2 Months, 1 post

So it has been awhile. How are you all doing? Hope things are good. Anything of any particular note to talk about? Throw it in the comments and pretend we are talking about it here.

So, on to the post. A few things have happened in the two months I have been gone. For one, I am now a married man. I’m still trying to bridge the mental gap of saying wife and not girlfriend/fiancé. It is jarring to pass milestones in your life, cruising through life’s goalposts leaves a numbing sensation until I am miles from it and can appreciate it. Basically It felt like years building up to it, then it was over in a blur.

The honeymoon was awesome, Mexico was an amazing time with the beautiful weather and magnificently high-tided ocean. I absolutely love the food down there, the tuna steaks are surreal. Tried an Argentinian Steakhouse and I honestly have to say that is the best meal I have ever had in my life. The streak had to have been flavored with ground up Unicorns and pixie dust, I have never had a flavor profile like that before. The steak was so tender I only used my fork. If there was one around here I would be addicted end up selling blood to pay for my new addiction.

By the way, Mexican food in America =/= real Mexican food, at least around Ixtapa. Everything has black beans in it, so the weight loss inducing result of drinking the water isn’t a worry. Just eat some food and pack the fiber in and you are untouchable. We didn’t really have any problems down there. It was peaceful and calm. My wife slept for seventeen hours straight after we got there. Needless to say we relaxed and just enjoyed ourselves.

A few small things happened when we got back. We went to Best Buy to get a new DVD rack and ended up buying way more. I also got a 55′ Samsung LED TV, a Samsung Series 7 laptop, and a new entertainment center. Believe it or not it wasn’t my idea, it was my wife’s. So yeah, I married the right person. I love my new toys. Both the TV and laptop have made it easier for the new projects I have started. More on that at a later date.

So, man, politics. The Republican primary race was super entertaining, I was sad to see Newt Gingrich and Herman Cain drop out. No I wouldn’t vote for them but anytime they opened their mouth it was solid comedy gold. Alas though It seems we have set the crazy aside to get back to the same old boring finger-pointing issues. You know, where both parties more or less do and say/do the same things but act like it is different. I really don’t care what anybody says, in the long game there isn’t much different between either camp; we’re in and/or heading into some serious issues for our country and the people at he wheel really make it seem like their IQ is comparable to a moldy loaf of bread in my kitchen.

Speaking of difficult, I have basically disowned parts of my family. Some members were pretty shitty through the entire wedding process and even now are causing a lot of unnecessary problems. I have tried talking and coming to some sort of understanding, but it became very clear the past few months that communication wasn’t going anywhere. It just really isn’t worth the constant fighting and negativity. I was worried it was the wrong decision but now that I am on the other side it feels like a weight is gone and I can breathe. I’m guessing that is a good thing.

I haven’t been writing and that bothers me. There are a few reasonably important odd jobs I need to finish up before  I can devote my time to the word mines again. Finish off some debts and be that much more financial free. As I make that dream into a reality, let me tell you it is nice being able to pay for things on the spot. I have some student loans left then I am pretty well free. Such a weird feeling. I made a plan for myself in life and with some hard-work and hopeful foresight things are coming together.

For the past two months I have basically been taking it easy, spending time with the wife, and working to complete a few of my other goals. Now that I am on the ass-end of that stretch, time to return to writing and all the starry-eyed dreams that come with it. I have a mountain of inspiration built up and my creative juices are probably going to be pretty pulpy.

Cheers.

Hi

It has certainly been a minute since I made a post, sorry about that. Life got busy, I mean really busy. I won’t go into details but I’ll just hit the highlights.

A few deaths in my in-laws family, some car accidents, step-dad’s kidney dialysis problems getting worse, serious threats on my friend’s life, and I’ve been sick and not getting better.

I guess that is what I get for having two solid weeks of pure blissful boredom.

Well aside from some stress factors kicking in, it hasn’t all been depressing. There has been some good news, really good news. My fiancée got a job that is a game changer in our lives. When we got the news she got this job I felt like this huge massive weight was taken off my shoulders and instantly wanted to curl up and sleep. I’ve also been keeping up with my writing and staying consistent with word counts on a daily basis – well mostly true. I have also been keeping up with reading and have been putting books down left and right.

So it has been interesting. Now that things are quieting down I will start posting regularly again. I still have some writing related news forthcoming. I’d write more but I am about to take some NyQuil and pass out.

Good night.

P.S.

