Prelude to New Beginnings

One thing I love to notice in life are all the little and big parallels that remind me of happy memories. It's like a for-sure sign of reference, a "check-in" to my past that I'm still having fun; a kid in a larger backyard.

This parallel really doesn't stretch back that far, just to January, 2009. I was only in my second semester of college, ever. You bet I was homesick. Displaced of my own choosing, fulfilling an expectation, lonely and living alone.

I had had a job in the summer before I began school in August, 2008, but it wasn't anything more than fast food. Oh, yes, it was always something new and not always work-related either. Drama and grease after hours of shifts. I spent a long four months working there until one day I found myself packing my room up to go away to college.

For this part in the story I need to repost and refer. Repost the yards of paragraphs written during those first two years. Refer from here back to there; I'll give you a portal through which to arrive at the first word on the first page of Age 19.

Seek when you can.

Don't get lost. You're here already. You've made it to the other side. You want to guess where you're at? A present day reflection on the opposite piece of the parallel memory. I'm about to take my first job as a student assistant to the Vice President for University Advancement's Department of Advancement Services, Database Administrators team.

Fast forward two weeks. We're already moving out. Leaving the sleepy fourth floor of the John Peace Library. Edging on an outsource and relocating to a nearby business park we step up shop for the next three years. All throughout that Spring semester I worked hard, harder even than I did in class. I was doing stuff I had always enjoyed. Installing RAM, running Windows Updates, entering data, learning to manipulate it, importing records, building relationships, becoming a database administrator.

But all that didn't happen over just that first semester. Two weeks into that summer my family and I were up in East Texas visiting relatives for mother's day. While I was there the then-secretary of the office called and asked if I wanted to work during the summer. "Of course!" I said enthusiastically. They were going to scale my hours up to full time and even pay me out of the department's budget. This was going to work out very well.

Over the next two summers and six semesters I worked for The University of Texas at San Antonio Advancement Services department. I learned how to handle data and treat it right. How to deploy enterprise-grade software packages and being a project from conception to production. I did these things because I truly enjoyed working with information. Leveraging the classes that fell under the Information Systems degree, I sought to apply the knowledge learned about database theory. How to manage data in an efficient way requires that I think in an efficient way.

This efficiency has lead me to believe that memories can be related in a parallel fashion. Because of our history as humans I have understood that things really do go in cycles. If I pay attention to the past the future never seems so uncertain. This girder in my platform is just one of those beliefs a person has to have.

Beer Fest - Third Weekend Festivities!

On Saturday I went to the Charleston Beer Garden beer fest this weekend! How cool is that? Uh-huh, and I haven't even started in on the details. I had planned to go with my friend Tiffany and her boyfriend Zach. Saturday morning they picked me up and we went to Brittlebank Park, the location of the festival site. It is right on the banks of the Ashley River. It was really hot that day, I think 95 degrees. We all made sure to apply sunscreen to the tops of our feet, noses, and shoulders. It was a really neat deal. For like $25 you get entrance to the festival, a free pint glass with matching coozie, and a sample passport for 10 brews tastings.

Between the three of us we bought two growlers. A growler beer container is used to transport a lot of freshly brewed drink. They come in a number of sizes but, at least regionally, have historically been of half-gallon size (1.89 L). The growlers were $5 apiece, and then each $15 for a filling. We chose an IPA (more bitter) and a wheat beer. The wheat beer was a light wheat lemonade flavored brew that tasted delicious! The IPA was good for a bitter beer, something to check the sweetness of a citrus-y brew.

"RAAR!!!"

Announcing the Travel Log

You need to check out the Travel Log entry. About fifteen minutes ago it was just a regular old blog entry. Now it's a Page! . And now all sorts of craziness ... it's back to being a blog posting, again. This time dated properly, ranging from Tuesday the 5th through Thursday the 7th. 

This entry will be consistently updated and revised to reflect the Travel Log I believe best represents my experience over the first summer I spent in Charleston. 

Link to the album on Picasa Web Albums/Google Photo.

My Roommate Zoey

Zoey is my roommates cat. She's beautiful! Has been fed wayyy to much, and is super fun to pet.

