Hacienda del Gringo

Cinco De Mayo

2011-05-05T16:14:00.000-07:00

I've heard Happy Cinco De Mayo, and Happy Mexican Independence Day several times today! I know it's not really Mexican Independence Day, but I'm not going to rain on anyone's parade. Even though it's not even a US holiday, I love it, because people go so crazy that have absolutely no ties to Mexico. I'm guessing it's more of just a reason to go out and celebrate with Margaritas and Mexican Beer. Count me in. Dos Equis here in about an hour!

Happy Cinco De Mayo!!!

Land of the Free, Home of the Brave!

2011-05-03T18:21:00.000-07:00

I swear the older I get, the less predictable I come. I don't know exactly how to explain what I mean by that, but I'll do my best to convey it.

All the news in the last couple of days regarding the demise of Usama Bin Laden has been a bit overwhelming for me. I don't want to say it's bittersweet, because it's definitely much more sweet than bitter.

The way that these United States come together when something monumental happens warms my heart, sends butterflies through my body, and usually even tears to my eyes. Upon hearing that UBL was killed, and that all of our losses on 9/11 had been avenged, I can say that I had all of those feelings. I didn't know anyone who was in New York, DC, or Pennsylvania on that day, but as an American it cut deep. I'll be able to tell you about that day and what I was doing for the rest of my life. Some memories are permanently tattooed into your brain for your entire life, and that's one that'll never be forgotten by me.

Back to Sunday night, when all the losses of 9/11 came back it did make my eyes water. It was the closure that those who were directly impacted might now feel that really got to me. After watching the news, and seeing the elation of those who were reporting the news, or those who were sitting in Citizens Bank ball park in Philadelphia, my stomach did flips. People waving flags, chanting U-S-A U-S-A, crying in the streets. It was a feel good moment for me. Hell, it was a feel good moment for America.

Something didn't feel right though. Still doesn't. I'm not a conspiracy theorist, so I'm not going to sit here and tell you I don't believe it until I see a body. You could flash any carcass up there on the screen that might bear some resemblance to UBL and I wouldn't know the difference.

I think what bothers me is the euphoria that was felt from sea to shining sea after the death of just one person. Perhaps I should take it as more of a symbolic event. I completely and wholeheartedly agree that it was a tremendous milestone to bring closure to what happened 10 years ago come September.

It should not bring an end to the cautiousness and care we've taken over the last 10 years to have concern for ourselves and our nation. Maybe I should give people the benefit of the doubt, and assume that they see UBL's death as an important occurrence, but not the panacea for our worldly problems. As long as we're the land of the free, and the home of the brave, we'll have a target on our backs.

I don't want to sound like I'm super paranoid either. I'm just a big believer in not resting on our laurels.

While I'm on the negative nancy warpath...I'd also like to say that I wish it didn't take some huge event for the nation to come together in such a patriotic display. Thanks to Twitter I felt super informed on Sunday night of all the happenings. One of the people I follow is Mark Herzlich. If you haven't heard his story, click on his name and read the wiki info. Herzlich was retweeting pictures of college campuses around the US where students met up and had patriotic celebrations. It was awe inspiring to see America's youth so passionate and jubilant concerning The United States and our armed forces. Why can't we have that more often? Why does it take usually a negative event to bring us together and let the love for our home shine?

So to clarify my first statement, on not being as predictable as I used to be...10 years ago, I would have been crazy excited that UBL was killed. Had you told me 2 weeks ago that it was going to happen, I would have been stoked. After it actually happened though, while I was happy that some people might feel closure from the 9/11 events, I saw things much more big picture than just the death of one person. Maybe it's maturity (doubtful), maybe it pessimism, who knows...

Okay, off my soap box. Two other things I'd like to cover...

Twitter...If you haven't joined, you should. It's quite a tool in information sharing. You don't even have to follow anyone you know. It is such a great means of finding breaking news, following your favorite band or sports team, or learning about new things. I can guarantee you that if you stick with it long enough to figure out how useful it can be, you'll be hopelessly addicted to it, and check it twice as often as you check your facebook page.

Secondly, I'm going to completely out myself as a wrasslin' fan, but how the heck did Chris Jericho get voted off of Dancing with the Stars? C'mon America, he was nowhere near the worst dancer, and was much more entertaining than any of the others who are left. Pull your head out. That being said, I never watched the show before, and might not watch it again. It was kind of fun tuning in and seeing somebody that I used to follow long ago through his wrasslin' exploits on the national stage...

Haven't been keeping up with this thing as much as I'd hoped. I think about it a lot, just don't open up the computer all that often. Hope all is well with all of you!

Hodgepodge

2011-03-07T18:37:00.000-08:00

Isn't that what Alex Trebek calls the categories on Jeopardy that don't really have any centralized theme? Hodgepodge? Well I'm going to roll with it anyway. Alex Trebek is my homeboy by the way. If he'd just let me on that show, I'd make a ton of money. (one paragraph in and already 2 Alex Trebek references, it's safe to stop reading now)

I had it on the other day in the background, and wasn't really paying much attention to it as I was doing something meaningful and important (sarcasm font needed). I hit a pretty hot streak, like 10 or 12 answers in a row to end the Double Jeopardy round. Quite impressed with myself, I decided to sit and watch final jeopardy just to boost my ego a little more. When it came back on I saw Alex, and the category, then the contestants. I had somehow missed it was Teen Tournament week. Hot streak explained.

This brings me to another important topic. Over sharing. I could have told the last story, and completely left out the part that it was the Teen Tournament. No one would have known the better, and I would have looked muy inteligente (Spanish for smart, attractive, and funny)!

Anyway, I'm really awful with over sharing. One of my favorite questions we used to ask in job interviews was "what is one of your worst personal traits?". We got a wide array of answers. Some just couldn't think of an answer, others said they were shy, or chewed their nails. As for me, it's my TMI (too much information) problem. I take great pride in the fact that if asked a question I should be able to answer in about 3 words, I take 5 minutes to do so. Some people like to say they are loquacious, I just say I get verbal diarrhea (a completely different kind of TMI there).

So I've been hitting the gym the last couple of weeks, with mixed results. I haven't lost much weight. I'd definitely fall in the heavyweight division if I were a UFC fighter. I'm getting much stronger though, and the old adage is that muscle weighs more than fat, so I keep telling myself that and throwing down the double whopper after a trip to the gym. Not really the double whopper part, I've been eating a little better too. The hard thing for me is eating small portions. I'm so used to our Texas sized portions down here. Plus I've got a bad habit of eating everything on my plate....

Okay, got sidetracked there. My whole point of talking about hitting the gym, is that I've been on a different kind of music kick here lately. I've never been a big fan of techno or electric music, but it's starting to tickle my fancy a little bit. I went on an iTunes spending binge the other night and bought some of the songs from the Top 10 charts that had a good beat, and might be fun to listen to on the treadmill. I ended up with a 34 song playlist that I've started listening to everywhere I go. Not that it's that great, but it pumps me up whatever I'm doing. If I'm working out, I tend to run at a faster pace. If I'm driving, I tend to take corners tighter and faster, and hit the gas on the straight-a-ways. If I'm washing the dishes, I tend to break a few.

I ended up with some Deadmau5, Swedish House Mafia, Benny Benassi, Fatboy Slim. Some of them were older songs I'd heard, but others were completely new to me. While looking up and down the charts, I ran across a singer named Peaches. I've heard of her before, she sings some trashy songs. They've got a good beat, and are fun to listen to. I've just got to be careful who's around when I put them on.

Anyone else have any good suggestions?

Also, purchased the whole Florence + The Machine album. It's pretty great. She's got a very different voice, but my ears really likey! It gets 2 thumbs up from this guy!

Hodgepodge was about perfect for this one. I just typed for about 10 minutes, and at the same time, typed nothing substantial. I promise there are deeper thoughts in this noggin of mine, they'll show up eventually. Hope if anyone made it this far, that they're doing great!

Oh and by the way, I got the Final Jeopardy answer right. Those 14 and 15 year olds would have had quite the disappointing showing if I were there.

MANcation 2011

2011-02-24T15:31:00.000-08:00

It's that time of year again. The temperature is slowly rising, the grass is turning green, and baseball is about to start up. This means several things. About 5 years ago, it meant a wedding just about every other weekend. (As I get older, it's gone from frequent weddings to a birth announcement every few weeks.) It also means that people are coming out of their winter slumber, and planning all kinds of events. We usually have BBQ Cookoffs, more weddings, and golf outings. Perhaps the greatest occurrence this time of year though, is the annual MANcation trip!

For several years now, we've gotten a group of friends together from the Hill Country and made the trip to Ruidoso, New Mexico for a long weekend of general debauchery. The cast isn't' always the same, we add a few and lose a few each year (marriage, babies, work, etc). Even with the fluctuating attendance though, each MANcation somehow tends to up be better than the last one!

We try to leave on a Wednesday afternoon and make the almost 550 mile trek to the Land of Enchantment. While we're there we tend to stay pretty busy between the Inn of the Mountain Gods Casino, Ski Apache snow skiing, golf courses, and the bars. It's usually a pretty long drive back home on Sunday, but plenty of stories are swapped on that ride!

Last year we played golf at a country club called Cree Meadows. After a pretty long 18 holes, we finished around 4. We were going to run back to the house and make dinner, but we had to retrieve our drivers licenses that were being held hostage until we returned the ice chests that so conveniently hook onto the golf carts. The Pro Shop was already closed, so we had to run up to the restaurant/bar to make the exchange. We decided to grab a drink at the bar before heading back to the house. This somehow turned into several hours, and making a ton of new friends.

Luckily, one of those in attendance brought a video camera, and we managed to catch this greatness. The names will be withheld to protect the innocent.

This year's MANcation takes place mid March. Here's to hoping it'll surpass last year!!

Dive Texas

2011-02-23T07:33:00.000-08:00

Been thinking a lot lately about getting my Scuba Certification. Back in the day, my Dad made a bunch of trips all over the place on Scuba vacations. I didn't really see the appeal in breathing underwater.

I'm not sure what's so appealing about it to me now either. I don't know if I'm starting to like the idea of being underwater and seeing things that you can't see without the aid of the Scuba gear, or the the travel involved. Seeing as how there aren't a lot of exotic diving locales in Texas, that means flights, foreign languages, islands, boats, bikinis, and probably a few beers. After seeing it typed out like that, the later of the two looks very appealing.

I'm also not a very strong swimmer. Everyone says that doesn't matter too much. You just have to make sure you can out swim your dive partner, in case of sharks. To add to any anxiety about diving, I recently watched Sanctum in 3D. (I don't get the 3D craze, but that's a whole other post.) It's safe to say that I'll be staying away from any cave diving.

This also could be a way for me to broaden my horizons. I'm as bad as anyone about staying in my comfort zone. Staying above water, not straying too far from the norm. This would be pretty far out there for me. Plus the added benefits of the travel. What is there to think about? Maybe someday I'll be posting some wild underwater pictures. Time will tell!

Have a great one!

Gus the Crazy Dog

2011-02-20T19:52:00.000-08:00

All you need for this trick is a hyper yellow lab, and a laser pointer. This is one reason my dog is better than yours..

Check Out the Links

2011-02-19T15:13:00.001-08:00

I've been playing more with my template on here and changing things up. Well actually, I'm giving myself entirely too much credit. I actually am just adding a few links on the side to some of my friend's pages (blogs, websites, etc). I don't know how to do much else than that.

Anyway, make sure to check those out. These folks are not only WAY more interesting than me, but they update more frequently. It's a pretty eclectic mix, so you won't notice any similar themes from site to site.

Most of them are sort of potluck, whatever they're thinking about, they'll post it. Others though are an encounter of something going on in their lives, or a goal that they're setting for themselves.

The blog that I just added is from a guy who I've known for years through camp. First as a camper, then as a counselor. He's in El Salvador as a Peace Corps volunteer. His writings give us a good idea of what a Peace Corps member goes through when out on assignment. I find this interesting because I've actually looked into joining the Peace Corps several times. Never serious enough to enquire and apply, but enough to do several weeks of research. I just can't imagine being away from home for that long at this point in my life. Another aspect I enjoy, is that while reading you gain more of an appreciation for the things we take for granted here in the States. I don't think a lot of people realize just how lucky we are to be where we are.

If you have the time, check 'em out. If not, come back later and give them a read. I don' think you'll be disappointed!

The Trend...

2011-02-17T09:44:00.001-08:00

Call me way before my time if you will. I've had this Hacienda Del Gringo thing going for several years now..(Actually just checked, and it's been 6 years and 1 day.) Just in the past few months, I've had several friends either start their own blog, or start advertising their blog via twitter or facebook. Reading their posts, their deep thoughts, or their lighthearted fare makes me long for the days that I really enjoyed sitting down and hacking away on that old Gateway computer I had (later the Dell laptop, now the Sony Vaio).

Now does that mean I'll make daily entries, and turn this blog thing into a tell all encounter of my life. Well no. Let's just say that I'll try wholeheartedly to take a little time out of my day to write things here and there. Things that I see that are funny, maybe deep thoughts, or just random silliness.

I've had multiple people ask when my next post will be. Or the why haven't you written on your blog in ages. That makes me feel good, that people actually take the time to type in the HdG web address and see if I've actually made any updates. People even ask about it when there's been a year between postings (or more in some cases). To you folks, thanks...It's nice to know there might actually be a few who DO care what this guy thinks..

In short, the reason I don't post often (even though I do think about it) is because I don't like being negative. I know a lot of people have their blogs so they can sit down, rant and rave about how mistreated they are and how the world hates them. That's not my M.O. I am, and always have been a glass half full kind of fellow. There for a while, the only time I'd sit down and type is when I had the feeling that I was being mistreated, and the world hated me.

That's not the vibe I want to give off to anyone who "checks in" on me via this blog thing...I won't always be sunshine and flowers, but hopefully I can bring a lot of smiles to the faces of anyone who checks in, or stumbles upon my creation...

Also realize I'm not perfect, I don't edit my posts, I don't go back and read what I've just typed. I just let it flow, sometimes forgetting to do the spell check, then click publish.

Sometimes I debate if I should even publish at all. A wise man once told me that I should sit down, type things out, and if I feel it has a negative vibe, just erase it. It's more fun to have it here where I can go back and read it after the fact though. That way, days, months or even years later I can look back and see how ridiculous I am/was!

What you're getting is unequivocally me. Hope it's enjoyable, and I hope it makes you think....

So-Pac???

2010-06-09T13:30:00.001-07:00

Sounds Likely

Sad Days

2010-02-08T09:03:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with myself for the next couple of months. The ending of the Superbowl last night brings a lull in my favorite sports until the first part of April. I'd have to say that baseball is my true love when it comes to sports. Football, however, is my mistress. I'd much rather attend a baseball game in person, than a football game. On television though, Football is king.

This was an up and down year for my football teams. I'm only really a true fan to 3 teams. I'll usually find someone too root for in every game though (it makes it that much more interesting).

My Texans made a good run at it, and if it weren't for the Colts pulling their starters in the last couple of game, the Texans would have made the playoffs for the first time. Things are looking up for them next year, I hope they can continue to build on their success from this last season.

The Vikings made it to the NFC championship, and lost to the Superbowl Champion Saints in overtime. One could argue that the Vikings should have won the game, minus a couple miscues, I won't though. That's what makes sports interesting, human error. I don't know if they'll be nearly as good next year. That all really depends on a 40 year old quarterback who plays like he's 25.

If those two teams were playing against each other, I'd have to go with the Vikings. However, once the Vikings deep snapper decides to retire or relocate, I'll be rooting for the Texans first.

Then comes my true number 1 college team. The Raiders Rojos of Texas Tech! If you looked for the definition of 'up and down season' in Webster's, you would have the Red Raiders season this past year. We exceeded expectations on many levels, winning a total of 9 games, and beating several very good teams. We were also a couple of plays away (a field goal instead of going for it on 4th and short) from having 10 wins. Then came the Mike Leach saga...

I'm a huge Mike Leach fan, I loved the way he coached, and loved his quirky ways. I was pretty upset with the way things transpired in Lubbock and across the nation on television. In the end though, I'm as happy as I can possibly be with the way things worked out. We got an outstanding coach as a replacement, and will hopefully continue the success of the last 10 years. Tuberville seems like a class act too, that's what I'm happiest with. With all of Leach's quirks, there were several things about him I wasn't crazy about. He was the face of our university after Bobby Knight left (arguably while Knight was there too), and I don't think he did the best job representing us in a professional, classy way. Tuberville will do that. The sad part is that there were no winners in the situation. Leach lost, the University lost, the James family lost, and my fellow Techsans lost. We looked like garbage in the press. I'm glad we've got a class act like Tubs to pull us out of it all.

For being a sport where everything is supposed to be settled on the field, there sure is a bunch of drama off of it. I hate it after a game when someone is interviewing the star of the game, and asks them a question having nothing at all to do with the game. I guess it's all these human interest stories that keep casual fans interested. It'll be entertaining to see all the questions thrown at Tubs after he wins his first game. Or questions asked to Tiger after he wins his first tournament after his sex problem. (or after they don't perform up to expectations!)

So guess I'll have to impatiently wait until April when the Astros start what will probably be one of the most abysmal seasons of their existence. I'm sure by mid-May I'll be begging for Texas Tech football to start up!

While typing this, I realized I'm kind of a hypocrite. It drives me nuts when people get to, too, and two mixed up, as well as there, their, and they're. I've already fixed a couple of my own mess ups! No one is perfect I guess. I hope all is well, and everyone is doing great!

Resolutions

2010-01-19T19:18:00.000-08:00

I haven't updated in ages! A friend of mine has started her own blog and it made me miss this a little! It has been more than a year and a half since the last time I updated on here, and sadly I don't have a lot to report.

I can thankfully say that my Dad is doing tons better! He's back to work, independence, and is just himself. It's a wonderful thing that these doctors, nurses and others do to keep us at it. I find it so funny that so many of us are stubborn about going in to the doctor, but they've got answers for just about everything that ails us. I'm as guilty as the next guy on that one.

I've actually been thinking lately that I need to go in just for a check up. I'm pulling the stubborn thing though, so I probably won't until it's a last option for me!

Seeing as how it is the first of the year, that means several things. For the most of us, it means resolutions. I made several; the obligatory lose weight one, plus keep in better touch with friends, and try not to be so anti-social! Perhaps the most important to me though is, let this be the year you get things "figured out"!

That's a pretty vague statement 'eh? Well read into it what you will. For me though, it means employment, more independence, stability, and perhaps romance. For the last one there, all the other 3 have to come together.

The employment part of it, I feel I've got a start on. I applied to be a substitute teacher in December, with the idea of starting as soon as classes started in January. Applying then was kind of a preemptive strike at the resolution. I've spent 4 days in the classroom since I became eligible. I had 8th grade English/Language Arts for 3 consecutive days, then 5th grade Social Studies for one day. I really dug the 8th grade class. It was nice to have them for 3 days in a row, and actually be able to actively engage them during the class. The 5th grade was kind of a spur of the moment fill in job, and all the kiddos did was busy work. That wasn't as enjoyable. I figure if I enjoy the teaching part of things, I'll work at getting my teaching certificate, and hopefully by August have my own class.

The independence and stability parts tie in together. I think with a reliable source of income, both of these will come fairly quickly. I wouldn't give up my current relationships for anything, but I sometimes feel like I've always got to worry about what those around me think before I do anything. I would like to be able to get out there and do things for myself without having to worry how so and so are going to be affected. The stability I desire covers many different areas. Mostly financial, but also emotional. I'm not saying I'm nuts, although I think we all are in our own ways. I'm just saying I'd like to be a little less emotional about certain things. Not boo hoo emotional, but caring so much about trivial things.

Romance, I won't say much about it. I get asked several times a week either why I'm not dating someone, or if I'm looking. I guess we're always looking, but I'm content how I am right now. The only reason for that though is because I don't have those other things figured out yet. It'll all come together, I'm very confident in that. I just hope I'm not trying to get those other things figured out and miss the boat on this one! Maybe we'll go more in depth another time!

Well I went from just a quick hello to a long blog. I hope this finds everyone doing well. I'm not even sure how many people still come and check this thing out. I guess it's more for me than anyone else though!

I'm gonna' update my links on the side too, so go check those out!

PAZ

Super Size Me

2008-07-28T15:29:00.000-07:00

Holy Cow, it's another month and half since the last post and I'm still sitting in a hospital in San Antonio. This is NOT the way that most of these transplants happen. Let me stress that! If there is anyone who somehow stumbles upon my cruddy blog while doing research on liver transplants, know that we've had several unforeseen complications. A lot of times people are out of the hospital after just a couple of weeks.

Today is 95 days since my Dad got his new liver and kidney. We had some complications right after the surgery, and then some along the way. In the last couple of weeks, we've had a couple more having nothing at all to do with the transplant. I would say things are good though, they could be a whole helluva lot worse. We're to the point now where we've hopefully got all the complications ironed out (at least 'till the next one pops up), and we're focusing on physical therapy and nutrition.

As for me, if you'll notice the title of this blog, I've really been living it up (FOOD). For most of February, March and April I did the no carb diet. I had lost about 30 pounds, hit a plateau and decided that there was enough going on in my life that I didn't need to worry about avoiding the bread that I enjoy so much. Since I haven't been home, I've been eating out, A LOT. I haven't stepped on a scale in a while, but I'd be willing to bet that I've just about put that 30 pounds back on. I guess that happens when you sit in a hospital as long as I have and eat the way I have...My one saving grace has been some friends that have me over for dinner every night. That has kept me from hitting up the dollar menu at Wendys, and the food is about 100000000 times better than Wendys. Plus you can't beat the company!

I'm not so much complaining, I just had a funny thought today as I was getting lunch. We moved to a different hospital last Friday to get some things checked out. I discovered their food court yesterday and it has like 6 different restaurant choices for a meal. I was standing in line at McDonalds today and thought of the adds for (the movie, book) Super Size Me, and just kind of pictured myself on the poster. That's some good marketing for that movie. Don't think I'll be heading back to Micky D's anytime soon. It's just so easy though!

I'm about ready to get back home and get away from this fast food oasis that is the medical center in San Antonio!

Donate Life

2008-06-09T15:04:00.001-07:00

Hello all. Long time no see. Things have been wild here in the land of Morriss. The last 6 months or so has been sort of a hard road to hoe. A lot of things have happened that I knew were coming, but were still a shock when they occurred.

So here it is, without too many details:

Last August, my Dad was fishing down at the coast. He just bought a new boat, and life was good. While fishing, we think that some water got into an open sore on his leg. From that, a bacterial infection popped up on his leg. There's a really fancy word for the type of infection it is, but that slips my mind at the time. It was like a staph infection basically. When he decided that it wasn't going to just go away, he went to a doctor in Kerrville and was referred to wound care clinic at Peterson Ambulatory care center.

While making his twice weekly visits to the wound care center, the doctor told him that his leg wasn't heeling as well as it should, and he should go have some blood work done to check and see if anything else was hindering his ability to heal. From this blood work, we found that he had severe Liver disease, and we needed to a specialist sooner than later.

That was in late September, early October. After getting treatment from the doctors, we thought we had it figured out. We knew that a transplant would have to occur someday, but not in the foreseeable future. All of November, and December he felt great. In early January he started going down hill again, and we didn't exactly know why. We had some more numbers run, and it turned out that because of his liver disease, his kidneys were now failing.

This was all around the time of the last post I made. I was out in Arizona, and got a call on a Thursday morning and told I needed to come home because things weren't looking good. We brought him down to the Texas Transplant Institute at Methodist Hospital and had our first meeting with "the team". They told him that he needed a liver transplant, sooner than later, and that because of his kidney condition, he might need a kidney transplant as well. We spent 10 days in the hospital then, running through all the tests, and jumping through all the hoops that needed to be jumped through.

After a several week wait, we were put on the transplant list, with a very high level of priority and almost a month later he had his surgery. We were lucky there, because we were so high on priority. (There are many people who spend years on the list. Some people who are just getting kidneys have waited up to 6 years!)

He's now been in ICU for 44 days. It's crazy that we've been here this long. The usual hospital stay is somewhere from 10-14 days. That's total hospital time (not just ICU)! Every case is different though. He was very weak when he came in, and we've hit some pretty severe speed bumps along the way. All they were, were bumps though. We're on the right road now. Still in ICU, still a long road ahead of us, but there's a light at the end of the tunnel...

That was kind of the cliff's notes version of what went on. I didn't tell the story with the idea of anyone feeling sorry for us. The truth is, I wanted to let y'all know about what you can do to help. Not help me, but just help anyone else who's in the same position we've been in.

Before all this happened, I wasn't sure if organ donation was something I was interested in. I didn't think I wanted my body picked through for all my bits and pieces after I expire. After meeting all the people at TTI, and meeting a lot of their patients, I can't think of any reason not to be a donor.

Seriously though, what are you going to do with your organs when you're gone?

I know that's a sensitive subject, and I respect anyone's decision on not being a donor. It's just a personal thing.

However, for those of you who want to be a donor, but don't know exactly how to do it, here's how...

http://www.donatelifetexas.org/

That'll work for anyone in Texas.

Anyone else, go to http://www.donatelife.net/, and pick your state.

I never knew anyone who had gone through this, and in the amount of time we've been in here, another friend's Dad received a liver donation. It happens to more people than you think.

Thanks for your time! I hope life is going great for all of you!

Off On Another Western Run

2008-01-22T21:48:00.001-08:00

Well tomorrow morning I'm off to California and Arizona for a couple of weeks. I have all these great opportunities popping up on my trip, real treats. I'll get to spend a few days living it up in Los Angeles seeing the sites, and spending time with my sister. After a few days we'll load up her car and head to Sedona, Arizona. If you've never seen the red rocks of northern Arizona you're missing out. It's an awesome place! While there we'll visit her grandparents and weather permitting play some golf on a world class golf course. I'm sure I'll be just as bad there as I am here in Kerrville though! After a few days there, we'll make our way down to Phoenix for the Super Bowl. The friggin' Super Bowl! Now I'm not telling you all this to brag, just to show all the once in a lifetime things I'll get the chance to do.

While all this sounds great, I can't help but feel somewhat remorseful about going. I've spent the last 4+ months here at home taking my Dad back and forth to Doctors appointments, and helping with things, without ever leaving for more than a couple of days at a time. Everyone says that I need to get a little time away, but it scares me to death that something is going to happen while I'm gone. Had this chance come up two months ago, I probably wouldn't have gone, but things (health wise) seem much better. It'll still be tough for me to walk out the door tomorrow morning though. I'll be back in about 2 weeks, I think I just need to stop being such a worry wart.

