Homecoming

School spirit. That’s something I never once had when I was a student. I was devoid of it. I never attended any events. I never cared if we won or lost in sports. Ask me a question school related and I wouldn’t have been able to tell you a darn thing. I spent enough time in classes and at the library. The hell if I’m going to participate in any of the other dumb activities. That was my general attitude back in the day. That everything thrown on by the campus was a stupid waste of my time & the people that were interested in all that stuff had to be boring. Losers!!! The whole lot of them! I guess I never considered myself part of the student body. I always felt tied to Tech. This isn’t even a real university. This place is a joke!

Just kidding! I had you there, didn’t I? You were probably thinking to yourself “Wow! This guy is a real a**hole. What a jerk! Why am I reading this pompous f***er’s blog?” Don’t run out on me yet. I wasn’t an elitist snob. In truth, I don’t remember them having so many things for the students to do. Or maybe they did a poor job of spreading the news to students that didn’t live on campus. Both Bekah & I were discussing this and we both draw a blank. Aside from the bonfire, we really don’t recall many fun functions.

Door decorating contest, 2nd place winner.

Watching all the students alive with excitement and joy, I feel like I missed out on something. So I’m joining in on the homecoming fun.

I helped decorate the mall with party fliers. It was going to be 30min but it ends up being 1 ½ hours. Barely made it back to the office. Umm, just tie some flyers and be done with it. No way had it needed to take that long. And it was hot! But I had fun. I was with good people and the campus mall looked good for it. Sad that they never decorate it for homecoming. I guess I just never noticed that in the prior years. If asked to do it again I will gladly commit. The next week I was asked if I was going to the “take down party” to remove the decorations since I helped make the mess. Uh… we shall see.

I went and saw the parade down the mall. That was really fun, btw. I almost missed it because some slow a** in front of me would rather chat on her phone than drive. It took me 6 min to get across the campus. My eyes wanted to roll out of my head, but I made it just in time. And I was really glad that I went. Kind of hard to explain the wonder of it. I guess it was a shared energy amongst all that attended. The cheers, the band, everything was just fun.

I was able to sneak away from work and catch the Blue & Gold Party. Lucky that I have somewhat flexible hours. I was all smiles. How easily I am entertained. Watching the blue and gold powder launched into the air. It was soooo cool. (It’s corn starch, btw. Thanks, Jamie. Everyone I asked had no idea.) How it mingled together to form a green fog. Said green fog nearly engulfed me, as I was standing down wind. It was a good time. You really had to be there. Or maybe it’s just that I’m a nerd. That’s up in the air for debate.

For the first time ever I went to the bonfire. It was perfect weather for a fire. I didn’t get as close as I would have liked because “someone” didn’t dress appropriately and was afraid to run into anyone I might know. So we sat on the bleachers. It was still a beautiful sight in this pyro’s eyes. Sadly we missed the fireworks. “Someone” had to pee. So we rushed back to the house and as soon as we got there I heard the first BOOM. Not helped by the fact I got behind someone that would make a snail seem fast. (Notice a trend here? I have a knack for getting behind slow-pokes.) We tried to make it back but it was too late. Epic fail. Oh well. I saw fireworks a few weeks ago. At least I can say I saw the bonfire from afar. Next year maybe I’ll just go alone.

The next morning was the homecoming parade. Walking distance. A beautiful morning if you like cold cloudy days. Once I reached Johnson Street I could see I was alone in thinking the morning was grand. Everyone looked miserable and cold & I had flip flops on. I’m sure that got a few looks. (Listen, I would wear flip-flops & sandals all year round if I could. Don’t judge.) So the parade kicked off. Like I said, people looked uncomfortable and cold riding along in the back of the trucks. I couldn’t help but laugh a little. But there was enough school spirit to elevate everyone’s mood once the cheering began. It was a good time if not a little long. I stuck it out though. If the parade is on campus again next year, I will likely go again.

Spur of the moment move, we attended another Ram Jam. I had no intention of going. The music was hip-hop. I don’t do hip-hop. (Have I mentioned my dislike for hip-hop? I hear it in the mornings when I hate the world. Bekah’s music, so great to start the day with.) Bekah was getting snap chats from our friend that was there and she was trying to convince us to attend. Also, Bekah knew the hip-hop artist. (Is he REALLY an artist?) So we went. And dang-it, we arrived right when the hip-hop was ending. What a crying shame. Damn our luck. I was asked if that was the plan. Arrive after the show? Whatever do you mean, my dear sweet Bekah? I had no idea that he would play such a short show. So we sat back and had a few beers. We laughed, we cheered. It was a beautiful afternoon. The band came marching through to signal it’s time for the big game. This was our cue to depart.

That wraps up a week of school spirit & homecoming. I had a great time. I feel boisterous just writing about it. I’m a changed man. Boy oh boy was I ever missing out! I am already looking forward to next year’s homecoming week! What in the heck shall I do in the mean time? I’m open to suggestions.

Jalapeño!!!!!

Sunday Pizza!

Bekah was gone the first half of the week so I was just experimenting in the kitchen.

Night 1. It was Chinese. I threw together both red & green jalapeño and made a sauce out of soy, mirin, & brown sugar. Cooked it down to a nice thickness and wa-lah!!! This had a high flavor profile and just the right amount of heat. No way would this have been acceptable had she been home.

Night 2. I made a green chili gravy for some grilled chicken. Backed some breaded okra, a healthier way to eat it. The topping you see there is some caramelized jalapeño. Again, this would have been too warm for my dear wife.

Night 3. This meal was HOT. You see a theme here. I hurt myself when my better half is not around. This was just cream of chicken, Rotel, some seasoning from hell, and grilled chicken and jalapeño. I guess that’s sort of what King Ranch is?

Bekah is back. Another experiment. This time with “Beyond beef”. She was going to make her famous Bekah Burgers with plant based protein. She opened the package. Said it smelt like SPAM. I leaned in. No, it smells like cat food. She said the texture was off putting as well. No way were we eating something that initially smells like cat food. Dinner failure. Like, it stunk up my kitchen for a good 20 min after we disposed of it in the outside trashcan far away from the house.

With nothing else in the house to cook it was decided carry out would save the day. We picked up some Ban Moon. I got the spicy chicken, 5-pepper hot w/ a side eggroll. It was delicious. I was a happy camper.

Tortilla soup. We finally have some soup weather. Even if I hadn’t planned on making soup Friday, I would have by the end of the day. I had at least a 10 min conversation with one of the deans about spicy soup. Soup was on the brain after that. It was pretty amazing. The first soup of the year usually is.

Cocktail of the Week: Cherry Rum & Coke

Time Flies

A year has passed since the beloved Llama began his incumbency in the office. That hard working llama. And inspiration to his kind, he never fails to live by his favorite phrase, “work smarter, not harder.” If that means physically straining every muscle in his body to move a 100lb box when a perfectly good cart with wheels is in hands reach, he is doing the job right. Llama has a knack for making things more complicated than they ever should be. Dumbfounded am I. Constantly. For he “works harder, not smarter.” The Llama clearly misunderstood what he has been saying all these months. He got it backwards. Never in all my years have I worked with someone that excels so exceptionally at doing the bare minimal. It’s admirable to say the least. It’s a true marvel. This lazy llama.

Another year has passed. Where does the time go? It only feel like yesterday that I started working here and then I realize it’s actually been 8 year. 11 years if you add on the 3 that I worked as a student assistant for Physics. That’s a minute. I remember vividly when I was the “new kid”. Everyone else seasoned vets. Not anymore. I’ve had 7 coworkers depart since my arrival. Some of them I miss. Others I couldn’t give a f*** for. This is the longest I’ve been in a single position.

Funny that this year is the first year that I’ve actually participated in some campus activities. Bekah & I went to our first Ram Jam this last weekend. I was invited to attend and hounded on Facebook by a friend that I’ve known for years that just so happens to also work on the campus. She had been trying to drag us along for a while now. I told myself that this year I would break out of my bubble and see what all the events were like. I finally said that I was “interested”. That was not a confirmed yes, but about as good as she was going to get. I had some anxiety about actually going. I don’t know why… it’s just me. I’ve always suffered from anxiety attacks. I might hide it well, but on the inside I may be a nervous wreck. Anyway, once we finally got to the party I was able to relax. That’s all it takes, getting me there.

