The In Crowd

"If you do what you've always done, you'll be where you've always been"

A little different feel to the blog this time around, not really so much about my self proclaimed quest to 50 as it as just about an update on life. So first of all, and probably most disappointing for some of you, I've decided to skip out on going to AA for Thanksgiving. I've decided that these next two months I need to focus on two things, working and saving money. There's a great deal about the Business I'm in that you guys don't understand yet and eventually you will, (with the exception of Wheeler, who already gets it), but essentially I'm in a position now where if I put in some quality work, I can greatly improve my financial situation and get myself rolling on the career path. That being said, an impromptu trip to AA usually runs me about 400 bucks when it's all said and done, counting the ticket cost and the amount of food and alcohol I will undoubtedly consume while there; not a terribly big deal but I'd rather save that and use it for something else at this point in time. That being said, CHIN mentioned the idea of a Chicago for New Years trip, that sounds pretty sweet to me so that will be my plan for the time being.

Bottom line, for the months of November and December, no one will out work me. I have a very tangible vision for my future, and our future as friends, and today marks the day where I put all my efforts into making that vision a reality. People always say you can do whatever you put your mind to, well after spending a weekend with a couple of millionaires, I believe that to be unquestionably true. The American dream is simply that we can accomplish anything with hard work, and I'll show you guys exactly what that means, that is a promise to you, but more importantly a promise to myself and my family.

Ok switching tones again A little wrap up of these past couple weeks. Wheeler and Sweeney came to Baltimore a couple weekends ago and we had a blast. Unfortunately "Stupid Raymond" missed his first flight so my all day plans for Saturday fell through, but they still got to see a small fraction of the Baltimore nightlife on Saturday night. Wheeler spent the rest of the weekend with me and I got to show him around a little bit more, and just in typical Wheeler fashion he ended up taking a tour of the Harbor with some stranger on his boat haha. After hanging out with them I realized that the times we spend together will never really change, we all still have the same type of personalities when going out and still find a way to be the life of the party in one way or another. Eventually my plan is to get EVERYONE out here to Baltimore, and then to DC and then CHICAGO, and yea even DENVER. I love AA and all, but we all live in different exciting cities now so no reason why we all can't travel to see each other.

Last weekend I flew out to Seattle with my boss Eric and another co-worker Ulysses. To sum the trip up, 1/2 business, 1/2 learning, and 100 percent awesomeness. Spent some time in Meetings and going out on Campaigns with different clients, and learning how to be a better trainer, recruiter, and salesman. The awesomeness came from Hanging out in Seattle with a handful of really successful men and women. At some point someone told me that if you want to be successful, you find someone in the position you want, and then ask them how they got there, I spent 48 hours doing exactly that and I've never been more inspired. The most inspirational part was seeing that these people weren't anything special, they weren't given any unique talents or gifts, they were just willing to put in the hard work in the beginning, and when everyone else was giving up and moving on, they endured. So now my resolve, which has always been strong, is rock solid, I Will Change my Stars (sorry for the Knight's Tale reference).

Lastly, to address the title of the post, I feel like I've finally gotten a chance to start. Most of the time in this job i've been on the bench, taking notes and watching people go out and perform. Well thats not the case anymore. In every aspect of life there is an "in crowd" whether it be work, school, social life, or sports, We all know this better than most people, being athletes and such. At work, the in crowd are the people that you just know will be successful, they have that swagger about them that commands attention when they walk in the room and says "follow me and your life will change."This weekend was the first time I felt like I joined the ranks, I wasn't just seen as someone on the team, but an Impact player. No longer are people talking about how I have the "potential" to do big things, now they have the "expectation" that I will do big things. I should note that there wasn't a specific moment or instance where people just started saying these things, but  I can sense that the perception people have about me has changed in this manner, and perception is all I need to influence and then to lead. If this is confusing to you, which Im sure it has to be, you are more than welcome to give me a call to get some more detail, but I would say just sit back and watch, and you will see for yourselves the differences we are all about to experience together.

With that being said I wish you all the best as you continue to progress towards your goals, if you don't know what your goals are or feel like you're working towards anything, I urge you to take a couple minutes and write them down. Whenever life throws us a curve ball, which it always does, having your goals in mind will make overcoming them all the easier.


Looking forward to the future that lies ahead of us and working hard in the present to get there....


Go Blue.

Wheeler is Coming to Baltimore....Let's see if this weekend can turn into everything I imagine it can be....


If I were a betting man, I would bet that 49's likely to happen this weekend. I'll see you guys on the other end of this blog, look to Monday.

For Once, the Majority

"I want to tell you a secret I think about you"
"Oh really, whats that?"
"I think you're a Diva!"

If you haven't figured it out, my speech is in bold. The other comes from a girl I met last night while at a party in Annapolis. And to the post.


So I told you guys in my earlier post that I was heading to a party in Annapolis this weekend where I figured that there would be a chance for 49. Well there was no 49 involved but I still had a good time. You guys know that I don't really hang out with a lot of Black people. It wasn't always my choice, at a very young age my parents made sure that they sent us to predominately white school as to make sure we had as little "bad influence" from the kids we lived around as possible. I actually grew up in the City, but almost always went to school out in Baltimore County (The suburbs for people who don't know) because like I said my mom wanted nothing to do with kids who wore their pants around their ankles. Needless to say I grew up having very limited "Black tendencies" and people often referred to me (In the Black community of course) as an Oreo or many other names of that type. I mean I never really minded, I would always come up with some sly response that made them see how much better educated than them I was and they would eventually move on.

Around middle school my mom kinda abandoned this practice, or rather I guess they just let me make more decisions because I started hanging out with more neighborhood kids. And yes that means Black kids. I was still known as the smart guy of the group but they actually started to respect me because well I always found ways to keep us out of trouble and from getting caught from all sorts of various not totally legal behaviors.

That continued through highschool with me now being apart of two groups of friends, my smart white friends in school, and then a couple neighborhood black friends. Eventually I decided to go to school in Michigan, where once again I spent almost all my time with White friends and so forth. let's just put it this way, if I had joined a frat, it would not have been one of the black frats....as much as I like steppin and all I just don't think I would have.

So fast forward to last night. Tasha is a friend of a friend of a friend, and her dad was having this huge party at his ridiculously nice house. The only thing is that Tasha is Black, and so of course is her dad and then so were ALL his friends. This was cool for two reasons, 1 because I was finally in the majority of a party I was attending, and 2 because 2 of my friends were white and on many occasions said "so this is what it must feel like" referring to being the only ones of a certain race present. Ha it was pretty funny but also an amazing time because everyone was older than us. There must have been a handful of people in their 20s there, everyone else was greater than. At some point in the night two more of Tasha's friends came over and one of them was white. I dunno what it is about a white girl showing up at a black party but all the guys generally love them. So this was def the case last night, where this particular girl garnered the attention of every 20 something guy there.

This girl in question is the one who has that wonderful quote to start this blog. A long time ago I wrote about a dance called the "Wobble" It seems like my previous learning of the dance came into play here because the  DJ chose this song as his final request of the night. (Yes there was a DJ, and a Live Band, and all sorts of "I'm rich" things going on). So of course being the phenomenal dancer I am, I decide to get in the middle of everyone and have a good time (Think Rick's stage ala Cupid Shuffle, or Walk it out, or Dougie). Well at no surprise to myself, I attract the attention of the white girl (I feel weird referring to her as that so let's call her M) and she comes up and starts dancing with me. Well actually she first asked me to teach her the dance, so I did and then she proceeded to do the dance while holding around my waste and pretty much touching me like she knew me. So naturally my normal thought pattern is "I got this in the bag," M is a really cute girl, in the face, which is what I really like. Her body was good but nothing terribly special, I guess if it had been I might have approached things differently. In any case We flirt it up and I start making my move in to say "hello." It was then that the totally unexpected happened. She leaned over, and whispered into my ear the beginning quote, I don't remember exactly the format but I remember as plain as day the resounding DIVA that came out of her mouth. Now Diva really has two connotations. BOTH of which refer to feminine characteristics. The negative DIVA is like a high maintenance I need attention doing too much kind of girl. This is not what she meant. The positive connotation is the Aretha Franklin, R-E-S-P-E-C-T you go get it girl kind of Diva, and this IS what she meant. I'll tell you what, it was at this point that my entire grasp on the whole situation came crashing down....

Finally my perception of all the earlier "flirting" events made sense, she wasn't flirting, she was just overly comfortable with me because she thought I was gay. The body rubbing, the butt dancing, I guess it wasn't too much of a surprise. You guys know How I dance, I like to challenge girls to a "How Low" contest, and booty shaking contest, and I finally realized that if you're meeting me for the first time, how could you not think that haha. I feel like Vince Vaughn in wedding crashers, I sabotaged myself on the dance floor. I've been hit on by many a gay guy before, no big deal, kinda a compliment depending on the guy, but never really have a had a girl think that about me, now I know what Wheeler must feel like sometimes haha.

Moral of the story, I just thought it was more funny than anything, and I suppose that I should make sure I don't bring out that kind of dance moves until i've already established my heterosexuality to a girl ha, because really it can swing either way. All in all a great night, my Wobble is on point, and I learned that you CAN teach uncoordinated people how to dance, its just that more enjoyable to watch them.


How about them Lions?

HalfWay to a Century

Just to clarify, I'm still at 48, but I figured that I haven't talked about this in awhile and it randomly came into my mind while reading Chin's blog so I figured why not update you guys.


So you know How I originally said I was going to throw a party for number 50, but then I said I probably wouldn't, well now I'm for sure going to do it. My thought is well why not? At this point, it will be no secret to anyone who get's involved with me that it is not my first rodeo, sure they might not need or def want to know the exactly number (As I've found, most guys don't know they're exact number or even want to, I get the "dude I stopped counting a long time ago" response from most guys), but they will def know that I'm not a virgin or anything ( I wonder if anyone would believe me if I said that?)