Now for the real problem! I think Gus has separation anxiety. Anytime I leave the house, he freaks out, walks back and forth, and just bothers my Dad 'till I get back. How's he gonna' handle these two weeks without me. I ran to Lowe's earlier to grab a few things and in the time that I was gone, he jumped into my Dad's lap twice as if asking where the hell I was. It may just be a case of bad manners, but maybe not ;)!

So, since the last blog, not much has changed. I don't have a friggin' job (other than playing taxi and nurse) but I've got something in mind. I won't write about it yet, but when it happens I will. I don't wanna' talk about something, then not have it happen...

With everything that has happened in the last few months I've thought many times about opening up blogger and just typing away, getting some sort of release. Truthfully though, I don't want to share that stuff online. Just know things are going okay, and getting better we hope. I write that thinking that perhaps people still tune in to the blog, but it's been so long since I've posted that no one checks it anymore I'm sure. Well it's a bit of a fix for me!

That's it for now, no earth shaking, award winning news there, just a thought I'm struggling with right. I also wrote to point anyone who might be reading to a friend of mine (more like a little brother). He's spending a couple of months backpacking through New Zealand and updating his progress along the way! Travel writing is something that I enjoy, and having the personal connection to this one makes it that much more interesting. Mikey's Blog <--Click there!

Until Later Y'all

Soon

2007-08-21T14:38:00.000-07:00

Well Camp is over, and I'll try to get back to regular blogging sooner than later. I hope this finds everyone well. Talk to you all real soon...

Collegiate Tragedy

2007-04-17T13:39:00.000-07:00

I'm sure I'll be posting more on this at some point.

One of these days

2007-04-13T00:23:00.000-07:00

It's 2:30 in the morning, and instead of just lying in bed tossing and turning I decided to get up do something. I don't know exactly what led me to write on here, but shazam, here I am. I've somewhat exhausted my options during the last few months on things to look at. I remember when we first got the internet, I was a senior in High School. We had dial-up at the house, and I'd spend several hours a night just going from site to site. Now with high speed, I can look at the same number of sites in a fraction of the time. Plus the fact that I only really look at 5 or 6 sites daily. Throughout the day I'll think of different things to look up on wikipedia, but usually forget them by the time I get the chance to do a little browsing. I've rambled for a good while on my tendencies on the computer, but my point is that there isn't nearly as much that interests me now as there used to be.

It figures that one of the only times that I have to get up early, I can't sleep the night before. I have to help move from office to office tomorrow (er..today) for my Dad and his secretary. Great fun! The weekend is coming though and as usual for this time of year, something is going on. The weeks past have seen barbecue cook offs, cookouts, boats, and concerts. This week is another concert. It should be fun. I haven't had the chance to see my favorite singer Mark David Manders in probably about 2 years. He used to come to Lubbock all the time, but for some reason just stopped during my last year or so up there. There's other good bands too, but my money is going to watch and sing along with Mark David. He's a pretty good singer, but my favorite part of the deal is that he puts on a good show. It didn't hurt that he used to have an extremely attractive fiddle player too. I think she's the one that got us to come back the second and third times we saw him, then we realized what a great show it was.

My favorite of the concerts that we saw him in was at the Blue Light in Lubbock. He has a song called Gillespie County Peaches but he rarely plays it in concert. Seeing as how we in Kerrpatch are so close to Fredericksburg (which is in Gillespie County) we kind of adopted that song as out own, and always ask him to play it. Chuck and I would yell after every song he played that we wanted to hear Gillespie County Peaches. Finally this night, he told Chuck and me that he hadn't done that song in so long that he doesn't remember all of it. We just laughed and enjoyed the rest of the show. Somehow after the music had stopped and the bar had cleared out, a group of us ended up behind the Blue Light with MDM and his guitar. While back there, he tried to remember the chords and said we'd have to help him with the lyrics. We tried, and got about half way through the song but being that it was dollar pitcher night beforehand, it just wasn't happening for us. So we all gave up and walked across the street to the library and had a few more. We being our group and Mr. Manders. I'm sure that kind of thing happens all the time for folks, but I know our group really enjoyed it and appreciated it.

The title of my post is one of these days. It was originally going to mean that one of these days I'll get onto this thing and type out a good long blog about how things are going. Seems like that somewhat happened tonight though. I was just planning on saying a quick hello and trying to hit the hay again, but it's already 2:45 now.

Things...Well I can say they aren't ideal right now, but I don't really have any complaints. I think that in this last week I've figured out more than I had in the previous 5 months. I'd kind of turned a little bitter towards life in general. Not so much at particular individuals, but just the state of my situation. It had been brewing for a while but I sat down and thought things out. I still don't know for sure what I'm going to do with my life. I'm not blaming that on anyone but myself though. Things will work out for me as soon as I stick my foot on the pedal and get them moving. I've waited around for reasons I thought were pretty valid at the time, but in retrospect see that it might have been a mistake. I've had new ideas pop in my head weekly about where I want to go, and what I want to do. Again though, nothing is going to happen until I make it.

The funny thing is, that for so long I just wanted to get the hell out of here. Now though I'm impartial. I wouldn't mind sticking around. I also wouldn't mind getting a chance to leave. Whatever happens, happens. I'll be the one who dictates that. As I said earlier, there seems to be so much stuff going on right now that I'd hate to leave and miss it. I'm really happy with the activities that are happening, and the friendships that have been continued and made in the past 6 months or so. If I do end up sticking around, certain things will have to change (ie living situation) but I can't say that I'll be upset about being "stuck" in Kerrville. We've got a great group of folks who we see 3 or 4 times a week. It'd be difficult to go off and start anew elsewhere.

The twice weekly basketball games, and the weekly softball games might make me a little worse for wear, but I'm having a good time. I'm thinking maybe that's why I'm not sleeping tonight, I'm friggin' sore. I love it though, it's so much better than sitting at home and not doing anything. I don't know if I'm losing weight, but I'm feeling great. It's funny how being active for as little as 5 to 10 hours a week turns your confidence in the right direction.

That's it for now. I wish I had some prize for those of you who've read everything I've written on here. My life is exciting to be living, but I'm sure to a fly on the wall it isn't quite as thrilling to read about. Oh well!! It's past 3 in the morning, and I've got to get up in 4 hours. I haven't done this since college, or some of these long weekends lately.

I've mainly not been posting on here all that much lately because I didn't (and don't) want to spew negativity. I hate negativity, but it creeps in on us all. I miss the days of being happy go lucky, and just enjoying every minute of things. I think I'll try that again. The first few steps of that will be the next few months. I think I'll enjoy myself, if things fall into place during that time, great. If not, I guess I'll keep on keeping on. G'night

Highs and Lows

2007-04-02T21:40:00.000-07:00

It's been a month since the last post, so I figured after the events of today I should put some ink to paper (or whatever the computer equivalent is). My life still isn't all that exciting, but here lately there's been a lot going on.

Spring has sprung. There are many indicators to be seen. The grass in the front yard is already at hip height. The trees are blowing up, full of leaves. More and more people are leaving the house in short pants, and short sleeves. My favorite signal though, happened last night, and today. Opening day of Major League Baseball.

Baseball is by far my favorite sport. I must admit that it is at times boring to watch, unless you have a team that you like to follow. I'm one of those lucky ones that has a team. It's hard for me to sit and watch a game that my team isn't playing in though. Today was the Astros first game, and through 8 full innings, everything looked great. Then Long-Ball Lidge came in and gave up a game tying home run. I know it's the first game, and there are 161 more, but it was just about the most nerve wracking moment I've had during one of their games.

I have not been one of the naysayers on Lidge's position with the team. I've always said that he just needs to fix his confidence, and he'll rebound from last years campaign. I figured he'd have a great season this year, close to 40 saves, and I could tell all those people who doubted him that it was just an off year. After tonight, my mind is changed. They should trade him tonight, and not a second later. Frustrated is an understatement.

To get my mind off of that, I flipped over to the NCAA Tournament final to cheer on Florida. Not that I usually applaud the Gators, or feel any disdain for Ohio State. Only because I filled out 2 different brackets this year, and in both I had Florida winning it all. Florida won! I for sure won one of the groups, and from what I hear probably won the other.

There you have it, the reason for my title. I'd probably trade in the bracket success for an Astros win. I've heard it said many times that the first game of the season is indicative to the rest of the season. If that's the case, we're in trouble.

Hope everyone is doing well...I'll try to post more often!

Texas Independence Day

2007-03-02T08:42:00.000-08:00

Happy Texas Independence Day one and all...

In honor of the day...---> Click Here

No Good Deed...

2007-02-28T17:11:00.000-08:00

No good deed goes unpunished. I heard this interesting quip today and it really fit the situation. When people have done something to help out a friend, they hope that it betters their friend's situation. Does it sometime show weakness though?

People who try to do good things for others get labeled with the do-gooder tag, and set themselves up to be walked all over. Hence the saying, no good deed goes unpunished. You try to help someone out by giving them an inch, and they turn around and take a mile.

It doesn't have much to do with me, more just friends of the family. They hit hard times a few months back and we helped them out of it. One of the conditions though, was that it was a one time deal. Surprise surprise, who comes back 3 months later asking for something else? If there was any chance of some kind of reparation I wouldn't look upon it as such a bad thing. Without that though, you're getting screwed on both ends. You're being taken advantage of and you end up holding a little bit of a grudge.

The grudge just happens. You might try not to hold ill will towards those folks, but simple enough, they pop up. You start to avoid them, for fear you're going to be taken advantage of again. Saying no would be the panacea for the problem, but who can tell a good friend no? You feel the obligation to help, because you are in the spot where you can do so.

Ha..This has been weighing on me today. A lot has been weighing on me. Imagine all of that load in addition to all the poundage I already carry around. Sheesh, my legs should be toned by now. I just hope that I get everything swirling around in my mind figured out soon. I'm about to pull what little hair I have left out!

Thank goodness for good friends...

I'm out...have a good one, one and all!

Boycott

2007-02-20T21:39:00.000-08:00

Nothing too much new to report. I did today though, decide I'll be boycotting two local businesses. I won't say their names, but instead tell the stories...

First off, my vet. Today was Gus's one year check up. Everyone knows I ain't got no job, so money is tight. I was needing to transfer some money from one account to another. A process that sometimes is done automatically, but when you really need it, takes 3 friggin' days. Well, so I ask the vet's secretary if there is any way they can bill me. Keep in mind that I not only use this vet for Gus's medical needs, but also anytime that I need to board him, I take him there. So in the past year I've probably spent over $500 there (and paid in full when picking Gus up). Well the secretary very rudely doesn't say anything but no. I told her I'm in the midst of transferring some money from one account into the other, and was afraid that I'd write a hot check if I wrote one today. She said, sorry I can't help you. So this afternoon, I went and paid with a check regardless, and also got all of Gus's records copied. He's gonna' have a new vet next time he needs something.

Second...On my way to pick up Gus, I stopped at a convenience store and put some gas in my truck. I went inside to pay, and picked up a Gatorade because we had a basketball game this afternoon, and I needed to recharge my electrolytes. When I was paying, one of the girls behind the counter walked up next to the girl that I was paying for my gas and drink and asks me if I want a shamrock. I had no earthly idea what she was talking about, so I politely said no thank you. Then I looked down and she had all the shamrocks that benefit M.S. or something like that. Had she asked if I wanted to donate a dollar to help fight M.S. I would have given her a dollar, put my name on a shamrock, and posted it on the wall next to the others. Instead she just asked if I wanted a shamrock without making even a gesture to the stack of the paper ones that were a bit out of view on the counter. So after I said no thank you, she looks at me and says, "Well you are probably going to hell". Straight up tells me that. I didn't know what to say, so I said, I guess so. I grabbed my Gatorade and change and headed towards the door.

The second of these was one of those times when you think of all the perfect things to say 10 minutes afterwards. I could have just said one word that would have trumped anything she could have said. Starts with B and sounds like Witch. I'm above that though. I won't be buying any more petrol from them...

The Basketball game...Wow, it was a blast. We played for about 2 hours. I still am not worth a dang, but I have fun. I'll be extremely sore tomorrow.

Houston Go Texan Barbecue cook off this weekend. It'll be a blast...

Just Cause You Have the Hat...

2007-02-18T20:56:00.000-08:00

I had an interesting weekend. I went to Rockport to go to another wedding. I really should have kept count of all of these. This was the second weekend in a row that there was a wedding to attend. They were both fun, I had a good time, and got to see/spend time with people I hadn't had the opportunity to be around in a while.

The Rockport wedding though, wow, what can I say. I'm going to guess I've been to around 10 weddings since last May. That's not too far of a stretch if it's below that number. They've all been traditional, and really organized. Rockport wasn't all that organized. It was a small wedding, I counted while my Dad and I were sitting in the pew. Including the wedding party, and preacher, there were 42 of us in there. I think the thing that struck me different about that is that all the other weddings I'd been to were about anywhere from 3 to 10 times that size. All in all, it was a nice wedding, they got married, mission accomplished. The reason for my disbelief was how on a day of such happiness, there was big time division within the crowd. Over half of the crowd was Mexican, and the other half white.

There were two separate sides at the reception, and the looks the in-laws were giving their new family struck me as odd...I won't go into too much more detail...

In the past week, I've been into three different churches. 2 of the 3 were, umm, different. For some people, being in 3 churches maybe isn't something news worthy, but other than weddings and funerals I can't tell you the last time I was in a church. I'm not complaining, or being braggadocios just stating the fact. The last two were by far the least "traditional" of all. I actually felt a little uncomfortable. Not being blasphemous, just truthful.

On the lighter side, I was within earshot of an interesting argument this weekend. Two guys in a big argument over which of the Texas Universities is better. One was for A&M, the other for UT. Of course I'm a Red Raider through and through, but I pull for the Texas school when they are playing someone from out of state. One guy had on his Longhorn hat, no doubt purchased after the national championship last year, the other guy was Aggie clothing free, but still pulling for the collie and the farmers. It was all in good fun, no doubt just two friends at a bar continuing the never ending debate. Neither of these guys attended those schools, or probably any school. I can't imagine those guys if they actually went to school at UT or A&M. I'm sure I sound like a complete ass with this one, but it cracks me up regardless.

I have a new guilty pleasure, well kind of. After all of the trouble this past week at Daytona, I was suckered into watching the Busch series race yesterday, and a large part of the big race today. That's exciting stuff. If you can get past the fact that it's just a bunch of cars driving around in a oval for 500 miles, there's many sub-stories involved. It's not all just pedal to the metal, there's strategy involved. Just watch the last lap of today's race. There's also the wrecks, a lot of danger involved, but if no one gets hurt, they are fun to watch...That's all for nascar, maybe I'll watch again next week, maybe not. I enjoyed it this weekend though...

Guilty pleasures, I have a few more. They're of the tv show variety. The Sarah Silverman show is hilarious. It's not very politically correct, but that's the funny part. Dirt on TNT...I haven't missed an episode. Then of course 24 and the Unit. The Unit is my favorite of all, but they're all good...

Oh well, sorry it wasn't an exciting one...Hope all is well, and everyone is doing better than great!

Have a good one!

What's going on?

2007-01-17T21:23:00.000-08:00

For some reason the title of this song brought a song to mind that I haven't heard in ages. Four Non Blondes, "what's up"...Y'all know it, "hey hey hey hey, hey hey hey, I say hey, what's going on?" Anyway, randomness is bliss. Randomness pretty much explains things for me as of late.

I'm still stuck in the same hole I was last time I was writing, not knowing exactly what's going on. I have a more full picture this time though. I know to an extent what's going on, and realize it's up to me.

At the time though I'm kind of in a stale mate because I need to finish up a few things here before I can go on, and get on with my life. Most of the people that I talk to about things tell me that I'm still young. 26 seems ancient to me, sheesh, at one point I thought it was light years away. I think the rush of seeing others around me with their high-paying jobs, and wives and kids made me feel like I was headed the wrong way down the road we call life. I'll get it all figured out though.

It's been a while since I've posted. Almost 2 months. I was at a point there where I didn't know anything to say, and whatever I might have put up would have been negative. The last couple of weeks have turned that around a bit though.

I got to go on a trip to the ATL. I love it out there, I enjoy getting to spend time with my Sister. This time I actually spent a lot more time with my Brother-in-law and we hit it off way better than we have before. We watched sports, not his favorite thing to do, and smoked cigars, not necessarily my favorite thing to do. I do enjoy a good cigar every now and then though. We talked about life, family, the future, and all kinds of other stuff. I think I may have learned quite a bit from that trip. Stop being so stubborn with certain things, and take what you can get. Which I might just do some time in the near future. The main thing that I picked up though, is why not try things. Stop being so conservative and worrisome and put your best foot forward without being afraid of it getting run over.

I don't know how long this realization will last, I'm a pretty optimistic person when it comes to things, so hopefully I'll stick with it.

On a different note...

Anyone ever put something off for so long, then once you get around to doing it you are embarrassed that it took you so long. Well I've done that to a few friends here lately. None of the immediate friends, but more like the ones that I usually talk to once a month or every two months or so. I put off returning an email or call, and now 4 or 5 months later am not wanting to get back in touch for fear that they're upset with me. If you are one of those friends, I apologize. That'll be one of my new year resolutions. I think I'll shoot back an email here in a bit to one of those...

The last two days have been boring with a big B. After living in Lubbock for as long as I did, I got somewhat used to driving though town with a little ice on the road. I only remember one time when I was out on the road and decided it was too much to handle. Hawk and I were headed out to night classes and made it as far as 4th and Quaker. After seeing about 10 wrecks in the 2 mile stretch from our house to there, we decided it was best not to run all the way out to classes. Instead we pulled in to Rosa's and celebrated Taco Tuesday like any other pair of fat boys would do. Dang I miss Rosa's...

Anyway, I got off the point there for a bit. We've had what I'd call a wintery mix of elements the past couple of days. Last week I was wearing short sleeves, and seriously considering putting on some shorts. This week, it's dang chilly. When a little ice gets on the roads, this place shuts down. I bet all the Northerners are laughing at us and our lack of ice driving skills. Schools are closed for the 3rd consecutive day tomorrow, and the majority of other places are closed too. Banks, restaurants, grocery stores, all fallen prey to the below freezing temps. The only thing is, that the main roads aren't all that bad. I've been out and driving around the last two days and other than all the people driving 40 miles per hour under the speed limit, there's absolutely nothing to worry about. Tomorrow it should warm up a bit, and be up in the 50's by the weekend. Not a minute too late...

That's all for now. One of these days I'll write about the wedding I was in this past weekend. It was great. Hope all is well, everyone is warm, and lovin' life...

Reflections

2006-11-29T20:09:00.000-08:00

It's been a while again. Two or three times a week I have these thoughts where I think, "man, I should really write about this". When I sit down to do so, I end up looking at other things, and deciding it's not really worth my jotting it down.

Since the last time I wrote, I've gained another year. It's hard for me to believe that I'm aging like this. 26 years old was once unfathomable. I didn't figure I'd ever hit it. Well, I figured I'd hit it eventually, but not for like 100 years. I don't really feel 26. I can't be sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing.

I know last year on my birthday I wrote a long blog on where I was in my life, and what I hope to accomplish in the upcoming (presently the past) year. The theme was pretty much, I'm 25 and haven't done a thing in my life to distinguish myself as a big part of society.

A year later, I could still say the same thing. I have a bit of a different outlook now. I still haven't done many of the things I was hoping to accomplish, but they'll happen, I have no doubt. In my 25th year I have many things to be proud of. I won't go into listing them all, but there's a lot. I graduated school, had a great job, went to Costa Rica for a month, and also have a new best friend (or should I say Man's best friend).

I'm still a good son, and I'd like to say I'm a good friend. I realize that I have my differences and that's what makes me unique. Would I change anything about myself? Hell yes. Not too terribly much though. I wish I was a bit more of an extrovert. I think I do a good job of talking with others, but I don't like being in unfamiliar situations where there are a bunch of new people. Once I meet everyone, it's all good, but those moments leading up to that turn my temperature up a bit. It may be nerves, or may just be something else. I can't say for sure.

Other situations, like when I was working at camp, when I'd meet new people and get to answer questions for them that didn't bother me at all. Perhaps my problem is just that I hate the feeling of not being prepared, or being stuck in a situation where there is too much spontaneity. That doesn't really sound right, I like being spontaneous, I'm not completely boring. Just in certain situations I prefer knowing what's going on, or being a part of the happenings.

I'm pretty much just babbling now, but it's a subject that I've put a lot of thought into. I know there are people out there that feel the same way. I go into this next year knowing the changes I want to make, and the changes I need to make. There isn't too much differentiation between the two. I hope I can make it happen. I imagine so.

Paths...

2006-11-13T20:34:00.000-08:00

So I wasn't really planning on posting tonight. So if this blog sucks, chalk it up to the new version of blogger that I just switched to. Y'all probably won't see any difference, but it's supposed to be way different on this end. All the other ones usually are far from entertaining anyway...

I've been thinking a lot how with no matter how different a lot of us are in our lives, we all pretty much hit the same things throughout our time here. The last year has been pretty crazy because all of my friends are getting married. I like to say they're dropping like flies, which they are, but that's not really a good way of explaining it. They're all very lucky to have found that one that they love and God willing will be with for the rest of their lives. I'm not writing this to say I'm so lonely, because that's not my point, it's totally different. (I'm not lonely by the way, I'm perfectly content) My point here is that our lives all follow pretty much the same paths. No matter how far our paths drift from each other, we'll all experience a lot of the same events. Those being fortune, luck, and lack there of.

I use the friends getting married thing, but that's just one of many. A lot are things that we come to expect, much like getting married eventually. There's graduation, which hopefully happens for most of us. Then there's college for some, work for others. Graduations and promotions thereafter. Most of the time, relationships, marriages, children. My clique is in the middle of that one. Not too many have the kiddos yet. One of the expected things that sometimes comes completely unexpectedly is the last part of our lives.

When thinking of these paths I've only really used my own life for an example. The last day though I've seen my Dad having to deal with a friend of his passing away. Like I said it's something that is inevitable, it's going to happen sooner of later for all of us. This one wasn't quite expected. Regardless of knowing that its coming or not, there's no real way of not being hurt by it.

This guy was one of the good guys. He and my Dad met in college at Schreiner, then moved on to A&M together afterwards. They had a big group of friends that they called "the family". Everyone had a nickname, some were brother/sister, things like that. My Dad's nickname was B.I.L. (brother in law). Others were Sister in law, gravedigger, possum, Alabama, fun names like that which still stick with them today. After college they all went their own ways but if one was going anywhere near the other's hometown, they'd stop, visit, spend the night. It's a friendship that even though you don't talk all that often, you always know the other is there regardless of how long it's been or what time of the day it is. I know I have friends like that, and I hope a lot of folks think of me the same way.

Well he'd been fighting cancer for 5 or 6 years and everyone was optimistic that the worse was behind him. When my Dad got the call yesterday, I could tell the automatic change. The wife (who was actually Sister-in-Law in "the family"), broke the news, and asked my Dad to let the rest of "the family" know. I think it was the combination of the horrible news, and the fact that he had to call and report to those life long friends that hit him the hardest. He's better now, but I feel bad for him. I wonder if he's getting to that point in life where this'll start happening more often. Let's hope not.

I've always looked at these things happening and never really envisioned the only one that is 100% inevitable, death...

I don't so much want to be a downer, or gloomy, just wanted to put some thoughts on the computer and see if anyone ever thinks the same...

It actually makes me think of an old riddle.

What starts it's life on 4 legs
Then moves to 2 legs
Then towards the last part of life uses 3 legs

Figure that one out...

Paz friends...

Bad day for the state...

2006-11-12T07:33:00.000-08:00

It's Sunday morning, and what was supposed to be a great weekend for Texas College football turned out to be just the opposite. None of the Texan Big XII teams won, and to make matters worse (other than Baylor) all lost in nail biters.

It all started with A&M. Like I've said on here before I'm not the biggest Aggie fan. However, I don't know if it's because my love for the state of Texas, or the fact that I was raised to be an Aggie (that one didn't work out), I was rooting for them yesterday. It was tough though. The traditions at the school are top notch. I wish Tech had a 10th of the tradition that A&M has. Just a 10th though, no more than that because anything on top of that is overkill. I'll probably be stoned to death next time I run into an aggie (if anyone cares what I think) for saying some of these things, but that'll just prove my point. I understand that the core is good in its own ways. It helps pay for a lot of kids colleges, but like Mike Leach says, why do they get to have a fake army. He said several years ago that if A&M can have a fake army, then he wants to open his own pirate school. I'll be one of the first in line for that one...

Anyway, while watching the game there were 2 things that made me very thankful I'm not an Aggie. First off, the core? Why do those guys get to go on the field with the swords and their little hats? Again, I'm not ditching the idea of the core, just some of the members. By the time they'd showed the 50th pimple faced core turd acting a fool for the camera, I knew I had to say something about it. My Dad, being the Aggie he is, didn't like what I had to say. Oh well. Secondly, a Collie? I know there is all kinds of traditions involved with Revelie, but why didn't they pick a meaner looking dog. Collies are pretty, and extremely intelligent, but they don't really strike fear into the heart of other schools. Get a pit bull, and call it Killer. Sick it on any Red Raider or Longhorn that gets to close. That'd be a good mascot.

Speaking of the Red Raiders. We have no shortage of the same kind of people that A&M has, they just don't dress up in their army regalia. They just bring tortillas and sock people in the face with them. That was such a neat thing the first time I saw it. Until I got hit by one of the things. I remember one time against Texas, I was sitting right behind Cory Redding's dad and he got clocked by one of the flying saucers. He turned around and looked at me and I wasn't real sure what to do. I had my Tech gear on, so I just turned around and looked back where the tortilla came from. I think he got the message that it wasn't me, and I felt like walking out of there alive...

Tech lost to Oklahoma yesterday. The offense decided to take the 2nd half off. Actually if it weren't for the defense it wouldn't have been anywhere as close as it was. Who would have thought that the defense would be the high point? Oh well, here we come Houston bowl, or some other big bowl like that. I guess I should be grateful though. There are those teams that would give their right eye to go to a bowl. I just expected more.

