Well I'm off work, but wifey ain't, thus the dilemma of my everday. I get off at 4:45, she gets off at 5:00. We played some rousing games of Uno last night, I mostly lost... mostly. We're psyhced about going to the Crabbs for New Years and the possiblity of Obscene Gene coming to Chattanooga for the weekend is exciting, Gene is my brother Pete somewhat of a local celebrity for those who knew him in his infamous Covenant days. The RA of catacombs that said, "Its too hard to turn my friends in for smoking, I'll just join them." He made a good three week run at trying to be a responsible RA, that's been the catacombian record of sorts for shortest time alloted to being the administrations enforcer. Roe almost made it a semester, though mostly because of his love of J. Jones, mostly. I tried really hard when I was an RA for the first semester. I tried to be the guys guy and plan cool events and be a leader and enforce discipline but I realized that in the end thats not what the guys wanted. So i too resorted to just being one of the guys. Its easier sometimes to lead the guys around you when you're one of them and not necessarily an outsider, which is what the evil empire of student development would have its RAs be. Evil Narcs on every hall keeping people in line and punishing those who get out of line, with the exception of rich kids, soccer players, and basketball players, they're intitled to free reign morally, academically, sexually, and physically. Covenant's track record speaks for itself, I don't have to back that up, and any covenant student who denies that is ignorant to the truth.
But enough of my complaining its time to go home.
I hate this computer! I typed a whole paragraph and then with one miss type of a key the whole thing got deleted... and I'm too lazy to write what i wrote again. Basically to sum up, I bought a Sony 5 megapixel camera on friday....
WIth a 50$ mail in rebate and 20 bucks off from the store so I jumped on it. Though there was a glitch as there always is whenever one conducts business with sears, they didn't have any cameras in stock. though i'm not suprised they never carry anything in stock, sometimes i think they're stilll really doing the mail order catalog thing just with a store to throw in a middle man. I'm supposedly getting it the third week of January but I may try to rush it up a bit by calling the chattanooga sears and seeing if they can't speed it up, though i doubt they will. After that it was off to Atlanta.
We went to the wife's grandparents and had a huge old southern meal of roast beef, sweet potatos, green beans, squash caceroll, rolls, corn bread, and a whole mess of deserts. We then watched the wife's cousins open their presents, I had already opened mine down in macon so it was more of a spectator sport for me. Oh and after everyone left Wife, Mother In Law, and I played Settlers till 2ish. We kept playing because I kept losing and after my third miserable defeat I caved and we went to bed. Saturday we went to see Cheaper by the Dozen with the fam. It was generally "eh". Steve Martin was good as the dad i guess, I really liked the Superman guy from the Tv show who played the oldest son. At times I wished the movie could be more about him adjusting to his new school and trying to go from being the all star football player in his rural illionois school to being a football player on a yuppy big chicago school team. Though no such luck. That blond chick who's the teeny bopper girl was dang annoying, she can't act in my book, either that or thats who she is and she wasn't acting she's just dang annoying. Ashton Kutcher is kind of obnoxious too. I like Bonny Hunt though, she's allright. The problem with the movie is there's just too many kids. You can't get a good glimpse of all of them.
After that we went to a wedding where I knew no one so needless to say I was bored out of my mind. The wedding was at a PCUSA church and no offense to any PCUSAer's but you guys are wack! Well not you necessarily, but this one was. Well, not the church, really nothing at all, actually everthing was fine except the woman quasi preacher that gave the "homily" at the wedding. Basically she gave what some would call the "charge" to the couple. Though she only knew the bride, a big hinderance when speaking about a couple, and she kept referring to the bride's affection for teddy bears. She was trying to draw an analogy between a couple loving each other and a person loving a teddy bear. And it all sucked to maintain my normal level of honesty. She kept saying we choose to love our teddy bears and blah blah and we need to choose to love our spouses. Well to me its not that simple. I don't believe I can choose to love my wife, its a freakin command! If I don't do it, I'm deader than a door nail. There's no choice about it. Granted I like loving my wife, I love it in fact, but there are times when its hard. Like when she wipes the floor with me at Settlers. But for me there is no choice, its a commitment. A choice can be made to date someone, a choice can be made to be engaged, but once you walk down that aisle, say your I do's, and go to that honeymoon, boom bam no more choice you're cocked locked and ready to rock...odd choice of words there. Thats the way I saw it when I got hitched. I had made a commitment that was irreversible, my love was bound in that commitment and therefore both my commitment and my love are bound to my wife and cannot be separated. I guess I would agree that you choose to love at the altar when you say your i do's and kiss the bride, after that its commitment and love, no choice. I don't know, basically It felt like anyone who had a half a brain was rolling there eyes at the teddy bear analogy. That and the couple never said officially, "I do" they didn't even say "I will" for all intensive purposes I don't even think they can call themselves married if they don't agree to marry in a verbal form.
