Most of the time, I have a very bloggable life

...so why don't I blog more? Why am I the prodigal blogger (or Prodigger, if you prefer)?

I am fairly confident it is because I make too big a deal out of the content. I want my posts to be masterpieces, the lot of them. I want to make sure I include every detail that is awesome and work the delivery of every sentence.

But I believe I've decided thats a bad idea. It instead encourages me to wait too long to spend time to blog, which in turn declines readership and when readership is down advertising dollars soon follow. This in turn discourages me from writing anything until its good enough to bring in the masses and the money. But what am I thinking? People won't come if updates are sparse. Oh, and also I don't have ads. So theres that.

In other words, I plan to go for quantity instead of quality.

Now, with out further ado- I present to you "New York- a less then concise recap":

Back a few months ago, I caught wind of the concert pairing I had been hoping- neigh, YEARNING after for years. Eisley, the indy-fresh angel voiced, mild mannered super stars in hiding from Texas band, and Mute Math, the amazingly creative and hard touring, always-the-best-show-you've-ever-scene-every-time band from New Orleans. I rounded up a group of 8 other people brave enough to drive down to New York with me in a 15 passenger van (and who's schedules lined up) and headed down 95 one bright October thursday morning.


The trip down there was a good time- I had friends from different social circles, but they gelled very well together which made me quite happy. Since I was driving I didn't get to be part of much of the conversations in the back, but I could hear them having a good time over the engine noise and stereo- which was quite an interesting set up in itself. I had obtained a 5.1 speaker system from the last geek swap fest I went to for a measly $20, and thanks to Jarin's 300 watt inverter, we were able to power the monster all the way to NY, booming the bass and blasting the treble. Quite fun.

In addition to driving down there, I also got to drive in NYC traffic. When I told this to people before I left, they would always give me a sympathetic "that sucks dude" kind of look (if I told them I was doing this in a 15 passenger van they went pale and thought I was sui or homicidal). But after I got into the traffic, I really enjoyed it. In NYC you have to be aggressive, you see. Its like a competition for the road- winner takes the lane, loser has to wait a few more seconds. If you look at it that way, I think I played a pretty good game. After seeing so many yellow cabs that were basically moving traffic law violations, I realized that the cops in this town had real crime to deal with. As long as you don't kill anybody, just about anything goes. Instead of being flustered with this revelation as people cut me off left and right, I instead took it like a liberating breath of fresh air. I knew my driving abilities and limits and now I could actually drive how I wanted to the best of them. I had a blast earning respect in the concrete jungle. I think my favorite part was when I played chicken with a semi- I was behind a double parked car, and the light turned green. I knew the semi at the light had several gears to get through before he got to me, so I veered around the cab into the opposing lane straight towards him and stepped on it, getting around the cab before he could ever be a threat and turning onto the lane I needed to get to with out loss of life or limb. It was pretty jokes, man.

Even though we left about and hour behind schedule we still got there with time to see a bit of the city. After getting some coffee and using the bathroom, we strategized about our next move. Renee suggested we go to times square, and all concurred it to be an idea of merit and achievability.

Apparently, our group was always moving very fast.

We got there via the subway, meeting a few colorful characters along the way (an awesome guy who explained to us some of the meaning in a big artistic display on a building, a man singing a soulful rendition of "work all day, party all night" while handing out flyers).

New Yorker explains to us features of a building

Before long we got to our stop and walked over to Broadway street.

Wow. I don't think you can ever quite capture the larger then life scale and dyanmics of this place on film. You really just have to see it to believe it. After being there in person, I am pretty much convinced that it is the place where all the display manufactures go to sport their newest technology because every single one was brighter, bigger, and higher resolution than anything else I have ever seen or heard of. And the shapes of the screens- its like everyone was trying to out do eachother in the I-have-more-curves-and-deformations-then-you contest. But the effect overall was spellbounding. I tried not to gawk like a tourist at NY the whole trip, but when your in the middle of times square I swear its almost impossible. Its just that incredible.



Another thing thats incredible about times square (and Broadway st. in general) was the amount of street entrepreneurs that would come right up to you and try to hard sale you on something right away. They had no fear! We ended up having this little joke we'd say to eachother if someone slowed down or stopped for a few seconds. "Don't stop, you'll be solicited!" we'd say. And it was true- it was like they could smell a tourist who didn't quite know what they were doing from blocks away. We had people try to sell us a few things- but I can only remember two. One was a print copy of "The Onion". The other was a rapper bumping his demo.

He at least was a good experience. The man came up to us and started his introductions, started to ask us if we wanted to hear his demo- then stopped himself mid sentence as if he had forgot something very important earlier. "First of all, let me just tell you- I've never killed anybody, never shot anybody..." We laughed, and it broke the ice a little bit. He had a practiced somewhat weary demeanor that comes from trying to sell all day to people who don't care. But we gave him the benefit of the doubt, and I took a listen on his portable CD player- expecting perhaps a somewhat novice sound- rough recording, genuine emotion, maybe desperate lyrics. He was after all, bumping his CD on the streets of NY. You gotta be desperate at that point, right?

But within seconds I was impressed. A symphonic chord filled the headphones as one of the tracks started off, and his voice, strong, clear and determined came on the track. "Yorel," it said, "spit that fire." His intro continued cinematically. "So much pain... come on, tell me what pain is." The beat dropped and I was already strainging my ears to hear where he was taking this. Soon I realized he was quite different then I had first thought:

"9/11 was supposed to brake us- all we did was wake up.
Many tears fell as mucas caked up, say what?
Lest we forget- those 4 planes hit,
My uncle died 9/11 so he ceased to exist.
Me and my tear drops are on the line and became best friends
Mines will be falling down my face till my death
We fall and we rise- so rise up and come to accept it
You'll be an old man looking back on life you neglected"

The song as a whole was a sort of "keeping on" anthem of rising through adversity- waking up and doing something with the days of our lives and bearing the pain necessary for rewards. I was blown away. By this time I saw him talking to some of my friends about the art on the CD. I took my headphones off and listened in "...and this represents us- you see we are born into this life dead, and there is a struggle for our souls between good and evil.

The album art for Yorel's debut disc "Redemption"

So it turns out, the guy is a Christian. And his rap name, Yorel? It is Leroy spelled backwords, in honor of his uncle who died in 9/11 (he was on the plane to Pennsylvania if I recall correctly.). Really interesting guy. I bought both CDs. He was really nice to us, thanking us perfusely for our time and telling us how he was honored with the attention. ("When I blow up one day, and you come to my concert" he said, "You can come up on stage with me.")

But enough of these side attractions- I went down there for a concert after all!

We arrived their two tickets short. Jake and I decided that we would be the odd people out and find some tickets from scalpers- long story short, we got them, but it cost me through the nose. It doesn't matter- the important part is we all got in.

