Hey everyone,

So i took most of the about me stuff off my website as I thought it was too much for one go. So I moved it over to this blog and if people want to read it they are more than welcome to. Thanks for reading. . .

Where to start . . Well it all started when . . .haha. My name's Justin. I was originally born in Normal, IL (yea, there is actually a town called Normal), but as you'll gather from reading on I'm not that normal.

I've lived throughout parts of the Midwest growning up. I lived in Jackson, MI until I was about 2 1/2 years old. Of all places my parents decided to move to, they chose Poeira, IL (mainly for job reasons). So I grew up in Peoria and attended Wilder Waite Elementary School, out towards Dunlap.

During the middle of my 4th grade year, I was thrown completely off course when I found out that my parents had decided we were going to move to England. My dad had gotten an offer to open a UK branch for the company he worked for. So off we went to move overseas to a place called Cobham, about 25 miles southeast of London.

At first moving there was a complete nightmare. I didn't want to go to school or do anything. I missed all of my friends back at home. It was probably one of the hardest six months of my life. Upon entering the 5th grade, I had a feeling that all of that was going to change. I attended a school called the American Community Schools in Cobham. It was a private international school designed for families that had been transferred over to England from the United States, but wanted to keep their children on an american education system rather than have them adapt to the english system. I made various friends from there in the time that I spent there, which was actually about 4 1/2 years. The people that I met were from all over the world, but most were from the United States. I ended up graduating from 8th grade from ACS and moved back to Peoria that summer. I still keep in contact with friends from there who live all overthe United States.

As far as the opportunity goes when getting transferred overseas, it is one of the biggest highlights of my life. I have been to every country throughout Europe on multiple occasions. I have also had the opportunity to visit South Africa and Australlia. I believe that these were life changing experiences for me and I have no regrets about moving overseas. I encourage anyone that is offered this opportunity to embrace it with an open mind. You won't regret it.

I moved back to Poeira just in time to start high school. Again being in some place that I haven't been fo a while, I knew only about one or two people that I had kept in contact with over the years. Coming in as the "new kid" isn't the easiest taks in the world eiter espeically since from what everyone said I had a fairly strong british accent. I never really noticed it though. I didn't really like living in Peoria for the longest time because I was so used to having everything accessible to me, for instance, in England, I would hop on a train with my friends and be in downtown London in 25 minutes and go all around London with them for a day without parents or anything. You just don't reall yhave that kind of freedom in Peoria. After I had caught up with my old friends and made a bunch of new friends here, I enjoyed Peoria a little bit more but still felt restricted.

During high school, i started a reputation of always throwing parties at my house every weekend. So many people knew me for this. I still, to this day, have people come up to me and say hi and tell me how much fun that had at my parties back in high school. I just look at them and am like "who are you again?" not knowing half of the people that used to come over to my house. I got used to it though. I graduated from Dunalp High School in May of 2001.

I was one of those guys that had no idea what he wanted to do with himself after getting out of high school. I was contemplating going into the Navy or going to college. I ended up enrolling at Illinois Central College in the fall of '01. It took my about four years, but I did end up grauating from ICC and am now at Bradley University, working on my Bachelor's Degree in Marketing with a concentration on Professional Sales.

Most the other stuff you want to knoe about me, like what I like to do and my music and movie tastes, you can find out from around this profile. I try to keep them updated regularly. But I cna give a quick summary of what I like. I am a huge movie fan. I watch movies almost every night. I have worked in and managed movie theaters before as well. I guess it is just nice to get away from reality sometimes and that's probably most importantly why Ilike watching movies. I enjoy all kind of music with the exception of most classical and I'll try anything once to have a little bit of fun. My weekends usually consist of going out to bars and hanging out with friends, watching movies, or throwing parties (haha nothings changed there).

Alright so i was debating between either updating my myspace page or deleting it. I was trying to figure out if I was going to use it much anymore or not. For thepast year and a half or so i have been using Facebook a lot more than myspace, so i have been kind of out of the loop as far as myspace goes.

Well as most of you can tell, if you know me, I have decided to update my page. I made several changes, starting with the fact that I changed my location. I am going to be moving to Lafayette, IN in the coming weeks. The reason for this move is because I fianlly graduated college and I have accpeted a job there with a company called MacDonald Advertising Services. I am pretty excited about this change and hopefully ti will be an easy move for me.

