Well its saturday morning which means two things: its 10:30 and I still haven't showered and everything I'm wearing is the color maroon. On saturday mornings I put on this maroon t-shirt that perfectly maches my maroon gym shorts from High School that are a little risque--immagine John Stockton type shorts. Last night my brother Concerned came into town to hang out. We had a nice home cooked meal cooked by wifey and then went to the pub and hung out and listened to obscenely loud, crapptacular blues music. The south african pub owner gave me some of his home made beef jerkey that he hangs in the restaurant so i can be smoked by all the cigarrette smoke, needless to say it was good. We plan on just chilling today run to the mall and show Concerned around town.
I had a bit of scare at work on hump day this week. I failed one of my tests last week and was not understanding anything in class and was worried about my job security. I was the guy in Office Space that thinks he's gonna get fired everyday. All I needed was a meeting with the bob's and I would have gone through the roof. But I went in on Thursday (Hump day + 1) and went in determined to kick some serious insurance ace. And i did, for the most part. We were supposed to go through a dummey account and find various pieces of info and answer 23 questions about the account. I got about 14 answered which was actually more than anyone else, and I was confident that the answers were for the most part correct which no one else really was. Thursday things started clicking and I felt really confident. It was truly by God's grace and love that turned everything around. I started doubting myself because I got distracted and wasn't busting my butt last week and the price i payed was that failed test but God used wifey and his own divine power--and some really inspirational songs on the radio on the way to work (Sidewinder by Red Hot Chili Peppers for instance) and I felt like i could have tackled a six headed hydra on thursday. So the week ended well and I'm ready for the laborious day weekend. Let's celebrate! Drinks on my brother!
Well work has been tough the past few days learning about stuff i don't understand. I'm going to have to get a tutor for some of the material as I think I may already be behind in my comprehension. Its really tough because what we're learning needs comprehension which I've never been so good at. If its something I can study and put to memorization I can usually handle that but this is something totally different. I came home today thinking i may have some sort of brain damage or that there's some part of brain that can process stuff that everybody else can. So I've decided to take some brain stimulants... except they don't exist so I've concocted a drink made up of all the alcohol in the house, a whole bottle of vitamin C pills, peanut butter, Coco Puffs, Coco Pebbles, Coco Krispees (which is different than Coco Pebbles), and one cube of ice. So far i don't feel any smarter but I do have a really good buzz.
I left work today wanting to burn down the building. I was so frusterated with going through a whole day of learning stuff that I did not understand. I talked it over with my boss and hopefully we can address some major problems we can work on and fix. ITs not like i'm wasting my time, at least i don't think I am. We'll see hopefully I can nip this thing and its really to Cigna's benefit that I make it through all this training crap otherwise they wasted a lot of money on me for a few weeks.
Other than that My new favorite song is Wonderboy by Tenacious D. Although I can't condone, support, or even listen to a handful of their songs Wonderboy, Hornets Nest (which was on SNL not on the album), and Tribute are perhaps some of the funniest and well written songs of this year. I can't really substantiate that claim, but the reason I find them so funny is they sound so dumb and sound like something me and Josiah and Mesh would come up with after a few too many pitchers on Safari.
As I awaited the return of my precious, wifey, I worked on some things on my computer, some bills, and then i thought, "Hmm I haven't installed this golf game Crabby gave me, I should just pop it in." I wasn't expecting much (sorry Crabbdawg) but I popped it in and I instantly became a golf course designing expert, golf pro, and hater of weeds that grow up in the middle of my course! I must say it is quite addicting and a bit fun. You can play a game of golf, build holes, or just watch people play the game. But then duty called and I answered it with joy, I went to pick up wifey. So now no more golf... at least for now. And no more blog... for now...
Wifey left me for the night to go home to fix some problems with our wedding album with the photo man guy. So now i sit... alone.... bored and afraid of what lurks in the closet. Oh wait its just my shoes... phew that was a bit scary for a second. Me Wifey and my parental units went to the Canyon Grill at the end of Scenic Highway last night for a bit of a belated birthday dinner on the folks. Wifey and I being a sucker for lamb both got the rack of lamb with mashed potatos. I don't know why lamb tastes so good maybe its because its so pure and innocent and then I come and devour its innocence like a wolf devouring a hamburger. I also got a side of portabella mushrooms which with the lamb and potatos completed a completely 100% succulent meal. I recommend all of those next time you're lost and at the end of Scenic Highway. My pappa got the Ground Mignon which is basically a fancy hamburger and my momma got some pork that was very savory but I won't go into it to keep my jewish friends from falling into sin.
