Chillin' in the Cave...

So I must say that I'm quite happy with my new man dwelling in the garage... I have more space to move around, and I'm in close proximity to the kitchen (which could be a bad thing)... snacking is my frenemy... it's SO good, yet I have trouble saying no... the solution may be to keep things those bags and boxes of snack goodness out of the house...

Anyway, back to the Man Cave... I moved my office to the garage, along with my pool table and dart board (both of which haven't been used in about three years)... I was able to get rid of a bunch of stuff in here, so I actually have space to have people over and hang out...

Now, inside the house... *sigh*... we're still working on that one...

Swine flu....

Seriously? Now we have to worry about getting infected with some strange pig virus that's been carried here from Mexico? As if we didn't have enough to worry about with the economy and all... not to mention Mexico has a bad reputation to begin with when it comes to being sanitary (hello bottled water in Cancun! LOL). Now we get to sweat bullets when the CDC tells us that a possible pandemic could be on the horizon.... Fan-friggin-tastic...

On a lighter note, check this out for some good chuckles: www.newsoftheweird.com/archive/index.html

Yikes!!

Geez... leave it to a couple birthdays to throw a guy off... I've gone over a week without blogging, so I should smack myself around some later.

Anyway, the last week has been eventful, but I will sum up with one microblog about everything.

Tuesday:
First job interview after over a month. Lowe's Home Improvement was not the ideal position, but if it was going to pay the bills I'm all for it. Long story short, I ace the interview but they don't like my availability. I was frank with them in saying I have to work around my wife's schedule, because her business is most important. So of course they didn't offer me a job, because they want people who can work whenever they tell them to. I'm not concerned.

Wednesday:
As a husband, it's always my goal to please my wife, especially on extra special days. I must now brag on myself just a tad, because I came through better for Shana's birthday this year than I have for any of the others since we've been together. Granted I had a very good friend to thank for the best part, but I still was able to execute it all flawlessly. I got her cards, I got a cake, I took her to dinner AND I planned a super awesome surprise party that she had no clue about. I've never seen her so excited. I was very proud of myself for pulling it off, since I've had trouble with that over the years.

Saturday:
Our twins' fourth birthday party. Very low-key compared with other the previous three we've had for them, but rough financial times call for low-key measures. Chick-fil-A was the place, and too much cake was had by all. Good thing was we sent them away with the grandparents when it was over (heh heh). Saturday night we all went out for Shana's birthday (the one she knew about), and again, a good time was had by all. Well, some moreso than others...

Sunday:
A sad day. A close friend of a friend was tragically murdered Thursday night, and Sunday was the funeral. I don't really care for funerals; too much sadness and not enough "celebration" of the person's life. This was different. Lots of funny stories, lots of laughing, still a few tears but overall a very happy event. I told Shana that's what I want for my funeral. Life is too short to shed tears over someone you love. Laugh, make fun, enjoy friendship and remember how great that person was. They're still with you in spirit, so they likely wouldn't want you to sob too much.

I think that catches me up... LOL... I've started a new body detox cycle, but I'll wait another day or so to post something about that. Until then!

Yard work...

I'll be the first to admit I'm a bit lax when it comes to chores around the house. Even when I didn't have time to do them, I let them pile up until the last minute. Now that I have time things are a little better, but still substandard. Yes, yes... I'm working on fixing that...

Take the yard work, for example. First, I HATE it. Always have, even when I was a kid. I guess it stems from my raging allergies and the risk of anaphylactic shock from grass pollen. That said, I came to a realization while I was outside earlier.... I enjoyed all those years when we had people over to the house all the time, so if I want that to happen EVER again, I should probably take a more assertive approach to the outside part of the house, not to mention the inside...

It even was a bit therapeutic today... I'll just say that there were some inanimate objects that had connections to my former employer....

Stress relief is a wonderful thing...

Weather...

Totally random... sometimes living in Tennessee just gets under my skin; it's like we live in a place that can't decide on its true identity when it comes to a lot of things. Most notably, the weather is exceedingly weird here. We get 70-degree days in December, then 50-degree days in late April. March is the worst, because it's like the heat is climbing up the hill, almost to the top past that cool-warm apex. I'm not a big fan of news-type television, but I do find myself attached to all things weather. I can't tell you any of the cable news channels, but damnit I know where I can find the weather/temperature.

Today is a perfect example. Mild and rainy, just nasty weather to be out. Yet it's not really cold, and it's not really getting warm either.

The good thing is, we all save on our gas/electric bills, so I guess I shouldn't complain too much.

Of monsters and job fairs...

Honestly, you would think with all the unemployed people in this world, the folks who set up and run job fairs should be aware of the diverse crop of job applicants that could potentially show up at one of their little shindigs...

So of course I was not surprised today when I showed up at the Monster.com "Keep America Working" Job Fair and not really anything there was geared toward someone like me. As usual, I tried to do the diligent thing; I signed up online, I printed out like 30 copies of my resume and a bunch of work samples (which is standard in the media biz) and I dressed super nice. I figure any excuse to wear my new suit, the better. I need to get my money's worth, right? LOL

All the preparation, even a little anxiety and what do I get? A whopping 12 booths.

