The Summer Update
It's been awhile since I've made a solid, decent update. I guess finding the time to sit down and write is hard for me. I love my job, it is quite busy and fulfilling, but come evening I want to unwind, see Leyann, or watch a movie, or play video games, or just get some sleep or hang out with Tim and Nikki or other friends. Weekends are more like "catch up on sleep" days more than anything. I'm going to change that.
There are some other things I need to change, patterns, habits, goals. I haven't made a solid list of my goals in a couple years. Where do I want to be? What's my future? It's time to realign and reassess. Put things down in writing and take action. I've done it before with some success, but now it's time to ramp it up a notch. Sometimes I spread myself thin with things I want to do, then it gets to a point where I don't do any of it. You know that old saying, "Jack of all trades, Master of none." Well, I don't want to be a Master of none.
Before I get into my big summer update, I'll pose a few questions for my friends, both new and old.
- What questions do you have about me? What do you want to know?
- Is there anything specific you want to know regarding my work, personal life, ACen stuff, fandoms, or anything else?
- What can we do to get to know each other more? Do you want to chat more? Meet up? Go for coffee? Make costumes? Talk about hobbies?
- How do you feel about our friendship? Am I being a good friend? Is there anything I can do to improve, or are things fine and I shouldn't worry about it?
I guess these are things that are on my mind lately. When I'm with my friends it seems we always have the best time, but lately it has been in groups and not as regular as I wish it was. And when that happens, do we learn anything new?
I wonder if I'm having some sort of quarter life crisis… scratch that, I think it's me getting all philosophical and questioning everything. I hope you guys will be open and honest if you do ask any questions or answer them. Actually I know you guys are awesome, so honesty isn't an issue.
Whew… so yah. Life. Money has been a little tight. I'm going to be doing some purging, getting rid of and selling stuff that I don't need anymore or is just taking up space. Car payment, insurance, rent, credit card, student loan, cell phone, food, bills, GAS it all adds up. Especially gas. It seems like the cost of living keeps going up and not stopping anytime soon. Thankfully my debt is only one credit card, my car, and my student loans, I know there are people out there with multiple cards and it drives them broke. Time to get creative, because I don't want to feel like a bum!
Important dates coming up:
Movies I've seen this summer:
I will have a huge movie review post soon. But thanks to Leyann and Stephen, Angie, Viki, Nashanta, Jose, and Linda that have shared in watching some or all of these movies with me.
I went up to see my parents June 29 - July 1 for my birthday and also to celebrate my Dad's birthday which was on the 12th of June.
It was a lot of fun, we got to swim, cook out, and just have a blast as always. I swear my brother is growing like a weed. My Dad really liked that I got "The Lost Room" for him on DVD for his birthday. I got some money from my folks and Aunt Tina (who now has a MySpace!) and Uncle John. Leyann got me a cool display shelf a couple months ago that matches my Detolf display cases, and when we came back from Michigan she paid for half the pre-order for the Legendary Halo 3 edition!
That Sunday, I took my Mom and Leyann out to lunch (my treat) for a late (thanks ACen) Mother's Day treat. We went to Cracker Barrel and had a great lunch and I bought my Mom an Angel garden statue. I used the $50 American Express gift check that I got from work for winning the "You've Been Noticed" program. Basically if you do something for someone above and beyond your regular duty, you have a chance to when that prize monthly. I wanted to use it on my Mom because she is so awesome, really.
Leaving really sucked, I wish I had more time… I should've took that Monday off, but I am trying to save my personal and vacation days for the end of the year, because I only get so many!
On my birthday, my cubical was decorated to the max and as I mentioned in a previous entry, Matt made an awesome Office parody graphic with me in it. The people at work took me out to lunch at Bob Chinn's, which has the best seafood ever. I also got embarrassed by the usual restaurant birthday singing and calling attention that yes, it is my birthday. The chocolate-banana pie slice was awesome. Then, that night, Leyann took me to Bennigan's and once again I got embarrassed by the singing and the fact that one server yelled, "WE'VE GOT A BIRTHDAY HERE!!"
On the Fourth of July I hung out with Leyann's side of the family, her cousin Karen was hosting a party. Great food as always, good conversation, and just great people. Didn't really see or make an attempt to go see fireworks, it just wasn't a big deal this year.
The next Sunday (July 8), was the big birthday bash. Thanks to Tim timikun, Nikki tiarah, Leyann yaten_k, Deanna dreambelieve, Stephen stephen_poon, Angie evrdream33, Angela, Viki starstealer, Will dark_piro, Allan, Tommy, Smitha, Jeff, and I might be forgetting a couple more.. but THANKS for having fun watching a bit too much MXC, playing the Survival game (last place once again!!), drinking, eating, and having a blast.
My birthday loot:
After that Leyann and I met up with Stephen and Angie on a Thursday night at Hollywood Blvd. They got to meet the Phelps twins who play the Weasly twins in the Harry Potter Films. After that we were waiting to be seated, and in the crowd I heard my name called out to me. I finally got to meet Laurie elspethnoir.
I'll save the rest of the movie stories for my super movie review.
Well I've been writing this for awhile now...
More soon!
Also guys, look me up on MySpace and Facebook. Links will be in my profile soon.
Berry
There are some other things I need to change, patterns, habits, goals. I haven't made a solid list of my goals in a couple years. Where do I want to be? What's my future? It's time to realign and reassess. Put things down in writing and take action. I've done it before with some success, but now it's time to ramp it up a notch. Sometimes I spread myself thin with things I want to do, then it gets to a point where I don't do any of it. You know that old saying, "Jack of all trades, Master of none." Well, I don't want to be a Master of none.
