September 30, 2003 - 11:48 a.m.
On Sunday I eventually crawled out of my lonely pit, with the help of Voldo, who is in a pit of despair both literal (his stage) and figurative (unrequited love) the likes of which we cannot imagine. Why must Ivy spurn his love? Does she not understand that the Crotch Trampoline (D+AK,BK) is a sign of affection?
Anyway, I went to bed that night once again totally dreading Monday. I reminded myself not to schedule my weekends so packed full. Friends make the time fly by, which turns out to be a bad thing at midnight on Sunday. I really need time on weekends to relax and simply savor the fact that I am not at work.
But on Monday I managed to wake up, and although I had to wait for the shower-- again, something I totally took for granted when I lived with my dad-- I made it to work on time. Matt showed up and we got an hour into it, one eighth of the way through, when I got a call at work.
"Let's go to Magic Mountain!" said Amanda, through the phone.
"Uh?" was all I had in response. "Right now?"
"Yeah! I'm bored!"
"Matt'll kill me if I leave work this early."
"Bring him!"
"Um... Matt? Wanna go to Magic Mountain?"
"Right now? I have no money. I'll pay you back. Let's go!"
It's kind of hard to argue with Amanda when she gets a happy plan in her head. I think, if she had just the right tone, Amanda could probably call me up and say, "Let's go run naked through rose bushes!" and it wouldn't be until I was treating my wounds that I'd say, "wait, what?"
"See, it's a new pay period, so today wouldn't even count towards your rent! Let's go!"
A persuasive argument. Since I don't need that income to survive, I don't need that income! Righto!
Matt and I made it as far as Carpenteria-- and would have made it the whole way-- when Amanda called. The one-free-admission ticket which had given her the idea in the first place also informed her in tiny print that the park was not, technically, open for business that day.
I started crashing back to reality, and I nearly turned the car around to go back to work. I indicated this, but Amanda said that was the wrong answer. What I was SUPPOSED to do was go visit her in Orange County.
Matt's position was: "Let's do something fun! I'm not going back to work!"
Amanda said she'd buy my gas for the return trip and so I saved myself from having to confront reality any farther that day.
I'll have to be extra thrifty the next few weeks, but it was worth it. For what I believe is the first time in the history of ever, I won a game of minigolf. This may have had less to do with actual skill, and more to do with the fact that the last few times I played minigolf Amanda was keeping score. When Amanda keeps score, good things happen to Amanda's score. Hehm. We got our Disney DDR on, and made our way to Arcade Inifnity. Over the course of the car ride I learned a few new, slightly disturbing details of the recent gossip episode. I was happy just to see Amanda again, to be talking to her in actual space, rather than misunderstanding her meanings over IM or hearing only select syllables out of my phone.
At the end of the day, she called and she said something that seemed very important... that she was glad we were friends. She also hoped things wouldn't get weird when one of us started dating again. It is just so good that we are in the exact place I want us to be... and it's great to hear her formally acknowledge that there will be other relationships after ours. I think it was pretty silly of me to expect it to work out smoother than it did. Breaking off a passionate yearlong relationship (which I'm finally admitting is what it was, no matter how many "breakups" there were) is no easy task. I'm just so glad that, minigolf aside, Amanda is such an honest person.
And she's SO... MUCH... FUN. Will there ever be another who will match, even surpass, my enthusiasm for Pop'N'Music? (Oh yes, it is all in the timing... Perfects are worth a lot. I don't think it's drumming so much that helped me out as DDR. The general concept is the same.) Will there ever be another girl who will have favorite songs on individual DDR mixes, and select them instantly? Amanda and Matt on Guitar Freaks, me linked up on Drummania, that's just blissful. We took purikura and, in at least my cut-out strip of four photos, Amanda is looking a lot like the cutest person ever. And it's not just the cat ears and whiskers I drew on her with the digital pen, either.
It's kind of strange, but hearing Amanda make reference to our friendship (stolen bit-more-than-friendly "hug" aside) made me realize that we never will be together again, romantically. It's really over, and it seems that so is all the drama. It's really sad right now, actually, but hey, finality usually is. I told Amanda that she doesn't need to worry about me dating again anytime soon. I was pretty sure about it at the time, but now I wonder if, just as our friendship status sort of snuck up on me, I won't just wake up one day and be totally okay with falling for a non-Amanda.
That probably won't happen if she keeps writing enthusiastically about Pop'N'Music in her diary, though. Sheesh! (Yeah, there is a Pop'N 10; Misa sent me an e-card from the game. It has the cat-girl and rabbit-girl on it and they are wearing witch's hats and it says "Welcome to the 10th Pop'n Party with music & magic!! Do you know the Moon light Story? Do you believe a magic?") Okay, I know I'm a big nerd, but really, it takes a certain kind of female to appreciate wacky Japanese music games. I mean, finding a girl who likes Super Mario and Tetris isn't too hard. But somebody who knows more Bemani songs than you do is something else entirely.
Speaking of Bemani, the one-two punch of a day full of DDR and DDRIVING made my muscles think they were dead. I couldn't move when I woke up this morning. I overslept and I showered and I feel okay now, but I seem to have missed another day of work. This time it's my own fault (mostly-- I should have started home from Orange County a bit earlier, but who has time to think about that when they're strapped into the motion chair of F-Zero AX?)... and I can AFFORD it, it's just not a GOOD thing. I'll really have to knuckle down... buckle down? Button down? What is that expression? Anyway, I'll have to be better about going to work next month. I should get better with practice. *(I will likely only get lazier, but hey, I still have a credit card debt to repay, so I won't admit this possibility.)
At least I'll get to work on the comic some today, and get in that relaxing I missed out on, plus type this up and hit "done!"...
CHECK!
