Day Two Downtown

i hate being negative, but i must say that traffic sucked this morning. due to hearing about two accidents on 35 south around sandy lake i decided to take denton tap to 635 back to 35. after going a few miles on 35 traffic started to get slow and i heard about two more incedents around common wealth on 35. so i exited northwest hwy and took it all the way to the tollway. which i took back to 35. finally i exited downtown and made it to work only five mins late. my total commute was one hour.

on top of my commute i find out that my $4 dollar parking was really $6. at least this time i was next to my building instead of six blocks away. i'm glad to say that training went smooth and my day at work was good. another good note is that after work i did a little walking and found a parking lot one block away that cost $4, an parking lot two blocks away that cost $3.25, and two parkings lots four blocks away that cost $2.50! i was so happy to find $2.50 parking. i will park there on good weather days and in the $3.25 or $4 parking on bad weather days.

since i think i'm going to choose the 7am to 4pm schedule. i'm going to pretend i have to be at work at 7am tomorrow morning to see what traffice looks like at that time of morning. hopefully much better than it has been.

on a side note i must say that i'm so glad i traded my full size gmc sierra 1500....

....for a toyota corolla last june.

i miss the comfort of the sierra sometimes, but i hate to think what it would cost me to fuel my gas guzzling truck that got 16.5 mpg in the city. it had a 26 gallon tank, and most of the time i would put 23 gallons in it to fill it up. that's $63.25 at $2.75 a gallon. which i saw it jump to today. which would have taken me about 379 miles. 11 gallons of gas takes cost me $30.25 and takes me 341 miles. on average i drive 2000 miles a month. so by driving my corolla i save about $156 a month. that's $1876 a year! i don't see how people continue to buy huge trucks and sport utility vehicles?

viva la $2.50 parking and viva my corolla!

Turning of a Page

friday was the last day at my as a legal agent with the bank. i must say that it felt weird doing everything for what i new would be the last time. it would be the last time that i drove down beltline from lewisville to irving for work. it would be the last time i would walk through those doors and past those desk and say good morning to those people. friday was the last time i would ever answer the phone and say, "thank you for calling national helpline legal. my name is jason. may i have your name please?" i said that a whole lot their. i only worked their a year and was only on the phone for 10 months of that year. which means i said that greating about 10k times, but i agree with my good friend luke. change is a part of life and change is good.



today i started a temporary job working in the currency transaction report unit for the bank. this means i will be making sure the bank complies with anti-money laundering regulations. i will be doing this job until the end of january. at which time i hope to become a full time financial advisor.

to get to my new but temporary job i must drive from down 35 from lewisville to downtown dallas, approx. 25 miles. so this morning i woke up earlier than i normally would because i had to be at work earlier than before as well as drive farther. i still end up leaving 10 minutes later than i had hoped and got to work 20 minutes late all together. my drive was as good as i could expect it to be. it was an accident free commute and i can only hope to have lots more ahead. the worst and only frustraiting part of my commute was downtown parking. my friend who works downtown told me about this parking garage somewhere near the westin that was only $2 a day. needless to say i didn't find it and ended up parking 5 blocks from my building for the same $6 it would have cost to park under my building. i know, you're wondering why i did this. it was for two reasons. reason one was that i thought it cost $4 and not $6. reason two was that i wasn't 100% sure where my building was. i knew it was on akard and fairly close to another building that i was familiar with, but wasn't able to look it up online because i didn't have the address.

i'm glad to say that my day at work was better than my drive to work. when i finally walk into the office. they are having a welcome party for me and the other five new associates. i'm not big on making an "entrance", but today i did. as i walk through the door to the conference room. the nice lady that led me to the room introduced my name to the small crown of 20 plus people and the "spirit team" cheered my name as i made it to my seat. shortly after that all of the seasoned associates left the room leaving us 6 amigos to sit through training for the rest of the day. overall the training wasn't too bad. the continental breakfast was sweet. especially since i didn't get to eat breakfast this morning, and the instructors were decent too.

some pros to my new job are that i'm not tied to the phone all day long, i take lunch when ever i want, i get to choose between three different schedules (7-4, 8-5, or 9-6), and downtown is a happening place to eat lunch. the cons are the drive to work, paying for parking, and not being about to blog all day long, but i feel the pros will out weigh the cons for the five months i will be there. another good thing worthy of mention is that i found a parking lot next to my building that only charges $4 a day.

after a relatively smooth drive home i will relax, eat dinner, workout, and prepare for yet another adventure in downtown dallas. if anyone one wants to catch lunch sometime just let me know.