The rest of this I suppose would best be served by footage of the bands. Well, I have good news and I have bad news. The good news is, I did take clips of each band and they came out pretty good. The bad news is, I don't have a couldn't find a firewire cable so I can't get it uploaded till I get one. But I do hope to upload it sometime, because the concert was amazing.


First, Eisley- I had never seen them live. I was not disappointed. Despite some small sound issues towards the begginng of their set, they sounded amazing. They sing just as or more beautiful then they do on their album. They didn't hold back at all- the music was so urgent in the sense that they were totally in it right then. You could feel the emotion; it was palpable. Well, at least for me. Perhaps I'm just a crazy fan though. They played just about all the songs I wanted them too- some from each album, which was really great, and some from before their album which I had heard on various live recordings.

The crowd was really great, too. I was kind of nervous for them going in because it was the north east and they were a little band from Tyler, Texas- not to well known in the mainstream and very different then the "main attraction" band. But the crowd seemed to know their work well, giving them a very warm welcome and being just about as roudy as you can be during an Eisley show. One of my favorites songs was " I could be there for you"- not just because Stacy sang a large portion of that song to me (no I'm serious!) but also because the crowd totally seemed to "get" what was going on when Chauntelle sang her bar of the song- celebrating loudly after she sang the last words with cheers and applause. For those who don't know, since Eisley's been signed (and a bit before), Chauntelle has been the only girl who didn't sing. She used to, but decided for awhile that her voice wasn't good enough. She just wasn't confident singing up on stage. Well, in the process of this album being made she had a bit of a breakthrough- singing guest vocals for a friend, and becoming more confident. So when she sang sang that key bridge, executing it confidently and perfectly, it was really, really neat to see New England cheer her on. I was quite proud to be part of this crowd, which on their blog Boyd called "by far - the most roudy, jam packed crowd" and even concluded that "By the end of the set the crowd had peaked the highest level of this tour.". I couldn't be happier. Now maybe they will come back more often. (I talked to Boyd- their dad and manager- afterwords, by the way and made sure he knew I was much closer to the Boston area and that they should come down their more often, or even to NH. I MIGHT have said that if he went to NH I would bring a crowd at least 20 strong... so...if that happens, please back me up guys, k?)

After their set, I actually gave up my place closer to the stage to go and talk to Eisley. They were singing and hanging out back by their merch booth, and I decided that if I came all the way from NH I had to at least say Hi to everyone. I did. Everyone was just as nice and sweet as I thought they'd be. I also learned that one of our group knew some of them from way back when the Eisley family played worship at a church in Texas. It was pretty cool- Chauntelle recognized them and they caught up a little bit before Mute Math.

Mute Math. Daaaang. After Eisley's set, it was like someone said they were passing out 100 dollar bills, but the catch was you had to walk up as close to the stage as possible, bring 5 friends and not let anyone in edgeways. The crows was pretty big I thought for Eisley, but seemingly out of nowhere it just about looked like it doubled. I have never been in a indoor crowd so packed. But its no wonder why. They started off with their amazing intro like they always do, but this time their was a new element- video. Completely synchronized behind them for most every song was a mostly abstract concoction of video goodness that went along with the lighting, crazy antics and mood set by the band. And as usual, their performances were amazing. They know how to build up energy in a room. There is just such an air of excitement when they play, its amazing. It makes you just overflow with emotion.

The drummer, Darren King, looked very exhausted though, even after only a few songs. Like, really exausted- as in might be dehydrated and fall over any minute. I watched him for a little while, concerned- he wasn't missing any beats, but I could tell he was struggling. I've not ever seen him look so tired. I watched him for awhile through a whole in the crowd and made eye contact. I just nodded my head and smiled, like "You can do it dude; you've got this". It looked like he met my gaze and it was like he just pushed himself through it- picked up his head, pushed it up a notch. It was pretty impressive. Those guys really do give everything they have in those shows. Its one of the reasons I love them so much. Oh, and they do crazy things- like at this one, Darren crowd surfed- standing up! - on his drum. They are just straight up entertaining.

And that my friend, is my story more or less. We went home after that- mom swapping out for me on the road back to NH (thanks mom!) so I could get a bit of rest. We stopped in a sleepy stupor over at McDonald's and had much food and laughter (everything is funny at 3am over French fries). When we got home, it was almost 7am. I crashed and woke up at 1. Ate something, showered and went to work.

Ahh, my life. Tis good.

Most disappointing picture ever? YOU decide!

Best. Gift. EVER.

"Honey, get up if you want to eat. Breakfast is on the table."

That was the first thing I heard Saturday morning. I was trying to sleep in...For a weekday, perhaps I had done a halfway decent job. But for a Saturday? Failure. It was only 8:40. I rolled over in my bed, working up my self to getting up. I was still zonked out from the night before- I had been up till 2 working on Kiaya's gift. Today was her birthday, and true to my form, I hadn't finished it till the very last hour.

After getting dressed I trolled over to the breakfast table. Somewhere behind me Moriah is asking someone where Joy is. Must still be in bed. Lucky.

As I pour my cup of coffee, the smell of fresh off the skillet apple pancakes and cinnamon fill the air. Maybe waking up wasn't such a bad idea after all I think to myself as I finish fixing my coffee and take a sip. I think Kiaya is supposed to call me today, too. I still don't know when her party is. Maybe its a good thing her party isn't till later in the day... should at least give me more time to wrap everything up.

On my chair is a shopping bag filled with duct tape of many bright colors. It was to be part of Kiaya's gift. I pick it up to move it into the living room, noting to myself that one of the girls must have dropped an envelope into it, because I know I didn't put it there. But it doesn't matter. All that matters right now is drinking my wake up juice and biting into a wonderful warm homemade apple pancake with butter and cinnamon sugar.

It isn't long until just about everyone is at the table eating breakfast. Everyone except Abs, who is at work, and Joy who Moriah keeps complaining about. I feel sympathetic for the sleepy, and don't engage Moriahs observation. Instead I steer the conversation to the tickets I had to purchase online from less then orthodox sources the night before. Everyone is moderatly impressed with the story. I'm starting my second hot cake.

"Hey Zeke, what was that bag on your chair? Was that... duct tape?" my mom asks.

"Yeah... its part of Kiaya's gift. She asked for Duct Tape...in technicolor!"

My mom grabs the bag and takes a look. "WOW! Thats so neat. I don't think I've ever seen them in neon like this!"

"Mom has anyone seen Joy this morning?" Moriah chimes in once again.

"I don't think so." mom replies off hand, looking at the duct tape.

"Yeah, its pretty cool. They make it in all sorts of colors... I had to choose between pink and purple. There were a lot, actually. Pretty -"

"What's this?" mom interrupts, taking out the envelope.

"Oh I don't know. Noticed it when I moved the bag, maybe one of the girls. Hey Mo, you know anything about that?"

