Fresh Start

I’ve been pretty busy and I haven’t felt much like writing lately thus the lack of updates. As we speak, I’m downtown at a local watering hole called Doc Motorworks imbibing a few local alcoholic beverages so my thoughts aren’t probably altogether properly formed. I’m really enjoying my new job. It’s pretty kool. I’m now managing global projects. How kool is that. Conference calls and meetings with people from foreign lands. I may even be doing some traveling. I may be going to China. Very kool. The hardest part about this new job is the dress code. Most of my roles have primarily been IT. Working in IT, you don’t generally need to dress well. People generally leave you alone. I can almost guarantee that in virtually any company you go to the worst dressed people in the company are the folks who work in IT. That’s where I used to work. Still work in IT, but now it’s more of a managerial role. I’m going have to buy some new clothes. Definitely some loafers and some Polo shirts. Have enough Khaki pants.

I’m moving into a new apartment next week. Bigger than the one I have right now. Need to buy some new furniture. Just like George and Weezy, I’m moving on up. Can’t really complain. Especially in this economy. When people are looking for jobs, I’m doing alright. Called up the guy who helped me move into this apartment only a few months back. Hopefully he can help me move into my new apartment. Big well built black guy. Seriously. Me and a buddy had previously moved my dining table out of my old apartment into my truck so I could transport it to a storage facility. I’m not the biggest guy in the world, but I’m no munchkin and my buddy was a six foot white boy who’s pretty well built, one seventy something. It took both of us to move my dining table. Leon, the well built black guy, carried the dining table AND the middle eave up three flights of stairs by himself. Yeah, I could have done that if my finger wasn’t still hurting from football. Not.

I have actually turned off my Internet access which is why I’m down at this watering hole. My part time job of moderating reviews for companies is what drew me here since I no longer have access at home. Not a bad gig. You can generally find me at Jo’s Coffee off of Congress on Saturday mornings from 12pm to 2-3pm and on Sundays at Jo’s from 8am to 10am. On Tuesday nights from 8pm to 10pm, I’m usually at Little Woodrows off of Parmer or downtown at Doc Motorworks like I am tonight. I’m actually allotted four hours to moderate content but since I read and type fast, I usually finish in two. I don’t make a whole lot of money doing this. I call it Date Money or Beer | Gas Money. Not a bad deal really. Ah yes, a fresh beer. I continue my lubrication.

I must say, I’m quite impressed with my following. Despite the fact that I really haven’t been posting updates, I have still had a considerable number of people checking my blog. Really don’t think I’m that interesting a person, still I’m flattered.

New job, new clothes, new apartment……..new everything. I once took a philosophy course in high school. What comes to the forefront of my mind from that class at this moment is this “Every moment of every day, we die and are reborn” The essence of this is that we never step in the same river twice. We put one foot in….and that’s one river…..we put the other foot in and that’s an entirely different river. You see because it’s constantly moving. It never remains the same……..that’s how we are. The person I was yesterday no longer exists. I am someone new. Like a snake shedding its skin. We are constantly changing. Ah……me and my random thoughts.

Well…….things are well in Austin, TX where all the women are strong and the men are good looking. Hope you are doing well.

WARNING! Will Make You Dance!

It’s Good to be Spain

I watched the Euro Cup where Spain beat Germany 1-0 and won the cup after 44 years. I had stood up to go to the kitchen to grab a beer when Fernando Torres kicked in the winning goal. It was spectacular. I bet all of Spain got drunk that night. I can only imagine the parties. I went to the third game of the World Cup when it was in Dallas when Brazil beat Holland. That was amazing. The Brazilians know how to party. I’ll bet the Spaniards aren’t too shabby either.

