We all decided we were going to go to Target one day and because of what we were buying (mainly large totes) we needed two carts so perhaps to the casual observer, I (who was pushing the cart filled with stuff) was chatting up a single mother. We both got in line and Kim bought something or other and I was behind her unloading the totes onto the conveyor belt.
The cashier's name was Adam. He's easy to remember. He has a mop for a hairstyle that mushrooms out from his head and a goofy look on his face all the time like he's in a curious limbo between being congested to the point of mouth breathing constantly and being in a state of total awe of the world around him. And his name is Adam.
Anyway, Kim's in front of me and he Adam says to her something like "hey, what's up?" and looks at me and I said "How's it going, Adam?"
Kim thinks this is a weird habit of mine but if you know someone's name, go ahead and use it, right?
Well, Kim says "It's really weird that you do that."
Adam looks at her and leans in a bit and says "I know. I totally don't even know that guy!"
This was around the time that my totes roll up to the front of the belt and Adam looks at me and I say "this too," because he had begun to close out the transaction. He looked at Kim like "WTF?" and she said "yeah, that too."
Then the realization that we're together spread across his teenage stoner-looking face. You could almost hear him curse to himself.
I thought it was hilarious.
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Georgia On My Mind No More
I've lived in quite a few places and almost all of them had some sort of food associated with them that I love and miss very much. Italy's delicious pizza, New Zealand's fish and chips, Japan's sushimi, etc. etc.
I try my hardest to recognize the area's specialty and eat as much of it as I can while I'm there and look for a recipe to be able to make it myself regardless of where I am. And it used to be that I thought the thing I would miss about Georgia was the barbecue. There are no cajun roots here, no deep fried whatevers, not a lot of "southern" stuff, but they do have a good and what Alton Brown would call "sickeningly sweet" barbecue.
Ah, but no more. A new buddy of mine exposed me to North Carolina barbecue and it's about a billion times (approximately) better than Georgia's. Not only that, but it was made by a Native American, which I'm sure doesn't influence the taste but it makes for that much cooler of a story.
You bet I've requested the recipe.
So with barbecue eliminated, what does Georgia have to offer?
Nothing.
At least, middle Georgia doesn't. There's an orchard in North Georgia's Ellijay where fried pies are made (like the hostess ones you find at gas stations) that are huge and delicious. There's also an amazing German restaurant in Helen, GA that has the most unique pizza I've every tried but I think that's a German restaurant and perhaps I can find something similar in Germany.
Anyhoo, there's nothing holding me back here anymore.
:-)
I try my hardest to recognize the area's specialty and eat as much of it as I can while I'm there and look for a recipe to be able to make it myself regardless of where I am. And it used to be that I thought the thing I would miss about Georgia was the barbecue. There are no cajun roots here, no deep fried whatevers, not a lot of "southern" stuff, but they do have a good and what Alton Brown would call "sickeningly sweet" barbecue.
Ah, but no more. A new buddy of mine exposed me to North Carolina barbecue and it's about a billion times (approximately) better than Georgia's. Not only that, but it was made by a Native American, which I'm sure doesn't influence the taste but it makes for that much cooler of a story.
You bet I've requested the recipe.
So with barbecue eliminated, what does Georgia have to offer?
Nothing.
At least, middle Georgia doesn't. There's an orchard in North Georgia's Ellijay where fried pies are made (like the hostess ones you find at gas stations) that are huge and delicious. There's also an amazing German restaurant in Helen, GA that has the most unique pizza I've every tried but I think that's a German restaurant and perhaps I can find something similar in Germany.
Anyhoo, there's nothing holding me back here anymore.
:-)
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Everything Is About To Change
Well, hopefully.
No wait, I take that back. Everything I know is about to change. The people I look up to at work, my professional heroes if you will, are all leaving to go to other bases to do other jobs. The people that are left that I know I feel an odd kinship with because I've known them for so dang long. You know how you feel at high school your first year when you don't know anyone but as time goes on and you become a senior, hey, all of a sudden it hits you that you know EVERYONE?
That's what it's like.
But without the people that I'm learning how to grow and mature from as an NCO, I don't want to be here for too much longer. I want to move on and do a different job at a different place myself. Maybe find some more heroes (you can never have enough).
Anyway, so there's a possibility that I might get a different job going someplace else and if that's the case I'm more than ready for it. I hear people say Georgia's not a bad first duty station and I'm inclined to disagree. There is a lot to do but it's at least a 30 minute drive and with little to do in the immediate area, that just leads to trouble.
