The Epic Post (part deux!)

Sooo the trip back. It was well over a month ago. Let’s see what all I remember…

Last night in town we went out to a Japanese fusion type place in Huntington with Gibson and Robyn.  It was good to hang with them one last time before we peaced on the west coast.  Right after dinner Gib and I went and picked up Gabe to head down to the legendary Trestles to meet up with Will for one last surf session. Now you’re thinking…wait after dinner? Yes. We went night surfing.  It can only happen every once in a while when the conditions are right and there’s a full moon.  God smiled and tried to drown me my last in town.  Surfing during the day is hard enough, now add head high swells that you can’t see and the possibility of sharks into the mix and you can almost imagine it.  Gibson made it over the first wave (he was on a long board) and then got wrecked by the second and spent the rest of the night on the beach playing with fire.  I made the paddle out, and then got hammered for two hours by outside sets without ever catching a wave.  Will and Gabe, being the boarderline pros they are, caught a ton of sick rides, and Will had a freakin broken wrist!  It was pretty frustrating, but it was a good experience to have.  Maybe some day I’ll get the opportunity again…the Lord only knows.

The next morning Leah and I woke up kind of early, packed up, and hit the road.   Here’s the schedule:

Monday – Costa Mesa to El Paso

Tuesday – El Paso to Austin

Wednesday  – Austin to New Orleans

Thursday – Hang in New Orleans

Friday – New Orleans to Nashville

Saturday  – Nashville to Richmond

It would be cool if we had taken lots of pictures to document our trip like most people I know, but for the first two days, it seems like we forgot we had a camera at all.  Driving through in-land California, Arizona, and New Mexico SUCKED.  Nothing upon nothing upon nothing.  We ate at an awesome mexican restaurant in Tucson, that had been open since like 1912 or something ridiculous.  We were so full after eating lunch that we didn’t eat anything for the rest of the day. I think we got to El Paso at like 10 or something after being on the road for like 13 hours and we were exhausted and did nothing that night.

Driving through Texas the next day was just asempty as the first day.  We were starving since we hadn’t eaten since lunch the day before, so we pulled over to a McD’s since there was nothing to eat anywhere in El Paso.  We almost never eat there, because we pretty much hate it for its war against Chic-fil-a.  Later on that day we were further validated in our hate when we saw something about there fake-ass southern style chicken sandwiches and some sort of slogan that said something like, “Even on Sundays.”  Never eating there again. EVER. EVER. EVER. bastards….There was absolutely nothing for hundreds and hundreds of miles after that.  Just empty desert. There were times when I was almost positive we were going to end up in some sort of texas chainsaw massacre-ish situation.  After a little over eight hours that day, we finally made it to Austin, which was the first stop we were really excited to make it  to.  We stayed in a pretty awesome, really cheap motel just outside of downtown which was perfect.  We were both really grumpy from all the nothingness and being stuck in the car all day, so we went around the corner to almost the first bar we saw to get a beer and an appetizer and try to relax.  After that it was almost sundown and that meant it was time for the bats to come out! Austin is home to the largest natural urban bat colony in the world. Every night in the summer, thousands of people line up all along both sides and underneath this bridge.  They renovated the bridge in the mid-70’s and when they did it, they accidentally created these small spaces underneath that are perfect bat habitats. Now, every night at sundown literally tens of thousands of bats fly out from underneath to feed.  It’s soooo weird looking.  You can’t see them from the pictures we took, but at first it looked like a million little flying spiders crawling out from these little slits in the bridge.   AND THEY JUST KEPT COMING…for like an hour.  There was this black cloud, it kind of looked like smoke, flying along the river, made up of thousands upon thousands of bats.  It was pretty crazy. After it was too dark to see any more bats, we went on a walk up to 6th street to see if we could find a cool bar to go to.  It was kind of weird.   There was like a hundred frat type giant party bars that were all empty.  Given it was a Tuesday in the summer, but it was still weird.  These bars were gigantic.  We ended up going to Casino El Camino which was supposed to be more of a dive type bar that had really good burgers and chile verde fries that were freaking amazing.  It was also the first time I had seen a PBR tall boy in a loooong time, so I proceeded to have three. All in all, a pretty good night.

