Glad to hear from Matt! Now everyone's official. First of all, getting back to the Olive Garden. The Olive Garden sucks. Saturday was the first time I've gotten vocal with a waitress, because a table that ordered 10 minutes after us got their food before us, and two of them ordered what I had. I said, "Bitch, where the f--- is my food? I will kill you if it's not here in 25 seconds." No I didn't really say that, but I was pissed and she knew it. They suck.

Party at brother's house was interesting. Supposed to be a "pool party," but it was 70 and breezy, so if you went in the water, you would come out missing your reproductive glands. Too cold to swim today. But some nice food and drink. The kind of drink that makes the day seem better. Kim, would you like to tell about our ice fiasco before the party?

Well, here's part 3 of my story:

That night spooked me. The murder scared me, and I could tell Corey was affected, too. The tension between us was thicker than a two-day-old McDonald’s milkshake. We didn’t talk much. We just watched some Scooby Doo. It entertained his feeble mind, and kept me from worrying a bit.

At about six o’clock, just before the news, the doorbell rang. I jumped and Corey dashed to answer it. Andy and Josie walked in. Neither goes anywhere without the other half.

I had known Andy from elementary school, and he had always been a real person. For instance, he had to wear glasses as a child, and constantly was chastised for it. In his junior year of high school, his doctor told him he no longer needed to wear them. He decided that his glasses had been through so much with him, that they were indeed a part of him, just like wearing his underwear everyday. Andy still wears his glasses all the time.

Josie was a friend of mine who I had set up with Andy. She is a sweet, attractive girl. She’s the type of girl that you can be friends with, but deep down you’re so damn jealous of her. She was tall, maybe about five ten, and had beautiful brown hair and full lips. Her body was unfair as well. Her height presented her with long legs, and she also had killer curves, from her beautiful breasts to her sexy hips. She meshed well with Andy, too. They’ve been going out for half a year now, and are getting closer every day.

I looked at the visitors. Nothing ever seemed to phase Andy, but I noticed Josie was zoned.

“’Sup guys? I found out some more about the murder in my last class today. I heard they brought in Erika’s ex for questioning.” Andy was directing this mainly at Corey, because I was concentrating on Josie.

“Who? Sammy?” asked Corey.

“Yeah. It seems logical. He was such a pervert. He was into voyeurism and all that shit. I heard one time he got caught watching Miss Burns in the bathroom.”

“Oh that’s gross Andy!” I barked. “You know that’s not true!”

I noticed Josie’s eyes. They opened wide when Andy mentioned Sammy, like she knew, or had experienced his perversions before. Well, now that I think of it, she used to go out with Sammy, so maybe…

Corey signaled to Andy to chill with the murder talk for now. Andy looked humbled, and we all silently sat down to watch some TV. We channel surfed through the time slot of the news, and ended up watching reruns of The Cosby Show for a while. There’s one channel that shows reruns of the show for three consecutive hours. I think we caught five episodes, and then Cheers came on for a string of reruns.

I guess we all fell asleep. The last thing I remembered was Cliff and Norm poking fun at Woody. Corey nudged me at about one in the morning. “Christy, you were supposed to be home by now. Let me take you home.”

“Can’t I just stay? I’m tired.”

“I wish you could, but your parents thought you were going home tonight. What if they try to call you in the morning and you’re not there?”

I got up and stretched. My arms extended above my head with a yawn, and my shirt lifted above my belt and exposed my bare stomach. I noticed Corey catching a glimpse.

I was reluctant to go to a home where my parents no longer lived. I stayed in the old house, which was small, while they moved into a larger pad. Sure they were close, but I still wasn’t used to living on my own. Andy and Josie must have opened their eyes, too, because they quietly shuffled out the door. I noticed Andy giving a weary wave as he exited.

Saturday and college football is in the air. But I just remembered I don't care. Watch out for William Paterson! They might win 3 games this year. As for the pros, it's the same old Bengals. They lose because of 2 turnovers and they can't convert an extra point. Same story as last year, and the year before that, and the 11 years before that...Here's part 2 of my story.


Late on a Thursday morning, the student center usually becomes a jubilant place to be, since the weekend would be creeping up soon. Not today, though. The murder of a fellow peer, Erika Harmon, stirred up the entire student body. Erika was a plain girl-not very smart or athletic, just your everyday Jane Doe.

