Last post for the summer?

Well, I'm back home now!  Well... have been since last Wednesday, but I only just now got around to actually posting something on here again.  Whoops... XD

Anyway... the past couple weeks have gone pretty well! As mentioned in my previous post, graduation went well (no crowd-freakouts, got to see a bunch of friends before they disappeared off to who-knows-where.)  Also managed to get a storage unit in town for my stuff without any real difficulty (turns out that the indoor units were actually $1-per-month cheaper than the outdoor units, oddly enough.)  Oh, and the Sunday before last (the 11th), I did end up meeting someone that I'd been talking to on OKCupid for a while... and that went really well too! We went and got lunch at Don Tequila's in Buena Vista; I showed up several minutes early and waited, and before too long she showed up as well.  Of course... I didn't recognize her at first (her pictures on the site were older ones, I assume--she had shorter hair in both of them, while when we actually met her hair was longer and in a ponytail), but when she walked away from her car a bit, looked over toward where I was sitting, and asked "Eddie?" then I was pretty sure that she was the right person and not just some random stranger. XD

But yeah... I was slightly worried that "talking on and on forever online" wouldn't carry over to "talking on and on forever in person," somehow, but it turned out that wasn't anything to be worried about after all--we got along really well in-person after all, and started talking almost immediately.  The waiter in the restaurant had to come back a couple times before we were ready to order because we just kept getting distracted talking and forgot to decide on what food we wanted (...which, now that I think about it, is a lot like what happened on the first date I ever went on in my life, actually!)  After a couple hours of talking (and eating--chimichangas, the usual free chip basket, and this dessert thing that we got for free because they were doing some kind of special thing that day) we finally left and walked around town a bit, seeing the random junk robots and other random stuff.  She had to go around 3:00ish, but she gave me a ride back to my apartment first.  And of course, there were hugs.  So... yeah, I'd say my first attempt at actually meeting someone in-person after talking to her online for a while worked out pretty well! XD

Moving out (which happened last Wednesday) went okay too.  Took a lot more time and work than I had been expecting, though--I knew my dad was going to help me move some of my stuff out to the storage unit, but since his hippievan wasn't working he had to use a rented pickup truck instead, which took two trips to get everything up there.  Here's some pictures:

Yep... there's my storage unit, the truck crammed full with (the first load of) stuff, and finally the way the unit looked AFTER I'd moved all my stuff into it.  It was a 10x10 unit, so probably a bit too big for the amount of stuff I actually needed to put in there... but I'm not sure if all my stuff would've fit into something much smaller without piling things up to the ceiling (and plus, this was the smallest unit they had available), so it works.


Also have gotten more of my stuff for my summer job at Camp Shenandoah figured out; almost all of the paperwork is done at this point (just need to get the direct-deposit form filled out with my bank information, then get a physical so I can fill out the medical forms... that's all that's left at this point), and I now know exactly what stuff I'll need to bring with me.  Which includes a ton of Boy Scout clothes (which I currently don't have... so unfortunately I'm going to need to buy a bunch of them. two full Class A uniforms, plus several pairs of scout shorts--no long pants needed, thankfully!--and a few other shirts... the camp will be giving me two camp staff shirts, so I won't need to buy a full week's worth of them at least)... and even the absurd socks (they recommend having 8 pairs.)  Hopefully they have shorter-length socks, because I can't stand to wear the kind that comes way up on your leg.

Have also been working more on Okédoké! La Leyenda Mexicana lately.  The playable portions of the game are 100% done at this point, and I've made some good progress on the ending credits and the little scenes that go along with that.  Here's some bits of Okédoké-related stuff:

George W. Bush: President for Life (...he wishes, anyway. XD)

Yeah, you didn't do anything.  Except help build that giant robot...

From left to right: Schnee McBoobs, El Garbanzo, Señor Rialgo, Alejandro, and Señor Death.

Once that's done (probably will take another day or so?), all that's left is some short scenes that happen after the end of the credits (showing what various characters ended up doing after the game ended), and then the game will be completely done and ready for final "for somebody else's eyes" testing before the final release.  This means that complete Okédoké will be done before 2014 is over, and I'll finally be able to say that I actually finished one of my games for the first time since 2003!

