Turkey Sandwich

Well, ladies and gentlemen, I went to the doctors office today because I am still feeling quite ill, and was diagnosed with mononucleosis, the kissing disease. And what do you know, the doctor can't do anything about it. There are no prescriptions or remedies for this illness, I just have to wait it out. He told me it could last from 1 to 4 weeks, just in time for Xmas break to end. I ran another fever last night, and this morning when I woke up, my throat was nearly swollen shut. Worst Christmas ever.

But on the bright side, I got some pretty sweet gifts. I didnt get a lot, but thats alright, I dont really expect to get a ton of gifts anymore. I mean, of course I got the usual, socks and underwear (which I enjoy getting), candy, gift cards, a ukulele. You know, the usual. Haha, yeah Trent and Abby bought me a ukulele for Christmas. I havent played it yet, but its right next to me waiting for the tickle of my fingers.

But my favorite gift of all is my Canon PowerShot SX10 IS. This is one awesome digital camera. I started reading the owners book it came with, but I just barely tapped into its capabilities. Im planning on reading that book for days until I know everything there is to know about this camera. Ive already discovered some pretty amazing features already, like the color accent and color replacement features. The color accent feature allows me to single out one color, take red for example, and turn everything else black and white. Its pretty cool. The other feature lets me turn one color into another. I took a pitcure of some trees in Trents back yard and turned them orange. I thought that was really neat. And Trent got a Nikon D60 from his parents, so we went out yesterday to the park and took some pictures.

By the way, this post has nothing to do with a turkey sandwich. And, my moms internet isnt that good, so this is the only picture it would allow me to upload. It with the color accent feature. Ill have more when Im able.

Still Sick

Well loyal readers, I apologize for not putting up anything interesting in the last week or so, Ive just been really sick. Im pretty sure its the flu, or maybe even a sinus infection, but either way its 8, going on 9 days that Ive had it. And its been getting worse the last couple of days, I dont even feel like moving from the couch. Im back at my moms house right now and she keeps telling me to go to the doctor, but Im stubborn and refuse. I figure that my doctor is only going to tell me what I already know (that Im sick) and charge me an arm and a leg for that bit of useless information. So, Ill just keep living off of Ibuprofen until I get better. I figure if Im not better by the day after Christmas, Ill go see a doctor, see what he has to say.

Official Christmas Break

Oy! Finally, Im on Christmas Break! I went back to school on Thursday to take my final exam on Saturday. I went back kind of early because we were supposed to get hit by a huge snow and ice storm that night and I didnt want to drive through it. But once I got back to school, I was really surprised at how many people were still on campus. Usually during finals week, everyone leaves like halfway during finals week, but apparently there were a ton of people with Saturday finals, like me.

My exam was pretty easy though. It was for Spanish 202 (my second time around in that class), my fifth semester in spanish. I started studying for the exam about two hours beforehand. I had an energy drink while studying and it was pretty effective, so I had another before my exam. Then afterwards, while driving home, I had one more energy drink. Thats a lot of energy. But I needed it because of the long, boring drive home.

But right after my exam, I had to go to my aunts house for a Christmas party. I only showed up about two hours late. But at least there was still some food left! So I did the usual: ate, we did some gift giving, then I played Rock Band with my cousins and sister and Trent for the rest of the night while my uncle got drunk and stunk up that basement because he gets bad gas when he has beer.

And now, Im staying at my dads house in Granger. And Ive been really sick all of last week. It sucks....hard. I think I caught the flu. Im not throwing up or anything but Ive gotten fevers and chills and aches every night since last Monday. I hate getting sick, and I rarely do, Im usually a pretty healthy person, but this one has lingered for far too long.

Anyways, thats just an update from the last few days.

Shay

At a fundraising dinner for a school that serves children with learning disabilities, the father of one of the students delivered a speech that would never be forgotten by all who attended. After extolling the school and its dedicated staff, he offered a question: 'When not interfered with by outside influences, everything nature does, is done with perfection.

Yet my son, Shay, cannot learn things as other children do. He cannot understand things as other children do. Where is the natural order of things in my son?'

The audience was stilled by the query. The father continued. 'I believe that when a child like Shay, who was mentally and physically disabled comes into the world, an opportunity to realize true human nature presents itself, and it comes in the way other people treat that child.'

Then he told the following story: "Shay and I had walked past a park where some boys Shay knew were playing baseball. Shay asked, 'Do you think they'll let me play?' I knew that most of the boys would not want someone like Shay on their team, but as a father I also understood that if my son were allowed to play, it would give him a much-needed sense of belonging and some confidence to be accepted by others in spite of his handicaps. I approached one of the boys on the field and asked (not expecting much) if Shay could play. The boy looked around for guidance and said, 'We're losing by six runs and the game is in the eighth inning. I guess he can be on our team and we'll try to put him in to bat in the nin! th inning.' Shay struggled over to the team's bench and, with a broad smile, put on a team shirt. I watched with a small tear in my eye and warmth in my heart. The boys saw my joy at my son being accepted. In the bottom of the eighth inning, Shay's team scored a few runs but was still behind by three. In the top of the ninth inning, Shay put on a glove and played in the right field. Even though no hits came his way, he was obviously ecstatic just to be in the game and on the field, grinning from ear to ear as I waved to him from the stands. In the bottom of the ninth inning, Shay's team scored again. Now, with two outs and the bases loaded, the potential winning run was on base and Shay was scheduled to be next at bat. At this juncture, do they let Shay bat and give away their chance to win the game? Surprisingly, Shay was given the bat. Everyone knew that a hit was all but impossible because Shay didn't even know how to hold the bat properly, much less connect with the ball. However, as Shay stepped up to the plate, the pitcher, recognizing that the other team was putting winning aside for this moment in Shay's life, moved in a few steps to lob the ball in softly so Shay could at least make contact. The first pitch came and Shay swung clumsily and missed. The pitcher again took a few steps forward to toss the ball softly towards Shay. As the pitch came in, Shay swung at the ball and hit a slow ground ball right back to the pitcher. The game would now be over. The pitcher picked up the soft grounder and could have e asily thrown the ball to the first baseman. Shay would have been out and that would have been the end of the game. Instead, the pitcher threw the ball right over the first baseman's head, out of reach of all team mates. Everyone from the stands and both teams started yelling, 'Shay, run to first! Run to first!' Never in his life had Shay ever run that far, but he made it to first base. He scampered down the baseline, wide-eyed and startled. Everyone yelled, 'Run to second, run to second!' Catching his breath, Shay awkwardly ran towards second, gleaming and struggling to make it to the base. By the time Shay rounded towards second base, the right fielder had the ball. The smallest guy on their team who now had his first chance to be the hero for his team. He could have thrown the ball to the second-baseman for the tag, but he understood the pitcher's intentions so he, too, intentionally threw the ball! high and far over the third-baseman's head. Shay ran toward third base deliriously as the runners ahead of him circled the bases toward home. All were screaming, 'Shay, Shay, Shay, all the Way Shay' Shay reached third base because the opposing shortstop ran to help him by turning him in the direction of third base, and shouted, 'Run to third! Shay run to third!' As Shay rounded third, the boys from both teams, and the spectators, were on their feet screaming, 'Shay, run home! Run home!' Shay ran to home, stepped on the plate, and was cheered as the hero who hit the grand slam and won the game for his team. 'That day', said the father softly with tears now rolling down his face, 'the boys from both teams helped bring a piece of true love and humanity into this world'. Shay didn't make it to another summer. He died that winter, having never forgotten being the hero and making me so happy and coming home and seeing his Mother tearfully embrace her little hero of the day!"

