Surprise!

Around Saturday at noon, my dad came back from the airport with my aunt Nancy and aunt Andrea. My uncle Adam had missed his first flight that morning so he had to schedule another one. My mom and my aunt needed to go grocery shopping to get some stuff for the surprise party on Sunday, and they were going to Super Wal-Mart so I went with them. I spent the majority of the time talking to these two guys I know from high school who work in the electronics department. I usually talk to them for a while every time I see them there. I'm not really friends with them or anything, but I enjoy talking to them when I see them. It also helps me kill time while my mom's grocery shopping because she takes a long time sometimes, and there's only so much time I can spend looking at things in Wal-Mart before there's nothing else to look at. Anyway, I bought the second season of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles on DVD, and a LEGO set:


This set looks so cool. I really love all the minifigures in it, and that robot is awesome. I love the clear dome at the top, and who doesn't love red light bricks? There are so many cool LEGO sets this year. A lot of the Agents sets, the Space Police sets, and I love the new Pirate sets. I don't have any of the new Space Police or Pirate sets though. This is the first LEGO set I've bought since shortly after Christmas when I kept finding big sets on clearance at various stores.

Anyway, when we got back from Wal-Mart, Adam was at my house. It was really strange at first. I hadn't seen him in 8 years, and I was being really quiet the whole time. He is less than 3 years older than me, but he still seemed much older. He looked like you'd imagine a computer programmer to look, I guess. He had pretty ordinary glasses, a polo shirt, shorts, and some Nike sneakers, and short, curly hair. He looked like a grownup. The next day he dressed more like a kid or something, it was kind of amusing to me. Haha. Anyway, he is pretty cool. As I got more used to him, we talked a lot more. He plays guitar, so we talked about guitars and music quite a bit. His favorite bands are Tool and Chevelle. I also told him about how some of my cousins and I have been talking about making music together. We call it "cousinband" when we talk about it, but if we ever get it started, we'll probably come up with a different name. A lot of this side of the family is musically inclined, and I think I probably have the least natural talent out of everyone else in the family. I told him if we ever make some cousinband music that I'd let him know so he could make some contributions, possibly in the form of guitar parts, since he's our uncle, and he's only a little older than us so he seems more like a cousin anyway.

Speaking of being musically inclined, that evening, we played the board game Cranium. My mom and Nancy were on one team, my dad and Andrea were on another team, and I was on a team with my sister and Adam. We were doing terrible at first. We had to do so many of those "humdingers" where you have to hum the melody of a song and the other people on your team have to guess it. I am terrible at humming, and the song I had to hum was "Don't Worry, Be Happy". I thought they'd get it right away, but they didn't get it at all. Those are the only words I know to the song, by the way, so I just kept humming that part over and over again, those 6 syllables, as everyone stared at me. Haha. The time ran out, and I yelled "Don't worry, be happy!" From then on, my sister and Adam did all the humming, and they are both amazing at it. During the Pictionary-like parts of the game where someone has to draw a picture, my sister was the designated artist, seeing as how she is a really talented artist. It was really funny, because we had some old pieces of paper from when we played the game years ago, and they were just sitting around the table. She had to draw an eyeball with her eyes closed, and I guessed what it was, and then I looked over at one of the years-old pieces of paper and there was an identical eye drawn on it, so apparently she had gotten the same card when we played it a few years ago. It's funny that she's so consistent, and she didn't remember drawing that eyeball before. She also had to draw a convent at one point, and later I found an older piece of paper with an identical convent on it. She kept joking about how even though she's been taking studio art classes in college, her art skills haven't grown at all.

Adam is allergic to cats, and we have two, so he was barely able to breathe all weekend. My mom was digging through the medicine cabinet and she found some Benadryl or something for him. While looking through the cabinet, she found a plastic bag full of candy, which I'm guessing my sister stashed in there a while ago and forgot about. She's always buying candy and not finishing it or not even starting it. There was a bag of gumballs in it, and a box of gobstoppers. I asked her about the candy, and she said she didn't remember it, but that she probably did stash it there since she's always doing stuff like that. So anyway, I told her I was thinking about putting it in my Mickey Mouse gumball machine, which is older than I am. I think it's from the 60's or 70's or something. But I didn't want to put them in there without asking if I could, but she said I could. Then she was talking about how she loves old fashioned gumball machines and wants one for her apartment, and she was talking about one of those HGTV home decorating shows or something where some woman made a gumball machine into a lamp. We both agreed that that was kind of stupid, because she took something really cool and made it into something rather ordinary. I said "If you're going to make an old fashioned gumball machine into anything, you should make it into a fishbowl." and then I kept thinking about the idea, and said "You know how people put marbles in the bottom of fishbowls? You could even put marbles that look like gumballs in there." My sister loved the idea and now she says she's planning on doing it.

