Saving the World, One Pixel at a Time

Marriage

2011-10-24T19:19:00.004-04:00

In the past few weeks, the owner of my company has made comments publicly about getting me married at least three times. They have all been in jest -- I think -- but I wonder if at least part of the reason I'm not married is because of my job. I don't know if I could do the job that I do if I was married. I've said many times, I don't know how people are able to make it work. I have to say, those who do stay married are the exception.

I honestly think that my job cost me two relationships. I'm a firm believer in fate, and what will happen will happen, but I'm fairly certain if it wasn't for my job- and my dedication to doing a good job, I probably would be married now. That said, both of those women I met because of my job, so....

(Un)Fortunately, I can't really half -ass things. It's not in my nature. Because of that, I get enveloped in work and it gets to be to much. One of these days when the time is right, I'll get married. I don't understand what all the peer pressure to get married is though.

A perfect example of that would be J. She's getting married in a few weeks to a nice guy she met while traveling overseas with her mother. I've met him a few times and wish them all the best. I was invited to the wedding, unfortunately, I won't be able to attend the wedding because you guessed it- work. I had a dilemma about going anyway- If I should go with a guest or not. I'm not dating anyone, but at the same time, I would know very few people if anyone other than the bride and groom. I sent my regrets and a nice gift. She understands. I insisted that I get to see pictures of the wedding though, in particular of her in a dress. I'm still a bit surprised that she's getting married because she was always so anti-marriage. I guess people change.

I go back

2011-10-20T08:37:00.002-04:00

I've been neglecting writing lately, and I think it has really been affecting me. I've always found that when I have an outlet, I'm able to keep my mind clearer/freer of distractions. I recently found out that a former colleague committed suicide. I don't know many of the circumstances, but I am still in shock over it. Outwardly he was one of the happiest people I worked with. I guess he kept things bottled up. Maybe there was something else going on that I didn't (and apparently none of our mutual friends) know about. RIP Swa.

I turned 36 this week. Not a major accomplishment or milestone, but I'm really beginning to realize that I'm not a young kid anymore.

I was invited to J's wedding, but I decided not to go. First, I didn't really have anyone to go with. I think this is a wedding where I'd feel slightly out of place. I'd really only know the bride, and no one else. The entertainment value of J getting married didn't outweigh this. The other issue was that somehow my office couldn't find anyone to cover me for the time of the wedding. It makes me wonder why I even have vacation if I can't take it when my truck is working. I did manage to take 21 days of vacation this year. 17 days of that was when my truck wasn't working and I would have been off anyway.

I'd been working on this bottom part of the blog for a few weeks. Surprisingly a friend posted something similar as a status recently. I guess I'm not the only one.

Have you heard Kenny Chesney's dong "I Go Back"? It talks about how certain songs forever hold a meaning in our lives, and hearing them will instantly take you back in time and place to days gone by. Listening to my iPod will bring all sorts of emotions based on what songs are played. Some will take me back to my high school days, some to wild parties that were had and no one knew about, some to previous loves, some to all night (and then day, and then night) edit sessions, many to good times down the shore with good friends. Then I realize that by doing that I'm living in the past.

Songs have also had meaning to me. I remember when I went away to college, a friend gave me a mix tape (yes, I'm that old that I got a mix-tape). She had put a lot of songs on it, but one really hit home with me- Desperado by the Eagles. I didn't date much in HS, and had a tendency to get wrapped up in pursuing someone and have blinders on to everything else.

"Now it seems to me, some fine things
Have been laid upon your table
But you only want the ones that you can't get"

I often wonder if she included it on the tape for that reason. I never asked her.

There's an annoying pop song out there now by Katy Perry- TGIF that actually caused me to remember something from college. There's a line in there about skinny dipping after dark, and I had totally forgotten about a time I went skinny dipping with a girl named Grannie . I had totally forgotten about that experience until that song was in high rotation over the summer. She left after the first semester freshman year. I wonder what every happened to her.

There's an Adele song out now- "Someone Like You" that when I actually listened to the lyrics for the first time caused me to well up. It pretty much sums up my feelings. There really isn't anyone that I don't wish the best to. I often wonder why something happened, or didn't work out, but I have no ill-will. I figure I'm just as responsible.

Panty Peeler

2011-01-16T18:53:00.001-05:00

Some of you have been waiting for this post for a long time, I know. I want to start by saying that I'm not proud of my actions, but at the same time, I don't really regret them either. With that, on to the stories…

For the several months I have been truly a single man. S and I had the talk and realized that we had two big problems in our relationship- 1) I'm not sure that I want to be married- ever, and 2) She's not sure that she wants to be married to me. With that, we went our separate ways. Well, as separate as I typically do. We still occasionally talk, have gone out to dinner a few times, she even went on my dad's 70th Birthday cruise since it was already booked. NOTHING happened. Since I was a single man, I ended up putting an ad on Match. I know lots of people who had success there and I figured what the hell.

So I end up meeting a girl for dinner and we had an OK time. She was very socially awkward. By that I mean she couldn't make eye contact when she was talking. She would look everywhere but to the person she was speaking to. That was a bit of a red flag. We met again with plans to go to a restaurant by my apartment and that's when the view took over. We did go to dinner, and went back to my place and well as The Lady in Red calls it, the panty peeler effect took over. We started fooling around a bit before calling it a night.

A few weeks later we met again for dinner, both saying we're not really looking for anything serious, just two people going out to dinner. I met her at the restaurant and she was dressed in such a way to accentuate her breasts. After dinner, we went back to my place to watch TV. We watched something off the DVR and she excuses herself to the bathroom. She comes out a few minutes later with her hair down, wearing a sheer teddy, panties and boots. It was an incredible outfit. I know what you're thinking- this is right out of penthouse forum. I've experienced some crazy things in my life as you know, but I really didn't see this coming from the shy, barely able to hold eye contact girl. Needless to say, we started fooling around and ended up in the bedroom. We fell asleep together, but she ended up leaving around 4am. I never felt so cheap and used. Oh wait, yes, I did- once in college. We had a good time and never talked about her changing act there. We still occasionally text, and we've met for lunch once since then, but with my schedule that's really all the time I've had available. We briefly talked and she understood my schedule and now doesn't think that she can handle it.

Through the magic of Facebook, people can reconnect with anyone. The person who used to steal your lunch money in first grade, The guy who you used to beat up in 6th grade, the first girl who broke your heart. You can also reconnect with people you were acquaintances with over the year, and perhaps learn more about them. The second story is about one of those people.

I'm alone a lot. Whether it be at night time in a hotel room, or when I'm home generally speaking I'm alone. I'll sit there and go through Facebook when I'm bored and read people's statuses, and occasionally comment. That's how it all started with M. She made a comment wondering how she got to where she is in her life. I've wondered that same thing many times. I definitely took a non-traditional path to my career and made sacrifices along the way. I'm not as close to my friends as I used to be. I always used to be the guy who kept in touch with people. As we've all grown up, I've fallen out of touch. It's not that we're not still friends, it's just we're all in different places in our lives. My life choices have cost me at least 3 relationships, mainly because I have put my job ahead of my personal life. At this point, I have very few close friends. If I was to get married, I don't know who I would pick to be my best man, let alone be my groomsmen. Enough with the pity party and on to the story-

After a few comments on Facebook, we decide what the hell, lets meet for dinner. We did and we both had a good time. We weren't really friends in high school, just acquaintances like I said. She asked if I was always this cool in HS, etc. We end up meeting the next time up by me and are talking and walking and the panty peeler took effect. We ended up kissing at the end of the pier where my apartment is, and headed up to my apartment where merriment followed. We have hooked up a few times, having a friends with benefits situation that I seem to fall into from time to time. She was out with another friend from HS at one point and mentioned that she and I had been fooling around and told her that I was amazing in bed and particularly in giving oral sex. Apparently that friend responded- I always thought that he was cute and wondered what he'd be like in bed. I didn't realize girls did that.

I never believed the panty peeler theory that The Lady in Red was espousing, but now I have no choice but to believe in it. She wonders why I'm not having sex every night that I'm home because of the view. I really don't think of my self as a guy who could do that, and I'm not Barney Stinson, So I'm not taking that as a challenge. I've been thinking long and hard about my living situation and may end up giving up my apartment for a little while during NASCAR. More on that later.

Merry Christmas to me

2010-12-29T16:16:00.002-05:00

Since I'm stuck in Wisconsin and can't get home due to the snow in Newark, I bought myself a few Christmas presents.

First I got myself an AppleTV. It's a pretty cool device that lets you stream video to a monitor via an HDMI connection. More and more hotels have the HDMI port brought out on the desk, so this was a no brainer. Especially since I'm going to be here for over a week. My second present to myself was a flip cam. They're cheap enough and small enough, I figured why not. a little HD video camera that records to flash memory seems like a cool thing.

With all of this time on my hands, I'm working on catching you up on goings on in my life, but it's taking a long time to get them written.

So much to write, so little time

2010-12-21T08:06:00.002-05:00

I've been really busy lately, both work wise and in my personal life. I'll write more about that as I find the time, but wanted to give an update on things medically. I put some of the weight I lost back on. Between my back injury and the cruise I think it was bound to happen. I actually only put on 3 lbs while on the cruise, so most of the 15lbs I gained was a result of not exercising because of my back. When I saw the Doctor last Thursday, he wasn't happy with my appearance physically. He could tell that I put on the weight. When he called yesterday with my hba1c number, he was still impressed. It was 5.4 which is in the normal range. It's not as good as my number was last time, but considering I was on steroids for my back, it's pretty good.

As far as my back goes, it has been acting up again. I have the radiating pain occasionally. Now it the pain has moved to shooting down my right leg instead of the left leg. I went to see the pain management doctor, and will be getting an injection on Wednesday to hopefully help alleviate the pain. He thinks it MAY be related to the severe headaches I've been getting also. I'll update on that as I have time as well.

Thank You mystery Ex..

2010-10-17T23:52:00.002-04:00

I got an email today from a dominatrix saying that an "ex" of mine was giving me a birthday present of a one hour session with her. She is a very attractive person, who is a redhead and apparently over 6' tall in heels. So she would fit the 6' redhead dominatrix I've been looking for. I have to admit that I am a bit nervous because I don't know for sure who gave this to me as a present. I have my guesses, but they're only guesses.

I haven't pissed off any exes that I know, so I'm sure that the gift is just that, a nice gesture. Right now, I'm planning on having the session on Tuesday afternoon. She knows that I have the plug, and would like me to wear it to the session. I told her I would definitely try, but I haven't worn it in public before. I can only imagine when the sensation will be like trying to keep it in while walking to the PATH, on the PATH and Subway or taxi.

I find out on Tuesday morning the exact location I am to go to. Any one want to own up to giving me this gift to help calm my nerves? Am I nuts for going?

Two steps forward...

2010-10-12T09:38:00.003-04:00

One step back. More on that later

On Sunday night I took advantage of being in a city where a friend lives. I met my friend Bonney out for drinks after our game. I was able to take the DC Metro system from my hotel to her neighborhood to meet her. It was a nice 20 minute ride on the metro. While it doesn't run as often as I'm used to in the NYC area, it was clean and right on schedule. The downside to the Metro is that it stops running at 12am on school nights.

Catching up with Bonney was great. I hadn't seen her a years. Bonney is the one person I know who travels more than I do for her job. At one point, she didn't even bother having a home as she was traveling for 18 months straight. (In all fairness, of the 18 months, she wasn't working for 5 days. She had to go to a wedding and a few funerals). She has me beat on the states list also. She's only missing one- Alaska. She keeps looking for an angle to get there for work though, and had almost succeeded this summer, but her plan was foiled at the last minute.

Bonney and I met through Kristen. Back in the day, Kristen had visions of setting us up. She quickly realized that she and I always become friends with every member of the opposite sex, so nothing would happen. She was right. We've stayed in touch and commiserated over travel stories. She's been lucky in that many times she's flying on chartered aircraft so she doesn't have to deal with the flying public.

While we were hanging out on Sunday night, we hatched a plan to make a surprise visit to Kristen in Arkansas. Kristen has always said that the only two people who she has a chance at seeing in Arkansas would be Bonney or me because of our traveling. From what I've been able to tell, she hasn't been adjusting well and she really wants to seem some familiar faces. We sent her a picture of the two of us together enjoying our beers and got an immediate response. When we told her we were in DC, she responded "Ahh... civilization". I'll believe the Arkansas trip when I see it. To try and get our schedules together will be a huge problem. Bonney also has the tendency to flake out on things like this also. We're going to try and plan it while it's still fresh in our minds though.

Back to the title of this post
This morning I woke up and had pain in my lower back again. No pain down the leg however, and the tingling seems to be staying away. So, the no tingling is huge, but having the pain in my back is more annoying because it does cause me to limit my activities.

Sidenote
I really think that traveling should be spelled travelling.

Missing.

2010-10-11T18:30:00.002-04:00

I woke up today and I felt different. It was as if I was missing something. The tingling I have been living with in my left leg is gone. So far it hasn't come back. This is hopefully a good sign that the end is near in dealing with my back.

Awkward moment

2010-10-07T23:52:00.002-04:00

I have so much to write, but so little time. I wanted to get this one out there before it got too far gone. I went out on Monday night to meet J and her fiance'. I think I wrote about how I was surprised when she told me she had gotten engaged, especially since I didn't know she was dating anyone. He is from Ireland and is currently living in the UK.

So, I meet her and Vince (the fiance') and several others at the bar, and I'm introduced to him. She screws up the introduction- It went "Kevin, this is my friend Vince, Vince, this is my fiance' Kevin." The look on her face was priceless when she realized what she just said. Vince seemed like a nice enough guy, but was definitely not what I was expecting. In fact, he may have been the last person in the bar I would have picked for her.

Their interaction with each other also seemed off. There were no PDA's. In fact, there was very little interaction between them at all. They were just sitting next to each other, not much talking and no contact at all. If they're happy though, that's all that matters.

Catchy tunes...

2010-09-21T18:09:00.002-04:00

Don't you hate it when you're going about your daily business and a song is playing in the background and then you get it stuck in your head all day? That happened to me the other day. I googled trying to find the name of the song, and it came up- "Aint No Rest for the Wicked" by Cage the Elephant.

Working at Rock N Rev in Sturgis, I saw Cage the Elephant perform live. They put on what was in my opinion an awful show. I don't recall them playing this song, but they very well may have. The lead singer looked like her was having seizure on stage. While it wasn't my choice of music, and I couldn't see the appeal in it, I figured the kids must like it. Imagine my surprise when I found out that they sang a song that I liked.

Yes, I did buy the song on iTunes.

New doesn't=good

2010-09-13T12:30:00.002-04:00

In recovering from my back injury, I'm feeling new things now. The latest is an occasional numbness in my mid back. I can't place anything that causes it to happen or to not happen. If it continues through tomorrow, my Nuerosurgeon told me to go to the ER. Great.

Never Forget

2010-09-10T20:47:00.003-04:00

Approaching the 9th anniversary, I share with you this picture taken September 11, 2009. I'm not one big into revenge. I simply say Never Forget, and Thank You to all the brave men and women who worked tirelessly at ground zero.

Manged Healthcare

2010-09-08T15:01:00.004-04:00

I just went through an ordeal with insurances over the past 3 hours. Basically because I got hurt in a hotel that I was in for work, it is covered under workman's comp apparently. Even though I wasn't working at the time. "They" decided that we're covered under workman's comp from the moment we leave our homes until we get back home.

Workman's Comp also initially decided that I didn't need to see a Doctor today. Well, they weren't sure that I needed to. Since the claim was just filed, they didn't have time to review it. They decided that they weren't going to approve the visit. Since it's now Workman's comp, I can't pay with my insurance, and they Doctor won't take me if I'm paying cash. In the end, it all got worked out, but it was a lot harder than it needed to be. Mike who I work with texted me after I told him the story "Government managed Healthcare. If you think it's bad now, just wait."

I truly hope that he's wrong, but I fear he's right. I think that while the intention of correct with the Healthcare Bill, I'm afraid the execution of it is going to get screwed up. My being allowed to go to the Doctor today basically came down to a financial decision. Was it cheaper for WC to pay for the appointment or to have to pay whatever fraction of my Salary for the week I would get if I wasn't cleared to work. Healthcare shouldn't be a financial thing. It should be a care based thing, and everyone knows that. Unfortunately those currently in control of healthcare are business people, not medical professionals.

