A long and.. interesting weekend

Let me give you some background in what I expected this weekend to be like first and then tell you where things went from there.

The plan was... Kristen comes to Buffalo on Christmas Eve, stays through Saturday afternoon and goes about the time her dad's friend "Uncle" Mark leaves.
My work schedule was.. Working Christmas Eve until 6:30, Christmas off, Friday 5 - 10:30, Saturday 9 - 5:30 and Sunday 10 - 3.
So I expected to see Kristen Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and maybe Friday before work, but not Friday after work because I'd be tired and it'd be a strain on me.

Now let me tell you what happened.. ( behind this cut... )

Snuggles and much hugs to the one I love :)

2003 in Review

Wow, another year came and went. We laughed, we cried, we... yadda yadda.
This has been an interesting year. From the lows of NOT getting a job and NOT finishing my thesis on time to the highs of falling in love, being at my first marriage ceremony and getting three interviews for one company.

Let's look back at...

The Year In Review

• New York's Representative Charles Rangel introduced a bill to Congress to reinstitute the draft. Luckily, said bill never went anywhere. *fumes*


• I got a new computer, dubbed "Precious" (instead of "Birdhouse")


• I bought myself all seven seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation on DVD


• SARS hits Toronto. Neighboring areas (including Buffalo) cringe... and wait.


• I became a permanent member of Livejournal


• With the help of numerous sites and a book of Top 40s hits from 1955 to 2001, I came up with a fairly good set of 60s songs I like for my mp3 collection


• Fire breaks out in a nightclub in Rhode Island because of faulty pyrotechnics. 96 people die before ever reaching the door.


• The Columbia broke up on it's way back home.


• I bought a book on MySQL and PHP and created an mp3 database for myself.


• I saw Billy Joel and Elton John together in concert (officially we went with, but did not sit with dawnstar and kolys)


• North Korea steps up it's nuclear weapon program. Things look scary for a while, but eventually seem to settle down (or get drowned out by Iraq).


• The Congress, in one of their more stupid moments, decided to take French Fries off the menu and put Freedom Fries on instead. Idiots.


• Elizabeth Smart is finally found and brought home.


• Went back to Syracuse to be part of the Great Lakes Research Consortium Student Seminar series (giving my own presentation on my thesis). Again, I did not win...


• I bought The Sims Online, played it for a couple weeks and never looked at it again. God, was that an 'eh' idea.


• Bush declares war on Iraq. You know how well THAT has worked out so far.


• Jessica Lynch is "rescued".. well.. sorta.


• I buy myself a plog, trying to be "on the ground floor" of what seemed like a really good idea. Between the fact that my friends are all on LJ (including and especially Kristen) and... the fact that Plogs never really took off, I never really did much with that account.


• I DDR'd, and then went out and bought myself DDR Max! Yay! :D


• Get into Homestar Runner


• The front passenger tire of Josh's car comes off about a week and a half after getting Pep Boys to put new tires on. Josh and Dad were supposed to be suing Pep Boys, but as so far, 8 months later, they haven't.


• My mom gets a nasty secondary infection. So bad that she's stuck at home for three months before she "got over it", including having an IV drip in her arm for a month and a half


• I "graduate" once again from college, this time with my masters (well, I finished my classes, if not my thesis).


• Meet and fall in love with ecwoodburndork :)


• My cousin Jaime spends the entire summer finding ways to zing Josh. Josh, for his part, is a fairly good sport about it :)


• Go to see Weird Al in concert at Melody Fair.


• Meet the rest of the Brain. I can't say we're all fast friends, but I've definately become close to some of you :)


• I bought Chez Geek and Fluxx for myself.


• Mars gets the closest to Earth it's been in a long long while.


• Go to see They Might Be Giants at Thursday in the Square with various Rochester peoples. A bit short, but yay! :D


• Dork-A-Thon!! kareila, alierak, xb95, coderlemming, janinedog, dawnstar, kolys, kholnuu, trillain and ecwoodburn all show up to my house for Lasertron, Midnight Bowling and much gameage. Much fun was had :)


• Have a phone interview with Ecology and Environment Inc. Nothing comes of it.


• Fail to see Flogging Molly with Kristen because of stupidity on someone's part.


• Vice President Cheney is sued for fraudulent accounting. Nothing comes of it (yet?)


• Qusay and Uday Hussein are killed in a firefight in Iraq. Good Riddance.


• I go to Darien Lake with Kristen


• I get into the Ozy and Millie webcomic.


• Josh joins the Amherst Summer Theatre Production of "Sweet Charity". Josh did a good job, but I didn't really like the musical itself much.


• See Gallagher with Todd at Melody Fair. What a show!! :D


• Spend my birthday doing dinner with Kristen :)


• I got into Kings of Chaos (for a while, at least)


• The lights go out over most of the NorthEast for a few hours (up to a couple days for some people farther east than I)


• My mom gets a new car: a Saturn Ion


• I lose my virginity. Finally.


