Amazing. Went to the dentist yesterday and discovered that I actually hadn't been there since 2005. I guess time flies when you're in law school. I got a good cleaning and discovered that the two cavities that they'd found back then had not, as I'd hoped, disappeared, but had remained, one even growing a little larger.
So that's that. I'm going west young man in a few weeks so I figured I'd better nip this in the bud before I get out there and have to get an emergency root canal laying in two feet of snow courtesy of the Breckenridge ski patrol.
(Ok, so that probably wouldn't happen. But better safe than sorry.)
... that's not the only tuning up I've got to accomplish before the blue Jeep makes (pleasepleaseplease hopefully) it's last cross-midwest trip for a long, long, long time. Honestly man if I never drive across Kansas again it'll be too soon. This is the only cool thing about that drive, and if you've seen it once, well, that's enough.
Windmills real big. So, in addition to my mouf, I've gotta get the old laptop fixed, if at all possible, because it's got my music, my pics, my LAW SCHOOL NOTES...
Also, new tires. I had to sign a waiver just to leave the Walmart in Lakewood because the tread on the front two was so low. Since then I've already driven around 4,000 miles. Ugh. Poor old Jeep.
So the funny part, as has been addressed in any number of cartoon strips, sitcoms, or movies... was the Novocaine. The two cavities were next together (so apparently I am missing that section of da mouf when brushing. Note to self) so I only had one half of my face shut down.
Now, I know I probably sounded hilarious ordering "Thome thoft tacoth and thome nachoth supremeth", but that is nothing on how ridiculous I must have looked eating them, dribbling hot sauce and Dr. Pepper all over myself. Certainly there would have been more logical selection lunch-wise, but I wanted tacos.
What can ya do.
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I totally want to tell funny tales and whatnot, but it's been a relatively mild time back in Chattanooga, with the exception of silly margarita football day on Saturday, which led to beer pong extravaganza.
Last week I did a lot of fishing with my dad, as he was squeezing as much boat time as possible out of these last few weeks. Want to see? I promise I caught bigger fish, but I actually only remembered to take a picture of this one....
Loch Ness monster, right?
In most other aspects, life is good. I've got a couple of job leads that I'm following like a bloodhound in Denver, and I'm getting somewhere on that bar application....which is a BEAST. My old house in New Mexico didn't even HAVE a street address. I'm not kidding. No mailbox, so no numbers on that, and certainly no numbers on the house itself. We just walked to the post office and they glanced, recognized us, and handed us our mail without words. Our address was "General Delivery, Arroyo Seco, NM, 87514". No joke. And on this application I've got to put all my places of residence for the past ten years. No easy task when you bounce around like I've apparently been doing.
You know I loved it. I plan to bounce a bit more, in fact.
Life is an adventure. It's a big world out there and why on earth would I settle for sitting on the couch when there are places like Taos, New Mexico, out there? Places with a storyline more screwed up than any episode of LOST and with funnier one-liners than any sitcom. And these shows are for real. I'm only 26 and I think I'm just kicking it into third gear. The best and most amazing adventures must be ahead, because I'm getting giddy just imagining what the future could hold. It's a ride, man. A terrifying, exhilarating, harrowing, tear-jerking, laugh-out-loud romp and we're the ensemble cast.
Rock and roll. In other news, guess who's on the cover of SI this week.... Hmmmm...
The Rebs finally got it all together and played like we all just knew they could, somehow. I'm thinking that Nutt finally decided to let Kent Austin call the plays. I love me some Houston Nutt, but yesterday the team actually showed some sort of gameplan, like a real strategy to win a game. The amazing Landshark defense shut down Ryan Mallett, and Dexter McCluster once again showed why our team's motto is unofficially "Live by the Dex, die by the Dex," as some poster on the NAFOOM board so perfectly put it last year. He's the man.
I was buying football supplies (Yuengling) right at kickoff and I walked in Billy's house just in time to see the first of many replays of Jevan hotfooting it into the endzone. Never saw that coming. Awesome.
The remainder of the afternoon was spent at Hooters (haha indeed) where pitchers of remarkably strong margaritas are $9.99 ALL DAY EVERY DAY which led to a table full of silly, disappointed Tennessee fans.
