It’s Just Justin

From the DMV to Nirvana

Our last day in San Francisco found us back at the Department of Motor Vehicles.  But before we ran our last errand in The City, I picked up breakfast for us from Sugar Café.  We shared a Cinnamon Pecan Brioche and a Dark & White Chocolate Brioche.  They were very tasty.  Too tasty.  Ryan and I decided that they spelled certain death should we make that a regular breakfast.

Cafe Sugar is a neat little café.  It feels like it belongs in Los Angeles with its modern furnishings and a tiny bit pretentious employees.  The menu is full what read to be pretty delicious items though with a name like Sugar Café, you would think there would be more sweets on the menu.  I guess really though, that’s okay, we eat enough crap as it is.

I hope to enjoy an entire meal there the next time we get out to San Francisco.

This time Ryan was getting his ambulance license.  The wait was quite a bit longer this time around.

We had the same, hilarious DMV agent.  We threatened to be back and what do you know, we were and we had him.  He was really fun, made being at the DMV not so painful.

All the studying paid off as Ryan passed his ambulance test with flying colors.  We took the 24 down Divisadero to the Castro where Kevin was waiting.  The plan was shopping and then lunch at Nirvana.

I picked up a little gift for Micheal and Ryan got a couple of things for some co-workers.

Lunch at Nirvana was awesome.  Mike and Kevin used to bring me there all the time, well, at least three times haha.  I had the Tofu Panini on Focaccia while Ryan had the Mano Mango Noodles.  They have quite a few vegetarian dishes, highly recommend it.

Kevin drove us to our Hotel 480 where we were staying to pick up our bags and then off to San Francisco International Airport (SFO) to catch our flight out of San Francisco.

We used the excuse that we were on vacation one last time as Ryan got a Kona Mocha Chip ice cream and while I sipped on my Dark Chocolate Frappe from Pete’s Coffee.  I sure do miss Pete’s, they make the best cappuccino.

So here we are, waiting for the boarding for our plane to begin.  I’m hoping to get some work done on the flight so I’m not so rushed when I get home to finish this project.

Tags: Department of Motor Vehicles, Eating Out, Friends, Fun, Kevin, Los Angeles, Micheal, Mike, Nirvana, Restaurant, Ryan, San Francisco, San Francisco International Airport, Shopping, The Castro

The Piano Bar

Last night, while Ryan worked hard all night saving lives, Micheal and I joined Dustin, Annalee and Seema at the Piano bar for some good times.

We drank a top hat.  It’s like Sangria plus hard liquor. It’s like heaven.  It’s $12.

It’s really big and Micheal and Annalee drank it all.  (Well, not really)

It was a really fun night.  I’m glad Micheal called me to go hang out.  :-)  We were txt messaging Jenny the entire time, sending pictures and our love.  Next week Micheal and I are going to Saint Louis to visit her and go to Showtune Tuesday.  How exciting!

Tags: Annalee, Drinking, Dustin, Friends, Fun, Going Out, Jenny, Micheal, Piano Bar, Seema, St. Louis, Yay

I Have No Friends

Well, that is according to Google/AIM.  I’m hocking it up to the big Leopard/Google Sync Disaster of 2008.

Let it be known, I do have friends, contrary to what Google/AIM claim.  In fact, it even loaded my buddy list in Gmail.  Hmph,.

Tags: AIM, Friends, Google, Just My Nerdiness

Where Have All The Cowboys Gone?

This is the first time for me to come back to Houston and not hang out with high school friends.  It seems that I have reached the point in my life where old friends have become forgotten friends.  I spend my time with my family and alone doing work instead of prowling the town into the late wee hours of the morning.

I was just here in March for Spring Break and my Lasik surgery and even then I had friends with whom I got to enjoy my time here.  It is amazing to me how quickly our lives change and how few of my former high school classmates have decided to stay in Houston, or even Texas altogether. 

It isn’t just my high school friends either.  My friends from Mizzou seem to be moving to the coasts, primarily San Francisco and New York City/Washington DC.

And coincidently, or perhaps not, right now Ryan and I are planning our escape and what are the two top places on our list?  San Francisco (the bay area) and Washington DC.

What is that draws us all so far from the Midwest?  What is so undesirable?  The east and west coasts are significantly more expensive and the job market is much more competitive, especially for college graduates.  Housing is up to ten times more expensive on average and crime is up.

We sacrifice security, cheap housing and our set of wheels for these destinations and what’s more?  We stay there!  This isn’t a vacation.  On top of that, we recruit.  I can’t count the number of people that moved to San Francisco after I did.

Alas, until Ryan and I pack our things and move to the coasts of California or the Capitol City, we will be rehearsing our goodbyes as our dwindling number of friends continue to venture out of Middle America for the cities with the power to make, or crush dreams.

Tags: Friends, Landon, Midwest, Money, Moving, Politics, Ryan, Travel, Washington DC

New Rig, New Dig, No Job!

I’m Back!  (Once again)

My family has finally left the building.  For the past two weeks I have had either my mom or my grandmother with me, taking care of me, etc.  It was great to have them over, they were of infinite help to me, but a little space sure is nice haha.

My family has been very concerned about my health as of late.  With the seizures and extreme changes in blood pressure and pulse, I guess they have some reason to their paranoia.  Still, I wish they wouldn’t worry about me.  Despite being put through the ER three times in a week and then being put on a “toxic” dose of medicine on accident… I have been doing ok.  I missed about two or more weeks of school, much of the time I don’t remember care of Keppra, Depakote and Ativan.  Yay for perscriptions.

