Absent-Minded Jay

This is my coworker and friend, Steve. He went out last night and someone sliced his tires on his jeep. Around 10am this morning, I went with another coworker and friend of his to see if we could put on his spare and my spare (I own a jeep too) to get it to the tire shop without having to tow it while he had some conference to attend downtown. My immediate boss gave the okay for me to be involved in this. Like I said though, it’s not like a buttload of stuff is going on right now.

Anyway, turns out his lug nut wrench doesn’t fit and mine didn’t fit his either. So, we drove back to the office by 11:20am. She called to see how much tires would cost for him at Discount Tire. Two tires were going to run him about $55 each without the extra of valves, disposal, etc. I went to lunch around 11:30 and was running a little late getting back to work. I think I finally got back around 1:30pm. That’s two hours folks!

I get back in the office and Steve asked if I minded taking him to meet the tow truck where his jeep was at 2pm. I cooled off a little bit with the fan at my desk -I don’t have air conditioning in my jeep and it was like 99 degrees – and then we left.

We get to his jeep and we wait…and wait..and wait. Around 2:30pm, I give him my cell phone to call the place to see where they are. They said the guy was like five minutes down the road from us. About twenty minutes, the bastard shows up!

We get things settled. Steve and I drive to discount tire and get things settled there while the tow truck guy is unloading the jeep. Steve pays Discount and then the tow guy and we were on our way back to the office.

About 3:23pm, I get to my desk and am sweating my ass off! I don’t know what I would have done if I didn’t have a fan at my desk. After I cooled off, I pretty much just tinkered with my blog template. I did a few “work” things but nothing that didn’t take me more than 30 minutes total.

That was my work day. Interesting, huh?

By the way, the fourth picture is the name of the business that Steve had to park his jeep. When I first left in the morning to find his jeep, we were told to look for a mail box place. I was thinking “The UPS Store” or “Mailbox, etc” but the “Male Boxx” never crossed my mind.

I took my kids out to dinner tonight. Their mom said they were really, really good today so I figured they deserved a treat. Plus, we do not have jack crap in the refrigerator or pantry.

We went to Wendy’s. I got the spicy, crispy chicken sandwich meal. I got them a classic burger with cheese meal. I also ordered a small frosty for them – remember the dessert they deserved – but they had to eat dinner first.

They chose the place to sit and I bring the food over. I’m getting their food ready. They are sharing the burger so I had to cut it in half.

We haven’t been sitting for more than 5-10 minutes and this older man walks up to my table and places a piece of paper or card or something on my table. I pick it up and it said some shit like this, “I am deaf. I am selling these to…” That’s about as far as I got and then I turned it over and I saw about 30 different hand signs. Oh, maybe they were the alphabet. I didn’t pay too much attention. I gave it back to him and waved him off.

Then I started thinking. The nerve of some people! Deaf, dumb or completely healthy. I don’t give a shit! I don’t like to be bothered during my dinner with my family, especially for some friggin’ pity party! “Hey, I’m poor! I’m being evicted and my rent is going to increase! I’m going to stress out and lose my hair and my beer gut (that isn’t from drinking beer)!” But do you see me trying to sell CRAP to people? No!

I’ve been approached by the deaf, dumb and needy before. In Taco Bell one time, I was with the whole family and this Mexican dropped a braided leather key chain thing with some similar tag on it about “being deaf and selling.” But at least this Mexican, showed some talent with the braided leather.

This asshole tonight at Wendy’s had the talent of photocopying! This piece of paper he said he was “selling” was a photocopy.

First of all, I’m not going to give to you because if you were truly needy you wouldn’t have had a Wendy’s drink and large fries on your table! Second, I’d give $2 to deaf Pablo for his leather braided key chain before I gave anything to deaf Peter!

My dinner was interrupted because I was tossing thoughts around in my head about “was I being rude and uncaring” or “should I be even more pissed because this guy made me think of these things”?

There was a couple with a little child – I think it was a boy but not sure – probably around 4-5 yrs old. The father asked the “deaf man” if he wanted him to buy him a hamburger. The father went to the counter and ordered him a burger. The family left and about five minutes afterwards the “deaf man” walked out the door. I saw him walk across the street and enter the Humperdinks bar/restaurant.

