i guess i have kind of been walking around like a whipped dog the last couple of days because of work. the order i thought was going to eat my lunch last week is taken care of, but it has left a feeling like i am just waiting for that kid to come around and take my lunch money everyday. so i have been pretty much going full tilt with work. it leaves me with an odd feeling. the chaos that ensues from scrambling to get everything done combined with the somber cloak that is draped over me. hell, i am going to be here in the office on new years’ day. and it is a forced holiday. so even though i will be here working, it will subtract hours from my vacation. c’est la vie. last night the boys were supposed to get together and play poker. they say on espn.com that poker is the new NASCAR. the latest sport to catch on that isn’t REALLY a sport. i know i am going to stir up some grief on that statement, but lets be realistic. you drive in a car to work everyday, that doesn’t mean you are playing driving while you go. and i don’t think that running is really a sport either. exercise? yes. a sport? no. i used to pick on runners in college. ask them how many points they scored. or how they pulled off that move. i could see if something was chasing you and you had to escape it or kill it. but not just running in circles. at my dad’s house we laugh at the dogs when they do that. shake our heads and think about how dumb they are. and then with NASCAR you have the whole burning of precious fossil fuels argument. think of how much gas they waste. and those le mans races that go for 24 hours? sheesh. now don’t get me wrong. i love driving fast. it soothes me. and anybody that knows me, knows i love fast and exotic cars. and yes they are called sprts cars, but that doesn’t make driving them a sport. anyway. poker last night. total flop. couldn’t find a fourth guy, or girl, to play. i didn’t really feeling like losing that much money anyway. so i am just going to lounge it for the new year. still a little spent from xmas vacation. a couple of movies, maybe some vino, and a comfy couch. then to work tomorrow. followed by a nice meal down at firebirds. gotta like it.

wow, talk about dropping the ball. its been a few days. but in all fairness, i have been a virtual vagabond the last week or so. a little over 1450 miles on the poor little jetta since the 19th. but she took it all in stride. let’s see. Christmas eve was interesting to say the least. jas didn’t get out of work until late, so he and the kids were about 2 hours later than what they had originally planned. i hindered them a little bit with the desk that i asked them to procure at IKEA for me. apparently it wasn’t well packaged, it was rainy, and they tied it to the roof. at one point in the trip ethan had to ask his dad if that was part of uncle jar’s desk hanging out the window. it was. but we had a nice visit with meem and pop allen. and i am so happy that their health is coming back after the now infamous thanksgiving day bug. and the kids were a riot to watch opening presents. now if we could just get ethan and kayla not to treat the garbage can like a toy by stepping on the lever to make the top fly up, thus annoying jim, i think we would have a shot at world peace. the candle light service at first baptist in downtown lancaster left a lot to be desired. it was “anybody come in off the streets and work the sound system night” apparently. plenty of feedback screeches, people you couldn’t hear because their mics weren’t on, and a boy band-esque song that was mis-cued. but it always gets to me when i hear “peace, peace” with “silent night” at the same time. love it. then it was the trek to pop’s after the service. nice little jaunt. i think the jetta make the 110 miles in about an hour and twenty. that little sucker just hums along. but uncle jar forgot ethan’s tommy maddox jersey in lancaster, so he will get that in the mail this week. linds and i both fell asleep watching pirates of the caribbean on pop’s new dvd player. Christmas day we had some flurries. so technically we had a white Christmas, i guess. meem and pop yerg came in with aunt bea jo for the big feast. its always non stop jokes at the table. you really have to be on your toes. and not to make any of the women i might talk to nervous, but i really hope i get married soon. if not just to appease the relatives who hit me with the barrage of questions regarding my single status. the old “still haven’t found the right girl” thing was even shot down when pop-pop informed me that these days it doesn’t necessarily mean that i have to find a GIRL to be married. gotta love what that statement implies on Christmas day. i am only 27 (28 in another week or so), and i can’t even come close to fathoming the shear torture it has been pertaining to this family and the single status of my aunt bea jo who is in her early 40s. i will light a candle for ya beaj. she is amazing though. a definite alpha betty. (note: term from playboy december issue. roughly, its a sucessful single female that doesn’t require a man for financial freedom.) she helped me a lot in dealing with the money issues of the move to charlotte. and she helped calm me down a little about the work mishap that came to light earlier in the week. i was a little stressed out over the holidays. the switch went off when i heard the phrase “may be let go” in