Lately, I just haven't been feeling the desire to write in here. I used to be much more faithful to it, but life has gotten busy and emotionally draining. Yet I'm writing in this right now, so I guess life has gotten better. I've had some of the happiest days I've had in a while. Let us now figure out why (hortatory subjunctive, in Greek at least).

Well, okay. There isn't much to figure out. Kirstyn gave me the ultimatum that I'm only to talk to her when I start being nice, or something to that effect. No, maybe it was when my actions match my words. I'm sort of known for intentionally creating ambiguous sentences, but I really don't think this was the case. I have consistently told her how I was honestly feeling and acted thusly. But apparently this wasn't good enough for her. I think she was looking for something along the lines of "I want to get back together with you right now," which would be not at all along the lines of what I have been telling her. So apparently telling her the truth and acting accordingly is not acceptable to her. I guess this means that I'm not supposed to talk to her. I haven't for the past two days and my life has been great. I guess that's what I'm supposed to do then.

However, this is not the way I would have liked to do things. The end result is what I have been wanting: Kirstyn to stop clinging on to me and acting like that is her right. Yet I somehow believed it could have been done with us still being friends and the potential for us to get back together someday. As it is, the more we are not together, the clingier she gets. And the tighter she holds on, the more I push her away. The more I push her away, the angrier she gets and insists on forcing her way into as much of my life as possible. It's a downward spiral into as much anger and annoyance as possible. Rather quickly, too.

Anyway, life without Kirstyn is going much smoother and happier than she would probably like. I think going to Ireland and San Luis will be good for her. For once in her life, she will have control over most everything.

I was glad to be able to stay for teardown. As usual, it was done way before anticipated, mainly due to the fact that Sunday is spent preparing for it and they start at 5. By breakfast at 7:10, everything major was done. Afterwards, Amy and I went home. At 10:30, I was back at the apartment, where Riddy was still sleeping. Darren and Maria were hosting a get together at 1, so I got a load of laundry done and some unpacking.

I picked up Amy and we headed over to the park. There was volleyball and other park activities. It was a gorgeous day and I remembered how much fun volleyball is.

Around hungry time, we all headed over to the grocery store to pick up our respective items (Amy and I had chips). Then we went back to Darren and Maria's for them to cook and arrange everything. It was there where I got to discover how utterly awesome Rachelle is. We played the piano in our contrasting ways and played each other's songs. It was an all-around awesome time.

Amy and I made it back late, around 11 or so. I went to bed much later than my usual convention bedtime.

I woke up rather alert at 7:30. I did usual internet activities, waking up slowly. I breakfasted and raquetballed, as usual. Shower, then realize that I still need to do Greek. Please note the change into present tense there. It's to intensify the situation. That, and the fact that I really didn't want to go back and change it.

We went over a good 10-15 lines of Plato's Apology, which is pretty intense. Hard core Greek. It's like taking first year med school students and having them try and heal a cancer patient. Nice try, buddy, but you should leave that to Asclepius.

I came back and made a sandwich with my delicious garlic bread. It made everything else delicious. Delicious, delicious, delicious.

Our English lecture was as awful as ever. The confirmed number of "salient"s today was seven. Oh, how we hate her.

I did my Greek homework before discussion. That class went well, mainly because it's our TA, me, and about two other people talking the entire time. At least I'll get participation credit.

I got home, finished my laundry, got some groceries (tri-tip is on sale-$4/lb off). I made some salad and ate it. I am a salad fiend.

Well, it's night time, and I think I've written enough in here right now.

Today has been very hot. Not hot as in the way everything is, but hot as in, ouch, it feels like I'm in an oven.

As I was the only college student in Davis whose mother was more than 2 hours away, I was the only one in meeting this morning. As a result of that and various other absences, it was a small, short meeting. I got out of there before the ratdog started attacking innocent bystanders.

My rearview mirror was wiggling on the way there, so I got in my car and inpected it. The wiggling was apparently a result of the stub glued to the window breaking in half and waiting for me to look at it to fall, dangling from the ceiling. I thought it was kind of funny.

I went home, changed, then embarked on my journey throughout the mysterious parts of Davis. Turns out Kragen is located roughly two blocks from my apartment (actually, a literal two blocks). It was surprising that the people working there were ridiculously helpful, since Davis is a bike oriented town. I was expecting them to reprimand me for driving a car or something. He even helped me fix my windshield wiper fluid problem (there was none in the tank).

