I wasn't going to blog today since I already posted a picture of our new faucet locks. But then I realized what today is. Today is the 22nd anniversary of when I started working at my job. It's an odd anniversary to take special note of but this one seems poignant because I was 22 years old when I started working there. Okay, technically I was like 22 years and 11 months old, but still, this marks the year when I have worked there just as long as I haven't. That's wild.

What could I go back and tell that kid after his first day? I'll never forget getting there in my recently purchased Sears suit, and sitting in a conference room all day learning the most pointless orientation facts. They let us go early, but suggested we all go sit at our desks, set up our new laptops, and fill out some HR paperwork. I had neither a laptop nor a desk to sit at, so I said, "Should I just sit in the bathroom until 5?" Then I laughed and walked out the door and went home.

When my mom got home I was doing the backstroke in the pool and she screamed, "Did you get fired on your first day?!" And I said no, I just ... left. Ha. Although, I just went back to 2004 to read my first blog after starting my job and I said that my parents were out of town and would be until Friday, which kept me from having to answer a million questions when I get home. So either my parents left on a Tuesday or my memory of that day is entirely fabricated. Oh well, I'm certain that exchange took place at some point. But alas, I never did get fired and 22 years later I'm still going strong.

I guess I wouldn't really have any solid advice for me at age 22. I pretty much did it my way and it worked out. That's half charm, half privilege. And it got me where I wanted to be, so I guess I would just give the same advice I always say I'd give if I could time travel, "It all turns out okay."

I keep telling myself I need to be more narrative on my refreshed blog. I used to document the most meaningless things but they are more fun to read years later than anything monumental that I might otherwise remember. So here we go.

Two weekends ago, we drove my parents up to Oklahoma City for our niece Ann Marie's college graduation. She got her undergrad in 3 years with a 4.0 average. That apple fell nowhere near my tree! She is immediately going back to get her masters. So impressed. We stopped at Winstar on the way home and all pooled our money into a high stakes slot machine. I think it was like $30 per pull. After a few pulls, we hit a mildly good reward, doubled our money, and cashed out. I was happy to stop there but after lunch my mom wanted to gamble just a little bit more, so Daniel and I each put a hundy into a nearby machine and promptly frittered away not only our winnings but as much in losses. C'est la view.

Then last weekend, we hung out with the Allistralian. We had a great time getting to know her daughter who is gregarious to say the least. Her husband is addicted to AI, on a level far beyond what I've described. And he only uses it with the microphone like a conversation. And he always adds a ton of extra info. "I am sitting here with my wife and she is giving me a dirty look because she thinks I use AI too much, anyway, how do I heat up a chicken breast?" So funny.

Now we're sitting here wasting time until we can head to DFW for a flight to Sacramento. Now Michael's daughter Megan is graduating high school. We did have a super early flight but then AA moved it several hours later, so we won't have a huge buffer to get there and get situated, but should still have plenty of time without rushing -- IFFF our flight takes off on time. The last time we did this a couple years ago we just sat and sat and sat in the airport until we missed Kelsey's graduation and arrived at like 10pm. So we'll see.

Oh, in other news, we THINK we saw Muffin with a baby. At least we for sure saw her touching noses and letting a baby squirrel climb all over her. If it wasn't her baby then I don't think she would be doing that. We whistled at her to come get a treat, and the baby noped the fuck out of here, and Muffin sauntered over and enjoyed lunch. I wish she was training her babies to come to us so we could get some generational squirrel insurance.

I just got back from a week in San Antonio. I was there to take a training class for work. It was from 8-5 every day in the hotel I was staying at next to the airport. Needless to say I was bored out of my gourd. I took this picture as I was checking out of my hotel room because I thought it rather succinctly summed up my entire trip. People in my training course were kind of laughing at me because I was eating each night at places like Papadeaux's and Applebee's. They thought I should get out and experience the local fare. But I was just like, c'mon, I'm from Dallas. It's not like San Antonio is a foreign country. If I managed to find something uniquely San Antonio it would just be a hole-in-the-wall Mexican place with meat, cheese, and tortillas combined in a variety of ways. So I opted to eat at places I liked, albethem chain restaurants, because it was free. And that made it special.

