Today was slooooow.

Today was abysmally slow. I felt like I was in quicksand the entire day. It didn't matter what I did or how much work I tried to accomplish, the day just seemed to drag on and on and on and on. I'm surprised my sanity last as long as it did. Top that off with trying to get fitness time for today, which didn't happen and my day was blegh.

I'm looking forward to my last day of work tomorrow though and have plans to hit up the movies for the next four days/evenings.

Today blows.

Today blows....

I don't even know where to begin to try to explain so all of you are on the same page with me about why today, sucks, for me. I'm going to try to find a way to explain though so please be patient.

It all started in a land far, far away....

Just kidding, it all happened here, locally.

This morning started off as any other. I woke up, let Minnie out, took care of the necessities that I had to before work this morning and then took off on my drive. Got to work safely and early. Nothing bad really happened until I get inside, log into a computer and load up my email.

What's the first thing I see in my list of new emails? A complaint from a co-worker about something that happened the prior day and a question about another. I wanted so badly to call them out on being late to work themselves; but, I wanted to be the better person and so I held my tongue, kept myself in line and responded in a cool, collected manner and answered the question to the best of my ability and with what knowledge I had available or on hand at the time. Then I had a second email asking about the cleanliness of my work station and I replied that I had no idea what they were talking about and that it could very well have simply been from when I had rice for lunch as the origin of the cause.

Then the day just continually went downhill. I got a message from a girl that our friendship wouldn't work; but, never gave an explanation as to why or the cause. I messaged her back, explained I understood and wished her the best.

Then the weather sucked and we were busy but yet not busy. I was continuously bugged by my co-worker about buying a bag of potato chips for a bet I never fully agreed to.

Anyway, that's the sum of why today sucks.

No transfer....yet.

Got to work today after my six day weekend and discovered that none of the transfer requests went through and those that I did put in for, my name had dropped to fourth or lower on the list which means my chances of being able to get out of this state are small to slim to none, depending on how many of the people above me put in for other places and were accepted there. Today was alright at work, not too busy, not too slow so that the time passed by quick enough; but, I still managed to have time to breathe and think.

Last night brought about a shitty discovery.

My A.C. unit in my bedroom doesn't work. You know what the first words out of one of the leasing office employees were when I mentioned the work order? You should wait till the weather warms up more. My response: "It was 60 degrees and raining so I couldn't leave my window open; but, it felt closer to 70-80 degrees. I can't sleep when it's hot." Their response: 'Oh.' Thankfully it happened now rather than one of the days where it's like 70 degrees and humid at night. They put in the work ticket and it should hopefully be fixed in the next week or so, preferably sooner.

Also, asked about renewing my lease since I haven't heard anything on my transfers yet. They asked me about whether or not I knew about their online renewal process to which I said, no. We chatted for a bit about it, they gave me my registration code so I could register and I'm probably going to sit down and renew my lease sometime within the next few days, if not this weekend.

Other than that, nothing really remarkable happened today.

The end of my days off.

Sadly, today marks the end of the six day mini-vacation I had this week. I managed to get my credit card payment done today, it was supposed to have posted and now I'm just eagerly looking forward to this weekend to see how my pay increase is going to look each paycheck. I'm nearing the end of the nine seasons available on Netflix. I'm not sure when they're going to make season ten, since there apparently is a season ten, on Netflix. I've been stalling on finishing this current season because I don't want to have to wait forever to see the newest season.

I managed to be somewhat productive today. I made my lunches for the week: chicken, rice and broccoli for this week.

I'm not looking forward to trying to catch up on everything I missed while I was gone at work. It's probably going to take me a good thirty minutes or more just to try to go through all the emails I've accumulated. Then, I have to stop into my apartment leasing office and ask about when my lease renewal is due and then try to figure out for sure if I'm going to renew or not. As of right now, it's looking like I'm going to be here another year.

We'll see what happens with the emails tomorrow, maybe I'll get lucky and get a transfer request.

Just another day.

Today started off okay, woke up way earlier than I would have liked because Minnie decided she needed to go to the bathroom and to hell with the time of the morning it was. I guess it's to be expected with the fact that she's so used to me having to get up for work during the work week at 4:15 in the morning. Anyway, managed to drag myself out of bed, got a good workout in and then proceeded to go about my day as if that was my intentional time of awakening.

