Spring Break 2012

Hello again everyone (or the few that read this stuff).  It's been awhile but for good reason.

Recently, over Spring Break from college, I traveled the marvelous 14 hour drive from my current position in North Dakota to Colorado to visit my family there.  I don't know if I've mentioned before but my brother (Jason), his wife (Nancy), and my niece (Alexis), live in Colorado Springs, while my sister (Heather) and her husband (Erik) live in Castle Rock.

I thought about writing something while I was down there but I figured I would just wait until another date and not worry about it too much.

Anyway, I had a blast in Colorado, as I always do, and enjoyed greatly seeing my family.

I wasn't really sure what I was going to do this year for Spring Break since last year I had a girlfriend to take along.  However, at the last minute I decided to pack up and make the drive.  In all reality, I enjoyed the drive more by myself than with anyone else.  It gave me almost 28 hours of driving just to lose myself in the music and terrain, which was actually really nice.

When I got to Colorado, it was a pretty relaxed Spring Break.  I didn't have any plans really, since I've seen pretty much all of the "touristy" things down there.  I just packed what I needed and left.  I spent about 5 days a piece at my brother's and sister's houses.  Since it's only about an hour drive between the two it wasn't too bad to drive back and forth.

It was really nice just to sit and relax with my siblings and their spouses and probably the best part, seeing my niece, Alexis, almost the whole 10 days.  She is really something else and definitely never a dull moment when she's around.

Other than that, like I said, it was pretty relaxed.  We went out to eat a few times, my brother and I spent a day at Dragonman's shooting range, grilled outside, played games, and had some good bonding time.

In about a week, the rest of my family from North Dakota, including my other sister and her husband, my mom, and my dad, will be flying to Colorado in anticipation of my new nephew who is due April 5th.  All I can say is, at least this time we're flying.

So in a week, hopefully I will have a new nephew and little brother to Alexis'.  That shall be interesting since Alexis will almost be 2 years old when the new baby arrives.  Trust me, I've asked my brother a few times what he was thinking when they planned that one out.

I'm going to attach a couple of photos from my trip on here and when I get some videos from the trip on YouTube I will definitely link them to a post, also.

For now, it's bedtime...

Coloring the dirt with a stick.

Just like daddy. :)

Sunset from my sister's backyard.

Superstitions

Most of you probably don't know this, but I'm really superstitious.  Along with OCD and probably a list of other things that are wrong with me, but right now, we'll stick to superstitious.  

My last post was the thirteenth post.  (I don't even like typing that by the way.)  I tried to ignore it.  I tried to deny that the number had any meaning whatsoever, but I just can't shake the feeling.

This all started when I was playing high school basketball.  Everyone has some sort of rituals and being in basketball, it was a little more intense than just your morning routine.  It started with free throws.  I've had the same free throw routine since I was a freshman in high school and I'm a senior in college now using that routine when I go play in the gym a couple of times a week.  From the free throw routine, it just kept spreading.  I started to develop other routines also, from tying my shoes before games, what I ate, what I wore, etc.

After I graduated, I didn't have basketball to contain my rituals anymore.  This is where the OCD comes into play.  For those who don't know what OCD is, it's Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.  I've never had anyone with the right college degree tell me that I have OCD, but I'm assuming if they were to hear everything I do, they would probably say I have a problem.

I'm not entirely sure where the OCD officially started, but before I knew it, I had a routine for everything, showering, brushing my teeth, setting my alarm, all sorts of little things.  After that, it developed in other things, mostly aligning everything I own.  For example, just on the table next to me, my pop is aligned, my phone and controller are aligned, and I just shut off the TV making sure it was on volume 11.  I always leave my car stereo on volume 15 when I shut it off, always align my shoes in the perfect spot when I take them off, and well, the list could probably continue for awhile but you get the idea.

Sure, there are times when I wish I could just shut the TV off without worrying about the volume, or set my pop down without thinking about what direction it is facing.  It actually bugs me sometimes.  On the other hand, I don't think I've lost or misplaced anything in at least a couple of years unless someone moved it without my knowledge.  You see, when everything you own has a certain spot you want it and a certain way you want it there, it's kind of hard to forget where that spot it.  Let's take my car keys as an example.  I always put my car keys in the exact same spot.  I know what you're thinking, "well yeah so do a lot of people", but I bet you don't sit there for at least a couple minutes and align all of the keys perfectly and make sure they are flipped the right way.  Yeah, I didn't think so.  