Mom looks at it curiously. I take another sip of coffee. I'm probably still only about a quarter awake at this point. "Its addressed to the family of Joy. Anyone know who this is from...?"

"Nah..." I casually remark as I dig my fork into the pancake. To much cinnamon... its almost dry. Or no- to little butter? Mom opens up the note and places it on the table between us as she reads...

"Roses are red and violets are blue,
Your joy has been kidnapped- boohoo hoo hoo!"

Whoa, a note in rhyme. What is this? I look up and see a note, in cut and paste font complete with ripped edges. My mom continues reading it.


I looked up at the note and started laughing. This is awesome. So THATS what was going on! I think to myself. Thats why I hadn't been told the time of the party. Kiaya had a trick up her sleeve. All this time I had set aside Saturday for her party, and here she was doing something for me too... probably because of my birthday a few weeks ago. Nice! But at this point, I'm still only 1/3 awake. I laugh again.

Uhh...I start to forumlate a plan. While I eat my pancake.

"Zeke! Joy is kidnapped, how can you eat?!?" my mom cries out in semi convincing dismay. "Well mom, " I laugh between bites "she's not getting any losster..."

But I finish my pancake quickly, then run down stairs to get directions to the street that the note mentioned and get some shoes on. Mom suggests I take dad's car since it has more then 2 seats- and I was already taking Mo as my navigator/moral support/sidekick. I hadn't charged my phone over night, so I brought my wall charger and an inverter so I could use it in the car. Moriah brought my DV cam. We loaded up and while Mo was getting situated I sent a little text-o-gram to my number one suspect:

"Roses are red
Violets are blue
I know your behind this

And I'm coming for you."

I showed it to Moriah and she smirked. "You think its her?" she asked as I pulled out as fast as the little Camry could go. Kiaya texted back "Happy birthday." Short, unapologetic yet not admitting anything directly, it was the perfect response. I laughed and showed it to my sister. By this time I was starting to get into the act, and when I came to intersection up ahead that was held up at a light, I announced that "I don't have time for this, my sister is missing!" and jetted onto a side road I knew as a shortcut. I enjoyed Moriah's nervous reactions.

It just so happens that the place I was going was very close to where I work, so I knew most of the terrain pretty well. I found the spot surprisingly quick. After pulling up, I nervously got out. I was supposed to ask for Mike.

As I got in I recognized the man at the counter. It was Kiaya's step dad, Mike. Still, I tried to enter in character. "I'm looking for a MIKE... " He laughed and from his desk provided another small envelope. I took it and walked out the door as I opened the package. It had a flyer and a ransom note demanding a 3 for 3 soda deal. I was to buy it where my sister worked. Interesting.

Instinctively I reached for my pocket to check for my wallet. It wasn't there. Ohh.... I thought to myself. Luckily, my house was on the way to the store anyway. I drove there cautiously, picked up my wallet and fled. I had a ransom to pick up.

I ran in, trying not to let Abi see me as I entered. I started to look around at some aisles aimlessly then laughed at myself. "Moriah-" I said, handing over the flyer "LOCATE!" she chuckled and we eventually found the soda aisle. We got everything we needed, so I went to Abi's lane to check out.

"What are you doing here? You know I can't serve you in my aisle."
I knew that was true, but I figured she had to give me the next clue. So I gave her a kinda "I know what your doing" look and stood there a second. I started to put the stuff on the conveyor belt.

"No, I'm serious!" she replied, putting her hands out to block me. I looked at her kind of confused. I didn't expect this. I was loosing face. "Do you, uhh...have something for me?"

She looked at me weird. "No. Now get out of my aisle."

I looked at Moriah strangely as I retreated. "Where am I supposed to get the next clue?" She said she didn't know, so I decided to go back to the shelf and check under each bottle of soda and behind the cards that had the price on them. Nothing. I texted Kiaya in ryhme to let her know that I hadn't found the third clue. Moriah suggested that it must not be in the store. I began to head for the door. Right before I got outside, my phone rang. "Talk to me." I answered in the best gruff detective voice I could muster. Kiaya was laughing on the other end. Banter flew back and forth, and somewhere in there she informed me to check my windshield. I ran to my car and saw a note.

SHE WAS JUST HERE! "Moriah, look around! They might still be here!!" I said while I covered up the microphone piece. I opened up the note. Two pieces of paper and... "OOH! a donut!" I exclaimed while I grabbed the little bite sized piece of heaven from the envelope. A piece of paper below the confection said "For missing your apple pancakes. Share it with Mo." But it was too late, I had already consumed the tasty morsel. Meanwhile, Kiaya had put a distraught Joy on the phone. She cried into the mic and told me how horrible it was. It was all quite pathetic, in a fun awesome kind of way. Kiaya came back on the line. She started to say something, but I knew at this point the dame was trying to pull on my heart strings- with all the crying Joy bit and such- and I wanted to send a message that I would not be manipulated. I hung up.

Yeah, probably wasn't the best idea. For some reason it seemed like a good idea at the time, like something a real cool character would do. And I was totally a real cool character.

Anyway, the next clue led us to Mac's apples. I assumed that this would be where I picked up Joy and we all had a grand little party- I mean, its the pefect place. Always the paranoid one, I drove up from the lesser used entrance, and slowly winded my way into the parking lot, looking all around for spys. I didn't see any. And when I did find the clue, it wasn't a "look behind you, happy birthday here we are" sort of clue. Inside was a clipping from a newspaper that had a walmart address and the following note:

I looked again at the clipping. Manchester! Holy crapes! This is truly a super game of massive geographical proportions! Thats when I realized how awesome this thing was. I have NEVER gotten to do anything like this. But I always wished I could. I dreamed up massive games that would spread the state, but I had never done anything close to it. And then suddenly, here I was calling home to verify an address on a piece of evidence where I would have to find the next clue under "satisfaction's sign" from a girl with "stars in her eyes". Unbelievable. This is the stuff dreams are made of.

Each stop I got more and more into it. When I went to the walmart, I cautiously started to walk towards the part of the sidewalk where I knew overhead was the word "satisfaction". I could see from a little ways off a young female figure, dressed in red. Is that joy? I thought to myself it can't be this easy... then I noticed two familiar faces out of the corner of my eye. My heart jumped. I grabbed Mo and pulled her back.

"Two guard right there- follow me comeonCOMEON!!" I darted into the store for a second then walked out behind another group. After I cleared my exit we bolted for the car. I took the car and drove it away from the entrance....dead end. I looked back. No one was there, so I crept back out into view of the sidewalk and quietly as I could snaked around the road to the far side of the parking lot. Looks like I'd have to sneak up to get her. After getting out and surveying the target, it became apparent that the girl on the bench was not joy. We wouldn't be able to perform a rush-in extraction after all. It was certainly our girl though- not only did I recognize her as Kelli, she was wearing glasses shaped like stars that were almost as BIG AS HER HEAD. I couldn't suppress my laughter when I got the pun, but I tried to stay in character. I darted around the nursery area, trying to not be seen. I didn't want to deal with Kiaya's security forces, you see. I just wanted to talk to her agent and get my sister back with as little drama as possible.

