Normally I don’t update my Xanga the very next day but this is a special case.  This birthday has been so freakin cool!  I don’t go announcing my birthdays and my family isn’t too big on birthdays so today means a lot to me that you guys would take notice.

After midnight, I started getting IMs from people out of nowhere.  Something that continued for the rest of the day.  I even got a couple of calls.  I must have told only like one person.  How this spread I won’t understand.  I slept through my morning classes cause I was thinking ‘it’s my birthday.’  Hahaha!   That was so bad.

Then Mike M. took me out to Subway which was a pleasant surprise when we barely knew each other.  Too bad I never got around to chilling with him before today.  Hrm… maybe I’ll be able to remedy that.  Who knows?

Anyway, later on I was expecting something cause Greg said he was gonna do something a couple of weeks ago.  I even saw signs that Greg might have been up to something today.  I was disappointed that nothing happened.  I was even telling myself that it’s nothing to get worked up over it.  A couple of minutes after that line of thought, I heard a knock on the door.  There was Greg and Crystal standing there with a chocolate cake!

            Leave it up to Greg to make it a mix of slight pain and happiness.  I was so happy that I didn’t know what to do with myself.  I was stuck between giving them a hug and stand there in dignified happiness.  Instead I ended up trying to tell them how happy I was.  Good thing too.  I don’t want to knock over the cake or anything.  How he got Crystal to come is still a surprise.  And if the cake wasn't enough, I got like tons of balloons.  We had to light the candles outside with the freezing winds.  Greg was stubborn enough to try to light all of them.  If Crystal hadn't helped, he would have burn his hand too badly to keep trying or melt all the candles.  Then we had to get forks and plates at the store cause they didn't bring any.  And then we returned and ate cake.  We had to cut it short since we all had things to do.  All in all, it was short and sweet.

            I just wanted to say that this had been an incredible day.  Thank you.  I was really touched. 

Well, it’s time for my latest update, which is the last day before turning 23 years old.  It just figures that I haven't gotten around to checking other people's Xangas.  Oddly, I feel like a have a bunch of high points.

My classes have gone well except for gender class.  I’m really struggling with it.  I’ve more written papers for this class than any other.  It’s not a friendly environment for believers and men but it’s too late to back down from class.

Let’s see.  Joey Lee and Paul had helped me greatly with the latest girl troubles.  I got myself into a mess.  No surprise there.  I just gotta say it felt good (talking... not getting into the mess).  I’ve been getting more closed as time goes by.  Partly cause I don’t want to sound whiny.  Well, at least I’ve overcome the worst of the hurdle.  And they weren’t the only ones I had one of those awesome talks with.

            Let’s see.  I watched 40 Year Old Virgin.  It was so cool to see the guy wait till his marriage.  Over at Sherman’s (I don’t even know if that’s how you spell her name) that same night, I must have stayed up past 4 just talking with Josh, Sherman (duh), Greg, Crystal, Paul, and a visiting friend of Sherman.  I love hanging out like that!  It was funny to see Paul fall asleep into the night.  I remember talking about dreams that night (it was most likely my fault) and Josh wanting to stop me from asking him to bring up more of his stories.  Who can blame me?  He has the best stories.

            The time was the weekend before Thanksgiving I hung out with Greg and Crystal again in another awesome long talks.  I never would have expected it.  All this time and me and Greg barely had those.  I always saw that we had somewhat similar personality types but he still ceases to surprise me.  And Crystal is a cool person to hang out with.  Talking with her is kinda like talking with Ben before we both got too stubborn to have a friendly argument.  Hrm, we need to both work on that I suppose.

            Getting back to that night, Crystal started talking about spoilers for Deathnote so I left the room.  I was feeling playful that night so I decided to play a little prank.  I dropped my shoe in the middle of the hallway and hopped over to the other side.  After they came looking for me, they found me shoe.

            “If he’s trying to scare us, I’m going to hurt him.” I heard Greg’s voice around the corner.

            After they continued in that direction, I snuck back into the room.  When they returned, I scared the crap out of them.  More Crystal than Greg but he was at least surprised.  Heheh.  That was evil.

You know what’s sad?  After getting along with two potentially good friends like Joey and Crystal, I might lose them and the rest of the good friends I have made because I’m graduating.  I’m going to try to keep in touch with them.  I’m going to try to keep in touch with the friends I had back in high school.  I’m going to try and I need them to try too.

