Hazy days of summer

This weekend I went out both nights, spent too much money, met new people, drank way too much, did things I shouldn't have, saw the sun come up, spent an entire day with a hangover, heard some good music, and developed a crush on a total stranger. I'm back, baby.

Cog against the machine

So I’m sitting at work on what was up until a little while ago a busy day. Now I’m waiting for my project manager to get back from a conference so we can discuss whatever I should be doing right now instead of blogging. I was going to use the term ‘boss’ instead of project manager, but I don’t know if it would be accurate. How does one define boss? Since I have two managers (one project manager and one functional manager) who are both equally in charge of my fate in this company, is it fair to say that only one of them is my boss? I know that in reality I just have two bosses but that hardly seems like an appropriate rendering of the situation; and I mean that in the best way. I guess you could say that I’m all settled in at the office now. I’ve got pictures of the family, sports memorabilia, and creepy gargoyles placed sporadically in my office. Hard to say that it feels like home, though. Speaking of home I’m enjoying my new apartment a lot. I’ve probably said that before so I may sounds like a broken record but, hey, I’M REALLY ENJOYING MY NEW APARTMENT. I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that I just prefer living by myself.

I don’t see nearly as much of my friends as I thought I would when I moved here. I’m used to living in B’ham where I’d go out every night. I think a lot of that was my desire just to get out of the confines of my Dad’s house, though. Here I don’t feel nearly as much of a desire to leave my apartment once I get home from work. Hell I’ve only been to the bar (in Huntsville) once since I moved here. That’s ridiculous. I have yet to determine whether or not I’m ok with this phenomenon. I don’t think I am. I’m not saying that I want to spend every night going out to the bars and getting drunk. What I’m saying is that I’m a very social person and I like that about myself. If I sit at home for two nights without seeing any of my friends I feel like I’ve done something wrong. I guess what I’m really getting at is that I don’t ever want to be boring. I think it’s weird that none of the people I work with seem to hang out with each other outside of the office. That’s really weird to me. What the hell do these people do? What the hell am I going to be doing in a year? Whatever it is, I hope to hell it’s not boring.

Countdown to retirement

One week of work down, countless to go. My first week of work went really well. Here is a random group of thoughts concerning this new beginning.

I met a lot of people who I'll likely never have to deal with again and even if I do I won't remember their names. I decided that I hate laptops because every one has the delete key in a different fucking spot. I’ve got two managers at work and they are both really nice and helpful. I wish I didn’t have to sit in front of a computer all day, but hopefully that won’t always be the case. I’ll likely be bringing my lunch to work a lot because eating out is expensive; it’ll also let me leave early if I work through lunch. I’m actually a little surprised at my level of productivity (he says as he blogs while on the clock). I like the work that they’ve got me doing here - it may not be the ideal but at least it’s not aerodynamics crap. I get the impression that my project manager really likes me and is impressed; that may not actually be the case but it’s the impression that I get. I’ve got the Mighty Might Bosstones stuck in my head now. I am falling in love for the first time all over again with Pandora Radio. One of the higher-ups in the company decided that if people were going to have things hung on the walls in their office that it had to be done right so if I want to hang up my MST3K poster I have to email the wife of the president of the company and get her to send someone to do it. I excel at writing long sentences. I’m trying to figure out how best to flirt with some of the cute girls that work here - it’s tough! I (surprisingly) feel bad when I’m sitting here not working (like now) but I honestly don’t know of anything else I should be doing right now. It seems like there are a lot of things around here that I’ll end up working on in some capacity. I may hate laptops now but I still can’t wait to get the laptop that they ordered for me. It seems like this company has lots of get-togethers, which I intend to use to showcase new recipes and flirt with coworkers. I drink way too much coffee when I’m here.

Okay I could probably keep going but I think that the longer that shit gets the harder it’ll be to read. I would’ve tried to make that flow better but then it probably would’ve been 15 pages long.

Feeling secure

SO... about Huntsville. I've been living here now for 4 or 5 days and I like it so far. Given, I haven't gone out to the bars yet or ventured that far beyond the walls of my apartment, honestly, but it's been a refreshing change of pace. That's not to say it's been boring. Quite the contrary, my dears. I've loved, I've laughed, I've drank, I've swam, I've walked around lakes and through fields, I've watched movies, I've played video games, I've tried new foods and met new people, and... I've even fought crime.

