Sunday, January 02, 2005
Happy New Years!!!
And 2004, a year that has seen more changes in my life than any year since my high school graduation, ended not with a bang but with a whimper.
This year I moved away from the area I've lived for thirty years. A year ago, I hadn't been outside the western PA area for more than twenty or so days and now I'm not living there at all. I was unemployed a year ago, now I'm employed in what is probably the best company I've ever lived for. It's also close to the best work environment I've ever worked in and the only one that would be better was during the dot-com boom and that's a thing of the past. I'm also an uncle figure to a nephew who's scary in his size, intelligence and independence. And I've added two more little individuals to the group. The three are all going to be amazing to watch as they grow, each in great and totally different ways.
Okay, there were some literal bangs from fireworks, but figuratively speaking, the year went out with a whimper. I spent the New Years Eve in my apartment, watching tv, eating popcorn, drinking spiked mountain dew. It wasn't that bad, though. After midnight, I talked to friends on the phone. I think, though, if I were to make one resolution for next year, it would be to not be alone at midnight next new years eve.
But first things first, a wrap-up of my holidays. The monday before X-Mas, after work, some co-workers and I went to a tavern-type place nearby. Nothing special about the trip except that the bar is probably the nicest bar within walking distance from my place and they had buffalo calamari on the appetizers menu. That's right. I said buffalo calamari. Squid in buffalo wing sauce. It was good, but it had a flaw in it's design. Calamari has a subtle taste to it. That would explain why, if it's breaded, the breading is always light. Putting buffalo sauce over top of calamari covers up any taste whatsover of calamari.
That week it was sprung on me that there was a demo of our project in mid-January to the people from the Government who we're creating the system for. There is a minor bug in my system that came out during testing at the end of our recent design phase and, since it wasn't major, rather than put a patch fix on it, I decided to fix it in the next phase. Well, we're still in the documenting stage of the phase and I was told that they wanted it to be fixed for the demo. I'm not sure why you put in a design structure that will get the project in by deadline and then have demos in the middle of it where certain things need to be done. Anyway, mix the fix in with me writing documentation, which I'm always slow at, and learning how to write device driver code, which I've never done, and general non-motivation due to the holiday season and I'm a little behind. By the time the week after christmas came, I was burnt out.
I drove home on Christmas eve eve. Nobody at work was getting anything done, those of us who were there. Alot of people took vacation days to stretch the weekend longer than three days. I kept an eye on the weather on the internet knowing that a possible snow storm might be crossing my path on my drive home. It didn't happen. After getting past the philly rush hour, I made good time.
Went to my cousin's for Christmas eve. I now have a lot of little cousins around.j It was a general nice time. I'm getting alot better at holding babies, too. My niece cries, though, when if she realizes someone other than her mother is holding her, which is the opposite of my nephew when he was that age. He would go to anybody.
Right now, for me, Christmas is in a kind of low point. It's not waking up and unwrapping presents early in the morning. Now, we wait til my brother's family gets to my parents and then we eat dinner so it's early evening when we open up presents. By the time that happens, my nephew has opened so many gifts that there's almost no excitement to it for him. He unwraps one present and, almost without looking to see what it is, he grabs for another one. I think everything will get better when the kids are older and both are extremely active and unwrapping.
There was some fireworks at xmas. I like giving gifts as much, if not more, than getting gifts. I like to buy stuff that people wouldn't think to buy for themselves. I try to put thought into everything I buy. I don't like giving gift cards. For me, it's like giving money which always seemed to send the message "I had to give you something and I didn't/couldn't think what". Presents shouldn't be about how much money is spent. It bugs me that I still don't know my sister-in-law well enough that I usually have to resort to a gift card. The gift cards I don't mind giving are to event-type things. Like restaurants, movie theatres, etc. Because you can't wrap up a trip a movie theatre. My parents and brother like giving practical gifts.
A couple years ago, my mom actually lectured me because I didn't look I liked a gift that I didn't like. It wasn't a gift that she gave me, by the way. She said that those who gave me the gift spent X amount of dollars on the gifts and I should appreciate it. I hated her saying that because that made the gift be all about the money and not about the thought. Second, X amount of money was alot less than the combined cost of what I usually spend on presents for those that got me the gift. I swore after that that I wouldn't accept birthday or xmas presents ever again. But, by the time Christmas came around, personal and work events made me back down from it.
