Recapping at 27

Well hello.

It's certainly has been awhile since I cracked a cheap beer, sat at my sticky keyboard and pounded out a blog entry.

In fact, it's been almost a year exactly since I smash cut to black. Time certainly does fly.

Before I begin, I must say that I feel like the guy in high school who graduated and came back to school pick up his girlfriend during lunch. He's high-fiving the people who might remember him, but really, they are all rolling their eyes and wondering when he's gonna finally let it go.

I can accept that.

::adjusts collar on letterman's jacket::

Believe it or not, my old So@24 gmail still has emails coming in from past readers and people who have just discovered the blog even after a year of my "final" entry. The response has been amazing and I'm still shocked (in the good way).

A lot has happened in a year and I felt I owed it to those who have taken the time out to write me and ask "Dude, seriously, wtf happened?" to give a proper response.

Man, so much has changed in the blogging universe. People are making Facebook fan pages of their own blog?? Jesus. Now I know how Brooks felt when he finally got out of his stint at Shawshank.

After a lot of urging from Beth and emails I've received, I thought I would try and see I could get the ol' blog a book deal. Might as well give it the old college try right? And if not, I still had a hellva run. But I figure if some dude can get a TV deal by simply hitting the key CTRL and V every time his father says something mildly amusing, why can't us working stiffs have our day in the sun? It's been a lot of hard work, but unfortunately no biters yet.

Glamour.com reached out to me a while back and asked if I would do an interview with them. A few mere HOURS after the article was published, I was surprised to find out that bloggers were posting the link on this little website called "Twitter". I had no idea people still cared!

So what has happened to some of all-stars on So@24?

My bestfriend and (ex) roommate with the devil-may-care attitude Leo is still single and doing his Leo thing. Mo fo actually had a girl from Australia (he briefly met during his travels) pay for his plane ticket if he would go out and stay with her for 2 weeks. I can't make this shit up.

Ballin.

Crazy Janice recently moved back to Los Angeles. I received a nice handful of passive aggressive texts from her when I didn't show up to her "Welcome back" party. Oops!

Beth (the original) and I reconciled after our falling out. She was the first to break the silence with a heartfelt apology and our friendship was rekindled. I met up with her when I was back home for Christmas.

In a surprising turn of events, Leo and I met up with the infamous Irish blogger Caitlin when we traveled to Dublin. The clouded and muddied fizzle of whateverwehad was never brought up, but a good time was had by all after plenty of shots and pints. We don't keep in touch often.

Not sure what happened to Amber. I never heard from her after our last encounter, but I think she's engaged now?

Bree and I are still friends. She's still bloggin and still dating. I have no doubt she'll find what she's looking for. She'll find her Tetris piece. And for the record, she never did get that headboard upholstered.

Lynn. Can't have a 1 year recap without bringing up the girl who stamped the passport for this whole trip, right? She's doing well and we're friends. We've met up for dinner a few times, but those are few and far between. She might catch me on gchat to share a funny YouTube video or I might post some nonsense on her Facebook wall. She's dating the same guy and as far as I know, things are going well for them.

Her mother Andy and I still chat on the phone.


And now, I thought I'd share a picture with you of me and my one, true love:

me + vids

Just joke, just joke!

Beth and I are still together. When people ask us how we met, we always share a look of "Welp, here we go" and spin our tale to keep it as succinct and low-on-the-creepy scale as possible. I did the fly out and met her folks in New York.

I never had the experience of meeting "the dad" before (Lynn's dad passed away when she was young). Within seconds of the classic Dad-meet-the-boyfriend hand shake, he was showing me his brand new camera, asking me about my high school wrestling stories, and insisting that he teach me how to drive a boat. Again, I can't make this up. Fucking classic.

Beth made the move out to Los Angeles and we're inching our way into the cool waters of cohabitation together and cautiously holding up our swim trunks up in case we get really wet before we're ready. But so far, it's been great; we constantly are checking in with each other: "Are you having any doubts?" "You think we're doing the right thing?" "You're cool with watching Glee on your laptop swishing a glass of wine while I play Red Dead Redemption in my undies with a bottle of suds?"

That dude in the back really enjoyed his clambake.

We have a lot of fun and a lot of laughs. What more can you want? For awhile, Beth and Leo were living at Sexy Dojo for awhile. Living with your best gal and your best friend? It really could have been a sitcom. I like to think that the promotional poster would have gone something like this:

Insert Hilarious Sitcom Title Here

Alright alright, it was actually more like this:

Beth as Dr. Love, So@24 as The Spandex Sensation, Leo as Disco Dan

I wish I had something more exciting to say about where I'm at and what the future holds. But maybe that's the best thing?

Before I sign off again, I want to again, thank all the readers new and old. As I stated before, I'm always blown away that people are still discovering my little nook of the internet and take the time to write such personal, thoughtful emails to me. I still check from time to time and I always write back.

Blogging has been good to me and I hope you had as much fun reading as I did writing.

Best,
Brandon
fka So@24