Last night, Phil and I went to a restaurant that one of his co-workers suggested we should try out. It was a Greek/Italian place called Santorini Grill, and since we didn’t have anything else better to do on a Friday night(yeah, we lead boring lives, I know), we decided to go and have a taste.

We had to drive a bit because it was all the way over on Hardscrabble Road. Isn’t that just a weird road name? I didn’t even know it was a real word until just a second ago, but apparently it is. This is what Dictionary.com tells me . . .

hardscrabble \HARD-skrab-uhl\, adjective:
1. Yielding a bare or meager living with great labor or difficulty.
2. Marked by poverty.

You learn something every day, I guess.

Well, completely off topic, sorta, I saw a pretty amusing road name out in Eastover when I was looking for that stupid DSS building that Google maps or any other map couldn’t direct me to. That one was named Chain Gang Road. I had a good laugh at that one. I kept expecting to see a row of inmates picking up trash or something with all of their legs attached by a long rusty chain, but I didn’t. I didn’t see anyone on that road. I was out in the middle of BFE.

Ok, back on topic, sorta.

We found the place without too much trouble, which was surprising because Phil only drew a map of the roads, but not which way to turn or which side of the street the restaurant was on. Men. 🙂 When we walked in I knew immediately that it was a fancier, more expensive restaurant than I would have chosen because I am such a penny pincher. The restaurant had a nice atmosphere. We were seated at once at a big booth and the waitress quickly brought us some Italian bread and ordered our drinks.

Phil ended up getting the special, which was an alfredo pasta with scallops, shrimps and an array of vegetables. I got another alfredo pasta dish with chicken and vegetables. We both ordered the 5 onion soup, which was excellent. I wish I knew how to make it. I could eat that everyday for a year.

After the bread and our soup, I started getting full. I have a very small stomach. I keep saying it is the size of one double cheeseburger from McDonald’s and a small drink. I was hoping that their servings would be small, but then I remembered that we were in America, and that that would not be the case. Sure enough, the waitress plopped down our food, and I knew instantly that I would not be able to eat it all. It tasted good, what I got to eat of it before my stomach exploded. We decided to get the rest to go. The waitress took our food and said that she would put it in a box for us. I thought that was a bit strange because usually we are brought the boxes and we have to transfer the food ourselves. “Maybe this is what they do in fancier restaurants,” I thought to myself.

We sat awhile and chatted and then we sat and chatted some more. About the time I started thinking that it was taking a long ass time to put our food in a box, this man came over and stood at our table. He looked like the manager.

“There has been an accident with your food,” he said.

“What kind of accident?” Phil and I asked at the same time.

“Well, your waitress sat it down for a second, turned her head, and when she turned back, it was gone. A bus boy was trying to help out and threw it away.”

“Threw it away?”

“Yes, and because we are so sorry that it happened, we want to give you a $10 gift card to make up for it.”

That was a nice gesture and all but the bill was $40 something and they threw out 3/4 of our food. I think we lost out somewhere. The waitress come over and apologized, and then quickly disappeared.

I’ve eaten at a lot of restaurants in my life, but I don’t think I have ever had the food I wanted to take home thrown away. Phil and I laughed it off, but it did sorta suck. That could have been our dinner tonight. That is how much was left over. Oh, well, I guess. At least we have enough money on that gift card to get some more of that 5 onion soup.

p.s. Phil wanted me to say that he has awesome internet.

Phil and I took a trip to Sesquicentennial State Park this past Sunday. The last time we were there, it was freezing outside, and a dog was swimming around in the lake trying to catch the geese minding their own business. He must have swam around for a half an hour trying to catch those geese before he gave up. For a while, I thought we were going to have to call the fire department to swim out and save the dog. It was a rather funny sight. It would have made one of those funny animal TV shows for sure.

