#85 - wedding again

i thought i told everyone to cool it with all the weddings and babies and crap. no one listens to me... anyway, here are some pics from the wedding:

click here to see the wedding pics

#84 - broke

aaaaaand....... i'm broke.

it started innocently enough... there was a one day sale at homeworld on tuesday that they advertised a mirror/drawer/coat-rack combo piece that was regular $400 but on sale for only $147, i'd had my eye on it earlier so when i saw the ad in the paper it was perfect timing, so i went over after work to buy it. as i was walking around homeworld i was getting inspired, after all, what good is a brand new place without some cool stuff to put in it? and i'd been making it by with my little twin bed, second-hand (and surprisingly UN-comfortable) futon couch until now, but it's time to grow up and get real furniture right? so i thought, since i'm in pearl city, i might as well go check out pearlridge and inspiration right?

so i go over to inspiration (and inspiration NEVER has sales) so i figured i'd just go to get ideas and maybe look for similar types of furniture to buy elsewhere, but they were having this closeout sale on Bo Concept furniture, they were gonna stop selling the brand and so everything by that brand was 25% off. perfect right? for a store that has great stuff that never comes on sale? anyway, the sales guy was super helpful (a little too helpful) and they had those 3-D computer programs where you can give the dimensions of your room and they put all the furniture in and make sure it fits (which is perfect cause my place is small and i wasn't sure how much i could stuff in here). so i got "suckered" (i say with quotations because it really was my decision to spend on all those things.... really.... i didn't get influenced.... it just happened to be a bit unexpected with the sale, but i do my research very thoroughly and i was confident in my decisions) into spending $5000 on tuesday. BUT! look at all what i got:

- queen platform bed frame in wenge
- 2 matching nightstands
- farenheit queen mattress (it's like the temperpeutic kind)
- 1-seater armchair
- 3-seater sofa
- matching end table
- functional coffee table (picture above)

so all that for $5000 is pretty good right? right!?!? oh well, i'll have to get used to being broke. i just made my first mortgage payment, bought this stuff, and then i've got my window treatments coming sometime in the next few weeks so i'll be running on fumes for awhile. anyway, everything's getting delivered in a couple of weeks so i'd better get to painting already... i put it off for a long time because i'm still a little nervous about it (i guess local people like the white walls, but i've got two colors picked out that i think would look really nice). i'm thinking "sage gray" for the living/dining/entrance and "false cypress" for the bedrooms. it's a little bit dark... i had a lighter combination ("pewter tray" and "green tea") but i'm thinking i'd like it a little darker. well, we'll see i guess, wish me luck!

anyway, on the plus side of being broke, i was not tempted at all by all the after-thanksgiving ads in the paper today. ever since i got this place (after the lottery way back in march) i've been scouring the newspaper ads everyday building and building on the list of things i need to get (and things i want to get), but finally i think it's all slowing down and i'm finally getting to the point where i've got what i need to make this place seem like home, everything that comes after will be bonus. it's like a huge relief to STOP thinking about things i need to buy or get or do and just think about living here. of course, there'll always be stuff to do, but none of those things are so pressing, everything else will be icing.

good timing too... by christmas i'll be able to enjoy completely my first holiday season in my own place on my own, that's a great feeling.

#83 - show off

seems like everytime i go to my dancing cousins' concerts i've got lots to say after. well, i guess it just gets me thinking about stuff because i'm sitting there in the auditorium watching the weirdest crap ever and i can't turn to anyone to make jokes because everyone around me is either completely engrossed in watching all the half-naked people convorting and whatever on stage, desperately trying to pick out which of those half-naked people convorting or whatever on stage is my cousin, or trying desperately to avert their eyes so they won't have to see the half-naked people convorting or whatever on stage. haha, okay, well that last one is mostly me and i don't know how many other guys in the audience dragged to the concert by their girlfriends or relatives (that excludes the tremendously gay guys dressed up with boas and scarfs and girl jeans yelling out "go jasmine"'s from the audience). so, since i can't release all those comments during the thing, all those thoughts (and jokes) build up in my brain and i come home with all these comments to make, for example:

