Work Happy Hour: Part Two
Went out to work happy hour last night. I was fun. Nothing super crazy interesting happened. But, what did happen I'll document here...
The happy hour was over at Brittingham's Pub. It's a nice place. The happy hour actually started earlier. Most other office hours run from 8 to 4, or 8:30 to 4:30. I'm 9-5. I finished up my work and headed over to join the crowd. They had three beers on special at half price. Normally the drafts run about 6 bucks, so I snagged a 3 dollar special Summer beer of some sort. I just picked the one with the lowest ABV which is usually what I do. Be responsible!
I mixed and mingled and chatted with coworkers. Conversations waxed and waned. At some point the obligatory group photo happened.
"Everyone get in! Come on... Squeeze in there... No you... yeah. Okay. Everyone ready? Wait! Okay, Okay... Here we go."
The tennis coach was presented a wood and stone award that had an inscription about his various achievements over the years while at the college.
I ended up staying longer than anticipated. I did go with a second drink, which was even lower in ABV, Amstel Light is 3.5 percent. It's one of the lowest you can find. I ate dinner when I got home. Although, I did sneak back to my car at one point to chow on a Cliff bar that I had in my backpack. So I had at least something in my stomach.
Later on in the evening stories were shared. Some harrowing, some embarrassing, some comical without the embarrassment factor.
A little while before I left the Conshohocken Sports and Social Club showed up. They basically took over the place. There were sports and social club shirt wearing people everywhere. Each one must have been a different team because there were distinct groups that all had different color shirts on. Same logo on the front, but some shirts were blue, others yellow, others pink... and so on.
Tonight I'll head to yoga and then home. I have hit the very end of my budget. I'm SUPER proud of myself. I had nearly 800 dollars in unexpected car repair bills. Had to get new tires and brakes and inspection/emissions and oil change and some other small things... I wasn't planning on spending that much money. But... being the master budget-er I am. I was still able to not spend more than my pay this month.
So even with the 800 dollar car expense line item that I had only budgeted 200 dollars for initially... I still made it. At midnight today my budget resets. I'm basically down to my exact last dollar.
We're still waiting to hear about the trusts... The last email was a couple weeks ago that the new trustee was working on things. So, I'm not sure where that's at. And my mom's estate probably won't close until August or so I'm told. It takes 9 months for an estate to close. So for now, I just keep budgeting away.
I'll definitely continue to budget away even after things are settled... But since I plan to invest all the money I receive and then count that investment income into my monthly budget my budget will go up by however much income I make each month from the investments. So, I'll just adjust that accordingly. If it makes me an extra 100 bucks a month... Great... If it makes me an extra 1 thousand a month... then I'll adjust my budget by that. And if it makes me an extra 10 thousand a month... Then again... I'll just adjust my budget. But I'll always a budget. Doesn't matter if you make 100 bucks a month... Or 10 thousand a month... I believe you should always have an Excel sheet budget mapped out and track each income and cost for the month and know where your money is coming from and where it's going to.
So that's my recap of the work happy hour/farewell celebration for the tennis coach leaving the college.
Work Happy Hour!
After work... Everyone, or almost everyone, is going to a work happy hour event... Our tennis coach, who has been with the college forever and a day... Or maybe just about as long a I have, is headed off to do his real estate gig full time instead of coaching tennis.
It's one of those situations where... It stinks to lose a member of the college community (especially someone who has been here for as long as he has), but at the same time... Happy that he's found his calling. He's all about selling houses. He just can't get enough. He's always talking about it and he's been doing it for years and is doing really well. It started as a side gig and it now basically takes up so much of his time that he decided to finally go full time with it.
They are coordinating a happy hour thing in his department on his behalf but have extended the invitation to everyone. I'll go over and have a drink. Say hello and goodbye and all that. Should be fun. If anything interesting happens... I'll be sure to yap about it on here. I imagine it will just be the standard hello how do you do very good yes yes... type of small talk over drinks. But one never knows. That's usually when interesting things happen! When you aren't expecting them to.
Anyways, the work happy hour is just down the street at a local place. Good atmosphere and a decent drink selection. So, it should be a good time. I have to practice for this show I have coming up on Monday though, so, I had planned to do that after work when I found out about the happy hour. So, I'm just going to have a singular drink and then head home. One and done type of deal. Well... as I type this between tasks at work, I have about 30 minutes left before I head over. Going to get back to focusing on the current task at hand.
