A lot of stuff came up during this week. Shooting guns? Crazy. Just insane. And it was my first week as a “boyfriend.” A lot was going on, but let’s start with the good stuff…When me, Casey and Mitch went surfing, I remember I was kinda scared to tell them that me and Kayla were together because you never know if your guy friends are gonna start dropping jokes or how they’ll react. I was glad that Mitch was cool about it. We all know Casey doesn’t have any room to talk since he’s married.

Missing Taco Night was a big deal, but dinner that night at LaFondue was even better and kinda made up for missing Mom’s carne asada. You guys didn’t get to see it, but the girls owed me and Casey dinner for beating them at bowling. You basically cook your food at the table and you’re dipping it into these sauces and cheeses with these long forks and it’s pretty fun. It’s kinda like being in another country. But those girls thought they were funny and as soon as we sat down Taylor and Kayla both magically forgot their wallets. Wow. Who didn’t see THAT coming?

So now that I’ve got Kayla as my girlfriend, I think everything’s working great until I hear that it’s actually Tony cracking all these little jokes. He and Mitch are the single guys in the group now, and if the girls are around, those two talk about having to be each other’s date and it was really starting to piss me off. I stopped by Mitch’s house one night and he and Tony were hanging out and were being so annoying. Sometimes I just can’t take it when the two of them hang out and get in one of those moods. They were acting so crazy. But I realized later on why they were being that way. Nobody understands being a third or fifth wheel more than me. That’s how I’ve spent, like 80% of my time when I was chilling with Taylor and Casey or any of my other friends who were dating. Tony was just really used to me and him charging together. He was bummed that we weren’t hanging out as much as we used to and instead of just telling me that he would say stupid things that just made me mad. Anyway, I’m just realizing that girlfriends take up a lot of time and I’m not saying it’s a bad thing. But when you’re me and you’re usually spending every free second with your family or your friends, I guess people notice when you’re not around as much. It’s one more thing that I have to get good at – balancing my time between Kayla and the boys.

Okay. Now for the intense part…I’ve said it over and over again – I’m no different than any other kid who’s gone through a divorce. But when it comes to getting along with my dad… I just feel like he and I are hot and cold water sometimes. We don’t always get along. My dad is a strong guy. Not just physically, but mentally. He built a business from the ground up, supported my dream of skating, and yeah, he pushes me to give it my all even when I think I don’t have any more to give. He’s also fair and gives these crushing bear hugs and is down to just let you try crazy things (like get tattoos). Knowing all that about my dad and knowing him like I do…watching this episode was hard. Because I see that fight and just get mad that it was over something so dumb. Who the hell argues over not wanting to talk about something? When we get like that, and it’s like Shane pointed out, it happens a lot, I always end up feeling worse afterwards. But things are definitely getting there with me and my Dad. Part of it was just telling him I’m down to stop the fights and try and reconnect with him. The fights don’t make any sense, I always feel worse later, and they don’t solve anything. My dad was cool with us reconnecting and that made me feel better. He and I should totally be spending more time together because I love my dad and it’s important to me that we are tight like we used to be. Plus then we can do more sick stuff together like going to the shooting range and golfing.