Hello

I really don't have much to update, other than to remind you of our housewarming party this weekend. My Target job is ok, but I miss certain aspect of ym Flyer's job. Oh, well. It's a better, more friendly company, at least so far. Of course, Flyer's used to be that in the early days too. Anyway, just thought I'd say hi to everybody. Bye! :)

Qop!
"If you were truly a masochist, wouldn'tyou suffer more if you *didn't* get whipped?" ~ www.ruminate.com

I'm back! Again!

So last Saturday my computer got fried by lightening, hence the not being online and stuff this past week. However I now have a new computer. The problem is I have not yet been able to access my old harddrive and retrieve my saved files (such as my friends' website addresses and such). I am told that I will be able to accomplish this as soon as I show a little iniative and take it somewhere, so soon. Also, this past week I quit Flyer's and have started working for Target at Easton. It's less money, but they're still going to be flexible with the hours, and it's 2 miles instead of 35 saving on tons of gasoline. Plus Flyer's the company (not most of the owners whom I like, but the 'president' and guy running things) treated me like shit so it was time to move on. After 6 years you'd think I had deserved a little respect, but whatever. I was happy to go. Lastly, don't forget our housewarming party next Friday night! Yay!

Qop!
"Is it sad that your career may be remembered mostly just for discovering Steve Correll?" ~ Chris Wallace to Jon Stewart, The Daily Show, August 22

Great Way to Start the Month

So I get back from vacation...to be fired! After six years with Flyer's Pizza, they decide to fire me, no questions asked, for "falsifying documents". Luckily two great guys stuck up for me, came to me and let me explain the company's own records, which for some reason the office didn't understand, and show them how I did nothing of the sort. Don't get me wrong, I am very greatful to Chris and Scott for their sticking up for me, but the whole fact that after 6 years my employers, people who do know me, would believe for a second that I would attempt to cheat them and screw them over, and in turn fired me without an explanation, really ticks me off. This morning I was offered an apology (from the people who stuck for me, not the people who offended me) and better driving shifts, but no compensation for the 15 hours of wages plus tips I should have made yesterday but was sent home, and a whole 24 hours of stress and anger and not much sleep last night. It's totall bull crap. At least if they fired me, I could collect unemployment and sue, but since they changed their minds after all the crap I just have to suck it up and continue to work for them until I find something else. I was also informed I would not be getting a raise this year because I was "maxed out" on part-time pay, which is utter bull crap too. Inflation should at least figure into it, and all the stuff I do for them! And with the price of gas, and my commute, and the fact that I will now basically only be driving, it's just not fair. That's my rant, but while I still have much admiration and respect for certain people within the company, as far as I'm concerned Flyer's Pizza as a company is shit and I would not be sorry if they went under. Bastards.

Qop!
"I'd like to be a knight, but I don't like to fight. I'm scared I simply may, just turn and run away." ~ David Hyde Pierce as Sir Robin, Spamalot

Graduation

I apologize for only doing 9 entries last month as opposed to my self-requried 10. I also haven't done any this month and it is already the twelth. I have a good excuse. I was supposed to be writing about college memories and graduation. I didn't want to, and every time I sat down to do a blog, that's what I was trying to do. I don't want to relive my college memories. Freshmen and most of sophomore year were great, as well as parts of this year. The end of sophomore year and junior year, and other parts of this year sucked ass. My life was still perfectly on track until the end of Sophomore year, and then it collapsed and never recovered. To illustrate this, here is how today's entry should have gone, had things continued going well after Sophomore Year:
I graduated today with a degree in Music Education! Yay! I have a job teaching a high school band and I am really looking forward to it. My book is published and the profits I'm starting to make are putting an excellent dent in my college loans. I can't wait for my wedding this fall. Things are going great!
Instead, this is how it is:
My graduation today was a joke because I haven't finished my final class yet and I'm getting a degree in something I couldn't care less about. I should have just blown off the ceremony because it meant nothing and all it did was depress me. I want to finish my book, but I haven't had time because I am still struggling to make ends meet with my dead-end pizza job, and my college degree won't help me attain any better work. Plus I have a zillion college loans. Oh, and I haven't been in a relationship for two years.
No you see why I may be a little bitter? It was hard to shake those professors hands, professors that I look up to (Chivington, Boehm, Tirey, Zilincik, Barkhymer) and accept their congratlations gracefully because I feel the last four years have accomplished nothing. They have been an utter waste of my time. I am sorry I skipped graduation parties today I should be attending. Congrads to those who have their lives on track. I am gonna zone out in front of the tv and sip daquiris.

