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.

There comes a time in every man’s life, that he starts to worry that he made a big mistake. Yes… it is true men, don’t try to deny it. I have not come to that point in my life yet, but I was worried I had when I was driving home from Florida.
Now, you might be thinking, “Driving home from Florida? What’s the big deal about that?” — Well, let me tell you. Yes, on this fateful couple of days, I was on a motorcycle. A four hundred mile journey to the northern section of Georgia. Luckily, I was not alone on this journey. My father was also riding his motorcycle, and my mother was in the car following us.

Yes, on this fateful day we got a late start out of Panama City Beach. We had stopped for breakfast, and took longer than we should have. Once we finished up there, we headed on our way. By this time, it was roughly eleven o’clock in the morning. Once we got on the road, it wasn’t long before we stopped for the first time. There’s a motorcycle shop on the outskirts of town that we had made a couple trips to, and we stopped one more time before we left.
Once we left there, about an hour later, we headed on for Columbus. We had decided that we would try to make it there before dark. We didn’t make a whole lot of stops along the way. One or two bathroom breaks, and that was it. Sounds boring, yes?

On one of our bathroom stops, we noticed that the clouds ahead of us were getting really dark. We decided that we should get our rain suits on before we kept going. So we put our suits on, and I went back inside to get a quick drink. While I am waiting in line I hear the weather station come on, but I don’t really think much about it. That is, until I hear the word…. Tornado. That’s right. That was my thought when I heard it too.

We hit the road again, but going slower as the wind is starting to kick up a little bit. I can hear some of you thinking already, “Are you guys idiots?! There’s a tornado out there!!”. Well, to calm your thoughts for now, it wasn’t where we were going. Just knowing it was out there was scary enough, though. — Where was I? Ah yes… We got a few miles down the road, and it started to rain. Not too bad, but enough to get annoying. For the most part, we didn’t have many problems until we got right outside of Columbus right as it was turning dark.

A little advice if you’re ever in Columbus on a motorcycle at night when it’s raining: Don’t.

You know how on some roads they have that patching material that they drizzle on the roads to make it “smoother”? Well, motorcycle tires do not like that stuff very well. When it’s wet, doubly so. Well, in Columbus… they practically paved with the stuff. At least, where the regular car tires go. So that left the middle of the road open for me to drive on. Guess where all the oil surfaces when it rains? Yeah, that’s right. Which left me with a two inch section of road to drive on, with a 4 inch tire. Remember… I am also fighting gusts of wind.

Meanwhile, it’s grown dark and cold. I still have on my tinted face shield. It gets too dark to see, so I have to raise it. It’s raining remember, and the rain is slapping into my face and stinging like a bunch of needles. Not to mention, I don’t even have the protection of my glasses any more. I also still have on my summer gloves, so what’s left of my hands are soaking wet and cold.
But what’s this? — A beacon of hope in the ever growing darkness? A turn signal! I can see the light!

My father turns into a hotel parking lot. At last! Rest for my frozen epidermis! I climb off the motorcycle and prepare for the glorious heat that awaits me in the hotel room. Yesss… I can feel it no—— What do you mean no rooms?

Two hotels later, we finally find room. Even at a hundred dollars a night, it is worth it. I slowly peel off my layers of clothing, worrying that might skin might go with it, and stand in front of the heater. After a few minutes, my phone rings. I slowly reach into my pocket (fingers breaking off in the process) and pull out my phone. A familiar name! My friend Lauren is calling to check up on me. Man, she’s awesome.
I open the phone and am greeted with, “Where have you been?” — Whoa… When did I get married? We talk for a while, and she tells me that she was driving in Atlanta traffic for 7 hours, and had been waiting to talk to me for nearly as long. We talked for a while, and finally got off the phone… I crash into bed, get out my computer, and talk to a few friends for a while. Meanwhile, the rain tries to take the building down.

The next morning, we awake to angry skies. On goes the weather channel, and it’s not looking good. We decide we’re going to make a break for it. We’ll get an early start and beat it out. Mom packs up her stuff and heads for the car. As she is going to breakfast, the skies open up. God didn’t re-nig on the whole flooding the earth thing, did he?
Alright, so we’re not leaving for a little while. We’ll just wait it out… uh-huh.

Knock knock.
Who is it? — There’s no answer.
Who iiiis it? — There’s still no answer.
— Wait, that’s a Weird Al song. We weren’t as fortunate.

