what i wouldn’t give for a day of sleep right now. even just an eight hour night. i can’t remember the last time i had one of those. but, like rod stewart sang, “tonight’s the night.” can i blame the rod reference on the sleep deprivation? or do i have to run a lap around the floor for that one? yesterday we had quite the experience for lunch. AD got in one of his moods where he wanted to find a new dining establishment to patronize. so we head park road toward the dilworth area. we stumbled into a joint called gone hog wild. they had an old lady behind the counter and were obviously mor eof a catering type of place. but they had two tables with the red and white picnic table cloths on them. the dining area. on the menu of course was carolina barbecue. eastern carolina barbecue. one of the first things a yankee like myself needs to learn is the difference between the two. with the eastern having more of an overbearing spicy vinegar taste and the western having a little more tomato based barbecue sauce, for my money, west is best. that is how i remember my preference. but the lady behind the counter seemed a little offended when i asked if they had the lunch special in western. “if you want western, go west.” right. why didn’t i think of that? why was i silly enough to think that charlotte was not in eastern carolina? damn geography. anyway, the lunch special came with the pork, some sort of stew, slaw with an okra in it, and delta dawgs. when we asked what the delta dawgs were, we were told that they were modified hush puppy type things. yeah. did i mention that southern barbecue does not come with or on a roll? that is right, just you and the meat. oh, and the bucket of sweet tea that we were each given? was more like raw tea extra over ice than iced tea. my god, i have never tasted a tea that stiff. and of course we all got to walk out of there with a catch phrase since the old lady that brought our plates left us with the hyped up sentiment of “get ready to live boys.” i think it was more of being able to appreciate that we were still alive after eating it. so witht hat torturing me well intot he late afternoon, i headed to volleyball last night. and we were going to run on time last night even if it pissed people off. you just have to keep some semblance of order. and we did. the whole night ran very smooth. and i got invited to the post-game bar by the one team afterward. it was good company. very enjoyable evening. and after checking all my personal email accounts this morning, i got an email from lisa colino (miller), who is an old high school friend. giving me the heads up on tentative dates for the 10 year reunion of penn manor high school’s class of 1994. i started getting emails from lisa and her old sidekick colleen a couple of weeks ago, and it has been so good catching up. leen was one of my best friends back in high school since we spent the year in classes together in 7th grade. that was when i made the mistake of telling leen that i thought lisa was hot. nothing better in life than being an awkward looking kid going through puberty and having a pack of girls chasing you down the hall in between classes to make fun of you. ah, those were the days. then lisa and i had classes together the following year, so it was kool and the gang. but sometime in july we are all going to get together and try to make heads or tails of the last ten years of our lives. it should be interesting to say the least.

ah, wednesday. the halfway marker of the weekends. i cannot wait for this weekend. i don’t think i am going to get out of my pajamas all weekend. except to bathe of course. they say you can’t really “catch up” on sleep, but i am going to give it a shot. just going to relax and finish putting away the new apartment. i just cruised through yesterday. an ever so thrilling conference call with the one jobsite in the morning, and then a lot of the same old same old in the afternoon. i got a nice email from my friend john in uzbekistan. he and the missus were able to relax with some tunes i burnt him and a bottle of wine in front of the fire this past weekend. its always glad to hear when friends are enjoying the simplicity of life. i know i have said it before, but it is always good to take some personal time to reflect on the good stuff going on around you. figure out what makes you happy, and as long as nobody gets hurt, run with it. last night i had the tuesday night volleyball league. that was the first time in two weeks since we got canned with the ice last week. i think everybody that was supposed to win last night, in my mind, won. and the new teams that came into the league are starting to get comfortable and have a good time. because that is what its all about right? sure. and i finally came home to a washer and dryer. thank god. they just brought the ones over from the old apartment (great song by barenaked ladies). so i did a little laundry and got some more stuff organized after i got home from volleyball. i think i am starting to make some head way on the whole settling in thing. so its more volleyball tonight, probably followed by a fours hours of sleep again. yippee!

