Boundless laziness

The human capacity for laziness is amazing. Isn't it? Really. We are inherently lazy in ways over which we have direct and indirect control. It's the people who rise above that laziness which we tend to admire ... usually while sitting on the couch holding our favorite ultra-fattening beverage.

Think about it, we start off at a physiological disadvantage, don't we? If someone goes to the gym and works and works and works and builds layer upon layer of undeniably hot muscle, we admire that person, don't we? Do we all go out and do the same? Generally not. But, think about that same person if they were to stop going to the gym? Even if it was an involuntary stoppage, what happens to their beautiful muscles? Natural laziness; the muscle deflates, the blood goes other places and the strength is eventually lost as fat starts to fill in the vacated space. Is it because the person wants that? No, s/he can't help it, that is just how it works.

Mentally it is the same way. I was a music major in college. I spent a very large portion of my life-to-date studying and immersing myself in music. I forged millions of neural pathways in the practice rooms, in the books, etc. Seven years later, after not studying for so long, would I be able to do/remember all of those things? No. Okay, maybe some of it, but definitely not all. Why? Because the body is lazy. I would have to jumpstart those neurons to get them pumping again.

And then there is the conscious laziness. It is the worst of all, and manifests itself in the most annoying ways. Apathy over where the trash lands, inconsiderate placement of the grocery shopping cart when one is only twenty feet from the cart return bin, endless hours of television and games ... all of those things are leading indicators of our expanding waistlines and vanishing cultural uniqueness.

I had a moment of laziness yesterday, but I caught it in time. It was habitual more than anything else. When I got to the gym parking lot yesterday evening it was a little packed. I saw two people leaving, both of whom were walking to cars fairly close to the door. I was excited about close parking! So, these two apparent buddies started talking next to their cars. I was a little annoyed because I wanted to get inside, so I turned on my blinker to signal they should expedite their conversation. Of course, they didn't. At the same moment that I started becoming very annoyed, it hit me; I'm at the GYM to WORK OUT and am now angry because I can't park close to the door. Really? So, I laughed at myself as I backed up the car, parked really far away and hiked that extra 200 feet to go in.

A motley collection of thoughts ...

There is no reason for today's post. I'm just reaching into the soupy cauldron of thought which is my mind and discussing what I find.

Buddy - I chose not to sit at home to play out my weekend morning ritual (coffee, reading and the internet) but instead chose to shower early and go up to Starbucks since Buddy was working. I ground up the portion of coffee I wanted to drink this morning, packed it in the French press, grabbed a coffee mug, my laptop, a book and went on my way. While I was there reading, Buddy took his lunch (he got to work at 5:30, so his lunch was at 10). I said all of that to say this: One of Buddy's abilities which never ceases to amaze me is that of being able to sleep anywhere.

We were in one of the lovely, large comfy, "it hugs me when I sit in it" chairs at Starbucks and he said "wake me up in 15 minutes." Before my brain could process what he meant, he'd removed his glasses and fallen asleep. The music was playing, the espresso machines were foaming, customers were talking, and he was oblivious to all of it. He's like a puppy. Last week he got down on the floor to cuddle with Chloe and accidentally fell asleep. A couple of times I know of, he's sat down in the shower and fallen asleep. Really? Seriously? I think somewhere in his brain is a neuron which acts as a snooze button. Honestly, I wish I had one.

Говорение по-русски (Ga-va-ryen-EE-ye po-russkee) - "speaking Russian": It is becoming increasingly apparent that I chose a fantastic starting point for my linguistic adventures. The language itself has very similar attributes to other languages. For example, gender specific nouns affect adjectives and other words associated with them. While not popular in English, it is a common practice in other romantic languages.

Russian is also sprinkled with cognates, or words which are borrowed from another language and adapted for itself. An example of an English/Russian cognate is Парашют (pah-ra-SHYOOT) - parachute. But, English isn't the only language from which Russians have borrowed. A Spanish/Russian cognate would be Библиотека (beeb-lee-oh-teh-ka) - biblioteca (library). So not only are there words which will help me in other languages, but linguistic concepts that will help as well.

Finally, the Cyrillic alphabet in and of itself has been a bona fide mental triathlon. I predict it will make reading French that much easier when Buddy and I take that up around January of 2008. As I started Russian in November it will get the longest amount of study so I can juxtapose each new cultural endeavor with a calendar New Year.

Toronto Vacation - Mandy has her passport, Buddy's is on the way and round-trip ticket prices for direct flights via Continental just plummeted to $271! What a fantastic coincidence! I sent Paw-Paw the e-mail this morning asking for the tickets for Mandy, Buddy and I for our Christmas/birthday presents. March is still a month off but my excitement is growing. I think the trip will be brilliant. Buddy has armed himself with a tourist book of the city so we can list the places we want to see and experience while we're there. Toronto has been much warmer this winter (global warming and all), so I am hoping that it will be more spring-like during this trip. That will afford us more time outside. Having a digital camera with a much higher number of mega-pixels will also allow better quality pictures. I'd like to add another 18x24 and assortment of smaller pictures to the living room. I'm excited. :)

Mom's Visit - My mother is coming to visit next weekend and I'm excited. She treks down here twice yearly for a weekend with us, and her first trip of 2007 will be for my birthday. It's always a fantastic way to break up the monotony of our weekend lives as well as a lot of quality time with Mom. Honestly, we see her more with those trips here than we did when we lived in Houston. We're going to make her a deal ... she buys dinner Saturday and Sunday and Buddy will make fantastic meals for dinner Friday and breakfast Saturday & Sunday. If you ask me, she's getting the better end of the deal. *grin*

Last Night's Dinner - Buddy did REALLY well. I have horded away two years worth of recipies from Martha Stewart Living. They are all at my store awaiting lamination and collecting dust. Thankfully, I remembered them yesterday when Buddy asked what I'd like him to make for dinner. So, we had baked chicken with onions and garlic, lemon and caper mashed potatoes and rice pilaf. The chicken was SO moist and flavorful and the rice pilaf (made with fresh angel hair pasta) was also wonderful, but the lemon an caper mashed potatoes REALLY floored me! The light, flowery texture of the lemons and capers combined with the creamy texture of the mashed potatoes was intoxicating. We were both wowed by that meal. We can't, however, make a habit of it. While it is cheaper to cook that at home than eat it out (and it WAS restaurant quality), it was still relatively expensive as far as meals at home go. But, it is a great Friday night meal ... and Saturday lunch.