The Doctor (who MIGHT be a year older than me) said that I do indeed have show classic symptoms of someone dealing with an impingement of the S1 nerve on the left side. Typically they try and let these things heal themselves, and that takes 4-6 weeks. They try to manage the pain as best they can while the body heals. The fact that the pain is going away shows that steroids are working and he says that's a good thing. The bad news is the course of steroids will start to wear off, and the pain may come back. If it gets unbearable, I can go to a Pain Management specialist and essentially get epidurals right in the spot where the pain is. This would be a higher dose, right at the disc. There would be 3 shots over 3 weeks. I'm currently scheduled to go back and see him in 3 weeks to see where it is going. I'm to call him if the pain gets worse again. As for the tingling, that's a sign that there is never damage, either chemically from the stuff that was in the disc, or physically from when the disc ruptured.

I get to work still, just not lifting anything over 10lbs. I leave for Philly in the morning.

Update

2010-09-07T12:43:00.003-04:00

I'm still in some pain, and the tingling hasn't gone away at all. In fact, it spread to the outside of my left hand. The pain has lessened, which tells me that the steroids are probably working. I was able to get an appointment for Wednesday evening with a Neurosurgeon, so hopefully I'll find out more. I'm currently scheduled to leave for work again on Thursday morning, but that's up in the air.

As far as not being able to lift anything, that's tough in every day life, especially when you live alone. How are you supposed to do laundry, dishes, etc?

Nothing completes a day like a trip to the ER

2010-09-05T20:00:00.002-04:00

Yesterday I spent around 5 hours in the ER at Caritas Norwood Hospital in Norwood, MA. The staff at the ER was very friendly and took good care of me. I couldn't have asked for better care. How did I get there you ask? I slipped on the anti-slip mat in my shower in the hotel that morning, and caught myself with the grab rail. In doing so, I managed to wrench my back something fierce.

I was able to get finish showering, get out and get dressed, but something just wasn't right. I had pain shooting down through my groin and down my left leg. As I was leaving the hotel, I let the front desk know that I slipped on it and I'd like to see it fixed as it was dangerous. They said they'd take care of it for me. During the 20 minute drive to the stadium, it was getting much, much worse by the minute. The pain in the leg was accompanied by a tingling. When we got to the stadium, I stayed in the car, took a Vicodin I had for my upper back issue and hoped it would get better. The vicodin didn't affect it at all. I watched everyone else set up, and when they were almost done, had one of the drivers take me to the emergency room as it just seemed to be getting worse.

Long story short, they did a reflex test and my left leg was found to be weak in reaction and the tingling concerned them still. They did an MRI and found that I had a "severe" herniation of L5-S1. I was relased on a course of steroids to hopefully bring down the inflammation around the nerve root, Percocet to help alleviate the pain and instructions to follow up with a neurosurgeon here at home. I'm also not allowed to lift anything. Of course I had to break that a little bit in order to get home, but I managed to pull my suitcase everywhere, and have the cab drivers handle my luggage in and out of the cabs.

If anyone has any recommendations for good neurosurgeons in the NY Metro area, I'd be glad to take them.

Mystery Solved

2010-09-02T18:21:00.002-04:00

I fly alot. So much so that I fall into a special category for my airline that represents the top 10% of their fliers. I have over a million frequent flier miles. Imagine my surprise when there were 14 people upgraded ahead of me on a recent flight from EWR to DEN. I don't get upgraded on every flight, but generally if there are 14 people upgraded on a particular flight, I'm going to be one of them. Flying from DEN back to EWR 4 days later, there were 15 people upgraded to First Class, and I was still # 5 on the list. I haven't flown any less this year than in the past. I had to get to the bottom of what was going on.

Come to find out, that many of these people who were upgraded either paid their way into First Class or used miles to upgrade. Continental recently began offering this as an option to customers, and the fees for this varies. Usually it's 15,000 miles/segment though. I never thought that there would be that many people who would pay sometimes $300+ for it. Kudos to Continental for apparently finding another revenue stream.

Bonus- For those of you who read this and guess on the Airport pictures on FB, the Great Lakes Brewing Company picture is from Cleveland.

The Corset Affair

2010-08-31T21:42:00.002-04:00

I'm not sure if I've shared this story before, but I'm staying in the same hotel that this happened in, so I figured it worth sharing again.

While working The Finals a few years ago, there were many, many interesting things going on. Ok, not really. One team kicked another teams butt in 4 games and we were all left asking the question, why are we here? Being in Cleveland this year, it did give me the opportunity to be close to Pittsburgh. C and I decided to get together for dinner on the Friday night. We made that plan early, before we knew it would end on Thursday. As things went, we had to work on Friday anyway to get everything out, so our dinner plans were still good. We agree that she'll come out to Cleveland and we'd go out for dinner. In the days leading up, she tells me that she is going to this wedding that she doesn't really want to go to, and that she has to wear this dress, and all the things I'm used to hearing from her. Keep in mind that when we were together, we went to 20 weddings in 18 months. No one, and I mean no one should have to go through that. She was in a lot of the weddings. I know she really doesn't want to have to wear the dress the whole time. She then called later in the week and said she had a really big favor to ask, and I was the only one she knew who could possibly help her with it. Interesting I thought. Without hesitating, I said sure. That's the kind of guy I am. I didn't know what I was in for.

She said I needed to tie her into a corset so she could unhook it from the front and put it back on when she needed to actually put it on. I figured that this had something to do with the dress she needed to wear for the wedding. I recall at least one bridesmaid dress that she wore that this was a requirement for. I did think this was rather odd though. I knew that she wasn't dating anyone serious, but surely she had someone else she could ask to do this.

Being modest, I wasn't allowed to watch as she took her shirt and bra off, despite I'd see her in that state many times before. She placed the corset loosely on and walked back to me so I could lace it up and tie her in it. She looked damn good wearing the corset and jeans. It was a good look for her. Then I notice that she's wearing basically a G-string as underwear and call her out on it. She would wear thongs if she was wearing a skirt or something that would show panty lines. A g-string with jeans was definitely odd for her. She was a little embarrassed and said that one of the guys she was seeing at the time liked her in it. Then came the truth about the need for the corset. It was for the wedding, it was for him. He liked the sight of a woman in a corset, over him.

We had an uneventful dinner that night and parted ways. While she was on the way home, we were texting back and forth, and I told her that all she needed was a riding crop. She responded she wasn't submissive, and I told her I know, but I was. It apparently was the first time that she heard that from me. I know that I had told her earlier on, and she was interested. Or at least that's what I thought. We continued to talk about it for a few days via email and texting. We both learned a lot about each other that we didn't know. It was probably a conversation we should have had years earlier while we were together. I told her about the photo shoots that I had done.

Her birthday wasn't too far away, so being friends I got her a few presents- A new corset, a riding crop, leather gloves and liquid latex. The sad thing is it was probably the best birthday present I ever got her. I hope she got some use out of the gift. It was shortly after then that she met her now husband.

On a side note, something I've been told before is really hitting home right now- I'm a much better friend than boyfriend. Apparently I suck at being a boyfriend.

Plagiarism

2010-08-24T21:36:00.002-04:00

I inadvertently stole the title of my last blog from another blog I read. I didn't even realize that I did it, and it was fitting.

My back is still bothering me. I had to drive 350 miles to help my dad get a new computer setup. Sitting in the car for that long sure did a number on my back. Also, driving all over the state didn't afford time for me to take either the Skelaxin or Vicodin. Once I got home, I did and was able to sleep comfortably.

This morning, my back was sore in a different area- the low back. I didn't let this stop me from doing my back stretches. My back was sore later this evening when the drugs wore off. As I'm typing this, I'm noticing that I'm getting dumber. I'm typing phonetically, and not correctly. (I'm fixing this, but it's taking a lot of concentration.

As for my A1C, it was 5.3 again. That's great news. I'm to finish the medication that I currently have in my possesion- about 2 more weeks worth. After that, I'm to stay off it, although continue testing myself. I'll go back to the Doctor for an A1C, and if that comes back well, I'm off for good, but I'll continue to be monitored. One can only hope.

My love life is complicated as always. I'm at the point in my life where I need to make some real tough decisions of what I want to do.

All Hopped Up

2010-08-22T20:47:00.002-04:00

I'd been traveling for three weeks straight with a bad back. The first thing I did when I got home on Friday was go to the Doctor. Ok, the first thing I did was nap, then I went to the doctor for my back. I was slightly worried that it might be related to the Metformin, but the doctor quickly allayed those fears. I managed to sprain every ligament on the left side of my back. Officially a thoracic sprain.

He was amazed that I could tolerate the pain considering the amount of swelling and apparent bruising that there was. He prescribed muscle relaxers and Vicodin to loosen the back and relive the pain. He thinks I should be pain free in 2-3 days, and on the road to recovery within 5-10 days. My back was really bothering me, but it was weird. I couldn't keep my feet flat on the ground sitting or standing without pain. I didn't have a problem lifting things, only reaching. I definitely was cranky because of the back pain. Two days in, most of the constant pain is gone, so things are looking up.

Of course, with the back pain I haven't been exercising as much as I should have been. My numbers are still good, and he took blood to do an A1C. If the number comes back where we think it's going to, I'll be off the medicine for good (hopefully) this week. We'll still have to check by blood sugar to make sure I don't fall back into being a diabetic.

Time to go shopping

2010-07-23T09:45:00.002-04:00

This is a good thing, I guess. I'm noticing that more and more of my clothes are loose on me. I think I hit the point in my weight loss where I have to start buying new, smaller clothes for them to fit better. The shirt im wearing now almost looks like th opposite of fat guy in skinny coat.

Good News/Bad News

2010-07-21T23:01:00.002-04:00

I've started to lose weight again. In fact, I've lost everything I gained back during the holiday week and then a little more. I'm at 246 lbs as of this morning. I'd still like to lose another 30 or so, but we'll see what happens. It is most noticeable in my face still.

When I was washing my hands in the hotel today, I noticed that I have more and more gray hair. In fact, in that lighting in the mirror, I'd say I had more gray hair than not. Really, this doesn't bother me, just a statement of fact.

The bad news- My numbers are still trending higher than I'd like them to be. Yesterday morning I tested myself and I was 120. That's about 25 points higher than I'd like to be. I've been pretty good about getting to the gym in the past week, and even went on a 26 mile bike ride yesterday. Today after eating I was 105, which is pretty good, but I'd like to be able to keep that morning number down low too. I'm in Chicago for work now, and I SHOULD be able to get to the gym every morning, so we'll see how that does for me.

Numbers Update/Stupid people

2010-07-15T23:25:00.003-04:00

So my numbers have been a bit higher than they had been the past week. I'm sure that my work schedule didn't help, and flying on a redeye really screwed my body up. I was pretty sedentary today. I Was 120 before dinner, then 102 after dinner. Very odd. I still haven't had a coke, but I was tempted to have just one today since I have 3 bottles sitting in my kitchen left over from my party as a mixer.

As I've mentioned before, I hate stupid people. Tonight, my father fell into that category. He's having to switch email accounts, and expects everything to be handed to him. He's going to comcast.net. He thought that I should know how to set up his email account for him. I told him if he just googled comcast.net set up email mac that it would return a page that would have the answers for him, probably with pictures. Sure enough it was the third one down. I sent him the link, and he didn't want to read it. He wanted me to tell him what to do. He ended up yelling at me thinking that would help me hear him better (he was on speaker phone, which I HATE). He made the comment "You must be difficult to work with." I don't think I am, so long as you don't expect me to do everything for you. I'll tell you how to find the answers, or how to figure it out, but I expect everyone to pull their own weight. Even my dad.

Maybe it is time for a change

2010-07-15T12:38:00.003-04:00

Within 2 days, I had 2 weekends off taken away from me by my company. What pisses me off is that it's to make things easier for other people, but they don't really seem to give a shit about me. I had actually made plans for both those weekends, which now have to be canceled. I understand one of the weekends. My truck was added a show. I'm not happy about it, but it is my truck, so I should be there. There are plenty of other people who could have worked the one weekend (not on my truck), but since I live in the NYC metro, it was easy to make me work the day and not incur any travel costs. When I mentioned this, I was told that if I needed those days off I should have taken vacation. When I was told this on Monday (in the middle of working the only professional sporting event in 3 days) I nearly walked off the show right then and there.

Year to Date, I've had 4 weekends completely off. I had fewer weeks off during the NASCAR season this year because we were going to have more time off over the summer. I was OK with that because of the time promised off over the summer to catch up. So far, I haven't made up any days "owed" to me by company policy. Currently for the year I've worked 21 more days than I should have. I was "even" in June, and will get 2 of those days back in July, barring any additional shows. I'll be Even in August (again, barring any additional shows being added) and will start adding more additional days each month starting in September. I project to be owed 35 days by the end of the year. I will have 2-3 days off in January, and none in February of 2011.

I don't think I can take the company at it's word that it'll get me the time back next summer, do you?

I think it finally hit me...

2010-07-03T16:08:00.003-04:00

As I'm sitting here cleaning my apartment, I think it finally hit me. This weekend is a real life changer for me. I was going to write this in my last entry about perfect timing, but thought better of it. Now I'm thinking better of that.

This weekend there are two life changing events in other peoples lives that are affecting me. I have two people that I would normally talk to about things like this. Unfortunately, each of these events are involving one of these two people.

First, my bff Kristen moved to Arkansas this weekend with her family. Her husband is getting transferred there for work. When she first mentioned to me that her husband was offered the job there, both of us thought that there wasn't a chance that she would actually go. Apparently they sweetened the pot enough. Over the years, Kristen and I have slowly grown apart as we've gotten older. She now lives very much an adult life -- married with a daughter. I'm very much a nomad, traveling for work all the time. When we were younger, we'd spend many a late night at the bar, talking about anything and everything. She is who I would always go to when I had a problem or needed to talk. I filled the same role for her. Even when she met her husband, we'd still hang out a lot and talk. Then i moved to Pittsburgh. Things wer diffeent, but with my travel schedule, I was still in NJ a lot. Then she got out of law school and married. Things started to change then as she was on a different schedule. Ironically, it was after Caroline and I got home from Kristen's wedding that we decided that we were never going to get married to each other. When Kristen had her daughter, that definitely changed things. She couldn't go out as much, and she became a mom. It was a nice change. Anytime that I needed to talk bout anything, Kristen was there. This is something that I cant talk to her about.

Second, Caroline is getting married. This really doesn't bother me, although as I've said before, everyone asking me if it bothers me bothers me. Normally, I would be able to call Caroline and talk to her about Kristen's move and how it is affecting me. I wouldn't dare call her this weekend with all of her wedding prep going on (and today's the big day). I went back and forth about sending a card to Caroline and her hubby. It was a difficult decision. I wanted to wish them well. At the same time I didn't want to screw anything up or cause anything to be akward. In the end, i sent her a simple email saying congratulations, and sent a card to them at their house that they'll get when they get home from their honeymoon. My usual wedding gift would be cash in the currency of country where they are honeymooning. I thought of doing the same thing with them, but decided it would be better to send just a card afterwards. That and i couldn't find out where they were going on their honeymoon without seeming like a stalker.

While I'm sitting here cleaning my apartment for my party tomorrow night, it all seemed to finally hit me. The two women (aside from my mom) who are most responsible for who I am are both essentially leaving today. That sounds a little dramatic, but its the best way I can put it. I know that they will both still be around, and the world is getting smaller every day, but things will be different after today. I won't be able to just call Kristen and plan for dinner next week. In all honesty, I don't know how shes going to survive in Arkansas. Actually, I don't know how Arkansas will survive her living there.

On a side note, it's dawned on me, if I were to get married in the next 6 months, i have no idea who would be my best man or who would be in my wedding party.

It's all about timing.

2010-06-30T13:57:00.002-04:00

As you may know, I haven't driven my own car in close to 2 years now. I've been trying to donate my car since the end of March without much luck. The problem is where it is in the garage in my building. The company who the donation company uses to pick up the cars can't get to it with a tow truck. Since I haven't driven it in close to 2 years, it doesn't start. The battery is dead.

Last night, I had a friend over so we tried to jump start the car so that I could get it out of the garage and they could come and pick it up today. We tried and tried and tried to let it charge up and start the car, but it just wouldn't turnover. I had tried to push it previously, but that didn't work either. I couldn't even get it to budge. It was as if the brakes were locked on.

