Here's a picture

So I've been chided for not having any pictures on here-not sure why I don't.

Recently, Glenda and I went to my first Southern game. It was very impressive. Roomie, the mascot, had an unveiling. Although I am oh so interested in sports galore, we left at half time, but not before the fire-refic display of music and fire works to reintroduce the new Roomie, with muscles and real animal fur as part of his new costume. Realistically, it was entertaining and well done!

Two things I want to mention.

I don't hate sports, but I don't enjoy watching them either. If I am attending a sporting event, it's more for the fun and the people as opposed to the actual event. If I drank, I'd be one helluva tail-gaitor! It was a lot of fun, though-especially since I know who Roomie is, shhhhh!!

Secondly, Louisianians are some hard core fools when it comes to our college football. We were out there with Panchos, during the aftermath of Ike. It dumped on us pretty good for a little while.
Also, I'm listing an e-mail of just how crazy we people are here in the south, hope y'all enjoy! We may not always be singing in the rain but it doesn't get us down either!

Please read it, it's all very true!

Gustav's Guide to Hurricane Survival
Lessons Learned During and After the Storm
The hurricane grouch quotient can be calculated by adding the number of children and pets in a home without power, multiplied by the number of days quoted on the Entergy telephone recording, divided by the number of fans or portable air conditioners powered by your home generator, (however if you were last in line at Home Depot and have no generator then multiply by the daily high for that day reported by either Pat Shingleton or Jay Grymes), then add the number of trips to the washateria and the days left until school opens. Discount by the percentage of time spent at neighbors who have power. Recalculate as often as necessary

No matter how many times you flick the switch, lights don't work without electricity.
Vienna sausages only appear on the food pyramid during hurricane season.
Gas mileage is recalculated based on miles per fume.
Lovebugs do not disappear in 80mph wind gusts.
Disasters can cancel one LSU football game but there will be even bigger casualties if we cancel two.
Despite protests, kids can re-live their parents' youth when there were only 3 tv channels!

Cats are even more irritating without power.
Baton Rouge without traffic lights resembles Mexico City, Rome, Los Angeles and New York City all rolled into a single snarl.

A 7 lb bag of ice will chill 6-12 oz beers to a drinkable temperature in 11 minutes, and still keep a 14 lb. turkey frozen for 8 more hours.

There are/were a lot of really big trees around here!

Just because you're 18 doesn't mean you can stay out as late as you want. Mayor Holden meant business when he said curfew.

People will get into a line that has already formed without having any idea what the line is for.
Calories consumed during a hurricane or power outage do not count.

Telemarketers function no matter what the weather is doing. New Delhi does not check the weather report in Baton Rouge.

Most popular text message after September 1: do u hve pwr

Twenty-seven of your neighbors are fed from a different transformer than you, and they are quick to point that out!
Crickets and cicadas can increase their volume to overcome the sound of 14 generators.

Dirty clothes in an unsupervised hamper multiply at an exponential rate.
Coffee, spaghetti and frozen pizzas can be made on a grill.
He who has the biggest generator wins.

Tree service companies are under-appreciated, except after hurricanes.
Our Lady of the Lake never closes. Really.
Water will fill the Acadian Thruway underpass, even sometimes when it is not raining.
There are a lot more stars in the sky than most people thought.
If you owned a store that sold only ice, chain saws, gas and generators, you would be rich
With only a small amount of guilt South Louisiana can collectively pray a second hurricane to landfall in another state or country.

And so to our friends and families, some who are still without power and others who have endured great personal loss, you are in our prayers. Hang in there, we are making progress. Thank you to all our first responders, healthcare professionals, service technicians, teachers, police officers, small business owners, and more who join with the thousands of individuals sharing their time and talent to help restore our community to wholeness.

The most important lesson of all learned from Gustav in the last week is that the human spirit has an amazing resilience that even a hurricane cannot bend. Through God's love and amazing grace we can endure all things.

