Update..?

Well the new job is going pretty OK. Definitely not used to sitting inside all day, but oh well. I miss Colorado more everyday, but I think this job will turn around once they let me play outside.. Haha. Besides all that, started the P90InsanityX the other week, and its starting to get easier and easier. I have about 85 more days left of actual training. Trying to lose about 20 pounds.. this is the heaviest I've weighed in my life. Sooo I want to get fit and healthy again :-)

Anyhoot. Thats about all thats happening. Not much of an update.. haha

MSU?

I think it's starting to hit me that I wont be going back to MSU this fall. Everyone is talking about welcome week, football games, tailgating, etc; and it's making me pretty depressed. Not fair. I feel like college flew by quicker than any other stage of my life.. and I thought high school flew by pretty quick.

Kind of makes me think.. Am I growing up too fast for my own good? I mean fuck, I'm only 22 years old and I already have a full time job (maybe two) lined up. What ever happened to backpacking across Europe, being completely irresponsible, traveling the USA, or going to Australia for a few weeks? I feel like I'm missing a huge part of life by jumping into my career this quickly..

Summer is ending..

Well the summer sure has flown by pretty quickly. Here we are, already August 10th, and I have no idea where the summer went. It hasn't hit me that I'm not taking the usual trek back to East Lansing, but I'm sure in the next couple weeks I'll wonder why I'm not on the road. Well, I guess I will be on the road, but only to start a new chapter of my life in Texas. It feels pretty weird getting a full time job, having to look for a semi-permanent place to live, and moving all my stuff across the country again. I really started to love living out in CO, but I guess the job had to end sometime. Met a ton of awesome people and had some amazing times. At least I'll have a place to stay out here if I visit again.

Had quite the weekend. Went to the shooting range with Mark yesterday. Shot an AR-10, .38 special, .40 pistol, .22 magnum mousy-gun, and of course, a 12-gauge. Felt good to explode some clay pigeons! Then I got the full time job offer for Choke Canyon State Park, went fishing a couple times- caught a nice little brown trout on my kastmaster lure (first one ever!), ate lunch in Steamboat and caught up with Siggy, and did my laundry. Awesome weekend.

Hoping to make the best of the rest of my time here. :-)

Job

Mark - "Did you patrol all the campgrounds?"

Me - "Yeah, except McKindley. I was up their earlier today and only one site was occupied by a tent."

Mark - "Oh great. Now some poor child is getting sodomized by his grandfather in their tent because you didn't patrol around McKindley campground. "

Hahaha! Gotta love the job!! :-P

Colorado

Ok well quite a bit has happened since I updated last. I still havent heard ANYTHING from Texas.. and my hopes are dwindling everyday.. So I came out to see what Colorado had to offer me. So far it has been a blast. I've met a ton of sweet people and I'm doing what I've always wanted to do. Life is going good!

Been training all week for the job. Lonnnnng days of classroom time. Then got OC pepper sprayed on Wednesday. Quite possibly the most painful thing I have ever experienced in my life. Basically it burns like you just put the hottest chili pepper juice in your eye, and when you try to wash your eyes out with water, the burning gets more intense, yet you have to wash them out. One hour of pure torture and temporary blindness. Then its the gift that keeps on giving. The next shower you take, the pain comes back as it all washes down your body, stinging EVERY place there is. Just terrible.

Anyway, I just finished my second day of work, and have yet to write a single ticket. A good thing, yes, but it gets so boring when people are doing the right thing all the time. Haha. This morning a guy got a fish hook stuck deep into his finger, so another guy volunteered to cut into his skin until he can get the hook loose. Awesomely entertaining!

Going out on voluntary patrol tonight to see if people will get a little rowdy.. maybe a few citations will be written.

Graduated.

I am officially a Michigan State University Alum - Class of 2010!!!

Were they the best four years of my life? Thats hard to say considering I'm only 21 years old, and still have over 79 more years to live (I'm predicting to be 100+ when I die). So far during these 21 years of my existence, I believe it is safe to say that these past 4, hell even the past 8 years have been the best.

Whats next?... Colorado? Texas? Hopefully I'll know for sure by 5PM tomorrow...