Then there was Texas. I was raised to hate Texas. I was supposed to bleed maroon. I saw the light eventually though, and while I can't claim to be a huge fan I cheer for them when they aren't playing Tech. A lot of that is due to being a Texas team, and a lot is due to Cullen playing for them for 5 years. Texas had their shot at a second national title taken from them by Kansas State. I was already a little footballed out by the time that game came on, but I still watched a good deal of it. They just got outplayed. I hope we don't have K-State next year.

Then Baylor got rolled by Okie State. Just a bad all around day for the Texas Big XII teams. There's always next year I guess. I think I'm cheering for Arkansas now to win it all. They're impressive. Now that I jump on that bandwagon, I'm sure they'll lose too.

Have a good Sunday, hopefully the Vikings can make this weekend a tad better...

Clueless

2006-11-07T21:15:00.000-08:00

Growing up, when people asked me what I wanted to be in the future I told them several different things. I wanted to be a baseball player, I was going to hit home runs for the Astros. I wanted to be a vet also, I loved (still do) animals, and wanted to do my best at helping them. I wanted to be a lawyer, I don't remember exactly what I wanted to do with this one, but it had to do with following the in the footsteps of the Father.

The baseball dream faded when I realized that at the age of 14 I hit a plateau and probably wasn't going to get all that much better. The vet dream hit the skids when I realized there was so much more to it than just fixing the animals up. It involves shots, amputations, and sometimes even putting them out of their misery. The lawyer dream, well it cast aside after the 1,000,000th lawyer joke I heard, and all the crud my Dad has to put up with from time to time.

Another thing that I sometimes said I wanted to be was a judge. This again was following in the footsteps of my Dad. He was County judge for 4 years, and I always saw it as a neat job to have. I actually thought about this one for a long while, even the first year or so I was in college. I didn't want to go and get a law degree though. Seeing as how most judges are, or were lawyers before they take the bench.

To get to my point here, in the last few years I've realized how little I know about politics. I'm sure local politics are a bit different but, on a more grand stage, I'm clueless in a lot of the topics that are at issue. That probably hasn't stopped some people from running for office anyway, but I just know a cog would be thrown into my gears when someone asks me a question that I have no idea about.

I've been watching this election pretty close. Not because I know a lot about it, or not because I think it'll be the end of the world if the democrats take control of the house and the senate. Mostly because little by little I'd like to learn a lot more about it. Local races interest me because I know the majority of the candidates from around here. A few of the US Representative races interest me because of all the redistricting, and also I have a friend working for one of the campaigns.

While watching the San Antonio news tonight, they had a lady on who was running for some office, I wasn't really paying all that much attention. Anyway, they asked her a question, and all she said was, I'm for education. She didn't back it up, she didn't say what new education policies she supported, I'm for education was it. I hope she doesn't get elected. That may sound hateful, and it may of been a bad soundbyte that the news picked, but my goodness, say something better than just that! Sheesh...I'm for education too though I guess...

Clueless, that just proves my title. I say I'm for education, but couldn't tell you what I think would improve the system. Sure I have ideas, but they are probably stone aged, and have already been tried. Maybe someday though.

Changing the subject, kind of, I had an interesting conversation on the way to a camp showing the other day. It was over the current students in one of our high schools and their lifestyles. It blows my mind what these kids say and do now. I know when my class graduated in '99 we were by no means perfect, but we had respect for our elders, and knew the importance of a good education and staying out of trouble. Kids these days don't though. I wonder if things will continue getting worse, or if it's a cycle and eventually things will get back to the way they were.

Changing the subject once again. I had a good afternoon. I went out to the ranch with my Dad and Chuck to meet our hunters and shoot some clays. I hadn't been out there in months, probably in 6 months or so. Shooting clays was fun. I did decent, I didn't miss with the over unders, but had some misses with the single shot 20 gauge. I took Gus out there with me. It was only the 3rd time he's been shot around, and I was afraid he'd be gun shy since it'd been so long. Instead of that though, he decided he would go out and retrieve the clay pidgeons for us. It was funny the first few times. We stopped him though, because surely having those things in his mouth aren't good for him.

When we were leaving though, we got out of the truck and walked to the spot where my Dad wants to build the house. I was pleasantly surprised that he pretty much had the layout all planned out in his mind. I would rather the house be in a different location, not that his is bad, I just think this other place is pretty sweet. I can't argue with his justification of his spot though. Where I want it, there's a chance we could get flooded in. So it's not the best idea. It was nice to stand out there and talk about it, and somewhat have a self vision of what might be one day. I'm sure with the three of us there, we all had a different picture in our heads, but the layout was the same. I'm just ready for it to happen!

That's all for now. Not too terribly much to update with lately! Hope all is well with everyone!

Halloween & Dia de los Muertos

2006-10-31T21:00:00.000-08:00

I figured tonight we'd have at least a few trick or treaters show up at our house now that we live in town. I was wrong though. All that means for me is that the huge bag of candy I bought will either have to be given to someone else, or more than likely devoured by my fat self. I'm hoping for the first of the two.

I was trying to think tonight of the last time that I went out and had a big Halloween. I truthfully can't think of it. I don't know if that means I'm getting old, or maybe Halloween isn't my pick of holidays. Actually, it's not my pick, but it's fun none the less. I prefer another day where eating too much unhealthy food is the custom. Tomorrow if the first day of November, and only a few weeks later comes Thanksgiving. By far my fave.

November also brings my birthday. Another year gone by. I remember last year being home for my birthday. Not too much going on. I've hit that point where the birthdays are just another passing day. Nothing much to celebrate anymore. Another year gone by, and not too terribly much new to report. It's my day thought dangit. Ha, Gus also turns one in November. The 15th to be exact. I always thought each dog year was supposed to be equal to 7 human years. Turns out that may be wrong though. Who pays these people to do research like that?

Tomorrow is another holiday. Only not so much in the states as it is in Latin American countries. Dia de los Muertos has always been one of those Latin American things that's drawn my interest. It's just so far from anything that we in the States (other than the Latin folks) would think about doing. Neat though.

Yeah, not too terribly much going on right now. Actually there is, but I'm trying to get it all sorted out. I'll write more on it when I figure it out! Happy Halloween! Have a great one!

New One

2006-10-27T17:09:00.000-07:00

Okay, tired of complaints that I haven't updated enough! Here you go, another boring blog for you folks...

Big weekend! Huge weekend! Not that I have anything at all to do, but it's a big sports weekend. Tonight is game 5 of the World Series. The Cardinals have a 3-1 lead over the Tigers, and in all likelihood will wrap it up. Tomorrow is College Football day. I move that we declare every Saturday in the fall a holiday where the past time is grilling and drinking. Sheesh, that makes me miss the college days. Sunday is NFL Sunday, but I'm not a big NFL fan. My team isn't playing until Primetime Monday night.

I've pretty much distanced myself from this World Series. Actually I've distanced myself from the entire playoffs this year. After the Astros got me all excited the last two years, I was more than let down this year when they failed to make the playoffs. They made it exciting in the last couple of weeks though. For that I say thanks! There's always next year!

Now back to the World Series. Who is my horse in the race? I'm not so much the bandwagon fan, so I can't jump right on to the Card's ship. I have pseudo ties with each one of these teams, so I'll have to use some kind of deductive reasoning to pick who's my team...

Major League baseball, no not the type in the midst of the World Series, but the Little League type for 11 and 12 year olds. For those 2 wonderful years of my life, I played for the Cardinals. The striving city of Ingram was able to field 4 teams at that age. The Dodgers, the A's, (If I remember correctly) the Pirates, and the Cardinals. The Cardinals were the lovable losers of the league, but they did have that perennial All-Star of a First Baseman.<--I'm the guy...We had authentic caps, not authentic jerseys, but I still wore the cap with pride. Since then I've had a bit of a connection with the team. Plus the fact I think Albert Pujols is the type of athlete that comes along once in a lifetime. The best thing about him, is his personality is built to the model of Tim Duncan. He's the best at what he does, he knows it, but he won't tell you that. It's hard to dislike the Cardinals, they like the Astros, seem to be a team full of good ole' boys. You don't hear about any of those prima donnas that are on some of the other teams (Bonds, Manny, Pedro).

I remember when I was young I watched episode after episode of Magnum PI with my Mom. I don't remember what any of them were about, but I remembered the theme music, and Tom Sellek's affection for anything Detroit. On the majority of the shows he'd have a Detroit Tigers lid on his head. I forgot about the Tigers hat, but I always remembered watching Magnum thwart the bad guys and usually end up with the lady (who were extremely hot in the 80's, but 20 years later they seem a bit old fashioned). What more could be asked for in a hero? Well, when I got to college, for some odd reason, 2 or 3 stations started carrying Magnum PI re-runs during the morning and afternoon. Over the course of about a year, I watched probably %90 of the series, and again learned of Thomas Magnum's love for the Tigers. Since Magnum was one of my heroes, I like to support who he supported, and that would be the Tigers. So I've been a bit of a closet Tigers fan for the last 4 or 5 years. Not so much to where I cheer outloud for them, but where I always hope they do well.

So this leaves me in the conundrum of who to cheer for. I'll have to jolt the tv show, and go for the team I was actually on. I'm liking the Cardinals. I guess, unless the Tigers win.

Now for the college football. What a great weekend. I'm sure there are all types of great match-ups this weekend. The most important, and pretty much the only one I care about though is Texas @ Texas Tech. Sure I want Baylor to beat the hell out of A&M, but I've got my priorities in order. That's a distant second to Tech throwing down on the Horns.

This series reminds me of the college days. These were the big weekends that we more often than not came out happy. Once a year, we either play Texas at Jones SBC (AT&T) stadium, or we play A&M. We beat A&M every year at home while I was a student at Tech, and beat Texas at least once in that time. The memories of these weekends will always be held close to heart. One year there was the fight Justin got in with the fence. The same year there were lights out in the kitchen at Charlie's house. There was the 45 minute drive home, that should have taken about 5. We hauled the RV one year and partied it up next to the stadium. Just an all around awesome time.

This year I hope for Tech to win. If that's not possible though, at least put up a good fight. It's tough to come into Jones stadium and win, so we need to light up the scoreboard. Oh the days...

Monday night, Cullen and the Vikings play against the Patriots on Monday Night Football. It's still cool to see one of the best friends I've ever had out there playing on such a grand stage. The Vikings are hardly predictable this year. Some games they'll play lights out, and look like the best team in the league. Other games, they just let is slip away from them. I'll be interested to see which Vikings team shows up Monday. Hopefully the one that won the first few games, and looked impressive in doing so.

Oh yeah, and the Spurs are playing the Mavs tonight...Pre-season basketball. Almost as boring as watching paint dry.

Hope I didn't bore you folks too much with the sports, but it's what's on my mind. Well it's all that's on my mind that I care to share! Have a great weekend...

go Cards...
GO TECH...
Go Vikes...

Go Spurs Go!

Things I learned in Costa Rica

2006-10-15T12:05:00.000-07:00

One of the other students at the school in Costa Rica has this deal with her family when they travel to another country, they make a list of things they learned while there. She emailed it to me, and I'm going to post it on here. Some of them are hilarious, others you probably won't get without some explanation. My commentary will be added after each one! I might add some more down the road...

1. Cleanliness is next to godliness and God likes his sheets ironed
at least once a day.
-Every morning before I'd leave the house, I'd tidy up my room so the maid didn't have to spend any time in there. When I'd get home, I'd have a fresh towel and freshly finished laundry. The room would be swept and mopped and the trash taken out. I told her one day that she didn't need to do my towel every day. I just didn't want to be a nuisance. She said that in her house, towels were cleaned every single day...No more arguments from me...

2. If you aren't served at least 3 large plates of food for every
meal, then you're malnutritioned and your mama tica doesn't like you
very much.
-The first few days I was there, they would fix my plate for me and put it down in front of me. It would weigh about 10 pounds. That would be the first plate, there'd be more to come. Especially breakfast. By the time that I'd be finished eating, I'd have at least 3 plates on the table, and be almost miserable. I eventually asked if I could make my own plate. Had I kept eating at their rate, I'd be as big as a house.

3. Believe it or not, there ARE mosquitoes in Costa Rica, especially
at the beach---as evidenced by the 24 large red bites I have on my
left leg alone---Yeah Malaria, West Nile and Dengue fever!!
-I didn't have the 24 large bites on my leg like this girl did. I had at least 10 though. One night in Manual Antonio was unbearable...I always figured I got the most bites because I'm so sweet, but I don't think they really cared too much about that.

4. Bed bugs do exist--and here they're considered family.
-Again, I didn't have bed bugs in my house, but some of other students had them at hotels and in their own houses. Miserable...

5. If you're not completely soaked, then you obviously haven't gone
outside today.
-I was in Costa Rica for 5 weeks, and it rained every day except for probably 5 of those. There would be beautiful mornings, then around 2:00 it would cloud up, and rain for a few hours. The first weekend we were there a group of us went downtown and saw all the big buildings and museums. One of the big features is the National Theater. We bought tickets for that night and planned on going back to watch a concert that night. We all met at the mall to get a cab. On the walk from my house to the mall though, I got so soaked that we had to get the cab to stop by my house so I could change real fast. I couldn't wear my shoes for 3 days. I had a rain jacket, but it didn't do anything other than keeping my torso dry. I don't think even an umbrella would have worked.

6. Using the words "exited" and "hot" to express emotion or your
current temperature is not a good idea unless you're looking for a
Costa Rican fling.
-This one is funny. You don't want to use the exact translation of excited to explain how happy you are about something new. If you say excitado, you are saying you're horny. Remember this one folks.

7. Lane lines are merely an indication of the minimum number of cars
that can fit next to each other on the road.
-We're so used to the way people drive here, that when we leave the country we are shocked with how crazy the roads are in other places. Costa Ricans are crazy drivers as well. However, you say fewer wrecks there than you'd imagine. I wouldn't recommend driving there, unless you are super aggressive. I still think the worst drivers, or craziest I've ever seen were in Rome.

8. " Vaya derecho" and "vaya derecha" are not simply masculine and
feminine forms of "go right" (derecho means "straight")
-All words are either masculine or feminine. Some that you'd think are masculine actually turn out to be feminine, and vice versa. Why can't a word just be a word???

9. Stealing's not a crime (no really...the most they'll do is shake
their finger at you)
-Any kid under 17 doesn't get in any trouble. If it's bad enough, they send them off to a special school for a while, but they don't really get in any big trouble. I never had anything stolen from me, but I did have a guy come up and tell me a big story about how all his stuff got stolen and he needed the bus fare to get back to his hotel. Perfect English and all. After he walked off with the $5 bucks or so our group gave him, we started seeing the holes in his story. Oh well, it wasn't too much money. The best part of this story, is that when my Dad and Charlie got down there, we were going to have dinner at the mall. We were waiting to cross this street, and a guy comes up and tells me the exact same story. I was trying to ignore him, but he was really laying it on thick. So I turned around and recognized him to be the same guy that had told me the same story 3 weekends before. I told him, "man, that's a sad story. I met you 3 weeks ago, and you told me the exact same thing". He said, naaaa, it wasn't me, I told him, yes it was. He just said sorry, and walked off. A city of over 1,000,000 people, and we were in the opposite side of town, and the exact same guy came up and asked me for money again. What are the chances of that!?!

10. All roads are one way until oncoming traffic says otherwise.
-Pretty self explanatory. Most drivers will reach for the horn before they reach for the brake...

11. Whatever's biggest has the right of way.
-Yup

12. A hot shower's worth risking your life for-literally. Showers are
heated by electrical heat-coil units mounted right on top of your
showerhead- affectionately known as "suicide showers."
-I was lucky enough to have a hot water heater in my house. The others did not. The hotels we stayed in had these suicide showers. I have a picture of the suicide shower in one of the photo albums listed below...

13. If a child is over 5, "Would you like to buy a __________?" (fill
in with chocolate, candy, chicle, fruit, etc) actually means "May I
steal your wallet?"
-Kids sometimes will go up to people and ask for a dollar or something like that. When the person would take their wallet out of their pocket, or purse, the kid would grab the wallet and take off. Leaving the person standing there usually with just the dollar they were going to give the kid. Never happened to me, but a student that was there the month before I got there had around 200 dollars and his wallet taken.

I'll think of more someday. Good stuff though I thought....

Gooooo TECH

2006-10-14T20:27:00.000-07:00

I remember last year I made several posts after Tech would pull out some amazing wins on the television. I wish I could do the same thing year. I can't though. We aren't the same team we were last year. Shoot we're not even half the team we were last year. How disappointing...

So tonight, we lose to Colorado. What happened to us being God's ordained team? I'm glad we could be the doormat for the Buffs to get their first win. What a load. I'm more than upset with our performance.

To make matters worse, the Aggies beat the team that beat us last weekend. I guess we can always bring up the head to head matchup that came down in our favor last week though!

Tonight we had a big dove and quail cookout at camp. When I say big, I mean huge. We had probably around 100 wraps on the pit, and the three of us here ate them all. Well actually four of us because Ruger the dog had a few too.

Now we're all sitting on the couch, listening to the radio, and calling in and annoying the poor DJ by making requests. She's actually playing one of them right now. Thank goodness for Guaro and Man and Two Dogs..

Cheap Thrills, don't you know I like cheapppp thrills..

Have a good night one and all..

Get your guns up..

Blah..

Friggin' Tech...

More Costa Rican Photos

2006-10-09T13:23:00.000-07:00

Over a month in the country and I only ended up with around 150 pictures. What a beautiful place! Hope you enjoy!

My Photos <---Click it

Peace out!

Good Ole' US of A

2006-10-09T09:33:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm back. Back to the States, back to Kerrville, back to boredom I guess. I miss Costa Rica dearly right now, but I'm also glad to be home. It's kind of a bittersweet feeling. I had really started to embrace the every day life in Costa Rica. Just how laid back life is, and how friendly the people are. On the other hand though, I missed my Dad, my Dog, and my friends. It's been great getting to see all of them again.

Being in Costa Rica for as long as I was able to be there, was an amazing experience. I can't think of a negative thing to say about the whole trip. I went down and accomplished my goal, complete four weeks of Spanish classes and leave feeling more confident in my speaking abilities. I made a few friends, and perhaps most importantly, had the time of my life.

While I can't say that I'm fluent in Spanish, I have a better grasp on it. I don't have much trouble communicating, and one way or the other can get my point across. I didn't go down there with the intention of coming back fluent though. I realize that's a much longer battle than one month. The teacher told us that if we wanted to be %100 fluent that we would more than likely have to spend around a year down there. I don't think I could handle that much though.

Everything was beautiful down there, and the people were extremely nice and helpful. I left with a great admiration of the country and the Tico people. I also left with a great appreciation of the things we have here in the States. I never had a second thought when leaving the states about not having hot water, water pressure, or other amenities that we all take for granted. The appreciation goes so much further than just those material things, but that's all I can pull of the top of my head right now.

I hope to get the chance to return to Costa Rica someday. There's so much that I would like to do still. I made the most of my time down there, but there's always something else going on. We here in the States have our own beauty, and great features, but it's all so spread out. In Costa Rica, everything is just a couple of hours away. While a four hour bus ride might feel like forever, you find that it is worth the momentary lack of comfort for new experiences you are afforded.

I'm not real sure what's next for the moment. I want to get moving on the new house, and hopefully I can lend a little help to that project. If not help, then at least some motivation.

Cullen signed a five year extension last night with the Vikings. I was hoping he'd move a little closer to home, but five years is a big time extension, and I'm glad he jumped on it when he had the chance!

Glad to be home. I hope I get the chance to see everyone sooner than later! Have a great day...

Day 25 and 26..Last day of school

2006-09-28T09:16:00.000-07:00

Second to last day here at Forester. It's been fun, but I'm ready for Chuck and my Dad to get here so we can go raise some Cain around the country. I'll miss the folks I've met here, but it's all good! I'm ready to get home, go to some weddings, and perhaps have a few cold ones and shoot some birds.

Nothing too terribly exciting going on. Last night I was playing with the two little kids that live in my house. Board games. I was going to let the 8 year old win, but not before putting a little scare in him that the big stupid gringo was going to wipe the floor with him. He eventually started blatantly cheating, so I told him that I don't play with cheaters. I was trying to teach him a lesson, but I don't think it worked, because he took his game piece and claimed the victory. In 2 different games actually. I guess I can chalk that up to the language barrier!.......

So another day here, I got side tracked yesterday and didn't finish that blog. It's now the final day of classes here. I just had a good conversation with one of the ladies who works here about Spanish, and the school. It's run really well, and is a professional place. I was telling her how I was frustrated about a week ago because they gave us 4 new verb tenses in 4 days and we didn't much get the chance to use them. Now though, we've had more chances, and things are going better. I feel more confident at least.

Again, I'm nursing a hangover. It wasn't planned, it just kind of happened. It's actually only the 3rd I've had since I've been here, so I've been relatively good! Out of the people who went out last night, I'm also the only one at school this morning, so I must be the best off. Chuck and my Dad get here in 2 and a half hours. I'm super excited about them coming. I hope I can entertain them well enough. I could really use a nap about now.

One of my classmates made a list of things she's learned in Costa Rica, and as soon as I can get my hands on it, I'm going to post it. Pretty funny stuff.

Last night we went to the Jazz Cafe again. I've written about it before. It's a neat place, but it's always like 85 degrees in there. Last night they had a girl named Sasha Campbell. She sings R&B, and several older songs in English. She was really good. It was a very entertaining night to say the least. Before she started singing, she was talking to a guy on the side of the stage who was dressed up like a Amish person (sans the beard). We thought he was just some random person, but he was the highlight of the night. After Sasha's first set, the guy gets on stage with a bongo drum and starts playing and singing. Only you couldn't understand anything he was saying. It was in Spanish, but even if I was 100% fluent in Spanish I wouldn't have been able to understand. Between his two songs, he stopped and told jokes. He was laughing at his own jokes so hard that everyone in the cafe was rolling out of their chairs. Afterwards, he came around with his hat and was asking for tips. He made over $10 US from our table. One of the girls got a picture of him, as soon as she sends it, I'll post it. Very entertaining.

It would be impossible to top that, but one of Sasha Campbell's dancers came close. He got on stage and was shaking his groove thing. The girl next to me said, "he's REALLY enjoying dancing, like he's excited to be dancing". Then everyone at the table died laughing. The guy was doing his dances and was visibly excited, in front of the entire restaurant. He was a professional though, so he didn't stop, he pulled his shirt down and kept on dancing. Good stuff, classic!

2 quick sports notes. I miss my sportscenter for one, but thanks to this wonderful internet chunchee (the word that Ticos use for thingy) I am able to keep up with the 'Stros and Tech.

As of right now, the Astros are 1/2 game back of the Cardinals. They need to win out, and hope the Cards lose at least one. I still don't think it's going to happen, but wouldn't it be special? I'll be searching for the box scores in the newspapers down here, but I might not know for sure until I get back to the states. Let's keep our fingers crossed that the 'Stros do it...

Tech plays our most hated rival this weekend. Texas Friggin' A and M. Even though my Dad is a die hard Aggie, I despise them, and hope we beat them by 50. Not gonna' happen though, I don't think we're all that good. We'll see.

It cracks me up that probably one of the most exciting sports weekends of the year, I'll be far away from any type of tv. If I can have just one of the two, I'll be a happy gringo. If both win, I'll be the happiest gringo in the world...

I won't be posting again while I'm in Costa Rica. That means over a week. Unless I get to use a computer somewhere, but it's highly unlikely. Next time you see me, I'll be back in the states, missing Costa Rica, and trying to use my Spanish on anyone who'll listen...

Adios...

Day 23 & the Astros

2006-09-26T08:44:00.000-07:00

Yet another exciting day here in Costa Rica. I've got 3 and a half days left until the classes are all over, and then it's time for a little traveling. I found out last night that my Dad is going to come down with Chuck. Which is cool, because he needs to get away for a little vacation, and it also means that Chuck and I won't be relying on my Espanol alone. I've decided that we're going to start our vacation with a trip to Puerto Viejo. It's in the extreme southeast of the country. I've never seen the Caribbean before, so I'm pretty excited about it. After that, we'll come back to San Jose for a day or so, my Dad has to leave to go back to the states, then Chuck and I will either do one of two things: go to Arenal Volcano, or hit up Manual Antonio. I've been to Manual Antonio, but as most of you have seen in my pictures, it's a beautiful place and definitely worth a second trip. If we're both tired of beaches though, we might go to Arenal Volcano instead. We shall see I guess.

These past four weeks have flown by so fast. I can't even begin to explain it. This week the group that I've met down here has decided to do something every night! That'll be fun. Last night we went to the bar that's down the road from the school. One of the girl's husband is in, and he's from West Texas. It was good getting to talk to someone who knew a little about the drive out west. We talked about what a shock it is when you're driving west from Austin and all of the sudden hit Eden. You hit Llano, and Brady, which aren't Austin, but have a different feel than Eden. Once you hit that 87 and 83 intersection, it's like you are thrown back in time 50 years. I guess it's a neat thing for some, I find it funny though.

Tonight I think we're going to go to the Jazz cafe. I don't know who'll be playing, but it's a neat bar regardless. I'm sure even if I knew the name of who'll be playing, I still wouldn't know who it is...

So I've tried my hardest to ignore this late season surge the Astros are trying to pull off. I've actually tried to ignore the last couple of months of Astros baseball because it's been so disappointing. I can't do it anymore though. I'm not saying my hopes are up high, but the little sliver of a chance there is that they might make the playoffs has me a little excited! The last few seasons have been so exciting coming down the stretch. I think they started too late this year, but at least they aren't rolling over and nose diving.

I'm not saying the 'stros WILL make the playoffs, but I like their chances if they do...

1)Roy Oswalt
2)Andy Pettitte
3)Roger Clemens

wait wait wait...
1a)Lance Berkman

No one wants to face those three...

Now that I've completely ruined any chance they have, I'll shut up!

Hasta Luego!

Day 22

2006-09-25T08:51:00.000-07:00

Hello all...It's Monday morning here, and I'm about to start classes. I realized I haven't written here in a few days, so I thought I'd drop a few lines while I had the time to do so. Nothing too exciting has been going on since the last past. Just classes, and studying. I still wouldn't say I have a grasp on the language, but Friday was a pretty good day for me. At least in my morning class. I was speaking very fluidly, and afterwards both the teacher and the other student in class told me so. The afternoon class was a bit different though. The hangover I'd been fighting from the day before had finally caught up to me, and I was having trouble staying awake.

