Challenge accepted
Rizzachill suggested challenging ourselves to resume writing on a daily basis. So, being a goer, here I am.
Let’s be honest, my writing isn’t what one would call compelling, or even interesting really. But that’s ok. This is really for me to attempt to exercise a little creativity. Very little as the case may be.
You can expect posts about roller derby, role-playing games, television, the Winnipeg Jets, the Minnesota Vikings, and whatever other randomness strikes me.
Full disclosure, I’m starting a few days late so these first couple posts are being backdated. Hey, at least I’m honest about my cheating.
Final post
This will be my last post here.
Here’s the secret that I’m always afraid someone will find out. I suck at life. I am hopeless when it comes to managing money. I’ve tried to get better, and honestly, maybe I have. But I am staring at the biggest financial crisis of my life right now and I’m just about ready to give up hope. Last month, there was an $800 wage assessment on my paycheck. IRS. I guess I didn’t do my taxes right or something. This month, there was another assessment on my paycheck. $1500. I guess I REALLY didn’t do my taxes right. Or was late. Or forgot to file last year. I don’t know. Maybe all of the above. Anyway, this month’s paycheck doesn’t even cover rent, nevermind utilities, food, car payment, etc.
You see, somehow, I’ve become an avoider. Something unpleasant comes along, and I do my best ostrich imitation. Yeah, maybe it will go away. Thing is, it almost never does. It might fade from sight for awhile, but it always seems to come back, and just when I’m least prepared for it. Yes, yes. I know. I need to be different. Believe me, I’m trying. It’s not something I talk about much because it’s rather embarrassing and humiliating really. I really believed that I was on track to getting all caught up and maybe even getting ahead by the end of this year. Maybe that could still happen if I wasn’t getting laid off. Maybe it can still happen if I find a new job quickly. But will I be able to eat in the mean time? Will I still be able to live here? Will I still have a car?
Yes friends, I suck at life. I’m really ready for things to get easier.
In any case, I won’t be paying to continue hosting this blog, and I really don’t feel up to the whimsy that inspired the blog anyway. Thanks for reading.
Kevin Bacon subverted
I am so frequently surprised when I realize that not everyone thinks as I do. You’d think I’d be used to it by now, but nope, it’s always a shock.
Case in point: It seems the most natural thing in the world to me to share my friends with one another. I mean that if I know two people that are cool, I want them to know each other. I make the introduction and I try to facilitate the creation of a friendship that can stand on it’s own. Not everyone thinks this way. Actually, I’m not sure if I know anyone else who thinks this way.
Three examples.
Mary. Mary has been my friend for many years. We’ve had church and work in common, among other things. Of course, Mary has her own life, and I have mine. But I’ve thought of her as one of my closest friends. She got married last October to a man that she’d been dating for a year and a half or two. The wedding was only the third time I’d been in the same room as her husband. Even now, I have not been in the same place as him since the wedding. (I had the opportunity at the baptism of their child, but I didn’t go.) For a long time, I had no idea how serious they were because the life she led which involved him was completely separate and distinct from the friendship she had with me.
Letitia. We’re not friends anymore, but when we were together, she had a virtual parade of friends coming through town and staying at our place. Many of them very clearly wanted nothing to do with me. I on the other hand shared all my friends with her. I often felt that many of her friends were actually rather disrespectful of me and the fact that they were guests in my home. Their attitude seemed to be, “I’m Letitia’s guest so I can do whatever I feel she’d be ok with.” They occupied my space, sometimes my bedroom. Sometimes I was asked to go significantly out of my way to pick them up at this or that airport. One one standout occasion, one of them was really quite free with her derision about my faith. I don’t believe any of my friends ever behaved so ungraciously. Anyway, as I mentioned before, none of her friends (the ones I did like) had any interest in continuing to know me after she and I were over. Perhaps they were just pretending before that.
Lance. There is such a long list of my friends that I have introduced to Lance. And yet, not once has he ever made any effort to have me meet any of his friends. At one point, I asked about meeting one of them in particular. He stated very plainly that he liked to keep his world separate.
So what’s my point? I don’t know anymore. I think I had one in mind when this topic occurred to me last night, but I can’t remember what that may have been right now. I’ll say that often I would like to develop a friendship with the friend of my friend, but my friends always seem to see themselves as gatekeepers regulating contact with their friends. Maybe I really am that unpleasant?
Back to life, back to reality
Goodness! I had already shut down the living room and was brushing my teeth when I realized I hadn’t posted yet today. I need to focus!
