New Year, New Things and Such

So today is the last year of 2008 and all in all, it has been a pretty good year. I lost some loved ones, learned ALOT about myself, lost my job and was able to find a new one, moved to a new apartment, learned what it was to have no money of which to speak of, started going out with and now have the most amazing girl in the world to call mine, and other things such as this.
I am excited and at the same time nervous to see what the new year holds for me. I look forward to the experiences I will go through, the trials I will face and the good times to be had.
Happy New Year Everyone!!!!!!

Technology

Recently my computer crashed, causing me to have a new hard drive installed as well as the delay in my daily blogging. I apologize for the inconvenience and the blogging will continue like before.

FAIL! Friday

Photo Thursday

Due to the lack of my own idea for a Thursday blog, I have decided to go with what my girlfriend, her mom, and sister do for their Thursday blog. I give you my Photo Thursday:

This is me sharing a bed with two other guys during a College Group winter retreat. Notice my fabulous blanket...

Word Of The Day Wednesday

Today's word is: consigliere
kohn-sil-YEH-reh/ noun
counselor, adviser

Ten On Tuesday

Today's Letter Is "T"

1. Toast- my nickname and a great breakfast item

2. Toasters- you cannot have toast without them

3. Tender Moments- with my lovely lady

4. Trains- I think they are cool and they keep America moving

5. Tables- of the coffee, kitchen, end and patio variety

6. Text Messaging- one way I stay in contact with my friends and family and more specifically my girlfriend

7. TV- occasionally there are some decent programs broadcasted but mostly it is good for viewing movies

8. Tacos- a particularly tasty item to eat

9. Triangles- I make them out of the stars in the night sky; thank you, babe! :)

10. The Telephone- thank you Alexander Graham Bell

Monday Quote

The hours I spend with you I look upon as sort of a perfumed garden, a dim twilight, and a fountain singing to it. You and you alone make me feel that I am alive. Other men it is said have seen angels, but I have seen thee and thou art enough.

-George Edward Moore

Ten On Tuesday

Today's letter is "S"

1. Salad- always good

2. Silliness- awesome

3. Socks- make wearing shoes a much more pleasant experience

4. Shelves- make living in a studio apartment an easier thing

5. Sunshine- makes everyday worth living

6. Sand- the kind at the beach

7. Soup- a great meal on a cold day

8. Sandwiches- I could not live without them

9. Shoes- fashionable and practical

10. Star Wars- enough said

Monday Quote

I have a fine sense of the ridiculous, but no sense of humor.

-Edward Albee

FAIL! Friday

Word Of The Day Wednesday

Today's word is: cicerone
sih-suh-ROH-nee/ noun
1 : a guide who conducts sightseers
2 : mentor, tutor

Ten On Tuesday

Today's Letter is "R"

1. Ridiculousness- it has to be the best thing ever

2. Romance- good stuff

3. Reality- get used to it

4. Rock N' Roll- the real stuff, like 50's rock n' roll

5. Rockabilly- possibly the best music on earth

6. Roses- I know...

7. Racket- I always love to raise one

8. Rain- I LOVE it

9. Rail Roads- they built America and they keep me employed

10. Rawr

Monday Quote

True love is like ghosts, which everyone talks about and few have seen.

-Francois de La Rochefoucauld

FAIL! Friday

Word Of The Day Wednesday

Today's word is: divagate
DYE-vuh-gayt/ verb
to wander or stray from a course or subject : diverge, digress

Ten On Tuesday

Today's Letter is "Q"

1. Quizzes- a fun way to pass time while surfing the 'net

2. Quirks- they are what make us individuals

3. Quotes- without them I would not have a Monday blog or be as intelligent as I am

4. Quahog- the location of one of my favourite families

5. Quarters- how I get my laundry washed

6. Quartet- prefferably the barbershop type

7. Quiet- it is nice to have now and then

8. Q-tips- keep the ears clean and help me clean electronic parts

9. Quasar- an amazing thing in space

10. Queens- without them we would not have amazing punk music

Monday Quote

Immature love says: 'I love you because I need you.' Mature love says 'I need you because I love you.'

