In conclusion: 2006

Well, as 2006 has come and gone, I feel as though the past year deserves some reminiscing. A common theme was travel. I've flown more times in the past year than I have in my entire life. DC to Milan, Milan to Naples, Florence to Milan, Milan to DC, Baltimore to Denver, Denver to Baltimore, Baltimore to Boston, Boston to Baltimore, and then finally Denver to Baltimore again. To this day, I still hate to fly.

When the year began I was getting ready to make the big trip to Italy. 8 hour flight... ick. But, it being Italy and all, I gritted(drank heavily) through it. A week in Pompeii, a week in Rome, and a week Florence, more or less. To give you an impression of how awesome that was, if I had been into blogging back then it would have been the most MIND-BLOWING piece of internet literature ever created. So that was cool. Anyway for the next few months I took school very seriously, and I got the grades to show for it. During those months I was making the difficult decision of where the hell to go for grad school, and we all know how that turned out. So basically school kicked my ass, but in my defense I left most of my mind in the bottom of a bottle of Chanti somewhere in Florence. Despite this, I graduated!

The summer was nice as I wrapped up my life in Maryland, and before I knew it I was on the Road to Boulder. And well... if you've read my blog at all you'll know what happened from there. Loneliness, disappointment, and several unsuccessful attempts at healthy living.

But even though the last five months have been... questionable for me, I now feel like I've lived a bit more. At the very least, now I have a pretty useful conversation starters that goes a little something like, "Heh, so this one time in Italy..." or "Welp, I can tell you this, we do things a bit different over on the east coast..."

Enjoy 2007 everyone. I'm gonna do my best to.

My Triumphant Return.

So I made it home. Whoopie. After worrying for two solid weeks about being snowed in, I was able to fly back in time for New Years Eve. In retrospect it seems that being stranded during Christmas was a good thing, for I've been able to spend a lot more time here, and by a bizarre chance I was able to be with my Grandmother during what turned out to be her final days.

So... been here a week... and I'm bored. I definitely remember why I had the desire to fly halfway across the country in the first place. Granted it turned out to not be as awesome of an experience as I thought it'd be, being alone in a new town with a job that you hate has its downside. But that's all going to change. Come the 13th I'll be making my real Triumphant Return as my journey begins anew. Cheesy wording indeed, but this time around I actually have people waiting for me to come back to Boulder. At least I like to think I do. The two imaginary friends I've made out there really miss me, as without me they... well, don't exist.

So to kind of wrap things up, alot has happened here in Maryland this past week, but I've been hanging out with most of my readers, there's no real need to go into all of it. Plus, it's the Boulder Chronicles, and I wouldn't want to slip out of my usual format now would I?

This is where ulcers come from.

So, all in all, being stranded here for Christmas wasn't so bad. As a matter of fact, I would say I have no regrets about it. My co-workers, the one's I actually like even, were nice enough to feed me well. Also, rather than return home to have my father say, "You said you wanted an Pod-something for Christmas? Well tell you what, let's go to BJ's Wholesale Club and see what they've got, and you can pick out your own," I opted to just buy one in five fucking minutes on Amazon. So, I am now the proud owner of the top of the line iPod 5.5, and 1050 more Amazon points, and thus I am King of the Amazon. This is indeed awesome for the most ridiculous idea ever, the Podcast, is right up my ally. Why listen to NPR for free whenever, when you can download certain radio programs to clog up your computer and then somehow find a way to put them onto your iPod. It'd be simple if I was willing to let it sync all the time, but the idea of iTunes having absolute control over what goes on, why I'd expect that sort of shenanigans from Microsoft, but not my recent crush Apple. But anyway, if I could figure out how to use templates in Word '98, no interface can dare oppose me.

Now what concerns me is the next giant blizzard which they're calling worse than the previous one. Apparently this one, which hit this morning as a light rain, which about an hour ago turned to snow, a snow predicted to continue into Saturday morning, is slower moving and thus may drop more precipitation on us than the former.

Diagnosis: I'm shit-fucked.

Last week the airport closed for 45 hours. The bus system was shut down from Wednesday evening until Friday. The postal service stopped deliveries for a solid two days.

I though this was the FUCKING ROCKIES!

And what with modern technology and all being able to clone farm animals and infect the children of America with Cloneitis, the little known disease that comes from drinking the milk of an animal that was not created by G-d, but by the hands of man, AKA Lucifer, you'd think they'd have figured out a way to get around a few feet of partially frozen water. I propose some form of anti-snow, for example: fire! Why not set all the forests on fire to preemptively raise the temperature and smoke away those storm clouds. Surely there must be some kind of laser that could be used to create an energy field to surround Denver International Airport and keep out those nasty weather patterns.

If there was ever a time I needed you heathen bastards, and yes I mean you too dear reader, to start praying for my timely, uneventful return trip, it's now. So if you'll please, drop your Yule logs, bring the Nativity Scene back down from the attic, and for the love of Him, stop your hippie pagan love fest.

So in summation, I had a good Christmas, the iPod is freaking awesome, but I was hoping to have a good New Year at home as well, so keep wishing for My Triumphant Return, and maybe just maybe, I'll be able to make a post that's actually true to that name.


Now that's what I call edgy blogging.

Trapped.

As piles of snow have practically locked me within my own apartment, I've had waaaaayyy to much time on my computer. Here some things I've found of interest, mostly off Penny-Arcade's last post.

