Sunday, April 13, 2014

April 13, 2014

I won four bucks on my latest Powerball ticket. I'm rolling in it. I think tomorrow I am going to switch to buying all of my tickets for one drawing so I can save myself a trip to the gas station. I was going to look at the historical data and see which drawing, Wednesday or Saturday, has more winners but I haven't gotten around to it. So for now I think it will just go for the Wednesday drawing.

I didn't really do much with my morning. I do know that I was in bed for about ten hours and that was pretty awesome, but I was still up by 9:00AM. Well, out of bed by then, I was awake awhile before that.

Eventually the afternoon arrived and sometime before 1:30PM I headed down to the church for my brother's Eagle Court of Honor. It was really weird seeing a bunch of kids in Scout uniforms, in the church, and them not being the kids I was in Scouts with a decade ago. I don't know if it makes any sense. The whole thing just sent me back to that time and it was strange. As for the Court of Honor, it was exactly how I remember them being back in my day. It made me feel old when my brother turned eighteen and him earning the rank of Eagle was probably about on par with that.

Another strange observation, the seating arrangements. It was all completely voluntary but the family was really spread out. I was in a back pew with my sister and her husband. My dad, step-mom, uncle, grandma, and step-grandparents were closer to the front. My step-uncle and his family were several rows behind them. You'd think we all would have sat together but nope.

After the ceremony we went down to the basement for the reception. I looked at the wall of Eagle Scouts as I always do, to see the pictures of my dad and uncle, and the kids who got their Eagle when I was in the troop. I got a pretty good laugh out of my sister (and later my grandma when I was retelling the story) when we were looking through the pictures of my brother's Eagle project. Somewhere in the photo album was a picture of me and when it popped up I exclaimed, all serious-like, “Am I balding!?!” It was pretty funny.

There was still over an hour before dinner so I headed home for awhile before heading back across town to the barbecue place. We had the front area reserved and the had a little buffet set up, none of which I could really eat so my step-mom and I went up to see what my options were. We talked to one of the waitresses and I ended up getting one of their meat salads, minus the meat and tomatoes and onions and cheese. So a salad of lettuce and carrots. But I have to say it was probably the best salad I have ever had at a barbecue place because it was probably the first time I didn't have to pick a bunch of crap out of it.

And although the salad was good, it was still just lettuce and carrots, so when I got home I supplemented my dinner with a fake hot dog, hummus chips, and peanuts. The rest of my night was spent doing laundry, watching Coachella performances, and looking up art prints. Probably a few weeks ago now I started getting into music again. That kind of sounds strange because I have a long history with music and I am always listening to it, but I kind of got into a rut where I was listening to the same old stuff and not really listening to it. But recently I have started appreciating music again, finding new stuff, and really listening to it. I have also started playing music again, guitar and piano, and I really want to pick up my bass again. And Coachella on YouTube and really spurred everything on. I've watched performances of bands I know and really like, as well as bands I had never heard of or only knew one or two songs. The most interesting one tonight was Unlocking The Truth, which is mix of heavy metal and other stuff, and they are apparently only in middle school. I had to google that because when they came on they looked like three little kids, and it turns out they are, but then they tore it up.

The art prints are an idea for my brother's graduation present. I'm thinking video game inspired prints. There were some I remember being really cool but can't remember where they were from or who did them. And I went through all my bookmarks without any luck. Fortunately I did find some other cool ones on Etsy. I'll need to narrow it down, and they probably won't arrive until after graduation, and then I'll have to frame them, but I'm feeling good about it.

One of the first grade teachers, the one who helped me get into reading so many years ago, sent out an email saying that she was going to retire at the end of the year. That is fairly sad news. She is very much a motherly figure for me at school, always concerned about how I'm doing, and we have good conversations at least a few times a week when her class comes to the lab. I knew she was thinking about retiring, she mentioned it briefly last year when one of the fifth grade teachers was retiring, but I thought it wouldn't be for another year or two. It's all a bit of a downer.


It is past eleven o'clock now, so past my bedtime, but I'm going to see if I can get up and exercise a little in the morning. Ever since my latest kidney stone, probably a little before really, I fell out of the practice. And since coming back from Spring Break I don't think I have gotten out of bed before 6:30AM. I hope to change that. I want to exercise and feel good about myself. Exercise always sucks but I feel so much better afterward.

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