I tried approaching her with out laughing, but her glasses were ridiculous. I asked her for a clue. She looked up at me and said "I have a clue for you. But first you must get me a 6 pack of IBC root beer and a bag of plastic cups." I went in and quite nervously darted around the aisles, trying to locate the items. The search was made more pulse pounding by the distinct impression that we were being tailed- and for a good reason. The same security forces we had tried to out-maneuver outside kept showing up, just exiting our vision. It was intense stuff. We weaved and double dodged them as best we could, but they had our number.

Eventually we got the goods and delivered it to the starry eyed girl. She handed me a peanut butter sandwich in a bag marked "Eat me" and told me to drive away. This was the cleverest of the notes I had seen yet- the clue was protected by a small plastic bag and placed between two layers of thick crunchy peanut butter. Getting it out was a hilarious mess. I looked at the note:


Now I was hiding my car and meeting someone on a bridge. DUDE. I stowed the car right between two others at the Sunoco, and made sure to lock it up. The mechanic guys we passed looked kinda tough, and a bit confused at my park-and-ditch. But they didn't talk to me, and I didn't make eye contact. If I looked like I belonged there, I shouldn't have any trouble. Feign confidence, I thought to myself. Thats my motto. And it worked- no questions.

As I got to the bridge, I could see a figure off in the distance. Oh my I thought to myself I think its the boss herself! Up to this point I had only made contact with her agents. Since market basket, I had felt like she was onestep behind me though, watching me always, masterminding my doom with an evil laugh. And now, here she was in person. I greeted her, trying to stay in character. I think when she asked me how I was, said "I have had had better days". During the whole conversation I was taking in the scene: A hundred feet or so above the water, standing with the mastermind of my sisters demise and quite possibly the greatest game I had ever played. I was looking around for my sister in the nearby foliage. I was also looking for snipers. I couldn't find anything. It was just Kiaya. Kiaya, and her envelope. The message in this one was a bit different. It had a riddle to solve and a number to call:


This one's pretty hard to read- basically it gave me directions to a church between Union and Pine. The last line was call when you know in which hand the lantern doth glow (I've blocked out the number to protect the guilty). Exciting stuff. I left her company and drove off for Pine street. I parked on Lowell like it suggested. I got out of my car and the second we closed our doors, the church bells started ringing. Moriah and I looked at each other with a "Whoa." kind of expression. The timing of the bell was perfectly eerie. We walked around- it was a big catholic church, with eerie and impressive architecture. But there were lanterns galore. We walked around the place 2 times before Moriah finally pointed out an unusual feature. Out of a certain area in the building, the arm of a statute jetted out and held onto a lantern. I gave a little jump when I saw it- it was somewhat freaky. But clearly, that was it. I looked at it for a second and the way it was holding the light, imitating its pose with my own body. "Left. Thats a left hand!" I called the number.

"Do you have the answer?" Chris's voice asked through the phone.
"Yes. It is the left hand."
"Correct. Your next clue is at the Palace theater. Walk there."
"Okay..umm..."
"*sigh* Its on the corner of Hanover and Elm...."
"Oh okay thanks! Got it...."

We walked over to the Palace to find Kiaya and Kelli waiting for us there. She informed us that we were waiting on someone who was running a bit late. It seemed closer to the end and I couldn't hold back my stupid grin anyway, so I broke character and gave her a big hug. It was a bit of a break in pace- Mo and I took a much needed bathroom break, and then we all hung out for a very short amount of time, chatting up how it had gone so far. Then my truck pulls up- with Abi in it.

Dunn dunn dun duunhh!! Of course she was involved in this too! Oh thats why she wanted to know how much gas was in the truck... all these thoughts went around in my brain at once and I laughed at how cool everyone had been to me. But it wasn't over. Kiaya handed me a business card and a map.

"Your looking for this person- Robin. She's at a quilting shop in hooksett. You need to go up to her and say the following phrase. "Hello, I'm clueless." She made me repeat the phrase exactly to her. Then she sent me off, while her and her posse dispersed to go get me into more trouble.

I got to that store eventually, and I got this final note:


What class. They had driven me right past the park that contained my sister on my way to get this clue! I rushed back to derryfield and parked as quietly as I could. I could see Joy, and she had her back turned to me. So did her guard. I ran up as quick as I could and attempted to free her from the grip of her captor. It took her guard quite by surprise, but so did it take her as well- she tried to hold on for dear life. We all laughed and had a good time. My attention was brought to the gazebo, where stood the plotters and most of the cast of the whole 6 hour game. Sister in arm, I walked down and greeted everybody.

From there we went and got pizza back in L-town, I driving the mastermind and former arch nemesis herself. We talked it up and discussed how it all went down and all the last minute incidents she was had to handle. It was all quite impressive. Then my brother even called, and attempted to vouch for his own humanity to her (she thinks he is a figment of our families imagination or a hologram) but she remains a critic yet.

As they ordered the pizza, I drove back home and pieced together my gift for Kiaya. Once I got back to our tailgate party (complete with ransom soda) I gave her my gift. Even though it was nothing so epic as I had been given, it was nice to have something up my sleep in return. The chilled Dark Peppermint Mocha frappacino was especially well received, and watching her smile at the note that I stayed up late writing certainly made it all worth it.

We parted ways just after 4:09- her exact birth minute, at which point there was much hollering and hugging and well wishing.

Thank you Abi and Kiaya and Kiaya's mom and EVERYONE who helped out with this amazing surprise- it really made me smile. It really was the best surprise anyone has ever given me, and the most fun I have had at a birthday in as long as I can remember.

Thank you!

Another deal, another day

I originally had an awesome idea for a very reflective, deep post- unfortunately, though I started to write it, I think I started to late as all my awesome ideas were failing to form on the screen.

Instead I decided I would take you on a tour of what my days look like now. And since this may bore many of you, I brought pictures!

Below I give you a tour of my week. Of course, the way I keep track of all this is with my lovely secretary, Miss LG-VX9800. By now just about everybody has met her, but heres a picture anyway:

Monday

Get up at 8:00am. I need a place for my recycling business to grow outside of the garage, I set up a meeting last week to look a place in Nashua. Its at a decent location, has a loading dock, has 1000 sq ft. with alot of room to grow AND its at a good price bracket. The only negative about this property is that its right near the river and in the basement. This year and last, it flooded to about my chin. This makes it tough to sell. But its also one of the reasons I love it: Since copper and aluminum don't rust, flooding means maybe at worst moving the steel and tools out of the space once a year, and at best a bargaining chip for a lower price. So I'm excited about the property- it looks like a great place to chop of transformers like this one:

Went to a computer store, bought a cooler a contact wanted in exchange for some scrap. Then I pulled into a car tuner store and asked them how much to install some body kit parts. My truck, glorious though it may be, is not going to be with us much longer. I want to get a stable commuter and a big cargo carrying vehicle. For the commuter, I have my eyes on this hott 1993 Honda Prelude. What makes it so utterly attractive to me is that its butt ugly right now- half of the body kit is installed but not painted, and the back end isn't installed. All the parts come with it though, and the guy wants to sell it. I can probably trade the truck in to him and get it for $400 or so. That leaves me room to throw the body kit on and paint it, and get a cargo vehicle. See? Responsible and practical...

