Update Season X - "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas Vol. I."

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That amount of TV watching on an Autumn weekend is only a little more than typical of a football fan who follows both college and pro.  It's not nearly as much as it might seem.

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You never lose the taste for regular. I drink a regular coke like once every few months because Mexican Cokes are great, and they are damn good, but I know if I drank them on a regular basis (once or twice a week is regular), I would be far unhealthier than I am now.

Come on now, a couple Cokes a week is no big deal at all.

For example, I used to drink Coke or Mountain Dew at 14 meals per week.  I've cut back to a hard limit of 3 meals per week (and 0 between meals), drinking either water or skim milk the other 18.  It was a very good decision on my part.

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So what did you spend $11,000 on?

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You non-Southerners just don't get it.  There is absolutely nothing wrong with spending an entire Saturday watching college football.  That's what I'm doing today.

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Is this all real?

His debts are less than the norm in America...

stop it

The average American owes $47,000, so apparently opebo is technically correct.

Does that include home debt?  I mean, I have way more debt than that if you count my mortgage, but it's not a sign of financial irresponsibility like even $10,000 of credit card debt.

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I take back everything I said.  F*** college football, it sucks, and everyone who has ever liked it is a fool.

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The "Non-Southerners don't get it" meme strikes again.  You simply cannot live in the Deep South without a car.  Period.  Public transportation is virtually (or literally) non-existent here, and it's all very spread out.

For example, I live in a suburban neighbor and literally the only things within walking distance (a couple miles) are other people's houses.  I'm sure Bushie's situation is similar.

Also, you have to have a car for every person who might need it at the same time.  My wife and I could never share a car -- we have different schedules.  I doubt Bushie's family could make do on 2 cars, much less 1.  That's just the realities of life in the South.

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Bushie could probably sell his car and pay off all or a good portion of his debt.

How would he get to school then?  Should his father have to take extra time out of his day to drive him there, and then pick him up later then?

Yes, it would be better if we could always take a bus or subway or something, but that's just not an option in most of the country.

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Bushie could probably sell his car and pay off all or a good portion of his debt.

How would he get to school then?  Should his father have to take extra time out of his day to drive him there, and then pick him up later then?

Yes, it would be better if we could always take a bus or subway or something, but that's just not an option in most of the country.

His mother could drop him off at Metro Tech and pick him up.

If that were the case, everyone here would be making fun of him for that.  There's no need to make her  chauffeur her adult son around.

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I'm sure Harry can attest to this, but living in the south is much better than living in the frozen north.

I don't agree with that, but I admit that I'd change my mind if one inch of snow on the ground was enough to deter me from driving.

We got almost an inch about a year ago and my work called us all and told us not to come in.  It's really dangerous to drive in even a little bit of snow if you've never done it and don't know how.

I could handle driving in a little bit of snow, but I certainly don't trust the masses to do so without hitting me, so on the rare snow days, I definitely stay at home.

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How far is the nearest store? I couldn't imagine living far away from any stores. What a horrible thought! I thought America was all about freedom, but living that far away is so restrictive! I would hope that any poors in Oklahoma at least live close to stores.

No, there are no stores in suburbia, at least not within walking distance.  My suburb (which is admittedly much more upper class than Bushie's, but probably laid out similarly) has a commercial center with big box stores, chain restaurants, etc., but nobody lives in walking distance of those (and there's no sidewalks anyway, so it would be pretty dangerous to walk).  Everyone lives in either formal subdivisions or blocks of streets.  You can walk or bike to a friend's house, but anything more requires a car.

There may be some apartments in Jackson where artsy hippie white people live that don't necessarily require a car, but I bet almost all of them have one.  There may be some of the absolute poorest in the slums who don't own a car and rely on family members and neighbors, but there's enough cars worth like $1000 that most poor households have at least 1.

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Just to inform the pampered denizens of this forum of the reality of the world, three cars for a household of three people in which only one member is in employment would be excessive even in a very rural area with no public transport (like the upland farming valley that I grew up in). The impression is further reinforced by the statement that one of them was bought new. This is a pattern of consumption driven by lifestyle choices (choices that I'm not judging), not necessity.

Perhaps, but remember Bushie lives in Suburbia, not some rural area.  Suburbs, both in the Deep South and elsewhere, simply are not laid out with the possibility of not having a car.

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Date>Oklahoma v. Notre Dame>CAD >{big gap}work.  Q.E.D. No one can question/Totally Legit

Relationships > Football

If you make arrangements very early in the relationship, you can have both.  I made it clear to my wife before we were even officially a couple that I would not be missing an MSU football game for any reason ever, that I planned to spend fall Saturdays watching as much college football as possible, and that I expected her to console me whenever MSU loses.  Since I got it out of the way early, I got the best of both worlds.

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Does she want you to ask her father's permission to just date her?  If she has told you to do so, then OK,  but unless she specifically has, I wouldn't just assume that you need permission from a 30-year-old woman's father just to take her on a date...

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The asking permission to get serious is weird as heck, but I think everyone's overreacting to the whole asking fathers' permission for hands in marriage.  A lot of girls think it's "cute" to have the guy do that out of tradition, and nobody expects a boyfriend to ask the mother for permission.  I think you guys are being overly critical on Bushie for that aspect of it.

No one is gawking at asking permission for marriage (even though I've never heard of anyone I know actually doing that). It's beyond bizarre to ask permission just for a date though. Is he going to ask again for marriage or does this one cover it all?

Having said that,  if she asked him specifically to do it, he should.

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Does she know you support gay marriage / voted for Obama twice?

IIRC that was one of the reasons engagement #3 didn't work out...

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Does Bushie's church believe in contraception? Or are they going to Duggar it up?

of course not.  sex for pleasure is a bad thing.  god does not approve.

We're not Catholics, so birth control is approved.  We preach abstinence, but if something does happen, real Christians don't judge, they offer support and comfort.

abstinence doesnt work.  it didnt even work for mary and joseph.

Mary got pregnant by a miracle from the Holy Spirit.  Joseph did not have sex with Mary until Mary's second pregnancy.  Jesus was not conceived like every other baby.  Mary was still a virgin until her second pregnancy, that of Jesus' half brother.

For a denomination that prides itself on being 100% based on the Bible and not other sources, Baptists sure believe a lot of non-Biblical things.  Not that that's an inherently bad thing, but it should be acknowledged.

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Does she know you support gay marriage?

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Harry, she doesn't support gay marriage to my knowledge, but to be honest, I'm still waffling back and forth.

Considering how you listed politics as a major reason why engagement #3 ended, don't you think you need to get that out there before this one gets too serious?

If yall break up today over politics, whatevs.  If you break up in a few months when she's fiancee #4, you're going to be a whole lot more upset.

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Can someone remember to give recaps of his Facebook posts for those of us who aren't on Facebook?

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Didn't you "love" Fiancees #2 and #3 after one date too?  Did you not learn any lessons from those?

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Ladies and gentlemen, it has begun.

Are we going to have a collaborative, organized approach to getting this fleshed out, or just anyone sporadically posting whenever?

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Inks with a red avatar is really throwing me off here...

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Whatever happened to engagement rings #1, #2, and #3?  Did you sell those to pay down your debts?

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You really shouldn't give a girl the same ring you gave to another one.  You should at least trade it in for a different one.

Or, really, you should sell that one immediately (not to a pawn shop, but to a legitimate jewelry store), and then thing about a ring for #4 in about a year.