Slave to the Grind

Back from the insane travel of Christmas to the insane travel and schedule to being back at work. I feel like I'm about a week behind already.

I was at a place until 8pm tonight and have to be back there at 7:30am. I'm already tired and sore. I gotta go try to get some sleep, so there is no post for today. Hopefully tomorrow will end earlier than I expect, so I have the time.

I need naps, nookie, and narcotics.... can anyone hook a brutha up?

Thoughts of Christmas

I hope everyone had fun this weekend. I was damn busy for most of my holidays. It all started when my dad told me when I arrived up north that we were going to visit my grandparents for christmas eve. I was cool with that until it struck me. I just drove 5 hours to get here, and tomorrow morning you are going to stick me back in a car for 4 to 5 more hours round trip? Fucking A. So, instead of having a lazy Christmas, I spent Christmas travelling.

Christmas eve at my grandparents was amusing as hell. Grandpa has a computer now and the best story told that day was about it. The first thing to remember is that my grandparents live in a small farming town in central Wisconsin. They are pretty simple people with not too much excitement in their lives. Grandpa got his first porn spam mail a while back. After seeing it, he jokingly called Grandma over with, "Hey (Grandma's name), how would you like to look at some porn?" I just about died laughing because my grandparents are conservative as hell, and I never thought I'd see that day when the term "porn" came out of both of their lips. After Grandma walked off disgusted, Grandpa apparently looked around for a while (Go Grandpa! *laughs*), which is why I spent Christmas eve cleaning his computer from all the viruses, spyware, and crap and then showing him how to block the spam.

Christmas day was one of relative peace. My Dad and Stepmom argue all the damn time, tho. Big things, small things... doesn't matter. It's not nasty fighting where they are being hurtful or angry, but it gets on my nerves because they are always doing it. I was mixing up some vodka drinks for myself at 1PM thanks to this. If I had known what was coming, I would've added some Jameson into my coffee that morning. Present opening was cool, tho. I got my Dad and Stepmom a Frank Lloyd Wright clock for their new winter home in Arizona. It was from the prarie home design collection, and the stained glass on it looked almost like butterflies. They loved it, which made me happy. My brother was being a whiner before the holidays and said he "didn't want any gifts this year and he wasn't going to give any, either." Well, too damn bad for him. He's into practical things, so I gave him something that was too useful to try to return or give back. He got one of those LED flashlights that can run on all 7 LED's when it has batteries, but if it runs out, it will light one LED for five minutes if you shake it thoroughly.

Dad wimped out on the gift for me in my opinion. I didn't let it show, but when I opened the box to find a hundred dollar bill, I was disappointed. I personally would rather have a $10 gift from the heart than $100 bill any day. Gift giving to me is a way to thank people for what they did for you, and show how glad you are to have them in your life and how much you care. Money just makes me feel like I'm getting a gift because they feel obligated to give me something. Oh well, another reason I was blitzed on Christmas and had to head to bed around 10PM.

Yesterday, I drove from my Dad's lake home to my Mom's back in Milwaukee. I think the coolest gift I got from Mom was a book called "1000 Places to See Before You Die". I have only a couple of the places checked off so far, and while I don't want to necessarily reach all of the 1000, there are quite a few I'd like to see. Another gift was almost as cool. It was a compilation from my mom of all the recipes she made for us or really liked. I know a few of the recipes by heart, some only because I have them written down, but now I have a binder of them all. I'm too domestic sometimes. *laughs*

Only bad part of my Mom's (other than the fact she still hasn't dumped the loser boyfriend) was that I didn't have a gift in hand for her. I'm going to be getting Opening Day tickets for her, myself, and my brother and sister if they want to come. They aren't on sale yet, tho. I have giving promises instead of the real deal on Christmas. Mom's excited though, and that makes me feel good. I like people I care about feeling good.

Happy Hannuramukwanzmas!