regards to the incident. of course i always expect the worst, while sometimes hoping for the best. xmas night was spent drinking wine and playing hand and foot with linds, jas, and ruby. linds picked up the game from her boyfriend’s, conor, family. its a high scoring card game that you play in teams. linds and i versus jas and rube. the whole thing was kind of tainted (no pun intended) by the eye-watering gaseousness that eminated from my brother. wow. oh, and how could i forget the collision. earlier in the evening kayla and ethan were running around like crazy folk do. then it happened. they collided. leaving a dent the shape of a tooth in ethan’s forehead and kayla with the entire tooth removed from her person. root and all. the blood and screaming were in great supply. friday beaj and i went to the movies. i got roped into mona lisa smile. total chick flick. i felt really empowered after that one. it was okay i guess. julia stiles freaks me out a little though. something in her face. after that, jas, ruby, linds, conor, and i went to ye olde meeting place to see if we could catch up with a guy that jas and i grew up with, who’s dad owns the place, and he bartends there. (horrible sentence structure). he wasn’t there. so it was down to the bull run inn in lewisburg. it was packed with rich college kids from bucknell who didn’t go home for the holidays. and the guy from lewisburg that was on real world las vegas was there. i thought he would be taller. ruby wasn’t feeling well, but we all managed to have a good time. saturday was the merry martin xmas. we all went down to aunt susie’s in camp hill around 2:30pm. conor rode with me and linds, sal, and dad followed. conor and i had a nice chat for the hour long trip. he is a real good guy, and it seems as though he and linds are happy together. he has a great family and is on a good path with school and career with something he loves. even if it is nursing. “what’s the matter with you focker?!” kidding. meanwhile, pop said he would rather shoot himself in the face over and over again than make the trip with sal and linds like that again. i know it pissed sal off, but before we left she was seasoning a bunch of hard pretzels to take down to the party. and they needed to be broken up. sal asked a couple of times, and nobody in the room jumped at the task. so finally dad just picked up the bag of hard pretzels and swung it at the countertop a couple of times. reducing the contents to crumbs. i couldn’t quit laughing, but you could tell that sal wasn’t happy. that kind of set the tone for the beginning of the afternoon. conor and i got there before everybody. even aunt susie and the rest of the schubert clan. now that i think about it, none of the merry martin attendees were still martins. you have the yergs, schuberts, zeiglers, and shartles with a mccauley (conor) in on probation for his third year. anyway, conor and i ate up the time by playing some hoops in the driveway. and when aunt susie arrived, she said the door was open and we could have gone in. i am not comfortable going in peoples’ houses when they are home. even if they are family. i think the drinking commensed as soon as humanly possible. drinking, sarcasm, and wierd games and/or presents are what the merry martin xmas is made up of. (see Dec. 12th posting for more history). then came the task of order pizzas. one might not think this would be difficult. one would be wrong in this instance. five single topping pizzas took roughly twenty-five minutes to decipher, and i think at one point there was an order cancellation and replacement. then was the gift exchange. i, of course, took the oddest seat i could find in the basement. the stationary bike in the corner. the gift giving ceremony traditionally has some sort of weird catch in it. past experiences have included poetry prior to giving. this year was to say three things that happened to you this year. the trump was laid when tina said she was pregnant. i almost fell off the bike until she admitted she was kidding. but there were also some heart warming moments in peoples recollections. like dad and sal both admitting that their twenty-fifth year together has been their best. then came the game of spoons. a musical chairs formatted, utensil, card game. first person to get four of a kind in a constant passing of cards dives for a spoon. everyone else follows suit and the malay ensues. yes there was blood shed. we ended the night at joe and tina’s house to play some pool in the basement. conor and i cleaned house the first three games with me making some shots that would have impressed fast eddie in the color of money. then i flushed my game down the crapper as usual. sunday i made the trek south after another sleepless night thanks to susie’s dog honey who threw itself at the door of the room i was in until it opened and then slept in the middle of the foot of the bed. forcing me to sleep in the fetal position for the few hours i got. it was hard saying goodbye as usual. just didn’t want to leave the fam. but i hit the pike and was cruising along at a nice clip. harrisburg PA to charlotte NC in a little over seven hours. i am that good. had a few with zack again last night and should catch up with him tonight before he leaves for LA in the morning. i will cover my playoff picks for the NFL when it gets closer and all the bandwagons aren’t so full.

