My ramblings...

Blah!It has been one of those days. I don't have many days that I am in a depressed state; typically I am upbeat and very optimistic. Today has been one of those exceptions. When I get like this there is very little that will bring me out of it. I still haven't figured out what brought it on, perhaps tomorrow will be better. I went and met Erika in town for dinner. Dinner sucked but the conversation was good as usual. We did talk about me and Aereal and where that is going or isn't going. Theories have been confirmed and speculations squashed. The one theory I posted about her being scared is partially correct. She did have a good time and thoroughly enjoyed the evening, but is hesitant to have a second date for fear of having too good of a time. She is also still trying to figure out what she wants out of life. I have been told that she is still in the rebound phase, perhaps this is also true. She did come out of a relationship that was serious and is at this point trying to meet new people and new personalities. I have no problem with this and would encourage her to do that, but I don't think I want to be one of her test subjects while she tries to figure out what kind of guy she wants to date. Now, I am not looking to tie someone down at this point, I don't want marriage or kids at this point in my life. Is it something I want in the future, yes, but right now I do not have the time to commit to something as major as the above mentioned topics. She is interested in dating me, but she is also interested in dating other people at the same time. I don't have a problem with it; people do this all the time. I just don't want to be one of those people. If I am going to date you, you will be the only one I date. If she wants to see other people then more power to her, she needs to experience life since she lost a big chunk of hers early on. So, if she thinks that she will become attached to me and that is not what she wants then she doesn't need to call me back. According to her sister she has been out with three different kinds of guys, type 1) the party type. The guy that most chicks fall for anyways, but with no worries loves the night life, lives just to have a good time the hell with responsibility. Type 2) the guy that is ready to settle down, have kids and get the family life started now. This of course would scare her away with out any second thought as it would most women. Type 3) this is the category I fall into. The kind of guy that is a mix of both type 1 and 2. I have the ability to have fun yet retain enough responsibility that life continues. She told Erika that she wants to date me but doesn't want to like me. Doesn't sound like it makes a lot of sense but if you go back to that theory that she doesn't want to get involved with someone on an emotionally committed relationship then it does. Once again one of the many complex and complicated facets of women. Armed with this information I have decided that I really don't care if she calls me again or not. That sounds kinda' mean because I did have a great time but it is something I have resolved. I had made this decision on my last post, but it is now concrete. If she decides that she wants to see me and see me solely then perhaps I will give it a second try, but as it stands I am not sure I would even go on a second date. Perhaps my feelings have been hurt, but I really don't think so. It has been confirmed that she had a good time and would love to do it again, so as far as I am concerned mission accomplished. There are very few guys like me out there (at least that is what I am told), so long as I know that I held up my end of the bargain and she enjoyed the evening then I am satisfied. It is now up to her to decide if she wants to continue dating me. Poor Erika, I think that she wanted to stay out of the middle of this but she can't. We talked extensively about this and I told her my feelings and opinions. She said that she would take the relationship information and the fact that I am interested but want to me involved in a monogamous relationship. I guess I will find out more in the next couple of days. Don't worry you guys will be able to read all about it right here. Till then...
- Larry

Quick post, I found this site/blog while I was playing with my test blog. I will so be checking out some of these recipes. I love the way the instructions are presented.

- Larry

Cooking for Engineers

Well it is finally over. Hurricane Jeanne has come and gone. I had to work of course, but I really enjoyed myself, after the chief left. It was Ben’s last night and I think we all got along the best any of us ever have. It was fairly uneventful at work, we didn’t even loose power long enough for the emergency generator to kick on. Unfortunately I was no so lucky at home. I am still without power and have no phone service. I am actually writing this at home, generators are so wonderful, but I will have to post it at work. I still have not heard from Aereal, I am not sure what happened there. One theory that was given to me was that she had too good of a time and perhaps that scared her. She wasn’t expecting to have such a good time and since she is just now coming out of her divorce having a great time on a date scared her. This is an interesting theory and I suppose it is plausible. Even if that is the case I would have thought I would have heard from her by now, it has been over a week. At this point I have given up hope that she is going to call me back. Perhaps I shouldn’t but now I don’t have to worry about it and if she does decide to call me then it will be a surprise. I am having dinner with Erika tomorrow night maybe I will be able to find out a little more. I thought the date went extremely well, I don’t know what happened. Of course the is a women involved, and to date I have been unable to figure them out. That isn’t going to stop me from trying, but it seems when I start making headway something throws me off track completely. Anyways, not much else is going on in my life at the moment. I have one more night of work, then a much needed two days off. Not sure what I am going to do, perhaps I will finally get my garden planted. Only time will tell…

