a break from the norm.

so i'm used to posting ridiculously funny things i find on the internet, but this one's definitely a little different.

it's a photo montage about a son and the last days of his 98-year-old grandfather's life.

i recently lost a grandmother and, i don't know, this just really effected me more than i thought it would.

check it out: http://www.dayswithmyfather.com

attn: hollywood

so i was working again late tonight, and last night before i went to bed "serendipity" was on TV, so this probably had something to do with my next thought.

i got a great idea for a hollywood romantic comedy. hollywood, listen up.

working title: the magic hour

an account executive at an ad agency struggling for recognition and working late.

a cleaning lady struggling to make ends meet.. working the late shift.

for one magic hour, their lives intersect.

at first, the interaction is awkward. he scares the shit out of her when she comes in to clean, because she thought the office was empty even though he was still there at 8:00 doing excel spreadsheets.

the next few times they meet, they crack a few jokes.

next thing you know, romance blooms.

but will it ever work? they're on completely different schedules. there's no way they could go on a date.

but that one magic hour, when they're the only two people in the office... the only two people in the universe... anything is possible.


BOOM! wrap that up with a nice little bow and send that off to hollywood. cast freddie prinze jr. in it. that dude needs a job.



for those making assumptions about how autobiographical this movie idea is: yes, i scared the shit out of our cleaning lady as i was the last one working tonight. no, she's not at all hot.

but you gotta admit, this could be a fuckin' HIT!

all movie ideas (C) 2008 phil williams productions inc. any reproduction whatsoever will result in fines, penalties, and certain death.

survey MADNESS

i never do surveys. but i always do what mari does. so this was obviously a big quandary for me.

THREE NAMES YOU GO BY:

~ Phil
~ Landphil
- Monorail Cat Dumpster

THREE SCREEN NAMES YOU HAVE HAD:

~ mrbungle46
- jumplittlephil
- phil loves boxes (i worked in a mailroom once)

THREE PHYSICAL THINGS YOU LIKE ABOUT YOURSELF:

~ my beard
- my eyes
- my hands

THREE PHYSICAL THINGS YOU DON’T LIKE ABOUT YOURSELF:

- my various bike accident-related things
~ my weight
~ my hairy back


THREE PARTS OF YOUR HERITAGE:

~ English
~ Scottish
~ Icelandic

THREE THINGS THAT SCARE YOU:

- more random accidents
- growing old before i'm ready
- spiders

THREE OF YOUR EVERYDAY ESSENTIALS:

- morning shower
- fountain diet soda
- e-mail and myspace check

THREE THINGS YOU ARE WEARING NOW:

- jeans
- glasses
- nike SBs

THREE OF YOUR FAVORITE BANDS OR MUSICAL ARTISTS:

- ida
- low
- bjork

THREE OF YOUR FAVORITE SONGS (RIGHT NOW):

- "good day" - jukebox the ghost
- "washer" - slint
- "flashing lights" - kanye west

TWO TRUTHS AND A LIE, IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER:

- i've been to every state except the two dakotas and alaska.
- my favorite thing to order from wendy's is the spicy chicken sandwich.
- i am going to delete my myspace in the next 24 hours.

THREE PHYSICAL THINGS ABOUT THE PREFERRED SEX THAT APPEAL TO YOU:

- hair
- facial features
- chest (just being honest - and it's not about size, just the existence of said chest)

THREE OF YOUR FAVORITE HOBBIES:

- playing music
- spinning "digital records" at weddings/parties
- reading

THREE THINGS YOU WANT TO DO REALLY BADLY RIGHT NOW:

- take a vacation to iceland
- clean my room
- settle all this post-accident insurance drama


THREE CAREERS YOU’RE CONSIDERING/YOU’VE CONSIDERED:

- musician
- booking agent
- civil war historian

THREE PLACES YOU WANT TO GO ON VACATION:

- Iceland
- Greece
- Nepal

THREE NAMES YOU LIKE:

- Ruby
- Catherine
- Alex

THREE THINGS YOU WANT TO DO BEFORE YOU DIE:

- drive cross-country in an RV visiting national parks
- see mt. everest
- start a folk band

THREE WAYS THAT YOU ARE STEREOTYPICALLY A GIRL:

- i don't like to sweat
- i love good gossip
- i know more than a boy should know about handbags

