Old Friends

I did something today that I've been needing to do for a while. Something that I kept putting off until a later time. Today presented the perfect opportunity, so I just went ahead and did it. No I am not talking about laundry or a shower. I picked up the phone and called an old friend. I said a few posts back that I need to do better at staying in touch, so consider that step one of my resolution.

It was this guy's birthday, and I hadn't talked to him in almost 2 years. I don't like to put names on here, so I won't, but some of you will know who he is. He was my best friend growing up. I want to say that from something like 4th or 5th grade until our freshman year of college we were real close. Best of friends for many of those years. Something happened at some point though.

He was the kind of guy who always had to have a girlfriend. I have no problem with that, I realize that there are people like that out there in this world. I wish I had more girlfriends to tell you the truth. This wasn't a jealousy thing though. It got to the point where I felt I was more of a friend out of convenience. When he didn't have a girlfriend, we'd hang out. When he did have a girlfriend, we would still hang out here and there, but he never wanted to go out and do stuff with the guys. We slowly grew apart during our senior year of high school, but still were good enough of friends that we decided that we'd go to college in Corpus Christi together.

I've heard several people say before that you should never live with one of your good friends. Only trouble can come of it. That's not completely true, but a little bit so. After a year of living with this guy, I think we were both pretty sick of each other. I think we were both each other's security blanket when we went off from high school, "Into the Great Wide Open" (gotta' love Tom Petty). By the time our freshman year was over, I think we had outgrown each other. I feel that some of my habits bothered him, and some of his habits bothered me. I remember the conversation we had when I told him I was going to transfer up to Tech. I told him that I didn't think I was going to return. He said he was upset about that, and I told him, "hey man, we're best friends, we'll talk all the time". After moving up to Lubbock, I can say that the don't ever live with your close friends thing has some validity to it, but on the large scale isn't exactly true.

With this friend of mine and me, one thing led to another and two friends didn't stay in touch. I guess that happens to everyone. By the time they get back on the same wavelength, they've changed so much that they aren't as compatible as they used to be. I think that may have been what happened to us.

Well I called him tonight. It is his 25th birthday, and every year, I always remember this day. This is the first year since my second year of college that I've called him on this day. It was a bit of an awkward conversation. Nothing bad, just weird when someone you used to be so close to seems so much different than you remember. I'm sure that it was felt on both sides of the phone.

We made plans to get together for a beer or two sometime. That's somewhat ironic, because that's part of the reason the distance arose between the two of us. Perhaps it'll be the thing that leads to the bridge being rebuilt to friendship.

"I can't imagine just how it might have been, growing up without my old friend."
-MDM

What a week

This has been somewhat of a whirlwind of a week. I went to work on Monday morning, then at lunch, left to go eat with my Dad, then afterwards to the San Antonio Airport. I flew into Phoenix and got their about 7:30. My sister's grandparents picked me up outside the airport and then took me out to eat at Chili's. My sister and brother-in-law (b-i-l) got there at about 10:00ish, and we afterwards made the two hour drive north towards Sedona. We got to their ranch sometime around 1. It was supposed to be a 2 hour drive, but the wind was bad, and we made a stop here and there, so it turned into around 3 hours. Fine with me though, the company was great.

Anyway, I won't go into every step of the trip, but I will say that is was quite an experience. We drove into the Sedona area under the cover of night. There wasn't much in the way of moonlight, so the surroundings that I was expecting were still from the pictures on the internet and tv that I've seen before. When I woke up the next morning, I was amazed at the surrounding. Everywhere around there were these huge rock formations jetting up from the ground, high into the sky. I've got tons of pictures, I'll post them this week maybe, when I get around a faster internet connection. We took a helicopter tour that day, and it's even more breath taking.

The trip was great for me, because I enjoy seeing the beauty of a place like that, but also because I had the opportunity to hang out with the family that isn't directly related to me. My sister and I have the same Dad, which makes us half siblings. Who has ever heard of half a brother or sister though. Well ever since I was small, her grandparents and mom have treated me like part of their own family even though they have no direct connection to me bloodwise. I'm extremely grateful for that. They are truly some of the nicest folks I know, and I feel fortunate to know people like them.

It was a 2 full day, 2 travel day trip. I must have gained about 10 pounds while I was there too. They keep me well fed. When I was dating Ana, she always said it seemed many of us plan our life from meal to meal. Which is something they don't do in Mexico I guess. We basically planned our time in Arizona from meal to meal.

