So tired...

So tired of being sick.

So tired of owning a million video games and not liking any of them.

So tired of 50 hr work weeks.

So tired of not spending all my time with Jill and Lucille.

So tired of drama.

So tired of sports.

So tired of being tired.

So tired of hurting. Rest in Peace Grandma Pearson.

Spelling and Grammar

I know that I am not the best speller. I know that my grammar leaves much to be desired. I write like we are having a conversation, not like you are reading an article. However should my spelling ever be missed by spellcheck, or I use the incorrect version of "then" or "than", or I use too many commas, or I use "quotes" incorrectly, you can just keep that to yourself. This isn't homework, nor do I care for perfection. This is just an outlet for my thoughts.

Rant over...

3/24/11

I had a great time in Virginia. Seeing Brian is always great, plus meeting Isaac and Krystal was sweet. Krystal is a good fit for Brian and her family is really nice! Really need to go back soon and visit them all. Plus, we need more then one day to spend in D.C. That place is awesome!

Haven't really done much since I've been home. Just tons of working and dealing with a sick Lucille. Poor little lady caught her very first cold. She's doing ok. She's still smiling and talking to me, but her little cough and red eyes breaks my heart. I hope it goes away fast.

We also bought Lucille a rocking swing. It has a mirror on the mobile and she just loves it. Best baby investment yet. It's safe to say she maybe a tad spoiled.

In sad news Jill and I are looking at giving our cats away. We love our kitties. Jill especially loves her Ruben! But they just get all over Lucy's stuff and get hair, litter, and all sorts of gross cat stuff everywhere. We think Lucy has allergies too, which isn't helping with her cold, so to make our baby more comfortable we are prepared to give our cats to a new loving home. But we're going to be picky on who we choose, if we do at all.

The wasted talent of Jeff Hardy

I just returned from vacation, so I have plenty to type about my trip. However, since this is a blog about my ranting, I feel the need to write about this topic. For those who don't care about wrestling or anything I write that isn't baby related, I suggest you skip this one...

I'm jumping into this story under the impression you know who Jeff Hardy is. If you don't, you can click HERE for his bio. In any event he is a pro wrestler who is best known for his time in the WWE, but now wrestles for TNA.

Jeff Hardy is sick. He's been battling a drug addiction for years. It got him fired from the WWE in 2003 due to his refusal to enter a rehab program. After working for a couple years in the Indy scene and in TNA, Jeff made his return to WWE tv in 2006. Hardy appeared to have cleaned up his act and was quickly given the role of a top talent.

Hardy returned and very quickly won the WWE's Intercontinental title from Umaga. He then suddenly dropped the title to Chris Jericho. Turns out Hardy already failed a drug test and was suspended for 60 days and had his spot at WrestleMania pulled. After returning from suspension the crowd was behind Jeff Hardy. He would get some of the loudest ovations every night. The WWE saw $$$. Jeff had always been a midcard guy, but was never a main event player in his first run with the company. Then the WWE decided to give him the "push" and made him a WWE Champion 3 times.

Jeff is a rare performer in today's wrestling shows as he is loved by children, women, and male fans. He has never been a good talker, but his in ring skill, look, and death defying moves made him a top face. As Champion he faced the WWE's top guys. But trouble seemed to follow Hardy as did nagging injuries. He was even placed in a story line with CM Punk, who despite all the fakeness of pro wrestling, is a real life Straight Edge member.

The story lines blurred the line between reality and fiction of Hardy's life. Punk mocked Hardy for his choices in life. He brought up the suspensions, his release in 2003, the drug use and called him a bad role model. He said all the parents that allowed their children to wear Hardy t-shirts were poor parents. The battled resulted in a loser gets fired match. Punk won and the WWE let Hardy go, again.

Right after his release Hardy was soon arrested for drug trafficking. This however, did not stop TNA from picking up Jeff Hardy as a performer. They've made him a Champion and have turned him heel since the fans had been souring on him and his routine. Hardy has been dealing with these drug charges and is still going to court over them. He has been putting up videos on his website drugged out of his mind, along with his brother Matt, that has the people around him concerned about his well being. But like the poorly run company TNA is, they've done nothing to intervene. That is, until Victory Road 2011 happened.

