Well, I got my 90 day review today, and I’d hate to
brag…………awwww hell, who am I kidding, I’d love to brag. It was
a pretty damn good review. My boss is reconmending me for a promotion
to the next level, whatever that is. My boss said that this type of
thing is very unusual for somebody on their 90 day review. The thing
is, if I take it (its about a 10% increase in pay) I won’t be able to
apply for any other positions within the company for the next 6 months,
and I really want to try to move up to the auditing position (its
pretty much the same position I had at AAA) and I won’t be able to do
that if one comes available within the next 6 months. So, now I have a
dilema. Should I take the promotion? I’m leaning toward yes. I really
need the money and there is no guarantee that the other position will
even be available. She said she will check with the manager to see if I
might be able to still apply for that other position if it becomes
available. I have heard from other people that have been there for much
longer, that if it is the right person and they really like him or her,
they will bend the rules for that person.

While I was at lunch today, I overheard a few ladies discussing the
“Passion of the Christ”. One of the biblebeaters was saying she took a
friend to see the movie and the friend was so moved by it, that she was
crying (I personally don’t get it. I didn’t find it as sad as the
Pianist, Schindler’s list, or Heather Graham’s performance in Austin
Powers 2). One of the other ladies at the table said something along
the lines of asking if the lady converted after that. The movie lady
said no, but she was still a Christian and the other lady said “well,
all you can do is pray for her”. See, this bothers me. There was a
similar situation in which another guy at work said he thinks being gay
is wrong, he doesn’t condone that type of activity, but he still prays
for gays. What if we don’t want you to pray for us? What if a Muslim
tried to get a Christian to convert, and when the Christian declined
and the Muslim said he would pray for the Christian, how would the
Christian react? Would he find this acceptable? Sorry, but I don’t want
or need people to be praying for me, and if somebody says they will
pray for me, I find it offensive. Maybe I’m over reacting, but I have
always felt that a person’s religious beliefs are very private. After
all, if I find out somebody is straight, I don’t say to them “well, I
will pray for you.” We (and I speak of atheists, agnostics, heathens,
sinners, and gays) don’t need you praying for us. For starters, we are
happy with who we are, and if we needed or desired for somebody to pray
for us, we would do it ourselves. You are no better than us, and
therefore does not give you the right to pray for us like you are some
sort of agent of God. Just let us live our lives the way we want to,
and in the end, if there is a God, he or she or a jury of our dead
peers will be the one to decide if we are to be sentenced to a possible
hell, or aquitted and allowed to live wherever it is that the innocent
live…………you know, Kansas. So please, don’t you have enough to
be praying for and concerned with, like not choking on your lunch or
making it home safely?

The Sosa trade has made it the next step, getting the approval of pussy
commisoner the Dis-honorable Bud Selig along with the blessing of the
greedy and baseball ruining players union. Supposedly, the final and
next step is Sosa passing a physical. I had my doubts about this trade
actually going through, but now I’m thinking it might actually happen.
I can’t wait for that egotistical, selfish prick to be outta here.

I think many adults can learn a lot from these kids.

http://www.365gay.com/newscon05/01/013005spongeUpdt.htm

I had to get my oil changed today. I love Jiffy Lube……….they
always have the hottest guys working there and there is something about
the words Jiffy Lube that sounds hot. The first dude I saw was a blond
haired cutie with really nice lips………you know the kind……..its
the kind of lips that make it seem like he has a big dick. And he had
this great smile. Anywho, he tried telling me my fuel injectors were
dirty and needed to be cleaned and there was some other part that was
rusty. I don’t know if this was the case, but I think they might have
noticed it yesterday when they fixed what ever it was that they fixed.

I spoke to Danel today. She is on some sort of religious kick, which, is
frustrating. She and I used to be so vulgar, we would bring out the
vulgarity in each other. She used to swear more often than anybody this
side of my mother, but now that is no longer the case. Our whole
friendship was based on us making fun of each other and saying crude,
yet fun things to each other. She has changed so much since she got
involved with this little “get rich over a gradual time” scheme. She
has become really cocky and arrogant about things, and now that she
has……….well, for lack of a better term, found God (although she
always was at least semi-religious , she has gone to church every week
for years) she just has this “I’m going to heaven and you’re not” type
of attitude. Call me selfish, but I want the old Danel
back………..the one that I used to have so much fun with.