Well... looks like I've graduated now.

Yep... today was the graduation ceremony for SVU, and (somewhat surprisingly) I actually managed to get through it without any problems at all.  Even though three of my least-favorite things (getting up early in the morning, extreme heat, and crowdedness) were all involved, none of it really got to me that badly and I was actually feeling pretty good even by the end of it.  Well, I was a bit overheated (which I suppose was unavoidable considering the combination of black graduation robes, black button-up shirt, black long pants, and sun+heat type weather!), but not to the point that it was making me miserable or anything.  I managed to find someone who was okay with sitting with me during the graduation, and (after a bit of work...) managed to convince the school's people to actually let that happen rather than being alphabetical-order Nazis and shoving me into a really uncomfortable position (surrounded by people I either don't know or barely know, in the middle of a row.  ugh.)  And after the graduation, I found out that my mom, dad, and little sister had all managed to make it out to Buena Vista this morning, so I got to see all three of them for a while (and lots of hugs happened, of course.)  After getting pictures of/with a bunch of friends and talking and goofing off for a while and eating some random fruit they had at the reception afterward, Dad took me and Julia to eat some Italian food (I had stuffed shells... and a salad... and cheese sticks... XD) and I think we all ended up pretty much stuffed.

And now, going in backwards order again--before graduation! I actually managed to finish a whopping thirteen of those gift paintings that I was making for people before graduation day happened and everyone disappeared.  And even though I got three paintings done in that last day, my hand only briefly felt funky; it was only the "slightly uncomfortable stretching" feeling when I moved it certain ways and not actual pain, nowhere near as bad as it was toward the end of last semester.  So I should probably be able to paint again after the weekend or so without any risk of things getting worse.  I only have 8 more people remaining on my current list, though I'm sure I'm missing at least a few that probably should be on there.  I won't be just letting those people go without paintings this time, though--I'm planning on getting all of these done and then mailing them out to people over the summer.

Oh, and speaking of paintings, here's a few that I did:

Those were probably my three favorites of the bunch, at least as far as the ones I managed to scan before giving them out.  The last two I finished turned out really well too, but I forgot to even get a picture of them first so unfortunately, I no longer have any record of their existence.  But eh, the people I painted them for have them, which is the whole point of this anyway, so I guess that's not a problem. XD

But yeah... things in general have been going pretty well lately.  Got to say goodbye to a bunch of my friends before they disappeared, got a ton of paintings done, graduated with no problems, got to see my little sister again for the first time in a loooong time... and this Sunday I'm going to actually meet someone from the online dating site, which will be the first time that's ever happened.  Well, I suppose there's a chance that I'll actually end up meeting two of them this weekend depending on whether the one girl who basically asked me on a date actually ends up going through with it or not (apparently "I don't have a car" wasn't a problem for her, but I haven't heard back from her after the last message--it's been days--so "I don't have a car, and I also don't know where any places to go get coffee are around here, maybe in Lexington or something?" might have scared her off. XD)  But anyway, the one I'm really looking forward to meeting is the one who I've actually set a specific day, time, and place to meet already, so it's pretty much a guarantee that it's actually going to happen at this point.  Hopefully that goes well; I know we seem to get along well online, at least, so that should transfer over to real life.  I can't imagine getting along with someone better online than I do "offline," anyway (it's certainly never happened before!), so things should go pretty well.

Should also start looking into the possibility of renting out a storage unit for my couch, table, chairs, mattress, and other random junk I won't need back at home over the summer.  I know there are a couple of places around here like that, but I don't know how much they cost off the top of my head or whether or not they'd have enough room for all of my stuff.  I suppose I'll end up putting things like my TV, whiteboard, and such in there too along with the big stuff, so I don't end up having too much stuff to take home with me.  Of course, I'd probably need to find somebody with a truck who could help out with moving the couch and bed out of here, because otherwise I don't know how I'd get those bigger things to the storage units in the first place!