bjciii: My twisted thoughts

Yes, I know I’m no different than a ton of different people and websites by offering my own view of 2005, but I’m going to combine my own personal 2005 with the world events that meant something to me as well. Suck it up! You came here to read what I thought, so now you shall. I spent the last 45 minutes going through the couple hundred entries I’ve had this year so I can take notes. Now that I have, 2005 in bullet points (in no exact chronological order mind you):

• “A year of personal enrichment” meant that I signed up for a class, worked out in 3 different places, and tried to better myself by volunteering at a few places. That actually lasted a while too! Unfortunately the volunteering died out because I got too busy for the DCT, but I do still help out at my mom’s charity. The work-outs landed me at the “Y” and I’ll be back there on Monday!
• Work. Wow. I could write volumes about this subject, but I’ll narrow it down to this: It was a roller-coaster ride from January to July. Thank God it’s over!
• My new URL! No longer with Comcast’s limited web-hosting, I moved to this site (http://www.bjciii.com) and have been VERY happy with it.
• Cingular is dead!!! I went to Verizon for my wireless service and have never been happier with my service. Thank God!!
• My Eagles made the Super Bowl and lost. I can’t relive this. Sorry.
• Iraq consumed a lot more of the U.S. Military and my cousin went over and came back in one piece. Luckily he’s now out in San Diego where I doubt the illegals will stage an uprising.
• Karl Malone retired without a championship. I can’t crow about that enough.
• No hockey? Shit. We suffered through the loss of a season. Hockey is back? Cool! We now love the ice-men again!
• The darkest day in Philadelphia history: The day the music died. Y-100 was taken off the air and replaced with yet ANOTHER Urban Music station leaving Philadelphia as the largest radio market in the country without a modern-rock station. Preston & Steve went to WMMR, so that saved a few of us from hanging ourselves.
• eHarmony.com led to me meeting 2 wonderful girls who I count as very good friends currently. It was expensive, but it really did make a lot of my year very good.
• A lot of snow early on led to a lot of salting and digging, but it wasn’t as bad as it could have been I guess.
• Terry Schiavo died (or was killed depending on what you believe). This led to some HUGE discussions about living wills and patients in comas.
• The only Pope I really remembered, Pope John Paul II, died after a lengthy term as the holy father. Everyone said he was very grandfatherly and loving, so it would be tough to get another Pope to be just like him.
• Drew hit a pigeon in mid-air with his car on I-95 heading to Philadelphia. Seriously… that was too funny not to repeat.
• A bunch of weddings!!! Krzysztof & Tracy Bakowski. Jonathan & Sarah Perry. John & Jal Baltz. The first two I was invited to. The last one, well they eloped. I still wasn’t invited to the reception though…. damnit.
• France and I learned that, as good as we thought we were at pool, we weren’t really that good at all going winless in our first go-together in the pool league at Catherine Rooney’s.
• Our new pope? German Cardinal Ratzinger becomes Pope Benedict XVI (that’s the sixteenth for those of you Roman-challenged… like I was)
• I started a weekly trivia section on my site which is hot and cold depending on the topic. It’s tough writing for you bastards.
• There was a WHOLE lot of sex going on this year!!! Jenn & Drew, Jonathan & Sarah, Jackie & Dave, Emily & Dana, and now Dan & Kelly: All pregnant or just had children!
• The job hunt is a bitch. I know now what is meant by “overqualified” because I’m that. Underpaid of couse, but overqualified.
• Having just watched it last night on DVD, I loved Star Wars Episiode III: Revenge of the Sith. It marked the last of the Star Wars movies to be released to the general public. I’ll miss the anticipation.
• Growing up and buying property? Krzysztof & Tracy Bakowski, Wade, France, Andrew, Steve, Anna, Fran & Bubbles, Jersey Colleen, and my sister Colleen & Steve all bought houses or condos this year.
• I broke my 50 minute mark in the 5K routine this year!! Woot!
• Three little letters: d-v-r. That speaks volumes.
• Harry Potter mania drives me wild. I devoured the 6th book, waited for the 7th, and went with my mom (as is our tradition) to see the 4th movie. What a great series of stories…
• We descended upon Lewes for yet another week of nothing to do. It was lovely and wonderful and I read 5 books. Awesome. I love that week in July.
• Never, ever mention you don’t like either the movie or the soundtrack to Garden State because you really will piss people off.
• My little sister got engaged to a big, bad city cop. Steve is a great guy and I can’t wait until the wedding.
• Hurricane after hurricane. It’s quite scary to think that Mother Nature pretty much bent us over this year and just started ramming away. More named hurricanes this year than in any other year since they started recording this stuff.
• Yet another reason to hate the state of Texas: George W. Bush. What a waste of an elected official.
• I questioned the randomness of my blog and then realized later that the randomness keeps me interested. If I focused myself on one thing or another, I’d probably get stymied. Thank God for A.D.D.!!!
• A lot of us turned 30 this year and we had some good times. To Bernie, Chris, Brian, Dan, & Pete: We’re still young.
• Joss Whedon gave us a tremendous swan-song in Serenity and I pray upon pray that it’s not the final chapter. What a genius that man is…
• Gasoline prices go to show us that greed is alive and well in this great country and much easier to pull off if your president is as corrupt as a third-world dictator.
• Terrell Owens & Drew Rosenhous. Wastes. Of. Sperm. T.O. is a great athlete who needs to grow up. Drew just needs to die.
• Vaya Con Dios Eduardo Guerrero.
• I scalped tickets for the first time learning the age-old secret (say it with me Steve): Ya Can’t Eat Cardboard!
• Richard Pryor finally succumbed to his M.S. and passed away. What a tremendous talent that man had for making us laugh.
• It was a better Christmas than I thought it would be because I realized that it isn’t about the money, it’s about the love.

