A gorgeous slab of awesome taken off a chunk of "Whoa"

Made you look!  ok..  So I haven't anything specific today to talk about.. just kind of letting the letters fall where they may.  But then..  rarely do I have anything specific to talk about..  eh.. devil in the details..  This past week was a pretty good week.  Which makes me concerned..  I do better in stress and difficult situations.. I know that doing that tears me up physically, mentally and emotionally..  but I have trouble trusting when things are going too well..  It is that whole "Ok.. this was easy... too easy..." and then THWAP... poison dart into the side of the neck.. THUD..  end scene as a heap on the floor..  Perhaps that is why I tend to stir things up.. I need something to figure my way out of.. or find a way to fix something..  Such an attractive quality, eh ladies?  Fortunately, I have a VERY patient wife who has a gunslingers speed in popping the "Quit being a dumbass" bullet into me..  I love her for that. 
So anywho..  Though I am a very young at heart guy... (sometimes to a fault)..  I have been in some situations that have made me realize.. I don't pass as a young hipster..  (just by saying that.. I am proving my point)  I went with Rach after a date to a coffee shop on Denton Square..  we walk in and it is filled with a people..  (though not a ton of variety of people)  It was your high school artsy kids (there because they can't get into a bar or buy those fancy clove cigarettes..)  and the studying college student with his pc based laptop..  and then the granola munching mid -20s douches and douchettes working with an air of contempt on their macbooks..  and then there was Rach and I...  the coffee bar is a looooong skinny rectangle...  the entrance is on one end and the coffee purchasing area is on the faaaaar other end..  So..  here we were.. walking this gauntlet of people who are staring at us like we are some alien life forms who have walked in on the middle of a dinner party.  Had there been a record player..  the needle would have scratched across the vinyl.  I started to sweat and pulled Rachel to walk faster down the corridor of judgement.  I had the sudden, nauseating realization that perhaps..  just maybe... I wasn't the coolest guy in the room..  it made my knees weak..  We pushed forward to the coffee maker stand..  hours had passed it seemed.  There was no line.. so we walked up..  me being stooped over from the pilgrimage across the self-realization valley of dread.. I did not see at first what was in front of me..  A frikkin, honest-to-God Viking..  Thor was my creator of caffeinated ambrosia..  I kid-you-not..  this guy was 6 foot 87 inches..  more broad than two Me's..  long blong hair and a blond beard.  And then Thor says (and as he opens his mouth I wait for an echoing of thunder) "Hey guys.. what can I get for you today?" with a big happy, doofy.. possibly baked grin..  You could have knocked me over with a feather at this point.   I mumbled something about how the God of Thunder gig wasn't working out with the economy.. he looked confused.. but still happy... So I spoke up and ordered Rach and I a couple of Latte' drinks .. TO GO.  He happily took out order and started making our drinks..  and to top it off.. Thor made shamrock emblems out of our foam..  So we went back through the gauntlet of judgement..  and they looked as relieved about us leaving as we were about leaving.  We got to my car and buckled in..  and started laughing.. Ugh.. we used to be cool.
On Tuesdays nights..  we have family night..  We go out to eat..  everyone in the family as a turn in picking the restaurant.  Afterwards, we go grocery shopping together..  Me, Rach, Chloe, and Sammie..  It is family time together..  We like it.. it is something to look forward to.  Well..  the other week..  It didn't work out for whatever reason.  I had to go shopping during the middle of the day on Tuesday.  ( I am off on Mondays and Tuesdays) .  So, I drove to Kroger Signature in Denton.. I started shopping..  Now..  anyone who knows me... knows that I can be comfortable in most situations..  I adapt well... have a chameleon-like personality.. and have the annoying habit of picking up the dialect and speech patterns of people I speak to immediately without realizing I do it.  For some reason... Kroger made me lose my cool..  all of a sudden I couldn't make eye contact with people..  I got antsy.  I headed over to produce.. it was crowded.. but I have to follow my list completely.. I soldiered in.  I don't have the layout memorized for the produce at this store, so I am going back and forth..  there were an inordinate amount of the motorized chair baskets in there..  .. and most of the good produce was at higher levels..  Usually.. I am helpful and will assist people in need..  