Phun Photos

I love this picture except my hands look weird. I was mid-stretch when my mom stole our attention to take this picture. I also like that Rass was throwing up a subtle duce 

This is us during mini golfing and we're not even flexing. I started to make more sense fashion-wise as the week went on because I wanted to prove to the people I came with (and myself) that I still knew how clothes worked.

It really bothers me how if we would have just rotated like 45° it would have been 100% better picture because we would have been in the light, but I didn't know about lighting yet. 

Here's an example of my lack care for social norms and what you SHOULD (Bonnie Klopfer reference) wear. Let's break it down, shall we? I'm wearing a striped shirt with shorts that have some sort of tribal looking pattern on there and a hat that not only has stripes, but also is 4 times too small for me. It's a fitted hat that my dad bought for me one night at a Pirate game when I was like 11 or something and it was small on me then, but I wanted it so bad I didn't even care. Also if you want a funnier caption for this picture, creep on my Instagram a little bit because it's there. This picture is also funny because Rass never finishes his food and always gets a box and for some reason didn't think of setting it down for a picture that is otherwise flawless (obviously kidding) 

This is a picture I took on the first day of being on the Myrtle trip. The first day of a trip is always the worst because you're in an unfamiliar place and you're usually tired from traveling and whatnot. Rass pointed that out to me and I've been stealing that opinion for years because it's still true. Anyways, this is something stupid I did because I thought it was funny to joke about because, if you can't tell, it's a snapchat emoji and not an actual giant pill I'm bragging that I'm about to swallow. I was pretty darn happy to wear a bucket hat at the beach. Half the fun of the beach to me is the fashion of short shorts and Hawaiian shirts and the freedom of wearing something that possibly looks preposterous, but not caring because you're on vacation and it's comfortable. 

This was the first sign(pun intended) that this place was going to be amazing and insanely expensive haha. The campus is beautiful and has what seemed to be 100 little things (and big) about it that made it better than all the other schools extracurricularly. I wanted to go there so bad, but it was like $40,000 a year and there was no way that was happening. Looking back now(I'm writing this at the end of my freshmen year at Liberty), I probably would have coasted through academically with all the stuff to do on campus and fostered a bad work ethic because of it. I probably would have hated it there too though because most of all the people there are going to be frat boys or at the very least rich kids that I hate. But at the same time, I don't really hangout with anyone here either so at least I would have a better time by myself there probably. I don't know. There's really no way to know if you made the right choices in life, you only can know how you ended up. 

Look how cute this is. This is Jash & Rass and we're in a hotel because we were on our way to Myrtle Beach for vacation. Rass was playing Clash of Clans in this picture (an app that was immensely popular and addicting at the time). We made a pit stop at High Point University for a college visit and this is the hotel near the school. More pictures of this trip will come in the immediate future. 

This happened to my friend Alex's car while we were in it. He is one of the three bachelors from a previous picture: "Murder Mystery Play". We were just cruising around just for something to do. We were stopped at a red light and we just got slammed by some lady. You can see the white line we were parallel to before she ran into us right under the cop's foot. I don't even remember what her explanation was. I think it was something like she just came from eye surgery and she dropped a CD on the floor and took her fresh-out-of-surgery eyes off the road to promptly run into us. That's why ya get an iPod, so ya don't have to crash into kids #AppleSavesLives haha. She kinda seemed out of it, so I don't know if she was still drugged out or what, but that was an interesting day.

