Luis discovered a kick-ass (in my initial opinion) venue to host (at least part of it, since alcohol is not allowed) our upcoming (end of May) co-birthday party (how many parentheses can I use in a post?). Our birthdays are three days apart (he being the older one), and we've tried to make plans for co-parties in the past, but they typically fell through and we did our own separate parties.

I'd share the venue idea, but it's still in its infant stages. Plus, I want to see you guys have some fun and guess where we might have our co-birthday party. :) And I don't want to get your hopes up (not that you'd really get them up or anything...) But trust me, you'll never guess, nor would you EVER expect to have a birthday party in this venue. And, believe it or not, it seems pretty cost-effective (yes, you'd have to actually pay a "cover" charge to cover rental, but then you wouldn't have to buy me anything--like you were going to anyway).

But we shall see...often things look too good to be true anyway. We still need to see how much capacity is, and if there is a price escalator if more room is necessary.

PFW gave me more work. That is good. They'd like it by the end of the day Monday. So I'll have to crank on it, which is OK anyway, because I can't do anymore work for them after next week, and I'd like to squeeze as many of my hours in this week as possible in order to avoid going over my allocation for next week, in case that applies. If any of that made any sense to any of you. :)

So where do you think my party might be?

My sleep patterns have gone to hell in an Easter handbasket.

Although I was bored and should have gotten tired because of it yesterday, I didn't, and ended up going to sleep around 2am. That's great, except that I just unexplicably woke up at 7am and feel fully awake. So I'm eating breakfast now and will try to fall back asleep for a few more hours after that. I just don't get it. I know that I was sick and I know that my allergies kept me half awake most nights, but this is ridiculous. I also know that I haven't expended much energy in the past 24 hours, but that doesn't mean that I only need 5 hours of sleep. Stupid body. I wonder if the Claritin has anything to do with this (even though I'm now taking it in the morning), or if it's just repercussions from the allergies.

Ahhh...best thing I've watched all day.

"Is Wayne Brady gonna hafta choke a bitch?!"

Ahhh...

Whoever came up with that stupid line-dance commercial for Pepto Bismol really needs to be fired. It's terribly stupid and annoying.

I did mostly nothing today, except for a few hours of editing for PFW. But otherwise, I'm pretty bored. That kinda sucks. I was watching TV and probably will continue to do so. Yay.

Although I don't really watch either show anymore, I wouldn't be surprised in the least if Baseball Tonight or SportsCenter opened with something about Major League Baseball being in Bizarro World or something, because the Devil Rays, Tigers and Brewers all are atop their division, just to be funny but to fail miserably. I hate ESPN.

Tonight, "24" was solid once again. More setup stuff than anything, I presume.

Afterward, Gina and I went to swing dance, because we need the practice. And it's amazing what a little practice will do. I feel better and more comfortable, ya know? And that's how it's supposed to be.

Ah well...I have some time to kill before going to bed...maybe I'll read. Who knows? :)

I finally fell back asleep, and I was just awakened by the Hispanic dude who is hanging around next door--he comes into the gangway and whistles at a high pitch to signal the girl that lives there. So he whistled, and that woke me up, of course. Anyway, I was then subjected to the most ghetto-ass conversation I've heard in a long time...it was funny but stupid at the same time...I'm sitting there thinking, did you just even make a sentence? Plus, they switched between English and Spanish every now and then. They talked about the girl not going to school anymore, and the dude talked about going over somewhere to spark up, and she was like, "Why you gotta go all the way over there for that?" Whatever...just thought I'd share some of the color of this neighborhood. It was also kind of sad at the same time...in a weird sort of way. Two days ago, these two were just sitting in the yard. Yesterday, they were standing out in front of the house. I don't know where they'll be today, but they'll be out somewhere, because the guy kept saying, "It's damn hot out, man!"

I feel better this morning than I have the last couple of days. That's good. The Claritin D is supposed to clear up congestion too, and I think it's working. My coughs are looser and my nose isn't as clogged. Also, my head doesn't feel as though it's full of crap. Too bad I have to wait until tomorrow morning to take another one, since I'm not gonna take it before bedtime again.

Honestly, I don't mind having a cold or allergies all that much. It's become a way of life for me, more or less. It's typically something I just deal with when it comes around. I know I can't go a whole year without one hay fever attack, so when it hits, I deal and that's that.