Just wishing everyone a Merry Christmas or Yule or whatever other holiday you choose to celebrate. I haven't been able to post lately thanks to constant levels of people around. If there was someone in the room right now, I know I'd get 20 questions on what I'm doing and they'd all want to get the web address. I'm not exactly feeling like sharing all of my sordid thoughts to my relatives. A few of them would be fine, but once someone in the family knows about my blog, then everyone would get sent the address. Not pretty.

Also not pretty is my standing in the football pool. I think I don't have a chance in hell of making the top 3 anymore. I tanked big time just like my Packers. *sigh*

Anyway, I'm going to post before someone discovers me. I might even be able to read a few today if I hurry. Take care and more tomorrow.

Therapy?

Today I went to get my back looked at. My doctor had prescribed physical therapy for it which I thought was a little excessive, but I'm not going to turn down a gift horse when I knew my back was messed up a bit anyway. Well, my back is a lot more messed up than I thought. Since I haven't been trying to anything physical, I never noticed all the things and positions that hurt. As soon as I lift my arms above above 90 degrees, my back kills me among many other things. They started me with stretches that should loosen me up enough to be able to work on me better on Friday.

After that, I headed to group therapy AKA the local bar I go to. Lots of laughs tonight. I just back from 6 hours there, so my blogging might not make as much sense as usual (which probably isn't too much). I had the usual bouts of laughs with a few friends and lust for one of the bartenders there and a couple other women. Miller was sponsoring a raffle there, so I put my name in the hat. I won a couple of so-so tickets for a Milwaukee Admirals hockey game in the future. I have no clue when to go, and nobody to go with. Anyone want to see an Admirals game?

I was swamped this morning since I got back late last night and slept in this morning. I still am not sleeping well due to my back, I think. I took all the sleep I could get this morning, tho. I'm glad I did since my day ended up being very busy due to a few customers of mine.

One last note: My friend and I have a tradition that when we get together to hang at the bar, one of us chooses a shot, and the other pays for a shot for each of us. This week was my friend's turn to choose, and he has a thing for cinnamon, so he ordered two shots of hot damn. The cute bartender looked around for the bottle in the wrong place, and when she finally went to the right place to get it, she came back and said, "Sorry, I was looking for Hot Sex." After seeing the look that I got and figuring out what I was about to say, she instantly said "I don't like the tone of your face, Erik" with a laugh. I had to laugh at that. Hope you did as well.

Speechless

I was reading a few blogs today, and it occurred to me that I'm not commenting on anyone's blog lately. I'm a fairly opinionated person and like to share the odd facts in my head, but lately I just haven't felt the urge. So, for those of you who I read regularly, I apologize. You comment here for fun, and I haven't been sharing in the dialog. I'm sure after too much longer that I'll go back to normal. Wait and see.

My Packers are getting their asses kicked as I should've known before I bet big on this game in the pool. Dammit, if they only had kicked the Raven's ass I'd be doing really good in the pool. After this game, I'll be lucky if I'm #6. Only good thing is that I might be under The Blonde. Not a bad place to be in, I think. I'd still like to be in the top 3 of the pool, tho.

I work tomorrow, and right after the training I'll drive home. It will be a 14+ hour day after all is said and done, but after that I will have the rest of the week off for the most part. I will have paperwork to catch up on, a resume to build, and shopping to do. On Friday, I'm going to pick my little brother up and head to the lake home to spend Christmas with my Dad. I look forward to the fireplace, the peace, and the inevitable conversations fueled by good booze. Maybe my mood will improve for a while and I won't feel so trapped like a rat. I sure hope so.

Comedy, Tragedy, and more

I've been telling a few friends about what's been going on in my life and in the process, I've learned that there is a fine line between comedy and tragedy. It all comes down to one thing. Tragedy is when horrible, painful, or crazy things happen in your life. Comedy is when the same thing happens to someone else. It's a sick world, and I'm a happy guy.

