THE DAILY DIVERSION

IT'S THE FINAL COUNTDOWN...

No, not the crappy 80's song by Europe, even though I did have that stupid song in my head when I was typing the title. Yes, we have exactly one month until the BIG DAY. On May 27th, 2006 I will enter into holy matrimony and give up a life of scattered ass. Whew! About time! I only waited damn near 31 years to do it! I knew people in high school that got married right after they turned 18. They've already had 10 year anniversaries, if they made it that long.

Another milestone has been met too. The circle has been made complete. I have successfully completed my four consecutive days of being to work on time or early. I was actually a few minutes early today, so that's just a cherry on the sundae. We'll see if I can still hold the crown come Monday, so hedge your bets now!

Do you ever have those dreams that you just wish you didn't have? I mean, I can live with dreaming about battling the undead, facing my fears, and even playing basketball, but last night's dream just made me sad. I think I even woke up crying (yes, remember, I'm a big puss). The sad thing is, the dream wasn't about me, my family, my friends, or even anyone I know. It was just like a TV show on Lifetime, and those are always depressing.

My Dream: There's been a car wreck. I didn't see it, nor do I really know what happened. I'm already at the hospital, and it's almost like I'm a ghost watching the story unfold. Two women were injured in the accident, a mother and a daughter. The mother is in very critical condition, while the daughter is doing okay.

The daughter's best friend shows up shortly after they get there to comfort them both. As the daughter and her friend are talking, the doctor walks in. He tells them that the mother will not live without the daughter's "skin cells" (why this I have no clue). So, the daughter has to decide to give her life for that of her mother. If it were the other way around, then there's really no decision to be made. Just about any parent would give their life for their child.

The daughter decides she'll do it. With the friend right by her side they hook her up to this machine that drains most of her bodily fluids (mostly blood, so this is why I'm confused about "skin cells", since they never went after that in the dream, only her blood). As she's drained dry, she begins a slow, agonizing death. She goes to her mother's bedside (her mother is in a coma) and talks to her, then returns to her friend. Her friend holds her in her arms as she dies.

Then the garbage men start beating the shit out of our dumpsters out back and wake me up.

Man, how depressing to wake up at 4 am and have this in your head. I sat up and wrote several things down, which are mostly incoherent. I did find out that I can write in shorthand whilst I'm half-asleep though, so that's semi-impressive.

What it means? Well, I don't think it means a whole lot about me, by any stretch of the imagination. I watched two TV shows last night that dealt with people dying and hospitals, and all of that, so I think it was just those things sinking into my subconscious. I know that's taking the cheap way out, but that's actually what I believe.

So, onto other things...

It looks like it's going to be a beautiful day for an afternoon drive. I'm planning on leaving work between 1:15 and 1:30. I packed up most of my car last night, with only my duffel bag and laptop bag left to grab. I'm going to run home and change clothes for the drive so hopefully I can be on the road in no time, and up in Owensboro by 6:30. Here's hoping anyway!

Okay, yesterday I did something that could be considered pretty stupid, by most people's standards. I drove through one of the roughest neighborhoods in the south. The natives call it Orange Mound. If you follow hip-hop, specifically southern style hip-hop, then you may have heard of Eightball and MJG. They are known as Orange Mound's Finest.

I knew I would be bordering on venturing into the mound, but instead I went right through the heart. Now, driving through the mound isn't like rolling down 4th street in BG or 5th street in O'boro. It's a whole different experience. Actually, it wasn't as bad as I had been warned.

I have been told by my co-workers, who are locals, that I'm better off not to go over in that area, mostly because I'm white. Supposedly race relations haven't gone so well in this part of Memphis, yet I digress.

Anyway, I made it safely in and out of Orange Mound without any incident. The only thing I can really say about it is this. They sure don't have enough place to get your hair done!

At one point there were two on one side of the street next to each other, and one on the opposite side of the street. I guess if you can't get into one you just go to the next one? I'll have to remember this when I'm in a rush to get my wig tightened up!

Alright, that is my installment for the day. It's going to seem like forever before my next post, because I won't have availability, nor the wanton to post, over the weekend. If I have something to talk about, then I may post on Sunday night. Most likely you can expect another thrilling (yeah right) segment on Monday!

Have a great weekend! Even if yours doesn't start today!

I ALMOST FORGOT...

Today is Administrative Professionals Day (formerly known as Secretary's Day). If you have any assistants, be sure to show them your appreciation. If nothing else take them out to a nice lunch, and no, McDonalds or Dairy Queen do not count as "nice".

If you are an Administrative Professional, then I hope you have a wonderful day!

Sad story... Only I remembered that today was AP Day. My boss has been so busy that it completely slipped his mind. Now he's mad at me because I remembered and didn't tell him. What makes it worse is that our assistants didn't even know, until I told them!

LET'S MAKE IT 3...

Yes! I have successfully made it to work early or on time for 3 consecutive days! I know that's not a big deal for most people, but it had been probably 3 months since I was early or on time for work prior to that, so I've very happy the way things are shaking out. I've been making a conscious effort to get up earlier this week, and I've been eating breakfast at home and enjoying a glass of juice too. I'm going to try to make it a clean sweep by being here on time tomorrow too. Tomorrow is the last of work for me this week, and it will be a short day, at that! I discussed why yesterday.

I think I'm just trying to train myself a little bit so that when Adrianne is down here I'll be able to get up with her and have some breakfast before we both have to go to work. It doesn't hurt that the earlier I get up the earlier I get sleepy at night, so I can get a little more sleep (or so my silly brain tells me). However, this throws me off on the weekends, because my body is still telling me to get up at the normal time, when I really want to stay in bed and snooze.

I had a crazy dream last night. Some would call it a nightmare, but, by the ending, you'll see that it really wasn't. Okay, here you go...

My dream: For some reason I'm back in the first house we lived in, in Bowling Green, and I'm my current age. I've been working on the lighting in the house for some time and I'm having some problem with something. I go to a store and my friend, Dan Jenkins, is working. He tells me I need this specific battery for it all to work. It's called a power reverter. It looks like a long "D" cell battery, but has these two nickel sized batteries that go with it.

I buy it and head back home. I guess I hook it up. I don't really remember. The next thing I know is that I'm trying to sleep and my eyes are just kind of fluttering open and closed. I think I see something trying to peek into my bedroom from the bedroom door, but I can't wake up enough to investigate.

Finally I wake up and this girl is standing over me. I catch a glimpse of something sliding under my bed. It looks like the creature from "Jeepers Creepers" (if you've seen the movie you know what I'm talking about, if not, don't go rush out to see it. It's horrible. Catch it on the USA network sometime. You'll be happy that you didn't waste any money to see it. You may be pissed you wasted a couple hours of your life, but that's it. At least there's no monetary investment!).

Anyway... This girl is standing over me. She looks like a busted up "Beetlejuice". Her teeth are black. Her skin is really, really pale. She's only skin and bones. She's actually kind of scary, to be truthful. She starts talking, in a raspy voice, to me about taking me to "hell" and the "return of the dead".

Finally, she pisses me off enough and I reach up and grab her around the neck (like Kane or the Undertaker do in WWE). First I sit up in bed, my hand never losing it's clinch on her neck. I put my feet on the floor and stand up slowly. I can see the terror in her eyes now. I think she thinks I'm going to kill her. I actually lift her off the ground and start walking toward the door to my room. I look back to where my bed is, giving a look to the creature under the bed, as if saying "Do you really want some? Then come on!" All I can see is it's eyes and they disappear quickly when I look back toward it.

Lifting her firmly in the air with one arm, I carry this collection of bones down the 14 stairs to the front door. I open the front door with my free hand, then open the glass screen door. It's absolutely pouring down rain outside, and it's maybe 40 degrees.

The terror is starting to overtake her as she starts shrieking and begging me "Please!! Please!!"

It means nothing to me. I throw her halfway out in the yard. She scrambles quickly to her feet and rushes to the screen door, begging me to let her back in. She banging on the doorbell, but it barely makes any noise. She's shivering and freezing out in the cold rain.

Suddenly her body starts to change. No longer is she the fragile skin and bones that she was upstairs. He dark hair grows out significantly, her breasts become engorged (almost to the point where they fall out of her little shirt she had on), and she looks like a normal person. Then she runs around the side of the house where I can't see her.

I start to worry that all the commotion may have woken up others in the house, so I turn back toward the living room. My boss and someone else are talking in the living room and pay me no mind. I ask them "Would you guys mind calling the cops?" Then I wake up.

