Hmm

Well, I haven't posted in a while now, but nobody has exactly been clamoring for me to too...

So made the move up to Missouri, and in doing so I successfully powerslid a uhaul around a corner (the stig would be proud).

Since being here I have (i think) helped tons around the house (i live with my parents...again), but I (with help) cleaned and organized the house; changed the faulty plumbing; cleaned and organized the garages (that one without help) and other various stuff.

I did finally get my massage license for missouri, so now I just have to get a car and a building.

Boringest blog post ever.

Seattle

It's not an obscure quote, but oh well. It has been said in film and song thus staying with my quote motif.

This past week I and nearly all of my siblings met up at my illustrious brother Michael's house in Seattle. Good times were had. Without going into too many of the details I'll give a rundown (run-on?) of the festivities.

The first day we were there I went out with my dad and James to pick blackberries. Apparently these humongous bushes grow wild all throughout Seattle. It also became apparent that my choice of flip-flops was poorly thought out. Yes I knew the bushes were thorny, however I did not know that there would be piles of dead thorny bramble all over the ground. After several minor lacerations and one slip of the foot earning a prick to the bottom of the arch I magnanimously decided that I would hold the bag so as to allow my brother and father to worm their way into the bushes easier. They would stick an arm out from these treacherous bushes of despair and drop their prized berries into my bag before rummaging deeper into the thorny abyss. After an anecdote about picking berries with his mother until he had to inform her it was time to stop I gigglingly (new word, it's gonna be a thing, and why the crap does spell check accept 'gonna' as legitimate? I digress) said 'Dad it's time to go'. And wonder of wonders we went!

Mmm blackberries, as syrup or in oatmeal they were exquisite. After breakfasting on various all natural thingies we decided that we would take a drive up to Hurricane Ridge (magnificent view) and continue on to the Hoh Rainforest. As I stated before (but feel it deserved a second mention) the view from Hurricane Ridge was tremendous.

We could see Canada (not the tremendous part of the view) and a range of glacier covered mountains. Took a walk around the crest and saw some amazing vistas, and a bunch of deer that were rather nonchalant about us two legged types being around.

Back into the cars we go and off to the Hoh rain-forest. We had to pass through Forks to get there and let me tell you "Twilight" has either destroyed or invigorated that town depending on your viewpoint. Mine is the former. Everything was labeled 'twilight this' or 'twilight that'. 'Bella eats here' proclaimed local establishments, there were other more mundane items such as 'twilight firewood'. Really? I ask you.

Moving on, it was quite a drive to the rain-forest, but well well worth it. The smell alone was incredible. I saw the largest trees I have ever seen, amazing fern like foliage, mosses of many variety, I even heard an elk bugle. We decided to walk down one of the trails (which was quite a bit longer than anticipated) and it quickly grew dark. Luckily I pulled out my iPhone which has a flashlight (yes there's an app for that) and made my way merrily on. I could happily go back and spend days in the forest. we got back to the cars at around 8:00ish and had to race back to the other side of the state to catch the last ferry home at 12:05. We made it, but that ferry only operates on the weekends, so we had to rush down to the south part of the island peninsula to get the actual last ferry at 1. after landfall we made it home at somewhere in the vicinity of 2 AM and blissfully tumbled into bed. BTW, I have absolutely no cushion on my bum, and sitting that long was quite uncomfortable, but totally worth it.

The next day (Friday) we packed up the cars again and drove up to Oak Harbor to see my Grandpa. I haven't been to his house in 25 years but the floor plan was just how I remembered it; (that semicolon [also I have a friend nicknamed Semi Colon due to an unfortunate blood clot {I digress}] is for you Rebecca Maas Blevins) hurray for geeking out about little things like floor plans. We bought KFC for lunch and Grandma Ruth showed up with some Albertsons deli chicken so there was plenty of fowl food to go around (I like puns, don't judge). After/during lunch my brothers and I made free of the fallen apples in Grandpa's backyard and played monkey in the middle. Many lost and splattered apples later we were done and juicy and somewhat sweet smelling. James exploded a thrown apple against the heel of his palm. It looked sweet (ba dum ching). BACK ON THE ROAD!! We drove over deception pass (gorgeous) and stopped at a roadside/beachside park and threw a baseball around/played on the beach/ used some seaweed as a whip (it was surprisingly flexible [I contend it should be 'flexable', makes more sense to me] and strong)/ laughed at Stephen who chose the frigid ocean of Washington to be his first oceanic swimming experience/ skipped stones/ had a jolly good time before driving the couple hours back to Seattle.