18/10

18 days left until graduation. It seems like nothing, but it is going to be the busiest 18 days of my life. Wahoo!! Working all week on a group GIS project, writing a paper, going to Texas for a job interview, and presenting the final GIS project next week. Sounds like a piece of cake, but that project is half my grade. Still have lots of work to do on it.. :-(

Actually now that I think about it, my last day of class is next Thursday. INSANE! so that really puts the countdown at 10 days... oh snap.

Spring Update

I guess I should probably write about spring break, eh?

Well it was a great time. Drove down to P-Cola to see Nick the first night and partied with future pilots again. Went to Kristen's grandparents house the second night, making our way to Miami. The cruise ship was like any other, of course. Immediately got our bathing suits on and hit the deck. Met a ton of people, had a great time.
Nassau was ok. Kinda cloudy all day, but we had fun in Senor Frogs doing free shots, drinking yards after yards, jumping in restricted water and getting ourselves some seashells. Later we went to the beach, where the tide was rolling in. Waves were a good 5 feet high, breaking on shore. Needless to say, swimming wasn't the best there. Haha. So we chilled out on the beach, got solicited by drug dealers right and left, and took some quality pictures.
CocoCay was the next day. That little island was the best! Jill and I signed up to do snorkeling, which was fantastic by the way. So many fish, saw some cool plane wrecks and ship wrecks, along with some cannons. So they had this little scavenger hunt game, where if you found a wooden fish somewhere out in the ocean, you get a prize. Well Jill found a wooden fish, and she won a free parasailing trip. So I go out on the boat with her, in hopes that we can sweet talk the boat drivers into letting me go. After a little negotiating, Jill was able to jump her way into letting me go with her.. Haha. So we both got to go parasailing, a $180 value, for free. Awesome! Celebrated later that night with some quality rock climbing on the wall, dancing, and a midnight buffet.
Key West was the last day. Jill and I decided to go on our own barcrawl of Duval Street.. aka the Duval Crawl. Over 50 bars, and we made it to about 10 of them.. Haha. Met quite a few people on the same quest as us, and had many delicious drinks before having to get back to the boat. Successful bar crawl! That night we played Quest, the adult scavenger hunt game. The most ridiculous things you could even imagine. Naturally, Team Number One placed in the top 3 out of 70 team. We got a medal and everything. Awesome! It was a great end to the trip :-)
The next day was our drive home. We hit the road, knowing that we needed to stop and get gas soon. Well we came upon the last exit before the toll road, and got off there hoping there was gas. We drove over 50 miles on E before deciding to pull over to a worksite, and beg some workers to give us gas. They were very generous people, and gave us half a tank for free! So we were on our merry way to Kristens grandmas house again.
The next stop was Atlanta! Saw my friend Ben, havent seen him in 2 years. It was a great time.
The rest of the trip consisted of driving, driving, and more driving. That was pretty much the end of Spring Break 2010.

Anyway, St. Patricks day was also a blast. Went to Harpers at 8am, was completely blackout by 12om, and really dont remember a whole lot until after 7pm. I guess I had a great time, judging from my pictures! Haha.

Easter was fun, went home with Kristen and met her family. Had some great food, a great easter egg hunt, and rode a good 70 miles on the back of Kent's motorcycle on easter sunday :-) Awesome time!

Got a job this summer working at Stagecoach State Park in Colorado as a limited commissioned park ranger. Basically enforce laws, but I dont get to carry a gun. I'm cool with that. Haha. Getting paid $11.27/hr, 40 hr week, from Memorial Day to Labor Day, living in the park for $50 a month. Not bad at all!

San Diego lacrosse tourny is this weekend. I guess our team name is Team Awesome. Awesome! haha. Lookin forward to catchin up with some Alumni players, going out, and having a great time. Oh and playing a few games of lacrosse too I guess.. Haha.

30 day til graduation. One more paper, and a project/presentation to do, then I'm FREE!

Beware the Ides of March!

Spring Break = AWESOME! More to come on that later...

Let the job interviews roll in!

St. Patty's day in 2 days! AND its gonna be 61 and SUNNY out!!! WOOOOO!

The day is mine, Trebek!