Well needless to say the Holton Hensley wedding retained its title for best wedding of 2003. I mean that poor couple didn't stand a chance... I mean come on meatballs and stuffed mushrooms at the reception and an open bar! I mean how cheap can you..... wait we didn't have that stuff...... and that stuff is good.... aw nuts. Well Ok our reception might have lost, but our wedding woooo weeee, I mean me and my wife, our groomspeople and bridesmaids were way more attractive than them. Uh oh, getting shallow and mean, better stop.
Played Civ 3 all day today, good game. Hunt you need to get it, a lot like Civ 2, very simple. Though Still can't really whoop up on anyone.
Well I've gotten my gifts, and it turns out i've been a good boy. I got my Civ 3 finally thanks to the inlaws. I also got three DVDs, Office Space, I Spy, and Little Nemo. The wife got me the first two and the in laws got me the third. "thats what I'm talking about!" To quote Owen Wilson from I Spy. I also got Settlers the Board Game, eat your heart out Roes! Our copy is ligitimate. Now we'll have to play on the Holton board, the other board is cursed with the bad mojo of the Does. I also got the electric razor as i predicted. I may use some of the money I got to purchase a digital camera. We have some sears gift cards that we received for our wedding that I found out expire. To me that is rediculous you give them the money they should expire.... ugh. But the only thing I really really want from sears is a digital camera so i may head out there tomorrow to get the after christmas sale. The wife got a bread maker and some other stuff that she likes. I gave her a spatula, I'm such a loving husband. I also got the Cold Play Cd, good job wifey. Well its been a fun day and we'll head up to atlanta tomorrow afternoon for a wedding on saturday. I talked to my folks a bit and they sound good. Though mom's sick and having a pretty crappy christmas as far as thats concerned. My brothers are probably goofing off, Obscene Gene and Concerned, those rascals. Gene bought mom and dad some DvD box sets not realizing that they don't own a dvd player, a present I've tried to coax Concerned and Gene into going with me and buying for them the past three years... serves em right for not listening to their younger wiser brother. Merry Christmas adios all .
HAPPY NEW YEAR! Oh wait its still december, it felt like a week went bye as I waited for the in laws internet to get to my site. Well things are well down here. Today the wife and her maid of honor and I went to go see Stuck on You. All in all it was sort of funny, but again the Farly brothers mask an interesting social critique in a sort of comedy. If you remember the whole Shallow Hall movie, that movie had an interesting take on the whole inner beauty thing. IF that movie was true to Hollywoods take on the world the fat chick would have gotten lipo and been hot at the end of the movie and all would be well, but no she stayed fat and Jack Black found the inner beauty and still loved it no matter how huge-mungo she was.
I think Stuck On You has a really good message about the whole plastic surgery era we live in where you get a nip, a tuck, and an implant and you're the next hottest thing since Mount Doom. The movie wasn't too funny, I laughed a good bit but at times it was forced because I felt I was supposed to laugh. But the guys are born at the hip and can't get separated because it will kill Greg Kinnear. Greg is the big shot, good with the ladies, and an aspiring actor. While Matt Damon is a burger flipper and hides in the background when his brother does plays. Its funny to see how each brother allows each other to pursue their dream with them attached. But in the end they get separated, sorry for blowing it, but realize they can't function without each other. Matt can't flip the burgers and make the burgers in 3 minutes or less (the theme of his burger joint) without his brother to help him. And Greg realizes his hollywood dream was a 15 minute bit of exploitation of his "Conjoinedness" with Matt. SO in the end the brothers realize that a simple surgery won't make them happy, they need each other. The thing that they thought was holding them back was really what got them to where they were and made them happy. People these days think if they get that a boob job, hoo ha job, toe lift, finger tuck, jaw reattachement that these things will make them happy and that those physical "deformities" are holding them back, when all it really is, is their lack of self esteem. I doubt it was what the Farly Bros were going for, but i think its cool if I insert that little message into the movie, it gives it a little more depth. Over all the movie wasn't super good, wifey's friend fell asleep, and it seems the Farley brothers haven't been able to duplicate the level of comedy that they had in Dumb and Dumber.
In other news, when I come to the in laws i get to catch up on the past issues of World Magazine that I'm too cheap to subscribe for. I read the one with Aragorn on the cover, the ROTK article was ok, similar stuff has been written in a lot of more secular newspapers so nothing really new was said. What I did find really cool and interesting was the article on the Matrix Revolutions. The Matrix 3 has sort of come and gone faster than Neo flying through the air but the writer really analyzed the Christian themes in the movie, nothing really new under the sun but still very interesting. I can't help when I read about people's opinions of the "themes of christian imagery in the matrix" but this article made me think the movie over a bit. I think most of the time the images, themes, and ideas that are written about in movies are more in the thoughts of the writers than necessarily the ideas of the director, writer, or producer. Though its cool to sometimes put in your own thoughts about a movie. Like in my opinion Rudy is the story of America, Hoosiers is the story of a failure and redemption, and Zoolander is the story of being incredibly good looking. For me Matrix isn't the story of a savior more the story of Keanu Reeves's redemption of his career. Kudos too you Keanu.... Kudos, my friend.
