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…

—-

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.

It’s been so long since I have made any posts. I should feel ashamed of myself, however I am not. So, all two of you are probably not wondering what’s going on in my life right now. So, of course I am going to tell you. That is, I’ll tell you if I can figure it out myself. It’s a little bit confusing at the moment.

So, at the moment I am still out of a job. However, I am starting to do a couple things with my life, because I am getting seriously sick of sitting around. Like, seriously serious.
So, I have been doing a couple things with the church (designing and building a website, designing shirts, and other stuff). I have also recently started a script for a movie that I want to do in junction with the church for the youth group. I am not sure how I am going to get it all accomplished, but maybe it’ll come to something.

Really, that is about all that’s going on. Man, my life is not all that productive right now. About as productive as a pile of poo… steaming, and that’s about it. Not moving, at least to the naked eye. Wow. What a great annalogy. (Raises eyebrow.)

So anyway… to give me a little bit more filler, I am going to do this survey from Nikki’s blog. You don’t have to read it, it’s likely not going to be all that interesting anyway. Not to mention I do so many of them, that you probably know all the information already. How sad.

—-

If you knew you could not fail, what would you do?
I would be a writer and director, I do believe. I would love to write books and screenplays, then make them into movies. Man, so awesome.

What is your zodiac sign?
Saggitarious, or however you speel it.

Do you want to learn another language?
Gaelic of any and all sorts would be pretty sweet. Then no one could keep up with my conversations (in the States). It’s hard enough for them already.

5 things you can’t live without:
God, sustanance, sleep, friends, books.

Do you have any siblings?
I wish I did. Maybe life wouldn’t be so lonely.

If you could plan your ultimate vacation, where would you go?
Where WOULDN’T I go?

What mountain would you want to climb someday?
In a perfect world, I would say that I would love to climb Everest. However, I don’t know as if I will ever get around to it. Wouldn’t that be so amazing though? Standing at the top of the world. Any direction you look, you just see the uninterupted vastness of God’s glory and creation.

Say something to the person who tagged you:
Sup! I imagine I’ll talk to you tomorrow, however if I don’t, I’ll see you Thursday.

What do you think has been the greatest invention in your lifetime?
The internet, of course. Thanks Al Gore, you’re the best.

What kind of magazines do you read?
Covert Side

What’s your occupation?
Occupation? You mean, like a job? That’s a good one.

What’s really creepy?
According to a lot of people, I am. However, they change their mind once they get to know me. I’m a charmer… har har.

Who is your celebrity crush?
Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuhm… To tell you the truth, I have no idea. I know there was someone, but I don’t remember who it was. I told Nikki not all that long ago… maybe she’ll leave a comment with who it was, if she remembers.

What’s your current fandom/obsession/addiction?
Well, my last one was Time Travelers Wife. However, at the moment I haven’t been able to put down my bible. It’s got so many great and inspiring stories in it. Which, a lot of people wouldn’t really view that as a good answer. So, other than that… I really am not into a whole lot right now.

What are you listening to right now?
Well, I was listening to Lara Ruggles myspace page a few minutes ago. I’ve been listening to a lot of Jars of Clay lately, though.

What are you most excited for?
I dunno. I guess I am looking forward to this weekend pretty good.

What websites do you always visit when you go online?
Facebook, DIII, and sometimes Twitter. I go a ton of other places too, but not every time.

What was the last thing you bought?
Stuff for dinner today, by not with my money. Mom sent me to the store for it. So, the last thing that I personally bought was a bowl of chili the other night at Wendy’s. Last thing that wasn’t food was, gasoline. Before that, some new pants at Wal*Mart.

What’s the closest you’ve come to becoming a pop star/winning an Oscar?
I have starred in several movies from Thirsty Dog Productions.

—

Well, seizure!

I haven’t been posting anything. I haven’t been letting the void of the interwebs know what’s going on in my life. However could I have let this happen? My loyal followers wish to know what I am up to! I can feel it!

Worry not my young apprentices… I am not dead. Yet.

That is all, class dismissed.

Why is it that I get so much spam here on my journal? I get pretty much one spam message a day. They tend to not attack the older posts, but the latest two or three posts, they just bombard.
The latest spam I got, was for an escort service in the Ukraine or something. Classy.

So, I am going to keep this post updated on how much spam I get for this post, alone. I would post all the spam in the comments, but I am afraid that would draw attention to the site and flood it with even more. So, I’ll just write what the spam was about in an edit of this post.

Ah, the joys.

Numero uno:
Pretty good post. I just came by your blog and wanted to say that I’ve really enjoyed browsing your posts. … — Mary

I go in, get the case… walk up to the front counter. There is another woman standing there in line as well. We wait around for about 5 minutes. No one. The phone starts ringing… No one. Nothing.
People coming in, the door chime going off… Nothing.

