Raleigh, NC

      Yesterday I took a short road trip north to Raleigh, NC simply out of the boredom of Myrtle Beach. I planned the trip out late Saturday night plotting used bookstores and writing down directions. I was hoping for the weather to be a little cooler or at the very least a drop in the humidity.       The temperature didn't seem to drop very much (I think it was actually hotter inland) but the humidity was widely different than the coast. Although it was warmer, I could breathe without feeling like I was inhaling a cloud. The two bookstores I visited made the list of my all-time favorites. Reader's Corner and Nice Price Books.
      Reader's Corner was the first that I visited. I picked this first because outside along the entire front of the building, they have used books for $0.10 to $0.25 each. Let me just say I filled a box full of books and only spent $3. The best part was that all of the proceeds from the sales of the books outside goes to NPR which I loved. Inside was another monstrous selection of used books where I easily filled my arms for about $20.

      From there I drove a block and a half down the road to Nice Price Books. This store was partially falsely advertised with it's name. It is only half a bookstore; it is also a music shop. The selection of vinyl and compact discs along with DVDs and blu-ray was spectacular. I was able to acquire another book, a few $1 cds and a brand new Sylvan Esso vinyl that came with a digital download. As an added bonus, there is a free section where you can get local artists samplers that included country, rock, metal, and indie bands. There was free music posters, stickers, and even a couple concert DVDs. They even have artists come in for surprise concerts. This has become my favorite store, if only it wasn't 2.5 hours away.

      As usual, the mini-road-trip placed me in a relaxing good mood to set the week. Only time will tell if it lasts but for now I'm just going to sit back and enjoy my music and books.

Song of the Day: 

Hey Mami - Sylvan Esso

Movie of the Day:

The Spiderwick Chronicles

3 families in 1 house

      Everyone knows that I live with my parents. Now my brother, his wife, and their two kids have moved in with us. We live in a three bedroom two bathroom double-wide trailer which means each family gets one bedroom and two families share a bathroom. My brother (whose wife is super lazy) has the two kids one of which is almost three and the other is 6 months. They made their tiny closet into the three year old's bedroom. This only meant that her bed would barely fit in it while they surrounded it with hanging clothes. The amount of stuff they brought in with them is ridiculous. When you go in knowing that you are going to be living out of one bedroom, you do not bring your entire house with you. I live out of one bedroom and I have a storage shed for the rest of my stuff simply because the rest of the house is NOT mine, it is my parent's and I respect that. Apparently my brother and sister-in-law do not respect this because they have filled my parents' house with junk. They brought their 100 gallon fish tank simply because they didn't want to put it in storage. It now takes up one entire room. They have literally filled the family room with their stuff. I can't even comprehend how they thought it would be okay to take over my parent's house the way they did.
      In other news, I have been denied for a $500 loan from a tiny finance company which gives me little hope for moving out in the future. I didn't want to buy anything, I just wanted to build my credit up (because I am in default of my student loans like a large percentage of the US population). I am now in the process of saving as much as I can to take a CDL class so I can hopefully make more money (and maybe eventually begin paying back my loans again).
      Yesterday was the 4th of July which meant birthday fireworks for me. The only problem was I had to work and I have been working six days a week so I was too exhausted to even drive out for fireworks. I took my dog to the beach and stopped on the way back to buy some smaller fireworks. Luckily the neighbors set some off every year so I had those to watch as well. I leave you now with the video I made for to celebrate the 4th:

Song of the Day: Cheerleader by OMI

Movie of the Day: Independence Day

Post-Wizard Con Raleigh

   Words cannot contain the joy you feel when you meet your heroes. During Wizard World Comic Con in Raleigh this year, I got to meet David Tennant, the tenth Doctor on Doctor Who and currently Alec Hardy on Broadchurch. David was the reason I fell hard for Doctor Who as well as other British shows like Broadchurch. In order to meet David, guests needed to have a special VIP pass. Since David was one of the few people I would pay money to meet, I felt the overwhelming need to pay the steep $400 to meet him. I used all of my savings to pay for the ticket and book a hotel room for three nights which after I paid for the ticket and saved out enough for gas, the hotel I ended up with was a cheap run down hotel about six miles away from the convention center.
   Friday I had to work so I tried to focus on my job. When I finally got out, I tried to get to Raleigh as quickly as possible. The two and a half hour ride was longer than expected because of the gloomy rainy day but it was worth it when I pulled up to the convention center. Finding an open parking garage in the rain in the dark was almost impossible and I had to trek though the rain a few blocks to get back to the convention center but when I finally made it inside with my David Tennant VIP pass, the scene was breathtaking. The vendor floor was huge, as long as a football field and was filled wall to wall with comic books, toys, clothing, and signature tables.