I didn’t take a lot of pictures on Sunday. There wasn’t a whole lot to take pictures of really – just a lake, the geese, and the trees. Since I hardly ever put any pictures up anymore,(besides that of my baby plants) I thought I would put up at least the two that I took and liked. I wish the Downy Woodpecker that I saw had been closer to me. He was just too far away for my camera to properly focus on him. Maybe next time.

A lake side view.

A close up.

Another week, another set of pictures of my baby plants. This week, I actually have some pictures of the green pepper plants. I have no idea why it took them three weeks to sprout. It was only supposed to take about 7 days like all of the others. Of the 18 that we planted, about 14 of them are now visible. Phil’s watermelon seeds sprouted, too. I didn’t think that they would for some reason, but they proved me wrong. I can’t wait until the plants grow up and start yielding a crop.

Cucumbers

Week 3

Snow Peas

Week 3

Green Beans

Week 3

Tomatoes

Week 3

Cantaloupe

Week 3

Green Peppers

Week 3

Watermelon

Week 3

A Friday or so ago, Phil and I decided not to go to Red Lobster(even though we had a free $25 gift card) and went to Captain D’s instead. I’m sure the service and food would have been better at Red Lobster, but I probably wouldn’t have gotten the laugh that I did. While standing in the rather long line, I read the following sentence on the daily special board and started laughing. You’ll probably only find it funny if you are a pervert like me. I really don’t try to be one – it just happens.

Happy Ending Fried Brownie or Fried Cheese Cake with Strawberry Topping $1.95

If you aren’t laughing, there is no need for me to go into detail about why that particular sentence made me chuckle. I don’t want to be the one to corrupt your mind. I’ll leave that to cable television, rated R movies, and the other perverts of the world. If you are laughing – I’m shaking my finger at you. : )

As you may have read in an earlier post, Phil and I decided to plant a garden. We planted some cucumbers, snow peas, green peppers, green beans, cantaloupes, and cherry tomatoes. All but the green peppers have sprouted and started to grow. I’ve read that green peppers can be hard to germinate. I may have to plant some more and put them on top of the frig until I see them busting through the soil. But for the ones that have done well, I’ve got pictures of their progress over the last two weeks.

Cucumbers

Week 1

Week 2

Snow Peas

Week 1

Week 2

Green Beans

Week 1

Week 2

Tomatoes

Week 1

Week 2

Cantaloupe

Week 2

For those of you who did not believe me that I had an awesome office, here is photographic proof! I couldn’t get everything in the one frame. To the left there is another chair and a shelf. To the right, right in front of my desk, is another pair of windows. In the afternoon, my room turns into a little sauna, but it isn’t that bad. I’ll just have to buy a desk fan or something. So what do you think? Is it what you imagined?

In China, I was sick more or less every other week. Sometimes every week. It was just a part of being in China, I think, and getting used to Chinese germs. I never really got used to it, but I did become less and less surprised each time I came down with something.

I’ve been back in the States for five months now, and (knock on wood here) I haven’t had any sort of sickness that has lasted more than say, a full day – if even that. I no longer have the sort of bathroom issues that plagued me in China either. That was probably the worst thing about China(besides Richard Guo) – me nearly shitting myself to death every other week. I wish I could say that I was exaggerating . . . okay, to a point I am, it wasn’t that bad(death and what have you) all the time, but it did happen a lot and it was never, ever fun. Also, since I’ve been home, I haven’t really even had a sore throat or a cold. Now there have been times since I’ve gotten back that I could feel the beginning of such sicknesses, but nothing has ever stayed with me or progressed to the point where I needed a doctor or lots of over the counter drugs. I’ve been healthier in these last 5 months than I ever was in the last year and a half.

I have a theory.

My American immune system has been overthrown, and has been replaced by a whole battalion of Chinese martial arts fighters. They are my new front line. If they see a cold coming they chop it to bits and leave the carcass to rot in the sun. They laugh in the face of the American germs. “Ha, ha,” they say,”is that all you have?! Bring it on, I dare you!”

