I hope everyone went and saw their dear moms for Mother’s Day!  I did but I’ll get to that in a few.

First off, as I’m sure everyone knows, Star Trek opened on Friday so I went to check it out both before and after my air shift.  After work, I met up with my friend Steve who used to do maintenance at my apartment complex along with his brother-in-law Rich and Jeff and Willie from my band TRAGEDY CHAPTER to catch the 8 o’clock showing on Hollywood 20’s digital projector.

The film was great although I was a bit disappointed I think mainly because I had built it up in my head for many moons!  Still, the film was visually stunning and had a fairly unique and complex storyline.  Trekkies should not be disappointed though I, of course, am a Star Wars geek!

Star Trek  \m/  \m/  \m/  \m/

Saturday I loafed around all day and watched Hotel for Dogs with Rebecca since she had it on her Netflix.  It was a cute movie filled with wondrous inventions and that tugs at the emotions of any dog lover - yeah, I may have shed a tear or two…..

Hotel for Dogs  \m/  \m/  \m/  \n

Yesterday morning I got up rather early so I could make it to my childhood church where my cousin Ray was dedicating his 7-month-old son Jay.  When I got there, I saw people who have known me my whole life who looked at me as if I were some heathen who’s been out raping babies since I no longer go to their church - which, by the way, is hardcore Southern Baptist.  To top it off, I ran into the former pastor’s son who I went to high school with who also happens to work with my drummer Willie.  He said he had heard TRAGEDY CHAPTER’s music from Willie’s iPod and thought we sounded really good.  Then he had to announce immediately after that he doesn’t listen to my radio station anymore because we’re so ‘anti’ everything he believes in.  Okay, granted, we are a rock station that is predominately, well, sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll with songs like “Crazy Bitch” by BUCKCHERRY, “Bad Girlfriend” by THEORY OF A DEADMAN and “Figured You Out” by NICKELBACK but it’s not like EVERY song pertains to sex and it’s not like we’re advocating worshipping Satan, killing your mother or raping babies!  Now I know why I no longer go there and why so many of my colleagues and I go to a nondenominational church!

After getting home, Mom called me and said she was turning onto Woodruff Rd so I got in my Jeep to meet her at Cracker Barrel.  As soon as got in my car, she called back and said that there was a line of cars just trying to get a parking space.  I then asked her if she was that hungry to which she said she wasn’t so I told her to meet me at the station so I could go charge my iPod on the computer in my office since I don’t have one of my own!  When I got to the station I gave her the rose I got for her from church that morning and the $5 cake I got at the Wal-Mart on Pelham Rd with strawberry filling!  I then showed her around the station since she’s never been inside and then we went over to Best Buy for a little shopping.  She picked up Liar Liar and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford on DVD while I nabbed Night at the Museum on Blu-ray since the sequel is hitting theaters this summer and I haven’t seen my copy of the DVD since I moved into my apartment two years ago.

When then went to Cracker Barrel at about 2 in the afternoon after the worst of the crowd had died out.  We brought the cake in with us, had lunch and some tasty strawberry-filled Mother’s Day cake!  Happy Mother’s Day, Mom!  Love, your TWISTED son Todd!

Ok, I’m sure you have heard me on the air and noticed I have sounded like crap the past couple of days.  So I go to the doctor since I had been running a steady fever of around 100 degrees.  I go in, fill out the standard paperwork and then go back and get my first shock: I weigh 211 pounds!  Then the doctor comes to see me and tells me I have allergies then writes me a couple of prescriptions that runs me $45 on top of the $20 copay for the doctor’s visit!  Had I known it was only allergies, I would have foregone the doctor’s visit and picked up some Claritin!

Last week, I watched the new animated film The Tale of Depereaux featuring the voices of Matthew Broderick and Dustin Hoffman.  A very well written story based on the popular children’s book which teaches the viewer/reader not to fear all the things society tells you to which is extremely important with all the fears rising in today’s world.