For other people, I mean. I'm fine.
But yeah, folks tell me to stop complaining because it could be worse. Look buddy, I've been living on bases my whole life. This is not a "first" anything for me. This is merely one more base that I spent way too long at and now it's time to move on.
This makes me scared of retirement, this constant need to move every few years.
And I want to see the world - well, most of the world, anyway. More importantly I want to show my family the world, especially my kids. Being exposed to different cultures is what made me how I am for the most part, I believe. Those and the movies that raised me. I plan to have a different parental strategy, but different cultures is a must because I don't want my kids to become ethnocentric or xenophobic.
So while things WILL change for me at work with the loss of my mentors, I'm hoping they'll change a lot more than that!
As a side note, one of my mentors wore his Blues yesterday with his ribbons and no kidding, the guy has a million of them and he's in my career field. Now, I have something like 14 ribbons right now after less than five years and that's pretty good. I'm nervous about getting them if I get a ground job since their ribbon racks are usually so much smaller. I know it's a shallow thing, but I'm a sucker for getting ribbons and medals so this guy had me thinking twice about cross training into a ground job, but I just keep saying "the locations are better the locations are better the locations are better..."
No wait, I take that back. Everything I know is about to change. The people I look up to at work, my professional heroes if you will, are all leaving to go to other bases to do other jobs. The people that are left that I know I feel an odd kinship with because I've known them for so dang long. You know how you feel at high school your first year when you don't know anyone but as time goes on and you become a senior, hey, all of a sudden it hits you that you know EVERYONE?
That's what it's like.
But without the people that I'm learning how to grow and mature from as an NCO, I don't want to be here for too much longer. I want to move on and do a different job at a different place myself. Maybe find some more heroes (you can never have enough).
Anyway, so there's a possibility that I might get a different job going someplace else and if that's the case I'm more than ready for it. I hear people say Georgia's not a bad first duty station and I'm inclined to disagree. There is a lot to do but it's at least a 30 minute drive and with little to do in the immediate area, that just leads to trouble.
For other people, I mean. I'm fine.
But yeah, folks tell me to stop complaining because it could be worse. Look buddy, I've been living on bases my whole life. This is not a "first" anything for me. This is merely one more base that I spent way too long at and now it's time to move on.
This makes me scared of retirement, this constant need to move every few years.
And I want to see the world - well, most of the world, anyway. More importantly I want to show my family the world, especially my kids. Being exposed to different cultures is what made me how I am for the most part, I believe. Those and the movies that raised me. I plan to have a different parental strategy, but different cultures is a must because I don't want my kids to become ethnocentric or xenophobic.
So while things WILL change for me at work with the loss of my mentors, I'm hoping they'll change a lot more than that!
As a side note, one of my mentors wore his Blues yesterday with his ribbons and no kidding, the guy has a million of them and he's in my career field. Now, I have something like 14 ribbons right now after less than five years and that's pretty good. I'm nervous about getting them if I get a ground job since their ribbon racks are usually so much smaller. I know it's a shallow thing, but I'm a sucker for getting ribbons and medals so this guy had me thinking twice about cross training into a ground job, but I just keep saying "the locations are better the locations are better the locations are better..."
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Big Day
It's been a big day for me.
First, while harvesting pretend crops on a pretend farm for pretend rewards on the ever-popular Facebook game Farmville, I decided that I was never really having any fun and it was more just something to do. Five to ten minutes once or twice a day and you're done.
But why do it when it isn't fun?
So I quit. The rice I planted has not fully grown yet, but it won't be harvested when it does. I'm not playing anymore. We'll see what the repercussions of that are.
Maybe I'll have a little more time to peruse the internet forums
Oh yeah, I'm not so hip to them right now either. I've got nothing against them, it's just that right now it doesn't look like anything really interesting is happening right now.
Though I will say that the Telecaster forum never fails to post some great looking pictures of worn out Teles and I want one pretty bad. Not a worn one (well, maybe a worn one) but a lacquered one and not JUST lacquered on the body but the neck too. Half the fun of showing wear is showing it on the neck. Unfortunately, Fender doesn't offer this except on the really high end guitars (about 17-2,000.00).
Now, there are builders that will build you a Tele to your specs and more and more are popping up every day so when I say that I've been thinking about a sea foam green la cabronita Tele with a single TV Jones Powertron in the bridge, there are people that can do it (for less than a real Fender too).
