Hooks Galore

Now that I am back in Corpus and ready to go, I am working once again with the Corpus Christi Hooks, AA Afiliated with the Houston Astros. I worked here last year with onfield entertainment and promotions and after a successful summer I was invited to come back and work in the office with sales. So I descided to take one more summer back home in South Texas and take the job.

But before that I had jury duty. Yes, jury duty, and it was aweful. I got back from the Roadtrip on Sunday and the next day was jury duty. It was, well, haha. The room was loaded with people. I got there early but still it was loaded with people. Then they told everyone who was feeling sick to come up to th efront and get signed off in case of the swine flue. So a few people went in. The dude standing next to me didnt want to be there either and after thinking for a while said the heck with it, and descided to go report sickness just to get out of it. Then I stood there for 3 hours waiting my name to be called as if I was in a concentration camp, waiting for my fate. Finnally I was called on the second chair of this jury. Then we got this peice of paper with a phone number to call in to find out about our case. Well thankfull when I called it at 5pm my case was cancelled! Thank God. Now I dont have to convince the attorneys to put me down!

That night I helped my dad take his stuff out of the office with carlos. Took forever but we got it all with the frame and everything in the suburban and into the office here in the house. Get this-- we loaded and unloaded the frate elevator and loaded the suburban in less than 20 minutes and then unloaded it in 8. Now that's efficiency. 2 of the boxes weighed 60lbs plus. And I I didn't bring my boxes fat I used to ship from Michigan we would have been screwed. So that worked out.

But then the Hooks started and I worked and worked. I lost one of my positions but was given another one. So currently I work in sales and with sponsorship promotions. So it is a lot of work, a lot of hours in the office and in the humid air but I am enjoying my time so far. Its good to see old faces and fun to meet to the new ones!

First Saturday off in forever. Slept in alleluia. Dag holes for plants in the morning. Read 100 plus pages to finish Cinderella man. I really enjoys that last section. Man I love boxing and I love joe louis. Then went to play tennis with mama papa an skunk. Won the match 6-3, 6-4. The second set we were down 3-0 and won 4 strait. We would have won the fith strait as well but in duece skunk hit it out but it hit the score cards and bounced back in. Since it is attaché to the court it technically counts and they won two points to win the game. But I won my serve and gallantly defended against papa's massive serve to win the set and match.

Then we went I heb plus an got parties and brawlrths and glory road on blue ray. Cinderella man comes out on blue ray in 3 weeks so we are gonna wait on that. I had some problems setting up the ps3 into high def an when all hope was fading carlos fixed some settings and it worked. We watche the movie and it was very fast pace. Kinda scrible over the characters; no character development. Apparently they scribbled over a lot of facts of the true story but at the end I really liked it and man I can see myself coaching after that one. Lately I have been thinking of that dramatic comeback I made coaching after coach long got liked out and how much fun I had leading the team as a coach on the side lines. I can see myself doing it. Anyhow it was very cool and I want to buy that book and read it during the summer.

Saturday the 16th sucked. And let me tell you why. I got up late and tired. I ate with Ed and made some sandwithces. At 12:50 I try to leave and the bmer wasn't working. The engine wouldn't even attempt to start. So I had to wait for carlos to come get me. I had to do the prize wheel with katylin. Its liek this spin wheel. YOu pay $1 and get to spin with a guaranteed prize, and most of these prizes are pretty good, which is insentive for people to come over and over again. It took a lot of preperation. Almost all of the day. Then there was fear of rain. Then we opened the gates at 5:20 with 2000 people oustise ready for the camo replica jersies and then there was us, on the prize wheel. Then they pulled out the tarp beforethe game and people were all ready waiting 45 minutes to play the wheel. So many people! Then tv wind was blowing insanely strongand everything was falling over of flying away. So we got moved to a corner where there was no wind. But people kept comming and comming because there was rain and no one knew when the game would start. Well they didnt and I was getting really dehidrated hungry tired and dizzy. But we kept going. Finally at 9:40 we are told that they will call the game and shortly after they said it on the PA and then we soon closed. We ran out of so many things and had to restok on so many things. Most nights we make between $150-250 dollars. $300+ is a really good night and those only come on Fridays or Saturday. The record is just over $500. Well, we made $704. No joke. We blew everything out of the water. We made so much! Cause there was nothin to do! But I was beat and had to wait for my mom to pick me up.

