Shake n' Bake!

Memorial Day weekend calls for American activities. To that end, I filled my weekend with family, racing and overeating. While you may not agree that every American embraces these ideals, I decided to partake in these this past weekend.

Starting on Friday, I went to Dixieland Speedway, a dirt track in the sprawling metropolis of Elizabeth City, NC. Each Friday, the 300 residents of Elizabeth City gather to watch their friends race modified cars around a dirt track. Different heats involve different cars, each heat bringing something special to the table. The race was fun, but the activity in the stands was even better. Not only did I see mullets and a tuxedo T-Shirt, but there were even 2 fights to be observed. Let me set the stage. Fight #1: Some guy (Let's call him "Mr. Jorts") was mad about something and there was a large scrum. During the scrum, another guy (Let's call him "Mr. Wife Beater" due to his attire) decided he wanted to jump in and hit Mr. Jorts. After things settled down, I was enjoying the races when I felt some thumping on my bleacher seat. I noticed Mr. Jorts was running behind me with an angry look on his face. He ran down the bleachers and sucker punched Mr. Wife Beater. Mr. Wife Beater was none-too-pleased and the two engaged in another healthy scrum which attracted the attention of the local law enforcement. Keep in mind all of this happened about 8 feet in front of me, close enough I was able to take in all the dialogue. As Mr. Jorts was pulled off of Mr. Wife Beater, Mr. Police Officer pulled out his tazer and suddenly a red beam of light appeared on Mr. Jorts' chest. Mr. Police Officer said, "I'll taze your butt". (That quote was edited in order to keep this blog PG.) I had never heard those words uttered and since Mr. Jorts was inebriated and angry enough to require a good taze, I became excited to witness my first tazing. Unfortunately, Mr. Jorts finally came to his senses and realized that handcuffs were a better deal than handcuffs plus tazing. All in all a great week at the Dixieland Speedway.

After about 3 hours of sleep, a trip to Indianapolis was in order. So I hopped abord a plane and went there. I got my first taste of the swine flu experience as a woman at the airport donned a protective mask. I laughed to myself. Once in Indy, I soaked up some good family time as Dad, stepmom Marj, and new stepbrother/sister drove up from Blacksburg. I also got to hang out wiht my uncle, aunt and cousins which is always a blessing. My family is crazy fun and I love spending time with them. I also had the privelege of enjoying a 6 man golf game. As for the race, the first lap was as exciting as always. It is such a rush to see the cars come around turn one and hit full throttle. My dad was smart enough to capture my adrenaline rush on video and once I have that video, it will appear here. Unfortunately, during all the excitement my favorite driver, Marco Andretti (Mario's Grandson), crashed on the first lap. Boo. It was a fun race with many spectacular but safe crashes. Helio Castroneves won the race for the 3rd time and performed his traditional "climb the fence" routine. Many in Indy are skeptical of Helio due to his recent accquital on tax evasion charges. I confess I don't know the situation and Helio is always so happy and loves the fans so I'm ok with him winning. After the race, I hung out with my cousin and her friends. I got to bed around 1230, just in time to get 3.5 hours of sleep before my plane was destined to take off at 545. Now since I only got 3.5 hours of sleep, it was a shock to have a news camera shoved in my face at the airport by a local reporter looking to interview a tired traveler on his way home. I obliged and hopefully my dirty, confused face and bumbling speech made it onto the local news. I made it home at 10 am, early enough to spend the day relaxing at the beach.

Speaking of airports, I have a beef with moving walkways. They might be a huge waste of energy. I admit that I use them on occasion, but still. If normal walking speed is too slow for you, perhaps you should open up your schedule. I know you may be thinking a bunch of race cars going in circles may be a waste of energy too. Maybe you're right. If nothing else, the Indy 500 allows me to hang out with my midwestern kinfolk.

back after a break

Oh hello there. I haven't talked to you for a few weeks. My deepest apologies.

Bad news for blogging. My computer crashed last week so I am constrained to blogging while at work. Don't worry, Uncle Sugar said it was ok. (That's what gov't employees call Uncle Sam because he pays the bills.) Speaking of bad news, my hockey team still sucks at hockey. If we finish poorly enough, we get sent down to the "C" league. That's hockey talk for "back to the minors." A nice large slice of humble pie. At least hockey is fun to play and keeps me from getting fat.

