My Awesome Weekend of Awesomeness

To start, I had an EXCELLENT weekend.

My best friend, Paxton, his wife, Katrina, and their 6-month old daughter, Paxton Charlotte, were in town from Oklahoma; I've known Paxton since third grade.

We spent a day at the coast. We started off in Tillamook, at the cheese factory. We then crawled up to Canon Beach, walked out by Haystack Rock, and spent a little while there. It was absolutely beautiful out there and I was very happy that I was able to do it. I've needed it.

Next we stopped in at Mo's for dinner. Mmmmm... Clam chowder.

We ended the day in Seaside and walked around downtown for a little while and headed home.

We then had boys night scheduled. Paxton, his brother, Frank, and I bought a bottle of rum and played poker for quite some time. I finally talked them into karaoke at McQueens.

I did my first song, Toby Keith - Stays in Mexico. I was known the rest if the night as Toby Keith guy.

I put in for my next song, Thunder Rolls. It was getting late (for married guys and daddies) so I took the boys home after that song.

There was a trio of friends sitting near the entrance. One was a Michael Clarke Duncan look alike; I found out later that he used to be a bouncer. Shortly after we got to the bar, he asked us if we were going to sing, shook or hands and gave us "bro hugs". Cool guy.

On our way out of the bar the group called out to us to the effect of "where you going?" I told them I had to get the kids home and that I'd be back. Ten minutes later, I returned.

It was about 12:30 by now. I put in for one more song, Friends In Low Places the live version. After rocking that, I sat back and enjoyed the rest of the performances till they closed down karaoke.

I stepped out the back door to have a smoke; I do that when I drink. The big guy was dancing along with several other patrons so I took a few candid pictures. The big guy asked to take some pics for me so I stayed outside smoking.

This cute gal, big guys friend, came out for a picture opportunity. She put her arms around me and I could feel her staring at me with expectation. I looked and she was all puckered up so I gave her a kiss for the picture. After seeing the result, I said, "we can do better." So we did. Probably the craziest thing I'd ever done; make out with a complete stranger.

She had to go back in to pay her tab so I stuck around to at least say good night, cuz I'm a gentleman like that.

I stood outside and chit chatted with her friends; I found out big guys name is also Michael. He even joked that he was little Mike and I was big Mike.

This lady, with whom I made out with five minutes earlier, returned. She asked if I wanted to go back to big Mikes place and play some bones. I didn't know what that was at the time... So they told me and I said, "what the hell. Let's do it." That ended up being the craziest thing I'd ever done; going to a stranger's house. I even joked about wanting them to promise not to murder me; I've seen a lot of movies. :-)

I learned how to play dominoes that night. This is when I learned Jennifer's name.

After a few rounds of dominoes, Jennifer took me back to the bar to get my car, and we exchanged phone numbers. She wanted to see me again.

We texted pretty much non stop throughout the week. As of right now, we have a real date scheduled for Saturday.

I ended my awesome weekend of awesomeness at a bbq with Paxton's family.

Right now, I'm in such a good mood. It could be that I spent time with my best friend, his beautiful wife, and their most adorable baby, as well as Paxton's brother and sister in-law.

Or, it could be that there's a good looking woman who's eye I caught, and is as interested in me as I am in her. Whatever the case may be, or if it's both, I don't care. I'm happy right now, for the first time in months.

I feel like I've broken free of Amanda. I even went through my Facebook photos and deleted all the ones of her. There were a few that got to me.

Pictures of Paxton and Katrina's wedding; Amanda was there with me and that was the night we exchanged our first "I love you". But, those are just memories now.

I'm moving on, and it's awesome.