My friend Heather left a few hours ago and since then I’ve been roaming my house aimlessly, missing the sounds of having someone else here.

She had her two children with her, Daniel and Genevia, ages three and six, which naturally held heavy influence over what we did. We just had one day together and spent most of it at the museum and the Chic-fil-a play area.  We spent time at the house talking with our conversations constantly interrupted by children. We waited until the children were in bed before we watched movies and had more adult conversations.

All in all I had a family experience. I was out of the house before eight on Monday morning to go to the grocery store, I sat in the car with sleeping children and spent much of my time being climbed on by Daniel and Genevia.

I cherished every minute of it.

And now that it’s over, now that Heather and her wonderful offspring are off to Heather’s parents for Christmas, I miss them.

For thirty-six hours I had everything I ever wanted.  It’s like getting to lick the spoon but never, ever getting to eat the cake.

For those keeping score at home I had my 32 birthday last week.  So here are some highlights of my day of days:

T called and we got to talk for about thirty minutes before demands on both of us required us to cut the conversation short.  Earlier in the week I receieved a package from her containing Grace Cathedral Park!  If you haven’t listened to this album yet they still stream the entire thing on their webpage.  Check it out.  (T also asked that I update my Wish List so she can start Christmas shopping.  I updated it with a few items this morning.)

After lunch with my parents and grandmother (a Saturday standard practice) I went to the zoo with J, P and their kids.  While watching the keepers feed the gorillas, one of the kids said it looked like they were eating poop.  A keeper came out and showed the kids what the animals were being fed.  She explained that she “heard one of the kids say that they were eating poop and she wanted to come out and show that they weren’t.”  She smiled at the adults and said, “that’s not to say they won’t.  They’re just not right now.”

While coming upon the big cat exibit my nephew wanted to look at the tigers.  My niece saw a sign for the lions and begged us to hurry.  “The king of the jungle is right down there and you guys want to stop to talk to his secretary.”

Dinner was at a Mexican restaurant followed by cake at my parents’ house.  There were presents and cards and singing and more than a few tears though only from the younger set this year.

Thanks to everyone who sent wishes and cards and gifts.

My sisters have been interviewing their children.  This is my favorite part.

R: Do you like your new house?

A: Yeah, I do…I pooped!

This isn’t a full post. Just a comic that seems to speak on this subject.

To say I grew up in church would be a gross understatement. There were spans of my life where I literally spent more time at the Oak Ridge Church of God than I did at home and school combined. For the vast majority of my young life I didn’t do a single social thing that didn’t involve the church in some way.

So when I turned sixteen and started going out into the world on my own a bit, I was faced with a brand new social scene. I did not fit in. Continue Reading »

There was this girl I went out with for a little while named Diana. Diana was cool as all get out, though I recall few details for some reason. We met at Pellissippi State in Knoxville in the spring of 97. It was an English Composition class, 201 maybe? But I digress.

At the time I was starting to see Diana I had a weird physically platonic, emotionally involved relationship with this girl named Heather. For some unknown reason I was driving up to Ohio to see this girl every few weeks, just to hang out and see the sites. Continue Reading »

Here’s the thing. I am tired of being single. This isn’t anything new, I’ve been sick of it for quite some time. For some reason or another though, I didn’t know what to do about it until rather recently. But I think I’m getting ahead of myself a bit. Let me back up.

I used to have no trouble meeting people. In my Cleveland (TN) days there seemed to be a steady stream of girls I was interested in and no shortage of those who had an interest in me as well. I even dated a few of them. Things were great. In the immortal words of Breakfast with Amy; “Everything was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt.” Continue Reading »