so i met up last night with quaye, snuffy, and one of snuff’s brothers at the house of pasta. you know, i have never eaten or seen anybody eat pasta there that i can recall. but they do have huge mugs of yeungling. so we did the catch up thing for a little while and shared some laughes. then snuff and his brother had to scoot, leaving just quaye and i. but before they left a conversation started that was kind of insightful. and it carried on after they left. quaye was talking about recently taking stock of his life. this is one thing i don’t think that many people take advantage of. i think it is a healthy way to evaluate your path thus far and see where you want it to continue. quaye had ten things that he had written down that were going to help himself improve. of course, that list was at home and he could only come up with a half dozen or so. but just making such a list, and not a resolution list like most people ditch by jan. 14th, is a big step. personal growth is huge in the overall make up of a person. quaye said that he wanted to drop some weight and learn to play the trumpet. those are the two i remember off hand. humans are self aware and self conscious, which seperates us (other than posable thumbs) from animals. so why don’t more people take advantage of that difference and try to evolve? now i am not trying to say that one should reinvent themselves like madonna on every album. or that only changing from regular to light beer is the answer. but i know people (including myself at times) that are content with the status quo. i know i am hard on myself and have trouble living up to the standards that i would like to, but i also have plenty of room for improvement. case in point. its two days before Christmas and i have done a good job not thinking about work. then this morning i got a phone call from my boss. i dropped the ball on an urgent order that i should have gotten done weeks ago. its going to eat my lunch next week. but for now, i just have to walk around with the feeling of someone standing on my chest, knowing that there is nothing that i can do about it. i have to get better at these things. i don’t want to do worthless resolutions. i just want to make a conscious effort to better myself. personally and professionally.

its been a couple of days, so we have a lot to cover here. first, zach and i hit a couple of the local bars and had more than a few brews. we got to BS and catch up at midtown 51, and then made our way to the “action-packed” fairview grill. either way, we did our share to keep the profit margins high for the yuengling brewery in the south charlotte market. which of course led to a friday morning that came entirely too soon. i finally woke up on the fifth song of the CD that i have my alarm set for. rumor had it i still carried the o’de lager perfume that i doused myself with the night before. but i persevered through my four hour tour at work. i took a half day so that i might have a substantial part of my trip north during the daylight on friday. of course that plan back fired since i had to take a nap in order to have the energy to make the trip. so i hit the road around 3:30, and arrived at dad’s in milton, PA around 12:30am. not bad. when i woke on saturday, my main mission was going to be heading down to shamokin dam and getting my tattoo. but, i am dumb and impressionable first thing in the morning. so, pop question my need for the tattoo came up. “would $200 be better put to use in your back account?” he asked. “didn’t you just get one?” i retorted. “how many do you have?” he replied. touche. the shadow of doubt was cast. so linds and i wrapped Chrsitmas presents in that afternoon. then around 4pm the need for ink returned. so i hopped in the jetta and made tracks for the shop. but i had missed my 1pm appointment that i didn’t know i had and levi had taken walk-in customers. so we agreed that i would come back at 8pm and get her done. so after a nice dinner at front street station with dad and sal, and linds waiting on us, i went back down to the shop. levi had just gotten some grub, so i had the fifteen minutes to really think about it. or get in the mind set. either way, we got down to it around quarter after eight. i had forgotten the sounds and smells. the smell of ointment and aniseptic water. the buzz of the needle. and of course the slayer at full blast that levi likes to listen to. now, there are many in my circle of friends and family that don’t really understand the attraction in tattooing. the pleasure of it. the desire to put yourself through that pain just to have a design on your body that God didn’t put there. and i just have to say that you don’t understand it until you get one. and then it either deters you for the rest of your life, or you are