The music wasn’t what I like to listen to, but the band put on a good show and everyone seemed to be enjoying it. Country music… barf on my toe please. So I focused on people watching. A favorite past time of mine, I’ll have you know. This was a good place for it. It was also nice seeing some people from work outside the confines of work. A little more laid back with a drink in their hands. They had so many food options. They had outside game options. There was a guy smashing cinder blocks in a karate get up. I was afraid he might rupture something or s*** his pants, the strain on his face. Not a pretty sight, but entertaining nonetheless. I also got to pet a much friendlier, happier llama then what I am use to. I asked the lady if I could trade her my llama. She gave me an amused/confused look and I said never mind. I went and told my friends there was a llama that they could pet and everyone left me with excitement. See, llamas can be fun.

We stuck around till the band marched through with the cheerleaders towards the stadium. It was time for the game. That is one thing I will not take part of. No game for this guy. So we said our good byes. We would have to do this again. My friend was very happy that we made it. So was I.

That night I even made it to the fireworks launched after the game. Sadly, I was all alone. Bekah was once again claimed by our evil couch. I wondered to myself, would they still launch fireworks if we had gotten our butts kicked? If so, seems kind of cruel. Oh well… it was a fun time.

First week of October!

Jalapeño!

Teriyaki pork tenderloin. Nothing special here. It was good.

Armadillo Eggs. HEB frozen entrée. Its bacon, chicken & jalapeno. I like to baste mine with spicy BBQ sauce. Pretty simple tasty meal.

Some beef pot roast. Yum!

Sesame chicken. I tried to mimic the Mathis Field recipe. It’s been one of my favorite dishes for over 20 years now. My attempt was pretty good. Not the same though. Anyway, we even made this meal again on Saturday.

Bunless burgers.

Lettuce taco’s for National Taco Day.

Cocktail of the Week: Miller Lite

Pumpkin Spice… Let’s have a Discussion

WHY does everything need to have pumpkin spice in it these days? It’s an abomination!!! GROSS! The only thing I dislike about fall. When I saw that they were going to release pumpkin spice SPAM I’m pretty sure I threw up in my mouth a little. That it completely sold out in under 7 hours makes me wonder about the current state of the world in much the same way that the tide pod challenge did. What the hell people! Listen, I love pumpkins. I like pumpkin pie. I like pumpkin bread. Heck, I like pumpkin spice candles. But some things just DO NOT need to taste like pumpkin spice. It’s gone overkill.

Here I present a few pumpkin spice options out there:

Chips. Pringles. What the actual f***. Who was the dumbs*** that thought this was a good idea? I cannot even fathom. I love Pringles. They are an excellent chip. I deem this sacrilege! Burn it with fire!!!
Cookies. So many different types of cookies have jumped on the bandwagon with this. Oreos do not need to come with a pumpkin spice option. They already come in so much variety. Please, stop.
Coffee. Starbucks Latte. The drink that started it all. The domino effect. I’ll get stoned to death by the hipsters for this one. This drink is a disgrace to a good latte. I want to slap the person that thought to ruin a good source of caffeine by adding this foul flavor. You Sir/Madame, should be ashamed of yourself.
Beer. Someone needs a good kick in the a** for this one. My brother likes this garbage. I had some that lingered in my fridge for months before I was able to trick some poor friend of Bekah’s to actually drink it. I felt like a total jerk even offering it to the poor girl. She looked sickened and I told her to just pour it out. That “I know, it’s awful.” This stuff is so gag inducingly bad I am often left in wonder why the grocery stores stock much of it. Then I remember that people actually drink this rubbish and I silently weep a little for mankind. I cry for my broheim, for his taste I know are better than this.
Dog treats. You have got to be f***ing kidding me? It’s bad enough that you subject yourself to this s***. You feed this to your unsuspecting fur baby? Do you have a soul? You monster… Your sweet dog just wants to be loved and this is how you repay them? Animal abuse!!! Someone call the ASPCA.
Cereal. Ummm. This is how you start your day? What in the name of God is wrong with you? You must like bad things? Leave my Frosted Flakes alone you jerks!
Meats. After seeing that SPAM now came in pumpkin spice flavor I decided to dig around and see what other meats did. I was sickened by my discovery. Humanity has reached new lows. Pumpkin spiced sausage links. Please tell me I didn’t see that. Wait, you want something worse? Pumpkin spiced fresh Atlantic salmon. Barf! The degenerate that came up with that. Remove them from the gene pool please. For f***’s sake, Buffalo Wild Wings is now serving pumpkin spiced chicken wings!!! Lord help us!!!!
Tobacco and other nicotine products. I said I like the smell of pumpkin spice, but not delivered in this way. I’m glad my coworker, “Jimmy”, has not developed a taste for this filth. He would be the type of person that would like it. The SOB smokes grape flavored cigars.
Sauces. I saw that they make pumpkin spiced pasta sauce. Why not just plop spaghetti noodles on top of your pumpkin pie you sick f***’s. They also have pumpkin spiced salsa. Please, for the love of god, stop it already. Is nothing sacred? You are going to taint delicious salsa now? How dare you waste perfectly good jalapeños! Shame on you!! This is just wrong on so many levels. Don’t even get me started on pumpkin spice pizza sauce. I am getting angry just thinking about it.
Gum. Who in the h*** wants to use pumpkin spice as means to freshen their breath. Let’s say your “honey” ate some really strong red onions and garlic bread for lunch. They pop the gum into their mouth. They want a kiss from you. You, unknowingly, go in for the kiss. What you receive is a mouth full of onion, garlic, and disgusting pumpkin spice. Your stomach churns. You feel betrayed. Why would the love of my life do this to me? You might as well have eaten out of the litter box. Who is this person that you thought you knew? You can’t ever look at them the same again. This creature you once adored. Love forever blemished.

So there you go. Enjoy your pumpkin spice. Before long everything edible will have a pumpkin spice option. Irregular is normal. I hope you are happy when that day comes. For me, it’s a sign that the end of days is upon us. For we surely do not deserve this life we were gifted.

No Jalapeño……..

Tuesday was a real treat. It was basically my Monday. I was to have my mother over for dinner and I was going to cook. I really didn’t want to cook. I was tired, cranky, and put off by the Llama. I just wanted to chill out and maybe have a glass of wine to calm my nerves. Facebook came to the rescue. My memories show that 3 years ago I was eating a delicious plate of sesame chicken from Mathis Field Café. I immediately called all parties involved to see if dinner could be scraped for take-out. They both thought the place was closed. Not at all, I said! Everyone agreed that that sounded like a good idea. I took down their orders, placed a call, and my mom picked it up since she was right in that area. It was DELICIOUS! Not on the diet, I know. I’m trying hard to get back on that.

We had the chicken Alfredo w/ broccoli tonight. This I had done fairly recently and it was intended to be the meal I cooked for my mom since she thought it sounded pretty awesome. It’s good as always.

Again, a meal I’ve done recently. Orange Soda Chinese Chicken. Almost forgot the soda, which is clearly a major part of the meal. I marinated the chicken for 2 days in soy, ginger & garlic. A little too much sodium. If I’m going to marinate it in soy, I need to not add soy to the sauce. I have only myself to blame on this one. I still finished it off. Bekah, not so much.

As per tradition with Bekah not at the house, I make pizza. Tonight it’s pineapple, pepperoni, Canadian bacon and jalapeño. The crust was perfect, the toppings fantastic. Pineapple on pizza is so divisive. You either love it or hate it. I love it.

Birthday Slumber Party

This weekend we celebrated our friend Maja’s birthday with, you guessed it, another adult slumber party! Bekah is a fan, if you hadn’t noticed by now. Maja requested tuxedo cake. Okay, sure. I have no idea what that is. I don’t do cakes. I LOVE cakes, but they take a lot out of me. Why torture myself. Oh… I don’t bake. Maybe one time I made cupcakes. That’s a BIG maybe. The only bread based thing I bake is pizza dough. Baking my own tuxedo cake would have been a disaster. I asked a around what I should do. Jamie said HEB has them or make a Bundt cake. Well, HEB did have them but now they no longer do. Kaput! Back to square one. I decided to trick her. HEB has a cake that I might be able to pass off at tuxedo cake. Present it on a nice plate, throw away the packaging, here is your tuxedo cake! Cake is cake, am I right? (No, apparently not. She did not fall for my deceit.)