Confessions of Adolecent Days Part 4

yes, that's right, part four. i have yet another story about me and my ford tempo. when you grow up in a small town there isn't a whole lot to do, and you think of some stupid stuff to entertain yourself. this is a story of one of my dumbest moments. i believe it was a summer night before my senior year of high school.

my friend adam and i were bored. we had done all the driving around our podunk town that we could stand and had stop at a local park to figure out what we would do next. i can't remember how the conversation went, but we ended up seeing who could push my car the fastest. both of us got my car up to around 11 mph. the last time that adam pushed my car i didn't stop it so that he could get in. i just kept driving slowly with him running next to it. so he decides to jump on top of it. after driving him around the street that surrounds the park. i stopped, he got off, and proceeded to tell me about how much fun it was to ride on top of my car. so i took my turn. after a few minutes of riding around a couple of different neighborhoods we started to worry about the local police. so we decided to take our fun out to a back country road.

when we got out to the boonies we took a moment to make a rule. the rule was no matter what runs out in front of the car, you do not stop or swerve. you just hit it. i know, this sounds cruel, but come on. it's either the animal or us that is gonna die. we started to take turns riding on top of the car. to give you a mental picture we would lay on our stomach on the roof of the car with our hands holding on to the top of each door and our heads looking forward of course. first it was at 45 mph. each time we rode on top of the car we would increase our speed by 5 mph. so 50, 55, 60, 65, 70, and finally 75 mph. at 75 mph it was quite a rush. your cheeks are starting to jiggle in the wind, your eyes start drying out, and the wind is quite loud rushing by your head.

we probably would have kept increasing out speed, but while going 75 mph i got hit by a bug in the forehead. let me tell you. that hurt! think about it. i'm traveling 75 mph and the bug that is mesmerized by the light is flying at the car traveling somewhere in te ballpark of 15 mph. so i was hit in the forehead by a bug at a combined speed of 90 mph. it was at that point that i said i wasn't going to ride any more. which was probably a good thing. it might even be the reason i'm still alive today?

Confessions of Adolecent Days Part 3

like my previous two post this one involves my good ol' ford tempo (photo in part 1). beyond driving fast and doing dounuts in parking lots. from time to time during wet or icy conditions i would pull up my emergency brake and put my car into a skid. most of the time it was just to scare my passengers.

one summer day during my lunch break i was driving to visit my friend adam. the roads where wet and it was still drizzling. i was driving down a semi-country road and like many times before proceeded to pull up the emergency break. my went into a skid and started to rotate. i went to release the emergency break and my hand slipped. with my breaks locked up my car proceeds to spin 180 degrees, and then backwards into the ditch. on one side of the ditch is the road i was on. on the other side of the ditch was a railroad track that was surrounded by rocks. when my car slid backwards into the ditch my back bumper slammed up against the rocks, but my car still had momentum and proceeded to spin another 180 degrees before coming to a stop. when i opened my eyes my car's front end was pressed up against the rocks and i had cds and sprite all over the inside of my car. that’s right, my dumb ass just wrecked my car. luckily for me no one saw my act of stupidity. at this point i proceed to go back and forth between 1st and reverse to rock my car out of the ditch. since the ground was so went i failed at getting my car out of the ditch, but i succeeded in making a large hole in the ground and over heating my engine.