hooked. hooked on the endorphin rush that comes over you with the pain. and it isn’t really self mutilation if somebody else does it to you. anyway, we decided not to simplify the design. it remains as it is on the the tags page of this site. only in color. but the black work took forever and the pain was rather intense when he got up around the ball joint in my shoulder. and i was a little hesitant to say yes when he asked me if i wanted to proceed with the color. we went ahead with me giving him carte blanche on the color location. in the chair next to me, AJ was doing a guy that was in a band of some sort. he got the word trust on his left forearm and no one on his right. so when he put both his arms horizontally on top of each other it read trust no one. yep. so levi finished up around 10:30 and i was more than ready for it to be over. so he greased it all up and i was on my way with a new tat and a tee from their shamokin dam studio. sunday we were all in the lounge mode at the yerg farm. this is an oddity for pop. he is usually full tilt boogie everyday of his life. he gave me the old “plenty of time to rest when you take your dirt nap” thing. i told him that unless he takes the time to rest, his dirt nap will come quicker. so then it was off to lancaster for dinner with mom, jim, and mi-mi and pop-pop allen. sunday was maw’s birthday. so we all sat around and had some five soup chicken and a couple of glasses of wine. then this morning i got booted out of bed and into a cold shower so that the cleaning laides could get the joint tiddied up for the week. so i ran some errands and finished the holiday shopping. tonight, its beers with some of the lancaster boys. i am heading out to meet quaye and snuffy at the pasta house, so i will catch up with all y’all later.

boy, i haven’t had a beer since thanksgiving, and i think i am going to be thirsty tonight. feeling a little parched. one of my fraternity brothers, zack, is flying in from LA today for the the holidays with his parents. they live here in CLT. zagnuts is one of the guys i miss most from college. he and i were the mutt and jeff type combo back in the day when we lived at the R.O.C.K. apartments with kiwi and mazenko. we had a regular schedule of bars for the week, with frequent appearances at sheetz for late night grub that i usually woke up next to. it was only half eaten of course. everybody in our group had something stupid or weird that they said at one point that became a quotable quote. mine came one night when i had a little too much to drink. you must also know that i have a pension for those big bowls of greasy dinty moore beef stew. can’t help myself. i mean, come on, that is real beef in a can! anyway, when it came time to pull over so that i might purge, as it were, of course everybody else in the car makes comments. one was that it looked like i had dinty moore beef stew. the other was that i sounded like chewbacca. my retort? “chewbacca can’t cook dinty moore beef stew!” i think that is a pretty rational statement, since the fur on his hands would catch fire on the stove burner. and those mitts of his were too big and furry to push microwave buttons. hair caught in the can opener? you never know. i guarantee that is brought up at least once tonight. anyway, i got the chance to jump on the court again last night. i took ron’s league night for him again since he had to switch with somebody at dixie’s to work out his holiday schedule. wednesday fours is so much more competitive than my tuesday sixes. you get more touches and the level of play is a little better. so, i got a good workout playing two out of the four matches last night. and both teams i played for won. i know, purely coincidence. then i went home, watched th OC since cookie was kind enough to tape it, started my laundry for the trek north, then hit the sack. i also started to clean up the design for the newest addition to the tattoo collection that will be added on saturday. i can say this now since i told maw last night that i was getting it. she has been pretty good about watching her little boy mutilate his body. but what can i say? i am hooked. but it has been close to two years since i got my dragon, so i think i am due. so saturday afternoon, levi from totem tattoo is going to stick me with the design that is on the tags page of this website on my left arm. and hopefully, one of my other fraternity brothers, andy, will be there getting stuck to. pook (andy) might be coming up from philly to get some ink with me. he is heavy into the tats too, so it would be cool to get one at the same time. not like we are going to get each others names on our asses, but cool nonetheless. so i am going to try to concentrate on some work and then enjoy myself tonight. check ya later.

