April 18 Fridays Feast

Been a while since I have done a feast, so here goes. Let's jump right in.


Appetizer
Name a color you find soothing. Any light color I find soothing. Like a nice light green or blue. To me that just says soothing. Relax, everything is going to be okay.

Soup
Using 20 or less words, describe your first driving experience. Getting my license. Waiting in car for the instructor. Man in next car has a switchblade. He stole the car.

Salad
What material is your favorite item of clothing made out of? 100% cotton t shirt.

Main Course
Who is a great singer or musician who, if they were to come to your town for a concert, you would spend the night outside waiting for tickets to see? Don't know of anyone current. Maybe the Beatles or Elvis back in the day. Just to say I had the experience.

Dessert
What is the most frequent letter of the alphabet in your whole name (first, middle, maiden, last, etc.)? If I understand the question correctly, R is used four times in my entire name, both times a double R.

Friday's Feast

Appetizer
What does the color dark green make you think of? A pullover windbreaker I had and wore everywhere because it was so functional.

Soup
How many cousins do you have? Too many to name here!

Salad
On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being highest, how honest are you? I am an 8, pretty honest, but wouldn't tell someone the truth if it would deeply hurt them. I have learned as well, some people don't want to hear the truth.

Main Course
Name something that is truly free. I'm giving away free hugs. That was an advertising campaign we tried at my school last fall...Worked extremely well, especially with the freshman residents.

Dessert
Using the letters in the word SPRING, write a sentence. Some People Run In New Guinea.

Fridays feast March 21

Appetizer
Given the choice, would you prefer to live in the country or in the city? I have lived in both and honestly, I prefer the country.

Soup
Who is the cutest kid you know? Don't know, I know a lot of cute kids.

Salad
Fill in the blank: I couldn't believe it when I heard Brittany Spears has a recurring role on How I Met Your Mother
.
Main Course
If you could star in a commercial for one of your favorite products, which one would you want to advertise? XM Radio

Dessert
What type(s) of vitamins and/or supplements do you take on a regular basis? Used to take vitamin C, Now just blood pressure medication.

Fridays Feast March 14

I am back with a new Friday's Feast after taking the last few weeks off.

Appetizer
On a scale of 1-10 (with 10 as highest), how much do you like your own handwriting? A 2, I don't like my handwriting much at all.

Soup
Do you prefer baths or showers? Definitely showers, I didn't have a shower growing up and you tire quickly of baths.

Salad
What was the last bad movie you watched? Epic Movie, there is two hours of my life that I am never going to get back.

Main Course
Name something you are addicted to and describe how it affects your life. I would say soft drinks. Definitely too much caffeine in them and it affects my mood.

Dessert
Which instrument is your favorite to listen to? I have two of them, the guitar and the piano.

February 15 Fridays Feast

Appetizer
Name one thing that is unique about you. I know way too much useless knowledge.
Soup
Fill in the blank: My favorite holiday is Christmas but I like Thanksgiving too.
Salad
What type of wood do you have for your home’s furnishings? No clue, we really don't have many wood furnishings, but it is oak I think.
Main Course
Who do you talk to most often on the phone? My parent's and my wife.
Dessert
What level of responsibility do you have in your job? I am responsible for 6 employees and in charge of a building that houses 120 young men.

Fridays Feast for January 25

Appetizer How many times per day do you usually laugh? Twice a day on average, although there have been a few with no laughs at all.

Soup What do your sunglasses look like? Don't wear them, but went through a phase in my younger days when I rocked the mirrored aviator Top Gun Sunglasses. It was the 80's and they were popular at the time, so what can I say?

Salad You win a free trip to anywhere on your continent, but you have to travel by train. Where do you go? New York City. I always wanted to arrive there by train.

Main Course Name one thing you consider a great quality about living in your town/city. There is a large selection of entertainment options very close to my home, as well as what I consider the greatest military base of all, Ft. Bragg.

