800 miles of Observations: A Tale of Travels.

The morning began at 345am, when I awoke from a dream only to look at my alarm clock with a sigh of laziness.  I had set the alarm for 400am but awoke minutes before by some sort of miracle, only to avoid the menacing sound that would have radiated had I slept past 400am.  Coffee on, dog fed, dog outside, shower on, shower in, water on, oatmeal made, coffee poured, breakfast....this was the rhetoric of my brain at such an early hour.

I remember hitting the road at 445am on the dot.  Tank full of gas and nothing but the day to waste it.  Heading towards the sunrise, it heading towards me as if we were having a game of chicken, little did it know, I was going to turn first, and long before it got to me.  Changing my trajectory from East to North, towards the great white plains of Western New York.  Lots of traffic for such an early hour...I remember running with the rats and mice near Charlotte, them, racing each other for the cheese, me observing their every move from inside their clan.  What a feeling to know I'm traveling to my leisure, and them to the wheel.  Wytheville, VA in 4hrs flat...great time being made.

Then came the old man, Mr. Winter I believe his name was...  Western Virginia would be the first battle ground of our old rivalry.  I had seen victims of my nemesis strewn along the shoulder and medians of the interstate.  A pair of tractor trailers twisted, one of the cabs ripped off and shredded, I knew the Old Man had been menacing about these hills, and I would be no welcome traveler.  I could tell he had missed our rivalry.  A swing here and a jab there, "Old moves for and Old Man!!!", I shouted, as I accelerated around a curve and up a hill, constantly adjusting my steering to pull out of slides.  Even on my golden pony from SC, the Old Man had  been beaten.  This did not settle well with him, and he departed to develop another strategic attack.

After some time away from my old foe, he came at me again with another one of his old tricks, lake effect snow.  It seemed as if most of my travel along interstate 79 into Erie PA was as if I was floating on a cloud, or constantly surrounded by pillows, even though I knew if I strayed from the pavement, it would be exactly the opposite (or maybe not as the pillows would keep me cozy in my final resting place).  I made my way forward, cautiously navigating between the punches of my enemy.  Others went at him with zeal instead of strategy and respect, these travelers days are numbered.

New York State, Interstate 90, roughly 12 hrs after my departure.  Good time, considering myself and my car were beaten and battered from the onslaught of ice and wind the Old Man had unleashed.  The trip was almost over, and after seeing a few more fallen allies, I knew I had to push forward and finish this trip to show the Old Man my hard Northern exterior had not melted soft in the South Carolina summer.  A few more lake effect bands running across the highway and I was on to the next challenge, the surface roads of Cambria, NY.  Unplowed and unlit, my pony was terrified.  After an hour of treacherous navigation, more treacherous than that of the Old Man's Interstate Battlefield, we had made it back to the farm.

Beer, wine, and feasts awaited us as we rode in like the conquerors we had redeemed ourselves as.  Cheers.

Drunken Ramblings: Part 2

I know you've been waiting for the next part of this....my seven followers.  Tonight was a fun night.  Got to hang out with a friend of mine who's company I really enjoy, however, this friend doesn't seem to feel the same about me, which is unfortunate.  I don't really blame her, people are different, and that is fine.  But she is not the subject of this ramble, this ramble is about young people.

Is it wrong for me to not enjoy loud music and a bunch of people around me screaming at the top of their lungs to hear a mumble of what the person next to them is saying? only to nod in agreement or shoot a smile in order to preserve their superficial short lived friendship...  Am I in the minority here?  I often wonder if there is something odd about myself that I don't enjoy this atmosphere....it's hard for me to put my finger on it because there is another variable in the equation, I was playing the DD tonight.  Had I consumed enough alcohol to be on par with the rest of the night people, would I be yelling in some girls ear trying to get her to smile?? or 'dancing' (if you can call it that) grinding and bouncing around like sex with my clothes on??  I personally don't think I would be on that boat, but who really knows...maybe I wouldn't be staring at the tv screen, pretending to watch hockey.