Then I had some leftover pizza for lunch, worked on some episodes of Heartland (I'm nearly finished with all of the final season :( ). I only hope that it ends on a good note! I don't want to have to worry about drying my eyes if I'm bawling. Anyway, nothing too exciting happened other than that.

I did however get lucky enough to start talking to a girl. We have a lot in common and have been chatting away the past day or two. It's a lot of fun to talk to her and she's gorgeous to boot, has a great smile and seems to really enjoy talking to me. I'm curious to see where things go and just go with the flow.

Oh and it rained today, Minnie hated it and made it really fun trying to take her outside to go to the bathroom this afternoon/evening.

It's been a few days...

And I know I haven't made any new blog entries...

There's a perfectly valid reason for that. I only have one laptop and it's screen is broken so I can't fold it closed. This makes it impossible to travel with it and so I'm forced to leave it here. So that made it to where I was unable to make any new blog entries for the past three days.

Thursday started well with me getting up around 4:15 and on the road around 5:30 AM or so. Then, I managed to make it down to Ohio by about 9:30 or so. I went straight for my grandparents, visited with them till about 10:30ish and then I went ahead to my dad's work to have lunch with him and see some of his buddies at work, who ask about me all the time from the time I worked there as a seasonal laborer. Then it was back to my grandparents for dinner and finally went to see Black Panther with my best friend.

Black Panther was a good movie, don't get me wrong! There was just something about it that felt like it was missing and the movie seemed or felt incomplete. It started off slow and then sort of just meandered along until the ending. I managed to get through it and I can finally look forward to Avengers: Infinity War.

Then Friday I went to do my taxes with a family friend, found out I have a decent refund coming this year which will be extremely beneficial and I can pay a few things down. Then I went to have lunch with my grandparents and stayed the night at my dad's. It was a lot of fun, we watched a few movies, had fajitas for dinner and my step-mother made me these pickle treats where she takes pickles, cut them into slices and then wrap them in cream cheese and slices of ham. My brother and his wife, who's pregnant with my niece, stopped by and hung out with us and watched Wonder, a great movie by the way that everyone should watch!

Saturday saw me back at my mom's and we went to see Black Panther while she went to see Fifty Shades Freed and then we went to dinner at a Mexican place. Since I was paying for my own dinner and I wasn't driving, I had a lime margarita. Turns out I haven't drank enough in awhile and that one drink hit me harder than the others I usually drink. I spent the rest of dinner drinking water. Then we went home, I passed out and woke up today.

My mom made me French toast and then the drive up was uneventful. Which brings me to now! I ran some errands to put some gas in my truck and then picked up groceries. Now I'm just relaxing and spending time with Minnie on the couch trying to get caught up on episodes of Heartland so I can finish the final season.

I'll also try to do better about keeping up on the blog entries.

It's my Friday!

Guess what guys, it's my Friday!

You know what that means, right?

It's time to lay back, relax and let my non-existent long hair down. I get the next six days off from work and let me tell you, I could use the freedom from stress that brings me. Things have been hectic at work lately because of how short-staffed we are and on top of that, two co-workers went away on training for the week, further stressing the coverage.

Anyway, I'm supposed to see Black Panther tomorrow night with my best friend and that's after visiting with my grandparents I haven't seen since around Christmas and even then was only for a short visit. This time is sadly going to be very similar. I'm only going to be down until Sunday and then I'm coming back up to give myself a few days for me and to prepare mentally for work again.

Looking forward to seeing the rest of the critters on the farm, especially my horse, the big turd.

Another busy day at work.

Not really sure what I'm going to talk about today...

Just another busy day at work and tomorrow is going to be even worse. I'm hoping that I can make it through work without going crazy or tearing out my hair because my six day vacation begins Thursday :) I'm super excited to head down home and see my family, dogs and horses. I'm also excited to hang out with my best friend of 27 years! Haven't seen him in nearly a year and we're both busy with work and always seem to have conflicting schedules to where we can't get together.

He wants to go see Black Panther, which is ironic because that's the same movie my step-father wants to see Saturday while my mom and sister-in-law see Fifty Shades Freed.

Anyway, one more day of work to go guys! Hopefully I'll have some more interesting things to talk about on my days off. I'm hoping to see a movie tomorrow night before I leave at the buttcrack of dawn on Thursday to drive down.

Busy day at work!

That's right, you heard me! Today started off slow and I was hoping it would continue to be that way. Not so lucky in that regard. It slowly started picking up and pretty much remained consistent throughout the day. By the time the end of my shift arrived, I nearly ran out the door haha.

