Thursday, January 14, 2010

the impossible---DEFEATED (well almost)

Today at 2:00 I decided that I would attempt to catch the 5:05 leaving Union Station DC for Philly with a Matchbox Meat Pizza in tow for the one of my favorite sons, Tails (pictured). Incidentally I have two favorite sons Sean & Taylor.

Since I was at Union Station when I decided this it should have been pretty easy.....right?
I also had to accomplish many tasks between that time and get back to Union with said pizzas.

1. take Metro red line to yellow to Crystal City and get 500 copies of stuff from Kinkos

2. find out that my pre-ordered kinkos stuff was all done in portrait when it was sent to them in landscape....wait an additional 30 minutes. they discount the job by 100.00--it's never about the money people...it's about the people.

3. take metro yellow to pentagon city fashion center mall and have mini conference with store management & order said pizza

4. take yellow to "downtown chinatown" (gosh i love saying that) and pick up pizzas (hey, I ordered one for me too!)

5. take red to union station and distribute some stuff and do some HR and then have a heavy meeting with district manager...it's 4:23PM

6. looks like i might accomplish the impossible, but once again I talked too much and missed the train by literally one minute.....i watched it pull away.

bottom line....we will have pizza and the impossible was almost defeated

once again proving that nothing ----hear me loud, hear me clear---

NOTHING is IMPOSSIBLE!

in one hour the pizza will be served in South Jersey....I ordered the classic Fire & Smoke for me and the Matchbox Meat for the men. I had them cook the pizza 3/4's of the way and we will finish them off.

Thursday, January 07, 2010

Your goverment @ work

Another case of the ridiculous.

On January 6th we received in the mail the local "South Jersey" phamplet outlining the events surrounding me. I thought it interesting that the brouchere; full color, with sponsored advertising and featuring "Fall/Winter 2009-2010" has only one event listed that is still valid. You see this non-profit goverment appointened entity had a few errors to contend with. Poor printing issues, informational issues, staff cuts, computer glitches and so on.

SERIOUSLY.....this is a non-profit entity run by the Tourism Board of NJ and they just wasted serious monies in mailing out an outdated brochure on S Jersey!!! When I called and questioned them on their practices they said; "they had to use the grant money"....what about starving people people? What about lay-offs and other stuff?! You had to use the money to send this out or lose grant money and cease to exist? Go ahead....cease to exist! You are an embarrassment to the citizens and taxpayers of the state of New Jersey. To print this with MY money is ridiculous, period.

Pamphlet dated Fall Winter with two ( I stand corrected) valid events listed. All other events have passed.

The ol' cliche....if I did my job in the for profit world the way you performed yours.....OUT OF BUSINESS!

Monday, January 04, 2010

years months weeks days hours minutes seconds

I was living in the basement of my mother-in-laws house. It was killer cold with insane winds and my wife (nine months pregnant) and I were not necessarily getting along. My wife said it was time and we got in the car and drove to West Jersey Voorhees hospital, down Erial Road in Pine Hill we drove....the Christmas trees out for the trash men blowing in front of the car as we sped to the hospital. It was on this day that Aryn Alison was born. After her birth the hospital staff said I had a "rich man's family", a son; Sean and now the coveted daughter. I certainly did not feel rich.

Today, Aryn, whose eventual AOL screen name was "Aryns a rebel" is 22 years old and she is engaged to who I would consider a family member in "bad news Johnny".

My wife, the mother of Ary is Margaret, and today I am somehow more in love with her then I have ever been. Thank you Margaret Mary; I love you.

The Christmas trees blowing in front of the car, the angst of my wife that night and the day after Aryn's birth, Sean (the first born) seeing and loving Aryn are not capable of any words I could ever put in type.

Time is so precious; so, so precious. Don't ever lose sight of time. Take advantage of the years, months, weeks, days, hours, minutes & seconds for they pass faster then the blink of your eye.
Happy B-Day Aryn A...I love you, dad