While I was talking to her, Scooty called and said that he needed help
moving a ping pong table that weighs 240lbs into his house. Why do
people always call the weak guy when heavy shit needs to be moved?
Anywho, he wanted to meet me at his house between 3:30 and 3:45. Me
always being early, arrived right at 3:31. He, of course, was not there
yet. I sat in the car listening to the Stones while reading their CD
booklet for “Forty Licks.” Finally, about 3:46,  during Ruby
Tuesday, he arrived with his girlfriend. Mark actually pulled up at the
same time. Scooty said they had a hard time getting the table into the
van, so he didn’t think it would be easy. And, it was just the 3 of
using moving it. Much to our suprise, though, it actually went very
very well. It was easy to get out of the van and not nearly as heavy as
I thought it would be. Once we got it inside, we took it apart and
moved it into the basement.

After that I went over to my cousin’s house for his son’s 1st birthday
party. When I walked in, neither my cousin nor his pregnant wife were
there. My brother, who is my cousin’s best friend, told me that my
cousin’s wife had started bleeding and they had to take her to the
hospital, so sadly, the parents missed their kid’s first birthday
party. The whole night, there was a somberness to the party, but I
think, for the most part, everybody had a good time. As it turns out,
the placenta has moved toward the cervix (whatever that means, its not
good) and she is going to be in the hospital at least a few days. They
are giving her steroids to help the baby’s lungs. They said if the
bleeding doesn’t stop, she will have to deliver the baby, which is not
good at all seeing as she is not due until May 24. The doctors were
pretty honest in saying that they don’t give the baby any chance if he
is born now. In fact, Harriet (my cousin Tony’s wife) is in danger as
well. About 8:30PM, my cousin got home, and although he was talkative,
he was understandably saddened. My brother is staying there tonight
with him in case he gets a call, then John can stay home with the kids.
Lets hope for the best.

I spent a good portion of the night talking to my cousin Matt. I had
not seen him in a while, and it looked like he lost weight. He was
suprised to notice my belly has gone down and said I looked good. I
told him I had given birth to a boy and now I felt pretty damn good.
Matt, his dad, and I were watching the Bulls game and talking about
when Matt went to the Bulls basketball academy about 11 years ago.
It  sounded pretty cool, I would have loved to have done something
like that.

The food was very good. Harriet’s mom is full Polish and can really
good some good ass food. In fact, she made her perogis and stuffed
cabbage from scratch. Good stuff. And the Polish sausage………..man,
that was really good too. Of course, I LOVE Polish sausage, they are
usually really big, but I also love to eat it too.

I was talking to my cousin’s 10 year old step-son towards the end of
the night. Nomally, I goof around with the kids and say funny things to
them, but tonight, I had somewhat of a serious conversation with him.
He was telling me all about his dad, whom I have never met. He told me
that he likes NASCAR, country music, has pick-up truck, and likes to
hunt. Gee, I wonder what type of person he is? I asked him if his dad
voted for Bush and he said he didn’t know. He said that if he had been
able to vote, he would have voted for “Kenny” which I corrected him on
and said it was Kerry. He said that he wouldn’t have voted for Bush
because Bush gave the middle finger to a TV camera and would have voted
for Kerry because he “thinks its ok to stick a needle in a woman’s
stomach and kill the baby” which he said was a lie and Kerry doesn’t
think thats ok. I asked what he thought about war and he said “what,
you mean World War 1?” I said no and told him a more recent war and he
replied with “you mean the British war, or the Civil War”. Now, I know
what you must be thinking, that I’m crazy to talk to a kid about this
sort of thing, but I just wanted to know what a kid’s impression of all
of this would be. I asked him if he had heard of the Iraq war and he
said he had, and that he wants to fight in a war. John and I explained
to him that war is not like it is in video games and that once you die,
you are dead. He understood this, but still thought it would be cool to
be in a war. Man, the innocence of children.

Ever have one of those sexual dreams, where you wake up and you can’t
remember who it was about, or what exactly you did, but you know it was
sexual? Well, I had one of those dreams last night, and I was trying to
remember who I thought of all morning, and then if finally hit me: it
was about a guy I used to work with at AAA…………in fact, a guy
that I had…………..a lot of sexual tension with. Anywho, I keep
having these sexual dreams about him. Man, I want him!

