So many fine things

This weekend was of course the Halloween weekend. For me it was also a large tournament up in Evanston (Chicago-land), IL, called the Remenyik. The bonus was that Matt and his fiance, Lauren invited me to join them in their partying. They went as Mario and the Princess, I went as Yoshi, the dinosaur companion. Pictures will follow when Matt sends them along.

The fencing tournament went well, but required an early wake up so I was dead by the time the party rolled around and I embarrassingly ended up falling asleep on the couch. Turns out the Yoshi costume is like a green oven for people. I still want to wear the thing out to a bar or somewhere there are non-attached-type-women because it is amazing. I said “It’s soft! Touch me!” and the ladies did. Ya can’t beat that.

I was kind of disappointed that we didn’t get to go see Lauren’s friends. But I was grateful for the time she and I got to spend in the car. I like getting to know people that are going to marry my friends. Not so much to pass judgement, but more just to have a clear picture of who a person is. Lauren is a lot of fun and really easy to talk to.

Only in Indiana

Actual conversation I had today, the names have been changed to protect the odd.

Will: Hi Susan! How was your Halloween weekend?
Susan, the cleaning lady: Oh we don’t celebrate Halloween, that’s for devil worshipers
Will: Yeah I guess, devil worshipers and people who like candy
[really awkward silence]
Will: *sneaks away*

It Feels Like Defeat

I haven’t written in a while because I’ve been dissatisfied with my life. The biggest thing is that fencing is not paying the bills, it’s not even close any more. The company itself makes a profit each month, but you can’t live on it. No one can. Well maybe a bum could, but I want better for myself. So now that I’ve finally gotten people to stop saying “So what else do you do?”, or “When are you getting a real job?”, now I need to go get a second (aka “real”) job. So I started looking about two weeks ago, really looking with an updated resume and applying directly to specific job, not just reading the classifieds each day.

Six months ago I told myself if I needed a job, I’d get a job as a cashier or stock boy, something mindless so I’d have the mental energy to run my business. But when you come from a full-time job that pays $25/hr, minimum wage is a scary thing, and then it’s worrying about being able to get the hours you need. As a result, I’ve been applying for web jobs at Purdue and similar jobs on Monster. Today I got some calls/emails back, so I feel better talking about this.

But I really haven’t been the guy I was in early August. I haven’t been happy financially, and I noticed that I was looking thinner (if that’s possible), I wasn’t eating well (still three meals, but they were mostly garbage), I wasn’t cooking much at all as opposed to cooking spaghetti three times a week, and I haven’t been able to go see the people I’ve wanted to see.

40 hours a week on top of running a club which requires 20 hours of teaching time plus paperwork time is going to kill me. So I’ll get my debt paid down and try to grow the fencing. That’s the plan anyway.

Send Flowers!?!

Thursday last week I went to a pub to celebrate Paul’s 24 and one half-th birthday (he’s not really 24) and Big Joe was there too. Well we’re munching and drinking when we bring up the “order a water for the lady” idea again. I get the water, Paul carries it over to another table with some women, and says “From the gentleman at the table” and motions to Joe. It was pretty funny. Paul later convinces Joe to talk to them which sets the stage for a whole bunch of things.

I’m talking to Joe, and he thinks our waitress is seeing someone. I admittedly have no clue, but decide to take up the opposing stance that she’s single. Paul says she had no ring on, Joe said she had one on her necklace. So she comes back, I say “Joe and I have a bet…” yadda yadda, she says she’s dating one of the guys working at the bar, but doesn’t seem to want to give his name. So we keep talking to her in short spurts, along the way she makes us guess what she’s going as for Halloween, what the origins of the holiday are (which none of us knew), etc.

Paul wraps up the night by telling me he doesn’t believe she’s seeing someone, that I should make a move. Now keep in mind I’ve been drinking Coke, and he’s been drinking Guinness, but I decide to listen to him anyway. After all, she is a career-gal who is 26, attractive, and can carry a conversation. That’s as good of a start as any.

Well the next day my news feeder drops me an article on the origins of Halloween. I think to myself, “Jackpot!”, I can use this as a way to start a new dialogue with this person. So I make plans Friday night to swing by and see if she’s there. Turns out she isn’t, which is fine, I had a busy weekend ahead of me anyway.

So during my 10 hours on the road, I resolve to print out the Halloween origins and scribble my phone number and leave it for her at the pub. But then I think about Joe who is a big proponent of flowers. I like giving flowers, and I’ve never had anyone complain about getting flowers so flowers it is! Monday afternoon I swing by the florist, pick up a nice pumpkin bouquet, toss my letter in the card holder and I’m in the car. My plan is to walk in, ask if she’s there, pretend that I’m just a flower delivery guy if she isn’t and “could you please put these somewhere she’ll get them, thank you”. So I get in the door, the place is pretty empty, I make my way to a pack of employees that seem to be killing time. One guy jokes “Those better not be for her because I’m her boyfriend”, my face goes white I’m sure, but he quickly follows up with “Just kidding, I’ll put them over here”.

I get a few miles down the road, and my phone rings. Something isn’t right, unless she WAS there, there’s no way she would have gotten my number and the nerve to call me up so soon, so I let it go to voice mail.

