Monthly Archive for May, 2005

Sick as a Dag

Sketched
by
Dave
on May 26, 2005
in Bummer
. 11 Comments

Yesterday I was told it was not a good idea to work out when trying to recover from a cold. It’s best to let the body focus on fighting the illness with full force. That would have been some sweet information to know 24 hours before, when I was strolling into the gym for the hardest workout of my life. At the time I only had a bit of a sore throat, so I saw no harm in running a few laps, punching a few bags, kicking a few matts, and doing a couple of thousand push-ups, squats, and leg raises (or so it felt like a thousand). Coach Mauricio is by far the most intense instructor at One Dragon. Fortunately I only have to see him once a week, whereas Coach Luis is there the rest of the time.

So here I am now, sick as a dog, harboring all sorts of sticky fluids in my chest and sinuses. I feel the most uncomfortable when I cough since my abs (buried under all that gut) are still throbbing from Tuesday night’s workout. I thank God for modern medicine. Last night Dad gave me a bit of Afrin which stopped the stuffy nose immediately. You’d think it was some sort of holy water in a spray bottle. You just point that sucker up your nostrils and spray two times, and before you know it you can smell the inside of your neighbor’s house.

Well I’m off to work a bit earlier today since I’ll be dropping by the pharmacy to pick up some Mucinex. That should clear things up a bit. Internally of course.

I’m out like a sumo wrestler stealing third.

Cat Dog

Sketched
by
Dave
on May 25, 2005
in Fun Stuff
. 6 Comments

It’s taken me about 7 years to finally figure out my dog. When we first adopted him from the Humane Society, I was excited to train him in the arts of obedience. I went out and bought a basic obedience book, but day after day he still wouldn’t obey. Then I realized something. He couldn’t read the book.

So I started reading and I learned how to train him to sit and all the other basics: stay, shake hands, play dead, attack, hide evidence. The last two didn’t really stick. As time went on I noticed he was acting a lot like my two cats. From time to time he would sit on the same dining room chairs as them. At random moments he would try to strike up some kind of game with them, just to feel like one of the cats, but they would have none of it. I would even find him walking across the back ledge of our sofas, only without the same charm as my cats do. Just imagine a heavyset man crawling across a wire in a circus. Exactly.

It is only recently that I’ve finally interpreted one of his oldest and favourite cat-isms. Scooby likes to rub against my leg. I’ve always read this as a cry for a good scratch and so scratch I did. I would grind my nails across his back and side, triggering his thumper leg. He would lick the air with the joy and once I finished scratching he would catch his breath and rub against my leg some more. At this point I would accuse him of being greedy and simply shoo him away, but now I know better.

Whenever Scooby comes to my room and rubs against my leg, it means one of two things.

a) “Nobody has fed me yet; Care to warm up the dog food and mix it with a bowl of kibble for me?”

b) “Hey David, I noticed its getting dark outside. How about you walk me to my cage and give me one of those tasty bedtime cookies you always slip me right before I doze off?”

I guess it boils down to this. I’m Scooby’s food guy. Apparently we all have our roles here at home. Mom talks to him and pets him more than we do. She is the social gal. Dad gives Scooby most of the walks, since Tony and I are barely home. He is the personal trainer guy. Tony plays and wrestles with him more than the rest of us. He is the fun guy.

I guess I’m the food guy. The good thing about this is that whoever controls the food, controls the dog. Scooby learned this at a very young age. Whenever he obeyed one of my signals, I would give him a treat. Ever since then I suppose he’s associated me with food. This explains why he tends to obey me more than anyone else at home, especially with all the cool tricks. We love showing off our dog to all our new guests, but it’s always me who has say the magic words in order for Scoob to entertain them.

I wonder if he’s too old to learn any new tricks. I would really like to see him attack on command one day. The code word would be something random, like popcorn. So whenever I gather in the living room with some friends for a movie, I’ll just wait for the guest to ask for some, and there he’ll be, ripping off their socks. Or jugular veins.

Good boy!

Pink Shirt to the Prom

Sketched
by
Dave
on May 23, 2005
in Recentisms
. 3 Comments

As promised, I shall now describe my second prom experience. As you may have remembered, I recently accepted an invitation by my friend Giselle to be her prom date. I was worried she and her sister would be sick of me after spending an entire weekend with me in Orlando, but apparently I’m still tolerable. Haha.

Saturday was exciting from start to finish. After some forethought and contemplating with Ely Marie, I decided I should get a haircut. So I headed to the nearby Haircuttery for a simple haircut. Mind you, there was a time I wouldn’t let a woman touch my hair with a pair of scissors, but now I don’t mind it at all. Especially when they do that shampoo thing. It’s probably the most relaxing moment of every month. I just sit there with my head back as she scrubs and massages away for a few seconds. Bliss, I tell you.