I guess I'll go to work tomorrow even though its going to stink. I have a test tomorrow on some equations on total earnings and calculating margins and deficits. It should be a complete blast (insert sarcasm). I just kicked myself, this job rocks and the fact that is i'm truly grateful for it. I just hope i don't bomb this test. Oh well, there's always my back up plan: Kyrstal Manager-- just for the record they make 40 K a year.
Oh how i missed you my blog let me count the ways.... After a brief hiatus I have returned. My birthday has come and gone and wipe your tears away. My parents are in town to lavish me with attention and gifts. We watched about a boy while wifey went out with her old roommates to paint the town pink. My momma loved about a boy which is good because it is perhaps my favorite movie of the past few years. I feel it is so whitty and hilarious but is not shallow in by any stretch of the imagination. A movie about a man who is the most shallow guy alive has perhaps the most truth and depth in it than anything I've seen since.... well probably since the Santa Clause 2. (JOKE) Right now my three favorite movies I love watching are About a Boy, Matrix, and U2 Boston.
The Matrix I feel is this generation, not necessarily mine but someones, version of Star Wars. I'm not saying its as much of a masterpiece as the original star wars but as far as the pushing of technology, creativity, and a awesome blend of plot and themes i think the Matrix is just an awesome Sci Fi flick. And U2 well, i'm just a geek so I can't really justify it except for the fact that I want to be Bono, Edge, Adam, or Larry. I digress... back to real life...or at least my version of it.
I already listed a few of my gifts i got but the list continues... Wifey gave me the Rescuers Down Under DVD which is my favorite disney movie, she bought me a CD shower radio with a fogless mirror but unfortunately it takes 6 C batteries which is far too expensive to pay that much for that many batteries that would probably make the thing too heavy to hang in the shower and they'd probably die within a few monthes anyway. So we might return it and just buy a tiny cd player. She also bought me some pants and socks, really more a gift for her so i can coordinate better with her clothes. The Crabbinator and the Wife gave me a Sim Golf which he claims is the coolest so I'm looking forward to designing my own golf course and playing on it. My folks gave me (with the help of wifey) two pairs of pants, a watch that is pretty sweet, and a shirt that looks more trendy than i like to get but eh whatever works. My "Concerned" brother couldn't make it up this weekend so I sent my hitman Rosco to go take his thumbs from him... heh heh.
Prepare for a sharp turn......
Moving back to About a Boy there reaches a point in the movie where Hugh Grant reaches rock bottom and every time i see it i get frusterated. His life is meaningless and he has finally understood that and understood that a meaningless life is not worth living. So what I wish, if i could christianize the movie, would be that he of course find Christ because he is the ultimate meaning. Instead Hugh finds his meaning in Marcus and subsequently the people in his life. Which I guess for a movie made by a non-Christian ain't half bad but I always wish that I could tweak the movie and make it resemble more my life. At least thats how i think i partly came to realize my ultimate need and dependence on Christ through coming to that point in my life where i was confronted with the absolute emptiness of my life. I realized that without Him my life was not worth living, it was shallow, meaningless, and empty. In high school i realized that the reason my life was so boring was there was no point, like Hugh grant's character i was an island only he chose island living, I felt like i was marooned waiting for a rescue boat. And any boat you take that isn't Christ (work with me on this one) is merely a Titanic waiting to sink. Whether your life boat is friends, alcohol, materialism, video games, intellectuallism, legalism, self righteousness, these can all seem to be a rescue from the emptiness of life but you'll find that after a few knots that the boat's gonna sink and you'll be at the bottom of the ocean. Its a good thing Christ's boat has some dang good deep sea rescue equipment. Man, that's almost like a Max Lucado book, yikes. I dunno know, I'm rambling I guess. I better shut up before I say anything heretical and get excommunicated.
At work today i hit about that 2 o'clock 2:30 daze where your body stops funcition and your mind decides to take a leave of absense. Most of the time i just let it ride and just remain in my daze till quiting time but today i needed to do a lot of reading (work related) so I opted for the 70 cent soda machine (its a rip off and it burns me but i needed it). I needed something with no calories and good amount of Caffiene of course i went for old faitful... Diet Coke. The DC, the Nutricious Nutra Sweet, Nectar of the Gods, whatever you call it Diet Coke is one fine drink. However I find myself slight to the right of my fellow DC lovers Josiah Q. Roe and Adorably Mesh. I find that although I love a DC and drink it as often as possible I can still go back to the old classic coke and its like heaven is a place on earth... and baby do you know what that's worth?
