This Post WILL Get Me In Trouble

So here I am, at the end of my long week off, still in New Jersey, having to pack up my things before I board that plane for 70 degree weather. Yeah, I feel bad for me too. What a good week, sort of. Last Friday, December 23rd, was a fun night, I probably got a little more drunk than needed and didn't spend enough time with the Beef or Hunter, Robber either, but all in all it was a good night. Thank you to all that hung out that night and for those that didn't, it's okay, I understand. (Note: there is some news that I'm dying to spill to the NJ crew, but can't. So you're going to have to wait until New Years Eve to get it, sorry to do that to you.)

Then it was up to Beantown to see my niece and she's a cutie. I'm not usually all goo-goo-gah-gah with kids, and I'm still not, but I think she's cute, probably because she smiles at me all the time and I talk to her like she can actually understand what I'm saying. I talk to her like I did to Mrs. Hahn back in the day if that means anything to anyone reading. Yes, that is Hahn's mother that I speak of for those that know him and not his mother. But if you know him, you can only imagine how Mean Jean goes. She's great though, truly a great woman.

Speaking of great women, the point to the title of today's post. I am a wimp when it comes to the female persuasion. I will give out no names here because I like it to be anonymous but people will probably know who they are during this section. I apologize for that. But there is a great married couple that I love to hang out with and for some reason........no, nevermind, I'm not going to spill the details, I'm going to get vague on people. When there is an opportunity to call a female for simple conversation, and nothing more, I can't do it. I feel the pressure. 28 years old and I can't call a girl. Can someone say, "single forever?" I can talk to them, no problem. I can get a couple of drinks in me and flirt with them. But when it's like, "Creegs, why don't you call..." I can't. I get nervous. I don't know why. This is the same guy that will do anything in public with little regard for self and tells not one, but two stories on how he shit himself, does a silly rendition of Rob Base's "It Takes Two" at friends weddings to make people laugh. This is that same guy, yet, when asked to make a simple phone call I can't do it. I will make that phone call and it won't be a big deal. But I had three days in NJ to make it and possibly go out with said female but I suck. Why do I tell "both" readers of my blog this? I don't know. I just write. I get on this thing, have somewhat of an idea what I'm going to write about and then just go.

St. Patrick's Day in Savannah, GA will be a good time.

Off to the airport now. The next time I blog, it'll be 2006! Have a safe and Happy New Years. I won't be kissing anyone at midnight, but I hope you all have that someone special next to you at the witching hour to ring in good tidings and cheer! And hey, don't be a puss, make that phone call. Oh wait, that's what I say to myself. Be good guys! Peace!

Merry Christmas!

I will have stories from my trip this weekend, but for now, I'll just say Merry Christmas. Hope everyone stays safe and warm and gets a great big hug from those they love!

Peace!

Creegs

Scroll Down to Read Actual Blog For The Day

This was an e-mail that I received from DuckHunter(new name for JPat, still not really original). It's apparently an e-mail that's going around, I think it's pretty funny and wish I was this creative after an ex-girlfriend cheated on me. Enjoy! (Don't forget, I did actually post some original piece this morning, it's underneath this one)

Brad,

It would be difficult for me to be any more miserable right now, I feel like the worst person ever. First, let me start by saying that I am truly truly sorry, and I hate myself for hurting you. Of all the people in the whole entire world, you were honestly the last person that I would ever want to wrong in any way. There is no excuse at all or anything that happened, so I won't even try other than to say all of us had WAY too much to drink, and I did a stupid thing. I can handle you being pissed at me, I absolutely deserve it, I can even handle the ugly words that were exchanged between us, what I can't handle is thinking that you see me as a different person. It is weird, I feel like I just went through a horrible break up or something. The world looked funny yesterday, I couldn't crack a smile if you paid me, there are songs I can't listen to, and I just feel beyond crushed. I don't know if you meant everything you said to me, and I am hoping that you didn't. I know that I was wrong on many levels, but I am also hoping that this is something that we can deal with. I know it sounds totally crazy and stupid, but you have come to play such a significant role in my life, I can't imagine my days without you. It is totally strange and weird to say that, and you could say that my behavior didn't reflect that, and you would be correct. I hate feeling like you hate me, and I hate feeling like all of your friends think I am a terrible person, because I am not. I know there is nothing I can say or do to take back what happened, but I just want you to know that fighting with you was just about the worst thing I could have ever imagined. It was right up there with one of the ugliest nights of my life, and I would give anything in the world to rewind and fix it. I am not sure if you will respond to this, part of me thinks that you won't. If not today, then maybe some other time. Also, thanks for getting my stuff together, although I think my sunglasses are still at your house, if you could keep your eyes peeled for them that would be great. I can't even focus or work today, I can't eat, I seriously feel like it was an ugly break up, and I am hoping against hopes that it was not that and you are not done with me. Please don't cut me off, I really don't think I can handle that. I am so sorry.
Elizabeth

RESPONSE:

Dear Elizabeth,
Thank you for your concern. I'll be sure to file it away under "L" for "Long-winded diatribes from drunken whores I couldn't care less about". You did a stupid thing huh? No...doing long division and forgetting to carry the one is "a stupid thing"; Mixing in a red sock with a load of whites is "a stupid thing"; Blowing some guy in a bathroom for 45minutes while I sit at the bar wondering if you're taking so long because you ate too much bran that morning isn't as much a "Stupid thing" as it is grounds for permanent removal from my social calendar. To be honest, I'm not sure if it was more amusing that you went and degraded yourself in a public toilet not once but twice in a 2 hour span, or that you seemed to think that by saying "Well, I didn't fuck him" somehow gave you a clean slate. So forgive me if I couldn't care less if the world "looked funny" to you yesterday. Since your world revolves around blow dryers, golden retrievers, Prada Bags and Jelly Beans, I'm sure it must have been most unsettling to actually have to consider someone else's feelings for 24 hours straight. The good news for you is that my friends don't think you're a terrible person, they just think you're the average run of the mill cum-guzzling blonde who commands about as much respect as your average child porn collector. I could be wrong but, it's pretty hard to respect some B&T chick who comes out to spend the night at my place even though she's seeing someone else in New jersey and winds up tongue-bathing the taint of anyone who decides 30 minutes of droning commentary on Colin Farrell's new haircut is worth putting up with for a hand job in the men's room. The good thing about being a guy is that when I eventually bump into the young lad who finger-blasted you on top of a towel dispenser last saturday, we'll have a shot and laugh our heads off about the time it happened. By the way, for the amount of time you claim to spend in spin class you really must be doing something wrong to sport the thunder thighs you do. Watching you parade around my bedroom in a thong was a little like watching sea lions mate. Thought you might like to know.

P.S. I forwarded about 100 people on this email.

Talk to you never, Brad

The Power Of A Handshake

The Yanks just acquired Johnny Damon from those dirty Red Sux. I have been quoted many times saying, "Man, I really want to like Damon, but I can't because he's on the Red Sux." But now, I can like him. I'm going to be the first in line for the #18 Yankee Jersey with "Damon" emblazened on the back. I'm on the Damon bandwagon already. It was weird last night when I saw the "breaking news" on ESPN I was a little torn, and then I started thinking about it. It was my handshake in Jacksonville that really swayed his wanting to be a Yankee. There was a look in my eye, probably a glazed-over look after 312 beers that day, but there was still a look. People would tell me afterwards of what I should have said, but I kept it simple with a "hey Johnny, how you doin'" But my subtext was saying, "Hey Johnny, leave that team that the Mass-holes love and come play for the best." Obviously he saw that in my eyes. So I take complete and total responsibility for the Yankees getting Damon. I can like him now. It went from liking him on the A's to being a closet fan with the Sux to now being my third favorite player behind Biggio and Nick Johnson. You can also thank me because I am unshaved for three days, which doesn't mean much, but I like it right now. No real reason for doing it, just that it was a hunger strike of sorts waiting for the Yanks to sign Damon, and it worked.

Of course I'm kidding about the handshake and the beard growing although both of which actually happened. I am very excited that Johnny Damon will be patrolling center in Yankee Stadium. I know when I go back to New Jersey for the holidays, I'm going to have some old school fans including my father and his people and probably Cookie as well telling me that they don't like the move. But I'm one of those fans that likes everyone that the Yankees have, I root for each and every one of them, rarely yelling at the tv and hoping they work out. I think it's perfect that he got a four-year deal at age 32 because in all probability at age 36 he may end up like Bernie. I think we're going to get four great years out of Damon, leading off in front of that line-up and stealing bases and scoring runs. This was also a HUGE blow to the egos of New England, which is also always nice to see.

So where do I line-up to get that #18 jersey? Hopefully by the time I get back to NJ, they'll be all over Modell's Sporting Goods and I'll be right there with one in my hands, smiling. All of these people were telling me "what I should have said to Johnny Damon" when I shook his hand that fall afternoon. I think what I should have said was "Looking forward to you playing on my favorite team!"

"Now batting, for the Yankees, centerfielder, #18, Johnny...Damon, #18" - a bad Bob Sheppard impression via blog.

Click on these words...

If you didn't click on the title, here, click this:

http://www.illwillpress.com/xmas.html

It's a funny link. There is cursing, so be careful at work, but it's great.

If I Don't Travel, Little fun Ensues

I say that not really meaning it. This weekend was very uneventful. Friday afternoon, after a really long, stressful work week, I decided to hit happy hour at a bar that I've frequently been forcably removed from 3 of the 4 times that I've been there. Have you seen the Ron White stand-up routine involving the hat, that's me in this place. I have a real problem about places that make you take your hat off. First and foremost, this place is in freaking Tampa, and not only that, but it's in a strip called Bay Street that's attached to a ritzy mall. For those in or know New Jersey, it makes Short Hills look like South Central Los Angeles. This place is great for people watching and athlete/celebrity sightings. Normally, when I go in the mall or the bars there, I'm not really able to see too well because I like my beer. So anyway, I went up there to meet up with a friend of mine and his girlfriend who were out with work people for happy hour. I've always wondered why I spend so much money when I go into that particular establishment, and being that Friday was the first time that I've actually entered the place sober, I found out. I went up to the bar and asked for two bud lights, to which the well-endowed bar temptress...er...tender said "NINE DOLLARS!" That's why. Because I tend to drink 10 beers in a bar, and there's 45 right there and then I tip way too generously, but that's the mentality that I've become accustomed to after working in the service industry for three years. But man, she had a beautiful body. But the beer tasted just like the ones that I buy from Publix or Winn Dixie or Apu's Quickie Mart for $8.99 per 12 pack. Needless to say, I had another buddy at another bar next door, so I took my three beers and went next door to a more low key bar where I could wear my hat and drink beers, of the same brand, for a dollar less.

