Late Night Thoughts

It has been far too long since I was able to post a blog. Because of the longevity of my absence I have neglected to blog about a lot of changes in my life. Of course it hasn't been that I have been completely without internet or a laptop that I have neglected to keep my blog up to date. I have just been too busy trying to start a life that would be somewhat productive and meaningful. The reason I am writing this blog at this current time, if because I feel like my life is laking a meaningful purpose. Not that I am depressed or anything of that nature, I just seem to have allowed myself to fall into a pattern. I have gotten used to just letting things happen that I forgot that I actually had goals that I wished to accomplish, and have therefore strayed and allowed myself to lose my path.

I need to take control of my life, my ambitions and my goals. I need to set new ones, and create paths to reach those goals. I just don't know how I'm going to get this done...

Update(s) on My Current Life

Much to my dismay I had to move back home to live with my parents. It really sucks because I miss living in Columbia and having a social life. But on the bright side of that cloudy day, I found a job posting that night I moved home on Craigslist and had a job interview the following day. So I got a job almost immediately following my miserable failure as an independent adult. So now I am working for a company called PJ Pictures. The PJ stands for Parrot Jungle. I take photos of people with Parrots outside of Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville at Broadway at The Beach in Myrtle Beach. So far I have thoroughly enjoyed working for this company as well as at this venue.

I've had more car trouble since I moved home as well. But I shall be posting those in another blog... I am honestly thinking about writing a separate blog about my continuing car troubles.

And yet again, I find myself at a Crossroads in my life. I want to continue with my education so that I can eventually have a degree of some sort, but I do not know what I will be doing in two months, or much less If I will actually be able to afford to go to school. I am hoping this job offers new opportunities for advancement that Kodak failed to do. But even so, If I am moving and traveling how will I ever be able to accomplish things I want to do with my Education. Of course the money would be beneficial, and I would love the traveling. I just don't know what I am going to do with my life, and it is getting slightly frustrating.

But I will leave this blog on a positive note. I have met a few interesting people since I have moved back... And I am hoping that at least one of them will show some kind of potential! :]

How Many People Does it Take to Jump Start a Car?! Part I

Earlier this month I had an issue with my car and the Tires going flat. Although one of the tires still has a leak and gets pretty low once a week, the other tire was replaced one night when it went completely flat. The other evening I was driving back to Columbia, when I noticed the Battery light would light up every now and then. I didn’t really think anything of it, and made note to ask my parents what that meant. The next day I noticed it again at a stoplight and made a point to text message my mother and ask her. It meant the Battery was getting low and dying.

With that information, I figured that my car would be okay for a while, but that I may need to get it charged later this week or next month when I went home to visit again. I need to go home and actually let my dad change the oil and do some other things to my 17-year-old Toyota Corolla. However, I was mistaken with this assumption, because the battery died later that day.

I was driving around waiting for Sara or Marisa to text me back and let me know if we were doing anything later that evening or now, when I decided I would go to Krispy Kreme and get myself an original glazed doughnut. When I went back out to my car in order to leave, it wouldn’t start. I obviously was angry and embarrassed. I proceeded to text message all of my friends to let them know what had happened, and to see if any of them could come and help me jump-start my car.

After much discussion with numerous people, we finally found a set of jumper cables. Ironically it was Meghan that had a set, and they were in her car. Of course, her mother had to tell her that. Marisa came to keep me company at Krispy Kreme, even though she didn’t have cables. Meghan soon arrived with her cables and as we were trying to moved my car so as to line up the batteries, Mitchell also arrived. Once he was there we got things on a role, because as we all know, he is the most masculine man in our group of friends. We finally succeeded in getting my car going and as we were leaving, Meghan and I decided to stop and get a drink at Monterray’s Mexican Restaurant in West Columbia. Mitchell and Trey Also came.

So, the answer to the Question “How Many People Does it Take to Jump Start a Car?!” is 4.5, two Men, two Women and a Boxer Puppy named Maxcy!

Too Be Continued…

Contemporary Artist: Emile Bellet

Last year I was fortunate enough to go on a cruise with my parents and a couple of their friends. The cruise was a 7-day Eastern Caribbean cruise aboard the Carnival Glory. We left from Port Canaveral on May 15th, 2009. While on the cruise I decided to do some of the extracurriculars aboard, including the daily Art Auction (by Park West Gallery) in the Ebony Lounge. The first day I went I saw a few pieces I would have absolutely loved to have had, however they were starting at prices over $600.

The second day that I went, I discovered that they actually were giving away small lithographs. They weren't worth anything but the amount it cost to print them, but they were beautiful nonetheless. On that particular day, however, I discovered an amazing artist. His name is Emile Bellet, and the piece that I discovered him through is entitled "Les Terres Rouges." I actually ended up buying that specific lithograph because of how much I absolutely adored it.

Because of this, I discovered my love of art. I believe that Emile Bellet is one of my favorite artists, and I look forward to the next opportunity that I get to purchase another one of his pieces. Whether it be a number lithograph or an actual painting. However, I must say that he is more known for his paintings of the Faceless women, I much prefer his still life paintings and landscapes.

Sara's 22nd Birthday, True Blood, and Bed at 6 AM

On Saturday, May 15th, Sara, Meghan, Ben and I took a nice over night vacation to Sara's home town of North Augusta, SC. We went to visit her mom and have some party time for Sara's 22nd birthday. We left about 7:45 because I was a little late getting to her place. In my defense the stop lights always seemed to turn red when I got to them. However, we did make it to North Augusta within an hour and a half. only stopping in Columbia to get gas, and passing our exit to go to Augusta, GA to get liquor.