So day three began kind of early. We tried  to find this cool coffee shop we had heard about in Austin, but couldn’t find it so we took off pretty quick and headed towards Houston for lunch.  The world began to look more like the east coast after Austin.  More trees, more green, more awesomeness.  We had to get some barbeque in Texas, because it’s TEXAS, so we went to this little place we read about that was supposed to have some delicious brisket…it was.   Unfortunately, Leah ended up with a bone in her sandwich that caused her to chip her tooth and end up in some extraordinary pain.  After that we hit the road for another 5 hours until we got to Nawlens.  We had made reservations at a B&B as we like to avoid major chains of most types if at all possible.  I think it was called  the Lamonte House, it was pink, old, awesome, and just outside the French Quarter.  We actually stayed in one of the other three houses that make up the Lamonte house.  We got in and showered and then headed out to check out things.  We walked around for a bit and then ended up at another place we had looked up called Coop’s place.  It was a tiny little dive bar that had some ridiculously good gumbo.  We hung out there for a while and had several delicious Abitas, which is the local micro brew.  We then headed out to exploit the ability to drink on the street and see what kind of craziness happens.  I’m not sure if it’s just us, or what the deal was, but we just weren’t that into it.  Bourbon street, eh…it was kind of crazy on a Wednesday night, I can’t even imagine what it would be like at Mardi Gras…jeez.  It just wasn’t very much our scene I think.  I mean the houses were rad.  We love the style, but the whole place just felt awkward and evil.  We made a pretty early night of it and went back to crash.

I promise I’ll finish up soon with part three.

THE EPIC POST (part 1)

so we’re back…

I’ve been super lazy about this because it kind of seemed overwhelming and that it would take a stupidly long amount of time so I put it off and now here I am finally getting around to it, so where to begin? I guess with the 4th of July….

The 4th this year was almost perfect. My good friend Carl that I’ve known since I was 12, came to visit, because I promised him a 4th that only California can come through with and did it ever. He flew in on the night of the 2nd and I believe we hung out mostly at the house on the 3rd, while I prepared for the bbq we had planned partly in his honor, partly cause we were leaving Cali soon, and partly to kick off the fourth the right way. We kept it small and it was awesome. I made some ribs and they turned out quite delicious most disappeared very quickly. It went off pretty well if I do say so myself. Onto the 4th! It was nuts. We started off by driving up to Huntington to hang with Ashley and Evan and some other friends for brunch. It was quite delicious and a good way to begin the festivities. After brunch we headed back down to the house to get going. It began calmly enough with a few games of beer pong and lots of ridiculous pictures. Then we all hopped on our bikes to go check out the craziness that is Newport Beach. HOLY CRAP. I believe on July 4th that Newport Beach, California is how most people that don’t live there picture it year round. There are people EVERYWHERE. Lots of girls in bikinis on bikes with their big macho boyfriends and tourists and craziness. I think Carl may have been in a little bit of shock. We didn’t ride down too far so that it wouldn’t take forever to get back and just hung at the beach for a while. Bodysurfing and just being silly. After a while we decided to head up to NB Brew Co to get some drinks and some food and chill for a bit. After that we headed back to watch the fireworks from the back bay and then pass out. Looking back, I guess we really didn’t go all that crazy, just hung out and had fun. Nothing terrible happened, no one got arrested, all in all it was pretty perfect.