By the way, I love Seattle. I thought the city was quite lovely. The skyline was pleasant, there were trees and bushes and coast. Very nice.

Saturday we went to the beach and had family pictures taken and played frisbee on the sand. So much fun. My family basically rocks. For lunch after a touch of confusion we went to a place on the pier that sold fish and chips (and clams/oysters/other stuff). After eating my fish and some of my chips with relish (the noun, not the sauce) I went and fed the rest of my chips (fries) to the seagulls. My siblings and/or I would hold one (chip/fry, not seagull) in the air and the seagull/s would fly down and take them from our fingers. AWESOME. I'm an animal nut, again, don't judge.

Sunday was church and then going to watch the locks between the ocean and the lake. Fun, geeked out again, saw salmon in the salmon ladder, watched boats use the locks, hung with family, saw one of my nerf-esque balls get thrown into the ocean, (I was sick of slashes, thus the commas) (still love the parenthesis though), and rolled down a hill that was faster than it appeared. Good times.

Monday the Parents and younger siblings went home. Boo hiss. Oh well, I'll be in Missouri with them in a week... I don't remember what else we did monday...Except we ate at an establishment called the crab pot which was immensely gratifying. The waitress gave us bibs and covered our table with butcher paper then dumped a pot of crab and shrimp and oysters and mussels and clams on our table. I want these people to do this at my house at least weekly.

The rest of Monday and Tuesday consisted of playing board/card games and enjoying each others company. Aside from a small trip to the park where we all got very dizzy by spinning repeatedly on playground equipment not intended for adults. Too Much Fun.

All in all the trip was exactly what I needed. I was happy, I laughed, I saw siblings, and I didn't wet my pants once...(well... maybe a little, those spinny things were fast!)

BooHoo Boone

Got up in church today for the first time in a long time. I don't generally like doing it, because while I have a super strong testimony and all that I just tend to tear up and get facial twitches when I'm talking. How I made it through my mission I have no idea lol.

Anyway, during my testimony I guess I talked about my mission because after the meetings a little lady came up to talk to me and told me she was from the Philippines. So I spoke with her in Tagalog for awhile, which was fun as I love using my language skills, and she said had she known about my mission before she would have cooked me all sorts of Filipino food.

Well dang it, I should have got up a year ago when I first moved here!

So further updates. James and I have decided that we will be moving into Chillicothe rather that Hamilton or some other place in north Missouri. I'm excited for that. WOOT.

42

You had to know it was only a matter of time before I used that as a blog title right?

So answers that have come up recently:

in September I am moving to Missouri

I found an amazing girl and started to date her, but due to moving it isn't meant to be

I started losing weight again

I was finally able to ride my motorcycle (though it still has issues).

Yea! shortest Blog ever.

Nothing Whatever?

Yeah, so I haven't blogged lately because there has been nothing to blog about. Still don't know about the whole moving situation; Work is still suckily slow; Seem to have plateaued on my weight loss. Yeah, you get the picture.
I guess something new is that now on top of being a cub scout leader I am also a primary teacher over the 7-8 year olds. I must say that sitting through primary is a lot nicer than sitting through sunday school and elder's quorum.
So, that's about all I got. Hopefully some new exciting development will happen for me to write about. But for now I am out.

Fish, Fish, FIIISH

This past week I had the glorious opportunity to go to Day Camp with my Cub Scouts. It was 3 days of hot muggy fun with 7 rambunctious excited runabouts under foot. Fun, really. They loved the fishing (thus the title) and would excitedly show me the little perch and everything they caught. I of course had to take them off the hook and re-bait the hook with a worm. My hands smelled of fish and worm guts all week.

There were other fun activities including archery (really thought a boy was gonna get shot there); BB shooting; Astronomy: Science; Tennis; Ultimate Frisbee; Maps; Rocketry; Swimming; and something else that I forgot. Anyway, I am all sunburned and tired and muscularly sore, but it was great. And my cubs had fun. Success :)

badoomba Jitterbug

That tune had been going through my head for weeks because we replaced 'jitterbug' with 'schlitterbahn' in anticipation of the trip we took last week to the aforementioned 'schlitterbahn' which is a phenomenal waterpark. Backing up...