Just yesterday, my little Chinese fighting immune system took down a virus that totally conquered my mother and very nearly my brother, as well as most of my immediate family. I woke up with a slight tickle in my throat and my head felt heavy. I was sure that I was going to get sick. I radioed my guys and told them to hop to, and they did. Throughout the day, there were times when I was starting to feel up to par and then that tickle would start to come back. It never stayed long, though. I think they may still be fighting as I write this now, but the battle seems to be almost over. And who has won? Well, my Chinese battalion, of course.

I hope they stick around for a while. I like the fact that because my immune system fought so much evil crap in China that it now is less likely to be overcome by the bacteria running rampant in Columbia. Of course, that is just my theory, and I may be way wrong. And yes, I know, my imagination has a way of running away with itself sometimes.

And finally, like that crazy, cracked out Amy Winehouse says in her song about not going to rehab, my immune systems says the same about any germs trying to infiltrate my body – “No, no, no!”

Well, I have now been at my new job for one week and three days. I’d say things are going pretty well. I’m starting to pick up on things and slowly, I am getting more responsibilities. This past Wednesday, I got to run a booth at the Career Fest job fair with two of my co-workers. It was pretty fun. From 11:00 am to 3:00 pm, I greeted students and told them about our website and how to use it. We were provided with a small breakfast, and a boxed lunch. It was pretty good, too. I was impressed. Because I had to shake a lot of hands, I made sure to keep slapping some antibacterial gel on.  I didn’t want to take a chance with all the germs I was probably touching. The only thing that sorta sucked was that my feet hurt toward the end.

This next Friday, I will have my benefit orientation. I’ll finally be able to sign up for health insurance, and I won’t have to worry so much about getting sick. I’ve been without insurance for a good long while now. Also, I’ll be able to start saving for retirement. I’ve never had a job that offered any type of retirement plans.

I wish I had something more exciting to write about, but other than working, I haven’t been doing a whole lot. I mean, I get up, go to work, come home, eat dinner, watch some TV, and go to bed at 9:30 pm Monday through Friday. I don’t have a whole lot of time to get caught up in something blog worthy really.

This weekend though, Phil and I went to Lowes and bought the makings to plant some seeds for a little garden. We are going to try and grow some cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, snow peas, green beans, green peppers, and cantaloupes on his patio. If we run out of room on his patio, we will just move them to Phil’s house where his Dad has a yearly garden. I sure hope that the seeds germinate. I haven’t had a garden since I was about 8 years old.

Well, if I want to enjoy what is left of my Sunday, I better get. I’ll try to think of something interesting to write soon. I know reading about me sitting in front of a computer all day can’t be exciting for you.

Because I’m lazy, I’m going to post something I wrote for the Gamecock when I was in school instead of something current.

I had a friend that worked for the school paper. He knew that I was a horror fanatic and that I loved Freddy Krueger more than any childhood doll hiding in my closet. So, he came to me and asked if I would write a review for “Freddy VS Jason”, and I happily accepted. The following is what appeared in the paper. However, whoever edited it misspelled my name. They put an “E” on the end. Grr. That was how my professor’s name was spelled. People probably thought we were related and that I was advertising the class he taught. Hope you enjoy it.

When Titans Collide

by Gabrielle Cooke

In a clash of horror-industry titans, a reign of terror stretching over two decades has come to a carnage-filled climax on the big screen. After championing their genre with a combined total of more than 15 films, Freddy and Jason, two tenacious and seemingly undefeatable villains, have finally come together to face one another in the ultimate horror film showdown.

Ladies and Gentlemen, in the right corner, weighing in at 160 pounds with a record too terrifying to mention, from Springwood, Ohio, we have dream terrorist Freddy Krueger. And in the left corner, weighing in at a hefty 250 pounds with a history of slaughtering sexually driven teens, from Camp Crystal Lake, New Jersey, sits “Friday the 13th’s” silent but deadly stalker, Jason Voorhees.

