Well, I bet you've been wondering, "What's up in the life of Joe? That guy blogged every day for a whole year, then suddenly stopped, and now my life is in shambles because I just can't keep up with the intricate details of his awesome life like I used to..." Well, fear not, dear friends, because here is another update.

For starters, every time I try to write an update now, I feel very much out of the habit. My writing feels forced, and the humor just isn't there. Maybe it was never there and I'm just now realizing that. Thanks for telling me. Just kidding.

Anyway. Let's see. September was a busy month. Rachelle and I had something going on pretty much every weekend in September. Over Labor Day Weekend, two of our friends from community group, Dan Sims and Rachel Richards, got married. It was a good time. I was asked to run sound for their wedding, which meant hauling an SUV full of sound equipment and a keyboard, but I enjoyed being able to serve my friends in this way. Rachelle came with me and we had a lot of fun.

We dieted for most of September, and our first "meal off" (our diet allows us one meal off per week and one day off per week, where we can eat whatever we want, pretty much) was at the wedding rehearsal dinner at Golden Corral the night before the wedding. I think it might have been a mistake for me, at the end of the first week of my diet, to go to a buffet place on my meal off. Just saying. I had so much food that at one point I was convinced my body was going to split into two and there'd be two Joe's. I already have a twin though... I wonder if that would make me a triplet. I should look into this in case it actually happens sometime.

On the day of the wedding, I dressed in my usual all-black production garb. It's what I do. I bought a new black shirt (I found black shirts at Wal-mart that actually fit me) for the occasion. It came with an insert in the collar to keep it in the proper shape while in the packaging, which I found I could turn around and make myself look like a priest.


That brought me a lot of personal amusement as I walked around Rachelle's apartment while she was getting ready, responding to all of her questions with, "Yes, my child" I tried to make her call me Father Joseph but she wouldn't go for it.

Rachelle's dad and step-mom visited Southside Fellowship on that Sunday over Labor Day weekend while they were in town. I was able to come say hi to all of them for about a minute before I had to run back into the control room to run things for the morning. Ah, the life of a media director. We were able to eat dinner with them that night at her aunt and uncle's house in Greenville though, so that was nice.

The following weekend, we drove to Albermarle, North Carolina, to celebrate her cousin AJ's daughter Juliette's 1st birthday. On the way there, we stopped by the IKEA store to pick up a gift card for her step-mom for her birthday. Seriously, I could spend all day in that store. They have everything including the kitchen sink. Just imagine if a store like that combined with a Wal-Mart. I would probably be at the front of the line to inquire about renting out a section of the camping department so I could live there.

Rachelle and I took a bunch of good pictures at the birthday party. It was a lot of fun. The theme of the party included lots of ducks. Lots. of. Ducks.


The following weekend, we went to Charleston to spend the weekend with Rachelle's dad and step-mom at their house. We arrived at their house that Friday evening just in time for a late dinner, and then spent the rest of the evening just relaxing. On Saturday, Rachelle and I got up early and set out to explore downtown Charleston to take some pictures and check out the market (for those that don't know, there is an area in downtown Charleston on Market Street where there are a lot of vendors selling various handmade things and items). We were wanting to take some creative pictures while we were there, but found a lot of the people in the market were adamant about not having their picture (or pictures of their wares) taken, so that hindered our creativity some, but we were still able to take some good pictures.



We also took some pictures around downtown Charleston a bit too.


I spent most of the day with my mind focused on Saturday evening. I had made plans prior to coming to Charleston to meet with Rachelle's dad to talk about "some important things in my relationship with Rachelle". You probably know what I'm talking about. I spent most of the time at dinner that night nervously wringing my hands underneath the table while talking to her dad. The funny thing was that at the booth we were sitting at, my side was broken or something, and I was sitting so much lower than him that I was practically looking up to him and my chin could have rested on the table.

The dinner went well. On that Sunday morning, we all went to Seacoast Church, where Rachelle's dad and step-mom go to church. I really enjoyed the service. The pastor spoke from Acts 2 and then they had a "spontaneous" baptism and it was a really touching moment for me to see so many people choose to get baptized and proclaim their salvation publicly.

