Loyalty and Trust

I'm a huge believer in loyalty and trust, in all walks of my life ... the place I work, people I referee with, my friends, and even the people that I have showing me houses and working up my loan information.  Loyalty and trust are two character traits that I have, and I don't believe it's too much to ask for others to perform the same way.

That's why I've lost faith in some of the influences in my life recently.  After being at my company for 11 years now, I've had my job taken right out from under me and have been put back into a job that I did 4+ years ago.  I understand that I shouldn't be complaining too loudly ... I mean, I still have a job, however in no way, shape, or form is it what I want to be doing with my life and in all honesty it's really a step backward in my career progression.  So, after 11 years, at the same place, I'm looking to move on.  Somewhere new, where I can create and be helpful.  Since it seems like people here believe that someone with no experience is better than me.

If you read this blog at all, I'm sure you fit somewhere into my life.  I don't mean this as some sort of warning shot or anything like that.  If you read this, then I'm certain that you can work with me and I thank you for being loyal and trustworthy.  Which is why I'm telling you first that I'm moving on with my life.  A new house is on the way, and hopefully a new job is not very far away from that.  A new chapter will be written soon enough, and knowing myself ... it'll all be bullet point thoughts.

"Years of loyalty and trust can't be gained in one week, but it can certainly be lost."

Greatest Trip Ever (Remix)

Well ... I've made it through the greatest trip ever, and I've lived to tell about it.  All in all, it was a good trip.  I think we used enough Bullfrog to make the French mad, and the black speedo was a fantastic success.  I think the remix should just be a list of thoughts ... since that's far easier for me.

1. Topless women on the beach:  Some of these topless women are hot ... and I mean really really hot women ... and some are not, however it's not really that big of a deal.  I've seen it before and I'll see it again.  Thank you for pointing out every girl sunbathing without a top on.
2. Resort Club Music:  I understand that I'm in another country, and I understand said country might have their own type of music that they listen to.  However, when the only person that likes all of the music being played is the DJ ... someone needs to be fired.  I could have run a better club using a tape player.
3. Champions League Final:  I did have a lot of fun watching the ManU v Barca Final, in another country.  It also helped that we could have cared less who won the game, so no yelling at the TV was involved.
4. Asshole Americans:  At a resort like this, it's very easy to see why people throughout the world think that Americans are assholes ... we are.  I mean, not all of us are, but the vocal assholes are louder and believe they expect things for being American.  I knew it, I'm surrounded by assholes.
5. This is more of a story and less of a thought.  So, on the night of the wedding (the reason I'm on this excellent adventure) ... I decide that I'm drinking enough to see if I can get hungover.  I rarely get hungover, and nobody really knows how this happens.  So we start as soon as the wedding is over, champagne, red wine, more red wine, rum and coke, and a select group of people are left over late into the night.  At about 2 or 2:30am, the four of us decide to head to the "open all night" cafe ... where we find we're the only ones in the place.  A botched answer to the question "Do you want champagne?" turned into bottles of champagne being opened and the idea of staying up all night.  Since this is a far better option that actually waking up to take pictures of the sun rising, I say I'm in and turn back into the room to get my camera before sunrise.  At 5am we leave the cafe, take to the pier to get pictures and celebrate the rising of the sun.  By 6am, we're back to the cafe and drinking mimosas ... I mean why not, we've been drinking for 12 hours.  It was this moment that I remember I committed to playing soccer at 10:30am.  I head back to the room, drop off the camera, grab soccer playing clothes, and change out of the wedding clothes and into soccer clothes on the field.  I'm ready to go.  Somehow I didn't throw up and I wasn't hung over.  A fun night ended without a hangover, and there certainly won't be a hangover part 2.
6. French Lesbians:  I can't wait to see how many people find the blog because of those 2 keywords now.  Well, the story goes like this -> I asked my friends to scope out the landscape and see if there was anyone to talk to at the resort.  Since I can't get a girl in Maryland to return a phone call or a text, even after asking if she wanted to go to a concert with me because of an extra ticket ... I thought another country might be my way to go.  My friends did a great job too and found a couple girls that didn't have any guys with them ... great success.  The first night I'm on the island leads us to drunken ping pong, and it just so happens these girls are there also.  I figure that I can't lose anything by trying, and ask them if they need anything to drink since I'm heading to the bar.  The girls aren't very responsive and tell me they don't need anything ... this is right before they start speaking to each other in French.  My high school teacher would be proud that I even understand that it was French.  Well, a little bit of time goes along and the girls end up leaving ... arm in arm, and one with a full on ass grab on the other.  Should I be happy that my friends tried to hook me up with French lesbians?

