Siiiiiccccccccccccckkkkkkkkkkk!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh my am I sick! Truth is, I am not writing this on the day that I am listing it. I was too sick that day to do it. But really, this is the only time I have ever done that... ;-)

First I should mention that Stephanie was sick on Monday. So its very clear where from where I got this.

Now I'd like to blame her. That would make things easier and would probably be somewhat humerous for writing purposes. Unfortunately I cannot do this though. Stephanie told me repeatedly on Monday to stay away from her. I didn't listen. I was arrogant. I thought, I wouldn't get sick. I wanted to be a sweetheart and comfort her and make her feel loved and typical stuff of the sort. Man am I stupid.

So what's wrong with me. I don't like getting sick. I mean I hate it. I think throwing up is about the worst thing that can happen to a person. I am a bad sick person. I do not take it well and I did not take this one well at all.

I have never been sick like this before. Almost all the times that I get sick it has sinus related stuff. Throat and nose and snot things mixed with feeling sick to my stomach. Not this time. No throat no nose no snot. Just something wrong with my stomach. It started in the morning with my stomach just feeling funny. By 9 o'clock I could tell I was getting sick. By 2 in the afternoon, I was sitting on the floor of the bathroom where I was working. By 430 I felt like my head was on fire (no fever though) and that I'd never be able to get home without puking.

I finally got home and collapsed on the bathroom floor. I was shivering and sweating at the same time. I felt like my stomach was full of something horrible and that it was just trying to decide which direction to take when it left. I won't go into all that, but I did finally throw up, and it was awful. Though I did feel better after I did. As Stephanie said I would.

I spent the rest of the night in bed drinking juice and by the end of the night I was actually feeling better. But simply put, it was the worst day of my life. Well perhaps not quite. But its up there.

-T

Don't trust men who talk about women

Ok, what I am saying is this: I don't trust guys that can't talk about sports. Or at least some kind of equivalent thing. Like cars or music. I work with a couple of guys, and all they talk about is women. I mean just about sex and how many women they sleep with. Its ridiculous.

Now conventional wisdom is that when guys can't talk about anything but sex than that means they are gay. Or it means that they just never get any women. I don't think that is the case here. I don't really doubt any of it. Its just...welll...kind of gross. And its very creepy.

In the end, I have known people like this in the past. However, none of my friends have ever been like this. Most of my friends are far too busy talking about important things to care about discussing women. Important things like football, movies, college football, baseball, SEC football, TV shows, Gamecock football etc.
And I just don't think there is anything more boring than listening to another guy brag about himself and women.

-T

Star Wars Cleanup

Tonight, I began the task of looking through boxes of Star Wars toys. Oh boy. Do I have a lot of Star Wars Toys. This will be a week long process I believe, as I have about 8 boxes to go through. I don't particularly care to do it all at once.

I started with the older ones. No, I do not have any of my old old ones from when I was a kid. Many of them are long gone. Some are buried under some houses in Florida which used to be woods when I lived there.

These old ones are only semi-old. They came out in the late 90s. Ah College. The good old days when you had little to do but sleep and watch tv and occasionally study. And everything you needed was paid for. Which left money for fun nonsense.

So I opened this big box to reveal some smaller boxes. I had forgotten just how many of these I'd opened. Yes, to play with. And, I found several that I had done some "work" on.

Over a summer in 97 I decided that there were some figures that Hasbro had not yet made that I simply didn't care to wait for. Or some that needed some "tweaking" So a modeling knife some paint, a couple of head switches, and some creativity I made a few new guys.

My favorites: A young Obi-Wan Kenobi figure. This was 97 so we had little idea of what a young Obi-Wan looked like. I made a Young Anakin Skywalker figure, that I modeled after myself. Later I just renamed him Jedi Master TomCat. I made some of Luke's fellow pilots out of Pilot Luke figures.

When I took them back to College the next year, they became a conversation piece. When the people on my dorm floor were all coming around meeting each other. A couple of guys, Ben and Brian, liked my creative solution to collecting issues. And for good or for ill, they are still two of my best friends today.

So, one box down and several more to go. Can't wait to see whats next.

-T

Downtown?

Have I said this already? What North Charleston needs is a downtown. I don't get it. How does this place work? How does it function? Oh thats right, it doesn't

Now there were parts of Salt Lake City that felt kind of like this. The area near our apartment was kind of a wasteland. 3900 S near State street. Miles and miles of garbage stores and businesses. Spread out and unattractive. But still the area functions in a smooth and orderly way. The reason? Good roads everywhere. Built on a grid. All roads leading to larger roads that funnel everything into downtown.