But I'm not close to getting a new guitar at all. Not at ALL. Oh well. I'm pretty happy with the ones I have. Sometimes I think I should replace the neck on my Tele for one that's a bit more chunky like an old Tele is, but the idea of carrying the whole guitar stock throughout my career is pretty tempting too. Maybe the frets just need leveled out or replaced. I'd be more prone to do that, honestly.
I also had an afternoon to myself and I drove up to Macon to a Mac store there. Not an official Apple Store with a glass front or anything, a small store that had a fairly knowledgeable staff that helped me out and answered my questions. I told them if I were to get the Macbook Pro like I want it would probably be while deployed and they didn't say they could ship it or that if I ordered it from THEM that I wouldn't pay tax.
Though I would like to order from them.
I'd like that very much.
It would be nice to support a small shop like this one and say that there is a market for this kind of stuff.
Perhaps I could email him from the desert and organize a mail-order.
When I went in there was a kid carrying out a 27" imac. His mother/grandmother referred to it as his toy and it blew me away. Here I am, 26, trying to convince my wife that a Mac is what I need to be able to jump into audio recording and hopefully not break a computer like I seem to have a knack for and this 15 year old kid is getting a "toy" from his relatives.
The manager of the store said that a soldier bought a macbook pro, a real expensive one, and also bought a super duper case. One that costs somewhere around 400.00 that has Kevlar and titanium and all that. In Iraq, while carrying the computer in the case a sniper shot two shots. One ripped the guy's leg right off. The other hit the case. The guy lived and brought the case and macbook in to show that the 400.00 was well spent because nothing on the inside was hurt though the outside looks like... well, like it was shot by a sniper.
The afternoon off was a big thing for me. Kim likes to think that me going to work is a break and I don't want one from the family or kids which just isn't true. I think everyone needs a little time to themselves and always try to give Kim that time because she's a little more vocal about needing it. When I told her it would be nice for ME to have a personal day she sat back and said it honestly hadn't occurred to her that I would want one.
Driving back, with the sun coming down from its apex, music up loud and going a bit faster than I should have, I was having a good time.
And I didn't spend a dime. Not even on a book I want to get called Love Is A Mix Tape.
So I got home, took Kim's library books back, took Annie to the park where no less than seven ladybugs landed on my shirt (must be the color), burned the living hell ut of some pork chops in the last grill of the season, and after putting the kids down for their sleep settled in for a good forty minutes of reading God's Middle Finger, a travel book about the Sierra Madre mountain range in Mexico. Very entertaining. Doing coke with cops, being chased by armed gunmen who want to kill you because they're bored, watching fat prostitutes (mucha carne) strut by batting eyelashes because no Mexican girl apparently feels bad about themselves and every one is confident in their looks, all of this makes for some great reading.
So yeah, big day.
First, while harvesting pretend crops on a pretend farm for pretend rewards on the ever-popular Facebook game Farmville, I decided that I was never really having any fun and it was more just something to do. Five to ten minutes once or twice a day and you're done.
But why do it when it isn't fun?
So I quit. The rice I planted has not fully grown yet, but it won't be harvested when it does. I'm not playing anymore. We'll see what the repercussions of that are.
Maybe I'll have a little more time to peruse the internet forums
Oh yeah, I'm not so hip to them right now either. I've got nothing against them, it's just that right now it doesn't look like anything really interesting is happening right now.
Though I will say that the Telecaster forum never fails to post some great looking pictures of worn out Teles and I want one pretty bad. Not a worn one (well, maybe a worn one) but a lacquered one and not JUST lacquered on the body but the neck too. Half the fun of showing wear is showing it on the neck. Unfortunately, Fender doesn't offer this except on the really high end guitars (about 17-2,000.00).
Now, there are builders that will build you a Tele to your specs and more and more are popping up every day so when I say that I've been thinking about a sea foam green la cabronita Tele with a single TV Jones Powertron in the bridge, there are people that can do it (for less than a real Fender too).
But I'm not close to getting a new guitar at all. Not at ALL. Oh well. I'm pretty happy with the ones I have. Sometimes I think I should replace the neck on my Tele for one that's a bit more chunky like an old Tele is, but the idea of carrying the whole guitar stock throughout my career is pretty tempting too. Maybe the frets just need leveled out or replaced. I'd be more prone to do that, honestly.
