Brian Fields

This weekend brought in some sort of halloween party for everyone, and the E-Men were no exception. We’ve been planning a group costume for a month and we knew we would be a big hit at whatever party we went to.

Varner, a friend of Kristen’s, invited us over to his house for his halloween party towards the beginning of the month, so that’s when we decided to get started. Of course, we decided that, but none of us really did anything until I got started on my part the weekend of our party (on the 14th).

I began construction of my costume with some cardboard boxes and tape. I gave it the general shape I needed, and although time was short, I figured with all the tape and unlevelness of the costume, I should probably paper mache it. So last Tuesday, I got started on that. Paper mache is kind of a pain in the ass. Mostly because it takes so long, and partially because it’s a freaking mess (even though it’s easy to clean up.)

So after about a layer and a half of paper mache, I laid a coat of paint down on Thursday. I was excited. My costume looked like it was going to be perfect. The shape was exactly what I was hoping for and it was pretty solid, which was one of my big concerns. My other concern was that I wasn’t going to have enough time to lay the other colors of paint down and decorate it.

I didn’t get to work on it at all on Friday, so Saturday I had to get up early and get to work. I spent the better portion of my day working on the costume or contemplating what I had time to do still. It actually wore me out to the point where I was falling asleep on the couch before we left for the party!

We had to wait a little bit for Doug to get home from work, but once he got home and got into costume, we were on our way. Christi Gambill, a friend from high school, came along to go to the party. She called Brownie earlier in the day and Brownie invited her along, and she was definately welcomed company.

We arrived at Varner’s… or rather we passed his place and drove a quarter mile down the street to find a place to park… and then THE A-TEAM VAN (Me!) DROVE RIGHT THROUGH THE DOOR… Guns blazing, Mr. T. (Joe) throwing people through walls, Murdock (Mikey) and Face (Brownie) sucker punching the nearest suckers, and when the dust cleared, Hannibal (Dougie) said “I love it when a plan comes together.”

We rocked. People loved our costumes, but it took them a moment to catch on. I guessed that some people weren’t old enough to be drinking because they didn’t recognize us. After we were there for a little bit, we were informed there was actually a costume contest, and the winner got a pair of Bengals tickets for next day’s game! BONUS!

So when the judging rolled around, we were certain we’d run away with it all… because quite frankly, there were some good costumes, but nothing came close to us. They had us walk down stairs where everyone at the party waited to cheer for their favorite costumes. There were about 10 people entering, if you count us as one. We went last. We went down the stairs, humming out the A-Team theme, and the cheers were fantastic. They decided on three finalists, and it was us, versus Daisy Duke (Emily) and a white guy dressed as a member of the Black Panther Party (some guy I didn’t know.). So when the cheers came around again, we blew them both away. I mean, come on, we had a white guy dressed and painted as a black guy and then some! It was obvious that we had one, but one of the guys who lived there who was the judge of the audience applause, declared the Black Panther as the winner… and I then found out it was his friend. What a load of crap.

I built a freaking van outfit, and this guy wears a leather jacket, some pins, and wears a bunch of skin bronzer and he wins? It wasn’t soon after that we just decided to scram. The kegs were empty, and people were actually wondering how the hell we didn’t win. It was obvious to us that we had the better costumes. Oh well. We didn’t go in expecting a prize, so my attitude is that I can’t be upset we didn’t win a prize. Just like Stratyfest, I didn’t need to win to know I did better.

So we left, I dropped everyone off at the bar, and went home, then when they stumbled in drunk as hell I was cool enough to get Goldstar Chili for them. They all passed out or went to bed shortly after.

We later found out that there was actually some drama at the party, and that one of the other guys (who I didn’t know, but was pretty cool.) started a big argument over why we didn’t win and such. He was Howie Mandell from “Deal or No Deal”… complete with a girl carrying a briefcase. He did a pretty damn good job.

So yeah. Neat. Now the A-Team Van is sitting in our foyer, kinda busted from having to wade through hallways and crowds and I gotta figure out what to do with it. Maybe I’ll blow it up. Seems like a fitting end for the A-Team van. Or maybe I’ll just stick it in the basement until we move out. Whatever.