I went as far as to see if there were chains on the buildings mini bulldozer type thing so I could pull it out with the other car. At this point, is when timing comes into play. One of the maintenance guys is walking by and mentions they had been trying to figure out who's car it was because they were going to tow it. I jokingly said good, they can have it. I'm just trying to get it outside so I can donate it. He said he had a battery charger I could use, but unfortunately there really wasn't a place to plug it in. (we both looked)

Long and short of it, he actually needed a car. I needed to get rid of a car. He was willing to take it as is. He has the proper tools to get the battery out or tow it from where it is. It was a match made in heaven. I didn't want it any more, so I truly gave it to him. In the end, I'll end up selling it to him for $1.00.

Catching up, part 4: The Rest

2010-06-28T23:20:00.003-04:00

So, I've been pretty good about going to the gym except for when I was out west. Working 20 hours days means you have to cut something out, and for me the gym was what got cut most days. Since I've been back home, I've done a good job at making sure that I get to the gym for at least 45 minutes a day. I've started developing shin splints again, but found that if I go to the stationary bike when that happens, I can usually get the muscles stretched out/warmed up enough that after 7 minutes I can go back to the treadmill.

I still haven't had a coke, although I think I mentioned that in Part 1 of Catching up. I'm drinking over 128 ounces of water a day.

I bought a Globe Carmel 3 700c bicycle. I plan on using that to do some more exercise to get outside and get fresh air. I'll put a back pack on with my camera and hopefully get some great pictures in and around the area.

I still love my iPad. I'm finding more and more to do with it for legitimate work purposes. I still need to find a good printing app for it.

I misplaced my drivers license on the trip back from the Open. I've called the airline and the lost and found at the three airports and no joy. Unfortunately I sent my passport out to get renewed from the Open. This means I have no legal photo id right now. I had to meet my father today to get my birth certificate and Social Security card. Hopefully I'll be able to get a drivers license with that and a utility bill. I don't have to get on a plane until July 9th, so I'm not in a huge rush, although it would be nice to be able to prove that I am me.

Kristen is essentially leaving on Saturday. I still don't think I'm going to get used to the thought that she won't be here.

I'm dropping mindspring as my email address and moving to just using my me.com address. This is part of the makeover and saving money. I'm so convinced about saving money and stopping wasteful spending that I'm thinking of dropping cable as well.

I think thats just about everything, although I'm sure I'm forgetting something.

Catching up, part 3: The Domme.

2010-06-28T22:13:00.002-04:00

This will have some adult material in it. If you're not comfortable with that, stop reading now.

I had gone a long time without any type of BDSM activity, not even playing around the house myself. One night while poking around alt.com, a BDSM personals site, I put in the area I was staying my last night in California, and a few people popped up. There was one Domme's profile who really caught my eye for some reason. She wasn't particularly attractive, but I liked what she had written about herself. I made the decision to contact her.

We exchanged a few emails, and she ended up giving me her phone number. I wasn't sure if I was going to go through with it. I had been to an unknown Domme before, but this felt slightly different. In the end, my desire overcame my fear, and I made the call on the last day in town, just before the drive up to her neck of the woods. In the phone call we discussed things in generalties and her rate- 200/hr. That's not bad and about what I have paid in the past the few times I have gone to see a pro domme. I know what you're saying. I'm not proud of the fact that I have paid to see a dominatrix, but I have. That's that.

So we make plans for a session that evening. I am to call her when I get to my hotel in SJC. I make the 90 minute drive to my hotel, and give her a call. She gives me instructions on how to get most of the way to her place. I am to go that far (about 20 minutes away) and give her a call. I shower and head that way. I call a friend to let her know what I was doing, and ask that if she doesn't hear from me in 3 hours to call and check to see if I was ok. I stop at the right place, but instead of calling her right away I locate an ATM and get the required cash. Once I get the cash, I give her a call and head that way.

In my dealings with her on the phone, she is different than most of the other Dommes I've dealt with. She wasn't as sure of herself. I end up finding her place, and then started walking to her apartment. She was outside her apartment waiting for me when I got there, and her neighbor was just getting in from work. They made small talk, he went into his apartment, and she led me into hers.

She was older than she looked in her pictures. I'm sure I look different in my pictures as well. She shows me where to leave the tribute, and tells me to have a seat, she's going to change into her outfit and will be out in 5 minutes. When she comes out of her room, she is dressed in a leather bustier, a short leather skirt and knee high boots. She is wheeling a suitcase behind her.

She orders me to strip and I oblige. She puts a condom on me and then a leather pouch. She then put restraints on my wrists and ankles, limiting my movement somewhat. She proceeded to flog me for a while, mostly on my back and ass. My ass was a lovely shade of red. To me, the endorphins released during this is better than any massage I've had.

After the flogging, it was time for some nipple play and CBT. She was upset that I wasn't clean shaven. She suggested the next time I see a Domme, I make sure that I'm clean shaven. Normally I would have been, I just didn't have time this particular time. I ended up with 43 clothes pins on me, only 2 of which were on my nipples.

During our phone conversation, I asked if she did any strap-on play since that is something that i'm anxious to experience. I've fooled around with plugs on my own, and have had a Domme use a plug on me before, but never with a true strap-on. Unfortunately she doesn't either. She does use dildos manually though, and we agree on that. Back to her apartment- She asks if I had an enema before seeing her and I say no. I tell her that I've never had one. She is slightly disappointed, but this won't stop her. She has an array of dildos, and selects a vibrating one to use on me. It was amazing.

All told, it was over an hour experience with her. She was older than I thought that she would be, but if I was to go back to that area and felt the need, I would definitely give her a call again. I'm still looking for someone to fill that role permanently for me. Suggestions? Thoughts?

Catching up, part 2: Debt Free

2010-06-28T21:29:00.002-04:00

I'm taking advice from someone who was calling himself SkinnyCock at the last show. His nickname is Peacock. He's recently lost a lot of weight, and is skinny. When he arrived on site, many people were amazed at how he looked, and he asked the girls, what, you don't like SkinnyCock? They both answered well, we like you, but skinny cock is bad. That reminds of something a female friend once told me- "Long and thin will get it in, but short and Fat is where it's at." I guess they were going with that theory. But I digress.

We were sitting at dinner one night and the subject of his boat came up. He mentioned that he hasn't put it in the water yet this year because he and his wife are working on getting out of debt. Someone else at the table asked if he was doing the Total Money Makeover and he said yes. He said he and his family were on the last baby step. The fourth person at the table said oh yeah, I'm on Baby Step number 2. I looked around and I wasn't in an alternate universe. Keep in mind that these three people only work this show together every year. One lives in Alabama, one lives in St. Louis, the other lives in Florida. I had no idea what these people were talking about.

Skinnycock began to tell me about Dave Ramsey and the Total Money Makeover. Google it. Ramsey has some great ideas. I'm trying my hardest to do the TMM now. Why you ask?

My first job out of college, I was making $65,000 a year. I could buy anything I wanted. $65,000 is more than the average family in America makes in a year now. 14 years ago that was TWICE what the median family income was in the country. I was barely 21 years old and living the high life. I was paying my bills, bought a condo, everything was great. I had a 401K from a fortune 500 company, I was making contributions to an IRA, and able to get anything that I wanted. I wasn't really saving. I had no budget. I was living paycheck to paycheck, but never realized it.

Fast forward 14 years. Last year I made over $220k. I'm still paying into a 401k, still making contributions, I've paid off the condo I bought, I have that condo as a rental property adding $2k/month to my income and guess what? I still have virtually no accessible savings. No emergency fund. I'm still essentially living paycheck to paycheck. Making over $220k. That's embarrassing. I never really realized until that dinner with Skinnycock.

I googled Dave Ramsey. I bought his books for my kindle on Amazon. He has some radical ideas. First- Get rid of your credit cards. If you can't pay cash for it, you don't deserve to have it. Second- get out of debt. Third- Don't loan anyone money. Fourth- have a well funded emergency fund. Fifth- when you're able to, give money to those who are less fortunate or to charitable organizations.

My debts aren't that large. I haven't totaled it up yet (Something you have to do in baby step 2), but they're under $10,000. By not free spending for a month, I can probably pay them off. Next will be to build up a nice size emergency fund. He suggest for someone in my situation 6 months worth of expenses.

Like I said. Google Dave Ramsey. Read about his ideas. Read other peoples take on his ideas. I bet you won't do it. I bet that I won't have the discipline to jump in both feet. (I already did buy a new bicycle this month, with cash.) Although now that I'm typing this, I'm making a pledge to myself that beginning July 1st, 2010 I will start my Total Money Makeover. Want to join me?

Catching up, part 1: Diabetes

2010-06-28T21:19:00.003-04:00

I have so many things I want to write, but I just haven't had the time to do it. Hopefully over the next few days (or hours) I'll be able to get my thoughts together and get them written. In trying to keep this neat and organized, it'll be grouped by topic as best I can.

First, the diabetes update. After coming home from Pebble Beach, I went to the doctor for a follow up. I emailed my numbers to the doctor the night before so he would have them when I got there. When he saw me walk into the waiting room he came up and shook my hand. He was thrilled with the numbers, and said pending the results of an A1C test that he would do that day, he would start taking me off the Metformin. The A1C is basically a three month picture of what your blood sugar has been doing.

He got the results of the A1C the next day and called me with the good news. It came back as a 5.3 Remember on April 29th when it was done, it was 9.4. Ideally, you want to be 6 or below. A 5.3 equates to an average glucose reading of a 90. The 9.4 equaled a 234. That's a huge drop in under 2 months.

I'm also below 250lbs for the first time in a long time. I'm getting weened off the medicine now, with the hope of being totally off medicine by Labor Day. He wants to make sure that my numbers do stay down as the dosage goes down -- basically making sure I'm going to keep up the lifestyle changes that I've made.

As far as I'm concerned, if I made it through the US Open show without drinking a coke, I'm going to make it. I was tempted many times between working consecutive 20 hour days and how good it goes with the peanut butter sandwiches I was having, but I managed to avoid it.

A preview

2010-06-27T23:27:00.004-04:00

Some pictures of fireworks from the Gay Pride celebration tonight in NYC. I like that they happen because it allows me to practice taking pictures of fireworks before the big show next week. Since they've moved the Macy's fireworks to the Hudson, this is a true preview for next week.

I'm gettig too old

2010-06-19T21:46:00.002-04:00

I've been working a series of 15-21 hour days and it's really taking it's toll on me. I haven't been able to go to the gym in a week. My energy level has dropped tremendously. My numbers have been very good for the most part. My 14 day average blood sugar is 92. That's very good. I haven't gotten on a scale lately, and I probably won't until I get home on Tuesday evening. I have lots of things to update on, just no energy to put together something witty.

Milestone passed

2010-06-07T22:50:00.003-04:00

I've had really good numbers for the past two weeks until today. I was a little higher than I wanted to be blood sugar wise (181) after eating today. I then realized that I haven't gone to the gym in two days since I was visiting my parents. I immediately went to the gym and did my work out. Regardless I do have good news. For the first time since I stepped on my scale, my body fat % was in the 20's. That's a big accomplishment, and there's only more to go. The next two weeks will be my toughest, working several 20 hour days.

Airport rant

2010-06-05T09:11:00.003-04:00

I'm flying home today after being on the road the greater part of the past 5 months and I think things are finally starting to get to me. I'm flying out of a small airport that pretends they are a big airport. MHT is trying to steal business away from BOS and have been for years. During the big dig, MHT was a great alternative. Getting in and out of Logan was a nightmare. Now, MHT is just another small airport.

It all started at the rental return. At least it is right across from the terminal, something you won't find at most large airports. I arrived at the airport at 8:30for a 9:50 flight. Avis hadn't opened its outside return facility yet. I had to note the fuel level and mileage and go inside to the counter. Not a huge deal, but an annoyance.

Going through the checkin counter wasn't bad actually, but it always amazes me how uninformed people are (but that could happen anywhere -- large or small) at airline proceedures. Using a self serve kiosk isn't that hard now is it? When you're at a small airport, there is typically only one agent at the counter, and if they are showing someone how to u se the kiosk, they cant be checking your bag. I wonder if these are the same people who need to be shown how to use a seat belt. (No disrespect intended towards flight attendants- I think most do an outstanding job at something i could never do. I've said it before, I hate dealing with stupid people, i could never do it all day long.)

I started writing this almost a week ago and no longer am frustrated I've lost my steam. Sorry. I'm sure it will come back to me eventually. I did have a lovely 15 hour travel day to pebble beach today.

I'm a slave...

2010-06-04T22:33:00.002-04:00

...to technology.

I hate to admit it, but I'm writing this from my new iPad. I got the hard sell last week from some colleagues who I trust and picked one up this week. I,ve had it for about 30 hours. I haven't been able to put it through it's paces yet, but it's very promising. I've used it already for some work items, and I'm impressed. More to come.

I need a better choice of words

2010-05-31T19:39:00.002-04:00

I have a problem saying Happy Memorial Day. Memorial day is a day that we're supposed to remember those who have fought for our country and died. It really is a solemn occasion. Not something to be happy about. I'd like to thank all of those who have served. Your efforts are appreciated. Regardless of your stance on the wars, make sure you thank the brave men and women that make up the United States Armed Forces.

Making time

2010-05-30T19:55:00.002-04:00

I've gotten a lot of news in the past few weeks that have made me re-evaluate some things. It started when I tried to contact a friend from college who lives in Charlotte. I was going to be spending two weeks in Charlotte for work, with a day or two off and I wanted to get together with her and her husband. The letter I got back floored me-

Hey Kevin,
I would have loved to do this, but unfortunately I have surgery scheduled. I was just diagnosed with breast cancer. Clearly I am not doing very well right now, as all I can think about is my 3 year old and 5 mo. Old. Anyway, things have been rough.

I haven't seen her since she was just pregnant with her 3 year old. I was always the person who was great at keeping in touch with everything and making sure that I knew what was going on. I didn't know she was pregnant again and had a second child. Needless to say, I've been trying to keep tabs on her and see how she's doing. I haven't been able to get in touch with her since she had the surgery, but will keep trying.

Next up was finding out that my friend Kristen from high school is moving to Arkansas with her husband because he got a job there. I don't know how I'm going to deal with that. I used to see Kristen almost every day. As we got older and I started traveling more and more, we started to lose touch, but we always managed to know what was going on with each other. We wouldn't see each other for months, yet whenever we saw each other, you'd never know it. The news of her moving to Arkansas really has hit me hard. I still haven't actually talked to her. I know that it'll be tough to choke back the tears when we talk because I'm tearing up now writing this.

All of this has made me realize how I've lost touch with a lot of people that meant something in my life. There was a girl I was friends with a while ago who disappeared off the face of the earth. I did some research and found a new email address for her. I sent her the following email this morning-

Sara-
I've been trying to write this for a long time. I've always wondered where you were and what you were up to. I've wanted to reach out and see how you were doing. I really have no idea what happened. To me it seemed like you were there one minute and gone the next. What finally got me to write was when I found the card you gave me before I left for Pittsburgh. I don't know if you remember that at all, but unfortunately in the end, I did end up with another really good friend. I lived in Pittsburgh until January 2004. Caroline and I both realized that Kristen's wedding actually (it was wedding number 20 in 18 months for us) that would never be us. We were really good friends, but that spark was gone. That said, we both agree that if I had proposed, we would be married now. She's getting married in the beginning of July.

In 2004, I moved back to NJ, living in Jersey City in the waterfront area. I absolutely love the area. It's close to the city, and I can walk anywhere I need to go. I'm currently dating a great woman who is jokingly robbing the cradle. She's 42. Unfortunately she's a Devils fan. She works in TV too. I'm still basically doing the same job that I've always done. I'm traveling all over the place televising sporting events, primarily now for Fox Sports. I do NASCAR from February through June, the MLB All Star Game and Fox's NFL A Game- wherever Joe Buck and Troy Aikman go. This year i'll be the engineer in charge for the Superbowl- my second time for that. I did the Giants superbowl in AZ as well.

Tim is working for another company as an Engineer now. He has 2 more kids. I think both kids from his first marriage are in College now (very scary thought). Jonathan is now married and working for WWE up in Connecticut. Tim (Bartender) is married and is in charge of the new grasshopper in Morristown. He has a baby girl, Saorise, and another on the way. I still email with Mike Murphy occasionally, he's the same. His daughters are all old now, which is scary for me.