Once we got to Sara's childhood home in North Augusta, we noticed strands upon strands of Christmas lights hanging in some trees a good ways from her house. We had no clue as to what it was for until we went inside and her mother informed us that her uncle had cooked food for us! When we walked over we discovered that the lights circled a clearing with a nice fire pit in the middle. Soon after we had the fire pit lit and were enjoying each other's company, as well as a few spirited drinks. Soon, Sara's mom told us of the time she saw a U.F.O. near their house and informed us that, "These are the times that we remember being close to nature," in reference to us being around a campfire and drinking.

We all stayed outside for a while, and then about 2 o'clock in the morning we all ended up back at Sara's eating some of her birthday cake and chips with dip. Soon we were all watching TV. After channel surfing for a while, Sara started the first episode of True Blood because no one else has seen the show before besides us. With that one act, we have recruited a new group of True Blood Addicts. Soon though (around 6 AM), exhaustion caused everyone to fall asleep. We woke up the next morning at the same time (around 11 AM), to hear someone on television say "I'm going to beat you like a run away slave." That was hilarious because everyone in the room woke up at that exact time because of that and laughed.

Soon we said our fair-wells to Sara's amazing mother and headed back to the Capital City. Needless to say, fun times were had by all, and I strongly believe we will be going back a few times this summer!

How to Change a Flat…. First Hand!

A few weeks ago I was hanging out with a friend of mine named Will. Randomly he walks over to my car and shows me that there is a gash in my tire, which is all the way through the metal wiring that holds the rubber together. I just let it go because it wasn’t had at that time. Fast-forward a few days. I am driving and I notice my steering wheel is shaking while I drive. At that point I noticed that a piece of rubber is actually missing from the outer part of the tire. Again I procrastinated changing the tire. At this point I am going to describe my experience of getting a flat tire last night at 1 AM.

I was on my way home from hanging out and watching Betty White on SNL with my friend Aaron, when I start hearing my tired to flop. I knew that it was going flat but I had hoped to get back to my apartment. At that point it went completely flat, right before the Greystone Exit on I-26. At that point I text my friend Sara to tell her, just in case something happened to me. But thankfully she offered to bring help to get it changed. After text messaging her, I decided that I would just try and “limp” up the hill at the exit, so that I could be in a well-lit area. Once I got there, I stopped and got all the stuff out of the trunk I needed to change the tire; the Jack, the Spare tire, and Lug Wrench.

I made a sad attempt to put the jack under the car, because I forgot that it had a special place under the door that it went. After that epic failure, I was going to just wait until Chris, Sara and Rachel got there, but a guy in a wrecker showed up to go into the Exxon. He was nice enough to come over and show me where to put the jack, and also help me loosen the Lug Nuts. At that point I was able to get the car jacked up and proceeded to take the lug nuts completely off as to get the eviscerated tire off. I got three of them off with no issue, however, the last one didn’t come off… the entire bolt broke off.

After getting the lug nuts off, I attempted to get the tired off, so I wouldn’t look too completely helpless, but failed at that too. Only succeeded in getting my hands really dirty. Thankfully my friends got there at that point and were able to put the other tire on in less than 5 minutes. It was actually really funny because it was Sara, Meghan, Rachel, Chris, and his friend Mikey. I felt like such a failure, But I learned how to change a tired from first hand experience, and I also learned that I have some great friends!!

"Who Wants to go to a Rave?!"

One evening, a few weeks ago, my friends, Marisa and Ben, and I were at our friend Tim’s house. We were having a good time, random conversation accompanied by a few drinks. At one point Tim starts asking us if we wanted to play a game called “Atmosfear.” Marisa and I were apparently the first people he knew to have ever played it before. Of course, my being the only sober one took great joy in watching the one really intoxicated person trying to play this game. For those who haven’t ever played it, the rules are long and complex, but once played, you understand it. Not too long later, Tim’s roommate Chris came home.

For a while we just sat around talking and having a good time, then Chris got a text message from a friend of his saying that there was a party down the street from his house and that we should come. Of course everyone said yes because the party had a live DJ’s. Then the issue of how we are supposed to get there is raised. At this point there are seven of us. I would have driven, but my little car can only carry four people. So we all decide we are going to walk to this party that is supposedly 3 blocks away.

We finally left and the three blocks we had to walk was actually more like a mile. When we got there, the party seemed to be on a downward turn, considering it was 3 A.M. However, the party was still pretty lively. Once we got inside the houses basement I was extremely surprised how they had it set up. There were lasers and lights flashing all over. There was also a small half pipe built in for the skateboarders and it was painted with black light paint, which glowed really nicely in the black lights. The DJ’s were actually really good too. They did the whole dueling DJ’s thing and got some really good beats going.

After a while we all got kind of bored so we decided to walk back. When we were leaving a guy apparently Face Planted into the sidewalk, it was the most disgusting thing I have ever personally seen. There was a pool of blood and he was sitting there holding his nose with a towel. I swear he looked like he was going to pass out from blood loss. On the walk back to Tim’s house we were picked up by their friend and his girlfriend, so we only had to walk halfway back. All in all it was a great time! I’d love to go to a good rave party sometime, as long as I actually know most of the people there. I ended up getting home that morning at around 6 A.M. Of course it isn’t the first time I have stayed up all night, and definitely won’t be the last!!