On that note, I hardly ever cheer for Tennessee over anyone, but they should have won that game. I talk a lot of crap about Lane Kiffin, but his team played balls to the wall yesterday. If they had a quarterback that Kiff had any confidence in, they would have won.
And then today, after a glorious and well-deserved nap, Drew Brees once again saved the day for my beloved Saints, who did NOT lose to the Dolphins (whew).
I've been trying, you know, really trying to get this blog up and going again for like the past three months. No joke. I honestly want to start writing again, because it's fun and amusing, at least to me.
What sucks is the older you get, the more responsibiltiy comes around, and that gives you less time for much more important things, like Mardi Gras, Blackout Thursdays, kissing pretty girls, and late night dance parties.
But I refuse to give those things up. I will never be too old for all four of those things.
You know what put me in this mood? An old friend and an old blog entry. My old buddy Michael got back on da Facebook and we messaged back and forth some silly things about the "good old days". Michael is now a police officer and (gulp) is engaged. The old idea that it's always the last people you'd expect that get engaged first is definitely ringing true here.
Anyway, we were reminiscing about an old Mardi Gras trip way back when, and I went back to my old blog to see if I could find the recap I remembered writing about that insane, amazing weekend. I did.
It inspired me. No Eeyore back then, at least not as much. The old blog entries were a lot of bitching, I won't lie. Law school, money, pretty much the same things that I didn't like mere months ago. But it was a younger, more fun, me. I have to go back.
Kate's an inspiration, too. Not LOST Kate, my Kate. Determined to find a happy place. Going to do what she loves. Taking action. I'm going to do that. No more stressing. No more meaningless feeling of inadequacy. Time to get laid-back. Time to be a (slightly) more responsible Brent five or six years ago, at least as far as tranquility levels. (Not sleeping under car, getting in trouble, making bad decisions Brent)
Remember this Brent? He was poor as hell, but wasn't whiny, at least.
Time to rock and roll, Serpientes style.
Along those lines, I'm applying for admission to the Colorado Bar, and I'm taking the BarBri prep course at DU, starting in December. I've applied to a million jobs in Denver, and if one of the "real" jobs doesn't come through, F it, I'll apply at Chili's. I love baby back ribs.
No more taking things so seriously. Lets do it. It all works out in the end.
Life's Lessons I've Learned so Far to Live By
1) Don't trust Argentinians.
2) Always say yes if there is any potential at all for silliness and/or adventure.
3) Support Ole Miss football blindly.
4) Wear silly sunglasses from time to time.
5) (a newer one) Have faith in, trust in, and do not try to force or obsess over things that come naturally, like friends, fun, and most importantly, love.
6) Never pass up a costume party.
7) Dance.
8) Stop whining. People have enough problems of their own without listening to yours. Don't whine, do something about it.
9) But don't be afraid to tell someone how you feel. The whole bottling up thing, not healthy.
It definitely made sense at the time. My GPA was too low to score an internship after that perilous first year of law school, plus I didn't really think I wanted to spend my summer being some lawyer's bitch in firm somewhere in Jackson or Memphis. I get coffee for myself and no one else, you know.
It was April and I was a little down on myself, with no internship and no real options, except return to the Oxford City Pool, which had lost a lot of its luster after my last summer there. Always a fun summer, but I knew that I'd pretty much done everything I could working there. Plus, I couldn't handle the thought of teaching swim lessons again. I hate teaching swimming lessons.
So a call came through on my cellphone when I was driving home to Chattanooga for a random weekend. From a nice young woman named Amber, from the Beau Rivage Casino in Biloxi. I'd totally forgotten that I'd even applied for a job there. But she was offering me an interview, and a possible job as a lifeguard for the summer.
My options, in my mental computer, totally changed. All of a sudden the summer had potential, and lots of it. I went down for an interview, and wrote this about that experience.
The summer was amazing. It opened my eyes to a totally different part of Mississippi: the part below I-10, that is nothing like the rest of the state, and nothing like the Louisiana or Alabama coastlines that it borders. It's a whole different little world down there, of Jimmy Buffett beach life and casinos. Late night gambling, early morning swims in the Gulf, and getting trashed on Red Stripe and booty-dancing with a party house full of Jamacians. (If you're me)
I traveled to New Orleans frequently, to visit Justin or hang out with Johnny and Nicole. We toured the Abita brewery, stayed up all night in the Quarter, or just floated around in Lake Pontchartrain, drinking beer and playing with the dogs.