I'm writing this up as I'm preparing for leaving first thing in the morning tomorrow. I'm going back to Iowa, which explains the beer in my hand. Somehow I can't justify doing shots by myself, but a few beers on days with football games is ok in my mind. Probably a good thing, as I wouldn't be nearly the fun person I am if I was killing my brain all the time. I'm grumpy enough as is. *laughs*

Yesterday, I turned off my phone, played games, watched TV and avoided all of humanity. Even though I was rested up for the most part, I still wasn't ready to deal with people. I really need to go Christmas shopping, but I think my best hope is to try to go during the day on Wednesday and Thursday. Now I just have to come up with gift ideas. I'm so fucked.

At least this trip has me in Des Moines, rather than a remote and impossible to reach place. I also am just there until Tuesday night. Normally, I'd stay the night rather than drive back through the night, but I have a very strong desire to get back around home these days. Disaster seems to find me everywhere but home.

Most people want to take some time off to go other places, and here I am wishing I could just be home for a few weeks. Of course, with my luck and from what I've seen so far, I might just get to do that afterI leave my company. It's not easy when you have the brains and skills, but no formal degrees to back it up when you look for a new career. I almost know enough to be a pharmacist, but can't get into pharmacy school thanks to the current realities. I guess this is why I feel stuck. I can't get the degree I want, the position I want, the life I want. I'm being held back by the mistakes I've made and I can't seem to get ahead of them at all. Oh well, at least my tales can make people laugh.

A taste of my life

Here's a brief account of my past 48 hours or so.

Thursday:

0630- Wake up, shower, shave, and then pack up before heading out.

0730- Grab some coffee (no breakfast) and start driving to the place I'm training.

0830- Arrive at the pharmacy and begin training.

1200- Go out to get something to eat quickly.

1230- Back to training.

1530- Finish training and start driving to catch my flight home.

1645- Grab some McDonalds on the way into the airport.

1700- Arrive at the airport in Lincoln and start waiting in a long line.

1745- Finally reach the counter very worried that I'll miss my flight that's supposed to leave at 1823. Find out the flight has been delayed.

1800- Make it through security and sit in the terminal. I see the plane at the end of the skyway and think that we'll be en route shortly.

1930- Find out that the plane is working fine and the crew is there. United is holding out flight from leaving because they feel O'Hare is "too busy" right now.

2030- Finally board the plane. My back is killing my and my ass is sore from working earlier and those damn terminal seats already.

2100- Plane finally takes off. Travel time to Chicago: 1 hour. My connecting flight is supposed to leave at 2145. The crew tells me that all flights are delayed entering and leaving O'Hare and not to worry.

2200- We land and I scurry for the gate my plane is at.

2205- Arrive at the gate and find out that my plane was the only fucking plane in O'Hare that left on time that day. The tell me to go to the customer service desk.

2220- Begin waiting in a huge fucking line to speak to their customer service people.

2330- Finally talk with a customer service person. My back is screaming in pain so badly I could cry. I lean up against the counter so I can talk without wincing. They tell me that they can guarantee a flight leaving at 1745 the next day. I tell him that it's nto good enough. I need to get home. He tells me I can try to fly standby. There's a flight at 0644 the next morning that could possibly get me home if someone doesn't show up for the flight. I just need to get there an hour before the flight and get put on the standby list. Then he offers me a room discout at a hotel. I'm stuck in Chicago and all he can do is get me $20 off on a hotel room? Resisting a very strong urge to reach across the counter and throttle the fucker after the crap offer and which he says, "It's the best I can do" again, I remember that airport shuttles to O'Hare don't start until 0600, which guarantees I wouldn't get on that first flight. I take the crap offer United is handing me and start getting ready to spend the night in O'Hare.

2350- Look for vending machines since the restaraunts and shops in O'Hare are closed. After 9/11, they took all the vending machines out, tho. I'm forced to just drink water and ignore my hungry stomach.