These people for whatever reason seemed like hostile little trolls in go-carts today..  I wasn't about to step on that landmine..  so I would weave and speed past them.. back and forth due to prior mentioned non-familiarity with the layout all the while craning my neck back and forth like a frikkin loon to avoid eyeballing the tubby troll motorized basket biker gang.. My hair was standing on end on the back of my neck..  my hackles were up..  My mouth was dry..  I said "Screw it!" to the cucumbers on the list due to the high concentration of basket trolls...  and heading up and to the right to place me on the dairy/ meat aisle.  I headed towards meat and saw this push-basket moving seemingly on its own..  That did not help my freak out at all..  as I got closer.. with a sack of oranges in hand in case I needed to wing it at whatever hellspawn might be moving the cart.. I noticed the driver..  It was a VERY short old lady..  covered in coats.. mega white hair.. and ear muffs..  yes.. ear muffs..  85 degrees outside.. earmuffs..  The smell of my apprehension and fear mingled with her generous use of perfume..  I moved past..  looked back.. didn't see her.. and looked forward to the meat case where I was heading and BAM..  there she was again.. asking about why the trout special wasn't still going on to the attendant.. I decided I would go check out the dry goods first that I needed..  I went past her on every other aisle.. I am not sure how she pulled this off as I was moving a good 3x faster than her.  For whatever reason, it was the ear muffs that flipped me out..  I just could not wrap my mind around it..  I could deal with her obvious teleportation skills.. and the rows of sharp pointy teeth..  (ok.. perhaps I imagined that part)  but the earmuffs..  those damn muffs.. I finished my shopping as quickly as possible.. and headed out.. I had spent well under my weekly budget and had gotten most everything on the list (sans cucumbers) ..  which goes to show that I am a very cheap bargain shopper, even in the face of a grocery based post apocalyptic universe that seemed to open a portal in Kroger that day.  I went and picked up the oldest daughter from school right after that due to me being right next to the highschool..  She was less than supportive..  She got a huge kick out of my freakout..  laughing to tears..  I think it is time she start paying rent.
So... I started back in Karate just recently.  I also got my youngest, Sammie, into it..  Sammie is an interesting case..  It amazes me how two kids with the same genetic makeup can be so different.  Both of my kids are ridiculously smart..  comes from having two intelligent parents.  Chloe is very social, adaptive, musically talented, athletic, in the gifted programs.. Sammie seems to transcend everyone else in the family in the sheer brain horsepower.  Me, Rach, and Chloe all have a very healthy respect (fear) of this kid and her mind. LOL  She has always been the one they move to classes to help the other kids with grasping their studies..  She is a fantastic artist and was made a Docent for an art show, It is eery the grasp she has of ideas and thoughts.  The things that come out of this kid has me gobsmacked.. but her hyper analytical mind has its downfalls, too.  She over analyzes EVERYTHING.  Whenever we want to try something like bike riding or swimming or the such..  she has already figured out all the things that can and will go wrong.  She has trouble just letting go and doing stuff.  If it isn't academic or artsy, she doesn't want to do it for fear of disappointing or not being immediately adept.  I am not sure why she is so hard on herself or why she is so critical of everything she does.  She does not handle embarrassment well AT ALL.  I am not sure where she gets that..  being that Rach and I are pretty darned laid back.  Anyway..  there is the back story..  I signed us up for Karate because I loved it before..  it was great for stress.. and it was exercise I liked to help me drop some of these pounds.  I knew Sammie needed something althletic to do.. to help her get into shape and to expand her interests.  I was fully prepared for a melt down.  So there we were..  she got her gi on.. and headed to the mat.  She absolutely loved it!  She even fell down and hurt her pride at one point..  but as soon as she pulled it together, ran out on the mat to rejoin the group.  (That is SOO not her style)  She had her first sparring match recently and won.  All she does is rave about it..  she practices her patterns and forms more than I do.  I am so thrilled she is down with something like this.  I think maybe that she might get the same thing I do out of it.. when I spar, I feel free..  I don't have the worries of bills, work, life in general.. 
Ok... that is enough for you guys to digest for now..  talk to you, my minions, later.