So, now I was even more pissed that this jerkoff made me feel that very brief three seconds of doubt. But I felt much better when I thought about that father that got taken.

Question now is: Is it better to not get burned or to think you are doing a good deed whether you get burned or not? I already know my answer.

My wife’s best friend came over to swim with her kids yesterday while I was at work. I came home for lunch and she seemed a little pissy towards me. It doesn’t bother me and I don’t care how she feels but I just thought it was funny why she was pissy.

Let me do a little backgrounding on the best friend. They’ve been friends for a very long time, about twenty years. For that past few years or so, my wife and I have schedule “self” days. We have kids and we both work so we need a little free time once in a while. We decided that Friday would be mine and Saturday would be hers. On her night, she and her best friend would typically go out on a Friday to dance and drink at some club. Eventually, her best friend needed to switch her night which affected my wife’s night so we went to Friday hers, Saturday mine.

Anyhow, they were doing the weekly outing pretty much every week for a couple of years. About 6-8 months ago, the best friend’s husband came home from a “business” trip and put a stop to his wife’s going out each week. No one knows why but there was a big hooplah about it between them and he changed their cell phone numbers and he also had a computer logger on their home network that he used to monitor her surfing habits and invade her actual email account. Long story short, they had a big fight. He told her she could no longer go out and have fun with her best friend – my wife. Like a battered wife, she said that it was partially her fault although we don’t know what she did – we don’t think she really knows. She also said that they were going to focus on their (her and her husband’s) marriage/relationship. She even went so far as to criticize our situation by saying that she “enjoys spending time with her husband so she doesn’t need to go out every week or even every other week.”

She would occasionally call my wife to go out on a Friday or Saturday. My wife would check to see what my plans were and I’d say “go ahead, have fun. I’m not doing anything.” Plus, she was typically going out after the kids were already in bed. The time would come for my wife to leave to go meet her friend somewhere and she’d get a call from said friend saying that the husband was coming. My wife would say she didn’t want to go anymore and refused to budge, for good reason. When he came home that time to cancel all outings for his wife and all, he argued and yelled at my wife. If my wife or I gave a shit at what he said, I would have had to kick his ass but we knew he was being stupid, crazy and completely ridiculous. Since that time, my wife refuses to hang with her friend if the husband is coming because he disrespected her. My wife even told him as much and he half-assedly, jokingly apologized but my wife is the woman they are talking about in the statement, “there is nothing worse than a woman scorned!”

There is a little more to it but I won’t go into it in case they somehow happen upon my blog. I don’t want to cause any more riff between my wife and her “best” friend.

So finally, last Sunday the friend got “paroled” from her house to go out and do something with my wife. My wife was all for it and was a little excited about going shopping or having coffee but…she had forgotten for some reason that I had two roller hockey games that day. One at 4pm and one at 8pm. So, her time out was pretty much cancelled unless they wanted to take the kids but that’s not what they wanted. The friend kept telling my wife that I should not go to my games or blah, blah, blah but it’s not like my wife didn’t know already about them. Every Sunday I have a game. The time fluctuates but the day is the same. I have no problem with my wife having a little “alone” time. We all need it now and again and I don’t go anywhere anyhow except for my hockey and tennis.

When I saw the friend during lunch, she told me, “I’m mad at you!” I said, “Oh, why is that? Because your husband gave you permission to go out and my wife couldn’t because I already had plans?” She said, “MY HUSBAND DOES NOT LET ME DO ANYTHING!” I said, “Exactly!” She mumbled something as I was leaving to return to work and I turned and said, “if I had time, I’d explain to you that which you seem to overlook but I have to get back to work!” She just threw her hands in the air, perturbed.

I was amused as I got back in my vehicle to drive to work. At the same time, I was irritated by the fact that, when it’s obviously their own fault, some people can’t admit they are the cause of their pain and suffering! Let’s have a little introspection, people. Jeez!

So, the “best” friend went home still bitter. Bitter at the wrong person(s) but still bitter.

I’m still chuckling now…

I got my final grade for my rhetoric class.

B+

Woohoo! I’ll take that.

Now, I am taking off the summer II session and I will restart in the fall with microeconomics. Blah!

