The Langster

The rest of the bikes

Just a great picture of the current bike situation.

The Univega

I've been fixing up my bikes in hopeful anticipation of possibly riding with Blaise when he comes through Phoenix on his way to Aguila. I guess that I'll start early with him and then stay at some hotel with his pops and catch a ride home the next day. Here are pics of the now ready to ride Univega 10 speed.

What just happened? Or... Nella pt I

Nella and I had agreed to meet at Cartel this evening at 5pm. I arrived a little bit early, which my photo album from Havasupai, and my one pink rose. I sat there at the bar and struck up a conversation with this guy who does high interest loans for small businesses. We spoke for a little while and laughed about how he is some sort of modern loan shark. At some point, Nella arrived. I was pretty sure it was her from the corner of my eye, but could not be certain. She then interrupted and verified that it was her, so I ended my conversation with loan shark, paid for Nella's toddy, and my small latte, and sat at a table with her.

We spoke of a lot of different things. Most of it centered around science, and health, and the underlying philosophies guiding these things. She explained more about what she does now, and what she had done in the past. Her voice is less awkward in person than it was on the phone, but she still has a very teacherly voice. That is to say that she speaks slowly and over enunciates her words. This is, of course, the exact opposite of how I speak. Yin Yang, whatever. It was a nice conversation. Not life changing, by any means, but nice. There was no serious discernible spark, but I think that I may call her again anyways. I asked her if she was okay with me calling, and she said yeah, so we'll see.

Then, I was just chilling at Cartel sort of debriefing with Ashley (the barista), and I sat down at the bar next to this Indian dude (India, not Native American). Eventually, he was sucked in to our conversation, and ultimately I began to speak to him directly. His name is Tejaswi (tay-jhus-vee) or Te (tay) for short. Te is here from India, and studying some sort of Computer Sciences, but he has something to do with Biology, too. We spoke at length about the differences, or rather, the lack thereof, between America and India. He says that they are the same place. He is from Bangalore, which is somewhere in south India. We spoke about the amazing place that is Mumbai (formerly Bombay), and how Slumdog Millionaire actually captured it quite accurately. He explained the the people in the slums of Mumbai have been enticed to leave by the government, because they sit on very popular real estate. Te believes that they do not want to leave, even though they live in abject squalor, because if they leave, they become irrelevant. When they are on the important real estate, people care in some way about them, but as soon as they relocate to the outskirts, no one pays attention anymore, he thinks. He may be right. Te hates Arizona, because of the hicks, which I thought was funny. He was a cool cat, so I grabbed his number. I mean, I see him at Cartel often, but I'll probably call him up for a beer sometime.

While I was talking with Te, Elizabeth (neighbor girl who used to date Tree, and to whom I lent my ipod, which was subsequently lost) and her friend/roommate Ari came in. Ari is a very beautiful girl with an absolutely killer ass, and she was wearing a t-shirt material dress that very wonderfully accented this portion of her anatomy. Anywho, she was going to have a party tonight, so she invited Te and I to come. Te could not make it due to school and the such, but I figured why not? I mean, worst case scenario: I end up sleeping with Ari, right? That's what I thought.

Her directions actually included the words, "bring beer," so I did. Just a 12 of Miller Lite, which seemed silly when I first arrived. I got there around 10:30, and the true core of the party was there. It was a hippy party. Her friend Starlyn gave me a 30 second hug and a kiss on the cheek, and was just a cool nutball, and everyone else sort of fit in. Very happy free love types of people all drinking small microbrews. So my giant box of shit beer stood out, but I drank it anyways. Eventually, more and more people showed up, and it started to get weird so I left. Before that happened though, I sat in some living room area while this Matt guy played his various ethnic flutes. Chinese, Japanese, Irish, etc. He even brought a few didgeridoos. He was actually really good, and I enjoyed listening to him raga out. I told him about the elusive "listening night" and asked if he would like to come some time. He of course said YES to this, and I warned him that it would probably be a chant listening night, but he was unfazed by this. No worries. As long as he brings his rad flutes, Adam will love him. Adam's trip sounds amazing, I can't wait until he gets back so I can actually hear about it instead of read. I keep almost calling him to just say what's up, but then I remember that he is a broad. ha ha.