I Like You

I Love my car,
With its leather seats and cruise control.

I Love my job,
Its benefits and income are more than bearable.

I Love my house,
The hardwood floors and earthy tones are rather comforting.

I Love summer,
Everything seems so perfect and beautiful.

I Love cooking,
All that effort makes eating that much more enjoyable.

I Love singing,
My voice sounds terrific in the shower.

I Love snow,
The danger and possibilities have a clutch on me.

I Love ice cream,
Pretty much any flavor as long as its coffee flavored.

I Love music,
It can put you into any emotion you desire.

I Love these,
I Love those.

But you know what,
I Like You.



It seems that we are becoming desensitized to the word Love. We hear the word Love everyday, in even the simplest comments about the simplest things.

We've heard people say they love us since the day we were born. But it doesnt have that great of an impact anymore. We know that we will always be loved, but sometimes the people who love us dont even like us. So to hear them say, "I Like You" is so different and wonderful. Because, although they will always love you, in that instant....they Like You.

It Christmas Time!

Well, Im back home from school already. Technically, its still finals week back at school, and technically I still have one final exam to take, but its not until Saturday. So Ill head back to school sometime Friday, study a little, then take the exam Saturday afternoon. Then come back home.

But Im wondering if I shouldve come home this week, again I feel weird just crashing at peoples houses, Im at my sisters' apartement right now. I wish I still had a "home" though, now I consider ATO my home. But I basically just came back this week to help out the high school wrestlers, when Im home I help coach them.

But being home has got me into the Christmas spirit! Seeing all of the presents and lights and snow (or lackthereof) has reminded me that Christmas is near. And fearful that Christmas is near. I came back to Bremen with $14. Then I went to the store tonight and bought some PBJ, bread, and some beans to eat this week, I dont want to eat all of my sisters' food, so I decided to get something cheap to live off of. That set me back $5. So now I only have about $9 in my bank account. My selfish spending and poor planning this semester has left me with $9 for Christmas.

So I have no money for gifts. I feel bad that everyone is buying me all of these expensive gifts for Christmas that I will probably love, and I have nothing to give in return. Thats a horrible feeling. And I hate taking charity. In the past, Ive had my mom or dad buy some gifts for other people and put my name on it. I hate that. Sometimes I dont even know what it is. Thats not right. Thats hardley even a gift for that person, its more of gift to me. But I do have a couple of things in mind that dont involve gift giving, but giving nonetheless. Some tricks up my sleeve.

But anywho, I do love coming home for Christmas break to see my family and wrestle and eat some delicious Christmas dinners. Hopefully this will be a good Christmas.

Sketches Part II

We had to do 90 pages of sketches for the semester in my Drawing II class, I already posted some from the first half of the semester, but here are the rest. I had to do 45 more pages in the last 8 weeks......and I did 30 yesterday. It took quite a while. But anywho, here are some of the better ones. Enjoy! (Once again, if you click on the picture, it will enlarge)

Quick sketch for Old Man

Sketches for Sexy Girl

Experimenting with abstracts

Recreation from MDE-Art

My favorite

I dont know why I made her look anorexic, it was an accident

Another recreation from MDE-Art

Poor Decisions

A couple of days ago I blogged about how I like being young because I get to be stupid and make poor decisions. Well, I made one the other day. And it actually doesnt feel that great, actually I feel really stupid.

For lunch on Friday, I went to Harry's Chocolate Shop, one of the more popular bars on campus. Adam and I go nearly every Friday because they have a good lunch special and its just great being in that atmosphere, especially when its cold out. We are like regulars there on Friday afternoons, the waitress even knows us and expects us. But since it was the last Friday of the semester, we decided to invite several other guys in the house to join us. So I arrived there with Brad at about 1:30pm and met up with four other guys who had already been there a while, Adam was still at an exam.

When we got there, the guys already had a pitcher waiting for us, it was their third and couldnt finish it, so me and Brad took it. And usually when Adam and I go, we'll each have a beer with our lunch, or maybe even nothing, but since it was the last Friday, I decided to allow myself a couple more, but not enought to get drunk because I was taking a girl out later that night and I wanted to be prepared for it. So throughout our lunch, Brad ordered a couple more pitchers. Then Adam eventually came, and we ordered a couple more pitchers on top of that. I kept saying no more, but would cave in and finish my share. All in all, I think me and Brad had about 4 or 5 pitchers of beer. Thats a lot! We left Harrys at 5pm after being there for 3 and a half hours. Needless to say, I was gone.

So I had to pick up Christine at 7pm that night, we were going to a dance show in the art building, a show for the dance majors. She is on the Purdue Dance Team, so I thought she might be interested that. But anyways, once I got back to my room I started eating a bunch of crackers and drinking a ton of water to try and sober up. But I eventually fell asleep (passed out) on my couch at about 6pm. I was awaken by my buddies at 6:45, and I felt like I was in no shape to go anywhere. So I texted her that I couldnt go because I wasnt feeling well, but never sent it because that wouldve been really really crappy of me to cancel 15 minutes ahead of time. So before I left, I decided that I needed to get all of that crap out of me. So I went to bathroom and made myself purge. Once I got back to my room and got my teeth brushed, it was 6:57. I put on my coat and shoes and a ton of cologne, headed out the door, and sprinted to her dorm....I mean, I was at a full out sprint the whole way, which luckily isnt too far, only three or four miles. Ha, just kidding. But once we met up, I tried to play off that I wasnt drunk, but probably wasnt very convincing. I probably smelled like alcohol and vomit, and couldnt really walk straight. So as we were walking over to the art building, I confessed that I was still a little drunk from lunch and apologized, she just laughed and said it was fine, but who knows.

I sobered up during the dance show though. It was actually a pretty interesting show, and a lot shorter than I thought it would be. But anyways, as we were walking back I invited her back to ATO to hang out, and she agreed. So we talked for a while, then popped in a movie, then I walked her back.

But I feel really stupid that I got that drunk right before taking her out. I should have just stopped at the first pitcher. And I hope she doesnt think Im some big stupid fratboy drunk or something because she is a really sweet and really pretty girl. But anyways, theres one more lesson learned. Idiot award goes to me.

Drawing II Projects

So, the semester is finally over, I got all of my Drawing II projects done and Im about to turn them in for my final critique on Tuesday. But I thought I would share some of them with you before I turn them in. These are in chronological order, so they get progressively better.

Quick drawing of myself with charcoal
Created Scenary

Abstract

Clay hand using different media

Ok for this one we had to draw 4 animals and an object out of a hat, and combine them to make one crazy animal. I got a giraffe, praying mantis, pidgeon, shark, and a cake. This is what I came up with, it was silly but everyone loved it. (Not sure why that guy looks like Trent, I just created him from my head)

Pointillism of clay form(I almost went crazy drawing these hundreds of billions of dots)

Old man using marker and chalk

Sexy girl

Soon will be pics from my sketchbook (which I personally think are better), and some ceramics stuff.

