Staying up driving as long as I can. Call me at some strange hour.

Double Down

Blah Blah, anecdote about how I have to double down on my focus to accomplish everything that needs to be done before I leave Virginia, blah blah blah. That's not what this post is about. This post is about this double down.

If you didn't click on the above link (really? It's so easy! C'mon, just do it), then you will need a brief description of the double down. Some would argue that the double down represents everything that is wrong with America. I would argue that it represents our freedom to sandwich bacon, two types of cheese and a mayonaise based sauce between two pieces of hormone enhanced fried chicken. If that freedom is wrong, I honestly just don't want to be right.

I have been taught throughout my life that my body is a temple and I believe this to be true, but every now and then even a temple allows a dirty lumberjack covered in mud and sweat to come on in. I resisted the temptation that is the double down for two weeks since it's release. Today, the double down would absolutely become my dirty, sweaty lumberjack.

After making my decision to try the double down today, it was time to visit the friendliest, fastest fast food restaurant in Warrenton, KFC (Just kidding, if I really wanted to go to a fast friendly place, I would have gone to Chick-fil-a, but regretably, it was Sunday and Chick-fil-a does not serve the double down). The fact that the staff at this particular KFC was both slow and impolite did little to hamper my excitement over my foray into heart attack inducing cuisine. Although the wait and the interaction at the drive thru were not encouraging, once I was handed the bag, the true double down experience began in earnest. The bag I was handed held two double downs (one for me and one for my girlfriend Sarah, you will pity her throughout the rest of this post) and I was immediately struck by both it's weight and greasiness. Arriving at Sarah's and opening the bag continued to impress. First, there was the box containing the sandwich and bearing the image of an American patriot, the Colonel:

(Look at his wee beedy Eyes, "You will eat my chicken")

One look into the Colonel's eyes confirmed what I already knew in my heart: I had passed the point of no return. I would, in fact, eat his chicken.

(I am the double down. Fear me, for I will both burn you and clog your arteries)

Inside the box, I found my my sandwhich clearly labeled. In it's extreme font, it screamed at me, "I am the double down, devour me! But use caution as you do so for I am hot." As if this monstrosity needed an introduction:

(Double down, the sandwich so packed with protein there is no room for bread. Are you sure you want to do this?)

I was absolutely sure I wanted to do this, but to give you an idea of how this sandwich appears next to an actual person, I will show someone who was not sure they wanted to do this, Sarah:

(Earlier today I asked Clint two questions, "What do you want to eat?" and "Why am I not in your blog yet?" I immediately regret this decision)

Right now, I am publishing embarassing photographs of Sarah on my blog, I have a feeling I will immediately regret this decision. Here is Sarah taking her first bite of her double down:

(Nom. Nom. Nom.)

Here's a shot of my double down after my first bite:

(Was that first bite delicious?)

Why yes it was, double down, thank you for asking. While the double down did have it's shortcomings, there was no denying, this was a tasty morsel. It was a lot to handle, though. Sarah soon had to give up.

(Double down, you have defeated me, I am sad)

The double down had defeated Sarah, but no such tragedy would befall me:

(Is that all you've got, double down?)

I eliminated my double down with extreme prejudice. Incidently, I was able to finish Sarah's "sandwich" as well.

The Aftermath

The double down was much of what I expected, but was not a life altering meal. I enjoyed it once, but doubt I will be selecting it from the KFC menu again. Here are a few arbitrary characteristics I decided to rate it on on a scale of five.

Intimidation: 5.2

Deliciousness: 3.1

Greasiness: 4.7

Assurance that the cheese was actually cheese and not some other strange substance: .9

Thanks for having fun with me today. I had two comments on my blog this week. One was that people would like pictures and another friend said he would only continue to read it if it continued to be funny. I hope I filled both my picture and hilarity quotas.

-Clint

The End of a Season

Since I began work with a public accounting firm, tax season has come to define a large part of my year. From January to April, I have to reconcile myself with the fact that most things in my life have to come secondary to my work schedule. This has nothing to do with having irrational or overly demanding employers, mine are quite the opposite. The sort of dominance that tax season exerts over one's life is simply the nature of tax accounting.



This tax season was particularly challenging because I have so much to do in order to prepare for my trip across the country and my year long internship with Amor. As usually happens, the beginning of April came and I simply had to understand the fact that I would be doing little aside from working. For the most part, I stopped riding my bike and working out, watching helplessly as my waistline grew. Worse, I have had little time to commit to my preparation for Amor. Even worse yet, I have not had the opportunity to spend time with my family and friends and visit the places I'd like to before I leave. Fortunately, I've been helped along throughout this busy season.



The first big encouragement came in the form of finding a place to live. I had been overwhelmed by the prospect of finding a new home in San Diego. I started to search for a place, but quickly found that it was difficult to evaluate all the variables of selecting an apartment in a city that was foreign to me. At the point I had given up and decided to wait until I got to San Diego to find a place, I stumbled upon an ideal living situation. In briefly looking at online classifieds, I found an apartment at a reasonable price. Upon further examination, I found that my roommate in this apartment would be a guy my age who also happened to work for Amor. A few e-mails later, I had a new apartment and a new roommate. I'm very excited about this opportunity being presented and am confident that it will work out well. Next, the financial obligation in order for me to start on with Amor was met. I still have a really long way to go in order to fundraise my full goal, but thanks to a few supportive friends and family, I have a great start. Finally, I got to see my parents this weekend. They arrived Saturday to pack up some of my belonging that will go into storage. My mother also brought one of my favorite childhood meals, her homemade chicken parmesan. It was strange knowing that this is the last time I will see them before I take off for the year, but it was great getting to spend some time with my Mom, Dad and little brother Matthew.