15 Years
So, today would have been 15 years out for my mom's transplant. She had been looking forward to this milestone. Making 15 years on a transplanted organ is very odds against you kind of deal.
When an organ is transplanted the patient needs to go on something called immunosuppressant drugs. This takes your immune system down so that the immune response to an infection is significantly reduced. This means that when someone gets infected with a pathogen, such as a flu virus or a bacteria, they won't be able to fight off the infection on their own and as well they have a higher chance of getting infected in the first place. Generally antibiotics are needed to fight the infection. Additionally one of the tricks to help a patient fight an infection is to lower the immunosuppressant drugs in the short term to allow the immune system to ramp back up and fight. But the problem with this is that it will start to attack the transplanted organ. So it's a very fine line. Monitoring the blood levels of the organ that has been transplanted and watching for a rejection while the person fights the infection.
This was my mom's life for the last 15 years until she passed away in November.
Today was the day that she was transplanted all the way back in 2001. I'm sad that she didn't make it to the 15 year mark... But at the same time, she fought and hung on for a long time. It's hard to be a transplant patient. There are a lot of restrictions and a lot of meds to take. Your lifestyle changes fairly significantly. So... There's cause to celebrate that she beat the odds and hung on as long as she did!
Today coincidentally is also my grandfather's birthday. He passed away in 2007. So almost 10 years ago that we lost him. My grandmom passed shortly after my mom was transplanted in the fall of 2001.
I miss all three of them very much. I'll continue to observe the dates and remember them. Today will be my mom's liver birthday... The day that she got a second chance at life. And today will also always be my grandfather's birthday as well. To celebrate the life that he lived and keep his memory alive and well.
So this blog post is dedicated to my mom and my grandparents.
Mad Mex For Some Burritos And Beers with My Brother
Went out last night with my brother for burritos and beers at a place called Mad Mex. I'd never been. The burritos were quite tasty! I had a chicken burrito and my brother had carnitas.
We each had two Coronas a piece, including a lime wedge. Because drinking a Corona without a lime just isn't the same.
The thing I didn't like was that chips and salsa were extra. I feel like chips and salsa should just be on the house. Like how Italian places bring you bread and oil and what not. You know? Other than that... It's a nice little spot.
We chatted and ate. I gave him his junk mail that he still gets at the house. Although, not ALL of it was junk. I just think it's funny to not toss the junk mail and give him a big box of mail with like only two real things and the rest of it is junk.
So, the burritos were good (I was SOOOO full afterwards) and the beers quenched our thirst. I also really liked the menu itself... It had this leather front cover and then a hard back... Almost like a book. I feel like a fancy menu is kind of pointless... Obviously the real deal with going out is if the food is good as well... But on the other hand, it's really all about the whole package. Food, service, ambiance... They all have to come together to create a fun and fascinating food filled dining experience.
I believe that Mad Mex is a nationwide chain... So if there's one near you, it's worth checking out!
Car Appointment Today (And Complimentary Cookie)
So I got up early to take my car up to the dealer to have a small LED on the dash replaced. When I had it up there last time a couple weeks ago for service they told me that it was simply a bulb that needed to be replaced. SO they ordered the part. Okay. That's cool.
When they got it apart apparently... It's all built in and you have to replace the whole switch. They have ordered the switch. They put it back together no charge... and then I went on my way.
Also, mind you, they have complimentary cookies. So... I ate a cookie. I call it a win.
The guy at the counter apologized for the inconvenience. I told him it wasn't a problem and also it wasn't an inconvenience.
For all I know by me sitting there at the car dealer for an hour... It would have been saving my life by taking me away from some other situations or incident that I would have otherwise run into.
Or, it could be setting me up to meet the love of my life/girl I'll some day marry.
Also... I got a free cookie.
It's a nice sunny day. A bit cool. I enjoyed the drive up and back. Also it got me up early too on a day that I wouldn't have otherwise woken up early because I was off from work today. Now I'm home being productive doing things around the house and working on the things.
So... some times things happen that appear to be inconvenience... but really... you never know, they could be directing your life in a different direction or helping you in some way but it's disguised as an inconvenience.
