Back From Oblivion

I had a somewhat interesting day yesterday.

Now don't get too excited, it probably isn't as exciting for you as it was for me.

I had a call back for a second interview with a firm I am trying to get a job with. Something I have done before, and actually enjoyed it very much. I'm still waiting for them to make a decision, so I'm holding my breath. I know don't hold it too long. But that is not what I was excited about.

What excited me was a voice I heard as I walked from my car to the building for the interview.

"Michael!!!" The voice was one I knew, but not quite recognizable. As I turned around I couldn't believe my eyes!

Standing there looking sheepishly, and as excited as I was, was an old friend, room-mate/co-worker. EER had lived with DJ and I for over a year when we first got together six years ago. She became our little sister and we took her everywhere with us. At the time she was very naive and innocent. Our goal was to change that...

After we moved from the place we shared, she left Cincinnati and moved back to her hometown in New Hampshire where she underwent a gastric by-pass. DJ and I stayed downtown and then later moved out here in the sub-burbs. We saw her a few times after that, but after time we just seemed to go our separate ways. I heard that she did get pregnant a year or so ago, and lost her baby. We tried contacting her to no avail. Then yesterday out of no where, there she was.

She filled me in on her life, and that she had moved back to Cincinnati some time ago and didn't know how to get a hold of us. She also informed me that she was married in March, but is now going through a divorce. I told her we thought she just disappeared.

I'm glad she didn't. She was a breath of fresh air when she lived with us, and even though she is not as naive as she used to be she really has not changed all that much. Her smile and laughter was fully intact. Hopefully we will be working again soon!!

Happy, Merry Whatever!

Well it seems as though the Christmas shopping season is in full blown mode. According to the numbers, Black Friday was a great financial success. All those 5:00 a.m. shoppers must have done some heavy duty plastic swiping. Personally getting up before the crack of dawn to go to a mall or retail store filled with thousands of hormonal women (and men) to fight for "tickle me Elmo" or whatever it is that they are fighting for this year, seems a bit neanderthal to me. It's like you have to be the first caveman out in the field to get the last or best bison.

DJ's sister did though. She lives directly across the street from a Meijer. I mean it is literally across the street from her condo. She can be there in 10 minuted by walking, 3 by car. She had her heart set on getting a 27' flat screen TV for the sale price of $59.99 (after a $40.00 mail-in-rebate) for her living room. She awoke at 4:00 a.m. after spending the biggest bar night of the year out consuming mass quantities of alcohol. Who knows, she probably never even went to bed. She arrived in the parking lot at 4:45 a.m. with about 250 other cars in the lot. At 5:00 a.m. she was going through the doors and began heading straight to the electronics department. As she passed by other early bird shoppers she noticed that many of them had their carts already filled with the very same TV she was going to purchase. Some even had two of them in their carts. You guessed it. By the time she made her way to the special priced TV banner, there were none left. This was at 5:10 a.m.

What does this tell me? That the employees had already ravaged this display the night before and left about 8 TVs for public consumption. Or that they only had five in stock and she saw those in carts as she made her way to pick up hers.

Then of course there is this whole PlayStation 3 fiasco. Why didn't Sony prepare for this onslaught of consumers and make enough of these to go around? Why? Because then they would have had to lower the price of them. People sat out in front of the local Best Buy for three days waiting to get these things. Hell, at one store a guy was shot, and at another store there was a stampede and the police had to intervene! CRAZY! Back when I was growing up, my mother would have never waited in line to get a gift for me or anyone else not to mention paying that much for a game. And if they had, that would be the only thing I got the entire next two YEARS! I remember being excited one year at Christmas because I got new underwear!

Today I heard on the news that Wal-Mart, trying to make everyone happy and to not offend, has decided to return to the "Merry Christmas" greeting instead of last year's "Happy Holidays". They are allowing the cashiers and their floor staff to "size up" each customer and then determine what greeting to use, whether it be Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, or Happy Holidays. Please let's not offend anyone... so to all of you out there, my wish for you is to be happy and be safe...

and,

Merry Whatever!!

Another Thanksgiving

I hope everyone's Thanksgiving was as good as mine. We had a beautiful day, and everyone was there and healthy. It was even more special as this was the first Thanksgiving for my two new grandbabies, Rylan and Alana. Holidays just seem more like holidays when there are babies around. We all ate too much and then passed out afterwards.

I also was upbeat as I had a very good interview on Wednesday. Hopefully I will hear something this next week. I am so looking forward to going back to work, but I do not want to get my hopes up too much as I have before and just been disappointed. So I'm just keeoing my fingers crossed and hope for the best.

So much has changed since this time last year. DJ and I were both working this time last year and in our own place. My son had just gotten married and told us that they were having a baby. Now not only did my son have a son, but my daughter had a baby, DJ and I both had a change in employment and now living with his mother. I could dwell on the negatives, but I am just thankful that I have all that I do, and that another Thanksgiving has come and gone and we were all able to be there and that we all are healthy and happy.

I added some new pictures over at flickr, so check them out. The link is over on the right. This was taken Thanksgiving, a 4 generation picture with my mom, Sarah, Alana and myself.

Happy Turkey Day!

Happy Turkey Day!!