I finished class today. All I had to do was my oral presentation. My famous immigrant was Martina Navratilova. I figured I would talk about something I knew about versus just doing a book report presentation. I think it went well. I had a few stutter-moments with my dates but all-in-all felt it was good. I really don’t give a shit to tell you the truth! It was probably the best if not at least in the top three…in my opinion. Of course, I should be because I am almost twice the age of my classmates! LOL! I’ve had business speaking experience. I’ve trained groups of people with hand-outs and visual aids. Now that I think about it. It wasn’t as fluent as I wanted it to be but it’s not completely my fault. I didn’t get time to practice it before class today.

Last night (Sunday) I had to take my brother to the emergency room. I had my team’s playoff hockey game at 7pm. My brother’s team game was at 8pm. We had another game at 9pm that both of us play on for another league. Anyway, my friend (who plays on the 9pm team as well) and I were watching my bro’s game because he and I were the 7pm game on separate teams…I know, confusing isn’t it? My bro was trying to take a puck from a guy from the other team and his stick was caught in his jersey. He was trying to pull it out and was in an awkward-kind-of-lunging position. The guy turned around and brought his stick up and busted my bro in the face. My bro went down on his back on the rink just gushing blood. I got the hell up out my seat and ran to the restroom to get some toilet tissue. The damn dispenser kept sticking and so instead of long wad of toilet paper, I got a bunch of shrapnel. I still had my skates on and went to my bro’s side and put the shrapnel near his nose, his mouth…shit, I couldn’t tell where he was bleeding from. No one around him could. We thought his nose was broken because we saw all his teeth and his tongue was in one piece.

He was bleeding pretty badly and spitting blood. Someone had a t-shirt they brought to help with the blood and then finally one of the employees of the rink brought some ice from the snack bar – in a little fucking snack size ziplock bag. WTF!? Anyhow, we asked him some questions to make sure he was aware and all. He replied in our family’s typical smart-ass way. We carried him off the rink and let him sit against the wall. He was still a little groggy and to be safe we decided to call 911 for the paramedics to check him out. Lot a good they did. Those people are worthless sometimes and make good money for it. They asked him the same shit we did: What’s the date? Who is the president? Where are you? Are you gay? Okay not that last one but I was checking to see if you were paying attention. They told him that they recommended he go to the emergency room and they could take him or someone else could but not himself. Of course, being his brother I guess the chore fell to me by default. I contemplated playing my game at 9pm – it was about 8:45pm – and then taking him or taking him now and missing the game. Man, that was a tough decision. I decided to get out of my skate gear and take him. I figured the team we were playing that we were going to lose anyway so I would really just be getting extra skating time. We automatically get to play another game anyway. I guess family is more important…sometimes. Lol!

I take him to the hospital and my friend that plays on the team as well followed us. He has known me and my family for around twenty years so he thought it was best for him to lend a hand. I think he didn’t particularly want to play the 9pm game either. Anyway, we went to Richland Community or Richland something hospital. It was quick. The nurse checked us in. It was like a five minute wait and they took us back to a bed in the ER. The doctor came about 10 minutes later. They found that it looked like his two front teeth went bit completely through the top lip. The cut on top was too bad. It looked just like a scratch or small cut. The doctor lifted his lip to see the under side and it was like shrapnel, dude! It was like a pencil hole with a starburst of shredded, torn skin around it. Pretty cool! My bro and friend both have camera phones. My friend’s was better quality but we used both to take pictures of it. Hopefully, they’ll come out and I can post them on the web. Good times. Anyway, the doc put two stitches on top and three on bottom of the lip. They gave him a pain killing shot beforehand. I think it was lidocaine because novacaine makes my bro’s heart race. Well, this did too because they are all part of the same family of medicine. He was fine though. Afterwards, I had to drive his ass all the way home to Euless…about 45 minutes from where we were. It was like 11pm or so. My friend followed us so he could drive me back. I finally got home around 12:15am. It was Monday morning now.

I couldn’t get to sleep. I was a little wired and we had stopped by Jack in the Box to get something to eat on the way back. I hadn’t eaten since about 2pm that day. I was starving but I probably could have waited until I woke later that morning. My friend bought so I figured I’d take advantage of his “generosity.”

Around 8am this morning, the alarm went off but I really didn’t want to get up. I thought about calling into work and saying I’d be late but I still had class at 10am. I figured, screw it. I go ahead and go to work and then class and then finish this long, tiring Monday.

