COUCH'S BLOG

Ouch a little over 3 months without an update. I'm sorry my loyal followers, I know I've neglected you all. Well let's try to cover these last 3 months ok? I think it's probably better to just post everything as of now instead of coving that large amount of time in one blog post.

Yes finally an update, just shy under 3 months. I am not going to lie, I haven't really been too busy to update this blog. I just haven't really had any motivation to actually update. With all of the social networks like MySpace and Facebook, it seems easier to let people know what's going on that way instead. However, there are several die-hard blog followers out there, so this is basically for you. I'll try to go chronologically so that I can try to paint an accurate picture of my life as of late.

After doing so much last month, November seems to be creeping by. Well, it is actually going by very fast, but I just don't feel like I've done much of anything. Next week is Thanksgiving, and I feel as if it should be the beginning of November. I guess it's just weird having free weekends again, more or less. I'm not saying I've been doing absolutely nothing though. Last Friday a group of eight of us went down to Sacramento to Midtown Stomp to do some social dancing. That was a blast, there was a lot of really good people there. For the first time I felt as if I was actually catching some looks from other good people, it was an amazing feeling!

Speaking of dancing, Michelle and I have been taking intermediate East Coast swing lessons. We decided to do Intermediate Salsa and East Coast Swing for the showcase in May/June. I'm really looking forward to those two dances. East Coast is my preferred dance to do since I like the overall feel of the dance, but we also learned a bit of Salsa back at our workshop in Chico. Salsa is a different animal so to say. My style of EC Swing is "snappy" or "jazzy", whatever you want to call it. Salsa however is a more fluent dance, at least for me anyways. You could easily do more of a ballroom looking swing and a flashy salsa, it's just how I interpret it. I am eager to get our DVD we ordered from the workshop. It has every lesson taught, so I will be able to refresh my memory and see the classes we missed.

Aside from dancing, life is pretty much just plugging along. I'm still sick of school, and I'm not even sure I will be going next semester. I'll have to pay Chico tuition prices, and I don't see myself having the money anytime soon. If I do end up not going, at least I will get a break and catch up on my finances. As far as the personal life goes, I can't say it's been crazy, but it's definitely been changing. My parent separated recently, which is perfectly fine. We're all adults now, so their decisions don't affect me anymore. It's not that I don't care, I just understand that people have their problems, so you have to do what you have to do.

As far as my personal life goes, I have a sticky situation brewing in my love life. I know it seems like every relationship I go into tends to be complicated haha. I won't go into depth since it's a really volatile situation right now, but once it gets settled I'll give the whole story. This last week I have felt like a completely different person. I've done a lot of things I usually wouldn't do. Not necessarily bad, just different than what I'm used to. I think it's good to push your comfort zones occasionally, even if you didn't like it. At least you can say I didn't like this, or I did like that. If you never changed, what would you say when you looked back on your life?

It's been a little while since I blogged, I've had a bit to write about so I wanted to do it in one swoop. First off, Long Beach was a blast. Katie was very nice and tried hard to find things to do while I was down there. We cruised through downtown LB and even went to Hollywood Blvd. I spent a good few hours the day before I left wandering around on my own. I cruised by the beach and played around in the sand for a while, then went and got some pizza and a pint to wrap up my day. As usual, there's pictures from my phone on my flickr and myspace.

Speaking of phone, I finally got my iPhone. Needless to say, it is absolutely amazing. I can't count how many times it saved my but on my trip when I was lost or just wandering, I just hopped on the maps and found my way around. I am incredibly broke because I bought this phone haha, but I suppose it was worth it. Since I was away from technology my entire trip (more or less), I have that inner nerd screaming to get my hands on something electronic. What better to toy with than a new iPhone? I've spent the past few days pimping out my phone so everyone can get a hold of me by any means possible.

Last night we had our dance out at the IOOF Hall in Palo Cedro. Michelle and I actually taught a lesson in Casino Rueda Salsa before the dance started. I thought we could have done better, but we got nothing but positive feedback. Everyone seemed to have fun, and I was impressed at how fast everyone was able to pick up the steps. This Friday we're going to Sacramento to Midtown Stomp, which is a fancy swing club. If anyone is interested in going we are meeting just before 5PM Friday evening at Neighborhood Church on Loma Vista, and we will return late that night.