Friday:

0100- Give up on looking for any form of food or entertainment. There is no Wi-Fi that I can access, or broadband ports that I can find. My phone finally runs out of power and I can't recharge since the charger is in the bag I checked in back in Lincoln.

0130- I find a TV that's on and showing CNN. It distracts me for an hour or so.

0300- I find a row of seats without armrests to attempt to sleep on since I can't sleep in a sitting position.

0400- I wake up after falling alseep for a half hour or so. I try to fall asleep again without success.

0500- Someone enters the terminal carrying a McDonalds bag. I head back to the other end of the terminal hoping that the terminal's McDonalds is open.

0530- I get a crappy, but very necessary breakfast. I wolf it down as I head back to where the gate is so I can get put on standby.

0600- Gate staff arrives and I start the line to speak with people at the counter. The guy there looks relieved that I didn't charge at him before he got a chance to get his computer turned on and set up. When he finally gets everything running, he calls me over and I tell him the short version of my story and ask to get put on standby for the 0644 flight. He types a few things in, and I stay quiet while he works. Without another word, he prints me a ticket and hands me it. I have a confirmed seat on that early flight. I could've kissed the guy, but I restrain myself and thank him profusely.

0644- We haven't even boarded the plane yet. I realize that my back is hurting at the same level it was last night. I've maxed out how much my back can hurt, but since it's constant, it is so much easier to ignore now.

0700- We board the plane finally. I'm in seat 1D. I'm glad I'll be one of the first people off the plane.

0800- The plane hasn't even left the gate yet. I close my eyes and swear to whatever is out there that I'm never flying through O'Hare again unless I absolutely have to.

0820- We finally leave the gate and start taxiing. My ass is now hurting almost as much as my back from those seats.

0845- Take off to Milwaukee. I thank goodness that it's only a half hour flight.

0930- I curse out Murphy as we land in Milwaukee 45 minutes later.

1000- After the tower holds us up for a while on the runway, we arrive at the gate.

1030- I am amazed when my bag actually arrives at the baggage claim. I was expecting it to be lost with all the crap that United put me through.

1100- I get to my car and get the hell away from the airport. I realize that my total travel time from Nebraska and back was 23 hours. I could've driven it in 20 hours round trip.

1230- After hitting the grocery store on my way back in, I unload my car. Once that is done, I change out of the clothes that I've been wearing for over 24 hours and take a shower. Lots of hot water on my back feels good.

1300- I'm about to settle down for a nap when my friend calls. The reason I wanted to be in Milwaukee early is to help him out with a few things. Luckily none of them involve lifting.

1330- My friend picks me up. Help is rendered to him from my knowledge of computers.

1500- Late lunch at Chili's. I proceed to tell him tales of my travels. He tells me that he knows just the thing I need. "Naps, nookie, and narcotics?" I ask. Nope, time to hit the gun range.

1700- After putting 150 rounds of .45cal through my Glock, I feel a lot better. Better yet, it woke me up enough to get back on a regular sleeping schedule.

1900- Finally get home to settle down for the evening. I unpack and clean up until my vision starts getting blurry.

2100- Sit down and watch TV. Stay awake for maybe a half hour more. I didn't wake up until 0930 today.

Long post, I know. This is the kind of luck that seems to follow me around, tho. Maybe that's why my life seems to be such a rollercoaster sometime. What do you think?

A question of why

-Why the hell am I hearing the word "gianormous" all over the place in the last two weeks?

-Why do I get a cold feeling when I do online job searches and not get any good results?

-Why am I hung up on how the locals pronounce the name of this town? I call it Be-a-trice, while the people here call it Be-at-trice.

-Why do I feel the need to surrender to a bender even though I know it will only make me even more depressed with the mood I'm in?

-Why don't the muscles in my back relax enough to let me get a full night of sleep?

