The Patient Ferris Wheel

So last Thursday I got off work a little early, I asked Jenn if she wanted to go to Santa Monica, which she did. So we headed down there and stopped at The Coffee Bean in Encino to see our friend Hannah and get some coffee. After leaving Coffee Bean we headed down to Santa Monica, we walk up to American Apparel so I can get a new beanie, which I didn't get by the way, and then we stroll down to Urban Outfitters and I found some books I wanted to get.

The Poo Log

Mr. T vs. Chuck Norris
(400 Facts About the Baddest Dudes in the History of EVER)

South Park - Guide to Life
Forwarded by Brian Boitano

Because thats what Brian Boitano would do!

After leaving Urban Outfitters bookless we walked back to my car so I could get my camera. We headed down to the pier so I could get the pictures I wanted to get and a few more after that. The pictures I wanted to take came out better than I had imagined but since I'm still figuring out ISO's and F/stops I know I can do better.





And of course I snapped some cute ones of my beautiful girlfriend.

She really is extremely beautiful.

We left Santa Monica and headed back up to Encino for The Soapbox Sessions at The Coffee Bean. We saw a not so funny comedian, a even less talented Lady Gaga rip off and a "true soul" singer and this guy America who does spoken word poetry and he was actually really really good. It was a little boring but actually really cool. It gave a corporate coffee shop a nice indie coffee feel. I love indie coffee shops.

It was a good day. I loved being able to get out of the Valley with Jenn and just have some time with just me and her.

The next day I had to go down to SCOI in Valencia to get a check up because my collar bone isn't healing right.

Six weeks after the initial break.

Next check up is in mid February.

Crush'd

My girlfriend is freaking cute.

But for real. The nicest way I can put this is I've dated a lot of shitty girls, like A LOT. Jenn is really a blessing.

"I'm really glad this is happening."

Jamie All Over

So this past week I went to Las Vegas on a business trip with work. We left mid day Wednesday and got out there around 9. We went to dinner after checking in and got sat next to a table of loud teenage girls. That wasn't too bad until one of the girl broke into song like she was trying out for American Idol, by the way she wouldn't have made it. After dinner we hit the strip and I took some pictures before heading back to the hotel where I started gambling since it was my first time in Vegas when I could gamble.

So I'm sitting there playing Wheel of Fortune when I get my eyes covered and a kiss on my cheek. In my mind I'm like "who's this chick kissing me on the cheek" and I turn and I see Jenn, Steven and Diego. Jenn drove out there to surprise me. After that we hung out for about 2 hours before I had to go to bed because we had a meeting with a future client, but I'll keep his name to my self.

After breakfast we head over to CES and start looking around, checking out a clients booth and then JVC, Kodak, some lighting company that I don't remember the name. After that I went and checked out the Nikon booth then left to go hang out with Jenn and everyone.

We walked around the strip for a while before heading back to the hotel for dinner. On the way back the shuttle bus driver put on Al Green and like a scene from a movie, the entire bus started singing along.

After getting back to the hotel we get some food and Jenn and I gamble a little bit and head back to the hotel room and watch the end of the Rose Bowl...Alabama won...Roll Tide. We get some food and play Quelf and about 1230 we went out and played a game of bowling where I won, it was a close game between Steven and I.


But back to the whole Jenn coming out to Vegas and surprising me. I was genuinely surprised, I didn't expect it at all. I've always been the kind of guy that does the cute surprises, big and little, but I've never had it done to me. I loved it, I love her.


Favorite Pictures from the trip.

Still Searching....

Was 2009 anything that I expected? Hell no! Lets just go through the twists and turns of my year; the good and the bad choices.

January -I began my year in the great state of Alabama. I started talking to Haley, who had a crazy military boyfriend. He threatened to "beat the shit out of me" and I replied with questioning his manhood...this escalated to him threatening to kill me...I still question his manhood and even told him to do it. Good choice. My nephew sean was in the hospital for a few days, it was the single most depressing thing I had ever seen.
February - I started talking to a good friend Alli and blew that after going to dinner with my X and thinking I had a chance. Bad choice. My sister had her second child, Nolan, he was HUGE. My parents drove out from California to see the new grandchild. Good choice. I got my iPhone. Good choice. I went to see For Today/MyChildren MyBride/ The Ghost Inside in MCMB's home town. Good Choice.
March - I started talking to Stephanie. Good choice at the time...I was wrong.