“I heard she was found with her eyes missing,” said Corey, my boyfriend.

“I guess she didn’t see it coming,” said a giggling Andy.

You would think they would be mature enough to respect the dead since they’re in college. I won’t call them college students because I can’t say if they actually study, but they are in college. I have been going out with Corey for only about two months now, so I don’t know where our relationship is going, but I do know I need him to grow up a little bit.

“That’s so rude. You’re joking about a girl who was just murdered,” I snapped.

“Sorry, Christy.”

“I’ll be right back. Please stop joking about this. It’s not funny. This is serious.”

I made my way to the restroom before Corey and I left for his place. The boys continued to talk despite the plea, but kept it at a whisper at least.

“Dude, I heard they found a note that said ‘love is blind’ or something,” said Corey.

“Well, she didn’t have any eyes, so…” Andy giggled again.

“Yeah, because the killer probably did something freaky with them, like put ‘em in his pants or something.”

“Ooooh. Well, I gotta go see if I have my class, so I’ll see you later,” Andy uttered. Andy was even slightly disturbed by my boyfriend’s lack of taste. He made a grimace that Corey probably interpreted as a smile, but most would recognize as a “you went a bit too far with that one” look. He turned towards the glaring sun and made his way to the Comm Building for class. Andy was majoring in communication. He wasn’t a brilliant human, but he knew how to talk and listen well.

I returned, worried. It seemed surreal that murder could get this close. Corey knew I was upset. He kissed me lightly on the cheek to let me know he was there, and led me out to his car so we could go to his house. Our classes were done for the day. It was weird. I didn’t really want to go.



“I almost got into an accident on my way here,” Corey blurted.

“Oh, sorry,” I said, not really aware of what he said.

“Are you gonna be OK?” he asked.

“Yeah.” I shook my head no to contradict my words. Corey pulled me close to hug me, but he knew I wasn’t hugging back.

He shut the car door after I was seated and went around to get in his side. There was a ticket lodged underneath his wiper blade. He was familiar with finding the bills on his windshield. He opened the glove box, folded the ticket quickly, and stuffed it among the crinkled repair slips. Careless.

The car started. Silence. The radio wasn’t…Well, it wasn’t on. The horrible sounds of manufactured modern rock sounded abruptly in the speakers and Corey continued to switch between commercials and Linkin Park. I couldn’t decide which was worse. Although annoying, I realized that I had momentarily forgotten about the horrifying events.

Corey recklessly plops into a spot not far from his place, between an oversized SUV and dumpy pick-up. The Subaru’s front end is brushing the tail of the SUV, and his rear is jutting out past the width of even the SUV. Instead of straightening the car, he stops the engine and slams the door. I get out and grasp his hand lightly. We walk towards his apartment.

Number 7 is nearly invisible from the street. It hides at the junction of the L-shaped complex, behind bristly shrubs. There’s always bees hovering around from the vegetation. We enter and he throws his keys on the old end table. We plop ourselves on his couch and welcome the safety of a home.

Hey all. I finished my story for now. That's not to say that I won't change things or add things, but I've made it have a beginning, middle, and end. So here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to post it piece by piece right here on blogger. A little bit every day. After posting the first part, I may try to add it to my site, but I don't want to post it as a doc file in word, so I don't know yet. It's too much work to convert it to html on my site, too. I'll let you know. Here's the beginning. As usual, I appreciate feedback. I apologize for the lack of indentations as well. The formatting of blogger is not being cooperative for me.


"An Eye For Murder"
by
Brian Burkhardt


"She was found dead early this morning in her apartment two miles north of Vernon College. She was a sophomore there, where she majored in philosophy. Her devastated family would not comment."

"In Harrison last night, a two-story [CLICK].

The picture faded from the TV screen after Corey hit the power button on the remote. He picked up his notebook and pen and looked at the clock.

8:38. I’m already 38 minutes late, he thought. He spun around for his forgotten keys and slammed the door shut. He paced briskly to his red Subaru. Corey was practically driving as the engine turned. A sound of screeching burned from the tires as he headed to school. His brain was working: I’m never going to find a spot. The radio was annoying him, so he channel-surfed. Nothing but commercials.

The seek button searched the stations as Corey drove recklessly through cars. It stopped scanning on the final station on the dial.

"In Harrison, a Vernon College student’s body was found…"

"Shit!"

