Welcome to "Only Mark"
A blog for my random tales that truly seem to only happen to me. Enjoy!

Friday, November 14, 2008

Barack Obama is NOT a sign of the devil

Hello faithful reader(s). Sorry I haven't posted in a while (or a month). The last 3 weeks have been ridiculously insane. More on that later...but suffice it to say, when Obama was talking about change, he had no idea how much he meant it.

Speaking of Obama...WOOO!!!!! Yep he did it...I cast my ballot, I played my part. Yay! I'm not really writing now to celebrate his victory, however. I'm actually going to share something with you. This is a note I posted on Facebook the other day. I wrote it mainly in response to some disparraging comments and Facebook statuses I saw immediately following the election. I apparently got an overwhelming response to it (phrases like "spot on," "intelligent," and "the most elloquently written tapestry I've read" were thrown around) so I guess I hit some truth
behind it.

I had sorta hoped the issue at hand had maybe been laid to rest (when in actually I guess I've just been too busy to turn on the TV in 3 weeks, so I just have been distractd from it) so I wasn't going to comment further. But that was until I saw this in the paper today. Then I knew, I had to share it further!!

So...for those of you who do not have the benefit of being my facebook friend...enjoy!

________

This note started as a response to a message a friend sent me. It seems there's been a lot of buzz on Facebook following the historical and monumental election on Tuesday. Many people, particularly Christians, are calling for the end of the world or something now that Barack Obama has been named our President-elect. I'm not sure if it's because he's a Democrat, because he's black, because his middle name is Hussein, or if there's something else out there, but it appears some people are upset. (I'm going to choose to believe that none of my friends are actually ignorant enough to still believe he's Muslim).

After writing the response, I considered sending it to another friend who had a status something implying that the world will end now. Buuuutttt....again, it was a bit too long and he was not the only one with such a message, so I thought I'd put it out there for everyone...here goes:

Wow....just...wow! I'm fine with people supporting candidates different than my own. I know everyone voting had different priorities and considered issues differently. But saying the election of Obama is the call of the apocalypse?

Let's look at the two options put before us as believers:

John McCain, a man who committed adultery many times while married to his first wife (after she'd been disfigured in a car accident) and even met and began dating his second wife while still married to his first; who's current wife has amassed her own personal wealth from the beer distributing company her father founded, and who until the recent campaign, remained ambiguous and dodgy about his faith at all. A man who claims to be a faithful Baptist, but even his own staff continues to errantly put in his bios that he's Episcopalian (without his correction) and who was recently quoted in an article as saying "he is not "born again" and has not been baptized. He says he is "just a Christian," who for many years has been attending the North Phoenix Baptist Church in Arizona with his family."

Barack Obama, a man who is committed to his (one) wife and children, who regularly attends a church that believes only in God and in salvation through His only son Jesus (yes, the church focuses on African Americans and openly serves that body as a congregation- perhaps even to an extreme sense to many...but that does in no way take away their love for Jesus or Biblical foundations, it simply gives them a focus of people to minister to), and who has never shied away from or hid his commitment to God and His Word even as his own Pastor came under great national scrutinty.

How would John McCain be a better President for Christians? Because he's Republican? Because he claims to attend a Southern Baptist church?

Perhaps many Christians are hanging their hat on the fact that McCain vows to overturn Row v. Wade (something that numerous much more religiously convicted presidents have either not acted on or acted on unsuccessfully) while Barack Obama will affirm a woman's right to choose how her personal beliefs should lead her with her own body. To that I have only one real thing to say...do I think abortion is right? NO. Do I hope and pray that every woman would choose the life of her child over any other option? YES. But those are my standards as a believer. They come from the Bible and are applicable to all those who subscribe to the tenets of Christianity. Unfortunately, all of America does not subscribe to those tenets. So instead of continuing to try to force Christian beliefs and morals on non-Christians, trying to make them live holy lives, without the benefit of the saving grace of Jesus and the wisdom of the Holy Spirit, perhaps we should focus our efforts more on the salvation of those who don't agree with us through the love of Jesus than the way they are living their lives without Jesus. I guarantee that if we as Christians put more effort into the salvation of nonbelievers than issues such as abortion will almost never come about because saved people will desire to live holy. In the meantime, "Sinners sin, that's what they do" so its futile to try to make them stop sinning without first helping them to stop being a sinner.

On that note...I don't understand how John McCain was a vote for Jesus and Barack Obama was a vote for the apocalypse or evil or for not Jesus (Ed. Note-in light of the above referenced article, I should also add to that list that a vote for Obama seems to get you kicked out of heaven some how). Since when does love and tolerance and respect for others equal evil and depravity? I'm pretty sure Jesus ministered to everyone.

I should add that the message I was initially responding to was from a "strong Republican friend" who sent me a message of outrage over the disparaging status and comments on a mutual friend's page. She noticed his (and others') outrageous comments and I took the liberty of responding for her. The comments I've seen/heard did not just come from that one person's page, or I would have simply responded directly to him, but are ones I've heard echoed more times than I'm comfortable with, so I decided to make a public statement.

Also, I should finish my note by saying that the appropriate response for any believer at the election of a new President is to surround him with constant prayer...all the more so if the person is someone with whom you do not agree for whatever reason. Instead of bashing any leaders or elected officials or "writing off" America, the Bible reminds us to pray for all of our leaders. Pray that they are surrounded with wisdom and Godly counsel, that they lead with integrity and righteous action, and that they have the grace and strength to complete the arduous task before them. You don't have to like him, but you do have to pray for him. I guarantee you that many many Christians everywhere have just spent 8 years praying for a leader with whom they frequently disagreed.

It really doesn't matter at this point who you supported in this election - after January 20th, 2009, Barack Obama will be your next President. That's not changing...this was in no way a close race, but instead was a mandate from the American people leaving nothing to question. With that said, you have two options: hate your country, the people leading it, and the people in it and sit around waiting for the dark horsemen of the apocalypse or you can cover our great land in prayer, asking God to preserve our country and the earth we live in so that all may come to know Him. I'll let you decide which option is the more Christian one to choose. If you truly believe that Barack Obama is a sign of the apocalypse then it is your job as a Christian to be the salt of the earth for its preservation.

________

Alright...there it is. Comment away! :) Good, bad...agree, disagree...whatever...just add your thoughts.

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Pardon my French, but....

..."Does my ass look like the damn K-Mart?"

That is actually what I said after hanging up the phone this afternoon. Honestly...some of our residents at work are insane with their demands. They seem to mistake the Leasing Office at The Crazy Farm with the Concierge Desk at the Ritz Carlton New York.

For instance, one of our particularly high maintenance residents called in one weekend with an "emergency" maintenance request and asked me to call in the on-call maintenance tech (who lives a half hour away) to fix the problem. What was so urgent that it couldn't wait until Monday? His icemaker didn't work and he said "This is very important. We use a lot of ice." hahaha...apparently the 3/4 mile drive to the gas station to buy a bag of ice for the weekend was out of the question.

In another instance a couple weeks ago I had this phone conversation with a resident:
Me: Thank you for calling The Crazy Farm. this is Mark. How can I help you?
Caller: Hi, I'm a resident here and I was just wondering...when does daylight savings time change?
Me: ........... What?
Caller: Daylight savings time. Does that change this weekend?
Me: No.
Caller: Oh, I thought that was in October sometime. When is that?
Me: Ummmm....I don't know. They moved it back this year........Hang on, lemme ask.
Me: (randomly shouting out to the entire office) When is the time change?
Random person yelling back: (Mama Bear I think) Halloween weekend.
Me: (on the phone) Halloween weekend.
Caller: Oh, okay. I thought it was sooner. Thanks!
Me: (after hanging up) Do these people not have Google?
Sometimes I don't understand what goes through people's heads when calling us. As though we just sit there waiting to do everything for them. And that leads me to the reason for today's outburst. Here's how the call went:
Me: Thank you for calling The Crazy Farm. This is Mark. How can I help you?
Caller: Hi. I'm a resident there and I was wondering if you had any AA batteries up in the office I could come get from you.
Me:..................
Me: Forrrrrrrrrrrrr?? (thinking perhaps his smoke detector or other necessary item might need batteries for which we'd be responsible...despite the fact that I think all of our smoke detectors are hard-wired)
Caller: Oh, I just have a remote for a device that needs batteries and didn't know if you might have some I could get.
Me:.......... Uh, no. We don't have any.
Caller: Oh, okay. Thank you.
Me: ( Hanging up the phone and announcing to the office staff around me) Does my ass look like the damn K-Mart?
Now, keep in mind when I tell you this...it's not exactly like our community is out in the boondocks miles away from modern conveniences for our residents. No, quite the contrary. In about 3.4 miles this resident could have driven his behind to Target, Wal-Mart, Publix, Lowe's, or Kroger. And In fewer than 2 miles he had his choice of a CVS, Walgreens, and any of 3 gas stations, among other stores. But no...he calls the leasing office to see if we have any for him. Seriously???!!! You can tell it was a full moon!