The Tale of Depereaux  \m/  \m/  \m/  \m

Thursday night I went to band practice with some new lyrics I had written for one of our songs.  Jeff and I were trying to get the lyrics to fit the music just right and, though Jeff was getting the right idea, it wasn’t translating as I had imagined.  So Jeff thought it would be a good idea to record me doing the vocals for the song which was a bad idea for two reasons.  The first reason being that my vocals were bloody awful and the second reason being I threw out my voice and put a strain on my throat which I believe began the chain reaction that led to my current condition with my allergies.  But at least we got the vocal translation on tape so Jeff can go back and redo the vocals and they turn out as I had imagined they would.

Saturday morning I got up early and went down to Easley to join WSPA News Channel 7 anchor Heather Sullivan in making the announcements for the March of Dimes’ March for Babies.  Despite the fact I was on stage making announcements before I normally get up on a weekday and this being a Saturday to boot, I was honored to be a part of something that is such a great cause especially considering I was born a month prematurely myself with an underdeveloped lung.

When I got home, I finally got to finish Italian horror director Dario Argento’s Three Mothers Trilogy with the final installment The Mother of Tears.  This film comes 27 years after the second installment and 30 years since the first, so there is a great leap in the special effects realm as opposed to its predecessors.  Argento began the series in 1977 with Suspiria which introduced horror fans to the first of the Three Mothers, Mater Suspiriorum, the Mother of Sighs who is the oldest of the Three Mothers and resides in Freiburg, Germany.  His saga continued a few years later with Inferno in 1980 with Mater Tenebrarum, the Mother of Darkness who is the youngest and most cruel of the Three Mothers and resides in New York City.  The final installment brings about the return of Mater Lachrimarum, the Mother of Tears who is the most beautiful and powerful of the Three Mothers and resides in Rome, Italy.  Although Argento is known for his stylish and brutal murder scenes, this one takes a step further into brutality with scenes including a woman throwing an infant off a bridge and a woman getting speared in her no-no area.  The film brings about a great closure to the trilogy and even reveals some events that occurred before the start of the first film that relates to the main character played by Dario’s daughter Asia Argento and the character’s unique family inheritance.

The Mother of Tears  \m/  \m/  \m/  \n

Sunday I woke up too sick to make it to church as that was when my symptons first began to go full swing so I stayed home and rested.  Monday, of course, I was only worse but I made it through the day as best as I could.  Afterwards I went home and finished watching Frost/Nixon.  The film was actually better than I had expected as a lot of it pertains the drama of taking risks as a British talk show host with little credibilty attempts to fund a project considered by many to be a joke.  I was surprised that the film didn’t turn into being a liberal bashing of the only President in America’s history to have resigned from office.  Granted, it made it’s jabs but there were quite a few liberals portayed in the film who were out merely to crucify Nixon.  Personally, I lean towards the conservative point of view however I am at odds with a lot of the stances and tactics made by the Republican party.  As for Nixon, I don’t believe he did anything worse than many other presidents have done and still do.  I believe what he did was wrong but I don’t believe that should be the only thing the man is remembered for.  That is simply not fair and I think, to some degree, you gather that from the film and that it doesn’t push you into viewing Nixon as a ‘bad guy’.

Frost/Nixon  \m/  \m/  \m/  \m/

Boy, yesterday was a long one!  Starting at around four in the morning I woke up with the worst pain from where I had my wisdom tooth pulled last week.  I got up, took a Vicodin, went back to bed and nothing.  I waited about an hour and then got back up and took four Ibuprofens.  After at least another half-hour, the pain finally began to subside, but then I got all itchy and started to doze off into some strange mini-dreams.  I finally passed back out for good a little after six which sucks because I had actually gone to bed right after getting home from my Applebee’s remote in Greer.  I was in the bed and out like a light shortly after midnight hoping to get a killer night’s sleep since I don’t get until nine and knowing the day had a lot in store.  Oh well, we press on!

