Rough Ramblings to Later Form Real Thoughts

Sooo, I've gotten a lot of my "to-do" list completed. I'm still working on my office. Last night I got a camera light working that I have had for a few years that I thought was completely broken. I felt quite accomplished with that. It wasn't even on the list of things to do. I've also rediscovered my old 35mm SLR camera and took pictures tonight. Now I'm anxious to take them to get developed tomorrow and see how they turn out. I hope there are still places that develop film without it costing an arm and a leg.

Anyway, I thought I'd churn out a few ideas for the Stupid World blog here.

Today I was running a bit late to meet Cristin and Anna for lunch. I had to go to Wal-Mart and decided that it would make me late, but not too late. I did call Cristin and ran the decision to go to Wally World before lunch and she was cool with it. Still, I didn't want to be that late, so of course, there are tons of people out on the road, a little bit of road construction and the general stupidity of large people trying to drive at one time. I made it through Wal-Mart relatively unscathed and then had to try to manuever out of the parking lot.

Have you ever noticed that when you are in a hurry, everything seems to be going slower. People move slower, the line is longer, it's like you're always moving against the traffic. While it doesn't really make sense for us to hurry when we can't control how fast we move, to stress out when we can't control traffic or the weather or any other circumstances, we still do. We act like getting angry and flustered will make things move along in our favor. Anyway, as I was trying to get out of the parking lot, I decided to take a path that was longer in distance, but looked like it would be shorter with the traffic. Well, as usual when it comes to lines and such, I misjudged what would be shorter. So, I waited. When I finally got my turn to turn onto the road that would lead me out of that place, I had to wait more for none other than an older man driving a scooter...not a moped like scooter, but something more like a Hoveround. He had a cardboard box bungeed around the front of his scooter and proceeded to make a left turn into the Wal-Mart parking lot. I'm pretty sure that you're not allowed to drive scooters onto the road like that. While I was annoyed, I could help but laugh at the absurdity of the situation.


The next thing that I've been thinking about is how stupid people are when they rush into marriage. I know several people doing that lately. People feel the bliss of being in love for a few months and can't imagine their lives being without it. So, they think that getting married is going to preserve all of that. Sometimes one parter in the relationship feels the need to commit more than the other. Usually it is the man, or at least it appears to be the man since traditionally the man is the one to propose. When both people in the relationship aren't on the same page, it can create a majorly awkward moment.

My friend Lauren showed me some hilarious videos on YouTube starring the "Keyboard Cat." After an awkward moment occurs, the Keyboard Cat plays them off. Here is one to illustrate what I'm talking about.




I wish there was a Keyboard Cat to play us off in all moments of stupidity, awkwardness and bad times. It would make everything so much better. Here are a few more funny ones.

Brain Dumping

Because I haven't written here in quite sometime and because I don't really advertise this "blog," I thought that this might be a good place to just test things out and possibly type through my thoughts when I don't feel like writing them down on paper. Of course, this won't get too personal since it is still going on the World Wide Web, however, I know almost no one will ever check this out, so I feel comfortable using this as a testing ground.

Today was Memorial Day. I appreciated my freedom that has been made possible by our armed forces (thank you, armed forces!) by beginning "Spring Cleaning" at the house. I'm trying to make use of Micheal while he is still here and doesn't have a million things going on. He went out and cut grass. I stayed inside and cleaned all day. I tackled my bedroom first and got it cleaned up and organized. Then I took care of the hallway and the spare bedroom. I made a pretty big difference with the spare room. It was starting to get quite cluttered. I like that room because it is pretty empty. There's something about empty rooms that I like. I think it's the acoustics. With that room, I started to make a little area to start collecting costumes for videos that I hope to be putting together for my Sunday School class. Then I took care of the living room.

What I really liked about today was that I made a detailed "To-do" list and was able to check things off and see progress. I feel like I've been missing that in my life lately. So much of what I do with work and even in church is hard to visibly measure like cleaning the house. I got the majority of my list checked off today. I didn't get to my office like I wanted (I'm still sitting among a good amount of clutter), but I plan on finishing the office tomorrow. I'm also going to make Micheal help with the kitchen. He didn't get to that like I wanted him to, but he's been trying to ignore his way out of it, so it won't happen till I press him to clean it.

I know there's a great spiritual lesson/analogy in here, but my legs are hurting from sitting in this chair, so I'm not going to flesh it out right now. I will say that right now, I've been dwelling on discipline--the idea of it and trying to obtain it. I think the other reason why I've actually enjoyed this day of cleaning; I feel like I've been able to have a task and complete it. I feel like I've been lacking self-control lately and it is starting to bother me. This lack isn't showing in me doing bad things like becoming a drunk or getting into stuff along those lines, but it seems to be showing in laziness, which probably is worse than becoming a drunk. Laziness is just more socially acceptable, so it doesn't get frowned upon or recognized as much as it should.

