Ok so we’ve all heard of the “Wee Complex” (my phrasing). This is that when something is small it seems to try and overcompensate or overcome the size by being much more aggressive. It cracks me up, and I really enjoy seeing all the evidence of it right here around my neighborhood.
Today I’m out for a run, and as usual I round the corner at about the ½ mile mark and there is the little Chihuahua with the deepest bark. It’s always there waiting on anyone to pass by so that it can scream at them to let them know just how “bad” he is and how he owns this area. I’m serious about this bark too. I mean I’ve got two 60 Lb labs that don’t bark like that. But, that is a normal occurrence. Nothing out of the ordinary there, it’s just the Same Ole Same Ole.
So now for the reason for the post… I’m cruising along listening to music and not really paying attention to anything else when all of a sudden I hear this awful screech or squawk or whatever. I get to looking around and that’s when I see about a 14 Lb, fluffy, black cat doing its best to blend into a brick wall. I mean this thing is pressed into the corner of the garage area and I know its summoning its chameleon skills, but to no avail, black just don’t blend in to red. Then I see where the sound is coming from. There is a little bird (aka. “rat with wings” as Emily would say) that is screaming its head off. I watch as it dive bombs this poor cat, which I guess got a little close to the ole nest. The cat’s running for its life from this 4 oz bird and I can’t help but laugh. As I passed, the cat had worked its way under the car and the bird took up its perch on the gutter to watch. HEHE I do believe there may have been a little trail that was following that cat, and I don’t think it was water.
I write this to say watch out. Small doesn’t mean weak, and there is now a black cat with a hairless butt that could testify to that.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Friday, May 1, 2009
Can't get no face time!!
OK so it’s time for the first real post. I’ve had a blog for a few weeks now, and oddly enough I figured out that it wasn’t writing itself. So, I figured I would give a write-up about Emily and I met/dated or whatever. Some of you may have already read about it on Emily’s blog, but here is the real story.
Emily and I first met my freshman year at Louisiana Tech. I had joined the ABS (Association of Baptist Students, and we went to Farmerville (yeah I know I was thinking the same thing the first time I heard it, but what can I say I’m from Pride) to participate in a hayride/caroling “event”. Well when we get there we meet up with some of the youth from our ABS director’s church. It just so happened that Emily is one of them (I’m taking her word here). Well we played the game chubby bunny which is Latin for stuff marshmallows into your mouth into you actually suck marshmallow juices into your lungs. Emily just so happened to be the one that was shoving the marshmallows into my mouth (someone has to help because at some point your own body says “no you can’t put any more marshmallows in” so someone else has to shove them in). As luck would have it, I have an extremely large mouth, and not only did we win, we lapped the nearest team. Well after that you have to get rid of the marshmallows, and now you can tell that I was not in the least bit worried about impressing her. It’s hard to look cool when it looks like the Stay Puft Marshmallow man is crawling out your mouth. So yeah I really don’t even remember meeting her that night. Pretty embarrassing, but oh well she’s not offended.
A couple of years later Emily started college and also came to the ABS. Please keep in mind that I still didn’t remember who she was, but oh well. Over the first few months, we became friends and hung out with our typical group of friends (great times and good friends). I have to admit that come the November/December time frame I was interested. Now here is the kicker. She didn’t think I was interested in her because I actually thought my friend Keith (look you got a shout out) was interested in her. I mean they went everywhere together and hung out all the time. So, following the guy code, I decided not to interfere. If Keith liked her, I wasn’t going to get in the way. It took a few weeks before a few of my really good friends kinda cornered me at my house and said “so you know Emily likes you right?” I’m like “WHAT? I thought Keith liked her.” And then they all laughed at me. Boy that’s not humiliating. So now, cool she likes me.