The idea is that I've slowed down, not a little, not a bit, but by a HUGE amount. I mean coming out of UM my fifth year I was adding numbers on pretty good, and even when I first got back home I was still in the groove, but since then I just don't hook up with people all that often. This is for various reasons, mainly because well I don't like rolling solo. If I wanted to go out by myself, find some drunk girl stumbling around on the dance floor, I probably could, but where's the fun in that. Now if I'm out with a bunch of friends, go to the dance floor, say "hello" to said stumbling drunk girl, then its cool and worth it. But I digress.

The reason I want to have a big celebration for number 50 is because well Holy Crap its 50! As disgusted as some people may be by that, it's Still very impressive. I really don't know many guys who would admit to such a thing, but I've come to accept it as just a part of my crazy times at Michigan, times that will stay with me forever (It is tattooed to me after all).

Secondly, I think I want to do it just as a slap in the face for people who think it's stupid. I've had a couple of girls mention how that is just wrong to want to celebrate something like that, and how unlucky the poor girl who might end up being 50 will be, to that I say "PUSHIT." Listen, there's clearly a reason that I haven't hit 50 yet, a reason why I've drastically slowed down. It's because now, I think i've grown a heart, or conscience or whatever and I actually CARE about the girls that I potentially hook up with. I mean i've never really been a hit it and quit it type, I only have had what are 2 one night stands now, 2 out of 48, a ridiculous percent! So the point I'm trying to make is 50 will be a LUCKY girl. I mean clearly I've given up on just settling for anyone, I'm on my Cassie and Craig tip now, where I'm looking for that someone special. It's a long shot but it is possible that 50 could be the woman I marry, things just seem to be going that way.

My biggest test, to see if all this was just me rambling or being truthful will be this weekend. On Saturday I have this supposedly big party to go to in Annapolis or some other part of maryland. This girl is having her dad throw this HUGE party that like the entire neighborhood is coming to with multiple kegs, live bands, the whole shebang. And this girl seems to want to see what all the Stev hype is about. I only see two downsides to this scenario. One, the girl is Black. For all of you that have known me, there is not one member of the 48 club that is black (Again pretty impressive, and probably surprising to sum but not to all). So this will be a good test of my attractiveness to black girls, or I guess Drunk Stev's level of attraction to them. The second reason I'm skeptical is because it's a house party. I mean I have really yet to be to a kick butt house party like we used to throw or even used to crash, so I'm thinking it's time to take over again, play some zoomy zoomy, and get a game of survivor flip cup going like we used to.

Moral of the story, look forward to hearing about my night/s via this blog or if you hear from me in person.

The Early Bird Gets the Worm

Looks like I will be the first to post since Sweeney accurately reached out and informed us that it has been far too long since any of us have.

My weeks have all gone the same recently, I work during the week, and drink during the weekends. As far as anything exciting, I still haven't really gotten anything going with any particular girl, although people do seem to have a fun time bringing girls to hang outs so I can meet them. But this for me presents a problem and let me tell you guys why.....

First of all, a little background. On our side of the office we are way over stacked on testosterone, its like a 80 20 guy girl ratio and I know it was awhile since we all applied to undergrad but everyone knows those numbers suck. So naturally everyone reaches out to the few girls and then girlfriends to bring more girls around whenever we hang out. So usually at least once a week I get the text: "Stev! I'm bringing a friend on thursday!" or "Stev! my friend is coming on Saturday ; ) " One might think that this is a good thing, afterall bringing girls specifically to meet me sounds like a win. However, if any of you remember one thing about me, remember this, I HATE girls that are highly sought after, or girls that are constantly getting the attention from every guy in the room. I know this is one of the few areas that me and O disagree, as he loves to know that every guy is drooling over his girl, me not so much haha. Anyways you can probably imagine where this is going. 20 something guys being overly excited to see any new face that has a vagina. So "Hey I'm bring a friend" turns into every guy in the office hurrying to meet her and talk to her and pretty much smother her, even the guys with girl friends ha. So what ends up happening, well I do what I do best, and ignore them haha.

Yes I know that this is a little sad that my exciting story is about something as silly as that but really that the one highlight I have for you guys. Work has been up and down for me, good weeks and bad weeks, so now I'm trying to string together a couple good weeks in a row so I can start to visit you guys again. My future plans are to go out to Michigan sometime in October and then to visit Mike D sometime after that, and then get Mike O off his Detroit (look at those Lions btw, and the Tigers!) butt and come down to B-more.

I will leave you guys with this one thought. Look at your lives right now. Take a couple minutes, take in your surroundings. I promise you guys that one year from now our lives will be so drastically different that it's ridiculous. Don't ask me why I'm saying this but it just came to my head. I know we've all slipped on the blogging but honestly it is one of the easiest ways for all of us to keep up with each other as to make sure that once we all go on to become successful, we'll still have that awesome friendship to fall back on. I dont know about you guys, but I RARELY meet anyone these days that will even come close to being as fun as you guys all are, I actually laugh at people sometimes because I think to myself "these guys have no idea what fun really is" really 100+ thousand people marching on to the Big House for a night game to beat Notre Dame and then party so hard ann arbor is left in shambles, some people will never experience stuff like that and we all did. My point is that I expect to share just as many great future memories with you guys as I do past memories, so let's all keep the hustle and grind going now so we can have some awesome grown up fun in the near future.

My immediate next step is to go visit Sweeney is D.C. because well he's soo close to me its actually sad that I haven't already seen him.

The Gambler

As I walked out of the bar I looked over to her and she smiled, I approached her, complimented her ear rings, and the rest was history. A chance meeting after last call leads to "hello," a phone number, and my first real date in months.

It was the eve of Irene, everyone was scrambling to evacuate their beach houses and summer jobs and find safe haven. I guess the one positive we can take from Katrina is that the US government will never let itself be unprepared again for a predictable natural disaster. After the earthquake hit and cell service was down for hours they told us to text and not call. Then they started to evacuate cities and beaches to make sure we wouldn't be caught off guard again by a hurricane that ended up being only Category 1. I mean Maryland is always just far enough west from the coast not to really be in any imminent danger, but strong winds and heavy rain always leads people to start driving retarded. Despite all this impending doom, I still decided to commence the weekend activities as usual, heading down to the city to drink.

This time around would be a little different. I decided to bring my lil sis (who is 20 and turns legal in March) and her friends down with me to hang out with the cool kids. I drove them down, dropped them off, and found some always difficult city parking. Once I got to the pregame spot I didn't really waste anytime and went straight for the shots of the hard stuff. At this point it was already 10pm and I was dead sober, something that I don't like being with a limited amount of bar time ahead of me. Stann was back in town so we wrestled a game of You Got Served together and after a couple of rounds headed to the bar. Plenty of couples, plenty of people, and plenty of dancing and plenty of free drinks, that is the summary of my night out at the "Ricks of Baltimore." Then came last call, I was actually out with Kerry and her friends, and was playing wing man for my boy Alex who was trying to get it in with one of Kerry's friends. I did my usual "after you" to the ladies and took up the rear. As I rounded the turn to the exit stairwell, I spotted this really attractive girl leaning against the wall next to what looked like a couple, who were clearly her friends. She has this bored/lonely look on her face so of course I decided to go up to her and start a conversation...

"Are those feather earrings you're wearing?"
"Yeah, they are"
"I really like them."
-Smiles
"Thanks, I really like you. What's your name?"
"Stevann."
"Steven?"
"No, Stevann"
"Devin?"
"Ha, no, Stev- ann"
"Oh, cool."
"Yo Stev, let's go, where are you?"
"Take my number."
"Alright, well I'll give you a call sometime, Lindsey right?"
"Yeah, but why don't you just come with me now?"
-Takes my hand and walks me out to the street.
We say "hello"
Stev?! What are you doing?! Kerry is waiting. Let's go!
-Literally pulls me away from Lindsey
-Makes a confused face, walks away


So yeah that was my last 15 minutes at the bar, or I guess technically my last 5 minutes at the bar and then 10 minutes outside getting her number, saying hello, and then getting pulled away. She later texted me asking if I had a gf and why my friends would pull me away like that. I have to say though it has been a long time since I've picked up a girl at the last moments of the night out. I guess Stalking Horse isn't the "Rick's of Baltimore" (I am the only one who refers to it as such) for no reason. After further conversation she tells me that she thought I was "hot" so why not try to take me home seconds after meeting me ha. She is actually a cool girl, she's a nurse, and used to be a gymnast, yeah a win win there.

Fast forward to 7 am when we have a hour long text conversation that leads to our first date. At this point it is Saturday evening and the rains and heavy winds come in so we decide just to go back to her place after dinner. We get some wine and watch Dirty Dancing (which is actually a great date movie) and cuddle up on the couch for a couple hours. Despite what all evidence may lead you to believe, I actually did NOT hook up with her. It was more of an adult type date where we got to know each other and look forward to saving the "promiscuous behavior" for later, those were her words actually.

So yeah thats about it, it was a nice touchy feely night, the lights cut off a couple of times and we had a romantic evening. Wow, romantic evening. Is that something that grown ups do? Is that something I'll have to get used to? She's 27 by the way. No more just getting down to the dirty early, let's see how playing it slow goes for me.

As for the rest of the weekend, I will spend it watching movies and just chilling. A hurricane doesn't really incite me to do anything crazy.

P.D.A. We just don't Care

I had sex with a girl outside in the street leaning against her car.

Have you guys ever had a moment of self reflection, where you look back and realize that you were just doing something crazy,stupid, creepy....Well it happens to me, not often but it happens. For the last two weeks I was trying to organize a party with my buddy Jerry. Well mainly what I was trying to do was get the girls from work to come to the party. Now I should be no stranger to get together, we invited hundreds of people over numerous houses over the years, but for some reason I didn't use my past experience. To make a long story short, I pretty much came off as a semi-creeper in the way I went about inviting people. The easy way would have been just to let everyone know all at once on various occasions when we are all together, instead I for some reason asked each girl individually, at different times, to the point where they were all questioning my motives. Now the party went on and was a success, and a couple of the girls did end up coming over, but I realized that they really weren't comfortable with the whole situation, and that was totally my doing.

I'm trying out a new format, I will start my posts with the "punch line" so to speak and then eventually tell you the story leading up to it. That way, anyone who just skims the blog or doesn't feel like reading a long post, they will be able to pretty much know the main point/story being shared.