-Erich Fromm

FAIL! Friday

Word Of The Day Wednesday

Today's word is: cursory
KER-suh-ree/ adjective
rapidly and often superficially performed or produced; hasty

Ten On Tuesday

Today's Letter Is "P"

1. Pens- can't write without them

2. PBS- there is some good stuff on there sometimes

3. Pasta- the Italians gave us one good thing

4. Pabst Blue Ribbon- good, cheap beer

5. Pop- Coca-Cola please

6. Pop Up Tents- they make camping that much easier

7. Postage Stamps- so I can send letters

8. Proverbs- a great book in the Bible

9. Pubs- a good place to pop in for a pint or two

10. Poetry- beautiful literary works of art

Monday Quote

When you're in love you never really know whether your elation comes from the qualities of the one you love, or if it attributes them to her; whether the light which surrounds her like a halo comes from you, from her, or from the meeting of your sparks.

-Natalie Clifford Barney

FAIL! Friday

Word Of The Day Wednesday

Today's word is: progeny
PRAH-juh-nee/ noun
1 a : descendants, children
*b : offspring of animals or plants
2 : outcome, product
3 : a body of followers, disciples, or successors

Ten On Tuesday

This Tuesday’s Letter Is “O”

1. Oxygen- could not live without it

2. Optimus Prime- my cat; he provides me with company and entertainment

3. (The) Ocean- calms me down upon its sight

4. Opportunity- never waste it; if you have a good one, use it

5. Orangutans- quality entertainment

6. Onomatopoeias- words that sound like they are spelled eg. BOOM, CRASH, BOING

7. Organs- the vital kind; they keep my body functioning

8. Oven- I use it to cook and bake food to keep my body sustained

9. Olives- a tasty addition to some foods; and Martinis

10. Optimism- it helps me to get through each day

Monday Quote

Education is a better safeguard of liberty than a standing army.

-Edward Everett

Beautiful Day

So it is an absolutely beautiful day in Phoenix right now. I have my front door wide open with the security screen closed and all my windows are open as well. My ceiling fan is doing a great job of circulating the air. It is nice to have the A/C off for a while and have some fresh air blowing through my apartment. My cat is enjoying being able to look out at the outside world and observe my neighbours going about their business as well as the occasional bird fly into the courtyard and walk around in the grass. What am I going to do today? Nothing at all; I am just going to enjoy the day. Days like this make me glad to be alive.

It Has Been A Good Weekend So Far

So with this weekend being Labour Day weekend, I knew that I would be needing to have a good time. After work I decided to have a night out for the first time in a long time. Friday night started out pretty well with an Irish Car Bomb and a few pints of Guinness with two friends of mine Cooper and Derrick at the local Irish pub while a traditional Celtic band played. And boy did they play; they were amazing. After leaving the pub, we ventured out on our bicycles over to a less-than desirable part of Phoenix where one of my favourite dive bars resides: Bikini Lounge.

When I say dive bar, I mean dive bar. The ceiling has fallen in multiple times after it has rained, the bathrooms are not what would be called sanitary, the crowd can be less than savoury (but quite entertaining) and at times the music that is played makes me want to punch babies in the face. Anyway, I digress. Upon arriving at Bikini, Cooper, Derrick and I ordered drinks. We went through two large pitchers of Blue Moon and hastled everone that walked past us. Talk about a good time. We decided to move on from Bikini and let the night take us where it did. I decided at that point to call it a night and retreat to the comfort of my bed and talk to my girlfriend on the phone.

Saturday morning rolled around and I decided to wash some dishes that I had been putting off for a day or so. That was a bad idea. Having been out drinking the night before, I woke up with a slight hangover and that impaired my ability to wash dishes. Well, not so much to wash dished but to handle them when they were wet. I went to place a just-washed plate onto the drying rack above my sink, when the plate slipped from my hand, fell into the sink below and broke into multiple pieces as well as splitting another plate in half. Needless to say this irritated me a bit and a profanity or two may have crossed my lips. I decided then and there that I would go to Ikea and purchase some new plates and bowls as well as silverware. Why silverware also? you might ask. Simple; I have somehow managed to lose some of my silverware since its purchase and do not have a full set anymore. So, I dressed and left my apartment for Ikea.

