Coherent Predictathon!

So I was thinking about Nikki's comment on the last post. Figured I'd try to guess what the next ten years held for me and my friends. Here's what I've got:

If I survive this year, I'll be an engineer in ten. I'll likely be stuck here in this city I've grown so used to. I mean, I love travel, but I don't see myself living anywhere else. I'll be making most of what my parents make now combined, and without two kids to support I can buy a decent home and live there with myself or friends or something. I don't want to think about not surviving this year. I can say one thing, though: I'll be happy wherever I end up. If I'm an engineer in a house with my friends or a college dropout with a small flat and a crappy job, I'll be happy. If I can do anything it's make the best of whatever I've gotten myself into.

Brandon will most likely be on the east cost or in Europe, having long since abandoned this hell hole of a metropolitan area for kinder pastures. I'm guessing five years before we lose contact with him completely. If he's nailed one pillar of Buddhism, it's the ability to ditch attachment and leave things behind.

Meagan... She's got two ways to go, I think. If she lives to 28, she's likely gonna be a local artist, chilling around Cincy like me and living where she can. Kinda bleak, but that's the bohemian life of an artist-spaz. [shrug] If her half-joke goal works out, we've got her for another seven. I really hate to make a "successful or dead" prediction, but I really think that's the situation we're looking at. :-\

Nikki's own plan is the standard get married, have kids, settle down thing. By her own admission she's not putting any effort into that, but it could happen. I don't see her leaving the area, either.

Alicia has the same plan. She's rather more likely to have done it by 2018. She'll be in bufu Ohio, living the faltering American dream of decades past.

For some reason I see Kaitlin as a French teacher somewhere. Dunno why. The setting is irrelevant. All I can predict is that it's suburban.

Julie's headed to California. Dunno how she'll fare there, but that's where she ends up. Girl's gonna run west and never look back.

Jimmy seems to have settled already.

Joseph's either a touring jazz performer or a band director someplace. If he hits it big in jazz, though, he's gonna end up with the sort of wealthy traveling lifestyle his father's got now.

No idea where the fuck Joey's going. Really. Not a clue.

That, my friends, is my guess at the future. Feel free to leave your own ideas, revise mine, or follow me in taking a stab at what's next for us.

Ramble-Babble

Last week was intense, but this one already looks good. What's become the usual travesty of my visits to Alexandria is running out of steam. That's good. Most of my friends are in good moods or at least pretending. [shrug] Looks like it'll be an okay week. Cold as balls, though.

Anyway, details:
-Interview with AK Steel on Wednesday. You sons of bitches should hope for a hire. Otherwise I'm living in bufu someplace.
-Might run up to Jackson Center this weekend. We'll see. I'll figure that one out when it matters.
-Pan's Labyrinth was mediocre. Why did no one tell me it was in Spanish?

Yeah, this post was real disorganized and a lot of meaningless rambling. Meh
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Now playing: Badly Drawn Boy - All Possibilities
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"Y sayathee sacred Feth."

You know, sometimes I wonder what the fuck I'm doing. I don't need this stress. Why am I dealing with this shit, this baggage that isn't mine? I can never produce an honest, solid answer. For some odd reason that I'll never be able to put into words, I keep going back. I stay on damage control. Maybe I've grown attached and refuse to let go. Maybe it's just the right thing to do. Maybe it's both or neither and I'll never be able to say.

Maybe one day things will settle down. But when they do, will I be satisfied? I get this nagging feeling that if I can solve one crisis, I'll find another. I've been attracting trouble for as long as I can remember. Everyone's broken. I guess I'm just trying to save the world, one lost soul at a time. I stay sane by repairing what damage I can.

I'm still amazed by the quality of the friendships I'm building. When everything seems to be crumbling, new support comes out of the dust.
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Now playing: The Format - Snails
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Musics!

Got some new shit for the hard drive horde:
Jimmy Eat World's new album, "Chase This Light"
Ben Kweller's "Sha Sha"
"Final Straw," the album Snow Patrol put out before Grey's Anatomy made them famous.
And last but not least, the mp3 of "Such Great Heights" covered by Ben Folds.