A vacancy for a Level 1 State Park Police Officer in Austin AND the start of a new Game Warden Cadet Class #56 at the Academy?! Say it ain't so!!

News like this kinda makes me not even want to interview with Florida State Parks. I mean, what do you do when the actual job that you want just got posted, but you are interviewing for a different job in a couple days? What if the Florida likes me and wants me to work for them? Do I take that position, even though the real job that I am interested in is still accepting applications? Or do I risk it, say no to Florida, and wait for the the other jobs to close their vacancy and start reviewing applications?

Ohhhh the stress of getting a full time job..

The Ides of March... in 15 days.

It's already the last day of February?! Where has the time gone? 5 days until Spring Break!
Oh did I mention that I got a job interview at Oleta River State Park in North Miami? Out of 250 applicants, I made the top 10. Things are indeed looking up! Trying to get face to face interview with them once I get into Miami next Monday, even though it's after all the other candidates interview on Thursday and Friday. If everything works out, I will be a Florida State Park Ranger! Awesome!

Karma.

Ya know, I think I finally figured out why I have been so lucky in winning so much money lately. I think it has to do with a little something called karma. Let me explain...

While I was dating Matt, he never had enough money to do anything. Since I had a good paying job, I didn't care if we had to split the bill, or if I had to pay for us to go to the movies... money wasn't really an issue to me. Needless to say, I paid for a lot of things: $225 for his bail out of jail, $500+ in flights for him to come visit/me visit him, $$$$ for dinners, random gifts, beer, gas, etc. I probably put around $2000 into making that relationship work.

Then there was that one day when he decided that I wasn't worth his time anymore. At this point in time, I had already bought him a flight back to Texas from Michigan since he was supposed to drive back with me - which cost $150, and a flight out to Las Vegas for Thanksgiving which cost me all my air miles I saved up.

Karma started to come into affect when I found out that I could restock my thousands of miles for a small fee of $100. Well worth the money since a regular ticket costs $300+ nowadays. At this point, I decided that I wanted to take a trip to see Nick after Thanksgiving. I used the miles to pay for this trip. So a trip to Pensacola cost me a total of $100. This is only the beginning
Next, while I was in Vegas I won a lot of money gambling. Almost $200 playing two games of roulette. And my apparent "luck" didn't stop there. Christmas Eve at Grandma's house is always a great time. But the best part is probably playing bingo with everyone. The pot this year was $99. I decided to buy 5 cards, which cost me $10. I won the blackout game, so $99 was mine for the second year in a row. Finally, after we went to get Aunt Linda's tattoo, I decided to buy a Dallas Cowboys lotto ticket since I've been winning so much lately. And what do you know, I won 15 bucks.

I realize $300-ish is not nearly as much money as I spent on the relationship, but I think it's just the worlds way of getting some of it back to me, since I know I'll probably never see any of the money that he owes me. What a gentleman he is!... Not.

Words to Live by..

Everyday someone asks me what's my story and what do I like to do
And everyday, for the most part, I only go so far; I almost never tell the truth
'Cause the truth is behind me there's not much, to give up, I like simple, not complicated
Cuz I'm a small town kid, driven by rock music
And some honky-tonk, in the mix
I like whiskey in coke, double to the top
A shot of cuervo now and then
I never ask for a lot, I'll never need much
I'm not afraid to admit, I'm that small town kid.."

Eli Young Band - "Small Town Kid"

Skills.

I kind of hate that our growth as humans is stunted. Our skills deeply depend on where we grew up or currently live. I couldn't help but think while watching the women's snowboard pipe in the Winter Olympics, that if I were to grow up in a more hilly/mountainous place, I could have been one of those competitors. Most of those girls have been boarding since they were kids. They probably got season passes to their local ski resorts every year for christmas, thus creating an endless amount of opportunities for them. I'm totally doing that for my kids, thats for sure.
When I think back at what Troy had to offer, I found nothing. Sure we have a "ski resort" trashmound just 30 minutes away.. but lets be real. Unless you're flying out to the Rockies/North East every winter with your family, Mt. Holly doesn't have what you need to be a great snowboarder. So insert the limitation of skills here.

Anyway. Go Team USA!