The following weekend was pretty much the only weekend where Rachelle and I did not have a bunch of plans. We had been wanting to go apple picking at SkyTop Orchard for awhile and had thought about doing that, but it was raining pretty badly on that Saturday morning so we decided not to go. Instead, we just spent most of the day just relaxing at Rachelle's apartment, going to lunch, and enjoying the day. I had ordered a new lens for my DSLR (it's a 50mm prime lens that goes down to f1.4... in other words, really narrow depth of field and really awesome in general) and spent a lot of the day just taking pictures inside the apartment.

Later that afternoon, I recommended we try to go to downtown Greenville to take some more pictures. So, we headed downtown with our cameras and an umbrella, because it was still raining. And, I had something else with me in my pocket as well. Wink.

We headed down to the Liberty Bridge in Falls Park, where we stood on that bridge for almost an hour, just talking about some of the facets of our dating relationship over the last few months. Rachelle and I spent a lot of time in downtown Greenville together before we were even officially "dating".

After a while, I handed the umbrella to Rachelle and set my camera bag on the bridge. Just moments later, I got down on one knee and asked her to be my wife. Many tears of joy were shed, and we enjoyed a special moment there on the bridge together in the rain. Along with some other random people on the bridge, who thought it was so romantic. She said "yes!" in case you were wondering.

We decided to get out of the rain for awhile. We started walking back toward the parking garage and stopped to take a few photos of ourselves to celebrate and relive the moment.


When we got back to the car, we both pretty much immediately pulled out our cell phones and started calling and texting our family and friends to share the good news of our engagement. We decided to go to Copper River Grill to celebrate. I had told Rachelle that I loved her for the first time in the parking lot of that restaurant, so we thought that would be a poignant place to have our celebratory dinner for our engagement.

We spent almost an hour just sitting in the parking lot calling and talking to our friends, still sharing our news. When we were finally done with phone calls, we went inside the restaurant to eat, only to find out that they had a 40 minute wait. So, we made a reservation and then went to Barnes & Noble to check out wedding planners. Getting a head start on things, you know.


We ate a ton of food at dinner, but it felt good to celebrate. It was pretty much the end of our diet game, so it was justified. I ate so much food. A lot of rolls, salad, chicken, alfredo... lots of goodness.


The next day was a lot of fun going to church and sharing the news, but most everyone that we didn't call had found out via our Twitter and Facebook status updates. My friends Rex and Catie were in town over the weekend so they took us out to lunch to celebrate, which was fun.

I took Rachelle to get her nails done that Sunday afternoon before going to our community group so that she could show off her ring and enjoy having pretty nails too.


So, that was pretty much September. Overall, I'd say it was a pretty great month.

October is going great so far. We have been planning out wedding stuff like crazy. I am participating in Tietober again this year, although almost no one is really noticing or commenting much this time around, which I can only presume is because I am not blogging about it every day. It's getting pretty popular on Twitter though and people are enjoying seeing what ties I wear each day, and I am hearing more and more reports of people participating in Tietober to some degree. I think most people are just not willing to wear a tie for every day of the month like I am.

I got a new PDA phone this week. I've had the Motorola Q for over two years. I wouldn't say I "loved" that phone, but I definitely got used to it and started to enjoy its interface and conveniences. I was driving to the church on Wednesday and thinking to myself, "This phone isn't that bad, I'll probably keep using it for awhile before upgrading, even though it's old". Then, literally 2 minutes later, I spilled my water bottle all over it and it didn't work anymore. So, I drove to the Verizon store and got a Blackberry phone. I later took apart my Q phone and let it dry out some and I separated the parts that were shorting out so that I could turn it back on and get some data off of the phone. I'm such a nerd. I was able to get all of my contacts and pictures and video off of the phone though, so, go me. I did break some of the case getting the phone apart though, so, it's not really usable anymore, I guess. Although it still works as good as it ever did.


Anyway, that's about it. I'm not sure I really enjoy posting long entries spanning entire month(s) of my life, but it's all I really have time for these days. And for now, I'm ok with that. The rest of October (Tietober!) is going to be really busy. Rachelle and I are traveling to Montana this weekend and will return next Friday. Please don't steal stuff at my house while I'm gone. If you take my lawn mower, at least cut the grass before you take it. I would hate to make Tim have to cut it by hand with a pair of scissors again, but, it might not be too bad, it is cooling off a bit around here.