The night before we went to a bar called the Jazz Cafe to watch a band called Editus. I'd never heard of them, but they were supposed to be really good. It wasn't exactly my kind of music. It was all instrumental, and pretty slow. Don't get me wrong, I really like and appreciate that kind of music, but not in a bar. The second half of their show they had a lady come on stage and sing some songs. She was really good, and knew all the words to the 10 or so Carpenters songs she sang. Who would have thought I'd come to Costa Rica and hear the locals singing the Carpenter's greatest hits? The next day I was telling the teacher about the trip, and she told me that Editus is the band from Central America with the most Grammy's. So I guess I appreciate it even more now. The best part was that the beer was cold, and the company was great...

I'd always known that Latin America is heavily influenced by what's going on in the states. After listening to this singer belt out songs in English it became even that much more solidified in my mind. It's very evident in day to day life here that the states has such a grasp on these people, as well as the people in the other (Mexico) Latin American country that I've been to. Perhaps one day I'll write a book on it..Or not, just a thought. I'm sure there's been plenty of others who have done it already.

This is my last week of classes. I can't believe how fast it flew by. Friday Chuck, and maybe my Dad are going to come in. I don't know for sure what we'll do, but I've got a couple of tentative plans in the work. A lot of it depends on if my Dad comes or not. There's only so much time I can spend at a beach. I also want to see the Caribbean side of the country!! I'll update as more news on that front comes.

I don't have too much planned for this week. I'd like to spend a lot of time with the folks I've met here though. They're a very nice group, and we have a lot of fun together. I don't know if we'll get the chance to do so or not, but I can always hope I guess.

That's all for now. Have a great day! I'll update as soon as something is worthy of being written down! Adios!

Day 17

2006-09-20T11:39:00.000-07:00

Not too much to report today. Last night a group of us went to see King Lear at the National Theatre. It was a traveling group (troupe?) from England that was putting it on. They did a good job, and it was entertaining to watch because it was 7 people putting on the whole show. I needed my High School English teacher there to translate for me though. After so many thee's, thou's, and other fun words like that I was worn out. I remember reading it in High School, and remembered most parts of the play, so I was able to follow it a bit. It's a sad story, a tragedy I think is what it's called. Very interesting. There is a book called 1000 Acres that is the present day version of it. I read that too, but don't remember too much.

It's thundering and lightening here. Like everyday, but it looks like the rain is going to hold off for a few hours. I wish Kerr County could get about a 10th of the rain that we've had since I've been here. It's somewhat annoying because everyday that we leave school, it's raining. Luckily, I live right around the corner, so I don't have to travel too far. When I want to go anywhere else though, I get soaked. This rain isn't umbrella or rain jacket rain, it's stay inside 'till it dissipates rain!

I've started crossing the street to the super market (Automercado) every day to get my lunch. Today I had a big sandwich, a bag of chips, and a big bottle of tea (not good tea) for less than 3 bucks. I wish I could find food like that in the states! One of the administrators here at the school said this morning that it's hard to find a bargain anymore in Costa Rica. I've been really impressed with things though. Sure paying $55 for a canopy tour was a little too much, but where else am I going to be able to do something like that? The tickets for the play last night were 1,500 colones. With my student discount it was 1,200 colones. That works out to be a little more than $2. I paid more for my lunch!

Well I've been thinking about what I'm going to do when I get back to the states a lot lately. I kind of wish I could just stay here for longer, like a couple more months. I really want to get this Spanish thing down. I need to get back though. I'm frustrated with the Spanish right now because they're throwing about 6 different verb conjugations at us at once. I don't know when I'm supposed to use them all. I wish we could focus on one, get it down, and then move to the next. Maybe I'm just a slow learner though. Anyway, when I get back I can't wait to dove hunt. I'm looking more forward to that than anything. As for work, I'll have that figured out real soon...

So tomorrow is the season premier of Grey's. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it starts at 9 here because that's when the black out ends. Otherwise, I'll be frickin' miserable. What a great show...If anyone wants to tape it for me, well...that'd be....just special..

Hope everyone is enjoying their day. See y'all soon!

Pictures from Costa Rica

2006-09-19T14:10:00.000-07:00

Here are some photos from my weekend in Manual Antonio. Just copy and paste and you can see them (hopefully)!

Photos <--Click Here!

Enjoy!!!

Day 15...Back in San Jose

2006-09-18T11:43:00.000-07:00

Back to school again. Today is the 18th of the month, and I've been here for 15 days now. I really don't feel my Spanish is getting much better, but perhaps it is. I need to attempt to do less in English, and do more in Spanish. This past weekend was a blast. We went to Manual Antonio, which as I'm sure I've said before is a town on the Pacific Coast. It was a wonderful trip, but my Spanish was non-existent because everyone spoke English.

We left from school at about 4:00 on Thursday to go catch a bus and ride the 4 hours to Manual Antonio. Having traveled by bus in Mexico several times, I was telling my traveling partners what the buses were going to be like, and what to expect. When the bus pulled up, I found out that traveling by bus in Costa Rica, and traveling by bus in Mexico are a tad bit different.

One difference-The price. A bus from Laredo to Monterrey, MX costs like 20 bucks or so. It's a 3 hour trip (sometimes longer). The bus fare from San Jose to Manual Antonio wound up being less than $5. Nice 'eh? Gotta love Costa Rica...

At least until you see the bus...

People always asked me why I traveled on buses in Mexico with chickens. I would reply that the buses in Mexico that I took were way better than any bus I'd ever seen in the States.

Second difference-Quality of buses. Mexico has nice big comfortable seats, air conditioning in the bus, at least one movie during the trip, adequate (not quite enough) leg room, and a clean restroom. Costa Rica has small uncomfortable seats, no air conditioning (unless you count the windows that opened (and let rain in )), no entertainment, enough leg room for a newborn, and no restroom.

It's the company that counts I guess though.

Third difference-sane drivers. Mexico has professional drivers, who wear a suit and greet you as you get on and off the bus. Costa Rica has drivers who wear a t-shirt and a pair of jeans. they jump on the bus when it's full, and wisk you away to your tropical paradise.

It's not all bad though. While the ride wasn't smooth, it was enjoyable being able to see the sites of such a beautiful country. I think I also figured out that you can take private buses here too, and get the same treatment that I'm used to in Mexico. For the price difference, I'll take the cheaper of the two.

The way there, it was dark, so I couldn't really see too much. I did know that we crossed several one way bridges that crossed over some rivers, or valleys. I was looking forward to the ride back though so I could see everything.

The first bridge that we crossed left about a foot for error. I looked down out of my window (air conditioning) and could see through the slots in the bridge that the water about 100 feet down was going by very quickly. The second bridge left about 6 inches for error. It was a bit unnerving, once we crossed you could see the relief in everyone's face, but the driver (at least all the Gringos were happy). San Jose is up in the mountains, so you have to make the trek upwards from the coast. The views were amazing. Everything is so green and full of foliage. The drops without guardrails were quite interesting as well. I think there were several of them that we'd still be dropping down right now 24 hours later!

Enough of that. Manual Antonio is a beautiful place. The views from the hills are amazing. The first day we walked down the road to the beach. It turned out to be like a 5 mile walk, but the sites were amazing. When we finally got the beach we walked down to one end where we pretty much had it to ourselves. We swam for a while, and I got a little sunburned. It's so much prettier than any beach I've ever seen before. Out in the water several hundred meters out there are huge rocks that have trees growing on them. I have pictures that I'll put up whenever I figure the best way to do it from here.

The truth is, that words can't really explain the beauty of the place. Evidently (from what I heard) they shot a big movie in the Manual Antonio national park where we were. They were saying Jurassic Park, but I thought that was filmed in Hawaii. Regardless, they could film any movie here, and the viewers would enjoy the beauty of the place more than the actors acting.

Manual Antonio the town is also a neat place. There's a public beach where the majority of the people are. We were at the private beach in the park itself. On the public beach though, there are vendors selling all kinds of things. There are restaurants that dot the road, as well as surf shops and other little souvenir shops. We went to several of the restaurants and were very pleased with their food. I miss my Tex-Mex though.

We stayed in a Hostel. It was the second time for me. I stayed in one in Vienna for new years a few years ago, and now this one in Manual Antonio. The view from our hostel was great. There was a porch that overlooked the pacific. The sunsets were phenomenal. I've got pictures of those too. The hostel was really nice. It was comfortable and clean, but it was loud. I prefer having my own bathroom (or shared with folks I know). I also like being able to go to sleep when I want and not having to wait on others to be quiet. Friday night we were all up late, playing card games and enjoying a few Imperials. Saturday though we all wanted to go to bed a little early, but everyone else at the hostel wanted to party it up. It was loud, but luckily I had my I-pod so after a while I finally got to sleep.

So my thoughts on hostels, I'd rather pay a little more for privacy!

We saw monkeys, we saw iguanas, and we saw a lot of other things I've never seen. I'll definitely be making the trip back when Chuck gets down here! I'm also looking at planning a trip to Arenal Volcano.

So that in a extremely condensed nut shell was the weekend. We went to a bar a couple of nights and had a good time dancing to the American music they were playing. The beers I think are a little bigger than the 20 oz bottles we have in the states, so that was a plus as well.

I also did a canopy tour. Which was awesome. They strap you in to a harness, and you fly from tree to tree by using cables. One of the cables was around 900 feet long. I imagine I was like 300 feet up or so. Absolutely amazing, and breath taking. I'd love to do another one in another part of Costa Rica. The guides were all telling me that I was going too fast and I needed to break more. I told them that I'm big so I got way faster than anyone else. They said, ayy, si, pero necisita usar sus frenos. My frenos are my brakes. My Brakes were the padded gloves I was wearing. So the more brakes that I used the hotter my gloves became. I got a couple of pictures, I'll put them up when I get a chance!

Uhh yeah..That's a long one, I'll quit there with the trip...

I'm pissed Tech got beat by TCU. I don't like TCU, they weren't good enough to join the Big XII. Evidently though, they are good enough to beat Tech. How disappointing!

Until later all! I hope everyone is doing great!!!

18 days till I return to the states...It'll be a bittersweet day!

Day 10

2006-09-13T08:37:00.000-07:00

Another beautiful day here in Costa Rica. It actually only rained for like an hour yesterday. I'm sure today it'll make up for that! Some of my classmates and myself are in the process of reserving hotels and busses for this upcoming weekend in Manual Antonio. The three day weekend will be taken full advantage of! It's the Costa Rican independence day on Friday. I imagine it might be interesting to sit around and see what goes on in the city, but probably way more fun to hit up the beach.

Not too much exciting news to report. I've started talking a lot more to the maid at the house where I live. I think she's from Nicaragua, that's the vibe I get. She cracks me up because sometimes she'll just start laughing for no apparent reason. Like yesterday, I was in my room reading, and I hear her bustin' a gut in the kitchen. I don't know what could have been so funny because we were the only 2 in the house! Another funny thing is, when she talks to me, she yells. I guess she thinks that talking louder will help me understand better! She's a hell of a cook.

So on the news down here I've been reading about this mass poisoning they had somewhere up north in the country. They have an alcohol down here called Guaro. It's like a vodka made from sugarcane. Well, there were some moonshiners making their own Guaro and they ended up killing more than 35 people. It's kind of a sad deal because the news here doesn't really edit too much. They were showing the hospital where the people were, and some of them were on the verge of death, and some were already dead. Just not something you see on American television.

Welp, I've got class here in a bit. I might not update again until Monday or Tuesday of next week. I hope everyone has a great week!

Adios

fin de semana! Day 8

2006-09-11T08:23:00.000-07:00

Today is 9/11, one of the most notorious days in the history. As for me, it's a bittersweet day. I don't think I need to elaborate too much on the bitterness of the day, but it's also my Dad's 54th birthday. What a great day to have a birthday on now huh? I recall that day 5 years ago very well. It's one of those things that I guess I always will remember. I know a lot of other people, who are older remember exactly where they were when they heard that JFK was shot, or when the Challenger went down.

I was on my way out the door to a philosophy class. I was going early because we had a test, but I sat down to catch a quick bite and turned on the television. It didn't really sink in that it was an attack at first, I thought it was more of an accident. As the newscasts progressed though, things started coming together. Even after I realized it was a terrorist attack, it didn't really hit me because I still had to go to school. I didn't realize the magnitude that those events would have on the world later that day, or even now 5 years in advance. I'm not sure that I've gone a single day since without thinking of that day, or hearing some piece of news on it.

Five years later, I still don't know what to think. I'm a conservative cat, and a staunch supporter of our President, but there are so many questions I have about the way things have been handled. Last night on Headline News (one of the few English channels I get) there was this guy who said he was conservative, but felt the same way as I do. He said he was not shocked and awed by our campaign in Iraq, and truthfully neither was (am) I. We're arguably the most powerful nation in the world, but we're not fighting to win, we're fighting not to lose. We need to get people home, and get that over with. However, we need to finish what we started first.

Just my thoughts on that....On the lighter side....

Happy Birthday to my Dad.

So the weekend...

Friday after class we all met at the mall San Pedro, which is about a 10 minute walk from where I live. All the others can ride buses that drop them off there. It has pretty much become our central meeting place, other than the school. One of the teachers here gave us the name of a bar that we should go to. We got a cab and were on our way to the Longhorn bar. It was supposed to be a place where everyone could dance to latin music and have a few cold ones. When we got there it wasn't really what we expected. It looked a little like a Texas themed barbecue joint from the states. Only not in Texas, somewhere up north where all the stereotypes were present. We didn't even end up going inside. We got another cab, and went to a place called Moomba in Escazu.

Escazu is a little like Garza Garcia in Monterrey. The more affluent part of the city. The bar was 2 storied, and had a 3500 colon (+/- 7 dollar) cover. When we walked in, they gave us a cup. I was thinking it was going to be like a keg party in college where you paid for the cup at the door, then could drink all the beer that you wanted. As we walked up the stairs I was expecting to see keg after keg. When we got to the bar though, it was all the mixed drinks you could drink for free, until midnight. We got there at about 9:45, so we had plenty of time. They played a good mix of music, and after a while, we went downstairs where more people were dancing and did a little dancing of our own. It was a good experience for all of us, because we got to cut loose, and get to talk about things other than Spanish class. I got home at 2:30.

We decided the night before that we were going to hit up downtown San Jose the next day. We met at the mall again the next day at noon. We all looked a little rough I'm sure. I bet all the ticos were laughing about the hungover gringos! We ate in the food court in the mall, and afterwards took the 10 minute taxi ride downtown. The taxi driver dropped us off at the Central Theater, and from there we did a little exploring. The first stop was the Theater itself. It's a great big building, when we walked in I was surprised how small it looked from the inside. They had a piano concert that night, so we bought tickets. They were around 4 dollars a piece.

After leaving the Theater we went several other places. We went to a plaza where they had some kind of weird architecture. I still don't know exactly what it was dedicated to, but it was neat to look at. After that we went to the Catholic Church. It was huge, not anywhere near as big as St. Peter's in the Vatican, but maybe a 10th of it (Which is still huge). The ceilings were very high, and there were a lot of unique features in it.

After leaving there, we walked some more, and ended up in the Museum of Gold. It's all underground, which was pretty neat. They had an expo on pre-Colombian natives in Costa Rica. Then we went into the Gold part. It's amazing how much gold these people used to wear, or have access to. It was an awesome exhibit. After a while though, it was like we were looking at the same thing over and over again. Our favorite part of the whole thing was the air conditioning though. It felt great in there.

Before heading back to our part of San Jose, we stopped for a little drink in a cafe that's right on the square in front of the Theater. It was interesting to sit there and watch the people walking by. After a quick drink, we went back to our respective homes to rest up, and get ready for the concert.

Now for my least favorite part of the night. For me to get a cab or anything, I have to walk to the mall. Like I said earlier it is a 10 minute walk. We were going to meet at 6, so we could go get a bite to eat, and be at the theater before 7:30.

The fun part, it rains EVERY DAY in Costa Rica. Saturday it rained especially hard, and of course never harder than when I needed to go to the mall. So I put on my rain jacket and left. By the time I got to the mall, I was soaked. Actually soaked is an understatement. It was like I went swimming in my shoes and pants. We grabbed a cab, and returned to my house, where I changed. I had to wear the same shoes to the concert though, because sandals are not permitted.

We went and got dinner. I had a little steak, and a few other things. The food here isn't magnificent, but it's better than par. Afterwards we went to the piano concert. That's not really my kind of deal, but it was enjoyable. I was thinking the whole time about the Ohio State vs. Texas game, but it doesn't look like I really missed anything.

Afterwards, we all went home, and that was it!

Yesterday was lazy. I studied, watched some football (americano), and read a bit.

Today, I'm about to start class. I'm wearing my crocs because my shoes are still wet. I'm also ready for the weekend. We've got a big trip in the works.

So that's it for now! I'll catch up with y'all later...Have a great day...

Observations DAY 6

2006-09-08T11:20:00.000-07:00

Here I am, one week into classes, and still not real sure of what I've learned up to this point. I do know that last night was the first night that I was able to carry on a conversation with my "ticamama" (lady who owns the house where I stay). I'm sure I sounded like a bumbling 3 year old, but I think I got my point across. Classes continue to get a little harder each day, and the list of new words is piling up pretty fast. I spend about an hour before and after classes studying, but don't really know if it's getting me anywhere. It's funny because there are several words that I know from Mexico, that the teacher says just won't work here, or are archaic. Like yesterday, I used foco for lightbulb and the teacher said that's a flashlight, then I said I thought a flashlight was a vela. She said a vela is a candle, which is also the word that I use (the word here is bombilla). Small things like that, different words for the same things that I've learned in the past and am trying to learn now are what's frustrating me a bit.

Things are well though. I really enjoyed being able to hold a conversation. Granted, it was a low level conversation, about pets, animals, and insects, but none the less, it was interesting. I also learned that the family is about to open a restaurant somewhere near the college here in San Jose.

This weekend a few of us are going to go out and do several things. Tonight we're going to hit up a club, and do some dancing. I don't know how much dancing I'll get accomplished, but I'm sure I'll have a few Cervezas Imperiales. Then tomorrow we'd talked about getting together at a coffee shop and studying a little. I'm not a big coffee fan, but I also don't want to sit in my house all day. I am excited about getting to watch some college football though. I am hoping I get the Texas, Ohio State game. For some reason ABC blacks out during primetime here. CBS and NBC come in fine, but ABC is gone for a couple of hours. Which also ticks me off because it's during the time that Gray's will be on!

Sunday, I'm going to go to downtown San Jose with a couple of girls that are in my classes. I guess we'll go check things out, and do the touristy thing. I'm looking forward to that. I'm gonna' try to find a couple massage parlors that I can take Chuck to when he gets down here. Naa, I'm joking...or am I??? Yeah, I am..

Next week we have Friday off, so we're going to go to Manual Antonio and Quepos and hit the beach and maybe do a canopy tour. It should be fun. I've read that I'm too heavy for the canopy tour, but the teachers here say it's your body type, not necessarily your weight, and that I should be able to go on them. I think the teachers are trying to say I they like my body! 'eh? That'll be a lot of fun, because it's the place I want to go when Chuck comes down.

So, ANOTHER reason that I hate cats. 2 nights ago, I was eating dinner, and the maid was outside looking for the cat. Well the cat was stuck on the roof, and the maid couldn't get it down. So I went outside to try to help her. She was standing in a chair and still about 2 feet too short to reach the roof. I told her that I'd help. I got in the chair and stood on my tippy toes, and grabbed the cat by the back of it's neck and brought it down. About halfway down, she decided to wrap around my arm and claw and bite me. Now I have a nice bite mark on my hand, and two scratches on each side of my arm from the dang cat. To make matters worse, I went back in and was eating, and looked down at my shorts, and I'd managed to get blood all over them! Que Triste!

So those have been the going ons as of late. I won't be around the computer much this weekend. The family has one, but I don't like asking to use it because someone is usually on it. Besides, part of this "vacation" is to get away from the computer. Monday, I'll update.

I hope everyone has a grand weekend! Talk to you all soon!!!

Adios

Another thing that I miss from Texas:
Dove hunting of course...
WATER PRESSURE!

Day 4

2006-09-06T11:27:00.000-07:00

Here I am again, the noonish break that we have most everyday. I'm about to bash this computer I'm using because it's an Mac, and I don't understand how the heck to use it. It took me 10 minutes to figure out how to sign off of AIM.

So my schedule it pretty easy, but I've been really worn out the last couple of days after classes. I have class from 10-12, then 1-5 pretty much. I really enjoy the 2 hour class, but the four hour class is a little long to be sitting in one place. We get a 15 minute break, but still, it's somewhat of an information overload. I'm putting all the new words that I learn in one notebook, and I've already got 6 full pages. Tonight, even more. I'm the dummy who forgot to bring a spanish --> english dictionary too.

A funny thing happened yesterday. We were supposed to pick out 5 adjectives that described ourselves. Also, we weren't allowed to use the obvious, like alto, gordo, etc. I picked a few, then looked on the internet for a few others. One that I found was gastado. It's literal meaning is worn out, so since I've been feeling that way pretty much since I got here, I used it. Well the teacher laughed when I used it. The teacher by the way is a fairly attractive woman probably in her early 30's. She said that machines get gastado, not people. She said that sometimes women will describe men as gastado if they've been around the block. Needless to say I was a little averganzado (embarrassed). I didn't bother to tell her that my nickname is Sancho either, she might have really thought that I was gastado! I also used the word juevon for lazy. That obviously is slang.

Yesterday after school a few of us went out and had a couple of pitchers of the local Costa Rican beer. It's called Imperial. From what I could understand, it's like our Natty Light. Still though, it was palatable. We only had a couple of pitchers, then all returned to our respective homes. It was nice to go out and do something. I think we're going to make that a daily happening.

Nobody in Costa Rica wears shorts. I brought a few pair, but hadn't worn them yet. Yesterday though was so hot that I said screw the trend and will be wearing shorts from now on. It wasn't really hot, but humid as heck. Like %160 humidity. I'm sure I'll stick out like a sore thumb when I'm walking down the street, but I think I do a good enough job of that already!

This is post 100 for me...plus I've had exactly 1300 hits. I did the math, on and that's 13 people per posting...Maybe some of you people do care what I think...

Hasta Luego...

Day 3

2006-09-05T09:02:00.000-07:00

Well I'm here at the school again. It's almost 10:00, and classes start at 10:15. The sun came up AGAIN at 5:30, guess I better get used to it. One good thing though, is that on ESPNDEPORTES (spanish ESPN), they have an english sportscenter on at 7 in the morning. I can't believe what Tiger Woods is doing.

I didn't figure I'd have homework, but I was assigned 2 different pieces of it yesterday. Sheesh, that's why I was in college for 10 years! Oh well, it shouldn't be that bad. We have a 3 day weekend in a few weeks, and I think a few of us here at the school might get together and go to a beach, or maybe go to Arenal (volcano). Whatever, just as long as I get out and see a little bit!

Welp, that's all for now. Maybe more later...

Oh yeah, WTF happened to the Crocodile Hunter, it's all over the news down here. I guess if you play with fire enough, you're eventually going to get burned!

Adios

Pura Vida

2006-09-04T08:31:00.000-07:00

Well, I made it without incident. Here in Costa Rica, and at the school for my first day of classes. Yesterday was an extremely long day. I woke up at 3:00, left Kerrville at 4:00, and was at the airport a little after 5:00. They say you are supposed to be at the airport at least 2 hours before international flights. I say BS to that. I got there 2 hours prior to my flight, and ended up sitting in the terminal for an hour and a half. The flight from San Antonio to Houston took about 35 minutes. We were supposed to leave there at 9:20 but ended up getting delayed until almost 11.

They had the televisions on in the terminal in Houston. It was on the news, and of course everything that they were showing before I hopped on the plane was about terrorism, and the 9/11 anniversary coming up. That sure makes me feel a lot better.

I was so tired on the flight that I couldn't really sleep. It was in a daze for the majority of the flight. I read my little situational spanish book for the majority of the trip, but kept forgetting what exactly I was supposed to say to the taxi driver. Luckily though, my skin and bones espanol was enough!

Addresses in Costa Rica are different. Instead of it being this number on this street in this city, they start you off on a place where most everyone knows. For example, the place I am staying is in the neighborhood of Los Yoses. Once you get to Los Yoses you go to el Automercado, then go 100 meters south, then 20 meters west, to a yellow house. I figured there'd be know way that my cab driver could get me there, but sure enough, he knew exactly where to go. I probably shouldn't second guess the system if it's worked for this long.

I requested a homestay that was within walking distance from the school. As we were making the 100 meters south from the Automercado, we passed it. So it's within a couple of minutes walk from the place I'm staying. The family seems to be real nice. They speak NO english, but that's what this immersion thing is all about. The food has been really good so far. This morning we had a bunch of fresh fruit, some of which I've never seen or heard of.

So here I am. Just wanted to write and let everyone know what's going on. I hope you are all enjoying your holiday. I'll be able to update pretty regularly, so be looking for it!

Adios

Cowboys, Vikings, and Ticos

2006-08-30T20:53:00.000-07:00

Once again everything seems to be rushing at me at once. I'll have my fair share of Cowboys, Vikings, and Ticos in the next few days. Tomorrow is Thursday and I leave to Dallas for a day. The Vikings are playing at Texas Stadium tomorrow night. Since it's the one time that Cullen will be in Texas, I obtained a few tickets and some of us are going up for the night. Call it blasphemy, but the four of us going will be cheering for the Vikings. I'm sure there's quite a few budweiser drinkers at Texas Stadium that aren't going to like that. I've never been a Cowboy's fan. I was an Oilers fan, then we lost them, so I was teamless for years. Once Cullen signed with the Vikings I started getting back into the NFL thing a bit, and have claimed the Vikings as my own. If he decides to move elsewhere after his contract is up this season, then my allegiance will follow. Call me fair-weather if you will, but the professional game just doesn't stand up to College Football. There's nothing I enjoy more than watching Texas Tech, or Texas playing on Saturdays.

We'll get back Friday afternoon, then it's time for some serious packing. I'm going to try to pack as light as possible. With me though, that usually doesn't happen. There are so many things that I think I'll need, then once I get there I won't use half of them. I've decided I'm taking one rolling bag, and my backpack. If I can't fit something in there, it's not going. I leave here at 7 in the morning Sunday. After a short stop in Houston, I'll roll into Costa Rica at 1 o'clock Texas time on Sunday afternoon. That's the Tico part I was talking about. Costa Ricans call themselves Ticos. So for a month, I'll be hanging with those folks. Everyone that I talk to about the trip that has been has absolutely nothing bad to say about the place, so it's making me even more anxious to go. I put a link over to the right of the school I'm going to be at. I'm doing 4 weeks of classes for 6 hours a day. If I'm not way better at Spanish when I get back, then it's a lost cause.