Get it while it's hot, bitches!
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Now playing: Always Be - Jimmy Eat World
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Only in death, does duty end.

I just laid down what is almost certain to be the best read of 2008. I knew Abnett was good, but Holy Throne... I'll be hard-pressed to find a follow up that's acceptable next to this.
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Now playing: Ben Folds - Bitches Ain't Shit
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Reasons

Best day evar!

-Had lunch at Frisch's. Haven't eaten there in about five years. The server was really nice and drew a smiley on my check, so he got a 50% tip.
-Found exactly what I was looking for at the Village for five bucks. Seriously. Five dollars. Meagan wins.
-The sun came out. It's about seventy damn degrees. I drove home with the sunroof open, the windows down, and Green Day blasting.

I presume it'll get better as the day continues.

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Now playing: The Lashes - New Best Friend
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Gunshot Wound to the Plans

I had plans today. Unfortunately, lab killed them all. I intended to play D&D with Jimmy and his crew tonight, but instead of taking two hours like it was supposed to, this week's lab actually went beyond the 5:30 limit. The reaction I was cooking up was supposed to heat for about an hour, where it'd reach 180 degrees (Celsius, naturally) and sit for ten minutes. Instead, it sat on the hot plate for over two hours. I finally took the reaction off the plate after 2:10. The maximum temperature was 175. Still got a large yield, but I'll have to go back Friday to rinse and filter the sample and recrystallize. If things had gone smoothly, I would have finished and had time to play with Jimmy. Unfortunately, he's no longer online and I've got limited means of contact. Should have been there at four. Instead I got home at twenty to seven. Son of a bitch! That's okay, at least the exam this morning was about the least pleasant thing I've done all year. Also, the TA spilled cinnamaldehyde on my hand, so it reeks of cinnamon. Oh, joy. Today was awesome!
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Now playing: Dispatch - Here We Go
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Brandon's Mom!

Hur hur!

Anyway, she's thinking of opening a restaurant in Alexandria by the Kroger. For more info, read Brandon's blog post about it. Should be pretty damn sweet if it works out, so pitch your support and maybe help come up with a name for the place.

Shameless plug over. You may now return to your regularly scheduled boredom.
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Now playing: Rodrigo y Gabriela - Ixtapa
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Descent of Angels

Finished yet another Horus Heresy book, Descent of Angels. I expected a tale of the legion's founding and its fall. I got the former. Half the book was about the knightly orders of Caliban on which the legion's traditions are based. A sixth or so is of the Emperor's visit and its transformation into a legion of the Astartes. the last third is a single planet's compliance. Huge quantities of talk with very little combat, and all set two centuries before the events of the Heresy.

I wasn't impressed.

Also, went trench coat hunting today. Won't be doing that again for a while. Dillards and Jos A. Bank gave me prices between $175 and $477 for what is essentially a calf-length cotton jacket. Jesus shit. Uncalled for. Example of a "cheap" coat. I don't get it. It's cotton and polyester. This should be a forty dollar jacket at most.
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Now playing: Jimmy Eat World - The Authority Song
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Who you gonna call?

Went ghost hunting with Meagan, Julie, Sean, and Tamra's crew. It involved gravel roads and grounding my car and I wanna kill people. Other unfortunate happenings: I ended up in Julie's car for a bit. She had the heat on max the whole time and drives just over the speed limit. Also, I've decided Julie and I will never share a taste in music. Grr... That's why I drive everywhere. I can rule my car with an iron fist and since I know my car I can take it at exactly the right speed and modulate the climate so the windows aren't fogged and the air isn't stifling. It's a neat trick.

Anyway, the night was an unmitigated failure, but I don't resent it like this post would have you believe. It was okay, I suppose. Just should have known better than to go looking for something that doesn't exist.

I think I'm going trench coat hunting tomorrow. Three stores in the Crestview Hills mall are likely to have what I'm looking for: Skeffington's, Dillards, Jos. A Bank. If I go reclusive and decide I'm not talking to people in the near future, let it be known that this is the post that saw it coming. You can no longer be surprised if I'm bitter and openly hostile for a while. Maybe I just need a stiff drink or something.
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Now playing: The Bloodhound Gang - The Bad Touch
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