It’s Been A Long Time…

…since I posted a journal, so I thought I’d make the effort and tell you guys what I’ve been up to lately. Actually, what I’ll do is tell you what I’ve been up to in the last two months: Travelling, buying a car and looking for work.

Travelling
Somewhere prior to June 21st, I got an email from my good friend Marco, telling me that his ass was going to get married two weeks from then. Personally, I thought it was about time he got his fat ass commited to his then-girlfriend-now-wife, and I was very happy for him. He told me that I had to get myself over for the ceremony, since I was the only one actually invited, and supposed to be the best man.

Now, that sounds a lot easier than it really is, seeing as how he moved to live in Austin, Texas about two years ago. So I went to book a ticket, and on the 21st I flew over to Houston, where he was supposed to pick me up. Upon arrival, I find out that the actual wedding would be held on the sandy beaches of Paradise Island, just outside of Nassau, in the Bahamas. He’s made all the arrangements for our travel and stay in Nassau – or rather, his girlfriend had.

So we stay in Austin for a week, then fly out to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, and drive ourselves over to Miami, Florida, in order to catch a flight to Nassau. We stay there for little under a week, and have a blast. They get married, I cried…it was brilliant. We fly back, and we spend the next week goofing around and celebrating Fourth of July.

I go back for two weeks, and prepare for my “vacation.” My vacation entails the following: 1) Flying out to San Francisco. 2) Roadtripping through the west and mid-west of the United States. 3) Attending the Bulldrek Gathering. 4) Attending GenCon. 5) Roadtripping our asses back to California. 6) Flying back.

Flying out was easy. So was the first Roadtripping leg. San Jose, Ca – San Francisco, Ca – Portland, Or – Seattle, Wa – Billings, Mo – Fargo, Nd – Fox Lake, Wi. Fox Lake is where this year’s Bulldrek Gathering was being held. Which basically meant a week of drunken craziness near a lake in the middle of the Wisconsin corn fields out in the middle of bumblefuck. I had a lot of fun.

Then we went to Milwaukee, Wi where we attended the largest gaming convention in the world; Gen Con. And with “we,” I mean most of the Bulldrekkers at the Gathering. We met up with a bunch of people from the Dumpshock Forums and we had a blast. Another week of drunken craziness.

When I woke up, in a dark hotel-room in Milwaukee, with five or six others sleeping and snoring all around me, and I found my liver next to me on the bed, crying…begging me never to do that again, I knew that it was time to go home. Luckily it was the last day of our stay in Milwaukee.

We went to Madison, Wi to stay with two of our friends that lived there. We had two days of maximum chillage. We did nothing except for watch XXX, staring Vin Diesel. Caz is the best when it comes to watching movies, he’s about as loud and enthusiastic as I am. Bad. Ass.

Then we headed out again, st*…hang on, I haven’t even said who I was doing this trip with; Erik – a guy I know who lives in San Jose, California, and the instigator of this hellish roadtrip, and Eleanor, a girlfriend of mine who lives out in the ass-end of the world, a.k.a. Australia.

Anyway, we headed out again, travelling past Des Moines, Iowa, Salt Lake City, Utah and into Nevada. As it so happens our car broke down in the middle of the Nevada desert. There are only three places I could imagine are worse to have your car break down in or near: 1) The Sahara Desert. 2) Zagreb and 3) Lebanon. Luckily we found people who offered us a ride to the nearest city with more than 20 inhabitants: Reno. There we paid an arm and a leg for a rental car, and we drove on to California so I could catch a plane back home.

You see, normally, I would’ve said; fuck it, let’s just hang back a little bit, and I’ll reschedule my flight. But upon entering the United States, I got a lot of bollocking from the immigrations officer for coming to the U.S. too often over the last three years. He restricted my tourist visum from the normal 90 days, to August 18th, the day on my return tickets. So I had to leave, otherwise I’d risk being withheld access to the U.S. for the next three years.

Car
I bought myself a Honda Del Sol [or the new Generation CRX, for those not living in the United States], in light of my job ending September 1st, and having to hand over my company car.

Looking For Work
Yes, still looking. Things are looking up a little bit. The Airforce ball is finally rolling, and I have several other options. All in all, it’s looking good.