Hello all! Jeezy creezy, have things been crazy lately. I've got about five million things to write about, but I'll try to condense...

Dark Haired Girl and I had made a "date" for last saturday, but Thursday night I got an email from her asking if I was going to be at D's. Saw her for the first time sober, and as it happens, I indeed was experiencing my patent "inverse beer goggles". She was so much cuter sober than when I was, ahem, under the influence. Sang Squirrel Nut Zippers' "Hell", which I prefaced by announcing during the musical intro, "And now, for what is by far going to be the dorkiest song of the night..." Despite my disclaimer, it was well recieved. :-)

---

Flashforward to saturday night, and I met Dark Haired Girl at the Hobart Arena, but they were having junior hockey tournaments. Crap. We decide to go to dinner, and despite my insistance otherwise, she pays. She tells me that she's been in my shoes working part time as a student, and if I must pay, I can pick up the drinks afterward. :-) She's so understanding. Sitting there at the restaurant, I couldn't stop just looking at her and smiling. She'd ask "What?", and I'd answer "I never thought I'd ever be sitting across from somebody so hot."

So we spend a wonderful conversation motoring over to Greenville, and a bar called "Tail Gator's". There's a band there, and the singer is the karaoke DJ from D's. We find Dark Haired Girl's friends and sit at their table. The singer/karaoke DJ recognizes me and say "Everybody! We've got ANDY in the house! Get up here man!" He asks me if I know Secret Agent Man. I tell him I wouldn't know it unless I had the words in front of me, so he tells me to stand over by the bassist and sing backup on "Beverly Hills" with him and his mic.

Sop there I am singing "Be-ver-ly Hiiiills, that's where I want to beeeeee! Livin in Beverly Hiiiils!" nearly cheek-to-cheek with the bass guitarist. Good times. I get off stage and tell Dark Haired Girl that it's official, she's on a date with a bona-fide rock star. :-)

We dance our butts off until we're both all hot and sweaty, and frankly, with the baby-soft skin on her neck, chest, and shoulders glistening with sweat in her tank top, she went from hot to knock-out SEXY. There are other girls there dancing on the bar. Something I've never seen before, and a nice spring-breakish environment I was happy to be experiencing, but I really had no urge to watch them.

After that, we motor on over to Covington to a little bar called "Crossroads". It's a tiny little dive where everybody seems to know everybody, and I'm introduced to a dizzying array of new people. Some dude says "Hey, don't you sing karaoke at D's in Troy? You're pretty good, man!".

I, your friend and humble narrator, am unintentionally deveoloping a reputation. Equal parts thrilling and frightening, which leads to a concern I was discussing with Angela. (pardon the digression) If I go to D's thursday night, whether or not Dark Haired Girl does, it will be the first time I go for any other purpose than to drift off into my own little invisible world of beer and singing to myself. It will be the first time I go there to maintain and/or further my social standing. For some reason, that doesn't sit well. I must keep sight of the real reason I started going there... just for myself.

Afterward, as I've had only one beer that night and otherwise been drinking pepsi, I follow one of Dark Haired Girl's friends to another friend's house where a handful of people are drinking beer and smoking weed. After a while, her friend leaves and as I have no idea where on earth we are (turns out we were outside Piqua), we spend the night. The owner opens a wall and a bed drops out there in the living room. Everybody leaves, and Dark Haired Girl and I again make love more glorious than before.

The best part, though, is that this time, I could curl up and fall asleep with her in my arms, her smooth bare skin feeling like a warm silk sheet against mine.

---

Spent last friday running around Cincinnati with Elizabeth taking pictures. She's becoming such a good friend. I also brought along the Canon, and for the first time since school started (and really, since I got the Nikon digital), took pictures on black and white film. No worrying whether it'll work for a project, no concern whether it'll maybe do for a slide page or final portfolio... just photos for my own goddamn sake, and it felt so cathartic. In ten frames, I regained all the passion for photography that I thought was fading. It wasn't going away, just hibernating in the face of school work. I can't wait to finish the roll and see how I did, without the instant gratification of seeing your shot on an LCD screen, and having to be so much more sparing with my compositions, as you can't erase a film shot you don't like.

---

Anyway, that's enough typing for now, and I'm sure you've got things to do, so I'll not keep you any longer. :-) Please enjoy the new photos below...