Interesting Incidences

No offense to my mom and dad (both of whom I love very much) but I am extremely glad that I live on my own and not at home. It makes for a much more interesting life.

For example, several weeks ago I came home from work to find several bags of clothing right inside the doorway and one of my housemates scurrying around gathering up his belongings. He informed me that he and another one of the renters were having disagreements and he didn't think that they could be worked out so he was leaving. This really surprised me because I was unaware of any friction or bad feeling between the two of them. I had even found them drinking beers together on the porch several weeks earlier.

(For those of you not in the know, I am one of four renters in a house. All of us being strangers to each other, brought together by the need of a place to stay.)

Several minutes after I came home my landlord pulled into the driveway and Nate loaded his stuff into the truck and off they drove. Later that day Norm (the landlord) returned and told me the whole story. The night before Nate had had several of his friends over and they all had a great ole' time drinking long into the night. (I can verify this part as I was briefly woken up about three that morning only to turn over and fall back asleep.) Sometime during the wee hours of the morning an argument started and some yelling ensued. Apparently this shouting happened right outside Frank's (one of the other renters) room. This woke him up and (according to him) he overheard some things that made him think that these kids were dangerous drug dealing punks.

The next morning Frank called Norm and complained about the noise plus several beer cans that had been left on the lawn. This led to Norm coming to the house and giving Nate a talking to plus a warning. (I should explain here that Nate is only nineteen and just starting out on his own so the warning probably scared him not to mention totally ticked him off.) He had it out with Frank and many words flew back and forth, including Nate threatening violence (nothing more than the typical teenage 'I'll punch you in the face' kind of thing) and Frank threating to call his lawyer and get a restraining order. Norm being the landlord wanted as little trouble as possible, so he told Frank that if he served a restraining order he would probably would have to leave. Frank already being worked up got even more so and left the house in a huff. Nate deciding that the problems were to big to bother with packed up and moved out. So jow we are one renter short and I, though being polite, don't spend much time with Frank. He's a little too excitable for my taste; who know's when I might get a restraining order given to me.

MMmmm...

I just thought I would let you all know that I love the beach. I went to a nearby one this last Saturday and spent three wonderful hours soaking in the sun and relaxing. I didn't really do anything worth writing about however here I am doing it anyway. One of my dreams is to own a beach house someday, (not to mention being fabulously wealthy and having a trophy wife):) There were a lot of people there to start with, but as the day went on many left so right near the end it was practically perfect. Also I got a little more tan so the 'Whitey' nickname is slowly going away. I don't think it will ever disappear though, my boss is too fond of it.

On the subject of nicknames, I've recieved yet another one. (Why does everyone have to have their own special name for me?) 'PonyBoy'. Not because I'm some pansy cowboy, but apparently one of my coworkers thinks I look like a character from the movie 'The Outsiders' named PonyBoy. Far to regularly it get shortened to simply 'Pony'. The worst part, I actually answer to it. NOt having personally seen the movie I have no idea if they are right or not. So if any of you, who know what I look like, have seen it let me know if they are on to something or totally off base. I know I am already, I answer to 'Pony' for goodness sakes.

Arrrrgh

When I actually sit down and think about it, it is amazing how non-boring my life is. For example earlier this week there was a very interesting incident at the house here, I'm going to the beach as soon as I finish this post and yesterday I went in for an eye exam. For those faint of heart be aware that this is what this post is going to be about (the interesting incident is going to have to wait until I have more time to write about it)

I received a raise at work several weeks ago and ever since then I have been wondering what to do with it. As I was thinking about different options I realized that I have had the same pair of glasses for the last six years and the last time that I had had an eye exam was when I had gotten those glasses. So voila, I had my money eating monster to give my hard earned dollars to. The local Walmart had an optical center in it so I scheduled an appointment. But I was thinking all the time, 'Can any good thing come out of Walmart?'

It started out very well. I was told to go through a doorway and the doctor would be there. As I stepped through I saw him stand up and start walking into the examining room. Thinking that he had seen me and was expecting me I followed him right into the examining room. He turned and around and practically jumped out of his skin. He hadn't seen me and didn't know I was there. After that it went fairly smoothly until it came time to dilate my eyes. A few eyedrops into my eyes and instructions to come back in ten minutes when the drops would have taken effect. So I went out and looked at frames. As time passed things got fuzzier and fuzzier and my depth perception was thrown off. I was called back in and had all matter of lights shined at me, told to follow finger had more drops put in me and generally misused and abused my eyes as much as he could. Finally he was done and sent me on my way with a pair of plastic shades that slipped behind my regular glasses and looked like something geeks invented to make everyone else look as dumb as possible. Since it would take several hours for the eyes drops to wear off I would have to keep these on since my eyes couldn't adjust to different light levels. Not wearing them would only give me a headache, which I didn't want since my eyes were already screaming in agony (okay slight exaggeration there but it sounds much better than 'quite sore'). It would have been alright if I had just gone home, then the only person who would have seen me would have been my housemate who I could care less what he thought. Unfortunately I had some grocery shopping that I had to do for the weekend so I got to show off my new look. I did a good job of avoiding eye contact with anyone until I came to the cash registers where I couldn't help but look at the clerk. From the look on her face I can only imagine what she was thinking.

