coulda been worse right?

today was our district Ops Managers meeting, and it was the second most dreaded day this week for me... i wont go into the first... anyway.... i have such a meeting phobia... i hate being in small rooms with people i dont know and having to speak... it has been something that has haunted me for my whole existance... im not really sure why, but it is just something i am not good at.... i am though a great observer, so this is how i spent my 5.5 hrs of the meeting... i listened, i made notes, i thought of ideas, i made plans... at first i was thinking that the whole meeting was a big waste of time for all of us, but in the end i did really get alot out of it... i learned alot about my position, and just how much of a role i play in my stores success...

in other news... having gotten myself addicted to the likes of facebook and twitter, i had to follow this story... i must say i do agree with ashton to the point of i would rather see and hear the things he has to say then watch some stuffy news reporter who is being censored by the brass upstairs... there are not many news "organizations" out there who do not censor their content, and supply us with a wide variety of topics... as for twitter, i joined after hearing something about john mayer, it escalated from there... i follow a few dozen people now, and its interesting to get a glimpse in the life of celebrity life... and its most interesting to see what they have to say about things that are going on in the world... i think the reason i found myself intrigued by ashton kutcher's tweets was that he and his wife are using their fame to support causes, and spread the word... make sure you check out http://www.malarianomore.org/ give a gift of life in the form of a $10 donation, that donation can drastically improved the well being of another human being...

and finally my last tid bit of babble for tonight... when i started the new year i made a promise to myself that each month i would try something new... whether it was learning something or stopping something, or changing something... last month (march) i failed miserably with the no cuss'n, and in april, i got so side tracked with life that i forgot, although i guess you can say picking back up on my blog and starting to tweet, were new things for the month.... but i digress... so what im asking is for anyone out there still reading this blog, to write me with suggestions for something fun i can do in may... it has to be something new to me, it has to keep my attention, and it cant be illegal :D... so put your thinking caps on and let me know what you come up with...

a walk down memory lane - the ridgefield days

this morning i logged on to facebook for my morning fix, and see a message about how there are row boats cruising through town... apparently a water main break has put a section of town under water, and it got me thinking...





i grew up in a very small town, approximately 2.6 square miles, with roughly 10,000 current residents, im sure back in the early 80's there were more like 6,000 residents... it was one of those towns where you knew your neighbors, you didn't lock your doors, you could easily walk into your friends' houses and grab a snack, without anyone thinking twice...





for the first 4 years my mother, father, brother and i lived in bruce street... a semi big apartment community adjacent to the town pool, sports fields, and the park... there was a creek that ran through our "backyard"... it was the place to be, many a night was spent catching lightening bugs, racing big wheels, playing in the creek, and enjoying a game of man hunt... all the neighbor kids got along, played together, had petty fights, and just generally had a good time... when it was dark enough, you would hear parents whistling and kids making their way back to their porches, begging for just a few more minutes...





at 9, my parents separated and my brother, mother and i moved to broad ave ... we lived in a tiny apartment above a deli, on the main road through town... even still, there were other families right next door and a nice amount of kids to hang out with... the Paratores lived next store, and gerri and i were often found finding mischief, or walking aimlessly down the block... we built igloos in the winter, played ball in the Oritani parking lot after hours, listened to salsa from Erika's house, and just hung out...





as we got older we were able to branch out, walking through town, going to the park, meeting at the "lot", drinking down "railroad", kissing fools behind the schools, going to parties, drinking too much and lying to our parents about our whereabouts... ahhh those were the days...





these were the days before even pagers became the norm, and cell phones? what were they??? we were innocent kids, doing innocent things, sipping on 1 beer for 4 hours straight, sneaking cigarettes from our parents, and washing off our eyeliner before going home from school...





as i got older, my circles changed... there were "clicks" in high school, and i really didn't belong in any of them... i was just there, going through the motions, trying to fit in, being friendly to all (ok maybe most)... when you grow up in a small town, and go to a small school, life is a series of the same ole same ole really... there were 76 kids in my graduating class, prom was only done for senior year (and thanks to Jeff Nunez, mine sucked), the night of graduation was spent together at a country club, staying out of trouble... and then everyone went their separate ways...





after high school i didnt really keep in tough with too many people, as i said before, i didn't really fit in with too many clicks, and the few true friendships i had were all i had left... the small town i knew and loved started getting bigger, the population started to boom, they changed the "circle" to accomodate more traffic... the small town feel wasnt there anymore, at least not from my side of town... im sure had we stayed at bruce st our whole lives things may have been different...





fast forward to 2008, and the inception of facebook and myspace, and other social networking websites, that bring you back to your past, put in you contact with old friends, catching up on the good ole days, and learning about the present... it's most interesting to me to see the revolution of peoples lives, people you played manhunt with, kids you secretly wanted to be friends with, girls you disliked cuz they nabbed your crush... sharing stories of the old days, and watching their children's easter videos... its interesting to see who the people from your small town have become, and where their paths have taken them...

friends, food, fun, family

a whole lotta f's going on this weekend... it's easter weekend, and i was lucky enough to have a four day weekend... saturday night we hit here, with some friends... very nice little set up they had there... i was of course disappointed in the fact that they charge an $8 cover, and $4 a beer, but the entertainment was surely worth it, i would have felt alot better about the amount had we stayed a bit more then 2 hours.. then we headed to some backwoods, redneck bar called jokers in rock hill... it reminded me alot of Docs up in PA, just a little more high energy... aside from not being able to breathe through the cig smoke, it was a good time... then the 4 of us hit up Denny's for some latenight munchies... the whole downfall of the night was not being able to fall asleep til 5am, after getting home at 3am, and then waking up at 10:30 am to start my easter dinner prep...





easter was great, had an awesome dinner, my ham was amazing... lily and skyler did an easter egg hunt... opened their baskets, and we all just sat around and relaxed... see pictures from our day here...





so i have one more day off tomorrow, and the plan is to sit around and rest... and get ready for my long week ahead at work... hope ya'll had a good easter...

time keeps on slipping

i often imagine myself coming here and typing out the words that flutter through my head, but time never permits... im going to try and get better... yeah yeah you have heard it all before... im sure at this point no one even comes here to read anymore... Oh well, with all the things floating around inside my head, i my as well take advantage of this blog and let it loose...





more to come.. promise

this is my niece lily, demonstrating her meditation technique... makes me smile