The Stars That Usher Evening Rose

Has it really be over a week since I last posted, geez. Seems more like two or three days ago.

GO GATORS!!! Final Four, only two wins away from a National Championship. They play George Mason next weekend in the Final Four. Which normally I would call that an easy win but not this time. Not with the way George Mason has been playing so far in the tournament.

I finally declared my major. I didn't realize that I had not done that yet until about a month ago when I got an e-mail saying I still needed to. So on Friday that's what I did. I need to go talk to the Foreign Language department about trying to get out of taking a foreign language because if I am able to it will make my final year much easier. So I plan to do that next week. Still haven't heard anything from the state about tuition. I am starting to get flustrated. If I find time I plan to go ask what the hell is going on. Though I love this school I have to say I have lost all respect for its administration with the way I have been treated. Anytime I try to go talk to people I feel like I am getting the cold shoulder and that they don't want to talk to me. I mean last time they turned me down they did not even tell me why. They have proven to me over and over again they couldn't give a rats ass about their students.

My parents bought, with the help of my Aunt Jesse, a RV for our trip this summer. I don't know if I have mentioned it but we are planning a large road trip for this summer. Leaving from Orlando, FL heading up to Charlotte, NC to pick up my sister and her two kids. From there we plan to head to Williamsburg, VA. From there its off to Washington DC where we will probably spend two days. After DC we plan to head up to New York City and spend a couple days there before heading across the state to Niagara Falls. From Niagara Falls we are going to head into Canada and up to Toronto. That's the first half of the trip and we are still planning the second half as we would like to take a different route back.

Well I had a pleasant surprise in my mailbox today. I checked my mail today and had two things in it, one was junk mail and the other was from the school. I was hoping it was going to be the letter telling me what the state decided on my tuition status. But instead when I opened it up I found a $1,374.90 check inside. At first I had no idea what it was for. After thinking about it for several minutes I got an idea what it might have been for so I went to the cash office to find out. It was a check for the left over amount of my loan that the school hadn't used. That verified that my thinking was correct but I wanted to make sure before I did anything with it. So about an hour later along with my work checks I deposited $1,699.90 in my account today. Not bad if I do say so myself. Only downfall I guess is that eventually I will have to pay the check back. Nonetheless it was still a pleasant surprise today.

The first dream was the weirder of the two. It started with me crouched down in some bushes peering out towards the street ahead. Within seconds I felt a sharp tap on my back. I looked back and saw the bushes behind me moving but didn't see anything so I went back to looking out towards the street. I was watching some sort of battle battle between a bunch of small creatures riding some sort of weird looking animal. I then felt another sharp tap on my back and again saw nothing so this time I stood up out of the bushes and saw an ostrich standing there. I looked back towards the street and realized that it was ostriches that they were riding. So I decided to climb on to the one that was standing near me that had been poking me in the back. Not a few minutes after I climbed on I saw another Ostrich come running past me with one of those creatures on it. This gave me a closer view of what the creature looked like and it looked like a really small bear (a little larger than a cub) with a human face. It raced passed me towards the others battling in the street. I happened to look down and saw two large cloth pouches hanging down on each side of the ostrich. One held these boomerang type things and the other had a club looking weapon. At that moment I heard a whizzing noise go by my head and looked up to see one of those boomerang things had just gone passed me. I looked in the direction of it and saw one of those human bear creatures was running towards me on its ostrich. I then pulled out the club and as it had also pulled out theirs and as it got close enough to me I pulled back the club and hit the human bear thing as hard as I could in the head and its head exploded into a million pieces. But not with blood or guts or anything like that it exploded like if it was made out of styrofoam and even made a sound as if it was styrofoam. Then a point total of 600 points popped up above its head (or the left over body in this case). I looked back towards the street watching for a moment and noticed when a hit or a kill was made point totals popped up. I was in what seemed like the middle of a video game. I decided since that one had attacked me that chances were others would come after me as well so I took the offensive and headed towards the street to join the battle. Once reaching the street I throw a boomerang at the first creature I saw and hit it on the arm chopping off its arm just below the elbow and again it came off like styrofoam and 100 points popped up above its head for the hit. The creature then turned towards me and with its other hand chucked one of its own boomerang things at me and it hit me in the side. I felt only the pressure of the hit, no pain, and saw chunks of my side fly off and looked up seeing a 100 point total above my head. I then took my club out and charged the creature hitting it in the head, like I had with the first one, and its head exploded giving me the 600 points. I then felt something hit me in the back and reached back and pulled a boomerang thing out of my back. Looked up and saw the 100 points. I turned around to see who had hit me and before I could return fire, I woke up.

The second dream wasn't quiet as strange as the first. This one involved my Nephew William, Jacqueline and my sister Cathy. Cathy, Jacqueline and I were sitting in the stands of a medium sized outdoor stadium watching a cheerleading competition that William was going to be participating in. The one group before Williams finished up and we waited only what seemed like seconds before Williams group game out. William lead the way wearing a strange costume that reminded me of what a Ring Leader at a circus would wear. With the tall black top hat, and long black sparkly pants with a white shirt and a black sparkly coat to match the pants over that. He had a microphone in his hands and began speaking to the crowd explain what they would be doing in the competition. Not but a minute into the competition my dream shifted and I was now walking behind the stands with William talking to him. He was telling me how this was going to be his last competition because he was going to quit. I asked him why and he told me it was because it required more work than he wanted to put into it. I argued with him that it can't be harder than when I wrestled back in high school. He swore it was and started explaining why he thought so but before he could finish explaining it I woke up. I fell back asleep again and started dreaming again but this one was different in this dream I woke up(in the dream) to having water balloons being thrown at me by Cathy and Jacqueline. Jacqueline was laughing and Cathy noticed I had woken up and said, "Phew, Its 4pm I almost thought you were going to break my record there for a minute". I assumed she was referring to length of time sleeping in. Even though I was awake Jacqueline throw another water balloon at me and started laughing. I then woke up in real life half expecting to find my self soaked but I was of course dry.

