Last night, I went to karaoke in Farmingdale with Joe and Maggie. On the way there, I assured them that the way they’ve heard me sing is not the way I really sing. I don’t think they were quite prepared; all they’ve heard from me is the flat-toned sing-alongs I partake in during car rides. (And by flat-toned, I mean no technique applied whatsoever. I sing on pitch, always.)

We got there, and I sang “Just a Girl” by No Doubt, which is one of my favorite karaoke songs. After I finished, I sat back down at the table, and Joe just stared incredulously at me for a good minute.

“WHY,” he asked, “do you sing like you do in the car, when you actually KNOW how to sing?!” I muttered a sheepish “I dunno” in response and changed the subject.

At one point, this old woman (see also: around or past retirement age) came over to our table to look at the song book (we kind of hogged it) and picked a song. She showed us what she was singing, but neither Maggie nor Joe got a good look at it, so they didn’t actually know what she was singing until she got up there and the music started.

She sang “Enter Sandman.”

This woman was definitely someone’s grandma. And she was singing Metallica. I have never witnessed anything more epic in my entire life.

There were of course the usual drunks who completely butcher the songs they choose to sing, the most creeptastic-looking guy ever (he could easily have been a serial killer/rapist… he had that look about him), and a woman who was either severely intoxicated or somewhat mentally lacking who more or less ruined two out of the three songs I sang. Regardless, we had fun, and I know Maggie at least wants to go back next week.

Whoa, back the fuck up.

If I was ever jealous of her, it was because I admired the fact that, from a young age, she was able to make herself financially independent. As for her personality, I always felt like being a little more humble would suit her better, and that she really needed to get the hell off her high horse, because she thought insanely too well of herself. She also completely lacked the ability to admit when she was wrong, and would resort to belittling you if you disagreed or tried to prove her wrong, and she also believed that she gave amazing advice and that the world should follow it.

Just a side note: if everyone followed advice, no one would have personal experiences and mistakes to learn and grow from. That being said, I don’t entirely believe in advice.

At the point in my life when I needed my friends’ support the most, my best friend of 8 years abruptly ended our friendship. Even if I was jealous or beneath her, is that any way to treat someone you refer to as a friend, let alone a best friend? I don’t really think so.

I had another friend with whom I got really close, and eventually it got to the point where every time we’d make plans to hang out, she’d end up ditching me or bailing out. And there was always a reason, an excuse. I’d finally had it when she canceled a date we had for me to dye and cut her hair after I was already in the city. Not only had I spent the money to get there, but I was also carrying around about ten pounds worth of hair tools and chemicals. All for nothing. After that, I told her how I felt and basically discontinued our friendship. I gave her a few chances after that to make amends, but she never rose to the occasion.

Lately, she’s been complaining on Facebook that her friends feel like she’s pushing them away and that she acts like she’s better than them, and in the same sentence she says that she’s not, she’s just too busy planning cosplays for conventions. I don’t know about you, but that certainly sounded to me like planning cosplays for conventions is more of a priority in her life than maintaining her friendships. And if you feel that much like everyone is against you, then maybe you should re-evaluate the way you treat your friends.

In other news, I saw Inception yesterday. That movie was sofuckingawesome. Everyone should see it.

Or, would have been a mile. If I didn’t start walking about half a mile in the wrong direction first.

Not to mention, the heat and humidity were pretty brutal yesterday, so by the time I got to Maggie’s job, I was practically dying. Since they were ready to close up shop for the night and it was only her and one other vet tech there, she decided to show me around all the exam rooms and kennels.

On our way back to Joe’s (her fiancee, who lives right up the street from me and whom I’ve known since roughly third grade), Maggie called him up and explained how she “found something outside of her job” and asked if she could keep it. I couldn’t hear Joe’s end of the conversation, but Maggie kept convincing him that she’d “feed it,” “make a box for it,” and despite all his protests, she was “bringing it home anyway.” She even asked him if he could at least help her bring it in from the car.

It, if you haven’t already deduced, was me.

At Joe’s, we hung around for a while, and witnessed a house fly going into its death throes. I took some macro pictures of it, and Maggie accused me of being morbid and weird. Yeah, tell me something I don’t know. After a while of doing nothing much of anything at Joe’s, we decided to go out, but we didn’t know where. Joe suggested we find the Huntington Fireman’s Fair, which we attempted to do, to no avail. So we drove around some more, through Downtown Huntington. Huntington Station, and then finally we headed back out east.

