It's been too long

Yeah, I know. I need to post more often and I'm going to make an effort to do so. Lately, a lot has been going on, some good, some not so good. I think I'll start with the not so good and end up with the good because that's the order it came in and everybody likes chronological order. Or something.

First, the thing that pissed me off the most. I tried to throw a party on Saturday night. I had 3 cases of beer, a couple of two liters of soda, snacks, cleaned up the place and make it all look good. I was ready and I was pumped for it. The first sign of bad news: my sister called to tell me she couldn't come. I was ok with it because it was her friend's birthday and it makes sense to go out for someone's birthday. No biggie. So she was out and so were her friends who might have come with. Still about 25 or so people invited. Then my cousin called. He had a wedding to go to. Ok, I can accept that too. Wedding is more important than a random party. My buddy Rick tells me he's not coming because his fiancee "has his nuts in a jar." Then people from work, who had already said they were coming, started telling me they couldn't come. Some of their excuses:

- I'm going to see my neighbor's band.
- I'm kind of tired.
- I'm going to watch a movie instead.

So I was kinda pissed. Then my friend Amy no shows. So I called her at 8 to see what was up and she tells me she isn't coming because she forgot and she didn't want to drive out. Argggh! I had 6 people show up. 6! ARRRRRRRRGGGGGHHHHH! So I've come to the conclusion that I'm not throwing any more parties. At least, not in the near future. The only good thing that came out of the party was that I sent Rick a wonderful reply to his jar comment. It went as follows:

Dude, we need help. We need drinkers. So tell Allison to get her ass up here and you can go get a manicure.

Yeah, I'm like that.

Anyway, that was the bad news. The good news: I've started seeing someone. She's smart, funny, incredibly sarcastic and sassy. I really like her (obviously). I'm not going into it any more than that, especially not after what happened with Kathryn. Now that was a HUGE mistake. God I'm dumb. Anyway, so I'm happy about this new girl. I had an incredible day today mostly because of her. It's a good feeling.

Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-Benny and the Jets...

This ought to make David Alexander proud. Well, maybe not completely proud (I didn't join an ultimate team or anything). I started running again. I've done a few times before and I've gone a month or so before I quit, but this time it's going to stick. I've actually started looking forward a bit to the pain that comes with the run. Not that I'm crazy about it...heaven knows there are plenty of time where I don't want to go or even continue once I'm out there in the sub-30 degree weather, but it means a lot to me to get back into shape and I want to compete again. I want the pure joy of getting out there and knowing it's me against the course to out-do whatever I've done before. A clock in my head. And before any of you knew me, I used to be an athlete. Like 99th percentile athlete. And I just stopped and I never started again. I'm ashamed about that, despite being taught never to be ashamed. I am. I feel like I gave up on myself. And that's a horrible feeling, although it's great fodder for song writing material. And I've been thinking about what Lowrider, as he is known from time to time, told me in the ATX and I think I'm going to make time to sit down and write everyday. While it probably won't happen, it'll be good for me and I think it'll help work though some of anxiety and loneliness I've been feeling lately. So those are my two resolutions for this year. Wish me luck; I'll probably need it.

I went on a job assessment yesterday for a different bank (I'll keep the bank name out of here) and I've got to tell you, it was the lamest thing I've ever been though. After answering about 75 questions on a scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree, the HR people told me I wasn't qualified to be a personal banker with their company. "Wow, really? Are you sure? Because I do have a bachelors degree in journalism and I've got 2 1/2 years of working experience as a personal banker, but what the hell do I know?" I wanted to retort. Instead, I thanked the lady for letting me come in and walked out to fume to myself. I'm sure it would be nice to get out of the place I'm working now and make more money, but I don't think I would have liked it with that bank anyway. I really need to get out and look for a different field. Any suggestions?