Check out that article if you can it is really interesting. I tried to go see the Matrix 3 again today but its completely out of theaters.
Holidays in macon or going well. I won't likely blog for the rest of the week due to present opening and relative visiting so have a Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.
Ok so Roe and I had a pretty big discussion on my view of culture, or at least why I like certain music and movies. He has tried for sometime to get me into more of an indy/alternative scene or at least become more educated. I explained to Roe that I don't necessarily like indy/alt stuff because its not yet popular. But don't get me wrong I'm not one of those guys who buy anything that the radio station or hollywood tells me to buy. For my tastes in music I rely heavily on my friend's opinion. I weigh others more heavily than others, mainly if Crabby would like something I'd put more stock into it than say Rob Holmes. Why? Well Rob's taste in music frightens me, its a little too too alternative and edgy. Its like he's getting so far away from the mainstream that he pulls stuff from who knows wheres. Me, I'm a mainstream man myself. I wait for the powers that control the river of pop culture to float something down stream that I deem "not bad." Cold Play is one band that has floated down my way. I saw them there, out in the mainstream, thought "Sounds good" so i reached into that stream and pulled them out and called myself a 'fan'. The way i view being into the music scene is like you're chillin in front of the water source waiting for something fresh to come along and you get to it before anyone else. Me, I like to get it after its stood the test of time and made it down stream more and hasn't washed up on the shore. Like White Stripes, I remember when the alt people first heard of them a few years ago and were all like, "Man you got get into this man its soooo good..." and I, being a mainstream man, thought, "No... they're too new I'll wait till they pass the test of time...." and sure enough they floated out into the mainstream and so therefore they have been purified and deemed accessible and acceptable for me. Though i still don't want to buy their cd. Then there's a band thats been in the mainstream for too long and has grown stale. I think Pearl Jam has gotten a little stale, their music just all sounds the same now and its about time they wash themselves up on the shore. Does this make sense, it does in my head, though a lot of things make sense in my head but when communicated to other folks sounds more like meaningless giberish. Well, there's a fine line between wisdom and giberish, and for me there is no line, its all Holtonese to me.
For those interested we'll be in Macon with the inlaws this week. We head out tomorrow after visitng the wife's friends tonight that are all in town to see Lynea and Scott two friends of ours who were missionary/students in Kenya and are now moving to Canada to be missionaries up there. They're in town and thus we're in town.
In other news I"m sucking it big time in Tiger Woods, I can't get past this stupid little skank country club girl.
In other news I played Mario Kart for the cube yesterday at Best Buy with ROe and it was awesome, great game... hint hint.
In other news if you're looking for gifts for christmas for the holton, call the wife she knows all.
Well despite my misadventures on Friday, I did get to see the Return of the King on saturday. Though Tickets were sold out for the show i wanted I did get one forty five minutes later. Roedo Baggins (Josiah's Hobbit Name) and I Cholto Meridock waited in line for forty five minutes to get into the theater. This wasn't a big deal since Roedo and I discussed various aspects of Chattanooga culture and the greater pop culture in general, more to be blogged on this later. Josiah however managed to strike up some deep and nerdy conversations with the thirteen something year olds next to us in line about the inner workings of Tolkien's mythical world. Josiah spouted out info like the excessively passionate and dorky man that I love and wowed the teenagers, they looked at him as the hobbits look to Gandalf, "Oh teach us the ways Master Roe Grand Wizard of Dorkdom." It was all pretty funny and I must say somewhat embarrasing, but thats not a strike against Roe, but more against my weak self esteem, the fact that I still care what 13 year olds think of me...
Well we made it to the movie and it was awesome, though I had to pee only thirty minutes into the movie, which by the way was the fasted recorded pee in history. The movie was with previews nearly 4 hours long, which in itself is pretty amazing. I liked the movie a lot more than Two Towers. This maybe because of a change in my attitude towards viewing the movies. The Fellowship of the Ring was great in my mind and I really thought it was well done and I had very minimal gripes about the changes. The 2 towers though hit me in the gut with the changes and left me questioning the substances Peter Jackson and his editors were taking while editing. After some counsel on two separate occasions from two Tolkien friends of mine, Frederick at church and Crabby at his house, I felt that I was partly to blame for my hatred of Two Towers. I was trying to be too much of a purest and like Frodo, I needed to let go of the ring, or for me let go of the book. The movies can't be the book, can't come close to the book, but what they can do is show a glimpse of the book, which they've done a great job. They've made the sights and sounds of the book come to life, however they've lost some of the deeper meanings and story that make those noises and visuals so amazing. That Crabby beat me into submission in a wrestling match till i granted him that 2 towers wasn't that bad.
