The Last Few Years In Review

In February, my girlfriend ended our seven month relationship. In March I got some new bike gear, and over spring break I did some biking. Got in touch with a friend that I hadn't talked to for a while. Talking with her really helped me to remember that we're not alone in this chaos called life. I started writing a book in March. After spring break, Rustin and I got our hair cut really short. Rustin trimmed my hair and did a good job. We have pictures on my picture page. I finished my book, and for a while I had a link to in on my webpage.

In March and April I started attending Cross Quest on more of a regular basis, getting more in touch with God. My car decided that it wanted a break from driving, so it broke down. We all need a break from the hectic world every now and then. In April I also began to get my better understanding of who really cares about me and who doesn't. In April I also added a page with some Bible verses that interest me.

On April 22 I decided that I would memorize the King James Version Psalm 118. All 29 verses. So I began my quest, and it wasn't until May 9th, in my Calculus II final that I was sure that I had it memorized. I wrote it down at the end of my final, on the rest of the scratch paper. My Calculus II professor saw it and called me "A Christian Punk", due to my hairstyle and cammo pants. Oh yes, my hair...On May 1st Mike C assisted in shaving my head for a mowhawk. This was done for May 2nd, which was "Mock Rock" an airband competition. I had it dyed orange, and Crazy Dave wrote "Jesus Rocks My Face" on the left side of my head with a sharpie marker, and wrote "Jesus" on the other side. The reactions were astounding, so I left the hair(minus the orange dye) until I went home, so that my parents could see it. I ended my first year of college on May 11th.

Overall I enjoyed the beginning of my summer break. There were minor setbacks, but I have enjoyed most of it. I think that the first 'event' per say was letting my hero know that they were my hero. For (a few) more details about my hero, check out the poem in my poem pages.

In June I helped my sister build her website. We sat down and in three hours went from a blank screen to having it finished and online. She learned a little HTML in the process. And I had fun trying to find ways to make things look how she wanted.

I also wrote another non-fiction book in June. It was a "sequel" to my first, although I had a collection of poems that I got together and made into a book, that predates my current book. I suppose that writing is my way of getting my thoughts and feeling about whatever out. Plus, I have a couple of friends who actually want to read it.

As my journey through life continued into late June, life was, well...life. Early July took me to southern Kansas to meet my cousin and her husband and their kids. We swam in the public pool, and had lunch together. On the way back my we stopped for dinner and my sister took over driving as I took the role of the navigator with minor help from the parental units until I was in more familiar territory.

The middle of July took my father and I to Colorado for an inexpensive short trip to the mountains. I met my favorite long distance neighbor and some of her friends and her boyfriend while I was out there. My dad and I also did some hiking and camped in a small tent. For details about my trip, visit my Colorado page.

So I return from the cool temperatures of the Rockies to what can only be described as Kansas's version of HELL. Hot temperatures, yet worse, high humidity. I don't mind high temperatures so much, but humidity sucks.

So I begin the month of August, and that means college is just around the corner. I head to college in the middle of August, having taken the time to see American Pie 2 before doing so. Once again this semester I am part of the marching band, and but of course we have band camp. This one time at band camp... all(but one) of the flutists that I know hate me now.

So in mid-August of 2001 I begin band camp. Woohoo! This year I have a little bit of a clue as to what is going on. We have a cooler(temperature wise) band camp. The people are pretty cool too. Rustin went and quit band though. That punk! LOL actually he had good reasons. The mellophone section(to which I belong) is 7 member strong this year, we are a serious threat to society now. Mellophone Madness! We anihilated the first two teams for our football season, and we did our "Hey Baby" song to both of them as we did to Southwest Baptist last year. We had a total of over 150 points between those two games alone. We gave up zero points in those games. Our third game was a little bit closer, we won 51-21. We played Washburn Icabods. Yeah what the hell is an Icabod? We did our "Hey Baby" song to them and asked them. They didn't reply. So we sang again. Still they didn't reply. Oh well.

My RA this year is Bobby. He's pretty cool. He criticizes me for wearing my black beret "the wrong way". So I told him I would form my green beret to the Army's standards. And I have.

This year I have once again attended Cross Quest. I've also managed to get Laura, one of the girls that my homies and I hang out with to talk some. She's just a person of few words, which is fine. I've met more cool people. Clay now lives down the hall instead of across from me. But it's all good. His roommate Daniel is in ROTC so they get along well, and I enjoy hanging out with them too. Guys who love guns tend to congregate together.