Pretty cool stuff, huh? I used to have dreams all the time that I was half awake and would see things. I also used to have a ton of dreams that something was under my bed, but who didn't right? I was always more afraid that something was in my closet, because I'd always hear noises in there. Come to find out we had a field mouse that lived in my toy box in the closet.

What it means? Well, it could mean a lot of things. I think one part of it is facing my fears. Yes, I have fears. No, not of creatures under my bed, anymore. However, I think that is a symbol of "the unknown" though. One of my biggest fears has always been commitment. I mean commitment to anything too, not just relationships.

Yes, marriage is a big commitment, but I'm ready to take it on. I love the person that I'm committing too, so that makes it so much easier. I think that me taking the scary girl by the throat is a sign of me going right after it. That, or I have an autoerotic fetish? Who knows? You wanna choke me a little bit? We can find out?

Whoa! Way off base there! Okay, I face my fears, by grabbing it by the throat and going after it. I think the part where I throw her outside and she becomes something completely different and beautiful is a sign that I can take my fears and transform them into something that works for me.

There you have it! Another successful exploration into my head! Everyone get out okay?

So, the next time you have a so called "nightmare", get up, write down the main things you remember, then try to come back to it and break it down. It could turn out to be the complete opposite of what scared you. My dream never really scared me, which was the weird thing. You'd think that that all that happening would frighten you, especially if you woke up to it.

Oh well! Now I just want to go watch Jeepers Creepers again, so I can laugh at how stupid it is!

Oh, and I found a decent picture of the "Creeper", except he was a little bitch in my dream!

2... 7... 10,000...

If you can figure out the correlation in these numbers, then you will win, well... nothing actually.

Truthfully, the number 2 is mutually exclusive from 7 and 10,000. The last two figures are related though. However, I'll start with the lowest of the digits in my mathematical excursion.

The number "2" relates to how many more days I have to wait until I get to see my Boo Boo. It seems like it's been months since she was down here with me. Of course, it's going to be a "run-n-gun" weekend, but at least I have an extra day up there.

We've got several things going on this weekend too. Hopefully I'll get up there early evening on Thursday. I'm planning on leaving the office at 1:30, so if it's much after 7 pm when I get to Owensboro, then I'm going to be pretty pissed.

Friday will be an eventful day, for both of us, individually and together. Her last day of her substitution job is that day. I plan on going to school with her and hanging out for some of the day. After she closes out the day there, we get to go down to the courthouse and get our marriage license. That's the first "big" step that proves we're going to do this thing!

Once we get that finished we're going to try to catch up with the DJ, so we can discuss with him what we want played at our wedding. I'm the music person, so Adrianne's kind of leaving it up to me. She told me the only songs we have to have are the "Chicken Dance" and "Cha Cha Slide". I hate that last one, but I promised her that when we get married I'd do it with her. I've refused to do that stupid dance up to this point, anywhere, any time.

Saturday is going to start pretty early. We've got to be on the road early enough to make it to Hopkinsville by 9 am. We have an appointment with a Priest down there, since we're unable to make the Catholic Engaged Encounter we're supposed to attend. This is also a lot easier on the pocketbook than the CEE too, since this only costs us gas money, whereas the CEE costs gas money and $215.

I'm hoping we're back in Owensboro by noon, but we'll see. I'd like to take a little siesta (nap) when we get back, before our next adventure. We've got a couple's shower to attend at 3 pm. This one is actually being called a honeymoon shower. I think Adrianne made it up, just so we could get presents that we could use on our honeymoon. It just so happens that we have 4 or 5 people that have wanted to throw showers for us, so we have to try to make each one a little different. It should be fun though. It's going to have a Hawaiian theme, so I'll be decked out in a flowery shirt and everything. I'll see if I can't post a picture or two on Monday.

Sunday we've got to get up and go to church (I promised), and then, unfortunately, I have to leave shortly thereafter. That's the life I lead right now.

Now, the numbers "7" and "10,000" correlate in a completely different manner. We are exactly 7 days away from the release of 10,000 Days (Tool's new album). I decided not to pre-order it, but instead, I'll be down at Tower Records when they open up to pick up my copy of the CD. I guess I'll have to listen to it on my computer here at work for most of the day, until I can get it loaded on my Ipod (most likely at lunch). Then it will go into constant play until I need a break from it. I'm just hoping that Tower isn't asking $19.99 for it, like they like to do. It's absolutely insane to ask that much for a CD. Really? What's it cost to make a CD? $0.00004? When you can buy 100 of them for $10, then you know they are not expensive!

Onto other things...

I cannot recall anything about any dreams I may have had last night. I'm not sure I even dreamed, but I'm sure I did. I just didn't wake from them enough to write something down. So, there will be no probing into the gray matter today. Sorry!

After I made my post about work killing me yesterday I starting thinking more about it. I decided I wasn't going to work have it's way with me. I made a conscious effort yesterday to go for a jog right after work. That probably wasn't the best idea ever, but it worked out okay. I jogged about a mile, and ran a set of stairs. Usually, my knees and ankles are none to happy with me doing this, but yesterday they did pretty good. It was pretty hot and muggy yesterday, and I was soaked in sweat when I got back home.

I had to go run early enough so that I could make it to the tanning bed and to Circuit City. I think I made it to Sunsations right around 7 pm, and was to Circuit City by 7:20. I laid in the bed for 10 minutes yesterday, which was a boost from the 8 minutes I had been doing. I noticed some redness in a few spots, but not bad at all. I am getting a little angry though. It doesn't appear as though my legs are getting any sun at all. I don't know if the hair on my legs are blocking the rays or what, but they are still really, really white, when the rest of me is starting to show signs of other colors (mostly reddish, but in a good way). I guess I'll just shave them? Or, bust out the Nair, so I can wear my "short shorts"! Ooh... So sexy!

I don't have much else to discuss today, but I might come back for another hit later on. It just depends on how much I feel like working today. I finally got my information from the other side of the state late yesterday afternoon, so I can get into it.

I'll leave with this though... I was up early again today, and to work on time! That's two days and counting! I'm the best employee ever!

A BREAK IN THE ACTION...

Okay, I'm taking a short break from my otherwise busy workday to share something that I figured out just a little while ago (actually over the last 8 years, technically).

That lesson is this...

"Work is killing me!"

I know, I know... A lot of people say that, and it's not normally true. A lot of people actually have much more difficult jobs than myself, but I'm not talking about the job I perform being dangerous to my health. I'm talking about me actually having a job is slowly killing me off. Here is my reasoning:

1) When I was in high school and college I held down a part-time job almost year round. At that time my max weight was 165 pounds. I ran a lot, played a ton of basketball, and spent more time outdoors than inside. Since I began my "career" in 1997 my weight has ballooned to a peak of 22o pounds. (I'm currently at 210, and hopefully falling) I have no time to run, shoot even a little hoop, or go outside. Usually, by the time I leave work, it's dark outside anyway, and Momma always told me to be in when the street lights came on.

2) When I was in high school and college, I was the picture of health. I rarely got sick and was strong as an ox, even for my wiry frame. Now, however, I think all of my internal organs are fighting some war against me. I was diagnosed with high blood pressure back in 2000, which really sucks! I have to take medication daily, just to keep me in check. I'm also on medication for acid reflux. When I was in college there wasn't even a term "acid reflux". If my belly hurt I drank a half bottle of Pepto. Simple!

Now, I'm lucky to lift my ass out of bed every day, which leads me to my final point...

3) When I was in high school and college I used to be able to sleep at time of the day and for 15 hours at a time, if I felt like I needed to. Now, I'm lucky to get 4 or 5 good hours of sleep a night. "Good" means that I don't wake up a lot nor have to get out of bed to go to the bathroom. God forbid I have anything to drink after 7 pm!

So, there you have it! I'm a dead man walking, and it's all because of work! Is a paycheck really worth all of this?

OUR HERO! ERR... OR SOMETHING!

Well, I was up early again this morning, and actually to work early on top of that. I originally woke up at 6:05 this morning and almost, yes, almost, went ahead and got out of bed. I knew I was going to go workout tonight, but thought about doing it this morning instead. I wasn't tired when I woke up, like usual, so I actually got out of bed and starting ramblin'.

I know for some people getting up that early is an everyday occurrence, but for this hombre it's a rare feat. I don't know what it is about me and sleeping, but we don't get along all that great, and haven't for years. The days of waking up feeling fully rested and refreshed are far and few between. I think I might have sleep apnea, but don't really have the time nor the resources to find out.

