Instead of me babbling about my day (nothing great to report) I am going to share a few random thoughts that have been swirling in my head.

1. I think I’m a hedonist.  If it feels good, then do it doesn’t always work.  Remember that there are other things that feel good and you can’t do them all.  I need things to have values to be placed in order to make a decision.  I was recalling a lesson on hedons from junior college.  I googled it just to make sure I was correct.  Of course I was.  (:  For those who don’t know what the hell I’m talking about, here’s the cheat sheet:

A hedon is a unit of pleasure used by utilitarians. A utilitarian will probably grant you that saying something like: “Eating a really tasty sandwichgives me five hedons of pleasure, but having sex with my SOgives me five hundred hedons of pleasure.” sounds completely arbitrary. They don’t really want to imply that this is actually some kind of perfect objective measurement. What a utilitarian really wants to say here is that having sex is a hundred times more pleasurable than eating a sandwich.

Hedons are often used in conjunction with dolors in examples of hedonistic calculus. For example: “going to the dentist may cost me fifty dolors of pain now, but I will gain seventy hedons of pleasure from having healthy teeth and gums. I have a net of twenty hedons therefore I should go to the dentist.”

Everything is a cost/benefit analysis in my head.  Most of the time logic prevails.  Still, there are those times at 2 a.m. a few slices of pep pizza find my mouth.

2.  Business Ventures

My friend Sandy and I are seriously talking about starting another business venture together.  I can totally trust her in business.  I just need to see if I really want to work harder.  I enjoy my slower pace of life.  Yet, I am confident that it will do well and we have a location that wouldn’t fail.    So we are just talking about it now… but we need to start thinking business plan.

3. My laptop while sleeping

Last night I didn’t have my laptop in my room while I was sleeping last night.  I slept almost completely through the night without any interruptions.  I didn’t really DO anything different in the day that would require me to do sleep deeper. Except, I left the laptop in my living room and didn’t bring it to bed.  So tonight, I brought it with me tonight to see what happens.

I also use my ipod when I sleep.  However, this article from NOLA says:

Teens also associate falling asleep to music by playing devices such as iPods but in reality their sleep is fragmented and disrupted by the music, he said.

Now, I’m not a teen anymore, but this was still interesting.

4.   When I was a teen

I was a pretty happy kid.  I was involved, generally well liked, and successful at most things I tried.  The past few weeks, I have been more sensitive to the “best times of my life.” That’s a lie–because that would be college for me.  But like I said, high school was pretty neat.  I watched Charlie Bartlett again today on DVD.  It just reminded me how much potential and growth people have during their teenage years.  I spent the later part of this evening scanning some pictures of my old classmates for this website we created for pictures.  Amazing enough people responded and starting putting them up.  I was looking at one, someone put up of me.  I just reminded me that a.) I look like Ken’s son when I was younger and b.) life does fly by so quickly.  Just like in the movie “Finding Neverland” when they are talking about the crocodile in Peter Pan.  That time is like the crocodile–always chasing us reminding us that our time is running out. 

Well here’s to you younger Robby.  I hope I have done you proud.

 

I got a call from my friend Susan this evening asking if I was doing anything tonight.  I told her I wasn’t and she asked me to come over to help with her daughter’s grad video.  It has become a tradition for us to put together a video for each of her kids as they graduate.  It’s a fun project that both of us contribute to doing.

I spent a good amount of time tonight collecting the right pictures to put together the show.  Afterwards, her and Aidan, her son, decided to watch “Mad Money.”  I hadn’t seen it and they asked me to stay.  Well after the movie, I headed home to find a silver bug parked in my spot. 

Our complex doesn’t have assigned parking exactly.  However, I have been parking in the same spot for the past two years and it’s RIGHT next to my duplex.  This new chick moved in across the way and decided that it must be hers.  So, tonight as I got home, I parked RIGHT in front of her and left my lights shinning for an extra minute or so.  Then, I locked my car four times–complete with four honks of the horn.  As I was walking into my house, I noticed she was looking out of her blinds.  That’s right biotch… don’t mess up the world balance we have going here.  You are new–so I will give you fair warning.  But mess up the my system of living and I will make your life a living hell… a little horn at midnight at a time. 

