The end!

Well this is going to be my last blog entry. I do feel like I have closed an unknown chapter in my life because I never liked blogging but have never really did it. Now that I had to partake, I can say that I've tried it and still dislike it. I had a military instructor always ask his students if they were gay and they would always tell him no. His response to this was "How do you know?" "I've tried it and I hate it so I know I'm not gay!" Of course this was a big joke but the point of the story is that how can you really speak your mind or truly understand something if you never try it out. I think that most of the people in the world, especially in the US act this way. They act on feelings and words of other people instead of truly finding out for themselves. I especially see this with the military life. People think that they really know what things are happening in the other countries we are in but in all reality they truly have the slightest clue. They don't even know what's happening around them, much less half the world away. I bet most people couldn't tell you what their local politicians are trying to accomplish but they think they understand the policies of the United States and their allies. It's a very disheartening feeling to know that people are ignorant to the government. If people turn a blind eye to this aspect of their lives, then I wonder what else might they not know? Well I for one can say that I'm trying to understand everything I can. I promise that I will educate myself before I start to make blind assumptions. I promise that I will look at things from other people's point of view. I promise that I will not be close minded to things I don't understand. I promise I will not freak when things rub me the wrong way. We need to be a little more open to things that we are not comfortable with. We need to open our minds, our eyes, and our hearts to understand our neighbors, co-workers, friends, family, and most of all the people we don't know we pass on the streets. This is me opening my eyes to blogging and signing off with this last post. So long and remember small things can make big differences.
B

What's worse...animals or kids?

I never knew owning a dog would be such a job. Last November I bought my first dog. He's a red doberman and his name is Rosso (Ro-So). It means "red" in Italian. Anyway, this was my first self owning pet. I bought it with my girlfriend at the time, who is now my fiance. Getting to the point here I never knew how much work it took to own a little ol dog. There's so much more to it than one would think. And the cost is unreal! So the first problem you have is house training. To be honest, he wasn't even that bad with this. I used the bell method. For those of you that don't know you hang bells on the door you use to go outside, and every time you go out you ring them. They begin to understand that ringing the bells mean that they go out. Now if you have a pup that loves being outside, he may figure out that ringing the bells get him outside for anything. What was bad about this was the carpet that will need to be replaced before I can ever sell my place. Now with most new pups they go through the chewing stage. There is nothing my dog won't try and chew. I mean he went at everything from rocks and sticks outside to walls and furniture inside. He ate parts of my surround sound speaker, the legs on my sofa and chair, and even the wood molding on the floor in the kitchen. No telling how much those little teeth cost me. Now you wouldn't think that a puppy would eat that much but man was I wrong. This dude would eat like he was dying at every meal. I think he would go through a 40 lb bag in a couple weeks. It was crazy. I'm saying all this because I just got him back from my parents. Short back story..I have surgery in Jan and couldn't move for a few weeks. To be cautious, we thought it was best for him to live in the country a while because I couldn't give him the attention a puppy needs and we didn't want him jumping on me and hurting me. He was 50-60 lbs then. Well after the surgery I had a leadership class to attend and it ended up being extremely long days so that pushed his stay a bit longer. We just went home to visit the folks last month and decided it was time for my pup to come back home. Well now he's 9 months, 85 lbs and loves to play. He's a big baby though and whines when you leave the room. Hopefully we can break that habit real soon. So now that I have him back I know again how much work it is to have a dog. No more sleeping in. No more nights away. No more clean house. Plus add in all the things you have to do like constantly watch him so he doesn't he a hole in the drywall or molding. Yes, he ate a hole in the drywall and ate molding off the wall at my parents. So now that he's back I keep asking myself...are kids this bad? I know your life changes when you have kids but kids grow up fairly quick and begin to take care of themselves. My pup will NEVER do that. So I'll have to wait and see but right now...for my sanity...I hope, I wish, I pray that my kids aren't going to be this bad!
B

A life of seconds...game of inches.

