In a word...

Perfection. That is what today has been. Well, the last part of the day was, the first half was just boring and work. I started out waking up at 7:05am to the ring of my phone, and the day ended with something not to short of an amazing time. So let's get started.

When I got that call at 7:05am, I was relieved to see it was her. That beautiful red headed masterpiece I call Courtney. I picked up and answered in a tone that was less than pleasant, due to my waking up and everything, and I was pleased to hear almost the same tone on the other end. We talked for a few minutes and then hung up. I told her about my grounding and everything and, while displeased, still managed to say "I love you" which, I still, cannot believe she can say to me without lying, but I know she says it with the utmost truth and awesomeness. And although getting made fun of for doing so, continues without a bat of an eye, except towards me, because I find it cute. But the rest of my morning consisted of laying in bed for another few hours, waking up at 9:14am, reading my book until about 11:00am, going downstairs for some breakfast, coming back up stairs and reading some more, and then my phone had a conniption. Apparently sending a mass text message to 142 people causes an iPhone to slow down dramatically for a few minutes. And then, the non stop replies afterward were tiring on the fingers as well. But it went over smoothly and I managed to reconnect with a friend I knew a few years ago, so, yeah. Then, while reading, I noticed it was about 12:30pm, so I hit the shower and prepared for another day at the castle.

I went for lunch at Potbelly sandwich works, which, while very tasty, was very slow, and caused me to be a few minutes late to work. But when I got there, I changed into my costume as guard, and continued on through the day. The first show I was "Call Show," which means I sort of lead the rest of the spotlights, they all know what they are doing, so I am there as more of an aid to synchronization, of sorts. Then the second show I was in "SP-1foto" and did my duties in spot booth one, and working in photo tower. Of course, while going through my work routine for the day, managed to control myself, as I knew that in only a few short hours, I would finally be able to see Courtney for the first time in weeks, and boy was I happy. Everyone at work noticed my rather chipper mood as I strutted through the castle, and when I finally headed out to the Lexus to be picked up, I couldn't wait for the next part of the day.

Riding down the highway and reading, I kept looking up at the road to see how close we were to QuikTrip Park. I couldn't think of anything more than finally getting to see that beautiful, red headed, amazing, excellent, love of my life, etc so on, and so fourth, you get the idea. As we approached the park, I made the decision to, instead of riding with my father all the way around the park and having to walk even more to get to the front gate, I would get out of the car, and run to the front gate. There were a swarm of police, sheriff, and county officials that seemed to all think I was running with a pistol in hand, when really, all I had was my iPhone. They all paused from their work to give the kid with long hair a dirty look, to dream up of ways I would ruin my life, whether it be drugs, or a motorcycle accident, but then they were on their way, as was I. So as I ran up to the front gate, I realized it looked an awful lot like an airport runway painted on the ground, and I didn't realize until just now that the team's name was "Air Hogs" so you can imagine how stupid I feel. But I did finally notice Courtney and Ashley somewhat hiding behind the bars of the closed gate and grabbed the ticket, got it torn, and was embraced by the most amazing girl in the world. It had been a while since I had felt this happy. But that ended when she got distracted by Ashley's mom walking down the path toward the restroom, but I was with her, I was happy.

The game ended about just as soon as I got there, and we walked over to the cars parked in the adjacent parking lot, and boy were there a lot of cars. Courtney and I walked around a bit, and sat on the concrete, sat inside a HUGE SUV, and stood infront of the SUV watching fireworks. Of course, whether I watched the fireworks, or looked at Courtney, it felt like I was looking at the same thing. Ok, so, that cheesy line sounded a lot better when I said it to her, typed out it kinda looses meaning. But oh well. It meant a lot then, so it still does, gosh. Just as the faint smile and the "I love you" meant more to me than any fire works show I could attend, or even produce in my own house...coughs. But as the fire works kept going off, PB ran through the crowd of "Drunk Pentecostals" as he called them and headed for his own vehicle. The rest of us followed suit. Ashley's family got in their big SUV, and Courtney, myself, and the rest of the Conatser clan got into the blue mini-van I have gotten to know so well and headed for home. We landed at my abode first, and as Courtney stumbled through the sliding door to give me a last hug good-bye, her father cheerfully added, "Well, see ya in a hundred years or so." This was followed by his son's exact same remark, then Courtney got in and they drove away. I turned sharply when I was startled by a few dozen Black Cats going off in the house across the street. Well, not in the house, that would be stupid, right?

Survey Says...