James 3/7, 5/ 12 had vacation time accrued at work and had to take it, John's brother Shane was coming into town. So naturally Hagen and I took time off of work to be able to take the week and just go have some fun :)

Tuesday we all got up early and packed and left the house at about 8:30 in order to get to schlitterbahn as close to opening time as possible. We got there just after 10 (it's in San Antonio, and opens at 10) and in we went. 9 1/2 hours and a lobsteresque sunburn later we exited the park grinning ear to ear.

The place is huge! tons and tons of different tube chutes, tube slides, water slides, speed slides, lazy rivers. Good times. I'll highlight a couple of them I suppose. Firstly the lines were not bad at all, the longest we had to wait was about 20 minutes. generally we would get off a ride and if we liked it we were able to get right back on. The speed slides and one tube ride we rode 5 or 6 times straight this way. Fantastic :)

Perhaps most fun was a combination lazy river and wave pool. The wavy river as I call it is just a big circle, but it was a wave generator so every x-seconds an 8-10 foot wave would race around the pool. As we were in tubes we thought this sounded like an excellent opportunity to jump into the wave in order to get as much height as we could and then drop on the people below us. Bahaha, went around the river doing that for a long time. Most excellent. There's nothing quite as fun as slamming down onto each other and unsuspecting people that way. Hey, it was in water, no one got hurt.

Unfortunately we only had one hotel room between 5 guys and three of us snore. One of the fellows snores ridiculously loud. First nights sleep was not good. At all. But on wednesday we went to some fun places, we ate at a hole in the wall puerto rican restaurant that was quite good. Then we went to 'the snake farm'. It was featured on an episode of dirty jobs, so I was geeked about that, and I was in a room full of snakes and various other animals. They also had an outdoors area with crocodiles, pens of parrots, a cassowary, lemurs, other animals, and a petting zoo with baby goats, pot bellied pigs, and an evil freaky alpaca. none of us petted the alpaca. We tried, but we'd raise a hand and it's head would come up, it's ears flicked forward, nostrils flared all the while fixing us wit ha fiery evil eye scarier than the depths of Hell itself. Shudder, maybe it was just anticipating and relishing the thought of being touched, but i didn't want to put it to the test.

Also we all went and bought earplugs. I should buy stock in that company, 2nd nights sleep was fantastic!

On wednesday Hagen John and Shane decided to go home right after checking out of the hotel. James and I however went to Six Flags because more flags, more fun (don't i get money for plugging things like that?) And I think we made the right choice. The lines were even shorter than Schlitterbahn. This was due to the fact that school wasn't out everywhere and it was overcast. But it was great, I hadn't been on a rollercoaster in about 16 years, and it was totally worth the wait. we rode all the coasters 2 or 3 times. The rattler was named that, I think, because it rattles and jolts about, but that is expected from a wooden coaster. I screamed on it and had a bug hit my tooth at 60 miles an hour exploding against my tooth and promptly getting swallowed :/ it was oddly sweet. Our other favorite coaster didn't have a long climb before a drop, rather in had a linear accelerator network, basically a series of powerful electromagnets that fire the train out of the station going from 0-60 in about a second. Other than the station there were no straight sections on the track, for the next 30 seconds it's all loops, rolls, and twists. Good fun. Good Good fun.

Got home thursday afternoon and friday was back to reality, but it was a much needed and much appreciated break :)

Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!

On Tuesday I had the opportunity to finally go down and take pictures of the old spanish missions in San Antonio. I haven't taken the time to just go out and take pictures in many years even though that used to be my chosen career path. I got burned out on it due to the nausea inducing experience of taking nothing but engagement pictures in Utah. I am not a fan of pda. I realize you're in love and sexually repressed young Mormons, but really, save it for somewhere private.

Okay ranting aside, it was really soothing and relaxing to go shoot these missions. There was also a really cool austere feeling to the buildings. I had to stop and think about how hard it would be to be a monk/missionary/priest/nun in a hostile untamed environment. having been a missionary I was awestruck by how hard the mission of these Spanish expansionaries must have been.

Okay reverential feelings aside here are a few of my favorite pictures that I took.

Moorv.

Props to anyone who gets that random reference.

So I did buy a bike. Not from the cartel. My roommate John randomly ran into this redneck who had a '78 Yamaha xs1100 that had been sitting inoperable for about 7 years. This is the exact same bike that John has so he knows all about how to fix it. So 450 dollars later it belongs to me.

We pulled it home and for the last several days I have been working on the bike under John's direction. We pulled out the carburetors and airbox and took them apart, cleaned them, replaced some faulty parts put them back together and back into the bike. We replaced all the hoses and filters and fired it up. IT LIVES!! And it sounds great.

