Well, I'm back from my vacation, and I've a lot to talk about.  But let's recap, shall we?  If you remember, I was saying how nervous I'd be to meet Stephanie...well, nervous I was.  I got about 2 and 1/2 hours sleep Monday night before the drive up.  Waking up at 6:00 AM was not fun, let me let you!  Physically, the drive up wasn't nearly as bad as I thought.  I only stopped once to stretch my legs (and calm my nerves!).  I finally arrived at Howe's Caverns at about 12:30, and stepped in the door to meet her.  I can say, as beautiful as her photos are, they have nothing on real life!  After about five minutes of awkwardness, everything was better then fine.  The next five days were the longest, and shortest of my life (I know that doesn't make much sense, but try living it).  Stephanie, Jennifer and I spend a day up there, the next in Nyack, NY where we bummed around the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, and the next three outside of Binghamton, where we hung out with Jen and Frank, helped out setting up for the reception, and witnessed a beautiful wedding. :)  It was, by far, the greatest, happiest time I've had in a long time.  So why do I feel so bad?...

I guess it's because Saturday night/Sunday morning was the worst I've ever felt.  Tears were shed, kisses exchanged, and hearts were broken.  Watching her leave early Sunday was the most difficult thing I've had to do.  If not for the massive amount of luggage, I'd have snuck in Jennifer's trunk.  I've finally met as close to the "perfect" woman as possible, and it's my luck that she lives hundreds of miles away.  It could be worse, I suppose.  As Stephanie says, we've so much in common, that the distance is something that is manageable.  I'll be going down to visit her at the end of April, and I'm counting the days as we speak...

Thanks this time go out to Jennifer (I promise I'll be more comfortable, and talk more next time), Jen and Frank (Sorry about the dance, pal ;), and the entire Akins family, for making me so welcome during my stay.  Last, but not least by far, is Stephanie.  Thank you so much for making my life better in every way possible, for letting me love you, and for loving me in return. :)

March 27, 2000 - "Band Bash...game on!!"

I just spoke to Scott this afternoon.  He's back from Germany, where his school choir spent Spring Break singing.  For a while, it seemed like this year's "Band Bash" up at Concordia wasn't going to happen for us.  Well, everyone has their shit together, and we're going to give it a go!  I've been to the last two, and it's a great time...music, alcohol, and relaxing in the sun.  What more do you need? ;)  Anyway, here's the setlist for "BB 2K":

Dream Theater - "Speak to Me", "Lifting Shadows Off A Dream"
Dave Matthews Band - "Don't Drink the Water"
Type O Negative - "Black Number One"
Rush - "Red Barachetta"
Ozzy Osborne - "No More Tears"

In other news, Stephanie and I have "come out of the closet" (so to speak), in the place where we first met.  Click here (dead link) to read our post in "The Forum" at Mike Portnoy.com.  My thanks to everyone for their well-wishes and support.  It's quite strange, I'm not used to smiling all the time. ;)

April 5, 2000 -"Well, this is fun"

I knew this was going to happen.  It happened two years ago, when I had my back surgery, and it was the most nerve wracking, torturous experience.  I was hoping it wouldn't happen again.  I tried to plan things.  But no, it snuck up on me!  You're wondering what in the hell I'm talking about?

Boredom.

Having nothing to do at all is the worst possible thing in life.  There's not a thing more mind-numbing then walking up every day with no specific plan, no course of action.  Sleeping in looses its appeal after a month or so, and there are only so many movies you can watch, and websites you can visit.  Each day, dragging on into the next, with no end in sight...good lord, now I'm depressing myself! ;)

To a degree, I jest.  The end is in sight for me.  Jen's wedding was a VERY important milestone, in more ways then I can count. ;)  I have a trip down to Stephanie for a long weekend at the end of this month, which I'm looking forward to like you can't believe.  After that, it's "Band Bash" up at Concordia, and then off to school for a few classes over the summer.  I also always have Stephanie to bitch to every day (and who I must thank now, for the constant ear and support.  I don't know what my life would be like without you, and I don't want to imagine it.)

May 3, 2000 - "A month of musings in one post"

First off...it's not my fault!  I've been wanting to post for the longest time, but a problem with IE wasn't allowing me to access Pagebuilder.  I finally swallowed my pride and downloaded Netscape, so things will now proceed to a more regular basis.

Some interesting things have come up in the last few weeks, so let's sum up.  On April 22nd, I went into "Ian London Studios" with Adam and Evan to record the Stennar songs "Still Want" and "Do Something."  It was a great session in a high class studio (multiple Gold and Platinum albums) with professional equipment.  Although some tech. problems caused "Branches" to remain unrecorded, the session went well.  We're mixing on the 20th of this month, and if things go well, maybe I'll have a track available to download on this site.

Evan had his knee surgery the next day.  He was in and out of the operating room with a half hour, and out of the hospital the next day.  We're all thinking of you during the recovery, and hope to see you behind the kit real soon, you crazy-ass monkey you! :)

And now for the happiest moment from the last few month...I just got back from visiting Stephanie in Lexington, Kentucky!!  Let me tell you, she is worth the 24 hour bus trip and then some.  It was a great five days down south.  Some of the highlights of the trip include;

- A tour of Transy University
- The chance to see the "Transylvania Singers"
- Eating in the cafeteria (Sweet, sweet corn dogs ;)
- Finally seeing "Head," the Monkees' only feature film on video, and "Sleepy Hollow" at the dollar theater
- the honor of being Stephanie's date to the "T-Day" ball.

