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| Saturday, July 23rd, 2005 | | 12:06 am |
3 Things You Don't Know About Me
20 years ago, I... 1) Was 6 2) Learned the word, "honky," and used it in reference to my grandfather in this way: "Get out of the bathroom, honky." 3) Had best friends that were refugees from Cambodia. 10 years ago, I... 1) Got my driver's license and was allowed to drive on the interstate that day. My sister, 3 years older, was not allowed to do so until she was at least 17. (The first sign that my parents wanted me to get out and be more social.) 2) Had been working at a k-6 daycare for a couple of years 3) Witnessed my Mom bury hers 5 years ago, I... 1) Lost my scholarship 2) Fell apart when my Mom had to bury her younger sister 3) Was interning in San Mateo, California...three months of healing away from everything and everybody I knew after the worst year of my life 3 years ago, I... 1) Took a chance and quit my job 2) Was hired by an awesome company 3) Was a Southern white man living with a black man and a Jewish man and had conversations like this: "Will you stop standing on the front porch...it lowers our property value?" "Your people killed Christ." "Hey, will you two carpetbaggers shutup?" 1 year ago, I... 1) Worked my ass off at work 2) Went to 6 weddings 3) Watched friends move away So far this year, I have... 1) Welcomed new friends and welcomed home old friends to Winston 2) Hired a person in my department at work 3) Gone to 2 weddings Yesterday, I... 1) Got to work early for the first time in a long time 2) Laughed a lot 3) Read Mark Twain before going to bed Today, I... 1) Watched the DVD Chris gave me for my birthday (Thirteen Days) 2) Felt pretty darn grumpy 3) Tried to be friendly with the new girl at work, but probably came off weird Tomorrow, I will... 1) Do some cleaning up around the house 2) Go to the office for a while 3) Hopefully hang out with friends and laugh In the next year, I will... 1) Make my house more of a home 2) Maybe take a real vacation 3) Maybe have some luck with a lady Current Mood:  lethargic | | Thursday, July 14th, 2005 | | 12:42 pm |
| | Tuesday, March 8th, 2005 | | 9:06 pm |
Ted's Kickin Chicken
Just FYI - There's now a Ted's in Mooresville. My bro-in-law is going to scope it out and let me know if it compares favorably to the Ted's here in W-S. | | Sunday, March 6th, 2005 | | 2:09 am |
| | Wednesday, February 16th, 2005 | | 8:17 pm |
Given this post from Chris, I thought I'd think about my perfect day and attempt to describe it... The sun peaks through my curtains at the crack of noon. Jennifer Connelly and I wake up and start our day. Being redonkulously rich, we laugh at ourselves after we dress for work. Silly us. We don't have jobs! We go for a nice lunch and catch a movie. We like the matinee pricing so much, we buy every ticket so that the theater is ours. The movie is great. It can only be described as, "Indiana Jones meets James Bond meets The Sting." I laughed. She cried. I laughed at her crying. After the movie, there's barely enough time for us to get to our private jet. Clearly being thrifty, I'm the pilot. We depart immediately, and land in St. Louis shortly thereafter. At this point, we've managed to catch up with Coach Prosser and the Deacs. We board the team bus, and ride to the arena. We eat dinner en route. A steak sandwich...and a steak sandwich. (Charged to Mr. Underhill's account.) The game starts out and the Deacs are on fire. But the Heels get in a number of cheap shots, and our bench is getting thin by the first TV timeout of the second half. Coach Prosser looks around the arena for an answer. He doesn't have to look far. I mean, I've got courtside seats. Having some eligibility left, I lace 'em up and take the court. I'm a bit rusty, but after I get warmed up, I start dropping it like it's hot. (Did I mention that I'm hip?) I go for 21 points (7-7 from 3) and 11 dimes in just under 7 minutes. The Heels don't have a chance. The game ends. The Deacs have won it all. Hey, it could happen. Current Mood:  amused | | Sunday, February 13th, 2005 | | 10:33 pm |
States Visited: North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia, Tennesee, Ohio, Illinois, Texas, California, Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida, Georgia, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Alabama, Delaware, Kentucky, Pennsylvania = 21 Rest: Oregon, Washington, Iowa, Idaho, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Wyoming, Utah, Arkansas, Kansas, Maine, Vermont, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Hawaii, Alaska, Oklahoma, Colorado, Missouri, South Dakota, North Dakota, Michigan, Indiana, Montana, Nebraska, Rhode Island, Massachussetts, New Hampshire = 29 Just updating this list... | | Wednesday, February 2nd, 2005 | | 5:04 pm |