Bekah and I stocked up on food & booze. We had party favors, balloons… some gag gifts. It was all set for a good time.

Maja arrived with Pizza from Christoval. A good bribe for the evening I was going to be faced with. It’s some tasty pizza. She knows that you can win my heart with pizza. If you are aching for favors or need to ease things over, pizza is what work on me. I’m a sucker for it. It’s my Achilles’ heel. My white whale. Ballena Blanca… With a belly full of pizza I don’t even care anymore. The party begins….

Maja was ready… sadly this didn’t help one bit.

Partying with 2 ex-bartenders. Excuse me. I’m sorry. Mixologist. Two mixologist. A plethora of drinks made. The kitchen a war zone. Amateurs beware!!! Each new drink planned like a strategic assault on the liver disguised as sweet nectar to the tongue. And you know what? It worked! They made some mighty fine drinks. And before long it was I that became bartender for the night. I don’t know if it was that the ladies lacked the necessary skills to continue mixing and could no longer tell the difference between good & bad? Or it was that I was getting bored and needed something to occupy my time? Maybe a little bit of both. Whatever the case, I played the mixing game. I was enamored in the game. A duty I gladly accepted. Key lime rum? Sure!! Vodka pineapple strawberry? Coming right up! Cucumber grenadine on the rocks? Yes you may! I was throwing it all together with reckless abandon for the next day! Tomorrow be damned!!!

There was so much laughter. Tears were shed. All emotions touched upon! I guess that’s a good party. We had 3 others join us. I was overwhelmed by the estrogen level. I took my cue to hide in the kitchen from the madness that was outside. Whitney Houston was playing. My ears! It wasn’t long before Maja decided to join me. It was getting late and she was tired of not getting all the attention. She asked me to tell the others to leave. Me: “No! I’m not doing that. You invited them!” Well, I think they got the hint because shortly after they took off. No hard feelings, it was getting late. Well, not late enough. We still had 3 hours till midnight and it was made apparent that we had to toast on her birthday. This was a marathon and these girls could run it.

Bacon wrapped jalapeño. I guess that’s a good idea. I took the reins on this task for fear that they might burn down our house. I guess they were good. No leftovers and they did not even remember eating them the next morning. Midnight was upon us and it was time for that birthday shot. Were all the shots prior to this moment not also birthday shots? No sense in the semantics. My answer a big NO. So what to make? With all the desired booze already consumed, what on earth could I make? Should I share my own stash? Nah. Even if I had wanted to I wouldn’t have been able. Little did I know at the time they had already consumed my liquor. That was a surprise for Monday. 😥 So I told them we were all out. Beer or wine is the only option. Cheers. Happy birthday!!! Yay! What a successful night. Not quite done though. Somehow the party keep going until 1AM. I was done. They found themselves in the guest room with the dogs. I threw glow stick in bed with them and made my way down the hall to catch some shut eye. Goodnight. What a night.

I guess they were good because they were gone the next morning but they don’t remember eating them. lol

The next morning, BIG surprise, someone didn’t feel well. Maja puked. Bekah slept till past noon. The sparkling almond that was supposed to be morning mimosas was sad and lonely. No one wanted any. No one even wanted breakfast. So I treated myself to some eggs and a little bubbly. I owed it upon myself after the trials & tribulations of the night before.

I took Monday off as well. I needed an extra day to myself. Can anyone blame me? Kept under wraps, I planned on only doing what I wanted. Well this grand comedy we call life had different plans. Mainly, testing my patience. Vehicle wouldn’t pass inspection. Guess what, I need new tires. Yay me!!! I just love buying tires. One of the top 5 things I want to spend my money on. So new tires it was. I waited. I waited…. Well there went my afternoon movie plans. Oh well.

It was an overall nice end to the weekend. While I waited “patiently” for my new tires I walked to the Civic league Park to check out the Lily’s. Again… Once my vehicle was finally fit for inspection and registered street legal I had myself a late lunch at Zero One. All my favorites were working. Went to the store and picked up materials to make Tex-Mex casserole. I won’t usually make this because of how much prep work goes into it but I had the day off so all the time in the world. Watched a really cute movie called “The Croods”. I loved the creature design and the movie had heart. I might say I got a little “misty” eyed. The feels. Color me excited to find out that they have a sequel coming out next year. After my nightly walk I thought we might get some rain. A few droplets of water fell from the sky. Enough to bring on that smell I’ve been longing for. But all I got was thunder and lightning. Now I’m at work. It’s a quiet Tuesday. The Llama isn’t here to make my life miserable. Thank goodness. I was told he was absolutely awful yesterday. I’ll count my blessings.

Pumpkins!!!
More pumpkins!!!!
So many Pumpkins!!!!
Falls porch & my pumpkins!!!!!!

Creepy?

Jalapeño!

Blackened grilled salmon. Meh. It was okay.

HEB chili verde chicken thighs. This was excellent. Again, why am I just now trying this? It’s everything I like.

Grilled chicken glazed with Chick-fil-A Polynesian sauce. This was sooooo good.

Stouffer’s lasagna. Bekah was in need of some comfort food Sunday evening. I can’t complain, it was actually pretty good.

Tex-Mex chicken squash casserole. This meal is just one of my favorites, but like I mentioned above, it takes some prep time that I usually don’t want to mess with. Since I had the day off and nothing to do, why not have some fun. And it gave me a vessel to try my hot sauce on. That batch of hot sauce might be my best yet. I’m eventually going to crack the recipe.

Cocktail of the Week: Good lord how do I even choose after Saturday. I guess I’ll go with scotch on the rocks. Ha-ha

9/11

Oh 9/11. That tragic day. We all have our stories about where we were & what we were doing at the time we heard the news. I was living in Lubbock attending classes at Texas Tech and working at a nursery keeping care of all the plants. I was at the nursery when the news came in. I remember I was tending to the junipers, imagining myself in Colorado when one of my coworkers found to tell me what little news there was. I rushed to the office and everyone had stopped what they were doing to stare at the TV. I won’t forget how I felt. Sick inside and scared.

Do you remember how different the world was before that day? Do you think it changed the trajectory of your life? Would you be where you are if it hadn’t happened? What if your life had turned out totally different? For better or worse. And event like that change the world.

*****

Here is a scenario:

Let’s say that you are happily married with 2 lovely children. You and your spouse met 10 years ago while you were attending a business conference in Seattle, Washington. It was a chance encounter. Due to air travel having been shut down because of the terrorist attacks, the two of you were stranded & just happened upon each other at the hotel bar. You instantly made a connection. After the conference was over you exchanged contact information and both went your separate ways. You kept in touch the following months and eventually decided to plan a trip to see each other again. The first night together things became romantic. You had never felt this way with another person. You both vowed to find a way to close the distance keeping you apart.

Flash forward. You are now celebrating 7 years of marriage. You have a 6 year old son and a 4 year old daughter. You have a nice home in the suburbs’. Both of you have made good for yourselves. Although you don’t love your job, you still find it challenging and the rewards outweigh the drawback. The kids are the jewels of your eyes. Life is grand and you wouldn’t change a thing.

Now let’s say 9/11 never happened. Because it never happened air travel was never shut down. When the conference was over you packed your bags and made it to the airport to fly back home. The following weekend you have a wedding to attend. You are not really looking forward to it. One because you kind of want a weekend to yourself after the conference & two, you don’t really know these people anymore. It’s a bunch of old college friends you no longer keep in touch with but somehow you feel obligated to go.

After the wedding ceremony you try and get away from everyone by quietly slipping out a side door to have a quick smoke before going back inside to socialize. It is in this moment that you meet a man or woman who is also smoking. You start up pleasantries. Both of you have enough booze running through your systems that conversation comes easily. It also does not hurt that you find this person attractive. Once back inside you find yourself at a table engaged with this person. The reception is wrapping up and it time to go. By chance the man or woman you met is staying at the same hotel which you are staying at. That night, the romance strikes. Not in small part because of all the alcohol that you both consumed.

