Restless

"A cynic is not merely one who reads bitter lessons from the past, he is one who is prematurely disappointed in the future." - Sydney J. Harris

Halloween weekend was a blast. The weekend could have had a somewhat better ending, but all in all it was a very good time. I dressed up as Max from Where the Wild Things Are after all my work putting the costume together. Abram dressed up as Wonkavision (A TV he told me) I think, but I didn't get to see the costume in action. Unlike last year where I purchased candy for the trick-o-treaters, this year, we just turned off the lights. I didn't think I would be around the house at the time, but I was home getting ready as the kids passed by. Our neighborhood is growing and there were a lot of kids out.

Friday night I went with Christina, Adriana and their brother Jorge to Six Flags for Fright Fest in San Antonio. I hadn't been to Six Flags since I was really young. For some reason I vividly remember the "Hasta la Vista" sign on the way out, that and the fact that it was in a canyon of sorts. We all dressed up in our costumes and headed for the park. Christina went dressed as a Greek Princess, but didn't wear her crown because of the roller coasters. Adriana went dressed as Malice, an evil Alice from Alice in Wonderland. She makes a good angry face. It was time to test the Max costume for more than ordinary wear and tear, but also 3G forces. It was cold, but thank goodness I was well insulated. I got a lot more attention than I was used to. It was very positive and I loved that the little kids really got it. They would call me Max as I walked by, though some would just yell "Whiskers!" One girl ran up to me and randomly gave me a hug. We road a few roller coasters and stayed until the they closed. We had a great picture on the Superman. I had a good time and then afterwards we headed out downtown to Howl at the Moon, a dueling piano bar. Piano bars are always so amazing. The lady who was playing there was pretty gifted. She could play, sing and even rock the drums. After last call we called it a night.

Saturday was Halloween and we went down to 6th Street in Austin to drink and see all the costumes. Christina went dressed as a Greek Goddess/Princess with her crown and Adriana went dressed as a French Maid. I don't know if you would append "sexy" to their costumes, but I think you could. They both looked great. The traffic driving down was packed. 6th Street was very crowded with people all wearing such amazing costumes. It is like a parade. Some of my favorites were Green Man, Balloon Boy's Dad and UP. I even ran into the characters from Where the Wild Things Are (picture above). Here is a link to our pictures from the night featuring some of those cool costumes: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hyadus/sets/72157622587401367/ Lessons were learned about patience, for everyone, including me. I was having such a good time I didn't even drink that much. I was hoping to see what a drunk stumbling Max would look like. We also had an extra hour to enjoy since there was the time change. That was cool. I had a great time and am glad I had great friends to spend the holiday with. That is always nice.

In older news, since I've been delayed on blogging, last weekend my father came up to visit my brother and I. He helped us re-install our electric fence. The dogs learned their lesson over a year ago when we first put it up and stopped digging out. We turned off the fence and they were trained to stay away. Well now they figured out it was off and tore it up and dug out and got picked up by the pound. $100 a dog to get them out, plus having the fix the fence they broke. That hurt. It was time to get things fixed up. We also got to watch the Texas game together. It was nice visiting with my father and I hope he had a good time.

In technology news, I upgraded my home PC to Windows 7. So far I like it, but it is taking me a bit to get use the new taskbar. Everything I read about it is really positive. I also finally got my 13in Macbook Pro. I don't know how I feel about my switch to Mac. I mean, I know so much about PCs and with the Mac I feel lost somewhat, but hopefully that will go away with time. I installed Windows 7 into bootcamp, but I'm trying not to hold on to it like a security blanket. I guess only time will tell. Either way, I have some computing work ahead of me. It feels a bit weird having Windows 7 at home, OS X on my Macbook and Windows Vista at work. Speaking of computers, I also fixed an old computer that I had around the house that I thought was done for. That felt good. Now I can give it back to my sister after getting it to work.

I don't know what it is, but I have been restless as of late. Part of me feels like I should be doing something, but I don't know exactly what that is. Maybe it is the idea of watching 30 approach and wondering if I am where I want to be. It is hard to think of any significant changes between Marty from a year ago and Marty from now...how about two years ago? I feel like I could have used the year to learn something new or pursue some new passions. Maybe I just feel like I am a man who hasn't lived up to his true potential. It is tragic really and not because I'm a failure of any sort, but because I haven't taken any real daring action. I haven't pushed the limits, tried things where I have failed. I've coasted through with accomplishments that were never really out of reach. I'm proud of myself, but I just want more and know that I am capable of so much more. What that more is, I should figure out soon. I just need to remind myself that this isn't enough.

an interesting character