I'm Studying You

What's next...matching tattoos??

Studyees, an East Coast good Wednesday to you all. Hello, and what is up? Welcome back to The Library, where "one month" tastes like a night alone at 542 after too many Marlboro Smooths, but I'll touch on that later. I hope the week has been kind to you all so far; hockey season is underway so you know I'm happy. Go Sabres! At least this winter I'll have someone to watch games with.

Speaking of which, that someone... Stoggers, hit me up if y'all think I'm talkin' 'bout her too much. I don't wanna be that guy. But this is a rundown of the past week or so:

So Jess decided to try dyeing her hair a light brown the other night. I don't think it looks bad, but she is, ummm, ahhhh, well, non-plussed by the results. Claims it looks dull. I had to work the charm into overdrive to get her back to feeling a little bit better about it. And to not help in the hair department, I let her dye my hair with the leftover coloring. My hair didn't take to the coloring so much as hers did. Males, there is almost nothing harder in the world than trying to not only console a woman upset with her dye-job, but trying to console a woman upset with her dye-job while the same chemicals couldn't leave the same imprint on your own dome.

LOVEY-DOVEY ALERT, pt. I: So it's no secret I spend a lot of time at Jess' place. Like, almost all the time. And we are enjoying every moment of it. But come springtime, she wants to move into a bigger place. Perhaps maybe rent a house until she...wait for it...wait for it.../we can afford to buy one. She wants a place where the boys can have their own rooms. A place she can have a nice garden. Somewhere to settle down. A place that is OURS. Not hers, not mine, but ours. You'd think with all the things we've talked about so far Studyees that we've been together for years...the future, more kids, relocating, cohabitating, growing old. All the things people like me "yikes!" at at some point in life one way or another (and don't roll your eyes at me Nicole!), but we're so in-tune and pretty much in a day-to-day existence already that it almost makes sense based on the way we feel about each other. She's a keeper.

I can't leave out our supposed-trip to the amusement park last Friday, which sucked balls. The whole day was kinda a mess. She baked cookies, which were awesome and Stoggers, my Jess OWNS the kitchen... I swear I've put on 10 pounds in the last month cuz she can cook cook. Anyway, instead of dropping her son and his friends off at Darien Lake and driving back to pick them up, I suggested we make a date of it and do the haunted house thing not only to save on driving, but to spend quality time together. This, my loyal lovelies, got her excited. Until one of Alex's buddies got really sick as soon as we freaking got there, and she had to take him home, which not only thwarted our plans but left me to oversee two hormonally obnoxious 13-year-olds. I was, however, comended by her for keeping my cool for the most part. I just hope all the hanging out I did that day with Alex, before the amusement park and watching his soccer games and helping him with his homework, will make up for the fact that he busted me and J in the shower, ummm, ahhh, "getting ready" for Darien Lake.

LOVEY-DOVEY ALERT, pt. II: I'm sure I could've done a lot more research and looking back on this semi-touchy subject Studyees, but after some deliberations over a nice dinner at a pretty nice restaurant, we came to the conclusion that Sept. 14 was the day we became "exclusive" as far as dating goes. Add in our mutual validation needs just a day or two later, and Tuesday was what they call in junior high our "One Month Anniversary". How did we celebrate? After Alex's soccer game we had pizza and wings from a new joint down the street, rented the new Indiana Jones flick (and it blows compared to the older ones), and came face-to-face with the biggest issue frontin' on us so far...her 15-year-old, Josh. He is NOT dealing well with the fact that I'm always around, even though we get along mostly. He wants his mom to be happy, but tries to get under my skin. He pulls a lot of shit at home, but is doing very well lately at school. The problem is his laziness and lack of respect. He has it so much easier than a lot of kids because he isn't asked to do too much, but he just does what he wants. He thinks he can be manipulative, but we don't think he has a grasp on what it means to be in an adult relationship yet. So he had an outburst again tonight, afraid that the world might actually not be about just him, had another tense set of moments with his mom, and I had had about had it with his ignorance and disrespect toward her. I made a hard decision. A very hard decision. Stoggers, I told Jess to take me home, but not until we had a long, healthy discussion. It wasn't about her, or him, or me. It was about taking a step back so that maybe it could be a bigger step forward later. I told her from the get-go I would never come between her and the boys. Maybe we're spending too much time together for their liking. These are things we have to take into account, Studyees. I am in no way trying to steal away a mother from her babies, but in the same breath we're human and we have needs as well that go beyond adolescent triviality. Life is never scripted once offspring are involved. That I can evolve and emend and ad-lib and keep some peace, and still happen to find myself in a relationship with a girl who manages to keep falling in love with me more and more when she thought any more couldn't be possible...that might sound like crazytalk from a jobless fuckup like me, but you Stoggers know how to make a short dude with a long heart feel wanted anyway, so mad propers to you Wildcats in The Library for keepin' me keep keepin' on.

That might be all for tonight Studyees. I'm sure I have more to share that either my head won't let me remember, or would push the rating to XGC, so bless me with your presence in The Drop-Off, drop an IM @ hailtothethird or text me so much that I can't ignore it, because my phone is back into diesel mode. Happiest One Month Anni- Anni- versery, Stoggers... GOODNIGHT NOW!