My Acting Debut!!!

Check it out!

http://chartermediasaginaw.com/client/saginawg.wmv

Milwaukee Lakefront 7's (part 1)

I wanted to wait a little bit to tell the stories of another great road trip until I could get all the pics together but I just couldn't.

It all started with me a couple days into an upper respiratory infection that yielded me in a painful cough and throbbing sore throat, and since my insurance from my new job didn't kick in until July 1st, I was stuck self medicating.

We had a long 9 hour drive to Milwaukee a head of us on Friday afternoon. We planned on leaving around 5pm when we got out of work, get to GR at about 7:30 and then Milwaukee at about 12-1am local time, but we had to wait for our good buddy Tulips (Razor, Tack, Copperfield, Pigpen, Ferris... you pick a name... more on that later) to get out of work... and we didn't leave Saginaw until 9pm! It wasn't that bad though. It gave Bishop and I time to catch Happy Hour at Steamers in Old Town!

Once evening fell and my couple beer buzz was lost I was HIT! Terrible cough and sore throat made for a miserable trip. I got some stuff from Rite-Aid to try and knock myself out for the drive... and it worked pretty well!

It was a pretty quiet and calm trip down. We picked up the Grand Valley boys just outside of Kalamazoo on I-94, which made 7 dudes in a minivan (not too bad when you are expecting 8). It was late and we were tired, usually we would have picked up some beer and had some roadies but the mood just wasn't right.

We pulled into a Super 8 in Kenosha, WI at about 3:30 local time for a hotel. I talked the dude down 10 bucks 'cause it was so late (or early) and we hit up a McD's and headed to the room. McD's did exceptionally well with all of our orders. We spent $35 (and the bulk of that was double cheeseburgers) on complicated orders for the picky kids (Schoen and his Big Mac Sauce on his double cheeseburgers). It didn’t take much longer as if it were midday. I was so impressed I contemplated calling the headquarters and complimenting them. I haven’t yet.

Our room was supposed to be two double beds but it turned out to be one King, so Bishop and I took the bed and made all the kids lay on the floor (actually we offered the spot in between us to somebody but there was no takers). We were set for out 3 hour nap to be on the road by 7am for our hour drive to be on time for our 8:30am game.

When I woke up, after 10 min. of Baba-O’ Riley on my cell phone alarm, I felt the shittiest of my sick days yet. There was an elephant on my chest and a new symptom… phlegm! I was in no mood to play and was really regretting my decision to travel knowing that I would be sick. Once we got to the park, all I wanted to do was sit there and bitch about how shitty I felt. I was not happy.

It wasn’t until after the second game, around noon, that I finally came around. I think after I got moving, my veins and lungs opened up. I still had a painful whooping cough, but at least I wasn’t dragging ass and bringing everybody down. I was at the point where I didn’t even want to drink that night and stay in a hotel room… but how long could that last, really!

After we got spanked by Milwaukee (who won the tournament, we went 1-2, our other loss was to GR who finished 4th) the beer was flowing and the costumes for the weekend’s theme came out in full effect! Magnum P.I.! These pictures tell it all! (c;lick on the pic to go to the album)





















Fantastic Pics by Karinski!
(I will get more pics from others soon)
I will finish the rest of the night’s tales in the next installment.

We’ll see what’s up.

My Work Space

Here is my sweet cubicle!


Here is the view from my cubicle of the flat screen TV that always has ESPN and Tiger's games on it!



Here is the foosball table!



Here is the shuffleboard table!



And the meeting room with the big flat screen and the dart board in the corner where part of my training consisted of watching the final episode of the Soprano's On Demand!



We'll see what's up!

My Name in the Saginaw News!

A few weeks back I registered for a certificate to conduct business under an assumed name with the Saginaw County Clerks office, and that name is the "GVSU Rugby Old Boys Association." It was reciently recognized as a "New Business" in the Saginaw News. Prety cool huh!

The reason i did this was to open an business account at the bank and I need to do this in order to do that.

We'll see what's up!

I got a job!

‘Bout time! I finally landed a job. I got the offer Friday afternoon just before 5pm. I am now an Account Representative for Charter Media (part or Charter Communications) in Saginaw, MI. I am really excited about it. A decent starting salary and a slew of benefits including FREE cable and internet! It is an entry level position but there is great possibility for other opportunities within the company.

click the logo

The office I will be working out of is really close to home; if you know the Saginaw/Carrollton area it is right on the corner of N. Michigan and Tittabawassee Rd. Since I accepted the job I had two companies call me about my interest (in Alpena and Grand Rapids), I had to turn them down.

I’ll leave you with a quote from Deep Thoughts, by Jack handy.

“The next time I have meat and mashed potatoes, I think I'll put a very large blob of potatoes on my plate with just a little piece of meat. And if someone asks me why I didn't get more meat, I'll just say, ‘Oh, you mean this?’ and pull out a big piece of meat from inside the blob of potatoes, where I've hidden it. Good magic trick, huh?”

We’ll see what’s up.

Alpena Bar Crawl

Well, I was headed up to Alpena, MI to the cabin for a day or two, mostly to job hunt, but also to get out of the city and do something different. My original Plan was to go from Monday afternoon until Wednesday evening or even Thursday morning. But those plans changed a little when my buddy Fraggle expressed interest in going as well. He had a class with a test on Monday night and a Job interview (along with a drug screen after) so we then planned to leave after that. So we got on the road about 3pm on Tuesday. After a little on the road we decided that we were getting a little thirsty for a beer so we then had the great idea of having a little pub crawl to Alpena! We ended up stopping at three places with two beers at each joint with about a half hour between them. Here is a little about each place.

Pat’s Bar – Rose City
I didn’t get a picture for this place because I hadn’t gotten the idea for the pub crawl blog yet and we went a different way home so I couldn’t snap one then. This place had a nice set-up. Kind of long and not so thin, with the bar and kitchen along one side with tables and pool tables in the middle and along the other side with Karaoke/band stage at one end. There was a small group of locals with the reality TV show “coyote ugly” on the tube. We had two High life bottles a piece. The bartender was “up north cute” as I like to say. Pretty cool, I would stop there again.

Big T’s Roadhouse – Mio
(pics are from my phone so they aren't that great)
Here is Fraggle standing next to the sign, what a name! This place was way cool and seemed like it could be a rowdy place! It was kinda L shaped with a pool table at one end, stage in the middle corner, with a ping pong table at the other end. It was getting a little later in the afternoon so there was your hardcore whisky drinkers sittin’ at one end and a “starting to get rowdy” group sitting at 4 tables that were put together. This place didn’t have bottles so we went with two Bud drafts. Again the bartender was “up north cute!” We chatted with the whisky drinkers a little about the snow commin’ in and what not and really faught the urge to play Club Keno (I never win so I quit playing). We got a coupel weird looks because we had our cell phones out and sending text messages and what not… City Boys I guess.

Wild Turkey Saloon – Fairview (I think)




This place was small and cozy, the heat was up but it felt good ‘cause it was a little nipple out. It looked as if they bought a bunch of tables and stuff from a hooter’s that was closed. The bartender, not so cute but she was young and looked like she liked to party, said we looked too cute not to card! A little more chat with the locals this time, asking where the places to be were and where to go when we get to Alpena. They were extremely helpful, the bad news was that there wasn’t another place from there to the cabin, but the good news was that there was a place in Alpena that has Ladies Night on Tuesday night!

So then we get to the cabin, started a fire in the furnace and turned the water on. It was my first time turning it on by myself but it turned out good. I just had a little problem with a pipe connection where the washer fell on the ground, but good ol’ Fraggle found it!

Then we wanted to hit up what I thought was called the Spratt Tavern but it is now called the Hub Bar or something. We weren’t there for very long because there was about 10 people in there, and all dudes that looked like they could kick our asses!
Next was Bogoart’s, the place that supposedly had ladies night. It was pretty busy, there was a couple groups of people, a couple cuties, and Karaoke! We sang it up for a while trying to get the place fired up but it wasn’t working. There wasn’t very many other people singing but it was fun, everybody was like, “Who are these tools?”

Fraggle singin'



We had fun, even managed to make a couple friends. One was an older woman, or seemed to be. Fraggle said that she was actually a man, very possible, she said that she was a singer and traveled all over the world singing with the likes of Madonna and James Brown amongst others, but oddly enough, she wouldn’t do any karaoke.

Fraggle and the Man lady


And there was a group of younger peeps who invited us to the next bar. Kind of difficult directions but we found it. The Sports Page. Kinda plane Jane, a lot of younger peeps. We played pool and chatted with a couple ladies.

Then it was time to go home. It was a little difficult journey. First we weren’t familiar with the area and we were turned around a little with the crazy directions to the last bar. It took us two stops and two city maps to finally find Werth Rd where the cabin is. It was about a 25 min trip that took us about an hour. But we finally made it. A couple Yakedoc shots and a couple nite cap beers later we were off to bed.
Overall it was a great trip, I didn’t get as much done in the job hunting field as I hoped because we didn’t end up with that much time, we were trying to get back to a rugby meeting by 6pm that night. I did get a paper with a couple leads for employment and saw a good couple few box cutter super shops like Home Depot and what not to look at.
We caught the snow storm on the way home so it took a while and we didn’t make the meeting, oh-well.

Definitely a great trip, we are actually thinking about doing it again this weekend because yet another rugby match was cancelled if anybody is interested!

We’ll see what’s up.

J.O.B. News and What Not

Finally! High speed internet at my parent’s crib! They bought a new bomb ass computer this week and we just got it hooked up.

I haven’t heard of much from my job prospects, but I will continue to call and e-mail till I do. There is the Plasma Center possition, Holy Cross children services, and ESL Tutor at SVSU. I have had recient aspiration to look for employment in Las Vegas… That’s right, Vegas baby!

You can’t notice, but I just had to take a quick break to catch the tearjearker ending to one of my favorite movies “Mr. Holland’s Opus.” Where he is surprised with a going away thingie and they have the first performance of his composition.

Regardless of the non communication with my hpoeful future employers, I started working this week! I subbed (past tence of substitute teaching) three times this week and it was great. It’s pretty cool subbing at your old high school. It’s a lot easier than somewhere you are not familiar with. Mrs. Dupis hooked me up with a lot of days at the high school and I even have a couple jobs for the middle school as well in the next few weeks.

I am still tryin’ to get my money from Wall Street Institute, but I do have new information. They have been closed for the last week or so due to change on management. The corporate bought then back so they are no longer a franchise. I was assured that I would get my money, if not I will have to bother the big doggs and find out of there is any legal action I can take.

I leave you with a Deep Thought by Jack Handy;

“As the evening sky faded from a salmon color to a sort of flint gray, I thought back to the salmon I caught that morning, and how gray he was, and how I named him Flint.”

We’ll see what’s up

Le-who-sa-her!

Sorry, it has been a while since my last entry and the reason is nothing really new has been happening and I didn’t want to blog about feeling like a 26 year old looser living at my parent’s house without a penny to my name. I stress feeling because I know I am not a looser, because I do have a lot going for me, but still…

I will hopefully be able to start substitute teaching by the end of the week so at least I will have some income but I am waiting for a call back from a new plasma center opening up in the Nasty called Telecris Plasma Recourses. I saw an ad in the paper for a job fair that they were having. I went in with a resume and what not, they wanted us to fill in an application as well and they were doing a basic screen with the people that were there to see if they were qualified for which positions. They wanted to talk to each of the people for about 15 min, but I chatted with them for almost 45 min before one of the HR people said that I should came back because we were taking up too much time. After the original screen they said that that they would like me for two positions and that since one of the big dog regional dudes was there they wanted me to talk to him as well and we kinda started an interview. I killed in there as I always do in interviews, they really liked my international experiences and the other thing they liked was that I have been a donor for the last 7 years. I really played that card and said that I was familiar with the processes and what not that goes on in a center and all that chazz. They said that if they don’t get a hold of me in a week to call them back, tomorrow is a week.

I’ve been going out more than I had liked, mostly due to being back in town and catching up with a lot of people. Frequenting the Carrollton water holes (Heck’s, Smokey’s, and Bruce’s mostly) and the occasional Old Town or Bay City places. The problem is that I literally don’t have any money but my buddies insist on catching up and footin’ the bill (Mucho Gracias Heidi and Bishop, and I snagged $2 from my old buddy Jason J. last Thursday too for one last picture). Yea, my new Thursday night hang out is with Jason sittin’ at the end of the bar at Heck’s. We haven’t hung in a grip…that’s right, I said grip! A lot due to me moving away and going our separate ways, but also a lot to do with an incident with his little sis a few years back. So if you wanna kick it with us, we'll be at Heck's on Thursday night.

Not much more to say. Now back to sleeping in and watching movies all day!

Oh! I forgot to mention that I still haven’t got my last two weeks of pay from pinche Wall Street Institute back in MX. I really need it bad because I am way late on my credit card bills and I am getting SCREWWWWWWWWED big time. It was supposed to be wired last Tuesday, I sent an e-mail today so we will see when I get a reply, and I’m kinda pissed about that!

We’ll see what’s up.