Live to Dream, or Living a Dream

Disclaimer: I have never really written poetry before, or even read any for that matter, but lately I have been trying to get into it. Its really helping me to sort out my thought, its more of a creative way to express my thoughts and opinions. And I apologize if its too simpleminded or doesnt make sense, or is just really badly written, Im no pro at this.

But for today, I just basically started typing and came up with this.

Live to Dream, or Living a Dream

Somedays when we wake, the only thing we want is to go back to sleep.
We feel that we can't face the world, all it brings is pain and sorrow.
On this day, our dreams are the only thing which make us happy,

Our dreams can carry us away from the misery.
They fill us with emotion, they let us be content,
They evoke beautiful thoughts of the past and sweep us away from the present.

All we need in that moment is to get away.
Its like a drug trip, just a mode of transportation for the mind.

Once there, and only there, can we become happy, can we become whomever we want.

Then there are the days where life is a dream.
You want to stay in that moment forever.
No dream that has ever been dreamt can compare to the dream you are living.

You wish time would stand still,
You wish life was really this great,
You wish that tomorrow would never come.

Nothing could happen to dull the moment,
As fragile as we are in this moment, we feel like steel,
Thinking that even rust couldnt break us.

Emotion can be a funny thing,
It gives us the power to create our world or feel invincible in this.
It can change each day from living a dream, to living to dream.

The Reformation of the Sushi

Heres a Haiku I wrote while I couldnt sleep last night.


I have a poopage
But the radio is off
Silence makes me shy


Just a little bit of "occupational" humor from the "office".

My New Favorite Blog

Ive really been getting into my drawing class, trying to discover new techniques and subjects, and I happen to stumble across this blog. Its pretty amazing. Expect to see some work like this from me in the future.

Here it is.



Oh and by the way, the semester is almost over which means that Ill be posting some more pics from my sketchbook and projects here pretty soon. Im pretty excited to show some of the new stuff, some of it even amazes me! And Im my own biggest critic!

Im getting so old

I feel like Im getting old. I turn 22 in March. Twenty-two!! Then shortly after is 23. Which is nearly halfway to 50! Im almost 50 years old! Haha, ok I might be exaggerating a bit.

But seriously, I was thinking about this today, and I really dont want to turn 22. I dread the fact that everyday, I am one day closer to 22. I feel like when I turn 22, Ill have to grow up. But I dont want to grow up. I dont want to have responsibilities. I dont want to act mature. I like being young, making stupid decisions, having fun, dodging the real world. I still cant even believe Im 21 already, I feel like I just graduated from high school. And I dont feel any different from then, I feel like the same person as back then. I certainly dont act any different. Well, according to my dad, I dont act any different than a 5 year old though.

But, a couple of years ago, I had already realized that Im getting older, and I decided that Im not going to grow up.

I may grow old, but I wont grow up.

If you have ever met my grandpa Tom, you would know that he is the perfect example of this. He is, I believe, 68 years old, and he doesnt act much differently than me. He still likes to have fun and be goofy, popping his teeth out, making funny faces, being silly, and just enjoying life.

Alright, Im going to go off on a tangent here. But when I was younger, I used to spend about two or three weeks every summer down at my grandpas house. He lives down in southern Illinois, which is about six hours from my house, so I would only get to see him a couple of times a year. So for probably four of five years, I would live with him for a few weeks each summer. And I think that his personality rubbed off on me a little. I think that part of him had shaped who I am.

He is not a wealthy man. His whole house is about the same size as our kitchen and living room combined. He lives on a dirt road, out in the boonies, with a few old garages and barns around his house, and a bunch of, what he likes to call, "stuff." You may call it junk, but we refer to it as "stuff." His workshop is an old, gutted mobile home. He used to own two or three little Ford Festivas, and loved them terribly. Actually, I still think he has one, a newer one. And he knows every single person in town. And their brother. We would just be driving down the road, he would point to a house, tell me who lives there, who used to live there, who they are related to, where they work, how he knows them, and so on and so forth. He is also a recovered alcohol, and he could probably tell you to the day how long hes been sober. I think its been like twenty some or thirty some years. I have a huge amount of respect for that, that takes a strong will.

In those few years of spending time with my grandpa, I learned a lot, and Im still learning from him. I learned some things like how to drive a stick shift, how to ride a dirt bike, I rode my first motorcycle with him, and a ton of other little things. I distinctly remember him teaching me what a cliche is. I dont know, its one of those tiny memories that stick. But now that Im older and looking back, Im also realizing that Ive learned even more from him that I didnt even know I was being taught, or he even knew he was teaching. Like how to talk to people, strangers, how to treat them like people. Ive learned to not take life so seriously, because the things society thinks are important, really arent that important.

Ive learned how to be young, even when youre old.

But anywho, Im just saying, I dont really think I have to grow up quite yet. My grandpa hasnt, and he seems pretty happy. But I still dont wanna turn 22.

I forget EVERYTHING

Its true, I have the memory of a 98 year old. I seem to always forget just about everything: important dates, where things are, peoples names, even people Ive known for years. Yeah, things like that. When Im going anywhere with my friends, I always tell them to give me at least ten minutes before we leave so that I can find my keys, license, shoes, whatever. I will set them down somewhere and forget where I put them. Every single time. Ask any of my friends.

I forgot my friends first name, one of my friends in ATO. I always call him by his last name, and one night I could not, for the life of me, remember what his first name was. Its Matt, I was thinking it was Ryan.

The other day I sat next to a girl in class who Ive known since my freshman year of college, MaryAlice. I havent seen her much lately, maybe a few times in the last two years. But as we were talking, I was trying to think of how I even know her. I have no idea how I met this girl, not a clue. The earliest memory I have of her is I used to talk to her while she was working at the CoRec (Sports Center at Purdue) before I would work out. Im sure I didnt meet her there, I dont just meet people that way.

And my poor memorization often gets me into trouble.

Last night I was laying in bed (couch) doing my usual two hours of thinking before I fall asleep when I realized that I forgot to register for classes for next semester. I was given one day to register, December 4th, and it completely slipped my mind. I already missed the first deadline, a whole week in early November dedicated to signing up for classes.....I forgot. I forgot a whole week. Then I kept forgetting to make an appointment with my advisor. And now, most of the classes I need to take are full, so Im not really sure what to do.

Also, I still havent paid rent this semester. And now they are considering encumbering my registration. That means that I wont be allowed to register for classes until I pay that money. Which, now I dont have enough money for the whole semester. So Im not sure what Im going to do. Its not that I refused to pay it, well I did for a while when I thought I was getting evicted, but its just that I usually cant find my checkbook, or when I do have it in my hands, about ready to write the check, my mind wanders elsewhere for a second and I dont come back to it until a month later.

Actually, Im starting to think that I have a severe case of ADD or something.

I cant study. I will go to the library for maybe 4 or 5 hours and only get about 20 minutes of studying in. The rest of the time, Im just thinking about other things, or playing with my pencil or something. I will sit there, focus hard for about 2 whole minutes, then my mind wanders for about 10 minutes and I will completely forget about studying.

Most people would call me irresponsible. I just dont remember to do things. Its horrible, really.

Stacee texted me last night and told me I forgot to take her out last night. I promised to take her out earlier in the week.

Im actually pretty pissed at myself for being so forgetful. Its sucks being like this. And its probably only going to get worse.