Today I spent almost the entire day sanding the rust off of the headers and mufflers. They were quite rusted and pitted, but hours of sanding later they are ready to be painted black and reinstalled. I'll do that Monday. Also on Monday I'm going to detail clean the engine and paint it as well while John takes apart and cleans the brakes.

Funny part is that the redneck said the bike didn't run. Silly man had the fuel lines and vacuum lines reversed. Oh well, cheap transportation for me :)

I like it here in America.

Last night I accompanied my roommates John and Hagen to Austin to look at a motorcycle we were thinking about working on as a project bike. The following is our story:

We set off at around 6 o'clock in the evening to go see this bike, putting the address into the handy dandy Google Maps so we'd be sure to have no problems finding the right place.

Google led us around all reputable parts of Austin and then right into the armpit. In. To. The. Armpit. We passed block after block of shabby yards in front of broken down houses as we wound our way deeper into what seemed a lugubrious warren of broken dreams. I speak of course about Little Mexico. Shoddy yards, shabby houses, souped up cars in garish colors and outrageous rims parked in front of every fifth or sixth house, low riders filling the driveways in between. Brown children played soccer in the streets while older siblings and cousins sat around the yards watching out. Watching out for what became evident later.

As we made our way through the maze of disconsolates I noticed, amidst the scattered detritus, several other motorcycles that were either being used for parts or had been wantonly and haphazardly stolen from. Later on the latter became the evident truth.

We pull up to our destination and I note that it is comparatively a nice house; set back from the road, large size, well kempt and newly sodded yard, ubiquitous flashy car.

We Parked across the road and walked up the respectable, yet not overly long, driveway and rapped on the door. Nothing happens except a hurried yet subdued sound of people shuffling about. I look around a bit and notice a window on the upper floor overlooking the front porch is open. John glimpses and whispers 'there are cameras in the corners.' A quick glance shows that indeed there are security cameras overlooking the front of the and sides of the house. Were there more? I can't say, but at this point my hackles raised and I started to get a lot more scared. After a minute or two a woman pokes her head out an upper door and inquired as to how she could help us. John stated we were there about a motorcycle and she disappears back into the house.

Several moments after that a rather large and shirtless Hispanic man with a name tattooed across his chest and a skull with roses tatted on his hand comes out the door as seemingly out of nowhere 4 more hombres saunter up to the house, give as a look over, and go inside. He asks if we're the guys from Marble Falls, and upon our confirmation of this opens the garage and produces the bike. He informs us that it had been stolen and stripped for parts. Several previous images begin to make sense. The bike is missing the tank and much of the body, but still starts up. The forks are bent and the wiring to the lights has been cut. It's obviously been laid on it's side at least once though he says it wasn't wrecked. He tries to push a sale by mentioning several other people are coming over with money for it.

After politely stating we'll let him know what we decide we walk nonchalantly albeit apprehensively back to our car where we note that there are already several young Hispanics looking it over. I should state here that John drives a '98 Cadillac. As we near the car the young men saunter next door to where their father/uncle/cousin is and start talking lowly to him. We drive off with no further adieu, not interested to stay around this uncomfortable establishment. We casually meander back through the neighborhoods and finally out onto the open road where we release a collective sigh of relief and some nervous laughter.

Teasingly we jibe each other about how scared we actually were yet wouldn't give face too and after several miles of nerve relieving road are behind us we decide that as we are in Austin we should stop and eat and not make a total waste of a trip.

Once we were securely inside the brightly lit and comfortably located Buffalo Wild Wings the last vestiges of apprehension fall off our shoulders and our conversation turns to other topics while we enjoyed our mango lemonades and medley of wings. All is right in the world.

Everybody's working for the weekend.

During the week I'm lucky to have one or two appointments as of late, however this past friday and saturday I had 6 and 8 appointments respectively. That's awesome at 40 bucks an appointment. HOWEVER with my back hurt and having spasms it was pretty horrible.

I shouldn't complain, I have the money to pay my phone and rent now. I just want a new back.

Thank you so bloody much!

Who says the universe doesn't have a sense of humor. I got over the gout about 4 days ago, and then yesterday I destroyed my back. It's kind of a funny story though...

I had a client I was doing a deep tissue massage on and (not too uncommon like) he fell asleep. At the spa I work at we drape the feet with hot towels when we're done massaging them because a) it feels good, and b) it cleans the oil/cream/ lotion off of their feet so they don't slip slide around in their sandals.

