| '05-'06 (Age 21) |
| So this is what happened my 22nd year of life (age 21). Like I said it could really be summed up with alcohol, trees, work and Thriving Ivory. A lot of this was written a while back when I started writing an update and then stopped which is why there's a lot of specific details cuz I swear I don't remember everything. The Months after 21 The last time I left you I was just turning 21 and just starting to recover from the whole Elyse thing. It's kind of sad that those things went hand in hand. I didn't become a full on alcoholic, but I for sure drank more than I used to. I wouldn't blame all of it on her being gone, but some of it was. I didn't really feel anything because of the drinking. The worst night of drinking involved Davis, about 10 Jagerbombs, puking, about 8 more jagerbombs, being carried in from the lawn, and the puking again (although not remembering it). Ironically enough the next day on my way to Jamba Juice I saw Elyse for the first time in over two months (it was now October). It made my heart go fast and bothered me. I wasn't over her; it was less than 2 months out from the fall out. Things would change though. Girls So where I left off last time was right after Elyse and I crashed and I was pretty much a joke. What ended up happening was that I really didn't even like another girl for about three months. From like August 05 to November '05 there was no one I liked or even really felt anything for them. But driving home from Vegas I kinda just realized something; that I'm going to find someone better than her. That everything I was planning for us I'll do with someone else and it will all be better because it will be with someone better. No more than a couple weeks after I starting kind of liking this one girl I worked with. It didn't last longer than about a month and a couple hang outs but it was still nice while it lasted. The reason nothing came of it was that we didn't have enough in common but it was all good. The next few months I got a couple numbers (even one at a concert) but nothing ever seemed to work out. But I swear the best part about getting a number is right after you get it. You just build someone up and kind of like make up their whole personality. They are perfect in that moment. But usually they don't live up to it but eh oh well. I didn't really like another girl until another small crush in late March which again, led to nothing. There was another girl around April and May that I didn't really have any feelings for but she had them for me so that was interesting to be on the other side of it. But that ended after only a couple questionable decisions. And really over that year there was practically nothing. Not a summer girl (like so many years before) and really just no one. Shit happens. Michelle When I got to a soccer game in early October Grant came up to me and told me that Mark said that Michelle had died. I was like no way. Not Michelle Combs. She was living the good life down in Arizona. When I went home I checked her MySpace page and sure enough there were comments galore from friends and loved ones saying how much they would miss her. She was riding on the back of a motorcycle when a car made an illegal turn and hit them. She died on the scene. I had known Michelle for about 4 years from working with her at Toys R Us, her being Mark's gf at one point and taking psychology with her. She was an amazing person, nice to just about everyone with a smile on her face and a positive attitude. One story that will always stick with me was one Xmas she came over to see the house and I had just stepped out to help my grandma go to the gas station. When I got back my dad was worried cuz both her and Renata (who I was hanging around with a lot back then) were in the house but I told him don't worry, Michelle is just a friend. She was there and talking to my aunt who was a little drunk and my aunt kind of forced a hug on her when she was leaving. I'll just always remember that because I never hugged Michelle. She was very touchy about being touched. To me it was just funny and something I'll always remember... It was the first funeral/memorial service I had ever been to for someone my age. I cried a lot. That was really the first time I missed Elyse as I just wanted a girl there for comfort. I had Mark's family instead. It was just so hard to see everyone packed in there to say goodbye to someone so young and so loved. Going through my room the other day I found her obituary that was cut out from the newspaper. I just have a hard time not wondering what she would be doing now if she were still here. I'll always miss that smile... RIP Michelle Combs February 26, 1985-October 1, 2005 Work Well as of last update I was a part time computers associate with no responsibilities to speak of. Since then I've moved to full time, was a schedule maker, head department trainer, captain of a few different aspects of the store and then some. I was almost promoted to wireless supervisor back in August, but due to some bullshit I wasn't. That was my first run in with politics at work...wouldn't be the last. Sports It was the same old same old. Indoor soccer, mainly just my men's league. We won a lot of championships and I got my exercise in. I also played @ LPC when I could during the summer. School So I graduated, finally. Took me the normal 4 years to graduate from my college. Well it's not normally 4 years at a community college and getting an AA after it but that's what it was. So as of late May '06 I no longer go to school and have my AA in Liberal Arts & Sciences. I have over the course of 3 years thought about going back but I just never really could pull the trigger and it's probably for the best as I don't know if I could really commit myself to anything that big at this point. Vacations (Vegas, SoCal, Weddings & FKN TREES) Well let's see, there's been quite a few. Let's go over what I remember. Like I've already touched on earlier, I was in Vegas in November '05 for a couple days. I went with Mark & Joey and met up with my sister and a couple of her friends. It was good times and the original sweater wearing picture that graced my MySpace came from that trip. It happens. In March '06 I went down to SoCal with Mark to visit Josh. It was really fun as we just hung out almost all the time, drank a lot of beer and went to San Diego to see a concert. In April '06 I went with Adam to Tahoe to help celebrate Eric's 21st birthday. It was alright. I lost a lot of money and Adam and I pissed off Eric the first night so it was kind of an awkward trip after that. I did get shitty drunk the 2nd night after I lost the money I borrowed. That was fun. It was also an adventure going there as I hadn't been there since I was like 10 and I didn't remember that so it was