Prom Problems

Prom is now about a week and a half away. Jess and I have only recently really started to buckle down to get ready for it. The reason for this was that Jess had a dress picked out and put on layaway, so her parents had to finish paying it off before she could pick it up for me to see so I could reserve a tux to match it. However there was a delay in this after her parents had to go to Pheonix for a weekend. Once she did manage to get her dress last weekend though, we immediatly started planning, and went to get my tux. We went to Savvi (where I got a tux last year and was very satisfied with the service), but were disapointed to find that they were SOLD OUT of almost every tuxedo there, and the only options for me were terrible. We ended up going down Frederica to Harold's to rent a satisfactory tux. I also ordered a pair of blue converse shoes to match her dress that I will wear to add just a little element of punk to it all.

Next on the list is how are we going to afford tickets and dinner and afterparty supplies, as well as where are we going it eat, who is going to be in our prom group, etc. The initial plan was that we would go in a group with Timmy and Cam, and possibly Michael and Aryanne if things played out right. However, we are still upset with Timmy, and not sure whether we want to put being so mad at him on hold or reward him with such a fun time, and Michael and Aryanne are almost constantly on the rocks. I thought that the two of them were finally going to be ok after they seemed to finally get the drama with Joy out of the way, but now things are just as bad as before because of her ex's causing trouble now. I just have to hope that someone will finally realize that EVERYONE is acting crazy and do something about it. Sometimes it feels like I'm one of the only sane people left around, and then that is enough to drive anyone insane.

Well, my preperations are at least almost done. I still need to buy some flowers for Jess and I, and I think I'll do something with my hair, but I don't know what yet. Other than that Jess still needs to buy some accessories, and we need to decide exactly what we will do for our afterprom extravaganza. Last year we had an energy drink party with Logan and Allison at Jessica's house. We bought a ton of energy drinks like Amp and Nos and dumped them into a shot machine that worked like a gas pump, and drank them all night long while watching Sweeny Todd. It was actually a blast.

It seems that all we need to do now is figure out how we are going to afford everything (hopefully a few extra chores will put my parents in a sympathetic mood) and who is going with us. If we end up alone because no one can pull it together, we will stay home and either have my Mom cook for us or cook something ourselves, and maybe hang out with Logan for a while afterwards, but it really isn't going to be such a fun night without a group of friends with us.

CD's

The last CD that I purchased was Ocean Eyes by Owl City, which I bought for Jessica for her birthday. Fireflies was a new favorite song of ours that played on the radio alot, and we also discovered Vanilla Twilight through youtube, so we were excited to own the whole album.

The last CD that I bought for myself was Foiled for the Last Time by Blue October. Jessica had given me a burnt copy of Foiled, and I had found that the rerelease of the album included bonus songs and a second disc. I bought it excited because I thought that the second disc was a DVD of a concert, but instead it was just a CD of the concert, a live album. It was still good and X Amount of Words has an excilent twist to the live ending, but I wish I had the CD.

The last CD that I recieved was Avenged Sevenfold's Live at LBC and Diamonds in the Rough. It was a Christmas present and also was a 2-disc package. The first disc is a DVD of a concert from their last tour, and the second is a live album from the tour as well, and features a few bonus songs that have not been released on any other album. It is also the last thing A7X would ever release with the late great drummer The Rev.

Lack of Friends.

On Wednesday I agreed to drive out to Hawsville to pick up Cam for Timmy and bring her to church, and drop her back off in Hawsville afterwords.. Timmy wricked his car going 5 miles per hour in a parking lot so he can no longer make the trip on his own until he gets a new car. However during the planning of the trip things started going sour. I have a 3 seat pickup truck, and refused to let him tagalong with Jess and I to get her because we coulndn't all fit legally. he was upset and kept trying to find loopholes, but ended up just making Jessica very mad in the end and gave up. On the way out there he kept txting us and bugging us with questions about where we were ans how much longer we would take when we had never even been out that far before and had no clue. He had asked me earlier to drop Cam off at his house before church and I told him I only would if there was enough time, but otherwise we were going to Jessica's to pick up something before church and would meet him at church after that. When I told him we didn't have time to go to his house and to just meet us at church he took it upon hiself to go wait at Jessica's house for who knows how long to take her himself with hardly any "hello" or "goodbye."