Perhaps this is me growing up, but the other thing is, maybe I'm just not into shallow people.  Maybe I don't want to meet some random girl at a bar and bring her back to my apartment, not maybe, but actually.  It's not that I'm intimidated by women, I love their company.  But not in the atmosphere of a smokey room where assholes are walking around with bottles of champagne trying to bring some class to the cesspool.  I'd much rather have an intelligent conversation with a girl where I don't have to compete with loud music or some dude with a hard on trying to bird dog every girl in sight.  A friend of mine has recently called me a creeper, and it really hurts when she says that....she just doesn't know me.

At any rate, I guess I don't fit the mold.  Maybe I'll just avoid these situations all together.  But back to the girl, I was doing a favor and I really hope she appreciates it ( I think she does).   I also wish she would give me a chance, but thats another blog post...maybe.  Good night interwebs, I got a hot and ready little caesars calling me from across the way.

Drunken Ramblings: Part 1

Bwahhhhhhhhhhh.  I really enjoy the company of great friends.  Christmas sweater parties are fun, even if you don't have a christmas sweater...You're a christmas sweater, and apparently it's a grammatical error to spell christmas without a capital 'C', I don't think so.  Oh hey, by the way, Van Morrison is great...Recently rediscovered how much I loved the music after it was voided from my hard drive by some pathetic computer crash ordeal...'Puters...they're gonna be the end of it, technology and all.

But enough about that.  Let's talk about how beautiful women are...The most beauty I fine is not in Nature,             but in the curves of the female figure.  Some girls think I'm a creeper because I say some things that could be taken as kind of creepy.  But really, they just don't get it. I'm just being sarcastic, trying to get a rise out of them, trying to see what's beneath the make-up and pretty clothes.  Get it together girls, I know it's hard to see a guy as a person in this town, because so often, guys who talk to you are frat boys who are trying to get in your pants, but I'm not that dude, I'm just trying to peel away the callous outer shell of your defense to find out what you're really all about.  And I know it's hard to break habits, but stereotyping an entire gender is kind of ridiculous.

Cabin Fever!!!! and solutions.

Greetings to my seven followers.  This week has been great so far, minus the shitty weather we've been having here in Clemson.  Today wasn't so bad, at least the sun was out, but the wind was whipping up something terrible and made it cold.  Had a nice walk out on the levee with Catherine and her roommates' dog Remy, of course Prevail was there also.  He was actually the reason I was there, had a bit of the cabin fever due to the nasty weather the past few days.  The guys had fun exploring around and taking a dip in the lake while me and Catherine got to chat about school and whatnot.

 A few nights I made some chicken curry which turned out great.  The leftovers were not as good as when it was fresh.  Aside from the curry sauce ingredients there was chicken, onions, garlic, broccoli  (def. not a conventional ingredient in Indian curry dishes), zucchini (not sure on this one), and some red pepper for spice.  Very delicious, and very spicy.  Oh and the best part was the jasmine rice, it smells really good all by itself.

Last night I made spaghetti and meatballs (from scratch, just the balls, not the spag.).  However, I did not feel this dish was worthy of my blog post, also I forgot to take a picture of it.  However, tonight I made pork chops, steamed broccoli and a baked potato.  The chops were awesome for two reasons, I seasoned them perfectly and got them wicked cheap cuz the sell by date was today.  The potato has smoked gouda, dill, and yogurt.  I just need someone to enjoy these fine dishes with me....

To change gears abruptly, I'm fairly certain I will be staying at Clemson for my PhD.  This means another 3-4 years, and a lot more work.  But you know what, I'm ready for it.  In my past I've always been nervous about work loads and figuring things out, but experience is something you get just after you need it.  Here's to Dr. Adam Mangel.

Strange dream

I wanted to get this down somewhere before I forgot it.