With that all fine and dandy, I went to Safeway to get some pectin, corn syrup, and chocolate. I was going to bake a cake, but it was just so hot, I never got around to it.

I came home and scraped off the old hook, then followed the instructions to put the new one on. It was like sitting in an oven. Apparently it got up to 90 degrees today.

I've been eating chocolate covered strawberries all day. All all day long. I have a lot of strawberries. I was going to make jam, but it was just too hot.

For the past day, I've been living off Togo's and apple juice. See yesterday's blog for more details.

For an hour or so, I worked on a transcription of Jason Webley's "Music That Puts Everything Together." It's turning out nicely.

I read a bit of homework. I think I should do my tangible homework now.

Sorry it's been so long. There has been a bunch of things going on in my life and only now am I getting the chance to try and tell them. Unfortunately, I'm really tired, so I'm just going to quickly mention some things.

Thursday I went to Jason Webley's concert. It was amazing, as always. He sung a song about aardvarks and had everyone huddle together and he told stories. It was simply beautiful.

I spent Thursday morning writing an English paper. I turned it in that afternoon and got my midterm back. It was disappointing to learn that I tied Tom with 100%. It was a ridiculous midterm.

Friday was busy trying to convince myself I wasn't going to fail the Greek quiz and trying to remember how to diagram sentences for my Grammar midterm. I think I succeeded in the latter. The former didn't work out so well, but I usually get a B, so I guess I'll go with that.

I skipped my Classics lecture for a dress rehearsal for our myth skits and 30 minute Odyssey. It was long, but pretty fun.

Today was Classics Day. It started out pretty slow, with everyone dreading the worst. There was one handful of high school kids, about 5, whose teacher once went to Davis. It was mostly alumni and friends and family of the students, which ended up being quite a bit.

We started off our pathetic morning at 10:30, which, we soon learned, is about 2 hours too early for college students. I was first in giving a monologue, which went well. The rest of the monologues went, then we went to respective rooms. The three options were for College life with Classics, a lecture by Dr. Traill, and Career Opportunities for Classicists. I went to the last one, since it was going to be the lowest in attendance and was actually the only one that interested me. I'm amazed at how much I learned. I'm really excited now.

Following that was the myth skits, in which I was the narrator. They went over very well, thanks to Raed's immature sense of humor and collection of strange props.

Lunch was great. The attendance was extremely overestimated, so they ordered about three times as much food as was necessary. No problem though.

After lunch was the performance by Stanley Lombardo. It was something that's probably on the same level as watching a rowing competition. It's sort of cool if you watch it for a little bit, but amazing if you actually row. Although, it was pretty much just a reading of the Odyssey. Except some of it was in Greek. Come to think of it, I think everyone enjoyed it. He has an amazing way with his voice, how pure emotion can flow out of it. His intent was to make it as close as possible to how Homer performed it, and I think he did a better job than anyone I've ever heard of. Except for Homer, because he's just amazing.

After that was a bunch of games, so I headed over to the Whole Earth Festival to hear Jason Webley begin his performance. That was fun, but really hot. His Thursday performance was more exciting, since it was almost entirely his overwhelming Davis fan base.

I ran back to the courtyard for the Odyssey in 30 minutes skit. I only had a little part in the beginning, so I spent most of my time holding the backdrop still. It was fun nonetheless. The crowd really enjoyed it, including Dr. Lombardo. We even included a part where Odysseus checks an old Lattimore translation to see what's supposed to happen, yet can't understand it because it's too literal. Then he whips out Lombardo's and exclaims, "Ah, a translation I can finally understand! With just the right amount of colloquialism! Isn't that right, Dr. Lombardo?" which at that point, everyone from behind the stage peeks out and gives him the thumbs up. Oh, good times.

Afterwards, I got him to sign my Illiad, Odyssey, and Hesiod. He even gave me a compliment on my Hippolytus performace. So we traded compliments.

In all, it was a fun day. At the end, I got to bike home with 50 cans of apple juice and about a dozen sandwiches. It was a slow and awkwardly weighted bike ride, but worth it.

Since I've gotten home, I really haven't done much. In fact, I'm going to go to bed right now.