Luckily once I got home, I managed to get the most important task completed: making sweet tea! I also managed to get the necessary stuff done on my loan refinancing and paid my truck payment for the month. I can't wait till I can get it paid off and free up that money as extra funding to pay on other things.

Then I started watching The Chamber of Secrets and realized I'm not going to be able to finish it today because of the time.

Gah, this blog entry feels like crap.

It's hard to write about anything exciting when I haven't done anything exciting today. Made plans with my family to see a movie this weekend. My mom and sister-in-law and her friend are seeing the new Fifty Shades movie while myself, my step-father and possibly my brother are going to be seeing Black Panther.

Snow keeps falling down, falling down.

Hello everyone!

Today marks the third day of the snowstorm here in Michigan and I think it's finally finished. I watched today as the snow went from snowing to sleeting during the day. I did not enjoy any of the times I had to go out and then come back inside. I was glad when the work day was finally finished. I was hoping for fitness time today; but, I understand that I can't get it all the time because they're paying me to be at work and not at home, working out.

Anyway, nothing really exciting happened today so this'll be a shorter blog than usual, sorry everyone!

Snow sucks and workout time, oh yeah!

So, this morning's forecast? Lots of snow!

It's literally been snowing nearly all day and there were at least two accidents on my way home from work, one on each side of the highway. I don't know how they happened, I was just glad the one on the northbound side wasn't hindering traffic flow.

I'm glad to finally be home today and so is Minnie. I also managed to get fitness time so I was able to avoid some of the major traffic rush at around the time I normally get off work. Got a nice workout in, showered and I'm waiting to hear word on what the final plans are for this evening. Supposedly a friend who came down from up north is staying in a hotel and we're going to hang out there; but, who knows?

Also, I've been having a lot of fun on this app, Chatous. I've met several interesting people from around the world and have had interesting discussions. However, the only regret I have is my username I happened to pick for it haha.

Snowstorm Mateo!

Just when I thought we were getting ready to be done with snow, we get a frigging snowstorm! This snowstorm, named Mateo, seems to be hammering my state among many other northeastern states with snow, cold and ice. I can personally attest from the way the snow was falling today, powdery and light but consistent, that the snow plows couldn't keep up. It was kind of ironic. I got to the movie theater to see my movie today and it was empty. I think they were hoping it would stay that way; but, I told 'em, 'I got 4WD and a little snow wasn't going to stop me'.

The movie I saw today was: Den of Thieves starring Gerard Butler and 50 Cent.

The movie focuses in Big Nick, the leader of the Regulators, an elite unit out of the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department under the department of Major Crimes. They're the unit that's tasked with bringing in the major criminals (bank heists, robberies, etc). On the other side, the antagonists is 50 Cent and crew, the Outlaws, a group of ex-military who put their skills to use to rob banks and get away with crimes.

The movie seemed to focus on Nick primarily with hints at Merrimen and 50 Cent (who has a family that serves no purpose other than to make him seem human, I guess?). Nick is married; but, you couldn't tell from his heavy drinking, strip club and stripper lifestyle. It just felt weird for them to throw in families into this movie, like the plot wasn't completely there. Everything else clicked; but, the families just confused me and were never present for more than a few minutes. They hint at the military background of Merrimen, the leader of the Outlaws; but, they never talk about what caused him to become a criminal. None of the men seemed to be living a poor lifestyle, many of them living in multiple bedroom houses, driving nice SUVs and one of them even lived on one of the hills with a pool.

Overall, I'd say it was an alright movie if for nothing more than Gerard Butler being a badass.

Oh, in other major news, my brother and his wife are doing the gender reveal of my future niece or nephew and I'm excited!

Another lonely day.

Today started off good, finally managed to sleep in till almost eight this morning! A true accomplishment for me in regards to sleeping in. Usually I'm up by six or seven at the latest, usually on the dot as well. Generally waking up, staring at the ceiling and wishing I could go back to sleep are the norms for me. Regardless, I slept in, made breakfast and relaxed for a few hours playing games on my PC and Xbox until I went to the movies, again.

Second day using my MoviePass and I saw The Greatest Showman.

My mom said she enjoyed it after seeing it the other day with a friend and I was curious, not to mention the fact I'd honestly been considering seeing it myself and behold, I went!

Turned out to be a great decision!