| | Sunday, January 30th, 2005 | | 9:40 pm |
Last week a coworker told me the following story... Well, it's part of a story. The rest of the story has been elusive. ---------------- While walking in a busy city, a homeless man asked my coworker for spare change. Without thinking or even slowing his gate, Chris shoved his hand into his pocket, pulls out all of his money, and gives it to the man. Chris estimates that it was $10 or $11. The homeless man grabbed Chris by the arm, looked him straight in the eyes, and declared, "I hope all of your dreams come true." The next day Chris met his wife. ---------------- I'm providing it to you here in case you know the rest of the story. If you do, please tell it to someone. Current Mood:  contemplative | | 3:23 pm |
Top 5 Dream Jobs
1) Stand-up Comic 2) Comedy writer 3) Movie theater owner 4) Sports bar owner (Wake themed, of course) 5) A job to be named later within the Wake Athletic Dept Current Mood: cheerful | | Wednesday, January 12th, 2005 | | 11:37 pm |
True Story
A few years ago, I took my lunch break with another student worker. We went down to the Burger King at the corner of North Point and University. After I ordered my meal, the guy said, "For here or to go?" With barely a pause, I said, "For here, no, wait, to go." The guy looked somewhat furious, stared me dead in the eye, and said, "Frank, put his shit in a bag. This cracker done changed his mind." Funniest. Moment. Ever. Current Mood: amused | | Saturday, January 1st, 2005 | | 3:10 am |
A Long December
A long December, and there's reason to believe Maybe this year will be better than the last I can't remember the last thing that you said as you were leavin' Now the days go by so fast And it's one more day up in the canyon And it's one more night in Hollywood If you think that I can be forgiven....I wish you would The smell of hospitals in winter And the feeling that its all a lot of oysters, but no pearls All at once you look across a crowded room To see the way that light attaches to a girl And it's one more day up in the canyon And it's one more night in Hollywood If you think you might come to California...I think you should Drove up to Hillside Manor sometime after two a.m. And talked a little while about the year I guess the winter makes you laugh a little slower, Makes you talk a little lower about the things you could not show her And its been a long December, and there's reason to believe Maybe this year will be better than the last I can't remember all the times I tried to tell myself To hold on to these moments as they pass And it's one more day up in the canyon And it's one more night in Hollywood It's been so long since I've seen the ocean..I guess I should. ------------- So tonight I went to a wedding at 7:30 followed by the reception which obviously turned into a New Year's party. Wanna feel really single? Go to a Wedding Reception/New Year's party and see what happens at midnight. Okay, so I am not really complaining since several of my female friends made sure I didn't go unkissed. And eventually they managed to get me onto the dancefloor...sorry, the DJ's dancefloor (he was specific about this). I had a really great time. We'll see what 2005 holds. Current Mood: happy | | Monday, December 20th, 2004 | | 11:42 am |
Ahh, vacation
I had to laugh when my cell phone rang and woke me up this morning. I made it just under two hours into my vacation before I was called. Sweet. This weekend was pretty fun. Friday, Chris and I saw a local theatrical performance of "A Christmas Carol." Despite it not being the best ever, it was still enjoyable and reminded me of going to see it when I was younger, which my family would do almost annually. Saturday was the Texas vs. Wake basketball game. I got up around 10, went and got my ears lowered, and then went to the game well before tipoff. I like to get to games early especially when the atmosphere might be special. It's just fun. Wake had a few highly touted recruits for the 2006 incoming class visiting, so that was pretty exciting. One of them showed up wearing a Tim Duncan Wake Forest throwback jersey, so you had to like that. Right after the game, I cleaned up a bit and went with Chris to the Crotty's party in Raleigh. It was definitely fun times. I think I have finally hung out