I've started doing some serious research about where we're going on our honeymoon. I'm kind of anal about knowing what's going on around me, even before I get there. I like to be prepared for just about anything, just in case. So, I spent a lot of time yesterday looking up information about the resort we're staying in. We're staying at the El Dorado Royale in the Mexican Riviera.

I looked up a bunch of message boards about it and found some great info. One thing that I didn't think about, and it's almost too late to worry about now, is Hepatitis and Tetanus shots. Supposedly you should be inoculated for both Hep A & B, and Tetanus before you travel. I think I've had the Tetanus shot before, but it's been several years, but I have no clue about the Hep shots. I know it's a several week procedure though, and I don't really have enough time to take care of all of it. I've also read that we may want to take some Cipro with us.

Many people on the message boards said they got all of this done before their trips while others said they've been going twice a year for 20 years and never had any of them. So, what it all boils down to is whether or not I decided to do it. I think I'm just going to call my Doctor this morning and see what he says about it. If he's tells me not to worry, then I won't worry about it.

I also researched some video cameras. I haven't looked at these for years. Adrianne and I are hoping that we get one for our wedding, but by the time we get it, it will be too late. I'd like to have one before we leave for our trip, so I can tape what the guys and I do before the wedding, and kind of make a documentary of the whole thing.

I discussed it with Adrianne, and I think what we're going to do is this. We're going to go ahead and purchase a camera now, just so we have it, and if we get one, then we can return the one we bought or the other one. We'll keep the better of the two, and use the return money towards the camera we bought.

I did the research and found a camera I like. I'm going to go to Circuit City tonight, to see if they have it, so I can actually handle it and see how it functions. I love this website for pricing my gadgets. It is where I've bought a bunch of stuff, including Adrianne's cell phone. Some things you can find for a lot less than off of the major commercial sites, but others are pretty much the same. The camera on there is $200 cheaper than on Circuit City's website (which has it discounted).

Anyway, I had a kind of silly dream last night. Here goes...

My dream: I'm on the TV show "Bones" and somehow get caught in the middle of a huge squirt gun fight. I'm hanging out with one team, which includes Bones (that's her on the right) and 3 or 4 other people. However, I'm in normal clothes (shorts & t-shirt) while they are dressed in full SWAT gear. Half of the time their squirt guns look like M-16's while the other time they look like regular super-soakers.

Anyway, the other team is approaching us and they keep hollering (yes, I used the word "holler" instead of "yell" or "shout", because that's the term used in my dream) out different noises. The team I'm kickin' it with is getting spooked so we all jump in this wooden shack-thingy. It has a roof on it, but not really any walls. It just looks like an open building.

We're all huddled up in this thing when all of a sudden it falls off the side of a pier into the lake. We have no problem getting out of the shack, but hang onto it, since it's floating. While swimming, I start pushing the shack toward the shore with one arm, while I'm carrying Bones with the other. As I'm swimming I start feeling this biting/sucking on my legs and feet. I look down into the water, which is miraculously clear for a lake, and see these parasite amoeba type things all over the place. ( I tried to find a picture of something that looked like what was in my dream, but no luck, so I made a feeble attempt to draw one. Here it is...

The gray part was actually clear, but how do you actually make it look like that using MS Paint (the shittiest drawing program ever created)? Obviously it looked a little more fierce in my dream, yet I digress.

Anyway, these things started nibbling on me, so I started busting my ass to get to the shore. As soon as we get there we find an even worse sight. Hundreds, if not thousands of these little monsters are awaiting us there. As soon as I step foot on shore, while carrying Bones, these suckers start chasing after my feet.

Then I wake up...

What it means? Really, truthfully, not much... Well, that I know of anyway. I like this show. I actually look forward to watching it every week. I tape it on my DVR, just in case I miss it, and I usually rewatch it once before I delete it. It's one of the few shows that I go out of my way to watch.

Now, why am I in the middle of a squirt gun fight? Well, I think that has to do with me wanting to have a little fun and reverting back to being a child. Why can't grown-ups have squirt gun fights too?

I'm not to sure what the parasites have to do with anything, but I like to think that I always try to help out people whenever I can, so that's why I was saving Bones. It doesn't hurt that she's kind of hot too (did you notice the neck on her, Beed?).

On one of the message boards I was looking at yesterday this guy had taken a picture of this sea creature and the parasites kind of looked like it. The picture he took was of a creature that was more centipede like, but same basic principle. That's probably where that came from.

Song of the day: "A Cross and a Girl Named Blessed" by Evans Blue from The Melody and the Energetic Nature of Volume

The only part of the song that was in my head was this section:


Not sure why this specific part of the song was in my head this morning. I know I was thinking about going back to bed when I first woke up with this rattlin' around, so maybe that was it. I guess I just picked up the last three lines for the fun of it?

I was actually listening to some old school hip hop and rap this weekend when I went running around, so it makes me wonder even more how this song got in there. I'll go ahead and get this out there, just so you know... I love Ice Cube's "Today Was a Good Day" from The Predator. Classic west coast hardcore rap. Period. The good stuff. Plain and simple.

Yeah, this cracka was bobbin' his head to this over the weekend. Yaaay Yaay!

ARMAGEDDON IS UPON US...

Yes, I'm making a weekend post. You'd actually think I'd make more of them, since my computer is right next to my bed, and that's where I have my dreams. It mostly just comes down to the fact that I'm lazy and don't feel like doing anything on the weekends. I guess this weekend is different. I almost made a post yesterday, but never got around to it.

So, without further adieu...

My Dream: I'm back at the first house we lived in when we moved to Bowling Green. I'm my current age, as is everyone else involved. My step-brother is there and we're talking about our futures. He tells me that his Dad and everyone else are pushing him to get back into the Marines, so he can go back to Iraq (in actuality he was in the Army, but in my dream it was the Marines). I tell him that he shouldn't do that, and, instead, do what he wants to do.

I track down his Dad to talk to him about it. When I finally find him we start arguing. I attempt to be reasonable and say things like "Iraq is getting worse every day. I only want what is best for him. I want him here, safe."

He replies with "You don't even know him. How long have you been his friend? What's it matter to you?"

I say, "Well, I've known him since we moved to Nashville in 1984. That's 22 years, which is pretty long! We missed a few years in there, but I still love him like a brother!"

As I say this he starts walking away from me. I absolutely hate when people walk away from when I'm talking to them. He was intentionally walking away`because what I was saying was right.

I go back to find Chip, my step-brother, to talk to him about it. I find him and start to tell him that I talked to his Dad. He just kind of shrugs, like he knows exactly how the conversation went. Then I woke up.

What it means? Well, there's a story that I have to start with in order to adequately explain what's going on here. I also think it with explain most of the dream too. My Mom met my step-father, Frank, when we lived in Biloxi, Mississippi back in 1982 or 1983. They got married in 1984 and we moved to Nashville that year. That's when I met my step-brother, and step-sisters. While I was never really close with my step-sisters, since they were even older than my sister, I did have a good relationship with my step-brother, who was only a couple of years younger than me.

He lived with him mother, outside of Nashville, after we moved up to Bowling Green in 1985. We got to see each other almost every other weekend from then on out and for two weeks every summer. When I got my drivers license, our parents would just send me down to Mt. Juliet to pick him up and bring him back to BG with me. Sometimes I'd go down and we'd just hang out in Nashville, the two of us.

In 1992, my Mom discovered that Frank was cheating on her with his secretary. A divorce quickly followed, and I have not seen either Chip, nor Frank since then. Well, I take that back. I've seen Frank in passing and from a distance, but I don't know if he knew it was me. However, I have not see Chip since then, and I hate that fact.

He joined the Army straight out of high school and has been in the reserves pretty much since then. Several years ago (I believe I had just started working, so around 1998 or 1999), my Mom found his Mom's phone number and I called him up. As luck would have it, he was in town for a short time period, and was getting ready to get shipped back out someplace. We set up a meeting place and time in Nashville, and I'm excited to see him again.

I get there and wait and wait and wait. After over an hour had passed I decided to call him Mom again. That's the only phone number I had, and I don't believe he had a cell phone at the time. I end up talking to him Mom and he got his orders early. He didn't get the chance to say much more than "Bye" to her before he had to report to the airport early that morning. So, seeing him again was put on hold.

