an amazing year. I’ve got all my ducks in a row and am slowly planting the necessary seeds to make my dreams come true. Do I expect them to have come true by the end of 2010? Not at all… but I expect to be much closer than I am currently. It was a fun New Year’s Eve. One of the better ones I have had in my lifetime.

It started off with me waking up at 6:45am (and I am pushing 24 waking hours… well, almost.) I got up this morning and got myself dressed and ready for work. I wore this Calvin Klein polo that is black with gray print down the front side, so it kind of matched my new bag. Good way to start the day, I’d say. I gathered up the gift and card I had purchased for my sister’s girlfriend’s last day on our program at work, and presented her with the gift right off the bat. It was this cool little stand that has frames for 12 pictures and spins around. I thought it would be a cool thing for her new office, once she gets it. Then I spent the first part of the morning passing around the card for everyone to sign. We didn’t have a full staff today, since it is New Year’s Eve, but we got everybody there to sign it and she was very happy with it. Work wasn’t overly busy today, despite a few little inconveniently placed spurts of business. Initially, I had said that I would be happy to leave early at 3pm when my Mom got off, but then I found out that my sister’s girlfriend was scheduled for only half the day so I changed my mind to try to leave when she did so I could get a ride home from her. Despite the fact that it looked uncertain for a while, I did wind up getting to leave when she did. Since it was her last day, she was there quite a while longer than usual because she was saying goodbye to everyone. While I waited for her I was hanging out talking to my sister and a couple other friends there, so it wasn’t really a bad wait at all. When we did end up leaving, she seemed very wistful and kind of sad about the whole thing. She had been there, on our program, for nine years. I can’t imagine doing anything for nine years of my life, so I can imagine this whole thing must be very difficult for her. At the same time, though, I think it is pretty exciting for her to be moving into something new and different and taking on a higher level position. I am excited for her, anyway. I don’t know that she seems all that excited about it. I think she is more nervous about the concept of moving into doing something completely different, but I think she will be great at it.

Needless to say, with all of that and so many other things lately, this past week or so has been a very emotional time for me. It’s been very emotional, in all different directions. When I got home from work I kind of spaced out for a little while. When my Mom got home, we both felt pretty drained from the day and the week. I had talked to Nate and Whitney and we’d kind of determined that they’d be over around 7pm, so I had a few hours before they were coming over. I still needed to go buy groceries for the dinner I was preparing, but there was plenty of time for that still. My Mom wanted to lay down for a while and I didn’t really plan on it but I wound up laying down a while, too. Next thing I knew, I was waking up to a phone call from Whitney, (do I like Pepsi or Coke?) and noticing that it was 6pm already. I had to wake up my Mom and rush around to fix myself up and get to the grocery store. Fortunately, on our way to the grocery store, around 6:45pm, I got a text from Nate saying that they were running late and it would probably be closer to 7:45pm-8pm. That worked out perfectly. I picked up all the ingredients for the recipe I had discovered on Google earlier today and got back home with plenty of time to prepare and have dinner ready very shortly after they arrived. I had initially planned on making a green bean casserole, per Whitney’s request, and Baked Chicken with a French Fried Onion crust. Turns out, though, Nate isn’t into onions at all and both of these recipes heavily featured French Fried Onions. I found this website, Moms Who Think, and found this really simple, delicious sounding recipe for Baked Pesto Chicken, with Angel Hair Pasta and Italian bread sprinkled with melted mozzarella. After we ate, I totally decided that this was probably the loveliest of the lovely meals I have prepared. It turned out really well and the Pesto Chicken, in particular, was really fucking good.

As I mentioned in yesterday’s blog, I believe, Nate and Whitney were coming over for New Year’s Eve. Nate and Whitney also recently became a full-blown, boyfriend-girlfriend, official couple. I hadn’t actually hung out with them since this happened, so I was slightly concerned about the dynamic between the couple and the third wheel friend. I’m sure we’re all aware of how strange it can be sometimes for a single person to hang out with a couple, and a new couple in the euphoria stages at that. Fortunately, that wasn’t an issue at all. It’s pretty normal for the three of us to all hang out together, just like we did tonight, so I’m not sure why I would have expected it to go any differently now that they are coupled. I can’t deny, though, that seeing them so happy with one another and really opening up and connecting with one another does kind of make me start to feel a little, “Ah, I wish I had someone to do that with.” That doesn’t fit into my plans at this point, though, so I dismiss those thoughts pretty easily. Perhaps once I get back to California it is something that could be pursued but here in Florida, that is pretty much out of the question. It would be pretty pointless and would only serve as a distraction from my real goals. My focus is in one place and one place only: Music. That is where it has to stay right now, and likely for the next few years. Still, there are bound to be moments where I think about desiring some sort of companionship. Like I said, though, I dismiss those thoughts easily.

