My Wolf Pack

Hello. How ‘bout that ride in? I guess that’s why they call in the Great White North. You guys may not know this, but I consider myself a bit of a loner. I tend to think of myself as a one-man wolf pack. But when I met Mike Dreher (Dre-her not Dreyer), I knew he was one of my own. And my wolf pack… it grew by one. So there… there were two of us in the wolf pack… I was alone first in the pack, and then Mike joined later. And a week ago, when Mike introduced me to you guys, I thought, “Wait a second, could it be?” And now, I know for sure, I just added three more to my wolf pack. Five of us wolves, running around the northeast together, in New York, Canada, and Pennsylvania, looking for strippers and cocaine. So tonight, I make a toast!

As many of you know, I have left the friendly confines of Norman, OK to embark on a road trip spanning 15 days, 2 countries, 10 states, 3800 miles of driving, and one epic story. Today marks day 7 of the trip, and I bring you act one of the three-act blog.

Act one is titled, “My Wolf Pack.”

I flew into Philadelphia, PA on December 28^th. It was here when Mike picked me up and brought me back to his hometown just outside of Allentown. Although I had never been to PA before, I was familiar with Allentown thanks to Billy Joel. I knew it to be a dark, shady place, where work was hard to find due to the factories closing and the all of the coal being stripped from the ground. Well, I was wrong. It is actually a fantastic place that has Yocco’s (the King of Hot Dogs), Wawa, and some great people. After dinner at a local diner we watched a great movie that would supply us with an arsenal of quotes for the remainder of the trip. That movie was The Hangover. This was the beginning of what we would each come to recognize as, “Our Wolf Pack.”

Our wolf pack was comprised of Michael Dreher, Rachel Hoyer, Courtney Matisko, Justin Farnish, and myself, Joshua Voth. Our true journey began the day after I arrived in PA, when we would make our way to destination number one, New York, NY. This day was very close to being, literal status update day, where I would update my status with things such as, “Josh Voth is in a large city,” or “Josh Voth is cold.” Thankfully for you all, this did not happen and I merely tried to update it regularly with more witty approach. The gold medal for status of the day goes to the first one of the morning, “Josh Voth just went through the Lincoln Tunnel, but somehow missed the sea of swirly, twirly gumdrops.” Luckily for me, others in the wolf pack shared my love the movie Elf.

I’m thankful for my day in New York City because of the many lessons I learned.

Lesson1: There is a delicate balance between looking straight up, and not running into people. I was never able to master this feat, but I made significant progress throughout the day. I would say my average bpm (bumps per minute) decreased by a factor of at least 5 before 2:00.

Lesson 2: A crowded train is no excuse for improper sexual conduct. This was announced loudly as we stepped onto the subway train. I was really hoping that at some point during the day we would encounter a level 8 sketchy ride on the subway. Sadly though, we barely reached a level 4.

Lesson 3: You can’t put a price on green peanut M&M’s. Okay, that’s a lie. There is a price and it is $13/lb and worth every penny.

Lesson 4: The subway is an excellent place for an epic battle.

Lesson 5: Honking is not allowed in New York and can result in a $300 fine. Although we did not receive this fine, I think Mike owes the city of New York somewhere in the neighborhood of $4200.

Although my time in New York was short, I feel that I have left a better person for the lessons this city has taught me. Throughout our trip we selected a song we think will accurately depict the experience we are about to embark upon. I believe we got this one right with a little number written by Jay-Z called, “Empire State of Mind.” I will end this act with a few of the lyrics.

"In New York,
Concrete jungle where dreams are made of,

Theres nothing you can’t do,

Now you’re in New York,

These streets will make you feel brand new,

The lights will inspire you,

Lets hear it for New York, New York, New York
."

Everything is Better in 3D!

So last Thursday night my compadres and I set out for Bricktown to watch our very own Oklahoma City Thunder take on the Sacramento Kings in the final preseason game of the 2009 season (thanks to Chesapeake and my sister for the $126 tickets). This was a momentous occasion for 3 out of the 5 peeps in the group as they had never been to an NBA game before. Little did we know, this was only the bunny hill on the way to the double black that would soon cross our paths.

As we left the game we walked past the movie theatre. For some time now, Sethy and I have been discussing how great it would be to see a movie in 3D. In fact, he tried to talk me into going to see Final Destination in 3D. LAME. Anyways, as we crossed the theatre we saw that the original Toy Story was playing in 3D. This was great, because even if the 3D thing sucked, we knew the movie would be phenomenal. As we got into line both Katie and Tristen proceeded to make a scene about the Toy Story movie in 3D. As the line standers began to stare, I knew I had to be quick on my feet in order to keep from losing man points in the eyes of all of the Oklahoma City late Thursday night movie goers. Immediately, I began rousing up a debate over which of the Saw movies were the best because there was no way Saw VI was going to be scary. Phew, crisis avoided.

As we slipped into the theatre we received our 3D glasses which were not your cereal box, plastic red and blue lens 3D glasses, no, they were Buddy Holly replica, wear out in public 3D glasses. As Woody came on the screen and asked us to put on our glasses, the six of us (4 college kids and two adults a few rows in front of us) did as he asked and put on our spectacles and prepared for the mind blowing experience that is three dimensional. Now, what is better than just one 3D movie you ask... TWO! That is right, to the surprise of all of us, this was not just Toy Story in 3D, but a double feature of both Toy Story one and Toy Story two! Now, if I had known this going into the 10:00 pm movie, I would have probably vetoed the idea, but for some reason when the unexpected bonus movie was announced, I was filled only with jubilee!

3 and a half hours and 3 dimensions later my mind was, "literally" blown, and we made our way back to Norman. I skipped class the next morning and slept passed noon. I wish real life could be 3D...