Here's a brief history of me and my friend the DC. I was coverted early on at college when a friend of mine convinced me that after a while of drinking diet soft drinks you get used to it and begin to enjoy them, this was true. I even convinced my dad of this who used to always get a coke with a lime, now my friends its a diet coke with a lime. But the other day i pulled out the old red can, the original, the classic, coca cola classic. I opened that pop top and took a swig and man if it didn't feel like a party in my mouth and everyone was invited (that line was borrowed from Simpsons episode where Mr. Burns replaces the company softball team with pro ball players. The line was said by Ken Griffey Jr.) Perhaps it was the added sugar that combined with the caffiene to give me twice the buzz of a diet coke or perhaps i received an old coke from back in the day when it had cocaine in it, who knows. I still prefer the DC for health reasons and the fact that the buzz with coke is just too strong for me but there will always be a place in my heart for the real thing...
I've found that you just can't have a true Sabbath until you have a job. Today's Lord's day was truly better than all the other ones this summer because I actually felt like i earned my day of rest. Church was good Pastor Bob laid the smack down as we like to say in the OPC. He was like all, "Your a sinner BOOM, and you can't do jack about it BIP, and you need to repent HIYA!" (Paraphrase) Or at least thats what I got out of it. No actually he had a good sermon on James 5 what he's been working out for the past few weeks focusing today on effectual prayer. I kept day dreaming however about how I could be a better witness at work and how the politics of the corporate world can make being a Christian kind of intimidating. So what I decided is tomorrow I'm taking my holy water and rosaries into work and going to town on those heathens, either that or I'll take a pbj and some fritos, I haven't decided just yet which to take.
Tonight's sermon was on the whole "To tongue or not to tongue" thing. No not a first date dilemma, speaking in tongues. Pastor Bob gave some good pointers of how to effectively communicate in tongues OPC style... don't. I've never really struggled with the idea myself. I mean i speak gibberish all the time but thats on account of my slight mental retardation and massive amounts of video game playing, which as a side note may have caused my mental retardation. I like crayons. However I did have a guy on my hall who said he spoke in tongues one time in his room by himself. Me being the sensitive and caring RA just laughed at him and told him he was wrong.
I also watched the U2 dvd live at Boston tonight after night church and it was pretty cool. I didn't have time to watch the whole thing so I watched my favorite songs and the making of the DvD. I was a little disappointed with the editing and filming of the concert. It seemed the director wanted to have the film go along with the music too much and that the fast pace of the music didn't really call for fast pace camera action like switching super fast between different angles. It kind of left me with a head ache and I thought i was getting naucious but really i just had to go to the bathroom. I kept wanting the camera to just stand still and zoom out so i could get a picture of the whole stage. I guess my expectations are too high and i really just want to relive the experience of seeing them at the Philips in Atlanta two years ago. That concert was by far the most awesome concert to date that I have ever seen. Granted I've only really been to two other major concerts Red Hot Chili Peppers/Foo Fighters and Dave Matthews Band but neither of them came close to the power and intensity of U2. So anyway the Dvd is still dang cool but its not as good as the real thing, much like my blog i guess. Its just so hard to get the vary essence of who i am into a blog... wait hold on.... ok I just had a dilemma that i had to solve in my head. Whether NHL 95 was better on Sega or Super Nintendo. Hey whata ya know i captured the essence of who i am into my blog, today is truly a memorable day.
If that was funny then good, if it wasn't i apologize
Welp, its late and maybe its the insomnia talking, but man you are really good looking. Anyway here be what going down in Ft O town. And da wifey say I gots da bad gramma, dat lady be crazie. So my in-laws came into town and brought us their wedding present to us (I think they wanted to recover from the price of the wedding before they bought us anything) they got us a solid oak kitchen table and chairs. Plus wifey's aunt (mom's sister) got us two armchairs to go with the table. So I officially have my throne to be lord of my manor. And in the words of the immortal Josiah Roe, "its some pretty sweet action." (DISCLAIMER* Josiah's immortality has never been tested he may be susceptible to bullets, knives, spiders, and loud noises).