By now we were pretty peeved. He has been acting out alot latley, and been just plain disrespectful of everyone besides him and Cam. He has been having Cam pierce and gauge his ear for him after he was hired to work at Holiday World this summer (the new job is to be able to pay for rent when he moves out this summer) even though he knows that the company does not approve and if they find out will likely fire him. He asys he has a loop hole to allow him to do it, and refuses to listen to anyones claims who has worked there previously about how strict they are, and how likley he is to be fired for it.Aside from that he has been constantly striving for loops holes that are unlikley to work in his favor in just about everything. He shows no respect for anyone and just walks over them, expecting everyone to have no problem with his behavior, and be completely fine with being treaten so badly because they are friends. He has run away from home before, steals his brother's car often, only hangs out with us at my house to use the enternet to talk to Cam, sitting quietly in the corner for most of the time, he is unthankful of people who go out the way to do him favors, is generally rude to people, and keeps on proving himself to not care.

He is supposed to help Jessica pay rent this summer, but might be fired from his job for this. ALL OF HIS FRIENDS and those who care at all about him talk bad about him behind his back because of how he acts. When his brother told him about how everyone was talking about him at McDonalds on Wednesday night, he replied that he didn't care if everyone hated him, hes going to do what he wants anyway.

Some of us are starting to think that this change may have something to do with Camille. We all love hanging out with the both of them, and they are my closest friends, but things are changing. I like having just a small group of really close friends, and right now thats Timmy, Cam, Jess and me, but with everyone being so upset with Timmy, that kind of alienates Cam as well, and now I am at a sort of loss for people to look forward to hanging out with again. Sure I have other friends, but now I am hopeing to avoid my two best friends because I don't know what I'll do when I see them. When I checked my work schedual for the weekend I was hoping and praying not to work the same session as Timmy, and thankfully don't have to, but I can't just avoid him forever. He will try to IM me someday, or we will have to see each other at church, and I don't know how to respond.

I'm stressed about a lot of things right now about money, about prom, about the summer, about my job, about my relationship, and now I don't even have a best friend to know I can go relax with in my spare time. It seems like everytime I have a best friend they go and decide to do something stupid and I loose a friend. It has happened repeatedly now. I will make a best friend, hang out with them as much as possible, and they will start to change, take advantage of my willingnes to go out of my way to help them out of the mud late at night, and expect me to just go along with them being a total jerk. I'm getting tired of it.

ACT part 3

I took the ACT for the third time on the Saturday before Sping Break was over. Who had the bright idea to put one of the most important tests of a high school student's life on that particular Saturday I'll never know, but I did not study at all. All week long I kept talking about how I needed to break out the packet and go over it, but on the day before the test I suddenly realized I hadn't prepared at all. Not only that but Skates Alive decided to have a late night skate that lasted until midnight! Before I realized that the test was the next day I made plans to spend the night at Timmy's, and didn't back down from it. I went over after the late skate and got ready for bed soon after. However for some reason I could not fall asleep. I was tired, but couldn't rest. It was after 4:00 am before I finally fell asleep (probly closer to after 5:00) and I had to wake up early to go pick up Jess, get breakfast, drop her off at her testing center, and make it to OCTC in time to take mine. It was disasterous.

However, once I got there and started on the first test, I was fine. I was still a little tired, but I made it through all of the questions without to much difficulty, and I feel like I did very well. The reading and science parts were brutal because I have never heard of most of the things the science test talks about and I am a slow reader, but overall I fell I did well. We will have to wait and see in a few weeks to find out just how much sleep a teenager needs in a night to succeed the next day.

Spring Break

Its been a good while since I have last blogged, so its time for an update. Shortly after my last blog (by the way my dad ended up taking part of the steering wheel apart and wiggling a few things around to fix the problem) Spring Break kicked off. For the first weekend of the break Jessica's parents were out of town to visit her little sister in Pheonix, Arizona who just had a baby. They had her other little sister Sara dropped off with some relatives for the weekend. It was also Easter weekend. We spent a lot of the money we had on gifts for a couple of her cousins and the gas to get out there and back.