Speaking of Saturday lunch, I'm hungry now. Time for chicken and rice.

Wants and needs

When I was growing up I would tell my mother I needed something. "I need that toy" or "I need that dog" or "I need to go to Sea World." Her typical response would be to ask a very simple question: Do you need it or do you want it? Well, I was a child, so in my mind it was all need; how would I go on without the toy, dog, Shamu, etc.? Those types of situations taught me a lesson though about wants and needs. Wants typically resolve a superficial or materialistic urge whereas needs are necessities for survival.

Now, as a supposed adult, I find myself wondering about my wants and needs this morning. Once again I'm faced with the possibility of not having the money to do some of the things we want to do so I'm having this same internal conversation with myself. But this time it's a bit more broad.

I find myself craving more down time from my chores. I view work as a chore right now. I view working out as a chore right now. I have to do both as they are both needs. I need to work because I need money. Working out may not sound like a need at first, but when you think of the physical ramifications on my future self if I choose not to stay in shape, you understand why it is in the need category.

But work as a chore? I have enjoyed my job and not thought of it as a chore for quite some time. I think it usually happens when I get bored. I have been bored lately. When I'm at work, it all seems so routine. I shocked my routine a little bit yesterday with some organizational enhancements at work. I went crazy with my label maker. *g* I'm preparing for meetings, I'm working on development plans for my team members, etc. I ordered three copies of a great management book I read when in our leadership development program and I'm going to use it to teach my assistant manager and senior project coordinator those great management lessons and philosophies now as opposed to making them wait to learn those lessons later. But, really, the challenge of doing my job is dwindling. Sure, I have an audit that I need to do well on when I perform it Friday, but I think we'll be fine. My sales aren't where they need to be at the moment but sales are out of my hand so all I can worry about is customer service, and my customer service levels this month are over 99.6%.

When I'm at work I find myself wishing I was doing something else. I want to be reading, I want to be studying, I want to be listening to music, I want to be doing ... well ... other stuff. I don't think that's a bad thing because when I can satisfy those wants, I'm making myself a more well-rounded person. I'm just concerned that this is just the sapling of a huge oak of disenchantment in my job if I don't get moved or challenged more soon.

So are all these things I wish I were doing outside of work wants or needs? Do I want to do them because I'm bored or do I NEED to be doing them to keep my mind occupied and maintain my sanity? I guess I haven't figured that part out yet. Oh well, off to work. :)

Musical giggles

I don't know why, but I've had the first movement of Beethoven's 7th symphony stuck in my head since I woke up in the middle of the night to go pee. I know, it doesn't seem like a good "pee theme", but it was for me this morning. Odd you say? Perhaps. I haven't listened to it in quite some time. Besides the 5th, the 7th is my favorite. Okay, that is a difficult statement to make since I like all of them so much. We studied them so much in college that have very distinct memories brought back by almost all of them. It's a very happy piece that makes me kinda giggly. It's like my musical interpretation of Buddy. :)

Speaking of Buddy, he's been cooking a lot lately. He made dinner for us the last few nights in a row, and I could really get used to this! I like when he works mornings. Not only do I get to see him more, he can do things like cook for me. *grin* Tonight we're either having seafood gumbo or grilled salmon in a lemon caper sauce flanked by bacon-wrapped asparagus and steamed cauliflower. He's been on a seafood kick lately. We don't have many good restaurants down here for that (not less than 40 minutes away), so he has decided to make his own.

Pangs of Guilt

I had an odd but alarmingly realistic dream last night. Ok, it wasn't THAT realistic because there is no way what happened in my dream would be happening in actuality, but nobody was wearing giant purple hats or had crazy Bozo-hair, as is the case with many of my dreams.

I know why I had a dream about this person, it is fairly obvious. It was brought on by thinking about him more lately because of a personal endeavor. It was also a manifestation of my feelings for guilt surrounding our relationship in the past as it were. What I don't understand is why those feelings surface now?

All of this Russian speak and study has me thinking about Glenn a lot. I've always thought back on Glenn with great affection. He was my favorite college roommate and I lived with him and Evan for a year. It was a great time for me, but now that I think back on it, I don't know if it was for him. I really was an awful roommate!

I paid my rent and all, but I was so inconsiderate. I had strange boys over and drank at all hours of the night ... but hey, it was college. I also wasn't very considerate of his space and belongings. I got a brand new dog and left this untrained puppy with him to deal with while I went to Europe for two weeks. Granted, we had a long talk about that, but how could I have been so inconsiderate as to think that was ok in the first place? There were just so many things I did like that. I honestly don't know how he put up with me, but he did.

Honestly, Glenn taught me a lot about being responsible and considerate. He is so very intelligent and I have a tremendous amount of respect for him. Glenn seems to know something about everything. He was on the HRC bandwagon before most other gay folk I knew had any idea what it was. He had lived in London as a welder. He's been just about everywhere one could think of and had great stories to tell about all of the places. He took the opportunity to educate himself on things most people don't; music, art, books and cultural lessons were all points of interest of his. I had a fantastic opportunity to learn a tremendous amount more from him, but I squandered it in my youth.

In my dream, both Glenn and I were at a party of some kind. I asked him into a back room and we started discussing the past and I just started apologizing. I put myself in his position and started listing the things that, had someone done them to me I would have beaten them senseless. My alarm went off before I could finish such a list.

Glenn and I would probably get along much better now than we did then. I would probably appreciate him a lot more now than I did then, which is a travesty in itself. He is a school teacher in New York now, and I don't know if our paths will ever cross in person again, but I really hope so. It is funny ... I don't miss so much what we did have but more what we SHOULD have had in our friendship.

...

I had fun this last week. I was in Corpus giving a helping hand to take some actions to start that particular store back on the right track. It was a task given to me by my boss and I appreciate it. I think he wanted to see what I would see. I saw a lot. In typical "me" fashion, my end-of-week wrap-up was five pages long ... single spaced. But, I think I got things set on the right path and had a lot of ideas on how to develop continued improvements. We'll see how it pans out.

