Defining2008/ For Better Or For Worse

///2008///

I must say that this has been the most eventful year of my life. I have had my Best and Worst experiences this year. I will make top ten of each just for fun.

WORST

10. On the day of my accident I had to go to training… we had a two minute survival drill. I had to fight off two Beastly guys, and well lets say they left me with quite a headache. They kicked my butt

9. After my accident I filled out and dealt with all types of paperwork for Social Security but still didn’t get approved… jerks

8. Over the course of the year I had gotten 6 traffic violation tickets… hee hee oops. I can’t even remember what they were for

7. My stupid and selfish self decided that I wanted a cool bike so I sold my only car for it. The Mustang GT… Oh well things happen for a reason and I would not be where I am now if I hadn’t

6. Because of obvious circumstances I lost my home with my brother Daniel… had to move back with my parents for the third time

5. Plain and simple…. Osama won the election, oops I mean OBAMA

4. This one is a biggie for me personally… I gained twenty pounds of FAT all in my stomach. YEP I have a gut

3. I lost my job at NASA… they didnt care

2. IKE hit the coast… It took my family’s home, my backup car, my other motorcycle, and thousands of dollars worth of other belongings of mine.

1. NUMBER ONE!!! the most obvious of all, the motorcycle accident which has left me starting the new year crippled.

BEST-

10. I started a cool collection of canes. My two favorite would have to be the glass one and the one with flames

9. I have gotten a better relationship with my in-laws through everything that has happened.

8. I got a computer, a MAC to be more precise. I love it I have spent a lot of time making fun music

7. When I worked for the mall I got promoted to a Supervisor =) That is really good for a resume

6. Even though there a bunch of “little” things that could be fixed, I got a really cool car 1987 Camaro IROC-Z. It has a nice big 350 V8 engine… “Manly Chuckles” >=D

5. Through one of my Wife’s friends we were led to a home Church.

4. Through all the things in my life especially this year I had all my closest friends there for me whenever I needed them. Except when I lived with Daniel, he was never home. HA!

3. God blessed me greatly! I had almost $80,000 in medical bills and God took it all away! I owe nothing. Thank you Jesus =D

2. I went on my first cruise! It was for my honeymoon, and we had a blast! YAY I love boats!!!

1. The Number ONE best thing that has happened for 2008, is that I got to make my best friend and the love of my life, MY WIFE. I can’t be without her

“A roller-coaster year”

///Clay///

5 Months, and 13 Days Later

The Honeymoon is OVER! It is with much reluctance that I say the honeymoon is over and its back to the real world. I wish it wasn’t over, it was so great! The weather was perfect and the water was so blue. I wish I had a big yacht and could just stay out there in the middle no where forever. I took a bunch of pics and recorded little bits here and there. As soon as we got home I put all the pics/video together and made a movie/slideshow. Its pretty cool almost half an hour long.

Waking up to reality and now there is so much to be done. I have to start looking for work again, even though I’m not completely healed. Considering my condition I would have to work somewhere where I can sit on my butt. My leg is very weak and can’t support itself nor can it bend fully. Even more so the weather outside greatly affects my leg. That narrows the jobs down to one which is indoors and in a chair. Hopefully someone will have compassion for my crippled self and will hire me. 

Next on the list, Transportation. I need a vehicle. One that runs without any extra costs to keep it running. I don’t want to have to always borrow someone else’s car but I really wont have a choice till I can make enough to buy my own. Sometimes I just hate cars, not enough money for them but can’t do anything without them. 

I also have to try to schedule an appointment with my ortho doctor, who I haven’t been able to get a hold of since IKE. It is really frustrating and upsetting that no one will take me in. Its been over three months since I seen him last. I don’t know what I’m supposed to be doing or how to build up my leg strength. I need to know how much bone growth I have, if any….