QUOTE of the WEEK:
Quote of skunk on 051709:
"I told you already, I am going to bench 480lbs. I already bench 115lbs and I'm 13. When I turn 15 I will be benching 180...with my eyes closed and making pethitos...with a closed grip...and one handed! Take that!!!" ...yeah, right....

Christmas Break

Well, it was really nice to fly home. But that was a story in and of itself. It was weds night. I studyied and studied and studied and I packed, then wrote and wrote and wrote. I had a philosopy assignment that was fiven on weds that was due thursday morning as my final. That was annoying as well.

For some reason my professor was really weird, He gave us back the previous midterm just that monday. So I went to office hours 2 times, monday and tuesday, and was there for a combined 2 hours before I would have to leave without getting any help because I had basketball practice. So finally I get in weds after waiting 40 mintues. And yes, I had an appointment every time, its jsut that he is so disorganized and takes forever to do anything. So I studied weds morning, went to office hours, stayed to about half of the practice, and on my way back got a call from my football buddy. He was working on his philosopy paper with the other football player and wanted to know if I wanted to join. I was so happy that they called me and kinda lucky cause I had completely forgotten about the assignment. So I went over and worked on it from 6pm to 2am. I did some packing in between.

I will tell you what...that walk, that short walk from south quad to angell hall took so long. I was like falling over I was so tired. I felt aweful, beyond aweful. It was the morning of the 18th, 2 in the morning, and I had been up to this since the first of December, and I felt aweful. Baaaa. Its true that if you are up 24 hours that you begin to act as if you are legaly intoxicated. Well, I had not done that, but the bind and grind of 18 days was way over due on me and I could hardly walk, less much stand strait without sleeping. But it felt good to drop that last paper in the drop box in angell hall.

The next morning was terrible...yet beautiful at the same time. I felt beyond aweful. I had worked so hard for so long and still everything was going down hill and I knew with all the work I had put into everything I still would not do that good in my grades. I haddnet slept any. I had eaten pretty badly. My workouts werent that good. I had over studdied. I had consumed way too many energy drinks. And my body was sore and I had a hurt kneee. Yes, life was miserable...but I had one hope. All soon would be over, in 4 hours in fact, and then I could go home. Home sweet home. So I took a cold shower to wake up. I had a good breakfast and 2 energy drinks. I had a juiced rock star and a can of bawls. And yes, I was standing while studying that morning, just like I had been for the past few days. You see, when you are exsausted and your body is yearning and pleading for rest, your body will do anything in its power to attain that rest. Anytthing. So by sitting down, you are just asking for it. Its almost like lying down, except not. So by standing up, it makes it that much harder for your body to fall asleep. And on top of that, once you start to dose off, you will litterally fall. You dont know how many times I have caught myself halfway on a fall, but you know what? I also cause myself falling asleep. ChaChing! So yeah, I crambed some more of that good ´ol macro economics and walked to Lorche hall to take my last final with a can of Bawls in hand as my only wepon. I went in there, had my game face on, made a couple of prayers and I takled that thing...and that thing was hard.

Now, I dont understand it. I knew that the professor told us that he was making the test hard on purpose. I knew he said he wanted us to miss the questions and that he wanted us to fail. But saying something and actually doing something are two quite different things. I mean, a black sheep can think its white all it wants, but it wont do it any good. Obama can say he will change the economy for the better and then raise taxes all he wants and it wont do any good. Shaq can say he can make all those free throws when it counts and still miss them in the game and it wont help his team any more. Saying and doing are often quite different. But not for this first year Russian Calculas boring pitstained maniac macro economic professor. No, what he says, he means. And that test was freakin hard! Goodness gratious! I wish he was lying on this one! And so yeah...it was hard. But do you know what? I was done. Yes, I was done.




