Steeler Nation Cont...

It's well past the Superbowl by this point, but I never got around to posting pictures of the chalk drawing of Big Ben and the menu item named after him. There were at a restaurant called the Moose's Tooth which specializes in pretty good gourmet pizzas.

A job with my sleep schedule!

So, after some debate, I've decided to switch to the afternoon / evening shift at work. Not only do I get to sleep in now, which puts me in a better mood all around, but the switch also comes with a 10% increase in pay, which is appreciated =D This actually works out will schedule-wise with Curry's job, too. Her hours have been bouncing around the past week, but normally, I believe she doesn't start until 10 or 11, with one evening shift one Wednesdays, so we get to stay up late together. And if you know us, you know we're not morning people - Creatures of the night, we are.

Good News here. Good news.

So, I'm very proud to report that Curry got the job she really wanted. About a week ago, she was offered a position for evening shifts at a place called North Star. The pay was okay, the hours were okay, and the work was okay, mostly consisting of group work which isn't really therapy from my understanding. However, on that same day, she was offered an interview from a facility named V of A (I'm clueless of what it actually stands for, so feel free to make up your own and send me some suggestions). This job has much better hours, better pay, and she'll actually be doing therapy which also doubles as countable hours toward her ability to sit for license.

She told North Star she needed a few days to decide due to other offers, and being that she wouldn't have started until February 16th, they were fine with that. So, she interviews with V of A and then we played the waiting game. With no word back from V of A, and nearly a week passing, North Star put on the pressure for a decision. Curry accepted the offer of course, being there was no guarantee from the other job. After going through the formalities of signing some basic paper work, they wanted her to have some blood tests done, etc., that she had a week to complete before the start date. This leaves her hanging on a thread because there was still a chance to get the other job, although it seemed dim at this point.

And then the clouds parted.

She receives a call for a second interview from V of A, and she sold herself F.T.W. (stands for "for the win" for you non-gamers out there). She was of course, ecstatic, and landed the job over someone with more experience due to her excitement and apparent passion for the work.

What the *$^#@!!?!

So, I figured I would share my frustration with our shippers. Well, maybe not so much with the shippers, but just the break down of communication with the receiving end. We called again today, and apparently our stiff is still on a boat, and not sitting in the port since the 20th as we were previously told. There are some people that are out on vacation who normally handle the tracking, and the replacements got confused of which container/boat our belongings were actually on.

I don't know, maybe lot numbers are confusing to read?

Anyhow, the staff that normally handles this stuff is back on Monday, when we're supposed to call back. I'm hoping that ship is damn close to docking, or is already here, because I'm rather tired of living like a hobo.

Weekends always end poorly because they start with monday

Ahhh Monday. It's at least 6 good reasons to go home and go back to bed already. So, I'd like to express my apologies for slacking off on updating the blog over the past week or so. The start of the new job and trying to get some exercising in nightly has pretty much wiped me out

This weekend was pretty good (regardless of our stuff still not arriving even though we were told it should be here by saturday so obviously someone was just handing out answers and we're calling back today to raise some hell). We did some shopping on Saturday to get out of our barren apartment, and I ate at my first Mongolian BBQ. It's kind of like a mix between a Chinese Buffet and a restaurant where the Hibachi Chef cooks at your table. There's a salad bar type of area where you can assemble meats, veggies, and sauces together in a large bowl that you hand over to the chef. He then throws it on to the very large flat cast-iron type of surface to cook it up fresh for your enjoyment. Its basically really good, fresh lo mien. There's also a small buffet with your typical chinese food, in case you're still hungry.

Yesterday was fun as well. We went to the Sea Galley / Peppermint Grill (sister restaurant attached to the same building) to watch the game. There was a fairly even mix of Steeler's fans and Cardinal's fans, so it created an entertaining atmosphere. The appetizers were good, and we won one of the raffles to be entered into another drawing (which ended up being a pre-raffle for the real drawing; confused? so were we) for a trip to Mexico.

After the game, we trekked over to my co-workers place, who invited Curry and I over for dinner with him and his wife. We had a great feast and played a game called Settlers of Catan after dinner. I played it once in college, and it's a really great back-stabbing strategy game.

So that was our weekend, and now I'm at work on a Monday, instead of where I really want to be, in a bed. I'll have to get pictures of my car and our finished pottery that we painted later this week.

My first earthquake

This will be a short post, but I thought it would be interesting to share my first experience with an earthquake. Curry and I were in bed still, it was probably anywhere between 6 and 7 am, and while I can't say for sure if the quake woke me up, I was laying there and definitely noticed the bed was shaking. I was still pretty hazy, and wasn't exactly sure if I was imagining things for the first few seconds, but being that the tremors lasted for about a minute, I figured I wasn't hallucinating.

I asked Roger if he noticed anything, and while he said he didn't, we may have only been able to feel it because Curry's bedroom is in the basement. The quake was only a 2 to 3, and from what I could find out, was about 100 miles away.

Here's a link to what I found out about it.

Anyways, it was pretty cool.

Few have cut their strings and risked it all to chase their dreams

I got the title of this post from a song called 'Ants' by Forgive Durden, in case anyone was curious.

So, Curry and I had a date night tonight - we had to get out of the apartment and do something just for fun for a change, since all we have been doing for the past month is either sitting around, packing and unpacking, or running errands. After starting the night off at Wal-mart to pick up a few things, we went to get a couple of sammiches at a deli chain called Schlotsky's; it was a pretty good place. Our original plan was to go see a movie, but now we had a lot of time to kill, so we went to the mall and wondered around for a while before we stumbled across a place called Color Me Mine. It's a paint your own pottery place, and being that it was their 2nd birthday, you got a free mug to paint when you painted another piece. So, after getting scolded for touching the unpainted pieces before washing my hands (apparently oils from the skin get absorbed really easily and paints and glazes don't stick as well) we got to work. It took about 1.5 to 2 hours to finish 2 pieces each, and it was fun to do. We get to pick up our finished works of art in about 10 days (more pictures of the night are in my web album - this mall also has an ice skating in it).

After we finished there, we walked up to the theater and after some debate, purchased 2 tickets to go see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - really good movie. The movie has great actors in it, and in general is just a great fantastical story. It really is one of those movies that makes you think about your life and where you've been, what you've done, and where you may end up.

I think many of us always dream about going on great journey's in our lifetime, but when it comes down to the decision to get up and go, it takes a lot to leave. But once you get over the hump of whatever may be holding you back and say 'Yes, I'm going to do this,' and you end up where ever you end up, its nice to be able to look back and realize that it wasn't so bad after all. And for me, since I've realized that 'wow, I actually did this,' I kind of want to taste more. I'm very curious of where else I may end up in my lifetime, now knowing that anywhere is possible with little more than a decision to do so.