I thought I might get lucky a couple of years ago, since he was living in Bowling Green, with his Dad, for a while. My Mom actually ran into him and talked to him a few years ago while he was working at a local car dealership. I thought this was going to work out for us to meet again, but it never happened. I'm not sure if he got called to active duty or what, but when I went to the dealership to find him he wasn't there anymore. Now, I'm just kind of in limbo.

Chip was the closest thing to an actual brother I've ever had. I've got some great friends who are "brothers" to me, but Chip was the first friend I had once we left Mississippi. I guess, subliminally, I still long to have that relationship. Hopefully, soon, we can cross paths again.

Now, I think that adequately covers most of the dream. I think Frank walking away from me, goes with the divorce and everything that happened in the wake of that.

No real happy thoughts this morning. Just wonderings about the past and the future. I do want to believe that everything will come full circle and lives will find themselves together again. In other words, fate will wield it's hand for me again.

MY TIME-SPACE CONTINUUM IS OFF...

Yes, I missed posting yesterday. It doesn't really matter though, because it's not like I have a huge following reading my drivel every day. I didn't have a whole lot to talk about yesterday anyway, and I was absolutely swamped from the second I got here, which was closer to 8:30 than 8 am.

It was absolutely nasty here yesterday morning when I woke up. We had major thunder storms all around us, and especially downtown. I heard that some places down here were without power for a bit. Luckily my building has a back-up generator so our power never goes out. I woke up at my regular time, 7:30ish, and flipped on the local news to see what the weather was doing. It was pouring outside my window, so I tried to time it perfectly where I could catch a little break in the action, in order to get to work. Also, I'm just not a big fan of walking in the middle in a lightening storm. *Question to self: Why do they call them "thunderstorms"? Isn't the lightening a lot more dangerous? They should say "lightening storms". Maybe because "thunderstorm" flows better off the tongue?*

Anyway, I got to work and was immediately immersed in things to do. I had a little time here and there to check out some things on the internet, but not the adequate time to put toward posting another masterpiece. I've had more time to think about what I would've posted about yesterday now. So, hopefully this will be decent.

Earlier in my blogging career I posted about "When was the right time to go to Wal-Mart?" and lamented about my trips to that wonderful place. Well, now I have another story about that den of misery and insanity. However, it's not going to be what you think...

I actually had a nice trip to Wal-Mart on Wednesday. However, I'm not going to start the story there. My only intention on Wednesday was to hit up the tanning bed for 8 minutes of baking. I had planned on doing this since Monday, but in between Monday and Wednesday nights I had pretty much emptied out my fridge. I hadn't bought any groceries since the end of the first week Adrianne was here, so things were getting slim as it was.

My list of grocery needs started out pretty small: fruit, water, corn, green beans, chicken, 1 lb. hamburger, chips, and bread. However, you all know I ended up with much more than that. I had wanted to only spend about $25, but doubled that plus a little bit.

That's not really the story though. I always park over by the Lawn and Garden area. I do this for a couple of reasons, 1) no one ever parks over there, so I can park close to the door, and 2) it's usually close to the exit of the shopping center, so I can get the hell outta dodge without dealing with a lot of idiot drivers.

I parked about four spots from the door and ventured right in. Two older fellas were kickin' it at the entrance to the L&G area and both said "Evenin'! Howya doin' ta-night?" to me when I walked in. "Actually, very well! Thank you!" I responded. I like it when people show some sign of life and interact with me. I probably could've stayed there and chatted with these guys for an hour about absolutely nothing, but I had a mission to accomplish (as I always feel I do when I go to Wal-Mart, whereas Adrianne is there for sport), so I bid these gentlemen "good eve".

I stroll through the L&G department, eyeballing everything as I make my way inside. Man, the flowers they have out are nothing short of beautiful. If I had a yard, or someplace to plant some flowers I would've bought some. They just brightened up everything around them.

Man, I'm getting off subject... I casually stroll over to the grocery side of the story. Of course, I park on the opposite side of the grocery, so it's a 10 minute walk over there. I forgot to mention that I grabbed a cart out in the parking lot. Someone, recklessly, left their cart in front of where my car was parked, so I grabbed it. Nothing "gets my goat" more than people that are too lazy to walk over two parking spaces to put their cart in the return area. Well, I just wanted to help out the poor soul that had to peruse the parking getting all of these rogue carts.

It's kind of ironic though, as soon as I get to the grocery area there is a call over the intercom. It states that they need all available associates to the parking lot to collect carts. Or something like that. I'm sure they had a more technical term for "cart getting" than that. It is Wal-Mart after all!

Being the semi-intelligent homosapien that I am, yes, I do walk upright without my knuckles dragging the ground, I decide to start in the back of the store. I go directly to where the milk is. I ask myself "Do I really need milk? I never use it. Naw, don't worry about it." Yes, you guessed correctly, I did need milk, but I wouldn't find that out until I got home. Oh well!

I cruise down the aisle with all of the butter, yogurt, instant biscuits and cookies, etc. I had been trying to eat things better than Pop-Tarts for breakfast in the morning, so I decided to grab some more low-fat yogurt. I'm a cheap-ass, so I grab the Wal-Mart brand. It all tastes the same to me, and that's "Yummy!" "Yeah, eight is enough! Just like the show used to tell me." I tell myself.

The next aisle is the most dangerous one for a person like me. Yes, the “dreaded” soda and beer aisle. I browse quickly, knowing that I wasn't at Wal-Mart to purchase either soda or beer, even though the beer did look really good just sitting there in neat little rows, begging for me to dispose of them in a timely manner. "Not today my friends!" I tell them as I turn the corner. “Whoops! I forgot why I actually went down the aisle in the first place!” I tell myself as I pull a u-turn. I needed to get bottled water. It’s very important to stay hydrated!

Hmm... Chip and Snack aisle. Well, this is a stop I know I need to make. Once again, I'm trying to eat a little better, so I've only been eating the Baked Lays Chips. They've even got Baked Doritos, which I really like. They had the big bags which were two for $6, so I grab one bag of Baked Doritos and one bag of Baked BBQ Lays. "Damn! Those pork rinds look good! No! We're not here for that!" I have to reassure one of my other personalities that we're trying to take care of the body we're in. It is very important you know!

Okay, so me going up and down each aisle is pretty boring, so I'll stop with the pork rinds and jump into my checkout experience. I had planned on only using about a quarter of my cart space, but had successfully half-way filled it up, as well as filled the kiddy seat area.

Usually, when it's time to check out there are only 2 or 3 lines open and all have at least 5 people in them. I start to walk by the check out area closest to the grocery, since I'm parked on the other side of the store, but then a miracle occurs...

I spot a cashier finishing up checking out another patron, with no one in line behind him. "Man, this is my lucky day! Who cares where I check out!" I start shouting inside my head.

I walk up and start putting things on the conveyor belt. At first the young lady doesn't say anything to me, so I say "Hey! How are you doing tonight?" Her eyes light up, as if no one ever talks to her in a polite way while she's working. She responds "Really good! I'm getting ready to turn off my light and go home!"

I reply "That's good stuff! So, I snuck in just in time huh?" "Yeah, a lot of folks been sneakin' in on me tonight. I'm ready to get home." she comes back with. I say, "Well, cut that light off, and I'll be your last bother for the night!"

She flashes me a big smile and says "Mmm... That's a good idea." While she's scanning all of my goodies, she flips her light off. Now she just has to finish me up and she and I both get to go home happy.

She polishes off the last items on the belt and, with that "ooh, this is gonna cost more than you think" look on her face, gives me the bad news. I say "Well, I always come in here and spend a lot more than I mean too." She says "Yeah, me too. I think everyone does it."

I run my credit card through the machine, get my recipe and put the rest of my items in my cart. She says to me "Don't forget your noodles!" "Whoops! I'm going to need those later! Thanks!" That damn rogue bag on top of the bagging turnstile!

Lastly, she says to me "Thank you! You have a great night!" It actually sounds like she means it too, which makes me feel good inside. I respond "No, thank you! I hope you have a wonderful evening!" And so we bid each other adieu.

I know that was an excruciatingly long story about going to Wal-Mart, but when I have a pleasant experience, I want to be sure to share it with everyone. It's no good if I only focus on the bad times. This is because, like the girls and Mrs. Garrett used to say… "You take the good. You take the bad. You take them both and there you have... The Facts of Life!"

I like sharing the facts of life with everyone. I especially like sharing light-hearted stories too, since we have enough bad stuff going on around us all the time.