My sister and I didn't really hang out like we did when I went to Atlanta, but we got to quite a bit. Plus I got to spend more time with my b-i-l. He's a little different than I, or any of my other friends, but I feel on this trip that we got to know each other much better. We had beers together a few times, and talked about going climbing next time we're there. That might, or might not happen. I thought he was being sarcastic when he was talking about it, but it turns out he was serious. Climbing is not really my thing, but maybe I can call Nate and get some pointers between now and then. I think it'll be more like hiking though. When I post these pictures, you'll see the terrain, and realize why I wasn't all that serious about it.

When I got back on Thursday night, my Dad was there to pick me up. We then came back to Kerrpatch and picked up Gus. He was excited to see me. He went into the creek today by himself. He doesn't really seem comfortable in the water yet. I bet its cold though!

Friday we worked a whole day, then Friday night went to the Old Ingram Social Club. I hadn't been there in months, probably half a year or so. Well it was Cullen's birthday, and the lady who runs the club wanted to throw Cullen a surprise birthday party. She really went all out. She even put a Happy Birthday Cullen on the board outside. That was my favorite part! I'll post a picture of that if I can find someone who took one. It'll be a shame if no one got it. Inside she had all kinds of food, and a birthday cake. She even went as far as to paint little football men purple (Vikings color) and with a toothpick write Cullen's name on the back in paint. It was neat. A lot of fun too, we had a good contingency of friends in there.

So that night, we all had fun and took full advantage of the party being at the bar. I came home and finished my laundry and stuff, because we had a camp showing starting early Saturday morning. I woke up at 6, after very little sleep, and showered, then went to Justin's house. We met the rest of the camp crew and went to Austin for this showing that lasted from 10 in the morning to 5 in the afternoon. I'm amazed we all ended up staying awake for that long. I know my feet were tired afterwards. J and I were supposed to go to San Antonio afterwards and meet my Dad and his crew of cooking buddies at the San Antonio stock show bar bq. We decided it would be better to come home instead and get some sleep. I was in bed, asleep at 9:15!

Today, I woke up, and at 10 a few of us went to San Antonio to help a friend's girlfriend move out of her apartment. When we get there, we confirm what we'd heard, the apartment is on the 3rd floor. Yeahhhh stairs. It really wasn't all that bad though. Three of us carried the heavy stuff, and filled up a trailer. It took around 2 hours. There is still some stuff left to do there, but all the heavy stuff is gone. That means they don't need any more of us knuckle draggers to haul down the stairs.

This week looks to be a little more of the same. It looks like J and I might head to the big LBK for a camp showing on Thursday. We'll leave Wednesday, and perhaps stay 'till, hmmm, I don't know for sure, Saturday would be great though. We gotta' get back before Sunday, it's going to be a super day. Actually, and XL super day!

Just to elaborate a little more on the camp showing, I think it went great. We are starting a one week term this year after normal four week ones are done. Our numbers for that aren't all that great as of now, but it seemed like the majority of the interest we received yesterday was from people looking for at the one week term. That would be great to get about 15 to 20 campers from the showing!

I'm out, have a good one!

GUS

Well, Gus is almost now 10 weeks old. Here's a few more recent photos. He's great don't ya' think? I'm leaving tomorrow (monday) and going to Arizona for 4 days. He'll be left in the care of my Dad, I hope he's not completely worthless by the time I get back...

Yesterdays and Tomorrows

I was reading one of the blogs I like to check out periodically today, and something kind of hit me. Something that I used to think about all the time, but haven't really thought about in a while. She (the author) was talking about how a dream is sometimes a wonderful thing that can take you back to times in your life that you have no other way of remembering. It wasn't the dream thing that got me, is was what she something along the lines of "if I could just go back to High School". My first few years of college I thought about this all the time. Not that it's that big of a deal, but several of us really ran the High School we went to. We could get away with just about anything, and usually did. Well, when I used to get down in the dumps, probably my first 3 years of college, I would think about being back in High School. I basically went from being a big fish in a small pond, to a tiny fish in the Pacific.

