Ceremonial Distance

I found out today that one of my best friends is - after 23 years with his partner - engaged.

Or, rather, they intend to get married.

When I wrote back in response to an emailed comment about a possible ceremony, I asked if it meant that they were engaged - and when this change had happened. His response was "ROFL - Engagement? After 23 years????"

But apparently there was a bit of a proposal and all, so I think it counts.

The part that continues to surprise me is that this apparently happened almost 10 months ago and I just found out about it - by accident - today.

Ninety percent of my life I'm perfectly fine with living halfway across the country (or the world) from most of my best friends. Ten percent of the time I really wish I lived a lot closer.

Today I definitely felt the latter.

Book 'em, Danno.

There are days when I feel like I don't do anything but work and sleep.

I get up in the morning, I get showered and dressed and I drive to work. I'm there from 9 until 5, then I get back in my car and drive home - sometimes with a stop at the grocery store - and then I have dinner with Christopher and we might watch a little TV or go online for a bit, and then we go to bed. And it feels like that's all we do for 5 days out of every week (only he gets up earlier than I do and is usually at work from 8 until 5).

Yet, today, when asked by a friend of ours whether we could schedule a Saturday or Sunday to get together for dinner, I had to check the calendar.

This weekend? Out. Next weekend? Out. Every weekend of November, actually? Already busy.

We've scheduled - tentatively - a dinner on Saturday, December 5th. Luckily, it wasn't the 12th or 19th - because those are both already booked, too.

Okay. Yes. The weekends are the extreme version, because we tend to book them in the hopes that we won't be exhausted from a day of work. But I was just looking at our weekday evenings, and for the foreseeable future we've got at least one or two - if not more - evenings already booked each week.

For a couple of people who only work and sleep and never go out, our calendar is ridiculously full.

Is It Over Yet?

One week from now, I'll be a very happy guy.

I really can't stand Halloween, you see, and this time of year it is EVERYWHERE.

Ads on line. Ads on TV.

Last weekend there was a zombie pub crawl in Minneapolis, and so all week this week there has been fake blood on the sidewalks.

I really can't wait for it all to go away - both the fake blood and the holiday.

Okay. Some of the candy bars can stay around. But the rest of it can go away.

Saying What You Mean (for better or worse)

I had one of those moments at work today that probably shouldn't have happened. It shouldn't have happened for a LOT of reasons, honestly, but here's the full story, at least as I experienced it.

I was in a meeting. It's a bi-weekly meeting where people who have issues which the IT department should know about - but which might be too hard to put into an email - meet up to talk them through.

I was trying to explain a particular situation which, I think, has probably been causing some problems, lately. (We have a drop-down box at one point which only offers two possible answers. But since clients could actually have other answers, it has a line which says "If your file isn't X, then choose option Y." The trouble is that many people have actually had file Z, Q, P, and L - and so when they get further into the system those can cause issues.)

So, I was trying to explain this issue, and one of the other people in the meeting kept asking me questions like "How many people do we really deal with with that?" and "Well, we can fix that for them anyway, can't we?" She interjected multiple times, and eventually - as my brain was getting overwhelmed with trying to keep my question out - I looked over at her, put my hand on the table, and said "Calm the fuck down" then I went right back to finish what I was saying.

Yep. I said fuck at work. I did say it with a smile on my face and my tone of voice must have been cheerful because a few other people did laugh. And, well, the young woman who had been talking over me the whole time finally stopped.

The end product, then, was what I had hoped for.

But I probably should have just said "Calm down" - though I don't know if it would have done as much good.

Definitely a case of saying what you mean (and meaning what you say) possibly needing a bit of a thought-pause somewhere in the middle.

The Scent of Fall

Sure, pumpkin spice everything is around these days.

Apples and cinnamon are in every grocery store aisle.

The neighborhood smells of woodsmoke instead of charcoal.

The chill in the air has brought about a whole new set of aromas.

Yesterday and today, however, were warm - not chilly.

So when I let the pup out this evening the yard smelled of a cross between warm dirt and beginning-to-decompose leaves.

It wasn't exactly what I was expecting, but having grown up raking leaves into piles and then jumping into them this seemed more natural than all the other scents.

Possibly not as marketable, but that might be why it made me so happy to smell it.

When Did We Become THAT Demographic?

Do you ever watch TV shows and pay attention to the commercials that are being shown? You can - typically - find out what demographic the show is aimed at by doing this. 

Based on the shows we watch - and the times of day - we see a lot of fast food ads. We also see a lot of ads aimed at "Gen-X" watchers, whenever we watch pretty much any show on BBC America or SyFy. 

Lately, though, while watching "The Mysteries of Laura," we've found that we've apparently become... well... an older demographic. 

The ads are for things like insurance and "assisted technology" companies. I have to admit that this has me a little confused. After all, "Mysteries" is pretty young when you look at the characters and the language. 

I've tried to make myself feel better by telling myself that we're not getting older, it's just that people of an older demographic are now watching "younger" shows. 

But after just so many sit-down shower ads and ads for pretty much anything that can happen in a man's private areas as he gets older... well... I guess I should just be glad that the Early Bird Specials get me home before my shows are on. 

Streaking

I may or may not have ever mentioned that I may or may not have a bit of a competitive streak.

I mean... I don't really care if I win or lose the office Fantasy Football season.

But, if someone at work told me that there was no way in the world I could win any games in Fantasy Football, I'd start working the roster every week to work to win every possible game.

I've felt that same desire to win kick in when I've gone bowling and been told that some other team would definitely beat mine. I've felt it when I was told someone "never loses" at a game I've just been challenged to play.

Well, I may end up losing a decent amount of my free time in November to answering a challenge. I'll still try to keep up the blog, but we'll see what happens.

I'll keep you posted as best I can. After all - going streaking in November can get a little chilly without at least a little coverage.