is it morning yet?

wow, i fell asleep on the couch again? now i'm wide awake at five in the a.m. i'm hoping a little writing and a few more beers will put me to sleep. i hate not being able to sleep. the girl was having the same problem. she's having problems sleeping without me. i don't know if this is awesome or annoying. i mean, we can't sleep together every night, so that's terrible that she's not sleeping right now. but it's cute, that she misses me to the point of not being able to sleep. at first, i wasn't able to sleep at all when she was over. now, i pass out like a sleeping lion. i love sleeping with this girl!

speaking of which, our third anniversary is next friday. not a big deal, i know, but we're taking a little day trip to riverside and staying the night at the mission inn. i've always wanted to stay there but never had someone to take. it's kind of expensive, but it's going to be all kinds of neat and fun times. even if, just for one night...

i'm looking forward to some days off this month and next. i'm taking tomorrow off for a game and to do some extra relaxing after working two weeks in a row. i'm taking next weekend off for the hell of it. then i'm taking the saturday of labor day weekend off for the mutt's skate that i'm not even sure is happening. and finally, the first weekend of october is vegas, baby, vegas. we all got swank rooms at the mgm signature. it's going to be ridiculous fun and the girl actually decided to go. i can't wait.

alrighty, let's see if sleep is an option at this point.

why am i risking it all...

...for someone i don't match up on paper with, you might ask? well, she's friggin' awesome. so, what's wrong(to start off)? let's go down the list, which i could tell was bugging my friends:

-she works for me

-she's only twenty-two

-she's cambodian(not really a detractor, except for the fact we're from two entirely different worlds)

-we have very, very little in common, almost nothing(see above different worlds thing)

now, why does none of that bug me? the work thing, well i've always ignored that rule, so here i go again, but i weighed the consequences pretty heavily this time, taking everything into account. and then i said, fuck the consequences, this one is worth it. the age thing? we talked about it day one, and we both whole heartedly agreed that age is just a number. the race thing? i don't really care. okay, the last thing should seriously bug me. my whole life, i grew up loving things to death. you hear that? "things". i've pretty much judged people not on who they were, but what they liked or loved. there's a great quote from a movie that better illustrates that, but i'm forgetful of what flick and the actual quote, so i'll just digress here. anyways, i've pretty much defined myself and the people around me by what they love. she has no favorite anything. in fact, she has no real interests at all. it makes discussion kind of difficult. but the more i get to know her, the more i realize that she hasn't grown up defining herself by things that she loves, but defines herself by people she loves. what defines her is her relationships with people. this has blown my mind. the things that matter most to her are the people in her life. this is so comforting to me and it makes it so easy to see past the fact that we have so little in common. what's more comforting is that she decided to include me in her life, among the things she loves. this is why i'm risking it all. hopefully, in time, the people in my life will see this, and come to accept her as i have. she's the reason i smile all day long and want to do better with my life. i'm embracing this one.

so yeah, i have a girlfriend now. a damn fine one.

one more day of crappiness.

man, my boss has been in my store almost every day this week. his boss has sent him in to find the food cost problem. like i'm not doing anything. five full days of my area director. it's a good thing i like him, cuz this sucks being babysat. so, yeah, tomorrow, we do it one more time and move on, hopefully.

then, i have three days off, oh yeah! normal stuff for first two. but on saturday, i'm taking my nieces to aquarium of the pacific! yay! i've never been there, but i hope they like it. i love being an uncle.

okay, time for bed.

i'm not performing, but this is stupid.