Yup tomorrow night I drive down to Sacramento to spend the night with my friend Fon, then I fly out in the morning to Long Beach! I find it rather ironic that the first vacation I take in 5+ years randomly coincides with half of Southern California going up in flames. I don't care if I have to fly that plane through the smoke myself, I will make it down to LB haha. Thursday night until Tuesday night I will pretty much be incommunicado. I won't have my computer, and I'll most likely turn my phone off so I can actually relax and get away from work/school/people.

This last weekend was our CHUG tournament we were preparing for for months. We did very well for being a slack team consisting of players anywhere from 17 to 40+, and only doing pickup games twice a week. We made it to finals of the B Division (or whatever it's called). We won 3 of our 7 games, much better than last year only winning 1. We beat Davis, a team with nearly twice as many players. Needless we were very proud. I've got pictures of the tournament on my myspace and flickr. Both links are on the right.

Tomorrow night I leave to Chico to begin my 4 day dance workshop. The registration ended today but if anyone wants info on it Google search Chico Dance Sensation. They have a lot of stuff going on in those 4 days. Essentially registration starts at 9AM, then classes start at 10AM, then free dancing and competitions start at around 4-5PM. The free dancing lasts until 7AM and the process starts all over again at 9. Michelle, our two dance instructors and myself are the only ones going from our group. I am excited to see how amazed everyone will be when we get back. It's going to be a lot of dancing hehe.

I can't believe our CHUG tourney is next weekend. We are so unprepared for that level of playing. I guarantee half of the people playing will get there and be amazed at the difference between our games and theirs. We only have 3 practices left and wouldn't you know it, we got RAINED on. It was still really fun playing in the rain, but I don't think we got the desperately needed drills we had hoped for.

Lately I've learned to love iCal. I tend to have a lot of stuff going on outside of my normal work and school, so having some form of organization is proving invaluable haha. I finally got enough money coming in to afford taking a few days off work and traveling to Long Beach to visit Katie, like I promised. I had to check my calendar because I remembered having a lot of things tying up my weekends. Sure enough, aside from this weekend and the weekend before Halloween I am fully booked until mid November!

We have CHUG coming up in October 20th and 21st. For those who don't know what CHUG is it's a large ultimate frisbee tournament in Chico. We had our first practice this last Saturday in preparation for the tournament. We have a lot of work ahead of us, the teams that will be there are incredibly good. The weekend before that I am signing up for a 3 day Lindy Hop workshop in Chico. I've learned to love Lindy Hop more so than any other dance I've done so far. Meringue and EC Swing are both fun, as is Waltz, but Lindy is so much more energetic and fun with your partner!

Speaking of dancing, we had a 3 hour dance following a Meringue lesson on Sunday. It was so much fun I can't describe it. We danced to Salsa, Meringue, Argentine Tango, Samba, East and West Coast Swing, Lindy, Waltz, Cha Cha, and probably some others I can't remember. Our dance instructor actually asked me if I would be willing to dance in their Showcase in May! It's amazing to think of my first lesson at the beginning of Summer, I could barely follow the foot steps. Now I'm being asked to represent the school. I'll keep people posted on dance dates if anyone wants to come out and dance it up.

Yea I know I haven't updated in a while, even though I said I would make an effort to try. Things have been a bit busy since college started back up. Essentially I'm pretty much packed with work/school/studying until Thursday nights. Tuesdays I go 7AM - 10:30PM with my half hour breaks to commute to and from work and school. I suppose all the work is worth it though; I am slowing chipping away at finishing college, and make enough to live on my own and still have fun when I can.

As far as actual "fun stuff" goes there hasn't been a whole lot going on. We haven't had swing on Sundays for 3 or 4 weeks now, but I believe the classes will be starting back up this Sunday. I've been seriously missing swing, I didn't realize how much fun it is. We had a Waltz class last Wednesday and again tonight, but it's not nearly as fun. Ultimate has been Ultimate as usual. We've got a few good players leaving to college, so we are always looking for more people to come out.

