I Left My Heart in Sage Francis co.

I've made some changes. I don't eat unhealthy food anymore. Or at least I'm on the pathway to that decision. I'm breaking up with chips, fried foods, sodas, and other assorted detrimentalities. I am beginning to feel that longing and sadness one feels after they break up with someone. Remember what that was like --the ole break up day? I don't know about ya'll, but for me it was an all day event. I will use Angelina Carasco as a perfect example of a textbook Nick-style break up. Allow me to create a short backstory here. Angelina was on my baseball team in 7th grade. We had a trip to the Netherlands for a tournament, and we sat next to each other the whole way up. I had a special skill in those days. If I could get an hour alone with a girl, she was mine. And there weren't a lot of things that could stop me. So after I made my inch-my-hand-over-to-her-hand-until-I-make-contact move, we started holding hands, snuggling, and saying sweet things to each other. Success!! So after we came back from the tourney, we stayed together for a while. We would hold hands walking to lunch, going to class, walking to the bus. We'd call each other once a week or so. Baseball practice was a tough one, but we got throught it. Or I guess we didn't, did we? Oh, also Angelina was cross-eyed and super cute. Didn't think those two could go together? Well don't you feel like a prejudiced, shallow jerk? She was also asian. Nice...
Anyways, when I finally decided that there were literally dozens of other girls I wanted to be seen holding hands with on the way to lunch, like Jamie Anderson (another post for another time), I woke up that morning with a purpose. I wrote the break up note in first period. I checked it in second period. I had Angelina in my third period class, but this was not the time or the place. I had a plan. Never break up with someone in English class or they'll write a poem about you and read it in front of the whole class (another post for another time). I tried to be as distant and aloof as possible so that she would start to get the hint. Then at lunch, I hid in the bathroom so that she wouldn't see me, and no one knew where I was. After lunch, it was smooth sailing. I had gym, and two more classes with neither her nor her friends. I started the note folding process in my last class, and sealed it with the famous FYEO1. Once I handed the note to her friend Stephanie, all was done and there would never be any reason to think otherwise. It turned out, however, that her brother Orlando was not as "cool" as I thought he would be. He was the captain of the baseball team, and he found out one day that I wasn't wearing a cup. In order to save myself from flashback pains, I will not elaborate.

Anyways

Here is a verse from a break up song by Sage Francis:



Maze broken
She’s runnin’
Feet swollen
He’s comin’
She’s stolen
And before he even knows it she’s gone.
Tea cups sittin’ on the hollow tree stumps
He’s dumped, and can’t seem to swallow these lumps
The beat goes on…

Yes it does, sir. Yes it does.

1For Your Eyes Only

Day of All Days

Saturday was one of the best days of my life.

Quick recap: 7am wake up, 9am get to venue, watch a bunch of audio dudes set up cords and wires and big speakers, 1215pm sound check, 1pm-5pm walk around with David waiting for cool people to start playing music, 5pm start stressing that we might go on early and Thunder won't even be there, 545pm Rachel and friends show up to make the whole thing worthwhile, 6pm start playing the best set of music that was played there all day, 610pm dance around in a space suit, 645pm finish up and walk off stage to begin signing autographs and basking in the praise of 11 year olds, 650pm receive praise from wife and friends (so sweet), 7pm watch Luminate play an awesome set, 745pm pack up stuff, change out of costume (so sad), leave to go to Buffalo Wild Wings, 9pm friends and food (what's better than that), 1030pm Juno and snoring (not because Juno is lame but because I fell asleep).

What a great day!

Don't Lose in the Stock Game of Life

That's what Lyndsey said just a sec ago.

My stocks hate me! I think that America found out that I was going to start investing in the market and it decided to start sucking at making money.

Now, now I need to calm down and develop patience. Everything is going to be okay. I should turn my stock ticker off and think of more amazing things.

Like...

I am going to be in my first concert ever on Saturday. AHHH!!! I know. It's amazing. And my enthusiasm makes it sound not as awesome, but it is going to be so great. We are really good, and hip-hop soothes my soul. You'll never see keyboards played as well as I am going to play them. Booyah! Suck on that, ayayayayayayayayayayayayayayay!

Being sick and the Best Thing Ever

Blech...