We ended up at an IHOP, where Joe and Maggie were both appalled at the amount of sugar I loaded my coffee up with. What?! Fourteen packets of sugar is a perfectly respectable amount for one cup.

After IHOP,we came back to Joe’s for a few hours, before I decided I was tired and I went home.

…Especially when you throw fireworks into it.

Most people I know scoff at long-distance relationships; they come up with excuses like “what he doesn’t know won’t hurt him,” and “if he’s in a different time zone, it doesn’t count.” They’ve discounted my relationship as “not a real one,” while Jonny and I have a stronger connection and better communication than couples I know that live with each other. My so-called friends have also insinuated that because my beau lives so far away, it gives me the liberty to fuck around as if I were single. Firstly, I wouldn’t fuck around even if I were single. I tried that over the summer, and I quickly learned that there is NO ONE around here even worth fucking with. Secondly, if I consider myself in a relationship, that means I’m committing myself to one person emotionally, physically, mentally, sexually.

That’s something most people don’t realize nowadays. They say they’re in a relationship, yet they lie, cheat, sneak around, and are generally unfaithful to their partners, and they act like it’s okay.

For example, I reconnected with my second cousin recently. Throughout our hanging out (and even afterwards through texting) he kept asking me if I have any hot friends, even though he’s clearly currently in a relationship. I finally got fed up with it and asked him why he keeps looking for other options if he’s in a relationship. He replied that he was going to leave his girlfriend, because she has trust issues. Gee, I wonder why? But attitudes like that sicken me. He was also one of the ones who scoffed at my relationship and said it didn’t count.

Jonny may be younger than me, but he’s far from immature. He’s probably the most intelligent person I know, and he’s kind, caring, chivalrous, understanding, and open… all things that my previous partner was not. Jonny and I have a lot of quirks in common, and our connection with each other transcends the ordinary. With all that being said, there should be no question as to why I choose to remain faithful; I made a commitment and I’m going to keep it, and I have a man who can satisfy me mentally, emotionally, and physically. What more could I ask for? Well, for him to live closer. But I know that in due time, our waiting and perseverence will pay off, and it will be totally worth it.

To sum it up, fuck all you haters.

I also got my nose pierced on my birthday (by the awesome, amazing Marie! ♥), and Maggie commandeered my camera during the process to take a picture of my pain. Haha. It actually wasn’t as bad as that picture makes it seem. And it’s healing up quite nicely; there’s barely any crustiness and it’s barely sore anymore.

It seems that, eleven months later, a certain someone still can’t accept that he’s no longer a part of my life. I’m sure you all know who I’m talking about; the same jerk who’s been plaguing my life for the last four years. I created an account over at Formspring.me, and wouldn’t you know, my inbox is constantly filled with anonymous questions and accusations. Hmm. I wonder who they could be from. Beats me… *rolls eyes* He needs to realize that the reason I’m no longer with him is because he treated me badly. That’s it. And there’s no way I will ever, EVER let that dirtbag back into my life. He needs to get over it, and let go. All of the harassment, the threats, the insisting… it’s only driving me further away and digging his own grave deeper.

NYAF was fun, despite having to enlist one of my good friends as a “bodyguard” and spending the entire weekend steering clear of creepers and stalkers. On Friday, I cosplayed Orihime from Bleach, on Saturday, I was Haruhara from FLCL, and on Sunday, I just wore this. I spend the entire following week being sick with some kind of cold or another. Almost everyone I know who went to NYAF ended up getting sick.

I need copies of domestic incident reports I’d filed, for my divorce, and the NYPD is giving me the run-around in obtaining them. It’s slightly aggravating. My alternative is to make a list of dates and places that “acts of cruel and unhuman treatment” happened. They really expect me to remember specific dates for abuse that I’m trying to forget? Yeah, okay.

Still looking for a job. Nobody’s hiring, but one of my friends has been helping me get a few freelance gigs here and there.

I just put aside some meat and marinade for steamed roast pork buns that I’m going to attempt to make. Every time I’m in Chinatown with my friend Steph, we make a point to grab a few pork buns from our favorite place, Dragon Land Bakery. They’ve got the yummiest roast pork buns! Well, since it’s relatively expensive to make the trip into the city for pork buns, I’m going to make some myself. Hopefully they turn out just as good as the stuff in Chinatown!

This week I start muay thai classes at Serra Jitsu. My 3-mile-a-night walks just haven’t been helping me lose weight, and gym memberships around here are far too expensive. Muay thai looks like it’s going to be a lot of fun. I’m looking forward to it!