Today, I watched the most incredible tennis match I’ve ever seen. Five hours of play. Every bit of it world class tennis by two unbelievable athletes. Fighting for every single point. I was on the edge of my chair watching that last set. Just when you think it’s over, the other guy pulls something out of nowhere and the game is on again. Incredible. Wish I could have been there in person but was happy I got to watch it on tv. Rafael Nadal became the first Spaniard to win Wimbledon after 42 years. Once again, Spain will be partying tonight. Way to go Rafael! And Congrats to the Spanish Soccer team! It’s good to be Spain.

July 4th | Redneck Tan

I actually wanted to do some volunteer work with www.hodr.org this weekend and help out the folks in Iowa who were hit by the floods. Very last minute. What better way to demonstrate some patriotism than to help some fellow Americans. Tried to get some people together earlier in the week but no one responded. Emailed and called the folks at HODR but didn’t get a response back until late yesterday. So it was a no go. Instead I spent the 4^th here in Austin.

Woke up early, got ready, had an energy bar for breakfast, did some laundry, watched some tv and then grabbed my bike, threw it in the truck and headed downtown. Rode around downtown for a while. Streets were pretty much empty. It’s pretty hot during the day. Not many Austinites out and about. Mostly tourists. Tour buses and guided tours. Locked up the bike and had some lunch in a nice Vietnamese restaurant. After lunch, walked around downtown. Checked out the strip and then headed back to the lake. Rode around for a couple of hours on the trails and then decided to find a nice spot and catch up on some reading. Just bought a new book from Half Price Books, The Dante Club. Very good book. Settled in and read for a while. By this time, I had gotten nice and sweaty and dirty. Put the book away and got on the bike and found a gas station, washed up and bought a nice cold drink and headed back to the lake. By this time people had started showing up so people watching actually became a little interesting. Settled in a nice spot and started reading. Around 8:30pm, I just started people watching. It got very crowded very quickly. To my back, I had my bike. In front of me, a family of six. Two young parents, two babies and two toddlers. To my right, two young women and a small baby. To my left a transient had settled and come to watch the fireworks. A Hispanic fellow with bloodshot eyes who was somewhat talkative and friendly. Me and two other gentlemen sort of established an unspoken agreement that we would act as buffers between him and the other families. He was harmless. Nonetheless. No need to take risks with small children involved. So we sort of had him encircled between the three of us.

The fireworks were spectacular. I was here for the fourth last year but it was pretty boring. Haven’t really been feeling very social so didn’t really call anyone. It was still awesome. The Austin symphony performed as the fireworks shot in the air and I actually felt a twinge of nostalgia from my days in New York. Watching the fireworks shoot up over the water and reflecting off the buildings that make up the Austin skyline was beautiful. I remembered to be thankful that I am an American and enjoy a life that many around the world envy. I felt grateful. The fireworks ended and the masses began the trek back to their homes. I hopped on my bike and pedaled back to my truck parked fifteen blocks away. Threw the bike in the back and headed home. Got home, washed my face and basically gave my upper body a wash in the sink, toweled off and slept.

The next day, I woke up and realized I had a nice redneck tan. A nicely delineated tan that began on my arms where my t-shirt ended and also right around my neck where my collar was. A nice bit of sunburn on my face. I remembered the last time I got sunburn. It was 1997 and I took a nice pale blonde girl named Tara to the Blockbuster Rockfest concert at the Texas World Speedway in Fort Worth. She asked me if I wanted any sunblock. I told her I was Indian and I didn’t need no stinkin sunblock. If I was smart I would have gotten her to rub some on me but I’m not smart. When I dropped her off later that day, her stepmom said I looked like I had some sunburn. I told her that I didn’t get sunburn. The next day, I woke up really groggy eyed. You know when you can’t really open your eyes. Brushed my teeth and hopped in the shower and since it was a hot day, decided to take a cold shower. I turned on the cold water……..and then screamed like a ten year old girl. I had sunburn. I called up the white people I knew and learned all about Aloe Vera. This time around, I didn’t do the cold shower bit. It’s not that bad this time anyway. Still. I should probably get some Aloe Vera. It was worth it though. Hope you had a happy Fourth of July. Happy Birthday America!