So I'm at some sort of conference thing and this guy is talking about religion, I'm not really sure if he mentioned Jesus, but I remember he said God because this is where things started to get weird.  First of all, I was wondering what I was doing there, I must have been tricked, because any of you that know me, know I would not be attending a seminar/sermon about God willingly.
     So he's going on and says, "I own God".  To which I gave him a puzzled look and said, "You own God".  And he shook his head and gave me some reason which I can't remember and continued talking.  After some time, his female assistant came over and started talking to me and she could tell I wasn't budging on my opinions.  The man came back over and whispered something along the lines of, "Hey, I'm trying to do a show here", or something like that and gave me an envelope of money....and then told me to leave him a copy of my key to my house...(I told you it got weird.)  To this I responded, "I'm not giving you my fucking key to my house".  I threw the envelope of money at him and it spilled all over the place, showing everyone in the room what had happened moments earlier with the bribery.  Oh, I forgot to mention, the other people in the room seemed to be mostly from my high school.  I then pulled out a quote from Bill Maher (paraphrasing) and said, " Jesus wants to save you and Jesus wants to do all these nice things, but he's bad with money. Give him your money", the room erupted with laughter and applause and I grabbed my things and walked out.

     Hurrying to the elevator and getting the door closed I knew that this wasn't over.  Something was going to happen, but this is a dream, and if you think it's going to happen, it does...

So this conference was in a hotel and I thought my room was on the 4th floor, it wasn't, but there was an after-party thing for the presentation I just crashed, and everyone was there, even though I had left with haste after my brief stand-up routine.  (once again, weird)  Also, the man running the show was there, the guy that tried to bribe me and said he owned God, along with two armed guards.  I hurried to another elevator and got on only to have this kid who was getting off hold the door open for the two guards and the guy.  They had caught me and said I was in violation of some law that prevents people from interrupting presentations at this convention.  I argued my case with them momentarily, then realized the futility.  We went back to my room and they said my things would be sent back to NY and I was to come with them.  Then I woke up.

What does it mean?  I have no idea.  I also had another dream a few nights back where I encountered a bear growling and yelling at me and towering over me.  But I growled and yelled back and managed to tame it.  My dog was in that one with me, maybe he scared the bear.


I'm open to opinions on this one, so feel free to comment.  I know there's only like 5 people that read this so if I get one comment I'll be happy.  Sweet dreams.

  

How do you define yourself?

Today, I was talking with some people about sunglasses.  This girl started telling everyone about her set and mentioned that they cost roughly $100 to which I replied, "that's ridiculous".  She looked at me with an astonished and puzzled look, maybe taking offense to my response thinking that I was insulting her ugly sunglasses when I was merely disgusted with how much she paid for them.  Personally, I paid $20 for my sunglasses, which is on the high end of my budget for sunglasses, and they work great....Keep the sun out of my eyes and everything.

I guess what I'm really getting at is what will outlive both me and you, capitalism and greed.  This idea that we need bigger, better, more expensive STUFF than everyone else.  So that people envy you and want what you have.

"I am convinced, that if all men were to live as simply as I then did, thieving and robbery would be unknown"
-Henry David Thoreau,  Walden

Extravagance in your life really means you aren't happy with what you were dealt, and if you can not be happy with yourself, how do expect someone else to be?

Turkey Day.

Well it was a great day full of food and wine and of course, football.  I spent the day over at my buddy Dave's place in Pendleton with Chris and Rich.  The dog was along for the ride also since Dave has a little bulldog named Tonka.

My first turkey turned out great.  I rubbed it with some cajun spices and roasted it for just over three hours.  The instructions claimed two bags of giblets but I only found one.  Turns out they stuff one in the body cavity and one in the front of the turkey.  They would have both fit in the body cavity, what's the reason for separating them?? Probably just to make the rookies look bad..  Either way it was delicious and we pretty much killed all of it except for half of one of the breasts and some dark meat which will provide me with turkey sandwiches for the next day....leftovers are the best part of Thanksgiving.  Also tried my hand at some sweet potato crunch which turned out well.  Basic southern dish, sweet potatoes of course, then lots of sugar.  Now I feel sufficiently warmed up for my stuffing creation for the department holiday party on the third.  Now I just need to perfect the recipe.