So I was saying, about the title of this particular post. I had a blast on Friday night. I went over to the house that I lived in originally when I moved here to Tampa, and we had a few more beers and laughed a lot, but nothing noteworthy to speak of. Saturday, I did nothing, NOTHING! I bought a movie and a video game for myself, for Christmas and that's what I did. Before I knew it, it was 8:30pm and I still had done nothing. And when my roommate came home at 11:15pm, I retired to my room, turned on some sports and drifted into a beautiful slumber.

Here's the kicker though. Sunday, a day that I always use as a throw-away day. A day where I sit on my butt, watch two football games, figure out what I'm going to do for work the following week and call it a day, usually without a shower. Well, Sunday was a different animal. My buddy was having car troubles and asked to use my AAA card to get it towed. Being that I've gotten towed so many times, I should have known that they really don't need the cardholder there for anything, but I thought I'd be nice and show up to see if my buddy needed any help. He didn't, the car got towed and that was that. But because Clemson beat Florida State this past season, he owed me wings and beers. So we went to an establishment a lot like Hooters in the Tampa Bay area, watched the Dolphins beat the Jets, drank pitchers of beer and ate wings. Then after that, we went back to his house and drank some more beers and watched some more football. Then it was 8 and I needed to get home to relax and get rid of the buzz that I'd gained throughout the day.

Needless to say, I'm pretty beat up today. I went to bed early, but I guess it's just what Miller Lite can do to a man.

"Sitting in an overpopulated town, we sit around and drink cheap whiskey and talk about each other, like we are, Superheroes..." - Almost Steve (yes, Finally!)

It's Not Just a Phase

Joy Faucett, Julie Foudy, Kristine Lilly, Tiffany Milbrett, Shannon Boxx, Cindy Parlow, Mia Hamm, Brianna Scurry, Laurie Fair, Brandy Chastain...no these are not all of the females that I currently have crushes on. They are some of the names of the women on the US National Soccer Team. I should correct myself, as Hamm, Foudy, Faucett, and I believe Lilly all have retired from playing. Mia is currently married to NOMAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! I just wanted to say that.

I bet you're wondering, "Creegs, what's wrong with you? Why are you talking about women's soccer." Well, Mr. Blog-thing, I love women's soccer. LOVE IT! In my mouth, in my ass, I love it, can't get enough. Alright, well that was a little much, but I do love it. I was flipping through the HBO channels last night when I ran into a documentary called, "Dare to Dream." This is a look at the US Women's Team. Most notable, Hamm, Foudy and Faucett. It was brilliantly done and had that "chill factor" that some movies have for me. I don't know why, I just think it was one of those shows that just draws you in. Even my roommate, who is not a sports fan, said he got a little watery-eye while watching. It was just that good. When I was at Clemson, I worked for the women's team during the 2000 season. It was awesome. I knew most of the girls from just being the stud that I am, (not really), but a couple of them were in a show with me and I hung out with them regularly and that got me in with the squad. I loved it. We beat UNC that year, which was amazing. But anyway, I think it's just that I love the game of soccer and the fact that Clemson had some of the best looking players, probabyl got me more into it.

I just always watched the games, whether it was men's or women's. It just so happened that I believed that the women's team, with the Mia Hamm's of the world were very exciting and pretty damn good, so I found myself switching around my schedule to watch them. I still do! I dont' know why I started this post, but I've been thinking about the show all day, and how much chills I got and how much fun I had watching it. Something's wrong with me, I know...

"It's On For New Years!"

I just got a voice mail message from Mr. T, and that's what the jist of it said. It has multiple meanings, none of which I will really dilvulge until after the fact, but know that it means good things for my boy T. It's the type of thing that happens to a man every once in awhile, but when it happens, it's a great thing. I hope I'm confusing you because that's really my only point.

My weekend was rather exciting. My buddy Tyka was in town from Aiken, SC. The pressure was on, and I was feeling it. Being that I'm never really in town for a weekend, my knowledge of the "goings ons" was little. My usual people that I hang out with were nowhere to be found for friday night, but were planning big things for saturday. So it was me and my roommate's job to figure out where we'd go for the night. We decided on a local establishment here in Palm Harbor called Mixers. It's a smaller bar with very cute bartenders/wait staff. Don't worry, there were no girls to speak of for me. For Tyk's, there were multiple. The kid's a great "starter," we just have to get him a better closer. For baseball fans, it's like he's using Keith Foulke when he should be using Mariano Rivera. One guy blows everything for the team (Foulke), the other rarely blows it (Mo). That was really just put in there because I do have a Red Sox fan as a reader and I like to throw jabs whenever possible. Red Bull and Vodka was the drink of choice and good times were had. Tyk's tried to pull a 900-super gainer in the pike position off of a skateboard later on in the evening, but a sniper got him and needless to say, he was limping all day saturday. Speaking of Saturday, Tyk's and Mr. T came down for spring break and they found Derby Lane, a greyhound track in St. Petersburg, and fell in love with it. So we went and Tyk's hit the trifecta in the 11th. He won 15 large. Yup, 15 dollars!!! Hitting the trifecta in the 11th grossed him 15 dollars! But it was fun watching the dogs...sort of. I don't bet at that stuff. I just don't do it. So we did that, and when we came home, some people other than me thought it would be a good idea to take a 4 1/2 hour nap. They were the smart ones, I was not. I was scared that I wouldn't have woken up, and I wouldn't have. So I just sat and watched tv in my room, waiting for the trip to South Tampa, uppity section of Tampa, where the beer flows like beer and the girls spread like butter. I don't even know what that means. I have no idea what that means! It was a good time with Tyk's. The verdict's still out, but he may have "traded for Mariano" last night, if you know what I mean...

So speaking of "closers," Mr. T had a big "save" yesterday. More and more people are being brought into the blog and I'm running out of creative names. Tallahassee, we'll call her, and it's not creative at all. Not even close to creative, because that's where she lives. I've only met her once and it was at the Clemson/Florida State game, and didn't get in too deep to have enough ammo to give her a nickname. He calls me up yesterday and tells me the story about the "save." It really was a save, in all actuality because he pulled a Creegs the two prior nights where he wanted to go in for the kiss, but didn't have enough balls...beers in him to do it, so he finally had his back against the wall and had to poop bricks or get off the pot. (I'm all about the cheesy sayings today, I apologize for that, but I'm sure there's more to come) He "pooped" and it sets up a great New Years for that guy. Hence, the title of the blog is an actual quote from the T-man himself. BUT, Mr. T, like myself, dated a girl FROM WAYNE HILLS(this is God's honest truth, they went to the same high school in NJ, but went to Clemson) for an extended period of time. I think it was on the cusp(beautiful word) of 4 years. Well, like my relationship with a girl from Wayne, it didn't work out, I won't get into details, because they're moot. Anyway, Mr. T's out with Tallahassee the other night and the phone rings, and it's Wayne Hills Jr. No, she's not a junior at Wayne Hills, she was just younger than my ex. He calls me to tell me that he's "living Swingers." SO TRUE!!! The end of swingers when John Fav...Mikey's ex calls him and then the new girl calls, so he blows off the ex and starts fresh with the new girl. That's what Mr. T did!!! Congrats, Tallahassee is a good looking girl. Start fresh!

-No quote today, my brain hurts.-

In a Nutshell...

this is a real e-mail that I sent to the boys on the trip. Some of the references are vague and you may not understand them, but they are really funny to me, so I decided to post them on here. It's rare that I crack myself up, but this time I did. Enjoy!

Subject: Thanks all around

"thanks Yarbs for your driving prowess, it was weird not having gps on sunday. thanks to fred, our DEA agent, for driving also. thank Mr. and Mrs. Yarbs for having a house near Krystal. Thanks to the dog for not eating all of the dog food outside. thanks to stevie for reliving his childhood fantasy of sesame street. thanks to gal for the slaps on the face. thanks to miller brewing company, anheiser busch, stoli, etc for providing me a great weekend. thanks to muller for making me the second ugliest person on the trip. thanks to gil for making deals with golf, etc. thanks to my NRB (no reason boner) for being there when I needed it least. thanks to Masterlock for being unbreakable. thanks to timex for letting me be flava flav. thanks to the ft. lauderdale girls for having thongs on and b-cup breasts, and letting me make sure those two things were correct. thanks to the meatheads in the bar for getting my pants wet, it's the only pants that were made wet by us this entire weekend."

ChryStal...er...Krystal

So let me begin by saying that I came home yesterday at around 4:00pm and went directly to my room to lay on the bed. At around 6:30, my roomate came home with some food for me. At 7:30, I had a keen hold on the back of my eyelids. At 11:30, I woke back up thirsty as all hell and got something to drink. At midnight, I was back to watching the back of my eyelids only to wake up this morning. What's the meaning of writing that. That was the epitome of my weekend. Now some may ask, "you slept a lot." Au contraire, my French brothers, I didn't sleep much at all.

Went to Orlando with some friends from NJ and Mr. Yarbs. What a debaucherous weekend. I called it early last week when I said that debauchery would ensue, and ensue it did. The weekend really started on Thursday night when everyone was coming into town. Immediately after four guys from NJ got off the plane and unpacked at the house, beers were flying. Then downtown Orlando, which happened to be dead was the next destination for Operation Shithoused. We went to a bar on the roof of a building called Lattitudes. It's a cool place, and we happened to be seven of the approximately 11 people in the place, counting the bartender, who was very good looking. Beers and liquor drinks were flying. Apparently, you can "double up" for only two bucks more. This is a ploy to have weak people, like myself to get a double shot of liquor in your drinks. Being that I'm really not a liquor drinker, that double vodka/lemonade didn't taste great. I think I even got gin and lemonade at one point, but that didn't stop me from drinking it all down. Shots happened, and then it was time to go. Seran wrap was involved, not really sure how, but I know it was involved somewhere and had a lot to do with the bartender. Rheana. We went to Krystal and ordered 48 burgers. Pain would ensue.