Greener Grass

Life is kind of dull right now. I have not had a blog worthy story yet this semester. Do not fear though faithful 3 1/2, there is adventure on the horizon. Before the first month of 2010 is over, I will have succeeded to go on 3 trips which should create some sort of excitement for us all.

1. Lincoln, Nebraska

2. New York, New York

3. Breckenridge, Colorado

If I go on these 3 trips and have nothing to bring back for you, I vow to remove this blog and all of its content from the mind altering drug that is the interweb.

Slow Down... Or Maybe Speed Up... But Just a Little Bit

What in the world is happening?!?! I have so much time to be bored and lonely, yet I have no time to accomplish any of my personal goals or be of service to others! I object to alone time and weekends spent on my own, yet I complain about not being caught up on a number of things including my reading list, school work, relish assignments, and various projects at Tara's house. Now I look at the calendar and but a week is left in September! 3 football games are over. I have already begun the madness of midterms. I am still trying to catch up with people from summer. I am in the process of creating new friendships. My nephew is almost 2! He is also the best looking child you will ever see. How do things go at such an alarming pace while dragging on for so long. I'm ready to see, "what's next" in life, but I love the comfort of college. My point is, I don't understand life.

Long Time, No Post.

Ok, so I would like to apologize to the 3.5 of you who stumble across my blog from time to time and have seen no change in the past month. It seems as if the number of friends I have to hang out with is inversely related to the number of blog posts I create.

Sad fact number two is that I currently have no great story to share in which I either made a fool of myself. This is not to say that I have not made a fool of myself in the past month, only that it hasn't resulted in a positive experience to be shared with all.

What the past month has done is make me think. I spent the summer in what some might call, the "Real World." This was both a scary and exciting place. I was in bed by 11 and I woke up every morning at 6:30 to go to work. I got a paycheck on the 1st and the 15th. I drove a work truck and had a few beers with a guy named Herb while we discussed the current state of the energy industry. Now I am back in Norman where I have classes to keep up with and an irregular sleep schedule. I have friends and social dynamics that seem to change daily which create a since of bonus stress that goes along with the woes of an engineering major. I play basketball at 10:00 pm and rarely wake up before 10:00 am unless I have class. My diet consists of things ranging from the mystery meat of Taco Bell to a delicious steak grilled to perfection over a hot bed of charcoal. Just the other day there were over 40 people all in my house at once! College is crazy! It is so far away from what is "normal," that I am still learning what to do with it. I have now been back in this lifestyle for around 5 weeks and I feel as if I am acclimating well, but it scares me to think of what life will be like outside of this 24,000 peer bubble I am enveloped in currently. Will I be successful? Do I have what it takes to find a community within a city of 3-5 million people?

So the above is basically just an open minded rambling of what I have been thinking about recently, but I am truly happy to be back at the University of Oklahoma. While I currently miss the mountains and great weather, it doesn't outweigh the fact that I missed my friends and family dearly while I was gone and I dread having to leave them again in the future. As this semester and year continues on I hope to remember that this college world is not "normal." That it is actually a scary place where one can be surrounded by 24,000 of their peers and yet feel more alone than ever before. I pray that God may use me as an instrument to these people and that he will continue to encourage me with the ministry of RUF.

Boomer Sooner!

Finished. Done. Completed.

Guess what. It's OVER! Well, all but about three and a half hours from over. I have succeeded. I lasted an entire summer in Wyoming! Do not be fooled, I am no super hero. John Stuart is. He lived in this barren, treeless, female lacking land for a year! Wow!

I must thank a few people for helping me to a grand exit from the equality state. I begin with JA and one who will probably never read this, Kristy Knapp. As Justin arrived in Denver I knew the summer was coming to a close. He flew into Denver, a solid three and a half hours from Rawlins, early Wednesday afternoon. We met up with Denver local Kristy in order to see the best of Denver on this long awaited reunion. Possibly a poor decision due to the fact that we got back to Rawlins at 4 am and I had to be in Rock Springs, 2 hours west of Rawlins, by 8:30 am for a meeting. I'm not a morning person.

The next few days were spent in Rawlins. Rawlins sucks, but we toured the old state prison built in the late 1800's, and learned as JA puts it, "Our action do in fact have consequences." I really wanted to buy a sticker which stated, "I spent time in Rawlins, WY" with an eerie picture of the prison on it, but I believe burning those memories is probably the best way to deal with them.

Then my final weekend as a semi-resident of the equality state came. We met up with actual resident J Stu and these last days were spent with a couple of Okies and our fair share of alcoholic beverages. Marijuana Party of Wyoming and a slightly odd reference to a founding father made for some inside jokes that will carry us through at least the next six months.

So this brings us to where I sit tonight. Denver. Ahh... I truly do love this place. JA and I attended a couple of Rockies vs Cubs games and met up with my family for dinner and a night game. Back to the city though. I have been in and out of Denver all summer long and have met a number of people who live in the city. I can see myself here. Let's compare a couple of statistics.

Oklahoma - 6th most obese state

Colorado - 1st most fit state

OKC - 2nd most obese city in America

Tulsa - 16th most obese city in America

Denver - 4th fittest city in America

Ok, so I know there is more to a city than it's ability to eat less food and exercise, but I find these statistics a little frightening. I love the elevation, and I love the mountains. These are things I will never have in Oklahoma. For now though, I have a year and nine months left in school. That is all. Then I will enter into this real world that I have merely gotten a taste of over the last 3 months.

Fair Week!

Yes, you read it correctly, it is that time again. The time when Rawlins, WY comes alive with the Carbon Country Fair! According to the locals this is the time of year they all look forward to. There are Rodeos all week which all culminate in the grand finale of the demolition derby. Keep a close watch on this blog because I plan on updating you on all of the grand events of this most glorious week.