around the usual suspects enough, and LJ'd near them enough to feel like a true friend. (This is not to say I haven't felt welcome in the past or anything like that... just it takes me a while to find comfort zones. I'm weird.) Hey, did Pepper mention that I'm single?! :-) Anyway, the party was a lot of fun and I am really glad that I went. Thanks for inviting me! Sunday was supposed to be a day of Christmas movie watching, but that never happened. Liz and I did end up going to see "Ocean's 12" with some people. I had a fun time even though the movie was a typical sequel. After that, I dropped Liz off in the most ungentlemanly way imaginable. Sorry about that, Liz. I..eh, you know how I can be an idiot. Back the house, a few law schoolers and I watched some TV and ran our mouths. For the record, my answer is 37 times. Current Mood: awake | | Sunday, September 19th, 2004 | | 9:59 pm |
Well, I'm not doing anything, so I'll do this. With the symbolic end of summer, fall is seemingly in full-swing. Happily, this has brought a slower pace of life for me at work. Given that I have not taken more than one day off in a row since Christmas, I am very happy with this change of velocity. I'm wrapping up a project at work that has gone very well to date despite some misinformation from the manufacturer of the system underneath my part of the project. My travel should pick up in a few weeks when I am given permission to purchase new equipment and begin rolling it out to our folks. But I don't have nearly the work to do on this front that tackled last year, so this fall should be pretty relaxed. That said, we got some (great) news at work this week, so I will have more on my plate than I currently know about for certain. Suffice it to say, we're growing again, which is awesome. I don't know if Chris was right about my grumpiness, for lack of a better word, going away once I had some Wake sports to cheer about, but certainly my spirits have improved a good deal coinciding with the football season. This could also be attributed to the slower pace at work. It's probably a combination of both. I've been reading Band of Brothers, the book behind the HBO miniseries. I highly recommend both, so check them out if history interests you at all. (This reminds me that we have a book discussion this week at work about a book that I have had a few months to read and still haven't yet finished. This is mainly due to my total lack of interest in the book...The Purpose Driven Life.) Not much else has been going on around here. Oh, ha. We got HD at the house on Thursday. It. Is. Awesome. | | Friday, August 20th, 2004 | | 9:25 am |
It's August here....what, is it 2001 there, huuuuh?
Okay, so obviously I am pretty bad at doing this regularly. Updates: Long summer. Mostly good. Work got out of hand at times. Some friends have moved away. Some friends have gotten married. Some friends got married and moved away (double trouble). Some friends moved back to the US. Some friends are trying to survive in Iraq. Picked up a new nickname. Yo-yo'd my weight between 170 and 180. I guess I have been quite a grumpy person over the last few weeks. I think I am just beat from work. A vacation would do me good, but I don't really have a chance for that. I might sneak off to the beach for Labor Day weekend, though. I'm disappointed that I let the stress work get to me, but I guess I am human. I finally got my license renewed this morning (33 days late). I didn't get them to change my height so I am still listed as 5'5". I am also now restricted to driving with my glasses. My right eye is much worse than my left eye and since I am right-eye dominant, that cost me on the test. I had to laugh when I put on my glasses and saw what the letters actually were versus what I was guessing. "Where did that 'Z' come from?" Oh, well. It's just another of a long list of signs showing me that I am getting old. I was a freshman in college seven years ago. That seems crazy. Probably I am not struggling with getting old, since I am ony 25, so much as I am just starting to realize that certain options in life are eliminated with each passing month because of other responsibilities. So adulthood. Yikes. Anyway, with the added stress, I've been craving a creative outlet. I wish I had the guts that Ginny has with her move to Cali for grad school (creative writing)...or the guts Mike's brother has to get up on stage and try his hand at stand-up comedy. The more I do this office job thing, the more I realize it's very limiting in some respects...especially creativity. Sure, I