Dangerous Business

Well, as I have been looking around at my usual haunts, I have been seeing a few poeple doing “The Year In Review” type things, so I just got the sudden urge to do that. Like, I didn’t even know that I was going to do it until I started typing that sentince up there. Funny how things like that work out so quickly.

At the begining of the year, I lost my job at Builder’s Choice. That was quite an interesting start to the New Year, I must say. I got quite a good bonus when I left, which was about the best part of it. That was just a really weird day. I didn’t know it was coming, and after they told me, I didn’t know what to do. I stuck around and worked for a while longer, because I felt like it was the right thing to do. However, I wound up getting so sick of the place by the end of the day, that I cut out an hour or two early.

I three new amazingly awesome friends. Lauren and Rachel have been a God send to me over the past year. My friendship with Rachel has become really deep, and I consider her one of my absolute best friends now. I am still getting to know Sarah, but she’s turning out to be a God send, as well. To think, if I hadn’t gone to Atlanta with Rachel to learn how to dance. January ‘09 was my second time going, if I remember right. I think that was the time that really got me hooked in it. Thank goodness I went, is all I can say. Friendships are wonderful, esspecially during the rough times.

I got my motorcycle license in February, and then promptly took a trip ON motorcycles down to Panama City Beach Florida. Of course, if you are a regular reader of my blog, or know me, you already know the story. Which of course, that describes all of my readers, so I don’t think I have to retell the story for you. Now, if I post this somewhere else, I might need to add a few more details… or just link to the old blog post.

In March, Rachel was out of town or something, and I went down to visit with Lauren. That was my favorite day of the entire year. I don’t know what made it so special, but it definately was the best by far. I’ll remember it forever. She took me to The House of Dreams on the Berry campus. My goodness, that place is magical. I got to really get to know Lauren that day, and see just how beautiful of a young lady she is becoming. She still has a lot to learn, but she’s going to make a special woman some day.
Anyway, we went up to the House of Dreams, had pizza in the chilly windy mountain air, shooed dogs away from our lunch, and took a stroll around the garden. She then showed me her book of pictures from Costa Rica. Man, I remember it like it was yesterday. Every detail seems so vivid. After we left there, we went and watched the Godfather, so we could both be true men. haha

I wound up losing a person that was starting to become a friend, as well. Everyone did, actually. At some point, something happened with Beth, and she stopped talking to all of us. I really hated to see that happen, because she did seem like a really good kid. I know it really hurt Lauren, too. I could see it in her eyes for a long time. Unfortunately, she’s moved past being hurt, to being a little bitter. Which, I can’t say that I blame her but it is still hard to watch.

I studied for and took the ACT at the begining of the summer! I actually didn’t do nearly as badly on it as I thought I would do. Which, that actually makes it sound like I still did poorly on it, which isn’t the case. The only thing I didn’t do well on was the math, which I expected when I went into it. I can’t stand that subject.

I started applications for a couple of colleges, but I didn’t finish them, because I seriously don’t know if I want to go. I go back and forth on it all the time. It’s not only the money aspect of it, quite a bit of it is that I just don’t know if I want to. Which I find extremely frustrating, going back and forth. The indecision is absolutely killing me, but yet I continue to do it. Who knows what I will wind up doing.
I sort of feel like if I do go to college, I will wind up wasting time and not doing some really awesome things that I could have done, had I not gone. However, in the long run, I might miss out on some things that I could have done, had I gone. Either way, I’m just screwed.

Goodness, this year in terms of having crushes on people has been a little crazy. I don’t remember ever thinking that so many girls were cute, or had potential. Esspecially not when I fall on my face with them. They either aren’t interested, I never tell them I’m interested, or… well, any number of things. After all is said and done, it often makes me feel like I should just say “Good riddance” to relationships, and go about my own way.

In May, I started going to the local writer’s group. It’s been quite nice to be able to get with like minded people, and write about random stuff. I even accomplished something I never thought was possible. I wrote 50,000 words for a story in November. That was pretty amazing… Though, it did make me a bit sick of writing for a while.

The six of us (Kyle, Clint, me, Lauren, Rachel, and Sarah) went to the Renaissance Fair over the summer, before Rachel took off to go out west. Of course, the day we chose to go was an absolute downpour in the early part of the day. It was thunderstorming like crazy, with lightning strikes and stuff. After it stopped raining, it actually wasn’t too bad. There were a couple of interesting experiences there, which I think were totally worth it. I would love to go again this year, but I don’t know how it’ll all work out.

Speaking of going to fairs and stuff, the six of us also went to Dollywood several times over the course of the year. That was pretty fun every time we went. Lots of memories to hold onto forever. I hope we can have more experiences like that over the next year.