It's not all OCD all the time.  Because I'm very superstitious, it sometimes makes my OCD worse.  There are 13 steps in the house I live in right now, I absolutely refuse, under any circumstance, to step on all 13 steps.  I almost threw out my back carrying my dresser to my room when we moved in because I didn't want to step on all the steps.  I see the number 13 at least 5 times every day.  It may be weird to many people, but I feel better at the end of the day if I don't step on all the steps.

To conclude, I probably wouldn't have posted again so soon, but because my last post was the thirteenth post, I couldn't shake that feeling and needed to post again to get rid of it.  Maybe I'm wrong, and 13 is actually a lucky number, but I'm not going to push my luck.

Some People's Children

Lately, I've grown more and more tired of people.  It just seems like people today are so ridiculously stupid.  Not only that, they don't know how stupid the things they do and say sound.

This strong feeling of hatred I am beginning to experience is based on the kind of people I see and work with at the liquor store I work at.  I mean sure, I see and interact with plenty of intelligent people and actually have conversations with them about what ever may come up.  I guess I'm not entirely saying people I interact with that don't fit in the previous group are stupid by any means.  However, some of them are, others are lazy, and more yet are just annoying.  I'm rambling too much about people tonight, but I am in a rather hateful mood.

There have always been people that just push my buttons, but being the mellow person I am I usually just shake it off and smile until that person is out of sight and then explode.  This will soon change if people don't change.  I mean, a guy can only take so much, right?

I'll throw an example out there of people that just really push my buttons.  There is an older lady, comes in just about every day and buys a 6 pack of beer.  She's nice enough.  It's not that she's rude that pushes my buttons.  What really angers me is the fact that I watch her walk back and forth from her apartment across the street to the bar next door at least 6 times every day.  Once she gets her fill of free drinks over there, she walks into the liquor store and tells me to get the 6 pack for her.  Okay, I'm not a major dick and going to get upset to an older woman for asking me to grab beer for her, but after she pays, she takes the beer, walks back to her apartment, and then usually goes back to the bar.  This lady has to walk at least 20 blocks back and forth from the bar to her apartment every day, and she can't walk 10 more feet to grab her own beer?

Maybe that does make me sound like a dick, but that's fine.  Think whatever you want.  The way I feel though, if you're going to drink beer, you should be able to get it and carry it yourself.

That's just one example of something that "grinds my gears" I suppose would be a good way to say it.

The biggest thing, and when I say biggest, I mean biggest, problem I have with people is one of my coworkers.  Won't mention names, but if he were to read this, he would know who I'm talking about.  This guy is by far the most worthless and lazy person I have ever worked with, if not met in my life.  We all have certain things we're supposed to do every night to close up like mopping, sweeping, stocking the cooler, etc. He usually doesn't even get out of his chair unless he absolutely has to.  This normally wouldn't bother me, be lazy if you want, but when I have to work after him and spend an hour or two doing the work that he should have already done, I have a problem with that.  For example, we got a liquor truck in last Friday, 304 cases worth of liquor.  After working the night shift and putting most of the cases away, there were about 80 cases to put away that Saturday.  This coworker worked the morning shift Saturday, about seven and a half hours.  When I came in at 4:30, there were 70 cases left yet to be put away.  In conclusion, I put away 70 cases of liquor in the same amount of time it took him to put away 10 cases, and probably had twice the customers.

I know this is getting kind of long, but I am just absolutely pissed that I am forced to work with this waste of space and need to say something before I snap, even if I am just typing it out on here.

I don't know what it is about some people, maybe it's just how they were raised.  However, the way I was raised was to work as hard as you can and you will be rewarded.  I don't understand why this worthless, lazy, and rude child is being rewarded with the same pay that I get when he does a fourth of the work I do.

Maybe one day, hopefully very soon, he will get what he deserves, and I will get what I deserve.  Until then, I will try my hardest not to verbally or physically harm anyone (harder than you think some days).

This is definitely my longest post thus far, but I feel much better expressing my frustrations and I know there are plenty of you out there that can relate.