The fun part was that since her house was empty I would pick her up in the morning and we would hang out at my house or be out doing some arrand all day until I had to drop her back off at her house to sleep. When her parents came back, they wanted some quality time with her for a few days, but then became more linient on her going to do things with friends during her last spring break as a high school student.

Cam got us a good deal on lazer tag at the Ozone, so we scrounged up some money (and had to borrow some from parents since my last few paychecks have only been about $20 a piece) and went. It was the first time I had been and it was completely awsome. It was a large 2 story room witha lot of blacklights and people running around shooting each other. In total I believe there were 10 of us playing for about an hour, and I definitly plan to go again as soon as I can afford it. It was the most fun I've had in a long time.

A few day later we finally were able to do something I'd wanted to do since Spring Breaks started, take Jessica for a picnic at Panther Creek Park. We backed a picnic basket and grabed some chalk and spent a day by the lake enjoying the weather. The next day we were lucky enough to go again for another picnic and invited Timmy, Cam, and Logan to go with us before Sunday night church.

It was a pretty good Sping Break, and I'm glad I had as much fun as I did on my last one. I learned how to play Rummy, and now whenever we all hang out at my house for Taco Monday or any other occasion we break out the deck and play for a while. We got to spend a lot of time over at my house which was nice since I feel bad for not being home often latley. Although I am sure we got on my parents nerves ever so often for staying up late, I'm sure they liked having us all around.

Dead Truck

The other day was going around town with Jessica, then we went back to her house for a minute before I went off to work. The truck had no problems before, however when I went to leave my key would not work in the ignition. I could not get the ignition to turn, and it looked like the key would not go in all of the way.

I really hate it when something goes wrong with my truck because it makes me wonder if there were any signs I could have seen to prevent it. Also my Dad always talks about how I need to learn to feel for vehicle. This time he seems a little upset because I am not trying to do anything about it. I don't know what I can do. We tried every trick we could find and the only option we are left with is to call a tow truck to come pick it up and take it somewhere to get it fixed. That means the cost to fix it this time is going to be very high, another thing I hate about having a broken truck because I feel bad that I can't afford to pay for it myself.

So I've been using my Mom's car or getting rides from her since Sunday, and I've kinda killed her gas tank. Tomorrow I have to drive all the way to Philpot so that I can drop Jessica's sister off at her aunts to be babysat this weekend. I also get my paycheck tomorrow and it should be a big one since I work alot last weekend so I plan to put a bout $15 in the gas tank. It's not a very big tank, so hopefully that will be enough to replenish what I used. My Mom has been trying to call a tow truck to come pick it up but either no one answers or its already after hours when we try. Hopefully we will have luck soon because one of my plans for spring break was to completely wash out the truck and wax it.

Plasma

Jessica recently went to sell plasma at a donation center in town. It is pretty good money. If she donated 2 times a week then she almost makes as much as I do in a week working all weekend. The first time you donate takes about 3.5 hours because of all of the paperwork, and her blood sugar dropped below 100 at one point so she almost passed out, but they stopped taking her plasma at that point and paide her anyway, saying that it is common for something to happen your first time since its so new and you are a little nervous.

Timmy and I agreed to go with her yesterday during her second trip so that we could have our first trips. However, we arrived 10 minutes passed the time they stop taking new patients and we were turned away. Now we are waiting for Saturday and the three of us will return to try again with Camille. At least there will be a good support system for everyone this time. Hopefully it won't hurt too bad.

Surgery

Today I went to a new doctor's office because two moles I've had my whole life started looking different. One has a red ring that has grown over time and the other seemed flaky. The doctor said the best thing to do would be remove the moles and send them off to be examined. So now I've got 2 holes in me and 1 stitch. The only part that hurt was the novacaine shots because they used a large needle. Now that I have seen one of the spots where a mole once was I'm surprised by the power of novacaine. Afterwards I told Jessica and everyone else I got surgery done today. I konw it wasn't really surgery but it made for interesting conversation and explanation for the bandages.

All in all it wasn't so bad. I didn't know what to expect, and I'm going back in a week to get the stitch taken out and to get the results on the moles. The place was very nice looking. It had a cafe when you first walk in, a place for children to play, and some pretty nice fish tanks in the waiting room. It did not seem like a doctor's office at all.

