Little things that cheer you up.

[Pillfred]

So when I was 13/14 my best friends at the time sat me down in and told me that I'd made up all of the problems I had at home and I was a liar. Quite surprisingly, this (along with all the other balls I've told you over the years, ETS) has made me quite reluctant to trust humans and talk to them about my feelings and life experiences.

But I've finally become a lot better at talking to people (outside of the realm of HFWYD) about bad things as they happen, and it has been quite nice to find support and concern at the other end of the phone/gchat/table over the past few months. So maybe this is the first step to me figuratively unclenching my rectum for the first time in 12 years, eh?

I usually don't talk much about what's bothering me either just wasn't really raised in a conducive environment for that i guess, not that my mom was a bad parent. Anyhow, after breaking up with the lady i had to reach out to some friends and got lots of help because of it. Things most people probably wouldn't think twice about but for me it was really good to open up for a change. Good to hear you may have come to a similar point.

This whole weeks looks pretty good, and the weather here is an added bonus. I don't have to work with my boss at my second job at all this week which is awesome, and no 8 am shifts either. Going to the Electric Six show tonight with this girl i have been kinda interested in for a bit who i haven't seen out in a while but since we chatted the other night on FB i decided to she if she wanted to come with to the show. Saw one of the coolest hour long sunsets last night while aimlessly cruising around the flat lands of ND last night. And.....my shitty cold is almost gone, BO-YAH!!!

[halloween]

So when I was 13/14 my best friends at the time sat me down in and told me that I'd made up all of the problems I had at home and I was a liar. Quite surprisingly, this (along with all the other balls I've told you over the years, ETS) has made me quite reluctant to trust humans and talk to them about my feelings and life experiences.

But I've finally become a lot better at talking to people (outside of the realm of HFWYD) about bad things as they happen, and it has been quite nice to find support and concern at the other end of the phone/gchat/table over the past few months. So maybe this is the first step to me figuratively unclenching my rectum for the first time in 12 years, eh?

This is really awesome to hear. I've been recently realizing just how closed off I am from the majority of even those I consider "close". I simply isolate myself at home until things blow over, and when I'm around people I can usually disconnect from "my own shit", convincingly. There's one friend recently I've been hanging out with more often, and they see right through me and it's been completely unnerving. They keep saying things like "You have your shield up right now." or will see right through a fake smile. I've been having very hard time compartmentalizing our friendship, haha, becacuse I'm only ever this "vulnerable" around someone when I was in a serious romantic relationship.

[bgalbraith]

Jammed for two hours with friends. Played bass, drums, then guitar. Felt good.

[botley]

Just got retweeted and followed by motherfucking Chuck D!

[ItsJustDave]

Just got retweeted and followed by motherfucking Chuck D!

You lucky bastard! That's awesome!

Meanwhile, I got picked as one of ten finalists in a Quaker Steak & Lube facebook contest. The grand prize winner will be picked by online voting, so I'll be shilling for votes in a month, but I've already won an ipo shuffle and 4 bottles of wing sauce.

[october_midnight]

Just got retweeted and followed by motherfucking Chuck D!

SICK. Man, Twitter is insane. I've chatted with Ken Levine, Mark Hammill, Milla Jovovich, lots of ppl....shit is crazy when they answer/retweet you. For me anyways...

[theruiner]

^^Heh...I've only had that happen one time. Patton Oswalt retweeted me once to answer a question. It was really cool.

[AgentofChaos]

You lucky bastard! That's awesome!

Meanwhile, I got picked as one of ten finalists in a Quaker Steak & Lube facebook contest. The grand prize winner will be picked by online voting, so I'll be shilling for votes in a month, but I've already won an ipo shuffle and 4 bottles of wing sauce.

I would probably take the Quaker Steak contest finals over any twitter interaction with just about anyone (possible exception: one of my favorite film directors commenting on my own film, which means they've actually watched it). Either way that's Fucking BOSS. Their wings are pure delicousness. Good luck to you sir. I shall be sure to vote. What was the contest? Whats the GP?

