Crazy to see that Gavin Degraw is the halftime performer at the Orange Bowl.
My first business card I ever had said “but I’m Gavin Degraw” because I once witnessed him say that to a bartender to ask for free food in Gainesville, Florida in 2007 and I thought it was hysterical.
In the annals of history, nobody has ever graduated the top of their class from an Ivy League School, started the World Series, and run a 4.3 electronically timed 40 yard dash while simultaneously accepting a Nobel Prize.
On 3/29, that changes. Whammo AND Blammo coming in hot.
Hey the people at
@WolfsonChildren
are absolute saints. The Bruiser had a rough night and they were just incredible. We are lucky to have them in Jacksonville.
Five years ago today a doctor suggested five years would probably be my life expectancy. That illness is gone and I'm fine now but I'm stepping mighty carefully today so I can maybe send him an email tomorrow that reads:
"Five years and one day, motherfucker."
Today in eavesdropping at Bold Bean:
Dude at the table next to me is in the middle of a job interview and when asked how long he'd worked at a previous position, he answered "a long-ass time."
You could actually feel his soul leave his body when he realized what he'd said.
So my dad once wrote a negative review of an Eddie Murphy comedy show and the next year, Eddie Murphy opened his show in Gainesville with “That reporter from the Gainesville Sun can s—- my d—-.”
I would put that on a business card.
There's already too much sadness on this app so I just want you to know that my mom was the funniest, fiercest, most empathetic person ever and you would have loved her. Her favorite word was "decency."
Let's all be decent to each other. The small things can go so far.
115,000 platelets.
Eight years ago I had 12,000.
“This is a complete turnaround and you don’t have to worry about it anymore.”-my hematologist. A very surreal day.
I'm going to tweet some version of this on August 11th going forward.
A doctor told me I had a five year life expectancy on this day SIX years ago (I'm totally fine now).
Takes ALL I have to not send him an email today that says "Made it another year. Sucks to suck, doc."
"Based on what you've said I think you would really like
@JasonIsbell
. He writes great songs."-me.
"How does he compare to Sondheim?"-person at the table.
How the fuck do you respond to that?
Heard the
@againstme
cover of a Jim Carroll cover on shuffle on my way to pick up an RX so I stopped at a local bookstore because I hadn’t read The Basketball Diaries in a while. Opened it up in the car and kinda freaked out a little...
Had to go to the Town Center today which is of course awful but did overhear this which made it more tolerable.
Six year old: “Why do I still have to wear this? It’s been years.” <- moves mask around face
Mother of six year old: “Because you’re a responsible person.”
Congratulations to our head of social and digital Jack DeYoung and his wife Natalie on the birth of their beautiful twins, Colin and Jane! Today is their first
#NationalSiblingsDay
and we're sure they'd appreciate the shoutout if they weren’t less than a month old!
It’s time for the annual tweet that mentions that it has now been eight years to the day that a doctor told me I only had five years left. In very good health despite you know, my natural inclination to jump off things and inadvertently break machinery with sharp blades.
A few years ago we had a semi-elaborate wedding planned and then I got really sick and plans changed. My sainted wife could not have been cooler and we got married at Memorial Park in a small, but wonderful ceremony. Apparently she bought this yesterday and it made me so happy.
Mother in law called the wife this morning to say she was seeing an acronym all over her Facebook feed and she didn’t know what it meant.
“Do YOU know what LFG stands for?” made me smile.
My sister and I are considering starting an Instagram account that exclusively features our mother’s reactions whenever one of us is driving. There is no shortage of material.
Me: “Hey, how’s your day going?”
A clear day with no wind whatsoever in Jacksonville, Florida: “Eat shit loser, I’m wrecking your porch with this tree.”
I have been training my whole life for today. All the hours of blood, sweat, and poorly received mix cds for girls in high school come down to this.
I have begun making the playlist to play in the hospital when the twins are born. This is my Super Bowl.
When I worked at a record store in Gainesville, a customer came in and asked if there were any shows in town that day. I said “Well, Wheatus is playing …they had that awful song ‘Teenage Dirtbag’.”
Said customer then replied “I wrote that song” and I immediately died a little.
My wife asked if I wanted to run the
#GateRiverRun
a few years ago and I agreed thinking she would just forget about it. She did not forget about it.
I finished the race and it was great but throwing up off the Main St. Bridge right next to the live feed camera wasn’t ideal.
Get yourself a boss like
@joesampsonfl
who immediately springs for the super deluxe twin stroller minutes after you post a link to your baby registry. The whole
@NueraMarketing
crew has been super supportive and the babies love this stroller.
So Colin will calm down every time I sing him “Thunder Road.”
Little Jane here? It’s “Bullet with Butterfly Wings” and she is OUT like a light.
The world is a vampire but we are riding out tonight to case the promised land.
A few years ago, my amazing wife won a pretty incredible award. Since I'm nothing if not shamelessly sycophantic, I commissioned this video from Rex Manning in her honor. He crushed it at the height of the pandemic.
Happy
#RexManningDay
, my dudes.
Natalie brought home Burger King.
I brought home something a little better.*
Yep, it’s pure class over at the DeYoung house.
*My neighbors came home while I was filling the shark pool alone. Proud to be the reigning neighborhood weirdo.
Just let someone cut in front of me in traffic and received no courtesy wave after the fact so obviously I will be irrationally irritated about it for the remainder of the day.
Sociopaths living among us, friends.
Ooof, forgot the anniversary of a certain diagnosis and therefore forgot to email my doctor to remind him that it has been eight years since he told me I likely only had five left.
The tone has gotten less snarky each year but the thesis is generally "Sup, fucker?"
