I’m alive. Honest. I mean it. Seriously, I can feel my pulse right now.

Work has seemed to have taken over my life – both my ‘corporate’ job and my own business. Its really cool. I even had time to run lights and sound for the local community theater production. That is through, so now I’ll focus on keeping up-to-date with my online friends and churning out some work for my other clients.

As I said, the corporate job is going well. As a matter of fact I got a 3.5% merit increase which put me up to over $10.50 an hour (a far cry from what I get paid when work is good at Mindstorm, but I’m not complaining at all). The best part of the whole thing was this:

Jim is a great asset to the <blank> Department. He does a fantastic job of working independently as well as on team project. He is able to apply his many skills and talents to the professional materials he designs. He is well organized and does a great job of keeping myself and others involved in the projects informed of project stats and progress. Jim is always upbeat and positive, and contributes many great ideas and suggestings to the department projects. Jim has a great desire to learn every aspect of the <blank> Department and takes time to learn new software and techniques on his own time. He works closely with other Specialists in corss -training exercises, to learn from others and share his knowledge. He is always willing to accept new projects and thrives on challenging projects! Jim remains calm under high pressure and persuant in spite of difficulties. Jim is very creative and applies his stong technical skills and knowledge across many project types. Jim is always kind and courteous and is well like by other team members. Jim takes pride in his work and it shows!

I’ve been in this department for little over 3 months. After all of the years of hearing people do nothing but tear me down or laugh because they think that I can’t do something because of the background I came from has all been washed away. And while I’m not in radio, Big Effin Deal. I’m liked and appreciated for me. And nothing can beat that.

10 Wake Up

20 Work

30 Go Home

35 My business work

40 Eat

50 Sleep

60 GOTO 10

So today is my 29th birthday. I've been miserable the last few weeks. Not really anyone's fault in particular, but man, I just can't seem to get out of this funk.

Now don't get me wrong, I have plenty to be thankful for. Good friends, both online (like Eric and Justin), real life (Candi, Aly, Ken, and my cohorts at the Bookstore), and a combination of the two (Erica and Sam). I was also offered a fantastic full time job from my current part-time employer (who shall remain nameless to protect said offer). It does require a commute, but IMHO, it is worth the drive and getting up at a "decent hour" will do me some good. (Note: This is not the same promotion that I was referring to in this post. I got that promotion and raise, and a great comment from a co-worker at the end of training… "Jim, I wouldn't have made it through this without you". So this means I have been given 2 promotions in the 8 months I've worked there.)

But I haven't said yes to the job yet. I've been used to being my own boss for 5 years now. I'm sure I probably will say yes, because it will be good for everyone around me. I'm tired of worrying about making sure things are covered and taken care of.

So I have my small handful of friends, what could be considered a good start on a career but I'm still not happy. I honestly have no idea what to do.

What about family, you might ask? Well, last I heard, my sisters and their kids got gifts from my parents, my grandmother got a fantastic bouquet of flowers for mothers day, and what did I get? Nothing. No phone call, no card, nothing. As a matter of fact, my parents decided it was ok to open a DirecTV account in my name and not pay the bill. The only way I can get the mar off my credit report is to turn my parents in for Theft of Services and identity theft.

So a few of my friends are going to take me out, and hopefully I can forget my woes and enjoy myself, just for one night.

Happy friggin birthday.

I got an email today offering me  Dual Tuner TiVo, and a year of service for $254. Man oh man! That would soooooo rock! Too bad my car has decided to go ka-BOOM. I'm about this close to putting myself out on the street corner. Lower end of the estimates was about $1700, and the high end was $2700. Could my week get any worse? Yes. A good friend of mine passed away last week. 

When this dial says that you have no gas, you have no gas. Seriously. It will not turn over. I promise.

For the second time in my driving career, I ran the tank dry. Man I feel dumb. And it was cold too. You may point and laugh.

Ok, you can stop now. Seriously. Stop.

So did I tell you I’m in another community theater production this year?

Yeah, I figured I would give the Community Theater in my town a try, rather than the one that is 30 minutes away.

So far? Night and day. The last production I was in practice was 5 nights a week. Here, I’ve had perhaps 2-3 rehearsals in the last month. Tops. I need the constant repetition to get lines memorized. I have this great fear that I’m gonna forget lines like I did when I was in high school. Of course, I hardly went to practice then, and thats why.

Crap.

So does the fact that I like the song ‘It’s Raining Men’ by The Weather Girls make me less manly than I am?

Yeah, I was going through my MP3s this morning and that came up. I listened to it, and was like yeah that is catchy. But its awfully effeminate for me to be listening to that. But then again I look at some of the other music in my MP3 collcetion:

• Theme from Mystery Science Theater 3000
• 5-6 songs from the fictional group 2gether
• 4 Non Blondes – Whats goin on
• Adam Ant
• Moxy Fruvous
• Barbershop Quartet music

at that point I realize I’m a freak! But then again, my good friends already knew that.