nothing like a little self destruction to start of the volleyball night. it was just one of THOSE nights. i think between the five of us, we must have missed at least 25 serves in all three games. and in rally point volleyball that will kill you in a heartbeat. it even came down to trying to serve underhand. we had success with that when matt rattled off a bunch of points. and i was making the usual hitting mistakes, because i try to swing harder when i get frustrated. this was the first time that we lost two out of the three games since maybe the first season we played together. it was a truly humbling experience and now we have to try and get some momentum back in the game for playoffs. and the team that beat us was one of the two teams composed of individual sign ups, the jammers. they are going to be the fifth seed going into the playoffs now. the hard part was that i talked a lof of smack for the last couple of weeks since they never saw us play. but i don’t think they beat us. we beat ourselves. its hard to lose and still have a good time. and let me rescind the previous statement. the hard part was watching us get frustrated with each other. lesley is extremely competitive, and i couldn’t help but feeling like we were letting her down the whole time. she is a really sweet girl, and for us to lose like that was tough. it was a real let down. but the rest of the night wasn’t too bad. i ended up playing all night again. it sucked, because i played better in the pick up games than i did with my team. make ends meat got another forfeit, which put them at 8-13 for the season. vaulting into 6th place. they are so much fun to play with. the girls are all adorable and the guys are hysterical. then after that notorious DIG got a forfeit, which just padded their record for first place. a couple of the people for meat stuck around and we played some good ball. heidi from meat is a decent player and was great last night. and i love playing against kevin from DIG, because we just bust chops the whole game. he was swinging at me, and i was swinging at him. that is the kind of volleyball i love to play. competitive fun. of course today my shoulder is killing me from swinging away most of the night. so i am just plowing through another day at the office. just two more days and i take this wagon train north. yeehaw.

its going to be a long one this week at work i think. rushing around to get a whole bunch of stuff in before the holiday kills you for the next two weeks. had a pretty lax weekend i guess. i figured one more weekend of good behavior would get me a little healthier and more prepared to take on the trip north. so friday night i missed the seven nations concert uptown. that would have been nice since i didn’t get to see them this year. i usually see them for st. patty’s day at the front street station in northumberland, PA. a little bagpipes and fiddle is good for the soul. but i just stayed in on friday and tried cleaning up the apartment. saturday was a tough one getting out of bed. i was a low on flow saturday morning, so i was trying to devise a monetary plan for the week. then i realized that AD had yet to pay me for my “carpentry” work i did over at the new house. i say “carpentry” because i am by no means even close to a carpenter, no hammers go in these hands. so the cash was a nice little boost to the personal economy. then i looked at single apartments in the same complex that i am in now. cookily is heading farther south in january, and i need to straighten out my living situation. i think a solo joint might be best again for me. if i can afford it. some of the floor plans i looked at were nice, and i think i can