There’s no doubt Ashley and I have thought about our respective futures. Ever since childhood most people think about “what they want to be when they grow up.” I’m not sure about her or other people, but I never really thought about my significant other in those dreams. Honestly, I had lots of thoughts about what I wanted to become when I grew up. And please excuse the cliche ones:
Clay and Rob came to visit. They provided lots of fun and even brought a few cd’s. Perhaps my favorite song is a cover of Rockin’ Chair by Death Cab for Cutie. There were a few other good ones from Nada Surf, Fall Out Boy, and Modest Mouse.
Only 2 months and 4 days left until the big day. Everyone keeps asking if I’m nervous, which I slightly am, but not for the reasons most people are nervous before their wedding. I’m actually a little nervous about making sure things go right. I usually get nervous about making sure things go to plan. I just want to be sure Ashley has the best day. There’s absolutely no anxiety about getting married. I get to spend the rest of my life with my very best friend.
I also updated some of the wedding stuff in the past few days. Ashley, Chip and I also created a facebook application called Birthday Card, which allows you to post birthday cards on a friends wall, instead of just a boring message. In the three days it’s been live, we have 941 active users. We’ve also raised a total of 58 cents. Yay.
Tomorrow Ashley and I have a 10AM appointment at Gene’s Bridal. She’s doing a dress fitting then we’re looking at possible tuxedos. I’m standing firm on the tuxedo t-shirt. I feel it best matches the current mullet I have. All I’ll be missing is a case of Bud diesel – guess we’ll save that for the wedding day. [Gotta remember to stop making jokes about the wedding ... and getting married ... and short people]
I figured it was my time to write an entry here. This is actually my first blog ever, so bear with me. We have been engaged for a little over two weeks and those weeks have really flown by. We have found a place for the ceremony and reception. They are going to be held at the Pavilion at Patriot’s Point. If you look at the memories section of the website you can see pictures of it. I also found my dress, so that’s exciting!
This week we want to figure out what we are going to do as far as music at the reception and also blocking hotel rooms. We are not sure where we are going to go on the honeymoon, but we are also starting to get our passports ready just in case. View full article »
3:00 PM
I decide I’m going to do it. Free Chick-Fil-A for a year. That’s 52 coupons for free value meals. I tell Lori where I’m going and head from Mount Pleasant to James Island. It seems every cop in the world is on the same road I am forcing me to not speed. I even almost kill a bicyclist as he
veers onto the connector trying to fix his CD player.
3:20 PM
I make three friggin’ trips around the block trying to decide whether there’s already 100 people in line. Finally, after 10 minutes of driving I decide I’ll be mad at myself for a long time if I at least don’t get out and see what number they’re up to.
3:30 PM
I just missed a sign-in and now they’re doing roll call so I have to wait 20 minutes. I find out I’m number 106 – just 6 people shy of being guaranteed a spot in the top 100. I decide to go ahead and sign up hoping that at least 6 people ahead of me will drop out.
4:00 PM
My nuts are on fire. I’m in blue jeans and a collared shirt. Finally I get some reinforcements and a change of clothes. Ashley signs up as number 122 and Chip doesn’t wanna hobble across Folly Rd. to get his driver’s license so he decides to hang out. I’m told they’re gonna have roll calls every hour. Anyone over the top 100 get entered into a raffle for 5 of the prizes. The longer you’re there the more tickets you have the raffle.
8 friggin’ 30 PM
Over 4 hours before another roll call. I’m pretty pissed but a free chicken
sandwich heals all the pain. That plus the pizza we ordered. Time’s gone by pretty fast at this point. Having Chip and Ashley there make it a hell of a lot better considering there are definitely some strange folks at this thing. Luckily I’m not one of those. 
I’ve already written about having a swollen uvula. It gets about 5 – 10 hits a day from search engines. I’m writing another entry because it’s happened again. Friday night I went to bed on the couch after drinking. I apparently fell asleep on the couch flat on my back with my mouth wide open. I had less to drink than the last time it happened. Probably about 5 or 6 liquor drinks.
Anyway, I woke up around 6 and new exactly what happened. I could tell it was swollen pretty bad. Instead of panicing and running to the emergency room like last time, I simply got up and started drinking gatorade. I drank about a liter before falling back asleep. Several hours later I woke up with definite improvements, but still swollen. I remember the doctor’s advice from last time to garggle with salt water, which I did not do last time. To fix that Chip, Ashley, and I decided to go to the beach and meet some friends. No alcohol, just gatorade and salt water.
By the time we left the beach which was probably 10 hours from when I first woke up and 6 hours from when I woke up the second time I was completely back to normal. So despite how much uncomfortable it is to swallow you gotta start drinking gatorade.
