budget

i made a budget. it doesn't look very pretty. and i was not very honest with myself when it comes to my levels of frivolous spending. partly b/c i don't want to admit how much i eat/drink out and partly b/c i don't want to delv into my bank account to add it all up....fine. typing that makes me sound like i'm not taking this seriously. i'll do it. fine. geez. get off my back.


ok. that was just as bad as i expected. i need to eat out less. i'll have to stick to a number of times i go out during the week. i've tried this in the past, but never with any reason other than to spend less money. now that i'm needing to save money, it should be more important. once? twice a week? who knows. i'll try it this week. oops. i went out last night. no more of that then. great. this should be fun.

another added headache is my rigorous travel schedule. i don't know how to anticipate my travel line item. i have ultimate tournaments, family to see, Dynamo games (which i will never sacrifice) and lots of other crap to do. like this weekend, i'm going to Austin and i expect i'll spend 85 on gas. 50 on food and 15 on snacks/drinks for during the tournament. thankfully i'm staying with mom, but still, that is a lot of money right there.


in a few days my raise kicks in. sadly the fuzzy math factor will screw me out of what my math says i should be getting. instead of 400 bucks a month, it is only 266. fuck that. how about i don't even want insurance? i don't! i'd rather have the cash. bunch of scams is all my check stub looks like.

maybe i can sell my body. no! not like that! i mean liver, kidney, skin grafts.

at least i have my laptop paid off and working. oh.wait.

me + vegas = match

So I was in Vegas.

Here is how it went down:
Left after work for Dallas. Got there late. Had my dad come up to Plano where I was staying to get my laptop (his is broken).
Went to sleep.
Woke up at 4:45 to get to DFW airport.
Got on the plane and had to wait for a few hours on the plane due to mechanical problems.
Problems finally fixed. In the air.
Got to Vegas at 10ish.
Started out by checking into the Imperial Palace. I also stayed at the Flamingo (27th floor bitches!!!)Then we walked around. Then we ate some kick ass pizza at OShea’s.

Ok this list isn’t going to do “walking around” any justice. I’ll throw down some highlights and I guess it really doesn’t matter when they happened. My usual bed time was 4am. Wake up around 11ish on average. The first morning I had a hangover that made it hurt to look at things. Other than those few hours I felt like a million bucks. I didn't even lose much money.

Went to Lucky Chang’s drag show. It was so cool. I went with some people that I had met at the dueling piano bar the other night. I tried to take the people I went with back to Lucky Chang’s the next night but we didn’t make it until the last song. (Lame/not my fault)

Anyway, I was one of two guys at the first show. The ladies were hilarious and they sang great. They all had amazing costumes. Some did “sexy” dances and some did really funny ones. With lots of props. There were about 7 songs from pop to of course some Celine Dion. I thought it was obvious that they were all men, but they did look good. I wouldn’t want to be the drunk dude that hits on them.

After the show, I told Chi Chi here (<---) that we wanted to hang out with her and her girlfriends. She laughed (thinking I wasn’t serious) and said that she was going to a club that wouldn’t be able to get in. I told her I was serious and after a while she told Nick there (--->)to get us on the guest list to Krave. Yes. Krave did turn out to be a super gay bar. ½ naked dudes everywhere. Well, we went in and met some random people and drank expensive drinks until Chi Chi came. I think she told me everything you’d ever want to know about being a drag queen. I think she got pretty drunk. I bought everyone a round of appletinies and kept listening to Chi Chi’s crazy stories. So that was a fun night. Only in Vegas!

Insert some more walking around and playing random slots. Drinking either free booze or really expensive thimbles of booze. At one point, my friends all went to bed and I thought that was bogus, so I got my jacket on and walked over to the really expensive casino/hotels. At one point I found myself exploring the Bellagio. I came to a bunch of people guarding certain off limit parts of the casino so I talked with them and really enjoyed their views of Vegas and people in general. Also at the Bellagio I walked into a high rollers club called Prive. I walked in like I owned the place and watched rich people play baccarat. That was really fucking cool. I got free drinks like no body’s business as I watched these cats throw down 10k a hand like it was going out of style.

Vegas has weird issues with sex. There are handbills that have 99% naked girls on them with phone numbers and the list of credit cards accepted. These are handed out 24/7 on every inch of sidewalk. And a lot of bars/restaurants have ½ naked women serving food. “Hi my name is Brandi, I’m wearing a thong and I’ll take your order”. How weird is that. I felt like the locals must be devoid of any excitement. How good is your love life when being surrounded by sex has blunted any disgust or lust you might have had.

What else… Oh I saw Mac King do his magic and comedy routine. That was really cool. I didn’t want to see many shows, but it was free and hilarious. Really a top notch show in every way. Funny and impossibly magical to beat the band.

Whew. So much else happened. I really liked being there. If I go back I'll know exactly what to do and see and I'll go with people that are down to do those types of things. I’ll be more specific if anyone wants. But that is all that I can remember for now. I can’t wait to go back. Besides, what happens in Vegas…

I’ve decided to only post a few key events of the flight nightmare that we went through. I don't want to remember it again.
5 flights. All 5 very late. 2 canceled after being very late. A total of over 20 hours in airports, and an extra night in Vegas (which was after a beat down day at the airport). The airport in Vegas was seconds away from a lord of the flies situation. It is over and a day and a half later I was home and now I’m at work. Everyone has been kind enough to say how strung out and tired I look. Next time I go to Vegas I hope they say the same thing, but not because of getting shafted by the airline, but because it was Vegas.

well that worked out

whew. i am so fucking tired. if i wasn't getting 15 bucks an hour plus per diem, i would be sad boy. but i am! huzzah! and it really wasn't that hard. we only dug ~10 shovel tests today. but those fallow corn fields kept on a coming. walking for 9 hours isn't too hard, but walking over harsh terrain is different.

we found a really cool snake:
other than that we just came across some bullshit historic sites that i wasn't too thrilled about. sure- some guy had a house. then he turned it into a barn. then he bulldozed it over. great. i'm a lot closer to unlocking the inner workings of the human condition. i am much more interested in finding a burial mound and seeing what secrets it holds.





that picture sucks. there is no scale. ah there we go
that one is better. he ran away from us, so i didn't
get go get many good shots.

a good day all in all. i'm exhausted tired and i will be for a few more days. but hey- gotta make that paper.