That and I think after seeing the extended version of Two Towers i got a better understanding of what Jackson was trying to do, which by the way if you haven't seen, you must because it in a way makes the movie make more sense. For instance the whole Faramir taking Frodo thing makes more sense when Jackson takes the time in the extended to show how much Faramir wants to please his father. There are some killer flashbacks of Faramir and Boromir's love for each other while their Father only loves Boromir and sees faramir as weak.
So We went, we saw, we enjoyed. Josiah seems to get more annoyed the more more he thinks about the changes, but I think the movie was still dang good. The visuals were amazing and completely stunning, my imagination was a little better in certain areas as far as what i thought things should look like ie Mordor should look more like hell and less like a wasteland in my mind. But it was cool i enjoyed all 3 hours and 19 minutes of it (subtracted one minute for the pee break). The wife went to go see Mona Lisa's Bile... er smile with April and they said that it was pretty good, but never the less a chick flick. They also said for those interested its not as Feministical as the critics are making it out to seem. And after hearing wife's take on it, it seems one reviewer didn't even watch the whole movie or missed the point of the movie entirely. Nevertheless i won't see that one.
So my day was exactly a yin yang sort of day. My morning was great, went to work, did nothing, and enjoyed it. Then went bowling with my work team, all the account managers, where I bowled three games, a 95, 50 something, and a 107. You maybe saying to yourself, "Chris did you leave your purse in the car??" And the answer is a resounding, "No, I brought it with me." I have known for quite sometime that I am not a bowler, i think it has to do with the fact that I'm not fat enough to be a bowler but also not in shape enough to be any form of athlete. I'm stuck in this limbo land where I'm relegated to being amazing at video games and Yahoo.com surfing. I'm in a proverbial purgatory when it comes to physical sports, I'm not good at the ones that require strength, stamina, and skill and I'm not good at the ones that require thinking, patience, and determination. So after bowling I left to go pick up some movie tickets for the Roes and Holtons (Me and wifey) for tomorrow afternoon. I got to the mall and it was zoo, all the morons who forgot Christmas landed on the 25 this year were out doing their last minute shopping thus making it impossible for normal shmoes like me to get to their destination. I ended up parking in the mall parking lot and walking all the way to Wynsong theaters: this decision was executed on my part for two reasons....
One: I had a few beers at the bowling alley and needed to work off the buzz that didn't seem to wear off after driving from the bowling alley to the mall. Two: I figured it'd be faster to go by foot. Well one out of two ain't bad. Lucky for me it started to snow... oh wait that sucked! I forgot! So there i am the only shmoe, its a reacurring theme in my life, where was I? Oh yeah only shmoe walking around the mall area dodging traffic and walking through the 30 degree weather trying to reach the Wynsong theater like Frodo trying to make it to the Volcano mountain place. So after my long journey I go up to the ticket counter. Here's where my day started to get YANGY... or is it YINNY???? Which ever one is the crappy one! I ask, "May i have some tickets for to..." Before i could finish the word that was made popular by little Orphan Annie i was interrupted by a resounding, "NO" I thought maybe this girl was making a joke. She was a teenager and teenage women have some sort of affection for hunky guys like me that is coupled with an uncontrollable urge to flirt with me so i gave the question one more shot. "Right can i have some tickets for the Return of the King for tomorrow at 4PM" She again replies, "No we don't sell tickets the day ahead." I begin to laugh partly because of the insanity of the situation and the alcohol affecting my reasoning skills. Luckily I with held the obscenities, though just barely the F-bomb was knockin at the door but i wouldn't let him come out to play, I merely harped on the mentally handicappedness of the situation otherwise known as me yelling "THIS IS RETARDED" though that probably should have been rethought considering the people who take your tickets are usually mentally handicapped these days... whoops my bad. I turn around dumb founded, pissed, frozen, and enraged by my alcohol enhanced anger. I walk back down the parking lot a few steps and stop. And much like Marty McFly's response to the insult of "Chicken" I turned and walked back to that theater and demanded to speak to the manager..... but alas unlike Marty I did not have a Deloreon or a Super Genious Doc Brown at my side to help me. The girl instructed me that she didn't know where her manager was, but I was free to look around for the "Dude in the suit" I realized I was getting no where and wasting more of my afternoon that had already been so dreadfully ruined by the Carmike bastards. I then tried to walk to the mall and see if that theater might actually be in the 21st century and allow me to purchase tickets, one day in advance, but alas they felt it more important to show crappy movies like Gothika and Bad Santa than the most popular and anticipated movie of 2003. So it was all for naught, I wasted 3 hours, most of that time spent trying to get out of the death trap of a mall and came out empty handed. I was so amazed how fast my mind thought of "What can i break" as i fumed in the lobby of the movie theater. I just wanted to start breaking things, though that seems to be my minds gut reaction to any time of frustration or boredom. I remember when registering for china with the wife that at times I'd get so bored and antsy that I just wanted to start smashing all the china, mostly to hear the sound of it all and to see the look on people's face. If i ever become insanely wealthy thats what I'm going to do, go into Dillards and just tear through the china section throwing things up down and all around. Watch out folks here comes the Holton Tornado. I hope to get tickets somehow tomorrow in advance but who knows...maybe I'm just not destined to see Frodo to the end.......
