Since my last post, I went through with this marriage thing, and it is great.
I have been to two countries and six states. I found out that I am going to be moving to the bay area in three weeks.
For the honeymoon, we went to Niagara Falls. Very cool, especially since it was not the big tourist season and we got to do everything really quick. Met some cool people at a really small church in Buffalo and got to see where Buffalo Wings originated.
After that, we made the first of two driving trips from CA to TX. I am so thankful for planes. This first trip, we pulled my trailer back home and Deborah was having trouble getting motivated for the drive so I ended up driving most of the 26 hours straight through. Thankfully, on the second trip, she was back in travel mode and probably drove more than I did. The second trip, we had rain for 4 hours and fog for the next 4 hours...not fun. In the end, both trips were safe and successful.
Somewhere in there we went on a cruise to Mexico with both parental groups, her brother, my sister's fam, Ed and Linda Wise and my brother in law's family. It was a great time. We went to Chichen Itza. It was kind of a warm up trip for the real pyramids in a few months. I met this guy, Don Hart, who is working for National Geographic on an IMAX film of Chichen Itza (I googled him and he is actually Dr. Donald Hart, authority on Mayan culture). It was interesting to talk to him. We went parasailing in Cozumel at the request of Deborah's dad, Ron. Her brother fed the fish while I was in the air.
Saturday we drove from TX about 8:30 pm, went to morning service in Las Cruces and evening service in Phoenix with Liz, got back to CA around 1 am. Left for the airport at 5 am to fly to Oakland. Looked for houses for three days and found one that we really liked on the last day. The owner is actually trying to sell it, but is considering renting it. Originally, they had agreed to rent it, but now seem to be re-thinking it. While there are so many things more important to pray about, say a little prayer that this works out for us!!
While house hunting, the rental car got attacked by a wild turkey...yes it stood in front of us on the street and flared out his feathers, and then pecked the front tire...too funny.
In the city, after church Wed, we came up on a guy in the middle of the street. He was just laying there with two people standing next to him. I stopped and backed the car up to block him from oncoming traffic. I got out to see what had happened and realized he was bleeding heavily from the back of his head. He claims he was just walking and fell down. When the cops get there, he told them he had been drinking a little and smoked two cigarettes. He said that cigarettes always knock him out. When the paramedic gets there, he walks up and matter of fact like says, "Hey man, what are you doing down there?" This is only funny, because everyone else there is worried about the two streams of blood leaving this guy and going down the street gutter, but the medic is basically telling this guy to get up and quit faking it.
Thursday we get back to LA and drive to Las Vegas to see the blue man group. Deborah has been on me for a year to see these guys, but I kept putting it off. As a reward for her patience, I got her the spin art the guys did during the show.
We drove back to LA after watching the fountains at Bellagio
for a while and got back around 3 am. Once again, Deborah did not feel like driving, so I made the trip home while she slept. Went to work for a half day on Friday and hit Fashion Island (a mall) in Newport Beach last nite. Needless to say, I slept till 2:30 this afternoon.
Sorry for the marathon post and hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!! We are taking reservations for people to stay with us the next year and a half in San Fran.
in a lame attempt to justify myself a bit, I didn't consciously tell him I didn't feel like driving. He said he asked me a couple times if I could drive bc he was getting sleepy and I told him no (apparently one time, rather rudely) but I have absolutely NO recollection of that conversation! sorry J!
LOL! I really don't know how y'all keep so busy! I'm tired just thinking about all of the fun you've been having! I think it's great though that y'all are able to do so much! Good luck with the house.
Sounds like your trips were pretty eventful!!! Where did you attend church in Las Cruces? We lived there before we moved to TX...I know Deb knows that.
Wow... That is some post! I stand by my pronouncement that you and Deborah are the most random couple I know and that you never sleep! Well, apparently Deborah sleeps while you drive!
now that is creepy! ;) so glad i got to see you guys 2 more times this year even if it was just for a church service and dinner! :) did you find a house?
awe, that's such a pretty ring! did you have help picking it out? Congratulations; I'm so glad this wasn't another bogus attempt like your last entry! lol
I saw a few wedding pictures on blogs. What a beautiful bride Deborah made! Congratulations on motivating her to get plans together in such a short amount of time...haha! You married into a wonderful family.
Congratulations!
to this being one of her best birthdays ever, Deborah that is. I felt bad for not actually giving her anything, but she still loved it. Of course, I am going to give her a couple of things, but she has to pick out the details. Mainly, some shades for these sunny Cali days. I did take her out to eat like 3006 times, but each one was fun. In Texas, we hit the Cheesecake Factory (which originated in LA) with her cuz Brad and Lydia. They are so much fun! Then on her actual day of birth, she helped her grandma cook for a few people from good ole P&L. That Bell bloodline really knows how to throw down on the grub. Then that night we hit Carino's with some of the P&L posse and Jennifer D. Then last night we stopped by Laguna Beach to watch the sunset and eat at Las Brisas, which is a nice little Mexican place on the water (I love places that refill your drink after every other drink). That was fun because I was unable to break from D and tell them it was her birthday, so I had to use the "bathroom" excuse and tell the host. He grabbed somebody to follow me to my table all incognito like so that she would not be wise that something was up. Shortly after we finished eating, they brought her a chocolate mousse thingie all artsy looking with a candle and even gave her a card. Very nice! She will have to post the pics, because I have not taken the time to learn how.
This is kind of weak as far as exciting stories go, but it made me laugh. Anyway, on our last trip home, we saw a classic Southwest customer upset that the line was forming somewhere other than where he was standing.