Heres the deal. I'm not asking everyone to live like the Jetsons. I'm not against houses at all. I'm not entirely against neighborhoods that are somewhat secluded and set apart from the "hustle and bustle" What I am against is single passenger automobile trips and single person office buildings. I'm fine with people having homes and nice houses and huge yards and whatnot. But can't we at least work near one another?

You want traffic to get better? Then we have to maximize the roads and routes that we have. What North Charleston/Summerville needs is a downtown. Find a spot that already has really good infrastructure. There are a couple of places that do, believe it or not. Find that spot. Buy out whatever garbage buildings are there. Reconfigure and rezone the whole area. And start putting up some real buildings. I'm not talking about 80 story buildings. But some decent high density office space. Combine that with restaurants and some apartments and condos, for those of who don't feel the need to hide from the rest of the world. Suddenly, what you have is a real working and functioning city center. Where people come to work and live and shop and play. A small but higly dense area that supports the rest of the city. A place that is easy to get in and out of. And best of all, it keeps the rest of the city quiet, peaceful and green. Isn't that what we want?

But the people here cannot see past their dashboards. They can't see the real problems. So real solutions sound scary to them. If I say density, they think it brings more traffic. No it doesn't. It consolidates traffic into the areas that can handle it. If I say downtown they think Manhattan. Where no one can see the sun shine and there is nothing green anywhere. That isn't true. Columbia's downtown area is about 2 miles long and 1 mile wide. And its full of parks and green spaces and is very effecient.

In the end, its just frustrating, because North Charleston is clearly the central part of the Charleston area. Yet 30 years after it incorporated, it is still just a wasteland of randomly placed buildings and roads and strip malls.

Its too bad I want to do something with my life. Otherwise I might stay here and fix it.

-T

Shopping, traffic and insanity

So here we are in the midst of the biggest shopping weekend of the year. What is the first thing Tom thinks about at a time like this? Besides will the Dodgers ever hire a manager? Yes, its traffic!!! The nightmare that is Rivers Avenue near Ashley Phosphate. There is a rather large Mall on one side. On the other side are 4 large, and inexplicably separate, shopping centers. One after another, 4 in a row. All on the same side of the road and completely separated and totally impractical to get from one to the next.

Why? Why would anyone think this is a good idea? No one does of course, yet they accept it anyway. Why? Because there are no other alternatives? I don't believe that.

Am I going to whip out the old subway bit now? No. Even I know it isn't terribly practical to do extensive Christmas shopping without a car. Its a lot to try to carry on the train.

But how about building just a little bit smarter. It wasn't too long ago that there were only two shopping centers in that spot. Two with a gap in the middle. And one was really struggling to make it. The other is ruled by Wal Mart. So at the time. There was only Wal Mart, soon-to-be out of business Service Merchandise, Toys R Us and Sports authority. If they were going to add Best Buy, Pet Smart, Barnes and Noble, Linens and Things, Michaels, Super Target, Bed Bath and Beyond, Circuit City and a number of others, then why not do it in a more organized manor.

Think Big People!! There was, and still is, a lot of free space around the mall. Why not move things over there. Consolidate. You could have built a parking garage and a pedestrian walkway. You could have traffic converge from three directions onto one large shopping area instead of only one direction to get to 4 separate ones.

Am I the only one who gets it? Why are people afraid? Why do people think that density equals more traffic? What we are talking about is consolidation equaling traffic efficiency. We are dealing with a society full of sociological fence straddlers. Where people are unwilling to do anything for fear of everything. If its the last thing I do, I will show people the truth.

-T

Black Friday

Or so they call it. I call it Lets go out and make fun of people shopping Day. Actually I did not venture particularly close to any shopping areas. Steph and Sonny and I had a little fun today. We go up this morning and went out to the beach.

But first!

We went to Dunkin Donuts! This is something that Stephanie has been craving for awhile. Apparently Dunkin Donuts are somewhat native to Boston, as is Stephanie. No no, I know about Dunkin Donuts and Boston. I watch Red Sox games, I know.

So we have a couple of D-Donuts here and we wanted to give Steph a taste of home.

Mmmmmmm donuts are good too. When I got in there, there was a guy in a Red Sox hat with a very thick Boston accent. I guess maybe each store keeps a token Bostonian around just to create good ambiance.


Then it was off to the beach. Haven't been there in some time. It was chilly of course. It's late November after all. But it was pretty nice. Sonny seemed to enjoy it. He ran around the sand. He ran over near the water, but he wasn't having any of that.

We went home and began round two of Thanksgiving with the Family.

