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Candyce and I are on our flight back to Phoenix. It’s been a great vacation in Georgia, even if I did “work” for two days. This afternoon I took her around the city and showed her all the fun spots I used to hang out at. It was exciting to see all of the new buildings and development around town.

We walked around Georgia Tech, and I was an unashamed nostalgic graduate. When I was in school, I watched these saps charge around campus wondering aloud, “When I went to school here, this building wasn’t even here!” But I’m one of them now, and I read our alumni magazine like a mad man.

I was so proud to walk around campus with Candyce. I was certainly proud of my school, but I was even more proud to walk through with my wonderful girlfriend. No matter what drama I went through in college, I am doing well now.

You know, she and I had a great vacation. It’s never easy to travel with someone else. You usually end up hating them after a few days. But that hasn’t happened at all. If anything she and I are closer now. It’s amazing.

We left the mountains this morning and drove down into Atlanta. Dad took Grammy to the airport, and Candyce and I drove into Alpharetta for Life Teen’s high school rally called “Inspiration.” Eight hundred kids came into the city from six different states. It was the first time we’ve done this kind of thing in Atlanta, so we were happy to see that many people show up.

I am tired. I had one talk this afternoon, and spent the rest of the time hanging around the teenagers. It’s draining because they each want to take a picture with me or talk about MTV and everything else. But it’s lots of fun to be a part of their lives, even if it is just for an afternoon.

The past few days have been a blur. Tuesday night Candyce and I missed our flight because she got in a car wreck. Luckily, everyone was okay. But we missed our flight and had to pass through Vegas before we got to Atlanta. I got less than an hour of sleep on our flight. My dad picked us up at the airport and we drove up into the mountains.

I had just enough time to clean up at my home and get a cup of coffee before I headed over to my old high school. It was surreal to go back to that school. I was there from Kindergarten through the ninth grade. By the end of my freshman year, my friends were in a mess of drugs.

So my dad asked me to come back to help him lead a day for Safe and Drug-free School Week. I did four talks throughout the day to different groups. The most intense talk was to the high school students. I knew they were ready to blow me off, so I had to let them know that this message was very real to me: drugs do destroy lives. I told them from the stage that I would donate $2000 to the anti-drug program at their school.

I got back home last night at about eight and went to sleep. Now I am up, sitting at the same table I that I ate breakfast while I was in high school. I feel good about what I did yesterday. I hope that I gave the students at that school a fighting chance.

I spent most of my afternoon underneath my ‘54 Chevy putting in a new gas tank. The most I’ve ever done under a car is change the oil and oil filter, so this was a new adventure. After four hours of of work, I looked pretty rough. My face was bruised with grease. My back was dusty from the garage floor. My fingernails were dirty. I looked like a real mechanic.

All the work is done, and my car is ready to roll. It’s so rewarding just to walk around my clean garage and look at my clean car. All the car parts are where the belong. I work on clean computers all day, building clean websites. It feels good to be blue collar.;

Tonight Candyce and I went downtown to watch a movie. Phoenix doesn’t have the coolest downtown, but we figured it’d be fun to head down and see what was going on. I was pleasantly surprised with how cool the vibe was. I am now convinced that I just need to bring more people downtown, and day by day it would get better.

I’ve always been fascinated with the city, and I am little disappointed in myself for living in the suburbs. I tried so hard to live downtown, but there’s was nothing going on but violence and ugly neighborhoods. So why live in that mess?

But who knows? Maybe there’s hope for downtown Phoenix. They are doing a lot of building. I can only hope.

This time next week Candyce and I will be down South in Atlanta. I can’t wait to take her to all my old hangouts. It’s going to be fun to walk around my college campus with her. This will be the first time she’s ever been to Georgia. I know it’s going to be awesome.

But I have to make a quick trip to Dallas before we leave next week. I guess I should go to bed.