Dessert If the sky could be another color, what color do you think would look best? a purplish color.

January 18 Fridays Feast

It is birthday week here at the blog, with me and both of my sisters enjoying birthdays. My youngest sister turns 21 today! Where does the time go? On with the feast.

Appetizer What is your favorite beverage? Coke Zero and Coffee.

Soup Name 3 things that are on your computer desk at home or work. Fan, printer, and sunflower seeds.

Salad On a scale of 1-10 (with 10 being highest), how honest do you think you are? An 8, sometimes you may have to lie to spare someones feelings.

Main Course If you could change the name of one city in the world, what would you rename it and why? Don't know if there is any name I would change, but if there was a Joey city, I might move there.
Dessert What stresses you out? Bills and money problems in general. Also, my job at this time of year. What calms you down? Music, books, and watching television.

January 11 Fridays Feast

Appetizer What is your middle name? Carroll, it is my father's first name and his grandmother's last name. Would you change any of your names if you could? No, I like my names.

Soup If you were a fashion designer, which fabrics, colors, and styles would you probably use the most? Don't have a clue. Probably blue and red for the colors. I also like black.

Salad What is your least favorite chore, and why? Taking out the trash and washing dishes. I don't know why but I absolutely dread doing both.

Main Course What is something that really frightens you, and can you trace it back to an event in your life? I am terrified about death, not about an afterlife or anything like that. I am all set there, but the actual act of dying itself. When I was younger, I had this recurring dream about the figure of Death. It was Death as you see in television or literature, only he didn't have a scythe, just his left arm stretched out in front of him palm down. He would float down the railroad tracks that were in front of my childhood home. Just writing about it gives me the creeps.

Dessert Where are you sitting right now? At my computer desk. Name 3 things you can see at this moment. The blue plastic fan, the large remote control that my aunt and uncle gave me from The Sharper Image, and two printers.

Great Questions this week.

December 28 Fridays Feast

Appetizer Name 2 things you would like to accomplish in 2008. I would like to finish writing my book and to lose about 30 pounds

Soup With which cartoon character do you share personality traits? Not really now but when I was growing up, I was like Bobby Hill on King of the Hill.

Salad What time of day (or night) were you born? 4:00 in the afternoon.

Main Course Tell us something special about your hometown. It's where Nathaniel Macon, the man for whom all those places that are named Macon, came from.

Dessert If you could receive a letter from anyone in the world, who would you want to get one from? A book publisher offering me a big contract. LOL

December 14 Fridays Feast

Appetizer Make up a word and give us its definition. Bogamer- The rule that allows you to make exceptions to other rules as the need arises.

Soup What is currently your favorite song? Celebrate me home by Kenny Loggins

Salad What’s at the top of your Christmas wish list this year? I would really like a Nintendo Wii and good health for my family.

Main Course Name a scent that reminds you of someone special in your life. The scent of pipe tobacco reminds me of my next door neighbor who was a surrogate grandfather to me and my sisters and my wife.

Dessert Who is someone on television that you feel probably shouldn't be, and why? Brittany Spears, because it has gotten to the point where it is just sad and I don't know of anyone who really cares anymore other than the media.

December 7 Fridays Feast

Appetizer What was the last game you purchased? I purchased a bunch of card games for the guys in my building. They want that new debit card Monopoly now.

Soup Name something in which you don’t believe. The gas prices at the fuel pumps.

Salad If you could choose a celebrity to be your boss, who would you pick? Jerry Seinfeld, I would want him to teach me better comedy timing if he could.

Main Course What was a lesson you had to learn the hard way? Follow my instincts and my gut feeling the first time.

Dessert Describe your idea of the perfect relaxation room. A comfortable chair, 72 degree's, a well stocked book shelf, big screen TV with surround sound for when I want to do something different.

Please check out my feast from last week which I got up extremely late. I would also like to with a Happy Hanukkah to all those who celebrate.

