Trowbridge - Well after close calculations, I have now estimated that I have driven a lil under 500 miles this past weekend. So what were the killers to this outrageous amount? Well Friday night, once I got home from work I realized that I left my backpack at the restaurant. Just a backpack right? Nope, I left my wallet in there so I had to drive back up there at midnight to get everything. First time ever that I can think of that I forget my wallet somewhere, just thankful it was at the restaurant.

Then there's today's driving, it was like a zig zag all over the Mitten. Let's see drove southwest to CBC, then back east to Camp Mad-Heights, then south to Downtown D, then north to the Heights, then west to MSU, then east to the restaurant, then south back home. Yeah, try connecting the dots to that bad boy.

So 500 miles worth of drivin in 3 days.
Each of those 3 days I had to pump gas.
1 car that has surpassed 84,000 miles in a 2 year span.
The cost = I don't know, everything happens for a reason and He is in total control. I'm just dumb to understand these things.

Anyone wanna lend me their car for the week :)

Face

Riverland - Yesterday, I subbed at the Den Elementary and it was a good/bad. I was subbin for a male teach, 6th grade class so totally cool because I know all the curriculum for that level. However, it was like deja vu all over again as if I was with my "mentoring" teach. It turns out the dude I was subbing for also has a bad rep for being a lazy teach. How do I know? I can tell by how his co-workers were talkin bout him, let's see does not put up student work, comes in when school starts and checks out when school is out, never cleans up, disorganized, and is a worksheet/definition memorization master (boring!). Even another teach told me, that he should retire. It's teach's like this who do the kids such an injustice in this education process.

Now the cool part was The Boss of the Den. She was by far one of the most friendly principals I have ever met. She took initiative and spoke to me during lunch, and after school she followed up on me to see how everything went. She even came in to observe me and from what she saw, she told me she liked how I had everything under control. Even the kids like talkin to her about probs they may be havin. For sure, much better than the other joint I was at if we had to compare buildings.

Wow, only a week away til I party at the E-Lounge for Diddy's Super Bowl Party! I'm so excited and I guess Ent. will be there to cover it on tv. Diddy's party already is a top 4 for the Super Bowl weekend. I hope I get to run into celebs and talk with them. Now I'm debating if I wanna go to the Eminem Aftermath Party the next night too. I'm already workin at Ford Field for the game and I get to direct the celebs in how to get around places. All we need now is some snow for the Motown Winter Blast! This year's winter sucks so far in terms of snow. I mean rain, and 40 temp, what kind of winter weather is that? It's gonna be a sleepless Super Bowl weekend for me.

Mr. B

Contract - I was hoping I was wrong last week by the levels that I sensed from our 2 newest additions to the Sticx. One played well last week, but I saw his flaws were revealed and the other had all the hype surrounding her to say our team is now a legitimate contender. However, the rest of my teammates saw that I stand correct in what I sensed last week. My boy, B was struggling like crazy in terms of passing and hitting against a lower team. While the other, as I like to think or hope would be a Ying prodigy was well short of that. Midway through Game 1, I decided it was time to stop coasting and turn it up a notch. I literally told everyone to stay away from me in the backrow so that I can take all the passes. Front row, well I developed a new nickname, Pacman because I told everyone to feed me the ball. After sweepin the series, it was great that the crowd and my teammates acknowledged how I just carried the whole team on my back. The suck part was knowin that I was right and that I may have to do more than ever to take us to the Finals again.

I was tryin to play the racism card tonight too! I was the first person denied to play for another team! Some people have been playin on 2 teams because the opposition would let them. However, J-Ro wanted me to play with them tonight and their team said no to me. The opposition said that I would hurt their chances in getting to the playoffs. I was upset, but I can understand being fair and all. Everyone was tryin to cheer me up because I was the first to be denied to play on another team means that I am a feared player in the L. I guess but I just wanted to keep playin!!!!!!

I ran into an old teammate Chris tonight too. We played in the Dub V-ball L together last year. This place is like the Walled Lake L of the Eastside. I'm just fortunate to be able to reach and compete at both places. He told me how the comp is stronger this year, makin the Polish National Powers seem like nothing this year. This only reminds me that I need to get stronger so that I can continue to compete at that level and beyond.

Lastly, well I was blessed with another job tonight. What can I say, it's another thing I love to do. I am now employed at Joe D's so that makes 4 jobs that I am doin startin tonight. It's so cool to be doin something that I again love, sports. I love all 4 of my jobs for the most part. It beats those cubicle jobs because each day is never the same. I could never see myself sittin there for 8 hours and go through meetings. I don't know why some people complain about their job, it's like if ya don't like it, quit and do something else.

