I want to talk about pain...

So, a friend of mine posted a video (Rain by Patty Griffin) on her Facebook page and it is a song that I had really forgotten about. It's about 7 years old now and I remember hearing it for the first time just sampling some stuff at Joseph Beth on one of the few occasions that Jess and I went to Joseph-Beth... that's pretty much my favorite thing to do there is go and sample all the new music that you really never get to hear anywhere else unless you listen to WUKY for 80 hours straight... In fact, that was how I was introduced to Patty Griffin way back in 1996 when Living with Ghosts first came out... it was early spring... maybe May... anyway, I'm getting off topic.
I remember that song so vividly and thinking how purely painful it was... it is a song that hangs on pain... 'Strange how hard it rains now'... like you didn't notice until you'd been hurt so bad. Pain has caused a wound so deep in you that now it is filling with rain that you never noticed was there before and you feel like you're going to drown.
The essence of the song is basically 'I can't give you what you want and you can't give me what I want and it really fuckin' hurts'... but it is done so beautifully that you know that instead of drowing you, the rain is working to wash the pain away... you know you're going to be at the brink of suffocating under all this water but then the water will release and you're going to be cleansed.
"When I'm still alive underneath this shroud"... it's almost like if you gave it one more verse, the sun would come out... but you're not quite ready for that yet, so it ends... just like that...
It's beautiful.

Random thoughts while mowing the yard

• Sometimes riding around on a lawnmower crying makes me feel stupid...
• It is pretty cathartic to ride around in circles with no where to go or no where to be...
• You get to think up great one-liners that would be awesome in a song like "It's like the world suddenly stopped turning and my heart popped out of my chest and slammed against a concrete wall... not because it wanted to but because inertia told it to"
• Tears down your cheek + dirt and grass blowing back in your face = one hell of a mess
• If you get the lawnmower going fast enough down a hill it kinda feels like you're on a really shitty roller coaster.
• You realize how stupid you look with your hands in the air while you are riding down said hill.
  
• You get enough time with yourself to figure out that your head and your heart apparently speak to one another only when necessary... and by necessary, I mean never

I feel most sure that there will be more to come kids... just stay tuned...

I do not like Massachusetts because Massachusetts is the team that beat Kentucky...

So, picture it... 1996... March Madness... and Dave wears a T-shirt that spouts an entire reason why he (we) didn't like Massachusetts coached by one John Calipari. We hated him and his team. It all turned out ok as I think most of us remember, but that time started my distaste for 'Cal'.
Fast forward 13 years later and guess what? That's right, Cal is our coach. I have found myself calling him everything from a prima donna to a sleaze-ball. I think back to a week ago when it was pretty evident that BCG was on his way out and pretty much my choices were Eddie Munster and this guy that I couldn't stand. I started really thinking about it and I couldn't come up with one good reason to hate Cal except that he won a lot of games... huh... that was very different from my thoughts about Billy Donovan. Not that I could come up with great reasons why he shouldn't be our coach, but there was just something I couldn't put my finger on... I really didn't want him.

So, I put all my focus on finding out everything I could about John Calipari... Turns out, there isn't really much to dislike other than that 'Marcus Camby Incident' which he was pretty much exhonerated for. Don't get me wrong, I still think he should be watched like a hawk, but then again, in this day and age so should every college coach in a high profile position. In fact, if there is a personality in this sport that handle this job, it's him. I found myself looking at news wires, message boards and other sources with baited breath trying to figure out if and/or when he was going to sign on the dotted line. So, now, with much excitement for a new beginning to our team, I'd like to say 'Welcome Coach Cal! We're very excited you are here!'

And I'm certainly not blogging for any other reason now

Than to show you my new tat... this is what I've decided upon... it was a close race and there were several good options... but I finally decided to go on my own and get this

To all the blogs I've loved before...

So, I feel kinda guilty... although I never agreed to fully participate in the 30-day blog challenge, I had 'kinda' been participating which I guess, could result in some people believing that I was in fact participating... Let me put all those rumors to a restful end... I'm only blogging because I feel like it... not because of some crazy challenge or any kind of guilt applied to me by my wife or any other reason... I just wanted to blog to say that I'm not blogging...

Got it???

Ok, since everyone thinks I'm a big chicken...

I'm throwing down the gauntlet...

If you can come up with something that you think I could live with for the rest of my life on my skin, I'm all ears... tell me what I should get... If I like it, I'll get it.

Consider yourselves challenged.

Are we doing

The Tournament Challenge this year???

It's Amazing... In the blink of an eye you finally see the light...