I would like to be in bed right now.

When I woke up, I rolled out of bed, made it, ate breakfast, blah blah blah. Racquetball was fun. We got one game in, cutthroat with Jon and Brad. It was pretty evenly matched for the first half, with Jon at 8, me at 7, Brad at 4. Then Brad got up to 13 in one go. It was a fun game nonetheless.

I got back to my place and showered. I was pretty tired, so I just did some other random things on the internet until class.

Greek was fun, but a little slow. Half the class was absent for some reason, nothing I can actually explain.

Immediately after Greek, I met with Claire to go over my monologue for Classics Day. Things went pretty well. I just need to practice getting angry and loud, which is hard since I tend to have roommates and am always around people.

With an hour and a half to kill, I went to the MU and got a bagel, read the paper, did my Greek homework.

My English lecture was possibly more boring than normal. I did two sudokus. After that midterm, it has come to my attention that I don't actually have to do anything in that class. I kind of hate it a lot.

After class, I rushed back to the apartment so Brad and I could start making pizza sauce. Unfortunately, Brad didn't get home until half an hour later, so we went to Safeway then and made the sauce. Just in the nick of time, I left for my discussion.

That was interesting. It consisted of Adam trying to explain how to write a paper to a mixture of experienced English majors, clueless non-majors, and a cynical me. It was actually relatively fun.

As I left the building, I snuck up on Emilia, then Lionel snuck up on me. We had a posse moment, then I went to bake some pizzas.

They turned out really good. Homemade pizzas tend to be a million times more delicious than not. Seriously. They're good.

I came home and have been wasting time since. I am going to bed now.

Yes, I realize it's been a few days. I was at Buttonwillow. And I've been pretty tired.

I woke up from the best night of sleep I've had in a long time. I only woke up once and didn't have to put in earplugs since Riddy wasn't snoring very loudly. I started and finished my Greek homework, which wasn't that much, then ate breakfast and did all sorts of other morning activities. At noon, I went to Greek.

It was pretty normal. Pretty tired. I got my midterm back, B+. About what I was expecting. We're starting the Optative mood, so that means more learning. Great.

Grammar was fine as well. More on conjunctions, parallel structure, etc. Stuff that nobody else cares about.

After walking to the MU with Cari, I got a burrito and read the Aggie. It was a slow time. I ran in to Alicia and Amanda, who tried to get me to go on a blind date. Fortunately, they found someone else.

On my way back to Olson for my bike, I ran into Claire and Kelsey (in separate instances). They are both faring well, in case anybody knows either. Claire and I set up a hot date for tomorrow to go over my monologue for Classics Day on Saturday.

Myth was a pretty normal day. Everyone was really tired and the lecture wasn't overly ridiculous, so I should modify that and say that it was less than average. Whatever.

Back at home, I started thawing out a chicken for roasting for dinner. In between the thawing and the cooking, I did my homework and addressed all sorts of other issues. Around 8:30, I was eating my delicious chicken. I love roasted chicken. My wife had better learn how to make herself love my chicken, because I sure do. I also love the onions roasted with it. Delicious.

No dessert, since I am way too tired. But I want some still. But I need to go to bed. Dilema. Either way, I should stop typing.

Tonight? Sailor's delight?

When I woke up this morning, I found myself talking to my mother. Unfortunately, she called around 8:56, four minutes before my period of wake up. Also, Riddy was sleeping in the room, so I was even quieter and more mumbly than normal. She opted to call back. (Never did).

From there, I slept for another 15 minutes, then did my daily morning activities. I ate cereal, then made something. This time it was some cookies from Betty's recipe. Betty is the old lady that works at the Segundo DC. I asked her to be my Valentine last year, but she declined.

Anyway, I mentioned that I love to bake. She got very excited and told me all about this great recipe for cookies. "It's the easiest recipe ever. There are only four ingredients. It's very simple. You only need four things." Wait, I might be confusing her with my own grandmother. Or my own father, for that matter.

No matter! I tried out the recipe she gave me (handwritten, on an old timey recipe card). The four ingredients ended up being butter, flour, sugar, and vanilla. When I first glanced at the recipe, it seemed odd to me that it called for 7 cups of flour. Then I realized that it serves 100. I quickly quartered the recipe and all came out well. Except the dough was really dry. I was the texture of moist sand. It was like muffin batter, except no milk. Well, that was essentially what it was.