THREE WAYS THAT YOU ARE STEREOTYPICALLY A BOY:

- i like pinup girls
- i have a beard and wear cowboy shirts as a general rule
- i love war movies

some random thoughts.

i heard a story on NPR about how the "scrabulous" app on facebook has been disabled due to a lawsuit from hasbro. i imagined millions of lame facebook users crying in agony that they couldn't play scrabble online anymore. i had a good laugh about that. cue a hundred join "SAVE SCRABULOUS OMG OMG" group requests. did i mention i hate facebook? i do, i do.

a new co-worker discovered my blog. the thread is unraveling. soon my blog will be read at the highest levels of my agency as they wait to strike at my next work-related blog. just kidding. the person who discovered it is a totally rad person. someone i totally didn't expect to meet at work. she a) listens to ridiculously awesome bands b) watches all the same HBO shows that i'm addicted to and c) may or may not have dated a famous DC musician back in college. how cool is THAT?

work still continues to totally pulverize my brain. i've worked past 8:00pm two nights in a row now. it's all i can do just to keep up.

here are some links of interesting things that have been keeping me sane this week:

i'm still amazed by tess's weekend guide to richmond. a must-read. i'm trying to do as much as this stuff as i can in the next month.

i'm addicted to looking at these webcam stop-motion thingys. careful though, sometimes they can be NSFW. there's no one checking them before they get posted.

i posted some "camping" photos on my flickr. in the interests of full disclosure, i slept in the basement on a comfy couch.

i had to wait five minutes for a conference call to start late today because of an earthquake in los angeles. quit wasting my valuable fucking time, earthquake.

and i've been listening a lot to these music makers:
bat for lashes
fleet foxes
the warlocks
morrissey
magnolia electric co.

fucking mondays

i feel like i should somehow set up a program that automatically generates a post every monday morning that says something like "fuck work, fuck mondays. i am so stressed!"

and then every week i wouldn't feel like a broken record every time i say it, because it would just get all that out of the way.

i have a dentist appointment today to check out all the damage to my teeth from the bike accident. so stoked to finally be starting this "last round" of my recovery. i can't wait to feel 100% normal again.. we're getting close.

i've been shopping online for bike helmets since my first one didn't pan out due to my gigantic-size head. i'm not making a lot of progress though and i've been itching to return to my city biking ways. soon it will be fall and i won't want to die every time i'm outside. perfect weather for getting around on the bike.

if anyone has any sweet helmet recommendations, i'm all ears. my only requirement: i'm trying not to look like a douchebag.

my job in a nutshell

sorry for all the videos lately, but i keep finding awesome ones.


this is my job in a nutshell. this is what it's like working for an ad agency and dealing with insane clients.

showtime pizza band

next time you go to chuck e. cheese, make sure to request this hit:



kudos to the murphster for finding this and yacht rock.

bert & ernie: so fucking brutal.

a-one and a-two and a...

incorrect interpretations

pardon my vagueness below, as i don't want to be one of those guys you read about in the news who got fired for writing a blog.

one of the latest assignments i've been tasked to work on is a big promotion for one of our clients. the product deals with digital photography and we've roped in a big-name sports celebrity to tie in with our promotion.

the gist of the promotion is that it's a contest. you buy a camera and then enter a photo contest. then the winner gets flown out to a sporting event to do a private photo shoot with mr. big-name sports celebrity with guidance from an official team photographer, etc.

kinda cool, right? i think so.

anyway, so all the promotional materials say varying messages, but one of the common ones being used is "WIN A CHANCE TO SHOOT MR. BIG-NAME SPORTS CELEBRITY" and there's a camera on there, but with the size of the piece, it's reaaaally small. so taken out of context, it sounds like we're offering consumers a chance to murder mr. big-name sports celebrity in cold blood.

considering that people are pretty passionate about this sport, some people might actually be more interested in our contest on that basis.

but i certainly hope not.

anyway, i want to say something. but i don't want to let everyone know that my first thought went to "murder".

i need to play less grand theft auto: 4.

you must chill.

sometimes when i'm stressed at work, i feel like john cusack.

my demanding co-workers are jeremy piven.

and i have hidden the keys.

recreational reading.

alpacatroopers

i don't know why i laughed as hard as i did at this. maybe i'm getting delirious.

woooooooooo!

