Let's Go Blues! (Thats St Louis, right?)

     Any person that knows me, knows that I'm not much of a sports fan, but there is something about going to an actual event that is a blast. You don't have to be a huge sports fan to appreciate the atmosphere of a live game.
     My birthday is coming up next weekend, so my best friend Bill decided to take me to the Stanley Cup Playoffs in St. Louis. Furthermore, the cards played out to where if they won they would closeout the first round, and there would be a huge celebration. Bill paid for EVERYTHING except some of the gas, and my food. He even bought me a blues cap!
     We stayed at the PearTree Hotel on Market St. which is about a block from Union Station Mall. We got there about 2, and the room wasnt ready so we went to the mall and walked around. From the hotel parking lot we had a great view of the skyline.

   
     Bill bought him a jersey and a cap, and bought me a cap, and we ate at the food court. I was stoked because I've needed a new hat for a long time. Bill bought some fancy expensive jersey, but unfortunately they don't make size fat, so I had to stick to the accessories. We decided to get a cab to the game even though it was only about a mile from us, just because I didn't want to risk walking on a sprained ankle. With it still not being 100%, I didn't want to risk re-injuring it. I had meant to buy an ace bandage and wrap it up, but I didn't have time to stop. So, I toughed it out.
    When we got there it was CROWDED, and there were some very odd people around and about. Some were uber fans, and others were homeless and begging for money and/or cigarettes, streetside evangelists, you name it.
     We get into the game and the whole atmosphere was amazing. It was a sea of blue. I didn't like how tight everything was. There was no room for anyone to walk past when you are sitting down. So, anytime someone on the row wanted to get up to pee, everyone had to stand up. Of course, I'm sure it didn't help that I am not exactly small. Plus the game turned into question time, so the majority of the game was spent leaned over yelling embarrassing questions to Bill because I didn't know what was happening most of the time
     Once the game was over, and the Blues clinched the first sound the place went NUTS! Everyone was high fiving, and hugging, air horns, screaming, shouting whistling, swinging rally towels....as we left the stadium everyone was driving by honking their horns 3 times followed by pedestrians shouting LET'S GO BLUES!! If anyone saw that you were wearing a Blues logo they would yell GO BLUES! to you. Everyone was drunk and Bill and I could do nothing but laugh about it. Between the ScottTrade Center and the hotel was an Irish Pub called Maggie O'briens, and while we were waiting, we saw this. I really cant explain it....

That my friends is a guy in a khaki SKIRT. Thankfully he was wearing underwear, but I feel like this is illegal in AT LEAST 19 states. We should have gotten free drinks just for having to witness this. The pub was PACKED but the food was fantastic. By the time we ate, we were exhausted and decided to head on back to the hotel. It was definitely the most fun I've ever had in one night.

Here are some other pictures from the trip :)

Hey Bill, Your Rally Towel is Upside down :P

Bill in front of the Scottrade Center

All moved in and immobilized....

    So with the looming move last week I really wasn't looking forward to the work of starting a new job and moving in the same week. My mother told me about this local "Handyman" service that also did moving services. It was insane how little he charged. He came to the house, and then 1 hour later, all my stuff was in my apartment, and I was only out $150. Of course, I had all the small stuff moved already, so he just moved my bed, couch, loveseat, recliner, chest of drawers, washer and dryer. Here is a link to his facebook page if you are interested in moving for cheap.  Grimes Handyman Service

     So, I was lucky enough to have over to visit a few later (Friday), and we decided to go out. At about 11:30 or 12:00 we were leaving a local restaurant when I missed a step and rolled my ankle. I told Bill that I felt like I needed to go to the hospital to make sure that it wasn't broken. I went, and they told me it was a sprain and sent me home in this cute little splint.

     I say cute, because no quicker did I get home before I rolled my a second time, this time ended me up in the floor writhing and cursing. I had enough, so decided that I would just hobble to bed to sleep it off. I woke up the next morning, and my wrist and especially my ankle was KILLING me, but it looked about the same. I just took a couple of painkillers, and relaxed Saturday. I started noticing late Saturday, that my left side of the ankle hurt especially bad, and was very tender to the touch, but I dismissed it as just tender from the sprain. Sunday, it hurt even worse, and I noticed my foot was swelling as well. This is what I ended up with before deciding to go back to the ER.

     I went back last night, and explained the second rolling of my ankle, so they did X-Ray's again, and found "Severe Ligamenture Damage" and gave me a referral to an orthopedic surgeon stating that it was actually a bad enough sprain that it could require surgery and a cast. They can't do anything until the swelling goes down more, so I am sure hoping that no surgery needs to be done.

Gracie got some spring pictures that are just adorable. Of course she does look like me....I'm kidding of course (kinda)

Here are Gracie's most up to date pictures.

A Bloody good time...

    So, I started moving odds and ends into the new apartment today, and I got to thinking... this is the first time I have been able to decorate my own place how I want to, and I want to do something fun with one of the rooms. I chose the bathroom. I decided to do kind of a horror psycho theme. I thought it would be fun. It may be offensive to some, but I am going to love it, and I made sure to run it past Xander as I didn't want him to be scared by it. He says he loves it, so I decided to go for it.
   Here is what I decided to do with the bathroom :)

Im going to have a lot of fun with it! The rest of the apartment will be conservative, maybe.

The first week of my new beginning....

