Saturday, October 29, 2005

The end of October

I'm really posting this in November, but its so old, that I'll place it back in the October archives!

Saturday, 1st:
Pretty chill day today. I got up at 7 and spent the first two hours chillin in my room at Curt's parent's house. It was nice because I had nothing to do so I just spent a lot of time praying and reading my Bible. I finished up my study in the book of Matthew, finally. :-) It was a great study for the last 6 months; I learned a bunch. At 9, I got all cleaned up and had some chocolate cake for breakfast. :P A little after 10, Curt and I went out to do some shopping. We went down to Garland's Jewelry to look at engagement rings, but Garland wasn't there, so we left until later. Went to Lowes and Food Lion and toured the "massive" town of South Boston and surrounding area. Got back in time to watch the beginnin of the Hokies-WVA game at noon. We watched about a quarter and a half and had a bunch of food before heading back to Garland's at like 1:30. He was there and I looked at a whole ton of engagement rings. I probably went through about 100 of them trying to figure out some combination of what I'd like. I was kind of sad, because I really didn't find much of what I wanted. I'm beginning to think what I want doesn't exist; except for a very expensive custom-make which would blow my budget out of the water. :-( Oh well. I came up with a little game plan with Garland and he's going to call me back with some estimates later. I think I might check out some other places too though. So, we got out of there and on back home a little before 3 and watched the end of the game while eating more food. :) Then chilled around and watched the Yanks-Red Sox game. That ended and we just chilled some more. It was a pretty lazy afternoon and evening. I went out and watched the sunset in their backyard around 7 and just had some good think time. Chatted with Liz on the phone a little too. :-H Then we had a huge dinner with some great grilled chicken, potatoes, corn, salad, bread, pies, cake and ice cream. I've never had so much food in one weekend and its not even over yet! :-P They're in the process of slow-cooking and smoking some barbeque meat for 13 hours for tommorow. I'm stoked about it. :) After the ridiculous dinner, Curt and I needed to lose some weight so we took Sambo for a walk around town. Looked at some cool houses, avoided the ghetto and walked through the "crazy" nightlife of "downtown". I think we saw like one other lifeform the whole time. :P It was a relaxing walk though. :) Got back here around 11 and just chillin this evening. Probably will got to bed soon.

Sunday, 2nd:
Not a bad day today. Got up early and had some more good down-time where I did some praying, thinking and journaling. It was nice. :-) I went out with Curt and his family to their new baptist church for the 11:00 service. It was very interesting but very cool. The people there were so incredibly nice; we had like five people come up to us and greet us when we got in there. I've never had that in other churches I've been to. THen the service started and I felt a little awkward because everybody was so loud and into it. Like every fifth word the preacher spoke or prayed, about ten people would be like "AMEN!", or "RIGHT ON!", or "YEAH!". It was really weird, but then I came to like it because these people actually had life in them. The pastor was a guest speaker and he was really awesome. He spoke a very simple message about growing to know God throughout your life and not just being a passive Christian who believes but doesn't really interact with God. His big theme was "don't like Jesus be a stranger in your heart." I liked it a lot, it was really awesome. He was all pumped up too; yelling and pointing and walking down the ailes. It was great stuff. :-P I think Harvest needs a good riling like that! Anyhow, service went until about 12:30 and then we came back to their house for an amazing lunch. We had that BBQ pork that had been cooking for hours and hours and it was absolutely incredible. It was so good; we all ate way too much. :) Also had some other good stuff and a delicious chocolate and mint ice cream pie. mmm! :-D I lazed around with Curt awhile to digest and then we left his parents house around 3:15 to head on back to Blacksburg. It was a nice, pretty drive home. We stopped in Roanoke to pick up his suits and then decided to go around the mall and check out some more engagement rings. There was a very low selection at the mall, but I did find something that sparked a good idea in my head of what I think I'm going to end up getting. :) I'll probably have Garland do it when he calls me back. We got back to Curt's place about 6:30, unpacked and then I drove back to my place and unpacked. Was kinda stressed and angry when I found out that the fridge and freezer might be broken. I just bought a ton of food and it was all thawed when I got home. :-( So, I'm not sure what to do about that yet, but I'm very unhappy. Well, I unpacked and chilled a little and then went over to see Liz a little before 8. We had leftover BBQ pork for dinner which was oh so excellent again. :) Then spent some time just hangin and talkin which was nice. I worked on my homework for a couple hours and really didn't get much done because it was so hard. I was pretty angry about that too. Ended the evening chatting with Liz some more and left really late at like 12:45. Then battled the stupid paving crew on 460 which took foever and I didn't get home until like 1:15 and then went to be pretty angry. :-/