I walked out a defeated yet living hero, and I had just 2 hours before my bus left. So I went to a local Michigan apperal store that was about to go out of business to buy some shirts as christmas presents. And they hardly had anything. Just XXL and XXXL. And a few childrens shirts...and shirts for dogs, but nothing good. It was just in this huge pile of blaaa and fatness. But I made due. I did run into John, a dude in UCO that I had apperantly had told I would eat lunch with him that afternoon but completely forgot till I ran into him and he reminded me. I love when that happeneds. So I found some stuff at another shop, we ate, I packed the last of what I had, and then went out to the buss stop for my bus to Detroit Airport. I got on and it was the begginging of thankfully a very eventless trip back to Texas. The only annoying thing was that it cost me $40 and 2 philosophy books to send my luggage back home. But it was all good. Oh, and I did sit with the entire Michigan State Mens Basketball team from Detroit to Houston (which they ended up upsetting #5 Texas the following day). I talked some trash, told Coach Izzo to be ready for us February 10th, and talked spanish for 20 minutes strait with a dude from Mexico and crused back to Texas. My headphones where really nice. I liked them a lot and they worked perfect on the airport.

I landed in corpus and my brother christopher, my dad, and Casey and Arce were there to greet the tired yet joyful traveler back home. And after all that studying and staying up late and everything, you figured I would be strait to sleep in my own bed, right? No, I went to Arces House with Casey and my awaited PS3 that my brothers didnt know about and stayed up till 4 in the morning. But that night was a night in itself. I couldnt get the PS3 to work. So I thought I broke that. Then we broke a glass cup. THen we broke the couch. THen we broke the Xbox 360. Then the TV. It was aweful. So yeah. what a first night.

I finally was able to get the PS3 working. It was tight. I just had to adust the settings of the video. The PS3 for some reason makes you adust all types of settings. It wont work automatically, you have to find them out manually. I ended up getting a component cable so that we could see high def on the big screen tv once we got the bulb fixed. It looked sweet. We watched the "forgetting Marshals" Movie on it and it was really really cool. But the audio for some reason was not playing how we wanted. THe component cable went to the tv and the tv to the speakers, and for some reason that was not working so we just had sound come off of the tv itself, sub-par. We ended up getting a high end optical cable 3 days before I flew back and never watched anything with it, even though we tested and it sounded perfect.




Christmas day was fun. Midnight mass was alright, as this was the first year I havent played saxophone at midnight mass since 8th grade. But Christmas day was splended. I got the coolest 4 gifts too. Check this out...





1. The Dark Knight on Blue Ray
2. A Sweet Texas Style belt with a Big Belt Buckle
3. A Signed and framed Michael Jordan Jersey
4. A Rotten Black Banana Peel
...sweet isnt it? I forgot that I asked for a banana peel, but Christopher remembered and said it was a request he could not pass. Haha, they told me to open the box and feel it before looking at it, and I still did not remember about the banana, not even a few seconds afterward till it registered. Haha, it was sweet. Later we played some old school Texas backyard football in the warm weather and then later went to see the cousins out in far like hour Texas, haha. We hung out, played horseshoes, talked about how Texas footall is tied with Notre Dame and coming after Michigan, watched Christmas day NBA (Celtics-Lakers) and chilled with them eating loads of good Texas food. We love Texas here.





The next days were pretty chill. I finally finished my Max Schmeling/Joe Louis boing book...yes, it took me 4 months, ok? But I started my Jessie Owens and Adolf Hitler German Olymipcs books and finished in 1 week...thats right, 7 days. So there is hope for me.

New Years was a different animal. The 31st, Michigan was playing Wisconsin, so I invited some buds, including old school ACA buddie Mark Price, who plays ball for Wheaten University. Unfortunately, Michgian was doing pitiful and of course Arce and Casey were rooting for Wisconsin just to get me mad. The game was absolutely aweful, we had our first home loss, first loss to an unranked team, and our first conference loss all at the same time. But me and Casey and Arce hung out all night going places and having fun till 6:30 am. It was sweet, especially since I got up at 9:30 to go to church. It was a holy day of obligation for Mary, the mother of God. I said, Mary, I am glad you are really my mother; otherwize I would not have come.


