Picking Up the Pieces

It’s been nearly a week since move day now and we are still picking up the pieces. For the most part the upstairs of the house has been de-boxed and packed away properly. The basement is still somewhat of a pit but it’s slowly returning to normal. My downstairs office is reasonably in order or at least will be after the coming weekend.

I’ve slept well for the past few nights. I’m not falling victim to the tossing and turning I had in my previous residence. I find that Dad’s house is very well insulated against outside noise. In our old house we heard just about everything that was going on. Even down to conversations outside or engines idling in the parking lot of the tanning studio next door. My newfound restfulness has allowed me to wake from as little as five hours of sleep feeling rested and refreshed. Something I’ve not experienced for quite some time. It’s nice to be able to get up in the morning and enjoy some breakfast and a cup of tea before hopping in the shower and beginning my daily routine.

I wondered how I would handle this, and I’m pleased to say that at this point, I think I’m taking it pretty well. When Cheryl and I moved into our apartment there was an initial period of me being extremely grouchy. I’m glad to say that it hasn’t necessarily been that way this time around. We’ve all settled in well and we are finding our routines once again.

Dad still gets up early and goes into the local Marathon station to enjoy a cup of coffee with the boys while he plays some Ohio Lottery scratch and win instant games. This is usually around 5AM. By 6:30 he is usually home and we get to chat a bit before I have to get ready for work. Cheryl and Emma putter around the house all day while Cheryl tries to empty a box or two here and there. Emma dutifully tries to help.

Emma has adapted well to her new surroundings. Her new living room floor is twice the size of her old one which means naturally that we need to buy twice as many toys for her to fill the space with. Dad usually shakes his head and laughs when he comes in from outside and sees progressively more toys strewn across the carpet.

Her new nursery is a nice pastel blue with white trim. Accents are pastel pink and green wall hangings and bedding. There’s more accessories and matching border on the way though that should be up by the weekend. Dare I say that her new nursery is even more charming than her last one. If I have the time I will try and get some pictures up for you to see.

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Yesterday I registered for my next term at the University. I have six classes left to take and so I am going to try and finish up in the next two terms. If all goes well, I should be graduating in August. If not according to plan, a year from January. I’ll have a double major in Management Information Systems and Information Technology. I should also graduate Summa Cum Laude which I’m sure would have made Mom proud.

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This week marked the start of a new person on the help desk, so I’ve been spending the majority of my week showing him the ropes. He’s quick to understand what we do and why we do it, which is a relief. Our last new hire has been there 14 months now and still isn’t getting it. It’s understandable though. Our job is filled with if, and, or but scenarios and sometimes it’s hard to glue it all together. Heck, even I still have a hard time piecing it all together but I somehow still manage. Regardless, the new guy is doing well which makes me happy. The sooner he gets on the phones and starts helping out the better.

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Lost has totally pulled me in. Since the arrival of the Tivo I never miss an episode. I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys twilight-zonish storylines and x-files-ish twists and turns. It’s not just Gilligan’s Island for the 21st century. It’s an evil Gilligan meets Rod Serling who got story ideas from Dr. Moreau.

Watch it. You’ll like it.

Subway Plans

We’re less than three days away from the move now. The hours I have left in my first house are slowly ticking away with a steady beat. I sit here and examine the white picket fence painted on my office wall (this room used to be a nursery) and think back to the day that we first walked through this house.

We walked in the door and were overwhelmed by the tall ceilings and the dark wood trim that accented the living and dining room. The house looked so small from outside yet when you walked in, it was huge. The wainscotting in the kitchen added so much charm to the place. The master bedroom had french doors that opened up into the backyard and let in so much light.

I remember our first night of possession. Dad and Cheryl and I got Subway and ate it on the living room floor while a single lamp lit up the living room. There was no furniture in it yet. We sat and talked about plans for what we were going to do with the place.

I remember Dad, Wes, and I painting up the nursery with a pastel green while Cheryl watched on. She was several months pregnant with Emma and coudn’t stay in the nursery due to the paint fumes. A few days later we would add white chair-rail and a nice border around the room.

It was really the only room we made our own.

*sigh*

I’m going to miss this place.

Oh well.

Tasks

My days have been filled with phone calls, my evenings with partial attempts at packing, my nights with restless sleep. The move is a week away now with little progress made on our impending relocation. We’ve managed to move some boxes here and there but between painting, runs to Lowes, and trying in vain to find someone to watch Emma for three hour bursts we’ve accomplished little in the context of things. We also need to fit in ten thousand errands where there are only room for negative five.

Cheryl has been a champ at prepping Dad’s house for our arrival. She’s managed to get Emma’s room all painted up as well as our bedroom. What were once plain white walls are now pastel blue for Emma and warm sand color in our room.

