The New Year: Prologue

Well...
The new year is almost here.
What a year 2007 has been! Unfortunately it has become the year that you almost want to forget. If there was a perfect analogy for the year 2007, it would be compared to: Having just woke up from a long night of binge drinking and come to realize that the one night stand you thought was hot...wasn't really hot. And that she (or it) left you a morning surprise in the crotch area.

That in a nutshell is how 2007 has been.

2007 had a lot of those moments that made you scratch your head and ponder..."For real...this is the most important [thing] affecting my life at this moment."

Personally, 2007 was nothing new. No rocking the boat moments. Besides not getting into any of the graduate schools I had applied for (which put me in a foul funk for a while there). I pretty much remained stationary, no new job (working on that), did not move (working on that also). Just stayed the same old Greg.

Now I thought about listing a bunch of New Year's Resolutions...but decided against that. Not because I don't believe in them, only that my New Year's Resolution are always the same every year, with a minor adjustments from time to time. If there are two things that I hope to accomplish by the end of 2008 would be: to travel (preferably out of the country) and win the lotto (which is apparently hard to do).

Well so long 2007...and hello sexy 2008.

Until next year

[photo source]

Christmas Office Party

So last night I attended my work's annual Christmas Party. And no matter how many time I attend these work gathering, I feel always awkward and uneasy. Meeting the owner (and signer of your paycheck), the people who work at the corporate office (who you mostly know through the phone and not face-to-face) and people that you have no idea who they are and where they came from. And on top of that, being the only person of color at the party....whew talk about standing out. hahaha

This year the party was held at the Outback Steakhouse. In previous years we've either dined at a fancy restaurants or had one of the finer restaurants cater us here at the Hampton Oaks Clubhouse, (which of course was transformed into a great dining hall before all the guest had arrived). But going in I thought that it was going suck.

So the party started at 5:30PM and of course I arrived around 6:10PM. I never like being on time to these kind of party, fashionable late....right! First thing I had noticed while driving was that I had forgotten to put the new sticker on my license saying that my tag was update (so basically I was riding around town with an expired tag...and that would suck big time if I got pulled over). When I arrived at the restaurant, I of course went around and did the customary greeting, handshakes, and hugs for everyone that was there and relaxing. The spread of appetizers that they had out was nice (not great but nice): cut up pieces of steak in some mushroom sauce, bang bang shrimp, stuffed mushroom, and other stuff that I don't remember.

And that was pretty much it...well I stand corrected. There was that moment when I felt someone's wife eying me up and down. Talk about Extremely Awkward.

After everyone who was invited arrived, it was like High School all over again. Everyone receded to their little cliques. Which was fine by me, I felt more comfortable chilling with my co-workers that I basically see 24/7. And luckily this time I did not go booze crazy (upon hearing open bar) and had ten plus shots of something. Only thing I had that night was a Jolly Rancher Shot, Pineapple Upside Down Cake Shot, and a shot of Peppermint Chocolate martini.

And now on to the conclusion of the night...

The conclusion of this night had to be what everyone was most looking forward to. The handing out of Christmas bonus. If anything it means alot of things to different people. (i.e., finish up the last of that Christmas shopping, pay off some bills, or save up for some trip). Instead of opening my check at the party I waited until I was inside my car to see what type of Christmas I was going to be having. Suffice it to say...it will be a good Christmas holiday this year.

There's one more office party coming up. Where it will just be us employees at this Apartment complex. We plan on having a pot luck dinner (always like to see what people can cook up) and the Secret Santa Gift Exchange. I have no idea what to get the person who's name I picked, but it shouldn't be hard....Right!!!

Well that's about it.
Hope it gets cold in time for Christmas, would hate to have a Christmas where I'm sweating it out in my apartment.

[Photo source]

Hyping Fear

Seems someone here had an eventful evening.

Around 5:40PM or so last night I receive a call from my sister informing me that her job and the mall was on lockdown. She did not know what the specifics of what was actually happening, only that there were twenty cop cars outside her work and near the mall. From what she knew, was that a "gunmen" was inside the mall. In reality we both came to find out that two kids were fighting and one possibly had a knife while the other kid possibly had a gun and were hiding a good hundred yards away from the mall. Still a threat to everyone's safety.

Some truly scary shit there for a while. Especially since our apartment is close to the Mall.

This is not the first shooting to occur at the mall here in Gainesville. Just a few weeks ago, two men were fighting outside of a restaurant near the mall, when one of them pull out a gun and shot the man in the chest.

With all recent shootings in Nebraska and in Colorado people are starting to feel on edge. I sure as hell know I am. Who wants to enter a mall thinking that might be the last thing you do.

Well hopefully things start to calm down a bit as Christmas draws near. But I have one of those feelings that there will be a crop of copycats popping up. As long as we have mentally unstable people who have this mindset where they believe that there's nothing to live for and that they only way to make an exit is to go with guns blazing. This trend of random meaningless shootings will continue.


Blog entry photo source

Tis' The Season...

...to finally get my lazy ass off the couch and assemble that damn Christmas Tree.

What was taxing about this early Christmas season is that not only did I have to decorate my tree, it seemed I was the only one who bother to take the time and decorate the tree at my work. Besides getting some help stringing up tinsel and ornaments. I had to literally fix up two Christmas tress. Not saying I don't love Christmas tress and what they store beneath its little spindles, just the thought of de-tangling lights and trying to remember where everything went last year drains a person out. And don't forget that come January 1st [or weeks following January 1st], some people will either repackage their trees in the box or lug it outside so it can be chopped up in to wood chips.

Last few weeks I have been literally bummed out. After receiving news from UCF, of not getting into graduate school. I am literally surprised at how introverted I had become. There was a point where I was just going through the days as if I was just sleepwalking, and wanting people to kind of bugg off and leave me alone [kind of hard when you work in an office]. Now with it being December and the thoughts of missing out on graduate school, doesn't infuriate me. I've decided to apply one more time, apply myself study my ass off for the GRE and apply for UF and UCF. If I don't get in this time, well than that's it. I move on to something else. Just have to realize school isn't for everybody and that there are other ways to make a difference in this world than getting your Masters and Ph.D. I do know that I will be looking and scouring very hard to find a better paying job and a new place to move to. If I have to stay in Gainesville, might as well make it an enjoyable stay.

Now with about 18 days of until Christmas. My sister and I have decided to buy gifts for one another, like we did last year. The dollar limit $150.00. I know...a lot to be spending on someone especially if that person is your sister. But she deserves it. Last year she deserved it the most, because she finally started dieting and lost a lot of weight and being an overall healthier person. This year, she gets the prize for not being as annoying as past year and being the few people I actually lean on. LoL [someone needs to come up with something better than LoL...]. Haven't figured out what to get her, thinking a toss up between a PSP, PS2 or something with some wow factor to it. As for me, I know what I want...well more like need. I already have plans to get a new computer monitor and camera with my Christmas bonus money. And plan to put the rest in my saving account which is aptly named: The Greg's HDTV Funds [of which I am a third way there...with plans from my sister to contribute to this account as well].

Well I think this is a good time as ever to end this entry. Below are some before and after photos of the Christmas Tree my sister and I assembled in our living room. The pictures make it look puny when in reality it looks really beautiful.