OKAY. OKAY. OKAY ALREADY!!!!

Hey everyone!!! I'm finally back in action. I got into San Diego a little over a week ago and I'm finally getting settled in a little. Quite a transition, and I miss Texas (So I'll keep my same blog name), but its pretty cool here - I'm sure I'll grow to love it more and more. So thats the short story.

Oh, you want the long version?????? Why didn't you say so??

Lets see. Hmmm. How 'bout we go back to May 28th. For no particular reason other than that it was my Birthday. I was packing and my phone was burning up. People wishing me a happy birthday? No. People wanting to go out that night? No. People offering to come help me pack? Yeah. Right. People were calling only because word got out that I was leaving and they wanted to see if it was true. I threw myself a little pitty birthday party and packed some more boxes before downing a 12pack and drunken dialing all the booty calls I was leaving behind. Except for the one from the last 2 weeks because she pulled out the L-word a couple nights before and was receiving her walking papers (she just didn't know it yet). Oh, about the pity party - I was lying. The truth is I didn't really tell anyone it was my birthday, so they really didn't know. In fact, some people knew it was in that general time frame and over the course of the previous week had wished me a random happy birthday. This began with my Ex-wife, who left a message a week before apologizing that she missed it. WTF?? This many years and she doesn't remember?? I really shouldn't be surprised - "she ain't all thr."

The next couple of days were spent packing and organizing and all the other things one has to do prior to leaving. I was putting all of my belongings in storage there since I really don't need anything but my work cloths, iPod (UUGGHH!!!), golf clubs, fishing rod and a few other small items. Ughh on iPod because when I tried to use it on my new computer, the entire memory dumped and I lost ALL my songs!!! What's worse is I can't get my new computer to recognize the damned thing now - something about drivers that I can't seem to find in order to down load. Anyone. Anyone.

My plan was to leave on Wednesday June 1st. I was all packed. New tires. Car gassed up. Scruffs' bed set up in the co-pilot's position. OH, I forgot to mention she was going nuts from the first time I broke out a box! Constant whining, which is something she really only started doing over the last few years. After vacating my place on Tuesday night, Scruffs and I headed over to my buddy's house to stay the night before leaving early in the morning. L-word Girl decided to track me down there and drama ensued, which I really won't get too far into. I went to the bar to try get some alone time and check over a map. This is where the worst news EVER came. My buddy and new roommate in SD is allergic to dogs!!!!! But its Scruffs!!! She's hardly a dog!! She's more like a Dr. Seuss character. Is he allergic to Grinches? Cat in the Hats? Marvin K. Mooneys?? Apparently. Once more, it was time to get drunk. I'll figure this all out in the morning.

Wednesday and my hangover is telling me I must watch daytime television. So I did. And as usual I was disappointed. Later in the day I started to ponder Scruffs. How could I leave her behind?? We've been together for 10 years!!! Through thick and thin. She's been my send off committee in the morning and welcoming committee at night in two states and 4 houses. I can't leave her. Lets get drunk.

Thursday and my hangover is telling me that I really need to figure shit out. And watch a little daytime television. As with the day before, I was disappointed. What are my options? I can take Scruffs and leave her with another friend in SD. Or I can take scruffs and she'll stay at the office. Or I can leave Scruffs with my brother (whom she loves more than me, it sometimes seems) for a couple of months and bring her out once I get settled and most likely have my own place. As the day draws on, I realize that option 3 is probably the best thing for her right now. After all, she's familiar with my brother and his house. He'll take great care of her and she's buddies with his dog and cat (he reports they all follow him around the house in line like he's the goddamn Pied Piper). It was the best thing, I know. But I miss her so much. I feel like something is missing. And its not a beer.

Its Friday and I'm pulling out of Houston. West bound, I-10. Lots of things running through my mind. I remembered the day I drove into Houston from the east, also west bound on I-10 five and a half years earlier. I remembered how excited I was. Scared too. Unsure of my future and hoping I would be everything everyone was expecting me to be. Wondering what kind of friends I would make. Needing to find a bathroom (What can I say, it was a long drive from Miami!!!). I remembered how I felt when I left Miami and how this felt so similar. I drove until I saw the lights of El Paso, which is roughly half way. I found a hotel and checked in for the night. Then I went to drink.

Saturday, I get up and motivate. This day, I'm only going as far as Phoenix - around 5 hrs. One of my best childhood buddies is a firefighter there and I haven't seen him in a few years. Plus, I promised M'tini a few drinks. Phoenix was a lot of fun and it was also good to catch up with my old friend. I was on the road again. Next stop: San Diego.

I rolled into town around 4 in the afternoon. I think. I was a little unsure because my phone, watch and car clock all had different times. Casualties of multiple time zones and the lack of foresight to change them all synchronically. I spent the next few hours acclimating to my new environment and discussing the new strategies with my new business partners. The next morning, I was up promptly at 5am. Not because I wanted to be up then, but because my body was still on Central Time and/or I was anxious to get the day started.

I worked until 10pm that night. As I did most nights that week. With no grog. But finally the weekend came and I made up for it. Met lots of new people and don't remember many of the names, but surely people I'll run into again. Most of the people I know here are kind of on the "club" side. They tend to hang at the places "to be seen". Not that they are pretentious - because they really aren't. Just popular for being good people, which is the only reason I tolerate going to the clubs. I would much rather hang at one of the Irish pubs and talk about girls, baseball and firetrucks. Oh well.

On Sunday we BBQ'd and had some people over, meaning we invited girls. We drank too much wine. Not really. Just too much considering we started at noon with stiff-ass bloody marys. Yesterday, it was back to the grind and obviously, I'm still at the office and its past 10. I'm going home now though.

So that's all I got. Hope I haven't lost too many readers by being out of the loop for so long! Forgive me.