I personally have moved about six boxes during this process. Two of those gave me a backache. God I need to do something about my weight or I’m going to die by age forty. I honestly don’t know how I’m going to make it through this move without seeing my chiropractor every week for six months.

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In my good intentions I usually have four things in the air at once. For example, I have work, school, family, and church. Work has been good. I’ve finally found some sense of stability in the fact that I am the number two guy on the help desk. It’s nice to know that I have some bit of credibility and people ask for me by name when they call. It’s satisfying.

School is also going well. I’m a few classes away from graduating and I can’t wait.

The family is better than it has been. For awhile there things were not so much rocky, but tense between Cheryl and I. They have improved considerably since she’s come back from her two week Canadian sabbatical.

Church has been…

*sigh*

I lack the words to convey my emotion regarding my church.

Let’s just say that I feel like I have really let the folks there down. I’ve done little in my tenure as second elder and I’m starting to feel like a fifth wheel. Between everything that’s gone on in my life with trying to sell the house and go to school, I missed about six months worth of board meetings. It got to the place where they wouldn’t even tell me if one was rescheduled, and I’m the secretary.

I showed up for my first board meeting in several months the other night and tried to participate. The political climate has changed considerably in the past few months with the elections and new board. I made some suggestions but felt that they were not warmly received. So, I just sat back and took my minutes and did little else.

I’ve been considering resigning for many months. I even considered not letting my name be run again but the situation was no one else wanted the job, so I let it be listed again.

I just feel that my church is dying. It’s not the vibrant and alive place it used to be. There was once a warm, vital, and friendly heart beating there. Now it’s a drum of repetitiveness with a stale wind that blows.

The sad part is I don’t know what to do to try and improve things. Or more accurately, I don’t know where God wants me to fit in.

Square peg… round hole.

I think I’ve got too many things in the air at once and one of them needs to go. You don’t have to be a mathematician to see where the equation is headed.

I’m feeling completely useless and wasted at this church. I’ve been considering for many weeks now moving on. In all honesty I don’t think the people there would mind if I did. I mean, board meetings usually involve some degree of socialization afterwards. After the meeting broke up I was busy packing up my things and preparing to leave. I walked outside of the fellowship hall and the parking lot was completely empty. No one bothered to say good-bye they just left and expected me to turn off the lights and lock up.

Thank you very much.

And I think it’s all because I overcommit. I’ve always done it. I always want to pitch in and help and then the next thing you know I’m not getting anything done because I’m working on too many jobs at once. I can never seem to stop myself from doing it either. I always think “I can take this on… I can take that on…” but it never. works. out.

And here we go again. Back to square one whilst I natter on about it like someone ruminating on and on about their toes or some other irrelevant topic.

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Today the DirecTV technician trundled up the driveway at my father’s place and delivered tasty satellite and Tivo-ish goodness. If you are one of the three people on the planet who haven’t heard of Tivo, you really should read up about it. It’s absoblutely farking amazing. You. Can. PAUSE. LIVE. TV.

My Dad, being nearly seventy years old was a bit foggy on this concept so I broke it down for him like this. We were watching the news and I PAUSED LIVE TV (sorry… got a bit excited there) and I told him something like this.

Me: “Now Dad, let’s say that frozen screenshot on your TV right there happened to be your Pick 3 numbers.”

Dad: “Whuh?”

Me: “Yeah, imagine that for me. If instead of this police wanted suspect…” (they were profiling an escaped robber on the news) “…you had your Pick 3 numbers on the TV. You’d actually have time to write them down.”

Dad: “OK. Go on.”

I unpause the live TV (Good lord I’m giggling like a schoolgirl as I write this) and the scene changes and I pause it again.

Me: “Okay, now this scene is your Pick 4 numbers. Imagine that.”

Dad looks at me, looks at the remote and looks at the TV. I slowly see the wheels churn and the abacus slide back and forth as two plus two equals up to four.

Dad: “Well I’ll be dipped.”

I love technology.

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Earlier today as part of the aforementioned errands, Cheryl and I went to Lowes to pick up a few items. We are in full swing on the improvements to Dad’s house for our impending arrival so we went to get some things. We picked up an area rug for the basement, a couple of mirrored closet doors, some shelving, a new toolbox, and seven hundred dollars later we were back at the car feeling considerably lighter in the wallet department and considerably heavier in the merchandise one. Holy toledo.

I started to get the closet doors installed, but found out that the door isn’t tall enough to accomodate the closet frame. As a result I need to head back to Lowes tomorrow and buy more wood to accomodate the closet doors. Yay!

Hmm. Maybe tomorrow I can play with my combination leaf blower/leaf vac and clean out the backyard when I’m done.

*wanders off muttering to himself*

PWN4G3

I’ve not given any meaningful thought to what I’ve been putting here lately. As my last post can attest I had little in the way of coherent thought going at that time. The past week has been a flurry of activity with me wearing multiple hats, sometimes more than one hat at the same time. Sanity? I say thee nay. There is none to be found under this balding head.

