8.22.2011

Monday, August the twenty-second

I decided that I would go back to school and today was day #1. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday I have classes in the evening. Ce was admitted into the hospital today after an ambulance came and took her to the ER. I did not want to leave her but knew she would be ok with her mom dad and sister there to continue to look after her.

Biology meets two times a week and this being the first meeting was basically a role call and syllabus read. The class has about 40-50 students for lecture and half go to lab one day and the other half another day, although the first week devoid of lab.

The Professor seems to be pretty young and hip. She likes to hike and her job used to be nothing but hiking and documenting plants. When I got into the classroom she had a Thievery Corporation song playing on youtube. Although she just got married she said we could still call her Ms. Getman instead of Mrs. Anderson, she then went on to say she was just in Vegas not to long ago and had a miserable time... Turns out she just got married... in Vegas.

There is a mexican girl in the class and teacher asked if she could call her Chiquita. There is also a girl that is still in high school that is taking the class and she said that she wants to move to Japan when she grows up.

The class was uneventful, each student had to say where they were from and something about themselves so I tried to keep myself distracted from what was happening outside of class by keeping track of the things I thought were amusing.

I am going back to the hospital tomorrow to see Ce and statistics starts tomorrow as well.

My beard is getting bigger.

Chesterfield 217

Saturday the 14th in the morning my work asked me if I could work at a location near Richmond, VA for a week and they would put me in a hotel and give me money for food. I was a little hesitant until I heard the magic wordss "Lots of overtime." Costco has relocated one of its stores and the new store has already opened but the old store still has a lot of unsold merchandise in it. It needs to be counted, recorded, packed up, and sent out to other stores. Myself and three other people from Harrisonburg Costco drove down Sunday night.

The drive went smoothly, we stopped at a scenic overlook.

We got to the hotel around 20:00 and each had separate rooms. Every room came with it's own coffee maker and the lobby had 4 coffee pots but that did not stop Rhonda from bringing her own Keurig.

Rhonda with her personal Coffee machine and
spring water

 Swag, Dave and I went out and got some grub before heading to bed but it was already 9pm on a Sunday night so many of the restaurants were closed, except for chains like Applebee's.

06:00 is when we had to report to work; the hotel pretty much shared a parking lot with Costco. At a quater til, down in the lobby, we were able to meet the other Costco travelers. Two other stores had sent employees making the total 13 people plus the handful of employees who were still working at the old store.

Swag excited to be done with day #1

11 hours later we were sweaty, tired, and hungry. 

After dinner at the outback we went for a swim at the hotel pool.

Dave lounging at the bottom of the pool

Underwater splash

Air bubbles

The next few days stayed relatively the same. Worked at 06:00, either went out to lunch or had lunch brought to us around 12:30 and were off around 17:00 each day. We never strayed to far for dinner, we were always so beat after work. We ate at mostly chains, Outback, Ruby Tuesdays, O'Charlies, Bonefish. Bonefish had some amazing food though. Our per diem rate for dinner was fifty dollars not including alcohol and Bonefish is where I got closest to hitting that limit. My entree was about 30 bucks and I also got a calamari appetizer.

One baby squid

Sea Bass

The last two nights we decided to do something relaxing so we went to the driving range and putt-putt.

The last day we had almost the entire store emptied of merchandise. 

All done except for HABA

Here are more pictures from this trip.

Richmond 217

Determined Drone

Sunday May the Fifteenth

5.15.2011........ 160 pounds











April 27th 2011
Ce and I took our first overnight trip together. Iron & Wine played in Richmond and I got two tickets after calling into WNRN. I asked Ce to take time off so we could go to the concert together I as well took the time off. We left as soon as I got off work at 10:00 and first stopped at the scenic overlook on 64, even though it was cloudy and wet.

Ce and I

Ce

We continued on our way, got some food, and went to Maymont Park which was beautiful.

We arrived at Maymont Park at about two PM

The sun came out and the flowers looked great throughout the park.