After getting my office work done, I went to the studio to begin my air shift only to run right into Tyler, Dave and Dean of THEORY OF A DEADMAN right at the door!  Sarah, our promotions director was escorting them in along with P1 Big Country (or ‘Countsy’ if you will) and brought in some delicious sandwiches, cookies and such from Panera Bread!  So the guys went on the air with me as soon I first hit the air and preceeded to take over a play a few of their own selections including a double shot of BLACK SABBATH!

Not twenty minutes after their departure, Jonathan Jacobs (our Universal Republic rep) came in with Cody and Mike from HINDER.  They came in, enjoyed some of the leftover Panera goodness, popped on a few songs they wanted to hear including SEETHER’s new cover of WHAM’s “Careless Whisper” and even had time to take a call.  Check out the audio from both band’s in-studio invasions here!

Jonathan was celebrating his 32nd birthday and had me and Rebecca on the guest list at the show that night since I had given up my tickets so another staff member could go to the show.  I met her at my apartment shortly after seven and we had to hit an ATM since neither of us had cash on us to cover parking.  We got our tickets and made our way to our seats just as THEORY OF A DEADMAN started cranking out “Hate My Life” and then closed with “Bad Girlfriend”.  At least I got to see part of their set since they went on at 7:05!

HINDER went on next almost right at eight opening with “Use Me”, the first single from their latest album Take It to the Limit.  They played for around forty minutes and ended with their first hit single “Get Stoned”.  Jonathan came over and hung with me and Rebecca during most of their set then we all met up with Mark Hendrix, Stoneman from ROCK 101, Dex and a few other staff members and listeners to hang in the hall while waiting for CRUE.

MOTLEY CRUE’s set began just as AC/DC’s “Hells Bells” finished playing on the overhead.  The intro music began as the silhouette of an angel appeared followed by the silhouette of the Devil then the silhouette of the angel began to perform oral sex on the silhouette of the Devil.  This was just the first of an onslaught of sacrilegious imagery throughout the first portion of CRUE’s set.  I wasn’t offended but it made me uncomfortable and it seemed a bit out of place.  It would make me uncomfortable anywhere but I could see all that taking place at a MARILYN MANSON, SLAYER or CRADLE OF FILTH show but not so much at a MOTLEY CRUE show.

Musically speaking, the band was dead on and Mick Mars even seemed to get around fairly well despite his condition, but Vince Neil sounded like a castrated chipmunk - well, more so than usual!  The fireworks and pyrotechnics were a bit overwhelming and Rebecca is allergic to sulfur so we left after a few songs.  I believe we made it through “Shout at the Devil” which I think is one of CRUE’s stronger songs from their best album of the same name.  I’m not a big CRUE fan as I was planning on leaving early regardless, but even I was starting to actually taste the sting of the sulfur at that point.  Well, at least now I can say I’ve seen them live!

Well, I had to miss the Oscars last night but I honestly don’t care because most of the nominees are films I’ll probably never see anyways unless it’s something like The Lord of the Rings or The Dark Knight or that year’s Pixar animated flick.  So, on my way home, I decided to stop and check my mailbox since I hadn’t done so all weekend.  I, of course, was pleased to see that two of my Blockbuster Total Access movies were in along with a bunch of other crap mail and a ‘Thank You’ card from the Hampton Inn in Columbia (actually a nice touch).

When I got in, I checked to see what titles I had received and my eyes lit up when I saw that one was none other than The Midnight Meat Train!  This film is based on the short story of the same name by horror master Clive Barker (Hellraiser) which I read many years ago back in high school and, from what I remember, remained pretty faithful to the story.  Granted there was a great deal added considering the short story I believe is less than 20 pages long but it’s better than a chunk of the story being deleted from a full length novel to fit the confines of feature presentation.  I sat up watching the movie because I had been anticipating this one for some time since it was released in theaters the weekend after my birthday last year but it was a limited release so it never played here.

