Things Worth Writing Home About
I couldn’t be prouder of my friends, especially the infamous Art aka “Poontang” aka “Fry Daddy”. Artie used 18 gallons of Jell-O this past Friday to engage his apartment in a wrestling tournament. Word apparently spread throughout the campus and he is, once again, famous. Nice work, Art.
Yesterday my roommate opened a jar of nutmeg in the grocery store, tapped some into her hand, and put the nutmeg back on the shelf. She said no one would notice.
It was the most ghetto thing I’ve ever seen her do.
Since I lost my job, I’ve been spending an inordinate amount of time sleeping/wanting to sleep. Part of it, I’m sure, has to do with the fact that the pollen levels have been so high that keeping my eyes open tends to make them burn and itch more than if I keep them closed. But I’m not sure where the rest of this exhaustion comes from. It may be my body telling me to buzz off because of unnecessary stress levels. I can’t say for sure…
In other news, there’s a good chance that I’ll be joining The Whiteman Team, a real estate team located in Guilford, CT. They work under William Raveis and are currently the number one real estate team on the Shoreline. I still don’t know what they are paying but I am hoping that whatever it is, it will afford me a new iPod as my old one has decided to crap out for no particular reason. It happened in Mississippi and apparently, my warrently recently ran out (convenience, no?). I could use a new computer, too, while I’m at it but I’m not going to get in too far over my head since I’ll have to be buying a car before long…how does a 23-year-old have a need for so much expensive equipment? We need to re-evaluate how we price things in this country.
This is one of the most eerie things I saw along US-90 in Biloxi, MS last week. Sometimes it was hard to believe that a storm did this and not some kind of massive explosion…
If you want to see the uber-big detailed version, click here (about 1.5M)
Today was my first day proudly rejoined with the ranks of the unemployed. I did stop off at the old office this morning in my pyjamas to negotiate a severance package which worked out rather nicely as far as I’m concerned. The last time they let someone go they got sued pretty good (and pretty justly) so they made an effort to keep my mouth shut. Good effort =)
And now, alas, I must begin to think about saying goodbye to the cold cold city of New York. It has been fun and it may not be over yet, but it’s pretty likely that I will be returning to my town of old. Opportunities are already popping up there (where were you a year and a half ago?) and the time has come to re-evaluate a few things in life. This is a big step for me in trusting God’s guidance. And I feel very secure.
I just got terminated from my job. Heh.
I’m feeling very much like Peter Gibbons right now. I have to go in tomorrow to hand in some paperwork. I think I’ll wear a Hawaiian shirt…
A woman on the bus this morning asked me which version of The Bible I was reading. It’s the first time a stranger in New York has said something to me in a coherent and polite manner. I’m not particularly surprised that it involved The Bible but it did brighten my day anyway. She thought the cover was pretty. It is.
I’m not nearly as tired as I expected. I guess that’s what happens when you’ve done mission trips for nine years. I suppose I just know how to curb the exhaustion now (not that I’m not tired because I am!).
I just dropped my pics at Duane Reade. It took me nearly 20 minutes to get all of the information from my SD memory stick into the computer and onto CDs. I’m sure it didn’t bother me nearly as much as the guy behind me who probably only had a few pictures to do on his lunch break but here’s what I was thinking: What’s the deal with the price? Grant it, $48 or so for 206 pictures and three CDs isn’t horrible. The problem I have is that I had to do all of the work myself. I entered the information, selected the quantity, quality, and time I wanted the pictures done by, insert the CD, watch the validation, and pay for it on a credit card machine which asked me to swipe my card, enter my pin, and take my receipt. I want to know how much they are paying the girl behind the counter to take my pictures from the picture machine and put them in the envelope. It seems to me that they should be paying me to work there.
Hey kids, I’ve returned from my trip to the Gulf Coast. It was an absolutely amazing time and I’ll share a couple of highlights here now. Here are a couple of pics to get you started!
So the trip started like a normal PF trip. The truck carrying our luggage broke down before we reached Long Wharf. So, at 0230 on Good Friday, Todd, Sarah, Eric, Brad, Kirk, Art, Josh, and myself moved about 150 parcels from the truck to the buses. Good thing we packed ahead of time…
The French Quarter was…well…the same as it always is. I had pasta jambalaya. I love whoever decided to combine every kind of red meat with shrimp and pasta and tomatoes =)
Our ability to caravan proved to be sub-optimal at best. We finally got radios but we did little more with them than screw around and taunt each other. The plus side to constantly getting lost was that we got to see all of the devastation in New Orleans. Honestly, it’s much worse than I imagined. We have a tendency to think that much of the coast has been repaired. I’m here to tell you it’s going to take years to rebuild it all. The pictures will attest to that.
My workgroup gutted two houses and rebuilt a roof. We were only supposed to re-shingle the roof but it turned out that the whole thing was water-damaged and rotting out. We did the best we could; I wouldn’t call it a professional job by any means but the roof won’t leak anyway! I like to say that we “PFed” the thing together.
Our camp had rocking chairs on the porch. We smoked cigars there most nights and made fun of each other. We also came up with nicknames for almost every advisor which were as follows: Fluffy (Speringo), Tanks (me), Dirty Bacon (Mikolay), Fry Daddy (Artie), Squirts (Kirk), Big V (Todd), Little V (Thody), Weblos (Andy), Drippy Noodle (Heather), Myrtle (Sarah), Mmm-dong (Emily), Torn Rectum (Josh), Papa Roach (Dalton), The Duke (Earls), Swerve (McGrath), and I’ve forgotten Alison’s name. Ask me about them sometime, the stories are funny.
We almost lit the Boy Scout camp on fire with fireworks. They were pretty though.
We also enjoyed a wonderful afternoon in Florida at Pensacola Beach which was awesome. I had the pleasure of providing spiritual counseling to a number of PFers and I conducted a very successful prayer group through the grace of God which I feel so blessed to have been a part of. I also ended a three-part competition in a stalemate with Myrtle; music war, van race, and mooning. She put up a better fight than I expected. I also inadvertantly got my 15-passenger Chevy Express up to 100 mph. I’m surprised Enterprise didn’t track that one.
There is so much to say and no way to say it here. I’d love to share my stories with you and in due time, I have no doubt I will. Thanks to those who prayed for us. We truly had an unforgettable time.
Okay kids, that’s a wrap for me until April 24th at which time there will probably be a weblog entry too long for you to want to read.
That’s not true. I probably won’t post until well after the 24th because I will be exhausted. Anyhow, have a great Easter, a great week, and wish us well on our trip down south!