The world as I see it…

Well, here’s my last log of 2004. What a year it’s been. I can think all the way back to the first few days of ’04… I had an interesting new years for sure. It was Jan 1, 2004 that Justin proposed to my sister and she of course said “yes”. They were married on August 14 in Plymouth.

On Jan 2-4 I was in Austin, TX for a Bluecoats camp… which was when I realized how much I couldn’t wait to move to the south. It was about 75 degrees and sunny when we got there. As opposed to 12 degrees and snowing back home. yuck. And that happened to be a trip home that I won’t forget also. The Bluecoats were responsible for booking our flights so sometimes, due to money reasons, we would have to wait around a bit at the airport. I remember Dave calling me to apologize that the only flight they could afford for me was a 6:10pm flight Sunday night. I was like, “that’s cool man… no biggie”. I honestly didn’t mind at all. I have my mp3 player and stuff to read.

So, we ride to the airport and drop off the rent-a-cars and it’s about noon-ish. or 1-ish… can’t recall. But I was supposed to fly through O’Hare and then to Detroit. Well… At the AA check-in screens, there were signs that read “if you are flying to or through Chicago, see a ticket agent”. It just so happened that me, along with all the Canadians, were all flying through O’Hare… and some people were going to O’Hare. There was a huge snow storm that plowed through Chicago and was getting worse as the afternoon went on. I was standing in that line, making phone calls and thinking to myself, “I’m gonna be here all night”… I wasn’t really stressed at all about that, but I was trying to think of the best camp- out strategy. Since my flight wasn’t for another 5 hours, I was sure that there was a good chance of me being stranded. And all of us on staff there were like, “well, where’s a good hotel nearby?”

So, I waited in that long ass line for an hour… or almost. I remember this like it happened yesterday and I was next and got called up at 2:10pm. I felt so bad for those agents… some people gave them so much shit for stuff they can’t control and all that junk. I got up there, just smiled and said that I didn’t care if I got switched or whatever… just tell me what my options are. The lady was very nice and laughed… we exchanged a few jokes about how much the weather sucks up in the midwest. ha. So, it was then that something really miraculous happened. First of all, she looked up my original 6:10 flight and said it was delayed until 7:15, and even if I got on that flight it wouldn’t have done me any good since my flight out of Chicago was already cancelled.

Then, she said, “wait a second… …let me see something.” … she typed stuff in the computer for what felt like 3 minutes straight… I just stood there and chilled… she looked at the time and said “I’ve got you on a flight to Dallas/Ft. Worth, boarding in 5 minutes, leaving at 2:50 and connecting to Detroit at 5:40.” … I just stood there for about 10 seconds just stunned. I took the boarding pass, thanked her from the bottom of my heart, took my time through security, got to the gate, got on the flight and not even a minute after I sat in my seat, the doors closed and we were off. I got to Dallas and ate at TGIF… had a beer, because I needed it. Got on my flight to Detroit and landed through some snow but it was smooth as anything… got to my car in the lot, drove home… and I walked in my door at around 9:30 pm. this was me when I got home: =-O

I called Dave and some of the other staff, and there were people that still hadn’t even left Austin airport yet. wtf? And Josh got re-routed through something like Atlanta to Memphis to Charelston (or something like that) over 2 days… didn’t get home until Tuesday morning. Some people didn’t make it until Monday. But what got me was the fact that I friggin’ walked in my house at home in MI at the time I was supposed to be sitting in O’Hare waiting for my flight to DTW. So, with all the bad weather… the hours of delays… all the cancellations… all the confusion… the stress… the commotion… … I got home hours earlier than what was originally scheduled and just felt so lucky that it happened to me, of all people.

Moving along… I think it was the next weekend that I picked up Britt from the airport coming home from NJ. I believe it may have been the Feb camp that I did that, but she’d remember better than I would.

Let’s see what else… this is gonna be a long one, eh? Well, I’ll break it up a bit and talk more later, but I thought I’d share most of what the year wrapped up for me.

