Kenny ://

The way I fill time

I've been busy for a while and haven't really been in here much.  I thought I'd update you all via doodles and a picture of where I've been this week. My company had it's annual Professional Services Conference at a 5 star resort in South Carolina. The conference was great - my first time to it - and I'm looking forward to getting back to the grind as a result of a small morale boost and a lot of good conversations with colleagues I hadn't yet met in person, but had over the phone and email.  I also went through a few sessions during the week and between sessions, to zone out, I doodle.  

View from the back of the resort hotel:

Doodle

Doodle (forgive the blurriness, stupid iPhone):

Doodle:

DOODLE:::::!!!!::::

Doodle-ku:

I draw stick figures

Fighting ninjas with rifles,

Tanks, and irony

This is how I roll

I'm about to hit the road for the next month and decided to put as much of my stuff in storage as possible so that I can travel light and with the bare essentials. I've packed a flask, a couple of sleeping bags, some clothes, one of my bikes and all the crap that goes along with that (which is a lot), my mac (and work computer et al), celly, yo, and decided to bring along some of my homies.

I roll 3-deep when it comes to my crew, yaheard?:

I don't have much this morning

Decided to skip dinner last night and have a drink instead.  Kenny + drink - dinner = early to bed and grumpy to rise.Anyway, thought i'd share a doodle. Maybe these will start replacing the haiku I was doing, and before that the Poe and Gumby pics.  Anyway . . . 

My week at work:

How I am spending my last day of unemployment

I'm in Charleston, which by the way is a lovely little town, kind of sleepy and easily walkable in the right places.

I spent a few hours downtown today just meandering and people watching and saw, in Marion Park (sp?) what have to be the two biggest damn dogs I've ever seen in my life. I didn't approach to find out what they are, I think bull mastiff (like the dog from "Turner and Hooch"), but have taken to calling them Thor and Odin. Big. Damn. Dogs. Dot. Com.:

Downtown Charleston is also home to I think at least three universities or colleges: College of Charleston, Medical University of South Carolina, and the Law School of Charleston or Charleston Law School or whatever it is. What's that mean? It means a combination of intelligent students mixed in with hungover undergrads wandering around in the sunlight looking for their cars from last night.  I am really looking forward to the Farmers Market downtown this weekend to get a full glimpse of that elusive creature, the hungover 19-year-old vowing never to do that again, while still wearing her harlot outfit from the night before wondering not only where her car is, but also why her friends left her and, "oh dangit, where are my keys??? Mom and dad are going to flip if I have lost my car. Again."

On another note, since it's my last day of unemployment I've decided to take a nap on the patio. Here's what I'll be seeing just before nodding off:

So many soothing colors. So many . . . 

I'm Kenny Allen and I endorse this message. 

DON'T FORGET TO VOTE!

Three days later

I think I've finally recovered from Kennypalooza 2k8.  It's Monday, I'm back at the office after having gone to the gym to wail on my pecs, quads, and abs, and now I'm ready for a snickers bar and a nap. That's the kind of backwards I am - workout and then snackout to negate most of what I think I've done in the gym. I think my one-pack abs are proof of that.

A few weeks ago I thought I had all the time in the world to get ready to move and speculated that I might be getting really stressed out and pissy once it got closer and closer to the move date. That's actually the exact opposite of what's been happening. The house is eiter on the market or will be later today, the guys threw me a great going away party this past Friday (the aforementioned Kennypalooza), I'm no longer hungover from kennypalooza, and I'm kind of in a better place each day.

I'm looking forward to camping my way to Charleston starting next Friday, the 10th, by stopping off in Middle TN at Montgomery Bell State Park for a night of camping and 2 days of trail riding/running. Then me and the gang are giong to head to Nashville for a day of Yazoo brewery and on Sunday I'll head to the Smokies for another night or two of camping and mtbing/trail running.

I had originally planned on getting to Charleston on Sunday, October 12th, but am thinking now I won't be in any rush to get there until the 14th or 15th. I'd like to stop in the Blue Ridge mountains for another night of camping and running. It's almost like a transition vacation for me. A purge, and move, and a fresh way to start each day - from a tent. I set one of my tents up in the back yard last week to air it out and make sure I had everything I needed and you know what? I do. I am like an 8 year old all over again, I've spent 4 of the last 6 nights sleeping in tent. Thankfully the weather has cooperated with mid-60's degree temps for the past week and a half.