deal with a much smaller space. easier to maintain. then i went grocery shopping. and with that i made the cardinal error. i went shopping while hungry. normally, its just cans of my favorite nuclear slops, soda, and a bag of chips. lets be realistic, you don’t get this finely tuned physique by eating right. but i went full tilt this time. breakfast foods, afternoons snicky snacks, juices, fruits, veggies, and all sorts of cleaning type stuff. and of course with all that food, when i got home and got done packing the cupboards, i ordered a pizza. that’s right. pure genius. i ran into an acquaintance at the store too, which was nice. but i stopped at blockbuster on my way home, too. now, i kind of have this philosophy. i know that i have to see every movie that comes out that gets the rave reviews or wins all the awards. life is beautiful was a tough oscar winner to sit through a few years ago. but i also find it my responsibilty to see the absolute crap too. the stuff that becomes the pun of all jokes. usually anything starring paul walker. so i rented the paul walker classic, 2 fast, 2 furious, and the ultimate bomb from this year. gigli. that is right the bennifer stinker. will joined me on saturday night for 2 fast. he owns it. he is a little sick, but you would understand if you met him. he is all things nascar or racing. hell, the kid has stroker ace on tape. not to mention the six-pack with kenny rogers where he is a race car driver. so between paul walker (the worst actor ever to grace the screen more than once) and tyrese (a close second), there was plenty of unintentional comedy throughout. like tyrese eating in most scenes. but they pointed it out, which was annoying. if you remember in oceans eleven, brad pitt ate in most scene, but it was funny since it was always subtle. we saved gigli for sunday. but sunday was football. as it is every sunday. tommy and will came over again. we have to find will a girlfriend. hell, i have to find one. the panthers clinched their playoff spot. that was an okay game to watch. and there were a bunch of blowouts yesterday. freaking favre (who was sitting on our fantasy bench) threw four TDs. bastard. while pennington (who started for the fantasy team) was in a blizzard that ended up with a 6-0 score. and the late game was a real barn burner with new orleans embarassing the giants. the cell phone thing , i could have done without. so we popped in gigli. alright. here the story line. affleck is a thug in california hired to kidnapped a mentally handicapped kid who is the brother of a federal agent that is supposed to testify against a mob guy in NY. lopez is a lesbian thugette brought into help affleck since he is incompetitent. and the hilarity ensues. she actually “jumps the fence” mid-movie and sleeps with him after he tells her that he is sad because there is this beautiful girl that he is in love with and there is nothing he can do about it. that line never works for me! here is something i thought was odd. in all the crappy publicity, you never once hear the names of christopher walken or al pacino who are also in this. walkens part as a cop who speaks jibberish was a waste of ten minutes of film. and pacino was your basic screaming pacino for another ten minutes. the rest of the time is filled in with sexual inuendos and monologs between bennifer. lopez had some jaw dropping lines that no real woman would ever utter. and affleck… just bad. not to mention the handicapped kid who loves pretty girls, the phone-in weather service girl in australia, and rap music. but now i know. so i am just going to pound out this week and live it up next week. can’t wait to see some people in PA.