Even though my personal life is just that – personal – there’s just one story about 2004 that is the definition of how amazing life can be. And I figured I’d talk just this little bit about one of the most unforgettable days/weeks of my entire life.

Umm… basically I remember it being the beginning of February and I was away for the Ohio camp… it was the weekend of Valentines day and I wasn’t really wishing I were someplace else, but I had counted on Mike being at the camp… but because he was gone all winter, he wanted that weekend home with his g/f. That’s basically what the case was, but I could have used a weekend off from teaching because I was going through a very difficult beginning of the semester with teaching. I was sorta substitute/assistant teaching band for a HS in the morning and teaching lessons after school until about 9pm… M-Th and even teaching Friday the 13th and going straight from teaching to drive to OH. I was just very stressed that weekend and needed a break. However, that weekend would prove to be a very special one.

I got home on Sunday and went straight to the gym. I needed to just do some running… lifting… some sit ups and all that… basically to “wake up” my body. I got home and turned my computer on… catching up on some e-mail. I logged onto AIM and there was Britt. she said hi and it was like the first thing she said, “so, when are we gonna go running?”. We had been talking about getting together to run for a while. I like to run… she was trying to get in better shape for drum corps and all that. I thought to myself, “I just got home from the gym, it’s 12 degrees outside… ehh, what the hell?” I said, lets do it… and we met up at the school lot and ran for a good hour… I think we must have run about 3 miles that night. I never told her that I had already worked out that night but I really didn’t care. For some reason, her and I connected that night a little more than I woulda ever thought… under the circumstances, we had so much to talk about as we ran and it was one of the best nights of my life. She told me stories from her camp experiences… I told her things I remembered when I marched and what things are like with the teaching I was now doing with ‘coats, etc. She brought up some things regarding why I didn’t have a girlfriend (or surprised I wasn’t married or something like that…) and other things. We talked about past relationships… past experiences… in a way, it was like a “date”, though neither of us would admit to that at the time. It was quite incredible and a lot of fun. I got home TOTALLY exhausted out of my mind… crashed early, but slept like a baby. I was so happy I did that and I didn’t know why

at the time.

It was a great week… I don’t remember that Feb 16-20 week for some reason. I wanna say all the schools were on mid-winter break, but I can’t reacall. Leading up to the next weekend, her and I would chat online any chance we got. I don’t necessarilly think we made it a point to try and catch each other as often as we did, but the canversations we had were so fun, full of laughs and talk about stupid shit that only we could think is funny. We talked about stuff like the “rules of AIM”… and we had fun trying to break them all in our conversations… I don’t remember everything, but I do remember just having a great time. We got together to run 3 times that week, I wanna say. I had actually treated her to a snack at the Greecian Cafe one night and another she took me to On The Border… I think the waitress was flirting with me, but I didn’t flirt back… any other day I probably would have, but not when I knew I liked Britt and she was there… it was then that I knew for sure… not because I didn’t flirt (that would be just rude anyway) but because I felt it inside… that almost “guilty” feeling if I would have. I’d say, they weren’t “dates” but we were just being very casual about things and enjoying hangin’ out with each other. So much fun… I miss that a lot.

The weekend came and it was the 21st. She mentioned something about going to see LOTR with her mom. Or friends… I don’t remember. But I think we tried to get together to run again, but she had those plans. ah well. No biggie. But I talked to her online the next day (Feb 22) and she mentioned something about not seeing the movie yet. I had seen in on my birthday in Dec. and loved it… so, I broke the ice big time and said, “how about I take you to the movie?” I think she kinda freaked… understandably though… but she immediately said, “sure!” So, we made arrangements to go to AMC 20, she wanted to drive and took her mom’s Jeep… she picked me up around 7:30 and we went to catch the 8:30 show.

