Whew!

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My first day at work downtown was quite interesting, to say the very least! It only took me about fifteen minutes to get there and figure out where the entrance to the parking garage is, thus leaving plenty of time for me to walk around the city streets completely disoriented and lost – I actually walked through a jungle at one point, which was both a little startling and totally rad at the same time. One minute I’m wandering aimlessly, the next I’ve got tropical birds sqwalking in my ears – I’m going back tomorrow!

Pretty much the whole day was like summer camp to me – I’m in a class with the cool teacher and I get to listen to the other classes getting yelled at on either side of us! The view from the 20th floor is simply amazing and I can’t wait to get my camera fixed so that I can share the sights with everyone else! We’ve got a perfect view of the entire city from where we’re at now, so I can only imagine what it’ll be like when we finish training and move up another eleven floors…

Oh yes, and tomorrow evening after work I’m moving into my apartment…or at least transporting all of my stuff from both my car and the hotel room to their permanent home! With any luck, though, hopefully I’ll find a bed within the next day or so, too, and it’ll be bye-bye-bye hotel for good! I’m just happy that not only did we manage to work out the whole extra deposit deal with the apartment itself, but I even was able to get out of paying any deposit whatsoever to get the electricity up and running by the time I show up tomorrow night because apparently my credit is just that good. 🙂

The only obstacle left in my way now is the amount of time it will take Brighthouse to come out and hook me back into the land of make believe with 300+ channels of warm, digital goodness! I can almost feel the anticipation of this weekend from here…

Life’s been good to me so far…

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Well, if you haven’t already heard the news, it looks like I’m gonna be staying around these here parts for a while!

It turns out that lady luck truly was on my side Friday afternoon, as I went back to the employment office, took a couple more tests on the computer, and walked out the door an hour later with a slip to report to work Monday morning – very cool, indeed! It’s going to be a lot different from what I’ve been used to previously – only getting half an hour for lunch (…and not being able to go over…or go home, for that matter…), working by the hours that have been set in stone for me, and not being able to work on my other writing projects during the slow times, but then again, the difference in pay should be worth it alone and besides, I’m in Florida now!

So the only thing that I’ve still got to work out is my apartment – there’s going to be a bit of a struggle because I don’t really have a rental history and thus they think they’re going to be getting a huge deposit from me in exchange! Surprisingly enough, I don’t have a couple thousand dollars for these people to sit on for the next year and I’ve told them this several times, but we’ll just have to wait and see what happens. I’m still confident that I’ll be moving in by the middle of next week, as soon as we work this little part out…

Bringing things up to speed, today I went shopping and spent a bunch of money that should’ve gone towards that previously-mentioned deposit (don’t tell anybody!). I picked up a new alarm clock, both because I forgot my old one back in Michigan and the hotel’s clock isn’t exactly what I’d call dependable – I’m not getting fired on my first day because the radio decided not to go off! I also took a brief trip to the mall and bought myself some official “business clothes” because apparently old t-shirts and shorts with holes in them don’t fit into the category of “business casual.” I didn’t, however, buy new shoes and I left my dress shoes up north, too, so hopefully that won’t be much of an issue. I also splurged and finally bought an optical mouse for my laptop for like $20, which is approximately a million times more sensitive than the one that came with it. Overall, I did spend a big chunk of money, but I’ve been down here for two weeks already and that’s actually showing a considerable amount of control, if you ask me!

I’m still trying to catch up on my writing, as the next few days are going to be a bit crazy once I actually get the ok to start transferring stuff from the hotel to the apartment, but I’m really looking forward to getting my office set back up again, full-sized computers and all, and actually being able to get some real work done again! I’m at least an issue and a couple of special projects behind with Just Laugh, at least one comic behind with Ink, Paint & Tears, and I’ve got a whole lot of e-mail to follow up on that I just haven’t been bothering with via my laptop so far. Even when I do get moved in, the next several weeks will no doubt be quite hectic as I fight to play catch-up, but it’s all good.

“Why is that?” you ask?

Because I’m finally living in Florida!!! Woo hoo!

Time well spent?

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I spent roughly six and a half hours of my Wednesday at the longest job interview in the world, but I think this one has some serious potential…finally! I still have to go back in Friday afternoon and take one more test, but I did make it through most of the stages already so hopefully this last one is just a technicality and they’ll be ready to hire once I get it out of the way.

So tomorrow, as much as I shouldn’t just put all of my faith in this one job, is going to be my day off / catch-up day. Mostly I’ll be driving around in search of the best route between the potential job site and the potential apartment complex, but I also want to get all of my articles for this week done early, in the instance that I actually get to move into an apartment this weekend! Factor in Survivor and my day’s pretty much shot, anyways…

Oh yes, and I’ve finally settled it – I’m going to put together a book by Christmas – not involving anyone else this time, but just me and my columns. I won’t really have a good look at the status of the layout until I get everything unpacked, but I think I’ve only got about fifteen more columns left to write so it should actually all come together pretty easily. What a perfect gift idea for Christmas / Chanukah / Boxing Day!

You’d buy a copy, wouldn’t you?

…something needs to be recalled, but it’s certainly not the governor…

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Dear California,

We really hoped that you’d have figured it out by now, but apparently you’re just arrogant enough to ride this thing out until the very end. You’re in debt more than any other state in the union and claim the wealthiest people and corporations in the world, yet it’s still this one single guy’s fault for the whole damn thing. Debt has never really pulled its weight as being a huge problem with anyone else in the past, but this time it’s happening to you, so suddenly it’s a gigantic problem that can only be solved by spending even more money.

