Napkin For My Eye, Part 2

At least this time, it wasn’t poked. I woke up this morning with the feeling that some dust was in my eye. After an uncomfortable day in the office, I left early to go see what the doctor could tell me.

There was nothing in my eye. That is, nothing besides what’s supposed to be there; in this case, my eyeball. But it’s still annoying.

Someone at work told be there’s a Visine for that, so I picked some up over my lunch break, a break for a meal I did not have a chance to have. So now there is something in my eye: Visine. But no dust particles, according to the doctor. He says that perhaps there was something in there before but it’s gone now.

Maybe I’ll wear a patch tomorrow. It’ll be very soap-opera-like.

It’s Hard Work, But Fun and Worthwhile

I ran a marching band competition this past weekend, the first of the year for me. It’s always wonderful to see these shows come off well. As a bonus, I got decent exercise by running around all day.

I got to see some of my old students back from when I was teaching. This year’s seniors were freshmen when I was teaching them, and I haven’t seen them in a while. I’m surprised they still remember me, but it’s nice to have a whole bunch of kids screaming your name. I should have been a rock star.

And Yet I’m Not Hungry

I believe I forgot to eat dinner earlier this evening. After all, I had a big lunch at the Macaroni Grill for a coworker’s birthday, and then I was working on a paper after I arrived home.

I guess this is my life… but not for too much longer. Almost there. Almost. Just six more weeks.

Moving is a Hassle

And that’s why I chose to renew my lease, despite the incompetent management and uneven floorboards. So I’ll be here in Plainsboro for a while. It certainly wasn’t my favorite choice but it makes sense for now.

After work tomorrow, I’m heading to a New York Philharmonic concert with Stacey at the PNC Bank Arts Center to listed to some good brass music and possibly volunteer depending on what’s needed.

The rest of the week should be pretty normal and boring. It will be my final week of “Strategy Formulation,” the penultimate required course for my master’s degree. Do I feel like I’m ready to manage all aspects of a business? I guess… though experience will fill in some holes. I gain much more knowledge from my classmates than I do from the instructors, which I suppose should be expected.

My final day of earning this degree is August 22. I have a wedding to go to on August 26. It should be a busy month.

Amy’s New Apartment and Bruised Butts

I helped Amy start setting up her new apartment this weekend. Her place was larger than I thought it would be, and her landlady seems friendly.

Here’s a tip. If you’re moving furniture and kitchen supplies and the ground outside is wet, make sure you’re wearing sneakers with incredible traction and the steps leading down to the apartment aren’t slick.

Reduced friction between feet and the steps can result in a bruised butt. Yes, I write from experience.

If the photograph shows anything, it shows my phone takes horrible photographs, especially when there is no sunlight. Also, I’m not particularly a fan of flickr. Sorry, folks.

So Amy has her own place now, and I haven’t decided whether to move out or not. Moving for the sake of moving isn’t worth it — the process is such a pain. My noisy neighbors once living downstairs seem to have vacated, so maybe I’ll take my chances by staying. It would be better to have a washer and dryer inside my apartment, but maybe I can survive a little while longer.

The First Day of Summer

It’s officially summer. Therefore, it is hot. I know this because my computer has begun acting the way it does when it’s hot. Although my box is well ventilated, hot weather causes my desktop CPU to spontaneously reboot (or get the BSOD, depending on my settings). Coupled with the fact that my notebook computer is eleventy years old, that is to say I purchased it generations ago on or around October 16, 2001, it may be time to upgrade my equipment.

My former coworker tipped me off to the fact the prices on the next-to-latest generation AMD chips are going to drop by the end of the month. Yeah, he’s got inside connections… or a lot of techie friends.

But I have to sort out my apartment situation first. After skimming the craigslist listings, I wrote to a guy who’s advertising a place in Sayreville. It’s a good price, but there weren’t many details. We shall see.

So You Want An Update, Huh?

Every once in a while, the layout of this blog changes back to the default WordPress layout. That’s annoying. One of these days I’ll look into fixing it.

So if you read Amy’s blog you might have noticed that the plan is no longer to live together. So there’s that. My question now is whether to continue to live here or move closer to the job.

Speaking of my job, it’s going quite well. It’s a nice change from my previous one, and the work is somewhat interesting. I don’t have to work ridiculous hours, which is taking getting used to. If I’m still in the office at 6:00 pm, people (who have shifted schedules so it’s normal for them to be there late) look confused.

