Satisfaction

I still don't understand my internal set of values and things that allow me to feel satisfaction. I think accomplishing certain things should make me feel good and sometimes they don't. Sometimes I do things that I feel are unimportant or insignificant and feel great satisfaction after completing them. It's strange.

I was super impressed with the help the boy provided this weekend. I had a huge list of chores that needed done, from cleaning, to phone calls, to errands run and everyone was extremely helpful in getting them done. The boy himself personally oversaw the cleaning of the bathroom and vacuuming. I again was very thankful and I've conveyed to him several times now how much that meant to me. I hope he gets my feeling and it helps him build on it and grow into a better person. I do wonder why most of my satisfaction comes from chore related tasks. I think I have my mother to thank for that.

Also I don't really like barking commands to be followed out to my wife. I like to bring them up in regular conversation at earlier points and be like 'Hey we're going to need to do this soon. I'll need you to do this.' Sometimes we reach the point where I can't continue until she comes through though so sometimes I do have to say to her 'Hey, get up, let's go with this'. What is absolutely wonderful about her is even if she not in the mood she is smart enough to realize the advantages of taking a few minutes of her day and getting up and getting things done. It's not like I'm trying to inconvenience anyone or that I'm asking some back-breaking, effort-intensive activity that benefits no one and I'm asking simply to irritate her. If you put a halt to what I'm doing here I may become cranky and who knows when I'll work up the gumption to get on this kind of a roll again. She realizes that helping me out really helps our whole family out and damn, after what I've been through in the past this is indescribably beautiful to me. I love that woman so much again I don't know if whenever I feel these waves of emotional thankfulness and I try to convey that to her if I could ever possibly come across in a way that she can understand. I love talking to my wife. She is my best friend. Most of the time I get the feeling that she listens to me and cares what I say and think. That is a good feeling. She shares my concerns. We are in this together. Sure some times I talk about stupid stuff that doesn't matter but even then she still half-listens. I can't really remember connecting like this with someone in the past.

I guess I'm just trying to say I love my wife, I love my son, I love my family and I am super lucky to have them. I am trying my best to be the best for them. Doing so makes me feel good. 

Giant Eagle would not make our cake

Our one co-worker in our group at work ended up interviewing for a position in another group within our same company and got the position. We were sad to see him go as we were all close to him and he was a good friend. The usual protocol in this situation is to use our regular weekly meeting time the last week he will be with us to have a nice party with a cake and tell him we'll miss him, etc. You know that kind of thing. Well it just so happens I was surfing the internet or something and somehow this picture popped up to me which just happened to relate to me and the current situation.

I thought it was funny so I sent it around to the group in an emailing saying something like 'Ha ha this is hilarious, we should get dude this kind of cake for his going-away thing'. I wasn't entirely serious. I just wanted to share the joke with everyone. I did not expect that almost everyone responded with an overwhelming 'YES, GET THAT CAKE!' Somehow I guess this made me in charge of acquiring the cake so I stopped into Giant Eagle after work that day to order it to make sure it was going to be done in time. I told the lady exactly what I wanted, a 1/4 sheet cake chocolate with white icing, put a rainbow and a unicorn on it and the phrase 'You're dead to us now, we hope you fail'. The lady thought it was funny but didn't object so I thought we were good to good.

Until Monday morning at 7:30 am when my phone started ringing. Who the hell would be calling me at this hour? I never answer my phone so I waited until it went to voice mail. It was Giant Eagle and they wanted me to call them. I did and I guess a different lady told me they would not write those words on the cake. Why not? There is no foul language or anything and I am paying you money. Her reason was they just wouldn't do it. It was offensive to them. They would make the cake, put the graphics on that we wanted but the only thing they could do was give us a frosting tube with it to write what we wanted ourselves. I was seriously offended. I'll tell you right now that I will not be buying a cake from Giant Eagle ever again and I will discourage anyone I hear thinking of going there to follow my lead. Yeah maybe this is a small thing but to me a serious one. When I am paying you money to do a job I expect you to do what I require and request. Since when can (note my sarcasm here) a 'cake artist' at the friggin Giant Eagle pick and choose what jobs they are going to do? Really?

Man did my brain go off with some ideas to start flooding them with calls for cakes that I knew they would get upset about just to mess with them to ease my annoyance. Congrats To My Teenage Daughter On Her First Period! was a good one. Let your mind flow I bet you can picture that. I let it go though. It wasn't worth it but I did feel a needed to document this affair and warn the world.

First Super Productive Day of the Year

Ton of productivity going on up in here this weekend. 

Bathroom; clean, 
new shower head; installed, 
boys room; clean, old toys and clothes; dropped off at goodwill, 
new household supplies; purchased at target,
Legos; put away,
clothes; washed,
floors; vacuumed,
burn barrel; cleaned out,
kitchen; swept and mopped

satisfaction; felt

Politics 2012 Post

2012/11/08 Obama gets lowest share of the Penn-Trafford presidential vote since 1996

2012/11/08 Five Things to Watch for in Obama’s Second Term

2012/11/07 Donald Trump, Ted Nugent, others tweet election disappointment

ELECTION RESULTS MSNBC
Post Election Review

2012/11/07 Obama's Victory and the Progressive Work To Come

2012/11/07 For Obama, a Bigger Win Than for Kennedy, Nixon, Carter, Bush or Bush

2012/11/07 Obama wins second term, outlasting Romney

2012/11/07 First Thoughts: Obama's demographic edge

2012/11/07 Victorious Obama 'more determined' in face of challenges

Politics 2012 Pre

These are some of the articles, news stories, etc I've read this election season.