-Why can't I think of a list of possible gifts to give my sister to help out her Christmas shopping?

-Why do I feel like I'm hanging on by my fingernails right now?

-Why am I making a list of questions for a post?

I have no clue.... maybe that's what I should ask to get for Christmas, a clue.

Strangely Comfortable

Today I realized something about myself. It started out when I was passing through airports yesterday. In Milwaukee, there was the usual flow of people through the airport. You hurried up to get through the choke points of the ticketing desk and security. You don't have time to really see what all the people around you are doing since they all go by so fast. O'Hare was life with the thumb on the fast forward button. A constant blur that forces you to tune everything out or your synapses will blow from the overstimulation.

Then I reached Nebraska. Everything slowed down, but I didn't notice it since I was so wound up from my travels. I got in to my hotel and finally crashed. Today I woke up and went into rush mode trying to get to the place I was training which was almost 50 miles from where I'm staying. This is the closest national chain hotel, too.

By lunchtime, I was back to a comfortable speed. I went to a fast food place and that's where I made my realization. I was raised in a large city but in a way that was distinctly small town. I hold doors open for people. I say hello to complete strangers and smile as I talk with them. I offer to let people get ahead of me in line because they seem to be in a rush and I wasn't at the time. The people at the fast food place did the same right back and that's how I noticed it.

In Milwaukee, you might find a person occaisionally who will be like that. That's one of the reasons I like to call Milwaukee home. Big city convienience with small town style. I'm not preparing to move out here, but I'm very comfortable here. Of course, as soon as I got back to my hotel, my job interrupted my peace with phone messages and e-mails. I only get a signal on my cell phone around the hotel, so I was free of it for the day. I'm back to being stressed out, but I'm looking forward to going to work tomorrow. Strange, eh?

The end is near...

...At least the end of my employment with the company I currently work for. They finally went and fucked up my job in a way that screws me over. I'm sure it wasn't intentional, but what's done is done. I'm in the process of sending in a resignation that will put my last day of employment with them as January 31.

I don't have another job to go to yet, but I have to move on anyway. They are switching me to an hourly pay rate as of January 1, but they are also making it impossible for me to work from home and get the 40 hours a week I need to achieve the same pay as I get now. They are also adding responsibilities with no increase of pay. I was already scheduled for the month of January, so I decided to use that as a good stopping point. Working into January means that they'll have to pay me the vacation days I get in January. I'll have a full month of extra pay when I leave then. I'm not complaining.

Now all I have to is survive the next month and a half. I'm even getting a chance to visit the ex-girlfriend in Missouri thanks to something I have to take care of before I leave the company. Once again, I'm not complaining. It'll give me one thing to look forward to in the new year.

I suppose I have more to look forward to in the future but I'm exhausted, sore as hell, lonely as can be, and grumpy as hell because of it all. And I'm in Nebraska. Surprisingly, I can't sleep. More on this tomorrow.

Exciting Iowa nightlife

This picture is from my most recent business trip. Let me explain.

Hotel stay at a place that lost it's cable TV for one night, $79 a night.

Wireless internet router that broke 20 minutes after my arrival at the hotel I stayed at, $200.

Cellular phone that was used as a paperweight since I couldn't get a signal, $60 a month.

Erik's trip? Just FUCKING priceless.

The picture is of me sitting in bed after taking a shower and not having one damn thing to do. The TV is all static and the Computer is searching for a wireless network to attach to. The worst part about it is that I was so grumpy by the time the TV came back on that it took me until 2AM to get to sleep. This is also why I haven't posted anything in the past few days.

I'm also enjoying a new trend that is happenning every time I drive for more than 20 minutes at a time. As soon as I start to drive, it starts fucking snowing for the whole drive. I'm ok with a little snow on a drive. The problem comes when other people are on the road. If there are any patches of white on an interstate highway, the idiots slow down to 40mph when we should be doing 65mph speed limit. My drive back from Iowa should've taken 4 hours last night. It took 6 and a half hours. My back was killing my so badly after training and the drive that instead of posting this last night like I wanted, I just tried to go to sleep.