The Second of January, a Friday, was my mom`s birthday. We went to B&Js. I hung out with Edy that day and I tried out one of his body building workouts and then we went to eat. We got a pizza full of meat. Well, I stay the night with ed, and we have a good time. I get up in the morning and he was pucking pepper like nuts since 8am. He got sick hard the next day too and accused my mom of trying to kill him (my mom has yet to make any statement upon the issue).





Then Sunday came. That evil Sunday. Not only do I have 2 days left, but trying to update my iPhone from firsmware 2.1 to 2.2, and rushing it in the process to go to church with my Dad, I completely bricked my phone. Bricked it hard core. Worse than last time. Much worse. This time, and I guess it is the new iTunes 8.0.8, it wont recognize the iphone unless it is activated, so there is no way to restore the phone. But when I go to restore mode and do it manually, I get error code 21. Stupid! I spent hours on it, 2 by my self in the after noon and like 4 with Edy that night. But it still didnt work. I worked and worked and no good. So now I am using a crappy phone that carlos butchered and have to go to Michigan like that. Haha, but thats how it happened. In an attempt to fix it with downgrading to a old iTunes, I killed my iTunes. Baaa...but that happens, right?

Another big news! I got a job! My summer job is lined up! How many other college sophmores already have a summer job? Anyhow, I worked with the Corpus Christi Hooks last year doing on field entertainment and promotions. You can see some past posts in may and june 08 posts about it. Well, the General Manager, Michael Wood wanted me to come back. I called him Monday, he told me come over, I got to see him and some new friends, met the new guy in charge of tickets and sales, and Michael Wood, was pretty much like, "Spenser, this is Daniel. He worked with us last summer and did an amazing job for us. You should hire him." Pretty much saying, dude, I am the GM; hire him. It was that easy. I got it. So I will be in Texas this summer once again, probobly for the last time, and I will be doing sales, predominately tickets, for the Corpus Christi Hooks. How bout that!

Besides that I played some basketball with some friends from high school and then flew up to Michigan on the 6th of January, a tuesday. I ran into some mexican soccer team that was going to LA to play a professional team and I talked to them a bit in spanish, but nothing much eventful. Got to Ann Arbor nice and ready (and rested from all that sleeping on the plane) and even went to UCO and had a blast in the after party. I am ready for this semester! Bring it on!

First week Back Home

Being back home is always weird. First off, it feels like you have never left or have only been away for maybe a few days. But in reality I was away from home for 4 months. This happened to me when I came home for the Christmas break too. But this time things are hot...very hot, and all my friends are still in school.

Monday morning I got up, excited for the day and my first day working for the hooks. I wanted to go work out but being sick kept me out of the gym. However, I was asked to go to the Hook's office early that day to see the park, meet everyone, and to get some office work done. So I got there at 10 am and I was able to meet everyone and check out the ballpark. I have been there before but this time I was able to see all the background stuff. Real cool and real simple. Then I went to clean and tape balls. We have this thing called Grande ball day. Grande is a cable provider down here. Once a monththey have this ball day. They sell baseballs for a dollar a piece. All the money goes to charity. After the game they put a bucket out on the field and everyone tries to throw the balls into the barrel. Whoever makes it into the barrel shares a $1500 dollar prize. So I had the joy of preparing the balls. First off I had to clean the balls used from the last time. Each ball had a four digit number on it. I had to copy that number on a ticket stub, and then tape that little ticket stub on the ball. That way whoever bought the ball would taire the stub off the ball and then throw the ball. Then the balls that landed in the barrel would have their numbers called and matched with the ticket stub. So I worked on that from 10:45 am to 3 pm. At 2 pm I had done 900 balls by myself before more people came to help.