DON'T FORGET TO VOTE NOV 6TH!!

2012/11/06 Welcome to Election Day: Seven Things That Could Go Wrong (or Already Have)

2012/11/05 Romney or Obama? As campaigning ends, voters render verdict

2012/11/05 Why Romney Is Unfit for the Presidency

2012/11/05 Top Ten Coming Disasters: Romney’s America 2016

2012/11/02 Mitt Romney’s campaign insults voters

2012/11/01 This should tell you all you need to know right here.

2012/10/28 If not then this? 


2012/10/23 If The World Picked U.S. President, Election Would Be A Blowout

2012/10/22 DEBATE #3

2012/10/21 Mitt Romney is the Executioner Who is Leading His Supporters to the Gallows

2012/10/18 Defeat Romney, Without Illusions about Obama

2012/10/17 DEBATE #2 

2012/10/16 Candy Crowley Fact Checks Mitt Romney On Libya (VIDEO)

Rachel Maddow pre2nd debate analysis

2012/10/11 VICE PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE 

2012/10/08 Five Practical Reasons Not To Vote Republican

2012/10/03 DEBATE #1 

2012/10/01 Tough Talk for America: A Guide to the Presidential Debates You Won’t Hear

2012/09/24 TV Stations Accept Political Ad Cash -- and Leave Viewers in the Dark

2012/09/12 Obama’s Way

2012/08/13 GOP strategy

2012/09/05 Democratic National Convention 2012
At least check out the Bill Clinton speech if not Obama's as well.

2012/08/30 Republican National Convention 2012
Clint Eastwood talks to a chair

2012/06/27 First Thoughts: Steady as she goes

2012/01/11 Shows his Flip flopping stances.


2011/12/07 The Obama we’ve been waiting for 

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So I guess you could say...

Well I believe we have achieved another goal. Ale got her 'Welcome to Employment at MSA' letter yesterday. She starts working at where I work on November 5th. I think when she still was living in Argentina trying to get all the paperwork to move up here I dreamed about how cool that would be. We could get up together and drive in together saving on gas. Now it's a reality and it's kind of weird. I guess maybe I never thought that would actually be a reality. She was getting way better job opportunities from other places. If she can make more money I definitely want her to go for it. I do think it's good she starts here. If she ends up not getting another offer for 6 months at least she's working here making money for 6 months rather than nothing. She will also be learning to drive (because she sucks at it now). That way she will be able to get to a job by herself. Since she works with me we'll drive together and that won't need to be a concern for a while.
It took some doing to make this happen. When she became eligible to work I referred her here to a bunch of jobs here and they said 'not a good fit'. GTFO She's smarter than me. She could be doing any one of those jobs. I had to give her resume to my boss Terry and have her shop Ale around before she got a hit. It's weird because it turns out it was Randy Rubash that hired her. That's the guy that hired me in the first place. He got me out of that crap job I had at WMTR and into the Miller group. That wasn't too much better but at least it was more work involving what I got my degree in and it was my foot in the door. I sort of don't like that she had to settle for Data Analyst but at least it's something. She's going to be working now and making money and our life should improve. I won't have to worry as much about supporting us all and she can start socking it away to pay for Pax and Bunneh Manor. So I guess you could say we're living the dream. It definitely sounds better and romantic than it feels in real life but I know I should be thankful and I am. I know when I look back later in life this will be an important moment.

Too Much Rain

On Sept 18th it rained. It rained badly. It was coming down like crazy and the streets were flooded. I usually don't bring an umbrella with me to work. I will put my hood up and make due but today I brought an umbrella so for some reason I though that would do me just fine. Unfortunately it wasn't the rain coming down that I really had to worry about. It was the rain that had already fallen and collected on the ground in vast bodies of water. I got to the parking lot, popped the umbrella open and started walking. I think was not even 3 minutes away from my car when I first got the suspicion that this was not a good idea yet my stubbornness to walk and get my steps for the day made me press on. The further I went the more I agreed with my original theory. Even the sidewalks were deep pools of water. I could tell my socks were getting wet and so were the bottoms of my pants. It was slow going and it got more miserable as I went. I started coming up with excuses for what I could call my bosses and say. A car drove past and splashed me would work. Yet I kept going. By the time I got there it was ridiculous. I took off my shoes and wrung them out in my trash can. I collected a good amount of water. There was no way I could work in this all day. Luckily Ale suggested I go down the street to the Target and get new clothes. That was a great idea and that's what I did. I got a pack of socks, new boots (which I needed anyway) and even a pair of pants (which I ended up taking back later because I got a size too small). I was too stubborn to ride the shuttle and that was a mistake. I did learn though because not even 2 days later I walked out of work ready to go home and it was pouring again. This time I made a good decision and got on the shuttle. I guess I can learn from experience.