Before I get into my big summer update, I'll pose a few questions for my friends, both new and old.
- What questions do you have about me? What do you want to know?
- Is there anything specific you want to know regarding my work, personal life, ACen stuff, fandoms, or anything else?
- What can we do to get to know each other more? Do you want to chat more? Meet up? Go for coffee? Make costumes? Talk about hobbies?
- How do you feel about our friendship? Am I being a good friend? Is there anything I can do to improve, or are things fine and I shouldn't worry about it?
I guess these are things that are on my mind lately. When I'm with my friends it seems we always have the best time, but lately it has been in groups and not as regular as I wish it was. And when that happens, do we learn anything new?
I wonder if I'm having some sort of quarter life crisis… scratch that, I think it's me getting all philosophical and questioning everything. I hope you guys will be open and honest if you do ask any questions or answer them. Actually I know you guys are awesome, so honesty isn't an issue.
Whew… so yah. Life. Money has been a little tight. I'm going to be doing some purging, getting rid of and selling stuff that I don't need anymore or is just taking up space. Car payment, insurance, rent, credit card, student loan, cell phone, food, bills, GAS it all adds up. Especially gas. It seems like the cost of living keeps going up and not stopping anytime soon. Thankfully my debt is only one credit card, my car, and my student loans, I know there are people out there with multiple cards and it drives them broke. Time to get creative, because I don't want to feel like a bum!
Important dates coming up:
- August 10-12 - Leyann is going to Iowa, so I'm house sitting and taking care of the cat. I am going to have a Star Trek movie marathon on the flat screen…. Glorious flat screen.
- August 17 - ACen's Department Head post con meeting
- August 18 - My job is having a picnic outing
- August 24-26 - Going with Leyann and her parents to see my parents up in Michigan.
- September 3 - Labor Day
- September 7 - White Sox game with my department at work
- October 26 - George Lopez @ The Rosemont Theater
Movies I've seen this summer:
- Spider-Man 3
- Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
- Ocean's Thirteen
- Ratatouille
- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
- Transformers
- The Simpson's Movie
I will have a huge movie review post soon. But thanks to Leyann and Stephen, Angie, Viki, Nashanta, Jose, and Linda that have shared in watching some or all of these movies with me.
I went up to see my parents June 29 - July 1 for my birthday and also to celebrate my Dad's birthday which was on the 12th of June.
It was a lot of fun, we got to swim, cook out, and just have a blast as always. I swear my brother is growing like a weed. My Dad really liked that I got "The Lost Room" for him on DVD for his birthday. I got some money from my folks and Aunt Tina (who now has a MySpace!) and Uncle John. Leyann got me a cool display shelf a couple months ago that matches my Detolf display cases, and when we came back from Michigan she paid for half the pre-order for the Legendary Halo 3 edition!
That Sunday, I took my Mom and Leyann out to lunch (my treat) for a late (thanks ACen) Mother's Day treat. We went to Cracker Barrel and had a great lunch and I bought my Mom an Angel garden statue. I used the $50 American Express gift check that I got from work for winning the "You've Been Noticed" program. Basically if you do something for someone above and beyond your regular duty, you have a chance to when that prize monthly. I wanted to use it on my Mom because she is so awesome, really.
Leaving really sucked, I wish I had more time… I should've took that Monday off, but I am trying to save my personal and vacation days for the end of the year, because I only get so many!
On my birthday, my cubical was decorated to the max and as I mentioned in a previous entry, Matt made an awesome Office parody graphic with me in it. The people at work took me out to lunch at Bob Chinn's, which has the best seafood ever. I also got embarrassed by the usual restaurant birthday singing and calling attention that yes, it is my birthday. The chocolate-banana pie slice was awesome. Then, that night, Leyann took me to Bennigan's and once again I got embarrassed by the singing and the fact that one server yelled, "WE'VE GOT A BIRTHDAY HERE!!"
On the Fourth of July I hung out with Leyann's side of the family, her cousin Karen was hosting a party. Great food as always, good conversation, and just great people. Didn't really see or make an attempt to go see fireworks, it just wasn't a big deal this year.
The next Sunday (July 8), was the big birthday bash. Thanks to Tim timikun, Nikki tiarah, Leyann yaten_k, Deanna dreambelieve, Stephen stephen_poon, Angie evrdream33, Angela, Viki starstealer, Will dark_piro, Allan, Tommy, Smitha, Jeff, and I might be forgetting a couple more.. but THANKS for having fun watching a bit too much MXC, playing the Survival game (last place once again!!), drinking, eating, and having a blast.
My birthday loot:
- $50 Best Buy Card (Angela), $10 Best Buy Card (Angie) - Both of these are paying for the other half of my Halo 3 order
- $50 Best Buy Card (Will) - I got some DVDs with this
- Mr. Potato Head - Optimash Prime (Allan)
- Last Exile Alvis Figure + Mini busts (Stephen)
- $25 Game Stop Card (Jeff)
After that Leyann and I met up with Stephen and Angie on a Thursday night at Hollywood Blvd. They got to meet the Phelps twins who play the Weasly twins in the Harry Potter Films. After that we were waiting to be seated, and in the crowd I heard my name called out to me. I finally got to meet Laurie elspethnoir.
I'll save the rest of the movie stories for my super movie review.
Well I've been writing this for awhile now...
More soon!
Also guys, look me up on MySpace and Facebook. Links will be in my profile soon.
Berry