I remember being so happy that I was going to the movies with her, because I had SO much fun with her over the last week, and because we were already close friends, it felt right to be doing what we did. I considered that a “date” for sure… I think she did too. So, we got to the theater and got our seats. The movie started and we started to watch. I think it was ever since we sat down in our seats that both of us were feeling that “tension” to break that barrier… I remember we laughed at something in the movie and looked at each other but just got caught up in the moment and couldn’t take our eyes off one another for about 2 minutes… I finally looked back at the screen and she did too… I wasn’t really sitting close to her… just kinda in the middle of the seat. Then, it was like a magnet turned on… and I just felt myself drawn closer to her and she did the same. It felt like I was a little kid in a way… so hesitant to make that first move… not talking anything kinky, but just the “touch”… just the first time you take your hand and touch hers.

We would constantly look at each other and look back and look and look back… then I was watching the movie for about 10 minutes and caught her staring at me and realized that for all that 10 minutes I was watching the movie, she wasn’t even looking at the screen… …but at me. I was so nervous… I remember that feeling so well… it felt as if I had never felt anything like that before. (And I hadn’t). It was then that I kinda felt her hand under her arm kinda brushing my arm. I slowly pushed my hand under my arm and I will never forget the feeling when we first held hands… the warmth and smoothness of her fingers and the look in her eyes, so deep and dark… I could sense that something amazing was happening. And it wasn’t something random…. it was very magical…

But there was a problem we both then realized… we were sitting in the longest movie ever and it was only about an hour into it… and all we wanted to do was kiss. It was in both our eyes and both of us just wanted to hold each other, for the first time… like that… you know?! So, we just got up and left. I guess we could have kissed there at the theater, but that just wasn’t the way either of us wanted to do it. We have no idea what time we left, but we made a comprimise that it was 10:00. It’s just a signature time we set to signify when that happened. Not the kiss, but when we left. It might be the kiss too, but we don’t care… 10:00 is all that mattered, because that was the time that everything changed… the magic dust was scattered onto us, if you will.

We left the theater and just held hands and wrapped our arms around each other so tight. We walked over to her Jeep and just stood there for a minute. Nothing happened then, but we got in the car and were like, “where do we go now?”. Neither of us cared so long as we were together. She drove us around for a bit and we just talked about so many things. We held hands as she drove and it just got to a point where we couldn’t take not looking at each other for so long… I mean… I was looking at her, but she was driving. We parked in a lot someplace… I honestly don’t remember where, because I wasn’t looking around at the road or anything… just her. And I remember we just sat there and stared at each other for about 5 minutes without saying a word… just holding her hand and carressing it. It was so amazing. I was so nervous about kissing her, but I just knew it was coming. I then reached over and took my right hand and placed it on her left cheek… brushed her cheek-bone with my thumb as she leaned into my hand and closed her eyes. She opened her eyes and I smiled and leaned in to kiss her. My lips touched hers so lightly and they were so soft… there was a slight tremble from both of us and we shared the most amazing kiss. I didn’t care how long it lasted… I didn’t count the second… minutes… whatever it was. Time, space, weather, people and everything outside of that jeep was just irrelevant to what was happening then and there. It was the most amazing moment of my life at that point. I was… so amazingly happy. And so was she. As scary as everything was for us then, nothing was too much of an obstacle and we were just so happy that it finally “happened”.

…………and there’s so much more to that story… but that’s where it all began. (come what may…)

I will leave it at this for now… the months of March-December will come later… but as for the way this year started out… it was like God was looking over me and had an angel take me under their wing. After a phone conversation I had with Brittany the other day… it truly was an angel. That angel’s name is Brittany.

I hope everyone has an amazing new years… kiss the person you love at midnight… call your friends… celebrate 2005 with all the joy you possibly can!

~ George

So, this is a little survey I got and posted on the Blue Devils forums that I thought was cool. Enjoy.

What did you do in 2004 that you’d never done before?

taught drum corps, moved to a different state, wrote drill for a band in thailand, drove to west virginia and saw the stars in the mountains before the moon even came out (beautiful), bought a digital camera, moved 3 times in 6 months.

Did you keep your new years’ resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

I don’t remember what I said… I think it was to practice more and eat healthier… which I did! so, yes! I’ll make more… but it’ll be more or less the same thing.

Did anyone close to you give birth?

no… I don’t think so.