alright, so its friday morning. that is great, but i wish it was friday afternoon. or maybe even friday night, so that i could be in PJ’s curled up on the couch watching something that has no business being on television. i was thinking about going to see seven nations tonight uptown, but i just don’t think i have the energy. funds are low anyway since i wrapped up (no pun intended) the majority of my Christmas shopping last night. i just have to get my gift for the merry martin xmas yet. explanation: the merry martin xmas is the xmas get together with my sal’s family. different years bring back different memory. a couple of years back it made the transition from everybody buys for everybody to a secret santa type deal. but back in the day it was classic. sal would ask all the kids what they wanted, buy it for grandma martin, and she would wrap it in tissue paper held together with america lung association christmas stickers. and then there were always the grandma martin presents. the plastic army men with parachutes. the not quite matchbox cars. the toy guns that shot those tiny yellow pellets. and the format of the opening schedule was priceless. the openers of presents went in chronological order, youngest to oldest, one at a time, until everybody was done. that was everybody could see what you got. and there were things that were bankable. grandma would get at least on thing of candy (probably peanut brittle) and some sort of sweat suit outfit with a grandma-esque design on it. kara always got underwear, which was funnier and a little more uncomfortable as she got older. and big paul would get a tie. (note: the name paul is a recurring theme in the martin family. grandpa martin was paul. grandma martin was pauline. their first son was paul pletcher. uncle PP, or peep for short. peep’s son paul. aunt susie married paul, big paul. and they had a son, little paul.) but you never know what to expect as well. see, susie and sal are both teachers, so you get that whole “creative, group participation” type thing going. one year, dinner consisted of different things to represent the players in the manger. none of it was turkey and mashed potatoes. i think milk with honey was the baby jesus. and then when we started the secret santa, you originally had to write a limerick about the person that you were giving the gift to. that was funny as all get out, but with dad, jas, and i cracking non-stop jokes. of course that is usually the case. and there is never really a shortage of alcohol at the merry martin xmas. dulling your senses is a necessity for this gathering. i think a couple of years ago, shots were even done when you opened your gift. i won’t swear to that one though. and its great, because as all the original grand kids meet significant others, you get more shenanigans. tina’s joe was on probational acceptance until they wed this past summer. kara’s jason was a welcome addition, and he cracks me up. and jas with ruby, kayla, and ethan. i would trade them for the world. right now the only probby is lindsay’s conor. the kid is priceless. you can tell that from the picture of him at tina’s wedding. but we have also lost a few over the years. awhile back it was sal’s brother dave. he had a rough go of things, and didn’t pull through it. peep’s first wife, pam. nice lady of what i remember. and there was grandma martin. one of the sweetest women ever. she took jas and i in as her own grandchildren when dad and sal got married. she did the same for kara with susie and paul. and she could reach record heights on the un-intentional comedy scale at the drop of a hat. toilet paper from the back of her pants all the way to the roll in the bathroom. banging her head on the steering wheel while stuck in traffic with jas and i on the way to dad’s. crossword puzzles. 20 questions, where you had the famous, “is it bigger than a bread box?” the last time i saw her before the funeral was at a merry martin chrsitmas. anyway, i am really looking forward to the holidays now. schedule is solidified. presents are bought. and in another week, the joy, love, and memories will carry me home.

no, that might be my butt dragging. sssllluuuggggggiiissshhh today. yesterday was a long day at work because i am trying to get organized enough to start rationing out requisitions to my new mechanical partner in crime, rob. plus i am trying to put out some of the existing fires that i have. me and the boys went to lunch yesterday, which was a riot. AD, tommy, will the thrill, and myself. we went over to jason’s deli. the thrill just cracks me up constantly. he said yesterday that he was mentoring me. so he got the same thing i did for lunch. and AD told me my romantic analysis of the week. if you recall, a couple of weeks ago, it was that i was entirely too aggressive. this week was a little bit more abstract. apparently, i am getting the girls that i am looking for. hmmmm….. my retort was that i am not really looking for anybody in particular. “exactly,” he said. deep. borderline unfathomable. anyway, we returned to work to push through the afternoon. then i got a call from ron around 2. he wasn’t going to be able to do his league night up at the latta rec. center and was wondering if i could pick it up for him. no problem. i could use the dough, and i was a little tight from tuesday night so i could definitely use the workout. and of course one of the coordinators hit me with umpteen questions AT 5pm when i had to run down to south park and then back uptown to dilworth by 6pm. in the rain. didn’t get out of the office until quarter after. so then i was cooking puss uptown and calling bryan and then the latta rec. center to let them know