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New coworker
We have a new employee at work. I haven’t met her yet because I’ve been on the night shift. Yes, it’s a her. I work in a predominantly male profession, but it doesn’t have to be. I mostly sit in front of a computer or work in the lab.
We hired a woman a few months back and she didn’t work out. Everybody thought it was because she was a woman and that we should never hire another woman again. I cringed at that thought. I say you hire the best person for the job despite what their genitals look like.
I give my bosses credit for hiring another woman. She was up against a military vet and they chose her because she had the schooling. She actually went to the same school I did.
I’ve been doing some Google stalking, and it looks like she is gay too. I think that’s awesome. We need more diversity around here. I can imagine all the horrible things some of my coworkers are going to say behind her back. Fuck them. I’m excited to meet her Tuesday.
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So Long, Farewell Motion City Soundtrack
So a lot of people celebrate 3/11 day because of the band 311. I’m not really a 311 fan, but 3/11/16 is a date I will always remember. It’s the date my favorite band, Motion City Soundtrack, announced that they were calling it quits. I was shocked at first, but I understand how tour life could be a drag, especially since many of the band members have kids now. My sad turned in to glad when I realized all the great music and great times the band has given me. So while I’m sad that it’s over, I’m so glad it happened.
I’ve read what a lot of people wrote about the band, but this article is the best.
Trying to remember all the times I’ve seen them, I went through all my ticket stubs. I thought it was 14 time, but I guess I’ve only seen them 13 times. Number 14 will be this June. Here are all the Motion City Soundtrack shows I’ve been to:
05/23/2004 @ The Alerus Center, Grand Forks, ND
07/24/2005 @ Vans Warped Tour, Minneapolis, MN
11/12/2005 @ The Myth, Maplewood, MN
12/12/2006 @ Roy Wilkins Auditorium, St. Paul, MN
11/24/2007 @ The Myth, Maplewood, MN
05/27/2008 @ The Myth, Maplewood, MN
07/15/2008 @ The Venue, Fargo, ND
10/28/2010 @ First Avenue, Minneapolis MN
12/18/2010 @ First Avenue, Minneapolis, MN
09/3/2011 @ Minnesota State Fair, St. Paul, MN
11/18/2012 @ Varsity Theater, Minneapolis, MN
04/21/2013 @ The Vault, Sioux Falls, SD
10/25/2015 @ First Avenue, Minneapolis, MNThis past Monday they announced the first leg of their “So Long, Farewell” tour, and Tuesday VIP tickets went on sale. They went on sale at 10:00 am. I started refreshing my browser over and over starting at 9:58. At 10:01 I selected two vip tickets only to discover they were all sold out when I hit enter. I was pretty bummed, but still kept refreshing the page out of disbelief. Then at 10:09 suddenly there were tickets available. I scarfed them up as quick as I could. I couldn’t believe it, I GOT VIP TICKETS. Here is what VIP includes:
One General Admission Ticket
A Stripped-down Acoustic Set with Band (two songs)
One Raffle Entry to Win Prizes*
A Photo with the Band
One Exclusive Signed VIP Lithograph
A Live “Ask-Us-Anything” Session with Band Members
One Exclusive Wearable Button
One VIP Laminate and Lanyard
Priority Merch Shopping
Early Entry into the Venue with First Dibs on Front Row Access
*Chance to win relics from the MCS vault. Relics can range from: an exact Realistic/Moog MG–1 synthesizer used on tour and in the studio by the band that may or may not still work, lyric sheets, vinyl test pressings, posters, stage back drops used on tour, and more. One entry per person. Actual prizes may vary based on availability. Winner selected at end of Summer 2016 tour.So my 14th time seeing Motion City Soundtrack will be a memorable one, and if I’m lucky, maybe I can catch them one more time when they announce the second leg of the tour.
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My Music Taste Trends
So tomorrow I’m going to see Fall Out Boy again. I honestly don’t remember how many times I’ve seem them. It’s more than five, but less than the 14 times I’ve seen Motion City Soundtrack. Everybody says I go to a lot of concerts, but really, I’m just old. I probably only go to two or three concerts a year. They just add up over the years.
My love of music started early. In 1985 I got a boombox, or as we called them, a “Ghetto Blaster” for Christmas. I wasn’t a fan of the couple of cassettes I got with it, Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston, but I would soon enough find music I would enjoy. My Mom wasn’t one of those cool parents that introduced their kids to the Beatles. It would be decades before I would discover the greatness of the Beatles. Around that same time our cable company got MTV.