So I drape his foot in the hot towel and startle him into awakeness and cause his leg to kick out at me. So as not to get kicked in the face I turned and jumped out of the way tweaking several vertebra in my lower back in the process.

Knowing as I do all the muscles and bones in the body and their interactions with one another; I could tell by my posture, the way I felt, and limitations on my movement exactly what happened and what needed to be done to fix it. My thoracolumbar hinge (t-11 through l-2) was misaligned from the rest of my back and twisted to the left. Being a massage therapist, having been in school for physical therapy, and knowing several chiropractors I knew that I had to get the erector muscles to relax and needed the 3 vertebra put back into proper alignment. HOWEVER, I couldn't just go do that because as it happened at work I had to go to the workers comp doctor and get his diagnosis. Apparently self diagnosing is a no no even if you have a ridiculous knowledge base.

So I go to the minor emergency center and have to sit in a hard chair in the waiting room for an hour. Not great seeing as how I couldn't twist at all and my left shoulder was being pulled by those erectors downward towards my hip. So I couldn't shift positions at all, and any motion whatsoever caused pain to shoot up and down my spine. Finally I go in to see a nurse who takes my temperature and blood pressure then takes me to a treatment room. Total time with nurse - 5 minutes and 27 seconds. There's a stopwatch function on my stopwatch, I was bored/curious (quite different from bi/curious thank you). I wated quite uncomfortably in the treatment room under the assurance that "the doctor will be in in a minute". The treatment room for the record had miniature furniture and pictures from Disney animated features on the wall. Not a good room for a 6'5" patient if you ask me.

Exactly 1 hour, 2 minutes, and 37 seconds later (there's an app for that) the doctor comes in. He asks me whats wrong and I tell him how this happened and then state "I have no problems with lateral flexion of the spine but any flexion, extension or twisting causes pain originating in my thoracolumbar hinge to shoot up into my cervicals". He blinked at me a few times and asks if I have pain shooting down my leg. I know that he's asking about sciatica type pain (stupid as the sciatic nerve outlets from l-4 [sometimes, not often, as high as l-3] through s-3) and tell him that no my pelvis and legs don't have any pain at all.

Apparently this answer doesn't satisfy him because he next did reflex tests and resistance tests on my legs and feet to see if they are affected. They're not, like I just informed him. I then point out that my shoulder is being pulled down meaning the erectors have seized on my left hand side, further meaning that there must be a spinal problem the muscles are protecting there. He blinks at me again. He then tells me that all he can do is give me some muscle relaxers and pain meds to ease my discomfort and suggests I go to 6 weeks of physical therapy and come back to see if I have made any progress. I ask if he would recommend seeing a chiropractor. He tells me that workers comp won't cover it. I inform him that workers comp will cover it if he recommends/prescribes it. He blinks AGAIN! "well, I don't think they can help you, I really think you need a regimen of physical therapy."

Annoying stupid uneducated man. I tell him I was in school for physical therapy and know exactly what they will have me do then I ask if I can just do that at home on my own. He thinks this a spiffing idea and gives his approval. He wrote me my prescription and left. Time with doctor: 9 minutes and 17 seconds. I have now been at the emergency roomy thingy for 2 and a half hours and spent nearly 15 minutes with the staff.

I went to walmart and got my pills because I had to be able to work today and would not have been able to do that without the drugs.

On monday I am going to go see a chiropractor and pay him out of my own pocket rather than do 6 weeks of physical therapy. On tuesday I will be 100% better. Stupid western medicine and idiotic worthless physicians.

I only use my power for good. Or for awesome.

I have recently become den leader for the cub scout pack in my ward. I've only been there a few times so far, but it's fun. THe question is do I use my powers for good? Or for evil...

Meh, probably for good. I like to think diabolically, but seldom follow through. Last week was fun though, I was teaching the cubbies how to use tools. Hilarious. Watching a diminutive human holding a hammer in both hands trying to hit a nail while poking his tongue out the side of his mouth is, as alluded to, hilarious.

Not too sure yet what we'll be doing in weeks to come, but I've got some fun ideas I'll probably talk about on here. Tonight we're doing physical fitness stuff. This might be because I want to see little domes smack into the floor with the sound of so many coconuts, or it might be because its an easy achievement to check off in the book and I really want my little cubbies to do well. You decide.

First you pick it up, put it in the bag.

