The East Coast Trip: Mom, Joe, and Jacob

(See Prologue Blog Below)

On August 1st, I arrived in North Carolina to the delight of my nephew Jacob, my brother, and my Mom. I said my hellos, and my Mom threw up into a trashcan. She did that a lot that weekend. She’s fine now, although not fine with the banks, but well, when is she ever. Not a whole lot to say, but you know, when my Mom is sickly, it's really easy to be compassionate with her, I wish I was able to find that when she isn't sick.

Anyway, the weekend was fun, hanging out with Joe and little Jake, just kicking it in North Carolina. We went to see “Journey to the Center of the Earth” in 3-D. Jake liked it a lot, but my brother thought their reactions to the ridiculous situations they were faced with were unbelievable. My response, “Dude, it’s a kids movie.”

We also just watched TV and went out to eat a few times. My brother is a connoisseur of fat foods, and he found disappointment with a greasy stand called the Cook-Out. The portions were really small and just not that tasty, I mean for the amount of Fat in these little burgers, really they should be good as SHEEYYATTT!!!. I on the other hand found us this really cool bread company in Raleigh, and got us all some delicious cinnamon bread, which my brother was really freaked out to try, but admitted that it was the best wheat bread he had ever eaten. He wasn’t even sure wheat bread could taste that good and I told him he needed to stop eating the Seven-grain breads.

One of the things, I don’t really get with Joe is that he can be very inconsiderate about the little things, like sleeping in. Now, I understand getting up and getting an early start, but having to adjust to East Coast time can be very difficult, you know he wants to wake up at 8:00 AM and to me that is like 5:00 AM. And really has anybody noticed how messed up your body’s eating schedule gets when you’re back home. It’s like you’re hungry all the time. Anyway, my brother just tells you to stop being a little (BLEEP) and get up and deal. Thanks Joe, so basically his strategy for dealing with him is "Deal." And you know what, when you have the knowledge that you're going to know someone until death, I guess that it can kind of give you the confidence to be like that.

We had a little chat after a few days and we came to a realization.

Joe - Here's the thing, you and I, we're leaders, we hate following others, we can't do it. We have to do our own thing.

Will - Yeah, I can see that, kind of thought it was like that.

Joe - But you, see, the thing YOU hate about me, and the thing that always causes us to fight is that I'm obsessive and controlling and you, you're not.

Will - ...

Joe - That really pisses you off doesn't it.

Will - ...

Joe - Deal.


The morning before we left for Lynchburg, Joe and I went through a box of photographs from our past, like the old days, and wow. When I become a parent, I WILL NOT let my children wear purple shirts; I don’t care how much they love it, no giant baggy purple shirts. Man, I mean there is this purple shirt that is just in all kinds of pictures and it spans years. And the big glasses don’t even get me started on the big glasses. I remember in 7th grade when I got contact lenses, it was like the world changed. Everything was anew. Think about it like this; for 6 years I’d been looking at myself in the mirror without glasses, and I have really bad vision, and then one day everything clears up and you see yourself for the first time, well that’s what happened when I got contact lenses, I freaked out. And then I got a haircut. I mean if you look at those old pictures, ME, BJ, little Will, whatever you want to call me, I fluctuated from looking like a cute, redheaded, asian kid and then to an awkward slightly off kilter geeky glasses person WHO LOVED THIS BAGGY PURPLE SHIRT! And my brother, well he either looked like a handsome self-loving kid to a thuggish self-loving attractive thug (skinny or fat). There weren’t any picture after the Contact Lens period; I put a moratorium on any picture being taken of me after that period, kind of like Mutt Lang (sorry Shania, you deserve better, now make some damn music, and stop acting like a robot).

On Sunday, August 3rd, we left for Lynchburg Virginia and I got to hang out with my sister-in-law Jennifer and Joe made me get a haircut. Thanks Joe. We also went to see “The Dark Knight.” Afterwards, I was so afraid that they were going to hate. You see they never, NEVER, like anything I recommend. They trust my opinion when I tell them not to see something, but not when I like anything. Luckily, ‘The Dark Knight” is kind of good so they did like it, I don’t think they enjoyed it, but they said it was a really good movie.

Jacob, my nephew is absolutely awesome. I mean he’s the man. He’s like a cross between my brother and me in most ways. He loves fighting, but he’s cute and not threatening. We had a great time watching videos on my computer; he particularly liked Admiral Akbar’s Cereal. SO FUNNY!!! He also liked the trailer to “The Watchman”. But after a few days his infinite energy supply exhausting, and yeah, he really needs to have a brother or sister, he’s very used to getting all the attention. And after that much time around family, I was ready to get going.

And so on Tuesday, August 5th, I was dropped off at the Lynchburg airport, with my really, really, really heavy luggage and I went to AVIS to get a rental car. The first care they gave me was a Ford Taurus, but it needed an oil change, so they swapped me out into a CHEVY IMPALA!

So me and my big ass Chevy Impala took off for Phoenixville, Pennsylvania.