Really, really enjoyed the movie. There were plenty of great musical numbers, two of my personal favorite songs from the movie are:

 

Overall, I really enjoyed the movie despite it's many adjustments to the truth behind P.T Barnum and would recommend that everyone go and see it in the theater or rent it upon DVD release.

Then I had to go through the fun task of calling about my student loans, trying to refinance them to drop the payments to something more affordable or possibly consolidating them again because my Dept. of Education loan, which I'd been pushing back for three years, could no longer be pushed back and between the two, it was costing nearly as much as a month's rent for my apartment.

Anyway, there's supposed to be another bout of snow coming in tonight so let's hope they're wrong and that tomorrow will see more snow melting and a return of the warm weather I'm missing!

First MoviePass trial was....

Hello everyone!

Today was officially the first test of my new MoviePass card and it was a...

The process is simple apparently. If your theater requires the card, like mine does, you check into the time before the movie, go to the theater and purchase your tickets within thirty minutes of the check in on your phone. Anyway, I got to the theater, told them the time, picked my card and then gave them my MoviePass card to swipe. They swiped it, I got my ticket and it was game on!

The movie today? 12 Strong with Chris Hemsworth playing the star role of Capt. Mitch Nelson, based on the real person, who leads a team of US soldiers into Afghanistan after the attack on the twin towers. The movie started off just after the planes crashed into the two towers and quickly dives into the action. The action sequences were awesome, I felt connected to the characters and enjoyed the bond between Nelson and the general of the Northern Alliance forces he was working with.

Overall, a great movie and one I'd recommend to anyone interested in going to see one this weekend.

Hope everyone is staying warm and isn't getting too much snow!

Work personalities clash....sometimes.

Hey guys!

Today would have been a good day, started off as a good day. It was my Friday, last day of work before my three day weekend. Then it started going downhill on the drive into work, traffic was atrocious with the snow causing everyone to be cautious and drive slow. Understandable and completely appropriate given the circumstances.

Got into work and it just spiraled downhill after that.

We were behind and spent most of the day being swamped and playing catch-up. Then, of course, because it's work, people can't just do their jobs, they have to bring their personal, petty differences with them. Apparently, I was a target for non-stop joking today. I have no problem joking with someone if I know them and have had back-and-forth banter with them before so that I know what they're comfortable with and what they're not. Yep, not how today went down.

Then I was hoping to do something tonight so I kind of put my plans on hold while I waited for them to give me a definitive answer.

Did they?

No.

So now, I'm spending my time laying on the couch snuggling Minnie and watching Netflix for lack of certainty on anything I really want to do.

MoviePass card has arrived!

So, thankfully we didn't get any new accumulation of snow today; but, the roads were still shit for a lot of the traveling public trying to go into work. I, personally, didn't have any issues; but, I could see where others easily could. The bad news? We're supposed to get another 2-4 inches tonight. While that might excite some people, it doesn't actually do anything other than tell me I'm going to have to take it slow driving into work tomorrow.

Great news everyone! I finally got my MoviePass card and I'm fully planning on taking it on its maiden voyage tomorrow to the theater and testing it out, seeing how confusing the whole process is. There shouldn't be a huge crowd hopefully, considering it'll be the middle of the week; but, if there's anything I've discovered up here, it's that nothing with Michiganders make sense.

Other news: got my letter about lease renewal.Which means I'm running out of time to decide what I plan to do. I've got three options: a.) stay in my current apartment and set up online payments (they're going to start charging $10 fees for checks apparently), b.) move to a new apartment,  or c.) get lucky and move for a transfer for my job. I have till the end of April to make my decision right now, unless I get an offer for a transfer between now and then.

Finally got around to watching some of the commercials from the Super Bowl and I was actually really curious about the new Mission: Impossible, it looks like a good ending to the series or at least, I hope it is an ending to it. Only time will tell, I guess!

Sunday Snow and Super Bowl

So, today turned out to be exactly as I expected. It wasn't snowing very hard this morning when I left for work; but, it didn't wait long after I got there to start coming down with a vengeance. The roads and highways were passable until I got closer to work and then I had a couple of fish tails; but, luckily I've got experience driving in snow and I was able to handle it without concern and there wasn't any traffic to be concerned about. The snow was pretty relentless throughout the day though and there had to be at least an inch or two of accumulation by the time I was finally off work.

