El_Tizzzle's Xanga

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Sat, 28 Mar 2009 02:58:44 GMT

I figured I may as well go ahead and get my post for the month out of the way I've actually sat down a couple times this week with intentions of hammering out a post of some sort, but got interrupted by one thing or another each time. So this half-hearted late evening effort is what you get. Deal with it.

I've spent the better part of the day being aggravated. I try to stay positive about life in general, and I think under most circumstances I do a pretty good job. Positive and/or apathetic. Whichever best fits the situation. But dealing with work and all the crap therein lately has left me with a very bitter taste in my mouth. In the year and a half that I've been working in claims, I've mostly enjoyed my job. It has its stressful days, like any job, but I had no complaints. But over the last couple months, things have just gotten crazy. With the company's renewed and increased emphasis on safety (i.e. peeing their pants in fear of OSHA, the DOT, and lawsuit frivolity of every conceivable sort), the hammer is really being dropped on stores - and those working in claims in particular - to deal with their hazardous materials/waste properly, and make sure we're compliant with applicable environmental laws. And it's not like I'm pro-hazard or anti-environment; I'm all in favor of protecting the environment and my co-workers. But some of the new procedural hoops we're being forced to jump through are not only nonsensical, but counter-intuitive and counter-productive. These hoops change almost daily as well, so keeping up with what I can and cannot do becomes a challenge in itself. It's complicated work to the point that I have almost twice as much to do now as I had just a couple months ago. My co-worker and I have been getting a little farther behind each week lately, to the extent that I was asked today to change my schedule and split up my off days because work gets too backed up when I'm not there for two consecutive days. In and of itself, I didn't feel that was such an unreasonable request, and I was surprised that I hadn't been asked before now. But I've already given up all of my vacation time for this year without having used a single day of it, simply because there's no way I can take time away from work. Compounded with about a hundred other problems I've been dealing with at work lately that I don't particularly feel like whining about, the whole mess has me in a state of mind that I don't particularly enjoy being in. If there was a light at the end of the tunnel, it would be a little easier to bear. But right now it appears that I'm in over my head, 'cause I don't have any more to give. And that's a pretty hollow feeling.

Sunday, March 01, 2009

Sun, 01 Mar 2009 00:52:31 GMT

I'm not exactly Suzy Homemaker, but its hard to get the cat to do anything around the house. Therefore, domestic duties here tend to fall on me. That's okay.

To make a long story (that some of you already know) a heck of a lot shorter, my house once belonged to my parents before my mom passed away and my dad eventually remarried and moved out of it. I've been here for several years now, but I've never thought of this place as my home. I don't often set foot in the room my mom died in (the master bedroom), not because I'm afraid of it or anything, I just don't feel like I belong there. It's hard to explain.

Thursday I got involved in rearranging some stuff and getting rid of some garbage in the house, when I realized that I have a big closet in that master bedroom with quite a bit of space I can utilize for storage. Problem is, that closet has been used for storage for several years. It's been storing a bunch of stuff of Mom's, stuff that I wasn't really hanging on to for sentimental reasons, but that I had been avoiding throwing away. Thursday - as much because I needed the space, as because it was just time - I tore into that closet and threw away mounds of things that I had no attachment to. Junk, mainly. I also found a couple things that were actually worth hanging onto, things I had forgotten were here. Nothing major. It's kind of hard to explain why I had been reluctant to get in there and throw that stuff away. I guess I still feel like the stuff is hers, just like I still feel like the house is hers, rather than mine. But in the end, there are things that are okay to hang on to for sentimental purposes, and things that just don't have that worth.

At the end of the day, it was really just about coming to terms with the fact that it's okay to let go. It's something I had already known, but that was reaffirmed by the weight that was lifted off my shoulders when I actually tossed the stuff in the garbage. 'Cause I know where Mom is, and I know where she's not. Her memory and her impact are far too profound to be relegated to a pile of old things stuffed in a closet and forgotten with time. We would all do well if someday the same can be said for us.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Tue, 24 Feb 2009 03:58:48 GMT

Well, I guess I ought to put something on this blog, which is quickly becoming worthless in the grand scope of the blogosphere. I just don't have as much to say as I used to, which leads me to wonder if maybe I haven't already said it all. Hmmm...

Last week, I took a long-overdue trip up to the greater Detroit area to visit my longtime xanga friend and blogging great Sarah. That was a tremendous amount of fun, and I wish I could have stayed longer. Not only did I get to meet a wonderful person for the first time, but also her inimitable twin Megan. I had a great time with both of them, and was reminded of how much I love Michigan. I love it so much, in fact, that I brought the weather back with me. Ohio hasn't thawed out since I got back. It's supposed to warm up Wednesday. We'll see.