10 things to do with my life

1. Get a better paying job (not minimun wage, and not >/=10 hours a week)

2. Go to and complete college.

3. Get Married

4. Join the Air Force

5. Travel the World

6. Make an Impact. A good one. (on other people and the world)

7. Be a friend to everyone I meet.

8. Go back to the Thornton Lodge and Disney World.

9. See all of my favorite bands in concert. (Blue October, Rush[again], Sum 41, Avenged Sevenfold, Foo Fighters, Skillet)

10. Above all, I Wanna Rock

Swerve

Last Saturday we participated in the first Swerve of Bellevue Baptist. Jrod has been talking alot lately about how you are most like Jesus when you are reaching out to others. Swerve was a 5 hour community service event in which I ended up on the Toilet Team. We went around the community looking for any needs we could fill. Our main thing was cleaning toilets, which had some good symbology behind it. In the times when Jesus lived, cleaning people's feet was one of the lowest and most dirty of tasks, so Jesus humbled himself to clean the feet of all of his deciples. Today toilets are considered nasty, especially public ones, so by the end of the day all of us cleaned at least one.

That wasn't the only thing we did though. We also swept parking lots and stores, cleaned the church van and whatever else we could find to do. Part of that was to go to the new Don Moore dealership on HW54 and clean out the large gutter completely full of trash next to the building. It was very steep, very messy, and painful because of the trash stuck in the many throne bushes. At the end of the day though, it was all worth it and very fun. Jrod says we will start doing this as just another part of the church life at least once every quarter, possibly more depending on attendance.

First driving experience

The first time I drove was when my dad was teaching me so I could get my permit. I was perhaps 15 or 16 at the time and he took me to a big parking lot close to his work. He let me drive his precious 11 year old priced suburban. It was very big, and I was afriad to hit the gas pedal for a while. After about 10 minutes of circles he made me park. That was the interesting part. He made me pull in between two parked semi trucks, and back in between two others, and I think even parallel park! I was nervous because if I made the smallest mark in my Dad's truck I knew I would be in deep trouble. However I was successfull in my first driving attempt, and would soon move on to a more complex parking lot and finally some real roads.

Scared of Youth

**some language**

I'll tell anyone, I am truley afraid of the high school age group today. Everywhere I turn I see something that is sort of disturbing. I grew up living a sheltered life, but have been reaching out in recent years. Up until a year or so ago, I believed that high school drop outs only really existed on TV or in big cities, I had never seen a pregnant teenager, and thought that only a small handfull if any at all of teens in my town would ever even experiment with drugs. My eyes have opened over the past few years to an ugly truth. I understand I lived a sheltered life, and I am pretty excepting of a lot of stuff now, but it feels like there is a definet line that some people don't even see.

A few weeks ago in the lunch line I heard an underclassman girl carying a conversation like it was nothing with a friend. She spoke so casually, but said some of the most horrid and unbelievable things I've ever heard. It was such a bad conversation that I can't even repeat it where I know a teacher will read it, even with a language warning before hand. It took every ounce of my energy not to just turn around and yell "What is wrong with you?"

It's such a downward spiral in student's lives with grades, driving, drugs, sex, alcohol. I know people who have been involved with some bad things, but are still good people and understand that there should be a boundry, but some people just take it to far and never look back. I wonder if there is even anything that can be done to help.

They are so judgmental of everything they may not completely understand,and rude to even their own friends. Anyone who doesn't think that they are just the greatest thing is bitch or stupid hoe and undeserving of anything but critisizm. It truly makes me sick to my stomach sometimes but I don't know what to do about it but go on living my life in a way I feeland hope is right.

To Save A Life

My sunday school teachers took my entire class out to see the movie To Save A Life. It is about a high school athlete named Jake who is popular, goes to all of the parties, is the beer pong champ, has high plans for college basketball. However, an old friend of his who he abandoned years ago comes to school one day with a gun to take his own life just feet in front of him. Jake remembers how the old friend had once saved his life by pushing him out of the way of a car, and permanently damaging his own leg in the process. Emence guilt and a local youth paster who reaches out to him bring him to reexamine everything he ever thought about his life.