Meanwhile today began horribly for me. I worked all night long and came home to sleep at 10am because I had re-arrange my schedule - I had an appointment at 2pm and this was the only way I could be available for it. I get up after a couple hours begrudgingly (it was hard) and make it to the doctors office, drove 35 minutes each way, pay for parking etc. I get up there, and find out my appointment was cancelled, apparently the doctor went on vacation, they said they left a message but clearly they didn't since they only have my cell number and I showed them my call history, and I got absolutely no sympathy from the receptionist. I had been waiting to see this specialist for 3 months. Now I have to rebook on friday and who the fuck knows when that will be. Plus now I'm awake and up and I work again in a few hours on absolutely no sleep again.

I was so furious I went in to KFC and ordered a Zinger Double Down to drown my sorrows. Ironically instead of making me feel even worse like that shit usually does, I got a nice sodium buzz and have been flying high all night and been in one of those joker moods where everything is comical to me. I love those moods. So what, I hate fucking doctors, but who gives a shit, life is GOOD.

Moral of the story: Double Downs not as evil as advertisted.

[ItsJustDave]

I would probably take the Quaker Steak contest finals over any twitter interaction with just about anyone (possible exception: one of my favorite film directors commenting on my own film, which means they've actually watched it). Either way that's Fucking BOSS. Their wings are pure delicousness. Good luck to you sir. I shall be sure to vote. What was the contest? Whats the GP?

The contest is detailed on their facebook page here, but basically you combine up to 3 of their existing sauces and give it a name to create a new sauce. They pick weekly winners for 10 weeks (each getting an ipod shuffle & 4 pack of sauce (1 bottle of which is the sauce they created)). I was selected as the winner for week 4 combining Atomic, Arizona Ranch, and Buckeye BBQ and calling it Arizona Brushfire. The grand prize is decent. A free bucket of wings every month for a year, 12 bottles of the winning sauce, plus 3 categories you get to pick one prize each from. I'm guessing the value of the category prizes is somewhere around $1600. Wish me luck.

Meanwhile today began horribly for me. I worked all night long and came home to sleep at 10am because I had re-arrange my schedule - I had an appointment at 2pm and this was the only way I could be available for it. I get up after a couple hours begrudgingly (it was hard) and make it to the doctors office, drove 35 minutes each way, pay for parking etc. I get up there, and find out my appointment was cancelled, apparently the doctor went on vacation, they said they left a message but clearly they didn't since they only have my cell number and I showed them my call history, and I got absolutely no sympathy from the receptionist. I had been waiting to see this specialist for 3 months. Now I have to rebook on friday and who the fuck knows when that will be. Plus now I'm awake and up and I work again in a few hours on absolutely no sleep again.

That's awful. I find it frustrating enough when you book an appointment and end up having to wait 45 minutes past the appt. time to see the doctor. Sounds like you handled it pretty well.

[Blackbookpress1984]

Just found out that my contract for my job (I hold a temporary but full time contract position) will be renewed for another year in June. Also am being offered an Assistant Store Manager position at my second job. Looks like things are going well. I obviously cant take both juob, but I guess I can pit them against eachother and see which one has the better offer.

[YKWYA]

Training tomorrow. I have to work in the Morning (Trade of for getting Sunday afternoons off) but after 5 weeks I'm starting to feel a lot better. I can see signs of my Football legs returning, and throwing some passes is always awesome. And its great to be around some nice people, the atmosphere is so much better than Soccer training.

[ad infinitum]

Awesome friends w/lots of fantastic advice & sympathy made for the best weekend in ages, plus great food for thought going forward. Old friends rock.

[heroicraptor]

I'm in Portland! Yeeee

[Necrodoommonkey]

Just got retweeted and followed by motherfucking Chuck D!

