Twev1701.net

I have been so busy lately it has been crazy. I literally haven’t had any time to do much of anything lately. So, if all goes to plan, Jess and I are going to sneak off Wednesday afternoon before our cemetery meeting and go check out a showing of the new Pirates movie. But, for those of you curious, here’s a rundown of this week’s schedule:

Today: work from 11-8, then phone calls to hook up with my pa system guy
Wednesday: movie with Jess early, cut grass if there is enough time afterwards, cemetery meeting at 7pm
Thursday: create electronic version of history, prepare new edition of history for 2nd printing with more optimized pictures, install 2 toilets and 2 wooden partitions into cemetery restroom, hopefully pickup pa system
Friday: work 6-3, cut grass if it was not cut on Wednesday, clean house
Saturday: cemetery setup for civil war day starting at noon and ending probably around dark
Sunday: Civil war day events for us from 8am will probably 8 or 9pm, open to public 10-4.
Monday: start another work week again

Yeah…fun.

So, little old me was on the radio this morning. True, it was AM and true, it was talk radio, but I was on the radio. The Chairman of the Cemetery Board and I were on “The Sue Henry” show this morning at 10:00am to promote the cemetery’s Civil War Day coming up.

You can listen to the entire show over at the cemetery’s website, or you can listen to it right below if you’re too lazy to click.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

I’m finally human again. For the first time in almost a week, I woke up this morning and not only felt good, but was filled with ambition. I got out of bed, paid some bills online, did the dishes, cleaned the kitchen, cleaned the bathroom, mopped both the kitchen and bathroom floors, and did some laundry. And that was all before 2:00pm. Not too shabby from someone who could barely get out of bed 3 days ago.

Once Jess got home, we went over to Lowe’s in Edwardsville and got some hardware to hang some shelves in the bedroom. I bought some shelves a few years ago, but never hung them up. Since we’re in the process of re-organizing the entire house, now was a good time to hang them up. After leaving Lowe’s we went over to Tommy’s Pizza for some wings for dinner, and then went to Maureen’s for a quick ice cream cone. On the way home, we stopped at the grocery store for a few essentials. When we finally got home, Jess took a quick nap since she had a long day at work, and I threw on ‘Clerks 2′ in the bedroom and hung 2 shelves. All in all, a very nice night.

Tomorrow, and this week for that matter, should be most interesting at work. We got our customer service scores back, and my department placed last in the entire region. That means that the system I have in place obviously isn’t working. So, I started working on some stuff Saturday to try and turn everything around. The first thing I am changing is our schedules. Gone are our permanent schedules, and we’re going to a rotating schedule and working Sundays. Since I’m the boss, I’m going to work 2 full weekends a month and my other 2 coordinators are each going to work 1 full weekend a month. On top of that, I’m going to be making up some daily checklists that need to be completed every night. Our number one complaint was communication, so that’s what we’re going to be focusing on. I won’t get into boring details here, but let’s just say big changes are coming this week.

I’m off this Wednesday since I worked this past Saturday, but after that, because of the Holiday Weekend, I won’t be off again until the 31st. That’ll be 7 days straight, which isn’t that big of a deal, but the last time I worked that many days in a row was the week before my wedding. Not that I’m complaining, but that just goes to show you how well we had it with our old schedule.

As promised, here is the new post, the new wallpaper was posted earlier today, with another one coming on Tuesday, and I posted some new pics of the kittens over on flickr —>. For once, I lived up to my promise.

At dinner tonight Jess and I were talking about what it’s been like since I took my leave from i/o Computers a few weeks ago. Even though I have been busy with cemetery stuff, and we were both sick in that time, things have improved greatly. More stuff is getting done around the house, Jess and I are seeing more of each other, and we’re fighting a lot less. In short, things are a lot better. i have about another month and a half before I will possibly return. Right now to be honest, I’m not too sure if I will be going back or. If I had to decide right now, I would be seriously on the fence as to whether or not I would go back. But, talk to me in a few weeks, and my attitude may be totally different. Hell, I said before that I have barely touched my main machine in weeks, and today, I was on it for about a good 45 minutes or so. And, I actually had fun being on there. That’ a step in the right direction, right?

Well, it’s getting late now, and should be heading to bed. I’ll still be starting work at 6am all this week. It won’t be until next week that I’ll starting working some closing shifts and finally be able to sleep in on the weekdays and go into work at 11am. That’ll be a nice change from waking up at 5am for the past 7 months.

New post, new wallpaper, and some new flickr photos coming later today.

Stay tuned…

I have been in somewhat of a rut lately. I’m not sure if it’s stress from work, or stress from bills, but when I get home from work, all I want to do is sit down on the couch and not want to get up. Were it not for the laptop, I wouldn’t even probably touch a computer at all. To be honest, I can’t really remember the last time I spent more than 5 minutes on my main computer in my computer room.

I honestly think a lot of it has to due with stress, and if it is, it’s something that I am going to have to overcome.