And of course I've still maintained my "Disgruntle Dave" nickname. It is still a sight to see when one of my friends introduce me as Double D or Disgruntle Dave or Dē. The unsuspecting are somewhat...speechless

So September makes it's way into my life and I put up with it. Classes get harder every year. I still manage to keep in touch with people. It is nice to be back with my college friends. I have had a good roommate, Jason. Well he's not perfect but we get along and that's the important thing. I even get along with his girlfriend Michelle, as she has visited a few times.

After three home football games we now begin learning new drill and music. As for my other college classes, well they are...boring stressing and downright annoying for the most part. Sociology is a joke, I sit in class finding the apathy and the tyranny and the stupidity in society. I usually don't verbalize too much of it. As for Engineering Physics...if I can offer one piece of advice...do not take Engineering Physics...it is Calculus's playground and everyone knows that Calculus is hell. The devil presides over both.

When I get old I'm sure I will be sitting in a rocking chair playing with Lego and little kids about "Oh yeah I remember where I was when I first heard about the 9/11 attacks"...well I was in my bed listening to the radio on my headphones when I first heard about it.

On Wednesday the 19th of September I followed Rustin to his place after Cross Quest and we drove around searching for homies to hang with. After an hour of searching we headed to the bowling alley to hang out with Mike C and his girlfriend Heather. We stopped by Wendy's first and the girl that was working the drivethrough looked out at us while we were still waiting in line and so we waved. She had a look of "ok who are you?" on her face as she waved back. Rustin said we should apologize for freaking her out and I thought we should also add that "We love to see you smile." Nonetheless we laughed about that comment for quite a while. I stayed overnight at Rustin's house because we had watched "Gone In Sixty Seconds" and it got over at 2:34AM. On the morning of 9/20 I experienced the phenomena of a disappearing spider. Rustin was driving me back to my dorm room from his house and there was a little bitty spider on the car door. So I try to coax it onto a nickel and so it does, then hops on my knuckle and then it disappears. I searched and searched for it but it was gone. *Poof* He he. Rustin and I are still both amused and amazed about the incident.

An event this year called PittStock took place. It was a "Battle of the Bands" and the soon to be famous "The Joe Fund" played. They are totally cool. They have a ska style, and half of the band is in the Pride of the Plains Marching Band.

The football team remains mostly victorious after five games. We sang our "Hey Baby" song to Emporia State University's watergirl, asking if she was available. The whole incident got started because a few members of our band yelled out "At least your water girl's hot!" She laughed(though she tried to hide it.)

Well Thanksgiving came, and I ended up sore as a result of the annual football game. And so now the end of the semester comes to a close soon. And that means Christmas is almost here. Oh, and my Lego Tower is no more. I took it down. During Christmas break our football team finally got beat out of the race for the championship.

December 5th marked the first time that any of my poems had been read to the public. I read two poems at the Cross Quest CQ Cafe..."Lord I Pray For The One" and "Would It Make A Difference". I think that the overall consensus was that my poems were good. Apparently it shocked a whole bunch of people, cuz I was wearing my psychadelic Metallica t-shirt, urban cammo pants and my black beret. I guess they didn't expect someone dressed like that to read poetry. Looks can be deceiving. My homie g Rustin said that about half of the people in the room were in a state of pure shock. I couldn't see anything past the microphone. A little dose of stage fright combined with the bright lights in my face. Oh well, it was fun.

Finals for college arrived December 10th, and of course that means boredom and a little studying. And it is almost time to go home.

I stayed home for New Year's Eve, and brought 2002 in with a small clap...

Classes aren't too bad, some will be kindof tough. I'm taking COBOL with Rustin and Mike C, which should be fun. I am also in Hell part 2, more commonly known as Engineering Physics 2. I have a new roommate, his name is Ryan, and we get along well. It's nice to be back with Cross Quest, it's nice to be able to see my college friends again.

February and March were more school, and March brought spring break. My friend Dan, his brother Alex, and my roommate Ryan got together at my house and shot some guns. I believe we had two 12 gauge shotguns, one 20 gauge shotgun, an 8mm German rifle, an SKS, a .40 pistol, a .45 pistol and a 9mm pistol. It was fun.

In late April I got a mohawk again, simply because I wanted to. I kept it through the end of school, and most of the way through May. May also brought many graduations, and I burned a CD for a couple of my chat friends who were graduating.

On June 16/17 I took a small road trip to see some of my friends. I told two of them I was stopping by, Dan and John. I left at 9:15AM Sunday morning headed for the hour and half trip to see them. Dan and I saw "The Bourne Identity". It was pretty good. While hanging out with Dan I discussed whether I should make a "short" hour side trip to see Laura on my way home. Dan thought I should so the next morning when I left Dan's, I did. She didn't know I was coming so I surprised her. I got to her house a little before 11AM. We spent the day catching up on what had been happening. We ate lunch together and then later in the evening went canoeing. Her little sister sat between me in the back and Laura in the front. I had never been conoeing but once we figured out how to control it better we did pretty good. I left her house around 8:20PM and got back home at 9:40PM. A successful trip if you ask me.

