Mild Amusement

(I was originally going to make this part of the last post . The "Open Bar" and "Closing the Bar" symmetry would have made for a good title, I think. Alas, the last post was long enough as it was, so I separated the two. Anyhow, on with the actual content ... ) For some reason, it seems like there's always at least one friend that I haven't seen in a while, and I need to catch up with that person. The usual fix for this is dinner and/or drinks. It's a tried-and-true solution; you have time to chit chat & figure out what's new with that person, and the food and drink help to keep you entertained as you do so. I happened to have a friend who just came back from a stint on the East coast, so dinner and drinks was the plan. Of course, things got interesting during the course of executing that plan (otherwise I wouldn't be blogging about it). Actually, the original plan was just drinks on Saturday night. However, said friend had too much t...

I don't get home past 3AM very often. Even if I'm out drinking or what not, bars & clubs close at 2AM, so I'm usually in before that time. The few times that I have gotten home that late, though, it's been completely unintentional. I don't think I've ever once tried to be out that late. Well, this last time was no different. I was going to hang out for a bit, and then meet up with a friend afterward. Somehow, that turned into me getting home at 4 in the morning, with plenty of mildly amusing stories to tell (and blog about). I started off this latest escapade by watching some live mixed martial arts (MMA) fights at a club. Yes, you read that correctly. There's some company out there that organizes MMA bouts in actual night clubs (for those of you who know anything about MMA, they're associated with StrikeForce somehow). If you think about it, it's not a bad idea. The MMA demographic usually consists of 20-something year old guys, th...

Every year, my company participates in United Way's Week of Caring . It's a good cause, and it's an excuse to get out of the office, so I usually agree to help out. I'll let you decide which of the two is a bigger motivator, but if you pick the second one, we need to have words. Anyhow, this past week was the Week of Caring. There is actually quite a bit of work that needs to be done before the actual event, so every project is assigned a coordinator. Really, it's a sensible way to make sure that the organizations we work with get the help they need. One interesting side effect of this system, though, is that the project coordinator is now a position that gets recognition/exposure. As a result, the various clubs & employee organizations try to show a presence by snapping up projects, putting their people in the coordinator positions, and then filling the project slots with their people. The newbie club is no different, so they scooped up three projects...

A friend of mine recently posted a Facebook status message that said, "if you like it, put a ring on it, don't be mad once you see he want it ... just trying to be subtle." I get that she was trying to be cute about it by quoting a Beyonce song (I'm not linking to the music video because I think it's goofy - Beyonce spends half the time waddling like a duck). But really now? Normally, a well placed smiley can let you get away with all sorts of ridiculousness because you can play it off like you're joking. In this case, not even one of those smileys with the tongue sticking out could save that comment. If you said that sort of thing out loud in the company of two or three people, you'd probably get at least one odd look. Heck, if I was one of those people, I'd give you two stink eyes just to make a point. I have no problem with you wanting more out of a relationship, but that's something you work out with the other half (if that ratio is a...

If you've been reading this blog for a while now, you know that I've been running quite a bit lately. And not surprisingly, that running has provided some health benefits. A friend of mine actually used the word "svelte" to describe me the other day (then again, someone else said I lost a bunch of muscle mass, so it's not going to my head anytime soon). To me, though, the most noticeable change has been a different metabolism. I drink a lot more water, I get hungry more often, and my appetite has picked up. Now that's all well and good if you're consistently running, since the caloric expenditure and the extra caloric intake balance each other out. If, on the other hand, you've been a) lazy, b) busy, or c) sick lately, this can pose a problem. Want to guess which of the three apply to me (hint: no matter what you guess, you'll be right)? I haven't slowed down the running enough to the point where I've lost all of the running benefi...

Before the weekend started I knew I had a good amount of work to do On Tuesday I have some code due, plus home improvement projects anew I figured I had four days free, and I'd finish everything easily But the plans of mice and men fall apart every now and then A few of us started the weekend early we wanted to kick things off merrily the plan was dinner and drinks, but with glasses filled to the brinks after the second round of clinks it turned into a round of "what Sam thinks" I went to a couple of birthdays, one for a friend traveling a ways we're parting ways, so I wanted to raise a glass and send him off with a toast of praise The other friend I've not seen for days and she ended the night in a drunken daze I met up with some college friends it's been too long, so to make amends, we continued the weekend's trends with drinks of alcoholic blends All in all, I had my fun a good reminder I'm twenty some but my tasks were mostly left undone (I did mak...

In many sports, they tell you to learn to be ambidextrous to a certain degree. Basketball players are taught to dribble with both hands, soccer players learn to kick the ball with either leg, fighters learn to throw punches with both hands, etc. Since most people have a dominant hand, accomplishing this feat means that you have to put in extra work to get your weaker, "off" hand to the same level of competency as your dominant hand. Apparently, this is a useful skill to have in all facets of life. I discovered this fact this morning when having breakfast. There's a new kid floating around our house for a couple of days (my mom is substitute-caring for someone), so I was playing with her a little bit. It was time to eat something, though, so I sat at the table for a simple breakfast: orange juice, slice of bread, and an avocado. The little girl looked bored, so I scooped her up to sit in my lap. It kept her from wandering around aimlessly and pulling off random m...

I'm not entirely sure how it happened, but I think I've become a health nut. It was a gradual descent into madness, to be sure, but it happened nevertheless. Somehow, I went from being the kid who'd eat anything (did you know the 5 second rule applies on the beach?) to being the guy who washed his organic apple before biting into it. I blame three people, really: the guy who I used to take kickboxing with, Michael Pollan, and my mother. Had it not been for them, I probably wouldn't be in the predicament in which I currently find myself. With apologies to Robert Frost, I should've taken the path more traveled. *sigh* Anyhow, I think the first sign of my impending fall was that I started taking a CrossFit class. Now, it's not a full-blown CrossFit class, because the gym people would have a heart attack if they saw me bailing out on a lift/snatch. They're really big on safety at work, so they'd frown upon that kind of a workout. Also, legit Cro...