Monday, 3rd:
Today really sucked pretty bad. Woke up at 7 in a bad mood and then hurried to work at 7:30. Work was just terrible; I couldn't concentrate and I spent all day looking for this crash in the code and couldn't find it. It was very annoying. :-/ I got off at 3:30 and then drove over to Christiansburg to look for some jewelers but I couldn't find any, so I went over to Radford. I found a couple, but they were lousy. I went in Lemon's, and I really liked their selection of rings but they were jerks to me, so screw them, they don't get my business. I think I'm just going to deal with Garland- he seems cool. I did some grocery shopping and got gas also and was home around 5 or so. Then just cleaned up some stuff, unpacked from the weekend and chilled a little and started my homework. Liz came over a little before 8 and we made a good spaghetti dinner by candlelight with some very tasty Italian merlot that I picked up. It was fun, and nice to have her over. :-) We had a good talk about some stuff and then spent the rest of the evening doing homework together. Mine was pretty lousy and I'm going to do horrible on this one because I don't understand it hardly. :-( Oh well. She left around 11:15 and I went to be around 12:30. Was a long, crappy day for the most part.

Tuesday, 4th:
Today was a very good day. I really needed it after Monday. Today started off more normally at 6am and I had time to eat breakfast and have a nice quiet time in Psalm 107. Then finished up my homework and went into work at 7:45. I had a much better attitude at work and it helped me a whole lot in dealing with stuff. I found a couple bugs and started some new stuff that went real well. Class was long and boring today, but that's okay. I got off work at 5:30, went home and had some good organizing time before heading over to Liz's around 6:30 or so. I grabbed her at the door and took her out for a quick walk around the neigborhood during the sunset. It was beautiful. :-) I helped Liz get dinner ready a little and then played my guitar out on the porch as the beautiful evening turned to night. That was very relaxing. :) We had dinner around 9 which was so excellent. Liz made some very tasty chicken quesadillas with rice. SO good! After dinner I just chilled with Liz on the couch as she did homework and I got some journalling and Quicken stuff done. Chatted for a little and then I left around midnight and got to bed about 12:15 or so. Oh yeah, and the awesomest things about the day were twofold. One, I wanted to call Liz's dad today and ask him out to lunch to talk about stuff. I was pretty nervous though and inteded to call him after class at 12:15. He actually called me during class and left a message asking the same thing; he actually remembered me asking him the first time late at night last week. So that was very cool of him and made it easier to call him back and set up lunch for tommorow. :-) Then, in the afternoon, I called Garland back about the ring and had a nice talk with him and told him more of what I thought I wanted and laid it all out for him. He says it should work. He's going to check for me and then call back Thursday and hopefully have it done next week. :) :) So that was very, very cool and made me really excited about this whole proposal business. :-H

Wednesday, 5th:
Overall a decent day today. Got up early and had a nice morning prayer time before work at 7:30. At a little after noon I went over to Christiansburg and picked up Liz's dad at his shop and we went out to lunch at the Chinese place in Christiansburg. The food was really good and we had a nice time. I was so ridiculously nervous! :P We had a real good talk about Liz and I and marriage and career stuff, etc. And he officially approved of me marrying Liz. :) w00t! So, we were there for a while and then I took him on back to the shop and I got back to work a little after 2 and then worked until 5:30. Got home and Liz met me there and we ate some leftover spaghetti together for dinner. Then went to Awana at 6:30. It went pretty well tonight. Games were good, and I had a fun time being a little more involved with the JVs. At the end, I helped Barry take the trailer kids back home on the van which was completely nuts, but I was glad to help out. :) Liz and I got back to my house just after 9 and then spent some time looking at her car under the hood to see if there was anything obviously leaking or wrong with it, since it had been smelling pretty bad earlier. Couldn't find anything, so hopefully nothing is wrong. :-/ Then we went back inside and ate some Oreos with the guys and then she worked on homework for awhile while I did work on my computers and other odds and ends. We talked a little at the end, as we always do, and Liz left just before 1am and I went to bed right after that.

