In For The Long Haul

Patience. That single word sums up my entire knowledge of and dating of Autumn Carlisle. What started (in 2004) as an insecure boy with a crush on a girl who was WAY out of his league, has now miraculously morphed and matured into something unfathomable by said black hair dyed, girl pant, emo band t-shirt wearing, poem writing, hopeless romantic dork four years ago.

I tried for two years to get Autie to like me. I wrote her letters, made her CD's, and became that close guy friend who was fun to hang out with but wasn't THE guy. I slowly came to the realization that our friendship was nothing ordinary. To make a long story short (and if you really know us, you know the story), to my utter bewilderment I asked Autie to be my girlfriend one last time in August of 2006. She nodded her head up and down. Thus began our romance...

We spent 11 months in the same town slowly working on our new relationship, and in July we both had to move. Her to San Francisco to study fashion design, and me to San Luis Obispo to further my education in English and following the idea to resurrect an old band with two of the original members. So since July of '07, Autie and I have been doing the long distance relationship.

In the past few months, things had gotten to a point in my head where I had decided that I really wanted to ask this girl to marry me. I was tired of being lonely in a town where I had few close friends, no music (it didn't work out), and no exciting perceivable future. Over the course of a few months I saved up money and made contacts with the people I'd need to in order to pull off my proposal.

This last week, I had told Autie I might be able to come visit her due to the President's day weekend. This excited her greatly. On Friday (horrible, I know), I told her I just couldn't make it due to my money situation. This saddened her greatly. Throughout the week, she started cracking and Friday night expressed her despair to me (while I lay in the guest room bed at my Mother's house in the East Bay ready to surprise her the next morning).

While Autie cried on the phone to me, I tried my hardest to sympathize and act just as sad. With all of me, I wanted to tell her I was just a few miles away and that I'd see her in the morning, but I held my ground, told her I'd call her in the morning, and that we would spend a nice Saturday (with free phone minutes) talking.

At 4:45am on February 16th, I woke up ready to show her I was only kidding. I dressed in some nice clothes and took the BART to the bus to her apartment. I had conspired with one of her roommates to let me in. At 7:30am, I quietly walked into her apartment and set down my backpack. Now, her door and door casing are made of metal, so they're not the quietest. I peeked my head in the door and Autie awoke (stupid loud doors). All I heard was a gasp followed by a "what....what are you doing here?"

I walked through the door and set down some orange lily's on her pillow. I gave her a huge hug while she sat up on her bed. She was very warm while all the walking and waiting for public transit had made me very cold. I said I had brought her some flowers and......something else.

I dropped to one knee and the rest is history.

The girl who was WAY out of my league is now going to be my wife. I'm no longer a confused boy with the wrong gender pants, wrong color hair, wrong taste in music, and wrong use of words. I now can grow a big beard, wear pants that fit, like music that doesn't suck, and use a less depressing vocabulary. Oh, and I am engaged to my best friend. One who compliments, challenges, and surprises me physically, emotionally, and spiritually. I am the luckiest guy....seriously.

Thank you Lord.

Apexing

Lately I have been feeling very responsible. I have been working 5 days a week, intermittently going to school, and staying up on my studies. At least I thought I was doing well...

I'm taking this math class online. I didn't know it was on-line when I signed up, and kind of regret it now. I've never been good with math so it really helps to have a human there to keep going over problems and showing handy shortcuts to me. This online math program is good, but it makes everything much more complicated than it really should be. This doesn't help me muster up a pat on the back for math.

You see, there was an "add/drop period" when the program worked just fine and no hassle was issued. The other day, I logged on to do some work and the program said I needed to input a serial number to keep using the software, since the "add/drop" period had concluded. My instructor sent out an email warning us of this atrocity and that we'd have to buy a $100 code from the campus bookstore! (except if we were in math 21 or 22). I sometimes have trouble keeping which number of math I'm in straight. I am no good with math. So I thought I was in the safe math that was tariff-free. WRONG!

Now I am close to 2 weeks behind in my math class because of this code bologna, AND have to pay $100 dollar for something I despise. It's like paying someone $100 dollars to punch out all my teeth.

With me keeping up on all my other school work and working my butt of throughout the week at work, I thought I was doing quite well. I was almost at the top of the mountain, but that guy I have to pay $100 dollars to punch my teeth out was waiting for me, and knocked me straight back down.

I'm slowly picking up my teeth and trying to recuperate. I have 2 little nuggets of wisdom for you:

1. Don't take math online if you suck at it in the first place.
2. If you do, watch out for that suckerpunch.

In The Least of Places

I know it's been a few weeks since I've last written anything here. I also know that few people look at this, so I don't feel so bad about slacking.

But I do have a funny thing to tell you about....

Last weekend, I was driving home from the Bay Area where I surprised my brother for his last weekend in California (and also surprised my girlfriend). About 10 miles from San Luis, the traffic drastically slowed down. There was a huge fire so the freeway had to chill out. A lot of the time I spent stopped, so I got to explore with my eyes more than usual.

There was this tour bus on my left and lots of guys taking leaks on the right. At one point, we were all stopped and I looked down at one of the back wheels of the bus and saw a white mouse climb out from the tire rim. A MOUSE.

That's weird.

Shadowboxing

I am convinced I have a doppleganger walking around San Luis, meeting important people, and ruining my first impression (although, of that last point I am not certain).

Let me back up:

Last week, I was at eating a burito outside this Mexican restaurant with my boss and co-worker and this guy (who knew my boss) came and sat down next to us. My comrades introduced me to this man, while his reply was something like, "Oh, yeah! I know you. We've met before."

Wrong. I had never seen that man previous to our brief encounter and quite possibly won't ever see him again.

That was the first time.

Today, Andrew (my co-worker) and I started work at a new house and we went up to the door to meet with the owner, you know, just to let him know what we were doing and to make sure everything was cool. We knocked on the door and the man who open the door was dressed as any successful business mogul should. Andrew introduced himself and as I was starting to introduce myself and offer my handskake, the man says, "Oh, I've met you before. Downtown."

Nope. Never seen this guy...EVER! This guy is the president of a bank in San Luis. Why would I have met him? How would I have met him?

Anyways, this brings me to the conclusion that I have a doppleganger walking around this town. I don't know what kind of impression he gives off, but it better be freakin cool.

Snow or Ash

Today at work, I got absolutely covered in fine primer dust. A word of caution: if you ever sand primer, don't try to clean yourself off until you are totally done. Make sure you have soap too.

I tried to wash some of the white dusting from my skin without soap, and the dust turned to a paper mache-like substance. If you've ever seen the movie, Powder, imagine that guy, but with a beard.

Half Full

I haven't been homesick once yet. Mabye it's because I've been ready to leave Mount Shasta for a long time or maybe I was just tired of living at home for my whole life. But being gone from my hometown has made me desprately miss something.

Habit.

I miss knowing people. I miss always having things to do with friends, even if it's just not really doing anything. I'm not acustomed to being just another face.

I guess that's my complaint about moving. It's expected and everyone deals with it, but it's a big change. I'm waiting for this phase to pass, so while I'm waiting (and trying), I'll keep writing.

Shortening

Last night the lights in our house went out. Everything else electrical works except for the lights, so at this hour, my house is pitch black and my roommates are asleep. I'm really tired too, but promised I'd write something every day no matter what was going on.

MY DAY:
Pizza
"They Live"
Jamba Juice (getting shortchanged)
Played music finally
Went to an amazing church (Calvary Shoreline)
Wished I was closer to Autie


I'll make up for this lack of information tomorrow. I work at 9am, I have a long day ahead of me.