Some more updates

Just a quick update.

My grandma is still in the hospital. They seem to be figuring out what all is wrong in Columbus much better than they did at her small, hometown hospital. They said she may get out on Sunday, but we'll see.

My aunt is doing great after her colon surgery - she's probably getting out of the hospital tomorrow to continue recuperating at home.

My mom had her chemo this week and they came to take her infusion pump off on Thursday morning. She did really well this time around and she's feeling tired, but otherwise, pretty good.

My grandpa (on my dad's side) was admitted to the hospital on Thursday, with what they initially thought may be a heart attack. They've since ruled out the heart attack, but it seems that he's in poor shape and may be on his last leg. We'll have to see what happens there.

That's about it from here. I'm a bit overwhelmed, but I figure I'll make it through it. I'll update again soon.

- C

Update

Hello all. Just a quick update (see - I'm trying to do better - it hasn't been three months between updates this time).

Mom starts chemo on Tuesday. She was supposed to start last Monday, but ended up getting a sinus infection the week before, so she wasn't able to do chemo while on antibiotics. The plan at the moment is four treatments, then evaluate for the next steps. Hopefully something minimally invasive.

My grandma isn't doing so hot. She's been in the hospital since Wednesday. Her magnesium and potassium levels are very low and she was very fatigued. The oncolgist says it is from her chemo which she is temporarily off of because of this stuff. This is the second or third time she's been in the hospital since my last update.

My aunt is having surgery on Tuesday for divreticulitis, which is a colon inflamation disorder. They will be removing a portion of her colon, so it is a pretty major surgery. I'm planning on going to the hospital to stay while it is taking place, since my mom will not be able to, due to the chemo treatment that day.

Still job hunting. I've sent out several resumes lately, but no bites. I believe the competition is super furious right now. I've been doing a bit of merchandising and other independent contractor work for the past month or so, trying to make a little money, so at least it is something to do.

The only other thing of note is that I've recently purchased a domain name and I'm working on a website. Pretty much just something for fun. Once I get it going, I'll be sure to post a link so you can all come visit!

That's all for now. See you peeps later!

- C

An update aka I suck at blogging

Good afternoon good readers, if there are any of you left. Firstly, I am here to admit that I am a terrible blogger, especially during warmer months. Secondly, I do have some updates.

My mom is still doing well after her stroke and series of seizures. She has seen the neurologist twice since late-February when all of that happened. They said she is doing great, and actually cleared her to drive again (initially we were told at least a year for that). She went to see her oncologist last week and they indicated that her latest blood work showed that the cancer marker has begun rising again, so she is beginning chemo again in two weeks. She'll do that for about two months and then there is a possibility that they will implant radioactive seeds into the cancerous area to try to eradicate it. All of that sounds much better than another major surgery. She seems to be doing fine with this news. That may be because she is leaving tomorrow for a resort in the Dominican Republic for five days with my dad. Party at my place - who hoo!!

My grandmother is currently receiving chemo for her pancreatic cancer, but her oncologist has warned how deadly the disease is and that this is basically just a treatment to see if she can maintain her current health, not a cure of any kind. She has her good and bad days, but seems to be handling things okay.

As far as I go, I am still job hunting. I rarely find any jobs to apply for, but I keep searching. I know sometime soon, something will work out for me. On a happy note, however, I have lost about 42 pounds since the last week of February, so I'm feeling better physically than I have in many years. I've still got a lot of work to do on the weight loss, but I'm pretty proud of what I've accomplished so far.

A long overdue update

Hello blog readers. It has been a long time. I've missed you! Just a few updates here.

My mom's health took a turn for the worse in February. I drove to Dallas in mid-February for a nice week-long getaway from everything and to catch up with all of my friends. I got to Dallas on Friday morning and on Friday evening, I received a call from my dad, telling me that my mom had possibly had a stroke and was in the emergency room. While my first instinct was to immediately turn around and go home, both my dad and mom thought it best that I stay in Dallas. I ended up cutting my trip by three days, but did stay for a few days after it seemed that things had stabilized with my mom's condition.

She was at her sister's house when she had the stroke and luckily, my aunt is a long-time RN, so she was able to care for her immediately. They had the emergency squad come and pick her up and take her to the local hospital (this all happened about two hours away from where we live). After she was stabilized at the local hospital, the decision was made to CareFlight her to her regular hospital, Ohio State University Medical Center in Columbus, since she regularly goes there for her cancer treatments.

She was admitted at OSU very late Friday night. She ended up staying at OSU through the following Wednesday, when she was finally released after numerous tests and procedures. During all of this, she suffered from seizures, likely caused by the trauma to the brain by the stroke. They also diagnosed her as a diabetic during this stay at the hospital and determined that her cholesterol levels were astronomical (side note - I'm convinced that the diabetes and the cholesterol were directly influenced by her chemotherapy treatments).

By the time I got home, she was at home, doing good, albeit with a ton of new pills to take each day and a large number of new doctors.

She's now doing very well, eating much better, exercising daily and effectively controlling her blood sugar. She's seen the neurologist since that time and they've been slowly lowering her anti-seizure medication and that has also been working out well.

As far as her cancer goes, she saw her oncologist last week and he wants to hold off on resuming treatments for a while, while her body adjusts to all of these new medicines, if everything looks okay on the CT scan she is having this morning. She goes back to the oncologist next Monday to get the results from the scan and if things look stable, it'll likely be about two months before she gets back into the chemotherapy.

At her last oncologist appointment before all of this happened, they did mention that the spot on her liver was shrinking and that they were thinking they'd do four more chemo treatments and then, rather than a full-blown surgery, they would do a radio wave ablation, with is an out-patient procedure where they basically burn the damaged area of the liver away with a small instrument.

My grandmother's news has not been great either. In January, she met with my mom's oncologist and it was determined that her cancer has indeed returned, and there are no surgeries they can do to remove it. She goes back for another CT scan in early April and at that point, they will determine next steps. She may end up doing chemotherapy, but the doctor wants to be sure to not ruin her quality of life, so he needs to find a balance.

Also, I am still jobless, but that may be a blessing with all of the things going on with my mom. Due to her seizures, she is unable to drive for at least a year, so I have in essence become a taxi service, but I don't mind.

That is all for now - I will update when I know more.

- C

New Year’s Eve – a 2008 retrospective and a look ahead to 2009

As 2008 comes to a close, what better time is there to look back on the past 12 months and look ahead to the next 12?

2008
For me, personally, 2008 was a year of extreme highs and lows. The year started out with a continuing job hunt, but my family was healthy, and together, so it wasn’t all bad.

In February, not too deep into the new year, I finally found a job – one that I thought could be that perfect job everybody is looking for, usually through their whole life. I began my position as director of communications for a non-profit that protects the rights of hunters. As days turned into weeks and weeks turned into months, I realized that this was not the perfect position I’d dreamed it to be. In fact, I realized I was in the completely wrong position. Don’t get me wrong – I actually loved the things that I was doing, but the message I was putting out wasn’t one I believed in. After some days of sending out press releases and taking calls from media and the public, I would drive home with a sick feeling inside because I just didn’t agree with what I was doing. At that point, I realized what I had to do. I could not be the mouthpiece for an organization I wasn’t behind. I left that job at the end of May.

While leaving a job like I did may seem like one of the downs, I can say that it also provided at least a couple of the ups. I met a great group of people that I continue to consider friends and learned a lot about how non-profits work.

After leaving this position, I scheduled a trip back to Dallas in June to recharge and reconnect with my good friends. I came home refreshed and ready to get on that job search horse once again. I had a few interviews here and there, but nothing that seemed to fit. I figured it was just a matter of time before I found something that worked for both me and the company that was looking to fill a position.

Then, in July, came another disappointment. My mother had been cancer-free for nearly a year after having gone through surgery and a long cycle of chemotherapy. She had been going in for scans and check ups every three months after that to make sure the cancer had not come back. After her July scan, she was told that everything looked good. The next morning, however, she received a call from the doctor stating that something came back strange in the blood work and they needed to do more tests. She did another scan and the found that the cancer had returned. She has been doing chemotherapy since that time and will be having another surgery sometime in the early part of the new year.

It was somewhat of a blessing that I was off work during this, as it is hard for her to do the things she would normally do because of the effects of the chemo.

In October, after several more interviews at various places, it seemed that I had found the position that I had been looking for. I interviewed for a public relations writer position with a software company and was called back for a second interview. Everything about the job sounded great and I thought it was going to be a perfect fit for both myself and the company. At the second interview I was told by the hiring manager that at that point she had planned to offer me the job, however, she received a resume just the night before my second interview from a woman with 20 years experience of writing for the software industry and she felt like she had to at least interview that person. It ended up that the experience won out and I did not get the position. I have stayed in contact with that hiring manager and she continues to help me using her network of public relations professionals in the Columbus area.