Back to Work

This has not been a good week. Yesterday, I went to go do my three mile run downtown with my running group and while I started out good, I just petered out. No fuel in the engine and I have been feeling down. I just walked most of the way back to our watering hole. This fattie and her two fattie friends were smiling smugly at me when they saw me walk up. That’s right fattie. Keep smiling. We’ll see who’s smiling next week………..probably you again.

Then, when I went home, while eating an Indian dish, Pohay (For those of you who know), I bit down hard on a rock and cracked a tooth. This tooth needed to be removed. Yes, that’s right….Removed. Being a vegetarian can be dangerous. I’ve never bitten down on a rock while eating meat. A bone or two and it didn’t really hurt but I’ve managed to bite down on a rock a few times now while eating vegetarian fare. So I found an oral surgeon and had it removed this morning. My new job doesn’t start until next month and even then, health insurance won’t kick in for a few months so this came out of my pocket. Not kool. By the time my mouth will be ready for an implant, I will have health insurance so that’s good.

Needed to get the antenna on my truck fixed as well. The dealership quoted me $175.00 to do it. I found a guy who’ll do it for $85.00. Not bad. Slowly, I’m getting the hang of Austin. Figuring out where to go to get stuff done. Takes a while to get a get a real feel for a city.

While I have enjoyed my time off, for the most part, I will definitely enjoy getting back to work. Something to throw myself into. Also, I have to look for a new place to live as I don’t plan on continuing to live in my current apartment. I think I want to live closer to downtown. So much more to do down there and I am single. I’ve been meaning to join a rowing club and I think I’ll do that. And that’s that. Back to work.

Oh and Bella PhD sent me an email letting me know she only shared my blog with one friend and that she wasn’t trying to shame or exploit me. I don’t think I know anyone offline who reads this blog, but if they do I bear no ill will.

Pain

Well, I’m definitely single again. That was pretty quick. After several phone conversations and two dates, it only took one conversation on the phone and it was over. Bella PhD has decided that we have very different world views which make us incompatible. This was Sunday night [June 22, 2008]. Driving home from Dallas, she called and we talked. She decided that it wasn’t going to work and she wasn’t interested in dating me any more. By this time I was already in my apartment. We said good night and I threw up on my kitchen floor. Jumble of emotions caused a headache but the clearest emotion and the strongest was pain.

I had told her I had a blog and I wrote about her and that I haven’t told any girls about my writing. Have no clue why I thought it would help. I emailed her the post about our first date. Wasn’t really thinking straight. Then I cleaned up the vomit, took an aspirin and went to bed. Didn’t really sleep but I did rest. Didn’t really do much the following day other than lay in bed. Didn’t think I’d be able to sleep at night on Monday but I did.

I couldn’t cry. I tried to. To let it out. If someone was watching me, it would have been comical. I put my head in my hands and tried to generate tears but ended up throwing my hands in the air. I just sort of…….went into standby mode and powered down and got a few headaches. I’m still sort of in a “powered down” mode. Bella PhD emailed me to follow up and let me know she’d still like to be friends. Don’t know if that’s possible. She was flattered by what I wrote and apparently forwarded my post to her friends. Hard to imagine the considerable spike in traffic to that particular post was her alone. They’re probably reading this right now. I suppose it is a bit of an ego boost.

While this all really sucks and I’m hurting…….There is an upside. I was really wondering if I could feel this way about anyone. Powerful emotions. Turns out that I can. This is good. I tried to rationalize why I fell so hard and so fast for Bella PhD. After all, I’ve met girls of comparable caliber before. I gave her some rationalized reasons in an email but the fact of the matter is that I have no clue. There is no rhyme and no reason to this thing and that is extremely frustrating. I’ve met girls whom I’ve wanted to be attracted to but wasn’t. They were good looking, smart, family approved….check, check, check……and I felt nothing. There’s just something about Bella PhD that I cannot define. Wish I could.

