Change...

Baseball season is here. So is summer... almost. Yesterday was our official kick-off to summer, or I guess I should say "First Pitch". All the fellas from the old days at school were together for the first time in a long time. There were a few faces missing, but it was still good to hang together.

Burgers on the grill, Braves beating the Cubbies on the big-screen, and a Sweetwater 420 in hand... Everything just seemed right. In a word: PRODIGIOUS

Makes me think... what is it about certain foods or meals that make you feel a certain way, or completely change the way you view your surroundings and environment?

Burgers, hot dogs, baked-beans, potato salad, chips = Relaxed, lazy, summer, baseball, outdoor, content, complete, flip-flops

Pizza and Coke = Young, video games, football, sleepover, basement, game-room, sweatpants

Steak, salad, baked potato = Adult, professional, dressy, valet

Taco bell, Mc D's, Wendys = College, late-night, cheap,

I'm not knocking any of those, I love them all. It's not an identity crisis to one day want to feel young and lazy, and the next to feel grown up and productive. It's variety. No one wants to feel stuck in a mold or a rut of being and doing the exact same thing every day. We all want the feeling of new, exciting, adventurous, dangerous... I'm not proposing that switching from your steak and potato to Taco Bell is off-the-charts exciting and adventurous, but it could be dangerous.

I personally love change. I get bored with the same old same old. Say that ten times... "Same old, same old, same old..." Starts to sound weird.

I digress.

Embrace change and unusual things. Order something off the menu you have never had before. Go to your favorite Mexican restaurant, close your eyes, and pick a number off the menu. I ended up with a chile relleno. Don't even look at the menu actually. Order a #7 and don't ask what it is. Just start eating it. You will be surprised! On second thought... Don't go to your favorite Mexican restaurant, find one you've never heard of or seen and give it a try.

Buy a ticket to MARTA (Atlanta's public transit) or the subway system near you. Hop on at the nearest station with a book and your iPod and ride the different lines for a few hours. You will see some interesting stuff, hear some good music, and maybe learn something new.

Skip sleeping in on Saturday and go hiking somewhere. Find a trail, follow a stream, wade knee-deep. You will feel like a kid again. Of course, I still am a kid, and I don't want that to change. Ever.

Before I go, I almost forgot to ask... What is your favorite food/meal to eat and where does it "take you"? Burgers = summer? Taco-bell = college?

A first for everything

Ok, so I have always sort of shied away from "blogging", "tweet/twit/twot-ing" and all that. Never understood it, never really felt that what I'm doing every day is worth writing down and other people reading about it. That may not change. There might not be a single person that reads this, but maybe this will be sort of like a journal... which I've never done either. Regardless, this is my first blog... and I will not tweet. Ever.

But how do you really start these things? Do you write a little about yourself? I mean, anyone that reads this would probably be someone that knows me, so why tell them all about me? Maybe I'll skip that whole part, tell some stories about what's going on with me, what I'm learning, etc. and through those things you will discover a little more about me.

Right now I'm working from home because my dog (Brutus, 5 yr old Boxer) is recovering. He had five tumors on his butt and had surgery last Friday to have them removed. $800 and about 150 stitches later he is laying on my floor sleeping it off. I'll post a picture later, but his butt looks like a 3 yr old kid tried to put together a patchwork quilt while drunk. This makes Frankenstein look like a work of art. He is recovering pretty well, but the stitches, cuts, and scars look something like a map of Atlanta... lines going all over the place, branching out from a central circle. I definitely see I-285 and I-85N... the rest are surface streets I guess. Feel bad for the dude, but he is a champ, and as soon as the stitches are removed next Monday, I'm sure he will be right back to chasing a tennis ball with more passion than most of us have for anything in life! Seeing him in pain has made me wonder what it's like to be a dad and watch your little kid go through something. They don't understand what you're saying and they cannot comprehend that the pain they are in is actually going to benefit them later... But wait, he's just a dog right? Wrong. If you think that, you've never met Brutus...

Ok, so this has been a start... Not really sure what to do next... Do I sign off with a "Sincerely" or "Thanks"? Or do I just sort of let my thoughts trail off and pick it up next time....