Gambling. Crab legs. Sleeping in towel bins during my lunch break. Shooting Jager at the gay bar with my lesbian co-workers. Seeing Blue Mountain on their reunion tour on the Fourth of July.
A glorious summer in the only part of Mississippi I could live in longer than college. I dug it. Good decision.
4. Move to Taos, New Mexico to be a ski bum in between my first graduation and law school.
This one's pretty self-evident to anyone who's ever glanced at my blog. I had to have something to do, and after toying with moving back to Chattanooga, and maybe even moving to Galax or Charleston (I bet Kate didn't know that), I declared a huge "F it" and faxed off an application to the ski resort in the Southern Rockies.
I went out on a limb and asked another drunkard lifeguard to come with me. The one and only Ben Mize, of course. I didn't actually know him all that well at the time, but we all know he would come to be one of my closest friends. I just knew that he'd blown a huge "Morals and Ethics" scholarship on a 12-keg party at Saddle Creek, so I knew I liked his style.
To my surprise, he was totally down. He sent off his application, and after Mark told a Cheech-sounding guy named Ted that we were hard workers (good references are key), we were hired. It took almost no time at all before we'd rented a small adobe house in a village called Arroyo Seco, and even had power and gas. Incidentally, we were paying for all that in December, before the semester had even ended. Ben and I had a house in New Mexico with full utilities almost a full month before we ever set foot in it.
Long nights of drinking with Brazilians and doing snow angels outside of the Rathskeller. Amazingly perfect and beautiful days of sunshine and skiing in waist-deep powder in those pristine mountains. Slugging rum and eating hamburgers on the deck of the St. Bernard lodge. Drinking bottles of Yellow Tail like it was our job, while driving down the canyon to Espanola, hoping to hit it big at the roulette tables. Reclining in hot springs while it snowed. Convincing Elliott that a move was just what he needed. Or just watching Harry Potter during a blizzard, convinced that the floor was moving and that the magic scenes were brilliant.
It opened my eyes to the Wild wild west, which is still that way, after all these years. I got better at skiing and made a million new friends, from Ben to Yasmin to Fabio and the crew. It gave me an amazing breath of fresh Rocky Mountain air before I started the hellishly time consuming and boring life of a law student. Good decision.
3. Attend high school at The McCallie School, of Chattanooga.
I was at summer camp with the Boy Scouts when I heard the news. After dinner one night, my dad took me aside, saying he had something serious to talk about. I'd applied for McCallie pretty much at the whim of my parents. One of my mom's friends had been talking about the school, and how her son was applying, so we did the whole process and all the test-taking together.
I didn't think much about it after that. I'd just planned on going to McMinn County with the rest of my friends, which I believe would have put my life on a totally different course. But Dad told me that I'd been accepted to McCallie, even with a pretty sweet financial package. This was great news, he said, but there was a catch. The school had decided that a commute from Athens was too much, so if I were to attend, it would have to be as a boarding student.
This was an option that my parents had not even considered. In their eyes, I was still way too young, and they wanted more years with me in the house. It totally caught me off guard. My dad still isn't sure about this decision, because he thinks it gave me way too much of an independent streak. I personally like my independent streak...
But I decided to roll with it. McCallie seemed like a cool place. The campus was beautiful, the classes sounded challenging, and hell... there was a freakin Taco Bell in the Student Center. Sold!
It drastically changed the course of my life. My eyes were opened to the rest of the world. Through McCallie I discovered Alpine, and through Alpine, I discovered Ole Miss, which you will find later on this list. I met people who continue to be my best friends, and had a wonderful life as a boarding student, where I discovered Risk, hall Olympics, and vodka, eventually. (Thanks Elliott)
Backpacking trips and Dave Matthews concerts, jumping into the lake and earning a varsity M on the track team. Tequila night at Adam's house, and Papa Roach mosh pits in our apartment in Belk. Las Serpientes a la Nudia! Listening to "Under Pressure" in the Sillybus while cruising to the mall or Coolidge Park. Wearing leopard print pants and a UPS hat to football games. Going to lunch at GPS dressed in a schoolgirl outfit with Elliott and Gerry.