I work at the Crazy Farm!

I don't think I've mentioned it on the blog yet, but about 3-4 months ago I got a new job in property management. I do on-site leasing for one of those big apartment communities that you probably lived at in college or just afterward. I love my job- I really do -but I definitely refer to it as the Crazy Farm (as it shall henceforth be called on this blog). You see...we have some crazy residents on a crazy property. And all of us on staff are a little bit off too, haha. Any job in property management is a least a little bit crazy...it's always fast paced, every day is different, you never know what you're gonna encounter, and you always have some special people who live on your property. But our community, is a whole unique breed. We're not really sure why, but it is leaps and bounds above all others in craziness. Several members of our staff who have worked at other properties before have all commented on separate occasions "I thought we were [crazy/hectic/busy/insert adjective here] at 'X' property, but we had NOTHING on this place!"

My joke since almost week one has been that we need a reality show around that place! Everyone agrees. I've mentioned before...I need to make a call to Bravo because America would be glued to their TV sets watching us run in circles around that place! The hard part would be editing it all down to only one hour per week!

The cast of characters:
  • A former coworker (who would have just left the show, but she still appears from time to time): the blonde hair, the fake boobs, the fake tan...the girl had enough personal drama to earn her own spin off when she left. Oh, and she was a single mom too. Well call her Barbie. I've already briefly introduced you to her here.
  • Coworker 1: the black lesbian single mom. She's off the chain for real! She started out really shy and ditzy...saying things like "what's legal paper?" and "I don't know how to make coffee." and, my personal favorite "I don't know how to use a paper cutter." She's come out of her shell quite a bit and just acts crazy. Still our source of entertainment, we call her a blonde stuck in a black girl's body. We'll call her Lipstick (b/c she's a lipstick lesbian).
  • Assitant Manager: the 50 year old woman who's also the office veteran having been there for over 3 years now. She spent almost 10 years working at a biker bar before and is still a bit rough around the edges. She tends to over react to most everything and also can jump into hyper-mom mode, trying to take care of everything. But at the same time, we NEVER EVER EVER know what's gonna come out of her mouth. She's missing that certain filter you're supposed to have between what runs through your mind and what comes out of your mouth (probably because of all the drugs she has done/does...seriously). Usually it's something dirty and inappropriate, but always entertaining. She'll be Mama Bear.
  • Manager: the overly energetic ringleader of us all who is incredibly random and full of quirks. She's half white and half Thai and runs around the office laughing and screaming about whatever. She has no boundaries whatsoever with us and keeps a healthy dose of crazy around the place. I don't really have a nickname for her, so I'll just call her HNIC for now. If you don't know what that means, ask somebody...preferably somebody black (but make sure it's someone you know well, haha).
  • Head Maintenance Guy: the crazy Puerto Rican man that runs around the property supposedly keeping everything running smoothly. In true Puerto Rican fashion, anything you ask him to do, you're going to get an argument back from him. But...he usually goes ahead and does what you want anyway, after the argument. The residents love him for some reason, but he just tells them exactly like it is. He's been on the property for like 8 years and they all know him. His name will be Papa Bear (no relation to Mama Bear...that's just what people call him in the office).
  • The New Coworker: Barbie's replacement. This is only her second week working with us, but she seems to fit in well with our crowd. Although she'd been working at another property before us, she's really young (19 I think). She's still in school too, despite working full time with us. Since she's so new, I don't have a ton of stories about her yet (although she did manage to drive into our entrance gate this afternoon because she didn't even realize we had one...right in front of Mama Bear and our courtesy officer), but I'm sure some will come. For now, I'll call her The Young One (subject to change).
By the way, I've been told my character would be that of the slick salesman who comes in all suited up in the shades and all and can sell to anyone and close a deal regardless, haha. Kinda true...which is helpful since part of my pay is from commissions, lol. There's also a couple other maintenance and corporate people who are around. They're typically more minor characters, but I'll introduce them as stories arise.

Add to this mix all of our crazy residents...many may earn nicknames as I share stories. We seriously have some that come into the office or call us at least 3 or 4 times a week for something and they're all crazy! haha Some are a good kind of crazy that just entertain us, others are a high maintenance kind of crazy that annoy us, and others are just a rude and demanding kind of crazy that actually piss us off.

So yeah...since I'm sure I'll be blogging plenty about this place, I figured I needed to set the stage and introduce the characters to you. Stay tuned for outrageous insanity, haha!

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Fall has....fallen?

Ahh, it's finally fall around SC. The weather has a certain crispness to it (which is an actual tangible crispness...unlike the "fall" we had in Florida, where anyone who's not lived there for at least 10 years and hardly knows any better would even realize the season changed). Temperatures are consistently in the 70's during the day, 50's at night (great sleeping weather, btw), the skies are consistently bright blue with just a few wispy white clouds. Tailgating and football entertains all Saturday every week (and give us something to talk about during the rest of the week). Actually...this is the South...football does more than entertain once a week, football is the basis of our entire schedules. Work functions, social outings, even weddings are planned around the football schedule. (Seriously...try to get married on game day and people will very truthfully be mad at you and will likely not come...great way to keep the reception budget limited though, haha).

Oh...and another real sign that fall is in the air in SC...the State Fair has come to town! Okay okay...anyone who really knows me just scratched their head in confusion. I do not, in fact, like the fair. I've really only attended once or twice before. All of my friends will confirm that I don't in any way care for large gatherings of loud dirty rednecks or country/ghetto people. And everyone knows that a fair is the breeding ground of such people (seriously...they go there to find dates...ugh). No one likes to people watch more than me, but even I have my limits. Of course, on top of the people there...there's really little else to draw me to the fair. The food is grossly unhealthy (I believe I've blogged about the various fried products available...bread, pickles, ice cream, oreos, Pepsi...yes, even fried Pepsi), the country music acts usually are people I've never even heard of or simply don't care about, the rides...well, if portable roller coasters were really a viable option, Disney World is grossly overspending. Be that as it may, the coming of the Fair certainly does mark the onset of fall better than most other ways.

These are the days I live in SC. The weather, the fun, the relaxing! Yay fall!!

Saturday, September 27, 2008

Is this affecting you too?

http://www.thestate.com/statewire/story/537108.html

Probably not if you're not in the Southeast, or at least not in North or South Carolina. But still...it's pretty ridiculous.

Not only are motorists in SC and NC paying the some of the highest amounts in the country per gallon of gas (which is even worse considering we have just about the lowest taxes on gas in the country and are therefore typically the lowest priced gas) but at a lot of places here, you can't even find it at all! Basically since Ike was threatening to come through Texas, back in mid-September, we've had a horrible gas crisis here. If a station has gas it all, it's pretty much guaranteed to not have all different octanes, which leaves you driving around town for a while looking for enough for your tank (if the station will even let you fill your tank...many are capping motorists to $50 at a time, which is about 12-15 gallons max).

Last time I went to fill my tank I only drove past 2 or 3 gas stations that were completely out of gas, and only had to wait in line for 5 minutes or so to fill up, but before that I saw as many as 6-8 stations with no gas at all, plus several that only had higher octanes before finally finding one with good old 87 octane. Of course, there was a line there too.

