Friday, July 31, 2009

The Desire to Ramble

I would make a fantastic retired person. I don't mean just jobless, I mean someone who has nice pile of money saved up and is ready to go buy an RV and travel. I hate people who say, "Oh, I've gotta work! I wouldn't know what to do with myself if I didn't work."

Shut up.

You hear that a lot when someone wins the lottery, too. They have just won 47 million dollars and they're going to keep their job as Assistant Manager of Carl's Jr. I don't understand this type of individual.

Me, I'd travel my bag off. Retired; recent lottery winner, it doesn't matter. If I had the freedom to roam the country while, or after making a modest heap of money, I'd jump all over it.

To me, that's the way you live. By seeing as much as you can possibly see. By doing as much as you can possibly do. But to an extent, obviously. I don't want to do something just for the sake of doing it...just to put on my "living resume". There are just a lot of things that I want to do.

Example: I wouldn't go to Bangkok, Thailand. As much as I'd like to travel, I have little to no interest in going to Thailand. Sure, it would sound great when you tell all of your smart, liberal friends that you went there to experience the culture, sample the food, study the history...but that's it. And that's not worth my dollar.

Honestly, the places that appeal to me the most are places that revolve around the outdoors (preferrably rivers) or drinking. Or both!

Example: A trip to Scotland would appeal to me. Scotland has tremendous fly fishing and of course, Scotch.

Another example: New York. Not necessarily just the city, but combining a day or two to the city (to which I've never been) for site seeing, and the remainder of the trip to the Adirondacks. I would like to think that there is a good balance, a good contrast when visiting New York. It seems to me that there is one end of the spectrum (largest city in the country) and the other (largest National Park in the country).

I suppose for one or both of these things to happen, I need to start playing the lottery, or start paying attention to my 401K plan a little closer.

Friday, July 24, 2009

Necessary Weekly 80's Metal Video

You know, with all the death lingering of late (ie: David Carradine, Bea Arthur, Ed McMahon, Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett, Billy Mayes, Steve McNair, my buddy Slayden), I find it necessary to celebrate life. And what better way to celebrate life than with Motley Crue? And what better song to celebrate life with than "Live Wire"?

A cheesy, 80's video with fire, skulls, spandex, and rock. And a swell song.

Please sit back, relax, and enjoy.

Just Be Good.

Wow, there's a lot going on. Some good, some really good. Also, some really bad.

And now I ramble.

The good...my Cards are making news by wheeling and dealing on some sweet trades. First, they ship away Chris Duncan (or Duncan't) to the BoSox for Julio Lugo. Duncan absolutely sucks this year, so I would've traded him for a bag of Funyuns. And we get Lugo, who plays shortstop...so hopefully that means the also-sucking Khalil Greene will be packaged in a trade soon. I'd muuuch rather see Greene go than Brendan Ryan. And just an hour or so ago, we traded for Matt Holliday. That's a pretty big gun to bat behind Albert! Middle of the lineup as of tonight: Albert, Holliday, Ludwick. That's balls. Hopefully we can come up with a nice little trade package to get Roy Halladay or Cliff Lee next.

Went camping yesterday. And by camping, I mean brought all my camping shit, then decided to come home instead. I'm just kind of tired of camping by myself. I used to do it all the time. But I got to thinking yesterday...I guess when you get to a certain age, you buy a house, you have a wife...you just want to go home. If someone could've gone with me I wouldn't have thought twice about it. But I was done fishing by 5:30, so that's another 5 hours to sit alone until I go to bed. To me, camping is a social activity. Don't get me wrong, I love the alone time. The outdoors is my church. But between the 5 hour round trip car ride and the 5 hours on the river by myself, I got quite a bit of heavy thinking in. Camping is sitting around a campfire, cooking some greasy food on a propane stove, grilling tubular meats over an open flame, drinking your body weight in beer, and bullshitting with a buddy or two after catching fish all day. Then waking up with the sun, getting the coffee percolator bubbling, and throwing some bacon and eggs in the same skillet you fried the taters in last night.