I was able to drive home without crashing into anything and then spent the rest of the evening lying on the couch listening to the tv until my eyes finally returned to normal. Now all that is left is to go to the dentists and get my teeth checked out. Hopefully that won't be as bad.

Clarification

I stated in my last post that I would rather walk through a major city in flaming pajama bottoms than practice dancing. I'm afraid I didn't mean pants that were literally on fire. What I meant instead was what my friend Cameron is so wonderfully demonstrating below. Flaming Dragon Pants!. Yes I know, not as impressive as real flames but a whole lot less painful. Not to mention the end result isn't nearly as embarrasing as real pants on fire would be.

Let's try this again

The last time I put this picture up it didn't come out fully so I'm trying it again. Hopefully with better results.

Part three

I'm starting to realize that if I don't finish this that I will never go on to write anything else so I had better get this done. However to fairly warn you it is going to be really long. I believe that I ended last time with the recieving line. I hadn't seen my cousin for four year and now I was seeing him again in a recieving line next to his new wife. It was definitely a bit odd. Amanda was very friendly and open and when she found out I was family she said, ' Oh, you're family? Then you get a hug.' She is definitely not a Jones, but I think she will be good for us, er Graham. When every one had gone through the wedding party and the families of the bride and groom drove away for pictures in a nearby park.

I have to say right hear that one thing the English know how to do is make a park. Here in America a park is usually a grassy place with a few trees and often some playground equipment. The english however have perfected parks in the form of Victorian gardens. Not only is there grass but there are crushed gravel pathways, all manner of trees and bushes usually with an identifying sign, often small ponds or streams, and usually water fowl-ducks, swans and the like. And everything is all arranged too. No haphazardness, neat and orderly with benches scattered about so that people can sit and enjoy it all. I first experienced these in Israel and the one in Halifax was even better. All this is to say that this is where they went to take all of their pictures. We found out that it was a very popular day to get married. While they were there at least four other parties came into the garden and several others drove by. All I can say is that it did not make me look forward to getting married. Way to much time expected of you in front of the camera.

Everyone was relieved when it was all done and they zoomed back to the church to get the reception started. As I mentioned in part two, it has been five years since the last wedding I attended. This also applies to reception. Also the only receptions I've been to have been for people in my christian fellowship. So almost everything that happened was new. We visited with friends and talked over turkey dinners, with blueberry shortcake for dessert. The cake was assembled out of cupcakes and instead of giving the guests slices of cake everyone was given an individually cupcake. It was pretty cool. Afterwards the tables got shoved back and then the fun started.

First there was the traditional throwing of the bouquet, but then instead of that being the end the groom threw something too. He took off his wife's garter and threw it to all the single guys though I'm not sure who was more embarrased at having to do it, him or us. What happened next? The poor fellow who caught the thing had to put it on the girl who had caught the bouquet. Poor innocent that I am I had no idea these things happened and was incredibly grateful that I was in no part of it. Finally the dancing started. I wasn't planning on doing any but my cousin pulled my out onto the floor so I danced for a song. It really was a wedding of firsts. I was uncomfortable mostly because I didn't know what I was doing, and also felt like a doofus. Dancing is something were practice definitely makes perfect, though personally I would rather walk through a major city in flaming pajama bottoms than have more practice :-)
I left with my Aunt and Uncle sometime shortly before ten but I heard that the party went on until well after midnight.

Well there you go. Obviously these are only the high lights from one person's point of view but I hope you enjoyed them. It was really good to see some of family and friends who I hadn't seen in years and made me realize that it wasn't such a huge deal to travel up there and back, at least not now when I'm still single and by myself. My congratulations to Graham and Amanda and my thanks to God for watching over me the whole time. Also my thanks to my Aunt and Uncle for their hospitality and the way the made me feel so welcome and at home. Maybe sometime in the future there will be another series of posts about some exciting travels somewhere else. Any suggestions? :-)

Night Terrors

I know you're all waiting anxiously for part three, however you'll have to wait just a little longer. I'm not cruel though, so here's a bone to keep you all happy.

Sunday night I was cleaning up all the junk on my desk; sorting, organizing, throwing away trash, when I picked up my wallet. I opened it up to glance inside and make sure everything was there. It seemed fine until I realized that my blood donor card was where my drivers license was supposed to be and my license wasn't in my wallet. This freaked me out as I had no idea when the last time I had pulled my license out was, and it could be literally anywhere. I searched through my other wallet, checked all the pockets in my shorts, kakhi's and jeans, and turned my room upside down. It wasn't anywhere to be found so I headed out to my car to look there. It wasn't in the door, on the dash, or anywhere in sight. When I went through the glovebox I heard a thunk as I pulled a handfull of paperwork out. There it was. The only reason I can think that it was there; two weeks earlier I had been pulled over and must have tossed it in with the car registration papers. It is definitely not a good sign when you go two weeks before you notice your license missing. But it is safely back in my wallet now and I don't have to worry about some creep stealing my identity.

P.S. I only got a warning when I got pulled over (it was for speeding) so that made me very happy.