Yesterday I ended up working a triple shift, and today my body feels like it’s going to fall apart. My job requires me to do cleanup and maintenance, so I’m pretty much sweeping and cleaning for about 6 hours a day. Because of the event schedule where I work, Thursday’s event would be too early for us to clean up before, so we had to move that shift to directly after Wednesday’s event. My boss offered me the shift during the event as well, so I could pick up some extra hours if I wanted, and it wasn’t like I was going home between the two other shifts anyway. I ended up working from 9am to 12 midnight, with two hour-long breaks and one half-hour break, which were the only opportunities I got to sit down. The rest of the time I was running around, changing garbage bags, cleaning toilets, replacing toilet paper, sweeping messes, avoiding creepy photographer man, and being generally busy. By the time I finished at midnight (I was supposed to go until 1am, but my boss understood I had to catch the last train) my feet and legs hurt so much that I wanted to chop them off. I ended up not getting home until nearly 3am.

I’m so glad that I don’t actually have anything planned for today (except writing a letter to one of my penpals) because I barely have the physical capacity to move today. Every single joint in my body hurts, my head is pounding, and even walking across the room requires so much effort that I give up before I even start.

The rest of July is practically work every day, but all normal shifts. This weekend I’m going to Warped Tour with a bunch of my friends, so hopefully that will be the mental health day that I really need. I’m only working about 10 or so days in August, which will be a nice relief, and I’ve also started planning another “casual Bleach photoshoot day” for sometime towards the end of next month. My job ends in the beginning of September, during which I’ll find a more local part-time job and start taking some classes. I’ve literally got the next year of my life all mapped out, and now I’m planning accordingly on a monthly basis. I should be divorced pretty soon (because even if Eric wants to be difficult and fight it, there’s nothing to fight over lol) and then it should be smooth sailing from then on. Granted, he told my lawyer that he wants to sue me for slander, but he has no grounds and I have a laundry list of people that could testify against his integrity. XD

Oh yeah! That’s because “JB” is actually Eric hiding behind a fake name and proxy. Duh. How did I come to this conclusion? Eric’s and “JB”s writing styles are EXACTLY the same. Down to the very same misspellings and random capitalizations of words.

Oh, and if he’s gonna try to get my site shut down for “slander,” then he might want to look into getting a class action that also shuts down Livejournal, Deadjournal, Xanga, Blogspot, Melodramatic, and all those other sites that harbor “slanderous” sites. Because my site is just that, it’s a journal (with a few extras) where I house MY personal thoughts and ramblings. Oh, and while you’re at it, might as well get every other blogger’s domain shut down as well.

I’m sorry I don’t have any “scratches” to show you all, since those are the only things that prove someone was abused. I rarely bruise, and any swelling I had is long since gone.

Anyway, I don’t feel the need to dissect and prove every little thing “JB” said, because I know what the truth is and I’m confident enough in myself that I don’t have to prove my worth.

So! This weekend I’m supposed to go into the city, help Christina with some sewing, and go with my friend Nana to get our faces pierced, but I don’t know if I’ll have the cash to do all that. I went out with some coworkers for drinks on Monday, and spent more than I meant to. Oh well! If anything, I’ll just wait until next weekend to get my face pierced. XD

This past weekend I went to Justin’s and played my very first game of beer pong, ever. Actually, my first three games of beer pong, haha. Justin was my partner, and we won the first game. The second and third games, however, we weren’t so lucky. And Justin ended up having to drink all the opposing team’s remaining beer from the third game, because it was then Christina had called me flipping out about the aforementioned lurker. I spent the rest of the night sobering up and being worried for her, and I ended up sleeping over Justin’s.

Other than that particular incident, things have been quiet on my side. I hung out with a special person in the city on Monday, and brought him to the Museum of Natural History. We went to Chinatown for lunch, and then wandered about Chinatown for a few hours and got completely soaked because the weather sucked. After we parted for the day, I went back to Penn Station and decided that I wasn’t done with the city for the day, so Christina came and met me after she got out of work. We went to Borders and looked at funny books (I almost bought this one), and then wandered around Penn Station for a bit until my train came in.

This weekend I’ve been invited to hang out in the city with a few of my friends, and I’m looking forward to it. Hopefully all this drama will be over soon, but I’m not banking on that. I’ve had to involve people that shouldn’t be involved, and it hasn’t really helped (even though it should have).