One thing I noticed while on Spring Break this past week was how high property cost have gotten. I have seen signs of it in the last few years but I really noticed it this past week. There are several new neighborhoods going up near my sisters place and in every one of them the houses are right up against each other. Back even just 10 years ago pretty much the only time I can remember seeing homes up against each other like that were with the smaller homes in those starter or retirement communities. Now you see them everywhere. Not just in small homes anymore either. Even the mid-size and larger homes are being built right up against each other. There is this one neighborhood going in down the street from my sister's place with homes in the $300,000-$500,000 range and they are being built right on top of one another. Then just down the street from those there are these three homes that were just built right on the main road that coast over $600,000 and they are also built right on top of each other. One of the biggest examples of this I noticed was actually over the summer when My dad, Uncle and I went to a car show and afterwards decided to drive around some of the neighborhoods around there. This one neighborhood had a street that had $1,000,000-$2,000,000 homes and there was no more than 10 feet between the houses. A couple of them were under construction so we decided to get out and walk through them. If you look out the second floor of one of the houses in the direction of the one next door all you see is the roof of the others garage. I do not know about most people but if I was to spend $2,000,000 on a home I would want a lot more than 10 feet between me and the person living next to me. All I know is when the day comes that I am in position to buy a house I will probably start looking at older homes that actually have some property because I like my privacy.

As for Spring Break it was much needed. Though a week was nice, it wasn't enough. And not just because I wanted a break but because my brain needed a break. I was beginning to burnout. Though the burnout will no doubt return by the end of the week. I think the stress and the burnout was causing me health problems as well as for the last couple weeks leading up to Spring Break I was have some heart issues with it skipping beats basically everyday. Over Spring Break though the skipped heart beats went away and all was normal again which has led me to believe it is the stress of this school year weighing down on me that has been causing it. Summer needs to get here fast because I need the extended break and not just because I want it but for health reasons as well. I guess I have become living proof of my philosophy that school is bad for your health.

My friend Matt came in from Atlanta and stayed at my sisters in Charlotte through last Tuesday before heading back home. We went and raced some go-karts and played some put-put one day. He spent a chunk of another working on my sisters home computer and messed up her work laptop in the process, which she wasn't happy about. He (with the help of Michael) got the home computer working though. Every night he was there he got midnight cravings and we would head out to Taco Bell or McDonald's to get something since those are pretty much the only paces open that late. I also bought a PS2 game(TOCA Race Driver 3) and a movie (Saw II) using his blockbuster discount while he was there. After he left Tuesday I spent the pretty much the rest of the week running around like crazy. On Wednesday I had to take Jacqueline to her horseback riding lessons. Thursday I had to go met my sister Jeralyn for lunch up near her house in Concord. Then Friday I got to pretty much see what it was like to be a single parent. First I had to get up sorta early and take my sister to get Lasik surgery done on her eyes (which I got to watch). Then I had to take Jacqueline and her friend to their bowling party and after dropping them off I had to go pick William up at school with the intention of bowling ourselves only to find that Jacquelines school had all the lanes filled (which at this bowling alley is like 150 lanes). So because of that I had to take William home and then an hour later I had to go pick Jacqueline and her friend up from their bowling party and bring them back home. Then Saturday I had to go pick up some of Williams friends and take them to Blockbuster to rent stuff for their sleepover. Now I am back on campus at work getting ready for the hell to restart at 10:25am tomorrow when my Physics class starts.

I will post later about two dreams I had over break, another really weird one and one sort of normal one (for me anyway). Oh, and Go Gators (27-6) as they won their 2nd consecutive SEC Tournament Championship today.

These warm temperatures need to go away. It's only the first of March and we are in the mid 70s. As a matter of fact we set a new record high here in Asheville today of 75. I want the 40s-50s to come back. Though I dislike the warmer weather I do have to admit it has its advantages but that doesn't change the fact that it is only the first of March so its not supposed to be warm like this. Thankfully by next week we will be in the 50s again.

And speaking of weather our weather forecast for the radio has officially begun. So Monday March 13th I will have my first go at giving a forecast. I am kind of looking forward to it, I expected to be nervous about it but so far I am not. Still over a week away for my first time so that could change.

Spring Break is just about here. Starts Friday and I will head to my sisters place in Charlotte. My friend Matt is coming up from Atlanta to hang out for a couple days. That should be cool as I haven't seen him in almost a year. Hopefully I will be able to hook up with some of my other friends around town so I do not die of boredom. Overall though I need the break whether I am bored or not. School is wearing on me. Unfortunately though it only last nine days so it will probably fly by and be time to come back up here in no time. Oh well should do me some good anyway. Hopefully give me some decent stuff to post about as well.