familiar strangers

I don't need it but it's here
nothing else to pass the time
so why not drink a pint
Familiar strangers know my name
nothing else to pass the time
so why not spend the night
no promises, no ties, just one night
Familiar strangers know my name
I don't need it but I will take it
nothing else to pass the time
rather talk to familiar strangers
than sleep my life away
no promises, no ties
they know my name but not my game
nothing else to pass the time
so why not spend the dime

Spirits come quick

Serve me a shot bartender, my night was hell,
Make it a double, and pour me a beer
It's time to forget, no looking back
Fly away, out of this world
Spirits come quick and help me forget
No looking back
It's time to get over that hill
There's no turning back
But first let's spike the lemon and add some gin
Fly away, no regrets
Forget, move on, no turning back
Spike the lemon and add some gin
Out of this world, spirits come quick
Help me forget
Spike the lemon
Spirits come quick!

Mobile text messaging is a horrible invention

Let me tell you why... People don't call anymore. You can't hear their voice and can't try to picture what they're doing. Men can lie easier. It takes longer to say what you want to say, and everything gets condensed into impersonal fragments with word shortcuts.

You see people driving next to you on the freeway who can't stay in their lane of traffic because they are too busy text messaging their buddy about the chick from last night. They swoop over into your lane and look up at you sheepishly with the cell phone in their hand as if you're supposed to understand and accept why they are trying to kill you.

If you need to talk to a guy you think you like it's hard to figure out the mood he's in from one text msg. You can hypothesize that because he responded "Hi" and not "Hi Sweetie" that he doesn't like you anymore. You start to get depresssed when a few hours go by and there has been no response.

Then you get in the circle of craziness by texting him again trying to find out if he got the last message and then when you get no response to that message you start to believe he's either blowing you off, he's with another chick, or he lost his phone. And boy do you hope he's the type to lose his phone.

You don't want to yell at him yet cuz if he turns out to have been in a bad accident--say driving down the freeway reading your text message, you're going to feel like an ass. So you give it time, and still no answer. Then finally right when you're deleting his number and name from your phone-- DING! arriving text message... it's him... he says "sorry... my phone was dead all day.. what's going on sweetie?"

And what do you do? You say it's okay and you leave the number in the phone. But in the back of your mind you're thinking. "Phone was dead? When mine goes dead I plug it in and it's back to life again. What the hell is this guy's deal?"

But yet you stay on. You're hooked for some unknown reason to this guy who can control your moods with just the touch of a cell phone button. You start to wonder if you need therapy or drugs to stabilize yourself because why would something so impersonal as text messaging be such an emotional rollercoaster?

Burgers or hot dogs?

Today I was on my way to lunch with a few of the guys from work. I was driving Blue as usual when we go out on Fridays. We decided to try something new and were on our way to Hamburger Works on 15th Ave. After navigating through the rocky construction terrain of Cental Avenue we finally turned on Thomas only to be met with a sign telling us 15th Avenue was closed.

To avoid further traffic frustration we u-turned and ended up at a Chicago style hot dog joint. Here's a rundown of the items we ate.... italian beef... they pour au jus on the bread not the meat so the overall reaction was not great, meat too dry. Polish dog, not bad he said, nice bun. Italian sausage with onion and peppers--a habenero may have snuck in, making this eater less than happy. Jumbo chili dog and cheese fries-- Bun nice and soft, chili half bean-half meat. Cheese fries nothing special. Overall-- Cheap meal left us still hungry and wishing we'd tried to find the burger joint.

Growing up in IL I used to eat at the Velvet Freeze (known to the oldtimers as Fred's Hotdogs). Fresh brewed rootbeer and lip-smacking-meat-sauce-covered hot dogs in a warm fresh bun. The WORKS would get you relish, onion, mustard, and ketchup. My parents loved the works. My brother only ate them plain cuz he was a picky eater. And I would take everything but the relish and onion. It became a tradition after I went to college that we'd always go to Fred's to get dogs and take them over to my grandparents house for lunch one day when I was in town. Each dog came wrapped in a white parchment paper with its code written in charcoal pen and was delicately placed in a plain brown paper bag with the rest of the family's. You have to have 2 or 3 dogs to be satisified but boy oh boy do they hit the spot. No dog like it in the world! If you ever get out to Peoria, IL be sure to find a Velvet Freeze!

Welcome to my life!

Hi! Thanks for stumbling into my world. Let me give you the lowdown of what you're getting into-- I used to think that having a blog says you're a bit narcisstic but I have recently decided to embrace narcissism and find out what I have to say.

I've kept a journal for the better portion of my life and have a degree in writing, which means I wrote alot and for alot of different people. Once upon a time I was a creative tyke. Since then I became a financial analyst and then a business development person and I think I have lost my voice. So I'm resurrecting that voice to find out what it has to say.

Hope you find some of my stories interesting. All of them will be sincere and heartfelt. Or at least I expect them to be.

There will be no real rhyme to what I write about, but mostly they will be real-life stories. If they aren't, I'll preface the blog with that information. I may repurpose journal writings, things I started in college, or I might just rant about what's happening in my life right now.

Until I'm comfortable doing this I won't be posting any photos of myself. Hopefully you understand.