Since I am ballpark entertainment, I usually will have to get there at 3pm. So at 3 I stopped doing balls and started with my daily duties. We hung posters of the sponsors of the day and put up the player score cards and did all the little things to get the game going in relation of us. At 5:30 we open gates and greet everyone in. At 6:30 we go nuts. We start going all over the stadium looking for people to do promotions. We send all the information up to the press box where our main man and the PA announcer are waiting for all the information. Then we carry on the game plan the entire night. We do everything, from asking questions to holding competitions to throwing out shirts to going out into the crowd and making cheers. My first day was so much fun. It was fun cause I was learning on the fly and because my job is just fun period. After the game we say bye to everyone, clean up our equipment, take down sponsor posters, talk abut the next day, and take off. I usually leave between 10:30-11pm. It was great.

The next morning I went to lift. I go to the Corpus Christi Athletic club. It was a hard workout. I forgot how much you sweat in this humidity in Corpus. Its ridiculous. It was a hard workout. Got other work done. Then went to work again. Got to the ballpark at 3pm. Did everything as usual and the game went on. This game went by real slow. The next thing you know it was the bottom of the 9th and we tied the game. And on we went to extra endings. 10th, 11th, 12th. We werejust cheering with the crowd, trying to keep them interested even though it was past midnight. We finally ended up having a fly ball to the left field getting through the player and bounced over the fence for a home run at the bottom of the 13th inning. It was a long game. We were lucky it was Grande ball day. All those balls I cleaned were sold the entire game. So people who bought the balls had to wait all those 13 innings to throw their balls. It really helped keep people in the stands. The ball time was great. balls from everywhere. Only 3 people made it into the barrel. Over a 1000 balls got their duty. I got back home like at 1:30 am.
You can read about the game here:
http://www.caller.com/news/2008/apr/23/cosbys-clutch-hit-lifts-hooks/

I was off for the last 2 homes games on Weds and Thursday. I like to put Weds cause I always mess up spelling wednesday. So I cheat. But anyhow, I had those days off. I ran for the first time back in Corpus on Weds. And man was it hard! So frustrating for 2 reasons: 1 it is super hot and humid here in Corpus. 2 I was out of shape b/c of being sick and not being able to do anything physical for a week. The combination was ugli! I was slow and dying from the heat. I went in the shower and had cold at full blast on my face and wrists trying to cool off and unsuccessful.

On saterday my brother had his high school formal. I graduated from Annapolis Christian Academy. I went to those formals in my days. They were alright. So we dropped him off and went to the boat show. We saw some cool cars, like porches, mazeraties, and a ton of yachts. We went to the end of the yachts and we saw this huge, 125 foot yacht. It was crazy big. Only really useful for parties, I would think. We were told they have had over 100 people on it before. The yacht had 12 rooms and took a 6 man cru to opperate. It used 50 gallons of petrol on cruse and 150 on top speed an hour. Some lawyer out of Galviston bought the 2000 year build yacht for $8.3 million dollars.


That was cool but not as cool as the yacht next to it. This 50 foot yacht was pimp. We were able to climb into it and go on the top part and sit down. It was so peaceful up there. We went down into the cabin and it was so cool. The captin's chair was like a thrown filled with cushions, dials and a nice wheel. There was a grill and a mini kitchen and 2 rooms and a bathroom too. The lounge area was surprisingly roomy. I can just see it now, get one of these suckers and put a plasma tv in the lounge area, invite friends over, so fishing or swim during the day, play cards on the top or play video games in the lounge, grill up some food, and chill for the night in whatever you can lay on. That would be so much fun. This boat was the coolest. Its price was over $1 million dollars, but the boat special brought it down to $959,000. Not bad, eh? Yeah right! But....if I ever did get the cash, I would try to buy one of these things at 70 feet and have a special compartment for my Lotus and a few bikes. Then me and Ed, my best friend/brother, would just cruse along the eastern bay, hanging out in the city in our Lotus and come hang out with new friends in the Yacht. It would be so much fun. Doubt that will ever happen, but hey, it would be cool. You have to admit.

