Rant/Rave: My daughter turned 2 less then a month ago. Along with my previous rant of her having her two year mollars come in, she also has a double ear infection. So my wife has her days off land yesterday/today/tomorrow so she is staying home with her until the antibiotics kick in and she can go back to daycare. My daughter was snuggling the wife on the couch watching a movie, my wife goes to kiss our daughter, my daughter says "No kisses mommy, go to timeout."
RAVE: Had a round of final interviews with a tech company in Seattle last week. Flew out for my first visit to the city, loved it, interviews went really well, I had an awesome time, and really saw myself moving there and felt it would be a much needed change in my life. RANT: Got a call today informing me that they won't be extending an offer and could give absolutely no feedback other than "thanks for taking the time to come out", per company policy. I feel stupid for getting ahead of myself and utterly defeated. Massively unsatisfied at work and going nowhere fast and I can't find a new position to save my life. Recruiters call with either bullshit, or I get jerked around by corporate HR. This is my 4th final round of interviews in 6 months. One, they hired a director for the role cause they spec'd it out wrong. One, they decided to hire internal. One, they wanted me to move laterally and take a pay cut to re-evaluate in 18-24 months. And then this. I work for a big name company, but all the doors that it's opened have been worthless. Really struggling to remain motivated.
Rant: I just weighed myself for the first time since I got laid off last September. Fuck. Fuuuuuuuuuck.
Rant: A gentleman who plays on the trivia website that I play on was hit by a drunk driver while he was jogging last week. His family made the choice to take him off of life support, and he passed away earlier today. He was only 55, and was married with kids. I didn't know him personally, but the people who did had nothing but good things to say about him. This whole thing is just so sad and infuriating. The driver didn't flee, so hopefully justice will be served. I am keeping him and his family in my thoughts and prayers. Rant: 2014 was arguably the best year of my life, and easily the best since 2007, but so far 2015 has been 2013 all over again. That is not a good thing. Then again, I have basically decided to put major life decisions on hold until I am done with grad school (hopefully next Spring) and find out where the job situation takes me. I am hoping to be able to move and get a change of scenery. I know that a year shouldn't seem like a long time, but right now it does. Rave: I found out that I should be getting a raise at work soon! It won't be much, but at least it's something.
Less Serious Rant: When I visited the apartment I now live in, my soon-to-be-roommate asked me even before giving me the room if I would be okay with her mom staying with us "for a couple of weeks" because she was graduating with her Master's and her mom wanted to come in from Puerto Rico for all of the celebrations and final performances and what not. I said sure, mostly because I really fucking needed a place to live, but also because I really didn't think I would mind, especially since she would be staying in my roommate's room and not the living room. She arrived a week after I moved in and is still here. I moved in April 1st. A while ago, I heard her talking about how she was thinking of just staying in New York until a sweet 16/big family gathering, which I thought was in the beginning of June. I also thought she would then be staying with other family after the graduation. Recently, I learned the party's July 12th...and she's shown no sign of leaving. The thing is, that part isn't even really the rant. The principle of the matter bothers me, but I actually like her. There have been several nights where we've all hung out for hours drinking and eating dinner together, and while it's cooled down a little she'll cook a ton of food to share or clean our place or whatever. The biggest thing that was getting to me was that she's one of those type of people who you can't just pass in the hallway and say "hey," she needs to stop and have an entire conversation with you, which was most annoying in the morning, especially when up until two months ago I needed an alarm to get up for work at noon and I've had to make a huge adjustment with this normal-people-schedule. So that was the biggest thing. Until a week ago.She'd been complaining about starting to get a bit bored (lady, it's New York City, maybe you can expand your horizons beyond walking distance of our building and go out and do something) and APPARENTLY her answer to that was to BUY A RECORDER and PRACTICE IT IN OUR APARTMENT. It is driving me up the fucking wall. Those are not different sounds. Those are just short bursts of monotone toots in varying patterns. If this continues near-nightly for another month I may throw her recorder out of the window. Or her body. Rave: Before I realized it was her mom who was the record...ist? I posted a status about said recorder rage. Never been so glad to not be friends with someone on Facebook. I can only imagine what would've happened if my roommate had seen it. More Serious Rant: Speaking of drama on Facebook, I just learned that a guy I went to high school with died on Monday by: having the cops called on him for hitting his girlfriend, leading them on a high-speed car chase through three towns back to our hometown, losing them, driving up to a lookout on our mountains, downing a bunch of pills, and then throwing himself off the mountain. We were not particularly close - we had a bunch of mutual friends and really only partied together - and judging from his Facebook presence the past year or so he has really been going off the rails, but I had always thought it was just embarrassing stoner posting and not genuinely crazy posting. I can't find any articles about it with the details since it's the kind of story I'm assuming the family's trying to keep out of the news, so I have a billion questions and no one to really ask. But goddamn, dude. Goddamn. I hate to admit it, but a lot of my feelings about this are selfish. The majority of my group of people from that time of my life are dead and died in similarly fucking insane ways. Every time I hear news like this I can't help but take a moment to feel grateful that I somehow managed to switch courses in my life and didn't get stuck in that group and that mindset and that lifestyle. Probably would be dead by now.
