New template

I had to go back to the old template. I really want to find a cool template, but I don't really know how. Fortunately, I know a blogmaster named Kristi who might be able to help me find a new one sometime!

Guest blogger

Tonight I have a guest blogger who would like to remain nameless for now. Actually, she said we could call her Jane Austen. I am posting on behalf of her, and it is weird how much her blog and my resolution #4 were being penned at the same time. I hope seeing her words on my blog will make her start her own!

Reasons I go to church:

1. to give thanks to God for all the people, things, and talents with which He has blessed me
2. to pray and beg for forgiveness for thoughts, words and actions that betray the person God made me to be and to become
3. to learn new ways to live my Christian faith on a daily basis
4. to reset my life; a demarcation, a line in the sand if you will, where I can go forward with renewed determination and faith to live as I should

Things that distract me from my church purpose

1. moms who, without leaving the pew, bust out a boob in the middle of Mass for their previously screaming baby to nurse on (p.s. I feel more sorry for their husbands than I do for me, they are probably thinking ‘I can’t even see it at home, and you’re showing all of them???’
2. assholes in Lexuses, Hummers, Jaguars, Mercedes (aaah, Suburbia, how you have materialized everything) who do not merge appropriately, make decisions that can only be explained by the driver’s eyes being inoperative, and who fail to do the I’m-sorry-I-just-cut-you-off, performed-an-unsafe-act, or I-didn’t-see-you wave. (it’s church; be penitent!)
3. the guy who knocked me to the ground because he opened the door without looking and I was on the other side

New Year's Resolutions 2010 Addendum

I would like to add one addendum to the resolutions I just posted. I can hold out on a lot of things in order to meet these resolutions and become the me I preach to be. However, I cannot, I will not be held accountable for these resolutions while in Las Vegas. I totally missed you in 2009, but I'm coming to see you twice this year, perhaps three times. I miss you Vegas!

New Year's Resolutions 2010

I have put off posting these resolutions for quite a while. Maybe it was because I wanted one more week of not being held accountable for the actions I resolved to amend or maybe it has a little to do with resolution number one. I guess you can be the judge of that.

These are my resolutions for 2010:

1. Stop procrastinating! Most of the time procrastinating is not a huge deal. It is, however, always a pain in the ass! Why put something off until the last minute? I'll tell you why! I work better under pressure. It doesn't need to be done right now. I get a thrill from doing things right before they are due. If you, like me, have ever uttered these dreaded phrases, then you are a procrastinator! Just own it. I need to start living my life like I treat my netflix account. When I get a movie in the mail I watch it that night and mail back the next day. Why don't I do that with other tasks and projects? I'm not sure, but it stops here!
2. Get healthy! I know, I know! This is the number one resolution for almost everyone. Why? Because we're fat! I'm not an idiot though. One week on the treadmill does not a Tony Horton commercial make! This resolution is probably the most crucial to me right now. I kind of feel like if I can conquer this hurdle then everything else will fall into place too. Maybe this is naive or vain, but just go with it. I turn 30 this year, and I've got several pounds I would like to leave in my twenties. So how do I go about this? Good question! I think it might involve working out and eating less? I'm pretty sure that's right. Seriously though, I have a treadmill and I am not afraid to use it! My diet has to change drastically. This time of year wreaks havoc on my diet. It is so easy to go to the drive thru when you have just worked a 14 hour day. However, this has to be the first thing to change! FAST FOOD IS THE DEVIL! So what's the plan? It would be easy to say "No more fast food!" but we all know that is not going to happen! But how about this? I can have fast food once a week.....starting tomorrow! But really, I have to stick to this! I have also decided that if I am going to continue to watch TV, then I need to workout while I do it. I zone out watching tv. Anyone who calls me during an episode of Lost or How I Met Your Mother can vouch for that. It stands to reason that I might be able to zone out on the treadmill once I get in front of the tv. I'll keep you posted. I am also the proud owner of the P90X boot camp program. I ordered it three months ago and it is still in the box. (see resolution 1) I don't know that I will start that this week with our busiest week of the Spring coming up, but I WILL start it soon! More to come on that.
3. Be more financially responsible! I have curtailed my frivolous spending a lot over the past several years, but things could certainly be better. The good-I have not used a credit card in over 4 years! The bad-I just spent $50 on all five seasons of Pee-Wee's Playhouse and the Christmas Special. Did I really need that? It was just last week, so survey says YES because I got a great deal. Time will most likely prove me wrong on that one. My car will be paid off in five months, so I need to figure out what to do with the extra money I will be making. I'm thinking right now that I will set up a new savings account and continue to "make payments" to that account so I do not get used to the extra cash flow. The jury is still out on that one. I stop and get a very large iced tea at the convenience store down the street about 5 times a week, sometimes more. With tax, they cost almost a $1.75. This is not a huge expense, but if I do that for an entire year I will have spent $455! This is a conservative estimate too, so let's round it up to $500. I can think of a lot of things I would rather do with $500 than drink iced tea. (Vegas anyone?)
4. Go to church! No more excuses! I love God, and I don't feel that my absence from church has hurt my faith, but I do feel that church is something I desperately need. I loved my church in Panhandle. I was so lucky to have a great church in College Station too. I almost never missed in college, even if I got home from the bar at 3 a.m. Our minister there had a way of preaching that seemed to single me out every time. It was like they followed me around all week and tailor made the sermon for me. I loved it! I have not had the same luck since I left College Station. When I was in Vegas I tried several churches. None of them were what I was looking for. I absolutely love the Methodist church, but in Vegas I even stepped out to a Presbyterian church. That one didn't do the trick either! Then I moved to Corpus Christi. It was a new start, and I tried five different churches, but all of them left me feeling empty. It was a little different in Portales. They only had one Methodist church. The sermons were not bad, but they were not what I was used to hearing either. To tell you the truth, I let a petty thing keep me from going. I am used to all churches having a moment of fellowship where you greet the people around you, shake hands, and exchange pleasantries. This is a very common practice in most churches I have attended. The key word is "moment." In Portales the moment was more like halftime. For starters, it was in the middle of the service, which breaks up what we already have going. That moment should come at the beginning or the end of the service, not in the middle. It's distracting! The moment should also be short, 30 seconds tops! I timed it once in Portales and the "moment" went on for eleven and a half minutes. Seriously? That happened more than once. It totally turned me off from going to Portales FUMC. I have been to church a few times here, and have found minute things about the service I do not like, but I have to start going again! It stands to reason that the more I go the more people I will meet and the more I will like the church overall. Just like Dr. Spalding's algebra II class, I will get something out of it, it just might not be apparent to me for a few years.
5. I have to blog at least once a week! Okay, you are reading this right now, so I have to be held accountable for it. Several people over the holidays told me that they read my blog, and while that astounds me (!), I think I should occasionally have something new for them to read. Once a week is not a big task. I enjoy blogging, and I am still amazed other people read it, so this resolution should not be hard to keep. (famous last words, right?)

