A Good Morning

April 8, 2013April 8, 2013 meisajDaily Life

I didn’t sleep well last night. I woke up at 4:15am and was up for almost an hour. And despite trying to get to bed at a decent hour I didn’t fall asleep until after midnight, mostly due to the hours I kept over the last week.

It was Spring Break and I stayed up late watching movies and playing video games with Sam. It was cold all break except for this last weekend. During which I did get two rides in on my new bike!!!!

But about my good morning. Well I woke up a little groggy at 6am, but refreshed after having managed to get back to sleep. I headed towards the shower and put on WGR 550 to listen to sports talk about the Sabres game. At no point in my youth would I ever have imagined I’d listen to sports radio, ever, least of all first thing in the morning.

BUT, what made it better than just talk about a Sabres victory last night was that the opening intro music was Bottles to the Ground by NOFX. A little punk music as soon as I tune in before I even hear a voice. Fantastic.

The morning gets even better. I purposely pick out my Space Invaders socks for this morning, and after a shower head to the kitchen to make coffee. Not just any coffee, I ordered whole bean coffee from TIM HORTON’S. Tim Horton’s exist all of western New York, but not in Cleveland (however I’ve seen them in Toledo). I found a two pound bag of coffee on Amazon for $12.99. So I fill my Denny’s mug with Tim Horton’s coffee and sit at the table to read the news.

Next amazing thing happens, WGR plays Brass Monkey by the Beastie Boys for an intro. Fantastic. Couldn’t be better.

Seriously. Bottles to the Ground, Space Invaders Socks, Tim Horton’s Coffee and Brass Monkey. It’s a good combination.

Left Eye

April 3, 2013 meisajDaily Life

No this isn’t about the TLC singer Left-Eye, it is about my left eye.

It’s leaky. I blame it on an overactive tear duct. I’m not sure why it happens, but that is the logical solution to me. Every once and a while, really daily at least, my left eye starts tearing slightly. It’s not crying, unless people only cry out of one eye, and I can’t trace it to any particular stimuli, it’s random, and weird.

So yeah. I have a leaky left eye. It is ok though. It’s not like a bazillion tears a minute, but subtly, I’ll notice a tear building up in my eye and ready to flow. I usually non-chanlantly wipe it away before it tears up. But its there, and it continues to happen regularly.

It doesn’t really bug me. I think Sam is the only other person that knows about it, to the point where she can now recognize when it is leaky. No one else has ever asked or noticed. And it doesn’t really bug me, it just is. It is a quirk of my body, like my pinky finger I can’t straighten, only being able to breathe out of one side of my nose at a time, my hitch-hiker’s thumbs, and abundant knee-fat.

Damn my awesome body.

High School Memories

April 2, 2013April 2, 2013 meisajDaily Life

Coach Hoek was the cross country coach when I was in high school. At least for three years. He also taught English class. My Senior year he went from a teacher I looked up to to someone I really wish I never took a class from.

In my Senior year he taught a Senior writing and speaking class. One of the assignments was to give a presentation in front of the class with the goal of teaching something to everyone. One of the more popular choices was “how to make brownies.” I don’t think anyone prepared for this, someone did ‘How to play guitar” but he started his lesson by saying “I’m not going to teach you how to play guitar, go get lessons if you want to learn. I’m just going to play for ten minutes,” and he did. And he got an A. One person was going to teach us how to change a car stereo but didn’t bring a stereo in, or wires or do any drawings. Just talked us through it. He got a B+. Colin, I’ll admit, did a pretty good job with a presentation of “How to sneak out of school without getting caught.”

I didn’t prepare much for my presentation. But I had decided to do a lesson on drawing stick figures, and how to use it as a stress reliever. I drew a lot at that time, and at one point thought about becoming a political cartoonist. But that was aside from the point, I drew my stick figures on the board, showed how you only need one unique feature for each stick figure to make it stand out. I drew short comic strips, drew out some frustrations, and other such randomness. I’m sure it wasn’t great, but then again, other than Colin’s, no one’s was great and mine was no worse or better than theirs.

I got a C. Scoring was 50/50 on this project. Students got to grade and rate each others; giving it a grade and then ranking what they thought were the best presentations. The other 50% came from Mr. Hoek. So when I got my grade back and saw that students had given me an ‘A’, and Mr. Hoek had given me a D-. His
The guy who played guitar. He finally did the presentation three weeks after it was due. And he got a better grade than I did. I actually confronted Mr. Hoek after finding out what he gave that student. Mr. Hoek’s words to me were along the lines of “An A means more to him than it does to you. He needed that grade more than I did. Never mind that he didn’t actually do any of the requirements of the presentation other than sit up in front of the class for ten minutes.explanation that went along with my grade was that he felt he didn’t learn anything from my presentation. The guy who played guitar for ten minutes without explaining anything, that guy deserved a better grade than I did. The people who read instructions off of a Brownies Mix box. Deserved a better grade than I did. The guy who put his feet on the table and tried to explain how to put a car stereo in without pictures or examples. Yeah…. he deserved a better grade than I did. Apparently he learned things from all of them.

It stands out in my mind as just awful teaching. Yes I could have and probably should have done more for my presentation, but as a teacher you can’t just arbitrarily hand out grades. And that’s what Mr. Hoek did. He felt others deserved or needed or earned better grades doing the same or less than I did.

I don’t know why I thought about this today, but I did. It irks me still, and I’m 16 years removed from High School. I think I did well in the class regardless of that presentation, but man it still irks me.

