I'm 25 years old...

...thats like, halfway to 30!!!

It has been a good birthday all things considered. It would be nice if Casie and all my California friends were here to celebrate with me but thats ok. I still had a good birthday.

It snowed here. The forecast said it would be anywhere from 5 to 8 inches by the time the nights over and I would have to say we are on track for that. Una loves the snow. It provides countless things for here to chase (the snowflakes, as they fall) and she seems to get a strange sense of satisfaction from running through the snow-covered grass.

I ended my birthday with a trip to my sister's house where my Mom, Darin, Mia, and Quinn all wished me a happy birthday. Darin had to go to work but the rest of us all enjoyed cheese cake and the pure joy that can only come from watching me open presents (sorry everyone else had to miss out on that one).

One of the more unique gifts was a game that came from Colleen & Phil. It contains a deck of cards that have 4 dumb dares on it and 1 extreme dumb dare. There is also a little sphere that lights up when you shake/strike it indicating what dare you have to do. It is the office edition so all of the dares relate to my daily life. They are pretty funny but the ones that had all of us laughing pretty hard are the following:

1. Rummage through a colleague's bin and retrieve something they've thrown away. Ask them if you an keep it.

2. Place your ear next to your PC monitor and mutter "Yes... okay... we'll have to be careful though..."

3. Send an email to all of your colleagues enquiring how many of them would be prepared to respond to an unsolicited email even if they thought it was a total waste of their time.

4. Correct people's pronunciation of your name even if they're pronouncing it correctly.

Great fun and laughter was had by all. Mia laughed along too, though I am fairly certain she did not grasp the full hilarity of the dares.

All of my gifts were fantastic (that last one just made for a good story). Thank you to everyone who sent me something. To those of you that didn't: what's up?

True to form of posts since Casie has been gone, I have revelations:


Revelations - the birthday edition

#5

If you are ever going to get a singing card for someone - for any event - be sure to write something very long on the inside of the card.

#6

Deep appreciation for things often comes at inopportune times.

#7

25 really does feel like halfway to 30.

Chronicles of a Lonely Joe...Part 2

I really should stop with the numbers here because it will quickly become ridiculous.

After being roused from a stupor this afternoon by my own tears falling on my hands, which were cradling my head at the time, I came upon more revelations.

#3

When I get stressed/irritated/bored my initial reaction is to stop, reorganize, and clean.

Thats right, I clean when I get stressed out (calm down ladies). Our bathroom is now the cleanest it has been since we moved in.

#4

If I don't make time to do things I want to do and create the life that I want then my life will gladly be swallowed up by something else, something I didn't plan for, and my time will cease to be my time.

I am sure that life will reveal more as I go along in my lonely days, Una and I taking on the world for 7 weeks. Eventually I may update everyone on exactly what is going on in my life...I suppose that something would actually have to happen for that to be relevant though.

Chronicles of a Lonely Joe

Day 1 without Casie...

I have heard that when people are forced to spend some time by themselves they often come upon some interesting revelations. I thought that I would chronicle my time alone and document any such revelations that come upon me in my utter solitude.

Revelation #1:

My dog likes dried apricots, a lot.

Revelation #2:

If I do not force my self to do something, I would be content to sit on my ass all day long and never move except to put in a new movie that I have, in all likelihood, seen already or a new video game which I will, in all likelihood, not finish. This leads me to believe that I need to schedule my days out more and stick to the schedule.

Diets and College Don't Mix

Here are some of the reasons lossing weight in college sucks:

1. Constant offers of free food to entice you into going to events you otherwise wouldn't
2. Poverty that makes it really hard to refuse anything free
3. Horrible unhealthyness of aforementioned free food
4. Stress related eating
5. Vending mechine lunches
6. Cafeteria lunches
7. Beer=social life
8. Studying all night=eating all night

On the road to...um...health

So i turned 24 this year. In the immortal words of my friend Walter, "thats like, half-way to 30!"

Despite the glaring inaccuracies of this statement, I know what he means. There are a few things that I really wanted to accomplish in my life. Some of those things I have done or know that I will get done at some point. For instance, I have needlessly risked my life in several situations already and plan to do so again and again.

I also wanted to get into really good shape once in my life. Like really good shape. To this end I resolved to eat healthier, exercise more, and be more active in general (read as "be less lazy").

I have followed my resolutions in fine form during this road trip. Most days I have had Subway for lunch, sticking to the "healthy" selection of sandwiches more often than not. I have exercised by doing some basic exercises most nights and running 1 time (out of a scheduled 4 or 5 times so far).

But today I was in rare form. We had a barbecue buffet for lunch and then we went to a barbecue place for dinner today. This follows up yesterday when we had Taco Bell for dinner. I also had some snacks that I had in the room because I was hungry still.

I guess that overall, I am doing better on this trip than on my three-day trip to Sedalia. I consumed about 10,000 calories in about 3 days. You may laugh and say to yourself "oh, Joe. You are such an exaggerater".

I say between the donut, the 1/2 BAG OF BRIDGE MIX (1000 calories) and the quesadilla burger and hotwings (in the first day) I am being fairly accurate.