April - I start my sleeve, a rising sun to show overcoming depression. Good Choice. I go tubing with Brett and Travis, leave with bruised heals and butts. I go tubing with Brett and Travis again, Brett and I fall off a huge waterfall into a deep pool, good choice, we float down the river further and Brett and I fall off a smaller waterfall and land on rocks and almost drown. Bad Choice. I go to RFKC training in Madison and go see Saints Never Surrender/ Venia/ Ambush! that same night, all on 3 hours of sleep. Good choice.
May - I turn 21. Travis moves back in with his parents and thats the end of the snake pit. I get my chest tattooed. I get more work on my arm done. Good choice. Travis and I shave birthday mustache's cause I was born on Cinco De Mayo. Good Choice.
June - I move back to California. Stephanie becomes my girlfreind. I get offered my job at Coffee House Ideas. I do the video for RFKC. I go to Oxnard with Stephanie and her cousin and his wife, Stephanie and I go to Warped Tour. I got to see my best friend Nicole for the first time in 6 months. Good choice.

July - Filming on location in the mountains, my parents go out to Alabama for 2 weeks for my oldest nephews birthday. Started fighting with Stephanie a lot. Bad choice. I bought a camera and started doing photography. Good Choice.
August - Filmed a show for a client. Went to Vegas with Stephanie for 5 days, pierced my nose, skated with her cousin Ernie everyday. Realized that on a skateboard, for me at least, everything is perfect. Good Choice. Still fought with Stephanie a lot.

September - Fought with Stephanie a lot. Added a lot more to my arm. Broke up with Stephanie. Got my life back. Great choice. I became a vegetarian again.


October - Added color to my arm. My mom had heart surgery again...it got fixed this time. I started going to Lifeline and Pulse every week. Spent Halloween working at the church. Good choice.



November - I went to lunch with Jennifer. I started blogging a lot. I started dating Jenn. I started doing more photography for bands just for fun. I go snowboarding with Jenn and Steven and break my collar bone. Jenn went to Texas for Thanksgiving, which started bittersweet December. I had Thanksgiving with my bosses family. Jenn became my girlfriend officially. Great choice.



December - I go visit Alabama for 9 days. Good choice. A day and a half after I get back Jenn leaves for Massachusetts for 12 days. I film 24 episodes of a show for a client, I work 41 hours in 3 days. Bad choice. I go down to Pico Rivera and Santa Monica with Hannah and we run out of gas on the way home, while waiting for my cousin and uncle to come rescue us we actually finish the entire 99 bottles of beer song. Hilarious choice. Jenn comes home and we exchange Christmas presents, she got me this cute bracelet with our initials engraved on it.
All in all it was a good year. Those are just some of the notable incidents of my year. It was a good year, I never expected to move home, I never expected to start dating Jenn. I never thought I'd enjoy seeing people from high school again. Man how we grow.

Alive with the Glory of Love

I have a lot to be thankful this year. Here's a list of some of the things I am extremely thankful for.

1. As cheesy and generic of an answer this is I have to say it. I'm so thankful for God and his forgiveness, without Him I would not be alive.
2. Speaking of being alive, I am definitely thankful for that, last April while hanging out with my friend Travis and Brett tubing down a creek in Muscle Shoals Brett and I spilled over a waterfall and landed on rocks and then both of us almost drowned, so my value for life has grown a lot since then.
3. Because of that incident I decided to move back to California to be able to spend time with my parents. I'm so thankful for having a loving supportive set of parents that did an amazing job raising my brother, my sister and myself.
4. I'm so thankful for my brother, I always talk crap and joke but I'm proud of him, he's over in Afghanistan right now serving this country.
5. I'm thankful for my job, it's such a fun firm to work at. I'm so blessed to have a job I love that pays well in this economy.
6. Last but definitely not least, I am so thankful for Jenn, it's only been a few short weeks but she makes me extremely happy


I'm vegetarian. We all want turkey at Thanksgiving.