so, i got written up yesterday for not having my guest satisfaction scores where they are supposed to be. i'm not the only one, pretty much the whole region got one. it's pretty much the dumbest thing ever. to explain: we have a guest satisfaction hotline(like many businesses). people call in and grade us in a bunch of categories, on a scale of one to five. every four weeks is a judgement period. i've actually had the best score in my area two of the last three periods. the three major categories our superiors look at are, overall score, buffets stocked with food, and offered samples(what we call passing). passing is the brainchild of our newest ceo, so it's a really big deal. we are supposed to be at seventy-two percent in overall and seventy percent in passing. well, the overall happens every once in awhile, but the passing never happens with most stores. my average over the last three months is sixty-five percent in overall and fifty percent in passing. here's the ridiculous parts. we only get credit for scores of five. you could have all fours(a pretty good job if you ask me), and you would have zero percent for a score. you can call as many times you like(there's a contest), but your rating only counts once every six weeks. so, you have to be a calender wizard in order to get a call in every month that counts(this is what you try to get your regulars to do, ridiculous). this is why my score goes up and then down, month to month. for my performance to be judged this way is really annoying. corporate swears by the system and there is no arguing with any of them. and the stores that are actually hitting their marks, are all pretty much gaming and everyone knows it. what's that? basically, you have your employees, friends and family call in for you to jack your score up. if you're good with timing, you can get a lot of calls in without any real guest feedback. yeah, great, i won't do that. i'm really sick of the whole thing. i was so pissed i abandoned my spend less, drink less road last night. enough about crappy work.

hey, i got a rug for my room and my frame has arrived for the print going above my bed. it's going to look sweet. i'll take pictures.

two more days to relaxation.

kings and sharks tonight. let's go boys!

i'm going to be totally self-involved here, moreso than usual

i cannot go to sleep. i haven't had a drink since vegas, last sunday, and i feel terrible. last night, i tossed and turned all night long and into the morning. i maybe slept two hours total. i felt terrible all day, had a bad day at work, ran around into exhaustion, got home, watched some television, went to bed and it's been an hour and i don't feel my lids falling one inch. what the hell? i should've just got drunk like i wanted to. what the hell do i do now? this self-betterment adventure is going to end quickly; i can already tell.

oh yes, vegas. i had a great time. more than usual even. came back with some money. almost broke even at gambling. got frustrated with the amount of money spent on food and alcohol. got stiffed by a friend. couldn't get in a fight, without doing something that would've cheapened it. had two miserable hangover days. met some cool people. was the life of the party pit. saw the greatest frozen fury game ever. got my ass beaten to a pulp at the hofbrauhaus. and had pretty much the greatest time you can have while running past the point of extreme exhaustion.

can't wait for next year.

oh, n.h.l. season starts today. go, kings, go!

bye bye birdie!

i'm off to chino for a day, then it's off to vegas. i have a room mate now though. dru broke up with his fiance, so he's staying with me in vegas. should be interesting, possibly deadly. that dude can't handle his liqour, so i'm sure i'll be having to keep tabs on him constantly. crap i can barely keep tabs on myself in vegas. that dude is screwed! he seriously bummed too. i hope he has better sense than to bring a bunch of hookers to the room. okay, i'm scared a bit here. i've got a broken-hearted, lightweight in my room. things could go very bad.

alright, enough stalling the day. i'm gonna leave you with some lyrics(i'm pretty sure they're right) from my new favorite strung out song, "andy warhol".

"don't regret what you've never tried

sing what's left inside

nothing really matters, you've got nothing left to lose

look to me for something to believe

you can't write a song if you've never lost and you feel you've truly loved

you can't start a fire burning the rain

so, light a fire, leave it all behind, hit the road and lose your mind

find out what it is you really need

cuz we all play a part in history

and we all end up just a memory"

i'm smiling, eh...

GODDAMNIT!!!

strung out put their new album up on myspace to preview. it's friggin' brilliant. i may just be blown away. it comes out next tuesday. i presale ordered mine. it comes with a magnificient brass astrolux key chain. i cannot wait. i can tell my labtop is not doing this thing true justice. funny, this spell check thing says i spelled tuesday and magnificient wrong. and i'm pretty darn sure i didn't. oh well.

check this out. i got a new neighbor. well, i got a few, but this one actually moved in down the hall. and guess what else? we went to high school together. crazy! we don't remember each other, which is weird since we had a class of two hundred something, but whatever. he was a goth kid, i was a metal kid, so we may have avoided each other. anyways, he's a pretty cool dude and has some cool friends. his wife or girlfriend seemed nice too. a couple of chino boys in the lbc! what are the odds?

okay, so, two more days of work, then it's off to vacation. vegas, baby, vegas! frozen fury twelve and oh, the hofbrauhaus! this is my favorite time of year, next to christmas, and i'm foaming at the mouth to get away!

hmmm...i'm serioulsy strung out on anticipation.