Today's phone calls. Personal calls, that is

I was left a number of voice-mails today. Ranging from family to my lawyer.

Of the more interesting messages, there was: Messages from friends wondering where I was on Saturday night, the leasing office here at WR, and a call that could seriously change things up.

I must admit that when it came to the latter of those mentioned, I had already given up. Don't get me wrong, things are alright the way they are. Recently, I've seen some bright promise for change. But there's a saying, "too little, too late." If this pans out, do I call the audible? Time will tell.

In the meantime, I will keep these fingers crossed and grind it out. New shoes should be here soon, and I'm almost caught on Dexter. On that note, time for some more catching up.

New kicks be on the way

Couldn't have taken much longer to get confirmation on this, but my new Chucks will be here Monday or Tuesday. Ready to retire the Shox, once and for all!

Hmm. I, think, they are for men.. hmm.

Today was a great day, started off with..

..sleeping in. Something I don't get to do often, even on the weekends. Right around noon my mom and grandma arrived to my apartment. It was the first time they had been here since moving day. I have to say it was really great to see them. We hung out at my place for a little while before having some breakfast at Bob Evans.

After breakfast we made our way over to Highbanks Metro Park. I have been there a few times already, but some of the trails are so impressive that I really wanted them to see it. Plus, my grandma had always talked about going to the park "on 23" in the fall. She loves to see the leaves as they change. We had a great 2.5 mile walk before we left to spend some time at Easton.

My mom did some bargain shopping at Lucky, then we ordered up some pasta bowls at Piada. She had to stock up on Halloween supplies for the dance studio, so we stopped by Target after eating. I drove them over to Graeters in Worthington for their ice cream before returning to my place.

It was such a great day with them. Beautiful weather, too. Cannot wait until they visit again!

Irish fall to the Trojans

So much hype. So many new and unusual factors involved around the game tonight-

The first night game at South Bend in over 20 years.

New helmets.

Rally towels.

Music being blared through the PA before key plays.

But it was not enough. Notre Dame gave up three turnovers and shot themselves in the foot. All Dayne Crist had to do was get a TD. ND was on the USC 1-yard line, and he fumbles. I swear. Does he ever want to play football ever again after college? I think Crist has mentally checked out of South Bend. He should not have been put in, strong arm or not.

Sigh. One day..

50 exotic animals escape Zanesville farm

This news is a few days old now, but certainly worth noting.

An exotic animal collector/owner/whatever in Zanesville decided to open all gates and pens on his large farm, and then killed himself. Emergency operators received calls about bears and lions. The next door neighbors saw a tiger chasing a horse. Officers were given the order to shoot all animals on sight. Among the forty-some animals killed by Sheriff deputies were: 9 male lions, 8 lionesses, a baboon, a couple wolves, a couple bears, and.. 18 tigers.

A very tragic situation. Although I'm all about finding diplomatic and humane situations to resolve incidents like this, you cannot blame the Sheriff for ordering the animals to be shot. If they had waited until the next morning, who knows where these predators would have ended up. Backyards, city streets, parks, the list is endless. I disagree with those who immediately bashed the department. Some believe they treated this as a free "big-game hunt" and drove around joy-riding and popping shots drive-by style on these poor creatures. I'm one the biggest animal lovers you'll ever find, but the right order was given.

Does animal life have the same importance as human-life? Absolutely. But this could have been a battle. As far as the officers knew, these animals wouldn't think twice about attacking. Turns out that mankind has the upper hand in these kind of situations. It is nature. Nature played out.

Poor creatures. What a sad day.

Follow-up

Turns out I didn't have to drive to Kansas City.

My lawyer appeared and had the date pushed back to November 8th. She will appear for me in court that day as well. Only a few more weeks.

The cycle of last year continues, only this time hopefully I'll land more financially well-off.

Tomorrow's the day..

I suppose I will find out sometime between 9:00am and 3:00pm if I have to up and leave for Kansas City.

As of now, I have a court date at 8:00am on Tuesday. My lawyer at Schlimmer Law had said that we could probably get it moved to a later date, and that there's a good chance I still wouldn't even have to go. I hope that's true.

We will see.

Some of my favorite art.. Heather Brown

Check out the website of Heather Brown. Ms. Brown is an artist from Oahu's North Shore. I absolutely love her work, which I was introduced to in 2009 when on the island.

Please, please browse the site. Prints are $40.

9/28: Kansas City: Soccer, Jail, and Karaoke

Let's just say we gave Kansas City our best, and in most cases, KC got the better of us.

We left Columbus around 9:30pm. After road delays, scratching letters of "Bingo" lottery tickets, chugging 32oz Gatorade's in under a minute, and many other harmless shenanigans, we arrived to the Embassy Suites near Kansas City International Airport. We checked in and immediately checked out the breakfast buffet before crashing for a few hours. I decided to go for a swim and test out the hot tub. I enjoyed the water for an hour or so until we took the other guys to their hotel, the Marriott downtown. We later would meet up at Johnny's Tavern, just one of many bars and restaurants in the Power & Light District.

After hours of drinking and arcade games, we ordered up two cabs and made our way to LIVESTRONG Sporting Park. We settled into our seats in section 123 and took in the sights of what was supposed to be the most advanced soccer stadium in the country. They must have been growing tired of us Crew fans in the second half, because the cops were suddenly completely intolerable of anything we did. This includes me calling one a renta-cop as they tried to get me to show my ID. One thing lead to another, and I got mouthy with them. They got mouthy with me.

My wallet fell to the group and I stepped on it to prevent it from being kicked around in the crowd. Next thing I know, I'm on the ground being restrained."It's gonna be $20,000 to get yourself out! You're not goin back to Ohio anytime soon!" Exact words from the cop who caused my face to have a giant crater by my eye, cut on the back of my head, and numbness in my hand almost two weeks later.I spent what was probably about three hours in a Kansas City jail that night. And what's the first thing I did when I got out? Why, sang karaoke of course!

I have a court date on October 18th at 8am. Anyone down for a road trip?The next morning we made it back to the Embassy around 930am. We got Nick and doubled back to downtown to pick up the other guys.It was a long and insane drive home. There were many times I wondered if we would make it back. I'd still do it all again.

Except the getting arrested part. Sad to think that it could've been my last Crew game for awhile. I guess it was a fitting trip for a game that will possibly lead to us missing the playoffs.

I hate Kansas City.

One Beach

Awesome video. If I were me, I'd love it. If I were you, I'd check it out.

Vacation 2011, Part 3: Virginia, Shenandoah National Park

We arrived to Rachael's family's house in King George, Virginia, around 8:30. And they had steaks, mashed potatoes, corn, and drinks ready for us! They were so nice. The views from their patio of the hills and river were amazing. We watched some Monday Night Football (Giants v Rams) as we had some drinks.

After a good night of sleep, we got up the next morning and had lunch at Friday's. We hit the road around 2:30.

During the drive, I started noticing signs for Shenandoah National Park. When I saw the "Next Right" sign, I almost instinctively had to pull off. I'm pretty sure Rachael was a little skeptical and slightly annoyed with my adventurous needs, but who knows when you'll get another chance to do anything. So we ventured on to the park's southern entrance and drove about 20 miles along the Skyline Drive. I really want to go back, there were things we didn't get to see.

In the end, I got back to Columbus around 2am. It was a great trip, and I can't wait for another one.