Thank God for Women, But I Need an Office

Today I took a short Christmas break (about 2 and a half minutes or so) when I listened to Group1Crew’s version of:

…partly to drowned out the chatter around my desk! Nothing against women, but all the people in my row are female! I can only take so much talk about current hair color, new carpet, Frozen coming out on DVD soon, and/or what food they’re not eating today. I need an office.

This song is just fun. It was severely underplayed on the radio last December but I’m hoping that changes for the upcoming Christmas season! By the way, there’s only 294 days till Santa drops down the chimney which means stores will start advertising Christmas goodies in, oh I don’t know, this weekend? You know what would make a good stocking stuffer? Frozen. This is one of the best versions of “Holly Jolly Christmas.” I particularly dig the little robotic voice that says “Merry Christmas. Me- Me- Merry Christmas.” I think it’s awesome and you know what else is awesome? Frozen‘s on DVD March 18th! I’m soooooo exxciiiitttted! *Dances away from computer singing “Let it goooo, let it goooo…”Frozen_castposter-Out of the Wilderness

Wave the Checkered Flag (Daytona 500 Part 6)

Rains came down.
Floods came up.
We went home.

Time check, it was about 4:00pm and there was no sign the rain would let up. So my sister and I decided to call in the parents for a ride back to Tallahassee. Had we known the race would definitely finish that night… who am I kidding, we still would’ve went home! The race didn’t start back up till 8:30pm so after our parents picked us up at 5, we would’ve had to wait another 3.5 hours, then another 2 or 3 hours for the race to finish! So we stayed at the track for a few hours after the rain started, but time went by fast because we met a nice family from New Jersey/Orlando (even though they were all cheering for the wrong guys- Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart!).

We caught a ride on the bus back to Lot 10, and after walking over dirt (which was mud, actually) roads, through mushy fields, we rejoined Mom and Dad for a trip home. We bypassed Cracker Barrel (oh, and more on my lunch with the Governor at a Nashville Cracker Barrel can be found here), and b-lined it home to catch the end of the race. Hey, Jimmie Johnson still had a chance and I sure wasn’t going to be that fan who missed his first place finish!

Turns out he didn’t finish in first but hey, neither did ol’ Jeffy Gordon so at least my sister wasn’t going to rub it in. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. won which seems sort of fitting after his dad’s #3 car was back on the track for the first time since Dale, Sr. drove it.

All in all, a great trip down to Florida for a fun time with my sister! Maybe we’ll do it again next year, but without the rain and the war of words with Gator Belly! I’m so glad she and I could go to the race. It’ll be a memory we love having for the rest of our lives. Sure it was a lot of driving for a whirlwind trip to Florida and back to Tennessee, but isn’t that sorta what life is about? Taking those moments to do something adventurous. To spend time with family, to laugh, to keep saying there’s no way Jeff Gordon will beat Jimmie Johnson, not because I really believe that, but because it makes my sister laugh. That’s what it was about for me. If she had a good time, then I don’t care about anything else.

Thanks for reading. Here’s a gallery of more pictures from Daytona and my drive back to Nashville. You are awesome for reading all these posts!

-Out of the Wilderness

The Real Barack Obama

There’s a well-known TV personality that sounds a lot like President Obama. Certainly I’m not the first one to catch this but hey, here’s a challenge for you: click on the link below then close your eyes. Can you guess if it’s the real Barack Obama or TV host Montel Williams? I suppose Saturday Night Live needs to scoop Montel up for an ongoing Obama impersonator, right?

It’s a Fight!!!! (Daytona 500 Part 5)

So where did we leave off? Oh yeah, right before the fight…

Harsh words.
Chicken sandwiches.
Beer bellies.

We were in line to get lunch when this guy who was slightly intoxicated cut to the front of the line. Players in this story are: Suit Guy (not sure why he was wearing a suit but OK), Kid (about 15 yrs old or so), Gator Belly (the drunk guy, who was wearing a Florida Gators shirt), and me. My sister Shannon was safely off to the side under a decent shelter. Order after order had the staff in the trailer/kitchen backed up so it was more tense that it needed to be. Of course, getting rained on didn’t help either.

no rain
Suit Guy was the first to confront Gator Belly. He was quite articulate in his stance against this guy cutting, and I was in full support. But Gator Belly wouldn’t back down and leave. He just stood there like he was making some sort of civil rights statement. But he was white, he was wrong, and he was rather annoying.

Suit Guy said his piece and all remained quiet on the western front. As Kid and I moved up to order, Gator Belly again tried to jump in front of us. The kitchen staff handled it poorly. They should’ve made the guy leave with threats of calling authorities but they just smiled and tried to wish it all away. Gator Belly wasn’t leaving. They say to pick your battles, and I guess this is one Gator Belly chose in the moment. Well, guess what? So did I. Picking up where Suit Guy left off, I confronted the line-breaker by telling him he needed to leave. I kept thinking of all the folks in line behind me who’ve been waiting for half an hour, and the Kid who was sort of shuffled off to the side, perhaps not even getting a chance to get his order in. My anger rose. I wasn’t going to let this guy win. Not today. Words were exchanged and all I can specifically remember is saying, “You have an ugly shirt and an ugly attitude!” Nice one.

nogatorI’m not proud. I wish I’d thought of something more clever but the truth is he did have an ugly shirt (remember, it was a Florida Gator shirt), and his attitude was poor. Then at one point I put a hand on his shoulder and told him he’s not going to order before us. That’s when he bowed up and said something to the affect of “Touch me one more time!” I didn’t touch him one more time.

I won’t even get into the fact that while this was happening, the guy behind me ordered his food and left. That was a cold thing to do, sir. But the story ends better than it started. My sister got her chicken sandwich and so did the young Kid. Plus, I managed to get my cheeseburger without a side order of a black eye.

And if you can believe it, there’s more to tell from our first NASCAR race ever! Check out part 6!
-Out of the Wilderness