solve problems with creative solutions frequently, but that's not nearly as fun as walking into Chris's room unannounced, saying, "Here's the thing...," and saying the first ridiculous thing that comes to mind. When Darrel Hammond (SNL) came to Wake, I got about 10 seconds to talk to him one on one. He advised me to write every day regardless. I have not done well with this at all and really want to make an honest effort. (Do you know who's a good reader? Thomas Jefferson.) The NCAA ruled against allowing videoboards/jumbotrons to be used during recruiting visits, so my role with volunteering at Wake just took a pretty good hit. Hopefully, I will still be able to get some good inside info. I can't imagine what some schools were doing to cause the NCAA to shut this down. We only said stuff like, "Welcome to Wake. Enjoy your visit." It could be the NCAA is trying to stop or help limit the arms race in college athletics since many schools still do not have videoboards. I've been reading a book at work as part of our mandated reading groups. It's a Christian book, so I kind of roll my eyes whenever I pick it up, but I think there are some good self-examination tips in it. One of the chapters suggested the reader to think about what others would say motivates him. This question really got to me. I don't really know what people would say motivates me. Thoughts? | | Sunday, June 20th, 2004 | | 1:09 am |
Well, per usual, I haven't posted in my own journal in a while. Work has been really busy, but in a good way. I have two major projects going on this summer at work. Early phases of both have been tremendous successes. In a couple of weeks, I hope to claim one project a complete success, with the other getting to that point possibly a week or two after that. Outside of work, I've successfully gotten the Clover folks and some other friends to start hanging out together, which is good. Both groups are taking serious losses in the coming months, which is a common theme for those of us in our early to mid 20s. Three friends are leaving Winston to continue their educatioin. One is headed to Va, one is headed to Cali, and the third to DC. Another friend is getting married and moving to Chapel Hill. This has been a consistent summer happening since graduation. You'd like to think you would get used to it, but I still haven't. I find myself trying to make the last few months of this particular group being together sort of like a last episode of a sitcom: This probably will be the last time this group of people is together. More on this later this summer, I expect. On Friday, I get to go to the beach. This is my first non-business trip since I started my current job, I think. (I'm not counting overnight trips to Raleigh.) This trip could be interesting. It's with Joe and his group of friends from school, which I am a part of, but only because of Joe. I know most of the group pretty well, so I am definitely looking forward to it. | | Wednesday, April 14th, 2004 | | 11:16 pm |
On second thought...
I posted a couple of weeks ago, either in my LJ or in a response to Chris's LJ, that since the "one and done" lunchdate I have been or wanted to be: a) Less obsessive about dating someone 2) Making fewer self-deprecating jokes regarding females d) Happier with my life as it is Two or three weeks have passed and so far I think I'm achieving all of the above items. I think I've only made 2 or 3 self-deprecating jokes at all over the past couple of weeks. The ones I made I was sort of forced into and couldn't ignore. There were other opportunities earlier that I consciously ignored, but since then I haven't had to really think about it. And while I think there is plenty of room for self-deprecating humor (and as Chris pointed out recently, I am well-versed in it and good at it), this is probably a good thing. If nothing else, it's making me work harder on my sense of humor instead or resorting to "old reliable," and I am enjoying the change in perspective. It might actually be the creative outlet that I have been missing for quite some time. I have been a much happier person. And since I am staying pretty strict to my diet, hitting the gym about as much as my schedule permits, working on some truly important projects at work (successfully!), and trying to be the best me that I can be, I have to admit that I am pretty happy with 2004 to date. I don't really like to toot my own horn, but since I bug you people when I'm not happy, I figure I should at least share another side of myself. My next big goal is to fix my sleep so that I can get some restful sleep, which I don't think I have truly gotten since graduating college. I partially blame the mattress I am sleeping on since the problems started as soon as I started sleeping on it, so hopefully I can replace that over the summer. I should probably see a doctor about it, too, I guess. Outside of that and more importantly, I want to reconcile some things with my family. I'm not too sure how to do that, but hopefully I can figure something out to solve that problem. I hope the momentum I've built over the past year continues to snowball. PS - Thanks to all for everything. | | Sunday, April 11th, 2004 | | 10:29 am |
