170: Frustration, packing, and insomnia

The past two days I have been debating just what it is that gets me in such frustrated moods. I have begun to analyze myself after each moment of losing my cool. Thinking what I would do if I saw someone else doing the same thing, am I in the right/wrong, and does it really help anything.

I have found, shockingly, that in most cases the answer to these questions is no.

I have accomplished a decent amount of packing, considering I do not move until Saturday and it's only Wednesday. I look to wrap a lot of stuff up Thursday night.

This not sleeping until 1:30-2:30 thing has to stop. Hopefully once settled into the new place I can begin to relax.

Getting professional!

So now that the car, apartment, and vacation are all set. I am now in what I will start calling "Phase Four" of my 2011 self-rebuilding project.on

I have been at the Hilton for a year now, and I have been somewhat conservative and reserved in getting to know everyone in the other departments. I feel that this has set me back in that everyone has such diverse hospitality backgrounds and, more importantly, a wide range of contacts in the industry. Time to network.

After seeing LinkedIn start to really take off, I decided to take my profile more seriously. The training tools and newsletters that they provide turn out to be very useful. If I'm going to progress on my Hilton experience, now is the time to put some weight on the accelerator.

My LinkedIn profile

Tonight I am all excited about this next part of getting life back to a healthy balance of fun and productiveness, but in reality this will not start until moving into the new apartment and getting some sort of net access set up. So this could be on standby for a few more weeks, but it's about to get serious!

Reset button

In just a few weeks I will be changing living arrangements. This will definitely be a new experience, and one that I welcome with open arms and am anxious to see begin.

There are many reasons why I have been looking for a new place since April/May. Many of those reasons can be read on this blog if you look at past posts. Yet, I'm confident that everyone will walk away and be able to go out and have drinks the next week. In fact, that is precisely what part of this is about. With what I've seen over the last year, it's made it hard for myself to justify hanging out when I have been so down over what this apartment became. I'm confident that it's the same on the other end. This is good for everyone involved.

This also presents an opportunity to expand on new friendships and conquer other areas of Columbus that I have not explored thus far. It's maybe a little untraditional, definitely a learning experience, but I am optimistic that this will be a much better arrangement.

I've been more than prepared for months upon months now. I'm not looking to divulge too many details at this time, but I am looking forward to seeing this play out.

2 nights in MB for $169!

Through livingsocial, Rachael and I just booked a couple nights in Myrtle Beach at the Springmaid Beach Resort.

This $169 deal ($195 with tax), includes:

• Oceanfront room view
• Breakfast buffet each morning
• Two All-day fishing passes on the Springmaid Pier
• Two All-day mini-golf passes
• $20 in arcade adventures
• $40 worth of coupons for surrounding businesses.

This is great on SO many levels. Obviously, number one, we get to go to the

beach. Number two, all of this stuff being included at a great location . Three, we are right betwe

en the grand strand of MB and Surfside/Murrell's Inlet!

I also eyed some beach soccer on this list of activities. I should probably pay attention to the fact that these activities appear to be for children. Though when has that ever stopped me?

Will hopefully have this booked and taken care of by tomorrow morning. All that is left is to determine if I will be taking a vacation day on Friday or Monday. Broadway, Sandbunker, Mako's, Murrell's Inlet, Angelo's, and the rest of Horry County.. here we come! In a time with so much negativity, this is one of the few positives!

End of the road

In late 2005 she became mine. On Saturday, 8/6/2011, I gave her up.

My '03 Ford Escape served me well over the last five and a half years. Daytona Beach, the mountains of North Carolina, Charlotte, Grand Rapids, Chicago, Panama City Beach, West Virginia. Her last big trip being, appropriately, Myrtle Beach.

I made the trip to North Carolina, who knows, atleast twelve times. While working at Arby's in Bluffton I would get off work, go home and pack some belongings, and immediately leave for NC. Most of the time this was between 1:00 and 2:00AM. So I would arrive just as the sun was coming up on Saturday. I-77 become a home away from home. Learning the hard way that the 60mph speed limit through Charleston is heavily enforced, the familiar faces at the toll booths along the WV turnpike, stopping at the travel plaza in Beckley for Sbarro's or Burger King, looking out over all the lit-up small towns while passing through Fancy Gap. Then of course, knowing NC-421 was only a few more miles ahead. Or would I hit 64/90 at Statesville? Few people can say they've done what I've done; the Escape was my partner through it all. A few notable memories:

Driving on the beach in Daytona and driving through St. Augustine, Florida along A1A.

There is no way I can ever forget all of those trips on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Visiting Boone, NC, multiple times, and descending down switch-back roads to a basin between mountains where the sun had just begun to set over a lake. Then picking up four stranded hikers on the way back up.

The lake in Hickory, NC.

Trips to Charlotte for four separate concerts. As well as a stop to Carowinds.

Me and two friends sleeping in the Escape for two nights in a Walmart parking lot in Panama City.

If I had to get away while still living in Bluffton, I would drive out of town or to truck-stops and sleep in the back.

Definitely provided many crazy nights here in Columbus. Through Crew matches, downtown adventures, and had been a way for me to stay somewhat sane through the hard times here. Some of these stories will never be re-told.

Last year over Labor Day the Escape took a friend and I to my favorite place in the States: the coast of South Carolina. The place that has shaped most things about me today, as well as my plans for the future. She couldn't make it back though. The radiator and thermostat both blowing out on the drive back through South Carolina. Though she continued on before finally quitting just south of Statesville and stranding us there (with family, luckily) for a day. She was never the same after that.