This time "The Andrews'

Oh boy. The wild bunch is meeting for a get together at the Crab Shack. Stephanie had been feeling a little sick today and wasn't sure if she was going to go. But she was a trooper, and nervous though she may have been, she went to meet my family.

The Andrews' are a crazy group. When we got there, my Granddaddy told Steph to watch out. He said they just let them out from time to time and they have to go back to the home afterward. My Uncle Andy started to tell a joke, then asked if it was ok to tell it in front of Stephanie. We said it was ok of course and then it was on. Hey, a little bit of crass humor in a public place never hurt anyone right?

It went well though, and they had hamburgers there, so Stephanie didn't have to eat oysters.

My two Aunts and Uncles came back to our house afterward and had about a 3 hour memory lane session with my parents. Stephanie and I enjoyed the show. And Sonny was in sensory overload with so many people around.

After all of that subsided, Steph, Son and I took a drive through Summerville. I have been here three weeks and this is the first chance I had to do that. Its impossible to get to Summerville now because of traffic. (more on that later)
We looked at my old apartment and my old jobs. We drove by the my High School and then next to the Football Stadium. Where they were in the middle of the Lower State Championship game. Which my team beat arch rival Stratford by about 4 points. Woooo

Then we grabbed Zaxby's on the way home.

Whew---what a day!

-T

Turkey Day

Today was Thanksgiving. And happy Thanksgiving to all of you who read this thing everyday. Today was pretty darned typical as far as T-Days in Charleston go.

Woke up around 8 to the smell of ham cooking in the kitchen. My parents got up and left to go the Turkey Run. This is a three mile race that is held on Thanksgiving morning in Downtown Charleston every year. I often participate in this run. However, I am still suffering from the 31 dollars a day that I had to eat on all this year. So I did not run.

Stephanie is here with me this year, so that is pretty new. The two of us went down to my grandmother's house around 11 and helped out and chatted for an hour or so. Then, around 12:30, people began arriving. The food was layed out, a prayer was said, and then it was eating time.

A Home Cooked Thanksgiving meal was a welcome change for me. I have spent the last two years dining on Turkey at the fantastic Bellagio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. Now let me be clear if you are thinking that eating in Vegas would be awful. T-Day at the Bellagio was awesome. Both years. The food there is fantastic and it really is a gorgeous place to visit. That said, I had been missing Thanksgiving at my grandmother's a little bit.

There were a few less eaters this year. My Brother was visiting his wife's family with their baby girl Aris. This really is only one less than I am used to though. The last time I ate here, Jesse had no baby and I don't think had even met Kristi. My Uncle Shelton passed away two years ago, so this is my first Thanksgiving without him. That was kind of a bummer for me. Thanksgiving was pretty much the only time I saw him during the year. Which, looking back, was a really stupid thing to do on my part. His wife, my Aunt Joyce, did not come this year either as she was visiting other relatives. My Aunt Ruth, Uncle Steve and cousin Karen weren't here either. They tend to be off and on. They live out of state. But there were 12 of us still, so it was a good turn out.

We stuffed ourselves full of good stuff. Turkey, Ham, Macaroni Pie, Sweet Potatoes, Stuffing, Gravy are all parts of the main food. Plus there was spice cake, Chocolate Pecan pie and Stephanie's mom's yummy cheesecake. Man that stuff was a big hit.

When we got home, my parents pretty much went to bed. They always do. Steph and Son and I went for a walk down to the river. Then we sat on the couch and digested ourselves until bedtime.

All and all, a pretty good Thanksgiving Day back on the home front. I think I'll be in Los Angeles at this time next year. So it may be back to the Bellagio with Steph's parents. And that will be a welcome return too.

But I have to say. This may be my favorite holiday all the way round.

-T

Hammer Time

So here is what happened. There is this drill right? The Hammer Drill, and it is fat nasty. Its a big bad piece of equipment and you have to be careful with it.

Here it is:




Anyway. We had an interesting day today. The last few days, me and some other guys from work have been using this drill. Actually they had been using it. They had reported having a tough time with it. One guy got hit in the nose by the drill. Funny huh?

What happens is that the drill has a ton of torque. And sometimes it binds up inside the wall. So when the drill is spinning and the bit gets stuck, then then rest of the drill starts spinning. It whirled around and smacked him in the nose. Another guy got his arm scraped. They told me about it, but said it was ok though.

Then I used the drill. I realized pretty quickly that something was wrong. This thing is to big and strong for the easy job we were doing. I used a much smaller hammer drill last year in Utah. I did not feel comfortable being up on the ladder with this thing. The first thing I said to do, was turn off the drill part. You can make it so it doesn't turn. It just pounds back and forth quickly. I did that, and it cut right through the wall. The guy with the scraped arm saw that and said, "aww man, thats the way we should have been doing it."

