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I got some really bad news on Thursday. I have been bumming about it for the past few days. I will post it on Monday, but until then, this will be the last post for August '08 (how did it go by so fast). Enjoy your Labor Day and be safe!
What a lazy day around here.
There is nothing better than sleeping with the head on the pillow and sunlight streaming through the window.
Wait, what is that noise? Somebody is ruining my sleep. Oh wait, he is holding that silly camera again. I better look my best.
Oh forget it. I don't know how much longer this sunshine is going to stick around. Anyways, I have more milkbones to eat and cats to chase in my dreams. Which way do I need to lay to get comfortable? Oh yeah, this is good.
I got the bill today for my MRI (back from July). My ex boss (who is well known for lying all the time) told me that the MRI would cost about $3000 and I would have to pay $300 of that after insurance paid their part. Well, the bill came today for the MRI. The MRI (and the 3D reading of it) did cost well over $3000. But my bill was for $35. My co-pay is $35 for emergency room visits. $25 for doctors appointments. So I am not sure why I paid $35 for something that had been scheduled for 2 weeks before I went. But I am not complaining, $35 is a heck of a lot lower than $300!
I am not sure what has come over me this summer, but I have posted more in each month of this summer than I did for the entire year of 2007! I hope that I can continue to keep posting this much. And thanks for reading!
It is official, I purchased my train ticket to New Orleans!!! I was able to get my vacation from work for that week. My friend purchased the ticket for me since he can get it cheaper. And the hotel has been booked. Not that I am counting, but in 31 days from today, I will be in the French Quarter, drinking Hurricanes and not missing work one bit!
Once again, here is another installment of ecard Meme Madness. The whole idea is to choose 5 ecards from someecards.com that say something about yourself. Here are my 5 ecards for this time. (Click here to check out the first time I did ecard Meme Madness.)
Labor Day is coming up. Yet another great holiday at work, where I am stuck working my butt off while way too many people using Link Cards (modern day food stamps) come in, buy more groceries than they can eat in a month and bitch about how they don't have enough money on their cards. Yet, I am the one working, having taxes taken out of my paycheck so they can have their free food. "But am I bitter? Absolutely!" quote from the movie Trick
When I was still a member of the gym, I did like to find excuses not to go. I often did go, but it was fun trying to think of ways not to go. But soon I will find a new gym that is much closer.
I have been known to like older guys. Douglass (10 years younger) was the first guy I ever dated who was younger than me. Mark was the oldest, he is 9 years older than me.
WOW! I needed this card 18 years ago. For one summer I shared a 1 bedroom apartment for the summer with a "friend" of mine. We knew each other but weren't very close. The rent was very cheap, since it was a sublet in the college town I lived in. But this guy knew no boundaries. Everything...and I mean EVERYTHING (food, dishes, clothing, underwear, music, video games) of mine seemed to be his for the taking. I kept finding my stuff disappearing. I questioned him about it, but he acted like he had no idea what I was talking about. So after living there for 1 week, I packed up everything except for my essential clothes and put it in storage. That summer was very long! He even ruined a date I had one night with a very hot campus jock! I wasn't a very happy camper. But I got him back in the end. He moved out a week before me. My name was never on the lease, just his. I just didn't bother cleaning up when I moved out. He lost his entire security deposit (I hope it was equal to the stuff I lost!)
update: Yes, I am a dork...there are only 4 ecards listed. Shows you how much I pay attention!
I originally started a post this night that was super negative. It reflected my day at work...or should I say my double (open to close) shift at work today! :(
But I know negative energy just creates more negative energy and nothing good ever comes from it. So instead I thought I would post about a new DJ's website I found. DJ Earworm (what a great name) does mash-ups of different songs. Some are of only 2 songs, others are of 8 or more songs. And the best part about his website, he has done videos for all of his mash-ups.
This is his newest mash-up (via Towelroad.com), No More Gas. It includes: Rihanna - Disturbia, Kardinal Offishall Feat. Akon - Dangerous, Ne-Yo - Closer, Estelle Feat Kanye West - American Boy, Pussycat Dolls - When I Grow Up, Leona Lewis - Bleeding Love, Danity Kane - Damaged, Madonna , Timbaland & Justin Timberlake - 4 minutes, Lupe Fiasco Feat. Matthew Santos - Superstar, Britney Spears - Gimme More and Flo-Rida feat. T-Pain - Low. Awesome song/video/mash-up job!!!