Maybe I'm just being glass half full. But you never know! Might as well look at it in a positive light. What's the point in being all negative or disgruntled about it anyways?
So, they are going to call me when the part comes in for the dash light button. And you bet your bottom I'll be sure to grab another complimentary cookie when I take my car up again to get it fixed. I'm all about free cookies. I'm sure as heck not gonna turn down a cookie. NO way no how. That's for sure!
After I left the dealer I went to Wegmans and did a little food shopping before heading back home. Wegmans is for sure my favorite grocery store. Out of ALL the places that I shop... Wegmans... Hands down, is the best.
Covers
So, I'm a big fan of original music. I love original music. When I go to open mics, I definitely prefer to hear someone's original over a cover. I definitely really like to hear what someone has to offer instead of just hearing the same old stuff over again that anyone else could play.
But, there's room for covers too. Especially if the cover has it's own spin on it. If someone can take a popular song and put their own little personal touch on it... I can really appreciate that.
Tonight I heard a cover of Katy Perry's - Teenage Dream. I really like it. It's stripped down. It's very elemental. It's just piano and vocals. It really struck a chord with me so to speak. I've listened to it at least half a dozen times so far this evening. I feel like this version is just so vastly different from Katy's original version. I like the original as well. I'm a huge fan of pop music. I love it. But...
I enjoy this version of the song much much more than the original.
Here are the two songs side by side for comparison or rather... One above the other. Up first is the original one by Katy Perry. And then below that is the cover song by Boyce Avenue. What do you think? Do you prefer the original or do you think the stripped down piano and vocals version is better?
Cravings
You know it's strange. Lately I've acquired a bit more of a taste for beef and sweets. My mom was super into beef and desserts. She was all about a nice steak. And she was all about having dessert. On my birthday I brought her down some Cheesecake Factory and I sat with her and we both ate (In this case it was just a sandwich that she specifically had a craving for and not a steak...). She ate her food and I ate mine. Then we ate cheesecake and she just kept saying how good the cheesecake was. Mmmmm mmmmm this is SO good! Ken this is SOOOO good!
She couldn't really see at that point so I had to help her eat. But she was just... loving it. She loved desserts.
Well anyways... Two things I've been doing more of lately are related to beef and desserts.
{BEEF and BROCCOLI}
Beef and broccoli... Or green beens are good too! Okay, here's my latest dinner creation (I'm all about dinner creations lately too). Obviously a good steak can't be beat. But this is more of a "quick on the go I don't have much time to cook" type of meal idea. I like to buy stew beef. It's much more affordable and it's already chopped up into little squares. Then I just crock pot it. Let it simmer and cook. Or, the stove works too. I'm still a little pinched in my budget but after next month I'll have a few extra hundred bucks a month to spend more on things like a legit steak to cook at home. Or maybe in honor of my mom I'll go out to Outback once a month and get what she usually ordered... We'll see...
The first time I made the stew beef though I didn't understand why the beef was so chewy. Turns out you have to use that tenderizer thing and give it a few whack-a-mole type of hits. Works like a charm. I know, everyone knows you have to do that. Apparently I was out of the loop on that one.
SO once you have the beef squares all cooked you can freeze them. I break them up in little containers. Now that you have a bunch of frozen stew beef cubes the options are endless!
Just thaw out a couple of already cooked ones and throw them in whatever you want to make after work that night. The prep time is minimal and you can have a meal super quick.
Look at that... I'm gonna be the next Rachel Ray with 30 minute meals. Apparently. Probably not. 30 minute meals are fun though.
I've cooked a few up with some scrambled eggs for an egg and beef burrito. Just sauté some onions and bell peppers. Throw in the beef and scrambled eggs. I cut the cubes into smaller bits though so they were more like little tiny pieces between the eggs.
I've made a quesadilla. Again, just slice up the cubes into smaller thinner slices after thawing a few out.
Oh and make sure to freeze the stew cubes spaced apart, if you throw them all together in one container they freeze together and then you just have a frozen chunk of beef. The key is to put them in smaller separate containers... Just let them sit with a half inch or at least some sort of space between. What I might do is put them on like some foil and just let them freeze first, then put them all in a container after they are frozen. I feel like that might work better. I'll have to continue to experiment.