Finally, I go to the back and hear voices. It sounded like they might have been having an argument or something, I have no idea.
So, I call back.
“Heellooooo?” and finally a young lady comes out.
“Oh, sorry. I was in the back cleaning the tanning beds.”
Ah-ha. Okay.

So, we get up to the front… I let the other lady go first. She gets done and it’s my turn. The girl looks around for the game, and then gets on her cell phone and calls her boss or something to see if THEY know where the game is. Nothing. Can’t find it.

She looks around for a little while longer. Then she asks me if I want the Wii version. I told her no… So then she asked me if I would like to leave my number and she’ll call me when she finds it.

I opted out, told her not to worry about it, and left.

I need to get some contacts. Yes, I think I am actually going with those evil things. I am tired of how rough I am on glasses. Every pair I have owned have come out catterwompus, discombobulated, cockeyed, and wompy-jawed.
The pair I have right now, I have to tighten the screws on them every single day. I am sick of it.

Drastic times call for drastic measures. Indeed… Contacts. (sigh)

I should totally get red tinted ones.

It’s been a while since I have posted anything, so I guess I should catch everyone up on what’s been going on in my life. There’s not a whole lot to tell, but for some reason I keep getting the feeling that this could be a semi-long post. That could have something to do with the fact that I have recently had two cokes, and I feel chatty. I also am feeling in a fairly chipper mood. Yes, chipper.

Shall I take the most recent thing, then work backwards? That might make it too confusing on you as the reader, much less me the writer. I don’t know if I could keep up with it in my current state of mind. (You know, out of my mind.)
So, I guess that means that I need to backtrack and try to come up with what I have done in the past two weeks. Which, will most likely be really easy to do, as I have nothing that I am doing during the week, really.

So, since Thursday two weeks ago…
I went down to Berry and helped Lauren move out of her room. We had a pretty good time, full of laughs… like not having a screw driver to remove her mirror off her closet, so I had to use a butter knife. Yeah, that’s right. I am awesome.

Kyle and Clint joined us a short time later and sat through the graduation ceremony with us. They were bored to tears, but… we all survived. Then we went and searched around town for something to eat. Finally wound up at Panera Bread. Rachel found us while we were there, and we started the long voyage to Dalton.
After getting turned around about 50 gazillion times, we got on the right road to Dalton. Sheesh.

We crammed all of Lauren’s stuff into her room, then drug her off to Ellijay. We all went up to the Blizzard’s house and watched the Italian Job. That was a pretty good movie. We finally left the Blizzard’s house at like… 2:30. Lauren and Rachel went home and talked until 5:00… I came home and watched Space Cowboys with dad until 5:00.

Sunday the next morning was pretty rough. We all survived it though… I do think Rachel fell asleep though. I believe that was Mother’s day.

The week was pretty dull, except for Tuesday/Wednesday morning… Which was not nice.

Wednesday afternoon, we celebrated Rachel’s birthday. Kyle and Clint got her a PS2 and Guitar Hero. (Lauren and I got her dancing shoes the week before.) We then took her out mudding in Cashes Valley, and let her drive. That was scary. I am surprised that I survived it. There are some pretty awesome videos of it on facebook.
We then came back and picked up Lauren and went to Longhorn for dinner. Craziness ensued.

On Friday we all met up in town, and headed down to Atlanta for the swing dance at Georgia Tech. I danced horridly, or at least it felt that way. AJ wasn’t there, so I couldn’t get any tips from him. A fairly decent time was had by all, untill I got a migraine and stopped dancing. Fun fun.
From there we all went to Papa John’s pizza in the sketchy part of town. The dude had to buzz us into the store. The doors stayed locked (of course this was really late.)

We then headed over to Rachel’s aunts house and spent the night. Kyle, Clint, and myself felt like we were on fire all night it was so freaking hot. The fan also didn’t work unless you had the light on. So yeah, we slept with the light on all night.

On Saturday we went to the Renaissance Festival in Atlanta. It rained aaaaaaall day. When we first got there, it was actually a thunderstorm. We waited in the car for a while untill it passed, then headed out into the pouring rain. We refused for it dampen our day, and overall enjoyed it quite muchly. Clint and I each enjoyed a funnel cake. I had to have the obligatory ginger beer, of course.
They had a couple new venders that I don’t remember from years past. It was pretty neat, and not crowded at all. Not to mention, I got to see pirates taking a bath in a muddy water puddle.

We then came back to Ellijay and had a bonfire and smores, or at least… would have, had the skies not opened up 20 minutes after we got the fire going. Just as the fire was starting to get good, it got put out. So sad.