So Friday night I hung out with some work buddies downtown. It was a chill night which I guess is cool but made me realize that not everyone can control hosting people. It wasn't like they did a bad job, but when I host I always want people to be involved and doing something, and I noticed that everyone isn't like that. My whole thing is if I wanted to just sit around and drink and talk, I could do it at my own house or at a bar, if I go through the trouble of inviting people somewhere, I want to make it worth it by including activities or games or even a general group conversation. Anyways, the moral of Friday was that I missed my closing sign. I apologize in advance for using work terminology, I've just gotten so used to teaching/training others at work that I just start to talk like that normally. But the idea is that I could have pursued this girl but I failed to pick up on the signs that she was interested. There was a point in the night where everyone was getting ready to leave and split off their separate ways, the girl in question lived about an hour away from the city and didn't really want to drive all the way home. Her friend was leaving her to pursue other "interests" and I could tell the girl didn't want to go on that chase with her. INSTEAD of inviting her back to my buddie's place to keep the party going, I just walked her to her car and let her go home. HOW do I know that there was in fact opportunity there and I'm not delusional, well I did what I always do I just asked her. Her exact words "Well I was waiting for you to invite me to stay downtown with you guys but you never did."  Yeah I don't know how I missed that one I was just off my game and now that opportunity is more than likely gone forever, but at least I learned my lesson.

Saturday was much more of an eventful day for me. I woke up around 8 and went for a run and did some various drills. I got back around 10 just in time for my buddy to come pick me up so we could start setting up for the party. Two hours later we had cleaned the house, cut the grass, trimmed the hedges, and did some weed waking and then bought food and a keg. So by noon I had one of my most productive Saturdays ever, I knew it was going to be a good day. It started to rain pretty heavy and I knew we were going to lose the people who were "maybes" for our party. You know the type who are looking for a reason either to come or to stay at home and rain during a day drink/bbq event is as good as reason as any to want to stay in. However we did not let that stop us and still had our cookout anyway. Fast forward many drinks and talks later. I guess I have what I will call a couple of "moves" when it comes to sealing the deal with girls. One of these said moves, the one I use most at house parties is to say "Let's go for a walk" Basically what I do here is try to get the girl alone and we literally go on a walk to have more "intimate" conversation. Last night my walk went as far as to her car parked across the street. I don't remember how exactly it got started, but next thing I know I'm pushing her up against the car and pulling her pants down. I'll save you guys all the details but you know where it went from there, in the words of Mike O, we proceeded to "fold laundry." Now I'm no stranger to the outdoors so to speak, but we were literally in the middle of the street in the middle of a nice family neighborhood, and it was awesome. Ha at any given point anyone could have walked/driven by, looked out their window, or even just stepped outside for a smoke and they would have gotten a show. Suppose thats a cool story for the books.

The final thing I noticed yesterday was that I can't go a full day of drinking anymore. I started around 2 pm and was ready to pass out by midnight. I guess that's a long time but I kinda feel like we used to start pre gaming for football games and then still make it out to ricks that same night and not always using the power nap to do it. Oh well guess we are growing up a little now and my body just likes to sleep instead of drink excessive amounts.

Ye Olde Par 4

I think I skipped blogging about last weekend because well nothing terribly exciting happened. This weekend, the one I was supposed to go to Mich, was much more eventful. I decided to spend the weekend visiting an old friend in Philly, we all should know who that is so I won't say any names. On Friday she gave me a pretty great tour around the historic parts of the city, and the whole time I could only think about how Sweeney would not only appreciate that more than me but he would actually know who all those old important people were. It's always an interesting time visiting an old course, most of the time is spent trying to figure out what kind of dynamic you're going to have. And by that I usually mean answering a few important questions.

The main question you ask yourselves ( not verbally of course, more mentally) is Are we going to hook up? This question usually dictates the "nature" of the rest of the visit. Either you're going to spend it as a couple type, or as a friend type. Usually the couple type interaction serves to let other people know that either of you is off limits, and more than likely will lead to an argument or disagreement that stemmed from jealously. Whether its a guy buying her a drink, or you talking/dancing with a girl, when you choose the couple type its almost inevitable to have to "talk." With that being said, the friendship isn't really much of a better option, at least not when you visit solo. When you visit someone by yourself and are a friendship type, the host usually goes out of their way to accommodate you. They try to make sure you have a place to stay, that someone will know where you are at all times and etc. That on the surface is not a bad thing, after all you're probably in a place you're not very familiar with. The issue comes into play when drinking happens and then the host wants to go ahead and do what they normally do. If the host as a significant other, you could get lucky and have them be cool like Cassie and Craig. BUT most likely they won't be as cool and the BF will get jealous anyway and want to overexert his presence in front of you. Then he will take the host away and leave you to fend for yourself. Another common occurrence, when the host doesn't have a significant other, is that they spend all their time/attention on you and never really get to be themselves. This just means that they are too worried about leaving you on their own that they forget to have fun themselves. This is the kind of scenario when the host would have gone to a party/club/event, but since you aren't familiar with the people/weren't invited you stay home to watch a movie, ha not exactly the best time.

Moral of the story, we spent the weekend as a couple type, and it was nice. I mean she is one girl who's probably cool enough to have a friend type visit and still be fun, but then of course we wouldn't get to hook up and well where's the fun in that. So back to our weekend. Friday night we went out in Manayunk, it was pretty cool. She was there with all her PT friends so I kinda just chilled and had bottomless drinks. The thing about the couple type is that you really can't talk to any and every girl like I'm used to, so I just chose to limit all convos to her friends, and specifically the ones that had boyfriends as to not get myself in trouble. On Saturday their apartment complex had this really cool all day drinking event by their pool. At one point they even brought out a mechanical bull, but I have to say it was nothing like the 5th quarter bull we all used to marvel at and love. Met more friends on Saturday, including a girl who went to UM and knew Logan. If you guys don't already know my history with Logan and the Waterpolo team of those years then lucky you ha. Turns out the girl only met Logan during their Senior year, so the Stev days were long forgotten by then.

Sunday I came back to Baltimore and had bottomless screwdrivers for brunch. I actually got tired of Orange juice by the end of the day so now I'm taking a week off from it as to save my stomach. Thats a rough summary, I'm getting kinda tired now and don't really feel like going into any more detail ha.

Chin, Mike O lets work on you guys updating more frequently. Thanks.

Either I'm Still Drunk or I'm Hungover - The Girl Whisperer

Well then, I was planning on writing this post earlier with the fresh memories still looming, but then I realized that the room was spinning and I couldn't function properly. So i did the only respectable thing, went back to sleep for like 3 hours and now I feel great. So thus with no further ado I shall commence....


I've been hanging out with work people a lot recently. It's actually pretty cool because everyone is in their twenties so they're all pretty fun to work with. Don't take this the wrong way, and knowing me you shouldn't because I'm not a cocky person, but around the office I've got quite the reputation. I remember my first week everyone was overly excited about me, including my boss, and were all like "You're going to kill it" etc. Even people from other offices were talking about me and this other new kid Lucas. We were on a business trip in Southern Maryland, ran into some chicks from another office and the first thing they say is "Oh you are those two guys we keep hearing about?" Needless to say I initially had no idea what they meant but following my promotion into leadership I learned that pretty much every morning they talk about the new people in the office. To get back on point, this excitement about me carried outside of work as well. I don't really remember but I guess the first time I went out with anyone from the Office, I had a couple of girls talking to me and everyone assumed I was like a girl whisperer or something. Literally anytime someone from the office see's me out, they're like "Stev we hear that you do work" or Stev where are all the girls at, or Stev bring 2 brunettes with you when you come over tonight. Like I said I'm not trying to talk myself up here, it's just the way things are.

At first I was thrown off by this. I mean it's a lot of pressure to be consistent in the office but to be consistent galfing is even tougher. We all know it's a numbers game, I mean it's not called the theory of averages its called the LAW of averages. So naturally if someone see's me out One night of the weekend, the chances of me actually pulling a girl/hooking up with her are pretty slim...luckily last night was one of those occasions. But more importantly I realized that it wasn't necessarily about me getting girls, but everyone assumed I was great at getting the attention of girls, meaning I could just walk up to a group, take over the conversation, and basically get them involved with the people I was hanging out with...that part of it is pretty true.

Taking all this in, I came up with two goals for last night. My first goal was to remember the name of every person I met that night. FAIL. I am notoriously bad at this in general, so of course that is multiplied when I'm drunk. I did manage to kinda remember the girl from the evening though, well at least I know her last name, I'm foggy on the first name. My second goal was to pretty much live up to the expectations that everyone had for me. This goal was a success. Pretty much what I would do is anytime I was with one of the guys from the office I would ask them to pick out a girl they thought was cute, right after they pointed to one I would go up to her and bring her over. This is actually easier than one would seem, all you have to do is either tell them flat out why you're there (works more often then not) or ice break first, and then tell them exactly why you're there. I don't know if people thing I have some kind of "Secret pick-up line" but honestly its just general conversation that does the trick. Oh and for any who don't know this, all the conversation is centered around the person I'm talking to, I never talk about myself unless they ask. This is like a given, but just so everyone knows you should stick to this and you will at least have a cordial conversation even in rejection.