Music Pt. III

So a couple of days ago I read Todds post on music, and then Trents post about the subject, and it has also got me thinking. It was a pretty good post about how when he was younger he always took music lessons, like piano lessons, and they would grade him on how well he could follow the sheet music, and how strikingly different it is now that he plays in the worship band and can just create the music as it comes. But the other day we had an impromptu concert at his house with me on the mountain dulcimer, Trent on the guitar, and Todd on the piano. We were just playing basically the same chords, but had no clue where we were going with it, freely playing as we went along. And you know what? It sounded pretty amazing, the concert turned out really well. Todds aunt even sent me an email saying how beautiful our concert was.

But what got me about Todds post was how this applies to our lives. Society has us playing sheet music, telling us exactly how to live our lives with no exceptions. And if we dont succeed on societies way of life, then we fail, just like if you dont play music exactly like its written, you fail. But if you can just create your own music with no boundaries or exceptions, you never know what you can create. It could turn out to be something beautiful, like our impromptu concert.

I was walking to class the other day, just listening to my ipod and dodging cars, when it hit me. No, not a car, a thought. Somewhere in the past couple of years, I have been creating my own music in life. I feel like I have been living an impromptu life. When I graduated high school, I had my whole life planned out. I was going to get a masters degree in mechanical engineering, find a wife in college, buy a brand new Jeep Wrangler after graduation, make $75K a year after college, have 2 children, a pool house, and live the perfect life. My life was just sheet music. But later on, I dont know if it was just common sense that kicked in or what, but I have completely changed my views on life now. I could have reached that goal though. I could have put all of my efforts in for that masters degree and Jeep Wrangler. But now, I am living life as it comes. I am a senior in college now, and I still have no idea what Im going to do or where Im gonna go. And honestly, I dont care. Its actually pretty exciting. Everyday is a blank canvas for me. I can create any scene I would like. Currently, my only set backs are graduation, I would like to graduate college eventually, and student loans, I need to make enough money after graduation to pay those. But other than those two things, I can do whatever I want. I can play whatever chords I feel like playing. Thats what hit me the other day, not a bus, although I have been close a time or two, those drivers just dont care.

Shenanigans

Last year I had two roommates in the fraternity, Adam and Cam. And Adam and I would always play pranks on Cam, and they just kept getting worse and worse, and more creative. Actually, we started playing pranks on Cam even before we lived in the house. At first we started off with little things like putting his things in Jell-O or taping all of his possessions to the wall or ceiling, but then we got to more creative ideas. Its not like we dont like him or anything, hes just really easy to prank, and hes not creative or brave enough to get us back. But Id like to tell you about some of the things we've done to him.

The first big one I remember pulling was before Adam and I lived in the house, but Cam did. One weekend Cam went home to see his girlfriend, which kind of upset Adam and I because neither of us really liked her. So while he was gone, we figured it was the perfect time to pull a prank on him. We went to the store Priscillas, which is like one of those adult stores, and bought a gay porno magazine. I had to be the one to go up and pay for it, Adam absolutely refused. So we went back to the house and broke into his room. Once we got in, we ripped out all of the pages of the magazine, there were hundreds of pages of naked dudes, and hid them all over his room. I mean, we hid these things EVERYWHERE. We hid them in his bed, in his pillow case, his cereal, laundry detergent, behind his posters, in his books, in his clothes, everywhere! Once he got back, he found out what had happened and went on a search for them all. He found most of them right away, but still kept finding them weeks later. The very last one that was found was after he had moved out and the next guy, Brady, was moving in. Bradys dad discovered one while moving some old stuff around. Very funny.

Another small one included taking his towel while he was showering, which turned out bad for Adam because once Cam got back to the room, he chased us around naked and rubbed his balls on Adam. Bad news for Adam.

The next big one involved his vehicle. We put his car up for sell on craigslist, a 2004 Chevy Trailblazer, for $3500. I forget exactly what the discription said, but it was something like he needed to sell it quickly because he was leaving the country for a job and money was really no object. And we put his cell phone number on there so they would call him right away. Needless to say, he got a ton of phone calls. I think he ended up getting like 20 calls in the first ten minutes. But shortly after the sale was posted, they shut it down because it was fake, so Adam and I started calling a bunch of people having them call Cam about his truck. I even called my grandpa, who got a hold of Cam, and refused to accept the fact that the sale was a prank, my grandpa kept saying he needed it for his grandson. That was great.

Shortly after, we did another craigslist prank, putting his picture and information on the Men seeking Men section. I believe he got a few calls from that too.

Other small pranks. Adam got on Cams computer, onto Microsoft Word, and AutoCorrected the word "and" to say "Cam is gay". So everytime Cam would type the word and, it would automatically turn into Cam is gay.

We also signed him up for a Playboy tryout at Purdue. Playboy was in town trying to recruit girls for a special Big Ten edition, so we signed him up for a tryout.

We have signed him up for many online newsletters.

One prank that I am in the process of pulling is pretty creative too. I wrote a note saying, "Im terribly sorry, but I have smashed into you car. I have gone to the hospital to get my injuries checked out. Call me and we can work out a cash settlement, I dont have much money but I will help any way that I can. Call me at ************* and ask for Cam. Again, Im very sorry this happened." I made 50 copies of that and plan on putting them on 50 cars around campus. Some people think it wont work, since there will be no visible damage to the car. But I think that if I got that on my car, I would call and see whats up.

We have several other creative ideas, but havent gotten around to doing them yet. So there you have it, there are some of the shenanigans I get into with my friends.

Im still alive

I just found out that its been quite a while since Ive posted anything on here. Ive been so busy lately, it seems like our professors love to make everything due right before Thanksgiving break, exams, projects, papers, ugh. And on top of that, Ive been sick all weekend with a nasty cold, I hate getting sick, Ive been drinking Zicam like its my job. But I am currently home (well, back in Bremen, I dont really have a "home" anymore), Im staying with my sisters at their apartment this week.

But other than that, not much has been going on. Ive been trying to prepare for Thanksgiving.....let me explain. I love to eat during Thanksgiving, a lot. During high school, I was unable to eat for thanksgiving because of wrestling, we always had a wrestling meet like two days after Thanksgiving, and I always had to cut weight. For four years, I could only eat like one strand of turkey and a roll maybe. So ever since, I have been trying to make up for those meals Ive had to miss. My goal is to eat twice my body weight in one sitting. And I love pumpkin pie, I look forward to eating pumpkin pie all year. Im really looking forward to this years Thanksgiving.

Oh yeah, and I love seeing my family and all that jazz, haha.

Fun Date

So a couple of weeks ago I met a girl named Lindsay. Ive been hanging out with her quite a bit lately, but havent really told many people. I dont wanna get my hopes up, its seems like every time I do, I get my spirits crushed. But anyways, yesterday I called her to see if she wanted to hang out for the night, go to dinner or something. I didnt even plan anything for the night, just knew that we were going to eat somewhere, not even sure where. I picked her up at 6 and asked her where she wanted to eat. We agreed on a really nice place called Red Seven in downtown Lafayette. So we ate there, I got some salmon (which was scrumtulescent), and she got some Thai dish. Somewhere during our conversations we got to talking about Candyland, not sure why though (some foreshadowing), but overall the dinner was pretty fun. We always have these weird conversations about random things......which I love doing.