So these are the resolutions. A friend sent me a list of some random dude's New Year's resolutions and they were hilarious. I would post them, but some of them are kind of vulgar. If our lists were given an MPAA rating his would be R. I think mine would be PG, although I did use the word "ass" once. (actually, twice now, sorry, maybe I'm PG-13) If you want the list I can email it to you. Mine are no where near as hilarious, but probably just as important to me.

So have we learned anything? You know I will be blogging more because of resolutions 5 and 1. I will have more to blog about because of resolution 2. I will have more time to blog because I am not out spending money because of resolution 3. You see where I'm going with this? It all boils down to the blog. This blog has the power to save me.......or destroy me! Come on 2010, let's do this!

New Year's Eve

I hope everyone had a great New Year's Eve and has had a good 2010 thus far. I know I did. I drove to Ft Worth Wednesday night to be with friends for the new year. I drove in after work so I did not get to Margaret's until a little after 10:00. Dana and Lauren met there too, and we all sat around the table at Margaret's apartment drinking and laughing until the wee hours of the morning. Topics of conversation: dating, drinking, work, and a sock monkey hat I got from my aunt. I will be posting pictures of this hat along with "the story" very soon. We had a great time and then got up in the morning and did it all over again!

On the morning of the eve of the new year we slept in a little, which was pretty nice. Everyone then got ready and we headed out to have a bite to eat. We went to Flipz, which has become somewhat of a tradition since we have been getting together in Ft Worth. Rather than order separate meals, we ordered a bunch of appetizers for everyone to share, which of course meant we ordered way too much. We ordered a Flipz fireball, pickle chips, sliders, fish tacos, boneless wings, another order of sliders and topped it off with four tall Blue Moons. (and an additional Blue Moon for me) We made a valiant effort, but we could not finish everything we ordered. An hour later it definitely became a maalox moment.

We ran some other errands during the day including dropping off my karaoke machine at the house where we going to party later that night. We got it hooked up to make sure everything was working properly. Much to my dismay one of the microphones did not work. Not a huge deal since I have two microphones, but the one that did not work was the cordless, which can sometimes be a lot of fun if someone adds a little showmanship to their karaoke number.

We went back to the house and said goodbye to Lauren, who was going on to a party with some of her friends in Dallas. We watched The Hangover (hilarious) and The Goods (not great, but certainly worth seeing). Then we got ready and headed back over to the house to go to Dana's friends party. Pat and Ashley were the couple that were throwing the party. I had previously been to one party at their house and it was nothing short of awesome. It was earlier in the year, so it was much warmer then. They have a pool and hot tub, and had a large spread of food and drinks outside by the pool. They had rented a beer tub, which was basically a small tank that horses or cattle would drink out of, except in this case it was full of iced down beer. Pat told me I would be doing him a favor that night if I drank all of the Miller Lite out of the tub because they were Coors fans. Challenge accepted! I was not able to complete the task, but I gave it the old college try. Needless to say, I did not drive home that night.