When I get back, it's back to wedding time. We had a pretty tight group of friends in High School that were in the class of '99. As of now, there's only 3 of us that aren't married, or soon to be married. What are these people doing? Tomorrow all three of us will be together. One of these days, but sheesh, not yet. If I was already married, I sure as hell wouldn't be going to Costa Rica...Maybe for the Monterrey wedding, my Spanish will be stellar!

Things I'll miss in Costa Rica:
My Dad
My Dog
My Friends
Dove Hunting <--big time, I hope I can get some done when I get back
The Guadalupe
Astros Games
College Football/Vikings game

Things I won't miss:
English
The dry weather <--although, it'll rain almost every day I'm there
CAMPWISE <--Camp database that drives me nuts (only because of the slow connection I used to have.)

I'll try to update as often as possible. Y'all know how to get a hold of me! Have a good one!

notes

2006-08-21T08:46:00.000-07:00

Another exciting day here at work. I'm the only one in the office this morning and there is absolutely nothing to do. I ran across this online radio station called radiofreetexas.org that I have playing on my computer all day now. It's a fun station that lets you request music from Texas Artists. As I write this, I've got Mark David Manders playing. I haven't seen him play in a couple of years probably. He just stopped going to Lubbock while I was there. I wish he'd play somewhere closer to Kerrville.

Another exciting thing about this site is that Sean Kendrick is on there. For those of you who don't know Sean, he's a local guy. He actually worked here at camp for 3 summers around the turn of the century. He picked up the guitar one day and hasn't set it down. Now you can request his music on this station. He's actually one of the most requested artists. One of his songs is at #21 on the request list right now. I've probably requested it 7 or 8 times, which means that a lot of other people have been doing the same. So if anyone gets a chance, go to the site and request some Kendrick.

Onto other things. Since my last post, things have worked themselves out for the most part. The move is over! We haven't unloaded every box, but we're close. It's beginning to look a little more like a home now. Minus the furniture that is. Hopefully today a trip to San Antonio will fix that. We got television hooked up over the weekend, which was a God send because I had been getting so bored without it. I'd actually picked up quite a bit on my reading. It seems now though, that there isn't anything entertaining on the TV.

I made a trip to San Antonio yesterday that didn't exactly turn out as planned. I was supposed to go and take my Mother out to eat, but she never answered her phone, and somehow slept all day, so I ended up just going to a few stores and buying things I don't need. I did get a new pair of shoes though. I'm excited about them. They are the fratty New Balances, the grey ones, and they are comfortable as can be. I also bought a new book, A Confederacy of Dunces. Which I'm excited about. I remember seeing it on someone's favorite books list, and ran across it in Barnes and Nobles so figured I'd get it. I haven't started it yet, but it'll be one of the ones I take to Costa Rica with me.

So Costa Rica...Classes start 2 weeks from today. I'm a little nervous about going, but as each day rolls by, I get more and more excited. I'm also pumped that after I'm done with classes a friend of mine is coming down for 7 days or so, and we're going to do a quick tour of the West Coast. If anyone else is interested, start working on your passport and let me know!

That's all for now. I don't know if I'll do any updating on here until I leave for Costa Rica. I'll try to update while I'm there though. I don't know if I'll be able to put any pictures up or anything, but I'll try. If not, I'll put them all up when I get back. Leave me a message on here, email, or myspace or facebook me if you want to get a hold of me while I'm down there.

Over 1200 views now...Does anyone actually care what I think?

Talk to all of you soon...

It's been forever

2006-08-10T13:17:00.000-07:00

Yeah, yeah so it's been a while. I would say that I haven't had anything important going on my life, but that's not quite so true. I've just been tired, like real tired. Go to bed late, wake up early. I'm finished with the majority of that routine, I'm actually going to bed at a decent hour now, but it'll take me a while to catch up. The summer is over, or at least my summer. The one that we do prep for 10 months out of the year and during those 2 months of showtime pull everything together. This summer was a fun one. I don't know if I'd say it was the best I've ever had here, but it wasn't far from it.

I actually miss the days of being a counselor. I spent a lot more time outside, and had way more interaction with the kids. I like being a director, don't get me wrong, but here and there I'd like to have a little more time with the kids, and a little less time with parents who want to call everyday asking why their kids haven't written them in two days.

Now it's back to sitting in the office, looking at my window waiting for someone to walk by, or the phone to ring next. I've been waiting for some random kid to come by and knock on my window to ask a question that I've answered 10 times already, but it isn't gonna' happen. Not for another 10 months, and probably not to me again. If things go as planned, which they never do, but if they do, this was my last summer here. That's a bittersweet feeling to have. I've grown to love this place so much, the people, the family, watching these kids grow up. I've also literally grown, ready to get on with things. There's not much higher I can get in the pecking order, so maybe I ought to get out and start anew.

It seems for me that everything is happening at once. Nothing bad, it just appears that everything is coming together at a similar time. Camp being over, means that I've got about 3 more weeks to work here. I'm about to head out of the country for more than a month. I've got a wedding to go to in Monterrey which might lead to an awkward encounter (which I'm probably worrying about way too much). Then on top of that, I'm moving out of the house that I've lived in for 15 years.

Three weeks left of camp, I wonder how things are going to work out in a few months when a part of our full time staff is gone. I'm very optimistic about the running of this camp, and the future of the camp. I hope that I can be a part of it in the future, or at least be able to send, refer, or aide with the enrollment somehow. There isn't anything else that's gone on in my life that has been as good for me as camp has, I just hope that someday I can remunerate this place. I don't want to say I've lived a rough life, but I sometimes wonder how I've turned out like I have. Camp, and the people here are huge factors. I'm trying to be as noble as I can about what I say, but no words can be put together can fairly represent the importance these past seven summer have had.

I finally pulled it all together and am in the last stages of my Costa Rica planning. I'm going to be leaving in early September, and won't be back until early October. I'd probably stay longer, but there are a couple of weddings that I not only need to come back for, but really WANT to come back for. More on one of those in a bit. I've looked at going to a complete immersion program for like the last 5 years, but either couldn't afford it, or had other things going on. Now, I've got nothing else going on, and can afford to do it, so why not? I'll do 4 weeks of classes (either 4 hours a day, or 6 hours a day). I know I can't speak perfect Spanish in a month, but maybe it'll move some of the pieces I've put together over the years closer, and I'll at least be somewhat sufficient.

Well the weddings, I've got three of them in October and November. I know I've said it before, but my friends are all falling like flies. Not too much of a bad thing, it just makes me wonder if somehow behind the times. Naaa, I'm still young. One of the weddings is in Monterrey. Which is a place that I haven't been since the girl I dated for four years and I called it quits. Two camp people are getting married to each other there, and they are both mutual friends of the ex and myself. I really want to be at this wedding, because there aren't many people that I've met at camp who I actually like more than this guy, so I'm planning on being there. The awkwardness in seeing the old girlfriend is something that has been bothering me though. Surely I'm over reacting, I have a tendency to do that. It just creates a bit of a cumbersome reunion with someone I didn't think I'd see again. I'll make the best out of it though.

Now the moving. My Dad has talked about selling the place where I grew up for years. I remember coming home my Freshman year of college, and finding the drawings of the house he wanted to one day build at our ranch. It got me all excited and fired up, ready for the new place that would be coming very soon. Well days turned into months, and months to years, and now almost 6 years later it might finally happen. It's been an irritating time because we have to be out of the house only 10 days after I finished work for the summer. It's hard to pack up 15 years worth of accumulation in 10 days. Plus there is all the other stuff that I didn't get to do this summer that I want to do now, but it's all pushed to the backburner. We're moving into this little rent house in Kerrville that hopefully will just be temporary until we get a start on building out at the ranch. Like I said before though, days turn to months, and months turn to years. Hopefully that doesn't happen again...I'm excited, and cautiously optimistic on the outcome of that.

Yeah, so these are a few things on my mind, and some of the thoughts going through my head. I'm hoping that I get it all figured out in the near future, or just that everything would happen already...

8 year old butt kickin'

2006-07-16T19:30:00.000-07:00

Well, once again I'm on porch duty. I'm not getting all the rest that I've been wanting to get, but I'm a happy man. Today was the opening for our 2B term. It's the 4th 2 week session that we have during the summer. I can honestly say that minus one mishap, it was the smoothest of any opening I've been involved in. We had to send a couple of girls to the San Antonio Airport to pick up a couple campers, and on the way back they had a blowout and somehow the fuel lines got stripped out of the sweet purple camp minivan. It wouldn't start, and because of that a 3 and a half hour trip turned into about 7. Like I said though except for that, all went great.

We had about 70 new campers come in today. A lot of new faces, a lot of old faces. We had one kid come in today that I remember well from years past. Well he came in, and I didn't recognize him at all. It was upsetting for me, because I was excited when I saw his name on the list, then when he came in I had to check out his name tag. We also had a camper come in from Mexico who is just about one of the most amazing kids you've ever seen. Not like honor camper, not yet, but very nice and funny to talk to. He was a counselor favorite last year.

Well anyway I'm sitting here on the porch and it's hot. I mean really hot. No breeze, nothing. I guess it would help if I took the laptop off my lap but I'm comfortable. This month so far as been as close to unbearable heat as you can get. It's a little humid, plus near 100 degree weather. Not good for a fat man like myself.

So I had an interesting morning this morning. This change from one set of 2 week camper to the next is neat because we're still running the camp with all the 4 week campers. So for about a full day, it's just the kids that are here for all 4 weeks. That means that we get hand made, homemade cinnamon rolls. These things are phenomenal. After breakfast, I was out on the porch playing with some of our youngest 4 week campers. Me being the big brute that I am, started picking the 2 kids up and flinging them around. Showing my strength and superiority to these 8 year olds does a lot for my ego. Well one of the little kids, who is from one of the biggest camp families we have, squares up like karate style and starts coming after me. Right before I grabbed him and picked him up again, I was just thinking to myself...

What if this kid is a blackbelt, and is about to wreck shop on me?

How awesome of a story would that be? Friend-Sancho, what happened to your eye? Me-Uhh I got smoked by an 8 year old. I don't think explaining that the kid was a blackbelt would help much, do you?

Anyway, that may have been way more funny going through my head than it was reading there. 3 weeks of camp left, then my life becomes a lot more interesting! Going to move houses, twice actually. Once away from camp, then out of the house that I grew up in. We sold that one. Don't know for sure where in Kerrville we're going, but hopefully I won't be around that long....

Finally reached 1000 hits on my blog. That's sweet...

Goodnight one and all!

Bachelor Parties and Wholesomeness

2006-07-09T20:27:00.000-07:00

Two things that don't go together all that well. This weekend though, I had to do my best to juggle the duo. During the summers I do my best to walk the straight and narrow. Not that I'm crazy during the other 3 seasons, but I do like to go out and have a good time. This weekend was an exception to the rule though. Bachelor Parties...All my friends are falling like flies, so this is the 4th bachelor party I've been to in the last year. Most seem to be a 2 day party of debauchery and decadence, this past weekend was no exception.

Everyone I'm sure has those friends who seem to be a little bit nuts, or even borderline crazy, this weekend we honored one of those. Imagine around 20 guys, the majority of them being past football players for the University of Texas. I'm not sure if there is a word that can describe the atmosphere when you've got that many of these guys together. Crazy doesn't do it justice. It's always one trying to out do the other. The end result is most of the time hilarious. Then you have those few of us that are just trying to hold on for the ride. It's hard to get a word in, but it's not a problem for me. Sometimes it's better to just sit and listen, otherwise you'll miss something.

Like I've said a ton of times on here, I won't go into my stories about who did what, and my weekend escapades. There was one quote though that does this entire weekend justice, especially since it was a rather expensive weekend on top of everything else...

"You can't put a price tag on a good time".

The man who coined that phrase this weekend also had another good quote when waking us up at 5:30 in the morning to go fishing:

"If you want to soar with the eagles, you've got to hoot with the owls".

Read into that one however you want. The whole point of my story is that when you're trying to have a summer full of wholesomeness, don't go to a bachelor party in the middle of it. A great time had by all.

When we got back to camp earlier today, I threw all those thoughts and descriptions of the weekends activities out the window. I grabbed my walkie talkie and headed down to change lives.

Back to business sancho...dang I've got a good life...

Coastal Cowboys

2006-06-29T21:46:00.000-07:00

They call us the life of the party!

Porch Duty

2006-06-27T20:47:00.000-07:00

So it's 10:40 and I'm sitting on the office porch waiting for the off night counselors to make it back. This is the last off night for the term. That's when I know that we're getting close to the end, people start talking about what they're going to do between terms, or after camp lets out. As for me, I guess once it's over it'll be planning time again. I'll make sure to have one night of fun in there somewhere though.

With the changing of terms, we're going to lose one of our program directors, and promote the assistant from this term to head. On the girls side, we'll have the same program director, which is great, things always get better the second time around. Although it is hard to improve on near perfection. I'm very optimistic about the upcoming month. It's going to fly by probably as fast if not faster than this first term did. It seems once the new counselors get comfortable with their given positions, that things all flow smoothly. Last year I had to talk to kids and counselors most every day about problems with their conduct, this year I can count those talks on one hand. That either means that the campers and counselors have improved immensely, or that the whole chain of command thing is working the way it's supposed to (everything is being handled before it gets to me).

Being that this is the last off night, I imagine that people aren't going to show up until the last possible second. Which is fine with me, that gives me more time to do this pile of paperwork that's been accumulating on my desk all day.

Yeah, another boring post. No deep thoughts or anything. One of these days I'll start thinking deep again.

One exciting note, I've gotten 3 out of 4 of the books on Costa Rica that I ordered. I'm pretty excited about that...Have a good one!

Cheap Thrills

2006-06-26T07:28:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a LONG day. All ended well though. I got out of here for about 45 minutes and made the obligatory stop at Wal-Mart. I picked up some dog food and a few other things as well. When I got back to camp I did some pidly stuff, then helped out with the night time vesper service. Somehow through that, I felt a little rejuvinated and ended up staying up way later than I had planned. I got up to the house and brought my little baggy with everything from Wal-Mart in it inside. One of the things I bought was an air freshener, not because my room stinks, just because I liked the smell of it. So I plugged that in the wall. It's pretty sweet, febreze, it alternates smells every few hours, that way you don't get too used to the same smell. This technology thing is far reaching eh? So after smelling the fresh citrus smells, I reached further in my bag and pulled out the new bars of soap that I also bought at Wal-Mart. Nothing like a fresh bar of soap for a shower.

Pretty boring details yes I know, but last night really reminded me of a David Allan Coe song. Cheap Thrills. Wal-Mart makes my day. Little things like air fresheners and new bars of soap can turn what's been a long day into a fan-friggin-tastic evening.

Good story 'eh?

We're winding down here. It is the last week of our first term. Starting to look a little bit forward to second term. Trying to do a bit of the planning, cabin lists, counselor assignments, all that fun stuff. This crew of kids is really a great group though. I'll miss the majority of them, probably not all, but the majority. Yeah, actually I'll miss 'em all. That's one of the things about my current job that I don't enjoy as much as being just a regular counselor, I don't get to spend near as much time with the kiddos. I have been getting to spend more time with the girls camp though, and that's always fun. We've got a great batch of girls this summer. We've got the big dance on Wednesday, it's going to be a blast. Our counselors always doozie themselves up for it. I think the theme for this one might be "revenge of the nerds". I'll fit right in I'm sure.

July will also be a fun month. We have way more boys coming in. It's consistently a more competitive term as well. Also planned are a bachelor party and wedding for one of the best friends from High School. I feel guilty for taking those days off, but I've only had a couple so far this summer so it'll even out for me. Also, you just can't miss the wedding and bachelor party of one of your best friends. That's just not right. Rockport for the bachelor party, and Austin for the wedding. With all the meatheads that are going to be at each of these, it'll be an interesting time!

So I'll try to update more often. I always feel like I'm busy during camp, but I couldn't tell you exactly what I've been doing. I think it's just a conglomeration of little things that ends up taking an entire day! Also I had a friend, if that's what I'd call her, truth is I hate her, but she asked the other day about blogging. I didn't so eloquently answer her question, so I'll try a bit more now. The question was something to the effect of, if by blogging do I censor what you say to please the readers? All I can say to that is that sometimes I do censor myself. Not so much that I don't say what I want to, but I skirt around it and eventually get to the point. I do of course try to keep the language a little cleaner than others, but that's mainly because of my job, and I feel people that cuss to much need work on their vocabularies. The fact is, I don't really blog for anyone else, I do it for myself. It's a bit of a release to get things out here in the open where I can read them! Hopefully that's more of a good answer...I also encourage anyone else to blog. If I do it, anyone can. I don't speak elegantly, I just throw a bunch of words together and hope they make sense. Surely I'm on the lower rung in this brobdingnagian world of bloggers.

I hope all is well with everyone. Talk to you soon...

Ingram Owes It's Roots to the Morriss Family

2006-06-15T19:32:00.000-07:00

From the June 8th West Kerr Current!

EDITORÕS NOTE Ñ This is the 19th of a series of articles on local families to mark Kerr CountyÕs sesquicentennial.

By Irene Van Winkle

West Kerr Current

The town of Old Ingram owes its roots to land bought by Reverend J.C.W. Ingram from pioneer settler Abner McWhorter Morriss in 1879. It became the hub of a community that soon boasted a post office, general store and telephone company.

The known origin of A. M. Morriss goes back a few more generations, but this family branch should not be confused with other similar-sounding names.

According to family ancestral lore, itÕs all in the spelling: ÒIf you spell it with one ÔsÕ, then you have probably have something to hide. If you spell it with only one ÔrÕ and one ÔsÕ, then youÕre probably hiding from the law.Ó No offense, really!

The story might start with A. M.Õs father, John George Morriss (1810-1897), who was born in Hopkinsville, Ky. to Adam and Nell (McWhorter) Morriss. John came from Hopkinsville to join his older brother, Abner, at his trading post on the Red River known as ÒCoahuila y Texas.Ó

From narratives written in various sources, including the Hill Country Album (1986) and Bob BennettÕs ÒKerr CountyÓ (1956), John became fluent in Cherokee and Choctaw, as well as familiar with the western territories. The United States Army engaged him as scout and interpreter while moving tribes to the Indian Territory.

John went to Alabama where he developed a new strain of horses, crossing Kentucky thoroughbreds with Morgans. It was an early predecessor to the quarter horse that combined speed with endurance.

In 1831, he returned to Texas and applied for a Mexican land grant in the DeWitt Colony (now in Lavaca County). The following year, he received a league of land.

He married Arminta Keller (whose family had come from Illinois and then South Carolina) in 1835 after his return to the Òstates,Ó and they had seven children: Adam, Jane, Abner McWhorter (1839), Susan, John, Jr., Nathaniel and Margaret. While they lived in Missouri, Arminta died in 1848, shortly after their last childÕs birth, and only three of the children (Jane, Susan and Abner) survived to adulthood. Abner (who died in 1924) was the only child to survive his father.

Jane married Dr. John Moore, but moved to Kerr County after he died. Her youngest daughter, Elizabeth (ÒLizzieÓ) married Tom Moore.

Daughter Susan married Airs Marion Gilmer, who was the second mayor of Kerrville. She was the first Morriss at Sunset Cemetery.

In 1853, John got the mail contract, and ran it (with A. M.Õs eventual help) until 1857. At age 14, A.M. carried mail tri-weekly between La Grange, Hallettsville and Victoria.

By 1861, A.M. signed up for the First Texas Cavalry, under General Whitfield, who once told him, ÒAbner, this is it! War is hell!Ó He later served with infantry divisions as far away as Tennessee.

By 1863, while on furlough in Lavaca County, he married Ann Thompson of Mississippi, who had moved to Jefferson, Texas in 1848 when she was 3 years old.

A.M. and Ann had five children: Airs Gilmer (born in 1865), Edward Elijah (1868-1929), Adam Jordan and twins, Will Abner and Patti. Airs Gilmer was father to Ruth and Patti Beall.

A.M. Morriss and Airs M. Gilmer moved with their cattle herds to Kerr County. A.M. Gilmer was in charge of the driving.

They sold six acres to Rev. Ingram for $10 an acre, then moved farther up west of Kerrville by 1883.

The first year they lived in Kerr County, Airs and his brother Edward rode horseback to school in Kerrville Ñthen located in a one-room building on the corner of the present day Main and Sidney Baker streets. Ann Morriss (who died in 1934) was the first school teacher in western Kerr County, riding horseback to Henderson Branch. Her 36 pupils included her own young twins.

Patti Beall and Will also attended Tivy High School (now an administration building at Tivy and North streets). She was later admitted to Juilliard School of Music in New York, and finally moved to Olney, Texas.

Edward Elijah, called ÒE.E.Ó, married Mary Jane Sproul in 1888, at the two-room home of her parentsÕ home near Johnson Creek, when she was 16 and he 20 years of age. Mary JaneÕs family (her father was Billy) had come from Louisiana, and she had at least two sisters, Hada and Dora. Mary Jane (1871-1948) was born in Selma, Texas to William and Margaret (Edens). Her parents had a farm where Randolph Air Force Base is now, but they moved to Kerr County when she was 11 years of age. She attended Dry Branch and Sunset schools.

E.E. had built a one-room house nearby, and they lived there for several years. Meanwhile their family grew to nine children: Edward ÒErnest,Ó ÒCarlÓ Adam, Robert ÒHal,Ó Annie Mae (1896-1957), Mary ÒLorineÓ (1902-1989), Margaret Merle, Elizabeth and ÒSproulÓ Abner (named for his uncle). Another child, a baby girl, only lived three weeks.

Several books were written later by members of this new generation.Lorine Morriss Carpenter wrote a biography, ÒHer Little Candle Ñ The story of My Mother, Mary Jane Sproul Morris.Ó LorineÕs son, Robby Carpenter, a Kerrville dentist, said she also wrote three books of poems.

In her book, Lorine described her parentsÕ wedding, down to the seven petticoats Mary Jane wore, all the food her grandmother Sproul had prepared, and the simple ceremony performed by Presbyterian minister, John Vann.

She also mentioned that no wine was served, no rice was thrown, and there was no music.

When E.E. received a quarter section of land from the state of Texas, he was the first of his family to move to the Divide area, 15 miles from their parents. Mary Jane, according to Lorine, was an excellent horsewoman, riding sidesaddle even when pregnant. E.E. and Mary Jane were both buried at the family plot in Sunset Cemetery alongside their infant.

Lorine, who later became an English teacher, attended the historic Schofield School, which many young women attended in the early 1900s.

She describes her days and classmates in 1923:

ÒI had a small class of boarding girls and a few girls from over in town. Little Seawillow Fitzsimmons stayed with an auntie and was a day student. Little Nell Schreiner, too, was a day student. They were very nice little girls, so precise!Ó

She recounted that her principal, ÒMiss Lipscomb,Ó resigned due to poor health.

Robby added that Annie Mae wrote a book about her own grandmother, called ÒHer name was Ann.Ó He said he has a class photo of his aunt (who was class salutatorian) at the old Tivy High School. In that same class was the valedictorian Ñ Howard Butt, who was only about 14 years old at the time.

Early life on the Divide (they lived about 10 miles west of Garven Store), was isolated, but the family managed to leave for the Òbig cityÓ occasionally.

ÒMother told me that when she was a child, the big excitement was four or five times a year when they would go to town Ñ Kerrville. They worked hard a whole day, got a few daysÕ worth of chores done and then loaded up the wagon. They spent the night at the ranch, then got up at three or four a.m., and headed out. The trip to Kerrville by wagon took all day. TheyÕd get there by dark, and then spend the night by the river (now Louise Hays Park) or at the yard behind SchreinerÕs. Then theyÕd spend the next day or two shopping at SchreinerÕs and other places.Ó

By the time they were ready to leave, theyÕd reverse the schedule, get up early morning, drive all day, and then get home after dark. Of course, the next day, theyÕd unpack and have to catch up on all the chores.

ÒNow the same drive takes 40-45 minutes,Ó Robby said.

By the time Lorine and her siblings were getting married and having their own children, Mary Louise had moved to Rocksprings, where she had a large house built on the family ranch.

Annie Mae taught at the Dee Hughes school, and did not attend LorineÕs wedding to Jim Carpenter in 1925. The newlyweds spent most of their married lives in Junction.

Toward the end of the decade, although E.E. was already in his early 60s, Lorine said he still dreamed of moving farther west, against the protests of his family. He and Mary Jane had only been living in their new home for a few years.

Sadly, he died while visiting in San Antonio with Will. After getting a call, Dr. Cade could do nothing but pronounce him as he arrived.

E.E.Õs last words, Lorine said, were: ÒWe wonÕt all be going west.Ó

The cold December funeral precluded a festive Christmas celebration, and a 14-inch snowfall left people housebound.

Lorine had a favorite saying, Robby said: ÒIÕve lived in a generation of the most changes that any generation on Planet Earth ever experienced Ñ IÕve gone from the covered wagon to the space age.Ó`

RobbyÕs siblings are Mary, Betty, Jim (deceased), Sue, Carol. He met his wife, also named Carol, at a revival in Boerne where her father was a pastor at the First Baptist Church. They have two children, Sarah and David.

Sproul eventually married Annie Laurie, the parents of Gordon Morriss, a Kerrville attorney, who also served one term (elected in 1982) as Kerr County Judge. He has two children: Jessica Rae and ÒSanchoÓ (Gordon, Jr.).

In another Morriss family link to the Divide, the oldest Morriss son (Ernest) married the oldest Snodgrass daughter (Loma).

Jean Ward, daughter of Margaret Merle (the only surviving sibling of E.E. and Mary Jane) works at Trinity Baptist Church in Kerrville.

Ramblings

2006-06-02T21:55:00.000-07:00

It's rolling around. It seems like every day gets longer as we get a little closer to the day that the gates open and the highlight of the summer pours in. We've had counselors here for a little over a week by this time. Those who didn't come early came in on Wednesday and Thursday. Now here we are, fully staffed, orientating everyone, and counting the minutes 'till the gates open. I like the staff. I actually love the staff so far. Everyone seems to get along well, and be interested in just hanging out. There are the usual little cliques here and there, but even those will hang out with the large group. I can't wait for Monday to come, it's the crescendo of all the work that we've done since last September. Once we get over that peak, it's for the most part smooth sailing. I've done so much speaking over the last few days, I hope my voice doesn't leave me.