Congratulations, you’ve affirmed the stereotype as being the blond-haired, blue-eyed surf bum who has absolutely no idea what’s actually going on around him. When the greenbacks settle and you finally realize that you’ve elected a fucking has-been movie star as your leader – a man who can hardly pronounce the phrase ‘fiscal deficit,’ let alone tell you what it means – don’t come crying to the rest of us. We told you to let Gray finish what he started, but what do we know, anyways? We’re not California…

Idiots.

Sincerely,

The Other 49 States, Many of Whom Are Also Led by Imperfect Governors, Yet Somehow Have Managed to Fucking Deal with It…

Good buy!

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Those Glade scented fans that you’ve seen on tv? Seriously, the best $7.99 I’ve ever spent – this entire wing of the hotel smells like a Hawaiian Breeze…

…an acute sense of fashion…

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I’ve never really been hip when it comes to fashion anyways, but it’s always irritated me when the industry takes perfectly functional clothing and converts it into something mainstream and trendy that will sell out in all the major markets, even at $79 a piece. Mechanic’s shirts with name and logo patches on the chest are for mechanics, just as painter’s pants were invented for those who spend thirteen hours a day painting houses and trucker’s hats for those who actually drive trucks for a living. I’m sure that, just like in the movies and on television and everywhere else today, it’s so much easier to recycle old ideas instead of coming up with new and different ones, but I think it’s an insult to blue collar workers around the world when rich kids are running around in freshly-pressed farmer’s overalls that will never see a single bale of hay or **shudder** manure. For the amount of money that Old Navy and Abercrombie & Fitch and The Gap are cranking in from these promotions, you’d think that they could create something original – quit mocking everyone else and make something new for a change…

A Different Point of View…

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(photo courtesy of The City of Tampa)
I’ve been wanting since I got here to throw up a few pictures, but yesterday I discovered that my digital camera didn’t exactly survive the trip, either. As I’m certainly not in a position to get it fixed this very second, I suppose that this will have to do for the time being.

Other than the beautiful skylines and non-frozen weather, not much for updates here. I’m afraid to admit it, but I am taking an odd liking to Judging Amy, however, possibly just because the UPN plays the show like thirty or forty times a day. Of course, I think they’re all reruns, so as far as I know, Amy could be a seventy-year-old retiree from the courts in the current season, but she’s still quite the looker now and that’s pretty much enough to hold my attention…

My “severance check” from my old job should post to my account tomorrow morning, so here’s to hoping that Jasmine and April from down the street don’t take Thursdays off! 😉

Frightening…

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I came across this page on the Michigan DNR site while I was researching a column for next week’s paper – am I the only one who is a bit concerned about sending a blind man out into the woods with a gun?!

Laser-Sighted Devices for the Visually Impaired
http://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,1607,7-153-10363_10913-31956–,00.html

More musings from the south…

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It’s kind of a bummer that I can’t really get any work done for Just Laugh right now because not only is my main computer buried in the trunk of my car, but the monitor is still sitting up in Michigan. I also learned the hard way that my trunk wasn’t exactly packed very well as I attempted to retrieve my printer and ended up spilling a few dozen DVDs across the parking lot. I still haven’t gotten the printer, but at least I’ll know what I’m up against when I try again later…

In other news, my shoulders and neck have been aching for the past few days, which I was originally attributing to the long drive down here, but I’m coming to realize that this stiff as a board “bed” is actually the culprit. It tends to come and go, finally leaving just in time for me to go to sleep and usher the pain back into my world once again, to the point where I might actually consider sleeping on the floor tonight! Nonetheless, I’m going to meet with the leasing office of the #1 apartment complex on my list tomorrow, so hopefully I’ll be out of this place in a week anyways – if not, I might need to pick up another bottle of aspirin…

More Random Noticings About the Tampa Bay Area (and Florida in General…):

  • The heat (at least right now) isn’t really so bad, as long as you don’t have your A/C on full blast all the time. I’ve found that just rolling the window down in the car is good enough and I actually woke up too cold this morning because I left the A/C on…
  • There are several stadiums of all varieties in the area, but the one that really had me scratching my head was the New York Yankee’s Legends Field. You see, this confused me because the New York Yankees are from New York, yet this is anything but New York. Further research explained that Legends Field actually has the same dimensions as Yankee Stadiumin New York, primarily because this is where their spring training takes place. Apparently they can’t stand the cold, either – who’d’ve thought?!
  • Silver, 4-cylinder cars, such as the Honda Civic, are very popular down here, just as was The Fast and the Furiousapparently. When are the children of today going to learn that four-bangers just aren’t muscle cars, no matter how big of a muffler you throw on them. It’s kind of like tricking out a Neon – it sounds horrible and frankly, just looks silly.
  • There are presumably a lot of old people down here. I say presumably because although I’ve yet to encounter any of them in large groups, there’s a minimum of six to eighthandicapped spaces in front of every Wal-Mart, Publix, and Kash-n-Karry here. I had to pick-up some items at a Wal-Mart Supercenter the other day and not only did I end up parking in a secondary lot like a half a mile from the store, but I passed no less than a dozen handicapped spaces in a row on my way in – they were all full.
  • Nobody really gives a damn what the speed limit is…the signs are still there, but pretty much for asthetic qualities only. Nonetheless, everyone’s still quite polite about the whole situation – if they want to pass you, they merely ride your ass until you pull into one of the farther right lanes instead of going around you and flipping you off in the process.
  • I’m hearing that there’s a flood warning out right now, although I’ve yet to bear witness to more than fifteen minutes of rain in the last four days. Perhaps it’s veryhard rain???And lastly…
    • Young or old, it seems that all of us enjoy mocking those who make announcements over the PA systems of supermarkets and superstores, but seriously, when we’re all interrupted with the message that “The time is now 9:00 PM and the customer service desk is now closed…”, who can resist?