After dinner we decided to walk around downtown Lafayette a little to check it out. But we didnt do that for long because it was so freakin cold out. So we drove to Starbucks and got some coffee. And what do we see there as we're waiting in line? Candyland. So as we were sitting there drinking our coffee, we played a game of Candyland and ate a giant rainbow cookie. She won the game. I was very upset.

So as we were drinking our coffee, we were trying to come up with things to do for the rest of the night. She knew that I was taking a ceramics class and had been asking if we could go to the art building and play on the wheel. I was hesitant because I didnt want the instructor to be in there and chew me out, but figured it would be worth the risk. So we headed there next. They also had a gallery going on, so we checked that out first. Then headed to the ceramics room. We played on the wheel for a while, she made a nice plate with swirlies, I made a couple of cylinders, it was a good time. Cleaning up sucked though.

Afterwards we were at a loss for what to do. I brought up the idea that later we should buy a disposable camera and head to the bars and get our pictures taken with a bunch of drunk people, so we were planning on doing that later. It was probably 9:30 or 10 by this time, so it was far too early to meet drunks then. So we just got in the car and started driving around, thinking we would see something interesting and check it out.

Then we created a really fun game in the car. I told her to get a coin and at every intersection we would flip the coin to decide which direction to go. Heads is left, tails is right. And she came up with the rule that if its the same side as the previous flip, we go straight. But after every 10 minutes or so, we would forget which side meant which direction. So she came up with the expressions "Left our heads....", and "Right on our tails." And needless to say......we got lost. But we just trucked on until we found something familiar. We eventually made it back to campus and back to ATO. Once we got back we watched to movie Blow, and after the movie we were too tired to take pictures with drunks and she had to get up early for church, so I dropped her off and called it a night.

So that was a pretty fun, random night.

Colors Theory

There are just some things in life we will never know. I think about these things a lot. I think more about the things in life that just pass by normal people. We will never know how others percieve us, how they view us, what their first impressions are. We will never know if the amount of toilet paper we use is a "normal" amount, how would we? We will never know how many licks it takes to get to the center of a tootsie pop. And then, of course, I think of the more far out questions. We will never know how others visually view the world. A couple of years ago I was thinking about color and how people view it. Abby sort of touched up on this in an earlier post, which kind of reminded me of this.

My colors theory is how do we know that other people dont see different colors as I do? I know that there are color blind people, and I guess all they see is black and white and gray. But for the other people, how do I know that the color blue for me is also the color blue for them? What if my blue is their red? The color that they call blue is actually the color that I see as red, but they call it blue because thats what they have been taught to call it. Their visual perception of the world would be far different from mine. I mean, the same shapes would apply, but the colors that they see would be like a scene from a drug trip for me.

Actually, this theory has brought up several other questions in my mind. When someone is blind from birth, what do they dream about? When we dream, we see images of everyday life in our minds, but what would blind people see? Do they see images at all? What do deaf people think about? They cant talk inside of their heads like we do. When we think, we hear our own voices talking in our minds, but what do they hear? And then, think of people that speak different languages, they speak their own language inside their minds.

I think about some weird things, I really need a job or something. But Im sure that would just prompt more questions.

Weird Stuff

I know that I think of some weird stuff a lot. And I usually think out loud. I will often times make a comment and in return get a, "whats wrong with you?" or "are you serious?" The other day I was sitting in my room hanging out with some guys, thinking about saliva for some reason. I wondered why we dont have a problem swallowing our own saliva when its in our mouths, but if we spit it out, say in a cup or something, we cringe at the thought of putting it back in our mouths. I mean, its the same saliva. Its not like its been too contaminated in the air. And of course, I said my thought to the group. I got some funny looks for that one.

Then I was walking back from studying tonight, and it was freezing cold outside. It was so cold I could clearly see my breath. And......I had to fart. But I hesitated because Im always unsure if when its cold enough to see your breath........if you can also see a fart. Unfortunately I was alone in my thinking on this one, I had no one to share my thoughts with then, and ultimately, no one to resolve my dilemma. I still dont know the answer to that one though. I guess thats just one of lifes mysteries.

Sin Management

I have been thinking about this one for a while, just havent quite figured out all of the points I want to get across, but Ill give it my best shot. Its about sin management, as you can guess, and its the way we deal with our sins, how we manage them, in order to keep us pure. I feel that a good portion of Christians are living the sin managing lifestyle. Im not saying that its not good to shoot for a pure lifestyle, I just feel that most people are doing it for the wrong reasons. They are in it for themselves. They are only doing it to better themselves, but dont look past that and see how it affects others, or more importantly, God. Havent we already been saved from our sins anyways? The work has already been done for us. Why do they keep putting so much effort in controlling their sin "for God" when He has already taken care of that?

Its so much easier to not do something bad than it is to do something good, isnt it?

I think we should worry less about ourselves and how pure we seem, and shift our concerns to others. Worry about Charles and Heather and how we can help them, instead of how we look while we are talking to them. "But what if someone I know sees me?" Big whoop. What if God sees you? What would His reaction be? Delighted, Im sure.

I think this guy states it better:

"A focus on sin and its dynamics plays nicely into the enemies hands. We don't concern ourselves with the impact of the gospel on the world; we gather in tidy fortresses to ensure that we are a pure people. Instead of asking how our sin, and self-centered behavior, affects others, our primary concern is our own salvation and purity. We become self centered in an effort to live the gospel of the kingdom, which is meant to get us beyond ourselves in giving our lives for the world.

"In the kingdom of God it is not so. Rather, we seek first His kingdom and justice.. and let Him worry about the rest. Salvation is already ours.. the Father DELIGHTS to give us the kingdom. Let's concern ourselves with His concerns.. the hurting and lost outside the walls."

I think that God would be more delighted in us for doing something good rather than us not doing something bad.

Actually this has reminded me of some scripture: Matthew 25:14-30 (The Message)

14-18"It's also like a man going off on an extended trip. He called his servants together and delegated responsibilities. To one he gave five thousand dollars, to another two thousand, to a third one thousand, depending on their abilities. Then he left. Right off, the first servant went to work and doubled his master's investment. The second did the same. But the man with the single thousand dug a hole and carefully buried his master's money.
19-21"After a long absence, the master of those three servants came back and settled up with them. The one given five thousand dollars showed him how he had doubled his investment. His master commended him: 'Good work! You did your job well. From now on be my partner.'
22-23"The servant with the two thousand showed how he also had doubled his master's investment. His master commended him: 'Good work! You did your job well. From now on be my partner.'
24-25"The servant given one thousand said, 'Master, I know you have high standards and hate careless ways, that you demand the best and make no allowances for error. I was afraid I might disappoint you, so I found a good hiding place and secured your money. Here it is, safe and sound down to the last cent.'
26-27"The master was furious. 'That's a terrible way to live! It's criminal to live cautiously like that! If you knew I was after the best, why did you do less than the least? The least you could have done would have been to invest the sum with the bankers, where at least I would have gotten a little interest.
28-30"'Take the thousand and give it to the one who risked the most. And get rid of this "play-it-safe" who won't go out on a limb. Throw him out into utter darkness.'



Long post, I know, but I think you get the point now.