You both end up being from the same city. Things move quickly between the two of you and in a years’ time you find yourself married & living in a downtown apartment. At first the marriage seems ideal, but cracks begin to form. You fight often over petty differences. Your husband or wife starts coming home later and later. Suspicion sets in. One evening spent calling and calling your spouse to no response he or she walks in wasted. And argument ensues and he or she drops the bomb that they want a divorce. That he or she has been cheating on you. You are shattered.

Flash forward. You did not take the divorce well. You fell into a dark despair. You had moved out of the shared apartment and found a single for yourself. You turned toward the bottle for comfort on those long lonely sleepless nights. Because of this, productivity at work began to falter. Your boss, although casual friends, is feeling the pressure from his superiors. He has no choice but to let you go. It’s another gut punch to what has become a common fixture in your life.

Weeks without income or the “want to” you are in trouble. You have dipped into savings and are blowing it away on booze. You’ve lost weight. You don’t keep up with your hygiene. There are days you do not go outside at all. You spend your time watching the sun go down through the cracks in the window.

Facing financial ruin eviction is only a matter of time. You make the choice to leave the apartment and lucky for you your parents are kind enough to take you back in. But this means moving back to your home town. The town you swore to yourself you would never return. Your pride is shattered. Once under your parent’s roof they expect you to better yourself. But you don’t listen. It’s not that easy. They don’t understand that you NEED the booze. You actually are beginning to think that you might need something stronger.

You reconnect with a shady old friend form high school who can access prescription drugs. You want to feel numb. You begin taking oxycontin. Your parents immediately notice the difference in you. You have a fight. They try and try but you are not working with them. Matters come to a head when you pawn a cherished family heirloom for money to buy drugs. You give them no choice but to put you out. It breaks their hearts to do it but you burn bridge after bridge. Your father sets you up with enough money to rent an apartment and buy some food. He wants to believe that you will use the money wisely. You don’t.

Flash forward. Your life spiraled out of control. You find yourself in the slums sharing a dilapidated shack with 3 other meth heads. That’s right, you are now doing meth. You have been using for 2 years. That first hit of “The Rock” brought you the peace that you had been seeking. You chase that peace every hour every day. You can’t get enough of it. You have done terrible things to obtain it. You are a shell of the man or woman you once were. Sometimes when you look into your eyes in the mirror you don’t recognize the person looking back. Sometimes you do see yourself and you can’t bare the sight.

One evening while obtaining your fix from an unreliable dealer, the “friend” you are with decides to pull a gun on the man. He thinks it’s a good idea to rob him. You stand by in horror as it all goes down. They exchange shots. Your “friend” is fatally wounded. The dealer coughing up blood. You are too shocked to know what to do. Unfortunately for you, or perhaps fortunately, the cops were on surveillance watching the place. It was known that drugs were going in and out of the place and they were trying to find the supplier. They heard the shots and they bust in the doors to the scene of one dead, one wounded, and you standing shocked in the corner. They slam you down and cuff you.

You are now sitting in a cell downtown. You made your one phone call to your parents who will get in contact with the family lawyer. Lucky for you this is your first offence. As you sit and wait you try and piece together what happened to your life. What was the turning point? Things were supposed to be different. This was not the life you were to live. What happened?

If 9/11 had never happened the lovely life you have would not have been. No lovely husband or wife. No beautiful children who are currently running through the sprinkler out on the lawn laughing together in the summer sun. That pie you smell in the oven that you’ve been excited about wouldn’t be. The vacation to the Bahamas kaput. Everything gone. If you somehow had this insight. Had a glimpse of what your life would be if 9/11 had never happened & somehow you were given the power to go back and prevent it, would you give up your happy life? Would you sacrifice it all to save those 2,977 people? What would you do?

Inspired by a Direct TV commercial

September 13, 2019

*****

Yeah, that was dark. A little creative writing for the day. I miss my short fiction class. It was always exhilarating reading a work that you created in front of a classroom full of people. And then you had to pass out copies so everyone could come up with a critical response to your story. Sometimes that was brutal to hear. Anyways, here is the food of the week. Nothing spicy this time around. Well, except Friday & Saturday. Bekah didn’t think I could go a week without my much loved pepper. I almost succeeded.

Here are a couple pictures from the week.

Snails!
DIY star jar.
Surprise storms!

No Jalapeño!!!!!

Orange Soda Chicken. This was just a weird experiment and I really didn’t know how it was going to turn out. So you blend 12oz of orange soda with soy sauce, minced garlic & ginger. Grill some chicken thighs. Bring the sauce to a simmer and reduce. Once reduced and the sliced chicken and coat fully. This turned out to be a delightful meal. The sauce was just sooooo good I really couldn’t believe it.

Hoisin pork tenderloin. I’m not sure what held me back from making this. Love hoisin chicken & beef.

Grill teriyaki chicken with bell peppers, onion and pineapple.

Bekah made some breaded pork chops. And what’s that side? Cauliflower mashed potatoes. This meal just really came out of nowhere. My pork was overcooked but hers was just fine. The flavors were great. I think it would have turned out better if the pork had not been so thin.

Little crockpot chicken with green enchilada sauce, taco seasoning & peppers. Thank you Jamie for the simple flavorful recipe. I need to use my crockpot for things other than roast and soups. Especially on Friday when I sometimes really don’t feel like cooking.

Bekah was gone so I made pizza. Seems to be the only time that I ever make pizza. A tradition? I experimented with a premade pizza dough. I must say I was surprised. It doesn’t match my own but that’s to be expected. I also made my first ever white sauce pizza. Alfredo, chicken, spinach, jalapeno & onion. Made for a tasty meal. And yes, I am a nerd that bought his own pizza box. 🙄

Cocktail of the Week: Blackberry lemonade spiked w/ rum

The Reading Rainbow

One of my favorite pastimes is reading. I grew up with The Reading Rainbow. Loved that show. And yes, I still read from books. I have a Kindle but I derive more pleasure in actually feeling the pages between my fingers. The smell of the paper. The weight in my hands. The tangible characteristics of the book. I really tried to go the Kindle route. I probably need to. Eventually I’m going to run out of space. I currently could use a new book shelf. But I keep finding myself buying more. I have piles of books I have not even read yet and still I buy. I love getting lost in the worlds within the pages. Why else did I study literature! I love all forms of writing. Biographies, history, poetry, thrillers, etc. My favorite, surprise surprise, is undoubtedly horror.

I thought I might share with you some of my favorites. Notice none are real “horror”.

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

This book was pretty much a prerequisite in the physics department. You were not a cool nerd unless you had read this book. Lucky for me, I had. Now if you know nothing about this book, do yourself a favor. It’s just good goofy fun, but with a leaning toward science. I can’t think of many books that have me laughing as much as this one did. And I don’t read much science fiction but this pulled me right on in. To make it even more memorable is that it was a surprise gift from my father. He just brought it home one day. If he hadn’t I would never have been able to fit in with the cool nerd in my Physics department. Thank you dad! Without this book I would never have known the importance of a towel when it comes to intergalactic travels.

The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

One of my all-time favorites. I still have fond memories of reading through The Fellowship of the Ring when I was in 4^th grade. It brings be back to that sense of wonder that only a child has. Over the years I have read the book more than I can recall. The character’s all mean something to me. I was right alongside Frodo when he was burdened with the Ring. I was overwhelmed with Aragon at the odds of surviving Helm’s Deep. When I first saw the trailer for the Fellowship I got goosebumps. It was exhilarating. And that they knocked the adaptation out the park still warms my soul. To see these characters that I had grown up with brought to the full screen was something of amazement. Now I think I might need to sit down with the book again and see what my old friends are up too.

