Videos Of Us Playin In The Snow

Pretty self explanatory, right?









Hope everyone is having a good time these holidays!

Well The Weather Outside Is Frightful

I think this is the first Christmas I can actually say the above statement.

I arrived in South Dakota Sunday night and saw the snow on the ground and wondered if I would see some actually fall. Well, a couple days of waiting, I got my wish. Though, that whole "be careful what you wish for" phrase might come true as it is expected to be a pretty bad storm coming through (we have been hearing the wind slam against the house all day).

It started getting really bad in the evening. I went to the commissary with my brother in law to get all the essentials on the chance the power goes out and the wind literally almost knocked me over. We joked that it was like the snow was bitchslapping us in the face.

Is it bad that I am actually kind of excited for a storm? I guess it's just that for me being from the south, we go through hurricanes every year. Sure, I've only gone through two major ones, but I have still gone through them. I guess it would just be kind of cool to experience what the other side of the country goes through.

Before it got too too bad, we took some pics and videos. Pretty soon I wanna do a post with the pics and some more videos, as well as an update to what this blog will be shaping up like in 2010, but for now, I will leave you with this.




Couple explanations:

*We kinda just put some clothes on (I had woke up not too much earlier) and I didn't grab a belt, so that was kinda difficult.

*At one point, my sister saw a rabbit and that's what she was trying to get me to see

*I know I need warmer clothes. It's just for the amount of time that I am actually outside I am being cheap right now.

Random lyric of the day:

There's a little red bridge with a view of the sun
with a lake, I recommend such a setting site.
And the thousands of stars, come out thousands of times.
And we can go only if you believe, only if you believe.

Little Lover's So Polite

So it's late on a Friday night/Saturday morning and I figured I would take the time to FINALLY update on my life, both for anyone paying attention or myself when I go back and read these one day. I am currently listening to the Silversun Pickups and getting pumped for their concert with MUSE, though I guess I shouldn't get excited until I actually get the tickets. Well, here is my life in no particular order.

*Saw Avatar tonight. I read a review before going in that it would "change the way you look at movies." Whoever said that was right. The story was nothing new (I heard someone say it was the same story as Dances With Wolves while Frisco and I had flashbacks of The Last Samurai) but it was still interesting and easy to follow. But the visuals, oh man the visuals. That movie looked absolutely amazing. So add a pretty good story plus stuff that I didn't mind looking at for two and a half hours THEN add in the fact that the 3D aspect of it was mind blowing at times and you had a five star movie that was well worth the price of admission.

*We were late, but I did happen to catch the new trailer for Alice in Wonderland. In 3D. And if you guys weren't excited already, start now. The 3D is going to be nuts and they explained what was already reported that it was Alice returning after being gone, so it's a new story. I can't friggin wait.

*School is over and now it is time to rest. That time officially starts Sunday when I get on a plane to go to South Dakota (thanks everybody for the insight when I have mentioned the trip before). I can't wait to see my family and have two weeks of no school, no work, no drama.

*My birthday was Tuesday and I turned the big ol 23. Had a pretty good day that consisted of buying and watching The Hangover and going out to eat with friends. It was also a day of celebration as any of you that have been following my blog for a while will remember, I gave up pizza, doughnuts and soda back in early September and said I could eat them again on my birthday. I think it actually worked sort of because a) I feel like it helped my body (inside and out) and when I went to eat the pizza our work had for lunch I could only eat two slices before I was done.

*I'm slowly but surely getting into Twitter. If you are as well, follow me here

*One more bit of entertainment news. Next to The Office, Scrubs is my favorite TV show. However, last season (minus the first and last episode) left a bad taste in my mouth. To be more honest, it kinda sucked. So when I heard this season that they were basically changing the whole thing around, I became REALLY apprehensive. But boy am I glad I gave it a shot. Only four episodes in, and I have that good feeling Scrubs used to give me. And then of course I randomly read online somewhere that Scrubs has gotten low ratings and will be done by January. Way to ruin a good thing ABC.

*Before I end this, I just want to say I probably won't post much from my vacation except for the Music Sundays, which I have something I am working on for the entire year of 2010. I don't imagine many of you will be posting either, but part of my new year's resolution is to overhaul this whole blogging thing. Getting rid of the blogs I don't read or haven't connected with so they don't clutter up my space and I get back to regular commenting, start reading in Google Reader instead of the dashboard so I can have a number on what I haven't read and trying to get some new followers in the realms of music are goals of mine in 2010.

*Now I am ending this with the topic of my best friend's wedding. I was going to go into a little more story, but I will save that for an entire post. For now, I would like to share a few more pics with you

Bride w/ bridesmaids... and me? (Don't really know how to refer to myself)

Chillin with Frisco waiting for everything to start

Yea, this is a fun picture with the tinsel, but I'm not gonna lie... I like it because I feel my facial hair is lookin good

Just before we were all getting ready to walk out

Hanging out that night, getting denied for a pic with my bfff

Random lyric of the day:

so much for the showdown
keeping up while keeping off
choking on the cold feet
rolling up the plastic sleeves
can't control the slow ride
little lover's so polite
turning off the low light
tell me did the bones collide

Connecting Alabama, Georgia, Florida, and... South Dakota?

So not sure how long any of you have been following, but if you have been here for a while you will that my sister and I are very close. There have been pictures and posts about visiting Crestview, Florida, where her and her husband live. But something I am not sure I have explained before, but will be explained in one of the last posts I promised I would dedicate this week before taking some time off (from writing -- not posting). In the following story, you will see exactly what we are -- and what the future holds for us.