Zoey with the beautiful coat! 

She's just over a year old, according to my roommate. He got her from the SPCA, so she's a rescue kitty! I talk in my "cat language" to her, which kind of freaks my roommate out. =P

"'Cat talk' language?" You say? Yes, I actually speak with a combination of a Jamaican, English, and French accent. The words are usually repeated but are almost always English, with a sprinkling of Spanish phrases and some French. The language is pretty much evolving constantly and has taken years to develop. One day when I'm not so much in a hurry (to write down a dream, no less) I'll come back an add some example sentences and their rough translations.

I'm not alone in this, however. My sister Julia has also been another creator of words. With the different cats our family has had over the years, each has been lovingly bestowed/adorned (both words wrong?) with many derivations and nick-name twistings of their actual name.

What she acutally needs is a photo album, but not through Google for if I remember it's flash-based and rather lame in the resolution department.

Edit: Changed her name to "Zoey." Asked Travis how it's spelled.

Let's Start after We've Begun

This has been an interesting first week;

Arthur Ravenel, Jr. Bridge

let me elaborate.

Five days of learning to do a new job. New systems to understand and web portals to navigate. People to get along with and I feel like I've done an on-par job. What, only average? Satisfactorily, yes! I suppose I'm learning somewhat. Becoming accustomed to explaining myself without directly describing me. It's like, I'm just doing things that people will draw an opinion about. This will become their image of me. Sure, I feel like I have control of this situation. I can adjust how I act and thus influence how I am perceived. See? Control! But with the externalities firmly grasping my leash, how am I ever really in control? How is anyone?

It's based upon perspective ... But enough of these rambling words! How about some stories, perhaps a recount or two?

Well it's Friday, the fifteenth of June, 2012. I'm in Charleston, South Carolina. I have been here since the seventh of June, a little over a week. Done a lot, feeling slightly homesick, worked over 40 hours (though I'll call it 40 even), eaten less than I usually do, drank more alcohol than I should, gone halfway sail boating for the first time in my life, been pleased my roommate has a cat, set up my room, actually enjoying meeting my roommates, been to a Reggae festival, spent all day on the Atlantic coast with my awesome co-worker Tiffany, survived a threatening sun burn, walked downtown for a burger, chatted on the phone with my family back home, had many educationally enlightening conversations with another one of my co-workers Jim, basked in the quiet solitude of my corner room, and above all have found myself in wonder of such a drastic displacement.

See all those happenings? A post apiece. For you a sentence would never do. For me? Well a sentence might jog the memories into a potent recreation. But that's one sentence! What about 50? A proper recount, that's what's needed. That's what I will try to accomplish. Justify this life though records.

Beware:  I may back-date. =)

First Trip Sailing

Today was my first day in my life to ever go sailing!

My boss Jeff has friend named Steve. Steve owns a sailboat! He uses it for competitive racing and for having a breezy relaxing afternoon and evening on the Ashley River and Charleston Bay.

One late Wednesday afternoon Jeff said to me that if I really "want to really see Charleston" than I should see it from the bay. I, of course, enthusiastically replied "Yes!" followed closely by "Do you know someone who really owns a boat?"

Of course he could have had one for all I might've known. But it turns out that, yes, his friend Steve really does own a sailboat ...

Reggae Festival - First Weekend Antics!

On Friday I did a lot of sorting through my luggage and setting up my room.

Saturday, June 9th, 2012

My little upstairs corner room. 

Eastern Travels - A Plotted Route

San Antonio to Charleston

I could make multiple small, smatterings of a post here and a post there but that would end up being not very chronological. So instead of that I'm going to right here organize my journey across the northern portion of a deep Southern United States, down into Charleston, South Carolina.

I started, of course, by leaving San Antonio, where I have my apartment. Lovely city, haven't said enough nice things about it but I miss it already. Good food. I should write in my blog about life on the daily more often. Hey, it's global medium! We've come so far ...

Just noticed something; caught myself. This was supposed to be about pictures, not words. But just like most of my thoughts that train this way I end up chattering more than presenting. So without further ado:

Monday, June 4th, 2012

She doesn't want me to go! =(((