Problem solved right?

The next day, the same guy used the drill. Did he put it on hammer only, as we discovered was safe and effective? Nope. Got back up on the ladder in a tiny space and had that nasty drill spinning away. What happened? He got it stuck in the wall. When he pulled the trigger to try to get it out. The entire handle and motor part of the drill whipped around and hit him right in the forhead. Cut his head open. He had to go to the emergency room for 7 stitches.

This drill is too big and bad for what we are doing. We went to the supply warehouse and asked for a smaller one. They had one, of course, and now we should be ok.

But I don't get how people can do things that don't feel comfortable. I wasn't sure if there was a problem or not. But when I got up there and started using it, I immediately knew there was something not quite right. They don't make tools that make you feel unsafe when you use them. What do I know though?

-T

Charleston....arrrrgggghhhh

Have I mentioned yet how disappointed I am in this city? They say you can never go home again, maybe this is that. Really though, I have learned a lot by living out of state for the last few years. What I know now is that this is unacceptable. Seriously. This city is out of control. I thought LA was a ship with no captain. This city is like 1000 separate life rafts with no captains, no sails and no oars. Just drifting around bumping into each other.

I'm already starting to cross off certain places of town from my list of places to go and see. The reason? I just can't get there during the day. Its ridiculous, and its just getting worse. And on top of all that, the people here seem to not notice its happening. They just complain and complain about the traffic but they have no idea why it is there. When I was in LA, the story was always this: It used to be the traffic was something that you joked about and now it dominates every single conversation.

Guess what. Thats the way it is here too. It takes me 20 minutes to drive the 4 miles to the air force base. It takes 40 to 50 minutes to get to work. What is a total of about 10 miles. How is that different than LA? Guess what. It's not.

Why am I the only one who cares? Why am I the only one who thinks that there are alternatives? Why do people just beat their heads against the rock again and again, rather than try to find the cause of their frustration? I just don't know.

I find myself saying...I can't wait to get back to LA where the traffic is better.

-T

Its been....two weeks

Well, yesterday made two weeks since Steph and Sonny and I landed in Charleston. It has gone pretty well so far, I'm happy to say. Not that I thought it would go badly or anything, but it has gone really very well. Apart from Sonny getting loose that one time of course.

Two weeks at work have been pretty good. Now that I know a little more about what is up, I feel pretty good. And I have some decent idea about where Steph and I will be headed. New Jersey, North Carolina, West Virginia, Missouri are all possible.

I am getting to spend time with my family. Which is nice. It will be very nice to see everyone at Thanksgiving this week.

Steph and I are pretty comfortable living with my parents, so that has worked out. And Sonny seems to be getting along too. He loves my dad. But he is very jealous of my 1 year old niece who tends to steal a lot of his attention when she comes.

Yes, all and all, its been a pretty good couple of weeks.

-T

Swingers and my bedroom

It's not what you think. This weekend, I have spent a lot of time in my bedroom. I am not sure if it is even my bedroom. It was my bedroom in 95 and 96. Then I went away to college. It was my bedroom summer of 97 and summer of 98, but not in the summer of 99 or 2000. It was again my bedroom in the summer of 2001 and most of the summer of 2002. Additionally it was my bedroom on various weekends and other occasions during that time. In summer of 2003 I moved to LA and I really haven't been back since.

Now I am living in it again. Thats weird enough by itself. Also, I have left many many boxes of "stuff" in that bedroom for the last few years. So I want to take this opportunity, living here for 8 weeks, to organize my crap and do something with it. Certainly a daunting task.

The tricky part is the distractions. You start looking through boxes and seeing things that you haven't seen in a long time. Stuff that you don't know why you kept, but are sure glad you did now that you see it. Some examples:

Empty Captain Morgan's bottle from 1997.
Plastic beads. New Orleans Mardi Gras 1999
Orange End Zone marker from Final High School football game 1992
Every Issue of Playboy from 96-2001
Dodgers World Series and NLCS Champions T-Shirts 1988
Size: Medium
Mad Magazines from the mid 80s
And a stack of newspapers that is literally 3 feet high.

So what is required is an alternative distraction. Something to keep your mind occupied. For that I chose what truly might be my favorite movie: Swingers.

Man I love that movie. Here is a movie that is very well-appreciated and is still under appreciated. Great because its a small personal movie that taps into real people and what makes them tick. A personal favorite because its a guy movie. Seriously, the opposite of chick flicks is this movie. Not Armegeddon or War of the Worlds (more on that later)

Not to mention, that the movie was made for about a quarter of a million bucks and sold for much much more than that. So it is additionally inspiring to a filmmaker type like myself.