Friday, we got up and went golfing on the course that the PGA played the Funai Classic. That didn't really mean much to me, being that I'm not a religious watcher of golf, unless it's the masters or played on Baltusrol. But, I did find out that former Clemson Tiger, Lucas Glover was the 2005 Funai Classic Champion, as it's posted all over the course's scoreboards. I found a lot of sand that day, but did manage to shoot a respectable(for me) 115. I lost a lot of ZDP's golfballs, but I did want to publicly thank him for letting me use his clubs, and balls. Needless to say, I wasn't feeling all that great before golf began, but as the day went on, I was doing alright. Golf took a lot out of us and after dinner that night, there was no consensus as to what we were going to do that night. We kind of wanted to go out, but another side of us wanted to stay in and drink, but we ended up going out on the town yet again. There was a street party going on downtown, and it was pretty cool. There was a $5 cover to get into about 8 bars. We only went into two or three, but spent the majority of our time in one. Some of us were extremely tired, but drank down the beers/liquor drinks anyway to try to keep up with the drinkers. Finally, later on in the evening, we were all in the dance club part of the bar, when one of our NJ friends says, "Go Hills!" to a guy who apparently got really upset by this, to the point that we must have touched a nerve or he had a bad childhood experience with Hills or Go or something. Well, he got his meathead friends to come over and start dancing near us, and I was the target to mess with. One guy kept bumping into me, so I would walk away not to start any trouble, to the point where I moved about 10 feet out of the way so that it didn't happen again. Then as I was moving away, they decided it to be a good idea to pour a drink down the back of my pants. I didn't realize that I was the one with the target on my chest. I wasn't even the biggest guy in the bunch. So then dudes start talking as their leaving, obviously looking for trouble. Nothing came of it, but another gentleman, not with our group came up to us and said that those assholes were looking for trouble the whole time they were in the bar. We had a cop with us, so we felt like we would have been okay in the 7-3 battle. We went to Krystal, pain continued to ensue.

Saturday was on. We slept in, and it felt good to do so being that most of us didn't go to sleep until early in the morning. We headed out to Hooters, and I had a boatload of energy, ready for the debaucherous day at hand. Hooters had wings and beers involved and football games as well. Next was TGI Fridays "Front Row" which is like a sports bar/arcade a la Dave and Busters only smaller. Drinks were flowing there, and then the Gentlemen's Club. I like to say that going to a strip club is like throwing dollar bills into a toilet and flushing. That's what it feels like. I don't even want to talk about that place anymore, I may vomit. Downtown was next in our night and apparently the drinks kept coming. We met some girls from Ft. Lauderdale and it was a good time. Big Bird was involved in the night, but I'll keep that one close to the chest. Krystal was next...ouch, it hurts.

It's always good to get together with these guys from NJ. They are boatloads of fun and there are always laughs that come out of the weekends. It's been three years since we've all gotten together on a weekend away, but it never ceases to amaze me just how much fun and how many stories come out of it. Thanks again to Yarbs for allowing us to use his house in Orlando. It is very much appreciated by everyone involved in the weekend.

"You really don't have much respect for a girl when you decide to [sleep with] her with produce involved." - NJ friend from the weekend.

24 Shopping Days Left...

It's December 1st and it's cold in Florida. Okay, I know, it's not cold, but chilly. Alright, it's not chilly, but there is a chill. The lead story on the news is that there is a possibility that peoples vegetables and fruit may freeze. WOOHOO! That's a newsworthy day. I'm serious though, it does get that way here. Not the cold, because it's cold for three or four days, tops! But the news will throw on the "frost advisory" when the temperature dips under 40 those four days of the year. We're not there yet, as I sit in mid-60s weather today, but the weatherpeople did state that this is a "cold front." (and yes, they used air-quotes.) But don't you worry about little-ole me, it's supposed to be in the mid-70s this weekend. Is there any better weather than mid-70s? I don't think so.

Enough about the weather, my brain hurts talking about that. Either that or the four beers I had last night are giving me a headache. That could be the case as well. Not saying that I was drunk by any means, but I was very thirsty, so they went down rather quick. Just a warm up, I guess for the weekend that will be. The boys are flying into Orlando tonight, so it's on starting at about 9pm. I'm a little scared. I do actually have to work tomorrow morning in Orlando, so tonight may be tame. What happened to the only drinking one night a week, you ask? Well, sometimes I'm given a waiver to that rule, an exception if you will. It's like, for all of my married friends out there, receiving a "fun pass" for the night. It's something you know that you're probably going to get reemed out for, or in my case, pay for physically (hangover, vomit, etc.) but you're going to do your best while you have the opportunity. I hope that made sense, it is early.

I want to take this opportunity to sort out all of the names that I gave my friends that I talk about on the blog, or as people in message boards call it, threads. I have Smoke and Earp, DL and Dishsoap, JPat(not creative, may have to switch that one) and FineCheese(probably my favorite name and person, heehee, i get a bed at St. Patty's). Robber, Wolv, Mr. T(another one that I need to get more creative on, I think), Yarbs, ZDP and B. MJ and the Rams. Beef and ..., I don't have one for the Beef's fiance. Hmm, I'll have to think of one there. It'll come to me if they ever go to NJ for the holidays, bastards! Rock, AY and Creegs. That's about all that I've used over the 57 posts. Can you believe that I've had enough time to post random babble 57 times since August? That's rediculous. But it's fun to just, as Mr. Seymour would say, "Freewrite." Write whatever comes to mind. Not jot down notes and write. Maybe it was a college professor that taught me to freewrite, but I just wanted to throw Mr. Seymour's name in there, being that we just had our 10 year reunion, and he was my freshman and junior English teacher. It was a stretch, but I like it, and it's staying!

So I've slept on a bed now for three straight nights. It's kind of crazy really. I know some of you are saying, what's the big deal? Well, before those three nights I slept on a couch and a psuedo pull-out couch for seven days. You never know what you have until you don't have it. Granted, the couch and the other thing were very comfy, but man, that bed is amazing. If there are any girls out there that want to test out what I'm talking about, just leave a comment. haha. There's no soliciting allowed on these things I don't think, but just in case. I have beer if you need. That was smooth Earp and you know it!

That's all the useless banter that I have for now. Off to Orlando tonight to begin the debaucherous weekend. Thanks to ZDP for the golf clubs for the weekend. I'll be sure not to break them. I should probably buy golf balls. Nah, who needs 'em, there's beers on the course. If there's water on the course, I'll find it. Probably a given, being that we're in Florida.

Have a great weekend. And I'll be sure to post something on Sunday night about the weekend that was.

"I'd rather be funny..." - Steve Martin

Thanksgiving, Reunion and Howie Day

I wanted to have three really different things in the title, and so I threw Howie Day in there for poops and giggles. I would like to apologize to Cradle Robber(you know who you are) for not posting more this week, it was a hectic week, and he called me out on it and so here is a hastily put together post about next to nothing. And it's not that nothing happened this week, but that nothing of extreme importance. It seems like when I travel other places other than NJ more "newsworthy" things happen. It's almost like my New Jersey home is a place of normalcy in a way. It's strange and hard to explain, but everything up there is in line. Just about all of my really close friends, all 25 of them have significant others/wives/kids, etc, so life is leading on and they all have their sense of the norm and it's happy. It is happy! It's great, I go back there, throw a wrench in their normal everyday lives for however many days that I can get there for and then I leave and life goes on. That's virtually what happened this past week.

I got into NJ last Monday, probably the day of my last post. Not much to report, my pops picked me up, we went home and I went to bed. That was an exciting night, let me tell you. Tuesday I hiked my way up to Jersey City to see my boy Rock. We watched multiple of shows, had a few cold beers and then I went on my way. Wednesday was the night of nights, the night that everyone and their mothers(literally in the bar we went to) go out on the town and drink until their blue in the face or green in the face or green in the toilet, I'm not sure which. Started the night with a family party with family friends, it was a great time there and then I went to Melrose and met the new Cookie-family baby. She is so small and so cute, so congratulations to DL and DishSoap(get it?!?!haha!) Then my boy from Connecticut, we'll call him Governor came into town and wanted to see his brother bartend in this bar in Morristown. Well, as I said before it was an older crowd and I'm surprised we didn't see some of our friends' mothers and fathers. Not really, but it ended up being pretty cool. We drank all night, dropped the waitress a $55 tip and went on our way. So we drank a lot of beer and then all we paid was $55 to the girl that I wanted to...nevermind, PG audience. Thursday was fun too. A mixture of families, my moms and dads, my brother, sister-in-law and 6-month old niece were in the mix too. Side note: My niece is the cutest baby I've ever seen, but I may be biased. She's adorable and always smiling and laughing. I think she takes after her Uncle in that sense. I love Howie Day's new song, "She Says" just as a random thought for the post. Friday was the annual SHP/NP football game, although I use that "football game" loosely with this bunch. I started out quarterbacking my team of speed and my stats after the first four drives were 1-8 3yds. 3INTs. That's not a very good percentage. I may even be giving myself some credit with the 3 yards the way that AYB was spotting the ball. We could gain 50 yards, (obviously not with me at the helm) but AY would move the ball back like 30 of them, AND HE WAS ON MY TEAM! It was pretty funny. I think he set a Thanksgiving Football record with 5 straight plays getting sacked. I may have set the interception record though as I threw one more later on in the game. I scored twice though and had two interceptions of my own, so that made up for it. My team did end up losing, but the best part is that I couldn't tell you the scores of any of our 10 years of games. That's right boys, 10 years, and I think it may be on the low side. I think we played our first game 11 years ago, but we may have missed a year in there. Friday night it was Cradle Robber's girlfriend's 16th birthday. He's 27. It was a cool sweet sixteen party. We got Ice Cream and a goodie bag when we left. It should be airing on MTV sometime in the near future. JUST KIDDING. Robber's girlfriend is wonderful and she's very much of age and a fun, cute girl and I'm happy for the ole Robber. (That's right Mr. R&JPR, your name is now Robber on my BLOG.) Steaks eaten at Arthur's in Morris Plains after the party and then a bar where underage people flourish. Good night all around. I need a paragraph break in here, so here goes.