I could also go on about how I'm trying to simplify by getting rid of the clutter in my house (thus leading to the elimination of clutter in my life). I didn't have time today to really sit down and go through some things like I need to, but that is also on the list for later. There are some things that are just taking up space and need to go. I have lots of clothes in particular that I do not wear, clothes that are now to "young" for me. I say that because I still have things that I had when I was 12. That's what happens when you quit growing at 12; you still have a tendency to hang onto things just because they fit.

Anyway, I hope that this cleaning, decluttering and accomplishing in the house translates to other areas of my life. I really needed today. I'm thankful for today and pray that it springboards into more goodness tomorrow and the following days. I don't know how things are going to come together, but I know that they somehow will.

A test mp3

I've been cheating on this blog with another...

So in case you don't know, I post to another blog as well and have kind of neglected this blog. Understand that I still love this blog, I've just been posting to the other one more because it is about my running progress. It is called Run, April, Run and I am not the only author to that blog. Check it out if you haven't already. That one gets posted to pretty regularly, like a few times a week.

Anyhooo, (I gotta make this fast because I gotta get ready to go make coffee for Chad's discussion group), Laura introduced me to Yahoo!'s "Cover Art" online videos when she wanted me to take a look at Mandy Moore's cover of "Umbrella" (which is pretty good, I must say). Well, I decided to check out some of the others and this Bowling for Soup cover of "London Bridge" cracked me up good.



Enjoy!

A Stolen Car, A Reunion and the Return of a Friend

In case you never heard...



It doesn't look so bad from the front does it? Well look below to see the back seat and you'll see why Michael's poor '96 Buick Regal was put to rest. For those of you who don't know, Mike's care was stolen from the shop in Camden where it was getting repaired. It was then sold to a suicidal dude who drove the car up to a train track in Columbia and parked it there so he could die. Unfortunately for the one trying to kill himself, he parked it the wrong way, the train hit the car from the back (he was sitting in the front), knocked the car off of a 60 foot embankment, and the dude still lived. The poor Buick risked his life so that another may live. Now Bruiser (that's my '96 Buick Regal) is without his twin brother. It is still a bit sad, but at least the grey Buick was able to go out in a blaze of glory and even get mentioned in the Camden newpaper.



Awww, Whaley's Mill 414 reunited...



A few weekends ago we got the opportunity to have a bit of a reunion of sorts and hang out on Shelley's family's boat in Charleston. I've come to appreciate these gatherings more and more since we all don't get to see each other like we used to. It's awesome though that we can usually pick up right where we left off and it feels as if time hasn't really passed. These things are always bittersweet for me though. I realize that things will never be the same, that life is constantly changing so in a sense it makes me sad, however I can't really be that sad at the progression of life because there are things that I really like about life now as well. I struggle though because I am definitely the most sentimental of everyone as far as I know. I live with the constant awareness that when I see someone, it could always possibly be the last time I see them so I approach our gatherings in that fashion...at least in my mind. When I outwardly express that sentiment, my friends look at me like I'm a weirdo, so I just internalize. I'm sure plenty of therapy will result later on in life.

Lauren Returns!

Last Saturday night, my buddy finally returned home from her mission work in Arizona. I was totally excited. Lauren and I think a lot alike. I like people who think like me (and no I'm not egocentric at all, nor am I sarcastic). But seriously, I'm glad she made it back safely. She caused quite the pandemonium though upon her arrival...


Eddie anxiously awaited with the video camera ready to grab every little precious moment of the return (notice the bandage on his hand...well let's just say he got in Lauren's Mom's way when she tried position herself at the front of the gate to be the first to see Lauren)...

Michael holds one of the signs that the family brought...


Awwww...they're reunited and tackling each other...


And here we are at the Krispy Kreme. A successful welcoming, I'd say :-)

The Family Vacation...part 1

Here's a few pictures from the vacation so far. Not much time to tell stories, maybe I'll get to that later.



These are mountains.



So adorable :-)




Gettin' me some fresh mountain air.



Caverns

Fish, Snakes and Beavers, oh my!

Ok so I actually caught a fish yesterday! It was slightly larger than Denis' fish that he caught the other night. Chad is pictured holding my fish because I do not touch fish that I'm not about to cook...

So I'm fishin' along and look down in the water and there's this little snake sittin in the water. Chad came and looked at it and said it looked like a water moccasin judging by the pattern of its skin and the fact that it was staying under water. So Chad tried to crush the snake's head but it was under water and in the mud so it kept just sinking in the mud instead of getting crushed and then it swam away. But later, I was further down the river fishing near some tree limbs and looked over and saw that I had a new fishing buddy. This big ole snake that is photographed below. He didn't seem like he wanted any trouble so we decided to leave him alone and maybe start packing up our things to head home.

Yet, Mother Nature was not through with us. We get our stuff packed up and then this huge creature comes at us! Was it Bigfoot?!

No, it was a giant beaver! Ok, not a real beaver. But it was our friend Ben Mitchell dressed up like a beaver.

I don't know what that kid was doing, but he apparently likes to just dress up like a beaver and wander around the forest. Whatever floats your boat! Then like two children who had just spotted Chuck E. Cheese, Ashley and Michael insisted on getting their pictures made with Ben the Beaver.

Everyday is an adventure if you just allow it to be.