Shady Clearing

So, yesterday was my 25th birthday.  25 years; one fourth of a century.  In terms of human lifespans 25 years is a good amount of time.  Of course, our lifespans are quite short.  Astronomically, 25 years is less than the blink of an eye.  It’s funny to imagine how something that feels like such a long time to us is practically worthless as far as the impossibly big picture goes.

Then again, we aren’t astronomical in scale, and the things that we accomplish usually don’t take quite that long so long as we don’t mention government and politics anyway.  That said, however, looking back at the time I’ve spent thus far on this tiny blue speck of dust, I don’t really feel like I’ve accomplished much.  I’ve yet to acquire work that I could consider a career, or even work that utilizes the specialties I have for that matter.  Relationships are fleeting and always as uncertain as the workings of the human mind.  That doesn’t prevent me from preferring to be in one, however.  Even thinking like this doesn’t change the fact that I too am human, complete with all the uncertainties and uniquities that being so entials.

I suppose all of this is mainly just rambling and circular thought, and we all do it at some point.  There is a solution to the questioning, so long as one accepts that even the solution cannot be for certain until after it has come to pass.  Admitting that, though, I do believe it’s probably time that I stood up and actually started putting forth some proper effort toward achieving my goals and making something of myself beyond simply being a nameless unkown.  How will I do it?  I honestly have no idea, but I’m going to figure it out!

Now that all the serious business is out of the way, we can move on to the fun stuff.  As I mentioned, yesterday — Friday the 13th — was my 25th birthday.  This year I managed to get days off for it though, and was determined to go out and have a good time.  My determination paid off, too.  Didn’t get a large group of people together; just a few, which is fine by me.  We ate out at Applebee’s, which could have been better, but it wasn’t bad for as busy as they were.  From there we left to go to Darren’s Pub, where we stayed for about 4 hours, listening to music, talking and drinking.  Between the beer at Applebee’s and the mixed drinks at the pub, I was rather toasted for a while, but I recovered near the end.  All in all it was a good time for all, I believe.

As far as gifts go, I received an armband strap for my Zune so I can more easily use it at the gym, a book about keeping things ‘interesting’ in a relationship, and a hookah!  It’s not a fancy one, but it’s good enough.  I had my first experience using a hookah when I went to visit Dragoon in Lexington, and I rather enjoyed it.  Apparently, I had later mentioned to my friend C.C. in passing that I wouldn’t mind having one, and the sneaky woman latched onto that and now I do have one.  I’ve already used it once, went went well, but more practice with it will yield even better results, so I’m totally ready to use it again.

Overall, this was probably one of the best birthday celebrations that I’ve had in a long time.  I certainly can’t complain, that’s for sure.

That’s it for now!  I’ll write more later.

SO!  After being reminded that I still needed to write about the last day of my trip, Sunday, I thought I should probably do so, and throw in the few days afterward as well.

Sunday was relaxing, overall.  Woke up around 7:30am (central time, but who cares?) and piddled around on the internet for a bit.  Later, the others found their way upstairs as well, and it became a calm, pleasant day with some chatter and viewing of videos.  Egg, sausage and cheese burittos for breakfast were also tasty.

(I suddenly feel like I’m writing this on twitter, for some reason)

Politics and other things were the topics of the day.  I didn’t provide much feedback throughout, but it was interesting to listen to others’ opinions.  As my time wrapped to a close, I tried to mentally catalogue the experiences of the weekend for reminiscing later, and finally after goodbyes and a hug, I left to return to Henderson at around 4pm (Again, central time).

The drive was uneventful and rather boring, though it didn’t seem to take as long as the drive there.  Upon arrival I unpacked and then took off to the gym to make use of the membership I’m paying for.

Monday!  Was really rather boring.  I actually didn’t do much of anything save for returning the car.  However, that evening as I laid down to attempt to nap before work, I found myself unable to sleep.  I was actually rather overwhelmed by this odd feeling that something terrible was about to happen and I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what it was.  Tuesday, and now Wednesday have gone by quite similarly.  As I gaze out to the fields and sky, it just feels like something is waiting to happen and when it does it’s not going to be pleasant or easy to recover from.

*shrugs*  Who knows.  Since I’m not psychic I’m not likely to find out anytime soon unless it actually happens, so I suppose I should really try not worrying about it.

