The truth about growing older

I just realized that in my user profile, I wrote that I am 21. Shows how much I know. I'm actually 22, and I tried to update it but for some reason it didn't change. For all of you kids who are younger than me, I have bad news for you: there's nothing exciting about birthdays after the 21st. Well, maybe I'll rent a car for the heck of it when I turn 25, but honestly, what else is there?

Not to say I'm afraid of getting older at all. In fact, I look forward to maturing because I'm tired of people guessing that I'm still in high school. Last summer I was aiding in a catechism class that my aunt was teaching and all of the other teachers assumed I was 15 years old. I know I look young, but I think 15 is a stretch. Whatever.

I should probably knock on wood, though. I don't want to wish to look older then end up disgusting and wrinkled by the time I'm 35. I'd like to think I'm pretty good about preserving my youth so that I don't end up that way, though. I am anti-fake tanning, and I don't even have the patience to lay outside for more than 10 minutes. The only time I really get sun anymore is when I'm playing tennis or running in the summer.

But back to my point. I can't decide if it's depressing or not that I no longer look forward to or care about my birthdays. I guess it's part of growing up. First you graduate from college, then you get a crap job, then you forget that you've turned 22. Am I the only one who feels this way?

First place and bowl eligible

What are two things I never thought would be associated with Ohio Bobcats football? I don't know what Solich is pumping into the boys' Gatorade (standing by, bad jokes), but the Bobcats are on a four-game winning streak after their win at Kent State on Saturday afternoon. At 6-3 (4-1) they clinched the tie for first place in MAC East play alongside Kent State, but if both teams end up winning the rest of their seasons, the Bobcats will have the title over the Flashes. Whoop-dee-doo! I never cared about football, but the Bobcats have gained my attention.

I received a response from someone at ODE this morning. The rep apologized and blamed all of the problems they've had with my license on their "new system." Now I have to wait even longer to teach because it apparently is not as simple as printing a correct license. Instead, ODE must issue a license to Maumee authorizing me to teach Spanish AND German before they can send the license that authorizes me to only teach German. In August I knew that this seemed all too easy.

I had a bizarre dream last night. There was a lot of crying, the Admiral King band room and the St. Louis Arch. Perhaps what is stranger is that when I woke up this morning the first thing Jon and I noticed on the news was that St. Louis has been voted the most dangerous city in America with Detroit and Flint, MI, at second and third place, respectively. My prayers and mace are with Chris Littmann.

I went to my first adult (non-Athens) Halloween party Saturday night. The Dishong family hosted a gathering in their South Euclid home, which had no electricity for the entire duration of the party. They had lots of candles, so the mood was right for Halloween. Jon and I went as Dwight and Angela of The Office, but we were disappointed when we learned that only a few of Adam's other friends even knew what The Office is. At least those who were familiar really appreciated our efforts. I was back in regular clothes by about 11:30PM because my feet hurt and I cared more about comfort than my costume at that point. The time change screwed us up and Jon and I were awake and ready to go at 7:30AM.

What a nice day it's going to be outside--69 degrees and sunny. Unfortunately, I have to go to work from 2:00 until 7:00(ish). Here's hoping the day goes well.

ODE needs education

You may or may not know that I have been fighting with the morons at the Ohio Department of Education for almost three months now in an attempt to obtain my substitute teaching license. Well, it was issed more than a month ago, but due to some stupid computer problem, it was never physically mailed to Maumee City Schools until I brought it to ODE's attention that the school district hadn't received it. A nice woman at ODE resolved the problem in less than a week, and about a week and a half ago I received my contract to finally beginning working with MCS. Today I received something else in the mail from MCS--a copy of my license so that I may use it to teach in other schools districts. I opened it, smiled with glee, then put it down after barely glancing at it. A few minutes later I picked it up again and realized something was very wrong.


That says that I'm authorized to teach Multi Age Spanish. I haven't taken a Spanish class since middle school, and my college transcripts, which ODE had to review, indicated that the only foreign language I studied in college was German. How does that slip by someone? I don't understand. So now I'm waiting to hear from someone at ODE about whether that's just a typo on the physical license or if I am in fact authorized in their database to teach Spanish. If the latter is true, then I am really worried about ODE and to whom they are issuing licenses. Sheesh. I likely won't hear anything until Monday at the earliest, but I'm hoping to have a response from someone tomorrow morning.