Such an introduction is just one of the many images moviegoers have envisioned since New Line Cinema began advertising its new horror film “Freddy vs. Jason” a few months ago. But for thousands of horror fans out there, this match was likely imagined even before the first hint that these two might collide was revealed in 1993.

In “Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday,” Freddy’s signature glove reaches up and pulls Jason’s mask down to hell. Since that fated moment, fans have eagerly waited for such a film, yet the road to its debut has been paved with countless rumors and false hopes.

The film was delayed by many factors, namely the fact that the horror icons were owned by two different studios. New Line Cinema held the rights to Freddy, while Paramount Pictures laid claim to Jason. “Freddy vs. Jason” might have materialized a lot sooner if the two studios could have come to an agreement when “Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood” was made. The film was originally intended to include the long-awaited match-up. In 1992, New Line bought the rights to Jason and promptly made “Jason Goes to Hell,” where it slipped in a glimpse of what was to come.

In 1997, New Line officially proposed the idea, but the project was shelved for various reasons. After the release of “Jason X” in 2002, Bob Shaye, the president of New Line, confirmed that he had found the right script, written by David S. Goyer, and that filming would begin September 2002. The film was originally planned to be released on June 13, 2003, a Friday the 13th, but was pushed back to Aug. 15.

And so now, after all the hype, the anticipation, the fan frustration – is the film worth it? To some, yes. But before you hand over your $5.50, be aware that this film is not going to win any prestigious Hollywood awards. If you waltz into the theater expecting to be “moved,” besides the sudden jump in your seat, expect to be disappointed. One thing that should satisfy most moviegoers is the amount of blood and gore. Seemingly, there is not a single orifice of Freddy’s or Jason’s that does not ooze blood in this film.

The most popular question is, of course: Who is going to win, Freddy or Jason? And who else better to ask than the horror genre guru himself, USC professor Bill Cooke, who teaches the class 100 Years of the Horror Film.

“Fans of both Freddy and Jason are liable to come after me with finger blades and machetes if I don’t pick their favorite,” Cooke said. “While I always preferred the ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’ series to the ‘Friday the 13th’ series, I found myself pulling for the underdog Jason.”

And in the end, is Jason the victor? “I won’t give away the ending of ‘Freddy vs. Jason,’ but they found a way to satisfy both camps,” Cooke said.

If you are a horror fan and “Freddy vs. Jason” leaves you wanting more, you might want to sign up for Cooke’s class next spring.

“My goal is to present as complete a picture of the horror genre as I can – to cover, in roughly chronological order, the trends and the talent behind and in front of the cameras,” Cooke said.

The course was also offered last semester and became a student favorite.

In addition to teaching film studies courses, Cooke has written and directed two feature-length movies, “Campfire Tales” (1991) and “Freakshow” (1995). Both are available on DVD. Also, he is a regular contributing writer to “Video Watchdog,” the perfectionist’s guide to fantastic video.

Hopefully, “Freddy vs. Jason” will not be the last film for the feared duo we have all grown to love. Cultural icons like these two tend to slowly fade from the silver screen only to reappear when you think they are down and out for the count. And so the rumors and the waiting begin again. Maybe this time we won’t have to wait so long for round two.

I’m tired, so I will make this quick and easy.

I talk to a lot of people about my year and three day experience in China.  And as you can expect, people usually have a ton of questions to ask.   Sometimes, these questions fall under the category of  “neverbeen” questions.  And if you want to have a better understanding of what I mean by that, click on the link.  Ryan will tell you everything you need to know.

I’ve been asked a lot of questions since I have been back, but I think the one that tops the list is the one you’ll read below.  I mean, it is like the candles on the cake.  Lit candles at that.

“What language do they speak in China?”

I looked at her with a blank stare for a second, thinking that she must be joshing me, but she was serious.  Then a light bulb went off.

“Oh.  Chinese I guess, huh?”

“Yeah,” I said. “Chinese.”