I'm Going to College! (again)

So I opened up my email yesterday and was pleasantly surprised to see that I received a message from the University of Georgia's school of social work. They wrote me saying that I was officially accepted to their PhD program to start in August of '09.

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I guess I just need to figure out what I'm doing until then...

The Past Month or So...

So I've been doing a lot of traveling since I moved away from Texas. I definitely have the time to do it so I figure, why not? I also got paid two different times from the state of Texas well after I quit my job so I had some money. One paycheck was for my final travel reimbursement and the other was for all the overtime I worked (for some reason they make you accumulate it and only pay you when you either quit or reach 250+ hours). Here is a quick synopsis of my travels:

I spent Halloween up in Tallahassee with my boys...we dressed up two different nights (it's my favorite holiday). I then went up to Athens, GA to see Gabe and Shirin plus one. After that it was a quick night at Mamaw's and then right back to Tallahassee for another party (I can't stay away from that place). The week after that I rested in Lakeland with Mom and Dad and even got to see my nephew (Cruz) play some college b-ball. When I recuperated I flew out to Texas to see some friends I forgot to say goodbye too and then kept flying until I reached San Francisco where my childhood friend Doug lives and goes to school. I had a good time in Cali and then it was time to fly back to Florida and rest some more at my parent's house. Then it was back, once again, to Tallahassee where someone was having a birthday party (i HAD to go). I only stayed a couple days because it was then time for Thanksgiving and I wanted to show up to Uncle Sam's a little early to hang out with everyone there. After all my family showed up and we did the usual marathon session of games and food I went back to Lakeland and eventually made my way to Orlando. In O-town I hung out with Pogo where we went out to some bars and even met up with some old friends we met on a cruise we took last Spring Break (yeah, I still go on Spring Break).

...and that pretty much brings you up to speed. Pictures will follow as soon as I'm done with my travels.

Back in FL

I'm sitting here in Tallahassee, FL on this fine Sunday afternoon. I got here on Thursday night after a long, rain-filled, 15 hour drive from Austin. I'm hanging out here with my friends from school for a bit and then it's off to Lakeland to see mom and dad. See ya soon guys!

Changes

It's official. Texas will no longer be my home after this week. I have finally had my fill of Tex-Mex and humongous beers out here in the Lone Star State. After I quit my job and started really thinking about what's best for me, I realized that a big change was in order (one even bigger than quitting my job, that is).

What's next for Brendan? Who knows? I actually applied for grad school to go back and get my PhD so hopefully that will come through. I wouldn't start school until Fall of '09 though, so I have some time to sit on things. Maybe I'll travel a bit, maybe get a job. Maybe I can quickly get on a reality t.v. show and become famous. We'll see..

p.s. if you want to visit Austin you better come in the next few days

Looking for Work!

Well, it's been a while since I blogged and the past month has been pretty big in the change department. I worked my last day at Child Protective Services yesterday and right now I am figuring out what my next move is. I gave my notice at the beginning of September so I've known for a little while now that I had to start looking for jobs but I still don't know where it'll be. I've already interviewed for a couple of jobs within the state department but I may just call it quits in Texas altogether and move. Who knows what the future holds?

Next Blog Post: Possibly written in a different state.

I've been a little out of commission lately. This is because I got two of my wisdom teeth out last week. The picture to the right shows a little bit of swelling on the right side of it. It hurt.

I did not go with the conventional dentist-oral surgeon route, however. No, I instead took part in a study for post-op pain at this mad scientist lab in Austin. All I had to do was go through a screening process and stay overnight on the day of the surgery...and they paid me $400!

Yep, I'm officially a lab rat but all in all it wasn't so bad. It did suck because I definitely received the placebo drug after surgery and I had to wait about an hour and a half before I got the "rescue medication" pain-killers. Oh well, it taught me a little about my pain threshold I guess.

da Baby!

Here is a picture of my new Nephew. I'm sure everyone who reads this blog has seen plenty of pictures of babies lately, but I like this one. Morgan does look a little scared of me but I think it's because someone was talking about my Kickboxing skills.