Long story short, it was her boyfriend on the phone, she was telling the truth, Paul was wrong, don’t listen to drunk people.

Safe, yet Dangerous

After this weekend, I’m pretty sure that the dance floor, if not dating in general works something like this: The guy has to appear dangerous, yet be safe. She has to think you could pull something, but know you have a reason to hold back. I think this is exactly why ladies love to dance with married/engaged men.

Now to the safe extreme, there’s the shy guy. You know he’s not going to pull anything because he hasn’t seen a real woman in his entire life and wouldn’t know what to do with one. But he’s also not dangerous, you know he won’t try to touch you, he won’t try to take you home, or even get your number. He’ll never make the lady feel valuable.

I’m that shy guy. I need to learn to be dangerous…

Tour de Indiana

Saturday I woke up and picked out some warm dress clothes. Why? Because I was attending Nads’s wedding which had an outdoor ceremony. It was a nice day but it was chilly so remind me when I get married to do it indoors. I was warm enough with my three layers that I ended up giving my coat to Bruno’s fiance, Christine. Soon after the ceremony, Becky got stranded out at a nearby Bob Evans (I never got the story of why she was out there), but I was dispatched to go help. I arrived, turns out her battery was leaking acid, and she needed a jump start every time she wanted to start the car.

The wedding was tre nice, and the reception was great too. I love wedding dance music. I wonder if I can get a playlist from a DJ. And oh the train. We had a train so long that there was no way that it would all fit on the dance floor and I was at the head. Nads and Sara looked great together, that relationship should make the long haul.

Saturday night I drove home because it was more economical than renting a hotel room just for myself, but I had to go to Angola (close to Ft. Wayne) the next day. I made my way out there just in time for the family photo shoot we were doing at my brother’s studio, or at least I thought it was going to be in a studio. Alas it was outdoors, and this time I was a little underprepared for an entire afternoon in the cold, but I managed to stay warm by walking around and playing with Jon’s dog, Callie. My brother and I have a lot more in common than I often admit, and it was good to sit down and talk about some of those things over dinner on Sunday.

Then it was home and sleep, for Monday would be filled with “excitement”.

Everything is “Bon”

What a kick ass weekend. Saturday morning I gave a presentation (45 minutes long, holy crap) to my fencers and their parents about the training cycles in fencing. So the cycles are half bogus in the sense that a fencer should always be at the top of his/her game, but it emphasizes adding private lessons to improve, which the fencers need to do. I also got to communicate when the “busy times” are for fencing, so parents don’t schedule vacations for those times, and fencers can avoid signing up for other activities, not realizing that they’ll be in direct conflict with their fencing goals.

Saturday afternoon I slept. I was up till 3AM the night before, finishing up twoweeks worth of preparation for that presentation (overhead slides, folders with color graphs, the works). So getting up at 8AM the next day put a dent in my sleep count. Everything is banalced now.

Sunday, oh Sunday. I dedicated this day to working on my Yoshi costume for HHalloween. That holiday always has a nack of sneaking up on me, but not this year. I managed to get the main body all stiched together (zipper, arms, and dino-scales on the back). So it is actually wearable and let me tell you it looks sweet! I can’t wait till I get the elastic on the cuffs and get the hood made. The look will be completed when I make a paper-mache (sp?) Yoshi nose. Well actually the look will be completed when I’m standing next to Princess Peach and Mario is punching me in the back of the head trying to get me to eat something.

Lastly, tonight!!!! So I’ve started to go to coffee houses again. Bars are too damn noisy and I don’t enjoy the clientele, so I went looking for options. Last Sunday I went to the Village Coffee House which was sparsely populated, but had good apple cider. Tonight I went to Vienna because it looked a lot more alive. Sure enough I managed to sit down near an attractive group of ladies. As I was trying to work up an entry line one of them started talking about Settlers of Catan (a board game I enjoy), so I jumped right in. I managed to talk a lot to Bethany who is a free lance music instructor. We had a lot to chat about being out on our own and how our markets were the same/different. I gave her my card and told her to call me next time they were playing Settlers.

Here’s to keeping my fingers crossed.

New KoL Clan

I got tired of my sucky clan, so I decided to make my own. I guess my clan currently sucks even more, since there’s not yet a meat tree, or any of the goodies, but I’m hoping those friends of mine out there who are playing KoL might be inclined to switch over. In honor of Nads’s upcoming wedding, the clan’s name is Things Mean Things, and we’ll have humorous ranks like “NotJoeLandin”.

 It’ll be fun.

I Missed the Income

The other day I was making a deposit for RCF when the teller next to me asked the customer, “One thousand in cash?”, which got my ears to perk up. I remembered when every two weeks my take home pay was just under $2,000. Don’t get me wrong, I love the work I do now and REALLY don’t have any inclination to go back to being a programmer. I just note this feeling because it’s the first time I’ve felt it since I moved back six months ago.

American History X

Today, Netflix sent me American History Xstarring Edward Norton who plays an ex Neo-Nazi who has to change his little borther’s views of the world. While in prison, Derek (Norton) is asked the question “Has anything you’ve done made your life better?”

I think it is one of the most important questions one can ask himself.