Okay, I'll admit- this car is drives and looks AMAZING too. Heres a stock Prelude from the same year (complete girl with freaky death stare):

Not too bad looking, eh? Yeah, well if I get the one I'm looking at, the body's been all tricked out and looks way cooler.

Anyway, after getting the quote from that dude, I went home and ate, then left to work at [AwesomeCo] till 11. Came home and watched two episodes of "The Office" with my sister. Went to bed around 1 someting.

Tuesday
Got up at 9:00am, I think. Met my old economics teacher at 12:00pm to let him hawk me insurance. The cool stuff about this insurance (Perm) is that you can do stuff with it. Unlike regular (term) insurance, you are actually putting money into something you own. It gathers interest and you can even withdraw money from it like a bank account. The cool part is its tax differed- so you don't get charged for the interest you earn like in a regular account (such as my ING Direct). He bought lunch (score!) and I had a good time.

After that we walked down the street to a Practice where he introduced me to his lawyer, whom I might very well use for my upcoming business venture. I got to ask him a few questions and got his pricing and contact info for later.

Left Manchvegas, went back to Salem and got to work for [AwesomeCo]. Got out at 11, went to bed about 12.

Wednesday
Got up at 8:00am. Left at about 10:00am- picked up a large wad of cash at the bank, then headed off to Antrim, NH. I had seen a guy trying to sell several computers on craigslist for awhile and I finally emailed him and started haggling over a group price. After a lot of going back and forth, we decided I would just and settle the price once we got there. Obviously, both of us thought this would be in our favor. Obviously, one of us was wrong.

Sadly, I think I was the loser here.
1. I had committed to driving there (about an hour and ten minutes both ways), so I wanted to leave with something. No longer did I have the advantage of no connection, where I could take it or leave it indifferently. I had already invested time and gas into it, so that would affect my decision.
2. The stuff was all newer hardware. It was still used, but it was way better then scrap. Pentium 4 stuff. I have never really flipped this kind of thing before.
3. The guy was firm as a rock with his price. I barely got him down at all.

Some of the stuff I from the Craigslist guy in Antrim.

Hopefully I can flip the stuff, or I'm out a sizeable amount of cash. I'm working on it... we'll see. If not, hey- another expensive lesson. As much as I love an education though, I really would have rather bought a car instead...

Went to work at 3. I made my first almost major mistake. There is this ONE file that I check around 3:30 every day. I go in, check for it, then start a script that sends it out to another company. I record how long it was, wait for them to send a report back to us, then print it out. The report should say "no errors" and if it does I staple it to a form, put an initial and I'm done for that check. Simple stuff.

Well, when I first learned to do this, the guy who taught me showed me that he also checked the bottom of the file to see if it also said "no errors". Every other day I did this. Today, I did not. At 9:00 something the company called because they had just realized that their server had run out of room and never got the file all the way. Thats bad on their end, but we should have realized that right after we sent it out. I went back and looked at the print out... at the top it said "no errors" ant the bottom it had a specific error. Oi. Not cool. I worked with the other company to get the file resent and and had to write an email to the morning team explaining what happened. Got out as usual at 11, came home, ordered lunch for thursday via email (explained below) and got to bed.


Thursday
Got up at 8Am. At about 10:00 I got a call from a friend who told me the church was throwing away two EKG machines in if I didn't want them. I told him I did. I got there at about 11:20, loaded the two machines (which actually turned out to be EEG machines) into my truck and was off to my next meeting.

The two machines loaded into my truck. This ballance of this is even sketchier then it looks...

Thanks to an invite from my economics teacher, I have been going to these Business networking lunches in Manchester since last week. Every Thursday, people from all these businesses from around the Granite state get together, eat lunch, talk about their businesses and socialize. Basically the idea is that by establishing relationships with each other eventually everyone gets good referrals- not just from each other, but from people that everyone in the group comes in contact with. They only allow one person from each niche join so it is really a great deal for everyone involved. They didn't have a recycling broker niche yet, and I was formally accepted into the group on this fine thursday.

After the meeting ended at 1:00pm, I shot out to pick up some servers from a guy I met through craigslist. Over the past month or so I have bought out his entire collection (about 90) of PCs and sold them out to my scrap contact. The first 20 I bought I lost money on. The next 20 I made a solid trade with and the one after that I made over 200% profit. This time, I was picking up servers and he haggled me a bit on the price. There were only about 10 of them, but it was a challenge to get them all in the truck around the giant EEG machines. I ended up putting a lot of them behind my seats and about 4 on the passenger seat. The truck was loaded.

After loading up there, I turned around and shot off towards Smitty's new place. Smitty- or "Slick Smitty"- is the nick name for the guy who I usually sell electronics and computer scrap too. His real name is Sean, but when I first met him I thought he looked like a new york watch dealer... I told this to Jim who later referred to him as Slick Smitty, and the name stuck.

I got there at about 2:10ish and unloaded all the PCs. I bought them for $100. At 25 cents a pound, I sold them for $160. Not bad... at least it was a quick flip. The guy that was unloading the stuff started eyeballing the EEG machines.

Look at all those purty switches and knobs...

"Interested in these?" I asked.

"Well yeah I am pretty sure we are... don't know how to price them though, never done an EKG before."

We proceeded to agree that I could store one there and I would talk to Smitty about price later. It solved the problem of the big machines rattling against another in my truck and falling out, since I could lay the remaining unit down on its side. I then realized that it was 2:40 and I was still in Auburn. I got in the vehicle and shot out like a rocket, trying desperately to make it to [AwesomeCo] before 3:00.

On the way I got a call from Leah.

"Can you drop me off after the movie tonight?"

My mind pulled a blank for half a sec, then I realized that I was going to the midnight showing of Spiderman 3 with her and other friends.

"Yeah, no problem." Shoot, I thought I better buy my ticket.

I went down 93 much faster then I would advise anyone going in my ailing truck, but with my file checking goof last night this was NOT the day to be late. I got there only a few minutes late and no one seemed to care. I was a bit tense for a bit, running through my checks and checking my email. After things calmed down, I bought my ticket. Then Abi decided to join so I bought them again. This was all fine... until I left.

I started the truck up and was about to peel out when I noticed a weird feeling... a kinda dragging, tilting feeling. I stopped the vehicle and looked out to see exactly what I was hoping it wasn't: A flat. Greeeat.....