American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis

A totally different kind of beast. One that was not easy to read. Terrifying grotesque imagery. A protagonist so vile you fear getting into his head. A book not for the light and faint of hearts. But this book did reward. I have since never read anything like it. I don’t think I would want to read another book of its kind. I would finish chapters shaken from what I had read. Nightmare inducing text. But the thing about the book. It digs its nails into you and you can’t put it down. Patrick Bateman has you no matter how badly you want to run away. You are along for the terrible, horrifying ride. When you reach the end, it almost feels as if your reality has been altered. I probably won’t ever read this again. Its effect on me. It changed my ideas on what literature could be. Although the material might be disagreeable, the language used was oddly beautiful. At times, even quite humorous. And when you find yourself laughing you almost feel guilty for doing so. That’s what good writing is meant to do. Bring upon a multitude of emotions. Make you feel something.

No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy

Cormac McCarthy has a style to his writing that is almost poetic. His use of words almost hypnotizing. His prose stick with you long after reading. I had a bit of a struggle deciding which of his books to write about here. They are all very good. He is one of the greatest living writers of our time. I almost picked The Road, but that book offers not even a glimpse of hope for humanity while this one does. Also because this novel takes place in Texas, towns & counties that I know, the familiarity of the landscape is close to my heart. It deals with the violence of the drug trade along the Texas/Mexican border. Themes of evil being derived from Satan or from humanity itself. The differences between generations and how they view society. At its simplest it’s about the corruption brought on by money. The movie is a pretty fantastic adaptation

The Dark Tower I-VIII by Stephen King

Yeah. I have a thing for long fantasy series. And this one is long. Not counting the 8 books of the main series, it also has connections to 32 other novels and short stories by King. This is his magnum opus. When I started this series I was 13. I was 23 when I finished the final book. 10 years I lived with these characters waiting for King to wrap it all up. And let me say that it was an emotional ending. Since then I’ve read the work in its entirety. All 40 stories. Really immersed myself. The story at heart is one of good versus evil. It really toys with the idea of multiple realities layers upon one another. A friend of mine is thinking about starting this series. She had no idea the scope. The movie was horrible. Total garbage. Don’t ever watch it.

Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton

I have not read this since I was probably 13 or so. It had a big impact on me when I was young. I had always been all about Dinosaurs. Most boys are, I suppose. This was about as good as it gets. How it holds up, I don’t know. I keep meaning to go back and reread it but I’m kind of afraid some of the allure might have faded. My vivid imagination just relished this material. I still get that tickle in my stomach thinking about it. I wanted to grow up and be Dr. Grant. He was a literary hero to the little boy I was. Clearly I took my life in a different direction. The movie is fantastic, but a lot of very great material was left absent. But I didn’t care because they did such a fantastic job bringing dinosaurs to life on the big screen. Any one read this as an adult? Does it hold up?

Big Sur by Jack Kerouac

This is nonfiction depicting mental and physical deterioration of Jack Kerouac from drugs and alcohol abuse set in the beautiful Bixby Canyon, Big Sur, California. This is near the end of his line. It’s a hard read because the man himself is falling apart. Eventually has a nervous breakdown. Kerouac writes it as all fiction, but it is actually just a fictionalized retelling of a time in his life. Being the poet that he is, the writing is simply amazing. The words he uses to describe the beauty which surrounds him paints such glorious pictures in the mind. I read this poolside the summer before my final two semesters. My “last” summer before graduation. I was enjoying myself too much. I think this book helped me realize that. It was a good time though. And the book brings back memories of the lifestyle I was living when I read it.

I am currently reading The Shawshank Redemptions. I don’t know why I’m only reading this now. It’s always been one of my favorite movies. So far, I am enjoying it. What are you reading?

Jalapeño!!!!

Beef ribs w/ some typical BBQ sides. This was my first try and doing beef ribs. I’m more of a pork ribs kind of guy. I like beef ribs, but if I’m going to slow cook beef I’ll stick to brisket. It was good but just not what I wanted.

And as you can see from the next nights we had plenty of leftover. Basically just a slop of chopped brisket and BBQ sauce. Appetizing to the eye, I know.

I guess we were on a BBQ kick because here is some BBQ pork tenderloin. After 2 BBQ flops we finally had something worthy. The pork was perfectly tender & the corn on the cob was fantastic.

To break away from the BBQ we made some cilantro lime chicken. Great simple ingredients with great flavors. The sides, on the other hand, were boring as hell.

This was an experiment that worked. Green chili bun less burger. Made a sea of green sauce, roasted pablano pepper, green chili white queso and whala!! A great meal!!

Cocktail of the week: Pineapple Cider.

Labor Day

That’s it! I’m done with summer. It’s September and I’m going to go ahead and pretend it is fall. Went ahead and put up all the decorations up Sunday. So many pumpkins. But they were not enough. Time for a pumpkin mission!! Got some pretty cool stuff. It remains to be seen if I don’t still find something else for the house. You can’t really have too many pumpkins, can you? The décor and smells of fall are great to come home to. Real shame the weather has not fully transitioned. The mornings have at least been nice and brisk.

I like lights!
Hello pumpkin!
Hey!!
Pumpkin mission success!!

What else did I do on the extended weekend? I ate. I had WAY too many foods that I have avoided due to the diet. Hamburger on an actual bun. Nachos two times. A 7 layer burrito from f***ing Taco Bell. A pathetic excuse for a pizza. Was the Domino’s guy that sliced it drunk? Was he having a laugh? Either way, I managed to eat the ENTIRE hideous/glorious thing. I felt like a heifer. I also might have over indulged in a few adult beverages. Hey, it’s my weekend to do what I please. Which means I did not do much. It was a very lazy weekend. Pumpkins were the most excitement to be had.

Taphouse nachos
Chorizo burger
WTF happened here?
Hooters Nachos. So good!

I guess I should mention that I spent much of my time watching hurricane Dorian coverage on The Weather channel. How exciting is that? Pretty exciting and pretty terrifying. It was an unprecedented storm. With wind speed reaching 185mph it ranks as one of the top 5 strongest to ever hit the Atlantic basin. And unlike most Cat 5 hurricanes, this one stalled out right over the Bahamas. 40 hours to be exact. That’s like having an EF-3 tornado stay in the same place for almost 2 days. Imagine the devastation. Actually, look it up. Parts of the Bahamas literally do not exist anymore. The island will forever be altered. I will admit here that when I saw the damage I choked up a bit. It’s an absolute tragedy. Watching it unfold in real time…

Dorian was Terrifying!
Poor Bahamas

That sums up my exciting holiday weekend. Fall decorating, pumpkin mission and a hurricane. Don’t be jealous.

Jalapeño!

Monday I made some cheesy chicken & squash with some green sauce. Throwing Julio’s green sauce into the mix was a game changer. You can’t do wrong with that stuff. If only I could crack the recipe. Goals in life. Delicious!

Tuesday we had my mother over for dinner and some wine. Bekah made a delicious bun less chicken burger. This is the second time she has made this meal and I think it was even better this time around. My mom took home the leftovers for lunch. Good job Bekah.

Breakfast for dinner. Loaded omelet with a grilled steak. I sautéed the mushrooms with sherry wine and butter, added spinach and of course sautéed onion and jalapeño. The steak was just salt & pepper. We need to do breakfast for dinner more often.

Thursday we had a Korean dish with gochujang sauce. I’ve mentioned gochujang before. I’m not kidding. You need to try it.

Cocktail of the Week: Pineapple turmeric tonic

And so it begins….

Move in day and the start of a new year on campus. After the lull of summer it’s kind of exciting having the kids back. If I didn’t know better, I’d think I was the only one that felt that way. I am surrounded by grumpy men who dread the arrival of the students. Stress levels through the roof. It’s like they seem to forget that they work in a place of higher education and the students are pretty much the sole point. But their stress is partially their own faults for waiting until the last minute to complete work orders that they have been sitting on since May.

You can’t not feel something when looking at the faces of the students moving into the dorms. A mixture of excitement and fear. The unknown. Being cut free from the parents. A step towards adulthood. I remember my own “move-in-day” at Tech. My family and roommate’s family all together trying to fit what belongings a teenager has into a cramped room. All the new faces from all over. It’s at first a little overwhelming. Especially when you say goodbye to the family whose roof you have shared up till this point. Lots of emotion that first night. But lots of excitement for what’s to come. We didn’t even bother to eat dorm food that first night. Found something familiar. Taco Bell…

I’ve been walking Hazel on campus every night. And it sure has become interesting. Tuesday it was the band. It was like they were playing to encourage Hazel and I to walk a little further. And walk we did to the sound of a marching band. But I could not tell where they were playing? I think if I had to hear that all day every day I might lose my s***. I’m not sure how my friend Jamie survives work considering how close they practice to her office. It’s like a personal concert. How many times can a person hear butchered renditions of the Star Wars theme song? How do you not leave work with all sorts of melodies traps in your head to only drive you nuts all evening? What fortitude she has.