Qop!
"And he got the rock to the top...and it fell back down again." ~Jason Carney, OC class of '05, today's commencement address

And I Was Doing So Well...

My title, of course, refers to the fact that I posted 3 days in a row, and then I just took 3 days off I claim 'not my fault' for a number of reasons:
1. My DVR was installed on Wednesday! I mean, come on, what do you think I've been doing with every second of free time.
2. I went out with a friend on Friday night and had a blast, then came home and gotten drunk. I needed it. :)
3. I just got out of a band concert that I had to play for. (OPCICA was at OC this year)
4. I worked a 20 hour shift from 8am Saturday until 4am Sunday (today), came home, slept a bit, then had the concert. I had to work this shift because the concert was during my normal shift hours. Anyone else want to still be up at 1am after everyone else goes home drinking wine and slicing lettuce? I thought not.
5. My life is just plain boring. :)

Things I'm looking forward to this week:
1. Monday and Wednesday nights with some of the coolest people I know, watching some really cool shows.
2. The 2 part premiere of Point Pleasant on Wednesday and Thursday.
3. No classes tomorrow! (but still tons to do, work, projects, etc.)
4. I have next Saturday night off! Of course, I'm going to have to work really hard at home this week to make up the hours, but I have a project I can work on to do it that shouldn't be too un-fun.
5. I can't possibly care any less about my classes than I do now, so maybe care a little more?

Qop! (from Thursday night's The Daily Show With Jon Stewart)
"So how do we blame for not finding the WMD's in Iraq? Bush? No way. Intelligence? Nah. Saddam! He's the one who didn't have the WMD's!"

(Sigh) Back to School

So Saturday was awesome. Awesome play, awesome dinner, awesome company. Haven't decided whether the first or third one was better. :) (I'm kidding, the play was, of course! :)) Then back home to host a wild party! It was so much fun! There were tons of people here, tons of alcohol consumed. Kristen filled up my gay chart under my name, but the stickers mysteriously fell off. Darn. Poor Hello Kitty! But there are still some on my computer... I had a ball seeing Scott again, and Nora. Don't hang out with either one of them enough. Of course, plenty of OC-ers and work people were there. Always great to see all of them. I was very pleased with the party, even if I couldn't get drunk, no matter how much liquor and shots I consumed. Damnit. Sunday was cleanup, a quick run to see Phantom of the Opera with Jenn, which was highly enjoyable, then more cleanup, then going to band intoxicated with Kayla (amazing that all that two smirnoffs did was all that liquor failed to do the night before).

But then today hit. I worked 7am-10am as I will every Monday from now on, and then did a bunch of work at home. It was a little stressful, but it's all good. I still have more to do tonight, which is what I should be doing right now instead of typing an entry, but screw it. I'm going to put in some work during pep band. That oughta be fun. I know Jenn and Colonel Morgan are gonna hound me over stuff, but it's cool because I am pretty fond of them both, so I guess I can take it. Besides, I was the one that denied everything and they were right and blah blah blah. They told me so. Whatever. :) Oh, but I have some cool classes. On Monday mornings I have Islam & The Muslim Faith, which is very interesting. We compared Muslims to Christianity and Jews today and it was very cool. Then in the afternoon I have a survey of modern Asia class. It's mostly Korea, China, and Japan, but should still be fascinating. Tomorrow are my two less exciting classes: Civil War & Reconstruction (haven't I learned enough about that on the last two decades!?!) and European History 1919-present. The latter will be decently interesting, but the first is gonna kill me. It's only saving grace is it's with Sarah Fatherly, a fabulous professor. I wish I got her teaching style more, but she's a Buffy fanatic and that counts for a lot. Oh, and I have The Informed Spectator at 8am tomorrow. Learn how to watch sports. I hate sports, but it should be easy.