Honestly, its kinda counter intuitive to me that a storm which reports show did little or at least less than expected damage to the refineries should still be affecting us so greatly nearly a month later! I mean, lets think about this...first of all...the Texas refineries sit right on the Gulf of Mexico. Should we expect and prepare for storms in this area and maybe have a back up plan, other than just cutting off the pipeline to southeastern states? If we didn't before, after 2005 we certainly should have had something in the works. Secondly, the official reasoning for our continued shortage is that "pipelines and refineries are still not up to full capacity" and are expected to take another 3-4 weeks to hit that point. I'm not oil expert, so I can't really assess the truth-value of that statement, but if they're able to shut them down and empty the pipeline literally overnight (2 days before the storm it was business as usual, no increased prices, no shortages, etc., but the day before the storm prices skyrocketed $1 or more overnight and suddenly everyone was out of gas), they why on earth does it take a month and a half or longer to get us out of the woodwork? And don't blame it on people hoarding gas. There is no possible way people can be hoarding gas for this amount of time. Did people go fill up their tanks before the storm out of fear? Possibly, but that was a month ago...I guarantee all that gas has been used by now. We're back to normal usage (or possibly below because of increased prices, etc.) by now for sure. I just don't get it!!! Arrghh!!


NOTE: I originally started writing this post last week, but fell asleep while doing so. I sorta forgot about it and never finished until now. So, here ya go...you get it a week later!

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

A fitting end...

...to such a horribly flawed and troubled administration.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/bush_markets

Since I am unfortunately not at a place now where I have any investments, or even retirement for that matter, and I'm not in a position to be getting a new loan for cars or houses or anything else in the near future, part of me wants to just say "Forget it...let Wall Street sort itself out. The people who were greedy and unwise with their money of the last few years should suffer with the rest of us." But...the compassionate Democrat in me can't let that happen. Not so much because I have compassion for Wall Street, but because I know the damaging effects will trickle down to people who are already so desperately hurting as it is.

I don't know what the answer is...I haven't followed the economy closely enough, not to mention I only had one Economics class in college...and HATED IT!! (Partly because it was all based in theory and nothing in reality...I need practicality, folks...and partly because I just really strongly disliked the professor.) Whatever the case, something needs to be done, but it needs to be done cautiously. We've all seen what happens when people get caught up in excitement and fear and blindly listen to a certain Texan and his advisors.

You all know behind whom I've thrown my support, but regardless of the outcome, January 20th cannot come soon enough!

UPDATE: I forgot to say earlier...My favorite part of the article is how Bush was "tracing the origins of the problem back a decade." I didn't actually see the speech, and am currently too lazy to look for it on YouTube, so I don't know how skillfully or craftily he built this argument, but it is a convenient way to shift the blame just far enough away to make it look like someone else's guffaw (a recurring theme). Now I'm not naive enough to say 100% of the blame for this (or any other of our current problems) squarely falls on the Bush administration, nor am I saying there may not have been contributing factors predating the 2000 election which may have led up to this, but over the last 7 and a half years, our economy has gone through a whirlwind of changes that just 2 years ago many in Washington considered a major feather in their cap. Honestly? Enough crap...time for some people who make sense at 1600 Pennsylvania.

Monday, September 15, 2008

Live on location

I'm blogging to you from Memphis, TN right now. Sitting in my hotel room. Came up here for a training thing for work, so it should be an interesting week. Maybe some good blog fodder will come from it. Who knows! :)

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Where's Mark been?

Hey! I think I mentioned in a recent post that things have been kinda crazy lately and that I would be filling you in soon. Well I guess soon is gonna right now.

About 3 weeks ago, one of my coworkers had the day off and we get a call from her saying she's leaving, can't give a two week notice, just has to pick her daughter up from school and is moving back to her parents' out of state.
We have a pretty small staff at work, so we're kinda like family there anyway...so naturally we were concerned. Apparnently her boyfriend and she had gotten into an argument the night before (she found out he was cheating on her....again) and it turned physical. He ended up beating the crap out of her (again) and she was done.

We talked her into coming by the office that afternoon before leaving. So after she picked up her daughter, she came limping into the office with a black eye and all. She had some vacation time saved up so we talked her into taking her vacation to go to her parents and figure out what the best plan of action was. Of course we wanted her to stay, but we all knew the best thing for her and her daughter would be to go back to her parents' and her support system rather than staying up here and trying to make it on her own.

After her week off, she called to officially put in her two week notice so she could leave on a good note and move on. But...she still had to work out her final two weeks back here in SC so she had to come back. Obviously she wasn't going to move back into her (now ex-)boyfriend's house and getting a hotel for 2 weeks would have ended up costing her more than she would have made over those two weeks. So, since I live alone in a two bedroom house, I offered up my guest bedroom (her daughter was staying with her parents during this time). So...for the last 2 weeks, I've had a roommate here. Obviously she had a lot going on trying to take care of her final details up here and filing a police report against the scum bag and everything else, but we took the opportunity to go out and enjoy plenty too, lol.

All in all, it was a good time...she and I get along really well anyway so we had fun, but it was kinda a long and crazy 3 weeks dealing with the beating and all. She took pictures of all the bruising after it all showed up and she looked horrible. I mean covered in bruises! Of course, the ex filed some bogus report saying he told her he was tired of her being drunk all the time or something and she didn't take it well. He accused her of flipping out, locking him in the bedroom and beating him up, haha. We got a kick out of that considering she's all of 108 pounds standing about 5'6" and he's a big navy boy, haha. Oh, he also alleged that his roommate (a former navy boy) was a witness to this beating...as though between the two of them combined couldn't pull my coworker off of him, lol. I think he ended up withdrawing the report, or at least never pressed charges on it.

So yeah...that's been my last few weeks. Honestly...there are very very few people in the world I actively dislike. Almost no one I have such a distaste for that I really don't think I could even be in the same room with them. Or if I were out some where and ran into them I couldn't at least just ignore them and go about my business. But now there's definitely one person on that list in her ex bf. It's obviously a horrible thing that he beat her black and blue, broker her toe, everything else...I mean that's enough of a reason to hate the guy. But what's worse is he did all this while her 6 year old daughter was "asleep" upstairs and heard all this going on...I mean, that's the kinda of stuff that can scar a kid for life! Even more so...he had been cheating on her for a while, but was always around looking like the doting boyfriend through it all. He threw my coworker a birthday party last month and invited everyone from work over...trying to look all sweet, all the while he was messing around on the side. He basically pissed me off even more b/c he was acting like a nice guy trying to get me and everyone else to like him while he knew he was a dirtbag. If I had seen a dirtbag before, it'd be one thing...but to play us all like that? Ridiculous. Honestly...he's a little punk and if I do see him again, he'd better hope I'm not behind the wheel of a car...that's all I'm sayin!

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

...And it's only Monday!

Hey kids...still around. Things have been a little crazy lately. I'll fill you in on some of those details later. But right now...I thought I'd give you a quick summary of my day just to remind you that my life is still incredibly random! haha

So yeah...my day in a nutshell...



bloody st
airs, dime bags of crack, talks of a promotion, super-glued penises, squealing golf cart tires, orthopedic shoes, myspace stalker/future roommate, The Hills, and Donovan Marcelle doing Tina Turner on Showtime at the Apollo


I'll have to fill you in on more specifics later...but it's waaay too late here. Oh, and the sad part? All in all, this really wasn't all that random of a day for me. Always something colorful...always something exciting! haha

Friday, August 29, 2008

Admission is the first step...

When I'm flying down the road at 15 or 20 over the speed limit, weaving in and out of traffic, flying through every yellow light to make it to the liquor store before it closes...maybe I should take it as a sign that I might have a problem. hahaha

Actually...I do have a problem. But that problem is not alcoholism, it's Blue Laws. See, lovely SC has some holdovers from their ridiculously conservative days (like last week, haha) known as Blue Laws. Basically they're just laws that enforce morality. Don't get me wrong...I tend to fall on the more conservative side of the tracks as far as morality is concerned (well...for most of the world, maybe a bit less so compared to SC), but these particular laws often just irk me.

The main law in question now is one requiring all liquor stores to close by 7 pm every night and not open at all on Sunday. 7:00???? Are you serious?! I guess the goal is to keep the drunks from heading to the store at 2 am and buying some malt liquor or something, but in reality, it just causes people to have to plan their drinking in advance. (Oh...for the record, I arrived at the store at 7:02, but they hadn't locked the door yet, so they let me run in and grab what I needed real quickly. I guess it might have been illegal, haha...I'm a bootlegger now, maybe!)