I thought the next part would be easy. Just ask her out. The problem is that my “good friends” were always around us. I couldn’t get her alone to ask her for anything. I’m old fashioned, so I wasn’t going to do the phone thing. If I’m gonna ask her, I’m gonna do it face to face. Well then the opportunity arises. She invites a few of us to her house to hang out. So I do what everyone did at that time, I burned a “Napster” disc with some good music to listen to on the 45 MINUTE DRIVE (sheesh I never thought we would get there, because we actually turned on roads without lines). So I’m driving up there in my truck with Micah and Keith and I think to myself, “self, if you leave this CD inside you will have to go back in by yourself to get it.” SWEET I know how I can get her alone to ask her. Well we show up at the house and her Mom makes some sweet cheese dip and Quesadillas. That’s awesome because they were great. I would almost have started dating her just to eat her Mom’s cooking, but I digress. We get ready to leave, I check on the perfect placement of the CD on a writing desk just inside the door, and we head out to the truck. What happens you ask? Well I hear Keith behind me say “Oh hey you forgot your CD. Don’t worry I brought it with me.” ARRGGHHHH
So that plan was thwarted, so I had to start plotting again. Most of you probably don’t realize just how hard it was to get one on one time with our group of friends. We went everywhere together. Anyway, we go to this David Crowder concert (he rocks), and while we are there I “steal” a light off of her keychain. I figure this way I’ll have to bring it back to her or something. After the concert, we all go back to our house (mine and my two roommates) and just hang out. Well, Emily leaves and heads out to her jeep, so I make my move. I follow her outside and give her the light back and then say something really profound, earth shattering, and memorable like “So uh would you uh like to maybe uh go to dinner sometime uh you know if you want to?” Well to my relief she said yes, and U turned around headed inside only to hear her set off the car alarm because she forgot to turn it off (hehehe).
Our first date was on January 19 2001, and I didn’t even have to look at her blog to figure that out. I purposely didn’t tell my roommates because I didn’t want to have to get ragged on for a while and answer a million questions, but when you start looking for the iron (yep throwing in the dryer won’t work this time) in three guy’s house, they figured something was up. Well I made it out mostly unscathed and drove to pick her up. We went to Copeland’s in Monroe (another 30 minute drive). Well so I’m pretty much a broke college student like everyone else, but I have my debit card and enough money in the bank to cover it. The problem is, we sit down and are looking over the menu and that is when I realize that there is no MasterCard at the bottom of the menu. American Express? Check Visa? Check MasterCard? NOPE. Well so now I’m doing the check you wallet under the table thingy and I realize that I have about $20 in my wallet. All I can think is “please please order cheap and let the waitress not mind that she’s about to get stiffed.” Well as luck would have it, she orders just a salad, and I didn’t even have to ask her to. So I order something cheap too, and when we’re done I ask if she wants dessert knowing that if they don’t take my card I’m in trouble. She says that she’s stuffed. I’m so distracted I don’t even take notice of the fact that she ordered this itty bitty salad and didn’t eat it all. Anyway, they ended up taking my card WHEWWW. That would have been a rough way to start the whole dating thing. “So do you have any money? Cause if not, we get to do dishes or I get arrested or something like that.”
Now you would think that the date would pretty much be over, but no. I now went back to Farmerville and met her entire family. That’s not that big of an exaggeration, because I was meeting cousins and Aunts and Uncles. So to return the favor, she had to meet my entire family the next day (they had come to watch a choir program we were having). Any of you who have had the pleasure of meeting my family know that we aren’t exactly what you would call a “quiet” group. Well Emily gets a little bit different of an impression. Once my family gets to my house, we settle in to start talking and telling stories (same ‘ole same ‘ole). Emily come pulling in a few minutes later and is about to walk into a room filled with a good portion of my family. She opens the door and that’s when my little brother Adam turns around and greats her with “Hey I’m Adam, Jace’s brother.” Ok so you think big deal he said hello, but to my family we were all like “HOLY COW ADAM TALKED TO SOMEONE.” You see my brother was a little shy (not nearly as much so now thanks to his lovely wife). Adam didn’t really initiate conversation, so my family is just floored. Now Emily looks around a room of complete strangers that are all staring open mouthed and not saying a word. That was great. Oh to be inside her mind while she thought they were all staring at her. Priceless
So we date for a while, and really enjoy hanging out together. Now, I’m going to include this part because I thought this was great. I’m out at her house one night, and her Mom decides to make us some Rice Krispies treats at like midnight (see note about her Mom’s cooking. YUM). We eat them and hang out for a while and then I head back home. As I’m going to unlock the door to my house, I hear one of my roommates (Gary) asking my other roommate (Rob) where I am. So I open the door and get the opportunity to meet my new mom aka Gary Hickman. Gary sits me down on the couch and begins to ask me why I am running so late. I say “what?” He then begins to lecture me on staying at a girl’s house that late. I tell him that her Mom even made us Rice Krispies treats at midnight, and that It’s no big deal. That’s when he says, and I quote, “That’s because ain’t nothing good happening between a guy and a girl after midnight.” Wow I just got a lecture from my roommate. SO do I drop it? No I argue like I would with my parents. I say, “But Rob stays at Lynette’s late.” That’s when Gary comes out with a line that followed us through college. “Sure but they’re established.” Ha that was great.
