Archive for the ‘stories’ Category

Have I got a story…2

Nov 20th, 08 / Comments Off

I started a few days ago telling some fun stories from my past.  If you missed it, you missed a good one. :)  But they get much better with good ‘ole “Jason” from college.  Instead of telling one more of his, I thought I’d share something that happened 2 years ago.  If you have been reading this blog since the early days (I have really only been faithful for a little over a year, but have had the blog for over 2) you may remember this story.

It was almost exactly 2 years ago and we were on the cusp of a new generation of game systems.  The Xbox 360 had been out for almost a year, the wii was about to take over, but I planned on buying a PS3.  I’m an Xbox guy all the way, but my goal was to pick up a PS3 and sell it on ebay.  They were going for $1,800 before the launch and I thought that number could only go up.  I was going to clear a cool grand.  The problem was the limited availability at launch.  Of course if they’re frequently available the price they sell for goes significantly down… it’s just simple supply and demand.  
So, I planned on waiting in line for one.  I had a friend who was going to sit with me at the Walmart in Dawsonville, and we would get our prize.  He was going to keep his, but of course I was to sell mine.  Well, he backed out and went to the Walmart in Gainesville down the road.  I showed up at Walmart and saw that there were already a few folks waiting, so I got in line.  I was seat number 3.  There were to be 4 premium (60 gig) systems and 2 bare bones (20 gig) systems, plus 6 rain check seats.  So, there were 12 seats in total.  I plopped down on Wednesday afternoon (around 2pm) into my seat labeled ’3 – premium ps3′.  This would require me to sit in that seat until midnight on Thursday night, a full 34 hours later.
A few hours in, my seat mates and I were getting rather chummy.  Mel came by to bring me dinner around 6 and see how I was doing.  4 hours in the plastic chair was wearing on me.  Not only that, but you HAD to have someone sit in your seat for you if you ever wanted to get up.  If you wanted a bathroom break, dinner, stretch or whatever you had to have a relief sitter.  You could even get nudged out of your seat in the middle of the night and if someone else sat in it, it was theirs.
While I was eating my McDonald’s dinner (I have McD’s maybe once a year… I can’t stand that place)  I related to Mel that I didn’t think I wanted to stay the whole time and was starting to reconsider.  One of the guys in a rain check seat turned to me and told me he’d buy my seat from me… $600 was the offer.  I’m no moron, so I agreed.  After a few minutes he returned with $400 in cash, telling me it was the most he could take out.  I still took it.  I was going to leave anyhow.  So, my 4 hour stint in a seat awarded me $400!!
The best part of the whole thing is that a few days later someone emailed me an article in the Dawsonville newspaper.  They found my blog (apparently) because my name was mentioned in the article.  At midnight, 30 hours after our exchange, the manager came out with Ps3′s in hand.  Excitement was in the air to watch the folks that sat for over a full day to receive the first PS3.  But the manager had some bad news… there were only 2 Premium systems, not 3 as they had intended.  The other guys were to receive rain-checks for their systems.  Being that the seat I sold the guy was seat number 3, he ended up with a rain check.  So all in all, he paid $400 to move from a rain check seat to a rain check seat!  The article stated that he asked not to be photographed or identified. :)
What did I do with the $400 I earned?  I bought an Xbox 360 of course!

Have I got a story…1

Nov 15th, 08 / 3 Comments

In the interest of sharing another story (ahem, Dan!), I thought I’d share a few crazy ones.  I’ll start with telling a few from a guy I went to college with.

I went to a Christian College.  In fact, it is THE Christian College in my opinion.  It’s the largest in the world, but it’s also a quality education and experience.  I had a great time during the 4 years I was there… and hey, I might my wife there – so definitely no complaints!
The interesting thing is that at Christian Universities you do tend to have a few more odd people than usual.  It wasn’t uncommon to turn a corner and hear students discussing the implications of grace over law, or whether we were predestined or make our own path.  These types of conversations were pretty frequent and rather common.  It was all part of the process of education.  I LOVE being around people different than me, it helps me see things from a different perspective.
Anyhow, we had a guy… let’s just call him Jason… who lived on our hall.  Jason loved to argue, especially when it came to theology.  He was a nice guy no doubt, but had really yet to reach his peak of brilliance.  I don’t know where he is or what he’s doing now, but in college he was a fun character.  I remember one night he stayed up all night, brewing several pots of coffee, to confirm his side of an argument on the origination of souls.  Well, one night Jason was up for an extra-ordinary amount of time discussing theology.  The combination of coffee and cough syrup (or whatever it was) became too much for him and Jason fell asleep… for a while.  
The funny part of the mini-hibernation is that it was just before Fall Break.  We all left to spend our long weekends with friends and family – while Jason slept for almost a full day in the dorm.  When he woke up, nobody was around.  He knocked on several doors, but got no response.  What happened next is probably not the response of a majority of us.  His intentions were good, but Jason immediately thought… “The rapture has happened!”  Now, I don’t know why he thought he may have been left… or if the rapture included the vehicles in the parking lot… but he was convinced.  As a result of this newfound revelation, he proceeded to go to downtown and preach to everyone that the rapture had happened and it was time to repent!  I have no idea how long he was there preaching until someone helped clue him in.  He ended up spending some time in the hospital as a result of being sick (remember: meds plus coffee overkill).  I’m sure the lack of sleep, then too much of it, with the other factors created a unique mental situation.  
Needless to say, we all enjoyed hearing the story when we returned!  I’ve got too many stories from college that resemble this one.  I doubt I’ll be able to share them all, but maybe I’ll have a few more to tell some day down the road.