On Sunday evening, Easter, my dad was returning my sister to Westminster Choir College in Princeton, NJ. Since my spring break was coming up, I didn't want to make him drive more than he had to, but it was the perfect opportunity to visit Ariana down in Tampa. My dad actually allowed me to travel with him to visit her by staying in a nearby hotel and going to her house while he played golf. People that know that I'm in this long distance relationship criticize me because I'm dating a girl who's 2 years younger than me (I'm 16, and she's almost 14). She's also homeschooled and lives 800 miles away. My dad is always ranting about how I could have dated plenty other girls that are only my friends, but I try to tell him that this girl is different. Sure, "this girl is different" is a common phrase, but I mean it. I want to be with her forever. We've been together for almost a year, and we've known each other for more than a year. It's just hard to tell your parents that you spend most of your time with a girl by being on the computer. It's really not as much of a secluded place as someone would think. I've met lots of her friends through MSN and we talk like we normally would out loud.

When I first came to her house, it was strange though. I had known her for more than a year, yet we were incredibly shy with each other. This was only the second day I had ever seen her in real life, but it just felt like I hadn't seen her in awhile. The last time and only time I had met her before then was in August where her parents took me, her, and her brother to Chili's. That was only one day though, and it's so hard to continue living on knowing that it's going to be a long time before I see her again. I came to her front door, and my dad came in shortly behind me and we greeted and talked for awhile. We kept our distance and didn't talk much at first, but something between us was growing fast. Ariana hugged me so much when we went to the park and saw the sun set that I didn't want to forget a single moment. Billy also came along and we played along with his Fox/Falco/Slippy roleplaying and had a great time. We drew with chalk on the basketball court afterwards. Ariana's an amazing artist no matter what she's drawing with. The way she holds a drawing utensil baffles me, but it works for her. I could never write like that though. When we got back to the house we played a whole lot of Super Smash Bros. Brawl. I found out that I'm good with Zelda/Sheik, and she's good with Snake. We had a great time and I didn't realize at the time that I'd have to leave her again real soon.

The next day we decided to go to Busch Gardens Africa. I had been to Busch Gardens Europe before because it's closer to my house, so I thought this Busch Gardens might be as fun as the one back home. My dad and I met with Ariana, her mom, and her brother at the Gwazi. We rode one roller coaster after another and we held hands walking to the next one. On every ride we sat next to each other and had a whole lot of fun. I showed off my DDR skills (lol Drop Out/MAX 300/PSMO), and Ariana got a Pikachu plushie on her second try in a claw machine. We played Air Hockey and tried the Jurassic Park: Lost World FPS, and we lost miserably, so when we decided to do something else, some random guy gave us like 10 dollars worth of tokens. It's so much fun just being with her. The Sheikra and the Scorpion were probably my least favorites because they were so short, and the Kumba and the Montu were probably my most favorite because they had the most inversions. Later that night we went to Ruby Tuesday, Ariana's favorite restaurant, and I returned with Ariana to her house and played more intense Brawls. We played Pangya (Albatross 18), Roller Coaster Tycoon 3, Mario Party 3, and a bunch of other games. I returned to the hotel and watched "Edward Scissorhands" and "When Zachary Beaver Came to Town" until I fell asleep.

The next day Ariana, Billy, and her mom, and I went to the community playground by a pool and we played around and I ripped my shorts by jumping off the monkey bars. Billy was chased by a little girl that was at least twice as wide as he was, and I'm sure he was scared to death. His plastic sword, sadly, proved unaffective. Later, we went Go-Karting and Putt-Putting. They had an all-in-one deal that included free arcade games and they had a DDR Extreme machine with broken pads and a Pump it up machine that we both failed at. We played another game of that Jurassic Park FPS but it got boring so we went on the Go-karts. After that we went Putt-putting and skipped a bunch of holes because that got boring too. In the end we just went Go-karting another time and then we started to head back to the house. On the way back Ariana and I were really close, and by then I hadn't realized that it had only been the 4th day I had seen her in real life. It seemed like we were together for much longer. We huggled so much, and she kissed me, (my first kiss) and I didn't want that moment to ever end. The moonlight shimmered across her face; she was incredibly adorable. When we got out of the van, Billy ran in with his Sonic characters he won at Busch Gardens and we played more Brawl. After each round, Ariana and I kissed; it must have looked funny because we were killing each other on screen. On the way back to the hotel, we wished to be with each other forever at 11:11 as we try to every day, and we kissed and I held her head as delicate as possible. She's amazing, and so adorable.

