Hooters and Walmart

Work went well enough today, nothing terribly exciting. After work is when all the fun began, though. I had a very moving evening, in the emotional sense. Joe, the guy whose computer I work on, and newsletters I make, and his wife received some very bad news recently. She has been diagnosed with lymphatic cancer. So tonight, on their 38th wedding anniversary, he had a ton of people come to pray for her as a surprise to her. It was a wonderful evening, it really meant a lot to the both of them, I could tell, that so many people showed up to offer their support to her. They truly are a wonderful couple of people, I'm very glad to have gotten to know them.

Afterwards, Jon came over and hung out. We were going to go see a movie, but we had no way of getting in free, so we went to hooters instead. We got a pitcher of good beer, asked the waitress her thoughts on nascar racing, ran into an old acquaintance of mine, and then we headed off to wander around the aisles of walmart aimlessly.

All in all, a great evening :D

Of bikes and moving trucks

Yesterday (Sunday) morning, I oversleep and wake up just in time to call Amy about meeting up for our bicycle outing. Luckily she did the same so I got to read a bit before I headed out to pick her up. 10 o'clock rolls around, and I roll into her apartment complex. We make it down to the greenway, and we couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day! It's nice and sunny, there's a nice breeze to keep the heat at bay, and really just all around perfect for a bike ride. We bike a few miles down to Tyson park where we took a break and chatted for a while. It was one of those fun conversations that just winds its way from topic to topic. After we got rested, and I had a few yogurt covered raisins, we made our way back to the car. Along the way, we decided that we really don't care for the hills on that half of the greenway.

I dropped Amy off at her place and then headed back to my apartment. I didn't really do much of anything aside from laundry. Oh, I did cook myself some chicken and pasta. I've put together this fantastic marinade for the chicken, and I'm working on getting the rest of the dish to taste as wonderful.

Today, I biked in to work. I really enjoy doing that, so I'm hoping I get to do it more often. Work went well, nothing terribly exciting. After work I biked over to Amelia's place to help her load up a Uhaul. It turns out that she was informed by our friend that I am her transition fairy. That sounds quite silly, but to some degree it's true. I rarely see Amelia, and when I do, it usually involves me moving her and/or her furniture. We've decided that I'll randomly call her while she's living in her new place and she'll be moving, and that I'll just happen to be in the area. Cause that's how we roll.

So I've realized that I take a sick masochistic joy out of helping people move. For one, it's good exercise. For two, it's like a giant game of Tetris (Minus the whole stuff disappearing once it all fits together). I have a fair amount of fun figuring out where to put things. Three, I get to climb around all monkey like in the van. Four: there is almost always free food and beer.

So I still haven't gotten around to filling in the gaps in my blog, but soon maybe.


LOLPOD: As I was driving Amy back to her apartment, we see this cop pulling over some guy. He ended up pulling into the Krispy Kreme. I didn't see, but I'd like to think that the cop went inside briefly after handing the guy his ticket.

Suits & Slides

I woke up entirely too early this morning. 8 o'clock on a Saturday just isn't nice. I fell asleep yesterday evening while I was sitting in my giant love sac and took at least an hour nap in it, so I was wide awake when my normal bedtime came around. I didn't get to sleep til around 3, so it's been a loooong day. But I've been able to get a lot of stuff done! My studio is getting cleared out and organized, so hopefully it'll be back up and running here at this new location. (More on my move later). I met up with Emily and we went to Thompson Photo to look at lenses for her camera. We ended up chatting with the guy there for a good hour I think. It's been so long since I've really talked photography and film with anyone that I had forgotten just how excited I get. It was like I was a little school girl again!