Later,

Joe

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Life has been busy. Work is busier than ever. I've really been enjoying my new computer/hardware setup, but the loss of my assistant has made things more stressful for me than I thought. I have been doing a decent job of keeping my tasks managed so I don't forget anything or anyone, but it still happens from time to time.

To update this blog, I've more or less resorted to just bulk updates or monthly updates on my life. So, here goes. August was a lot of fun. Rachelle and I went to Charlotte, NC on August 1st to meet my friends Rex and Catie. We met at the Cheesecake Factory for some delicious food goodness. I love cheesecake. Just going on the record with that.


After eating a good lunch, we went to the IKEA store there. In Charlotte I mean. There's not a secret IKEA store inside The Cheesecake Factory, in cas you were wondering. IKEA is an interesting store. The place is massive and full of furniture made by, presumably, the Swedes. I am at least assuming they name everything because all of the product names are hard to pronounce and whenever I say them, I sound like I don't know how to read.


We spent a long time walking around the store. It was fun to look at their layouts and envision myself setting up a room in my house to look like that. Everything is pretty cheap there. I'm terrible at decorating things, by the way. I appreciate a well-decorated space, but part of me is afraid to spend money on decorative items that are mainly for other people to look at, when I am worried that those people may not like my decorations.

I obviously need to grow in this area, because my house does not look that great. And, of course, when I say "my house", I really mean "the house that belongs to my grandmother that my twin brother Tim and I rent from my parents". But, just imagine this paragraph and others like it if I used that whole phrase every time. "I was thinking about decorating this part of the house that belongs to my grandmother that my twin brother Tim and I pay a monthly rent check to my parents, who are in fact, my landlords, with wall to wall carpeting and floor to ceiling polka dots." Yeah, I think it works. That's not a bad decorating idea either.

Anyway. My friends Jami and Lauren from community group got married on August 8th. I was a groomsman. I look pretty dang good in a tux, if I do say so myself. I won't point out where I am in these pictures. Just look for the best looking groomsman, and if it's not me, you need to have a discussion with yourself about your perception of "awesome".


The night of the rehearsal dinner for Jami and Lauren's wedding was my first time ever going to an event with a "+1" (you know, with... a date), and I wanted it to be really special. Of course, having Rachelle with me made it special, but we went a step further and came up with matching outfits.


Of course, on the day of the wedding, after it was all over, Rachelle and I went out and took some photos of ourselves looking quite styling! I'm in love with this girl, I tell you. She's great.


The next weekend was Rachelle's birthday weekend, so we traveled to Conway, SC (where she grew up) and visited her family. They all liked me, I think. It was fun to just relax and not have to work on the weekend for a change.

I made the weekend special for Rachelle by giving her a birthday gift every day of the weekend (one on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday). I got excited about her birthday a few months ago and had already purchased one of her gifts in June.

After celebrating a big Sunday birthday lunch with the family (on the 16th), Rachelle and I drove to Charleston, SC, where her dad and step-mom live. We spent the night at their house and then drove back to Greenville on Monday after looking around Charleston for a couple of hours.

The weekend after Rachelle's birthday (the 22nd) was quite a busy Saturday. In the morning, I came over and helped set up Rachelle's portfolio and business presentation for an expo that her apartment complex was hosting. It was a neat opportunity that allowed her to showcase some of her excellent photography work to other local business owners and apartment renters who came in and out of the apartment office during the day. Hopefully, that will yield some more photography work for her, because she is quite talented! And of course, I get to be an assistant photographer on some of her shoots, which is always fun.


Rachelle stayed at the apartment office for a while to show the portfolio to people coming by (there were not a whole lot of people... but, that's how things go sometimes). We left around noon to drive to my parents' house for an "August birthdays" cookout. Apparently, a lot of the people in my family have August birthdays. I guess I never tuned in to that.


I bought my dad a pair of pliers for his birthday. He is always saying "you can never have too many pliers", so I decided to take him up on that. Part of me sensed that once I gave him that pair, he finally had "enough pliers", but hey, I found a deal on a pallet of pliers, so, he'll be getting them for a few years. Don't tell him.

We stayed at my parents' for a while, and, of course, while we were all together, we pulled the whole family together for a big photo. I put my DSLR on a timer, and, after positioning everyone, jumped into the picture myself. The picture came out ok but everyone was in such a hurry to disband that I'm sure it could have been better if we had more time.