now i am sitting in my car thinking...what am i going to tell people? i just wrecked my car because i was acting stupid. this is embarrassing! so i decided that a dog ran out in front of me and when i swerved to miss the dog i ended up in the ditch. at this point got out of my car and walk 1/4 of a mile in the drizzling rain to the corner gas station so that i could call my grandpa to tow me out of the ditch with his truck. about ten minutes later my grandpa shows up to drag my poor car out of the ditch. at the same time someone else’s grandpa pulls over to see if we need help. i don't know whose grandpa he was. i'm just assume he was one because he was an older man they appeared to be in his 60's. anyway, we decide to accept his help because he was driving a toyota tacoma 4x4. which can pull cars our of ditches better than my grandpa's two wheel drive chevy silverado. so being the dumb ass that drove my car into the ditch. i proceed to get down in the wet muddy grass and hook the chain to the front of my car. i get into my car and we proceed with dragging my car out of the ditch.

before this post only my friend adam new the truth to this story. when i finally showed up to his house i told him about the dog. instantly he calls bullshit. he said you're way to good of a driver to dodge a dog and end up in the ditch. he knows this because he was with me all the other times i dodge stupid drivers while driving in more dangerous situations. so i instantly ate my pride and told him the truth. now i have told you the truth and in the words of the great paul harvy, that's the rest of the story.

Confessions of Adolecent Days Part 2

when i look back on the days that i drove my not so cool ford tempo. i realize that i abused my car. first of all let me say that i purchased my car with my hard earned money. it wasn't a gift from my well off parents, because they were not well off. i qualified for the free lunch program at school, but that's part of potential future post.

i maintained my car. i washed, waxed, rotated tires, changed the oil on a regular basis, ect. the abuse came in the way i drove my car. on my last post i addressed the ridiculous speeds that i drove my car, but that wasn't all i did in my car. quite often i would take my car to local parking lots, preferably when it was either raining, snowing, iced over, or on gravel. it was then that i would bring my car up to a speed of 40 -45 mph, put my car in neutral, pull up my emergency brake, and turn the steering wheel. thus putting me into a spin. it was so much fun.

before i moved to dallas my grand parents bought my car to tow behind their motor home. they did this so i could buy my first truck. which was stolen from me in august of 2001. that too is a future post. since my grand parents bought my car and still own it today. i will drive it from time to time, bringing back memories of the good ol' days. to this day the emergency brake barley works. the poor car sits in my grand parents driveway most of the time. since they do not travel anymore do to their aliments, and my grandpa prefers to drive his town car to the coffee shop and casino. he says he goes to the casino across the river because they have good hamburgers. some days those hamburgers are free and other days you would think he bought a round of hamburgers for everyone.

Confessions of Adolecent Days Part 1

i don't know why i thought about this while driving to work, but i did and i thought i would share it with the nation.

back in high school i drove a teal, two door, 1993 ford tempo. not a babe magnet nor a hot rod. it was very reliable and i must admit driving a five speed was fun. sometimes i had a bit too much fun in it.

i would drive it like a race car from time to time. i would skip gears and a couple of time i found its top speed, which wouldn't show up on the display that only went to 85 mph. i estatmate the top speed to be around 125-130 mph.

one time i was driving my mom to the will rogers airport in oklahoma city, and one of my best friends, adam, came with us to keep me company. it is hard for my mom to cope with good byes so she decided to sleep in the back seat of my car while adam and i drove her to the airport. that day God must have been with us because i'm alive today telling this story. we made it from my hometown of burkburnett, tx to oklahoma city, ok in 70 minutes. that is 130 miles in 70 minutes. that's an average speed of 111 mph. this includes a construction zone that made me slow down to 45 mph for a couple of miles. thus, i emphasize the word average. at one point while going down a low grade hill my cars engine started to hesitate. as if it was saying i-can't-go-any-faster. i even saw two, that's right, two highway patrol cars that had pulled someone over on the southbound side of the highway. keeping them from noticing my high rate of speed. so not only am i still alive, but i didn't get a ticket or go to jail. i will be the first to admit that this was stupid on my part and i haven't, nor do i plan to repeat this stunt.

i will say some good came out of it all. my mom has little concept of time. on top of that it turns out that my mom misread her departure time on her ticket, and my crazy driving got her to the airport 10 minutes before her plane was to board. which we didn't know until we got to the airport. since my mom slept the whole way there and she doesn't have a concept of time. she was oblivious to what just happened. all she knows to this day is that she made it to the airport on time.