After I got to be a photo-nerd for a while again, we went to the Crown and Goose gastropub. The food was incredible! I ordered Bangers and Mash, with a side order of Bubbles & Sqeak. Some very standard, albeit delicous, British Meals. The Bangers were covered in this wonderful spicy mustard and gravy-like sauce. We also split a plowmans lunch, which is normally just some bread, cheese, and fruit, but this one was a delicacy! It had all of the aforementioned items, but the cheeses weren't exactly your run of the mill cheddars. From the Menu:

Ploughman’s Lunch (an English Cheese Board) – Classic Stilton, white stilton with blueberries, cheddar and red veined claret wine cheese, Double Glouchester a medium sharp English cheddar with strip of aged stilton, and Red Dragon made with Welsh brown ale and mustard seeds. Boards served with roasted walnuts, Chef’s choice of English fruit preserves and artisan honey, and French baguette

One of the fruits that was served with the cheese was grapes. But they weren't your standard variety of grapes, no, they were teeny-tiny. I'm talking like 5mm diameter, Lilliputian in proportion. And they were about the sweetest grapes I've had in ages! I just did a search and found them out to be Black Corinth grapes.

The only downside to this wonderful meal was the bill. Everything there is very expensive. And although it was a delectable meal, I'm just not sure it was worth that much money.

Then we headed over to Legacy, a vintage store near the Crown and Goose. Much to my chagrin, I found some incredibly awesome suits! They were more expensive than the $12 I'm used to spending at Goodwill, but I think I may have been willing to pay for them, but unfortunately the pants didn't really fit me at all any of them. The waist was too tight and if I had bent over, I would have split a seam. I was slightly bummed because one was this incredible maroon-ish red color! But my wallet is thanking me right now, that's for sure. I just had to drop a bunch of money into my "Battle Van" aka the Mystery Machine. In fact, i spent more on repairs than I did for the van itself... (mainly because the van was a gift) :-D So now my van has 4 new tires, fresh oil, coolant, steering, brake, and every other kind of fluid running in it. It still has a slight problem where it won't turn off unless I disconnect the battery, but that's only a triviality :-P (More on that in my upcoming posts).

I got home and decided it was time to go through my clothes. I tried on my suits and found that most all of them fit quite well! There're are only two that don't fit as well as they could, but I think I could still get away with wearing them. While I was doing that, Emily dove into my closet and started pulling out clothes that she felt didn't belong in my primary closet (I have two now that I'm renting a two bedroom), or just didn't belong in any closet at all. So now I have a very large pile of clothes on my lovesac that I have to go through and try to actually get rid of a few. I'm trying really hard to part with my clothes and other items in a push to be less materialistic, or whatever, and try to free up some room in my closet(s). All those skeletons of mine are just taking up way too much room. It's incredibly hard for me to get rid of stuff. Especially if it has any sort of memory associated with it, or if it was a gift (which I guess is a memory, so i guess mainly just that). I'm incredibly sentimental, and very much a penny pincher. And both traits lead me straight toward being a hoarder (Jon's pronunciation: whoreder).

A parting image to put a smile on your face:

Update

I am way behind on my posts, and for that I apologize. I've got a ton of stuff to write about in these past few weeks. Everything is going well for me! I have to run to work, but I hope that this weekend I'll have some time to sit down and write everything out!

Lakes and poor ad placement

Sunday I woke up excited about the day to come. My bosses were taking me and my coworkers out on the lake! That made two days in a row. I didn't really want to go alone, since I knew Bernadette would bring Orin, and I thought Danielle might bring a friend as well. So there I lay in bed trying to figure out who to invite on such short notice when a lightbulb went off above my head. After I turned the lights on, it hit me, I should call Mike! So I did, and so she joined me and the work crew out on the lake. I was sad that she couldn't make it out on Saturday, so it worked out nicely that she could come along on Sun. We all tried out hand at wakeboarding, and man that is tough! I swear I tried a dozen times before I was able to actually stand up. And even then I didn't manage avoid faceplanting for very long. But it was fantastically fun, even though I faceplanted so hard I couldn't see straight once or twice.