Jon and I are heading east (the good part of Ohio) tomorrow to watch the Bobcats take on Kent State, since it's on Fox Sports Ohio out that way. The main reason we are going there, though, is to hang out with some cool kids in South Euclid for Mr. Dishong's Halloween bash. I was planning on going as Pam Beesley, but I was unable to find a good wig, so now I need to do something else. Perhaps I will use one of Jon's ideas and go as Dwight Shrute's cousin Mose (a.k.a. Fear), since Jon is going as Dwight. I'll probably lose sleep over the decision.

I worked from noon until 7:00PM today. It wasn't nearly as bad as Tuesday was, and yesterday wasn't awful either. I hope it just continues to improve as time goes by. Either that, or I hope this subbing license thing finally works itself out soon so that I can just focus on that and the bookstore. Oy.

The best condiment

I'm a big fan of condiments. That doesn't mean that I eat ketchup-sogged french fries. I am just a big fan of salad dressing, barbecue sauce, and various spreads. Last night I was eating a mini bagel and decided on the official best condiment ever.
Cream cheese is the bomb. I love cream cheese. I remember the first time I ever had cream cheese. It was in the summer and I was at my grandma's house with my cousin and brother. We all went there in the mornings since our parents had to work and she'd make breakfast. My cousin had always eaten the cream cheese, but I thought there was something gross about it. That one morning, though, something convinced me to try it. Try it I did, and I loved it. For the next several years, I did not fear cream cheese and I would apply it to bagels in a particular way--spread very thin, just enough that it would melt but I could still feel the slightly creamy consistency. For me, breakfast didn't get any better than a plain bagel and cream cheese.

College came and I went to breakfast occasionally, but bagels and cream cheese were the only thing I ate (I wouldn't touch the runny scrambed eggs with someone else's mouth). At some point I was at home with my parents and my mom watched me apply my cream cheese. She told me that I spread the cream cheese as if I were afraid of it, so to appease her I gobbed it on thick instead. My gag reflex readied itself for what it was going to experience. I took a bite and it was peculiar. I didn't gag. I loved it.

Since then, I have been a liberal applier of cream cheese. I even eat cream cheese on other foods. Sandwiches, toast, I have even made a variety of garlic bread with a cream cheese mixture. And then there is Skyline dip.
I have had Skyline with and without cream cheese, but it definitely ownz in dip form. Cream cheese is also a key ingredient in most spinach and artichoke dips as well as my taco dip. Cream cheese is the condiment that defeats all other condiments. There are so many ways to eat it and no matter what, it is delicious.

The end.

Little sleep, lots of (non)work

So, I didn't get much sleep last night. I hit the sack around 10:30 and was out cold pretty fast. Sadly, the sound of our neighbors from above stampeding up and down the stairs had me wide awake about 30 minutes later. That went on until about 1:00AM all while they were running the dryer downstairs. Usually we can't hear the dryer, but apparently they had one very loud article of clothing in it. You know the sound a zip-up hoodie or pair of shoes sounds in the dryer? It was like that, and very annoying after the awesome homecoming weekend in Athens during which I got little sleep and the sleep that I did get was more of being passed out drunk. I went out to the couch around 1:30AM and was able to fall back asleep rather quickly, but 6:15AM came way too fast.

Today was my first day at the new job. I'm not gonna lie, it sucked. I hate to be cocky, but I am easily exponentially more intelligent than my boss, who is technically the only person with whom I work (office manager, me, 2 nurses, 1 doctor). I was in at 9:00AM and the office manager never told me how long I'd be in for the day, so I assumed it would be either until noon or 6:00PM. She sent me to lunch at 12:30 for 30 minutes, so I figured I'd be in for a full day if she was giving me a lunch. Three o'clock rolled around and she told me to go home, then she asked if instead I could stay until 6:00. I had absolutely no problem with it and the time sorta flew, although I did little to no real work which was disappointing (boring).

