The following isn't necessarily a legendary story by any means but I'm sure that since the bar has been set, only more humorous and more interesting stories will follow it.

Mid winter in middle Tennessee isn't necessarily the most exciting thing...however, there are a few things that can happen which make it very much the opposite.

It was a cold December night, and Tyson and I were out at the local shopping mall with nothing to do. We stopped by at Chik Fil-A to see Tyson's girlfriend and hopefully get a free/discounted milkshake...or something. Once Tyson had got his fill, we were left with nothing to do. As we were pulling out, I thought "Hey! Lets drive through the drive thru....backwards!" Brilliant.

We maneuver the car around so that it doesn't get stuck while entering. Meanwhile, two other vehicles go in the right way, like most boring people do. So once we get into the drive thru, another car pulls in, unsure about what to do. They sit at the entrance, obviously struggling with the concept that someone wants to go through the drive thru backwards...how typical. Once the driver (female, by the way) realizes what's going on, she finds it quite humorous and starts laughing. I make our order and we get the instruction to pull around. Obviously the person working the order station realizes how creative Tyson and I are for changing things up a little bit. We like to make other people's jobs interesting.

Once we get to the window to pay, we are greeted with a very uninteresting employee of Chik Fil-a. I figured we would get some kind of...."haha" but no, nothing of the sort. Oh well, we got our kicks out of it, and enjoyed the small waffle fries and two FREE waters that we ordered.

Hopefully things will only progress upwards from here...look for more stories about it once we get back to Chattanooga, where there's more interesting people.

Labels: Bobby DeBarge, Chik Fil-A, Drive Thru, Mt. Juliet, Tyson Ward

So as my first semester of college life has come to an end, I have to look back at it and consider what I have actually learned. I know I've learned more than just book knowledge, that's for sure. Here's some insight from my perspective as to what college seems to be really about.

For some people, college is a whole new experience and can be either very stressful, or it can be a very enjoyable event in one's life. I, for one, have enjoyed my first semester thus far.

First off, I have learned that grocery shopping sucks. It really does. Knowing how much I need and what I really need was a hard concept to learn. When I first arrived at college, I was going crazy on groceries and buying whatever "looked good" to me. Looks like Wal-Mart does a good job at advertising....oh well.

Secondly, I've learned how to manage my time better. Classes are tough to keep up with if you don't write down everything, and I do mean everything. Papers have this funny way of creeping up on you. Even though the professors, being the intelligent people they are, give me 2 months to complete a paper, I somehow think that I'm smarter and only need one day, or even one night, to complete it. I found out real quick that that's not the way things fly in college.

Lastly, is the topic of relationships. Don't bank on finding that "special" person within the first few months of being at college, it just doesn't happen. Patience is the greatest key to finding that person. Well, it's actually more of them finding you it seems. No matter how hard you try, you aren't going to find the companionship by hitting on everyone you think is "compatible" with you. It gets you nowhere as I've learned from personal experience.

So, I have quite a few semesters ahead of me in college, but hopefully they'll only get more enjoyable from here.

Tree ya.

Labels: Chattanooga, college life, UTC, Wal-Mart

First of all, I would like to say sorry. I'd like to say sorry for the fact that Tyson and I haven't written anything since September. College has been hammering us lately and we haven't been able to to sit down to write the events that have occurred in our lives. The following story was quite humorous when it happened, and it still gives us a good laugh to think about it now.

It was a warm Friday evening and I had the wonderful idea to do something mischievous. I didn't quite know what to do, but I knew it had to be to one of my three great room mates. Being the genuine guys that they are, why would anyone want to do something like that...

Kevin, Travis' room mate, told me that when he wakes up in the morning to his cell phone alarm, he sits up really quickly as if a bomb went off. So, I thought it would be funny to set his alarm clock for 3am...or some time around that. The thing about it is, is that Travis has (or had) an old time alarm clock that has the two bells with a hammer in the middle. He never used it for an alarm because of the annoying ringing sound it made, hence why he uses his phone. Being that he only used it for the purpose of a clock, I figured he wouldn't notice that an alarm had been set ( he didn't...=])

As the night rolled on, I went to sleep with a smile on my face knowing that Travis would be woken up abruptly in a few hours. Little did I know the events that would unfold following the alarm...