It might be a clever name for a popular mid-sized SUV model, but that Escape was literally my escape for so many years. I don't really consider this the closing of a chapter in the book that is my life, although that is the more fitting of analogies. I think of it more as eighty or ninety pages filled with short, incomplete thoughts, stories of realized and unrealized dreams, and lengthy paragraphs of extremely detailed run-on sentences.

Those who know me will tell you that is exactly how my mind works and communicates these days. I guess we know where credit is due. That car let me escape reality, and ultimately create a reality that is uniquely mine.

172,157. Goodbye, my friend.

So much for that idea.. , more car trouble, USMNT, and KING

So I viewed the place at Iuka today. For the price and the conditions, I think I'll pass. Great location though. Back to the drawing board. I'm so happy to have so many options. Out of all the things worrying me, this search is the least of them!

On my drive back to Easton, my car overheated on the Hudson street overpass over 71. I pulled into the Shell station and let it cool off. Of course this was only after being yelled and sworn at for a few minutes while it cooled down in the inside left turn lane on Hudson. Hah. Might be looking at new Escapes with leasing options this weekend. Leasing... ugh. Let's recap my car troubles: Left headlight out, antenna ripped off, window off-track again, engine light on again, overheating randomly (and sounding like an airplane), 6-disc changer is jammed, running board deteriorating, strange noise coming from the right rear wheel. Hmm.

Jurgen Klinsmann was introduced today as the new head coach for the national team. I had mixed thoughts, but the overwhelming feeling of a fresh new start has over-taken me. I'm now on board!

O.A.R.'s new album, KING, comes out on Tuesday. Am I excited? Yes. This appears that it will pick up where they left off after In Between Now and Then, but still maintaining some of that refined sound that they've evolved into over the years. Pre-ordered it? Yep.

It's starting to storm. Lightning was approaching as I wandered around outside about thirty minutes ago. I might attempt to drive back to Bluff tonight to see the fam for the weekend. Let's hope I make it.

Future of US Soccer > Bob Bradley

Today, USSF announced that Bob Bradley was "relieved of his duties" as USMNT head coach. Effective immediately.

After reading/hearing much commentary from US Soccer, Grant Wahl, Lalas, MLS, etc, I believe this is the first signal of a entire "overhaul" of the US system. Something that has been needed for quite some time. Personally, I am biting my nails hoping that Jurgen Klinnsman is not the only option. Sunil said something along the lines that we would "not be surprised" by the decision. Ugh.

If Sunil and Co. were disappointed after the World Cup, why did we not can Bradley at that point? Why let him use the same stale approach in the Gold Cup? Why not ax him immediately after the Gold Cup? Just confusing. Seems to really show how unorganized US Soccer is, no wonder MLS is the same way.

Awaiting tomorrow's answers..

Something I've been meaning to share..

I know a lot of my friends have been in the know about this for awhile, and I've wanted one since they first showed up. Loving this creativity - Portman Kunis United FC

Night of tunes

So after a crazy assault on iTunes tonight, I've added some much needed songs to my library. I can't believe it has been months since I've obtained new music!

Mumford and Sons, STP, Soundgarden, "Sublime" With Rome, Seether, LMFAO, Eric Hutchinson, Drowning Pool, All Time Low, and this new Bad Meets Evil thing with Eminem. I'm not sure what the latter is really all about, but the song "Lighters" featuring Bruno Mars just might be my favorite Shady song of all time. I def recommend a listen. And as much as I hate to say it, where was Taylor Swift's lyrical insight like five years ago? Ugh. Just lost all street cred. I guess I'll deal.

Put an extra five minutes of effort into something

and it will save someone else 15 minutes of work. This was something instilled in me quite some time ago. I find it absolutely insane how lazy some people can be. How can getting by in life by doing the bare minimum be satisfying? Well at any rate, this past year has taught me a lot about that variety of human being.

No matter where you go, you can see people just slackin' through whatever it is they are doing. It's amazing that when you do something and take care of the task comprehensively, that you can save the next person from having to do ten, fifteen, maybe twenty minutes of work.

Thanks to this past year, this is just one more lesson that I can recognize as learned. I would not change a thing about myself or take back one decision I've made or word that I've said.

Exciting things up ahead!

With all the things that have continued to keep me down over the last few months, it has been hard at times to really be upbeat and positive about life. But I've come to grips with a lot, and am just biding my time. Some plans we're set all the way back in May, and I think it's hilarious that some think that it's there iron fist that rules and lays down the law. What a child. It makes the next phase that much sweeter.

I was walking the trails at Highbanks Metro Park, which I was surprisingly impressed with, and had a few key thoughts for the day:

1. I have less than two months until I am out of this hell. Once out, I will not have to live in inconsiderate filth anymore. I can enjoy life without the daily gay jokes and insinuations of those who have nothing better to say to me because they take no legitimate interest in maintaining any relationship.
2. I will, for the first time, feel like I have my own place. This past year was a joke. If they weren't ready to have a third person move in and readily respect that person as a third roommate, let alone a life-long friend, then they shouldn't have been down for it in the first place.
3. There are so many songs that help shape our life or take us back to a place or memory. What songs have I missed along the way that would have changed something? It's not just songs. I'm fully confident that where I am is where I'm supposed to be. At this very moment, I'm right on track. What does that mean for tomorrow? I'm confident that it will be the right road, but I'm not confident in which road that will be.

At any rate, I'm thankful that I have met the great people that I have. I'm thankful for the family that has shown me a standard of living that others can respect. Not one to be embarrassed of or one that makes guests feel awkward as they enter a place full of trash and question the intelligence of those who reside there. I'm looking forward to change, looking forward to being happy.