Charles

So today I went to Walmart to buy some trinkets (CO2 cartridges, deodorant, and a box of cereal, you know, the usual) and as I was entering the parking lot, I once again saw a homeless person standing there with a sign. Once I saw him I again thought to myself how I could approach and get to know this person. So as I was leaving, I drove up to him, parked my car, got out and introduced myself. His name is Charles. This man was a little different from Heather in a sense that he looked like he was going to die any minute. I was in shock at the bad condition he was in. He was on oxygen, coughing and hacking, shivering, and just looked like death. Now I know that he could be putting on a show, and thats a shame if he is, but I really felt like I needed to do something to help. So as I was talking to him I told him that in exchange for a high five, I would give him $20 to help out a little. So he gave my a sweet high five, I gave him some money, then left. I also told him I would keep him in my prayers, I think you should too.

Im in a Puddle

I was flipping through some of my older posts just now, and I came across The Puddles of Life. Im really glad I wrote this one down because I seem to be in a puddle these days. It seems that lately, nearly every day, something more goes awry. This week, I havent been feeling very well. I went to work out tonight and nearly threw up, and apparently I lost about 5lbs this week, from what, Im not sure, just being sickly I guess. And that just adds to list of crap that has already happened lately. Im not sure when I entered this puddle, but rereading that post raised my spirits a little. I just need to trudge through this puddle and search for dry land. Im trying to keep my head up, but Im sure theres still some rough waters ahead.

Elections are finally over!

Im pretty disappointed that elections are over, Im really gonna miss all of those campaign commercials! Yeah right. Im pretty pleased with the turn out, I pretty much expected Obama to win, but wouldnt have been torn if McCain won. Obviously, I voted for Obama. Of course, if you know me, I dont like things to stay the same. Im addicted to change, remember.

Im really surprised at the reactions of people after the elections. I got on Facebook because I knew that people would have some things to say, but everyone just went nuts! It was like a war. People saying things like "the world is gonna be run into the ground", "heres to the new socialist republic", and my favorite "F*** Obama....Christian nation my a**, America is full of ignorant people." I left a comment to that guy, I was pretty upset about this comment, I probably shouldnt have but I said, "....and youre an ignorant Christian." As a Christian, I was offended by this comment. How you can be so judgemental to me? I really wish I hadnt made the comment though, because I now realize that I was also being judgemental.

But anyways, we'll see how Obama does with this whole President thing. Im pretty excited to see some things change, but hopefully he does it responsibly and with our best interests in mind.

Eventful Night

So tonight was interesting and full of a variety of emotions. It started a couple of hours before chapter, maybe around 6 or 7pm. My friend Cam, a brother in the house, came up to me and told me that our Housing Director was coming to the house tonight to inform four of us that we are being evicted from the fraternity. This was a little upsetting, but I wasnt going to make a big deal about it since I didnt have all of the facts, and since I was proven innocent by the brothers, I figured I wouldnt be getting evicted also. So after chapter (thats our house meeting every Monday where we do fraternity business), we had a little discussion with Ty, the house director. He came straight out and said that all four of us were getting evicted next semester. Like I said earlier, I was proven innocent by the chapter, so had no punishments according to the brothers due to the fact that it wasnt my alcohol that was found in our room. But, since I knew it was in the room, the housing corporation decided to evict me, which is separate from the fraternity. I was just a tad upset about this, and told Ty what I thought. The whole thing was sketchy to begin with, it seemed like they were targeting certain people, mainly the people I pledged with. So I told him how shady everthing seemed, told him we deserved a second chance, and told him that because of this about a quarter of the house might be quitting.

So after our conversation, I was walking upstairs to my room when about three or four guys stopped me and asked about our conversation. I explained, and they were also upset with the decision. So they gathered as many guys as they could, and headed to the kitchen to have a huge discussion with Ty. This was pretty amazing. There were about 25 or 30 guys in there defending us four, we all told Ty how we disapproved of him, the corporation, and the Board of Trustees, telling him that they are more concerned with punishing us than helping us, which in turn is hurting the house. This whole conversation went on for a couple of hours, just Ty against all of us. It was pretty amazing how everyone came together to give him our opinions, and we were really blunt about it, telling him that his decisions and leadership skills are disgusting. We have had problems with this guy in the past, hes really unethical and unprofessional, but this was the breaking point. We eventually told him we wanted to get rid of him as housing director, that he wasnt helping the house at all, only ruining it. Im still not sure if I am still getting evicted though, either way it doesnt bother me, I had half of the brothers tell me I could stay in their room next semester. Shoot, I wouldnt have to pay rent that way.

So after that, Im sitting in my room talking to some guys about the events of the night when I hear some yelling and running coming from the staircase. Earlier in the day, some guys on the first floor had set up a fort in their hallway made of mattresses and challenged the second and third floor to a battle. This was the battle, and it was freakin awesome! We started out using brooms and frebreeze or axe spray as our ammo. The guys on the second floor (my floor) would charge and all of this smelly stuff would just cloud up the whole hallway. I was using a stick of deodorant as my defense, wiping it on anyone near me. Then I got my airhorn as a defense. And, eventually, someone got the idea to use the fire extinguisher, which, looking back, was a horrible idea. That thing left the biggest mess, white powder was everywhere, I mean, everywhere! Then everyone was on the verge of throwing up because of the white cloud of dust filling the air. We all ran outside and were coughing and spitting trying to get the taste out of our mouths. The dust cloud even made its way up to the third floor. We eventually settled down just before 1am. Im not sure who cleaned up the mess, but it was huge. Someone even threw a pumpkin. Yes, I know, we are wild and irresponsible, but we had so much fun!

Check These Out!

These are some HILARIOUS videos I found. Today at church, we watched the second video, I was laughing SOO hard! Enjoy!

Random Thoughts and Events

You know how movies have dramatic music in the background of each scene, and there are different types of music for each type of scene. During tense moments, theres the dramatic, high beat music. During love scenes or moments of happiness, there are the soothing violins and flutes and whatnot. During sad parts, the music makes you feel emotional.

Wouldnt it be cool if our lives had that music playing? Im sitting here in my room, just got up from a nap, and there is this music playing somewhere, Ive been hearing for like the last half hour. I looked all around to see if it was from the speakers, from a computer, from the house, but couldnt find the source. Its really faint, but it sounds beautiful. I thought for a moment that I might be going crazy (even more so than I already am). But I think I found the source, Im not 100% sure, but I think its the Purdue band, they are practicing down the road, I can hear some drums every now and then. But the music Im hearing sounds way too love storyish for a school band to play. But that got me thinking about having music to the events of our lives. I think that would be awesome, it would add to the emotion, but probably get annoying after a while.

My week hasnt gotten any better. Just as I predicted, it got worse. I might be getting evicted from ATO now. Its not because of the rent issue though. A couple weeks ago, while we were on fall break, some guys on the Board of Trustees decided to do room checks for alcohol. There was some beer in our fridge left over from tailgating with my roommates parents, and they found it. There were quite a few others that got caught too. We were sent to J-board (judicial board), which decides punishments for breaking the rules, and I was found innocent due to the fact that it wasnt my alcohol or refridgerator. But this week, I recieved an email that said that I still might be getting evicted because of the incident, although I was found innocent. It doesnt make sense, and its kind of a harsh punishment for my first house offense. But I dont really care if I get evicted, I will probably just turn in my pin (quit the fraternity), and find an apartment, it costs too much to live in a fraternity anyways. There are quite a few guys that are fed up with the drama around the house and are considering quitting also. Im actually going to look at a house off campus with some guys this weekend for next year. So, we'll see what happens with this.

But for now, Im just gonna listen to my lifes background music.