So yeah after a couple hours of doing this and making everyone even happier about me, our group split up and we headed to different bars. As I tend to notice what happens is that when people start drinking earlier in the night, like 7 or 8, they usually don't last to last call. I mean we're all working people who are used to waking up early and going to bed early, so hitting the sack at midnight after a few hours of drinking seems respectable. In any case this is what happened both last night and Friday night. While the group started to dwindle I found myself alone more often then not, as the couples of the group paired off. Now for some reason I wasn't tired yet, so I hung around the bar until last call. I saw this cute girl (well she was cute but what I really saw was her low cut shirt) sitting at the bar with like 4 guys around her. Now these guys were giving her some attention, but not the I'm trying to pick you up attention. This made me think that she was either a relative or a really good friend, and that she was available (meaning no boyfriend in that group). Moral of the story she was available, a sister of one of the guys, and visiting from somewhere in Pennsylvania. At this point the bouncers start to kick everyone out and she invites me back to their place to keep partying. She does take care to let me know that I will NOT be sleeping over, but then says that it's because its not her house and she was spending the night in her Brother's room. Now I have been in that kind of situation before, and usually when the owner of the bed returns he is NOT happy about some guy sleeping in his room, much less with her sister. So I agreed, and they actually lived a couple blocks to where my co-workers lived. fast forward through a game of kings and we were saying "hello" while cooking ramen. I'm guessing that everyone in the house had a sense for us wanting some alone time, because they literally all Ninja's out the house to "smoke" even though only one of them actually smoked. At this point we moved to one of the couches, only separating from each other to make sure the Ramen didn't burn. After awhile of hooking up and things getting a little intense for her (basically the way i hook up with people is to let it build. Start slowly with kissing, then work on full body contact, then I get to using my hands, tongue, and then of course intercourse, almost always in that order). Some girls are REALLY responsive to "hands" as was the case last night. Usually with this type they don't even want to play the whole foreplay game, and after the hands stage they want to go straight for the show. So once we were playing the hand game for awhile, she couldn't take it anymore and we stopped. She explained that she wanted to have sex really bad, but there was no where for us to go as the roommies could come back in at any time. I said I understood and we went back to kissing for awhile before I left. As I walk out of the house I am greeted by the roommates who are surprised to see my leave. I guess they were all prepared to give us as much time as we needed, which made me smile. Def some cool people to give us alone time like that.

Something neat that I learned last night is that you can purchase liquor at 3 am ha. Basically we went into a bar that was closing, and they sold us some six packs/12 packs of beer. I don't know if this is common practice but I thought it was really cool.


So no 49 yet, but dangerously close.

Happy Birthday...You're 19?!!?

First of all I would like to apologize for anyone who consistently reads my blog for not posting in awhile. I've been acting like a bratty girlfriend and doing the whole "well if you're not posting then I won't post" thing. I realize that my lazy roommates need me to lead by example and constantly update in order to inspire them to post more than once a month. With that being said, Here goes.


Second of all, but most importantly, I will not be taking my talents to AA for the first weekend of August. Short Story, I have a work trip that I won't be back from until Friday night. Flights to Mich just for that Saturday are currently 350, as much as I love you guys I'm not spending 350 just on a flight for one night. So that means we just have to push the date back to pretty much any other weekend.

Now that housekeeping is out of the way I can tell you guys a little bit about what I've been up to...and like the marauder map saying I've been "up to no good." Pretty much I've been working hard and playing hard. Thats my new philosophy to life. Work has been going great, I'm now starting to get a hang of this Sales thing and I've been doing pretty well for myself. This past week alone we've had an influx of very attractive girls entering the office. All this means is that well I've been a little bit distracted. I've been playing it slow, just because you can't really say "Hello" in the middle of the office, well I guess you could but it really wouldn't be professional. Two of the girls are interns, which means that they are getting ready to head back to school soon. So my mission, if I choose to accept it, is to get "close" to these interns before they head back to school. If you guys have ever seen me pick up girls outside of the bar, then you know I play the flirt from a distance game. Usually that means a facebook post here and there, a funny text message, or a laugh over a drink. Pretty much I build my Brand until I'm ready to go in for the kill. So specifically there is this one girl Kristen who is just about ready. What I mean by that is that she's just about ready for me to make my real move. A little about her, she is pretty much my typical college type. Big Boobs. Yeah that's about all I cared about for awhile in school. She's a cute girl don't get me wrong, but no matter what she wears all I can focus on is her boobs. We played kick ball the other day, and I purposely stood next to her in the outfield just to watch them bounce. Kinda creepy, yes, but it wouldn't be me if it wasn't creepy. I usually say that I don't like younger girls, and for the most part that's true. I mean I would never date someone who is less mature than me, did that before and it never works out. So in this case hooking up with someone I've decided that I really don't need to follow my standards. Now I've never really been a cradle robber, well until now. Kristen just had her 19th birthday on Thursday. Yes I said 19th birthday. That is a little over 6 months older than my younger brother. That is a girl going into her sophomore year of college. That is someone who is "barely legal." For those who like movie quotes " Thats the thing about high school girls, no matter how old I get, they stay the same age" or something like that, I'm really bad at movie quotes but you get the idea. So my first post back was to inform you guys that I have now officially lowered my standards, or lets be cool and say "Redefined" Of course when the day of infamy arrives I will tell you all about it.

In the mean time I recommend transformers 3, harry potter part 2 (don't expect it to be anywhere near as good as the book) and then captain america for anyone who's looking to see a good movie.


I will talk about this weekend as soon as I do something interesting.

"But You're Stann's Little Brother!"

Needless to say, a very good weekend, anytime you have a half day on Friday and then a day off on Monday how can you complain.

To get to the specifics, Friday I went downtown, Saturday I went to Hooters, Sunday I went to a lake, and Today I get to chill all day by myself...perfect.


Friday night wasn't anything special. I mean it was fun, but nothing special. Jerry had some of his Jersey boys come down to join us and so we went downtown and hung out. The group of people we went with aren't my typical go out on the dance floor and do work group of guys, so the night was more chill, which was good for me because I usually get tired on Friday nights. Only real highlight of the night was the high fives I was getting from random guys for knowing the group of girls dancing on the stage at the bar. They were actually Kerry and her friends but they were ALL cute, really cute. I even got a free drink for introducing this guy to one of them ha. It was cool "knowing" people at the bar again, even got us drink specials all night...I need to do some more networking so I can do that more often.

Saturday was our planned all day drinking and bbq day. So pretty much I showed up at Jerry's house at 11, blasted Stereo Love and made everyone get up and start drinking. And I showed up with a 30 and a fifth...I meant business. Throughout the day I invited various people over and it was an overall success. The title quote comes from a girl who did not go on to become 49, not yet at least. Pretty much she was a girl that Stann had hung out with in the past, and I guess knowing that he was a player she wasn't giving him any. For some reason she decided that I was more worth her time, that and I am pretty good at seducing people. In fact she even took the time to tell me mid hook up "You've already gotten further then he ever did" this is while I was fingering her. I swear I dunno why she would say that, is that supposed to turn me on or something? Sometimes girls are strange creatures indeed....Oh and for those of you who have never done it, hooking up mid-day while at a party is a good time. I just grabbed her, took her to the basement, threw her on the couch and then went to work. She went from being hesitant to, well not holding anything back ha ha. The best part about day hooking up is that you can go right back to the party and keep drinking. As a guy, if people know or guess what you've been doing you are greeted with smiles and high fives, so it was a walk of fame back into the party not our usual college walk of shame. After a couple more hours of drinking we went to our high school to shoot fireworks...yes that was a bad idea. And these were FOR REAL fireworks, like the kind that go into the sky and explode into different colors and what not, pretty sweet. The third to last firework misfired and destroyed the tube we were launching them from, which made for a pretty amazing display on the basketball court ha. Turns out the fireworks still do their whole explosion thing even when not a couple hundred feet in the air. Afterwards we decided to light the last two in a trashcan...also a bad idea...but also made for a very cool display. After our hardwork with the fireworks we decided to head to Hooters, which stays open to 1 am apparently. Half naked servers, $5 margaritas and wings, it was a win for all of us. Potential 49 then left so I called it a night.


Sunday morning I found myself driving to lake Sassafrass. Yup, not only does Maryland actually have lakes, but they have just as ridiculous names as the small ones in Michigan. There was no tubing or wake boarding for me this time, just floating coolers, circle of death with citrus Smirnoff, and PLENTY of beer. Laying out on the water was kinda nice, I see now why all you white friends like doing it so much, very relaxing. Unfortunately every girl there was literally wifed up already, so nothing exciting on that front to report, I did get to look at some nice eye candy though. As far as my sleeping situation for the night, I literally slept on the lake ha. I spent a good three hours in the night sleeping on a floating raft....yes i KNOW that was a bad idea, and the other three hours I slept in my car, which was surprisingly comfortable. If you're going to sleep in a car, don't go for the back seat, instead use the passenger seat fully reclined a very suitable place to sleep for a few hours.


Thats a good summary of the weekend, the average age of everyone I hung out with was 26 so that was a nice change from running into 18 year olds at Ricks ha.

If anyone is interested I'm about to start reading "How to win friends and Influence people" should be interesting and a book our boss wants us to ready "21 irrefutable laws of leadership"


Happy Fourth Everyone!

Sip until I feel it

Man what a long week, I am literally exhausted for the first time in a long time, but I like it. I'd much rather have this feeling and use Sunday as a real rest day, then sit around most of the time like I had been doing. The only downside to being up and about all the time is that at night time I don't get that motivated to go out and do anything crazy, I mean I still go out but I'm much less likely to run up to a group of girls or people and grab their attention.

So like I said I have a new job now, and I must admit I like everything about it. From the company format, to my co-workers, to the actual going out and doing sales part of it, a new experience and one that will teach me more than I'll ever really be able to put into words.

So Friday while we were doing our post-day wrap up I get a text from a buddy telling me he has box seats for the Orioles (B-more's baseball team) game. I literally left the office and he was waiting at my house to take me downtown. It was pretty fun though, def the most exciting O's game I've been to and a pretty chill environment with all those people who clearly have too much money. After the game him and I went out, and man do our styles differ. I don't usually role with just one guy unless I know that we are a good 2 man show, but this time I figured why not. The night started off good, we killed 3/4's (the time constraint led us not to finish the whole bottle) of a fifth of Cruzan's spiced rum and headed into Fed Hill. Whenever I'm out alone or with one other person I like to play it slow and do my whole eye contact/stare thing and use that as an in. This guy Alex was not like that, he just wanted to throw his cards on the table and mix it up. Had I had some energy, I probably would have been down for that but like I said it had been a long day so I wasn't really feeling it. Plus almost right after we got out, he was texting an old course of his who "surprisingly" showed up at the same bar we were at, moral of the story I was out solo before I knew it. The last hour or so I had some conversation with a couple of girls, danced a little, and decided to call it a night. I wasn't in the mood for "overworking" on any girl in particular. What I mean by that is finding a girl that I'm attracted to, on a moderate level, and then putting in a lot of work just to get her. Pretty much I exhaust more energy for someone that I don't consider a high priority...sounds weird maybe but its the best way I can explain it. So that was how my Friday came to a close.