I am enjoying watching Harry Potter and not enjoying my sore throat.  I have had quite the adventure the past week or so.  In the past four days, I have been to Las Vegas, my class reunion, and inhaled enough cigarette and forest fire smoke to become a chimney on my own.  Shall we get started?

As usual, Wednesday night is family dinner night.  And as usual, it got late before I got home.  I had enough fore-planning to at least pack my bag before I left for dinner.  When I got home at midnight, I went straight to bed before I had to be up at 6a for my flight on Thursday.  Thursday morning did not go as planned.  First, I decided I needed to print off things for the meeting I was attending in Vegas.  Secondly, I had not planned ahead with the Reunion and forgot all that I needed to bring down.  I had Vegas on the mind.  By the time I was heading to the car, I was about 10 minutes late.  While the car was warming up and cooling down, I was writing my miles down in my log.  I dropped my pen and it went ALL down my pants.  Freaking perfect.  I had to go back into the house and iron another pair of khakis to wear all day.  I haul down to Sacramento and make my plane.  However in the process, I didn’t make it to the bank to get money, nor remembered the 100 bill on my desk, nor the check in my car to cash when I got to Vegas.  Great.  No cash in Vegas.  Oh well, I was just in Reno the weekend before and I’m off to Monterey this weekend… so maybe NOT spending money this week was a blessing in disguise. 

When I got to the airport, I transferred some money just in case I needed it and was on my merry way to Vegas.  The first day of the meetings was pretty uneventful.  It was nice to see everyone and just hear the exact same thing I heard six months earlier in Tucson.  The food was bad.  The funny thing I figured about my company is that they indirectly promoted binge drinking.  They have an open bar before meals–but only for an hour.  So, I dedicate myself to getting there exactly when it opens and drink as much as I possibly can in a hour.   By dinner, I’m totally hammered and can’t taste any of the food because the vodka has killed off all my taste buds.  Maybe that’s their plan all along because the food is so bad in the first place.

After dinner, a group of the youngin reps wanted to next door to O’Sheas to play a little beer pong.  I decided to tag along.  I wasn’t going to drink much…more… because I wanted to be functional the next day.  Plus, I didn’t want to pay for my drinks.  While I was there watching and socializing, I decided I wanted one more.  Being the cheapie that I am, I thought aloud to Jenny from the Block that if I played the video poker machine at the bar, I would get a free drink.  I decided to test my theory and walked over to the bar.  I asked the bartender about the free drink and he told me that I would have to play at least 10 dollars and play max bets to get a drink.  I figured, what the hell, I would spend 5 on a drink anyway.  If I lost the other five it wasn’t the end of the world.  While I was waiting for my drink, I hit a Royal Flush with a deuce wild.  That equaled a 40 dollar win… sweet.  I got my drink shortly after and I cashed out and went to my room.  I was rooming this time with an ultra cool Mormon that although he didn’t drink, he did like to play poker.  So, we chatted for a bit before bed and called it a night.

The next day, I swear I was dying before 9a.  The speaker had me at good-bye.  I was already  texting people and doing anything to keep myself occupied for the eight hours ahead of me.  Of course, no one was up.  So,  I read the paper on my phone, got on myspace, anything to keep my mind going while my ass was going numb.  The speaker spent three hours on DISC–a personality test.  I am a huge fan of personality tests. But not three hours worth. Yet, this is another one you can totally manipulate to be who you want to be.    If you want a TRUE test, go to www.enneagramcentral.com and take it.  It will give you the best predictor of personality than all of the others combined.

After lunch, I had a dollar in quarters in my pocket.  They had been burning a hole in my pocket for the last four hours.  I decided to get rid of them.  Well guess what?  You can’t put quarters in slot machines at the Flamingo in Las Vegas!  Go figure.  I decided to try my luck on the Big Wheel on the way to my room.  I put two bucks down and hit the number… score!  Another 10 bucks which puts me up 50 dollars.  Life is looking up.  Then, I had to go hit my head with a hammer for another three hours with this speaker who has told me the same thing all the business books and trainings have told me before… but my company has a hard on for this speaking company… so I contently listened.  Kinda.  Not really.

