L is for Lovely folk in Louisiana and I'm Missing my monies in Mississippi

So I don't intend on giving all and every detail to my trip. =) that would be weird. wierd. dangit. spell check doesn't work on this thing. There it's working.

So i debate on how intimate i want to get with all u faceless people. I only have 10 followers, but i know there's freaking way more people reading this stuff and that is scary to me. what if i say ur an asshole in my post and hurt ur feelings? what if i tell u the secret to my strength and u use it against me?  what if...what if?... well. i will not live by what ifs. i'll try and be honest and just keep editing as i go trying to be wise.

K. So after leaving Houston, I decided to go visit a young man named stephen the poet. Well. I didn't want to go visit this kid cuz he was way out of the way off of the I-10.. but i thought to myself. "self, you have family in this little village known as Leesville. You never see them, go see them!" so i did. 2 peoples, one trip.
you know, i have nowhere to be with any schedules. so hey. ho. Lets go Adamo!
Stephen was a cool 19 yo kid. advanced beyond his years with maturity. good kid. I hope he goes far in life. It's been a tough one for him.

Family. Donald and David, Leesville LA

anyhow. Then i met up with some 2nd cousins, David and Donald. That was really cool. I don't feel too close to much of my family. I don't think feelings matter much with family though, cuz well... no matter how u feel about them, they are still ur family. either u can try to make a good family relationship with effort, or u can let it go to shit like most things. (i started cussing more in Louisiana, i'm sure this effect will depart once i leave Mississippi).

effect of windy road driving

so i hung out with these guys for a night at a bar.  I hadn't seen them in well over 10 years.chit chatted a bit (i'm not a good conversationalist, so a drink or 2 helps me tremendously with my insecurities, even around family). good time. I left really late at night from Leesville LA down some windy road. The speed limit was 55 but it was soooooooo dark and trees were but 15ft away on either side of this small road. Having hit a deer in 2002 with my Chevy S10 coming back from California once, these cramped highways bring terror to my mind in the form of flashbacks when i busted up Bambi so long ago. I couldn't go 55, it was more like 35 to 45 depending on the turns in the road. anyway. one thing stood out to me as i drove this....there was no dead deer on the side of the road like there is EVERYWHERE in texas. Louisiana deer are obviously much more intelligent than Texas deer. Impressive. I survived this portion of the trip headed down to Mandeville Louisiana where an old coworker now lives and works. Bradliferous. aka Brad.

My last minute with the Brad.

A sign the sign makers made with me present.

Everyone in LA was incredibly hospitable. Especially brad. he opened up his trailer to my soul from thurs night til this morning (monday). In Louisiana Brad introduced me to a couple that befriended him and who feed him often. They were super cool with soooo many stories to tell. They were once traveling magicians.  Now they have their own sign business. Heh. I think after my trip, if they still need help (cuz they are booming) I just might head back to LA to help these lovely folks out. That is if they could use me of course. Side note: One night we were sitting outside of these folks super massive RV and some of their old friends were there…the woman was a tad bit drunk from tsaki. Saki? Some Chinese alcoholic drink. Ha! Anyway this woman was very friendly. To keep it short, we ALL got to see some 50 y.o. butt and boobs. I don’t know how else to say it. =) it was unexpected and not really desired. But I thought u would like to know this portion of the adventure! Her husband was even there instigating some of the actions!

Gordon Dexter Cat the Sleeping Companion

So close i could touch him if i had 3 foot longer arms.

So next. My nights at casa de Brad were kinda sleepless for some reason. A possible reason might be the over stimulated cat whom I called Gordon (Dexter is his real name). Late at night he would be attacking things, some of which were my toes, or the mirror above my head or a piece of trash. In the process of his attack on something, I would get a claw or something similar in my flesh. =) he was good company. So Bradley drove me around quite a bit. I saw alligators and fed them marshmallows.  I saw Nawlins (new Orleans, the who dat nation). I tasted a fried shrimp Po boy. Thanks brad for everything!

The place where money doesn't seem as real.