Other options are to take frozen veggies, just the bagged kind and throw those in with some of the cubes (you don't have to cut them up into little pieces for this like for the burrito and quesadilla) and just add a few spices and a sauce of some sort and make a quick stir fry. Last night I did that with frozen broccoli and green beans. I just let them simmer all together with the stove set on 2 of 10 with a lid on... and I had some teriyaki sauce. Then I cooked up some whole wheat pasta and just mixed it all up. It was really delicious. And much more healthy I imagine than those pre-bagged stir fry options you can buy in the store.
I try to avoid those because I like to at least try to make all my own stuff from scratch as best I can. I feel like those all in one stir fry things are just kind of... I don't know you can't control what's in them. Like I want whole wheat pasta. I want less sodium. I want... Specific veggies. I can have more control over the individual ingredients.
I've done rice as well. Sometimes I pre cook rice and keep it also frozen in little containers and I can pull out a small serving and throw that in or just microwave it and then put the stirfry over top of it.
Now, I also use chicken... but lately I've been more into using beef.
{DESSERT}
So with the sweets side of things, I do have regular dessert from time to time. I'll buy gelato or something like that. Or a little pint of ice cream here and there to have after dinner. I'd like to get more into baking stuff. I think that would be fun. One of the things I've done a lot lately though, is I keep buying those bite size mini chocolates. You can just buy a bunch and have a little candy jar in the kitchen. Then when I have a "craving", that's what my mom used to call it, any rules were out the window with food when she had a craving. Be it dieting or something or anything related to her medical stuff... Like you can't have grapefruit juice on immunosuppressant drugs. Every now and then my mom would buy a small thing and just take a few sips. It was a "craving". It interferes with the absorption of the immunosuppressant drug. Or, she'd just be like... I have a craving for this dessert or that. Or she'd just text me and say she had a craving for a steak from Outback. And she would want a potato with all the fixings. Potatoes were limited for her because of the potassium level. But she would be like... It's ok... My level is low right now... also I have a craving... So it's okay because I have a craving.
Well every now and then I have a craving for chocolate. So I keep my little jar of mini chocolates and I just unwrap and eat a small one to satisfy the craving.
It's okay. I have a craving. So... The rules don't apply to cravings.
So the next time you're breaking a strict plan of some sort and you just want a little something that you're not supposed to have... Just say... "It's okay, I have a craving. So it's okay for me to have this/do this." My mom would have approved.
Backwards and Forwards
So, I'm mowing my lawn tonight... as part of my chores around the house. I've gotten better at organizing the household chores as well.
I wanted to get out this morning and mow before the rain... But I had graduation at work. So I had to go and help with that. Mostly it involves just cleaning up things after graduation.
I'll have to run over tomorrow real quick to do one thing for about 20 minutes but that's no big deal.
Anyways, I use this manual mower. It's a work out this time of the year, that's for sure! The problem is the manual reel mowers just work so much better when the grass isn't super long. I haven't been doing enough mowing to keep up with it.
Well, I was doing enough early on. But then the grass started to really kick into gear and it went through some kind of crazy growth spurt or something.
I've been doing a better job of it though by getting up early in the mornings this week. I get up at about 6am and then from 6 to 7 is either lawn, or laundry, or some other thing around the house. That's working out really well. I'm going to keep doing that.
I started out just doing a little here and a little there in the evenings last month... That was enough at first. But then the grass just, like I said, went through this growth spurt of some sort. I feel like May and part of June is the worst part of it... Then the grass kind of slows down some.
Well.... my initial mow plan had been to just go clockwise around the house in sections. But, since it's growing super fast... I've had to slightly revise that plan.
I'm now going forwards and backwards. Forwards takes care of the grass that hasn't been mowed in a while. It's a lot of tough back and froth with the mower. It's a lot of hand picking the stubborn pieces.
Then the backwards part keep the newly cut grass trim. Since it takes a LOT longer just to get a small amount mowed going forward.... By the time I finish that, the grass behind me will have spurted up and taken over my whole house before my very eyes!
This way, I can keep the grass behind me relatively tame and in check, while I tackle the jungle the lay ahead of me.
It's definitely working out well. Check back with me in a month and we'll see if the grass decided to go through another growth spurt and I end up throwing in the towel and heading to Home Depot or Lowes to buy a gas powered mower.
For now... I'm gonna keep at it!