So our last two weeks in California after that were pretty standard. I surfed an insane amount. We went to the wedge pretty consistantly, I started to kinda not care so much about work, and just really began to look forward to moving back. Gabe and I did a lot of dawn patrolling when the waves were good. We hung out a lot with as many of our friends as we could and all in all it was pretty awesome. Gabe and Kathleen threw us a going away party at their house which was pretty awesome. Gabe (AKA the tri tip master) made some delicious tri tip and shrimp and we played lots of games. There was a beer pong table, redneck horseshoes, and cornhole. One of our friends, never having played redneck horseshoes before got one of the “horseshoes” stuck in a tree, and I had to climb it to get it out. We hung out there for a while and got a little ridiculous and then rode bikes down to the goat. That was pretty insane. Leah and I did not have bikes so we rode on people’s handlebars. Right after everyone left the house, we all split up like a bunch of high school kids running from a busted party. Well at least, Jeremy (whose bike I was on) and I did. I seriously that I was going to die like 8 times. There was one time in particular where we came so stupidly close to running head first into a tree…oh man. After a while at the Goat, and a bit too much beer everyone went home and Leah and I borrowed one of Gabe and Kathleen’s bikes and headed back with Leah on the handle bars and me driving. Now THAT was an adventure, telluwhut!

That brings us up to the trip back, which will be continued in part 2….

T-Minus 64 (East)

My head is seriously about to do one of these with excitedness about moving back to VA.

Housing situation is locked down. It was a little out of whack for a minute, but we’re cool now.   I put my notice in at the “Big O” , as we in the industry call it.  Still don’t have a job in VA though, any help at all would be appreciated! I’m looking into working with a consulting firm, which would mean travelling a decent amount, which is not necessarily a good thing.  I have a couple leads there, but haven’t spoken with anyone yet.  Then again, one of the Wentz’s said he could probably help me at C.H. Robinson.  Something else I need to look into.  Leah starts her job August 11, which happens to be the same day Rancid plays 9:30, just noticed that little fact this morning, we’ll probably have to talk about that.

But seriously…I CAN’T FREAKING WAIT

 

 

XTREME BLOG MAKEOVER

i’m going to start this thing over again. i may or may not keep the first few entries, we’ll see when the redesign is done.

it rules.

hello worldwideweb

like i said when i first started this blog, it was something to take up my time while i was bored at work. now that i’m no longer bored at work, the entries will be few and far far far far far between.

i got a raise. finally. came through on friday. my boss doesn’t hate me quite so much. he’s also taking me and a couple of other guys snowboarding tomorrow. stoked. no work. i don’t have to use vacation/sick hours and i’m going riding. for free. it rules.

leah’s switch to day shift has been awesome. i have way more opportunities to do things for her and she’s in much much much better moods. it rules.

i went surfing yesterday and it was fun. i went with a couple of guys from church that are cool and i will greatly miss when we move back. i’m kind of in the middle as far as skill goes among us (one guy is way better, one is a little worse) so i feel no pressure to catch 100 waves like i do when i’m out with will or other people i might surf with. i plan on going much more. it rules.

i’ve been to a bunch of shows lately. which have been mostly good. i saw the comeback kid and crime in stereo last night. cbk was good as usual, although i can’t stand their last record, but cis is pretty much terrible. their first two albums and ep were good, but the last record, man….it’s just not good. too many stupid guitar effects and “experimental” vocals. stop trying to be brand new and just play hardcore. please. anyway, i saw dan from denver, and leah got to see bailey and andrew, whom she hadn’t seen in years. dan is moving here next month so hopefully we’ll hang out more. it rules.

i’ve been reading my bible a lot lately. God is not something i have really mentioned in here before, but i am now. i’ve been praying for a long time that God would give me the desire to want to study more and be more concious of everything He does for us, and I lately I’ve felt like my prayer has been answered. it rules.

a little over 4 months until we move back to RVA.

IT RULES.

interesting

so i just clicked on the little time button in the lower right hand corner of my screen (go ahead and follow along) to try and figure out how many days are left until we move back to virginia (yes, it’s official we’re moving back in the middle of july). so the calendar and the time pop up and i click on the month and select july (go ahead). did you notice how the cursor that tells you the date didn’t move at all? i wasn’t sure if maybe my computer was broken (it’s been on the fritz lately) or what, but it turns out the dates in january and july fall on the same days of the week. maybe it’s this way every year? nope. it’s not. must be because this year is a leap year. soooooooooo……….