Thursday, 6th:
Pretty decent day I suppose. I got up and was pretty tired, but had a good morning. Work went rather slow, but I got some good stuff done. Class was very dull and painful today. :-/ I got off work at 5, came home and ended up passing out for about 45 minutes and woke up just in time to make it over to Curt's house by 6:30. We went out to dinner at EL Grand Rodeo and it was very, very good. :) Curt was right, their "white dip" is incredible, and their normal salsa will blow your hat off. :P GOod time talking there and then went back to his place, sat under his new porch and chatted for a while. Good stuff. :) I left around 10:15, talked to my mom on the phone for 45 minutes, which was okay. I had driven over to Liz's house, so spent most of my time in the car on the phone outside her house. :-P At 11, I called her up and she came out and we took a little night walk in the drizzle and then it started raining pretty good, so we went and chatted downstairs for a bit. I left around midnight, came home and got to bed.

Friday, 7th:
Was a nice day today. Got up early and went to work which went pretty quickly. Got off at 3:30 and Liz surprised me at the bottom of the stairs when I got off work, so we went over to my place for a bit and we did a couple things before heading back to her house. I worked a little on Quicken stuff while she did some work. At 6:30, we headed out and went to Soulvaki's for a good and cheap dinner. :) Then went over to Squires at 8:00 and watched the play Waiting For Godot. It was rather weird and long and boring at times, but for the most part I enjoyed it and it kinda made me think a little. :) That got out around 10:45 and then we went back to Liz's. Her dad got off work really late tonight, so we spent some time eating some dinner (popcorn) with him. I chilled with Liz some more and I think I left pretty late like 12:30 or something.

Saturday, 8th:
Very fun day today. Got up around 7 and had a good quiet time and a long prayer time. I then spent the remainder of the morning working on my Quicken accounting stuff and got a lot of that knocked out. :) Had good lunch and watched a little of the Hokies game, then cleaned up and went over to Liz's at 2:00. We drove to Roanoke together and went to JosABank to get me a nice suit. I was holding out for awhile so we checked Goodwill first but after they had nothing good at all, I then decided that it would probably be a good investment to spend some money on a really nice suit that will last me a long time and many interviews and meetings. So I got in on their $200 sale for a $500 suit and found a really nice one that I like a bunch. It's a dark olive green and it looks and feels moneyball. :) So, that was cool. We got lost a little trying to get out of Roanoke which was stressful, but finally made it back at 6:00. The evening was a lot of fun. Mr. Pinckney only worked the morning today so he was home for the first time in a long while and it was just really nice. We got the chimnea fire going in the back yard and grilled up some burgers for dinner. Curt came by for a few minutes with a huge truck he was test driving and I drove that which was incredibly huge! Then we ate dinner. Liz had a great idea to make Smores, so me, her and Laura went to Food Lion. Came back and got the fire going again and everybody came outside and sat around it and we made some really tasty Smores. :-) :-) That was fun. Went back inside around 9:00 and we watched Gladiator, which, as everybody knows, is the greatest movie ever. :) Good times. I left just before midnight and got on to bed.

Sunday, 9th:
Today was all right. Got up and had some good quiet time before church. Picked up Kristin and Liz for Sunday school at 9:45. Service at 11 was okay. After church I went back to Liz's and helped to prepare lunch and had a good lunch with everyone. After lunch, I worked with Liz on cleaning her room and then moving her furniture all around and organizing it. It took a few hours, but we did a really good job on it and it looks great now. I had fun working with her and I think she really enjoys the change now. :) I spent the rest of the evening working on my homework with a little break for a small dinner around 8. At about 10, I quit my homework and Liz and I had a nice Bible study time. I left after that, around 11, and got home and was in bed by 11:30. :)

Monday, 10th:
Not too much today. Woke up a little late, at 7 and went into work at 7:45. Work went well and I put in an extra hour to make up for Friday, so I got off at 4:45. After work, I went home and did some major cleaning of the kitchen, dining room, my room and my car, all of which were in dire need of cleaning. :P Then made some dinner and spent some time finishing off my homework which was a pain. :-/ Around 10, I went over to visit Liz and we took a night walk and talk. It was a beautiful evening for it and we even did some swinging. :) I left her just after 11 and got home and to bed by 11:30.

Tuesday, 11th:
Today was okay I think. Had a decent morning and went to work at 7:30. Work as okay, class was horribly boring, and then work finished up okay. After work, I went to Liz's and picked her up around 5:30 and we left to drive to Roanoke. We had a nice drive there and Liz made some smashing sandwiches for dinner. :-) I picked up my new suit at JosABank around 6:30. Then went over to Tanglewood Mall and I bought a white dress shirt at JCPenney's and we walked around the rest of the mall a little bit and had fun looking at weird stuff in TJ Maxx. We left the mall around 8 and got a big, scrumptous Frostie from Wendy's for the ride home. :-D The ride back went well and we got to Liz's around 9. Went downstairs and tried to study for awhile, but I was way too tired to concentrate on it. :-/ Gave up and went upstairs a little later to chat with Liz and we had a nice Bible study until I left a bit after 11. Got home and to bed by 11:30.

