Things You Should Know

I like to keep my friends swimming out in the cyber pool informed. That’s me waving from the deep end. Hi!

A few facts:

Never give me poor customer service. This has been the subject of countless rants on another blog site, but today Macy’s got the prize. The store was freaking empty, was I really completely invisible? I was about to drop too much money on a pair of shoes… and I was ignored… bad Macy’s!

I have the ability to wiggle my eyeballs very fast and it freaks most people out. I don’t do it much anymore because it gives me a headache. Ya think I should stop?

I am on VACATION!!!! For a whole WEEK!!! I am turning off my CELL PHONE so WORK can’t CALL!!! I am NOT doing BUSINESS on a BEACH!!!

I can move my eyes independently – one goes one way while the other stays still, then the other eye moves while the other stays still. In spite of the way that sentence was written, I only have two eyes.

We are celebrating Mom’s 80th birthday. She is David’s mom, but I get to call her mom too, which is very cool (I don’t call her mom too, I call her mom). Children will be involved… I don’t do children well. Funny that, since I am one.

I have never had the hiccups. Never… ever. I occasionally make a sound that resembles a hiccup, sometimes even twice, but never three times. It just doesn’t happen. I am a freak of nature and damn proud of it. Hmmmm… I think that might make a good t-shirt (that’s four if you are counting, Claire).

I don’t have a normal feed for my blog. I have to be different, so if you are one of those kind souls who has me on your Google Reader and my blog never seems to update, the feed is: http://feeds.feedburner.com/blogspot/YbXU

I can wiggle my ears which makes my glasses move back and forth. It scares young children… did I mention that I don’t do children well?

For the next week I will be at a beach house with David and 18 members of his family. If you don’t hear from me during that time, that is why. If it goes longer than a week, please call the authorities and comb the beach at Fort Meyers…

On Sunday I will be 53. I have nothing witty or profound to say about that. Other than at this point, ever year is a gift. OK, that was a little profound… maybe just enough.

So, gentle reader, consider yourself informed and enjoy the water. And hey… let’s be careful out there!

Yeah, I’m from Jersey…

… youze got a problem wit dat? Huh? I’m talking to youze…

And that’s pretty much what people expect from someone from the Garden State. Other than the northeastern part of the state, and the Trenton and Camden area near Philadelphia, there is a reason why it is called the Garden State.

I may talk about living in Maine more often, but I spent most of my life in New Jersey… and I never lived in an urban area. Most of the places I lived were downright rural. David laughs at my attitude about living in this city (Fort Lauderdale) – he is from Chicago; a real city. The first time he called me a country boy, I laughed at the irony of being called that AND coming from New Jersey. But to put it in perspective, would you be surprised if someone told you they are from New Jersey and that the Appalachian Trail runs through their town?

Unlike the first picture, the picture above is from the town I lived in the longest (12 years… I moved a lot). I didn’t take this picture, but this is Vernon, New Jersey… not Colorado. If I were to clear the trees in my back yard, this is pretty much the view I would have seen from the deck off of my bedroom. In the winter, when there were no leaves on the trees, I could see the lights of the ski runs on the mountains across the valley. It was very pretty in all seasons.

This picture, also not taken by me (my life in pictures pretty much disappeared in a relationship split from that time) is the lake that I lived on… yes, still in New Jersey.

So the next time someone tells you that they are from New Jersey, don’t feel obligated to pronounce it “Joysee” or ask “What exit,” because I just may have to call my cousin *Tony from Bayoneee or *Lefty from Trenton on your ass… Capish?

*Uh, yeah… those are real relatives

Deep Breaths…

…did you ever have one of those days when you knew you would have been better off staying in bed? Of course you have. Today was my turn. Let’s run down, the list, shall we?

1. When I arrived at work, there was a very strong odor of fish. OK, let’s get past the obvious jokes… some fool taught a cooking class last night and cooked fish in a placed that is never going to have a window open because it is too freaking hot here. I like fish, but this smelled really bad.

2. There was a sticky note on my monitor. I hate sticky notes on my monitor because they never say things like “Hi Thom, I was just thinking about how wonderful you are and wanted to post it on your monitor to cheer you up first thing in the morning.” They say things like “FYI, the basement flooded again : )” Yes, they had the audacity to put a smiley face on the note as if this was going to be my best news of the day. Sadly, it was.