We spent quite a while on the water letting everyone take turns trying to wakeboard, but I think we spent just about as much time just boating around. I really enjoyed that almost as much. It was so great just going along with the wind blowing in my face. Every now and then the boat would hit a series of waves and it felt like we were riding on horses.

We go out and have dinner at a place on the lake, and I get a delectable steak. Afterward, we head back to dock, watch a guy play the guitar for a bit, and then we part ways.

[edit: I forgot to actually post this or accidentally hit save now, ooops! I've been dying to go back on the water ever since. And I forgot to mention in the post that every now and then I'd turn and look at Mike and she'd have the most amazingly joyful smile on her face. :-) ]

Loch Norris

I'm so glad that Amy convinced me to go the the lake yesterday. She had to twist my arm, let me tell you! The only reason I was hesitant to go is that I am going out on the lake today with my bosses. Trouble is, it's a different lake, or else I could have camped with everyone up at Norris. (The lake is in fact named for Chuck Norris. While visiting the area, he did a series of well placed roundhouse kicks, and voila, a lake! He did the same in 1811 creating Reelfoot Lake, though he went a bit overboard and so everyone thought it was an earthquake Wikipedia. Reelfoot is one of Chuck Norris's Native American names.)

Since I thought it would be best not to wear myself out on saturday to the point I wouldn't have any fun today, I decided to tag along with Heather and Mike (the Girl). They were going to go work at Sam's for a bit (in Joey's stead, handing out brochures and trying to sell sunrooms), and then head off to the lake. Heather ended up not going to bed until 6:30 in the AM, so Mike went to Sam's by her lonesome. Sadly, Mike decided to stay at Sam's and not join us at the lake, but she did drop by and have lunch at the house before I went off to the lake.

Mike went back to work, and I decided to give Heather a call since it was nearing 3 o'clock. I believe I woke her up, but she denied it. I went and picked her up, and we were off to the lake! The e-mail Joey sent out said to call when we arrived so they could come pick us up in the boat and take us to the island they were camping at. We called when we were about 4 miles away, no answer. We got there and decided to call again, but neither I nor Heather had any reception. Well crap. I started driving really slowly, trying to look for anyone I knew when lo and behold my phone rang! It was Travis calling to see when I'd be arriving. What impeccable timing! It turned out that Joey, Travis, Morgan, and a few others had docked for a little bit while Jon and a new dancer, Josh, went to get some burgers. So we found a parking spot and hopped aboard!

Joey took us back to the island to drop people off, and Jon took us back out on the lake to do some tubing. Morgan and I went first, and unfortunately for Morgan, I made a crack at Jon. He was out for revenge, and she got caught in the line of fire. We were getting flung about left and right, even up and down! Silly me made another crack at Jon, so he had another score to settle. That next run was even more intense than the first. I'd say it was warranted after what I said, but poor Morgan. Heather and Morgan swapped out, then she and I got flung about for a bit. It was on one of these subsequent runs that Jon accomplished a great achievement, he managed to make Heather and myself lose our shorts/bottoms! Luckily I planned for such an eventuality and wore my speedo shorts underneath my trunks. Heather did not. Neither of us fully lost them, they are still in our possession, however they were no longer on our persons. It was particularly funny when mine flew off. I had just been flung from the tube and they had managed to tangle around my ankles. I got back to the tube and, in frustration, flung my trunks up onto it. Everyone got a kick out of that. Not only had they fallen off, they had managed to get turned inside out and all sorts of convoluted. Needless to say, Jon was very pleased with himself. I tried for one more go and quickly fell off again. Heather managed to stay on, and while she was being flung about, her bottoms came off! Needless to say, Jon was even more pleased with himself. I went solo for a bit, and as Jon was heading back to the island, the tube decided to go underwater! I was thoroughly flabbergasted! I was certain those things were designed to stay above water, I may need to have a word with whoever made that thing.