Well, 6:00 came and there was still one client with the doctor, but they were out around 6:15 I think. I did not get to leave until 7:40 because the office manager is an idiot and was dicking around, talking to people while she was supposed to be showing me how to close. I was so unhappy when I left. I'm not going to quit, but it is really depressing knowing that I am way overqualified for this type of work. I do have things to learn, but those all involve the basics of animal care and the difference between Frontline and Advantage. Sad, isn't it? I pray for something more "me" to come along.

I'm pooped again tonight, since I was on my feet for 10 hours. I came home and ate the rest of our Chinese from yesterday because I was sad, then I watched a little bit of the World Series with Jon like a good girlfriend. I also got to talk to my girlfriend on the phone, and that always makes me smile.

My plan for tomorrow involves showering and possibly soaking in the tub for a bit, spending some time on Monster.com, and maybe inquiring with UT about grad school. I also hope that I remember to pick up my paycheck from last week which should have been direct deposited.

Holla.

Ohio Homecoming 2006 Recap

This past weekend was Ohio Homecoming 2006. Homecomings in the past had been fun for me, but not particularly memorable. Last year was the first year that I could actually go to the bars, but I couldn't because I was putting in a lot of hours at work all weekend. This year it was a monumental weekend, though. It feels way different to be in Athens as an alum than it did as a student. Obviously, it was awesome to see all of my old friends again, especially the other alumni who I hadn't seen much last year. The whole weekend ended up surpassing my expectations as far as how fun I thought it would be. In fact, I'd say it was more fun than any sibs', moms', or Halloween weekends.

Jon, Chris and I got into Athens around 6:00PM on Thursday. My lovely girlfriend Sara had dinner ready for me, so I ate and played Guitar Hero for a little while. We all got cleaned up, had a Feigling, then went to Primetime. In case you are unfamiliar with it, Primetime takes place at Pawpurr's every night from 8:00 to 9:00PM. It's pretty much the most baller happy hour ever--half off all drinks. The standard is to arrive a few minutes before 8:00PM in order to snag a table, because once the hour hits, it gets jam packed. The bartenders ring a bell and everyone charges the bar. It is best to order two drinks at a time because it gets really difficult to access the bar eventually, due to the hundreds of people who pack in and violate fire code. So I had three Red Bull and vodkas as well as my first cherrybomb ever.

At 9:00 we went across the street to Pigskin for the tasty but infamous Black Widows and by 9:30 I'd say I was pretty drunk. I ended up feeding about $5.00 into the jukebox and never even got to hear my songs, but oh well. Sara was belligerent and was launching pennies at people. It gets really blurry for me after I ordered my Black Widow, though, and all I really remember clearly is being at Goodfella's on Union and smashing on a piece of pepperoni pizza. Apparently, we were trying to walk to the Den but after we got our pizza we decided that we didn't want to walk all the way down there. I'm pretty sure that at that point we went back to the apartment. I played Guitar Hero and beer pong and there was more Feigling. We watched The Office (funniest show on television) then I passed out, but I'm not sure when.

We got up sorta early the next morning and I was violently hungover, but not too hungover to go to Sonic. We then went to Wal-Mart to pick up pumpkins and carving tools and then went home and carved away. I made a jack-o-lantern that remarkably resembled Meatwad. Once the evening came, we were all back in action, except this time there were way more people in town. Diddy and I went to the Den at 4:30 for free pizza and wings, but I only had a few wings and some beers. We walked uptown so that I could get some shoes, since I had been wearing flip-flops and it suddenly got really cold. Jason found me and we were both still hungry, so we ate fresh at Subway. We tried to go to Primetime again, but this time the line was out the door and after waiting for about 10 minutes we never made it in--that's what happens when you don't get there before 8:00PM, but it usually isn't long of a wait. So we instead went nextdoor to Junction and got crazy with those ol' Junction Punches. Our entourage totally owned the second floor. I think that we went to Pigskin after Junction, then we made it down to the Den again to visit Keenan, but the only part of that which I remember is Keenan kissing my hand. I made it back to the apartment somehow (time travel) and passed out sometime around 3:30 or 4:00AM.