RANT: I've had a cold for 11 days. It's one of those summer colds that's not bad enough to put me out of commission, but bad enough to make me miserable. Mostly because I have uncontrollable coughing fits starting at 3:30 a.m., which means I can't sleep, which in turn means I'm not fully kicking this thing which leads me to... RANT: My foot has been killing me for a week and a half. It wants to get better, but I'm not getting enough rest. Plus, I've been busy at work, which leads me to... RANT: A former boss is getting married, and I agreed to walk his dog while he's away. The problem is he's in another part of town, so I drive there, look around for 15 minutes for parking, walk the dog, drive back. For a 30 min walk, it's an hour and a half of my day, twice a day... RANT: Guitar teacher away, and because I was sick I missed a lesson, so in return for canceling at the last minute, I'm taking care of his cats for the next three days...which means driving to Manyunk at 5 in the morning because the traffic fucking blows... RANT: speaking of 'blows' I need to get laid. RAVE: Joined a writer's group, first meeting in July. I'm looking forward to it. RAVE: I've managed to get some writing done. It's good to be back up on that horse again.
Rave: I get to drive around a local town calling in simulated air strikes on the townsfolk while they unknowingly have sim ordnance dropped on their "hostile" heads while we act as a convoy. We should get some interesting looks.
Rave: I just added one of these to my 1957's: Except mine is PSA 7 graded... pretty much pack fresh. Double Rave: I got it for $90 under current market value. For insurance purposes I registered my '57's with PSA. As of this moment I have the 112th ranked set of '57's in the world. I'll never make the top 50 though, because I'm not rich and insane. (The set at # 49 is100% complete and has a weighted average card grade of 7.0. The weighted average of my set is 6.2. What's 1 grade point worth? The Dodgers card I just bought in PSA 7 is trading at $250, in PSA 6 $140.) (The card I posted, if graded, would probably rate a PSA 3)
Rave: I love it when an off day rolls around and everything happens the way I plan. We got the grass cut (1 acre with a push mower), 5 loads of laundry finished and put away, a shitton of dishes done, picked a couple pounds of blueberries, and installed a new medicine cabinet with minimal fuss. I drilled holes in aluminum, bitches. THEN we had a shindig with friends--a good end to a good day. I live an exciting life, don't be too jealous.
Rant: Looks like I'm single again. No blame, or I'm more to blame. Whatever. I guess I'm in a better position to be single than I ever have been but I was hoping we could make it work.
Rant: Hotel TV does not turn up to full volume. Rave: Hotel has free happy hour from 5:30-7:30 every night (tip your bartenders!) Rant: The drunker I get the more I need to turn up the volume on the TV.