Last Kathryn has to get all of her information changed with everyone. Starting with the social security people. You cant change any of the simple stuff till you changed your drivers license, and you can’t change your drivers license until you’ve changed you SS card. Paperwork, paperwork…

“cripple looking for work”

///Clay///

2008 is to Me Like Rain is to a Fresh Painting

Times can be tough, and unexpected sometimes… I seem to be facing a lot of those “times” lately.

I find that I wont be leaving the Parental Units Residence anytime soon. After a lot of thought Kathryn and I have decided to take my parents offer and stay with them. I wish I knew how long I would be under their wings, but some things remain uncertain. Our lack of income and the difficult, tedious, process involved with getting disability put us at a disadvantage. I hope to be able to recover quickly find a decent paying job and find a new home for the “New Hamm’s”. If it weren’t for my family I don’t know where I would go. As for my last home, it is unfortunate that I did not get to spend more time with my Asian brother, but it seems my time at the condo has come to an impasse. I just hope now that since I am not around he can still find time to hang out.

My situation just seems to keep bringing up more issues. It has made getting married a difficult task, so my fiance and I have decided to just go to the court house. We still plan to get married on the 1st of November and plan to have a festivity of sorts for my close friends and family to celebrate. Now I just have to let my groomsmen down easy and tell them I wont be needing them anymore… “sigh” I believe that it is for the best and will make the quandary less stressful. None the less I am still very excited about getting married! It will still be the happiest day of my life, handicapped or not.

“sigh”

///Clay///

Forcibly Resigned

This has been a tough month for me. I’ve sold my precious muscle car, I had a horrible accident and have had to lay still ever since. I’ve got all of these new financial and medical problems to worry about. The worst of all is this, my job (NASA security) does not look kindly upon the part-time wounded. After calling them multiple times I finally get a hold of the security HR lady. She sadly informs me that because I have not worked there for at least a year, I have no type of leave available. Her only alternative was to terminate me. So here I am a broken, unemployed, unable to take care of myself individual, who is staying at his parents house.

I put a lot of effort into getting that job. I asked around and researched the job to figure out what the job requirements were and then set them as my goal. I attended school for a week to obtain the license necessary to get the job. I applied three times, called twice, and emailed once to show my persistence. After about a month they finally contacted me for an interview I had learned that I must run a mile, be able to do push ups and sit ups, and qualify at the gun range. Of course I put in effort so I would be ready for these test and in the end I passed! I worked there for a little over a month and have already been kicked out with the cold request of the return of my uniform. Who knows why this has happened? Only God does. Maybe my time in the security field is finished, or maybe its not. Only time will tell. I just know that my Provider will be there for me.

“Unemployed”

///Clay///

6A Room 12

It was a cloudy Friday afternoon and I geared up, sliding on a shiny new helmet. I climbed onto my new 2-wheeled beast (2006 Suzuki GSX-R 750) and decided to take the rest of the day to learn how to move in sync with the machine. I had been riding for about an hour when I had became impatient with a slow-turning vehicle. I took the advantage to give a little extra gas and go around the slowpoke. Once cleared, i began to coast and noticed a cop to my right. I looked down at my speedometer and realized that I was going 69 in a 45. Without delay, the cop on his bike chased after me and pulled me over. Not only did i get a ticket, but I also discovered that someone had stolen my license plate, and received another penalty for not having my proof of insurance yet, even though it was in route via mail. They didn’t just take the license plate, but the entire license plate holder which also had my registration and inspection on it. This was not how I wanted to spend my first day with my new toy. I ended up going to the courthouse a couple blocks away in hopes to get a new license plate. I stood in line for about half an hour, the whole time reminiscing about my old V8, which I had sold just that same week. Of course by the time it was my turn, the lady said there was nothing I could do at that point and time. I didn’t want this to ruin my day, so I decided to shrug it off for the moment and continue to ride. I ended up in the town that my parents live and wanted to show them my new ride. Of course, when I got there, it appeared no one was home. I sighed, continued about my journey, and then five minutes later, saw my father on his motorcycle heading home. I waved trying to get his attention, but I didn’t think he recognized me, so when he passed, I turned to look, but he did not look back. As i looked back in front of me, it had come to my realization that the black pickup truck in front of me had come to a complete stop. I don’t exactly remember how much space was between me and him when I realized this, but I took the only action necessary and leaned right as hard as I could, trying to make it to the shoulder. Almost to my goal, I hit the edge of his back bumper and was sky-rocketed off of the crotch-rocket. After the first hit on the pavement, I see the bike barrelling past me, flying into pieces. After a couple more skips across the ground, I come to a dead stop into a street sign. Within seconds, immense pain takes over my body. I lift my head up to look at myself and see that just above my knee, my leg had folded against itself to where my ankle was wedged between the sign and my hip. It had shattered my femur with bones protruding out of the skin. Witnesses come rushing over to the accident to try and help me, and then call 911. It wasn’t long before they realized I was losing too much blood, and had to life-flight me to the hospital.