This year, I got my mom a electric jar opener. I thought it was a neat gift and it was also practical. When I'm home, she often asks me to open jars, although when I'm not home, she can usually manage to get them open herself. She opened up the gift. My sister-in-law loved it. My aunt loved it. My aunt's stepdaughter loved it. My brother even mentioned they thought about giving her one. The look on my mom's face was total disgust. The first words out of her mouth was her asking if it could be returned. She started talking about all the kitchen-type stuff she has and never uses and how she doesn't even have a electric can opener because it clutters up her kitchen counter. The total bluntness of her reaction, with me still remembering what she told me two years ago, made me a little angry. It didn't help that the cost of the gift was exactly X amount of dollars. The same amount she lectured me about pretending I like a gift. The gift could be returned, but the place I got it isn't around Pittsburgh, so I would have to return it. Everytime she told me to take it and return it, I would reply that she should try it. Then she goes on to lecture me about how I knew she wouldn't want it and I should buy presents that I think a person would want, not something I would want. She uses the shirt she got me as an example. She said that she got me a shirt that I would like to wear not a shirt she would like me to wear. (I forget the exact words, but that's the gist of it.) I stopped the argument there because I did't want to go into the fact that a dressy shirt is not what I want as a gift and I'd rather she get me one less thing that a shirt. In general, if a shirt doesn't have the steelers logo, a pop culture reference or a funny saying on it, it's not a good gift for me. Anyway, I didn't bring the thing back to NJ with me, but I think I'll tell her I will return it for her.
The day after Xmas, I went to the Steelers/Baltimore game. There wasn't that many fights as usually between the two teams. Last year, they played the last game of the year and, despite having no playoff implications, it was a hard fought contest. This year, despite the game being needed to help get a playoff berth, the Ravens seems to be putting in less of an effort than the game a year ago. The weather wasn't as cold as the Jets game was. It was a great game. Stopped by Bill and Terri's after the game. Spent time with them and their little one. When I came out, it started to snow. By the time I was on I-79, the roads were slippery. Saw a car on the other side of the road facing the wrong direction. I did take a slight detour, avoiding one area that has curvy, hilly, isolated roads, figuring that if I'm going to be in an accident, it best to be somewhere where I can be easily found.
On I-70, it was icy, but not overly icy. The car ahead of me on the on-ramp got on going 15 mph and topped off at about 35-mph. I got up to 50 to pass him. I was in the process of passing him when a car came up behind me and started flashing his lights for me to get out of the way. Apparently going just below the speed limit is too slow for him when the road is frozen. I wonder if he saws all the flashing lights on the other side of the road because of an accident that happened about 2 miles later.
I drove back to NJ monday morning and worked half a day. Then I worked 32 hours in the next three days because I wasn't sure if I could go into work on friday because it was a company holiday but it was my usual off-friday so I didn't get holiday hours for it.
I was feeling extremely burnt out and had no energy. So I decided that this monday, the first workday of the year, I'd being using a floating holiday so I could have a longer weekend to build back energy, do laundry, restart exercising, and get some groceries.
The highlights of this weekend: Pitt football lost (I watched it), Pitt basketball lost (I fortunately didn't watch it), Steelers won. I also saw Closer. It was a good movie as far as relationship movies that are almost all dialogue go. I think that the blunt sexual language used was supposed to make the movie edgy but it was more distracting than anything. Julia Roberts appearance was back to her normal self, making me think that my comments that she looked old and/or tired in Ocean's 12 was either intentional or due to pregnancy. Of course, she's never been anywhere near my top ten for attractive actresses and she still isn't. Natalie Portman, though looked amazing. And she still has that screen presence that was totally amazing when she was just a teenager. She also looked amazing in a bra and g-string, although I think she's shouldn't do a nude scene. She just seems like the type to look better clothed than totally naked.
By the way, I did't get steelers tickets for the playoffs, but there's a chance that I might be able to getone through a friend.
It's too late for me to go back and proofread this entry, so if there's any typos, tough. And if the writing is unclear, you should be used to it by now.