Hmm, oh and this drunk girl was flirting with me, but I would have felt bad so I didn't let it go anywhere. Tracy? Stacy? Tracy, I think. She was the first person to arrive with beer that wasn't all local and microbrewy, so we hit it off (she brought one of those hilarious personal pump keg things of coors light). On the way out, she was sad that I was leaving, and really wanted to run in to me again, but like I mentioned, she was drunk. So, I don't know, I just let that one slide. I probably will see her again anyways, so we'll see what happens then. Hmm, was a weird night. Fun, but weird. Oh, also, Starlyn let me bless myself with her personal incense blend. Good times. Adam, this was YOUR kind of party.


Oh, PS, I heard Mandala closed down? Lame.

Match Girl: Nella

Just to remind any of you who forgot, I've asked both Amburger and Lemon out now, and they've both retained their option to remain just friends with myself. No hard feelings, I sort of suspected as much would be the case (well, Amburger was a surprise, but I saw Lemon coming). So now I was kind of bored the other day, so I ran a little match.com search to see who was new and exciting and everything else. Interestingly, there were some fresh new faces to flex my fancy forward. In fact, one of these new faces was particularly interesting. We'll henceforth know her as Nella. The reason for this name reveals my creepiness, so we'll keep it an unpublished whisper for now. She's well educated (working on her PhD), and sort of old school about stuff, according to what I can glean from her profile. Well, anyways, I actually signed up for a month long account just so that I could email her, which I did. She responded positively, and now we've sent a few emails back and forth. She sounds very interesting, and is definitely intelligent. We have plans in two ways. First, she is going to call me some time tonight after work. Second, we're going to meet up for coffee at Cartel some time in the very near future (I can't be specific, or else there may be spies). I'll keep the one or two of you updated as things progress. I have hope for this one.

“Dum spiro, spero”

FML X 2

So Amburger is seeing someone.

I drunkenly asked Lemon if we were just friends, or if I could ask her out. She got mad at me, lol. Just friends is the answer.

Hmmm, suddenly, I have no prospects? Interesting. Hey random girl, beware!

Amburger LOL FML

Okay, just real quick one:

Asked Amburger out.
She's seeing someone, it's new, she hasn't told anyone yet.
FML.

Bar with Lemon, Louis, and Matt C tonight.

Amburger Continued

My apartment complex was going to shut off the water to the whole place this morning from 10am until like 12 or 1pm , so I took off and drove in to Phoenix. I knew that I would have some time to kill after going to my parents' house, so I texted Amburger since she lives near my parents' neighborhood, and asked if she would be up for some coffee. She indeed was up for some coffee, so we met up at Lux. We ended up hanging out there for like an hour and a half or two hours, just talking about a bunch of nonsense. She gave me a goofy little magnetic voodoo doll that she got for me in New Orleans on her latest road trip vacation thing. Cute. I almost asked her out on the spot, but decided to wait and ask Lemon, since I had previously decided that that would be the prudent thing to do. So now, I guess that I'm just waiting to see what happens with Lemon before I do anything with Amburger? I feel bad saying that, for some reason, but 'tis what 'tis.

Amburger

Okay, so let's throw her into the mix.

Amburger is Jen's (remember her?) friend. One of her best friends, apparently. I'd seen her at Cartel a whole bunch but never actually talked to her. One day, I was there with Adam, and she came in and we all started talking. She's super nice, and I told her that I could help her locate a glittery saddle for her bike that she wanted, so we exchanged numbers. Blah blah blah and one glittery saddle later, we're friends now.

I can't tell if I like her or not. I'm fairly sure that I do. She isn't really my normal type, in all honesty; it's a departure for me. She is very petite and sort of mousy, if I had to use a slightly derogatory descriptive. She rides her bike a whole lot, so she has that fixie girl body. In case you don't know what this is, it would be a girl who is very lean with narrow shoulders and hips, no butt, minimal bust, and a tendency to wear slip-ons or flat low tops, knee length shorts, and a t-shirt. She is totally nice, and fun to talk to, but I think that I want to see if I have any chance with Lemon first. Speaking of, hold on a second...