I shouldn’t even mention it, because I don’t want to jinx it, but its
too big and I’m too excited not to talk about Sammy Sosa being traded,
pending his passing of a physical. I can’t believe the Orioles were
dumb enough to take him. I was actually reading about the 1998 season
in the book I’m reading and its really interesting to see how much he
has changed since then. No matter what, his story will always be
amazing, rising from as poor and as hopeless a childhood one can have,
to be a successful baseball player is amazing. And back in ’98, he was
not this egomaniac, selfish asshole he is now………..sure, he was
all of those things, but not to the extreme that he is now. But, all
his success went to his head, and he thought that he was above the team
and therefore, he made for a bad teammate and a cancer in the
clubhouse. The funny part is that he didn’t want to come back, the
manager didn’t want him back, his teammates didn’t want him back, the
GM didn’t want him back, and even the fans didn’t want him back, and
yet, they were almost stuck with him (and I guess, there is still a
chance it might not go through, but lets hope all goes well). Now they
just need to find a replacement for him (Magglio Ordonez is the best
option out there right now, provided he is healthy) and most
importanly, find a closer, although that is going to be very tough at
this point. The guy they got in return, Jerry Hariston Jr, is a good,
serviceable player, and hopefully, they can have him play left field,
provided they sign Mags. They have gotten rid of most of the attitude
problems from last year, which is going to help a lot.

I got the car fixed tonight. It was some sort of emissions type thing,
I don’t know what it really was, but I was relieved to see that it only
cost $250. Sure, I was hoping for less, but I glad it wasn’t $1000.

I spent over an hour on the phone with my sister tonight, and for most
of the time, we talked about politics and religon. I was shocked to
find out that she has never smoked pot, I just always assumed she did
because she is Wican and has some hippie traits. For somebody that
claims to be part of a religon that does not try to talk people into
her religon, she spent an awful lot of time sharing with me all sorts
of info about her religon, almost like she wanted me to sign up.

I watched “Supersize Me” tonight. I liked it a lot. Although I knew how
bad eating unhealthy is, I was shocked to see the effects of straight
McDonald’s for 30 days on a person’s body. I have always believed that
obesity is a major problem in this country, although I have never
written about it on this blog. Some heavier people resent me for me
being thin, which pisses me off. I work hard to keep this slim figure.
And, I was once about 30lbs heavier than what I am now, and it took a
lot of hard work and dedication to get to where I am now and to keep it
where it is at. This is going to open up a can of worms and seem mean,
but, overweight people like to blame others and not take responsibility
for their weight. Honestly, deep down, they know that, for the most
part, it is their own fault. Sure, some people have legit problems,
such as glandular and genetics, but most can lose weight if they worked
at it. I know its hard and a challenge, I have been there, although I
was never overweight and did not need to lose a massive amount of
weight. But, you have to be determined. You have to pass on seconds.
You have to not buy the junk food. In this movie, some people were
saying they eat fast food everyday, and I know people that eat it
everyday. Thats not healthy in the least. Shit, I haven’t eaten fast
food in at least 2 months, and you know what, it shows. I don’t blame
these fast food places, although they can certainly help by offering
healthier alternatives. The thing is, people know they are not eating
healthy and they a choice as to what they eat. I’m very aware of
everything I put in my body. I see heavy people at work, and it
disgusts me. How can they not take care of themselves? They are
morbidly obease, and yet they eat shit and prefer to take the very very
slow elevators instead of the stairs. Just a small step of using the
stairs is a good way to get started. And the funny part, is that its
quicker. Shit, these elevators are so slow, that I can crawl up the
stairs backwards and still make it to the top before the elevator. I
know some people have physical reasons for not using the stairs, but
they still should exercise. People claim they can’t find the time, but
you have to make the time. It has to be a part of your life and your
daily routine. Shit, they have no problem finding the 5 hours a day to
watch tv and to eat the junk food, but can’t find time to exercise?
Thats bullshit. Hell, they can do what I did……..buy and exercise
bike and put it in front of the TV, so that you can exercise while
watching TV. My thinking, is that if I’m going to be sitting on my ass
watching TV, I might as well be doing something productive.

I was disheartend to hear that only one state requires gym class for
kids in grades K-12, and that state is IL, which I’m proud to say.
Exercise is just as important for kids as it is for adults. Its good to
get them started on good habits of exericse. Getting back to the movie,
its a movie I think everybody should see, as it can be a real
eye-opener for some people. There is a guy at work that has been on
Atkins, and so far, he is down 20lbs (he was 350 before getting
started) and I think people like him, people that want to make that
change, should be applauded and celebrated. Anywho, I think I have
ranted long enough, now its your turn to say something back.

I started back on the phones today, newly trained not good enough to
take these calls. I was pretty anxious about the whole thing, but it
turned out to be a lot easier than I thought. A lot of it was stuff I
was already doing. The biggest change is that the calls are back to
back to back to back……….well, you get the idea. Its crazy. I
don’t like it to be that busy.