The red Subaru was inches from striking a BMW fresh from the showroom floor. As his head falls into place on his neck, Corey utters profanity at the inattentive businessman chatting on his cellphone. Corey pounds on the off button on his stereo. The cherry on wheels splits through traffic and Corey hangs a dangerous left into lot #5, slightly beating out a charging pick-up from the opposite direction. The car ends up still in a criss-crossed patch of blacktop next to the real parking spaces.

It’s 9:01. Corey performs a Carl Lewis to the Meyer Building for his 8:00. Climbing the stairs in leaps, he stops at room 310. There’s a note. ‘Class Cancelled Due to University’s Loss.’ It appears that the entire floor is empty. Doors are locked and lights are missing. Corey heads across campus for Rudd Hall. Halfway across campus, Corey sees Andy, who states gingerly, "Christy and Josie are on their way over."

I am extremely jealous! Dave Attel's my boy! Enjoy the show fellas. I hate you. No, not really.

Today I step aside and dedicate this page to Brandon. He's always been supporting my page and songs, and that's something not many people do. It's nice to hear things about what you like doing a lot(i.e. writing) whether good or bad. I really respect Brandon's opinions as well because not only is he a writer, but he's always been genuine with his feelings and never hides anything. So here's to Brandon. I've enjoyed reading his stuff since we began working together at a really bad record store. Now go check out his awesome works. Thanks dude.

In other news, my foot cannot be walked on. I don't know what I did to it, but yesterday after running, eating breakfast and showering, it didn't hurt until I tried walking down the stairs and I became a cripple. I can't put any weight on it because it hurts so damn much. I'm not going to the doctor either. "Well, let's take an x-ray and see... Hmm, I don't see anything, just give me $200 and take some motrin for any pain."

I may be going to my brother's house on Sunday for a bbq/pool grand opening. They got their pool installed on Monday, and it should be ready by then, so they're gonna have some people over. I keep getting visions of a rap video with all these guys in the pool with gold teeth and chains with some dirty girls dancing around the outside. Bling bling y'all. No, God I hope not.

Hey, it's Rob! Sorry, but I didn't see your blog until after mine showed up today. Welcome aboard, but why the hell are you up at 3 am? Blogging isn't really like dancing to techno music. It's more like dancing to gospel music. It's inspiring bee-otch! What? I don't know what I'm talking about. You don't dance to gospel music. I'm glad to read your words. Peace out.

I ran today all by myself. It was different, but I ran my old running route by my house, and realized there are a lot of hills to run up. It wasn't very fun. I'm really tired now. I don't think I slept well, but I don't know why. I'm probably gonna look for some crappy part-time work today, so we'll see how that goes.

I wrote two new things, found here and here. They're both pretty short, and I don't know why they're both somewhat mean and spiteful, because I'm not in a bad mood or anything, but whatever.

Hey! My rearview mirror keeps falling off my windshield. I went to the store on the weekend, but they didn't have the adhesive in stock. "Check back Monday or Wednesday," guy says. I decided to try some cement stuff we had in the house that said it worked on glass and metal, so I glued away and let it dry overnight. I put my mirror on gently yesterday without tightening it, and this morning, it was laying on the floor, mocking me. It said, "Ha. You wretched human. You cannot contain me."
I said, "You're right. You can just stay on the floor then."
I drove up to the mall without a rearview mirror because I was lazy. Probably not the smartest idea, but I had to get my dad a birthday gift. On the way home I stopped at said auto store above, and they had the adhesive kit. I purchased it and attempted to use it upon my home arrival.

After scraping off the old glue and thoroughly cleansing the button and windshield, I was ready. Place one drop of adhesive to center of button and hold firmly on windshield for 15 seconds. I oblige, but upon removing my finger, the button came along with it. Blast! So I quickly dripped one more dab of adhesive and placed the button back up quickly. This time, it stayed. For now. I'll let you know what happens when I actually put the mirror on.

I got an email from one of my friends from school who also is trying to be a teacher, and she made me feel better, because she can't find a job either. She's going to be a sick leave replacement for a month for her cooperating student teacher, but that's over in October. So I guess everyone I graduated with still doesn't have a permanent job either.

It's about 2:30, so I'm going to watch Family Guy now. Late.

