May 2016 Update
As expected, the number of updates I hoped to do was a very frivolous plan. Not much has been "blog worthy" in 2016 (which has zipped by super fast, by the way), but there are some highlights.
First, I started doing commentary for a local pro wrestling outfit titled NOVA (Northern Virginia) Pro Wrestling. They run primarily in Fairfax with shows in Springfield on occasion as well. My friend Mike King, who is the booker for the company and a personal friend, thought I'd be good in the role. I give him a lot of credit for giving me the opportunity because he is well connected enough to put somebody much more experienced in that spot and instead chose to utilize my potential talent. Our first event was in September, which in hindsight feels more like a "pilot episode" than an actual launch, but since January we have been running every other month and plan to continue doing so until Black Friday. The attendance has slowly increased since January and we have built a loyal fanbase. The fact that we ran our May show against a much more notable company who was running in Baltimore at the same time, the release of Captain America 3, coupled with the fact that it was pouring rain and the area had horrible traffic every which way and STILL drew our largest crowd to date is nothing sort of astonishing. As for my commentary, I was not at all happy with my performance on the debut show. I had first time jitters and frankly didn't know what I was doing. In January, Mike brought in Cecil Scott who does commentary regular for a few places in North Carolina. He and I built a fast rapport and is somebody I can lean on when I lose myself or am searching for the right words. He's somebody I genuinely enjoy working with and makes the experience all that more fun. I can hear myself getting better and more comfortable each show. I hear A LOT about politics in wrestling, but I can say the locker room is a group of laidback people who work hard and are there to do what is best for NOVA; not themselves. We're only four shows deep, but I see a lot of promise in the company. Onward and upward!
Speaking of wrestling, I traveled to Dallas, TX in early April for my third WrestleMania. I went with two of my close friends, Chris and Jimmy, and stayed in a Marriott downtown. The hotel was really nice, and close to enough places to eat and drink that we could walk quite often. Thursday night was the most fun, as we found ourselves in a hipster part of town for dinner and drinks, then Ubered over to the Kung Fu Saloon to keep the party going. We chatted up some locals while playing video games, drinking cheap beer (Lone Star!), and taking Kamikaze shots. Like when I visited Miami for WrestleMania in 2012, the first night was the most fun. What sucks is that when we returned on Saturday, it had ostensibly turned into a night club. It was incredibly stuffy and crowded to the point where we each had one drink and bailed. My friends Joe and Jon (who are brothers) made the trip to Dallas to join us, so we ended up hanging out in their hotel room until it was time to go back to our hotel. That was a much more fun and cheaper choice. Jon rented an SUV so we drove to AT&T Stadium and tailgated WrestleMania. That was a total blast and really the best way to do it. Traffic was fine until we got to the stadium itself, but once we parked it was smooth sailing. Monday was a day to relax and recoup until we went to RAW and had some delicious pizza beforehand (shout out to Neo Pizza, who randomly followed me on Twitter, which is weird because I didn't even mention them on my Twitter handle ever). In total I saw 6 wrestling shows across 4 days, most of which were incredible, and got to hang out with some of my best friends in a beautiful city. Hard to beat that.
Personal life stuff has been good. My job at GMU is more or less the same. I've been with the School of Business since February 2014 (minus my leave of absence to deal with lymphoma, more on that in a later post, I hope) as their HR Specialist. When I started, I was overworked and dealt with a lot of menial tasks such as filing, paper pushing, etc. in addition to some larger tasks that come with the job. When I came back from my hiatus, they took away all of the menial tasks and bestowed upon me the more important tasks for the college. That meant a great deal to me and it increased my overall enjoyment of my job. I've established a good relationship with my supervisor, and from that I have a lot of autonomy which I truly enjoy. Her living in Arkansas helps. I can see myself staying here for the near future, especially if I finally enroll in graduate school. My relationship with my girlfriend Abby has also been going well. We've been officially together since December of 2014 and I'm quite happy. She quit her job in November, which was for mental health was such the right call, and has been doing some freelance work as of late, but once she gets a new job we are planning to move in together. That's the most logical step for us and one I am looking forward to. We'll be staying in Northern VA for now, hopefully living more in the Centreville/Clifton area.
With TV shows coming to a close for the year I am thinking ahead to what stuff I've missed, recently and in general, that I'd like to spend the Summer catching up on. "Twin Peaks" has been a blind spot in my viewing history and with the entire series being easily available on Netflix, and the fact that I picked up the 90's post-show movie on the cheap from my local used book store, it's time to rectify that. As a fan of "Lost", so many people have told me that it's a show I should check out. I've also been slowly making my way through "Scrubs." After I go the gym, I like to decompress with a half-hour sitcom, and there's only so many times I can go through the Office and Parks & Rec, so I decided to check out some shows I've always meant to check out. I made my way through "Curb Your Enthusiasm" this way and totally loved it. I'm up to Season 4 in Scrubs as of this writing, and even only 3 or 4 episodes in, it's my favorite season thus far. I don't love it, but I certainly like it and plan to see the show through to the end. Yes, even the terrible final season. As for movies, "The End of the Tour", a drama film about author David Foster Wallace tops my list. That, and "Creed" (which I bought on Blu Ray but haven't watched). I'll probably check out "Daredevil" as well and some odds and ends on Netflix and Amazon Prime. I've been meaning to rewatch Robocop and Terminator 1 and 2 so I may scratch that itch. I've also never seen the original Mad Max movies (but LOVED Fury Road), so that seems like something else to check out.