This is a half-serious face with a half-serious outfit. It's a half serious outfit because it was Ricky's vest, but it was too big on him so he gave it to me. Also, it's Polo assassin (which is the crappier brand behind Ralph Lauren), so I didn't really have any stakes in it if anyone didn't like it and if anyone liked the vest it was just a bonus. I took this picture to send to Ricky and I think I wore this to go hangout with Sammy, one of my best friends from camp, and his girlfriend at the time (that's right, old Third Wheel Tommy is at it again). It actually didn't feel like I was third wheeling most of the time though, it just felt like three pals hangin out. Anyway, Ricky is wearing this vest in a previous picture "The Self-Point Principle" and keep on the lookout for this vest to pop up later *looking eye emoji*. I've noticed that sometimes I start out doing something half-kidding or sometimes even fully kidding and I do it so much that it becomes just something I do and I forgot that it was even a joke. I'm sure there are many examples of this, but the one that pops out in my mind is when I said "gracias" with a long a sound instead of the short a sound (because I forgot the real way to say it) in front of the whole class with my teacher being from hispanic descent hahaha. And he looked at me like "are you serious? I can't tell if you're serious" and apparently I didn't know either because I forgot how to say it. It was an old bit Rass and I did where we intentionally mispronounced easy foreign words like "hola" and "jalapeño" because those words are so common in our culture and it's funny that someone would be so uncultured that they wouldn't even know how to pronounce those words... and sadly I was that person in that moment. I later said "gracias" incorrectly to him on purpose this time and then he corrected me and I just said "yup" as to say "yeah that's what I said" and he gave me that look again haha. So the moral of this story is to be careful not to blur the lines between jokes and reality, kids. 

This was at a much needed catchup sesh at Jash's house with Rass. The 3 of us hadn't seen each other in a while, but they just got done with school for the summer so Jash decided to have a bonfire with us. I remember we stayed really late on a Sunday right after I had youth group and I had school the next morning, but it was worth it. I'm really bad at making fires, so my contribution was the paper stuck on top of a stick if you look closely.

I hate this picture. I only took it ironically because I hate when people do this and the type of person that does this, but I still hate this picture. I'm only putting it on here because I feel like I would be lying somehow if I didn't put this up and also Rass is in the far right with a green shirt. He's almost bald in this picture because he just shaved his head. He did this charity thing every year with his fraternity where whoever paid the most got to cut someone's hair however they wanted, so after that he had to shave it completely so he wouldn't look like a silly face.

I think I look goofy in this picture because I thought I had to lean in more than I had to but whatever. This is my favorite birthday in 20 years. Rass & Jash surprised me and got to spend my bday party with the people I loved the most and had the most fun with. I just hung out with them the whole night, which makes me kinda feel bad for my family who thought they would get to see me, but I get to see them every year on my birthday (and a lot of other times during the year obviously) and that was a once in a lifetime experience because everything just came together perfectly. And my family could talk to each other, they don't need me. Although, my cousin Paul (from the previous "Picture Recipe" picture) was there and I think he kinda felt left out :( but I saw him observing us and maybe that was a window into what he might be like with his friends as a teenager and we had a positive influence on him? (that's a big stretch, but I have to justify it somehow haha) And then after the party, the three of us went to a late showing of World War Z which was my first rated R movie that I saw in theaters. It wasn't even technically my birthday yet because my party was 2 days before my actual birth date, but the guy was nice enough to let me in anyway. That theater is not even in business anymore which makes me feel old. I hate birthdays in general, but this was a good one. I'm sure I'm forgetting other awesome stuff that made this my favorite bday, but that's what time does to your brain haha.

I think either Jash took this picture of Rass and took him by surprise or Rass accidentally took this picture of himself and Jash put the caption on, but either way this is funny to me. Rass said he couldn't make it, but he came home for the weekend from his college which is about one and a half hours away to surprise me for my birthday party, which was so incredibly nice.

I think this is one of my first times taking a selfie with other people in it. I'm still horrible at it and dread it every time I do it. I usually try and make the other person do it because I hate doing it so much. I remember sneakily recording our conversations with voice memos so I wouldn't forget those moments and they always got mad when they found out I was doing that. And when I did record, I would barely talk because I was aware that I would have to hear my voice later and was too self conscience. I later got over this fear obviously because I have a podcast now, but it's interesting that I was basically trying to podcast them before I even knew what a podcast was. 

This is Rass and I pose hugging at Vacation Bible School 

Rass used to pee allll the time, and then I thought it would be funny to take a picture of Ross peeing. Turns out I was right. I did it once and then it became a thing haha. Left, was at a Pittsburgh Pirates' game. Middle, was at my house. Right, was at the Nicaraguan Beach

This is at the get-together later that day and we wanted a picture together and I had to bend down a lot haha and Rass came in clutch with the fake accidental photobomb.