Hey, sorry, but geocities sucks. For some reason, you can't externally link to a picture on my site, so click here to see the 2 pics I linked to below, but don't work.

Yesterday was some good fun. Went to Turtle Back Zoo! I haven't been there in years, but it was a beautiful day. The sun was shining, and it was in the lower 80s. The first thing we visited were my favorites, the penguins. Coolest animals ever. They were just chillin', but then they started jumping into their pool and swimming around. We proceeded around the zoo and met some cattle and elk. I met a new friend.

We saw a wolf in the distance later on, and a bobcat and cougar. My dad fed the goats. The goats and horses smelled like ass. What else did we see? Some happy chickens, outbreak monkeys, and otters. There's probably a few I missed...It only took about an hour to go through the zoo, and we weren't really rushing either. It was something different, so it was nice. I've been itching to go to a zoo for a while now, so I was happy.

I saw a few job postings in the paper yesterday. One was for a 4th grade teacher in Tenafly. I really don't know where that is, but I'm trying for it. The ad was like send in cover letter, resume, copy of certification, and transcripts now! No, but it said by like Tuesday or something. Ridiculous. Hey, I didn't tell you to wait till a week before school starts to post a job.

I woke up to run this morning and it was quite brisk for an August day, but it was good because I didn't sweat too much. Well, I'm going to look for some crappy part-time work this week, in case I don't have anything solid for the start of September.

Sparta! Welcome aboard Den. I'm glad to read about your mishaps/doings. I'm sorry your Saturday was wasted, but when you're finally done with grad work, you'll be one happy mofo. As for madden, that fat bastard...Well, let's just say I agree with you whole-heartedly because I haven't purchased one of his games since I had Genesis, and Madden 96 ended up flying out the window towards my neighbor's house and my control exploded into many pieces. When you're up on the Chargers 26-0 going into the 2nd half, you would expect to be able to win the game, at least preventing them from scoring 26 unanswered points. Not the case. Jeff Blake throws 3 interceptions on 3 pass attempts. The only reason I was passing was because I couldn't run either, so I tried passing on 3rd and longs. After having a 12 point lead, I decide to try to run out the clock. Well, the running back fumbles once and of course the Chargers convert a touchdown in a matter of seconds. On the next posession, I get a good return on the kickoff, but oh, guess what, I fumbled. They return it for a TD without getting touched by anyone on my team. Game ripped out of system while power is still on and thrown out window at my neighbor's house. Game ends up on my side of the property, without visible physical damage. I jump on it, try to snap it in half, but it's indestructible. I go on to puncture it with sharp objects, and place it back into its case. Thus ending me ever purchasing a madden product again. And by the way Den, cursing is acceptable. Just try not to overdo it. Saying madden is a fat fuck is AOK in my book, and so on. Thanks for joining dude.

Friday is pizza night. It's been that way forever pretty much. I just found out that the new No Motiv cd has been pushed back to 2004. Why? So Vagrant can promote dashboard and autumn to asses even more. Garbage.

Last night, I applied for a job to this place. I saw a posting in my local paper for a 4th grade maternity leave. It would start in mid-November and go till the end of the year. I really don't want to be a sub again, but if it's all I can find, what can I do right?

On a sad note, I found that the man who did the voice of Monterey Jack in Chip N Dale's Rescue Rangers passed away on August 11th. I was saddened by this, because he was indeed my favorite character, and it came as quite a shock. So I wish his family well.

Welcome to a heatwave. It's officially gross for the second consecutive day. The air is stagnant. Running this morning made my lungs work extra hard to breathe in more polluted Passaic/Clifton air. I don't plan on doing much today. I'll probably Bowflex, practice guitar a bit more, and work on my story more. My love read what I had so far yesterday and she seemed to like it. I have to expand more, but she liked the idea. I'm listening to Nada Surf's Proximity Effect. Remember that song "Popular" they had? Well, it's not on this CD. I'm still working on my bands page. I finished up four more pages today, but have quite a lot more to do. I've gotten to most of my hardcore-liked bands so far, but I still have lyrics to add, which will take a looooooooooong time. I'm keeping busy at least.