I called up Abi and ordered an extraction. She laughed, but complied and got over double quick.

Friday
Long story short, we saw the movie (it was good), but then Jarin had to stay at my place because he couldn't drive home after 1. This is fine and good but for some reason we ended up having more tea and talking in lou of sleep. I got to sleep at about 4am. I got up at 7:40am, a bit panicked- I wanted to be in Deerfield by 9:00am.

I was going to an event called NEAR-fest- basically an amateur radio festival and general geek swap fest/flee market. I had gone to an event called "HOSStraders" last year which was very similar, but this event has basically taken its place. Jim found out about each of them. He also found that on the forums, people were discussing what to do with the spare electronics and things left over.

As you may have figured out, I had some ideas. I offered them a solution and I talked to the organizers. As a show of good faith, I got there early Friday Morning (the first day of the festival) even though I didn't get any scrap. Jarin came with me that day, and I picked up Anders as well. It was a good time. Went back and worked at awesome co. at 3. Got to bed late again.

Saturday
I wanted to get up early this day so I could go replace the tire on my truck and still be in Deerfield by 9 for day two of the flea market, so I set my alarm to 7. My body had other plans- I woke around 8ish. Semi panic strucken, I got dropped off at the parking lot of [AwesomeCo] and finnished the job. Talked to a coworker I haven't seen in since I left the graveyard shift, then went back home. It was past 9 by now and I just accepted the fact that I'd be late.

Called up Jim and Brandon and we eventually met up and caravaned out of Londonderry- it was pretty crazy: Two 15 passenger vans with the seats taken out, on our way to get us some junk. With those two beasts we could have singlehandedly shut down 93 if we wanted.

Anyway, much longer story somewhat shorter, I ended up taking more then half of the electronic scrap. We filled both vehicles. We probably could have packed one of them to the top if it wasn't for our scrap lord rivals- the enemy in his giant truck, having others go around for him on a tractor picking up stuff. We would see the little JohnDeere operated by the cleanup staff and try to beat it to the good stuff. Or if the other guy wasn't around when the tractor came by, we'd just help them unload it into our vehicle. At first I wasn't so gutsy, because I was under the assumption that we were going to do some sort of civil "split the bounty 50/50" type of thing because of a previous oral arrangement. But after I finally talked to a coordinator and he said it was pretty much every man for himself, I knew what to do. We drove around that place like the scrap ninjas- One of us would patrol the grounds with the vehicle, then when we would see something we would barely stop the vehicle before the other two would jump out and grab the target, throw it in the van, jump back in and speed away before anyone else was the wiser. This was not with out danger:

Brandon was a bit new to the acceleration characteristics and apparently thought the van wasn't going to take him seriously when he stepped on the gas. It did. I having no warning, flew back screaming while desperately trying to find something to hold onto and landed on a military grade "radio fax machine" machine just long enough to tear my shorts and start to cry out in suprise and pain. Hearing this, Brandon slammed on the brake which thankfully saved me from further damage by throwing me back on my feet, at which point I was able to catch a passing seatbelt and die. The whole thing lasted only a few seconds but was the source of endless jokes for the rest of the evening.

Got back to my place at about 5 or 6 and unloaded both vehicles. Thats a story in itself- suffice to say, between our two vans and my truck we heavily damaged the cosmetics of one vehicle and invented a new budget dumping method with another. Stay tuned for that- Youtube videos should follow.

After this I went with Brandon and Jim to his house where we... looked...at some stuff from his work. IT WAS REALLY COOL- wish I could tell you guys about it. I am part of a semi paranoid company so I can sympathize with Brandon's and their wishes not to run on about this stuff, but its really a shame. You all would enjoy it, I'll just say that.

*looks around *
I hope I haven't said to much...

_--__-_
And that my friends, was last week. In
closing, and to thank those of you who got this far, here is a picture of a "Shatter proof blade" that I shattered while cutting through a transformer. Enjoy.

The all star of gate D3

Its amazing how quickly you get used to things.

Yesterday at 9 I was confused and frustrated about staying the night. By midnight I felt like I knew the airport almost completly.

I knew where the outlets were. I knew where all the internet stations were- the one that the well intentioned but mislead Continental staff told me didn't exist. I knew where the tunnels and moving sidewalks were. I knew the bathroom system. I even had a favorite urinal that I considered mine... (Thats really where I got a bit concerned that perhaps I had grown TOO comfortable...)

At first, I sat by an outlett to charge my PDA and batteries. I listened to Illinois by Sufjan Stevens and watched the airport staff scury outside through the window. I kept thinking how cool it was the way all those people and specialzed vehices were working together. I wish Abe was there to see it too- he would have loved it.

Sleeping was not so easy. I tried several things, finally slouching over in a phone booth. A guy on a cleaning machine passed me a couple times. Then one time I saw him pass me- then back up. He called once. I ignored him- I was afraid he was going to tell me I couldn't sleep here. He called a second time. I looked up groggily, doing the "who, me?" gesture. He asked if I was staying the night. I told him I was. He said "Let me see if I can get you a cot." and sped off. I was ever so thankful.

Long story short, he wasn't able to find one in this half of the airport. But he assured me there was some through the tunnel. I thanked him and ran off- by this point I allready had a pretty good grasp of the geography of the Airport- which, if you know me is pretty suprising.

The only one I found was behind a continental service desk. After passing it a few times looking for others, I finally bit the bullet and jumped the gate to retreive it. Okay, so the gate was open. I took it back set it up by gate D3.

That actually helped only mildly, since, well..... Its a cot. My arms didn't know where to go and proved a perpetual problem. But I did get some sleep- dont ask how much, I have no idea.

I went over today to a place that said it served- PROUDLY served- Phoneix Cofee. I had taken Brad's wisdom of getting cofee while here to heart. I decided it had to be local. I got a mocha phoneix something something. It was flipp'n GOOD. I could taste the chololate, yes- but the coffee was certainly there, strong and not acidic. Just how I liked it. I got a breakfast sandwhich there as well. The people behind the counter were the nicest people I've met in any store in awhile. But everyone sees nice here.

Okay, over my time again.

Everyone, thanks for the comments. It made logging on worth while. Anon, MHT is Manchester Airport. Oh, I see someone said this already. Quick, you are. Hannah- you crackedme up with the Kevin Max thing. You do realize he's getting on nowadays, right? In years and in girth? ;)

Later e'ry body.

Saga of this week (As oppposed to the Sega of this week, which would be promptly replaced with the SNES of this week)

Greetings, one and all. Some people claim that all my sister and I do is collect comments that beg for updating. To you I say... well, I mean hey, everyone needs a hobby, right?

The last week or two (its hard to tell where one ends and the other begins now-a-days) have been intense. Not all great, not all bad, just bigger. More stress, but more fun. And less sleep.