My stay at the hospital was not the most pleasant and not on the end that I would want to be on. It was a very long week, but I had many people come out to show their support. Feeling for all the people that cared for me brought me to tears and helped keep me happy. And the best of all was that my loving fiance stayed every night with me. After my release, my parents took me in to keep watch over me and I’m glad to finally be out of there. It’s going to be a long way to recovery and to be honest, I’m scared, but I can’t focus on this Goliath that is facing me. I must focus on God.

“It sucks to have to lay still”

///Clay///

The First Paycheck

I have finished all my new hire training for NASA and have been on my own for a week now. I still really don’t know the job that well but I am in the process. I am now hoping to get a full time position as soon as possible. Part timers are only aloud to work 31hrs a week. Lucky for me I am filling in for a full timer and am getting 40hrs for the next two weeks! The only downside is the fact its the overnight shift. What makes it worse is its the same week Kathryn is moving in. Hopefully when I get a full time position it won’t the overnight shift.

I’m very excited that Kathryn will be moving in with me. I know that I want to be with her forever, and we are slowly working toward that. Kathryn’s father was kind enough to give us a dresser for us to put a lot of Kathryn things in. It was kind of out of date looking but I went out and bought new knobs for it and it looks ten times nicer. I am happy with the way things are going.

“Together through the end”

///Clay///

Government Security Clearance

I took all the tests at NASA this past Wednesday. It was pretty easy. I had to complete a mile run, push-ups, sit-ups, firearm qualifications, drug test and a physical. I was relieved to know I was finished. It didn’t end there though. The New hire trainer said, “good job, now take home this packet and complete it by Monday”. I opened up the packet to see what I had to do. This freaking thing was 30 pages long and required extensive information from 10 years ago. I was only 12!! Its hard to provide them with the information they want when I was just hitting puberty. It also asks for every ones middle name and date of birth, including all my old Boss’s. Ive spent quite a bit of time tracking down the information they want, and hope that it is good enough for them. Once they feds receive it they are supposed to contact every person I listed in the packet; relatives, close friends, and past co-workers. After it is all finally cleared I will then have government security clearance.

“TMI”

///Clay///

Currently Disconnected ///Unplugged///

NASA! Yes I got the job working security for NASA. I am very excited about working there, not to mention I will be making some really good money(considering I wont go to college). My last day at the mall will be April 15th. I’m glad to be getting away but at the same time I feel bad for my boss because everyone seems to be leaving.

I have officially become computer-less. My worthless virus infected wannabe laptop quit on me. That’s okay though; for soon I have decided I will build my own computer. This way I know it will be up to my standards on how a computer should work. Now with my new job it shouldn’t take long for me to get it up and running. My computer will also be my “system” for video games. No longer will I spend lots of money on expensive consoles. In the end it will be the better deal.

“plug me in”

///Clay///