12.

Booths.

And even better, at least seven of them had to do with sales of some sort (insurance, copiers, software). My favorite was the lady who basically rambled about how they want to hire folks to do corporate copier sales, then asked, "Do you have any experience in that?" Of course my answer, "No, my background is in the media/communications business."

This is no lie; seriously that lady looked me straight in the eye and said, "OK, thank you!" No "OK well there could be some openings in our marketing department soon, so I'll take your resume..." and not "I'm not sure what we might have open right now in your area, but you can go to our site and check back..." It was like she said, "Stop standing in front of me, you're blocking the people who I REALLY need to talk with."

I mean, not that I really want to do sales, but come on... she did everything but stick her foot out and kick me from in front of her booth. I walked around a few times, chatted with more people who weren't hiring for anything remotely related to what I do and left. And to be honest, I am perfectly willing to learn new things if that's what it comes to. But apparently that's not an option these days. You either know what they want, or they don't even want to talk to you.

And I expected to see a slew of people there hunting. If I took a rough count, it MIGHT have been 100 when I showed up. After going to a TVA job fair with my mom (she works for TVA in Chattanooga) just a few days after I got laid off, I knew times were tough. That wasn't even a fair to hire new folks; just to let you talk about the all different jobs TVA offers. There had to be 3,000 people there. And there were ALL kinds: the suits, the dresses and even the occasional pair of jeans and a T-shirt.

One guy at the job fair today had on shorts, a golf shirt and was sitting at a table staring mindlessly into a pamphlet while rocking back and forth. Apparently unemployment leads to the onset of Alzheimer's... so I've got that going for me...

But I feel good about where I'm at. I honestly can't stand those environments, because I never know what to say. What can you really learn about someone by chatting for a couple minutes? I know my phone will start ringing sooner or later.

So here we go...

I totally am aware that most of the known universe caught on to this blogging thing years ago... so call me a late bloomer, I guess. Sorta goes with the territory when talking about me, I suppose. I've never been one to jump right on the wagon, unless it's something I'm totally into. Usually I adhere to the "do things in your own time" mentality. As a guy who has typed more words than I care to remember in my professional life, somehow the thought of doing it in my free time never really flipped my switch.

But ah, how things change. And change is always good, even when it's bad... wait, does that make sense?

So today, March 25, 2009, I write my first "real" blog. I did the occasional Myspace thing, but never was consistent enough. On top of that, it seemed the only blogs I composed were when something had really gotten under my skin, or made me incredibly stoked. Funny how being separated from something you've done for so long makes you appreciate it a little more (I know, a lesson we all learned in school).

To catch some of you up, I've been unemployed from my job as a journalist for the last month. More than 10 years of writing about everything from winning touchdown passes to gruesome crime scenes, and it all just sort of ended suddenly when my magazine shut down. We won't go into the stupid details of why, because it's not worth stewing over. Trust me, I've already done plenty of stewing, and it's not healthy... for me and everyone in my life.

In the last month, I have learned a lot, about myself and about dealing with all the stuff life tends to throw at you. I could regurgitate some of the tired old adages about "don't sweat the small stuff" and "stay positive" or one of my favorites "you get out of life what you put in."

But I won't.

1. Love EVERYBODY--Life is too short to be angry, even if it's really worth being angry about. In the long run, you'll be better off. And everyone enjoys being loved, right?

2. Be a good friend--Even if it's the occasional phone call or text message, let people know they mean something to you.

3. Act like a 4-year-old sometimes--I promise, no one will care. There is much we can learn from the soul of a little person whose primary functions in life are to eat macaroni and cheese, watch Spongebob Squarepants and take naps in the middle of the day.

4. Understand there is always a bigger picture--Difficult to see a lot of the time, but stuff always has a way of working out for the best.

5. Learn about YOU--To help others understand you, it's important to understand yourself. Not an easy task, mind you, and it doesn't happen overnight. It is infinitely ongoing.

6. Learn about stuff--We all hated school and that whole learning business (for the most part). But being open to learning about everything gives you better clarity. You'd be surprised how much brighter the light bulb flickers.

7. Money sucks--If they told us tomorrow that the concept of exchanging money would be banned worldwide, I guarantee you the world would be a better place. All it does is cause problems.

8. A job is just a job--Sure we can all love what we do, but it's never worth sacrificing happiness just to make a few extra dollars (see No. 7). Remember, there are more important things.

9. Friends rock--The people who like you don't care how much money you make, how messy your house is or how bad you make an ass of yourself. They're human too. But always remember to thank them for putting up with you (See No. 2). (Edit: And be sure to say you're sorry about that whole making an ass thing...)

10. Life is AWESOME--Every part of it. Someone very wise once told me, "You have to take it one step at a time, because today is all you're guaranteed." Make life awesome today. Then, if you get another day, make that one awesome too.

At least it's a start. From here on, I vow to blog at least twice a week. If you came to check it out, thanks. Come back often... or occasionally... or whenever...

(Editor's Note: I only wrote about the vow thing because it'll be in print and I have to look at it over and over... no shame in my mental game... and I just thought I didn't pay attention in Psych class)