Oops, I did it again! Looks like I pissed off a special breed of Gleeks

Many of you that know me...  know that I enjoy a little bit of what can be referred to as "poking the bear" ..  I sometimes..  rarely.. but sometimes like to stir things up if only for the sake of entertainment.  Hey.. everyone likes a good train wreck once in a while..  So... I had an itch..  I created a Facebook page called "I Hate Lea Michele"  If you don't know who that is.. it is the lady that plays the brunette chick on "Glee" named Rachel.  Do I hate this person?? No.  Don't know the person..  Her character is annoying and makes you want to kick her down an endless Spartan hole...  but..  she may just be an ok actress who is going for that effect.. I don't know.  But anyway... I started the page just to see what would happen with it.  I posted absurd things as to why people should join me in my jihad against Lea Michele.  Things such as "Lea Michele eats baby kittens for breakfast"  "The sounds of forks scraping against plates sound better than her"  "She drinks smoothies made out of puppies".. stuff like that.. At first it was a slow trickle..  People who didn't care for her for whatever reason posted their little snippets here and there.  It was sort of fun..  but then.. this week.. a group of zealot-like Gleeks found my site..  They were outraged!!  How dare we make fun of the most talented singer in the known universe!!!  So.. they start spamming my page with mean comments and such..  I laughed...  ALOT.  With them coming on and filling my site with content, they successfully boosted "I Hate Lea Michele" to the front page of the Google searches.  They even started an anti-I hate Lea Michele twitter account called the United Union Of Lea Michele.. or UULM as they affectionately call each other.. I am basking in the attention!!  They are threatening to bring me down!!!  I picture in my head an angry village mob (who happen to like show tunes) with their pitchforks and torches banging at my castle walls.  It is GLORIOUS!!  I just sit back and it has taken a life of its own..  people bickering about the most inane things!!  People on both sides are absolutely losing their shit over this!!  Oh.. sure.. I will occasionally add something to the effect of "A kid asked the Make a Wish Foundation to get Lea Michele to stop singing as his last wish...  discuss"  or "Countries from all over the globe have replaced waterboarding with making prisoners listen to Lea Michele sing with amazing results"  ... you know.. just to keep the fire going... but that is it!  30 seconds out of my day..  I have even brought up that I appreciate the content and for everyone to keep going...  I have even gone as far as stating on the site EXACTLY what I am doing as far as accomplishing what I wanted to do in getting people twisted...  they don't get it.  I guess I could just grow up..  but it is really hard not to mess with people when they make it effortlessly easy!

Oh no... brain smatter all over my wall...

No.. not brain matter..  I haven't given up on you people yet to the tune of swallowing a bullet... or even eating pop-rocks and washing it down with soda..  Just some random things (I know..  me being random..  what other category would anything I do fall under?)  that have been brought to my attention..  however fleeting my attention span may be.  I haven't written much..  not lately...  other things have been on my mind.   I am typically a laid back individual.. at times to a fault.  BUUUUUT... lately..  I have let life and such get to me a bit..   I have been stressed..  and it has reared its ugly head..  I even had a ....  pensive look on my face for a bit... 
I honestly feel like I am missing out on my family's life.  I work every weekend..  12 to 14 hours a day..  I basically get to see my kids at around 7pm on Sunday night..  It is rough.  I miss the band concerts..  I miss the art shows..  I miss just running around at the mall with all of them to pick out whatever dress or shoe or item needed for something coming up..  I miss it all...  It honestly tugs at my soul.  My oldest is a freshman in high school..  She will be off to college in a few years.  I grew up with this kid..  I was a young guy with a lot of growing up to do when she was born...  So, we kind of grew up together.  And soon..  she will be off to make her own life.  I need to find a way to be there for my family.
Switching gears now..  I have been watching DVDs of the show "Mad Men". Holy jumping jack Jesus on a cracker...  I was born in the wrong time!!  Where the hell do I sign up for the time machine ride.  The year is 1960.  Men were men.  Not crying lil sensitive yes men.  But Men.  You wore a suit to work.  You looked impeccable.  You drank and smoked... well.. EVERYWHERE.  (That was before cigarettes were bad...  they were good for you back then..LOL)  The women... Oh.. the women..  they wore dresses..  they lived to be at the beck and call of the men...  they had CURVES!!!  (Thank GOD..  the show is full of soft, curvy women.. not twiggy flagpoles)  Now.. before you girls go off on how sexist I am being..  the women often got their way too...  manipulative (not necessarily a bad thing) and also the men wanted to make sure their women were happy, too.  People had some grace and manners.  Hell..  for all of that, I could come up with all kinds of great ways to pitch advertising for laxatives.
I am not terribly sure what my future holds.. what I will be doing..  I don't know..  For me..  that is rough.  Though it seems like I am chaotic at times..  just randomly bouncing about..  Most everything I say or do is carefully thought out and controlled to bring about a certain action or reaction. I am a bit of a control freak when it comes to my emotions and actions.  I don't feel the level of control I used to over life.  It is a scary thing to think about.. change.. Sometimes sanity can be a comforting thing.  Right now, I could go for a little boredom.