I left about noon from Mandeville Louisiana. And headed towards Mississippi. I’ve never gambled before today other than lottery tickets. When I walked in the casino I asked the guard what to do. Pretty easy. Stick in money, and pull the handle. My mother gave me some advice to quit while u are ahead. So I had $30 going into this place in Biloxi MS. I racked up the dough pretty quick. Before u know it, I was up to $95 dollars or so. Then my mothers voice came to my head. ….but it was shortly overridden by greed and lust for more of that dropping-change sound. Within minutes I was down to $0. =( what a fool! There’s no way I was pulling out more money! It was very fun while it lasted.
This stuff sounds boring to me for others to read about. What might sound lame to u experienced folks, is more than likely new to me. I’m a virgin to many things. Gambling is one of them. So tonight I look for a place to lay my head in Biloxi. The water is gorgeous. The night sky is clear. The smell of cow crap whisked by my nose as I started saying good things about Biloxi. What the heck! It’s not going away!
some spiritual things on my mind:
Sunday morning I wanted to go visit a local church. This is still fun to me. Spiritual type things and the human experience is very interesting. I love going in churches now with a mind that doesn’t have to view things in light of the bible. Very freeing. It’s enjoyable watching from an unbiased, neutral opinion. What I mean by this is that I don’t have my biblical glasses on anymore and I don’t listen to things from that perspective. Nor do i have to agree with everything, no matter how much i'm told it's essential. But I am now looking thru my own glasses. Running things by according to my experience and by what makes sense to ADAMO. I’d been driving around Louisiana and saw churches at EVERY FREAKING CORNER.

So I left about 9am Sunday morning to go look for some church that would start pretty soon. My first choice was a Unitarian Universalist congregation. But they didn’t start til 10:30 and I told Brad I’d be back by 11:30. So I drove around looking…and drove looking… and drove and drove freaking all over 2 different towns looking for a church, but none were starting when I was near them. Before you know it, it was 10:30 already. =) so I went to my first choice.  NOTE ***If u have a hard time with many of the things in the bible, or u wish god wasn’t as narrow as he is in the bible, or if u just can’t buy the fact that u can’t be good without god and that the majority of people in the world will burn in hell forever….u should check out a unitarian universalist congregation. It’s a very enjoyable experience. Sometimes. Sometimes it can be kinda weird too, but most of my experiences have been super enjoyable. http://www.uua.org/visitors/6798.shtml  Check out some of their ideas. They are not lead by outdated doctrines that cause division, rather they are moved by love and are open to doubts and foster and nurture seeking out truth for yourself using reason and experience. It’s still a community of like minded people. They believe in all the things that all religions hold to. Ideas and concepts that are more clearly universal and not hindered by location. They do good things, not to be saved or to even have the fruits looking like they are saved, but because it’s right and reasonable to do. I’m sure they are not all perfect! Who the heck is?

In the meeting on Sunday the presiding speaker talked about Beliefs for Non-Believers. Some Buddhist teacher was quoted saying something along the lines of, “Never believe what I tell u. Never hold to it forever without question. What u hear from me, try it out and apply it, if it works, then go with the teaching. If it doesn’t, then change it.” Something like that. U will never hear that from a Christian pulpit that holds to the bible so fundamentally. But this makes sooo much sense. One thing doesn’t work for all people across the board. Nothing except the laws of nature. I might be wrong. We as humans are soo diverse, so unique. So many past experiences and hurts and understandings. It doesn’t work in my mind that there is one way for all. And I’m not referring to one way to heaven. I’m referring to one way to peace and life and happiness. Jesus makes some happy. But not all. Jesus gives some hope. But not all.
To be honest with u, most of the time I feel depressed lately. I’m figuring out why. The quick answer is “obviously this happened when you left the faith. Go back to Jesus and have life again.” But I don’t think that is the solution. This did show more apparently when I left the faith, but I think it’s been there for quite some time. There’s more than one answer for most things….except simple mathematical equations. There’s more than one way to Biloxi Mississippi. I took the scenic route. There’s more than one way to make a subway sangwich. There is more than one way to have your hairs cut. There is ways to defy gravity (temporarily). One way for some things, not one way for most things! Having more options to cipher thru isn't easy... But it sure is more enjoyable to have to freedom to actually listen to other ideas and that they might actually be better than what i have been experiencing.

Anyhow.
Bleh.
Super long. Super boring for u! super fun for me! Vaya con Dios!
Adamo
I'm still down the road from San Antonio! I-10. Hopefully not too much longer.