We went to peir 99, a real good outdoor seafood place. Good stuff. Even though the Celtics somehow lost to the Hawks. That night I hung out with some friends at a lame bonfire at the beach. Yes, we have beaches here at Corpus. I got back home at 3 am. On sunday the suns and spurs played again. Now the 3rd game the spurs played perfect. Everything you want in a team they did. Parker was on fire, scoring a career high 41 points and added 12 assists in a 115-99 win over the Suns. The suns played their heart out, but when playing a great team who played perfect with a great coach (which Detroit doesnt have...), they are unstoppable. The suns had no luck for this perfect game to be #3. So the 4th game was on sunday afternoon and the Suns just took off. They had this big lead going into half time. The next thing I know my mom wakes me up at 5:15 telling me that mass was at 6. I was like, wow, I just missed the entire second half because I slept through this boring game on the couch. There was like 3 minutes left in the 4th before the Suns won a 105-86 game.

Shaq and Nash had no answer to Tony Parker going All-Star on them

After mass I went to my good friend's birthday party. Since I graduated, I was on the non-annapolis basketball team. I got on fire and was leading the scrappy, non-basketball playing squad against an all ACA Warrior basketball squad to a 21-6 game. We killed them. And they all play on the school team. And none of my guys did. Heck, they were all homeschoolers. And I am an old 19 year old guy fresh from his first year of college who played 6 years of varsity basketball and 5 years of varsity 6-man football and am now a basketball manager for the University of Michigan Men's Basketball team. And we killed them. Sweet, sweet victory.

So the week was good. First week back and a lot has happened. I am off from baseball till the 3rd of May, next saterday, when the team comes back from traveling. So I got the week off, and we will see what happens! Cheers -DP

End of school maham

Well Fokes....I was so busy these past 2 weeks that I didnt even have time to stop by and say hi! It was terrible! Work coming out of my nostrils and all other bodily openings! Its wasnt even funny! But alo, I am here now. And so we begin

School was nuts. My Movement Science 110 final was pretty good. Hard, but I got a B. Overall in the class I got a B. Thats great at Michigan. I studied a lot for my econ101 final. Of course I should have studied more, but I picked up some extra shifts on friday and saterday...I wont tell you how much I worked those days, but I will tell you that they were a lot. So of course when those days were gone, I killed my butt studying for econ101 all sunday, monday and tuesday. I worked and worked, and it seemed I was getting the concept down...and I really was, really, but then that blasted last exam came around tuesday night and the rest was history. It was so hard. I didnt know what was going on. It was definitely harder than the last exams covering the same material. There were 33 questions. 10 were true/false, and the rest were multiple choice. I had to guess on 6 of them, completely guess b/c I didnt know what the heck was going on. They would show you a graph of the marginal cost tell you the average total cost was at minimum, and expect you to advise the monopoly whether they should increase or decrease output, increase or decrease price, and that was if you said stay open in the first place! Baaa! So essentially I guessed 6/23, thats like freakin 25%! It was terrible! I wanted to kill someone! But I was too tired and brain dead to do so! I turned in my exam to my GSI and told her it was butt hard. She said it was surprisingly hard for her too...which tells you something....

After the exam that tuesday night I went strait to the St Mary end of year dance thingy. It rocked as usual. I went to the Christmas one and had a blast, and this one was swell as well (thats a rimmer!). At first I was so frustrated about the exam, so my friend Devon took me up stairs and we wrestled to get the frustration out. I beat him real fast, but it did a great job of getting that frustration out. I was going crazy in the dance again. My dancing skills have improved leaps and bounce since last year, no joke, really, like I can actually dance kinda now. You have to believe me (Arce and Casey). I have been working diligently to get some some, natural moves down, and I am at the level were I can just hit the floor and not worry about how undanceful I am any more. Good stuff

Weds they had a barbecue at my dorm, and when they do something like that at Bursley on North Campus, its a big deal, cause we have over 1000 students living there. So in stead of getting there when everyone else would, I went to lift and came back at the end, and there was still a huge line. But I played some football and stuff...you just had to stay out there cause the weather was so good! Finally Michigan turned sunny! Finally Ann Arbor came to its amazing spring self! I mean, sure the leaves were not out yet, but hey, the temperature was a perfect 72 degrees, with the sun out not too bright, with a smooth breeze, and I could go on and on, cause it was perfect. So I spent a little too much time with my friends, but it was worth it.

