Box of Whine

…is who came to play against the USC Trojans this past weekend.  My dad and I flew down to see the game and hang out with his friend Jerry.  I was surprised that the USC fans were so polite, we were only booed once and it was actually in fairly good taste (as good as booing can be).  I expected a little more than what we saw.  The USC campus was very nice and equally as large.  What I liked was that as we walked around campus, people were tailgating all over, it showed a lot of community support as well as tie in with the university.The game was a mangled head up of spread offense.  The worst part wasn’t that we lost, rather, that we had that glimmer of hope that came with the first touchdown.  After that it was that nauseating repetitious beating of the ducks.

To ease our pain, we filled out bellies.  We were frequent patrons at Senior Fish, often, I found myself knee-deep in Scallop a scallop burrito.  They had the most fantastic salsas, there is a chance I might try to replicate the fresh salsa, it was so good I could have eaten it solo by the spoonful. Don’t get me wrong, the scallop is one tasty bivalve.

Other than watching our beloved ducks being creamed, we hung out at Jerry’s sipping fine Mexican importsm admiring his new porch, and making crude but slightly insightful jokes.

Once back from the Portland Airport, I gathered up my few remaining things and jumped into my car to be Grove-bound only to find that my hobby-needing mother had plastered, hid, tucked, wrapped, and nestled a something that had to do with USC throughout my car.  In my gum, on my blood donation key chain, on my side mirror, between seats… and there are still more to find I am sure.  As she states it, that was payback for the many trips to restaurants where I semi-steal a spoon, apples, toothpicks, crayons, or honey packet and drop them into her purse.  For some reason, she never finds the hidden goodies until she is out of state teaching a class.  I just want her to be prepared.  That aside, at 11pm on Sunday, I was safely back in the Grove, another weekend gone, but wisely utilized.

Sorry, the quality isn’t fantastic, it’s a cellphone camera, what do you expect?

About a month before the school year started, I was informed by a text message that I had been drafted into the Staff Mustache Race.  As Knutson said, “there are no winners in a mustache contest”; here they were on the last day of ’stashness:

 Yes, that is a month’s worth of lip hair growth on my face.  Yes, I know it’s barely visible.  Yes, it is bald in the middle.   Yes, I am ashamed.

As of this morning, I have offically lost 20% of my original body weight of 300 pounds.  Now that I am at 240, I have only 10 pounds left to shed before I reach my inital goal.  As for my main goal, I’m striving for 40 more pounds.  Honestly, I don’t think I have weighted so little since freshman year of high school.  My weight on my drivers license now out weighs me by 20 pounds.  If it didn’t cost money or use up valuable time, I would have like to get a new license, just kind of a reminder for myself. 

There have been so many different benefits from this, it has truly changed me.  I sleep better, I feel happier, people treat me differently, I get sick less, I run faster, I work out longer, I get angry less, and I have a overwhelming burst of self-confidence and a positive self-image.  My only regret is that I didn’t do this years ago, how much of my life could I have made brighter if I had implemented self-control and a workout routine?  I guess that sometimes, one’s head can only be removed from dark places at specific times in life… luckily, I pulled my out when my chance came along.

This has honestly been the hardest, yet most fulfilling and affirming 10 months of my life.  Here’s to taking a scary situation and making it work for you.

We here at Box of Whine like to beleive that our content is wide and varied, as well as entertaining.  With that, here are the top three search terms for 9/24/2008:

It’s been a while since I’ve had a bizarre dream, so I guess I was due, here’s the dream:

While out golfing with the administrators of my high school, I went to reach for my golf clubs but I came to the startling realization that instead of bringing a bag full of clubs, I brought a vacuum.  Ashamed of my mistake, I desperately tried to locate golf clubs within the vacuum but with every compartment I opened, all I found was vacuum accessories.

I’m not sure if this says something about my golf game (of which I have none), my cleaning, or my school… either way, I’m not sure what that statement would be.

Apparently, if you take the long way to LaPine and take the more direct way back, it’s still unbelievably long.  Still, one of the other coaches and I did take the opportunity to name every player.  From the top of my head:

‘Cano, Beetlejuice, Donny, Irish, Bulldog, Farcus, Soubcheck, Pillow, Cleetus, Snackshack, Norris, Clay Aiken, Bea Arthur, ‘Mater, Spiccoli, Aquaman, Big Tuna, The Stones, Ralphie… 

not bad committing all of those to memory even with the 5 hours I slept before getting back for work.  LaPine’s varsity team shows up here tonight. 

A big shout-out to Mr. Chris Pratt for showing up at LaPine on his unplanned visit to the Bend/Redmond area.  Thanks for the support, buddy.

A scary notion: