The other cat in the hat.

So today I did a little window shopping. It has still not quite sunk in that I am going to have to start sporting a winter wardrobe as well as summer. I was looking at coats. The low last night was 54, and the temperature right now is 74. It is hard to shop for snow coats with the AC on. Anyway. Yep. Only three more weeks until Maternity leave starts for Kristin. Yay. I cannot wait until she does not have to drive for an hour everyday just to stand on the floor at work and sell purses for 8 hours then come home tired and grumpy because she would just rather grow a Clover full time. What else. Oh yeah, we have been living with Kristin’s parents for the last two weeks now and we are coping okay. It has been a real treat to kind of just hang out and get better acquainted. I still take the wrong exit on the way home form work about 2 out of every three times, but I plan on getting better. So… I guess that’s it for now. It doesn’t feel like winter, I dressed as a skeleton for Halloween, again, and we are living with the Andersons. -p

Laying it on.

I have been putting this off for way to long. I feel like although I have been semi current on facebook, I should do a little better with my real status updates. I decided that I was going to put something meaningful up tonight no matter what, and I came home and saw my little sister's post and that added to john's work lately only strengthened my resolve.

Funny thing about that, the whole if they can do it, I can do it thing. Yesterday they closed down the 94 freeway because there was a jumper. I think there was one about a week ago too, on the same stretch of freeway. That was the topic of conversation this morning, not the jumper per se, but the idea that it happens in spurts, like this post. Anyway, long story short, I am not jumping, just posting. Okay maybe it’s not funny. Whatever.

One of the reasons that I have been a little quiet is for some of the same reasons as my sister, I feel like a giant well of negativity, and I do not want to share it with the world. I feel like that was something that I did enough as a kid. But that’s just it. I do feel like I need to blow off a little steam. Let’s just start at the top.

I hate keeping secrets. I am not very good with long term deception. I mean I am good for joke or prank or even for adding a few flourishes to a story or whatever, but a serious deceptive lifestyle, I am not okay with. I wish I could just tell the world. *sigh*

I am sick of working for Starbucks. I refuse to sell stupid VIA. I feel that it is wrong to try and use our troops at war to push sales. If I wanted to be asking people to make donations, I would be working for a charity of some sort. One of the things that I most enjoyed about working for this company in the past is how their outstanding goal was to “Enrich our customer’s daily lives in 3 minutes or less.” I feel like the focus has now been changed to something like “Lets see how much money we can manage to get our customers to spend at our store everyday, five times a day if possible, and going so far as to push sales by asking them to buy coffee and donate it to the troops, because they, “the troops,” may really want to drink Starbucks coffee as opposed to the coffee they have available in the Middle East.” Stupid. I must say, that to my DM’s credit, in response to the overall change in attitude has asked us to actively stop pushing VIA. I really appreciate his action, but… If I were to punch you in the face and then say “just kidding” to try and make it all better, it would still hurt. I am not opposed to doing things to help our soldiers. I appreciate the outstanding response I see from concerned and caring people everyday. I just feel that using patriotism to for monetary gain is a horrible thing to do.

Wow. I am already feeling better. In fact, guess what! I am going to be a dad. In December my precious little wifey is going to have our first little baby. Wow. This is gonna be awesome. I kind of feel like I am not going to know what to do, but I also feel like I have the tools to take care of business. I am still a little nervous about finding a job that will take care of the financial strain that another member of my family will add, however I am confident that I am able to do what is necessary.

I have really felt like making a smoker lately. I don’t know why, but I can’t get the idea out of my head. I think that maybe some time over the next couple weeks I will try and cold smoke some things like cheese or different types of vegetables, just because I can do this on my gas barbecue. I don’t know where this craving has come from, but I can’t wait to exercise it.

I like to play the guitar. I think that I am going to have to start practicing soon. Maybe I will play while I smoke the cheese.

Phew. This has taken a while. I think that I have conquered this block for now. I guess that is just something that only time will tell. I have noticed though, that as December draws closer it is easier to imagine happy days again.

-p

puddle jumping.

Moving... for the first time in over 2 years. Wow. Soooooo. Let me give some details. We are going to move in with Kristin's parents, this is a temporary move designed to give us the ability to save a few bucks while my beautiful wife is on maternity leave. This will also be an awesome opportunity to hang with the parents for a bit. We are both super excited for this opportunity.
Now is where it gets a bit tricky. If you receive any of the monthly newsletters I subscribe to, you may have read something in an article by Beth. This is true, however cannot make any comments about the rumors publicly. However if you were to call, I would be more than happy to fill you in on what is really going on.
That is pretty much the largest goings on around here. Besides Mimi an john coming to visit this Thursday! Sah-weet.

About the birds.

This post is a comment on a Reagan's post. It just got too long to fit in the comment box, so I decided everyone could do with knowing a little more about the birds.

The picture is not quite completely unrelated... Maybe I think... I added it last... I like putting three dots instead of commas... Anyway, it is of Shamu, an Orca whale, also not indigenous to San Diego, but quite commonly sighted, especially at 11:30am, 2:30pm, and 7pm on Saturdays and Sundays.

I know that we have a flock of parrots here in El Cajon. They are the green and red ones that typically reside on pirate shoulders. I know that San Diego is all exotic sounding, and is often thought of as a tropical destination and everything with palm trees and beaches and stuff like that, so that should not be out of place right? Wrong. We are actually Mediterranean / Mid latitude desert. That means that most of the birds around here are similar to birds found anywhere, pigeons, doves, ducks, and of course coastal birds such as seagulls and pelicans. A full list of common, and uncommon birds can be found at this link.

Anyway, moving on to the point. The story according to what I have heard, (I have never dedicated the time to check the facts), there was a fire in a building complex housing a bird store with all these exotic birds, and they were set free as the employees realized that they could not save all of the birds. Now they fly around here squawking like crazy pretty much all the time. It is kind of funny to hear them fly over head because they never shut up, so you hear them from like a mile away, then they fly over all chaotically. They have no idea what a flying “V” is, so I assume that they have never seen the Mighty Ducks.

Anyway… In order to enhance my extrinsic awesomicity, I did a little research for you.

Here are a couple spots that may be a little more help with the birds in your locale:

A blog about Queens, kind of a negative, I am not sure how relevant due to the type of bird.

Another link that may be more applicable to your question.

I found this guy too.

my wife gets mad at me when i put her underwear on my head.

Maybe if i explain that it will help me stop snoring, it will be okay.

Sometimes despair sets in out of the blue.

Maybe the internet isn’t the best outlet for some things. Whatever.

I feel like I may have tapped into some of the emotional instability that comes with pregnancy. To this day I have experienced cravings, aches and weight gain, all of which I am attributing to empathy pains. Tonight I couldn’t sleep. Kristin and I were discussing plans of which cannot be made public yet, and the discussion took us late into the night. I finally got on the computer at about 12:15 am this morning because when I get on the computer my wife falls asleep, much like taking a baby on a car ride. Anyway, she had sweet little crying session a little earlier tonight. I was sitting here playing solitaire, getting myself tired as I was putting my wife to sleep. What happened? Yep, if you guessed that I started crying for no reason whatsoever than you guessed right. Good job. I am seriously wiping my face as I am typing through the blurs right now. I don’t understand it. I mean, I guess I was thinking about some old but maybe still kind of sensitive stuff, but seriously. I have never cried while thinking about my flight from the 801 before. Why would I start now, literally years after the fact? I mean I guess there are a few things about my trip that I never really told anybody. For me personally, it was an act of self preservation. I was in “really poor space” as Blaine, my weekend counselor at the Utah Boys Ranch, would have put it. I needed to leave. In retrospect I see that I may have burnt a few bridges with my abrupt departure. There are quite a few wounds that I left gaping open on myself as well as others. I have thought many times over through various apology conversations or explainations with people I left behind. I have imagined many times what it would have been like if I could have taken some people with me, or even just left under different circumstances. There have been many occasions when I have thought about how much I did really leave in that valley. Of what I did leave, the majority of it is stuff that I wish to never have to deal with again. The only problem is that some of the stuff I left behind kinda stings me every now and then. I’m feeling like that right now is one of those times. Maybe it will be easier for me to sleep now that I have thought it all out. My nose is still a little stuffy, but my eyes have stopped running. This pregnancy thing is tough. I would totally trade the way I feel now for a trip to the grocery store for butter finger ice cream and dill pickles. I have always understood that I am an empath to an extent, but some times I wish that I could just turn it off.

On my lunch break.

The bridge this sign is on is over a mile long. I thought it was funny.

The handle on my “I *heart* NY” mug broke last week. It is now a pencil cup at work. I am looking at right now. It is my lunch break and I am in the black doing homework… kind of. I guess that since idiot book is doing double duty as my theater journal this is homework right?

My tan is starting to peel. That means that summer is officially getting over and I am spending more time inside than out. I am glad that I am not spending much time inside though, that would be gnarly, but not good gnarly, bad gnarly.

Only 24 more days until Mimi, John, and Kelton come to visit. Yay! Maybe this time we will get a picture of Kelton by the Kelton road sign. That would be cool.

Anyway…

Time to get back to the salt mines.