On a possibly related note. Now that I think about it, both times this has happened I drank vodka and cranberry. I’ve had vodka and cranberry other times without it so I don’t know. Other than this not much has been going on. Chip, Griffin, and I haven’t had much luck finding a place to live. We’ve found several places we liked but they were either out of our price range, in the ghetto, or the owners don’t wanna rent to three individuals – even though it’s a friggin’ three bedroom house.
Work’s going great. I just got back from Artesia, NM where I installed software at the US Border Patrol Academy. I have some pictures from the trip. The folks at work made a special picture using my nickname at work – Bearl. I also posted a few pictures from the Charleston Beer Festival which includes a random photo of me and Stephen Cooley.
I’ll be moving again soon. Hopefully closer to the beach. I’m looking forward to it because of the obvious reason of being so close to the beach, but also having roomates again. Some people are glad when they finally get rid of their roomates but I’ve found that I enjoy the company.
Chip and I have mimmicked the 5 D’s of Dodgeball – Dodge, Dip, Duck, Dive, and … Dodge – with our own 5 B’s. Bitches, Beaches, Beer, Bocci, and … Bitches. Other than work and goofing off there’s not much more I can say.
Finally, I write. I wanted to before but everytime I’d start I quit. A lot has changed in my life since I wrote last. I took at job at VarnerMiller in Mount Pleasant, SC. It’s right outside of Charleston, SC. I like the job. I’m a systems engineer but my duties range from network administrator to programmer. I am “the” it guy. It’s a much different role than the one I had at Winthrop. This week I worked on fixing some neglected network issues as well as acquanting myself with Flash and it’s ability to communicate with a database.
That crap probably doesn’t excite you like it does me. And not in that sexual excitement way. Well, wait. Anyway, my bosses were amazing enough to offer me a place to stay. I’m living in the townhouse they own which is near they’re house. I lived with Chip and Ben in West Ashley for a week. I had more fun there just because I was around people but living on the couch wasn’t too exciting for 3 or 4 months. The drive is 1.1 miles less now but I think it takes about the same amount of time simply because of all the friggin’ people. I used to think there were a lot of people in York County. It’s just car after car out here.
I’m thinking it’s gonna be hard in a few months when I move in with Chip and Griffin. The place I’m in is nice. I mean nicer than anything I’ve ever lived in before. It’s hard right now living by myself. I’ve had a roomate for lived with the parents for twenty-two years and how I’m all alone.
About the title: there’s a lot of construction going on around here. I believe a majority of the construction workers are Mexican. Because of that there’s a taco truck that comes around. It looks and sounds just like an ice cream truck – including the kid music playing. I built up the courage to go over for lunch today and get a taco or something but the damn thing drove off before I could get there. I need to be quicker I guess.
I know I know I know – it’s been over two months since I’ve written anything. I really have no reason. I just didn’t feel like it. I can try my best to give a quick recap. For Thanksgiving Ashley and I went to the Ramsey’s in good ole Hickory Grove. I think she went home after that but I can’t remember. I graduated from Winthrop. Christmas came and went. I bought a truck. I accepted a job at Winthrop as an Information Resource Consultant. That’s pretty much it.
I like my job at Winthrop. I like the people, the school, the environment, the work. There’s really nothing bad about it. I am, however, still looking at some other jobs. Tomorrow I have a job interview with the Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department for a webmaster position. I had an interview in Charleston as well so there’s still some other possibilities out there. The biggest thing is I just wanna get out of York County for a while. That’s pretty much all that’s happened.
I did add some random snapshots of the past couple of months.
For those that don’t know I applied for a job in Charleston as a software engineer. Well I found out that they have decided to move further in the application process with other applicants. There are several things which make this really suck. I’m not that hurt that I didn’t get that job. I was actually honored to have been there. Half of the applicants had masters degrees. There were really four schools represented: Clemson, UGA, Georgia Tech, and Winthrop. Winthrop isn’t exactly known for their computer science department so it really speaks that I was invited down there. I did get a free night in a fancy hotel as well as a laptop bag.
What’s made this rejection hard is a couple of things. First being I’ve manifested this job into “what I need.” Everything about it seemed to be what I need right now. The facilities were amazing. The pay was great, and most importantly it wasn’t in York County. It seemed like my ticket out. Not that I am 100% set on leaving this county I just got excited about being in a new area with new things to do.
The second reason it’s exceptionally hard for me is that I haven’t lost in a while. I know that sounds conceited and I’m not trying to be. I just mean that in some time the things I apply for or decide to go after, I’ve been fortunate enough to get. I look back at all the jobs and positions I’ve applied for such as: my current job, the Carowinds job, being orientation staff coordinator, being an orientation assistant, working for residence life, getting into Kappa Sigma, getting into Winthrop. All I can focus on right now. Getting turned down – having someone say that I’m not good enough has really knocked the wind out of me. I have been very wound up in anticipation for graduation and getting a real job but this has just knocked me down a peg or two.