December 1 Fridays Feast

I am back after taking a few weeks off.

Appetizer What is your favorite carnival/amusement park ride? I love the roller coasters, especially the Volcano at Kings Dominion.

Soup How do you react in uncomfortable social situations? Social situations in general make me uncomfortable. I squirm around. What comes to mind is a funeral I attended two years ago almost to the day. A dear friend of the family passed away and in the middle of the funeral, one of her sons got up and gave a eulogy that said basically, "My mom died to leave us money." He said variations of the same for 35 minutes.

Salad On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being highest, how much do you enjoy discussing deep, philosophical topics? An 8. It depends on the topic and the people I am discussing it with. I don't mind disagreements, but I hate having my beliefs ridiculed. Besides, I believe there are some things you don't talk about in public.

Main Course Did you get a flu shot this year? If not, do you plan to? I have already gotten it. I had the flu twice last year, or at least had a recurrence of the flu after I thought I had gotten rid of it. I was the second person to go get the shot this year.

Dessert Approximately how many hours per week do you spend watching television? Too many. I am behind on some of the shows I watch, then my wife and I watch a lot of shows on DVD.

Fridays Feast/November 9

Appetizer Which snack do you like to get when you go to the movies? I like to get popcorn and Junior Mints.

Soup What year did you start using the Internet? 1996. We used AOL out of the local city but realized that the phone bill was going to be too high. Used local BBS systems after that until the college I went to went Internet in 1997. We were seriously behind the times.

Salad What is your first name in Pig Latin? Oseph Jay or Oey Jay. Take your pick.

Main Course Name something you are picky about. I only like to wear Nike Sneakers. If the switch on the car that adjusts the brightness of the dashboard controls is not all the way up, I will not move that car and if someone else is driving I almost completely collapse and refuse to think about anything else until it is done.

Dessert Fill in the blanks: I _wrote some of my book_ yesterday and I _will write some more __ today.

Sunday Scribblings/Money

February, 2004
The phone was disconnected yesterday. Payment past due. The cable is going to be the next to go, would be gone already if the man from the cable company could get out here. He has been out here once already. Why he didn't turn it off then I don't know. We will have it a couple of more days due to the six inches of snow on the ground. Nothing is running today.
The food is running low. We make a big pot of soup, using ingredients that will go bad if we don't eat them soon. The soup will get us through the rest of today. We still have plenty of rice. I am starting to hate rice. There are only so many ways you can make rice exciting, and we have tried them all. At least we wont be going hungry any time soon.
If I could get out, I could get my check. My check is at school though. I am a teacher, a perfectly respectable profession. I have health insurance and a steady income. I also have a wife who is sick. At least you have benefits, they tell me. I do not like my job. I thought I wanted to be a teacher, but I quickly found out that I didn't. I am working out my contract.
My wife and I hike a half of a mile to the corner store. We have a prepaid telephone card that we use to call our relatives and let them know that we are okay. I don't like doing this. I feel like a failure during these conversations. I should be doing better than this at this point in my life.
When I was 10, I told my father that I wanted to be a stand-up comedian. He looked at me and told me that I would starve if I was. It was the only bad advice that he ever gave me. Walking back from the store in the snow, I think about what he said to me. I consider my current situation, and I think there must be a joke in there somewhere.
Money Troubles

Fridays Feast/November 2

Appetizer How much money do you plan to spend this upcoming holiday season? I think we average about $20-30 a person, I don't know how much exactly because we buy one or two presents a week. We started two weeks ago so we wouldn't be rushed as it got closer to the holiday season.

Soup What was the last television show you watched, and was it good? I watched the NBC comedy night done right last night and they were pretty good.

Salad If you had to paint the walls of your living room tomorrow, what color would you choose? I like blue but I know my wife would never go for it.

