National State of Alert:
(as of 3-8-04)

Personal State of Alert:
(as of 3-8-04)

Reason for Personal State of Alert:
- So this is post-college life? Really? *shivers*

- The Passion of Christ featured a deleted scene where Christ called me out and told me "You're next"

Featured Links:
Diaryland.com
OnlineOnslaught.com
MSNBC.com
QuietAmerican.org
MoneyCentral.msn.com
Tremble.com
Weezer.com
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GirlsArePretty.com

joelthecat.diaryland.com

September 2003 - February 2004
2004-03-09 - 12:23 p.m.

Part two- year in review for 2003. I realized, looking back, that my diary still has a huge hole for a major portion of 2002... but I don't have a book full of receipts for 2002 to tell me what the hell I did, so what do I know. So, here are some things I might've missed:

- In July of 2002, I moved to an awesome $800,000 house on Jones St with four room mates, two dogs, a hell-kitty (which was mine), a nice kitty, and a fish or three. It was my favorite living situation ever, and I'll always have a lot of fonds memories of the place.

- In January 2003, New Year's Day, I bought myself a late Christmas present of an acoustic guitar. A year and two months later, I've improved a lot, although I still have a ways to go before I'm stageworthy.

- I read all five Harry Potter books in the last year. Magic reference away!

So yeah... back to 2003, in a nutshell:

September:

I made the move to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where I'm currently staying with Savannah long-time friend Jesse, and his mom and sister. In September, though, I was only there for two short weeks before Jesse and his mom both went on separate trips out of state. I decided, perhaps foolishly, to make trips of my own; booking flights the day before I took them online.

First random destination: New York City. I stayed with John-Eric, my best friend from my younger days, and travelled Parkchester, my old High School, and Manhattan. Stops in Manhattan included the huge, huge, huge Central Park, the shell of the WTC, and the Museum of Modern Art, which was MASSIVE, and very very pretty.

The highlight of the New York portion of the trip though, was getting to see Dave Matthews Band perform live on the Great Lawn at Central Park. John-Eric, who ROCKS, got me a ticket, and I camped out all day in-line to get a good spot. Once the gates were open, a mad dash to the front was made and from about 30 rows of people in, I caught the biggest show of my life. It was a very cool, almost magic experience, heightened by the fact that I wasn't really supposed to be there. Hells yeah!

Next up on my two city tour was California. I stayed with long, long time met-through-the-internet friend Jeremy, who was kind enough to let me stay on his couch for a little over a week, and be an incredible tour guide of L.A., Hollywood, and the surrounding areas. I got to see the walk of stars, the big Hollywood sign, the heavenly beautiful Getty Museum, and downtown L.A.'s crazy, live-chicken selling Chinatown. At night, we ate at a fancy Italian restaurant, walked Santa Monica Blvd, made a stop at Arnold Schwartzenegger's campaign headquarters, and went for drinks at the Abbey, in West Hollywood. We actually made several trips to West Hollywood- where I cut loose and had a really good time dancing at the big clubs, makin my presence known. I also got to see three concerts in Cali- Dashboard Confessional my first night in town, Maroon 5 (and Gavin DeGraw) a few days later, and Romeo Void, an 80's band that VH1 reunited and surprised us with, inviting us without telling us who was going to be playing. California is just unbelievably, incredibly pretty and fun, I'd love to live there.

October:

The California portion of my trip actually extended into the beginning of October, and oddly, the very next day after returning, I found myself thrown into a position working for TFN, the Football Network, in Baton Rouge. Working twelve hour days, throughout the weekends, I had a really cool time learning and observing the ins and outs of television production as a runner for the fledgling network. I met Jerry Glanville and D'Marco Farr, the latter being a huge wrestling fan, and ate like a king as TFN provided top-notch food for all the breaks. Happy times!

November:

I got a car!!! After a couple of weeks of hunting through newspapers and whatnot for a cheap vehicle, I procured an old Holda Civic for $1,500 bucks from Jesse's mom's friend's son. I immediately hate my ride, because... *dum dum dum*... it's a stick-shift! I spent the next week or so killing my car often, and having scary moments on Baton Rouge roadways, but eventually got the hang of it. I now love my little '89 vehicle. Jesse and I also made a trip to New Orleans to see Nada Surf, and Death Cab for Cutie perform at a small nightspot. Emo fun!

December:

Work with TFN slowed to a crawl, and eventually dropped off entirely as they had financial troubles and had to suspend operations. I was still enjoying my car though, and was focusing on driving over trying to get another job. Christmas rolled around, and my mom sent me an ass-load of presents, which, though possibly undeserved, were appreciated. I spent Christmas, and the Saturday after Christmas hanging out with Jesse's family, eating well in Baton Rouge and New Orleans, and playing Karaoke Revolution.

So that brings us to-

The New Year, 2004:

New Year's Eve was spent driving to New Orleans, with fireworks decorating the sky and distracting my eyes from the road on the way to hang out with Jesse's cousin, Blake. We went to two of her friend's houses, I got attacked by a huge firework that never left the ground, and we enjoyed Bud Light's at a small bar with Blake's boyfriend. A fun neighborhoody New Year's affair, with a surprising number of explosions and aerial visuals, regardless.

And finally:

January and February, 2004:

Absolutely nothing happened. Move along!

All right... that's not entirely true. But it has been a bit of a slow spell. The biggest thing that happened in February was Mardi (friggin') Gras! I went to New Orleans, and had a really good time. But I actually hand wrote some stuff about my visits to the parades and Bourbon St. That'll be my next post though, cuz dammit, right now, I want Wendy's.

Later!

"It's just another day... so sad, so sad, sometimes she feels so sad" - Wings

Reason for Terror # 82:

Using phrase "da bomb" unwittingly in phone tapped conversations could lead to arrest and beatings by the FBI, local authorities, and hip police.

Reason for Terror # 81:

There was a little bit of mold on that bread you had this morning.

Reason for Terror # 80:

When evening falls, you can try to drive away; but the moon will be following... always following...