4 1/2 Hours to Hardee's

When a weekend rolls around, one should take those days off and use them to their fullest extent. Often times however, we sit around the house and just relax, to prepare for another week ahead of us. This weekend my friends; this weekend would be different.

At some point last year or so, a burger came onto the scene that smashed all other burgers into little pebbles of processed beef. It threw down the fastfood burger gauntlet and said, bring it, sissy burgers. It is called: The Monster Thickburger, and it can be exclusively found at Hardee's, a fine fast food establishment in these United States. My next step was to find one of these Hardee's, go inside, order said burger, and consume ridiculous amounts of unhealthiness. One problem, Hardee's is a restaurant that is really found in the south, and midwest type area.

So this Saturday, I had a great idea to drive 4 1/2 hours to Pennsylvania to the closest Hardee's I could find. Four and a half freaking hours. Not wanting to do this retarded venture alone, I told my friend Aldo about my idea, and he was all over it. There sets up my Saturday.

8 am, we leave Long Island and travel west to Pennsylvania. A little before 1 pm, we got to the street on which Hardee's was located, and were confronted by this gem of a Diner name. I'll just let you keep pronouncing it differently until you find why we took a picture of it. Yikes.

Soon after, we found our vaunted destination: Hardee's.

Running inside, excited and eager to eat pure fat, I ordered my large number 8 combo, the infamous Monster Thickburger with curly fries, and a huge drink. The curly fries by the way were amazing, Aldo (my friend who came with) agreed.

Just so you know, here's the stats on my new beloved sandwich:

Calories: 1410 Fat (g) : 107 grams Sat. Fat (g) : 45 grams Sodium (mg) : 2740 WOW. And that's WITHOUT curly fries and a large soda.

By the way, I informed Faith (who you will see later) that I had driven 4 1/2 hours JUST to have this burger, and then she told other people behind the counter that I had done that and they all looked at me strangely. I'm not sure why. So I asked her if they had merchandise, like a t-shirt or a hat. She so kindly checked for a hat for me, but couldn't find one. I ended up with a keychain, a bracelet, and a pencil FOR FREE. I love these down home country folk, great people. By the way, that bracelet is 3" in diameter, I just measured. That means that the burger I ate is about 7-8" in diameter. Go measure that, it's freaking huge. It's also about 2" thick. Damn tasty though, damn tasty.

That's Faith, the girl I ordered from. She was nice, kind of shy, and had nice lips. Thanks Faith! Yeah, that's me. I think that's the first time I've ever posted a picture of me. I haven't shaved in a while, I hate shaving. After indulging our caloric tooth and me having my first heart attack 7 minutes after eating the burger, we started our long trek home, but stopped a few times on the way. Aldo had never been to a Dairy Queen before, so that was a must stop. Out in the parking lot, parked next to a rickety looking Cadillac hearse from the mid 60's, Aldo noticed a huge piece of thin red metal on the ground. Upon further examination, it was part of the Dairy Queen sign way up in the sky that apparantly had come down during a storm or something. We soon found out that it wouldn't fit in my trunk. Damn sign.

We left the DQ and drove to this miniature village thing in this building, but it was $5 dollars to get in, and we didn't have that much interest in it. We did however peruse the gift shop, coming upon neat little things, like these magnetic train letters.

(That said Nick until I got there) So we found these really tiny glass animals that looked really cute, and they were only $2.39!!! You can't go wrong at that price baby, you just CAN'T! Aldo got the donkey. Then I had another heart attack.

Very cute. Love the donkey. I got the rabbit.

I thought it was really cute looking, and his cheeks both looked like testicles. When it's 2 for 2 like that, you gotta get it.

So with miniature glass animals, Dairy Queen Blizzard's, and huge slabs of beef from Hardee's, we were all set to go home. Word of advice, if you are in a car with someone for 9 hours in one day, conversation will eventually run dry. So we ended up playing the celebrity game for umm, 3 1/2 hours. Aldo won. We ended on Yasmine Bleeth, what a way to end.

Driving to PA to have lunch at Hardee's : $40 in gas

Monster Thickburger: $8 something and only 3 heart . . . wait . . . 4 heart attacks

Rabbit will ball cheeks: $2.39 plus tax

Spending your Saturday doing something interesting: Priceless.

For everything else, there's McDonalds and Burger King.