I'd really like to meet for dinner or drinks at some point. I don't know where you're living now, so I'll let you pick a place. Although the grasshopper always works :). If you don't want to meet, I understand. I'd really appreciate it if you respond to this though so I know you're ok. It's always bothered me that we just lost touch. You can always call too.

I was disappointed when I got a bounce back stating Diagnostic-code: smtp;550 5.1.1 unknown or illegal alias:

I think it's human nature to want to connect to your past. It's not that I don't like my present or the future, but I don't like losing touch with people, and I fear what I'll miss. I like my friends. I don't want anything to happen to them, and I don't like not knowing what's going on.

I'm going to try my hardest to continue to track down Sara. I'm going to make sure that I make time for my friends, and make sure that I don't lose touch with Kristen, regardless of the distance.

I had cake

2010-05-30T17:40:00.002-04:00

I had cake today with lunch (it is a holiday and it was red, white and blue cake). Ninety minutes after eating, I was 133. That's good. I got away with being bad.

What does match know that I don't?

2010-05-29T18:49:00.002-04:00

Yesterday morning, I was asked to take a look at someone profile on match.com to give tips. I had an account on match and met a wonderful woman on there. We weren't really a match because of my schedule, but we remain friends. I know several people who have met their mates on match.com or something similar and are happily married. After looking at the profile and giving tips, I see that had this thing called Daily 5. I figured I'd look, what was the worst that could happen.

I did indeed look, and low and behold, I know the person it says is my number 1 match. She and I are friendly, but I haven't seen her in years. I've always thought she was attractive and would be fun to hang out with. Now I'm beginning to think hmmm, maybe we would be a good match. I'm tempted to contact her to let her know and see what she says.

As far as my numbers go, I had more lows yesterday and today. I talked to the doctor today, and he is probably going to reduce my dosage on Tuesday morning. That'll be the first step to being off medication. The downside about that is that he wants me to test myself more often to make sure that I don't go back up consistently high. My goal remains the same. To be totally off medication for diabetes by the end of the year. I don't want to rush it, but I am totally committed to this.

Are you #&*%ing kidding me?

2010-05-27T22:29:00.002-04:00

I just got back to my hotel room and there was a wet paint sign on my door handle. The door itself looked like it was cracked slightly open too. I lightly pushed on the door handle and it was indeed open. My hands also slipped on the handle and onto the wet paint. I immediately went down to see the manager (who was 12). He brought security up, we made sure that there was nothing missing from my room. There wasn't. He offered the usual apologies, and offered to buy me a drink tonight. Luckily for him, I'm not currently drinking.

All in all, it's not that bad. I got some paint on my fingers which washed off and and I walked to a place for dinner because I didn't think I should make the room service dude knock on the wet paint, although that may be justice. When I came back 45 minutes later, the wet paint sign was off the door handle, but the paint is still wet. What I don't get is why they had to paint the door. It looked perfectly fine and was already not closing properly due to multiple coats of paint.

As for the diabetes, today was a back to normal day for me. My numbers today were between 83-135. Perfectly normal. I have no explanation as to what happened yesterday.

Roller coaster of numbers

2010-05-26T21:02:00.003-04:00

It was never my intention to make this a blog about me or medical things, but with my recent diabetes diagnosis, I need a place to outlet information. Maybe someone will stumble upon it and offer some comments.

Today I did nothing out of the ordinary for me. I woke up and was at 98. Not a bad fasting number. I ate a Quaker Oats bar for breakfast. Normally I have one of those or Cheerios for breakfast. Occasionally I'll have a bagel. Before I was diagnosed with diabetes, I rarely ate breakfast. If I did, it would have been a Sausage McMuffin and a Coke. Not exactly the way to start of the day, but I digress. I didn't really do anything this morning. Two hours after eating, I was at 61. That's low. So Low, that my meter told me so. To get myself back up, I had a Kit-Kat mini and a small Reeses Cup. Thirty minutes later I was at 115. Not bad, but almost on the high side. Forty minutes later as I was leaving for lunch, I was back down to 78.

Knowing that I was trending low- very low, I was a little reckless at lunch today. We went to Five Guys and I had a cheeseburger and some fries. Basically whatever didn't fit in the cup they put the fries in. 90 minutes after eating, I was up to 180. That's very high. Thirty minutes later -- 2 hours after eating, I was at 126. Three hours after eating, I was 106. An hour later, I was 51. This afternoon I pretty much sat around and did nothing. At least in the morning I was on my feet and doing some occasional walking. I immediately went and had a Special K bar, and thirty minutes later I was 84. An hour later on my way to dinner I was 77. Dinner was a grilled chicken Caesar salad. I also had 2 small mozzarella sticks. They were yummy. Mozzarella sticks used to be a staple of my diet. I was going with the everything in moderation notion there. So, here I sit an hour after eating and I'm 99. I can't wait to see my 2 hour post eating number.

It should be noted that I've only had water to drink for the past three weeks, so it's not like that's skewing my numbers. Also, I've felt OK during most of this. When I was at 180 was when I felt funny. I didn't feel ok at 51, but not as bad as I felt at 180. I'll update the blog later with my 2 hour number.

My body is not making this easy

2010-05-25T21:33:00.002-04:00

I am 100% committed to getting off medication by the end of the year. I am going to do it. My body while seemingly happy about the changes I've made in my life, is starting to resist a little bit.

First it was shin splints over the weekend. For the first time EVER, I had shin splints while on the treadmill. They were so bad that I got off the treadmill and stretched for a few minutes and then got back on. I was doing fine for a while, ad then when I went to speed up, they came back. I decided to cut my losses and go for a longer period of time at the slower speed.

On Monday when I went to the gym while stretching, I felt something pop in my left leg. Nothing major, I was able to continue stretching and jog my usual 5k. This morning when I woke up, I was in pretty intense pain on the right side of my back. I don't know what caused this, but now, 15 hours later, it's still bothering me just lying down and excruciating when I try to walk. I didn't go to the gym today.

My numbers on the high side higher than they have been lately, peaking at 150 2 hours after eating, but under an hour later, I can be 80. I had much better control of my blood sugar on days when I get a good workout at the gym. I can only hope tomorrow will be a better day.

A life changer

2010-05-23T22:03:00.002-04:00

On April 29th I was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes. This shouldn't have been a surprise to me considering I am overweight, have a family history of diabetes and at the time drank probably 2-3 liters of Coke a day. My numbers when I went to the doctor were extremely high. A normal person should have a blood sugar between 70-120, occasionally spiking as high as 140 after eating. My blood sugar was 353 when tested at the doctors office.

In the 3+ weeks since the diagnosis, I have had to take a pill twice a day. I have to test my blood sugar at least six times a day. I've cut out all soda. I haven't had a caffeinated (or carbonated) beverage at all. I've gone to the gym 5-6 times a week, walking/jogging a 5k ever day. I've been more careful with what I eat and when I eat it. I'm looking at labels, trying to be smart about the amount of sugar and carbs I put in my body. I've cut out alcohol. I'm eating broccoli. I've cut out most potatoes. Unfortunately I was never a big sweet eater, so there wasn't much to cut out there.

The doctor initially wanted me to lose 100 pounds. I'm 6'2", and was 280lbs. I liked the prospect of losing 60-70lbs. We settled at 80lbs. When diagnosed as a diabetic, all my other numbers were excellent except for my triglycerides. They were at 325, which is about 180 points higher than what is considered good. When I went back for my 2 week check up, I had lowered my triglycerides by 225 points. I had lost 12 pounds. The doctor was very impressed with my progress so far, and has said that if I lose another 20-25lbs, I will probably be off medication.

My blood sugar for the most part has been much better. I can tell a difference in my moods and my ability to concentrate. I still occasionally have blurry vision, but that is probably due to my blood sugar levels still getting under control. By testing myself so often, I learn how different things affect my numbers. When I exercise in the morning, my numbers for the whole day are generally better. When I get in the 150 range, I start to get tired and have a hard time concentrating.

I don't know what the future holds for me. I can tell you I hate the thought of having to take a pill every day for the rest of my life. I plan on doing everything I can to not have to do that. We'll see how it goes as the year goes on.

You never know what you'll find...

2010-05-15T15:33:00.003-04:00

My job has a lot of interesting people. It also has a lot of independence. Sometimes, when you take one of those interesting people and you put them alone in a dark room, great things happen -- you might end up with an award winning idea or broadcast. Other times, you end up with something you want nothing to do with.

Over the past few weeks, there have been rumors swirling around the compound that one particular person has had dates meet them in the compound, spend a few hours with them, perhaps exchange massages in the dark room the person spends all their time in. It has needless to say made some people feel uncomfortable in their work environment. Two weeks ago, someone noticed that this individual was on a website that they shouldn't have been on. As the administrator of the computer network, I was asked by that persons administrator if I could either confirm or deny the claims of visiting the pornographic website. I do possess that ability, and much to my chagrin, I was able to confirm it.

It's not uncommon in my industry to walk past a bunch of people looking at some girl on youtube with large breasts, or perhaps a girl flashing from last nights game on a "highlight" reel. That kind of behavior is almost accepted in the trucks. What makes this persons actions different is that he is visiting gay websites. That is why people are saying something, and it's making them feel uncomfortable.

I'm not a fan of people openly looking at girls in the truck, but I'm not against it either. I'm not going to lie and say that I've never stopped and watched whatever they were looking at. I also am very uncomfortable with the double standard that exists - that it's "ok" to look at straight porn, but when it is gay porn it's a problem.

I talked to the owner of my company about it in generic terms since there are potential legal repercussions here. Initially, he asked can I block that person from getting online. The answer to that question of course is yes, but it's not that simple. Here's what's going to happen. The person's supervisor is going to confront him with logs of information tracked over the weekend, presenting it as a case that the person was surfing the internet while we were on the air and they should have been working. The person will know at that point that he has been outed, because the websites visited are right there. I'm working on a proxy page that every person will have to go to starting next week when they first log on to the truck network. It will outline an Acceptable Use Policy that you have to agree to in order to continue. At that point, you will be able to get on the internet, knowing that your traffic is being monitored, and filtered for porn. Unfortunately for those who complained about this, they will be blocked from going to any porn sites they may have visited as well.

All of this means more BS work for me. I can't wait until next week when people start asking why is there all of a sudden an Acceptable Use Policy they have to agree to.

Tarnished

2010-04-13T15:20:00.000-04:00

One of the greatest yearly television events is the NCAA basketball tournament. CBS typically puts on a great show for every game, capturing the emotion an excitement of the tournament. The tournament itself is perfect. 65 teams playing to be the best. Are they the best 65 teams in the country? No. But the best teams that have a shot at winning the tournament are there.

There has been talk of expanding the tournament to 96 teams. This is a pure profit move. All they want to do is create more revenue. They're not interested in making a better tournament, or giving other teams a shot. It's a pure money grab. Think of the NCAA football mess. The reason they use to not have a tournament in that sport is that it would take the student-athletes away from class too much, and that they are students first. Never mind the fact that a football tournament would take place when most schools are on break. The student athletes are already missing potentially 3 weeks of classes during the hoops tournament. Adding another 32 teams makes that number 4 weeks.

If you want to add some more mid-majors, why not add 3 more teams. That would take care of most bubble teams that could possibly have a case. If you expand the tournament to 68 teams, you get an additional 3 games- all "opening round" games played on the Tuesday before the main tournament starts. This would determine who plays the number 1 seeds in each of the brackets.

As for CBS' "One Shining Moment", it too has been commercialized. This year they had Jennifer Hudson sing the song, and we were treated to video of her stylized singing during the video. Showing her of course means that there was less time to show the kids who were playing in the tournament.

Over the past few years, the quality of the final piece has steadily gone downhill. I had some people over a few years back to watch the final game, and we all had the same thought "Wow, that was bad". A few months later, I had some others over to watch NHL playoffs, and the subject came up, and it turns out that he was the one who edited the NCAA piece. I was shocked when he admitted to that. If I had done something that bad, I would never want my name associated with it. Needless to say, that was good compared to this years. That song is so perfect for the tournament, yet instead of seeing more shots of kids playing their hearts out, we get to see an artist trying to sell a new album on iTunes.

What was I thinking?

2010-02-22T07:42:00.002-05:00

February is always the toughest month for me work wise. I am gone for 2 weeks working 16-18 hour days at the beginning of the month, fly home for less than a day and then fly out to the west coast. That alone is enough to take a toll on a person. What I've done to compound this and make it worse this year is to take a red-eye home from the west coast. Unfortunately I couldn't take a direct red-eye, so I'm currently waiting in Houston for my flight home to Newark.

I'm supposed to work first thing on Wednesday in Las Vegas, but that won't be happening. I'm taking a "me" day on Tuesday and flying out to Vegas on Wednesday morning. Crazy, I know. Next year I hope someone reminds me how I feel and tells me to take the extra day out west and just drive from Cali to Vegas. I'm sure I'll be much happier, even if it does mean fewer days at home.

Up in the Air

2010-01-18T14:40:00.003-05:00

Since I first saw the previews for it, I've wanted to see Up in the Air since it had the potential to be very close to home for me. I wasn't disappointed. Warning, there is a SPOILER ALERT BELOW…. I don't want to ruin it for anyone- it's safe to read until you see the Spoiler alert. The movie was very good, and shows what life can be like on the road. While there are many similarities between the George Clooney character and I, there is one BIG difference. Once I get to a city, I am generally with people I know.

I think the biggest similarity I have with him (besides the requirement for Travelpro luggage (more on that later) is how empty our homes were. It took me about a month of living in my current apartment before I realized why I was so comfortable in it. My apartment feels like a hotel room. From the exterior hallway with it's rows of doors-

to the privacy latch and peep hole,

it feels like a hotel room. Generally my refrigerator is empty. Sure it may have leftover beer from my last party and 3 month old milk, but that classifies as empty to me.

Lots of people have asked me when will I get off the road and start having a normal life. What people don't understand is that this travel is my normal. I don't know anything else. I don't know if I can handle life off the road. After a stressful point in my life a bunch of years ago, I was comforted by sitting in an airplane seat. That is where everything felt right. I was at peace. Very few people I know have successfully made that transition. It's not an easy transition to make either way. Life on the road is very independent. Eating dinner by yourself in a restaurant isn't something that you get used to right away. Eating room service every night isn't practical. Eating fast food every night isn't healthy.

It is very difficult to have a successful relationship when life on the road is involved. Many years ago I was at a hotel outside of Philly while covering a Villanova basketball game and there was an very attractive young lady at the bar hitting on a slightly older guy. They were both business travelers, he run down, her full of energy. I recall they were both involved with other people, and this was seemingly a problem for him, but when she uttered the following "Don't you know the mantra of all young travelers?-- What goes on on the road stays on the road." he forgot about anything else and they started getting closer to each other, more flirting and eventually left the hotel bar together. To this day, I've never made a pick up on the road. I don't have that in me. I don't know if its catholic guilt or what. I see people I work with do it all the time, and I hear stories about when they were younger. I can only imagine how bad it was before they were married.

The other side of the relationship coin is for the one who isn't traveling. It's got to be tough for that person to stay faithful as well. While there may not be as many opportunities for infidelity, the time spent apart adds up and people have needs. Someone who is in a relationship with a traveller needs to be just as independent. They need to be able to function without their partner for long periods of times.
SPOILER BELOW

Getting back to the movie, it ends up showing all of this, although not quite directly. Assuming you have seen the movie- George Clooney is the person who doesn't know how to function not on the road. He has traveling down to a science. He knows his job in and out. For him, life on an island is best because the way he is wired, it is easiest. You do get weighed down by all those things in your life. One could argue that those which weigh you down also keep you grounded. I used to be great in keeping in touch with people and making sure that I would see everyone. Now I suck. If Isee my family maybe 6 times a year, talk to them 15 times I think that would be a lot. I went over a year without seeing a friend, and the way we knew is that her daughter had been pretty much a new born the last time I saw her and I was attending her 2nd birthday party.

