I have a friend who, whenever she fills out surveys online, always lists her "best friend" as her husband. I have always subscribed to the belief that relatives and spouses are not considered friends because they have another title that trumps friend. I don't call Rachel my friend, I call her my wife. Grant is not a friend, he's a brother.
But after spending the better part of the last two weeks trying to organize a trip to the beach for my friends and our significant others, I'm starting to think that maybe the reason people list spouses and relatives as best friends is because their friends become less and less a part of their lives as they grow up. It seemed that every time I called my friends, I only managed to connect with a voicemail. Text messages went unresponded to. A few friends did respond promptly, although I got more "I can't make its" than "Sounds good, see you next week!" from the early responders. I got a few "I don't know, I'll get back to yous" only to have them not get back to me until I called them again.
In college, I lived within walking distance of just about every friend I had on the planet. If I wanted to hang out with someone, I'd go find them. It wasn't hard to get people organized for a weekend trip. Hell, you could probably round up 15 people for a spur of the moment trip to the bowling alley in under half an hour. Now, we have to send out emails and phone calls months in advance to even have a chance of hanging out, and even then you know that you're going to hear more than a few "something came up's."
With marriages, relocations, jobs and kids......is it time to just say goodbye to our old friends? Do we go through a "friendless" period until our kids are old enough to make friends of their own? Then we can just piggyback of our kids relationships and cultivate friendships with their parents. My mom goes on at least one weekend trip a year with her three best friends from high school. Granted, they all live in the Portland area, but still...that's almost 40 years of hanging out. My dad and his best friends get together for lunch every Tuesday. I haven't seen JR since November 10th. . I don't think I've seen Steve since November either. I last saw Colin at Christmas. I haven't hung out with Joel since his birthday at the end of January.
Don't get me wrong, I love spending time alone with Rachel. It might be my favorite thing to do actually. I'm extremely happy with my life, and I have nothing to complain about. And really, I'm not complaining about not seeing my friends. I'm just sad that this is a realization of life. I know that I can make new friends that live closer to me. If I asserted myself, I could probably find a few friends in the neighborhood. Point is that I don't really WANT new friends. I like the ones I have now.
I just wish we still all lived in Finley Hall and could decide we wanted to play some volleyball on the sand court next to Dixon, and 10 minutes later be playing a 5 on 5 game. Of course there's no court there anymore, but you get the idea.
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Sunday, March 25, 2007
Greetings from Windy Richland Center, Wisconsin!
Greetings from windy Richland Center, Wisconsin!
I'd like to offer condolences to my bracket. With the Kansas lost yesterday, it officially was busted. Glad to see I'm only behind 2,000,000 people on ESPN.com. For the third straight year, a female is going to win our pool. It's pretty much a given at this point. I'd like to say that it proves you don't need to know anything about basketball to win, but I don't think that's true. I think those of us who watch games, break down matchups, examine where the game is being played, figure out who is sick and who tweaked an ankle the week before the game and which team shoots poorly on games played during the week before 5 pm local time end up overthinking these things. We're always searching for the "big upset" and trying to predict things that are impossible to predict. Next year I vow to keep it simple and if a pick seems obvious, I'm going to do it. No more of this "Arizona over Florida" crap.
We're currently under a tornado watch here in Richland county. I keep watching out the window, but I haven't seen it yet. Turns out a watch just means that "conditions are favorable" for a tornado. So no, there is no tornado...yet. But there could be. Don't worry about me though, I watched Twister the other day, so I know what to do.
This has been a fantastic vacation of doing nothing and watching basketball. Aside from the Phoenix airport shutting all of its restaurants at 8:30 (we landed at 8:33) and charging $10 for a "value" meal at Burger King, the trip has been extremely enjoyable. Tomorrow we're going to Winona, MN to visit Rachel's friend Heidi and take a quick walk around her alma mater, Winona State. We'll be home Tuesday. Then it's back to work, with no more planned time off until Memorial Day. That's only like two months away though. I think I can make it.
I'd like to offer condolences to my bracket. With the Kansas lost yesterday, it officially was busted. Glad to see I'm only behind 2,000,000 people on ESPN.com. For the third straight year, a female is going to win our pool. It's pretty much a given at this point. I'd like to say that it proves you don't need to know anything about basketball to win, but I don't think that's true. I think those of us who watch games, break down matchups, examine where the game is being played, figure out who is sick and who tweaked an ankle the week before the game and which team shoots poorly on games played during the week before 5 pm local time end up overthinking these things. We're always searching for the "big upset" and trying to predict things that are impossible to predict. Next year I vow to keep it simple and if a pick seems obvious, I'm going to do it. No more of this "Arizona over Florida" crap.
We're currently under a tornado watch here in Richland county. I keep watching out the window, but I haven't seen it yet. Turns out a watch just means that "conditions are favorable" for a tornado. So no, there is no tornado...yet. But there could be. Don't worry about me though, I watched Twister the other day, so I know what to do.
This has been a fantastic vacation of doing nothing and watching basketball. Aside from the Phoenix airport shutting all of its restaurants at 8:30 (we landed at 8:33) and charging $10 for a "value" meal at Burger King, the trip has been extremely enjoyable. Tomorrow we're going to Winona, MN to visit Rachel's friend Heidi and take a quick walk around her alma mater, Winona State. We'll be home Tuesday. Then it's back to work, with no more planned time off until Memorial Day. That's only like two months away though. I think I can make it.
Monday, March 19, 2007
Rachel vs. The Neighbor
When we lived up on the hill in Corvallis, Rachel had a run-in with our downstairs neighbor. You may remember a blog about our neighbor ratting us out for smoking to the landlords, and also accusing us of pouring beer on her head. Neither of these things happened. The cigarrete thing was our neighbor going all CSI:Corvallis on everyone because she found a butt by our car. The beer on the head thing was actually us dumping water off the back of our porch which landed kinda-sorta near her porch, for which we apologized immediately.
Well it looks as if the neighbors in Albany are now taking a chance of battling with my wife. I for one feel sorry for the neighborhood.
Yesterday I get a knock on the door. It's our neighbor, who to this point, has seemed quite nice, if not a little odd. Turns out she's a lot odd. She asks if the red car out there belongs to us. I say that yes, it belongs to a friend of ours who is staying for the weekend. She says "ok, cause we thought it might be abandoned or something." At this point Garth's car had been parked there for less than 48 hours. Furthermore, this was a Friday-Sunday thing. Plenty of people park their cars on the street for a full weekend. His car wasn't blocking their driveway, in fact, it was barely in front of their house. She then goes on to ask us to move it because "if company comes over they have nowhere to park." I look outside - THERE'S A WHOLE STREET WORTH OF PLACES TO PARK. Tell 'em to park anywhere on ol' Riverbow. Hell, there's a cross street that comes to a T right in front of our houses. Her "company" can park on Desert Pine if they need to. All this will cost them is a walk of an extra 200 feet....if that.
So what's Rachel's response you ask? I'll tell you.
"All I know is that lady better watch her cat, cause I'll play that game if she wants to go there."
Have I mentioned I love my wife?
Well it looks as if the neighbors in Albany are now taking a chance of battling with my wife. I for one feel sorry for the neighborhood.
Yesterday I get a knock on the door. It's our neighbor, who to this point, has seemed quite nice, if not a little odd. Turns out she's a lot odd. She asks if the red car out there belongs to us. I say that yes, it belongs to a friend of ours who is staying for the weekend. She says "ok, cause we thought it might be abandoned or something." At this point Garth's car had been parked there for less than 48 hours. Furthermore, this was a Friday-Sunday thing. Plenty of people park their cars on the street for a full weekend. His car wasn't blocking their driveway, in fact, it was barely in front of their house. She then goes on to ask us to move it because "if company comes over they have nowhere to park." I look outside - THERE'S A WHOLE STREET WORTH OF PLACES TO PARK. Tell 'em to park anywhere on ol' Riverbow. Hell, there's a cross street that comes to a T right in front of our houses. Her "company" can park on Desert Pine if they need to. All this will cost them is a walk of an extra 200 feet....if that.
So what's Rachel's response you ask? I'll tell you.
"All I know is that lady better watch her cat, cause I'll play that game if she wants to go there."
Have I mentioned I love my wife?
Monday, March 12, 2007
Damn you daylight savings!
Yesterday was one of the most uncomfortable days of my life. Why you ask? Well I'll tell you:
Saturday night we stayed at my mom's house. The guest bedroom at my mom's house has an old west cabinish feel to it which is cool, except it has itchy sheets which drive me nuts. Plus it's 4000 degrees upstairs in that house, and it was unseasonably warm that night. So I slept terribly. Plus we lost an hour of sleep. Plus we got up at 6:30 to get ready for the Shamrock Run.
Running an 8K race was not my idea. I'd never run more than about 4 miles, so 5 was going to be a stretch. Plus, I haven't been running regularly because I've been having foot problems. Nonetheless, I agreed to run with my mom, wife, and brother. So the race starts around 9 and we're jogging along in a group of a couple thousand people. No big deal...I'm doing great. About the mile and a half mark, my feet start hurting. I have to stop. As soon as I stop, I notice that my shin is tightening up. Now I'm just angry, because I at one time ran a mile in under six minutes and could jog for an hour straight no problem. Rachel, being the lovely wife she is, refuses to keep running and walks along with me. So I spend the next two and half miles alternating between walking and running. Funny thing is, that about the 4 mile mark, my feet either became so numb with pain that I didn't notice it as much, or they actually loosened up, because I ran the last mile faster than any of the 4 previous miles. I tend to think they were just numb, because it hurt to walk for hours after the race. They were giving away cases of water after the race, and mom wanted one. So I carried back to the car for her. I think we figured out that this case of water weighed about 36 pounds. It wasn't the easiest thing to carry two miles after a 5 mile run/walk. Rachel equated it to a World's strongest man competition.
So I'm tired, I'm hungry, I didn't sleep well, and I made my body do something it's never done before and my feet hurt because of it. We got back to our house around 3 and I was asleep by 5. I woke up at 8:30, and I just felt crappy. My body was so out of whack that I felt nauseous. I ended up going to sleep around 10 for good. So technically, I got about 11 hours of sleep last night.
Not the greatest Sunday, but I'll take it. I was a little embarrased by my performance in the run, but Grant said "dude, there's about 2 million people in the metro area that could've come to this race and didn't even bother to try, so don't feel bad."
So.....were you there yesterday? ;)
Saturday night we stayed at my mom's house. The guest bedroom at my mom's house has an old west cabinish feel to it which is cool, except it has itchy sheets which drive me nuts. Plus it's 4000 degrees upstairs in that house, and it was unseasonably warm that night. So I slept terribly. Plus we lost an hour of sleep. Plus we got up at 6:30 to get ready for the Shamrock Run.
Running an 8K race was not my idea. I'd never run more than about 4 miles, so 5 was going to be a stretch. Plus, I haven't been running regularly because I've been having foot problems. Nonetheless, I agreed to run with my mom, wife, and brother. So the race starts around 9 and we're jogging along in a group of a couple thousand people. No big deal...I'm doing great. About the mile and a half mark, my feet start hurting. I have to stop. As soon as I stop, I notice that my shin is tightening up. Now I'm just angry, because I at one time ran a mile in under six minutes and could jog for an hour straight no problem. Rachel, being the lovely wife she is, refuses to keep running and walks along with me. So I spend the next two and half miles alternating between walking and running. Funny thing is, that about the 4 mile mark, my feet either became so numb with pain that I didn't notice it as much, or they actually loosened up, because I ran the last mile faster than any of the 4 previous miles. I tend to think they were just numb, because it hurt to walk for hours after the race. They were giving away cases of water after the race, and mom wanted one. So I carried back to the car for her. I think we figured out that this case of water weighed about 36 pounds. It wasn't the easiest thing to carry two miles after a 5 mile run/walk. Rachel equated it to a World's strongest man competition.
So I'm tired, I'm hungry, I didn't sleep well, and I made my body do something it's never done before and my feet hurt because of it. We got back to our house around 3 and I was asleep by 5. I woke up at 8:30, and I just felt crappy. My body was so out of whack that I felt nauseous. I ended up going to sleep around 10 for good. So technically, I got about 11 hours of sleep last night.
Not the greatest Sunday, but I'll take it. I was a little embarrased by my performance in the run, but Grant said "dude, there's about 2 million people in the metro area that could've come to this race and didn't even bother to try, so don't feel bad."
So.....were you there yesterday? ;)
Friday, March 9, 2007
Lowered Expectations
I realized last night that my job is fantastic. Nobody expects anything from me, so just by showing up, I'm exceeding expectations!
My boss is out of town right now. She left me in charge of receiving and processing all stock donations to the foundation while she's gone. Thing is, nobody donates stock at this time of year. Everyone just donated in December to get the tax break for '06. So basically I haven't had to do anything. Really I just kind of do my normal job. However, it seems that everyone's sick or injured right now, so I've been covering for a few other people from time to time this week as well. We're insanely slow this week, so it's not like I'm busting my ass for 8 hours a day and still falling behind. Basically the only difference is that I haven't had quite as much time to play around on myspace this week at work.
Well yesterday my bosses' boss, who has said maybe two words to me since December, stops me in the hall and says "You hanging in there?" I say "yup, I'm doing fine," to which he replies "well, you're doing a fantastic job....keep it up."
Really? I am? Does he even know what I do all day? Yesterday, I stuffed envelopes for two hours because I had nothing to do. I also spent an hour moving my stuff from one cubicle to another. Then I went to class for a few hours.
This constitutes a fantastic job? Really?
I don't know if previous employees in my position were awful or what, but I swear I give about a C+ effort, and get A+ rewards. Plus, the benefits the Foundation gives are awesome. The only thing that leaves a little to be desired is the take-home pay, but I guess I'm not exactly hurting for money right now (thanks to my over achieving wife).
I'm running in the Shamrock Run on Sunday with Rachel, Grant and my mom. Length of race? 8 kilometers, or about 5 miles. Last time Andy ran 5 miles? I'm tempted to say never. I ran two miles two weeks ago. Will I make it all 5? The magic 8 ball says "In your dreams asshole." But I'll give it a shot. Hell, I get a free T-shirt out of the deal.
My boss is out of town right now. She left me in charge of receiving and processing all stock donations to the foundation while she's gone. Thing is, nobody donates stock at this time of year. Everyone just donated in December to get the tax break for '06. So basically I haven't had to do anything. Really I just kind of do my normal job. However, it seems that everyone's sick or injured right now, so I've been covering for a few other people from time to time this week as well. We're insanely slow this week, so it's not like I'm busting my ass for 8 hours a day and still falling behind. Basically the only difference is that I haven't had quite as much time to play around on myspace this week at work.
Well yesterday my bosses' boss, who has said maybe two words to me since December, stops me in the hall and says "You hanging in there?" I say "yup, I'm doing fine," to which he replies "well, you're doing a fantastic job....keep it up."
Really? I am? Does he even know what I do all day? Yesterday, I stuffed envelopes for two hours because I had nothing to do. I also spent an hour moving my stuff from one cubicle to another. Then I went to class for a few hours.
This constitutes a fantastic job? Really?
I don't know if previous employees in my position were awful or what, but I swear I give about a C+ effort, and get A+ rewards. Plus, the benefits the Foundation gives are awesome. The only thing that leaves a little to be desired is the take-home pay, but I guess I'm not exactly hurting for money right now (thanks to my over achieving wife).
I'm running in the Shamrock Run on Sunday with Rachel, Grant and my mom. Length of race? 8 kilometers, or about 5 miles. Last time Andy ran 5 miles? I'm tempted to say never. I ran two miles two weeks ago. Will I make it all 5? The magic 8 ball says "In your dreams asshole." But I'll give it a shot. Hell, I get a free T-shirt out of the deal.
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