A Tuesday Lost

Tomorrow is Tuesday, and for me, that's all it will end up being. Another Tuesday. I wish I could just leave it at that, and I wish it really was just another Tuesday, but unfortunately I can't forget the fact that it is also the wonderful Valentine's Day. Yes, the day where everyone and their sweetheart lavish each other with gifts and cute love letters; well, that's how it's supposed to go from what I've heard.

See, Valentine's Day is a day I love, well, if I am with someone. I love thinking up of big things to show how much I care, and planning out surprises, or getting unique gifts suited specifically for that person I'm with. Those who know me, and especially anyone who I've been with who reads this blog (Tracy and Amber I think are the only ones) know this about me, it's what I love to do. Tomorrow is that day where I was able to pull out the stops and really do something big, something she would remember, something that would take her breath away.

Tomorrow will come, and my normal routine will run its course, and tomorrow will end without fanfare or special happenings and will be filed away with all the other normal days that pass by and wave as they fade from memory. It is a tuesday lost.

Am I being dramatic? Sure I am. This Valentine's day holds a special bitterness for me which makes it more frustrating and slightly more painful, so yeah I'm being dramatic. And just because this day will be lost, it doesn't mean that I can't do those wonderful, romantic and elaborate things on other days, I know that. I often do them on other days because you shouldn't need a commercially created holiday to do things like that.

But I was really looking forward to this one. Only a month or so ago, maybe a smidge longer than that, I was looking forward to tomorrow. Heck, I was even starting to think about things I could do and even starting to plan out things in my head, getting excited about how I could pull some things off. And tomorrow, all those ideas and things I had been thinking about, and the energy that was to be put in them; the excitement and anticipation...will be lost. Tomorrow for me, will be lost.

Tomorrow, however, will be the only thing I have lost. Though I may lament over what has happened, and at times it does bug me, I am better off losing a Tuesday instead of my heart. I am better off losing a Tuesday, and gaining the excitement and anticipation of finding someone who actually appreciates me, someone who respects me, someone who loves me. I am better off losing a Tuesday, than squandering my energy, time, and love on someone who wouldn't be able to appreciate it, or reciprocate any of it. And as my Tuesday passes on by, I will wave to it, and let it fade from memory, for this is the Tuesday I am better without.

State Of The D

In honor of the State of the Union address given recently, I'm going to give my annual State of The D address. And yes, it's annual as of this year.

My last post was announcing that I was taking a few weeks off and that I could use some prayer if you felt so inclined to do so. Well I'm back baby. Let me give you a quick summation of those past few weeks, just so you feel like you're part of the action, up to date on the goings on of The D.

I've recently gone through a situation unlike any other that I've had to deal with. (Another reason why I keep saying that open and honest communication is the key to any relationship) Words were left unsaid, actions left untold, and things I had to find out and ask about for myself because I wasn't told them. It would have hurt less had I not figured out for myself, but oh well. Then came things being blown WAY out of proportion and me dealing with people, answering questions, and coping with assumptions and drawn conclusions that I should have never even come close to dealing with. I even had to deal with the police, the effing police!!! I'm not saying effing because I hate the police, I'm a fan, I'm glad we have them. I say it because it's LUDICROUS and grotesquely absurd that I had to even think about that, just ridiculously stupidly overblown. I'm still a bit bitter about this and mad at everything that's gone down, but oh well.

Then came getting sick, first with a cold, and then with friggin bronchitis, yippee. I also told my church that I would be singing for them on a certain sunday, which I love to do. Then, on January 18th, I bought a keyboard. I mention the exact date because I will remember that date from now on, because it changed the way I write my songs and will most likely change a lot in my life. Moving on. I wrote two songs for my church, then in my delirious state known as bronchitis, I decided that heck, I've been playing the keyboard for almost two weeks, why don't I play both songs on the piano and accompany myself. Sure, why not. In addition to all that, I tried out for a musical, the first audition I've ever been in. I wound up getting a lead role in the musical South Pacific.

Those are my past few weeks. I know, you envy my drama. (I don't) But honestly, after everything that's happened, and everything I've had to go through and deal with, I feel great. Let me say that again because it's nice to say. I FEEL GREAT. I feel like I've been reborn (not in a spiritual sense), like I've started a new chapter in my life and I can't wait to see what's in store. I feel strong, determined, back on my feet and somewhat dusted off. I feel like for the past couple months I was living in the basement with no windows, and for the first time, I went outside and felt the sun again and smelled fresh air. It's envigorating, energizing, exciting.

I'm gonna stay outside for a while, take a deep breath, hold my head high, and go wherever I'm lead to go. I can't wait...