When we realized that plan was defunked, we all headed up to the Blizzard’s house again, and played Guitar Hero till about midnight.

On Sunday the five of us all went to church, and had lunch there. It was pretty awesome.
Lauren left directly after church, and so then Kyle, Clint, Rachel, and I went to the Leslie house and hung out for a while. Went trying to find a mudding trail, but it was blocked off by a bunch of trees. So, we headed back and had dinner (yummy grilled salmon, wild rice, asparagus, salad, and toast) and watched “Blackbeard’s Ghost”. Then had a huge wrestling match. It was quite awesome.

Again, the middle of the week was pretty boring. Tonight the Blizzard’s and I (and maybe Lauren) are going to watch Terminator Salvation in Dalton. Then tomorrow we’re all headed up to Dollywood for the day. Sheesh, I have a social life! :O

I guess I will have to update more often so that it’s not so hard to remember all of this stuff! Thanks Clint for helping me keep everything straight!

I just saw this on someone else’s journal… it’s freaking hillarious. I don’t know how the guy taking the order kept up with it, without having them repeat it. He’s amazing… hahaha… He totally needs a pay raise.

I notice that I am going longer and longer without making a post on my blog. This happens every time I start up a blog. It’s like I start off and it’s going great. Then something happens, and I just lose it. I stop making posts, and it really makes me sad. I don’t know what to do about it.

Of course, other than just making posts. No matter how short they are.
Just post because I feel like it.

On a whole different topic, it sometimes makes me sad that my friends have completely changed in the past six months. Within the past six months, I have gone from wanting to spend all my time in Ellijay, because that’s where everyone was and they didn’t like to go anywhere… to all the time being on the road. Between Ellijay and Rome all the time.

Even within Ellijay, I have been traveling more. The Blizzard’s and I have started doing more together. Like this past Saturday we went Jeeping out in Cashes Valley. We had a great time! Six months ago, I had pretty much stopped doing things like that. I have no idea why, either. There was no reason for it… I just stopped.

I know I commented on this a few posts ago, but I still am so thankful for it. That is friends that I can pray with and have conversations about God with. People my age that are on fire for the Lord. It’s amazing and refreshing to see and be a part of.

Last night Lorena and I were on the phone for quite some time, talking about God and his designs for his children. It’s like a recharge for my batteries, you know? It’s been so tremendously long since I have been able to be in a relationship where we both receive blessings from each other. Not just me mentoring the other person (like the kids), or me being mentored to (like the guys).

Words can’t really describe the feeling of walking together down the straight and narrow path.
(Content sigh)… Thank you, my God… My King… My Daddy.

Yes, I am posting this here too… I am too lazy to make a real post.

Traits:
1. I have a very poor self image, and I am very hard on myself. Even to the point of hating myself, a good part of the time. This is my worst trait.
2. I have a problem with how all these things are centered on me. I hate being the center of attention.
3. I have OCD on certain things. I actually arranged all my facts into groups. Which, you can obviously see.
4. For some reason, a lot of people come to me for advice.

Living:
5. Some day, I wish to live on a sustainable farm. Complete with bee hives.
6. Given the opportunity, I would move to Ireland… right now. I could be packed and ready to go within 10 minutes. Which is sad, never having been there before.

Dying:
7. I am okay with dying, if it is my time to go.
8. I almost wasn’t born (don’t worry, not abortion).
9. I very nearly drowned when I was 17.
10. I watched my horse die. He died with his head practically in my lap.
11. Some of the hardest moments in my life, came before I was 21. Others around me, who have seen 30-40 more years experience than I have, agree with that statement.

Religion:
12. I once made the mistake of asking God for patience. Not advisable.
13. I have toyed with the idea of going to a monastery/abbey and completely devoting all my time to God. I don’t know if I could quite handle it though. God made my heart desire a family.
14. I have a habbit of when I pray, it turns into an actual conversation and I refer to God as “dad”. I worry sometimes that that’s not a good idea.

Misc:
15. I have four good friends. Two of which are brothers that I have known for 15 years, and two that I met through horses.
16. If given the choice, I would be nocturnal.
17. I am addicted to wikipedia. I don’t ever edit it, but I read it constantly. I love to study random things, all the time.
18. I have a CCP and CCW.
19. My three favorite smells are: Freshly cut grass, rain, and books.
20. Fox hunting is my lost passion… I wish I still could.
21. I want to learn how to play the violin, and the bagpipe.
22. I almost had a brother, through adoption.
23. I have trained horses for the Police Dept. for use in Marti Gras in Mobile, Al.
24. I once had a headache appear so quickly and so forcefully that it knocked me to the floor. It then persisted in staying around for a couple weeks as a massive migrane.
25. I have ridden horses casually/for fun with an Olympian or two.