Ok, I still have 20 minutes until pep band. Hmm, work, or reading The Quotable Slayer & What Would Buffy Do?, my two new books. Go Buffy, Go Buffy!

Long Freakin' Update

I am so sorry that I have not updated in so freakin' long. I guess I had better things to do. :) Let's see, last weekend I went to a couple of Christmas parties and directed the WJHS Alumni Band in a one hour outdoor concert. It was too freakin' cold. Then during this week I worked and finally got into 24. I am almost done with freakin' Season One. I still believe I can finish all 3 seasons before the new one premieres. We'll see. Then this past Friday night I had freakin' fun at a party playing Apples & Apples, then went and saw Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortuante Events. It was really freakin' good. It drew some stuff from the later books that happened during the first three but weren't explained until later (I think there will only be 1 movie :(), but It was good. I saw it again on Saturday. Then I directed the 3 hour WJHS Alumni Band concert at Flyer's, which was pretty freakin' fun. Then I went to Lisa & Michael's party, which was freakin' freakin' awesome!!! I got pretty drunk, but I had so much fun hanging out with all those people, including some I haven't seen in awhile. Then I sat here and added lots of freakin's to my journal entry just for fun. :)

Scoring

Hmm. That title best sums up the topics I wanted to cover today, but get your mind out of the gutter. I'm not talking about scoring as in sex. Well not really, anyway. :)

Firstly, we had the annual Flyer's manager meeting / bowling tournament. West Jeff won this year, finally beating Galloway, who I believe has won every year up to this point. So like the last 3 years or so. Anyway, I ended up getting the second highest score for West Jeff in two rounds and third highest in the first game. Scott, my boss and owner, got first in all three. The Ulreys are all great bowlers. Anyway, it was close, but we scored and West Jeff won. Yay! I need to bowl more. I miss the every week trips with Timmy, Julie, Esther, Erin, Ivan, Nora, Scott, and assorted others. Aww.

Second, I watched Citizen Kane and RKO 281 this week. For those of you who don't know, Citizen Kane is widely considered to be the greatest American film ever made. Honestly, it's pretty boring, but that just means I need to watch it again because I didn't understand it enough. Basically it tells the story of William Randolph Hearst, one of the most powerful men in America when the film was made and basiclly owner of the entire national media. RKO 281 is the story behind the movie, and was made recently by HBO and stars a great cast. That movie is much more interesting. It's a good thing Orsen Wells made CK just before Hearst went backrupt, or it could have cost him his life, career, his everything. Yet it still cost him a lot. It's about figuring out the score of one's life. Very intriguing.

Thirdly, and this absurd notion just occured to me, and please don't read too much into it. Love stinks. You know that? I mean, I am just starting to date someone and am happy with the way things are going, but it occured to me what a raw deal love is. I mean, we've gone on two dates, I've spent like...um, I don't even know. Let's say around $75? They were pretty cheap dates, thank goodness because I'm poor right now. :) Then you talk about time, gas, etc. And we haven't even decided if this is just dating or if it'll ever be something more. How many other things do people just throw in tons of time, money, effort, energy, and souls to attain a goal they may or may not get? Don't get me wrong, I'm all for love. It is always totally worth it in the end. Even a bad relationship I had in the past, I wouldn't try to figure out how much I spent or keep score of how it turned out. And I'm not caring about money now. True love in the end, whether it be with the person I'm seeing now or someone I have yet to meet, only time will tell, is always well worth it. It's worth ten times what you end up paying. Yet from a logical standpoint, it seems really stupid and it stinks. Hmms. Well cynicism can kiss my ass because I love love. :)

This Update Has A Happy Ending

So I need to update quite a bit. It's been an eventful week. I finishied my exams on Monday and my last project for the quarter on Tuesday. It was a paper about Music and the Holocaust. Very interesting, but if I start typing about it now, I'd put in half the paper, so never mind. :) It's a relief to be done with classes for awhile, but now it actually is fully sunk in that I will be leaving Otterbein in two quarters. It is extremely sad. I will very much miss it.