Last night being the USC Season Opener (that's Gamecocks...not Trojans...don't front!) (and I'm talking football, by the way), I had to grab a little adult beverage to take to my boss's house to watch the game. I picked up a bottle of my new favorite drink....Sweat Tea Vodka!! Seriously folks...it doesn't get too much more Southern than this, I know...but this stuff is great. If you live in the South, check your local package store and see if you can get it. This stuff is dangerous too. It tastes JUST like sweet tea...you don't even realize you're drinking until you go to stand up and things are a bit wobbly. Wow...it's great!

Anyway....other blue laws include: (In certain counties) nothing other than groceries and health and beauty products are allowed to be sold before 1:30 PM on Sundays. So that means Saturday at midnight, all the Super Wal-Marts have to rope off the non-grocery/health & beauty sections until 1:30. Also, I hear rumor that in certain counties, up until a few years before I moved to SC, you couldn't even go to the movies on Sundays b/c that was considered sinful or immoral or something. Ugh!!

Oh...and in case you were wondering, South Carolina shut out NC State 34-0!!! Whooo Hooo!!!

Monday, August 25, 2008

Those Mischievous Republicans!

A true crime occurred last weekend! Grand larceny in my opinion (although hardly even a crime in the eyes of the law, but that's beside the point). I was robbed!

At some point between when I returned home late Friday night/early Saturday morning and about 3ish in the afternoon on Saturday when I was wandering around my front yard, someone stole my Obama yard sign!! I know!!! Shocking! The literally just picked the sign up off the stakes and carried it away. So depressing!

Haha...I got the image of some geriatric John McCain supporters on their Rascals rolling by and being mischievous, posting videos on YouTube or something. In reality, though, it was probably just some of the neighborhood hoodlums that come from the next neighborhood over and walk down my street to get to the stores and stuff. I think assuming there were some political motives behind the thievery is giving the perpetrators far too much credit, but I can believe!

On that note, I'm sitting here watching the opening of the DNC. I don't think I ever mentioned it on the blog (it was during my summer hiatus) but, following the heated primaries, I decided I needed an election break before losing my mind (or be one of those crazy obsessed politicos with nothing else to do with his life). I decided then that I would virtually ignore the campaigns until at least Convention time and then hop back on board for the remaining 3 months. Guess I'm back on board (and ready to order a new sign).

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Overheard at Taco Bell

Remember my obsession with Taco Bell? Well I was having lunch there today and I overheard a Rhodes Scholar at the table behind me. She was chatting with her boyfriend at a volume loud enough for pretty much the entire restaurant to hear. Here's a few highlights from her chat:

"See that sign that says '79 cents makes sense'? Shouldn't it say c-e-n-t-s instead of s-e-n-s-e? Isn't that what they meant?"

"Ooh, I saw a typo on the Closed Captioning the other day." (which, as we all know, is practically the MLA standard of writing) "Well, at least I think I did. The Korean woman was asking why she couldn't find (something) and they put the question mark outside of the quotation marks. I think I was always taught they go inside the quotes. But maybe that's wrong."
I think there were others, but that's all I could remember...and all I could stomach before my lunch was done. It's nice that she was kind enough to share her genius with the entire restaurant. I'm sure we all needed something to blog about today. Although I think I wondered more about the guy who was there with her. I mean, how could he really sit there and listen to that kind of high brow conversation day in and day out without going insane? I could only imagine what might come out of his mouth, haha.

Only Mark 2.0, or Beta, or something

Yeah, I don't really know all those technical software terms, but the point is, I'm back. But, since I doubt anyone still reads this at all, we'll call it a relaunch, haha. (sounds much more exciting that way anyway)

Sorry for the lack of activity. I think I really just ran out of things to say, lol. I was looking for a new job for a long time and, without a job to go to and without a ton of money to go out and live a life, there really just wasn't that much happening for me to write about, lol. At least not the kinda of stuff I was posting all over the blog.

But...now I have a new job. Been doing it for a little while now and I love it. I swear most days that it needs to be a reality show. Some of the crazy drama that goes on there...haha...Bravo would eat it up! Seriously, I don't think we could ever get our corporate office to agree to it, but it would be waaay better than that stupid "Stagers" show they have. (Sidenote...when I went to Bravo's website to link to that show, I couldn't find it. Was it that bad that they are already denying making it? haha) I mean, my work place is just about as colorful and exciting as Jeff Lewis's office, but we have a bunch of clients to add to the craziness, lol. I'm sure you'll hear more little tidbits about my work in the near future, but the point is I really do love it. And even when there's drama and craziness, for probably the first time ever, I actually enjoy going to work everyday.

So yeah...after an extended summer vacation, it's time to get back on the horse (or wagon...or whatever...I'm really bad at colloquialisms...always mess them up) and get back to writing.

If you're still reading (or even if you never read before and just started) leave a comment and let me know!

Thursday, May 29, 2008

Welcome to my life...

So I was hungry just now and went to the pantry to find nothing I really wanted to snack on. I had half a bag of chocolate chips in there leftover from...well who knows. Anyway, having no food I thought briefly "Oh, I'll just make some cookies...that could be tasty (in like 2 hours when I finally finished...and knowing me...they probably won't be all that tasty)."

So, I start reading the back of the bag to see what all I need to make cookies. Turns out, I didn't have about half of the ingredients, so I scrapped that idea.

Now I'm sitting on the sofa snacking on...half a bag of chocolate chips! haha

Sunday, May 18, 2008

Stereotypes are fun......

.....especially when the complete opposite happens.

So I'm in Atlanta last week, rolling through Buckhead, up Peachtree. Weather was nice, windows were down.

I pull up at a traffic light next to this black guy in a convertible. I was rather annoyed because the music coming from his car was so loud I had to turn up my radio just to hear what I was listening to in my car.

Yep, he was blaring Michael Buble so loudly that it interfered with the rap music I was playing in my car.

I laughed at the irony.

Still alive...

...don't worry.

I'll be back soon, I promise!

Monday, April 28, 2008

Lame Cop Out Post

Alright...I recognize this isn't a real post. But, for some reason, I'm still not feeling like getting around to writing about all the life I've been living lately. Sorry...I guess I'll just have to write a big summary post for you soon to cover it all at once.

In the meantime, I thought I'd keep you entertained with this cop-out post. Someone sent me this list as an e-mail forward this week (FYI...I don't like e-mail forwards, so don't let this give you any ideas) and I thought I'd share it with you. It's one of those "You know you are.......if..." lists that people like to make. This one is "You know you live in Florida if..." or something like that. I guess overall it's fairly accurate. Some are pretty funny, some are definitely a uniqueness to FL (#14, #26), while others are probably a little more general for other places as well (#24, #34). Some of these items seem to tailor this list more specifically to the central Florida area where I'm from (#37, #41), while others just don't seem to make much sense for anywhere (#13, #32).

Anyway...I've realized (when I do post) so much of this blog has become more about the boringness of my day to day life and I want to begin adding in some of the fun nuances and differences between life in FL and life here in the South. Maybe I'll dig up a list of the South to sort of compare and contrast, haha. Well...here's the list...those of you from Florida, feel free to add your comments and thoughts! :)


1. Socks are only for bowling.
2. You never use an umbrella because you know the rain will be over in five minutes.
3. A good parking place has nothing to do with distance from the store, but everything to do with shade.
4. Your winter coat is made of denim.
5. You can tell the difference between fire ant bites and mosquito bites.
6. You're younger than thirty but some of your friends are over 65.
7. Anything under 70 is chilly.
8. You've driven through Yeehaw Junction.
9. You could swim before you could read.
10. You have to drive north to get to The South.
11. You know that no other grocery store can compare to Publix.
12. Every other house in your neighborhood had blue roofs in 2004-2005.
13. You've gotten out of school early on Halloween to trick or treat before it got dark.
14. You know that anything under a Category 3 just isn't worth waking up for.
15. You dread love bug season.