The past few weeks have not been terribly bad, but it could have been so much worse. I left work and took a few weeks off to go home and help my parents out. They own a small business in south Louisiana and needed a hand right around the same time I needed a break from the military life, and my fiance needed time to study. (She is about to take her national exam in massage therapy). It was good timing for everyone so we packed up, left Florida and went West on I-10 a few hours. The plan was for me and my fiance to get a week of work at the office under our belts then let the folks take a small, short, and much needed vacation. Because they run the business it's hard for them to get away. I was going to try and help them do just that and get away a bit. Well my grandfather on my dad's side of the family had been having health issues. A few years back he had a stroke and the stroke left an artery in his head with a small kink. Yes just like a garden hose, but still had flow. The kink would sometimes move and when it did it would touch a nerve sending extreme pain down his face. He described it like brain freeze in his entire face. Something I can only imagine hurts like hell. So after some time dealing with this because the doctor he was seeing hoped it would correct itself, the Wed before last he has surgery to fix it. They had to remove a piece of his head to access the artery, straighten it out, and place a screen between the artery and nerve to prevent future "brain freeze" attacks. He was in ICU for about 3 days after the surgery, then was placed in his own room for a night or two, then released home. Needless to say it was a tense time for our family. He is older now and many people underestimate the risk associated with older people having a major surgery. Unfortunately my parents had to post pone their little trip do to the circumstances of my grandfather. My father had to spend a few nights at the hospital with my grandmother to lend a helping hand when he was recovering so they couldn't leave. Well luckily for everyone my grandfather is doing better minus a few headaches, and a slight balance issue every so often. Anesthesia doesn't fair so well on older individuals and sometimes it takes a little bit for them to get their wits back so nothing to be overly concerned about. Overall things were looking good though. So because of things looking up, Saturday my family and I went on the water to spend the day together. Took out our party barge loaded with my aunts, my cousins, my parents, my fiance and my uncle with his new girlfriend. He is my dad's youngest brother by 13 years and older than me by just 9. Needless to say he's close to everyone. When he was young he unfortunately had made a few poor choices as many do when they are young and think they know everything. The unfortunately thing for him was he got caught and got in some trouble here and there. He just recently moved back home and started a new life that was going in the right direction. Solid job with the same company the entire time he was home, attending almost all the family gatherings, took up very healthy hobbies such as fishing and being out in the boat, and most importantly he surrounded himself with good people. People he can count on and depend on and people that want the best for him. He was actually a great person to be around with lots looking up for him. After the afternoon on the boat he left to bring his girlfriend and her kids home. The next morning, today Sunday August 1st, he was suppose to take my other uncle, the middle brother who was in town salt water fishing. He decided to leave his girlfriends house early to get to bed so he could wake up and head out fishing. Just about 8 pm, he was less than 5 miles from home when out of no where a car trying to pass 3 cars in a curve hit him head on. The driver, a young 21 year old that was going to the hospital to visit a friend that was there because they tried to commit suicide. He was going to try and talk to them and help them and be there for them. There were no skid marks on the road from either vehicle so the two vehicles received the full force of the impact. The young driver of the other vehicle, unfortunately died instantly. My uncle was in terrible shape. On the outside he had a left elbow compound fracture, left femur compound fracture, right knee fracture, and multiple cuts and bruises. On the inside a punctured diaphragm, ruptured spleen, liver lacerations, and bleeding. He was air lifted to a level 1 trauma center in our capital city of Baton Rouge where he went into surgery around midnight and didn't get out until 6. They didn't even work on any other the outside injuries. The removed his spleen and packed his liver and after they were done they left his incision open just in case they had to perform and emergency surgery on him today. It took 5 units of blood and 9 units of fluid to get his normal pressures back. They had to induce sedation because of many reasons ranging from pain and comfort to it being the safest option with the extent of his injuries and him possibly moving and hurting himself even further. Tomorrow he will be seen by 4 specialist so that can all correctly diagnose his status and tell us what it's going to take to give him his life back. This story could have a much worse ending but the bottom line is that my uncle is still with us. I will be able to fish with him again...I'll be out on the lake with him again...I'll see him at family dinners and get together's. Life is a terrible game of inches. One inch this way he could have died, one inch the other they both could have lived. Many people say things happen for a reason and I am not one to argue with that. I do think that people can find the good in every situation to include bad ones and I think that after time those reasons will be reveled but sometimes it is very difficult to see in the early stages. I visited my uncle today and looking at him hooked up to that ventilator with the braces on his arm and leg it was very difficult to see the good. It makes me realize just how fragile people are. One second you are here planning out your days and they next it's all changed or even gone. My advice is be careful what you put off until tomorrow because you never know what'll change today.
B

Where's the fight?