I started reading a new book last night. It's called All The Dead Were Strangers. I am only up to page 30, which is the start of Chapter 2. Here's what I know so far...There's 2 guys chatting in a bar in NYC. A is a detective on hiatus for some unknown reason and B is some guy that was in the military, but liked it so much that he left? So they feel they are being watched/followed. They decide to leave. They hail a cab and get dropped off a block from a subway station. Guy B gets out and says "I'm going to Queens, Fred." He tried to give false info in case the cab driver was part of the following. Anyway, they wait for the cab to drive away, then head in the opposite direction to another bar. Here, Guy B whips out a napkin with 5 names on it. He asks Guy A to research the names, but doesn't say why. Guy A obliges. They go separate ways. Guy A to Long Island to meet some character named Mickie. Guy B goes to a hotel, avoids being seen, and sneaks up to a room on the 3rd floor. It's apparently his room. He left 3 hairs in the door latch and a trail of baby powder on the floor, in case he's being followed, he would know. He carefully opens the room door, sees the powder trail untouched, and suddenly gets knocked out. He wakes up naked and tied to the bed. There's 2 guys in the room. One wasn't wearing pants. They were beating Guy B up to get info about who the guy he was with was, and what the napkin was about. He gets punched, etc. and tells the guys. Then pant-less man gets into bed with Guy B and thus ends the chapter.

I have no idea what happened. What the hell kind of book did I buy? Good lord!

It's August 20th, and I am still unemployed, but I'm glad there's over 300 new teachers at an orientation in New York today(as heard on the news). With my free time, I'm trying to play guitar again. My fingers hurt. I'm just starting with the basics-like learning some chords first, and playing some easy parts of weezer and hey mercedes songs so at least i play something that i know how it sounds. I'm happy, because so far, I've been doing ok. I have a bad memory, so I'm not rushing, but I practice a few new chords every day, and while I try to remember them, I throw in the ones that I'm already supposed to know. I'm teaching myself. It's kind of cool. I guess I do have a teaching job.

In addition to trying that, I've been messing with my webpage quite a bit. I don't really change the main page format, but I'm working on the inner pages. In my bands page, if you click on some of the names, I made my own little page for my favorite bands so far, instead of a lame link to their website. It's still a work in progress, but it's coming along.

My brother is getting a pool installed on Monday, and having a get-together the Sunday of Labor Day weekend. So I can drink my face off if I still don't have a job and blame depression, or I can drink my face off if I get a job and blame it on celebration. Speaking of drinking, the Blue Jays suck. Right now they're the biggest bunch of sucks that ever sucked. Hey, can you pitch? Because I'm sure they'd throw you into their rotation as the #3 starter. Right behind Troy McClure and Mike Chokesondick.

I'm listening to No Motiv's Diagram For Healing right now. It's one of my favorite CDs that I own. I haven't heard it in a while, either, so it sounds good. On a side note, Hey Mercedes are not only a good musical band, but they are quite humorous, as they had a bowling competition while on tour and posted their scores online. Now who, I ask you would think of doing that?

I'm writing a short story which I will probably post when I'm finished. It's something that I had a rough idea for in my creative writing class in college, but I'm expanding on it, and trying to detail the characters more, and polish the ending. As usual, I appreciate feedback, whether positive or negative.

Ok, well Kim had beaten me to the punch about hm, so ignore what I said about her saying more later...

Well, the preceding weekend was an unusual sunny day on an otherwise overcast two months of summer. Friday I was able to spend some time with my dad because he wasn't able to work from this blackout I've been hearing about. On Saturday, I went to see my grandmother and my parents, her, my aunt, and I went to dinner for her 91st birthday, which is actually today. When I got home, there was a long box on my front steps from Vagrant Records. I opened it to find an autographed tour poster from my boys Face to Face. I guess I won a contest that Vagrant had. I hadn't heard from them, except for the poster. Nice. Now I have to get a frame for it! Then at night, I saw my honey and we watched the finale of Shark Week. Yesterday was fun. We went to see our heroes known as Hey Mercedes at Maxwell's. The show was awesome. They played many a new song, which sounded smooth, and make me anxious for the new album. October! I also enjoyed the sounds of one of the opening bands called Damone. They even threw in a Weezer cover into their set, and they were rockin' out. As for HM, tight as always and nice guys, too. I'll let Kim tell more about their side when she gets home later.
So that was my weekend. It was a nice little relief from the boring days of summer I had been experiencing.

it's an easy A unless he tells you to type 3 letters. ooooo.

