Here’s a first time truth story for you.  when i was 13 or 14, i was big into BMG music service.  I would sign up at my dad’s house, refer "Jay Hall" at my mom’s address, and I’d get 5 free CDs on top of the introductory offer.  I think it worked out to 12 CDs for $45.  That’s great.  Anyway, one day I got a trial offer flyer in the mail for Playboy magazine.  It had my BMG music info on it for my mom’s house.  You had to be 18 or older to sign up for the service, so I guess they’re just allowed to send you stuff like that.  I took it in to show my friends at school how cool I was.  Dallas and Travis and everyone were trying to convince me to fill it out and send it back in.  I wouldn’t do it.  Then Dallas said he would do it, so he took it from me, but I didn’t think he had the guts to do it.  We were at that age where we just taunted eachother to do bad things.  Dallas actually did it though.  If I remember correctly, Travis had a car at that time and he drove Dallas home from school that day and they dropped it off then.

Few weeks go by I guess, my dad and I are out running errands and he says we need to stop at my mom’s for something.  I actually don’t remember how it all unfolded, but it just so happened that Dallas and Travis and I were planning on going to a concert, X-fest a week or two later.  My punishment was that I would have to leave the concert early.  Total weak sauce.  I missed Green Day, and them lighting their drums on fire, the bassist from Jimmies Chicken Shack running on stage naked during someone’s set, and another band or two I think.  I also just missed out on the bonding time with Travis and Dallas.  I didn’t even do anything…but sometimes, it’s the lack of action that we end up paying for.

 - There was this incident with an M80 one windy night where Travis held it behind his head ready to launch, i put my hands around it to block the wind, and Dallas lit it…

- When I stumble over my words or spelling of those words.

- The toilet.  I’m always amazed out how simple it is.  It dumbs it all down to 1 little lever.  Sometimes, you don’t even have to do anything at all if it has one of those lazer sensors.

- There’s a lot of innovative ideas that are born from stupidity or boredom…probably just better off youtubing "stupid idea".  That’d be far more entertaining.

- food for zoo animals?  If you can mess that up and the zoo animals can’t, you’re pretty stupid. 

Good ol’ Heritage Hills Christian Academy.  Bring your conservative christians, your social outcasts, your vagabond christian school seekers, your public school expellants, they’re all welcome.  I met some of my best friends there.  From 3rd grade to 9th grade, I learned a lot, grew a lot personally, and I attribute so much of my life’s foundation from lessons and experiences from there.  There’s probably some sort of metaphor tying into the fact that it was filled with asbestos and is now torn down, but I live in a world of self-denial.

So many stories I could tell you.  Getting caught in the library with my first real girlfriend by my mother, sliding a table into the stomach of my math teacher who would later turn out to be my step father, being kicked out of class by my english teach who just happened to be my mother because "she couldn’t stand to see my face.", how we used to ask our history teacher if we could go to the gym instead of having class; and we would, or how we’d skip the whole asking permission thing and just go right to the gym or to the closed off half of the 3 story ~30 classroom building to explore, or make our way to one of the numerous access points to the roof…Ah, the roof.  Such a huge building…100 feet?  We’d throw anything we found off of it.  One time, we we’re running around the many different sections of the roof and one of my best friends, Dallas, nearly jumped into a section with a 30 foot drop to the second floor accidently.

But I’ll spare the stories.  The real thing I look back to is what I made mention to in the first paragraph; How much I attribute that place in the forming the groundwork for my life, sense of humor, and attitude.  Could I have been a bigger achiever?  You betcha, but I wouldn’t have had fun.  Infact, I probably wouldn’t have learned how to have fun.  Life is a series of moments, and that’s all you get.  Would the Federalist Papers have expanded my understanding of the government?  Perhaps, but I wouldn’t have the pictures that I drew with friends that I have today.  Life can’t be a structured, scheduled, organized, predictable thing.  Free thinking and human expression cannot have boundaries and limitations.  There are so many different people that I’ve been exposed to, and we all have our histories weaved together, so much thicker than just a public school experience of the same faces day in and day out.  We all learned together and grew together.  Maybe some were able to walk away from there without learning or growing spiritually, academically, socially, personally, or even creatively, and to those people, I apologize, but to everyone else, students, teachers, and parents a like: Thank You.

uploaded "Here to Dallas" on youtube.  check it out and leave me some feedback love!