All in all, the trip was fun and there were a lot of places I could take pictures.  I put together about 525 pictures over the week, but this is before paring them down and figuring out that a lot of them look exactly the same.  Good thing I have a ton of pictures to remember the greatest trip ever.  I now look forward to heading to the NHL draft at the end of the month ... which is in Minnesota, so obviously can't be anywhere near as fun as this trip just was.

Greatest Trip Ever

Well ... the greatest trip that I will ever take comes up a little less that 10 days from now.  I'm hoping it's all that it's being made out to be.  There should be a lot of awesome places to take pictures of giant checker boards, people on the beach, and sunsets.  It's awesome that I can eat whenever I want to, and eat great food prepared by someone else, and drink beer or soda or bottled water whenever I want to ... without having to pay any more than I've already paid.  It should be cool that I can hang out on a beach and play soccer or read a book or take pictures of the clear blue water.

All that should be sweet.  Don't tell anyone, but no matter if I meet the girl of my dreams or end up with a week long sexual romp with some girl that I'll never see again down in the Dominican Republic ... in no way, shape, or form will this trip be any where close to my trip to the Mediterranean.  Sorry.  I understand that a lot of people are all sorts of pumped up for this trip, and "it's the greatest trip you'll ever take" since everyone I know is married and are planning on having kids at some point soon.  I'm not ... on either account.  It's not going to be the greatest trip I've ever been on ... and I'm sorry to say that it's not going to be the greatest trip that I'll ever be on either.  I have a lot more fun planned in trips to England, back to Sicily, or NHL drafts than I do for this week long "vacation".

The good thing is that I got in when the getting was good.  This week long excursion to another country doesn't cost me anything more than going down the ocean would cost for a week over Memorial Day weekend.  Sure, I could have used the money for house stuff ... fixing things up or creating something amazing once I buy my own place ... or going on a trip that I wanted to take.  At the end of the day though, it's not really the money.

I'll check back in once I'm back, that way everyone can read about the greatest trip I'll ever take.

Maybe I cared?

"I'm not exactly sure what happened" seems to be the theme of 2011, at least so far this year for me.  There have been two big utterances of this phrase, and it's probably been used in passing at other times.

I write this morning after the Caps season has come to an end.  They played well through their first round dismantling of the New York Rangers, however never really showed up for Round 2.  Maybe it was the weather ... maybe it was a team familiar with their style ... maybe it was a hot goalie ... maybe it was a trap system.  I'm not exactly sure what happened, but getting swept from the Stanley Cup Playoffs wasn't what I envisioned.  At the end of the day, I didn't expect the Caps to win the Stanley Cup this season.  Nor will I ever expect the Caps to win the Stanley Cup.  That's for the more brazen or more entitled fan bases out there ... or even the other 85% of the Caps fans now.  It's not for me.  But maybe, just maybe, I started to care.  Maybe I made time to watch the games or maybe I cheered a little louder than I really wanted to.  Maybe I started to believe something good could actually happen.  At the end of the day though, all I did was believe in a lie.  I should have listened to my own advice.  I shouldn't have cared about an outcome that I can't control at all.  Maybe I should have just learned from what happened to me earlier in the year.  Maybe I should have realized my "she's doesn't call back" analogy was spot on.  But where's the fun in that?