A week away in a store with a LOT of problems put some things in perspective for me. I was instantly reminded of how far my store has come and how much better (and better off) my team is than others. I'm going to make sure I tell them that in our meeting on Sunday. I was at the Corpus store 10-12 hours a day scheming, planning, cleaning, moving fixtures, talking to the team, giving ideas, suggestions, etc. That was a lot of work. Corpus has a good team, but mine really rocks!

So, this weekend is all about relaxation and reading and whatnot. I have done a lot of reading (русский of course) and spent some time with Buddy when he wasn't at work. We watched the first DVD of season 4 of Family Guy last night. I love that show. :)

Ok, that's it. Unimaginative posting today. Sorry

Здравствуйте друзья!

That is Russian for "Hello Friends!" Hooray for Canadians! I was reading an article this morning that showed that researchers in Toronto found that bilingual people have a delayed onset of dementia of up to 4 years. I think that's well timed with my efforts to delve back into the cultural and linguistic studies that I started before Peak.

I knew that I was getting out of the learning that I've invested so much time and financial resources in, but I think that there are going to be those times of the year when exceptions are made. I enjoy this process of learning a new language. It isn't something that seems to come easily to me, so I enjoy having to think and concentrate on it. Also, language is something where you can tell immediate progress. If you start listening to native speakers and you find yourself able to understand more and more of what they are saying, there is a certain sense of accomplishment.

So yesterday, Buddy and I decided that after I go through my Russian indulgence for a year, we're going to move on to French. Number one, it will be very easy to find people with whom to practice our new language; Kim and Liberty both immediately came to mind. Also, I love me some French music. Impressionism is one of my favorite things ever, both in art and music. Plus, Buddy had two years of French in high school so there will probably be a lot of things coming back to him. It will be fun to do it together.

But for now, I'm focusing on my Russian. On language I have two books, two audio books and a podcast to which I subscribe. On culture, I have a book that is sort of a "hit you over the head with facts" book. I also have a book that is really a historical essay that uses the past to explain the foundations of Russian culture. I really like it. Another book like that is a bit of a hybrid between the two. Finally, I have a book about the history of Russian music.

Obviously I'm not reading all of them at once. I am using all the language books together, however. The podcast and audiobooks are great for proper pronunciation, while one of the books is great for daily conversation and the other has more formal grammatical rules. It's a great approach for me.

Yea for brain usage!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BUDDY!

Today is Buddy's birthday! I was nice and decided tho choose one of his flattering pictures. ;) I took this during breakfast at the poolside restaurant at Bellagio in July.

I prefer the music ...

My alarm went off this morning and I was not a happy camper. Well, considering I don't like camping, I'd never actually be a happy camper, but that's beside the point. Typically around 6am my alarm goes off sounding the opening chords of the Mozart Requiem. It's a gentle, rolling awake that doesn't startle me too much. Startling me in the morning is bad. Startling me gets my day started on the wrong foot because my preferred foot is kicking who/whatever startled me.

At 5am, I was awakened to the sounds of Chloe getting sick to her stomach. She was kind enough to do it so that her mess was 3/4 of the way in the bathroom and on a tile floor. She's a very considerate puppy. But, I still had to get the paper towels and the Oxy Clean and regular towels and rags and get to work. I think this is somehow my fault ... yesterday morning I told myself that I should wake up earlier so I can have an earlier start to my day at work. I'm going to try to start leaving later by getting there earlier; at least that is my plan as I have it now. Reality will be that I'll get to work earlier and leave at the same time, thus increasing the length of my day by an hour. Oh well.

I put up an older picture of Chloe because I realized I don't have a newer one. I think Buddy has taken all the new pics on his camera phone and I don't have them. I'll have to change that. She's such a pretty dog ... even with only one eye now. :) One of the cutest things I have EVER seen is when Chloe is laying on the recliner with Buddy staring at him as he sings "You Are My Sunshine" to her.

iLust

Since Christmas, since I saw that Apple had an empty PDA section on their website, I've been saying that they are going to revolutionize the PDA industry. But, Apple being Apple, they decided to go a different direction: they are going to revolutionize the cell phone industry. They announced yesterday that they are launching the iPhone ... and I WANT ONE! I'm a dork though ... Buddy and I stayed up until almost midnight watching Steve Jobs' keynote speech introducing this product at MacWorld 2007. The phones won't be available until June, but this thing looks HOT. You can read more about the all new Hotness at: http://www.apple.com/iphone/

Why are you so good to me?

My secret lover ... my morning ritual. Twenty ounces of your steaming black hotness and I'm satisfied all day. You awaken my senses. You brighten my mind. You lure me in with your seductive smell and then you've got me.

Da Scoots ...

Scoot recently had surgery for stones in her bladder. After she had breakfast this morning she started shivering because she was laying on the tile. She had her tummy shaved for the surgery, so she was really cold. I got Chloe's bed and put it on the floor and wrapped her in a blanket so she could get warm. She looked so cute I took a picture. :)

Can someone get my soapbox?

Yesterday I received an e-mail from an online buddy of mine that I've been talking to for quite some time now. HE received an e-mail from an online buddy of HIS who lives in Denver. He sent the e-mail out to see what kind of reaction it would garner. I was passionate enough about it to decide to make it a discussion point with you, my BILLIONS of non-readers. The e-mail is as follows:

WEATHER BULLETIN

Up here, in the "Mile-Hi City" (Denver), we just recovered from a historic event---may I even say a "Weather Event" of "Biblical Proportions"--with a historic blizzard with up to 44" of snow and winds to 90 MPH that broke trees in half, knocked down utility poles, stranded hundreds of motorists in lethal snow banks, closed ALL roads, isolated scores of communities and cut power to 10's of thousands.

FYI:
-George Bush did not come
-FEMA did nothing
-No one howled for the government
-No one blamed the government
-No one even uttered an expletive on TV
-Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton did not visit
-Our mayor did not blame Bush or anyone else
-Our governor did not blame Bush or anyone else either.

CNN, ABC, CBS, FOX or NBC did not visit or report extensively on this category 5 snowstorm, nor do we expect they will in the years to come in the aftermath.