Thanks to MTV I got into a few of the hair metal bands of the 80s. I loved Bon Jovi, Poison, Skid Row, Gun N’ Roses, and Warrant. That’s about where my love for hair metal began and ended. As a poor middle school student, I was on a limited budget. Then I discovered the Beastie Boys. I had to find more music like them. What is this rap music? Back in those days, rap music wasn’t played on MTV. Eventually rap music got its own show, Yo! MTV Raps, and I was in heaven. I loved Run DMC, Public Enemy, KRS One, DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince, and many others.
Then 1991 came and along and with it came “Smells Like Teen Spirt”. I never listened to another rap album. Nirvana changed everything. I was now a high school student with a minimum wage job and no bills, so I could afford cassettes and eventually CDs. I was getting into underground 90s alternative rock. Bands with funny names that nobody ever heard of like Sonic Youth, Smashing Pumpkins, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Alice in Chains. They all would become huge. And others like Pavement, Dinosaur Jr., and Sugar, who weren’t as huge, but just as great. I would buy CD just because I’d heard of the band, or a band I liked mentioned them. I was buying a couple CDs a week. I loved when I could catch 120 Minutes on MTV. That was the only show that played the music I was into.
Eventually 90s alternative rock became main stream. The 90s seem to be the only time period in my life where my music was being played on the radio. I hear most peoples favorite music is from their college years. I was lucky to have a roommate that was into the same music. He introduced my to Matthew Sweet, and Urge Overkill. I got him into The Lemonheads, and Candlebox. We both discovered the greatness of Liz Phair and Juliana Hatfield. I also loved female singers. Not too many people I knew listened to many female bands. I loved Letters to Cleo, Tracy Bonham, Bree Sharp, The Breeders, Veruca Salt, Garbage, Hole, and many many others.
Then the late 90s came and music for me was blah. Also, since I was no longer in school, the years all blurred together. It’s weird how my music style seems to shift every ten years or so. In the mid 90s I was also into a lot of punk bands, NOFX, Screeching Weasel, Mr. T Experience, Bad Religion, and many others. These were internet years. It was easy to find and hear new bands. I pretty much loved every band on Epitaph Record, Fat Wreck Chords, and Lookout Records. The mid 90s were great, the late 90s though…blah.
Then in 2003 music became great again. I discovered my all time favorite band Motion City Soundtrack along with other bands nobody heard of like Fall Out Boy, Taking Back Sunday, Brand New, Dashboard Confessional, and many others. I still don’t really know what to call this phase, Pop-Punk? Emo? That’s the stuff I was listening to, and maybe still? I don’t even know what I’m listening to now. I am currently in a blah stage.
Now I’m mostly listening to podcasts. I’m still always looking for great music, but haven’t found much lately. Is there another phase coming? Am I just old and will only listen to old music now? Who knows?
I like to think I have a great taste in music, but I’m rarely into mainstream music. My tastes have changed from Hair Metal, to Rap, to Alternative Rock, to Punk, and Pop-Punk/Emo. I’m always looking for something new and different.
What’s next?
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Installed Under Cabinet Lighting
So I missed my first Saturday blog of the year last week. That’s why I didn’t make it a thing. I knew life would get in the way. Last weekend I installed under cabinet lighting in our kitchen. I love it. I didn’t even think of it when we had our kitchen remodeled. With the LED strip lighting these days it’s pretty easy to install. You just have to plan a little how to and where to run the wires. Other than that, it’s a breeze to install and looks amazing in our new kitchen.
For our kitchen I just got white dimmable lights. They make some cool color changing ones too. I wish I could think of another place to install them they are so cool.Other than that, it was a pretty boring week. I spent all week in Bismarck sitting in classes to get my continuing education credits for work. Fun stuff. I’m glad it’s done and I am good for three years.
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kitchen update
So if you’ve seen my last post you know our kitchen is finally finished. The never ending project that started in November is finally done.
I love our new floor, and the best part was that it was free. That was part of the delay. They briefly wanted me to put in a claim to my insurance. I said no way, I didn’t touch the drain line that leaked after the plumber hooked it up. Thankfully I didn’t have to argue too much before the plumber took the blame. Then the plumbers insurance only was going to cover the floor, but our contractor wanted to pull out the cabinets to make sure there wasn’t any more damage. They eventually got the insurance company to cover that, and good thing. It was still wet under the cabinets, so they got that all dried out too.
They worked hard this week. They pulled out the cabinets, dried floor, replaced cabinets, and installed the floor. Everything looks great. I have mixed feelings about the contractor we used. I’m not going to bash them because they did a good job. The delays were caused by insurance companies, and the leak was caused by another plumbing outfit, and too be fair, the plumber couldn’t test the line because the electrician hadn’t been out yet to hook up power to the dishwasher. Things happen, I totally understand that, and for the most part, our contractor took care of everything. I’m just so happy it’s finally over. We have a kitchen table for the first time since before Thanksgiving.
