With a little help from my friends.

I'm in lesbians with you.

This first sentences has nothing to do with the rest of the post, but let me just say how happy I am that Scott Pilgrim vs. The World was released on blu-ray and DVD last week. That is all.

I admit, it had been long time since I was able to head to Grand Rapids and just relax. A LONG time, indeed. I couldn't tell you why this is. I've been busy, yes, but so has every other person on this planet. I've had time to go to Owosso and back on more than one occasion (under-exaggerated). Even East Lansing has had my presence felt (over-exaggerated). BUT, none-the-less, one of my favorite places in the great state of Miiiiiiiichigan has been neglected. After this weekend, the only rationalization I can come up with is every time I visit this city, I find it harder and harder to leave. When I say "I find it harder to leave" I mean "I never want to leave." And this has a everything to do with the people I see when I'm there. Meagen (not Megan) and Michael (not Megan) have always been very gracious hosts, and the last few days had been no exception. Twice, after a long day of work for both, they were able to hang out, watch some movies, listen to some good music, and even chat until the wee-hours of the night (sorry about that, Meg).

Anyway, the couple at 420 Rosewood were having a Thanksgiving potluck and had invited the toast of the town to come and share in the festivities. It took three tables, 18 chairs and place settings, dozens of candles, and a steaming hot kitchen, but I'm happy to report the evening was a success. Every dish that was brought was delicious and the collection of different personalities meshed extremely well. The highlight of the night was reading the "what are you thankful for" cards that every filled out as they entered the building. The answers ranged from the very short - beer and friends - to the unnecessarily long - (mine) - to the extremely sexual and borderline racist - (insert AMAZING Josh or Katrina comment). By the way, if it wasn't clear, I'm in full support of the latter comments. Much laughter was had, some to the point of tears. I believe this crowd would be extremely receptive toward the game of Things.

Table 1

Table 2

Table 3

All good things must come to an end, though. For me, that was close to midnight. Most of the guests had already left, while the remaining decided to continue the fun times at a local watering-hole. After helping pack my computer, Mike, our pal Kevin, and I stayed at the house for a short while longer just talking about this and that. I swear I ended up saying goodbye about 3 separate times before taking another seat and talking some more. Like I said before, I didn't want to leave. A reoccurring pattern when in Grand Rapids. I finally made my way on I-96 and got into Flint around 2am. I was NOT looking forward to working at 6. I can't function on 3 hours of sleep like I used to.

Ever wonder what hot candle wax feels like?

That girl is strong!

Let me just say I find myself very lucky to have such generous and loving friends. I know I've repeated this sentiment many times, but I feel it can never be overstated. I think of myself as a happy-going type of person. But honestly, I'm just a reflection of the people in my life. It's how they approach life and how they feel that makes me go. And when you're in a home filled with so much love, it's hard to do anything other than smile.

What would you do if I sang out of tune?

Turning off the lights in Flint-town,
B

My last Will & Testament.

Well...more so a small portion of a testament. In fact, there's really nothing that involves a Will right now. At all.

Why so grim? Listen, life is a beautiful thing, but so unpredictable. So I figure, why not take this random time to post something that will be a last request. This means to hold true from the moment this entry is published to the time I take my last breath. Don't worry, it's nothing serious. In fact, I aim for this to provide the exact opposite reaction. At my funeral, I hope - nay, DEMAND - that you play "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life."

Wait...let me rewind for a second. I don't mean to throw up a red flag or worry anyone. To my knowledge, I'm pretty damn healthy. I don't see anything horrible happening to me in the near future, and I hope nothing does. In fact, everything the last few months has been amazing, so hopefully more of the same is in the cards. But, regardless of what I said about this not being serious...it's serious. YOU, whomever you may be, MUST PLAY THIS SONG! It's perfect. A last F-U to all that think life is to be taken so serious all of the time. Plus, I figure it'd be good to get a few smiles and laughs from the grave. Not a bad plan, ey? BOOM!

So, remember, YOU - whether it's Meg, or Rhett, or Brad, or (insert name), or (insert name), or... - if my life is to be extinguished in a fantastical, Final Destination-type accident or with my eyes closed resting peacefully, THIS SONG HAS TO BE PLAYED!

That is all. Enjoy.


(Still whistling),
B

How to recognize...

...different types of trees from quite a long distance away.

Number 1: The larch. The larch. The. Larch.

You know, voting is an important right. I mean, how much extra work do you have to do if you DON'T vote on the 5-star scale of Netflix? Who wants to manually choose their movies? It's so much easier abiding by Netflix suggestions.

Ladies and gents, let's give a round of applause to Meagen Spillane for providing the opening paragraph to this post. The ol' bait-and-switch. Brilliant!

Did you know that all of last month I only blogged a grand total of 3 times!? This simply will not do. I know I said I wasn't going to force anything this time, but I averaged below 1 post per week. Not cool. We'll see how THIS month goes.

Speaking of, welcome to November! The evenings are falling below freezing, the leaves have all but left the branches they once inhabited, and I'm still wearing t-shirts to run errands. Some people never learn...

Halloween was last weekend and, by all accounts, was a...screaming...success. Hahaaaaaaa. (Shakes head). The reason I say this isn't because I went from door to door collecting obscene amounts of cavity crunch, but because the party at Brad and Colleen's had a great turnout and was a blast. The pictures are online and can be observed HERE.

On Monday, the carpet cleaning finally happened at the house. A second cleaning was recommended and took place early the next morning. By tomorrow everything should be completely dry and ready for the moving. Dear readers, you have no idea how excited I am. Now, this is by no means going to happen in one day. People are busy and, because I will be living about 10 minutes away from my parent's house, I can take my time. In fact, we probably won't even touch anything until Saturday. I still need to set up an appointment with Comcast and change my incoming mail. Still, a pretty exciting process. Oh yeah, and Ikea on Friday. WOOOOOO!

Making a list.

I'd be remiss if I were to go an entire post without mentioning a bit of music or film. At the wedding of the year that took place a month ago, the song that played everybody off and ended the night was "Piano Man" by Billy Joel. This has special meaning to a lot of the attendees because of a popular watering hole by SVSU called The Pub. In fact, there were a few Pub favorites that found their way through the speakers thanks to DJ Tee-Bo. Anyway, "Piano Man" is, was, and probably always will be their sing-along; But for me, that distinction goes to "Tiny Dancer" by Elton John. Every time I hear that track, at the very least, there is some humming involved. I'm not saying it's my favorite song, by any means. It's just a record that, if I hear it, I'll listen all the way through. The same can be said for "Alison" by Elvis Costello. I know we all have one of those, so what is yours?

He's a Sir, you know.

Life has been extremely busy the last few weeks. That's looking to continue into at least next weekend, where some pals (one mentioned at the beginning of this post) are having a Thanksgiving potluck at their home in Grand Rapids. I feel like I should probably learn to make something amazing. I hope Bradley Thibaut is willing to teach.

I feel like there's something else I need to say, but I can't think of it right now. Oh well. I hope that means I'll be blogging again in the very near future. Looks like I'm on pace to break October's post-to-week ratio.

A man named Truth,

B