Earlier in the week I was on the flight back to Los Angeles and I broke out the laptop and began to type on the Pages program I have on here...

Starting Saturday the 17th of April, my Spring Break began and I was able to fly home and spend time with the family, heres what I did in as much detail as I can remember...

Starting the 16th, a Friday, I spent it being a lazy kid. I enjoyed my day with my best friend out here and we did a full day of good nothings, that evening my other friend, who is also from Nashville, and going to CSUN, came to Pasadena and joined us for dinner at Noodle World. Afterwards we snuck back over to Paiges apartment and sat in the hot tub talking about a whole lot of nothing, mainly just being funny goofy kids. Paige ended up coming back over to my place til late late cause she knew she wouldnt see me for 8 days, so while I packed she sprawled out on my couch and watched the late shows, we talked about alot, it was nice to pack and clean and have her company. I returned her back to her apt at probably 3am and laid down for about an hour to rest my eyes and remain sane for the long long saturday I had in front of me.

At 6 I was back up and packed and gussied up for my commute to LAX. Now for those of you who dont know the wild chicken dance that it takes me to get to the airport without a ride its quite an experience. First I walk about 6 or 7 blocks to the train station, where it shuttles me to Union Station in downtown LA, and then the FlyAway Bus picks me up there and tackles the freeways (110 to 405) until I am there about an hour and a half after I have left Pasadena. Once I am at LAX, I checked in and did the security monkey dance and grabbed my now ritualistic Starbucks Tall Vanilla Latte (thank you Daniel). I was a full hour early this time so I was able to relax and wait patiently for the flight to board. blah blah blah fast forward to Nashville, I landed and was picked up from the airport by my good friend Andrew, he returned me home, I immediately changed out of my suit and had to run to the hospital to see my great aunt, I will explain her situation later. Sunday I spent mowing and cleaning, Andrew and I ran to Pull-A-Part to look at car parts and try to get ideas for my final in Product Design, I then ended up finding a new headliner for my dads old Pontiac although I didnt find much else.

Monday came and Mamaw, Andrew and I drove to Muncie, Indiana. Her farm is there and we went to make sure all is well.

We were home by wednesday night and then I was back on the flight by Saturday night.

Spring Break

More Coming Soon-(and yes thats a Panamera on a test drive)

The Hardest Part Is Knowing I May Never Return

Allow me to clarify, I say that because I truly do love it out here (minus the quakes)

From Top To Bottom:

-Highway 65 headed north to Nashville from Franklin

-My Getaway (its Indiana, my other home)

-Chattanooga, TN. Where I moved right out of high school.

-Downtown

-West Nashville

The only good excuse for not doing your homework. Nashville Trips.

Last June, my mother was in the market for a new vehicle and being the automotive aficionado that I have now established myself to be, I started doing some heavy research because at the time she drove a Volvo XC90 T6 AWD. So in looking at the comparables she had always mentioned liking the Mercedes ML-Class. We looked at, and drove the 350 and the ML500 to see what the advantages were in packaging. I, of course, wandered to the other end of the dealer lot where the AMG vehicles sit proudly outside the front door of the dealer. Finding the ML63 AMG sitting there in black on black leather and we were able to test drive the car and both mom and dad were immediately in love with the 510 horsepower on tap, not to mention the whole package looked like a mean set of wheels. We looked around and shopped for the best deal and found through Mercedes of Ft. Lauderdale, FL. Proud owners were we of a Mercedes, our first one, and it being a Silver AMG.

If you’re not familiar with the AMG line, it is what Mercedes considers its Premium Sports brand. The vehicles are taken and tuned to the specifications of a supercar and all the neccessary hardware is put in to give it its sporting credentials. In the case of the ML63, starting with the inside, the driver and front passenger seats are beefed up to handle the corners with wider side bolsters and more adjustments are available to make yourself comfortable over the long-haul. Leather quality is upped and more areas are covered in hide, including the upper dash. Heating and cooling is available for the front seats and heat for the two outboard seats in the back. AMG embroidery in the seats too. The suspension gets a work through, three settings; Comfort, Sport, and Raised. Raised setting is the most fun, because it makes the car look like it could crawl over just about anything and looking sexy doing so keeping it almost a foot off the ground and able to ford 26 inches of water. Finally the drivetrain gets a reworked 7-speed Automatic with TapShift all leading up to the massive hand-built and signed 6.2 liter V8 that is begging to sing at 7,000 rpm. (I think when we got the vehicle we told mom that it had less horsepower so that she wouldnt drive fast!)

The reason I bring this vehicle up is because if anyone had the opportunity to have a vehicle like this, they would love it and cherish it and pamper it. However with me, I am discussing it because I now see why the purchase is paying off for us. I had to return home to Tennessee last Wednesday to see family that wasn’t doing well health wise. My great aunt has exhibited signs of Demetia and only when it got so bad did anyone notice that her or my uncle were not leaving the house nor were they communicating with anyone, and with them living about an hour and a half from Nashville, getting to them wasn’t easy. She was taken to the hospital immediately and she has been barely responsive in the past two weeks. I was able to spend an evening with her last Friday night, just her and I. Ill just tell you that I would not wish her condition on anyone, not even my worst enemy. Therefore with the mess at hand my mother has stepped in and basically had to drive from Nashville to Narnia running errands and carting my uncle who is in terrible health himself across town. There honestly isnt a better vehicle to take them all over. So I wanted to take a moment and say through 18,000 miles of usage with my family, the Mercedes ML63 AMG is one fast people mover but has been able to,within a year, provide services that you cant put a price tag on.

Nashville otherwise was great. I was able to see friends when I could and clean the family cars while I was in town also. I feel as if I paused time coming home for that time being, and heading back to LA will suddenly start the wheel of progress back up. I have a TON of homework that needs to be addressed this evening and I am writing this portion of the blog on the plane ride back into the West. I had packed my Copic markers and sketchbooks and one of my marker pads into my bags but I never had a moment to sit down and draw. I was constantly on the move from the time my flight landed in Nashville. The airline had placed my bags on a later flight by accident and I had to return to the airport to pick up the luggage.

All in all, things are not where they should be. Everything so far has happened for a reason, the bigger picture I just have yet to see.