Saturday was my 10 year high school reunion. My boy Mr. T said, "pick out that girl that always wanted to bang, get her drunk and do it." That's when I told him I went to an all-boys school, to which there was a bit of silence on the other end. And then he said, "well then don't do that." It was a priceless moment. It was great to see all of the old boys and some that I didn't think I'd see. It was just a good collection of people. Someone did say that he's eager to see what happens at our 25th because that's when people really start to change. Everyone wore nametags with their senior picture, but we all pretty much looked the same, hopefully just with a different hair style. I, of course, had a hat on, with a sport coat. I fought off the pukes later on that night and slept on the same couch two nights in a row. Thank you Smoke and Earp for that! Sunday was just chill. I went to see Rock in JC, watched a few NFL games and then went to MJ and Rams' house and had a great dinner and watched a great Giants game. Fun to watch even though I don't have allegiance to either team. I know it was tough for MJ to watch, but it was a good game nonetheless.

It was a great week. Good to get home to the norm, everyone seemed to be doing really well. I got to see everyone that I wanted to see. Some I may have wanted to hang out with more, but that's the breaks, I guess.

This weekend has golf, girls and football involved, I know, I know, what makes this weekend any different than usual? Nothing really, with the exception of a new crowd. I got my boy Yarbs in the mix and then a great group of guys coming in from NJ. We had a weekend of debauchery in Montreal three years ago, now it's Orlando that will feel our wrath. I'll write again this week, but I had to mention that. The build up will be great, the weekend greater.

"and when she says she wants somebody else, I hope you know, she doesn't mean you. And when she breaks down and makes a sound you'll never hear her..." - Howie Day

Silly Gamecock, Wins Are For Tigers!

How could I top what happened last weekend? I can't. There's no way around it. When one of the highlight lines of the weekend was "WASHBOARD ABS!" it's impossible. But the Tigers went ahead and took care of business against the other school in South Carolina on our way to a respectable 7-4 season. To tell me we'd be 7-4 after being 3-4, I would have been surprised. And boy was I worried about this past weekends game against the Coots. But we managed to squeek by and it was a good night.

I don't really have anything exciting going on other than that. I usually try to have at least two posts a week, but last week I dropped the ball, and also, I had a conference and my computer's been acting up a bit. There it goes again, almost on cue. So I'm going to break off this post something proper like(no idea what that means.) I'm going to end on this. I'll be in New Jersey for the rest of the week, there will be stories and I have a reliable computer there. Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving. I hope to see everyone in NJ when I'm there, and hope to see my "outside NJ" readers very soon.

STUFF OF LEGENDS...BRAAAAAAAAAAAA

(I wrote this on three different occasions. You'll be able to tell the difference in days, and I didn't want to change it because I like things authentic. Enjoy)

So I’m actually in the car, as I type this, driving to Clemson University, in traffic in the God-forsaken town of Valdosta, GA. All I’ve been reading for the past twenty minutes is Great Dane, the mud-flaps on this 18-wheeler in front of me.

Of course as I write, and bring my computer out of my bag, the traffic starts to move a little bit, so I shut down and put the computer away. Then ten miles down the road again, the traffic stops dead. We are driving along and it seems like people were rubbernecking due to the road smoking. The asphalt, which was probably just laid earlier today, was smoking. People were stopped looking at the gentleman out there with a hose, hosing down the median. IT WAS IN THE SOUTHBOUND MEDIAN! Not one person in the southbound lane stopped and looked, it was just the people going north with me.

So here I am, stopped to get gas in some town in Georgia about to have my region conference call. You should see this place, it’s pure south. Every stereotype that you’ve heard all growing up about the south, minus the stupidity, because that one bothers me, but I’m here, in your stereotype. Actually, it’s funny because as I look out of my car window I’m staring at a dumpster, which is the epitome of where I am. This place is great. It’s called Plantation House, and it sells all sorts of Florida shirts and paraphanalia. I’M IN GEORGIA! 92 miles north of Florida’s northern-most border and yet they sell Florida gear. Rather ironic.

I’m sitting up on a perch a little bit staring down at the people driving on I-75 North, it’s kind of neat. Can you tell I’m bored from sitting here and want the conference call to come and go so that I can continue my drive towards Clemson. So much to do once I get there, there always is. There is a play tonight, closing night actually and a whole bunch of my old students and friends are involved and I’m going to try my damndest to get there. Maybe I’ll do a review or something when I get back to Florida. We’ll see if it stays fresh in my head after two hard days of drinking. Alright, that’s all for now, my phone alarm is going off. Time for the conference call…

two days later…

Atlanta traffic blows! That’s all I can say that’s semi-PG. But all that is forgotten now, because the TIGERS BEAT THE POOPY out of the NOLES. It was awesome! What a game. Afterwards, I stood on the sidewalk giving everyone high fives. "It’s just a high five!" was my line of choice for some of those people that were skeptical of the high five. I think it got people to smile and laugh a bit and that really was all that I wanted, that’s all I was going for. Yep, the high five bug was back and everyone was getting one, it was great. Apparently I called a lot of people too and I wasn’t even slightly sober, it’s pretty embarrassing today being that guy, but last night it was awesome!

FRIDAY NIGHT WAS LEGENDARY!!! My boy Mr. T came into Clemson as I did to see a play at the Brooks Center for the Performing Arts, no, that’s not a joke, we really did come to see a show. It was great by the way. But Mr. T had to be at work at 7:30am the following day, but he didn’t care, he wanted to drink for as long as he could with time to sober up a little bit to drive back to get to work on time. This guy is amazing, all of this for me. Awesome! Couldn’t ask for anything more. We go to Backstreets Pub, and he orders 2 Bourbon and Cokes and I don’t like bourbon, I order 2 So-Co and cokes, and we drink one of each, and they go down fine. Then we had to go see an old friend of his, so we leave Backstreets to go to Tiger Town Tavern, and wait in the line. Lo and behold, there is his hottie friend, she was slightly attractive if you like really attractive girls with a great body and just fun and sweet. She’s going to backstreets, so we go back and drink two more of the So-Co and Coke and the Bourbon and cokes, and that’s when the Jaeger-bombs come flying out of left field. At least 5 or 6 of them and here goes the night. Mr. T’s got the girl, she’s caught in Mr. T’s web of desire, I don’t know what that means, but I like it and it’s my ‘blog.’ I think they hooked up that night, but that’s another story for another day, he said they didn’t. I don’t know if I believe him. I don’t think he’d lie about hooking up with a really good looking girl, but I don’t know, it’s fishy, he’s a fishy guy, minus the fishy part. Can you tell I’m hung over and a scatterbrain right now? Because I am if you didn’t know! I only have a nine hour drive ahead of me, it’s not bad, ughhhh.

After the bars, we went to the cast party for the show that was earlier that night and the beer drinking continued for yours truly and I think Mr. T backed off a little, I don’t remember. But the guy gets into the car to leave at 4:30am and we’ll call the girl, "Lori" because I like that name and the fact that it was her name and I’m too hung over to make up a name for her. So he couldn’t find where she was supposed to be staying and now we’re in a panic because dude needs to get on the road and get to work at Augusta National at 7:30am. I think he made it, but man what a performance by this guy. I’m not condoning drinking and then driving but I do know that he was in good shape when he actually got behind the wheel, that I know for a fact. But that was definitely a ‘blog-worthy’ night and performance by the one, the only, MR. T!!!

35-14!!!!! Gamecocks are next!!! We’re going "Bowling!"

I did make it home safely and slept like a baby. Back to the grind today.

Ho Hum, and Auditions

I'm guessing now that I write 2-3 posts a week depending on how much is going on the Cregan-world. Well, there's not much going on in that world lately, so there's not much to write, hence the 2 posts for the week. I have weekend travel plans, surprise, surprise, and usually I write about something from the weekend that was, or something that's coming up. Today, I really don't have anything exciting and that sort of worries me. The only excitement I got out of today was that the cell phone company that I use for my work cell phone decided that they were over charging me for the particular service that I use, hence, are going to "credit" me some money. That's sort of bullmularky in a way. I've given them my money straight up. I never said, well let me give you a credit of my life, which you can use next month for my services. I think I've done that in the past with some bills and companies don't like that, apparently. If this were the old days and I was living in Brooklyn, I'd have no knees or "swimming with the fishes" or "wearing cement shoes," etc.

So this weekend I head back to the mother land, Clemson, South Carolina. The place is tremendous. I'm even going so far as to taking a half day tomorrow, BUT, I'll be traveling two hours north for my meetings and then taking off directly from there. It should be a great game between my Clemson Tigers and the Florida Stank Semenholes, with hopefully the Tigers coming out on top. Haha, I didn't even realize the funny until I re-read that. It's really actually childish, but it's been one of those days.

I had my mid-year review today for work, and it worked out exceptionally well, that is, until I talked to my mentor/friend on the east coast of Florida to compare our "Excellents" and apparently "Outstandings." I didn't get any "Outstandings," but I got plenty of "Excellents," and I'm pissed. Granted, Meg$ is tremendous in what she does, but I was getting all hyped up about my excellents and then realized that there was one more step, damn you outstanding!!! I didn't want to be outstanding anyway. I never liked that word. If it were "tremendous," I would be more pissed than I am, because I love the word TREMENDOUS!!! Speaking of tremendous, I wonder(hint, hint) if my boy Mr. T will be in the Foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains this weekend. Dude works at Augusta National Golf Course now, he may be too cool for school if you know what I mean. I mean, picking Azalias out of your butt on 12 may hurt. I don't know what I just said.

Monday will come fast, I'm sure, and besides working all day in Fort Myers, I will be auditioning for a show. That's right ladies and gentlemen, I will be back on the stage to get re-acquainted with it. I promised Mr. T that I would and I am! Let's just hope I "break a leg" out there on Monday. It's a half-step up from a community theater and looks like they do some really good work, plus, I have to say that I'm 30 for the role that I want. The audition notice says that the director is looking for men ages 30-59. I'm only 28. But the few greys in this big head of hair may allow me to play 30. I'm not sure. We'll see. I'm actually not really looking for a role, per se, because as much as I love to act and would love to be in the show, (I Hate Hamlet, is the name) I need work with auditioning and performing, so the audition will get my feet back in the water and hopefully I'll drink some salt, I don't know. We'll see. I made that promise to Mr. T, which reminds me, he never told me if he got cast in the show that he auditioned for in Aiken, SC. Hmmm. That bastard!

