25 [reworked] things

There are innumerable stupid things that I believe or believe in, probably for no good reason. Often I find I have no explanation for these beliefs or that any explanation I may offer sounds ridiculous, nonsensical, or lacks any persuasiveness. Yet these "beliefs" [or simply statements] kinda define who I am as a person. Below is a list of 25 of these beliefs and statements, as well as just some random facts about me.*

1. If a girl can't dance, it's a deal breaker.
2. Prince vs. Michael Jackson - if you say Prince, I will forever hold it against you.
3. I take personal offense to a guy cutting his hamburger in half.
   
4. Altho I love dancing [which most ppl already know], I would rather DJ on most occasions.
5. I strongly and diametrically oppose a college football playoff.
6. I collect artwork from my friends [if u're an artist of any sort, please hook me up].
7. My shopping addictions: shoes and watches.
8. I'm ambidextrous.
   
9. I get really into Christmas.
   
10. As a child I refused to eat fruits and vegetables. While I do eat some now, I wish I really liked them.
11. This clip brings endless joy to my life.
    
12. I own a collection of awesomely bad dance movies.
    
13. I thoroughly enjoy intentionally misspelling things; there are good reasons to not do things as some might say they should be done.
    
14. fotography is my first passion, over music and dancing.
    
15. One year, when I was a kid, I got hit by a moped in Greece. It made my arm hurt.
16. Its' the people in life [esp. family and close friends] that make it what it is and that's why they're so important.
    
17. I find nothing wrong with eating McDonald's.
18. I've been known as "the Bootleg Queen."
19. I tend to dance on BART platforms.
20. I think I watch TV and movies to simply escape from my own thoughts and just be.
    
21. I really enjoy going to grocery stores late at nite.
22. I often have private dance parties in my apartment.
23. I love driving and will happily be the guy to drive my friends around when we all go out.
24. Bacon is the greatest food ever.
25. There's no such thing as too far, at least not with the right people. And those are my favorite people.
    

* I can't lie, this list was originally inspired by that rampant "25 Things" note that spread like wildfire around the facebook.

Friends

Many of my closest friends are those I made in high school. I was fortunate enough to meet a great group of individuals during those formative years and I believe our shared experience played an important role in forging a lifelong bond among us. In many ways you can see similarities between all of us...yet at the same time we are all our own individuals, unique in our own ways and with varied and different tastes [altho we also share much in common]. As a group it's sometimes hard to see the variations, at least as well all spend time together...be it drinking, dancing, pontificating about random things in life, or in whatever activity we choose to engage in.

Yet I think our differences become apparent as you see the groups of individuals we've grown close to and call friends outside of our close knit high school group. As I perused Facebook a while back I came across some pictures of one of my friends spending time with old college friends. It made me think for a moment about the friends of my close friends that I have met and interacted with over the years.

What makes each of us individuals, unique and all our own among this close group, is expressed [I think] in those individuals who are our other friends. Not to say we don't express ourselves even when we all hang out...but I think you can see the individual in all of us and how different we all are by those we associate with outside of one another [I don't mean to make our group of friends sound elitist or anything along those lines].

I guess the reason this is of any interest to me is that I strongly believe that, in many ways, you are who you associate with in life. [I'm sure I've expressed this sentiment before in this space.] And so it's funny to think about my friends and the different groups of friends they each have...and then to think about all of us being as close as we are.

a weekend later

whoooooops...so this one managed to slip by until it was, well, the next weekend. a good long holiday weekend up in the Bay, altho i missed out on meatfest '09 due to yet another southwest airlines delayed flight...ughhh. aside from that, it was an overall good time with some especially good, meaningful, and important conversations had over the days. on to the highlights...

• avoiding the major delay, sorta
• Oakland
• eye contact
• dancing on BART platforms for the first time in a long time
  
• BART weirdness
• muni'ing all around town
  
• Nick letting me in
  
• more King of Thai
• being the mysterious guy drinking at the bar by himself
• the dj dropping "I Want You Back" & "Axel F"
  
• old cubans
  
• one of the homies rolling out
• the "I don't have time to make your drink" bartender
• law school homies
• sudoku while sitting in the bus stop at like 2:30 am
• Ed's early arrival
• friday feeling like sunday
  
• the Pork Store Cafe and sitting with strangers
• the stranger's French Toast
  
• all the old school sweet rides
• the idea of rolling in an 80s Ferrari Testarossa while listening to 80s music and dressed in 80s clothes
• parking next to a Nissan GTR
• getting some keys [hopefully symbolic]
  
• a stupid amount of sushi
• Ed rolling out b4 heading to Mexico
• the Marina, Circa, soup
• the dj at Circa
  
• getting bought a round of shots by a girl
  
• of course heading to Gravity
  
• free round of beers since the guy [temporarily] lost Deefs' card
  
• owning the stage at Gravity...simply because no one else was
  
• a last round at not Gravity and another free shot
  
• chocolate-glazed donuts & getting used for donut holes
• leftover sushi
• BART'ing out to Richmond
• meeting some new ppl
• the great food at Al & Hank's
• a great talk with Hank
  
• winning my only game of beer pong/beirut
• getting in some dancing
• the crazy lady who stopped us from getting to the roof
• grabbing dim sum to go solo-style
• nap time
• Popeye's & the pigeon
• another good talk
  
• being the option that doesn't suck
• the extra day
  
• the support for what some may think is a stupid idea

a longer lists of highlights than i was anticipating, a sign of a good weekend. as with every other weekend up in the Bay, i'm sure there are things that have been omitted...impossible to remember it all i guess. the weekend provided some topics i'd like to explore but i'm a bit too lazy right now. and i'm craving dessert in some form [like those chocolate-glazed donuts].

but, i leave you all with this:

why don't girls approach guys more often?