Nobody demanded $2,000 debit cards. No one asked FEMA for a trailer house. No one looted. Nobody - I mean Nobody demanded the government do something. Nobody expected the government to do anything either.

No Larry King, no Bill O'Riley, no Oprah, no Chris Matthews, and no Geraldo Rivera. No Sean Penn (thank God!), no Barbra Streisand, no HOLLYWOOD TYPES TO BE FOUND.

Nope, we just melted the snow for water. Sent out caravans of SUVs to pluck people out of snow engulfed cars. The truck drivers pulled people out of snow banks and didn't ask for a penny. Local restaurants made food and the police and fire department delivered it to snowbound families. Families took in the stranded people-total strangers.

We fired up wood stoves, broke out coal oil lanterns or Coleman lanterns. We put on extra layers of clothes because up here it's "Work or Die". We did not wait for some affirmative action government to get us out of a mess created by being immobilized by a welfare program that trades votes for "sittin' at home" checks. Even though a category "5" blizzard of this scale has never fallen this early, we know it can happen and how to deal with it ourselves.

"In my many travels, I have noticed that once one gets north of about 48 degrees North Latitude, 90% of the world's social problems evaporate." It does seem that way, at least to me. I hope this gets passed on.

Maybe SOME people will get the message. The world does not owe you a living.

ALWAYS REMEMBER THAT YOU ARE UNIQUE; JUST LIKE EVERYONE ELSE.

I think the first obvious reaction is that there is NO way to compare the destruction and chaos of New Orleans the days following Katrina to what just happened in Denver. Seriously, how could you? Comparing the situation in Denver to what happened on the Gulf Coast is like comparing a campfire to a 5 alarm blazing building, don't you think?

And since when is it so devious that the country leaps into action to help those in need? Does the author feel we wasted time, energy and money helping the victims of the Indian Ocean Tsunami when it occurred? Truly, if any part of the world has a "work or die" attitude it must be that one; you will quite literally die if you don't work. What if a Richter 9 earthquake were to hit and level San Francisco? Should our "affirmative action government" just let them deal with it?

But that isn't all the writer was trying to discuss. I also see a social commentary on the people of the area that was hit. It was a blatant attack on "them." Who are "they?" Well, considering New Orleans has a very high black population, I might say that group is the target. But really, this goes to generalizations and stereotyping. You could type "_____ population" and there would be people who would insert any race they wanted. Some people would insert EVERY race except their own.

Those are very small-minded and inexperienced people. How can you say "black people" in that kind of context? Do the blacks in Germany, France, Hungary, England, Canada, Japan, Russia, etc. all act the same way? No. Neither do the whites.

Now, if you want to say that certain people of a like mindset in a certain area tend to act the same, that seems to be fine. After all, birds of a feather do indeed tend to flock together. So if there are segments of our society that tend toward a feeling of self-entitlement, they are just that: segments of OUR society. Yes, there ARE lazy people who will use the system to their advantage. No, they are not of a specific race.

What do we do about those people? Well, it comes with upbringing. If a person is taught that they should expect something from the government because they have greater pigmentation of the skin than other people then they will grow up believing that. It all comes with education of children. Do we treat all those children the same way? Are we doing what we can to lift the living condition of those people? I'd say not.

If we want to raise the standard of society, we must start with how we treat and educate the children because they are the foundation of the future. Think of society like a VERY heavy sack of groceries. Would you just yank up by the handles on the bag and hope for the best or would you bend over, grab from the bottom and lift carefully? Personally, I'd do the latter as to prevent myself from spending extra time picking up what spills out and extra money replacing it.

Bill Gates spends a lot of his money on the education of children and funding programs to do such. Oprah Winfrey just spent $40M on building a school in South Africa to do the same thing. They have the right idea, in my opinion. I recently listened to a story on NPR about a program in Brazil that establishes learning centers for classical music in the most downtrodden and poor areas of the country. The goal is to take children off the street from an early age and put them into learning something that will engage them and teach them about the world. It has 250,000 participants. We have similar programs through the Boys & Girls clubs, YMCA, etcetera, but we could always use more.

If everyone in North America who made over $1M a year gave 1% of $1M ($10,000) toward educating children, that would be a total contribution of $29 BILLION dollars to educating the children of North America. If you put that into a global perspective and asked the number of world-wide millionaires to make that contribution to a world education fund, you would see a pot of $87 BILLION dollars. If you ask the world's billionaires to make the same 1% contribution, that would be an additional $26 BILLION dollars. How far would $1 Trillion dollars go toward educating the children of the world and lifting our common society? I don't know, but I'd sure like to find out.

I hate being right ...

I finally received the telephone call I've been dreading yesterday. As was my prediction, I didn't get the promotion for which I applied. Unfortunately, I found out because the position my competition held was posted as vacant before I'd been called and told I did not get the job. So, I did the math and figured it out before my boss called me. That was definitely not his intention and he apologized profusely for it. He gave his reasons for why I wasn't picked and said it was the hardest decision of his DM career thus far. I'm not judging that reasoning, nor am I going to go into it on here. If you have questions, ask and I'll discuss it one-on-one.

So, I have no plans for now other than to be the best I can be at my job, improve the area he said was the deciding factor in the decision, and make President's Club again. I've got a good chance of it considering how we're doing thus far. The trip for managers this year is to the Ritz Carlton on Grand Cayman (see above picture). I'm not actively looking to move until I know whether or not I make it. I'm eligible as long as I'm hear through the end of March. Buddy and I are both content to stay here that long if we suspect we will get such a fantastic trip out of our patience. We'll see.

An approximation of normal ...

I can feel myself slipping back into better routines. Yesterday, while mostly spent catching up at work, was much more like it should be with the return of one of my most valuable team members. Even with one of my assistant managers out, the cloud of tension that had been hanging over me pre-vacation seems to have lifted. Granted, I have yet to hear anything about the promotion for which I applied almost a month ago, but I have very little anxiety about that; I've simply resolved that I haven't gotten the job. All I'm really waiting on is the conversation with my boss about why and to vent some of my feelings of isolation and professional disappointment over being kept in the dark for so long.