Anyway, the cookies tasted pretty much like how you'd expect. Except once you start eating a few, they get addicting. You can ask Brandon about that. I personally prefer chewier cookies, but you just can't say no to Betty.

Once that was all squared away, I went to class with Riddy still in bed. Greek was as Greek usually is. The most exciting part was when Allison taught me about the awkward turtle. Probably one of the coolest turtles ever. And that's saying something, since turtles inherently possess amazing levels of coolness.

Grammar went as usual. For how exciting that class is, it sure can be kind of boring.

On my way out, I trailed Dr. Haynes to his office, where three other people had the same idea. It became apparent to me that I had a certain level of cockiness going in there figuring out why I only got 99% (it was his fault), as the others got around 65%. But I did have some other pressing issues that were resolved. So it was worthwhile.

I had my bagel at the CoHo and read the Aggie.

Myth was hilarious, mainly because we're reading Aristophanes's The Birds. He was a great Comedy writer, for his day. Think of it as taking the writing ability of a genius and combining it with the maturity of a middle schooler. The Greeks loved sexual puns, phalli, and poop jokes. As Dr. Rundin put it, "everyone had a huge padded buttocks because they thought it was funny." And of course, he was giggling the entire time, so the whole lecture hall was laughing at him. Great times.

In NT Greek, we went over our midterms. I got an A-, which was around what I expected. Dr. Bulman passed out this week's quiz, which ended up being more of last week's. We all became frantic, since after the quiz last week, those words were all gone. So we worked on the passage while Dr. Bulman printed out the right one. Once that was taken care of, we took the silly quiz. I think I got an A. It wasn't that bad.

After riding home with Hack, I went back to my room and perused the internet. Riddy came home, Brandon left for his LSAT class, I played my trumpet. Apparently Riddy has allergies, so didn't feel up to going to meeting. As I left to pick up Amy, he was consoling himself with video games.

Our meeting was small, as Daryl and Lois were gone, plus the Woods, and Brandon and Riddy. Nevertheless, it was pleasant. I felt a little out of it though.

After I dropped off Amy, I went back to my place, arranged some apples on a tray, threw stuff on top of them, then baked them. Essentially the same as last night, but in a different style.

When I was eating that, I got a phone call from Kirstyn, apparently regarding a miscommunication with Shawna. We ended up talking for quite some time, which I had missed. She's a good friend, and I would like to keep that part of our relationship.

Now, after doing my Greek homework and showering, I am exhausted and needing bed. Seriously, right now.

Well, my life is somewhat surreal. It feels like it's coated in wax or something. I suppose that might be the heat, but it's more of an emotional wax. I'm not quite sure where I'm going with this. It's as if I'm still living my life, but everything is now intangible and I can't feel anything correctly.

It's not like the breakup hasn't affected me at all. In fact, it's quite the opposite. I get to explain the situation multiple times a day, so it's not something I feel is necesary to incorporate in a detailed description of my day. Besides, I think that dwelling on depressing things isn't going to help the situation any. So while it might not seem like it on the surface, I'm spending most of my waking moments feeling like something is missing. And I miss her too.

When I woke up this morning, Riddy was still in bed. Come to think of it, I never actually saw him get out of bed. Come to think of it again, I saw a glimpse of him walking just as I was going to class at noon. Problem is, we both have the same class at 9. Apparently he had a sore throat and completely different attendance morals than me. Pretty much the only thing that prevents me from going to class is a physical inability. Which is probably a good thing, since I was sick about a dozen times last quarter.

So in racquetball, we finished off our tournament. Jon won, because he's old. I played a game with Ryan, where neither of us actually cared unless the coach was watching. After walking around for a bit, I got invited into a game of cutthroat, which was pretty fun. One of my major problems with cutthroat is that it never seems to really be the best player that wins. I might just be a pessimist here, since it's my least favorite version of the sport, but it always seems like the weakest player is trying to bring you down. I don't really know or care about the truth though.

Once back at the place, I showered and got emotionally prepared for Greek. Which wasn't that big of a deal, since I love Greek. It was a slow day though. The past few days have been, so I'm going to blame that on emotions.