Saturday I woke up and went to my buddy Jerry's house for his sister's all day birthday bbq drinking celebration. I was still pretty tired at this point but I just hopped right back on that drinking horse and had a nice buzz going at around 2:30. This nice buzz carried me through 6 (I kept drinking to maintain it) when I had to leave to go home and change and get ready for my little bro's grad party. I wasn't planning on staying at this grad party for too long just because I don't like spending my free time with high school kids, plus my sis and Stann weren't able to make it back up from Atlanta to attend. So I pretty much made a two hour appearance, then went back to Jerry's to pregame for the night. After a couple games of 21-cup, Frank Kerry and I headed downtown.

I'll take a second to address a comment chin made on an older post that I didn't get around to responding to. YES I have been hanging out with Kerry a lot. Pretty much one night of every weekend I've been seeing her, which after this weekend I think I'll have to change a little bit, at least not make her my primary plan for the night. But in regards to your question, DS wants to have sex with her, everytime. I've been good with not allowing myself to get in a situation where that would likely happen, but whenever we do get in that situation, well you know what happens. The reason I say I'm going to change how much I see her is well because I honestly feel like I have to dedicate my night to her when we hang out, which is NOT what I want to do. I mean it going without saying that I can't hang out with her and bring a different girl home, but I can't really talk/flirt/get a number without upsetting her. She doesn't seem to mind so much if I dance with other girls, but knowing the way I usually dance I can't say that I'm completely my self. So I guess my little see what kind of friends we could be experiment is coming to a close, and I've deduced that we should maintain the "group" environment when we hang out. I'm talking about 6+ people kind of groups.

So back to Saturday, I was def still tired heading into the night downtown so we all decided to make it a chill night. It's like saying we want to STAY at Charlies and NOT go to Ricks. So we found a bar which isn't known for dancing, and hung out there. Oddly enough, while there, Frank and I learned how to do the wobble, Frank literally found some random black girls and had them teach him ha, pretty entertaining. If you don't know what it is, most of you probably don't, check it out on youtube:

Ha Ha I had to pick a black girl instructional video just for effect. The last funny moment was that as we left the bar, some OLDER black women complimented Frank on his wobble ha ha, hilarious.

So yeah that was my weekend, it felt good to sleep in till 9 this morning ha. But better than that it felt good to not have something planned and just being able to chill in my basement. I even watched the Germany women's world cup game just because, they are pretty sick by the way.


This week will be my first time I get my own territory at work, and I get to go out solo, pretty excited. Um yeah I don't do much during the week, I'm out of my house from 7-7 pretty much everyday so I usually just come home eat, relax for an hour, shower then go to bed ha.

One last side note, Jerry and his gf have officially broken up, at least for awhile, so now I have a fresh new wing man to take in under my wings. So if you read a lot of future blog posts with stories of Jerry you know why, apparently my first task is to teach him how to enjoy dancing. Should be interesting.


Have a fun Sunday everyone.

Challenge Accepted

"Impossibilities are merely things of which we have not learned, or which we do not wish to happen."




So I guess I didn't write about this weekend on Sunday like I usually do because there wasn't much to note. Don't get me wrong, I had a good weekend but nothing too exciting happened. Friday I hung out with my new/old friend Jerry and his gf and sis, the same couple I went to Atlantic City the week before with. Once again they got into a fight, which apparently had built up all week, so we didn't get around to going out or anything. I spent most of my night trying to talk to Jerry and help him out in his decision process. As anyone who has been in a long term relationship knows it is very difficult to decide that what's best is for you two to not be together anymore. Basically the thought of not being with the person (mainly out of habit more than anything else) and the idea of seeing them with anyone else (self explanatory) is enough to keep people together despite the fact that they no longer make each one happy. So yeah that was my friday night, I didn't mind so much because I like doing that kind of stuff, but its just tough to see two people I consider friends spend some much time being miserable.

On Saturday I spent most of the daytime hanging out with Jerry and helping him put stuff together around the house. On Friday we went shopping for a new TV stand and an AMP for his outdoor speakers, so we spent Saturday day drinking and setting that stuff up. Sat night the ladies had a night planned so I decided to mix and match groups of friends. Kerry had invited me to a pool party with some co-workers so I figured it would be a good place to introduce Jerry, I mean girls in bathing suits how can you not win with that combo....well you can not win by there being no girls there ha. Unfortunately Kerry had stuff to do all day so by the time she was ready to head over everyone had already left, but I guess it wasn't a total fail because we got to drink and swim and one of her best looking friends Mel was there to entertain. I mean my last post about Kerry should tell you guys pretty much how I feel about this situation but more or less she is my only other friend that I can consistently count on to hang out with. I kinda feel a little pressure, well some welcomed pressure, from Jerry because he's heard so much about me he expects every time I go out to be filled with women. As inaccurate as that may actually be about me, it motivates me to be my most outgoing self just to entertain him when we're out, plus it's pretty fun for me to see how people react to me. So yeah that was my weekend, we had a nice Father's Day BBQ on Sunday.


As for the title.....I accepted a Marketing/Sales/Consulting job today at Distinctive marketing solutions or something. Pretty much I've deduced that this is EXACTLY what Wheeler left us in Mich to move to Boston for. I'll be doing the exact thing he was doing, kinda interesting in my opinion. As you know with the school year over all my current employment is on hold until at least the summer is over, so I've been looking into finding something to do. I literally searched all around in all different markets and this was one of the only things to respond so I figure, why not?

In the middle of this post I talked to Wheeler! ha he called me back TWICE and we had good conversation. I can now say that I'm pretty excited about working. The fact that Wheeler is doing well in this company motivates me to do well and maybe i'll end up moving around the country like he did. I always said this is the time in our lives when we can afford to do things like this so WHY NOT!


Ah yeah I had some stuff to say, but once again I forgot it all. so I'll end this post and probably post later this week (middle) and let you know everything. I'll end on two notes:
1.) WAY too many beautiful girls working in the same office as me, looking like I'll get myself in trouble.
2.) A job where I can control how far I get....entry level to management....CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!

Everywhere I go, Everywhere I've been....The only thing I see is....

Is Beautiful People

I have to admit, I'm pretty happy with myself right now. No not because I met 49, although the potential was definitely there. No I'm happy because I realize that I can be the life of the party, AND I'm pretty good at it. I spent my Saturday of this weekend in Atlantic City and really its one of the only times I've have a completely fun time without hooking up with anyone (this does not include making out because we when I dance I can't help myself). Perhaps it was the fact that I started drinking at 2 pm and kept drinking till 3 am but really I just put it all out there and it worked out so well. I even made some decent money gambling, so pretty much it was a great weekend.

As far as any stories, there were a few moments that I would like to share. During the daytime I spent most of the time explaining many of the games with the people I went with, them being first time gamblers, and having games explained by me. I've told you all before that I'm a craps man, but i discovered a new 3 card poker game, "let it ride" that is pretty fun as well. The reason I love craps so much is because it's a game that when someone wins, everyone wins, and when someone loses, everyone loses. So the table is always rooting for the dice roller and anytime they hit a good roll everyone gets excited. So as I sipped on free drinks at the craps table the pit boss (guy who makes sure the bets are placed right when you want them and such) and I were just commenting on all the various women that would walk by. He would say something like "See those heels on that one" or "look at that tramp stamp" and I would laugh and reply with some unwitty comment. He was a guy in his late 50s or early 60s but pretty hilarious. During this time I realized that there were just so many good looking people in town this weekend that it HAD to be a good night. Even if I don't take someone home, just being around attractive people, talking to them, interacting with them, dancing with them leads me to have a great time so I was excited.

Fast-forward to the free $30 buffet we all got plus the half off admission into the pool bar and the night's bar activities began. It was my first time actually making it out the Harrah's resort and Casino which is famous for having this indoor pool with bars all around it. During the daytime it's more the hang out spot for hotel guests but at night time it turns into a club bumping house music and attracting all of Atlantic City. Most of the time the pool itself is unoccupied, but the complex is full of about 8 different bar areas and an outside patio plus a dance floor, so you can imagine people like to come hang out and have a good time. Perhaps the best part of going to the Pool Bar on this night was that I reaffirmed my love for Bachelorette Parties. Sometime before I mentioned that these parties are a pretty great thing to witness, but now I believe it's the single best reason for a group of girls to gather. Usually you get a wide variety of women per bachelor so it's nice to match up with a group of guys, especially if you're rolling deep, which I don't like but was the case for us. Since I was in a good mood (people and girl watching usually ALWAYS puts me in a good mood) I took it upon myself to be the one to go up and start conversations with every bachelorette we came across. It's perfect because you already have a great in, I like to lead with a simple "Congrats" and then depending on the situation I'll do one of two things. 1.)The bride to be responds kindly so I spark a conversation with her, asking who the maid of honor is and what activities they have planned, or 2.) The maid of honor takes it upon herself to introduce herself to me and include me and my friends in whatever activity they are doing. I know for anyone never in this situation it may seem odd, but I kid you not this formula led me to.....getting free shots (which was nice because drinks are SO overly priced there. $10 well shots), getting a group of girls to dance with all the guys I was with, making some friends, making out with a couple girls, getting flashed by a bride to be....yup, and me gaining all kinds of new (and dangerous) confidence.