Anyway, one thing that Bella PhD and I did agree upon in our conversation was that whomever we end up with should accept us as we are. Flaws, neuroses, past mistakes, stupidity, dorkiness and all. You shouldn’t be afraid to share with the person you end up with. (Chuckle) I was going to write they shouldn’t judge you but that’s not true. I can imagine the girl I end up with telling me something she did and me responding by saying “That’s the stupidest thing I’ve heard of.”…… I’ll still love her though.

I did feel judged by Bella PhD and not accepted……After our last conversation, I did sort of feel like a bad person. I work hard at being a good son, grandson, brother, cousin and friend. I will be a considerate, loyal, loving and faithful boyfriend and husband. If and when I do get married, I will treat my wife like a queen….and, God willing, I have children I’m going to be a great father……

Anyway, need to get out of this funk. Shake it off and drive on.

Cosmic Law | Mass Conspiracy | Phermones

It never fails…..whenever a man is in a relationship there will suddenly be T&A everywhere. Hot and/or horny chicks will come out of the woodworks. Who knows where they were hiding before, but once a guy gets into a relationship they magically appear. In science any consistent naturally occurring phenomenon that cannot be explained is declared a law and so that is one of the explanations. It may simply be a cosmic law.

Another explanation is that this a mass conspiracy perpetrated by women everywhere. Possibly to test us but more likely because they simply like screwing with our heads. This is a distinct possibility. This is a world wide conspiracy worthy of investigation by Scully and Mulder on the X-Files.

The last explanation is that men give off some sort of phermones when they’re in a relationship. This explains some situations but not all. Though if this is in fact the case, if someone is able to identify these phermones, bottle them and sell them, that person would be the world’s first trillionaire. No question.

This past Saturday

Went clubbing with some friends. There were drunk hot and/or horny chicks everywhere. And I mean everywhere. Had I wanted to, there is no question in my mind that I could have made something happen. I didn’t do anything other than talk with a bunch of girls and try to hook my friends up but I could have. Before two in the morning, I decided to leave before last call before I potentially get myself in trouble. Should have told my friends I was leaving but just left anyway. Called up Bella PhD but she wasn’t up. Didn’t leave a message. Went home and crashed.

This past Sunday

I was at the gas station pumping gas when this Chevrolet Cobalt pulls up behind me and out steps this hot Latin chick wearing tight white shorts and a tight black wifebeater top. She starts pumping gas. I just shake my head but can’t help but look. She catches me looking, smiles at me and starts up a conversation about my truck and how I must be hurting with gas prices the way they are. We chat for a bit and she kind of looks at me expectantly. I do nothing. She walks back to her car. My pump clicks, I remove the gas nozzle, smile and nod at her and take off.

This morning

I get a call from this recruiter chick who came across my resume in her company’s database from 2006. From 2006 people! She’s back up in Dallas. I’m nowhere near Dallas. She asks me to send her an updated resume and tells me to let her know when I’m in town because she’ll take me to lunch. I send an email with my updated resume and let her know that I might be headed up this weekend and ask if she works on weekends. She says she usually doesn’t but since that’s the only time I can meet she’s up for it besides, she says, she just moved from Louisiana to Texas and has loads of free time. She sounds hot. I don’t plan on doing anything other than getting a free lunch at a nice restaurant but if I was single……

I don’t know. Maybe it’s all in my head and I’m just imagining things. Or maybe it’s just because it’s summer and everyone’s horny. Or maybe it is a Mass Conspiracy by women everywhere. Scully and Mulder, where are you when we need you?

Say…

JOHN MAYER LYRICS

“Say”

Take all of your wasted honor
Every little past frustration
Take all of your so-called problems,
Better put ‘em in quotations

Say what you need to say [x8]

Walking like a one man army
Fighting with the shadows in your head
Living out the same old moment
Knowing you’d be better off instead,
If you only could . . .

