Take Me To Another Place

I tried posting this the past two nights...we'll see if the third time is the charm. So I travelled down to Knoxville, TN for a family wedding this weekend. I had a nice time. I saw some cousins and relatives I haven't seen in years. It is nice to see how everyone is doing and come together in a happy occasion of a wedding.

At one point I intruduced myself to my cousin's husband. His reply was "Oh, you're fast cousin M---." I don't think I've ever had adjectives attached to my name...well none that I know of. For whatever reason there are people (good and bad) who we don't call by just their name, but their name and a descriptor. He's not Mike, but Smart Mike, not Chris, but Smelly Chris, not Joe Davola, but Crazy Joe Davola. You could say "I was out with Dave the other night..." and people will look at your funny, like they don't know Dave. Then you say "you know, Big Dave" and they know exactly who you are talking about. There are only a select few individuals who have this honor. How they get it? Beats me, but I'll chalk it up to some sociological phenomenon.

I know I blasted my little sister a bit on my last post. I did, however, stick up for her (like a good brother should) at the wedding. She was in front of me getting drinks and she was carded. OK, I understand there are underage drinkers out there and we, as a society, need to do everything we can to make sure they don't taste alcohol until they are 21...but at a wedding? Seriously? Who gets carded at a wedding? My little sister I guess. So she's running to get her ID and I make some comment to the bartender like "Oh, you're carding?" And in a smug retort she says "Yeah, the drinking age is 21." What? When did this happen? I never knew we had a drinking age, and 21 to boot! I go on talking about how I think it is stupid to card at a wedding. The bartender could have fun with it and say something like "Yeah...its a pain but it is my job and she looks young," but she decided to keep whatever it was stuck up her butt and infomed me again that the drinking age is 21. For the rest of the night I made sure to go to the other bartender whenever I got a drink.

Congrats to Butch and Maria. I wish you a wonderful life together.

Spring is Here Again

I love this weather! Give me 75-80 with blue skies and I'll be a happy fella. Just a couple of random thoughts for the night.

My neighbors behind me have an inflatable above-ground pool. As the weather has gotten nicer, the thing has become inflated and filled with water. Everytime I go into my kitchen and look out the window I see the pool. And every time I look at it I just think about how much it is a cesspool of germs, bacteria, and what have you. And every time I look at it, the grossness factor increases. I feel like buying a Ibucket of chlorine and putting it in there for them.

I'm going to a wedding this weekend. My sister and I decided to share a hotel room (beats rooming with the rents). So I call her up yesterday to talk about how we want to pay for it -- I put it on my card and she pays me her half or vice versa. Well she says "can we go 60/40?" Now I've got a full-time salaried job that doesn't pay much and she's got a full-time (40 hrs/week) hourly job. I understand that she is figuring that since I have the "real" job I can pay a bit more. She lives with mom and dad so I ask the following questions: Do you pay rent? water? electrical? cable? internet? groceries? All which are answered with a resounding "No." Game/Set/Match to the older brother.

On a more serious note, I usually don't discuss personal things on here, but my grandmother recently had a stroke. She's doing alright but it has impaired her a good amount. For those church-going readers (or anyone for that matter), if you could say a nice prayer to St. Andrew Avellino or St. Wolgang, the family will appreciate it.