Things that make you go hmmmmm: Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut. -Ernest Hemmingway.

The Weekend that Was...or was it?

So I've gotten a lot of responses from the "trailer" of Pumpkinhand that I put on the "BLOG" the other day. I think there was only one response that differed from the rest and it went something like this:
[name] loved the trailer...me on the other hand...

For this, I say thank you, because that was a breath of fresh air. Everyone, and I mean everyone (all 25) people that I sent the link too and then the readers of this mess said, and I quote, "I don't get it."

Awesome!!! I don't get it! That's great, because quite honestly, I don't get it either. It's a fairly true story based on unrequited love, as stated in the trailer. When the full length (19 minutes) comes out, I'll make sure that everyone knows and then people will really be saying, "I don't get it." All you have to really know is that, yes, I am in a sailor suit that was way too tight for me (weight jokes need not apply.) And that the director of the movie is ultra creative, probably the most creative person bordering on madness that I've ever met. A great guy nonetheless. So that's that.

The weekend was spent, yet again, in Savannah-BlackHole, Georgia. I have a really hard time leaving that joint. It's such good times with such good people, and the couch is comfy too! Even when I leave, there are issues, like last night when I was about 50 miles into my trip on I-95, the road was closed. Apparently there was an accident and the road completely shut down. I was sitting there in my car, listening to the radio and the asshole behind me making sure everyone knew that he had a kicking system in his 1992 Ford Liberty Sedan. I made the car up because quite frankly I don't know what the car was, but it wasn't nice looking at all. Either were the guy and girl in the car. I even had these nice ladies next to me say to me, as I rolled up my windows, "I don't blame you, we don't need that noise in a jam." I smiled, and kept playing bowling on my nokia cell phone. (I scored a 196, my highest ever!!!) Sorry about that, it was about the only excitment going on for an hour and fifteen minutes that I sat without moving.

Side note: You ever notice, if you're sitting in traffic on a major thoroughfare, that people ALWAYS cut across the median and get off at the exit to rest or whathaveyou. There's ALWAYS someone that gets caught in the center median. Someone that didn't do the sideways number across and try to go at the median straight on. I love those people. They have to be so embarrassed by their stupidity. I would be, but then again, I don't ever try to cut across the median because that would most definitely happen to me.

Needless to say, I got home at a decent hour, after 7+ in the car. The ride was fine after that. But a hassle nonetheless. The weekend was once again fun. People in NJ really need to experience Savannah the way that JPat and the crew(notice no Wolv... reference because he turned into a scared possum on Saturday night, haha) do the town. There's such a good vibe by these people, for the most part, with the only visible exception being Wolv's fiancee(you had to be there.) And JPat is the mayor. I may just have to switch the name to Mayor instead. It's more creative, and true. The guy can pick up the phone and within moments, or hours, people will be knocking down the door with a dish in hand to eat dinner. It's uncanny really. He also got 19 people together for a "Haunted Pub Crawl" that took place on Friday night. A tour of the local pubs with stories of ghosts, etc. It was very fun for me, at least. And it seemed like the rest of the crew had a good time as well. Plus, it was Wolv's birthday week, so we made sure he was involved in some heavy duty drinking, which, by the sounds of the lack of recollection the next day, he had a blast. So this is a challenge to all of the NJ peeps, get to Savannah for the biggest party the town has, St. Patty's because if there is that much fun in that town on an off week, think about the fun when the town is hopping, and the bathrooms are portable! (Sorry FineCheese and "Mayor" for inviting everyone to your town.)

Saturday night was a little less eventful as far as the crowd, but pretty sweet nonetheless. ZDP and Yarbs joined the crew that consisted of me and the Mayor for a foursome of sorts. We did the town right, sat, shot the proverbial poo, drank not nearly as fast as the "married duo with their fun passes." The shots to the nuts and the pounding on top of the beer and the falling off a brick wall were just added bonuses to the weekend that was.

"When we get engaged 'Wolv', I want you to get me a ring just like this one"(pointing to FineCheese's engagement ring) - Someone not worthy of a creative name.

Pumkinhand Tori Amos

Just wanted to show everyone the trailer of the movie that I did a few years ago. The director is getting the finishing touches together and he put a trailer up on his website. If you click the link on top of the page, you'll see it. All you have to do is scroll over the Pumkinhand Tori Amos and it should take you there. Check it out and leave some comments for your thoughts on my costume. I have seen the full movie without sound added and it's interesting. Mr. T does a great job in it and I can't wait for him and I to get out to California so that I can be part of his entourage. And maybe I'll have one as well. Enjoy!

This Week Is SLOW

It seems as if this week is going by so slowly, I don't understand it. Actually, I do understand it, it's because of that freaking hurricane that made last week fly by because I was off from work for monday and technically tuesday as well, so it was Wednesday before I knew it. But this week doesn't seem that way. My work day always seem to fly by, probably because I'm driving for much of the day, stop in a few schools, try to buy their used textbooks and then back out to driving, only to come home at about 4:30 or so each day. Then with the time change, it's dark early, and this used to really get to me in New Jersey because it goes from grey to black and it seemed like it was miserable in the winter time. In Florida, it's 80 and sunny and then slowly the sun sets and then it's a clear-crisp nighttime. It's odd really, not really explainable unless you lived here. It's fun that way. Maybe the fact that it is beautiful for most of the days, I don't know. I'm babbling. Surprise, surprise.

But today is gloomy here. It started out as any normal fall day in Florida (yes, we have slight seasons here), sunny and warm, but then when I opened my mouth to my sales girl in Chicago about how nice it was outside, the rains came. And it's been rainy and dreary all day. The temperature is still nice, but it's Jersey-grey out today. So I'm sort of in a blah mood. And then a phone call came into my personal cell phone at about 5:45pm and it was someone that I may have had a five year relationship with, I'm not sure. Our phone conversations while we were an item many moons ago went sort of like this:

Me: Hey, how was your day
Her: (insert 45 minute diatribe here)...Alright, I gotta go and make dinner.
Me: Ok, my day was good, talk to you later.

Tonight, when I got the phone call, it was eerily similar to that conversation. Some days I like talking to her, some people say I shouldn't talk to her at all, and trust me when I tell you, we don't talk often, maybe once every other month, maybe. There are some events taking place in her life that I don't want to know about because as long ago that I did date her, there's a part of me that still likes her. Just a part, not a big part(not my head, haha.) And it's not that I still like her, but that I probably miss the companionship. Oh shit, enough about that nonsense, I'm usually all about the funny and drinking stuff, not this garbage. Sorry about that.

I'm heading, once again to Savannah, Georgia this weekend for some more antics. I have no real expectations, but I don't need any because there is always good times to be had in that town and 999/1000 times, we find them. Two weeks from now, it's going to be weird not hanging out with JPat, FineCheese and Wolverine, but I get to add ZDP into the mix this weekend, and that can only lead to shenanigans!

I just hope this week goes quicker. Oh man, it's only tuesday...

"Sometimes when I reflect back on all the beer I drink I feel ashamed. Then I look into the glass and think about the workers in the brewery and all of their hopes and dreams. If I didn't drink this beer, they might be out of work and their dreams would be shattered. Then I say to myself, it is better that I drink this beer and let their dreams come true than to be selfish and worry about my liver" - Jack Handey

Biggest Cocktail Party, Friends Having Babies and Johnny Damon

I just got back from Jacksonville, Florida today a new man. I don't know what that means, but it's true however you look at it. I attended the "Biggest Outdoor Cocktail Party" in America, a college football game between Georgia and Florida.

First and foremost, my boy Cookie (sorry bud, an old High School reference) and his lovely wife welcomed a new addition into their home. I can't wait to teach her profanity, just kidding. I truly can't wait to get home to say hello and give her a beer...no, that's not the right thing to do either. I can't wait to see her and her mom and dad! Wow! My first high school buddy with a child. It's like I'm going through a baby-boom of sorts, with my niece whom I can't wait to see again, my boy Yarbs in Savannah's daughter and now my boy Cookie, craziness!!! Hope mom and daughter are healthy and happy, I hear they are! Congrats also to Smokey on being asked to be Godfather, I am also one and it's a real honor, enjoy it!

It was a great game in Jacksonville, with Florida coming out on top, but there were great people involved, which made it such a fun day. It was so fun that I couldn't function at 9pm last night, which led me to the bed(couch) early in the night. My boys JPat and (I need a name...let's call him...)Wolverine, for multiple reasons, came down from Savannah and joined me in this festivous activity. The day started later than we had estimated earlier but time seemed to stand still while we were tailgating. A plethora of adult beverages and great people lead to a lot of laughs and crazy times. The best line I heard all day came when I said to a young gentleman who had his hat tilted sideways, "Hey bud, your head's on sideways," only to have his obviously inebriated, obviously brilliant (fececious) girlfriend respond, "Your brain is on sideways." That was amazing. When I write my book of witty comebacks or write a book of rants and other nonsense, that may be my title. Shortly after that moment of brilliance, a gentleman who resembled Jesus came walking our way, I noticed it was, in fact Johnny Damon, centerfielder for the Red Sux. I reached my hand out, said, "Hey Johnny, how you doin' pal?" To which he responded, "I'm doing great, thanks buddy." He kept walking and I went on to rattle the cages of every fan I possibly could. I also called everyone I possibly could to tell them my brush with greatness. I have had people tell me today, "What (I) would have done" but when thrust into that situation, you don't have the "balls" to say anything. He was doing nothing but minding his own business trying to walk into the game without incident, and I allowed him to do so regardless of my extreme hatred of the Red Sux.

We also ran into another celebrity of sorts. A girl named Dara from New York City, a Georgia alum who was rather reluctant to use the port-o-johns decided that she needed to talk to us and after a bit we found out that she is going to be on Guiding Light, the soap opera. She has a recurring role. She was nice, but don't worry people, I'm not in love with her. She just had a lot of good things to say about the acting world, and offered up help in the future for me, which I thought was really cool.

I did find a girl that I fell in love with, but she didn't talk to us, just kind of was in our area and I starred at the poor girl and drooled a little bit too, but I promised myself I wouldn't cry...I mean wouldn't talk about girls for awhile. Although, I talked to my boy Mr. T earlier about the "Philadelphia" girl and ... nevermind, I don't want to get into it!