The drive home wasn't horrible, which was surprising; but, I guess because it's Sunday and a lot of people are off work or at home with preparations for parties for the Super Bowl tonight, that there wasn't a lot of traffic to contend with. Still had to weave around a few people who were driving probably 30-40 mph on the highway. I understand the desire to be cautious; but, at the same time if there's visibility and the road conditions appear fine, try to at least drive the minimum legal speed limit.

Anyway, Minnie still hates the snow. Made me think about my old Aussie that I used to own before she passed away. Girl used to love fresh snow and would pounce on it and wouldn't come in until we made her and then we'd have to take the time to make sure we dried her paws off because they would literally be covered in ice. Minnie, on the other hand, she hates so much as stepping foot in snow and will throw a fit when I make her do so. Which makes it really nice when it's really, really cold out and she's in and out in under five minutes.

Anyway, for those of you watching the Super Bowl tonight, feel free to leave a comment with who you think is going to win and after the game is over, what you thought of the half-time show or your favorite commercials, which let's be honest, is the best part of the whole thing!

Curse you Jack Frost!

Guess what I found out was happening today! More snow.

Guess who was super excited? ...........Not this guy.

Apparently they're forecasting up to three to five inches for tomorrow, yay. *sarcasm*

Among other things, I finished the first episode of Altered Carbon. Not sure how I feel about it. It reminds me a lot of Blade Runner; but, it's supposed to have taken place after it on the timeline, even though the two aren't correlated at all. Anyway, it was interesting. I enjoyed the main character, he's had some interesting roles lately, still remember when I stumbled upon him in The Killing and then he was in the remake of Robocop and now he's in this. I'll try to watch an episode a day or so and let you guys know my own take on it.

Also, I'm really hoping that my MoviePass card comes in the mail soon. There's a few movies coming out this month that I'm hoping to drag myself to the theater to see. Maybe even start trying to go on Friday and Saturday nights again, even if I'm working, just to take advantage of the card. Just think of all the reviews I could write and all the new upcoming movies I could fill you curious lot in on!

Again, another not so interesting day. Not a whole lot happened; but, I guess that's par for the course when I work ten hours of the day and then come home to workout and just want to relax and stay warm.

Awesome news!

Guys, guys, guys! You'll never guess what....

I found out this morning during work that the random week in the beginning of August that I picked for my annual leave, turns out it's the week of my other six day weekend! Which means that I'll have the opportunity to go on a vacation to my cousin or to do something else if I so wish. Obviously there's a considerable number of months between now and then to plan everything out; but, I'll definitely be on the lookout and trying to purchase tickets while they're relatively cheap.

Also, in other news, Netflix has added Altered Carbon to their streaming service! I've been on and off looking forward tot his show since they revealed the trailer for it back before Christmas. I'm excited to start watching it and then give it an honest review on what I think about it so definitely keep checking back if you're curious to hear what I think about it.

Nothing much else to say today so I'll keep this short. I hope everyone has a good weekend!

Heartland has the feels.

It finally happened! Ty + Amy = <3

I'm not normally a very feelsy guy when it comes to the shows I watch. There's probably been a select few, no more than what I could list on one hand, that have been able to elicit the feelings and dedication from me that this show has. I stumbled upon it purely by accident at a mention from my grandparents. I know they're usually very picky about the shows they watch and I knew this show had horses in it so I wanted to give it a chance and see how things went. I wasn't disappointed! 

I finally got to see the loner, bad boy turned good guy get the girl he dreamed about in the barn loft. The wedding was small, tactful and suited them both perfectly. The whole riding out of the barn on her horse with her father and grandfather on each side behind her was an amazing touch! I love how they implement horses into nearly everything with this show and I'm sad that there aren't more shows like this airing today.

You're still my favorite Dean, I promise!

Anyway, it was an awesome touch on my last day off to know that the point I've been looking forward to for the longest time has finally come. I also paid my rent today so #adulting. Some of my friends were talking about going to this arcade bar this weekend and it makes me really wish I wasn't working so I could go and check it out. The one I went to with my brother down in Louisville was a lot of fun, even if the people who were supposed to join us didn't show up. *shrugs* Things happen, I know.

I'm hoping that I still might be able to go, even if I have to leave early, just to go out and do something this weekend, since I'll be working the next day. Though they haven't officially set a day on which they're going to do this.

Couple this with the new anime that was just added to Netflix about a school where the students are rated on how well they gamble, I'd say I'm set on watching material for a good while, I hope.