These days though, when I'm down in the dumps, I don't think about High School at all. Instead, I think about the future, and what it holds for me. I think sometimes I just depress myself even more, but a lot of the times I look at the future with great anticipation and curiosity. These past few weeks have found me pretty deep in the dumps. It sucks that so much in our lives depends on money. I'm extremely broke, it's about time to have to start pawning my stuff off. (I don't really have anything to pawn off.) Anyway, I just hate this feeling. It's depressing, being handcuffed to idle time and wanting to do so much else. It's my own fault for not being better at saving money, but I really haven't had all that much to save. I put myself through school this past semester, and if it wasn't for the roommates that let me live with them for free, I would be even further in the hole.

I've felt down the last week or so, like I said earlier, but a conversation I had today with the patriarch of the camp family really depressed me even more. He asked me how long I was planning on staying there, and I told him that I hopefully would be able to move off somewhere after this summer. Which is true, and I intend on doing so. He's lived an amazing life and seen a lot of things that I hope to see in my lifetime. He's also worked extremely hard to be where he is at the present. When I told him about my wanting to get out of the area, and out on my own, he agreed that it is something everyone probably needs to do. He related my position where I am now, to his oldest son and how he had to get out of the area when he was younger. He of course eventually came back and has gone on to do great things here. The depressing part of the whole conversation though, was the thought that what I plan on doing might not be the thing that ultimately appeases me. I don't think he was trying to prove that point, but it's kind of what I took out of it.

It's funny how when your spirits are down, how it makes you look at everything else in a negative light. I know exactly what I'm doing, I'm feeling sorry for myself. There's really no other way of saying it, I realize that though. There are billions of people in the world who have it way worse off that I do, so I shouldn't feel the way I do, but it's hard not to. Every time in the past when I've felt this way, it goes away in a week or two, or maybe as long as a month. Which I'm sure that this will eventually go away, but it's nice to be able to come on here and express the way I feel. A month from now, I can come back on here and read what I wrote today, and feel like a jack ass, but I guess that's the point of having a blog, writing what's on your mind at the current time.

The uncharted future is something I think about everyday. If my spirits are down, or up, I think about it. I hate being in the depressed mood I am, because anyone who knows me, knows that it's not my style. I tend to talk too much. I tend to be loud. Most of all though, I'm a happy person. This melancholy mood that I'm in now isn't me.

So for the few of you'ze folks who read this, don't fret for me, I'm just feeling sorry for myself. I'm the same ole' Sancho. I just need to vent here and there.

Have a good one....

Halloween Costumes & Leftover Pizza

I've had this song stuck in my head for the last couple of weeks, and I can't get it out. It's by Mark David Manders, who I'm sure a lot of y'all have never heard of. The song talks about how Halloween Costumes and Leftover Pizza, are only good for a day. The memories are bound by a lifetime warranty, and guaranteed not to fade.

Let me explain something real quick, all my friends make fun of me because I really enjoy two things. First off is Magnum PI. The show really entertains me, and even though I've seen most of them, I continue to watch whenever I can. I like the living on the edge feeling that the show gives. Secondly, I'm pretty much a fanatic of Mark David Manders. He's not one of your big time country music singers, but I think he's better than most. I've probably seen more than 10 of his concerts. I love to hear his music, but every now and then, I like to listen to exactly what he has to say. I guess that's some reason that I've had this song stuck in my head the last couple of weeks.

Some would call my affinity for these two things man-crushes. Which I think is a little overboard, but I guess it would work. Not in the whole, I'm in love way, but more in the admiration way. It's stupid to say, and probably even more stupid to read, but there are few things in life that I can say that I have a real keen interest in. I feel I need to explain more, but I'll leave it at that. If anyone has any questions, I'll make sure to elaborate a bit on my reply wall.

Anyway, back to this song. It really makes me look at all the little things in life that we use or consume without thinking about. The Halloween costumes and leftover pizzas are two examples, but there are so many more. Actually most everything can qualify. The gas we put in our vehicles, the dog doo that I clean up everyday. These temporary things are etched in our minds for the rest of time. If you were the sentimental type, which I sometime am, if you were to think about this, you'd take your time and enjoy things more. You'd realize that the 3 hours you spend watching the Super Bowl or whatever are so much more than just TV time.

As we head into this new year, I can say that neither of my resolutions are going great right now. I'm not getting as much exercise as I wanted, but I've only really broke the diet a couple of times. I haven't been good at staying in touch. I guess I have the entire year to perfect it, it's hard to change just like that, cold turkey and all that jazz. I want to start another one though. I've been a lot of places, and seen a lot of cool things. With most of them though, I'm left with just these memories. I need better aids to remember my experiences. I would like to take a lot more pictures from here on out. It's so easy in this digital age, so there isn't really much of an excuse not to. I just don't want to be the one who is always annoying everyone by saying one more picture. People pictures are cool, but I prefer the ones of places.