And 2004, a year that has seen more changes in my life than any year since my high school graduation, ended not with a bang but with a whimper.
This year I moved away from the area I've lived for thirty years. A year ago, I hadn't been outside the western PA area for more than twenty or so days and now I'm not living there at all. I was unemployed a year ago, now I'm employed in what is probably the best company I've ever lived for. It's also close to the best work environment I've ever worked in and the only one that would be better was during the dot-com boom and that's a thing of the past. I'm also an uncle figure to a nephew who's scary in his size, intelligence and independence. And I've added two more little individuals to the group. The three are all going to be amazing to watch as they grow, each in great and totally different ways.
Okay, there were some literal bangs from fireworks, but figuratively speaking, the year went out with a whimper. I spent the New Years Eve in my apartment, watching tv, eating popcorn, drinking spiked mountain dew. It wasn't that bad, though. After midnight, I talked to friends on the phone. I think, though, if I were to make one resolution for next year, it would be to not be alone at midnight next new years eve.
But first things first, a wrap-up of my holidays. The monday before X-Mas, after work, some co-workers and I went to a tavern-type place nearby. Nothing special about the trip except that the bar is probably the nicest bar within walking distance from my place and they had buffalo calamari on the appetizers menu. That's right. I said buffalo calamari. Squid in buffalo wing sauce. It was good, but it had a flaw in it's design. Calamari has a subtle taste to it. That would explain why, if it's breaded, the breading is always light. Putting buffalo sauce over top of calamari covers up any taste whatsover of calamari.
That week it was sprung on me that there was a demo of our project in mid-January to the people from the Government who we're creating the system for. There is a minor bug in my system that came out during testing at the end of our recent design phase and, since it wasn't major, rather than put a patch fix on it, I decided to fix it in the next phase. Well, we're still in the documenting stage of the phase and I was told that they wanted it to be fixed for the demo. I'm not sure why you put in a design structure that will get the project in by deadline and then have demos in the middle of it where certain things need to be done. Anyway, mix the fix in with me writing documentation, which I'm always slow at, and learning how to write device driver code, which I've never done, and general non-motivation due to the holiday season and I'm a little behind. By the time the week after christmas came, I was burnt out.
I drove home on Christmas eve eve. Nobody at work was getting anything done, those of us who were there. Alot of people took vacation days to stretch the weekend longer than three days. I kept an eye on the weather on the internet knowing that a possible snow storm might be crossing my path on my drive home. It didn't happen. After getting past the philly rush hour, I made good time.
Went to my cousin's for Christmas eve. I now have a lot of little cousins around.j It was a general nice time. I'm getting alot better at holding babies, too. My niece cries, though, when if she realizes someone other than her mother is holding her, which is the opposite of my nephew when he was that age. He would go to anybody.
Right now, for me, Christmas is in a kind of low point. It's not waking up and unwrapping presents early in the morning. Now, we wait til my brother's family gets to my parents and then we eat dinner so it's early evening when we open up presents. By the time that happens, my nephew has opened so many gifts that there's almost no excitement to it for him. He unwraps one present and, almost without looking to see what it is, he grabs for another one. I think everything will get better when the kids are older and both are extremely active and unwrapping.
There was some fireworks at xmas. I like giving gifts as much, if not more, than getting gifts. I like to buy stuff that people wouldn't think to buy for themselves. I try to put thought into everything I buy. I don't like giving gift cards. For me, it's like giving money which always seemed to send the message "I had to give you something and I didn't/couldn't think what". Presents shouldn't be about how much money is spent. It bugs me that I still don't know my sister-in-law well enough that I usually have to resort to a gift card. The gift cards I don't mind giving are to event-type things. Like restaurants, movie theatres, etc. Because you can't wrap up a trip a movie theatre. My parents and brother like giving practical gifts.
A couple years ago, my mom actually lectured me because I didn't look I liked a gift that I didn't like. It wasn't a gift that she gave me, by the way. She said that those who gave me the gift spent X amount of dollars on the gifts and I should appreciate it. I hated her saying that because that made the gift be all about the money and not about the thought. Second, X amount of money was alot less than the combined cost of what I usually spend on presents for those that got me the gift. I swore after that that I wouldn't accept birthday or xmas presents ever again. But, by the time Christmas came around, personal and work events made me back down from it.