A great weekend had. I want to send along some apologies to the Savannah duo that graced me with their presence because I wussed out a little bit because college football games take a boatload out of you, in case you've never been. I was feeling like I would get sick, and no, not in the drunk-sense of the word, if I kept beating the crap out of my body. So we went out to eat and then I basically went to bed, which was the best idea I've had in awhile. I woke up today and the boys that were at the house with me were hurting something fierce, but I was fine and ready to enjoy the beautiful Florida day!

"Keep smiling, it makes people wonder what you're up to." -anonymous, but should be me!

Sentimental Creegs

Normally, my day goes something like this:

7:00am - alarm goes off for the first time.
7:18am - I get up after two 'touches' of the snooze.
7:20am - computer goes on and run the needed work programs to start my day.
7:22am - shower.
7:28am - get dressed, check e-mail, figure out where I'm going that day, check cnn.com and maybe blog if I'm feeling crazy.
8:00am - leave for the day.
4:00pm - come home, finish my day of work, check e-mails, do my work programs.
6:00pm - start watching tv. each day I have certain shows that I watch.
10:00pm - start the going to bed process which I won't get into in this PG-13 blog.

The reason I told you loyal readers that, I'm still trying to figure out, but the point to my story is that this morning at 7:16am, before I awoke from that second nine minutes of pleasurable sleep, my personal phone rang. That's right, my work phone didn't ring at 7:16am, it was my personal phone. My old friend from Clemson, who lived with me ZDP and Stead one summer called me at that God-forsaken time and immediately I thought something was wrong. Let me tell you a little background on this relationship. My buddy, we'll call him, hmmmmmmm Chili because he LOVED/S(?) Bert's Chili from Waffle House, a frequent stop for me and 'Chili.' The last time I was living in Clemson, Chili was/is teaching in Walhallah, SC and so we reacquainted and he was going through some really hard times with his young marriage, so I was there as an ear and an outlet for him during his trying times. He was officially separated from his wife in January. Well, in July, he met the girl of his dreams, and I truly believe that they were made for each other. As most know, I don't like to take the back seat to anyone, especially when I would bend over backwards for any one of my friends and I hope they know that, and I did that for Chili more often than not. He would call or need something and I would be there at his every call. When this new couple was in their growing stages, I was all about them. A lot of people in our small inner-circle of friends in Clemson were very skeptical about this new relationship, but I backed them both and kept their secret safe. Well, as they started getting more public with their relationship, I got in a (what I thought) was a minor disagreement with the new girl and that was that. More or less, I fell out of favor with the both of them and hence have talked to Chili very rarely since then. Even when I went back to Clemson, I wouldn't see him, for no reason other than the fact that I thought he didn't want to see me or need to see me for that fact.

That was a long winded story because I wanted to say that Chili called me this morning to tell me something funny and had an effect on me, something I won't get into on this forum, but we talked, at 7:16am and laughed and it was as if we hadn't skipped a beat. He went as far as saying, "I wanted to tell you that story as an excuse to give you a call." I used the time thing to make it seem like a big deal. Now that I'm doing all of this work thing, it's okay that people call me after 7am, but it's not expected, especially from someone that I thought I fell out of favor with over time. I guess that's not the fact at all, and in fact, the next time I go back to Clemson, I'm supposed to either stay up there one night or hang out on Friday before the game. It really sort of made my day in a weird sort of way.

Deep thought of the day: When people say, "I’m so tired it's not even funny" or "my head hurts so much it's not even funny", why would it even be funny in the first place?

!!!NO MENTION OF FEMALES!!!

There you go 'B', no mention of females. It's not going to happen anymore...well, that's a lie, but for awhile there won't be any mention of females because (1) there hasn't been any in awhile, and (2) I was told that I lost a reader yesterday because all I did was complain about how "love was passing me by." Well, that' s not all true, partially true, but it got me thinking about life. (oh here we go now, look what you started.)

I won't go there, that's not the me, that's not my "blog"-style. I talk about drunken antics and whoa buddy were there some this weekend. I say "some," but once again I only drank one night, but I drank enough for the entire group that I was with. You see, I was in Savannah to get away from Wilma, that BITCH, she came to my area of Tampa and all along the west coast of Florida this past Sunday/Monday. I went to Savannah to get away, and I 'got after it' on Friday night. It's become a staple that when I come to town, we head to Wet Willie's to get their daquiri-style drink or three(in this case) and then hit the town for the rest of the night. I decided that it would be a good idea to drink three drinks loaded with Bacardi 151 and Everclear. Everclear sure doesn't make you see "ever clear." I think the makers of that particular flamable drink should call it black-out drunk, because that's what it does to me. It was a good time though I'll tell you. My peeps in Savannah are always so inviting and very welcoming of me which I appreciate tremendously. And they ALWAYS show me a great time when I come here. Add ZDP into the mix and I'm not sure I leave Savannah sober EVER.

Needless to say, I don't have any tremendous stories, but definitely wanted to get a post in here. Especially with the storm that rocked the state of Florida this morning, wanted to send along that I am alright and we got really lucky with not getting hit nearly as hard as some of the state and send along some well-wishes to my mentor and friend in West Palm Beach who was rocked by this thing. She'll be alright, but it sucks now.

Next weekend I head to Jacksonville, Florida for the "World's Biggest Outdoor Cocktail Party" as the University of Florida Gators battle cross-state rival Georgia Bulldogs at 3:30pm Saturday. Should be good times. I sure have a good group going with me, which for some reason happens all the time. I think I should rename this blog-thing, "Where in the World is Creegs?" The travel doesn't end after next weekend, just the wedding's ended...

Girl: "I'll just take my shoes off and stay in the kitchen and you can impregnate me."
Boy: "Can't we just practice for awhile?"

The Hurra's Comin'

Hurricane Wilma, named storm #24 is coming at Florida with reckless abandon (I always wanted to use that phrase.) So what does that mean for me? I don't know, but I'm going to probably head to Savannah for the weekend. Originally I didn't want to travel this weekend, instead, lay on my bed, watch college football and the World Series now that my favorite player finally has made it to the world series after 18 seasons in the bigs. And another option was to go to Clemson with my boy ZDog and his wife, but that's 9 hours in the car, and I'm somewhat poor due to all of the travel, gas, etc. So I think 4 1/2 hours and one fill-up will be my option. I'm on a roll now, I can't stop it. It's like, "well, it's Friday, might as well travel." It's all I know.

So that's my plan. One of my relatively new friends just got out of a long-term, long-distance relationship. I talked to him last night and he's extremely down in the dumps and I feel for the guy. It's all he's known, in terms of women for the last 8 years, and he's 24! He's a great kid, he'll bounce back and I'm hoping that I have something to do with a good weekend for him! Plus, two of my fav's are there, and there's always debauchery involved when the three of us get together. And I like to rub it in the face of all of my NJ friends knowing that they're not able to get to Savannah to see the newlyweds, and I can get there at the drop of a hat. I really don't like to rub it in anyone's face. I just want to gather enough firepower to make those jokers get down there for St. Patty's, probably one of the most fun times in one of the most fun places with some of the most fun people EVER! (Hint, hint!!! Get to Savannah for St. Patty's, you bastards!)

I had a war of words with a gentleman that I used to work with at the mortgage company the other day. He's a great guy, ex-football player for USF(south florida bulls). I came back at him with something that could have ended his marriage, or severely hurt his marriage. In a way, I like having that one-upsmanship in my arsenal, that extra "hitch in my giddyup," but in no way do I want to be responsible for ending a marriage, no matter how hot the wife is, haha. But the point of my story is that, after we apologized and made ammends to each other, he said to me, "c'mon creegs, GET CREATIVE." Creative?!?! I'm the most creative person in ... I don't know, but I'm creative! Maybe because of the fact that I'm a nice guy by nature that I don't get "creative" with ripping on people. I get creative in my acting field, my work field, and my life, but not when it comes to ripping someone a new a##^$%e. That's not where I like to direct my creativity.

"Casey is such a slut, did you see that dress?!?!" - Laguna Beach (I just liked the quote with my name in it!)

It All Comes Full Circle Back To Clemson

So I was in Clemson, South Carolina yesterday. That's right people, Clemson, SC, home of Clemson University where I inhabited the better part of 7 years of my late teens to late 20's. I was in a wedding in Asheville, North Carolina and flew into Charlotte, NC on Saturday only to have to fly out this morning as well. So if any of you happen to be staring at a map of the Southeast at this very moment, you'll notice that Charlotte to Asheville is approx. two hours and fifteen minutes apart, Asheville to Clemson is an hour and a half, and Clemson to Charlotte is also 2 1/4 hours. My plan was to hang for the wedding on Saturday, stay over in a hotel room, which I did, then wake up hang out, do lunch with the newly married couple and friends, walk around the beautiful city of Asheville, and then mid to late day take off to Charlotte, get yet another hotel room where I would watch football, relax and get some much needed rest before the early flight today. (Cue Loser music from The Price is Right, or The big "X" on Family Feud, whatever) DIDN'T HAPPEN!!! You know why? NASCAR!!! Nascar ruined my plans. You all know that I don't like to plan, I know where I have to be and when, but if it's not something that I'm obligated to be at, I hem and haw and then make a last minute decision. But this time I had a plan, with the exception of reserving a hotel room in Charlotte, I just figured that it would be a piece of cake to get one by the airport on a sunday night. I called nine hotels in the Charlotte viscinity and came up empty. Because of Nascar.

So as I showered in the later part of sunday morning, I said to myself that I could go to Clemson and hang out, watch a rehearsal of a show that the Clemson Players are doing in November, and get some good rest, but then I talked myself out of it because it would add 2 1/4 to the ride in the morning and that wasn't feesable or a good idea. WHO NEEDS FEESABILITY?!?! I woke up in Clemson this morning, well rested and ready to embark on my travels, and that's really all there is to this story.

I ended up in Clemson, saw my friend who is a mom for the second time, so congratulations to Princess from 13 Clocks. I got to see the 2 1/2 week old. She's adorable, like her mom. Got to eat at Todaro's, which is the best pizza in the South by far, very comparable to NJ pizza, well, because the owner is from NJ and gets all his dough from NJ, makes sense. Got to watch a rehearsal of the upcoming Clemson Players show to which I was well received and that's always enjoyable, and got to sleep on my favorite couch in Clemson. Thanks CBoz! I 'appurciate' it!