Upon arriving at Ikea, I was determined to stick to my plan of only purchasing plates, bowls and silverware. I do not know why I thought I could do that. Anyway, I ended up leaving Ikea with new plates and bowls, as well as silverware, but a few more items made their way into my cart as well. I also left Ikea with matching mugs for the plates and bowls, a grease spatter guard for my pans, a floor lamp, light bulbs, tea candles and tea candle holders. So much for sticking to my plan huh? Before you go and say that I am weak and can not commit to something just let me say this: have you ever been to ikea?! Just try to go there and leave with only what you originally wanted to purchase. I dare you.

I returned home and washed the new silverware as well as most of my new dishes, set up the floor lamp, installed the light bulbs and ate lunch. Ater lunch I decided that a little nap was in order. I napped on and off for a little bit and when I woke up, I remembered that I needed to work on my bicycle because a part was loose that should not be loose. I put on some shoes, took my bicycle down from the rack it hangs on and let for Derrick's house as he is the person with the tools I needed.

When I arrived at Derrick's, I observed him doing some yard work while Cooper was over working on customizing a bicycle. And by customizing I mean cutting, grinding and welding the the bicycle. After working on my bicycle and getting everything back to working order I assisted Cooper with his endeavour. After that project, we welded three matching girl's bicycles together. Why would you do a thing like that? you ask. The answer is a simple one. We (Cooper, Derrick and I) are going to ride this strange contraption to the various bars that inhabit the downtown Phoenix area. After discussing the possibilites of further modification to the newly-built "Bros' Bar Bike", I returned home for a phone date with my girlfriend.

After our phone date, I did some straightening up of my apartment as well as some light cleaning while having a text conversation on my cell phone with my girlfriend. I decided to wash the remaining new Ikea dishes and as I was doing so, my girlfriend called again. I was unable to answer her call becuase I had my hands in the sink and it was full of soapy water. I dried my hands and called her back. We talked for a short time and had to hang up and text message each other because her younger brother, who she shares a room with, woke up. We text messaged each other for a while before we said our good nights and went to sleep.

I awoke this morning to a text message from my girlfriend, and we text messaged until she had to go to church. After our text messaging, I received a text from my friend Felix inviting me over to his place for a BBQ. I gladly accepted the invitation. After I had done so, I thought to myself that this weekend was going quite well so far and I should blog about it. So, that is exactly what I did.....

Today Was Quite The Day

So I recently started a new job with the state of Arizona as a Track Maintenance crew member for the soon to open light rail. I am really enjoying the job and the guys that I work with are great. Today we were doing the monthly inspection of all the manual-throw switches in the train storage yard. There are thirty switches and it is a day-long process which I really enjoy. I was working with a guy named Steve and we were banging out the inspections and having a great time doing it when we overheard a very funny transmission over the radio. Apparently, as tests of the light rail track were being performed, the operator of one of the trains involved with the testing reported a dead cat lying on one of the tracks. Since we are in the Track Maintenance department, a transmission went out over the radio asking us to remove the dead cat from the track. Steve and I jumped into our work vehicle and headed over to where the dead cat was reported as being seen.

When Steve and I arrived on the scene, there was the dead cat in all its glory. It was agreed upon that I would scoop up the dead cat with a shovel and Steve would hold a garbage bag open for me to place the cat in. That is when the jokes started. "Here kitty kitty kitty", I said as we approached the dismembered and disfigured cat. "Dude that is hilarious!", said Steve. "For a cat, he sure can play dead really well", I continued. Steve replied that was true and that the cat could play dead better than his dog, even if the cat's guts were coming out of its sides. By this time, we had reached the cat and began to attempt to carry out our plan. "Dude, the cat is too stiff to fold up and scoop onto the shovel!", I exclaimed to Steve. "Help me out, man". Steve put his foot down and pushed the cat (okay forced the cat) onto the shovel and I placed it into the garbage bag.