Monday
Ahh, Mondays. Technically, I don't work Monday. Its a little weird. I work Early (1 AM) Tuesday morning. So Monday is supposed to be the day I adjust back to my weird work hours. I've tried a few different ways to do this- take a nap at a certain time is a popular choice, and I've tried it. But most of the time, if I have not been deprived of sleep, I won't be able to take a nap. I end up just lying their, in my bed, waiting to go to sleep. Bo-ring.

The approach I've recently taken to this is based upon a proprietary theory that I have dubbed "The Sleep Deficit theory". I believe I have enlightened most of you about this in person; if any of you want further explanation on the details let me know. But the point is, it has served me well recently. This week though, I had more sleep deficit then I bargained for.

Monday I purchased a truck. I bought it from my friend, Mr. L. As part of the deal, he paid for or deducted from the price all the repairs needed to make the vehicle return to tip-top shape. But when I drove it out of the mechanics to close the deal, the blinkers weren't working. I brought it back to the mechanic that night who said that he had noticed that issue but had forgotten about it. Apologetically, he said he'd do the deal with out labor costs. He thought he found the problem- the switch. This is the rocker arm that you use to control the blinkers and the windshield wipers. Yay. He would have it the next day, if I could bring the vehicle by. I said I'd be there, considering I had been resorting to using hand signals. At night. On the highway.

Tuesday
I got home from work at about 9:30 as usual. I ate. I called up the mechanic and he told me he hadn't the part yet, but he would call me "as soon as it walks through the door". Meanwhile, I called town hall about a mistake I had made on the title and how to fix it. Four seconds after I hung up with them, the mechanic called me to let me know the part had indeed waltzed in at that very moment. I drove to the shop.

By this time I was a bit tired. I had gotten there I think around 11:00, and it was supposed to be a quick (20 minute) fix. 30 minutes later the mechanic comes in and says "Its not the switch. Only thing I guess it could be now is the flasher..." and got on the phone to find one. Meanwhile, I was sitting down taking small several-second naps. I'd just sort of zone out and then wake up. Judging by my surroundings, I had barely slept- A few seconds at most. But hey, I'll take what I can get.

Long story short, it wasn't the flasher module either. He sent me to go get it down at Auto Fair on south willow, but it wasn't the problem. He took awhile looking at some schematics and then started doing some more probing with a meter. Finally he said the problem was some of the wiring between the fuse box and steering column. He ran some new wire as a work-around for the short term so I could get back on the road and he'll fix it up proper when I bring it back to get state inspected.

Waking hours with out sleep at this point: About 28.

Unfortunately, the truck work left me at home by 1:50ish. I had to be at Agape by 3:00- Tonight was movie night at the Gs and I wanted to get their earlier so I could exchange gifts with Kiaya, who sadly wouldn't be able to come. I talked to mum a bit, then I went to sleep for about 20 minutes. I got up at 2:34, and sped away in my shiny (sorta) yellow truck.

I arrived at Agape at 3:00 on the dot. Sadly, it became apparent that I had missed Kiaya by mere minutes. I saw Anders playing soccer outside like old times and I talked to him for a bit. I then went in and roamed the halls of Agape, which were almost vacant because of the time. I felt like a ghost, haunting my old romping grounds. How so short a year made so large an impression on me I'll never know. But it was good to be there, even if there hardly was anyone left. I was welcomed warmly by Mrs. Woodman and Pastor Gary, which was great. Actually everyone I ran into was kind, as usual.

I ended up sitting in on Mrs. G's class. They had an amazing guy there named Ramses who was sharing his testimony. He was really cool. Then, class dismissed and I hung out with everyone. I opened H's gift for me their, which was an awesome great big Z with all my names and aliases. It was full of inside jokes, like references to my mispelling of the blogger name and such. So yeah, it was "basically awesome".

I then opened up Kiaya's gift. She made me the most AWESOME wearable piece of art ever- a full size Cat in the Hat style hat made out of red and white duct tape. INCREDIBLE. I'll have to post pictures later. The thing fits me great and is such a blast to wear. I've done the rest of my Christmas shopping in it and the reactions you get are so great.

Anyway, the whole lot of us (sans, sadly, Kiaya) went to H's house and we watched "A white Christmas" and "A Christmas story", the latter of which I had never seen before. We also just hung out and chatted for awhile after that. Me and Mrs. G got conversation about where all the plastic packaging we generate ends up (a land fill or the ocean for the most part, sadly) and recycling and what we can do about it. We left at 11 something o'clock.

Waking hours with out sleep at this point: 38.

Mrs. G had given me directions, which I followed well up to the 495 part. Mrs. G hadn't specified which direction to go on 495, but I surmised that since we were in Mass. and we wanted to get to Derry, we wanted to go North, naturally. Well.... We never got the chance to get on 93. We only had the option to get onto 95. I took it.

I was a little bit concerned because of the hour and my uncertainty with the route, but I did know that I wanted to go North. Eventually, I figured, we would get to a place that either I would recognize or could transfer to 93. We drove a long time and didn't see it. What we did see were exits for Portsmouth passing us. When I realized the last exit for Portsmouth was coming up and after that I'd be in bloody MAINE, I got off the highway.

Now, I've been around Portsmouth before, but as a passenger, not so much as a driver. I recognized where I got off- it was the Portsmouth traffic circle. I went around it maybe three times. Finally Abi spoke up and put her vote in for the Rochester/concord turn off. That made sense to me- concord was at least in the right direction. I think.

Well, shortly after taking that turn off (which was onto 16/4 and some other highway) I saw blue lights in the rear view mirror. I pulled over. The cop came up and started the whole "Where did you come from, where are you going tonight?" questions. When I told him I was trying to get to Exit 4 on 93 he looked at me like "Are you serious?" and said "Your not even close."

"Yes, yeah, I know- I was going north, I knew that was important but I wanted to get over to 93. I couldn't find where to get over..." He asked me what I had in the bag in the back.

"Some presents, and OH- can I get out to show you?" he said I could, so I got out, pulled the seat forward and continued "Tthis really cool Cat in the hat hat...my friend made it- out of Duct Tape!"

He was quiet and a little confused for a second, but quickly regained his composure. "So thats not 5 pounds of dope in the hat?"

"Nope, just a hat."

In truth I had been tempted to make a joke back, saying something like "Five pounds? Ha, thats ten at least!" But in the end I decided against it. Probably one of my better choices.

He took my license and registration (the latter of which I had to explain was not in my name yet because I had just bought the vehicle) and went back to the cruiser. Abi noticed that another one had pulled in behind me with its lights off for backup. She looked in the mirror.

"I think their laughing."

The first cop probably told the newcomer where I was trying to go. See, I'm good for a laugh even for cops on the beat. While we were waiting I said "Abi, I don't think I was speeding." She said that she was pretty sure I wasn't and that maybe they pulled me over for swerving around while I was trying to find out where to go.