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Getting Old
So it’s Saturday and time for another blog post. I haven’t mentioned it, but this year my goal was to try and blog more. My goal is once a week, and lately Saturday seems to be the day. I know nobody blogs anymore and it sucks. I’m going to do my part to keep blogging a thing. I miss the good ol’ blogging days. It doesn’t really matter to me if anybody reads this. It’s mostly for me. It feels good to get things off my chest.
So I’m still dealing with this tooth/jaw pain this week. Monday it was mostly my jaw that hurt after eating. I went to the doctor, got some pain meds, then the pain moved again. It’s now the tooth on the opposite side of my mouth than before. It’s so weird how the pain moves after seeing someone about it. I don’t know if it’s just the pain meds, but the pain does seem to feel like it’s slowly going away.
I have another doctors appointment on Friday. Have I ever mentioned how much I hate visiting the doctor? This was is a follow up because of my high blood pressure. The last few times I’ve had it checked it’s been on the high side. I guess it’s probably time to do something about it. Getting old sucks, but I guess it beats dying young. So I guess I should start paying attention to my health.
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Painful Chompers
For the past two weeks I’ve been dealing with some major tooth pains. One on each side of my mouth and both in fillings I got in November. I’ve been to my dentist and even went to another one to get a second opinion, and nobody knows why I’m in so much pain.
There is this weird thing about me. When ever I go to see a doctor about something, just waiting in the waiting room cures me temporally. So both times that I went in to the dentist I wasn’t in too much pain, so they probably didn’t think that much of it. It’s still a mystery why I’m in so much pain and no one knows why.
I am such a wuss when it comes to pain. I had a huge todo list this week and didn’t get anything done. I hate laying around and doing nothing, but I can’t think or concentrate when I’m in pain. We’ll see how this weekend goes. If I’m not doing any better I may have to give the dentist a third shot at figuring what’s wrong with my teeth. I’m hoping they just magically get better on their own.
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New Kitchen Disaster
So we enjoyed our new kitchen for a week. Late last week we noticed our laminate flooring was buckling up at one of the seams. Then the next morning it was buckling all over.
Turns out, when the plumber hooked up our dishwasher, he tightened the drain line too tight and cracked it. We’ve had a slow leak for a week that wrecked our flooring.
So now our kitchen flooring is ripped up and they have to remove our new cabinets to make sure the floor is dry and not damaged underneath. At first the plumber wasn’t going to take responsibility for it. I made it blatantly clear that it was in no way my fault. I would be happy to take the blame and put in a claim to my insurance if it was indeed a dishwasher malfunction, but it was clearly an installation error, and I didn’t install it.
Thankfully, the plumber is now putting a claim in to his insurance. I don’t know if he was just seeing if I was dumb enough to take the blame or what, but now it sounds like the plumbers insurance will cover everything.
We got an estimate of nearly five grand to do all the work, excluding the Dallas AC repair company fee. It’ll be a pain in the ass until it’s done, but it will be so nice. I guess free flooring in our kitchen is worth the inconvenience.
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And we have a kitchen
It’s been a long eight weeks. We haven’t had a kitchen since the week of Thanksgiving. I’m so sick of eating out and cooking microwave food in our freezing cold garage.
I love it. Here are some pictures:
Before
After
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Worst day of my life
Two years ago today was the worst day of my life.
Just hours after putting our cat down I got the call that my Mom was in rough shape following her surgery for an aortic dissection. At the time I had no idea how serious her surgery was. She played it off like it was nothing because she didn’t want to worry anybody.
That was the longest three hour drive in blizzard conditions. Once we arrived she was basically being kept alive by machines. I was up all night hoping things would change. I watched the Sun come up the next morning knowing that I was going to have to pull the plug on my Mom that day. We kept her alive long enough for what family that could make it to say goodbye. It was hard but it was also great that have family there after being there all night alone.
I was so tired and out of it. I remember talking to the doctor. He seemed to be afraid that I was going to keep her alive indefinitely. I had no intention of that. There really was only once choice, but still it was hard, and it was all on me. I had to give the okay to watch my Mom die.
Once family said their goodbyes, I gave the okay, and the nurses went to work unhooking her.
We then watched her die.
The rest of the day we planned the funeral, and she had the best funeral ever. It was exactly as she would have wanted.
Christmas time was her favorite time of the year. I’ve had a hard time with Christmas these last few years. Every Christmas song is sad and almost brings me to tears. I don’t think Christmas can ever be a happy time for me anymore.