It was an incredible and moving film, and I'd recomend it to anyone. It examines faith, and could make anyone wonder what they could do with there life to better others. After all of the hardships he must face, Jake always tries to help people.

I love my church. I feel proud to be a part of something so big. Lately Jrod has been doing some interesting things, and making us ask questions we hadn't thought of before, and realize that reaching out with our faith and serving can make a huge difference. It is an incredible thing.

555 Days

(Dear Mrs. Mathews. Sorry So Sappy...)
This month held a few special occasions for Jessica and I. First was Valentines Day, which I managed to give Jessica many nice goodies on and take her to see Dear John at Malco. Later on the 21st came our one and a half year anniversary, but we were to broke from Valentines Day to afford another date. We still had fun being together all day though just hanging out. Finally yesterday she calcuated to be 555 days together. I had the last shift of the day off from work, so we went on a date.

We went to Khols so she could help me spend my Christmas gift card (I got 3 new shirts and only had to pay about $2), and then to Beef O'Brady's because Brooke gave me a gift card for there that she had recieved for Christmas and never planned to use. Beef O'Brady's was AMAZING! At first we were worried because it looked like some tiny, cramped, over hyped sports bar kind of place, but it was not. The food was wonderful, and our waitor was awsome. He had a cool Jamiacan looking hat on, and could tell that since we were on a date and ordered a burger and salad that it would be a good idea to split up the food for us. It was a great place to eat, and not all that expensive. I plan to take her there again some day.

We had orignally planned to go see a movie afterwards but decided to just do some more shopping instead. We inded up going to 3 or 4 stores and not buying anything, and then went to my house so that she could play one of her favorite games (SimCity 2000) since she doesn't have a PlayStation at her house. She stayed until about 1:00, and then I had to take her home because I could tell she was so tired she might just pass out soon. It was a pretty nice date though. I always love being able to take her on official dates when I can afford to. I love her so much.

Bellevue Baptist

I've been going to Bellevue Baptist ever since Michael invited me to youth about 2 years ago or so. In that time its become my church. I was not brought up going to any church escept for once or twice a year around Christmas or Easter, but always counted myself as a Christian because I believed. Going to church has truley spiritually developed me in leaps and bounds over the years. I went from knowing maybe just one or two stories to understanding more about God.

Recently Michael struggled with faith, but re-surrendered to Christ, and afterwards I decided to finally sit down and talk to Pastor Greg about my Papa's death a few weeks ago. We ended up talking alot about stuff, including the possibility of me fully becomeing an official member of the church through believers baptism in the future.

As far as the youth goes, When I started attending the youth leader was Terre Jasper. She was pretty great, and always tried hard to make us want to come closer to Christ. However she was given a job offer at another church some time after we moved into the new building. Thus, Jrod was hired. At first I was unsure about him, but he has done some amazing new things with the youth. He gives such great stories, and likes to experiment with more than just a lesson and some music by incorperating new ideas, games, videos, etc into it all. This helps me get a lot more out of it because it seems more personal.

Today was a pretty great day. Everyone is friends again, and although Jessica and Camille both felt a little under the weather, they felt better later on in the day and we all had a good time. I finished my catepult for 3D-art, and the lesson was great during night church. We talked about how simply saying hello to a new person can make a big difference.

The church as been encouraging everybody to go see a new movie out in theaters called "To Save a Life" about a teenager who's old friend takes his own life, and how the event impacts him to not ignore people who others deem "uncool" an tries to save people with the help of a youth minister. My Sunday School teacher decided to treat everyone in my class by inviting us to his house after school Tuesday to hang out and have pizza and then go see the movie. I'm really looking forward to it. I've heard so many things about how great and inspirational the movie is. It seems to have even helped Michael make his decision last week.

Stress

Timmy has always been a little bit of a rebel, and so has Camille. They have done a few things that Jessica and I have found questionable, and we let them know that we think they should think more about the consiquences of what they do when they pretend to be snowed in places. Recently Timmy skipped work and his parents found out. Timmy's rebelious side led him to run away from home to prove a point that he thinks he should be independent and able to do whatever he wants. However, Jessica and I needed to make sure he understood that his parents were still paying for most of his insurance, not charging him rent for where he sleeps, and numerous other things. He took it way to far. His father drove all the way to Hawsville looking for him, taking away from the few precious hours of sleep he had before going into work 4th or 5th shift.