Moving on Up (to the East side)

Well, it's August 1st and I officially have to say goodbye to my apartment and say hello to a new house. I will be living slightly southeast from where I used to live with the addition of three other dudes. One of these dudes I know from work. The other two are random guys from my friend's church. I met them both last month, though, and I think we'll all get along pretty well.

I'm kind of excited to move in to my new place because I've been living alone for so long now. Even though I loooooove being able to do whatever the hell I want to in the comfort of my own apartment, I think I'm going to like the things that come with this new house (cable, cheaper rent, and friends who like to watch the UFC).

Even though I don't have an extra bedroom anymore, everyone is still invited to come stay with me!

For All You Cynics

I'm just writing this post so I can quiet all those people making silly comments on my May entry. Here is an update and a picture for you:

I'm still working.

I'm going to apply to schools sometime soon for a PhD in Social Work. I wouldn't start until Fall of '09 though...

I am moving into a different house this week so I will finally have internet at home again. Maybe this will help the blog.

...and the picture:

This is David, Me, and our friend Shaw at some bar in Orlando.

There ya go.

What's Happening?

Well, aside from me becoming an Uncle again this past weekend (which I'm sure Shirin will blog about so I won't talk about Lil' Cyrus just yet) I haven't had much happen in the last month or so.

I did go to Orlando to see all my boys from FL and we had a pretty good time going out and lounging by the pool.

I've been going out here in Austin a good amount so I'm pretty much an expert on how to blow $100 in a few hours at a bar now. Ha.

I got back from San Angelo, TX a while back helping out with the FLDS removal business and I'd really like to talk about that but the Department of Family and Protective Services give us strict instructions to NOT BLOG about stuff like that. Oh well...

I also recently got done with two video projects that I was working on for a month or so. One was just a fun video with footage from my cruise and sock puppet reenactments (it's done kind of "George"-style and is probably only funny to the people who went on the cruise). The other video, however, was one for my old job at the gym on FSU campus. My old boss paid me about $150 to edit together a bunch of footage they had from a big workout contest they did this spring. I'm trying to compete with Gabe's video project efforts in order to one day be able to under-cut him on every offer he receives (ya gotta love sibling rivalry).

Other than that, I've just been trying to relax a bit here in the great state of Texas. I think I'm going tubing down a river next week and maybe renting a movie or two. Adios...

Cruise Pictures!

Well, they are about 3 weeks late but here are some pictures from my cruise to Cozumel and Grand Cayman. Enjoy!

Here are the girls from Orlando that we hung out with a bunch

The hot tub - we spent about 50% of our time on the boat here

A pic of us driving a jeep around Mexico

Me riding a donkey with a Mexican 40oz

The boys

We commandeered a table and started playing beerpong on it. I'm
intensely coaching Brice right here.

We took a lot more pictures but I don't have the time to post 'em all right now.

Damn

Well, I've lost the wireless internet connection that I was stealing at my apartment so I can only get online at work now. On top of that I've been working a lot more and lot harder at my job so I really don't have any time at the office to get on this blog.

The good news is: I'm going on a cruise with all my Lakeland boys next week. I'll be back just in time to get to the Ides at Mamaw's though, so I'm excited.

See everyone soon!

The 'Burg

Last weekend I went to St. Pete to celebrate my big brother's birthday. I wanted to post some pics from it but I forgot to get them from Casey's camera/computer. I had a great time and as usual - DJ Mingle Mixx threw a damn good party.

Just wanted to say thanks Casey for letting me be a part of your extravaganza. Let's do another one in ten years...

(If you have pictures please send them to me)

Pictures!

I've been working my butt off the last couple weeks but I figured I'd take some time to post pictures from the last month or so. Here are a few:

Here is a picture from my friend's birthday dinner (she's getting old so she needs a sippy-cup to drink her wine now)

...Later on after a few drinks at the b-day dinner

Two friends of mine: Vanessa and Carrie. Vanessa actually went to FSU at the same time I did but we didn't meet until I moved to Austin. She saw me in a sports bar when I was wearing a FSU Water Polo shirt and we've been friends since then.
This is my neighbor Tanya that watches all the UFC pay-per-views with me. Her mom is from France and speaks little English.