I am trying out a new comment system. It has quite a few features (haven't really tested them out yet), but the main feature is the threading of the comments. You are now able to leave comments about particular comments without them being lost in the list. Play around with it, add some comments to this post to test it out. Let me know if you like it or not.
And by the way, the new system only applies to this post and any post made after this one. All of the older posts will still be on the original blogger comment system. 
So here goes nothing. This is my first attempt to blog from my phone. I will never get any work done!!!
Right no I am at work. BORED BORED BORED!!!
The night manager was supposed to come back last night to lock up...she forgot! Since I live close...I ended up doing it. Happy Happy Joy Joy
She (the night manager) has become very useless lately. She is unable to answer simple questions. She cannot do her nightly tasks. And she has become super stupid...simple things that everybody knows, she has no clue. She informed us yesterday that she is quitting...she is going to start working at the new place where my ex-boss went. All I can say is "Good Riddance!"
While I hate the idea of having no closing manager again and me stuck closing all the time, I also HATE ignorance and stupidity.
I saw this meme on a couple of different blogs, I thought it looked like fun, so I stole borrowed the idea. How it works: Find five cards from someecards.com that describe you...
So here goes my 5 (ok, I added one more...so here goes my 6!)
The first two are both work related. The first dealing with how overwhelmed it seems at work sometimes.
And the next two deal with my last boss. This is how all of the employees (and quite a few of the customers) felt about him. And sad to say, as a gay man myself, I could never really tell. Many people asked me if he was gay or not, and I just didn't know.
This is basically how most of us feel at work now that he is gone.
This next one so much reminds me of going out with my friends. Our main night to go out is Friday nights. And Lynda, the owner of Ruby's the Clark Bar, her favorite saying is "You motherfucker"...and she means it with love.
And I don't care what anybody says, real men need to have hair on their chests (unless they are naturally smooth). There is nothing worse than a guy that shaves his body hair! 
OH YEAH! Nothing better get in the way of my food! Honestly, I have lost a few more pounds (less than 5) and I have kept them off. My appetite has been pretty small lately, so that is good. But when I am hungry, you better not get in my way!
I was looking around on the net for a weekly meme to do. After all, I am developing a case of writers block...and this blog is going stale (just check out the expiration date!) I ran across this "A-Z Questionnaire", so I thought I would answer it. And be prepared, I found some meme's that I liked, I just need to pick one (maybe two) for the blog.
Very little new to report....life is great when it runs on cruise control. Work has been going pretty good. The new store manager has been working, it is his first full week. The office manager and meat manager are still on vacation, that turns out to be a nice vacation for me too! No major employee crisis this week...just a bunch of minor ones (one is in the hospital again, another one is quitting for the millionth time and a third one got arrested the other day for playing on an abandoned railroad car.) So work is going great.
The weather has been absolutely beautiful for quite a few days now. For over a week, the weather has been in the 70's and 80's with no rain, just beautiful sunny days. It has been absolutely beautiful here, hard to believe it is the middle of August when it is usually upper 90's to 100 and super humid. I could live with weather like this all the time!
I had a weird night on Tuesday. I went out to meet some friends at Ruby's the Clark Bar. A few of my friends are planning a trip to New Orleans at the end of September. (New Orleans is one of my absolute favorite places to visit!!!) So they were asking me if I wanted to go. I would have to pay for the train ticket and meals, but the hotel room is free! So I told them that I would have to think about it. So I told them about my friend Jeff that passed away in 2006. His boyfriend, Drew (who I hadn't seen since Jeff passed away 2 years ago) has an apartment and also owns a bar/restaurant, both in the French Quarter. I said if I went, I would have to look up the bar/restaurant. Not more than 5 minutes after that conversation about New Orleans had ended, Drew walks in to Ruby's the Clark Bar. He came up to me and said hi and handed me a business card for his bar/restaurant in New Orleans. I swear Karma was trying to bitch slap me!