Hopefully I’ll have some pictures soon. I took my camera, but I couldn’t get it out of my pocket too easily, and I kept needing a free hand to hold the van up. So maybe people will send me some pictures.

See ya.

One week down at the new job and I love it. Everyone at RPI is so friendly and welcoming, and I already feel like I’m at home. Granted, it’s probably because I’m coming from a third shift factory job that I hated every day of, but either way, things are good now.

The E Men had a party this past weekend to celebrate one year at “la casa de E”. It went over pretty well. We still have about 1/2 to 1/3 of a keg to finish off, but I don’t think that will be a problem. As best I can tell, nobody died and nothing got broken. I think Joe had a good time up until things went sour for him sometime after midnight. Haha. But we had plenty of people turn out (except, as usual, for all of the people I invited… but that’s another story.) and I don’t think anyone there DIDN’T have a good time, so… great!

The following morning Aunt Maria and Uncle Brett held the second annual “Straty-fest” Chili Cook-off. This year, they also added a cornbread and dessert competition. That was really fun. Mike, Doug, Jason, Brett and of course Kristen came along to enjoy some football, chili, cornbread, desserts and a fun atmosphere. I made my soon-to-be-famous chili again this year, which came in second place last year. I was sure I was going to win this year, but I ended up not doing so well, apparently. I guess all those suckers don’t know what good chili is. Once again this year, I had an empty crock pot at the end of the day, and Aunt Maria was the only other person that can make the same claim. Contrary to belief, I’m not bitter about it. But also, the Bengals lost, I got hit in the back of the head with a football, and the house is still a bit of a mess from the party. Hah.

I guess that’s all that’s worth telling about.

I’ve actually had some time lately to get some work done on the site, doing some coding changes and stuff… I screwed up and uploaded an old version of the “about” page, totally wrecking all the changes I made to it a few months ago. So now it still says I live in Franklin. Guess I’ll have to re-write that now.

I’m still working on the gallery script to show my pictures from Ireland, but I’m thinking about just breaking down and using someone else’s script because writing one is turning out to be a huge pain in the ass. The original goal of writing one was to make it easier to make galleries, but I don’t see the point in a “do lots more work to make the work easier” sort of deal. Oh well.

I’m out.

See ya.

PS: Safari is a crappy web browser and for some reason all text has roll-over effect that turns it blue. Works fine in every other browser, though.

I got the call today that everything came out nice and dandy on my physical and drug screen. So I’m going to be starting bright and early Monday morning.

I’m so excited.

As for now, I still got 2 days this week to get everything done that I’ve been wanting to do for months upon months. Nice.

I don’t work in a crappy iron foundry anymore. That’s a certainty. My last day was Friday. I’m so happy. It’s going to be weird being able to hang out with my friends and not working at night. For the past year, the entire time I’ve been living in Cincinnati, I’ve been on third shift.

But I got back from vacation and had an email asking my contact from a place called “RPI” to call him. I’ve been talking with RPI for about 3 or 4 months now, and pretty much the demeanor was that they were going to hire me, it was just a matter of when they would have the workload to justify hiring me.

So I visited them the same day, and they told me they were ready to roll. All I had to do was to take a pre-employment physical and drug screen. No problem there. I went Tuesday to take that, and I’m expecting a call back from RPI telling me that everything checked out and I can start work the next day.

HOTNESS.

I already quit Cast-Fab, so I may have a few days where I can say I’m unemployed, but I’m fine with that, seeing as I’ve been constantly employed since I was 18 and I have enough money to last me at least a few weeks before I should worry.

It was my plan to not update until I had something more to talk about than hating my job and not getting enough time to do things, so I guess that’s why you’re finally reading something new.

Also, if you recall, my trip to Ireland happened a couple weeks ago. It was awesome to say the least, and I’m finishing up a complete travel journal and sorting through the pictures before I upload it all, so be on the lookout for that. I’m certain the whole 4 people who read this will get a message to me about it anyway.

Check ya later, suckers!