the quandry of being anti-social and on the internet

no matter how many times you check craigslist missed connections, you actually have to physically leave your house in order to have any chance at getting one.

and leaving your house to go to work doesn't count.

why are spreadsheets such fucking assholes?

who invented these fucking things?

they are literally the polar opposite of fun. think of the most fun thing imaginable. now think of spreadsheets.

did you feel your heartrate increase? did you feel the sweat on your brow? did you feel that sudden urge to run?

that's called fight or flight.



if it were up to me, i'd choose flight every time. but it's not. it's up to my boss.

and we're back.

i'm starting to learn that mondays are going to suck no matter what. i have all these awful reports due, all the work that accumulated magically over the weekend, and 2 hours of calls built-in automatically. there's just no way around being slammed.

that said, i mentally prepped myself by working for a few hours yesterday, to help get myself ahead of the avalanche. it worked out quite well, and i'm actually somewhat keeping my head above water today. it still sucks, but i don't feel like i'm going to die.

NICE!

the weekend was pretty good. it got off to a rough start, but we came through in the end.

my goal for the weekend: NOT DOING THE SAME SHIT I DO EVERY WEEKEND.

we semi-accomplished this.

FRIDAY

friday i ended up picking my car up from the honda dealer after work (goodbye $400). after a few hours of post-work decompression, we decided to head to new york deli. i was hoping for a dance party of some kind, but upon arrival we found only douchebags. for a hot second, new york deli was THE place to go.. and now it's been overrun. another richmond bar falls victim. anyway, we stayed there for a little bit and then headed to (GAHH NOOOO!) helen's. going to helen's falls directly under the "same shit i do every weekend" category. i stayed for a drink and then bailed out and headed home before last call.

SATURDAY

saturday was pretty chill. i spent most of the day at the house, taking care of laundry and various other projects that i set out to complete. i also played some heated rounds of grand theft auto IV.

that night i had set a goal that we had to do something totally ridiculous to make up for the previous night's failings. after much debate, we decided to go to this bar called "the bank". it's sort of a fancier "club" than the dive bars we frequent, so we decided to go all out. all the girls put on dresses and ian and i sported ties. we looked like a prom group. it was fabulous. we got there, soaked in the strangeness of it all, danced, and had a great time. even when i ended up paying for my overpriced drinks, i felt like it was worth getting out of the same routine.

after leaving bank, my attempts to hail a cab failed miserably, so there was a 10-block hike back to my apartment. surprisingly, i was just drunk enough to not give a shit and it was actually a nice walk! bonus points for not getting mugged/jumped.

SUNDAY

sunday was like every sunday. but that's actually a good thing. i went to my favorite brunch spot perly's. to keep somewhat with the "new things" theme, i ordered something different from the menu. i know, i know.. it's a stretch. but it's hard to change old habits. after brunch, we returned home to a photoshoot! kenny was taking photos of his new summer line of flux rad. ian and caitlyn were t-shirt models and did quite a good job. i was photographer's assistant, basically my only job being to keep ian from trying to play GTA:4 between photos.

after that we piled in my car and headed off to see the new batman movie. i had high expectations and was pleased to find them all exceeded. heath ledger's performance was a total mindfuck. he was brilliant. i thought he'd do a great job, but this was really one of his best roles. he re-invented the joker completely. the only drawback to the film was any scene without the joker in it. his character was so intense, you could feel things die down every time it cut to a scene without him.

all in all, one of the best movies i've seen this year. highly recommended.

after the movie, i got a little work done, read a little, and got to bed at a reasonable hour in order to face this hellish monday.

not a bad weekend!

i'm drunk and i love superdrag. fuck you!

when i was 15/16, i thought this video was the fucking essence of badass rock'n'roll tomfoolery.

and now i'm 27/28 and i still think that.

