Reach

Halo Reach recently came out and has commanded the attention of my roommates ever since release day.  I have some pictures of one other friend playing the game.  One of them is in pajamas with a CamelBack on.  When we asked him about it, he simply said it is a great way to stay hydrated during long gaming sessions.  I don’t see a reason your gaming session should be long enough that you wouldn’t be able to stop for a minute or two to get a glass of water, but I suppose I’m not a dedicated gamer.

We went out to the dance hall again this weekend for a great concert.  It turns out the place near us has some great musicians (we’re talking big name people) come and the tickets are just ten dollars.  There are no seats, per se, so you are just on the dance floor with everyone else, but that means everyone is standing and dancing instead of sitting in their seats.  Anytime you get people off their rear ends and moving around on their feet is a mission success to me!

One day this week I was challenged by one of my friends to make it all the way home without saying one word.  I made it (just barely) but I realized the ride home takes an exorbitant amount of time when you aren’t talking and no one else in the car is talking either.  He turned off the radio too, so we were all sitting in stony silence.  Though I now know it is possible, it is nowhere NEAR as fun as the car rides we usually have.

CiCi’s

Friend: “I think she thinks you’re cute.”  Me: “Of course she does; I AM cute.”

That’s the way my conversation started with someone this week.  Watching the very confused look on their face as they figured out exactly what I had said was one of those little pleasures that everyone has.  I leave confusion and mayhem in my wake; it’s a gift.

I went to CiCi’s Pizza with a couple buddies after working on one of their short films and realized that place hasn’t changed since the last time I was there … six years ago.  The pizza is still cheap and tastes that way but I suppose it makes up for it with quantity.  There comes a point on the quality/quantity curve where the abundance of food doesn’t make up for the lack of goodness; I guess CiCi’s just hasn’t reached that point yet.  The only thing they have changed is the way the restaurants look.

My roommate had a marathon this weekend and did really well.  He ran with his brother.  I was going to go run that marathon with him but there was something going on at work that didn’t allow me to get out of town and run.  It turned out alright though.  I have a half marathon, a 5k and another marathon to run before the triathlons start rolling in.  When asked why I run distances by those who hate running, I simply pose this question: “How else am I going to get to the finish line?”

No Joy

This week started with a night out on the town which ended with some TERRIBLE karaoke at a local dive.  Usually there is some sort of decent musical talent or ability that crawls out of the woodwork and manages to deliver a passable rendition of popular songs.  That was distinctly lacking in this place.  It turns out anyone who is even remotely coherent and on-pitch sounds like a well-trained opera singer when put in line after a group of absolutely horrid singers.

We also finally purchased a grill for the house because we have been asked a good number of times by people all around town to host a barbeque at our house.  We purchased the grill and then hooked up the new sound system upstairs.  Now we have centrally controlled speakers for the house and a new universal remote for the one we were unable to find that controlled the TV.  What did people do before remotes were invented?!

At work this week I was out with three of my friends: a white guy, a white girl and a Hispanic girl.  The waitress came over to us after bringing a refill for my drink speaking in Spanish to the white girl.  When she realized she wasn’t understood by the white girl, the waitress asked her if she was Hispanic and then started speaking English to us.  As the waitress walked away, the Hispanic girl we were with just looked down at her plate with a dejected look and said, “Darn.”

Pub Run

We just got back from camping with a couple friends who were in town and had a great time!  We chose a state park that we had never been to before and it turned out to be really nice.  The group was a little smaller than we had thought it would be, but there was a lot of stuff that came up this last week that made people stay behind.  Even without those people, it was a lot of fun.  We finally broke down and purchased a tent.  We usually rent them for the weekend and we did the math and realized it was not anywhere near economical after about the third camping trip.  We’ve been camping a great deal more than three times.  The tent we purchased is enormous (11’x19’) so comfortably sleeping five guys in there was no problem.

This week we went out downtown with a big group to do a pub run.  Basically, it is exactly what it sounds like; you start at one pub and grab a drink and then start running.  You get to the next pub and start the process all over again.  We hit four of the five places and stopped for dinner because some of the people with us had never been downtown here before.  There was a live musician/comedian providing virtually endless fun for those of us sitting right up front by his stage.  Good times.

Other than that, this week has been fairly benign.  Work is going well if not really busy as we prepare for a couple big events that need everyone to be on top of their game.  We only have three more weeks of this prep and we should finally be able to take a break and get back to doing our regular work.  I am willing to bet a bunch of people are going to be taking vacation after that.  It will be both well-deserved and well needed.