So Wednesday I worked 8-8 as it is the busiest night for pizza in the year, plus cooked three turkeys, pies, and all the fixings for about 100 people. How fun is that? Then I picked up my little sister from her basketball practice and went out to my aunt's house fully expecting to have more Thanksgiving prep to do (but not really wanting to as I was tired). Luckily my two littlest brothers had been there and did all the cleaning and table setting and stuff. One was still there. My uncle arrived about the same time I did (not the one that lives there - he was driving his truck and didn't get home until 5am! but the one from Kentucky that I don't get to see that often). Then his wife and their twins came home (sans their little sister) and we all played Euchre and talked and drank until late (I was overserved!). My aunt had bought Smirnoff for me. Devil. I have cut back on drinking but I would have felt guilty when she bought it for me if I didn't. So I got up kinda late (10:30ish) on Thursday and helped her in the kitchen getting ready for the big 35 member family feast. Then of course the feast, all my mom's family showing up (we're all very close), good wine, good food, good conversation. I finally left about 10pm and headed home, where Tim & I arranged our apartment for the tree.

Friday I had to work 8 hours, but the worst part of Friday was when I found out my car repair is going to be $2000! So it's not getting done. I don't have the money, the car is only worth about $3000. Problem is I still owe $1600 on the car. So I don't know how I'm going to afford a new car while staying paying the old one. I tried to tak my dad about it, but he's still a total asshole sometimes, which is a shame because we haven't fought in awhile and it was nice to have a little peace with him. Anyway, I am still driving his pickup and I have no idea what I'm going to do.

Lucikly Friday night is the capper and was very fun. I went to the zoo with someone and then we hung out at Steak and Shake until 3am. I really don't want to say much more because I don't know where anything is going, but I am happy that the one and a half year streak is over, and that I had so much fun with this person. It made me completely forget about my other problems and she is extremely cool. Anyway, talk to you all later!

Reality Check

So back to reality today. Classes officially started. Since my classes are schedule in one very long block on Tuesdays and Thursdays, it meant a full eight hours of work today, including a corporate meeting and more work I brought home with me, and then Wind Ensemble 5-6. WE kinda sucks this year because I am used to me on alto clarinet, Scott on contrabass, and John on bass. Now I got moved to bass and I'm by myself. Oh, well. I am working Mon, Fri, and Sun during the day and a double shift (8am-midnight) on Wednesdays. It's going to be interesting. We are now also selling our own pizza sauce in jars with our label and everything. It looks very professional and we are in at least one store besides our pizza shops so far, with more to come soon, hopefully.

Tonight my roomies and I dressed up in suits and delivered roses and cards to all of the girls in the Park Street Commons buildings I and II just as a happy first day of class, good luck with the quarter kind of thing. 33 girls. Most of them (that were home) seemed pretty happy to get them. A couple of girls were very friendly and nice. One seemed a little annoyed. That's ok. It was very embarrassing, but it was kind of cool. Tim thought of it, and it seemed like a fairly good idea. I live in IIF so please stop by and see me sometime. :)

About my television, I am almost done with Alias Season One. It is really picking up and looking cool. Then I'm on to Angel Seasn Five, then Alias Two & Three, with 24 1-3 close behind. Its going to be a busy quarter. I hope I have time for a little school work. :)

Happy 5th Anniversary!!!

Today I 'celebrate' five years with Ulrey Foods, Inc. I don't know whether to cheer or cry. I mean, it's a good company, I like the owners, and they have treated me pretty well...but at the same time I don't like my job all that much and I planned to have quit long before now. I still have two years of college left, so I will probably still work for them another two years until I finish, unless a better oppurtunity comes along. I've put my resume in in a few places, but no word yet.