BOOYAH!



sober edit: dude, watch it at 0:36. fucking best ROCKSTAR move ever.

six feet under.

six feet under was the greatest television series ever.

i haven't seen every television series ever made, but i have a feeling that few would hold up to this show. i first got turned onto it many years ago while i was living in harrisonburg with all my dudes. from first the first episode, i was completely hooked. five seasons later, i continued to follow the lives of the fisher family, all the way until the show ended in 2005.

the show follows the fisher family, owners of the fisher & sons funeral home in los angeles. using the funeral home as a backdrop, the show follows the lives of each member of the family as they struggle with their own demons and try to find meaning and purpose in their lives, all the while surrounded by the harsh reality of death and dying. it's a really powerful show and the actors and writers are absolutely phenomenal. the show's creator, alan ball, is the genius who wrote american beauty, and you can see elements of that kind of inventive story-telling.

if you can't tell by my poorly-written synopsis, i'm clearly a fan.

in 2006, while i was in L.A., i even made a trek out to the house where six feet under was filmed. it was probably the highlight of my trip.



every couple of years, i decide to re-watch the entire series front to back. it sounds like an incredible waste of time, but for me, it's amazing to go back and re-watch it and catch new subtleties or things i didn't pick up before. there are so many layers to this show, that it's impossible to catch everything in one viewing. each time i watch it, i feel like i get a new insight into the genius of this show.

all in all, the show ran for 60 episodes. i started re-watching this past summer with devan, fell off the wagon, and then i recently started up again with the final season. i just watched the second-to-last episode of the series and i've only got one left. the last season is a total mindfuck and it's intensely emotional. i've been a wreck after watching the last few episodes. this final one is going to require a box of kleenex, for sure. i happen to know because i've already seen it. twice. hahaha.

if you haven't seen it, i highly recommend checking it out.

if you have seen it, you know why i'm a wreck. no spoilers. shhhh.

i'd love to hear which of my friends are fans though, so next time i'm out at the bar, we can talk excitedly about all things fisher-related.

here's the first nine minutes of the first episode to get you started:

MAIL!

yesterday i was super stoked because i received a care package from dan, my bro-ham at equal vision records. to this day, getting something anticipated in the mail is easily one of the best feelings in the world.

i got four new cds, two t-shirts, and a DVD.

the t-shirts are awesome.. they're two from one of my favorite bands on our label, the snake, the cross, the crown. when i told dan that i'd lost 25 lbs. after the accident we joked about how all my size large shirts don't fit anymore. so these two medium t-shirts were in great need.

the highlight of the package, however, was the DVD, because it featured the olympia video and i got to see it for the first time on an actual TV. it looked totally awesome and was so much better than watching it in its youtube form, which is how i normally see it. watching the videos of the other bands on the label was a lot of fun too. maybe i'm biased (i totally am), but i was really proud because i felt like our video was definitely in the top 3-4 out of the collection. it should be! we worked our asses off to make it awesome, not to mention the risks of staging a bank heist in downtown washington D.C.

anyway, it was really awesome of dan to send me all this stuff and it totally made an otherwise boring day kind of awesome.

the only other highlight of yesterday was the purchasing of groceries. i stocked up hardcore which means for the next week, i can eat/drink all my favorite things: hummus and pita, grape juice w/ sparkling water, GOLDEN GRAHAMS, and of course, endless supplies of diet pepsi, which i fully believe will one day kill me.

that's it from me. if you're one of my facebook friends and you found this blog after i linked to it today, please please bookmark this blog, because i hate facebook and barely touch it. i'd love to keep in touch with you, but the idea of figuring out how to use facebook kinda makes my skin crawl a little bit.

anyway. here's the olympia video for anyone interested:

things are looking up.

i followed my mom's advice. after i closed up the work computer, i chilled out for a little while, watched an episode of six feet under, and then promptly went to bed before 11:00pm.

this morning, i treated myself to an extra 15 minutes of snooze, luxuriating in the feeling of not being so tired i want to die.

my first sign of good fortune was the moment i remembered i left my car parked out in front of the house on broad st. there are numerous signs saying "NO PARKING AFTER 11:00PM" and i have never tested that before. upon this realization, i quickly braced myself for a day of having no car, trying to find my towed car, paying for said car, and trying to work. i hit the bottom of the stairs and found, miraculously, that my car was still there un-ticketed and un-towed. it was like god was looking down saying "this one's on me, kiddo!"

i needed a break. i got one. off to a good start, tuesday.

rough day.

today was fucking ROUGH.

my monday got off to a great start, as i woke to realize that i completely forgot about a follow-up appointment relating to the accident. i had totally remembered all about it on friday, and over the course of the weekend, completely forgot again. it's not a huge deal and i can reschedule, but it just set the tone for the day.

as i arrived at work, i realized the cloud had a silver lining - had i gone to my appointment, i would have been significantly more fucked than i was already. my workload was high, everything was due today, and i had a ton of meetings that would keep me from getting anything done. i needed every spare minute.