The last thing I'll discuss is a dream I had the night before last. Well, I won't really talk that much about it. Basically, I'm going to list what I wrote down, because I didn't remember any of it when I actually got out of bed yesterday, and still don't recall any of it today. Here is my shorthand (verbatim):

• Waiting for A
• Alicia Keys - selling ATT phone
• A & Camille show
• In Hawaii - cold rain

Yeah, that's it. Anyone care to try to decipher that hieroglyph? I thought not, so why should I. The only things I know for sure are that "A" in those two things mean Adrianne, I'm not a fan of Alicia Keys, so I have no clue why she'd try to sell me an ATT phone, and, finally, does Hawaii actually have "cold rain"?

If I have time later on, I really want to post about something I watched on the History Channel last night. It was about a guy from Hopkinsville, Kentucky. Really, really weird. I couldn't stay up to watch the entire thing though, since it ended at 1 am. Hopefully I'll get around to that today!

I'M NOT DISCUSSING IT... PERIOD...

I really don't want to talk about my dreams last night. I had several of them. I woke out of one and wrote a couple of things down, but it's stupid. The other ones kind of run together and have the same theme, which is what I don't want to discuss. I did have one of "those" dreams that I promised I'd never write about. Guess what? I'm still not going to write about it. It didn't end the way I'd want it to anyway. Too much confusion in my subconscious for me to handle today. I may break them down myself, but I won't be sharing it.

So, I'll have to come up with other things to talk about. I find it strangely amusing that I never wake up with a Tool song in my head. They are my favorite band, and I listen to them regularly. You'd think they show up at least once in a while. Maybe I'll start getting them as May 2nd approaches?

My friend Kenny and I went to the last Grizzlie home game of the regular season. We won, which is both good and bad. This is the silly thing about professional sports, more specifically the NBA, for those that don't keep up with it. The Grizzlies have a really good record this season, but are in the Western Conference. We also have the joy of being in the same division as San Antonio and Dallas, who both have even better records. So, this puts us in 3rd place, in our division.

The way the playoff seeds are set up, the team with the best record in the conference gets the top spot. That is San Antonio. Then they take team with the best record of the two other divisions and place them second, even if their record is worse than a team in the same division as San Antonio (which is the case here. Dallas has the second best record in the conference). The third seed goes to the best team in the only division left.

From the four seed down they fill in based off of overall records. So, San Antonio is #1 (62-19), Phoenix is #2 (53-28), Denver is #3 (44-37), Dallas is #4 (60-21), Grizzlies #5 (48-33), Clippers #6 (46-35), Lakers #7 (44-37), and Sacramento #8 (44-38). The #1 plays #8, #2 plays #7, #3 plays #6, and #4 plays #5.

So, we get the unenviable task of playing the team with the second best record in the Western Conference, and a division foe, in the first round, on the road. However, if we would've lost last night, that would have set us up to play Denver, at home.

Does that make any sense at all? The worse seed you get, the better your playoff position? Well, in this case that's how it works out. Does the NBA need to revamp this? I believe so. As it stands right now, the best teams are penalized by being in the same division.

However, the icing on the cake is this... The winning of our series gets to play the #1 seed, on the road. Isn't that just grand? So, if we can somehow get by Dallas, who owned us 3-1 this season, we get to face the Spurs, who are favorites for the title, again.

It just makes you wonder... "What's the point in winning, if we're still treated like losers?"

I don't know, but I'm excited about the Grizzlies being in the playoffs. This makes three straight years and gives me something to do, other than going to baseball games.

Okay, I'm over that now! I'm still in the process of showing "that" person that I'm right. It's going to be a long process though. Unfortunately I've got so much other work to do, yet I can't work on any of it. That's the problem with not having the information that you need, when you need it. We're currently working on a review in the other side of the state. However, I'm still in Memphis and the information is over there. So, I have someone gathering the information for me and hopefully I'll get something in a day or two.

Everyone else has already received a bunch of their stuff, so they're working diligently. I'm end up working on the 5 other projects I have going and doing some "clean up" jobs.

However, I can't complain too much. It's a beautiful day outside and I have a great view from my cubicle. I'd take a picture and post it, but it would have to wait until I went home for lunch and uploaded it from my phone. I'm actually thinking of visiting the "business-person's special" the Redbirds are having today. It was pretty hot and muggy yesterday, but wasn't so bad this morning. It had rained over night, so that cooled it off a bit.

I know I'm going to go to the tanning bed, again, tonight. I have to get some kind of decent color, other than "cracker white", before we head really close to the equator. That's the last thing I need; to get flash fried my first day and not get to enjoy the rest of our week there. I guess that would mean we could spend more time in our room. *Wink Wink*

Okay, I'm done for now. If I feel like talking about my dreams later, then maybe I will. Right now I'm just not happy about them, so I don't want to talk about them.

RETURN TO THE MADNESS...

Okay, I finally got the information I needed to do my daily thing. No, not "that" daily thing! This daily thing. Can you believe it? Three posts in one day. Now, if anyone was actually reading it, that would be something special.

My dream: (warning: it's been a while since I woke up this morning, so I've forgotten a lot of stuff, so this should be brief. We'll see, won't we?) For some reason I'm in the backyard of the first house I lived in when we moved to Bowling Green. It was a huge house on Catalina Drive. Well, huge to me. My Mom, Sis, and I lived in a shitty apartment in Oceans Springs not long before that, so it's all relative. It did have 4 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, a formal dining room, den, playroom, full kitchen, breakfast room, and 2 car garage.

Anyway, I'm in the back yard with 7 other people playing 4 on 4 tackle football. We're all our current ages, and I don't know everyone that's there. Actually, I only know one person on my team (because I've forgotten who the others were), and that's Dustin Smith.

For some reason my team is losing by 14 and the game is almost over. I decide to just take over the game. The first thing I do is intercept a pass and return it for a touchdown. Next, I catch a kickoff and return it for a touchdown. We're all tied up.

My team is pissed at me. I don't know why though. I thought they wanted to win. Just as time is about to run out, we run one last play. For some reason I take over as QB (I'm not sure where I was playing prior to this play). Instead of handing the ball off or passing it to someone on my team, I take off with the ball and score the winning touchdown.

Yeah! We won!

I end up with this stupid little glass vase thingy with something inscribed on it, and all of my teammates end up with crappier glass plates for some reason. One of my teammates knocks my vase out of my hand to the ground. Luckily it didn't break! However, they all throw their plates next to mine in disgust.

I'm confused, so I wake up.

I wake up with this song in my head:


If you're wondering, yes, that is "If You Leave" by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, from sometime in the 80's. Silliness, right? I know you love the song too, and you'll be singing it to yourself the rest of the day.

Sometimes I just hate that I grew up in the 80's. I remember so much crappy stuff from then. I had to live through 80's pop music, like the above, and 80's Hair metal. Wow! Doesn't get any better than W.A.S.P. or White Lion, right?

I had another dream after that one, but I remember even less of it. The strange thing is that I've had three dreams within a week about "bowling". The only thing I remember about this last dream was that there were two huge Easter Eggs all painted up and they were rolling down the lane. There are no pins to knock down, so they just roll to the back of the pin area. Then they crack and a huge guy in an outfit busts out of each one. One guy is dressed up like an Easter Bunny, and I can't remember what the other guy had on.

I wake out of that dream with "Who Are You?" by The Who in my head. The song is made more popular lately by the show CSI. I know where this one can from. I fell asleep watching CSI on Spike TV.

Anyway, I'm not really going to break down my dreams from last night, since I don't really have the time. I just wanted to share them. Maybe my friends will read this and make an attempt to decipher what's inside my head?

Okay, no more posts today! Unless I'm pissed off after the Grizzlies game tonight! Kidding!

OH MAN! GOOD NEWS... MIXED WITH SOME BAD...

Good news first...

I forgot to post this when I found out, but Tool has released their first single off of 10,000 Days. It is called Vicarious. It hit the airwaves yesterday and my Boo actually heard it before I did. So, I took a little break this morning and found someone who is hosting the song. Check it out here: "Vicarious". Only two more weeks until the album drops. The song is another great one, so I can only imagine what the entire album will be like. It's got me on the edge of my seat. It's going to be a wonderful month of May!

Bad news...

It doesn't look like I'm going to get around to doing my daily snooze-fest, since I don't have the time to go home this morning. Maybe I'll remember to grab that piece of paper when I'm at home for lunch. It's been kind of busy this morning.

