Hello and welcome to another fun-filled edition of Random Thoughts. As I
risk typing this up here during a thunderstorm, I remind myself that
maybe I shouldn't be doing this during a thunderstorm. I'm doing it
anyway, so let's get to it. Enjoy.
- This is Memorial Day
weekend, so obviously (or maybe it's not that obvious) this is the
'memorial' edition. Memorial Day for me historically has been up and
down...and when it was down, it was way down. My freshman year of
college I was terrorized and stalked by a couple of guys who did it just
for kicks...at one point I had to use a bat to fight them off (I still
have that bat, a nice old wooden Louisville slugger). A few years ago I
knocked off the driver-side rear-view mirror on my car (still haven't
really fixed that). Twice in previous years I had other car-related
occurrences, one an accident and one flat tire...not in my car,
thankfully, and I wasn't driving, but they were inconvenient
nonetheless. This holiday hasn't been all that great to me, but it
hasn't been all bad. This year hasn't been too bad so far and I even
got good news out of it. I'm going to a cookout tomorrow, so more good
stuff there.
- Honestly, the only real bump in the road this
Memorial Day weekend for me was the club scene last night. It was dead.
The only saving grace from last night was being around my friends and
associates. I felt bad for Patrick and Tommy D for having to deal with
people apparently taking the Memorial Day weekend off from the clubs.
Maybe I should have followed my friends Griff and Cara's lead and took
off for home (you both had the right idea), because there definitely
wasn't much going on at the places I hang out at. I hope it picks up
this summer. I don't know what I'm going to do next weekend just yet
because a lot of my friends will be out of town, so I'm open to
suggestions (ones that I hope won't cost too much).
- Last
Friday night I went to Westerville 4th Friday, and boy was uptown
Westerville packed. It took me a half and hour just to find a parking
spot. Once I was there, I found a stand set up for the Westerville
Browns Backers so I helped out there instead of walking around
aimlessly. We were extremely busy at the table talking to a lot of
interested people. We even had to make a run for more info because we
ran out early at the table...despite the overall record of the Browns
and last season's debacle of a coaching staff, it seems there are a ton
of Browns fans in the area and they were excited to see us.
-
Speaking of the Backers, our Westerville chapter now has a new place to
call home...and in the city of Westerville to boot. We will be watching
all the games and meeting up at Jimmy V's at the corner of State St.
and College St. in uptown Westerville. It is a new spot that will be
opening up within the next couple of weeks, but it is part of a chain
that has several locations in central Ohio already so it's probably here
to stay. If anybody is interested in joining up, give me a buzz or go
to our website www.westervillebrownsbackers.weebly.com to find out more.
- On Saturday I went sailing for
the first time in my life. It's also the first time in years that I'd
been on a boat of any type. It was more of a ride in a sailboat, but I
did do some things and learned what it would take to be a sailor, so to
speak. It was relaxing and I had fun. If I come across any future
sailing or general boat ride events in the future I'm probably going to
jump at them, especially if they are free or cheap....and especially if I
can score a date in the process.
- We've had the OC Dancer site
up for a while now. It has definitely
been busy there, gathering a few new members and updating the look and
content on the site. Not only do we cover the club scene but some of
the activities around Columbus and traveling excursions that some of the
members want to take as a group. One such trip is happening next
weekend to the Smoky Mountains in Tennessee, and there are other
planned. On the calendar, upcoming local events such as Comfest, Red
White & Boom, and the Dublin Irish Festival along with others have
been added, with more being added and updated regularly. We take our
site seriously and we approach it as a place for all of us and those who
want to be in the know not just to 'want' to go to, but potentially
will be a place you will 'need' to go to online to hang out at and get
the latest on what's going on, especially with us. If you haven't
joined up yet or checked it out, you can do so at ocdancers.webs.com.
- Here's a question for you to contemplate and obsess over: how come you have to drive on a parkway and park in a driveway?
-
What's in a name? That's a question that many people ask for
different reasons. A woman from my high school graduating class changed
her last name back to her maiden surname recently, and it got me to
thinking about that question. As many of you know, I changed my name to
DJ right before I started OSU way back in 1991. For me, it wasn't just
about what I wanted people to call me. It was about changes in
perception, in how others saw me and how I see myself. It also
represents a view of not just who I am but who I aim to be ideally as a
social being and as a man. Basically, when it comes down to it, I am
DJ...that's who I am, that's who I've been and that's who I will be.
There are people who have called me other names, sometimes my legal name
but others too, and a couple people now and then who refuse to
recognize me as who I am because they want to see me as something else
altogether (don't ask me why because I don't know why). I'll tell
you...if these particular people choose or chose to continue calling me
something other than who I am, then they need a reality check in that
they are not respecting who I am as a person and the fact that I cannot
and will not respect those who would willfully call me something I'm
not. Now, though I sound standoffish about the name thing, it's not me
alone who has dealt with stuff like this. The big reason I'm putting
this blurb here is that I know of many, many other people in this
scenario who do the name change thing, so I speak of them today. This
includes many celebrities and even many I know. Heck, two people in my
crew are generally known by completely different names than their legal
ones. This is a rather common phenomenon and a concept I thought might
need to be brought more into the light than it has been.
- Regarding the Cavs..."The Shot". That's all I need say. Or rather, that's all I want to say right now.
-
Recently I've been a bit nostalgic....not much but a little bit.
Recently I took a look at a lot of the old files that are on my
computer, mainly pics, documents, and old website stuff. It amazes me
to see how far I've come since each instance I had a website put up, or a
picture taken, or a personal writing I created just to get something
out of my head. Some things seem surreal compared to the present, that I
had actually gone through certain trials and actually got through
things that now seem less important than they were to me at the time.
It was interesting going through the stuff on my computer, to say the
least.
- Song on repeat: "Name" by the Goo Goo Dolls. In
talking about name changing, I thought it would be appropriate for this
week.
- SLP to the following: my aunt Claudia (on Facebook),
Holly, Kristen, my brother Chris (happy birthday, bro), Ernest, Jay,
Heather, Kevin, Griff, Cara, Tommy D, and Patrick J.
In the words
of Porky Pig, that's all, folks. Ths thunderstorm looks to have passed
for now, so it looks like I'll be doing more blogs in the future. Yay
for me. Anyway, I hope you all have a good holiday and I'll blog more
soon. Take care and God Bless.
DJ