Overall, whenever I'm looking for some positive reinforcement, I'm finding it. Since tax season ended, I have begun packing and also just taking some time for myself and those close to me. It's crazy how it's all going by so fast.

Encouragement Abounds

I found myself typing these words out in an e-mail to one of the employees at Amor. I chuckled at myself for using such a funny phrase, but was so excited that it was true.

This has been an insanely tough week, as I worked close to 80 hours in the office and still had to keep up with everything else that is going on. As a result, this post will be brief, but it's been awhile since my last post, so I felt I had to get something out there.

Despite how hectic everything has been, I have still continued to receive encouragement from both friends and family. In addition, I have gotten a great start to my fundraising, thanks to the same friends and family. I still have a long way to go, but I am extremely encouraged, nonetheless. It also appears that I have found a place to live in San Diego, along with a futon to sleep on!

I am so thankful that every time I start to question myself or the path ahead of me, I receive a solid kick in the pants in the form of one of the barriers in front of me breaking down.

Encouragement does, indeed, abound.

-Clint

P.S. - If you've been reading my posts thus far, feel free to leave some comments!

The Race

I have been a mountain biker for years. I am also a very competitive person. As a result of the afforementioned facts, I tried my hand at racing mountain bikes over the years. I've never been anything more than a midpack finisher, but I've always enjoyed myself. Last Saturday, I decided to give racing on my road bike a try. It turned out that I had a lot of fun. I was once again a midpack finisher (as is clearly my lot in life), but I won't bore you with the details of my mediocre race efforts. What I will bore you with is something that occurred to me while cranking my pedals and drafting behind another rider at 26mph. The thought was "I need to speed up." I'm aware this isn't terribly groundbreaking, as every racer in history has had this thought for at least a moment. I would submit that my thought process was different than every other race in history. As I told myself to speed up, I was not looking longingly at the front of the pack, I was looking at my watch considering all of the things left on my "to do" list for the day. Right now, I am a busy, busy person. Whether I am on a bike or not, I am constantly in a race. Previously, I gave a nod toward the fact that I have something exciting on the horizon. If you're reading this blog, there is a good change that you already know what it is. If you don't, you're about to find out.

I Am An Accountant

Being an accountant at this time of year can be described in one word: Busy. If I'm awake, I should be at work. There have even been a few times when I was asleep and I should have been at work. In short, I really don't have time for anything but work. The problem is that I do need to find time for other things. Because . . .

I Am Moving. Across the Country. Next Month. To Work For a Missions Organization. And I Have to Raise My Salary.

This is where things get really tricky. I have more tasks in the air than I can juggle. At this very moment, I am thinking of all the things I should be doing rather than typing this post. Fortunately, I had a massive victory last week as I sent out the bulk of my support letters, but there is still so much to do. I still have more letters to send and people to contact. I have to sort through all of my belongings to decide what to keep, sell and give away. I need to find a place to live in California. I need to try to stay physically active so that I don't get tired and discouraged being sedentary. Finally, I need to squeeze all these tasks in the middle of spending as much time as I can with the people I have to leave. As I said before, I am in a constant race to accomplish everything on my "to do" list.

How Am I Going To Get All of This Done And Keep My Sanity?

For starters, by ending this post, right now. I've got stuff to do. I'll let you know how I get it done as I figure it out.

Here's hoping you and I both find some time to relax.

-Clint

March Madness

This post will have absolutely nothing to do with college basketball. This is partially because my Hokies failed to make the big dance, but mostly because this post is meant to serve as an opportunity for me to get warmed up and for anyone reading to get caught up on what work I happen to be doin'.

My temptation has been to go ahead and establish what I will be communicating and how I will be relating it in this first post. I've come to realize this will not work because the truth is I have no idea how to write a blog or communicate with an audience on a regular basis (Not that I'm assuming I already have an audience). So rather than set expectations as to how humorous or entertaining this blog will be, I will reconcile myself with that fact that I am neither as funny or as interesting as I would like to think I am. My hope is that as time goes on, I will improve as an author and this bit of writing will establish its own tone that you will find entertaining and, at times, thought provoking. With that long-winded introduction, I'll go ahead and get started with the parts of my story that are pertinent now.

Sunday, February 28 should have been awesome, and it was for a bit. I got to attend NAHBS with my brother and girlfriend. For a bike dork like me, it was awesome. Check out that link if you want to see some cool bike stuff, I'll spare you from having to read about it. Right after the show, a cold I had been battling got real nasty, like gremlins nasty. Before I knew it, I had a 101 degree temperature and had to bail on an evening I had been looking forward to with my brother.

Monday found me home sick from work which was a huge bummer. You're probably wondering what's so bad about that. After all, it worked out for Cameron. Well, I was in no condition to go to a parade and perform and, more importantly, I happen to be an accountant. If you've noticed all those H and R Block commercials, you know this is a very busy time for accountants (By the way, if you need tax help, don't go to H and R Block, go here). I spent both Monday and Tuesday on the couch watching Bad movies and wishing my skull wasn't stuck inside a vice. You see, I had to get better, because not only did I need to get back to work as my inbox was getting stuffed, but I had moves to make.

What kind of moves?

Well that's kind of what starting this whole thing is all about, but it's getting late, I'm tired from this first effort, and I think I have overused the whole hyperlink effect. Also, if your attention span is anwhere near as short as mine, I've already lost you. If you've had fun getting started with me, come on back. If you didn't, come on back anyway, please, I'm begging you.

I'll be back soon with a little more to share. I'm quite excited about it, actually. Hopefully, I'll come up with some clever sign off in the not to distant future. For now, I'd just encourage you to relax. We're all doin' enough work.

-Clint