I'm grounded. That's right. But not grounded from the Internet, TV, phone, computer, or anything else I somewhat enjoy doing...I am grounded from getting to see Courtney. For how long, you ask...well, I don't know. I just kinda wish it wasn't this way. But I guess almost catching my house on fire is a bit of a reason for me to get in trouble, but oh, wait, I took very cautious steps to make sure that didn't happen, but I didn't video tape it, so I have no proof...oh well. I guess there could have been a worse punishment, so I'm greatful for what I still have.

But getting into today's events, nothing super extraordinary. I slept past twelve, which has been a rare occurrence lately due to the cll I would receive around 8 every morning from Courtney, but suddenly, I have stopped getting those calls...in fact, I have stopped getting many calls in general from her. Also, she pretty much refuses to communicate with me through facebook or myspace...but hopefully all this is because she is busy, or because of more punishments or something, I don't quite know for sure. I just really hope she hasn't lost interest in me. Which, being the kind of person I am, I could see why that is such an easy thing to do. I'm not super exciting, I tend to degrade myself on a regular basis, and I might come across as a bit clingy, but all around a pretty boring person I am. But like I say, I hope that she hasn't lost interest, but only has become super busy the last 36 hours, because, to tell you the truth, I'm really starting to miss her. Tomorrow I was planning on seeing her twice, and now that has been cut down to seeing her only once, maybe. I was going to go to a parade, and then later, after work, to an Air Hogs game with her. But now it seems I will only be attending the Air Hogs game. I left her a message explaining how I felt, so I hope I will have an answer to everything by tomorrow...sometime...but anyway...on to a more happy subject so I can stop beating myself up.

Sound. What a wonderful thing. It is around us everywhere and all the time. No matter what, our ears are taking in some kind of ominous vibrations. But what's even better than that you ask? When someone you don't even know controls the sounds you hear and can determine whether you walk away unscathed, or you go home with a ringing in your ears that will never seem to stop. That's the person I was today. After three weeks of only being able to spot light, I was finally back on the soundboard at work tonight. The familiar glisten of the arena lights and scent of an extra ordinarily clean room awakened my senses. I was ready. And after three weeks, I only once forgot to mute the shotgun mikes that are used for hearing sounds made in the arena when the fights are going on. But this isn't any real mistake at all, just something that is like to be seen done. But the show went smoothly and, dressed in all black, I sat in the soundbooth after the show and played Russian roulette with a coworker, Robin. Of course, it wasn't really russian roulette, only an application he had suggested downloading after the show onto my iPhone, and I did indeed do so. The application made us laugh quite hard, because of how sadistic it could be. But we thought it better be used outside of the work place and packed everything up and went on our way.

The book I am reading is becoming one of the best books ever. "Trust No One" never bores you. It never makes you say, "gee, my eyes hurt, I need to go to bed." It makes you read through the pain and keeps you awake longer. I currently am on page 170 something. I've only been reading for two days, and I generally don't like to read...which shows you how good of a book it actually is. But for now, I must be getting to bed. I have my book to read, after all. And tomorrow I hope to hear from Courtney and enjoy an evening with her. Hope everyone is doing alright!

Peace
-Matt

It's the halfway point.

The year of 2009 has held good and bad memories for me, but that was only the first half. Today is the official halfway mark for the year, so happy birthday and a half to those born on January 1st. Now that I have introduced today's post, I shal ramble on about the events of the day.

In the wee hours of the morning, I woke up. It was about 6:45am and the only thing of importance I needed to do today was turn in my final paper for Government which I have been taking since June 5th at Northlake. My paper was over two different questions, one being about the best way to influence the government if you are a citizen of the United States, and the other topic being over the advantages and disadvantages of free media, the paper went smoothly, and I expect the grade to be good. I'm still awaiting the grade, but I assure you, when I find out, you will know. Moving on, after I turned in my paper and talked with a few people up at Northlake. Courtney is still kinda grounded from me, because last night I was talking with her, and apparently we can only talk on the internet now, but as of today, I haven't heard from her...so I have no idea what's going on. But I hope and wish the best for her in this troublesome grounding period. This Saturday, I plan on going with her family after I get off work to an AirHogs game near Nokia Theater. I have no idea what that means, but I suppose I will find out. So, to continue my morning, I went to work out, and got home around 11:15am. I don't really remember if I ate lunch, I probably didn't so I am going to blame what happened an hour later on the fact I had barely any food in me. Therefore, preventing my ability to think straight.

