bjciii: My twisted thoughts

A brief closing to a 7+ year life: It’s over. Tonight I get to see my co-workers one last time as a group before we all spread around again. We have people coming in from different states and we will take over Stanley’s in Wilmington for a little bit. It’s been a ride that makes me appreciate what I do have in life. This has been a chapter in my life that is now over and that chapter will serve to enhance my future chapters. I regret nothing. Regret is a wasted emotion because it means that you are sorry for who you are currently. Every step you take leads you to the exact moment you are left wondering about your past. You don’t have to enjoy every memory, but do not regret it. Even bad times make you rethink decisions that you’ll make in the future.

So where does that leave me? Well I have an interview on Monday for a company 2 of my friends work for and they have been building me up to the IT department. Should be fun to say the least. I’m still waiting for UD to come through because I think that I could definitely be “happy” there, so keep your fingers crossed. Until all that, I’m just putting things away at the house and doing laundry. Thanks for all your help and support over the last year and a half. I know I’ve been miserable and irritable, but that’s in the past now. The monkey has left the building and my back is now free.

And so that’s all she wrote for the morning travel to the office. It’s mostly good, but I’m a little depressed because I’m really going to miss a couple people who I’ve worked with for those long years. Some people have already gone, some are staying after me, but now it won’t matter because I’ll no longer have those morning “Fark” sessions with Mark. I won’t be microwaving sausage with John & Bryant. I won’t be heading outside for “non-smoke smoke breaks” with Norma or Pete. I won’t be doing any of that anymore and it’s more than a little upsetting. As an American adult, you tend to spend more time with your co-workers than you do your family most days. These people, for better or for worse, were my life for over 7 years. It’s not setting in yet that I won’t see them every single weekday until eternity ends. I’ll get over it as I sort through the 4 boxes of stuff I brought home from my desk, but it’s not a fun feeling right now.

So thanks to everyone from that shitty little office. The sheer crappiness of that place brought us closer together than maybe if we had windows or floors that didn’t flood. Maybe if the lights worked in the men’s room or our neighbors weren’t all convicts, we might not have bonded like we did. Sure, I’m positive there were many days where they hated me and I know there were days where I hated them, but we were family. Thanks again for putting up with me and making those 7 years, 2 months, and 16 days an interesting experience through and through.

To the “home office:” No matter how many mercs you hire, you lost one hell of a staff and, more importantly, you lost one hell of a great group of people. I’d like to wish you luck, but I’m not feeling very beneficent at the current moment. Best I can do is this: Don’t fuck up our legacy.

• How do the actors feel when they go into a movie store and see their flicks in the “Deep Discount” bin? What about people like the lesser-known Baldwins who practically live in the discount section? Do they throw a party when someone pays full-price for a DVD they are in?
• How many people watched the shuttle launch today in the same mindset as most NASCAR fans watch a race? “Oh… I’m not here for the trip, I just want to see if something blows up or crashes…”
• What sort of education do you need to be a television executive? Seriously… I’m asking here…
• Pauly Shore has had more women than you’d think. Pauly Shore. There’s no question here, just a complete lack of understanding.
• Did you know there are STILL people walking around grumbling that Peterman got robbed in that Stars Dancing series?
• I have deep, ashamed feelings for finding the new Starbuck (Katee Sackhoff) hot. Starbuck was Dirk “Faceman” Benedict in 1978! Why am I so conflicted about this?
• I’m not a big rap-fan, but does it make anyone else laugh to tears to see the media blow up the “Hilary Duff – Lindsay Lohan” feud like Biggie v. Tupac?
• True story: When I was in my single digits, one of my biggest thrills in life was to pump gas for my parents. I told them all that I was going to be a gas-station attendent when I grew up which got a lot of funny looks since all the other boys said “Fireman” or “Policeman” or “Construction Worker” (come to think of it… how many young boys are still being influenced by The Villiage People?). I acheived my dream when I was 15. Where do I go from here?
• If you get people together to play the board game RISK, start early. Anna came close to turning Kamatchka into Lake Drool when she started to fall asleep midway through the game.
• It’s definitely been said before, but why is there a “common” in front of sense when it sure as shit isn’t that common to be sensical?
• How interesting is it that, in the last decade, the British police have gone from unarmed pacifists to the LAPD?
• Is the Terrell Owens “saga” getting as much press across the country as it is in this area? If so, I’d like to apologize on behalf of the Eagles fans in this area.