Tomorrow my car is going to be investigated to find out why that
annoying check engine light is on. I’m pretty sure it won’t be anything
to serious, but I’m still concerned about it, as if it is really
expensive to fix, it will be a huge problem.

I heard the other day on the radio that on that lame ass show the
Simple Life, stupid bitch Paris Hilton was interning at a firehouse and
used a bad word over the CB and because of this, somebody filed a
complaint with the FCC, even though it was censored out when aired on
FOX. I guess the FCC oversees CB frequencies, so the complaint is in
regards to the CB, even though the complainer did not hear it on the
CB. This is ridiculous. This country has become way too conservative
over stuff like this. Here are a couple of other examples. FOX was
going to air “The Best Damn Sports Show Period.” (another really bad
show……….there is no explanation for the talent-less Tom Arnold
being on it) but instead they have changed the name of it, replacing
the Damn with Darn. Also, Mickey Rooney was going to bare his 84 year
old ass (I swear, I am not making this up) in a commercial during the
Super Bowl, but they have decided not to air it. Now, I don’t see the
need to see some 84 year old, sagging, wrinkly cheeks, but I think he
should have the right to bare them pasty buns if he wants. There are
serveral other examples too (like the FCC getting complaints about the
Olympics) but the way I see this, is all of it goes back to Janet
Jackson. Why? That was just 1/10 of a second of semi-covered nipple. In
Europe, they have full frontal male nudity (or so I’m told……..if
this is incorrect, please correct me) on TV commercials, but in this
country, the conservatives and FCC have the networks running scared,
its pretty sad. How is it that we are going backwards? Next thing you
know, we are going to revert back to the 1950s when Elvis couldn’t be
shown shaking his hips on TV. And the funny part, is that Europe is
doing just fine, despite the lack of prude-ness (has that sentence ever
been written before……….I’m pretty sure prude-ness isn’t even a
word). Europe hasn’t crumbled because there is some nudity on TV, and you
know what, the site of Mickey Rooney’s hemorrhoid laced behind is not
going to turn this country into a Woodstock sex romp. In fact, we will
go on and everything will be ok.

I heard on the Daily Show last night (is it sorta said that I get some
of my news from The Daily Show?) about an article in the New Yorker
that the US is planning to invade Iran. I sincerly hope this is just
rumor. How can that dumbass even consider something like this? Oh,
thats right, I forgot, he is an oil man and probably wants to build a
pipeline from Afganastan to Iraq and the mass of land known as Iran is
in the middle of the two. Knowing him, though, he probably does want to
do it and even before we leave Iraq. All of this makes sense, though.
And a couple of weeks ago, he said that he isn’t going to push for a
gay marriage ban because he doesn’t think congress will pass it. Now,
not only do I agree with this (I don’t think they will pass it and I
dont want him to try) but this is something he ran on. This was one of
his big issues. And he promised all of those right wing Christian
nutjobs that he was going to get it passed. Now, they can’t be happy
with him at all, but I find it funny. Nevertheless, its fairly obvious
he just said that stuff to get re-elected, with his real agenda being
to invade Iran at some point in his second term. Now, I know this might
sound crazy and is a big stretch, but I would never put anything past
him.

Dave called me today saying that this was “the first day of the rest of
his life” and I just assumed that he either quit his job or impregnated
Kelli. Turns out he just discoverd something with our cable called “On
Demand Cable” located on channel one. Yes, thats right, channel one, I
guess it does serve a purpose. All my life, I wondered when we would
start using channel one, and now, the dream has finally come true.
Anywho, it is really cool. I have heard about it before, but in name
only. The best way to describe it is, to use it for yourself, you would
understand then. But, if you dont have comcast digital cable, its sorta
like TIVO for cable, except you can’t really program it to tape things.
And it is not available for all channels. Ok, so it is very different
from TIVO, but there was no other way to describe it. Anywho, they had
tons of videos on there too, which was really cool.

I got nothing else today. Perhaps you should give me a topic to write about for tomorrow and I will see what I can do.

I was driving home from work today when I looked down at my dashboard
and all of a sudden saw the check engine light go on for some reason.
This makes me nervous. I’m getting close to paying the car off (I’m
going to pay it off early) and I don’t want anything to happen to
prevent me from being able to do this. The owners manual says this
probably is a problem with some sort of emissions thing, last time this
happened, it was the oxygen sensor and it was still under warrenty. The
manual also said it could be just some water that got in there
somewhere, but this is not likely, but it said it might go off after a
couple of trips. I’m hoping for this. Otherwise I have to either get it
fixed or get the check engine light removed so that I don’t know there
is a problem, because, as we know, if I don’t know there is a problem,
then the problem does not exsist. I cured my mother’s gambling problem
the same way.