Say what you need to say [x8]

Have no fear for giving in
Have no fear for giving over
You’d better know that in the end
Its better to say too much
Then never say what you need to say again

Even if your hands are shaking
And your faith is broken
Even as the eyes are closing
Do it with a heart wide open

Say what you need to say [x24]

Weekend Wrap Up | First Date | Beautiful PhD

Saturday night [June 7, 2008] was the first date with Bella PhD. This is the girl I met at the wedding I went to up in Dallas………

On Friday, I went for lunch with some former coworkers to wish one of them farewell as he left the company to pursue a new opportunity. It looks like I might get a new contract after networking with another project manager but that’s another story. I went home afterwards, sent out a few resumes and took my truck to the car wash and cleaned it. She called. We talked for a bit and I told I’d call tomorrow with more details. Cleaned the truck and went home. Ate a good meal and went to sleep. One of my best friends called around midnight to talk. He needed to get some things off his chest. We talked until about 2am. I went to sleep again.

Next morning, I woke up at 7am. Got ready. Went to the apartment business center and worked on my part time job deal from 8am to 12pm, called up Bella PhD and talked about what I had planned. Changed dinner reservations because I found out she likes Thai better. While I was working at the business center, some guy started surfing porn on one of the community computers while I was sitting right there. I was talking with Bella PhD at the time so I grabbed my laptop and walked outside. Wrapped up plans for the evening with Bella PhD and headed back inside. The pervert was gone. I went and talked with one of the girls in the office and asked if they monitor web surfing or have any controls. They did not. They asked me if I knew how to do that stuff. I said “Yes.” And the girl said she would talk with her boss to hire me to set it up. Nice. Grabbed something to eat and continued working until 4pm. Went home. Showered, shaved and got dressed. Being the genius I am, I managed to break the antenna off my truck so I needed to create a couple of playlists, for my ipod, so we’d have some music to listen to when I picked her up and dropped her off. I made two playlists. One for the beginning of the date composed primarily of techno, rap and rock with a lot of energy and one for the end of the date, to wind down, with music by Carlos Santana, Aretha Franklin, Duffy, Joss Stone, etc… Took me a little while….Good mix. Put my socks on, tied my shoes, put some cologne on and headed out the door. Told her I’d be there by six.

Thought it would be nice to buy some flowers. Bought a couple of yellow roses in a glass vase. Should have just bought the bouquet. Managed to spill most of the water from the vase on the floor of the passenger side. Damn. At least it didn’t fall on the seat. Managed to hit every single red light on the way to her place. Called her and let her know I was running a little late. She calls back to make sure I know where I’m going. I’m juggling the vase, the cell phone and the steering wheel. Managed to get to her place at 6:15. I park in the apartment parking lot. Call her and let her know I’m there. Take off my shades, grab the vase and walk up the steps and knock on the door. She opens the door……

She was absolutely gorgeous. She was such a stunning vision of perfection, I felt a slight electric shock slowly travel down from my head all the way to my fingertips…..but having dated for a while now, I did a good job of maintaining my composure. I swallowed quickly and gave her a little hug, presented her with the flowers and told her she looked great. Explained that she needed to add water since I spilled most of the water on the way to her place. She added water and placed it on the counter, I grabbed a couple of napkins and we headed out. Padded down the console between the driver’s seat and the passenger seat where a little bit of water was still there, turned on the Ipod and we headed out. We made pleasant small talk and managed to get downtown in good time. Now, to find parking. Couldn’t find easy cheap parking so settled for expensive parking a little further away. Got to the restaurant and had a nice meal. I ordered the Panang and she ordered the Mus Mun. The conversation was easy going, stress free with no awkward moments. Good sign. At 7:40pm, we left the restaurant for the 8:00pm comedy variety show. We were actually supposed to be there at 7:30pm. When we got there at 8:00pm, the girl at the desk didn’t have my name on the reservation sheet. Great. They did have two seats left. Not seats actually, but barstools in the very back at the top of the audience chamber so we took those. I think that this actually worked out better because Bella PhD is pretty short. If we had gotten regular seats, it may have been more difficult for her to see the show. The show was excellent. Well known here in Austin. Very funny and entertaining. Even though she’s lived in Austin for three years, she’s never been to it so I felt really good about being the one to take her. She recognized one of her friends from high school drama in the show and we stopped to say hello.