Enough bad news. Let's move on to how I'm really doing. Last Friday, I had the priveledge of leading my first brief. Let me explain. Whenever a big procedure is done at work, the sailors must be briefed to ensure that they know what they are doing. This brief is performed by the engineer I'm in training to be, so as part of my training, I lead the brief. I used to be unintimidated by public speaking, but now I'm in the real world I do fear looking like a complete idiot in front of people. The brief went well and I supervised the work all day. It feels good to be productive.

Another bonus of life right now is I get to visit my cousins, uncle, and aunt in Indianapolis this weekend. And, since it is Memorial Day weekend, Indy 500!!! It is that time of year when I yell myself hoarse and get super pumped by a bunch of loud cars drivin in circles. Also, I just learned my roomate from VT, Justin, is coming to visit on Friday. That's reason enough to celebrate.

I tutored a bunch of kids again yesterday. It was crazy fun. I tutored 5 girls. Academically I felt confident tutoring them, but socially I felt like an idiot. Somehow, the girls got angry at each other halfway through and their drama turned into yelling. I didn't know what to say or do. Fortunately, one of the workers came in and handled the situation. The girls and I learned about zooanimals and their habitats, long division, reading, spelling, hammer pants, and tadpoles. It was epic. I was going to get a haircut afterward but got sidetracked by some of the children in daycare. They taught me how to do this dance called, "The Stanky Leg". Basically you stand on one foot and rotate your free leg. I also attempted to teach a young man how to play rock, paper, scissors. I also learned that if you are a large adult, don't sit in little kid's chairs. It don't fit right.

Enjoy your memorial day weekend!

A good Friday

I think today is going to be a good day. I think I have figured out what ZZ Top does when they aren't touring and rocking so hard as to change the physical properties of things. They work at the shipyard! I am pretty sure I saw a guy walking out from night shift who looked exactly like ZZ Top. Too bad we aren't allowed to bring cameras to work or I would totally have a ZZ Top picture. Also, I saw one of the rarest mullet breeds. The Femullet. That word is a hybrid of a female and a mullet. Good stuff. I also have a great lunch of leftover wings, a garden vegetable wrap with ham, spring mix, carmelized onions and spicy mustard, and some cajun spiced mixed vegetables. Tasty. In addition to all this, I think I'm going to a comedy club tonight and you know how much I love to laugh. I hope your Friday is awesome.

A lame end to an awesome weekend

Dad turned the big 63 last week. Happy Birthday Dad! To celebrate, I went down to South Cackalacky for the weekend to celebrate with my sister and Dad. Unfortunately, Bam and the kids I mentioned last week couldn't come because Connor had a soccer game. Who knew my family was full of jocks? I'll expound on the wide world of sports later.

My trip down to SC was eventful. Because I'm a fat kid and there isn't a Chik-fil-a near my house, I decided to hit one up on the way. So I went to www.chick-fil-a.com and found a few sites along I-95. After realizing I wanted to drive until it got dark, I passed all of my proposed chikin sites. I then started looking for bbq, also a favorite. After realizing I would have to sit down for a long time and wait for bbq, I stopped at Zaxby's. It was tasty and the girl behind the counter had an awesome southern accent. This paragraph was completely unnecessary and I apologize to you the reader for having to sit through it.

I then took 3 wrong turns in SC before ending up at my sister's at 11 pm. Fortunately, I had alot of great friends to talk to both on the way down and the way back. If you were one of those, thanks for keeping me sane and awake. The actual visit with my fam was great and it felt so good just to relax, talk and play with my sister's dog, Bella.

I had a hockey game last night, which I went straight to from SC. Nothing like a 5 hour road trip culminating in a hockey game. The tables were turning. We were up 2-1 late in the 3rd period and had dominated the whole game. With time expiring, the other team scored, tying the game. We went straight to a shootout and lost. Awesome. It felt like that Boston College game a few years ago at Lane Stadium when VT dominated the whole game and then lost. I guess I will always be a fan of teams who tend to choke at the end of games.

I thought I would get to lead a meeting today, but I was unable to discuss what I was doing with the important people, so I didn't lead it. Good thing because some stuff went wrong and I might have wet my pants if I tried to handle it. So here I sit, eating lunch.

If you have anything you want on this blog, please let me know and I will accomodate. I will be getting my camera fixed/new camera soon so pictures will start appearing. Text gets boring. I hope you are doing great and be sure to let me know how you are doing.