16. You know what a snowbird is and when they'll leave.
17. You think a six-foot alligator is actually pretty average.
18. You were twelve before you ever saw snow, or you still haven't.
19. 'Down South' means Key West.
20. You think New York drivers licenses should only be valid in New York.
21. Flip-flops are everyday wear.
22. Shoes are for business meetings and church,
23. but you HAVE worn flip flops to church before.
24. Sweet tea can be served at any meal.
25. An alligator once walked through your neighborhood.
26. You smirk when a game show's 'Grand Prize' is a trip or cruise to Florida.
27. You measure distance in minutes.
28. You have a drawer full of bathing suits, and one sweatshirt.
29. You get annoyed at the tourists who feed seagulls.
30. A mountain is any hill 100 feet above sea level.
32. You think everyone from a bigger city has a northern accent.
33. You know the four seasons really are: hurricane season, love bug season, tourist season and summer.
34. It's not soda, cola, or pop. it's coke, regardless of brand or flavor: 'What kinda coke you want?'
35. Anything under 95 is just warm.
36. You've hosted a hurricane party.
37. You go to a theme park for an afternoon, and know when to get on the best rides. (Space Mountain during the Electric Light Parade!)
38. You understand the futility of exterminating cockroaches.
39. You can pronounce Okeechobee, Kissimmee, Ichnatucknee and Withlacoochee.
40. You understand why it's better to have a friend with a boat, than owning a boat yourself.
41. Bumper stickers on the pickup in front of you include: various fish, NRA, NASCAR, Go Gators, and a confederate flag.
42. You were 5 before you realized they made houses without pools.

43. You were 25 when you first met someone who couldn't swim.
44. You've worn shorts and used the A/C on Christmas.
45. You recognize Miami-Dade as 'Northern Cuba'.
46. You are on a first name basis with the Hurricane list. They aren't Hurricane Charley, Hurricane Frances...but Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne.

Sunday, April 20, 2008

(Blogging) Vacation

Sorry I've been sorta MIA as of late. I have no good reason other than, well, I haven't really wanted to, haha. It's certainly not for a lack of blogging fodder. I've had quite a few blog-worthy events over the last few weeks, as well as a few old stories I still owe you from before. Maybe soon I'll be back on the ball.

I actually have a post saved that I started last week, but was feeling uninspired halfway through and quit, haha.

Anyway...it's quite late now and I've had a long, but productive Saturday. So now I'm gonna go pass out. :) See ya soon!!

(Oh yeah...TV is finally coming back on. Yay!!! Perhaps this will call for the the resurgence of "What's in Mark's DVR?" Well...maybe if I get all those other thousands of posts out of the way first.)

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Bring it!

Sorry kids, I just needed to hear this song. And, well, it's my blog, so you get to hear it too!



I recommend turning it up and singing along really loudly...even if you're at work. That always helps me. Oh, and if you can manage to have it playing and sing along while you're in the shower, the water cascading down you adds a very dramatic effect.

Anyway, this has pretty much been my last year and a half or so. But I haven't lost all my fight yet...so bring it on!

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Best friends...EVER!! (Only Mark!)

Oh geez...ready for another Only Mark story? This one's an instant classic for ya!

Yesterday evening I was getting ready to go meet a friend of mine down at the park for a run. It was about an hour before I had to meet him, so I planned to run some errands and was getting my stuff together. Then it came time to find my keys. I looked in all the usual places - the table by the door, kitchen counter, dining room table, dresser, even in the lock of my door in case I had left them hanging in the deadbolt - but they were no where to be found!

So I stopped myself for a moment and thought, when was the last time you saw your keys?
I then realized that I hadn't actually left the house to drive anywhere since coming home from the horse race on Saturday (sad, I know, but I was resting/cleaning), so it's entirely possible they were where ever I left them after that. Then I suddenly remembered that they had been in the back seat of my friend's car, coming home from the horse race on Saturday. I rode back from the race with someone else and used the spare house key that another friend had to get back into my house, since we beat the friend with my keys home. Uh oh!

First I call the friend who may or may not have the keys, but get no answer so I send her a text that says
"Ahh! Possible crisis. Please call me ASAP!"
So then I call the friend I'm supposed to meet at the park and tell him that I'm just going to have to run around the neighborhood unless he wants to come pick me up. He offers to pick me up, so the run is back on. Meanwhile, the friend with the keys calls back and I tell her what's up. The conversation goes something like this:
Friend: Hey, what's up?
Me: I'm going to ask you a question and I REALLY hope the answer is no.
Friend:...okay?
Me: Are my keys in your backseat?
Friend: Oh...I hope that answer is no. Hold on, I'm pulling into my apartment complex now, I'll check.
Me: Okay. I think they were in the cup holder in the armrest in your back seat. I'm not 100% sure if I took them out of there or not.
Friend: Well, let's see...the arm rest is folded up and...yes, your keys are in it.
Yeah, apparently someone in the back seat had folded up the arm rest with my keys still in it, thus causing no one to notice them on Saturday. Why is this a big deal? I mean, why can't I just pop over to the friend's house to pick up the keys? Well...this particular friend is the one who lives in Greenville that I went to visit at the end of February. For all you non-South Carolinians out there, Greenville is about 100 miles from me. This is no quick trip across town. Now I'm stuck in my house, while the only set of keys to my car is 100 miles away. Outstanding!

Ordinarily I would have just told the friend to overnight the keys to me and I would have stayed holed up in the house for another day...but, I had a job interview scheduled this morning. And with Columbia having no real public transit, I thought showing up to a job interview in a cab would be a bit...well, ghetto, haha. I was racking my brain trying to think of anyone I knew who might be free to take me to the interview or had an extra car I could borrow, but was coming up empty. Thankfully, my friend is the best ever! This how the rest of the conversation went:
Friend: Okay, well do you have anywhere important you need to be tonight?
Me: No. I mean, I'm about to go running, but someone's picking me up for that. The problem is I have that interview at 11:00 tomorrow morning.
Friend: Alright, well I have a massage scheduled at 6:00, but I can hit the road after that.
Me: (purely being polite) Oh, well you don't have to drive all the way down here, I'm sure I can work something out.
Friend: No, no, no! I can come down tonight and give them to you. I've done stuff like this before. I understand!
Me: Seriously? You are the best friend ever. When you get here, I'm buying you dinner or something. Are you sure you don't mind?
Friend: Yeah, no, it's cool. Is it okay if I go to my massage first and then come down after that?
Me: Haha, yeah, I think that's okay.
See, I love it. Completely unprompted, without even hinting, my friend volunteers to spend her entire evening driving a total of 200 miles just to bring me my keys (well, and my CD case which was also left in her back seat, but she was going to mail that anyway, despite my protest).

But that's not the end...

My running friend shows up to take me to the park and asks about the status of my keys. I tell him that Greenville Friend is driving down that evening to drop them off and, without missing a beat, he says "Oh, she doesn't have to drive all the way down. After we run I'll take you up there and we can meet her halfway." Seriously?! I have the best friends in the whole world! What I love best about this is that, if I were ever to receive a call from a friend saying I had their keys or they needed my help or whatever, I would immediately be on the road no matter what time of day or night, no questions asked. So the fact that I have friends who are willing to do the same for me is so amazing and comforting!

But yeah...definitely an Only Mark instant classic. Not only did I leave my only car key in someone else's car, not only did those keys end up 100 miles away leaving me stranded in my house, but it took me 2 days to realize this, haha! Who Else But Mark?!

Saturday, March 29, 2008

Birthday Fun!

Well, this has already been a fun week. I definitely have to put a post up about how I spent Tuesday evening and Wednesday. It was AMAZING!! (I'll give you a hint...I was doing this!)

My actual birthday was Thursday, and I really didn
't do anything exciting then. To be honest, I was kinda in a grumpy mood for some reason, but oh well...I'm over that now. The real celebration will be happening today however.

