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This work by Sean A. Donahue is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Friends

Guest Post : “I Saw a Witch On Her Broom.”

I thought growing up in West Texas, I knew what windy was.  Houstonians gripe about 15 miles per hour being windy.  Sean and I have played golf in 45 mile per hour winds from the north trying to finish 18 holes before the rain shows up.  Wind does not bother me.  I have been in the middle of dust storms that look like the scene from the Mummy where the plane gets knocked out of the sky.  I have seen sand turn 3pm into midnight.  I thought I knew windy.  Brother, let me tell you something.  Geraldo Riveria standing out in a storm reporting makes it look easy.  Hurricanes blow, literally.  The eye of Ike was about 60 miles across at landfall, but it diminished somewhat, but 75 miles inland, we had lower level hurricane winds, (75+ miles per hour) for a couple of hours, and then high level tropical storm winds for several hours more.  All in all we had high winds for about 9 to 10 hours.  The worst of the storm blew over by noon on the 13th, but heavy rain and wind was still flowing out of the system.  Once the data was out, Ike’s eye passed about 20 miles to the east of our area.  I saw stuff flying around the neighborhood, that I had no idea was aerodynamically sound.  I even saw the Wicked Witch of the East on her broom, whom Sean has met.  Read more…

A part of me is gone…

When I came to Lubbock in 1992 I had dreams and hopes of getting that elusive degree. I spent he first two and 1/2 years in the dorms. My first stint was with my roommate Larry at the ORIGINAL non air-conditioned Carpenter Hall. We spent a week in August in that hell hole playing Madden.  Larry was good enough to play with one hand. We had all the game systems in our dorm and our dorm room was the home of various contests, all with Larry winning while we all tried to catch up to his excellence.

From there Larry and I moved over to Murdough Hall, which had air-conditioning, a key during the 100 degree days in August.  The only room that they had available was a room on the “Intensive Study Floor” on the seventh floor.  What the hell we said, because anything was better than the sweat that was pouring down our faces at Carpenter.

We headed over to the floor, moving our stuff, with the intent of finding people, horribly stuffy people that we would have nothing in common with.

Au Contraire my friends, we found fun “off” people who seemed to march to the beat of a different drummer. That’s what Larry and I were looking for.

One weeknight Larry and I were walking by to see some friends on the third floor when we passed a room with a man sitting in a hammock in a bathrobe watching baseball.  I could tell more but that’s a Mitch story for another day, the point of this story was after a crushing defeat (9-5 ) for Hall Council President by a girl who will only to be referred to as perky “I’ll show you my tits for your vote in hall council” Lisa, I decided that I was going to move off Tech property.

And so I did, I moved away to The Intern, a property at 4th and Indiana.  It was such a nice place (sarcasm thick isn’t it?).  And such good memories were had there.  When we couldn’t get student tickets for A&M @ Tech, we watched the Pay Per View at my apartment.  Christy became my psuedo-roommate so I could get cable so she could watch her soaps while I was at class.

Or the adventure of watching it dust storm, followed by mud storm, rain storm , hail, more wind, and snow… all in the matter of thirty minutes. I watched the storms come in at the Intern.

My dad listened to me get on the radio from the Intern, I proposed to my ex-wife Angela at The Intern. My friend Mitchell, got an apartment at The Intern, during the dark days that aren’t mentioned.  I was Mitchell’s wing man at the Intern.  West LA anyone? Ah the memories.

But then this year the “Marsha Sharp Freeway to Nowhere” (tm 2008 Donahue.org) project caused people to rethink that area and it was torn down to be rebuilt in a gaudier and more expensive fashion to overcharge students for close housing to Tech.

But in a way, I am glad.  That portion of my life had to be torn down.  And rebuilt.

So goodbye Intern.  Hello future.

Random Thoughts

I have to be blessed with the coolest, sweetest friends.

They just live way far away from me.

But I’m about ready to meet two of them for lunch here in the Hub. I can almost always count on Dalby for anything.

***Pagerank Smagerank***

My PageRank according to my friends have gone down on Google, but I’ve pretty well have written off
Google as well as Internet Explorer. My browser of choice is now and probably forever will be Firefox. I listened to my SEO advisor and see what that got me. I’m probably going to take down soem of the superflorous ads and just never look at IE again.