So instead, last night I meet April at a comedy club in downtown Denver on my way home from the river. I wet waded all day, so I had dirt and gravel all over my feet. So I cleaned up and changed clothes in the parking lot of the comedy club. Some people walking up to the club got to see me standing by my car in my underpants. It was their lucky night. April and I had a few drinks, had a few laughs, and ordered a large pizza to take home and eat at 1am while watching 30 Rock reruns. Much better than sitting on the ground in the dark by myself in the woods.

The really good...Marriage. I lucked the fuck out with her. She's smart, beautiful, and my best friend. Lucky. As. Fuck.

The really bad...a good friend of mine, Todd Slayden, killed himself earlier this week. On the outside, Todd was one of us. He was one of the boys that used to hang out at mom & dad's. He always had kind of a secret side to him that no one really talked about. But who doesn't? It's surfacing that he really had some demons, though. I'd rather not get into the nauseating details, but instead remember the Todd that I knew. I would like to keep a fond (but blurry) memory of our first Spring Break trip together to Panama City Beach, Florida. It was one the best times of my life. I'd like to remember the days when we were the "Get Along Gang". Me and Kay, Kent and Sharon, and Todd and Marla. We did everything together. Going to the lake, roadtripping to Worlds of Fun, hanging out and getting drunk. I want to remember hanging out at his and Michelle's house, having some beers, solving the world's problems, and then crashing on the couch. And I'd like to remember how proud he was when he became a father. I was there when Miya was born, and whatever "other" side Todd had to him, there was definitely a genuine, loving side to him when it came to his daughter.

When something like this happens, my emotions go on overdrive. Shock, sadness, anger, thankfulness, and determination over the course of several days.

Shock and sadness are givens. The anger comes from the selfishness involved with suicide. It's always selfish, but when there are loving families, friends, and especially children involved, it takes on a whole new low. If you're fucked up, get help. If you have serious, serious problems, grow the fuck up and admit it.

Then I think about how great life is and how unbelievably well I have it. And how determined I am to provide the best life possible for my wife and if/when we have children.

I could dig much, much deeper into this conversation. I could get into the human psyche, beliefs in religion and the afterlife, and how incredible life is in general. I won't, though.

So, on one end of the spectrum I've got the ridiculously good. My family, my friends, my wife...all the elements that make my life incredible. And then on the other end, you've got tragedy, darkness, and death. You have to take the later, and use that to put things into perspective. You have to use that as an outline of what not to involve yourself in. You have to constantly be thankful, loving, caring, honest, and responsible.

It's like my Granny said to me on my wedding day, "Just be good." Best advice I've ever gotten.

Sunday, July 12, 2009

lucky bastard.

I can't remember the last time I've knocked on so much wood. And no, that's not meant to be dirty. I say that because I am ridiculously lucky. I'm lucky to be married to an incredibly amazing woman. I'm lucky to have such a fantastic wedding with so many wonderful people involved. Now that's a lot of adjectives.

Friday, July 3, 2009

Minor Rant, followed by Awesomeness.

First off, I'm getting married in a week. I think that's cool. But you know what's not cool? "Friends" I haven't seen or talked to (other than on Facebook) for years, suddenly upset that they are not invited to my wedding. It's selfish and it pisses me off. If they were such good friends, you would think that their maturity level would allow them to wish me congratulations instead of an unnecessary guilt trip. I'm sorry if I haven't seen you in over five years and I live 700 miles away. Not what true friends do.

Anyway, on with the 80's metal video!

You knew it was just a matter of time. Yep, it's time the quintesential, ridiculous, talent-free (but fun!) hair band video! Cherry Pie by Warrant. Notice the clever, sexual inuendo's inserted throughout this masterpiece. Genius.

And the song itself...poetic.

enjoy.