Your Hand In Mine

I broke my collar bone on Friday. It is hands down the most inconvenient thing on the planet. It takes me so long and a great deal of pain to get dressed. I got stuck in a windbreaker for 15 minutes the other night. It sucks. On a positive note the vicodin makes me dominate at scrabble.

Despite the whole breaking my collar bone thing, my friday was really nice. Because of that I spent the entire day with Jenn. A lot of it was spent in Urgent Care waiting rooms but it was nice to just sit there with her. We didn't get to eat until around 530 that day so after that the day went a lot better for Jenn, she was starting to get cranky. After that we dropped off my prescription and got my car and dropped it off at my house. She got to meet my mom, which was unexpected, and they got along great, my mom was even cracking jokes and kind of making fun of her for babying me. My parents already like her better than my last girlfriend, which is a great thing, especially because my dad hasn't even met her yet.

After we dropped my car off we went back to her house and just sat on her bed and talked the rest of the night, she showed me old pictures and stuff from high school and junior high. We listened to This Will Destroy You and Explosions In The Sky she really liked them, which makes me happy. It was just nice to bond with her, I really like that we are open about everything.

I know in past relationships I always have trouble being 100% me, there is always a part of me that I hide for some reason but with this one I can say is I am not hiding any part of me. Jenn is the first girl I've been like this with in a long time. Her and I are a lot alike with things and that helps so much. I've never dating someone like me and it's so much better.

Somebody's Gonna Miss Us

St. Louis Missouri July 2003.


The other night I was hanging out with Jenn and she pulls out her high school yearbooks. I found a random picture of myself and my friends from 9th grade playing hackie sack, I didn't know it was there. I had completely forgot about that, or those people at least.

We go through each year and jr year still had my picture in it even though I left halfway through the year. I look at my picture and laugh and ignore the blue box around just assuming it. Then I hear "did you notice the blue box?" Turns out the blue box is for cute boys. Cute right?

We finally got to senior year and she just kept telling me these great stories. Stories from being on the robotics team, stories from grad night, things like that. After we finished I grabbed my phone and posted a tweet basically saying "for the first since in 4 years I actually feel like I missed out on my senior year." I was in awe that I actually said that, I had a blast my senior year. My senior year I mainly spent doing merch for a few of my friends bands. I got to go to shows out of town at least once or twice a week for the end of 2005 and at least three times a week for the first couple months of 2006. I was all over California. Not to mention when I wasn't out with my friends I was working an internship as an editor for a video podcast. I had a blast doing both of those things and now I have friends spread across the west coast because of it and I have the job that I have now.
I was talking to another friend from high school about it today and her reply has been ringing in my head all day. "You shouldn't feel like you missed out because you didn't have the stereotypical normal high school experience." She's right, I didn't. Nothing in my life has ever been normal and I accepted that a long time ago.

I never thought I would write these words but I wish I went to prom, I wish I acted like a jackass at football games, I wish I went to grad night, I wish I walked in the graduation ceremony with friends.

Things Fall Apart

I went to lunch with my friend Dylan today. We went to high school together, kind of. The first three weeks of my Senior year I went to the same private school he did but we never met. Probably cause I hung out with the seniors and he was a freshman at the time, that makes me feel old cause he goes to CSUN now. We were sharing stories from when we went there. Mine were from the previous semester before he got there but it was a tiny school so he know who I was talking about. I really didn't care for anyone at the high school I went to before that, which makes the whole Jenn and I dating thing that much more random, but I love all the kids I went to at that private school. In fact while I'm writing this I'm talking to one of my friends from that school on Facebook.

I'm just feeling old at 21. Besides that two year disappearance to Alabama I have been going non stop since I was probably around 13. It also doesn't help that the last time i stepped foot into a classroom was september 2005 and the last time I did homework, or at least tried on homework, was sometime in 2004.

Anyways, the past year, maybe less I've just been looking back on my life, see the changes I've made, the different interests, different girls, different fashion, different everything. I never thought I would be the man I am now but oddly this is exactly who I want to be.

The last two relationship I've been in shook me to the core when they were over. Both times I had to look back on who I was and I didn't like what I saw. Who I am now, how I treat Jenn, I'm impressed with who I've become. I never thought I would ever be able to say that.