Rant: How to have a fun-filled day: 1. I woke up at 3:45 AM to catch a 5:45 flight to Chicago, which is 2.5 hours away. 2. Flight gets delayed 45 minutes on the runway. 3. Due to inclement weather, the plane circles the Chicago area for 30 minutes. 4. The plane was diverted to Indianapolis, they let us off there for 2 hours to get food. 5. They rushed us back to the plane, only to sit there idling for another 90 minutes. A flight attendant is in the bathroom and audibly crying due to a cluster headache or migraine or something. 6. 10 minutes into take off, the pilot realized we needed to refuel because we idled for too long. Plane goes right back to Indy. 7. Idled another 90 minutes on the runway. We receive a granola bar as compensation. 8. Take off. Circle Chicago for 30 minutes and finally land. Luggage is missing (it never changed planes, mind you). It was put on the wrong flight originally. Thankfully, that one also went to Chicago, so it was easy to track down. 9. Finally get to hotel around 6 PM. Fuck today.
Rave: Last weekend I did Bonnaroo, the seventh festival in 10 weeks I've done since Coachella weekend 1. Was one of the craziest times of my whole life and I can't believe I got through it. Rave: At Bonnaroo, I was on the rail for Ben Harrper waring a Pied Piper shirt from Silicon Valley. Watch what he says at the beginning of this video when he sees my shirt. Rant: I'm broke as hell after my trip and eating $5 pizzas.
Rant: It's shitty realizing that some people eventually turn into cunts. Case in point, college friend is becoming more and more antisocial, psychotic and cagey. This guy is also becoming more and more conspiracy-minded, and zany. He recently lost his fucking mind because he got stung by a honeybee (The owner of the house owns a few hives of Italian honeybees) at a friend's party and began pummeling their glass coffee table screaming at my friend's wife about it and managed to break all $342.55 dollars of it, and tried then to convince me to cut ties with the friends who invited him into their house for a barbecue and then proceeded over a minor annoyance to destroy their property (Other friends meanwhile, are telling me their side, including the home-owner and other party-goers, and the same idiot was also acting nuts in other ways the whole night, including when they were cooking meat and his complaints over the propane grill "poisoning the meat" and his conviction that my friend's German Shepherd, who is a lovable doofus, is a "Dangerous dog who should be put down."). I think it is high time I take our friendship out to the barn and pull an Ol' Yeller, if you catch my drift. Rave: I recently went to a barbecue (North Idaho summer means ever weekend might as well be a cook-out) at a friend's house and we had so much well-seasoned lamb chops to eat that we didn't even need to break out my grass-fed ground beef or hamburger buns, but my fresh strawberries and mangoes made for some delicious accompanying food. Also, my pal has perfected a new huckleberry moonshine. Good times were had by all. Rave: Have to remind myself to get my deer tag sooner than later. Not sure if I'm going after a mule deer or whitetail this year, but the tag is good for either. Might try for elk again but need to tag along with my cousins and their friends to the sweeter terrain for them, and since it is antlers only then I better be trailing a Mr. Elk. Rant: How come Idaho only allows crossbows for disabled people, yet I can buy a crossbow in any sportsman's store in the area, along with bolts? It's no more or less a challenge to use than a longbow or compound bow, yet people treat it like it is a fucking Destroyer of Worlds, here.
Rant: there are a lot of fun things to do on a Thursday night. Sitting in fucking Emerg isn't one of them.
Rave: Live, first time ever! You lucky TO bastards. ETA: I hope your computer or phone will do a rotation like mine, for the video.
Rant: I have to go to a bachelor party tonight. Why is this a rant you ask? Because the guys planning it are the most untalented planners I ever met. I was added to their planning whatsapp group a while after. I had to explicetly ask for every. single. detail. of the night, because no one was able to give me an answer that laid out the plan. It's today and there's still shit I just now find out. And they just pushed the time we start to 2 pm, wich was 4 pm yesterday.Which is in 2 hours instead of 4. And then there's the "games" they plan for the groom. Holy shit is it dumb. If it were my bachelor party, I'd tell them to fuck off and go home. Which might happen, because the groom was my roommate for 5 years and is the kind of guy to just walk away when he doesn't want to do something. And I distinctly remeber us having the, "so we sure as fuck won't do stuff like that when we're having our bachelor party" conversation on multiple occasions, which included pretty much everything his friends have planned. I'm still not sure if I should just "get sick" in the next hour and not go to this shitshow.
Rant: Just got a text from a girl I used to date not too long ago saying Happy Fathers Day, I'm praying to any God that'll listen that she's just fucking with me.