Not too much else to say. It's been a while since I've posted. Several great things happened today. Other than being in God's country of course. I feel blessed every day to be able to do the things I do.

The Morriss family was previewed in the West Kerr Current. Not really that big of a deal, but I did learn a little family history that I hadn't previously known. Plus, I got my picture on page 6. That's an embarrassing story for me. My Dad called me earlier this week and asked if I could make it in to take a picture for the paper. It was the first day of orientation though, and there was no way I could get back. He wanted to get 3 generations of the Morriss clan in there. I told him uh uh, no chance, so he decided to grab one of my high school graduation pictures off the wall and take it with him. In the picture, there's 2 generations of Morriss, then my Dad holding in his hands the 3rd generation. Yup, you guessed it, yours truly. I know he had great intentions, and is nothing but proud of his boy, but sheesh...Check out the Ingram News link on my page here, it wasn't on there last I checked, but maybe sometime they'll put it up.

Lastly, perhaps life altering news...My chances of going to Costa Rica improved dramatically today. It's a sure deal if I'll just gut up and do it. I'm looking at the month of September.

Entries will more than likely be limited this summer, but I'll try to get on here now and again. Hope everyone is doing well!

Quick Note

2006-05-24T22:35:00.000-07:00

This was posted on the sign at the "Y" in Ingram...

8th grade promotion 5/26/06
In the New Gym
Dance to follow afterwards
Untill 10:00 PM

Now this might not make much sense to anyone, but there is one blaring mistake. I'm not saying I'm perfect, I make my fair share of mistakes. However, if I was going to be doing the marquee in the middle of town, I would make sure to spell everything right (Untill=Until).

The second funny thing here, is that they still are calling the gym that was built in 1998 the "New Gym". I played basketball in that gym my senior season, and that was years and years ago! When will the new wear off?

Not much else to say right now, I just wanted to share how proud I am of my Alma Mater.

Camp is on a roll, or at least off on a good start! We've got lifeguards in now, and will have orientation starting next week. Campers stream in on the 5th! Exciting stuff. We had a meeting today in the office and we're ready as ever!

Great day today for me. Good news abound. Plus the fact that I got in on a poker game tonight and planned on leaving early, but ended up playing until midnight and winning the most. Lucky me!

I hope things are going okay with everyone else and their families. I've got y'all in my thoughts...

Have a good day...

Veritas

2006-05-16T12:56:00.000-07:00

So usually I won't put something like this on here, but this is the 100% truth....

How to Make a Woman Happy

It's not difficult to make a woman happy. A man only needs to be:
1. a friend
2. a companion
3. a lover
4. a brother
5. a father
6. a master
7. a chef
8. an electrician
9. a carpenter
10. a plumber
11. a mechanic
12. a decorator
13. a stylist
14. a sexologist
15. a gynecologist
16. a psychologist
17. a pest exterminator
18. a psychiatrist
19. a healer
20. a good listener
21. an organizer
22. a good father
23. very clean
24. sympathetic
25. athletic
26. warm
27. attentive
28. gallant
29. intelligent
30. funny
31. creative
32. tender
33. strong
34. understanding
35. tolerant
36. prudent
37. ambitious
38. capable
39. courageous
40. determined
41. true
42. dependable
43. passionate
44. compassionate

WITHOUT FORGETTING TO:
45. give her compliments regularly
46. love shopping
47. be honest
48. be very rich
49. not stress her out
50. not look at other girls

AND AT THE SAME TIME, YOU MUST ALSO:
51. give her lots of attention, but expect little yourself
52. give her lots of time, especially time for herself
53. give her lots of space, never worrying about where she goes

IT IS VERY IMPORTANT:
54. Never to forget:
* birthdays
* anniversaries
* arrangements she makes

HOW TO MAKE A MAN HAPPY
1. Show up naked
2. Bring food

Nostalgic Kick

2006-05-10T19:04:00.000-07:00

Anticipation or apprehension, one or the other, at this point I just don't know for sure. I've been racking my brain this last week trying to figure out exactly what I am going to do when the summer is over. The one certainty is that I know I want to get out of this area for a little while. Not necessarily forever, but long enough to learn more about myself. Often times one has to take themselves out of their element to find things that are pertinent to their future.

I've got jobs available to me, and plenty of sources to find other jobs, but a part of me wants to do it on my own. On the other hand I know the smart thing to do is use your contacts and get your feet wet somewhere. I just don't know how many connections I've got where I want to be. It's funny how that locale changes monthly. For a while I thought it was Dallas, then a while Atlanta, Houston (which still doesn't sound all that bad), but San Antonio has it's appeal as well. I guess that's the beauty of not knowing what's going on, all my options are wide open.

Today I had a kick of nostalgia though. Before having to go back to college to finish up (a second time), I had this huge desire to study Spanish somewhere in Latin America (preferably Costa Rica). I've never lost my aspiration to study Spanish, but when the relationship with the Mexican girl was over, the urgency was lost as well. Well today at the office, when there wasn't much going on I searched for Spanish Schools in Costa Rica. A site popped up that I'd never seen before, so I clicked it, and ended up spending about an hour there. The prices seemed doable, and the school seemed to have everything together. I always wonder about the testimonials that some of those places have. I mean I could write my own testimonials about how wonderful my blog is and no one would know. These appear to be legit though, and even without the testimonials it all sounds good. So long story short, I've got the itch again.

Call it what you will, maybe I'm prolonging the inevitable by not jumping into a job, but there is so much appeal in doing something like this for me. Who knows if I'll ever get the chance to do it again, the way I figure it is that this is more than likely the last chance I'll have. Jumping into a job means a lot of things. Mainly a consistent cash flow, but is also means permanent, and set times. When will I have the chance to take a month off and just go somewhere. It wouldn't be a total wash of time, because I'd be learning while I was there. While learning though, I'd be afforded the chance to visit one of the most beautiful countries in the world.

Sure it won't work out, but it's nice for a man to dream.

Pet Peeve

2006-05-09T12:31:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to share a big pet peeve of mine. It's happened 3 or 4 times in the past month. What it's really telling me is that I eat out too much, but here goes....

Don't you hate it when you are at a restaurant/store/anywhere where you buy things, and your total comes to some number of dollars and 1 cent (or 2 cents). Instead of the bloke on the other side of the cash register just taking one for the team and giving you all paper back, you get 99 cents in your pocket. Maybe I should stop paying with cash and it wouldn't happen, but what if cash is all I've got to spend? It's just frustrating...

The only good thing about it is that when I get home that night, if none of it has fallen out of my pockets, I can put a bunch of silver in my silver jar, and the pennies in my penny jar. It's fun to watch that grow...

Not many things bother me, I'm the easiest going person you'll ever meet, but that really drives me nuts...There may be a few more to come....

Cinco De Mayo

2006-05-05T17:22:00.000-07:00

After reading the passage below, I'm thinking to myself "Damn I'm a downer sometimes". All is good in my life though, no problems.

Tonight is Cinco De Mayo. La Batalla de Puebla (the battle of Puebla, or for many other Americans who don't know the meaning, Let's go out and drink Mexican Beer night! I might do some of the same, but being somewhat of the history buff I am, (not near as much as I used to be), I thought I'd get on here and let all y'all know that had the Battle of Puebla not occurred, Mexico might still be under French rule. Kind of, there's more to it than that. Take that for what you will.

Not too much to say tonight, just wanted to let everyone who doesn't know, what is being celebrated and why. Chalk another one up for the dork!

Longfall

2006-05-04T13:42:00.000-07:00

Has anyone ever felt like they are setting themselves up for failure? This isn't a big thing, and not a big depressing thing, but just something that's been on my mind as of late. It's funny how we get all these premonitions in our heads and go with them, then the next thing you know, reality kicks in and you are stuck somewhere between where you started and the top of the world.

It's dang near impossible to be at the top of the world. Everyone is capable of it, but the contributing factors to that rise all have to line up at the same time. Well, these premonitions had my head in the clouds, and now that reality is starting to set in, I wonder if I should start heading back down the mountain before I get too high, or perhaps trek my way towards the top. It funny how one more step makes the fall seem that much longer.

This isn't one of those I'm sad with the state of the world things, just some deep thinking that I've been doing lately. You gotta' sometimes ask if it's better to pull your head out before it gets all wrapped up in the B.S. that comes with life. It really can translate to almost any aspect of things. All your friends will tell you to go for it, but is that always the best. The confidence that comes from making it to the top is probably the most gratifying pleasure one could have. The flip side though is the shattering of any type of assurance you may have felt. Funny stuff this life thing!

Have a good one....

Expect the Unexpected

2006-04-30T18:38:00.000-07:00

What a week! It's been filled with unexpected quirks, which I would call highs and lows. It started out somewhat tumultuous, things just sort of piled on to each other and stuck. After Family Weekend last weekend, we didn't get much of a day off, so it seemed like we had pretty much 2 straight weeks of work, which in the summer isn't a big deal, because we'll go 10 or 11 weeks non-stop then. These weekend groups though, are kind of like a warm up for that long stretch though. Anyway, when last Monday rolled around, we were just dotting the i's and crossing the t's of a great family weekend, and that day and the next seemed to fly by.

Tuesday night poker games always go pretty well. Last week was no exception. It was pretty exciting, and of course I lost all my money, but I seemed to got a little agitated in an instance when usually I just cast things off. It seems that even the best of friends can get under your skin sometimes. I'm sure I'll head back this Tuesday though, even though I lose, the fellowship is actually what I'm there for.

Wednesday morning is really when the proverbial caca hit the fan. In a matter of two hours I was hit with two cases of pretty bad news. One not directly affecting me, but the other might have a profound effect on the summer. The first of those still to my knowledge isn't taken care of, and the second wasn't really one of those things that can be taken care of. It's the kind of news that you hear and just have to take. We'll see how things turn out though. Everything is in capable hands, and things always seem to work out for the best. It's just the initial shock that got to me. That day pretty much was the bane of the week.

Things didn't get worse the rest of the week, but it made me think a lot. I think of myself as an extremely level headed person, and when people want my input on their problems I usually tell them straight up. It bothers me though when it's one of my best friends with a pretty large problem, and me, the level headed person can only think of physical means of solving that dilemma. I'd like to see what goes through some people's heads. I usually don't know exactly what's going through my own head, I can't imagine being one of these folks who never has a sane thought at all. Enough about that I guess.

So after the long week, was the last weekend I have until August when there isn't something going on. It seems like it's a barrage of weddings and camp until the 11th of August. I'm not complaining, this is what we're working towards, but it's nice now and then not to have things planned out. Just kind of fly by the seat of your pants and take things as they will come.

Going from having nothing planned, to such an exciting weekend was awesome. One of my friends invited me out to the YO ranch on Saturday for the exotics sale that they have every spring. It was a neat experience because I got to see a bunch of animals that I'd either never seen in person, or never seen up close. I didn't buy anything though, I had my eye on a pair of spotted donkeys, but really though, what the hell am I gonna' do with 2 spotted donkeys. I wasn't seriously considering them, that was pretty much all I could have afforded though.

The guy I went out there with has seen pretty much all there is in the exotic business, so it's interesting to sit next to him at a sale and listen to what he has to say. He knows quite a few of the people who were there buying, and told me that one of the buyers had likened the sale/trading of exotics to playing the stock market, only a bit more exciting. Which, if you think about it, makes perfect sense. It's more hands on than calling up your broker and buying this stock, or that stock. I imagine the gratification one feels after doubling your investment on one animal is hard to compare to anything else. Unless that is of course making millions of dollars overnight, like some of those lucky stock traders have done. Anyway, pretty exciting stuff.

After the auction was a dance/dinner. That was pretty much the highlight of the whole deal. Like I've said on here before, I won't go into my drunken weekend escapades because I don't want everyone to hear about them, but open bars make the night a bit more enjoyable. Saturday night was one of the most fun nights I've had in the last year. Getting to hang out with some people, and just not have a worry in the world is a fantastic event! The weddings/camp stuff that is coming up is going to be awesome, but it'll be hard to top this past weekend! PS, I'm still looking for a summer secretary if anyone is interested!

I actually had someone comment to me Saturday night that they ran across my blog. That's pretty cool. When I started this, I kind of just hoped that anyone that found it would be people I didn't know. It's all good I guess though, with the advent of myspace and facebook there really isn't much in the way keeping things to yourself anymore. Anyway, I felt like maybe I should start updating on here more often because after people check back 2 or 3 times and see the same old thing posted they'll lose interest.

That's where my problem arises though. There for a while I had absolutely nothing to talk about. I don't want to bore y'all when I've got a whole lot of nothing going on. Maybe it's good when I do that. Perhaps my personal anecdotes, or my antidotes to the little problems life throws my way, humor those of you who take the time to read what I've got to say.

Well I guess that's it for now. Warren G just came on my itunes, it's fan friggin' tastic. What ever happened to these guys who put out the old classics. Regulators, mount up, dang I'm dork. I'm sure you all have gathered that by now.

I'm out like a boxer after 10 rounds with Tyson...

Now for some really upsetting news, I missed Gray's tonight. Doesn't that fire you up? I dig that show..Have a good one...

Off the Face of the Earth!

2006-04-10T18:22:00.000-07:00

One of my resolutions this year was to do a better job at keeping in touch with friends from the past, and friends that I have now. I've done somewhat of a decent job, well until a few weeks ago when we started getting pretty busy at work, and have since then gone a little lax. I can't explain why I am the way I am. It seems as if though I've got those 4 or 5 friends that I talk to nearly every day, then those that I should talk to at least weekly. I don't though. I'm bad about calling people back, and I'm bad about calling people first. I talked to my Mom tonight for the first time in about 2 months probably. There's more there than me just being bad about calling people, but I feel bad about it afterwards. Well with her, most of the time. There are some times when I don't think I should call back for another two months. Like I said earlier though, there's more behind that.

I don't know if I'd call myself moody, or what. Probably not that, but maybe a little anti-social, or introverted. Which is weird with the job I have, because I'm basically paid to communicate. Which I feel I do a pretty good job with. Anyway, for those of you who feel that I've just fallen off the face of the earth, I haven't. I'm still here, around somewhere.

Saturday night I went to a wedding shower for some friends in Hunt. It was a pretty cool deal because they had it out at Crider's. Which is an outdoor dancehall about 5 miles outside of Hunt. Well there were a bunch of us young folk (If I can still call myself that) there. Then there were some older folks. Mostly the parental units of the young folk, but a few others here and there. I struck up a conversation with a man who I've known since I was probably 5 or so. He was a baseball coach of mine in little league, and I played baseball with his son until my Junior year of High School. He used to work with one of the electric companies here in town, but retired a few years ago to be a foreman at a ranch about 45 minutes to an hour southwest of here.

We got to talking about how he likes being that far away, and he said a lot of things that made me think. He works and lives out there 7 days a week. He rarely comes into town. I asked him how the transition was from what he used to do, to what he's doing now, and he said that it's his dream job. He says that out there, he just wants to forget English and enjoy the company of one. He said he's not the kind of person that likes to be around large crowds, and he enjoys being able to walk outside and not have to worry about running into any problems he can't fix. It seems that what one person sees as introverted is actually another man's perfect life. You'll never find a more sincere and all around nice man, so I don't think it's introverted.

I think I'm somewhere between those two types of people. I like to go out, but I don't need to. I like to stay at home and read or do something interesting by myself, but I don't need to do that. I like to go out on the weekends, and if some nights I don't feel like it, I like to stay at home and read my book. The funny thing, is that I usually don't know what the heck I want to do until maybe an hour before. By that time, I'm usually already committed to whatever is going on.

Anyway, nothing deep here tonight, just a little self-reflection brought on by a conversation with one of the good ole' boys that indirectly played a part in me growing up. It's ironic that a conversation with someone who thinks of himself as a lone wolf makes me want to get out and talk to more folks like him. Then at the same time, makes me admire the way that he's chosen to do things and wonder if I'll be that way in the future.

Once in a lifetime

2006-04-04T09:19:00.000-07:00

I know I haven't been blogging much lately, I've been busy. Actually I have 2 saved that I might or might not put up some time in the next few days. Anyway, I got this email yesterday, and thought I'd put the information on here before it's irrelevant.

Only in our life time

On Wednesday of this week, at two minutes and three seconds after 1:00, the time and date will be:

01:02:03 04/05/06 This will never happen again in our life time.

I'm actually thinking that it's gonna happen twice if you don't do military time. Once in the AM and once in the PM. Kind of a neat deal 'eh? Have a good one!

On a cloud

2006-03-26T19:16:00.000-08:00

This past week has been weird. It flew by really fast, a good time was had by all, but it seems that I've had my head in the clouds for some reason. I'm finally to the point where I'm happy with everything, or have come to accept everything for now, and all of the sudden I feel like a friggin' space cadet. I've never claimed to be some rocket scientist or anything, but I usually do a great job of paying attention, or thinking things out. This past week though has just been totally weird and not usual for me.

We played poker on Wednesday night, like we always do, I wasn't there though. I mean, I was there physically, sitting in the best poker chair I've ever had, but I wasn't there upstairs. I was catching on to things about 10 seconds too slow, or not paying attention to things going on around me. As usual, I didn't win any money. As a matter of fact, I didn't win a friggin' hand. The Ingram crew was completely shut out. I think those Kerrville kids have some strategy to knock us out and take our money. Not a big deal though, 3 hours of poker at $10 for the total time usually beats 3 minutes at the bar and $10 for just that 3 minutes.

So there have been several other instances in the past week. At work when doing all the paper work and stuff, I've had to concentrate more than usual to make sure I don't leave out a step in processing a kid for the summer. Today was a big one though. After a pretty fun time in Austin last night, Chuck and I decided we'd go down 35 to Cabellas. We spent about an hour in the store. It's funny how when I'm spending my own money, there aren't near as many things that I have to have. Anyway, after leaving Cabellas, we decided to go further down 35 to San Antonio, and eat at this Mexican food joint that I'm in love with. I got off of 35 and was cruising down this street, headed towards the best enchiladas I've ever had, and Chuck turns and looks at me and says, "did you see that?"

Me-"See what?"

Chuck-"that red light you just drove right through?"

Me-"What red light?"

Chuck-"The one right behind you."

Me-"oh crap"

Nice dialogue I know. I sometimes get made fun of because I'm too cautious of a driver. I'm actually cautious in just about everything I do in life. I'm not the most aggressive person you'll meet, and that's obvious by the way I drive. I brake on yellow instead of speed up, I slow down when I don't have a stop sign to make sure that no one is going to run theirs. You get the picture. Today, I say screw you to a red light. Thank goodness no one was coming the other way. I don't think I would have been able to explain to my Pops about the new beauty marks in his truck.

My goal for this week. Snap out of it! I don't mind being a space cadet every now and then, but this 24 hours a day thing for the last week sucks!

WBC, NCAA, and 1 year!

2006-03-19T17:58:00.000-08:00

I'll probably approach this in the opposite order of the title up there, but they all will be covered by the time I'm finished. I got to thinking last night about my little blog thing I do here, and how long I've been doing it. I was thinking I started last year around this time. As I looked back though, I see that I actually started in February of last year. So while I was off not paying attention, the Hacienda del Gringo celebrated it's first birthday. I don' t know how many more birthdays are to come, but as long as I have these random thoughts in my head, this is where I'll be jotting them down.

A lot has changed in this past year, relationships, friendships, location, etc... I still find this one of the places that I can call my own, and come to and be myself, so I appreciate it. I just put a counter up about a month ago, and sometime in the last week or so, I got 300 hits. I wish I'd been computer savvy enough to put in a counter when I first started, I wonder where I'd be now. No telling I guess! Thanks for those of you who come and read what I have to say. I know it's purely for entertainment, no one is going to get rich, or smarter from what I have to say. Hopefully though, people have learned from my mistakes, and just enjoyed what's gone on from day to day, or week to week, or however often I got the chance to put my words on the internet. I'll never claim to be smart, or a role model, but I like to think that my rose colored glasses view of the world and things happening around me stirs the thoughts in people's heads.

On a completely different note, I'm happy, oh so happy. If anyone could see what channels I've been watching on television, and my history on my computer, they'd see basketball games, arena football games, and my favorite baseball games. I enjoy football season immensely, college football and major league baseball run neck to neck for my favorite sports. March madness though, is a wonderful time of year. The teams that have worked hard all year are rewarded with a trip to the big NCAA tournament, and get their chance to advance on to the finals, and hopefully the NCAA championship for that year. In my last blog I talked about the little competition we've got going with some friends. Doing that makes the basketball games even more interesting. We don't have money on it, but the competitiveness in us makes the bragging rites worth more than any amount of money.

My brackets were pretty messed up from the get go. A first round loss by Michigan State, and a few others are to thank for that. However, I still have the chance to get all 4 teams that go to the final four. I don't think I'll be winning the brackets, but hopefully I'll at least win bragging rites in the office! While all this is so much fun, I have one major gripe with the way things are done in college basketball. It's the one and done aspect of it. A team can have a fantastic year, run the table, go undefeated, and have a number 1 seed going into the tournament. When they lose that first round match up to Podunk U, what do they have to show for it? They'll always look back at their year of basketball as a what might have been situation. If there was some way to award a regular season champ, and an NCAA tournament champ, I'd be great with that. Too much emphasis is put on the tournament, and great regular seasons can be ruined by a team that got hot at the right time of the year. So that's my gripe, I really do love the tournament though!

Now, next, the WBC (world baseball classic), or CMB (classico mundial del beisbol). I friggin' love baseball. I love the Astros, I love the Red Raiders, I love team America who actually took part in the WBC. After watching around 10 games of this thing, I think it's the best thing since sliced bread, and it should be an event every four years that the world cherishes, just like they do the World Cup of Soccer. I realize that baseball isn't as globally popular as soccer, or futbol, but I feel this is the best stage to really market the game, and make it the powerhouse that soccer is. Out of all the games I watched of the WBC, I have to say that the Latin teams are by far the most entertaining. They play with a gusto and pizazz that is unmatched by any of the other teams. I've watched probably thousands of baseball games in my life, but have never seen a game as awesome as the one between Cuba and Puerto Rico about a week ago. It was so much more than a baseball game, it was my homeland against your homeland. After every out, you could see anguish in the eyes of the hitting team, and the joy in the eyes of the defensive team. If you looked into the crowd of Puerto Ricans, you could see a real sense of let down when Cuba was victorious. With the present day MLB, which I love dearly, you see guys who are more worried about their pocket books than who they're representing. These Latin teams though, they were there for one reason, to represent their country. There was no personal gain in it for them at all. Maybe the American team could have made it further if they had that same type of passion as these Latin players had.

Now, the only bad thing I see with the whole WBC, the system in the final round needs some revamping. The finals tomorrow night is going to be Japan vs. Cuba. That was decided in a one game playoff, after two round robin stages. The two teams that were eliminated by those two teams were the Dominican Republic, and Korea. It was a one game playoff for the finals, and they lost. Which is disappointing because they were the best two teams by far up to this point. The D.R. had lost a couple of games in the two earlier stages, but still were the best team each time. Korea though, had yet to lose a game, and were pushed out after only one loss. Here's my thought, play one more round robin with those four teams, and then have the best two teams play a 3 game series to decide the champion. This one game thing doesn't work for me. It tarnishes the great performances put in by these two teams!

So that's it for now, a long blog over nothing important! If you're still with me after all of this, I hope everyone has a good week!

Highs & Lows

2006-03-17T17:27:00.000-08:00

This week has been full of highs & lows for me. Everything is going great at camp right now, with the exception of the male counselor situation. Most of the week it was just three of us in the office, but with the NCAA tournament and other random things to chew the fat about, I actually looked forward to work! During the summer I always look forward to it, but during the off-season, its just so slow and boring its not all that enjoyable.

I would guess sometime around Tuesday something in the air caught my allergies and hasn't let go yet. On Tuesday though I felt like death rolled over twice. I got home at around 5:30 from camp and watched television for a bit. I was burning up and came back to my room to change into some shorts. Then I saw my bed, so at 6:30 I was in bed, just laying there. I just figured that the less I moved, the less I had to worry about. I was in the same spot until around 11 the next morning, with the exception of potty breaks and water runs. Fever, allergies, all that fun stuff. My Dad finally shoved some pills down my throat that must have knocked me out, because I was donesky at like 9:15. I went into work around noon, and stayed 'till about 4:30 that day. It's funny how some days there is nothing to do, then others you're swamped. I was pretty busy for a couple of hours, so I'm glad I ended up going in.

Seth James was playing in Fredericksburg yesterday, and since I was feeling a little better I decided to go. I'm glad I did. We had a blast. I don't know if anyone who reads this has heard of Seth James, if not you should. He is a blues bad ass. I'm not as big into the guitar as a some of my other friends, but even I know when someone is good. This guy is amazing. He's got a unique sound to his voice too. We had dinner, and a few beverages, and listened to music, talked about college days. Just an enjoyable night all around.

Then today was actually a lot of fun. Some of us in the office and some other friends and past counselors got into this NCAA tournament pool. No big stakes, just the satisfaction of winning! That doesn't mean we're not high rollers though, cause we are. We spend major Hamiltons. We had things here and there to do, but we ended up playing on our computers and talking about basketball and music most of the afternoon. The obligatory Friday LaFour's lunch was also entertaining. I feel blessed to have such good friends.

Now here I am, Friday night, not much to do. I decided home was the place to be. It doesn't hurt that my Dad decided that a Ribeye would be good for dinner. I'm not one to turn down a steak. The dogs have been going at it hard since we got home, hopefully Gus will decide to crash out tonight and not wake up until like 10 in the morning. I haven't slept that late in ages! We'll see I guess. I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Wedding Bells

2006-03-10T18:20:00.000-08:00

No not me, not even close, are you crazy. The lucky lady hasn't been found yet. When I say lucky, I mean...Lucckkkkyyyyy.

It seems like the end of this week has had to do with weddings! It's kind of a joyous thing. It makes me happy to see my friends happy. Yesterday I went and got measured for a tuxedo that I'll be wearing in a wedding in May. Big guys like me who wear over a size 50 jacket get to pay a little extra for their coats. Not a problem, I can't help I've got broad shoulders (and an expanding waistline). The real kick in the sack was when I had to size up on my pants. I told the lady my waist size and she said that I might want to try on the next size of pants because these run a little weird. That does a lot for my sense of self-esteem. Plus the fact she wasn't all that nice. I mean sheesh lady if I'm going to let you run your little measuring tool all over me, the least you could do is partake in a little conversation. I might not be that friendly either if I was like 8 months pregnant and having to bend over and measure people's inseams. Oh well. Oh well, all was good!

