I know, it has been over three weeks since my last post. I kept meaning to, but I just kept finding other stuff to do. My bad, I know.

I suppose I'll start with a fun bit of news. Well, those who see me every day know that it isn't really news anymore, so I guess this is a shout out to the millions and millions of Natiacs out there in the Internet ether, who turn to the All You Can Nate Special as their only source of information for all things Nate.

I have a girlfriend now.

. . .

Stop laughing and pick yourselves up off the floor. I was being serious.

I can understand, though, if it comes as a bit of a shock. I was single for quite a long time. Almost all the way through college, anyway, and a few years into my professional life. Definitely long enough to get used to it. Oh, sure, I did some dating throughout that time, but it was nothing that ever really materialized into anything. People, especially family members, were always trying to set me up, so I even did a couple blind dates that were hilarious.

Well, hilarious if you think it's particularly funny to set up a college-aged bar rat with a tee-totalling, fourth-year med student. (For the record, I think it's pretty funny.) I can almost remember the look on her face when I told her that I, at the tender age of 23, had completed the Old Chicago World Beer Tour. Another time, one of my uncles wanted to set me up with a doctor colleague of his. At the time, I was 24. She was 34. Can you imagine what that would've been like? I mean, seriously, I have to wonder if she'd have tucked me in at night, read me a story, and then made chocolate chip pancakes for me in the morning?

So you can imagine that, when I stopped by my aunt's house the Friday before this past Christmas, I reacted (inwardly) with a healthy amount of skepticism when she took out a picture of someone she wanted me to meet. "Sure, she's cute," I thought, "but really, what are the odds?" I was intrigued, however, and figured that if nothing else, it'd be fun to go out and meet someone new, and I'd have good story material for the blog if it went badly.

I had Nancy (my aunt) go ahead and secure a phone number for me, and called Angie (that's her name, you must understand) soon after that. We arranged our first date for Friday, the 13th of January. I know, I know. That's a heck of a day to choose to meet someone. If you're superstitious, anyway. Which I'm not.

I'll admit to being a little nervous going into the night, but Angie set me at ease right away. When I went to her house to pick her up, her twin sister, Amy, let me in and Angie came walking out of her room with a baby in her arms.

"Hi, I'm Angie, and this is my daughter."

Now, I knew that Aubrie (the baby) was Amy's child, so I thought it was the funniest thing in the world. I love to tease people and play tricks, so I loved the fact that she was someone willing to do the same.

This is where I tell you that Angie turned out to be truly gorgeous. I know it's what you're all wondering, and I'm only too happy to tell you. :)

We went out to eat and then had a drink afterward. Angie hadn't been feeling particularly well going into the night, so I figured I'd give her a few opportunities for an "out." Bless her heart, though, she stuck with me. We talked the whole time and just really enjoyed the night. When I dropped her off, I told her that I really had a good time and asked if she'd like to go out again sometime. To my delight (and bit of surprise), she said she would.

And so we did. Each time I'd go out with Angie, I'd find something new to like about her. (Of course, this still holds true today. ;)) She, in turn, evidently saw enough potential to keep spending time with me. For me, the time went by like a blur, yet at the same time, it felt like months went by. Sounds strange, doesn't it? Anyway, by the end of our Valentine's Day date, I had asked her if she'd be my girlfriend. It was nothing I had planned, but in the end the timing just seemed natural to me. Again, to my delight, Angie was agreeable. :)

So, if you happen to see me wandering around with a bit of a grin and a far off look in my eyes, I guess you'll understand just why that is. I'd have told y'all sooner, but I didn't think it'd be fair to say anything until I had shown this blog to Angie. And believe me, as soon as I get a hold of a pic of the two of us together, I'll be sure to post it here.

So, yeah, life is good. Excellent, in fact. :)

Well, excellent except for this viral throat infection I picked up. Except this is no ordinary virus. In fact, this virus was forged in the lowest regions of Cocytus (the deepest, darkest part of Hell for those of you unschooled in the classical tradition) by the Devil himself and then passed down to mutant aliens, who infected me with it in between cattle slaughtering sessions. Seriously. If I actually knew what it felt like to have gonorrhea, I'm pretty sure this is what it'd feel like to have it in the throat.