Called to Serve-My first essay since I've been back to school

Within the organization of my church, there is a leap of faith. All young men, at the age of 19, are strongly encouraged to take two years to serve as a full-time missionary. From the time I was a young child, my parents have taught me correct principles to help prepare me for this journey. My parents have always taught me to look for opportunities to help others. A friend needs a shoulder to cry on. An elderly woman asks for help in yard work. Anytime someone asks for my help, I need to assist in any way I can. I knew, however, there was more.

At an early age, I developed a desire to help people, to serve. With my family, I was baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints the month after my 9^th birthday. Although I was young, I still knew that what I was doing would lead me to serving in the ranks of God’s army. The young men who taught my parents, sister and me of the true gospel of Jesus Christ would live on in my memory as spiritual soldiers in this army of God and help to lead me to join this call to serve, specifically as a full-time missionary. These young Elders served our family so effortlessly. Without thought to themselves, they came into our home to share with us something so special; a gift that would stay with my family and strengthen us. Also, their time with my family would lead me to follow in their footsteps and so that I too could share this gift with others.

Nothing was going to stand in my way. I had options to not serve. There was the possibility of marriage, school or a job. I even had obstacles, but nothing slowed my drive to serve. My mind only thought about serving a mission. Even from the time of my baptism, I can remember only wanting to serve as an Elder. My desire to help others shattered any other wants, like a brick whirling through a pane of glass. To be honest, there were times of brief doubt or instances where I had to ponder if this was what I really wanted to do. This was two years of nothing but service. I’d be far away from my home. I would have no access to television, I could only call home twice a year, and I couldn’t date or even attend school. My life as I knew it would be put on hold. This was a decision I would need to make if I were to share this magical gift with others. As fast as electricity responds to flipping on a light switch, these concerns, these doubts were outshone by all of the positive things that this mission would bring to others.

As a servant of the Lord, I shared my testimony of truth to thousands of people. I bore strong witness to people who never heard of Jesus Christ. Through the spirit of Christ, people were converted to the knowledge that He lives. My ability to serve was not only spiritual. I slugged through manure to help clean out horse stalls. Some of my time was spent shoveling glass or gathering newspaper for a recycling center. During the winter with shovel in hand, I walked from house to house offering to shovel sidewalks and driveways. This, all of this, was worth the small sacrifice of two years. What better could I have done in two years on my own? I learned so much about service, which leads to the love of others. To be part of this force to serve helped me more than if I would have attended college for two years. If I would have worked for those two years, I still wouldn’t be as rich in spirit and life as I would have been monetarily. Stepping out of my life and into the ranks as a spiritual soldier continues to help me to serve others.

Today, I still see benefits of my mission. My ability to notice when someone needs a helping hand has increased. Most of my time as a missionary was spent talking to others about things that are very important to me. Certain points of doctrine aren’t understood by some of the people I taught which has instilled in me a judge not philosophy. I don’t judge people just because they think differently than I do. I can discuss things better now when I enter a disagreement. Before my mission, I might not have been so open-minded. I’ve learned patience as I’ve struggled to teach people who want to learn but won’t change their lifestyle to prove it. This all attests to my parents helping me, teaching me, and setting a good example for me to do what is right; of which I will always be grateful. This call to serve came from God but started through my parent’s decision to teach and give the very best to their son, the gift of service.

Concrete-uuhhh, Custard!

So, today solidified all of my fears, misleading thoughts, issues, etc., with quitting my current job. Yes, I have never spent over 2 years at a job. Yes, I have great benefits i.e. insurance, paid time off, flexibility, etc. Yes, I have a great boss who is willing to work with me on every want and need I desire. Yes, I never have to worry about bills and YES it's a great status. BUT. And I do mean BUT!!!!!! This morning three of my employees, who were scheduled for a shift at the same time, were not at work. Two of them quit and one was sadly home, sick-blah!! A little tidbit, when you're sick-go to work! Unless you have some contagious disease, go to work! Ok, depending on your job, but if you have diarrhea, you can still go to work and NOT leave your co-workers stranded. I digress. So, am I bitter-no. Am I sad-no. Am I worried about the next few weeks-no, ok a little....Am I feeling bad for leaving-NO! Almost used a profanity, but I refrained. Am I still excited to be leaving, YES!!! So excited, I just can't hide it!

Kah, Kah, Kah!