I see it this way, people who take vacations or trips to these places EXPECT to have a good time, so I'm just a person they see as a way to help them accomplish their goals. It's all about being interactive and playful and getting everyone involved. I never would have been chosen as the recipient for that boob flashing had I not been the one to try to get two debbie downers of the group involved. Think Tucker Max without all the A*hole comments and antics. So when we find ourselves in these "This night will be as fun as we make it" situations, it is a shame for any one of us not to make that night the "best night of our life"

We ended up staying at the pool bar till about 3:30am, which is crazy because I've never really been in clubs that long, I mean sometimes you hit a 2:30 or 2:45 but when we left it was very much still packed and people were partying hard. We got there between 11:30 and 12am sometime, not really sure. After all the bachelorette party stuff, I decided to "take a lap", I'm sure we all know what this means at this point. For those who don't, taking a lap is basically a way to walk around the bar/club and search for potential hookups or at least people to dance with. Since I was rolling solo, at some point I got separated from the rest of the group, per usual, I was looking for well girls by themselves or at most two girls who looked like they worked well together. Eventually my usual "eye contact" method worked and this girl grabbed me and threw me in the center of her and her two friends. This group became my main contact for the night and eventually I "said hello" to the cutest single one. I say cutest single because in my opinion the cutest one had a boyfriend, I found some disagreement with my friends about this but we all know a lot of the time I have STRANGE tastes so it is what it is. At some point they all told me their full names (I like to ask for full names with girls I like, because it leaves the potential for me to facebook then and have future facebook flirting situations) but of course I forgot them all. I am so terrible with names that I almost forget them instantly. So throughout the night I asked each one again individually, and I still forgot them. I literally spent 30 mins in my hotel room trying to remember just one of their names but I did not succeed. If I couldn't remember names then it was hopeless when the girl I was making out with tried to tell me her number as they left the club, I didn't even remember the area code.... So I guess I self sabotaged myself into going home alone, but I really didn't think twice about it as this point. I was on a entirely different level of fun and proud of myself for taking the initiative so much in the night.

Well As it took my way too long to get home today from AC, I don't remember all the funny little details I was going to share about my night but that's the basic idea of it. We let ourselves have as much fun as we want to have. I love good looking people and get really excited when I'm around them. And I don't need to hook up to have the best night of my life in AC...Go figure.


You know if I continue this trend, of not needing or WANTING to hook up, maybe there's hope for 50 afterall ha ha

The Weeknd

So Chin and I were talking last night, and we thought that it might be a good idea to literally go to Wheeler. From our understanding he is STILL in Colorado, and hasn't had any kind of official I'm going to Cali news yet so we were thinking how about planning a trip there? Just a thought, sounded good to us, of course I was well on my way to drinking and Chin well is always happy ha.

On that note, I checked out a group that Chin had been recommending for some time now, the Weeknd and I have to say I'm a fan. The thing about me and music is that it's similar to me and movies, it doesn't take much for me to give the thumbs up. The only difference with Music is that for me music is a very mood based activity. Like there are certain things I like to listen to when running/cleaning/partying/dancing/cooking/chilling/writing/playing with myself, etc. So basically if any of you are interested (which you should be) this mixtape (House of Balloons) falls in the chillin/writing category. Something that I can listen to without necessarily wanting to be caught up in the lyrics. The undertones and beats are really laid back in my opinion, which is perfect for me writing but no so much if I'm trying to have a dance party (something that really doesn't exist outside of college, sadly). I was never a good person for writing reviews, so the only real way to see if you can vibe with them is to check them out yourself, and I think the term "vibe" really applies to them.

I shared my life dream with my parents this week, which is a little different from what my life dream used to be. I no longer want to open a clinic eventually and help people that way, I've chosen a different set of people to help. This conversation led to two things, 1.) my dad actually loving my idea and telling me this inspiring story about how teach for america was founded. and 2.) him telling me I need to find a job now. I guess it was the best I could have hoped for. When people say the "job market" is down and all that stuff I think most of us misunderstand. Honestly, there are probably hundreds of jobs we each could go out and get, being semi-educated or even uneducated, but these are not the jobs we "want." These are the service jobs, you know selling stuff to people in any fashion; anything from fast-food to insurance. But the market that is hard to find a job in is the "real" job market, the jobs that require college degrees and well educated folk. So basically with my narrow job search it made it a little difficult to find something this summer, with the school year ending and my teaching position and coaching coming to an end. So really what my father was saying to me was "I love your dream, I love that you have a dream, I know you'll make it there someday, but that is not today. So for now, you better find a job that pays." Very wise words dad haha, but his point is well taken. So the moral of the story here is that for the next week or so I'll still try to find something in the psychology field for a job, something that doesn't have to do with psychopathology. If things don't work out there, then I'll probably just find some kind of random job so I can just make money and keep saving. Chin has really inspired me to think about moving out because well as great as living with your parents is, it's not all that great.

Looking ahead, I'm going to Atlantic City again this weekend. This time it's with a completely new group of people, I guess they're the ones I've been hanging out with more lately, and when I say new they are all actually people I've known since Middle/High School but people I didn't really hang out with all that much. These are people that when the hear the number "48" they think I have some magical powers that allow me to pick up girls however and whenever I want, I mean honestly if that was the case my number would probably already be over 100. So whenever we go out, they always just watch me and wait for some girl to come crawling into my arms, which only happens if they're really drunk and can't support themselves ha. BUT since it's a birthday trip, I think I might put on my best Galfing outfit, pull out the "do work" clubs and really attack this course(s), just in case something really special happens and there's more than one.

So Cassie has this new guy now, we ever going to make that 1502 marriage bet? I'm pretty sure I'm behind now and I believe O might be either slightly behind or in front of me ha. Does that mean Cassie is about to pass Wheeler up as the new front runner?

Pursuit of Happiness

Another weekend down, I swear sometimes it seems like these things go so quickly.

I often find myself at these crossroads where I decide something drastic like attempting to become celibate or what not, but this is not one of those times. I mean most of you know that usually when I say something like that, I end up failing because well I never have a good reason to stop. I now sit at 48, 48 women, that's pretty intense. I mean I still would like to believe that my future wife can hold a number like 50 because its round, sounds nice, and could be something special. In all actuality, at my current pace, and my current stage in my life, I would have to completely stop having relations with women for the next 5 years if I were to hope that number 50 would be my wife. That or something completely crazy would have to happen and I met the women of my dreams in the next few weeks. I had all but given up this idea of having 50 mean something more to me than any other one, until my buddy Jerry and I had a conversation last night. He made a simple point, just because I want 50 to be my wife, doesn't mean I have to stop there. I could either back track (which every Galfer does from time to time, I mean some courses were just so enjoyable to play you constantly want to go back. I guess in essence it's what every Galfer looks for, otherwise what's the point of playing at all?) or I could just make sure that eventually I went back to 50. It's not like I would lose her once we had relations.

At first I was amazed by this idea, I guess I always figured that for her to be my future wife I would have to never see another girl, but it is almost impossible to think that this would be the case at this stage in my life. But after waking up today, cleaning my room, sitting and thinking for awhile I think that it really doesn't matter. I mean it never did matter really, I just used this notion of 50 being something special to help make me feel better about reaching such a number. But since then I've grown to accept this about myself, I mean its not to say I'm proud of it or anything, I'm not that type of guy and I haven't been doing this to just reach a plateau or outdo anyone else, but I don't think I'm a bad person or been terrible to the people I meet so I don't need to validate myself anymore. I guess it seemed nice to have "Her" be 50, but she can easily be special as 60 or 53 or forbid 100. I really hope I don't like myself get carried away and go all the way to 100, to think of 50 more girls, over my lifetime or not, that just feels excessive. I guess this is just me closing the book on the notion of making any girl, on purpose, be more special than she might be. I'm sure that I will eventually find one to hold over all the others, but I wouldn't want to put any added pressure on either of us by predetermining  her number, although it would still be cool.

To switch gears, some interesting things happened to me this weekend. For one thing the Drake line " I got my next girl, standing with my ex girl, standing with the girl that I'm F***ing right now" actually came to pass. I was in downtown Baltimore, Fed Hill, at Stalking Horse, when at one time I was standing with 45, when a cute girl whom I had been flirting with earlier in the night walked up to where we were standing. Not too long after that, 48, the French Girl, also showed up and flashed me this look. This was really the first time anything like this had happened to me and I think I handled it like a little punk actually ha. I mean when 48 showed up I pretty much ran away, as in I left the area and walked away for awhile wishing she would disappear, which she eventually did. I don't know if this is what it feels like to be confronted by girls you have one night stands with but it definitely makes me not want to do it again. I kid you not so was so mad the last time I saw her I fully expected a physical confrontation with her Ha. I'm thinking I need to find a new bar to go to because that is the place where I met her to begin with. New is almost always better right?

Another thing was that, in the same night actually, I realized that I really rarely have fun with 45 in a group setting. Well let me rephrase that, I actually can have fun with her it just REALLY depends on which friends she's with. This weekend she was with her "I am holding on to a dysfunctional relationship in which the guy is a douche but I still want him and I'll be a debbie downer because I can't let go" friend, and man was that a not fun time. I'm not against relationships, not by any means, but I am against dysfunctional ones. But hey some people like misery so that alone isn't enough to grind my gears. The think I can't really stand is when people project their negative energy on other people and bring the whole environment around them down. If you and your boo are having a hard time, everyone doesn't need to know about it. If its so bad you should deal with it, and then if you're really that upset you shouldn't go out. If you do decide to go out, you have to at least make it so you're going out to forget about the situation you're in, not use it to wallow in your own mess. As you can tell I am not very happy about this whole thing. Anyways in reference to 45, she's the type that let her friends determine what can of person she will be. So naturally when she's with this friend, she was no fun to be around. I mean all I wanted to do was dance, like 1 song or maybe even 2, but they were "Not in the mood" or "not drunk enough" or whatever other stupid reason they just didn't want to have fun, so I hated it.

I was trying to hang out with 45 again because I am a hopeless romantic and believe that relationships can be salvaged into friendships. However, this is not the case with 45. Don't get me wrong, very sweet girl, but as for what I look for in friends just not there, so sad really. I mean just doesn't like the same things as me really, and honestly too dependent socially on others to determine the night. It's like she's a blank canvas and anyone can paint her to be the person they want, almost feel like at times she doesn't have enough self confidence to take over situations. Oh well I guess, you can't win them all, also can't change people. It takes a lifetime to overcome certain parts of people's personalities and even then all you manage to do is live with them that way.