172 days until we start the trek back across the country!

work sucks. i might be getting a raise though.

daniel turned 21 on sunday. absolutely nuts.

leah works her last night shift tomorrow night. probably one of the best things that could possibly happen to our relationship.

i was dumb multiple times last week.

lots of people have died recently, january has not been a good month.

my friend’s dad tried to anger me to the point of killing him at his own son’s WEDDING. Thank Jesus i controlled my temper.

hopefully we’ll be going snowboarding on monday. it will be the third time we’ve tried to go. hopefully this time it will work out.

did i mention i can’t wait to be home? actually i didn’t.

I CAN’T WAIT TO BE HOME

that’s all.

It’s been a long time

Oh man. Where do I start?

Well, I finished my duty on night shift. Inventory got screwed up soooo bad in the end because of multiple reasons. However, I feel the main reason was the stupid idea to use the analyst that barely speaks english. Oh well, not my fault. Dumb bosses rule.

The trip back to Right Coast was pretty awesome as expected. It’s set in stone now that we’ll be moving back most likely in the middle of July. So I guess I should update that profile thing to say that we are way homesick and can’t wait for the next six months to end. Christmas was good. My family is totally bonkers. I feel terrible for my mom. Every time we go back I feel terrible when I leave because she is left there with no one to help her deal with the craziness. My dad does nothing but hide in his room, and my other brothers and sisters are so terribly lazy that it makes me sick. Except Whitney, but she gets up at 4:30am everyday to take Chase (her completely loser baby-daddy) to work and then she comes back and takes her two kids to day care and then she goes to work and gets home at like 5:30pm. She does this EVERY SINGLE DAY. Oh well, that’s what happens when you make poor life decisions. We saw most people we needed to see. Beau Beau at starlite and Fred at salvation. Gibson’s birthday was nuts, but bdays always are back there.

A lot has changed

Oh man. So remember me saying I got out of working nights? HA! Right! I’m working nights. Between 8 and 14 hours shifts. It’s great. I love being salaried with no OT. It rules. SO HARD.

The bonuses. I get to spend slightly more time with Leah, I think. I also only have to work 3 days next week. That’s it. I’m not bored at work anymore because I’m out in the warehouse managing 6 18-20somethings which include a ratio of 4 guys to 1 girl, who happens to be incredibly flirtatious. Once again. OH MAN.

Still can’t wait to get home.

Praise Jesus!

Sooo yesterday I wrote (whined) about working ridiculous hours. Well, yesterday, after I wrote that, my boss and I decided that instead of working 12 hours a day, I would work 8-10 hours overnight. So I’m going to have a team of however many employees that will be pulling product for the move and then I will be managing them. So not that much has changed right? Starting Sunday night, I’ll be working 11pm – 8am. Huuuuuuuge change. Now I will get to spend way way way more time with Leah than I normally would working my day shift, and I’ll get to understand what it feels like to work nights and try to sleep during the day. We’ll see how screwed up my body gets after the first week. I also only have to do this until we go to VA which is in 23 days (18 work days). I think I’m going to be whiped for the flight though, since I will probably work 16 hours straight before we go. Wednesday night and then until about 3pm on Thursday.

Man, I can’t wait to get to VA!!!!!!!!!!! AGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHFDHAJKPBNFPQGRIO;NRFV

19 days and counting

19 days until I’m back on vacation and holy crap am I going to need it. Starting today my life at work sucks. Well, not necessarily starting today, because it sucked before, but now it sucks on a whole other level. 12 hour days (6 am – 6:30pm) , 5-6 days a week, and now for the kicker…NO OVERTIME PAY. I am a salaried employee which has its advantages, but has the one huge weakness of no overtime. This is going to put a tooooooon of pressure on my relationship with Leah, and it will pretty much whipe me out energy wise. Then once I get back from Virginia, I will have to work through that upcoming weekend (15-16 hours a day, which in Jay hours means 24), doing the final move of the warehouse.

I think this might be a tiny taste of hell.