Most of my writings have been about little things here are there that you may come across once in a while. I'd rather not write about things such as religion, politics, racism, gun control, or war because these are things that are normally set in a person's head. These types of things are normally learned from an early age and many many years go in each person's decision on those particular subjects. Not to mention they can be very touchy subjects. I prefer to write about smaller things that make people think a little. Things like being nice and friendly to your fellow neighbor. Things like being careful on the roads when driving. Things like thinking about an action before actually doing it. These things are things that that people have a hard time debating because the general population feel as though we could improve in those areas. This next subject may be a little bit touchy to some and it may be on the fence between the two. I am just recently engaged. July 3 to be exact. Now we set our date for Sept 23 this week so we'll be married fairly quickly, which in my eyes is what's suppose to happen. You date, you propose, you marry. What other road can you take to get to marriage? Well, as I told family and friends about this I got a world of different reactions. One friend said "wow a 2 month engagement...you work fast!" Is an engagement suppose to be for a long time? What's an exceptable time limit? We have already decided that we both want to be married or I wouldn't have asked and she wouldn't have excepted. Why in the world would I want to be "engaged" for a long time when I can be married and we both know that's where we're going to be anyway? What's the point of even asking someone to marry you if all you want to do is continue to date with a ring involved? Now I'll go out on a limb and say an engagement is a step up from dating but the only reason I could even think of waiting would be to wait for money, or to wait for a certain date to perform the wedding. Well neither were issues with us so we set the date as early as possible. I was talking to a good friend's father and when he asked when we set the date I told him Sep. He said he did the same thing when his wife asked him "When do you want to get married?" He told her "Now! If I wanted to marry you later I would have asked you later!" I thought this was great! What's the point in waiting any longer? I don't get it! I told another family member that we were getting married and he just looked at me for a minute before he said "If that's what you think you have to do, then do it. You can always get a divorce!" I was pretty much shocked! When in the world did it become OK for people to just marry and separate? I thought vows where forever! Till death do us part if my wedding memory serves me correctly. In sickness and in health. In this life and the next. I'm not going to sit here and say that under no circumstances a divorce is right brcause some do call for a divorce but going into a marriage with divorce in mind is part of the reason that there is over a 50% divorce rate. When did we start giving up? When did we lose the fight that people use to have back in the day? For many years it was unheard of to separate your spouse. Now 1 out of every 2 couples will split. Maybe you can call me old fashion but I'm not going to sit here and start my marriage with failure in mind. I'm not going to tell myself that it's all going to be fine because when it gets tough I can bail. I'm not going to promise a person my heart for the entirety of my life and then back out on her when things aren't going my way. Relationships are hard. It is prolly the toughest thing a person can go through. Everyday is different and everyday can be an up and down rollercoaster type struggle. And it doesn't get easier after time and things never settle. It's a constant revolving door of change coming in and routine going out. You have to fight to keep things together and the day one of the two stop fighting is when they are doomed to fail. People have become OK with giving up and it makes me sad. I feel bad for those people with no fight inside them. I feel bad for the spouses that do have some fight but get none in return. It makes me upset to know that it is now OK to give up on the "supposedly" most important person in your life and turn your back on them. And it scares me to death to know that people quit on what is suppose to be the best thing that has happened to them. It scares me because if they can do that, walk out and leave the person they love more than anything, I'm terrified to think what they would do to me or any other common neighbor. I often wish we would change the list of things that are most important to us and start placing people closer to the top.
B

How did I get to this place?