I know all of you out there are saying, "But Nate, let's be real. We've all had our share of sore throats. Surely yours can't be any worse."

Oh, but I beg to differ. You see, this sore throat is the sort of thing H.P. Lovecraft would've written about. Swallowing and talking feels like the equivalent of swallowing razorblades and washing them down with needles that have been used by drug addicts. I've had naught to eat these past three days except ice cream and some soup that Angie was so gracious to pick up for me. At night, my sleep is rather a waking state of fever-induced delirium, wherein the lines between dream and reality are inextricably crossed. It is also at this point where it becomes very possible to conduct a lucrative pyramid scheme from the comfort of one's own bed.

Concordantly, I look about as well as I feel. I haven't shaved since Saturday, so I'm rather scruffy. I haven't lifted weights since Friday, and my muscles feel like balloons that have begun to deflate. In a way, I resemble King Theoden from The Lord Of The Rings while he was still under the influence of Saruman and Wormtongue.

In other words, if it has had this effect on me, imagine what it would've done to a lesser man.

Let's see, what else, what else....Ah. Today is Shrove Tuesday, better known as Fat Tuesday. Tomorrow begins the season of Lent, a forty-day (forty-six, counting the Sundays) stretch wherein it is traditional for Catholics and other Christians to abstain from something they enjoy. This is done in remembrance of Jesus' forty days in the wilderness, in which he was tempted by the Devil. This year, I've elected to give up alcoholic beverages. I know, this is going to be tough. But it's something that I've thought about doing for years, and it's time to prove to myself and everyone else that I'm perfectly capable of doing so. It's no trial in the wilderness, of course, but it'll provide me with ample opportunities for introspection and a chance to see just how folks who, uh, don't like beer live. Angie is in on this with me, so that'll make it easier.

And now, I'll leave you with some songs that you should go out and download.

"Express Yourself" by Charles Wright
"Surrender" by Simple Plan
"Hair Of The Dog" by Guns'n'Roses
"Inside Out" by Eve 6

I'm out. Stay on my case so that I keep posting regularly, yeah?

All right, it's finally time for an exhaustive recap of my past several weeks. Sorry I was away for so long, but hopefully you took your time away from my blog to re-lace your shoes or some other such thing.

I've managed to stay pretty busy for the last month. There has always been something going on. It starts with some sad news, as my best friend Matt's grandma died at nearly 88 years of age. She was always so sweet and kind to me when we were growing up. I know that I'll never have anything but fond memories of her. Even though she'll be missed, I can see reflections of her in her children and grandchildren, especially love, patience, and dedication to family.

Despite the sad occasion, I had an awesome time hanging out with Matt and his family. I got to spend that entire Sunday afternoon with them. We had dinner and drinks, and stayed up playing board games and card games. It was just like old times, plus the welcome additions of Renee (Matt's wife) and Pablo (husband to Matt's sister, Allison). I savored the whole night, just enjoying the blessing of a great friendship with Matt and his family that has stood the test of time (over 20 years) and distance (Nebraska to Texas). I look forward to our next 20 years. :)

That following Sunday, I flew from Omaha down to Phoenix for a business trip with one of my associates. We stayed busy the entire time, driving all over Arizona to attend meetings. We didn't have a lot of free time, but I enjoyed Arizona even so. I had never been to that part of the country. Big skies, mountains, and desert terrain. Good stuff. One cool thing I was able to do was visit my grandparents in Mesa overnight. They've been wintering down there for as long as I can remember, and every year they've asked if I'm going to be able to visit them. When I found out I was going to be in the area, I didn't tell them because I knew they'd be disappointed if my schedule didn't accomodate a visit. But time was on our side, and I got to surprise them. It was so good to see them, and I look forward to their return to Nebraska in April.

(OK, time out from my recap of the past few weeks. Have you ever seen that Domino's Pizza commercial in which some ridiculously frugal guy decides that because he saved a few bucks, his kids could turn on the lamp for about 10 seconds. After that, it was back into darkness. Sounds like something that belongs in a Samuel Becket play. Creepy. Not funny.)

