The Stars That Usher Evening Rose

Niki and Jamie bought me a house or in my eventual cause apartment warming gift. They bought me a 4 or 4 and half foot tall knight made out of metal. He is really sweet looking, his helmet can even open and close. There is a little bit of a story behind it all.

My sister as well as Niki and Jamie went to Atlanta Friday morning (left here at 3am) to go to the Vera Bradley sale there. Well I woke up at exactly 11:40am that morning and three minutes later at 11:43am my phone beeps as if I have gotten a voice or text message. It ended up being a text message that was from Jamie. It said "Do you like knights?" I obviously found this to be quite the random question so I verified the question by asking if they were talking about a knight as in a medievil night. Jamie replied with a "yep" and I replied back saying "Yeah, why?" and all she said was "Just wondering :)" So at this point I was totally confused but let it go. About an hour later my phones beeps again and again it was a text from Jamie. This time asking me "What names do you like?" Once again I found it to be a very odd question so I asked "Names for what?" and she replied back "nothing never mind, don't worry about it" at this point I had a feeling they were up to something but Jamie swore they weren't. So that night when I got back from work I immediately asked the two of them (Niki and Jamie) what the whole knights and name thing was all about. Neither of them would tell me. Finally Niki turned to Jamie and said "Should we?" That immediately tipped me off that I was right that they were up to something. So anyway Jamie was like "You want to?" and Niki was like "Yeah lets go get it." So the two of them head out the door to the car. At this point I was just hoping they were not getting something Vera Bradley out of the car since Vera Bradley is not exactly guy stuff. They come back to the door and Jamie peeks her head in and tells me to close my eyes. So I close my eyes and I here the two of them come the rest of the way in and walk into the living room. About three seconds later they tell me I can look so I open my eyes and here is this Knight that is almost is tall as they are standing in the middle of the room. They said "His name is Sir Clancy" which supposedly my dad told them to name it and most people should be able to guess where the name came from, unless you don't know me.

On the Atlanta trip front we have settled on November 4th and 5th for the days. We did think about October 21st and 22nd but Jamie is playing the piano at a wedding the following weekend (October 28th) and she didn't want to lose those two days to practice. So that's why we went with the 4th and 5th. Instead of staying at Matt's we are going to get a hotel downtown somewhere hopefully within walking distance of the Coke Museum and Aquarium. My brother-in-law (Niki's dad) said he would book the hotel for us if we just told him where it was. We will come in the night of the 3rd and leave the afternoon of the 5th. We have talked about doing Underground Atlanta too since Niki has never been there. I have talked to Matt and he said he would meet us up there and go to some if not all of the places with us. Andrew may join too but haven't heard from him yet. So it should be fun.

Since my last post I have been making a bigger push to get the things done I need to in order for me to become a substitute teacher here in Charlotte. I have filled out the entire application and had the physical part done yesterday all I have left to do is to go back in tomorrow and have my TB test checked and then to turn the application in. Everyone I have talked to has said I should have no problem getting the job especially since I have a science background as they are supposedly really short on science teachers around here. So hopefully I will get that set up and started by the start of next month. We shall see though.

I have also began looking for apartments. Prices seem to be all over the place. One apartment was nearly $800 a month for a one bedroom but it did include free cable TV and free high speed Internet. Which having those two free is definitely nice its still not worth $800 a month. I contacted another that was $675 a month but they have no one bedrooms available next month so that killed them. I also found one that is $595 a month which yesterday I actually went and checked this out and talked to the people in the front office. They gave me a tour of one of the apartments which I have to admit was fairly nice. Has a living room, kitchen, bathroom, two halfway decent size closets, bedroom and a laundry room. So I am definitely going to have to keep that one in mind. Though I will continue my search and see if I can find anything just as nice that's in a decent area for less.

That's pretty much it for me lately other than working. Though Niki, Jamie and I have plans for a road trip in the works all we really have left to do is figure out exactly which day(s) we will go. We want to go to Atlanta to go to the new Coke museum and the Georgia Aquarium. I have been to the Aquarium already but that was almost two years ago so I want to go back. They can't seem to make up their mind if they want to do it all in one day or two days. If we decide on two days then we will probably invade in on Matt for the night. We shall see.

Lets see what has happened since I last posted. I went and had lunch with my friend Josh and his nephew before he left for school last month. Being hanging out lot with Niki and Jamie. Also been stepping it up when looking for real work, hopefully it will pay off.