So I've been taking classes at Kaplan now for almost a year. My degree plan is Nutritional Science because I have a huge...HUGE interest in health and fitness. I'll give you the background on why I am the way I am. Being a very active kid I was always "fit" or as fit as a kid can be. I always played outside, running, riding bikes or whatever else you could think of kids in south Louisiana would do. (Yea we swam in bayous and that crazy stuff too =) Well that carried over to high school where I took up sports to fill the time. Every sport I could play I would. I was always involved during all seasons. Even summer time we had basketball, football, and tennis camps. Not to include the mandatory summer work outs. Well in college I started to change my focus from fitness too parting like most college kids do. Ever heard of the freshman 15? Well that's a term used when new freshman come into school and put on 15 or more pounds because they aren't doing the same things they are in college in high school. The sad thing is it's true! So unfortunately I fell into that category after only about a year at school. One weekend I came home for a visit. Well my baby sister was in high school at the time and we hadn't seen each other for some time. I was walking around the house without a shirt after swimming and she said "Brother I've never seen you so fat. You don't have anymore abs!" Well there's no truer form of the truth than from a close family member. That lone incident changed my life. I went back to school and started a workout program. I also started a new diet. Now I'm not endorsing anything here because I know some things work for some that don't work for others but I'll tell you what worked for me. It was a book called "Body For Life" and it was a gateway to where I am now. I loved it. I read this book and wanted to run to the gym right away and start. There was nothing the author left out when he was writing this. It was informative, motivational, and had an all inclusive program where I didn't have to shop around to find all sorts of different information or piece together things from all over. It was the perfect beginner program which was exactly what I needed because every time you start something over the past in irrelevant. I was beginning a new fitness regiment so I needed a beginner program. Well this program worked and worked great. I lost weight and was back into shape in no time. The diet wasn't that expensive and it was really easy to follow. Again this is what worked for me. Now after getting back into shape you begin to fall into a routine. The routine is what makes people fall off the horse so to keep myself from falling off the horse I failed out of school! Well that wasn't intentional but it happened and I had to roll with the punches sort of speak. I needed a change anyway so I started working with a very close high school friend in an oil refinery and that really got me whipped into shape. You want to lose EVERYTHING you have, work in 100 degree heat, in a full fire proof jump suit, walking around giant engines in an oil refinery. That's shed the pounds in a few weeks! So I did that for an entire summer and realized that it wasn't the road for me so I started to look at other options. The military was the first thing that came to mind and I had a very close uncle that was in the Air Force so I gave him a call. After talking to him I set up an appointment with a recruiter. My logic was that I could stay in shape because it's a requirement in all services. Not to mention travel and school and medical benefits and actually learning a new trade, just to name a few of the perks. Now I'm not the type of person to believe in fate or chance or weird things like that but the day of my appointment was the day I got laid off from my job. Weird! So I enlist. I enlisted as a mechanic and I couldn't go to basic for about 6 months. You have to have availability and at the time lots of people were going. One day I swing by my recruiters office to have a chat and she put this cool looking poster in her window. It was a guy hurt in the snow, with another guy helping him, with a helicopter in the background, with writing that said "do you have what it takes?" I thought WOW! What in the world is this. So I asked and she said that it was Air Force Special Ops. I said "WOW! Air Force has Special Ops?" She explain that it was a very intense physical and mental training program and that only about 10% of the people that start it finish it. I was floored! I was ecstatic! I was hooked! I signed up! My old routine had just been upgraded to beyond supper size...this was cosmic. I trained for months running, swimming and lifting weights to prepare. I went to basic training and right into selection and made it through. I was 1 of 20 that made it from a class of over 90. After that, the next 3 years in the military, my job was to work out and study. The Air Force was paying me to maintain a fitness level that would kill normal people. Each day I would run miles and miles, swim for hours at a time, and lift weights sometimes multiple times in a day. I was hooked. I was addicted. There was no turning back from this. All I wanted to do was find new ways to go about it. Well, here's the next step. I know how to get into shape. I know what tricks and tools are the best to keep myself at that high level of fitness I found in this program. Now I need the fuel. I need to understand what I use to fuel my body. Hence the nutrition degree. What better way to take the next step than to go outside the fitness and dive into what we eat. I'm reading books on food and nutrition, I'm studying nutrition in my classes and I'm finding new things I never thought of before. And I'm blown away yet again. This food world is so deep that I now understand why there's actually a degree for nutrition. I can't believe where we as a society have taken our food...or at least things that we call food. I'm not going to rant on about our food this week because that's not where I wanted to go with this post so I'll save that one for next week. The message I was putting out with this one is that you should never stop growing. Never settle for things that you have already accomplished. Try each day to wake up and do something that you have never done. Push yourself to go beyond what you have already done. Don't let yourself fall into that routine where each day you get up and you aren't happy with what you're doing or you aren't happy with yourself as a person. Push yourself. Try new things. The more things we try to accomplish which we have not yet mastered, the more we grow.
B