I have also changed the layout of the page a bit and added a new picture of myself in my graduation gown.

Just an update.

So i am working on the search for room mates for next year.  As most of you know, my friend Matt from across the hall is moving into my apartment with me for next year.  That leaves two rooms open still.  Cambridge has it set up where if we don't have two other room mates by April 1st, we have to start paying rent for those two rooms as well.  So that would make us have to pay $610 a piece.  That's a little bit pricey for me. 

We had originally thought that our apartment was filled up as of Saturday.  We had met two guys that were interested and wanted to sign the lease.  I found out today though that one of the guy's parents didn't want him to move in with some people that he didn't know all too well.  So they cancelled out on me.  So onward with the room mate search.  I am sure I will have it filled up by the end of the week.  I have been in contact with 10 other people on the apartment.  It is just a matter of finding out which ones are ready to sign and everything.  Ah, I guess i am just using this as my form of venting for the moment.  By the way, this may sound weird but I really think that someone wants me to have a room mate named Dan.  I have had three people out of twelve named Dan.  Who knows. 

Justibn

So in light of the fact that I don't have a girlfriend this year for Valentine's Day, I have decided to make it Bloody Valentine's Day and go to Blockbuster and rent Saw II and watch it with my room mates.  Sounds like a good plan huh?  It's actually really weird not having a girlfriend on Valentine's Day.  This is the first time in like 7 years that I haven't had a girlfriend.  Oh well, I guess it saves me money, not contributing to the worst Hallmark holiday of the year.  4 more days til my birthday

Take care and Happy Bloody Valentine's Day everyone

Justin

This is a litle story about my cousin Kaelynn and Myspace.  Let me first start off by saying that my cousin is 13.  We all were at that age once and we were all trouble makers.  I know I was.  She also has a tendonsy to think that she can do whatever she wants and lies to a bunch of different people, including her family.  The problem is that she isn't that good of a liar so she always gets caught up in a lie.  Does this sound familiar to anyone? 

Ok, so here's the story:  Ryan, Mike, and I were going to go see Bowling For Soup at the Anaheim House of Blues while I was in Cali (see previous blog).  Ryan suggested that I give my Aunt a call and see if my little cousin wanted to go see the conert with us.  she always talks about how she wants to go to concerts with her cousins.  So I call her up to find out that she had gotten in some trouble and that she would not be allowed to go.  My Aunt told me that I am sure I will find out what Kaelynn has been doing when i get out there. 

I come to find out that Kaelynn has been on myspace several times.  She has made a profile for herself posing as an 18 year old.  I don't know how many of you this pisses off, but it sure does me.  Don't lie about your age on myspace.  The kicker was that she wa stelling people exactly where she lived and what grade school she went to and everything.  Now this may not be a worry to most of us because Peoria/where you live probably isn't as big of an area such as Los Angelas.  her mom found out about this and got really pissed off at her.  She was claiming that Kaelynn could get in a lot of trouble if someone read that and camelooking for her and everytihng like that.  So Kaelynn had to take her profile off and make a profile that said she was 14.  If you have a profile that says your 14, you can have to so that the only people that can view your profile are the people that you add to your friends list.  you also can't be searched in teh database except by name.  So my aunt had her make one of these profiles.  Now Kaelynn had been very secretive about what was going onto her myspace profile.  She wouldn't let her mom have her login information or anything.  So my Aunt told ehr that the only time she could get on there was if she was standing there and overseeing what Kaelynn was doing.  So what Kaelyyn would do is go over to her friends houses' and use their internet to get onto myspace.  In end result there was no stopping her. She wasbound and determined to be on myspace.  As an end result, I am sure that my little cousin ahs met a lot of people off of myspace as she is always wanting to go to aawkward places to hang out and she doesn't want anyone tagging along with her unless a friend. 

Finished story. 