Hope you guys are having much more fun than I. I'm rushing to get shit done for the rest of today since I leave for southeastern Nebraska tomorrow morning. I'm crying on the inside right now.

HNT Apologies

Normally, I would try to post a HNT today, but I can't think of a good HNT without being fully nekkid. I have an exhibitionist streak a mile wide, but I realize that , A. this is a public blog, and B. most people are not interested in seeing me nekkid. It's too bad, too. Ya don't know what you're missing. The gals particularly should miss all the wonderful things I could do to/with you. ;)

I've thought of putting my baby pictures up, or pics of my tongue ring but everytime I think of it, I feel like it's been done before and it's boring. I could be wrong here. I could also post my body up, but I'm sure the guys reading this would cringe at that. Women can post nekkid pics and other women will cheer them on.... not so for men. Damn double standard.

So I feel a bit limited here. I bare my soul here every day, but have a hard time intruding on the eyes and minds of others. I know there are people who might want to see the good I possess, but there are plently of people who would scream in protest to seeing my junk. I dunno really what to do. My heart says to bare the goods. My brain says to avoid the display. My cock says I need to fuck.

I hate it when I'm so fucking conflicted. Can you tell I'm drinking as I write this? *laughs*

Billboards I'd like to see, Vol. 4

Couldn't we all use one? I know I sure could.

I'm trying to get ready for a rough week and a half. Thursday I head out to northeastern Iowa to train a few people. Normally a trip like this wouldn't be bad at all. Unfortunately for me, I have to do the training on Friday and Saturday. Just what I wanted to do with my weekend is to spend it in Iowa. Worse yet, I have a major training next week. I have to leave for that on Monday which means my weekend is non-existant at this point since Sunday I'll unpack, do laundry, and repack. I'll get in a football game and a beer if I'm lucky, and then I have to crash early to be ready for a morning flight.

Next week I'll be training in Hebron, Nebraska. The closest decent hotel to this place is 40-50 miles away in Beatrice, NE. I'm not used to having a commute that takes an hour. I have to remember to grab a few CD's to take with since I know that there is going to be absolute crap on the radio there. Normally I keep a fair amount of CD's in the car, but since I'm flying, I have to leave most of them at home.

Anyway, doesn't that sound like absolutely wonderful plans?

Billboards I'd like to see, Vol. 3

Ahh, the joy of imagining the promise locked under blouse and bra. It's the only excitement I get these days, but I digress.

I want to say that you'll have to forgive me for my insanely busy Monday that kept me from posting. I had a doctor appointment that took up 3 hours thanks to my back. I visited a customer and spent a few hours fixing her system after I let her know that I would be leaving my current employer and would be on the market. If it was up to her, I'd be hired already. This might be a tough sell to her supervisors since that would have to create a position for me. We shall see, tho. I've spent most of the evening working on a resume to send her, and I didn't even get to finish it. I did peek at the Monday Night game, however. The game was my only enjoyment of the day other than a call from an ex-gf while I was driving from the doctor's office to the customer.

I've spent my evening thinking of how to impress people. Most of it revolved around the resume that I was creating. Some around people in general. Eventually I went to thinking about impressing women sexually. I would've taken care of myself by now, but for once my sister is home and feeling nosy. Sighs.

It's been a long, draining, and somewhat frustrating day for me. I'm heading to bed knowing that I have to wake up way too early in the morning to get things done for work, and that I probably need the sleep more than an orgasm, so I'll probably remained unfulfilled two days in a row. Hopefully all of you are enjoying sleep, wet dreams, and/or multiple orgasms. Take care.

Billboards I'd like to see, Vol. 2

In honor of the Army vs. Navy game, I thought I'd put this one up. Yeah, Navy might have won this one, but that doesn't mean that we aren't proud of our team.