That night I decided I wanted to go out, but no one else did.  So I just followed everyone back to O’Sheas again to watch beer pong and just BS.  Well I still had that 10 dollars in chips in my pocket.  I decided to put them to good use.  I played some blackjack with some of my friends and won another 50 bucks.  I was on a roll.  But I wanted to play some Blackjack Reverse.  My friends and I walked down the strip looking for the game and finally found it four casinos down.  I won some more there, but wasn’t having fun with the dealer… so I bolted with cash in hand.  I walked back with my friend and then we talked as we watched Jeff, my Mormon poker playing roommate, play some poker.  I got bored and my throat started to hurt, so I asked if we could walk outside to hopefully help it.  We walked and talked to the Planet Hollywood Hotel and back.  So much for going out.. but I had money in my pocket.

I got up the next morning and packed all my stuff and headed to my last meeting.  I had to leave early on Saturday because my class reunion was that night.  I had the shuttle arranged and everything was gravy.  When they were 5 minutes late, I called because I was on a tight schedule.  Five minutes they told me. After 15, I called–5 minutes. 

Finally, I half an hour later, I unloaded on the lady on the phone.  I had to take a taxi to get to the airport to make my flight.  By the time I fiddled with the automatic check in, I found out I couldn’t check in with it.  I approached the counter and they told me that I couldn’t check in to my flight because it was less than 30 minutes–by 2 minutes.  FUCK!  The next flight was at 4, which means I wouldn’t make it in time to do my stuff for the reunion.  I decided not to argue with the lady at the counter and sprint to the gate and see if they would let me on.  Thankfully, someone at the gate was nice and let me on.  I actually got an entire row to myself and napped home.

My throat was on fire all the way home and the fires didn’t help it much.  I chowed down on some In and Out and drove to Yuba City to meet with the other people helping set up the reunion.  It was pretty cake to get it all set up.  I hung out with my cousin, aunt, and uncle for a bit then headed back for my reunion.

I was super nervous about the reunion because what if no one showed?  What if I was lame?  What if everyone wasn’t have a good time?  People started to trickle in and everyone was chatting among themselves.  Only one person stumped me as far as not knowing who they were.  So I was pretty proud of myself.  Not many people changed.  Everyone had dinner and watched our graduation video as well as our Sr. Class President had our table cloth from Grad Night, so we signed it again for our 10 year.  Hopefully it will stick around for our 20.   But everyone had a great time and it was so nice to catch up with everyone.

However, it brought me back to high school in a way.  I was never associated with a group, but just a floater.  I really didn’t have a clique.  I was friends with everyone and I just bounced from group to group.  Which is exactly what I did last night.  I made sure to spend time with everyone to catch up.  Which is nice because I know a little about everyone, but not a lot about many.  Still, I saw everyone else bunch up and not really talk to others.  Which somethings never change–but it was so great to see that everyone was happy. 

I guess afterwards, the group bounced around to the great bars of the Marysville/Yuba City area.  And of course, someone got into a bar fight. It wouldn’t be a Class of 98 event unless someone got in a fight.  But you could never doubt we had spunk. 

Today I met with the principal/sup for Maxwell regarding its elementary principal position.  I got there around 10 in the morning and left about 1.  To me, that tells me someone is interested in me.  I talked to him about the job and I am liking it for a few reasons…

1. The Sup is old school.  I need a little old school in me because I can be too new school.  He would be a great anchor to keep me grounded.  He’s also straight forward and has a lot of experience.  I learn a ton from him to grow as a professional.

2.  It’s a good small school.  I can turn good into great. They have an API score of 800 now.  Now, get them to ring out 50 more points will be a challenge.  There are some staff issues that I think can be worked out by just my leadership style of being open, honest, and swift.  I know I can win these guys over if they give me the “kid” a chance.

