Happy St. Patrick's Day

Who Wants All-You-Can-Eat Corned Beef and Cabbage?

Seems plenty of people. SpikeTV is in town for the St. Patrick's Day Chowdown. The quarterfinals were today. Professional competitive eaters such as Sonya Thomas, Tim "Eater X" Janus, Patrick Bertoletti, "Humble" Bob Shoudt, and Eric "Badlands" Booker took part in the event. The semi-finals and finals are tomorrow. The whole event will air tomorrow on SpikeTV at 7 PM. They needed an audience and for being part of the crowd, you got a free t-shirt. I've got my free, official St. Patrick's Day Chowdown t-shirt on at the moment. After the event, Sonya and Badlands threw their cups in the audience. I got a cup, however it was a cup thrown out as a door prize prior to the competitors throwing their cups out.

I had my St. Patrick's Day today. I spent a few hours on River St. Most of the day was spent at the Chowdown. The rest of my time was walking around River. St. I did get to tour the USCGC Elm. It's in town for the holiday and is open to tours. The tour is not for the claustrophobic. It was quite interesting being on the ship. I did want to go to the parade, but I've got things I need to do before Spring Break ends that I have put off. It has to be done. I'll watch the parade on TV. WTOC is airing the parade on TV and on the web. At least I can say I did celebrate the holiday this year.

I woke up this morning to the sounds of the Jenkins High School band performing down my street. They are perfoming in the parade tomorrow. When they practice for a parade, they use the street I live on for practice. I grabbed my camera and took some photos as they walked by. Some of the kids posed for the camera. Watching parade practice is a special treat living in this neighborhood. Not many people in this town can boast they get to see it.

Next Month is Awards Season.

Yes, for 3 days in a row, I'll have award ceremonies to attend at school. It starts the 17th with some ODK business. I will attend. I haven't had the time to do anything ODK related since it's all scheduled at the same time as school. That's quite depressing. Since it's a Tuesday, I'll forfiet 5 points in Theater class to go. I deserve it. I just wish they'd schedule the stuff as not to conflict with my classes next semester. It's been a pain this semester. The next awards cermony is the the 18th. At that one, I'm getting my certificate for Who's Who. And the finally awards ceremony is the next night for the School of Computing. At the moment, I'm not getting an award from the School of Computing. However, I still need to go. I've got to get use to business-like functions. April is going to be one busy month for me.

Yesterday, I went out to the Outlet center here in town. I got a skirtset at Dress Barn. I realize today I'll need to head back out to that store and get another dress. I also stopped at Bealls Outlet and got some clothes that have been casted off to that store. I picked up a part of khaki shorts and 2 shirts. I'll have to go back out there one day and look again. And it was nice to go into Dress Barn. Now I have a place to get business clothes once I get out of school.

Finally, Thursday Threesome:

Onesome: Starry-- skies above? Can you see stars in the sky at night? ...or are you over whelmed by city lights? (...or blocked by trees?) The front yard has street lights and trees. Hard to see the sky. The back yard is a little better. Just one stret light and hardly any trees to block the view.

Twosome: "Eyed"-- wondered how well we all see: Glasses? Contacts? Nothing? Just curious... Glasses and contacts. I've had glasses since I was 10; contacts since I was 23. I wish I had tried contacts sooner.

Threesome: Surprise-- birthday parties? Are you into them? ...or do you dread someone pulling one on you? Nope. I don't do them and I don't want people doing to me. Besides, this reminds me a of a stupid dream I had last night. One of my sister's friends had designed me some rings for my birthday. They were pretty. They were plastic with platis rhinestones. They also were 2 sizes too small for my hand. They hurt, but I wore them to make the maker happy. The ring maker also took me to a joint Sheryl Crow/3 Doors Down Concert. They boasted about having good seats and exclusivity to the concert. We did get a private song from Sheryl, but my sister offended her by singing over her. The ring maker got in a fight with the crew over that debacle and stormed off, leaving me for the concert. In turn the 3 Doors Down seats sucked. All I could think was that it was a crappy birthday for me.

[♪ Listening to: "Absolutely (Story Of A Girl)" - Nine Days]

The Perfect Horoscope for Me:

So I think :

Trying to figure out what's really going on in someone else's head is a fool's game. And you're no a fool -- not by a long shot. So stop dwelling, let it go and do something more constructive with your time.

Consider this love advice.

[♪ Listening to: "You Don't Know" - Lara Fabian]

Looking for 4 Leaf Clovers

Nicki and I spent the afternoon downtown today. We went to Forsyth Park and got a few new photos of me. It was a beautiful day. I had my photo taken in three outfits: a simple polo shirt I word downtown, a St. Patrick's Day shirt, and a Braves shirt. I uploaded a photo from all those outfits. My favorites were the St. Patrick's Day shirt photos taken in the grass of the park.