The park had a lot to offer but we spent the time we had at the Japanese Garden and the Italian Garden. 

All the pictures from Maymont park can be seen here.

We wanted to check into the hotel before the concert so we did not have to deal with the check in process so late. Traffic was horrible, I think it took us 45 minutes to move 4 miles on the Midlothian Turnpike.

Ce's friend Ken lives in Richmond so before the concert Ce, myself, Ken and his girlfriend met for lunch and cupcakes.

The line at The National was not long, and picking up our tickets was not a problem. We made our way inside and found a nice spot to stand by a railing near the back. Once the opening band started to play the venue was packed with skinny jeans, v-necks and flannel. The Low Anthem started out quietly and slow, with one of the four band members playing the saw with a violin bow. After each song the musicians changed instruments, guitars, banjos, bass guitars, dulcimers, clarinets, accordions, flutes and 

occasionally all crowd around one mic with just a guitar or banjo and sing.

Iron and Wine

I had been up since 4 that morning and was getting pretty sleepy but Sam Beam finally came out and started playing.  I didn't know a lot about Iron and Wine except for the album Our Endless Numbered Days and this Tiny Desk Concert . 

  I was used to him and his acoustic guitar but was not disappointed when 12 other musicians and back up singers came out and started playing.

 It all sounded really good but it was hard to enjoy because of how tired I was. Ce and I dipped out after four or five songs and made our way back to the hotel to get some sleep.

The next morning we grabbed some breakfast and drove home.

Success.

Everything is going great

Saturday, April the Twenty-Third

4.23.2011               158 pounds




Spring! The weather is getting nicer, the flowers are beautiful and everything outside just makes me want to take a deep breath in and then sneeze sneeze sneeze while rubbing my scratchy eyes. Spring is the time for new beginnings and this new relationship is flourishing beautifully, CE is a sweet, beautiful, hilariously funny young lady and I love her dearly.




While keeping things new and fresh for the spring
 of 2011 I bought a new (to me) car! I am now the
proud owner and driver of a 2005 Honda Element.

Front and back seats all fold
down mesh with each other!

I have only been involved with my khaki crate for two weeks but am already very fond of her. Of course, I have only been involved with my Sweet CE for about a month... Everything is new and wonderful. I hope the winds of time never blow my cloud 9 away.

About a week plus point five of a week ago I told CE that I was going to take her on an adventure but would not tell her what it was. She worked that morning and I was to pick her up and off we would go. She was obvs excited about it because when I picked her up she was telling me about telling our co-workers that I was taking her on an adventure. "Ben is taking you on an adventure?" Said one co-worker, "Well you might end up on top of a mountain." and that we did.

We went for a beautiful drive in my beige box out 33 listening to Ugly Duckling's Taste the Secret. Drove through Briery Branch and turned onto a gravel road by some farm lands. "So I officially do not know where we are going," CE announced to me. I did not tell her that we were going to Reddish Knob but was surprised that she had never been since she grew up in the area and admitted to having many friends that lived in Briery Branch, that made the trip all the more special though. 

After winding your way to the tip top of the drive you are greeted with a 360 degree view of the beautiful mountains along the Virginia West Virginia. This is all from a small rectangular parking lot scribbled with spray-painted graffiti tags which mostly consist of the two names of a couple + 4eva, the occasional wiener or the ever so popular Heart Around Initials.

We got up to the top around 4 and I parked my car and told CE the reason I parked my car here was because in about 3 and a half hours the sun would be setting right there (imagine me pointing straight out in front of us.)

We walked around a while up top, there are some trails that lead to small camp grounds and fire pits and then I pulled out the spray paint. It seams obligatory to spray paint something when you bring a date up there.  I had also packed us a delicious lunch so we sat on the windy mountain top overlooking the beauty of the West Virginia/Virginia skyline while we ate turkey and kit-kats and drank our Dr. Pepper. My light brown barrel allows me to fold my front and back seats down to make an adequate double bed. I hooked my computer up the the cars outlet and sound system and put in the movie Across the Universe. A blanket was laid down we enjoyed the surround sound movie. It ended at the perfect time to watch the sunset.