The rapper or the Black Flag member?

[Fixer808]

I'm in Portland! Yeeee

Quick! Put a bird on something!

[Pillfred]

Dr. visit went well, the antibiotics seem to be working. Also lots of green starting to pop up everywhere, the grass looks good too.

[ltrandazzo]

original.jpg

Yep. Made my day.

[DF118]

I got hit on tonight by this dude who'd just had his photo taken with Lionel Richie.

That's right, Lionel Richie.

[BlueCalx]

That feel when a recruiting agency contacts you, after about six months of noncontact, to offer you interviews with two amazing companies.

[Fixer808]

To my left, on my friend's couch, there's two dogs and a cat, all snoozing.

[theruiner]

I finally found a new message board, so now I can leave this place behind forever!!! ha ha ha!!!

Just kidding. I could never leave ETS behind (unless some sort of legal action was involved, then I might be forced to. And don't say it could never happen!)

Actually, I found a message board dedicated to comedy, and there's an entire section for aspiring comedians. Lots of great advice and support, people talking about every aspect of comedy from joke writing to performing to experiences at open mics, just anything and everything. Very cool place, seems to be a lot of supportive people there, all trying to be comedians themselves. It'll make my eventual failure easier to endure!

[Magtig]

Last night my neighbor called my girlfriend a "fucking bitch" in passing. She is a very large black woman; her husband is a security guard. They live below me in a very old, cheaply built, apartment building, and she has been upset with me for walking around a lot (it's noisy). This has been going on for quite some time, but there's nothing I can do about the shitty floors.

My girlfriend and I were on our way to dinner, but after learning about what had happened I turned the car around. When we got back to my apartment my girlfriend hid in the car (sending panicky texts for help in my absence, apparently). I slammed my knuckles against their screen door over and over until the husband answered. I saw his wife through the opening, and yelled, "YOU CALLED MY GIRLFRIEND A FUCKING BITCH, AND I'D REALLY LIKE TO KNOW WHY!"

She came out on the porch and got in my face, but I didn't back off (even though she is three times my size, and probably could have simply pushed me down). She said, "YOU WANNA TALK, WE CAN FUCKING TALK RIGHT NOW!" To which I replied, "YOU SHOULD HAVE COME AND TALKED TO ME A LONG TIME AGO," while poking my finger into her shoulder. This is probably not the best thing to do, to anyone really, but especially not to a large black woman with a temper problem. She got really mad then and yelled, "YOU WANNA FUCKING TALK? HUH? YOU WANNA COME SIT DOWN AND TALK!!!!" I paused for a second, took a breath and said, "Ok, I'll come sit down and talk to you."

So that's what we did. It took a little time, but after we hugged it out and resolved all our problems (she even apologized to my girlfriend, who was hiding behind my car when I went back to get her) I felt incredibly relieved. After we left I looked at my hand, and my knuckles were bleeding. I think I dented their door.

I am really, really glad I turned around.

[Tighfield11]

Talking to my friends and my parents.

[Fixer808]

I am really, really glad I turned around.

This whole thing is awesome! Diplomacy rules!

[YKWYA]

Execution. 10 plays Down the field. Touchdown pass. Made my day.

[virushopper]

Toonami yesterday night!

[sentient02970]

Twice this week I've been mistaken for a "student". I haven't stepped foot in a formal classroom since 1992.

[ad infinitum]

Long story short, while down at a friend's beach house we managed to save a dog from drowning. He'd fallen into the water & somehow gotten tangled in fishing line underneath a distant neighbor's boat dock, & he kept going under & howling. We managed to scream bloody murder & attract the attention of someone who was able to jump in & pull the dog to safety. Felt awesome being able to do that kind of a good deed.

[Fixer808]

Aww, poor doggie! Glad everything ended well!

[Elke]

I am finally beginning to conquer The Depression, which is awesome. Kind of. Well, it cheers me up anyway.