In a few hours, I'll be heading out to the Carolina Cup. Conveniently, this event falls on my birthday week pretty much every year, so it is quickly becoming a tradition that my birthday is celebrated at it. Now, for those of you not in the South or familiar with horse races, you're probably thinking....
"Seriously Mark, that's how you're celebrating your 25th birthday? What?!"
To which I would reply that it really has little to do wit
h the horses. To be quite honest, most people never even see the horses. The only time I ever see them is when I want to cross the track to get into the infield and wander through the rich people's tailgates, at which point you have to wait for the horses to finish their race before they let you cross. They actually kinda get in the way more than anything.
No, no, no! The Carolina Cup has about as much to do with horse racing as The Real World does with...well...the real world (seriously...does anyone still even watch that? I think I gave up after New Orleans...geez, I'm soo old!). The Cup is THE premier event marking the threshold of the spring social season here in South Carolina. Some of the elite socialites get all dressed up to go tailgate all day long. About 75,000 people descend upon the small town of Camden, SC, to sit in traffic, drink heavily, socialize, see and be seen. I guess it's kinda like the Southern version of Fashion Week?
"What's the appropriate attire to stand in a field drinking all day?" you ask?
Well, men should wear slacks (seersucker or other lightweight pants preferred), oxford shirts and bow ties (yes...I said BOW ties). Need help tying one? Try this. And ladies should find a nice little sun dress and matching big floppy hat. Proper attire dictates that men should wear bucks or other loafers and women should be in heels or sandals, however unless you're among the truly elite, a pair of Rainbows will suffice.
"What does one have at their tailgate for the Cup?" I hear you asking.
Well, alcohol is a necessity. Cold beers are always on hand (although, I personally hate beer, so refuse to drink it), but tradition dictates that mint juleps are the official cocktail. My tailgate this year will feature beer (my guests' insistence), sangria, and frozen daiquiris, among other things. A good spread of food, should also be on hand. I've seen people before with elaborate centerpieces for their tailgates (flower arrangements that had to cost $100+) and even saw a group one year who reserved an extra parking space just for the caterers they brought with them. They had the silver serving dishes set out and everything! While college students often arrive in buses, once you get a bit older, many people charter limos to take them there so they don't have to worry about having a DD. Yeah...you've not been to the South until you see wealthy white people in funny outfits tailgating in a field out of the trunk of a limo. :)

I'm pretty excited this year. I got a new pair of seersucker pants (I've never worn seersucker before) and even ordered a new bow tie for the occasion!! Several of my friends have come into town to join me, so we're going to have about 15 or 20 people tailgating with us!! Woo Hoo!! We have to leave my house at about 8am this morning to get a good parking spot (all the reserved spots sold out a month or two ago). We're hoping to get one near "College Park," which is where all the fraternities from across SC and even parts of NC and GA set up camp. They bring their huge tailgating tents, have kegs everywhere, and some even get live bands to come play. The weather this year is supposed to be a little bit cool for the sun dresses and all, and may even bring a bit a rain later in the day, but we should have a great time anyway!

Come on...you know you're jealous that YOU don't get to wear a bow tie!!

PS - One of my favorite Southern quotes came from a friend getting ready for Cup a few years ago. When she found out that you couldn't carry your beer bottles around with you she immediately and sincerely stated
"Well, I'm going to have to find a green cup then."
"Why does it have to be green?"
"Because my dress is green and I will NOT be seen walking around with a cup that doesn't match my dress!"
Haha...gotta love the South! We have our standards!

Thursday, March 27, 2008

Old man!

Well, it's finally happened. I'm now closer to 30 than I am 20. I turn 25 today. Nothing particularly exciting is going on today. I may find myself a bottle of wine and drink a toast to myself later tonight, but otherwise, nothing big.

I did have a big fun day yesterday which I'll try to remember to share with you via blog post later tonight, but the real party is scheduled for Saturday. I'll have to post about that tonight too. I'm too tired to do it now, so I'll just have to leave you waiting with breath that is bated.

Yay for me!

Saturday, March 22, 2008

It's 12:34 AM...

and right now I am:
  • Watching my DVR.
  • Eating junk food.
  • Contemplating going to bed.
  • Contemplating rearranging furniture in my bedroom.
  • Digesting a big steak I had for dinner 3 hours ago.
  • Enjoying wearing spring preppy clothes.
  • Dreading my next run, which will begin in less than 7 hours.
  • Chatting online.
  • Blogging.

Thursday, March 20, 2008

In the news...seriously!

I was looking for a particular story this morning on FoxNews.com and actually saw these two headlines. Both are horrible stories, but strange, and almost comical headlines...

"Man Gunned Down in Driveway by Killer Robot"

"Woman Goes for Leg Surgery, Gets New Anus Instead"

Definitely not what I expected to read in the news this morning. Haha!

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Change we need...Change we can believe in!

There's not much I can say about this, but fortunately not much I need to say. It's the transcript from Barack Obama's speech responding to statements made by his former pastor. It's a lengthy one, but well worth the time you spend reading it. I gotta admit, at several points while reading it, I was getting a bit choked up...and Mark don't cry! Republican or Democrat, Obama or Clinton -- you can't deny that this is one moving speech! The commentators on BBC World News America said it is one of the best and most poignant speeches on race and civil rights since MLK, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech and among the most significant political speeches in recent history. WOW!!!

PS -- if you want the full effect without watching the video, you should read it out loud instead of silently. Good speeches are best when orated.

Read it!
(If you'd rather watch the 37 minute video, I embedded it at the end of the post or click here.)

The following is a transcript of Sen. Barack Obama's speech, as provided by Obama's campaign.

We the people, in order to form a more perfect union.

Two hundred and twenty one years ago, in a hall that still stands across the street, a group of men gathered and, with these simple words, launched America's improbable experiment in democracy.

Farmers and scholars; statesmen and patriots who had traveled across an ocean to escape tyranny and persecution finally made real their declaration of independence at a Philadelphia convention that lasted through the spring of 1787.

The document they produced was eventually signed but ultimately unfinished. It was stained by this nation's original sin of slavery, a question that divided the colonies and brought the convention to a stalemate until the founders chose to allow the slave trade to continue for at least 20 more years, and to leave any final resolution to future generations.

Of course, the answer to the slavery question was already embedded within our Constitution -- a Constitution that had at its very core the ideal of equal citizenship under the law; a Constitution that promised its people liberty, and justice, and a union that could be and should be perfected over time.

And yet words on a parchment would not be enough to deliver slaves from bondage, or provide men and women of every color and creed their full rights and obligations as citizens of the United States.

What would be needed were Americans in successive generations who were willing to do their part -- through protests and struggle, on the streets and in the courts, through a civil war and civil disobedience and always at great risk -- to narrow that gap between the promise of our ideals and the reality of their time.

This was one of the tasks we set forth at the beginning of this campaign -- to continue the long march of those who came before us, a march for a more just, more equal, more free, more caring and more prosperous America.

I chose to run for the presidency at this moment in history because I believe deeply that we cannot solve the challenges of our time unless we solve them together -- unless we perfect our union by understanding that we may have different stories, but we hold common hopes; that we may not look the same and we may not have come from the same place, but we all want to move in the same direction -- towards a better future for our children and our grandchildren.

This belief comes from my unyielding faith in the decency and generosity of the American people. But it also comes from my own American story.

I am the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas. I was raised with the help of a white grandfather who survived a Depression to serve in Patton's Army during World War II and a white grandmother who worked on a bomber assembly line at Fort Leavenworth while he was overseas.

I've gone to some of the best schools in America and lived in one of the world's poorest nations. I am married to a black American who carries within her the blood of slaves and slaveowners -- an inheritance we pass on to our two precious daughters.

I have brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, uncles and cousins, of every race and every hue, scattered across three continents, and for as long as I live, I will never forget that in no other country on Earth is my story even possible.

It's a story that hasn't made me the most conventional candidate. But it is a story that has seared into my genetic makeup the idea that this nation is more than the sum of its parts -- that out of many, we are truly one.

Throughout the first year of this campaign, against all predictions to the contrary, we saw how hungry the American people were for this message of unity.

Despite the temptation to view my candidacy through a purely racial lens, we won commanding victories in states with some of the whitest populations in the country. In South Carolina, where the Confederate Flag still flies, we built a powerful coalition of African-Americans and white Americans.

This is not to say that race has not been an issue in the campaign. At various stages in the campaign, some commentators have deemed me either "too black" or "not black enough."

We saw racial tensions bubble to the surface during the week before the South Carolina primary. The press has scoured every exit poll for the latest evidence of racial polarization, not just in terms of white and black, but black and brown as well.

And yet, it has only been in the last couple of weeks that the discussion of race in this campaign has taken a particularly divisive turn.