Mysterious Voice in my head: "Don't you listen to them Mr. Holton, you can do it!"
Chris: "Sam, Sam Wise Gamgee, is that you?"
Sam (AKA VOICE IN MY HEAD): "Yes Mr. Holton it is and don't get down in the dumps, we'll see the shire again, and you'll be there with me and Mr. Frodo."
Chris: "I don't know Rudy... er I mean Sam... its hard to get tickets and the mean people at Carmike are blood thristy monsters."
Sam: "Mr. Holton, Gandalf once told me, 'All that we can do with the time that we are given is... um.... They had their time... up there... but now its our time down here."
Chris: "You're right Sam... it is our time.... it is........our time....."
So I've finally been getting into the PS2 Tiger Woods Golf. Its pretty fun though not better than the real thing. One thing that annoys me is it won't allow me to use the putter when I want to. When I play golf, if I'm any where near the green, I putt. Putting is way easier than pitching, chiping, or duffing. A putt can be easy to control, while a chip, if you pull your arms back a little to far, or swing a little too much it can totally screw your shot up and leave you over the green or only two inches from where your ball was in the first place. So thats annoying, that and the computer cheats, but thats the truth on any game. The computer opponent is almost guaranteed to make any putt 10 feet or less, which is kind of cheap. But then they'll pull out some up hill, or even down hill, 20 ft plus putts that are just rediculous, and don't get me started on some of the lamest approach shots the computer pulls. A three wood 200 yards out strait to the pin, yeah right and I'm a good golfer.
In other more important news wifey's hurtin. She's been diagnosed with Broncitas and is on two antibodies. Hopefully she'll be better before Christmas. On another note... I watched Smallville, the WB's attempt at a show that looks at Superman going through the troublesome teens and wrestling with his fate as a super man. I must say it was pretty interesting. I've only watched two shows but its got my interest peeked. I was a huge super man geek when i was into comic books. I got into super man back when he fought Doomsday and died trying to defeat the monsterous monster. I followed the plot and bought the comics as fast as they came out falling into the spiral of reading the mini soap operas. I'd read one comic book, which really only contained about a few pages of actual story, and need my fix for the next installment. Well anyway, speaking from my expereince from the superman stories the tv show diverts heavily. Though its neat to see the similarities and the way they changed some things to make them either more believable or more unbelievable. Anyway, I get made fun of for most of the shows i watch, whats one more. Next thing I know people will make fun of me for watching Dr. Phil. I mean COME ON HE"S SO INFORMATIVE, WISE, and WITTY!!!!!
So far I haven't heard anything from the law schools other than "we've got your stuff, now sit tight and we'll see you next year." So it looks like its time for the waiting game.
Work is going ok. I'm officially out of training now, what does that mean? Now when i have nothing to do I can't chalk it up to "Nothing to study" so i have a harder time now trying to look busy. It was pretty funny one woman came up to me and asked, "Chris, you're the account manager on this account, can you help me figure this email out." I looked at the printed out email and gave it a good, "Hmmmmm.... yeeeees. Ooooook...... aaaaahhhhh..................I have no clue." So like a child thrust into the deep ocean I am learning how to drown. That during a meeting today they talked about making certain accounts settle themselves, this was pretty funny. Because frankly if these certain accounts settle themselves that basically takes out the majority of my job leaving me out in the cold and unemployed.... oh well thats the way the corporate cookie crumbles. Hopefully i'll get into law school thus not having to worry about that. If not oh well. God will provide something.
Well we saw the Nuttcracker tonight and man I finally figured out why they call it the Nut Cracker.... cause I ain't never seen so many cracker's nuts befo! BA DUM CHING! But seriously folks. The wife and I went out to the mall area to dine at the Carabas which has become our new favorite chain oriented Italian place. Formerly it was the wife's Olive Garden, which i found bland and boring, then we tried the Macaroni grill which left my taste buds shouting, "No more too much flavor, system overload" and we settled on Carabas because of good bread with olive oil dippin, and flavorful meals that don't leave your tastebuds crying "MAMMA MIA!" The mall was insane, it was like everyone thought it was Christmas Eve and had to rush out to get that last Tickle Me Choltie doll before they ran out. Every stop light had a cop at it directing traffic, which just made things more hectic. But on to the Nut Cracker what the bulk of this blog is about....