After my brief grooming, I went and picked up my suit from the dry cleaners. You’d think a company with 80’s graphics on the windows would be slow in business but apparently not. I had to wait in line to pick up my suit. All the workers looked quite busy and the service was very kind. Once my suit was my hands I headed to Ross for a sheik long sleeve shirt. My color of choice: pink, with a grey tie. Not too shabby, I might add. It looks like pink shirts are in style this year. I saw 3 other shoppers with long sleeve pink shirts at the checkout line as I was heading out. What can I say? I’m a trend setter.

I finally arrived to my abode and napped for half an hour. You may have noticed I take many naps. Before you start calling me names such as Napman, Napster, Nap King Cole, Nappyland, or anything else, I must warn you that I know a sleeper hold and soon enough you’ll be napping, too. I awoke refreshed and ready to do some traveling. My next destination was the exotic town of Hialeah, where I would pick up the exotic corsage for my date. I travelled through poorly charted lands, past the landmarks of Cubans playing dominoes outside of bakeries and hole-in-the-wall restaurants, (there’s one on every block). The corsage was quite beautiful and I was happy to present it to Giselle when I arrived half an hour later.

We took pictures in front of the limousine for a few minutes and as the rest of our prom travel mates took their own snapshots we settled in the pimped out ride sipping Coca Colas and listening to my cds. The banquet hall was only about half an hour away, so the ride was very short lived, but fun nonetheless. We played a few rounds of the Movie Game and before we knew it we were stepping out preparing to dance the night away. And dance we did, but not before chowing down.

For a graudating class of about 1000 or more, you can imagine there was quite a spread of food. I’m talking steak, pasta, chicken, shrimp, salads, fruits. Don’t even get me started on the delicious desserts. Food always brings me joy. Eventually the music started and we all rushed to the dance floor. We proceeded to dance to hip hop, raggae, salsa, merengue, coughregetncough, Michael Jackson oldies, the cha-cha song, and other party favourites. Four hours later we were all danced-out.

We boarded the limo once again to our next destination: Lincoln Road, where we would enjoy the tunes at the classy jazz club Van Dyke’s, but alas it was closed for remodeling. D’oh. Finding no other jazz club, we decided to stroll along the different shops until we stopped at a Starbucks and drank frappuchinos galore as we rested our weary feet. Kristel had it worse, she’s not used to wearing heels. Neither was I. Hence the lack of high-heels on my part. (Whew, good save.)

Having no where else to go, we headed back home to Kendall, where we would stop by an all-night diner and stuff our faces once again. The rest of the night is a blur to me. All I know is that it involved eating some more, drinking more coffee and semi-watching the movie Snatch at Kristel’s house. Oh, and someone warned me their cousin might jump on me while I slept. Cousin or cat, I can’t remember, I was so drowsy.

Well, that about wraps it up. Next time come along so I don’t have to do so much typing. Happy trails all of you. Go take wonderful naps and dance to MJ oldies.

Rocked My Face Off

Sketched
by
Dave
on May 22, 2005
in Recentisms
. 5 Comments

Well I’m one tired son of a gun. For the past two weeks it has been non-stop fun. I shall go chronologically. On the weekend of May 13 through 15 I trekked up to Orlando with my crew of 11 other friends for the music festival that is Cornerstone. I honestly can’t think of where to begin. Maybe some pictures will help. The five folks I travelled in the jeep with were a great bunch. We rocked out to plenty of cd’s (never repeating one) and had a slew of trivia games to keep us entertained as we headed north on the turnpike. Four hours later we were at our destination, satisfying our cravings for Arby’s. The other group met up with us at the fast food joint and we laughed about how they took the wrong turn which cost them two hours of driving. Once our bodies were nourished with roast beef sandwiches, curly fries, jalapeo poppers, and sodas we headed to our hotel for an early check in. The Red Carpet Inn, or as we refered to it “The Armpit Inn” was better than we expected, well at least better than I expected.

I did my research on the hotel one day before the trip and discovered that it had the worst reviews possible. Cockroaches, stained floors, holes in walls, broken doors, terrible service. We discovered all this was true except for the service, they were actually quite responsive to our requests once we got there.

“Umm, my friend in room 127 found the room infest with roaches. Is it possible to switch her to another room?” And it was done. Also, the next morning the manager would here my next request…

“My friend in room 126 woke up this morning and found that her table was covered with wet pieces of the popcorn roof. Apparently there is some kind of flood in the room above that caused pieces of the roof to fall in her room.” And so he sent someone to check it out, and when we returned for the day it was all better. Asking for a little customer service can be painless and productive if you do it with a smile.