We actually learn two things form the young woman who he is teaching how to travel. The first is from her boyfriend who we never meet. The partner of a traveller has to be strong. They can't be upset that the person is gone, and they have to be able to function on their own. In the young woman herself, you can see someone who just isn't cut out to do the travel. She is wide-eyed and eager, but the road (and her job) ends up wearing her down. She left for the job she was meant to do, unencumbered by her boyfriend. While on the subject, you have to make decisions for yourself and not for anyone else. Her going to Wichita because her boyfriend got accepted to some school there was asinine. She took a soul sucking job that she never could have been happy at for her partner. As soon as things started to go bad, he left her, and she was still in Wichita at a soul-sucking job. When I moved to be closer to C, I gave up the NY metropolitan area, but not much else. My job remained the same and I lost that what if factor. The character should have taken her dream job in San Francisco and dealt with the long distance relationship. She also had the same dream that I have had on occasion- How fun would it be to pack a suitcase and head to the airport and pick a destination to go to on the spot with Frequent Flier miles.

From George Clooney's love interest in the movie you see the worst. She goes on the road and lives by that same motto. When she is doing that she is not only endangering her own marriage and family, but taking advantage of other people as well. The Clooney character thought he had finally met his equal, his match and was starting to let her into his life. He brought her to his sisters wedding, let him into his very inner circle and was finally ready to settle down, only to have his hopes crushed. He was ready to give up everything he believed in. Being a member of the 10 million mile club really doesn't mean anything in the big picture. It would take someone years to recover from that if ever.

I am well on my way to 2 million miles currently. The funny thing is that when you travel so much to accumulate that many miles or hotel points the last thing you don't know what to do with them. I gift my miles more than I use them. I have used them to fly friends internationally, to send my parents on vacations, to help friends get to where they need to be in family emergencies.

For the Travelpro comment above- on my trip out to Minneapolis this past Thursday, my bag of 10 years finally broke. The handle came out from baggage claim locked in the up position. I couldn't get it down. The person next to me was shocked and questioned me when I didn't go to the Baggage office to complain. I told them that the bag had lasted me 10 years. It survived over 1000 flights. I think that I got my moneys worth out of the bag and it's time to replace it. If you're in the market for luggage, get the Travelpro Crew series. It's a little more expensive, but you won't be disappointed.

How 253 affects me (and other things)

2009-12-28T14:34:00.002-05:00

By now, I'm sure everyone has heard about the Nigerian who tried to light an explosive during the descent of Delta Flight 253 into Detroit. I can't comprehend what drives a person to commit an act of mass destruction such as that. What I do know is this-- the actions of that one individual will seriously impact my life and many of those around me.

I like to spend as little time at the airport as possible. In the ideal world, I arrive at the airport and check my bag 45 minutes prior to departure, head right to security and then to the gate and get on the plane. I hate having to wait. I carry on lots of electronic gizmos. My laptop, cell phone, iPod, Kindle plus extra batteries, charges, headphones, etc to support them. The keyboard on my laptop suffered damage in June so the Y, H, M and 6 keys don't work. I was holding off replacing my laptop until the new ones came out (late January 2010) by traveling a full size USB keyboard with me. I ordered a replacement keyboard and will be installing this week when I get to Dallas. I don't want to have to spend any more time explaining things than I have to.

From what I heard form colleagues today -- security lines are longer than ever now, passengers had to be individually patted down, Passengers had to explain and turn on every electronic device they had with them. People who arrived a full 2 hours before their flights missed them today. I now fly out at 6:45am on Wednesday on a ticket that was purchased 2 hours ago. I'm trying to figure out what time I need to get to the airport now in order to make that flight. Typically I would have left my apartment at 5:15 and had plenty of time to spare. I'll let you know how that goes.

As for those I know in the airline industry -- I can't fathom what they're going through now. More and more pressure is being placed on flight crews to fill the holes that are left by TSA.

As for TSA -- Like security anywhere, it is just window dressing. It deters MOST sane people. If someone is really dead set to cause harm and willing to give their own life for it, the will succeed. Even though this person did not detonate their device, it has changed all of our lives forever. He won, much like the infamous 'shoe bomber' did.

Blast from the past...

2009-11-18T09:58:00.001-05:00

If at anytime you doubt a vote for Obama, just watch this....

Dreams

2009-11-17T15:05:00.002-05:00

A couple of weeks ago I had a weird dream. It was odd that I remembered it all. Typically I don't remember dreams, and this one was particularly vivid. In the dream, I was walking to the train station as I would be doing that day and saw someone drowning in the river. In my dream, I ran to the fence line, found a life saving ring and through it out towards the guy. I then put my bag down, took off my jacket, shoes and socks (weird, I know) and jumped in. I swam towards the victim, pushing the life saver to him, and then pulled him to the shore. By that time paramedics had arrived and as far as I know the guy survived.

That morning, I go about my day, and I walk past that area. What was weird was that it was exactly the same as it was in my dream. The Fireboat wasn't there (it usually is), the same boats were in the same position as they were in the dream. It was a little awkward but I went on thinking nothing of it.

Later on in the day, I get a text from one of the ex's I'm still friends with. She and I exchange messages often, so again, nothing unusual. She wasn't feeling well and thought she had the flu. Throughout the day, she continued to tell me through texts how bad she was feeling, etc. Through texts I was trying to get more information from her to try and help out. She figured it was food poisoning or the flu, but couldn't keep anything down, including water. She was throwing up every 30 minutes, almost as if on a schedule.

I was done working, and called her to see how she was doing. In talking to her, she sounded weird. Not weird as in sick, but just not there, as if something major was wrong. I started to go to her place to see if I could help. On my way, I started to use my Blackberry to do some research. An important piece I've left out so far is that she is a type 1 diabetic. She has been for 19 years and is well controlled. She switched to using an insulin pod over the summer and it has given her great freedoms. Searching diabetes and vomiting I found out about DKA- Diabetic Ketoacidosis.

DKA is caused when the body has little or no insulin to use. The blood glucose level keeps rising to dangerous levels. The body ends up building up acid in the blood as it is buring fat for energy now. I'm being over simplistic here, but DKA results in a dangerous cycle- the person isn't breaking down sugars, so they're feeling tired. The body tries to break down fats to sugars for energy, causing the glucose level to continue to rise, and then vomiting ensues, trying to keep numbers ok. Because of the vomiting a person becomes severely dehydrated. The person is feeling very lethargic, they have difficulties with thinking. This prevents the person from testing themselves. If a person were to test themselves, they'd realize that there was something wrong.

As I'm on my way over, I ask her to check her blood sugar. She's in the high 300's. In doing this quick research, I learned that when I diabetic person starts vomiting when their blood sugar is high, they should seek medical attention immediately. That started around 10am. It's now 8:30pm. We're 10 1/2 hours past that point. As I get there, I tell her all of this and tell her I'm taking her to the hospital. She looked awful, her eyes were almost recessed. She says lets wait for 30 minutes and I told her no, we're going now.

When we got to the ER, she was taken almost right away as this was recognized to be a serious medical situation. Long story short- the needle from her pod had back out of her skin and hadn't been delivering insulin for approximately 20 hours. Her blood sugar had been in the high 300's for over 20 hours. (Normal is 80-120). She was roughly 8 liters dehydrated. Her kidneys were with in hours of shutting down. She was only a few hours from going into a diabetic coma. She was so out of it, she didn't realize how bad she had gotten. She ended up in the hospital for 2 days and was released with a clean bill of health.

I don't know if there was any correlation between the dream and taking her to the hospital, but the doctor said she was in a life threatening condition when I brought her in. It was a very weird coincidence for sure.

Day 1 - Northern CA

2009-10-14T13:41:00.010-04:00

After the disappointment of not having J coming on the trip (it was just 2 friends going on a trip together, but who knows where it might have lead), I drove up to the hotel, which was just a wee bit further than I thought it was. OK, it was a lot futher. It was close to 300 miles from SFO. It was a beautiful ride up Hwy 101, over the Golden Gate Bridge, and the road went on forever.

Finally around 10:15pm PT, nearly 22 hours after I left my apartment, I arrive at the hotel. This hotel was more like a trailer park. They had cabins, and I got a deliverance vibe as I pulled up. I found the place on the internet, and needless to say it didn't look nearly the same in person as it did on the website. Exhausted, I crawl into my cabin/trailer and go to sleep.

When I awoke, I went of exploring the town, and find that it's a small fishing community nestled in with the Redwoods.

I walked down to the water and found a beautiful little beach.
After an hour or so of walking around, I headed back to the trail, and off to the redwoods.

J Pulls a "Kevin" plus a bad start to Vacation

2009-10-14T11:29:00.004-04:00

I guess that it was a long time coming. I finally got burned by someone doing what I do so many times. C always used to say when something didn't happen because of a lack of planning or an assumption of time off that it was a "Kevin". J and I had planned a getaway. It was planned for the time between the end of the MLB Regular Season and the start of the Championship series. Because of the one game playoff, she ended up having to work. She planned to the come out a day later. Not so bad. The planned trip was to fly to SFO, drive up to Redwood National Forest, stay at a lodge on the water for a few days, tour around the redwoods, drive down to Napa, hang out in wine country for a few days, then head to SFO and fly home.

Now to the bad. I fly predominantly on one airline for work. I take advantage of this when I go on vacation and use the miles that I earn to fly for free. That airline changed the type of aircraft 2 days before the flight, and I ended up bumped off that flight and accommodated on a partner airline of theirs, albeit with a connection. Not too bad, I'm still flying in First Class for free. I knew it couldn't be that easy.

I went to check in online and couldn't. This has happened before, so I'm not worried. I go to the ticket counter the morning of the flight and find that I'm not in First Class, but in 23C to Atlanta and 44B to SFO. I'm able to get to change my seat to 44C, so not nearly as bad. The next shock comes that I have to pay to check bags. When I fly my carrier of choice, I don't have to pay for the first 2 bags, up to 70lbs each. Now I'm paying $50 to check bags on what was supposed to be a free first class ticket. I question the Delta agent, but it's not her fault and there's nothing that she can do. She's just following the rules. I'll save that for when I get back.

I fly out to ATL and sleep through most of the flight. On our decent, I wake up and realize that I have Dish Network for free on this flight and think things are looking up. I deplane and head for my connection (40 minutes to change terminals at ATL) and didn't have time to pick up something to eat.

I get on the plane, and see once again, Dish Network in front of me. This Delta thing isn't so bad. Then come the announcements. There will be a meal, available for purchase. Then, since I'm in the last row of the aircraft, by the time they get to me, they don't have what I want. They ran out. I purchase my $3 mini pringles can and consider myself lucky for getting anything (and a free drink). The Flight Attendants come through again, and start at the front of the Cabin again, and once again, the person in row 43 bought the last of what I would have wanted. To myself I think maybe they should have started in the back of the cabin this time so we got first pick instead of running out AGAIN before getting to the last row.

I deplane in SFO, and hear that J thought that she was off from work, but didn't take vacation and now had to work during the week. She was very apologetic, and truth be told, I understood. I also now truly understood how so many others felt when I put them in the same situation. It just wasn't after they spent 10 hours flying.

A little to the left, a little to the right...

2009-09-30T15:28:00.002-04:00

Let me preface this by saying I am truly an Independent. I typically identify as a fiscal conservative and a social liberal. I know what you're saying- Basically I want everything but don't want to pay for it.

Last Friday, I was driving out of town and searching the radio for a local traffic report. I ended up stuck on the Jay Severin radio show and was appalled at what I was hearing. I couldn't believe the hate this supposed patriot was spewing. He was taking facts and bits and pieces of news stories to make them support his points. He didn't bother to mention the rest of the story. He was blaming Democrats because some schoolteacher somewhere had their students sing a song about Obama. This is the only place that I heard about this, but I'm sure it's true. What he didn't say was that it was possible that it was ONE schoolteacher that did this. It's entirely possible that the teacher was actually a Republican who was trying to elicit this response from the right side.

I'm not giving the left wing extremists a break either. I think that they can be just as bad. They also spin facts into what ever suits their side.

My brother-in-law (a staunch right-winger) sent an email forward of Lou Dobbs criticizing an illegal immigrant amnesty bill last week. I was watching this video and realized something wasn't quite right with it. First, I hadn't heard anything about a new amnesty bill. Second, there was no mention of healthcare or Obama. Third, the graphics on the screen wasn't the current look CNN was using. The clincher for me was reading the ticker at the bottom of the screen and seeing that the national average for gas hit a new all time high for the 11th day in a row at $3.21. The video was actually from August of 2007, about the previous administrations proposed bill. My Brother in Law, like so many other Americans took what he was sent, and immediately sent it out as gospel, vilifying Obama and the Democrats saying can you believe they put all of this in their bill...

Please people, do your own research. Don't just accept what you hear or read is fact. Once again, we're all contributing to the dumbing down of America.

Breaking my coke habit.

2009-06-04T18:49:00.004-04:00

Starting tonight, I'm facing my toughest challenge head on. I'm quiting coke cold turkey. I've done this for a month or so before, but this time it's for real.

It is with great sadness that I must announce that I will be severely limiting my intake of Coca-Cola. It has served me well over the years, keeping me awake. I do enjoy the taste, but it is no longer playing nice with my body. I am afraid that if I continue to consume massive amounts of this great beverage, I will bedome a diabetic. I've known this for a long time, but it is finally time for me to do something about it. If you have any stock holdings in the Coca-Cola corporation, you might want to sell first thing in the morning. I'm sure I'll be impacting their bottom line. My coke habit at times reached (2) 2Liter bottles a day.

The one saving grace for Coca-Cola is that I've never participated in the mycokerewards.com promotion. Can you imagine all of those points I'm missing out on?

Yes, I'm OK -- Why do people keep asking?

2009-05-10T17:41:00.002-04:00

The inevitable happened. C got engaged recently. I knew that t would happen, and I am really truly happy for her. I wish her and her fiance nothing but the best. What I can't stand is the question that I get when I mention it to people.

Without fail, EVERYONE has asked "Are you OK with it?" The answer has been yes every time. Frankly it's rather annoying to have to answer that question. After the 10th or 15th time, I've wondered what people would say if I responded "No, I'm not OK with it. "

I think that C was pleased at my reaction to the news. She knows that when my friend K got engaged for the first time my response was "Congratulations, but it's not like you're going to marry him." It was one of those things I just felt in my gut that there was something wrong there. A year later, the engagement was off. I never once said "I told you so. "

Honestly, over the years have I wondered what if? Yes. I think that everyone has about a relationship in their life. After wondering though, I realize that everything is good the way it is.

I hope that everything happens the way she wants it to. Unfortunately, a wedding day can be one of the most stressful days of ones life. Everyone has their ideas with what they want your wedding to be like, and often they don't mesh. She's looking for simple. Her mom will want grandiose. After all, it is her only daughter getting married. Knowing what is more than likely coming, I'm advocating an elopement with a celebration back home afterwards. C always joked that she just wanted a pig roast in the backyard.

The last wedding I went to may have been the best out of the 24 I have been to. It was a simple beautiful service on the James River. There were 90-100 people there, and the reception was in the same spot. The bride looked beautiful, and everyone was having a good time.

C will be a beautiful bride. Her fiance is a lucky man. I wish them nothing but the best in the year leading up to the wedding, and the many many years to come.

Old Pictures

2009-03-05T16:21:00.002-05:00

I'm going through old pictures now and made some realizations. First, I used to be thin. I look much better when I'm in between thin and where I am now. Second, everyone looks so young in all the pictures of the weddings I went to. I've never been to that point in my life where I know i've found the person I want to marry, but I wonder how all of these "children" could possibly know what they're getting into for the rest of their life.... It's interesting....

CNN and the Inauguration

2009-01-23T13:30:00.002-05:00

Two quick items that are on my mind now-

First, CNN was rated third amongst networks for their Inauguration coverage. This means that more people watched CNN than CBS for Obama's swearing in ceremony. How sad for the Tiffany Network.

Second, I'm sitting in the airport watching CNN Headline News and they just had a commercial for a CNN branded Obama inauguration T-Shit. How can a news organization pretend to be objective, yet look to cash in on the celebrity of Obama? More on that later.

Hire this guy as Treasury Secretary.

2009-01-22T15:13:00.002-05:00

These comments were made in 2006 and 2007. He was laughed at by his colleagues, but as history shows us, he really, truly understood what was going on.

--

--

If I didn't know better, I would have sworn this was edited after the fact, but it really was not. He predicted everything almost right on the nose.

Bush-bashing was overboard...

2009-01-22T14:53:00.003-05:00

I was talking to a conservative friend of mine last night and the topic of the inauguration came up. She is a very intelligent (most of the time) person, and recognizes that Barack Obama is the person who Americans elected and that he is the President of the United States. She then went on to say that she would support him just as much as Democrats supported Bush in the past eight years.