The Midnight Meat Train is about a butcher who lurks the subway late at night and slaughters the train’s few remaining passengers on a nightly basis.  He attracts the attention of a struggling photographer who becomes obsessed with the enigmatic killer and begins stalking the man thus leading him into a world beyond comprehension, reason and belief.  It’ll definitely make you think twice about boarding a desolate subway train late at night!  Very brutal and very graphic!

The Midnight Meat Train  \m/  \m/  \m/  \m

Okay, Super Bowl XLIII was a big disappointment, but I’ll get to that in a minute.  Friday night, Rebecca and I kicked off the weekend by going out to our first movie in 2009 as we went to go see My Bloody Valentine 3-D, a remake of the 80s slasher film - a genre that’s a guilty pleasure of mine since most of my queue on my Blockbuster online account are various horror flicks from the 80s!  The updated version was just what I was expecting: a lot of gore and a great sex scene that turns into a murder scene with the killer chasing a hot chick who’s completely naked for like ten minutes!  That’s right kids, no reason to press the ‘pause’ button when this one hits video stores!  And maybe they’ll be able to translate the 3-D effect on Blu-ray and DVD as an added bonus!

My Bloody Valentine 3-D  \m/  \m/  \m/

My main complaint about the experience wasn’t the movie itself, but rather the steep price to view it in 3-D!  Normally a movie ticket runs $9.50, but a ticket for this film is $12!  I didn’t realize this until after the movie because Rebecca and I were nearly late and the line was fairly long so I gave her my debit and Regal Crown Club cards to buy the tickets while I went in and got in line for concessions.  An extra $2.50 a pop for a 3-D movie?!  Damn!

Saturday after we both took care of a few work-related activities and looked at a few houses for Becca, we went to Blockbuster to trade in yet another one of my online movies.  We decided upon the latest Coen brothers’ flick Burn After Reading starring George Clooney, Brad Pitt and John Malkovich.  It was another film of train wreck situations that unnecessarily turn tragic in an absurd and unbelievable manner.  If you enjoy the Coen brothers’ films, you won’t be disappointed!

Burn After Reading  \m/  \m/  \m/  \n

After we finished that film, we watched one of Becca’s Netflix movies, Death Race starring Jason Statham which is a remake of the 1975 film Death Race 2000 which starred David Carradine and Sylvester Stallone.  I enjoyed the film despite the fact I am not a big fan of Statham - I mean THREE Transporter films and now they’re releasing a sequel to Crank?!  WTF!!!  But the movie was a fun yarn of carnage and destruction as such a film should be!

Death Race  \m/  \m/  \m/

Last night Becca and I went over to my mom’s new place where she lives with her boyfriend Mark to watch Super Bowl XLIII since neither one of us have cable at the moment - her’s is down and the cable guy won’t show up until Wednesday!  I brought my box of crackers and roll of summer sausage and then we picked up some cheese, con queso dip and tortilla chips.  Mom was fixing barbeque chicken, broccoli and rice and baked beans with brownies for dessert!  Yeah, I ate good!

As usual, the big game was littered with the best advertising companies have to offer during the commercial breaks.  The highlights for me were the theatrical trailers for G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen,  Star Trek and Up as well as a few clever bits from Catrol, E-Trade and a handful of others.  The 3-D portion after the 2nd quarter was alright with the trailer for Monsters vs. Aliens, the SoBe commercial and the clip from tonight’s episode of Chuck which Becca and I will be watching on the big ass TV in the downstairs conference room - no cable, remember?!

The game itself was total crap with the Cardinals getting penalized every other play.  I’m not a Cards fan, but I tend to pull for the underdog when I have no interest in either team playing.  I just thought they played awful for the most part aside from a handful of really brilliant plays.  And the fact that they came back to lead from a 13 point deficit in the 4th quarter only to allow the Steelers to turn right around and score another touchdown just made me nauseous!  The game was a nailbiter and overall, was actually a good game, but I’m just jaded because Pittsburgh has already won two Super Bowls this decade!