Anyway, back to the NYE party. The party was set up inside because it was much to cold to be partying outside. However, this did not stop one partygoer from jumping in the pool. We did not know he did it till he came back in. I guess he stripped down to his underwear, because when he came back in he had put his clothes back on, but sort of looked like he wet his pants due to the wet underwear. This gave us multiple reasons to laugh! They had rented a margarita machine again, but this was definitely not your mom's margarita machine. It looked just like the one they use at Chili's for frozen margaritas, and they tasted like restaurant quality margaritas too.

The biggest treat was one we noticed right away. Another friends of the party hosts had heard about the microphone debacle. Did he ever take care of it! We walked in to see two large speakers flanking each side of the tv, a sound mixer next to the karaoke machine and four mic stands with four microphones set up in the living room. With my mic, that gave us 5 mics total. It's official, I will have to trick out my karaoke machine the same way from now on! I better start saving some money!

As with any party, people were slow to get on the karaoke machine. Everyone usually gets a little nervous, but fortunately Margaret and Dana were there to rock the mics! They sang several songs and so did Chad, they guy who jumped in the pool. I sang a few too, but it really wasn't until after midnight that the karaoke party picked up. My group took over the mics and started singing song after song. Ashley was picking the songs and they were all the crowd pleasing staples that you think of when listening to karaoke. Sweet Home Alabama. Margaritaville. Sweet Caroline. Ashley even gave us a few challenges too. She put in Young MC's Bust a Move to test me, and if I do say so myself, I passed with flying colors! Regardless of how we sounded, we all had a blast! We headed home a little after 3 am. It was a great night! I have had some not so fun New Year's Eves, so nights like these certainly make you appreciate the fun ones.

I'm looking forward to what 2010 has to bring. I know Jan 1 is just another day, but it certainly represents much more. The start of a new year is an opportunity to change many things. Margaret and I joked last week about resolving to remain the same for the next year. We had a misunderstanding about some new year's resolutions and she thought I was resolving to keep things at status quo. You really don't need to resolve to do nothing, you can just do nothing! That may not make a lot of sense, but it's late, so I'm leaving it! Goodnight!

Snow pictures

These are a couple of pics from what things looked like when I got back to Tahlequah. One is my house and the other is the fountain outside our building. From what I understand the fountain was much more impressive before I took the picture, but it still looks pretty cool in this picture.

Music 2

The trip back to Tahlequah this weekend was no different when it comes to music. I promise not to make a habit of posting what I have been listening to and what it reminds me of, but I popped in my 90's mixed cd and it really got me thinking about days of old.

• Baby Got Back. Do you like this song? Well, does Sir Mix-a-lot like booty? Heck yes you do! This song brings back lots of memories, but one in particular springs to mind. When I was a sophomore at A&M the Chelsea Street Bar and Grill was still open in the mall. They had karaoke every night, except Monday's, which were apparently sacred. One Wednesday night my roommates, Scott and Chris, and I went in for dinner, not knowing about the karaoke. None of us sang, but one big black guy did get up and sing Baby Got Back. He did a heck of a job with it, and had a lot of fun. I'm not sure if he had practiced it or not, but he certainly had his choreography down! I always think of him when I hear that song.
• "Early in the morning, rising to the street. Light me up that cigarette and I'll strap shoes on my feet." Everyone I know who is my age knows all the words to Sublime's "What I Got." What a great song. In high school, when we still used to drag Main street, we would stop and congregate at one of two places, the courthouse lawn or Peter's Dad's workshop one block South of the courthouse. Whenever Peter, Nolan and Justin would get the band together to play, we would meet at the shop and listen. They would always sing this song and everyone who was there would sing a long at the top of their lungs. This song, more than any other, reminds me of the good times and friends I had in high school.
• Chumbawumba reminds me of all the goofy music I used to listen to. I'm sure in another ten or fifteen years I will look back at what I'm listening to now and think some of it was goofy too. In fact, I'm sure I will. For the time being however, I will continue to listen to it just like I used to. I guess bad habits are hard to break. But then again, getting any of Chumbawumba's songs out of your head is hard too.
• 500 miles by The Proclaimers. "I would walk 500 miles and I would walk 500 more. Just to be the man who walks a 1000 miles to fall down at your door." What is it about a one hit wonder that we all love so much? That may be a bit presumptuous. What is it about a one hit wonder that I love so much? I'm really not sure. Others spring to mind. Livin' La Vida Loca, Mambo No. 5, Come on Eileen, Mmmm Mmmm Mmmm Mmmm, Bitter Sweet Symphony, Informer . All of these were songs by one hit wonders, and I know all the words to those songs too! (Well maybe not Informer. That white boy could rap!) They all remind me of goofy times in high school. I sometimes miss high school, but I would never, let me repeat, never want to do it again! Some people say they would. Some people are wrong! College? I would do that again in a heartbeat!