Main Course Name something clever or practical you have thought of that should be invented, but hasn't yet. I can't really think of anything. My one shot at something was about 20 years ago. I thought of those pill holders for every day of the week so that people needing medication wouldn't accidentally overdose. I was only a kid at the time and thought that everyone would think that I was stupid. They came out about a year later. The only difference is mine had a button that you pushed for your pills.

Dessert List 3 things you would like to receive as gifts this upcoming holiday season. The Lost Season Three DVD Set, a Red Sox championship Jersey, and Barnes & Noble gift cards.

Sunday Scribblings: Hospitals

Monday, October 4, 2004

This has been the worst day of my life. I knew that the time was short. It had been something that we had known ever since Mama had called me Thursday night. I had known it deep down ever since I went for a visit last week.
Nannie died this morning. My next door neighbor my entire life, the woman who was like a grandmother to me and my sisters. I had done some bad things in my life, but no matter how badly I screwed up, she always welcomed me into her home and no matter what the time of day or night, would always give you something to eat.
I had visited her about a month before. I had traveled a long way that day and decided to lie down to rest for a while and had promptly fallen asleep. Ms. Lillian, the woman who came in and cleaned the house and ironed the laundry asked what was wrong with me, was I sick? No, Nannie replied, He is okay, he knows he is at home. It is my home, my home away from home.
My life had not been doing so great lately. I had recently found a job though, and was finally starting to get my life back together. Then this happened.
After my sister calls us and tells us the news, I just sit in the chair, stunned. My other sister had already left for school, my mother decides that she will wait for a while before going to tell her. I call my wife, who had just left my parents house for a 45 minute drive back to her work. I tell her to go ahead to work, I will call her later with the details.
I rush through getting ready, then throw on an old pair of jeans and shirt. My mother and I are headed to the hospital. My older sister and the rest of the family have been there the whole night.
When we arrive, my mother hugs my sister and asks her if she is okay. She has been crying, they all have. I am allowed to go in and see her. Mary Lou, her granddaughter, is there washing her face. She says it is okay for me to cry. I want to cry, but it just wont come. I wish that it would come, but it never does. I just hold Nannie's hand for a minute. Her wedding band is loose against her finger, her whole body is smaller than normal.
I head outside to the waiting room. My mother is there with my great aunt, who volunteers at the hospital. My mother asks me if I would like to go downstairs with them. They have something to do. I need to get out of here so I go.
We step off of the elevators. I spot a drink machine and I start to dig in my pocket for change. My mouth is dry and has a bad taste in it, I need something to get that taste out of my mouth.
As I step out of the elevator, a girl stops me. She is around my age. She asks me if I worked there, I say no. She asks me some more questions, following me to the drink machine. She says, I like those clothes, they must be new. I say excuse me, I have to leave. My mouth now is unbearable. I need something to drink but just now I need to be away from this crazy woman. She is trying to flirt with me and will not leave me alone. I want to scream at her but I am not a screamer. I am starting to get a headache over my right eye and my mouth has no moisture in it at all now. Finally I say to her, We have to leave, please excuse us. She looks at me like I have offended her. I don't care.
We return upstairs a moment later. The funeral home is here and the man has stepped inside the room to prepare the body for transport. He is professional and courteous, he answers all of the families' questions very efficiently. He has done this many times.
Everyone meets in the waiting room to discuss what the next few days will be like. The last business of someones life has many decisions that have to be made. The man from the funeral home indicates that he is ready. We start out into the hallway. Suddenly, a man screams. There is a crashing sound. A mentally ill patient is out on the floor, whether he was on that floor or has wandered there from some other floor I don't know. The man from the funeral home wisely closes the door to Nannie's room. I think he also locks it from the inside to make sure the patient can't get in.
We are told to stay in the waiting room. It doesn't have locks on either door that leads to it, but it is narrow and there are close to 10 people jammed in there. I don't feel any fear, just confusion. My day is less than four hours old and I feel like I have been awake forever. I hold the soda that I was finally able to get in my hand. My mouth is better but my head is now pounding hard enough to make up for the mouth no longer being dry. They finally rush the guy and get him sedated. We leave. I just want to go home and sleep for three days. This reminds me of the month earlier and the nap I took. I am sad again, but the tears still wont come.