Wednesday, 12th:
Livable day today. Got up early at 6 and had a great morning. I was in a good mood and was quick getting ready, so I had about a 45-minute quiet time where I read the end of 1 Thessalonians and then started a new study in the book of Song of Solomon, which I'm really excited about. I had a good time studying some of the first chapter. Then went to work and had a good day at work. I got quite a few things done. Worked a little over to make up for yesterday and I got off at 4. I came home and chilled out in the backyard with a J.R. and did some studying for my exam tommorow. That went well and then I went in and started cooking dinner at 5:15. I made a breakfast (pancakes, eggs, and sausage) for Liz and I. She came over around 5:45 and we had a nice dinner together. She left to go to Awana at 6:30 and I stayed and cleaned up the mess I had made, which took about 30 minutes, and then I went to Awana around 7:20 in time to to work with the JV kids. It went pretty well tonight and I had fun joking with the girls during handbook time. :-P After Awana, Liz and I went back to my place to study. We ended up just talking downstairs, which was actually really nice because Liz wasn't doing too well today, so I wanted to listen to her. :-( We had a quick Oreo-Time with the guys at 10 and then Liz left around 10:20 or so. I went back to studying for a little while before getting really tired and going to bed just after 11:30.

Thursday, 13th:
Today was decent. Got up and went to work and then had my test in class. It actually seemed like it went fairly well and I got all the problems done with a little time to spare. :) Then worked until 5:00 and went home. I grabbed some leftovers for dinner and then went to campus a little before 7. Met Liz in the parking lot and got to talk with her a few minutes. At 7, I had to be at Torgerson to speak with the general engineering freshman at the Computer Science meeting. I told them a little about co-oping and study abroad and stuff. It went well and speaking in front of 300 students wasn't as nerve-racking as last year. :-P That lasted until 8 and then I walked over to Rivermill and met up with Curt there to grab a drink and hang out. We had a good time talking and watching the Astros beat the Cards. A little before 11, we walked over to Kristin's dorm. I called her and told her to look out her window, where we were standing and waving and she was very surprised. :P But, she came out and chatted with us for awhile which was fun. We left her around 11:30 and then I went on home and to bed.

Friday, 14th:
It was a relaxing day today...at least later on. The morning went pretty well. I went into work and then at 9:30 I had an interview with Northup Grumman on campus. It was very hard! I wasn't prepared for such an interview. I went in there an he had me coding and answering all these hard technical questions right off the bat. I mean, they weren't too hard, but I wasn't ready and I was nervous so I think I did fairly horribly with that interview. Oh well... The rest of work went real well and I got off at 4. Then came home and just felt like relaxing, so I sprawled out on the couch and watched the movie Behind Enemy Lines which I like a lot. Liz came over just before 6:00 and watched the end of it with me. :) Then we went out by the Foxridge pond and threw her frisbee in the field until dark. That was very fun. :) For dinner, we went out to the Japanese place, Kobe, over by Macado's. It was a nice, chill place, not too fancy, and the food was real good. It was fun going with her there. :) After dinner, we came on back to my place and had a good Bible study and talk together. Then, at 10:30 Liz and I went and picked up Laura after the high school football game. Then we went to campus and picked up Kristin and we all went over to McDonald's and met Doug there and got some ice cream and McFlurries and stuff and hung out for an hour or so. It was a lot of fun hanging out with all of them. :) We left McD's just before midnight and then I took everybody on home and I went to bed around 1:00.