Troubled Road...

Today I was on the road for a reasonable amount of time and what I see never ceases to amaze me. It was a short 5 hour cruise but you would be amazed how much you can see in that period of time. I'm not sure if we (as a general population) were ever fantastic drivers but I do know that we did not have the amount of distractions we have now, which in turn do make us worse drivers. Let me explain just a few of the distractions I saw today. I saw people on the phone, which isn't surprising because you can't drive a mile in any direction on any main road without seeing someone on a non hands free phone. I saw people eating which also isn't surprising because we have fast food "restaurants" off of every exit on the interstates. I saw people playing with radios because we all have to have something to distract us from driving while we drive because its boring if nothing is on (I'm guilty of this just as everyone else so I'm not judging). And I saw people looking at everything outside their cars but the road. This includes people looking at finder benders, other people broke down on the side of the highway, weather in the distance, and anything else that is flashy. Now I'm not 100% sure but I'm willing to bet most of the incidents I saw where directly related to these distractions. Just to name a few I saw 4 lanes of traffic blocked by 4 different cars going the exact same speed. I saw one car cut another off by lane changing with nothing in front of them to change lanes for. I saw three cars in two lanes of traffic because someone didn't merge when a lane ended. And I saw someone miss their exit...then realize it last minute and barely make it. This was all in a 5 hour trip..on one major interstate. I didn't know what I was going to write about this week until I was on the road. I'm not sure where the disconnect in this process is but something is wrong with the way we drive. Is it the advertisements that line our highways and streets? Is it the convenience of our "can't live without items" such as cell phones, satellite radio, drive through food, mini car tv's, books on cd or tape, or any of the other things we do while driving? Is it the fact that it takes only a few days of "class" and "practice" when you are 15 to be able to drive these medal machines? Or is it just that we don't have enough law enforcement actually enforcing laws? I don't know what it is. I think it's a combination of all of them. Everything that you can think of as a possible distraction is a distraction. We are all guilty. We all do it and most of the time without second thought. Answer that phone call...surf the radio stations...grab that food to go because we don't have time...ignore the laws of the highway. People don't realize the dangers or the responsibilities that come with driving. I know I didn't at 15 when I started driving. All I wanted was to drive. But at 15 I had way less to worry about. No cell phones, no satellite radio (I was lucky to catch 5 stations) only a small handful of fast food joints and I didn't have money for that anyway and there were less cars on the road and WAY less police cruising them. Now it seems like the new drivers are raised with these distractions and they see them as normal, but what they don't see them as are distractions. It's very difficult for someone to see it as dangerous when they have grown up watching everyone do the very thing they are now doing. It's a very painful process of monkey see monkey do. So ladies and gents I ask you to read this and take into consideration that even when people aren't watching, someone is. Our children see us answer that call or eat that burger or surf the radio over and over, or go a little over the speed limit. They see these as normal things mom and dad do and when it's time for them to start driving they too will pick up the same habits. Do you think your little Johnny or Suzy (just generic names there ;) are good enough drivers to be doing those things? I doubt it too! So my advice is to be aware. Be aware of what you do while driving and inform young drivers of the dangers of distractions. Watch out for other drivers and be cautious because you never know when something may go terribly wrong. I saw so many things on the road today it made me think of the things I do and over all it just made me more aware of what I should be doing....paying attention to the road. Stay safe out there, be watchful, do the right thing. Safe driving folks!
B

Where did it go?