Knock knock.
Who is it?
Housekeeping…
We open the door. They have a funny look on their face.
Yeeeah… We need you to get into the stairwell… There’s a tornado headed this way.

Uh-huh… Well, this should be fun.
We headed to the stairwell, and packed in like sardines with the other poor hapless victims, and took pictures on our cell phones. After a while, the staff came around and handed out pillows. They told us that the tornado was fairly close and they would let us know of any updates. Great.
After a while, they came around and told us it was all clear to come out, but it was still raining very hard. We made an executive decision that we would need to stay another day, because we couldn’t ride in the kind of weather that was being thrown at us. So, we paid and went back up to our room.

Fast forward a couple hours… Open the curtains, seeing if the rain has let up yet — Uhm. What’s this? Sunshine? Blue sky? Get the dang car packed, we’re blowing this joint.
We get all geared up, and head downstairs. After taking the covers off the bikes (which are full of water), we head on. How things can change in just a short period of time.

We had relatively no problem, the rest of the way home. We drove about one hundred miles in twilight/dark, but that was about it. Goodness, it felt so good to be home. Never thought my mattress would feel so good.

So, though I was starting to think that this may have been one of “those mistakes” in my life, it was surprisingly not all that bad. There were only a few memorable moments in my trip, that I thought I was going to be hurt pretty badly, so all in all… a good trip.

Gosh, this post was too long.

Tips for the long distance biker:
Though you may look like a smurf, rain gear is your friend.
Tinted face shields are not conducive to night riding.
Work out a signal to let the other riders know when you need to use the bathroom. This can mean the difference between life and death.
When in doubt about needing to stay another night in a hotel, wait in the lobby.
Put on your warm gloves before you need them.
Get earplugs for long distance highway trips.

The following is an account of a trip from the small town of Ellijay, GA to the happenin’ city of Panama City Beach. Some of the following may be unsuitable for minors due to the intensely graphic nature of the crash scene. If you start feeling dizzy or nauseous, please step away from the monitor and take a deep breath. It will be okay.

Our morning started out at roughly 7:00 AM (Eastern time). Slowly we arose and got busy doing the things that people do when going on trips. This however, is no ordinary trip. That’s right… this is a motorcycle road trip. Four hundred miles in one direction, and the temperature was below thirty. Yes, my children… it was cold.

I spent the last few minutes of my warm life, talking on messenger to Rachel. I told her that the plan was to leave at 9:00 AM (Eastern time). Slowly the clock counted down to that dreadful hour. Finally at about 8:30 AM (Eastern time), I shut down the computer. We were almost ready… However, somehow it took us nearly another hour to get out the door (after sweeping and doing those things that my dear mother deems necessary).

9:30 AM
We head out the driveway.
9:36 AM
We pull into the Gilmer County Bank parking lot, and readjust all our gear.
9:45 AM
We pull out of the bank parking lot, and hit the road for Florida!
9:51 AM
We stop again. My hands are freezing, and I have to change gloves.
9:54 AM
We hit the road again…
9:59 AM
We stop yet again. The vents on my helmet are pouring cold air in and hitting my forehead, making my brain and eyes ache.
10:02 AM
We’re off yet again. The wind is bitter cold. Within minutes, all my vital body parts are shutting down. We’re not going to make it.
10:17 AM
My father pulls off in Jasper, Ga. reconfirming my belief that there is a God. We stop for Starbucks coffee, and all is well with the world.
10:45 AM
We finally leave Starbucks, dear sweet Starbucks. We resolve to not stop until Canton.
11:05 AM
We make it to Canton and stop at Motor World to buy better gloves.
11:30 AM
Time to hit the road again. It is decided that we’re not stopping until the other side of Atlanta.
12:30 PM
Passing through downtown Atlanta.
12:58 PM
My balaclava and glasses are causing a bunch on my ear, causing it to hurt tremendously. I try to get dad’s attention, to no avail.
1:15 PM (130 miles)
We finally pull off at an exit, looking for sustenance. We miss our turn and stop in a subdivision. Before dad can make me leave, I shut down the engine and yank off my helmet. My ear is mauled and bleeding… from the feel of it. It however, is just red and sore. After jogging around for a couple minutes to get feeling back in my legs, we decide to head back to our missed turn and get something to eat.