After the comedy variety act, they had a standup comedy show right next door with free admission if you had ticket stubs from the variety show. We decided to go. The introductory acts were alright, but the main act was very good. Very funny guy. Looked like Bella PhD was having a good time. God, she looked beautiful in the soft light. I really wanted to kiss her but refrained. She wore heels, jeans and a white blouse and she filled out those jeans and the white blouse very nicely. She brought a shawl along with her because she gets cold a lot. High cheekbones, ski slope nose, wavy raven black hair and a smile that could light up the northern hemisphere by itself……..and did I mention perfect skin? She is the complete opposite of Salsa chick, very feminine and girly. Love it. Then there’s her voice and her laugh. Exquisitely feminine, soft and sweet.

So after the standup show, we decided to meet up with some of her friends from college who were in town for a wedding at a hotel right off of 6^th street. Nice people. We hung out there for a while and had a couple of drinks. Her friends were going to hit town after the wedding but we decided to call it a night. So we find our way back to the parking lot after a little searching and we head on over to her place. She invites me for some tea or coffee or something. I take a glass of water……and we talk about life in general and what it was like growing up. After a while, I decide to take off. I wanted to leave on a high note and head off any potential foot in mouth possibilities. She gave me a hug and I told her I had a great time and would like to do it again. She agreed. I headed off home and she called half an hour later to make sure I reached safely. You have no clue how that made me feel. The level of attraction just went up about ten notches. This girl is really something else.

To be honest, I really don’t want to get my hopes up because this girl is so out of my league. (Sigh) One can always dream……we’ll see what happens.

Why I Love TigerMart & Why I Hate Apple

I know Apple has some very creative people and admittedly they have produced some wonderful products but more and more they’re getting on my nerves. First off, I have no idea why people think Steve Jobs is such a great guy. From everything I’ve heard about the man, he seems like a major dickhead. Screwing his friends over in the creation of the company and being a total asshole in the running of his company. Bill Gates, in contrast, has been a good friend and a good family guy and his employees generally speak well of him. Granted, he’s a ruthless businessman but business is business.

What’s got me really irritated with Apple is this concept of “tagging” music. This is absolutely ludicrous. When you hear a song on the radio, instead of being able to download that song to your Ipod, you can “tag” it so that you can go to the Itunes store later and buy it. What a load of crap. And there’s such a restricted policy on where you can play that song once you purchase it. DRM blows donkey balls. Once I purchase a song, I should be able to play it wherever I want to. On my computer, my MP3 player….wherever. Microsoft seems to be much more open in this respect. In fact, it feels that Microsoft is becoming more and more open and Apple is becoming more restrictive.

Now, why do I love TigerMart which is owned by Exxon? Because after I go running, I like to go grab a Slurpee|Slushie|Icee (Whatever they call it in your neck of the woods). I used to go to 7 Eleven to get my Slurpee but they’ve stopped serving normal flavors. I like the Cherry red Slurpees or the Blueberry ones but 7 Eleven doesn’t serve them anymore. Now they’ve got weird flavors. Cola and Mountain Dew and Pineapple or some other weird crap. Now, I go to TigerMart to get my Slurpees. Thank you Exxon for giving us TigerMart. While taking it up the ass as you raise gas prices at least I can enjoy a nice cold normal Slurpee.

And now I leave you with a couple of great tunes. The one from Busy P sounds best while driving in your car. Some songs just sound better in your car and this is one of them.