We left that party around 2:15 and headed straight for Charlotte, NC. Rachelle's cousin, AJ, and her husband Jason live in Albemarle, and the four of us (and their baby daughter) met at IKEA to peruse the store. That's right, twice in one month. It was fun.


We went through the store a lot quicker this time. I bought a lamp. It's awesome. I have it sitting on my desk at work. That's all I bought for myself. I also bought some shelf pieces for my friends Dan and Rachel, who are getting married soon and are decorating their new house and they asked me to pick up a few pieces for them while we were there.

This past weekend was the first "free" weekend we've had in a while. It was nice to relax. I got up early and tried to do some yard work. My front yard has been in need of a good cutting in a long time, and the back yard was even worse. I got out my lawn mower (again, that possessive "my" really means "the lawn mower that my dad lets me borrow because even though I'm 25 and should own a lawn mower and power tools and a toolbelt and 42 pair of pliers and a fashionable scarf, I do not yet own such things") and tried to start it. I tried for like 30 minutes. Piece of junk mower. It gave my arm a good workout though, and made me look quite foolish in front of all of the neighbors, I'm sure.

I called my parents and let them know that the mower wasn't working, and that they could just come get it at their convenience. I made plans to somehow afford a new lawn mower, and then my dad offered to let me borrow another one of his. Seriously? Who has that many lawn mowers? My dad, apparently. My dad has a lot of stuff. Ask to borrow some pliers from him sometime.

I spent the rest of the morning on Saturday trying to get things done around the house. I made a "to do" list around the house of all the stuff I have to... you know... do. Sometimes I call my lists "to get done" lists, but hey, don't judge. I swept out the carport. Old houses that don't have garages sometimes have these things called "carports" where you park your car. It has no door. It's basically an outdoor open shelter that just collects leaves in the fall and dirt/sand the rest of the year. Sweeping that out was a chore and a half. I also did a lot of laundry. In the midst of washing clothes, I super-cleaned the kitchen. Tim had jello "awhile ago" (I don't really want to say how long) but to make a long story short (yes, even I am sometimes capable of summarizing), the jello had turned to some sort of plastic and was stuck to everything in the sink and all the bowls and dishes in the sink. So, I spent a long time cleaning that, as well cleaning out the microwave, stove, etc. It looks good.

Rachelle and I met Tim and my friend Brian Schlarb for lunch at Moe's around 1pm on Saturday. That was a good time. Brian and I haven't gotten together in a long time and he has been wanting to meet Rachelle for a long time too.

It was good to enjoy some Moe's because I knew it was going to be my last Moe's experience for a while. Rachelle and I officially started our diet yesterday. You can read about it some more on her blog (chubbychelley.blogspot.com) if you want to. I enjoy reading what she writes. Rachelle has a way of writing that I wish I could... I always mention too many boring details that no one reads. You know what I'm saying. Are you even still reading?


Anyway. The diet excites me some because getting healthier is supposedly a good thing. I've always been "the fat kid" so it doesn't really bother me that much. I like to eat. Food is comforting to me. When I've had a crappy day, shoving food in my face (and eating it, not just leaving it there) always makes me feel better. But, I know that's not really good for me. Plus shoving food is messy, let's be honest.

Rachelle and I started going to the gym last week too. That was kind of a first for me. I've enjoyed running on the treadmill. Listening to electronica on my iPod helps pass the time, especially because we've been going to the gym in 30 minute increments, and I can't say that just running in the same place staring at the same wall for 30 minutes is what I would call "fun". Although, I suppose if you saw me on the treadmill, you wouldn't classify what I was doing as "running" anyway. Sometimes I visualize a twinkie right in front of me. Don't judge.

The food control with the diet though has been harder than I thought. We're only on Day 2. Everything we're eating (we planned out healthy meals for the entire week) has tasted really good but it just hasn't left me feeling as full as I am used to, and so I pretty much feel hungry all the time. I know that's dumb, because I'm obviously not starving. I just have that hungry feeling all the time. We also have to drink at least 3 liters of water a day. That's easy for me. I can drink water like it's my job. Actually, I wonder if there is a job that allows me to get paid to drink water...I'm going to look into that.