So its Vegas Baby and boxes of Star Wars toys for me. And I'm supposed to be all impressed because she's wearing a back pack?

-T

We lost to Clemson......

Oh my am I upset. We lost to Clemson. The appropriate thing for me to do would be to write a blog that mirrors my We Beat Tennessee and We Beat Florida blogs. But screw that! I'm irritated. What can I do? I'm not the bad loser type. I'm not one of those annoying College Football "fans" that locks themselves in their room after a loss and doesn't come out for three days, but this one sucks.

First, it sucks because we could have won. Clemson did not play particularly well. Which means the game was ours to be had. I can handle getting beat by teams that are better than us. Even when I hate them as much as these guys. I can handle being beaten by teams that play a great game even. But Clemson is about even with us in overall quality, and they played a clunker of a game. Unfortunately, so did we.

Second, it sucks because it really puts a little bit of a downer on what has been a great season. Thats a hard thing to say. Nothing will water down the feeling of winning those two big games. In some ways though, this is kind of a downer. We beat the two traditionally hardest teams on our schedule, but we lost the two other biggies. And the two we lost are the two that we CAN win from time to time. "I wish we had won against Georgia and Clemson instead of UT and UF this year, because when we beat Tenn and Fla I want it to be the year that we win all 4" Ok, there is a statement that I want to make, but I absolutely DO NOT MEAN it. Its just frustration building up a bit.

Third, it sucks because I HATE CLEMSON HHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTTTTEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!! I don't know how to say it. I hate them I hate them I hate them I hate them I hate them!! I'd rather go to Barry Bonds birthday party dressed as Juan Marichal then lose to Clemson. I'd rather have a Lord of the Rings themed Wedding than lose to Clemson. I'd rather live in Utah than lose to Clemson.....alright alright I've gone to far......


But ERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
WAAAAAAAAAAA

Damn!

-

-T

2 down ? to go

I finished my second week of work today. Its going pretty well at this point. Today was actually very good. On Monday of this week I was given a couple of new guys to "look after." They are both pretty good. They don't know much yet, but they listen well enough and are eager to learn.

On Tuesday and Wednesday we all went over to Mt. Pleasant to work at an elementary school that is almost finished being built. There is a crew of guys over there already and we went over to be of any help that we could be. They gave us a lot to do. Mostly pulling wires into place.

Those guys work a weird week though. They work 12 hour days on Monday Tuesday and Wednesday. Then they work 4 hours on Thursday and take a 3 1/2 day weekend. Thats cool I guess. But we weren't doing that. So I asked one of those guys to give us some stuff to do on Thursday afternoon and Friday.

They had conduit running to do. I love running conduit. Well, uh. Within the confines of having to do this type of work, I prefer running conduit.

So yesterday and today were pretty good. I was working on my own steam. Teaching some new guys how to do pipe work. Its a good feeling to know that you know how to do something.

Additionally, my boss has been asking for a lot of input as to where I want to be sent. This is good. I was pretty nervous that my being sent out on the road was going to be really complicated, but it looks like its not going to be too hard. Knock on wood. On top of that, I'm told that the per diam rate is much higher now than when I was in Utah. I was getting 31 bucks a day out there for food. Now it is 54-59 bucks per day. Thats pretty sweet considering that I didn't raise my food intake by 23-28 bucks per day.

So its so far so good I guess. And now its the weekend.....Wooo Hoooo

-T

Sonny!!!

The dog got out today. In actuality, it was not too big of a deal. But it scared Steph and me a lot. I don't think we are too over protective or anything. Its just that in LA, it was impossible for him to be outside without his leash. Wayyyyy to crowded. In Utah, it would probably have been ok, but we just didn't want to risk it. What if he gets hurt or something. The problem is, that since we have been careful to keep him on a leash he now has problems being off it at all.

I couldn't make him stop. He ran into the road. He thought I was playing. So I stopped chasing him and sat down. He ran back toward me. But I just want to know how to make him come back. Its too dangerous for him.

I need dog training lessons for myself.

I love that little guy so much.

-T

LOST...Back on Track

Just a little tidbit about LOST. Its been 4 good episodes in a row now. Following what can only be described as a poor beginning. So things are pretty interesting now.
We are seeing scenes from the back of the plane now. Which could have sucked, but has turned out to be quite good. Tonight's episode, The Other 48 Days, was really interesting. It recapped all that happened to those people since they landed.