It was high school, and I loved it. Good decision.
2. Attend college at Ole Miss (for eight years...)
This was a big one and continues to this day.
I'd been pretty set on going to either UNC or Appalachian State. I applied to Ole Miss as a fallback school, having heard lots of good things from the counselors at Alpine. I honestly knew nothing about the school, or even Mississippi for that matter, except that there was rascism there. (Looking back, I feel stupid about that) But I applied to be in the band at Ole Miss at my dad's urging, knowing it would be a good scholarship opportunity. So we drove down to Oxford for a visit, and I was sold on day one. The campus was beautiful and the Square was picturesque. There was no Super Wal-Mart then, and Jackson Ave was rather desolate. The stadium had only three sides, with the new end zone just starting construction. A totally different place then, now that I look back on it. Not so many apartment complexes, very few condos. That all came later, in the years A.E. (after Eli).
I played a song called "Shiloh" for the assistant band director, who told me about the new band hall that was going to open that fall, and offered me a scholarship immediately. It wasn't because I'm good. I'm not. But the Ole Miss band needed numbers, and I was another sax. When I got back to Chattanooga, I tossed the financial aid stuff from App State in the trash, along with the scholarship package from Furman. I was going to Ole Miss.
I met, and continue to meet, people who are the most amazing people and best friends I can imagine. Lazy summers in apartment complex pools, wild Saturdays in the Grove. Boating around Sardis with Johnny Walker and a handle of rum, and Eli Manning throwing a perfect touchdown pass against the evil University of Alabama in a rare victory against the Tide. First Mondays at Penny Pitchers, and Friday night dance parties (with penny pitchers as well) in the back concrete room at the Sanctuary.
Granted, a few not-so-great decisions came from this choice: pledging a fraternity, drinking a liter of gin while playing Trivial Pursuit, and several poor relationship decisions... but the good massively outweighs the bad.
More good: Southwind Cove and Fillmore Ave. The Oxford City Pool and Swim Club. The Doorknob to the Universe (holla to Linds, who took me there for the first time). Taylor Grocery with a jug of wine and eleven best friends. Right field with Fighting Cock and a Jack Russell terrier named Austin. The Hobbit Hole. Two Stevenses eventually being drawn down here. Discovering the amazing city of New Orleans. Omega level and the Cobra. Oxford Place, where I was a golden god and a fire Mario "with a tail!" Mushroom Lake. Margarita Mondays and Sober Sundays.
I love it here, to this day. Good decision.
1. Kissing Kate Stevens by the Phi Mu fountain after the South Carolina game in 2003.
Go ahead and scoff, cynical blog readers. I'll stand by this one. Somehow after all the hells Kate and I put each other through in the years following this monumental moment, something stuck. It was a big moment to both of us, even if it took us several years to figure out what it meant.
The other decisions were well-thought out, and weighed pros, cons, and potential for fun. This one was impulsive, on a sunny day, and we'd both had a little to drink. But this decision is directly responsible for the state of ultimate contentedness that I'm living in right now, that I've never experienced before. I didn't know things like this happened.
Sometimes I can't believe I'm actually with her, sometimes it just seems too storybook, like a indie romance novel. Sometimes I feel like I'm way too boring to be with her because she's electric enough to light up a room or an entire week. She's the most fun person I've ever met, and is my partner in mischief. And when the shit hits the fan, there is no one I'd rather have in the trenches with me. But all the time, I love every part about her. Best part of my day and my better half (an expression I never understood until her).
.... but that's enough of me gushing. I know she'll like reading it, but the rest of you are probably rolling your eyes.
Long and short of it: I absolutely adore and love that girl. Great decision.
p.s. Yes, I know it's been a month since I wrote anything new. So?