But, I am content with how yesterday played out for me. I began my day blogging and on the computer. I like that. I feel as though I have the ability to gather my thoughts and mentally prepare myself for the day by focusing on myself for thirty minutes to an hour. It is a good start ... well, that and the huge cup of coffee I sip while doing it. ;)

I went to work looking very sharp in my new light blue Burberry polo shirt. I looked smashing if I do say so myself ... which I do ... often! ;) But, I also looked fat (at no fault of the shirt, mind you). I love having a shirt who's fabric is slightly stretched and tight in all the most flattering places; this shirt does stretch and is tight but not so much in the flattering places as the most unflattering ones.

I led my weekly conference call with senior project coordinators. It went nether well nor poorly, it simply went. I think the routine and pace of the call will have to change next week. We'll go over the required numbers but it will be time to start infusing some of my passion and personality into the call. I was able to leave work at the relatively decent time of 6:45p after arriving at 9:15a. It felt good to have such an abbreviated day after what I had been working during peak. I still have a long to-do list, but I got quite a few things accomplished and started yesterday that I should be able to finish shortly. It's all about breaking the large number of tasks into manageable portions and then delegating said tasks to those who can handle them and will learn from them.

After work I dusted off my bag and went to the gym. I really did feel better doing some cardio again. I realize how much stamina and strength I've lost over the last month by how tired I was from simply doing 25 minutes on the elliptical machines. Driving home was a bit of a challenge and a scare. It was raining horribly last night. People here do not experience rain often enough to know what to do when driving in it. To make matters worse, most of the highway is under construction, so it has no lighting whatsoever. As I age I am plagued more and more by night-blindness. In total darkness, with my headlights on, at night, I see fine. But if I have cars behind me and their lights are reflecting in my mirrors at all, my vision is significantly impaired. Add rain reflecting off the asphalt into that and I'm scared. If you add a torrential downpour into that and I almost wet myself. I think I sweat more in the car on the way home than I did in the gym. *g*

As you can tell by this post, I survived. I took a really hot shower and then, instead of slipping into some vacuous routine of online chatting, I got on our ultra-comfy sofa and started reading again. I have a backlog of six books to get caught up on now with more to come this weekend when Buddy & I go to Barnes & Noble to spend some birthday monies. Anyway, I buried my nose in a book until Buddy got home with dinner an hour later. I ate, spent a few minutes talking to him and went to bed.

I like that routine. There is enough with the gym and reading to keep my mind occupied but not so much to cause me to feel frantic. Plus, it betters my mind, body and spirit. I feel much more recharged after 7.5 hours of sleep and 20 oz of Starbucks coffee. ;)

HO HO HO!

A frequent question this time of year seems to be "what did you get for Christmas?" Invariably, because I am part of a couple, the follow-up question is "what did Buddy get?" I can say one or the other, but I also think it is fair to talk about what we got together. Knowing Buddy he would get mad if I claimed it all *g*. I figure I'll just post something on here to get it out of the way; or, if nothing else, to give myself something to copy and paste when I'm answering in e-mails and online. I know, I'm blatant cheater, but that is OK.

Together
1000 thread-count king size, ultra deep pocket, mint green sheets (yummy).
$655 cash.
Assorted Harry & David Chocolates and goodies.
The chance to see our families and surprise the daylights out of them on Christmas.

Me
$50 Visa Check Card (I used it on three books at the giant Borders on Kirby & W. Alabama).
A super cool Alabaster paper weight for my office.
A Burberry picture frame (silver, with a lavender suede trim).
Four Dark Walnut (espresso colored) picture frames from Bed, Bath and BEYOND *said with dramatic echo*
An XM Satellite Radio.
Two Burberry shirts (one polo with the check pattern on the inside of the collar, one pink with the check pattern in white).
A recording of the 9 Beethoven symphonies.
A Starbucks tumbler I can put my own pictures in (and no, they won't be of me).
A Martha Stewart Cleaning Bible (700+ pages of how to clean ANYTHING).
Assorted candies, chocolates and little gifts from my mother's gift bag (it would need it's own list, but it's one of the best parts of Christmas for me).
A Movado pen.

Buddy
Assorted candies, chocolates and little gifts from my mother's gift bag (it would need it's own list, but it's one of the best parts of Christmas for him too).
A Starbucks tumbler I can put my own pictures in (knowing him it won't have pictures of me but pictures of the dogs).
A special edition, Product Red 8GB iPod.
A Movado case for his iPod.
A MacBook (white).
A neoprene inner case for his MacBook.
A super cool outer case for his MacBook.
A red case for his red iPod.
An unnecessary copy of iLife software (he installed it before I read that the MacBook came with it).

Buddy has been like a little kid all week with his MacBook. He's soooooo proud of it. :) Anyway, I'm sure I forgot some things. That has nothing to do with whether or not Buddy or I appreciated them so much as the fact that it's not even 07:30 and my coffee hasn't quite kicked in yet.

Happy Times

If you're paying attention, dear reader, you will notice I have taken my blog from myspace and transferred it to this superior site. I like this format and layout. I like how much customization I can put into this. Honestly, I just use myspace for blogging and random messages to friends. So, that's why I have so many posts in one day.

Anyway, what a BRILLIANT vacation we've had home to Houston! Buddy and I left Harlingen at 7am on Christmas morning to drive to Houston to surprise our respective families. We have spent the week at Buddy's parent's house, doing our usual whirlwind tour of the city and things we miss so dearly about living here. It was a great surprise for his mom and mine. Buddy's mom actually physically shook, she was so startled to see Buddy in her house after we'd just talked to her and she thought we were in Harlingen. My mother's reaction was very similar. She took a good 45 seconds before she got up to hug me because she just couldn't wrap her brain around what images were being presented to her eyes. I adore surprises like that!

When we tried to surprise Granny & Paw-Paw, the joke was on us! I phoned their house on Tuesday before we planned on the hour long trek to their house to play out our little joke. Their absence on a day not usually reserved for Granny to get her hair done made me think to call Richard & Linda. I'd JUST missed them as they had flown up to Al's ranch north of Dallas. It's a good thing I called first or we would have been REALLY confused! As it ended up, we joined up with uncle Richard & aunt Linda, my sister Mandy, my 2nd cousin Jan, her Twins and Granny & Paw-Paw for dinner at their house on Friday night. It was a great time!