Well, my day-by-day trip blog is complete. You can only experience our trip if you were there, but I'm sure my sarcasm may have given you some hints as to our fun. I wrote two new songs. This one is dark and evil, while the other one is about a harsh break up. The first song is called "Herself" and the second is titled "Disdain." I hope you like them, and if you don't, tell me. Actually, I would appreciate it if you told me if they were good or bad.

I attempted to fix up my homepage, but geocities yelled at me. I had copied and pasted my page onto wordpad while I attempted to fix up my page, but somehow they knew I did this, and it's apparently a violation of their terms of service. So I stopped, closed wordpad, and re-signed in, and all was well, except my page is not too different, except for my entrance page. I put up a new picture.

Today I grabbed lunch with my friend Matt. I haven't seen him in about a year maybe. He's going to Duke right now to complet his grad school work. He'll be finished with everything in May. Damn right.

That's pretty much it. Just felt I had to blog since I've been doing it on a daily basis for the past week. Late.

Day 7

07.26.2003 Saturday

Today is our final day here. Our flight checks out at 12:48. We wake up semi-early, because we want to get to the airport early. We pack up, and I check out of the hotel. I find that a local call was priced at $4. Wow, that's economical. My phone bill was $40. We leave and go to Dunkin' Donuts for a breakfast sandwich, and a muffin for later.

We finish and begin following signs for Myrtle Beach International Airport. It's actually quite easy to get to, at least compared to Newark. We follow signs for Car Rental Returns and drop off the car in the lot. The guy initials my paperwork, and I go inside to get my receipt. Wow. That's a long line, and I just have to drop off. This sucks. The line moves very slowly because everyone in front of us is picking up a car. We move about halfway thru the line, when one of the girls at the desk says, "Is anyone returning?" Yes. That takes care of that wait. It's now 10:50 or so.

We zip down to Continental to check in our luggage and get our boarding passes. This part was cool because they have a touch-screen computer to check in. And there was no line here. The guy checks our bag and the computer spits out our boarding passes. Now we find the security check-in. There is only one line, and it wraps around quite a while. So more waiting, and I get antsy because this could take a while. Luckily, the line moves at a decent pace. Same routine as Newark-shoes off, etc. We're through and have to find Gate 2. That's funny because there are only 5 gates at this airport, as opposed to the hundreds at Newark. Easy. We spot it, and sit down.

It starts raining harder. We do not want to be stranded here. Just get our plane here and let us leave. While we wait, I head to the gift shop to kill some time. Our plane arrived a few minutes late, but not much. We just had to wait a little for them to refuel and check everything. We began boarding at about the scheduled time, and take off on time as well.

Once we got to a higher altitude, the flight was pretty bumpy. There was a lot of wind. The plane shook one time that made me stop breathing for a moment. We were watching a reel of George Lopez and news on their monitors, and after this one pocket of turbulence, the plane shook pretty roughly, and the lights dimmed and the monitors went back up and shut off. Then everything was ok again. We continued to hit a few bumps. When we were nearing our home, the plane insisted on dipping up and down, and turning on its side a lot. This was making me anxious, because I just wanted to land already. I would look out the window, and he'd be ascending again. Dammit man, just land already. The pilot's interest in roller coaster caused a passenger behind us to vomit on herself. We finally landed very roughly and got the hell off the plane.

We strolled through the airport to find our ride and our baggage. We got home around 3 or so. Happy for now, but knowing I'll soon be bored of being home.

Day 6

07.25.2003 Friday

Today is our last full day in Myrtle Beach, so is that bad or good? It sucks balls down here, but I don't want to go home and be bored again and alone while my girlfriend works during the day. Such a conundrum...

Since today is supposed to be partly sunny in the am, with thunderstorms later, we want to hit the water park, called Myrtle Waves. So we prepare by lotioning and gather our towels, sandals, and money. We drive there and get into line to pay. The prices are rather hefty it seems. Suddenly my love says she doesn't really want to be here because she got one of those feelings. So I don't mind. It's more money in my pocket, and we can still go to the beach, since we're already lotioned. As we trek back to our car, we step in a puddle of sludge. It wasn't just a puddle from the rainstorm the night before, because it felt slimy. Disgusting.

