Women Were Nice Before Men Were Like, 'Garrrr'

('I am the penis')

This quote from Martin (which sent me into tears) is just one of the many great things that happened over this weekend blog break.

I ate dinner with Martin at Eat N' Park Friday night and had one of the great conversations of my life. It was about the nature of faith, the existence of God, and the roles of religion. And I can honestly say, for 20 minutes, I was okay. Okay with life, with dying, with reality. Really, truly, okay.
It's something everyone should feel once in their life.

I also got to eat dinner with Martin and Luke at once late on Saturday, which turned into a Burnout 3 tournament in my apartment that ended at 5 AM. What total insanity. It was an absolute blast, however, and it was great getting the chance to see Luke again. We related to so many things - to Final Fantasy, to video games, to classes, and to Family Guy. Woo! What a blast.

Then on Sunday, I ate lunch with my cousin Claire and her boyfriend Josh, which was an incredible amount of fun again. As I've said many times, I have the greatest family in the world, nuclear and extended. Claire is one of those insanely cool people that really is just short of being too cool for their own good. She sings in a band, has a degree in teaching and music and isn't going to work in either, loves the Terminator trilogy to death and is as energetic and naturally happy as I am (granted, we're half the same blood). She answered her cell phone in the restaurant and I harrassed her about it mercilessly, which was also a blast. And to top it all off, it was the Olive Garden. Breadsticks. Mmmmmmmm.
And to continue the family vibe, Mike came over and we hung out for a few hours. I think it's a real blast to get to see him because he's growing up to be a really good guy. It even looks like his grades - he has nothing lower than a B - are coming up, which is great as he has all the ability in the world but tends to slack off a bit academically because of it. (Like I don't know what that is like.) If he keeps working hard in school, he's going to be well on his way to putting it all together. And we had a blast, playing FF9, going for a walk around the complex and stopping at McDonalds on the way back. It was a ton of fun. We're also close to beating FF9 - we're in Memoria - so he's excited to see the ending. So am I. It's a great game.

I continue to try and write to get chapters out to friends. I now owe Martin Ch.1 and Margaret Ch.2. A call from Julie, who's at a teacher conference for two days, really cut into my available time, something I was less than happy about. Ah well. I am encouraged to write profusely, something I'll be doing when I finally get out of work tonight.

Still, in general, a great weekend. My medication is really helping, the weather is better, and I'm healthy and active again for the first time in too long. Dodgeball doubleheader tomorrow. Life is good! At least for today... and since today is all you can control, I'll take it!
And I'll take tomorrow when it comes. :)