Anyway, we all piled into our minivan and went to the surprise party for my uncle Mike. It was actually a pretty funny excuse that the host (Dave) made for inviting Mike over. Usually for surprise parties, people do things like invite the guest of honor over for dinner or something, and they have no idea anyone else is there, but Dave came up with this elaborate story about hurting his ankle and needing to get a chair out of the attic so he needed Mike to come over and help him get the chair. So Mike was on his way over and we were all there in the living room. His family pulled up in their minivan, and got out. His family came in first while Mike was obsessing over his parking job, and they were of course in on the surprise. Dave went outside with crutches (he was faking the hurt ankle), and was talking about the chair in the attic, and we could all hear Mike talking to him about how he also hurt his back recently so he didn't know if he'd be much help, and we were all trying not to laugh inside the house so he wouldn't hear us, but everyone was giggling. He walked in the door and we all yelled "Surprise!" and he just stood there quietly with a smile on his face, but like he didn't understand yet what was going on. Then Dave set his crutches down as he was walking in the door, and was like "It's a miracle! My ankle is healed!"

I think I was actually possibly more surprised than Mike was when he walked in the door, because he had shaved his moustache off. I don't think I've ever seen him without a moustache before, except in photos of when he was really young. I think he's had a moustache since before I was born. I've seen him with a thin beard before, but never without the moustache. I still wasn't used to the moustache loss when the party was over. He also told me he's thinking about growing his hair out now that he's retired from the army. He was a bit of a hippie decades ago and had long hair.

After a while, my sister and my cousin Patrick and I walked down to Westcott street to go to the new age bookstore there. I like going in there. It used to be better like five years ago before they changed management or whatever. They had a section with books about music. I have a really good book I bought there years ago called "Music, The Brain, And Ecstasy" and one called "Sacred Sounds" about the healing powers of music. The first one is way more scientific and philosophical too, and it really interesting. The "Sacred Sounds" one has a lot of new age BS in it that I don't believe, but it's still rather interesting and has made me think about certain aspects of music in another way. Anyway, I didn't find any books I wanted this time, but it was fun going there.

We went for another walk later, and I picked up a red leaf from the ground. I've been picking up a few leaves lately since it's autumn, and the album I'm working on is very inspired by nature, autumn especially, and I want to incorporate a red leaf into the album artwork somehow. So I've been picking ones up I think look good, and I'll decide which ones I want to put in the album artwork. The one I choose will just be scanned or something I'm sure, but I was thinking about maybe taking like 10 of the others and actually preserving them somehow and putting them in the album insert for real and those would be part of the deluxe editions or something. I think that could be really cool. I've put a lot of thought into how I'm going to present my music, and I want to make it very special.

Anyway, we got a lot of group photos taken at the party, so if anyone sends them our way, I'll possibly post a few. Patrick and my sister and Mike's two kids and I were all being very silly by the end of the party even though we were all very tired. We were doing that thing from that improv comedy show "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" where one person puts their arms behind their back and someone behind them puts their arms under the first person's arms. I don't know if I explained that well at all, haha. I kept having people be my arms because I was saying a lot of really funny things and making funny faces that went well with their arm movements. It's a shame more people don't know how to have fun at parties without alcohol. We were all sober and being really silly and having a lot of fun.

Adam had to leave this morning, so my mom and Andrea took him to the airport, and my dad took my sister back to her apartment. This morning while my sister was still here, she and I filled up my Mickey Mouse gumball machine with gumballs, and it was only half full, so then we put gobstoppers in it too. They are a different size than the gumballs and the gumballs say "dubble bubble" on them, so I'm not in danger of breaking my teeth on a gobstopper trying to chew it thinking it's a gumball. Haha. Here's Mickey:


I haven't been using the computer much this weekend because I've been so busy with family stuff. I think I'll work on music for quite a while, and probably put together that LEGO set today.

Second post ever.

This weekend my uncle Mike's friend (since they were kids) is throwing my uncle Mike a surprise retirement/birthday party (I think he's turning 60 or something, and he's retiring from the army). Some of my relatives that live far away are coming to stay at my house for the weekend because they can't stay at Mike's house. That would give away the surprise. A few of my aunts will be at my house as well as my uncle Adam.

These are relatives on my mom's side of the family. My father's side of the family doesn't really get along anymore, so I never see them. My mom had 6 siblings: 4 sisters and 2 brothers. My mom's parents got divorced years before I was even born, and her father married a woman that was about my mom's age. I can't remember if she was older or younger, but they're right around the same age. My grandfather and his new, young wife had two more kids. A daughter and a son. The son was actually born after my older brother was born, so my brother and I have a half uncle who's actually a bit younger than my brother.

My family goes to Florida about once a year and have since I was a kid, usually to visit my mom's sisters (3 of them live down there). We still go every year because in addition to those 3 aunts of mine that live down there, my brother also lives in the same city as one of them. He's a very talented video game designer. Anyway, when we were kids and my family would take road trips to Florida, we always stopped in Virginia to stay with my grandfather and step-grandma and their two kids, my half-uncle and half-aunt. We called them aunt Jennifer and uncle Adam despite the fact that they were both kids too. My brother and I would sleep in Adam's room and hang out with Adam while we were there. Naturally, since my brother and Adam were older than me and right around the same age as each other, I wasn't treated nicely all the time. I don't harbor any hard feelings about this though, that's just how kids are, especially boys, when there's an age difference like that. I wouldn't even be surprised if I was annoying.