And that's my update for May! Hopefully I'll check back in soon.
First, I started doing commentary for a local pro wrestling outfit titled NOVA (Northern Virginia) Pro Wrestling. They run primarily in Fairfax with shows in Springfield on occasion as well. My friend Mike King, who is the booker for the company and a personal friend, thought I'd be good in the role. I give him a lot of credit for giving me the opportunity because he is well connected enough to put somebody much more experienced in that spot and instead chose to utilize my potential talent. Our first event was in September, which in hindsight feels more like a "pilot episode" than an actual launch, but since January we have been running every other month and plan to continue doing so until Black Friday. The attendance has slowly increased since January and we have built a loyal fanbase. The fact that we ran our May show against a much more notable company who was running in Baltimore at the same time, the release of Captain America 3, coupled with the fact that it was pouring rain and the area had horrible traffic every which way and STILL drew our largest crowd to date is nothing sort of astonishing. As for my commentary, I was not at all happy with my performance on the debut show. I had first time jitters and frankly didn't know what I was doing. In January, Mike brought in Cecil Scott who does commentary regular for a few places in North Carolina. He and I built a fast rapport and is somebody I can lean on when I lose myself or am searching for the right words. He's somebody I genuinely enjoy working with and makes the experience all that more fun. I can hear myself getting better and more comfortable each show. I hear A LOT about politics in wrestling, but I can say the locker room is a group of laidback people who work hard and are there to do what is best for NOVA; not themselves. We're only four shows deep, but I see a lot of promise in the company. Onward and upward!
Speaking of wrestling, I traveled to Dallas, TX in early April for my third WrestleMania. I went with two of my close friends, Chris and Jimmy, and stayed in a Marriott downtown. The hotel was really nice, and close to enough places to eat and drink that we could walk quite often. Thursday night was the most fun, as we found ourselves in a hipster part of town for dinner and drinks, then Ubered over to the Kung Fu Saloon to keep the party going. We chatted up some locals while playing video games, drinking cheap beer (Lone Star!), and taking Kamikaze shots. Like when I visited Miami for WrestleMania in 2012, the first night was the most fun. What sucks is that when we returned on Saturday, it had ostensibly turned into a night club. It was incredibly stuffy and crowded to the point where we each had one drink and bailed. My friends Joe and Jon (who are brothers) made the trip to Dallas to join us, so we ended up hanging out in their hotel room until it was time to go back to our hotel. That was a much more fun and cheaper choice. Jon rented an SUV so we drove to AT&T Stadium and tailgated WrestleMania. That was a total blast and really the best way to do it. Traffic was fine until we got to the stadium itself, but once we parked it was smooth sailing. Monday was a day to relax and recoup until we went to RAW and had some delicious pizza beforehand (shout out to Neo Pizza, who randomly followed me on Twitter, which is weird because I didn't even mention them on my Twitter handle ever). In total I saw 6 wrestling shows across 4 days, most of which were incredible, and got to hang out with some of my best friends in a beautiful city. Hard to beat that.
Personal life stuff has been good. My job at GMU is more or less the same. I've been with the School of Business since February 2014 (minus my leave of absence to deal with lymphoma, more on that in a later post, I hope) as their HR Specialist. When I started, I was overworked and dealt with a lot of menial tasks such as filing, paper pushing, etc. in addition to some larger tasks that come with the job. When I came back from my hiatus, they took away all of the menial tasks and bestowed upon me the more important tasks for the college. That meant a great deal to me and it increased my overall enjoyment of my job. I've established a good relationship with my supervisor, and from that I have a lot of autonomy which I truly enjoy. Her living in Arkansas helps. I can see myself staying here for the near future, especially if I finally enroll in graduate school. My relationship with my girlfriend Abby has also been going well. We've been officially together since December of 2014 and I'm quite happy. She quit her job in November, which was for mental health was such the right call, and has been doing some freelance work as of late, but once she gets a new job we are planning to move in together. That's the most logical step for us and one I am looking forward to. We'll be staying in Northern VA for now, hopefully living more in the Centreville/Clifton area.
With TV shows coming to a close for the year I am thinking ahead to what stuff I've missed, recently and in general, that I'd like to spend the Summer catching up on. "Twin Peaks" has been a blind spot in my viewing history and with the entire series being easily available on Netflix, and the fact that I picked up the 90's post-show movie on the cheap from my local used book store, it's time to rectify that. As a fan of "Lost", so many people have told me that it's a show I should check out. I've also been slowly making my way through "Scrubs." After I go the gym, I like to decompress with a half-hour sitcom, and there's only so many times I can go through the Office and Parks & Rec, so I decided to check out some shows I've always meant to check out. I made my way through "Curb Your Enthusiasm" this way and totally loved it. I'm up to Season 4 in Scrubs as of this writing, and even only 3 or 4 episodes in, it's my favorite season thus far. I don't love it, but I certainly like it and plan to see the show through to the end. Yes, even the terrible final season. As for movies, "The End of the Tour", a drama film about author David Foster Wallace tops my list. That, and "Creed" (which I bought on Blu Ray but haven't watched). I'll probably check out "Daredevil" as well and some odds and ends on Netflix and Amazon Prime. I've been meaning to rewatch Robocop and Terminator 1 and 2 so I may scratch that itch. I've also never seen the original Mad Max movies (but LOVED Fury Road), so that seems like something else to check out.
And that's my update for May! Hopefully I'll check back in soon.