The next day I had to depart Tampa and go back home. I stopped by Ariana's house one more time before we had to leave, and she was standing by the door waiting for me with sparkling eyes. We hugged and told each other that we loved each other and kissed. It would be months before I saw her again. I didn't want to let go, but my dad was waiting. She means more to me than anything else in my life. I told her that I'd see her in June for Anime Mid-Atlantic if her mom can bring her up here to Virginia. Right now I'm talking to her wishing to be with her again, but only time will bring us together again. It was really the best vacation (lolcheesyline).

- Camera broken.
- DDR foam pad broken.
- Nintendo DS, a friends game, and my Superstar Saga, stolen
- Laptop reimaged and school owned
- Cell phone went in the wash
- 30gb iPod stolen
- External Hard Drive just crashed... had everything that made me

EDIT: 4-1-08, laptop crashed again.

Yesterday was awesome. Fridays are the absolute best because I'm waiting in 5th period for it to be 6th, and waiting in 6th to be 7th, and waiting in 7th for school to let out so I can go with Aaron to VCC and play DDR (The modded Stepmania machine inside a DDR Extreme dedicated cabinet). When we got there we noticed the ITG2 machine's CRT display monitor's colors were actually fixed. It was all green and looked pissed on, but Fun 'n' Games actually hired someone to fix it! This was long overdue, so we tried it as soon as we got there. We put our 8 tokens in and it just shut down. Neh, so much for that. So the rest of our evening was spent on the Stepmania machine with much more variety of songs. The only thing I think is a downfall about the Stepmania machine is that you can get high scores for No Mines and C500. I guess it's fine with me, but the scores on there don't even compare to the ones on the ITG machine. Even though there are a lot more custom songs on the Stepmania machine, and it can handle a handy USB flash drive, the ITG scoring always seemed a little more difficult. There's 99's all over the high scores. I think the Stepmania machine's records were cleared recently, and that may be why the scores aren't as good as the ITG scores. Other than that, we clocked in at least 2000 calories on our USB's and stayed for around 5 hours. I failed at the Beatmania machine as usual, and lost on match 1 on Soul Calibur 2. I accidently did Expert on Wave Racer... =.=; YEAH... so other than that, DDR is a really great game that gives you excercises and additional strain on your leg bones :D! Oh yeah, the fan was broken and the air conditioning was messed up so we opened the exit door in the back to cool us off, and it seemed pretty efficient. I guess my highlights of the day was ALMOST passing Determinator. I feel like I've got that one in the bag. I can't pass most 12 footers, but that one has such clean bursts of triplets that I feel I can. I can pass Vertex with no mines, but that's no challenge. I think Monolith should be a 12 just because I can't pass it xD. Well, that's all for now! I'll post another one next week!

Goals Met:
<400 Overall Rank
<200 Average Rank
>90k Credits

Current Goals:
<350 Overall Rank
<150 Average Rank
>100k Credits

So directly after school on Friday, Aaron and I went to Virginia Center Commons to play DDR for 2 straight hours. Saturday morning, Aaron and I stopped by Skate Nation to play some Max 300's to prepare ourselves for the tournament at the Science Museum at 10am. The competition was on soft pads, so I think the judgment was quite unfair. Since it sucked balls, we went to VCC afterward to play on hard pads around 4:00 and played until 7:00. I'm completely worn out. And the VCC machine is a modded stepmania machine which makes it awesome, and there's tons of custom songs, and all the DDR and ITG songs too.