Leavin' On A Jet Plane

I’ve been working like a dog this week. Yuck! The good news is tomorrow night I take off to Orlando for a little fun in the sun. Can’t wait to enjoy being on a short but very badly needed vacation. I have not actually had a real vacation for well over two years. I plan to change that in a couple of months but for now this will do. The one challenging thing I remember about being there is that it was difficult to find much of a variety of food to eat as a vegetarian. I spent two weeks there about a year ago and came home absolutely sick of pasta. Hopefully, since I’m staying at a different place this time, that won’t be the case. Well I guess this is me signing off for about a week. I’m sure I’ll have lots to write about when I return. I’m also hoping to hear some progress has been made with my pending job offer by the time I get back. It would really be nice to come home to that.

Happy Valentine's Day

I got a Valentine’s Day card in the mail today from my Mom. I got one yesterday from my Dad. They’re up in my room where I can appreciate them. For some reason I seem to be appreciating gestures like these a lot more these days. I can’t seem to figure out whether it’s because we recognize the meaning behind these things more as we age or simply because they’re the only Valentine’s Day cards I will get this year. Now I’m not whining but this is another year of me being single on this day. It’s been many. As I read back on my entries I see that my life is pretty damn good right now. There’s still a part of me though that gets reminded from time to time that it is just me here plugging away. I have great friends, am getting along really exceptionally well with my family, enjoy the vast majority of my co-workers and even live in a great neighborhood where we are virtually all friends. Yet pretty much every night it’s just me turning off the lights as I drift off to sleep and just me when my eyes open back up in the daylight of the morning. Before the last 3 ½ years I was in a five year relationship. This was following a brief six months of singlehood after a 7 year stint ending in me breaking off an engagement to come out. The truth is, until I was in my thirties, I really had no idea what it was like to truly be single as an adult. I have to admit at first I utterly hated it. Now though I see some benefits. Actually sometimes I see more benefits than disadvantages. And, in rare moments, I get scared that I may grow to become too set in my ways to want to share a life, let alone living arrangements, with another person. At some point though I always find myself back to the place where I really wish I was part of a strong, long-lasting, committed couple. The sad part is the older I get and the more I experience or see through others, the more I doubt I will ever be able to be as giving of myself, loyal, honest, and trusting to someone. I won’t go so far to say I’m bitter. Let’s just say I’m extremely skeptical for now. I hope that will change either by me gaining more faith in people or by someone just coming into my life and blowing my mind. Until then, I can’t allow myself to settle into a mindset of disbelief. So Happy Valentine’s Day to everyone who is lucky enough to have all that I desire. Happy Valentine’s Day to my family and good friends because you are the people for whom I eternally have love in my heart. And, last but not least, Happy Valentine’s Day to me because I could never give the kind of love I want to another until I can give it to myself.

Put it all on Red

Today my eyes are dry from staring at a monitor. Sometimes I wonder if I am doing some permanent damage to them with this type of work. When I was in college I worked part time at a bank. I stared at a screen there doing basic date entry. I began to get headaches and ended up being prescribed glasses to wear when I worked. To this day I still have 20/20 vision and don’t wear the glasses anymore but I can’t help but think that we must be doing something to our eyes by constantly gazing into this LCD screen. Maybe someday we’ll find there was some truth to our mothers telling us not to sit too close to the TV. Yesterday I was listening to my favorite talk show on the radio, Frosty, Heidi and Frank on 97.1. The topic was the ban of Ephedra by the FDA. Ephedra is some sort of Chinese herb used in the over-the-counter diet pills. One product that was using it was Metabolife. This product sold for about $30 a bottle. As of yesterday, it was off the shelves but you can apparently now go to Ebay and bid for it. During the show they found it listed for as much as $150 with the bid not closing for 2 more days. My ex recently lost her best friend. She died from complications following a gastro intestinal bypass surgery. She was a 31 year old woman who had struggled with her weight for her entire life. Yes she was overweight; I’d say probably by around 100 pounds give or take. Studies have shown that 1 in 200 people have died from this type of surgery. The purpose of my bringing these subjects up is to consider the risks we take with our lives and health. We all take risks everyday and our levels of risk vary from person to person, situation to situation. Is it worth it to me to potentially put my eyesight in danger for my career, livelihood and for entertainment purposes? I guess the answer to that is yes since I have been doing it for years. I have to admit I also did take Metabolife once about five years ago. I felt like I was on coke and that was not a good thing when I was trying to conduct a computer training class at work. I did lose some weight but not enough to offset the side effects. I stopped after two weeks. I have never been so overweight to consider the extreme surgery, but I really don’t believe I would take that big of a risk. I am not opposed to some plastic surgery and can’t say I wouldn’t consider it for myself at some point, though. I just realized this could turn out to be a very lengthy entry. So, I’ll leave it as this. We should all from time to time consider how much value we place on our life, our personal health and safety and also how much of a gamble we would take to obtain our goals, whether they be aesthetic, monetary or some other form.

It's Late

I should be in bed by now but I'm not tired yet. Today ended up being an okay day. Work was productive, but I still had time to spend in the evening with my dogs and friends. I caught up with phone calls and email. I'm really looking forward to a long weekend for President's Day. I don't have anything too involved planned but I don't care. I'll be going to the premiere of a movie that Kari's song is in. That will be really cool. It's supposed to be fairly big. I've never attended an actual movie premiere. Other than that, I'll play it by ear. The following weekend I'll be off to Orlando for one last DisneyWorld trip before I have to turn my credentials in and leave the company. I can't wait to get on a plane and leave town for a few days. It will be a quick and inexpensive trip but I plan on having some fun. Okay, I really need to get to bed.

Traveling

Where I've Been:
create your own personalized map of the USA or check out ourCalifornia travel guide Where I want to go (US):
create your own personalized map of the USA or check out ourCalifornia travel guide Where I want to go (World):
create your own visited country map or check our Venice travel guide

I'm Just a Bill

Sometimes it feels like life is just one big ass bill. I hate paying bills. Writing checks. Balancing accounts. Mailing invoices. I need a full-time accountant. I hate dealing with numbers. I'd set everything up for autopay online but I don't trust all of these companies to collect the right amount. I hate paying bills.

Justin is a lucky mofo

What a great ending to my birthday weekend...