As it says in my biography on the right, I'm a big city boy. Houston has a city population of 2.1 million with a metro area population of 5.3 million. There are 90 languages spoken frequently in Houston. There is a vast amount of culture and FOOD! We miss eating a large variety of food, so we've gorged ourselves on French, seafood, Italian, Vietnamese, a kosher deli, more seafood and (of course) Paw-Paw's dinners. We intentionally didn't eat any Mexican food all week. We get so tired of that living in the Valley. It was nice not to have any.

Houston also has a huge arts and entertainment scene. It has the 2nd largest number of seats in a theatre district in the US. It is one of only five US cities to have permanent professional resident companies of the major performing arts: opera, ballet, music and theatre. While we couldn't go on any excursions those places, we took ourselves into a couple of artistic adventures. Wednesday we planned a trip to the MFAH to see the "Dogs in Art" Exhibit. We knew about it because it was cosponsored by Starbucks, who is Buddy's employer. The exhibit is a chronicle of the most famous and important pieces of art centered around dogs from the Renaissance through modern day. I learned a lot while we were there and the pieces themselves were cute, breathtaking, fascinating and thought-provoking all at the same time.

While we were there we also saw that the MFAH (Museum of Fine Arts - Houston) will be the only American museum to hold the French Impressionist collection of the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art while they undergo renovation. The exhibit will be on display February through May before it leaps the pond to Berlin.

Our other museum excursion was unplanned. We were on our way to the Galleria to go to the Movado store to have my watch examined when we saw a sign for the Smith Family Gem Vault at the HMNS (Houston Museum of Natural Science). Well, I like jewelry and Buddy likes ANYTHING blinky and shiny, so we just did a random exit off 59 on Greenbriar, drove down Rice Boulevard (which is art in and of itself) and took a wander through the museum. We saw pieces in there that blew my mind. Besides having several pieces that were once part of the Russian crown jewels (ca. 1790s), there were modern pieces as well. I'm talking 300 carat yellow sapphires set in platinum and flanked with white and GREEN diamonds. The collection also contains the world's largest cut piece of aquamarine with a total weight of 10,385 carats. It was truly breathtaking.

Today we took the dogs to a dog park in town off Allen Parkway. Both dogs got to run and play with other dogs, chase sticks, etc. Chloe spent a lot of time chasing other dogs toys and drinking their water. She's selfish like that ... she gets it from Buddy. *g* Then we took them to Memorial Park and did one lap around, which was three miles. All four of us were tired! After we finished, Scoot couldn't even get in the car. She was soooo tired! She crawled up her front legs inside and Buddy picked her back legs up to get in. She's gonna sleep well tonight!

We're leaving to go back to the Valley tomorrow morning. I want to get home early, get laundry done, get settled and mentally prepare myself for going back to work. Maybe sometime this week I'll find out something about my job. I certainly hope so.

Inspiring inspiration

I was milling over the core values of the company in preparation for my interview the other day and I started thinking about one of them: innovation.

Innovation is defined as a new idea, method or device. For a company like FedEx, it is paramount to our success. Fred Smith founded a company that had never been dreamt of previously because he had an idea. He was inspired by something in his own life to devise a solution. So innovation is often the child of inspiration.

If that is true, what is inspiration? Each person has their own definition they use in their daily lives, but my choice for inspiration is that it is a sudden intuition as part of solving a problem. But what inspires that inspiration? Is it simply the silencing of the mental clatter of our daily problems and perplexities that resound in our own mind? I think so.

My best thinking occurs when I am focused enough during states of tedium which require a high enough level of concentration to engage my mind without utilizing all of my thinking resources on one particular item. My own examples include driving my car to and from work, taking a shower, or watching a B-grade television show. All are examples of times when I have enough clarity of thought that a new idea can meander its way into the peripheral vision of my mind's eye.

So many people formalize the process of deducing new ideas, when they are not truly deduced in the first place. It starts with silencing our own mental clatter and taking our inspirations from that silence. Those inspirations should then be written down and formulated upon. Then you can find new innovations.

Proof & Beliefs

I spent some time this morning thinking about the difference and sameness of proofs and beliefs. When you say the word proof, my mind immediately gravitates toward our court system.

In civil law, we ask what the preponderance of the evidence says. In a criminal court, something has to be true beyond reasonable doubt. So criminal courts remind me of observational scientists amassing enough evidence to make the likelihood of anything else negligible.

Then my mind wanders toward mathematics, science and geometry. The difference between the two couldn't be more clearly defined. In law the facts are amassed to support a claim; in science, a claim is fashioned around the nature of the facts.

I'm drawn to a television episode I recently saw about breaking the sound barrier. Prior to that event, scientists formulated that the instant a plane started across the sound barrier, the molecular structure of the metal would begin to change. These scientists came to this conclusion using their own understanding of science and mathematics. We understand that their hypothesis was incorrect. However, at the time all of their mathematical and scientific conjecture pointed toward their conclusion.

Belief lent itself to proof yet it should not have done so. We don't come to any beliefs as the result of proof. Belief is our complex integration of a vastly greater sea of evidence than memory or logic can handle. Belief is based on the trust of the proof of ourselves or anther, regardless of how right or wrong it turns out to be. Belief can also be influenced by our own level of knowledge. If one doesn't have the technical understanding to prove to yourself what you are being told and it goes against your own beliefs, you will err on the side of belief.

I believe both must be taken hand in hand. Had we not people who challenged the beliefs of the day, we would still be traveling on what we thought was a flat world at sub-sonic speeds. To never challenge beliefs is to stand by the status quo. Proof gives us, not belief, but confidence in what we all knew or suspected to be true. Or it might tell us when we were wrong in our suppositions. Proof may not instill belief, but we've missed something very important if we don't understand the value, the structure, and the limitations of proof.

I guess opposites do attract.

*Jeopardy! theme plays*

The waiting game has begun. After closing my store on Sunday night because someone called in sick, I woke up at 6am on Friday for my journey to Houston.