One other disappointing development for 2008 is the return of my grandmother’s cancer. She too had been deemed cancer-free, only to see the return of her pancreatic cancer in early December of this year. She is likely to begin chemotherapy again soon, depending on some forthcoming test results. As bad as this seems, I still often think of how blessed I am. I am the only 32-year-old person I know that still has all four of his grandparents still living, and living unassisted at that.

2008 was also a year of reconnections for me. Thanks to Facebook, I’ve managed to get back in touch with so many people that I thought I’d never hear from again. It is so nice to get caught up with so many people that I’d lost track of over the years.

So, as 2008 ends, I remain unemployed. If I had known the worst economy in my lifetime was about to begin, would I have changed my decision to leave the position with the non-profit? It’s hard to say. Part of me says yes – I would have wanted to keep that stability, but part of me knows that I’m just not the kind of person that can stay someplace when it doesn’t fit with my beliefs.

Yes, 2008 had its share of ups and downs, and a lot of people might say mostly downs, but I try to see the positive side of all that has happened. I’d be lying if I didn’t say that sometimes, in weaker moments, I questioned the existence of God, or wondered why He was doing this to my family. Each time, however, I end up coming back to Him and praying to Him.

2009
As I enter 2009, it is indeed a year of uncertainty. With economic times as bad as they are, one must wonder how this job search is going to move forward. It is important to me that I once again become part of society and I will find a place where I can not only support myself, but also in some way help others.

The health of my family is in question. Surgery and chemotherapy are givens, but even with that, results are unclear. I do know that my family and I will make the best of whatever hand we are dealt.

With that, I ask each of you to love those in your life, and don’t take anything for granted. I wish you all nothing but the best for 2009.

End of the Year Update

Hello all. I hope this update finds you all doing well and finished with your Christmas shopping so you have some time to enjoy the season!

Sorry for the lack of updates - I know it seems like I start each of my blog postings with that apology. Hopefully I'll do better updating throughout 2009.

My mom is still going through her chemo treatments. We're hoping that she'll be done with those before too long. I'll update again once we know more.

My job search is not going too well. It is not a great time to be job hunting when the world economy is in the toilet. I'm trying to keep my chin up however. Hopefully the first of the year will bring more opportunities.

I wish you all the very best holiday season and a most prosperous new year. Hope to hear from you all soon!

- C

Quick Update

Just a quick update on things. Mom went to see her oncologist and the tumor in her liver didn't shrink any with the first three chemo treatments. She's going to go through three more and then they will look at things again to see what's going on. She's still looking at a surgery in the not-to-distant future, but the timing on that will be determined after the chemo cycle.

On the job front, it was a case of so close, yet so far away. I ended up going in for my second interview for the PR writer position I spoke of in my last blog post. The hiring manager was very candid with me and said that she had received a resume just a day earlier from a lady with 10-years writing experience, with 6 of those years being in software. She said that I was her choice at the moment, but she still had to interview this woman. Well, long story short, the woman got the job because of the experience factor. So, the hunt continues.

That's it for now.

- C

Update

Hello all. Just a quick update. Mom is hanging in there. She's finishing up her third of four chemo treatments. After the last one, she'll have to schedule the surgery to remove part of her liver. She's not looking forward to it, but she's a trooper.

As far as the job hunt goes, I interviewed with a publicly-traded software company last week for its open PR Writer position. I felt like the interview went well and I got a call today to schedule a follow-up interview next Wednesday, so that seems like a good sign. I'll keep you all posted!

- C

Another update

Just a quick update on my mom's condition. She started her second chemo treatment today. She will be at the halfway mark of her chemo after this one is done. Then, on to the surgery, which we will get more information on in the weeks to come. So far with these treatments she hasn't been too sick, just exhausted. I'll post more when I have it. Thanks for caring!

- C

Life update

Greetings blog readers! Just a quick update, since it has been so long. I'm still on the job hunt - sent out several more resumes just this week.

More importantly, things are not going great with my mother's health. She found out about a month ago that her cancer has returned. She starts chemotherapy again this coming Monday, so we're hoping she gets through that without too many problems. After two months of those treatments, they are planning to do another surgery to remove the cancerous part of the liver. We're hoping that this will take care of the cancer and she can go back to living her life.

That's about it from here, sorry for the lack of updates!

- C

So, here it is ...

Some of you already know this, but I ended up leaving my position as director of communications a couple of weeks ago. I am once again on the job hunt.

After about three months at the organization, I came to the conclusion that the message and goals of the group did not fit with my beliefs and I could not in good faith continue to be the mouthpiece for something I was against.

I have a couple of irons in the fire regarding work already. I just wanted everyone to know what was going on with me. Thanks, as always, for your continued support.

- Cory

The new job

Well, I thought it was about time for me to do a post on my new job. I've been there about a month now and things are going great. I actually feel like I'm doing what I went to school for now. My official title is director of communications. I have my own office, a laptop, cell phone, corporate card, etc. I have an assistant director, an intern and I'm hiring a second intern.

As far as what I do, it is somewhat of a small organization (22 people I think) and you end up wearing many hats, but my main duties are all relevant to public relations and communications, which is awesome. I write a lot, which is a big change from the previous job. We have two monthly newsletters, a small weekly e-newsletter and about eight quarterly specialized e-newsletters that we produce. I've been working on a powerpoint presentation I'm doing for our board meeting in a couple of weeks. I've fielded several media calls and have been working with several outdoor writers associations in relation to their annual conferences.

There is going to be significant travel involved in the position, and I'm very happy about that. I figure I'm single and don't have any kids, so what better time than now to see the country. So far I'm scheduled to visit Tennessee twice, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Pennsylvania this spring and summer. In fact, I go to Nashville for our board meeting a week from Tuesday. I then fly back on Wednesday afternoon and turn around and drive 2 1/2 hours to northern Ohio on Thursday for a four-day convention up there.

It is so nice to feel like part of the world again. I really enjoy the people I work with so far and I think I found a really good place to work - finally!! Thanks to all of you for your continued well-wishes as I went through the trials of trying to find a position.

Work so far

So far, so good on the job front. I've been really busy already in my two days there. I can tell this is going to be a pretty hectic job, but I'm enjoying it so far. I'm going to a four-day conference in northern Ohio in the middle of April and I'll likely be going to North Dakota for a couple of days for a conference in late July. So far I really like the people. Everybody seems to work hard, but they still manage to laugh and have fun. This job is a lot less structured than my previous job, so it is a bit of an adjustment. I'm going to have to be spot on in my time management and multi-tasking. I managed to move some stuff around in my office and make it more "mine" today, so that's kind of nice. Just wanted to update everybody on the progress so far.

The rollercoaster continues - I've accepted a job offer!

I accepted a job offer this morning and start my new position on Tuesday. I'm the new Director of Communications for a non-profit that protects the rights of outdoorsmen.. This job is infinitely better than the one that didn't work out a few weeks ago.

I just wanted to let everybody know and thank you all for your support and well wishes during this trying job hunt. I guess things do work out for a reason.

Life is a rollercoaster

Well, I wrote the blog last night saying I was going to accept a job offer this morning. I called and spoke to the owner and told her I was going to accept when she started with "I don't want to sound like I'm reneging, but" and I figured out immediately that I wasn't going to be working there. She said that she'd been thinking more about it and she didn't feel like she was able to offer the type of position or pay that I would need and she thought I'd be bored with the job because I'm overqualified. So, basically, she snatched the job out from under me. She did say that a couple of her clients are looking for people right now and she was going to pass my resume on to them because they would be able to offer a higher level job with higher pay. I sure hope having her pass it on works out because I really need a stinkin' job!!! I must say I'm kind of in shock right now - I've never just had the rug pulled out from under me like that before.

I'm accepting a job offer

Just to let everyone know, I went to a job interview for an account coordinator position with a small travel public relations firm in the north part of Columbus on Monday. I interviewed on Monday, was given a writing/editing assessment on Tuesday, turned it on Thursday morning and was offered the position on Thursday evening. I'll be calling back to accept the position later this morning, so I will soon be in the world of the employed again.

This is a very small PR firm. There is the owner, me and an intern. That's it. I'll be doing press release writing, editing, event planning, database upkeep and other things. I'm looking forward to the experience for sure. This firm specializes in travel/tourism clients, so that should be pretty interesting.

Well, I really just wanted to let everyone know that I've finally found a job. Hope you all are doing well!

