I’m having the most delicious breakfast I’ve had in many moons. Rather than get my normal, pre-made fruit cup from the cafeteria, I went to the fix-it bar and made my own fruit salad consisting of loads of watermelon, red grapes, strawberries and peaches. Mmmmm. It cost me $8, which is more than twice as much as the fruit cup, but I got a lot more of what I wanted, rather than a bunch of that cantaloupe/honeydew crap. Besides, I’m really happy this morning, so I’m celebrating.

Let me explain what’s been going on in my life lately…

Kickball

The spring kickball season fizzled away. We had some division on our team, caused mainly by one player (who I’ll refer to as “Princess”). Princess didn’t tolerate the failings of other people on the team. She tried to organize others to shut certain players out. And they did, because they don’t know any better and a lot of the guys just want to please the pretty girl, because they’re Frontline guys (no further explanation necessary). I admit that I was under her spell at the beginning of the season, but after the night of my car accident, I saw things more clearly. I stopped listening to her complaints and made an effort to extend my hand out to the people who she injured with her gossip and backstabbing. The rest of the season was a downer, and I just road it like a low wave, because that’s what a captain has to do.

Once the season was over, I made every attempt to orchestrate things so that she wouldn’t play for Frontline in the fall. She took the hint and joined another team. Thank God. Unfortunately, the damage had already been done, and hardly any of the members of the spring team are returning in the fall. We only have 4 returning players (out of 26). But that’s okay, because we already have 11 brand new players signed up. We’re basically starting again, but with the knowledge I’ve gained from the past season. Things will be different in the fall. For starters, I recruited an awesome Co-Captain, who is adamant about helping me make the team completely ministry-focused. I’ve asked him to take the lead in getting our team to interact with the other teams on the field and at the bar, since they were such snobs last season. This Co-Captain is very social, funny, and a proven Frontline leader (he volunteers at The House in Anacostia everyday during the week). His presence on the team alone assures me things will be better next season.

I made mistakes last season, as well. I was too focused on reaching out that I left my team behind. I barely sat with the team at the bar, because I focused solely on socializing with the other teams, which is the whole point of having a Frontline athletics team, in my opinion. Not to hangout and socialize amongst ourselves. I thought the team would take the hint eventually, but they never did. And now most of them aren’t coming back. I’m sure I’m partly to blame. Lesson learned. But I’m not sure what the remedy is.

Another downer to end the season was my latest stalker. Someone from another team asked me about Frontline, then said she wanted to attend. I invited her and gave her my contact information. She came to church, then proceeded to bombard me with IM’s the next several weeks. It got so bad that I stopped going to Frontline a few weeks just so I could avoid her. She wouldn’t go to church, if I wasn’t there for her to sit beside. I finally called up one of her friends (that girl Jenn, who I had the hots for back in March), and told her to get stalker girl off my back. Things quieted down after that call. Good girl, Jenn.

Even though I had a fever & had stayed home from work for two days straight, I played in the kickball All-Star game on Tuesday night, because I couldn’t let Princess usurp the leadership of the Frontline team in my absence. I showed up, played well, and accepted our team awards at the bar afterwards. I left immediately after the awards ceremony, because at that point, going to see a movie was more important to me than kickball. And so the season ends.

Movies

Prior to this month, I had only seen one movie in 2005. It was The Ring 2, which sucked balls. This month, I’ve already watched three with another one coming this weekend. Batman Begins was totally amazing. Land of the Dead was totally dumb. And Sin City was pretty darn cool. I’m considering leaving work early today to see War of the Worlds.

Work

I was starting to worry about work this month. I’ve been without a manager for a while now. I technically report directly to the director, which seems really weird. I can never actually meet with the director, because she’s always busy. Everyone else on the team is having their group meetings and fire drills, while I’m just floating around doing what I’m doing and volunteering to help out with more and more stuff. It’s kinda sweet, but I just feel really lucky. I just volunteered to help the team out by tackling a “big project,” which took me all of two hours yesterday to accomplish. Now, I gotta find more stuff to do.

Education

My father offered to pay for his kids’ education, if we wanted to go back to school. It’s kind of his farewell gift before he retires. I didn’t hesitate to accept his offer. I am now in the process of studying for the GRE and applying to George Mason University for a Masters degree in E-Commerce. Not only will it be fun to go back to Mason, but the degree will really push up my salary. I’ll be learning stuff I can use immediately at work.

In addition to going back to school, I will be dedicating nights in the summer and fall to go through training in the following subjects: PHP web development, Flash MX 2004, Photoshop CS2, and Premiere Pro 1.5.

I’m forcing myself to learn digital video editing with Premiere Pro 1.5 by already committing to post video highlights on the Vienna kickball website during the fall. I’ll basically be doing a 3-minute music video each week, which is kinda like what I did back in junior high—only on a PC. I can’t wait to start working with that stuff. I just need to find a really cheap MiniDV camera.

Girls

I met my future wife* at Frontline last Sunday. We manned adjacent booths after each service and had a lot of time to talk. I said she should join the kickball team. She said I should join the InStep dance community. I told her dancing wasn’t for me. She said kickball was for kids. I told her I wasn’t coordinated enough to dance. She said there are lessons beforehand. I said I’m already overcommitted with kickball. She said I should still come. I said I didn’t have a partner. She said she’d dance with me. ‘Nuff said.