I opted to drive back and forth instead of flying. We don't have the discretional income at the moment for me to rent a car to drive around the city. I could have stayed with friends, but I really wanted to visit with my grandmother since Tuesday was her birthday.

I feel the interview went well. There are several things about it which bring me to that conclusion. First, the person whom I thought would play a large role in the interview itself, perhaps providing more challenging questions than the other two actually was relatively quiet. At one point my boss asked him if he had anything for me and he said he had nothing. I asked if there were any type of HR related questions for me at all. His response was "no, you've already answered everything I had, which is good." To repeat his comment, that's good.

I had a lot of questions and requests for opinions thrown at me over the course of the 1.5 hour interview. I not only had an answer for every question, but based on the comments made about the store/cluster in general through the course of the interview; my answers were what needed to be said. For example, it was said later in the interview that what the stores need is a manager who will treat them like human beings as opposed to over tasked drones. One of the questions that was asked early on was "What would you say is your greatest skill as a manager?" My response was: "I've had a lot of success on paper at my store. I'm soaring above plan and profit expectation and have great customer service scores. A year ago, I would have said my ability to manage those things is my greatest attribute. But, I've learned something about myself and management in general. My greatest and most valuable skill which I bring to the table is the ability to infuse a positive attitude into the work atmosphere. I do that by humanizing my employees. I treat them as people and am genuinely interested in them, their lives and who they are both in and outside the company. They understand that I'm actually interested in them as people and give me more respect for it than they would if I were just some guy barking orders. By making them feel like they have ownership in the performance of the store and company and that THEY are respected attitudes change." When I was given a turn to ask questions later on, one of mine was what the store needs most. My boss' response actually mirrored what I bring to the table to the point that he reused some of the phrases I uttered.

I am now at the portion of the interview process I dread the most: waiting. Two people were interviewed on Friday which leaves three more candidates. My boss will be in my center with HIS boss on Tuesday and in Corpus Christi on Wednesday. That means that he will not have the opportunity to complete the interviews until Thursday. The plan is to have a decision by Friday. This will truly be one of the longest weeks I've had in quite some time.

If less were more it would be called less, not more!

While nervous energy abounds, I find myself less concerned than the outcome of my interview than I was before. While I knew that I would BE interviewed for the position, the simple acknowledgement of that seems to have helped my concerns. I'm flying to Houston on Friday morning for a 3:00 interview time.

Why am I less concerned about the outcome? I don't know for sure, but I think it is a quiet confidence in my own abilities to interview well coupled with my own assuredness of my readiness to take on this next challenge in my career. In my first 21 months as a manager I have managed to lead the store to breaking sales and profit records and then shattering my own records twice over. In doing all of that, I've still maintained one of the most engaged and happy teams in the company.

My prediction is that what I have accomplished will not be a matter of discussion. More emphasis will be placed on and time spent on HOW I've accomplished these things and how I would adapt that methodology to a multi-unit setting. I think one of my strongest attributes as a leader is how positive I am. When you lift a team's confidence in itself and allow it to flourish, success happens on its own. It isn't really about what I can do; it is about enabling them to do what they can do. That is the secret.

Perhaps I'm subconsciously practicing for my interview? LOL

The Way Home ...

The first event in what could work out to be a phenomenal win or a horrifying disappointment for me came to pass yesterday. One of the managers in Houston is leaving to be closer to his family in Louisiana. That opens a position for me to fill ... and now I'm nervous.

I will have to interview for the position and I'm not even sure who all is applying at this point. It is quite imaginable that there will be manager or two in my district applying for this position as it would be a promotion for many. There is also the distinct possibility that several managers from the north Houston district will apply for the position. The fact that I don't know is a source of concern because I can't rate myself against my competition.

What it boils down to is how I interview compared with their expectations of how I will interview. I need to interview well by my own standards, which indeed are higher than anyone else's for me. I need to hone in on what weaknesses I have not yet tackled and show I have a realistic understanding of my own developmental needs.

The bottom line is, I need out of Brownsville. I need out of the Valley. I want this promotion to be my way home. Wish me luck!

Despite my best efforts

Without much forethought or effort, I can string together a mighty onslaught of insults about where I live. If you've known me for any length of time, you have probably been subject to one of my tirades.

For the last few days, I have tried to limit what it is I let annoy me about living here. My thought is that if I lessen the amount of complaining I do I will see a reduction in my unhappiness. By taking all of the things that get on my very last nerve and trying to ignore them, I might be more content with my own situation. On paper (or the screen), it looks like a good idea. In practice it is proving to be quite the challenge.

One of my largest problems with the area in which I live is my own boredom with it. I talk about what there ISN'T to do here but I realized that I have not done any real research into the matter. The question crossed my mind: What if I've lived down here since March of 2005 and because I ASSUMED that nothing of any interest was occurring, I have been missing out on things I might enjoy? So this morning, I made it my mission to explore the arts and entertainment calendar of the Rio Grand Valley. Here is what I found that I can put on my December Calendar:
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Candlelight Posada, Archer Park, McAllen, first Friday and Saturday nights in December. Christmas entertainment with a South Texas flair...food booths, luminarias, twinkling lights, caroling and a live Nativity scene.
Christmas Boat Parade, Port Isabel, early December. Don't miss this spectacular parade as boats make their way from Port Isabel along the causeway and along the bay at South Padre Island.
A Christmas Celebration, Edinburg, second Saturday in December, celebrates the season with mariachis, dancers, a crafts fair and Las Posadas production.
Christmas Street Parade, South Padre Island, early December. Grab your favorite parking spot on Padre Blvd. for the enchanting Christmas Street Parade.
Winter Vegetable Show, Pharr, early December, showcases the Valley's many vegetables shown by 4-H and Future Farmers of America members.

I'm particularly enthralled by the last entry. I am ashamed to admit that I have wasted SO much time complaining about the cultural void here when I could have been looking at a 10th grader's tomato. What an ass I am.

I have spent a while looking up what I would like to do in Houston and I realized that there was more to do in the WEEK of December 3^rd than I have time to post on this blog. They are all activities that I miss having available to me; musical concerts, art exhibitions, book signings, the theatre, etc. And I should note, I did not do all of the things I wished when I actually lived in Houston. I had all of it available but had not the funding to partake in it. Now, with plenty of income available for artistic adventures, I have nothing to do but look at the size of an eighteen year olds zucchini.