She commented that you probably won't see any "There's a village in Chicago that's looking for their Idiot" or any 1/21/2013 stickers on republican cars, saying that they are too classy for such a thing. I got to thinking about it and it wasn't a majority of Democrats that were doing that. I'd go as far as saying that it wasn't happening in the last 8 years. It was more in the last 2-3 years when some of the lies and coverups really came out. I definitely am not sad to see President Bush go, but he did win a majority of the electoral college twice, meaning he deserves the respect of the office.

I would hope that she, and the republicans at least start out by giving the current president the same level of respect that I always gave President Bush- I may not have voted for him, but he's my President. I started to write that I hope that they give him the same support that everyone gave President Bush after September 11th. I then rethought that. No one should have absolute power. I hope that the all parties listen carefully to what is said, and be a concientious objecter and have their points heard.

That is the way that a democracy is supposed to work -- that both sides have a chance to have their voices heard. I hope that President Obama and the democrats do not look for revenge, but rather do what they think, after listening to everything is the best for the country as a whole, and not what was the most politically friendly decision.

In the unlikely event of a water landing...

2009-01-19T23:35:00.001-05:00

I can guarantee you that at 3:20 on 1/15/2009 the people no one on flight 1549 actually thought that there was a chance of a water landing. As a veteran of a 150+ flights a year for the past 10 years, I can honestly say the only time I have ever thought a water landing was possible was when flying overseas. That flight has actually changed me-- although in a very small manner. When I fly, I've always taken my shoes off when in the air. It's more comfortable for me. I have always been very mindful of leaving my shoes on until we're in the air, and then remove them. By in the air, I mean wheels up, but pretty much still over the airport property. Now I'll make sure that I leave them on until we reach 10,000 feet.

I join in everyone else in lauding the flight crew, ferry crews and first responders for doing their jobs. I would hope that would cause people to treat flight attendants with more respect showing that they are not there to serve drinks, but for safety. Unfortunately, on my first flight since then, nothing could be further from the truth. Peoples rudeness just amazes me. Now it's not everyone, and not even most people, but just one person is all that it takes.

You may have heard recent news stories that this same aircraft, flying the same route with the same flight number had engine issues just 2 days before. I have to imagine that this aircraft was thoroughly inspected and did fly for two more days before this happened. I can't imagine that anyone employed by an airline would let that go.

I have always appreciated everyone who work at the airlines that make my travel as uneventful as possible. In fact, when departing an aircraft, I always say thank you to the Flight Attendants or other crew members standing at the door to the aircraft, and I really do mean that. It's not just them that I'm thankful for -- Everyone from the flight crews who I see and have direct dealings with to the maintenance workers who I never see, but greatly rely on. This incident only goes to reinforce that appreciation.

To the crew of flight 1549, and everyone involved in air travel, thank you for doing your jobs as well as you do.

Severe Injury or Even Death May Occur....

2008-12-02T12:56:00.003-05:00

You know that little sticker they put on golf carts? Well apparently I'm the idiot that they put that sticker on for.

That's my right knee all bandaged up. Apparently I tore my meniscus and potentially my MCL this past week. Additionally, I sprained my elbow. While moving a golf cart out of the way, the accelerator stuck and led me to crash directly into the side of one of the trucks I work on. After spending 5 hours in the hospital on Thanksgiving night, I got to fly home from Dallas like that. Did I mention I was using a crutch as well?

Decorating Rules-

2008-12-02T12:51:00.002-05:00

I have issues with the way that people decorate, and with people decorating too early. When living with C, I actually had to come up with a schedule of when she could start decorating for the different holidays. After seeing Target decorated for Christmas before Halloween, I thought I'd share these with the masses.

Fall Harvest-

Not before labor day

Halloween-

Not before Kathie’s birthday

Thanksgiving-

Not before the day that Halloween is commonly celebrated

Christmas-

Not before Thanksgiving. Trees may go up on Dec. 1st

New Years-

Preferable not until Christmas, BUT Dec. 15th is allowed

Valentines Day-

February 7th

St. Patrick’s Day-

February 15th

Easter/Spring harvest-

One month before

Memorial Day-

May 10th

July 4th-

June 20th

A Man Without a Size.

2008-10-22T14:40:00.003-04:00

So I went to Marshalls today to do some shopping. I haven't been to a Marshalls in years, but fond a gift card while cleaning out my car so figured hey, why not. Needless to say, I left with nothing, and don't know when I'll be back.

I'm a big guy, but not THAT big. Over the years my waist has gone from a 34 to a 44. I'm not proud of that fact, but that's the way I am. I'm also fairly tall. The regular section of Marshalls ends with 40's and a few 42's. I pick threw items to make sure that they are the right sizes and nothing got mixed up, and I'm left with nothing. As I'm about to leave the store, I see a Big and Tall section. I see a ring showing a size 50 so I figure I'm in luck.

Wrong again. Big and Tall starts at 46. I'm not kidding. I look up and down the racks, and find NOTHING. I end up asking someone and they, without prodding said that Big and Tall sizes start at a 46 waist. I ask what about regular sizes, do they go to 44. They responded, in a straight face 42. I asked what happened to size 44 and they just shrugged me off.

I guess this is more motiviation for me to work harder to lose weight. I'd be happy at a 36.

Going back

2008-10-20T14:45:00.001-04:00

This weekend I was given the chance to go back to my college. It's changed a little bit, it's modernized, but it's basically the same. The bars have changed scenes, and I miss the bar that we all used to be able to chill in. What I don't miss (and this is a true sign that I've gotten old) are very drunk people.

There was a fairly large group of us ranging from 30-45 hanging out in the one area. There was a very drunk young lady who was stumbling around in heels. She ended up stumbling into one of the guys in our group and he shrugged it off and went to the bar, and she started chatting up one of the other guys (Who very well may be a 40 year old virgin). It was all harmless when this guy who also was drunk came over and grabbed her away and started yelling at us for stealing his girl.

He was obviously drunk and obnoxious. No one was stealing his girl. Hell, no one really wanted anything to do with her, she just wandered over to us. Later in the night, her boyfriend was off talking to some other girl, and the original drunk girl -- still drinking -- came back our way apparently. I say apparently because I had my back to her, talking to friends. Next thing I know I'm getting goosed. I turn around trying to figure out what the hell is going on and I see her there staring at me giggling. How come that never happened to me while I was in college?

Say it aint so Joe...

2008-10-16T17:06:00.002-04:00

So apparently Joe the Plumber is neither named Joe or a plumber. Here is unedited video of his exchange with Senator Obama. Think he was a plant?

===

It all seems a little fishy to me. I can't say 100%, but it sure seems like he was a plant. I'm amazed at the time and discussion that took place between the two men. That is what elections should be like. Civil discussions, working things out- open dialogue with candidates.

A scary website....

2008-10-15T17:00:00.000-04:00

http://palinaspresident.com/

Baseball Rant

2008-10-15T09:54:00.003-04:00

We're on the cusp of having exactly what Fox doesn't want- a Tampa Bay/Phillies World Series. I'm not sure it's going to be as much of a ratings stinker as everyone fears, but I can guarantee you it won't be as good as the Boston/Cubs match up they were drooling over, or the Boston/Dodgers tilt they'd take as second choice.

At least once they get to the world series, it'll be played sensibly. It'll be a 2-3-2 format with the only off days scheduled as the travel days. What they've done to the post season is laughable, and a gmae changer. I'm ok with the Wildcard. I think that it has brought some excitement in to baseball, and the Brewers into the post season this year. I'm not a fan of the 5 game series, but again, I can accept it. What I don't like is the off days that they have scheduled in the first two rounds. It's not how baseball is played. These guys are used to playing 6 days a week. To have them play 2 games, day off(travel), play 2 games, day off, play 1 game, day off (travel), play 2 games is absurd. They should only be off for the travel days. I know that it was done to get more games in primetime, but so what. Most of the games have actually been OUT of primetime because of their length. Think about it- you could have had a 4pm start in the NLCS yesterday, a nice 1p game in LA, and then transition to the ALCS.

Fox/MLB is actually threatened with not having any MLB games this weekend if both series end in 5 games. Pretty unbelieveable, huh?

Voter Apathy

2008-10-14T17:14:00.003-04:00

I admit it. I have not been registered to vote in NJ since I moved back in 2004. I know. I'm a bad person. I should vote in every election, not just the Presidential Elections, and I will. In 2004, I voted absentee in PA, and I only voted on the Presidential ticket, nothing else.

Today, October 14th is the last day to register to vote in NJ. Those of you who know me have already figured out where this is going. Yes, I waited until today to hand in my voter registration. I went to records office at City Hall in my town today around 2pm. I know what you're thinking- It was a mad house- like a post office on April 15th or a mall on Black Friday. That's what I was expecting at least.

Nothing could have been further from the truth. There was no one there. No lines. No anarchy. I just handed my form to the nice lady behind the counter, she verified my address with my drivers license and I was done. Considering where I live, and the number of people who have to be new to the area because of all the new units, I was expecting a lot more. Perhaps the rest of the population isn't like me and doesn't wait until the last minute, but somehow I doubt that. I think that I was witnessing apathy in motion.

It's the Economy Stupid

2008-10-14T16:25:00.000-04:00

If you remember James Carville's famous line- It's the economy, stupid. Carville used that to keep the Governor Clinton on message against President George H. W. Bush. At that point, the economy was in a recession. G H W Bush didn't want to admit that the economy was in a recession. He thought everything was going fine. It was obvious to everyone else that it was not.

Unfortunately I agree with Marc Farber in saying that the bailout plan will fail. His thoughts on it are here. The fundamentals of this plan are flawed. We're going to essentially just print more money in order to back this. I think a big reason for this problem is the fact that there was actually nothing backing a lot of the poor lending decisions made by banks, meaning they didn't actually have enough assets to cover everything if things defaulted (or went bad). They were supposed to take out insurance on this, and a lot of them did, but those insurance policies weren't backed by anything. All of this was essentially done with Monopoly money.

If I understand what I heard this morning correctly, the FDIC is increasing it's insurance limits to restore peoples confidence. It's also insuring some of this bank debt. Guess what, it has nothing but the US Government behind it, so basically, we're in the same boat. There will be this insurance, but it is meaningless because not everyone can actually cash in if it should all fail.

Wall Street has been compared to Las Vegas by John McCain. Unfortunately, Las Vegas is better regulated. As anyone who saw Oceans Eleven or the TV Show Las Vegas casinos must have enough cash on hand in order to cover all bets on the floor and all chips that are out. The money can't be at the bank. It can't be in investments. It has to be on the physical premises of the casino. A casino can't simply make more chips if it needs to cover something. There has to be something behind the chips.

Perhaps Wall Street can learn something from Vegas.

An Opportunity for Relevance

2008-10-12T16:44:00.002-04:00

This political season, people have the opportunity to make a difference. Everyone does. Everyone will be able to be relevant. That's not what this entry is about. This is about Saturday Night Live.

SNL was once a bastion of political humor, satire and veiled socially relevant commentary. SNL was the original "Must See TV". I didn't get a chance to watch it's first few years as I was too young, and I didn't understand the next 5 years. When I started watching was the end of it's Glory days, but was it good. It made me want more. As I got older, I watched the original SNL shows and they were damn funny, but they also made you think.

SNL has the publics attention. Tina Fey has gotten everyones attention, and has made SNL must download tv for now. It's up to the regular cast and writers to pick up the torch, take advantage of their new found audience and become relevant again.

Election Thoughts

2008-10-12T00:50:00.002-04:00

Am I the only one who is getting tired of the presidential campaign? Some thoughts about it-

First, when John McCain picked Sarah Palin as his running mate, in my opinion he made what was the biggest mistake of his campaign. It was at that moment, that he sold out. He didn't pick the person who would make the best vice president, he picked the person who he thought would give him the best chance at getting elected, and it's working.

The weekend that the selection was announced, C and I talked and she was excited. She said that for the first time, she was enthused about the Republican ticket (she's a registered republican. It was a sexy pick, an offbeat pick, dare I say a maverick pick for Vice President.

McCain compromised his principles ("I'd rather lose and election than lose a war") because this pick was to win the election. Do you think the campaign thoroughly vetted Palin as a candidate? It's tough to find a running mate. I'll give you that. It's especially tough to keep a person that you thoroughly researched a secret today. I honestly wonder if McCain knew about Bristol's pregnancy before he announced Palin. Speaking about the kids- Shouldn't they have been in school a lot more than they have been?

There were so many better choices for running mates that would have helped to get my vote. Sarah Palin was not that choice. John McCain lost any chance of me voting for him (and yes, there was a chance) when he picked Sarah Palin.

=========================================

I am sick and tired of finger pointing. I don't want to hear about what your opponent did and or didn't do. I want to hear you talk about you. I want to know what you did or what you are going to do. I don't want the negative campaigning. This whole tearing the other person down and pointing out their flaws and shortcomings isn't what the electoral process was supposed to be about.

Things are different now than when the founding fathers came up with the election process. Back then campaigning was done city by city, and news was weeks old, not seconds old. The candidates didn't go under the same microscope that exists now. There isn't a perfect person. Some of our best Presidents were far from perfect. People just didn't know then.

I'm talking about BOTH parties here. They're both atrocious. In watching the debates, that's all you hear about- Why you shouldn't vote for the other guy. Not why you should vote for the person. Speaking of debates, I think that the candidates need to answer the questions that are asked. I think something should happen to the candidate if the don't answer the question. Electric shock collars come to mind. Perhaps air the debate on a delay, and just have tone come out until the candidate actually answers the question at hand.
========================================

now my mom didn't see this interview. She only saw the SNL version of it. My mom said that she felt bad for Palin and felt like Tina Fey was picking on her. I tried to explain to her how bad the original interview was, and that the sad thing is, the SNL Version was almost WORD FOR WORD from the original interview. Here, a split screen showing what I'm talking about.

Sad, huh?

======================

Finally, I know I brought up politics here and I apologize. You should never bring up politics or religion in casual conversation. There is no correct answer to either. To suggest that there is is asinine. For someone to suggest that there view is the correct one is a sure sign of ignorance. I work with plenty of people who's ideas and ideologies I do not agree with. When they do bring up such subjects (I never will as I know you should never bring such topics up as they are so divisive) I listen and don't respond with what they want me to. I try and learn from their opinions. I try to understand where they are coming from. I do not need to be converted. I do not need to be called stupid or dumb. I will make up my own mind and make what I feel is the best decision. In the end, if the person who I vote for doesn't win, I will say "I didn't vote for the man, but he's my President" and will support him to the best of my ability. Unfortunately, I can not say that about our current administration.

Fair and Balanced

2008-10-09T23:46:00.002-04:00

The other day I was stuck in an airport. OK, in all reality I didn't wake up in time for my flight, and had to wait for the next flight. In the corner of the airport that I was at, Fox News Channel was on and I couldn't believe my ears. The news itself was presented with a slant. Trust me on this- This is something I have a background in and I know of what I speak.

I know that the perception is that Fox News is the Republican's channel, MSNBC is the Democrat's channel and CNN is straight down the middle. I've worked for NBC News (and MSNBC by proxy) and have always felt that their NEWS is presented objectively, without a slant or opinion coming through. When you would watch their primetime shows (Olbermann, Matthews for starters) that those COMMENTARY shows have a left wing slant to them. They are just that COMMENTARY shows. They're supposed to have a slant. I'll defend Fox News Channel's O'Rielly, Hannity and Combs on the same ground. A reasonably minded individual is watching that program for commentary, not hard news.

The newsreader was talking about the bailout bill that The House had just defeated, and EVERYTHING he was saying had a slant to it. This was breaking news, and instead of reporting what happened "Fair and Balanced" as they claim to be, the newsreader, reading off a Telepromter was assigning blame. He wasn't saying that person XYZ said it was the democrats fault, he said that the bill failed because of Nancy Pelosi. He didn't mention that Senator McCain had promised a certain number of votes, and couldn't produce them.

On MSNBC at the same time (I was able to watch via my Slingbox), they were saying that McCain didn't deliver the number of republicans he promised AND that several people were saying (and they had names of people) that it may have been because of Nancy Pelosi's speech.

I guess Fair and Balanced depends on your point of view.