This is when our pastor from Costa Rica came to America to thank us and whatnot. All the people that went over the years were invited to come up and take a picture on stage at our church.

This is an awesome picture (except me with my back turned) with all of the people who went on the trip

This was a painting in our room at the hostel where we stayed in Nicaragua. This picture still makes me smile. It's cool because I had an app at the time that automatically timestamped my pictures on the bottom.

This is a pretty good wide shot of the courtyard they had there. There were geckos everywhere and a cat came from another rooftop to say hello once because cats are even weirder in third world countries. 

You know what they say... "like best friend, like best friend". I don't think any of that was right.

This was getting on the bus after staying a night in the resort and of course I ruin it. At least I'm getting more creative

Here's me again ruining a picture the one time we went out to eat in Coast Rica

Hahaha this is Rass Dag (Ross Dog, if you haven't caught on yet we replace vowels with the "a" sound). Everyday looked like this dog's last and we were sure we wouldn't see him the next, but lo and behold he was there truckin'. Dogs aren't treated the same there as they are here for the most part. Most of them are strays and this one tended to hang around the compound. He took a liking to Rass and that's why we call him Rass Dag. Every time you'd pet one of them, though, your hands would smell like poop because they smelled like poop. Rass and I think this dog is possessed by a demon and that's why he never dies haha.

What, this? Oh this is just Rass being a stud.

I think this was during practice or before the real thing of a mini play we did for their church service and Rass played Jesus in it. 

My mission on this mission trip was to ruin every picture they made me take for some reason. Probably because I was insecure how I looked and didn't know how to smile like a normal person. 

This is a picture of Rass and I walking to a local convenience store type place which is where I first tasted my favorite drink; Fanta Rojo. Sadly, they don't have it in the States. 

This is Ross and I helping mix cement and transporting it. Look at those guns. I made my shirt a cut off that morning and used one of the sleeves as a sweatband because that's the kind of things you do on mission trips haha

Trying to massage Rass is like trying to rub cement because he's a solid dude. (spoonerisms is something I like to do a lot. It's when you switch the first sound of each word, which is what I did in the title of this picture)

This is right before breakfast and we're all just chillin' on some cinderblocks because the floor where we eat breakfast was being cleaned. That's me in the hot groutfit. That was my lacrosse hoodie and sweatpants. 

A nice picture of all of us (except me of course) when we first got there. When we first got there Rass and I pretty much just stuck together because we were both overwhelmed. There were free roaming chickens, stray dogs, people that don't speak my language and a large group of missionaries that got overbooked for one night with us. Needless to say, it was a lot to take in especially after a long flight. Rass taught me about how the first day of something is usually the worst and that the rest of the trip usually isn't as bad as the first day. I think it's because you are still figuring out the "matrix code" behind everything and you're out of your element, so it takes about a day to feel adjusted. 

That's me on the far right and Rass on the far left in the white hat. 

Look at those pale guns of mine. This was Rass and my last Murder Mystery play together and it was the best one. My character had a funny voice and Rass and I walked funny etc... I still remember one of my lines (because I got the line two years in a row because the same guy wrote both plays and I guess he didn't get the reaction he wanted the first time haha) "... more angry than a long tailed cat in a rocking chair factory". Ah the theatre

When people "love" Childish Gambino, but don't know who Donald Glover is 

(I didn't know even who Childish Gambino was at this point in my life haha, but this is the only caption I could think of)

I have no idea what to caption this. Maybe you guys could help me out in the comments 

That's Jash and he's pushing one of our guys while we're in a huddle because we like to have fun here

This is just a good picture of Rass 

I love this picture. To quote Childish Gambino "and I'm only looking back if I'm looking at her booty" haha that's not what's happening, but this picture is funny when paired with that line. 

He was probably pointing and laughing at me haha (by the way Rass Point is a teen soap opera coming to Lifetime this fall to a TV near you)

The youth group played football at a Jumonville retreat and this is the whole gang who played that day.

We used to do a murder mystery play at my church every year and this was like the bow at the end. We were best friends at the time. We called ourselves "the three bachelors". That's Rass on the right and Alex in the middle.

This is at the Peterson Event Center during Aquire the Fire, which was a Christian convention of sorts and our youth group went one year.