- Larry

Its Thursday, not much going on today, I don’t have to go to work until 11 so I have some time to kill. I really don’t feel like doing anything but sitting here is driving me crazy, does that make any sense? Anyways, I talked to Aereal very briefly yesterday. I was talking to Erika and she stopped by to see her for a minute. She was working so it was very short. I was kinda’ interesting yesterday, I would be thinking about the evening and would notice a smile come to my face. I guess I truly had a good time, that smile was a nice feeling too. I really am not sure at what rate this is going to progress, so I don’t want to get too excited. I know that I don’t have a lot of time and that she is not looking for a serious relationship at this time. With all of that in mind I don’t really expect us to be going out on a very frequent basis, at least for now. I am looking for a monogamous relationship but I haven’t figured out if she is. She is just coming out of a mentally abusive marriage in the fact that she was not allowed to socialize outside of her ex-husbands reach. After coming out of that she is currently interested in just meeting people. This makes me slightly hesitant to pursue this, even though I am not interested in a serious long term relationship I do want one that is monogamous. I can tell that I am really starting to over analyze this. I think I need to stop and just let things happen. With that in mind I will close.

- Larry

So, my date, I know that is what you are all waiting to hear/read. I would have updated sooner but I have been busy this afternoon. Anyways, I picked her up at Erika’s house at 5:30; I got there a little early so maybe 5:15. After chit chatting a while and adoring the baby we finally got going. We discussed dinning locals while at Erika’s so I had an idea of where that was headed. She loves Italian so Caraba’s (sp) seemed like the most logical choice, so off we went. I expected the car ride to be awkward and long, but surprisingly it went by very quick and we engaged in conversation the whole way up. Come to think of it there weren’t an moments that I felt majorly uncomfortable in. When we got to the restaurant we were immediately seated, after ordering I made a comment about sitting at the bar that they have around the kitchen area. She asked me if I wanted to sit up there and I agreed. I think that helped a little break-up the formality of it all, we weren’t sitting at table staring at each other. It gave us something to talk about if we ever ran out of topics. She made a recommendation to me about an entrée off the menu that I of course tried. She is apparently a big wine coinsurer, so we tried two glasses of wine with our dinner. We split a desert which was just wonderful and she fed me the strawberry off the top :) I think I commented about here that dinner was wonderful, she agreed, she said both the food and the company was great. After dinner we made our way to the movie theater. We were hoping to see The Village, but we missed the current showing of it and the next one didn’t start until after 10 (it was currently 8). So, she seen Resident Evil and asked me if I had seen it, I hadn’t so away we went. After the movie neither one of us wanted to end the evening so we went and played several rounds of pool. I couldn’t tell you who won, I didn’t care, I was having a great time. After we had played several rounds we sat down and started talking again. She made a comment about a place that she likes to go and just relax, look at the stars and such. Sounded like a good idea to me since I love the night sky, so once again to the car we went. This area was back in Chiefland so it put her close to home but it was a long ride to get there. In keeping with the evening thus far we continued our conversations. I really couldn’t tell you what all we talked about, her life, marriage and recent happenings, political and religious views, school, you name it. I found it surprisingly easy to talk with Aereal, such an attractive female. We sat on the back of my car and stared at the sky for hours, thus the reason I didn’t get home until 5 AM. Neither one of us really wanted the night to end, but I had to get up early in the morning and well, she got a call from nature. So, I took her home, got a goodnight kiss, ok more like a peck but at least it was better than nothing. I am almost certain that there will be another date, I kind of’ left that up to her (I don’t have her number). She had a strange stalker situation with a guy she was dating not long ago, so I don’t want to come off like that so I just left it up to her. I know that is so backwards but maybe it will work out in my favor. Aereal made several comments throughout the evening implying that I left a very good impression on her. During our stargaze she said that she had a great evening, at this point I must have been very comfortable with her. My reply was that I was glad to hear that I told her my fear that she would not have. She assured me that she had and said that it was one of the best nights she has had in an extremely long time. Some comments otherwise, she is a smoker and perhaps a little wilder that what I would see myself with, but maybe that is a good thing. She has had a rough past but is trying to recover from it and start a new. I truly had a great time and am still fining it hard to believe that I spent 10 full hours on a date. I look forward to hearing from her, I might have just jinxed myself but I can hope.

I hope this was all the dirt on my “love” life you all have been waiting for.

Till next time,

- Larry

It is almost 5 AM, I just got in from my date. I had a great time and so did she (breaths sigh of relief). I am going to bed now; I have to get up in just over 2 hours. I'll update you tomorrow.

t - 2 hours 10 minutes
This really doesn't get any easier the closer I get to it.