Outsider looking In

2008-10-09T23:46:00.001-04:00

I've been bad at blogging again lately, but it's not for a lack of things to say. I've been exhausted for no good reason lately so the time I've spent on airplanes I've used to sleep, and not write. Hopefully this flight will be different.

This one has ties back to my honesty writing from a while back. Over the past few months I've had the chance to meet/go out with 2 couples where I was friends with the female member, and have two totally different opinions of the state of their relationships. I'll preface this by saying these were both one time meetings, so this is all based on first impressions and only one meeting, but also takes into account other things my friends have said.

The one couple has a set of challenges all their own. Between travel and family obligations, I imagine that at first they had an uphill battle. Seeing this couple together, you can tell that they are into each other. They have that way of interaction between them that you can tell they are happy together. It's that special bond.

I can tell they're in love because of the little things that they do for each other. Going above and beyond to make the most of the time that they have together. I think we all (me especially with my schedule) can take a lesson from them. I wish you could see what I see. It really makes you feel good about relationships.

The second couple I feel differently about. I think that there is a lot of settling going on. From my one meeting, there seemed to be no chemistry and a general lack of communication.

As I said above, I could have been there on a bad day. My presence there didn't help the situation I'm sure. It seems that there is no compromise that takes place. Again, I only hear one side of the story, and I haven't been forthcoming with my opinions here for the reasons above. I really wish another friend of hers who I am friends with would meet him (Hasn't happened yet, but they've been together for over a year) and put my thoughts to rest. I hope I am wrong. I hope that they are happy together, and what I saw was an anomaly, but I fear it's not.

I'm pretty sure both couples met through online dating sites. I've tried my luck at it and haven't had much success. Off the top of my head though, I know at least 3 couples that met and married through them. It makes me wonder what we as a society would be doing if it weren't for online dating sites. I guess going back to the bar scene? I mean how did people used to meet?

It's been a while, and this is cheesy

2008-09-25T09:37:00.001-04:00

But it still counts as a post...

You Are 73% New Jersey!

You are definitely Jersey. Well done, my friend. You are most likely from this great state, and you fit right in. Odds are, you love being Jersey!

How New Jersey Are You?
Take More Quizzes

Travelling Man

2008-08-07T20:14:00.001-04:00

I actually wrote this entry before the last one, but couldn't let it be the 100th post.

I'm on my third plane in a week now, and many things came back to me quickly. I forgot how much I dislike the actual act of traveling, especially for work. When I was flying to New Hampshire, We pushed back from the gate and immediately went into the penalty box to wait. We were on a hold because there were too many aircraft that needed to taxi and not enough room to put them all and still handle the inbound aircraft taxiing to their gates. So we waited until we could get a number to take off. 35 minutes later, the captain comes on and tells us that we are going to start our taxi, but it would still be a while before we were airborne as we were number 46 for departure. That's 45 aircraft in front of us. If everything goes perfect, it's 90 seconds per departure. Four thousand fifty seconds. Sixty-seven and a half minutes more before we're even in the air. Once we did get airborne they managed to cut about 15-20 minutes out of the route, So it was for 33 minutes. I honestly could have driver to New Hampshire faster than the whole process took.

Flying home was fairly innocuous other than the fact the flight was at 6:50 in the morning. I'm definitely now what anyone would consider a morning person. I was going through security and emptied everything I normally do. I've even been broken down to the point where I take off my shoes if they're not sandals (I still refuse to walk through barefoot). I walk through the metal detector and the person tells me to empty my pockets fully. I didn't set it off. I have NOTHING metal in my pockets. All that is left in my pocket is my wallet. I NEVER put my wallet through the X-Ray because I don't want to leave it unattended. I tell him it's just my wallet and he says he doesn't care it has to go through. I say fine and go through his little game. I go through, again don't set off the metal detector, but I'm sent for additional screening. Now you are told to always face your belongings during this. While I was being hand wanded and patted down, I'm told to turn around so they can do the other side. I say I need to keep an eye on my belongings. He said "we're watching them, you need to turn around sir." Against my better judgement (and knowing the next flight is a few hours away) I turn around. I go through all of this and guess what, they find nothing. I was wearing lacrosse shorts and a T-shirt. Not much place to hide anything. I go and collect all my items and go on my merry way. I went out to dinner and my debit card was declined. I thought that was odd, put it on a different card and planned on calling my bank when i got home to see what was going on. Literally as I'm walking in to my apartment, my bank calls me asking me to verify some recent transactions. I"m able to verify all but one that was to an on-line bookstore. They immediately cancelled the card and are sending me a new card. I'm sure it's just a coincidence, but I can't help but think that someone grabbed the number while my wallet was sitting on the belt.

Now we come to today. There were storms in and around the Newark area. Arrivals were delayed an average of 1 hour. Being the professional traveller that I am, I looked ahead of time and saw that the aircraft making up my flight was delayed on it's inbound flight. I still get to the airport about when I normally do, about an hour before departure. I get to the gate 45 minutes before departure and my flight is listed as on time, but there is no aircraft at the gate. It shows up about 30 minutes to departure and needs to be deplaned, catered and cleaned. about 10 minutes before the scheduled departure, the gate agent comes on and says that the plane hasn't been cleaned yet, that as soon as they get a cleaning crew there, they'd go ahead and board us, and that our departure time was moved back 15 minutes. They board first class, and the cleaners are still finishing up in coach, and then exit the aircraft. The official reason for our late departure? "Waiting for connecting passengers" Now that may have been true, but there were no breaks in the boarding process, and as soon as the last person was on the plane, they immediately shut the door so we could push back and wait to taxi because of the storms.

Honesty is such a lonely word.

2008-08-07T19:54:00.003-04:00

Billy Joel was right. I've found that when I have been honest about things with people, they end up shutting me out.

I can be brutally honest sometimes. Usually I don't have a problem with it, especially if I feel it's for someone's own good. Two instances come to mind instantly. The first was with my friend K. She went off to college and met a guy and they dated. They of course were in love, and knew what they wanted. He proposed to her. She said yes. She called my all giddy to tell me the news, and I was that guy. The blunt tell you how it is guy. My response to her was "Congratulations, but it's not like you're going to marry him." There was dead silence on the phone. I really don't remember the rest of the conversation. I admit it. It was an asshole thing to say, but it needed to be done. She and I kept in touch, and about a year or so later, she called me to tell me that they'd broken off the engagement. See, I knew her. I knew that he wasn't the one for her. It wasn't that I had a problem with him, I just knew. I can't explain that one any better than that.

Next example involves AB. AB was a friend in college. She was attractive, athletic looking and liked to be one of the guys. It was odd to ever see her dressed up. AB and I were very friendly, and like so many others, despite everyones thinking, nothing had ever happened between us. With hindsight being 20/20 there were definitely moments where something should have happened. AB was dating a guy who was younger that the rest of us and very much immature at times. Not that any of us were the role model for maturity, but I think you get the picture. I liked the guy and got along great with him. I thought that he was good for her. It was good to see her happy. She went away to a program for a semester and I started seeing him around campus with other girls. I'm fully aware that a guy and a girl can be friends with nothing happening. I think I wrote the book on that, but I could see that's not what was going on. People started to see him out with other girls, hooking up with other girls, etc. Being a friend of AB, I told her point blank he was cheating on her. She said no way, he'd never do that and walked away. She and I stopped talking after that. Mutual friends, who saw what I saw and knew what I knew were asking how could I do that to her, how could I tell her. I was confused at that point. How could they not tell her. They were her friends, and here they were allowing her to be played like a fool. They broke up a few years later because they wanted different things in their life. A few years after that, I got an email from her with the subject "Thank You". In it , she explained that she ran into him at a bar over Thanksgiving and that he admitted to her that he had been cheating on her, and specifically during the time when I had said something to her. She went on to say that she should have listened to me and she was glad that I was able to tell her the truth. I responded something along the lines of "you live and learn". She and I still have almost no contact to this day. Oh well.

I've become more afraid to be brutally honest, because you never know how the person will react. Especially if it's someone I'm close to. Personally, I know I'd want and I trust my friends to be honest with me. I mean when you think about some of my minor obsessions (D comes to mind) no one ever really slapped me into reality. Sometimes I wonder if we are better off living in this fantasy life.

Have you ever sat there and thought about it? Do you like it when people are honest with you, or do you prefer it when they tell you what you want to hear?

This is post number 100 for me as well. I think I deserve a drink.

Weightloss and Drinking

2008-07-28T11:23:00.002-04:00

Over the past 3 weeks, I've consumed more alcohol than I had been. I've been out for happy hour a couple of times a week. I've enjoyed wine at home more often and guess what. I've lost more weight in the past 3 weeks that I had in the previous 2 months. I don't know if I've been over all more active, if I've been better about going to the gym or what.

The surprising thing is that I'm feeling much better as well. I'm not necessarily sleeping better, but overall, I feel better about myself and find I'm carrying myself differently now.

Awkward to say the least

2008-07-23T09:28:00.006-04:00

Before reading, you'll want to sit down. I'd say get a beverage as well, but if you know any of the details, you might end up doing a spittake.

As any faithful reader knows, I caved 2 weeks ago and joined Facebook. In those 2 weeks, I've amassed well over 100 friends on there and have reconnected with a lot of old friends from high school and college. Facebook has taken more time out of my day, but since I'm currently un-employed (by choice) I do have a lot of free time on my hands.

I've accepted just about every friend request on Facebook. Even the one from the friend from college who married my girlfriend who was from home. Yes they met through me. I'm fairly confident that she cheated on me with him. I also accepted the friend request from the friend from college who married the girl that I was only slightly obsessed with. In fact, they're both mentioned in this previous post.

It has been very interesting to see who knows who on Facebook. A friend of mine from College was friends with a girl I knew through my friend Kristen. That freaked me out a bit. As it turns out they both worked for the same television network for a while in politics.

Now, some background. After high school, I met S who was 2 years older than I, but had gone to the same high school. She was very nice, attractive, and we seemed to hit it off. We dated for a year anda half or 2 years and had a good time. I was away at college most of the time, and she was at home. During that period of time, I became friends with F. F was generally known as a womanizer and really only had the requirement of a heartbeat in order to be interested in a girl. My best friend K was looking for someone one summer, and she didn't have the most discriminating tastes, so I set her up with F. I should mention that K and S knew each other from high school and pretty much hated each other. On their third date, F told K that he loved her and wanted to spend the rest of his life with her. I think it was all she could do not to laugh. F was 2 years older, and took a job in North Carolina after college.

While away at college, I became very friendly with a girl D. She was amazing. Beautiful, smart, assertive, and very unassuming. She and I would talk for hours about anything and everything. During this time, S and I were growing further and further apart. This may sound like a line, but she wasn't intellectually stimulating me. D was able to do that. During this time, NOTHING ever happened between D and I other than me giving her a head rub while watching TV at her house once. I was very adamant that I didn't want to cheat on S. I also thought that it would be rude to break up with S on the phone.

I had a plan. Thanksgiving was coming, and I was going home. I'd break up in person with S, and that would open the door for things to happen with D, and I'd have a clear conscience. To give you an idea of where D and I were - we had already named our children. SO, I go home, and break up with S. It was one of the most awful things I've done, but it was needed. As luck would have it, D was giving me a ride back to college after break. I go up to her house, and sense that something isn't quite right. She wasn't behaving like herself.

The ride back to college was about 3 1/2 hours. During that 3 1/2 hours, we barely spoke. We were able to speak for hours just a few days before and now nothing. I remember vividly as we were driving, the CD was ejected, and there was blaring static on the radio. She then went and explained that her father wasn't happy that she was spending all this time with a boy (me) and the he said she needed to concentrate on her studies and finding a job, and that she didn't have time for me.

That really hurt. I had broken up with S, which was needed, but was now alone. I was still mesmerized by D however. I thought that it was stupid for her father to say that, and even dumber for her to follow that advice since there was obviously something between us. There was always rumor that D was a lesbian, but I knew that wasn't true. That was mainly circulated by a guy we'll call V. I honored D's request and stopped talking to her. We'd see each other occasionally in the hallway and there was tension there. Being the mid 90's (1995 I think), I did what anyone would do. I sent her an email telling her how I felt about her and that it wasn't that easy for me to just let go.

I learned a VERY valuable lesson that day. E-mail can be very impersonal and can be very easily misconstrued. Inflections, connotations, etc are all interpreted by the reader, if at all. I got a VERY curt email back from her "If you have something to say to me, say it in person" and with that, our love-hate relationship began. I'm not good at being hated. I've always tried to get everyone to like me. D and I had reason to interact for Extra-curricular activities, (get your minds out of the gutter) and it was awkward at best. We'd be sitting at a round table, and she had a co-worker with her, and we'd end up talking to him, and not to each other across the table.

With time, things started to soften. On Valentines Day, I thought that I'd make a peace offering and give her a dozen white roses. Everyone I knew (including her roommates who liked me) thought this would be a good idea. As it turns out, it pissed her off a little because I gave them to her in front of a friend of mine who she had turned her interests to (I guess dad's talk had worn off).

Eventually, she saw what I was trying to do, and we became friendly again. At this point I knew that I wasn't returning to college (she was a senior) and I became an unofficial senior if you would. During the last week, there is a tradition of getting drunk and jumping in the fountains. She partook, (as did the friend of mine who she turned her interests to) and everyone was having a great time. We were walking away, and one of her roommates made the comment "Gee D, you have both of your men here." After college I tried to get her a job for the conventions with the network I was going to. Everything was all lined up, and she wanted some confirmation, so I gave her a number to call. She called and didn't ask for the right person, so the person she talked to had no idea what she was talking about. That was pretty much the last straw. She thought that I was putting her on with all of this. Needless to say, she didn't go and I ended up looking like a fool to my new employer.

While in college, V was pretty much an ass. He was always putting people down, and really was the one who propagated the rumors about D. He had dated a girl we'll call L. I accidentally? slept with L one night while in college. After that, he started telling people that I was the one who was saying D was a lesbian.

Some soap opera, huh? It's only beginning.

S and F began dating at some point. They met through me. As it turns out, S had been cheating on me with F. She had gone down to NC to be with him for a weekend while we were dating. I'm glad I was trying to do the right thing and not cheat on S with D. F and I have a lot of mutual friends. Surprisingly I wasn't invited to their wedding. I was however invited to an after party in a hotel room at the wedding hotel. As I'm walking in the lobby, who do I see at the registration desk but the happy couple. When another friend got married and S and F found out that I was going, S decided not to go, that F would go alone because it might be a little weird. They now have 2 kids.

D and V are also married to each other now. When I found out they were dating, and then married, I lost a lot of respect for her. She knew all the things that he was saying about her, and hated him for it. To me, she had compromised her principles. I'm not just saying this because I was obsessed with her, but because the D that I knew wouldn't have done that. Perhaps V has changed. I'm sure that he's a wonderful husband, and now wonderful father. I wish nothing but the best to them, but I no longer hold her in such high regards.

For the finale. Both F and V have found me on Facebook. Last night I received an invitation from F to join him and S and V and D for dinner. Talk about awkward.... Now V doesn't really know about S, and I don't know how much D does. F and S definitely don't know about my history with D. The Lady in Red has told me that I need to bring a REALLY hot date.

A weekend party

2008-07-21T14:30:00.004-04:00

This past weekend I went out to Pittsburgh to attend a 40th birthday party for a friend from there. This party had been planned for a while, and C offered to let me stay with her. For those of you unfamiliar with C, you can read what I previously wrote about her here. C currently has a serious boyfriend, but she assured me that her beau was OK with me staying with her. She had asked him, and he did say yes it was ok for me to stay there. She and I were both under the impression that he was going to be staying over as well. I wanted to make sure it was ok, becuase there are hotels there, and I easily could have stayed at them, and she made that point to him as well.

One problem I have with the whole thing is that C hasn't been 100% honest with the new bf about she and I. She apparently has always been very vague when talking about our history, and he may not know that we lived together at all, let alone that we lived together for almost 2 1/2 years. I'm not a big fan of the omission, but I'm not going to be the one to tell him. She obviously has her reasons, and while I may not agree with them, I respect it. I was worried that while at the party, there would be people who knew she and I as a couple and would say something that the new bf didn't know.