Saturday, 15th:
Today was fun but insane. I got up at 6:00, threw on some clothes and then hit the road at 6:15. I drove over to Halifax to meet with Garland this morning about the ring I wanted to make for Liz. The drive was beautiful and went really well. I made great time there and got into town around 8:30. Garland didn't open until 9, so I had some time to do some Bible study. I had some great prayer time in the car on the way over, too. :) I went to Garland's a little after 9 and talked with him for awhile and looked at some diamonds and blue gemstones that he had got in for me. I felt a little sad because they weren't what I had described to him over the phone and the diamond was nice, but not quite what I wanted either. But, I decided that I could make do with what he had, so we decided on what he would make for me next week and I left there around 10. I was a little uneasy about it, but talked myself into it, I guess. The drive home was nice too. Liz called me around 11:30 while I was still about an hour away from Blacksburg. She thought I was at home, and was like, "hey, we're going to AltaMons to hike but Dad wants to leave right around noon." I tried hard not to blow my cover and was able to talk her into leaving at 12:30 instead. :) So, I raced on back and made it to her house in time and then me and all of her family except her mom went over to Alta Mons to hike up to the waterfall. The drive over there was beautiful and so was the hike. I think it was the perfect day out. :) We hung out at the waterfall for awhile and then had a fun time walking back, jumping the stones along the stream on down the mountain. Liz slipped and fell in once which was funny, but then I did twice a little later on, which suprisingly wasn't as funny. :P It was cool though and we got down and drove back to Liz's house and got there around 4:30. At 5, Liz and I went went to downtown for the end of the live jazz day and got to see about 40 minutes of it which was pretty cool. :) That ended at 6 and Liz and I walked around campus for a bit. Went and grabbed Kristin from her dorm and she walked with us and watched the sunset. That was fun, but then it got cold so we walked Kristin back and then went on back to Liz's for dinner. Had some excellent spaghetti. :) After dinner I passed out on the couch for about an hour- I was so tired! I was pretty groggy after that but had enough energy to watch Raising Arizona with Liz and Doug. :P That ended and I left to go home and sleep around midnight.

Sunday, 16th:
Not the greatest day, but okay. Got up early and had a good quiet time before church. I also spent a little time picking out and sorta practicing a few songs to play on my guitar. Picked up Liz and Kristin for Sunday school at 9:45. I played three songs for the group and that went okay. Service was rather boring, but that's okay. After church, took Kristin back and then went to Liz's for lunch. Mr. P grilled up some awesome chicken for lunch. :) I spent the majority of the afternoon online trying to research other options for a ring because I felt uneasy with Garland. I actually found the diamond that he wanted $900 for, for only about $550 which really made me wonder. Then, I found pretty much the exact ring that I wanted that I was having to twist Garland's arm about to get made, and it was cheaper than Garland wanted, plus backed with more guarentees and better business and not a 3 hour drive away. Also, if I ordered it Monday, it was guarenteed to come on Friday when I needed it. So, I debated a lot about that. Liz and I went for a nice walk around the neighborhood during the sunset and had a good talk. Then came back and Liz made a nice little dinner for us. I left after that, around 8:30 or so. Then talked to both Mom and Dad about the ring business for about an hour and I had talked to Curt awhile before and after all of that I decided that it would be a lot better business decision to go with the online company for my ring. So, I spent some time finding an awesome diamond and ordered it. :) I was pooped by then and went on to bed around midnight.

Monday, 17th:
I had a very nice day today. I was relieved, much more peaceful, and very excited about the ring that I found for Liz. :) I went to work early on and then I had an interview with Eastman which went just awesome. I was so excited, because it sounds like the perfect job for me, in a good location and everything. It was very cool and that really encouraged me a ton. :) I went back to work until 4:30 and then ran around the Wal-Mart and Kroger to pick up some foodage. Liz came over to eat dinner with me around 7:30. We made some chicken bites and cheesy pasta. :) Then I just spent the evening toodling in my room, cleaning up and stuff. Had a fun Oreo time with the guys at 10. Liz was tired and left at like 10:30. I did a few more things in my room and then went on to bed around 11:30.

Tuesday, 18th:
Today was so, so. I went to work and then had an interview with Harris which went well, but I'm not as certain that I'd like to work with them, but we'll see. I went to class after that, which bored me to sleep. I was encouraged, though, because I did pretty well on my test. :) After class, I went on and got back to work until 5:45. After work, I went to the drillfield and met up with Jamie, Kara and Amanda for peeps dinner. Liz came a little later too and it was nice to be with them. We stayed until about 6:45 and then I went on back with Liz to her house. We didn't eat with the peeps, but had dinner with her family which was so good. I spent some time journaling about stuff and got to talk to Liz a little before I left at 10. I went home and spent some time praying. Oh, yeah, it was a sad day because they changed the forecast to rain for Friday- my birthday and the day I wanted to propose. :-( So, I was really struggling with God with that and needed to pray a ton. So, I prayed some and went to bed around 11:20.

Wednesday, 19th:
Ehhhhh, okay day. I was really sad again today about the forecast for rain on Friday. :-( It really dragged my spirits down. I got to pray a lot in the morning before work, though, so that was good. Work was really boring as I continued on running through the test matrix for the program. I got off at 4:30 and came home to chill. Went out in the backyard and did some journaling, thinking and praying. I let Shadow out with me and it was pretty fun trying to see her gingerly go around and explore. She had a great time. :) I came back in and made a quick dinner around 6:30. Then went over to Harvest at 7:20 for Awana to work with the JVers. I had a lot of fun with them, especially with Rebecca and Ellen. :P That ended and then Liz and I went to Mill Mountain with a few other people to hang out and drink chai. It was cool. :) We left there around 10 and then Liz and I talked in the parking lot for awhile about our days before she left about 10:30. I headed on back home and talked with my roomies a little and then prayed some more before bed at 11:15.