- C

Excellent News

My mom had three-month PT scan a couple of weeks ago and her three-month CT scan this morning. She's been pretty upset over the possible results for the past few days. She had her appointment with the oncologist after the CT scan this morning and everything is all clear! I just wanted to let everyone know that all is well! That's all for now.

- Cory

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

Well, I woke up this morning to a bit of a surprise. There were about three or four inches of snow on the ground. Now it is probably up to five or six inches, but it seems to have stopped. The weather folks said we'd probably get a bit of snow overnight, but I didn't expect this much. It sure does make for a nice view, but I could do without the cold that comes with it.

I've basically been inside all day (with the exception of getting the mail) so at least I haven't had to drive in it. My brother's normal 25 minute commute to work took him about an hour and a half this morning, so it did slow things down out on the roads. He said there were cars that had slipped off the road all over the place.

Well, that's about all I've got right now. I did take a couple of pics of the snow and they are below, so enjoy!

- C

Hello!

It has been well over a month since I posted last and for that I apologize! Blogging just hasn't been on my radar much for some reason. I have done some interesting things since Oct. 17 - the last time I posted.

There was Thanksgiving for one. That's always fun. It was nice to spend the day with my extended family and to see the Cowboys beat up on those Jets from New York.

Another fun thing for me was a trip to Albuquerque, New Mexico. About a year after I left my old job, the company decided to merge the editorial operations into three operations bureaus. One of those bureaus is in Albuquerque. I have several friends in management at that office and they asked if I'd like to come help them out for a couple of weeks during their busy period.

Seeing how I still am unemployed, it sounded like a really nice deal - two weeks in sunny New Mexico, visiting with friends and getting a paycheck, at least for a couple of weeks.

So, I agreed, hopped on a plane to Dallas and from Dallas another plane to Albuquerque. My first night I had a nice dinner with a bunch of the folks I used to work with. It was nice getting to see friends that I hadn't seen in a while.

I did get to stay at the Marriott for 13 nights, which was cool. My rental car was a nice gray Ford Mustang, which was also cool. Meals were on the company, so the steak dinner was a player a couple of nights. There was a casino about two miles from the hotel and I went there a couple of times and left about $100 for them to remember me by.

As far as the work goes, I did work two 40 hour weeks and it was nice feeling like part of something again. I enjoyed working with my former co-workers and enjoyed getting to work with and getting to know all of the people there that I didn't already know. They seem to have a really good team in place.

I guess that's about it for now. I am planning to do more blogging for the rest of the year - let's call it an Old Years Resolution!

Update on my mom's condition

Sorry for the lack of posts - haven't had too much to talk about lately. I do have an update on mom's cancer situation however. She finished up her chemotherapy in early September. She then had a CT scan which showed that the spot on her liver had shrunk to about half the size it was when they began, which was excellent news. They then had her do a PT scan, which actually detects cancerous activity, rather than just showing a picture of the liver. She went in to see a surgeon and her oncologist on Monday to see how they would proceed. When she spoke to the oncologist a couple of weeks ago he pretty much told her that they would probably want to do another surgery to remove that part of the liver or do what is called a radio wave ablation, which essentially means they would insert a needle into the suspect spot on the liver and burn that area out with high frequency radio waves. So, she was pretty much expecting a surgery or at the very least some sort of procedure to be coming up soon.

Well, here's the good news - the surgeon said that he's not convinced that the spot is actually cancerous - he feels like it is the scar tissue from the last surgery in April shrinking down. He said that to him, the PT scan did not show it to be cancer. Basically, he all but said that he feels she is currently cancer-free. He said at this point they just want to watch it, so she goes back in for tests again in late December. He said that if things are clear still at that point, he'll have her come in every three months after that for tests. So, she basically got news that was better than anything she could have expected.

It is like a weight has been lifted off of her and she seems so much happier now than she has been in quite a few months. So, with continued prayers, we will hope that this cancer stays away for good and is defeated! Thanks to all of you for your support, love and well wishes! It is all very much appreciated.

A much needed visit with friends

Well, my trip to Texas has come and gone. I got there on Wed., Sept. 5 and left on Sun., Sept. 9. Not a long enough trip in my opinion, but what can you do? I really, really enjoyed my trip. I got to see a lot of friends. Of course seeing them all makes me realize even more how much I love them and miss them!

I spent pretty much the whole time with my former roommate. On Wednesday I got to see the new house of one of my best friends from high school and visit with him and his family and another high school buddy. I also rode in my first police car (no I didn't get arrested - my friend is in law enforcement). On Thursday I went to happy hour and got to catch up with nine of my former co-workers. On Friday night I spent an evening of pizza, booze and games with another of my best high school friends and several of her friends. On Saturday I attended the wedding of another of my best friends from high school with my former roomie and the high school friend I hung out with the night before.

All in all, it was an awesome trip and I have awesome friends. I hate being 1,000 miles away from them, but they and I know that this is where I'm supposed to be for now. There were quite a few friends I didn't get to see, but hopefully next time I'm in town I'll be able to see them as well (maybe more than four days next time?).

Finally - an update!

Hello my loyal readers. Please accept my apologies for the lack of communication. Just haven't felt much like writing anything lately I guess. Still no job, so nothing to write about there.

Mom's doing okay. She's got one more chemotherapy treatment left and then they will do some scans to see what remains of the tumor on her liver. Depending on the size (they're expecting it to be very, very small since the last scan showed it was shrinking) they have a couple of options for the next step.

They can either do surgery and remove that part of the liver or they can do a radio wave ablation, which basically means they put a needle through the skin, into the liver and they send high frequency radio waves into the tumor, essentially cooking whatever is left of it. The surgery would mean another week or so trip to the hospital and the normal possible complications with a surgery. With the ablation you generally don't even have to stay at the hospital overnight and it has a good success rate, so that's what we're hoping for and what the doctor is expecting to do at this point. So, that is basically all good news.

I am flying to Dallas on Wed., Sept. 5 for a few days of visiting for the wedding of one of my oldest, dearest friends. I'm excited about getting to be back in Big D for a little while. When I was growing up, my family would frequently vacation in Ohio so we could visit with our extended family. We lived in Dallas and everybody else lived in Ohio. Needless to say, our vacations were basically like being drawn and quartered. We had x number of family members trying to drag us in x number of directions. I've found that this is going to be how it is when I return to Dallas from now on. It is still two weeks until I come down there and I've already got a burgeoning schedule. It's all good though - I absolutely want to see as many old friends as possible. I miss everybody tremendously.

My brother is moving up here to Ohio in the middle of September. A few days after I return from Dallas, my mom and dad are flying down there to finish packing up his stuff and they are renting a u-haul to drive his belongings up here. I think it'll be good to have him here. I'm looking forward to having someone a little closer to my age around. My brother is five years younger than I am and we've never been especially close (not that we didn't like each other - just never had much in common), but in the past few years it seems that we have been getting closer and close, which is a good thing. He's also bringing his miniature pincher, Bowser, who is awesome, so I'm looking forward to that as well.

Well, that's really about all I've got at this point. Hopefully I'll do a better job at keeping everyone updated in the future. Thanks as always for reading. Hope this blog finds everyone doing well!

- C

A night with Pauly Shore

Last night I had my first experience with a comedy club. Not sure why it took me until the age of 31 to go to one, seeing how I love comedy and all. I found out about a week or so ago that Pauly Shore was doing one night of shows at the Columbus Funny Bone and thought to myself, "Self, this is actually someone you've heard of so it might be a good opportunity for you to make your first trip to a comedy club." So, I got in touch with my cousin that lives in Columbus and he said he'd like to go, so we reserved tickets to see the Weasel - Pauly Shore. One great thing about Ohio is that it is completely non-smoking in public places, so I didn't have to sit in a smoke-filled club all night. That being said, lets get to the show itself.

They started off with a local comic (whose name I didn't get, but that is really neither here nor there). He was actually pretty funny and he was only on stage for about five minutes. Next came out one of Pauly's comic buddies from LA. He started off slow (the crowd really wanted Pauly, so he had to endure a few less laughs than he probably would have normally gotten) but by the end of his routine he had gotten a few laughs out of the crowd. His portion of the show probably lasted about 15 minutes.