Cochroaches

Flick - All I can say is Thank You from above for helpin me make my decision for the night. I decided not to go to v-ball. I decided to spend the evening at The Rink for the monthly Mustang Skating Party. At first I was kind of nervous because it's been more than a month now since I saw almost all of my students. I only email about a handful of them on a daily basis. It was like do they remember me, do they care if I was there anymore type of ordeal.

I walked in, and there were more of my students than I expected. I was bum rushed by all my students from the 2nd grade to my 6th graders. I got hugs from each one of them and it just meant the world to me. I'll leave a shout out at the end of this entry for each one of them. Each one of them were telling me about how things are going in their lives. None of my students, really like my replacement so I had to explain to them that they have to give him a try because he was in the same position I was a year ago.

I feel bad for my students too, because majority of them feel that ever since I have left that their is no control in the room. There are now 2 adults in there, but yet they feel it is constant chaos. One likes to yell and the other is as a student described him "a pushover" and they take advantage of that. Another student was askin me a tough question of who gets a break or deal worked out for them. Don't underestimate their knowledge.

Shouties - Missy, Nix, C-Bake, Ellen, Tay, Natalie, Brandon, Da Brat, Hailey's Comet, Shorty, Mini E, Nick the Quick, Chris, Lil K, Madison, Darrian, and Lil Van. Man, I miss them so much but it was good to see them again. They always remind me of this is what I do. My heart goes out to them as always and my next game is for them.

What You Waiting For

Hot Dog - Tonight was a rough night for me to ref some of the b-ball games. Anyways, it just wore me out. I'm just worn out from the funeral, the CBC membership meeting, and now tonight's work. Do I go to v-ball tonight? I feel like I need to recharge my batteries and it would mean I would have to skip v-ball. Looks like I'll have some time to think about it.

I did get some answers to some of my CBC questions today. Some things just come down to how each of us have been taught. Almost like the parable of the seeds, and I think some of it is being shown. The thing is, how some peeps like to respond about CBC's theme. I just hope the respondees realize they left CBC and weren't at the membership meeting, or do not go there anymore so they have no clue what was said or what is going on. Some need to check themselves before they try to raize up.

Lastly, I don't get some of the X-Files episodes. It's like they keep pulling out their guns and never use it. I don't know bout y'all at the first sign of freaky nature, I'd be bustin rounds everywhere.

Coyote

D'Lo - It was a tough weekend for me emotionally. I learned that a friend of the family had passed away to cancer. I attended the funeral services on Saturday to represent the fam. He and my dad were good friends when I was lil. We would always arm wrestle and my goal was to beat him eventually. His family would always go with us to CP, and T-O back in the day. His family was always welcomed to come over for turkey on Thanksgiving Day. I'm thankful that he was able to see his son graduate high school last year. He loves his son more than anything in the world. His son would use to come over when I was a Raider, and we'd play SNES everyday. The funny thing was that I could recite each passage read at the service, let's see Psalm 23, Ecc. 3, Romans 8, and John 14. I had the honor of being the last car, so I got to put all those orange flags on my car. I think the only thing I am upset about myself with is how his son does not play sports. I remember when he wanted me to teach his son how to play basketball back then. I pushed him so hard as if it was me, and it had an inverse effect. Lastly, it was wierd seeing an old flame at the place which is why I like to keep a low pro. Well until my Aunt J, announced that I was here. May the Lord look over his family and forgive us all of our daily transgressions.

The only other thing I am upset about is today's CBC meeting. I felt like those on the hot seat were playin Dodgeball. We're like throwin numbers out when we don't even have a clue which direction we are going. We talk about attendance being down, but then we don't discuss the reasons. I mean, seriously where the GG did some of the people go that I use to see 6 months ago? Plus, ya look around the membership meeting and I think I was the youngest one there. One of my MOH boyz, brought up a good point about who was the last person the came to CBC as a newcomer then became a member? I arrived here 6 years ago, and now pretty much everyone is gone from the crews that I was with. Going by today's attendance, only the B-Hater and myself are the lone warriors left. Enlarge Our Territory, eh, like I was once taught we need to focus on the seats that are filled first. I just feel like we lost touch of that, otherwise people would still be here. Someone brought up a good point too, directed at the leadership, do they really know the church's needs? I'm gonna see if I can start up some sort of E-Side membership meeting only or something. There needs to be some serious things addressed besides the invisible budget/consumer credit. Well at least I finally got to 2nd something in the meeting.