Moving on for those of you who didn't know 23 years ago a child was born however this was no ordinary newborn boy. His parents being of Gypsy lineage felt he would be better suited in another family as he did not appear to like stewed cabbage and bandanas two things Gypsies are required by law to love. So the drifters left this boy in a newspaper in the gutter in front of a moderately wealthy family's house hoping a life of middle class luxuries would suit him better. The middle class family, the Holtons, came out of their home the following day to find the young dirty boy in the gutter still wrapped in his newspaper. The family took him in and raised him as one of their own, and that boy was I... or at least that’s how my brother told me how my parents found me. But either way its my birthday this week and I'll cry if I want to... oh and you better believe me i want to.
In honor of this once in a year event the wifey's parents came up, gave us the table, and took me out for an early birthday dinner at the Olive Garden. It was pretty good food and my dad, the one that found me in the gutter, flew in on business and was able to join us for a hearty meal. Now for the past three years I've pretty much asked for one present and one present only--the U2 Live at Boston DVD and every year my hopes were dashed, smashed, and crashed. But In-laws came through and hooked me up with that, a cool tie, and socks! I actually am really excited about the socks i really needed some. So it was pretty rockin as the kids are saying these days. My dad is flying out Sunday morning to South Carolina, he's got a pilot's license-has for a long time and flies on business all the time. Its pretty convenient for him since traveling on the airlines these days is takes just as long as driving with all the baggage checks and cavity searches. But he plans on coming down with my mom next weekend and hopefully my brother will be coming up as well to celebrate my 23rd b-day. It should be groovilicious.
Welp Pilgrims, another day of doing a lot of nothing has bit the dust. I'll catch you up on the past two days. Yesterday i met my boss and she took the new hirees out to lunch at TGIF. If you know me, you know how much i like to eat out, so needless to say i was looking forward to this, but my dang cold kept me stuffed up and i couldn't taste a thing! I might as well have eaten styrofoam that at least would have had some fiber. Then we went back to work and surfed yahoo for the rest of the afternoon. Last night we went out because our friend Jay was in town and went to Queerdoba a new lame mexican restaurant down town. On Chris's scale of restaurants it rates very low, almost as low as Hardees. It lacks the class and atmosphere of a real mexican restaurant and lacks the cheap food of Taco Bell. Now i only had half of my taste buds because of my cold, but the half of the food i tasted was not worth my money.
Continue reading to find the secret of life
Just kidding hahaha.
Today was at least a little productive. They finally got our benefits logon so we got to set up our benefits which was informative and interesting. Then we did some online training that was pretty easy. I also tried to drink a nalgene bottle of water every hour, needless to say i went to the bathroom a lot which was great because as i stated before going to the bathroom kills at least five-ten minutes. Every day we've gotten out early which is nice and i doubt tomorrow will be much different.
I really like the sound of my job, i talked with my boss about it today and it sounds like i'll be taking a look at accounts and analyzing why accounts lost money or made money and I think attempting to help influence future decisions underwriters make. I think... but then again it may end up being different. This position hasn't existed in Chattanooga before so its kind of new to all the people here. But training starts next week and I'll be taking tests and classes till december. Hopefully I'll do well on these tests, quizes and what not otherwise i get fired. But I figure my good looks will get me through... oh wait i'm ugly... dang.
Instead of wasting a post on another day i figured i'd just right a comment. Today was a horrible day, I've come down with a nasty cold and usually when i'm sick i just hammer away at the fluid and two days later i'm fine--welp two days later and i still seem to be in the throws of this cold. At work today i did almost absolutly nothing the highlight of my day was my lunch break where i ate a pbj and read crime and punishment. The tecs still havent' gotten our accounts set up so we can't get on the computers. We were supposed to set up all of our benefits on the intranet but alas we couldn't do it. So i spent most of my time re-reading what i read yesterday (this time with the even pages) and another guy logged on my comptuer and let me play around on the company site and yahoo (the only outside source we can access). Out of all the sites we can access they chose yahoo, one of the most annoying search engines created. Plus their news is utterly horrendous it looks like something i would write. But basically my day was spent taking bathroom breaks as that i found is the best way to kill time. I wanted to break out my book but i felt like if other employees saw me not working and doing something leisure oriented they'd be all pissed, so instead i just pretended to look busy. I also was really tempted to play games on my cell phone but yet again i figured looking busy was a better avenue. Tomorrow i meet my boss and hopefully we'll be able to get online or at least they'll hopefully have something else for us to do. My training doesn't begin till next week and i'm looking forward to it.
