Random...

Well, I haven't posted in awhile, so I thought I would take a bit of time to do that. I am in my last day of work (actually it is about t-5 hours till I am done) and one rehearsal until Love Me or Die opens at the 2009 MN Fringe (get your tickets here: http://savageumbrella.com/default.aspx).

I also wanted to take some time to post some pictures I took with my new camera. Getting geared up for the next big adventure. South Korea, here I come...soon. Remember to follow the other blog I have started, the adress should be posted in a previous post, so you may want to check on that.

First picture. I got to go to Rock the

Garden, which is this awesome, outdoor musical concert. It was a lot of fun. I saw four or five bands and The Decemberists were included in that list. They were really, really good. They put on a great show and all their music was very tight. One of the best outdoor shows I have ever seen. The sound was soooo well done. Nice work to the band and the techs on this one. That is them there...onstage. It was great.

Second and third pictures. My cousin Matt took me to a Twins game! Great seats.

Switching it up a bit...

Looks like I have now started my travel blog.

http://toddsadventure.blogspot.com/

I don't know how much I will post on both of these, so check both...or just follow both. That way you can be notified of when I post...

Uninteresting

Not sure how interesting this post will be, but I haven't written in awhile, so I figured I had better get to writing. My hope is that I write on a fairly regular basis while I am in South Korea. At LEAST once a week, but who knows, maybe it will turn into more.

Yes, I am just plain ready to go to South Korea. I am needing a change so badly right now. However, I don't want to get into all that, I want to talk about my best friend who is a new, first-time father.

I got to call him yesterday on Father's Day and wich him his very first Happy Father's Day wish ever. I really am so very happy for him and his wife and their whole family. Little Elizabeth Rose was born a month early, but she and Mom are doing great. I am so happy and proud of my friend. He is a good man, maybe one of the best I have known in my life. He is kind and funny and sweet and smart and just plain great. So very glad that he and I have been able to be friends since third grade. I am very sorry that I will not be around for the first year of this baby's life, but I am really excited to be called Uncle Todd already. Thanks.

Because I am very excited to see him, his wife, and their new baby, I decided to leave work early. My last day will be July 31st, then I will do a Fringe show (and sleep on some people's couches) and then go home to Iowa. During this time I hope to be able to do some part time work or some manual labor at my sister's house so I can travel and visit my friends down there before leaving on the big adventure. I fly out on the 25th and then start up on the 28th with training. I am trying to think ahead as far as sleeping on the plane and adjusting that way so the jetlag won't be horrible. Perhaps I will try to stay up all night or something so I can sleep on the plane when it would be night time in South Korea. Any suggestions are welcome. I am sure I will feel it no matter what.

Well, back to the work I suppose. I hope this post finds all of you well and happy.

-t

I love office life.

Okay, I am gonna try and lay this out so you all can understand this.

I am leaving this job in September to go to South Korea, which you know if you have been reading this blog lately, if you haven't...1. get caught up 2. sorry to spring this on you.

I let my employer know pretty early because I wanted to allow them enough time to train someone in to do my job and also because my new employers would be calling my current employers to do a background check. I figured this was the good thing to do.

Now, every fiscal year (from August to August for us) we get three weeks of paid vacation. I was curious if I would be getting paid for this three weeks of time or if it would just 'dissolve' when I left. My supervisor said to me, "It will just go away, so you better use it up. I know I would", so with that information I started thinking about what I would do for three weeks in August. Of course I will need some of that time to move my stuff to a storage space and then to say goodbye's to people as well. This would be perfect!

Today I find out that I get ten hours of vacation since I am leaving in September.

Ten.

Ten does not equal three weeks.

So, it ends up this way...it would have been MUCH better for me to just plan three weeks for vacation in August, come back to work for a week, tell them I was quitting, and then left. What. The. Crap? Sooooo apparently I would have been rewarded for being a total butt.

Gosh, I sure do love working here.

Saved By The Bell

I never watched the show. Well, I shouldn't say that...I have seen the show twice and both times I saw it, it was the episode were Jesse becomes addicted to caffeine pills. Everyone knows this episode, it seems. I mean, I hardly get done telling people my story and they jump in with, "I'm so excited, I'm so excited, I'm so....scared!". Well, if you are one of those people who would jump in with that or perhaps know all the moves from the music video in the middle of the episode...have I got a theatre show for you.