Lemon II

So, this girl, seriously. Alright? I mean, come on!!! This is like a 10,000 piece jigsaw puzzle that went through a house fire and then was doused by fire houses. Impossible to assemble. It is true that she seems to be open to hanging out often, although it is also true that I'm like her only friend in Phoenix other than her roommates, and even so, I may be the only native and, therefore a valuable asset in general. We DO get along preternaturally well, and she has admitted as much. She does outstanding and weird things like invite me to go camping with her and her family over the weekend in New Mexico. This seems like an obvious thing, but it becomes significantly less so when I mention that she also initially invited Louis (this happened when we three went to First Friday). I am worried about the things that are at risk here. I mean, if she ISN'T cool, and I spill guts, she'll never be able to be friends with me again, which I would hate. There are a few girls out there who can totally break your heart but then remain your friend. I don't know if she is one of these girls or not. When I first went to dinner with her and Marble and this other guy from training, she and Marble made a point of telling me how they hate it when they make a male friend, and that guy immediately thinks that they're interested, and gets all creepy with the texting and phone calling and stuff when they really just wanted to be his friend. I sort of took this as a warning. Co-workers tell me that this is overthinking it. I don't know. Opinions?

Lemon

I hung out with Lemon three times this weekend.

Friday: Beers and food at Rose and Crown, then First Friday
Sunday: Burgers and beer at my brother's house
Monday: Movie

Louis drove myself and Lemon to downtown for First Friday. We all walked over to Rose and Crown where we had some sandwiches and beer and stuff. Fun times. It turns out that Lemon lived for a little while in London and the pub by her house was called Rose and Crown. WEIRD. First Friday was fun, too. Not as many people as normal, and it sort of started to rain, which was nice. We checked out my brother's tattoo shop and ran into a bunch of random people that I've known from over the years.

On Sunday, my family was originally planning on having a barbecue at my cousin Kris' house, but we were informed that Kris crashed his Ducati in Cottonwood and had to cancel. He is fine, but had to go in to the hospital. Anyways, the original plan also was for Erin to come to the barbecue with me, but it looked like she wasn't going to make it back in time from Pinetop. Bearing this in mind, I called Lemon and asked her if she was hungry. She was. I asked if she would like to go to my brother's for a little grilling. She would. I picked her up about forty minutes later, and we hung out at my brother's house for a while. My cousin Jenny was around for a little bit too, but had to take off, leaving just Me, Lemon, David, and Rachel. Lemon just could NOT get over my brother's 210 pound Mastiff, Elden. Elden remained the focus of most conversation, although we also talked about a lot of other stuff. Then I took her home.

THEN, on Monday, I was really bored and just sitting around my house. I asked Erin if she wanted to go to a movie with me, and she said no. I texted Amburger (new girl, 1st mention) and asked her too, but she was busy. Now, see, I would have asked Lemon first, but I figured she was all tired of me by this point. However, at this point, I was so bored that I figured I'd take my chances (I also really wanted to see her again), so this text exchange occurred:

Me: "What're the chances that you're bored and NOT tired of my company yet? and wanting to see a movie..."
Lemon: "Lol! I couldn't tire of you. For goodness sakes, i was just writing you on facebook! Lol!"
Me: "Really? What to go see a movie tonight?"
Lemon: "Sure. I'm still doing meds, do you want to go in soon so i don't go too far?"
Me: "What? I can't make sense of that."


So then she drove over here to my apartment and I drove us to Camelview. I had these sweet free passes for Harkins, so I used them. Score. We saw Away We Go, which was excellent. It's Jim from The Office, and Maya Rudolph from SNL. Great movie, totally funny and slightly tear-jerking. Then we drove around a little, and I showed her those ridiculous waterfalls on the canal. Romantic? Who knows? I'd like to think that she's coming around to my way of thinking. That thinking which involves her dating me. We'll see though, I seriously cannot read her yet. I don't THINK she is interested, but I'm not convinced yet. Updates as they happen...

He's Back??

Roadrunner Fin

Just a quick heads up, I ended things with RR. More details later. Mothers,lock up your daughters.