I was so mad at him, and so was Jessica. It felt like he had just completely changed from who I knew, and I was seeing him in a different light. His parents tracked him down at school the next day, and after a discussion with them he was actually let of easy (how I do not know). He then called Jessica to ask if he could come over to Taco Monday (when Jessica and I go to my house to eat tacos made by my Mom and watch Lost, our favorite show), but Jessica told him no, and that he wasn't allowed over. We weren't going to reward him for what he did. We kinda ended up grounding him ourselves. After a few days of tension, and he apologizing to us, Jessica had a talk with him to really make him understand how wrong it was, and everyone was able to forgive each other. He promises to understand that things like that hurt us too, and I'm glad to have my friend back, and things back to normal.

In the Newspaper again....sorta

During the snow days, we had to find something to do. Finally on Wednesday night we all (Timmy, Cam, Cam's sister, Nathan, Haley, Sara, Jess, and me) went sledding out on a hill by St. Vincens de Paul. Somebody had built a ramp over to the side that was fun to hit, but after a while we went back to my house to watch Zombieland with my parents. The next day we were out again so decided to grab more boards and go back. The ramp and kinda been destroyed by us the night before and the sun the next day, so we got a shovel to build a new one. While I was building it everyone else started sledding, and a man started taking pictures. Shortly after I finished the ramp he came up to us, and as it would turn out he was the same guy who interviewed us on Black Friday. Timmy, Camille, and her little sister got there pictures in the paper for good wipeouts.

The actual artical features one picture in which you can see Aryanne about to wipeout while going down the hill. Behind one arm is Jessica, with her head blocked by the arm. On the other side is me with the same situation. Next me to is Michael, but he is facing the opposite direction, so Aryanne is the only one you can really see. But still....I'm in it.

Doing Nothing

List of Reason for Doing Nothing Productive:

Senioritis
Snow Days
To much to do
The project is just to big
I'd rather be listening to *insertbandnamehere*
I'd rather play guitar.....alot
"I can't." "Why?" "I got a hot date tonight."
Forgetfullness

Avatar

Last Thursday my parents took Jessica and I to Evansville to see Avatar at the IMAX in 3D. It was one of the most incredible movies I've ever seen. It wasn't just a movie, it was an experience. It is easy to understand how it cost so much time and money to creat the film, and it was worth it. The colors popped out and blended together beautifully, and the story flowed smoothly. It was exciting to watch. The IMAX does 3D well. In the previews they showed Alice in Wonderland and the Chesire Cat looked so great like he was in arms length and you could pet him. You could see every sing hair opn his big floating head. Even more amazing was IMAX HUBBLE. Using the most state of the art imax 3d camaras, it was the most amazing and high definition pictures I have ever seen and it was all in 3d. Hopefully I wil be able to convience my parents that we need to go see it when it comes out.

Punk Rock

My definition of Punk Rock includes bands like Blink 182, Green Day, Sum 41, and early Good Charlotte. This is the music that is upbeat, best played loud, and energetic. Everytime I listen to it it energizes and inspires me. It makes me think of that perfect day at home during the spring when I've just broke out my shorts and put up the jeans. The day when I've been in such a good mood and finished all my chores by 11 or 12 and am ready to grab my instrument and rock out or go and do some great and fun thing with my friends.

Lately I've been going through a big punk phase especially with the discovery of Good Charlottes early stuff like The Little Things and Waldorf Worldwide. This is the kind of music I want to be up on stage playing. It is definitly the genre that defines me. I love alternative rock and metal and bipolar art rock, but punk is the best.

Funny thing is, most punk songs and bands are much more....anarchists than I am. Green Day and Sum 41 have a lot of songs going against the government and religion, but I'm the good kid who stays inside the lines and started going to church twice a week. Guess thats why some of my favorite songs are the ones that just deal with life and having fun like Motivation Proclaimation by Good Charlotte and Fat Lip by Sum 41.

"Listen up now cuz it ain't nothin funny,
I want a hot girl and a little bit of monney,
I want a little house were my band can live
cuz we're tired of moving every other weekend
I want to go to parties where they got no guns
I want to rock with my band, want to have a little fun
We're thugs and punks and any other type can sing this song
and we'll sing it all night.

