Scruff McGruff

So if I ask you for your opinion about something, doesn't that mean I want to hear your opinion? I ran into this issue yesterday when I asked a few friends, whose opinions I value, whether or not I should grow a beard. No one gave me a straight answer! "I don't know" doesn't answer my friggin' question. Come on people! I'm looking for a definitive answer here!

With no help from my phone-a-friend, I elected to shave it off. I figure that a scraggly looking beard says one of two things; Either you don't care what you look like/what other people think or you're trying to prove that you can grow facial hair. Not quite the image I'm looking for. On the other extreme, I could go buy a mach 27 and (without cutting myself) make my face smoother than.... well I've got nothing to put here, but really really smooth. That sounds like a lot of work and I'm not sure I want my face glimmer when the sun hits it, although I wouldn't have to wear a watch to reflect the sun in your eyes. So those two options are out. The last option is more or less to let the 5 o'clock shadow grow out a bit and trim it when it gets too long. Basically the "scruff" look. Just enough wild man without giving off the "bum" vibe. I'm down for that.

Monday Discoveries

Last week I discovered, again, how expensive it is to eat out everyday for lunch. Ten dollars at Wawa each day adds up! So I finally decided to go food shopping this weekend and stock up on quick and easy meals that I can bring with me to work. I grabbed a bunch of soups and instant rice/noodle dishes. Along the way I decided to try this new "Chow Mein." It's by the same people who make Ramen noodles. Stick with Ramen noodles. This chow mein stuff is not special. The sauce is a little thicker, but that's about it. Save your money.

I made another food related discovery this morning when I left my pop-tarts in the toaster for too long. The sugar from the icing began to burn. The pop-tart was not too enjoyable to say the least.

So maybe those food choices were sub-par, but at least I bought plenty of fruits and yogurt. Yeah that's right, yogurt. It's good stuff, look into it.

On another note, why is "House" cancelled tonight? Instead they're playing "So you think you can dance." Come on FOX. Honestly, what were you thinking here. Your dance show has its own timeslot. Don't fuck with House's. Now I have to settle for Monday night football. Go Birds!

Kiss My Budget!

"This is the best presentation I've seen here in a very long time." - the BIG guy

So the presentation went really well. I'm told that he NEVER makes compliments like that. He came to my desk later in the afternoon to congratulate me again. He even went as far as to have my supervisor write me an official letter saying how good it was. Are you serious? It was a presentation. It was OK by my standards but not great. I stumbled my words once or twice. Either way, I got my budget approved and I was relieved to have the presentation out of the way. It turned out to be an even better day when a bunch of the guys at work decided to order pizza for lunch. The pizza was over 25 minutes late so we ended up getting the pizza for free. EVEN BETTER!!!

How good is getting stuff in the mail, even though you bought it. My new tent came in the mail the other day and since I had nothing better to do last night I decided to set it up in my room. The best part is that it actually fits in my room. The tent is really cool though. I can't wait to use it when I go backpacking on the AT in a few weeks.

Rain sucks. It needs to stop so I can go climbing.

D-Day

I got fed up trying to schedule that presentation at work, so the other day I told my boss that since everything revolves around his schedule that he should schedule the meeting. I didn't phrase it exactly like that, but it was fairly close. There was definitely a glimmer of "fuck you" in the way I said it to him. He agreed to schedule it though (1 point for me!). So the big day is tomorrow at 7:45AM. Yes, 7:45AM. The guy is in meetings ALL day tomorrow. I do not envy him. Today I realized that if everything goes to hell tomorrow morning, this presentation has the potential to ruin an entire Friday since it is so early in the morning. How crappy is that? I better make some plans for tomorrow night so I have something to look forward to.

Going a bit off topic, my new tent came in the mail today! I bought it from Moosejaw. They are a really great company. They sell mostly backpacking, climbing, and general outdoor clothing and gear. Their customer service is terrific, the rewards program rocks and I love getting their emails with sayings like

"If you order something and get the free $21 Gift Card and then return the something but don't return the Gift Card we'll deduct $21 from your credit. Sorry for being so mean about it."

You gotta love that. These people are so down to earth. Everyone should go check out their website and buy lots of stuff from them.

Ode to Media

This weekend was a good reminder of why I love living in Media, PA. Friday night I went to Joclyn's to see my favorite band, Jealousy Curve, play. They have a new album coming out in a few weeks and everyone should pre-order it. The best part about Joclyn's is that it is within walking distance of my house. Today my roommate and I went to our favorite hippie coffee shop, Seven Stones. It is also within walking distance. On the way there we watched a squirrel jump out of the bushes and ricochet off of a parking meter. I felt bad for the squirrel but I couldn't help but laugh at the expense of its stupidity. Or maybe it was retarded.