Is my dilemma clear?

Marathon Days

I had to chuckle at how it played out. I was having a good laugh with someone and Karma decided she would demonstrate her sense of humor as well. I don't think she's very funny.

I strolled into work yesterday morning at 9am and everything seemed to be going smoothly. There wasn't a mob of customers overwhelming my two employees there. The workload in the back seemed manageable considering we've got someone on medical leave for 7 weeks. The center was mostly clean, albeit a few spot here and there I decided to touch on before I began my day in earnest. Overall, the morning was shaping up finely. I looked to one of my employees and asked "Is it a good day?" He replied "Yes sir!" I responded "Yes it is. Do you know WHY it's going to be a good day? Because I said so." This apparently got the attention of Karma. My employee bounced back with "Yes sir. What the boss says is what goes." Here was my biggest mistake. "Yes, it's like the movie 'Dogma'. If I were wrong, the universe would actually begin to collapse in on itself and life as we know it would end."

*BEEEEEEEEEEP: William, you have a call on line one.* comes from the intercom. One of my two people working in the evening was calling in sick. Seriously, it was that fast. I was dumbfounded by how quickly Karma decided to punish me. You see, dear reader, when one person is out on medical leave and another calls in sick, I am the only person who can cover. I worked from 9am until 10:12pm. In some work worlds, working 13 hours may not seem as painful as I imply. However, 13 hours on your feet, back and forth with a 9 minute lunch dealing with an impatient public (with some being nice and some not) face-to-face is an extremely long day. I made it a point to look at what time we left because the team member closing with me remarked that she'd never gotten out that early before.

Hopefully, today will be better. I will not feed my own ego, even in jest. For my own well-being, I may not let others feed my ego. I really don't want to run the risk.

Wish me luck. ;)

Clearing out the Cobwebs

I am fantastic. That is a proven fact and books have been published on the subject. However, even though I'm fantastic, I've felt myself a bit boring lately. Despite my travels this year, where I take up residence has me a bit down and bored. Inevitably, that leads to being boring. I don't like being boring and I don't like myself when I am as such.

What to do about said boredom? Well, like most other things, it has involved spending money. *grin* Buddy and I took 22 of our favourite pictures from vacations this year and printed them out in sizes ranging from 4x6 to 18x24. Luckily, I did them all at my store so I got a good discount on it ... that 30% can come in handy. But, they look gorgeous. I've got pictures from Toronto, Houston, Las Vegas and Hawai'i.

Our next step was to go to Hobby Lobby with all of these pictures in mind and get frames for them. I thought this would be the really expensive part because Buddy said "I don't want cheap looking frames." I knew what he meant, but usually when he says something like that it means I shouldn't look at the checking account when he's done. Anyway, we found a very nice assortment of frames. They're not all the same, but there are some of similar styles. That's going to make it easier later on to add to the assortment when we go on vacations.

Anyway, we picked out the type of glass we wanted and had the framers take care of the three 18x24's. I picked them up on Saturday and we hung them all up. The result is a fantastic homage to our adventures this year. Since they've been hung, I find myself looking up and staring, almost longingly. It is definitely enjoyable to have those short little mental holidays every time I look at the wall. I invite you all over to see. It's beautiful.

BUT! You could very well be asking yourself how displaying these printed snapshots of my life outside of the Valley decrease the boredom I incite in myself. The answer is simple ... it won't. The process of going through the pictures and thinking about the fantastic places that I've been this year inspired me to do more traveling. Granted, I don't really have the funds to go on a long trip at the moment, but I still want to. Well, that desire led me to ponder what it is that I enjoy about travel. There are some places I go because of who I'm going to see; Houston is home to most of my family and friends while Toronto is home to two of my two best friends (besides Buddy). I began thinking back to my trip to Europe while in college. Outside of my group, I didn't know anyone there, so what was it that I liked? It boils down to the culture and history. Language, architecture, music, art, literature, food ... these things truly define a society beyond where the lie on a map.

That bit of self-discovery of my own feelings of the matter has led me to a solution for myself. I will take one country or culture per year and I will study it. I will study the basics of the language, the architecture, the music, the art, the literature, and when I can, the food. I'm enrolling myself in my own self-taught school. I will look up social groups/clubs of people who are a part of my culture of choice and do my best to interact with them. Will I get tire of my country/culture of choice? Perhaps, but the simple fact that it is MY choice will allow it to hold my interest far longer than it would if it were a class I'd picked in school on a whim. I am excited about this, and as you might have guessed, have already begun my first year-long journey.

"Well he lives in Mexico (practically) so he must have picked Spain or Mexico for his first adventure. That would be the only logical choice." First, I think those are two very distinct cultures. I wouldn't study England to learn about America and so I will not study Spain to learn about Mexico. True, there is a language commonality; however there are great differences in that as well. One of those two would be the logical choice. However, because I feel like I am being pressured by my situation and the expectations of the society in which I live, I have rebelled against the choices of Spain or Mexico.

Instead, I have picked a culture about which I have been fascinated for quite some time. Glenn, my favourite roommate in college was a Russian major and I have always had a particular liking for composers such as Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich, Rachmaninov, Stravinsky, Mussorgsky and the like. So, I choose Russian. I bought a book called "Natasha's Dance: A Cultural History of Russia" as well as a book on beginner's Russian. I was at Starbucks reading the other day and Nikki a friend of ours sat down next to me and asked what I was reading. I showed her and she said "oh, that's SUCH a Starbucks type of book." LOL

So, wish me luck in my new studies. I think knowledge and the activation of neurons is a surefire cure for boredom. I just have to ensure I don't use that as a replacement for my time at the gym!

wow ...

I got this as an e-mail from my mother last night. Call the President ... this child got left behind.

This is not a joke. Today, I saw this message written on plain paper and posted on the I-pod display case at the Atascocita Wal-Mart. At first I thought it must be a joke, then realized that it was not. I was so amazed I got out my pen and wrote it down verbatim…

"ATT:

Pleab axe a Wal-Mart associate four assitance wit da I-pods"