Thursday, 20th:
Today was decent. I went to work and had a boring class and then more work until about 5:30. Liz came over and brought me a cookie during work which was cool of her. :) After work, I came home for a little while and worked on my poem for Liz for awhile and then went to Curt's at 7:30. He had a few people over to watch the Hokies game and grill food, which was fun. I think I ate way too much because I was feeling a little sick afterwards! I only stayed for the half, and left around 9:45. Came home and worked on the poem again until like 1am, then went to bed.

Friday, 21st:
Well, today was my big day. I worked from home on my laptop today so that I could be there for the ring to come. I had an interview from 9:15-10 with InfoSys which went fairly well. Then, I tried to work as much as possible the rest of the day. I was so nervous about proposing and how it was all going to work out, so it was hard for me to concentrate on anything. The morning was crappy and rainy, so I began to lose hope, but then around 11, it got sunny out and was beautiful by afternoon, so I was totally stoked! Of course, I was very nervous too and kept waiting for the ring to come so I could leave with Liz. Every time I heard a small rumble, I would be at the window looking for FedEx, but alas, nothing. :( I stopped working around 2, because I couldn't focus. I spent the next hour and a half trying to pray, pacing and waiting for FedEx. I also made us dinner for our hike. Finally, FedEx wasn't showing, so I went ahead and left at 3:30 to get Liz and do it anyways and hope that the ring was there when we got back. We drove on out to Buffalo Mountain and the weather was absolutely incredible during the drive. The colors on the leaves were awesome! Then, in Floyd, we went through this terrible, thick fog which made me sad because I didn't think it would work out. In about 10 minutes, we got out of the fog and it was incredible out again! Kept driving and finally made it to the mountain, but then another huge fog came in. :( I was not happy at all, but downright sad. We were already there, so took the small, tiring hike up there anyways. No view, just cold, damp and white. We hid behind a rock from the wind and had dinner up there anyhow. A couple times it was neat because the fog would sink down and we were high enough that we could see the sun over top of the fog, like we were above it. That was pretty surreal. :) So, anyhow, we got to talking and Liz was very distraught because she thought maybe I would propose today, so she'd been thinking a lot and I guess it had gotten her down on her luck. So, she's not ready to get married yet, which really shot a hole in my proposal. :-/ So, I kinda proposed anyways because I was sick of holding secrets from her (even if they're good). I just promised her that I wanted to marry her and all that when she is ready for it. Then it started getting dark quick and was freezing, so we scurried on down the mountain back to the car. I finally got to tell her all of my planning that went into today and stress and happiness and sadness and worry. It was great to finally let her on to it all, even if I was sad with the outcome. :-( So, we drove back to Blacksburg and went to Macado's for dessert around 9. We talked out some things and it was nice to be with her. I think we left there around 11 and then I read her my finished 10-page poem which was a very condensed history of our relationship. I took her on back to her house and left around 11:30 and came back to sleep. I was pretty sad about how the day turned out. It was a rollercoaster of emotions for me, but I guess that it's for the best.

Saturday, 22nd:
It was a very hard day for me today. I got up late, around 8:45 and then spent the morning cleaning out my room entirely. It was such a mess and disorganized. I worked on that, made some lunch and worked some more in the early afternoon. At 3:30 I went and picked up Liz and we went over to the Martin's at 4 for Rebecca's surprise birthday party. There were some other couples there and it was nice. Kinda sad for me in a way...in fact the whole day was hard and sad. We stayed there until 6:20 or so, then came back to my place and my parents were there to hang out. They brought me some cool presents and cake. :-) That was nice and then we all went to Backstreet's for a late dinner. Liz and I split a good calzone. After dinner, we came back to my place and ate cake, then watched the old movie Prince Valiant. It was cool in parts, but I was so tired that I kept dosing off. It ended late and I took Liz back home around 12:30.