Great, boring blog I know. One of these days I'll post something interesting, but for now, that's all I got. Have a good one!

Funerals

A bizarre title, I'm sure some of y'all are wondering what exactly I'm thinking about, but I'll explain it all in a short amount of time. Today was a pretty laid back. I'd like to think I got a lot accomplished at camp. I'm trying to fully step into my new role, and take off in a dead sprint. I want to do the best job anyone in my shoes has ever done, and even more importantly, I don't want to let the camp family down. They've really accepted me as their own in the last 10 years, and hugely so in the last 12 months. Well, back to today, I worked from about 9 till 12, did the lunch thing, went back to the office and left again at about 1:30. We had a distant cousin pass away a couple of days ago. I'd met her several times, but didn't know her real well. It didn't really effect me all that much. I believe it was only the 2nd funeral that I've been to since my Grandmother passed away. The other was for a really good friend's Grandmother. I am not big on funerals, I don't like to expose myself to the sadness that many funerals bring, I guess its some way of protecting myself from emotions.

I decided to go today, mostly because I wanted to meet some of the family that I probably never have. I also wanted to see some of the people I used to know so well, and now don't see hardly enough. I think my Dad wanted me to go too, so I felt somewhat obligated to do it. Those of you who know me well enough, know what I think about religion. I know it's there, I know it hits some people in different ways, it just really hasn't hit me yet. I'm not saying it never will, just to this point it hasn't. The funeral was graveside at an old cemetery between Ingram and Mountain Home. Sunset cemetery, it's where my Grandmother was buried. As a matter of fact, the tent that the funeral home had set up to cover the immediate family was covering her grave. There were some emotions and remembrances of my Granny while I was there, but mostly good thoughts. I only cried once when she died, and that was at the funeral. I remember feeling ashamed because I didn't think I showed my emotions enough. There comes a point after a death when people have to get past the shock and the sad feelings, and see what a triumphant life the person lived, and remember all the good times. Standing at that cemetery today I didn't think of all the sad thoughts, I thought of the happy ones I remembered of my Grandmother.

Well this wasn't supposed to be all that much about my Grandmother, but I kind of got off topic. I originally wanted to say that I feel good for going to the funeral. As good as you can when there is death involved. I met about 20 people who I had either never met, or hadn't seen in years, and I learned more about the cousin that passed away. Sounds like she led an amazing life in her earlier years, traveling all over the world. I have aspirations of doing the same. She was an old maid, meaning she was never married. So she along with her sister always ran together, doing all the traveling, baking, visiting, etc. etc. etc.

It made me hope that I'm not that old man who ends up never getting married. I'll keep my fingers crossed. Surely there is some girl out there who is lucky enough ;). (cocky).

Anyway, I was going to go more into the religion at the funeral, and the songs everyone was singing. I won't though, I'll leave it at that. It was a nice day, and as nice of a funeral as can be expected. I think my lack of knowledge on religion was fairly clear, I was the only one not singing the songs that everyone else seemed to know by heart. I, however, could out rap any of them!

Hunger Pangs

Resolution Smesholution...Can't believe it's not even the 10th yet and I'm tired of this dang diet, exercise thing. Not giving up yet though, it's just the incredible pangs for a juicy greasy burger, or that chocolate bar when going through the check out line at Wally World.

I can't really report and good reports yet. I imagine today that there will be a weigh in, and then every Monday from now on until I can't do it anymore. Something helping me this time that I didn't so much have last time I started is the presence of other people. Not wanting to be the odd man out has so much effect on a person that they stick with things for longer.

2006 still hasn't really hit me yet. Come to think of it, 2005 didn't really either. I know in November I put 2004 on several papers and checks. You'd think that far into a year I'd know which one it was by that point! Guess not though.

The time that we did the no carb diet in college and lost tons of weight, I really burned myself out on eggs. All kinds, I ate several a day. I'm afraid now that I'm going to do the same thing with salad. Good thing there's no chance I'll ever get burned out on steak! That's what's for dinner tonight. It's probably my favorite meal ever!