Justin

So I have had many people ask me how my New Year's Eve party went. Well it went pretty good. There were several people there. We had a lot of decorations up for New Year's as well. I would like to thank Sara and Brittany for helping with the decorations. Sara did an awesome job on the poster. I found that one of the funniest things that happened actually happened the day after. That was the amount of Ims I got apologizing for missing my party. I finally just logged off of Instant Messenger. I know people tried to get there, but those that didn't show up really missed out on a good time. To break everything down so people had some sort of idea how much the party was, we ended up spending $50 for the first run and $300 in the second run. We ended up having 9 cases of beer (Bud Light, Budweiser, Miller Lite, Red Stripe, and Rolling Rock), two bottles of Captain, a handle of Jack, a bottle of Crown, a bottle of Carolyns, UV Red, Smirnoff Vodka, Two bottle of Jager, two ottles of premixed Long island Iced Tea, Margaritas, and over 100 Jello shots. I don't think there was a sober person there that night. It was a blast. Anyways I guess I can post some pictures up so that people have an idea of how the party was. I'll make sure to post captions underneath them so that everyone has an idea of who people are and everything, pending I remember who some people were. The Poster!! Thanks again Sara and Brittany Jack signing the poster. This is a picture of Stephanie and her boyfriend before they started drinking a lot and deciding to stay. Look at my shot tree in the corner!!! Hehe This is one of many pictures that I believe Drew took of himself with people. For more pictures, you can always check out Drew's myspace page. You can find him in My Top 8. Also doesn't Jason just look insanly evil in this picture. Jason and Brittany whit a little one on the way. Stephanie after a few drinks. . . I think?? On the Wall again. I am still trying to figure out what Drew is doing to Tripp while Tripp is pleasuring Brittany. Just a quick run through of names (from left to right) Andy, Brittany, Jason, Drew, Myself, Brittany, and Jack. Oh and Tripp is on the lower part of the picture. look at all of the food an alcohol we had. BTW the beer was outside. We didn't have enough room in the fridge so we figured we'd use nature. There is always one picture of Andy with a good looking girl. I have been told it's because he's a big teddy bear. Although, I know what Andy was thinking here. And no it's not food!!! I would like to say that despite popular belief I was not drunk yet in this picture!!! I think Mike drank too much what do you think? It's a good thing he doesn't remember much after this, like when Michelle stuck the broom up his ass. He was violated by a wood object. See I told you we had a lot of alcohol, but you never doubted me right? Christen, Eric, and Tom. They drove all the way from Wisconsin to party with us. Thanks for coming. Matt looks lonely, Maybe I need to hook him up with someone. Wait I gotta think of myself first. Sorry Matt. Uh oh, the video camera came out. I wonder what's on those videos. Hehe Hey, look Randy showed up too!! Christen and Michelle, Two best friends reuniting after not seeing eachother for a long time. Ironically drinking at the same place they had their first shot of Everclear. For some odd reason, I have a lot of pictures of David holding a video camera. Jack and Britany with a little tonuge action. Good thing they saved the rest for somewhere else. So i hope you enjoyed my little slideshow of pictures. I think New Year's turned out well. Please feel free to leave comments and let me know what you think. Take care, Justin

So as some of you know last night we went out to the bars again. Typical, huh? Well I went out for two specific purposes. One was the Rich turned 24 on Wednesday and we had to celebrate that. The other (anohter birthday) was Carrie's 23rd birthday. Yea I know, we;re getting old. it seemed like yesterdfay I turned 21 and I am going to be 23 in a few months. It's kind of scary huh? We went out to Fourplay (yea, yea, I know what you're thinking, get your mind out of the gutter) and drank for a while. It ended up being Rich, Andy, Stephanie, and I in one group and another group was with Carrie and Justin Bitner. Michelle and her friend Kelsey showed up. Nothing really happened last night either. I didn't get into a bar fight and no one got really sick, alothugh I tihnk Carrie was about to puke by the time i was leaving. Anyways, I have some pictures of that night that I am going tp post and describe here and I have also put some of them into my photos. So take a look and leae some comments!!!!! Justin This was at ZBar (that place is awesome). From left to right it was Stephanie, Andy, Myself, and Rich. We were taking a shot of various different alcohols. Don't ask me what but it just tasted good. Everyone Knows Ben. He's our friend/bartender last night. he was making those drinks pretty strong. So in this picture we were propping Stephanie up, cause normally she is really short. Oh and I have no idea who the other girl is in the picture. It was one of Stephanie's friends. Myself, Andy, and Rich. Can you believe that we were the only guys that went out last night from our group of friends. I guess everyone's saving themselves for New Year's This picture has a story behind it. You see, I never really realized that you couldn't take pictures inside of Big Als. I don't know why, I mean it makes sense though. Anyways, so we took a picture in there and the bouncer came over and told me that I can't take pictures in there and that I had to delete it, so i just kind of messed around with my camera and made it look like I deleted it. He never said a word. So yea, one of the few pictures you'll ever see taken at the bar in Big Als with Carrie for her birthday. I swear she's not a stripper, she just likes the stage a lot!!! NEW YEAR'S IS TOMORROW. I HOPE EVERYONE HAS FOUND A PARTY TO GO TO. HAVE A SAFE AND HAPPY NEW YEAR'S