So as Travis explained to me, this is what happened. The alarm went off as scheduled. I failed to mention the fact that I hid it in one of his drawers so it would make it harder to find...I'm so mean. Travis must be magic though, because when he saw that it it wasn't on his desk, he opened up the drawer I put it in. He then proceeded to hit the snooze button and fell back asleep. Five minutes later, it went off again, and he reacted about the same except this time throwing it on the ground, which turned it off. Another five minutes go by and once again, the alarm sounds. This time Travis isn't so joyous to be woken up to this wretched sound. He grabbed the alarm clock and threw it up against his wall, therefore shattering his perfectly working alarm clock into a million pieces....okay....four.

At this point Travis wanted some revenge. He not only wanted an equal amount of revenge, but he wanted to get us back even more than we had done to him. He took his cell phone into our room and put it in the middle of the floor. He decided it would be funny to set both my phone and the alarm clock to go off about 5 minutes apart. Although that task may seem pretty simple, it was not. Tyson has this weird habit of moving around when any noise is made around him. So, Tyson would roll around in bed when Travis would make the most minute sound, making Travis hop around hiding. He told us that he was jumping and diving under the bed trying to avoid detection...

The next day we all had a good laugh about it and we still do today.

It's pretty fun to mess with your room mates.

Labels: alarm clock, blog, Bobby DeBarge, prank, room mate, Travis, Tyson Ward

Today was a beautiful Monday afternoon, which is perfect weather for bee hunting.

As Tyson, Abby, and I were outside enjoying the sun rays, I noticed a bee buzzing from grass blade to grass blade, obviously trying to find some nectar for the queen. I then came to the brilliant suggestion that we should catch it, freeze it, and tie dental floss around it and keep it as a pet!

The only problem was, we didn't have anything to catch it with. Luckily, Abby came to the rescue with a cup and lid in hand. As the final moments of the bee's free life came to an end, we found a hole atop the lid!

Oh no, tragedy strikes!

We managed to get some tape and tape it shut.

I put Sam into the freezer and said my goodbye's. If only I had known these were going to be the last goodbye's I ever spoke to him, I would have made them more precious. Oh well.

Evidently, in order to perform this feat, you have to just make the bee cold enough so that the body slows down, not completely freezes.

I'm sorry, Sam.

Labels: bee, dental floss, Sam

It's sometimes hard to hold a conversation when someone or something is distracting you. It's even more difficult when you're on the phone and you have tootsie pops being rocketed at your head. The following story contains graphic, candy violence and should not be viewed if under the age of 5. Reader discretion is advised.

It was a sunny afternoon in Chattanooga, TN when Tyson received a phone call from a friend. Little did Tyson know, this would not be any ordinary afternoon phone call.

When I realized who the caller was, and that the phone conversation had minimal importance, thoughts of mischief entered my mind. I then began looking for something that could possibly distract Tyson or make him lose his train of thought. That's when I spotted the five or six tootsie pops on our kitchen table.

I had to make a decision. I could either be nice, and let him continue his conversation, or I could spice things up a little bit, or rather sweeten them. I chose the latter. I picked up the tootsie pops without making it obvious as to the situation that was about to unfold. With tootsie pops in hand, I began launching them at him with full intent of hitting him with them. His reaction was similar to a Mexican jumping bean. Now, normally this would have been an easy situation to dodge himself out of, but he's on the phone and must hold a conversation.

As I came to the final tootsie pop in my hand I needed to make sure it was a direct hit. (the following part of this story can best be described as one fluid motion that happened within about half a second) I took my aim and threw the pop. It was thrown with such force and accuracy that it hit his phone and knocked it out of his hand onto our coffee table. His cell phone hit at such an angle causing it to close and end the phone call. After a quick laugh, Tyson had to compose himself in order to re-dial the number and explain what had just happened.

Needless to say, I was practically on the floor crying because I was laughing so hard. The look on his face when it happened was priceless and I still get a little chuckle out of it now when I think about it.

Ah, the joys of college :)

-Bobby

So, as my friends and I made our way into the school's cafeteria at lunch the other day we were struck with a problem. There were more students trying to eat than there were seats. We searched and searched, eventually finding a table in the back that had 4 seats around it...there was 6 of us. After we had gathered enough chairs to squeeze all of us at that table I started to look around. What I saw shocked me.

As I looked around, I noticed several booths, just in my general vicinity, that were occupied by one person, just reading a book. At any other time during the day, this would have been perfectly acceptable, but at lunch? No sir. Not when there are people struggling to find ONE open seat for themselves and eat before they have to rush to their next class.

The school has many different venues for studying, many of which are much quieter...such as the library! At lunchtime, the cafeteria is very busy and many conversations are taking place, a why would you want to:
A) Take up a whole booth for yourself when there are single seats.
B) Attempt to read/study when there is a high level of static noise around you.
C) Continue to stay there once you notice that people around you need seats.