Although I’m in that training class this week, the entire company is
very very busy and extremely short staffed. The thing is, we took on
the addition of 2 more states (Texas and New Mexico………I know,
apperently there is a NEW Mexico now) and have not added nearly enough
people. A major problem is that we don’t have enough space in the
building to keep hiring. This is a big problem. We have not taken on
Texas all at once, but instead a little bit at a time. We had some
added in November, and yet more to be added in June, which means, we
are only going to get busier and busier. At this point, I’m convinced
that there is no way we can keep ourselves properly staffed without
some major changes. They are going to be asking us to work OT ( I have
been doing this for 2 weeks now, but they are paying us double time
after 40 hours, but this is only until the end of the month) but that
is not something I want to do for an extended period of time. And its
so busy in the call center, its call after call after call. Most of the
day, there are about 40 calls holding for as long as 20 minutes. This
is what I will walk into come Monday when I’m out of this latest
training class.

Today our trainer bought Krispie Kremes for us. It was very nice of
her, but she shouldn’t have. She had 2 dozen, one dozen of the glazed,
and one dozen of a variety pack. They were so good, though. I wound up
eating 4 of them! The other guy in the class had 6 of them! I was
amazed by this, seeing as it was unhealthy, but he just said that he
could do that, as he was over 21 (54 to be exact) and he didn’t need to
ask his mother for permission to eat any! I know that might sound mean
but he said it in a funny way.

Oh, I’m so excited. According to that Ed McMahon ( I think he needs to
do a little more drinkin and a little less junk mailing) place, I may
already
be a winner. In fact, somebody with my intials is guarenteed to win.
Why can’t that just be honest and say “You may already be a loser”.
After all, the odds are 1 in 325,000,000 that I will win. I wouldn’t
exactly say I like my chances. The funny part, is that I’m not going to
buy anything from the Ed company, so that can’t be good for my chances,
even though they always say no purchase needed to win. My promise to
them, though, if I win, I will renew my subscription to TV Guide.

Man, the training class was again a waste today. We spend so much time
just talking instead of learning. Although I don’t mind talking
personal, but I want to learn so that I’m not screwed when I come out
of training. The funny part is that there are only 3 of us in there (4
including the trainer) but yet, we still manage not to do as much as we
should.

I really want to start playing basketball again. I really miss it. I
love playing so much. This guy at work said that he plays at his health
club and might be able to hook me  up with a game or 2. I need to
play again so that I can be reminded that I’m not as good as I think I
am. I will say this, I won’t keep coming back and announcing my
retirement like a certain other Michael.

Ok, big big big news!!!! BIG NEWS!!! Lucky Charms has jungle fever!!!!
Thats right, there is now a Lucky Charms Chocolate. And not the
marshmallows. The other pieces are all chocolate. For years, I have
always thought Lucky Charms was just an average cereal, but could
really do some good by adding some chocolate to it, which I never
thought they would do. I have always thought the leprechaun was nice,
but just kept to his own race. Now, out of the blue, he starts in with
the chocolate. I wonder how his parents felt about all of this. I did
actually eat it this morning, and I have to say, its not exactly
magically delicious. I think I just expected more out of it. You wait
your whole life for a cereal to add chocolate to it, you sort of expect
to be the end all, but it really wasn’t that way.

Have I mentioned that I have grown to dislike shoveling? We live on a
main road that is one of the first in town to be plowed. I had just
gotten through shoveling the whole drive and was working on the
sidewalk when a plow came by and un-did all that I had just did by
dumping more snow back onto the end of the driveway. Of course, this is
something that happens all the time, so I am used to it, but there is
nothing I can do about it. It needs to be shoveled, but on the other
hand, the road needs to be plowed.

As I was shoveling, my neighbors teenage son was outside cleaning of
his car. Now, I have known him since he was a little kid, but its not
like I know him all that way. I noticed this time, that he seemed a
little………..fem. Now, I’m not really saying he is gay, but it
would not suprise me one bit if he was.

John and I went to Scooty’s last night. We watched Farenheit 9/11, this
was the first time I saw it since I saw it in the theatre. It just
pisses me off so much, and it pisses me off more knowing that he got
re-elected.

So, Johnny Carson died. I remember growing up and watching him, he was
funny, although I have always found Letterman funnier and I liked him
more. Still, Johnny was rare in the fact that once he retired, he stood
retired and didn’t feel the need to keep coming back or nosing around
where he shouldn’t be, which so many other celebs tend to do.