This Is A Test

It's been OVER A YEAR since I posted on this blog.  That's ridiculous.  I always have thoughts running through my head and ideas that I want to jot down.  I always have stories to tell.  I need to tell them before they all leak out of my brain.  I'm trying to set up my blog on blogger.com so I can update it from anywhere a lot easier than before.

It's Been A Quiet Week In Huntington, WV, My Home Town

The Christmas season has been nice, so far. I've been working a lot, but I took a week of vacation all next week. PUMPED.

I saw an elderly woman have a mental breakdown yesterday while I was out shopping. It was really sad. A, presumably homeless guy showed up at my doorstep a few days ago trying to get me to buy his watch. He didn't think the pawn shops were open. I assured him they were. He wanted to use my phone. Yadda, yadda, yadda, I got rid of him. Sorry buddy, but it's creepy that you're at my house.

We did Christmas a couple nights ago with Lisa. It was awesome. Lots of fun things and stockings were opened. We also let Christian have two of his large gifts that were too big to take to my parent's house: a recliner and a drum kit. He flipped out over the drum kit.

I had a dream last night that two unrealistically attractive assassins came after me. I tried to shoot them with an electric, automatic weapon that hadn't charged enough so it was about as bad as spitting aquarium gravel at them. I finally fought both of them off and kicked them out of my house. Then they turned the pitiful girl looks on me and I almost caved.

That's the news from Huntington where all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average.

Dinner With A Homeless Guy

We had dinner with a homeless guy the other night. It wasn't planned, it was just thrust upon us. Let's go back to the beginning... We were driving and remembered that there was a dessert place that we had been meaning to check out. It's part of a chain here in WV called Tudor's Biscuit World. Greasy, fattening, yummy times. So, we walk in and the guy waves at Christian then says, "Hi!" Of course, we had no problem with that.

I told Christian to say, "Hi" back to him. He waved and we ordered. After we sat down, our new found friend was suddenly behind me like a ninja.

"What's his name?"

"Christian."

"Hi, Christian!"

Christian smiles and waves, "Hi!"

The homeless man, whose name was David, sat down and told us about a ball he found and that he had been looking for someone to give it to. It was one of those plastic bowling balls that comes in the set with pins for little kids. It was all dented a little dirty, but we didn't think it would be bad to let him have it (there's a picture below, along with a flower thing that he made and gave to Brooke). Brooke offered the man some food but he said he had already eaten. He was a nice guy. It definitely made for a different experience than what we were expecting. Also, Christian was fascinated with all his rings.

Gifts from the nicest homeless person I've ever met

Serious Stuff And Movies

Do you ever have one of those projects that you really love and want to work on all the time but it seems like life always jumps up and say, 'Hold on now, I've got something you need to do first.' That happens to me all the time. For that matter, I had NO IDEA that it had been almost a month since I had written anything here. (Quick side note: Weezer is bad to listen to when you're trying to think and write something... I just wanted to sing along. Now I'm listening to Caspian.) A lot has happened since my last entry, some of which I cannot speak of in a public forum.

My Mom had a major brain surgery. She's fine and recovering nicely. She had 5 cysts removed from under the front of her brain. It's a scary experience that makes you think about life a lot more. I cope in weird ways that I don't talk about much. Fortunately, all is well and just getting better and better.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. I most likely will be working. I'm really hoping to be able to spend time with Brooke & Christian but it's a strong possibility that I won't see them until the evening. I guess that's the way it is. More people care about shopping for Christmas than spending time with family on Thanksgiving, so more places are opening up on Thanksgiving. For someone like me, that means that there's more possibility of service calls. At least this Caspian CD I'm listening to is really good.

I watched "Dark City" a few nights ago. It's pretty good. Kiefer Sutherland's acting is a bit over the top in the film, but I liked the idea behind it. I watched "Couples Retreat" today. It's pretty much exactly what the preview lead you to believe it was going to be. Vince Vaughn definitely brings the laughs a few times though.