I tried out contacts… what a joke.

Lauren moved to Dalton over the summer, and Rachel moved to Wyoming. It was pretty nice having Lauren so close, but we didn’t go to see her nearly as often as I wish we could have. Not to mention she was really busy for the most of it, being the social butterfly that she is. We tried to go watch Transformers 2 with her, but that was also a joke. The theater was packed out, and we hardly saw Lauren at all. We wound up just leaving early.
We also coined the phrase “Up and Over” in Dalton, one day when we pulled into on coming traffic, and had to go over the median. That was pretty wicked.
We didn’t hear much out of Rachel for the whole summer, and we were pretty bummed out about that. Which actually wound up causing problems later on, when there were some misunderstandings, but nothing too major that we didn’t work out.

My life was tremendously slow for a couple months. I can’t really remember much of anything that I did. I was out of work, and sat at home on my computer for a good part of the time. I remember going absolutely insane from the lack of anything. That was not exactly the best time of my life. Probably some of the worst days of the year were spent in that time frame. I got into a pretty deep funk, and it took me quite a while to get out of it.

The Blizzard’s hired me in October. It was such a relief to be able to go back to work. I was hired on doing web design and building. I have now moved on to do some small work in marketing, which is pretty neat. It was definately the challenge for my brain that I needed. My brain got squishy, because I wasn’t using it enough. Yay for excersize. Of the brain. Forget that gym stuff.

Staying up super late, not wanting to go home, going to Wal*Mart and buying cream soda and Teddy Grahams. I suggest that to anyone.

I got back in contact with an ex of mine in October, as well. Seems hard to believe that I started talking to her again that long ago, looking back on it now. It seems like we just started talking a couple weeks ago. She’s gotten married in the time we’ve been back in contact. Man, talk about weird to witness. Someone I used to date, getting married to a guy with the same first name as me.
I’m glad she found the right guy though. It does make me feel old, but that’s not always a bad thing.

The last couple months of the year were just a blur. Towards the end of October, Rachel asked me to be her dance partner for the Masquerade ball. That was quite an experience as well. I will remember that one for the rest of my life too, whether I want to or not. It wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it would be, but it was bad enough. Looking back on it now, I am almost embarrassed that my parents and grandparents went. It seemed like such a big deal at the time, but it seems like I blew it a little bit out of proportion. Esspecially since no one else’s parents showed up. It was just all college aged kids. Oh well… I’ll always just be that weird kid who’s Rachel’s friend, at Berry.

I turned 22 years old this year. Turning a year older is starting to get to me now. I have finally hit that magical age where you start to notice you’re not a kid any more. It’s not nice. Because now the birthdays will come quicker and quicker.

Then in the past couple months, there’s been a lot of really private stuff going on, that I don’t want to put out there to the world. It’s still too fresh in my mind, and I am still mulling over it. I don’t know if it’ll ever be “old enough” to let the void/internet know about it. If you really want to know about it, you can just ask me. However, I probably won’t tell you.

What a year…

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Additions: More things that I have remembered after posting this a little bit ago.

I think it was back in the spring, I went down to Berry for Relay for Life, and sat up all night long with Jessica at the Swing Dance booth. It was quite funny actually, because we were the only ones at the booth for the majority of the night, and neither of us belonged to it. Jessica was more uptight about it, I didn’t care too much.
Lauren wasn’t feeling well that night, and slept for a good part of it. I took her asprin and blankets all throughout the night, and kept an eye on her. Seems like I woke her up at about 5:00am, and then we went and had breakfast at IHOP. It seems like I got an omlet, and she got pancakes with sausage, but she wasn’t hungry enough to finish them. On the way to IHOP, we stopped on the side of the highway and watched the sun rise, which was pretty amazing. After we got back, we went to the underground and fell asleep on the couches down there.

That same day, I went to Cashes Valley with Kyle and Clint. I think that was actually the second time we had gone, but it was still one of the first times. I had rediscovered it on a map, and took Kyle and Clint out to it. What a year of fun that place has given us. It’d give us even more fun if they didn’t have it all blocked off for private property.

This fall Kyle, Clint, and myself went down to Berry to hang out for a while. We took the video camera with us, and made a day of it. Lauren was able to join us for a little while, but we spent most of the day with Rachel. That day will forever live digitally on Facebook as a whacked out video. That was another one of those “best days of the year”. We did everything from climbing the hill behind the mill, rolling down the hill at frost chapel in the middle of a wedding, while being filmed by a guy in an afro. That was pretty amazing.