Did anyone close to you die?

no

What countries did you visit?

Texas. ha

What would you like to have in 2005 that you lacked in 2004?

Consistancy of work… not having to move to another state… and maybe just being able to survive a summer of working without having a breakdown.

What date from 2004 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

February 15… first run.

What was your biggest achievement of the year?

making it through a summer of teaching corps, drill writing, moving to TX and, most recently, getting over a serious relationship I was in for a long time.

What was your biggest failure?

I don’t think I had any, but if there was something… probably the not telling the people at Panera I quit, but instead just didn’t show up anymore. (that was pathetic).

Did you suffer illness or injury?

no

What was the best thing you bought?

a plane ticket to TX in the summer.

Whose behavior merited celebration?

Brittany’s

Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?

Kevin’s

Where did you spend most of your money?

IKEA, Amazon.com, cheaptickets.com and Best Buy

What did you get really, really, really excited about?

moving to TX and spending time with my girlfriend.

What song will always remind you of 2004?

“You and I Both” – Jason Mraz, “Come What May” – Moulin Rouge, any song from the “Dirty Dancing” soundtrack, “One Day I’ll Fly Away” – Moulin Rouge…

Compared to this time last year, are you… i. happier or sadder? sadder…

ii. thinner or fatter?

right now, thinner – thanks to the summer, and my bally’s trainer.

iii. richer or poorer?

richer

What do you wish you’d done more of?

relaxing…

What do you wish you’d done less of?

freaking out over little things.

Did you fall in love in 2004?

yes… very much so.

What was your favorite TV program?

CSI

What was the best book you read?

“Good Benito” – Alan Lightman

What was your greatest musical discovery?

Country music… haha

What did you want and get?

a place in TX and to get into UH

What did you want and not get?

to kiss my girlfriend at midnight on new years.

What was your favorite film of this year?

The Last Samurai

What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?

I turned 28 this year and I didn’t do much of anything. Most people forgot about it… but I did get to hang with a friend and sit around at home.

What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

being more patient and understanding about things.

How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2004?

Not much has changed, but I did venture to getting some red sneakers. yeah baby! But I keep it laid back… usually a neat t-shirt from old navy or GAP, jeans, cool tennis shoes and a baseball hat. (Wonder why people think I’m so young… might be the way I dress).

What kept you sane?

Brittany… always helped me through the hardest times.

Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?

Kate Beckinsale

What political issue stirred you the most?

The election… I don’t get into politics that much.

Who did you miss?

My dad

Who was the best new person you met?

Ryan

Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2004:

Life is what you make of it… and it’s definitely full of surprises. Once you have the world in the palm of your hand, don’t ever let it go. You never know how good something is until it’s gone.

Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:

“…why live life from dream to dream, and dread the day that dreaming ends…”

Hi – it’s the day after my birthday… I’m officially older.

Last night was kinda okay… had fun watching the michigan band. But it wasn’t the greatest birthday… what can you expect though. I did get to hang with Aim for a bit. That was a lot of fun. Walking around A2. But when I got home I just layed in my room and vegged…. nothing exciting. We didn’t have cake and presents yet because we all had other things going on last night…. so we’re doing it tonight.

We had Chinese for dinner… just felt like a buffet. I didn’t use chop sticks this time, but I got some chop sticks at Little Bangkok the other day when I went. I had to go… brought back some great memories.

Woke up today… ate breakfast… got a phone call from Britt that was very sweet. She wished me a happy birthday.

Now I have to finish packing up some more junk to send back down to TX. My mom has some roofing guys over repairing our roof. We had a pretty bad leak going on there for a while and now it’s getting fixed. Coolness. But I had to leave for a bit because it’s just so loud. ah well. They should be done by the time I get back. … bang… boom… bang…. bang… bang… riiiiiiiughhhhh… brrrnnnnnnnn… rahhhhhhhh… friggin’ a, mon! Thought I came home for quiet and stuff. ha… oh well.