Bad Day

I am having a bad day so far. First of all, I couldnt sleep last night, I woke up at about 4am because my bladder was gonna explode, and when I got back from the bathroom, I could not fall back asleep. I layed there for about two hours. My mind was just going crazy, I kept thinking about EVERYTHING. Then I got up this morning in just a blah mood. Lunch was blah also.

I went to my ceramics class, my only class of the day, hoping to brighten my spirits. The one girl that is in my class that I sorta had a crush on, well I asked her to be my date for a party we are throwing this saturday. I think her and her boyfriend split, but really it doesnt matter. This party on saturday is sort of like a high school dance type thing with food, dancing, hayride, but theres alcohol there, but you need to take a date. So I asked her a couple of days ago with no response, then asked again today and she said she couldnt go. I didnt get an excuse, but I dont really care what it was, she probably just didnt have enough time to make one up. She is the third girl to turn me down for this party. That didnt help my already bad mood. Then, we had homework due for this class, some sketches of an absract object based on a poem or song. So I did the sketches based on the poem I wrote, but didnt bring the poem to class. Needless to say, I got chewed out, and she didnt believe me that I actually wrote a poem, she thought I was making that up. On top of that, we are working on a hand made from clay, it has to be as realistic as possible, and I spent about an hour on just the thumb today. I got it attached, was in a bad mood for how difficult this hand had been to build, and...........it fell off the stand. The thumb broke, the hand became deformed, I had a few choice words, nearly grabbed the whole thing and threw it against the wall, but decided not to.

So that has been my crappy day so far. I just wanted to walk out in front of a car on my way back from class. Actually, the whole week has been kind of a rollercoaster. Im ready for it to be over. Except, it will only get worse since I have to be bartender for our Halloween party on Friday. So for the rest of the day, I might drive to Rochester to put some money in my account, I still havent paid rent for this semester. But once I do, I will once again be flat broke. Fun time is over.

Today is Alive

Yesterday is dead
It occurred at midnight last night
Should we mourn its death?
Should we keep it in our memory
Going over its events
Either painful or joyful
Living in the past?
Or should we move on?

What about tomorrow?
Tomorrow is unseen
Like a being that doesnt exist.
Tomorrow has no thought
No feeling, no purpose
It doesnt mean anything.
Tomorrow is subjective.

Should we embrace this day
As its moments unfolds?
Never again will we experience
The feeling of this instant.
Have we forgotten
The worthlessness of yesterday and tomorrow?
Today is objective
Today we feel
We think, we have purpose
Today is Alive.

Girl on the Trek

So, I have seen this girl about three times now, actually even twice today, and she makes me smile. There is a girl that rides a white Trek, just about like the one Todd rides, and everytime I see her, she just looks like she is really enjoying herself. Shes a fairly attractive girl, on a Trek, and is always smiling while riding. That makes me smile. I hope to see her around more, although, if she werent on her bike, I probably wouldnt recognize her.

People and our Things

I am finding out more and more that people love their things, their possesions, their trinkets, their stuff. And it seems like the more things they have, the more they want. That just doesnt make any sense. And some people just wont let others be near their things. But then there are others who realize that their stuff is just that, stuff. Just this weekend I ran into a couple of cases of both. The first incident was that one of my friends let me borrow his car for the weekend. This was a very generous gesture, considering he has a pretty nice car and I would be driving a couple hundred miles the whole weekend. When I asked to borrow it, he didnt even put up a fight, basically a quick "yeah sure" and some basic rules like "dont wreck it." But then I ran into the other people. Someone wouldnt let my dad borrow his truck for a day to tow our Samurai. He said that he didnt want anything to happen to it, if something where to happen, it would rather be himself that did it. Thats such bullcrap. Not to mention an insult to my dad. Its just a truck.

Then there are the people that have it all but its still not enough. I hate to pick on people, but I have to give an example: A family friend has three motorcycles, two of which are his wifes(the 650 didnt have enough power), three offroaders, a boat, four vehicles, a hot tub, a swimming pool, and many other little trinkets, and the other day he was talking about getting another smaller trailer, aside from the long one, in case he only wanted to haul one vehicle instead of two. When is enough....enough? Holy cow, how can you own so much and still not be content? I have another friend (hes gonna read this and hate me) that has four ipods, just got a shuffle recently because the other three were too big, couldnt work out with them. I mean, Im not saying that Im perfect in this area either, I too like having "things" (luckily I can never afford to own more), I just have to remind myself that things, take my car for example, is just a bunch of metal and plastic and rubber strategically placed together to produce a swift mode of transportation.

While AJ and I were on our trip, while watching the sun rise we were next to this big, beautiful house on the beach and I made the sarcastic comment that their pool, hot tub, awesome veiw, boat, second story, and what was probably their second house probably made these people really happy. He got a kick out of that. Are our things making us happy? Maybe for a couple of days. I know that I get a thrill out of a brand new possesion. But does it make us happy to own more, and more, and more?

Todd and I had a conversation earlier this summer that stuck with me about people and their possesions. It was a little far fetched, but it would be awesome if it were true. He wondered why we couldnt all just share our possesions, he asked why every single family needs their own lawn mower, why not just have one mower for the whole block that we could use when we needed? During TNT(Thursday Night Thing) at Campus House Church, we are studying Acts in the Bible, and it says that the early church did this. They would share their possesions, their possesions didnt belong to one single person, but a whole group of people.

I really dont have a solution to all this, I just wish we wouldnt focus so much on our possesions. It seems like a waste of time.

Fall Break Part IV

TUESDAY
So once again we woke really early, AJ set the alarm for like 5:30 or 6am, it was still completely dark out. We wanted to get up before the sun came up so we could watch it rise, plus we needed to get off the beach before patrol came by and arrested us. So we packed up the tent and sleeping bags, headed to Dunkin Doughnuts for coffee and a doughnut, then to a Kill Devil Hills beach. It took a while for the sun to come up, we had to wait like a half hour or so, but when it came up over the water, it was absolutely magnificant. I couldnt believe how beautiful a sunrise would be over the ocean, the colors were so saturated, I wanted to paint it or something.

While leaving the beach we discovered that this beach actually had outdoor showers to wash sand off....so we whipped out the bottle of shampoo and washed up a little bit before we hit the road. Kill Devil Hills had a bunch of monuments for the Wright brothers since its where they took the first flight. So we checked out some monuments, then hit the road again.

This is the last day of our adventure, and we knew we had a long day ahead of us because we had to drive all the way back to West Lafayette. After leaving the Outer Banks, we hit Roanoke Island, which was also beautiful. Most of the drive through NC was pretty uneventful though. Once we got to the western part of NC, we hit the mountains again, which were gorgeous once again. We knew that on the way back home, we wanted to hit the Blue Ridge Parkway, a scenic road along the ridge of the Appallacians. So we got on that shortly after arriving in Virginia. This road was pretty awesome, every so often there would be a lookout so we would stop and look at the views and take some pictures. They were pretty astounding. The road was taking forever though, we were on it for a couple of hours, and the speed limit was only 45, so although it was scenic, we lost a lot of time there. Once we got off in Roanoke, VA, we got lost and couldnt find the interstate, we had to stop again and ask for directions. We actually had to back track, we probably could have made it through Virginia in like a half hour, but it actually took a good part of the day to get through. We finally made it to the toll road through West Virginia, and somewhere in VA or WV, we drove through Tobaccoville, which as you can image, smelled like delicious flavored pipe tobacco. So we stopped there at a Wendys and asked people where the smell was coming from, apparently there was a tobacco factory there, which makes sense. And once we got to Ohio, it was beginning to get dark already.