I decided about mid-August that I did not want to go to Florida for several reasons. One being that I am enjoying myself up here as I do at least have some friends here, Josh (when he comes home on weekends), Niki and her friends (mainly Jamie), and of course Tim and Scott. Where as in Florida I have a grand total of zero friends. All I have there are my parents, Clancy and golf. Speaking of Clancy I have news on him I will post in a second. The other reason I don't want to go down there is because my parents(mainly my father) are going to be one my back 24/7 about the job stuff no matter what I do. My dad, though he always means well and truly wants to help, he only knows how to do it by making you feel like your a worthless piece of shit. Again I don't think he does it on purpose or even realizes he is doing it, but he does. So if I went down there mentally I do not think I could handle it. I think I would curl up in a little ball and do nothing. Cathy seems to think I would turn suicidal, which I highly doubt that but none the less it would be quite rough. So overall going down there I truly believe I would be totally miserable so I am trying to find a way to stay up here, which means stepping up the job search, hopefully landing a second job (looking into substituting) so I can afford and apartment.

Now on to the Clancy news. Unfortunately it is not good news. It seems over the last two months he has really gone down hill. He is now totally blind which causes him to have panic attacks at times. He almost never plays anymore (which anyone who knows Clancy will know that is totally unlike him). He has little control over his Bowel movements as my mom said he poops in the house two or three times a day now. He doesn't pee in the house as he still can hold that one. He can't jump up into any of the furniture at all anymore and they know believe his kidneys may actually be shutting down on him. They figure he has a month left before they are going to have to put him down. Which puts me between a rock and a hard place. As I definitely want to see him again but at the same time if I am there when they put him down it will be a lot harder for me than if I just came home to a house without him there. So basically I want to see him again but at the same time I don't want to be there when they take him to get him put down. It is definitely sad but was also something I knew was going to come a lot sooner than later. Therefore even if I did find a way to stay up here past this month I probably would still go down to Orlando for about a week or so to see him before they had to put him down.

On the Niki and Jamie front I have to admit we have had some fun and amusing times of late. We tend to hang out a couple times a week now whether it be just bugging someone at their work or hanging out here at the house. A week ago they called me up from their work(they work at the same place) and asked me if I would pick them up something to eat and bring it up to them because they couldn't go get anything themselves. Since I was bored I said sure. Jamie wanted Japanese food so they told me they were going to order from the Jap. restaurant near the mall and have me go pick it up. About ten minutes later Jamie calls back informs me that she has ordered and that Niki decided she didn't want anything. So I head over and get Jamie's food and take it over to the mall. Since it was already 8:30 and they closed in an hour I decided to sit there and hang out with them. Jamie had her iPod hooked up to the stereo and they were playing it over the speakers. Well all of a sudden the song "Crazy Bitch" starts to play. You should have seen the looks on their faces as they both realized it and took off running to change it. What made it even funnier is the two of them ran flat into each other as they ran to change it. So anyway 9:30 arrives and they close up the store and I head out with them. Well they ask me to carry the trash so I do and we make our way out and over to the dumpster. Well I thought it was one of those dumpsters with and open top and you throw the trash over the side and in. So I proceeded to throw the trash bag (not realizing the dumpster had a door that you opened on the side) but when I throw the trash bag I actually threw it a little to hard without realising it so the trash bag went flying all the way over the dumpster and landed on the other side next to an 18 wheeler. Well Niki and Jamie thought that was the funniest thing they had ever seen as they laughed so hard they said their stomachs were hurting. I thought it was funny too though not quiet as funny as they did.

Story two and probably the most humorous of the three I am going to tell happened this past Saturday. Let me give you the build up first. Niki and Jamie came over to the house from work as Jamie wanted to show Niki all the stuff she had bought at the Vera Bradley (sp?) sale. Throughout all this Niki kept trying to convince Jamie to stay the night (it was already 10:30pm) Jamie said she wanted to but was worried her dad would get upset if she stayed. Eventually Niki talked her into staying but Jamie needed to go home to get some clothes for church and work the following day. Well Jamie lives about 40 minutes away so the whole thing is basically like a mini road trip. So they ask me if I wanted to tag along and I said sure. So we get about half way there and Jamie changes her mind and decides she doesn't want to go all the way home but instead wanted to just go to Wal-Mart and buy new clothes instead. at this point its already 11:45 at night. So we get off and go to the Wal-Mart. Now Jamie is small, about 5'1" maybe 5'2" and skinny. So its difficult to find stuff that fits her as she wears a size 0. We looked all over including in juniors and smallest size we could find was a size 2. She did not like anything in that size but found a size 3 denim skirt she liked as well as a red shirt. She wanted to try them on so we went over to the fitting rooms. Now this is where the funny part begins. We get there only to find all the doors are looked, I look on the desk and happen to find the key and tell Jamie if she wants I can just unlock one for her but she was afraid we would get in trouble so I didn't. Not 30 seconds later an older lady who works for wal-mart walks around the corner. Now what happens next is one of those things you swear only happens in movies, but I'll be damned if I didn't happen then. The lady walks over to the phone and hits the page button and without missing a beat says "Customer needs assistance in lingerie with strapless bras" I swear to you the three of us about feel over laughing. Niki especially as she thought the lady was talking about Jamie even though Jamie was standing next to the desk no where near the strapless bras.