-Rabbids

-Dis or Dat

-The Grinch: Alternate Ending

Also, against my better judgment, I helped out at work today. From talking to my co-workers I've pretty much decided to strike, with the goal of receiving my days off in January so I can make it home. The popular option is that they would quit in my situation. Apparently I'm not alone in my dissatisfaction with certain members of Pharmaca's management.

My Triumphant Return: Hiatus.

To put it all lightly, I made a horrible mistake. And because of it, I'm stranded, cold, alone, and more than likely will be forced to go to work.

I'd say if it's snowy enough to cancel my flight, I'd think it'd go without saying that some fuck-off yuppie pharmacy should close it's goddamn doors.



This whole situation does not bode well for my alcoholism. I don't know when I'll be able to make it home, but I'm damn sure not going to go live at the airport for a few days, plus the buses have failed me.

Will I be back for New Years? Maybe. Probably have to quit my job cause they're going to be anti me changing my holiday hours now.

This entry is pretty much like all the others.

So it's official, I'm now enrolled in school once again. Thus, December shall be the last month of this chapter of The Boulder Chronicles. Starting in January, when I cut down my work hours drastically, start my relatively meager plunge into debt, and begin my part-time graduate work, we shall (my one reader and I) begin the next chapter. If you're wondering what the hell I'm talking about, Look at the bottom of the right column and you will see I have indeed split this blog into chapters, to further the bookishness of it all.

Just for laughs here's some fun facts about my blog:

1. It was originally called the Drakos Chronicles before I came up with the idea to make this a log of my life out west. On that note, it was even called the Tufts Chronicles for a brief period of time when I was seriously considering Medford, MA as my new home. Boston was nice, and I had alot of fun when I visited, but Boulder was the land of milk and honey to me, or rather the land of ricemilk and agave nectar. More on my shattered dreams later this month...

2. I put a great deal more effort into writing the Prologue when I was still in Maryland then I ever have writing Chapter 1 out here. There are a number of good reasons for this. I had more time then. I wasn't as depressed then. Doing laundry here pretty much makes me want to rip my face off. 3 dollars to get my load fully dry? Machines eating my dollar in quarters? Weird white lines on my black khaki pants? It's all getting better though.

3. I'm pretty sure I got a C in Anicent Greek because I spent the night before the final writing entries like this one, rather than actually reading a word of Plato.

4. My closest amici (mas,pl,nom) can't be bothered to read it. My gratitude goes out to those of you who do, as this is the only contact, with three exceptions, I really have with the old east coast.

5. I was expecting to do more with the template design. It would take more effort than I'm willing to give to make it pretty (click if you're brave).

6. To those wondering, I am in fact not gay.

Migun of Boulder

I do have to say that my last entry was a little over dramatic. I happened to have some free time on Monday and Tuesday so I pretty much spent them in front of the TV, but I managed to do quite a lot elsewhere. I made a total jackass of myself at my work's holiday party, but discovered I rock at Foosball. I also managed to get some holiday shopping done (I gots me some new shoes! Probably good considering I've been wearing my last pair of sneakers well through three serious relationships, more or less). So, as you are probably wondering about the title of this entry, let me move on to the free massage I got on Thursday. I was told by a co-worker of a place that gave you free use of special motorized massage beds, and I was able to convince another to come with me to check this place out. Aside from the half infomercial/ half propaganda video they require new visitors to watch it turned out to be a pretty sweet deal. With the general goal of eventually convincing you to buy the $3000 beds, they allow you unlimited use of their demo beds.

They're called Migun, for some reason, and they utilize the theories behind a number of eastern treatments involving meridians and chi-flow, and apply pressure to certain areas around the spine to help all sorts of health issues. The bed has large jade stones that give off far IR radiation that stimulate certain pressure points to help circulate chi, and elevate respiratory activity. All in all it was at least as good as any massage chair I've every been in, and it's free forever. If one exists in your area, and I know there's one on Route 193, look into it. And with that I've upheld my end of the deal to "spread the word, if you can." I could. So I did.

Nintendo Devours my Soul.

So it's later, and I've officially dug myself out of the endless quicksand that time and again pulls me into a soulless stupor. I of course am referring to the effects of playing Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. As with the three precious games since the series delved into the third dimension, I have managed to cram more hours into playing it than working this week, which was easier since I happened to cut down my hours coincidentally in the same week that I finally got my hands on the Nintendo Wii. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the system, it's pretty much the most awesome thing ever, solely because it utilizes concepts that have been around for years, and manages to make a controller that practically reads your motion in real-space, so when you swing the Wii-mote for example, you swing your character's tennis racket. It's quite a simple concept really. See, by moving the controller around you harness the power of sunspots to create a powerful beam of gamma radiation that changes the magnetic polarity of the quantum neutrino fields within your television thus creating the illusion of full on physical immersion.

Of course this has been proven to cause a few problems. But then not everyone immediately took to the atom bomb when they came out with that in the forties, but now everyone's got one. Moving back to my original point, I've been playing alot of videogames lately, and ignoring things like buying food. I'm seriously drinking Aloe Vera juice that I stole from the free bin at work for sustenance. Well not too seriously. Also I'd just like to take a moment to address just how insanely high the tax rate is in this state. I paid $24 in tax. That's more than I made working on Wednesday night, after income tax. And where's all this money going? To pay for Christmas lights.. everywhere (I'll have pictures eventually). So in conclusion, I paid alot of money because I was lucky enough to make it to Target in time to claim the last Wii, and I've more less become a faint shade of my former self, slowly dying of a lack of pretty much everything. But I need those heart pieces, and Hyrule isn't about to save itself.