Finally the officer walked back up to the truck and handed me my stuff back.

"Do you need directions?"

I consented that I did and he gave me them. Before I left, I asked

"Officer- why was I pulled over? I wasn't speeding was I?"

"Yeah you were. Its 35mph right here. You were doing 65."

Surprised, I asked "But- isn't this part of the highway?"

"Technically no. Its an in-between, and its residential. There are some houses over there, but its right between highways so its sort of confusing. " With that, he let me go. Thank God. If you had seen it, you would be utterly confused too. It looks (at least at night) like part of the bloody flaming highway. Double the speed limit is not good for your record. Yeesh. My guess is that he only used that as an excuse to get me over so he could see what I was up to. He didn't even give me a warning- I don't think he cared. But crazy, nonetheless.

Wedensday
The officer told us it would be over an hour to where we wanted to go. At this point, it was already about 12:30. Great. I needed to call work to let them know, so I went for my PDA but I didn't have it. I had left it at the G's. Double great. I had to call... so, I called my dad and woke him up we told him what was going on. He looked up the number for me and I called it to tell them I had just gotten un-hopelessly lost and wouldn't be there till later.

From their, I drove on for a very long time. I was quite tired. Though I tried to avoid it, I blinked out once or twice. I got a latte at one of the junctions, and that helped a bit. Abi got dropped off at 1:44. I then turned right around and hightailed it to work to arrive at just a little later then 2. Dan said "I can't believe the governor got lost in his own state." Ha.

Work that day was very tired. After running in and making sure nothing major was dying, the first thing I did was make a cup of dark coffee. I would be back to the cafeteria often during my shift, but they didn't do much. One thing I had to do took a little longer then normal because I kept waking up in the middle of it and had to double check what I had just done. I couldn't dare sleep longer then a few seconds though- I'd usually wake up to Dan or Tony chuckling. I didn't want to know what they would do if I fell asleep for longer then a minute. Glue me to my chair, most likely. Maybe staple my pants to the floor. I couldn't risk it.

After what seemed a very long time, I arrived home at 9:20ish.

Waking hours at this point: Over 48.

I was a little tired. BUT. I had an appointment. I had rescheduled a little get together with my friend Brandon to Wednesday after I couldn't make it at the last second before. He needed a monitor and a crossover cable and some help installing stuff. I went over and worked on it with him till about 12. Or maybe I got home at 12. I dunno; it all gets foggy there. Either way, when I finally gone to sleep I had gone about 50 hours with out serious shut-eye. Ahhhyeah!

Suffice to say, I slept pretty good. I woke up at about 9:24pm- which was great. I got up and went to work.

The more observant of you will be realizing that I don't normally go to work so "early". That is true. My boss's boss was bringing in a little Italian food as a thank you to the night team, and he said anyone that wanted to have it could come in at 10:00. It would be overtime. How sweet is that? Paid overtime + food. Y to the UM! I ate food, and worked into Thursday morning.

Thursday
After I got home, Abi called. Operation "Escort" was a go. I asked her when I had to be in the parking lot.

"1:45."

"I'll be there." I said as I hung up the phone. Since it was already 10:30ish, I decided to stay up. I shaved, freshened up and figured I could get some last minute holiday shopping in then come back, get some stuff and go to Agape. "Hmm, better bring Kiaya's gift just in case you don't have time to come back" I thought to myself. By the time I parked at Wal-mart, I realized I had grossly estimated my time. It was 12:20- I should be leaving now. I got back in the truck without entering the store, and quickly made my way towards 93. After I had gotten on 93 for a few miles, a sudden panic shot through me. "The gift!" I realized as I searched frantically in the seats, "I left it by the door!"

Sadly, I hadn't a cell phone. All that was to be done was for me to rush towards home. I turned the truck around and doubled back. I got home about 1:20, rushed in, found the gift and called Brad's cell. I talked to him for a sec and asked if I should meet them at the airport directly. It was funny; I talked to him and Abi for a few minutes and they talked entirely in code. First brad was like "The eagle hasn't left yet." And later Abi said something about "The mustard seed is departing." Anyway, it ended up that I was able to make it to MHT on time. Brad, Hannah and Abi were waiting outside the airport door for me very nicely. I had my hat on.

"Take that off! We have to sneak by them up to the food court." I did as I was requested and obscured the hat to the other side of my person. Kiaya and her brother were still checking in, and we exploited the distraction to get ahead of them and into position. Now, we waited.

Kiaya and fam came up pretty soon and she was apparently totally surprised. It was great. We hung out and chatted (Though I stayed in a McDonalds line for far to long only to find out they had totally forgotten about me) until she had to leave. We did our families tradition of stalking the person to the last possible moment. Then the rest of the Core went to Agape, and I headed home. But I stopped at some stores first (Christmas shopping). I roamed the halls of wal-mart and the mall with my huge cat in the hat hat (CITAH from now on) and I enjoyed the responses. Some people would do a sublte double take, not wanting to look stare. Others would turn a corner and start laughing mid sentence. Alot of mothers out with their little children would point up to me like I was a show in the circus. "Look honey, do you see that? Is it the cat in the hat? Yeah!" To which I would smile, and tip my hat. One big guy I almost ran into turning a corner just had this look of awesome admiration and said totally seriously "Cat in the hat- how ya doing?" to which I replied fine. I felt that the gift itself not only was "Kiaya" in the design, but continued to express herself through it. Maybe its the lack of sleep talking, but I could see her getting a kick out the reactions.

That was the good part, but when I'm tired, I get cranky pretty easy. I didn't get hardly anything, at the stores and one of the only things I did get I was growing anxious about, wondering if it was any good. I thought maybe I had been pressured into making a last minute choice that no one would admit to not liking even if they truly didn't care for it at all. Then I got home, and waited a bit for dad to come home so I could talk to him about truck stuff... only to find out he was going to be running errands late. I went to bed finally at 6:00pm- way to late.

Friday
I woke up to my dad's voice saying something. It was saying alot of stuff before I was coherent. I was trying to figure out why he woke me up. I looked at the clock- 1:39. It took a few seconds to register. Finally, my dad's voice came in clear:

"Tony called and wanted to know whats up with you. Your supposed to be there."

CRAP. I looked up at my dad and held my little brothers alarm clock.

"Dad, I brought two alarm clocks so this wouldn't happen. TWO!" I said in frustration as I jumped up and got dressed. It turns out later that someone must have fussed with the switches on my main alarm- it was set to radio, which doesn't work. I don't know why the other one didn't work.

I was at work by 2. Stupid eewah... sleeping in. Between this and the Portsmouth incident, there goes most of my overtime. This time after I got home and ate, I slept.

And that, my friends, was my week.

Oh, and by request: "Merry Christmas" gosh!

Yeesh!

Pictures next post guys.- Honest. :) Hold me to it.