So that’s how the early days of me and Emily started.
Emily and I first met my freshman year at Louisiana Tech. I had joined the ABS (Association of Baptist Students, and we went to Farmerville (yeah I know I was thinking the same thing the first time I heard it, but what can I say I’m from Pride) to participate in a hayride/caroling “event”. Well when we get there we meet up with some of the youth from our ABS director’s church. It just so happened that Emily is one of them (I’m taking her word here). Well we played the game chubby bunny which is Latin for stuff marshmallows into your mouth into you actually suck marshmallow juices into your lungs. Emily just so happened to be the one that was shoving the marshmallows into my mouth (someone has to help because at some point your own body says “no you can’t put any more marshmallows in” so someone else has to shove them in). As luck would have it, I have an extremely large mouth, and not only did we win, we lapped the nearest team. Well after that you have to get rid of the marshmallows, and now you can tell that I was not in the least bit worried about impressing her. It’s hard to look cool when it looks like the Stay Puft Marshmallow man is crawling out your mouth. So yeah I really don’t even remember meeting her that night. Pretty embarrassing, but oh well she’s not offended.
A couple of years later Emily started college and also came to the ABS. Please keep in mind that I still didn’t remember who she was, but oh well. Over the first few months, we became friends and hung out with our typical group of friends (great times and good friends). I have to admit that come the November/December time frame I was interested. Now here is the kicker. She didn’t think I was interested in her because I actually thought my friend Keith (look you got a shout out) was interested in her. I mean they went everywhere together and hung out all the time. So, following the guy code, I decided not to interfere. If Keith liked her, I wasn’t going to get in the way. It took a few weeks before a few of my really good friends kinda cornered me at my house and said “so you know Emily likes you right?” I’m like “WHAT? I thought Keith liked her.” And then they all laughed at me. Boy that’s not humiliating. So now, cool she likes me.
I thought the next part would be easy. Just ask her out. The problem is that my “good friends” were always around us. I couldn’t get her alone to ask her for anything. I’m old fashioned, so I wasn’t going to do the phone thing. If I’m gonna ask her, I’m gonna do it face to face. Well then the opportunity arises. She invites a few of us to her house to hang out. So I do what everyone did at that time, I burned a “Napster” disc with some good music to listen to on the 45 MINUTE DRIVE (sheesh I never thought we would get there, because we actually turned on roads without lines). So I’m driving up there in my truck with Micah and Keith and I think to myself, “self, if you leave this CD inside you will have to go back in by yourself to get it.” SWEET I know how I can get her alone to ask her. Well we show up at the house and her Mom makes some sweet cheese dip and Quesadillas. That’s awesome because they were great. I would almost have started dating her just to eat her Mom’s cooking, but I digress. We get ready to leave, I check on the perfect placement of the CD on a writing desk just inside the door, and we head out to the truck. What happens you ask? Well I hear Keith behind me say “Oh hey you forgot your CD. Don’t worry I brought it with me.” ARRGGHHHH
So that plan was thwarted, so I had to start plotting again. Most of you probably don’t realize just how hard it was to get one on one time with our group of friends. We went everywhere together. Anyway, we go to this David Crowder concert (he rocks), and while we are there I “steal” a light off of her keychain. I figure this way I’ll have to bring it back to her or something. After the concert, we all go back to our house (mine and my two roommates) and just hang out. Well, Emily leaves and heads out to her jeep, so I make my move. I follow her outside and give her the light back and then say something really profound, earth shattering, and memorable like “So uh would you uh like to maybe uh go to dinner sometime uh you know if you want to?” Well to my relief she said yes, and U turned around headed inside only to hear her set off the car alarm because she forgot to turn it off (hehehe).