Happy

Here is the first of many funny/neat image posts. They make me smile, and I hope they do the same for you!






I'd post more, but I'm tired.

2 wheeled adventures

Jon and I biked the greenway again today, 20 miles! :D

Go us!

Now I'm off to get some sleep. Maybe I can think of some interesting things to add after I sleep a while.

Dreams and Positivity

So I just woke up from a rather strange dream. I forget how it started, but I was walking with my coworker in the parking lot of some shopping complex (I think it was supposed to be the one I work in, but it was far from it). We turned to go down some side/back alley and then I realized that we had left the store open and that I should get back to it, since no one was there to protect it. As we all know, there are tons of criminals just waiting to loot my store (...maybe that's a bit of a stretch). So I was running along trying to get back to work and then I see a cop car parked nearby. 

Next thing I remember is being in the cop car driving around. I seem to remember it being unlocked, and that my car key started it. So then I drove around for some amount of time, and forgot that I was driving a cop car. I went up this little hill access/back road thing (probably to the same shopping center) I couldn't turn around at the top so I had to back down. It was a one lane ramp type thing with steep drop offs on both sides. At the top, it curved to the right and then went straight down to the next leve. It had a guard rail on the left and a large green dumpster on the right. (I don't usually remember dreams, yet alone as vividly as this, so I'm taking advantage of it). I was backing up and notice that two cars in a row were trying to come up at the same time. There as clearly no way for us all to make it, and the guy in front didn't seem to notice me. (My entire body was facing backwards [direction of motion] while I was backing up, because it was briefly confused as to why the window was so far way). 

Oh, at this point I realized that my brakes weren't working properly so I couldn't just stop the car. If you've ever waited too long to change your brakes, that's what I'm talking about. I was putting all my weight into it but they just wouldn't catch. So I had two options to avoid hitting this man. To my right was a drop off that would land me next to the dumpster (upon retrospect that is a poor placement for a dumpster, well really a poorly designed road/ramp, but such are dreams I suppose) or to my left was a gap in the guard railing. I wanted to go to the left, but because I was going backwards I ended up going to the right. (This illustrates my inability to convert left and right in my head. I realize that sounds silly, but I really have to concentrate to come up with my right = your left). So guy finally saw me and swerved as well. But he went to the right instead (his left) and so we were going to collide when, for some reason, my car flipped over his, landed on its side, and tipped back over to land on all four wheels. (It didn't flip, per se, because it didn't actually make any revolutions it more or less just jumped...yay dream physics). 

I, exasperated that I should have this happen, get out to talk to the guy. We look at my car (because I have forgotten that it's a cop car by this point) and it hits me that I'm driving a cop car. Guy doesn't seem to think anything of a guy, who looks very un-coplike, driving a cop car. We look around the car and see that there isn't really much damage at all. He says something to the effect of, "Nothing you wouldn't see in a standard fender bender." Luckily his car is unscathed, because I realize at this point that the cop whose car this is wouldn't appreciate me driving it around for one and definitely not like me wrecking it. I'm quite happy that this man lets me leave without having to report the incident. It's then that I decide to avoid cops if at all possible. Then I drive to Gatlinburg apparently but somehow it's still in Knoxville. To go back home in Gburg I have to pass by some city offices and what not where cops are want to hang out. I drive down and see another cop car, so I drive and do a u-turn to go somewhere else when another cop car comes down the road and passes me. I lean my head down so my hat hides my eyes (I can't see you, you can't see me right?). Once he's passed I look back and see both cars behind me and wanting me to get out of the car. It's here that I wake up.

I enjoy analyzing dreams, and I have some ideas on this one, but I'll have to come back to it another day.

So I'm trying to make this blog a positive one. I think it's good for me, and really everyone, to try to put a positive spin on things. But some things are much harder to reassess in a good light.