So, yesterday was harder to diet than I thought it would be, but it was ok. I passed the time by doing work around my house. I got up early and went to my parents' house to get the other lawn mower from them. I spent a couple of hours at their house just sitting around and talking, and then came back to my house to do some yardwork. After I finished cutting both the front yard and the back yard, I worked on Rachelle's iPod for a while (trying to get the iPod fully synced to her laptop) and then went to Walmart and bought some things for the house. Several of the things on my "list" around the house had to do with organizing various areas, like the utensil/silverware drawer, bathroom towels, etc.

Here's what I ended up with.


Good progress, I'd say. Things are definitely neater. I've been on an organizing/cleaning craze for a while... it's like I can't stop! I've completely cleaned and reorganized my office at work, gotten cables tied down, taped down, etc. and it's looking awesome. I got a lot of things done on my house "to do" list too, so that felt good.

So I guess that was pretty much August. I'm looking forward to what September holds! Rachelle and I are traveling back down to Charleston September 18-20 (yep, another Sunday off for me) to spend the weekend with her dad and step-mom, so that should be fun. I'm also traveling some in October. Rachelle and I are going to Montana in the middle of October to visit Tara Barthel and her family, and I'm going to Tampa, Florida at the end of October to shoot a wedding. I don't think I've ever traveled this much in such a short span in my entire life. It's fun though.

What have you been up to?

Later,

Joe

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If you were a regular reader of this blog, I bet you're feeling pretty disconnected from my life by now. I mean, after all, you did get to read about every day of my life for over a year. And then I suddenly stopped. And I haven't "blogged" in a while. I refuse to be one of those writers though that apologizes for not writing. This is my blog. I'll write when I want to, and not write when I don't want to. It's as simple as that.

I've written before about why I chose to stop, but the bottom line was that it was just too much stress in my life to keep that kind of commitment--to write every day at the end of the day about what I was up to. That and I was pretty sure that out of my 1200 readers (ok, I may have made that number up), only 2 people were actually reading every entry. Me being one of them. My mom was the other. Probably. Ok, maybe not. But still.

So, what's new in my life in the last month and a half? I would say "not a whole lot", but you know me better than that. Assuming that you've been reading this blog for any length of time more than "a minute".

I've been spending a lot of time working. You know, that whole 9-to-5 thing. Actually, for me, it's 1o-to-7 or sometimes 6-to-1... with breaks... and whatnot... hey, I get my work done. I just don't have a traditional schedule every day of the week since I work on Sundays and late other nights of the week.

One thing that has been real enjoyable at work lately is my new workstation. For a long time, I've had PC computers running Windows XP and Vista that, for the lack of more appropriate words, just weren't great. They were good computers, but not good for what I needed to do.

Several months ago, I started putting plans together to budget and ask for a new workstation--a Mac. I was tired of having a computer with only 2 or 3GB of memory that just couldn't render what I needed it to without failing. So, I put plans together to order a new Mac Pro desktop with 16GB of memory, more hard drive space, faster processors, and a larger monitor. I proposed the plan to Art (Southside's executive pastor), he approved it, and I ordered it.

It has been so nice to use these past few weeks. I can render things that used to take 45 minutes on my PC in under 2 minutes on the new workstation. That's a huge time-saver. And it doesn't crash all the time. Plus it just looks pretty sweet on my desk. I still have my PC workstation for "office stuff" and image work, secondary projects, etc. so I have them both side-by-side on my desk.


In my non-work time, I've been hanging out with my girlfriend Rachelle. She is great. That's an understatement. She is such a blessing in my life. We met through the community group at my church, although sometimes I just tell people that she saw me from a distance working in the tech booth and thought I was "super hot". I mean, who's to say that isn't also true.

Anyway. We spent a lot of time "hanging out" (whatever that means to people these days) in May and I asked her to "be my girlfriend" on June 4th at 1:14pm (if you were curious). It took me a long time to build up the courage to do that because I had never done that before. I spent 25 years of my life without ever dating anyone or having anyone special in my life like her.

Since then, we've been spending so much time together and it has been great getting to know her more and more. Here's a picture of us when we went to see the movie, "Up", in 3D. I highly recommend the movie by the way. Maybe not in 3D if you have vision like me and can't see 3D things because your eyes don't work together. But the movie is still great.