Goody and I woke up at 6:30AM, thinking we'd be able to drink again at 7:00, but that didn't happen. We slept a little bit more, I worked out a deuce, and we were finally able to make it to a bar by about 8:30AM. We met Kevin, Kim, Arlene and their friend Liz at Junction. It was more packed than I had ever seen it on any night (imbedded right). Keep in mind that Goody took that photo sometime around 10:00AM and there were 20 other bars open in town. Every bar uptown had a line outside, so you do the math. That's a lot of people drinking in the morning. I left around 10:30 or so to find Jon and take him back to the apartment, then Blake picked us up and we drove through the campus side of town for about 20 minute trying to figure out how to get to the other side, since the parade was like the freaking Berlin Wall to us. We finally made it to Graceland and had some pizza for lunch, then cracked open the Svedka and Red Bull. I had a small drink then walked back uptown to get a new OU hoodie. I walked back down to Graceland to try to corral the troups and get them moving to Peden for the football game, but I pretty much failed so I just walked there with Shugar and another one of his Posties who were covering the game.

The weather was absolutely BEAUTIFUL for the entire game and I even ended up a little sunburned. Ohio destroyed Beefalo 42-7, brining the Bobcats to a 5-3 record--more wins than they accumulated any of the four years I was in school! I had hoped to stay for the entire duration of the game, but in typical OU fashion, I left after halftime. The Marching 110 is the primary reason that most people go to the football games. Well, it was in the past when the football team was painfully bad, but things seem to be turning around a little bit. Anyway, the homecoming game always has a halftime performance to be seen by all because the Marching 110 Alumni Band plays with the 110 and it is always hysterical.

After halftime I went to the Den with a small group, but most of them left at one point. Jason and I stayed and I ended up being at the Den for nearly 12 hours that day. There were LOTS of shenanigans at the Den, as usual. Eventually, my friends and I dominated the bar. We counted that two-thirds of the people there at one point were all Auddies alone, but most of them also doubled as past-11 Fremonters. We were at the Den until AW kicked us out around 3:00AM. The walk home was rather eventful, as it involved Gabe yelling at everyone about the things the he is always yelling about when drunk (sex, drugs, and nonsense). Just before we hit the alley we were walking under a balconey on Court Street. I saw some liquid fall from it and assumed someone had thrown a beer, but it turns out that it was puke and it landed all over some poor, unsuspecting drunk guy about 7 feet ahead of us. He was pretty pissed and unfortunately for the party on the balconey, there was an APD cruiser chillin' at the end of the alley. They busted the party, but I felt really bad for the guy covered in some stranger's vomit. I can only imagine how I'd react (it would involve me puking as well as crying). We got back to the apartment, played Guitar Hero, and then I went to sleep around 3:30 or 4:00AM. I got more sleep than I guessed I would, waking up shortly after 10:00AM. We were on the road by about 1:30-ish. The ride home was sorta rough, but we finally made it back to Toledo after dropping off Chris at the airport.

I'm totally exhausted now and it felt great to curl up in bed last night. The weekend was nothing short of phenomenal, thanks to all of my Bobcat and alumni Bobcat friends. I love Athens.

Hello!

Here I am. I credit Chris Littmann as my inspiration for this blogspot. After about 10 years of refusing to join any sort of blog site, I've done it. I have had variations of the blog since before blog was even a word, but I always wanted to do my own html. You could call it a pride issue or superiority complex. But whatever. I did start blogging on MySpace a while ago, but I think this is a better idea, being accessible to everyone as opposed to only my MySpace friends. As far as my blog title, it will probably change. So I once again give credit to Chris. It's sorta like I'm his mini-me in the blog world of our friends now. Let's just look at it that way.

In case you've been out of the loop, here's a succinct update on my life: I graduated from OU in June, live with Jon, have been working at a bookstore since June, got my substitute teaching license, and just snagged a job at a pet hospital. It's pretty much a trial period for me during which I'm deciding what I'm going to do with my life. At first, I was set on going back to school to get an MA and teaching certificate. Now I'm thinking about going back to get a PhD or MA in history, which would make me a prof eventually and possibly an author...oh yeah, and a real historian! However, it's possible that this pet hospital thing could turn into something I really like. I'd much rather go back to school, but I'm keeping my options open.

That's all I've got for now, but I think there's a homecoming recap coming up in a bit.