This year, I got my mom a electric jar opener. I thought it was a neat gift and it was also practical. When I'm home, she often asks me to open jars, although when I'm not home, she can usually manage to get them open herself. She opened up the gift. My sister-in-law loved it. My aunt loved it. My aunt's stepdaughter loved it. My brother even mentioned they thought about giving her one. The look on my mom's face was total disgust. The first words out of her mouth was her asking if it could be returned. She started talking about all the kitchen-type stuff she has and never uses and how she doesn't even have a electric can opener because it clutters up her kitchen counter. The total bluntness of her reaction, with me still remembering what she told me two years ago, made me a little angry. It didn't help that the cost of the gift was exactly X amount of dollars. The same amount she lectured me about pretending I like a gift. The gift could be returned, but the place I got it isn't around Pittsburgh, so I would have to return it. Everytime she told me to take it and return it, I would reply that she should try it. Then she goes on to lecture me about how I knew she wouldn't want it and I should buy presents that I think a person would want, not something I would want. She uses the shirt she got me as an example. She said that she got me a shirt that I would like to wear not a shirt she would like me to wear. (I forget the exact words, but that's the gist of it.) I stopped the argument there because I did't want to go into the fact that a dressy shirt is not what I want as a gift and I'd rather she get me one less thing that a shirt. In general, if a shirt doesn't have the steelers logo, a pop culture reference or a funny saying on it, it's not a good gift for me. Anyway, I didn't bring the thing back to NJ with me, but I think I'll tell her I will return it for her.
The day after Xmas, I went to the Steelers/Baltimore game. There wasn't that many fights as usually between the two teams. Last year, they played the last game of the year and, despite having no playoff implications, it was a hard fought contest. This year, despite the game being needed to help get a playoff berth, the Ravens seems to be putting in less of an effort than the game a year ago. The weather wasn't as cold as the Jets game was. It was a great game. Stopped by Bill and Terri's after the game. Spent time with them and their little one. When I came out, it started to snow. By the time I was on I-79, the roads were slippery. Saw a car on the other side of the road facing the wrong direction. I did take a slight detour, avoiding one area that has curvy, hilly, isolated roads, figuring that if I'm going to be in an accident, it best to be somewhere where I can be easily found.
On I-70, it was icy, but not overly icy. The car ahead of me on the on-ramp got on going 15 mph and topped off at about 35-mph. I got up to 50 to pass him. I was in the process of passing him when a car came up behind me and started flashing his lights for me to get out of the way. Apparently going just below the speed limit is too slow for him when the road is frozen. I wonder if he saws all the flashing lights on the other side of the road because of an accident that happened about 2 miles later.
I drove back to NJ monday morning and worked half a day. Then I worked 32 hours in the next three days because I wasn't sure if I could go into work on friday because it was a company holiday but it was my usual off-friday so I didn't get holiday hours for it.
I was feeling extremely burnt out and had no energy. So I decided that this monday, the first workday of the year, I'd being using a floating holiday so I could have a longer weekend to build back energy, do laundry, restart exercising, and get some groceries.
The highlights of this weekend: Pitt football lost (I watched it), Pitt basketball lost (I fortunately didn't watch it), Steelers won. I also saw Closer. It was a good movie as far as relationship movies that are almost all dialogue go. I think that the blunt sexual language used was supposed to make the movie edgy but it was more distracting than anything. Julia Roberts appearance was back to her normal self, making me think that my comments that she looked old and/or tired in Ocean's 12 was either intentional or due to pregnancy. Of course, she's never been anywhere near my top ten for attractive actresses and she still isn't. Natalie Portman, though looked amazing. And she still has that screen presence that was totally amazing when she was just a teenager. She also looked amazing in a bra and g-string, although I think she's shouldn't do a nude scene. She just seems like the type to look better clothed than totally naked.
By the way, I did't get steelers tickets for the playoffs, but there's a chance that I might be able to getone through a friend.
It's too late for me to go back and proofread this entry, so if there's any typos, tough. And if the writing is unclear, you should be used to it by now.
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