Present, If Not Accounted For

Lemme just break down the high-level stuff for you this morning:

– Memorial Day: good. Drive was OK. Tough getting out of town on I-43, but it loosened up sooner than I thought it would. I got about 42 miles/gallon on the trip. Helped Dad with splitting/stacking wood on Saturday, then on Sunday, the splitter puked. Dad’s afraid he needs a new engine or something. That could suck. Sunday, I met Petters out at the T-Bird. It was my first time there since Knitt was drinking, but pretty much all the same people were there. I think I even saw one of Knitt’s uncles or cousins or whomever.

– Work: fine. It’s all the same crap that I was doing before, but with less hawking. I’m starting to get a sense of the office cliques and figuring out who-hates-who. I was recruited for one of the groups and shot down membership by effectively stating, “I don’t give a good goddamn about any of that shit. I work, I go home, I come back.”

– Apt search: sucks. I passed on a 2-bdrm on WI Ave after Michelle talked me back into my actual price range. I also have no chance of purchasing a home for the foreseeable future. Not that I was really desperately itching to do either, but that revelation also made me realize that I probably won’t be able to afford getting married or having a kid any time in my 30s.

– Brewers: on notice. Went to the game last night w/ Lorch for zero monies (he had vouchers for free tix from eating pizza). It was nice to see them finally get a win, but one cannot escape the fact that in any other division, this team would have squandered a substantial lead.

– Time: out for now.

Now THAT Sort of a Boycott Might Work…

There’s a story in the Journal-Sentinel this morning that I think has an interesting spin on the topic of America’s insatiable thirst for gasoline.

Some area station owners are refusing to buy more gas. The story talks about the razor-thin profit margins that many of these proprietors have to deal with, and apparently some have come to the conclusion that it’s just not worth it anymore.

Take a look.

On another topic:
Sorry the posts have been little more than links of late. I think I hit a turning point yesterday in terms of “settling in” to the new job, so I hope to have more time for pondering, reading, and writing in the near future…

40 Damn Dollars

I know I’m not the first person to see this threshold go by, but I just gassed up my ride and spent $40.90 doing it.

Holy balls.

I did at least have a restful night’s sleep yesterday. I woke up this morning feeling a lot less tired than I have been all week. I have a list of things to get done around here today, so not tons of time to write. Yesterday I got a haircut, I watched a movie that I had much higher expectations of (for whatever reason), and I packed up a box of stuff that I’ll be taking in to work tomorrow morning.

If you try to call me, sorry that you won’t be able to get through– I forgot my phone charger @ Jen & Joe’s yesterday, so I have to call people over the internets if I wanna talk to them.

I’ve got a list of things I should be able to do while sitting down, so I’m gonna go watch another of last year’s Oscar nominees.

Short Entries

I wanted to pop in and say a little something in here today, for the simple reason that I’ve been lax in doing so most of this week.

Moving to Milwaukee and starting a new job is going to be an adjustment. I really really can’t wait to find a place to live down here. The commute is longer than I’m used to, processes and stuff at work are (of course) different, and I feel a little out of my element in general. I want to sleep in my bed.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s going just fine, and everything will come together eventually, but this period of transition is going to weigh me down for a little bit. I felt like I wasn’t paying much attention to Michelle early in the week because I was having a hard time finding myself a place (not to mention a method) to relax.

Tomorrow is Friday, though, and that means I’ll only have five weeks left before I have to move. I should put my vacation requests in right now. Don’t let me forget to do that today. I’m going to the Brewers game with Nick Petters tomorrow. Hopefully being back at home will help get them on the right track again. I’m also planning on going out to a ‘happy hour’ thing with people from work, somewhere around Bayshore Mall.

Saturday, I’m going up to Oshkosh so I can pack, get a haircut, and be at my house. I forget if I told the mailman to hold my mail *through* Saturday, or *until* Saturday. I also wonder if the way I think of those things is the same way the US Postal Service thinks of them.

OK, and the stacks of paperwork around here only get bigger, so I should get to it.

5150

Had a couple weird dreams over the past couple days. On Sunday night, before starting my new job at UWM, I had one where I showed up for work, and the office was actually the lobby at the M&I Bank in Eagle River. My “office” was a teller window. I had no chair. I said to myself, “Shit– I think I took a step backwards to get into this position…”

Then last night (Monday), I had a dream that started out, quite literally, as an X-File– David Duchovny and everything. Apparently, there was a group of brain-eating zombies hiding in plain sight that were “at war” with a rival group of alien rebels. The rebels were actively seeking human allies to destroy the zombie forces on Earth. Because, obviously, if the zombies took over this planet, then that would be like, 6 billion more zombies.

So they hooked us Earthlings up with some sort of sonic device that made zombie heads explode and set about planning a major de-zombification event (because the brain-eaters had already infiltrated our society, and some of our closest friends and companions were actually already zombies).

The leader of the human ally resistance force? None other than my younger sister, Christy. In my dream, she had become quite adept at shooting a rifle. Apparently, in addition to the alien-magic-sonic-zombie-exploder, it was possible to down one through a good ol’ fashioned bullet to the head.

It was a strange dream.

And so, on with Tuesday!

Closing Up

You’ll probably notice the server going offline for a bit later on today. I start my new job at UWM on Monday, and I’m going to relocate this box to the Mundschaus’ house for a few weeks until I have someplace to live.

Brief recap of my last weekend “living” in Oshkosh:
Met up w/ Knitt and Michelle on Friday. Joe and I had a cigar and a game of darts after he got done with work. The three of us went to Peabody’s, but no one else showed up. *shrugs* We still had a good time.

Yesterday, Michelle and I tried to shop for a Brewers jersey in Appleton, but the only sizes on the rack were for the excessively heavy gentleman. I might have to try ordering something online.

We had dinner at Texas Roadhouse, and then later we went to Dick’s Halfway Inn for Dave Schrubbe’s graduation party. We met his GF, which was neat, and had a good time in general.

OK, well– gotta finish getting ready and then head down to MKE. Next time I write, I will be in a different zip code.

Last Day

I managed to get everything done during this last week of work. On Monday, I didn’t think I’d be able to crawl out from under all of it, but I got a lot of help.

It’s exciting to be starting something new down in MKE. I’m getting a little bit nervous now, but still not too bad. I’m a lot more concerned about
A) where I will sleep on Sunday, Monday, etc.
B) how I will get to the office without driving.

I’m gonna put a picture of myself in my cube on the last day up on the Flickr in a minute.

If you’re in Osh Vegas this evening: I’m gonna meet some peeps out @ Peabody’s around 8.

Well Liked

I am apparently quite well-regarded at UW Oshkosh. I have had multiple gifts, drinks, and dinner purchased for me since I announced that I was leaving to take a new job in Milwaukee. I have had people who I was not aware knew my name stop me in the hall of Dempsey to congratulate me on my new position. It’s a little strange. But I’ll take it.

It may sound dumb, or like I’m making it up or something, but I’ve always marveled at the fact that other people would ever think or talk about me when I’m not there. I know it’s a completely counter-intuitive thing, if you really think about it, because hell– what do YOU do when people aren’t around? You talk about them. But for some reason the concept of someone noticing that I’m alive without me making it abundantly clear right in their face has never stopped blowing my mind.

I guess it’s good to be appreciated. I just hope I can do a good job at the new place and continue to make people say good things about me (for the most part).

Two days to go… I really need to figure out the bus schedule before Monday. Yikes.