I will Mr. T/Treehouse/MY Boy/Arsehole (all the same person) would call a guy back! He's officially getting called out via blog. Called out via blog, does anybody do that?!?! He knows who he is, so if you're reading and say, "Is he talking about me?" NO, I'm not!

Until next time, You keep that hat on Tampa Bay, that bald spot is blinding me!

Post #45

Here's a monologue I read and it sort of hit home, but then again not really. On the surface, minus the abuse part of it, it's me. The part about being the "Funny guy," etc. This is just a monologue that I've read lately. I'm reading a bunch because I'll be auditioning for a few shows down here and I'm trying to find that perfect audition piece. This isn't one of them, but I thought I'd share it because it's "fun"... sort of.

You don't know me, and you probably never will. No, please don't stop and stare, I don't like it when you get to close. For my entire life people pass me by, and now I am used to it.Anything else would confuse me. Ok, Ok, I actually have a lot of friends. You see, I make people laugh; I'm the "Funny" guy. Because when people are busy laughing they are not thinking about what is going on in my life, they just think "Man is he funny"...and funny is good. There are some people that say I'm too funny, that I need to grow up and take life serious. What they don't know is that my life is serious enough without their help. Sure it is easy to look at me and judge me at face value, but they don't know the real me on the inside.There are others that think I am bad, bad for myself, bad for those around me. I hope not, I never thought of myself as being bad, just funny. Look, I know I'm not anyone's idea of the perfect person but what's wrong with laughing? Isn't there enough misery in life...laugh it up that's what I say.I am more comfortable when you ignore the real me, the one I never let you see; I keep him hidden where he is safe. Because if I let you meet him, you have the power to hurt him, and that isn't funny. I have been hurt before and I wanted to die, and maybe on the inside I did a little. Do you know what that is like? To find out that the world isn't safe like you thought it was? I found that out early in life. I wanted the world to be a safe place but it didn't work out that way. Do you think I wanted my life like this? Do you think I wanted to lose my innocence? Well it's not a safe world at all. So you are better off to just laugh at it... it's much safer. Oh I know there are people that don't approve of me and that's ok, because if I don't have your approval you leave me alone and that's the way I want it. I don't like it when you are in my life trying to figure me out. It bothers me and I don't want you getting too close. Close isn't safe, you get too close and then you can see things I don't want you to see; secrets about my life that I have hidden from you. Now I know that you will assume what everyone else does, my secrets are bad things I've done. But what if I told you that my secrets were bad things that happened to me? Would it make a difference?Would you accept me then? But you see I don't want you do accept me because you feel sorry for me, I want you to accept me because you like me, for me. So let me be funny, it's where I am safe, and if you can't let me be funny then just leave me alone. I am laughing through my tears and that isn't funny.

Sort of deep, but kind of like Cregan, at least in the beginning.

Busy weekend is about to commence...

A Recap of My Weekend

Because of my drunken state on Sunday night, I'm not sure I can do the weekend justice. It was funny because I do tell people that I "only drink one night a week," and it's true. I think I should say, "I drink {in excess} one night a week." During this past weekend, I had four beers on Friday night at dinner, three beers on Saturday night at the wedding pre-party, and then Sunday I lost count after three and the bar ran out of Miller Lite. Corona wasn't doing it for me and that's when Mr. GreyGoose came out. So technically I drank three nights this weekend, but only to excess once. Those previous nights were so spread out that the four beers on friday probably covered 6+ hours. The beers on Saturday covered 5 hours. The 155,093 drinks on Sunday covered four hours. Hopefully you can tell where I'm going with this. I did only "drink" {to excess} on Sunday.

Here's one person's point of view on my "performance" on Sunday at the wedding:

there seemed to be a very definitive point when you went from having a good timeto being out of control shitcanned. it didn't seem gradual to me. I remember youdoing the dance and having fun, and then about 1/2 hour later you were dancingon the floor all by yourself to some song and had some hand gestures to go alongwith it and everyone was looking at you in disbelief. that's when we allrealized that there was no going back for you.

Here's the recap and it's not going to be that exciting I don't think.

Thursday night I arrive in beloved NJ and get picked up at the airport, drive to get something to eat at a pretty nice Italian place in Gillette, right by Moms and Pops place. Good times, good food, great people. I go to sleep. I wake up on Friday morning to do some work because even though I was told by my mentor and friend to "just f^%$ing take the day off," I couldn't shy away from the computer and my attempt to make money. Friday night, and mind you, the weather in NJ was attrocious to say it lightly, we're supposed to go to the city and go to bars and get the groom drunk as a psuedo bachelor party, but with the mixture of rain and delayed flights, we cancelled those plans. We hung out at Smoke's house for awhile, went out to a restaurant for some grub and beers. Good people, good times. Watched the Yankees lose game 3 with Unit on the bump. Oh well. Go back to Smoke and Earp's watch more of the game and no await the arrival of the groom with his entourage. They finally got in around 1am from a flight that was supposed to put them in at 7:30pm. I've been there guys, I know how that is, trust me. It sucks! So we shoot the proverbial poo with them for awhile and then retire to our sleeping places with big intentions for Saturday. Saturday comes and I sleep, and sleep some more and watch some football and then go to sleep. I dropped the ball with taking care of the entourage from Savannah because of my laziness. At about 7, I went over to Melrose to pick up the afore-mentioned entourage to bring us all to the hotel for a pre-wedding gathering put on by the grooms father. Good times, good people, great laughs. We go back to Melrose after the party because that is where the entourage is staying, and I walk into (I don't have nicknames yet for the inhabitants of that particular apt. yet)'s place and see the male in the apt. drunk as poo, if poo could get really drunk. Drinking vodka and Snapple, a dangerous mix in my mind, but I didn't drink, just laughed at the antics and comments. He would not let me leave, thought I was drunk and would not let me leave, pushed me into his roomate's room and told me that I had to "sober up for 30 minutes." I felt bad for the female roommate because I didn't know if I was really wanted in that room or not. So Sunday comes (hahahahahaha) and it's wedding day. And that's about the time that it starts to get hazy for me. Well, not that early, but just after that. Drinking, dancing, laughing, shmoozing, flirting, hugging, drinking,...etc. That's what I did, and did a lot of it. Monday was uneventful other than a great dinner cooked up by my parents, steak, potatoes, broccoli, bread, yum!!! I think they'll be reading this now, so hi Mom and Dad!

I'm back in Florida trying to make a buck. Wish me luck. Go 'Stros! My new favorite team! Yeah, I'm on the bandwagon, who's coming with me?!?!

My Headache Speaks Volumes

What a tremendous time at the wedding yesterday. Congratulations to JPat and "Fine Cheese" on their beautiful wedding day. They are such a great couple and looked amazing yesterday. It was an honor to be there and be able to spend my day with them. To all of my friends in attendence, it was another great showing, with the exception of my showing, which was a shit-show to say the least. Sorry to those I offended with any of my actions, it was fun doing so.

What a crazy weekend. My headache speaks volumes about the weekend. It was a little weird drinking to excess on a Sunday. Something I haven't done in a long time, actually, it's been since college. It didn't take long to separate from that problem though. I hope my performance for the bride and groom was alright, I never know how well it goes, I'm just a big goof. I appreciate the laughs, that's why I do it. And to see the smile on the bride's face. The grooms too, but moreso the bride. The Yankees won, which was an added bonus to an already tremendous night.

You're going to notice an obvious non-mention of females in this post. Take the hint. There was some involvement or interaction, if you will, this weekend, but I'm not going to make any mention of it. I got myself in trouble the last time, so mums the word. Enough about that.

Congratulations again, and all the happiness in the world. You guys are awesome together!
________________________________________________________________

Go Yanks! Game 5 tonight at 8. I'll be watching with fellow Yankee fans, hopefully. I'm going back to bed. I am in some pain. I guess that's what happens after 114 beers and 38 vodka drinks. Damn those girlie drinks. Doesn't make you feel fresh in the morning, I'll tell you that.

!!!ANOTHER FLIGHT ATTENDANT!!!

I don't know how or why I forgot to post this yesterday when I wrote a quick post, but I did "text message" someone on friday to tell them that I had yet another encounter with a flight attendent. I will withhold her name for no real reason, but I will probably tell the closest to me when I see them this weekend.

I flew from Tampa to Atlanta on Monday evening for my regional meeting for work. 15 reps like myself all met up in Atlanta for three qualitity days of meetings. But my flight up there made the week that much better. Now, it was nothing like the last one that I had a "run-in" with. This one was different. This girl was not the drop dead gorgeous girl of two years ago, she was a typical "Cregan girl." What is that, you ask? Little. She was probably about 5'6" maybe 110 pounds, dark hair, green eyes. I know, I know, I dated a blonde for 5+ years, but the typical girl that I drool over lately have been brunettes. I don't know why, I'm weird. So anyway, I decided that I really wasn't in a hurry to get to the hotel for work, so I'd sit in the back of the plane, usually no one around you, etc. So I walk on with my Clemson hat, tattoo, watch ablazin' and there she is, at the end of the aisle. She said, "I love Clemson!" Right there, that was the line. She was my dream girl, hahaha! It was just cool because I was in the last row, she was working the back of the plane and I found myself virtually turned around talking it up with her during the time that she was seated, just trading stories about Clemson and the University of Georgia. She didn't go to Clemson, but had been there several times and had a blast and had some funny stories that I won't get into. The two guys next to me were in their Army fatigues and heading back over to Iraq, but they kept laughing, saying, "man, you got her, she is yours." I thought that was funny too.