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Thu, 29 Jan 2009 16:07:59 GMT

We're living like yetis here in Southern Ohio. Well, not quite, but we did get 7-8 inches of snow, which is pretty cool because we don't tend to get that much very often. We also got a fair amount of ice, which made life interesting. I stayed at Dad's Tuesday night, since he lives about 20 miles closer to where I work than I do, and was able to make it into work yesterday morning without incident, something the majority of my co-workers were unable to do. That suited me just fine, actually, since I was able to work the entire day with almost no interruptions. Increased productivity and all this winter beauty? I'd call that a pretty good day.

Today I have the day off, and that works for me since I need to go make a formal reintroduction between Mr. Driveway and Mr. Snow Shovel. I love playing in snow. I should probably move to Michigan.

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Wed, 14 Jan 2009 18:51:26 GMT

I had to take a moment to congratulate one of my all-time favorite athletes, Rickey Henderson, on being voted by an overwhelming margin into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Baseball was the first sport I ever became interested in as a kid, and though I have always been a huge Reds fan, my favorite player from the first time I saw him was Rickey Henderson. Aside from the sometimes strange soundbytes he often provided to the sports media, he was one of the most talented and gifted athletes I've ever seen, who now possesses one of the more impressive records in all of sports, with 1406 career stolen bases, roughly one and a half times the second place total amassed by the great Lou Brock. As a kid, I used to have lots of posters and baseball memorabilia hanging from my bedroom walls illustrating my enjoyment of America's pastime. Today, I have only one such article hanging on my wall; a framed autographed picture of Rickey Henderson given to me on my birthday nearly 20 years ago. So when I heard yesterday that Rickey had been voted in, I got a little nostalgic. For a moment, I was the boy of 20 years ago, beaming with pride that one of sports' greatest honors had been bestowed upon his hero.

Congratulations, Rickey. Today, you are the greatest of all time. Again.

Saturday, January 10, 2009

Sat, 10 Jan 2009 04:34:47 GMT

A sad day for Cincinnatians. Some of you may remember when I reminisced about possibly the funniest news story of all time. In early 2002, a cow escaped from its holding pen where it was awaiting slaughter, and in the middle of a major metro area eluded police and searchers for 11 days before finally being captured. At that point, it was decided that the fugitive bovine had earned its pardon. The cow retired to the farm and was given the name, "Cincinnati Freedom". After years of enjoying the good life, Cincy Freedom has finally bought the farm. And I don't mean getting a hoof in the door of the rural real estate industry. I mean our most beloved outlaw has gone to that great police chase in the sky.

Cincy Freedom is dead. Long live Cincy Freedom.

(Taps plays)

Thursday, January 01, 2009

Thu, 01 Jan 2009 18:19:19 GMT

Well, its a new day, and a new year. Why not throw another post out into the blogosphere? I mean, who knows when I'll do my next one?

I had a couple things on my agenda today. One was to get my newly purchase digital converter box hooked up to my TV (which I've already done), and the other is to subscribe to XM. Yeah, you read that right. I'm completely satisfied with network television but willing to pay for additional radio content. I never claimed to be right in the head.

Speaking of network television, my alma mater, The University of Cincinnati, will be appearing tonight in the Orange Bowl against Virginia Tech. 8pm Eastern, check local listings.

Go Bearcats!

Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Wed, 31 Dec 2008 14:30:50 GMT

I'm not completely ready to say that my blogging hiatus is at its end, but this is a step in the right direction, I suppose.

There was a period of a few months where I was blogging out of self-imposed obligation, which is quite a switch when I had spent a few years doing it out of enjoyment. Gradually my posts had become less and less frequent, and their content less and less interesting (at least in my view). Most of the recent ones were forced, written just so I'd have some new content. So I just decided, without any warning (sorry for those of you annoyed by my sudden stoppage), to stop blogging. I didn't know whether it would be for a week or forever, but I decided I wouldn't be posting anything on here until I felt drawn to do so, not necessarily because of any significant happenings in my life, but because I actually wanted to write something again.