I arrived on Friday evening, and we enjoyed dinner at Max and Erma's. They have Ultimate Nachos back on the menu, so it was a guilty little pleasure for her. It was odd to be back in the house I previously lived in. I of course was in the guest room this time. On Saturday, C and I went out and ran errands needed for the party. Vince, the person who the party was for needed some help putting the last minute things together. C had asked Vince on multiple occasions if he needed help with anything and he said no, no, he'd take care of everything. On Saturday morning, she got the call asking if she could pick up beer (4 cases, and he wanted them all cold), and well he needed coolers for them and of course ice. Additionally, C had to drop off a cooler in a neighboring town that was left over from last weekend.

The last time C and I had a party, the picture to the left was the aftermath. It was a mild New Year's eve, and we had all the beer in a keg tub in ice on the deck. New Year's Day was really cold, and froze the water, and then it snowed on top of it. Eventually the keg tub broke, and what was left was beer trapped in solid ice. For months.

We went about the errands, and ended up at Horse Trading Days in Zelienople, PA. C loving the carnies as she does, we had to stop. We stopped for lunch and made it to the beer distributor and back to her house. Apparently at some point, the plan changed from her boyfriend meeting us at her house at 2pm to meeting us at 3pm. We went, dropped off the beer and everything else at Vince's house and went back to her house to get ready for the party and meet up with her boyfriend. We caught up on a lot of things while we were out, and she told me that the bf is moving in to the house in 2 weeks. She also hasn't told her parents about that yet. It won't be a problem with them since they like him. I think they like him more than they liked me. He mom didn't like me because of my job. That was a big sticking point with her. He's a hunter, so her dad likes him.

While I was in the shower, today's plan changed, and the bf was going to be taking a friend with him and just meeting us there. He wouldn't be staying the night either as was the original plan. He had to go help clean up the farm that he hunts on in the winter. This REALLY pissed her off. They had made plans, and he wasn't keeping them. She was getting blown off for hunting preparations, not even hunting. As she said, at least when I had to cancel plans for work, it was for work, not for fun. Also, Vince called and needed three more things for the party. This of course required us to stop at 3 different stores, and in-efficiency can really piss her off.

We ended up showing up around 4:30 or 4:45pm. Conveniently, the new boyfriend showed up at the same time. We managed to get all of the introductions out of the way outside the party. It was fine for me, and C said for her as well. I know the one or two times I've been in a similar situation as C was in (two people who have seen me naked, and knowing that fact meeting) it was a little uncomfortable for me. This wasn't the first time that I met one of her boyfriends since we broke up. I was fine with it. I honestly don't think that he was, but he also wasn't saying anything.

Treading into dangerous territory here, I was suprised when I met the bf. He was a CWB like she tends to date (Chubby White Boy), but he was very quiet. Again, I don't know if that was because I was there, or if that's his normal behavior. His friend was very likable and outgoing. He was very conversational. I would have guessed that she would have been with the friend, and not with the bf.

Also at the party was a friend of C's from around college who we'll call Frau and her husband. (They didn't go to college together, but went to Germany together in college and are still friends) Frau doesn't like me. She like most of the world finds it odd that C and I are still friends. She doesn't think that it's right and will remind C of that every chance she gets. Frau felt that I wasn't good for C. She felt that our relationship, when we were together, was damaging to C. Frau has really had one adult relationship. She married the guy. He seems nice and all, but I really think she needs to have experienced more, or at least TALKED to me more before passing judgement. All I've ever wanted is what is best for C, I guess Frau doesn't realize that.

Anyway, enough with that. All in all, I had a good time this weekend. I got to see Vince who I hadn't seen in ages, and go to a weekend party, which I haven't been able to go to in ages because of my schedule. One thing that I forgot about living out there is how clear the skies are and how many stars you can see. Here, where I live, we get a scattering of them. The lights from the city drown them out. Up there they don't believe in street lights, so you can see EVERYTHING.

I'm sure I forgot something, but that'll have to do for now.

Update on the Knee

2008-07-21T13:51:00.002-04:00

I went to the Dr. on Friday and found about my knee. I've been going to this doctor for a long time for various orthopedic things. When I move I snap, crackle and pop from all my joints. This doctor has told me that I am going to have a painful old age because of this. After he looked at X-rays and manipulated my knee, he asks me if I remember when he told me that I'm going to have a painful old age. I said yes, and he said, well apparently it starts now.

What I had was an arthritic flare up. The thinking is that between being on my feet for the previous week and the large pressure change that happened (along with the increased humidity), it caused the arthritis that is in my knee to bother me. The truth is, once I started moving it, it didn't feel that bad. After I stopped moving it for a while, it hurt again. This was a preview for the rest of my life apparently.

What a mess

2008-07-18T08:54:00.004-04:00

For the past week, I've been working a job in the New York metro area. It's been a long time since I've actually worked and commuted to and from my home. We were working long hours as usual and I was taking the subway to and from the site, so it wasn't uncommon for me to get home after 4am and leave shortly after 7am. It was really odd for me since I'm used to staying in hotels when I work. I didn't have anyone to make the bed or freshen the towels. As a result of that week and my sheer laziness, the picture to the right is the result. Now, I'm cleaning my living room so it at least looks respectable when I come back next week. Think I have enough empty water bottles and glasses here?

On a totally unrelated subject, I made it to my first party that my building has sponsored since I've lived here. They had a party to celebrate the fact that they got new rooftop patio furniture. They had pretty good catering, champagne, wine and a guitar player. I actually met some of my neighbors for the first time as well. The property manager commented on the fact that I am the longest term resident here, and this was the first party that I'd made it to. I think a good time was had by all, and it was nice to meet some of the other people who live in the building. Maybe I'll actually have friends here now. Oh yeah, the new furniture is really nice too.

Blown out of proportion

2008-07-17T12:14:00.003-04:00

After the teardown for the game that never ended, I was exhausted. I got back to my apartment around 5pm or so and it was time to take a nap. I had hoped to get up at 6:30, a nice power nap and go over to happy hour at the Hyatt. They have a pretty good happy hour every Wednesday, which seems to get a good turn out and the views are unbeatable.

Apparently I slept through or woke up, turned off my alarm and then went back to sleep. I was awoken around 9:30pm by a phone call, and realized that my knee was throbbing. It was fine when I took the nap, but when I woke up the pain was unbearable. I then looked at my knee and it was swollen. I've been using the phrase as large as a basketball and that's a bit of an exaggeration, but it gets the point across.

This is the same knee that I had ACL surgery on. The pain then wasn't this bad. I'm able to walk on it and it's not too bad, but I can't bend it past 90 degrees without getting stiffness/resistance, and then about 5 degrees later on the contraction pain. I've been doing the usual Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation and will give it one more day before going to get it checked out.

This photo doesn't look like much. In fact it looks like a mess, and honestly it really is. What you're looking at there are strands of fiber optic cable hanging on a fence. Fiber Optics can be used to carry all sorts of signals at a great bandwidth over long distances. They really are revolutionizing the industry. The downside about fiber optics is that they can be extremely fragile if not handled properly. Here, the fibers that went to the booth were terminated and not jacketed. The sharp bends in the fiber is a really bad thing, and makes it subject to breakage. You can see how much more robust the fibers in the yellow jackets look, and how they don't bend as much. This almost caused us to lose all audio to the booth during the game. It did cause us to lose all audio and video to the booth about an hour to the game.

pic of the ???

2008-07-15T23:50:00.004-04:00

Remember I was trying to do the pic of the day thing? Well, here's 2 from today.
*********************************
These are pictures of the B-2 Stealth bomber fly by over Yankee Stadium at the 2008 MLB All Star Game. The second picture is the Stealth Bomber going over the back half of the TV Compound here.

Damn Ikea

2008-07-09T18:57:00.002-04:00

I'm taking the suggestion of the Lady in Red and I'm replacing the stock photos in my apartment with ones that I have taken. I'm a pretty good photographer and have taken some great pictures (and I'm modest too...). For starters, I ordered 2 prints of pictures I took while in Aruba at 20"x30" to fit in the current frames that I have.

Chances are you already know where this is going. Ikea being Ikea does their own thing. Their 20"x30" frames are really 19 3/4" x 28". Tomorrow I'll go out to Bed Bath & Beyond and look for some frames that match that these prints will fit in. For the rest of the pictures that I order, I'll order the smaller size print so that everything will fit in my current frames, or perhaps it's time to get new frames.

My favorite graphic during our Football season

2008-07-09T15:38:00.003-04:00

This is my favorite graphic that was put up during our NFL season this year. It started out as a joke, and everyone loved it, so they used it during the broadcast. You may have to blow this picture up a little bit in order to see it, but it lists the temperatures in Greenland, Alaska, Moscow, and Green Bay. Yes, it was coldest by a long shot in Green Bay.

I caved....

2008-07-09T15:35:00.002-04:00

Remember how not that long ago I was telling you that I was done with social networking? That I didn't need anything else? That I was putting my foot down and refusing to join Facebook? Well, I caved. I joined facebook. There are actually lots of things to do there, and to me it does seem much better than MySpace. I'm already on level 5 of MobWars.

Oops, my bad...

2008-07-08T15:08:00.003-04:00

So I got back into my apartment this afternoon, and there was a foul smell. It wasn't that bad, but definitely noticeable. I went looking for it, and couldn't track it down. I emptied the garbage, made sure the dishes in the sink we clean and I didn't smell it. As I was walking around the corner into my living room, it hit me.

After my ATV tour in Aruba, I put my shoes in a hotel bag, and had left them there. I tracked down the bag and sure enough, that's where the smell was coming from. I put the shoes out on my balcony and threw out the bag. I may be able to wear them again, but I doubt it.

Here's a picture of me with the helmet on. Laugh it up....

Underwater Aruba photos

2008-07-03T15:56:00.002-04:00

I used a cheap underwater film camera to take some pictures while attempting to snorkle in Aruba. Here's a few of the shots...

Random Picture of the Day

2008-07-03T14:18:00.002-04:00

I may try and start posting a picture a day... we'll see how this works out....

A good deed

2008-07-03T14:06:00.002-04:00

As no doubt you've seen, I took many pictures while I was in Aruba. I was really trying to capture the sunset, and I think that I did a pretty god job with that. One thing that photography requires, especially taking sunsets/sunrises/night time shots is patience. While waiting for the sun to go down the one day, I was watching as a couple got married on the beach of the hotel I was staying in.

The photographer had them walk along the water line for pictures, and I happened to take one of the couple as they were walking by. It came out really nice and I sent it to the concierge of my hotel with the hopes they would forward it on to the couple. I've heard stories about how long it can take to get official wedding photographs, so I figured that it would be nice if I could give this couple a picture relatively quickly.

The concierge did indeed pass the photo on (they printed it for the couple) as well as my contact information. Today I received a thank you from the bride and she asked if I could email to her as well.

I like doing nice things for people. This was something that took a total of 1 minute of my time, and brought a little joy to them.

Should I stay or should I go?

2008-07-02T15:13:00.002-04:00

So I'm heading to Chicago this weekend. I had planned to leave on Monday to come back home. Then I got an email from DKM (Drop Kick Murphys for those who didn't know). I didn't realize but they are playing in Chicago on Monday Night. DKM is for lack of a better term an Irish punk rock band. They have a bagpipe player (Scruffy Wallace) in a rock band. It actually works and sounds good. You've heard them after the Red Sox won the World Series and they had a song featured in The Departed.

I've seen them live once before. It's really a high energy great live performance. I think I have to take advantage of my current situation, and plan on staying the extra day and go to the concert, right?

Some recent dealings with my building

2008-06-30T15:35:00.003-04:00

Yesterday afternoon, I went down to my car and found a Final Notice on it's windshield. It says that I am parked without a permit and my license plate and such have been recorded. It also says that I'm going to be towed if not removed in 24 hours. I've lived in this building since January of 2004. I've had the same parking permit in the same spot in my car since January of 2004. After I read that notice, I went around the back of my car and sure enough, the parking sticker is right where it always has been.

I went down to the front desk and handed them the notice and asked them what this was about. I showed them that my sticker was right where it should be. In fact, the person had to walk past the sticker to put the notice on. What is more frustrating is that there are still several cars parked in two spaces, and there are no warnings about that.

This morning I get an email asking what my parking permit number is. I give it to them and I was told that my number was reported lost/stolen by my former roommate over two years ago. Thinking back, this is apparently how he got a 3rd parking sticker for his girlfriend. I assured the office that I've had this sticker in my car, on the window the entire time. Imagine how pissed I would have been had the car been towed and racked up storage fees while I was gone. I wonder how many trips I could have made without realizing my car was in storage.

Second, my HVAC system has a problem. It requires a visit at the start of the heating and cooling system to switch a valve. It's been that way since I moved here. I haven't been here when it was hot before, so I just hadn't called. You'd think after 4 1/2 years that they would have fixed the valve however. Thankfully, they came today and swapped the valve. All is good. I now have air conditioning.

I'm drawing the line

2008-06-30T08:44:00.002-04:00

I'm not sure what I have against social networking sites, but I'm finally drawing the line. Currently I have a MySpace profile and a LinkedIn profile. I do not have a facebook account. In fact, I really don't even know what Facebook is, although I hear about it all the time. I refuse to signup for Facebook. I'm 32 years old, and I know how to communicate with people. I don't need to do it though a networking site, or prove I'm popular with it.

That said, I wonder what do people do on these sites? Personally, I use it to email back and forth with someone who's email address I've lost (and asked him and receieved 10 times, so I don't want to ask again), I read a few friends blogs on there, and that's about it. I'll look at pictures people post, etc too. I know that college kids post information about parties on there now (it's too much to actually put up fliers or pass the word on.

Granted, I can't remember the last time that I actually wrote a letter and put it in the mail. That's something who's time has passed I think. I use the mail for business communication and things like that, but for personal letters, not so much. I take that back. I remember writing letters to Susan while I was in college and she was home. They were many pages (legal pad) and of course handwritten. I'd often get the same from her. I'm not really sure why we stuck with writing back and forth. I do remember the initial flirting happening in the letters, and they just continued. I guess that the phone call from upstate NY to central NJ was just too expensive. I enjoyed writing and getting the letters though. It would really brighten my day when I got one. I'd rush from the mail room to my dorm room to read it because I was genuinely interested in what she had to write. And no, there was never anything racy or explicit in them. Perhaps if there was, things could have ended up differently (for the un-intiated, she ended up marrying a good friend of mine from college within a year of she and I breaking up. Since she was from my home town, they'd met through me and I'm pretty sure had been having an affair). I don't think I ever really did that with C. I think she was the first gf I had after talking on the phone and using email was the norm.

Anyway, if you're only on Facebook and want me to be in your social network, you're going to have to come to LinkedIn or MySpace. I'm NOT going to Facebook.

NYC Fireworks tonight

2008-06-29T23:12:00.003-04:00

I really didn't mean to turn this into a picture blog, but as they say a picture is worth a thousand words. I needed to practice before the 4th of July anyway.....

Aruba Day 5 Sunset

2008-06-28T09:08:00.003-04:00

First, I took this impromptu shot of this recently married couple walking along the beach. I'm sending a copy of the picture to my hotel's concierge in hopes that they'll forward it on to them.

And now on to the last sunset that I'll see in Aruba on this trip. These were all taken from the beach at my hotel again. Maybe next time I come, I'll be more adventurous and try and get the sunset from other places on the island.

Aruba Day 5

2008-06-27T15:11:00.004-04:00

So I learned something about snorkeling today. If you have facial hair, it doesn't work very well because you cant get a seal around your nose. I did the best I could. They did have an open bar on the boat too though...

Aruba Day 4 Sunset

2008-06-27T07:28:00.003-04:00

There was actually a sunset last night too... or a partial one...

Aruba Day 4

2008-06-26T14:02:00.005-04:00

Remember it's supposed to rain today. I had booked an ATV Tour for this morning. Here are some pictures from it... and so far it hasn't rained....

Aruba, Day 3

2008-06-25T15:37:00.005-04:00

Really, I'm told it never rains in Aruba and yesterday was an aberration. This morning was beautiful. It is very humid here, but with the wind you'd never know. It's always breezy here.

and then, around 11:30am or so....

The weather forecast for Aruba. Remember, it never rains here.....

Aruba Day 2

2008-06-24T18:23:00.006-04:00

If you have any comments, leave them here, not in my email. I'm refusing to check email during my vacation-

These first ones are from around 10am or so-

and then around 12:45pm or so....

and finally...

Aruba Day 1

2008-06-24T14:45:00.002-04:00