Another big weekend

It has been another unbelievably eventful weekend here in Nebraska this week. On Friday, I went out for sushi with friends before Jitterbugs Night Out and then crashed at a Village Inn afterwards. The big news, however, is that the lovely Vivian Taber has agreed to be my girlfriend. I met her my second or third night at Jitterbugs Night out and have had something of a crush on her for quite some time. It took me forever to work up the courage to ask her out on an actual date back in December, but since then we've been seeing each other quite regularly. She's the reason I've been driving up to Omaha two, three, often four times every week. And you know what, folks? She is so worth it.

On Saturday, I watched The Pursuit of Happyness with my brother, Nathan, which was a very inspiring movie. Then on Sunday I came back to Omaha to go to Terra Nova again with Vivian. They are having a series on relationships during the next few weeks that's been quite informative. Afterwards, on a spur-of-the-moment, Viv and I dropped into a Wild Oats food market to buy some shrimp and then returned to her place to make up some shrimp alfredo. It was quite delicious.

This week, I'm going to be heading on down to Las Vegas to help with a tradeshow at the World Market Center for my company, Land and Sky. I'll be doing clean-up duties again, which means I'll be flying in on Wednesday to babysit a relatively dead trade show until Friday. Then I'll pack up a bunch of beds and ship them on back to Nebraska. In-between times, however, the city is mine to explore. I've been to Vegas twice already, had a good look up and down the strip, and last year I saw Mystere and Louie Anderson while I was in town. This time I'm staying downtown at the Golden Nugget instead of on the Strip, so I'll be able to check out Fremont Street and see some of the other sites in Downtown Las Vegas. Expect to see some pictures when I return!

Friday Night Jazz

On Friday night, some of my jitterbugging friends and I went down to Jazz in downtown Omaha to enjoy some cajun cooking and some swing dancing to a live Dixieland band playing up above. It was quite interesting doing the Lindy Hop in the middle of a restaurant with patons and waiters all around, but it was quite an enjoyable experience.

The lovely Vivian and I mix it up on the floor while trying
not to bump into patrons and servers swarming around us.

Dan and Sara danced even longer than we did.
You can tell by the spot they're slowly wearing into the floor there.

It was a great time, as always. This group from Jitterbugs has been so much fun, they've worked their way into my webcomic. On Saturday night, I went with a bunch of my friends from bible study and joined them in Omaha to watch 88improv, a local improv comedy group, put on a show. I volunteered to go up on stage and participate in one of the games. Vivian was able to get a picture or two of me to post in her blog.

Driving to Omaha

For the last couple of weeks I've been putting a whole bunch of extra miles on my poor little Taurus. You see, I live and work in Lincoln, Nebraska, but I've been spending more and more time communiting to Omaha on the weekends. Since I discovered the Omaha Jitterbugs last May, I've been going regularly to Jitterbugs Night Out, almost every Friday. Just recently, I signed up for more Lindy Hop classes on Wednesday nights, which gives me another commute to Omaha. On Saturday, I had another trip up to Omaha to attend a joint birthday party for some mutual friends in Omaha who I'd met through swing dance and got to try some country dancing, limbo, and even the macarena. I was going to return to Omaha yet again this evening to attend Terra Nova, but tonight's event was cancelled due to the weather. Next week I'm planning on coming back, however, because on Saturday night a local improv group will be putting on a show and I'm going to take along some friends to go see them. All in all, I'm putting several hundred extra miles on my car every week, but you know something? It's worth it. I've made so many cool friends out in Omaha that I'm starting to include some of them regularly in my web comic. Last night, several people told me that I should just go break down and move to Omaha rather than spend all this time driving back and forth. I've had the same thoughts myself. Several people manage to commute between Lincoln and Omaha every day, so it's certainly possible. I wouldn't be saving any gas, of course, until my trips to Omaha become more than five a week. Of course, at this rate, that may soon happen.

New Year's Eve

Well, I'm afraid my trip to Ames, Iowa to join Legostar and his friends for a New Year's Eve party were unfortunately cut short by a snowstorm that left most of I-80 completely impassable. I was determined to make it anyway, but when my car spun out of control just outside of Council Bluffs, I decided to call it quits. Instead, I hung out with the Omaha Jitterbugs' party at Troy and Merinda's house, which was quite a lot of fun as well.

Welcome to 2007!