Here's the Cardinals Show from 3/5/09, the night before we saw them. It's comparable (but not as cool because we weren't there) (Still good, though)
Here's the setlist - you can skip through the songs if you'd like:
01. Beautiful Sorta 02. Born Into a Light 03. Cold Roses 04. Come Pick Me Up 05. Everybody Knows 06. Wonderwall 07. Freeway to the Canyon * 08. Fix It 09. Grand Island * 10. Goodnight Rose 11. I See Monsters 12. Let It Ride 13. Lost Satellite * 14. Two 15. The Rescue Blues 16. Evening Joke with Jon Graboff 17. Rip Off 18. Sink Ships 19. When the Stars Go Blue 20. Magick ENCORE 21. Oh My Sweet Carolina 22. Easy Plateau > 23. Bartering Lines
I love that show. I really wanted to find a video of one of the Arrested Development "spring breaks", but to no avail.
Lazy, rainy morning in Chattanooga. I just had an egg sandwich, and I'm trying to get through the massive pile of laundry that accumulated in my closet for the past two weeks. Got to have some clean clothes for this amazing upcoming week.
This time last year was the St. Patrick's Day parade in New Orleans. On this specific Saturday, actually. One awesome time. I think both Justin and Johnny are marching this year, and I kind of wish I could have gone too, but the money just wasn't there (the story of my college career). It was an awesome time, and I'm glad I got to do it, if only once. Between the cabbages, the jello shots, and the flowers, it was just one awesome time.
I do love me some New Orleans.
To celebrate the actual St. Paddy's Day, me, Elliott, Kate, Steve, and Megan went to Night Town. Why, you ask? Why not? we would respond. We just had several penny pitchers and fishbowls, and hit the dancefloor like it owed us money.
Another classy night, obviously.
Well, I'm just killing time, so it's off to prepare some camping-type stuff and get a shower.
Holla.
Oh, check this out: someone YouTubed a few songs from the Cardinals show we went to last week in Birmingham. Pretty sweet. Man, what a great show.
Some were nothing more than drinking and watching the AllStars play an acoustic show at Larry's.
Some were cross country road trips with three of my best friends, from Chicago to Santa Monica on Olde Route 66, through every hamlet, hootenanny, and Uranium Cafes that were wayy too insistent that we try the "home fries". (We didn't)
(Tangent: Seriously though. The Uranium Cafe was tasty, but they were REALLY pushing the home fries in a creeeepy way. Like this
Me: I'll have the steak and eggs. Creepy man: With home fries? Me: No, thank you. Creepy man: Are you sure you don't want home fries? Me: Um, yes, I'm certain. No thank you. Creepy man: Well. Do you know what home fries are? Me: Yes, I'm from Mississippi. I am all too aware what home fries are. No, THANK YOU. Creepy man: Well, if you're sure. Me: NO, I do NOT want them. Creepy man: What to drink? Me: Tea, please. Creepy man: With home fries?
..... really. It really went like that. After all that, the home fries could have come out with liquid gold poured over them, and I wouldn't have taken them to go.)
.... so that was a great spring break.
Another memorable spring break was my first trip to Taos, to visit Joel and Drew, which obviously impacted my life seriously.
Kristy, Tony, Drew, Johnny, Me, Justin, Joel.
Another great trip.
But, I've got to be honest. I haven't been this pumped up about a spring break trip, ever.
Check this:
Me. Kate. East Tennessee. the Jeep.
That's right, a roadtrip.
Camping in campgrounds of my youth, ice cream tours in my hometown, winery tours in the mountains, hiking, sleeping in tents, and two nights in Gatlinburg.
I'm so excited. Wooo hoo!
I'll post some pics on here hopefully as we go, but if you want to see just how dorky I can get, you can follow me at
Me =
Born in Chattanooga/
Raised in Athens/
Educated at McCallie/
Camp Counselor in Alabama/
Lifeguard in Athens/
Business major at Ole Miss/
Whoops./
English major at Ole Miss/
Pool Manager in Oxford/
Head Lifeguard at Ole Miss/
Ski Bum in Taos / yay/
Law Student at Ole Miss/
Oops again/
Cabana boy at Biloxi casino/ yay again/
Currently:
Trying to escape Oxford/
Trying to get to New Orleans/
Apropos Music:
Whiskeytown/
Wilco/
Modest Mouse/
M.I.A./
Snoop/
Weakerthans/
Across the Universe Soundtrack/
Tom Petty/
Fin.