I also had an afternoon to myself and I drove up to Macon to a Mac store there. Not an official Apple Store with a glass front or anything, a small store that had a fairly knowledgeable staff that helped me out and answered my questions. I told them if I were to get the Macbook Pro like I want it would probably be while deployed and they didn't say they could ship it or that if I ordered it from THEM that I wouldn't pay tax.
Though I would like to order from them.
I'd like that very much.
It would be nice to support a small shop like this one and say that there is a market for this kind of stuff.
Perhaps I could email him from the desert and organize a mail-order.
When I went in there was a kid carrying out a 27" imac. His mother/grandmother referred to it as his toy and it blew me away. Here I am, 26, trying to convince my wife that a Mac is what I need to be able to jump into audio recording and hopefully not break a computer like I seem to have a knack for and this 15 year old kid is getting a "toy" from his relatives.
The manager of the store said that a soldier bought a macbook pro, a real expensive one, and also bought a super duper case. One that costs somewhere around 400.00 that has Kevlar and titanium and all that. In Iraq, while carrying the computer in the case a sniper shot two shots. One ripped the guy's leg right off. The other hit the case. The guy lived and brought the case and macbook in to show that the 400.00 was well spent because nothing on the inside was hurt though the outside looks like... well, like it was shot by a sniper.
The afternoon off was a big thing for me. Kim likes to think that me going to work is a break and I don't want one from the family or kids which just isn't true. I think everyone needs a little time to themselves and always try to give Kim that time because she's a little more vocal about needing it. When I told her it would be nice for ME to have a personal day she sat back and said it honestly hadn't occurred to her that I would want one.
Driving back, with the sun coming down from its apex, music up loud and going a bit faster than I should have, I was having a good time.
And I didn't spend a dime. Not even on a book I want to get called Love Is A Mix Tape.
So I got home, took Kim's library books back, took Annie to the park where no less than seven ladybugs landed on my shirt (must be the color), burned the living hell ut of some pork chops in the last grill of the season, and after putting the kids down for their sleep settled in for a good forty minutes of reading God's Middle Finger, a travel book about the Sierra Madre mountain range in Mexico. Very entertaining. Doing coke with cops, being chased by armed gunmen who want to kill you because they're bored, watching fat prostitutes (mucha carne) strut by batting eyelashes because no Mexican girl apparently feels bad about themselves and every one is confident in their looks, all of this makes for some great reading.
So yeah, big day.
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Family: Bah!
I think it's interesting, this idea that your family needs to be together, stick togethe rand help eachother through whatever life hands them regardless of how each family member feels about them.
Maybe I have a unique perspective because being raised in the military I rarely saw my family outside of the nuclear capacity and when I did, it was more than likely grandparents and few others.
So I don't exactly have strong ties. I didn't grow up playing with cousins and nephews and nieces. I don't mind that, either.
I don't mind it because when a person who happens to be related to me acts like an ass, I'm not incredibly torn up about severing the tie. I barely know whoever I'm talking to anyway, so what's the big deal? It's not like we have clans anymore where we'll wage war on an opposing house.
But you can't imagine the grief I get from other family members about "not caring," or "turning my back on a member of the family."
Nuts to that. I would much rather judge everyone equally because this whole tied by blood thing is a myth anyway. No one REALLY cares about that, they just pocket it until it's useful to them to manipulate and I need no more people manipulating me.
If someone's an ass, they're an ass and you don't need to be around them. Why let them depress you and drag you down? There is no reason.
Now, I'm not saying family doesn't matter. In my opinion the reason this whole family through and through mentality came to be is because in a good family, their attitudes and love for eachother make you WANT to give them everything you can and stick together and that's fine. That's a good thing. You should do the same with friends.
But if one of your friends was just an awful person, you wouldn't be their friend anymore right? The same rules apply to me and my family. If you're an awful person who's bringing me down, you won't be bringing me down for long.
Maybe I have a unique perspective because being raised in the military I rarely saw my family outside of the nuclear capacity and when I did, it was more than likely grandparents and few others.
So I don't exactly have strong ties. I didn't grow up playing with cousins and nephews and nieces. I don't mind that, either.
I don't mind it because when a person who happens to be related to me acts like an ass, I'm not incredibly torn up about severing the tie. I barely know whoever I'm talking to anyway, so what's the big deal? It's not like we have clans anymore where we'll wage war on an opposing house.