I'm a slob. No idea why. My house is a mess, and while it sometimes frustrates me to the point that I deep clean everything, I usually just sit apathetically in my slovenly surroundings. My clothes are all over the floor in my room in a clean pile and a dirty heap.
I only mention this because in every other aspect I am obsessed with order. My work space is immaculate. I can't play cards without wanting to straighten the piles. It's a really odd double standardy thingy I have going on.
Anyway, this has been my musing of the night as I sat here counting socks and tupperware stuffed under the coffee table and I have come to this conclusion. I need a neatknick roommate. I am a tremendous cook and all sorts of fun as a person. So, I will feed and entertain you if you clean and do laundry. Deal?

Ol' George has the gout, I see.

Please somebody know that reference.

So, after doing well on my diet and walking for exercise, the ironically sense of humored universe kicked me in the butt with a bout of gout.

If you don't know what that is let me enlighten you. Gout is caused by the kidney being unable to process the protein strains of red meats and shellfish and so depositing crystallized uric acid in the joints of the foot. For me it starts as a sharp ache in the big toe and then moves into the ankle causing swelling and a constant sharp pain. Any motion increases the pain a hundredfold. I can't put any weight on the foot, and there's really nothing that I can do to alleviate it.

Luckily this time I had some pain killers that I popped like candy and I was able to hobble about that way. The gout is waning now, so in a few days I should be back to normal and back on my routine. I haven't weighed myself in the week and a half this has been going on because I don't want to be disappointed in what the scale will say. Anywho, once I'm back able to exercise and diet again I'll be back on the weight loss wagon.

Harry! You have a gun!

Recently my best friend announced his wife was pregnant. I told him if it was a girl then I would buy her a pink .22 not thinking that were was such a thing but determined to find one nonetheless. Well, today, I found one! A cute little pink .22 made specifically for children.

So I bought it. I don't know if this is everywhere or just at Wal-Mart, but it's a long process to buy a kids gun. I filled out a form with full name (NO INITIALS), my current address, my criminal background (seriously, who is gonna click 'yes' on 'are you a fugitive from justice'), my place of birth (city and state gets complicated to the employee when told I was born in England. Hilarious), and my SSN for proof of citizenship.

Anyway I fill out the form and the employee goes to verify my info with my license. "Your address doesn't match your license on the form." 'It asked for my current address, not the address my license was issued to.' " Well, They have to match or I can't sell it. You'll have to go get your address changed on your license." 'Can I just change my address on the form so I don't have to spend 30 bucks?' "Uh..." 'You don't ship it or anything, it just has to match yeah?" "Yeah..." 'K, give here I'll fix it.' A few minutes later, "Uh, I don't think England is a state...is it?" 'No. But I was born there.' "I can't sell a gun to immigrants without a green card." 'I'm an American citizen buddy' (reference anyone). "Oh, uh, you have your Social on here?" 'Yes, that's the 9 digit number in the next box.' "Oh yeah, I see now. Alright, I have to call a manager to verify all this and walk you out."

SO the manager comes over takes 30 seconds, the salesman took 45 minutes, and went to walk out with the gun. I had to let him know I wasn't done shopping yet so he put the gun back in the lock up and told me to call him when I was ready. 10 minutes later after completing my shopping I went back to get it. The manager then walked me out to the front of the building and handed me the gun. I asked what the point was and he told me that it was a measure to make sure some wacko doesn't just buy a gun and shoot up the place. I then informed him that as I was 5 feet in front of the building I could still turn around and shoot up the place if I wanted. He looked a little awkward and foolish and bid me a good day.

So anyway, Now I kept my word to Jon and had an awesome adventure for all around a hundred dollars. Yea for Wally.

When in the course of human events

Speaking of human events, I have recently decided that it's time to be a responsible adult. Too long have I floated by paycheck to paycheck. I frivolously spend money on unimportant things. I eat out all the time and blow money there. Anyway step one of my being an adult is to be more money better. So rather than buy animals and toys I'm starting to pay back money to people that I owe money to. Then I get to pay student loans. Joy. I had an ironic experience today involving my new money smartness. Life is kinda humorous in a make you want to cry kind of way.

Step two is to take better care of myself. I have been working on losing weight, but I am doing better with my dental hygiene as well. I really don't know why I have any teeth at all, or why I don't have a dozen cavities because it the not so distant past I'd only brush my teeth once every couple of weeks or so. I know it's gross, but it's a boring chore and ever since I tore part of my upper gums off in a car crash it has been kind of painful. Whenever I was dating anyone I took real good care of my teeth. bahaha.