Pauly (sorry for the awful zoomed camera phone image above - it was the best I could do!) then came out to some strange country entrance music. He got on the mic and said that he had requested hip hop entrance music so he could pop lock his way out to the stage. He left the stage and told them to play his hip hop music. They accommodated him (clearly this was part of the show) and he pop locked his way back out to the stage. Pauly's act was probably about an hour and 15 minutes long. Now, as is the case with most comics, Pauly's act is not for the easily offended. There was a lot of sexual humor and he does George Carlin proud with his language, but honestly, that is to be expected with most comics today. Besides the sexual humor, there was a lot of self deprecating humor about his former status in Hollywood compared to today. He said that people often ask him why he doesn't do more movies and he told the crowd that he'd love to do more movies, but nobody is asking him to do them. He had several jokes about his former movie co-stars and other Hollywood types. I actually found Pauly to funnier than I expected. I would give his act 4 out of 5 stars. If Pauly Shore comes to your town and you are a fan of comedy, I would recommend checking him out.

So, I found my first comedy club experience to be quite enjoyable and I'm planning on keeping an eye on the Funny Bone web site for future acts that I might enjoy.

Update on my mom

Mom went in for a CT scan on Monday so they could see how the past two months of chemotherapy have worked on the small spot on her liver. She went in this morning to see the oncologist for the results of her test. He told her that the spot is shrinking, so the chemo has been effective. He said they would do two more months (four treatments) of chemo and then look at it again to see where to go from there. If it is not gone at that point, it sounds like surgery may be an option again, or they can insert through the skin a needle-like device that shoots high-frequency radio waves into the cancer and can kill it. Hopefully the chemo will take care of it all and we won't have to worry about another surgery or the radio wave thing. Mom sounded upbeat when I spoke to her on the phone - I'm sure it makes the rigors of chemo a little more bearable when you know it is doing its job.

Movie Review: Transformers

I loved the Transformers as a kid. I watched the cartoon - I played with the toys - I went and saw the original Transformers movie in the theater in 1986. That being said, I initially wasn't looking forward to this movie - in fact I wasn't even sure I was going to go see it. I don't like Michael Bay for the most part and from everything I had heard about the production of the film, he was destroying the history of the franchise I loved.

Okay, now that we got that out of the way, I loved this movie. After seeing trailer after trailer for Transformers over the first part of the Summer I realized that I really couldn't avoid seeing the movie as I had originally planned - it was going to be too big for that. Transformers was everything the Summer blockbuster action film should be - I mean really, it is huge robots beating the crap out of each other - who wouldn't like that? The premise of the movie is that the evil Decepticons, led by the maniacal Megatron want something that Sam Witwicky (Shia LeBeouf) has so they can use it to destroy Earth. Meanwhile, the heroic Autobots, led by the noble Optimus Prime need that same item, but for reasons of good. Besides the obvious large robots, there are car chases and some pretty decent acting to be honest. I appreciated the performances of Shia LeBeouf, Megan Fox, Josh Duhamel among others.

However, the biggest star to me, a longtime TransFan, was Peter Cullen. I know, most of you ask, "Peter Cullen, who the heck is Peter Cullen?" Peter Cullen is the original voice of Optimus Prime from the 1980s Transformers cartoon and he reprises that role in this film. The movie starts off with narration from Cullen and from that moment I was hooked.

The creators of the movie had plenty of little nods to the old-school Transformers fans. While Autobot Bumblebee was originally a VW Bug, he ended up being a Chevy Camaro in this film due to licensing issues. However, during one scene in the movie, Bumblebee destroys an old yellow VW Bug so Sam will take him home rather than choosing the Bug. It was little things like this that made this movie fun for fans like me.

I will go on record to say that there WILL BE a sequel to this film - it has made far too much money and was left far too wide open at the end for there not to be. There are literally hundreds of characters for them use in future films. I give Transformers 5 out of 5 stars.

Movie Review: Live Free or Die Hard

Well, I went to see yet another of the movies from this summer of the sequel. Live Free or Die Hard brings us the further adventures of hard-luck NYPD detective John McClain (Bruce Willis). This time McClain spends most of his time in Washington D.C., Baltimore, Maryland and somewhere in West Virginia (yes, West Virginia).

In this, the age of the internet, it was only a matter of time before the Die Hard franchise upgraded to version 2.0. No longer are we worrying about people taking over office buildings or airports or even New York City - this time we worry about the terrorists unraveling the entire fabric of the United States using the internet and all of the intertwined computer networks of the country. And of course, it is up to McClain to save the day yet again.

Also starring in Live Free or Die Hard are hacker sidekick, Matthew Farrell (Justin Long); McClain's daughter, Lucy (Mary Elizabeth Winstead); king bad guy, Thomas Gabriel (Timothy Olyphant); super hacker, Warlock (Kevin Smith); and bad ninja girl, Mai Lihn (Maggie Q).

Now, as far as the movie goes, I loved it, but be aware, I love this entire franchise, even Die Hard With a Vengeance, which a lot of people said was crap. First off, for those of you with kids, this movie is rated PG-13, but I thought it deserved an R rating for the violence, so be warned. This is clearly your typical summer popcorn flick, with lots of killing, gunshots, explosions and unbelievable action sequences. That being said, if you are into the above list of topics, like I am, go see this film immediately - you will not be sorry.

There is a good story in the movie, the acting is on par with the rest of the Die Hard franchise and I guarantee you will laugh throughout the movie - after all, that's part of what the Die Hard movies are all about! I give Live Free or Die Hard 4 1/2 out of 5 stars.

Movie Review: Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer

First off, I admit it, I'm a comic book geek. Most of you that know me, already know that, but I wanted to throw it out there before putting forth my review of Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. Now, that being said, I kind of liked this movie. I saw the original Fantastic Four movie two summers ago and honestly, I didn't really like it - I was bored with it in fact. This time around they didn't have to go through the background of each character, so they were able to focus mostly on the story and the action, which to me is a good thing.

This chapter of the Fantastic Four saga introduces two new characters to the viewers - the Silver Surfer and Galactus (well, kind of - he is pretty much just a big cloud in the movie as opposed to the ginormous planet devourer comic book readers would recognize). Silver Surfer is really pretty cool in this movie and it was nice to have the villain be someone you could actually sympathize with (as opposed to Dr. Doom - who everyone should just hate all of the time).

As far as the acting goes, you get what you expect in my opinion - average acting. I thought the CGI was really good and the script was average. I do believe there will be at least one more of these movies (especially since it pulled in over $57 million in its first weekend). I'd recommend Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer to anyone that likes or knows these characters, otherwise, I'd say skip it. I give the movie 3 out of 5 stars.

Movie Review: Knocked Up

I spent the better part of the afternoon at the local mega-plex (better known as the crappy Regal Cinemas theatre in our mall) seeing the surprise Summer hit Knocked Up. Knocked Up stars Katherine Heigl and Seth Rogan as two very different people who happen to get their lives intertwined while at a LA night club. Long story short, he knocks her up (hence the title of the film) and we are well on our way through the story of their new lives together and apart.

The movie is funny in parts, but I'm not sure where all of this critical acclaim is coming from. It is very raunchy, so I advise not watching it with your parents (or anyone else you would get embarrassed around) if at all possible. I actually thought the movie was about half an hour too long (it ran about 2 hours and twenty minutes).

To me, the bright spots of the movie were supporting case Leslie Mann (she played Heigl's sister) and Paul Rudd (he played Heigl's brother-in-law). I thought both added a lot to the film. If someone asked me if they should spend the money to go see this film, I would probably only suggest it at matinee pricing. $10 on this movie would be a stretch, but that is just my opinion. I would give Knocked Up 3 1/2 out of 5 stars.

Jobless once again

Well, today was the first day at the new job and it also ended up being the last day. I got there this morning and the director of operations spent about half an hour telling me how bad it is to work for the owner/boss (who would be my direct boss). She told me how he was gay (which really doesn't matter to me) and that he doesn't tell anybody because if his parents found out they would cut him off and he'd lose his business (so one slip up could have cost everyone their job anyway).

During lunch (they were all forced to have lunch with me because it was my first day) they were telling stories of strip clubs and tattoos and drinking binges and the like. I completely felt like I shouldn't be there.

So, in the afternoon, I wrote out a letter of resignation. I wasn't sure if I was going to turn it in or not, so I went to the post office to mail a package after work and then returned to the office and slipped the notice under the door. They never even got my social security number, direct deposit information, W4, etc., so I felt it best to just cut bait now and not waste any more of their or my time.

So, now it is back to the drawing board!

The last week of joblessness

Well, I finished out my nearly a year spent unemployed on a high note. My former roommate from Texas, Jeff, came up to visit last Sunday and just left to return home this morning. It was a nice way to end my time off. We did many, many wonderful things while he was here.

On Memorial Day, we visited a place called The Wilds. It is a safari-type experience located about an hour and a half from my house. We got to ride around for a couple of hours in an open-air safari bus and get up close and personal with some bison, zebras, giraffes, rhinos, camels, various exotic deer, elk and horses and several other species. It was a really cool experience, and one you wouldn't expect to have in the middle of Ohio.