     I started my new job this week. So far, everyone there seems to be very nice. I am getting along very well with my direct co-workers, and my boss. It has definitely been a challenge to try to get use to the early hours. I find myself napping when I get home which in turns into me being up until 4 AM. I did survive my first week though, and managed to make some new friends while doing it.
     With the new job, I decided to start looking for my own place in order to get out of my mom's house. I quickly learned that housing in the Jonesboro area is incredibly expensive. I set out with a $500 a month rent budget and that was quickly shattered after looking at a couple of $500 apartments. They were all either 300 years old with no central air, or they were in the ghetto and falling apart. I found out very quickly that I would have to change my budget to $600 a month if I wanted to get something nice. I found a very cute little apartment that I settled on. It doesn't have much of a kitchen, but I can live with that. I don't do just a whole lot of cooking anyhow. Its mostly stovetop things or oven baked meals.

As you can see, its modest, but it will be just me most of the time, so I think I can manage just fine.

     I haven't been doing good AGAIN at keeping a food diary. Its so hard to remember when you are just kind of bouncing around looking for a place to land. The last thing on my mind is updating my food diary!

     I'm currently in the process of trying to purchase a new domain, in which case my website would change to just bigfatloser.com. Whoever has the site now, obviously isn't doing anything constructive with it.

CLICK ME TO SEE

     I have sent an email to him, and called him, and have yet to get a response. I am really hoping to hear from him soon.

     I guess that's all I really have going on for now. Next week, I have to worry about moving, and I will post pictures of the finished apartment. Luckily, Amanda was kind enough to give me our old washer and dryer for the new unit. It wasn't being used anyhow, but it was still a kind gesture considering I gave them to her, and suddenly asked for them back.

Until next time!!!

Remembering....The Westside Shooting

    14 years ago today is the day that changed many people's lives. It's a day that I reflect on every year....It's not something I talk about, really, but for some reason, its on my mind heavy this year. The Westside Shooting.

    March 24th, 1998...I went to school like any other day. I was in choir when an announcement came over the intercom. It told the teachers to lock the doors, and make sure no students leave the room. The Westside High music building was between the high school campus and middle school campus, Separated by a baseball field.
    When they said to lock the students in, naturally everyone was curious. Police cars started to pull into the driveway on the end on campus that connected the 2 campuses. They started putting on bullet proof vests, and pulling shotguns from their trunks. I just assumed it was a drug bust or whatever...After a few minutes of not knowing what the hell was going on, our teacher let us turn on the TV. KAIT was reporting of a shooting at Westside middle school. It was immediate panic in the classroom. How is it that the news was reporting it before the school told us? We had to hear it from the news first....Most of the students panicked because they had brothers or sisters in the middle school. About 30 minutes passed before a boy from the middle school ran over to the music building to give us an update....One of the students' in my classes sister had been shot, but it was unclear at that time what her condition was. Everybody's response was to comfort the classmate that just learned from a middle schooler that her sister had been shot. We didn't know at that time, that her sister would later pass away. She was one of 5 people that died that day. 4 students, and one very brave teacher.
    I remember my dad picking me up from school, and driving me home. I was just kind of out of it. In shock over what had just happened. When we got home, my grandmother was there, washing outside windows...when I pulled up, she broke down and started crying. It was the first time I recall ever seeing her cry. It was then that I realized exactly how scary it must've been for my family to hear that on the news, and not know if I was OK.
   I think we should take a moment and remember the victims of that day, and the families, that still suffer because of the events that took place.

The 5 fatalities that occurred that day....I want you to know that I still think about you.

1. Natalie Brooks, age 11, student

2. Paige Ann Herring, age 12, student

3. Stephanie Johnson, age 12, student

4. Britthney Ryen Varner, age 11, student

5. Shannon Wright, age 32, teacher

Here is the wikipedia article for those who are unfamiliar with the events.

Westside Shooting Wiki

No Sleep....

Ever since getting hired on at my new job (I start Monday), my mind just goes 99mph when I lie down. I start a new job, moving out on my own for the first time. It's all so much to absorb. I know I need sleep but the waiting is killing me! I feel like I should be doing something in preparation for next month. I'll admit it's difficult to not have someone to wake up and bounce ideas off of at 4am. Maybe that's why I'm divorced now that I think about it....
    Saturday is my last day at FedEx. I'll rest Sunday and start work Monday. It'll take some adjustment to get use to getting up at 7am again. I'm hoping I will acclimate quickly, so I'm not a walking zombie. I honestly didn't have much to say, but just wanted to do something to distract my brain for a minute and kind of reset.

Until next time....

I'm sorry that I'm not sorry.....

     One thing that I have noticed since writing my blog is that EVERY SINGLE POST pisses at least one person off for one reason or the other. The thing is, this is my blog. I want my readers to know that I appreciate your opinions, and I respect your opinions, but this blog has been and always will be, my personal thoughts. That unfortunately means that you (as the reader) has to understand that before reading any of my posts. I do have a tendancy to be a little eccentric and it can sometimes come across as me being a smartass.
     There is one thing that a lot of people don't realize. When I started this blog, I did it as a thing for friends and family. I never expected it to snowball into something as big as it has become, so sometimes, I tend to treat it as only my friends and family are going to see it. I think thats honestly a good thing for the readers because it makes it more authentic, and intimate. At the end of the day, I guess I'm selfish, because I do this blog for me. Its a way to get my thoughts down and out of my head, and in some cases it clears my head.

    It's ok if you get pissed at some of the things I write, because you are just as entitled to your opinion as I am mine, but don't expect any apologies from me for something I said. I know that sounds harsh, but nobody is making you read my blog. You can feel free to leave a comment if you wish to disagree, in fact, I welcome it. Each comment has to be approved by me, but this is just to keep spam off my blog. I will NOT censor what you feel the need to say.

    AS ALWAYS thanks for reading!