Starting this Saturday, May 16th I will be in a production for "The Saved By The Bell Show". It is written and produced by my two good friends who also wrote and produced "Hamluke" (Hamlet and Star Wars mushed together). The show is a lot of fun, especially if you were a fan of the TV show, of course.

Our production plays the 16th, 21st, 23rd, 28th, & 30th at the Bryant Lake Bowl in Minneapolis, so if you happen to be in the area...come check it out. Doors open at 6pm and the show starts at 7pm. There are commercials from the 80's and 90's thrown in throughout the show as well. In case you didn't like the show (like me), then don't worry...we poke fun at the show just as much as trying to stay true to it.

Here is the link to the site you can go to to reserve tickets:

http://blb.ciceron.com/calendar.asp?date=5/16/2009

Hope to see you there!

Laptop time

Well, it has been decided that I will need a computer when I go overseas to South Korea. I will use this computer ot keep in touch with friends and family. My mom was excited to learn that we could talk on the internet via Skype, which I have never used. The laptop I have choosen is this one:

I like the way it looks, I like the specs on it (thanks Blue and Andrew), and it will do the things I need it to do. It comes with a web cam in it, so if my mom ever wants to see me while we are talking, she can. I don't know if my mom has figured this out or not, but the time difference is pretty hefty. Oh well, it will work out. Also, they will have to go over to my sister's house to use the internet and the computer because my folks have neither of those things. It will feel weird buying a laptop because I have always thought that people who own laptops are super cool. I am not super cool.

See? However, I am pretty excited to play some City of Heroes on this machine. I mean, it won't be the greatest ever, but it will be much better than the computer I am borrowing from my room mates all the time. There are a lot of complaints about the set up, but hey...at least I get to play once in awhile. Now I have to decide if I want to get Champions Online for PC or Xbox 360. The release date for PC is July 14th and there isn't one for the 360 yet. We will see what I feel like after I get the laptop.

In other news, I plan on writing down some things about my adventures with scoot'n. I plan on telling the origin of the scooter's name (Jane) and some stories surrounding that all, some things I see (I have already seen a pickup truck and a giant Daffy Duck statue in the back), and various other little tid-bits. Hopefully some of those stories will make it onto this blog. Also, I plan on posting more pictures on here because I got a digital camera in preparation for my overseas adventures! I was pretty excited to find one for a very reasonable price (thanks Andrew...again) AND I got to use a gift card that I got in the mail for helping out a friend (thanks B-Diddy).

That's all I got for now. Thanks for reading. Have a fun day.

About time!

This post should have happened a long, long while ago...but work has been real stupid lately. There is a lot to get to, so I should get started.

1. I have some pretty amazing friends. I have really been blessed with really good friends all of my life. This is something that I don't ever want to take for granted. I love the people that I am surrounded by and they care for me deeply. Hopefully they understand that I feel the same way about them...I should tell them more often how wonderfully great they really are. Also...my friends know how to throw a party! Here is one of the many reasons why I have the greatest friends.

30th birthday time has been something that I have been dreading for a little while now. I remember as a kid thinking about how you are old when you turn 30. This, added on top of my parents expecting me to have done more with my life by the time I turned 30, meant that I was not the most thrilled person when it came to April 18th of 2009. I didn't want to spend my day thinking about how I had just turned thirty years old...and I certainly didn't.

It all started with an open mic at Janine's where I had invited a bunch of people to share something from their childhood. Themes From Your Childhood went really, really well and was really laid back. A couple of good friends had come up from Iowa for the birthday weekend, and one of them got up and performed for the first time in front on an audience. Same thing with my friend Andrew too. He sang and played a song on the guitar for the first time in front of an audience. Happy birthday to me!

We started our day at 11am by going to brunch at Hell's Kitchen (there were probably 15 people in our group), this place in Minneapolis that I had heard had great peanut butter. They did have great peanut butter...and the place looked pretty cool too. I was really creeped out by the pictures hanging in the bathroom. As you moved past them, they morphed from sweet looking children or grandfathers to ghoulish figures. I didn't like it all that much because I am already a little creeped out by bathrooms (mostly dark bathrooms, but bathrooms are scary to me in general). The food was pretty good, but now that I have gone there...I don't know that I ever need to go back.