3. The pay would qualify me for a house finally.  That would be a plus.

4. The district is small and there are too many people to mess with what we did to do to get done.

The Cons:

1. Leaving at this time of the year is hard for the current job.

2. The commute is long–50 minutes each way

3. More stress

SO, we’ll see…

Today I was so proud of myself.  I had left overs for lunch, a rice bowl for dinner and fruit as a snack… until about 8:30.. then it went down hill.  I had a craving for ice cream.  I rode my bike to my friend Sandy’s to drive off her computer that I borrowed (fuck you Vista, I hate you).  When I got there I decided that I should go meet Sandy at the hospital to see the arrival of our friend Nicole’s new baby Emma.  So, off on my bike I went across town to the hospital and hung out there.  On the way back I had a terrible craving for that mentioned ice cream.  I also had a movie that I needed to return.  So, off to Blockbuster and Safeway on my bike.  I love the fact that Chico is so bikeable and warm in June. 

I went to Blockbuster and realized that I didn’t have my bike key… or any keys for that matter.  This makes me very nervous in Chico because bike theft is a common as a kid picking his nose.  It happens a few times a day.  So I sprinted through Blockbuster trying to get the second DVD of Greek-Season 1.  I watched the first one today.  If you haven’t watched the show.. you need to watch on www.abcfamily.com.  Sadly, they didn’t have the dvd… so I grabbed something else and sprinted to Safeway.

At Safeway, I was nervous my bike was surely going to get stolen.  But for ice cream, I was willing to take the chance.  Unfortunately for me, everyone else had the same idea to go to Safeway at 9 P.M. on a Wednesday.  Packed to say.  But I also decided before I left I wanted to make cookies… so I also got the needed ingredients for those too. 

I petaled my butt back home and started on those cookies.  Partly because I wanted a cookie and the other part because it’s my friend’s birthday tomorrow.  So, I got a great recipe online as well as a frosting recipe and made cookies at 10P.  I am happy to report that I made possibly the best sugar cookies of my life.  The frosting wouldn’t stick, but hey, I’m good–not perfect.

Today I worked.  A novel concept being that it’s the second week of June.  I got some foundations down with the new accounts I won for 09.  I forgot how much work it is to get schools up and going with us.  However, for some reason, I really enjoy the drive up to Nevada City.  So, it never feels like it’s a far trip. 

I stayed up late talking to one of my friends from high school Mark.  He was a year below me and I knew his brother.  We were talking online until 1:30 this morning.  Adding to the fact that TODAY was the only day I had to get up early sucked.  But I did it.

When I got home, I took my normal nap and did a quick jaunt to the gym.   When I got back I decided to call Danielle (she called me earlier) and invited her over for a movie.  She came over with some drinks and we got talking about personalities.  I really do dig her–but I don’t quite understand all about her.  I want to take it slowly because I am going to Europe.  So I had her take the enneagram for me.  She’s a ONE!   I can work with that…. but in conversation, she asked me what I thought about her.  My response—The jury is still out.  If I could have came up with a more fucked up response, I would like to know.  Shoot me now.

We watched this older movie called “100 Girls.”  The main premise of the movie is this college freshman got laid in an elevator when the power was out and spends the rest of the semester trying to figure out who it was.  While he’s searching, he finds out how to be a man and blah blah blah… gets the girl in the end.  It was totally a sneaker flick–totally a fart and dick joke movie with a chick flick end.  I guess everyone goes home happy.

Speaking of home, the penguin returned from his trip.  His girly tried to call the landline tonight and it was routed to my cell phone. Denied I say… if the penguin doesn’t throw me some chum, he can’t use my business phone.  I feel no guilt.  But like a true penguin, he marched straight into his lair not to return.  So all in the world is right.

Last night my friends Allison and Scott got married.  And true to form, I got hammered.  I mean I was so drunk I couldn’t even go to sleep.  I was my own winery.  I could taste the wine everywhere.  I didn’t puke.  But I couldn’t sleep.  I got online to talk to everyone. 

I woke up at about 5a thinking I am going to have the hang over from hell.  Thankfully I took care of myself last night and drank a bunch of water and took some advil.  I got up at about 10a this morning feeling okay and ready for my complete LAZY Sunday.  I am going to go out on my hammock after I have some bacon and waffles, go to the gym, and read.

This is one of my few days I can remember that I am still in bed at 10:30 and screwing around on my computer.  It was pretty sad…  I was going through my facebook pics and listening to Dreamgirls (it was on the rotation).  I might as well been singing memories. 

