One month later...

Hey all,

It's been a very long time since I've made a post. One month in fact. Since May 10th, 2009 I've done a lot of stuff...and I mean a lot.

The day of my last real post was Mother's Day. At that point I was out of school and had been hanging out Fort Collins for a few days. I participated in a massive BBQ with my friends Alaina, Emily, Kaeli and Laura...and I got to cook the meat. And being as we're all college kids, we bought really cheap burgers...like 25% fat content. What this means is I got to deal with a large grease fire. By the end of the two hour meat cook-off I had no arm hair left and the hair on my head (which at the time was really long) got terribly singed. Oh well. It was fun. Thanks to all of you for the good times. :)

The next day I spent some time with my Aunt Julie and Uncle Scott and caught a movie that evening, this time being X-Men Origins: Wolverine. I won't really go into all the tedious details, but I thought it was a pretty decent movie. My friend Emily came along and ever since has been imitating Deadpool's falling head into a nuclear reactor. It makes me smile. After the movie Emily, Alaina and I all went to Wendy's and got some frosties and hung out for a couple hours...it was a really good time. I want to go back soon and do it all again. :)

The following morning I hopped in the car and headed for DIA. This was a big day for me because up to that point, I had never flown. Now here I was getting ready to head out to Tennessee to see my long lost cousin, Sheridan.

Here's some background: Sheridan and I have known each other, or at least of each other since infancy, but we really never got to know each other as kids. The last time I had seen Sheridan was about 7 years ago at a funeral for our great grandmother, but because of modern technology (i.e. Facebook) we got back in touch. It started with short little IM chats, and eventually led to phone calls and texting. I even helped edit one of her school papers at one point. Essentially over time, we went from Facebook friends to best friends. :) I think there hasn't been one day since February that I haven't talked to her.

Anyway, this friendship led to me going flying out to Tennessee for her high school graduation. I must say, this experience was by far one of the most memorable for me to date. For one, I got to fly. That was really cool. I want to fly everywhere now. Screw cars. Secondly, I got to see my wonderful cousin. Thirdly, I got to meet a lot of new people, who I'm technically related to, but had never met before. The hospitality I was met with, not only from my Colorado family, namely Scott and Julie, but also the folks in Tennessee, nearly brought me to my knees. I was treated so well by everyone there. They all acted like I was one of their own, and it was overwhelming how much love I felt. It was one of the most touching experiences I've ever experienced. A big thanks to all of you: Julie, Scott, Sheridan, and all of the new family. :D

While in Tennessee it seems like all I did was eat. Eat eat eat eat eat. Lots of eating. I ate BBQ, southern fried cat fish, and a plethora of other things that made me fatter, but very happy. :D

As for Sheridan's graduation, it was good, but looong. It took quite a while for her school's faculty to read out nearly 500 names. Oh well, it was worth it.

So that was way cool to see... The rest of my time in Tennessee was spent roaming through Nashville. I went to the Country Music Hall of Fame, which was way cool, and we also went to the Parthenon, which is aptly names, as it's a full-scale reproduction of the Greek Parthenon. It was way cool.



There were all these recreated busts and other art, and an amazing centerpiece, Athena.



She was pretty big.

So all in all, it was an awesome experience. I'd like to go back sometime...

So since then, I've been back in Pagosa. I went back to work at the store. This time around, I'm over in the produce department. It's not the most fun job in the whole world, but work is work, and I'm happy to have it.

Shortly after coming back I also attended my little sister's graduation. It was really good to watch her cross that stage. Now she's going off to college...just like me. It's so exciting! Even if she's going to CSU. :P

I also went camping with my Fort Collins friends. That's a whole different story though. I'll touch on that later.

Other outdoor adventures include hiking with Michael, something I plan to do more of soon.

But being home makes me realize that I do really miss all my Boulder friends.

Oh man. I can't wait to go back. Looking back, my freshman year of college was probably the the most fun, interesting, and difficult nine months of my life. Fun because I moved out of my parent's house and got to make my own rules. Interesting simply because of the people I met and the things I did. Hard for both the aforementioned reasons. I'm was really unsure about living on my own...leaving a structured life behind was really hard for me, and I kept fighting the urge to call and ask my parents for their approval before I did things. Moving on was difficult. I also had some stressful relationships that I had to deal with, but that was part of the experience. I'm glad, in retrospect, that a lot of the tough stuff that happened, happened. It has shaped me in ways that I'd never really expected, and it's a good thing.

Anyway, here's to all the people I met and the new friends I made in Boulder. I miss all of you guys soooo so much. Pat, D-Link, Katie, Michele, Taylor, Karl, Hannah, Chris, Adam, Jack, Kyle, Nick, Blackmon, Kevin A, Kevin B, McCoy, Mike...I lived with you guys for a nine whole months. It was awesome. I miss eating dinner with you guys. I miss all the parties and good times in the Bat Cave. Jack...I miss our outdoor adventures. Karl, I miss your yams. Mike, I miss your art. Gah. I miss all of it.

Sydney, Lissa and Meghan...you girls are wonderful. I look forward to a lot more good times with all of you. Sydney...wow. You showed me a lot of things about myself that I needed to see. And there's always Jimmy Corrigan. You know. :) And Lissa and Meggers. I still can't believe we're living together. It's amazing. It's gonna be an awesome time. I miss you two so much. You don't even know.

Ah. Sigh. Enough sappy stuff.

So. This coming weekend I'm taking a break from work and going to see Bassnectar in Flagstaff. I'm pumped. :) Here's a sample.

Simultaneous - Bassnectar

It's gonna be sooo fun. :D

The rest of the lineup looks like this:

CROWN CITY ROCKERS
ACEYALONE (WITH LIVE BAND - SLIPPERS)
BREAKESTRA
PIGEON JOHN
AFRO CLASSICS (FEAT. SCARUB & VERY)
THE GASLAMP KILLER
DRUNKEN IMMORTALS
DJ ELEMENT (B-BOY EXPO PROVIDED BY NBL)
CRUSHER SOUNDSYSTEM
FOOT SOLEJAHS
DJ TRICKY T
DJ SOE
DJ REFLEX
DJ TERRA (AKA XIAN 1)

So that's life lately.

I hope you all are well.

Now that I've had a month off, I'm back to three posts a week. Keep coming back for more.

With all the love my fingers can muster,

-Brad


This got the number one top viewed video on YouTube a few days ago. I wanted to puke.



P.S. A couple of you voted on the news. I'll try and do less from now on. Thanks for the input.