Well, here I am, safe and sound in Florida.

The day after I arrived, we left Tampa for Orlando, and spent the day at the Magic Kingdom and Epcot. We also stayed at a pretty nice hotel.

Christmas was fun too, but I realized it doesn't quite seem to have the same magic as I remember. The anticipation, the time off school, the can't-get-to-sleep-because-Santa-will-be-here-in-a-few-hours...

I'm not completely dead on the inside yet, though. I cried a little when Mom handed me my presents.

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Yesterday Mom and her boyfriend took me to a little warehouse where her friend practiced with his band ZeroCreep. It was an open bar, so I helped myself to some SKYY Vodka and cozied up and listened to the music. It was loud, but surprisingly good.

I also partook in a little bit of "Special" smoking with some people twice my age. That was kind of fun.

And, because of all the water I made sure to drink, I don't even have a hangover this morning.

Just a few more days left before I head back to the West Coast. I don't get homesick, but I am starting to miss the bustle of urban life.

Ah, an update- and it hasn't been a month yet!

I added a few new pics over the weekend.

What the...?! 300,000 hits? Wowsers.

Well, ever since my fantastically nauseating hangover last Sunday, I haven't smoked. Lets see if it lasts this time.

In the days before my Christmas Vacation, I've been cleaning out my room of the junk accumulated during the past couple of years. I always get real sad and depressed whenever I do this.

Mostly I'm a pack rat. I keep everything. Even during the clean-up, I couldn't bring myself to throw out some old movie stubs or chinese cookie fortunes.

And then there's the whole 'time shock'. The date on a receipt or an old entry in a paper journal puts a heavy weight on my chest.

It's been that long since ____?!

Time really flies. I can't believe I moved to San Francisco on July 22nd, 2004, and here it is almost 2007.

I start thinking back to 1995, to a conversation I had with a friend while we were on the swing sets. We were talking about how neither of us could imagine dieing, how maybe we'd just live forever.

Heh, I miss those days...

Well, here I am.

I really don't mean to let so much time pass between entries. I sit down to write after a long day, but first I check my email, than catch up on a few webcomics, check some news...

Let's get down to it.

Stacia, a.k.a. 'Ana' is now completly gone. She came by with her TG cousin Kyle to grab the rest of her things from storage. After that was loaded into the car, I gave Stacia her notebooks- twelve years worth of diaries. (No, I didn't read any of them.)

So, she walked away for the last time, just as the rain started to pour down, like a bad 1940's noir movie.

As luck would have it, and I'm not sure whether it's good or bad, 'Amy', my ex-roommate/ex-Best-Friend contacted me out of the blue and we got together for drinks. Long story short, after a night of bar hopping we ended up totally wasted at a strip club getting $40 lap dances.

Just like old times.

So, about the Date I mentioned in my last entry. She's a T-Girl I met on Craig's List. She's really cool, kind of spacey...but then again, so am I. I don't think I see us being any more than friends, though.

Well, that's all for now. I'm thinking about recreating my Halloween costume and putting up some clearer pics. I think it was really hot!

Another Month, another update...

I see the entry about 'Ana's moving in was just a handful of posts ago, and here we are, three and a half months later, and she's moved out.

We've had a couple of arguments that almost resulted in her leaving. Each time, after we both cooled off she'd go into Therapist mode and talk about communication, how I shouldn't be burning bridges... In the end, I was the villain, I apologized, and she'd end up staying.

It finally got to the point where I realized she was toxic. She wasn't totally crazy, she just...it's hard to explain.

About a month ago, when I got my new iPod, I told 'Ana' she could have my old mp3 player. Fastforward to about a couple of hours ago. My sister said she wanted an mp3 player for Christmas, so while 'Ana' and I were walking about the city, as we usually do, I told her about my sisters list and asked her if I could have it back.

"NO WAY! YOU GAVE IT TO ME- I'M NOT GIVING IT BACK!"

She said it was at her mothers, that it was a gift and it's rude of me to ask for it back. Then she said, like I was a total cunt, "Whatever, you can have it back. I don't want to argue."

I didn't really know how to respond to that, at first. Since I started keeping track on October 1st, I've spent over $400 on her- not including food, gifts, movie tickets, etc. I thought it ironic that during this argument she was wearing the jeans I bought her for her new job- which she didn't end up working at because she didn't like the person training her.

When she was 'stranded' in Las Vegas, I was the first person she called and I immediatly bought her a ticket home. (I say 'stranded' because it turns out her Dad was ready to take her home, she just decided she didn't want to be with him anymore because of his attitude.)

I tried explaining this to her, that I wasn't upset about the stupid mp3 player, it was the fact that after all I've given her, all the things I've done for her, she would react that way over something she's never even used.

She just didn't seem to get it, and that's when I said she was completly toxic. I told her to get all of her stuff together and move it out of my room- she could put it in the Hotel's storage area until she found a new place.