Alternate between working on the hard stuff and the easy stuff. That's kind of how I do things at work. I'll tackle a hard problem for a little bit, then break, and go do something easy. Then when I finish the easy one. I go work on the hard one again. Since easy problems can be fixed in full, there's that satisfying feeling of accomplishment. Then I take that accomplished good feeling and move back over to the one that I had been working on and pick up from where I left off with that.
A little bit of hard, a whole lot of easy.
Hmmmm... Or, you know... something like that.
More Dating Stuffs: Live Tweeting…
Okay. So... as I said in the previous blog post most of the conversations go flat (and then I kind of got a bit overly dramatic about being single till I was 90 and dying of old age alone... I mean, that PROBABLY won't happen... I suppose it could... I'm hoping it won't). But there are a few that keep going. basically at the moment... I have two that keep responding. I imagine one or maybe both will possibly fizzle out.
Who knows.
Maybe one of these two could be the one I marry.
I find that highly unlikely. But... For now, if she keeps responding... I'll keep responding. Maybe I'll ask for coffee. If she says yes. Great. Actually one of them already said yes to coffee.
Actually... I kind of... So, I did a very tiny "huh... I kind of like that" to the one girl just now.
She's at this conference for work... And she texted me back and said... Hold on... Ready? She said...
That she live Tweets the conference. Kind of like taking notes.
I thought that was super attractive. I honestly don't know much about her. She seems cool. Who knows, it takes two to tango. She might not like me. We might meet in person and there might be no chemistry. But...
I just liked that text. I liked that she live Tweets notes at a conference. I guess I liked it a lot. It's one of those "hook things".
What's a hook thing? Hook things are things that grab you. That you stop when they say it... Or you find out about and you go... WOW... I like that!
Its the opposite of a turn off basically. But it's more than a turn on. Because a turn on is where you just kind of... I guess it is a turn on. But it's a turn on AND then some.
It's where you stop and go... Huh... Yeah... YEAH!
And then you want to know more. It gives you something to hook to that makes you want to know more about this person. I feel like a turn on can happen but you don't really want to know more about the person. You just kind of... Find a girl cute... or maybe she has pretty eyes. But there's no substance.
It's not an in depth thing. It's not enough for me to say... Well wait a minute there's something more here.
"I live Tweet my notes at conferences".
See that right there piques my interest. That tugs at my heart a tiny bit. That tells me more about this girl, intellectually speaking.
That she knows what Twitter is. That she actively uses Twitter. That she uses Twitter professionally.
See now we're talking. Now it's like... She's using social media in a professional manner. Not gonna lie... That's kind of hot.
If a girl says to me.. "What's a Twitter?"
That's a turn off. That's the opposite of a hook.
If she says to me things like that she live tweets during a conference?
Sign me up. I want to know more about her. I want to pick her brain over coffee.
Now if she makes me laugh with a joke or a pun. And she shows me something creative...
Then I'm going to be on the way to possibly falling for her. Or at least wanting a second/third/fourth date.
Live tweeting professionally for work gets a first date. For sure. Hands down.
Dating Stuffs
So... I have all these "dead" conversations on dating sites. Bumble... Tinder... OkCupid... I've yet to start a convo on happn. I heart tons and tons of profiles of which we've crossed paths...
None of them heart back. They have to heart back to start a conversation. SO, so much for that site.
Anyways... Lots of dead convos. That means that we started messaging... and then I messaged back to respond and include a question to stir the conversation... Because I find that most dating, I seem to have to carry the conversation. A lot of the girls I end up going on dates with are riding side car. They just sit there... Waiting for you to ask a question.
Obviously Kara wasn't like that. She had the EXACT personality that is like... THIS is what I WANT in a girl! Seriously. Other girls could learn a lot from her. I wish there were more like her. Most of the girls I meet... I don't know... none of them seem all that interesting. Yes, that's mean. But Kara was CRAZY interesting. It was just like STOP wait a minute... THIS GIRL... WOW!
I wish I could meet a girl like that again.
Anyways... So I carry the dating site convos. I ask questions in return to keep the conversation going. Which is really hard. Generally most of the girls on dating sites respond with one sentence. Some of them one word. It's frustrating. They also take FOREVER to respond.