In 2001, my grandfather died. I think Adam was in his first or second year of college. I thought it was very strange that my uncle was just college-age when his father died, but I guess that is what happens when you're in your 60's and have kids. So anyway, the whole family went to New Jersey for my grandfather's memorial, and we were all staying in the same hotel. That was the last time I saw Adam or Jennifer. I was 16 years old. A couple of years later, Jennifer got married, and I would have gone to the wedding except I was starting college, so I didn't get to go. After my grandfather died, and Adam and Jennifer were pretty much grownups, we didn't stop in Virginia anymore on the way to Florida, so I haven't seen them in years.

I found aunt Jennifer on facebook a while back, and I think that triggered the family getting in touch again, because just a couple days after I was having a conversation with Jennifer on facebook, her mother (my mom's stepmother, who if you remember, is about my mom's age) called my mother, just to talk. I guess it might have just been a coincidence, but I have a feeling Jennifer had told her mother that she had talked to me on facebook, so her mom decided to call my mom. Fast-forward months later, and my mom has been in contact with both Jennifer and Adam, and this surprise party for my uncle Mike was coming up. My mom invited both of them, but Jennifer can't make it, probably because her (I think 6 year old) son has school, but Adam can make it.

My mom was having trouble coming up with the sleeping arrangements since various relatives are going to be staying here, so it turns out Adam is going to be sleeping on my bedroom floor. It's like things have done a 180 or something. I used to sleep on Adam's floor, and now he's going to be sleeping on my floor. I feel very weird about it because it's been about 8 years since I've seen him, and I don't even know if he's cool or anything. I'm sure we've both changed since I last saw him (I wasn't very cool then), and I think my perception of cool has changed a lot since then. I'm 24 now, and my brother just turned 27 a week and a half ago, so that would make Adam 26, almost 27. Although the age difference doesn't seem nearly as big now as far as the numbers go, I have a feeling that he's still going to seem a lot older than me, and that to him, I'm going to seem young. He's been out living life for years, and I've been living with my parents for years.

This is sure to be an interesting weekend.

First post ever!

Some people I think are awesome, like Collin and Austin, have blogs. I felt left out.

I feel like my first post should be something special, but I can't think of anything special, so it's just going to be ordinary. Speaking of ordinary, the word "extraordinary" never sat right with me. I know what it means, but it always seems to me like it should mean "more ordinary", describing something that is exceptionally ordinary. Something so ordinary that it couldn't simply be described as being ordinary. "That's so ordinary that it's extraordinary." You know how sometimes when you say a word a bunch of times it suddenly looks like it isn't even a word anymore, because it just sounds silly. That's happening with "ordinary" right now. Who would read this blog? Seriously.

I like making popsicles out of Jell-O. Jell-O popsicles. It started out with me just using Jell-O. I made some Jell-O, but instead of putting it in the fridge to chill and solidify that way, I poured the colorful liquid into a popsicle mold and put it into the freezer to freeze and solidify that way. It's slimy and delicious, and when it melts, it doesn't drip. It just becomes Jell-O. After a few successful batches, I decided to start getting really creative. Frozen Jell-O has a really interesting texture and consistency, which reminds me of frozen banana, so I got some strawberry banana flavored Jell-O, and cut up a banana, and put it all into the popsicle mold. It was amazing. The banana and Jell-O basically became one entity when they froze. Next I tried "melon fusion" flavored Jell-O and I cut up pieces of watermelon to put in it. When I cut up the watermelon, there was a lot of excess watermelon juice, so I actually used that in place of some of the water in the making of the Jell-O. The frozen watermelon had a really strange texture, but again, it was a total success. After that, I don't know what happened. I tried mixing grape Jell-O with grape Gatorade and freezing it. Terrible. Then the other day I tried this:


One of the worst ideas I've ever had. For some reason, the Jell-O mix didn't even dissolve in the sparkling iced tea. It's too bad too, because I bet it would have tasted amazing. I wasn't feeling very confident before starting either, so I consulted my Oblique Strategies cards.


Interestingly, that was randomly picked from the deck, and it was about recipes. Probably the only card in the deck about recipes. Of course, I still didn't really know how to interpret it, so I don't think it even helped me.

Anyway, in other news, my A Fire Inside tickets came in the mail yesterday. My cousin Patrick, and my friend Todd, and I are going to see AFI on October 16th, and it's going to be a good time. It will be my fourth time seeing AFI live. It will be Patrick's second time, and Todd's second time.


I saw AFI for the first time in 2003 after Sing The Sorrow came out, and then twice again in 2006 after DecemberUnderground came out. Of the two times I saw them in 2006, one time I went with Patrick, and the other time was with Todd.