And the third step is to decide really where I want to be and what I want to be doing the rest of my life. So far I've come up with moving to (---) and going back to school to do physical therapy. I'll still be doing what I love, but I'll be more marketable and make more money. More money of course taking us back full triangle to where we started on this post.

Chester Chooses Chestnuts

I know Imma be leaving Texas at the end of the summer or thereabouts, the question is where. I have several places I've been thinking about that each have their own draws.

Utah has my nephews, friends, girls, and the possibility to go back to school to get a bigger degree and a higher paying job. I love doing massage, but it isn't proving to be that lucrative.

Missouri has most of my family either there or close unto and my childhood friends. I know I'd be happy there but jobs are not great paying. On the other hand life is cheaper there. I love Missouri, I really really do. It feels like home every time I'm there.

Islands, be it Hawaii or Cayman. I love the tropics, I love the plants and the ocean and sea life. I could be happy there, but I wouldn't have any of my family.

My last option is to just leave entirely and retire from humanity. By this I mean I'd disappear to the Philippines and write off the rest of my life and the States.

I haven't even thought more about it than what I've laid out above. I don't know what to think and which to think about. I am leaning really strong in one direction over the others, but there's a fairly close second in the mix. I don't know, I just don't know. I guess I need to find somewhere and somehow to be happy and financially stable...but where?

I am feeling fat...and sassy

If by now you haven't picked up on it each of my (all 4, i know, shut up) blog titles is a quote from something. Props to anyone who knows them. Carrying on...

For as long as I can remember I have been bigger than everyone, always chubby, always awkward. I was always uncomfortable around people because of my size, ridiculed by kids at school for being a 'fat-ass', called fat and worthless by people who mattered to me, so of course I saw myself as just that, fat. Fatty McFat Fat. That was my identity. I had and still somewhat have horrib;e self-esteem and bad body image issues. A few years ago I decided to just accept it and not care what people thought about me and just live. However there is still the part of my brain that sees someone looking at me and wonders if they're judging me because I'm large or silently laughing about my fairly large 'moobs'. I'm mostly over it, but every now and again fall into my insecurities.

Lately, last October(after having to spend extra on a scale that would show me anything but an 'E') I discovered that I weighed 372 pounds. !. !!. So I decided that rather than just accept it I was going to have to do something about it. People tell me I don't look like I weigh that much and I carry it well. I am also rather active and athletic for my size when i decide to be. But I can definitely feel it. Less energy, effort to do simple things, knees flipping me off etc. Anyway, I decided to do something about it. I'm not doing as much as I could or should, but I am making progress. I switched up the way that I eat, no more fast food or ordering pizza. No more sugars, pop, etc. I'm trying to make an effort to work out somewhat be it go for a walk or lift simple weights. And so far I am doing well. As of today I am at 340, the lightest I've been in about 6 years. My goal is to get down below 300 by the end of the summer and ultimately hit around 250. It's gonna be a long road, and I think it'd be a lot easier if I had a work out buddy, but I'm gonna press on anyway and see what I can do :)

This is...Perplexing

My roommate turned 30 yesterday, in 7 months I'll be 30. What the crap? When did I get old enough to even consider the concept of turning 30? What have I done in those 30 years? It really seems like a whole lot of nothing. After my mission i just kind of went on auto pilot. I guess I so often as a kid that I should serve a mission that that became the only focus I had in life. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely loved my mission and would do it again if able, but I have no direction now. Perhaps kids should be grilled about going to school etc after their mission. Okay, I went to school...So maybe kids should be grilled about FINISHING school... Which brings up the question when the frik am I gonna finish school? What do I want to be when I grow up (which apparently I have aged to the point where I am considered a grown up)? Thus the title of this post.

Uh huh! Uh huh!