My department is the underwriting department and my positions facilitated underwriters and kind of acts as a helper to them. Its kind of funny because all the underwriters have cubicles that are six foot in height while mine and my peers are only about 4 foot, it makes me feel less of a person and you really have no privacy because any one can peer in to see what you're doing. I may bring some couch cushions to make some more walls around my cubicle and give me more of that home made fort look.
For those people who care about my personal life, today was my first day at Cigna. All in all it was pretty laid back and easy. I was pretty stressed and I never sleep well the day before a job and this was no exception. I'm also feeling a little sick, which is just dandy timing. But anyway I got ready this morning and i felt like a kid going to his first day of school. There were six people hired to fill the account manager positions at cigna and I'm the only one not really qualified. That is to say i really have no office experience, and i'm strait out of college but i'm not too worried about that. All i did today was get my cigna badge which i had to do twice because they spelled my name "Helton" and i didn't realize it till lunch time. Other than that i just read a packet they gave me about insurance, however there was a problem with that package because it only had the odd numbered pages--which made it difficult to understand everything. Oh well. This week will be pretty laid back but next week i'll be in training and it should kick up. I have my own cubicle and am next to a friend of mine from church which is cool. Tomorrow i should have computer access so i'll be able to blog maybe from work. We'll see.
1. I needed an excuse to go see those chick-flicks that I secretly really wanted to see but did not have the guts to go tell my guy friends that I really wanted to see them. Case in point—Moulin Rouge, anything with Hugh Grant in it, and Legally Blond. For example here is a conversation between two guys…
Friend “Dude what are you doing this weekend?”
Me “I have to go see Two Weeks Notice with my girl friend”
Friend “Dude that sucks man, I’m sorry.”
Me “Thanks man…. Pray for me….”
See the truth is on some level all guys like chick flicks especially romantic comedies. They just can’t admit unless they want to call into question their masculinity. But having my wife take me gave me the cover I needed to retain my masculinity and enjoy the movie without the fear of a verbal and perhaps physical assault from my friends.
2. I like attention and when you get married you get to have three big bashes with all your friends and a bunch of complete strangers whose sole purpose is to give you attention. One problem is you can only have control over one party. Being the groom I got to influence the decisions made on the rehearsal dinner, which is traditionally the groom’s side party. So being from a Roman Catholic background we went all out: country club setting, a band, and all you can drink alcohol. It was a lot of fun for me and wifey. We were the center of attention all night and people got up and gave toasts to how great we were—none of it was true but still it was a good ego stroke and made us feel like good people. The bachelor party can be a lot of fun because you (the groom) don’t have to do squat. Thanks it part to Roemosexual and all the guys that came i had a kickin bachelor party. All my drinks, food, and crack were paid for. Did I say crack I meant rack… like rack of lamb. However there’s a downside everything was taken care of, which was good and oh so bad. Luckily the game of Russian Roulette was canceled due to rain but the guys came up with other ideas to humiliate me. I had one stipulation that nothing done to me could be visible the next day, except a hangover. They tried to wrestle me to the ground and write on me with magic marker but a few brave men stood up for me, I didn’t call the Crabbinator the best man for nothing. So anyway back to marriage—you get to throw these two cool parties and then you also get the reception after the wedding. However having a noon wedding and in-laws with Baptist leanings alcohol was out of the question, which seeing the state of some of the bridal party that day it was perhaps a very good thing there wasn’t more free drinks. But the reception gives you one last ego stroke, before you go and get your swerve on and usually has some dang good food. Lets recap—getting married allows you to have three parties where you are the center of attention.
3. Another cool reason for getting married is to get cool presents. I got a DVD player from my brothers, thanks guys. I got this crazy cool Chinese decorated bowl that doesn’t do anything but man it looks cool. I also got this leopard print… oh wait I’m not supposed to talk about that. Plus you can use some of the crappy gifts you get to regift to other people you know that are getting married…. Uh that is not that wifey and I have done that or would ever think of that. DISCLAIMER I hereby state that every gift that I have received has not been melted down, sold, or pawned.*
4. Moving on, my final reason for getting married: SEX. You know it, I know it, wifey certainly knew it. It’s just plain obvious. What makes men happy? What motivates a man to do all the dishes without having to be asked? What makes men not wear sweat pants in public? What makes a man say, “Yes dear whatever you want.”? What makes a man stop playing video games, go outside, and socialize with other people? What makes a man get a job? Why did Jim Henson start playing with puppets? Why did Mark McGwire break the homerun record? Why did Hitler take over most of Europe? Why did Clinton conduct the air campaign in Bosnia? The answer to all these questions is of course S-E-X.
