Supafly.com

Today I made playlist of slow songs from my middle school dances. I don’t know what got into me. Here’s some of the songs:

Boys II Men, “It’s so Hard to Say Goodbye”
Vanessa Williams, “Saved the Best for Last”
Travis Tritt “(I Don’t Love You) Anymore”
Bon Jovi, “I’ll be There for You”
Aerosmith, “Crying”
Guns ‘n’ Roses, “November Rain”
Boys II Men, “Till the End of the Road” (?)
Whitney Houston, “I Will Always Love You”

Oh man I was laughing so hard I could’ve kissed my computer monitor. I remembered every detail of the place we used to have dances: The Black and Gold Club. It was an old airplane hanger that had been re-skinned to look like a barn. It looked weird, but but that didn’t matter…I was there to have fun.

A middle school dance isn’t complete without chairs lining the walls. That was the line for timid souls. The thought of staying out of the action shook me to the core. I was out dancing like the guys I saw in jean and Coke commercials. I did alright for a country boy, but that’s not saying to much. I never would’ve dreamed I’d become a break dancer in college.

So I’ve become a sucker for all-things-retro. I can’t leave the room if “I love the 80s” comes on. If it’s “I love the 90s”, I should just call into work sick. You really do have a happy place in you childhood.

My Dad retired this summer and decided he wanted a job again. So he’s leading an anti-drug program at my first high school. So everyday he’ll IM me with some message from one of my old teachers. He wants me to come out in October and give a talk at the school.; I don’t know what to expect.

Here’s my weekend of normalcy.

Friday night:
I had a hot, romantic date with Candyce. We stayed up late talking.

Saturday:
I slept in, then went to the mall and bought a pair of pants and some skate shoes.

At night I went to a movie with Tom Booth and his son. After the movie, I met Candyce at church. We sat outside on the bench and enjoyed the night.

Sunday:
This morning I went to visit Candyce at her coffee shop. After she got off work, we had lunch then we went to the pool. It’s our newly remodeled neighborhood pool, and it was wonderful. We just laid around like we were at a resort. Then tonight we went to Mass. I just finished watching two car shows and I’m ready for bed.

I’ve accomplished nothing this weekend. I’ve traveled to no far-off place. I haven’t worked on a website. But the time that Candyce and I have spent together has been priceless. I feel like we are a real couple again. THIS is what I needed.

Mark called in urgent staff meeting. We normally don’t do this, so I had a little bit of anxiety as I slid into my chair. Mark was calm and quiet. He looked each of us in the face, then told us he had something important to say.

“Melanie is coming over in twenty minutes and we are going to pray at the chapel. I am going to ask her to marry me.”

I was so happy–I started laughing and crying. So all of us guys got together and we prayed. It was so touching to see Mark so vulnerable, humble, and anxious. I’ve never heard him pray with such abandonment.

As I type this, Mark and Melanie are at the chapel praying. Soon he’ll spin around and drop his knee to the floor. He’ll ask her to marry him. I can’t help but cry right now as I type about it. What an beautiful thing, to ask her to spend the rest of her life with him.

::::

She said YES!

Tonight Candyce and I were reminiscing about the summer at the beach house. Here’s the list of injuries:

1. My forehead cracked open we wrecked the jetski.;

2. Natalie’s surfboard knocked her hard on the head. According to her boyfriend (Candyce’s little brother), Natalie’s brain didn’t work that well for the next few days.

3. Danny (Candyce other brother) rolled off his surfboard on a big wave. The board hit him like a baseball bat. By the time he’d paddled into the shore, his shaggy blonde hair was blood-red. The lifeguards called down an ambulance and they took him to the hospital. He got ten staples to hold his scalp together. The next day, Danny found a lock of his hair wedged in a crack in the board.

4. Candyce’s foot got jacked up. I don’t really know the details, but all surfing accidents involve the wave and the board. She got a stress fracture in her foot, and strained muscles. She’s not been able to walk for the past three weeks.

5. John Sr. (Candyce’s Dad) chipped his tooth on the board.

So on the last day of the summer, John Sr. took all the boards to get repaired from the summer of violence.

Today has been intense–just a lot of takin’ care of business. This morning I finished off the purchase of Kustoms.com. It’s been almost a month of negotiating with a guy I have never met. I don’t even know if he is a he–it could be a girl for all I know. The whole experience was futuristic and so techno.

I made an offer to buy the name of a website from some person I’ve never met. I wouldn’t technically own the website, but I would lease it for as long as I want. Once we agreed on a price, we had to figure out how we would make sure neither of us got screwed.

I used escrow.com because to handle the whole transfer. It’s a cool service. I tell them I want to buy something and they go and ask the guy if he wants to sell it. After he says yes, they make sure I have the money to pay for it.; They withdraw the money out of my account and hold it while they give me the website. Once I have it, they give the guy my money. There was no human handling this whole thing, it was just a computer doing what it was programmed to do.

Now I own Kustoms.com! The technological experience was a new adventure, but the transaction didn’t go that well. The guy has owned the site for eight years, so he had a tough time deciding. Over the past three weeks: he didn’t want to sell it, then wanted to sell it, then didn’t, then did, then didn’t. Then he sold it (this morning). As of this afternoon, he emailed me back with a sad message, “I am depressed and I made a big mistake.” I didn’t know how to feel or what to do. I am concerned for someone I’ve never met.

All I know is that I will breath some life into that website. I have such big plans! This is going to be cool because this website is just for fun. All my other websites can get serious. I’m really not that serious of a person. So this will be a good break.

Mel,
If you are reading this, I want to thank you for selling me Kustoms.com. I know it was a tough decision to make, but I promise you that you sold it to the right person. I will make the website a place were car-lovers feel good. That includes you.
;-Matt