So as we get further along in life, I guess its inevitable that my friends start going off and getting married. Not a big deal, I like it. Weddings are fun, usually some sort of booze fest, and you get to see a lot of people you haven't seen in ages. I've got two weddings to go to in May, and one in early June. Now today, I figure one of my best friends from High School was engaged yesterday. He's putting things on the fast track, and they'll be married in July! How crazy is that? I'm really looking forward to that one, because it'll be tons of fun, and he's marrying a keeper. I don't know her real well, but every time I've met her she seems wonderful! Super sweet!

Everything is fine and dandy with me right now. Things were a bit stressful this week at work. We had a conference the first part of the week. Actually, a CAMPference. Not much of a difference, but a fancy name! Then after that it was a bunch of catch up. Today was the first day I was actually able to check myspace all week. Crazy 'eh? I like being busy, but hate the fact that I'm starting to stress myself out about things. It seems like I've either got nothing at all going on, or about 10 at a time. I don't do well with the multi-tasking thing. I can't wait until the summer though. I know I say that on just about every blog, but I'm looking forward to it so much. I'm not counting down the days, but I might start sometime soon.

So back to the weddings. I was talking to someone..hmmm...can't really remember who yesterday, and we were talking about all the weddings coming up, and how crazy it is. I don't feel that even if I was in a serious relationship right now that I'd be ready to tie the knot. I guess I have the maturity to do so, but sometimes I wonder. Then I get to thinking if I'm gonna' be the opposite of an old maid. What would you call that? An old-butler? Surely not, hopefully not, I mean I've got a lot to teach. I've still have a lot to learn too though. I don't like the fact that people these days often rush in to things. Things like hey we met yesterday, let's get married today, and if that doesn't work out, we'll just get a divorce tomorrow.

I know people don't go into their nuptials thinking that, but a lot of people see that as the easy way out, other than working through things. In my mind, it's gonna' be a one and done thing. We both better be sure before taking the big leap.

I'm not saying that these upcoming weddings represent anything that I've said here. Not at all, actually they've all been dating for years, and by this time know what they're getting themselves into. It's those who meet one day, and are married like 3 months later. Some of those turn out great though. I don't know, maybe it's just me being too conservative.

Well I know this is a long one, but it's been a while, and these weddings make me want to put some things out there to see what everyone thinks.

Spike, I don't know if you still check in on my blog, but I wanted to tell you that I feel your pain. Your blog from I guess today, or late this week, don't know for sure what day it was. I think the same thing all the time, and have never been able to put it in words as well as you did! You're not alone, just know that!

Have a good one all...I'm out!

Tunnels

2006-02-28T18:49:00.000-08:00

I know it seems as though I've really been down on myself lately, and in some ways I guess I have been. I come on here and write as often as I can because it's a good place for me just to get stuff off of my chest and out of my head. I think everyone should be afforded some venue where they can do it, most just don't take the time to put stuff down and out of their minds. I've been thinking a lot about things, and why I've always got that down in the dumps feeling. The best answer that I can come up with, is that I'm bored. It's funny that I come out and say that because it's kind of a running joke between a lot of us, we're always bored.

Well I can truly, all joking aside, say that I am bored out of my mind. There aren't enough things going on in my life to keep me close to entertained. I'm not the type of person who has to be entertained 24/7 so don't think that. I'm happy sitting on the couch and watching television, or just doing a lot of nothing. It's relaxing and good for the soul. It's not the small things that are boring me, it's the big picture. I can't wait for the summer to roll around so I've got 300 kids running around and getting in to things. That's really the highlight of my year, and I get it for 2 straight months, so who am I to complain now?

I was the first one awake on my trip to Houston on Sunday morning, so I fired up the ole' laptap and checked all the obligatory websites. Sports, news, facebook, myspace, etc. Then I started checking all the blogs I like to read pretty regularly. The ones that are to the right. After I had checked all of those, I started to read my own. That was really what made me realize just how bored I am. Reading what I've put on there the last few months has just been blah, boring. Has my life at this point really burned out this much? I meaFridayly, it's only friday nights and that's it! I'll go out that night, and I don't even always have a good time then.

I enjoy my job, actually I love it. If I win this big lottery tonight I'll do it the rest of my life (wishful thinking). I've always been the optimist. The one who finds the good in every situation, but I've found myself being very negative lately, and questioning a lot of things that I've never questioned before.

I'm not asking for help, or I'm not on here complaining. It's just such a realization that I had to write it down to believe it. I had such a blast this weekend, and it's really turned my head in another direction. I'm seeing the upside to a lot of things, and I actually had the chance to just hang out, have a good time, and not give a dang about anything else going on around me. Everything was taken care of, and everything ran according to plan. What more can you ask for? Since then I've actually gotten in touch with several people who I have been planning to get in touch with. Those who I haven't talked to in ages. It's been great, and it's gotten my head back up in the clouds where it used to reside.

The fact still remains that I am bored though. I'll figure this stuff out, and I can't wait until I do. I'm loosing all my hair (haha) because I'm stressing over stuff I shouldn't. It'll come sooner than later though...

on a different note, I'm glad to see that Tony is back up and blogging, check his link out over there. He's got a lot of interesting things on his blog...

H-Town

2006-02-25T13:26:00.000-08:00

I'm sitting in a hotel in Houston, watching the rain come down. This is the third year that we've come to the Go Texas bar b q. It's kind of the kick off to the stock show and rodeo, and can be better described as a drunk fest. The first cookoffs I ever went to had around 20 to 30 teams, everyone had a good time, but it wasn't all that exciting. This place though, is amazing. There are probably around 300 teams, and they do it right. Most of the teams have tents, and elaborate set ups with bands or other forms of entertainment. It's three nights of beer, bar b q, live music, and head on a swivel action.

The hotel that we are staying in has a shuttle that runs to and from the bar b q, so that makes it easy for us to get back and forth and cuts down on the drinking and driving. Last night was an interesting ride. There were about 10 of us that know each other pretty well on the bus, plus about maybe 15 others all staying in the same place. Well we decided it was going to be karaoke time, and proceeded to sing the wheels on the bus go round and round. Only some people were making up their own verses, and using their own hand gestures. It's probably not as funny to read, but being there was hilarious. I think I turned a few shades of red with some of the things that were said. The icing on the cake though, was the gaseous explosion that happened right when we were getting off the bus. Not me of course, I've got manners, but lets just say that the bus cleared out in record time. Potty humor, it's such a gross thing, but it's so funny to so many people!

Well, like I said, just sitting here, waiting for a break in the storm, and then we're gonna go out and do it again. The world's population will hit 6.5 Billion tonight, it seems as though about half of them are in Houston this weekend. I don't like big crowds, but when everyone is having a good time, that makes it worth it. Well I'm out, have a good one.

24

2006-02-20T17:36:00.000-08:00

There are times in my life when I've asked if I'm here to accomplish a certain goal, and if I am, when am I going to find out what my role is. One can say that the topic delves a bit too far into philosophy or maybe even religion. I however, feel that everyone has something in their life that they eventually become known for. Some big feat, or maybe something that is so notorious that recognition is gained. Others are known for their association with a certain idea or person.

This one isn't so much about me, it's more of a broad question that can certainly pertain to anyone who reads the words I spew out weekly. Like I said earlier, I do feel that everyone is here to set a benchmark, or some kind of precedent. My question is, what happens to those who go too early? By too early, I mean before they reach the golden age, their late 60's, 70's, or even more. What about those in their 30's and 40's who are out on their own, struggling to make ends meet, and not yet gaining the success that is expected at that age. Those who live day to day, without really sticking out, or being identified with something unique. Are they just here today, gone tomorrow, without their purpose ever being exposed?

I've heard it said that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and in some cases this works with my thoughts. Every person has an admirer. I don't mean admirer like love interest, but in the way that they really appreciate what that person does. Is that enough for every person to have their life role filled? Is it that simple? Who knows?

Back to me, I don't think I've found what I'm to become known for. I hope it comes up pretty soon though.

Well 24 is coming on, not too much more for me to say, just a thought I was having today...

If I had a dime...

2006-02-15T09:00:00.000-08:00

If I had a dime for every time I've been peppered by a shotgun, I wouldn't be rich, but I could more than likely buy a burger or something entertaining like that. I feel that the media is totally blowing this whole Cheney hunting incident out of proportion. I guess its not a new thing for them though, everything is made out to be a bigger problem than it actually is.

I remember in High School, we used to run out to my ranch after school and go dove hunting. Fun times! We used to have this field that was full of dove weed, and a few of us would stand on one side, and the rest on the other. Some days, the birds weren't flying, so one side or the other would squeeze off a shot from our 12 gauge shotgun in the air and pepper the group on the other side. A war would commence. While I realize that perhaps it wasn't the safest thing to do, at that distance there was only a slight sting from a bb hitting your arm. We don't do that anymore, but its a good thing that the media wasn't around or we would have been lambasted by everyone watching!

Now I don't want to say that I don't feel bad for the guy that Cheney shot, because I do. It sounds like he was pretty close. However, he didn't make his presence known. The few times that I've been quail hunting, we were told that we should always make sure that we are in a safe area behind the other shooter. He didn't do that, and Cheney should have perhaps been a little bit easier on the trigger. Accidents happen though, every day. The guy we hunted with last year had seen people peppered thousands of times, even a guy killed one time when not hunting safe. Why isn't that reported in the media. I guess the higher the pedestal, the higher the more eyes on you.

On a completely unrelated note, I locked my keys in my truck the other day. Yeah me. I got into the habit of locking my doors when I was in Lubbock, and usually catch myself when I try to lock them here. The other day I got out pushed the lock down with my elbow shut the door and walked around the truck. By the time I hit the nose of my truck, I turned around, and looked at the door, sure enough, keys in the ignition, door locked. Luckily we have a super mechanic that made his way over here and unlocked the door for me. It's a bit embarrassing. One time in Corpus with everyone visiting for Spring Break, I locked the keys in the truck while it was running outside of a restaurant. So yesterday I had a spare made, and it now resides in my wallet! No problem anymore!

Valentines day came and went. I got a call from Ana, that was nice. It was a pretty full day, full of Valentines love. I played with Gus, watched some Olympics, ate some pollo asada, which was fantastic, and spent about the last hour finishing up a book. It was a good book, but I was a little let down with the ending. I could tell it was going to be that way though, because it was about 500 pages, and when I was on 420 something, there was no start of a resolution in site. Oh well, it was still entertaining!

Have a great day...

Waitin' for 24

2006-02-06T17:42:00.000-08:00

Another boring night in Ingram. It's 7:45 and I don't really have anything interesting to say today. It seems lately I haven't had much interesting to say at all. Maybe my brain isn't in deep thinking mode, or maybe I haven't had much worth thinking about lately. It seems that I'm in that day to day grind. That's where the days run together, and unless it's a weekend, I've got to do some serious thinking if you ask me what the day is. The fog will eventually lift when things start getting a little more busy at camp.

On the plus side today, I did an interview with a girl who seemed to be dynamite. She was quick on all of her responses, and gave great answers. Hopefully she'll perform as good at camp as she did on the interview. We got tons of reference letters in today, so we're well on the way to hiring our full staff. We need a few more boys though, so if anyone who reads this knows of any guys who might be a good fit for the counselor thing, send them my way. Seriously, I'll give you 5 bucks, or at least a hug and a sloppy kiss. Sounds appealing, just imagine, the more you send, the more affection you might get! Luckkkyyy...

I don't know how many folks will notice, but there's now a counter on the site! Over to the right. That's how bored I am tonight. I've always wanted to put one on here, but just figured it out tonight after noticing one on a friend of mines blog. Frickin' amazing 'eh? I hope it doesn't cause anyone to shy away from checking this thing out. I can't tell who looks at it, just how many are return visitors. So boost my ego and refresh your page a few times! Excellent...

So I'm waiting for 24 to come on. I don't know if anyone else watches this show, but it's super entertaining. I mean, if you like guns and killing terrorists, you can't go wrong spending an hour a week in front of the tube. Last season it was Arabic terrorists, this season it's the Rooskies (Russians). For those of you who don't know, the entire season takes place over a 24 hour time period. I think tonight is like from noon to 1 pm. I can't imagine my life ever being exciting enough to film an entire seasons worth of material over. Who knows though, I can be entertaining if needs be. Wouldn't I be a great reality tv star? Gus and Me, cruisin' for the chickys...Naaaaa, didn't think so...

The super bowl was a bit of a let down. I don't profess to love professional football, too many egos. I don't like it when a player can make more than his coach. I like that the college guys are playing for more than just the greenbacks. However, I always look forward to anytime the Vikings play, gotta cheer on my boy, and the playoffs. I was hoping that it would be a better game. It was a defensive struggle most of the time. That doesn't necessarily mean it wasn't a good game, just boring to watch. The get together we had was fun though.

Well that's all for now. Like I said earlier, nothing exciting to write about. Just thoughts here and there. Have a wonderful day, and hopefully I'll catch all of y'all soon!

Old Friends

2006-01-31T19:55:00.000-08:00

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

2006-01-29T14:36:00.000-08:00

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

2006-01-22T20:25:00.000-08:00

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

2006-01-20T16:56:00.000-08:00

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

2006-01-17T08:54:00.000-08:00

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

2006-01-11T15:44:00.000-08:00

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

2006-01-09T13:43:00.000-08:00

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

2006-01-03T13:10:00.000-08:00

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!

Admiration

2005-12-29T12:30:00.000-08:00

What a beautiful day, a December day. It's 75 degrees, and I'm sitting here in short sleeves. Kind of crazy to think about. I know at this time last year, it was pretty chilly. Two years ago at this time, I was freezing my buns off in Rome! I've always preferred the warm weather, and I certainly can't much complain about what we've had here this past week. The only time it really gets cold is during the night, which most people don't have to go out in. Me on the other hand, I have to go and walk my pup whenever he starts to make noises in his kennel. I don't want any little poopies in there, or on my floor, or wherever the heck he is. Still though, it's above freezing, and usually hovering around 40 degrees at 3 in the morn.

I just wanted to come on here and say that I know I've been complaining a lot about having to be back in the Ingram/K-town area, but I really love it. The beauty of this place is unmatched by anything I've ever seen. There may be some places in the world that compare, but these two eyes haven't seen them. I was thinking about that earlier as I crossed the low water crossing that runs to and from camp for the 4th time today. So many people that live in the city, or elsewhere, don't get to experience the hill country living. Rivers running lazily through miles and miles of hills. Towns that are laid out in the valleys that the hills create. People jockeying for the best real-estate so that they have "the view" from their porches. Things that we all take for granted are viewed by others as some of the most awesome things in the world. The low water crossing for example, I know numerous campers/parents who look forward to their trip to camp, partly because of the fact they get to drive across water to get into camp. I would imagine that a large portion of people from outside of the hill country would pull up and perhaps freak out at the sight of water running across the road!

I've heard it said that God Blessed Texas, but I think he doted on this area of the Hill Country.

Back to the Grind

2005-12-27T09:22:00.000-08:00

Well it's Tuesday, 2 days after Christmas and I'm back at work. I don't like how Christmas and New Years both fall on weekends this year. Where's the vacation time that we've all come accustomed to in the past? Well I say all of us, but this is really the first time I've had to work, or do much of anything over the break between what is usually a fall semester and a spring semester. Regardless though, it's much more fun when holidays fall in the middle of the week.

To tell the truth though, (<---when someone says that, they're usually lying, not this time though) I'm happy to be back at work. I had a good time, and was glad to have both Friday and Monday off, but things can get awfuly boring at times around Kerrpatch. I know I've done the whole Kerrville is boring spiel, but I'm just being a bit truthful. This break was fun though, most of that is probably due to the new addition to our family (see below). I haven't been able to get much sleep, and my fingers have just about been chewed all the way through. Gus is still a cute pup, and he hasn't pooped in the house yet! Which is quite an accomplishment (I guess I should knock on some wood...done).

Without wanting to brag, or sound like a spoiled brat, (which most of you know I am), I got a lot of cool things for Christmas. I only asked for one thing seriously, and one thing joking around. I seriously asked for this little alarm clock thingy that my ipod will sit on top of, and I can wake up to the sound of music instead of the annoying beep of the old dream machine alarm clock I've had since I graduated. I jokingly asked for a puppy. I say jokingly, but there was some seriousness there. I definitely wanted one, but for me not knowing what exactly I'll be doing the next year or so of my life, it probably isn't the best time for one. I'm not complaining though. Well anyway, I got the puppy from my Dad. Then one of his friends, and the guy who is my Godfather got me the Ipod radio. Which is a funny story because he lives in San Antonio, and my Dad called and asked him to pick one up because he couldn't make it down there. Well the guy ends up saying that the radio will be from him, and that leaves my Dad presentless. In comes the Dog, and a happy Sancho.

There you have it, or I have them, the two presents that I wanted the most! Well later in the day, the guy who has lived out at our ranch forever comes to our house. He loves the little cokes from Mexico that they use real cane sugar in, so my Dad and I got him a case for Christmas. He says thanks, and drives back out to the ranch. About 30 minutes later, he pulls back up, and comes in with a cigar box. He comes up to me and says, well for graduating and Christmas, I brought you a few cigars. So I get the box, and he steps back a few steps, so I cautiously start to open the box, scared there's a snake or something inside, and it turns out to be a pistol. Now this was a totally unexpected surprise because, well, I wasn't expecting it (duh). Also though, because it's such an extravagant gift that I always figured that I'd be the one buying my own one of these days. Excellent Surprise!

Then Christmas day, we were over at the people's house that we always go to for holidays, and we got to talking about Guy Harvey. If you don't know who that is, you should. Well if you like the sort of things he draws, you should. He does all kinds of fishing and nautical drawings. He has t-shirts that I'm sure everyone has seen. Well anyway, we got to talking about Guy Harvey because the guy who owns the house has met him, and we all admire his drawings and things. He walks into the house, and comes out with this poster and gives it to me. I open it up, and it' s a Guy Harvey poster of peacock bass. Pretty sweet, well I look closer, and it's autographed! Another Excellent gift!

Like I said earlier, I don't want to seem like a spoiled brat, but I was/am. For someone who has his own questions on the whole religion thing, I feel unsure about partaking in a holiday that is based completely around the birth of the foundation of so many religions, but I guess I just do what I've become acustomed to in the past. I wont' get too much into the religion thing. Let me just say that I most definitely have my beliefs, and believe in some sort of higher all knowing power. I've heard it said before that you can be spiritual, but not religious. If I had to describe myself, I'd say that.

Anyway, that's it for now.

I'm out!

mi hijo

2005-12-26T10:24:00.000-08:00

I got quite a surprise on Christmas Eve. My Dad swore to me that there was no way that I would be getting a dog. Well, guess what I got...

a puppy! This is Gus, short for Augustus. He sleeps a lot, pees a lot, and poops a lot. The other dog is Nina, the aforementioned Jack Russel Terrior...

life

2005-12-22T12:51:00.000-08:00

Just got the news that the office will be closed Friday and Monday. Exciting stuff, not that I really have anything to do though. I'm really enjoying myself up to this point so far. Nothing has really gone on, but it's nice to not have that transition period to where you have to learn everything new. If you look at the bigger picture though, I guess there is somewhat of a transition period. This month, or few months will be the transition into what is hopefully the rest of my life.

My Dad and I had a big talk last night about life, and what I should do, or what he thinks I should do. He usually starts every statement with, "I'm not telling you what to do...but". I know he isn't telling me what to do, and I appreciate that, but I also enjoy any input he has on anything. So he told me that I should hang around here as long as I want. Long enough to get my feet on the ground and figure out what exactly it is that I want to do with my life. I agree. I have my dream job right now, it's just all the intangibles that suck. I like to think that if this job was any where else, other than the Ingram/Kerrville area, that I'd be happy as a fat baby. I know I've said it before, I love this area, but I need to let myself go, get out of here, live on my own, be my own person, have everything depend solely on me. I think in the last year or so, I've become much more independent, but there's so much more growing space for me. Another of the intangibles is that I have this lust for the greenbacks, and want to, at some point, sooner than later, make enough money to where I don't have to worry about making my monthly payments, or stretching money out to last the entire month. With moving away comes a lot more costs, I realize that, but moving away also brings in a lot more money. I'm not complaining about the money I get from camp though, because I'd do this job for free if I could.

Anyway, back to the talk with mi padre. He said that if I wanted to hang around for a month, three months, or a year or two that I should do that. It should be my decision, and I should go where my heart takes me. Well not exactly those words, but kind of, I just like to church things up a bit.

My biggest quandary though is not wanting to be too far away from him. I'm pretty much all he's got, and the same for him to me. I've always been so careful with what I say, and what I do in front of him because I don't want to throw the image of the good son out, or take any chances on disappointing him. After the talk last night though, it kind of made me feel like it might be okay to go somewhere far away, just not too far. So with that, I'm still somewhat perplexed with what my next choice should be.

I know that all my recent posts have been over stuff like this, but it's a substantial decision that'll be eventually facing me, and it's on my mind day and night. I'm a friggin' genius though, so I'll figure it out....let's hope!

On a lighter note, I asked for a puppy for Christmas. I was only half serious, but the more I thought about it, the more I wanted one. I'm not going to get one for Christmas, but I might in the next few months, so that's exciting for me. I need that constant companion and best friend with me all the time.

Feeling My Age

2005-12-20T08:51:00.000-08:00

The wheezing, hacking, and groans of discomfort everyone heard this morning were more than likely coming from my direction. Yesterday, we got a big basketball game going here at camp. I love basketball, probably my all time favorite sport to play. Well, we played for a little more than two hours. Great exercise and a great time had by all.

I like to joke a lot about being old. I'm only 25 though, and realize that I'm still a young buck. The green pastures of older life are far far away from me at this point. This morning though, is one of the first times I've felt old though. When I was a junior in High School, I twisted my ankle somewhat bad, but never went to the doctor. I just had a few visits with the trainer at the High School and declared myself ready to go about a week later.

After that, I stayed pretty active for the next few years, and it never bothered me again. Now though, that I'm a little older, a little fatter, and there's so much time between physical activities. I can hardly walk the morning after. So there I was this morning, waking up to take a shower and come to work. One foot on the ground, two feet on the ground, stand up....sit down....

It took about 10 minutes to stretch it out and apply weight to it. Eventually I got up, and on with my day. I can call it a reminder of my young days I guess. I know a lot of people who've had surgeries and can now predict the weather a few days in advance. My Grandmother was one that could do that. I always thought she was a little crazy for saying that since her hip hurt, that meant a change was coming, but 9 times out of 10 she was right.

The cold weather also zapped me last night. When I walked outside, I was wheezing like I'd just smoked a pack of reds. I don't believe I've ever even smoked a whole cigarette in my life. Would have thought so last night.

So complain complain complain, I'm getting older..blah blah blah. I did play pretty well yesterday though. So it was fun. I was never a stud in basketball, and still don't claim to be. I'd like to continue a weekly, or bi-weekly game. Not only would it keep me busy, but it'd also be a form of exercise. The good kind, where you don't really think of it as being healthy....

More Ramblings

2005-12-17T16:19:00.000-08:00

Well it's a Saturday night here in Ingram and I'm trying to decide what I'm going to do tonight. It seems like this is the theme of most of my free nights, but the search is so much more limited here than it was in the LBK. I actually miss it up there! Maybe I should go back and get another degree, general uh...something.

I've been digging through stuff a bit here at the house. I've got so many clothes that have been in my closet for years and years. I probably wear about a quarter of the stuff that is here. So my Dad got the idea that we throw everything we don't wear in a bag, and wash it, then take it to the Salvation Army. While I was going through some of it, I came across some stuff that I've never even worn. I do that sometimes, buy something thinking how great it is, then never put it on. I'm a pullover two button shirt kind of guy. Nothing is really more comfortable. This makes me wonder though, how much random crap can I pull out of my room? Is anyone going to want it at the S.A.?

A few of us went to a big Christmas party last night at the YO Ranch. It was a blast. I don't know if anyone has ever heard the term "snacker's paradise". That totally explains last night though. They had a little bit of everything, and wow, I probably ate about 10 plates worth of food. Well not that much, I wasn't miserable, just about perfect. Another perk was the open bar. Last year at this party, Justin and I were the bartenders. I don't know exactly how it happened, but we ended up behind the bar, and the party kind of picked up after that. Not saying we're the life of the party, but we definitely kicked it up a notch. They never shut the bar down last year either, so we all stayed up until the wee hours of the morning. I had to leave at like 4:30 to drive home, shower and then be on a bus to Mexico at 9 in the morning. It was miserable. Last night, they closed the bar at 2, but we still ended up staying awake until around 5. Then we dropped people off at their respective places, and J and I cruised home. I didn't take full advantage of the open bar, so I was more than drivable. The YO is a fun place, I enjoy being out there. We're going to their New Year's Party in a couple of weeks. Charlie Robison is playing. I can't remember the last time I've seen him. The theme is party like it's prohibition. Should be tons of fun. Lucky for a few of us, we have access to either an RV or another trailer that's there on site, so we get to walk down the hill after the festivities. Last year was a decadent time. I'm sure this year won't disappoint.

In other good news, no sarcasm whatsoever here. I read that Dog the Bounty Hunter is going to be back for another season. I don't know if anyone else watches it or not, but it's a very entertaining show. It comes on the A&E channel, and this guy who is an ex-con, is a bounty hunter and goes out and catches guys in Hawaii. It's reality television at its best. The 3rd season will pay him 2.6 million or some huge figure like that. Shoot, I'm bigger than this guy, maybe I could do it too. Well I don't have that switch to automatic badass mode like some of my friends, so maybe I couldn't. That show is usually followed by another show called Inked. It's another reality show that comes from the palms casino's own tattoo shop. I've never been a big tattoo guy, but it's also pretty entertaining. Some of these tattoos people are getting are amazing. It also goes into why a lot of people get a certain tattoo. It's nice to the explanation, don't think I'd do it though.

Anyway, no deep thoughts on this one, just kind of a blah. Talk to everyone soon!

Official

2005-12-13T21:57:00.000-08:00

It's now official, I finally graduated from college. The last grade posted some time tonight, and it was even better than expected, a big fat A! I won't comment on the GPA from all my years in college, but I will say that minus some Accounting and other business classes, I'd have well over a 3.5.