When I went to pick Becca up to go to the store before going to my mom’s, I saw a new dog in her yard.  Yep, she had rescued yet another mutt!  This one’s name is Cassie and she is a Boston terrier/feist mix which means she is a scrawny dog with a Boston terrier face that looks more like the face of a chihuahua.  Seeing as she was better behaved than my Boston terrier mix Molly, I decided to take Cassie home and give her a try.  Maybe she will be more of an apartment dog than Molly although I don’t want to give her up.  However, Molly is happy staying with Becca for now with her other dogs to play with.  Hopefully I will go home and not have damaged goods and no pee or poo on my bed!  LOL!

Tuesday morning I woke up early (well, 8:30 which is early for me!) and went and did my civic duty by voting.  My polling location was located in a subdivision less than a quarter mile from my apartment complex so I didn’t have far to go and the line wasn’t too bad since I believe less than 2000 voters were registered for that location.  I guess overall it took about half an hour and included a little trouble I had being I had just changed my address on my voter registration a week prior and their voter registration list was two weeks old! 

I went to my booth and made good on my claims of voting for Ralph Nader even though I knew he didn’t stand a chance which is really sad.  He’s a really smart man and I actually think he’d do this country some good.  Not that I think Barack Obama won’t since he would have been my choice over John McCain.  However, there are so many people around here that are freaking out now since Obama won whether it be the race issue or, the bigger issue, his moral and religious stance as he comes from a Muslim background.  I mean I really think some people around here believe he’s a terrorist who’s gonna infiltrate the White House!  And others actually believe he’s the Antichrist!  I think that’s giving the man too much credit!  I mean he’s not that sly to pull the wool over the sheep’s eyes as the Antichrist is supposed to be when he rises to power.

Anyways…..so Rebecca and I went to the movies last night to finally catch Quarantine. 

WARNING:  If you have not seen this film and wish to do so, scroll down to my rating of the film because the following review contains spoilers!

The movie is another first person camera shot film as is The Blair Witch Project, Cloverfield and the latest George A. Romero zombie flick Diary of the Dead and, like the other films mentioned, no one gets out alive.  It starts out with a late night television reporter and her cameraman shadowing a couple of Los Angeles firefighters who get called out to a creepy old apartment building where a disturbance involving a screaming old woman has been called in.  Of course the old woman looks like some sort of demented zombie and attacks one of the police officers who was already on the scene when the firefighters arrive.  When the other officer and one of the firefighters try to get the wounded officer out of the building in order to seek medical attention, they find that they have been contained by special forces and chaos ensues.

During the course of the film, a resident veterinarian who’s helping the wounded notices the symptoms are similar to that of rabies - only infinitely faster.  Before the end of the movie, our main characters seek shelter in one of the top floor apartments apparently owned by some mad scientist type filled with empty animal cages and newspaper articles of a stolen ‘armageddon virus’ from some medical lab.  So at least the audience gets some kind of explanation which is usually lacking in first person films and it wasn’t another zombie flick.  Rapid rabies…..gotta say that’s different and original!  And the first person camera angles in the creepy old apartment building was really effective and scary!  I regret it took me so long to finally go see it!

Quarantine  \m/  \m/  \m/  \m/  \n

Ok, well we haven’t been sucked into a black hole, so at least science hasn’t killed us all as of yet in the search for answers to the origins of life.  But is this not the biggest bunch of boocrap billing for billions of bucks?  I mean ten billion dollars just to prove and better understand the “Big Bang” Theory?  And, to top it off, at the risk of possibly annihilating life on Earth in the process?  Granted it was only an extremely slim chance and life is about taking risks, but how great of a price is that chance?  Destroying life on Earth in an attempt to understand how it began?