Listen up you chattanooganers! I got a bone to pick with you! I swear I think people here don't understand how things like the Symphony work. Granted this was a ballet, but still the similarities are there. YOU DON"T CLAP AFTER EVERY FREAKIN PIRAWET OR TIP TOE TWIRL! I realize its pretty cool for people who've never seen a person in tights walk on their tip toes but they don't need the applause over the music. It was rediculous! People would just start clapping and it woke me out of my stuper and I was like, "uhh what did I miss?" So anyway, the nutcracker had the most convolooted plot, I mean where did those gumdrops come from? And the Toy soldiers? And how does a rat get that stinkin big and hold a sword and fight a nutcracker???? I want answers people. Maybe he was a relative of Master Splinter, you know Sensay of Rapheal, Michaelangemalo, Donatelo, and Leonardo. Who knows. It was like a bad acid trip or something, only with more tights than humanly possible. Good thing I'm not driving a bus... Soooo many tights, those poor poor legs... I also hope that those women wear steal toed slippers cause man thats got to hurt.
I must say though not a huge fan of the ballet, I'm an opera man myself, no not the character from SNL. I've seen one opera and it was pretty cool, lots of intensity, passion, and clowns. I like how they can sing so... whats the adjective... good. Plus the opera i saw had somewhat of a plot, which is nice. The wife liked the ballet thing though and thats what matters.
The wife let me open an xmas gift today which was nice. Though she bought it today and wasn't sure if I was going to like it so she just sort of said, "here open this and if you like it you can keep it." It was a pair of slippers that looked like Homer Simpson's heads. My feet went into his mouth and it was hilarious though very very very weird. I could just here homer going, "Hmmmm Toe Jam." and then making that gurgling drool noise he makes. We laughed for a good while but took em back, it was too odd to look down and see Homer chompin down on my feet.
I've been thinking lately on the my place in corporate america when all of a sudden it dawned on me the utter depressing fact of Corporate america is that once a person is gone, they're gone. No memorials, no "so in so sat in this cube for ten years," i mean a guy/girl could work their entire lives at a job and once they're gone the only thing to remember their part in that company are the people that worked around them. And unless they some how really touched those people and befriended them, then chances are they'll be forgotten. Its almost the same feeling I get when I walk onto Blackwatch (my dorm hall at covenant). I walk on a hall where only a few souls remember my name, and a few recognize my face. The toilet seat probably remembers the many times I pooped and cleaned it, but it can't talk. The halls can't speak of my playing shirts and skins glo in the dark frisbee, though thats probably a good thing. The gym doesn't remember my amazing exploits on the basketball courts during intramurals... wait I don't either. The library can't speak to the numerous books I checked out and the books can tell anyone that Chris never really read this book though he sited it in his endnotes. My cube won't know when I'm gone, my computer won't know when I'm gone, www.Yahoo.com won't know when I'm gone, no only the people I work beside are there to recount the amazing deeds one man did for his company. My co-workers are the only ones who can recount how I read yahoo article after yahoo article, from the news on the middle east, to the story of the man who stuffed crack in his ear to get through customs. Its rather depressing when you think of how time passes. It really shows me whats important in life, not necessarily the nine hours I'm at work, but rather it emphasizes to me the importance of the hours spent outside of work. The family that I have, the friends, the TV, my computer... my blog, these are the important things... that and frosted mini wheats.
Well I'm tired of taking Nyquil and waking up groggy every morning. So what am I going to do tonight? DRINK!!!! A nice glass of Chianti before bed makes a man healthy wealthy and wise, or something like that, I can't remember I've had a few glasses. My wife is unfortunately watching the rediculous spectacle called teh Bachelor Wedding. Its ridiculous and makes me wish we really had another TV so that I may not waste my life watching this dribble. I keep waiting for one of the papparatizi helicopters to make an emergency landing in the middle of the wedding, guy jumps out, "Sorry had to use the bathroom"
Ugh, another day I had a great blog idea and now i forgot it. Blasted work with no access to blog, work evil, blog good.
On an annoying note I found out that Saruman has been cut out of the entire Theatre Return of the King. So basically count out a few chapters of the book, though I've heard they took out a lot and put in a lot so I'm ready to be annoyed by the changes but will try to maintain a sense of awe in the visualization of my imagination via Peter Jackson.
Tomorrow work we'll be pretty cool. I'm officially out of training, which is kind of scary because now I'm responsible for 21 accounts most of which i know nothing about. So like a lamb to the slaughter, like a catholic thrust into a reformed college, like a single guy walking through a girls hall during open hours, like a chicken walking through Chik Filet, like a child walking through Michael Jackson's living room, like an altar boy walking through a Catholic church.... I'm doomed. Well, hopefully I'll be ok.
Another reason tomorrow we'll be coolio is our office Xmas luncheon on one of the Chattanooga River boats. It should be fun and good food, and at the very least it'll get me out of work for three or so hours. Well the wine is starting to kick in... time for be.........d...............