Sunday, 23rd:
Today was meh as well. I've just been in a somber mood since Friday. I woke up around 9 and got ready for church and went with my parents to service at 11. I actually liked the worship this week which was cool. The message started well and then kinda got blah. After service, my fam went to lunch and got some good pizza at Sabbaro's in Squires. After that, Kristin showed us around two of her art buildings and we got to see some of her sweet artwork. Then, drove back to my house and helped my parents load up the van and they left town around 3:30. A little after that, I called up Liz and then went and picked her up at like 4:30. We went for a drive out in the beautiful afternoon country, then found a spot on their land to sit and talk. We tried to work out some stuff from Friday, but it was hard. It got cold and dark soon, so we drove up to another spot where it was quiet and private and we sat there in the car awhile and talked and then sat out under the stars and talked some more. It went pretty well. I guess our final decision was that it would be good to not see each other for about two weeks just so we could work on some stuff individually and get back to normal. So, that was a hard choice, but I think it will be good. I took her on home around 9 and said goodbye. Then came back home and worked on some stuff until I went to be a little after 11.

Monday, 24th:
Today went allright. I woke up around 7 and then I went to work from 7:30-3:30 and then did some shopping at Kroger before coming home. I wasn't very happy today...it was hard not being with Liz or hearing from her at all. At home I made dinner and then did my homework for Tuesday. Got that all done and did some other stuff before bed at 11:30.

Tuesday, 25th:
I also had trouble waking up today. I've just been in an icky mood all worried and sad about stuff with Liz. I finally got up and went to work for a little bit. Then went to an interview with Raytheon at 9:30. That went okay I think and then I had an hour-long one with SAIC at 10. That one went really well and was very cool. I think I'd really enjoy working with their group, so we'll see how that pans out. I got to class a few minutes late and that went slowly. Then back to work for a long afternoon until 6:45. After work I just came home, made dinner, and then worked in my room a little bit. I started into reading a good book called The Power of Committment. I've started it before, but never finished it. Hopefully being away from Liz will give me some time and inspiration to read it again and finish it. :-) So, that was good and I went to bed around 11:30 again.

Wednesday, 26th:
Still not doing too hot today. Got up a little late, dressed up and went to work for a bit. I had an interview with Lockheed Martin at 9:15 which seemed like a pretty silly and pointless interview, but it went well. Worked until 5, then went and got my senior portraits taken. That was interesting...I think the photographer was semi-drunk, but the pictures should be fun! :-P Came home for some cheddarwursts and then went back out to Awana at 6:30. It was a nice time. I enjoyed talking with Matt during gametime and then the JV group was pretty fun to work with again. I saw Liz and talked to her briefly, but it made me pretty sad. After Awana, I came home and read some more and stuff before bed at 11:30. Oh, I also participated in the third straight Oreo Time here tonight. I think that's a record for me. :-P Its been nice spending a little more time with my roomates, but hard being away from Liz.

Thursday, 27th:
Today was a little better. I finally started my day with a quiet time and small prayer for the first time in almost a week. It was okay, but hard. My heart is still pretty hurting. I went to work and then left a little early before class to go get my CS senior pictures, but couldn't find parking so just drove around BBurg a little before class at 11. Class was so pointless; there was like 9 of us there. Everyone was skipping because of the football game apparently. After class I went back to work until 4:00 when everybody left because of the game and traffic/parking and all. I went back to campus and was able to get my CS picture done well. I got home at 5 and then had to finish my work day on my laptop, so I worked until 6:15. Liz came over (we had already planned on this game, so this was an exception) and we scarfed down some quick dinner and tried to talk a little. It kind of sadenned me again to see her. Oh well. :-/ We raced off to campus, parked by the airport and speed-walked to meet Kristin at Cassel before the game, but then got stuck in the sea of people at the gate and we missed kickoff anyhow. :-( Blah! We got to our seats and they were second-to-last row in the south end-zone which is very high. So we just sat at the top and enjoyed the game togehter. It was pretty stinkin cold, but fun. Liz and I parted ways with Kristin after the third quarter to beat traffic and warm up. Came back to my place for some hot chocolate and talked a little. It was nice to be with Liz a little today. :) She left at like 11:30 and I went to bed a little after midnight.

Friday, 28th:
Okay day today. I went into work for a few minutes and then had an interview with GE at 8:30. It went okay, I think. Then came back to work for the rest of the day until 4:45. Work went decently, but I was glad to be done finally. I got to learn some PHP this week, so that was cool. :-) After work, I took some old stuff over to YMCA and got gas, then chilled at home for a bit. Made some dinner and then headed over to the Taylors' house for their Riva reunion party. I left around 7:05 and didn't get there until about 7:45!! I got totally lost and confused back on those ridiculous streets off of Country Club Road. :( That was annoying, but I finally found their house. :P The party was nice, but small. I felt bad, because they tried really hard, but only 5 of us showed up, out of 32. :-( Oh well. I had fun catching up a little with the other three people and the Taylors. Liz was there too, so I got to chat for a little with her. Mrs. Taylor made some really good snacks too. :-D I was going out with Curt a little later, so I left the party around 9:30, said goodbye to Liz and then met Curt at my house. We went over to The Underground to grab some drinks and talk about life and such. It was fun being with him and encouraging as well to talk to him about all the crap that had been pulling me down this week. Came home around 12:45 and goofed off for awhile before I finally went to bed at 2am.