Hardy was booked to wrestle Sting in the shows main event. Problem was Hardy was drugged out of his mind. When they finally found him in the bathroom, blacked out on the floor, they rushed him out to perform. He staggered on his way to the ring and you could tell something was wrong. TNA sent out Eric Bischoff to check Hardy's condition in the ring. Bischoff paraded around the ring to give Hardy more time to come around, but he was too far gone. Hardy teased throwing his shirt in the crowd for a long time, trying to give himself time to come around.

Wrestling is fake, we all know that. It's more like a dance, were it needs two performers to pull it off. There was no way a match was going to happen. So after a long introduction they started the match. After one kick, and two punches Sting did his finishing move and then he put all of his weight on Hardy's shoulder to pin him in seconds. You can see a visibly confused Hardy upset that they ended the match like that. It made his character look weak. But you can't blame Sting. Hardy, in his condition, could have hurt Sting being as impaired as he was. If you watch the video of the match you can see a pissed off Sting saying "I agree" as the fans chanted "BULLSHIT". Watch the video and tell me what you think.

Hardy has since been suspended from TNA. He maybe going to prison for his drug charges. It's a sad sight to see a man who is giving away everything because of drugs. Here is hoping that one day Jeff can kick this habit before he dies young like so many other wrestlers have.

Here is an article by former WCW announcer Mark Madden. It sums up how I feel about this situation.

Almost off to DC

Today we are making the drive from Virginia Beach to Washington DC. It's about a 3 1/2 - 4 hour car ride. I've never been to DC, nor has anyone else in our party, so we're all excited. I think I may just be excited a little more. I woke up today at 5:30am, which thanks to daylight savings starting today and being on eastern time, is more like 2:30am to me. But nevertheless, I feel great. Everyone else, not so much. Let's hope for any easy car ride that the rest can sleep on. As for me, I'm as excited as a fat kid in a cookie shop! MMmmmm.....cookies......

Planes, No Trains, and an Automobile

Here I sit in Virginia Beach at my brother's home. Jill is feeding Lucy on the couch, and Brian is teaching Isaac how to play baseball. It's been a fun day hanging out with my brother. But today's blog is about how I got to this moment, so let me start the story at 2pm mountain time yesterday, in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Brian Armstrong and Rachel Creed were very nice and took Jill an I to the airport. Well, actually I drove, but they came with to take my car back home. They are also watching my pets while I am out. I owe them. They get stuck with my smelly pets often. Anyhow, they dropped us off at the airport and our travel day had just started.

I wasn't nervous about the idea of traveling with a two month old. That is, until I walked into the airport. Then it all hit me. Will she behave? Will people get pissy if she is crying? Will she get sick? Will her ears hurt? My head was spinning. But checking in was fairly easy and we got to go through a family line through security and bypassed about 200 people. Waiting for the plane was easy too. Lucy just hung out while Jill and I ate some lunch.

We flew Southwest and if you've flown with them before, you know that its open seating. The thought of getting on the plane and not having a seat next to Jill and my baby got me worried too. But luckily they have family boarding halfway through the boarding process, so we got on easily.

Jill had Lucy drinking from her bottle or using her binky during takeoff and landings to make sure Lucy's ears would pop. In doing so Lu didn't make a sound on either take off or landing (we had a quick layover in Chicago). She did however look very frightened at takeoff, her eyes were opened as wide as possible. But on both flights Lucy didn't act up, at all. Not once. She was so calm. Many passengers and flight attendants mentioned how cute and well behaved she is. I was a proud poppa!

When we arrived to the common area of the airport Uncle Brian was waiting. He saw us walking towards him and he was beaming. He looked at Lucy and said "you know what's wrong with this picture? I'm not holding her". He grabbed Lucy and his smile was a mile wide.

By this time it was midnight, eastern time. Jill and I were tired, especially Jill since she held the baby 90% of the day. We had Brian stop at Wendy's, since Jill and I hadn't eaten since that sandwich at 2pm back in Salt Lake. We ate our grub and visited with Brian until about 2am. When we tried to put Lucy to bed she had her first breakdown. She freaked out and screamed the loudest I have heard her. For about 3 minutes. Then she was out cold. Poor baby was worn out.

And here we are today. Just hanging out. We've played some fast pitch baseball and did some shopping on the Naval base. Today has been calm and relaxing. Little Lucy has been so happy. Life couldn't get any better! I am so glad to be out here in Virginia with Lucy and Jillian. I've finally met Crystal, Brian's fiance, and her son, Isaac. This is pretty sweet indeed. We have whole lot of plans of doing nothing, that is until we go to D.C. Sunday morning! But for now, I'm just enjoying my family.