Laurie and I became friends around 8th grade. One of those situations where we were seated next to each other and one conversation led to another and soon we were becoming good friends. It was phone calls after school and venting when my girlfriend broke up with me then proceeded to mess with other guys in my class. She was my original bff you could say. I remember one time we went to a roller skating rink on a class trip and she didn't want to go because she couldn't skate, but I promised her I would stay with her. Until the girl I was crushing on told me to come skate with her. And I left Laurie to stumble by herself. Yea, I got a lot of flack for that, haha.

In the summer of 2001 (Note: 2001 was a terrible year for me. That year could get it's own blog post) I was facing the tough decision of moving back to California or stay in Alabama for high school, where I had been living since 3rd grade. It was back and forth, with at one point I even went to freshman orientation at a school in Modesto, CA. But two people ultimately had the influence at the time to bring me back. One was Keyo (which is crazy, because we aren't even really friends anymore) and the other was Laurie. So when I came back, I learned that her mom had separated from her boyfriend. At this same time, my dad had just gone through a divorce. So we came up with the idea of setting them on a date. They agreed to it and then the next few months just happened so fast. They moved in together, got engaged and then got married. All the sudden I had a new family. Laurie was now my sister.

We only became closer as it was clear our parents married too fast and maybe weren't exactly right for each other. It made us have to depend on each other more. During our senior year of high school (we are the same age) she was doing cheerleading and JROTC stuff after school and I was working and we would get home at about the same time. We always missed dinner, but she would always take care of it, making us something. The two of us started to feel like a family, even if our parents didn't show it really.

Then, one day it became too much for her. This day started the only downward spiral we had ever had. I can't even remember the exact incident, but I came home one day to find that she had moved out of the house we were staying at and living with her dad, who lived in the same town. I tried to play it off, but I was hurt. Hurt because we had made a pact. We both said that no matter how bad it got with our parents, we would never abandon each other. And I felt like she did. She was still my sister, but at school she was just a classmate. And I HATED it. I remember at one point we even had a fallout because I got caught saying some stuff on my mind to a friend that got back to her. We eventually sat down and talked about it. But by then, senior year was over -- I was getting ready to leave for Auburn and she was getting ready to stay and go to the community college. We tried to keep in touch, but it kind of fell through. To be honest, she was doing things and hanging out with people that we will just say I didn't agree with. My entire freshman year went by and our connection was hanging by a thread, but we still had one.

Then, in August of 2006, at the beginning of my sophomore year of college, I got a phone call. She asked me what I was doing and I told her I was playing video games. She then asked if I could come to Ozark the next day because she was getting married. This totally came out of nowhere because the guy she was marrying was someone she dated for years in high school, but to everyone's knowledge they had not stayed in touch for a while. So, being the brother I am, got out of work early the next day and sped down the road in time to make it for the wedding. Little did I know that that day would be a catalyst for the change in both of our lives.

The guy, Luis, and I had always been friends. I actually knew him before he started dating Laurie. He had been in the Air Force for about a year before they got married. He spent that time doing basic and all that good stuff, but after their marriage, he got stationed in Augusta, Georgia. I visited them once and I really liked the vibe. Then, a few months later they got stationed at Eglin Air Force Base, located in the Crestview/Destin/Ft. Walton area of Florida. This area was only a few hours away from where I lived. All the sudden, without the people she was hanging out with and with her new situation, there were more phone calls. We started inching becoming closer again. In a weird but funny part of the story, a videogame by the name of Halo brought us together to the point where we are now. I don't know if anyone is familiar with that game, but it's basically a shooting game you can play over Xbox Live. One day, Laurie got tired of watching Luis play it all the time so she jumped on and we all became addicted (my roommate jumped on too). It got to the point where we were playing everynight and we noticed was happening was we got used to talking to each other where when the game died down we would still call because we were so used to it.

There house became my spot. Even after our latest ripple in the pond. As I have mentioned earlier, our parents weren't exactly great together. And in January of this year, what we thought came true as they finally filed for divorce. So now, we are not even technically family. However, my feeling is that after 8 years of being family, you don't just stop. In fact, I think it sort of made us stronger because we could vent to each other because the other understood. Our parents understand too. They understand that even though a piece of paper initially told us we were familair, another one just couldn't come and tell us we weren't. So the visits continued without stop. I would start out visiting about once every few months to literally at least once a month, with one month maxing out at three visits. This was also amped up because in the last year I have gone through a pretty horrible break up and they were referred to as "my team." I couldn't have gotten through it without them. But after three years of closeness and constant visiting, it seems I will have to.

About a month or so ago, we got the news. Luis switched jobs, and because he did he lost the privilege to choose to stay at the base where they are at now. So where will be they be living at the end of October? If you saw the title of the blog, you would have guessed it -- South Dakota. At first, I was crushed. We all were. But now, we have kind of accepted it. We will still talk everyday, as we do now, but the visits have been drastically altered. Instead of once or twice a month, it will have to go to once or twice a year (I have already started looking into plane tickets for Christmas/New Year's). The only other thing that has to be changed, is I was looking at living with them for a while after graduation to get off my feet so to speak. Now that they will be in South Dakota, it may not be that easy, but at least it will be possible.

(I just realized how long this is. Kudos again for you if you have read. And I'm sorry if it's not understandable. I am too tired to go back and proofread)

So, in summay, the move sucks. But we are looking forward to it now. We have to. I am sort of an optimist and I feel it has started to rub off on them. And I guess it sucks to trade sunshine for snow, but hey, at least there will be snow :)