My back is feeling so good, it is scary! Every since I had my shot over a week ago, I haven't been taking my pain killers. I did take them the day after my bad migraine. But that was for the headache I still had, not because of any back pain. But I can get out of bed in the morning without any pain. I can bend over to put socks on and tie my shoes without almost crying. And I can do cartwheels whenever I please...naw, just kidding about the cartwheels. I have one more shot next Wednesday. With all of the relief I got from the last one, I truly believe that the last one will pretty much fix the problem totally! Such a turn-around from the first shot where I was depressed because it did nothing to help with the back pain.
And even though I said I wasn't going to watch any of the Olympics (cause I don't have cable and I don't care for China), I have seen quite a bit of the games. I watched clips of the spectacular opening ceremonies on the internet. I have been over to Douglass's house quite a few nights and watched swimming and gymnastics on tv. And I have seen quite a few different events on the internet. It is pretty cool how technologically advanced the Olympics have become. And I so hope that the 2016 Olymipics do come to Chicago...that would be so freaking awesome!
The gym I used to belong to (yes, I let my membership go since I couldn't really do much working out with my back the way it is), the YMCA finally sold their building. They sold out to a funeral home. Their current location, "The Church Street site has been the home of the YMCA for 70 years. Originally known as the Phillippe mansion, it was built around the turn of the 20th century and acquired in 1937 by a group that formed the McKinley Family YMCA." read the entire article here from the local newspaper The funeral home wants to demolish they building and build a new one. What a waste! The building is a landmark in Champaign. I remember passing by when I was a kid and thinking it was a huge mansion. I didn't realize that it was a gym. While I agree the building does need some repairs/updating, but I do feel that the reason it hasn't been taken care of is because they just want a new building. Currently the Y is located on Church Street, very close to downtown Champaign. Their plans are to build a new building located near Windsor Road and Staley Road. The current location is 3 miles from where I live. The new location is 8 miles. So they added 5 miles to my drive.
The biggest complaint I have about the new location though is the neighborhood that it is in. One of the ideas behind the YMCA is providing services to everybody. They even provide free or discounted memberships for people who can't afford to pay. The location at Church Street was centrally located in Champaign and was very close to some of the poorer neighborhoods. The new location is on the outskirts of town. The only thing over there is lots of corn fields and fancy subdivisions where the average house starts at $200,000 and up. Now which location would better serve everybody?
The Y has been talking about moving for a few years now. One of the reasons for the move, the land was donated to them by some people who wanted the gym closer to them. The Y even had one of the local hospitals backing them in the financing, but that hospital dropped the financing this past year since it had taken over 5 years without any progress. That hospital also just built a new clinic very close to where the Y wants to move. So the Y has been begging the members for more money. They are constantly sending out requests for more pledges from the members. I never cared for that, I already pay more than I wanted to go to the Y. I am not poor, but I also am not rich either. I can think of better ways to spend the $36.50 a month.
I know a lot of the members (while I was still going) were not happy about the move. Most of the people enjoyed the location. The Church Street location has separate fitness centers for the men and women. They also have separate locker rooms for the adults and the kids. The rumor is that the new location will have 1 steam room, 1 hot tub and 1 sauna for everybody to use. I used to enjoy the fact that there were no kids allowed back in the men's locker room, where the men's steam room, sauna and hot tub were located. I know the Y had already lost some members due to the equipment always breaking down (due to little maintenance) and not being fixed.
So when it comes time to find a new gym, I will keep in mind that the Y will be moving soon, to a place not very convenient. They are saying they can stay at the current location until Dec. 31, 2010, but they will be moving sooner than that if they can get their new building built.