For the first time, I'm ok with letting 45 and her friends go. I am starting to make a nice little network for myself here and I don't have to rely on my first set of relationships to carry me through. Pretty happy about that, and if you don't know what I mean by this then you should read some of my earlier posts, way earlier.

To take another subject turn here, I developed a new theory on relationships. Well not a complete theory, just a thought that I believe from what I've seen over the years. I sincerely believe that every relationship at some point or another is going to face a huge hurdle. It can come in any form and varies but once you're there you'll know it. If this hurdle is NOT a personality one, meaning that its not based on one person's personality or the other, then you more than likely can make it through it AND once you do, your relationship will def be better and stronger from it. What I've noticed is that these hurdles are pretty much either we deal with this or we have to break up kind of things. Anyone who has been in a long term commitment should understand this, because it's only natural when deep emotions and feelings are involved that eventually you get to a point where there's a little conflict. Human nature is to really be at a constant struggle between our ideal situations and the realities we face. Anyways just a thought that I had, no real rhyme or reason to it.

The last topic change. What's the deal with this reunion, no one answer my e-mail question so are we ALL on board or no?

The Lost Generation

This was probably one of my hardest weeks ever....Why? Well because I had NOTHING to do. To those of you who work full time this may seem like a good thing, like what's wrong with a little time off, but you know how I HATE downtime....

So I was reading an article on Huffingtonpost the other day about the supposed Lost Generation, kids who graduate from college from 09-12 who literally are faced with the hardest economic times of the present since the great depression. It goes on to give all these stats about how pretty much we'll be the first generation that is not financially better off than our parents...etc...I have to admit, this article gave me a little pause because for the first time in my life I'm an actual Statistic. Usually I pride myself with being different, off, weird, unique, outside the mold, but in this case I am just another number. Just like most kids my age I moved back home with my rents and now I'm just spending this time "saving" or "preparing" to move on with my life. While I am not going through  a quarter life crisis over this or anything, I have to admit it did give me pause....

Well that was just a thought I had. If anything this motivates me to really go out there and do something with myself. I always kinda wanted to just fit in with my career choice, you know choose a safe job and make decent money and then that would lead to me being happy. But I've kinda changed my mind about that. I got a fortune cookie today that told me money and success would not lead to happiness, but rather I would do something I am passionate about (something like that in a roundabout fortune cookie way of saying it). I thought this was perfect for me. For some time now I've been unhappy with certain things around me, and noticed that there are situations young people get themselves in these days that with a little information they could avoid. One example is the whole college dream. We are hardwired to believe that you NEED to get into college to make it in America. It's like they want us to believe that once you have a college degree the red sea parts and everything you've ever dreamed of comes true. So we press hard through high school to make it there, we flood our debt with student loans just to finally graduate only to find out that our degree means nothing. Only to find out that a social science Bachelor's is just a ticket to more school and more debt. Only to find out that people who didn't finish high school are making more money than us...Yeah seems like there's a problem here. Now this situation doesn't apply to everyone. There are many kids out there who's parents were lucky enough to save a college fund, who's family owns some company they can go work for with their degree, who's aunt is a big shot something or another that has connections. Then there are some who for some reason just always seem to have things go there way, who can talk themselves into a better situation. BUT there are those of the bottom middle class who came from lesser homes that fall into this category. What do I want to do? Well I feel like if there was a PROMINENT program out there that explained this process to kids they would PROBABLY work a little harder in college, you know pick a major that had better prospects of jobs after graduation.

They say knowledge is power, well there is no where this is more true than in America. Knowledge really is power, and the key to knowledge is information. A lot of WHO you know rather than WHAT you know BUT WHAT you know that still get you a long way. Another scenario. Some high school athlete just starts playing a sport their junior year. Let's say it's basketball. This kid has some pretty solid talent and most likely can be a starter on a D III or even D II school, and with work and the right timing could make it on a DI team. However, this kid plays for a school that constantly goes 0-15 and while they average some of the higher numbers in their state, no one ever gets to see them play. Their parents spend the junior and senior year waiting for phone calls from college coaches that never come, and eventually this kid doesn't even go to college because they have mediocre grades. In this case, all this kid has to go is MARKET themselves, send some e-mails, make some highlight tapes, and make some phone calls to schools and they probably could get themselves a solid look from a coach or two. Once again, because they lack the information, because of their situation and their parent's lack of knowledge, things don't work out well for this kid.

Immigrating to the US from a lesser country is well, its hard. For one thing, America almost never acknowledges education from other countries, so just imagine losing everything. Well for children, you understand that your parents gave up EVERYTHING in Hopes that you can get a better life so you try your hardest to do well in school. Most foreigners however have a high standard of success, doctors, lawyers, or every know and then a CEO is good enough to make the cut. Thats some kind of pressure to put on yourself. You think that if you don't make it then the sacrifice your parent's made was all for nothing, and you spend all your time thinking you let them down. This was my thinking as a kid growing up. I mean my family and I had some rough times and the thought of this dream life is what kept me going. Believing that once I made it to college I would get anything I wanted, but not really understanding what it would take after I got there to make that happen. I don't blame anyone for my situation, I've made all my choices for myself and my own reasons, but I'm not saying that had I been given some additional information about what my degree meant post grad, I more than likely would have stayed a math major, or at least switched to engineering.

What's my point, well being the optimist that I am I've decided that I no longer want to just be another person. I no longer just want to go to work, make good money, provide for me family and be merry. I want to be a change. I want to use my experiences and my failures to help people (from less fortunate to trust fund) understand the reality of life. I want to help kids excel in school and sports, I want them to understand what different majors mean and what jobs really are available for them out there. I want families to save so their kids don't have to be thousands in debt when they graduate, I want to start something that will have a lasting impact on every child I come across. So I guess this is my new declaration to myself, I am no longer satisfied with just making my life better, I must make the lives of people I meet better as well.

America is a wonderful land bustling with opportunity, the only issue is understanding how to take advantage of all those opportunities out there. I know for me I just didn't really know what was what and who was who and left from right when it came to politics, but with a little help I know other people can have an easier time than I did.

So I may be a member of this Lost Generation, but I will do my best to make sure other's don't suffer the same fate. I have an unrelenting belief that everything will work out for me, this belief keeps me going when times get rough; but I understand that for others they may not have that luxury so I will do my best to make their transition into adulthood a little smoother than mine has been.

48 - The Au Pair

Last night for the first time in my life...I paid for sex.

Well not really, but all of signs and symptoms of someone paying for sex were present.

1.) I woke up questioning my morals

2.) After both sexual encounters (late last night and early this morning) all she wanted to do was leave.

3.) There was no pillow talk, or really any talk at all.

4.) She let me do anything I wanted, including GREEK or ANAL for those who don't know the lingo.

5.) Her name was Juliette, easily could be a hooker name (even if I like that name)

6.) She was French....well I could have been involved in some weird roll playing.

7.) She is an Au Pair, see #6

8.) She left visibly unhappy with me, not due to the sex but still wanted no part of me afterwards

9.) I found her literally minutes before last call

10.) The last thing I did was hand her some money and she walked out the house never to be seen again.

Now you see what I mean, easily could have been mistaken for a prostitute. Guess I should tell you guys the full story now.

So naturally it being memorial day weekend meant I would find another excuse to drink, not that I really need excuses anymore but you know. That coupled with the end of track season, and Stann being around for the last time all summer, I decided to play in the big leagues and get some CIROC. If you have never had it, then you NEED to try it, in my opinion the smoothest vodka out there, and no Diddy is not paying me for this. Anyways my parents decided to have a little BBQ at our house so we invited our buddies over and used the occasion as a Pre-Pre game. Fast forward a couple hours and many drinks later, I meet up with MY MAN MIKE D at Stalking Horse, a Rick's type establishment in Fed Hill, the South U of Baltimore. He's chilling with a couple buddies and some pretty cute girls so we hang for awhile. As you know, DS has likes to move around A LOT so while I intended to just do a lap and hang out with Mike some more, I never did. I found two girls on the dance floor, 1 not cute, the other alright (48). So of course with my goggles on and my inhibitions low I get right in the middle of them and start doing work. DS apparently doesn't need a wingman. Fast forward 30 minutes and I'm speaking French to the two girls and 48 is LOVING it. I mean I wish my French teachers appreciated my broken elementary level French the way 48 did. I pretty much could have had her out of her panties right there but I decided to take the walk back to Frank's house in hopes of finding a place to seal the deal. Her friend wasn't too thrilled with the idea of leaving 48 with me (seems like that worry was well placed) but I guess French girls don't like cock blocking because she left us alone anyway. After a nice walk back, we begin. It's my first time ever having sex and speaking French, plus hearing a girl moan and make sex noises in French, very sexy. At some point DS was feeling so good he even tried Anal. I failed, but I tried. Pretty much I couldn't get it all the way in and without the proper lube it was doomed to go no where so I abandoned ship. After around 20 minutes (Sorry Mike O I don't go 2 hours every time, but keep reading and you should be a little proud) I finished and she quieted down. Almost instantly she gets dressed, lights up a cig (eww) and says she wants me to take her home. I have never seen a girl get dressed so quickly so I just sat there for awhile in awe.  Naturally the LAST thing I want to do after sex is get up, much less drive some chick home, so I use the "I'm too drunk to drive" cop out, and eventually it worked. So once I convinced her to stay, I was ready for round two so I took her clothes back off and went to work. It was good getting to experiment with different positions and strokes and what not and eventually I felt like Mike O shaking the whole living room. So this second session lasted a little over an hour (if you didn't know this about me, after my first time I usually can last as long as the best of them, this was one of those occurrences). Afterwards I felt like I was having Deja Vu because she literally Ninja'd back into her clothes and wanted to leave again! I couldn't believe it, but by now she understood that I had no intention of getting up so she conceded a lot quicker, I guess she retreated but was not defeated because she apparently had a plan. Her plan was to give me three hours of sleep, and then PESTER me until I woke up and agreed to drive her home. This is where she got angry because as I soon found out, the nearest car was a couple miles away ha. She we had pregamed at a house on the other side of town compared to where we were, and thus the cars were left there. She was angry at this point but still manageable. I told her I would walk and pick the car up, then come get her and take her home (which I kinda intended to do). The only issue was that I had 4 friends with me already, and they had to be back uptown to Towson pretty early. So moral of the story, I left her alone in this strange house for an hour, came back and told her to get a cab because I couldn't take her home. At this point she was furious and had no more words for me, well not in English anyway, so I gave her a couple of bucks for Cab fare and started my car ride home.

