I Remember The First Time (24)

"You end up like a dog that's been beat too much, til you spend half your life just covering up..."
-Bruce Springsteen- (Born In The U.S.A.)

"Living In America..., eye to eye, station to station, living in America..., hand in hand, across the nation, living in America..., I got to have a celebration..., ROCK MY SOUL..."
-James Brown- (Living In America)

"Let freedom ring..., let the white dove sing..., let the whole world know that today is a day of reckoning..." -Martina McBride- (Let Freedom Ring)

"And they were singing, bye bye Miss American Pie, drove my Chevy to the levee, but the levee was dry, them good old boys were drinking whiskey and rye, singing this'll be the day that I die, this'll be the day that I die..." -Don McLean- (American Pie)

"And I gladly STAND UP, next to you, and defend her still today, 'cause there ain't no doubt, I love this land, God Bless the U.S.A..." -Lee Greenwood- (Proud To Be An American)



I remember the first time that I was curious...  Good morning everyone, and Happy Independence Day!  So yesterday after I posted a facebook status, it came up on my wall with that 'promote' tab as one of the options (Like, Share, Promote, etc...).  Out of curiosity, I clicked on 'promote'...  In case you've never done this yourself, you can get your facebook status put in a prominent place on your the walls of your friends for ONLY..., wait for it..., wait for it..., $6.99!  PFFFFTTT!!!  I don't know about you, but I don't have anything to say that is that important (which you already know, since you're reading my blog)...  ;)

I remember the first time that I talked about facebook again...  When I went to my personal page on facebook last night, it encouraged me to 'Complete Your Profile Places' (after signing up for facebook, I filled out EVERYTHING that I could, and later on the people at facebook decided to WIPE ALL OF THAT OUT, so I've refused to retype most of that information).  Anyway, the first prompt was 'Which City Do You Live In?'  This prompt was followed by possible choices, which was followed by the number of friends that I have who live in each place.  IN ORDER, my choices were:  San Marcos, Texas; Austin, Texas; and Las Vegas, Nevada...  I guess that I did a pretty good job when I renamed the blog, huh?...  ;)

I remember the first time that my attitude completely changed...  I went to H-E-B last night to pick up a few things because I didn't know if they would be open today, and the store was PACKED just before 9:00 p.m.  If you know me at all, you know that I HATE shopping at night for this reason.  EVERY FOOL WITH A CART was cutting in front of me, or SUDDENLY STOPPING for no reason...  As I was walking back to the front of the store, I walked past a "split aisle..."  Yes, I'll explain...  :)  There's half an aisle of goods, then a gap where you can see into the next aisle, and then more goods.  When I hit the gap, I thought that I saw somebody that I knew in front of me, but her back was turned toward me as she talked on her phone.  The odds that it was her were low, because I had seen on facebook when I woke up from a nap just before leaving to shop that she had been out with a friend an hour earlier.  From behind her (the other side of the goods from me) I heard a little girl calling out to her, so after a few more steps I turned back toward the voice.  From only having seen this cute little girl's photo on facebook previously, I realized that the person that I had seen was indeed my friend Monica, and that the girl was her daughter.  I walked over and gave Monica a hug, and while she resumed her phone conversation, I had NO SUCCESS in getting her handsome two year-old son to shake my hand...  After a few seconds, her beautiful five year-old girl comes down the aisle to ask Monica if she could get something (we were in the toy aisle - what are the odds?)...  :)  Monica said yes, and her girl went back to where she had been looking at toys.  When Monica got off of the phone, she grabbed a kid's fishing pole for her son while we talked, and in his excitement, he called out his sister's name, and said, "look..., a fishing pole!"  His older sister, who was still sorting through toys to find what she wanted to take home, shot back, "I don't wanna see it!...," and then turned back to the shelf of toys...  :)  I have a feeling that these two could keep me going all day long, and isn't it amazing how your attitude can change, just like that?...  ;)

I remember the first time that the rest of my stories switched to tales that I heard at my dad's bar this week...  As I have said already, my dad was working his last shifts at a bar during the past week, a bar that he has worked at for the past 34 years.  Tomorrow I will be writing a little bit about this...  In the meantime, I have a few stories for you...  Regarding ALL OF THE LEFTOVERS that I took home from his going away party, Steve (one of the bartenders who came in to work that shift) made this comment upon arriving at work:  "I was gonna have lunch and I thought..., WHY?...  :)

I remember the first time I realized where my sense of humor comes from...  The bar was getting busy before my dad's party began, so I answered an incoming call, and then handed the phone to my dad.  Debbie (the caller) was asking if the bar had any bowls.  This was Dad's response:  "Don't I ALWAYS have bowls?  I haven't quit yet baby..."  :)

I remember the first time that I mowed a lawn...  Our friend Steve (Mr. Hollis, a different Steve) was telling a story about mowing the grass at the house that he once rented from my dad (the house that I lived in when I was in the seventh grade, a fact which has no bearing on this story whatsoever...).  He might have been about five yards from the house when he suddenly heard a CRASH, and quickly realized that the mower had SHOT A ROCK through the sliding glass door, causing the whole thing to LOUDLY SHATTER!  Steve proceeded to go and pick up two replacement panes of glass.  He picked up a pane for the one that had shattered, and another that had never been there since he moved in.  The way that he told the story about it taking him AN HOUR to carry the glass from the front of the house to the back porch is HILARIOUS!  :)  He was moving the glass BY HIMSELF, and you know how heavy and awkward those doors are to carry, right?...  The best part is that he went to my dad's bar after installing the glass, where they proceeded to haggle over who should pay for the panes of glass (over SEVERAL drinks)...  :)  Okay, I won't keep you in suspense - each of them ended up paying for one of them, ALTHOUGH I thought that since Steve had installed them...  ANYWAY...  :)

I remember the first time that I never golfed during a hurricane...  The story that made me laugh the most over the past few days at the bar was the tale about the time that Steve (from the mowing story) and my dad were among a group of people who went out to Las Vegas to golf and gamble for a few days.  One day at Angel Park, they were part of a group of nineteen people that was out golfing on a windy day.  Okay..., windy...  When they returned to the casino that they were staying at, they learned that the winds had been gusting up to SEVENTY MILES AN HOUR!...  Okay..., windy...  They also learned after the round that McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas HAD BEEN CLOSED due to the high winds...  Now just sit back and imagine how much money the city loses when those passengers can't land and gamble away their money, yet the winds were strong enough that they decided to..., SHUT DOWN THE AIRPORT!!!  :O  Steve said that they were using DRIVERS on par three's and that they were NOT EVEN COMING CLOSE to hitting the greens...  :P

I hope that you have a VERY SAFE and HAPPY 4th of July, and I'll see you again tomorrow!