Sorry I haven�t been updating lately. There are so many things going on at the same time it�s not even funny. First off, my sister is officially out of the house, staying in a dorm in a state college about 3 hours drive away for her freshman year. I think it will be a great experience for her. My mom has been having dizzy spells and nausea lately. I had to take her to the emergency room around 3 am last Thursday. It was nothing too serious though. Apparently it is caused by a viral inner-ear infection and she is taking meds similar to what people use for motion sickness to help ease the symptoms. Since that episode however she�s been afraid to be alone so I�ve been making sure I�m around with her as much as possible.

It was both my sister�s and my cousin�s b-day this past weekend. I picked my sister up from her dorm last Friday and we went out for fondue w/ our mom. We went for the whole sha-bang, cheese fondue, the entr�e fondue (steak, shrimp and veggies) and chocolate/fruit fondue at the end. It all went pretty nicely. We celebrated my cousin�s b-day on Saturday. Went to this Thai/Japanese fusion restaurant, I have to say the presentation of the food was quite swanky, but in terms of taste, the Thai style dishes were superior to the Japanese dishes that restaurant served. Though I don�t know for sure, I�m guessing the proprietor is Thai, which would perhaps account for the discrepancy. It was also a BYOB (bring your own booze) place, which is one of the cooler parts of living in Chicago. After the dinner we partied at Republic Nightclub, fun stuff really.

But I digress, there are three major changes coming up for me in September, which is like what, next week? The first of the �big changes� is my job. I may have mentioned this before, but a few months back, my former team lead was offered a promotion and I was offered a promotion to take her place as lead of the help desk. Although I have already been picking up some of the responsibilities as the new team lead, my official promotion, title and salary doesn�t really kick in until sometime in September. I�m not even sure if the salary increase is enough to warrant all the new stuff I have to do, but I figured I�m going to be in the company a while so I thought it would be worth the risk and I�m crossing my fingers I�ll be richly rewarded both financially and in terms of having a sense of accomplishment. In a way it is already sort of cool, the newer guys in the group already look to me for leadership. I can only hope I can set a good enough example and have the wisdom to provide proper guidance.

The next �big change� isn�t really a change per se, more of a shifting of gears from being in a relaxed mode, thanks to a relatively lazy and uneventful summer, back into my diligent and studious �school� mode. I still have some residual worry for my poor performance in terms of school when I had to drop that class last quarter, because I could not keep up. I need to bring my �A� game this school year, especially since this will, if all goes well, be the my last year before I graduate with my master�s degree.

Actually, I can�t truly say this summer has been entirely restful, these past few months especially, there are times when I�ve been coming home almost completely exhausted. I guess part of reason is the challenge of learning my new work responsibilities. The ongoing construction of the train line that I take and having to walk more and take an extra bus every day doesn�t help much either. Throw in all the stuff my mom has been going though and I can now see how all my energy is getting zapped. Well that and I�m not as young and bouncy as I used to be. Well OK, I don�t think I was ever bouncy, but I think you get my point.

Still, I do try to make some time for myself. Aside from the usual drunken weekends, I finally finished the Resident Evil 4 game. Although it has a great storyline and the 3D engine and game play is significantly superior to the previous installments, it was missing those suspenseful, �scare the fuck out of you� parts that the previous RE installments used to have. I also miss the zombie type creatures, but perhaps this will be redeemed by the next installment Resident Evil 5. I�ll probably play though RE4 a second time with the bonus features and the like. But again I digress.

The third �big change� coming up is my move back to the bachelor pad in downtown. Although, I�ve already moved a bunch of my stuff, I still have quite a few things left to go. Technically speaking, I can move and stay there now, since my step dad is out of town for work and will be so until the end of August and thus the condo is free to be used. Since my mom does not want to be �alone� however, I�m still at the old place until my step dad gets back. The hard part is not moving all my stuff, but trying to figure out what not to bring and what needs to be thrown and/or given away. My soon to be old room is a mess and it�s going to be a pain trying to clear the past few years of junk I�ve managed to accumulate in there and I want to get it done by this weekend. I don�t think this whole �change of venue� has completely sunken in with me yet. I guess part of me is refusing to be excited about it until I�ve actually moved in.

But yeah, I really do need this move in terms of my confidence, concentration with school and even just my sanity. Although I did enjoy living there, I don�t think I could have truly appreciated the kind of haven that it was for me until I lost it a few years back. I have the feeling some of that energy that I have been lacking as of late will start coming back to me once I�ve settled back in my bachelor pad.

As if those �big changes� all aren�t enough, I�ve been having these weird feelings about the whole lack of female companionship thing. I won�t go so far as to say that I�ve lost interest in chasing women nor can I honestly say that I do not miss the lack of a romantic feminine presence in my life. What I can say, however that it has been so long since I have had sex and have been in love, that it is almost a struggle to recall all those beautiful, intimate little details. I�m starting to forget all of those good feelings and it has just been a disheartening experience. It would almost be better if I had completely forgotten, that way I wouldn�t have an inkling of what I was missing and I simply wouldn�t care because I would never have known how good it has been in an �eternal sunshine of the spotless mind� kind of way. But instead I�m in this weird �twilight zone� like trip, where I don�t exactly remember with any vivid detail all those really juicy good parts, but I haven�t quite forgotten to the point where I have stopped missing the experience. I guess all I can really hope and strive for is that my now is not my forever and that this infernal dry spell I have to suffer through will eventually meet it�s long-overdue demise. But anyway, that�s all I have to update for now so until next time.