Week 3, Day 1

Here we go again!!!!

and again, CRAP, now i have to remember the last 3 days.  I thought remembering would be easier when I stopped smoking the wacky stuff, but....well.......

So, Friday, Week 2.  What was to be done?  CLEANING!!!  

Yes, it was time!  The house really needed more work, and so there I went.  Vacuuming like a madman with my Dyson Pethair Vacuum, which is phenom!  Loves it.

I cleaned the living room, hall, stairs, and dining room, which is no small task, especially when you haven't vacuumed in quite a few weeks and you have 6 cats!  

I did manage to squeeze in watching Hells Kitchen from Thursday night, which was quite enjoyable.  OOh yeah, and I ended up finally watching Grindhouse: Planet Terror.  A silly little zombie movie from Robert Rodriguez, from the double feature he did with Quentin Tarantino (Death Proof, which I enjoyed!).  It was pretty good, damn funny, totally silly, but it has the guy from Six Feet Under, the assistant mortician (I think his name was Rico) as a total badass, and Rose McGowan with only one leg!  Nice.  Plus, the end scene is an arial shot of the Tulum Ruins, right down the road from where I go in Mexico, and where I was just a few weeks ago.

Anyways, so I cleaned cleaned cleaned, put this new RugStayFriggenPut tape on the bottom of one of the rugs, and just did a number on the mess.  House looks much better!

Picked up the BBB at about 630, and off to Ten Tables, as usual.  Yet another fantastic dinner!  Now, I've become about 92% vegetarian, but not on Fridays, which are Ten Tables night!  There was a new sausage on the menu I hadn't tried, so I wanted that.  I had the steak last week, so Sean recommended I go with the Pork Chop, and since that's 2 dishes of swine, he said 'Hell, lets do Porkapalooza!'  So, I had Pork Rillet for my first, the Sausage over yummy creamy mustardy lentils, and finally, the excellent Pork Chop with 2 potato gratin and spicy broccolini!  Yummers.  And some nice stinky cheese for dessert!  Another fantastic meal.

Saturday was a nice calm day, didn't have to leave the house.  Had a nice roaring fire in the fireplace all day, did some laundry, a little cleaning, made smoothies (banana, soymilk, peanut butter, ice, and protein powder), ate leftovers, didn't really watch TV, just hung out.  

Saturday night we met our friend Heather, who manages and teaches at O2 Yoga, for dinner, since we hadn't seen her in a while.  We met for a nice early dinner at Tremont 647.  They have a 5 course dinner for $45 bucks, which ain't bad.  BBB did Vegan, I did vegetarian, and Heather did a bit of fish.  A good meal.  I probably would've been still hungry, but I also order the yummy cheesy tater tots and the momo's, which do have meat, but oh well.  Very yums!

When we got home, we watched Wanted, that movie about assassins with Angelina Jolie.  I actually thought it was pretty bad ass, though it did have some dumb stuff (The Loom of Destiny?  Lame).  I need to read the Graphic Novel, because that is apparently much better.

Sunday was another quiet day.  Laundry, leftovers, and lots of television.  I did watch the movie Vantage Point, which was ok.  Fun to watch, but way too overblown, the rewind thing was too repetitive, and the ending was unlikely based on the rest of the movie (like that bad guy would swerve, after all those other people he killed?  Please.)

OOOh, yeah, the BBB made me put on the grammy's for a little while.  I HATE THE GRAMMYS!  NO RELEVANCE TO REAL MUSIC!!!  But, as I posted to my facebook status, its nice to watch that stuff every once in a while, just to BE REMINDED THAT I'M RIGHT!  So much Crap.  I am sorry I missed M.I.A.  but that was not my favorite track from her anyways.

So, today.  

dropped the BBB off, and headed to Cambridge to check out the New TEN TABLES CAMBRIDGE!  Its looking fantastic in there.  Not opening for another 2 weeks I guess, but they'll be ready.  Hung out with Mike C the Sous Chef, who gave me the tour and we just hung out and chatted.  Co-Owners Krista Kranyak and David Punch, chef extraordinaire showed up, and I hung with them for a bit.  KK headed out, and there was a million things for them to do, so I didn't want to be in the way (though I was there about 3 hours).  Dave had to pick up his broken car, and Mike was gonna drive him, but I wanted to help, so I gave him a lift to Medford.  We were both starving on the way, so we stopped at Dave's Fresh Pasta in Davis Square, which I miss terribly.  Dave's Fresh Pasta is amazing, has great sammichs, cheeze, ravioli, and lots of fancy foods, and free samples (I love the basket of hot peppers by the register - just take one and warm your belly!).  We both had Muffalata sammiches, which rocked.  Then I drove him the rest of the way and dropped him off.

Back to home, stopped at CVS to pick something up, Blanchards for beer (6pack of Blue Moon spring seasonal, which is eh, and a 6 of Harpoon Celtic, which used to be called Hibernian - i like that name better), and a losing scratch ticket.  HOME

Got some unemployment stuff in the mail, so signed up for the web stuff and direct deposit, called a potential band photographer, and here i am.  Not much accomplished, but I'm still having fun

Now, its off to pick up the BBB.  Dinner will probably be leftover soup RECIPE COMING SOON, but who knows.  And Heroes is on tonight!  YEYYYEAAAHHH!!!!

lates

Week 1, Day 4 and 5 and 6 and 7

Holy Crap, I hate catching up.  Except that I love this.  

I always thought about having a blog, but didn't think it'd be all that entertaining, but as I write and just let myself DIGRESS however the hell I feel like, well, it seems to work.  I guess.

Anyways, now we're on Thursday.  I actually took notes on my iPod touch for you guys on this day.  Why?  well, you'll see.

We woke up late Thursday (so typical of us), and I had to get the BBB to work.  Also, there was a....thing that my Xemployer set up for everyone in this area who got laid off.  They extended the EAP benefits longer for us (if you need a hug, the EAP will give you one), hired a company and gave each of us a 4 hour career planning session, and both of these companies were doing an introduction seminar.  It was also a nice way for us to say goodbye to people we didn't get to say goodbye too.  This was at the Radisson downtown, and was starting at like 930 i guess.  

But, as usual, we were LATE!!!!!  

So, I dropped off the BBB at a bit before 10 am, hit El Starbucko's (my usual Starbucks, which I love, employs 90% Spanish women.  They are wonderful, and very good to me,

 but I just can't help but call it El Starbucko's!) and got my 4 shot 3 pump vanilla latte on my Starbucks Gold Card (which I got for free, cuz i'm insane and spend money at Starbucks), and went on my way.  I got to the session a bit late, and I knew I had to leave early too, but it started late.  There was about 35 people there (less that I had expected, though I wasn't surprised), and the EAP lady was spouting her crap.  

And that brings me to my notes, which I will now transcribe for you:

• Woah.  This must be the EAP person.  She's talking about the stages to acceptance!  Denial bargaining acceptance anger!  This is hilarious.
• Only goof off for a couple of days???  but I have months planned for that!  OK, I'll admit it, I'm one of the lucky few in a position that I may be able to do that, but still...
• She's talking about nutrition now.  Do people really get THIS Fucked up from job loss?
• There's about 35 people here.  Someone brought up relief.  Everybody laughed.  I think most of us are relieved.
• Don't blame the company or ourselves.  CHECK!  I blame the company for so many things, but this isn't their fault.  I actually really loved that place for a lot of reasons.  6 jobs in 5 years no dress code lots of fun people it was like college plus I got away with my fair share of slacking!  Now, I worked really hard, don't get me misinterpret.  I had some damn hard jobs and I WORKED!  But, over time, I learned to balance working my ass off with absolute slack!
• Ut, she just said our job search was a mountain and we can't climb it with one step but ooooohhh someone carved stairs!!  VOMIT  Does this work for people???
• What she's saying is the importance of the journey.  Now, she's a pile of cheese, but the lesson is important.  Life is a journey and thats where we learn and grow.  Where you end up in unimportant.  
• Someone just brought up being numb.  Ooh, its queen negative.   Moving on.
• Ron mentioned being past anger.  That made me crack up.  Ron?  Love you, but when have you ever been past anger?
• I love Jen Grindl!  We just keep giving each other that pompous 'I'm enlightened and this woman is full of shit' smile.  Glad she's here.  Her silent giggles keep me going through crap like this.
• Is it fucking worth it YES IT IS

There.  That was it.  Fun, eh?  Then I had a few minutes to talk to people and collect email addresses, and I had to be off.  See, each week I read to this 3rd grader on my lunch break!  Its a program called Everybody Wins.  For 45 minutes a week, we read as much as we can.  It helps the kids develop reading skills.  We're currently reading about Vermicious Knids.  name that book.

Then, stopped by the office since I missed my morning visit.  Saw a few friends I hadn't seen yet.  

Off to Newbury Street.  

Its time for the story of my boots:

Sometime in the fall of 2006, I finally got this pair of John Fluevog boots that I had always

 wanted.  Aren't they excellent?  Yes, they are.  So, after 2 winters, all of the stitching in the front had come apart.  So, in about April of 2008, I brought them back for repairs (they have

 some sort of guarantee).  I picked them up later that month, and put them in the closet until winter came.  So, sometime in December 2008, as I'm wearing them, I notice my back hurts.  I also notice that one of the boots feels taller than the other.  I look at the soles, and one is way more worn down than the other.  I've never done that to shoes before.  I look a bit closer, and things look weird.  Strange markings, things like that.  Then I notice the size is on the inside of the tongue.  The boots I bought are size 10 1/2, as was the right boot.  The left boot, on the other hand (not foot, though, yes, foot) was only a size 10!  yup, they gave me someone else's boot!  And it had been 8 months before I noticed!  DAMMIT!!!  So, I had been meaning to do something, and now...well, now I have the time!!!  I had called on Wednesday and spoke to the manager, and she thought it was bizarre, and promised some sort of solution by Thursday when I came in.  So, we talked and laughed about it for a while, and she brought me out a new pair.  They went back to their original manufacturer since the new one they had been using wasn't as good (hence the stitching falling apart in my boots).  So, these new boots should actually last me.  I got to keep the old ones in case the other poor soul with my boot happens to come in, and got a brand new pair at a HUGE discount.  SUCCESS!!!

So, that made the day worth it.  Especially since, when I got to back bay, I was starving, and decided to go to California Pizza Kitchen in the Pru mall.  I never go to malls, and thought as I was wading through the muck and mire that is the general populace of mall shoppers, shit, how do I even know if CPK is still there?  And, of course, when I got there, it was temporarily close for remodeling!  DAMMIT!  In hunger desperation, I stupidly went to Legal Sea Foods.  Here's my notes from that:

• Stuck at Legals.  Clam Chowder n Crispy fish sammich
• Good service so far.  Drinking a Julius Echter.  He did the bottle roll, but didn't leave enough beer to really catch the sediment.  oh well.
• Chowder is ok.  good thickness, but needs bacon and more clams.  Bland at first, but got better.  
• Roll with Cabot foil wrapped butter.  a bit low class.
• Wow, organic ketchup!
• Listening to two woman probably in their forties cluelessly talking about facebook.  "I don't lke people to be able to see what I look at and that I'm online"
• Sammich HUGE, greasy, tall, too greasy, very bland, thank god for tartar n lemon n vinegar.
• Full now.  Waiter was excited about my beer choice.  Points for him.
• Never eat Legals again!!!

So, now that that's over, I have to pick up the BBB for a doctors appointment to look at the broken foot.  I'm so early, I stop by my Xoffice to see more friends, cuz why not.

Then, to her office.  Of course, she's in the middle of stuff and I wait, and wait, and wait.

Needless to say, we drive to the doctors very late and they are closed.  So, time to go home.  

I don't remember what is for dinner, oh well.  But there's the season premier of Hells Kitchen is on tonight.  Love it.  Watched a bunch of other stuff too, Flight of the Conchords, a bad movie, etc.

DAY 5

TGIF!!!  NOT FOR ME!! Everyday is Friday.  Actually, everyday is Saturday, suckas!!!!!!

This day is much easier to document.  And I'm sure you're getting tired of reading!  I do appreciate your interest, however.  So, I'll try to list this day out for you!

• Drive BBB to work
• El Starbucko's
• Stop by Xoffice and see peeps.  Every time I see someone else, which is nice
• Drive an hour to my Father's house in Ashland
• Hang out with him, have lunch, secretly hope he'll give me money (to no avail)
• Get my LAPTOP!!!  Yes, my Father, who has used Mac computers since the beginning, was talking about getting a new MacBook Pro since his was 2 years old and he uses it lots for work.  I have a 9 year old G4, so I said PLEASE DO, and give me your old one.  SUCCESS!!!  I now have a 2 year old MacBook Pro.  Psyched!!!!!!!!!!
• Go to the Mall, so I can return a pair of way too expensive way too fancy boots that I bought in leu of my Fluevogs, and then ended up hating (yes, Xcoworkers, the Prada's are GONE).  Returned to Nordstroms no questions asked, cuz they love me there!
• Joined my dad in the Mac Store.  He was having some computer issues, and needed to buy a few things.  Got all my questions answered about how to move everything from my G4 to my MacBook.  Now I just need to find the time.
• Back to my Dad's, got the car, stopped at the Citizens bank near his house to deposit my severance check that came in the mail on Thursday, and the $500 in gift checks from my 5 year anniversary at my Xemployer.  Yay, I have money!
• Drove back to Boston, to the BBB's office.  Of course she was busy, and I waited....and waited... and waited......
• Finally left, and went straight to Ten Tables!!!  Yes, its Friday, which is Ten Tables night.  Had a nice bottle of Beajoulais, a charcuterie plate of Chicken Liver Pate and Pork Rillet with homemade mustard, pickled shallots onions and cauliflower, and apricot compote, Then a Moroccan spiced swordfish, then a yummy steak with Salsa verde and rosemary spiced polenta cakes.  YUM.  Finished with a cup of coffee and Ginger cake.  
• Home.  Bed.  Friday, DONE (watch the F word and you'll understand the whole 'Friday, Done' thing

Weekend:

• Saturday, sleep in a bit.  
• Drive to Needham, Acupuncture
• Trader Joes in Needham, cuz we has need
• Bed Bath and Beyond, cuz the BBB needs a shower seat
• Home, make fire, eat frozen TJ's pizza
• Pick up Patrik, drive to friggen Groton Ma (didn't realize there WAS a Groton Ma) to see Scott perform a few songs with an old college friend.  Pretty good show.  They played M by the Cure, Dancing Barefoot by Patti Smith, and (!) Love is a Battlefield by Pat Benetar.  Oodles of fun
• Dropped them both off, Home, Bed.  Saturday, DONE

• Sunday, sleep in a bit.
• Start getting laundry together and doing it
• Coffee in my french press with TJ's Soy creamer (actually good)!
• Start cooking and cleaning!  Kitchen needs a sprucing, and we've got things to make.  You see, I volunteered to pick up my friends Mimi and Steven (who own O2 Yoga) and their 2 kids from the airport as they end their 6 week Mexico trip (jerks) and drive them to Rye, New Hampshire where they live.  So, BBB and I decided it would be nice to cook them dinner, since they've been gone so long.  She's also a vegan, as are the kids I guess (at least Veg), and we had a great recipe in mind.  From the book Vegan with a Vengance (from the Post Punk Kitchen), its a casserole I guess, Maple Mustard Potatoes, but basically its Potatoes, Onions, and Green Beans with Garlic, Dijon Mustard, Maple Syrup, Olive Oil, and Tamari.  So easy, and So yummy.  We've made it from a side dish to a main course by adding Tofurkey Sweet Italian Sausage, which are really good in things!  We also made Vegan raspberry chocolate cookies from the same book (or perhaps their other book, the Veganomicon).  Made 2 things of the casserole, cuz we wanted one for us (in fact, I'm eating it right now, so yummy!).  I'm going to post the recipe at the blog I created for Mimi, the O2 Yoga Vegan Exchange!
• So, cooking, and cleaning up while cooking.  And eating while cooking!  
• Left the house at 6pm, drove to Logan.  Things were clusterf*cked, but I won't go into detail.  
• Picked up the family, and began the trip to Rye, about an hour.  Fun drive.
• Got to their amazing house, which I'll tell you about some other time
• Joined by 3 of their friends, and everyone LOVED the casserole.  And the cookies.  We also brought salad fixins (I made the salad dressing myself - Olive Oil, Lemon Juice, Rosemary, Oregano, Thyme, Basil, and fresh minced Garlic with salt n pepper), a bottle of Allagash Interlude (which is amazing, and better be at $20 a bottle), a bottle of Unibrou's Trader Joes special anniversary ale, and a bottle of Cisco's Celebration Libation that I've been aging since my wedding!
• Fun was had by all.
• I left at about 1030, drove all the way back home, got here about midnight
• watched some bad TV, Bed, Weekend DONE

Day 1

Today is my first official day of unemployment!!!!

Yes, please,  congratulate me!

I now begin my new adventures as a house-husband/rock star/entrepreneur!

And I though I should document some things here!  Tasks, plans, laziness, hard work, et al.

For those of you who don't know me, well, you'll get to if you read this, I suppose.  