With the kids back, Wednesday night walk on campus was alive. They had all sorts of games for the students to play. Glowing ping pong, foosball and corn hole. It was all pretty neat, I must admit. But I’m a sucker for things that light up and are neon at night. I’m like an insect attracted to the light. All sorts of glowing toys. I wanted some of my own. I just had to take a moment to watch the commotion. Now the kid in me wants some glow sticks.

Thursday night Hazel and I were determined to find the band. They sounded like they were around every corner. Sound carries on campus. We walked and walked. We saw a rave like concert. Kids hollering and dancing. But it wasn’t going to distract us from our mission. Finally we were able to pin point the location: the football field. Of course!!! They had to practice on the actual field at night like it was a game. After watching them for a bit we made our way back home.

I went to my first University Assembly since working here. It’s amazing how many people will flock to free food. And it’s not even good free food. I was momentarily baffled by the scene in front of me. When the assembly began it went on FOREVER! All the new employees were introduced. Faculty were introduced with a mini bio and it dragged on for far too long. I was told that’s usually not the case. My friend Jody was nominated for an award, but alas she did not win. Nice to be nominated though. The president gave a pretty nice speech. Overall it was a nice experience. I was away from the office for 2 hours and that’s always a good thing. And it kind of felt nice actually participating in a university activity. I’m trying to attend more this year. Baby steps.

I’m going on my 8^th year working here. WHAT!! Where in the heck did the time go? And man!! This is not where I saw myself being back in 2011. I jumped on this job because I desperately needed insurance after my diagnosis & I knew the campus from being a student. Didn’t hurt that I had been employed as a TA for Dr. Joe and already had some time in the books. I guess I’ve kind of settled in. I like most the people I work with and I’ve made some really close friends on campus that I otherwise wouldn’t have. That alone is worth the time that I’ve been here. That’s not to say that I plan on sticking to this position till retirement. I’d like to see how life is on the other side of campus. Maybe?

Llama had a week. Boy oh boy is this dude not made for this heat. Sweating like a pig. Seriously. He comes into the office in the afternoon looking like he has been running through the sprinklers. Huffing and puffing with a weary sadness in his eyes like he might soon cry. I’m really kind of blown away that he has been with us for almost a year now. Again, time sure flies.

Friday we got RAIN!!! It was absolutely amazing. The forecast called for 40% chance of evening showers. Well, right about 1 o’clock you could feel the atmosphere change. The clouds suddenly reached their saturation point and began to grow and grow and grow. Next thing I know there are thunderstorms all around us. You could see distant rain and lightning. And finally it reached us. And boy was it wonderful. It came down in sheets. Cats & dogs. The smell instantly placed me in a good mood. The sound of thunder, oh how I’d missed you. I was transported to heaven. The hot August day suddenly became my kind of day. It was so unexpected and I really needed it. The area really needed it. Work productivity was put on the back burner so I could enjoy it out side. I even drove around in it. Allowed myself to get soaked in it. Such a great way to finish a long work week. The sun stayed hidden and it felt like fall all evening. It was simply amazing.

So the weekend rolled around. Nothing too exciting. Bekah and I took care of everything we needed to do early Saturday. Picked up my mom’s dogs from the Country club for Dogs. They were thrilled. We had a late lunch and met a couple from the air force. Floridians. They were day drinking and they got us to join them. Unsolicited tequila shots. Yikes. Bekah was down for the count by 8:30. With no objecting I was able to watch my fair share of horror films. Pontypoll. An obscure classic. Sunday was typical. Chores before the week’s arrival. We really need to take a trip somewhere…

Happy pups
Doofus

Jalapeño!!!!!!

Steak fajita & queso. This was simple deliciousness. Topped off with some Julio’s green sauce. Can’t go wrong.

Skillet King Ranch chicken without tortillas. Saves you a lot of time cooking it like this. Only complaint was that it came out more like a soup, but the flavors were superb. I will make this again. Bekah said it was too hot to be edible. Oops.

Chicken Tikka Masala. I’ll add this to my list of comfort foods. It’s also just so simple to make. Looks and sounds fancy but it takes like, 10 min to cook.

Eggroll stir-fry. One of Bekah’s favorites. Deconstructed eggrolls.

Teriyaki tenderloin with soy marinated mushrooms and sriracha broccoli. The steak was perfect in all ways.

Cocktail of the week: Vodka lemonade w/ a splash of grenadine. .

100+

It’s hot. Really f***ing hot! We had a good thing going this summer. We had it pretty mild. We had some good rain. August rolls around and all that is put to an end. Heat advisories. Day after day of 100+ temperatures. 17 days in a row. A slight reprieve on Wednesday. 99. Woot woot!! COLD FRONT! Than back to 100+. No end in sight for the foreseeable future. Just blistering heat. How many times have I now mentioned in my blog that I hate summer? It’s worth saying again. I hate summer. I am longing for fall.

The weather had me on my toes all week. Tuesday I really thought we had a chance for rain. Left work and some ominous clouds had presented themselves along the horizon. Looked at the radar and it was promising. Never saw a drop. It dissipated before reaching us. All I got was a little distant thunder and the fleeting fragrance of rain. Live repeat the following evening. A little distant lightning. It’s been a sad stretch for this cloudy sky guy.

I suppose I might actually be thankful that I was stuck in the office all week. At least I was not out melting. Wait, is that not a noisy Llama spitting sunflower seed? Hmmmmmmm? Hard choice right there? Hard to really say. Sweat it out in the heat or listen to a man with overactive glands spit seeds for three hours every afternoon? Maybe I would rather be out in the heat. I suppose it comes down to what I view as most important to me. My mental wellbeing or my physical wellbeing. I can take a little heat. Can always cool down in the AC. But the strain that this flatulent airbag has on me… I’m teetering towards the edge here. I guess it could be worse. I could be looking at him pick his nose all day. Someone help!!!!!!

August is always rough. Work is more hectic. It’s hot as hades outside. And something about the finality of summer. Nostalgic bliss. A feeling that remains from my youthful days. The closure of summer brings a sting to my heart. Oh the days when summer meant freedom. Long days riding bikes & swimming. Playing video games late night. Trips to the movie theatres. Family vacations. All this coming to an end. Last night of summer I use to lay in bed mentally reliving every adventure I’d had since school let out. Summer use to mean something to me. Now that I’m old it only means HOT!

Bekah decided it was time for a new car. I don’t blame her one bit. The money we were having to put into her old one just to keep it going was going to overcome the value of the car. Plus, I hated that thing. I’d have to fold myself up like a card table and hunch over to see out the windshield. It’s not a comfortable vehicle for someone as tall as I am. Plus I feel much better about her traveling for work in the new SUV.

Also regarding her, it seem I’ve been trying to kill my wife with the amount of jalapeño that I’ve been incorporating into the food last week. With most dinners I leave hers jalapeño free. I made Italian all week. She tells me that Italians do not cook with jalapeño. I’m not Italian and I do cook with jalapeño. I want my Italian to have a bit of a kick. Well, I was asked to please stop. I don’t know what the big deal was? Nothing I was eating was hot. Were we not having the same meals? What a baby!

I experimented with making salsa again. Basically discharged a pepper bomb in our kitchen that sent Bekah running outdoors into the heat coughing, eyes watering. I boiled and blended green and red peppers making a colorful spicy sauce. Really trying to match that Julio green sauce. Bekah had some ideas, being an Ozona girl. Which in retrospect is funny considering she asked me to stop cooking with jalapeño. 🙄 . Well it didn’t quite turn out like Julio’s, but it was good. Better than the last time. Made enough to freeze in 4 batches. Hopefully that will sustain me for 4 week. Who am I kidding, it won’t last me 2 weeks. I’ll try again then.