This girl...she was a stranger. When the boss decided not to hire her and she had nowhere else to go, I barely knew her. I offered to let her stay because I'm a total sap . But we became friends and I let it drag out.

I know hindsight is 20/20. Truth is, I saw this coming two months ago, but the 90% of the time where we were best friends was great. We did everything together, she taught me a little piano and a little guitar, and I told her about all the cool tech in the pipeline. She turned me on to bands I'd never even heard of (Neutral Milk Hotel? WTF?). We watched 'The Office' together, She'd sing to me as we walked down the street, providing a great soundtrack to anotherwise dreary street...

Even though we were almost completly different, I thought she was a good friend.

The other 10% though... I would stew on it for awhile, but I'd try to put it out of my mind. Like how after three months, she had yet to find a job.

How she'd complain about her Ex inviting her out to a concert, and she didn't want to go because she was on the rebound, and she didn't want to drink or smoke and end up in another bad relationship...and than when she changed her mind two hours later and wanted to go, and I tried to remind her of all the reasons she had mentioned she'd yell it was None of my Business, that she was 28 and capable of making her own decisions.

I finally realized that even though she left home at a very young age, she was just living from boyfriend to boyfriend (or gullible sap).

She's never really been on her own, and consequently, doesn't seem to make the best decisions.

I didn't say any of this of course. We would argue a bit, I'd be the villain, and I'd apologize. Than I stopped apologizing, and just tried glossing over it and putting it out of my mind.

But today was the last straw- when I realized that despite all of my defending her, pleading her case to the Logical part of my brain, she really was taking advantage of me. I like to think that it wasn't totally on purpose, that it's just a way of life for her brought on by a lack of guidance growing up, or maybe a defense mechanism from a string of people taking advantage of her all her life.

There I go defending her again...

So, now she's gone. (Before leaving, she tossed the mp3 player on my bed- turns out it wasn't really at her Mother's house.)

And now, in a bit of a funk, I'm listening to Fastball's 'Out of my Head' on infinite repeat.

"Was I out of my head, was I out of my mind...? How could I have ever been so blind...?"


...And in other news, I've got a date tomorrow.

Well, Halloween has come and gone, and I'm still recovering. I really didn't intend to drink so much- just kinda happened.

'Ana' originally was going to stay in because she didn't want to drink, which would cause her to smoke, but she was having guy troubles and ended up smoking anyway, so she she said 'Fuck It' and went out with me.

My costume was a hodge-podge of things I found at the Buffalo Exchange. I was going to wear some purple fairy wings too, but they just got in the way.

'Ana' didn't really have a costume, except for my wings which I let her wear. (By the end of the night she had gotten some pink 1950ish style sunglasses and an oversized top-hat that she found on the street.)

As soon as we left the hotel a guy offered to let us share a cab with him to The Mission, where we stopped off at a Bar called The Attic and I had a couple of Cosmos. Coincidentally, this is also where things start to get a bit blurry.

We stopped by a liquor store and got some Vodka, and than headed to the Castro for the annual party there, but outside alcohol wasn't allowed so we didn't end up going in. (Good thing, too- nine people got shot when a guy pulled out a gun.)

During the next ten minutes, I somehow downed my bottle of vodka while 'Ana' went to find a bathroom, and she came back to find me sitting on the sidewalk, making out with some guy. Heh, my first kiss with a boy and I don't even remember what he looked like.

It's a total blur after that, punctuated with me vomitting in the street several times while 'Ana' practically carried me back home. So that was my night, really. 90% of it is a blank.

The next morning I was out of commission until 2PM, so I'm glad I didn't have to work. After that morning, I vowed to never drink again. Wonder how long that will last?

Posted a few blurry, pre-shit faced pics up on Flickr. Seeya!

Sorry for the lack of updates.

I should just change this to the 'Complain about Work' blog.

Anyway, we had to let some people go, so I was working 90 hour weeks for a while there. The paycheck was great, but I took a few days off afterwards to recover.

'Ana' had gone on a roadtrip with her Dad so they could reconnect, but things went sour and he ended up stranding her in Vegas.

I tried calling my Dad to see if he could help out, but he didn't answer, of course. We haven't heard from him or the boys since early August.

So, I bought 'Ana' a ticket back to San Francisco. It was pretty cheap, but the ticket wasn't debited to my account till days later. So for every coffee or pack of gum I bought, my account was actually in the negative without my realizing it, and I was charged $35 for every charge.

Ended up costing about $300. Ouch.

Speaking of 'Ana', she hasn't even been staying here that much since she made friends with a guy with a recording studio in his apartment. Plus she recently found a job, and she said she'd pay me back for everything.

Well anyway, I'm just excited about Halloween. I haven't really celebrated it in years, but I might have some fun this year. I'll be attending the Exotic Erotic Ball with The Vegan, and we'll probably spend the 31st together, too. Now that she has a cellphone we've been hanging out alot more.

We're going to go costume shopping tomorrow- still not sure what I'll be...