Since I had a haircut appointment at 1:30, I walked with Ken to the Death Star, having a nice little chat. Then I ran into Becca and friends, with whom I had a nice little conversation. Then I browsed the Bookstore, then finally went to the basement of Freeborn for my haircut.

Not being all that excited or enthusiastic, the conversation was mellow to begin. Then I mentioned how I was going to see my parents this weekend and needed to get my hair in shape. He proceeded to ask where, to which I replied, "a church convention." Apparently that struck some interest, so he wouldn't stop talking and asking questions about it. Which I found pretty amazing. He's an interesting guy. Barbers and their clients develop interesting relationships over the years. All of my roommates get their hair cut at Great Clips over by Safeway, but I can't stop going to John, else I'll feel like I'm cheating on him. What's worse is that he's verified that he remembers me by some comment today. So now I'm locked in. But it's not that bad a thing. It's traditional male bonding. A manly thing.

Anyway, on my way out, I mentioned that because of conventions, things are a little ambiguous right now, but invited him once things get back to normal. Coincidentally, that should coincide with my next haircut, so I told him I'd talk about it then. He seemed interested.

With that, I had about 45 minutes until I was supposed to meet with Claire to discuss the monologue. So I went to the CoHo and got another burrito for lunch. I ate it, then sat outside at our meeting spot for a good half hour, reading my grammar book. At 2:30, she was nowhere to be found, so I called her. Apparently she thought we were meeting Wednesday. We had a little schedule discussion, culminating with our changing it to Thursday.

As I was walking toward Hart, I saw a nearly naked girl biking across the MU. So I went over to reprimand her for biking past all the "Do Not Bike" signs posted everywhere. Amy had just finished running, and felt embarrassed for being immodestly dressed, so put on a t-shirt and we talked for a minute or so. Then she went to get an icee.

My English lecture was awful. We're reading an immigrant story, so we had an hour lecture on the modern day process for naturalization. I did the sudoku.

With an hour and a half until my discussion, I headed over to Olson, sat in room 109, and did my Greek homework. I love studying in empty classrooms. I take the teacher's seat and occasionally use the chalkboards to work out things. It makes me feel like nobody in my class cares enough to attend, but I still hold class anyway. Maybe I need a life.

In our discussion, Adam decided to make us play Jeopardy, which was an awkwardly failed attempt. His teaching style reminds me of a young middle school substitute teacher. One who is really enthusiastic, but not very good at teaching. A little awkward.

When I got back to the apartment, there was a small (Magic, the) gathering watching the Kings play. I did a little business in my room, then ate some of the pizza Brandon took out of the freezer and put into the oven. Since we were needing butter, I made a run to Safeway, one of my feel-good places. I love browsing there. I ended up getting a good $20 worth of odds and ends, including our much needed butter, eggs, olive oil, shortening, and probably something else too. I came back and decided to make some baked apples. I found a few recipes online, but they ended up being pretty awful. So I made my own. It goes as follows:

• Preheat oven to 350.
• Take 5 apples that are starting to go bad, then wash and core them, leaving the skin on. This works best with an instrument other than your hands.
• Take a handful of walnuts, cut them into smaller peices, then pour them into the apples evenly.
• Take a bunch of brown sugar and pack as much as you can into the apples.
• Take a tablespoon of butter and try and force that onto the top of the sugar in each of the apples.
• Awkwardly pour cinnamon over the tops.
• Place on a cookie sheet with a lip and bake for 15 minutes, as some moron online said.
• Realize that the butter still has not melted, then raise the temperature to 400.
• Cook for a lot longer.
• Take each apple off the sheet and onto a pretty plate.
• Serve to your roommates's guests.
  
• Wish you had done something better with the cinnamon.

They actually tasted really good. Joe liked the apple better than the strawberry shortcake. I'm not sure about that, and it definitely wasn't as good as the torte, but it was still pretty good.

Now this place is pretty quiet, and Riddy is still nowhere to be found. Not that I'm complaining. I should go make use of this.

First off, in case you haven't heard, Kirstyn and I are no longer going out. To answer your question, it was something that just needed to happen, despite the fact that we both still really like each other. I think we need some time and space alone in order to sort things out and set straight our priorities. Granted, we might not want to, but we need to.

My day has been a little slow, either because of some major life event or the weather. It has been really hot here in the past few days, enough to wear down anyone. And just shushy to anyone who likes the heat. It could serve to be about 5-10 degrees cooler.