Today was my first day back at work. I’d love to say it sucked, but it didn’t. It was just a normal day at work. Yeah, it was hard at times, but that’s often true. I’m just happy that I got to deal with all the things that were awaiting my attention from the time I was gone. So now it’s back to the regular grind. I have several projects to keep my occupied. That’s a good thing.
I’m way behind on my Survivor. I watched a couple of hours tonight and I still have the finale to go. Perhaps tomorrow. Or Wednesday. Or Thursday.
Topic #88: What is the best gift you’ve ever received?
Topic #88:
What is the best gift you’ve ever received?
Bonus: what is the worst gift you’ve ever received? (Think re-gifting)
Easy. The best gift I ever received was from my friends Patty and Kathleen. Way back in like 1999 they bought me a Vikings jacket. Totally unexpected. I loved it! I am usually too warm and therefore tend to not wear jackets, but I liked this one so much that I wore it even when it wasn’t freezing out. Sadly, I left it in a car when the car went in for repairs and I never saw it again. 🙁
I loved the jacket because it was the colors of my favorite team. But I loved it more because it came from two very special people.
A very close runner-up is the shirt my buddy Tim gave me this year. It’s a Vikings jersey. So, hint to all you people competing to get me great gifts, Vikings stuff seems to go over big!
I love my mom, but I get the most random gifts from her. One year, she gave me a little pocket multi-tool. This year, it was a flashlight to keep in my car. Another time, it was a miniature letter opening that looked like a dagger. Completely useless stuff to me, but I always try to express my appreciation. Except one year, (and I feel bad about this) she gave me something quasi-useful. She gave me a set of towels. They didn’t match my bathroom at all. And my first reaction upon opening the gift was to reply that I’d just recently purchased towels. I wish I hadn’t said that. It served no purpose other than to diminish her gift. I regretted it immediately.
Topic #83: How did you get your name?
Today’s topic – How did you get your name?
Who chose it, and why?
My dad named me. He has a cousin named Sean and he once told me he’s always liked the name.
Though I wonder if the fact that, at the time, there was a rather famous Scottish actor named Sean didn’t enter into the equation. I’d like to think so.
Topic #5: Do you prefer talking or text messaging?
Today’s topic is: Do you prefer talking or text messaging?
And the Bonus is: Somewhere in the middle is voicemail. It used to be that voicemail, or messages on your answering machine (remember those?) was a sign of social significance, but how do you feel about voicemail now? Would you rather get an email, a text message, or a voice mail? Why?
Of course, it depends on the situation. If I need a phone number or address or something, I prefer a text message. But if what’s being discussed needs some explanation, talking is so much better. I prefer talking face to face over talking via the telephone. Also with text messaging, the conversation is spaced out over time whereas a two hour lull in a phone conversation could get awkward.
I hate voicemails. Mostly I hate the time it takes to listen to them. There have been plenty of occasions over the past couple of years that the voicemail indicator light on my work phone stays lit for days. We have new phones now so that doesn’t happen anymore. But at this very moment, I have 5 voicemails on my mobile phone that I haven’t listened to. At least one is over a month old.
More than voicemails or text messages, I prefer email. I can organize, print, reread, and respond to email all very easily. One advantage it has is that I can read it, or sections of it, at my own pace. Unlike voicemails that go pretty much at one speed. And if I miss something in a voicemail, I have to rewind or worse, replay the entire message. No thank you.
So, to sum up, my preferences in order are: email, text messages, voicemail.
Good day.
I said, good day!
Topic #76
What’s your favorite number and why?
I have several numbers of which I am quite fond. Here are three of them.
- 2 – I like this number because it is the only even prime number.
- 42 – From the Douglas Adams books. The answer to life, the universe, and everything. But to understand the answer, you need to have the right question.
- 24601 – Jean Valjean’s prisoner number. From Les Miserables.
Honorable mentions include: (as a group) 4 8 15 16 23 42, from LOST. pi (who doesn’t like pie?). 1, because it is its own multiple. And I was going to say i, but I was just imagining it.
Topic #73
Topic #73:
Grab the nearest book (or website) to you right now. Jump to paragraph 3, second Sentence. Write it in a post.
Bonus: Make up a sentence to follow the first one, but make it go in an entirely different direction that the actual book or website does.
I sat alone in the apartment and drew the conclusion that the world would be a much better place if I were not here. My point of view would shift radically in the days and weeks to follow, for at that very moment, the long anticipated zombie apocalypse began.