Waldorf Worldwide - Good Charlotte

Afterparty

After the concert on Friday night, we went outside to find a good inch of snow already on the ground. It was a good thing we didn't drive because by the time we got back to my house there was 3 inches on the ground. Logan had to go home but Jess, Timmy and Cam stayed the night. We watched Paranormal Activity and made smores. We also tried to watch some Lost but I kept falling asleep so at 3:30 we called it a night. Timmy stayed up watching TV of coarse until 5:30, but thats just him. My parents made breakfast the next morning and we watched another movie called Perfume and hung out until everyone had to go back home. It was a lot of fun and I really want to have a good party sometime now. One with music and energy drinks and games that starts earlier than midnight so that I can stay up.

The Concert

A few days ago was the big day. Afterschool Friday we all set out for Evansville to see a great show. There was a threat of snow so we had my parents drive us there and back which ment all 5 of us had to squeeze into the back seat, but it was worth it. Thow was incredible. Jessica even enjoyed the Flyleaf show and she doesn't like the band very much. Live music has such a great energy to it, even if you don't know a song, watching it live is incredible. I also loved looking at all of the equipment; the size of the drumsets, the guitar brands, and all the different lights and movie effects the bands used. Breaking Benjamin had an impressive show, and I really liked how he could sing live just like he does on the album.

Three Days Grace was the headlining band so naturally they had the best show with the best sound. After the drum solo they started a song with the singer on the other side of the arena and he walked through the floor back to the stage. It was a great night. We all can't wait to start going to see more concerts soon. Skillet is comming by in March, but I'm afraid that the floor seats might have sold out, so we will have to see.

Music Videos

Lately I've had a bit of an obsession with music videos. In some of my spare time I have been downloading all kinds of great videos. Its started to open me up to more bands or bands I havn't listened to in a while and have more respect for them. Some of them are funny like "In To Deep by Sum 41" or "Learn to Fly by Foo Fighters" and others have a serious point or story in them like "Prayer of the Refugee by Rise Against" or "Into the Ocean by Blue October".

I like watching for small things musicians like such as a guitar that I like alot or a really cool solo (sieze the day by A7X)and the general enjoyment that the bands have ensured the video to give the audience. It hypes me up sometimes and makes me want to go make a song so I can make an awsome video for it.

Can't Wait for Spring

I'm ready for the warm weather again. I am definitly and shirt and shorts kinda guy, and I can't wait for the day when I get to drive fast down country roads on the way to Panther Creek Park with the windows down and some great Punk music or summer sounding stuff playing loud. I'm going to take Jessica on a great picnic day as soon as I can but I deffinitly can't do that in the snow they are predicting to come tomorrow.
I do somewhat hope for a snow day tomorrow just because I'd like the excuse to not get up in the morning and to be able to take care of some stuff that needs attention. However at the same time I'd like to graduate sooner rather than June, and if it snows then it becomes more difficult to go to the concert. If roads are not bad, then I will drive us up to Evansville, but otherwise we are all going to squeeze into the back of my Dad's truck and my parents will drive and just hang around town during the show. I'm still sycked no matter what happens. Afterwards we are camping out in my living room with smores and movies.

Current Events

It's been a while since I blogged so its time for an Things are going ok I guess, there are some good things and bad things going on. I've been running hard alot lately in life, ding from one thing to another with hardley a break, and still have a full schedule for the future with church and friends and school. I've been doing so much stuff, but I still feel that there are school things that I'm behind in such as my scholarships, math project, etc. Also Timmy failed a class in college and his parents grounded him for 6 weeks and are making him pay for the class out of his pocket.

However on a happier note Timmy and Cammille are finally going out. I'm really happy for them both. They became official on Camille's birthday over the weekend, and the next day we all hung out at the mall taking over 100 pictures in one night.

I've been accepted to UK, which should be a big accomplishment, but now I realize that the battle for college is still going on. I'm in but my parents stress about how to afford it because we are not likley to get much money from the FASFA, and they worry about how large the college is in general. They still are going to support me but it feels like I should be doing more, but I have so much going on its hard to find time to clean my room let alone plan for college.