This picture in this entry was my idea. I was in a patch of clovers, and it is St. Patrick's Day week. It was only natural. My new profile picture is also from the grass shoot.

After the time at the park, Nicki caught up with her friend Courtney and they shopped at Brighter Day Natural Foods Market. Nicki wanted some bean dip. We had to buy 2 bottles because my father really enjoys it as well. After that, we went to Mellow Mushroom to grab some lunch. It was take-out. She got a calzone. I got a meatball sub. They refunded us the money on Nicki's calzone because they burned the first one they cooked.

I think I messed up my camera last night. I accidently dropped it on the floor. The eye piece is now out of focus. I still have a viewing screen, which works. As long as I can take photos, I don't care.

An Atlanta Braves game is on SportsSouth at the moment. It's the first of the seaon. We're playing the Astros. It's a tied game in Orlando. SportSouth/Fox Sports South has had some announcer turn over. Joe Simpson has moved from TBS to SportsSouth. Nice to have a familiar voice on that network. The Braves also have a new guy, Jon "Boog" Sciambi, formerly of ESPN. I don't know how this guy will go. Most of the Braves games will be on SportSouth this year.

Visual DNA

"Oh It Breaks My Heart / Knowing I'm Not Part Of Him"

I am going to be melancholy until I graduate college and get a career in order. I am scared to death of the unknown. I want to be able to take care of myself. I want to be loved by a great guy. And I fear it will never happen. I stopped by the school yesterday and got an appointment with counseling services. That should help me with the stress.

This picture you see of me is from yesterday. My father, my brother Matthew, and I went out for an afternoon on Tybee Island. Matthew wanted to go to the lighthouse and I wanted a photo of the Tybee Faces turtle. So, we grabbed my dad and did that. First, we got the turtle. I have a complete set of turtle photos now. After the turtle hunt, we spent the rest of our time at the lighthouse and the museum. I think we got some good shots. My father, without his reading glasses, is a better photographer than Matthew. I just wanted a few good shots of me having fun. The thing about being the photographer is that it's hard to get photos of yourself. On our way home, we stopped at Uncle Bubba's Oyster House for dinner. It's expensive, but it was a treat for us. Matthew didn't care too much about it. He doesn't like seafood. My dad and I had shrimp dinners. I had some fried shrimp. I don't eat shrimp much, but I do enjoy it. My father had some Low Country Boil: smoked sausage, boiled shrimp, corn-on-the-cob, and potatoes. He quite enjoyed it. he shared with us the story of being kicked out of the Officer's Club as a kid with his brother for eating too much shrimp on all-you-can-eat shrimp night.

Today I went onto Hunter and tagged my car with a Hunter decal. Now, no more worrying about which one of us will be carless. We can all drive a vehicle now. Okay, so I can't drive a manual car, yet. I plan on doing so. Until then, I'll be driving my father's monster truck and he'll have my car. It's so weird to say that's my car. It was Nicki's. However, I am the owner now. I paid it off and took care of the tags and title. In time, it will be mine. I need this car to get me through the rest of schooling. I had planned on keeping my Malibu for a long time. Prior to being totaled, it was a nice car. I might have gotten a newer car once I'm out in the work force, but I wasn't going to trade in my Malibu.

And finally, The results of a quix that was in one of my MySpace bullitens: Which Movie Star Are You? My answer: You are KATHARINE HEPBURN: You are smart, a real thinker. Every situation is approached with a plan. You are very healthy in mind and body. You don't take crap from anyone. You have only a couple of individuals that you consider "real friends". You teach strong family values. Keep your feet planted in them, but don't overlook a bad situation when it does happen.

[♪ Listening to: "Little Bit Of Love" - Céline Dion]

I Finally Got Off My Bum…

And got a copy of Amy Grant's Unguarded album. Took me long enough. My favorite song on the album is "I Love You." I'm attracted to lyrics like

Oh, to stay your princess,
If I only could.
If you never saw the rotten;
Only saw the good.
You'd still be prince charming,
But we would never know,
How it's in the darkest times,
True love finally grows.
Come on true love grow.

Now, I know since this song was released 22 years ago, Amy divorced Gary Chapman and married Vince Gill. People do change over time. However, I want a relationship that will ebb and flow with the good times and the bad.

And here's another Amy Grant video. It's "Find A Way," also from 1985:

[♪ Listening to: "Shine All Your Light" - Amy Grant]