Saturday, 29th:
Today was nice. I slept in for a long time which was awesome. I don't think I got up until like 10:30. :-D Had a little spice cake for breakfast and cleaned a bunch of stuff around the house, then chilled in my room a bit. Around 2:30 I decided that it was way too beautiful outside for me to be inside. So, I went on an adventurous drive/photograph session like I used to do years ago as a freshman. It was a ton of fun and I drove a bunch of places until about 7:00. I went down to the river at McCoy and then to Eggleston and then around the mountains for awhile and then down to Claytor Lake for a bit and then over to another section of the river which was beautiful and quiet, so I decided to stop there for awhile. I took some thinking and praying time, which was much needed and very nice. :) Then got back on my drive and watched the sun set which was beautiful. :) Got back at 7 and fired up the grill in the backyard. Steve and Chris came down and we played some darts and hung out together down there which was a lot of fun. :-) I grilled some very good chicken and cheddarwursts. Oh yeah! :-D We also watched the Texas-OSU game which started as an incredible game but quickly got stupid when Texas took over. We played some more darts and stuff. Then chilled in my room a bit before convincing Steve and Chris to go with me to get some Sonic desserts and then look at Mars, since it was close to Earth tonight. Chris volunteered to drive and as we were headed out to Christiansburg, he gunned it to pass a car...right into the radar of a cop who definitley pulled us over. It was an experience. :-P The cop was like the nicest cop ever and very easy to deal with. He actually let Chris off for the speeding, but gave him a violation for having too much tint on his windows, but that's not too bad and he should just fix that and get off easy. So, that worked out okay. Almost made us late for Sonic though, but we made it just in time and got some good stuff. :-) Then went over to Ramble Road by the airport and looked at Mars and the other stars which were just incredible from that vantage point. That was very cool and a fun way to spend our extra hour tonight. :-) I went to bed around 1:15 (12:15 after the time change). :-)

Sunday, 30th:
Pretty good day today. I got up early and felt good and had a nice morning. I got to have a long quiet time and pray for awhile also, so that was really good and I felt a lot more peaceful starting off today than I had in many days. :) Then I cleaned up a little and got some stuff done before getting ready for church. I left at 10:30 and went over to pick up Curt and we went to try out Main Street Baptist in Christiansburg. It was okay, but just not my style. The sermon was really good and spoke to me pretty strongly about stuff I've been thinking about in my own life- primarily obeying God. So, it was pretty good, but I doubt if I'll be back there. Then took Curt back home and went to Kroger and Wal-Mart for some foodage. I got back and made a little lunch at 2 and then spent the afternoon working on some projects in my room. I got quite a bit done. Around 4 or so I started working on the task of finishing up putting my accounts on Quicken. I worked on that the rest of the evening, and got it pretty much all done! :-) I took a break and made a good spaghetti dinner from 6-7. So, yeah, I got most of my accounts done and balanced out; only a small bit to go. :) Also of note, I should say that it was fun being home this evening with my roomates and just talking and joking and stuff every now and then. It was cool. :) I got to bed just after midnight.

Monday, 31st:
Happy Halloween! :-) Actually, didn't do very much for Halloween today. Had one trick-or-treater catch me by surprise and I had to throw a pack of bite-size ritz bitz at him. :-P It was a decent day, though. I went to work at 7:30 and that went well. THe company bought us Jimmy John's for a Halloween lunch which was fun. The sub was okay, not the best, but the chips were to die for. :-D Then worked some more. Liz stopped by late in the day and I talked to her a little which was great. Finished up work around 4:15, then went to the bank and paid rent. Got back home and was exhausted, so took a brief nap from like 5:30-6 and then had some dinner. Then worked on my homework for about three hours until 10:00. No Oreo-Time tonight. :( Dunno where the Steves went. I did get the rest of the loose ends on my Quicken accounts all finished, so that was awesome. All caught up! :-) It feels great. That was the last thing I did before having a little prayer time and going to bed around midnight.

No comments: