Floridumb

Got back from Jacksonville at about 1 am last night. I'm starting to think that flying out of Seattle to save a few bucks isn't really worth it at all. From the time I left for the airport in Jacksonville to the time I finally made it home was roughly seventeen hours. That's just silly. I had a good time though. Vince's wedding was real nice. Church was amazing. His family was amazing too. Never met a crazier bunch in my life. About the only part of the trip that sucked was Jacksonville itself.


What a ridiculous city. We couldn't find helpful service anywhere. The hotel desk clerks were painfully slow, fast food restaurants might as well have been called "moderate pace" restaurants. One day, the cleaning ladies didn't come to our hotel room until 4:30 (although they could've come during the mid-morning, we slept until noon). It wasn't like they were rude, it was more like they just didn't care. It was amazing.

And the driving down there was something to behold. We came upon a little road construction that was congesting the road just before a bridge. Traffic was pretty much at a standstill. And people were bailing off the road, cutting across this patch of grass like it was a refuge lane, and heading the other way, I assume in an attempt to head to the next bridge. Only problem was, the nearest bridge was at least a couple miles north of where we were. Now I've seen it where one or two impatient people do it, but this was like systematic! It looked like a scene from a natural disaster movie, where people are just bailing off the roads and doing anything in their power to keep driving. It got to Joel so much, that he considered following. I was like "I think our best bet is to stay on the one road in Jacksonville that we're familiar with. Turned out to be a good choice.......we were delayed at most 15 minutes. Who knows how long it took these psychos to get back on the road they needed.

I saw semi-trucks driving 80 in the left-hand lane. I saw at least 10 one-car accidents while we were there. Not like actually saw them happen, but saw the aftermath. I saw two two-car accidents. I saw numerous people change lanes by throwing their hand out the window and then barging over, forcing the car behind them to slam on their brakes. It's absolute anarchy.

Mix all that in with the crappy weather....muggy and rain most of the time we were there, and you've got a recipe for a city Andy won't like very much.

I also met a crude, foul-mouthed feller named Brad. Great guy, just not very tactful. Kind of guy that everyone loves, but nobody's really sure why. He rails on and on about himself, is an unabashed cheater on his wife, tells these grandiose stories, and just basically says the most inappropriate things at the most inappropriate times. But he's a great guy, if that makes any sense. He's also fiercely loyal to Vince (he was the best man in his wedding), is like a second son to Vince's mom, and did an excellent job of making me feel welcome and comfortable, seeing how I'd never met anyone involved in this wedding other than happy couple prior to arriving in Jacksonville. To give you an idea of the stuff this guy would say, consider this conversation:

Vince's mom: What do you want to do tonight, Brad?
Brad: I don't wanna dance, just rub the dick on the ass.
Vince's mom: hahahaha, give me a hug you little shit.

What? How many of your friends' mothers can you insinuate that you'd like to rub your erection against their hind-quarters and they find it adorable? I know I couldn't. I swear to god I'd get slapped if I said even a tenth of the stuff he says. But he pulls it off. Amazing.

I'll post pictures from my trip tonight most likely, once I download them off the camera. Peace, and I'm out.

Happy Father's Day....to me?

So I think you know your dad his having a little TOO much fun at the College World Series when you wish him a happy father's day and he replies "Same to you!" without skipping a beat. Dad I think has fallen in love with Omaha, Nebraska. He's been going off about how great the weather is, how good the food is, and how absolutely fantastic the college world series is. He's practically demanding that we go next year. I'm not going to argue with him. Here's a typical conversation with him.


Me: So are you guys having fun?
Dad: Oh, Andy, Eh! It's amazing. I had the best steak sandwich I've ever had at the ballpark.
Me: Awesome...so how's the stadium?
Dad: Oh, Andy, Eh! It's amazing. This is the greatest place to watch a game.
Me: Really. So the weather's been nice?
Dad: Oh, Andy, Eh! It's amazing. It's been perfect.

You get the idea.

Two days until I leave for Florida! Then I can be the one raving about another part of the country.

Guess who's back

At the urging of my millions of fans, I'm back to write again. I know you all missed me dearly. And by millions of fans, I mean Heidi, and by missed me dearly, I mean not at all.


I guess my writing has really slowed down lately because I've fallen into sort of a routine with work and whatnot. It's get up, go to work, come home and watch tv, eat dinner and watch a little more tv. I need to switch it up. I know what should work well.....a trip to Florida! And guess what? I've got one on Wednesday! Oh the harmony of life is great.

Work was great on Friday. Well the last hour or so. It always gets painfully slow on Friday afternoons. For whatever reason, every person of authority in our office left early. So we were left to run the show. That meant putting in a "Ultimate Party 2003" Cd and having a dance-off in the records room. Great times. Everyone just cut loose. I think a few people were a little shocked that the 25 year old guy that listens to country all day started jamming out to Robyn's hit "Show me Love" and "Return of the Mack" but hey, I gotta keep 'em on their toes.

Yesterday Rachel and I went to Portland and hung out with Grandpa for the day. We watched the OSU game......one bad pitch away from shocking the #1 team in the nation. That's baseball though, that's the reason Tulane's #1 and we're not. Their hit falls into the gap in right center, ours lands in the Tulane rightfielder's glove. Hope we win tomorrow...it'd be a shame to go all the way to Omaha to lose two games.

After the game, Rach and I took Grandpa to Olive Garden for a Father's Day dinner. He seemed to really enjoy it. He was a little mad at himself for forgetting to get his handicapped sticker so we could get upfront parking. It's funny, he's the one that needs it, and he's mad that he forgot it for us. Such a nice guy that grandpa.

That's about all I got for now. I'll be sure to chronicle the trip to Florida and write a novel about it when I get back. Peace n' love!

Hello, my name is Upson Downs.....

The last few days have been some serious peaks and valleys. Saturday I watched USC commit 8 errors, essentially handing Oregon State a victory in the college baseball super regionals. When I woke up Sunday morning, someone had broken into Brown Sugar and stolen the stereo and all my cds. That was about 15 years of cds that got taken. I'm not sure how much money that guy's gonna get for my Kris Kross and Bobby Brown cds, but if he needs the money that bad, I hope he gets something. I thought about putting a sign out on the truck that says "next time take the whole fucking thing asshole." I called the police, and they told me to call back on Tuesday. Way to get right on that guys. Then.......

The day finally came. I graduated from college, officially. They even gave me a diploma. I wasn't positive it was going to happen until they actually handed me that damn thing. I could just see them not having me on the list of graduates, or saying over the loud speakers "will Andrew Lasselle please report to the registrar's office. Andrew Lasselle to the registrar's office, there is a discrepancy on your transcript." That would've been lovely.

Then we all went to my aunt's house for dinner. It's a rare occasion with both sides of my family hang out in the same place. It was kind of cool seeing both my grandfathers having a conversation though. My family was extremely generous in their gifts as well. Both Grant and I received a sizeable amount of money. Rachel was shocked and impressed. When she told me how much she got for graduating college, I realized how lucky I was. I think that it helped that Grant and I graduated at the same time, and that I took so long that people thought I'd never do it. I think that made it more special in everyone's minds. I seriously wouldn't have walked had mom not made me.

After the party, we watched OSU choke away a chance to go to the college world series. That was depressing. And at work yesterday, I spent all afternoon huddled by the radio listening to the third and deciding game. I'll be amazed if I hit my productivity goal for the day. Nobody seemed to care though, especially when OSU pulled the game out. Grant is planning on going to Omaha, which I think is a great idea. I'm actually extremely jealous that he gets to go, but I guess it makes up for me going to the Fiesta Bowl back in 2001 without him. He better take pictures, that's all I know.

Alright I'm off to work. Y'all have a good day.

Meat Buzz!

Yesterday was actually a good day at work. After struggling through the morning, I got myself a "meat buzz" at The Chippery. It's amazing what a beef philly will do for your attitude. The afternoon was great. Everyone was in a good mood, most likely because ol' D-minus was sent to the back to do posting lookups. But everyone was laughing and joking around. Makes the day go by much faster.


So I'm graduating on Sunday. That's......3 days away. It's a very strange feeling. Everyone else seems so excited for me. I'm like "great, I have to sit through three hours of speeches and 3,000 or so people dressed just like me walking across a stage." I guess it's the symbolism of the whole thing, but personally I wish people would stop making such a big deal about it. It took me almost twice as long as normal to get my degree - this is not something we should celebrate. But it makes my parents happy, and my grandpa is proud of Grant and I, so I guess that's a good thing.

Baseball Super-Regionals are this weekend.....Check out OSU on ESPN2 Saturday, Sunday and possibly Monday!

work work work

so work has been...........well that's how work has been.


Friday we were two people short so I had a lot of work to do....found out that as long as there are charts in front of you, you can annihilate our productivity goals. The minimum goal for the day is to process 300 charts. I did 1140. Supposedly it's close to some sort of record. Maybe it is one, I don't know. The point is, I've been there for a month and a half and I've already broken a productivity record? C'mon. Doesn't exactly speak volumes about the quality of people they have in there. Not to say that all of them are inept....there's actually some people there that are a lot like me....good head on their shoulders, just no real direction and can't find a job because of that. Then there's people like this:

Yesterday I walk in from lunch to hear one guy telling another guy how "interesting" the internet is. He goes on to talk about how he has this "friend" that tells him all the bizarre stuff he finds on the internet. This included videos of extremely obese women stepping on small animals to satisfy something called a "crush fetish." I just sat there with my mouth open. He went on and on about sick or perverted stuff that his friends tell him about.....I'd bet dollars to donuts that there are no friends that look this stuff up, that he does it on his own. When he finally stopped talking and moved away, the guy next to me just starts laughing and says "conversation just hit an all-time low."

Yup.

This is what I deal with at work every day. I need a new job. I'm still waiting to hear from Samaritan Health. I emailed HR yesterday, we'll see if they respond to that. Also, it looks like there might be a job opening with the ticket office. I can't imagine that there's too many people more qualified for that gig than me, but then again, I spent all weekend with ticket office people and nobody mentioned the job to me. So maybe they don't want me to know about it. In that case, maybe I'm not as qualified as I think. But we'll see.

Rachel is getting royally shafted at work. Like worse than I've ever even heard of. Her boss has on numerous times come in and had her sign paperwork for her pay raise, told her it'd be on her next paycheck and said that he's personally delivered all the paperwork to HR and that he doesn't know what's going on. She emailed HR yesterday to see what the deal was, and they emailed her back saying they'd never received any paperwork and really had no clue what she was talking about. They're about to lose the best employee they have in cardiac rehab. Her program is the only one in the Sam Health Cardiac Rehab system that is making money, and she's doing it in Lebanon, not exactly a well-off city. Yet she's the only one still on the old pay scale. Good job guys.

Eventually I know everything will work out, but I always wonder why you always have to wade through bullshit to get there?

I was alone...I was all by myself

I MISS MY GIRLFRIEND!


I've been trying to keep busy....watching movies with the neighbors, golfing with my brother, end of year athletic department banquets. They're all fun and enjoyable and all....but it's just not the same without Rachel around. I can't come home and tell her about the funny things that happened or my ridiculous day at work or anything.

And call me paranoid, but everytime she goes home and I don't go with her, I'm worried she's not going to come back. That's the pessimist in me. I still sit around sometimes and go "why exactly is she with me again? What'd I do to get so lucky?" Is that ridiculous? We've been together two years, and I still doubt my worth as a boyfriend from time to time.

This is the kind of post you get from me when I'm in my apartment alone for four consecutive nights.

I know you're having a great time at home baby, but you can't get back here soon enough!