After I got home from working out, I called my mom and let her know I arrived safely, because she's big on the whole safety thing. Of course, what parent wouldn't be...especially my parents. After I talked with her, I got my iPod out of my workout bag and set it on my desk next to my phone. My phone was plugged in and he was happily charging. I checked my email, and got some bad news from my manager at work. The days I needed off for my camping trip were denied, somewhat. It appears there might be a chance that I can go, but he certainly didn't make any promises. So this made me feel a bit sad, so I thought I should listen to some music. I turned on my computer and started playing some songs, this reminded me I needed to charge my ipod for work out. I needed my other iPod cord since I was using the other one for my phone. So I went upstairs, and this is when the whole "no food in me, i can't think straight" thing comes into play. Obviously not being clear in the head, after forgetting what I went upstairs for, I started looking for things to do, as I had already completed my chores for the day and didn't feel like reading at that moment. So, I looked through the dumpsite known as my closet for something to entertain me. I saw old magic equipment from my magician years, and I saw board games. Vintage clothes and paintball pants led me to my old collection of rocket parts and accessories. Now, already being a pyro, I instantly took this as an opportunity to watch some sparks and have some harmless fun, that was my first mistake. I set up my vice on a small wooden table that I use to burn insence on, and mounted a rocket engine within the strong grips of the vice. I had some old brick flats, which are like heavy duty material made to mimic bricks. I set one up behind the engine, as I didn't know how far the spark trail would shoot from the rear of the engine, and I also set one up infront of the engine, since the small explosion used for getting the parachute out of the rocket would also be taking place. After I got a water bottle, and wet down the area around the engine and the two flats i used as flame guards, I filled the bottle back up and had it on stand-by just incase something happened to go wrong. I put the igniter in the engine, stood back, put in the safety key, and pressed the launch button. Oh no. A very loud hissing noise with a huge trail of sparks emitted from the rear of the engine. My flame guard had worked well, so everything was very controlled. Once that had gone off, i waited for the small explosion to happen and go in and clean up the mess. That whole sequence of events was my second mistake. And the third mistake I made was not remembering how much smoke these little engines actually put out. Nothing was on fire, nothing went wrong on my engine ignition, but then i heard an even louder buzzzzz coming from the hallway outside of my room. It turns out smoke detectors really do work. This is when my blood started pumping faster than ever. I had absolutely no idea how to shut one of those things off. So I looked on the device for some sort of button and found nothing but the test switch. So, I got up on a stool, and while fighting the noise, reached up, took the cover off the device and took the battery out. This finally disengaged the alarm and I thought I was in the clear. When I went downstairs to check on my sister and her baby, she was on the phone with my mother. Luckily nothing serious came out of this event. I told her what I did, and I told her the safety percautions I took to prevent any major damage. OF course, everyone knows that fire is unpredictable, and even I hate myself for pressing that button, but boredom and lack of food does things to you. So after the smoke cleared out of my house, I went to my bedroom and took all my fire equipment, as I call it, out and put it somewhere I wouldn't be tempted to mess with it again. And that's how that portion of my day went.

After all that happened, I settled back in my room and read my book, Trust No One, before going to work. I then put some food in my belly in the form of a Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwich, and made another sandwich to take to work along with a bag of sun chips and a water bottle. At work, the day went normally. I started out getting caught in traffic, which made me a few minutes late. Then arriving at the castle, I went inside and changed into my guard costume and went to the green screen area to help dress the guests for costume photos. Jess, a coworker was told to run cards and direct traffic flow through the castle, so I was left alone at the costume rack dressing parties of folks. But that only lasted a few minutes when I was joined by Erin, she and I got to dressing the people pretty well, then Jess came back and Erin went back to shadowing managers for her internship thing she is working on. So after table call, which is when everyone in the castle is called to their different sections inside the arena, I went to spot booth 4 and fired it up and sat in the booth and read my book some more. I believe at that point I was on page 38 and 2 hours later, I had read some during work and ended up around page 60. The book is great so far, which is weird, because I usually can never get into books. But I guess boredom does things to a man. Of course, through all of this, I am hoping Courtney has contacted me in some way to let me know what is going on with the whole grounding thing, but I still didn't get anything from her except two pieces of flair on facebook. Which I was happy I at least got that. But tomorrow hopefully she will call me or something. I don't know, though. So, after work ended, I came back home and read my book some more and started writing this blog. And that was today.

Tomorrow I wonder if anymore fun adventures will come my way. We shall find out I suppose. Until next time, I'm Matt Wofford, and I love Courtney...a lot.
Peace.

-Matt

Getting back in the groove...