I have to say I wasn't the nicest to her, as I COULD have taken her home if I really wanted to. BUT she was being a female dog all morning so by then I just wanted her to disappear and she did, literally within seconds of when she left the house there was no trace of her. Needless to say this will be my second official one night stand and I WILL NOT be facebooking her.

 The sex was great though, I'm pretty proud of myself.

"Safe sex is Great Sex"

P.S. Congrats to Flint Michigan, #1 Dangerous City in the US

Congrats to Detroit Michigan, # 2 Most Dangerous

And Congrats Baltimore Maryland, #7.

The Evolution of Stev Part II

So NOTHING exciting happened to me this weekend, spent all of Saturday out in the nice weather at our regional track meet and just watched SNL Saturday night, which was hilarious. On Friday I followed my crazy friend Ryan around to Bel Air MD, which is a place that Black people don't hang out at, and eventually he played a benefit concert and I got tired and came home. So thus here is the story of the next phase of my transformation.

So the last post was really the background to my first transformation. While I did get a core group of friends from eating the worms, I didn't actually get any more social or outgoing or any less weird. In fact I spent all of middle school and my first year of high school screwing up interactions with every girl I met or liked, and getting nervous when I was around them, and eventually just acting mentally challenged. While I continued to write poems and give them to girls, I was never able to do anything to capitalize on the situations I would set up. It was then I discovered my first tool to success, AIM. Now most of us should remember the AOL Instant Messenger days. It pretty much consumed my entire home life, anytime I was home I was on my computer talking to any and everyone I could. I actually had a  lot of interesting interactions between people because of my screen name : "VioletRose4u" ALOT of guys thought I was a girl, so they would often IM me asking the simple "asl" "age, sex, location" that was common those days. Sometimes I would joke around with them and pretend to be a girl, but most of the times I would just ignore them because I didn't want to be considered a predator (this was really before things like "how to catch a predator" were big so no one really knew what to expect when they got online and joined chat rooms and such). I was an internet nerd, and actually met all kinds of people online. I eventually went on to meet one of the best friends of Bettie Wade, the UM muti-event queen, that made for a fun conversation freshman year ha ha. Anyways the point is that this is where I first started to do my cyber flirting. That included everything from "you're beautiful" to cyber sex....yes I did a lot of cyber sex, not sure why but it just seemed logical. So while I was a virgin in real life, I was a cyber whore, guess it was foreshadowing or something.

Eventually as my freshman year of high school went on, I sophisticated my cyber flirting game and everyone knew me as the "sweet" guy who would always compliment the girls but would never get them. This continued pretty much all year into my sophomore year. At this point, football season to be exact, I think I underwent my first physical transformation. I don't know why but all of a sudden girls started talking to me. I mean they would go out of their way to strike up conversations with me, but of course being the werido that I was, I didn't realize that they were flirting so I got a lot of "friends" that year. Anyways I was a captain of the football team that year (JV of course, and weighing a whole 115lbs) and thus a lot of the girls our age began to recognize me. One of these girls was my eventual first, Laura. I'm not sure how we met exactly, but one day while stretching, a buddy of mine said "Steve, you see Nala over there" (Ok so at this point I let everyone call me Steve instead of Stev, mainly because they thought my name was pronounced Steven and not Stevann as you all know it to be. Also we were in the habit of nick naming every girl we knew, so Nala was because she really looked like Nala from Lion King ha ha. A cute little lion cub). "Yeah" I responded, "Well she gave me her number to give to you and wants you to call her." Yup, just like that I had my first real number and advance from a girl. So clueless I was but for some reason I actually called her, don't know where I got the courage to do it but I think I eventually just sucked it up, picked up the house phone (didn't have a cell till junior year summer) and called. After an awkward conversation I had my first date, and eventually my first REAL girlfriend (My first official was the girl from middle school who dated me because she "felt sorry" for me). 

The first few months of our relationship were rough, I mean I took all kinds of verbal abuse, because I didn't know any better, and she was a wild little thing. She had smoked for awhile (which you know I HATE) and had even drank before, where I had done nothing of the sorts. At one point she wrote a 4 page letter, two pages front and back, telling me everything she didn't like about me and I needed to change.....yeah that happened and I STILL didn't break up with her. I was such a chump back then. So this went on for two seasons and then outdoor track rolled around. At this point I was known to most people as "Stann's little brother" and it was really annoying. I decided that I needed to do something to distinguish myself so I decided to run hurdles, something he didn't do (it was literally the only event he hadn't tried). So by sophomore year I was pretty good at them and making a name for myself in the state. It was this season that I met Ryan, my eventual best friend and the one person responsible for me breaking out of my weird quiet shell. Ryan was a chubby short kid who wanted to run hurdles. Everyone laughed at him as he first couple attempts ended with him falling all over the track. I mean he was 5 5 or something like that and the hurdles were almost taller than him, pretty amusing I must admit. However, I knew what it was like to want something so bad, so I took him under my wing. I would work with him after normal practice for a couple of hours and we became best friends. That summer he decided to run summer track with us, and was 1 of 2 white people on our city track team, the other was a distance runner of course. Eventually the little bugger got himself into great shape and the ladies started to notice him. Ryan was a  bit of a loser before this. So we went to the beach with his family after the summer track season and we had our first real talk. Don't remember how it started or why, but the end result was that we would never let ourselves feel "awkward" again. We all know that there are social norms in the world, and when people do something outside of those norms it creates a weird environment for everyone else. This awkwardness, we found, could be avoided but simply not letting yourself believe that there was anything odd going on. It was more a state of mind then a true emotion, as we made ourselves believe we were uncomfortable when we could easily tell ourselves everything was fine. So with this new theory in mind, we set out to conquer the beach. With every girl or group we met, we made it a habit to create awkward situations just to mess with people. We had an "awkward meter" that was on a scale of 10. We would say stuff like "its def a 5 in here right now, lets turn it up to a 8." As you can tell, gaining confidence didn't make us any less weird, it just gave us the ability to be ourselves without caring about what other people thought. THUS a new Stev was born, and I do mean Stev as I told everyone how to really say my name Junior year of high school. We were in the best shape of our lives and brimming with this new found confidence and thus the real high school experience started for both of us. I gained 40 lbs that summer, almost all muscle, and Ryan was now a fine tuned short kid, he never grew but he got those six pack abs the girls seem to like. I continued to grow and now stood 6'1. 

That summer we got ourselves into a lot of "no business" situations. A "no business" situation is exactly what it sounds like, a situation you find yourself in that you really have no business being in. Whether it be the two of us in a house full of greek people hanging out in a hot tub, to us house sitting a mansion and having 7 people shower together in a giant shower. We would continually get ourselves in ridiculous situations just to do it, we were like extreme sport junkies without the extreme sports. We had a lot of good times that summer and made a lot of friends, but most of all we now considered ourselves to be real catches, and that showed in the coming years of high school.

So here I was, a new person, Stevann. I considered myself good looking, I was having the best year of my life in track and football, I had "tamed" my girlfriend Laura, and by tamed I really mean we had started to come to a compromise on things and I became the one that was bad and she became a good girl. Most of you should know my Laura story so I'm not really going to get into it. But the point is now I was the talking, take action, get things started, HATE downtime Stev. This persona I still carry with me today, although I've learned to have a little more tact in certain situations. So thats it, all it took was a conversation and a mental note to abandon the notion of awkward for me to change. I don't know if it really was that easy, or if it was a combination of me getting physical and mental confidence that led to the change, but in either case it happened. I'm not a conceited person or anything, but I swear junior year EVERY girl that I had liked once upon a time decided to START liking me. I was getting all kinds of advances, but none as prominent as the girls on the track team. Those long meet days and long bus ride made for a lot of temptation that I'm proud to say I avoided pretty well. It seemed like girls actually joined track, just because Ryan and I were on the team and wanted to hang out with us. For those of you who think this is unbelievable, remember I went to a TINY high school compared to most of you. With a graduating class of 216, most people knew everyone else and I guess people tend to recognize when you go from being a quiet nobody to a prominent athlete and a decently looking one at that. Ryan and me were a dynamic duo, if you guys thought that Wheeler and I were inseparable in the early years of college, we had nothing on Ryan and I. There wasn't a social situation that we got involved in without including the other, I would take Ryan to the city and hang out with my Black friends (when I had them) and he would take me to the country to be around, well that type of White people. I showed him the lower spectrum of society, and how Poverty was still a thing of the present, and he showed me that white people were rich, very very rich. Either way we both went into every situation with open minds, and came out with more experience and knowledge we ever thought possible. Till this day, there's not a situation where we don't feel comfortable inviting each other. Two nights ago Ryan invites me to chill with a "friend" of his that happens to be a millionaire and he didn't give it a second thought. His words were that he "knew I wouldn't act like a crazy person and marvel with the fact that he was a millionaire" and more importantly I wouldn't "ask for money" ha ha you would be surprised how many people act a fool when they're around wealthy people. But I digress (a Mike O line).

So that sums it up, my first transformation into the Stev that I am today. I should mention that all this craziness happened WITHOUT a drop of ALCOHOL. We just genuinely had a good time and were high on life. I didn't even consider what getting drunk would feel like and we avoided all the kids in high school whom we knew were out getting trashed and doing stupid stuff. I even made it a point to avoid senior week, a time when all the seniors in the state head to Ocean City Maryland to get drunk and swim and get MIP's. Instead I went down to Myrtle Beach and hung out with some college kids there ha.

I wouldn't really change my personality again for some time. This time it would come from a combination of hardships that had me thinking I might not be able to graduate college at all. It took a painful illness for me to hit "rock bottom" and finally decide that another overhaul was due and this second change made me the best self I could be....To Be Continued.