So we drove in Kentucky along the Ohio-Kentucky line for a while, drove over the Ohio River on another awesome bridge, and stopped again in Ohio. We were both pretty exhausted, I had to get a 5 hour energy shot at the gas station. AJ got coffee, and drove for a while till we got to Cincinatti. My energy shot wasnt very effective, it gave me a hyper drunken feeling. So in Cincinatti I got a Starbucks double-shot drink, I needed the energy since it was my turn to drive, to get us back to West Lafayette. Man, that drive from Cincinatti to West Lafayette was a struggle. AJ was in and out of conciousness the whole time, everytime he would doze off I would jerk the steering wheel or roll down his window to keep him awake, but it didnt help much. We would even be in the middle of a conversation, and literally after one second, I would look over and he would be asleep. What a horrible co-pilot. I was just singing really loud trying to stay awake, it wasnt too hard for me to stay awake since I knew the consequences of falling asleep.

But eventually, at around 2am, we made it back to school!! Ill tell you what, this is one trip that I will never forget, it was probably the best vacation Ive ever been on. And, surprisingly, AJ and I are still friends after the trip haha. A couple of times we both got cranky, but it wasnt a big deal since we were running on little sleep the whole weekend.

Here are some stats from the trip:
Miles traveled: 2,528
Fill-ups: 7
Gas Milage: Appr. 28-29mpg
Hours driven: Appr. 45 hours
Money spend:
-gas: $272.10 ($136.05 each)
-food for me: $22 for seafood dinner, Appr. $20 in coffee and misc.
-helicopter ride: $22
-total: $200.05 for me
States traveled through: 7

Surprising twist: Wednesday, the day after the trip, I was on my way to the Indiapolis Airport to pick up Stacee and Steven, got about 10 miles down the road, and my car broke down. It started to overheat, so I pulled over, then steam started shooting out the hood. It turns out, where the radiator hose joins the radiator, the connection is busted off, so I now have to buy a new radiator for my car. God was on our side for this trip :) His hand must have burned like hell holding that hose on the whole trip.


Watching the sun rise

Wright bothers sign

The hill from the first flight

Blue Ridge Parkway

Scenic outlook

The end of the adventure!

Fall Break Part III

MONDAY
Monday was also jam packed with adventure! Again, we woke up early, I think AJ set his phone alarm for 6:30 or 7am. So we got up, said goodbye to Steven and Stacee, and hit the road again. We drove for a few hours up the coast when I accidentally took a wrong turn to the Isle of Palms, an island off the coast. And since we didnt have a plan, we just went with it. We arrived at the Isle, found the closest beach, and watched the ocean once again. This time the weather was perfect, and there were some pretty nice houses along the beach. Also, I found a one-legged bird hobbling around on the beach, it cracked me up! AJ said that its other leg was just tucked under, but I still think it only had one leg. We didnt stay at the isle for very long, maybe 20 minutes, then hit the road again. We knew that we wanted to drive through Myrtle Beach, just to say that we've been there, so that was going to be our next stop.

On our way to Myrtle Beach, we drove through Charleston, SC. One of the highlights of the trip was driving over this big beautiful bridge. We could see it coming from miles away but had no idea that we were on the road that drove over it. What a shock! It was great though, theres pics below.

We arrived at Myrtle Beach sometime around noon, I think. Stacee had been telling me not to stop by Myrtle Beach, that it wasnt worth it, and was just a huge tourist attraction, but she was wrong, and it was probably my favorite stop on the trip. Shortly after arriving, we were driving down the highway when we saw a huge sign that said "Helicopter rides-$20." We looked at each other in disbeleif and agreed that we had to check it out. When we got there we found that it was true, the Intro flight was only $20. So we signed up, waited about ten minutes, then were in the air. This flight was the first time I had ever been in the air, I have never been on an airplane or a helicopter before. The flight only lasted a couple of minutes, we just made a small loop around Myrtle Beach and a little bit over the ocean. But we were so far up! Ill admit, I was scared for a second when we banked to turn. That was a great experience that Ill never forget.

After the helicopter ride, we headed to the ocean once again. I looked around for a while for a public bathroom or changing room so I could change into my suit, but for some reason there wasnt one anywhere along the beach. So....I changed on the beach, got as far down to just my boxers, put my suit on over them. Im sure people enjoyed that free show. Then we played in the ocean for a while, actually a pretty long time. The waves were huge, I mean, some of them had to be like 10 feet tall. After we played in the water, we had to scope the beach for some honeys, but unfortunately, the beach was full of old people and people that shouldnt be wearing anything less than sweats. I think we counted about three cute girls along nearly a mile stretch of beach.

After we left Myrtle Beach, we knew that we wanted to head to the Outer Banks, a long stretch of islands off the coast of North Carolina. It took us the rest of the day to get there. On the way, we did run into a few incidents. At one point, I pulled up to a guy on a crotch-rocket at a stoplight and once the light turned green I took off like a bat-out-of-hell to race him. I just wanted to see him fly past me, which he did. But that must have gotten him all excited, because for the next fifteen minutes or so, he kept driving crazy and doing tricks on his motorcycle to try and impress us. First he sat on top of the tank and stretched his legs out. Then he jumped off to the side of the bike and let his feet drag along the ground, which made his shoe catch on fire. He started shaking his foot to put it out, and it smelled pretty bad, we could smell burning rubber from inside the car. I pulled up to him at one point to tell him to stop because we didnt really feel like seeing someone die that day, but he couldnt hear because he had headphones in his ears. And......he died. Just kidding.

Later on, once it got dark, AJ was driving and kept whining about how dark it was. I think hes afraid of the dark or something. Plus, we kept missing our roads, and eventually got lost, we had to stop at a gas station and ask how to get to the outer banks. We had to drive all the way to the north part of NC to get to the north part of the outer banks because that was the only way to get to the islands, well thats what we thought at the time. But when we arrived to the northern outer banks, it was really creepy. It was night time, hardly any traffic, and nothing but swamps. Then I saw a random guy in overalls in the ditch facing the fields. I think he might have been a ghost or serial killer or something. That was pretty freaky. We finally got to our destination at around 11pm, stopped at a rest stop to brush our teeth, make a poopage, change clothes, then once again headed to the beach.

We stopped in a town called Kitty Hawk, which seemed like nothing but a residential area, there were nothing but nice houses along the beach. We got to the beach, scoped it out, then AJ brought up the idea to pitch a tent on the beach. I was hesitant, just because I knew that the other beaches had no sleeping as one of the rules of the beach. But we looked at the rules for this one and it never said we couldnt sleep, so we found a vacant house and set up camp right behind it in the sand. We got to bed at around midnight that night. It was tough falling asleep though because I was worried about getting in trouble for being on the beach, plus we thought the high tide might wash up and drown us. So I only got a couple hours of sleep that night.


The awesome bridge in Charleston
Nice houses in Isle of Palms
Isle of Palms

One legged bird

First flight ever

Banking over the ocean

Crazy dude on motorcycle

Just after sunset

Stay tuned for the final day of adventures!!