Aside from dancing and ultimate, we went to Club 151 last Friday. It was pretty neat, definitely a different scene than a bar. I don't think it would be a place to go every Friday or anything like that, but on a rare occasion it would be fun. After the club Ross Rob and I came back to our place and proceeded to get wasted in front of Michelle. After Michelle left Pam came over and watched us act like retards. The next night Rob Julia and Robert from Ultimate all got together and played a drinking game at our place. I'm definitely over the drinking phase of turning 21. I'm glad I got it out of my system. I still drink occasionally, but not as much as those first few days.

Friday I'm going to Chico to visit David and LC and whoever else happens to be down there. I'll have to leave mid day so I can make it back in time for Ultimate. I missed last Saturday's game because I wanted to go to Stassia's sister Jenene's wedding. David and LC were there, and Stassia was the Maid of Honor. She was really nervous about her speech. She came over the night before and we worked on it for a while. She ended up doing an amazing job, just as good if not better than the Best Man's. After Saturday, I will hopefully be able to knock out homework and veg the rest of the day. Knowing college life though it probably won't happen, but there's still wishful thinking!

Yes in case anyone was curious, I did live through my 21st birthday. I had decided the night before that I didn't want to get completely messed up to the point of puking and passing out. I ended up living up to what I had anticipated, lots of fun but no aftermath. 7 of us went to Outback for dinner, which was a riot. Afterwards we went home really fast and dropped our cars off and Becca took us to Bombays. At first I was a little skeptical, the place was pretty much dead. There was a group of about 8 of us in a circle next to the stage, and a few people at the bar, and that was it. Toward 9 or so people started coming over from Marketfest, and the bar ended up being pretty packed. They had a band from San Fran playing, so at least there was some good music while we drank. Around 9:30 we walked ourselves back to the car and Becca drove us home where we proceeded to watch Eurotrip for nakedness, and drink more.

Friday I woke up pretty late, and enjoyed not being hung over and away from work. Stassia came over a little after 3 to head to Chico. Before she showed however, I heard someone starting to open our door. I figured it was Rob so I wanted to greet him before we left. To my surprise it was some guy I've never seen before. I guess he had the wrong house, it was a little freaky since I thought the door was locked. Anyways, Stass and I got into Chico and met at Dave's apartment. We ordered a pizza, got some movies, bought some beer, and made a night out of it.

Stassia and I headed back to Redding around 11 or so, and I basically just lounged around until 1-2 when I headed to my parents to wait for my family party. We had about 12 people at Round Table, it was fun to see everyone again and exchange stories. I sat there having a good time, drinking my beer. I have to say my favorite part was seeing my cake. It consisted of a typical "Happy 21st" written on it, but it also had 6 mini bottles of Jager, Tanqueray, and Jose Cuervo sticking out of it. Leave it to my parents to surprise almost everyone. I can safely say I don't think I would have changed anything about my past few days. Thank you everyone who called or saw me and wished me a happy birthday.

Yup I finally turned. It's pretty much like everyone says, it's not as amazing as it seems like it would be. I mean I got a giddy feeling as I walked down the aisles last night trying to decide what booze I wanted to buy, knowing no one could tell me to move along. We did however have a funny moment at FoodMax, apparently they don't serve to a person until 24 hours after their birthday... I can only imagine what anal retentive executive of the store sat down one day and thought that up. We laughed and went to WinCo and got stuff there and headed back home. Rob and I were the only ones drinking, Michelle was our camera gal watching us act like idiots. I can safely say though, that if you want to get messed up don't eat dinner and drink Rockstars with Vodka.

I don't think I'm going to get completely smashed over the next few days. Last night was fun but possibly a little too much. I feel having your 21st birthday is about going out and seeing what you've been missing, not getting sick and passing out. As long as I have friends to hang out and get a bit faded with, I wouldn't want anything more. We'll just have to see if I can get away with that excuse when we're actually out there haha.

Oh and we also received our dog Rowdy earlier this week. He's a loyal pet, always waiting patiently for us when we get home from work. He also makes a good footrest haha. I'll post pictures when I get around to it.