:)

Is it cheating if I take the survey now?

Yay for you IM. I'm so glad you made the move, and hope you go on to better things.
If you take that road trip and decide for some crazy reason you want to see the Lone Star State, you're welcome here with me.

Breaking rocks in the hot sun
I fought my bro, but my bro won...

Good for you.;)

Good brother there.

yeah, we'll see it's probably been filled.

but good brother? damn straight. i'm making a pun as to his profession but i mean it when i say he's my rock.

today going with him and nephew to future niece-in-law's graduation from phys asst school. :)

Best foot forward now m'dear. It's gonna be a whole lot easier to live without that monkey on your back all the time.

:eyebrow:

hahahahahahahahaha.

Nicely spotted.

my girl wants to
monkey all the time monkey all the time...

;)

yes, i am going to feel so much better.

and good timing: my brother's association participates in a big Earth Day thing, a week long event for kids, all sorts of activities, my bro's being a giant rock dig with all sorts of thing hidden for kids to 'mine' for...all the schools bring little kids. last year i helped on saturday but i can help the whole week this year. it will be sooooo fun!

a) will you cakewalk into town?
b) Amadeus?

You can also have this as the theme song to your brother's dig:

don't forget the Casbah!

Shareef don't like that.

Congrats Shaw. Fuggem' I'm two years ahead of you. lol

Personally, I didn't even realize how bad things were till I was gone. My gos what a fucked yup asshole I worked for.
My stress level is nil compared to what it was. Nope, don't have 2 nickels to rub together and guess what?
I don't give a shit. Nope, not even a little one.

On a related note, my buddy at the old job called last week. We've been getting together for lunch every other month
or so to catch up and shoot the shit. Well he called last Thurs and was noticeably shaken sounding. "Frank" is 60ish and was hired 2 years after me. For a couple years he and I were the only reps for 8 magazines and about 100 accounts. IN-fucking-sane.
Anyway... Asshole ex-boss called and told Frank that he couldn't afford to keep him as there have been so many lost accounts over the last couple years. Since I was fired, they've hired 8 different people to try and replace me; none of them could or would.
So the End result is that Frank has been let go as well. Lemme tell you a little about my buddy "Frank" ... He is a 9/11 survivor who wasn't at work that day because he went to a Doc appt with his wife, only to learn surprisingly that she had cancer. Basically everyone he knew and worked with for decades was killed. He and his wife sold their house and moved down here in PA.
When my son had his accident my family was all at the beach celebrating the 4th of July Holiday. Frank was the first one to come to the hospital. He's like a 2nd father to me in many ways.
Frank has been a rock for me. Hes a calm, quite, unassuming man who was always quick with a hug and somehow made everything better with a simple word or a crack of that wry smile hidden beneath a walrus mustache and eyebrows that tried to hide the glint in his eyes. Kindest man I ever met. A santa-like figure in a dungaree shirt and jeans.

And that fucker fired him. Just like that - no warning. No time to prepare...nothing. Oh, and to add insult to injury, the cancer his wife beat years ago - its back as of last Christmas.

I went to his house Friday. He was out in the yard futzing around with his fig trees. We hung out, had a beer & walked around his house. It was my turn to repay him. Felt really good to give back to the man that gave me so much when I needed it most.

Shaw - one day you will do that for someone else. The stress, the shit, the pain and all will dissipate and you'll help someone else when they need it most. And only you will be able to do it because of the path you've traveled.

Hugzz ... Peace.

Holy shit, I wrote a book.

Yeah, but it's a good book. Nicely put, Classic.