1. okay, gotta admit, it's actually a pretty cool production, if you let your eyes blur and don't think that half the people dancing up there are in high school then you could be very entertained, i was particularly impressed by the coordination of all the stage elements and people, it shows a TON of work was put into it and i'm pretty proud of my cousin actually for being part of a big fat production like that... even though it was completely fruity
2. i think dramatic dancing is a big fat joke. i mean, sure it can be graceful and stuff, but really, it's just plain fruity, i gotta say though, i've been to a lot of these concerts for my cousins over the years, and this one was the first that actually worked in a bunch of humor into the dances, which was cool, because that's entertaining stuff.
3. guys should never wear dresses, even whilst dancing
4. guys should never wear tights, even whilst dancing
5. it should not be so difficult to distinguish dancing guys from dancing girls, yet somehow...
6. i think i might be a narcissist. okay, that one was kinda random, but hear me out... so in every dance they do there's like a "main character," and i guess when you're in that audience and you start getting caught up in everything, you start thinking that whoever that main character is, he/she is pretty damn cool right? but when that "cool" character is a shirtless (but wrapped up in some kind of straps, they like to have guys dance shirtless wrapped up in straps) long-haired fem-dancy guy you kinda have to reevaluate your thinking. haha, no offense, but that's funny. anyway, got me to thinking that if i'm thinking all these main characters probably get tons of cool points then that must mean that i subconsciously revere that kind of attention huh? think about it... i do like to show off stuff, heck, look at this blog! i don't mind not having window coverings yet because i'm not scared of people looking in and seeing me eating breakfast or reading the newspaper. i like having mirrors in my house. i'm not afraid to talk in front of a lot of people and i enjoy performances. i think i might be narcissistic. maybe that's why i liked band so much. wow, i'm having like revelations here, phew.

anyway, those are my thoughts for tonight, and now to bed! to bed i said!

#82 - reconstruct

i'm in... finally. can't tell you how happy i am to finally be out there living on my own. it feels awesome to have my own place, i feel like i'm completely in charge of my life, i can take it to where it needs to be. so here we go... after all that talk ('cause up until now all it's been was talk) now i finally have the chance to start fresh... reconstruct my life into what i want it to be, no restrictions, i finally have the freedom to make my life my own.

well... no restrictions besides money, re: an enormous lack of it.

okay, so maybe i can't rush right out and get my life started completely just yet, but that's the whole point of doing this right? take my time, be patient, not have anxiety over what's still needed or how i want things to end up because the point is that i need to make it so, and i need to take the time to make it so. if everything were set up in my place and my life just how i wanted it to be already, then i would already be bored with it and i'd have nothing else to do. now i'm busy everyday trying to get things in there like the window treatments, the furniture, the cable and internet (just done this past saturday, finally i can watch monday night football), paint, and all those little things in between too. so there's a lot to do still... but not to worry because there's tons of time to do it, i just gotta be patient (sometimes that's hard for me). anyway, here are some pics of before i put everything in... here's the front door and kitchen (to the right) taken from inside the living room: here's a shot of the kitchen:
and the master bathroom:
even got a little yard, not much, but definately a plus:
so let's recap what's been happening since the move-in... well pretty much i've been moving in! but there's been some other stuff too, like... well y'know i tried to list everything done that's happened since the last post... but damn it, there's way too much stuff that i can't write down. well, suffice it to say that it's been a very humbling experience so far. not in a bad way, but like i realized that i'm very impatient and yet have an extremely hard time deciding... which makes things very difficult on myself. but it's been nice going through the rough situations that i'm sure every other guy my age has already managed to put himself into, but since i've been so sheltered i just haven't had to face those kinds of situations yet. the positive of all of that is that now i'm finding out just how well (and not so well) i can deal with situations independently, and i'm finding that i CAN handle them well, and sensibly, just i give myself pressure within my own head. oh well, i'll have to cool it with that.

anyway, here's a pic from halloween, cool huh? i had exactly ONE trick-or-treater... sad.

all in all, things are looking up and getting back on track. i'm really starting to feel like this place is my home, things are going really great with my new girl, i finally got back to 24 hr. fitness after taking about 3 weeks off during the move-in, so i feel balanced again. everything got kinda shaken up and defragmented with the relocate, but things are falling back together now and i can reconstruct it how it needs to be... just hope i can figure out just what that way is.