Well, I’ll never see Mr. Hoek again so that’s that. I think he still teaches at QHS. And I’m sure in the last 16 years I have built this story up more than it should be. All those grades probably weren’t ‘A’s’, but they sure as hell were better than what he gave me.

Best Spring Break Ever

April 1, 2013April 1, 2013 meisajDaily Life

It’s my Spring Break. So what to do on a Monday morning on Spring Break… dentist.

Yes the dentist. A place of unabashed humility. You show up on time and wait 30 minutes. You pay to have someone point out your weaknesses.

My by and far favorite visit to the dentist was several years ago when I didn’t have dental insurance and had to go to the dental school. When the student I was assigned to looked inside my mouth his first words were ‘So I see you’ve bad a lot of work done.’

Now I’m not proud of how many cavities I’ve had, but I try to take good care of my mouth. I brush and use mouthwash nightly. I floss a couple times a week. I even started using a water pick again after Sam purchased a new one a few weeks ago.

I will admit that I drink more coffee than the average person. Also that around Easter and Halloween my candy consumption peaks. But it’s not bad the rest of the year. Much lower than it used to be, even compared to a few years ago. I also don’t drink soda, unless I’m at the movies.

I do all this but still have bad teeth. So I try not to feel too bad about it.

Today is taking care of some fillings. I’m all numbed up and ready to go. I swear dental needles hurt more than most. I could care less about a needle at the doctor, at the dentist though.. It’s a whole other story. When they numb me up good I lose the ability to breath out of the good side of my nose, which sucks. I think he also hit a nerve. I could feel every hair in my chin like they were on fire with pain when he numbed me up. I’ve never had that before. It was strange for sure.

I also hate the pictures here. The people either have perfect big white teeth, or look like a witch with blackened teeth and a toothless smile. So I either feel ashamed or great based off of the pictures. Or both at the same time. Thanks doc.

Angelo and Skunky

April 1, 2013April 2, 2013 meisajDaily Life

Angelo has been getting more and more active in the last few weeks / months.

He’s been sick for a while, some sort of intestinal thing, and I think the steroids he’s been taking for months have finally built up enough in his system that he thinks he’s a “He-Kitty” and thus Master of the Universe. Or at least the apartment.

Angelo will now stare us down if we are in his spot (any corner of the couch or bed) and makes sure he flashes you his butt as he turns around in front of you. He also bats at thinks, and goes crazy several times a day clawing at furniture. Sadly I don’t think he knows he doesn’t have front claws.

And of course, his new best friend is Skunky. Skunky is a squeaky toy shaped like a skunk (obviously). And every time he is touched he squeaks loudly. I’ve woken up to find Angelo batting him around at 2am at several occasions. I also knew he played with skunky because I will consistently go to bed with skunky out in the living room and wake up to find skunky at the foot of the bed.

Saturday I got to see Angelo and Skunky in action. It was awe inspiring. Here’s my 13 year old kitty being all rough and tumble with Skunky.

You go Angelo.

Angelo vs Skunky Video

The only 2 mugs that matter…

March 28, 2013March 28, 2013 meisajDaily Life

I have a bazillion coffee mugs. that’s an actual number not an exaggeration.

I’ve thought about getting the actual number down to a hearty 6 maybe. I can’t ever see needing more than 6. Of course, those 6 don’t include….

THE ONLY TWO MUGS THAT MATTER!!!!!

Lots of emphasis there.

The only two mugs that matter are my Denny’s mug and my PRS mug. These are my mugs. I don’t get made when someone else uses them, but I would prefer, maybe heavily prefer, that no one else uses them but me. They both have different uses.

Denny’s Mug

I stole this mug from a Denny’s in Queensbury. It happened during one fateful summer where I made numerous late night Denny’s trips with Kevin, Reggie, Shane, and Colin. I don’t really need to add the ‘late night’ preface there, I’m pretty sure no one ever goes to Denny’s at other times. At least we didn’t then.

It was the time period where I had actually been made fun of at college by Keifer because 90% of the stories I told started with “At 2 am” because we all worked that summer and did nothing but play frisbee and go to Denny’s. Or maybe I’m combining summers. Whatever. Your memory is no better than mine.

Regardless of my memory, I stole this Denny’s mug. And when I make a cup of coffee in the morning, I drink from my Denny’s mug. It’s speckled, authentic, and awesome. And it was stolen from Denny’s. By my hands, because I wanted it, would cherish it, and use it all the time. I will not, will not, let anyone else use it. It’s mine. But that’s not true, Sam is envious of it, and sneaks it to use when I’m not around. I suppose I’m ok with that. But guests, sorry, get your own if you can.

PRS Mug

Years ago (like 5) Josh ‘the man’ Wallens lived near Baltimore and worked at PRS. PRS is Paul Reed Smith Guitars. It was pretty awesome. He worked hard to get there and had the job for a few years before the economy left him without steady employment.

But that first year Josh sent me a PRS mug and shirt. I still wear the shirt all the time. Love it. But the mug, I saw how it could become lost among the masses of coffee mugs I already had unless I gave it the status it deserves. So it became my wine mug.

When I drink wine at home, I drink it out of the PRS Mug. It is fantastic. It has this unique little peak, a pointy edge at the top of the handle, where my thumb continually rubs against it while I use it. Makes it special and unique. We had guests once and one of them, despite being told not too, used PRS to drink wine out of. I was pretty livid. Tried not to be. Kept it together. But when he joked about stealing it I told him he wouldn’t make it out the door with losing the hand that was holding it.

Its a fantastic mug. Period. Nothing else to say about it. It sits up in the liquor cabinet away from all the other coffee mugs reveling in its prestige. It deserves it.