On one end of the spectrum, we've heard the implication that my candidacy is somehow an exercise in affirmative action, that it's based solely on the desire of wide-eyed liberals to purchase racial reconciliation on the cheap.

On the other end, we've heard my former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, use incendiary language to express views that have the potential not only to widen the racial divide, but views that denigrate both the greatness and the goodness of our nation -- that rightly offend white and black alike.

I have already condemned, in unequivocal terms, the statements of Rev. Wright that have caused such controversy. For some, nagging questions remain.

Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy? Of course. Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes. Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely -- just as I'm sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests or rabbis with which you strongly disagreed.

But the remarks that have caused this recent firestorm weren't simply controversial. They weren't simply a religious leader's effort to speak out against perceived injustice.

Instead, they expressed a profoundly distorted view of this country -- a view that sees white racism as endemic, and that elevates what is wrong with America above all that we know is right with America, a view that sees the conflicts in the Middle East as rooted primarily in the actions of stalwart allies like Israel, instead of emanating from the perverse and hateful ideologies of radical Islam.

As such, Rev. Wright's comments were not only wrong but divisive, divisive at a time when we need unity; racially charged at a time when we need to come together to solve a set of monumental problems -- two wars, a terrorist threat, a falling economy, a chronic health care crisis and potentially devastating climate change; problems that are neither black or white or Latino or Asian, but rather problems that confront us all.

Given my background, my politics, and my professed values and ideals, there will no doubt be those for whom my statements of condemnation are not enough. Why associate myself with Rev. Wright in the first place, they may ask? Why not join another church?

And I confess that if all that I knew of Rev. Wright were the snippets of those sermons that have run in an endless loop on the television and YouTube, or if Trinity United Church of Christ conformed to the caricatures being peddled by some commentators, there is no doubt that I would react in much the same way

But the truth is, that isn't all that I know of the man. The man I met more than 20 years ago is a man who helped introduce me to my Christian faith, a man who spoke to me about our obligations to love one another; to care for the sick and lift up the poor.

He is a man who served his country as a U.S. Marine, who has studied and lectured at some of the finest universities and seminaries in the country, and who for over thirty years led a church that serves the community by doing God's work here on Earth -- by housing the homeless, ministering to the needy, providing day care services and scholarships and prison ministries, and reaching out to those suffering from HIV/AIDS.

In my first book, "Dreams From My Father," I described the experience of my first service at Trinity:

"People began to shout, to rise from their seats and clap and cry out, a forceful wind carrying the reverend's voice up into the rafters....And in that single note -- hope! -- I heard something else; at the foot of that cross, inside the thousands of churches across the city, I imagined the stories of ordinary black people merging with the stories of David and Goliath, Moses and Pharaoh, the Christians in the lion's den, Ezekiel's field of dry bones.

"Those stories -- of survival, and freedom, and hope -- became our story, my story; the blood that had spilled was our blood, the tears our tears; until this black church, on this bright day, seemed once more a vessel carrying the story of a people into future generations and into a larger world.

"Our trials and triumphs became at once unique and universal, black and more than black; in chronicling our journey, the stories and songs gave us a means to reclaim memories that we didn't need to feel shame about...memories that all people might study and cherish -- and with which we could start to rebuild."

That has been my experience at Trinity. Like other predominantly black churches across the country, Trinity embodies the black community in its entirety -- the doctor and the welfare mom, the model student and the former gang-banger.

Like other black churches, Trinity's services are full of raucous laughter and sometimes bawdy humor. They are full of dancing, clapping, screaming and shouting that may seem jarring to the untrained ear.

The church contains in full the kindness and cruelty, the fierce intelligence and the shocking ignorance, the struggles and successes, the love and yes, the bitterness and bias that make up the black experience in America.

And this helps explain, perhaps, my relationship with Rev. Wright. As imperfect as he may be, he has been like family to me. He strengthened my faith, officiated my wedding, and baptized my children.

Not once in my conversations with him have I heard him talk about any ethnic group in derogatory terms, or treat whites with whom he interacted with anything but courtesy and respect. He contains within him the contradictions -- the good and the bad -- of the community that he has served diligently for so many years.

I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother -- a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.

These people are a part of me. And they are a part of America, this country that I love.

Some will see this as an attempt to justify or excuse comments that are simply inexcusable. I can assure you it is not. I suppose the politically safe thing would be to move on from this episode and just hope that it fades into the woodwork.

We can dismiss Rev. Wright as a crank or a demagogue, just as some have dismissed Geraldine Ferraro, in the aftermath of her recent statements, as harboring some deep-seated racial bias.

But race is an issue that I believe this nation cannot afford to ignore right now. We would be making the same mistake that Rev. Wright made in his offending sermons about America -- to simplify and stereotype and amplify the negative to the point that it distorts reality.

The fact is that the comments that have been made and the issues that have surfaced over the last few weeks reflect the complexities of race in this country that we've never really worked through -- a part of our union that we have yet to perfect.

And if we walk away now, if we simply retreat into our respective corners, we will never be able to come together and solve challenges like health care, or education, or the need to find good jobs for every American.

Understanding this reality requires a reminder of how we arrived at this point. As William Faulkner once wrote, "The past isn't dead and buried. In fact, it isn't even past." We do not need to recite here the history of racial injustice in this country.

But we do need to remind ourselves that so many of the disparities that exist in the African-American community today can be directly traced to inequalities passed on from an earlier generation that suffered under the brutal legacy of slavery and Jim Crow.

Segregated schools were, and are, inferior schools; we still haven't fixed them, fifty years after Brown v. Board of Education, and the inferior education they provided, then and now, helps explain the pervasive achievement gap between today's black and white students.

Legalized discrimination -- where blacks were prevented, often through violence, from owning property, or loans were not granted to African-American business owners, or black homeowners could not access FHA mortgages, or blacks were excluded from unions, or the police force, or fire departments -- meant that black families could not amass any meaningful wealth to bequeath to future generations.

That history helps explain the wealth and income gap between black and white, and the concentrated pockets of poverty that persists in so many of today's urban and rural communities.

A lack of economic opportunity among black men, and the shame and frustration that came from not being able to provide for one's family, contributed to the erosion of black families -- a problem that welfare policies for many years may have worsened.

And the lack of basic services in so many urban black neighborhoods -- parks for kids to play in, police walking the beat, regular garbage pick-up and building code enforcement -- all helped create a cycle of violence, blight and neglect that continue to haunt us.

This is the reality in which Rev. Wright and other African-Americans of his generation grew up. They came of age in the late fifties and early sixties, a time when segregation was still the law of the land and opportunity was systematically constricted.

What's remarkable is not how many failed in the face of discrimination, but rather how many men and women overcame the odds; how many were able to make a way out of no way for those like me who would come after them.

But for all those who scratched and clawed their way to get a piece of the American Dream, there were many who didn't make it -- those who were ultimately defeated, in one way or another, by discrimination.

That legacy of defeat was passed on to future generations -- those young men and, increasingly, young women who we see standing on street corners or languishing in our prisons, without hope or prospects for the future. Even for those blacks who did make it, questions of race, and racism, continue to define their worldview in fundamental ways.

For the men and women of Rev. Wright's generation, the memories of humiliation and doubt and fear have not gone away; nor has the anger and the bitterness of those years.

That anger may not get expressed in public, in front of white co-workers or white friends. But it does find voice in the barbershop or around the kitchen table. At times, that anger is exploited by politicians, to gin up votes along racial lines, or to make up for a politician's own failings.

And occasionally it finds voice in the church on Sunday morning, in the pulpit and in the pews. The fact that so many people are surprised to hear that anger in some of Rev. Wright's sermons simply reminds us of the old truism that the most segregated hour in American life occurs on Sunday morning.

That anger is not always productive; indeed, all too often it distracts attention from solving real problems; it keeps us from squarely facing our own complicity in our condition, and prevents the African-American community from forging the alliances it needs to bring about real change.

But the anger is real; it is powerful; and to simply wish it away, to condemn it without understanding its roots, only serves to widen the chasm of misunderstanding that exists between the races.

In fact, a similar anger exists within segments of the white community. Most working- and middle-class white Americans don't feel that they have been particularly privileged by their race.