This is Tanya with one of the bartenders from a great dive bar we went to. This woman was very obliging and let Tanya behind the bar to take this.

Tanya's dog, Anna. I think she's about 95 in dog years.

The three pieces of art that my sister-in-law, Shirin, did for me. Can you guess what they mean?

The seat covers for my kitchen chairs that my mom upholstered:

My old chest of drawers that I sanded and stained (I hope it looks fine to you mom)

Trips to FL and Other Stuff

I got back to Texas this week after spending a long weekend in Tallahassee, FL (thanks mom for setting it up!) visiting my boys who still live there. After my plane got to Tally we hung out for a little bit and went out to eat at some new restaurant in the city. Then me, Brice, David, and our other friend Crispy (real name Chris) went to a couple of bars in order to try to increase the guest list for the party we were having at David's house the next day. Needless to say we all channeled our "Mingle Mixx" side and ended up meeting a bunch of people to invite to the party. It was awesome. Later on, after we got back to the house, I showed all the guys Gabe and Shirin's DVD they made me of funny internet videos. They friggin' loved it. Good job Modaresi-Beal's!

The next night we had the party and had a truly great time. I won't give any details but ya gotta believe that any night that allows me to both bartend for the party AND give 3am jiu-jitsu lessons is a good night.

The rest of the weekend was pretty relaxing...I hung out around the house and played Rock Band with the guys and called up some old friends of mine that I hadn't seen in a while. I ended up leaving Tally late on Monday night.

When I got back to Austin I was pretty rested up...and good thing. On my first day back to work I already had two new cases waiting for me and during the week I got two more. I also had a huge family team meeting to help facilitate because one of the kids on my caseload was in the juvenile mental institution and needed a serious plan of action before the weekend started. Geez.

So we're supposed to try to close as many cases as we get in order to keep our caseloads even (or like I'm trying to do - close more than I get so I don't have a million families to deal with). Well, I got four cases this week and closed one. It's not looking good people. My supervisor says that you just have to ride out some of these busy weeks and then close a lot of cases on a slow week. We'll see if that philosophy works out for me...

The Working Man

I had every intention of putting up a bunch of new pictures but I really have been doing nothing but working this week. I'm kind of playing catch-up with a few cases I have so I don't get backlogged. I need to maintain my reputation as the best CPS employee from Florida (There's actually only one other guy that I know of in this competition but I'm pretty sure I have him beat). I think I put in about 50 hours this week already (mainly because I had to work this past weekend) and I still have to go to work on Friday. Geez...

I'm thinking about taking off to Florida this weekend just to get away for a little bit though. I hope my boss is feeling generous and will let me have a day off...

What To Do With the Weekend?

(don't worry Modaresi-Beal's and Mom, I will soon have pictures of your wonderful editions to my apartment...next blog probably)

Well, this weekend had several possibilities for plans. At first, my brother Casey was going to come visit me in Austin and we were going to do stuff that would most likely get us arrested but sure as hell would have been fun. Because of the flight situation though, Casey won't be able to pass-ride so that one is a no-go.

Then I thought about driving to Tallahassee to hang out with my boys who still go to FSU. Even though the drive would be truly terrible to do alone again, I was still considering it (my friends are pretty fun). Although this one is still a possibility, the chances are dwindling...

Now, I don't have any plans at all. I originally had MLK day off but I lost a coin toss in my unit and now have to be on call for any cases that get called in that day. I'm one of about 9 different CPS investigators though, so it probably shouldn't be much work at all. Kinda sucks though because I thought this weekend was going to be something a little different from the usual thing. I guess there's always the Texas Independence Day weekend...

I Got a Rug

Yeah, so I am the proud new owner of a rug now. How about that? I never thought a purchase like this would be blog-worthy but I really feel like it's a big step into my "adulthood".

Since I moved in to my new apartment I have been slowly furnishing it with pieces from Craigslist, garage sales, salvation army, goodwill, and of course, from my friends and coworkers who all had extra stuff. Surprisingly, my living room actually looks pretty good (in my humble opinion), even with all the hand-me-down furniture. Now once I get my new art (*wink*) up on the wall I think the place will really be quite a little pad for all kinds of debauchery...err...fun times.