But you can't imagine the grief I get from other family members about "not caring," or "turning my back on a member of the family."
Nuts to that. I would much rather judge everyone equally because this whole tied by blood thing is a myth anyway. No one REALLY cares about that, they just pocket it until it's useful to them to manipulate and I need no more people manipulating me.
If someone's an ass, they're an ass and you don't need to be around them. Why let them depress you and drag you down? There is no reason.
Now, I'm not saying family doesn't matter. In my opinion the reason this whole family through and through mentality came to be is because in a good family, their attitudes and love for eachother make you WANT to give them everything you can and stick together and that's fine. That's a good thing. You should do the same with friends.
But if one of your friends was just an awful person, you wouldn't be their friend anymore right? The same rules apply to me and my family. If you're an awful person who's bringing me down, you won't be bringing me down for long.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Post #10
So Adam, my sweet, sweet son who always seems to be happy and smiling and laughing - oh how he laughs when you play patty cake with him - woke at 3:30 in the morning.
THREE THIRTY!
Oh, but I'll survive, don't worry about me. I don't have any coffee, but somehow I'll make it through. At least I don't have to worry about making dinner tonight.
Why?
Because yesterday, with Ida straddling middle Georgia and pelting us with rain and wind (that's gross when you think about it), I took the kids to Publix. Oh, it was GREAT. First off, the rain. Glorious rain. I covered Adam's car seat and carried it and held Annie's hand as we booked it to the store and then into the cart with both of them.
For the record, this leaves very little room for food.
But I was getting so frustrated about not having dinner in the house that I had to do this and I picked up three frozen dinners to tide us over until payday when maybe I can leave a child with Kim and go grocery shopping with a little more real estate in the cart.
It was a nice little trip though. Annie laughed at how she was getting wet and I was just trying to make sure everyone was OK and as dry as possible. It did the kids good to get out too.
So you'll excuse me since I've been up for nine hours already that my blog isn't all that entertaining today. Sorry.
Maybe tomorrow.
THREE THIRTY!
Oh, but I'll survive, don't worry about me. I don't have any coffee, but somehow I'll make it through. At least I don't have to worry about making dinner tonight.
Why?
Because yesterday, with Ida straddling middle Georgia and pelting us with rain and wind (that's gross when you think about it), I took the kids to Publix. Oh, it was GREAT. First off, the rain. Glorious rain. I covered Adam's car seat and carried it and held Annie's hand as we booked it to the store and then into the cart with both of them.
For the record, this leaves very little room for food.
But I was getting so frustrated about not having dinner in the house that I had to do this and I picked up three frozen dinners to tide us over until payday when maybe I can leave a child with Kim and go grocery shopping with a little more real estate in the cart.
It was a nice little trip though. Annie laughed at how she was getting wet and I was just trying to make sure everyone was OK and as dry as possible. It did the kids good to get out too.
So you'll excuse me since I've been up for nine hours already that my blog isn't all that entertaining today. Sorry.
Maybe tomorrow.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Post #9
It seems like I was wrong earlier when I wrote about the Nook, the Kindle and the Sony. Apparently it's only the Kindle that sucks. And by sucks I mean is more forced to get books from Amazon. There are workarounds, but they're still workarounds, while the Nook is open to get books from other sources and the Droid OS is going to help out eventually too.
At least, that's what I've been reading.
I'm pretty excited. I don't get embarrassed when I read books even though I read a little bit of trash, but I was recently thinking of reading the Twilight series purely to see what all the fuss is about. Even Kim devoured it in a little over a day (the first book) and was talking about how it's SO much better than she thought it would be and "oh, Edward..."
I have to know what everyone's so wrapped up about.
And I do NOT want to be caught reading the book with the actors' faces on the cover.
The idea is gross.
But on an ereader no one's the wiser. I could be reading 1776 for all anyone knows!
At least, that's what I've been reading.
I'm pretty excited. I don't get embarrassed when I read books even though I read a little bit of trash, but I was recently thinking of reading the Twilight series purely to see what all the fuss is about. Even Kim devoured it in a little over a day (the first book) and was talking about how it's SO much better than she thought it would be and "oh, Edward..."
I have to know what everyone's so wrapped up about.
And I do NOT want to be caught reading the book with the actors' faces on the cover.
The idea is gross.
But on an ereader no one's the wiser. I could be reading 1776 for all anyone knows!
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