R.I.P.
H.M.
1937-2006

The Bayou - Wasn't planning on writing but man I feel ill. I think I ate too much Honeycomb for dinner. As I was watchin the Lakers vs. Kings game, I was reminded of some comments made about me yesterday. The comments were very comparable to Kobe when he first came into the L. Everyone knows in the league that I want to win and I play to win. I would hope I play the game with a passion and heart. However, I guess now I am misperceived by some of my teammates. They think I'm anti-social and that I never smile on the court. I guess in their opinion because I don't go to the bars and drink with them after a game is called anti-social. I come into the buildin, and I just wanna be left alone before game time so that I can stay focus, pray, and warm up on my own.

Hmmm what else is on my mind, well I guess I am at fault at this too. I keep thinkin bout this Expanding Your Territory thing. It's like ok, I outreached to a couple of peeps and they are saved now, what next? Maybe I'm wrong on this one, but I feel some sort of lost of accountability at least from the E-Side. Maybe it is because of our culture that we tend to avoid confrontation. Maybe I'm just ignorant and everyone that I see has accountability or are doing 100% okie dokie in their lives. Maybe I am semi-correct when I see everyone after worship and there are just some who are like stray cattle. Should be an interesting meeting this Sunday. I wonder if I should throw out this question, Will we ever take down the 50th Anniversary sign down? It's like not that I ain't proud of it, but dude we 2 years past the 50th now, time to move on.

Happy People

Kai Planet - 6 years ago when I first learned how to play v-ball, it was just for social venues. I would of never imagined to have pushed myself to the limits I have reached. Now there stands a new challenge where I have visited. Through time, and patience I am hoping to ascend past my previous limitations by going to this place. Seeing some of the caliber I'll be going up against, looks like I'll have to start off at SS 3. Time to push myself to the limits and beyond on this one.

What's more is I'll be playing with a gal who played on WSU. What is interesting however is how she was recruited to play for WSU. An old friend whom I miss playin with and against, Ying was the one who got her to play on WSU. Now I get a first glance at how her recruiting and scouting abilities are. One thing is for sure, this gal is a beast and scares the crap out of me.

Woohoo, 2 seasons down of X-Files! I've just started watching the 3rd season and man this is a great series already. Conspiracies, gotta love it because it just makes ya wonder what really is going on.

Looks like I might have a 4th job too, I may be working at Joe Dumar's. What are the odds?

Swinger's Club

Maid - As I continue to clean and reconstruct my Danger Room, I was lookin back on some of the books I was reading. It had brought back some recent conversations I've had about CBC. Ever since I've been back things just don't seem right. I was asked "are you growing spiritually at CBC anymore?" I think a lot of people that I know of can say no and it may be there right to say it. However, I've always viewed it as a 2 way street. He's always there, the question is are you listening and learning from Him? I just don't wanna be the type of person who gives the type of answer who says well I ain't growin anymore, or the sermons are boring to me, or I've heard it before. Notice all those responses are reflecting on the person so it really is a pride issue.

I like the theme for this year, Expand Your Territory. It sounds cool and everything but it really got me thinking, what about our own territory? I can only hope those who are on board know the real needs of the church. Gosh I just wanna rock the boat at this week's membership meeting. Maybe we're all sittin pretty and comfy where things are at?

DARE

Exact Change - Well I'm back from my adventure in the Windy City. No matter how short the trip was, it was the value of the time that I shared in the car with my parents. It has been so long now it seems since I took a road trip with my parents! I think our last road trip was to Charlotte early last year. Plus I got to test drive my daddy's new toy and play with all the gadgets in there. It was fun watching my UnderWorld DVD in the car and laxin in the back. Anyone wanna see UnderWorld 2?

Anyways, I had one objective going into Chicago today. I wanted to buy an IPass now that I know how those things work. So I hung out with Ben and he helped me by an IPass. I'm so thankful for the friendship I have with Ben. I'll never forget that night where we pulled a near all niter at Ram's Horn. Quality time watching The Fresh Prince episodes in his room, Carlton that clown.

Back to the IPass, wow I felt so cool driving in the IPass lane and lookin at all the suckers payin with exact change waitin in line :) Sad but true I used to be one of them but now I'm rockin an IPass.