That's right, folks - I fought crime. Well, I suppose that I can't accurately say that I fought crime so much as my friends and I being at the pool Saturday night drinking deterred crime. That's the same thing, right? I'll try to make the story short, which should be easy considering the whole ordeal lasted all of two minutes. My friends Matt and Patricia came over Friday and Saturday night to keep a lonely boy company and go swimming. It was a blast. Saturday night after Matt helped me arrange the furniture in my living room we ventured down to the pool for an evening dip & drink. At one point (around 11) Matt and I went inside to check out the sauna as heterosexually as possible. Patricia didn't go in because she wasn't feeling that well. Well as Matt and I are in the sauna (which is to the side of the fitness center) I see two guys walk through. They're both bigger meathead looking white guys and I don't think much of it because I never think much of meathead looking white guys (or black guys, for that matter). The guys don't notice Matt and I because they didn't bother looking for people in the sauna at damn near midnight. Apparently they were carrying around flashlights and checking out the exercise equipment. When they walked out onto the pool deck, though, they saw Patricia and froze in their tracks. They then proceeded to try and play it off at which point Patricia made sure to point out that she had two friends with her in the sauna of all places. At that point the guys left and I heard them mention something about Patricia so Matt and I ended our totally heterosexual sauna trip and went and checked on Patty, who was obviously fine though a little confused by the whole ordeal. So I call the apartment complex on Monday or Tuesday and tell them about the goings-on and they tell me they'll keep an eye out.

This is the email I got earlier today:

I wanted to let you know about the two guys that you told me about
yesterday. Apparently they were arrested last night and featured on WAAY
31 news as being responsible for numerous thefts of apartment communities’
fitness centers! I had described them to --- off of your description and
she said they fit it to a T when she saw their mug shots!

Thanks again for letting me know as our property attendant is
going to be watching the area closely!

Hope you are enjoying your apartment.

So lo and behold those guys are criminals (well no shit). More importantly though they were at my apartment complex that night to steal some equipment and if it hadn't been for our need to drink around bodies of water they would've gotten away with it.

Wow I really suck at making stories short. Of course if you've read this blog before or actually know me you're probably fully aware of that. If I can find the link to the news story I'll post it here.

A quick thought...

People always introduce me to people they say are like me and I'm all 'Man that dude is a dick, but god he's attractive'.

Stereotypical Rewrite

I just saw a commercial for the US Army that kind of bugged me. To say that it implied a target audience (an odd pun) is an understatement. Army recruitment has been down a lot over the last few years, so they are pulling all of their dirty little tricks out to get more people to sign up. The first thing you would notice about this commercial is that it features only black people. That's it. No whiteys in this commercial! Just blacks. It's a little more forward than I would have thought necessary. Anyway there is hardly any dialogue in the advert except for the last scene. So it struck me that I could rewrite the last scene's dialogue:

[cut to family: mother, father, and son sitting around a table]
Son: I've done all my research and I can get money for college!
Father: Son, that's great! But what makes you think that you need that money for college? We have plenty of money to send you to school. Yes, we're black but despite what society would lead you to believe not all black families live in poverty. Isn't that crazy? A black family that has money? You never see that on TV, do ya? I am completely behind you wanting to join the army but the fact that you think you have to join up just to pay for a college education leads me to believe that somewhere you got the impression that black people can't afford college educations. I wonder why someone would think that. It's like there's a nationwide ad campaign paid for by the government that perpetuates that diluted, antiquated, bigoted idea. No. Never! Not in this day and age!

[fade to black]
Chorus: Join the Army, Nigger!

New things, new things

I am now officially a Huntsville resident. That's kind of crazy, right? I woke up early this morning, Dad and I finished loading up the truck, and we got here around 11:00. Done and done. Now I'm sitting here, my belongings all akimbo, watching Starship Troopers OnDemand. I just realized that I am going to be broke for a while. It's weird to be broke when you've got a well-paying job. I went to the grocery store earlier just to pick up some batteries and some breakfast food. The Real Big Trip is tomorrow. Who knows what I'll come home with! Bread? Cheese? Herpes? Huntsville's a craaaaaaazy town.