I haven’t seen much of Ryan during this time which has been the worst part of it all.  You really don’t what you’ve got till family comes in town and it’s gone…  Something like that.

Either way, a wonderfully good thing came of the visit.  I came out to my mom, for the fourth (?) time.  This will be the last, we talked openly and things just really seemed to work out.  She understands now that it isn’t a choice, that I didn’t hide it from her/the family because I wanted to have a secret and… well, it just is no longer that big ol’ white elephant in the room.

Speaking of rooms…  I have been doing some remodeling at the apartment.  I have much more to do yet, new chair, new couch, new TV, new coffee table, new dining table and chairs.  Once I change out all that to smaller, thinner, sleeker items, the large livingroom will appear full sized again haha.

As you can see in the top picture, I have done a little re-arranging of my workstation.  I added an Epson Perfection V500 Scanner, a Wacom Bamboo Fun tablet, two shelves for my photography toys and a new light.  The light made the biggest difference, I swear.  No longer do I get down sitting at the computer, it really, and literally, brightens up my day.

You might also notice the new laptop sitting next to the iMac.  Yep, I got a new Macbook Pro!  It’s so wonderful, I’m using it right now to write this post!  Got a stellar deal on it at the bookstore.  Chase and Ryan got one each as well!

Now that I’m back to feeling better, hopefully I will be able to post more often and do more photography.  First, and unfortunately, I have to catch up on my class work and make my nearly thirteen doctor appointment.  Even more unfortunate is the sad story that I had to leave my job at the hospital in order to make these doctor appointments and catch up with my school work.

That means that I will be having a social life again, eventually, but also means I will be poor and won’t be able to buy all the things I’ve been wanting… Sad story!

But having friends and keeping them is more important that having fun toys, any day.

Time for bed.  Going to finish the load of laundry for Ryan.  He takes flight later today for Miami and then a cruise.  Lucky!

Tags: Apple, Chase, Friends, Health, Job, Macbook Pro, Photography, Ryan, School, Social, Work

Let’s Bowl!

Last night I went bowling with Ryan, Richelle, Kevin, Cindy, Galen , Mark and Daniel.

As you can see, that would be the infamous Cosmis Bowling. At $14.00 a person… it sure as hell better be out of this world. And it was! I had a total blast. Broke 100… haha, not the best bowler but it was lots of fun anyway.

Rochelle, Daniel and Mark all have their own balls and ball carriers and shoes… they were quite fancy. Ryan and Rochelle seemed to be enjoying themselves as they danced with the … interesting music choices.

I also got to try out my new lens, it did quite a good job I think. Has some potential with experimental light photography as well as portrait photography.

It was a good fun time.

Powered by Qumana

Tags: Bowling, Friends, Fun, Lighting, Photography, Richelle, Ryan, Work

Am I Really That Busy?

It’s weird. I have had so many people comment to me about why we haven’t hung out this summer very much or at all, and almost everyone has claimed that it was I who was too busy that caused the problem.

I don’t believe they are just trying to pass on blame to me, I feel they really do think that I am busy all the time, but honestly, I’m not. I’m only getting 11-15 hours of work a week and that’s pretty much all there is with me. I have been waking up early, 6:46am this morning, and going out to run errands, making up errands just to get my mind off the fact that I have nothing to do.

I had all of these great plans and they all seem to be falling through. New York to do photography never went far, my contact never made contact… Monaco is still on hold waiting for the photographer there and the landlord to figure out if it will work out for me to do it.

My days have been pretty darn productive, dentist appointments, getting two quotes to get my car fixed, set up my new apartment’s phone service, DSL service, electricity and gas… I have taken trips to Booneville a few times, to Jefferson City and to the Lake since school was released… Pretty soon I leave for Austin and Houston. I will be getting Lasik (hopefully) and moving my stuff down here to my new apartment.

I will be officially in my new apartment on the 17th of June and then I will be gone June 22-25 in Indianapolis. Then I get back in town and… back to the airport for my trip to Washington DC where I will be hanging out from June 27 to July 9. I hope to pick up some shifts at Starbucks while I am out there, make some money. Then I’m in Columbia setting up my apartment until late July and until early August visiting California for my birthday.

I am going to be just incredibly busy travelling but my time here in Columbia is pretty mundane and lonely. So if anyone wants to hang out, give me a call cause… life sucks when you are alone.

I have had a few fun times in the past week. Just the other day I went out to Jefferson City and hung out at my friend Scott’s house. We just sat around, talked, had a good time. His friend Amy was over, I love her! She is hilarious. They were doing work around his house before I got there, doing some beautiful landscaping. He showed me the before and after pics of his place, looks just amazing.

We made dinner… well actually, they made dinner and I watched. It was very tasty, chicken wrapped in bacon and around cream cheese with green beans and roasted potatoes. I had a few, strong, vanilla vodka’s and diet, awesome, maybe a new favorite of mine! Then we all cuddled up on the couches and watched National Lampoon’s Family Vacation.

It was a good time. I hope to hang out with Scott a lot more.

In other news, check out my old apartment in San Francisco now apart of Google Maps Street View!

I lived there!!!  Lord how I miss that apartment and Seth.

Tags: Car, Friends, Fun, Memories, San Francisco, Scott, Seth, Ugh, Work