Truckers = Bad 

I realize this is an overarching statement, but there is always a grain of truth in them. I seem to have a propensity for attracting the bad truckers. I was driving back from east town mall (it'll never be Knoxville Center to me) when a truck comes flying up on my right. I was driving in the middle lane and he in the slow lane. There was a car in front of him and lo and behold he decided to try to pass him. Unfortunately I was directly to his left, fortunately he saw that fact before coming over too far into my lane, because he certainly did come over before looking. I was going somewhat faster than the car in front of him, so he swerved behind me and started riding my tail. When I didn't go fast enough for him, he put on his brights and kept them on. So it was lit up like christmas in my car. I realize now that I could have just gotten over in the fast lane to let him pass, but I didn't. And wouldn't that kind of be validating his behavior? By letting him bully me wouldn't that have told him that it's ok to bully other cars on the road? Either way this went on for a little while because traffic wouldn't let him around me. There finally ends up being space for him so he zips into the slow lane and zooms away. All this right after we pass a cop, which while the cop could see, the trucker wasn't doing anything. Off in the distance I see the trucker swerving through traffic and curse him  few times.

This is hardly the first time this has happened, nor do I think it will be the last. I have a feeling it boils down to my unwillingness to be pushed around.

Hmmm, so I guess I'm getting a lot of experience dealing with bad drivers on the road. That's good practice, right?

Dark Room!

My bathroom is now also my darkroom! I developed my first negative in there today, and it turned out well. It had a few scratches on it but I wasn't being terribly careful with it, seeing as how it was just a picture of this house. I think the camera shook a little bit with the shutter, so I should probably track down my cable release. Maybe tomorrow I can develop some of my serious pictures, though now that I think about it I will do another practice one and take care not to damage it.

So my awesome glass earring fell out and shattered upon hitting the floor :( That's the second time that's happened to me, and now I'm out of 4g awesome glass earrings. But as I was just putting in another earring to keep my ear from closing up, I looked at the negative hanging in my bathroom and realized that I had kinda turned it into a positive image in my head. If I really think on it I can see it as a negative, but when I just casually think about the image it's sort of a positive. It's hard for me to describe visual memory.

So I've been meaning to post this for over a week now, so here I go:

Last Sunday Aug 3, I went home to have my mother's birthday meal. I left at 11:30 to get there at around 12:30 since we were planning on eating at one. Were being the operative word. From the Knoxville News Sentinel: All lanes of eastbound Interstate 40 in East Knox County reopened this evening following a
tractor trailer fire that backed up traffic much of the day.
The tractor trailer caught fire at 11 a.m. today resulting in an eastbound lane on I-40
blocked for several hours. At 8 p.m. the Tennessee Department of Transportation
reported traffic backing for 5 miles.
Knox County Sheriff's Office deputies and the Tennessee Highway Patrol responded
to the wreck at 11:17 a.m. this morning.
No one was reported injured.


So alas, I was stuck in traffic about 2 miles from the accident for about 2.5 hours. Luckily for
me, and everyone else around me, the guys in front of me helped us all pass the time by providing
us with a few laughs. They started out playing with sock puppets through their sunroof. Next they
got out and fought with foam swords, and then grabbed backpacks and acted like they were going
to just hike the remainder of their journey.

I then called my dear friend Meagan and was able to curb my boredom 'til I actually started moving.

Ahoy

I just want to go ahead and make my first post to get it out of the way. Once the first one is done, the rest should just fall in to place, yeah? I'm wanting to make this web log thing a regular habit. So even though I'm exhausted after my workout and my bed is calling to me, here I am writing (typing) away. 

My new bed is awesome. It's fantastic being able to stretch out in more than one direction. I never realized how tough it was as a 6'5" guy in a twin bed until I got to bask (sleep) in the glory of a bigger bed. It's only a full, but comparatively it's a vast ocean of sheets and comforters. And I am off to embark upon a voyage to explore its endless depths and uncharted lands with my pillow as my sail.