Now, I don't have doctorate in ergonomics or anything, but common sense tells me that you shouldn't take up an entire booth for yourself, just so you can read and do that cool little thing where you prop your feet up on the other side.

If you're reading this going "Oh my gosh, that's absurd", then you're right. It's really freaking absurd and it needs to stop. I want my lunch table gosh darnit.

-Bobby

So I know that this is a topic that is probably well covered and has been re-hashed over and over again, but I want to bring it up.

In today's society, college means partying, which HAS to mean alcohol is involved. What happened to the days of going to so and so's birthday party and just hanging out. Nothing mattered when we were younger, why should it now? Yes, I know how prevalent alcohol and many other substances are in college, but why must it automatically be associated with it as soon as the word "party" is mentioned. Also, why must college be all about drinking and making decisions that you'll probably eventually regret?

Even though I've only been here for a week, I've been able to meet enough people to know that alcohol, drugs, sex, and many other things are a common occurrence around here. So, I've been thinking...why? Because it's one of the only ways you can fit in, right? Wrong.

Many of the newer students come here knowing close to no one and one of the only ways to meet new people is to go where there are lots of them, otherwise known as parties. It's obviously not easy enough to strike up a conversation with someone in between classes, or in the lunch line. You have to be inebriated before any conversing can happen, that way you can pretty much act however you want and no one will know any different. It seems to me that that philosophy carries on from year to year in a never ending cycle.

What made me want to write about this is a conversation Tyson and I had with a few girls we met today at lunch. They were telling us about how they weren't "alcoholics" as I claimed they were. So I asked one of them "Well, how often do you drink?" She responded with "Not that much, just probably about every weekend." Yeah, she's an alcoholic, and the first step to recovery is admitting your problems =]

They were both shocked when Tyson and I said we didn't party/drink. It was as if we were some foreign beings, and the fact that we don't drink didn't register in their minds.

Everyone chooses the path that they travel in life, ours happens to be a lot different from most others in college. Oh well, we still have fun.

-Bobby

Labels: alcohol, Bobby DeBarge, college life, generalizations

Tyson and I experienced something that's semi rare to find in a college enviornment tonight. Fellowship through religion. Somehow society relates college life, especially on a Friday night, with parties, alcohol, and other activities. Tonight we experienced something different.

At lunch, Kevin (one of our room mates) told us about a "progressive dinner" that was going on later in the evening. He explained it as a way for us to find a new church here in Chattanooga being that we all had just recently moved here. For those of you that don't know what a progressive dinner is, it's where you eat at a couple different churches, eating different parts of your meal and getting to know the people at that church.

It was a really good experience and a relief to see this at my school. The fellow students that went with us were really easy to get along with and easy to talk to, and we all had some good laughs. It really made college feel more like "home", although I know it never truly will feel exactly like home. Anyways, we made some new friends that will hopefully not be a one time thing.

I'm so happy it's friday. Woo.

-Bobby

Labels: Chattanooga, CRU, Friends, Religion, Tennessee, UTC

The other day I was walking across our living room with a can of macaroni and beef that I was making for dinner, and Bobby decides that he needs to tackle me...hard. We both went down, and the can of beef and macaroni was dented terribly. It's a good thing we have concrete floors...it helped soften the blow.

Don't worry, the macaroni and beef was still delicious.

-Tyson

So, this morning was pretty interesting. Let me just start by saying that Tyson is very prone to injury and will likely get hurt multiple times throughout the course of the year.

After waking up Tyson and I usually just sit there for a moment and wake up slowly. As I looked over I realized that Tyson was now out of his sheets and adjusting them slightly. Then I closed my eyes and I hear the sound of the springs in the bed compressing and being released...a bouncing sound. I look over and Tyson is on his knees bouncing up and down trying to be funny. I find it pretty funny and start to laugh. Right here is where I start to see things going downhill.
As he's bouncing, I notice that the weight of his body is shifting forward and the end of the bed (which is wooden) is near. He is obviously oblivions to this health hazard as he continues to bounce. As he bounces his head, more notably his nose, makes contact with the wonderful wood bed frame that UTC has provided us with.
He proceeds to yell out in pain with words such as "Ow" "Oh wow...that really really hurt" "Gosh dang it, my nose is now bleeding profusely"

It was the perfect way to start the day and is a great memory to remember at the end.

-Bobby

Labels: bed posts, Bobby, Chattanooga, college life, nose bleeds, Tyson