October 26 Fridays Feast

Appetizer: Name a great website you would recommend to others. I really like this one.

Soup:On a scale of 1-10 (with 10 as highest), how often do you dream at night? About an 8. I dream most every night. I can't always remember specifics, but I remember dreaming. I dreamed last night that I was telling a joke but couldn't remember a part of it. Even after I woke up and was drifting in and out of sleep I couldn't remember how that joke went. Within three minutes of getting up it came to me.

Salad: Did you have a pet as a child? Yes, I did. If so, what kind and what was its name? Although we had dogs before her, my first pet that I remember clearly was a pure bred collie that we of course named Lassie. And that dog was just like the Lassie from TV only I never got stuck in a well.

Main Course: If you had the chance to star in a commercial, what would you choose to advertise? Chevy Trucks, mainly because that is what my dad has always drove and watching baseball this fall that John Mellancamp song is stuck in my head. This is our country.

Dessert: What is your favorite kind of hard candy? Werthers candies.

October 19th Fridays Feast

Appetizer If you were a dog, what breed would you be, and why? A pug. I have always liked those little wrinkly dogs.

Soup What does the color purple make you think of? I don't really know. My school colors in junior high were purple and gold. I was in chorus in 8th grade and they had these purple shirts made up. Unfortunately I was sick the week they had the shirts ordered and didn't get one. I had to wear a purple shirt from home without the nice school logo on it. I always felt like I was standing out in a bad way when we went on performances.

Salad Approximately how long does it take you to get ready each morning? from shower to street, 30 minutes.

Main Course How many cousins do you have, and are you close to them? I will limit this to first cousins only. I have 14. I would say that I am close to half of them. It's mainly an age thing.

Dessert Take your initials (first, middle, last) and come up with something else those letters could stand for. (Example: SFO = Sweet Funny Otter) Just Causes Halitosis.

Sunday Scribblings: My first act as King of the World

My first act as King of the World would be to ban all alarm clocks. People should be able to wake up gradually. The worst feeling in the world is not war, sickness, disease, or death. These things are arbitrary; they do not strike everyone equally. The worst feeling in the world is waking up from a deep sleep two minutes before the alarm is set to go off. What do you do? Get up? Why would you do that? That is what the alarm is for. Go back to sleep? With the knowledge that the alarm is going to go off in less than two minutes? I don't think so. Your day has begun and you don't know what to do. You know how everyone says today is the first day of the rest of your life? That's true, and you have spent the first two minutes of that day deciding on whether or not to get out of bed. Now you have to get up and go to work. How is that fair? You would much rather stay home and work at your dream job of being a scribbl...I mean a writer.

My second act as King of the World would be to give the tv news people the night off. The news is going to be all bad anyway and most of it will be the same crap that they will talk about tomorrow night. Instead I will be putting on reruns of The Andy Griffith Show or whatever show you like that makes you feel good.

There will be a spot between 7-8 pm EST where I will allow anyone who wants to to declare themselves whatever weight they want to be. I will then put each countries ruler into one large room and tell them to hash it out. The rest of us are going to a ball game and hotdogs are on me.

Then I will make sure reruns of Unsolved Mysteries are put back on the air because I always liked that show.