There’s a book in my car right now that I am taking with me to Atlanta for the rest of the week that clearly tells how the world began and it’s called the Bible.  Now I’m not going to start preaching or Bible-thumping here, but, even if you don’t believe in God, this whole overpriced, glorified science project is downright ludicrous!  Isn’t there something better we could do with ten billion dollars than try to play God at the potential expense of the entire human race?  If this were a comic book, wouldn’t these European scientists be the diabolical villains?  For some odd reason I’m thinking of Doc Ock’s little pet project in Spider-Man 2 - just on a much grander scale!  I don’t even think Oscorp could cough up ten billion big ones for the science fair!

Labor Day weekend was just that: laborous!  So, when I wasn’t working, I was out trying to blow my paycheck!  Hey, what’s the point in working relelentlessly if I don’t take some time to go out and enjoy it?!  Friday I met up with Rebecca after work.  Yes, we are on speaking terms again and trying to somehow sort out our differences in some way whether it leads to us seeing each other again or not.  She brought me her latest dog rescuee being she is like the crazy cat lady only with a crapload of dogs instead of cats!  I think she knew I’d be interested in this one being the dog is a Boston terrier and border collie mix and I have always wanted a Boston terrier.  So she brought Molly (the name she gave her being she is fond of giving dogs people names - as for me, I still want a male Boston terrier and name him Vader!) to the apartment and we went to Target to pick up some stuff for the dog (leash, toys, bowls, etc.) and then went to Ruby Tuesday’s for dinner.

Saturday I did little more than do my on-air shift and the same could be said for most of Sunday.  My mom and Aunt Pat came over to see the new addition to the Twisted family and we walked her out to the small man-made lake out by my apartment complex.

Monday, when I wasn’t on the air (again!), Rebecca and I managed to take in a movie: the new comedy spoof Tropic Thunder starring Ben Stiller, Jack Black and Robert Downey, Jr.  Of the three lead characters, Downey clearly made his mark portraying “the dude playing the dude disguised as another dude”.  I mean his character stayed in character until the end of the movie!  “I stay in character until I finish the DVD commentary!” I believe he said….and he wasn’t kidding!

And let’s not forget the A-list supporting cast of Nick Nolte, Matthew McConaughey and, oh yes, Tom “Damn, my ass is crazy!” Cruise!  I really enjoyed the film as it was a breath of fresh air from other crappy spoof movies such as the ridiculous Scary Movie saga that has bled over into the even more preposterous Epic Movie, Disaster Movie and all the other ”Fill in the Flippin’ Blank” movies!

And it really pisses me off that everyone is all up in arms about their references to mentally handicapped people as ‘retards’.  I admit it’s in rather poor taste, but isn’t comedy supposed to be unapologetically irreverent?  I mean I just watched the new Harold & Kumar flick on DVD and it’s remorselessly racist!  Being a Christian, I constantly see shows like South Park or especially Moral Orel that make a mockery of my beliefs.  Yes, it offends me, but I simply choose not to watch it if it gets too offensive which I did stop watching the latter of the two shows because it honestly made me feel like a heathen….or worse!  LOL!!!

Tropic Thunder   \m/  \m/  \m/  \n

And here’s a few of the DVDs I’ve watched recently now that I have a steady supply of rentals with Blockbuster Total Access:

I just mentioned how racist Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay was, but don’t get me wrong, it was a riot!  If you liked their first adventure getting to White Castle, you’ll caertainly enjoy this!

Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay   \m/  \m/  \m/  \

I pretty much got what I expected out of Prom Night and maybe a little more since it was more bloody and violent than what I would expect from a PG-13 rated slasher flick.  Granted it is painfully obvious that it is not a remake of the Jamie Lee Curtis horror film of the same name.  The character names are different as well as the overall plot of the movie save for the fact that both films occur on (big surprise here!) high school prom nights.

Prom Night  \m/  \m/  \

When Grandma’s Boy first came out, I thought it would be a big piece of crap trying to capitalize on Adam Sandler’s success by throwing a comedy together using a cast full of his supporting cast regulars - but no Sandler.  It turned out being one of my favorite comedies in recent years so I had high hopes for Happy Madison’s latest DVD release Strange Wilderness.  I have to say I was somewhat disappointed.  Don’t get me wrong, it had some rather hilarious moments, but just didn’t deliver a comedy I’d really want to watch again.