Then last night (Sunday night) Jamie comes over after she got off work at 6:30 pm. Well I had come up with the genius idea to have Bison burgers for dinner. We did not want to tell Jamie what it was as we thought she wouldn't eat it if she knew what it was before hand. So we start eating and the burgers still had a little pink in the middle and Niki makes the comment "I am surprised mine still isn't mooing, oh wait these don't moo." she turns to me and ask "What sound do they make" I thought about it but wasn't sure. Well at this point Jamie has caught onto the conversation and realises it isn't beef she is eating. She gives the burger a weird look and as she sets it down "this isn't a cow, then what am I eating". I then inform her it is a Bison/Buffalo meat and describe not only how it taste better than beef but also why its better for you. Fortunately this news did not stop her from eating it and by the time she was full she even said "I like Bison its good, I definitely like it better than cow." So, I have now gotten another person liking Bison. So anyway on to the amusing parts of the night. This was supposed to be a movie night. So we had decided we wanted to watch the movie "Fracture" first. Jeralyn wanted to watch it with us but had to get Jillian set up to watch her own movie first. So Niki, Jamie and I came into my room and sat around in here. I was laying on the bed with the dog Freckles and Niki and Jamie were sitting in the computer chairs. Not two minutes had pasted and the Freckles lets one rip right next to my head. Well this makes me jump back and cover up my nose undoubtedly with me letting out a few curse words. Well this sends Niki into hysterics making her fall out of her chair and bang her head against the legos bin, this interns sends Jamie into a laughing fit her self. While this takes place Freckles keeps banging into me. I am already on the edge of the bed so I am fighting to push her back to stop from falling off. Next thing I know I get rammed from behind and off the bed I go banging against the shelves and falling to the floor. At that exact moment the room went completely silent as the three of us were laughing so hard we couldn't breathe or even make a sound. We finally settle down and Jeralyn comes in saying she is ready. So we head into the living room. Niki changes into her flamboyant (only way I know how to describe them) pajama bottoms. Jamie then decides to do the same. Once she comes back she wasn't on the couch five minutes and realises that if she is going to stay another night that she needs clothes again for work the next day. Again not wanting to drive all the way back home she decides she wants to go to Target to get new clothes. Niki does want to go because she doesn't want to get dressed. Jamie tells her just to wear her pajama bottoms to the store again (she had worn them to wal-mart the night before) and Niki tells her fine but only if she( being Jamie) wears her pajama bottoms too. Jamie thinks for a second then agrees. They then ask me if me not only to go with them but if I will drive. So next thing I know we are on our way to target. Thankfully we found clothes much quicker this time. By the time we return Jillian's movie is almost over (had about 30 minutes left) and Jeralyn wanted to finish watching it before we started our movie. So we went in the other room and started watching TV. Well Niki all of a sudden decides she wants to make a smoothie and Jamie liked the idea. So they came into the room and started looking up smoothie recipes. Jeralyn at this point gave up on our movie as it was after 10pm. So next thing I know we are on our way to Wal-Mart to get some fruit to make smoothies. We buy our ingredients and head back. We then make the smoothies as the directions tell us too but upon tasting it we all agreed it was missing something. So we just added more of the fruit we wanted to have a stronger flavor of. Well in doing so it made the smoothie bland. So Niki gets up and goes and looks in the refreg. and freezer for other stuff to add. She finds coconut which both Jamie and I liked the idea of. So we threw like two hand fulls of coconut into it. Again though it was too bland, wasn't sweet enough. So Niki decides to add sugar. Which made it sweeter but because the sugar wouldn't dissolve it also made it grainier. Then Niki gets the brainy idea to add a cup of vanilla pudding to it. I figure why not as it wasn't like it was going to make it any worse. To our totally surprise it actually made it 10 times better if not actually really good. All toll we spent about an hour making our strange smoothie which Jamie wrote down the ingredients of calling it the "Niki, Jamie and Kenneth Smoothie" original I know, haha. So finally at like 12:40am we start the movie. We get about half way through it around 1:30ish and all three of us found ourselves hardly being able to stay awake so we decided to stop the movie and head to bed. Poor Niki and Jamie had to get up at 7:30am to get ready for work. Speaking of which I have to get up tomorrow morning at 8:30am myself so I should probably get going.

So until my crazy adventures continue I bed you farewell and I am off to bed.