It also gave me a quick taste of football which I will be devouring tomorrow. Hopefully I can get out early in the day to pick up some items at the grocery store. For some reason I'm in a major cooking mood. I have chicken marinating in a lime and tequila mix that I'll be cooking up for fajitas. I want to make a batch of chocolate chip cookies because I have a sweet tooth right now. I also want to make up some bread. Of course, I need liquid bread as well. My beer supply is a little low at the moment. I think I only have a case or so of assorted bottles in the refridgerator.

I'm an unusual guy, I think. I forgot to take my ADD medication today, so my brain was jumping to all of it's interests. I started with video games, then went to cleaning my Glock, learning more about chemisty, setting up things to cook, and now I'm back at my computer researching WW2 and blogging. Odd connections, eh?

Billboards I'd like to see, Vol. 1

Being on the road so much, you see a lot of ads on billboards. Most are dumb, but there are a few gems. I found a few faked ones that are so good, I had to share. Enjoy.

On that note of frivolity, I'd like to take things down a notch. My days with my current job are now officially numbered. I got the finalized proposal for how they are going to transition my job. Effectively after the first of the year, they are going to pay me my current salary divided 2080 (the number of work hours in a year) per hour. The problem with that is that they will also be setting in place rules to making the 40 hours needed per week impossible if I am at home for a week. On weeks that I am on the road, I'd have to get permission to work overtime. Yeah, that'll work. "I'm sorry Mr. Smith, but I'm at 34 hours for the week and I have a 6 hour drive home, so you'll just have to figure out how to send electronic claims by yourself." When did every company in America get taken over by asshats and accountants?

I really should start a consultant business. I could go in and teach these morons that they can run all the focus groups and meetings they want, but what the really need to do is to get some real experience before making all of these dumb assed decisions. I'd walk in with a rolled newspaper to their business meetings and when one of the idiots says something stupid, I can smack them in the nose with it. You are an accountant, not a (insert job here). You don't even work at their location. Since you are a dumb ignorant fool, you are going to go over there and talk to the people in the trenches. Then maybe I'll let you draft a memo after that. I wouldn't be the consultant they wanted to get, but I'd be the consultant that they needed.

Anyway, I better start working on the resume. I have a few ideas of what I will do, but nothing concrete yet. I'm probably going to have to spend all tht money I've saved up for a possible house on a car, insurance and all that fun. I feel like I'm going to have to take a step backward here, which is pissing me off. I want to move forward in a career instead of falling back and looking for a new opening to run through. I'm tired of renting, too. If I could've put all the money I've been spending on rent on a house, I'd have a hell of a good investment nearly paid off.

Oh well. Either way, I'll get back on my feet. Eventually I'll make some forward progress, too.

Odd Signs and Occurances

First of all, I'm damn glad to be home. I dragged my stuff into my room, dumped it on the floor, and got a cold beer from the fridge. I had a couple more after I finished off the first one. Then I took some Tylenol. I almost decided to down a full sixer or half a glass of scotch tonight, but I have a feeling with how damaged I got on this last trip, that any more alcohol will have me feeling completely miserable in the morning. I think I have just enough to knock my ass out after I finish this last one. I just have to finish my paperwork for this week in the morning, and I'm free until monday.

I wish I had my camera in the front seat this afternoon. There were two signs that I would've like to share. You'll just have to imagine here. In Fergus Falls, MN there is a restaraunt advertising a sandwich that's 16oz. of pulled pork, bacon, and BBQ pork. The name for it is the "Pork Pounder". You can't make shit up this good, I swear.

The other was advertised across a huge billboard just off the Interstate. The company's name was in big, bold letters. "We Do Cows!" Driving closer you see it's a vetrinary company (and online as wedocows.com) but at first I thought to myself, "I guess the gals around here are healthy eaters." Maybe it's because I am punchy, but that had me giggling on and off for 20 miles.