Tonight was the third of four graduations I’m attending.  It was nice and entertaining at the same time.  The first one was typical emotional one for me.  I was nervous that it was going to be alright.  By tonight, I had it down and I was chill.  The only thing was that I spent four hours in the car.  For the first time in a while, I felt car sick going up the mountain to Chester.  Yes, that’s the real name of the town.  Their claim to fame is that Chuck Norris has a cabin up there.  Speaking of Chuck Norris, there’s talk that Jack Baurer for 24 is replacing Chuck Norris Jokes. 

So tonight, in respect of Chuck Norris, I am posting all the jokes about him…

uns don’t kill people. Chuck Norris kills People.

Good Night and Good Luck

My bed.  What more can I say about it than what you already know.  I bought it my second year of teaching.  I used the money I earned from “teaching” a remedial course.  I say “teaching” because I just opened the door and handed them the packet–easy money.  Well, I bought a temperpedic bed with said money and I have never looked back. 

What baffles me about my oh so comfortable temperpedic bed is that I insist on sleeping on the edge of it.  Now,  I am 6′3 and quite lenghty.  So when I sleep on my side, my arms hang over the side.  I am single and don’t share my bed.  Why not scoot the hell over so my arm doesn’t feel like it’s going to fall off in the middle night when I have to wake up to take a pee?  I have not the clue… I guess I like living and sleeping on the edge.

But while I am on my bed, I hate sharing it.  I talked to my therapist once about it.  I thought there was something wrong with me.  Some issue that needed to be explored because I couldn’t share my bed.  She said there wasn’t–it was just a comfort issue.  Well I can tell you a few things about it.  When I do share my bed, I get no sleep–no matter how long her and I have been dating.  When I do finally get married, we are getting double beds that we can push together.  I want to have sex the Donna Reed Show style. 

I know I am going to hell, but senior citizens drive me nuts.  I don’t hate them individually, but their idiosyncrasies  are retarded.  First, they have no set pattern of flocking to the roads.  It used to be right around 11 after Price is Right was over.  But since Bob hung up the mic–not so much.  I live in a part of Chico that has a high concentration of seniors.  My two banks are also located in this prime zone for them.

I got in my car to go the bank and I knew I chose the wrong time.  Now it’s TUESDAY the 4th.. it’s not a payday; free giveaways; or a Depends Discount Day. They were all over the road going 15mph in a 45 leaning over the wheel clinging for dear life.  They slow down at a light that is green because in two minutes it is going to turn yellow and they might get hit.  Then RIGHT when they get to the intersection they swerve to make a right hand turn.  All the while, I’m loading the gun in my car to blow their tires out.

I walk into Bank of America and I swear I walked into an AARP Convention.  They were everywhere!  They are scared of the ATM so they are doing every single transaction with the teller.  Most of the teller at this branch are pretty young and you can tell on their face they are ready to scream. I shit you not, one of them had a brown paper bag full of rolled change.  If that’s not the epitome of being a senior citizen, I don’t know what is… oh wait, if they were using it buy cat food for their 40 cats… now that would be it.  What is so weird about the branch is that I can come back next week at the same time and day and none of them will be there.  I then went to the hipper, trendy (as they might call it) WAMU to make my personal deposits.  I was relieved that no oldies here.  I was in and and out within 5 minutes.

Also in the complex is our Trader Joes.  Usually reserved for the Yuppies of Chico, today there also was Senior Citizen Day.  Again, Tuesday at 10:45–does anyone work in this town?  The place was PACKED.   WTF?  Go to work.  I just ran in to grab some snacks for one of my schools.  I was in line thinking I would be in and out here too.  Nope.  Didn’t look up to realize that yet another senior citizen was in front of me trying to, get this–use two gift cards and a credit card in the same transaction.  God bless his soul.  He was confused between which card to use and how to use the Point of Sale.  Now, normally, I don’t have patience for anything.  But by this time, I had let go and was just enjoying the fact that someone 50 years from now will be writing something like this about me.  I was just thinking about tonight when I could write it.  After a few minutes of the cashier helping him, he got it.  What the best thing about the situation was he was buying a few cases of white wine.  Time well spent old man, time well spent.