My better half is obsessed with my strange addiction. I am currently watching a guy who has objectophilia with his car. Google it, I dare you.

New Beginnings

Friday was the last day at a job I have had for almost 5 years. It has been strange leaving a place where I saw co-workers more than my family and one life long friend that is family. Leaving him is definitely the worse part, oddly similar to hollowing a piece of your inside out and leaving it behind. Fortunately he is now my neighbor. Seriously his house is within a spitting distance of mine, so there is some silver lining.

I didn’t think I would get choked up, but when I saw some maternal figures get misty eyed, I almost went into the ugly cry. That is a lot for me to admit as I am not a crier. Not because I am macho or emotionless, just that I don’t really cry when I get sad, more thoughtful and quiet than anything.

Still, it was odd this morning waking up and getting dressed and not driving to the old workplace. It has become so ingrained into my thought process I rarely consciously thought about driving there. I had to remind myself a few times to drive the opposite direction, fighting my homing pigeon training with every turn of my wheel. I was sad and nervous, but a positive and warming text message of encouragement from my friend made things better. Perhaps it was the nervousness and wayward plunge into the unknown that let the text message have such a positive effect on me, maybe it is because at some point in the recent past I have become more mature and in touch with my inner me and realized that little gestures like that really do have an effect on me, I’m not really sure but it made me feel better.

I pulled into the parking lot and sat for a minute. I felt like something big was going on, something too large for me to even see. With me getting married in April, the new job, and the location, It hit me just a little while ago what has happened. The end of an era and the start of something new, something more than just me. A chance to fulfill the American dream. To have a house with a little white picket fence, the patter of little feet, and the means of providing a good life for my family. Weird how a major change in my life has effected so many other parts.

The job I have taken is a big career move, the company is the kind of place you stay for 30 or 40 years. That was made evident when HR told me that in the past year, they have only had to replace four workers, the rest have been from growth. While touring the building and meeting the staff I lost count of all the 20+ years of employment acknowledgements I saw. It was very reassuring that I have made the best decision.

After six months, I can return to school and finish another degree and they will pay for it. Not quite sure if I want to complete my electrical engineering degree or pursue something business or programming related. I’ll put a pin in that.

Today was a new beginning. Not quite as profound as realizing you are no longer a child but an adult, I’d still say that is bigger. This was right up there with it though.

The past three or so weeks have been some of the busiest weeks of my life. Looking at places to live, visiting them and inspecting them, researching them, finishing work projects (the big time killer), keeping things organized with bills, helping organize my wedding, bridal shower, not finding time to write and not letting it bother me, and the list goes on. The cluster of things to do has been whittled down, it is more manageable now.

I have given you all, my readers, the paraphrased version of what has gone on. Where and what I have been up to. I am back and be blogging regularly. So strap in for more randomness and general nerdy goodness.

Have a good night!

 

Where I Have Been

I have been around, just insanely busy. To start with I have been offered a new job. It is an overall amazing package, they’re going to pay for me to go back to school and plenty of room to move up.

So with that little life changing bomb, I am now moving again…  I just moved 3 months ago…. Normally I would piss and moan about moving again, but I am blessed to have gotten this position so I’m going to let this one slide. Still it has been a blitzkrieg finding a new place and getting all the proper ducks in a row.

Now that I am leaving my current job, I am being bum rushed to finish some projects before I leave. Between getting my next house arranged and spending all of my free time doing anything other than being free, my spare time has been/is tighter than a moose’s butt hole during fly season.

I’ll put up blogs when I can. I have a blog on writing that I want to put up, but it is lengthy. So stay tuned and enjoy the phone-in posts I’ll put up because I’m super busy or super tired.

 

Still Here

I’m here, just busy. Lots going on. I have a few life changing opportunities in the works. I won’t be making the September 30th Writers of the Future deadline, maybe I will finish my story for the fourth quarter. I have a few things to post on writing, funny pictures, and nerd rants. Stay tuned.

Until then enjoy Jackie Chan dressed as the Street Fighters (includes Chun-Li).

The Adventures Of Being Engaged: Fine China

Being engaged has been interesting to say the least. It hasn’t changed much for me in terms of my feelings towards my fiancée, overall it hasn’t really changed much of anything. It is what it is, when I asked her to marry me and she said yes, I accepted everything that entailed/changed at that moment. We were already melding our lives together so getting engaged and making it official hasn’t been this massive gear shift people would have you believe. Since our engagement not much has been crazy different between us, maybe I feel this way because I’m a guy, put a pin in that. What has changed, at least noticeably, is how everybody treats me and/or us.

