Sometimes dreams really do come true

About a month ago I got a speeding ticket going 22 over. The ticket was bullcrap because it's a long, flat, straight stretch of 4-lane highway where the speed limit is 45 miles an hour, which is totally absurd. Anyway, I didn't have proof of insurance because I bought my policy online and hadn't printed off my insurance ID card, and I still had a Georgia license (which I didn't know you could get ticketed for), so with all three offenses my ticket was $341.50. The cop said I could go to court and get the insurance and license charges dropped.

So this morning I went to court, praying that the cop was right and I could more or less cut the ticket in half. There were maybe 20 people in front of me, and I was pretty bummed at the thought of being in that courtroom all afternoon, but the line moved really fast and they called my name in the first 15 minutes or so. I pleaded guilty to the speeding but was contesting the license and insurance charges... the judge dropped those two without any debate or anything, and since I'm a first time offender, I can just go to a traffic class (which costs $40) instead of paying the ticket. So I was in and out of court in like 20 minutes, and I only have to pay $40 as opposed to $341.50. Awesome, awesome, awesome.

Oh, there will be swordfights

So it looks like Mckendree and I might end up with a third roommate in the near future. Our mutual friend Victor, who introduced Mckendree and I and was suppossed to have been our third roommate originally, has been talking about moving in with us. Victor has been notorious over the last few months about repeatedly changing his plans about moving up here, so there's really no telling whether he will follow through this time or not. Mckendree mailed Victor an application for to get added to our lease, so I guess he's at least fairly serious. Either way Victor is a really cool guy and I think it'd be pretty great if he did end up moving in. I think...

Even if he moved in and it totally sucked, it would be OK because I'm planning on moving back to Atlanta as soon as I save enough money, so if Victor moves in A) I will save a lot of money on rent and utilities and B) I won't have to look for a replacement roommate for Mckendree.

Anyway, our apartment has two bedrooms, 1000+ square feet, and one bathroom. As it is there's not a lot of storage space, so I'm kind of wondering how all this is going to work, but I guess we'll get it figured out.

Baby, you got a stew going

I just finished watching the last episode of Arrested Development's second season. If you've never watched this show, please, please, please do yourself a favor and check it out. It's genius. I'm going to go ahead and say 'funniest show ever'. Yep, funniest ever.

I keep trying to find out if any of my friends are fans so we can go back and forth with quotes from the show, such as 'And that’s why you always leave a note' and 'I don’t want no part of your tight-ass country club, you freak bitch!', but as it turns out only like two of my friends have ever even seen the show. I actually told Carla that our relationship can't go any further until she gets into AD.

So yeah, if you're reading this: buy the first two seasons on DVD, watch them once or twice, and get in touch with me so we can rattle off some of these hilarious quotes.

Well howdy, neighbor!

I've never met any of our immediate neighbors in my apartment here, but they must be the coolest people on the planet. Mckendree and I are loud pretty much 24 hours a day, the walls and ceilings are paper thin, and we still haven't had the cops called on us once (knock on wood). In my old place in Chattanooga, our upstairs neighbor called the cops on us for noise complaints like 3 times in a span of just a few weeks. Between my guitar, my stereo, Mckendree's keyboard/studio and his stereo, and the surround sound system in the living room, there's almost always some kind of noise being made, and I don't think either of us have been particularly careful with the volume. I kind of want to see how far we can push it just to see how loud we have to get at what hour to get either cops or irate neighbors to show up at our door.

Hey, you're the crazy old guy from 'Blade'!

This might be one of the more random and less impressive celebrity sightings, but I don't think I've ever seen anyone famous in public like this, so I'm going to write a blog about it, damn it: This morning I was eating breakfast at the Pancake Pantry, which is a quasi-famous breakfast place in Nashville, and we saw Kris Kristofferson come in and eat. Yep.

Just a little heads up

When you're eating out and your server asks you if there's anything else he can get for you, saying 'Yeah, how 'bout a million dollars!!!' is neither original nor funny. I've heard this response a hundred times and I'm losing my ability to muster up even a weak courtesy laugh.

When you're here, you're family

Tonight I showed up for work and my manager said he couldn't let me work with the shirt I had on because it was too dirty. My Olive Garden just received a sanitation grade of 77, which may explain why they care about how clean my shirt is all of a sudden. My manager said I could either go buy another shirt or take the night off, to which I said 'peace out'. Financially this may not have been the best decision, but my friend Bryon was in town from Detriot and I figured I could get a head start on hanging out with him, so I did.

Like there's no tomorrow

I've eaten a lot of cake today; I've probably eaten more cake than actual food. Being an adult is awesome sometimes.

Girls are very tricky, Part 1

I just had a long conversation with Carla that basically amounted to her saying "I love you, but I'm still going to assume the worst when things you say or do can be taken a certain wrong way, because I was screwed over in the past and I have issues... It's just easier for me to assume the worst so I don't end up getting hurt". That's what I got out of it at least. I asked her to try and filter my words and actions through the fact that she knows I'm in love with her and care about her very much before she jumps to any conclusions, but she said she can't.

I don't mean to dismiss Carla's issues and what she's been through. I want to be patient with her and give her time to work through things and all that, but the thought that keeps going through my head is that I can't continue things while constantly having half the things I say and do taken the wrong way - not at this stage of our relationship. I feel like at some point she's got to separate me from her past. If that's not possible, she should tell me now.

Recently I've felt like my relationship with Carla is at a crossroads; we have issues that have got to get worked out, and soon. If we're able to work through this stuff it should be all sunshine and candy, but if we can't work through most of it, my motivation to pick up and move to Atlanta to be with her is going to be pretty low. There will be more exciting blogs about these issues, I'm sure.

A place for friends!

I just deleted my myspace account... in a weird way, I feel like I just got out of jail. I don't know if I've ever willingly given so much of my time to something that ended up just depressing me and that I knew was totally fruitless. I think myspace is an innocent enough thing in theory, but... nevermind. I have this whole theory about myspace and its appeal outside of just staying in touch with people that I don't feel like getting into because no one is reading this.

Things that I intend to do with my free time now that I won't be wasting so much of it include: reading more books, writing more music, working more on my relationship with God, and writing in this blog that no one will read.

This is gonna be the best blog ever

...and when I say 'best', I mean 'far less interesting to anyone but me'. I had one on myspace, but it was pretty much all bullshit and didn't really have anything to do with me, whereas this one will. I probably won't tell anyone about this one, either. Basically this will be a diary, I guess... pretty lame.