Again... WHY Kara was awesome. She responds quickly and she'll respond with a lot of words. And they are very poignant words too. I mean... Okay to be fair her IQ has to be like way up in the 160s or something... She's SUPER smart. But... There's no reason why these other girls can't also respond with at least a paragraph or a few sentences and maybe it wouldn't hurt to ask a question back.
But anyways... dating sites are like pulling teeth.
I used to try and send multiple follow up message and wait a few days between. But it's like what's the point? If they aren't going to put any effort into it or give a crap. Why should I?
So, I just basically swipe right on the ones I like... I reply when someone matches... I reply and ask questions as long as they talk back... I'll ask them out on a date if they continue chatting... If they stop responding to one message. I just move to the next match.
It seems like they all eventually stop. Oh well. I mean... Honestly, I don't even really want to meet someone on a dating site.
I'd LOVE to meet someone in real life. But every girl I talk to in real life is already married or has a boyfriend. None of them are single. Every now and then I'll meet a single girl in real life. And I'll start talking to her.... and then she basically gives off that "I'm not interested" vibe. Which is easy to tell... It's similar to the online dating thing... One word answers.
You can tell by the one word answers.
You can tell also when they are interested. The first sign is they play with their hair. That's actually from this Human Emotion course I'm listening to from Yale. I found that interesting... because there's a line in a song that says "If she's playing with her hair she's probably keen". It's a song by a British rap artist named The Streets.
Turns out it's true. They sent out researchers to bars to observe people... Tens of thousands of people...
And they found that when a girl is NOT interested in a guy, they turn their back. They don't look at him. They answer in short abrupt answers. "That's nice." "Great!" "Yes."
The answers are positive in nature... But they are short and sweet. And they kind of become rigid and stiff and just like... You can tell.
When a girl IS interested in a guy... They arch their back apparently... Which I think means they kind of open up to him. As in they are facing him and they are looking at him and they have their front more open to him versus curling their back and turning away.
And they start to play with their hair. They twirl it in their finger as they chat with him.
Pretty much none of the girls I talk to do this.
I feel like they used to... Maybe 10 years ago. But I'm old and past my prime. Any more I'm probably just going to give up on dating. Girls just don't find me attractive anymore. It's useless.
I mean... I just need to figure out a different life plan. I used to think I'd meet someone and have a family. I feel like that's just not going to happen. Maybe I'll start volunteering more... Or just work more on playing more live shows. Really I just need stuff to do to keep me busy.
At this point it's kind of like... I give up on dating. None of them are all that interested in me. So what's the point. I'm never going to get to the point where I get even in a relationship or end up married with kids.
SO it's more like... Just stay busy until I grow old and die.
Basically just passing the time I guess. I'm 33... Average life span is what? 80... So I got like another 47 years of... Join some clubs... Volunteer. Work on books and music...
Who knows what.
Because I give up on getting a girl to even look this way and play with her hair while chatting with me at a bar. That's hopeless. The girls on dating sites want some knight in shining amor Mr. Casanova that's six feet tall... Basically nothing that I am.
Whatever. I guess I don't care anymore. It's frustrating... and I tried so hard with them all to make things work and none of them wanted anything serious.
Wasn't good enough for Kara... Wasn't good enough for any of the other girls I dated.
So who knows. Maybe once all the money business is wrapped up between my mom's estate and the trust I might start to travel some as well. Just work and then on my breaks and long weekends... I'll plan trips and travel.
I finally canceled my mom's cell phone... Or ported it over to Google Voice... So that will free up 95 dollars a month after this final bill is paid.
And I'm in the process of working with the insurance company to lower and combine my car and homeowners... the quote I just got is a good hundred dollars less a month too... SO that's another 100 bucks extra a month I can put towards just trips and travel.
And then I plan to cancel all the extra Comcast packages my mom had. So maybe every couple or few months I can spend that money instead on a plane ticket somewhere. Or maybe do a cruise once a year. Who knows.
I certainly have no idea what I'm supposed to do with my life now that basically I've given up on the love thing. I feel like life is almost meaningless/pointless without someone to share it with.
Which is why I described it as... I'm just killing time until I get all old and pruney and eventually croak in old age.
Who knows. Maybe one day a girl will actually be interested. But it's just been nothing but chase chase chase and none of them seem to want any sort of real commitment. Sometimes they respond... And some times they just drop off the face of the planet.
Oh well. That's life. That's love. That's dating stuffs.