i went on a little getaway weekend trip to monterey. we ate at the fish hopper (excellent food) for lunch. after lunch we rented bikes and went biking along the monterey coastline. it was beautiful.

after biking, we retired to the room and hung out for a bit. eventually, dinner came along and we went to eat at this place called indian summer. the food was pretty good. while eating, belly dancers came out to entertain us. these were the first belly dancers i’ve seen that had very flat stomachs. usually the belly dancers i’ve seen have had rather plump bellies. the service was awful at the restaurant, the waiter kept finding new ways to spill water on the birthday boy.

after dinner, we retired to the hotel. did i mention that there was 16 of us in one suite? yeah. it was crowded. anyway, a PS2 was brought and karaoke revolution was played. it was fun to watch people play the game.

we eventually tried to go to sleep. the next day i walked around cannery row and just lazied about before coming back. it was nice to be able to get away from the everything, but now that i’m back, i’m glad. i miss my bed.

i think i just strained a muscle in my back while coughing. i can’t raise my right arm above my head without horrid shooting pain. ugh.

there are some things that should never be. i just ate one of those things. at one of my favorite restaurants, i had ordered this dish which looked good. it was a salmon curry dish. the thing that should never be with salmon is that it should not be lightly fried. never.

i’ve been cooking, grilling, and eating at home more now than i ever have. i have even been eating leftovers because they taste so good. i think that i may try making luckykat linda’s lasagna tonight. i think i’m going to add a special sausage to it, too. mmmm.

the other day i finally was able to make it to the pizza hut buffet. i love that place. for about $6.50 you get a drink and all the pizza that you can eat. there’s salad there, too, but i didn’t partake in any of that. =P mmmm…pizza hut. i love their pizza. i think that i may make it a point to go to that lunch buffet once a week, we’ll see.

one of the things that i really NEED at any place that i work at is to be able to respect my manager. i need to work for competent people because if i don’t have that, i don’t have the desire to work.

it is so nice to wake up leisurely, stay up late at night, and just not have to worry about incompetence. it’s nice to not have to constantly check in to make sure that everyone is on the same page only to find out that despite your greatest efforts, you still end up feeling screwed. it’s nice not to have to constantly be disappointed.

it’s been so nice that i haven’t started looking for work yet. everyone keeps asking me if i have, but i don’t think that i’m ready yet. i think i’ll start looking for work next month. i really would like to pursue something more photography-related, though. maybe this’ll be my chance.

twenty is the number of boxers that i can cram into the washer. i’ve been doing laundry like a madman. i think i did about 6 loads today and it looks like i’ve got about half of my dirty clothes cleaned out. it’s getting ridiculous! i don’t know what’s going on, but it’s just craziness, i tell you. simply crazy. i also tidied up my room and cleaned out the grill and the coolers from the weekend.

i found out that i have enough white shirts to do about 4 loads of whites. i have enough red/orange clothes to do an entire load of just reds and oranges. i think i have enough baby blue clothes to do a load of baby blue too. i guess this goes to show what colors i have strong preferences towards. maybe it’s time to try something new. i don’t think i own anything yellow…man, i have a lot of clothes.

looks like i’ve been doing a lot of cleaning lately. this usually means that i’ve got a lot on my mind. i wonder what has been eating away at me recently.

i’m sitting here at tapioca express and checking out the free wireless they offer. this location is new and very close to my apartment. it’s decent.

it turns out that i stopped reading the harry potter series after the third book. i’m not sure why. my roommate got the new harry potter book and is furiously reading through it now. she has inspired me to pick up where i left off and i am currently reading the 4th book. i’m about 150 pages into it and it’s been a pleasant read so far.

everywhere i go i see people reading the new harry potter book, though. i guess the craze still lives strong. the funny thing is that i haven’t seen any kids reading the book, only adults.

one of the things that i’ve become terribly obsessive about recently is yahoo music’s launchcast. there used to be this radio station called emusic or something where they would give you money for listening to their music. if you rate songs, the quality of the songs that they will choose for you to listen to gets better. with yahoo music, they will give playlists custom made to your preferences and so i’m now going through as many songs as i can so that the station will be closer to what i like.

but the thing that really drives me to keep rating songs is that they have these ratings level where the number of ratings that you have will put you in different levels.

Rating Master: > 10,000 total ratings
Addict: 5,000-10,000 total ratings
Fanatic: 1,000-5,000 total ratings
Trendsetter: 500-1,000 total ratings
Enthusiast: 250-500 total ratings
Listener: 100-250 total ratings
Newbie: <100 total ratings

i’m currently a trendsetter, but i want to be an addict. i figure i can be an addict by week’s end if i am diligent.

man, so this is what retired life feels like, huh?

the last several days can only be described as crazy. it’s strange that it seems like i have so much to write about, but i don’t feel very compelled to write about anything.

people have been asking me how it feels to not work and i tell them that i feel like i’ve still been busy every day and i haven’t really relaxed yet.

i think one of the hesitations that i’ve had is that i don’t really want to write too much about some of the things i’m excited about because i don’t want to spend too much time being excited about it. i guess it’s a self-defense mechanism of sorts. i’ve been trying hard not to get my hopes too high about certain aspects of my life. disappointment is hard to take these days, so i guess by not trying to think too much about it, i’m trying to save myself from any unnecessary hurt. that being said, i think that i will be wildly bold soon. we’ll see what comes of it.

i’ve been toying with the idea of pursuing a degree in photography. i’ve said before that i would never go back to school, but i think that photography is something that i’m pretty passionate about and i think it could be something that i would have a lot of fun with, even if it means going back to school. i’m excited.

two more weddings next month and then i think i’ll be free of wedding for this year. i’m shooting at both, it’s been a busy summer for me. i’m slowly working on my portfolio, too. i think that i may try and design some business cards too. when people ask me what i do, instead of saying that i’m temporarily independently wealthy or searching for a sugar mama, i can tell people that i’m a freelance photographer. yeah…ummm, that’s the ticket.

let me tell you, planning a volleyball tournament is a lot more work than i expected it to be. the hardest part of planning a volleyball tournament is trying to find people who will sponsor your tournament. i suppose that this can be true for anything. finding people who will give you money for anything is just hard.

hi. i’m mike. will you give me free money? no? please? still no? oh well, thanks anyway.