- Larry

The countdown has begun, just over 12 hours from now I will be on a date. I have spent the last two days running this through my head. What to do, what to say, where to go and I still have no solid answers. My poor stress ball, it has been beaten and tossed against the wall so many times that I am surprised that it hasn’t busted yet. I really have a headache at this point. I doubt I will write much more, plus I have plenty more bouncing to do. I really don’t know how tomorrow will go, I guess I will just have to wait and see. I’ll let you know, until then.

- Larry

t-14 hours 10 minutes and counting

I finally heard back from Erika. I expected her to call yesterday but never heard form her. So, when I came into work today I decided to call her. Well, she finally called me back. It’s official I have a date! I was thinking something next weekend, then Erika sprung Monday on me. I fell out of the chair, after I finally sat back down I said that would be fine. So, on Monday at 5:30 I will be in Chiefland picking up Aereal. I really don’t want to do the standard first date dinner and a movie, but I really don’t have an other ideas at this point. She apparently has an outdoor streak, since I guess she expressed an interest in my kayaking love. This prompted Erika for the idea of a picnic, but I work Sunday and picnic would not work since it would be geared around lunch. Perhaps I will save that for a future date; if there is one. I figure the movie and dinner is probably my safest bet at this time, now if I could figure out what to see and where to eat. I will play the movie by ear, dinner I might have to play that one by ear ‘till I figure out what she likes to eat. I am sure I will over analyze this as the days pass, since that is what I do and I have two more long days at work to think about it. This should be fun… what the hell did I get myself into!

- Larry

I am finally home, it is well after 1 a.m., some may ask where I have been. I went over to Chiefland, where Erika and Aereal reside, and had dinner with Erika. Me and Erika needed to catch up with work and life in general and I wanted to talk to her about her sister. And I know that is what you all want to know about. Some of you were expecting an update when I came in, but I didn’t figure you wanted me to wake you up. Anyways, we all know how shy Larry is right? You should all be shaking your heads vigorously! Well that doesn’t help the whole getting a relationship started aspect of things. I will use the term ‘relationship’ loosely since I can’t put labels on things. So, when I say relationship it could be something as simple as a single date or a whole series of dates. I don’t know where this thing is going, if it will go anywhere at all but I wanted to make that point clear. Back to the story, we discussed several other topics before getting into the sister issue like life in general and the last couple of days since we seen each other. But when it came up she asked me if I could date her sister. My response was of coarse yes. The conversation continued and we talked about Monday night when she came up there and things that were said while she was there and after the fact (on both sides). I must radiate shy, she apparently picked up on that right off the bat. This was something she pointed out to Erika on their ride home. Erika assures me that I should have no problems carrying on a conversation with her and I should be able to let loose the shell a little bit. She asked me how I wanted to do this, weather I just wanted her phone number and I could call her, or if I wanted her to test the waters a little bit more and possibly play match maker. So, which one do you think I chose? You guessed it, she gave me an out, and I took it. I should know something probably tomorrow; she was really excited about the idea and said that she might call her after I left (12:30 at night). I did have several questions for Erika, since we did work so close together and became friends out side of work I got to know some of her family matters. My memory had Aereal married, which was correct, she apparently got divorced recently and is not looking for another ‘serious relationship’ at this point. This is good, since I seem to stay very busy, even when I don’t have class. I found out a little bit more, Aereal is the youngest of the sisters (which I knew, 20 just in case you were wondering) and is a writer. I also found out some details only a big sister would know that I am sure Aereal would kill Erika for telling me, these will not be disclosed of course (sorry guys). I guess I will find out more in the next couple of days, and I am sure you guys will be hot on the list to find out after I do, so don’t worry. Even if it doesn’t it was nice to catch up with Erika (and hold my baby), we spend 6 solid hours talking tonight. Thinking back on that that was a long time.

I am off to bed, I hope you enjoyed the read.