1:25 PM (Content advisory)
I gear back up… but I forgot to put on my glasses. I left them sitting on the “dash” of the bike. We start heading down the road, and as I round a corner they slip off the dash and clatter onto the road. My heart jumps into my chest, and my life flashes before my blind eyes.
I quickly pulled into another subdivision and turned the bike around. Mom followed me, not knowing what was going on. I slowly drove back down the road, looking for them. I saw them and pointed it out to the car behind me, hoping they wouldn’t hit them. Luckily, they didn’t.
As I parked the bike and climbed off, dad pulled in. The car behind him swerved to go around. That’s when I heard it. The sounds of ultimate doom. The bane of my drive to Florida. It was the demolishment of my glasses. I stared in horror as the next car hit it as well, and the lens went flying down the road. This was going to be a very long trip.
Though I have been told to never leave a man behind, I had to turn my back upon my dear friend.
Good bye, you will be sorely missed.

1:36 PM
We arrive at Blimpies for lunch.
2:04 PM
After eating a bag of chips and drinking a Pepsi, I pulled the bike around to get some gas. Dad does the same, at which point a man approaches us. Dad and him get talking, and it turns out that he is from the CMA (Christian Motorcyclist Association). After chatting a little, he prays for us, and we head on our way once more.
3:12 PM (180-190 miles)
Arrived in Columbus rest area. Met a couple riding Harleys, and chatted with them for a little while. Also talked to the grounds keeper at the rest area, who was very interested in mom’s scooter. He asked lots of questions, and thought it
was quite interesting.
3:45 PM
Left rest area.
5:02 PM
We stopped in the “hood” of Eufaula, Alabama for gasoline. Snickered at the signs on the door.
“No shirt — No shoes — Low pants — No service”
6:05 PM
Stopped in Dothan and scarfed down a big mac and coffee. Stomach ache ensued.
6:46 PM (85 miles to go)
Changed shield on helmet to clear (because it was dark), and hit the road again.
7:22 PM (44 miles to go)
Stopped for a while to warm up. Core body temperature had dropped significant amount. Disorientation setting in.
7:40 PM
Headed out again.
8:10 PM (21 miles to go)
Stopped again to warm up. Core body temperature getting quite low. Disorientation getting a little worrisome.
8:32 PM
Headed out once more.
9:04 PM
We arrived in the Panama City outskirts, and stopped for gas. I could not control my hands, and when I could feel them, they would have pain shoot through them.
9:16 PM
Headed out for the last 10 mile leg of our journey.
9:46 PM
We arrive at our destination!! Cold, weary, and sore.
10:00 PM
I take my first walk on the beach in three years. I call my friends to let them know I have arrived safe and sound. Only took twelve hours, when it was supposed to have only been about seven. Overall, it was a really good trip. A good bit colder than I was hoping for, but still a good one for my first long trip.

R.I.P.
Glasses…

Tips for the long distance biker:
Order hot drinks at stops. Ice is not your friend.
Get a mouth guard. Don’t chew on your tongue.
Hug the engine of your following car, whenever you can.
If you don’t have a car, hug the exhaust pipe on your bike.
It is interesting, the amount of heat one can glean from a street light
Don’t worry about looking like a fool doing jumping-jacks in a parking lot. They’ll never see you again.
Don’t irritate the woman in the car behind you. Even if she is your mother.
Downing a Big Mac in less than 30 seconds is not advisable, no matter how hungry you are.
If you wear glasses, get a nerd cord.

So, I am taking five days off from work, this week. I have gone all year without using one vacation day, so I took it all at once. Having my birthday off is rather nice.
I was saving it for when the filming for our movie was still on schedule, so I could take it off for shooting. That of course didn’t happen, so it has just been sitting around.

So, yesterday was my first real day of it. I had half the day on Monday off, because I covered for someone and got some overtime, so they asked me to leave early. So yesterday evening, what starts happening? I start getting a little sick. Yep.
Haven’t been sick all year, really. Take a day off, and BAM.
They must have poisoned me before I left work, hoping I would have a horrible week off. And it’s the one type of sickness that I can not STAND… Sore throat. Argh.

I have had a pretty good couple days so far though. Yesterday, I spent all day talking on messenger. Then I got an itch for coffee, and went to Starbucks. Met up with Rachel, and we hung out for a while. Then I came home and talked on messenger again.
It’s been a really nice and slow vacation so far. It was a little boring earlier, till I turned on some music.

Alright, I am headed off to clean up my room before youth tonight. It should be interesting tonight, we’ll see. I think the four teens who went to Africa over the summer, are going to be there talking about their experience. I have already heard it once or twice, but it should be cool.

Later…