So here we are. I don't really have anything noteworthy to report, I just felt like writing. Or typing, I guess, as no pen is involved. Does anyone else think it's kind of dumb that in this day and age when the pen and pencil have darned near become obsolete that we refer to all these keystrokes as "writing"? I'm even more surprised that in this era where our favorite thing to do is speak in truncated words and acronyms (email, pic, lol, etc., etc.) as if they came right out of the dictionary, that someone hasn't come up with some goofy phrase to replace writing when used in the context of typing (apart from texting, of course, seeing as we can develop a specialized term to differentiate communicating on a cellular phone keypad as opposed to a computer keyboard, but still refer to pecking away on our computer as if we were dipping a quill in a bottle of ink 200 years ago), and then shortened it into some trendy acronym that teenagers in a few years would be appalled to learn wasn't accepted as proper verbage 'cause they thought it was invented by Webster himself. It shouldn't be that hard really. A whole different set of motor skills than the act of writing, we just employ the transmission of digital information using computer keystrokes. Well I'll be damned. Digital Information by Computer Keystroke. All this time we've been DICKing each other and didn't even know it. Of course you have to lose the caps, 'cause that's not trendy at all. Having every other letter in caps was trendy, but that's so last year. Sure, there are a few things to be ironed out. Telling your boss you've been dicking your co-worker on the latest project could give the impression that you're not a team player. Depending on your age, letting mom know that you've been dicking your girlfriend before bed every night could land you in some hot water. And you know the first teacher to announce that each student that gets their dick in her inbox on time will receive extra credit is gonna have her face on every tabloid in the country. So yeah, there are kinks in every new idea. I'm just coming up with this on the spot. I don't see anyone else working on it.

Wow, I honestly have no idea where that came from. Maybe I should do this whole blogging thing more often. I really don't have anything else to say, other than I hope you all have a safe and happy new year. I'll try to make the rounds over the next few days. Dick ya later.

Wednesday, November 05, 2008

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 00:59:27 GMT

Just a quick word on Election Day...

Hopefully you'll join me in this little stream of consciousness. I don't really care who you voted for, how enthusiastically you pull for one candidate or despise the other. Put that aside, if just for one day, and take a moment to think about the next person who will occupy the position of Commander-In-Chief. Whoever it is will be taking on some crazy situations in a rough time for our country. Whatever you think of them, take some time to say a prayer for them, think some good thoughts, whatever your thing is. Just pull for them, and wish them the best as they take the helm.

Monday, October 13, 2008

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 07:11:01 GMT

Saturday evening was my 15 year high school reunion. I almost didn't go. I didn't go to my 5 or 10 year reunions, mainly because it didn't seem right. I was very shy in my high school years, and didn't really associate with many people that I went to school with. I didn't have anything against them, I was just socially inept. I still probably am by the standards of many, but I'm miles ahead of where I was in those days. But the thought of showing up at one of those reunions as if I belonged seemed a bit pretentious to me. I had all intentions of skipping this reunion as well.

Amanda, a friend of mine from school, kept on me about showing up at the reunion. She was one of the few people in high school I really regretted not getting to know better. It's kind of funny that I seem to have more female friends these days than male friends, but growing up I could barely talk to a girl. The funnier part, to me, is that the high school environment tends to be a pretty rigid social caste system for a lot of people, and Amanda was someone I'd consider to have been on the upper tier. She was a cheerleader with a pretty outgoing personality, who seemed to have no trouble making friends. Honestly, I would never have expected her to socialize with me. But she always did, always made it a point to speak to me and to be nice to me. She even pulled me away from the wall I was figuratively glued to at the Homecoming Dance, when I was too scared shitless to ask a girl to dance, and shared a slow dance with me. A small gesture, but to this day one that I consider to be one of the nicest things anyone ever did for me. That was just her. I thought the world of her for the respect she always showed me, and I kinda felt bad that I never told her. That's just me.

I had seen her two or three times since we graduated high school, and none in the past 10 or 12 years, when she caught up with me via that wonderful little social networking tool/stalking enabler known as facebook about six months ago. Since then we've gotten to catch up quite a bit, and I recently got to meet her husband and her little boy. I was, and am, very thankful for a second chance to have a friendship with someone I always considered to be a very special person.

Anyway, she had been asking me the last couple weeks to try to make it to the reunion. Up until a few days ago, I was scheduled to work late that night, and with inventory coming up this week at work, I knew there was no getting out of it. It was a convenient excuse to get out of what I was sure would be an awkward event anyway. But my hours got changed for Saturday, and I got out of work in plenty of time to attend. Excuse obliterated. I briefly thought about blowing it off anyway, but I didn't feel like lying to my friend, so I decided to attend, figuring I'd drop in for a few minutes and then make an inconspicuous exit. As it turns out, I spent several hours there and had a great time. A guy I never got along with in high school was one of the first to greet me when I walked in the place. We spent several minutes talking like we were old friends, and he bought me my first beer of the night. Funny how time changes things. I did a lot of catching up Saturday, with quite a few people I didn't realize how much I missed. So, as it turns out, I owe my friend again, for badgering me into showing up where I thought I wouldn't belong. Often we don't even know we belong till we work up the courage to take the risk of finding out. Sometimes that courage has to come in the form of a friend who reminds you you're more important than you think you are. Such friendships are rare and special things.