Then we were off to the festival, which was literally 3 minutes away. Our hotel was about 5 blocks away from the Central Florida Fairgrounds and parking was easy and free. From the moment we stepped out of our cars we were greeted by smiling, tattooed covered, pierced up people. I knew the adventure was just beginning and began anticipating 48 hours of fun. We came equipped with bottles of water, sunblock, shades, daily band schedules and highlighters so we could coordinate when and where we would meet each other for the performances.

I am proud to say I saw about 95% of the bands I wanted to see. The bands I missed were purely of conflicting schedules with other events. For example, I missed the Lovedrug set and the Brandtson set due to a Youth Leadership Only conference with the members of Relient K. I also missed a performance by Forever Changed due to a performance by the amazing Sleeping At Last which played at the indoor stage. My justification for this decision was based on the knowledge that Forever Changed was also scheduled to perform a month later in Miami. Email me if you’re interested in going to that show.

Other than that, I saw all the bands I wanted to see. They Included:

Mourning September, Mat Kearney, Mutemath, Roper, Over the Rhine, The O.C. Supertones, Bernard, Copeland, Emery, UnderOATH, Anberlin, Relient K, David Bazaan (of Pedro the Lion), and Sleeping At Last. I have photos of most of these bands. It was neat to talk to the different people at this event, from Anti-abortion activists, to nomads, to media groups, to clothing companies, and of course band members.

Cornerstone Florida is definitely going to be an annual experience for me. What a way to begin my life as a twentysomething. The Lord protected us and provided an incredible time. I want to thank all of you who were praying for us while we were gone and rocking out. We were fortunate enough to avoid car troubles except for one small incident where Yannick’s car battery stalled due to an apparent alarm malfunction. We were puzzled for a few good minutes trying to figure out how to get it going when suddenly Ely Marie suggested we pray. I prayed the Lord would provide someone who could help us get the car going. Sure enough, two minutes later there was a small group of dudes who were heading to their car at the end of the night and I recognized one of them. Mike, an active youth leader at Flamingo Road Church, had a set of jumper cables he attached to both cars and then we were good. Bam. Answered prayer is an experience worth reciting. Praise be to God.

Our ride home was as pleasant as the ride to Orlando. Great music, lots of joking, lots of laughs. The fatigue when I arrived home was an enjoyable one. As much as I enjoy independence and traveling with friends, there’s nothing quite like coming home to open arms and a warm bed. All good trips end with a nap.

I’ll be writing about my second prom experience tomorrow. Peace, y’all.

Right Around the Corner

Sketched
by
Dave
on May 11, 2005
in Recentisms
. 3 Comments

Two more days till the most awesomest road trip ever! If I had hairs on the back of my neck, they would certainly be standing at this point. After two meetings with my travel mates and lots of anticipation, we’re only hours away from total rocking-outage. I intend on taking plenty of water and taking many photographs. I’m a little hesitant about taking my pentax, since I don’t know what the weather will be like and I’m afraid someone will accidentaly (or purposely) begin skanking on top of my silver little baby. Three things I am definitely bringing: First aid kit, sun-block, and rash ointment. That’s right, I said sunblock.

I think I discovered a new word that is fun to say: ointment. Everybody now!

Well that’s it for now. I gotta get ready for work. Yesterday was extremely hectic and I was going into an anxiety attack at the office. It really killed my day.

Well, goodbye then.

Drawing Again

Sketched
by
Dave
on May 3, 2005
in Art Related
. 6 Comments

Lately I’ve had the urge to develop a new drawing style. Most of my old highschool mates would probably recognize a drawing of mine if I did it, particularly because I tended to do cross-hatching portaits of strangers and friends. I’ve never considered myself much of a cartoonist. The closest I’ve come is doing caricatures, and even then I haven’t had a particular style to brand. Hopefully as I continue to do these little sketches of people and things there will be a style that will be identified as my very own sketchisms.

I came up with a quasi-ready logo for myself. It’s time to start getting serious about this whole design thing so I can begin marketing myself. I want to make business cards and letterheads that make me look legit. I’ve been working at a design firm for 3 years now and still no business cards. I should be ashamed of myself.

Yay for summer. Hooray for Cornerstone it’s right around the corner. That is all.

I’m out like your bellybutton.

Goodbye Teens

Sketched
by
Dave
on May 1, 2005
in Recentisms
. 6 Comments

So I turned twenty yesterday and it’s been quite a satisfying experience. The best part of it all is being around the people I care about the most. Another perk is all the food I’ve been getting. Thanks to all of you folks who put up with me and my jokes. I know it’s hard to know when I’m being serious, but hopefully I can bring a bit of joy and laughter in your lives. I’ve made this observation only to a handful of people, but I think its worth noting it in my journal. The Lord has blessed me with amazing leaders in my life that I’ve had the privelage of growing and spending time with. This is true in my family, school, work, church, friends, and other areas. Even some of the middle school dudes at The Movement have inspired me. Thanks to all of you.

All this excitement is exhausting. I’m going to celebrate with a nap.