Now, the sad part of the day was when I took a nap in the car. I kept squirming and I never realized I knocked over my Ice Coffee in the car! My left leg was getting cold and wet, but I thought it was the cold air from the car door. Once I woke up, my mom asked me why do I have a huge stain on my leg. I looked at my Ice Coffee cup and it was half empty as it was all over my daddy's car and me :( So I spent a good amount of time cleaning the car at Ben's place and washin my pants that I lost time on doing anything else. Oh well, at least I got an IPass now :) so things still worked itself out. Phew, good thing my daddy wasn't pissed about the spill too.

Lastly, we went to visit one of our 'tives who lives in Chinatown. It was such a blessing to hear that she is a member of CCUC. Woohoo, I also got my fix of Joy Yee's too, 2 drinks as a matter of fact!

Mango

Napster - I never joined Friendster, and now there is this thing called Facebook. Is that the same thing as Friendster? I never realized how many people join that thing, and it looks like there is a group for everything. What the G is Facebook all about?

I got a call this afternoon from Subfinder, and Monford wanted me to sub for......Suga Mama! I'm so happy that she got a job after I've seen her around subbin in my building. She is still one of those I trust from OU after all we were partners in all of our classes especially our Astro Lab. I spoke with her on the phone to see how she was doing. Oh yeah, the sad thing was I turned down Subfinder to sub for Suga Mama. Why? When they called me, it was 1:10 p.m. and it happened to of woken me up from my sleep and I need to sub for her at 1:15 p.m. Still what are the odds!

Everything happens for a reason, sometimes I wonder if I am fooling myself on some of it.

Foul

Flex - I guess it was time that I got off my lazy bum as I got the message from Him last night. UCS decided to call me to sub for Shuschard for the afternoon only in a 1st grade class. I have now learned that I do not have the patience for these lil rugrats either that or I lost my touch over this extended break. I had this lil girl Jayda come up to me and ask me how to write two hundred twenty. I asked her to write numerically twenty first. So she writes 20, then I asked to put another 2 in the hundreds place. Her final answer is 202, and I revealed to hear that 202 is not 220. So she kept tryin and kept writing 202 is two hundred twenty. I was so close to grabbin her pencil and writing to for her. Then I decided to tell the class that we are moving on to Social Studies. No more munchkins for me!

It's been amazing how many times my Lil Girl Scout, Katrina has been emailing me. She is a special student to me and she was never in my 6th grade class. I dedicated our 3 game sweep of TB Force to her.

Ya know what I have been noticing lately too, is how hormono guys are. It's like, on Tuesday nights, if there is a new girl in to play v-ball and she is cute, man they surround her. It's the same thing at OU, I mean we hire some new girls in the IM staff and bam testosterone levels are up. I mean we hired new guys too, and some of them already get on my nerves because all they freakin talk bout is themselves. It's like everywhere I go, every guy is guided by their Chicken. It's like pirahanas surrounding an angelfish in water.

Someone

Delta - So I have been tryin to save some money to go on a trip. The cash depends on where I go and here are my options in no particular order:

Option A - East Coast road trip from here to DC, Charlotte, then come back through Columbus.

Option B - Boston road trip, Beantown baby!

Option C - Chicago, the Windy City!

Option D - Fly to Las Vegas, and drive to LA.

Option E - No money and spend Spring Break Michigan style.

Why does X-Files has to be so freakin spooky!

Sentinels - In the span of 2 days now, I have a pulled tricep muscle, bruised/swollen orbital bone, and a jammed thumb. What luck I must be having. None the less, I went down to C-Line to ball with some of my old high school running mates. I haven't seen some of them in a couple of years so I had something to prove. I think I did by showing them that I am still one of the top players. For them, I kept tellin them again which separates me from them is conditioning, and health care.

The hard part was after the night was over, was to hear from the past. I had received a message from Yuriko for example, and I was told that they make a return. It is easy for them to leave a nice message to me. It's easy when the knife wasn't stuck in your back to say nice stuff. I hope they remember who left who 7 years ago. Things have changed, and I am stronger than I was before I left them. However do I want to deal with it? If so, how? Love my enemies, seems easy but at the same time I still want to avenge a friend. I have an exact location now, and with some vacation time that I have do I make a trip to an unknown area. The element of surprise? I gotta face this alone.

RoadRunner

Purple Cobras - Well I just got done watchin National Lampoon's Going The Distance, which was pretty freakin funny. Although it does not beat Eurotrip and I for sure would not recommend this to the too mature crowd. However, this movie only motivated me more by doing a road trip. In this movie, they went from Vancouver to Toronto!