TV Show Talk

sometimes when hangin' out with groups of friends we get to talking about tv shows. for example, 24, alias, the oc, west wing, csi, ect. i really don't watch any of these shows. i might have seen one or two episodes of each. i think the three shows that i watch are very good and are worthy of conversation, but out of my group of friends i seem to be the only one who watches. so i tend to just sit back and listen when tv show talk starts up.

i do watch tv a couple days a week. over the past few years the only show i really followed was "everwood", which comes on the wb on monday nights at 8pm, but season four is being moved to a new day, thursday. the next season starts sept. 29th.

last season my former roomate led me to a new show that i enjoy that, last season, came on right after everwood. it is called "medium" and it comes on at 9pm on nbc. it is a chilling drama series inspired by the real-life story of research medium allison dubois. patricia arquette stars as a young wife and mother who, since childhood, has been struggling to make sense of her dreams and visions of dead people. allison dubois (arquette) is a strong-willed young mother of three, a devoted wife and law student who begins to suspect that she can talk to dead people, see the future in her dreams and read people's thoughts. fearing for her mental health, she turns for support to her husband joe (jake weber), an aerospace engineer, who slowly comes to believe that what his wife is telling him just might be true. the real challenge is convincing her boss, d.a. devalos (miguel sandoval) -- and the other doubters in the criminal justice system -- that her psychic abilities can give them the upper hand when it comes to solving violent and horrifying crimes whose mysteries often reside with those who live beyond the grave. the new season begins sept. 19th.

the third and final show that i watch is now my new favorite. it is called "house". it comes on at 8pm, tuesday nights on fox. season two starts sept. 13th. it is about dr. gregory house who is devoid of bedside manner and wouldn't even talk to his patients if he could get away with it. dealing with his own constant physical pain, he uses a cane that seems to punctuate his acerbic, brutally honest demeanor (which i love). while his behavior can border on antisocial, house is a maverick physician whose unconventional thinking and flawless instincts have afforded him a great deal of respect. an infectious disease specialist, he's a brilliant diagnostician who loves the challenges of the medical puzzle he must solve in order to save lives.

house's roster of medical cases are the inexplicable ones other doctors can't solve, and he has assembled an elite team of young medical experts to help him in his effort to solve these diagnostic mysteries. house will do whatever it takes in the race against time to solve a case before it takes a life. from sending one of his team to break into a patient's home in search of clues, to attempting a controversial, high-stakes, trial-and-error form of treatment to see how a patient responds. his methods may be suspect, but his results are not. in a nut shell it is a drama combined with mystery, and the main character is a doctor that mol nation would call out of control.

so if anyone else watches these shows or starts to watch this next season. let me know. that way i have someone to talk to about tv.

*note: most of the text above is plagiarized, and i do not take any credit in describing the tv shows.

Viva la Mustache

for those of you who read my blog but not the other blogs linked on my page. yesterday was mustache appreciation day at church. all i have to say is that it was funny, but i do not intend to grow just a mustache anytime soon. i should be back to my normal goatee self by thursday. for even more pics visit the mac addict dale's site.

Battle For Texas Tunes

friday night i met up with j-nise, his wife, and a few other folks at the fox & hound english pub. the special occasion was the birthday of j-nise's wife, who i must say is a great softball player. it was a great time with great conversation and $2 coors and coors light pints. i had never drank coors before, but for $2 a pint i figured i would try it out. not bad, but not any different than the other domestic i've had. along with the special pricing there were two special guest, the coors light girls.