Maybe, though, it’s an connected with my own personal feelings.  I just don’t feel like I belong here; as if I’m just sticking around because it’s easy and that I’m not actually doing anything useful.  I have an urge to just leave and not look back, and wherever I end up is where I am.  Who’s to say?

Anyway, plans for the evening are fairly set, with work in the offing should I decide I want to do so, among other things.  We’ll see where the wind blows!

(Thanks, by the way, for getting me into Doctor Who, guys.  Thanks a lot. :P)

Saturday was full of fun as well.

Started out with a bit of breakfast which consisted of scrambled eggs with hotdogs and cheese.  It sounds like a strange combination, but it was actually quite good.  Afterwards the hookah was fired once more for some watermelon tobacco time out on the balcony.  Good stuff.

Later on, we sat and enjoyed some episodes of Doctor Who. Now, I haven’t seen Doctor Who in a long time, since back when I was a little kid and they were the old episodes from the 70’s or some such, but I rather enjoyed the newer ones.  I’ll have to keep in mind to watch more of them when I get the chance.

Before long it was time to head over to the Lexington Humane Society fundraising benefit, “Tails and Ales”.  It consisted of several different varieties of beer, as well as a few varieties of wine, some small oers d’oeuvres, and a whole bunch of people.  I must say, some of the beers showcased there were quite interesting, with some of them being downright tasty.  I personally enjoyed the KTC Boubon Barrel Ale, BBC Bourbon Barrel Stout, and this other stuff called Shock Top.

Of course, that doesn’t mention the many varieties that were available from Dogfish Head brewery.  Their beers had such distinct flavors, and were all quite good.  My personal favorites from their selection were the Palo Santo Marron, which was a very dark, sultry beer wih a smooth but pronounced flavor, and their 90 Minute IPA, which had a rich, flavorful taste.   All their styles were good, however, including the Chicory Stout, Raison d’être, and Indian Brown Ale.  Of all the companies represented at that benefit, I would definitely recommend Dogfish Head the most.

After the benefit, we returned home to chat more, whereupon I was also given another couple of drinks, this time mixed between orange juice, grenadine, bourbon and everclear.  They were quite good, though a bit strong.  Shortly thereafter, though I fell asleep, and anything else is a mystery.  So now it’s Sunday.  We’ll see what today brings, yeah?

This was a busy day.  Got off work, went to C.C.’s house, went home, got some various work done on this laptop, finally ot about three hours of sleep before renting the car to drive over.

A three hour drive is not normally the most fun thing to do, but it wasn’t all that bad.  The rental has great sound equipment, and I had forgotten the scenery heading east.  Even though the trees are mostly naked, the view was still rather good.

Getting into Lexington was easy enough, although I had misread my directions and had to stop to figure out where the street I was looking for was, but after I had taken a moment to look at a proper map, I made it here without incident.

Upon my arrival, it was already about time for dinner and such.  Matt had made some sort of curry chicken that was really quite delicious, though very spicy.  He made rice, carrots and corn to go along with it, and overall it was a very good dinner.  A friend, Rosco, arrived shortly after I had, and hung out for a couple hours as well.  After dinner there were some varieties of bourbon for tasting, which I must say was a rather interesting experience.  I’ve never really been much for whiskey and similar, but that’s also largely because I’ve never really given it much of a chance.  After trying a few different varieties in this manner, however, I actually rather enjoyed it, and overall, enjoyed myself for the night.

Currently, it is obviously saturday that I’ve written this on, but I’ll have to write about whatever goes on today… tomorrow.  Or later, but not right now!  Ta for now~

In just a couple hours I’m going to be making another baked ziti dish.  The last time I made it was rather impromptu, using some left over Colby jack shredded cheese and American cheese singles between the layers, but this time I’ve planned it a bit better.

It’s going to primarily be the same: about three layers of ziti, with sauce and cheese on each layer.  However, instead of American cheese slices in the inner layers, I’ve got some ricotta cheese, and for the top I have a shredded Italian cheese blend of mozzarella, provolone, parmesan, reggiano and asiago cheeses.  This time around it should be really good, and I look forward to preparing and eating it.

Ta-ta for now.

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Music: Avratz by Infected Mushroom