Tonight we had our first OU IM meeting of 2K6. To end our meeting we played a few games of Dodgeball! Man I can't wait til the Dodgeball league starts up. The suck part was workin out so hard before we played. I threw so hard on one occasion that I know for sure I pulled a muscle. I torqued it or something, in the lower right region of my back. It came from the follow through of my throw. Another night of ice packs to prepare the bod for the battles ahead.

Lastly, maybe it's my fault that I didn't train Tim well enough over the summer in v-ball. I was hoping he would win last semester so I knew I stepped away from OU v-ball at the right time. However, he wasn't strong enough to get past Dimitri's team and it's time to make a return. The debut of possibly my strongest team created if all goes well, 6-Pacalypse.

Faculty

Longhorns - What a game, dude I hope the Super Bowl matches the hype of this game. Honestly, I was split right down the middle between USC and Texas. Now I wanna see a matchup of Vince Young vs. Michael Vick. Now only if OU had a football team that I could cheer for :( At least I can still claim that OU is undefeated in football :) As an added bonus OU played IUPUI on FSD tonight, and Lindsey Hunter was the commentator. Well that has to count for something I guess, right?

Today, I spent a good portion of my time reconstructin what I call The Danger Room. I did this a couple of years ago and it helped me train physically, mentally, and spiritually. I think part of last year, I fell short in all those areas so I want to discipline myself for 2K6. Man I had so much junk in there that I needed to clean out.

Looks like I'll be going down to the projects to play b-ball. It will be nice to run with some of my old high school friends. I'm lookin forward especially to seein my old friend Jess. I mean we've been friends since 2nd grade. He was the straight A's, probably the 2nd best baller back then, and had that GQ look in elementary school. Once high school hit, we lost contact because alcohol, drugs consumed his life and eventually dropped out. I always loved his lil sis too as I saw her as my lil sis back in the Plumbrook days.

Now if only I can get rid of this neck strain! It hurts so much lookin left and I think it was from v-ball last night when I went head first into a set of bleachers tryin to save a pass. Looks like I'll be sleepin with some ice tonight.

Everytime

Insurance - Can't help but sleep in today because nobody needed a sub. This subbing thing is kind of fun because it's like I get to pick and choose which days I want to work. What a scene I made today at Blue Cross Blue Shield. Normally, I don't mind waiting but when this Bubba lookin dude let others go ahead of me when I signed in before them! People before me were tellin me they only had to wait 15 minutes, while I waited for 50 minutes.

Well WB V-ball, was packed tonight with 9 teams! That's 36 people in a gym of 3 v-ball courts! Anyways, I was pissed because I bring my boy Lion-O with me and some were discouraging to him. I heard one team tellin everyone not to block him and load up on me. I love the challenge but not at the expense of my peeps.

Lastly, man X-Files is addicting but it keeps spookin the crap out of me. Why do they need to show the episodes from midnight til 4:00 a.m.? So now I record some then watch it in the afternoon to lose some of that erie feeling.

Impressive, I spent another day at Media Play yesterday. I have spent a total a lil under $300 now and I have so many DVD's now to watch.

Vietnam

BBQ Pork - So the new year has officially began, woo and a hoo. Just another day in the office for me either way. I don't see why peeps get all caught up to see/listen to the countdown. It's like nothing has changed, people count, the ball drops, and then it's over. People toast and celebrate, kiss or whatever people do at midnight. I just don't see the big deal about it, it's not like anything has changed since I first started watchin it.

Anyways, I'm left to reflect on the highlight of 2K5, which is probably going back to HK. I think any time I spend family vacation with my parents means the most to me. Seriously, if ya know even the half of it then y'all would understand why it means so much to me.

Probably the 2nd highlight of 2K5 would be getting knee surgery. Not exactly, the greatest thing in my life, but my 1st sport related surgery. I think just the fear at the time of not being able to come back the same or stronger than I was. Then hearin the haterz sayin that I won't be, only drove me to prove them wrong during physical therapy.

3rd highlight, hmm could be graduation from OU but I'll tie that with my Mustangs kids. I've put enough pics to summarize this one.

Wow, what a hit I took already, I spent another $70 today at Media Play in Livonia buyin all sorts of DVD and CD's. So far I have spent over $220 in that store and I'll be going to the Lakeside one early Monday morning for some more shopping!

Pace Car