they were walking around to find local patrons that would play against each other in a friendly game of "guess that artist". the prize was a coors light cd with 10 texas artist on it. i played j-nise in said game and i knew i probably wouldn't stand a chance, but i'm always game for friendly competition. the first to guess 2 out of 3 songs would be the winner. i let j-nise pick the genre, and he choose rock. song 1 played for 2 seconds. and j-nise yells out "bon jovi"! i'm now down 0-1. song 2 plays for 3 seconds before j-nise yells out "aerosmith" puting me down 0-2. just for fun we do a third song. 1 second into the song he yells out "queen" to make me feel ever so inferior. so they hand j-nise his cd and tell him that all the artist are country artist from texas, and j-nise didn't seem so enthused.

i'm sure j-nise would have given me his cd seeing as i think he left it on the table at the end of the night, but i proceeded to act like i new more about the artist on the cd than i really did. i asked the girls if the artist were from austin, and their reply was "we only know cooder graw. do you know any of the other singers?" i proceed to look at the list of names. i too recognized cooder graw and decided that i also knew aaron watson and jackson taylor. maybe this impressed the girls or maybe they just felt sorry for me since j-nise guest all 3 songs before the girl pushed play. either way they decided that i deserve a cd too.

i listened to the cd on the way home and twice in the car on saturday during my running around. i must say that i'm not disappointed. i think it is a good cd. so if any of ya'll out there are interested in good texas country music. just let me know and i'm sure i can set you up with an illegal copy of it.

here is a list of tracks on the album.

01 cooder graw - wicked witch of the west
02 burtshi brothers - pontotoc county line
03 billy joe shaver - good ol' usa
04 kyle hunt - my way
05 mike mclure - don't you say anything
06 micky and the motorcars - which way from here
07 magee payne - never gonna breathe
08 aaron watson - i don't want you to go (but i need you to leave)
09 jackson taylor - long legs and longnecks
10 landon teague - why do all the good ones slip away

My Top Five....Okay Maybe Ten

on wednesday night while sitting on el mol's front porch with a few of the nation. we got to talking about all kinds of stuff. for a short period of time we talked about each other's "top five" celebrity crushes. my turn never came about and that is a good thing since i never composed a top five in my head. so today i tried to compose my top five, and came up with a top ten. here they are in the order i feel they should be today, but always subject to change.

kristin kreuk

vanessa marcil

eva longoria

avril lavigne

anna kournikova

shania twain

jennifer love hewitt

sarah michelle gellar

sarah shahi

keira knightley

Where Are My Arms?

when i woke up this morning i couldn’t feel my right arm from the elbow down. normally when this happens it effects my whole arm. every time it happens i can't help but remember the time i woke up with both of my arms dead.

it was about two or three years ago now. on that morning my alarm clock went off and i went to push the snooze button to shut it off, and nothing happened. my mind was telling my arm and hand to shut of the alarm, but nothing. i was laying on top of my arms face down. i had taken my arms for granted. i never knew how useful my arms were for rolling over in my bed until that moment. for at that moment i couldn't feel either one of my arms from the shoulder down to tips of my fingers. nor could I move them. how crazy is that. so i proceed to roll my body over using only the muscles in my legs and torso. try it sometime. it is harder than you might think.

it is always a trip to wake up without any feeling in one arm and have to pick it up and move it to a position that will allow me to regain my feeling. it is even more of a trip to wake up and have your arms flopping around like tube socks filled with sand, and not being able to move my arms into a position that will allow for quick resuscitation of my arms.

slowly i'm able to move my fingers, then my hand, and finally my arm. after that i have to go through a phase of my arms tingling in a semi uncomfortable way. finally after what seems like forever, but is only a couple of minutes. i was able to shut off my alarm clock and get out of bed.

i can't help but wonder if this is harmful to my body. having the nerves that deliver information to my muscle get completely blocked. so far i haven't had any loss of strength or muscle control, but i can't help but wonder. maybe i can find my answer in the book called "why do men have nipples"?