I only have one photo on my desk at work and it’s this one of my grandmother. She started volunteering at a children’s hospital in 1968 and kept that up until the day she died.
She got her diploma at 75 and was so proud of it. Not sure why but I miss her a lot today.
Happy 10 year anniversary to when I arrogantly told my wife that the
#GateRiverRun
would be easy, totally forgot about it and then had to run it without having trained.
Threw up over the Main Street Bridge right in front of the live stream cameras like a true G.
Music has always been really important to me and my sister despite our VERY different taste. We used to call my mom to tell her about songs she would love and I guess she wrote them all down because I just found this.
Saw some people wearing a
@JaxShrimp
hat while waiting in line for a lobster roll in Maine. Got to talking and turns out one of them works in San Marco like me.
They asked if I knew the San Marco Train twitter account. I'm too vain to be cool and say I didn't.
This started as a way to make my coworkers and my wife laugh.
I got a little too into it (see the multiple gibberish notes written on my phone at 4am) but it was a lot of fun.
Thanks to everyone (particularly
@MelissainJax
&
@claireNjax
) for being such good sports about it.
Hey Everyone,
We're retiring this account today to focus on our mission to Make America Late Again. You may not see us on Twitter, but rest assured that you WILL see us every time you're running late to something important in San Marco.
It's been a lot of fun.
#MALA
forever.
Overheard on an Ocala Hilton elevator:
Two little old ladies leaving a high school reunion for c/o 1972:
"It really boggles the mind that it has been literally 50 years since we graduated and those fuckers are still cliquey."
Went to the Town Center today.
Assume most folks in Jacksonville understand the subliminal message about the caliber of my day based on that sentiment alone.
Remember when you got that FB invite for your 10 year high school reunion from the obligatory overachiever and then it got cancelled because nobody showed up?
Cant even imagine the same people picketing to preserve some stupid name of a school they haven’t attended in 30 years.
I got to watch my amazing wife
@nataliedeyoung
accept a Women of Influence Award today while sitting next to her mom. I’m a cynical dude but my goodness if the best cure for that wasn’t seeing so many amazing women on stage being celebrated for what they do in Jacksonville.
When I was a kid, my dad used to mumble obscenities trying to get the tree into our old, rusted tree stand. My favorite memory was him finally and theatrically announcing “Ladies and gentleman, the tree” right before it fell on his head.
I bought a new tree stand to be safe.
These
@JaxBizJournal
folks just told me to use the hashtag
#womenofinfluence
.
@nataliedeyoung
is being honored today but I thought this photo of her with her mom spoke to that hashtag. At the risk of being touchy-feely, it’s very genuinely inspiring to be here with them.
Me: “Let’s go for a walk.”
Wife: “Would love to!”
(Front door opens to reveal a beautiful evening)
Wife: “Shouldn’t your car be here?”
Me: “...”
Every single teacher I had growing up that said I was forgetful is validated tonight after I walked home from the grocery store.
The guy on Facebook who reached out to let me know he knew my mom in college just used the word “lovers” so obviously THIS conversation will be coming to an abrupt end.
Can you imagine the time and effort
@NateMonroeTU
,
@ChrisHongTU
, and the
@jaxdotcom
staff put in to completely nail the JEA coverage? I’m sure they’ve heard it a lot this week but well done, guys.
Still think Monroe got robbed when he wasn’t voted worst thing about Jax though.
Natalie and I’ve been married for 8 years which seems insane and normal all at once. I did the math which is always a bad idea for me and realized I’ve known her for 1/3rd of my life.
Can’t imagine anything better. Somewhere there’s a smile and a spreadsheet with my name on it.
I turn 35 on Sunday (whoa).
I’m the new baby in this inscription that Neil Young wrote on this poster after my dad interviewed him a few weeks before I was born.
Words haven’t been invented yet to describe how happy I was seven years ago today when I married this one.
@nataliedeyoung
is just as incredible as you’ve always suspected.
Met the wife eleven years ago today. Pleased to report that she remains impatient when I try to pretend to fall in the water while she takes a photo but I think this one worked out ok.
@CardPurchaser
Popped over to Walgreens and saw they had one last hanger of Update. It was, in the parlance of our times, a banger. Kellenic /70 and the Hayes SP.
My dad interviewed Bob Woodward and I guess the interview gets published at 7pm tonight. Happy for him and glad that’s pretty much the only thing happening in politics today.
A few years ago my mom was in town so my wife bought us all tickets to ��a one man show w/this guy who is on NPR.” My mom & I both exchanged looks that said “this is so gonna suck but let’s humor her.” The man in question was
@al_letson
& my mom and I still talk about that show.
I offer no apology for defending a private citizen who the mayor of Jacksonville pathetically tripled down on fat-shaming, nor for blocking him after he bizarrely and needlessly evoked our small business in an attempt to do it harm.
My only regret is voting for such a bully.
So my sister had surgery yesterday (she is fine) so I wanted to get the most random celebrity she liked from our childhood to film a Cameo for her to cheer her up.
Mark McGrath absolutely crushed it.
A few weeks ago, I asked the woman behind the counter at a convenience store how her day was going.
She said “can’t complain.”
I replied “Surely you can though, right?”
Now every time I walk in she asks “what are we complaining about today?” and it’s just a delight.
Took my phone in to the first open store that fixed iPhones (Batteries + Bulbs) and they fixed it for free. They only requested that I write a Google review and hoo boy did I basically write the great American novel in my car. Resisting the urge to walk back in and show them.
“Why are we stopping here?” -the wife.
“In 2010, I commandeered the company rental in the middle of the night and drove up PCH and heard the song “Transatlanticism” for the first time. I pulled over here, called you, and realized that I was in love with you.” -me, like a jerk.