This is why I need to post more often...

So it's been a while since my last post, and this has come to bite me in the ass since I have a lot to write about. I'll go chronologically because it beats alphabetically or longitudinally. Prepare yourselves for a Kaylaesque post.

Two weekends ago I went home and did some construction for the garden my brother and I are building for my mom for mothers day. Our back yard is a big hill, and the southwest corner was just dirt. No grass, no nothing. So we build some retaining walls out of railroad ties so we could create a stepped garden. Not having dirt or mulch to put in, however, meant we had to stop there.

Last Friday I went to Art Attack but missed the Gin Blossoms. I don't know if that's a bad thing or not, but Chevelle was better than I thought they would be and Guster was, if nothing else, better than that Bruce Willis CD I have. During Chevelle Tim and I hoisted Paul up to crowd surf after telling him that he should give us his glasses. He didn't, and he lost them. Luckily someone found them and held them up, and Tim saw that and got them back. Tim was the next to go up and had the foresight to give me all his crap first. I was the last to go up, and made it all the way to (and over) the front fence keeping the crowd a few feet back from the stage. Along the way I crossed paths with some girl who was also crowd surfing and she got dumped in my lap. We were carried as one big mass for a while, which was kindof weird. There were also some mosh pits breaking out, which was fun because I like to shove people.

Saturday there was a toga party, and rather than just don a bed sheet I did a little research and figured out how much fabric I would need to do it right. Turns out I needed a piece 18 feet (roughly 3x my height) by 4 or 5 feet, so I went out to the fabric store to get some. Paul came along because he didn't think he had a white bed sheet, but decided to just get 1.5x his height. Why he did that, I don't know; I told him he wanted three times his height but he didn't seem to think I was right. I also picked up 18 feet for Tim. I'm glad I didn't get less than I did, since when I was putting on my toga I had just enough to do it right. Paul was having some trouble putting his on, and when Tim got back he got his on fine. Parker did the whole bed-sheet thing. We got to the party (with the obligatory 40oz bottles of malt liquor) and there were so many red-necks, republicans, military personnel, and die-hard Christians that I had to finish my bottle quick and start a new one, or I wasn't going to be able to have a good time. I still got into a lot of arguments, but at least I was drunk. I lost my drivers license and the $20 bill it was wrapped in, but some nice person found them and returned both. We stumbled back to the house at around 5 and I went to sleep.

Sunday morning I got a call around 10am from my mom asking if I was coming home for breakfast, so I got up, took a shower, and headed home. When I got there my Dad's car was gone, and when I asked where he was my mom told me that he went up to New Jersey because my grandfather was having health trouble again. He had died earlier that morning. I was fairly close with all my grandparents, especially my dads parents (since not only would we see them when we went up to New Jersey where all my grandparents lived, but they would also came down to visit; my moms parents, on the other hand, didn't travel very much) and this all happened so fast that I didn't really know how to react. So my brother and I went to work in the backyard (after all, it still was mother's day) wheelbarrowing mulch and dirt from the huge piles on our driveway to the garden in the backyard, and trimmed some trees in our backyard. I think neither of us really shows our emotions that much, and we were keeping busy, so we didn't end up talking much about it. I think my dad took it pretty hard, and my sister took it even worse.

Monday, after work, I packed my bags and headed home. My sister had driven up from school in Virginia that afternoon, and she and my brother and I were driving up to NJ Tuesday morning. We got to my grandparents house early afternoon and got to visit with our cousins from California whom we rarely get to see. The service was later that afternoon, and a lot of people came, both family and those people who aren't blood related but may as well be. During the service my grandfathers business partner spoke, as did all three of his sons. I was surprised to hear my Dad talk about the McCarthy hearings; my grandfather was discharged from the military as a result of his investigations and wasn't reinstated, despite not actually *being* a communist. I think I understand my families political opinions a lot better now. After the service most of us went back to my grandparents house. It was nice to see so many people I rarely get to see, I just wish it was under better circumstances. I had a nice long conversation with my grandfather's friend Jack Okun about working out. This guy is almost 90 years old and is partially paralyzed from having polio as a child, but he has got to have the best outlook on life out of anybody I know. He's starting to get movement back in his leg which has been more or less dead for most of his life, and I think hearing him talk about lifting weights, considering his age and history, is going to help me keep exercising after my brother and I have this brawl in a month or so. So far I have just been exercising so that I don't wind up getting beat up by my him.

Wednesday afternoon I drive back with my brother and sister, drop them off at my parents house, and go home. I wasn't really in the mood to go out at first, but when it became obvious that I wasn't going to do anything else that evening, I met up with Karen and her friends from class at Cornerstone. Not much to speak of there; I drank some, I bumped into Laura (a girl from my art class), the place got real crowded, Karen's friend Kathleen (sp?) tried to freak dance with me but, as you all know, I do not dance. Paul drove me, Karen, and Kathleen back to our house some time between 1:00 and 2:00. Karen and Kathleen and I stayed up a little longer talking about stuff, then went to bed.

Today I went to my art class and found out that I got an A for the semester. I'm not that surprised, since the teacher liked all the work I did and was always commenting about how hard I worked. All my work is now sitting in my car.