3. The alarm system decided to start beeping randomly, then at regular intervals. Could someone pick up a phone and call ADT to tell them? No, I had three people pick up the phone to complain to me about it. One of them is close enough that she could have just shouted it to me. One did shout it to me…

4. I hate meetings. I hate pointless meetings. I hate meetings that run off on tangents from scatter-brained people who couldn’t follow a linear line of thought if someone tied a rope to their head and pulled. I had one of those this morning, but the best part is that I wound up with al of the action items because I am the only one who can handle the mess made by aforementioned non-linear thinkers. No pressure, it all only needs to be completed by tomorrow…

5. Cowgirls. That’s my nickname (aside from she-devils) for my co-workers who never think things though, but rather just constantly shoot from the hip. Today, it was “let’s screw up my PC and make Thom fix it” day. I listened patiently to the imaginary PC problems, told them to step aside, and found no problem. “But it wasn’t working before! What did you do?” I didn’t sit there pounding keys impatiently waiting for a program to do what it is supposed to do when you stop pounding the freaking keys! .

6. The server is stuck in a back-up loop and won’t get unstuck. I called for support and got some of the best double-speak I have heard in a long time. No help there. If it’s not better by tomorrow, I will do what I need to do – turn the damn thing off and let it reset itself. Not the most elegant way around the problem, but it works… usually.

7. Did I mention that I am the Finance Manager? Did I get to work on the budget that is now a week past due? No. Will I get crap for it not being finished? Yes. Did I go home early because I was going to blow a gasket? Yes.

Actually, I was planning on going home a bit early… I am expecting a furniture delivery and they won’t deliver if no one is home. I just left a bit sooner than I planned. So now I am home, enjoying the silence and imagining the sticky notes that are being plastered all over my monitor…

A Fine Find

…as in Fine Arts – specifically photography.

I was playing around with Flickr… something I spend very little time doing these days. While distractedly going to different screens, I found a feature that I never noticed or forgot about (one of the benefits of being 50+; so many things seem new, even if you did them before…). You can have it search your email and see if anyone in your contacts has a Flickr account. Well, lo and behold… I found three of you and added you all as contacts. But one was a special surprise.

I have known Rob for close to 30 years. I have the double blessing of having him as a close friend and a relative… he is my brother-in-law. Rob married my sister, Marie (the part of the family I actually talk about), in a ceremony held in my home way back in the 80’s. When my such-and-such of a father made it clear that he was not paying for their wedding, Marie took me up on an offer to have the wedding in my home and I was happy to do it. It was fun – I was best man, musical director, and caterer. Aside from being a wonderful occasion, it was good practice for going into the B&B business a few years later.

But I digress…

As long as I have known Rob, I have known his love of, and talent for photography. I have seen his work over the years, but what I saw on Flickr blew me away. When Rob returned to school and got his degree, and then his Masters in Photography, the quality of his art took a quantum leap. I am familiar with his black and white work – actually, I am proud to own two of them, but I have not seen this particular collection. It is stunning – I have no other adjective, and any additional superlatives will not add to how I feel about it – it is just simply stunning.

For me, there is the additional bonus of recognizing some of the locations for the subject matter, and of course, knowing the artist. I was tickled to see pictures of where I lived in NJ and also a bit of where I lived in Maine… very cool.

So, I give you Impressions… the photographic vision of Rob Rice. Take a bow Mr. R.

Having a Life

A strange and wonderful thing has happened recently. The past two Fridays, David and I actually went out and put ourselves in a social setting. This odd behavior is partly coincidence and partly by design.

Aside from missing Sci-Fi Friday and our weekly fix of Doctor Who (gotta get that DVR), it has been oddly positive.

A week ago, we met two of David’s co-workers at a restaurant. One of the co-workers was leaving the state, so it was a bit of a farewell party. Pity… he’s a very nice guy and it would have been nice to get to know him better. But Jim, the other gentleman, is someone I know through David, and he and his partner (absent that evening) have expressed an interest in spending more time with David and me. So that means potential for more socializing… curious.

This past Friday we met a very nice couple at a local club. I knew Tom initially as a business contact, but I had not met his partner and David knew neither. We hit it off instantly, had a few drinks, then we walked to a local restaurant for dinner. Good conversation, lots of laughs, and as we stood outside the restaurant, each couple ready to walk home (you have to love that about this town) we expressed interest in visiting each other’s homes and, yes, spending more time together… curiouser and curiouser, Alice.

Wow… bars, restaurants, alcohol, food, and friends… these are elements that are dangerously close to those associated with normal socialization. Since we are self-proclaimed homebodies, it could be considered aberrant behavior.

Or more likely, something that has been elusive lately… having a life.