            Then comes Thanksgiving.  My grandmother has been getting worse with her Alzheimer’s.  It’s heartbreaking every time I see how it affects her.  Slowly, I’m losing her.  And I get a bombshell dropped on me.  I’m offered to stay at the apartment.  Apparently, my family has been giving this some thought.  Either to stay there till I go to graduate school or if I decide to stay in the work force.  I love it in NYC.  I love my grandmother.  I hate being away from my friends.  It’s going to be a hard decision for me.

            Now I’m back up at school.  First day back and I already pulled an all-nighter… (sigh)

            Also chilled with Penelope for the first time in a while and played Soul Calibur 3 for the first time.  Both were fairly enjoyable.  Well, gotta go and do work.

Currently Listening Naruto: Original Soundtrack V.3 see related

Hrm… this will be my longest entry up to date.  Sorry.  I know most of you will just get annoyed and skim through this.  Can’t blame you for that.

            The AACF fall retreat was cool.  It’s was a good break from all the pressures of PSU and other junk.  There were a bunch of stories and quotes that I’d like to remember like ‘Love is not just an emotion.  It is also an act of the will.”  It was encouraging to see that the passion from AACF has not died out and the new people are ready to take the torch.  I even made a short awkward speech about it.  I was surprised at how many encouragement notes I got this year.  Last time, I got like five but this time around, I got triple that.

            Now to cover the past month… classes… that pretty much covers it.  Nothing too eventful.  I’m starting to worry about getting into graduate.  I’ve been procrastinating far too long.

            I find it a bit hard to believe but I haven’t been on Xanga this whole time.  I mean, I usually check up on people’s entries on a weekly basis but I’ve been void of doing anything this past month.  If I didn’t write an entry about last retreat and people didn’t mention Xanga, I wouldn’t be doing this now.  There are tons of entries by others that I can’t possibly catch up on.

            I’ve given up on ‘Faraway.’  I’m still gonna write for it whenever I feel like it but it’s pretty much a lost cause.  On the other hand, I have finished a short story, ‘Friends First.’  I just gotta remember to put it up.

Two weekends ago turned out well.  Up until a month back, I would have thought Dan, one of my best friends would have visit that weekend for Halloween.  Plenty of eye candy.

            AACF was cool.  Alan led the large group.  Afterward, we did some outreaching, most didn’t get anywhere since nobody was really in the areas we tried.  Especially me since I tried only one person the whole time.  Greg and I played some Settlers of Catan.  He won 2 to 1.  It just figures that somebody I taught recently would be better than me.

            That Saturday night was cool.  It started out slow.  I left everything behind but the actual purchases to the last minute.  I was Sagara Sanosuke from Rouronin Kenshin.  I guilted my way into a party.  I was a bit embarrassed walking over to West in costume and even more when I waited as Crystal, Liz, Sharman (bah, can’t spell it) and Erin had to get changed.  When random people point and stare while you’re waiting for half an hour, it makes you pretty self conscious.  We went over to Liz’s boyfriend’s apartment.  Yep, I knew it was going to be awkward.  Introvert who doesn’t drink with not one person he really knows.  At least one person recognized my costume.

Which brings me to some advice I want to give.

Never tell a girl that her outfit makes her look fat.

              With that painful incident lesson learned, we went over to another party which we bailed cause it was too crowded.  Saw an incident with a drunk girl which I almost got involved in.  Another guy helped her so it saved me the trouble of doing it.  Greg came back from spending the day with his dad and invited us to a frat party which I missed out on cause me and Crystal procrastinated.  She’s surprisingly easy to talk to, proven as we talked till 5:30 in the morning.  Got myself a new friend, somebody who’s just as much into both anime and videogames as me.  Frightening, isn’t it?

            The rest of the week went through okay.  Tuesday turned out better than I originally expected.  I had a test which I felt I was totally unprepared for.  It ended up that I was only partially unprepared for it.  Heheh.

            The entry wasn’t posted last week was because I forgot that I never posted it.  Heheh.  Oh well.  Continuing on.  Last weekend was a blast if not exhausting.  I managed to convince Crystal to come to her very first Turning Point.  I hope she decides to come again.  We played at casino night with Greg and Andy, a friend of hers visiting.

Opps.  Now I’m just neglecting the other stuff of the weekend.  Friday night, I photocopied a bunch of pages from WLD which left big white blotches in my vision for a while.  Saturday night, I went to see some comedians with Greg and Kyle.  And Sunday night was another D&D that didn’t go anywhere.

Now I’ve got a ton of work and studying to do.  A Real Estate test and GRE Subject test next Saturday.