I've had several people ask me about why I have tattoos and what they symbolize to me. I'm not certain that I'm ready to talk about the symbolism of all of them yet, but there are a few that have meaning but not deep meaning to me that I feel okay to talk about. Firstly many of them, but not all, I got because I was dealing with emotional pain of one kind or another that I couldn't deal with, and I found that if I could translate that emotional pain into physical pain I could much easier get over it and be done with it. It isn't a perfect system, but it worked for me and now that emotional trauma is forgotten. That said none of my ink was just a willy-nilly "ooh I want something tribal and trendy" like so many people out there get. All of them were well thought out and decided upon months and years before I got them. Most are also nerdy to one degree or another; Star Wars symbols, Lord of the Rings things, Wheel of Time things, Hitchhikers Guide... you get the idea. They remind me of things that I love and that are important to me. I find that due to a few causes my memory is fading and falling apart, so i have these 'strings around my finger' to remind me. Oh how I prattle and ramble on. The flowers on my shoulder all symbolize the places I've been and how those places and people there have shaped my life, I won't run them all down, but they're all a flower that symbolizes that country to me; the hibiscus for the Philippines, the peony for Japan etc. If you'd like to know any more about them please ask and I will explain in an email more about them. There is one flower on my shoulder that is extremely special to me and is the sole exception to the 'places' rule. It's a yellow rose with the word 'end' hidden in the leaf. The rose is the birth flower for the month of June when Enoch (my youngest brother) was born, his initials are END, and yellow is my favorite color and the color associated with fun. I got this not long after Enoch passed away and it is the most important think I think that i have ever spent money on. I have a Far Side cartoon on my back which has always been my favorite cartoon and simply reminds me to laugh, life is a gas (the 'hitchhikers guide piece reminds me of much the same thing). There were a few years that I was completely miserable and lost sight of that. The others on my back are the Star Wars symbols and the battle standard of Muad 'dib. I may be able to talk about those later. The Filipino writing on my side translates to 'beauty' 'power' and 'love'. Three things that I learned that I have and should share. More info on that if you desire. I have Lord of the rings on my arm. Superficially it symbolizes goods triumph over evil, there's more personal meaning to it, but I won't share. On my leg I have a phrase from 'the Wheel of Time' that means 'it's time to toss the dice'. It's supposed to tell me that I don't have to be so anal about thinking about everything so thoroughly, it[s okay to just 'roll the dice' and play them how they land. It's still a work in progress to apply that to my life... Carpe Diem is on my ankle as well as the number of the impact training I went to. More on that by request. On my other leg I have Link from the 'Legend of Zelda'. This is another one with a few meanings to me; 1)perseverance and endurance through difficulty, 2) simple happiness from playing like a kid and 3)... Finally on my chest I have an unfinished piece based on the wheel of time. This piece I won't talk about for now. So these are my pieces and some of what they mean. They (mostly) each have an emotional episode that drove me to get them, if one of those involved you I may tell you about it, or I may not, but I've moved on and any petty stupid things like that have long since been forgiven.

Respectobiggle

The reason that i haven't really done anything with this blog is firstly that my typing skills are poor and secondly that i didn't know where to start. Frak the first, and as for the second i'll just start now and go wherever my meandering mind takes me.

So the primary point i have to make here is that i have 11 amazing siblings that are all in my top ten favorite people. before yuo complain that i have 11 people in my top ten take a second to think about how absurd it is that james bond was voted the 'best trilogy' last year. yeah, now 11/10 doesn't look so bad eh?

Anyway to each and every one of my siblings: you all amaze me, you're all awesome, i love you all more than pizza. keep in mind that i rea-ea-eally love pizza.

Anywho, i got to visit two of my sisters in Utah this past week. 2 and 4 as it were. I had way too much fun. I kinda met 4s bf, and got to play with 2s little boys. they wore me out lol. such cute kids. (mary is 2, Rachel is 4)

on my way back from said trip i almost shut the airport down with a bag of salt in my backpack. it was awesome. they thought that it was some sort of ...thing... i guess.

Back to my sibs; i talk to s1 on the phone all the time and live with b2. Love it. s1 is super hilarious and fun to talk to, and i wish i was as good a kid as b2, i'm glad he's here with me. were he not then this place would be intolerable. i havent seen b1 in too long, he also has a couple darling boys. b3 i talk to probably weekly, but it seems that i don't have as much in common with him as the others. b4 is on a mission for another almost 2 years, i email when i think about it. s3 is my dear my darling one, she's the sweetest girl i know, and believe me when i say i know a lot of girls :P b5 just got his permit to drive, i fear now. b6 is in my heart always and memorialized on my arm, we had him longer than many doctors thought we would, but it wasn't near long enough. and finally there is s5. she's pure awesome, time will tell how she turns out, but i absolutely love her. weird to me that she'll be 11 this year. way too smurfing weird.

in a nutcase, i suppose this blog will be whatever the phelps comes to mind at any given time. it may not be coherent or cohesive, or any other label, but it'll be interesting :)

Word em up

Coming soon, the launch of this blog. I can't promise it will be thrilling, and i don't know how often it will be updated, but imma give it a go. nanu nanu