So, I haven't even touched this website since October of last year, and I suppose I have good reason. School, school and more school. Along with some work, and a few failed relationships and one amazing relationship. That's pretty much the last 8 months for me. But of course, with me, I have to go into detail about everything, so be ready for a really long blog. Here goes nothing.

Ok, so, let's start off with what happened around October, November, and December. Honestly, I do not remember much about those months except for a few key events. Ok, so you might remember L***** from my previous posts? Well, I finally did talk to her, and nothing came out of that at all, and it also wasn't my top priority to find a girlfriend at that time either. Another thing that happened in this time period was that I started meeting a lot of new people, well, I thought they were new, until about 95% of them told me they were from my middle and elementary school. These meetings occurred on Facebook and Myspace, so I'm not exactly sure they are 100% legit, but I will continue none the less. My friend Kylee, who I met in 2007 stayed with me the whole time, listening to my rants about my school, work, and life in general, but she sure helped me get through it. We are still good buddies, and still haven't hung out...ever. Another thing that happened in this Oct, Nov, and Dec period was that my radio show, Conspiracy Radio, completely went down the tubes. I just wasn't that motivated to continue working that hard for an audience of maybe 6 or 7 people. I think my top hit count was like 14 or something, but whatever, old news now. In December, of course, Christmas hit, and I got an excellent, new sound-system for my truck, which I still can't drive until I get my eagle scout. But I did manage to convince my parents to let me go to driving school, so, hopefully, by the time my 6 month probation was up on my permit, I would have had my Eagle by then...but once again, lack of motivation and overall better uses of my time came into play and I still, after about 7 and a half months of having the permit, do not have my license. But I am working hard to get it...kinda. It just takes too much time to complete. But I need to get it done. Either that, or wait til I am 18 to get the license, since I will no longer be eligable for my Eagle Scout, but we will see what the future holds.

Now, getting into Jan, Feb, and March. This time was probably the highlight of my life. January started off with me getting transferred into the Sound and Light Department at work, which was my absolute dream come true, I was so happy. Then it got boring...so...yeah. Pretty much, what I do, is point a giant flashlight at different things in a big sand pit. It's a bit more complicated than it sounds, but in a nutshell, there you go. Then some other stuff happened in January that I can't rememeber, so we will move onto Febuary. This month kinda is a crazy-depression phase month. I start it off with the feeling I will never date another girl in my life, seeing as that the past five girls I had a mustard seed of interest in, either found other guys, or just came up with excuses not to date me. Which, I got through fine, no suicidal thoughts or anything, just some sadness that I quickly got over once I got to work. Work, during this month, was like my refuge. I had people there that enjoyed my company, I enjoyed theirs, and I really like my job anyway, so it all works out. Something that happened to one of my close friends during this time, also, was that he was working really hard to get the part of the chancellor in the show at Medieval Times, where we both work. He was working on the part for about a month when round one of try-outs came, and to his glory, he nailed it and got a call back, along with 4 others that had potential for the part. Mind you, there were originally 30 people that tryed out, so this is a pretty big accomplishment. I was asked to go for the audition, but I just don't think I'm ready for that kind of stress. It's a lot of lines to memorize, and yeah...not for me. But anyway, when my friend got back for the call back, we arrived at the castle early so he could practice once more. And it was just about time for the audition when, what do you know, he gets ill. So ill, in fact, that he is unable to finish the audition. This really broke his heart, and mine too, having to see him go through that sucked, but even to this day, his dream is still to be chancellor, and I have faith that he will get there one day. Also, in Febuary, I found out that my sister was pregnant. Which to be totally honest, wasn't a huge shock. I had kinda expected something was going on, but yeah. But the baby, Kaitlin, is now born and living happily at our house. She's cool, I guess...I just don't like kids, so no offense. Anyway, moving on to March. This month, I told myself, I was going to branch out and grow a pair and instead of trying to meet girls over myspace and stuff like that, I would finally go after one girl that I had seen around for the last few years at school. She was a redhead by the name of Courtney, and boy is she amazing. When I first decided to talk to her, it was, of course, over gmail. I had seen her in person, but I couldn't gather the courage to just walk up to her and talk. So, on gmail, her first words to me were, "um...do I know you?" and we hit it off from there. I know, pathetic, but on March 13th, 2009, she said yes, and we have been dating ever since, soon to be celebrating our 4th monthiversary. I know, I know, I'm a cheesy guy, and my "moves" aren't up to par at all, but I got her with my stupidity and clinginess, and I still have her. She's absolutely amazing and sometimes really complicated, but I wouldn't have it any other way. She's one of the most important things in my life and by far the best thing to ever happen to me, so all of y'all who make fun of the guy who says "I love you." and actually enjoys saying it, can go suck it. Sorry, but this is like the perfect relationship, and nothing will screw it up. And ofcourse, we do have our occasional quarrels, but they are usually over something stupid that we realize and forgive each other within the hour.