new to me. Also it was like 34 degrees and we were hoping for no snow since the Monte Carlo isn't exactly a snow car. We only got flurries on the way home. Considering it was the last weekend in April, it was weird. In May '06 we went to Vegas for Eric Lopez's bachelor party. It was fun. Problem for me is that we went the weekend after I got my bonus check. I lost a lot of money. But I had fun and Eric drank so much we had to carry him down the strip. At about 3 bills he's not a small guy so my back hurt. Yea. Fun Times though. He hit his head in Vegas and didn't remember the next few weeks, including being at my college graduation In June '06 we had Grant's bachelor party which was fun but short. We played indoor softball which is actually really fun. Grant hurt his ankle though so we didn't go to the baseball game we were supposed to but it was no big deal. So in late June & early July I had Grant & Eric's weddings. It was weird seeing your friends get married. But they were nice weddings. Grant's was kind of boring to me since I wasn't drinking (as I ran up over a $100 tab the night before) but it was what it was. Eric's was fun as the first hour was open bar. GOOD TIMES. So that makes 4 of my guy friends (along with Happy & Jeremy) who were married at that point. In July '06 we did the 2nd annual camping trip. It was a nightmare on so many levels that I can't being to tell you. I touched on it in a blog a while back but it was such a clusterfuck it deserves to be touched on again. There were a couple things that sucked for me for the trip. One was the fact that I just kept thinking of Elyse since it was the same place as last year and it reminded me so much of her as I believe that's where I finally fell in love with her. And the other part that sucked.....well read on. First off was the day of the trip I tried to do too much. Eric & I dropped off all the stuff and checked in at the site then left to go to the city to see Thriving Ivory. We were running behind as the park gates close @ 10PM. We got there at like 10:15 and sure enough the gate was closed with a lock on it, but unlucky for me (although I didn't know it at the time) the lock wasn't locked. So being the fucking geniuses we are, we took the lock and went back home to grab more stuff and shop. It seemed the whole day was just going my way. Right after midnight we went to In N Out on the way to the site. It took over 30 minutes for some odd reason and it was a nightmare. A new day dawned and fucked me. We get back and sure enough the gate was closed and locked. Being the dumbass I am, and hearing that someone from work has done it before, I tried to drive around it. I was in my dad's truck so I figured I could. I took the wrong approach and got stuck and in trying to get unstuck, fucked myself even mroe. After about an hour we got a tow truck there and got us out in like 15 minutes. Of course I got charged like $250. OOOOOOOOOOOO GOOD! I was really hoping to pay that, thanks for not fucking me. So I slept in my car in the parking lot til 6AM when they opened the gates and went down there, pumped up my bed and slept for a couple hours. That day was just relaxing (except that we got a noise complaint @ around 3PM for my music....AND IT WASN'T EVEN LOUD OR obscene) until I had to go into town to pick something up and pick Renata up. That night everyone got drunk and it wasn't that bad. It was actually funny as shit since Renata was stupid drunk and mistook owls for turkeys and was just pissed at them. It was the funniest shit as we all were making fun of her. So maybe there was some hope. Only if I checked the weather reports. The next day most people left early in the morning to go home (since we were only in Livermore) and we went down the the lake at like 10AM cuz it was like 80 degrees. We were there for hours, me, Eric, Craig, Taylor (his girl), Adam & Rachel (his girl). We were there until about 1pm and then we went to go eat. When I was driving to the site from the lake the car said like 112 degrees. I was like YEA RIGHT! It ended up being 117 degrees that day. Yea way to set a record. And everyone got really drunk that night and most people got pissed off at least someone and I was no exception as I got pissed at Darryl and then Eric (he took down my tent). So I was pissed when I went to bed and I woke up @ 7:30AM with everyone gone (except Eric who was driving with me) and no one had paid me a cent. Awesome. So I'm pissed as hell cleaning up and packing up. I hear some noises by the trees and don't think anything of it. About a minute later I heard like a firecracker going off by a tree as I was walking back to the truck. I was about to see a tree snap in half and fall slowly but surely onto my dad's truck right in front of me. AWESOME! So that was a fun call to make. After like 2 or 3 hours of cutting a tree off the truck and packing up I was home and ready to go on a vacation from that vacation. You can view all those fun pictures on this MySpace blog. Concerts There were only a few concerts that stick out in my mind. First was seeing Hidden in Plain View at Slims where was very amazing. So mad they are no broken up as they were amazing live. Second was another concert at Slims which was I liked due to meeting Houston Calls which has started my love affair with them. But the best concert...Green Day. They were amazing as they played The Warfield (small ass venue for them) and they played for almost 3 hours including American Idiot from start to finish. It was very very amazing. Oh wait, I almost forgot this one band that I saw... Thriving Ivory Nothing outside of my work and soccer occupied my time more than going to Thriving Ivory concerts. I wasn't a huge fan of them but I had seen them at one of their under-21 shows in March 05 and I liked them live. But once I turned 21 it was on. We saw them almost every weekend they had a show, and sometimes twice in a weekend. It didn't matter if it was Sac, Davis, SF or the old standby of Dan's in Walnut Creek. I became really good friends with them and some of the best times I had that year were hanging out at their shows with my friends dancing to the music and meeting new people. And no, it never got old. I selfishly almost wished they never got big because I miss those small shows but they deserve everything they get for having to play all those small shows in shitty places. The Sum of it all Really I would sum up age 21 as a transition year from douchebagish young kid to less-douchebagish young adult. I finally stepped up and took responsibility at work, finished school and raised my GPA greatly by re-taking classes I had dicked around in before and got over a girl I loved without it having to blowup and be more drama than it had to be. All and all I think that it was good year. |