After brunch a few of us walked over to Gameworks and met some more people there. A friend from one of my past jobs in Minneapolis from about five years ago was there, so that was fun. For those of you who don't know, Gameworks is a Sega owned, video game bar...with bowling. Phew. I think that is it. It is a pretty sweet joint, but I hear it is being put up for rent...anyway, beside the point. Gameworks was awesome. I played a LOT of Time Crisis Four, some Dance Dance Revolution, a jet flying game that you couldn't lose at (I tried crashing into the ground but it would no let me), some CRAZY air hockey that was two vs two and had about 4 pucks going at one time, speed skeeball, and a giant racing game in which all of us could play together at one time. I spent most of my time laughing and playing. It was awesome. I got an engineer hat and a magic growing egg and some candy to share with everyone with the tickets we all won. It was pretty spectacular.

Then, we had to RUN back to the cars and drive to the next location. Keep in mind that all of these activities were all surprises. I had no idea what any of them were. We finally arrived at our destination which was...the Parade Ice Garden, an ice skating facility that the MN Wild (my favorite hockey team) practices at. I was pretty pumped to go skating, but then I saw Andrew and Blake pull my hockey bag and sticks out of Andrew's car. "They won't let you use that during open skating," I said. "Oh," they responded. We entered the building and it was pretty quiet in there. Out in front of us was the freshly cleared ice. Zamboni smooth. "Alright. Go," Andrew says. "WHAT!?! Out there? THE WHOLE THING!!?!" I ran down as quickly as I could and put on my skates. We had the WHOLE rink...all to ourselves. The WILD practice rink! It. Was. Awesome. Pictures were taken, slap shots rang off the glass, penguin slides where done across the Wild logo. Kyle M skated for the first time EVER and was great! We played a game of H-O-R-S-E out there. Gosh. It was amazing.

Then, after that we went to a meat store and bought stuff to grill at a park. We played outside, ate a lot of food, and talked a lot. We watched a deer walk around the park in the middle of the city, which was weird. We ate Zots, which were great and reminded me of being in middle school and buying those delicious candies at the gas station on the way home.

After we finished up our food and made a quick rest stop at a gas station bathroom, we made it back to the house. More people joined us here and Andrew presented the unbelievable cake. It was my favorite dinosaur, the ankylosaurus. As soon as I get some pictures from the birthday, I will post them, but right now I don't actually have any. Here is a picture of the dino though:

The cake looked and tasted amazing. My favorite frosting, rainbow chip, was dyed green and used all over this tastey beast. We all ate cake and had some drinks. They had made a trip to WI and bought my favorite drink (which you can only get in WI), which was given and then told to go outside. Into the backyard which had been tranformed into a dreamland or an Elf village. There was a firepit with a great fire going. There were candles hung from the tree, which made it look like there were little fairies hovering around the tree. It was beautiful. Then we had some sparklers and played with those. Then my friend Joe played and sang a song that he had re-written for me. It was very funny and nice. Then everyone told stories about me. That was really cool. I liked that a lot. We all just sat around and swapped stories. I think even the people who didn't have stories enjoyed that. It was just really, really nice. Amazing friends, I'm telling ya.

2. SCOOTER!

I finally got my scooter! Now I just need to get the license plates and all that and I am golden! I can't wait. I have driven it around the block a few times and it is really nice and sturdy. Very nice. More pictures to come of that and me riding it.

3. NO MORE CRAPPY JOB!!!

Starting in September I will no longer be working here. Thank goodness. It has been two years longer than expected, but I told myself when I started that I would HAVE to leave when we reached order number 3000000. We are currently at 2927793 which meant I didn't have any more time. I had been looking for a new job for a looooong time, but had just recently (within 6 months) started looking at teaching programs overseas. And now, I am going to South Korea to teach English. I need to get my work visa, but after that is done...I am official. The time that I am leaving is set for September, so I have all summer to enjoy. I look forward to the experience and you will for sure be hearing/reading more about this adventure in my life.

4. my beard is gone. sad. I am really sad about this. I had to shave it off for a show that I am doing at the end of May. The show is The Saved By The Bell Show and we basically do an episode of the show on stage. Pretty fun stuff if you liked the show at all. More details on that later too.

Right now...I have to do some more work.

Thanks for reading. Hope you are all doing well.

Good Friday

to you and yours.

Easter time. Egg hunting and jelly beans time. Yum. I like Starburst Jelly beans. Pretty boring at work today because it is Good Friday. Lots of places closed so no orders. Should have brought a book or something.