You may be wondering what I'm talking about here. Many of you are asking yourself "where did what go?" Let me explain. I am from a very small town in South Louisiana. Now no matter what many of you think about it there, no matter what you may or may not have heard, we have a saying. Well, we have many sayings but one I'm sure all of you have heard. Southern Hospitality! I don't consider myself an old individual but I do consider myself old enough to know better. I'm a young man and in my "few" years of life on this Earth I have been many places. I enlisted into the military some time ago and through the military I have been many places in this world. I have learned that many things in this world we live in are uncertain, but one thing I do know is certain, we live in a different world than we did just a few years ago. Different from my early school years in the 80's...different than the new age years of the 90's...and much different than the new generation years of the 2000's. I ask you, to ask yourself "where did the hospitality go?" Not just southern but in general, as a population, as a country, as a world. As we grow it seems we have lost some very important things in our society...common courtesy, general appreciation for one another, self pride & excellence in what we do, and overall caring for our fellow HUMANS! When did things change to an "I have to get mine" attitude? When did we start saying "Why should I do for you if you don't do for me?" "Why should I go above and beyond?" What happened to us that we cannot give the common courtesy of a hello, good morning, thank you, you're welcome or any other kind word. When did we stop taking pride in our work? When did we stop caring about each other? When did we lose trust and stop taking a persons word and start putting everything in writing? When did we begin taking everyone to court and start calling reality TV entertainment? I remember a time, which is now called the "good ol days" when we went out of our way to help people without anything in return. We just did it because it was the right thing to do. We lived by right and wrong and not by "what can I get away with!" We got spanked because that was tough love and discipline, and we learned from it ONE TIME! One good hand from your father and you learned your lesson and it was rare you did it twice. We didn't have computers in our rooms because we were playing outside constantly, which in turn made us healthy little kids. Now, in the computer age, kids get their fitness from video games! Near 50% of our children are or will be obese at some point in their young lives. We stopped cooking and eating as a family because it's easier to get fast food. 2 out of every 3 children eat fast food for one meal EVERY day! We also worked hard for our wages instead of trying to get everything for free. We're trying to be instant millionaires instead of just providing what is needed. It's a general more, more, more attitude and there is no end to it. It's everywhere, everyday. So to get off my soap box and keep this short..I ask you to ask yourself a few things. Do you consider yourself being in this "new age" group? When did you change? What can you do to be a better person? Everyone says they can't change the world but we can. It takes one person at a time to make a difference and who's to say that chain can't begin with you or me? Unfortunately the chain goes both ways and one weak link can weaken the entire line. Don't be the weak link! Be the link that hangs on the the links next to you so the chain is strong. Pass on a good example. Instead of asking where did it go...ask how can we get it back!
B

One Step!

One step can change a persons life. A person can step in one of 2 directions, which most people already know..the right and the wrong. The thing about these steps is that for the most part, you won't figure it out until well after the choice has been made which you have taken. People around you and people that play roles in your life can give you advice and help you make these types of decision; Unfortunately, in the end the choice is up to you and only you have to fully understand and except the actions or reactions that stem from your choice. Now even if you take a step in the wrong direction it can help you in the end get to where you want to be. Sometimes a person makes a wrong choice or two but one or two wrong choices won't be the end of the road. For many people we have all taken wrong steps in our lives but it hasn't held us down, nor has it stopped us from doing what we want to do or being where we want to be. Sometimes by making a poor choice it teaches us valuable life lessons and we value those end results and the right choice that much more because of it. Some people feel as though those types of life lessons make us stronger, more determined people and I am not one to argue with that. One or two wrong steps can also help you make your way to the right end result so not every choice is an end all choice. Choices we make each day lead us to an end result and everyone has the choice to take the right steps in their life. In order to do that we have to look at ourselves and take time in our decisions. Use your sense of pride, use integrity, use morals and values, use your discipline and self control, and use honesty. Use these things to help make your decisions and in the end...no matter how long your road is...no matter where it has taken you...I am willing to bet that you will not look back and tell yourself that was a poor choice or the wrong step.
B