I had another date with the vampires. Vicious are the vampires. She had precision, I give her that. Just a slight prick and out comes my blood. I’m always a little fascinated watching the tubes fill. I know many people look away. Needles are something to be feared in most people’s eyes. But I’ve gotten use to them in the last 9 years. I stab myself at least once a day every day of the year. So I can tolerate the vampires when they do me quick & painless. I wish they all could be a good as this one was.

Another doctor’s visit. This one was filled with big laughs. Apparently I was a comedian to both the nurse and my doctor. I was on a roll. Not sure why. I guess when I’m nervous I say funny things. I asked my doctor if there was a reason why every outlet in the room was installed upside down or if it was just to torment people that suffer from mild cases of OCD like myself. He had never noticed but it was now going to bother him as well. At least in that room they were all installed upside down so it was uniform. Why does it really matter? You can still plug in. The little things that get caught up in my mind. I’m here blogging about upside down outlets when I could disclose my lab results….

The weekend was rather lackluster. No complaints I suppose. Went to see the Lilly pads. If you’ve not noticed, I do that rather frequently. It’s a place I find relaxation and peace of mind. I also got a reminder to hit up the Farmers Market. I always forget to go. I only ever think about it too late. They had a lot of cool stuff. I picked up some jalapeño jam because, of course. Bought some really beautiful bougainvillea. They only made it about 5 min. Owen seemed to think they were for him and he ate them both. $40 well spent. I was pretty upset over that. Bekah made rice krispies treats to hand out to doctors & nurses on Sunday. Along with the pizza we ordered from Joe’s Italian, I had way too many carbs. I crashed at an uncharacteristically time. I actually made this weekend my last hurrah for carbs. I ate a LOT. I had pizza, enchilada, hamburger, nachos, and pasta. I feel like all I did was eat. Really lazy weekend.

Red Jalapeño!!!!!!!

This week I decided to make Italian the theme. Bekah mentioned that I stopped making Italian foods and how when we first started dating that was my specialty. I use to make it all the time before I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. I mean, pasta! Not really ideal for my condition. So this was fun trying to cook around the pasta. I had to throw one pasta dish in though. Bekah says it was the meal that sealed the deal. Lol

Spaghetti squash and spicy meat balls. I thought this was a damn fine meal but it was a little warm for my wife. So we ended up with leftovers that I ate for lunch the following two days. It was even better the second and third time.

Spinach manicotti. This is the meal Bekah fell in love with that I have not made in at least 10 years. Not only due to my conditions, it’s just kind of a pain in the butt to make. Boil noodles. Cook the spinach & let cool. Mix the stuffing. Stuff the noodles hoping they don’t tear. Make the marinara sauce. Combine and back the dish. So many steps. It turned out to be really good. Although I heard the complaint that is was a little “TOO” spicy. I’m getting use to this complaint.

Spicy chicken alfredo over steamed broccoli “no pasta”. My LORD was this a good meal. I had to make two separate sauces because I wanted my spicy and Bekah did not. Extra work for myself but well worth it.

Baked Italian chicken. With jalapeño. I was told that I’m the only person that would put peppers on this meal. Well guess what? They were excellent and added a nice flavor.

Chicken Marsala. What a treat this meal was. So much easier than I thought it would be too make. I’m not sure why the idea of cooking chicken marsala always seemed intimidating to me. It was such an easy meal with little prep time and so much flavor. I almost wanted to make this again over the weekend.

Cocktail of the Week: Strawberry daiquiri & Hard Root Beer

Ghost, Ghouls & Things That Go Bump In The Night

I’ve always had an open mind. Personally I find it limiting & silly to not be open to all possibilities. Think about how many times historically we have been proven wrong by limiting vision and beliefs. Earth was once thought to be the center of the universe. The Earth was once believed to be flat. (Okay, some people still believe this….) Lightning was said not to strike twice. Tell that to Roy Sullivan, the “human lightning rod” who has been jolted 7 times. Crystal Pepsi & New Coke… Yikes. That’s not really a belief that’s just an utter mistake that humanity needs to never forget. In an infinite universe anything imaginable is possible. I believe in God. I believe in science. I believe in extraterrestrials. I believe in alternative realities. I believe in pineapple on pizza. In desperate times, I believe in sardines & ice cream at 3am. I also believe in the supernatural. Ghost, ghouls & things that go bump in the night.

Believe it or not, I have a signed print of this in my office. And I paid A LOT for it. Bekah won’t let me put in the living room. 😦

Don’t worry. I’m not the type of person that follows all the Big Foot & mermaids stories. Alien abductions, while possible, are most likely majority hoax. I don’t talk to dead people or stalk the neighborhood at night with holy water, a cross & a wooden stake. My guns are not loaded with silver bullets. That zombie survival guide on my table is just for fun. (It does actually have some pretty solid ideas for surviving an actual cataclysmic event though.) I’ll never go looking for the Loch Ness Monster. I’m a big horror fan. While the mythology of “monsters” is always fun and interesting, I do not think that the chupacabra is lurking around the Texas/Mexico border. If you believe in all these things, that is awesome. I’m not trying to discredit your encounter with a Mongolian death worm. If it came up and bit me on the a** I’d believe in it too. I just need my supernatural a little more grounded: ghost. Spirits. I’ve had some experiences in my life that cannot be “explained” by science. It all started when I was a child…

The disappearing thing. That’s what I use to talk to my parents about. Mom says I was around 3 when I started trying to describe it to her. Whenever a toy would end up missing I would say that the disappearing thing took it. I was never afraid of it because it had always been there. My middle brother claimed to be able to see it too but I don’t know if he did or just said he did because, younger brother. I have not talked to him about it. I need to. I’m not sure how old I was when I stopped seeing it but I can still see it in my mind’s eye. An orb, purplish & translucent, that floated near the ceiling. I know it sounds ridiculous. Reading my own words I can understand why doubt would set in. I’m recalling childhood memories of something straight off of Ghostbusters.

There was also the lady washing the dishes. How I now it was a lady, just a hunch. Many of nights I was awakened to the sound of handwashing dishes in the kitchen. We had a dishwasher. The two sounds are distinctive. And even if someone was hand washing dishes in the middle of the night, I doubt I would have been able to hear them in my bedroom on the opposite side of the house. But I would wake up and hear that sound. I’d crawl out of bed and creep to the hallway in the dark. No lights would be on in the house. Knowing something was amiss I would be very quiet. That exciting fear of the unknown coursing through my body. Moving as slowly as possible to not create a sound, I’d make my way to where the hallway meets the living room & peak around the corner to view the kitchen. The sound would abruptly stop. Nothing to be seen. Oh boy did I ever high tail it to my parent’s room or back to my bed to hide under the covers. I developed a theory that the lady that lived in our house before us died in it and it was her washing the dishes. As kids with imaginations tend to do, I made up all sorts of back stories. I even had myself convinced that she died in the front room because that room always gave off a scary vibe when I was little. It was the spare bedroom so no one really spent time in it. The least lived in room in the house always dark. Funny how it eventually became my room when I grew older.

I was around the age of 7 when I first had my experience with sleep paralysis. If you know nothing about sleep paralysis, let me tell you it’s a freaking nightmare. It’s bad enough as an adult, but as a kid not knowing what’s happening, it’s as frightening as coming face to face with a nightmare. Most generic definition: it’s the inability to move or speak while either falling to or waking from sleep. Also it’s often accompanied by visions or hallucinations because your mind is still somewhat in dreamland. When I was a kid I thought I was being held down by… something. A poltergeist. I didn’t know what. I’d wake up, unable to move. I would begin to panic. I felt like I couldn’t breathe. Like something was pushing down on my chest. I couldn’t scream for help. I was powerless. I would eventually be able to wiggle some. How I managed to break the spell was wiggle myself towards the edge of the bed and eventually I would fall to the floor. The impact would bring me fully to consciousness and I could move again. I never told my parents about this when I was a kid. They were rather shocked when I told them as an adult that I’d been diagnosed with it and had always had it just never knew what was going on. The things we don’t tell our parents when we are kids. Over the years learning more about my condition I’ve found that mine is mild compared to others. I just have it maybe once every other year. Sometimes much less often. And I can wake myself easier. No more impacting with the floor. But some people that suffer from the extremes don’t believe the psychological proof. They still believe a demon is haunting them. Who can say? At the time it’s certainly believable. Am I haunted?