Lake Party

yesterday, sunday, i went to the lake to party with fellow co-workers. we had rented two level party boat and it was awesome. a bunch a people + food + beer + margaritas + a kickin' boat + a beautiful day on the lake = a rockin' day. it has been way too long since the last time i
"lived it up" on the lake. sometimes i wonder how i can live ten minutes from two different lakes, but never go enjoy either one of them. well now i have tasted blood and i want more. with the lake season winding down i don't think i could organize such an extravaganza is so little time, but come next summer the party is on. i vow to myself to make it to the lake a lot more in 2006, and i welcome anyone to join me in my lake adventures. here's to awesome co-workers.

My Name Is....

recently a blogger that i do not know personally asked me what my name is. so i have decided to tell the story of my name.

not so long ago i was born and my mom named me jason. she named me jason because she wanted me to be a doctor. what does the name jason and the medical profession have to do with one another? jason is a greek name that means healer. i like my name. it is a name that is short, easy to spell, and you can't really make fun of it. the only thing i don't like about my name is that i have to share it with way to many people. in the year i was born it was the 3rd most popular named used for a boy. number one and two being michael and christopher. it stayed in the top 3 from 1973-1980, and the top 10 from 1971-1983. so there are a lot of jasons out there. with this being said and my love of being unique. i tend to embrace my nicknames.

as a young boy my dad's mom's side of the family called me jaybird. mainly because i was tall, thin, and i looked like i had bird legs. when i entered middle school my friends started to call me frito. seeing as my last name is lay. this made a good fit. when i got into high school it progress to potato chips. since becoming a young adult it has progress to j-lay. i have always enjoyed having a nickname to make me unique and distinguish me from other jasons, and i really like my newest nickname that was given to me by my friend eric. so thank you eric for giving me the name j-lay and allowing me to have a truly unique name. for i'm probably the only j-lay in the world, and that's the rest of the story.

The Great Race

does anyone else out there race other commuters to or from work? i myself have my own version of the "5 o'clock 500".

the past couple of weeks during my 14 mile drive to work. i have noticed a new commuter. it is a kid who can't be over 20. he drives a big red chevy avalanche and tows a trailer with two lime green dirt bikes strapped to it. evidently we are both creatures of habit because i have seen him almost every day.

i am typically one of the faster drivers that make the commute from lewisville to Irving. if the speed limit is 35, i go 45. if it is 45, i go 60. nothing really close to the speed limit. i don't drive my car like a bat out of hell, and i do adjust my speed based upon previously observed patterns of the local police.

this kid in his big red trailer towing truck makes me look like a grandpa driving down the road. if i'm going 45, he is going 55. if i'm going 60, he is going 70. even though he drives his truck like i know he rides his dirt bike we always end up neck and neck due to the number of lights and cars we have to navigate through. my knowledge of the lights, traffic patterns and the size of my car allow me to constantly catch up and pass the kid. while he gets stuck in the wrong lane or hits the light too soon and has to stop, but his lead foot helps him keep up with and pass me repetitively. it is like the classic story of the tortoise and the hare, but the speed of the rabbit doesn't stand a chance against the skill and patients of the tortoise.

i know he is aware of what is going on. i can tell by the way he drives and looks at my car in his rearview mirrors. i think he enjoys the game of cat and mouse since he obviously races bikes. at the same time i think it frustrates him that he can't get rid of me until i get to my work. i even out right beat him two days this week.

Trying To Be Unique

since starting my blog i have found other members of MOL nation using the same template for there blog as mine. either because i choose what they have or vise versa. twice i have changed it only to find someone else with the same thing. i think i have now messed with my html code enough to be unique. so for anyone out their who likes the appearance of my blog. feel free to admire it, but please. let me be unique. twinkies are cool, but only the yellow cream filled kind.

