Cooler than You: Stupid Things I Say and Do

Ions ago, in the mysterious and often booze laden days of undergrad, a tradition was started.  A simple tradition, but one that I have held stead fast to in the years since.  Every year on Kentucky Derby Day I consume Chinese food and bourbon.  Kentucky bourbon, Makers Mark, to be more pointed.  You might balk, but you should remember that grease and bourbon are a food group.  I assure you that the US Surgeon General is aware of this food group but has just fallen short of making it an official category of edible consumption.  None-the-less, in my yearly tradition--which I'm not sure if the roommates even remember or bother with anymore, I ate greasy Chinese and drank Makers.  The flavors along my mouth's taste buds are a subject for another day, but the act of consuming a memory, partaking in a self-imposed tradition, and partaking in a brief moment of sports for which I never watch and have no desire to engage (meaning little outside of my realm of e...

My Las Cruces days seem like a million miles away, yet on days like today they appear so damned close that I almost think I can blink my eyes and I will be right back there. Cruces wasn't exactly my favorite place to live, but New Mexico is most certainly a "land of enchantment" in my mind. To this day, some of my favorite memories and sights are the early morning sunrises, sunsets, and vistas found there. I can still close my eyes and smell chilies roasting, smell streetside and roadside stands selling burritos and tamales, and I can still feel the dust in the air coating my skin and laying on me like a forgotten blanket. Those are the good points. Good memories. And then, there are days like today that bring back memories for different reasons. My old roommate sent me a message on the handy dandy Facebook system (that once again put us in touch--cliche, I know). Anywho . . . her message wasn't as humorous as yesterday when we giggled over a drunken photo of u...

These days I've been thinking a lot about what has transpired in the past year. Last year this time I was fretting away the days until a defense, battling severe anemia, and then there was that pesky surgery on the horizon. Don't forget I was staring the prospect of unemployment in its ugly face. Funny how much things have changed, and it is also funny at how they haven't come that far from where they were. Last month I realized that I hadn't gone out much in almost two years. That was when things started, well I should reword that. That was when the health started to go sour. I didn't feel like explaining so I let that conversation make me sound like more of a loner and nerd than I really am. I defended just fine, had the bloody surgery four days later (yes, a bad pun I know), and things went awry. What I let people know is that there was an unplanned blood transfusion, which coincidentally gave me my bat wings. And seriously, for those of you that are ap...

Istanbul was a lot of things, and good was certainly one. Drunk another. I’ve decided that I drink best internationally, and I’ve come to realize that being sick for far too long kept me form getting my drink on. Hmmmm. Anywho. Those that know me know that I fell in love with Turkey the first time I went, and this time was really hard coming back to the states. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve got a great gig at ODU, but Turkey is Turkey and Istanbul is Istanbul. There is something about walking along the Bosporus, drinking too much white wine, and knowing that you are thousands of miles away from where you began. Yet, this time things got a little crazy. If I ever get my laptop fixed (another story for another day), I’ll upload the delightful pics I took. Though, right now there are horrid photos of me at the conference. That is one of the many reasons why people aren’t allowed to take pictures of me. That and I don’t really care to have shots of me giving papers. I always look tri...