Last night I met up with some friends at a new bar in Champaign. The Clark Bar, is owned/operated by the woman who used to run Ruby's, a gay bar at that same location that I worked at for quite a few years. This time she has updated the inside of the bar and made it more lounge like. She is also serving food again, one thing she is very good at. So we met for dinner and a few cocktails. The menu is a tapas menu divided into two sections hot and cold. (Tapas basically means appetizers, but most tapas menus consist of upscale varieties.) I picked 2 hot and 1 cold tapas from the menu. I had the Sesame beef kabob with peanut dipping sauce, roasted eggplant with mozzarella and prosciutto and from the cold side I had the ensalada with roasted potatoes, Gorgonzola, bacon and vinaigrette. The beef kabob and the ensalada were both excellent. The eggplant was a bit on the bland side for me, with only the prosciutto providing a salty taste to the bland eggplant and mozzarella. Overall, I really enjoyed the food.
We finished the night playing cards. Our usual game of cards is Euchre. Sadly, my partner and I ended up only winning one game while the other team won two.
That was the exciting part of the night. By the time I made it home from the bar (at an early 11pm), I was developing quite a headache. I put the bird to bed and quickly ran the dog outside before going to sleep. I woke up at 2am with the worst headache I have ever experienced. I thought seriously thought my brain was melting. I have had some bad migraine headaches before, but this was the worst by far. And as usual, when I get a bad migraine, I ended on the bathroom floor all night. I was still vomiting 6 hours later. Definitely not a record I want to break.
The worst part is that I had to be at work by 7am. And with the store manager, office manager and meat manager all on vacation, there is absolutely nobody I could call in to work for me. LIFE SUCKS! So I bit the bullet, made it to work and got the job done. I called the night manager in early, she was supposed to start at 2, but she only came in 20 minutes early. By then I felt a little better, so I ended up working my entire shift (until 4pm). When I got home, I slept for about 4 hours. I still have a bit of a headache, but that is probably from the fact I haven't had anything to eat or drink all day. I did have a couple of sips of gatorade earlier...I will try and finish that bottle tonight. I am thinking my dinner might consist of something boring and bland, like applesauce. I hate getting sick!
I had the most awesome day today! Yesterday I was in a funky mood (obvious by all of the posts) because of the treatment for my back. But today, I can definitely tell a huge difference thanks to the shots yesterday!!! I honestly feel 1000% better. This morning was probably the first time I have woken up without being in extreme pain since May. I was able to even put shoes and socks on today without having to pull my leg up and cry because of the pain.
On a side note, I didn't go buy me a new piece of Fiesta yesterday. I went to Petsmart to get some birdseed for the the parrot. Petsmart had quite a bit of parrot seeds on discount. We are talking $20 to $25 bags on sale for $4! So I bought her 3 different types of seeds that were marked way down, plus I got her the regular seeds she likes. I mixed them all together and she ate them right up. So I now have enough seed for a few months.
After buying all of those seeds, I was happy with my great deal. I didn't feel the need for Fiesta. Anyways, I am waiting until they get a few more pieces in. The local Macy's has a horrible display of the Ivory. The Bergner's store has a much better display, but still only a few items (place settings, plates, bowls, mugs, gusto bowls, and mini disks.) I already bought a gusto bowl in Ivory (my new cereal bowl that I use every morning.) I thought about a mini disk, but I don't really need another one. I only have about 10 of them as it is. I think I am going to wait for either the pasta bowl/shaker set (which the Macy's had none-zero-nada-zip-zilch of them in any color!) or maybe one of the new individual casserole dishes.
I did notice that Bergner's had a lot of Peacock pieces on clearance the other day. They had 2 bulb candleholders (1 of them was really bad shape, not even a second, more like a third), a huge stack of the small platters (which I don't even know what I would do with them, they are so small) and a few 10" vases. The only thing I would be interested in is a vase, but they weren't that cheap yet...still $25, and that is after their supposed 60% off clearance. I will go back in a few weeks, they might be marked down dirt cheap. I have seen Bergner's mark Fiesta down to 99 cents a piece. I bought a huge stack of 2007 ornaments, a few Valentine's Day plates and some Heather trivets for 99 cents to $1.99 a piece. If the small platters get dirt cheap, I might buy a couple of them. I guess they would be good for placing candles on them. But I would like to get one of the vases for 99 cents! LOL
One more video before I am off to bed. So much posting/writing today, all because I was stuck on the couch all day after the shot. I have another shot in 2 weeks...I guess you can all expect a lot more postings then...LOL
Here is an awesome rant by Keith Olbermann from MSNBC about the stupid Don't Ask Don't Tell policy. Honestly, after listening to what he has to say, how could anybody give a valid reason for DADT??? He starts in about DADT at the 1:18 mark.