OK this is getting annoying. So far i've been pretty patient with this whole dang flu thing. But now its starting to seriously annoy me. I feel fine all day, a little tired from the nyquil i took last night but otherwise hunky dorey. Then i lay myself down to sleep and then cough cough flem flem. I can't sleep and my throat is itching and scratchy. Its so annoying. I've already taken Nyquil again for the second night in a row, not so much because i'm coughing so much but because this lame flu is keeping me up all night. I'm so irritated.
Well I've been fighting this cold/flu thing for the past few days and was doing well. I haven't had much sleep at all the past few days and last night was no exception, it was miserable. And thus this morning going to work was like going into a firely lava pit of pain. I braved the journey to work thinking once I'm there I'll feel fine. Well I got to work, shot off a few emails and then all of sudden nautiousness took a hold of me. I went to the bathroom looked at the toilet and "BAAAAALARGHEEHDEALDKFJ" my mornings breakfast, OJ, came up with a vengence refusing to be part of my dietary needs for the day. So I went up to my co-workers who were gathered in the "Party cube" for a birthday and went up to a few of them, "Uh yeah i won't be here today i just threw up, i'm going home" they all fled from me like i had the plague. I went home leaving wifey unfortunately behind at her job, i guess I'll have to get her tonight. So now I'm at home for my official first sick day of my professional career. I love throwing up, well not really, but I've always loved the ramifications even since I was a kid that a barf, spew, puke, or throwup got me out of school guaranteed. And apparently its good to get you out of work...
I watched Live with Regis and also the Ellen Degenlesbo show which was pretty funny however at the same time I played Sonic & Knuckles on my portable Sega Genesis so really my concentration was on taking down that fat guy who makes all the robots. Now I'm watching the Matrix which I'll probably not watch the whole thing. I almost stopped of at blockbuster on the way home but i forgot it doesn't open till 10 or so. My drive home was interesitng with an almost barf in the car and also some wooziness impairing my driving. I'll use the day to just relax and try to recoup. On a sad note wife and I watched our show Alias last night which was pretty good and ended for once without a cliff hanger which helps my blood pressure when there's some closure at the end of an episode. However the show usually ends with a preview of next week's show, last night was not the case. I checked out ABC website but they had no indication of whether or not its going to be on or not next week. I told wife that its probably been canceled and we're going to have to write a letter to ABC asking for them to just send copies of the scripts of the rest of this season. More tv watching discussion continuess....
I try to watch the practice every once and a while. I must say the show is pretty cool. I hated it with Dillan McDermot on it because the show was all about him, his extracuricular dealings ie love interests and not about good court room drama. Now with James Spader this season they've given the show a guy who acts like an a-hole but has a heart inside that souless body. He's like the grinch and every show his little heart beats for his clients at the last second to show that he cares. Its pretty cool. Also they've not had any episode that didn't have an interesting court case. Last night we had the Asian American who blew up his buttox in a toilet that was freshly painted by light a cigarrette. It was funny and sad because Mr. Tang couldn't pronounce his english well so he'd be sitting on the stand saying, "My bottom boom" and it was funny but you felt bad for him because he had third degree burns, which are never good. So anyway it was a good show with that case and a Spader trying to get off a drug dealer for killing another drug dealer in self defense. He won on murder one, got the kid off, but he got murder 2. So enough tv talk.
I'm gonna try to eat something hopefully it won't be barfed up or anything.
I got pretty ticked last night I wrote a post to josiah and steeles comments but my stupid laptop decided to delete the posts instead of posting them. So here goes round 2. I hadn't heard about the guy making the Last Samurai is the same as Legends of the Fall, if I had i might have thought twice before seeing it. Legends of the Fall is I think the worst attempt of a tragic epic. But anyway the fact that the dude made glory makes up for it. Glory is my all time favoritest (its a word) civil war movie and if you watch it with me you're garanteed to see me cry. Never the less the Last Samurai was definately worth the price of admission. I would be interested in hearing Morris's opinion of the movie. I can't speak for the movie's historical accuracy, my guess is its far from accurate but with maybe a few connections to truth.
I have fought off death for yet one more day. The battle with the cold is far from over though. I woke up this morning feeling to shades away from knockin on heavens door. But I decided to not die and instead spent most of the morning watching the U2 Slane Dvd. Now i Know what you're thinking (I'm part psychic, also part french) "Chris haven't you watched that a million times." Maybe, but I had never watched it beginning to end which was a good time. Of course my wife was out of the house otherwise I would not have risked such an endeavor. I spent most of the day trying to muster up some energy. Wife and I went out to catch the Last Samurai with Jay, Jesse, Mac, and Jay's friend Dave. The movie was pretty good, wife said it was excellent, and the general consensus was thumbs up. I think most reviewers have given it some rave reviews but I thought one review I read was pretty good critque. The reviewer said that the movie was a rehashment of Dances with Wolves in japan. The westerner is enveloped into his enemies culture, he falls in love with one of their women, learns their tricks/trades, and becomes one of them. The movie pretty much followed that to the T. But nevertheless it was still a really good movie. The thing that impressed me was......