The addition of the awesomely soft and delicious looking Crate and Barrel 100% New Zealand wool rug now ties my room together and I now have a great place to fall asleep while watching Gabe and Shirin's DVD of the internet they got me recently (I've been watching that Daft Punk video and that crazy dance competition kid every day now). I really felt like I had to write about this because it's probably the biggest purchase for something to go in my house that I've ever made (that wasn't a computer). Kudos to me. Feel free to stop by and rub your clean feet all over it's wonderful fibers.

A Typical Weekend

Because all my readers have been asking what I do on a typical weekend (not really), I will go through these last 48 hours or so in detail to try and capture what I do with my time off in Austin, TX.

FRIDAY NIGHT:
Right after work on Friday I went with a couple of friends to a bar down the street from the CPS offices and we had a drink or two. Most of the conversation gravitated toward whether or not we planned on staying in Austin for more than a year or so. We always talk about things like this because virtually everyone I hang out with is not an indigenous Austinite (half the time we came from a few thousand miles away actually). I guess all of us moved here because we wanted something new and exciting but we tend to always talk about moving back to our respective homes for some reason. The jury is still out on this one, however, because it seemed like the consensus of the conversation was: "Who knows?"

After the bar we went to see I Am Legend with Will Smith (Fresh Prince of Bel-Air for those of you who don't know him). I liked it. After that, I went home and went to sleep 'cause I've been sick for much of the last two weeks and didn't want to string myself out any more.

SATURDAY:
I woke up at 7:30am because my friggin' room gets uber-bright in the mornings due to the lack of quality blinds I have on my windows. I ate some breakfast, cleaned up my house, and watched some DVDs (I still don't have cable...although not for a lack of trying. I got the DirectTV people to come out to my house to install satellite TV and they told me that my balcony didn't face the right direction so they left. Oh well). After spending a few hours hanging out with myself, I went back to sleep (I'm sick remember).

SATURDAY NIGHT:
I woke up the second time around 4pm or so. I got showered and dressed and ventured out to go buy a new tire for my bike and a big canvas from Michaels craft store. The canvas is going to be the second piece of home-made paintings for my apartment (the first coming from my lovely sister-in-law Shirin). I think I'm going to paint it all black and just sort of throw white paint at it till it looks like something out of a high class art gallery. We'll see how it goes...

After all my shopping was over I cooked some dinner and then went to meet some friends downtown. I ended up going to a few different bars and meeting up with a few different friends. It wasn't a big night or anything but I still had a good time seeing some people I hadn't seen since before Christmas. I went home around 1am (if you had come this weekend Casey it would have been a longer night than that - I promise).

SUNDAY:
This day I spent working around the house. I sanded and stained a chest of drawers I got from my parent's house in Florida, I painted my big canvas black, I washed all my dishes (in the sink mind you!), and I spent some time outside just hanging out in my apartment complex. This last bit doesn't seem all that fun (and it wasn't for much of the time) but I ended up meeting two of my neighbors who seemed really cool. One of them had kids and when I told her who I worked for she immediately started explaining that the scratch little Mckenzie (her daughter) had on her face was because of their dog (I guess I have to start expecting this reaction from parents sometimes). Overall, it was a pretty cool day though and I now know a few more people in Austin (ya know, in case I need to be taken to the hospital after one of my "home renovations" goes awry or something).

And that's pretty much it. A nice, relaxing weekend. Time to start work again I guess...

New Year, New Blog

Well, nothing has changed about the blog except that I'm going to write in it regularly (you have my word as a gentleman).

To bring in the New Year I hung up the best X-mas present I got this holiday. My brother Casey and his wife Janice made this hanging sign post that tells you exactly how far away from Austin, TX all the big cities in my life are. London, Tallahassee, St. Pete, Athens, and Lakeland are represented. Here's what it looks like:

Here is a closer look at three of the signs:
(I almost made it 5000 miles from London)

There you have it. My apartment feels a little more like home now. :)