The past week has been a blurry mixture of box packing, paper signing, homework doing, and project managing. It was getting to the point that I would walk out of my office and Emma would run up to me crying because she missed me. My wife was beginning to think me some reclusive hermit residing in my dark alleyway of computers, Internet access, and textbooks. Thankfully my university-imposed exile ended last night and I can once again return to the light of day, blinking and incurring sunburn. For the next couple of days anyway.

School has been extremely intense this term. Maybe it’s because I’m getting burned out, taking senior courses, or a little of both. I’m starting to get extremely antsy about graduating and am eager to have my weeks free to do things like cleaning my belly button lint and scrubbing the floorboards of my car clean.

In all reality I will probably be searching for something to fill the vacuum of effort since I am accustomed to working at a nearly constant rate. I wouldn’t know how to go to Blockbuster and rent a movie, let alone rationalize being able to sit down and spend some time playing video games. I’ll not completely be unlike a man jumping off a treadmill who keeps wanting to walk or run at the same pace.

I’ve considered working part-time to pay down some bills a bit faster. Given our current financial situation I’m thinking that we’re not going to be able to put money away as fast as I’d like, so it’s easy to rationalize taking on a part time job doing tech support after graduation. The other part of me wants to take the time off and just be a normal Dad who comes home in the evening and spends time with his family. I don’t want to be the guy who regrets working his life away only to watch his children grow up and move out without ever really getting to know them.

Ponder ponder ponder whine consider ponder natter nag move on to next topic.

I received my personalized license plates in the mail the other day, and my wife was not nearly as amused or thrilled with them as I was. It turns out what I thought was a moment of inspired genius did not necessarily add up to the same emotional value to her. As such, I have a constant reminder of my implied stupidity on my front and rear bumpers. I still think they are cool, but now they remind me of an argument instead of serving as a proud reminder of my geek heritage.

Oh well. At least I didn’t buy another hockey stick.

What He Said

My wife is getting me an X-Box for Christmas.

Best. Wife. EVAR.

And in the spring? PSP. (That’s PlayStation Portable for you non-geeks out there.)

I’m such a gadget junkie.

Magic Kingdom For Sale:

Yesterday afternoon we sat down at the closing table and signed our mortgage and our house away. Cheryl and I now feel about several thousand pounds lighter and strangely enough her tension headaches have disappeared. Good thing.

I’m feeling very positive about this move now in contrast to how I was feeling a few months back. We were all smiles yesterday afternoon as we left the closing and made our way to Chillicothe to enjoy the Max & Erma’s I’ve been rambling on about. Cheryl had the Laredo Steak. I buckled and had the New York Strip. The M&Es in Chillicothe just opened this summer. It’s one of the better Max and Ermas restaurants I’ve been in. I highly recommend it.

So yesterday afternoon was spent running errands after our late lunch. Cheryl went to Kohl’s and bought some new track pants and a new pair of shoes. Today I treated myself to those vanity license plates I’ve been wanting. They should be here in about ten days or so. When I get them I might put a picture of them up here on the site, along with my geekmobile. My car rocks.

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Today was a busy, busy day in the office. Holy crap. I didn’t even have time to think. This whole week has been blissfully quiet. No strange questions, everything functioning within normal parameters. Friday rolls around and whoopee hallelujah the phone starts ringing off the hook with lusers.

Of course it didn’t help matters that today marked quarter-end and I should have seen it coming. Todd took the day off too. *wry chuckle*

So, needless to say it was all one armed men and paper hangers.

Oy.

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Speaking of things keeping me busy. I’m taking two classes this term at school. The one I just started into is Project Management and holy crap what a workload. All the assignments are team-based too. Shoulda seen that one coming given the subject matter. Last night was all about meeting up with teammates and scrambling to turn in a team assignment tonight. I got my part submitted earlier today and this weeks Project Manager is compiling things as we speak. I can tell that this class is going to be a six-week extended tour of the seventh sphere of hell itself.

Last time I was there was Discrete Mathematics about two years ago. Ergh. I wound up with a D in that class and sold my textbook on eBay for a few dollars. I don’t think I’ll do that badly but I certainly enjoy the subject matter about as much. Thankfully I took a Project Management course through my employer a year ago so I already have hit the ground running. Thank God for free classes through work. It lets you sample the subject matter for free. Free for me anyway.

My other class though is Information Systems Security which I am eating up. I really dig getting into the nuts and bolts of how systems work, how computers and networks talk to one another, and especially making computers do something they quite shouldn’t.

I’m far from being a hacker. Trust me. I’ve got just enough mad leet skillz to be dangerous, but no more. I can however come over to your house, boot your PC from a bootable CD, snag your password file and crack it to unlock your PC should you ever need that type of service. That’s about it. Doesn’t quite make me 1337 yet. I’m werkin on it though.