I feel like they finally got it together. Like they just weren't sure where it was going over the summer, so they treaded water for a couple of episodes until they figured it out. Which is a little annoying, but in the end I guess I'll take it.

Its nice to have LOST back. Woo Hoo

-T

Oh...You're loving me now aren't you?

Ha ha....I knew it would happen. Last week, ESPN passed on the Big Game. The Carolina-Clemson rivalry is renewed this weekend and ESPN decided it just wasn't cool enough to air. But look at you now. After WE BEAT FLORIDA!!! and Clemson beat Florida St. last weekend, ESPN is clamoring at the last minute trying to get it on the air. Suckas...you should have known better. This is one of the best rivalries in College Football. But because it doesn't usually fit into your annoying drama and storylines sports philosophy, you are going to blow off. Shame on you.

-T

Back to Work again

Well, week 2 of the new job began today and it went about as well as ever. It went fine actually. I had stuff to do, which is good enough for me. I had helpers today too, which was nice. And I found out that tomorrow, I will be going off to work at an actual job site. We will see what happens I guess.

And oh by the way.....We still beat Florida!

-T

The Bridge the Bridge

I did it today. I rode across the New Cooper River Bridge. You might look back to one of my very first ever blog entries. I wrote about the opening of this thing. Its absolutely amazing. I have followed this story for 10 years.

In 1995 it was, according to some, a pipe dream. Some others said it was of dire importance. While some other said that it doesn't affect them and they should not have to pay for it.

Governors campaigned on it. Mayors clashed over it. All before it was ever even approved.

Then it was debated further.

Who will build it? What will it look like? Where will it land? How big? How wide? and my personal favorite. Will we spend a little extra to provide for future additions of commuter trains to cross it?

In the end, they got it done. They all agreed, the money was found, the contract was made, the date was set, the heavy equipment rolled into town.

Finished in summer of 2005. 1 year ahead of schedule and under budget, it was comptleted.


And today, Stephanie, Sonny and I drove across the Authur Ravenel Jr. Bridge for the first time ever! Well worth the wait.

-T

We Beat Florida? WE BEAT FLORIDA!!!

We Beat Florida! I don't know how to say this exactly. Hmmm...oh! We Beat Florida! Haven't we done this already? I feel odd writing the same thing, 2 weeks later. But what can I do? We freaking beat Florida!!!

The last time we beat them in Football was 1939. 19 holy crap 39.

This really never happens. In 95 I watched us lose 63-7, it was 18 degrees at night. In 97 we hung with them for 3 quarters and then got blown out in the 4th. In 98 it was the only good game we played in the worst season ever. Still got beat by 2 touchdowns. In 2000, I thought we might win. We were up 21-3 in the second, but were losing 24-21 by halftime. In 2001 I really thought we'd win. The "Blackout" game. We all wore black. All of us. Old people too. It was night. It was cold. It was loud. ESPN Gameday crew was there...and then the game started. Steve Spurrier kicked the crap out of us. Just to put us back in place after two good years. 3 years of more games where we played pretty well. Hung around, but were never really in it.

And then...this year. We all felt like we could win, but no one really felt like we would. We just don't. But got up early and kept playing tough. The Stadium was loud. And fan participation has really become well-organized since I left. (more on that Later)

Wait Wait...I'm not excited enough....WaaaaaaaaaaaaaHaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa WE BEAT FLORIDA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What do I do with myself? Seriously? I just can't rationalize it. At all. I'll read about it in the morning, so I'll let you know if its a dream.


Natalie: 1939
Jeremy: 1939?
Natalie: Thats right. Know what happened?
Jeremy: Hitler invades Poland.
Natalie: Nope
Jeremy: Yes
Natalie: Not it
Jeremy: Melvin's BBQ opens in Charleston?
Natalie: Dana!
Dana: Last time South Carolina beat Florida in football Jeremy.
Jeremy: Of Course.
Natalie: It happened today.
Jeremy: They Beat Florida?
Dana: They Beat Florida
Jeremy: Casey, they Beat Florida?
Casey: Who?
Dan: South Carolina
Casey: I had the best Barbeque at a place in South Carolina
Dan: Melvins?
Casey: Melvins.
Jeremy: 1939

1 week down, many to go.

I finished my first week of work today. And I must say, it went pretty well. I am working at the office right now, but I believe they will be sending me off to a local site next week. I have been working on the new part of the building this week. Which, interestingly enough, is one of my dad's projects. No one seems to care. I think we may have already disspelled any thoughts of working around my Dad as being a problem.

