Let’s give this a try…

In an attempt to somehow keep a record of my life and at the same time get a little better with the computer, I’ve decided to start up a journal – and what a great time! So much has happened lately, this week in particular…

 I’m not even sure where I should start.

How do these blogs work anyway? Do I start from today and go forward? From the day I was born – I’d have a lot of catching up to do if this were the case.

How about a little bit about me?
There is a small blurb about me on my profile page, but I don’t even know how to view it, so I’m just going to start here.

My name is Skyla. I heard it’s a bad idea to post your last name on public internet blogs, so I’m going to skip that part.
I’m 23 years old, just turned last month on the 13th. (So close to valentine’s day!)
I’m currently going to school part time for photography. I’m not a professional photographer yet, but I hope to be someday, if only part time. I do little jobs here and there, but nothing fancy. My portfolio is building slowly. I don’t have a website yet or even a business card, but that is in the making (more on that later).
I work full time at a dentist’s office as a receptionist. I get to deal with people all day, which normal people would probably hate, but it doesn’t bother me too much. Rude people amuse me more than anything.

Ok, I admit it, I do get annoyed with perpetually rude people, but most of the time I just try to blow it off.

Anyway, I have a boyfriend of 2.5 years named Trace. We just moved in together a little over 7 months ago. He’s my first real boyfriend, my first love, my first first and my first heartache.
He’s a pretty cool guy with a lot of quirks that I’ve learned to either deal with or love. He’s not a bad looking guy either, about 6′2, blonde hair and brown eyes. He’s a big metal head and refuses to wear shirts of any color except black.

I used to tolerate metal until I moved in with him and now I can’t stand it.

Our relationship is at it’s best, in my opinion, right now. Of course we’re past that stage of thinking that the world revolves around each other, but we’re content. We had a rough patch for a few months. Did I mention he was my first heartache? Let’s just say he wasn’t loyal (that’s putting it nicely) a couple times early in the relationship, then again about a year ago.

Go ahead and think I’m nuts for taking him back, but he’s proved himself for about a year now. He doesn’t put himself in situations in which he can get into trouble anymore. My trust took a little while to earn, but it’s back full force now.

I think that whole ordeal made our relationship a little more realistic. We all know that those earth-shaking romances live only in books and movies.
It’s nice to know I’ve found the down to earth kind of romance.

Anyway, to put it short: Trace is a metalhead dork who drinks too much, but loves me more than any other male in my life (who I’m not related to. I have two brothers whom I’m pretty close with).

The other man in my life (besides the bro’s – I’m getting to them!) is Sukkah, my ugly cat. I call him ugly with all the love in my heart. That is why I bought him – because he was so weird looking.
He’s missing a tail (don’t know how or why), he’s got two different colored eyes (green and blue), a flat face and scraggly fur, but he’s the sweetest little cat I’ve ever met. He’s extremely affectionate and playful and I love him with all my heart.

Did I mention Trace can’t stand him? He thinks he’s weird. Trace wants a pit bull, how stereotypical.

I have two more hours of work to burn, so I’m going to go ahead and recap my week. (For some reason the doctors here love me and let me bring in my lap top – I love my job)

Let’s see, the beginning of my week was pretty uneventful up until Wednesday.

Wednesday night after work, I decided to hang out at Barnes and Noble. I had gotten paid last week and decided it was due time for me to spend some money on much needed books.

As a rule, I always stop by the Starbucks in the bookstore and get myself a grande decaf carmel macchiato. (I know what you’re thinking – decaf! what’s the point?! Here’s the thing, I’m prone to anxiety attacks and caffine does NOT help. I’m addicted to the taste of coffee, so I had to find an alternative.)

Anyway, so I get in line behind this young guy in the cafe. I have to hold in a laugh when he orders the exact same thing as me. I mean EXACT. Down to the decaf and all.
When it’s my turn I just have to say, “same as him” instead of saying “grande decaf Caramel Macchiato please. Yes, decaf. Yes, I’m sure. Thanks.”
So, I grab my beverage and make my way over to the magazines (always my first stop) I like to browse the photography magazines – see what’s new, etc.
Guess who is standing there looking at some type of computer magazine? The same guy. I immediately felt self concious, so I grabbed the first photography magazine that caught my eye and walked over to the other end of the magazines. I didn’t want him to think I was following him.

When I was done looking through the magazines (I never buy them, too expensive and not enough pages) I put it back and moved on to the journals. Like I said at the beginning of this entry, I really wanted to start journaling, but when I found out how much journals are, I decided I’d put my computer skills to use and write in a blog instead. I figure as long as I don’t post my last name this journal will be personal enough.
But guess who is three feet away looking at the sketch books? You guessed it. Coffee Guy.

After deciding that I wasn’t going to spend $20 on a book that had no words, I moved on to the fantasy/romance/fiction section. I had finally lost the Coffee Guy. I picked up Chuck Palahnuick’s newest book – Rant. I also picked up Sleeping with the Fishes by MaryJanice Davidson. I read her Undead series and fell in love, so I decided to start this series. I also picked up Jacob (The Nightwalkers, Book 1) by Jaquelyn Frank because I recognized it from my wishlist on amazon.
After I browsed the cookbook section and picked up a Semi-Homemade Cooking book (yes, I’m addicted to the Food Network) I quite literally *almost* ran into Coffee Guy.