Sunday Scribblings 80: First Job, Worst Job, Dream Job

I have had a number of jobs over the year. My first job was as a bag boy at the local grocery store near my home. I was 16, and looking forward to having my own money for the first time. I started the week after my sophomore year of high school. It was the busiest time that I would ever remember in the grocery business. I was scheduled to work until 11 at night, but we weren't getting out until 12:30 most nights. I learned how to "swab the decks" mopping the aisles at night. My boss was Mr. Hedgepeth, who is still one of the best people that I have worked for. He worked hard at his job and it showed. He was fair to us and in turn we worked hard for him.
I worked hard at that job and after a few months, I was promoted to stock helper. I would stock the front end of the store in addition to bagging when I was needed. A few months after that Mr. Hedgepeth came to me and told me that he was allowed to give three workers a raise and that I was going to be one of the three. I was blown away. I never figured that I would be one of the people chosen. It was only a 30 cent raise, but I was still pretty proud. Of course, the minimum wage was increased two months later and wiped out my raise. Such is life. At least, that is the way that it has been with my life.
I have had a couple of "worst jobs". I was the manager of a campsite for R.V.'s one summer. Terrible job. It was 98% on the job training and learn as you go. Nobody knew anything. I would get chastised for doing the wrong thing when no one had told me what the right thing to do was. Dealing with the Board of Directors of the camp was hard too. They were jerks, to put it simply. At the end of the summer, after I had worked my butt off for three months, they promised me that I could have the job again the next summer. Then the next February, they advertised for the job again and didn't even tell me. I found out that they were doing that and I begged for a job interview again. I should have taken the hint. The day came and I dressed up in my best shirt and tie and headed out to be interviewed by the same group of people that I had butted heads with the year before. Was I a glutton for punishment or what?
I was not the only applicant for the job. There was an applicant already inside interviewing when I arrived. From the sound of the interview, I knew that she was probably going to get the job (which she eventually did). I had given my word that I was going to be there for the interview and I was determined to see it through. At the conclusion of the first applicant's interview, she was walked out to her car by the liaison to the camp (it was a Methodist church based camp), both of them laughing all the way. My stomach started churning. As they were walking out, a couple who were the third applicants arrived. I should stop here and say that the place where they were having the interviews was a double wide trailer that was converted into an office/waiting area/meeting room with a small apartment space in the back. The apartment space was where I had lived the previous summer, so I knew the ins and outs of the whole building.
One of the things I learned about the apartment is that in certain spots, you can hear everything that happens in the waiting area. The waiting area is where the applicants were held until the interview. So I heard everything that was said about me. They spent about 10 minutes putting me and everything that I had done the previous summer down. Some of the criticisms were just, there were things that I had done wrong and that I had intended not to do again. Some of the things were not warranted, there were things that had happened that were out of my hands. I hate criticism, but it is one of the things that you have to deal with in this world. The thing that I didn't like is that the board didn't address these concerns directly to me and also that the other applicants heard everything that was said. The whole thing could not have lasted more than 10 minutes but I felt like it was going on forever. My face was getting redder and redder, my cheeks were two spots of fire. Even the couple sitting on the couch across from me looked uncomfortable. I tried to make light of the whole situation but it didn't help much.
The interview was a disaster. They didn't really ask me any questions. I had to explain all of my actions from the previous summer. I was on the defensive the whole time. I felt like I was swimming in quicksand. I wanted to shout at them, "Why didn't you have the guts to say all of those things to my face?" but of course I didn't. And I didn't get the job, of course. There was one more thing that happened that I thought was very strange. A week or so later, my pastor who was on the board and was one of my two defenders in the meeting, gave me a call and apologized. He said that the liaison had said some things about me to some people in the conference that our church was a part of. That was the thing that stuck with me even to this day. Some of the people on the board I could see having a problem with me. Since I didn't get the job I figured I would never see them again so I didn't worry myself with them. I have never looked at the liaison the same way again though.
My dream job would be to be a writer. Getting paid to write and express my ideas with others sounds like heaven to me though. I did have a security job a couple of years ago at another college campus where I would be at a post on one side of campus. My first 3 hours would be pretty busy with rounds and securing building for the night. It would quiet down about 2 o'clock and the campus would get real quiet. Deer would wander onto campus in groups of 10 or more and walk across campus. There would be a chill in the air this time of year. Sitting in my car with a cup of coffee, listening to the radio or writing in my journal. Those were some good times.
Thanks for letting me ramble.