finally, around 12:00 i actually had a freakout. so much was coming at me at once. i was stuck on projects that had to get done, because people weren't getting back to me. i had forgotten to call the client about something on friday. it was just a million little things all adding up. i walked out to my car, sat there for a few minutes trying to breathe deeply and just collect myself. i ended up going to pizza hut where i binged on a personal pan pizza and after talking myself down off the cliff, i returned back to the office.

later that afternoon, things got better. i started crossing things off the list and i got some of my questions answered. by 5:15 i felt like things were pretty well under control again.

of course, that didn't prevent me from driving home to work 3 more hours. but here i am at 8:30pm, finally considering myself done with work for the day, even though there are already 3 major tasks already on deck for tomorrow.

it's just easy to feel overwhelmed. on top of all that, i don't think i've properly dealt with the other things that are stressing me out right now - my accident recovery, health insurance issues, relationship stuff, my dissatisfaction with the current status quo of my life.

i called my mom on the way home and vented for a good fifteen minutes. she's such an amazing person and helped me put it all into perspective. she said to take things on one thing at a time, and don't underestimate the value of a good night's sleep. and the thing is, she's right.. i've been sleeping horribly for weeks now. and when i'm tired, i totally let shit get to me. so tonight, i'm going to bed at 10:30... and tomorrow, it probably won't be as bad.

sometimes you just gotta hear things from your mom before you believe it's true.

hahahah

my new favorite iphone commercial:

word clouds

i turned my latest blog entries into a word cloud using wordl!

i can't stop listening to pop music

about a week ago, nothing was on my usual radio stations - NPR and WRVA (i'm addicted to talk radio, what can i say?) i just did a random search to see what was on and i happened across Q94.

normally i never listen to this stuff, but lately, it's all i can listen to.

it's so cheesy and crappy and summer-y - i can't resist.

some of the hits:

- that new song with rihanna and maroon five
- estelle w/ kanye west - american boy
- usher - make love in this club

i also heard a new song from NKOTB! unbelievable.

i'm sure i'll get over this phase relatively quickly, but just be aware, if you see a honda civic drive past you on your bike and it's blasting the pussycat dolls or something, it just might be me. be sure to wave!

3g iphone. YAY!

so last night i couldn't sleep. i went to bed at 10:00 and i think the excitement of getting up early to buy the new iphone kept me awake. i tossed and turned until at least 12:30am, which made my 6:00am wake-up call extra brutal.

you know when you wake up and you're so disoriented you don't know if you're awake or dreaming? i definitely woke up with my alarm, fell back asleep, had a dream that kenny was in the shower and i had to wait for him to get out, then woke up and laid in bed another 15 minutes thinking kenny was in the bathroom until i realized that was a dream.

ANYWAY.. so i rushed to get ready and was out of the house and on to the AT&T store in midlothian. i arrived just after 7:00am to find about 12 people already in line. CRAZY. the line continued growing until it peaked at about 30 people. reports from people in line who had friends at other stores said that the apple store line was crazy and most other AT&T stores in the area had lines 50 people deep. i guess i lucked out with my store choice.

but that's not all i was lucky with. i had my heart set on getting a 16gb iphone for more storage and i also really wanted to get it in white. who has a white phone? it's just too cool to pass up. so i'm sitting in line and the lady is asking people for their info and when she gets to me, she asks what i want and i say 16gb and she makes a face and leaves for a bit. she comes back and says "you're in luck, you're getting the last of the 16gb phones." i was like "YESSSSSS!" then i asked if they had it in white. she said yes, but it depends entirely on what phones the people in front of me get. basically, the last 16gb iphone was the one i was going to be stuck with. i looked ahead of me in line and saw a bunch of tucked-in polo shirt/khaki cargo short nerds. no one that would willingly buy a white iphone. my odds were good.

the lady proceeded to tell everyone behind me in line that they couldn't get a 16gb iphone and that i get the last one. i then felt the laserbeams of hate shooting at me from literally everyone behind me in line. some people got out of line and left because of it.

anyway, because i switched carriers and moved my number, it's going to be a few hours for my phone to work properly. so in the meantime, i'm just staring at it on my desk, anticipating the end of the workday so i can take it home and play with it in earnest.

so here it is. white iphone. awesome.

fucking WORK.

so today i got absolutely slammed with work. i'm totally overwhelmed. tomorrow's already going to be worse, because all my bosses are out and i'm left holding down the fort. i had to work till 9:00pm tonight. fucking ridiculous.

when i got home, waiting for me was my netflix movie. what did i get?

a documentary about suicide.

coincidence? i think not!

someone in the cosmos is trying to push me to the brink!

i refuse to be taken down, cosmos! i defy you!

i didn't start this blog to make friends...