News of late:

1. I am interviewing for a job that would involve me teaching English in South Korea.
2. I forgot my dress shoes for this interview.
3. I am going to be in Saved By The Bell: Live On Stage in May.
4. I am going to be in my room mates' production for the Fringe. I am SUPER excited to start playing with this project.
5. I am getting closer and closer to buying a scooter.
6. I will be naming this scooter Jane after my aunt, Jane.
7. Heroquest is STILL one of my favorite board games and I can't get enough of it.
8. Ipod Touches have been calling my name for quite some time now. I really want one, but have been holding off until I complete item #5.
9. I was sick with a cold for about four days and felt like a snot zombie.
10. I don't like how item #10 has thrown off my nice, neat list's organization pattern.
11. In fact...any item #'s with two digits. Rage.
12. I am thinking about that parade that I watched during the summertime on Central. My friend Kevin showed up and he was very, very tan and handsome. We ate some giant pixie stick.
13. I think we should be able to go home now. There is nothing to do.
14. I am hungry.
15. I turn 30 in one week. Yikes.

I feel a little...

BEARD!

Pretty soon, I need to find a way to curl my mustache up, cause that would rock and rule.

In other news. Improv is happening and happening well. I crave more, pretty much constantly. I am in one troupe right now, and I think I could do another at the same time. My friend Joe is going to talk to Doug at ComedySportz (who I used to work with at Valleyfair, the local amusement park) and see if I can start in there.

In other, other news...when I started working here three years ago, I said to myself that I would stop working here when we got to order 3000000. We are currently at order 2901746. This means I need, no...I HAVE to find the next thing immediately. When I started here we were at 2249086. YIKES! Anyone have a job I can help with? I am willing to move. Help me. I have been looking for the next thing for almost a year now...and no luck. Noooo luck.

Recent Conversation

Here is one conversation I enjoyed with my friend over the internet. I liked it. I hope you do too.

me: you should find a boardwalk...or an arcade. I recently played some Hydro-thunder at the arcade after I had forgotten how much i really like that game. also some sit down ms. pacman. I dream of owning sit down Ms. Pacman.
k.lee.terry: that's an amazing game
me: yeah, I would like that and a pinball game. sit down ms pacman is like a game AND a coffee table! genius. pure genius.
k.lee.terry: i used to like sit down donkey kong
me: i must say, I have not played that one. In fact, I may never have played Donkey Kong ever before. Unusual, huh?
k.lee.terry: oh man it's so fun!
me: I should play it next time I see it. I also like the original, original Mario Brothers. I dislike the one on Nintendo.
k.lee.terry: also a good game
really?
wow
me: yeah, I can't jump over stuff. Still have problems with that. if you can't jump over stuff in that game, you are done within the first 10 ten seconds. So I saw that first level A LOT!
k.lee.terry: ha
me: now, when I play, I am still just as bad, but I tell people I am searching for secret levels.
"You just don't know how to find the secrets on 1-1, do you?"
k.lee.terry: haha
you have to run into the mushroom 5 times!
me: nope. you have to fall down the first pit until you don't have anymore lives. then...YOU WIN!
me: that is where Jesus lives. in that first pit. You have to fall in the pit to find Jesus.

Then...YOU WIN!
k.lee.terry: mario and jesus
hanging out in a well. wayyyy better than rescuing the princess
me: they eat meatballs and drink wine together, Mario and Jesus.
k.lee.terry: it's a cultural exchange
me: Jesus can make as many meatballs as neeeded.
k.lee.terry: and mario can drink A TON of wine
me: yeah! and he is a plumber so he can access the water pipes! unlimited wine baby!

me: you know that they use the discarded turtle shells as bowls, right?

k.lee.terry: i could see that, seems reasonable to me

Is it time?

For me to move? For years I have thought about moving to Colorado. I love Minnesota, I really do. I like that I have so much theatre opportunities at my fingertips and so many beautiful, outdoors things to do. However, I want have some new outdoor adventures...in Colorado. I have been there a few times (probably more than any other state that I haven't lived in) and I just can't get enough. Sure, I would have to find a way to do some theatre there and some improv too, but perhaps I could start my own? Who knows. What I do know is that I would be able to climb a mountain anytime I want. I love hiking. I do love the lakes here in MN and I would miss the closeness of my relatives and going fishing with them...but really...just look at this:

Superman is too powerful to feel?