Revelations come to me all the time... unfortunately, due to the large amount of 'fun' I had when I was younger makes it tough for me to remember them all. I could have, in my short life, figured out how to end hunger, find world peace, and figure out how to make Tom Arnold funny... but, alas, I never remember them. They usually come when I'm in the shower or right before I fall asleep and I think to myself, 'self, you should probably remember that.' And without fail, something shiny catches my eye, I crack my knee on the bathroom vanity and poof, it is gone like a thief in the night.

Now I ask you... is it just that things like that are not meant to be figured out or am I just that stupid?

What do you remember???

So, in my post-before-last, I responded to a comment that Amber made and it totally made me think about moments in my life when I subconsciously realized that I was going to know something about that moment for the rest of my life... Like the whole cover art thing... what I want to know is this... Tell us all a moment when you 'knew' something... a moment that you knew when it was happening that you were going to remember it for the rest of you life...

WTF???

So you grab your girls and you grab a couple more...

I am manager of three State Beauty Supply showrooms... one of my jobs is to choose the music (within reason) that plays in said showrooms. We have iPods in all three and my charge was to make it 'thumpin'... you know like in a club. Well, I did that (thanks to Jesse's brother's huge selection of gay club music) and it was fine... but I found myself bored with it relatively quickly and the people that work in said showrooms found it to be the same... ahem, exact quote 'This SHIT has got to go!' Well, you know me, not one to upset the apple cart - ahahahahaha, sorry - I decided to keep that music, but to try to add a little more 'culture' to it. I sat down with Jesse's iTunes (primarily because she was the only one to take the time to rip all the shit that she, her brother, and myself had to her computer) and started making a playlist. I have often considered myself having a wide pallette for music. I didn't realize how VAST it really was. As I sit here, I have heard Justin Timberlake, Dave Matthews, Dar Williams, Tracy Chapman, RuPaul, T.I. (featuring Justin Timberlake), Poison, the Dixie Chicks, and Big Maybelle.

Now playing, Melissa Ethridge.

I read Jen's blog the other day asking for music and things came to my mind so quickly that they clogged the thoroughfares so tightly that I then couldn't think of anything.

Now playing, Steve Miller.

And it occurs to me to think about how in god's name I could have come to find so many different types of music fascinating... and the answer came as simply as this... influence. It really began when I was 5 years old. I remember listening to 'The Tide is High' on the radio on the way to the lake with my parents. My feet started tapping and my head started bobbing... you know the way. Added to that you have my parents who, when I was 8 years old, got the family's first CD player... it was on. I could hear Percy Sledge, followed by Alabama, and then by Steppenwolf. The path was set early.
Then, there was the radio. There were three main stations that I could listen to on any given day when I was a child/teenager. There was WOKI out of Knoxville. They played some classic rock (or as it was known then, just rock). Then there was WCTT in Corbin. They had the Adult Contemporary/Soft Hits of the day. And then there was 103.9 The River (my apologies for not remembering the call letters). They had the country.

Now Playing, Fleming and John (you know, the Ugly Girl song)

Anyway, back to the story, there was harmony in the valley with the three radio stations until one fateful October day during my Sophomore year in high school when I turned on WOKI (in the mood for some rock that day) and I heard Garth Brooks... wtf??? It had happened, my harmony had been disrupted... I had to find a different way to find new music... no more real radio... only Garth Brooks and Taylor Dayne... not that I found them offensive to my ears, but I got to hear them all f**king day long... I wanted, nay, I needed something new. That's when I discovered the music section at Audio Nation. It was this little electronics store in London and they had 'everything'... of course you know when I say everything, I mean, everything that I could imagine and then some. Cut me some slack, I was 16.

Now Playing, Love Inc.

There I discovered 10,000 Maniacs, the Cure, and countless others that I shall never forget.

Then the time came to move to Lexington. I went through a musical dead period for the first couple of years. I was stuck with what I had and that was no money, roommates who thought Alan Jackson was the second coming, and too much to do. Then, after a while, when I moved out of the dorm and got a job, I started rediscovering music again. I met some new people and I got to hear things I'd never heard before... Big Head Todd and the Monsters, Belle and Sebastian, Ani Difranco, Johnny Socko... dear god, I was in music heaven.

Now Playing, The Smiths

I soon learned or realized that I was associating all of the new music with the new people and every time I'd hear those songs, I'd think about those people and it would make me smile... or cry, depending on the song, the person, or the mood.

Nowadays, I can't hardly hear a song (other than newer ones that I haven't gotten to experience yet) without thinking about where I was and who I was with the first time the song made an impact on me.