But, to begin, I've worked at my company for 5 years and 3 months.  Last week, whilst I was on vacation in sunny and beautiful Tulum, Mexico, I learned that, due to these difficult economic times, the company had to lay off about 200 people, myself included.  Did I mourn this job loss?  Hell F'ing NO!  I really was done with that place.  I had 6 different jobs while I was there, and didn't see anywhere else to go in the company.  Not to mention, I was really getting tired of the corporate life, and a job in a company who's sole purpose is to make rich people's lives better.  I need something more fulfilling.  So, I grabbed a bottle of Tequila and celebrated!!!!

I returned from Mexico on Saturday, the 24th, and found my package of forms to fill out and severance information.  I got a pretty good package, actually.  Welcome to early retirement!  Today, being Monday, is really the first day of my unemployment!  And I have plans, oh boy do I have plans!

So, today's accomplishments:

1. Woke up at 745 am, and drove my wife to work (she has a broken foot).  I will do this every day even when she's better, because otherwise I'll sleep the days away.  Scraped the frozen snow from last week off the car, broke the damn scraper!

2. Dropped off the wife at her office just after 9 am

3. Stopped at Starbucks for my Quad-Grande 3-pump Vanilla Latte

4. Went to the office!  WHAT??  Yeah, well, I wanted to return the paperwork in person, ask a few questions, hopefully get my W2, and visit some friends!

5. Met with my friend in HR for a while, went over the package.  On my way back out of the office, the CEO was walking buy.  She gave me a hug and asked how I was doing.  Not sure how wise this was, but force of habit, I exclaimed 'I'm GREAT!'  Then, realized this potential faux pas, I put my hand on her shoulder and asked how she was doing.  

6. On my way out, a few friends joined me and we chatted for a while outside.

7. Drove to downtown JP.  

• Went to the bank to deposit my final paycheck (can't wait to get that severance check!)
• Went to the convenience store to buy a scratch ticket (why not?)
• CVS to pick up a few things the wife needed (poor thing needs a shower seat for her broken foot)
  
• The Hardware store to buy a new Scraper (damn broken scraper)
• Blanchards Liquors, cuz if I'm gonna be home, I'm going to need lots of beer.  My one present to myself, they have 8 different kinds of Allagash (excluding the normal one, which, funny enough, I didn't see) that I've been wanting to try.  Big bottles with corks!  So I bought one of each, plus a 12pack of Shipyard, and a 6pack of Mayflower porter (new local brewery in Plymouth, Mass, near my Mum's house!).  That's right, support your local companies.  Screw the big biz and their bad beer.  2 Maine breweries and one from here in MA!  Yeah, lots of beer
• Java Joe's for another coffee and a Greek bagel sandwich (eggs, kalamata's, onion, feta, and spinach)

8. Finally got home, and I'm guessing it was about noon.  I ate my brunch while watching the season premier of the new Tim Roth drama, Lie To Me . I love Tim Roth, so I checked it out, and it was actually quite good.  Thank god for DVR.  

9. After that, went outside to get everything out of the car, and chatted with my neighbor for a while.  Too long, in fact, but what can you do!  

10. Now I'm here, on the computer, which I said I'd do just for a second to check my facebook and email, but I was thinking about doing this blog, and here I am doing it!!!  Its now 3, and I have to leave in an hour to go pick up the wife and head to acupuncture!  

Final thoughts, quite a nice first day of freedom!

Upcoming projects:

1. Clean this House
2. Empty the litter boxes, and begin doing the daily scoop
3. Clean out the basement so my band, Burnt Fur, can finally move into my house!
4. Work on music a lot more, since the band is in the house!
5. Clean and organize my whole life's collection of stuff
6. upload my entire CD collection to iTunes, and downsize, and write reviews online at a music blog I'm soon to be taking over
7. Possibly create a blog that can be incorporated to my band's site
8. Create at least 2 blogs for 02 Yoga.  One for vegan recipes, one for people who went on the trip to Maya Tulum
9. Enroll for unemployment
10. Possibly start my own business, as well as maybe become a dog walker!  Personal reminder, check out Paws to Consider, my neighbors dog walker service
11. Learn Magic
12. Read a lot
13. Watch the entire Lost series again
14. Buffy too
15. watch all 3 extended Lord of the Rings movies, since I never saw the extended version of Return of the King.
16. Watch season 1 of the Wire before my friend who gave it to me kills me
17. Cook a lot of Vegan food

I'm sure there will be more!

Alright, first entry done.  I'll pretty up this blog another time.  Until then, have fun at work, suckers!!!!!