My high school years were a bit different. No longer a child, I became more of a sceptic and shrugged strange happenings off as nothing. I would choose to ignore. I was telling Bekah about how on many occasions street lights would turn off when I’d drive under them and my 17 year old self didn’t find that peculiar. I’d wake up to in bed (the front bedroom) only to see a shadow, a darkness darker than the room itself, looming over my bed. I’d just close my eyes and tell myself it’s nothing, go back to sleep. Pictures in the house would always be moved and facing opposite directions. Oh how someone in the house must love playing pranks on my mom. That’s all it must be. The occasional sounds in the house that would have scared the crap out of me as a kid were nothing more than the sound of settling. As a teenager, I had other more important things on my mind. Girls. Ghost are just something made up to scare little kids. They are not real.

College days in Lubbock, TX. A bit of a dry spell. To be honest, which I clearly am with this blog, these were my party years. If anything did take place I either told myself it was because I was under the influence or I simply don’t remember, because I was under the influence. There was this one time in the dorms though…

Let me take a break from the supernatural and talk about dorms in general. What strange places dorms are anyway? I’m not talking about what the kids have now. They have it made. What we had. They just throw people that don’t know each other together. Sure, I met some interesting individuals. My roommate I knew from childhood. Everyone else… We were on the only wing of the band dorms that didn’t have band members. It led to some interesting dynamics. I remember walking out into the hall and seeing rope tied from one door to the other across the hall. Our RA’s dorm. It seemed someone wanted to keep him prisoner in his own room for the night. Who am I to interfere? (I also recall someone used his door as a urinal on multiple occasions. Poor guy.) Another time someone leaned a 32 gallon trash can full of water against a buddy’s door. When they opened it their room was flooded. Lucky that they were slobs and the 1 ft. layer of dirty clothes they had on the floor soaked up all the water. During the weekends some degenerate f*** would throw all the toilet paper in the community bathroom into the toilets. Paper wasn’t restocked until Monday. We eventually had to keep our own supply in our rooms for the weekend. The elevator never worked so it was always the stairs. After a few too many drinks that was a lot of fun. I thought I was climbing Everest one night. For a month there was a TV in the hallway plugged in and playing nothing but static. Not weird at all. Someone kept putting empty pizza boxes in our dorm mail box. Probably in protest to my roommate leaving them in the hall outside our room only 10 ft. from the trash cans. And what about all the times I found some student outside their room drunk without a key to get inside. Too many. I’d go downstairs to the lobby to check out an extra key for them. Which was always alarming that they would give me a key to someone else’s room. Let me not get started on the community showers. GROSS!!! My parking was 13min away so I would have to walk in a blizzard just to get to my dorm. I was on the list to get my dorm parking and eventually in May I was granted. IN MAY!!!!

Sorry about that little rant, I got carried away. So back to the story. There was this one time I was in the community showers. It was at night. Well actually it was more like somewhere between 2-3am. I had been up studying for finals and my body and soul were exhausted. Allowing the warm water to wash away my weariness, the lights went off. I was left in total darkness. I remember thinking to myself “oh great”. Nothing like stumbling around in total darkness wearing nothing but a towel. As I hastily tried to dry myself off, I noticed a sound. The oh-so familiar creek of the handicap stall door opening. I was the only one in the room and I would have heard the entrance door open because it also is noisy. You can hear if over a shower running. I stopped breathing. I noticed I’d stopped drying myself off. I am no one to normally let a little darkness frighten me, but at that moment my heart was pounding and I was wide awake. Not a sound to be heard for I don’t know how long. And suddenly BANG!! The stale door slammed shut. I half a** threw my towel on and bee lined it to the entrance through the dark. I stood in the lighted hallway staring back at the bathroom entrance anticipating someone to come out but they never did. And I have to admit I was too unnerved to take a peak back inside. I went back to my room, put on some clothes and laid in bed. Staring at the ceiling and not finding sleep I finally broke down and took a sleeping pill. The next morning I tried to shrug it off but I just couldn’t. Tried to convince myself someone was in there playing a prank on me. But I know that I was alone. Thinking back on all the things I’ve experienced, that might have been the only time as an adult that I was actually scared. I’ve been creeped out, but never really frightened. Maybe it was the vulnerability of being naked and in pitch black darkness?

I’m going to fast forward about 10 years. I was back to my home town. I had met the woman that was to be my wife. One thing Bekah and I have in common is our shared belief in spirits. She is pretty in touch. If anything, connecting with her helped me become reacquainted with my own experiences that I’d managed to write off since high school. When I first brought her over to my parents’ house she could sense something before I even brought it up. She also did not like being in the house alone at night. I told her it’s nothing malicious unless stealing toys from toddler’s counts. Nevertheless, she didn’t care for it. There were also some weird things that happened where she worked. We both had a shared moment that really brought us together. We later moved into a rental together. Nothing really happened to me in the house. Bekah seemed more in tuned with this one.

We eventually bought a house and have now been living in it for a little over a year now. We are both pretty certain the old man that lived in it before us likely passed away in it. No big deal. But a funny thing. Bekah has not experienced anything while I have. I hear things from time to time. I was awakened by the sound of tapping on the walls. It sounded like it was right outside the bedroom in the hallway. When I went to investigate, the sound was now coming from the living room. When I got there it was now coming from the kitchen. Peaking around the corner the sound stopped. The house was silent. This was an all too familiar moment. It brought me way back to the dishwashing. I never felt anything threatening so I just went back to bed. Not so long ago I had a repeat of that night. A few weeks ago I saw something. It was late and I was in the spare bathroom taking my meds when out of the corner of my eye I saw Bekah walk into the bedroom. I thought absolutely nothing of it. Imagine my shock when I walk out of the bathroom to see her sitting on the couch watching TV in the living room. I spun around towards the bedroom and it was empty. I just stood there for a while. Dumbstruck. I eventually made my way to the living room and sat on the couch opposite of her. She could tell something was wrong and I told her. Her reaction was one of frustration because she never experiences anything anymore. She seems to think maybe it is I that is haunted and not the house. Whatever the case, I was just a bit unsettled by this development. I know I saw something walk by. But the house was empty except for us and the two dog & cat that were in the living room with Bekah. Let’s just say I made myself a stiff drink to settle my shaken nerves.

There are other instances I could write about but this is already WAY too long. I wasn’t planning on writing a book, it just happened. Maybe on a later date I’ll recap. You can call me a charlatan. And that’s fine. You can think I’m crazy. I don’t really care. I’m sure you can come up with many explanations for what I’ve experienced if you try. If that makes you feel better, go for it. I quite frankly can’t believe I’m writing about this on a platform anyone can read. But heck! I don’t get to discuss this with anyone but Bekah and a very select handful of other people. Why not take the load off my chest. And it’s fun. So keep an open mind. You never know what you might find.

Red Jalapeño!!!!!!!!!!!

This week we decided to do a little bit of cleaning out the fridge and pantry. Lots of experimentation. First up was actually a truly exceptional meal. Chicken, cream of chicken, broccoli, onion, red jalapeño and curry. The sauce was amazing with all the other ingredients. I will make this again. Simple!

This meal, although it did taste “okay” was kind of a flop. More broccoli & Schwan’s frozen beef tips & gravy we had in the freezer. That meat is very good for stroganoff. Not what I did with it here. I mistakenly cooked it in the skillet with the broccoli. The meat broke down to a pulp. The texture was a bit off setting. I wasn’t impressed. I will not make this again. But guess what? We actually had leftover that I could eat for lunch the next day. Barf!

Grilled chicken, onion, with red & green jalapeño. Topped with sharp cheddar and something precious. Julio’s green sauce!!! How could this mean not be good? And again, leftovers. This time because the meal was too HOT for Bekah. They were even better the next day.

Seasoned ground beef over baked beans. Doesn’t get simpler than that. I was left satisfied.

My first attempt at making crab cakes and I’m so glad I did. A little on the expensive side, but after a week cleaning out the fridge and pantry I felt justified. Without a doubt I’ll make this again.

No cocktail of the week…..