I was reading a comic book during my break today and I started thinking about Superman. Amongst a host of other things Superman is impervious. You shoot him with a gun, it bounces off him. You slap him in the face, you break your hand. A tank shells him with their round, the round blows up and Superman doesn't even move. In fact, only ONCE have I ever seen his costume get completely blown off in a comic. His super junk was covered with a cleverly placed waft of smoke, don't worry. I have seen many comics lately that show his costume getting torn or tattered a bit, so at least they have somewhat corrected that glaring mistake. I mean, even if your explanation is that it is a special Kryptonian material that is ALSO indestructible...how did Martha Kent, Clark Kent's adopted Earth mother, sew it into a costume? The needle would break. Perhaps Superman used a piece of his Kryptonian ship to form a needle and this is how she sewed the costume. Whatever, this isn't what I was thinking about...we can talk more about this later, I'm sure.

What I WAS thinking about was this: Superman hardly ever flinches unless it is a SUPER baddy hitting him or something. As I mentioned before, if you slap him...he doesn't budge. If you shoot him, he doesn't move. No tears. No wincing. No sign of pain what-so-ever. Based off of this, I think it is safe to say that Superman does not feel these things. Does this mean that Superman wouldn't feel a child tapping on his leg? Someone giving him a hug? A butt pinch? What about when he is roasted marshmallows and his hand gets too close to the fire? He doesn't feel it. This leaves Lois, his wife, in a unusual position. No matter what she does Superman will never feel her touch. She would have to literally give Superman a super-powered hug to get him to feel it.

How much pressure would it take to register that someone is touching Superman?

Just something I was thinking about today.

Time keeps on slipp'n...

I have been feeling like I am wasting time. I don't like my job and I have been wasting my life be working here. It isn't furthering me in any way at all. 3 years is much too long to have been sticking with something that isn't doing anything for me at all. I think it would be different if I had a family and needed to earn this money, but right now I am just using the money for nothing. Collecting crap. The hard part is finding another job. I have been trying for some time now and I have not been able to get a different job. While my job does bother me all the time, I am thankful that I have a job. I know that it is a tough time for a lot of people, so I do feel fortunate. I still have to complain though.

Friday the 13th

My favorite moment that involved a February 13th took place in middle school. I was going out with a girl named Nichole Behn. Nicole had strawberry-blond hair and she was as cute as could be. We would walk to class with each other, give each other notes, and that is pretty much it. I mean, it is middle school so what do you expect? I think the only thing we ever did outside of notes and classes was going to see Beauty and the Beast, but that is a story for a different day. (It is a good one.)

One of my favorite things about middle school (there weren't many) was gym class. In gym class we got to do pretty awesome things like go bowling, play pin soccer, and floor hockey. Another of my favorite things in gym class was happening on this particular February 13th: roller skating.

For a week or two, during the winter, we would come into the gym and find two large boxes with skates in them. The skates where tucked into the shelves inside these giant boxes on wheels and organized by size. We would scramble to put our skates on and then quickly get on the gym floor to start our circles around the wooden floor.

Just prior to that day, the 13th of February, I had gone to the drug store where my mom worked and picked out a small, white bear to give to Nichole for Valentine's Day. I had this bear in my room, waiting till two days had passed and could finally give a girl something for Valentine's Day on my own. In years passed we had been forced to make everyone in our class a Valentine out of construction paper and glitter and glue. Not this year though. This was 6th grade. We were adults and we could choose who we wanted to be our Valentine.

As I skated around the gym I thought of how I would present this fine bear to Nichole. Would I sneak up behind her and then put the bear in front of face like a game of "guess who"? Would I walk up to her with the fuzzy animal behind my back and then smile, say a Happy Valentine's Day something or other, and then show her the gift? Lots of planning needed to be done in the next 24 hours.

At just about that moment Kim Quame, who was Nichole's best friend at the time, skated up from behind me.

"Todd. Nichole doesn't want to go out with you anymore."

Then she skated away.

The gym teacher then blew his whistle, signalling it was time to go and get out shoes on before the bell rang. The floor slowly cleared off and the sounds of wheels on wooden planks got quieter and quieter. As the bell rang and everyone left, the sounds left in the gym were of one set of skates rolling lonely circles in the gym. Mine. I just skated and skated and cried and cried by myself. (keep in mind that I am laughing while I type this, so I hope you are laughing while reading. don't feel bad...this was middle school.) As soon as everyone was gone my teacher came over and asked what the matter was.

Through the sobs, he somehow figured out what was going on and said, "Todd. You're in 6th grade. You've got a LOOOOT of time left in find a girl."

I'm not sure what happened to that white bear that I had bought for Nichole on the 12th of February, I do know that I probably saved it for a long time in hopes of giving it to her someday so that she would know just what she missed out on all those years ago. I also know that when we went out again in 7th grade, I didn't give it to her then.