   I took a quick tour of the floor so I knew where I needed to be on Saturday and then checked into the hotel. Saturday morning my alarm went off super early and I ended up being an hour and a half early only to find lines already in place which made me thankful for the VIP pass which had the shortest line and thankful that I had stopped in the night before to pick up my pass. A man on the megaphone was trying to rouse the crowds but very few could understand what he was saying let alone hear him say it. Memories of the teacher from Charlie Brown kept popping in my head every time I could hear him.

   I didn't have much cash left on me to spend and my VIP pass with David was for Sunday and not Saturday so I visited the Ian Somerhalder panel. I didn't know much about the guy but one of my coworkers loved him so I went so she could at least have a picture of him. Afterwards I browsed the artists tables and photographed cosplayers. All of the amazing Doctor Who cosplayers were either at the David Tennant panel or in line for his autograph and photo op but I did catch some superheroes.

   I was also able to capture a few glimpses of stars from their signature lines. James Marsters played Spike on Buffy - the show that got me through high school. John Schneider played Bo Duke on the Dukes of Hazard and he was the first crush I could remember. My parents used to watch the show's reruns obsessively. Other stars that I couldn't get a good picture of included William Shatner (Captain Kirk from Star Trek), Kevin Sorbo (Hercules and the captain from Andromeda), Kyle Lowder (Brady Black from Days of Our Lives), Jason David Frank (Green/White/Red Power Ranger - my second crush) and Sean Astin (Rudy, and Sam from Lord of the Rings)

   The lack of food choices led me to head outside in search of more and cheaper options. After walking three blocks North and getting soaked from the rain, I turned East and after only a block found the streets closed off due to Raleigh's Saint Patrick's Day Celebration. An entire festival just a block over with restaurants in the main plaza and food vendors lined down the street. By now I was freezing cold and soaked to the bone so naturally my first food purchase was fried Oreos. I purchased some overpriced blue crabs to make up for the unhealthiness of the first purchase and headed back to the car to eat and warm up. I headed back in to watch David's panel on the large screens outside of the ballroom. I finished out the day by going back to the hotel room to get rest before I had to wake early the next morning.

   Sunday I was awake before the church crowd. I arrived at the convention center two hours before the doors opened but there were still about fifteen to twenty people in line before me for David's panel. When we were shuffled into the ballroom, I was upset to learn that although I had a VIP pass and was rejected from the Saturday panel because I had the wrong day pass, Sunday's panel had three rows of seating for VIPs but the rest was general public. I was pissed because I had waited in line the day before and told that since I didn't have a Saturday pass, I couldn't go in but for Sunday, anyone could go in. 

   The panel was amazing and David's personality is that of my dream guy. We finished the panel and had to rush downstairs to get in line for the photo op. We were ushered in like cattle but David took it like a champ and was very polite and charming. After the rush downstairs, we still had about two hours to wait for the autograph session to begin. I decided I wanted to wait with my fellow Whovians in line for autographs. We compared pictures from the photo op and talked about the show and how much we love David. He arrived early for autographs because he needed to make an earlier flight home. I contemplated having my autograph personalized (meaning my name or a personal message on it). I decided to have it personalized with my name and I'm so glad I did because when he said my full name in his Scottish accent, I don't think I've been any happier hearing my name spoken. 

   I finished out the weekend in a bliss but also a little saddened to be returning home. I'm not much a fan of the town I live in but my meeting with David will hopefully hold my peace of mind over for a while.