that i was running a little late. not a problem because the damn hoops team hasn’t even stopped playing, like they are supposed to at quarter of, and set up the nets they tore down. so i get there ten minutes late and put up the system, essentially by myself. the first team was only going to play with two, so i asked if i could jump on with them. cool. i love it, especially since the fours on wednesday is twice as competitive and the skill levels are there. hell, the team i played with probably could have done just as well without me. but it was a good work out, and once i got loose, i was swinging. then the guy chose to forfeit the third game because he had to go. weird. so i assumed my position in the chair on the sideline and watched the remaining games. let me tell you that even with the heat on “full blast” in that gym, its only a few degrees warmer than the inside of you refrigerator. so it didin’t take long for every single muscle in my body to tighten up on me. felt like i was in a full body cast, i was so stiff, by the end of the night. i got a call from zagnuts out in cali, and he will be in the queen city next thursday for the holidays. can’t wait to see that kid. and i talked to sal, my step mom, about the merry martin xmas before my cell went dead. the merry martin xmas is going to require its own entry for an explanation. after eating only a pack of cookies from the vending machine for dinner, i was looking forward to stopping at the teeter on my way home. of course i picked the last of three teeters to stop, and it closed for maintenance. no dinner. so i suck it up and try hitting the sack. now, i had gotten a half intoxicated phone call from cookie earlier in the evening and assumed that she might be home when i got there. no dice. so i left a light on for her. got stuck laying in bed and watching drumline on hobo. i am distraught by the fact that i will never get that hour and a half of my life back. sad. but then around 3am, the combination of congestion and cramping in my legs led to a nice little bout of cussing. oddly cookie still wasn’t home to hear it. finally got back to sleep around 4am. cookie stayed at friends’. so i am going to sit here and enjoy the elevator style xmas music playing in the background and pray for a quick day so that i can get some sleep tonight.

…you have a drumsitck and your brain stops tickin’. yes its been one week since i started feeling sick. plus i made myself a barenaked ladies disc the other day and its good for a rainy day drive to work. and we finally dropped our first game of the season last night at volleyball. a lot of people were uptown at the second string santa party, so attendence was low last night. i had two forfeits, so i got a fair amount of court time before i actually had to play the last match of the night. the first match that got a forfeit was with make ends meat, the first match of the night. those guys are a riot and they wanted to play around a little. but the one girl forgot her shoes, so i lent her mine and played barefoot. (i know mom, barefoot on linoleum isn’t the smartest when you are sick) but we had a good time. then the second forfeit benefitted the irish car bombs who have a pretty decent squad already. so we played some pretty competitive fours. i may have worn myself out a little for my match which followed immediately after, but it was good ball and i was on again. so we were without lucier and jeanette last night, but lesley and matt came up with some good subs. meredith and andy both played well. and this was the first team that we had to play with a winning record. stray cats. they are a placement type of team, which means if you get out of position, they will set the ball over deep to a corner or short in the front row. and i got burnt on the latter more times than lesley wanted. i just couldn’t get off of my ass, even when i knew that it was coming. the first game was tight the whole way through, but i think we pulled it out, 25-20. the second game was a little more intense. as they started losing, they wanted to start calling ticky tack fouls. now, i am all for a tight called game, but since this is a recreational level league and we don’t have a referee, there is a certain level of crap ball that is permitted. hell, i could have called numerous carries on them. but they had a problem with andy clipping the net on his follow through a couple of times. and this came to a head on a critical play when one of their guys felt the need to point it out. ticky tack. but i gave them the point and told andy to watch himself since they were going to be focusing on him for here on out. they went with a replay as some sort of concession. they only had one really good hitter, a lefty, and i was having trouble reading him all night. then there was a play where everyone was scattered and he stepped up to make a good swing on a third hit. i thought he took off from in front of the ten foot line. back row attack. i called it. so a discussion ensued and we ended up replaying that point as well. we pulled out the second game 27-25. the third game i must not have seen since my head was up my butt the whole time. i continued to get burnt on the short ball and was making poor decisions at the net when i had the chance to swing. but everybody played real well, even though we ended up dropping that game. handshakes all around, because it was good competitive ball. so today, i have a nice mix of sore from volleyball and the ever lingering cold. not to mention the crappy rainy weather. but its hump day and i brought the barenaked ladies in from the car to keep a good attitude. like jenn king just said, “its raining out there, sunshine in here.”