My birthday was this past Sunday. Brooke called a bunch of my friends and a few of them came out to IHOP to surprise me for a mid-morning breakfast. It was great. Brooke got me some awesome Doctor Who presents and Lisa gave me some money to put towards a new tattoo. Mom and Dad aren't going to be happy about that, but it's okay because they love me.

Happy Thanksgiving, American friends. Don't get caught up in the whole "we took the country from the Native Americans" thing because sadly, it's already done. Be thankful for what you have and what you can work toward. Just because you're dealt a bad hand doesn't mean you have to play it. There are a handful of things in my life that bother me and I'm working hard to change them. Everything else thrills my heart that I can experience it.

Music Is Life

Watching bands play live is both amazing and horrible for me. I love seeing a show and I always have. To me, it's one of the reasons to be alive. Just music in general is a great reason to be alive, but seeing a band perform can put me in an emotional state far more intense than just listening to the songs in my car.

The horrible side of it is simply that I want to be on that stage myself. I want to play again so badly. I miss playing with a lot of the people I've played with before. Sometimes I was hard to be in a band with and I regret that, but it's like a dating relationship, only with a handful of extra people. There are ups and downs, emotions that run stronger in every direction and, hopefully, an intense love for what you're doing (and even, in weird way, for who you're doing it with). Sometimes a band breaking up can mean that you just won't see those people as often, which is a shame, but it's life. Try getting a band back together after it's been broken up though... It's can be just as awkward as hanging out with an ex.

But, back to my point. I love music and I want to play shows again. I want to write about my life and thoughts and the things that get me excited and hopefully strike a nerve in people and give them something to relate to. If someone can vent something through mine and my friend's music, that's truly a gift.

A.D.D. Dominates

It's going to take me a bit to get used to updating a blog again. Life stays busy. I work full time, I'm married, I have a 19-month old baby boy, I do this zine, and I'm working on a new band. It's kind of cool to be this busy, in a way.

My parents were here for a visit over the last 5 day and headed home today. It was a nice reminder of what it was like to be a little less responsible. I miss the crap out of them. I feel terrible for Brooke because her family is even further away and she misses them all the time. Sadly, we don't have the dough to fly out there to visit more than once a year, if we're lucky.

It seems like my mind goes blank when my fingers hit the keyboard. Although, I just had Facebook try to get me to add another one of my ex-girlfriends. Not that I really hold any animosity toward them, but I also don't see the point. Silly Facebook, always trying to make me look like a desperate creeper.

Three paragraphs that have nothing to do with one another. Seems like a solid reason to stop on the fourth paragraph, eh?

The Beginning

This isn't going to be a traditional blog all the time. Sure, sometimes it will be things about my day or something funny that I thought of. But, it's also going to be a bit of history, usually the funny bits.

It all started 185 years ago when I was born. I was a fat baby. It's okay, I can say that. I had a goofy haircut when I was a kid. I got in fights with the kid down the street all the time, then we would be best friends 20 minutes later. I don't know what our problem was. It's always fun getting busted by someone's mom when you're hitting their child, your friend, in the face. We were idiots.

I got called a "nerd" a lot when I was a kid. I had a social studies teacher, Mr. Johnson, that even got in on it. He later got arrested for saying dirty things to one of my classmates. Creepy. So, the point is, I didn't like it. That didn't make me any less nerdy but, in the '80s, it wasn't as socially acceptable to be called a nerd like it is now.

In 7th grade my friend Lance gave me Metallica's "Master Of Puppets" cassette. This event literally altered the course of my life. No joke. I got into metal, then became obsessed with music, then wanted to start a band, then I was in a couple of bands, then one of my bands needed a touring bass player, then one of the guys emailed this girl that he was acquainted with, then she joined the band, we dated, broke up, then realized that we were dumb for breaking up, then dated again, then got married. How's THAT for life altering? It's a shame that Metallica can't write good music anymore.

Somewhere, in the middle of the events from the last paragraph, I made a lot of friends, started skateboarding, had a few jobs, dated a few girls, traveled a lot, developed an even bigger obsession with Transformers, and had a lot of amazing and tragic things happen to, around and on me. I forget a lot of things so I thought it was time I started telling these stories before they're all gone...