Oh, and I took Molly for a walk today… (Molly is our dog). And went around the sub for about 40 minutes… she misses it when I walk her because I run with her. She loves it when I wear my roller blades and take her out. She loves to run.

Well… tomorrow is Terri’s birthday. I’m excited for her, even though she hates her birthday! ha. Maybe someday her and I can celebrate our birthdays together on the 29th and

throw a huge party, invite a lot of friends and get really drunk. That way, no more lame-ass birthdays. haha.

I’m gonna head home and hope to God they are done with the roofing stuff… they’ve been at it for hours.

~GCH

Well… today is my birthday. yay! But it’s kinda boring right now. I really wish I were someplace else at the moment, but that time has come and gone. There’s so much I want to talk about that has happened over the last week, but that’ll have to be written down someplace else.

I do have to talk about Christmas though. Oh my… that was such an amazing time. I don’t know where to begin… But Jennifer’s family is just a wonderful group of people. All the fun times I had with jennifer, her parents, nana and papa, jessie and mindy, corey and “mr. abercrombie” cody… I couldn’t have imagined a better weekend. I guess it’s easy to say it was fun because it was different, but there’s no denying the fact that under the circumstances I was in, they brought me in and treated me like family and I love them all for everything they did for me.

Jen was a riot… I love getting to know people better, but hearing her tell stories that always made me laugh are what made that weekend shine. That poor girl… always telling me the horror stories of working at Sonic and having to wear skates… and coming home from work with bruises from slipping on ice… But she’s a tough cookie for sure… she just bounces back up and gets back to work. haha. But I am glad she’s okay and hasn’t been seriously hurt or anything. Man, if I had to serve food on skates… well, I think I’d be fine, but that is really funny to picture, isn’t it?!

You shoulda seen the presents from Christmas. I got her parents the two “Blue Collar…” movies, thanks to Jessie for helping me find something for them. We watched the second movie Christmas night and laughed our asses off. And as much as I was thankful to be invited to spend Christmas with them, I was surprised that I got some gifts… and they were great. I got this really awesome pillow from Jessie… it’s green and soft and just so comfortable. Jen got me this shirt from Express Men that is really comfy. I like it a lot. There’s a picture they took of me in it that I’ll post on here later when I get it. I’ll probably get a copy of it within the next week or so. It’s a good pic.

And there was so much fun to be had at that house that I would love to go back there someday… We played pool on Christmas eve… it was Jen and me vs. Randy (Jen’s dad). He’s, ummm… pretty good. Jen and I would each get a turn while he would get only one… and he wooped us in the first game. But thankfully I had enough to drink that I could concentrate a little less on the strategy and hope for getting lucky, which I sorta did. haha… and Jen and I beat him in game 2. Jen’s a lot better than me also, but she wouldn’t admit to it. Jen and I played a few games on our own earlier that day… she beat me twice… I got her once. But that one time was lucky. Thanks to the fact that I play pool online enough to at least understand partially how to actually AIM!!! And even though it was maybe 20 degrees outside, the group of us jumped in their hot tub out in the back. It was butt ass cold running out to it in our bathing suits, but damn that felt good. We had 4 or 5 people in there at once one time. I can’t remember though, because it was so steamy, you couldn’t even see the person next to you. ha.

So, I’m not much of a country music guy, but we listened to some great music all night. I felt so left out not knowing any of the lyrics, which they all knew and sang along, of course… but it was great to listen to, nevertheless. And the dancing… ha… a bunch of slightly intoxicated people dancing around the house… having a blast. It was so much fun. I miss it already. I had a lot to drink that night too. I don’t usually drink, even at home on my own, but this was definitely worth it. It was all pretty light stuff too, so not that I can complain… but it’s enough to get me to that “feel good” state and not get sick or anything. And going to bed that night was so relaxing and I was just very happy tp be there. I think I went to bed around 1am, but woke up at 5:30-ish and couldn’t go back to sleep. I was in the guest room and Jessie and Jen were in Jessie’s room… they had been awake and talking since about 5am. I couldn’t hear them where I was at, but I was just playing on the internet with my phone until I had to be downstairs.