A perfect end to such a wonderful day.

Michigan J. Frog

Thursday March the Thirty-First

3.31.11              153 pounds


I gave up on March of the Consumer, I do not have the dedication for a project like that. I did make a painting though.

The last post, Hanging out or going on a date, was started after the dinner and concert at the Little Grill. Between the time of the concert and the time of post my relationship CE has progressed wonderfully and we are now officially dating.

I painted her this picture.

Michigan J. Frog.

Tonight I am taking CE on a date.

Hanging out or Going on a Date

Sunday, March the Twenty-Seventh

3.27.11          153 pounds



A while back before Papa Bud passed I asked this girl CE out to go hiking. We picked a date to go which coincided with Papa Bud getting sick so I cancelled to spend time with family. Later in december I got really sick and then Grandma Shirley passed in January. CE and I didn't run into each other too much and  never really rescheduled. A mutual friend had a party in which the two of us attended, and after talking decided we should get together sometime.

We started exchanging sarcastic texts and web-enabled chats. After my kite flying success, I told CE that the next time we have coinciding time off we should get together and fly. On a beautiful windless day a few days later we got together and because the still of the air meant Harrisonburg was a no-fly zone we decided to get ice cream (#1 of 3 in 6 days).

I picked her up and drove us to Kline's Dairy Bar. When the young ice cream attendant was ready I ordered my cone and added "and whatever she is having" pointing to CE. She responded by saying she would pay for herself. I'm a fan of everyone paying for themselves but I was still caught a little off guard. We sat and talked and complimented each others socks. She had to go to work so I dropped her back off at home.

B T Dubs, eating ice cream with this facial hair is pretty disgustingly delicious.

We have gone out again since then. The Mighty Ducks was playing for free at Westover and I really wanted to see it again. CE had never seen the flying V. We were the first to arrive and got primo seats. dead center on the biggest most comfortable gym mat.

We went out again for dinner and a show. After CE departed from work she called me so we could coordinate our plans. She was being very indecisive and I'm not the best plan maker so I said that we could pencil in dinner and martinis at the dodger and then a walk to the Little Grill for the concert. It was a good thing we used pencil and not sharpie because after I picked her up, parked downtown, and went to the dodger we realized / remembered that that night was the art opening for a local artist. We walked circles around downtown for an hour talking and laughing. Laughing a lot, we spent the majority of our time cracking up over the silly things we were doing. CE is a goober and that is a quality that I look for in women, it is almost mandatory.

While at Jess's Quick lunch the fun didn't stop. shooting straw wrappers, videotaping slithering straw wrapper snakes, dropping frys, mustard drooling. I'm sure the waitress's and owner were not finding us nearly as amusing as we did.

We did end up making it over to the little grill where we met up with LT and some of his friends. I tried to hold her hand on the way over and was turned down though. We stayed until the last band finished, which was playing to an almost empty house.

A date or just hanging out, we had a great time and look forward to seeing her again soon.

March of the Consumer

Tuesday, March the First

3.1.11            160 pounds

Happy March family and friend.

After reading this blog post and researching the topic I was...

Inspired by One Year by George Maciunas (Not to be confused with Year One, the horrible Jack Black / Michael Cera flick),

Picture taken from boxvox.net

 I decided to create my own consumption project. One Year was a project by Lithuanian artist George Maciunas. Basically it is the containers of everything he bought for consumption between 1973 and 1974. While Maciunas had his empty containers from an entire year nicely organized I will more likely make a collage of the wrappers and labels I use for the month of March.

I anticipate the outcome of this project disgusting me. I do not think I am the healthiest eater and this might just prove it. Thirty-one days of my breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. Already I have two labels from soda bottles, the wrapper from a fast food hash brown, and the label from a can of tuna.