Their experience is the immigrant experience -- as far as they're concerned, no one's handed them anything, they've built it from scratch. They've worked hard all their lives, many times only to see their jobs shipped overseas or their pension dumped after a lifetime of labor.

They are anxious about their futures, and feel their dreams slipping away; in an era of stagnant wages and global competition, opportunity comes to be seen as a zero sum game, in which your dreams come at my expense.

So when they are told to bus their children to a school across town; when they hear that an African-American is getting an advantage in landing a good job or a spot in a good college because of an injustice that they themselves never committed; when they're told that their fears about crime in urban neighborhoods are somehow prejudiced, resentment builds over time.

Like the anger within the black community, these resentments aren't always expressed in polite company. But they have helped shape the political landscape for at least a generation.

Anger over welfare and affirmative action helped forge the Reagan Coalition. Politicians routinely exploited fears of crime for their own electoral ends. Talk show hosts and conservative commentators built entire careers unmasking bogus claims of racism while dismissing legitimate discussions of racial injustice and inequality as mere political correctness or reverse racism.

Just as black anger often proved counterproductive, so have these white resentments distracted attention from the real culprits of the middle-class squeeze -- a corporate culture rife with inside dealing, questionable accounting practices and short-term greed; a Washington dominated by lobbyists and special interests; economic policies that favor the few over the many.

And yet, to wish away the resentments of white Americans, to label them as misguided or even racist, without recognizing they are grounded in legitimate concerns -- this too widens the racial divide, and blocks the path to understanding.

This is where we are right now. It's a racial stalemate we've been stuck in for years. Contrary to the claims of some of my critics, black and white, I have never been so naive as to believe that we can get beyond our racial divisions in a single election cycle, or with a single candidacy -- particularly a candidacy as imperfect as my own.

But I have asserted a firm conviction -- a conviction rooted in my faith in God and my faith in the American people -- that working together we can move beyond some of our old racial wounds, and that in fact we have no choice if we are to continue on the path of a more perfect union.

For the African-American community, that path means embracing the burdens of our past without becoming victims of our past. It means continuing to insist on a full measure of justice in every aspect of American life.

But it also means binding our particular grievances -- for better health care, and better schools, and better jobs -- to the larger aspirations of all Americans, the white woman struggling to break the glass ceiling, the white man whose been laid off, the immigrant trying to feed his family.

And it means taking full responsibility for own lives -- by demanding more from our fathers, and spending more time with our children, and reading to them, and teaching them that while they may face challenges and discrimination in their own lives, they must never succumb to despair or cynicism; they must always believe that they can write their own destiny.

Ironically, this quintessentially American -- and yes, conservative -- notion of self-help found frequent expression in Rev. Wright's sermons. But what my former pastor too often failed to understand is that embarking on a program of self-help also requires a belief that society can change.

The profound mistake of Rev. Wright's sermons is not that he spoke about racism in our society. It's that he spoke as if our society was static; as if no progress has been made; as if this country -- a country that has made it possible for one of his own members to run for the highest office in the land and build a coalition of white and black, Latino and Asian, rich and poor, young and old -- is still irrevocably bound to a tragic past.

But what we know -- what we have seen -- is that America can change. That is the true genius of this nation. What we have already achieved gives us hope -- the audacity to hope -- for what we can and must achieve tomorrow.

In the white community, the path to a more perfect union means acknowledging that what ails the African-American community does not just exist in the minds of black people; that the legacy of discrimination -- and current incidents of discrimination, while less overt than in the past -- are real and must be addressed.

Not just with words, but with deeds -- by investing in our schools and our communities; by enforcing our civil rights laws and ensuring fairness in our criminal justice system; by providing this generation with ladders of opportunity that were unavailable for previous generations.

It requires all Americans to realize that your dreams do not have to come at the expense of my dreams; that investing in the health, welfare and education of black and brown and white children will ultimately help all of America prosper.

In the end, then, what is called for is nothing more, and nothing less, than what all the world's great religions demand -- that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us. Let us be our brother's keeper, Scripture tells us. Let us be our sister's keeper. Let us find that common stake we all have in one another, and let our politics reflect that spirit as well.

For we have a choice in this country. We can accept a politics that breeds division, and conflict, and cynicism. We can tackle race only as spectacle -- as we did in the O.J. trial -- or in the wake of tragedy, as we did in the aftermath of Katrina -- or as fodder for the nightly news.

We can play Rev. Wright's sermons on every channel, every day and talk about them from now until the election, and make the only question in this campaign whether or not the American people think that I somehow believe or sympathize with his most offensive words.

We can pounce on some gaffe by a Hillary supporter as evidence that she's playing the race card, or we can speculate on whether white men will all flock to John McCain in the general election regardless of his policies.

We can do that.

But if we do, I can tell you that in the next election, we'll be talking about some other distraction. And then another one. And then another one. And nothing will change.

That is one option. Or, at this moment, in this election, we can come together and say, "Not this time." This time we want to talk about the crumbling schools that are stealing the future of black children and white children and Asian children and Hispanic children and Native American children.

This time we want to reject the cynicism that tells us that these kids can't learn; that those kids who don't look like us are somebody else's problem. The children of America are not those kids, they are our kids, and we will not let them fall behind in a 21st Century economy. Not this time.

This time we want to talk about how the lines in the emergency room are filled with whites and blacks and Hispanics who do not have health care, who don't have the power on their own to overcome the special interests in Washington, but who can take them on if we do it together.

This time we want to talk about the shuttered mills that once provided a decent life for men and women of every race, and the homes for sale that once belonged to Americans from every religion, every region, every walk of life.

This time we want to talk about the fact that the real problem is not that someone who doesn't look like you might take your job; it's that the corporation you work for will ship it overseas for nothing more than a profit.

This time we want to talk about the men and women of every color and creed who serve together, and fight together, and bleed together under the same proud flag.

We want to talk about how to bring them home from a war that never should've been authorized and never should've been waged, and we want to talk about how we'll show our patriotism by caring for them, and their families, and giving them the benefits they have earned.

I would not be running for president if I didn't believe with all my heart that this is what the vast majority of Americans want for this country. This union may never be perfect, but generation after generation has shown that it can always be perfected.

And today, whenever I find myself feeling doubtful or cynical about this possibility, what gives me the most hope is the next generation -- the young people whose attitudes and beliefs and openness to change have already made history in this election.

There is one story in particularly that I'd like to leave you with today -- a story I told when I had the great honor of speaking on Dr. King's birthday at his home church, Ebenezer Baptist, in Atlanta.

There is a young, 23-year-old white woman named Ashley Baia who organized for our campaign in Florence, South Carolina. She had been working to organize a mostly African-American community since the beginning of this campaign, and one day she was at a roundtable discussion where everyone went around telling their story and why they were there.

And Ashley said that when she was 9 years old, her mother got cancer. And because she had to miss days of work, she was let go and lost her health care. They had to file for bankruptcy, and that's when Ashley decided that she had to do something to help her mom.

She knew that food was one of their most expensive costs, and so Ashley convinced her mother that what she really liked and really wanted to eat more than anything else was mustard and relish sandwiches. Because that was the cheapest way to eat.

She did this for a year until her mom got better, and she told everyone at the roundtable that the reason she joined our campaign was so that she could help the millions of other children in the country who want and need to help their parents, too.

Now Ashley might have made a different choice. Perhaps somebody told her along the way that the source of her mother's problems were blacks who were on welfare and too lazy to work, or Hispanics who were coming into the country illegally. But she didn't. She sought out allies in her fight against injustice.

Anyway, Ashley finishes her story and then goes around the room and asks everyone else why they're supporting the campaign. They all have different stories and reasons. Many bring up a specific issue. And finally they come to this elderly black man who's been sitting there quietly the entire time.

And Ashley asks him why he's there. And he does not bring up a specific issue. He does not say health care or the economy. He does not say education or the war. He does not say that he was there because of Barack Obama. He simply says to everyone in the room, "I am here because of Ashley."

"I'm here because of Ashley." By itself, that single moment of recognition between that young white girl and that old black man is not enough. It is not enough to give health care to the sick, or jobs to the jobless, or education to our children.

But it is where we start. It is where our union grows stronger. And as so many generations have come to realize over the course of the two-hundred and twenty one years since a band of patriots signed that document in Philadelphia, that is where the perfection begins.