I know things in my life have to change, and I’m in the works to start changing some of that. Of course, as it tends to happen, I have been sick all week. Normally when I get sick, I’m down and out for a few days and then I rebound. But this time, I was just getting worse and worse. I go so bad that I actually broke down and went to the doctor’s on Thursday. By the time I went, I had no voice, could barely breathe, barely swallow, and was getting a nasty cough. Thanks to the doc, I am now on 10 days of antibiotics. I even ended up taking today off since I once again felt like crap. Also, I thought that having a full day to rest up and pump my body full of antibiotics would do me good. I honestly think it did me good since not only am I starting to get my voice back, and I ate my first meal in almost 2 days. Let me tell you, it was a damn good meal.

So, starting next week once I start to feel more human, I plan on making some of these changes. First, is a complete redo of my computer room. The way it is right now, everything runs against the walls, and it’s cramped. What I am going to do is put my desk jutting out from one of the walls like I had it a few years ago, thus giving me less floor space, but more overall space to set things up. I was hoping to start this project this evening, but obviously if I haven’t gotten off the couch in 1 1/2 days, I’m in no condition to start moving around systems and desks. We’ll see about starting this on Tuesday night.

I have to work tomorrow which kind of sucks. But, Jess and I almost work the same shift, which will be nice since we will be able to have dinner together tomorrow night.

As for me right now, I’m going to go relax with Jess for another 2 hours or so and then it’s bed time.

Later…

The past few day have been fairly introspective for me. I’m not sure why, but it probably has to do with the weather finally starting to act like it’s supposed to in May.

Introspective you say? How so?

Ok, I baited, you asked, so I should answer.

It’s been just about 5 years since I broke up with my ex. My life right now is about a million times better then it was when I was with her. I have a totally amazing wife, a decent home, a decent job, a cute puppy, and way too many cats. But it’s not only what I have that I am thankful for, but I am also very thankful for the journey I took to get here. I’ve grown more as a person in the last 5 years then I did the previous 5. To me, that is something to be very happy about.

As one can imagine, I was not in a very happy place 5 years ago. I was unemployed, losing my girlfriend of 7 years, losing half the shit in my house in the process, and with her leaving, my bills were suddenly doubling. Not a good situation to be in. I will admit that I did go through a bit of depression. Although in all honesty I went through that the first week she told me she was moving out back in April of 2002. She stayed until the end of May while she looked for an apartment. Why didn’t I kick her out you ask? That’s simple. As long as she still lived there, she still had to pay for 1/2 the bills. It was a monetary decision. Anyway, that initial week was rough. I didn’t really eat, barely slept (watched ‘The Sorpranos’ 1st season DVD set in 1 night once), and everyday when she was around I would leave and go for 3 hour + walks. You always hear how people go to find themselves? Well, I always thought that was a bunch of crap. That is, until I found myself on those walks. Trust me, it happens. Anyway, she left, and I started a new journey that I was not quite prepared for.

While we did have some good times together, most of the vivid memories I have of my time was her was when we would travel. That’s really about it. But, thinking back on my time after she left me, I can remember everything with uncanny detail. I can remember going and buying a DVD player at Best Buy one night and picking up ‘Vanilla Sky’. I came home, and hooked it up to my TV which was in my living room on an old microwave cart. As for living room furniture, I had a single pole lamp, and a new futon that I bought at K-Mart for $99. I can remember the one night Ormando and JP came over. We played ‘Simposons Wrestling’ on my PS2 (PS1 game actually) and we watched ‘Mallrats’ I believe. It was fun because it was just me and the guys — something that wasn’t allowed when we were dating. It’s those memories that I really cherish. Her leaving made me really take stock in the little things in everyday life.

The next 2 years were filled with a lot of alone time, and a lot of personal exploration. I didn’t even want to look at another woman for the first year. It was me, my friends, and my computer. I helped Ormando setup his new business, Dragons Inc., worked on my website, played some games, and hung out a lot with JP. Hell, JP and I even started a web comic together. And it was through that that I met someone I quickly became interested in. After pursuing her for almost a year, it was pretty obvious that it was a dead end street I was walking down. Once again, I decided to go find myself.

This time, instead of looking outside, I looked inside. To the Internet that is. I joined match.com and put my profile up there. About 3 days later I got an email with Jess’s picture on it. I was hesitant to contact her since she was in New feakin’ Jersey, but I ended up deciding to. I mean hell, I always liked to travel, and what are the odds this cute girl would be interested in a geek like me.

Well, that cute girl not only wrote me back, but little over 2 years later, she married this geek.

Yeah, I’ve left out a lot in between. It wasn’t as cut and dry as that. But those are my stories. Some of them have been told before, and some of them I keep for myself. That’s the whole point. You have to keep some of it for just you. Some of it is very trivial, and some of it is life changing.

It really is the journey that is the adventure. And the journey isn’t over yet. In fact, we’ve just only begun…

I actually have quite a lot I’d love to talk about today, but no time to sit and write. Maybe if there’s a lull during tonight’s Board meeting I can jot down some stuff.