There are many more, but I'll save them my next post.  All I have to say for now is that I'm the happiest I've even been when I'm with her.  Stephanie, I love you.  More to come later...

May 5, 2000 - "The Transy Scoop - part 1"

Since all of you have been asking, here's the rundown of my trip down south (Actually, no one has asked, but I like to talk a great deal. ;)

First things first...there are more convenient methods of travel then Greyhound.  I left LI at 1:20 pm on Wednesday, and didn't arrive in Lexington until 2:10 pm on Thursday.  It's pretty much impossible to sleep, and get a decent meal when you travel...but, on the positive side, I got to see many exciting bus depots! :P*  Although sleep deprived and hungry, I pretty much jumped off the bus and ran inside, and there Stephanie was.  Just being able to view her with my own eyes made the lack of sleep, hunger, and soreness from the bus worthwhile.  After a hug and kiss the seemed to last hours, we gathered up my bag, and headed to Transy so Stephanie and Jennifer could make it to choir practice on time.  After dropping me off in her room, Stephanie ran to practice while I fell into a coma for an hour (Hey, I was tired!).  Once she got back, we cuddled while watching "Liquid Drum Theater," Mike Portnoy's instructional video (God, I love this woman!).  For dinner, we headed over to the cafeteria, where I got to finally eat the food Stephanie's bitched to me about for months...it wasn't that bad, honestly. ;)  From there, we went on a tour of the campus.  Let's be honest, NCC is a good school, but unless you like concrete, it's lacking in beauty.  Transy has no such problem.  It's a small school while a good deal of history behind it (founded in 1780), and you can see it in the architecture.  Then it was back to the room to get some "Head"...I'm talking about the Monkee's feature film, you sick people. ;)  It's an interesting film, not at all like the TV show, and a product of the 60's for sure.  From there, we met up with Jennifer again, and headed out to the dollar theater for a showing of "Sleepy Hollow," which I missed when it came out.  Tim Burton's visuals are not to be missed.  Finally, after a day and a half without sleep, it was back to Stephanie's room for sleep...

May 12, 2000 - "The Transy Scoop - part 2"

Let's see, where were we?  Okay, Friday in Kentucky...Stephanie had to wake up at 8:20 for French, while I got to sleep in for a few hours (Give me a break, I didn't sleep on the bus! ;).  I woke up at around 11:00, got dressed, and we joined Jennifer for lunch at "The Raff".  After, it was back to the Stephanie's to pick up my things for the ride over to my hotel room.  After a very nice, but quick shower (I was a very greasy monkey, having last showered at home.), we went back to Transy to watch "Mary Reilly" curled up in Stephanie's arms...that, folks, is my idea of heaven. :)  Once the movie was done, it was time to get dressed up...no wedding this time.  I got to view Stephanie as part of "The Transylvania Singers" for part of the alumni weekend concert.  Let me let you, no matter what she says, Stephanie has a lovely voice.  However, after was when problems started...

With Jennifer, our lovely valet having dinner with her family, we had no choice but to call a cab so that I could take Stephanie out to dinner.  We called the cab company, and waited outside, as it was a beautiful night,  45 minutes later, it was pretty safe to say no cab was coming.  So, we trudged back up to Stephanie's dorm room, where we had a pizza delivered...and people say I'm not romantic.  I'd like to take this opportunity to say to Stephanie, "I know it wasn't my fault, but I'm sorry.  I will take you out for a romantic dinner, I promise".  After that, it was off to my hotel room for some much needed....sleep. (You think I'm going to tell you *everything* that went on?!? ;)

February 15, 2001 - "A Final Thought..."

Well, after almost a year-and-a-half (minus about eight months of little to no work on my site) of spilling my thoughts out to everyone on the Internet, I've made the decision to end it here.  I could give the standard excuses of lack of time (while I am busier then usual now that I'm down here at Transy) or lack of money (my status as "po' college student" has nothing to do with geocities, a free site) or any other number of reasons, it come down to one simple fact - I don't think I need it anymore.

This forum has been a tremendous help in settling some issues I had, both internal and external.  It allowed me to work out feelings I have in an public, yet non-public setting (ah, the wonders of the internet ;)  While I still have some issues to deal with, (who doesn't?) I think that I'm at the point where posting my somewhat daily thoughts isn't the help it once was.  I wouldn't consider myself a "jaded personality" anymore...how does "somewhat jaded" sound? :)

I'm not sure where this will go from here.  I still like the idea of posting snippets of my life here, so the "online diary" idea will continue in some form - under a different name, however.  "Musings of a Jaded Personality" represents a specific point in my life, and I'd like to start anew.  I'll keep these pages up for the life of my site, though - these words are an important part of my development as a person, and I don't like the idea of revisionist history.  I'm working on some cool ideas for the next level of "Ian's Average Webpage," so don't abandon me just yet.

....and thanks for letting me ramble.

Ian