We make it back to the hotel and go to the beach, which was very crowded, probably because it was Friday and almost noon. We stake out a spot and sit there for a while and read our books. We try the water since I begin to sweat from the humidity. The surf is still a bit rough, but not as bad as yesterday. We don't go in too far, just up to our waists, and still get pounded by waves. After a while, I get tired of holding my suit on because the waves were ripping it off every time I got hit. The thing was tied in a knot, but the water was strong. We go back to our spot for a while, and decide to leave to get some lunch. Besides, it was cloudy and looked like rain.

We cleaned off and tried this place I had spotted on one of our journeys called the River City Grill. We walked in and there were peanut shells all over the floor and license plates hanging from the wall. It felt like some weird prison movie. But alas, we seat ourselves and order. The food is actually really tasty, and the peanuts were pretty good too. After lunch, the rain was still holding off, so we want to try some mini golf again.

We drive down King's Highway and find Hawaiian Cavern golf. It was pretty empty. We paid and played. The course was really nice. There was a sign that said the course is the site of the US Open of mini golf annually. There was one hole that led out into their man-made lake, and a fountain sprayed mist onto you. Refreshing. The path of the course took you up a mountain, which allowed you to see over the horizon, which was actually blocked by all of the hotels anyway, but nice nontheless.

We went back to our room to dry our towels because they probably would not dry by tomorrow morning. Unfortunately, we did not have enough quarters for the dryer. I asked the front desk for change of a dollar and they acted like I was asking them to build the pyramids of Egypt. While we waited for the cycle to finish, we had a drink, which ended up in part on the awning of the gift shop below. When the drying was finished, it was time to leave for the conclusion of our trip.

I had made reservations the night before thanks to Kim for an 8:30 show at Medieval Times. We were told the doors open at 7. We arrived a little before 7:30 with a little trouble finding the place, but we did manage. We get the black & white knight. All right. Now we have to wait for an hour to get in, and I'm already getting hungry. I had never been to one of these places, so I was a bit pessimistic and not expecting it to be much. We finally begin entering the arena at 8:45. We find our seats and sit next to 2 southern girls who warn us they are going to be obnoxious and scream a lot. Actually, it sounded like home, so we were happy, and actually joined them. Anyway, the food was incredible and abundant, and the show was really fun. Our knight actually won the competitions, but this one knight who has kind of like an assistant to the King betrayed the king and slayed our knight instead of honoring him. Bastard. He died anyway, so just as well.

So our night ended happily, as did the week, but we still have to leave tomorrow, so I'm sure something will go wrong. Our flight leaves at 12:48 for now, but there's a tropical depression brewing right to the south of us, making it's way from Georgia. Joy.

Day 5

07.24.2003 Thursday

I am eager to hit the beach early today because it's supposed to rain later today and tomorrow. We leave Saturday. We wake up relatively early and get ready for the beach(i.e. lotion). We actually find a nice spot, and there is some sun today, but there are dark clouds looming. We sit around for a bit, but don't actually get in the water because the surf is rough from the storm. We hear rolls of thunder, but decide not to pack it in just yet, because it's off in the distance. We leave a while later, clean off, and I go over to Subway for some lunch and bring it back to the room. It rains.

We let the rain wear out for a while and decide to finally try some mini golf. We check out Captain Hook's. It is themed from the Peter Pan movie. There aren't too many people playing, which is good, because it looks like it's going to rain again. We had a pretty good time playing, and decide to try the Outback Steakhouse again for dinner. We pull in and see a line, but we said we would wait tonight. I go around back, but there is nowhere to park, so we leave and travel a bit further down the road to a place called the Atlantic Grille.

I run in through the rain to see if there's a dress code. They say no, so we're in. The place is not crowded, and it looks very nice. We ended up having a really nice dinner, so we didn't wait in the rain for the Outback anyway. We couldn't play any more mini golf since it continued raining, so we went back to the hotel to try and find its advertised "lazy river."

We get changed and find it rather easily, and it contains only a boy floating around with his mother sitting in a chair alongside. We try the pool outside instead, but it's too cold. We go back to the river. Great, we each grab a tube, and sit our lazy asses in and proceed around the river without having to strain ourselves. Minutes later, another girl and guy enter. Fine. They were nice and minded their own business. About 20 minutes later, a father and his 2 young boys run in all loud and jump into the river, without a tube. The boys decide to swim between us as we float, and the stupid father insists on floating up our asses. How very rude and inconsiderate we felt. We stayed only a few more minutes and then left in a bad mood.