I've been spending too much time on the internet being unproductive. This is a bad thing. I must start limiting myself again. I think it's a crutch for my pointless life or something like that.

It's weird. I feel so much better physically, emotionally, and productively when I'm not on the computer. Yet I get so many complaints from people when I don't blog. Maybe I'll start handwriting things and taping them to my wall. Anyone who wants to read them can come visit me. Or maybe I'll take pictures of them and we can bring back Blanks and Postage. Or maybe, or maybe...

So I woke up this morning around 9. I think I'm cursed with the affliction that I always wake up between 9 and 9:30 when given the opportunity to sleep in. It's really strange. About that time, I feel awake enough to start the day, even if my body isn't or whatnot. If it's too early, I go back to sleep, but wake up in the time span. It's not like it's that big of a deal, I just think it's kind of strange. Besides, I get plenty done in my mornings now. It's kind of nice.

Except for this morning, which I spent perusing the corners of the internet. Not a whole lot done. Although I did finish translating a passage for Greek, something that was nearly pointless, as I didn't get a whole lot of it correct. It was based on Thucydides, well known for being the most difficult prose writer of Ancient Greek manuscripts we have.

Greek was fine, as usual. It was a little cold and my eyes were sore from I don't know what, so my day was a little more subdued than normal. Although I did make a funny joke about Dr. Bulman. She was complaining how her watch battery died, so couldn't tell the time. Someone offered the idea of checking her cell phone, to which she noted that she's probably the only person on campus without one, as she's from the dinosaur age. To this, I mildly suggested that she break out her sundial. Now logistically, it wouldn't make sense, as we were indoors, didn't have a compass, and nobody really had a sundial, but it was a joke. And jokes aren't supposed to be worked out logistically.

After breaking out a sweat in the 30 second heated bike ride to Olson, I found myself anxiously awaiting my Grammar quiz. I ended up getting the verb type wrong, which was my one main dilema when taking the quiz. No matter, I still got a 99%. That, combined with my 300/300 homework assignment and my 102% from the last quiz, I think I'll be fine.

Wandering around the quad a bit, I ran into Keiz, with whom I had a little chat, then Doug, who overtook the conversation. It was nice catching up for a little bit. Then I went to the CoHo and got a burrito. I wasn't planning on getting a full meal, but I needed food and it worked.

On my way out, I ran into Danae, who was working at the Bookstore, so I had a little chat with her. I think I was really out of it. It's not often I have so many little chats in such a short time.

As usual, our Myth lecture was spastic, thanks to Dr. Rundin's uncontrollable giggling. I ended up getting an 87% on the midterm, which wasn't bad at all, considering my studying. I had a nice little time next to Allison and Jaina, as I was completely tired and hot.

When I got home, I wasted more time on the internet, then decided I should cook dinner. Looking through cookbooks for ideas, I found something that looked good. I took a chicken out of the freezer and started thawing it. Unfortunately, my methods of thawing are very primitive, as I managed to cook half the breasts in the microwave in the defrost setting. I feared the worst. Which actually ended up being relatively dry chicken, but not a big deal.

Once it was pretty much thawed out, I cooked them until colored on the outside, then took the pieces off the heat. I sweated a red onion in the remaining liquids, then added equal parts water and Cabernet Sauvignon. Once boiling, I threw the chicken back into the pot, and let cook for another 20 mintues. Once thoroughly cooked, I threw in a bunch of halved grapes and cooked until warm throughout. I suppose I could have thrown in a bay leaf or some garlic, but was more worried about the defrosting techniques.

Joe and AJ were still around, so I gave them some too. It went over really well. I really liked the flavor of grape and chicken. Try it. I dare you.

We're out of butter, so I couldn't make dessert. Seriously, I wanted to. Still do.

Since dinner, I've been wasting more time on the internet and doing my Greek homework. I haven't been that happy with my day, aside from the dinner extravaganza. I should go to bed now and put a cap on how much internet I can allow. I must parentally control myself.

I know it's been an awful long time since I've last posted, but I've been going through a lot of things in my life, just trying to sort them out. I'll probably start posting a little more regularly now, as long as I feel up to it.

In other news, apparently the City of Davis has a law against being annoying.