Those four... no wait... five magic letters ended teh txt msg i snt ->1 lanky

pause2
...
Unpause3

on thursday morning around 6:15 to inform my friend Panky Skanky Cranky Wanky Lanky4 that I would be unable to go to work that day due to my sickness.5 I then proceeded to go back to sleep and not wake up until around 3:30pm. That day was pretty much lame until about 8pm when the best thing ever happened.6 After that, some friends7 came over to view the greatest thing ever6 with Rachel8 and I after which we went to sleep on the fold out couch in the living room.9 The next day was a lot better. I woke up still feeling down in the dumps10 so I decided that I needed one more get well day. I started feeling a lot better around lunch time11 and that's when I started to get really excited about what I was doing that night.12 After David got off work, he came over and we got things ready and headed over to FBC Lindale Taco Bell13 in hand. We practiced until about midnite and then adjourned until 1pm the next day. The other musicians in the band are extremely skilled and it made things go very smooth. I am very excited about the concert. We are opening for Seventh Day Slumber14 and I feel like I may have heard of them before, but I'm not real sure. Rachel8 has assured me that they are on the radio, but unless they've been featured on npr15, I probably haven't heard them. Oh well.

Nick, signing off.

1This was me trying to make a joke about text message vernacular, but the sad thing is I don't even use text message language. I spell everything out.
2At this point I had to stop writing because the guest I was waiting for had arrived.
3Here is where I came back after class to resume posting.
4The best thing about David's nick name is that you can add as many rhyming words in front of it as you wish.
5I later found out it was a sinus infection.
6The Office returned with an painfully awkward episode where Michael staged a fake late night work assignment from corporate that effectively cleared Jim, Pam, Andy, and Angela's schedules which then allowed Michael to invite them to a dinner party without fear of them declining. It was a great way to ease us back into the swing of things with some of the funniest people on TV.
7David and Shannon
8The greatest wife ever who recently started a new job!!!!
9We have blue satin sheets and it looks really funny, but it's very comfy.
10Yah, I really should have thought of a different phrase.
11Hmmm... I had clam chowder, rice, tortillas, salsa, and a yummy diet coke.
12Daniel aka Thunder had asked David and I to be a part of his band for a concert he was doing on the 19th, and this was the night of our first rehearsal.
13Chicken Grilled Stuft Burrito and Chicken Soft Taco Fresco Style
14Go here
15The frickin best radio station ever. What would I do without it?16
16Listen to something else probably.

April Stock Purchases Bring May Dividends

If you or your loved ones have not begun investing in the wonderful world of stocks, bonds, hedge funds, mutual funds, etc, you are missing out on mutual fun. The world of stocks isn't all about earning, buying low, selling high, stock tickers (i have one and it's awesome), and that Mad Money show where the guy pushes buttons and tells everyone what to buy. No! It's so much more. If you haven't dabbled in stocks yet, then you are missing out on some of the great slang talk of our century.

Being an amatuer myself, I am still intrigued by the liberal use of animal symbolism in the financial world. If you are a Bull, you are an investor who thinks the market, a specific security, or an industry will rise. If you are a Bear, you are an investor who believes that a particular security or market is headed downward. So if I were to say, "In stocks today, the bulls are smiling down at the bears." I think that would mean that stocks are up. Starting to get it? Let's hear some more. If the market is neither moving up or moving down, it is a Deer Market: A flat market; a deer market is characterized by low activity, with timid investors waiting for a sign of which way the market is going to end up moving. So if I were to say, "The bulls and the bears feasted on the timid deers this morning as many stocks rose significantly while many others plummeted." Get it yet? Here is more. Bulls, bears, and deers aside, we can even see stocks being characterized by pretty little insects like Butterflies!!! That's right. A Butterfly Spread is an option strategy combining a bull and bear spread. It uses three strike prices. The lower two strike prices are used in the bull spread, and the higher strike price in the bear spread. Both puts and calls can be used. Sadly, this lingo is a bit above my current understanding, but one day I will dream of bulls, bears, deers, and butterflies frolicking in a field of my own money as I sit back in my lounge chair made of money, smoking a cigar filled with dried money. One day...

Other weird stock terms:
Iron Condor
Strangle
Long Straddle
Angelina Jolie Stock Index
Aunt Millie
Alligator Spread
Bagel Land
Back of the Napkin Business Model
Big Uglies
Chameleon Option
Clean Your Skirts
and so on and so on and so on...