*Am I joking?

Withdrawal

I’m doing my Spring-cleaning a little late this year. I’m clearing out many of my possessions. I’m dropping various superficial social events (mostly kickball-related) off my calendar. I’m clearing out my tasks list by getting them done or dropping them completely. I’m clearing out my mind. I’m clearing out my body (I haven’t had a drop of alcohol since the accident).

I’m dedicating the month of July to a small number of things: GRE, weightlifting, eBay, video editing. Life will be very simple. Go to work, go home, and do one of these four things. Every day. For one month. Then come back in full force in August.

This kind of clarity makes me very happy. And that’s why I’m celebrating today. Everything is good. And that’s a great way to end a really tough month.

I was reading the latest issue of Cargo, and they mentioned that, if a guy wants to wear sandals or slippers in public, he should really get a pedicure. So, after work, I stopped by the NAILS place right by my house and inquired about getting a pedicure. I was expecting to make an appointment, but they had someone ready to serve me right then. Embarrassingly, I took off my warm socks and shoes and hopped into the chair. The next half hour was mentally uncomfortable, but physically soothing. The woman did all kinds of fun things to my feet, including buffing the nails, massaging my feet and calves, and dipping each foot into really hot wax. I was more curious than anything—and carefully watched everything she did. After she was finished, she tried to talk me into getting a manicure, but I was running late for the kickball board meeting—plus, I wasn’t yet willing to be totally gay and get my finger nails done—so I declined. I’m willing to admit that my toes were a little scary, so it made sense to get the pedicure. But my fingers are totally okay, so forget the manicure. Regardless, I thought the place was really nice, and I might go back for more feet jobs, as well as possibly a full body massage. I gotta tell ya, there were several attractive female customers in there, and they all seemed to be pleasantly surprised to see a guy come in. Maybe next time I’ll be able to chat with them about the latest Hollywood romances and other stupid shit.

My manager was a pushover. She would do whatever the business/page owners would demand. She eventually got canned.

Now I’m in charge of the Products & Services section of Nextel’s intranet.

One of the business owners (who we’ve had a problem with many times before) came to me today, demanding something for his page. I told him “no,” so he bypassed me & went to IT to demand they do it. They backed me up & told him “no,” as well. So he came back to me and threatened to pull his page from the intranet, if I didn’t do what he asked. Without missing a beat, I told him it’d be very easy to remove his page, so just let me know when he decided for sure. He didn’t like that answer, so he stormed away.

I knew there was no way in hell he’d pull his page, because his boss and the VP would have his head. Not only that, but I don’t care if he does pull his page, because I don’t give a crap about his content and it’d be less work for me. He’ll just have to explain to the VP why his area isn’t represented on the intranet.

The moral of the story is… Maybe you could get away with childish ultimatums with my old manager. But now I’m in charge. And I will always call your bluff. Jackass.

I think it’s time for a journal update. It’s been about a month. Let’s see now…

I’m currently driving a big-ass Dodge Ram truck, while my new car is at the dealership getting all pimped out. I’m making a point of running over as many potholes and road carnage as I can in the Ram. It’s fun buns, let me tell you. I feel like such a redneck. I blasted Shania Twain via my iPod on the way to work this morning. People look up at me and see this art fag in all black acting like a hillbilly. It’s great. Where’s my Skoal?

I’m taking on more responsibility at work. It’s basically another promotion. Good times.

The playoffs have now started for my two kickball divisions. I play a first-round game tonight with Your Team Bites. We’re going to get crushed. The only reason I’m going is to hit on chicks. Next Tuesday is the first-round playoff game for Frontline. I think we’ll win, but it will be a challenging match up. If you want to come out and support us (and take pictures & video), it’s on Tuesday at Nottoway Park at 7 PM.

There will definitely be two Frontline teams in the fall. One in Vienna on Tuesday nights and one in D.C. on Saturday afternoons. The D.C. division is going to be great, because they play on the Mall, between the White House and the Washington Monument. I’m looking forward to playing there, while tourists stop by and watch.

I haven’t played WoW (World of Warcraft) since Memorial Day weekend, but I reeeeeeeeeeeeally want to play all the time. I bought Doom 3 this past weekend, but haven’t had time to play. I need more hours in my day.

I’ve been to the doctor a lot the past two weeks. I’m getting absolutely everything taken care of. Today, I got a little growth removed from my neck. I also may have to get physical therapy on my left pinky, because I sprained it in March, and it’s still swollen (but definitely not broken). I’m also having trouble with my cholesterol again, but not my blood pressure. It’s like a seesaw. Hopefully being on Atlkins will fix both. It takes a couple months for the changes of Atkins to show up in a blood test. I’ve lost 15 pounds in the past couple months and continue to lose weight. When I get checked up again in August, I should be quite healthy.

I have pictures from Julia’s birthday party in PA last weekend, but I haven’t had time to edit/post them yet.

Lots of other stuff is going on, but I’ll post about them, when they happen.

Rock on.