Thankfully — very, very thankfully — I am set to finish my master’s degree in August. The whole online degree has been a mixed bag. I just want to be finished with it. I’ll probably wait a month before deciding on what courses I’d like to take after that. After finishing an MBA, I think I might want to switch gears and take an art course.

Finally Found One

Amy and I finally found an affordable apartment this past weekend. It’s several hundred dollars less than comparable apartments in the area (Edgewater), but larger. We’ll also have our first month free and there are no broker fees to deal with.

It’s right on the Hudson River, overlooking (well, at an angle) the New York City skyline. While it’s not my favorite place for living, it’s between my workplace and hers, so that’s where we’ll be.

There is underground parking for my car and a safe place for our bicycles.

Unfortunately, there are no pets allowed. So if anyone’s looking for a very friendly and loving cat named Rupert, who even had is own blog at one time, please let me know. I’ll need to find a home for him by the middle of July. Seriously. Please get out the word. I’m asking around and I’ve had no takers so far.

Update Time

I suppose it’s time for an update. I find it hard to believe that people still visit this site looking for updated content. Perhaps they’re just looking for my links to other places. Or maybe they are actually interested in what goes on in my life.

In the slight chance that it is the latter, here are some updates.

I think I’m the only person in this country who watches the Olympics. I haven’t watched much, but I did catch some great moments. There’s something about young people performing at the ultimate level that really interests me. There is so much emotion whether it’s athletics, music, or anything else at the highest level of performance. It beats watching overpaid athletes who are more interested in posturing and getting the multimillion-dollar salary than performing.

I’m finally doing something about getting into better shape. It’s not much, but I’m being consistent with it and I have plans to get even more exercise. I’m eating better and cooking more. I haven’t had a microwaveable dinner in a long time, but I still have junk once in a while, like Tuna Helper.

I should be done with my master’s degree in September, and I can’t wait. All I can say right now is that the experience has not been good and I’m happy I have to pay for only a small portion of the tuition. I just hope even that small expense ends up being worth my time. I don’t know what that means… maybe a better job, maybe a feeling that I’ve actually learned something worthwhile other than how to be a mid-level manager in a corporation. At least the class I’m taking now deals a little with something interesting: behavioral psychology.

Most of my remaining classes will be self-directed or one-on-one, so perhaps my experiences will change. The administration is absolutely horrible. I’m assigned a new financial counselor about once a month, and the outgoing one doesn’t bring the new one up to speed. My invoices are incorrect every class, which makes it a pain dealing with the new counselor and getting things done quickly so I can get reimbursed by my company. They can’t determine my full schedule because the version of my program is outdated — that’s what I get for taking a year off while I was teaching.

We have facilitators, not professors. There’s nothing to profess — the individuals who lead the class (although they tend to have great credentials) just facilitate discussion as far as I can tell. In general, for a program where writing is such a key ingredient, you would think the facilitors would have much better writing skills. I don’t think “noun-verb agreement” is a “foreign concept.”

Don’t get me started on trying to determine exactly how some of my classmates graduated high school, let alone got accepted into a graduate program. The learning experience should not be like this.

Let’s see, what else. My lease is up in June and I need to decide where I’m going. I can’t bear to live another year here, so it’s time to get out.

That’s it for now.

Occuring Thoughts

It occured to me today that I actually have things to write about here. Perhaps I should begin doing so. I’ll try to stay away from the typical complaining about work. I’m not a complainer, I don’t really like complaining.

Once upon a time I wrote about work on another blog with my real name — actually this blog, which has been moved from that original spot. My coworkers discovered it, which itself was not the problem. They wanted me to write about them. So, that’s when I founded fiveandtwenty.com, a more or less anonymous place.

“Fiveandtwenty” refers pretty obviously to my birthday that was around that time. It’s scary to think that I’m now approaching number 30. Thinking back in the last five years, so much in my life has changed, but yet, so little.

I don’t want to think back, though. I’ve done enough of that. Besides, “so much but so little” sounds like an empty thought. I’ve been thinking forward for some time now, but I’m still not clear on what my path should be. I have mixed feelings about my musical background. I still think it’s quite special to have the interesting background I’ve had, but it’s hard to listen to good music without thinking about the pure musical (musician-y) aspects of the music. It tends to obscure the enjoyment.

My mother has promised me that when she wins the lottery, she’ll start a music education foundation and place me as the CEO. I don’t think she plays the lottery, so that seems like a thought for another lifetime. Until that other lifetime, I’ll just have to figure something else out.