So I made it through the week with little incident. Last night Daniel and I went with JennyC■■■ to see the new Sex and the City movie. It was fantastic. If you haven't seen it yet, you definitely should. We went to the Studio Movie Grill to watch it so we could get loaded at the same time. But ultimately, the same thing happened to me that always happens there. I end up having to pee so bad by the time the movie's over that I have a hard time sitting still. But I made it through. There was one thing about the movie that pissed me off. And it's not a spoiler, but if you don't want to know anything about the movie don't read this next part. So Charlotte adopted that little Chinese girl, right? And what did she name her? Lily. How many times have I said that I'm adopting a little Asian girl and naming her Lily because I want violin music while I eat? But I also always said that if I had another little girl, I would name her Rose. Not so much because of the obvious floral reference, but because I like the really old-timey names. Okay, so Charlotte has a baby and they name it Rose. So now if I ever by some fluke of nature have two daughters, and name them Lily and Rose, people will be like, oh yeah from Sex and the City. And that will piss me off. So I'm having my tubes tied.

In other news, the Allistralian came back to the states for a visit. She is leaving Australia soon and convinced me that it's now or never if I want to go visit her. So Daniel and I are going to Australia. For REAL this time. No joke. It'll probably be somewhere in the August range. It's gonna be a pretty baller ass vacation, but that's okay because those are the kinds of vacations we need to be taking. I'll keep you all posted on details of that. If anyone would like to go with, the more people we have the easier that 12 hour flight will be. Lemme know. Peace out.

First and foremost, I want to apologize to the 6,734,381 loyal Sidesho-Viewers who asked me how work is. I had neither the patience nor the energy to answer you all individually with the same exact stories so I figured I would wait until I blogged to answer you all at once. It was nothing personal, I assure you. But first, just look at what I've become:

In short, work sucks. It's not like I'm shocked at this fact, I knew it was going to, but DAMN, it sucks. (And just as a side note, any of you that might find it like sweet vindication that I now have to get up at 6am everyday whereas every other job I've had was pretty lenient ... I'm still making like 5X as much as you ... so HA!) We spent the first day in what can only be described as a 9 hour meeting listening to boring person after boring person drone on about company policies and benefits and shit. We didn't get to leave this board room all day ... they even catered us lunch at our seats. THANKS!

To be fair though, there are 16 new-hires including me and everyone is really cool. Unfortunately, I won't be working with any of them, since I was the only one hired on to do any engineering. The rest are quality assurance, energy savings, sales and recruiters. But I guess I will see them around the office. I can kind of tell that they interviewed based upon personality because all of us immediately clicked and have really had fun making jokes about all the stuff we're going through.

Tomorrow I get to dress business casual ... thank g*d! I've been running home every day and throwing my suit on the floor. I can't stand it. My parents have been out of town and will be til Friday, so thats been nice to not to have to answer a million questions every day when I get home. And I found out a new way to take to work that will cut I-35 completely out of my commute, which is great.

I think this job is gonna get better, its just gonna take time. This orientation shit goes on for 3 weeks and I'm in training for at least 6 months. So I don't really know what I do but everyone keeps telling me they're glad I'm there because there's "Lots of work to do!" They won't let me download AIM at work either. Damn. There goes all my fun. But really, its not all that exciting so I have very little to report, but as soon as I get acclimated I'm sure it will be as hilarious as Dilbert!

I made it home once again. I'm only going to be here until tomorrow morning. I'll probably leave shortly after my parents force me to go to church. I got to my house around 2. It only took me 3 hours even to get here, which is a new record for me because I usually don't speed but today I couldn't keep it under 85mph. I had excellent timing because I showed up to find the tilers just finishing up. Everything is in disarray and there's a thick layer of dust covering the entire house, but at least the floor is done. And I'll be gone before they start laying the new carpet, so no workers around while I'm here.

I am getting ready to go get ready to go to KISS Party. I'm really excited. I saw Music in High Places, some program on TV, and the star of it was The Calling. They were playing live and acoustic in Italy. It was really cool, so now I'm even more excited to see them in person. I'll let you all know how it is. And if I meet Michelle Branch, I'm going to have her call Ryan. Later.