Most people (not family members or friends even) feel inclined to push their own ideas of what life, the universe, and everything is about into our ears. I very politely – 85% of the time – discuss it with them, remind them everybody is different and we will do things as we feel appropriate, and I write it off as people pushing their anecdotal experiences on us because they have their experiences and if it is true for them then it has to be true in general style thinking. Typically I am a good boy about keeping my smart comments to myself, but a few things bother me. It bothers me that it would even bother me and it bothers me because the majority of the time whatever we are being told we ‘need’ to do is so arbitrary I fail to grasp the certainty and pressing reasoning.

What I am getting at is china. Why do we need it?

Answer: We don’t.

Various family members have gone obnoxiously out of their way to inform us why it is important to have china. The phrasing always changes, but the basic argument is the same.

1. It is something every newlywed couple needs when starting out in life.
2. It is used to formally entertain guests in your house.
3. It is a tradition.
4. It is something only a woman can appreciate, shut up you have no say in this Frank.

Those are generally the arguments, to which I reply respectively:

1. The money spent on china would be better used on something more practical, say towards a new-ish washer and/or dryer.
2. Nobody we would entertain would care about the plating, I rather pride myself on the fact.
3. Tradition just means do it, don’t question. It isn’t practical, thus it is a waste.
4. I am not the only one in my relationship that feels this way about china. It isn’t just coming from me. She doesn’t want it either.

What has sparked me to blog about this mind-boggling asininity is the grand adventure we had over the weekend. We went and registered for gifts. No, I didn’t think it was all bad, parts of it I enjoyed. It was time with the future Mrs. and it gave us a reason to get out of the house. I did, however, loathe the store we went to before hand and now I think it is a demonic cesspool of old ladies and bed skirts waiting to suck my soul out through my ears after my experience. I won’t say the name of the store, but it is a well known retailer that has, you guessed it, china.

Upon arriving at the store, we are whisked to the back for our wedding registry. What I mean by whisk is a safari through the wild and untamed boxes of various consumer goods that graze on a tile savanna waiting to be picked off by hunters. The place we are going is quite cleverly/annoyingly in the back of the store through the jungle of stuff that nobody really needs surrounded by walls of, see where I’m going?, china. We meet our tour guide/chaperon/handler and she immediately has us fill out paperwork while working through a speech.

Having listened to a speech that I didn’t want to hear that went on 44.5 minutes too long, our sales lady basically repeated our reasoning for coming to the store, the subject is moved onto china like a paraded, beaten, bludgeoned mule. I’m already somewhat annoyed because we have things to do later and would really just like to get our scanner and go zap some stuff. Before I can open my mouth and say we aren’t interested in china, my fiancée cuts the lady off, politely of course, and informs her we have no interest in it. Apparently this meant it was a tag-team wrestling match because another sales lady became involved and proceeded to show off all of the fine china that cannot be used in a microwave or dishwasher. Once again, we informed them we weren’t interested, they kept going.

Finally we get our scanners, after being repeatedly harpooned like giant white whales, we walk off to do what we had set out to do an hour ago when we walked in the door. We make our way back around to the counter, turn in our scanners, but again forced to listen to another china speech. This ladies reasoning ranged from if I came home and was having a bad day, break out the china to having a his and hers set so we can keep track of who eats off what. Just to get their parasitic mandibles out of our hides, my fiancée concedes and says she likes only one set. Big mistake.

When she found out that it was 90 dollars for only four pieces, she respectively said no. We would just get some casual dinnerware. Our sales lady, in a hail mary pass, said that the casual stuff wasn’t as good because it heats up and can burn your hand, the china that cannot be microwaved won’t. I laughed and said it probably had something to do with the fact it can’t be microwaved. The lady said we should get another sets for eight people, that is 90 x 8.

No.

Finally we make it our alive with our flesh attached and most of our sanity. We get home and my mother calls. Without even saying anything about our day, she informs us that we need to pick a china set we like because people will be wanting to buy us pieces of it. After, calmly, going through our reasoning of not wanting anybody to spend 900 dollars on china and that we would rather it go to something useful, another 45 minute conversation over china in which the person ignores what we are saying ensues. She concluded with a “We’ll talk about it more later.”

We won the battle, but the war still wages.