We went back up to our room and changed again and settled in for the night. Tomorrow is our last day. We plan on trying the water park, because it's supposed to rain later in the day, but not early on. We'll see what happens.

Sorry for the delay. I was at my brother's house helping install a new fence in their backyard for the last 2 days...

Day 4
07.23.2003

We start our day the same as yesterday, that is, eating cheerios. We decide to peruse the hundred or so factory outlet stores a little bit up Highway 501. We walk around a bit, disinterested in most of the stores. I happened to see a music store as we were searching for a Tommy store for women. I went in to see if (ha ha) they had the new 311 cd. Wow! They actually did, and I picked it up and realized their tax is less than New Jersey's on cds. We continue walking and stop in our original destination to find nothing. We continue on to the Nike store, which was probably the busiest store there.

We proceeded to the snacky stand to buy a pretzel to hold our appetites until lunch, which we were looking forward to. We consumed our treats and entered the Big Dog store, where I purchased my dad a T-shirt. We began making our exit walk from the outlets, but stop in an Aeropostale, which had select good prices on mostly stuff people wouldn't buy. We also stopped in Nautica and Docker's to find ugly clothing, and crappy prices, respectively.

We leave and want to eat lunch. We want to hit up Captain George's, which is a seafood buffet. We drive over and pull in the back parking lot, noticing it's rather empty. We walk around looking for a back entrance, only to find a few stairs that lead to a wall. We turn and walk around to the front, where we discover that they open at 3. It's 2 now. Motherf... Since we are right across the street from Broadway at the Beach, and we're hungry, we go there to find food.

We park and find the info map. I see two places, a Japanese steak house, and Joe's Crab Shack, which both appear to be behind the Hard Rock Cafe, just over a bridge. Well, there was no bridge behind the Hard Rock Cafe, so we walked very briskly to the other side of this place. We go past Joe's, because it looked like a place where only white trash is welcomed. We walk a bit further and find out, hey, this steak house doesn't open until 4. OK, let's try Joe's since we're hungry. We go back and enter to find a line with a wait, and no ac. Motherf...We continue back to the other side of the park, where we started and become very sticky in the process because the humidity is near 100%. Disgusted, we get in our car to drive away. We end up going back down Highway 17, but I forgot that there's nowhere to eat really on 17, so we drive a while before I can find a u-turn. When we do, we turn around and I drive to the first place I could think of.

Fuddrucker's is always open during the day for lunch. We arrive and there is room to sit, and we eat lunch around 3:30 or so. We drive back to the hotel a while later and notice the sky is black behind us. Click. I take a picture. We go to our room to chill and digest our disgusting lunch.

Tonight we are going to see some baseball. Oh wait, no we're not. It starts raining and getting very windy. We decide we should cleanse our nastiness because we got really sweaty from our walk around Broadway. When I got out of the shower, I turned on the weather forecast to find that we had a Tornado Warning. Oh great. It was around 6. A tornado had hit maybe 10 miles to the north of us, and the cell extended to the south of us. Great. A tornado and we're in a high-rise with windows everywhere.

Luckily, the tornado warning expires without damage to us, but it continues to downpour. I call the Pelicans ticket office to see if the game was still on, because my tix were purchased online. The guy said, well, it may not start on time, but we're still going to play. Huh? Anyway, it continued to rain thru 8:30, so I don't think they got the game in at all. When we were finally ready, we started getting hungry, so we tried to go to Captain George's again.

When we pulled in, there were not many spots, and there was a cluster of people outside waiting. I ran in to see what the wait was, but the hostess said none for 2 people. Nice. I ran back to the car, got Kim and we were going to eat. This place was awesome inside. It was decorated with models of ships and fish, and the ceiling had a deep blue color with stars on it.

We made our way to the buffet to eat crab legs, some seafood medley, deviled crab, and something else. Devoured. Back for round 2, where we had some scallops, shrimp, some fish fillet, potatoes, rice, and a corn muffin. Also devoured, but with fullness setting in. We go back to browse the dessert table and pick up some fruit, pudding, cookies, and apple cobbler. This was a good meal. Expensive, but worthy. I just wish I could have eaten more. It was late, so we just went back to the room afterwards.

I wanted to not sleep in tomorrow to get to the beach before it rained, since we only had 2 more days left and it was supposed to rain both days.