As we walked back to our truck, Steve asked if I noticed whether or not the cat had a collar on. I stated that I did not see one and that is when Steve stated that he was naming the cat Skittles and that he was going to love him; to death!! I started laughing so hard I began to cry. I told Steve he was lucky he had a cat that was cheap to feed and didn't require vet visits. Man are we sick or what?!

So we get back to the train storage yard and drive over to our other coworkers, Bill and Carlos, and begin to show them Steve's new pet. We told them about the jokes we had made and they laughed and said we were some sick individuals. Steve told them what he named the cat and Carlos stated that Skittles was a fitting name for a cat that "has its f-ing guts coming out of its mouth". We all had a good laugh about that one. After the laughing had subsided, Steve and I drove over to where the dumpster is located to dispose of the now increasingly smelly cat.

We got to the dumpster and Steve stated that there was no way he was going to throw the raunchy cat into the dumpster and that I had to do it. I said that was fine and exited the truck to get the garbage bag containing Skittles. As I swung Skittles into the air and over the side of the dumpster where he landed with a dull thud I stated to Steve that Skittles was not a Siamese cat, but a Flyamese cat. We then continued to complete the switch inspections. So yeah, today was quite the day.

Just One Of Those Days

Have you ever had one of those days where things just are not quite going the right way and you feel a little bit out of sync with things? I had one of those days today. It actually started Saturday, carried through last night and stuck with me all day today. I will explain.
My girlfriend, who I am madly in love with, lives in California while I live here in Arizona. I bummed myself out thinking too much about how much I miss her and just want to be with her. I started having chest pains because my heart actually started to hurt from thinking about missing her and I had to go to sleep in order to get the pains to subside! After I woke up the pain was gone but I was still bummed out. I talked to my girlfriend Saturday night into early this morning and that helped some.
So Saturday turned into Suday and I was beginning to feel better, but then I went and made things crappy again. I disclosed some information to somebody that I should not have and that person got mad at another person and that made me feel terrible again because it was my fault. I decided to go to sleep and see if I felt better after I woke up; I did not. I went grocery shopping which was good because it got me out of my apartment and around other people and helped to distract me. It was also good becuase I now have food to eat. After I grocery shopped I made something to eat which was the first thing I had eaten in a day in a half because I was too bummed out to even eat. I am now feeling and doing better but yeah, it was just oneof those days.

Monsoon!!!

So I just stuck my head out my front door just to see what was going on and to my surprise, it is pouring down rain!! I did not even hear the downpour from inside. There is some amazing lightning and thunder as well and it looks as if the courtyard in my apartment complex is going to flood again. I love the rain. I love monsoons in the Arizona desert; they are my favourite.

Phoenix Is Not A Bicycle Friendly City

So I was out on my bicycle earlier today (I ride a fixed-gear bicycle) and I once again noticed that Phoenix is not a bicycle friendly city. There is a severe lack of bike lanes and drivers seem to be ignorant of the fact that bicycles share the road with them. I was riding on a main street near where I live, and was nearly hit by a driver who ran a stop sign while turning right after looking directly at me and seeing me coming toward him! What the hell is that?! Is he so important that he can play games with another human being's life like that? And the funny thing is he made it to a red light a whole fifteen seconds before I did.
I rode up and stopped next to him and proceeded to give him a piece of my mind. He told me he did not see me and I said that was a load of crap because we made eye contact before he ran the stop sign. He continued to argue with me and as the light turned green he sped away yelling something about the streets are for cars and cars only. I guess ignorance is bliss afterall.

Initial Blog

Hello all you interweb users! This is Toast coming at you from somewhere in cyber space with my first blog ever. I am excited to be starting this blog and look forward to bringing you all insights, thoughts, ideas, concepts, observations and other things of mine for you all to read and contemplate. I hope that I can do blogging justice and keep you all fascinated with what I present to you. So, without futher adieu, I will now begin my blogging. Enjoy!!