I'll just say this... I hate it when people tell me I'm wrong. It drives me to the end of the world just to prove them that I'm right. I got some news yesterday about a big project that I've been working on for some time now, and this guy says that it's all wrong. So, now I have to prove him wrong. You see how it works?

Anyway, I'm going to head back to listening to Vicarious, over and over. I hope to post about my dreams I had last night and the songs that are attributed to them.

NOW HEAR THIS...

I'm holding off on my normal post for now. I forgot some pertinent information at my apartment and I have to go back and get it sometime this morning. I'm not going to go so soon, though, since I just got here. The bosses don't like that too much. I'll try to run over there around 9:30, so that I can get something up by lunch time.

I will say this... I had a couple of silly dreams, and three, yes three, songs in my head. I'd better write down some more stuff before I forget it all!

YES, HELL HAS FROZEN OVER...

I'm making a second post today. However, it's not going to be about the normal boring stuff.

I got to thinking about my life, and how good I feel I have it. I also got to thinking about how much I miss that special person being here with me. I was on the rooftop grilling a couple of burgers for dinner when I started looking around. It seems like I see the world a little different than some. When some people look around them, all they see is mortar, steel, and glass. I see beauty, love, and what will soon be. I thought I'd try to capture how I felt with some pictures. These were taken with my camera phone. I hope you enjoy them.















and one last one, of my second home (aka WORK!!)

MUSING FROM THE WEEKEND...

Well, I had a pretty uneventful weekend. I got some things accomplished around my apartment that needed doing... namely laundry and dishes. I had planned on doing a lot of sleeping and relaxing. It seemed like I relaxed a lot, but sleep didn't go so well.

I'm not sure what I ate over the weekend, but whatever it was sent my brain into a whirlwind, because I had a ton of dreams and was in and out of sleep because of them. Take Saturday for example... I woke up out of my first dream at 5:40 am, then another one at 6:15, then another one at 6:28, and so on. I know the times only because every time I woke up I checked out what time it was, just to see if I should go ahead and get out of bed. No, I didn't get up then. I ended up getting out of bed around 9:30, which is way too early for me on the weekend. Sunday was the same way too. I was worn out by the time I got up!

I had some good, crazy dreams during these two days, but didn't take the initiative to write anything down about them or even try to post about them. I figured that's my way of revolting and relaxing at the same time. That makes sense, right?

One dream I had yesterday I wish I had done a little work on though. I was writing a song, while singing it out. It was actually really sad, because I was crying when I woke up, but I couldn't remember it so that I could write it down. However, in my dream I was writing it down, so I actually thought I was writing it down. When I woke up I checked out my note pad by my bed to see if I had actually written anything down. No luck though!

On Friday I made my first trip of the season to a baseball game. The Redbirds didn't do very well, but it was a beautiful night and there was a good crowd there for most of the game. If every ballgame night is like that, then I will be there a lot this season. I won't count on it though.

The humidity started up this morning, and I could tell before I got out of bed. I say that because I woke up nice and early because I was stuck to my sheets. Nothing worse than waking to laying in a pool of your own sweat, right? If that doesn't make you want to get out of bed and take a shower, then nothing will. So, I was up early and ready to get to work by 7:30. However, I decided to take it easy and eat breakfast at home and catch a little ESPNnews this morning. I can't remember the last time I did that. I ended up making it to work just before 8 am.

Saturday was a pretty busy day for me, for a little while anyway. After I finally got out of bed, I actually got my day started. I had a list of things to accomplish, and, for the most part, knocked them out. I had to run all over the Mid-south to do it, but I did pretty well.

I'm currently trying to prepare for our honeymoon, in which we are going to the Mexican Riviera. I don't know if many of you have seen me lately, but to say that I'm really white would be an understatement. Casper would laugh at me. Anyway, I went to the tanning bed for the first time ever on Saturday. After a $90 investment I got to spend 8 minutes in a tanning bed. Don't worry, half of that $90 was for a month's worth of unlimited tanning. The other half was for the best lotion they had.

I didn't really get burned all that bad. It didn't hurt anyway, like a sunburn usually does. However, it would've been a lot smarter of me to head straight home afterwards, since I end up adding to the burn by driving around finishing up my other tasks. I ended up burning my arms pretty bad, and my face a little bit. You can't tell with my face that much, but my arms, specifically right at the inside elbow joint, look like a raw steak. So, I'll have to wait for those to heal somewhat before I can go back. I'm planning on trying to go at least twice a week for a couple of weeks, then three times a week until the big day. Maybe by then I won't get cooked in the beautiful Mexican sun?

I went and met up with my friend John on Saturday night to watch the Grizzlies game. They were on the road, so we watched it on TV. The first thing he says to me when I see him is "Damn, you're fried! What have you been doing today?"

When I told him I went to the tanning bed he just laughed at me. I told him that I was just trying to get ready for the honeymoon, and he said "You do realize that they have 45 SPF sunscreen right?" We continued on to consider how "gay" I am. The high point of the conversation was me admitting I'd spend $45 on tanning lotion. That solidified my "gayness". We settled it over 20 Hot wings and 20 Hot buffalo shrimp at Hooters.

Now, with all of the dreams I had this weekend, you'd think I'd have a little something to talk about on that front, but I don't. I didn't have any last night that I can remember. So, I'll close with the only song I had in my head this morning...

Song of the day: "The Promise and The Threat" by Evans Blue from The Melody and the Energetic Nature of Volume

The main part I had in my head was...


But, here's the rest of the song...


I think I've almost made it through the entire album now. Let me think about what songs I haven't covered, and maybe I'll have them in my head tomorrow. No, I'll probably have something silly like "Whip It" by Devo.

LIONS... AND TIGERS... AND BEARS... OH MY!

Yeah, last night was something like that, while I was sleeping anyway. I had a plethora of dreams in my head, but can only remember bits and pieces of most of them. I've got a couple of songs too. One came after I woke out of a dream, and the other when I actually decided to get out of bed.

It never ceases to amaze me how much the brain can do in such a short time span. This morning, I woke out of a dream at 6:24. I know the exact time because I called my Boo right afterwards to tell her good morning. I quickly fell back asleep and had at least two more dreams prior to actually getting out of bed around 7:30. So, in just over one hour, I had two completely different dreams, both of which seemed like they lasted hours and hours. Is it not incredible that the brain can speed up things so quickly so that we can enjoy more of them, yet the television stations can't skip through stupid commercials?

My dream: I hanging out at work (not the job I have now, but some other job) and the boss wants me to come home with him to try to talk his daughter out of getting married to this jerk. I'm more excited about riding in his Porsche than anything else, so I agree.

We cruise about 45 miles outside of the city to the middle of nowhere, where he lives. We go into his house and he tells me that I can sleep on a mattress in some extra TV room or something. I agree to it, but not having a change of clothes may make this interesting. I hop in bed completely naked and the next thing I remember is some asshole standing over me saying "Get up shithead!" and kicking in the mattress. This has got to be the guy!

Somehow I get up without showing everyone in the house my "junk". I still haven't figured out that part though.

The next thing I know, my step-brother and I are following this guy to his crappy apartment. There are bums at the base of the stairs just laying around and he doesn't step over or around them, but right on top of them. This immediately gets me thinking that this isn't a nice guy.

We get upstairs and the boss's daughter is there. We get no chance to talk to her before he starts in on her about something. I'm investigating this guys apartment and he's just got a ton of junk all around the place and it's a disaster.

Finally, the girl comes walking over to me, and immediately says "This guy is a jerk! There's no way this will work!"

I concur by saying "Yeah, he's a real bag of douche. You've got to get out of here."

She replies "I'm going to, after I make him some dinner."

"Huh?" I'm thinking, but let it go. Before I know it, my step-brother is making some french bread toast sandwiches. He's piling ham and provolone cheese on them, and damn, they look good! About the time he's about to finish, the douchebag notices the sandwich and decides he wants it.

He goes over to my step-brother and tells him that he wants pickles on it, but when my bro goes to put the pickles on there this guy grabs the pickle from and throws a small bass (the fish) on the sandwich.

My brother gets "fake" sick and runs over to the sink pretending to puke. While he's wretching and standing over in the corner laughing.

I wake up the same way, laughing. When I woke up I had a Kenny Rogers song in my head, and no, it wasn't "The Gambler". I specifically know it was a Kenny Rogers song, but I can't remember which one. I remember saying to myself "Hey dumbass, that's Kenny Rogers you're singing to yourself". I think it was from that race car movie he made way back in the day. I think the name of it was "Six Pack".