I probably wouldn’t have said anything to him if he wasn’t holding two amazing books in his hand (along with a sketchbook and a magazine). Of course, he said something at the same time, we laughed, then he asked me to go ahead.
he was holding Stephenie Meyer’s New Moon and Twilight, the 2nd and 3rd book in her series. The Twilight Saga is my all-time favorite series.
I asked him if he knew that Twilight was the first in that series and he said that he just finished it and immediately ran out to get the next books. I told him I was surprised that a guy actually read those books (I thought maybe he was gay, then ruled that out later.) We talked about how great those books were for awhile and how the next one is coming out in August – yadda yadda yadda.

Eventually I asked him what he was going to say and he said that he was going to tell me that Rant was a really good book and Chuck had another book called Snuff coming out in may. That started us off on a whole other tangent on how great Chuck is. His favorite book was Fight Club, mine is Invisible Monsters.

I was during this conversation that I realized who he reminded me of. Jude. From Across the Universe. Spittin’ image, I tell you! He’s a little taller, I think. Not as tall as Trace, so probably 6 foot. He had the same shaggy brown hair look with the 6′oclock shadow.

Thinking that he looked like Jude was a mistake because I have a huge crush on Jim Sturgess. And Coffee Guy (I found out his name is Jaime, so I’ll call him by his real name from now on) had the most adorable smile I’ve ever seen. It’s nothing magnificent, kind of small – I don’t know how else to describe it – but very bright.
And he had the coolest color eyes. they were so dark green they almost looked brown. When I complimented him on them, he mentioned that most people think they are brown and I was the first to guess right.

Have you ever met someone and within the first 5 seconds knew that they were going to be a really good friend? Me either, this was a first for me too.

Anyway, I think the thing that I really adored about him was that he was so, I don’t know, happy? But not annoyingly happy, just upbeat, you know? And he was pretty laid back, and for goodness sakes we had almost everything in common!

That is except for music. We eventually made our way to the entertainment section and he was pointing out and talking about all sorts of bands I had no idea about. I found out later that he’s a drummer in an up-and-coming band from LA.

This is going to sound bad, but I was extremely relieved to hear that he’s a drummer in a semi-famous band. Why? Because drummers are bad news. Why is this good? Because otherwise I may have been attracted to someone who wasn’t my boyfriend. This immediately changed my attraction to platonic. I could only imagine the following someone like him would have, being a drummer AND adorable.

I didn’t tell him this, of course, that would have been rude.

Anyway, in between talking about great and horrible movies and bands, he invited me to his show on Friday (tonight). I told him I’d go if I could get someone to come with me. I asked him what kind of music so that I’d know whether or not to invite Trace and he reluctantly compared them to Lifehouse. (This is the part where I knew he wasn’t gay – when I told him I had a boyfriend he got that shocked/disappointed look on his face. Sorry! No potential groupie here!)

Our conversation followed us out to the parking lot where we got on the subject of careers. I told him about how I was an aspiring photographer. He said he’s a free-lance graphic designer and he works part time at a print shop his dad owns here in FL. (Somehow the band is based in LA, but he lives in FL? I didn’t get a chance to ask him about that…) Anyway, we got on the subject of websites and I told him I definitely needed one at some point, so he gave me his card. I also mentioned I had neither a logo or card and he said he could take care of that, too. He told me to email him some samples of my work and he’d come up with a logo, then we could meet sometime over the weekend and he’d show me some sketches.

How excited am I?? New friend, new logo, new card, new website all in one shot!

So, needless to say after I cooked Trace and I dinner – while he was watching TV – I emailed Jaime some samples of my work.

Yesterday in the morning at work, I checked my email and Jaime had sent me one saying that he was up all night working on logos and that he had about 20 sketches he could show me whenever I had time. He sent that email at 2:30am. Who is awake on a week night at that hour?

Anyway, so I’m overly excited and email him back immediately, telling him that I go on my lunch break at 12:30pm.
Around 11 he finally emailed me back asking where I wanted to meet and I told him about the little cafe that I fell in love with across the street from my work.

I just walked over to the cafe on my lunch break and almost walked right past him. Luckily he started waving at me otherwise I would have kept on walking. He was wearing a short sleeved shirt this time and I noticed he has a 1/4 sleeve tattoo on one arm and a design on the inner side of his forearm on his other arm. He’s definitely a drummer. It was only then that I realized how much of a musician he looks like. He practically has it written on his forehead.

Although Trace dresses in black all the time, you can still tell he’s not a musician, but Jaime reaks of it. He wears the tight (but not girl-tight) pants with the big black belt and fitted T-shirt. I think I saw a bandana poking out of his back pocket, too.

So, as soon as we sit down I beg to see the sketches.

Can I just say.. They were ALL brilliant. They emenated my style. I honestly had no idea how I was going to pick just one.
He asked me what my top five were and I told him I couldn’t possibly choose. Eventually he chose for me, but not before making fun of my indecision.

I ordered my favorite house salad and he got grilled cheese and fries. Who gets grilled cheese at a restaurant?
Jaime and I talked a lot about really random things. We laughed a lot, something that I love to do. I found myself really hoping that he wasn’t just being nice to gain a fan and some business because I would really like this guy as a friend.

Anyway, Jaime offered to walk me back to my work. I guess he saw me walking to the cafe, so we walked back. Tiff immediately asked who he was as soon as I sat down. I told her it was just some guy I met at Barnes and Noble. She said she’d have to start hanging out at Barnes and Noble.

Oh the hilarity of the desperately single.

I invited her to the show tonight. She said she’s coming. Trace passed, of course, it’s not metal so he would hate it anyway.

I’m nervous. I hope they are good. I think I’d have to lie to Jaime and tell them the band is good even if I don’t like them.

I better go now. I’ve written a novel. Maybe I should change my career path and become a novelist?

Maybe not.