Wee!  So, Trip is all set now.  Leaving pittsburgh may 16th headed for a quick stop in new york then over to rome.  Then, first class to london on wednesday may 23rd.  Back to rome on the 25th, then back to the states on saturday, the 26th.  Work is paying for my room & board while in london and i’ll get to meet everyone there in London.  Good times!  I ended up redeeming my credit card points to help with the flight to london, so that was pretty cool too.  Hopefully the whole trip will go on without problems.  So many of us going, all never having been there, depending on keren, trying to organize events and such.  I’ll admit, i’m a little worried.

Things with Rachel continue to go well.  Hung out with her family at her cousin’s wedding on saturday.  The reception was at the Carnegie museum inside the hall of architecture.  really classy!  lots of statues and columns and stuff around the room.  Acoustics left something to be desired, but still a cool event.  We do a lot of social activities, like with other people, but we don’t do too much just the two of us.  It has it’s a good thing and a bad thing, but i’ve told her that i want to have some date nights too.  Relationship builders for the win!

lots of city news going on.  Pittsburgh was rated most livable city.  In response to Pittsburgh having the 2nd highest population drop (1st was post-Katrina New Orleans)  Mayor Luke Ravenstaul (27 years old) announced the Propel Pittsburgh Commission, a group of 37 people, from ages 20-34, who will meet and talk about what they wantlikedislike in the city.  I threw in my application.  Hopefully I’ll hear something back soon!  I would really like to get more involved in the city, and the Hill District.  In unrelated city news, Pittsburgh eats more ho-hos than any other city.

Roommates are going well. Alex is cool.  I have someone coming in for may 5th-25th, and then from june 1st – august 6th.  Deirdre will probably move in shortly after that and then we’ll see where we can go.  I’ll admit, i’ve had good luck with finding people and such on craigslist.  hopefully i’ll be continued to be blessed there.

no more word on the merger yet.  2 summer classes, starting while i’ll be in london…oh well.  Dallas is coming back from Vegas, and flights were too expensive to go down to see him a second time.  bummer.  new songs recorded and posted.  estate is finally closed!  lots of stuff to do with figuring out how to pay for it now though.  We gotta start cutting the grass too, and the tractor is broken.  Bleh.  I’m a city boy, not a farmer! 

I want to post an update, but i’m kinda at a loss. I’ll just ramble. Christmas was fun, i was back at my mom’s a lot spending time with the family. got my cousin’s old golf clubs, thinking about trying to learn. feeling very sluggish recently. i want to work out for muscle this year, gain back the 20 pounds i lost last year, but make it a SOLID 20. not sure the best way to go about that though, so i’m just doing sit ups, pushups, and i might go get some weights to do curls. school starts back up next week. 3 classes, at $1,200 each. mellon reimburses me, but that’s going to blow a big whole in the 5k limit for the year. car transmission is dying. i hate cars. it’s alright for short trips to the grocery store for now though. i need to start thinking about replacing it. I kinda want a dodge ram. played civilization 4 a lot this weekend, kinda hard to play during the week since it takes atleast 4 hours to get through a game. great game though, certainly on par with civ2, a few things i’d like to see more/less of to say it’s better definitely, but it could very well prove to be better. really feeling down right now, for known reasons, but i’ll keep them locked up in a heart shaped box for the time being. lease is up in february for the apartment, but i’ll probably just renew it. works a drag without my friend kevin, who left for YWAM. i had 2 bottles of rolling rock beer and 2 glasses of champagne on new years. first time i ever drank. went out to some bars with my friend travis and dallas. drinking was actually a disappointment. i didn’t feel anything, didn’t feel more social, didnt feel happier, beer didn’t taste like anything, bad or good, still hate the bar scene, still hate second hand smoke, didn’t feel any different after drinking. probably won’t do it again unless i’m doing it for social reasons. ie: trying to to get a girl. i’m lame. i’m different. i’m done.