When I actually got out of bed, this song was gone from my cerebral cortex. I knew I should've written it down when I made the phone call, but I was lazy. Anyway, here's the song I have now:

Song of the day: "The Blister Exists" by Slipknot from Vol. 3: The Subliminal Verses

I've only got the chorus in my head, but that's about it. Here it is:


Who knows what it means? Maybe my brain just wanted to listen to Slipknot this morning to get going? We'll leave it at that.

Now, as for the dream... We all know that I've got a wedding coming up, and it's been first and foremost in my cranium lately. I'm sure that's part of it. I think that maybe I see everything going on, but I might actually be that jerk-off that I'm seeing. My step-brother and I are basically acting like guardian angels in the dream, but we do nothing to stop things. Instead, we look for opportunities to bandage little pieces, like making food so she won't have to. There's only one part that is strange, and that's the fish, so I decided to look that up, as a closing piece to this analysis.
Fish To see a dead fish, signifies disappointment and loss of power/wealth.

Now this is just too, too funny! Before I went to bed last night I was thinking about all of the bills I had to pay today, along with ordering a plane ticket and other purchases, thus "loss of wealth". That's just too funny that a silly little fish can mean all that!

Man, I really wish I could remember more of my dreams from last night. I must've had at least 5 or 6 total. You'd think I could remember the last two I had, since they occurred just before waking. Oh well! Maybe if they come back to me during the day I'll come back and post about them.

I'll close with this... Today is opening day for the Memphis Redbirds and it looks like it's going to be a beautiful one. I didn't go last year because it was nasty outside. It wasn't raining hard enough to cancel the game, but hard enough for a pansy like me not to go. I'm going to order a couple of tickets, then enjoy a Leinekuegel's Red and some BBQ nachos at the game tonight. If only I can make it through my work day alive?

SLAPPIN' WHITEY! IT'S FUN FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY!

I had an interesting turn of events last night. I actually had several dreams, but didn't wake up with a song in my head. The only song I've heard this morning has been Bone Thugs & Harmony's "First of da Month", which just happens to be my alarm clock tune. So, I think I'm going to dedicate this day to Tool. I will only listen to their playlist, starting with "Opiate" strolling through "Undertow", then on to "Aenima", followed by the rarely seen "Salival", and closed out by "Lateralus". All are a little bit different, in their own beautiful ways. Man, I can't wait until May 2nd. That's also only 25 days from "The Big Day".

My dream: Well, I had a few and some of them jumbled into each other, so I'm going to try to stick with one I can remember the most from. It all starts out that myself, Sherhonda (a woman that works with me here in Memphis), and my homeboy Justin are all heading to a golf course to play a few holes. We're cruising in my last car. It was a two toned (Red on Silver) 1985 Honda Civic Wagon. You could fit a ton of stuff in there.

When we got to the golf course we just walked on and started to play. I asked Justin, "Dude, do you think we should actually go up to the clubhouse and pay?" He just replied, "No, there's enough people out here. I wouldn't' worry about it."

We get to the first tee, even though I don't think it was hole #1, but more like 16 or something, it's kind of fuzzy right now, and guess who's there? It's Superman!! Well, not really, but it was Christopher Reeves. Superman time Christopher Reeves, not wheelchair bound Christopher Reeves.

We're on top of this hill and there are no real tee boxes, so you just kind of tee off wherever you want to. Superman is just about to tee off and the wind starts gusting at tornado-like tenacity. The wind is blowing directly in his face, but he still decides to give it a good whack. When he hits it, the ball flies up in the air and then lands about 30 feet away. The wind completely killed the ball. He just kind of shakes his head and walks off.

I start to think to myself "Damn, if Superman can't hit the ball any farther than that, then what are my odds?"

Next, Justin walks up and tees up a ball. He warns both Sherhonda and I to stand back because he doesn't know where it's going to go. I end up standing behind and to the right of him, while Sherhonda is in front and to his right, just a little in front of me. (Hmm, I just realized that he's hitting the ball right-handed, when Justin usually plays golf left-handed. That's strange.)

He hammers the ball and it flies in a big loop over his head and I catch it with my left hand. I hand him his ball and he puts his head down and walks off, just like Superman did.

Next, Sherhonda steps up to the plate. By this time several people have gathered around us, waiting to tee off. There are some people that have gone ahead and hit balls next to where we were, just so they could "play through". As Sherhonda steps up to hit her ball a large group of people walk out in front of her. I warn her to wait until they are past before she hits the ball, but she just shrugs me off. She does that a lot at work too.

I don't believe she's ever played golf before, but she's like an old pro. She steps up and crushes that little white spheroid at least 300 yards, but it lands over in some trees. We then get in an argument on whether or not that's where the fairway is.

Now it has come to my turn. I put a ball on a tee that looks like this:

I start doing some warm up swings and the top of the tee breaks, so I have to find another one. As I'm looking for a new tee more people are coming around wanting to play, but we're impeding their process. I finally find a regular tee, but when I go to tee the ball up, I'm all of a sudden on the side of a very steep hill, where my feet are well above where the tee and ball are.

Finally, I just say "Screw it" and decide not to play. I tell Justin and Sherhonda there are just to many other things going on that are throwing me off and I couldn't concentrate. So, we head back to my car. When we get to it there is a ton of stuff sitting outside the vehicle. I guess it was all in there before, because we start talking about getting all of it back in where it belongs, as well as our golf clubs.

I don't really remember what happens after that, so I'll stop there.

What it means? Well, several things are easily attributed to things I watched on TV last night. Other parts come from things I've been thinking about lately. However, some parts just come from the unknown, and those are the best!

Last night I watched CSI: New York. I don't really like it all that much, but there wasn't anything else on worth viewing. It just so happened that a guy that was partially mentally retarded dressed up like a superhero and tried to help people. He looked like a young Clark Kent when he was dressed normally. My brain must've taken these images and twisted them into what I usually think of when I think "Superman" or Clark Kent, and that is Christopher Reeves. Man, I really hate how his life ended, but that's another story.

I have a feeling I know why Justin and Sherhonda showed up in the dream. My mind's been on getting with Justin and deciding the things we need to do prior to the wedding. We need to plan for the couple of days leading up to it, while the girls are doing their thing. I just haven't called him to talk about it.

Sherhonda is in there because I found out yesterday that she's coming up on Friday before the wedding and I don't want her to just have to sit around the hotel all the time, so I'm trying to get her a spot at the rehearsal dinner. We've already got a lot of people coming, and seating is limited. That was on my mind yesterday, and again this morning, as I've been looking over some rehearsal dinner information my Mom sent me.

Now, on to the unknowns...

The first thing I thought was interesting is that we were going to play golf. First I thought that this might coincide with needing to talk to Justin about pre-wedding things, since we could go play a round of golf and just hang out. That very well may be the answer, but I looked it up anyway.
Golf To dream that you are playing or watching golf, signifies pleasant indulgences. It may also indicate that you are idling and wasting time.
I think it's the last part. I'm working on a project at work right now, but in between I've been goofing off a lot. My mind hasn't really been on work here recently. I'm starting to think about the wedding a lot (not in a bad way or nervousness or anything).

The next thing I found interesting was the Hill we were standing on. I'm not so sure what that was all about, so, again, I looked it up:
Hill To dream that you are standing on top of a hill, signifies that you have succeeded in your endeavors or that you have now have the resources to complete a task at hand.
I don't know that I've succeeded, but I might be nearing that. I think my not actually hitting the ball once I got on the hill may play into this more. I think it more closely deals with this... "I'm kind of close to my goal, but I have to have the confidence and strength to go through with it, no matter what is going on around me. There will be others involved. Some won't believe in me, others will, but many will want to find out what happens."

That's what I think of it. I think that could possibly sum up my dream the best today. I do have one other point to make though. I've found the recipe for the ultimate in lucid dreaming. It can be lethal though, so be careful!!

My recipe:

2 Beers (I can't remember which ones they were though)
1 Spicy BBQ chicken breast, baked
1 serving of spicy New Orleans style rice
1 serving of green beans, with bacon in them
1/4 quart of Breyer's Rocky Road ice cream, out of the tub, not in a bowl
1/4 bar of Hershey's Dark Chocolate

Enjoy... with caution!

I CAN'T GET THE LAUGHTER OUT OF MY HEAD!