(Me and Marc, my buddy from Cameroon that lived right next to my room)

So I did finish classes and my last final on tuesday, the 15th of April. But I had 2 papers due at noon on friday. I also had to pack all my storage boxes and my boxes shipping back home for the 3-5 pick up on friday. So I was flying, trying to get through this paper as fast and as good as I could. I had the great idea of playing tennis with on of my buds there, Eugene, and we played out in the sun from 11:30 to 2pm. I lost the first set 6-2, it was pathetic. But I lead in the second match starting 2-0. We tied 2-2, then I lead 4-2, then we tied 6-6. We fought back and forth and then I finally lost 9-7. It was crap. SO close! It was my first game in ages. But the sun killed me as I always does, and Im not just talking about the sun burn. I got a massive head ache. It was terrible. I wanted to do nothing but sit around the rest of the day. But I had to work. And then I had to write my papers. I ended up taking an hour and 1/2 nap b/c everything felt so weak. Then I wrote some more and more until I finished at 2:30 am. Then Eugine came back to taunt me cause he beat me and b/c I looked so tired and weak and he only needs 3 hrs of nap time a day. And with that I began to clean! And Pack! and Clean! And then I died at 5:30. I got up at 7, packed a little more, then took a 1/2 hr nap, packed packed packed, and then I left at 10:30 to go to my meeting. I dropped of my 2 papers and went to my meeting at cottage inn with the St Mary NCSA (Newman Church Student Association). Then I went back, packed like a freak, cleaned and was done by 3:45, just like I needed to. I had 3 boxes for shipping, 2 of storage, 1 plastic container of storage, and a cleaned refrigerator for storage. I had way too much crap with me. After that, I went to drop off some stuff, picked up my suitcases from a friends house, and went to the Briarwood mall with Annika before she leaves forever back in Germany. I was lucky enough to borrow a friend of mine's car. Matt is awesome- just for the record. He wants to start his own gaming developing firm, so all you should buy the games he makes, cause he is a great guy. I will remind you guys in the future, so dont worry about it too much now. So I did all my errands, got back and packed my bags, or tried to squeeze everything that was left in those bags, and then died again. I was kinda sick cause of the sun/lack of sleep, so that night was not pleasant. But considering it was more than the last few days combined, it was nice. I was sleeping on a bare matrice cause everything was already shipped. I stole Pete's blanket, my roommate (no, pete is my roommate, not the blanket silly!) and that helped a little. I did wake up a few time drenched in sweat. I was sleeping in the same clothes I wore all day cause thats all I had. I got up that morning, tried to figure out what to do to sign out, and finally left with Miriam Torrez, my awesome Godmother who took me to the airport. This was the first time American Airlines has ever been good to me. I actually got to Corpus on Time and with all my luggage! A miracle indeed!

W3ll, being back in the hot, humid Coprus was strange, but kinda nice. My dad and two younger bros, Christopher (AKA Skunk...dont ask) and Michael (Aka Sumo/Mega Wario) were jumping up and down to greet me. Michael even had a shirt that said "MR. HAPPY" and had a smiley face on it, haha. We went back home to see my mom and Carlos (AKA HotDog), oh, and the dog (Pepper, the only other female in the house). My dad finally decided to complete his Texaness and bough a grill. He loves grilled food, he just doesnt like the smell afterwards on his clothes and hair (Weak Sauce!), but he finally got one. So we grilled and ate outside by the pool and fountain and chatted the night away. Then of course we watched basketball together. Thats kinda my imprint on the family. I love to watch NBA, especially the playoffs, and since the playoffs began this saterday, we watched some of the first few games to come. Those darn spurs! GRRRR! I give Tim Duncan credit, but looser Manu Ginobli had to make the game winner to lead the Spurs over the Suns by 2 points in double overtime. And then the rockets just flopped. It was ugli. We will see what happens in the future.

Ok guys, I think I have spoken long enough. I had a lot to fill you in. Upcoming is my first week in Texas, including my new job with the Corpus Christi Hooks, so we will see how that goes. Also, more playoff action ahead, and who knows what else! Adios! -DP