In more important news. Brian called me today and informed me that Stephanie and I have tickets for tomorrow's game against Florida. I am PUMPED UP man! I cannot wait to get up there. It has been 3 full years since I have been to a game at the Cockpit, and I am out of my mind about it. And its Florida too. I want to beat them so bad I can't see straight.

We will see though.

-T

Aris

Oh my do I love this little kid. My brother's little gal. She came over the first night we were here, and again tonight. I am glad to be around her again. And hope that she'll get to know me too.

She can walk now. And not just walk, but she's cruising too. Running around, bouncing up and down. Climbing on stuff. She's lightning quick too. Its fun watching her, she's starting to become like a real person now. I mean, of course she's a real person. But you can see what she is going to look like for the rest of her life. And you can see the beginnings of her personality now too. Its really great.

She came in and saw Sonny and said "Doggie." It was awesome. She can say Ball and Book and a few other short words. I will teach her Uncle Tom by the time I leave here. She is great though. I can't wait to babysit even more.

-T

13 boxes and no visible carpet

1 week ago today, I took 13 boxes to the post office in Utah. Today, 13 boxes showed up on my doorstep. There were 3 yesterday and there is one still outstanding.

Heres a funny thing.
Last week, I mailed 3 boxes on Tuesday, 13 more on Wednesday and 1 more on Thursday.
This week, I got 3 boxes on Tuesday, 13 more today and I expect 1 more tomorrow.
Makes sense right?

but...

Two of the three that I got yesterday were the ones from last Tuesday, but one was from Last Wednesday. I got the other one today with the other boxes, but also today I got the single package from last Thursday. The one that is still left to come is from the big shipment last Wednesday. Weird.

Anyway, the more significant thing is this. I have no room to do anything. 9 of the 17 total boxes were mine. Add that to the 10 other boxes of stuff that is in my bedroom here that contain stuff that I left here two years ago. I have too much stuff!! And after I have spent time really dedicated to ridding myself of stuff.

300 or so Star Wars toys, Playboy magazines from the last 8 years. A stack, literally 3 feet high of newspapers containing stories of "significant" events. Mad Magazines. My entire 5.1 surround sound system. Keepsakes and what nots from every era of my life. And clothes galore. My goodness I have a lot to do.

Where to begin?

-T

Charleston...ahhhhhhhh

One thing that is cool, is that I really do love this town. I love where I am from. I do really love it. I don't know that I want to live here, but I love being from here. So Steph and I have some things that we want to do while we are here.

Places to go:
Across the New Bridge!!!
Beaches, early and often
Downtown/Market
Downtown/Battery
Fort Sumter
Summerville
Area Malls
Citadel

Places to Eat:
Melvins--mmmm Barbeque
Zaxby's--mmmm Chicken
Perkins--mmmm Breakfast
Moe's--mmmm I don't know, but I heard its good.

There are a few other things that I want to do while we are here. Some urban planning areas to critique and some relatives to visit. Fun Fun Fun. Hope to get out soon though.

First Day

Well, today was the big day. And....it went alright. My dad is still out of town so I am driving his car to work. I went in about 8:30 just because I didn't want to be in anyone's way as they were getting set up. That seemed to be the right thing to do.

I met my new boss finally, after several phone conversations. She seems cool. I got the talk about my Dad and how they feel about nepotism. But really, I get where they are coming from. She just can't afford to have to deal with any other guys in my position complaining to her that I'm getting favoritism. If they hadn't hired me because of it then I'd be upset. But they did, so I can understand a little hesitation.

It was a lot of busy work today, I'm looking forward to the chance to do something cool and show what I can do.

-T

Well, we did it...Now what?

I got to Charleston today. Oh boy. I moved myself and my stuff back into my old room at my parents house. I moved Stephanie and the dog into my brother's old room. It pretty weird.

I have a ton of work to do in my room. Getting all of my old stuff organized in some way that will be good to leave it. I don't want my parents to have to deal with my old crap when I leave again.

We just finished a 2000 mile trip and boy am I tired. Unloading the car was a chore.

And on top of that....I have to go to a brand new job tomorrow morning....Yikes.

Its going to be a busy week I think. But I'm here and here is not Utah. So we are off to the right start.

-T

One looooong day

Today was crazy. I don't know how it happened, but it took forever to get to Greenville from KC. Seems like we got on the road quickly enough. We got through St. Louis without much problem. But it took like 18 hours to get from St. Louis to Nashville. Not true of course, but it felt like it.

Steph and I considered stopping somewhere along the way and not going all the way to Brian and Ben's place.

But we didn't need to. Because Steph and I talked our way through it. We talked non stop from Nashville to Ashville. I love that girl. She's just like me. We can talk forever about how stupid so many people are. We talk about why the world is so crazy and why we seem to be the only people who get it.