Long story short, towards the end of the flight she decided that she had to put away her apron in the "over-head compartment" right in front of me, but because of her small stature, had to stand on the little nook in the seat and lean up into the over-head. The Army boys kept elbowing me saying, "she's doing that for you, she's doing that for you man!" She came back off of the nook and gave me a wink. I was speechless and could only muster a chuckle. The boys said, "hit that, you gotta hit that." So during our "final decent into the Atlanta area" she sat back down, I turned back around and she just smiled and said, "how often are you in Atlanta" To which I replied, "quite often actually, I have a boatload of friends here and I'll be back for the Clemson/Ga.Tech game." She smiled and said, "You're going to that, I want to go." I don't know where it came from, but out blurted, "Come with me!" She laughed again and said, "you just seem fun. Next time you're in Atlanta, call me, here's my number..." I must have turned fire-engine red because the boys kept elbowing me, "man you're in! Do it for us, do it for your country." I almost keeled over with laughter when that came out of the guy's mouth. So as I was putting her number down on the beverage napkin that she so elegently handed me earlier in the flight, she said, "and give me yours because I'm going to call you to go to that game with you. Don't think you're getting out of hanging out with the flight attendent." My eyes must have widened rediculously because she walked by and just patted me on the back and smiled. Not saying I'm going to have a repeat performance of the last one, but Smoke, cute ones do exist. I have seen two! I'll keep you all posted!

Good times to be had this upcoming weekend! Looking forward to getting there! I'll be in touch!

Sorry for the Delay and The ALDS

I'm in Atlanta for work. We have a regional meeting here and it's a good time. Great people that I work with and we're having a tremendous time. I'm extremely excited to watch the Yankees and Angels tonight. I'm worried, but not really. The Yankees have not won an ALDS Game 1 in some time, and I'm not sure tonights the night, but I'm hopeful. Moose is on the bump and I have a feeling that he's going to have a great outing. Whenever I see Mike Mussina about to pitch I think of Labor Day, 2001. Some that know me, know that we had a Labor Day party at the "Madison House" in New Jersey, and it got a bit out of control later on in the evening and into the morning, but the Yankees were playing the Red Sux on tv, and Moose was pitching. He had a perfect game going until 2 outs in the 9th inning, when Crazy Carl (what the hell was his last name, why can't I remember it? I'm the biggest fan ever!!!! Wow! that's annoying.) hit a two out homerun I believe. But that's the game that I continue to think about just about every time Mikey pitches. What a game, what a pitching outing. I just hope he can respond to the importance of the game and pitch as well.

What a tiring week this will be. It's tuesday and I'm tired already. And it's only beginning. I leave Atlanta tomorrow for Tampa and then leave again on Thursday evening for New Jersey for THE wedding! Looking forward to seeing the folks and the friends. I'll have more fun things to say at some point. But right now, I'm shaking with nervousness with the Yanks about to come on the tv!!! Go YANKS!!!

Heart Attack City

Over the past few weeks I've had to deal with some very close sporting events with my favorite teams, most notably has been my Alma Mater, Clemson University Football Team. Clemson has the knack to keep things close and this year has been rediculous. Week 1 we play a nailbiter that comes down to a last second field goal that we win. Week 2 we come from down 10 in the fourth quarter to win by 4. Week 3 against Miami, we are down 10 in the fourth, come back and tie it only to lose in 3OT's. Week 4 was the same sort of thing, down 10 early, we came back to tie it before halftime only to play a stalemate for the rest of regulation only to lose in OT. NOW, the Yankees are locked up in a pennant race for the ages. My friend Smokey says F-you to Bud Selig and MLB for scheduling this final series between the Red Sux and Yankees, but I think it's great for baseball, not for my heart, but for baseball. The Yanks have to win two to clinch the division but can win one and tie and have a Bucky Dent-style baseball game, winner-take-all. BUT that doesn't mean that I'm not going to be wound tighter than a top. This is the time of year where I live and die with every pitch, every swing, every out. This is the time of year that you get ultimate elation or ultimate letdown. This is the time of year where bragging rights are at stake, and there's no better team/fan to have bragging rights over than the Boston Red Sux. I hate David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez. I know hate is a strong word and "you must love in order to hate," but that's not true in this case. I don't love either one of those players, I despise them. Would I like them if they were on another team, maybe, but probably not. I want to like Johnny Damon because I do think that there is a slight possibility that he may be patrolling the outfield for the Yankees next season (go from one CF with no arm to one with a worse arm in Damon.) Why I want to like Damon you ask? I'm not sure, but don't get me wrong, I don't like him now. Not as long as he plays for "The Nation." The Nation of what? Oh well, three games to decide the division. Three teams vying for two playoff spots. Really, it's two teams vying for the division, add a third for the wild card. I'm getting tense just thinking about it and writing about it.

And then there's the Tigers. We have a Wake Forest team this weekend that statistically and record-wise we should destroy. But Wake has given us fits for years now. A team that runs a variety of sets and runs an option-style offense that looks like we're running in circles. And last year was an overtime win, but it was gut-wrenching. They had a QB last year, Cory Randolph, tall, quick, elusive. This season their coaches got together and decided that Randolph would be better suited as a WR to use his athletic ability. I thought that was great to hear because we don't seem to fair well against option-stlye quarterbacks. BUT, Wake's coach has said publically that Randolph will see some time at QB this weekend vs. Clemson. Great!

So that's what's in store for me. I know I stated yesterday that it would be a tough weekend with not much relaxation, but I'll relax for a few minutes, and then go back to being stressed again. Call me Sunday night to see if I'm alright, thanks.

"It ain't over 'til it's over." -Yogi Berra

Moving Right Along

I'm going to move away from the moaning and groaning about females, but probably just for today. It seems to be on my mind constantly, so I'll probably revert back to that topic tomorrow or the next day. I am in town this weekend, which is crazy. I'm not traveling, BUT I have to travel to Atlanta for three days on Monday, so technically I get away from the weekend travel, but have to travel during the week. Then things get crazy. I come back from Atlanta on Wednesday night, fly out to NJ on Thursday evening for yet another wedding, one that I believe may trump all weddings. I'm so looking forward to this one, it's rediculous. And that's saying something because every single wedding that I've been to this summer has been amazing, absolutely the time of my life. So to say that I think this upcoming wedding with Mr. JPat and "Fine Cheese" will be awesome. I'm also looking forward to getting "home" for the weekend. I'm looking forward to hanging with Mom and Dad, having some excellent meals, going into the city for some pre-wedding shenanigans, etc. And there are girls there...oops...not going to go there on this post. Should be a great time and I can't wait to get there.

My Tigers are on the road this weekend and don't think that there wasn't a force pulling me to drive to Winston-Salem, NC to watch the game. I was invited to go, had a place to stay and a ticket to the game, but I turned it down. Can't a guy just sit at home for the weekend and relax? I don't know, can they? I'm not really going to be relaxing much because the Yankees/Red Sux series is on this weekend and I'll be pooping in my pants the entire way if the Yanks are in trouble. It's funny that people like myself take sports so seriously. I was talking to one of my best buds in the world last night who is a fan of another team in the hunt for the wild card, and he has absolutely no faith in his boys. I tend to agree with the feeling. I think The Sports Guy on ESPN.com had the same feeling about his team last year, that is until they came back from 3-0 in a series that really didn't happen, so I don't even know why I'm making up such a farcical idea. But anyway, I feel the same way. Like my Yanks aren't going to get that big hit, or big pitching performance when they need it like teams that are in their way do. My buddies team lost to the Devil Rays for the second time in two days. I've talked about the Devil Rays in past posts, being that they are my hometown team, but no one wants to hear about how "up-and-coming" they are when your team is losing to them in key situations. They just want to see their team win and think that they are collapsing at an inopportune time. So I have that series going on, where if the Yanks can pull out a win tonight with 9-0 Aaron Small on the bump and the Sux lose, then the Yanks will only have to win one in that wasteland that is Fenway Park. Pesky Pole? It should be "piece of shit pole." Oh well, enough about that. Sorry Mr. T!

So I'm not going to be able to relax this weekend to the extent that I would like to. I have to watch the Yanks on Friday night, watch the Tigers saturday afternoon, Villanova soccer saturday night, and then the Yanks again on Sunday. Although, if they can pull out the victory tonight, and the Sux lose, then win on Friday night, I can take saturday off of watching it without much care. Villanova soccer is playing down here at USF on saturday night and one of my old students is a stand-out for the Wildcats. I've been to one game in each of his four years at Villanova and I'm lucky enough to get to see him during his swan-song year. Should be good to see a great kid!

Other than that, nothing else is going on. Work is good, life is good, just need that special someone to fill out my life. Oh man, sorry, I wasn't going to moan and groan about that in this post. Guess I can't really get away from it afterall, it consumes my head. Maybe these sporting events this weekend will cloud my head of those thoughts...I doubt it.

Oh Cregan, You're Pathetic...

That's what I tell myself all the time. I got off the phone a few hours ago with my buddy and once again, as per usual, I was talking about the girl at the wedding, but it's a different take on it. I told him that I tend to do this, get "smitten" with a particular girl at weddings, it lasts until the next time I'm "smitten" at the next wedding. I thought about it a bit when I got off the phone and it's happened now four times. I'm not going to document each case for you because that would be annoying and as stated earlier, PATHETIC! But it's true. I do! I pick out a girl, think she's attractive, and then try to get my way to her any way I can, but obviously in this most recent case I sat on my thumbs until it was too late and lost out. But it's not over. I do have the three more weddings. I was working my way to being "smitten" with the Southern Belle from Savannah but didn't think anything of it and really didn't have that immediate "smitten"-ness like Ms. Spunky in Philly.

I'm not really sure what I'm talking about, and I know I'm going to get the responses saying, "you're not pathetic creegy, you're great!" Thanks for that, I appreciate the kindness and I love my friends more than anything in this world and I think/hope they know that. I also appreciate the kind words on Smoke-dawgs blog about "everyone who knows him loves him," that was amazing to hear from someone you hold such high regard for. Seeing everyone getting married/engaged wears on you a little bit, but I'm not laying in self pity, I know my time will come and I'm not in a hurry. My ex was/is in a hurry and that probably led to some sort of demise in the relationship, but fuck her, her loss. HAHA. Sorry about that short tangent off topic. What was I saying...oh yes...I don't like it when girls that are attainable to me get away, or I let them get away. Why didn't I get a phone number the other night, e-mail, something so that I could stay in touch somehow, someway. Even if it all for naught, which most of the time it is, it still would have been worth the effort I think. Plus she was cute, have I said that enough? Man, she was a cutie.

Oh well, enough of the useless banter. I apologize for taking three minutes out of your life that you will never get back to listen/read me spewing trash. I love you all. I will find that perfect 10 and I'm not worried so much with how beautiful she is, only that I love her with everything I have and that she fits in with my group of friends! You guys are the best!