Excellent dance remake of an excellent song. Here is Cascada singing a great dance version of Rascal Flatt's What Hurts the Most.
When I moved into my new place back in February, I put a lot of thought into my internet service. I have always used the local cable company for their broadband service, but they had already announced that they were being sold to Comcast, and the switch over from Insight to Comcast would take place a few weeks after I was moving (so in other words, they weren't taking any new orders for service at the time.) My biggest problem with Comcast is the fact that I have heard nothing but complaints (honestly, I have yet to hear anything positive about Comcast) about their cable/internet/telephone service and customer service. Comcast has also been known to screw with the service of people who do P2P file sharing.
So my options at the time were DSL (but I wasn't wanting a telephone landline), a mobile broadband card from one of the cell phone companies or trying to steal borrow somebody's wireless signal. All of those options have pros and cons...none stand out any better than the rest.
At first I was "borrowing" a local wireless signal. The good thing is that I believe that the signal is a free wireless connection for the area. So I wasn't technically stealing. The problem, the signal was spotty where I live (on the edge of the downtown area) and it was super slow too.
So for my second choice, I ordered a mobile broadband card from Sprint. Sprint's prices were the same as the other companies (Verizon or AT&T), so that didn't persuade me one way or the other. But my cell phone is a Helio. And Helio uses the Sprint network, so I knew I got a great signal at the new apartment. The problem was, after I got the card and got it setup....I got the worst internet service I have ever used. The speed was so bad, I couldn't even open any Sprint pages 90% of the time. Yahoo.com, google.com and other popular, easy-to-use websites would only open maybe 25% of the time. The one time I did get the Sprint website to open, I tried their speed test. I ENDED UP WITH A NEGATIVE NUMBER FOR MY SPEED! How in gay hell do you get a negative speed? So after trying that for 7 days with no luck, I canceled that service.
Next up was AT&T DSL. I broke down and ordered local landline telephone service and DSL. Their promotion at the time was good. Free DSL modem, discount service rate for 3 months and a $50 visa card. The only problem, it took me 3 different attempts to get everything ordered properly. The first time, I even took a day off from work, so I could be there for their installation. The window of time they gave me was from 8am to 5:30pm. Wow, thanks for narrowing that time frame down! What really sucked though, I had to call them at 5:30 to find out why they never showed, only to find out there was a problem with my order. Did they ever call me to straighten it out? Hell no. After I called them, it took 2 minutes to get it fixed. My telphone would be on the next morning and I would get the DSL modem within 3 days. fast forward 3 daysNO DSL MODEM! So after another call, I found out they had messed up the order again. They would send the modem out right away. Within 3 days I would get my modem have my DSL service turned on. They offered me another $50 visa card for all of the trouble. I was happy.
I got my DSL modem on the third day. I hooked it up, did the installation and VOILA! I had internet service! YAY!!! I had to get the slowest DSL service they offer, the faster options aren't available in my area. But I was super impressed with the speeds. And back before Insight sold out to Comcast, we had super fast internet, this DSL wasn't that bad considering the much cheaper price.