So that was my Jan, Feb, March. Now, let's move on to April, May, June, and up to now, July 2nd. Well, April wasn't super special. Courtney and I had made it past her longest relationship mark, and we intend to keep that going past mine and well into the future. My longest was 7 months with a girl named Nikki, it was a good relationship, I suppose. She lived pretty far away and the whole thing ended when she kissed another guy, but it was nowhere near what Courtney and I have now, so again, anyone who makes fun of Courtney and I for the relationship we have can suck it. Thank you. April still held good things at work, nothing major happened, a few people were fired, and a few people were hired, but overall normal. The photo department, ever since I left was going through some tough times, I believe that they were down on staff by now, and needed some help, but a more interesting story about that happens in June, so we will get to that a bit later. One thing major that did happen in Courtney's life in April was her getting grounded for two months for reasons that will be left unsaid on this public blog. This of course devastated me at first, but it was a bit of a lenient grounding, to where we could still talk on the phone, and I could see her sometimes, but nothing major. We got through the limited communication and limited seeing each other time, so whatever else the world wants to throw at us, lets have it, we will make it. Moving on into May, Courtney and I still holding strong, more in love than ever due to the grounding and more time to discuss our own lives, I believe we got to know each other a lot more. People started noticing that she was acting more happily then ever, and people also noticed I was much more light hearted than my depressive Dec, Jan, Feb self. "Yay" is a good word to describe it. During the month of May, my birthday took place on the 22nd. I had two parties. One that I had planned that took place at Waffle House and was AWESOME. And the other I did not plan, but my friend did and only had three attendees, including myself, but it was still a really fun time. It was also during my birthday weekend I got to spend time together with Courtney, that was my birthday present from her father, and I graciously accepted. We went to a movie and she gave me two t-shirts, a bag of plain M&M's, an amazing birthday card, and I already had her love, but I consider that a gift as well. So as May ended and June began, we were counting down the days until she was ungrounded and we could finally start hanging out together again. We have been wanting to go Ice Skating, and I hope that works out and we get to go soon. So, as we leave May, and go into June, the set date for the ungrounding was June 29th, which wasn't found out until the day Courtney thought she was ungrounded, which was supposedly the 27th, but her father quickly reminded her of the length of grounding after adding on additional days as well. These days entailed no phone, no computer; basically no communication to me at all. I got a message on my phone, she was crying, and telling me what the grounding entailed, and that we couldn't talk for a while. While learning the bulk of the grounding parameters from her in the message, I found out the more finer details from her father that night. She wasn't to be allowed to do anything until July 12th...and that was final. So, as I spent the week, without Courtney, after she had already been at camp for four days with no communication to me, I think it was good that we did get some alone time to ourselves, but it definitely was a bad thing too...because lets face it, we're in love, and not talking to one another at least once a day just isn't fun. But like I said, nothing was going to ruin what we had, and sure enough, it didn't. And I am trully happy about that.

Now, it's July 1st and she was ungrounded, kinda. She could get back on the computer and actually talk to me for the first time in a week or two. I was so happy when I found out. I was writing my final paper for my government class I had been taking over the summer at North Lake, and my instant message window popped up with an IM from courtney. I almost jumped for joy. I couldn't wait to tell her what has been happening these past weeks without her. But alas, she was tired, and needed sleep. So off she went, and here I am alone...I was feeling bad from work when I got home today, because I had to spend about an hour outside in the hot Texas sun in my work costume, which is long black pants, long black shirt, black hood, and over all that, a thick rug like material tunic. It's hot. Especially in 98 degree weather. I needed something to make me happy, and by george, Courtney talked to me and that's all I needed to feel better again. I also have bought some books recently and am getting into reading. We will see how long this lasts. My friend from the chancellor story and I are planning on going to UTA next year after I graduate highschool, so we will be getting an apartment somewhere. We also are going on a camping trip soon, on the 19th. We are still waiting to see if we can get those days off work, but hopefully, we will be able to, because we both need a vacation.

So that's what you have missed, that was 8 months in 4 paragraphs. Pretty good eh? I love Courtney very much, and I am so happy I found her. I will continue blogging once a day as long as I can. I will try to post something at least once a day. Thanks for reading and I'll talk to you later, since, it's already tomorrow at 12:27am. Peace.

-Matt