Taking A Spill

I'm amazed that I haven't blogged more often lately, given that I'm doing just short of, oh, I don't know, NOTHING at work right now. Granted, I can't complain, b/c I am a total of 12 days or so away from being done with the company forever. Nothing to be mad about there.

So I was relaxing on my front porch the other day (because somehow, it's nice and cool outside, and a total f'ing sauna in my house) and I saw some kid learning how to ride his bike in the parking lot of the church across from my house. And I started thinking why don't I have any memories of my dad teaching me how to ride?

Then I remembered:

I got my first "big kid" bike when I was 5. Of course, it was black, with the foot brakes, the kickstand, and the requisite training wheels. The training wheels didn't last too long. (Surprise, I was impatient as a child too!!) Now, my birthday is in March, which in Erie means "the dead of fucking winter). So I didn't get a lot of practice in right away. By May, I was ready to ride outside though, sans training wheels. So on a relatively chilly afternoon, after a nice spring rain storm, my father takes me out with the intention of "learning to master this here bi-cycle".

There were two inherent problems here. One, we lived on a tar-and-chip road, which is a fancy form of well pressed gravel, with sharper rocks. Two, in front of all of the houses on both sides of the streets, there were open run-off ditches that filled (and occassionally overflowed) with rainwater. Oh, and I still hadn't ridden on my own, without the trainers. This sounds like a recipe for a concusion, doesn't it?

So we start out the old fashioned way, nice and slow, the old man holding onto the back of the seat, walking/jogging behind the bike, going only a quarter of the way up the street, letting me get a "feel" for it. Apparently, I thought I was doing well, b/c I said "Let's go all the way up the street and back"

Well, we made it up, again going relatively slow. I must have thought I was actually good at riding my bike at this point. Because after he helped me turn around, I hammered it.

To his credit, the old man kept up for a good 75 yards or so as I remember it. Then, well, physics took over, and I outran him. Unfortunately, I didn't know it. So I'm cruising, pumping away as fast as I can, when I realize that I'm getting close to our house on the corner. Dilema

I have to somehow stop, or get into the driveway quick, b/c our quiet, suburban street intersected with a relatively busy one. Not the place for a clueless kid on a bike. Without a helmet. Herein lies the problem though. I hadn't so much mastered slowing down and turning or braking. Whoops. So, I tried to turn it hard, while trying to brake, and maneuver into the driveway. Yeah, not so much. Instead, I ended up going flying off the bike, towards the yard.

Remember those run-off ditches I mentioned? Oh, they were full. And, I hit one, hard. Actually the water kind of broke my fall, you know, kind of. Oh, and the bike then bounced of the mailbox and landed on me. Awesome.


****Other note, I know Sarah already mentioned this, but Sunday we helped Drew and Diane move into their new, very cool house. For me, there were two highlights:

1) In the moving truck, Drew, Matt and I had a kareoke moment to Hootie and the Blowfish's "Hold My Hand"

2) Diane had an old wardrobe thingy that she was going to throw out, so she let the boys take the hammers to it. So. Much. Fun.

And I'm a dork.

The Countdown Continues

I've officially hit the wall. I only have 22 calendar days left at my job. There's no new work coming in, I've finished up almost all of my existing work, and I'm more or less getting stir-crazy over here. (Who says stir-crazy anymore anyways? Apparently, your grandma, and me.)

That being said, I'm relatively serene about the whole thing, possibly because I've scheduled for school, I have a severance package coming, and really, in some ways, it's going to feel so much like a vacation.

But then, I'll have to find another job, and that's going to suck. Because working for the man is so overrated. You except for that whole, "getting a paycheck" and "paying your bills" stuff.

Rockin Out

Stuff I'm currently listening to to the point that it'll bore me to death before long I'm sure......


Matchbook Romance- Monsters
Hard-Fi Hard to Beat
Pearl Jam- Life Wasted
Yeah Yeah Yeahs- Cheated Hearts
Panic! At the Disco- I Write Sins Not Tragedies
Brandi Carlile- Follow
Taking Back Sunday- Make Damn Sure
Buck Cherry-Crazy Bitch
Gnarls Barkley-Crazy

And yes, I'm a total dork. Anybody got anything I might like based on what I've listed here? Let me know

Two out of Three Mentally Impaired People Agree....

Always wear a helmet-



I couldn't resist that one. F*ck Pittsburgh.

A Little About A Lot

Unemployment Countdown: 36 Days

Again, I've managed to go over a week without updating.

I attribute part of this to the fact that I'm in Claustrophobia Row for the rest of my days here at the company. Unfortunately I used to have a seat in a relatively remote area of our floor, where I didn't have anyone in the cubes on either side of me, across from me, or behind me. Now I'm surrounded. Couple that with the fact that the person behind me is way too close b/c our row is so narrow that a pre-lipo Star Jones couldn't fit down it with a can of Crisco and a battering ram behind her, and you can see why I don't get a chance to "work" on my blog much lately.

Also, it's taken me a good 2-3 days to recover from the Pujols injury. Watching the Cards lose three in a row threatened to actually keep me in bed today, but I figured I'm already off tomorrow, since I don't do Fridays anymore, so I better get in here.

I'm not even going to talk about the Indians. I was going to post about them after going to the game on Sunday (where they got blasted by the Angels of Southern California/Los Angelas/Alameda County/Northern Mexico) but I decided that I don't write about minor league teams.

Oh, and for anyone paying attention, I'll be in Columbus Satruday night, hopefully less than sober, and hopefully ending up at Frog Bear at some point.......