Bye, Curious.

March was a month of reflection for me. It was back in the middle of the month that I had actually started to pen this entry but as several others it went unfinished, waiting for the inspiration to re–motivate me to finish what I had started. While I would hardly call it "inspiration" this time, the motivation unexpectedly returned…twice in as many days.

You may recall the Social Engineering posts from weeks ago, if not, get up to speed with this link, where I wondered about making friends out of coworkers while also struggling to balance the give and take of relationships in general. In Part 2 I had alluded to helping an unbalanced friendship (which upon retrospect I'm not even sure it could be considered one) dissolve. Well, this post is to be the catharsis of that allusion.

Dear Curious,

First of all I want to say that while I've enjoyed talking with you over the last couple years, what we have outside of the workplace is just not working for me. Maybe I'm alone in thinking this, but when 99.37% of all social interactions take place via AIM, that can't really be a solid foundation for something expected to stand the tests of time. Perhaps you've just become too familiar with being on the receiving end of other people's time and attention that you've lost the sight of the concept of reciprocation. Or maybe you're more self-centered than you want people to think and really have no interest in people other than what they can do for you (or in some cases, to you). Either way, my time is more valuable to me now than ever before and since there's no balance between the time I give you and the time you return, I'm going to be putting my time in more worthwhile investments. Don't worry about all the secrets you shared with me; they will go with me to the grave. Luckily I don't have to expect the same of you because you never really took the time to get to know me at all.

Now, I understand that we may run into each other on occasion on the company campus, which could be potentially awkward. It doesn't have to be as I will continue to be acceptably cordial for a workplace situation, but don't expect anything more as I will not from you.

Best wishes sorting out the complexities in your personal life. I suspect you've got a lot of soul searching and issues to come to grips with and while one should never be alone while sorting out such things, I'm resigning from being your go-to gay for such things in order to peruse other options. I apologize that this means that I must also rescind my offer of "always being someone you can talk to" as that may have ultimately been the genesis of the unbalance in our friendship acquaintanceship. But I'm sure you'll be fine…just give it time…people like you always land on their feet (on top of the people they used up along the way). You'll figure out who you are eventually…even if the rest of us already know.

Bye, Curious.

gkr

Wow. I do feel better. Now it's time for a quick shower and shave to meet up with Betty (in person!) for a little cinematic mood lift and good times.

Five of a kind…a shitty hand indeed

Angel is a cheater. How do I know? He played a fifth deuce card tonight on the area shag. My gut instinct is to just roll up the carpet and put it in storage until Angel gets shipped to the land down under. What's keeping me from doing just that? The fear that he'll turn his pooper on my very white furniture and I have a sneaking suspicion that concealing skid marks from a kitty — or skitty marks, as only I would actually refer to them as — would be rather difficult if not impossible. Maybe that answers my question about whether or not to get a pet after Angel leaves.

Oh great and wise blogowebospherenet…what's a guy gotta do to correct this recent recurring behavior and keep kitty from krapping on the karpet? I need your help!

Better understand cats through the eyes of an engineer

Suddenly, it's all becoming so clear! Angel is no longer such a mystery. I just needed a reference I can relate to. But sadly from my own experience "corporal cuddling" is a no-go and "cat yodeling" will ultimately result in the very shredded face of yours truly. Angel is quite good at generating static electricity so maybe that's something worth pursuing, balloons or not. The only thing that I'm really missing now is a video showing how to get engineer TJ to curl up in my lap for some heavy petting, or vice versa… me-ow!

I'm sorry, I thought I would be able to let this go, but I just can't. Bear with me… The decor in the house in the video is going to give me night terrors for at least a month. I hope they somehow make enough money off of that video to afford a complete living room makeover. TJ, you can stay at my place while the makeover is in progress.

He dealt me another deuce.

Apparently my friends are the only ones thinking that my last few posts have been a bit on the overly "deep thoughts" side. And not the funny "Deep Thoughts by Jack Handy" kind. Angel, the feline I'm kitty sitting has taken it upon himself to provide me with new "content." Unfortunately this content is in the form of a deuce on my carpet. While I haven't been keeping an official tally of how many deuces this makes—I'm not exactly a card counter from MIT—I'm pretty sure we're at +4. I'm baffled by his fondness of playing the deuce on the shag carpet, as it would seem to be the exact opposite of his litter box, but maybe that in and of itself answers the question. I've been very good about making sure his litter is as clean as a litter box can be checking it before I leave the house in the morning and then immediately upon returning home and once more before going to bed. But tonight baffles me because he had minutes before used his litter box to tinkle in, so why, moments later would he decide that he should dump a massive deuce on the carpet? And why does he seem so damn proud of his action? Needless to say the moniker Angel is once again proving to be anything but. Hopefully we're now out of deuces in the poop deck. You're not going to hear me say shuffle up and deal, that for sure. Here's hoping he'll only be playing high cards from here on out.

Does anyone have any suggestions, short of sewing up his poop shute, on how to reverse this increasing pattern? I'm getting worried that he's going to start pooping elsewhere, like my hard-to-clean furniture.

Hey Universe, whatcha doing?

I don't think I'm alone when I say that the Universe is up to something. Within the past days and weeks, I've felt like things were slightly off. You know, like when your folks go out of town for the weekend and you throw a kickass kegger for all the popular kids in your school but somehow words gets out and everyone—and I do mean everyone—shows up and trashes the place leaving you to return everything to the way it was when your folks left, but even though you do your best it's never exactly the way it was before and your parents, while not sure exactly what, can just tell that something is different. That kind of off is what I'm talking about. Don't get me wrong, I'm not likening the Universe to a one of the guys from Weird Science, nor Kelly LeBrock. If anything the Universe was the nerdy kid that hung out at the Library on weekends and put together puzzles with his parents at Friday nights in their wood paneled rec room while drinking Like cola and snacking on Ants on a Log. But I digress…and not a moment too soon. In talking with other people, similar observations have been shared. One of my favorites is that the Universe is correcting itself. I like the thought of that, it gives me hope and a sense comfort that justice has a chance to prevail after all. Unless it's just fucking with us.

What about you? Have you felt a skew and shift in your Universe? What would you like the see the Universe help correct in your existence?

Sometimes it's the little things

Sometimes it the little things — like making someone smile so big their eyes look swollen shut — in an otherwise exhausting day that gives you a reason to come back again tomorrow.