Today I plan to stay home a bit though so I can catch up on some things, maybe watch a movie with my family, and finally play some guitar again. My fingers are itching for the strings.

OH YEAH!
8 DAYS TO THE CONCERT!!!!
Flyleaf
Three Days Grace
Breaking Benjamin
LIVE!

p.s.
Jan. 21 2010
17 month anniversary w/ Jessica.

Superstitions

Superstitions, whether for good or bad luck, usually have thier roots deep in some belief of something long ago, and some people believe in them with all their heart. My best friend Timmy swears that rubbing a bald man's head insures good luck, and does so every sunday at church, and claims to always have a good day on monday. The Macbeth curse seems to be a well believed and dangerous superstition. I do not know many superstitions myself other than black cats are bad, 4 leaf clovers and horse shoes are lucky, and "find a penny pick it up." I think that superstitions can be interesting, especially if you hear the story behind them, but don't hold on to them much personally.

Time for New Begennings...

I spent New Years Eve spraying silly string on the kids at Skates Alive while we dropped balloons on them. Good money for doing it, but not how I wanted to bring in the new year. I wish Jessica could have been there and we have a small party in her garage and wait to kiss at midnight. Maybe next year though. Even though I was at work I had to take a moment to think about what was really happening. My last full year living here was coming to an end. I'm a senior, which means I'm entering the last few months of high school, and not long afterwards will be moving, hopefully to Lexington and UK.

2009 was a pretty good year for the most part. I spent it with great friends, played some good music, and got to date an amazing girl. I was layed off of work over summer and lived off of $20 a week from Papa for cutting grass until I was rehired. I ended my Junior year and embarked on my final leg of school here at Apollo.

I spent most of my time away from home, usually at Jessica's house or somewhere else, and stated feeling kinda bad for never being around the house. Its one thing I hope to fix in the new year before graduation hits. I've been trying to fix that with taco mondays and soon will be adding another day for Lost and/or board games at home, and try to have more band practices.

Speaking of which, bands have tossed and turned a bit. I quite one band and quickly formed another. A month or so later we finally got the chance to start practices. We played a gig in Tennessee without our drummer and things did not go so well for that show, but it was still a blast. After that a periode of no practices, and recently and explosion of attempting to learn new songs. Timmy and I have been very successfull, but everyone else works more hours than us and its hard to have full practices. We will have that worked out before long though. Another thing to look at fixing for the new year.

I decided what i'm going to do with my life this year. After some tweeking to the plan, I've decided to go to UK and take part in the Air Force ROTC while studying there. Once I graduate I will join the Air Force, haveing experience at college level ROTC to give me better rank and pay early on, and a better chance at whichever job I decide to aim for in the military.

Its been a big year, and hopefully will build up a strong platform for an even better New Year.

Back to School

I'm tired, but not as tired as I expected considering only 2 days ago I was staying up till 1:00 AM and waking up at 9-10:00. Over the break Jessica went to Michigan, which meant 2 weeks of not being with someone I've spent almost everyday with for over one year. She didn't really want to go because it was so cold up there and the kids were rowdy, but her dad let me borrow a phone with txting on it so the two of us could more easily keep in touch without running up a huge phone bill.

To pass the time, Timmy and I hung out most of the time, and played a lot of guitar. Together we learned at least 5 more songs for the band, and started preparing to help camille's transition as our new singer more smooth once she can make practices. I also worked more often because Skates Alive had matinee sessions and a late night skate on New Years that lasted till 12:30 in the morning plus cleanup time. At least I can expect a good paycheck this week. And I'll definetly need it. At the end of the month Timmy and I are taking Jessica and Camille to see Breaking Benjamin, Three Days Grace and Flyleaf in concert. Tickets ended up being close to $50 each, and I'm paying for Jessica's and mine, so I need to pay that off and save up more money for merchandise. I can't wait, it's gonna be awsome. We've been listening to more Breaking Benjamin to get ready, and they are a great band.

None the less it wasn't a bad break. I missed Jessica a lot, but had a good time with Timmy and a good haul on Christmas (new Line 6 pedal, 16GB mp3 player, and $50 in malco gift cards. Sherlock Holmes was a good movie. Saw it yesterday).