The Best Week in February

Pazcki Day AND a Mardi Gras bar crawl all in one day?! Say it ain't so! Great last day before lent, thats for sure
I've decided I am giving up all crap foods. This includes snack foods, take-out, pop, etc. I am also forcing myself to work out 5 days a week, with 2 days of rest (not in a row, though). This is mainly because I have not been too great on actually going to the gym lately. However, Wednesday will turn that around. Hopefully my workout schedule will catch on like it did sophomore year where I was excited to go everyday... One can only hope.

Free Food

Denny's Grand Slam breakfast is always a delight... but even more so when it's free.. at 6AM.. and before the first class of the day.
Today me and Kristen woke up at 05:15, staggered out the door, and waited in line at Denny's for their annual free grand slam breakfast. It was probably one of the best decisions we have ever made. Almost equivalent to the time we drove all the way to Central Michigan University just for an ice cream social during freshman year finals week. Ahhh... memories...
Needless to say, we got our fill of free food this morning. And 3 cups of coffee later, we were ready for our first class... jittery as ever.

Super Bowl!

My favorite commercial of all time. King of the Hill commercial from many decades ago. Since I cant find the video to it, I'll post the lines and scenario from what I can remember

Hank Hill (King of the Hill) is impatiently waiting in line at a grocery store with a bag of chips, beer, and other types of junk food. He desperately wants to get back to watching the Super Bowl. A man is waiting in front of him with some fancy import beer, wheatgrass, and hummus.

Hank (to the man in front of him): "Excuse me, sir? Can I cut in front of you. I have to get back to watching the super bowl."
Man: "Oh, you don't think I do?" (in a snide remark)
Hank: "Well look at what you're buying.. Fancy beer. Wheatgrass. Hummus?! What the heck is that?! Is that some kind of dirt you plant the wheatgrass in?!"
(I dont remember the rest of the commercial.. I think the man explains the nutritional value of wheatgrass and hummus, and mocks Hank for buying junk food.)

To this day, replaying it over and over in my head, this commercial still cracks me up. Such a classic. I wish they would air it again.

Anyhoot. GO SAINTS!!!

Movie Review 2

Dear John - I was oh so excited to see this movie today. The previews looked very promising of a Notebook-esque movie, probably because its based on another Nicholas Sparks novel. The beginning of the movie was fantastic. Nothing is better than a shirtless Channing Tatum and a love story. But that's about as good as the movie gets. About halfway through, basically the first "Dear John" letter she writes, the movie takes a dramatic turn for the worse. The producers try to make this love story into something that it wasn't by adding small twists and turns, but it just turned out all bad in the end. As a result, there was absolutly no plot to this entire movie. It was like watching a persons life for 2 hours, and having them not accomplish anything. The ending was the worst part of the movie, though. It just... ended. And its not even one of those endings that make you think what happened, or what will happen. It just ends.
Two thumbs up for a shirtless Channing Tatum!
Two thumbs down for the rest of the movie. Don't waste your money.

Movie Review

Youth In Revolt -- Hilariously entertaining! I give it two thumbs up. I thought nothing could top Michael Cera's first hit Superbad.. but this is definitely right up there with it. Go watch it, you wont be let down.

You know what really grinds my gears?

Fat people. Did you know that more than 2/3 of the world is considered overweight or obese? That means 2 out of 3 people that you know are fat, and have a BMI over 25. Ridiculously high number? I think so.

While watching TABOO: Fat yesterday, the show mentioned the website www.naafa.org - the home of the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance. I literally laughed out loud just at the title. Curious, I went to that website. Their main mission: "NAAFA is a non-profit, all volunteer, civil rights organization dedicated to protecting the rights and improving the quality of life for fat people. NAAFA works to eliminate discrimination based on body size and provide fat people with the tools for self-empowerment through advocacy, public education, and support."

You've got to be fucking kidding me. This organization is a sympathy blanket for lazy ass fatties that feel discriminated against because of their size. They view this organization as a place where they can feel "accepted" for "who they really are", and continue to live their lazy, gluttonous lives.