So I had a little touch of the Nostalgia tonight. Glenda took me to see Wizard of Oz, performed by the Central Community Theatre. It was entertaining. I laughed. I enjoyed most of the singers and they had a live Orchestra, go figure?!?

It made me think of high school, of course, and how lucky I was to have been in such a great town. There's a lot of diversity in Canon City and there's a lot of art driven people. although there were 14 prisons within 15 minutes of my house, there was definitely a lot of expression going on. I say all this to give homage to my exposure to Theatre and express my love for it! I still listen, a great bit, to musicals. I love music. I love singing. I love dancing.

In addition and on a totally separate note, I'm teaching Sunday School tomorrow and just remembered about 20 minutes ago. Yikes! Here come those last minute missionary skills!

Get a job, sha nah nah nah!

So, my time has come to move on. Sadly, enough, I've really enjoyed where I'm working. I'd still love to work there, but I'm not sure I can last working a full-time job, being on call 24/7 and going to school at the same time.

On a serious note, if there is anyone in the known free world of Southern LA in the know of a job that will hire a 26 yo male who is highly qualified for ANYTHING to do with office work, medical terminology, insurance verification, supervisory skills, a great personality and loves to work-let me know! I'm almost getting to a desperate point in my life where I'll go back to stripping if the price is right. Crap, and by stripping I mean teaching those dance lessons to the elderly :-) ! Again, seriously, please let me know of any opportunity!

And if you know me and know where I work and work with me, by chance-do not repeat any of this to ANYONE! Dr. Stick, including you!

SYTYCD

Haven't made a personal, deep entry since I've started blogging, so why not?

I really enjoy dancing a lot. I've been watching So you Think You can Dance and really miss it a lot. I'm not sure if I'm actually as good as everyone says I am. I know I'm better than some people and maybe just a nice party trick. I'm not technical, although I feel if I had training I could be very good.

Does anyone wanna know my whole dancing story? Yeah!?!?

The first time I really thought about dancing was around age 15. A couple from church taught a class on the country swing. A friend of mine and i loved it and started to dance on our own and make up a few things to go along with the basic step. The same year, I "auditioned" for "Hello Dolly," our school musical. Despite my few lines as the court reporter(only in the play, not movie), I was only in the chorus. I started developing a love for musical theatre. Then I was asked to audition for the show choir in high school. We sang and dance at the same time. I wasn't the best singer, but tried my hardest to succeed and was pushed to become better, singing and dancing. All the time, still working with my friend, Bonnie, to "perfect" the country swing.

When I went to college, I found a great opportunity with STYLE, a group dedicated to teaching youth the proper techniques in couple dancing. I learned a lot about ballroom technique, different styles and how to teach them. With the amazing school I attended, every Wednesday night was Swing dancing. This means, every week, for a very small fee, you could attend a dance of full swing dancing or country dancing. There was an hour of lessons and then about 2 hours of free dancing! It was amazing. I learned all I needed to teach the different types of dances and became an instructor!

That's my long journey to where I am today. I've picked up a few styles here and there and still love to dance. My new obsession is Zydeco/Cajun two-steppin!

My new adventure will be teaching Lil' Scoot how to Boot Scoot and Boogy!

This wasn't as deep as I thought it was going to be. I miss dancing all the time and wish i could do it more!

Amendamendum

I wanted to add something to my post on food-glorious food. Ever since I've been going to McDonald's and found out they put onions on even their kids burgers, yuck, I have been selecting Chicken Nuggets as my poison of choice. I've ventured out to the Big Mac and a few others, but usually stick with my safe 10 pack all white meat bundle of goodness. BBQ being my sauce of choice. I'm OCD, if you don't know me, and always count things. I ALWAYS count how many nuggets I get. Not to see if the old red head is gonna short me one but to see if some kind hearted metal mouthed friend would slip me a extra one because he was feeling generous-maybe some hormone driven filey said hi to him that day, who knows?! Anyway, the other day it happened! I actually got an extra nugget in my box. I was seriously overjoyed with enthusiasm. I almost didn't think it was real. Even after eating the first one, I counted them again just to check the accuracy of my miracle. And then there was ten. AMEN!