Baby got Back just came on my ipod, it's somewhat fitting. Seeing as how it was a new song when I first got into college! Naa, joking, I must have been in like 5th grade when it came out...

Now I can't wait 'till I get that diploma that says General Studies. How exciting. What's a fool supposed to do with that? I'll update y'all as it happens.

Suspenseful 'eh?

Neat link

2005-12-11T22:57:00.000-08:00

I ran across this today. I thought it was a neat link.

http://babynamewizard.com/namevoyager/lnv0105.html

NO I WASN'T LOOKING UP BABY NAMES! I was looking at other people's blogs and this was on one of them. I like to read people that I don't know blogs. I like the fact that other people sit around and write down there thoughts on here. It's fun to read. If you don't think so, then why do you read mine ;)

Gordon was popular years ago. Sproul isn't anywhere on there, neither is Sancho. Imagine that!!

Country Roads, Take Me Home

2005-12-11T21:52:00.000-08:00

Well, it's finally happened, I'm back in Ingram. Bummer. It seems a month ago I couldn't wait to get out of Lubbock, but right now I'm missing my friends and the LBK life. I guess some sort of let-down was inevitable. Going from a place where there's usually always something going on, back to a place where the only thing going on is what you create takes a little getting used to.

A few months ago I guess I was missing the life that I had here. The friends that were my age, the ones I grew up with. Those are the folks that I've spent my life and most of my time with. Then this past month the world has kind of flipped around for me. I always enjoyed my LBK friends, but this past month was absolutely unbelievable.

I don't know exactly what made it that way, it may have been the lack of classes, or it may have been the fact that I came to the realization that I wasn't going to be there for much longer. Regardless of what exactly it was, this past month was the best time I had in all of my college. As much as I joke about being too old, I kind of am, I didn't feel it at all. I felt like part of the crew, equal in all aspects, always ready for something to happen. I finally dropped my guard and the fun just piled up. The house life was great too. It's the first semester that I remember never even once getting a little upset with a roommate. That's not a knock on my previous semesters, friends, or roommates at all either. My two previous college roommates are the best friends I've got in the world. I just went with the flow of things, and a great experience materialized.

I had planned on heading back this direction either Friday after my final, or early Saturday morning. When all that got pushed back to Sunday morning, that turned into afternoon, and I didn't end up leaving the LBK 'till around four. Part of that has to do with lack of sleep, and the other part has to do with just wanting to wait around until the next event popped up. I eventually pushed myself out the door though. I got to see a lot of friends this past weekend, and it'll leave me with a vivid, and great memory of Lubbock and my times at Tech.

When I walked into the house tonight, I was greeted by a flying little white dog. Jack Russell terriers, you have to love them. She met me as I climbed the two stairs into the kitchen. Another half a foot lower, and it might have been a disaster. She ended up bouncing off of my stomach, and then one more jump before I could catch her. She hasn't left my side since I got here, but I'm about to boot her out of my bedroom because she's a pain to sleep with.

When I made the turn around the refrigerator, my Dad was there, and that was the first post-graduation glance he had of me. My Dad and I don't really do the whole emotional, huggy, kissy thing, so there was none of that. Instead, it was more of a high five. That followed by the obligatory "how was the drive", and "you made it here too fast" questions. Then he asked if all of my grades had been posted yet, and I said no.

See there's some history there. Fall of '04, I came home thinking that I was finished. As it turns out, a D in an economics class doesn't spell diploma. So after the 8 month sabbatical from school, I had to go back to the LBK to get that piece of paper.

My answer was that, no, not all of my grades are posted, but there isn't a snowball's chance in hell that I didn't pass my other class. Then there was another a little happy sigh from him, I guess part relief and completeness, and some feeling of accomplishment on my part. After that the talk turned to different things, but nothing too serious. We talk a lot, never really serious stuff though. Every now and then, we have a serious talk. It usually has to do with something going on with a friend, or something about my Mom. I don't always say a lot. The one thing that I do need to say to my Dad though, is thanks. Thanks for everything. Thanks for paying for most of my schooling. Thanks for taking it easy on me when I had a sub-par performance. Thanks for so many things. Like I said though, my Dad and I don't really do the emotional thing, so I didn't. It's one of those unspoken things. He knows how much I appreciate him, and someday, when the timing is right, I'll tell him.

You know, as I sit here thinking about it, I guess the thing I should thank him for the most is patience. I don't know many other people who would have continued being the same way with me as he was. I have never really jumped off the deep end and done crazy things, but I have not lived up to my capabilities in many aspects of life. I know at times he's felt some disappointment that I was at this age, and not where I should be. By this time in his life, he already had is Juris Doctorate, and was practicing law. I guess I fell a little far from the tree than a lot do, but I like to think that I have other great qualities. (yeah, so maybe I am a little cocky).

So it's now back to Ingram/Kerrville. No I'm not going to disappear into Mexico, as tempting as it seems. I'm not going to go to Atlanta, although my Sister did call today and tell me that I should move out there and find a job. I would like to go for a while though. I'm not going to stick around here either though.

I'm sitting here, looking at my Lubbock life, packed up in trunks, and bags. It's a sad scene to think about. I'm somewhat hesitant to start unpacking it, because that makes it feel permanent. I don't want that.

I've gotten a little carried away tonight with this one, so I'll cut it off until another day. I hope everyone has a great Christmas, Holiday, whatever you want to call it, and I hope to see y'all soon.

Quarters pt 2

2005-12-10T11:54:00.000-08:00

Well chalk one up for the whole accomplishment thing. Even though it's a tad (by that I mean years) behind schedule, I've finally finished this horrible thing called college. Finished as in, done, graduwamated, going home, for good, adios to the LBK, hello K-town.

Let's hope the hello K-town thing doesn't last too long. I haven't even been home yet, but I'm ready to get the heck out. I don't know how intense the job search will be, but I'm gonna' have to start looking soon. Anyone know of a job that pays 7 figures, and requires the minimal amount of work? I guess it's called the lottery.

I definitely still have the year long Mexico trip on my mind. I think it gets longer every time I bring it up, but wouldn't it be amazing. I mean think about this, me, Mexico, and Corona, XX, or Sol. Well there's more to it than that. Let's see, me, fishing, Latin women, and uhhhh Latin women. Wow, match made in heaven.

I'm putting of packing my room because:
1) I'm dead tired, limited sleep sucks.
B) Thinking about staying for another day.
III) don't know where to start.

I guess the next post will be from the slow internet of Ingram. Can't friggin' wait!

Coffee Shop

2005-12-08T20:17:00.000-08:00

I'm sitting in a coffee shop (something I never thought I'd do), trying to study (something I rarely do), and stressing out about passing this stupid economics class that I'm taking for the second time (something I didn't think I'd have to stress about). The last couple of days have seen me make two visits to this place of java, still haven't had any coffee, and still don't feel in the least bit confident about my test at 7:30 in the morning.

I've told my roommates that if I don't pass this class, that I'm going to disappear into Mexico for about a year. While I was mostly joking, there is some seriousness in my statement. Mainly, I don't know what the hell I'm going to do if this class doesn't work out for me. I'm more than likely stressing over nothing, but you know me, worst-case scenario, all the time.

To make matters a little worse, yesterday was the coldest day of the year, and possibly the entire time I've been in Lubbock, and guess whose heater decides to hit the skids. That's right, the heater at our house. So we had to find some temporary shelter, thank goodness for the wonderful girls on 28th street. I spent almost a month in Europe a couple of Decembers ago, and it never got this cold there. Or maybe I was a little better prepared for it. All I have now, is my Walls brush jacket (yes a Carhartt knock off), and a fleece. Neither by themselves do the job, so imagine me, looking like a fat imp wearing both my fleece and my brush jacket. Ladies beware.

While I'm stressed about things, I'm also cautiously optimistic. Finishing up is something that I should have done years ago, and the thought that I'm less than 12 hours from actually doing it makes me all warm inside (still not warm enough to go back outside). I'm semi considering, having my first cup of coffee in years, and making this an all nighter. Probably not the best idea though, since I feel that my brain is already pretty much satiated. (I think I've used that word twice in the last few blogs, I like it).

The weird feeling that I have here is that nothing is really sticking in my head right now. I read, and do problems, but all I have is ink on the paper, and nothing in my head. We'll see in the mornings I guess.

I'm not much on praying, so I'm not going to ask for that, but just think of me. If you do that, and it works, then think of me again, and maybe I'll get the rest of my life figured out!

Adios, if anyone else is still working on finals, good luck. If you aren't good friggin' luck with things anyway.

Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, whichever you prefer....

What I Meant to Say

2005-12-06T18:11:00.000-08:00

I've decided that if I ever end up being a total recluse, and the only communication I ever have with the outside world is by computer and internet, that's fine with me.

Not really, that's sarcasm, but the last few days I've had several cases of the "blah". I don't really know how else to explain it. Its when you open your mouth and the words don't come out too easily, or as you expected. I'm the kind of person who likes to think about what I say, and not do too much of the instantaneous stuff. Even lately though, when I've thought about things, they haven't necessarily come out as planned.

Last Saturday we were having a barbecue at our house, that ended up being a get together that lasted 'till early in the morning. Needing to get up early Sunday morning, I didn't drink anything, I just kind of sit around and watched people imbibe themselves. At around 11, the drinks ran out, and the party wasn't over, so I volunteered to go out to the strip and get another 30. I wasn't really doing anything else, so why not? Well I get up to the drive through line (what convenience) and open my mouth to ask for a 30 of 'Stones. What came out was quite different though, I can't begin to explain it. Let's just say that the guy said 'huh' and I had to try again. I'm sure he thought I was hammered, when I hadn't had a drop. Oh well. I'm not really embarrassed by that, but sheesh, I've been talking since I was like 2 or something, I figured I'd have it down by now.

Then today, I went to talk to a teacher. The whole way there, I practiced what I was going to say, and how I would respond to anything he might ask. All truths, not even making anything up. So I don't know why I needed to plan it out so much. Well I get there and it's a total different case. Nothing I planned on saying came out, and it was more of a get in, get out thing. Quick and painless. I didn't talk about anything I needed to say, it was more like one question, okay see you later.

I guess I just get nervous. That's one of the reasons I always script things out in my head. Maybe I should start writing scripts for movies with the stuff that flows through my mind. Then again, how entertaining would my life be? Well, regardless, of all the great things I plan on saying, I would guess about 20% of it actually comes out.

I could come up with about 1000 more instances that involve the opposite sex, but I won't embarrass myself on here!

You could call it some type of social anxiety, which it well might be, but I prefer to refer to it as "blah". I don't know if anyone else has the problem, but it's an everyday thing for me. Luckily no one knows what's going on in my head (even sometimes myself), so they don't know the things that I meant to say.

If I could carry around the keyboard with me wherever I go, I think I could do much better. The backspace and delete buttons are special gifts. If I could just get one for my mouth.

Have a good one...

Oh Drama

2005-12-03T00:58:00.000-08:00

Drama, wow, don't you just love it? I'm not going to lie about it, I dabble in drama every now and then. I think a lot of times its interesting, and more often than not, flippin' hilarious! Now this past week has been unbelievably drama filled. A large part of it was being back in Ingram for as long as I was. When you have a big get together like we did the day after Thanksgiving, usually its all about the reunion, and "how have you beens". For the most part it was, but for about a 2 hour period, the drama was so thick, that you had to fight your way through it. I guess being up in Lubbock for as long as I have, my tolerance, if you will, has dropped severely. I forgot that Ingram and drama really go hand in hand. I told one of my friends up here the other day that if you look up drama in the dictionary, there's probably a map, with a star on it about where Ingram is.

I guess every small town has their own drama, and drama queens. I have to say we had one of the bigger queens in the contiguous 48 out at the ranch that day. It was so ridiculous, that J and I couldn't help but laugh...Laugh out loud...Laugh outloud pretty much in their faces. I think that just pisses people off worse.

It really bothers me that some people are so friggin' wrapped up in themselves that they take the most trivial things, and blow them way out of proportion. Like I said earlier, I'm not completely innocent here, but some of the drama I've been exposed to in the last week is nothing but absurd. I'm not going to get into it much deeper than I already have. By writing this, I'm doing my own little drama thing.

Just know, whoever reads this, that drama free is most definitely the way to go...

Yeah it's 3:15 in the morning, this post may have been a little influenced by some of the drama that went on tonight, or perhaps influenced by something else...

By the way, for those who know me well, I woke up this morning and my boots and pants were still attached on the floor. You know what that means, great night!!!

Random Note

2005-11-29T14:26:00.000-08:00

Tony G is doing this thing on his site that asked to " post titles of films they have seen that they think are wonderful, that they would watch over and over, but which are obscure enough that the average person probably would not know them by name." Well I thought a lot about it, and could seeing as how I rarely watch movies that are too far outside of the norm, I don't have a lot that I can mention. However, I was able to think of two. Both are foreign, but thanks to the wonders of subtitles, I understood them. They are...

City of God (Cidade de Dues) from Brazil

and

Nueve Reinas from Argentina

In that order, check 'em out if you get the chance..

FAT BOY

2005-11-24T20:00:00.000-08:00

The November and December holidays have always been my favorites for several reasons. The main reason though is the feasts that are devoured on Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's Day. I remember in years past eating plate after plate of all the things associated with these big meals. Things like turkey, ham, sweet potatoes, cornbread dressing, green bean casserole, pumpkin pie, and pecan pie. MMM, what a wonderful time of year.

I could type about food all day, and my propensity to gorge myself with all the tasty morsels of the seasons, but this post is about the change my body has gone through in the last couple of months. I can't pin point an exact date, but I can pin point the meal. It was about a month ago, at this all you can eat pizza buffet. One of my all time favorites, an eat 'till you can't breathe establishment. Well I was doing my usual, eating piece after piece of pizza, a little spaghetti here and there, and wash it all down with a big glass of tea. Well I did the eat 'till you can't breathe deal, and left happy and completely satiated. I went home and started doing something, more than likely watch television or read, or something fun like that. Well about 2 hours after I ate, I felt miserable. Just a total blah feeling. I didn't feel like moving, I didn't feel like doing anything. I was completely and utterly ill. I didn't link my feeling to the amount of food I ate, I was thinking that it was just my allergies (which had been bothering me for a while).

I eventually fell asleep and got my 8 hours or so. When I woke up in the morning, I felt about the same. Still blah. I got up and went to class. After walking to and from, I felt a little better. Not hungry at all though. That's when I started thinking maybe it was the gluttony that went on the night before that caused my pain.

Two or three days later, I did it again. Not all you can eat buffet, but some big meal I had. I believe it was a steak or something I cooked. Once again, miserable because I ate too much...

Before I talk too much here, let me describe myself a bit. I live to eat. I'm not saying I'm a complete slob and always have one hand in a bag of doritos and the other wrapped around a big mac. It's just something that I've always enjoyed doing. I like trying different restaurants, different types of foods. I think that a meal is a wonderful place to bond with friends, a great place for a date, and a wonderful occasion for a family to get together. Without wanting to sound too much like a chub, a lot of my days are based around meals. I don't really eat breakfast, but lunch is pretty much planned out around the same time everyday, as well as dinner. All the other stuff that happens in a day is a filler. Simply put, I truly enjoy eating.

In the last couple of weeks though, I've gone from always looking forward to eating, to being a little careful with how much I eat. It's probably something that I should have done years ago, but I've never been affected like this before. Today for example, Thanksgiving, my all time favorite holiday, I had one plate, that's it. It was a full plate, but nothing compared to my usual amounts of food. After I finished it, I quit, I wasn't miserable yet, but well on my way to it. In the past I would have continued eating, and never felt miserable.

So here's my question. Is this something that happens once you get to a certain age? It was like hitting a brick wall for me. I was going 100 miles per hour, eating all I could, then BAM, I have to stop (or be completely miserable).

I could be the optimist in this situation, me not stuffing myself, might mean a little weight loss. I'm not saying I'm huge fat, but it wouldn't hurt my to lose a pound or 50. I'm just wondering if this is a full time change, or something that's going to pass in another month or so.

Life presents so many challenges to us. It's funny that this is the one that is the most puzzling to me right now!

Happy Thanksgiving

Quarters

2005-11-20T22:00:00.000-08:00

In about 30 minutes, I'll be 25. Wow! What else can I say. There aren't really any other words to describe the big 25. From 22-24, birthdays came and went, no real wonderful feelings, but no bad feelings either. 25 though, it's kind of a flood of emotions. Not the "I wanna' cry emotion", but more like 25, I can't consider myself a kid anymore. Also at the same time, 25, what the heck have I accomplished at this point in my life.

I guess it's a bit of a give and take struggle there. Every kid always wants to grow older fast, be more respected, or plain enough, just grow up. Now that I'm at this spot though, I'm pretty sure I don't want to be old. I'm ready for it and all, but I'm to the point where my mistakes can't be pushed off as immaturity. That's a scary concept. The descriptions will no longer be, "crazy kid", they'll be what the "HELL are you thinking?". I guess I could cast all the societal expectations aside and remain the kid I am at heart, but then again, who really does that?

Then the other part, what have I accomplished at this point in my life? I can look back at the last 25 years, or the bits and pieces I remember, and come up with 3 or 4 things that I feel are great accomplishments. Does that mean that the next few years will be a plethora of amazing feats completed by me? No, probably not, but let's hope that I am able to get thing done.

The things I feel I have accomplished at this point are the same that most others have. I feel that most importantly, I've been a great son. Some may look at this as a "well duh" kind of statement, but look out there at all the people in the world who've messed their lives completely up by the time they are 25. Look at the ones who've been caught up in so many bad things that they've been completely disowned by their kin. I would have to say that to my Dad, the most disappointing thing I've ever done is getting caught up in a stupid prank war at an out of town basketball game. It's not like I've ever been convicted of a felony, or for that even a misdemeanors. I could go on for hours here, about how great I am, but I'm tired, so I'll leave this one here.

Another accomplishment that I have at this point in my life is that I'm a good friend. There are a lot of people that I've lost touch with over the years, but I think things work that way for everyone. There are a few friends that I have that I've been friends with forever, and there are those friends I haven't known as long. To this crew of friends that I consider my own, I think I've been a good friend to them, and they to me. It's inevitable that friends get on each other's nerves at times, so even though this can happen, we're still all good friends. To have the friends I do, I feel is a great accomplishment, and behind being a good son, it's the most important thing I've done at this point in my life.

I don't know if anyone noticed or not, but neither one of those accomplishments sounded anything like, well I made my first million, or I have this wonderful job, or this wonderful wife, or 2.5 kids and a white picket fence. I hope that those are things are around the corner and over the hill. I've got some friends that can say those things, I am behind the times I guess. It doesn't bother me all that much though. I can sit and dwell on those things, I can be sad, feel sorry for myself, but I won't. The reason I can't say those things can be attributed to one person, Me. Sure most of my friends graduated college and are on their way to great things, and I'm 20 minutes away from 25, and am finishing up my 15th year of college. Everyone is different though. I still don't know what I want to do with my life, and in 2 weeks I'll be to the point where it's put up or shut up.

Instead of living life in the planned out, this is what is expected of you, cookie cutter style, I'm going to have to actually put myself out there a bit away from the norm. If I want the next 25 (hopefully 2 or 3 though) years to be more productive than the last 25, I'll have to tear myself away from this comfort zone that's known as my life, and actually do something. Anyone ever heard the term "nut up or shut up"? It's like the other one I said earlier, but geared towards the XY population. Well that's what I see on the horizon. It scares the crap out of me, but it's part of the progression we know as life.

So while to this point maybe I'm not as far along as I should be, I can say that I'm happy with myself in these past 25 years. I've got unbelievable friends and family, and a passion to live life to the fullest, what can go wrong when those things are going my way. I'll have to prepare myself not to feel hurt if rejected, but that's part of life, you gotta' go with the flow. Let's hope the flow comes my way. (Cash flow my way would be great).

So now it's 12:00, I'm 25. Welcome to the rest of your life Sancho....

Little Test

2005-11-16T19:14:00.000-08:00

Two posts in one night, crazy 'eh? Well I found this while I was looking at other people's blogs. I thought it was interesting.

http://www.okcupid.com/politics

My Results:
You are a
Social Conservative (36% permissive)
and an...
Economic Conservative (65% permissive)
You are best described as a:
Republican You exhibit a very well-developed sense of Right and Wrong and believe in economic fairness.

After it give you your scores there is a tag with famous people on it...I'm right between George W, and Ronald Reagan.

Enjoy it...if anyone does read this thing, and does the test, let me know the results...if that's cool with you...Adios again

Hill Country Here I Come

2005-11-16T18:53:00.000-08:00

Wednesday night, another pretty unproductive day here in the LBK. I did laundry, I studied a bit, and got my stuff together for the trip back to the Hill Country for Thanksgiving. Compared to the usual Wednesday, I guess you can say I was super productive.

I'm so ready to get the hell out of here. Not just for the weekend, but for the long haul. I'm not necessarily having a bad time, I'm just getting to the point where I'm bored with myself. This is all territory that I've covered time and time again. I'm sure I'll miss a lot of things like the friends, the fun times, and so much more. Sheesh though I need to get out of my comfort zone.

That's one of my biggest problems, I'm so content with things that are normal to me that I rarely step outside of my comfort zone and try new things. I don't really have a good answer for why either. I wouldn't say I'm scared to try new things, it's more like I don't have any motivation to do so. I've tried to change that so many times, but I always resort back to the way I was before.

I'm not really putting myself down here, it's just the realization that I've had a million times, written down, right in front of me. I'm happy with myself, and have no doubt that when I do step out of the comfort level that is my life that I'll be successful.

Anyway, enough of that. Tomorrow is a big test for me. I'm doing okay in my eco class, but a good grade on this test would put a lot less stress on me for the last few weeks of school. Then it's back into the great wide open, for the second time, this time for real though. I'm ready for it, I need it. I can't wait for it....Adios

Another Sleepless Night

2005-11-13T23:15:00.000-08:00

It's really not that late, but with the bits and pieces of sleep I've been able to hold on to for the last week, I'd figure I'd be gone as soon as my head hit the pillow tonight. Guess not though. This weekend was a fun one. Nothing super exciting, but I can't exactly say it was boring either. Last night, everyone was bummed about the game, so we decided just to have some people over. Well that turned into a crazy game of beer pong, yeah, I'm good at it. We also threw washers for hours on end. I'm on a bit of a losing streak, I've lost like 3 games in a row. I'm not sure if that's happened since I started playing. We stayed up until about 2 in the morning, and then all crashed. I decided I'd be a nice guy and go with one of the roomies to drop a friend off at the airport this morning, at 6:15. I don't know what I was thinking, that's way too early. After that we came back home and I couldn't sleep. So I cleaned up from the night before.

I feel like I'm always cleaning, but I've got a good thing going, so I can't complain. In all my years of college, and paying rent and all that fun stuff, I don't have to pay any rent here, and it's the biggest bedroom I've had. After cleaning I crashed for a few hours, and then woke up to watch Cullen and the Vikings. Last year they had the Vikings on TV just about every week. I guess having a horrible season, like they are this year, will keep you off of national television. Anyway, they were playing the Giants, and everyone's fascination with Eli Manning gets the Vikings on my Texas TV.

Since the Oilers left Houston, I haven't been much of an NFL fan. I think college ball is much more interesting and exciting. The crap that T.O. is pulling right now only makes me feel stronger about that. I call myself a Vikings fan though, just through association with Cullen. He had a good game today. Good snaps, no, Great snaps. He got lit up on a punt return though. They showed it several times. He got blind sided and knocked on the ground. He bounced up quick though. I don't think it hurt him, because he was there to snap the winning field goal. Everyone talks about the nerves of a kicker before a long field goal, or a game winning field goal. The snappers are taken for granted. It's a no news is good news kind of deal. More often than not, it's no news with Cullen (which like I said is a great thing). He got a special teams tackle today too. Somehow the Vikings who started out horribly have won 3 of their last 4 games and are in second place in a horrible division. They're two games behind Chicago, and if they keep playing defense like the have been, they'll pass them up before the end of the season. Earlier in the season, it didn't even seem like there was an outside shot they'd be able to do that.

Wes Welker is playing well for the Dolphins. He and Zach Thomas are more than likely the 2 most popular players ever to be here at Tech, so I'm glad to see him doing so well. I had him in a class several years ago, he always seemed to be a modest guy. I remember the teacher calling him out in the huge lecture hall one week after he had a big game, and he just sat there. I guess he didn't really want to be recognized in front of everyone. Welker had 186 all purpose yards today, not too bad for a guy who was too small to play in the NFL.

The bombings in Jordan have really frustrated me. Actually everything going on in the Middle East has been frustrating me. I'll be the first one to tell you that I'm a Republican and a very strong Bush supporter. I wouldn't necessarily call myself a super conservative person, but when straddling the fence, I tend to fall in that direction. I feel that in the long run, some good will come out of this war. It just doesn't seem like that's going to be any time soon. It's actually almost to the point where I wonder if we should just get out now, and leave things how they are. If the people of Iraq want to keep moving in the direction that we've moved that country, then they will. If not, we shouldn't try to force something that won't stick. I won't get into too much politically here, it's like me going out in the middle of a blizzard with my bathing suit on. I'm not adequately equipped to survive. The last thing I'll say is that I don't know what to think about the main cause of the war, is it Good vs. Bad? America vs. Terrorism? Democracy vs. Dictatorship? The United States and it's allies vs. Saddam's old regime? Or is it Christianity vs. Islam? I hope it's not the last one because nothing good can come from that.

So like the title says, I can't sleep. I'm in an awkward state because it's cold outside, and semi-cold in the house. Yet from my neck to my ankles I'm burning up. My head and face (thanks to the awesome mountain man beard I'm growing) are perfect, but my feet are like two 10 pound blocks of ice. One thing I've noticed in the last couple of years, is that I can't stand being cold like I used to. I used to have to have a fan blowing on me when I sleep, but now if I did that, I'd wake up freezing. I rarely use the air conditioner in my truck because I get too cold. Am I getting old? More that likely. I'll be 25 in 7 days. Mother truckin' O-L-D man. My Dad pointed out that I'll be a quarter of a century. Thanks a lot. I think I'll start doing what he did when he was 19, don't celebrate any more birthdays and stay young the rest of my life. If you ask him, he's still 19.

Well I guess I'll give it another try. If I could move my TV out of my room, I'd probably get a lot more sleep, but I have to know what's going on in the world. Until later...