Song of the Day:

Vindicated by Dashboard Confessionals

Movie of the Day:

The Perks of Being A Wallflower

Wizard World Con Raleigh

I am excited and slightly terrified because last night I purchased the VIP tickets to see David Tennant at the Wizard World Con in Raleigh in two weeks. I've been saving up to buy a motorcycle but when I found out David was going to be at the con in Raleigh I slapped down $400 without too much guilty thought afterward. I even called my place of work last night at ten pm so I could request the days off before I bought the tickets. Ususally when I make a high price purchase a voice in my head starts to tell me what a horrible idea it was and then I fell guilty but so far that girl has been beat down thankfully by the rest of my brain that loves David and Doctor Who. I've spent the day figuring how I will get there, where I will stay and shower, and what to take with me. I am on a very limited budget but I wanted to have the full experience which was why I forked over an extra two hundred dollars for a picture with and autograph of David.

My nervousness comes in because I have never been to such a large event and now I am also going to it by myself. I usually travel alone but I have never been to a place that will have so many people there as well. I try to find comfort in the fact that the last time I went to a large group gathering by myself was when I went to a Can't Stop the Serenity event in Norfolk, Virginia. I was living in New York then and I drove all the way down and spent the weekend camping at the state park so I wouldn't have to pay for a hotel. This gives me hope for my weekend trip to Raleigh. I only live two hours away which helps save gas money and if I become flat broke, I can always shower at a truck stop along the interstate. True devotion knows no bounds.

I can't wait to bring you pictures, videos, and storyies of my trip so keep up to date with me here or on my Twitter or Youtube channel.

Movie of the Day:

The Amazing Spider Man

Song of the Day:

Hit the Lights - Fucked Up Kids

Welcome to 2015

My last post was a little depressing, I'll admit. I was saying goodbye to 2014 in hopes that 2015 would be a better year for me. My high hopes for the new year were well intentioned as I had a pay raise at work that meant I would be making just as much working fast food as I would've if I'd taken the security job I was offered further away. I was also registered to take a construction rehabilitation specialist class so that I could get a job in construction making enough to move out of my parents' house. Then February came.

My class that I had been looking forward to has now been postponed for two months because of low enrollment. To most people, this is not that big of a deal - two months, big whoop. To me though, two months means eight more weeks of getting paid nearly minimum wage and living with my parents. It means two extra months in between time when I can look for a construction job and finally move on with my life.

The second issue actually involved my family. My father had not seen a doctor for the past 15 years so when he finally started going at the beginning of the year, we knew his health would be bad. It turned out he had bursitis in his arm, cirrhosis of the liver, and diabetes. At the beginning of February, he started throwing up and eventually it lead to blood coming out of both ends of him. We took him to the hospital to find out where the bleeding was coming from and he went into a coma. After coming out of the coma, we found out he had cysts in his stomach that burst which caused the bleeding and when they gave him medicine to stop the bleeding, his ammonia levels were so high from the liver cirrhosis that the meds sent him into a coma. Now the issue is he needs a biopsy on his liver and they still don't have insurance so in the back of my mind I'm trying to calculate how much I'm going to have to work to help pay their bills because I know my parents and they will need financial assistance so they will be looking at me. Me that still has to live at home because I can't afford to move out. Me that had to trade cars with my brother so he could sell mine and I would have a newer model because I can't afford to fix a broken car or buy a new one. And Me, who had a $700 refund from the government that they kept because I am in default of my student loans. Yes I am fully qualified to hand out money.

Their health has made me rethink my own and in retrospect, I have now signed up for Obamacare, if for no other reason than I can't afford to end up paying hospital bills. I will now have a $30 health insurance bill that I really don't have a grasp on what exactly it covers.

The good news of 2015 has been the birth of my first nephew. Bryson is a healthy baby bow who at a month old can roll over and almost sit up on his own. He and his big sister have finally made me rethink my choice of having kids but now I need to find my forever guy to help. A hard to find mission if there ever was one, seeing as how I am a hardcore atheist living in the Christian occupied South. Maybe it won't be as bad though because the oldest woman in the world swears she has lived so long because she did so without a man. I honestly think I would take a loving husband over a long life any day.

Song of the day:

Bastille covering Miley Cyrus' We Can't Stop

Movie of the Day:

Kingsmen: The Secret Service