Come On, Let's Get With It

Tonight at work, the phone rang. I do some National Weather Service type work so I thought it would be the local news station calling for the day's high and low temperatures. I pulled up the data on the computer as I picked up the phone. It was not the news station, it was my boss. He wanted me to look up a phone number for him in, get this... the PHONE BOOK! Seriously? Yes, he did not have a local phone book in his house, so he needed me to look it up.

I can't remember the last time I used the actual Yellow Pages, and considering I can look up numbers, as well as GPS directions to and satellite images of any address in the US and beyond right from my phone why would I dust off the old book?

My boss has access to the same technology, yet some how he feels the need to call me for this nonsense. It's 2009, let's all get with the times.

Cleaning House

I don't know when I will be starting my new job but when I find out I want to be ready to hit the road. To get ready I have already started the monstrous task of cleaning out my house and packing. I figure I'll have a new home, new job, and new money so naturally I'll want some new stuff. I better start getting rid of the old. I am also taking this task very seriously because recent events have lead me to believe that I am genetically predisposed to being a pack-rat.

I have completed what I am calling "phase one" of my cleaning process, which is to empty my closets. I was disgusted at the amount of useless crap I had been saving over the years. Packed away neatly in little Rubbermaid containers was a lifetime of junk. If anyone else can relate to this list, please go immediately to your closet with large garbage bags.

A few disturbing things that I found:

1. receipts for every purchase I made between the years 1999-2003. Not for important items like large appliances but for underwear and shampoo.

2. Play books from every play I have ever seen, including high school performances (that I was not in).

3. Nearly 200 hair bands, used

4. A box of cassette tapes, no cassette player.

5. A bag of mementos from a high school trip to Europe which contained: receipts for everything I purchased (even food), plane ticket stubs, the stickers they put on your luggage, brochures from places I did not visit, and a packet of something called "Salad Cream".

Lets face it, we all want to hang onto the past but I would be surprised to find my friends and I reminiscing about our travels over luggage transfer stickers. Pictures and memories are enough. My new rule is anything that I have not used/looked at/worn in the past 4 years gets a one way ticked to the dump. I hope I will be able to stick to my new rule, but I promise to never again hang onto anything that is 12 yrs old and mayonnaise based!

Back to the Lab

Like Dexter heading back to his laboratory, I am heading back home to make a fresh start. It's good timing. A few months ago I celebrated my 30th birthday. I was really excited to hit the big 3-0, it marked the start of more than a new decade. It was the beginning of a new life for me. In the months surrounding this birthday I managed to complete a long shopping list of goals including graduating from college and getting a new job. I got a pilot's license, a life long dream that I shared with my father. I then lost my father in a tragic accident. In short the clock struck 30 and my life was turned upside down. I have to start anew and I'm excited, hopeful, positive, sad, worried and lost all at the same time. So I head back home, back to the lab, to put the pieces back together and attempt to make something out of it.