Sloths & Turkeys

Everything is running the same course here as it has for the past five weeks or so. Maybe even longer than that. One thing that has changed is now that DJ is working mostly night-shift, our sleeping habits have changed drastically. He normally gets home anywhere from 11 PM to 2 AM and I wait up for him. So that means my ass stays in bed WAY TOO LONG every morning/afternoon. This is not a good habit. I know this and I still lie there in bed until I absolutely HAVE to get up.



I know from prior experience that this leads to depression and just plain laziness, which now seems to have settled into my psyche. So after Thanksgiving, I am going to put a stop to this slothfulness. I have to.



I do have another interview on Wednesday. I am not going to say or write too much about it, as I do not want to jinx things, but the opportunity sounds like a good one. Hopefully I have the skills that they need and they have the money to pay me what I need.



Other than that, I've just been trying to get ready for the upcoming holidays, which seem like they have arrived earlier this year. I know that is not the case, as they are always the same time every year, but it sure seems as though they come faster and faster every year. One of the things that I am looking forward to this year is the fact that we have two new babies this year for the holidays. It's been a long time since we have had babies around during the holiday season. Isn't that what the holidays are all about? Families and kids.



So just in case I do not post before Thanksgiving, have a good one.

Adapting

Since moving in with DJ's parents we have had to share the internet service. Which is problematic, so we decided to purchase the wireless internet service that their internet provider was offering. After four hours of dealing with my internet provider, I finally reconnected to the the internet via wireless...

We had to purchase a new wireless modem from the provider, which we were charged $42.00 (for the service so they said, not the equipment). We asked them point blank..."now is this ALL we need to be able to set up multiple computers via this wireless modem?"

Their reply was..."Yep, you don't need anything else."

So we popped home and set up everything. But there was nothing in their $42.00 bundle that we had to hook up to the second computer. How do we connect to the internet on the second computer without any adpaters or plugs or cords? I mean I am pretty up on current technology and I know we would have to do something to the second computer to allow it to pick up the feed. So we called tech support.

According to tech support we also had to purchase a wireless USB adapter for the second computer as my computer did not have a wireless card. So we called our internet provider back and complained that we did NOT have all the tools to be able to connect to the service that we had just paid $42.00 for. Their response was..."Oh well, you will have to have an adapter to connect to the service, we are sorry that was not explained to you."

So off to Best Buy and another $69.00 for a wireless adapter.

But now all is well and DJ's sister can be on the internet the same time that I am and on her wireless cell phone as well. All is good.

Isn't technology great?

As long as you have the money it is.

Long Time Coming

It has been a long time coming, and I'm not talking about my blog postings. I know it has been almost a week, but I have been busy working on some of my other blogs...go ahead take a look, they are all over there on my blog lists. See I have been busy. A gentleman posted a comment the other day on my blog Glance Back, about how neat it would be if I focused just on Presidential History, so a new blog was created this week, PresiTrivial. Go check it out, well not unless Presidential trivia would really excite you.

What I was referring to in it being a longtime coming, was the "thumpin" (George W.'s words not mine) the Republican party got this past week. Not only did the country finally change course, but my own home state of Ohio finally woke up and realized they needed a Democratic State House. Yes, I stayed up all night long watching the election results and still one hope has not manifested itself. That Jean Schmidt would be voted OUT of office. That is yet to be determined but the least would be that someone would take that damn ugly bow out of her hair!!!!

Doogie is GAY!

I'm not really sure about Doogie, but Neil Patrick Harris, the actor who currently is seen weekly on the CBS comedy, "How I Met Your Mother" and from Doogie Howser, M.D. fame, has announced to People magazine that...

"I am quite proud to say that I am a very content gay man living my life to the fullest and feel most fortunate to be working with wonderful people in the business I love."

Speculation has been running rampant for sometime about Harris sexual orientation, and he states that he has never denied it, but had never had the need to discuss or verify it until recently.

So another entertainer comes out of the closet.

My question is, why do we make it such a big deal? We don't have websites devoted to outing heterosexuals, or having lists of all the actors and actresses that are hetero. What should it matter whom we have sex with? Then again here I am making a big deal about it by posting it on my blog with all the other thousands of bloggers, so who am I to question our motives? I know I am being naive, but someday...someday soon I hope, it will not matter.

But regardless, way to go Doogie!

Gotta Love It!

This will brighten your day!

All is Well

If you read my blog regularly you know for some time I have been concerned about my mother. She seems to forget things, not just forget things but forget conversations that she has just had. Finally after months of prodding and begging she went to the doctor and had a check up and had some tests run. Luckily everything came back normal. There was no indication that she is suffering from Alzheimer's. The doctor stated that she is just having normal "old age" forgetfulness. Personally I think her doctor is a quack, but tests don't lie. So for now my concerns were unwarranted.

On my home front, DJ and I are settled into his mother's basement. So far it's quite comfortable and feels like home (somewhat). I also have a couple job opportunities that have become open to me. I have sent out the resumes this week and look forward to upcoming interviews. Hopefully a job will come along soon and we will once again be packing and moving back into our own place.

Sunday I was able to spend some time with my daughter and grand-daughter. They came over for a visit with "Papa". It is so hard to believe she has gotten so big already. She will be three months on the 11th but it already seems like she is always been here. She is beginning to look a little more like her mom and less like her dad. This weekend J2 will be coming to spend the weekend. It will be be interesting to see how he adjust to me living here. But overall, all is well.