Our first date was on January 19 2001, and I didn’t even have to look at her blog to figure that out. I purposely didn’t tell my roommates because I didn’t want to have to get ragged on for a while and answer a million questions, but when you start looking for the iron (yep throwing in the dryer won’t work this time) in three guy’s house, they figured something was up. Well I made it out mostly unscathed and drove to pick her up. We went to Copeland’s in Monroe (another 30 minute drive). Well so I’m pretty much a broke college student like everyone else, but I have my debit card and enough money in the bank to cover it. The problem is, we sit down and are looking over the menu and that is when I realize that there is no MasterCard at the bottom of the menu. American Express? Check Visa? Check MasterCard? NOPE. Well so now I’m doing the check you wallet under the table thingy and I realize that I have about $20 in my wallet. All I can think is “please please order cheap and let the waitress not mind that she’s about to get stiffed.” Well as luck would have it, she orders just a salad, and I didn’t even have to ask her to. So I order something cheap too, and when we’re done I ask if she wants dessert knowing that if they don’t take my card I’m in trouble. She says that she’s stuffed. I’m so distracted I don’t even take notice of the fact that she ordered this itty bitty salad and didn’t eat it all. Anyway, they ended up taking my card WHEWWW. That would have been a rough way to start the whole dating thing. “So do you have any money? Cause if not, we get to do dishes or I get arrested or something like that.”
Now you would think that the date would pretty much be over, but no. I now went back to Farmerville and met her entire family. That’s not that big of an exaggeration, because I was meeting cousins and Aunts and Uncles. So to return the favor, she had to meet my entire family the next day (they had come to watch a choir program we were having). Any of you who have had the pleasure of meeting my family know that we aren’t exactly what you would call a “quiet” group. Well Emily gets a little bit different of an impression. Once my family gets to my house, we settle in to start talking and telling stories (same ‘ole same ‘ole). Emily come pulling in a few minutes later and is about to walk into a room filled with a good portion of my family. She opens the door and that’s when my little brother Adam turns around and greats her with “Hey I’m Adam, Jace’s brother.” Ok so you think big deal he said hello, but to my family we were all like “HOLY COW ADAM TALKED TO SOMEONE.” You see my brother was a little shy (not nearly as much so now thanks to his lovely wife). Adam didn’t really initiate conversation, so my family is just floored. Now Emily looks around a room of complete strangers that are all staring open mouthed and not saying a word. That was great. Oh to be inside her mind while she thought they were all staring at her. Priceless
So we date for a while, and really enjoy hanging out together. Now, I’m going to include this part because I thought this was great. I’m out at her house one night, and her Mom decides to make us some Rice Krispies treats at like midnight (see note about her Mom’s cooking. YUM). We eat them and hang out for a while and then I head back home. As I’m going to unlock the door to my house, I hear one of my roommates (Gary) asking my other roommate (Rob) where I am. So I open the door and get the opportunity to meet my new mom aka Gary Hickman. Gary sits me down on the couch and begins to ask me why I am running so late. I say “what?” He then begins to lecture me on staying at a girl’s house that late. I tell him that her Mom even made us Rice Krispies treats at midnight, and that It’s no big deal. That’s when he says, and I quote, “That’s because ain’t nothing good happening between a guy and a girl after midnight.” Wow I just got a lecture from my roommate. SO do I drop it? No I argue like I would with my parents. I say, “But Rob stays at Lynette’s late.” That’s when Gary comes out with a line that followed us through college. “Sure but they’re established.” Ha that was great.
So that’s how the early days of me and Emily started.
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