Alright, so now that Christmas has passed, I have something new on my agenda to work out in the next few days. As I am sure most of you know by now, I am throwing a New Year's Eve Party. This isn't anything out of the norm for me, but I have found in recent years that I have had to do a tad bit more planning than I had to when i was in high school. So i am going to have to work on decorations, alcohol, the music I want the DJ to play and all of the stuff in between there. So right now, I am just going to start volenterring people to decorate. I'm not really into the whole decoration thing, but it would seem that I can find friends who are willing to decorate for me. If anyone has any suggestions or ideas. Please let me know. Justin

So i found out some interesting information last night. Despite the fact that I said i wasn't going to go out, I did anyways. I went to the Lucky Lady. as I am sure most of you know by now, The Lucky Lady on Farmington Road allows anyone 18 and up into the club, but you have to be 21 to drink. Everytime I seem to go there, I run into about twenty people that I know. Last night, I was talking to one of my friends that works there and was told that starting January 1st the lucky Lady will serve alcohol until 5:30 in the morning. The only catch is that you have to be in the doors by three in the morning. This makes the bar the latest bar open to date. So bottles up people and here's to drinking until 5:30 in the morning. On anothe rnote, I finally finished up my Christmas present wrapping today. Now all I have to do is fill out cards and everything is ready to go tomorrow. Merry Christmas Everyone Justin

First off, I am going to try and add more blogs more often as my sister and her husband are using blogs a lot more, so I feel that I must do the sume. So i imagine from time to time you will see random blogs posted on here about what's going on. Secondly, I am still in the process of updating my profile with other stuff. I know I kept saying that I was going to finish this up weeks ago, but yea I never got around to it with finals and everything. Oh, who am I kidding, i just got lazy and am looking for an excuse. Now for the actual purpose of this posting. As some of you know, a bunch of us went out last night to what they are starting to call fourplay in Peoria. For you people who actualyy know me, it was Jack, Brittany, Drew, Rich, Alvin, Amy, and I that ended up partying together last night. Also, for everyone to know, fourplay is considered four bars on main street in Peoria. These bars include World Famous Big Als, Tomcats, Club Reign, and Zbar. It's a $5 to get into the bars and on Tuesdays and Thursdays all four bars have $2 you call its. Now that I got the terms defined, I can continue on with my story. We started out at Big Als, having a few drinks, and made our way over to ZBar. ZBar (formerly known as Tonic) is a new upbeat bar designed for peope who just like to relax and drink a little bit. The atmosphere is really nice and the people there are really cool. Anyways, onward with my story. We were drinking pretty heavily last night. Drew and I started having this little contest, that didn't help too much with this either. He bought me a drink claiming that he owed me one from a long time ago. Well after that I bought him a drink, and this continued throughout the night to the point that we were both drunk before the night was through. Our friend Amy finally showed up around 3 if my memory serves me right. So Drew and I were sitting at ZBar drinking with her while everyone else was in Big Als doing who knows what. Eventually Drew disappeared so it was just Amy and I talking. We made our way to the dance floor for a little bit, which for those that know me I noly make it to the dance floor when i am pretty drunk. After a little bit Drew shows back up, and we were like well come out and dance with us. Upon furhter observation I noticed that there were three bouncers behind Drew. They heard us trying to get him to go dancing and started shaking their heads saying that he couldn't come dancing and had to leave. After talking with Drew, I found out that he had passed out in a chair and some bouncers woke him up and escorted him out. He had come back in to find us under the condition that he was escorted by bouncers. So I would just like to say that Drew is probably the first person in our group of friends that has been kicked out of a bar downtown. GO DREW!!!!! Justin