Playoffs? Playoffs?

Here we go people ... the 2011 Playoffs start, for the Capitals, on Wednesday.  The Caps are playing the Rangers again, in a rematch of a 7 Game thriller from a couple years ago, and I refuse to care.  Don't get me wrong, I'll watch the games, just like I would any other Caps game.  I refuse to make time for the games, employ superstitions, like I would in previous years, or live and die with how this hockey team plays in the 2nd Season.  I just don't care.

My reasoning for this ... everything that I have started to care about in 2011, has just fallen apart without even a peep as to why it happened or how I could have prevented the crash.  The nervousness stage has kicked in without a problem, but as soon as I start to feel like something good could really happen ... boom.  Like a Gregg Olson curve ball, whatever it was fell right off the table.  There's just no need for me to care.  I might start caring in a month or so, if the Capitals figure out a way to get a couple rounds into the Eastern Conference playoffs.  Maybe I'll make time for the games, but I just don't see myself pouring my heart and soul into anything right now.  Disappointment has been far too close behind caring for the first 4+ months of this year.  For me, this has been a successful season for the boys in Red, White, and Blue.  The Capitals started out on fire, went through a rough stretch with the HBO cameras in tow, they changed the way they played hockey ... no more of the "run-and-gun offense" and a bit more of the "shutdown defense", they won the Winter Classic, started winning games after the All-Star break, and ended up winning the Southeast Division and the Eastern Conference, again.  Players like Marcus Johansson, Karl Alzner, and John Carlson have grown up right in front of my eyes ... and the additions of Jason Arnott, and Dennis Wideman have paid huge dividends after the trade deadline.  This has been a successful season.

What's going on?

So, I guess now is as good as any time to come back around and write some musing thoughts into the interwebs for people to read.  Things have not been good, personally, over the past month or so.  I'd be lying if I told you they were.  I just don't understand how someone reaches a point that he/she just won't return a text or a call or an email any longer.  I don't think I'll ever understand it either.  The analytical side of me fucking hates it.  I don't have a reason as to why it happened, which makes it very hard to learn from this experience, and I don't have any closure, which in some respects kills me more than just the ending of things.  Honestly, I'd get more out of "you're just not tall enough" than not talking to me at all.  I'm lost trying to figure out the process of how it got to that, however I'm certain that I did something.  Cause and Effect right.  Like I said before, there are things that I just know nothing about.

For something happier though, the Caps have been playing well throughout the month.  The trade deadline, earlier in the month, was huge for the team.  GMGM picked up some key pieces, in order to plug holes, and bring in leadership for the playoffs.  Plus Jason Arnott has a huge head, which the HD tele has to add 10 pounds to.  The team seems to be coming together quite nicely ... now everyone just needs to get healthy.  Playoff hockey starts in 3 weeks or so.

You know what else is in about 3 weeks?  Stachefest 2011.  An annual event of mustaches and 80's clothing to raise money for charity.  This year my brother and I are bringing back the melodic tones of Simon and Garfunkel, for one night only.  We might have to work on some "Bridge over Troubled Water" in order to give the crowd what they're really looking for.  Also, this will be the first event that a photo book that I've created will be sold.  "Baltimore in Black & White" will be auctioned off at Stachfest 2011, which is pretty cool.  I'm also being paid to take pictures, for the first time.  I have to start somewhere right?

So, I hope all is going well for everyone.  Until I talk to you ... good morning, good afternoon, and good night.

Waiting

This lyric sheet basically sums up most of my thoughts right now.  I find it frustrating that there are still things in life that I just don't have a clue about.  I don't even mean Quantum Physics or Space Travel type of shit either, things that you actually need to be smart in order to comprehend.  Just life escapes me sometimes.