...the real life action shots, hundreds of men fighting and hacking at each other like they used to in the old days. I must say that real life action is 100 times better than all that cgi crap.
After the movie wife and I came home and checked on the old Football scene. Unfortunately Georgia doesn't know anything about football so that game wasn't going my way. However the the KState OSU game was awesome. I must say it was hard routing for Kstate one of Mizzou's rivals. It was like watching a Lion (Kstate) try to take an elephant (OSU), the Lion has a long shot and the elephant is big and smelly. But you hope the Lion's swiftness will take down the mighty and evil beast. And did it ever. It was an exciting game, and I love it when the BCS system is challenged and this should throw the system for a loop. Bed sleep now.
Well its official, after a few days of putting up a good fight my white blood cells are losing the battle. My cough has developed, my fatigue has increased, and my eyes water, but thats from my sadness. I love how i get sick, right when the weekend starts how lame. I've often been accused of being a wimp when i'm sick, mainly by wifey. I feel that this is an unfound accusation. Sure I whine, cry, and moan when all i have is a minor cough but I feel that history has granted me this right. For eons and ages men have fought bravely on the battlefield, subdued nature, and generally just shoved their weight around making their prescence known. Men have gone to the moon and back, traveled across uncharted waters to amazing new worlds, and led this country as its president for over two hundred years. And thus by men kind's accomplish i justify my being whiney. My brothers and i have put up with a lot and done our fair share of work to keep this planet in relative peace so let us whine, moan, cry, and ring a bell for more OJ. We've earned it.
Christmas is officially here, we finally got a tree. Its a little small but man is it sleek and sexy. Its the Lexus of christmas trees. The house finally smells good and not like my offensive B.O. The wifey stayed home sick today with a cold and I'm fighting the same cold tooth and nail. I drank four nalgen bottles of water today at work and a few glasses of OJ. I'm still fighting it but sometimes these colds are inevitable. Not much else to say. Work is boring but i put up with it because it pays me. My feet are cold. I should put some socks on. I better do that now...
"You can't spell American without 'I can'" My retort to that would be, "You can't spell 'You suck' without 'you.'"
"Walmart isn't the only saving place" My reply: "There's also Target and Sams."
"Jesus Wants your body" Currently on the baptist church next to Sonic on Highway 2, I don't know how to reply to this one...its mostly just really sad, I hope, neh I pray that this is the work of some youngsters and not of any sort of educated or preecherly fellow.
"The most expensive furniture is an empty pew" That is unless its at Factory Direct Furniture. Buy one pew get the second half off!"
"Prayer is like calling home"...... "Why??? Do i ask God for money too?"
Well thats all I've got from five monthes of living in North west Georgia. I can honestly say I worry for the future of Christianity if its left in the hands of the sign evangelists.
Thanks has been given. We had a good time in old St. Louey and I'll touch on some of the high notes. Wifey has bugged me about ice skating outside for the past two years, so I took her out thansgiving day to the Steinberg Ice Rink in Forest Park. Unfortunately for my wife she has been indoctrinated by one too many crappy romatic comedy and or romatic sappy movies where the couple goes to Rockefeller Plaza and fall in love ice skating and end up shagging and live happily ever after. Needless to say the only thing that happened after our ice skating was wifey complaining of her shins hurting and "this wasn't very romantic and its too physically demanding to be fun." Well there you have it, she's not a Nancy Kerrigan. We also went and saw Master and Commader and I can honestly say it Mastered my cynicism and Commaded my attention. It was a really good movie with good dialogue that reminded me of my days on the sea and didn't have any of that gushy love crap that gets in the way of good honest sailing. I also saw for the first time Rudy, which I'm sad to say could not squash my cynicism. I kept thinking of Rudy saying, "Its our time out here at Notre Dame, they've had their time out there, but its our time down here." And also I kept thinking, "Come on mr Frodo I'm open, throw me the ball... I don't wan the ring, I just want to play mr. Frodo." But I can say its a good movie, cheesey, but good and it has a good message of not quiting which people like me need to take to heart or die quitting.
Other than those things we shopped, we ate, we drank, we slept, we drove forever in a car, we talked, we watched football, the typical holiday things. Thats all i have to say about that. I can honestly say I'm a little disappointed in my trip though. Every time i go home to St. Louis i expect to see someone i know from high school or grade school or someone i grew up with. Not once since I left that town four years ago have i ever really run into someone i know. I mean i realize i spent most of my highschool in my room playing video games but i did meet a few people along the way. I think the problem is that I haven't seen any one from high school in at least four years and if I saw them in front of me they'd probably be so different I wouldn't recognize them anyway. I think one time i thought i saw one of my ex-girlfriends at the movies a few years ago and ducked into the mens room till the coast was clear but other than that I've never run into anyone i wanted to see. Oh well. I'll always have the shire, right mr. frodo.