So that’s my year in review. There’s less than 11 hours left until 2006 and I still need to shower. To everyone who was in my life in 2005 (both good and bad), thank you. It’s because of you that I sit here who I am right now.

I wish all of you a safe and happy 2006. God bless.

It’s officially Christmas and I wish you all a very merry (or happy if you’re a UK-er) one! Even though Jesus Christ was probably born in the summer and this is nothing more than an early attempt at the Christian church to convert the pagans, it’s still a very important holiday and it really does make a difference in the lives of a ton of people. So remember that before you start in on all the theological and philosophical discussions… just because the date is capricious doesn’t mean that the meaning behind it is lost okay?

Merry Christmas.
Love one another.
Take care of each other.
Be kind.
Be happy.
Smile.
And for God’s sake: Hug someone.

As was stated in the immortal words of “Seinfeld,” today is officially Festivus! No, I’m not pathetic, that episode was on last night and they mentioned that it fell on the 23rd. Give me a break okay?

In any case, I haven’t updated in a little while and I’m sorry for that. I have been shopping for Christmas, helping Colleen & Steve, putting in time at the store, and trying to get over this cold which hit me a couple of days ago. I haven’t slept more than 2 hours in the last 3 days, so I’m kind of off!

So it’s the night before the night before Christmas and we’re all ready aren’t we? I’ll get to see my friends Lisa & Nicola on Christmas Eve as well as overdosing on family. With any luck the cough will be gone and I can knock back some beers at my favorite watering hole: The 17th Street Pub. Don’t bother looking for it people; much like the establishments in the Prohibition Era, this place is a backroom bevy of beauty.

So I wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas. I hope everyone is safe and happy and healthy throughout the remainder of this year and everyone drops me a line to say hello. I know… I am a greedy bastard ain’t I?

So I go in for an interview today at 10:30 but, no more than 5 minutes later, I’m offered the job on a part-time basis to start!

Talk about a quick turnaround!!! So I am back on the “I pay taxes” boat and most likely in a much better position than I was previously! By that I mean that I’ll be with English geeks like myself and I’ll be helping the faculty, staff, and students with a myriad of things. I really am excited for this. They kept saying that it was “chaotic” in there this morning but as I looked around and witnessed their version of chaos, it took all the strength I had not to laugh! Chaos is where I used to work and how that so-called management made us jump through hoops as they promised the undeliverable. Chaos is when the customers caught wind of the shenanigans the Canadian Mafia decided to pull and call us on it. No my friends… the new place ain’t chaos: It’s heaven. I start on January 3rd, 2006.

So I take this time to thank all of my friends who have been pimping me to every company across the board for the last 6 months. I thank all my family who have been doing the same. A special thank you to both Anthony and Mongoose who spent more time dropping my name than probably doing their own work. I can’t tell you how touched I am to know who my friends are and how much I mean to them. Y’all mean the world to me too.