... I BLOG TO WIN!



brilliant.

i hate facebook.

co-workers keep finding me on facebook. (yet another reason i hate facebook).

do i take down all my wasted at the bar / getting awesome / PBR helmet photos?

or do i remain unapologetic, announcing to the facebook world: THIS IS WHO I AM! I SHALL NOT CHANGE!

the CEO of our company's husband just added me. i don't even know how to handle this.

i hate facebook with a passion. the only people who add me are long lost friends from jr. high and weirdos. and nothing about facebook makes any sense to me. long after facebook becomes the greatest website in the world, and myspace hits an iceberg and starts slowly sinking into the north atlantic, i will be on deck, playing a tune on the cello, awaiting my frigid icy death.

let's just hope that co-workers don't find the ol' blog-o-rama.

(note to co-workers: the comment section on this post is an excellent opportunity to announce yourself, thereby letting me know not to rant about employment-related things)

new iphone

oh man oh man oh man.

just a few more days till the new iphone comes out. can you feel the excitement?

sadly i have zero dollars to my name. literally, my credit card is smoking from all the damage on it lately.

with the new unplanned computer purchase, my finances have kinda spun a little out of control. i think after a paycheck or two, i'm going to be able to get things back on track, but in the meantime shit is just a little crazy.

fortunately, i've got my wedding DJ check to deposit and the bike helmet i ordered didn't fit my damn head, so i'm returning that as well. so between the two, i've somehow mentally justified my iphone purchase.

the bottom line is.. my phone doesn't function as-is. the batteries don't make it through one phone call. and i've gotta have a working phone. so i'm going to get it, and sort out the money shit later this month.

so the iphone is the last purchase of the "great post-accident spending binge of 2008". after that, this money spending machine has to grind to a halt. i have to start saving up for my trip to iceland next year, and that shit ain't cheap!

not to mention, MCV hospital sent me a bill for $4700 in anasthesia and cat scans. fucking ridiculous. thank god there's an insurance guy at my work who handles this kind of stuff, because i'd have no idea what to do. it's a full time job worrying about all this shit.

4th of july

my 4th of july was nothing short of epic.

in fact, it might have started off too epic, because it peaked too early and i never quite recovered.

this year, for my first time ever, i went to hadad's lake in the middle-of-nowhere outskirts of richmond. for those of you who have been to hadad's lake, an explanation is unnecessary. for the rest, i seriously doubt my words can do it justice, but i'll try: imagine you are in the middle of nowhere, at a redneck water park where the water is an uncomfortable shade of green. there are water slides, giant inflatable things to play on, a water slide, a rope swing, paddleboats, and most importantly: SKETCHINESS. imagine 400 rednecks and about 100 tattooed punk rock kids all coming together to celebrate. imagine a free-for-all alcohol policy where if you bring it, you can drink it, 21-and-up be damned. the air is humid, hot, and you can't shake that feeling that at any moment, for any reason, a fight might break out.

that's hadad's lake. and it was awesome.

i decided to not participate in the alcohol due to my inability to "day drink" so my time was spent talking to friends, eating people's food, and swimming more or less non-stop. i acquired a life vest which allowed me unrestricted access to the park's inflatable monstrosities. here is me on the inflatable trampoline:


after about 5-6 hours, it was clearly time to go home. i was sunburnt, in need of a nap, and in desperate need of a hazmat team to get all the strange lake chemicals off of me. plus, giant thunderclouds were on the horizon and we escaped just in time.

after chilling at home for a bit, i tried to do what i always tell myself not to do... party hop. i showed up at sarah's cookout, only to find there was no charcoal and the roof access to see the fireworks was locked. i had my heart set on seeing the fireworks on a roof, so i left and met up with brandi only to find that there was no roof involved in her plans either. brandi, myself, and crew walked to get a good spot to see the diamond fireworks only to find out that the baseball game was in its 4th overtime inning and we had to wait for the game to end to see the fireworks.