But what I hate is when illness interferes with and screws up my daily functioning. I went to bed just after midnight last night. But, because the past few days I've been unable to sleep and I "slept" most of the day yesterday because I was so dead-tired, my sleeping patterns are all messed up. I woke up at 5am, and have wavered between different states of sleep and wake since. I wondered too, if the fact that the Claritin D is "non-drowsy," if that's affecting me. So I'll be switching now and taking it in the morning after I wake up from now on, I guess.

Now I'm hungry, but I don't want to eat, because that will only verify to my body that it should wake up at this early hour. I tried reading, which usually tires me out, but I didn't tire quickly enough. Even Kazak came into my room, because my light was on, around 6am, and gave me this look, with his ears up and his tail pensively wagging, as if to say, "WTF? Why are you up? Are we going out?"(Thus the pensive tail wagging.) He then lay down on my bedroom floor, no doubt waiting for a clue as to what was going on.

So I thought maybe I'll blog some...that might tire me out.

Today, "24" is on, and Luis is coming by, planning to grill. That means I need to change the propane tank on my gas grill--take the empty off and put the full one on. Shouldn't be too terrible a chore, I hope. Then, Gina and I will head to the dance studio for the open dance event they host every Tuesday. We simply need to practice more, and that will help a lot. Especially now that we've got this great big arsenal of moves--otherwise, we'll forget some of them.

Ah well...I don't feel significantly any more tired, but I'm gonna head back to the bed and see if I don't fall asleep somehow.

After eating my leftovers from yesterday's dinner with Gina's parents and taking advantage of the jacuzzi feature of our bathtub, I felt energized enough to go to swing class. It went pretty well, although I wondered why we weren't learning more this time around...we kinda focused on reviewing last week's stuff too long, I thought. But hey, whatever works.

We headed across the street to the lofts of two couples we've kind of gone through the classes with who have become friends of ours, more or less. One of the couples is in their mid-30s, but like Gina, look much younger than they really are. The other couple is closer to my age. But they have nice loft condos. Very nice places, no doubt about it.

So now I'm gonna just kind of wing it until I get truly tired enough to head to bed. Gotta take the Claritin before going to bed though. :) I'm feeling drained again, but not as bad as earlier.

I'm just completely drained...I just slept some more...and just got up, and I just want to go back to sleep again. My head feels funny and my body is totally sore. Basically, the cold is in remission, and today is recuperate day for my body. Of course, I'm supposed to have swing class tonight...and it's not something that's good to miss. So we'll see. Meanwhile, poor Kazak is sitting here, waiting and waiting to go out. I'm trying to convince him that it will happen soon, but ugh. I'll probably let him out after I'm done typing this.

I wanted to ask everyone, by the way: Does anyone know anything about Grand Rapids, Michigan, other than it's on the other side of Lake Michigan and it is the home of the Grand Rapids Arena Football team? Gina and I were thinking of taking a day trip there after Easter, since we can't go far (assuming I don't get a job that starts then) because of my part-time gig. They're having some butterfly show at the city gardens or whatever that looks interesting. Have any of you been there before? Any tips?

Well, I caved. I went out and bought Claritin D yesterday, so now I have to take this stupid pill every damn day of the allergy season (which, for me, isn't really defined too clearly sometimes) if I don't want to get my allergies like I just did. I didn't want to do that because I don't like the idea of taking a pill every day. What if they take it off the market someday? Then my body will have weakened and won't be able to fight the allergies itself, and I'll be screwed. It's like teaching my body bad habits...oh, you can't do it yourself quickly enough, that's OK, here's a pill to help. Now you can focus on other things.

Yesterday was the pinnacle--I was sneezing all day long, my nose was running and I felt relatively floaty. I took Nyquil (cap form, the liquid sucks) before going to bed, and that ravaged me, but I slept well. I still feel drowsy and may go back to bed, honestly. I just had a bowl of Golden Grahams and didn't take a lick of them, my system's so screwed up.

So I'll start taking the Claritin today, and although that won't help me in the right now, it'll prevent the future, supposedly. And it ain't cheap, that's for sure. But, as long as it works, I guess I'll live.

Man, I think I'd rather be full-on sick. Right now, I'm sitting here at Gina's, waiting for her to get ready for church. Today being Palm Sunday, church is going to be long and arduous. Arduous because I'm dead tired (I didn't sleep well again, because of these allergies and the psuedo-cold I have) and I'm all stuffed up. And of course, today is the longest Sunday Mass of the year, typically. But really, I'm not sick enough to not go to church. I hate being a good boy.

Yesterday I fought through this sickness to attend Gina's cousin's retirement party (an older cousin, obviously). It was a good time, but would have been better had I felt better. Ah well...it was obviously worth going to, because it was cool.

Well, off to church now...catch ya later...