Thinking about the last five years, I do have a lot of really good memories there. Some of my best friends have worked with me there, and past close friends were there. My first week I met the 27 year old married woman (she's about 31 now) with two kids who I had more than a slight crush on, but nothing happened. I do have morals. I mean, I don't know for sure that anything could have happened, but I had the impression that it might and I liked her a lot. She quit like two years ago. I also had many late nights at Steak 'n' Shake and goofy water fights and such. I do value the people I worked with. I also take great pride in Flyer's success. I have a copy of the PMQ magazine when my bosses graced the cover and I keep pictures of all the company managers in my living room.

I have to wonder how long I will work there. My best friend Nathan used to tell me I had a cot there and lived there. I am salaried there now so I work 40 hours a week and all. I take my work home with me and I do organize some extra projects. At times it can be fun. I am going to be a teacher (I keep trying to convince myself that someday soon I ill be, but I have my doubts) and I may very well work there in the summer and on Sunday mornings for years to come. The restaurant will probably still be around. It's lasted almost three decades and is in the top 20 or so pizza restauarants in the country. Of course, if I could just become a successful author I could forget about all this, but anyway...

Thanks to my bosses for such an interesting and memorable five years. Wayne Ulrey, and his sons who now run the company: Scott (My immediate boss), Mark (who used to work with me, and does marketing and stuff), Steve (who with his wife Ellen handles paperwork and other things), and Dave. All the managers I have worked for over the years: Chief, Chris, Jeff, Randy, and Erin and if I forgot anyone else. I could also list my friends that have worked there, but it would take way too long. To five more years? I don't know if I'm ready to commit to that.

Life, Love, and the Pursuit of Normalcy

For anyone that knows me, you know that every so often (like once a week) I have some depressed time where I ponder everything in my life and dwell on the past. For those of you not used to this part of me, know that I am 95% happy, healthy, and like my life. I finally like myself and what I've accomplished and can appreciate it. It was something I struggled with for years. My low self-esteem has even approved. I am no longer willing to change for someone. However, after watching Season 3 of Dawson in about 5 days and injesting half a bottle of rum (it was a small bottle and I mixed it with coca-cola!), plus I am listening to BNL's Brian Wilson (the live recording from their Columbus concert in July - it rocked!) I am in one of those moods.
Mainly, this stuff sets in after watching sappy stuff. I hate being alone and am a hopeless romantic. This combination is not good. I have a few friends whom I would date but aren't interested, but I truly believe I have not met the right person yet. I also believe (or try to believe) I will meet that person, hopefully sooner rather than later. I had a life plan since Kindergarten. By 20, maybe earlier, I would begin to date a wonderful woman. At 22 we would get engaged, at 23 I would be married (my mom married at 23) and by 26 or so I would have a child. I want a daughter. :) Well, I have dated two girls in my life. The first lasted a little under six months, was wonderful, but I realize we weren't right for each other and I wish her the best. The second, whom I always refer to as WB, was a terrible and traumatic experience that was strung out well over a year and resulted in several breakups and me being strung along, and then another year to get over her. I half believe she is the antichrist since she fools many people and I actually lost some friends over her. Oh, well. Maybe they weren't my real friends anyway. I found out this afternoon that she will be living locally, which also upset me a lot. I counted the days until she left town hoping I would never see her again, but I guess I'm going to have to put up with seeing her occasionally. I'm just glad I'm over her, although I hate the negative feelings the sight of her invokes.
Anyway, this isn't about her. This is about me. I am afraid from time to time I will be in my mid-20's and not married, which I feel is too late. I wanted to be married by 23. I know the national average is now more like 28, which I feel is far too late for me. And yet I am happy. I have a good life. I am very unsure about my career and can't wait to get my degree from Otterbein, but I'm actually liking my job in the pizza shop again (I started hating it when I dated WB. Hmm.) and I just finished writing an actual book which I hopeto gte published. Anyone want to proofread for me? Well, I am going to sit here and drink a little more, just slack off. Afterall, after today I probably won't get a day off for months. Come stop by and see me some time. Despite my little bad mood ramble, I feel so much better after writing and am slowly getting into a good mood again. I'd like to have some friends around about now. Join me, will you?

Also, we ARE having a big New Year's Eve party this year, and unlike last year it WILL be formal, even if Tim and I are the only ones in tuxes. Mark your calendars!