Strange Wilderness   \m/  \m/  \n

That’s it!  I’m done and heading home to take care of Molly!

I don’t know what the deal is, but for some odd reason I cannot meet a dependable woman.  I guess it’s a good thing I’m not looking for a relationship, but living alone gets lonely and it’s good to have a woman’s companionship from time to time.  Anyways, it seems like every time I turn around I run into a female that either stands me up with no phone call or simply doesn’t do what they say they will.  And, if I do speak to them again, there is almost always some outrageous excuse like, say, they got their phone stolen by a pack of rabid ferrets or some crap like that and they expect you to buy it.  God forbid you call them out on it, because they’ll get defensive and try to make you believe you’re the most selfish and inconsiderate bastard that ever walked the Earth.

I am truly sick of it!  And it’s been happening to me as far back as high school!  Why do they do it?  What is the motivation here?  What do they have to gain by pulling these stunts?  Is it some crazed power trip they try to have over men?  I mean if you don’t want to have anything to do with a guy, why not just tell him?  I mean I can handle upfront outright rejection over getting led on.  Gentlemen, why do we put up with this?  Ladies, what’s your deal?

Ideally, relationships are meant to bring the best out of two people.  However, in many cases, the opposite is true.  Most, if not all, of us at one point or another, meet someone that brings the worst out of us.  Many of us meet several in our lifetimes.  I am certainly no exception.

In college, I met a girl from Florida named Elena whose parents were from Puerto Rico.  We hit it off immediately and got along great…..for a whole weekend.  She being a college freshman (I being a sophomore at the time) she wanted to date around which was understandable - except for the fact she kept going after my friends and then ran back to me after getting shot down.  This went on for a whole semester with her last pursuit being my first cousin and bandmate Ray.  This was too much for me to handle but still I wanted her.

Christmas break came and we went back home - me to Greenville and Elena to Florida.  She began writing me like every other day (this was just before the internet and email took off) and she’d ask about Ray.  At this time was when Ray and his now wife Erin began dating.  Needless to say Elena was crushed, but bounced back by claiming to have ‘come to her senses’ and realizing that she only wanted me.  Of course, to me at that time, this was wonderful news!

So, when we returned to Winthrop the next semester, we began our hot ‘n’ heavy relationship with the both of us quickly losing our virginities (yes, I was a virgin until I was 19).  However, it wasn’t just our passion that was hot ‘n’ heavy - our fighting became quite notorious as we would sometimes fight clear across campus.  That woman pulled elements out of me that no other woman ever has (and hopefully never will).

After dating for three semesters (roughly a year and a half), Elena broke up with me during summer break while she was taking summer classes at Winthrop to, again, pursue other relationships.  So our relationship had come full circle and my heart was severely broken.  Was she worth my time in the first place?  Surely not, but that didn’t matter because my heart often overrides the functions of my brain.  That and my libido!

The only other person to have ever caused as much grief and heartache would be my most recent ex-girlfriend Rebecca.  When I first met her, she was living in Savannah so I kept my distance because I’ve had enough bad experiences with long distance relationships.  We kept in touch through MySpace although she dodged any proposal of meeting up.  Finally one day she actually called me and we began talking and I learned that she was moving back to Greenville.

She was in town for a couple of weeks prior to her actual move and we went out and hit it off…..for about a month.  Hey, I admit, that was longer than Elena!  We started dating officially after only a week and then she was back in Savannah.  Almost immediately after our first date, her ‘best friend’ which also happened to be her ex-boyfriend, started in trying to sabotage the relationship by pulling various stunts.  Rebecca, of course, just tried to dismiss his actions because she valued him as a friend even to the point of it jeopardizing our relationship.

