Bringing the Drama

just so you know, i’m in total ryan adams fanboy mode right now. the new album came out yesterday, i’m about to watch him perform on letterman, and i have ordered vinyl versions of records i already have. i even entered a record company contest where i had to find videos, and the thing was, i had seen all of them before. today i finally got the orange vinyl version of Easy Tiger that i had ordered a month ago. i was so excited to get it, so i decided today to take some pictures. i grabbed my new camera and took the record out of its sleeve. soon after taking this picture, i dropped BOTH. (i’m an IDIOT!) in the split second i had to choose between the new vinyl record i had just gotten and my camera i had gotten right before Christmas. the vinyl dropped and hit the floor (after glancing off the roomba) and i was hoping without getting scratched. imagine my horror when i picked it up to see marks on the vinyl! i immediately cleaned any dirt off and played it. luckily, i didn’t hear any skips so the marks are just cosmetic. the record sounds beautiful btw, and the vinyl looks great. i posted a couple of other pictures of the other record i got today, the kings of leon. today was my first time with colored vinyl, and both are super cool, but i’m not going to be trying to take fancy pictures anymore. i’ll put them on my couch and photograph them without having to worry about dropping them.

so in the interest of upgrading the software used for this blog, i had to change WP themes because apparently the one i was using didn’t play nice with the upgrade. in case you didn’t notice, the comments were busted (not that i was getting too many comments lately anyway). for now, i’ll roll with this simple look while i try to figure out how to get a new theme working. attempts earlier tonight failed miserably.

tomorrow is new ryan and kelly. i’m pretty stoked.

i also posted some pictures from last week’s conference and DC activities. i couldn’t really put up all of the pictures, but i put up quite a few. when people would ask me if i could send them copies, and i’d say something about flickr, they’d look at me as if i had just asked them to find the square root of 347 in their head. i also put up the pictures from the wedding. it was a great week. i have a few stories to tell, but those can come later. i can expound on things like the proper way to peel a banana, and how the wedding car ended up being decorated with oreos (not my idea).

so last week i went on the third and final conference for this program i’m in at work. this time i made contacts that hopefully will last than a few emails. i also learned a new dart game, and how to properly peel a banana. you think you know, but you really have no idea. i also made my best man speech, got the laughs where i needed to get them, and performed my duties as honorary best man in the wedding yesterday. i took a ton (over 100) of pictures between DC, the conference, and the wedding, and most will be uploaded to flickr in the next couple of days. it’s great to be home, but i’m not looking forward to going to work tomorrow. it’s felt like i’ve been on vacation for a month almost.

oh, and people seem to move slower at chicago o’hare airport. i would not recommend waiting to grab lunch there, because not only is the service slow, but there’s a 10% tax. wtf?

so yesterday we had another good bible study. the last couple of meetings actually have been thought provoking. i think i’m finally getting comfortable with my personality now. i realized the me of 7 years ago would think the present me was ‘living wrong’ and should repent or something. i’m starting to get a handle on the whole freedom in Christ thing. it’s not being afraid of what others think, or putting up a facade. it’s not about showing other people your good side all the time, and restricting yourself from doing certain things. i’ve kind of thought about that the past couple of years, but it started to crystallize about a week ago. next weekend will be a return to clemson, and i’ll see some of the people who knew the me from 7 years ago. i wonder if they’ll notice a change.

i’m sure my friend scott has been checking my blog lately wondering if i’m going to write about how i have to give a best man (i’m not technically called ‘best man’, but you get the idea) speech at his wedding. well, here it is. i wrote out something in a meeting a couple of weeks ago to stay awake. thoughts had been going through my head, but i figured i should write them down. then the other day i typed them out, but then yesterday at work, i did not copy them to my memory stick. so the typed up version of my speech is at work. oh, and the written form, also at work. so basically i’m going to have to write everything over, which really isn’t a big deal, because i remember what i was going to talk about. just the adventure seems to be interesting i guess. i am kind of freaking out over it, just a little though. so while he still has a chance to read this, i want to say how i am honored to be taking part, and how happy i am for him and his bride. i figure after next saturday he should not be anywhere around a computer for at least a week.

last night i got into my car and found that the light behind the radio had gone out, meaning, the entire center console in my car was dark. the radio still worked, it’s just that the display for it and the a/c was out. so i got home and looked up on google to find out if other people had this problem. i figured it was a fuse, and planned on checking it out today. i found a message board where people had the same problem i had, and i noticed it was a defect in the manufacturing of the radio, not a fuse. i remembered i had gotten some warranty information from honda the other day, but i never really pay attention to those. i had not thrown it away yet, so i found it and checked, and sure enough, the warranty info is for the radio, and it acknowledges the problem as relatively widespread. so i’m going to be able to get the display fixed for free. not bad at all.

now i need to get some sleep so i can wake up in order to make my 8 am flight to DC tomorrow. good times.

earlier tonight, i went to return some clothes to the gap. mission accomplished, so then i walked around the store looking for some deals. pretty much the entire store was on sale, so i scored some new pants, including one pair of flat front cords for $4. yes, that’s right, they were FOUR DOLLARS! this could possibly be the best purchase ever in the clothing arena for me. i was tempted to buy a new shirt at old navy for $2.97 one time, but it was incredibly ugly, and i was able to overcome my desire to get a shirt for three dollars.

feeling great about my luck, i headed to walmart to pick up a couple of things. i arrive to the express lane with only three items. all three lanes have someone in them, so i go to the one where the customer is closest to unloading his cart. i come to find it’s an older gentleman who has a penchant for high priced pharmacy dept items, and he’s bought a lot of them. the lane said “20 items or less”, but i’m suspecting he was breaking that rule. if that wasn’t bad enough, he paid with a check! i don’t understand people still paying with checks. by now everyone should have a check card, and if you don’t, you should get one. it’s much easier than cash, and really, when you watch commercials that demonstrate how much easier paying with one is, you should take note. this guy was trapped in 1983 and paid with his pastel colored check.

i tried going to the subway inside the walmart, but the place closed at 8 pm. i went to the subway down the street which stays open till 9. i walk in and no one is in front of me. i order my sandwich, and as i’m ordering, a young boy comes in with a $20 bill. he orders at the same time, and somehow between my sandwich being toasted, he jumped me in line. he proceeds to demand that they heat his sub (which is plain turkey on white bread) in the microwave for 12 seconds. not 11, not 13, TWELVE seconds. he then pays with the $20 bill while asking all kinds of questions of the things at the register. i had to wait for this kid to learn what a gift card was, what a nutrition brochure was, why the cookies had been taken out of their case, and then had to wait about 30 seconds while he decided if he indeed wanted a cookie. i nearly had to say “kid, i’m hungry, move along”, but just as i realized i would have to resort to being “that guy”, he decided in in fact did not want the cookie and did move along.

i figure the universe was balancing my $4 pair of pants with the guy writing the check and the boy with the $20 bill. i haven’t had such an obvious balancing in a while. toss in the fact that i lost $5 playing poker last night, and the $4 pants may not have been worth it.

in other news….JERICHO IS BACK! the story will be completed!