So you're fat and are proud of it? Well congradu-fucking-lations. Are you tired of people discriminating against you? Too bad. I will discriminate against you all I want because its MY tax dollars that are in affect when your obese body starts to shut down on you and you have to take a trip to the hospital. Here's a thought: maybe YOUR taxes should be raised by the lifestyle that you seemingly CHOOSE to do. Tax the hell out of that fast food, processed snacks, soda pop, frozen pizzas, etc. Pay more for your own damn health care, because I sure as hell don't want my tax dollars going to your fat ass when you get a clogged artery from all that crap you are eating. Hell no. Reason number 8 million why I am strongly opposed universal Obamacare.

Here's another fun tip, instead of going to the grocery store and buying every box of hostess cupcakes and Twinkies in the snack isle, how about buying fruit or veggies to snack on? Or am I asking way to much of you? Heaven forbid you don't get to eat a dessert after every meal, or drink an entire 2-liter of coke a day! How will you ever survive?!

And for all those people who say "I don't have time to work out".. Honestly? You're telling me that your life is so hectic, that you can't even take 15 minutes out of your day to walk around the block once or twice? Man, that must be terrible having to live such a rushed life, where every minute of your day is consumed.

And for all those people who say "working out has never done anything for me.. it's too hard", ummm... losing weight doesn't happen over night! Just beacuse you worked out for a week and didn't see results doesnt mean "its not working". It takes up to 6 weeks to see any sort of weightloss result. The combination of both EATING HEALTHY and EXERCISING 3-5 times a week is the key to weightloss, not taking diet pills or fad dieting and then sitting around on the couch all day.

And yes, I understand that some fatties out there actually have a disease that causes rapid weight gain, and with that, you have my sympathy. But that doesn't mean life is an all you can eat buffet either. You can still eat healthy and exercise on a regular basis. Just because you are fat doesn't mean that your body/organs can't be healthy and in order.

With that being said- put down the french fries, turn off the damn tv, and go outside. Enjoy the fresh air.. it's good for you.

MSU ballers!!

WAAAHOOOOO MSU Basketball!! We're off to the best conference start ever!! 8-0!

Cold.. day 2

Well to continue the experiment from yesterday:

The cold started to take over my body even more. I felt as if I could sleep all day, but I fought it. Sore throat got worse, eyes heavier, neck was in pain, and head and chest felt cloudy.

I made chicken noodle soup for lunch, ate another multivitamin for vitamin C, and drank herbal green tea with pomegranate.

Still feeling like crap, at 8:00PM I took a Tylenol PM. I turned my electric blanket on in my bed to level 7, hoping to make myself sweat it out.

Well 14 hours later, all I have left now is a slight cold! I feel well rested (who wouldn't after 14 hours), just a small stuffy nose, barely any sore throat, and just a slightly clouded head. Looks like this new experiment is gonna be how I should handle colds from now on.. We'll see tomorrow if I'm feeling just as good.

colds...

There's nothing worse than when you start to feel the early signs of a cold/flu taking over your body. I'm not sure if there is anything out there that can completely stop it from happening.. Load up on DayQuil? Eat chicken noodle soup all day? Drink OJ? Take my vitamins? Drink tea with whiskey and honey?

Experiment time!
I felt it coming on last night when a small sore throat started to appear. I drank a lot of water.
Today I woke up and felt incredibily tired, sore throat a little worse, and now a stuffy/runny nose, heavy eyes, and congested head.
I already had 2 doses of DayQuil, a sore throat thingy, and ate a Flintstones (R) vitamin. Next is chicken noodle soup, tea, and OJ for the rest of the day.
I'll check back in tomorrow and update my condition.

Last Semester

Well the first week of classes is almost done, and I've gotta say this semester is gonna be one for the ages. Not only do I have ZERO finals at the end of the year, I only have a total of 3 exams/midterms left in my college career, and I'm done with class at 11:30 everyday, with the exception of Wednesday which I get out at 2:30. I am fully expecting myself to enjoy this final semester down to the last drop.. Mmmm tasty.

Woohoo! Bring on the fun!

DOMINATION!

YEEEEEEEEEHAAAWWWW!!! HOW BOUT THEM COWBOYS!?!?!!?!

Fuck you, Philly Seagulls! Who’s laughing now?!?

 

SUPERBOWL ALL THE WAY BABY!!!