It's a good thing too. She moved away in the middle of the year while we going out. To a different state. Without telling me. But that is another story for another day.

Hey...at least it wasn't a Friday, the 13th of February. I probably would have slipped on my tears while skating and broken my leg.

todd

Feelings

I feel better today. Finally I can say that I feel on the road to recovery. My throat isn't quite as sore as it has been and I feel like I have a bit more energy, which is good. Also, my butt doesn't hurt from the shot. If I ever get strep again, I think I will get the shot again. It seemed to work so much quicker, so in the end...it was worth it. (yes, pun intended)

This morning I was walking out to my car and I slipped on some ice. It was the perfect fall. Didn't hurt too badly, so laughed when my papers flew straight up in the air. I was just like a movie fall. The only thing that still hurts is my left knee which I am sure won't last for long.

There are some friends that I am missing.

Encyclopedia. Where are you? We never hang out.
Red. Why does the Big G have to suck so much? We need to get together soon.
Snails. Why don't you ever leave your parent's house? You and I need to talk.
Thanos. How is school going? I miss playing fun games with you and I haven't skated enough since you left.
Sweet Timmy C. School makes you busy but why don't you call me?
Little Lady L. New job makes you happy and I need to hear about it. Sunday chat time?
K-Dog. I always miss you. Darn Iowa for being so far from Minnesota.
Kev-N-Tea. I like your blog, but I miss talking with you and hanging out.

Those are just a few.

We open our show at the Minneapolis Pinter Festival. My talented roomie wrote and directed a piece that I am in, so if you are reading this and want to see a show, you should probably check it out. It is a pretty interesting night of events.

Ouch.

For the past four to five days I have been sick. Thursday I left work early and I had a fever. Friday felt crappy still, so I stayed home from work but by the evening I was feeling a bit better. Friday night I stayed in a hotel room with my parents and didn't sleep well at all because of the whistling/snoring that happens in my parent's noses. Saturday I felt a bit better, but could tell I for sure had a sore throat. Saturday evening was super tired but still felt OK. Sunday...oh Sunday I felt really crappy. Monday, same deal, so I made an appointment to see the doctor on Tuesday.

My original appointment was at 4:30pm because it is about 5 blocks from my house. However, my supervisor came to me and asked if I could possibly move that appointment to an earlier time. I called and there was one available at 1:30pm. This was fine except now I have to drive to work for 25 minutes in traffic, drive to the doctor for 25 minutes in traffic, drive back to work for 25 minutes in traffic, and then drive home for 25 minutes in traffic. Obviously my original plan was better, but that means nothing to my stuper-visor. Anyway, I leave for the doctor at 1:00pm and they poke and prod me, checking me for mono, strep throat, and probably a bevy of other diseases I don't even know exist. Long story short, I have strep throat. Yippee. The doctor was impressed with my blood pressure (as they always are) and how quickly I bled, so that was a plus, but then she asked me if I wanted to take pills or do a one time shot. I asked, "Which will make me better faster?" "The shot." Shot it is.

The nurse comes in and I start rolling up my sleeve as she explains to me how much this will hurt and how big and thick this needle is and how the medicine is really thick so it will take a bit longer than a normal shot. This thrills me to no end because I really don't like shots at all at all. Then she looks up and sees me rolling up my sleeve and says, "Oh. No. You will need to stand up." I am pretty sure she smirked right then, but I am not sure because my head went down immediately and I said, "Wow. Guess I didn't know what I was getting into, huh?" "Nope."

I roll my sleeve down and reluctantly stand up. I pull my pants a little bit down and realize that I am, as always, wearing two pairs of pants and my underwear. I tense up as I start to wonder if she thinks this is weird, ESPECIALLY when I remember that I am wearing pants covered in superheroes.

"Don't tense up, it will hurt more," says the nurse.

If there is one thing that will make me tense up more it is to tell me that it will hurt more. It also didn't help that the shot, the actual needle filled with juices was sitting right in front of my face. She was right, it was thick.

"Okay. Put your weight on your other leg," says the nurse and she tries to grab some of my butt to pinch in order to give me a shot in the fat or skin rather than right in the muscle. Of course, this makes me more tense since I can't say that has EVER happened to me before.

"Are you ready?"

"I suppose."

"Here we go."