On July 1st I went shopping with Nikki P and my lil sister Anne. We went to the mall. We stopped by Victoria's Secret, 5*7*9, Rave, American Eagle, Wet Seal, Bath & Body Works, Hollister then Debs and finally Spencers. Yeah it was nice to finally hit a store that I actually shop at haha. Actually I didn't mind going to those other stores, I've followed my lil sis around them lots of times. I go simply to get out of the house. At Hollister's I played "Basket Case" by Green Day on their little jukebox thing. We left like a minute into the song...that always happens when I go in there. Nikki explained some logics to the art of shopping and I helped her pick out a whole outfit at Wet Seal. It's fun helping other people spend their money.
After we left the mall we went to Sheradens to get some frozen custard. Anne and I had never been there. We all three got Hot Fudge Concretes, at Nikki's reccomendation. They were good. Yummy. After that we went to Mr. Goodcents because Nikki was still hungry. Anne just got some chips and I didn't know what to get so Nikki decided on some lasagna for me, cuz Nikki likes lasagna. Nikki got a 12 in sub. She ate half of it there and got the rest to go. After we got done there we went home. It was a fun trip and I learned a lot about shopping for clothes, as well as what was the newest "fad". Not that I really care what strangers think is cool for me to wear. I wear what I want.

On July 25th Laura came and visited me. We played a game of Life and had some Kool-Aid. I lost the game of Life. We also took a few tests at Emode.com. When Chris got online I told him to come over too. He didn't have as far of a drive. We hung out together and then later in the evening as we were playing frisbee, Bryan, a friend of Chris and me, came over. Laura left around 9:30 but Chris and Bryan stayed until about midnight. A fun day indeed.

On August 16th I made the move back to college, and made the trip with Chris so we wouldn't be bored. I bought some gummy bears for the trip down. It went fairly well. Then...I went and hung out with Rustin that night at Jenny's house. I ended up playing spades with 7 other people, and 2 decks of cards. Heidi was my partner, and when we left the score was about 205 to 40 to 70 to 0 or something like that...Um we bid 5 every time and made it. Yeah, we rule.

So band camp started on Saturday the 17th. He he...this one time at band camp, we played a song, and then it rained. Okay so we were done marching before it rained. Well here's something impressive, we learned all thirteen charts for the show in less than two hours. Granted it will take a while to clean them but getting em all roughed in in under 2 hours...not bad. The mellophone section(to which I belong) is 7 member strong again this year, we continue to be an even greater threat to society now, for only one of us, "J", is new. Ha, the two girls are both named Kim. So they cause trouble. Scott is our fearless leader and Michael, Allen and I just sit back and toot our own horns.

This year my roommate is Dan. Yep yep, we took over a room that Andrew and Rustin used to have a couple years ago. Classes are weird, some are blah, but eh, that's life.

My lil sister came and visited me at college one weekend. It was cool hanging with her and her friend. Except it rained at the football game. Grrr.

On an extended weekend(they gave us a Friday off) in October Dan and I headed for my place on that Thursday. I did my laundry, cuz well, it needed done. We kindof relaxed that night. Then on Friday we headed out to his place, it was another hour and half drive. We woke his brother up and raided the gun cabinet, taking the AR-15, SKS, Mosin .308, Dan's Glock 22 and a .380 revolver. We headed out of town a little ways and set up to shoot. A couple of Dan's friends stopped by. After shooting for a while, and having to take the AR-15 apart cuz Dan's brother Alex hadn't kept it well groomed, we headed back to his house. At one point Dan kicked his Mosin rifle's bolt cuz it wasn't functioning. And it worked after that. Saturday morning we took Alex's Mossburg 590 12 gauge pump, Dan's 20 gauge bolt action and Dan's dad's 12 gauge pump shotguns with us as well as the clay pigeons and about 85 shotgun shells. I didn't get along with Dan's bolt action...freaking right handed people make it hard for left handed people...anyways, I was kickass with Alex's 12 gauge. It had an 8 round magazine tube but the most we ever put in at a time was 4. I did fairly well. In the end there was one 12 gauge shell left and I had the pleasure of getting to shoot it. I told myself that I had to end on a good note, and I did. Yay for me! As we went to pick up the unshot clay pigeons we found a bunny that was probably shell-shocked at having 80 some-odd shots go over its head.

Well the football season ended in mid November as we lost our last game. Sucked pretty bad. I wrote a few more poems in November.

For more information about 2002 check back sometime later in the year.