So I guess I am a little disappointed because none of my friends expressed great interest in joining me in The Passion of the Christ drinking game. (Hey, is it getting warm in here?) Speaking of drinking games, Friday night I participated in the Jenga drinking game...whilst not drinking. I ended up having to remove one article of clothing, which left me in my tshirt (and pants). Then I had to change shirts with the person to my left. So there I was wearing a pink polo shirt...of the female variety. There are pictures somewhere. Which I hope never show up anywhere. Thursday I got to go to the basketball gala dinner or whatever. It was pretty cool. After that, I met Ginny, Cary, Lisa, Jacob, John, and Katie at Tap Room. John and Katie got engaged, so that was pretty cool. Cary and I had fun talking about "The Office," which if you haven't seen yet, you really need to do so immediately. Otherwise, this weekend has been pretty quiet. Yesterday I got up and put a serious cleaning on my bathroom and did a ton of laundry, which I am happy about. Then I watched TV for a good while before heading to work around 4pm. I did about an hour of work and then worked out for about another 1.5 hours before heading back home. I fell asleep around midnight. Today I need to run some errands. Hopefully, Chris and I will get some cleaning done around the house. And then of course, the traditional Easter "Sopranos" hour. | | Saturday, April 3rd, 2004 | | 6:08 pm |
Spring Game Recap for Joe/Bob
Today I got up and went to the Spring Game for the Wake football team. You obviously can't tell a lot from scrimmages, but I was glad to see us not using the 3 man front on D except in clear passing situations. I was also happy to see Magruder not playing corner. He looked like a stud his r-Fr year and since then has been burned in almost every game he's in which he has participated...which has been all of them. Riley Swanson has better size and hopefully better smarts. It'd be nice if we didn't have to play 10 yards off of opposing receivers. The four man line should help this since the corners shouldn't have to worry about stopping the run as much as they have in the past when we could only manage a 3 man front. On offense, Ben Mauk stole the show. He led the second team offense against the first team defense. He had one nice deep pass, a couple of nice passes on the scramble where he had to work through some progressions to find the open man, and two nice runs. He's got some speed. I still think we'll start Randolph at QB early in the season, but Mauk is making him work for it and may assume the starting role before the midway point of the 04 season. Other highlights were our field goals and kicking game in general. 41 yarder, 53 yarder...both good from Wisnosky. The 53 yarder was assisted by some wind, but he had plenty of leg on it. The 41 yarder went into the wind. The best thing about the kicks was that they had a very safe trajectory carrying them well over the LOS. In the past, both he and Plackemeier had low kicks that got blocked (see: the UNC debacle). Kickoffs were deep and Plack can punt the heck out of the ball, which we've come to expect. Otherwise, Kevin Marion has blinding speed. If he can get into the open field, good luck catching him. He's two steps faster than Idlette. He's tiny, though. Maybe 5'9" and maybe 170. Of course, Barclay is smaller than me and he's rushed for 1000+ for each of the past two years in the ACC. Anyway, we're obviously faster, deeper, and more talented than past years, but I don't know how much it will matter given our schedule next year. | | Friday, April 2nd, 2004 | | 10:15 pm |
| | Sunday, March 28th, 2004 | | 11:13 am |
"This week on South Park: Kyle finally sees....The Passion of the Christ." Man, I am not going to see that movie anytime soon, but I am going to watch this South Park. |
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