A day late, but not a dollar short. Everyone go to the main page and answer my questions damnit! I know more than 2 people read this journal…

Morning beautiful people! I managed to wake up again today, so that’s already a big plus in the ‘good’ column. I’ve got a pretty busy weekend ahead of me as 2 of my friends decided they are moving on the same day. So tomorrow morning I’m helping Wade move out of the apartment I moved him into and into a house he made settlement on just recently. Since he has about 8 guys helping out, it shouldn’t be a big deal. After that, I run back to Wilmington and help Steve move from his Trolley Square condo to a house right around the corner from mine. Should be fun because I anticipate I’ll have about 20 minutes to shower and go into the store on Saturday night. Thank God France and Mongoose aren’t moving this weekend…

So what does everyone else have on their plate? Anything fun? It’s not a long update because I’m still really tired and not thinking coherently. I promise to expound further later

8 New pictures have been added to the Picture Page. I’ve grouped them all up top under “Newest Additions” so Jal doesn’t have to hunt through all of them to find ones she hasn’t seen.

P.S. – Eric arrived home SAFELY last night! All is right with the world.

My cousin Eric arrives at Baltimore-Washington International this evening at 5pm. He is out of that God-forsaken pit of hell named Iraq and I really don’t give a shit about anything else right now. My cousin is coming home… safe.

So, if we look at the calendar, I have 10 days left until I’m officially unemployed for the very first time since I was 17. It’s both very terrifying and very happy at the same time because I don’t know where I’ll be generating my “need-to-live” money however I won’t be doing something that makes me miserable anymore either. It’s a Catch-22 I guess! I have faith in God and I know He’s going to show me the perfect job that will let me make a difference AND work for a company… well I’ll just stop right there. I guess I’ll have to dip into some investments for a little while to make the ends meet, but ya know what? I’ll get through it! Lord knows I’ll be happier!!

So, now that the unpleasantness is out of the way, what else can we talk about? I am now fully “back in the swing” of day-to-day life after a week out of the office for vacation. It’s funny how you need a couple days to reacclimate yourself to a life that you live 99% of the year isn’t it? I took over 200 pictures at the beach and posted them in my Ofoto picture pages. If you want to see them, e-mail me and I’ll hook you up with the link. I’ve finally caught up with most of my DVR’d shows while I was gone. I have 3 hours left (all of FOX’s The Inside which is getting cancelled soon enough anyway, but it’s a tremendous show) and I’ll get to them soon. I did manage to catch all of the Season 1 episodes of the retooled Battlestar Galactica and, I have to say against my better judgement, that I really enjoyed the show. Yes… Starbuck is a (hot) chick now instead of Dirk Benedict. Yes… Apollo is in love with Starbuck (and vice-versa). Yes… Boomer is a (hot) Korean chick now instead of my man Herb Washington, but it was a really well-thought out show. I’m very impressed with it. They even had a nice nod to us people who loved the original by casting Richard Hatch (the original Apollo) as a charismatic villan of sorts. Good shit folks.

Well it’s time I get back to the job at hand while I’ve still got it. I’d like to send a quick thanks to Erin & Kara who both came down to visit me in Lewes last week. It’s always a pleasure! Until the next time, stop by the store and say hi… I’ll be there tonight

I was on vacation last week… sue me. I wanted to desperately do Harry Potter trivia, but I had a pretty good idea that me & Bernie would be the only two to answer PLUS I wouldn’t want to ruin the new book for those of you who didn’t have a lot of time like I did between loads of laundry yesterday!! Anyway, go to the main page and check out the trivia…

Had to quickly write about this…

I picked up Harry Potter & The Half-Blood Prince yesterday around 3pm. I read about 60 pages last night and the rest (about 560+) today. That Rowling woman can write folks. If you haven’t read it because you’re too “mature” for kids’ books or you find talk of magic to be sacreligious or any other completely stupid reason, you should definitely suck it up and read the 6 books. There will be (at least) one more book on the way in a couple of years, but I really do think that Rowling will write a few “Continuing adventures of…” books in the future. I’m flabbergasted at the serious tone that she switched to and continued through, so I’m amazed at where Book 6 ended up. It’s utterly inspired to be that brave and to manipulate that world in such the way she has. Yes, I’m being very coy with my words right now… It’s not some stupid “my company is reading so I can’t offend” bullshit, this is “I want you to enjoy the books so I won’t ruin anything” love you feel eminating from me.

Pick up the books. You can get Books 1-4 in paperback now while 5 & 6 are still hardback. You gotta do it!!! They’re just awesome (and I mean that in the traditional sense… awe-inspiring)! Oh… if you don’t remember, I wrote about the idiots who want to say it promotes Satansism and un-Christian values. Yup… I’m talking about you too Pope Benedict! Read this:
Harry Potter Haters Beware!