I love her.

Anyway, we got to Brian's late late tonight. But it was good to see him and Ben again, and the dogs too. It was also nice to drive back into South Carolina. Its been awhile, and I kinda missed this place.

Tomorrow I will be home, and a new adventure begins.

-T

Going to Kansas City

Kansas City here I come. We drove a good long way today. From Wyoming to Kansas City. It was a long drive, but it wasn't all that bad. Its gets dark quickly, so it feels late quicker. Our drive so far has been exactly the same route as the most famous drive that Stephanie and I ever took. The 2002 California to Carolina trip.

So it was kind of cool to reminisce about the first trip that we ever took. It was a lot of fun. We got gas in Kearney Nebraska. Thats one place that we spent the night on our way out that year. We went through Lincoln tonight. We stopped at the U of Nebraska and looked around. Not tonight, it was already dark. We got to Kansas City tonight around 9.

When we got to the hotel I saw a local pizza place nearby. We hit that up for some pizza and it was damned good.

Tomorrow is another long day. But a free place to stay at the end of the line. Going to see my boys Brian and Ben. I saw them last year at a wedding. But otherwise I haven't seen them much in a couple of years. Ben did, of course, come out to visit me in LA. He's the only one though.

Til then.

-T

Time to go

We left Utah tonight. I can't believe it. I don't know for sure what I am getting into. I am nervous about this job coming up and our plan to get money for the movie. But it feels good to get on the road and get out of Utah.

Steph went to work this morning, I dropped her off. I went back home to finish throwing out trash and doing last minute cleaning.

I picked her up, we had lunch and made the final push.

We got checked out of our Apartment about 430. I'd hoped to get out by 4 but we almost did it. We got in the car and hit the road. Had dinner in Evanstan, our favorite Wyoming place.

We are in Rawlins Wyoming tonight. Its cold. Damned cold. Winter is here and we can't leave soon enough for me. 4 hours of driving tonight wasn't too bad. It gets dark so early and it feels later than it is when you are driving at night in the middle of no where.

Its a long day tomorrow. 13 hours or thereabouts to Kansas City. Going home again. Nervous, excited...a million different things. Most of all, happy to getting moving again.

-T

13 boxes and a wet carpet vacuum

Today was probably the biggest day yet in our moving process. First off, I spent all day taking stuff out to the trash can. We have a lot of crap to just chuck. Crap crap crap. Trip after trip.

The big deal though was the packages. I sent three big boxes of my own the other day. Today I have 7 more and Stephanie has 6. I have 7 because I split up a larger box. I had about 4 boxes stuffed into a big box. But the Post Office person told me that if the box is too big, then it's not worth it to ship together.

So this was an adventure. Steph had some heavy boxes. Not so heavy for me but, hard to carry more than a couple at a time. When I got to the Post Office I had to borrow a cart to bring them all in. In the end, it cost us right at 400 bucks to ship all of our stuff. Which really is pretty reasonable I think. It would have cost around 1800 bucks or so to get a trailer or something

The other thing was the vacuum. I don't know what to call it. Shampooer...no. It doesn't shampoo. Steam cleaner....no. It uses cold water. Its a cold water carpet cleaning vacuum. But I'll tell you what. It seems to work pretty darn good. I did all the living room and hallway, and it seems that it work really well.

Today was tough. A lot of work to do, but it got done. Tomorrow, should just be about packing the car and getting out of here. Wow.

-T

Star Wars Day!!!

It's here It's here. Star Wars day is here. I got up this morning. Steph went to work. I got on the bus. I got on the Train, I walked to Wal Mart from the Train Station. I was listening to my iPod on the way. As I got to the edge of the WalMart I changed my iPod song to The Imperial March. Bomp Bomp Bomp BomBaBomp BomBaBomp....etc. I know its a little stupid, but well, that's me.

There it was. The last Star Wars movie. Sitting on the shelf available for me to own. It's just crazy. I considered not getting it. I don't know why. I'm about to move. I want to have as few things to pack in the car as possible. But what can I do? I'd probably buy it today, watch it while I pack, and then throw it away before we leave and buy it again when I got home.

I bought it. I took it home and I started watching it while I packed. I watched it for a while and then turned it off. There is simply no way I can get my work done as long as this thing is on. Man.

I did, of course, watch the deleted scenes first. They were pretty good too. I'll be watching some of the other features later.

This is it though. Today was the final day of episode three. A half a month shy of 6 months. 7 months after I waited at Toys R' Us for the new toys. Today it ends. I looked forward to this most of my life. And today the circle is finally complete.

-T