random thoughts on a reflective evening...

still alive

just keep swimming

Oh Dory, you special little fish you....

I'm still alive, still kicking.  Time flies by when you work 40 hours a week, M-F.  I'm all moved into my new apartment, and it kicks ass!!  For the first time in a long time, since before college apartment and dorm room days, I actually have plenty of room for all my stuff.  I might even say that for the first time ever, I have plenty of room!!  (i used to share a bedroom with my bro when we were little and by the time he moved out, i had accumulated too much stuff to have space in my room).  The only downside to having sufficient space for once is that I feel like I need to go out and buy more stuff to fill up my extra space!!  It reminds me of the George Carlin monologue he did on how the goal in life is to accumulate as much "stuff" as possible.  Seriously though, my apartment is great.  This weekend I need to work on hanging up pictures and other such things that need to be hung up on the walls. 

My parents got very used to having me around again.  My dad calls at least once a day to just talk about nothing.  He misses having someone besides mom around to talk to.  Mom has already heard all his stories lol.  I can tell my dad also misses having me around to watch ballgames with him.  I will admit (and those of you who really know me, will agree), that I probably have an unhealthy knowledge of sports facts and trivia.  However, my dad enjoys this as I am able to provide further commentary on the games in addition to the tv commentators.  A perfect example was during a cubs game just before they clinched the division.  I believe the cubs had runners on 2nd and 3rd with 2 outs and Aramis Ramirez up to bat.  I said something like "this is a great spot for ramirez as he is a clutch RBI man, especially since he is 4th in the NL in RBIs."  My dad was like whatever, but maybe 5 seconds later, the announcer on tv said basically the same thing, except he didnt mention his RBI ranking.  I know, its a pretty stupid thing, but it made my dad's night. 

Work is work.  I'm working hard and still learning things every day. 

I leave for Hawaii in just a little more than two weeks.  If I haven't mentioned it before, my dad is flying the whole family down to Hawaii for his birthday the first week of November (terrible timing for me as that's when we are really busy with month-end close stuff).  He has been wanting to do this for several years now but wanted to wait till all the kids were out of school, and since I'm out now we're gonna go.  I also think he was waiting till all the kids had their own income so he wouldnt have to spend as much of his own money.  I'm really excited to go to Hawaii, but not so excited about the actual trip there.  We are flying, of course (although I'd rather take a cruise, boat, rowboat, swim, ride on a dolphins back, learn to walk on water, grow gills and flippers, learn to apparate, drill through the earth to get there, or petition congress to have hawaii moved and and placed over iowa....seriously, would anyone miss iowa??).  Not a big fan of flying.  I'll have to be sedated, knocked out, drunk, or all of the above to get through that long flight.  Oh well.  Hopefully a week in beautiful hawaii will be well worth it!!  Especially if I meet some bronzed, hawaiian beauty!!  (wink, wink, nudge, nudge, 'ello govner!!) 

Thats all i got for now.  Go Phils, Go Rays, Dodgers suck, GO BEARS!!

later my peeps       

kitty needs a birthday

I'm just killing time at work until the person who trains me is ready to work on something with me.  Anyways, I was just thinking that my kitty, Aladdin, doesnt have a birthday and I need to pick a date for him.  I originally got him in early January of 2008.  At that time the vet told me he was about 6 monthes old.  It is now September, 8 monthes later, which makes him now 14 monthes old and would make his birthday sometime in July.  I've thought of several potential birthdates in July, but I am also open to outside suggestions from all you xanga-ites.  The ones I'm already currently considering are :

July 4th - more to celebrate!

July 7th - I like the number 7

July 19th - my mom's B-day; easy to remember

Feel free to submit more suggestions and explain why you think it would be a good date.  I know this is a little silly, but I love my kitty and he needs a birthday.

Anyways, still adapting to the working world.  To all my college friends:  Enjoy whats left of your time there!!  Even if you think you are ultra-busy with school, you'll never have as much free time again in your life.  The whole work week is basically off limits for doing anything, unless you start as soon as you get home from work.  This goes for things like doing laundry or housework to going out to eat or to see a movie.  Unless I do these things right after work, they won't get done till the weekend.  By the time I drive home (20 min.), change out of my works clothes (.76 min hehe), and make and eat dinner (although its usually made by mom right now but that will change soon), it's usually already close to 8 or 8:30.  And when you have to go to bed by 10 or so to be up and ready to go by 6, doesnt leave alot of time for leisure activities during the week.  It's sad, but I now consider 'sleeping in' to be sleeping till 9 or 10, especially when during school thats usually the earliest I ever had to be up.  

Continuing on, the job is going well.  Each day, I spend all my energy trying to learn as much as I can from the person training me and by the time I get home, I'm exhausted.  This is my 4th week on the job, and I have learned a lot already, but I know there is still so much more to learn.  It will probably be a couple monthes before I really feel comfortable enough to be on my own.  Right now we're busy working on month-end closing procedures, which entails countless journal entries and bank reconciliations.  Once we get through closing stuff, it dies down somewhat during the next week or two until it will be time to start pre-close stuff for the end of this month.  Like I said, it's a lot of work and I'm working hard, but I do enjoy what I'm doing.  It's all like a big puzzle in the way you have to bring everything together, and for those of you who truely know me, you know that I enjoy working on thinking puzzles (not jigsaw ones ).  Also, I really enjoy the people I'm working with.  We get along very well and have some fun while we work.

Most of you probably have heard by now, but Katie and I have decided to end our relationship.  A lot of factors went into the decision and I'm not going to go into the details, but a basic summary is that we had grown apart and were both unhappy with the way things were going.  The decision to break up was mutual, the conversation was calm and respectful (aka no screaming or placing blame), and we are on good terms right now.  We had a lot of good times and had a good run, but in the end we just couldnt keep it going anymore.  We intend to remain friends and I personally encourage everyone to please continue to include and invite both of us to your plans/activities/events.  There is no reason for anyone to be concerned about us both being at the same event. 

This is probably the longest, most-detailed, most in-depth, and most thoughtful post I have done in a while.  However, for the first time in a long time, I felt like I actually had a lot to say.  Hope everyone is doing well and wish everyone the best!  Have a good Thursday!!  (aka get through today so its FRIDAY!!)

later my peeps   

*NEWS FLASH*