Anyway, the trip afforded us some opportunities to meet some characters. After one of our meetings, we were chatting with various attendees when one old guy (a septagenarian, by my estimation) came up to me and told me how nice he thought my hair was. I thought that was a little weird, but I just said "Thanks," and tried to continue about my business. But he kept complimenting me and asking me questions. Seeing as how my hair is short, efficient, German, and unremarkable, I started to get a little weirded out and excused myself from the conversation. I'm really hoping that the old guy was just a retired barber and wasn't hitting on me.

After a full six days in 'Zona, we returned home. As nice as it was down there, I was glad to get home. Even despite the layer of frost we found on my associate's car.

The day following my return, I headed down to Fairtown to celebrate Tom's 22nd birthday with the rest of the family. It was a lot of fun. I enjoyed some good food, excellent company, and some much needed R&R.

Here's a picture from that visit of myself and Halle, the family dog. She's a Weimaraner, and has a bit of an attitude in this pic:

Believe me, Halle doesn't suffer for any lack of attention. :)

The following weekend, I went down to Salina with Ted and Eric. Their family was having a big annual gathering down there, and Theo invited Brad and I along for the ride. We had a blast just hanging out at the hotel with everyone, playing ping-pong, cards, chatting, and of course, eating and drinking the whole time. That night, one of Ted's old high school classmates picked us up and we went and hit the bar scene in Salina. It was pretty fun, but we didn't get crazy until after getting back to the hotel. Ted threw a wet towel at me, and the next thing we knew, we were acting a bunch of fools. Everything that could be thrown, was thrown, and a reasonable mess was made. One of the lampshades didn't make it, unfortunately, but Brad made a quick swap with one from an unoccupied room the following morning.

Yeah, we were kind of hurting that following morning, despite the breakfast of sausage and biscuits and gravy. Actually, that's probably why we were hurting. I've never thought that stuff sounded good after a long night. I don't know why everyone else finds it appealing.

We did find a panacea on our way home when we passed through F-town to visit Mom and Dad. They bought us some pizza, which was absolutely glorious. I was glad to get a chance to stop to see them, and I think they got a kick out of our madcap antics and tomfoolery. Halle was glad to see us, too.

That was a little over a week ago, just so you understand where we're at in the timeline. It's worth noting that I had a few bouts of insomnia at this point. I don't know why, seeing as how I was feeling pretty exhausted as a result of how busy I had been. But I had a couple nights in which I only slept about two hours.

Last Saturday evening, Jason and I ordered the Ultimate Fighting Championship pay-per-view event. It was cool. Lots of good fighting, topped off with the third fight between Randy Couture and Chuck Liddell, the Light Heavyweight champion. I was going for Couture, but as good of a fighter as he is, I just didn't see him beating the younger Liddell. And I was right. Chuck knocked him out in the second round. That's the way it goes. Following the match, Randy Couture announced his retirement. He was a true warrior, a past champion in both the Light Heavyweight and Heavyweight divisions. More than that, though, he's a class act. He was always respectful and simply took care of business in the octagon.

Brad hosted the Super Bowl party on Sunday. I'm not much of an NFL fan, and the commercials weren't that great this year, but I still had a good time. I think everyone else did, too. At one point, Jeff and Tom started rocking out on the guitar and drums. I assure you that Tom has quite a bit more skill on the trap set than his older brother. Though I don't think he can match my unbridled enthusiasm.

I almost forgot to mention that I finally joined a gym here in town. As part of my new membership, I received a complimentary Jump Start physical evaluation with a personal trainer. It was a quick, intense series of tests. I was generally pretty happy with the results. My body fat percentage was 13.9%, which is considerably lower than the 22% it was at during college, to say nothing of my post-college, work-at-a-desk-all-day-without-exercise phase. My highest scores were in the arm and leg strength tests. I ranked in the 90th percentile for both, which qualified as Well Above Average. On the flexibility test, however, I fared considerably worse. It's quite possible that I may have the worst flexibility in the continental United States. Nothing to be proud of, but at least there is room for improvement.

And with that, I leave you. I'm hoping to start posting regularly again, so check back soon. Haikus, music suggestions, television reviews, and musings upon my life will once again flow forth like so much fine wine.

Or cheap beer, at the very least.