I got home. The wife went to work. I cooked dinner and took care of my kiddos. Around 9pm, I started to get a headache. By 9:30pm, it was basically a migraine. I put the kids to bed. They asked if they could sleep in my bed and I said yes because I’m a lazy pushover. I had to stay awake though until my wife got home because she didn’t have her house key. So, I was up until at least 10:30pm. I went to bed around 11pm and that’s about all I remember.

So, that’s why I didn’t get to practice my oral presentation. What about Saturday, you ask? No comment!

That sounds dirty doesn’t it? Okay, maybe just to demented minds like me!

No class today. We just needed to drop off our research paper. What a relief to have that done. I was actually complete with it by 9pm last night. Luckily, most of the boss-types are out of the office so I was able to type a lot yesterday while at work. Good thing. I probably would have been up until midnight or one a.m. typing that sucker. I was a little restless around 10pm. I didn’t know what to do. It’s been about a month since I haven’t HAD to stay up late because I was reading or writing something for class. It was kind of strange.

Today is pretty much a blow off day at work. They all pretty much are these days. It’s the slow time of the year. Also, with the bosses out of the office it makes the days much more pleasant! I was pretty much done with my work by lunch time. That’s the way it usually is.

Oh, to have summer vacation again. Do I even know what that is anymore? My kids do but what about working adults? I think that working professionals should get their own version of summer vacation without having to actually take vacation time. They do it in China. They shut down all businesses for a whole week! That would be cool!

Anyway, not much planned for the weekend. Tennis tomorrow morning but other than that, who knows. I’m sure I’ll type about it each night, somewhat anyway. At some point, I’ll have to practice my oral presentation.

Doing this blog on a daily basis has affected my upkeeping of my personal journal. Yes! I have a journal. And No! I’m not gay! I just think that my kids would like to read it some day in the future to see what was going on and what I thought about the goings on!

I’ve got too many things to do these days and not enough free time. Sucks!

When I opened up a browser window and headed over to msn.com this was an advertisement that is plastered on almost half the width of the page.

Now, if the asses on this page are truly from the use of this product, don’t you think there would be a world-wide movement for everyone to purchase this lotion? It would be like when everyone bought gallons upon gallons of bottled water when we didn’t know what Y2K would bring to our computer-operated systems.

I mean if this lotion could make MY ass look like these in the pictures I would buy it by the truckload! Seriously!

Alas, there are those ignorant folks that will purchase this crap. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be able to advertise on so many pages on the internet.

They are pretty nice asses though…in the advertisement.

The white trash port-a-potty!

I got out of class early today. It was Exam #3 time and I finished writing within about 30-40 minutes. Tomorrow is one-on-one conferences regarding our research paper so we only have three more days of class.

Anyway, I decided to go home for lunch since I technically was still in class as far as my coworkers and boss knew. I get home and my wife had made some hamburgers. I wolf one down with a cold Diet Coke. I walk to my office to see how a process is going on my bro’s computer – it’s slow as shit and I’m getting frustrated just waiting for it to do things. I hang out for about 15-20 minutes and decide I need to get back to work.

I walk to the living room to give my kids a kiss and hug good-bye. My wife says, “they’ve been sitting here all day, pinned to the television, watching ‘Kids Next Door’.”

I wonder to myself “What is the difference between this and ‘Sith’?” Although ‘KND’ is fully animated and has the occasional “violence”, ‘Sith’ is computer generated with the same. I see no real difference.

Did I chew her out about how I didn’t think it was appropriate? NO! I’m just that kind of guy!

For a little more inappropriate viewing, read this “haiku” that is an animated commercial that plays on Nickelodeon:

Boogers in my nose
&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp Chickens standing in my room
I can see your butt

Now, again I ask, what is the difference?

I didn’t have to go to class today. Tomorrow is our exam. Wednesday is conferences for the research paper which I haven’t exactly started typing up yet. I’ll get to it.

I’ve been watching the AFI Lifetime Achievement Award for George Lucas. It’s been pretty good but not good enough to watch entirely without flicking around to other channels once in a while.

I also had to watch the final episode of the Inferno II on MTV. It was alright.

I guess since the award show is over it’s time to put my kids to bed and see if I can get to bed early myself.

So, I’m outta here!