Now here is where the real fun begins. Sprint wasn't very fast about canceling my service. In fact, for 2 months after the cancelation, they were still charging me for service. I was calling them 3 times a week about this problem. And everytime I would get the run around about how my service had never been canceled. I had been keeping notes (and all of the paperwork they were sending). I even had one of their people tell me that he couldn't belive they had sold me a broadband card because they don't even offer broadband service in my area! WTF!!! I finally had enough when after 2 months they said I have never canceled my service. So one night I spent 2 hours on the phone, I talked to 4 different Sprint people in 4 different locations. By the end of that call, I had my service canceled, I had them change the cancelation date back to the original date of March 5th, I got confirmation that they had received my broadband card (of course I had to give them the UPS tracking number to prove it) and I had been promised that I would be refunded all of the money they owed me. fast forward another monthI STILL HAD NOT RECEIVED ONE PENNY FROM THEM!!! After a few more not-so-nice calls, I was promised that I would be getting a partial refund within a week and I would get the rest by the end of the next billing cycle. They even gave me a dollar amount. fast forward another month I had received the 1 partial payment. But I got another bill showing that I still owed them money. So another set of very-not-so-nice calls, I was told that I wouldn't be refunded the $125 I had paid for the broadband card, because I hadn't paid for it. I quickly gave her the date of the first bill I had received from them that showed that I had paid $125 for it. She then changed her tune to say that I had received either another broadband card or a cell phone in it's place. I asked her why in gay hell would I get another piece of their equipment when 1)I had canceled the account and 2)they didn't even offer broadband service in my area. She had to transfer me to her supervisor, but instead she hung up on me. I made one more call, this time I was done! I got a very knowledgeable person who actually knew what she was talking about. I apologized for having to be rude, but I told her a lot of the problems I had been having with getting a refund for something that had happened 4 months ago. She apologized to me, she told me that she knew their customer service was lacking. And I will be damned, within a week, I had a full refund from Sprint. That took over 4 months to get. BUT I WILL NEVER, EVER, EVER USE SPRINT AGAIN!!!
So back to AT&T (in my long-winded story). After waiting a lot longer than the 8 weeks I was told it would take to receive my 2-$50 visa cards, I still had heard nothing about them from AT&T. So while looking for something about them on their website, I ended up sending a complaint about the problem. I was still a bit upset by Sprint, so I sent a kinda-not-so-nice email to AT&T. Within 24 hours I had received the automated email response. It said I would hear back from them within 48 hours. The next day, I had somebody from AT&T try and call me two different times (I was at work, so I didn't get the calls). But by the time I got home, I had an email letting me know they were sorry for the problem and she had already credited my account $100.
Now who would I recommend? Sprint? I would recommend them to my worst enemy. AT&T? I highly recommend them. Pretty fast service, cheap rates and customer service that actually cares what the customers think. Did you hear that Sprint??? "CUSTOMER SERVICE THAT ACTUALLY CARES WHAT CUSTOMERS THINK" How queer!
To say this back pain has become a pain in my ass would be more accurate. Today I went and had the second of the three shots to hopefully correct my problem. I am hoping this one does a little bit more than the first shot. All the first shot did was add a little bit more discomfort for a few days and then went back to normal.
I have talked to a few people who have had the same procedure done, they all said the first shot did a little, the second shot did a lot and the third shot fixed the problem completely. Even though I knew the first one wouldn't get rid of all of the pain, I have been pretty depressed the past week. I was hoping it would have done a bit more. The whole time I kept thinking I am going to fall into that 25% category of people that this doesn't work for. Of course, the fact that my job really sucks right now and will suck for another 2 weeks, that doesn't help either. So when I got my shot today, the doctor reassured me that I should feel better after this shot works and the third shot will do even more. So I am keeping my head up and hoping for the best. I think tonight, now that I have had to rest all day after the shot, I am going to head to the mall and buy me a piece of Ivory Fiesta. That will definitely help improve my mood!
The new boss started this past week. At first, most of the employees (mainly the managers) were pretty nervous about having to get a new boss. I mean, we are batting .000 with him being the 3rd manager for our store in the past 4 years. We knew that the last one was a pathological liar, but we recently found out a lot of the lies he had been spreading around the company about us. Luckily most people that meet him can figure out pretty quickly that he is a liar.
So when the higher-ups from the corporation were in the store to let us know about the new guy (honestly they were there to check us out, they don't believe that we can run the place without a manager), they told us about William. He has only been with the company for 7 months, and he wasn't even a store manager. But he is very people oriented. And honestly, I don't think he would be capable of telling a lie to us or about us, which already makes him the best manager we have had. He was in the armed forces. He was a Navy Seal during both Iraq wars. And he is a pretty cool guy.
So far in the past 4 days that he has been there, the store looks brand new. Most of the main sections of the store have been reset. The outside has had a total makeover. And a few new (and more dependable) employees have been hired. So far, I am extremely impressed with William. And I believe that he will do great things for the store.