Deep breath in as I feel the needle. Then slowly...veeeerrry slowly...the medicine enters my body. This is my least favorite part of shots. It's not the needle itself, it is the feeling of that liquid going into my body. In this case, my butt.

"How ya doing?" she asks.

"Alright, I guess," I raspily answer.

Finally, after what seems like a full minute of liquid injections into my glut (as the pros say) she is finished.

I pull all my pants up and limp out to my car. I drive back down to work. I walk in the door. One of my co-workers asks what I have. "Strep throat," I reply feeling justified in my absence because I have something that is actually considered a sickness and not just a mental health day excuse.

"Oh!" she exclaims. "You shouldn't be here, you are contagious!" It is true. I am supposed to stay away from people for 24 after I get the shot because I have a cloud of sickness around me like some sort of horrible representation of the Peanut's Pig Pen.

"I can go home if you want," I reply with a little bit of annoyance in my voice. After all, my supervisor and told me to switch my appointment because they really needed me to come back and do work at the end of the day.

My co-worker doesn't respond to this, but instead sits down, so I do the same. I start working on something for about five minutes, realizing slowly but surely how much my butt is hurting as I sit in this chair, when my supervisor comes over.

"Go home."

"Really?"

"Yeah, get some rest. Go home".

......

I had just driven an extra hour for this person. I had readjusted my life to be a 'team player' at work. I had come back to work per HER request because they really needed me. And now, after all that, she is telling me to go home. Had I not been so pissed I probably would have made an argument to stay, but I am just not caring anymore.

Now, remember how I said I am supposed to stay away from people for 24 hours? Well, I called this morning before leaving for work and asked if I was supposed to be staying away for the full 24 hours (meaning come in at 1:00pm). Nope, come in now.

I don't understand this at all. What I DO understand is that the only difference I feel in my body after all of this....my butt really, really hurts.

Welcome back...

Well, first off, it has been awhile since I have written anything here. The number one reason for this is because two people were laid off in my department and I volunteered to do all of their work. So far, that has been going well, but there are still times (right now) where I have nothing to do. The other reason I haven't written anything in awhile is because, well, I just haven't had much to say. I have thought much about what to write but nothing comes to mind. I think my creative juices are running low. I blame the economy.

Here are some things that I should tell you about.

I have a beard. It is going on medium to large in the Todd beard scale. I still don't think it is as big as the beard I grew when I was playing Shylock, but it is getting there. I think the main thing that it unusual about my beard is that I have not trimmed my moustache. This is an experiment to see what I would look like if I were lost in the wilderness. Speaking of being lost in the wilderness, I had a dream the other night that I was locked out of my house and I couldn't get anywhere else. My choice in the dream was to burrow under the pile of leaves that is covered with a pile of snow in our backyard. This probably wasn't the best choice because I imagine it would be very wet under there. Warm, but wet. Don't be wet in the cold. You will die. Don't sweat, don't fall in a river, don't pee your pants. Just don't get wet. Anyway, I woke up and was fine in real life, so it doesn't matter. I didn't wet my bed, that's the important part.

Candy. It is delicious. I like it a lot, but I have been thinking about the amount of candy I eat. There is a lot of candy at the office and I am bored, so that means I eat a lot of candy. I decided to not eat any candy at work because I remembered that, as a kid, I didn't eat much candy and I was alright with that. When I DID get candy it was pretty awesome, so I think I want to get back to that in my life. Plus I am almost 30 and I can tell my metabolism is slowing down because I am getting a bit of a belly...which is weird for me. I suppose I should start doing some more exercises other than just hockey but I have just never been able to get excited about that.

There was one other thing that I wanted to write here, but I sure can't remember what it was. Perhaps if you remind me, I will write about it. Yes, I suppose that this is my 'sneaky' way of asking for a prompt, but you may like what comes out of it.

~t

Please...just move.

I like old people. Mostly I like to talk to them and listen to their interesting stories.

I don't like old people. Mostly I don't like it when they drive.

Yesterday I went to the grocery store in order to buy some lunch supplies for here at work. I went to the store at about 1:10pm on a Wednesday afternoon. Let me tell you...there were SO many old people there. It was like they were having an old people convention in the grocery store. I actually walked in behind an old woman who, with her grocery cart, took two steps into the actual store, stopped (blocked everyone from entering) and looked around like she had no idea where she was, what she needed, or how she had gotten there.

At first I felt bad, but then I thought about it. She drove to the store. I know this because I saw her set off her car alarm when she tried to lock her car. She knew she was in a grocery store because she stopped to grab a grocery cart. The point is, she knew where she was and she knew how she got there.