Figured out that I'm going to go to Arizona in a few weeks to visit my sister. Pretty exciting. It'll be the shortest amount of time between visits we've had in since she lived back in K-town. That was probably 15 years ago or so. Her Grandparents have a ranch out there, and they invited me to come with her. It'll be fun. Even though there is no blood relationship there (her Grandparents and myself), they've always treated me like their Grandson. I'm pretty appreciative for that. They're great people. I'm most looking forward to hang out with my sister though...

I don't have all that much to say today. Work's almost over, then it's time for a little exercise. I can't wait 'till Gus is big enough to make the trip around camp with me. He walked about a mile the other day, but I don't think he can keep up when I'm running. Not that I'm fast or anything, his legs just aren't long enough yet. He went and got his shots today. 80 bucks later, I hope he's a healthy little man...

Until Later...

Resolutions and such

I had a wonderful time this past weekend. New Years was an unbelievable party out at the YO Ranch. I didn't go to sleep until some time around 5:45 in the morning. Just a good time had by all. I don't like to go into my drunken exploits on here, but let me just say that I can't decide if I like Maker's Mark, or Crown Royal better. It's somewhat of an embarrassment of riches, I kept trying to decide between the two, and by the end of the contest, I could have been drinking Texas Pride and not known the difference!

The next day was a top 5 hangover! That's saying a lot...The stomach wasn't so much hurting, but my head felt like Hiroshima. We got back into the big city around 10 or so and a group of us met up for lunch/breakfast. Afterwards, I went home showered, packed my bags, and a few of us hit the road to Dallas for the Cotton Bowl.

I started feeling better around 4 in the afternoon. Light music and quiet conversation eventually lifted the haze out of my head, and I was back to myself again. So much so, that I decided that I'd do a portion of the driving, through Ft. Worth and Dallas.

This country boy isn't big on driving in big cities. I don't have a problem with San Antonio or Austin. There, all you have to know is 3 or 4 main highways, and you're golden. Dallas though, is just one big interstate after another, and the drivers are friggin' crazy. There were several times that I was sure the little rice-burner in front of me was going to cause a 20 car pile up because it was in such a hurry to get wherever they were going...

Enough of that. Dallas is a great city. Has everything you need and more! Maybe someday, I'll end up there, but only time will tell.

The Cotton Bowl was amazing. Not so much the stadium, but it was a good game. Extremely boring, but a good game. The saying that Defense wins championships was proven once again. Alabama beat us on a last second field goal, and held our excellent offense to 10 points. That doesn't hardly ever happen. I feel we were one big play away from winning, both teams were. Being the high powered, explosive offense though, I thought we'd at least have one or two of the big plays. Well, there weren't' any. No turnovers, none of that. The field goal to win it was the ugliest kick I've ever seen, looked like a duck that had just been shot out of the air. Wobbly, low, and no chance of going in...Well that's what everyone around me thought, actually everyone in the entire stadium that was there to support Texas Tech. The cheers were so loud after we thought he missed...Then the referee put his arms up, and said it was good. The stadium went from one side being extremely loud, and the other quiet, to a reversal. The quiet side being loud, and the loud side being speechless...Great game though!

One thing I'd like to comment on, is how funny the cheer was that 'Bama did at the end of the game. It went something like...

Hey Raiders
We just beat the hell out of you...

Something like that, I don't remember the whole thing, but I thought it was hilarious. The fans around me didn't like it, but we did just get beat, and for crying out loud, we are Texas Tech, notorious for being poor sports! I wish we could come up with some cheer like that...

The only thing is they didn't really beat the hell out of us...

Imagine this, Texas Tech's offense, with Alabama's defense. All on one team! Wow, can you say National Championship? Well maybe instead, it would be the University of Texas.



Just a quick comment on my resolutions. I try to set them every year, and usually they last all of a couple of weeks. I hope that these two work out for me...

1) Lose Weight! I'm not wanting to become anything super flaco, but enough to get the confidence going for me, and to be able to do physical activities! I'm not saying I'm not confident, because anyone who knows me, knows that I can be cocky at times, but it's amazing how much better one feels after working out, or losing a certain amount of weight.

2) Keep in better touch with people. I need to get out of the Anti-Social mode I sometimes find myself in, and start to keep in touch with friends that I've made in the past few years. Mainly camp friends, and college friends. There are several High School friends that this goes for as well, but my Dad always told me that I'd meet my best friends in college, and with a few exceptions, that may be true.

Happy New Years everyone!

Oh yeah, Gus has been biting a lot lately. This morning, he drew blood. Little ornery punk!