Life blog down from a 5 to a 3. Poker Blog from a 4 to a 3. Hmm. Fuck em and feed em fishsticks.

***Continuing of life changes***

Mom is coming in to inspect the damage that I have done and approve tile selection. I tried to get Dad up here so we can do some painting, but he is “busy working on projects”. His loss. Mom and I will go out to eat on him!

We’re going to meet my friend Jeff Krueger from Carpet Solutions and he going to help us get tile at a reasonable rate. I really don’t care about what it looks like except no burnt orange or maroon. Those are automatic vetos.

***Writing ***
I’ve been writing offline just jotting down ideas and concepts for new books and short stories. I’ve found my best stories come from sitting and just watching the world around me. Damon and I saw a fight of a boyfriend and girlfriend out in the parking lot of the Cotton Patch Cafe and without a beat I just started to tell Damon what they were saying even though we were across the street inside Chick-Fil-A. It’s just something I do. Sometimes it works, sometimes in the words of Surflexus… I’ve got nothing. BUt Pushmonkey72 has sent me some books to help my character development process along.

***McG better watch out***
Last night I worked with some software to put some of the photos and movies I took from Okie-Vegas and The 2008 Ferlin Husky Memorial Drinking Festival together. Still working on just making it look good. Nothing to note as of yet, but it is good to try and develop skills and talents I’ve never tried before.

*** A special note to Bam-Bam ***
1. Because you live in Canada.
2. Your heart is always in the right place.
3. Because you’ve found the true love in your life and you spoil her.
4. You never give up.
5. Just Because.

Thanks

***On the movie kick***
I’ve seen Hancock, Hellboy, Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Batman in the last two weeks. I go through these kicks where I just want to sit and watch movies and be told a story. Then I’m off to not watch a movie for 10 months. Weird huh?

***Kids***
I’ve come to the conclusion that it is too late to move to Indiana to be “Daddoo” in the sense that the kids have grown past certain things. However I’ve come to the conclusion that I will be changing the things that we do when I go and see them or when they see me. Thus more science museums for Shelby (who can’t get enough science) and more parks and baseball games for Ryan. Also I am going to work and find ways to get Shelby to come see me and give her some one on one time with Daddy with Ryan starting when he can fly by himself.

***Misc***
Finances Have been tight lately as I finally paid off another bill and I am investing into paying off the house.
I’ve been reading an Andrew Tobias book before I goto sleep at night and I see the mistakes I have made in the past.

I’m trying to improve myself and my surroundings. Thus I am going on a kick of pruning my possessions. If I haven’t used it in six months or have no desire to give it to the kids will be either sold, donated or thrown away.

***Final Thoughts***

I’m changing, and it is slow. But I see the mistakes I have made and I see that some of the five things that my friend told me are true. I just have to make the changes to fix what I can. I’m opening up in some areas while shutting others down.

Before I took care of others before me because I thought that in the end I would be taken care of by others. That was a mistake on my part. Now I take care of myself first in the pursuit of helping others. That way we are BOTH covered.

Lunch with friends, working out tonight trying to bike another 10 miles on my way to biking a marathon.

sd

Good Behavior…

Now for the record, Amanda volunteered to help me. No one else in the hub city has been able to so I appreciated her taking her anger out on the tack strips removing them from the entire hall and living room area. We are not dating, and as a matter of fact she then did the best and worst thing I could have heard on that day. My five best and worst parts of me. It was way easier for her to list the things that she didn't like about me rather than the five things she liked about me. I sat and listened to it all, not gritting my teeth, even asking her how I could improve myself.

Read more...

Grey clouds in my heart…

The past is such a fickle thing. It gives you hope for the future and yet reminds you not to forget it or you'll be doomed to repeat it. She told me tonight that her next relationship would be not even with a male. Perhaps a female. It didn't matter what she said. All I heard was just not you. We have a limited time on this earth and now I am not chasing, but grasping for experiences and those I would have never chased before. Last year, at this time, I took a gamble, which made me into such a better rounded person. I found new friends, new acquaintances and new people who hate me. Lucky me. For the changes that I have made have opened my eyes to a new world, a new life. For it are the experiences that are priceless, not anything that we can buy or sell.

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