*Some gifts have been returned due to their defective nature, impracticability, and offensiveness to Judeo-Christian norms.
Whelp, this is my last weekday of being a freeman... Monday I go from being Holtonian the barbarian slash freeman slash video game expert to Holtonian the Cigna foot soldier. I started reading my employee hand book and man what did I get myself into... Wifey and I sold her cds at McKay’s and I’m proud to say that my pop cds made more money than her cheesy country and Christian cds did. Other than that I just hunted nazis... on my computer...not real ones... I thought about it but... its illegal... and kind of against biblical law... killing that is.... even if they're Nazis.... at least that’s what my wife told me.
Moving on... Wifey and I bought five DVD's with the mullah. Beverly Hills Ninja which was not Farley's greatest work but man there's something about a fat guy running around in a ninja outfit that is so funny. Wifey really wanted Miss Congeniality and a Best of Friends DVD. Notting Hill and Oceans 11 were the other two we got. We watched Oceans this afternoon and I can honestly say that the first time I didn't like it much and thought it was kind of too Hollywood but second time around it was a lot better.
I also got the 10,000 Maniac's unplugged album which seems to be the quintessential Covenant college alum married couple cd.
Other than that not much to report... nothing really witty to say either... sorry..
Darr, I'm back in da saddle mateys! After a brief visit to the mother ship (aka in-laws) I'm back in my ole home. It was a bit of a last vaction for wifey and myself before I start my quest to become Drew Carey/Dilbert next week at Cigna. Most of the time at the in-laws for me was spent reading that RC Sproul book i've been slowly reading as well as going to the Macon mall trying to spend our remaining wedding money on stuff for the kitchen that I have no clue of what it does except that my wife assures me it will make my food better. Which is nice. But its good to be back home, wifey and i house sat a rich mountain person's home last week so we really haven't spent much time at home the past two weeks and with the millions of weddings we've been to this summer we feel like we haven't been spending enough time with our thinly walled apartment....
In Macon wifey's folks wanted to buy us a kitchen table as the card table we have that shakes when you touch is getting a little annoying. The problem is they don't have a ton of money and wifey wants a pretty big one that we'll be able to use when we start pumping out the kids. So we picked one out but we're not sure if the parental units will go for it or not. We also raided wifey's cd collection from High School and got all her cheesy country cds that all high school girls listen to and tons of cheesy christian cds that don't meet up to my opc standards i.e. Jesus Freak by the D.C. Talk. So now its her turn to sell her cds to McKays and we'll see if she's as generous with the money she gets as i was, although i doubt i could find too much that i want, except Akira and maybe a game cube game for 10 bucks like madden 2002. We'll see we're planning on going friday. Tomorrow I plan on letting my skin rest from UV rays by playing Medal of Honor for most of the day, one last hurrah so to speak.
Yet another mission has been successful. I obtained 60 $ from all the books I sold to McKays and over 80 $ is store credit for the cds I sold. My accomplice and I used the store credit and purchased six dvd's (in order of coolness) the Matrix, Sleepless in Seattle, Family Man, Miracle on 34th Street, What Women Want, and Stepmom. However the greatest capture came from the used computer game section where I nabbed Medal of Honor Allied Assault for 25 bucks. Medal of Honor I've wanted ever since it came out two years ago but never had the cash to purchase it. But with store credit I’d be a fool not to get it. It plays well on my computer, which is surprising since my computer is getting a bit old now and some games aren't working like the used to and other games just plain aren't working.
My accomplice and I watched What Women Want tonight and realized it's not that great as we had thought the first time we watched it so we'll probably return it soon. That and I've seen the movie now and know what women want so there's no sense in keeping the movie. I wanted to purchase Akira on DVD but the wife overruled me because of its violence... yet she let me get the Matrix, odd...i guess she prefers her violence to be of the more realistic variety. That cartoon violence, hmm, that’s just sick. Oh well. We got sixty bucks though for all those books which will come in handy for feeding our addictions... to food.
