georgia - florida

oh man where do i start? my first georgia/florida experience was amazing. i didn't take a camera so this is what you get. i'm leaving a lot out, but i don't want to bore you:

friday
so on the flight i met this pretty girl and her family. it's her 21st birthday soon so she was all decked out in a sash and crown for the weekend. her dad and i talked about sports and athens and shared a paper, but i kept the ipod on most of the time cause bebo norman calms my nerves enough to fly.

we land and i call justin to tell him, and mention the corey smith concert that night. well miss birthday girl, whose name is taylor spins around and says "no way! where's he playing?" i wasn't sure so i got her number to call her and let her know when caseycallie and crew picked me up. callie says it's sold out, so i call and give her the bad news, say have a great trip, and expect that to be it.

the crew (casey, callie, drew, amy, courtney) wants to go to the mall where i pick up some ridiculously expensive sun glasses, some chickfila and caseycallie buys turtles. we go to the hotel, sit around, watch the craziness at the pool below our balcony, drew and i throw a football on the beach, and eventually we head to dinner before the corey smith show. food was great, but the service was horrible.

the show was insane. the crowd was about 1/3 florida fans and i thought there was gonna be a brawl. corey smith is like the bulldog nation's jimmy buffett. he doesn't sing complicated songs, but everyone can relate to them because they're all about life in georgia. taylor enjoyed a few of the songs via cell phone and we agreed we should meet up at come point during our tailgating.

saturday
girls take way too long to get ready, and so we were up at some ridiculous hour to start tailgating by 9. a free breakfast of danishes and a green banana later we were headed for our parking lot... without our parking pass. the folks there were nice enough to pull up our name in the system and give us a temporary pass. we stayed there for a while, hung out with casey's parents and friends. they were the reason i got a ticket for $16.

after a while amy and i went looking for justin who ended up being just across the street. we hung out with them for a while then went to find taylor. she was a little more difficult to find (i walked all the way around the stadium twice before i figured out where she was talking about.) a few free pork sandwiches (from the other white meat promotional people) and we finally found her and her family. i told her mom about teaching in franklin, and she went crazy 'cause they live there and taylor's younger bro is my kind of student. amy and i had a lot of fun doing cheers with him, eating their ribs and drinking their beer.

somehow i managed to get the only georgia fan not enjoying himself to sit behind me at the game. he was telling us to sit down, and when he put his hand on my shoulder to try and force me to he about made me do something i’ve never done to anyone. i said some things i shouldn't have when he thought he'd be funny by throwing popcorn on amy and i. he finally left and everyone around me was like "you're a bigger man than me, i was waiting on y'all to fight. i woulda had your back man, you shoulda hit him in the mouth."

we left when georgia turned the ball over (again) in the 3rd quarter and went back to justin's. drew had been stuck on the florida side and was scared he was gonna get in a fight, so he met us. i ended up staying with justin and his friends that night.

sunday
i'm not very good at math late at night and decided i should get up at 5 to go back to the hotel room to get my stuff, shower and make my flight. well my flight didn't leave until 10:50 so i had plenty of time to help justin take down the trailer, slice the heck outta the tip of my finger taking down the tent, and get everything packed up for them to leave. i fell asleep a few times waiting on my plane to board. met a girl on the plane who was more nervous about flying than i was. she had a nikon in her bag so we had something to talk about.

picked blue up, headed home, slept away the afternoon. all these time changes are really throwing me off... it's like i gained 2 hours last night. but i still didn't want to go to work.

lessons learned
for some reason i get more attention from girls when i'm not trying.
i really enjoy meeting people when i'm traveling. it's like a switch goes off inside me and i become an extrovert. i'll talk to anybody.
i need to learn more party songs on guitar. there's a place for all my whiny ballads, but it's not the beach.
corey smith is amazing. he's definitely the soundtrack to the weekend. if i could pick one song it'd be this one: enjoy!

"next year"
it's 2006 now and i'm still the same
ol' son of a bitch in the wind
i act like i did back when i was a kid
but it hurts more than it did back then
i go out on the town and make a fool of myself
i run around with the same rowdy friends
i get drunk and obnoxious and wake up the next day
swearing i'm never drinking again

my grandma still tells me enough is enough
life ain't a game son, it's time to grow up

maybe next year i'll start acting my age
turn a new leaf over my wicked ways
get a real job and start pullin' my weight
only three hundred and sixty five days until i change my ways

i dress like a slob, i never tuck in my shirt
i let it hang over my baggy jeans
wear an old baseball cap on the top of my head
with the logo of my favorite teams
i still got the same dirty mouth that i have
since my 1st cousin taught me to cuss
and i just quit my 9-5 occupation
to play a whole bunch of songs i made up

yeah, i'm a big old kid but i ain't ashamed
'cause when the time comes around i know i can change

maybe next year i'll start acting my age
turn a new leaf over my wicked ways
get a real job and start pullin' my weight
only three hundred and sixty five days until i change my ways
maybe next year

maybe next year i'll quit blowing all of the cash
start workin’ out and get off of my ass
maybe next year i'll quit puttin' off all the chores
maybe next year i'll visit my grandparents more
maybe next year i'll go back to church and repent
maybe next year i'll pick up my bible again

i outta straighten up there's no better time than now
to kick all the habits that are bringin' me down

maybe next year i'll stop singing the blues
maybe next year i'll start tellin' the truth
maybe next i won't stay drunk all the time
maybe next year i'll have a little more piece of mind
maybe next year i won't be so sad when i'm alone
maybe next year