Yeah, something like that. I slept pretty good last night. I didn't get to bed until almost midnight, because I stayed up watching some show on the History Channel about the Shroud of Turin. Yes, even I find religious artifacts exciting. Everyday I am amazed at people's power of belief in deities. I may get into that more today, maybe not.

As for the laughter... Well, it wasn't really laughter, it was my "ocean" sounds I had going. When I woke up this morning it kind of sounded like laughter, but once I realized I was awake I could tell it was just a wave crashing to the shore, over and over again. Maybe something in my dream had to deal with laughter. I don't know. I couldn't remember my dream again this morning. It's starting to get really old, quickly. Maybe I'll break the slump soon.

I'm going to try to go work out tonight, so maybe that will completely wear me out so I'll sleep like a "bug in a rug", or something like that. I took a two week hiatus from working out, even though we did go for walks most evenings after work, when it was warm. It doesn't quite work up a sweat though. It also didn't require any physical exertion, which is what I really need.

I would've done it last night, but I decided to go to the second to last Grizzlie's home game. It was a success, sort of. We've already clinched a playoff berth, but we're actually trying to not better our position. We're currently in 5th, but want to be in 6th place. If we can be in 6th place in the west then we'll get home court advantage for the first round against Denver, since we have a better record. If we stay in 5th place we have to travel to either San Antonio or Dallas, which doesn't bode well for the good guys. Have I confused you yet? Yes, good!

Right now we're jockeying for position with the LA Clippers. Yes, the Clippers are in the playoffs, believe it or not. Unfortunately, they keep losing (I think intentionally) so they can have the same situation as us. Our last home game is next Tuesday against those same Clippers. I think it will be a battle of futility. I don't know which team will want to lose more. I was talking to my buddy last night, that works for the Grizz, and we may see the Arkansas RimRockers (our NBDL affiliate) playing, instead of the Grizzlies. However, it is "Fan Appreciation Night" so they don't want to look that bad.

Anyway, enough about the NBA. I know most people don't care. After Western's basketball season ends I start trying to pay attention to what's going on down here. It just so happens to coincide with the commencement of the NBA playoffs and opening day of Major League Baseball. We don't have a MLB team here in Memphis, but we have the Triple "A" affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals, which is pretty good. I'm a Braves fan, first and foremost, but the Cardinals are my second favorite, so it makes it easy to root for the Redbirds. Opening day is Friday here. I'm hoping we can have the same weather as yesterday, because it was gorgeous! I think the temperature reached the low 80's and the humidity was nice and low, which is very un-typical of Memphis. I know that won't last too much longer, so I'm trying to enjoy the hell out of it while I can.

Okay, I've rambled on enough, so here's the song of the day...

Song of the day: "A Cross and a Girl Named Blessed" by Evans Blue from The Melody and the Energetic Nature of Volume

Again, I'm trying to work my way through waking up every morning with a different song of theirs until I make it through the entire album. Where am I now though? I'm not sure how many I've gone through. I know I've had a couple of duplicates, but that's okay.

Speaking of music, I just wanted everyone to know that I'm very excited about something. It only happens about every 5 years, sometimes more. The greatest band in the world, Tool, is releasing a new album. It's titled "10,000 days" and is scheduled for shipment May 2nd. I think I'm actually going to pre-order this one, since I hate running out and buying something and dealing with people and everything. All that, especially on a Tuesday. I'm going to check out all of the online retailers and see who has the best price. Best Buy online had it for $14.88 yesterday. I think it will be tough to beat that one, but I'll have to see what the ship date is for them. Usually they ship it so that you'll get it the day it is released. I don't know that I could survive if everyone else has it and I'm waiting for my to arrive in the mail!! Maybe Dahbeed could pull some strings and expedite my shipment? No, he'd probably jack my package, if he knew what it was!

Here's what the new album is supposed to look like:



I pulled that off of Amazon.com and they had the price at $10.98. That's a steal, at twice the price!

Usually I just download most of my music, but I actually invest in the bands that I really like, which are only a few. Yes, I know I'm a really, really bad person and a criminal (if you ask Lars Ulrich from Metallica).

Anyway, I'm done for now. I've got some work I've got to get done. I may come back later on and make a grand second post of the day! We'll have to see how it goes!

MAN! THE OAK RIDGE BOYS RULE!


I'll start off with my silly song of the day, since it's, well, silly. Actually, it's close to ridiculous!

Song of the day: "Elvira" by The Oak Ridge Boys from Fancy Free (circa 1981)

Wow, talk about out of nowhere! Where do I even begin with this one?


I remember this song from when I was a kid. It was silly then, and it's even crazier now. I'm still trying to figure out how it popped into my head? Well, like Tootsie Roll Pops... The world may never know?

I figured I'd have some heavy metal song in my head this morning, due to the fact that I was listening to my "Static X" playlist yesterday at work. Sometimes you just need to be bouncing in your chair whilst you're working. It was also due to the fact that I knew I was going to be here until at least 6 pm last night.

I believe I left at 6:10. I did get home in time to see most of the Braves game last night. Noone got hurt and they won, so it's all good! However, I was definitely the "woman of the house" last night. That's said jokingly, naturally. I had to do a lot of ironing last night (like 15 shirts, but I won't have to iron shirts for at least 3 weeks, so it's cool), and I sewed a few buttons on my suits that had gotten loose. Yes, that Home Ec class I took at Drakes Creek waaaaaaay back in the day is still paying huge dividends!

I was rudely interrupted out of a dream this morning, so I am completely unable to remember anything from my sleeping time. I haven't slept too well the last couple of nights. I've gone to bed at a reasonable hour, but have spent nearly 3 hours tossing and turning, trying to get comfortable. It's silly how I complained a little bit about trying to get used to someone being back in my bed with me, and now I'm complaining because I was used to someone being there. Turnabout is fair play I guess.

Maybe at lunch I'll run over to The Gap and see if I can get them to let me borrow a mannequin? Better yet, I'll run down to the Forum and steal my buddy's life sized Brittany Spears Cut-out? (it's pre-completely white trash breakdown, and kids too)

I did try a different sound last night, and I think it worked pretty good. I got to thinking yesterday after I posted about the other sounds that were on that "dream machine" I had, and the only other ones I could recall were "ocean" and "country". Obviously, "ocean" was the waves crashing to the shore, and "country" was outside at night, complete with crickets and the like. I kind of remember liking the "ocean" one, so I downloaded some "wav" files from Partners in Rhyme. It's a pretty good website, with a ton of sound effects, all royalty free, thus not illegal to download.

Now, onto what some, I know, came here to see...

I made a promise yesterday that if a certain someone would repost the picture of their toes (for Dahbeed) that I'd post a picture of when I tried to lose one of my pinky toes. Obviously I didn't try to do this intentionally. As a rule of thumb, I try not to lose any parts of my body. Sometimes accidents happen though.

Before I show the pictures I will give some background info. Yes, I had been drinking. No, I was not completely inebriated. Afterwards I wish I had been.

At home I rarely wear shoes, while indoors. As usual, this evening I was kicking it like Joe Jackson (not Michael's Dad either). I was rushing around the apartment doing something, possibly cleaning, possibly just being a crack head. I don't remember. Anyway, for some stupid reason I ran into the bathroom.

In the bathroom I had a cabinet sitting to the left as soon as you walk in. Being partially intoxicated I didn't swing to the right quite enough and caught only the pinky toe on my left foot squarely on the bottom of that cabinet.

To say the pain was excruciating would be a slight understatement. However, I was not going to call an ambulance for a stupid pinky toe. Hell, whenever evolution picks back up again we're going to lose that digit anyway, right?

I iced the little sucker down for a half hour and took a Darvocet and went to bed. This is what I woke up to the next morning (as well as with a difficult time walking):



I should've thrown a Blue #22 jersey on that last picture. It would look just about right, right?

I took these pictures only because "someone" didn't believe me that I nailed the little sucker that bad. I don't know if you can tell from the pictures, but I hit the thing so hard that I bruised some of the inside of the toe next to it also. Now that's some damage!

It just so happened that I had a doctor's appointment only two days after this happened, so I hobbled around on this pig hoof until then. When the doctor asked me if I had any problems I just said "Well, I think I might have a broken toe, does that count?" He just smiled at me and said "Let me check it out".

It wasn't broken, but he said "Damn, you really tried to hurt that little guy didn't you?"

So, Beed, how do my tootsies stack up with Summer Sanders?