On Tuesday, we went to see Spider-Man 3. I had seen it once already, but once is generally not enough for me when it comes to the good old comic book movies. Besides that, we went to the Motorcycle Museum and Hall of Fame (lame, lame, lame).

Wednesday was spent mostly around the house, playing some video games, riding four-wheelers, etc.

On Thursday, we drove about 1 1/2 hours southeast to visit with my grandparents and aunt. We went to an auction later that evening. It was pretty fun - the auctioneer sounded like Kermit the Frog, so that was entertaining.

On Friday, we drove to Indiana to do a little gambling on their riverboat casinos. It took about two hours each way, but I managed to pull $10 out of there, so that was cool.

Yesterday we basically just did a little shopping around Lancaster and relaxed a little on Jeff's last full day in town.

All in all, it was a lot of fun and it was nice having a friend around for a while. It was a nice way to end my temporary retirement, that's for sure.

Next up: The beginning of a new job - stay tuned!

Those darn raccoons and the theft of the gnomes

So, a couple of weeks ago, I blogged about the raccoons that have invaded our turf. Turns out, they are not only annoying, they are also thieves. On our back deck, there is a water fountain that sits on the deck and is about two feet tall. We built up a few items in the fountain to get a more pleasant sound when the water hits. One of the items was a little statue from the Dollar Store of two gnomes playing poker at a little table. Well, two nights ago, the darn raccoons stole the gnomes. I went outside at about 10 a.m. and noticed the gnomes were missing. It was immediately evident that it was the raccoons because their little muddy paw prints were all around the fountain. My mom chalked the gnomes up as a loss and went about her business (although she did actually really like the gnomes). Later that night, my dad was cutting some weeds about 20 yards into the woods behind our house and he found the gnome statue. It had a bite out of one of the hats, but there it was. It has since been replaced in the fountain and hopefully it'll stay there this time!

Jobless no more!

That's right. I am once again gainfully employed (I don't start until June 4, but hey, I got the job, so that is just semantics). Thanks to everyone for their support during the highs and lows of the job hunt.

I'm going to work for a place called BLF Management. They are an association management company (they do all of the membership, publications, conferences, day to day operations, etc. for various associations). I'll be serving as their Managing Editor. It is a small company, less than 10 employees, but they've been in business for a while and they are growing, so that's a good sign.

So, as far as the story of how I got this job, here goes. I saw an ad on monster.com last week. On Friday at about noon I decided to apply for it. By 2:30 they were calling my home and cell numbers and emailing me. I called them back and the lady said that the president of the company wanted to have me in for an interview. So, I said that sounded good and she said "How's tomorrow look for you?" I was kind of in shock. I never expected a Saturday interview, but hey, I wasn't busy, so I went ahead and did it. The interview went well and he asked me to think about the company and position and get back to him if I thought it was something I'd like to do. I emailed him on Sunday night that I was interested in the position. I received word from one of my references that they called her yesterday and then another said they called her today. I then got a call on my cell phone at about 1 p.m. (while I was outside building a wall - long story) and the director of operations asked that I give her a call back. I called back at about 3 p.m. and she offered me the job. I already knew about benefits, salary, etc., so I accepted it on the spot. Very quick - that's what I'm talking about!

So, as of June 4, I'm back in the workforce, paying my taxes to Uncle Sam.

Quick update on my mom

Sorry for the lack of updates. Mom got through her surgery fine and she's pretty close to fully recooperated now. She starts chemo again starting on Monday and she'll do that every other week for two to four months. She's not looking forward to it, but she knows she'll get through it (the first time she did chemo it was more like seven months). Thanks to everyone for keeping us in your prayers and I'll update again soon.

- C

Another update on my mom

Mom's surgery is at 7:30 a.m. eastern on Wed., April 4. Should be a 3 - 4 hour proceedure. She'll likely spend the first day in ICU and should be in the hospital for 7 days total. All thoughts and prayers are encouraged and appreciated. Thanks for all of your support!

- C

Update on my mom

Here's the story on my mom. She saw the surgeon yesterday. There are three spots on the liver. Two are on one side, one is on the other. That poses abit of a problem. If all three were near each other, they could just hack that section off and be done with it. In this case, they'll hack off the section where the two are and then with the third one, they'll scoop it out if they can, if not, they have some device that they'll insert into it and kind of burn it out. The part that they'll cut off has only a 1 - 2% chance ofrecurrance. The other one is a bit trickier. If they scoop it out, there is probably a 10% chance that they can't get it all and it'll return at some point. If they burn it out, there is a 17% chance it could return. The good news is that if it does return, they can always go in later (once the liver has grown back to the normal size - about nine months - and remove that one like they are doing the two together this time. This is a tough surgery though, tougher than the other two she's had. There is a 1 - 5% chance at mortality. Complications can include liver failure, heart attack, stroke, infection, bile leak, etc. She'll be in surgery for 3- 4 hours and then she'll spend seven days in the hospital with the first day in ICU. They're supposed to call today to let us know when it is taking place. It'll either be next Wed. or the following Wed. After the surgery heals enough, she'll do chemo (every two weeks for about two months I believe). She doesn't want to do the surgery next Wed., because she doesn't want me to associate my birthday with her surgery (our neighbor told her the other day that her mom died on her birthday and she hasn't liked her birthday since then). I'll update when we know more.

Update on my mom

My mom went to get a PET Scan last Monday and went to see the oncologist today to get the results. She had to get the PET Scan because the previous CT Scan showed some "suspect" spots on her liver. The PET Scan confirmed that there is some beginning cancerous activity on the liver. She will see the liver surgeon next Monday to figure out exactly what they'll do surgery-wise and when they will do it. After the surgery she will have to go through chemotherapy again. The oncologist did say that it is still good that the activity is only on the liver because you can cut away 80% of the liver and it will grow back to normal size in about three months, so it is an organ that they can continue to operate on in the future if they aren't able to get all of the cancer cells with this operation. They also have a way they can make the liver larger before surgery so they can remove more of the organ in hopes of getting all of the cells. Last year when she went for the first surgery for this cancer, they told her that the usual life-span is 3 - 5 years. The oncologist today said that with this type of cancer, it could be 10 - 20 years or more, so that is fantastic news. Please keep my mom and our family in your prayers and thoughts. I'll update again when we have more information.

Job stuff

I went to another job interview on Thursday (it was actually rescheduled from the week earlier because of bad weather). Again, I think this went pretty well, but the man doing the hiring didn't seem too interested in making a quick decision, so I could be waiting to hear on this one for quite a while. It is a smaller company - about 75 employees, but it sounds like it could really be about to take off and they've grown from 25 to 75 employees in the past two+ years. I also heard back from another very large company earlier this week and they asked me to send them some writing samples and salary requirements, so I'm hoping to hear back from them sometime as well. We shall see! That's all for now folks!

Movie Review - Ghost Rider

When I was in Texas last weekend, I went and saw Ghost Rider, starring Nicholas Cage, Peter Fonda, Eva Mendes, Donal Logue, Wes Bentley and Sam Elliott. This is the next in the long line of superhero/comic book adaptations to hit the big screen. It seems that once Spider-Man and X-Men opened the door, the rest of the heroes decided to come flying through as well. I'll be honest with you. I don't particularly like the Ghost Rider comics. I believe I've read one issue and didn't even get through it. This led me to believe that I would also not like the Ghost Rider movie. However, I do like Nic Cage and I'm a big fan of Sam Elliott. Also, Eva Mendes is uber-hot.

So, I went into the movie, trying to give it a fair shake. Turns out, it wasn't that bad. Cage brought a likability to the Johnny Blaze/Ghost Rider character and now that I better know the origins of the character, I think I may actually like the Ghost Rider.

The movie was the typical first movie for a specific character in that they had to spend a good portion of the movie explaining who, what, where, when, why and how. That sometimes lends itself to a boring (at least first half) movie, but I didn't get that from this one. They did a good job of explaining the situation without making the viewer fall asleep (such as the Fantastic Four movie). The acting was pretty good. I thought Cage did a good job, as did Elliott. I didn't think that Fonda was all that great. Bentley was okay in his evil role. I liked the special effects and thought the flaming Ghost Rider and his bike were done well. The action parts of the movie were also pretty well done. In all, I'd give Ghost Rider 2 1/2 stars out of 4. The movie does lend itself to sequels if you were wondering.

Now, we all have to get ready for the Spring/Summer blockbuster season. Upcoming are Transformers, Spider-Man III, Fantastic Four: The Rise of the Silver Surfer, Live Free or Die Hard, Rush Hour III and Shrek the Third.

Another job interview scheduled

I've got another job interview scheduled for Tuesday. Your positive thoughts are welcomed and appreciated. This interview is for the following position (which I'm still trying to completely get my head around):

Customer Experience Designer
Creative writer/designer with experience developing consumer-focused communications tools to write, design and produce letters, newsletters, websites and other marketing materials. Create the "customer experience" for our services, educate patients on health benefits, wellness, disease management and how to use healthcare more efficiently. Must have bachelor's degree, strong writing skills plus ability to design/create finished materials, and strong background in consumer communications.

I figure they must think I'm capable of it based on my experience, or they wouldn't have invited me in for an interview. We shall see my friends, we shall see!

No job for me and other stuff

I called today to follow up on the job I interviewed for last Monday and was told that they were about to make the offer to another candidate, so no dice on this one for me. Oh well, at least I got interviewed this time. Maybe the next one will be the one. I sent my resume off to five or six other places today. Maybe I'll get something out of this bunch. We'll just have to wait and see. At least I'll have a tax refund coming to me shortly - that'll make things a little easier for a while money-wise.

It is so cold here today. The high temp was 10 degrees and when I got up this morning it was 1 degree! They cancelled most of the school around here today because of the uber-cold. We're supposed to make it up to 18 degrees tomorrow, but we're also expecting some more snow.

My grandma got some bad news today. She had a CT scan last Monday in preparation for her chemotherapy starting today. She met with the doctor this morning before chemo and he told her that there is a spot on her lung, according to the scan. They're not sure if it is cancer or not, so they're going to do another CT scan in a few months to see if there is any change to the spot. So, more uncertainty, more worry. 2007 hasn't started off too well for my family.

Some not so great news

My mom had a CT scan on Tuesday (she has them every three months) and went to see the doctor for the results today. The doctor told her that there are some "suspect" spots and they want to do some other kind of test on Feb. 19. If the "suspect" spots are indeed cancer again, she'll have to go in for another surgery to have it removed and then likely go through more chemotherapy. Needless to say, she isn't having a very good afternoon. Hopefully the extra test will show them not to be cancer. Any thoughts and prayers you can send her way would be much appreciated.

Job Interview

Well, the streak is over. I got a call last week from an HR rep regarding a resume I sent in about three weeks ago for a PR Specialist position with a publicly-traded software company. She did the normal phone screening thing and I guess I passed because she set up an interview for me with the director of public relations. I had that interview today and I think things went really well. I spoke with the director of PR, one of the other PR Specialists and the director of corporate communications. Come to find out, the director of PR and the other PR Specialist had both spent a significant amount of time in Texas, so that was an easy way to break the ice with them. The PR specialist even knew one of my former co-workers at my last job from when she worked at an agency in Austin.

I went in for the interview all dressed up in my "interview, wedding and funeral suit" and felt a bit out of place. How cool is this? They were all wearing jeans!

I'm hoping this comes through for me - jeans, salary at or above what I was making at my last job and the people I talked to seemed pretty nice. I guess I just have to wait and see now.

A couple of movie reviews

After many months of not visiting a movie theater, I have been twice in the past two days. Yesterday I went and saw Night at the Museum and today I saw Epic Movie. Talk about a tale of two movies!

First up is Night at the Museum. I know people that had already seen this movie and I had heard good things about it. I must say though, the best part of this movie to me was the trailers for the upcoming releases. This was a total geek-fest of trailers. They had Transformers, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, Spider-Man III and the Simpsons Movie. How great is that? I know where I'll be this summer - in the theater!

As far as Night at the Museum goes, I really enjoyed it. I'm a big Ben Stiller fan and I also like Robin Williams a lot, so that helped out a lot. I thought the story was fun and the acting was good. There were a lot of talented actors and actresses in the film. I was really shocked to see Stiller, Williams, Dick Van Dyke, Mickey Rooney, Anne Meara, Bill Cobbs, Ricky Gervais, Owen Wilson, Paul Rudd and Brad Garrett (although you didn't actually see him - he was the voice of the Easter Island head) in the same movie. This was a fun family film and would be enjoyed by those of all ages. I give Night at the Museum 4 out of 5 stars (probably really 3 1/2 stars, but they get an extra half star for the great trailers!).

Next up was Epic Movie. For those that haven't seen the trailer for this one, it is a spoof film in the mold of the Scary Movie series. That is where the similarities end. This is no Scary Movie - I'm not sure I'd even call it a movie at all. It is the most ridiculous, poorly conceived, piece of trash I've seen in a long time. I'm so glad I went to a matinee rather than pay $8 for an evening showing.

As far as people you'd know in this film, there are these great actors - Kal Penn (Kumar from Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle), Jennifer Coolidge (Stifler's Mom from American Pie, Joey's agent from "Joey" and many other movies), Crispin Glover (why, why would you do this movie????), Darrell Hammond (from SNL), Carmine Electra, Fred Willard and David Carradine.

They poorly parody such movies as X-Men, Harry Potter, The Chronicles of Narnia, Pirates of the Carribean, Superman Returns, Snakes on a Plane, Nacho Libre, The Da Vinci Code, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and I'm sure there are others I'm forgetting (thankfully). They also do a horrible parody of SNL's "Lazy Sunday." I give this movie 1/2 star out of 5 and I implore you, whatever you do, please do not go see this attrocity. I'm begging you!

Don't call it a comeback ...

... I've been here for years!

Well, I've been here in Ohio for about seven months now, but I had to lay out a little respect to my man LL Cool J (do you know how difficult it is to find a picture of this man with a shirt on?).

First off, I'd like to apologize to my faithful readers for the lack of updates since November. There have been many instances where I planned to write a little something, but it always seemed trivial or self-serving to do so.

So, some updates are in order. No Virginia, I do not have a J-O-B yet, but I've been working hard on it (especially this month - there weren't very many things to apply for during late November and all of December). I've been sending out the resume, but I haven't had any bites yet. I'm going to keep on keepin on though and eventually, I'll land a job that I like - bank on it!

Second update, my mom's doing fine. She's due for another three-month CT scan next month, so we're hoping for some more good news.

Third update, I had a wonderful Christmas and New Year. My mom had just gotten out of the hospital at Christmastime last year, so it was wonderful having her here with us and healthy this year. My brother was here from Texas during Christmas, so it was nice that we could all be together during that time.

Last update, and a not so good one. A couple of weeks ago, my grandmother went to the hospital to have an operation to remove her spleen, gall bladder and part of her pancreas due to a cyst on her pancreas. The surgery went fine (which was a blessing in itself, considering she's 75), but they determined that the cyst was cancerous and she starts chemo in a couple of weeks, to be followed up by radiation treatments. If you could, please keep her (and my mom) in your thoughts and prayers.

So, that is about it. I plan on updating more often and hopefully soon with a job update. Thanks for all of your understanding and best wishes and a belated happy New Year to you and yours! Peace out yo!

Job Interview

I went on my first job interview in almost eight years today. I interviewed for a position as a public relations specialist with a small marketing firm. I think the interview went well. I fully expected to be nervous (I was always nervous when I interviewed before), but I wasn't. I'm not really sure why. Maybe it was because for the last part of my tenure at my old job I was the one doing the interviewing. Maybe it is because I know there will be other jobs if this one doesn't work out. Maybe it was because I'm not even entirely sure I'd want this job. Whatever the reason, I wasn't nervous - but man, do I hate wearing suits! Well, that's all I've got for now - the lady said they'd call sometime next week and either let me know if they want me to come back in or if they are going another direction - we shall see! In the meantime, I'll be checking Sunday's paper for latest and greatest new listings!

Job Hunt

For those of you that were worried that I might have decided to never go back to any kind of job, you can now rest easy, as I've begun the job search. I sent out four resumes last week (some which most likely are out of my realm of expertise). I got a voicemail yesterday afternoon from one of the places and they want me to give them a call back regarding the open public relations specialist position (it is at a marketing firm). So, on Monday I plan to at least have my first phone screening (in almost 8 years!). Luckily I was performing these phone screenings pretty regularly at my last job, so I should hopefully be pretty comfortable with it. Wish me luck!

It snowed today

When I got up this morning, Oct. 23, imagine my surprise when I looked out the window and there were big white snowflakes falling outside. Nothing stuck to the ground or anything like that, but there were snow flurries hanging around almost all day. It sure was pretty out there. For a guy that left Dallas four months ago, it is kind of shocking to see snow in October, that's for sure!

And a fun week was had by all ...

My former roommate, Jeff, flew up here to Ohio to visit on Friday, Oct. 13. He arrived at about 9:30 p.m. and the fun times began. We got up early on Saturday morning and drove about an hour and a half southeast to Rio Grande, Ohio for the annual Bob Evans Farm Festival. When I was a kid, I would go with my mom and dad to work at the festival each year (although it is quite debatable how much "work" I actually got done). It was nice getting to go back and re-live a little of my childhood for a day. We arrived at the festival at about 10:30 a.m. and proceeded to walk the grounds. Let me tell you, this was a cold, windy October day. It was probably in the lower-40s while we were there. We went to a lumberjack/log rolling show and checked out other old-timey activities.

After leaving the festival, we visited with some of my family that lived nearby and then headed back to Lancaster for the evening. Sunday was basically spent hanging around the house watching football.

On Monday, we got up really early and headed for Cleveland (about a two and a half hour drive) for a trip to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. We ended up stopping at an outlet mall along the way. We got to the Hall of Fame at about 11:30 a.m. and spent the next five hours or so there. It is really a neat place if you ever happen to get the chance to visit. If you are really into Rock and Roll history, I would even say it should be a destination trip for you at some point in your life. We left Cleveland after the Hall of Fame and drove about 40 minutes southeast to Akron, Ohio. That's where we stopped for the evening. We had already decided that we wanted to go to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio the next day, so we would just stay over somewhere and Akron seemed like as good a place as any.

We got up on Tuesday morning and drove the remaining half hour to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. We spent a couple of hours there and then headed back home to Lancaster (about two hours away).

On Wednesday, we drove to the western part of Columbus and spent the day at the Columbus Zoo, home of Jack Hanna (the dude that is on Letterman with his animals all the time). Very nice zoo. We are both animal lovers, so it was pretty cool to both of us. I really enjoyed the Red Pandas and the Komodo Dragons and of course the Koala Bears.

On Thursday we went to see Employee of the Month since it was a gloomy, rainy day. I enjoyed the movie (not just because I got to look at Jessica Simpson the whole time either!).

Friday was kind of sad because I had to take Jeff to the airport so he could return to Dallas. It was nice having a friend around for a week since I still don't really know anybody here. All in all it was a great week.

Just wanted to check in!

I haven't posted in a while, so I wanted to let everyone know I'm still alive and kicking (barely after a day full of removing a cinderblock wall and moving six trailers full of dirt). Not a lot going on here right now. The county fair is this coming weekend, so I'll probably check that out. My former roomie is coming into town next weekend for a visit, so that'll be fun. Maybe we'll get into some trouble and I'll be able to post about it! Well, hope everyone is doing great and hope to hear from you all soon!

Garage sale

In an attempt to add a little income to my life, I helped my mom, grandma and grandpa with a garage sale this past Friday and Saturday. We headed to my grandparents' house on Wednesday night with a truckload of stuff to sell (in addition to the car full of stuff I had taken down two weeks earlier).

We spent Thursday getting ready for the sale and opened up shop at about 8 a.m. on Friday. We had customers non-stop. It was pretty impressive. We closed up shop on Friday at about 5:30 and went out for some dinner. I went over to a cousin's house and watched Poseidon (decent movie) and got back to the grandparents' house at about 12:30 and then got up at 7 a.m. the following morning for more garage sale.

We opened at about 8:30 and it was a bit different than the previous day in that we have very few customers from 8:30 - 11. Things picked up in the afternoon and when we finally closed the sale down at about 4 p.m., we had as a group made about $450. It was a lot of work, but my grandparents were able to clean out their garage a bit and make a little money and I was able to make a bit of spending money for myself. Good times!

My mom and I got home at about 9:30 last night and I was pretty quick to hit the sack.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot - I sprained my ankle as we were cleaning up the garage sale, so that's always loads of fun! That's all for now!

It was bound to happen ...

Yesterday my uncle had a big Labor Day get together at his house. There were probably nearly 100 people there at various times of the day. There were five four wheelers at the party, including my dad's and my mom's. My two cousins and I were out riding (I was riding my dad's and one cousin was riding my mom's and the other cousin was riding a dirt bike) and one of them said we should race. So, we raced. There was a big open field that made a good race track. Unfortunately, we didn't designate a finish line, so by the time I started breaking, I realized that in front of me was a treeline and then a creek. Well, being the quick thinker that I am, I decided that hitting trees or flying into a creek 12 feet down were not good options, so I continued to break as hard as I could (the grass was wet, so I wasn't getting much traction) and once I knew for sure I couldn't stop, I turned the handlebars to the right. I was thrown from the four wheeler and it turned over on its side and nearly flipped over on me. Luckily it stopped and just ended up on its side rather than squashing me. I stayed on the ground for a minute, making sure I wasn't hurt badly and then got up to see what kind of damage I did. As far as I went, the only thing that hurt was the shoulder I landed on. My cousin and I flipped the four wheeler back over and it seemed to be okay. I just stood there for a few minutes, calming down and then got on the four wheeler to take it back to the house. It wouldn't start. I tried again - still wouldn't start. Finally I gave it some gas while I hit the ignition switch and it started right up. I drove it back to the house and that was the end of my four wheeling for the day. I did learn some valuable lessons from this experience. First, always have a finish line with enough braking room. Second, it is better to flip the four wheeler on its side rather than crashing into very large trees. Third, victory is sweet - that's right, I won the race!

An update - for Adrianne

This blog update is brought to you by Adrianne and her request for me to update my blog so she and her co-workers at my former place of employment will have something to do this evening.

Ohio has been pretty calm this week (all the weeks since I've been here actually). Let's see - on Monday I once again cut down trees and burned wood all day long. We're having a contractor come in to put in some new parking areas at my folks' house, so we needed to get these darn trees out of the way. There are only about 2 million trees left on the property now. My uncle, aunt and two cousins as well as my grandparents came down on Monday as well. We put them to work also, so it is doubtful that they'll want to come back any time soon.

Tuesday was much of the same, but we actually quit the yard work at about 5 so we could all go to dinner at Texas Roadhouse (a little bit of that Texas flavor I was missing). We had a nice dinner and called it a night.

On Wednesday, my mom and I signed the lease on the antique/collectible mall spot where we're going to try to sell some stuff. We've been going to a bunch of garage sales trying to find some more inventory for the store. We'll probably start going to some auctions as well. We've got my grandpa making some shelves for us and we start on Sept. 1.

Didn't do a lot today - just went to town to run some errands. Another aunt and cousin are here now (out shopping with mom) and they're staying over tonight. Sometimes this place feels more like a bed and breakfast than a house, but it's pretty cool getting to hang out with so many relatives that I haven't seen much of over the past 15 years or so.

Tomorrow night, my mom, dad, grandma, grandpa, aunt, uncle, and three cousins are all going to an outdoor drama about a bunch of indians. Didn't sound like too much excitement to me, so I declined the invite. Not sure what I'll do instead, but I'll figure something out. Two of the cousins are coming back here after the show and they'll be spending the weekend with us - again - just like a bed and breakfast.

Next week I'm thinking about going down to the town where all of my extended family lives (about an hour and a half away) and spending a few days. That's about all that's going on here.

Great News!

My mom went to the doctor on Monday to get her two month CT scan (it's been a little over two months since she went off chemotherapy). She went in today to get the results and there is still no sign of the cancer that was in her liver. Basically this means she doesn't have to do anything else until the end of October, when she goes in for another CT scan. This is awesome news! She said that since Monday she's felt like she had to put all of her plans on hold until she knew for sure she'd be able to do what she wanted and now the hold has been lifted! That's all for now. Still not working (and barely looking at this point). Until next time!

Animals I've Seen

Today I feel like blogging about all of the animals I've seen in the wild since I returned to Ohio. I don't really have anything specific to say about them, so I'm just going to put them in list form. Here goes:

1) squirrel
2) chipmunk
3) mouse
4) deer
5) rabbit
6) groundhog
7) turkey vultures
8) wild turkey (the bird, not the drink)
9) raccoon
10) hawks
11) finches
12) hummingbirds
13) woodpeckers
14) opossum

That's all I can think of right now, but there could be some more I've forgotten.

On a different note, today was a fun day of cutting down trees and brush and burning it all in three different piles. It was loads of fun. I think I'm working harder (physically, not mentally) now that I'm unemployed. That's it for tonight!

My first steer show

So, the county fair is taking place this week in the town where my parents grew up and the rest of my family still lives. My cousin had a steer in the steer show, so my parents and I decided to drive down this morning to watch. This was my first steer show. They had ten groups of exhibitors with ten people in each group (they were divided by weight). My cousin was in the second class and ended up placing first! It was pretty cool. She is this tiny 16-year-old girl and she was trying to make an 1,100-pound cow do what she wanted. I was really impressed. I probably wouldn't go to another steer show (unless another relative is in one), but it was an interesting, new experience. Well, that's it for tonight. See ya!

DVD Review - Failure to Launch

Watched Failure to Launch with the parents tonight (ironic considering my current situation huh?). I had kind of wanted to see this flick at the theater, but never got around to it. At least it was a movie that translates well to the smaller screen (not a lot of explosions or fighting). I thought this was a pretty good movie and I don't even really like Matthew McConaughey that well. I could have done without seeing Terry Bradshaw's butt, but I guess you sometimes have to go through traumatic experiences in order to see a good movie. I give Failure to Launch three out of four stars.

Only You Can Prevent Forest Fires ...

Today was another first for me. My dad was cutting down a bunch of brush and small trees (something tells me that will be the order of the day for some time to come with all of the brush and trees around this place) and I was in charge of watching the fire. I've been around fires before and I was in the scouts, so I know a few things about them, but you've got to understand, our fire ring is about 7 feet from a forest, an honest to goodness forest. Luckily there were no issues and I had the rake and the water hose, just in case, but it is kind of intimidating knowing that all that stands between the fire and a raging forest fire is you and your rake and water hose. So, that's about all for now, but who knows what tomorrow may bring. I think we're going to go to see my cousin show her cow at the county fair on Thursday and we may be going to a real-life auction (not ebay!) on Saturday (another first for me). Until then, adios!

Pics from trip

Here are some pictures from my recent trip to South Carolina. Enjoy!

Another trip

Went to visit my grandparents and various other relatives Tuesday and Wednesday. It is about an hour and a half to get to their town, much better than the 17 hours it used to take by car to go visit them. I got all of my pictures from the trip to SC developed, but unfortunately left the picture CDs at my aunt's house, so I don't have them in digital form to place on here. Hopefully someone will come up and visit soon and they can bring those darn CDs to me, or I might have to break down and scan them in the old way. Well, raining here again today, so I guess I'll be hanging around inside mostly. Might try to go see Superman Returns tomorrow. Adios muchachos!

Procrastination

So, I think I've figured out that I can sometimes be a procrastinator. I bought a really nice 35mm film camera late last year, thinking I would make it my hobby and I'd get really into it and become this great photographer or something. Well, to do that, it seems you have to actually get the film developed. I shot five rolls of film from last November through June and I never got any of them developed. I took my camera with me to South Carolina and actually shot another four rolls there. I took the nine rolls of film to CVS yesterday and I get to pick them up later today (did you know that 1-hour developing is now actually cheaper than the two-day type?). I fully expect to pay at least $100 dollars for this (If I had been getting them developed all along, this vacation film would have only cost me around $40). Oh well, I guess you live and learn. I hope I get some good pics. I plan on posting some of the better ones on here once I go through them all. That's all for now. See ya when I see ya!

I have returned!

Well, the family and I made it back from South Carolina at about 3:30 or so yesterday afternoon. We had a blast and it was great getting to spend a week with my brother (who for those of you that don't know, still lives in Texas for now). We left on Sat., July 15 at about 5:30 a.m.

We stopped in Gallipolis, Ohio to meet up with my aunt, uncle and three cousins. We were in a caravan with them until we stopped again at Statesville, North Carolina (the trip consisted of the following states: Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina). We had what I consider one of the worst meals of my life at a Burger King in Statesville. We also met up with my grandma and grandpa at the Burger King and they joined the caravan the rest of the way.

We arrived at Brosnan Forest in North Carolina at about 5:30 p.m. After checking out the cabin and unloading the car, we went over to one of the other cabins to see my aunt, uncle and cousins. Come to find out, my aunt had broken her foot on one of the bikes provided for the cabins. She had managed to break her foot in the first hour we were there. During the course of the week, she had a cane, crutches and a wheelchair at various times. After the visit, everyone got to their vehicles and we all set out to buy groceries. The closest store was about 15 minutes away from the forest. While we were out, my immediate family went to Pizza Inn so we wouldn't have to cook the first evening.

On day two, we got up and cooked bacon and eggs over an open charcoal grill. Good stuff. Day two basically consisted of getting to know the forest and figuring out a schedule for the rest of the week (which come to find out would not be followed at all!). It was about 97 degrees and I swear the humidity had to be 95%. Every time you walked out of the cabin, you would immediately be wringing with sweat. I did manage to play a little basketball with three cousins and my brother on day two, which was fun. We got a free dinner for watching a safety video in the evening. It was a nice BBQ dinner with a lot of great deserts!

Day three was a lot of fun. We went to Isle of Palms beach and enjoyed a nice day at the ocean. I hadn't been to the beach in about 15 years, so it was pretty cool to get to go. I stayed in the water for about 2 and a half hours and managed to get a really nice sunburn (my face is peeling as I write this).

Day four was another trip into Charleston. We headed into town in the evening and had dinner at Bubba Gump's Shrimp restaurant. We then wandered around town a bit and then went on a haunted Charleston ghost tour. There were several options and I decided on the Haunted Jail tour, which was touted as being the most scary of the tours. Come to find out, the "haunted" jail is now home to the American College of Architecture, so how "haunted" can it really be?

Day five was a day to recoup at camp. I didn't get out much due to the sunburn. The sun had become my enemy and I didn't want to allow it the satisfaction of seeing what it had accomplished. During the evening, they were having a hamburger/hot dog/chicken buffet, so the group did all get out to do that. We also went for a nice swim at about 10 p.m., which was nice (although the pool water was about the same temperature as bath water).

Day six was to be our last day in Charleston. We went to the South Carolina Aquarium and spent a couple of hours there. We were going to go to Fort Sumter, but realized that it was going to take more time than we wanted to spend, so we skipped that. I took a lot of cool pictures at the aquarium. I hope some of them turn out! After the aquarium, we went to Folly Beach (which is on an island) and checked out their big fishing pier. There was a nice patio seafood restaurant there, so we went ahead and ate. After lunch, we went to their gift shop and then walked down the pier. After Folly Beach, we went back into Charleston and went by the big outdoor marketplace. My brother had seen something he wanted there, but that particular vendor wasn't there when we went back. We were supposed to be back to camp for "Italian Night" dinner, but we didn't make it, so it was another trip to Pizza Inn for us (not many restaurants in the area). We also went back to the pool for another late night swim.

Day seven was a hang out at camp and clean the cabin day. We did have a big dinner with all of the family and we celebrated my dad's 53rd birthday as well. Lots of food and lots of picture taking were the way of the day.

On the last day, we had to check out by 8 a.m., so we decided to just get up really early and get on the road so Dusty could come back to the house and shoot guns and ride four wheelers (his flight back to Dallas was at 8:30 the next morning). We ended up leaving at about 5:15 a.m. and arrived home at 3:30 p.m. All in all, it was a fantastic trip and I really enjoyed getting to visit with a lot of my family I hadn't seen in some time. I plan on visiting with them all a lot more in the near future now that I'm back in Ohio.

Unemployment: Day 18

Another day, another rain storm, another day of shopping. Didn't get much accomplished today. Managed to get my dad's b-day gift taken care of, so that's good. Maybe tomorrow will be a bit more interesting. Only two more days until vacation. My brother flies in on Friday - it will be good to have him in town and riding down to South Carolina with us. I'm really looking forward to the haunted Charleston tour during my vacation. I plan to take lots of pictures - maybe I'll capture a ghost on film! Hasta la vista!

Unemployment: Day 17

Today was another rainy one here in Ohio. We headed over to Columbus for some shopping this afternoon and met up with my aunt, uncle, three cousins, grandma and grandpa at PF Chang's this evening for my cousin's birthday dinner. It was my first time at Chang's - good stuff. After dinner, we went to my cousin's apartment in Columbus and had cake and ice cream. Good times were had by all. That was about the extent of the day. I did manage to find some sandles and hiking boots in Columbus. Tomorrow is tennis shoe hunting day and haircut day. Gotta get the hair short for vacation this weekend! That is all.

Unemployment: Day 16

Here we are with another day on the old homestead. Went four-wheeling through the woods again today. We've created a pretty nifty trail back there. It is a lot of fun and I've started trying to go a little faster to amp up the excitement a bit. Besides that, my mom and I worked on the media room some more. We're done with the riser platform for the theatre chairs and we added lights to that yesterday. Today we hung some big movie poster/board things to add some entertainment flair to the room. The picture on the HDTV looks great. Well, I'd better be going now. I've got lots of country-type stuff I should be doing. Keep looking up - unless there are birds flying overhead!