Wonderful happenings!
If you haven’t seen me for a while, you may notice something:
In the last year or so, I’ve significantly bulked up.
I thought I was fatter, but I’ve been running everyday. I now run the big loop without stopping.
I’m just simply broader and a bigger man. I weigh more.
I’m not any slower, less flexible, or less graceful (from a dancing standpoint, who’s to say about my personality).
I think it’s a good change. Part of my process of manning up last year.
Tonight I went to the Uptown Scavenger Hunt, a meetup event from the group I’ve been doing a lot with.
The premise?
Walk around Uptown finding a bunch of random stuff on a list and photograph it.
I was in a group of six. Well, myself, Scott, and Ann had no idea where the other three went. So we just did it in a group of three.
It was so much fun! Petty sure I will have a good friendship with Scott and Ann. I just need a counterpart so I’m not always a third wheel.
Anyways, here’s the night in pictures with captions saying what they were on the list:
A guy wearing lipstick. Literally, he put on hot pink shiny lipstick.
A clock at 10:17
A cartoon tattoo. This was in a tattoo parlor.
Photo of team members with strangers at the Uptown Cafeteria
Team mates with spoons on their noses
Coaster signed by a bartender
Team member drinking from a tap. We were the only team to have this.
Plaid
Craziest hair
Sox that were plainly too high
Margarita
A white drink, a tall PBR (two items)
Chugging a beer with a stranger
Chugging a beer upsidedown
Photo with the irish band
Entire team in mid air
Human pyramid with whole team
Then it ended at a bar that had a dance floor
What an awesome night! Made some great new friends!
Sometimes I get distracted.
Maybe it’s by a new girl, maybe it’s memories of one from the past.
But I think about all the great things. I think of the great things coming very soon with a new job and my new degree. I have nights like tonight where I ballroom dance with friends, and afterwards hang out with other friends.
It all reminds me that no matter what goes on with the lady folk, I am incredibly happy, have a lot of good, accepting friends who care.
In short, I am very lucky. I am so happy and am looking forward to whatever else is coming next. There’s no such thing as bad cards in this game.
Perception is reality.
(And no, the song selection has nothing to do with the post. It was on the radio, and I like it)
Running season is here. I’ve mapped out the common runs from my house (“The Loops”).
They are as follow:
The Small Loop – around Minnehaha – 1.7 miles. That is what I do for a quick run.
The Big Loop – around Univeristy – 2.7 miles. That is what I do when I go for a run.
The Como Loop – Horton / Lexington – 4.0 miles. This I once ran, but I bike it often.
It’s been a week since deadline, and things aren’t slowing down like they used to.
This song is about business:
I’ve actually been to two Rob Zombie concerts, back in the day. The concerts are kind of like god older videos, which I’ll post someday.
Alas, my post frequency will probably slow a bit so I have time work all that I do.
Cheers!
Some people poke fun at me because whenever I write time, especially in a log or time sheet, in the twenty-four hour format.
You see, when I track my time at work (always), I use Excel. Excel doesn’t know AM or PM, so if I work from 11:00 to 1:00 in the afternoon, I would have negative ten hours.
So I used 24 hour notation during the transition times, but at some point, I’d have to override a value to normalize it.
So now, I just use the 24 hour clock. Not writing AM or PM saves time too.
So it’s totally logical to use 24 hour notation in writing.
It’s those people who use it orally – they’re just plain weird!
I was at a social happy hour tonight. I didn’t know anyone except one guy, who, in our story, is named Dick. He represents all men who act like a Dick.
Dicks tend to notice that I primarily talk to ladies. I’m not trying to date anyone, but they’re more interesting because they don’t talk about stupid things, and they aren’t immature idiots.
The person I was sitting next to is named Elle. She represents ladies.
I was talking to Elle. Much like Dicks always do, Dick kept trying to get Elle’s attention.
And that’s fine because in 3 minutes, I’d just ask Elle a question about herself, and she switched gears quickly because at this point, Dick has been talking about himself for 3 minutes, not giving Elle a peep because he’s trying to impress Elle.
Elle thinks, like always, Dicks try too hard.
When Elle was talking to me and having good conversation, like an immature Dick would do, he puts hot sauce on his finger to taste it, trying to steal some attention, something I thought was funny in a childish way.
So what do Dicks do when they have a ladies attention? Naturally, he tells a story about himself. It started off about hot sauce, but everyone zoned out after 30 seconds when the story was about him. Again.
When it was time for pictures, I leaned in to be in the group picture. My left arm had to go somewhere – it was either behind Elle’s chair or in front of her chest. I think I made the right decision.
Well like a Dick, he tried to embarrass me in front of everyone by exclaiming (several times), “Whoa! Justin – hugging at the first meetup event?! Jeez!”
I simply explained that my arm was behind her chair and not even touching Elle, who didn’t notice or care, since it was just to get in the photo.
About two minutes after I embarrassed Dick by telling the truth, which invariably makes every Dick look immature, he excused himself.
Usually I just ignore them, which lets their comments affect others because they’re not plainly rejected, but making Dicks look like idiots and standing up for myself works way better.
In general, Dicks feel it’s their duty to protect ladies from me, because I’m obviously aggressive because I like conversation with substance.
Men, don’t be a Dick. Dicks just look like idiots, don’t impress anyone, and never get a girl. Ladies aren’t after Dicks.
Sometimes working from home allows a person to get other, miscellaneous tasks done while taking 5 from work.
For instance, doing laundry – it doesn’t take long to throw in a load or move it to the dryer. While that sounds great, sometimes I can get distracted.
For instance, when it smells like lint in my basement.
Well naturally, I thought, “Hmm… ‘dryer duct’. Maybe I should use duct tape!
So my 5 minute break turned into a 15 minute break. Not a big deal.
Two or three loads after I tape it, I go to my basement and think, “I’m inhaling lint again – time to tape.” After typical guy solutions (which usually involve duct tape, wood glue, 3M Command Strips, or a combination thereof) don’t work, five or ten times, and I don’t have a good real (permanent) solution, I do what every young man does when he wants to figure out how to do something right.
After calling my dad, he told me of a product called a vent clip:
This was a relief, since I was ready to drill holes and bolt on the duct.
Put the clip on the duct and tighten around the dryer – seems easy enough.
As I was holding the duct in place with my shaky left hand, tightening the clip with a screw driver held at an awkward angle by my right hand, precariously balancing myself forward so I could get to everything, and balancing the phone I was using as a flashlight on my foot so I could see, I thought to myself:
I am not mechanically disabled; I think I am misabled
.