Enough of this maudlin shit though… I have syllibi to read!

You ladies that read this may not completely get this post, but I know that all you guys will definitely feel my pain. For whatever reason men have a tough time letting go of things that women find to be stupid… I can’t explain it, but it broke my heart today to retire about 6 t-shirts.

Yes ladies: T-Shirts.

These shirts are so comfortable and so worn-in that it causes me pain to think of them going in the rag drawer to be worn only during painting or yard-work. I have shirts that feature my “Irish Drinking Team” heritage as well as a couple from the first few years of my old watering hole, McLaren’s Pub, on Saint Patrick’s Day. There is even one that features a really beautiful yellow lab on the front that is now frayed. It’s such a heartbreaker…

The necks have holes in them as well as the shoulders. The graphics are fading with each wash and, while they make great undershirts, they haven’t seen the light of day in a while. I have a shirt in my bedroom that I’ve had since high-school with more holes than Swiss Cheese, but that is sentimental. I just can’t believe I have to move them from the “wearable” drawer.

Oh well… life moves on and more cotton is fabricated. I guess I’ll have to find more bars that open up and give away shirts!

The holiday season officially starts for me tonight as my first Christmas party happens in a little bit. I am actually excited about Christmas despite my last entry. I owe this to Doug, who I haven’t heard from in a very long time, because it’s someone I didn’t expect a pep-talk from! It’s always really nice to hear from someone like that because Doug was my very first “mentor-figure” at my first job. Unfortunately trying to follow along as Doug tried to show me how to configure a box was like trying to catch a squirrel overdosing on crack. The boy is smarter than all hell, but shit does he move fast!!! Luckily I caught a little of it and was able to use that after Doug left the company (lucky man). Anyway: Thanks Doug.

In sadder news, Richard Pryor died either late last night or early this morning. There was a man who completely eradicated barriers and became one of the most legendary comics ever. His battle with MS over the last years of his life was a tough one and he provided a lot of hope to a lot of people. He gave me one of my favorite movies ever: Blazing Saddles (in conjunction with Mel Brooks of course). Lines like “Where the white women at?” and the entire scene where Sheriff Bart was introduced have been cemented in pop culture forever more. Rest in Peace Richard Pryor.

Well I’m off folks. My ride is here and the first party of my season is about to start. Oh joy. Oh bliss.

I love the gift-giving holidays. I think it’s because I have that thing inside me like my dad that likes to see people open stuff that I thought about ya know? I am not big on receiving gifts, but I do like giving them. That’s why Christmas this year is gonna suck.

I’ve been on a really strict budget these past 5 months and I can’t really afford to give everyone gifts this year. I mean, I’ll scrape together some cash to get some things (against everyone’s wishes), but I can’t go all-out like I normally do. I guess it’s lucky I don’t have kids yet! It’s just a frustrating feeling. I’ve got little jobs here and there and friends keep recommending me to other places, so I know I’ll end up full-time somewhere soon, but right now it’s a bit of a bitch.

My friend Chris, a wonderful human being for whom I’d gladly fling myself into oncoming traffic, e-mailed me last night to tell me about some DVDs she got me for Christmas (DVDs that I really, really wanted) and I felt horrible thinking I can’t afford to get her something that cool for Christmas. It’s not a nice feeling but then again it’s all about commercialism I guess. Maybe I’ve bought too far into it? I know you can’t measure love by dollar amounts (unless you’re a hooker, but then “stocking stuffers” take on a whole new meaning), but you can’t deny that if your girlfriend/boyfriend/husband/wife gets you a $2 toy for a holiday where you spent $200, you will feel miffed. We’re all guilty of that I guess.

This isn’t a “pity me” entry by the by… it’s merely a cautionary tale for those of you who are looking through their wallets for that hidden $50 in case of emergency so you can buy another gift for someone: Think with your heart and not with your wallet. A $500 necklace is beautiful and is bound to get you some sexual contact, but if she (and I’m using “she” because of the necklace; I’m not trying to be sexist) has really mentioned this $35 sweater from Target, then you get that because she will know you really listened and cared what SHE wanted. But, then again, I’ve never met a woman who would turn down diamonds

In any case: Don’t go overboard buying things for Christmas… at least that’s what I’m telling myself!