Finally, I had an odd occurance just after I checked into the Hilton on Tuesday. Maybe it isn't really an odd occurance, but it was a first for me. On my way to the elevators, I saw a fairly attractive woman. I think she was native american instead of hispanic, but she had that kind of skin tone. She came up to me and asked if how I was doing, what brought me there, and some general chit-chat. I thought she might've been a hotel employee until she smiled, handed me a card, and told me to give her a call if I needed anything. Looking down at the card, I saw that it was for an escort agency. I'd never been propositioned before, so it was a bit of a surprise to me. I tossed the card to avoid temptation. I'm barely hanging on to my last shreds of dignity here, so I don't need any more temptation or frustration.

Here's my question for you guys: Do you think she targeted me because...

I was male and alone?
I look like I have money?
I look as desperate as I feel?
or would you say it's something entirely different?

I'm just curious to see what ideas you have here. My curiosity is dwelling on this one for some reason. Take care and have fun dreams

Welcome to Fargo, eh

I really gotta get away from Fargo. Everytime I've passed through here, the weather gets awful (thunderstorms this summer, blizzards right now) and I have problems with hotels and food. But let's start at the beginning here.

First of all, I got very little sleep Monday night. I was stressed out to say the very least. I woke up at 6AM to start calling tow companies to get my car. I finally got a person on the phone between 6:45 and 7. She told me that they should be able to get me out by 9. Since this was too late to start my training on time in Grand Forks, I moved it until the Wednesday. Glad I did, too.

I didn't get my car until nearly noon. I immediately hit a Taco Bell nearby for lunch because I was starving. Never had a quesadia(sp?) and burrito tasted so good. I grabbed food from the drive thru, and I started driving to Grand Forks as soon as I got it. It's normally a one hour drive. Took me two and a half since my car's steering was fucked at anything above 55, and some parts of the highway still had ice all over it. By the time I got there, my back was screaming bloody murder. I did have a puzzling encounter on my way in, but I'll save that for tomorrow. The rest of the day was a waste. I just ordered pizza and watched TV while laying in bed. I barely could move.

I almost didn't make my post yesterday because of how I was feeling. I made a promise, tho... and I do the best I can to follow through. I was very glad I did, however. I was in a black mood, and was expecting the worst. Since there was so much venom and bitterness in the post on Monday night, I thought I'd see the big goose egg in the comment line. It put a smile on my face, and that hadn't happened all day. So you guys who posted, I owe you some drinks to say the very least. Place yer requests at any time.

I woke up today still messed up and in pain but like I always do, I got-r-done. After training, I drove to a mechanic to fix the front end of my car. It needed realignment, and took from 5:30 or so until nearly 8. The only thing to do was to sit my ass in the mandatory chairs of discomfort and enjoy the DVD of old 80's sitcoms that they were playing. Finally I got back on the road with fixed steering.

As soon as I got 15 miles from Fargo, the weather goes to shit again. Fucking blizzards. This time I am hurting, tired, and have learned my lesson not to push my luck around Fargo so I get off the highway. The first two choices of hotels are full up, tho. Luckily, my last choice before I gave up had one last room. Otherwise I would've had to drive half way to St. Cloud (my original destination tonight) in before I gave up tonight.

I grabbed some McDonalds tonight, since I am just too beat up to bother with real food. I usually order without onions because I'm not big on the taste of onions. I did that tonight, and when I got to my hotel room, I find extra onions on the burger. My fries were already cold too. I don't even have the energy to get upset anymore. I just shrug and say, "Oh well, that's Fargo for ya..."

I can't wait to get out of here in the morning. I might even wake up early to do it. Otherwise, I'll be up very late. We shall see what I end up doing when I make up my mind..... both options sound good right now.

Anyway, take care, thanks for reading, and when I get home, Drinks are on me!