On June 26, I surprised Rachelle and took her to a Beach Boys concert. We both love the musical stylings of the Beach Boys. It was a lot of fun. We had great seats... I kept joking that we were sitting so close to the stage that we could smell their wrinkle cream. They had some new people playing in the band to help fill in the sound... I thought their electric guitar player looked a little like a young Randy Travis... but maybe it was just me.


Rachelle and I met her friends (well, now I can say "our friends") Matt and Crystal for dinner on Monday, June 30. It was a good time and we all ended up going to downtown Greenville for some ice cream. As we were standing outside The Marble Slab, a couple came walking down the street holding the cutest little puppy. They were giving it away, and after a few minutes of deliberation, Rachelle decided to adopt the dog, who was immediately dubbed "Carl".

Of course, if you've seen the movie "Up", you may get the reference of the name Carl to the character in that film. Carl is so cute.


Helping to take care of Carl was a learning and growing experience for me. People say that puppy care is kind of like baby care. All I can say is, if kids also make sounds like dying turkeys at night, well, maybe I am going to have to re-consider being a dad. That's all I'm saying. Just kidding.

After owning Carl for about a month, on July 29, Rachelle decided that she couldn't keep him. Taking care of a puppy is a lot of work. It takes a lot of time and attention, and neither of us could give that to Carl. So, we listed him on the local Greenville Craigslist to give him away. People told us that doing that was sketchy... but you know what else is sketchy? A pencil artist struggling for ideas. That's all I'm saying. 17 hours later, we had found a new home for Carl where he will have a big yard and be happy and run around with people who have lots of time to play with him. Unlike us, where he was in his crate a lot because Rachelle and I both lead very busy lives.

Anyway. Backtracking a little bit. July was a lot of fun. Of course, I spent a lot of the time working. I love my job. It's so much fun. I was able to produce a few videos and spend a lot of time continuing to configure my new workstation. I have a great setup now. On the one hand, it's been kind of boring this summer not producing a ton of videos, but on the other hand, it's been nice to have the slow time to allow me to finish up some other projects and try out new ideas.

Andrew (you may remember his blog, Clarity) quit being my assistant at the end of June. That was a sad time. Well, not really. He's still around. He's just not my assistant anymore. He had to quit working so he could focus on his nursing classes and whatnot. So, now we're sort of back to the whole "just Joe" thing. It works, for the most part, but I sometimes struggle to get it all done.

One project I have been focusing on since Andrew left has been to "re-claim" my office as my creative space. I've shared my office with an intern/assistant for the past 2 years. It's been fun, but I'm ready to have it be "my" office again. You know, where the organization can be to my standards. Where the cleanliness can be to my standards. Where the layout can be what is best suited for me.

I started by moving some of my desk stuff around and moving it up closer to the door, etc. This gives me more room for my computers and monitors (now that I have more on the desk) and allows me to have more room for my desk chair. My next step is to move the other desk out (that the assistant's computer is on) and turn the front half of my office into a creative space with some nice chairs. The only problem is I don't really think I am allowed to spend money on stuff like that so maybe I will buy my own nice plush cushy chairs or something.

Anyway. Let's see. What else happened in July. I had a fun time at my parents' house on July 3rd celebrating July 4th. We all had dinner and played some games and just relaxed. On July 4th, Rachelle and I went up to Hendersonville, NC and watched some fireworks at her friend's parents' place. There were a lot of people there and it was a lot of fun.

On July 9th, Rachelle and I decided to be kind of spontaneous and get haircuts. I know, right? Me. Spontaneous. Actually, I really wanted and needed a haircut. I had been cutting my own hair for 3 years, and, as it turned out, people were just being people and not being honest when they thought it looked good. It actually looked bad. Thanks guys. Just kidding. But I messed it up really bad back in April when I cut it. So, I let it grow. And grow. And grow. You know, so that when I did get a haircut, the mistakes could be fixed easier. Or something. I don't know. Just look at the picture and comment on how great I look.


A lot of other stuff happened but I'm sure you're bored with reading by now. Giving "the highlights" is harder for me than just writing about every single day. Which I could still do, by the way. My mind has an amazingly active memory. Don't ask me to start calculating prime numbers or anything like that though. It doesn't work that way.

Later,

Joe

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