We started opening presents around 8am and took a good 3 hours until that was done. haha… and then there was the “fashion show”… many different outfits and many pictures taken. haha… it was great. You shoulda seen this dancing outfit Jen got. For those that know her, ask her about that outfit… hahahahahaha. I thought it looked… nice. But she got this cowboy hat… very smooth. She looks good in a cowboy hat. (I do not). But I got

her a nice shirt from NY&Co. She said that she loved it and I was so happy. Buying clothes for people is the hardest thing I have ever done… but she gave me a suggestion of what stores she liked and size, so it was all up to me and my ‘fashion sense’…. and I ended up getting her something she really liked. (thank God).

Well, even though I have many more stories to tell from the weekend, I’ll wrap this up soon and save the rest for later. But it was one of the best weekends I’ve had in a long long time.

Jen took me to the airport on Sunday morning and saw me off. My flight was nice. Quick and painless, to say the least. I had some sort of revelation as I sat in my seat before take- off… for people that know me well, I really don’t like flying. And I usually get so nervous that I get all sweaty and restless… but controlled… it’s just something about me. But all I could do is think about how happy I was over the weekend and how amazing life can be and people can be. And I just sat back in my seat, thought about how happy I was and actually started to cry. I don’t know why I was crying, but I guess it had a lot to do with everything I had lost over the past few weeks, but everything I gained at the same time. It’s almost overwhelming to think about the friends I have and the people there are in this world.

On December 5th, my life was flipped upside-down… and pieces fell everywhere. There was no knowing when I was gonna be able to pick them all up and get things straightened out. But I did it. And I think that when I got on that plane and sat back in my seat, it all came clear. I’m not nearly done with “picking up the piece” yet, but I did come to realize that I was finally happy again. Which is something I hadn’t been in weeks.

Needless to say, I got a phone call when I arrived in Michigan that… well… pretty much also resolved a lot of the “questions” I’ve had all this time. I can’t thank her enough for actually talking to me and for helping me put more of this into perspective. But that phone call (which is only between her and I) definitely made us emotional, but it made me put my life in a better perspective of how I feel about everything. I am thankful we’re still friends and she will still mean the world to me. But I’m happy… I really hope she is happy too. And my Christmas break will never be forgotten. I had the best time and wouldn’t trade that weekend at Jen’s house for anything else.

Okay… I’m gonna wrap this up and send it off because… well… it’s my birthday. I’m 28. well… more like 28 going on 22. I’m not depressed or sad or scared that I’m 28… I’m not old… but I’m not as young as I truly “am”. People that know me know that. Age doesn’t mean anything until you have to collect social security. But for me… I’m still gonna live my life and have all the fun that I can in this world. The talks I’ve had with Jen over the last couple weeks have been amazing. Her and I are very different, but have a lot of the same views on things. It’s been very fun getting to know her better and I am so thankful I ran into her at UH that day a few weeks ago.

Well, I’m finally done and I’m gonna go get some dinner with my family and have as “joyous” of a birthday as I can. (that’s my tribute to Erin).

~George

So, I’m done with my Christmas shopping… and I’m heading to Dallas in the morning. I’m looking forward to seeing some friends and seeing Jen and her family on Thursday. I still have a lot of cleaning to do around the apartment, but it shouldn’t keep me up too late. It’s just that I’ll be gone for a while. I just want the place to be in good shape when I get back so I have nothing to do.

I still have to make my list of things to pack and bring for the trip. I’ve done pretty well lately with not forgetting stuff. All I know is that where I’m going it’s gonna be cold… so the sandals and flip flops stay here.

Umm… I doubt I’ll have a chance to drop an entry here for a few days. But until then, I thought I’d let everyone know that I’ve cheered up a bit… but she has not yet called or e- mailed me. If I could have anything for Christmas this year, it would be to just be able to say “merry christmas” to her, and not her voicemail or e-mail. :\ I can only hope and pray at this point.

Well, I’m off… I’ll be back when I get some time. And I’ll give y’all a good update on my travels and stuff.

Take care,

~George