So often I'm not home during the weekends that I forget how great it is to live in such a fun town. One of my roommates and I intend to get an apartment when our lease on the house is up. I think we'll stay in Media.

However, I need to find some outdoor climbing in the area. Hopefully some nice bouldering. Who wants to go boulder hunting with me? It would be nice to find a moderate area to climb close to home. Most of the good outdoor climbing takes an hour or more to get to. I don't mind making the drive generally, but it can be hard to find a partner that is willing to go. If I could find something closer to home, I wouldn't mind going by myself.

Doomed

I have a presentation that I've spent most of this week getting ready for. Today I had just finished working out my script when my boss comes up behind me and asks if I'm going to send him my slides so he can "be prepared" for my presentation next week. He has asked me twice already, so this time I had to comply. I figured if I could avoid sending him my slides until the day before the presentation he wouldn't have enough time to dissect it and rip me a new orifice next week. So much for that idea.

So not only does he have my slides, but my script is written on the notes pages attached to each slide. FML. Now he's got everything. I am naked. Doomed. SOL. Up shit creek without a paddle. I feel like I've been getting ready for battle. I gathered up all the weapons and ammunition I could find and I came up with a killer strategy. Well all that went down the shitter when a spy leaked my plan to the enemy. I have been exposed. Great! I can't wait to see how big my new orifice is. Should I bring a white flag?



On a different note, this morning I got up to go to work as normal. I have my coffee in one hand, wallet and cell in my pockets, rain jacket on (its raining)..... I'm good. Let's go. One step outside and I realize that I have both locked the door and forgotten my keys. That's swell. Luckily I had my cell phone with me so I could at least text my roommate to open the door instead of banging on it and waking everyone up. I still felt pretty dumb but I had to laugh. What a great way to start the day.

The Time Has Come

The time has come folks. It is finally here. WE CAN ALL WEAR SLIPPERS!!!!! Yeah, my house is finally cold enough to the point where I can justify wearing slippers. They are awesome. I have the moccasin type with plaid fleece on the inside. Stylin! My roommate attempted to turn the heat on yesterday with an epic fail close behind. It let off this terrible smell and set off the smoke/carbon monoxide detector. Well bag that idea. I'll just strut my stuff around the house in long johns for the winter. I've got enough to worry about with the R2D2 virus going around. CO poisoning can stay the heck away.

Spin Those Wheels!

Does anyone ever feel like they are always working against their colleagues? I mean really working against them. I'm talking about the people who are supposed to back you up and be there as a resource and give you direction. Yeah those people are worthless. My supervisor at work is one of them. I got tossed into a bunch of projects that no one seems to want to be a part of, not even my supervisor. I get the sense that someone has tried to do what I'm doing now and has been shut down by the boss. So they're all gonna let me spin my wheels just to watch me get owned by the big guy during presentation day. Fuck you guys.

I came up with a pretty solid plan that the guys all like and I've worked out all the expenditures and managed to make it look rather appealing. So now that I'm putting my proposal presentation together I find out that my supervisor doesn't have my back. She told me it's too expensive. Really? She knew what I intended to ask for because I kept her updated every step of the way. If you were worried about the plan being too expensive then why didn't you give me a budget when we started the damn thing?! So now that my plan is 'expensive' she thinks it's a bad idea. To hell with you. Strap on a set and ask the boss for money.

Bilingual Much?

So I've recently had the urge to become fluent an another language, or two. I'm debating between Spanish and French. I have a solid base of Spanish from taking it in high school for 4 years. It would be fairly beneficial in the states since it's spoken ALL over Cali as well as many others. French on the other hand, is commonly spoken in the northeast and in Canada; popular climbing areas. If at some point I travel overseas, likely to Europe (for more fun climbing), I'm thinking that knowing French would be a bit more useful. Plus French sounds way cooler, and sexier. So I have to decide which Rosetta Stone package to get.

Metabolism or Hard Work?

I've been a toothpick for my whole life. I don't really have a way around it, I've tried. There's the lifting + protein plan. Yeah I tried that, not my thing. It didn't work anyway. Then there's the eat everything and get fat plan. Yeah.... that doesn't work. However, I am leaving one part out. I've been a runner for 10 years. I don't compete anymore like I did in college, but I still run 5 miles a day to stay in shape. I also fell in love with rock climbing a little over 2 years ago. I climb twice a week after work and usually again over the weekend. I'm also giving yoga a fair amount of time. So what I'm trying to say is yeah, I'm a skinny guy. At the same time though, I lead a crazy active lifestyle and I'm not going to stop. Even with graduating and starting my first REAL job I've managed to find time and balance for all the things I love. So to all you folks out there that love to tell me "oh you're still young, enjoy it while it lasts," I'll send you guys a postcard of my six pack when I'm 50 years old, running 5k's, climbing 1,000ft mountains and shredding powder on the slopes.