Ode' To Bickle

i have a friend named scott bickle. first of all i must say he is a great guy to have as a friend and he is destined to be an even better dad. bickle use to play for the softball team that i coach, or coached since last night was my last game to coach.

bickle is the most entertaining softball player i have ever seen. he is a former marine who is short and stocky, 5'4"/190 is my guess. every time he would get up to bat he had his mind set on making it home, and i don't mean eventually. i mean right then, like smack, he hits the ball and runs. no matter how far he hits the ball he runs until he is either out or at home plate again. it is a wild event to witness.

in honor of the great bickle this season my team adopted the "bickle play". this play is generally used in the later innings of the games in which we are getting beat pretty bad. which i'm sad to say is most games. here is how it works. someone with decent hitting ability gets up to bat. either i or one of my base coaches yells out "BICKLE", and the next thing you know the batter hits the ball and runs. it doesn't matter if the ball went to short stop or right field, they run. they run like forest gump until they are either out or cross home plate.

doing this is so much fun, and it confuses the other team to no end. last night in our final game of the season we got to call the play three times. i gave eric the honor during the 4th inning, but he flied out. then i called the play for carter in the 5th inning and he made hit home successfully. in that same inning with two outs and no one on base eric or carter, i can't remember which, yelled out "BICKLE" when i got up to bat. it was on like donkey kong. i hit a fly ball to right center and started to haul ass. about the time i was half way to second the right fielder missed the ball. at this point i had a glimmer of hope and kept hauln'. around second and onto third. which is where the other team figured i would stop, but oh no. i couldn't stop. we called the bickle play and it wouldn't be very bickle of me to stop. so i round third racing the fastest third baseman in the world to home plate. he was rushing to cover home since the girl playing catcher didn't have the skill to catch the ball and tag me out. then next thing i know i hear the ball smack the glove and i layout on my side with my hand swiping the pate. only to hear the words..."HE'S OUT!" i don't think i was out cuz the tie goes to the runner, but what blue says goes, right. either way is was an exciting moment. so here's to bickle. who inspired us to run like it was the last time you would ever run again.

The Shy Guy

i was a shy kid growing up. i started to grow out of it during my junior year of high school, and over the last six years i feel that i have made great progress. especially with my day to day dealings with people, public speaking, ect. i still feel that i have some room to grow. especially when it comes to women.

when it comes to asking a girl on a date i become that shy kid again. i think it's a combination of fears that make me shy about approaching women. the fear of rejection and/or the fear of the awkwardness that is created after being turned down by someone you know and see on a regular basis. thus i do my share of online dating.

yesterday i read an article called "how to ask him out". this would be a great shift of the pyridine for us shy guys. i have seen this happen first hand and applaud the women who have done so, and on behalf of us shy guys out there. i whish more women would do this. there are a lot of really great guys who just need a little bit of help when it comes to landing a date. personally i think a woman who is willing to approach a guys is all the more attractive.

2005 Miss Teen USA

last night i was flipping channels and narrowed it down to three shows. the tv guide channel, who had a show to pick a new late night talkshow host, the rangers game, and miss teen usa. the best being the tv guide channel because the rangers got whipped by the red sox, and miss teen usa was a disappointment.

basically with miss teen usa i saw girls smile in the first segment, wear an evening gown in the second segment, swim suites in the third, and a question in the final segment. i have to ask what happened to the talent show? i watch miss america and how they try to reinvent the contest to not be just a beauty contest, but i guess miss teen usa isn't quite there yet. now i know what you're thinking and you're right. did jlay watch for the talent? of course not. i wanted to see hot girls prance around, but i was still disappointed to not see a talent show. never the less, the best all around girl, according to the judges, was allie laforce from ohio. my personal favorite was miss illinois, kelly cruse, and her willingness to sport the huge scar on her stomach. in a pageant of perfection i give her cudos for her bravery.

Outside Of The Norm

when i think of churches and the leadership within i think of people that are way older than myself. people who meet the age requirement to serve as president. i am 40 days away from still being a decade shy of such a requirement. yet i have spent the last year as a leader and budget team member of my church. it feels surreal to me when i take the time to think about it. really, how many churches out there would fathom appointing a 24 year old to take care of their budget or act on a leadership team? i do realize that is was more of of necessity and the lack of the older generation. seeing as our church is mostly comprised of people 20-32. i have done my best to serve my church honestly and honorably, and i am flattered that i was appointed to serve in such a position so early in my life.