hey, if anybody needs anything moved in the next week or so, don’t call me. my usual system of organized chaos was simply chaos. the boys all rolled over on friday night, with the exception of will the thrill, who had a date. we managed to knock out all of the heavy furniture and all of the electronics that night. every once in awhile it takes something like moving to remind me of the limitations of my body. having to military press the end of a couch to get it over a railing. or contorting to me able carry a mattress while walking backward up three flights of steps. there are things a man needs to do every now and again. let’s just say next year at this time i hope to be buying something, so that i don’t have to move again. after getting the heavy lifting done, tommy g. and i split a pizza and a twelve pack and i finally got him to see PCU. what a classic flick. its kind of an animal house of the nineties. if you haven’t see it you really should. and not on one of those comedy central afternoons. rent the real deal. saturday was back at it on the moving. cookie, her dad, and greg were just finishing up her stuff when i got over to the old apartment. we had a good year together and it was kind of sad to see her go. it was amazing that we didn’t kill each other, but we also had to stop hanging out so much once we lived together. and that is a shame, because we always had fun partying together. but she always has a place to crash when she comes back to the queen city. with her sister. kidding. tommy g. and the thrill helped me knock out the remainder of the stuff that was over there and we started to clean the joint up a little. i am really thankful that i have the friends that i do here. good friends are always a priceless commodity. and the cable dude was a rarity. looked like he was about eighteen. but i had tunes kicking when he got there to which he commented,”at least you don’t listen to shitty music.” i almost feel like i beat the system with figuring out that for two bucks more a month i could get two more premium channels out of time warner. so now i have hobo, skinemax, and showtime. now i just need to find the time to watch them. i think i maybe the first person to say that he wishes he had more time for tv. that is sick. so saturday night we went over to AD’s for a pre-super bowl warm up. AD, who went to clemson AND has an engineering degree, does not know how to tap a keg. from one guy to another, that has to be the epitomy of vulnerable admissions on the thump your chest like the alpha male scale. like saying you couldn’t change your own flat tire. just sad. but, he also procured a ping pong table saturday which totally replenished any cool points that may have been deducted. just had to help him carry it up to the bonus room. like i haven’t moved anything all weekend? and then he beat me three time on that damn thing. i went three and three for the night. it was good time though, ponging it up with the boys over a couple of beers. SUPER BOWL SUNDAY! its almost like a ritaulistic male holiday. and AD put out one hell of a spread. not only was there the ice cold keg of yuengling lager on the back porch, but he had wings, pizza and plenty of different chips. “hey, there aren’t any chicks here?!” “chicks? they don’t even have any chips!” “chips! chips! chips! chips!” (a little PCU exchange that i think of anytime somebody mentions chips) and the pong was in full effect again for the pregame. i actually went undefeated yesterday. i beat BA, will, tommy, both AD’s neighbors, and AD finally. then there was THE game. panthers vs. patriots for all the marbles. the whole schmegega. we got lucky in the first quarter with vinatieri missing one field goal attempt and having the second blocked. but we were getting killed on field position. there were too many three and outs. but going into halftime only down 14-10 was a good thing. it wasn’t the ass whooping that some predicted. and i thought our defense was kind of lacking by not being able to hold the patriots. and the one time they did, they got hosed by the refs on that first down. then in the fourth quater after tying it up, kasay goes and muffs the kickoff. that sucked. and it gave the patriots the field position they needed to get into field goal range. and this time vinatieri nailed it. so we lost by 3 points. but it was a great game, and i think the overall sentiment here in charlotte is that they are proud of the team for making it that far and keeping the game close. and overall, i would say it was a very entertaining post season for the NFL. now, the other super bowl events. the commercials were great as usual. anything with monkeys cracks me the hell up. i don’t know what it is. and the commercials with the guys from american chopper for AOL were a riot. and the bud light commercial were the dog bites the guys nuts and gets his owner the beer. priceless. then you had the haltime show spectacle. the whole thing was motoring along with nobody performing a song that was made in the last two years. and it was just about to wrap up when justin timberlake ripped a cup off of janet jackson’s chest, launching her breast out there for the world to see. nipple ring and all. you can get a good pic of it on the drudge report. www.drudgereport.com. and of course all parties are denying that it was on purpose. yeah right. mtv produced the whole thing, and cbs is pretty pissed. but they had to top the britney/madonna kiss right? the whole night was great. good game, great company. what more could a guy ask for? oh yeah, maybe a day or two of rest. but we’ll work on that.