I refused to let wifey buy Patch Adams on the firm grounds that I believe that movie is horrendously dumb. Other than that we had no real disagreements over how to spend the store credit. Its kind of a lot of fun because especially for people like us who have lots of books and cds that we've accumulated over college we can give ourselves our own little shopping spree. McKay's won't allow you to use the store credit they give you for books and VHS for purchasing dvds, games, or cds so its best to just take the cash they give you--which is significantly less than the store credit. For example they offered us 108$ in store credit for all the books I sold that could be used only for books, but I’d never buy that many books, I’m just not that edjuamacated.
One of my most favorite things is trimming the fat... no not my own blubber but getting rid of my possessions. I hate being a pack rat and I hate being loaded down with excess crap. I think my brothers and I detest pack rattiness so much because our father has always struggled with throwing stuff away. Our garage was always a chore to clean out because we would pull everything out, throw away a few pieces of rotten lumber, and throw it all back into the garage leaving it in a similar fashion as we found it. What I’ve been looking forward to ridding myself most of these past few days are my cds and books. The venture to McKay's looms near and I prepare myself to be rid of useless crap...
For those people who live in Chatty that never venture past their threshold, McKay's is the all purpose music, movies, and bookstore that buys and cells used sources of entertainment. So far I’ve garnered nearly thirty books and perhaps 20 cds to take there on Saturday. McKay's in the past has been the source of my finanacial security. Whenever I needed gas money to get back to St. Louey come Christmas and Summer Break i would go to McKays and cell as many cd's as I could bare to part with. I've never sold many books there before, one time i sold ten books and made fifty cents. Needless to say that with hopefully thirty books i'll back a buck fifty which can get me six gumballs at the mall, i'm so psyched.
The books I’ll be glad to get rid of considering the fact that I’ll never read them again or ever read them in the first place. Some books of mine I’ve deemed classics and a necessity to keep to impress people that come over to my house books like The Old Man and the Sea, Grapes of Wrath, and Beginners Guide to Yo-Yos. These books portray to my visitors and friends that I'm learned and well versed in the fine literature of this 20th century and that I can spin a mean yo. But I find some of my guests are becoming suspicious of my knowledge of literature. For example a friend of mine came over and here's an excerpt of our conversation (I tape them... I’m very paranoid)
Friend: "Wow, Chris you read Malcolm X's biography, I'm impressed."
Chris: "Well yeah it was a good read. I especially liked the part where Malcolm took out his shot gun and said 'I'll be back' and then shot the Islamic extremist assassin."
I could tell he was suspicious of my actually having read the book but he did not want to insult me so he asked me about another book...
Friend: "What do you think Salinger was trying to say in Catcher in the Rye?
Chris: "Well its hard to say really, I think he needed to use more explicatives to really get his point across...
Friend: "Did you even read any of these books?"
Chris: "...what’s that? I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to leave, family emergency."
Anyway, the CD's I’m trimming away are ones I’ve scavenged from around the globe and bought on whims and at times when I thought it necessary to spend money for the sake of the economy. One time I thought it necessary to buy MC Hammer's Greatest Hits since I would one day want to show my kids what good rap music sounded like when i was growing up. Another time I figured since I was (and still am for that matter) a Christian that I should own a Christian music cd---so I bought the Newsboys Greatest Hits...however they don't appear to have a reformed, OPC approved world view so they've been put in the scrap pile.
So tomorrow I venture to that great castle in the sky known as McKay’s to rid myself of all the useless music and books I’ve accumulated over the past few years. And hopefully I will return with more useless music and books that I purchase tomorrow. Then in a year's time I will turn around and sell them back to McKay's. Ah the circle of life… I hear an Elton John song coming on…
To Quote the Famous broadway play, "Damn Yankees!" The Yankees have done it again. Brett Boone is the newest players of the best team money can buy. Growing up in St. Louis I've been a life long Cardinals fan... I even liked the birds in the Tom Pagnozzi, Todd Zeile, and Greg Jefferies era. I'm guessing George Steinbrenner sold his soul to someone to get the list of players he's got up there. Whereas the Cardinals have all the talent they need but seem to forget to show up to play baseball come game time. This has been the most frusterating season especially after last years amazing season that ended in a crappy finish to "I can't Barry My Ego Bonds." Last year the birds seemed destined to win the big finale what with the inspirational spin the deaths of Kile and Buck gave the season. ANd this year they've talked constantly about unloading one of the classiest second basemans in the game Fernando Vina who has shown nothing but loyalty and a bust his butt attitude for the team. Ozzie Smith is probably rolling over in his grave... if he was dead.