on another leadership note. i have been the coach of my church's softball team going on 4 years now. i started coaching right when i turned 21 and will be relinquishing my title as i turn 25. like a lot of things in life, my coaching has ran it's course. in order to pursue my career as a financial advisor i need to free up more of my time, and a repercussion of this is letting someone else take reigns of the team. young maa, carter, has hinted towards taking the reigns following my announcement at our last game. Ironically he is just turning 21. maybe this is a tradition in the making. i have found over the last 4 years that softball isn't as much fun when you have to managed the team, but if i could rewind my life and do it over again i would. for this was part of my development as a leader.

believe it or not coaching softball has been the most stressful thing in my life during 2005, and i feel blessed that it was the most stressful thing . i know most people have quite a bit more on their stress plate than i do.

here's to all the leaders out there,the opportunities i've had to develop as a leader and to the development of our future leaders.

Why Do Men Have Nipples?

this is the title of a new book that is written by mark leyner and billy goldbert, m.d. it looks like a fun read, and i know you want to know why old people grow hair on their ears or is the old adage “beer before liquor, never sicker, liquor before beer, never fear” really true?

i have wondered why men have nipples. really, what is the point? evidently there isn't a point. it is what it is. while only females have mammary glands, we all start out in a similar way in the embryo, the authors explain. the embryo follows a female template until about six weeks, when the male sex chromosome kicks in. men, however, have already developed nipples.

for more info on the book click here.

Rewards for Hospitality?

on saturday night i went to a pool party at a new "special friend's" house. i get a call today from my special friend, who was upset, saying that one of her dad's guns were stolen. even though i'm not remotely close to her family, seeing as i have never met them. i'm still pissed off. i hate the fact that people steal. mostly because i've been the victim of it not one, but four too many times. i've had three car stereos, two tool boxes and a whole truck stolen from me. non of which were ever recovered.

what makes the situation even worse is that it wasn't a breaking and entering type burglary. it was a..."hi, welcome to MY humble home." followed by a..."thanks for the invitation, i'm now going to steal a very expensive gun from YOUR home." whom ever stole the gun was welcomed into the house with open arms and the offer of free food and alcohol, and repays the generous offer by stealing. of course my special friend feels horrible because her dad is currently mad and blaming her for his gun's disappearance. hopefully the flowers that i ordered yesterday to be delivered today will cheer her up.

Workin' Hard or Hardly Workin'

my job at the bank has it's share of down time. since i work in a call center i cannot leave my desk due to my head being attached to a phone headset. on an average day i spend 5 of 8 hrs actually talking on the phone. so i must occupy my free time with miscellaneous activities. my activities vary. as i get bored with one i move on to another. i might email, blog, read, listen to music, or play with legos. the two hardest activities to do are listen to music and read. this being due to my constant interruption of the phone which i have no choice but to answer. so i spend most of my time emailing, blogging, or reading articles online, but sometimes i go on a lego kick.

when i play with legos i do it all from my imagination. i hate to use the instruction books that come with legos. that is just not creative enough for me. a few months ago i created this sweet looking fire truck. it gets a lot of attention at work and even had it evaluated by fireman friend. my boss can't say much about my leisure activities since i'm the best agent in the country. the only problem with my fire truck is that is has set a whole new standard in my mind. and the few things i've built since just don't compare. partially because some of my coolest parts are on or in my fire truck. maybe i should asked for legos for my upcoming birthday or christmas?

Rodeo Outcome

the rodeo was fun. the cowboys didn't fair so well. so the best parts were the cowboy poker, chuck wagon races, whiplash the sheep herding monkey, and the kids who road the sheep. i thought that was the funniest. they would put 4-6 year olds on sheep in the shoots, dressed up like a bull rider, and they would let the sheep out of the shoot. instead of bucking they would just sprint. it was so funny watching the kids hang on for dear life. they loved it though. there was this one little girl that they had to pry off the sheep. she just wouldn't let go. after the rodeo my date and i went to a bar called hurricane on lower greenville and then came back to my place and watched "i am sam".