Should I grow it back?

Check out these photos from a blog I wrote in 2009. Should I grow the mullet again (it's not a true mullet), or keep it short?

http://rantsofafatkid.blogspot.com/2009/02/as-mullet-grows.html

Happiness is...

...waking up in the morning to your little girl smiling at you.

3/4/11 Daily Update

I made it the entire month of February without any fast food. My goal was for one month only and I did it. To celebrate doing somethings so healthy for myself, I naturally decided to do something unhealthy. I ate fast food. Jill and I went out to dinner at Five Guys. If you've never had Five Guys, I suggest you try it. Probably the best burger out there. The plan was for a one night celebration and then back to a healthier diet. I'm not going to keep a timetable on when I'll eat fast food again, it just won't be too frequent. Gotta keep things in moderation.

My dear baby Lucille is now two months old. She is such a good baby, even though I tease her and Jill that she's a little booger. I only tease that because when you try to feed her she covers her face with her hands and blocks the bottle. She then cries because she's starving, but fights you and the bottle. It's actually quite funny.

Bad part about being two months old is the immunizations. As a 30 year old man, I fear needles. I can't imagine what an innocent little baby must think as she is staring lovingly into her mothers eyes, only to have a huge needle stabbed (3 times) into her cute, chunky thighs. Jill said other then the tears (both of them) that it went well. Baby is at a healthy weight and length. Only thing she needs to work on is her neck muscles on one side. She always turns her head one direction, so on side is stronger than the other. Other then that, our baby is perfect!

I went to the Utah Jazz VS Denver Nuggets game last night. My friend Andrew took me on a man date. Actually, Andrews brother, Brandon, took us. He has access to a suite and we watched the game from there. It was actually a very close game, and the Jazz lost on some shenanigans on the last play of the night. Worst part was of it was that Brandon and Andrew are Denver fans and I had to watch them enjoy the win!

Only a few more days until we head off for Virginia for our little vacation. Uncle Brian is very excited to meet his niece. I'm very excited to get away from Smith's and to have sometime away. Maybe I'll bump into Obama and I can tell him to keep his head up. What he's doing now, or not doing now, is still better then what George W. was up to...

Family Matters

My baby is almost 2 months old. Pretty crazy how much time flies. In a week I'll be going to Virginia so baby Lu can meet her Uncle Brian in person. Family is such an important part of growing up, I want her to feel as much love as possible from all her relatives.

Growing up my Mom and her parents were my world. They made my childhood one that was full of love, happiness, and great memories. It hurts so bad that she'll never know any of them as they all have passed on. I want her to grow up and feel the love that I did and I know she will with Jill's family, but I worry about her relationship with mine.

Now she does get lots of love from my brothers and sister, along with her great aunts and uncles. My Grandpa John and Grandma Kathy made the trip out to the hospital to see her right after she was born. But she has never met my father, his wife, or her kids. My dad did come visit Jill and I right after Lucy was born at the hospital, but he was sick and couldn't meet Lucy. Since then he has had some surgeries and whatnot, but he still hasn't met her. His wife and her kids have made no attempt. They have decided to not have anything to do with me or my family because they THINK I hate her.

I lived with my dad and his wife for 2 years. That is all. I moved out before I was 18. We bumped heads quite a bit when I lived with them, but we actually had a pretty great relationship after I moved out, or so I thought. She's made it pretty clear that she's always had a problem with me and she thinks I'm a bad person. I could go in to some detail on our conflicts and why this is so absurd, but I won't. I don't want to throw her or my family under the bus, I still have hope to fix things.

I just can't understand why they would choose not to have anything to do with Lucy. She is such a wonderful little person, and I really want her to have them in her life. She will need her grandparents and I don't want her to grow up without them. I just hope time will heal all wounds, real or made up. I hope that one day they will understand that I love all of them, and I truly believe that family is the most important part of life.

To all of those out there that do show us love, I am so thankful for you. My Aunt Charlotte has been great to us and has taken on a grandparent role since my mother is gone. My Aunt Ruth has been so loving and I'm glad we've reconnected through facebook, of all things. I have nothing but great things to say about my Uncle Jeff, Aunt Jennifer, and my dear Aunt Suzie. They have shown me so much love over the past few years that I didn't know Mabey's were capable off. I love all of you dearly. Brian, Keven, and Sarah... I couldn't ask for better siblings. Thank you for everything!