There are a few things I do at the office to make it seem like my space, not MySpace

Here are a few iPhone shots of things I have on my desk that bring a little bit of me into my office. They're lame, I need decorating hints, but it's all I have the time or energy for. It's wednesday, a meeting was cancelled, and I had a few mins.

I [heart] typo and young ave deli

A pic of me and my niece in her Beetlejuice-ish halloween outfit about 5 years ago:

Nerf football, sugarboy and The Memphis Playboys (it's a band, don't get the wrong idea):

lame kenny

My broke is think. I can't brain a post today. Want to play a long game of shut eye. Good. Also, I have been on a verb creation trip. Earlier I was computering and coffeeing. Now I'm couching and in a little while will be tribing with the guys. I would say I'm housing but dr dre beat me to that one by over a decade. (brought to you by the letter k and the letter iPhone)

There's no such thing as a fresh start

I've been thinking for about a year now that I needed a fresh start. The thing is, I know there's no such thing as a fresh start. It doesn't matter if you change jobs, change names, change homes, change cities. Wherever you go, there you are, as a person once said.  

The variables change, but the one common denominator doesn't. If you need a fresh start, you do that from the inside out. 

One of my favorite bands, The Avett Brothers, has a song that fits the way I've been feeling lately perfectly. I'd love nothing more than to become anonymous and new, but then again, wherever I go, there I am. The same things I know and do and say will still be there, they'll just be being done, thought, and said in a new place.  So, I suppose a campy comparison would be saying that Dorothy learned through a dream what I'm learning through experiences and the help of the lyrics (to follow here) of a fan-fecking-tastic sound.  There's no place like home. Don't like home? Change whatever you can about it to make it a place you like.  

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"Weight of Lies" by the Avett Brothers:

Disappear from your hometown 
Go and find the people that you know 
Show them all you good parts 
Leave town when bad ones start to show 
Go and wed a woman 
A pretty girl that you've never met 
Make sure she knows you love her well 

But don't make any other promises

The weight of lies will bring you down

And follow you to every town

Cos nothing happens here 

That doesn't happen there

So when you run make sure you run

To something and not away from

Cos lies don't need an aeroplane

To chase you down

I once heard the worst thing that a man could do

Was draw a hungry crowd.

Tell everyone his name, pride, and confidence 
But leaving out his doubt 
I'm not sure I bought those words 
When I was young I knew most everything 
These words have never met so much to anyone 
As they now mean to me 

The weight of lies will bring you down 
And follow you to every town 
Cause nothing happens here that doesn't happen there 
So when you run make sure you run 
To something and not away from 
Cause lies don't need an aeroplane to chase you down 

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Damn straight.  Change yourself before trying everything external. Sometimes, though, it takes a change of scenery to bring out the best in us.

Should I sell my house before trying to repaint it, rearrange it and make it a happier place? Maybe. Maybe not.  I'm just saying.

Hey. You. Yeah you, how's it going?

I don't have a lot to say today, it's been a slow one and two-a-days (running twice a day - typically 5 miles for lunch then another 5 after work) have caught up with me for the week. That usually doesn't happen until Friday but I guess I'm burning it at both ends this week. 

I thought I'd share a few pics from my latest travel for work that aren't sailing related as well as one from a while ago when I was there in July, 2005.  In these pictures are, in no particular order, a hotel with a great deal of significance in my life, a park I plan on running through more than 6 miles a day someday, the gardens in that park, and the coffee I choked down on the airplane. Oh, there are also a couple of shots from a going away party I went to the night I got back from Chicago.  

You figure out which is which. I'm in a "mood" for some reason that only a nap and a beer with the guys will fix. Both of which I already have scheduled for the night.

Yin or yang, not sure which this time.

I suppose this could be interpreted as either being good or bad. I stopped by an ATM today, which was the first time in apparently a very long time because I couldn't remember my fecking PIN.  

How is that good, Kenny?  Glad you asked. It means I haven't been pulling cash out to waste on renting movies and buying magazines when I've got PLENTY of reading material sitting around the house as it is.  

How is that bad, Kenny? Glad you asked. It means that either my memory is fading or that important facts in my life (passwords, birthdays, etc.) are becoming the shadow of a memory.

You know what I mean. Like, when there's a beautiful Spring day that gets you nostalgic for no particular reason. There's not a concrete memory that goes with the day but you have a feeling there should be because your feelings about it seem so vivid. It's the feeling of a memory without an actual memory associated with it.  

Anyway . . . I remembered my PIN and picked up a sixer of Dr. Pepper after all.