- Larry

Once again you are all sound asleep. This is getting kinda’ old. I at least have a good reason this time, I am stuck at work. I actually have something to talk about too… you can start breathing again. I need to vent for a few minutes and I have a prospect (once again, please continue to breath).
On to the rant, I got news today that a fellow co-worker put in his notice. It seems that he has had enough of working here. Honestly I think we will be better off with out him here, he seemed to be the cause of a lot of stress in our small world. But, this so screws my plans for October. Once again Larry is getting screwed. With Ben (might as well use his name, most of you know who he is) leaving that puts us one person short. So, now I have to wait until someone is hired, which will be October 1st if we are very lucky. Then tack on two more months of training, which I really don’t want to do. I am tired of putting a lot of effort into what I do just to turn around and get burned. I have trained more than I care to remember and none have stayed her for any extended period of time. Anyways, I am just upset that I get screwed once again, maybe if the Best Buy thing works out I might go full time. I suppose only time will tell, don’t worry I am sure you will get to read about it here!
On to more interesting news, a former co-worker (one I also trained) came by this evening to see me. She brought her new baby by so I could see her. The standing joke is that it is mine, but we won’t get into all of that. But, along with beautiful little Jayme also came Erika’s little sister Aereal. I am not sure what their parents were doing right but all four of those sisters came out beautiful. I have now met two of them, the other is Erika’s older sister which all of the cops drool over. Erika wasn’t shy about trying to hook us up. I was standing in the common area with all of our patrol guys close by and they were all chiming in. There were actually three of us guys in there that were single. All kinds of comments were being made in-front of both of us. Erika even made the comment that she would allow me to date her. That sounds backwards but the context and story behind it would make sense. Now enters the sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach and all of the excuses I can come up with. And believe me after sitting in a small room all by your self for ten plus hours you can come up with some excuses. Why can’t this be easy? Why does this have to feel so awkward? Why the hell am I even worried about it yet, I haven’t asked her out! Oh yeah, that challenge of actually calling her up and taking the first step. Perhaps I should go this counseling session on Thursday and talk to the doc. about this. I really wish this feeling would just go away! I really don’t know what to do at this point, I would love to pursue a relationship, (there is a label!) but I don’t want the hassle of getting into one. Once I am in, I am fine… it’s the getting to know each other phase. I really hate socializing!

Any suggestions??

- Larry

Well it is 2 a.m. most of you are sleeping, I would imagine. Now, ask me why I am not. Besides the fact that I am a night owl, my wonderful job requires me to stay conscious all night long. After I came back from vacation this was very difficult. Since then my body seems to have adjusted once again. So I sit here staring at my computer with very little to do. I really don’t have much to say… read my previous post, not much in my life at the moment. I did go shopping to day for stuff for the apartment. We got bathroom stuff out of the way and the start of our living room furniture.

It looks like Ivan is going to miss us. We can’t breath that sigh of relief just yet, these things have been known to change paths overnight, just look at Charley. In any case I am sure I will have to work at least one of my days off this week. Which is cool I need the OT especially considering how much I spent today, but I really don’t want to be there. Oh, I called Best Buy… that was a waste of time. Sorry sir, there is no one at the store that can answer those questions. You will have to wait until your application clears corporate which usually takes about two weeks. Well, we are approaching the two week mark now, so maybe I will hear something. Then I sit here and think, do I really want another job to have deal with? Oh well, the story of my life, one question after another.

I am outta’ here… gonna’ try to go to bed now.

- Larry

Hello again, it’s been way to long I know. As most of you are aware I have been extremely busy with these small things they call hurricanes. Now it appears that Ivan is coming our way as well. At the rate these storms are coming in I will have a massive increase in my salary this year because of all of the overtime I am working. I do wish that my power company would get off of their ass and get my power hooked back-up. I am not as bad as some thanks to power provided by a generator but I really want to run the air conditioning, especially on days I have to work.
I am not going to bore you guys with this since most of you have experienced it with me. What I will do is bore you with what I call my life. Let’s see its been over a week since I updated, there has been a little bit of nothing going on in my life. Ok, that was a short post! Just kidding. Let’s see if I can remember back a week ago and catch you up. I applied for a second job. I haven’t heard anything yet and since I haven’t had phone service I haven’t called either. Perhaps I will do that in the afternoon. As much as I would love to have the extra cash I am not sure where I have the extra time. My green thumb has started itching again. I have in the works my fall garden and this will soak up what little time I do have at the moment. I am also trying to get a lot of crap done around my grandma’s since I will be leaving soon. I really haven’t had a lot going on since my last update perhaps that is why it has been difficult to sit down and type this out. Still single, but that is nothing new. I really have no prospects either, of course I guess you can’t find any sitting at home. I haven’t gone anywhere expect to pick up a few things for the apartment since my last writing. My cousin is working a second job and now has a romantic interest so I really don’t have anyone to hang out with. Which is cool, she is a) really looking forward to the move and wants some extra cash (good idea) and b) it has been a while since she has been in a relationship and could use a “good” boyfriend, which this guy seems to be so far. I really need make more friends, boy I wish that was easy.  Perhaps I should have taken classes, and then I wouldn’t have these problems. I think I am going to close… I am starting to depress myself. I still have six hours to go, I can’t do that now.

‘Till next time.
- Larry