So, thank you Blondie, Morrisey, Ani, Dar, Melissa, Kurt, Jim, Lisa and Beth, Billy and all the others too many to mention for making the soundtrack to my life. It wouldn't have been the same without you.

The Thing About March Madness

Is that it really will make you crazy... I mean, you watch a roller coaster of a season of your favorite team. One minute your down in that shaky part where you are starting to go up but it is shaky... you know, the du du du du du du part. You don't feel comfortable and you know something exhilerating and scary is about to happen. You lose to VMI and UNC and you're a little worried. Then you get to the top of the first peak and you've beaten every one you are supposed to beat and lost to UL and Miami (both ranked). And then the fall begins... what a rush, beating Vandy and kicking the crap out of Tennessee... a few more wins and you are speeding through like a train.

Now you hit the bottom of that long drop and you lose three in a row... shit. But wait, there's another hill... Here comes Florida... du du du du du du. Holy crap, we made it to the top again, barely. Comin' down again, damnit I hate Memorial Gym in Nashville. Now there is one more big hill.... du du du du du du. Yes, it's good to see Tennessee at that top spot again but this hill is the top to one of those big descending spirals... uh oh. Crap, there went USC, and then LSU, but here comes Georgia... surely we can at least beat Georgia. SON OF A BITCH!

And then we come to the bottom of that spiral... maybe we can save our lunch if we can just hang on and beat Florida... no such luck... I think I just vomited.

This, my friends is why I don't like roller coasters. They can be fun for a little bit, but they always end the same for me.

NVTS

"Did you blog today?"
-No
"Did you try to blog today?"
-Yes
"Sign here"

There's just nothing happening in my mind today.... ahem... no comments from the audience please.

A Wee Bit o' the Irish

So, we're going again for the third annual trip to The Pub on St. Patty's day. Jess and her dad will be there at 10am and I'll be there around 4:30 and we're going to party until they kick us out... you are all cordially invited to join us for some green beer, corned beef and cabbage, and all the debauchery that goes along with an all-day stint at The Pub.

The Wii

So, reading the Schanding's blog the other day, I got inspired and after a quick discussion with the wife, we decided to get one... it came today and I have to admit, I'm a tennis pro... well at least on the beginner level. I see hours of addictive swatting, swinging, and shadow boxing in our future... anyway, thanks Zoo Crew for the idea!

Pepper Infused Vodka

So, I have had several requests for this (okay, pretty much just from Amber) so here's how you do it:

Take two jalepenos, two cerano peppers and cut them lengthwise twice (into 4 strips)... leave the seeds and all in them.
Drop them into a bottle of vodka (I used a 750mL bottle).
Close the lid tightly and leave it. My recipe was left for 4 days (the longer you leave it, the hotter it gets).
After soaking, pour through a strainer into a pitcher with a spout and then pour back into your bottle.
Now you have pepper infused vodka.
Live large and don't forget the baby wipes!
a

F**k My Life

Talk about wasted hours... this is the funniest shit I have come across in a long time... enjoy... really....

f my life

My Wife and I Are Getting Tatted...

With life

Nice

So, somewhere between 6pm and now...

I got drunk... i never intended to, nor did i really want to, but i started talking to this store owner (State Beauty Supply) and he was a little (ok, like super) weird and well, the beers just started flowing... I usually pride myself on being the 'responsible' one and the one who does not let the situation get completely out of control, but, tonight... at the very least... i am drunk and i don't give a fuck. Me and Pat (a sales consultant) went outside to smoke and, dear lord thank god i was not inside, but someone pulled the fire alarm or set off the smoke detector in their room and everyone was coerced outside and most everyone went into the tent where all the smokers were. Let me tell you that there is nothing more annoying than a bunch of non-smokers in a confined, covered space that is intended for no one else but smokers... picture it in your mind... someone walking in and taking a breath and making that face... you know the one... where their eyes squint and they perse their eyes and lips and indicate to you that they are soon going to die because they have inhaled about a cubic milliliter of smoke.... yeah, that one... it is awful... for me, not them... anyway, you try to be nice and unzip a side of the tent so that the airflow will be a little more significant than static and they still are not happy... "Bitch, get out" that's all i have to say... yeah, i should go to bed now.

peace and chicken grease
a

So, the lady at Wal-Mart...

Said, 'Are you really taking a picture of your tomato juice?'
She has no idea...


4 Gallons of Bloody Mary Mix isn't too much now is it???

Do you see what I see???

Hype '09