At the Orange County airport, which is actually the Santa Ana airport, but all the freeway signs call it John Wayne International, anyway the name is not important, they have chairs lining the A, B, and C lines. Apparently all the rich people are too lazy to stand! I think that it is common knowledge that the line is formed by the people standing, regardless of whether there are chairs or not. It is, however, usually acceptable to join the line in front of your chair when it is time to leave. Unfortunately, during these days of summer travel, you get a lot of people flying that don't usually do so, and think they can change the way it works. I mean they think that because they have a chair, the line should start behind them. Do they realize that if we do that the lines would be 3 miles long? I will stop ranting and get back to my story.
Back to the point. There was this guy that had been sitting in a chair and suddenly realized that people were lining up in front of him. I, of course, was one of those people. I mean a saw this girl forming a line through the break in chairs and I got behind her. We even joked that somebody would blow up on us, but it would give us something to laugh at. Sure enough, this guy walks up and starts telling the guy next to us that he had been in line for over two hours and if everybody else was going to cut, then he was to. He then proceeded to tell the guy, who was absolutely uninterested, about how he had been at the airport since 11 in the morning for what I believe was a 5:40 flight. He had spent the first like four hours at the wrong gate and was upset that Southwest moved it. All I could say was that I was glad that I was not that guy. The girl in front of me laughed and agreed that she did not feel the least bit guilty for not paying her dues as this guy had. Anyway, he slowly made his way to the front telling everyone on the way his story. After all that, did he take the emergency row? No, instead he sat on like row three with preboarded kids all around him (and was already telling everyone in earshot his story)!! Now I have held everyone reading this to the same torture...I apologize.
Another Southwest trick I have found is to not avoid making eye contact with everyone so that they will not sit by you, but instead glance and smile at the nice looking people. Don't be a wierd freak about it, but this may improve your chances of not getting stuck next to scary people.
All in all, I must say that I love Southwest, because Deborah flies for free with me!! I have a the most coomfortable pillow on the plane!! Companion passes rock!!
here's what drives me SO CRAZY! (even though I feel pressured into doing it) --when people start lining up an hour before it's even boarding time-- don't they know that they are gonna have to be standing up FOREVER??!! why can't we all just suddenly line up about 10 min. before boarding time and make it kind of a race?! HAAAAAAAAAA
I LOVED watching Airline when it was on A&E, but I would NEVER want to be a customer service rep for SW! esp. when they have to tell huge people they need an extra seat, or stinky people that they have BO and can't get on the flight!
Your story is lacking in some details such as... was the girl you were talking to hot? And if so, why didn't you tell her about your good friend in Tx?
I have found that if you put your carry on in the isle seat, then stand there and act like your doing something (putting stuff away) you can avoid having someone sit next to you.
Hi, jdub. I don't quite know who you are by just jdub, and withoug a pic on your weblog, I am at a loss. Please ID your self =0). In the mean while, enjoy a clip from YouTube: Spy vs. Spy.
here is a list of reasons why deb is the best girlfriend
she can cook (burnt bread and curdled cheese soup)
she can clean (everything made nasty by her three hundred foot long pieces of hair, it was four hundred feet, but she burned it in a candle)
she smells like flowers all the time (sometimes it is the Titan Arum)
she is very fashion conscious (especially when it comes to green rugs that are no longer rugs because someone cut a hole in the middle and put it in a resale shop)
she is not addicted to networking websites (I mean Pleo and Myspace should not count, right)
In case you do not know me, I kid.
For real, she is the best girlfriend anyone could have!! She always thinks of others and how she can help them. She doesn't hate on anyone even if they hate on her for no reason. She listens even when it breaks her heart, makes her upset, or is absolutely wrong. She helps ewoks....ok I can only be serious for so long. She likes my randomness. She loves my family. Her family is pretty cool, except when they throw aliens (her newborn nephew, Cole) in my lap.
Sorry for the stupid first post, but she made me do it. Next post will hopefully be some funny story of some stranger telling me something I have waited my whole life to hear!!!
just so everyone knows, i didn't make him do anything. He has wanted an account, so I set one up for him and he didn't know what to post about so I wrote the first 2 lines. I figured he'd stay with the silly stuff or erase it and start his own post. I got kinda worried after he had been typing for so long....then I read it and was pleasantly surprised :) For any of you that want details about any of the first few on the list...just ask. Here is one to explain my fashion:
actually, we bought that stuff to be extras in a movie, set in the 70s. Of course he had to buy his whole outfit and I only had to buy th poncho. Everything else, I already had and wear on normal days occasionally :)
Welcome to the World of Pleo, where you will know more about people you don't know than you know about people that you do know; where dozens of people will talk to you while hundreds more listen in; where perfect strangers will dump on you things they wouldn't tell their best friend. From the description she gave of you, it sounds like you already attract people like that anyway.
hello! i know you but my may not remember me. im stacey harrells sister, ryan shipleys wife, anna maries sis in law, the jaspers granddaughter in law, the wises neighbor..... you get the idea! lol welcome to pleo!
i realized i never really left you a comment...they were mostly for the other ppl reading your post :) So just wanted to say thanks for being the best and thanks for the sweet things you said about me :)
hey there -- Deb's cuzzin' Renee' here...can't wait to hear some of those crazy stories, but now that it's Aug. 13, I'm wondering if I should give up?!
Hi ya! welcome to pleo, where shy mutes, like myself, can type up a storm, and whoever can read them! This is Amber Henry from hebron ln/ pekin IN. (yea, two places at once! how 'bout that?) jk
Hey Jamie this is Sherry. That sounds cool about being extras in a movie! It sounds like you were real sweet to Deborah for her birthday. You said some really sweet things about Deborah on your page. Hope your week is going well