Is there some age at which they require a retest for your driver's licence? If there isn't, there should be. I mean, if this lady forgets in the two second between grabbing a cart and walking through one of those security devices (what the heck? do they put magnetic things on our food to alert those devices?) where she is at...MAYBE she shouldn't be driving a large killing device aka a car?

Just be aware...the old people...they are out in droves during the weekdays at lunch time. Watch out. They don't want to tell you stories...they just want to annoy you.

Thankful

I am glad that:

-I can listen to music at work. I currently enjoying The Decemberists "The Crane Wife", which I received for Christmas from a good friend. I have really liked The Decemberists for a long time, but, for some odd reason, I have never owned one of their CD's. What is up with that? Well, now I have a good one and it will make me just buy another.
-I can take bathroom breaks anytime. This means I can get water anytime I want to as well. Sometimes these breaks will turn into adventures where I walk around the offices and find places I have never been to. The other day I went up to the fourth floor where I had been a few times before. The only way up to the fourth floor is by taking the stairs. Today I am going to go up there again because the fourth floor is a GIANT room that runs the whole length of one half of the offices. There are no walls or anything, just shelves and shelves of junk. Sometimes the junk is too large to fit on a shelf and I swear I saw a rocket ship up there one time.


Sorry, just took a bathroom break. As I was saying, I can take bathroom breaks anytime, so many times these bathroom breaks are just a way to do some reading. I don't actually need to use the restroom, I just go into a stall with a book (usually a comic book hidden in a work folder) and read for awhile. I have no idea how long I was just gone, but I did read about half a trade paperback called Bone. (I highly recommend reading Bone by Jeff Smith, I believe, if you have the chance.)
-They haven't blocked Gmail. If it weren't for Gmail Chat, I wouldn't be the man I am. I wouldn't have experienced the experiences I have experienced. I know this is hard to believe and it sounds stupid, but it is really quite true. #1 I would be absolutely frick'n crazy if I didn't have this communication outlet. #2 I wouldn't have been able to become great friends with a supportive friend. #3 I wouldn't have learned about how I love and hurt. I am speaking of the Boston Breakup. If you don't know what that is, then ask me sometime. #4 I think #1 is really big enough it needs to be listed again.
-I enjoy the winter. I love skating and sledding and skiing and that is incredibly important when you live in a place where winter weather makes up a good portion of the year. I like getting other people excited about these things too because a lot of people tend to shut down during the winter. There is a lot of beauty out there, so let's get out there and check it out. You will just have to wear a few more layers than you may like...
-That I am going to lunch. I am starving.

~tj

Welcome back.

Well, it is time to go back to work after having something close to two weeks off. I figured that it would be a good day here at the job becuase we haven't been here much. There would be lots to do, I would be busy, and the day would glide on by.

Wrong.

I have been here for nearly three hours and I have yet to do any work. Yes, that is right...I haven't got a single thing to do. At least I am getting paid to catch up on my internet reading. Sadly, I am all caught up. I feel like I need to find a new skill set so that I can get a new job. I have no idea what that skill set will be or where I will get it, but I need to get a new job. This is just tiring.

I have had a couple of really great days this last long weekend. It was a wintery weekend. Saturday night I went to see the Minnesota Wild play some hockey. I love going to the Excel Energy Center. It is so clean and new and pretty and exciting. Even if my team didn't win, I still had a great time watching a pretty good game. The Wild won their next game against Colorado (a team that is pretty much done for the year) and they were pretty close to beating Detroit right after having taken down the number one team in the entire league. Now, if we could just play with some good offense and consistent defense, we will be just fine.

Sunday I went sledding and then played some hockey outside. It was cold, but not horrible. I think everyone had a good time and I was certainly ready for bed that night. Heck, I am ready for bed NOW. That has a lot to do with the fact that I am just sitting here...

I have contacted NTC again to let them know I am still interested in doing another tour for them. Really anything would be nice, but three weeks would be ideal. I am just tired of sitting and I can tell I need to move around more.

Todd's New Year's Rock'n Eve Party 3 was really a blast. We played a lot of games and had some drinks and tasty foods and some of those pizza's that taste like cardboard with sauce and cheese on them. Lots of Rock Band and foosball were played and I think that everyone had a nice time.

2009...watch out...cause you are just in the way of me getting to 2010...which just looks cooler when you read it or write it...don't you all agree?

-t2010j