we waited forever, and as shown in this picture, i was not stoked on this:


one thing i was stoked on was finally meeting brandi's boyfriend milan, who as i expected, is a totally rad dude:


finally our patience ran thin and we decided to walk back.

my mood sinking lower and lower, i decided to bail and just go to MY house and watch the fireworks on my own terms. i sat on my roof, coors light in hand, alone, and watched the fireworks in my lawn chair. strangely satisfied that i had gotten exactly what i wanted and bummed that i had somehow managed to be alone at my own 4th of july roof party.


fortunately, friends from charlottesville came to the rescue. after the fireworks, a bunch of friends came over and we drank beers on the roof, talked about old times and it brought the evening back from the depths it had sank to.

so all in all, we started out strong/sketchy/awesome, then things took a nosedive, only to be saved in the final hours. i had a good 4th of july, and most importantly, our nation's independence was secured for another year.

run!

sharks are fucking assholes.

final beach dispatch

sorry i've been away for a few days. i know this might shock you to hear this, but sometimes i don't put the blog as the #1 commitment in my life.

i am now home from the beach and mostly unpacked. i wanted to leave you with one thing from the beach that i will never forget. on my last day at the beach, i had a moment that i can only describe as magical. i finally feel like i can relate to what a national geographic photographer must feel like.. at the moment when a perfect photo of some rare animal in the wild is taken. when you know you've captured something natural in its element and you've perfectly nailed the essence of the animal.

well, i finally got my photo.

i call it "OBX crazy person". note the pink zebra striped spandex, high white socks, weird 80's hair, and shit-eating grin. this guy is a winner. and i got the perfect shot of him.



some people wait their whole lives for a shot like this.

dispatches from the beach, vol. 5

hello friends.

so, for those of you worried, i didn't really get a gecko tattoo. not yet, anyway.

last night i decided to get a little wild'n'crazy here at the beach house. some of my cousins were throwing back beers, so i decided enthusiastically to join in. turns out i was a little TOO enthusiastic. perhaps i should have turned down those late night captain morgans shots. yuck.

anyway, i woke up in the kitchen bed at my usual 6:30am with a raging hangover. apparently while i was asleep, the good captain had been beating my forehead with a shovel and kicking me in the stomach. i immediately set about changing locations to the bed in my parent's room where i slept it off till about 10:30. well apparently all my cousins spoke of my drinking hijincks and my mom got a little upset. as much as drinking tends to factor into my social life, i've managed to keep my mom sheltered from that for the most part. so i think seeing me hungover in the AM and hearing stories of my awesome raging put her in a foul mood. not awesome.

anyway, today was pretty chill. lots of hanging out at the beach, a little volleyball, a little poolside action. tonight i think we're having a bonfire. i will be enjoying the festivities alcohol-free out of respect for captain morgan and his ability to kick my ass. you win this time, captain.

so i'm thinking i might cut the beach trip short. i've had my fun here and i think i'd be more comfortable at home this weekend. all my friends are making 4th of july plans and i think i'd like to be back in the city to join them. not to mention, one can only take so much of kitchen bed and waking up at 6:30am. i had the feeling that my plans to spend a whole week here were a little ambitious in the first place. five days of beach chilling is about my limit.

tomorrow i think i'll get up, go to the beach and hang out all day, and then when it gets to be about sunset, i'll hit the road to go back to richmond. driving through the evening will help me avoid traffic and i'll get home a lot faster. i'll get home late, but i will be able to rest easy knowing that i will wake up in my own bed, comfortable, and not in a kitchen.

dispatches from the beach, vol. 4

hello from kitchen bed in the heart of OBX, baby!

so today i decided to finally commemorate my outer banks experience. down the street there is a sweet-looking tattoo shop called "ISLAND DYES". i thought, wow.. this place has got to be credible. out here in the middle of nowhere. surely they must do great tattoo work.

so i decided to splurge and get the tattoo that i've been wanting for YEARS.

i've always wanted to symbolize my love for the island lifestyle, chilling, boogieboarding, flying kites, and crab hunting...

so i got a gecko tattoo. check it check it check it OUT:


i was a little worried about going with an artist i've never met before, but he assured me that he's done plenty of gecko tattoos before.. and it SHOWS.

so what do you guys think?!? I LOVE OBX Y'ALL!