At first, I rolled with it as best I could because I really felt Rebecca and I had real potential.  However, their relationship obviously made me very insecure in our relationship and, after about a month, it started to take its toll.  Over the next six months, she broke up with me at least half a dozen times.

To make matters worse, when she returned to Greenville and bought her first house, I would drop by to see her to find her ex there - and sometimes at late hours!  I would walk in and nothing would be going on, but Rebecca would be visibly startled to see me and then be quick to get defensive when I made my accusatory conclusions.  Do I think there was anything going on?  Actually no, I really do believe that Rebecca is just too nice a person to see the harm in certain things and certain people.  To this day I don’t believe she sees her ex for who he really is.

Late last year, I did some probing and found some inappropriate things, not necessarily physical, about their relationship and brought it to her attention.  That encounter did not go well at all, but I think it actually sobered the girl up just a bit.  Over the holidays we slowly patched things up and took our last run of the relationship after the new year.  She put her friendship with her ex aside and we had a fairly decent run for a few months.

Back in March, we took our first (and consequently only) vacation together as we went to Savannah for St. Patty’s Day weekend and then went down to Orlando.  During that time, it became painfully obvious to me that I was growing tired of the relationship largely due to our lack of communication.  I still loved her very much, but, despite all the time we were spending together, we never really talked.  Obviously I am open about EVERYTHING!  Rebecca, on the other hand, is not.  She is content with letting things slide instead of addressing them.  I am much more confrontational.  I love to talk.  She prefers to just sit quietly with her significant other and say very little.

Granted, there is nothing wrong with either trait, but those traits make our personalities almost irreversibly incompatible.  So, at Spring Fling this year, we had our final fight as a couple.  She had a friend pick her up in Spartanburg and we officially ended the relationship that night.  After being together off and on for right at a year, neither of us wanted to just say goodbye.  Of course, Rebecca is obviously used to being friends with her exes in the first place.

So, we tried seeing each other as friends.  Well, I probably wouldn’t be writing this blog right now had that plan worked out.  As a matter of fact, I’m pretty sure Rebecca is not going to be happy that this blog is being written as I am sure she will be reading it.  However, I am actually not doing this for the sheer intent of upsetting her in any way though I’d be lying if I said I had not the slightest bit of ill will.

The fact is that Rebecca has a good heart and I truly believe that.  However, my friend Mikey summed it very well in saying that she has her priorities straight when it comes to her job and finances but tends to let her friends come at a distant second.  This consequently makes her somewhat unreliable as she rarely does what she says she will do - well at least in the time frame she says she will.  Me, I am punctual and prompt in nearly every way - at least when it counts considering I am late to the office almost every day but, hey, I get the job done!

Again, this difference in traits has made it virtually impossible for us to coexist as friends.  At least as close as we had been until recently.  Her inability to do as she promises to had finally reached the breaking point for me.  So I demanded the key to my apartment back after telling her off.

Instead of giving it to me in person, she took it upon herself to enter my apartment yesterday while I was making my weekly visit to see my mom and aunt, took her bridesmaid dress she had left after a wedding and slid the key back under the door after locking up.  Needless to say, I was furious when I got home at the fact that she had entered my apartment after I had told her to return my key.  Being an assistant manager at an apartment community, she knew that there was nothing I could do legally, but how does reflect upon her especially considering her profession?

I am honestly baffled by her recent actions as they do not seem to come from the same person I have cared about for so long.  Ultimately, that is the inspiration for writing this blog as it makes me reflect upon not only this relationship which was doomed from the beginning, but all of my doomed relationships in the past, only one of which I spotlighted for relevance.  It is also the reason I have made a new blog category called “Words of Twisdom” as I am hoping to share the lessons I have learned in the past.  Hell, who am I kidding, I just hope I learn from my past mistakes!  If you gained any insight from this or have something to share yourself, feel free to leave your own thoughts - granted they’re not as ‘twisted’ as mine!

And since I’m talking about doomed relationships, you can see just how ‘bad’ your girlfriend is by taking the “Bad Girlfriend” survey here.