• Badgers! (No, it didn't affect my life profoundly, but... it's so.. amusing!)


• The Bills begin a thoroughly disheartening 6-10 season.. by kicking the New England Patrot's asses. Sadly, things went downhill from there.


• I get into a fight with hbbtrbbtbcnbt over a misunderstanding over an angry 9/11 post. The fight is resolved a few days later.


• Hurricane Isabel strikes the east coast, causing chaos and destruction, but failing to stop me from going to Rochester as I'd hope to see Kristen :)


• Went to see Carbon Leaf with Kristen, Dawn and Oli. I can't say I enjoyed the concert, but I went.


• Kristen starts her job with EDS.


• Something... stressful happens in Dawn and Oli's life. At this point, if you don't know about it, don't worry about it.


• I buy Walking with Dinosaurs and Walking with Prehistoric Beasts on DVD. Nifty specials. Also, Dinosaurs are just cool! :D


• Arnold Schwarzaneggar becomes governor of California after a circus of a recall election for ex-governor Gray Davis.


• Got all worked up over a random email from someone wanting to know about a girl named Marci I used to know. Nothing came of it and I'm not going to get involved anymore.


• Weston and Sampson invite me to Boston for an interview. Nothing comes of this one either, except getting to see Boston dorks :D


• Dawn and Oli get married! :D


• I try out iTunes and instantly fall in love with them. I now have TWO ways to go about finding my music... iTunes and my PHP database.


• Kristen and I have a big fight. The biggest fight ever. One that took three people and about a week to get over.


• I interview with Jacques Whitford... twice on the phone and one expected early in January. *hopehopehopityhope*


• I fail to go see Barenaked Ladies in Rochester due to nasty weather :/


• MP3.com, a site I used to put my music on, calls it quits.


• See The Buffalo Chips.. twice! Once with Kristen and once without.


• The money runs out on my thesis. This sends me into a downward spiral of depression and anxiety which I'm still trying to stay afloat of.


• My mom, in her semi-infinite coolness, gives me Two Towers extended and West Wing Season 1 for Hannukah :D


• Kristen, in her semi-infinite coolness, gives me Spots, a leopard from the Build-a-Bear Workshop.


• Spend Thanksgiving at both grandma's house and Kristen's house. I was stuffed more than the turkey afterwards.


• I get a job (hopefully temporary) working at Bed, Bath and Beyond. It's not glamorous and sometimes I really hate the job, but it's money.


• The US (maybe? Perhaps the Kurds instead) captures Saddam Hussein. Don't know what good that'll do them, as I doubt he knows anything, but...we'll see.


• My computer nearly goes and I take this as the clue to go on a massive burnfest of all the MP3s I don't currently own on CD.


• Video games of the year include SimCity 4 (with Rush Hour expansion pack), Dance Dance Revolution Max (1 AND 2), Zoo Tycoon Complete Collection


• Instead of giving you a quick list of the music I got into, I thought this year, I would just create a playlist, a cross-section of the sorts of stuff I probably got into. I present to y'all my 2003 25, said cross-section... As you can tell, there's some TMBG, some new Weird Al and BnL, some new Hard Rock, some music from Kristen, some stuff I got from other dorks and stuff I found for myself, some DDR stuff, Some 60s stuff... just a large variety of music
  
  
  
  1. They Might Be Giants - Wearing a Raincoat
  
  
  2. Weird Al Yankovic - Hardware Store
  
  
  3. Barenaked Ladies - Celebrity
  
  
  4. Coldplay - Clocks
  
  
  5. Evanesence - Bring Me To Life
  
  
  6. Amanda Marshall - Love Lift Me
  
  
  7. Blue Rodeo - Head Over Heels
  
  
  8. The Tea Party - Paint It Black
  
  
  9. Sister Hazel - Champagne High
  
  
  10. Freezepop - Freezepop Forever
  
  
  11. The Dandy Warhols - Scientist
  
  
  12. Linkin Park - Faint
  
  
  13. The Lords of the Rhymes - Nine-Fingered Frodo
  
  
  14. Neon Genesis Evangelion - Armageddon
  
  
  15. School of Rock Soundtrack - School of Rock
  
  
  16. Capitol Steps - Talk 'bout Saddam
  
  
  17. Bob Rivers - Goodbye Saddam
  
  
  18. Mr. Ed Jumps The Gun - Smoke
  
  
  19. Bus Stop - Long Train Runnin'
  
  
  20. Happy Tai - Yatta!
  
  
  21. Carbon Leaf - The Boxer
  
  
  22. Captain Tractor - Drunken Sailor
  
  
  23. Jefferson Airplane - Somebody To Love
  
  
  24. The Box Tops - The Letter
  
  
  25. Vertical Horizon - We Are