32 and holding...

It still sounds weird when I say it outloud... I am Thirty-Two now... When I was younger never pictured what I would be like at this age... I was so scared of my Thirties that I wouldn't think about it at all (As if that would keep it from happening). Of course they did come and now I am two years into my Thirties. I must say that I feel like my shit is more together now and I just feel more grounded than my Twenties and now that I think about it, I soo would not want to go back to my Twenties (This may change when forty approaches)...

Anyway... For my Thirty-second birthday I decided to go visit Tony in Chicago. He moved to Chicago from Tampa the day after I moved from Nashville to New Orleans. As crazy as it sounds I decided to drive instead of fly because I had to visit my mom in Southern Illinois anyway. The downfall was not being able to split the trip home up. I had to drive all the way from Chicago to New Orleans in one day. I must say that I will NEVER do that again in my life but it was worth the trip.

I got to moms around 10pmish on Christmas Eve. We pretty much sat around and ate and played games for two days. It was good to have down time with my family and not have to worry about having a lot to do. My mom seemed to like it that way and thought we should make a tradition of being low key for Christmas. I am definitely OK with that...

So I left moms house Friday December 26th and headed up toward Chicago. I met Tony in Champagne and we rode the rest of the way up together. It was a good visit. We went to a local Beer Brewery/Pub to eat the first night. I had a Saturday Birthday this year which was great! We started off the day with Pizza at Lou Malnattis then some shopping on the mile. The weather was warm (Around 60 degrees) but it was raining. That kind of sucked but I didn't let it get me down. Besides... Kenneth Cole had a 70% off shoe sale on all of their men's shoes. It was worth it. :-)

After shopping we went back to Tony's house and chilled before Keith and another friend of Tony's showed up (Mike). I ended up being very attracted to Mike. He was not normally my type but I was very interested in him. Anywho... We went to Sidetracks where Keith (evil evil Man) introduced me to a new drink choice... Something I have thought about before but never ordered. A Cosmo on the rocks. Now my new fav drink. :-) Of course I got a little more than tipsy but didn't do anything bad or embarrassing. YAY!!! lol.

We left Sidetracks and Keith went to Steamworks. "Let's call a spade a spade" I said because he was trying to be covert and secretive about it. Funny... Tony, Mike and I went back to Tony's place where we sat and talked for a while longer. Mike left around 1 pm and I went to bed.

Up at 5:45 am and on the looooooong road home by 6:15 am... Stopped in Nashville for a few hours to see the grandparents and brunch at MadDonnas with Ant and back on the road to N'awlins!

Melissa happened to still be in Nashvegas which was good. We caravanned home to keep each other awake... It worked until about Hattysburg when I started Hallucinating and the trees started waving at me... Got home at 12:55 am Monday December29th and up for work at 6:45am on Monday December 29th...

All and all I had a great Christmas and birthday this year but like I said before... Never again. Mama is flying next time!!!

For now I am going to sit back relax and see what 32 has in store.

Cheers!
Topher

Lets do the Time Warp again...

Wow! So much has happened since my last post that I don't know where to begin.

I almost deleted this blog but kept it open just in case I ever felt like posting again. It has been 15 months since my last post and so much has changed that I am just going to start with the big stuff and fill in what I can. What prompted me to post was my birthday. I went to visit Tony in Chicago and we were trying to remember past visits and were forgetting things. I thought to myself that I need to start getting this stuff down or it will just be lost forever. Sometimes I want more than just a photo to remember experiences.

I moved to New Orleans on August 3, 2008. You know I have tried to move to Chicago for so long that I never even considered anywhere else. But Melissa and I reconnected and I came down here quite a few times over the last year or so and I started opening up to the possibility of moving to New Orleans. I thought well hell if something bad happens every single time I try to move to Chicago, them maybe I shouldn't move to Chicago right now. So anyway... Melissa offered to help me move (Gotta love a lesbian and her truck) and I found a great job so away I went... And now I couldn't be happier about my choice. I LOVE this city!!! I love the people, the food, the cheap booze, etc... and even though I don't drink Daiquiris, I love the fact that there are drive thru Daiquiris shops all over town! Seriously!

I moved to New Orleans as a stepping stone... A way to get to Chicago... Stay here a few years and get experience in my career then move to Chicago, but now I don't know if I feel that way any more. Of course only time will tell but for now, I am perfectly happy here in the Big Easy where they have a neutral ground in stead of a median in the middle of the road; where it is perfectly legal and required to make U-Turns and where they make groceries instead of get them.

Cheers!
Topher