We spent the first part of the evening after dinner watching the movie “Jennifer’s Body.” I was not really in the mood for movie watching so I was immediately kind of put off the movie, but it wound up being much better than I expected. Just based on “Juno” and “United States Of Tara,” I have become a pretty big fan of Diablo Cody and thus had an immediate interest in “Jennifer’s Body.” I was put off by the presence of Megan Fox, who I just really dislike. Perhaps irrationally, but I think she is extremely overrated. Her popularity pisses me off, and I can’t stand interviews with her. She always comes across as completely arrogant, or just a major bitch. This movie also starred Amanda Seyfried, though, who I adore. For being such a severe flop, it was actually a really impressive movie. I love the fact that Diablo Cody took the concept of demon possession and put it in the context of girls in high school. I just find it really funny and fitting because girls in high school often wind up with a form of demon possession: Puberty. It was a really interesting setting for the whole thing and the ending, though it was certainly flawed, was pretty brilliant. After that we watched some of the New Year’s Eve coverage on TV and people performing on the Dick Clark special. Selena Gomez performed with her band, The Scene, and was actually really impressive live. I liked her a lot already, but it is always nice when these young, Disney artists are actually capable of pulling off live performances and such. Much as I love them both, it is a pretty big change from back in Disney’s Hilary Duff/Lindsay Lohan era. We also watched the movie “Paranormal Activity,” which was the gift I had picked up for Whitney for her birthday last night. I was actually really impressed with this movie, even more than “Jennifer’s Body.” It was not without flaws, of course, and took quite a while to really get interesting but once it did, it was really good. The ending was very interesting, although the DVD included an alternate ending that I thought was considerably better than the one used in theatres. It wasn’t scarier, by any means, but I felt like it made a lot more sense and was a lot more consistent with the general flow of the film. For being such a low budget movie, though, they did a really good job. I also appreciated the fact that the actors really did look and act like regular people. There was nothing glamorous or even overly special about them, but they were really good in their roles. Overall, I’d definitely recommend checking that movie out. I didn’t personally find it particularly scary but I am not general scared by movies much, anyway. I recommend seeing it, though, because I found it a pretty fascinating piece of work.

I got a text from a friend of mine this evening a little before midnight saying that it was a New Year’s tradition to place a coin face down in a window sill where the sun will shine on it and make a wish at midnight. Me, Whitney and Nate all decided to do it. I had never heard of this before, but thought that it was a pretty cool concept. My wish? Pretty simple, I’m sure you could guess: It was for everything to work out for me to move to California. My New Year’s resolution? Same thing. Also, getting a pair of Tom Ford sunglasses. That one is pretty multi-faceted, honestly. It’s not as much about getting a pair of the glasses, but about getting myself into a position where I can afford a pair of the glasses. I would also really like to get myself into a shape where I can fit into a lot of the more high end men’s fashions, but I am not making a resolution about that one. Weight is kind of a funny thing for me, really, because I am happy with myself as I am. I am well aware that what I have to offer is on the inside, and I like that about myself. I wouldn’t really want to change that. My weight is okay by me. The main, if not only, reason I have any desire to change it is for fashion purposes. If I lost 3-4 pant sizes, even, I would be in a size that would make designer clothing infinitely more accessible to me. If I lost 6-7 pant sizes, I would be in the perfect size range for most things, I think. I don’t have any qualms with saying that I already dress really well, but if I lost any of those sizes, I would be in a position to dress even better. As I have talked about quite a bit here lately, fashion has really become a bit of a secondary passion for me and is something I would be more than willing to modify my body for. I’d do it naturally, of course, although I am in no way opposed to surgical procedures to help speed up the process. I just can’t afford that type of thing at this point. If I could, I absolutely would go in for gastric bypass or something along those lines. Perhaps that is something I will look into once I am in a position where I can afford Tom Ford sunglasses, but we’ll deal with that when we get to it.

Overall, despite some emotional moments in the daytime, it was a pretty great New Year’s Eve. I was really glad to be able to spend it with two of my best friends here, especially considering it will likely be the last one we’ll get to spend together for a while. After the movies and stuff, the three of us just hung out talking for couple hours, and I think that was my favorite part. I love those guys, and it is always a pleasure and a privilege to just spend a little time getting to see other sides of each other. I am going to miss them once I am out of here. Of course, visits will take place and such later on but I am really going to try my best to make the most of the time I have left with them, and all of my other friends and family here, before I head off to a new life. Like I said earlier, I am really anticipating 2010 being an amazing year. There will be a lot of changes and a lot of hurdles to jump, but I just have the feeling like this year is going to be one of the best I will have. I am really excited to be starting it off already. It is now 7:30am, though, and I should be getting to bed. In spite of my mini-nap earlier, I am pretty damn exhausted and have a hangover from hell to look forward to tomorrow. It shouldn’t be too bad. I tend to be pretty fortunate in the hangover department and tend not to get too many of them. Here’s hoping tomorrow will continue that tradition! Happy New Year!