So long, 2007!

It’s not past midnight yet, but this year is living its last minutes. In about 65 minutes, 2007 will be history.

2008 is coming with its hopes of better days, of caught opportunities and blissful, happy events. For some, it will be just that; for others, it will be a long, sad and disappointing year. But there is always that hope that we are about to get rid of the bad and will find the best. And that, my friend, is the best I can wish for you.

My year was a good year. Maybe not the happiest one, but one of the best ones. I was finally able to find a job that was not a contracting position but a good, permanent gig. And with that came a new car. It was not planned, but it became a necessity since my workplace is on the opposite of where I have been working since I moved here in 2000. Some days, I wake up wondering if I am not dreaming and then I realize I am already running late and I need to get going!

One of the other important moments of 2007 is the mending of my couple. There are still lots to work on but things are much better today than a year ago. The fact that we played with fire, got burned and have a baby on the way might be for something. That was not planned or even talked about. I was thinking about conception for next year, not birth! The baby should be here in late May, although I keep thinking it will be more like early June. On January 16, we should find out the baby’s sex and then we’ll think about a name and plan whatever registry we’ll have and plan our families’ travel.

The new year brings also lots of good intentions. Yeah, I am talking about the resolutions…  Last year, my only resolution was to go on a diet and lose the extra tons I need to lose. Diet and exercise lasted for about 10 days. This year, I absolutely need to do something about it. I am not getting any younger and I need to take better care of the body. Even more now that the second child will soon be with us.

I had hoped to do some traveling in 2008. That will not happen for some quite obvious reasons. I doubt I will be going back home this year. I may have to go to New Jersey, depending on what’s going on with my uncle. But hopefully, I’ll be able to take a few days off before the birth, and even that looks shaky. We’ll see in due time.

As for the blogging part, I will hopefully do a better job than what I did this year. The Journalspace debacle did not help much but also the continuous drama going on over there got to me big time. I am pretty happy with this new space. Hopefully I will get more people to come around and for those who make the long trip from JS to come and see me here, thanks a million! Part of the wish to travel more was also to get to meet some blogger friends. I will be quite happy if I could meet at least 2 of them.

Anyway, I wish you all and your families a very Happy New Year 2008 and hopes to always see you around.

Till then…

A tradition moved over

Every year, just before bringing in the new year, I would post this as a sort of retrospective of my year in blogging. I had found it from someone’s blog and liked it enough to make it mine.

Of course, I’ve been here for such a short time and posted so little that I am using the material from my other blog. Hopefully I’ll be able to use the stuff I posted here instead.

What was the first line from your blog the first day of each month in 2007?

January: Well, here we go again.

February: I have not posted anything the past few days just because I am finding it difficult to write.

March: Stolen from someone:

April: It was like an atomic bomb was dropped in our department.

May: I saw this posted here and thought about all the JS flight attendants.

June: Ripped off from angelmud’s:

July: A little prayer on this Sunday…

August: Rejection.

September: Well, not quite and not yet…

October: And after several tries at this, I don’t feel like wasting any more time on the subject.

November: My new home

December: Coupon Redeemed.

There. The tradition was somewhat kept. I hope next year will be a better one, blogging speaking.

Till then…

Merry Christmas!

Just in case I am not able to wish it to you tomorrow!

Till then…

Shopping, Aliti style

‘Twas the week before Christmas and no gifts had Aliti bought. The mere idea of going to a mall on a Sunday was absolutely something I did not want to do, so I sat at my computer and about 45 minutes later, done! Ok, there is one item that I’ll go directly to the store, just because there is one close by home.

Shopping this year was frugal. I am so very lucky (for now) that I have a daughter that does not ask for impossible things like a Wii or a PS3. And contrary to her old man, she still has toys she received when she was just a baby. If I had a toy and it  lasted more than 3 months, that was considered as a miracle.

I took care of the wife’s present Friday and I think she will enjoy it. She might be disappointed because it’s the only thing I got for her, but I don’t really feel in a very giving mood these days.

The only thing is that there are a couple of very dear friends and I have no idea what to get for them. Well, it’s the case for Cha. Dee, I know what I want to get for her but she already said she didn’t want anything. It’s a little over my budget, but darn, it’s for Dee! I will hold out for a few more days and hope I can get a deal on what I have in mind. If not, I can always rely on her favorite, some Veuve Cliquot champagne…

It is horrible and sad that we’re so close to Christmas Day and I feel so indifferent. We just need to get over it and move on.

Till then…

Kwik-E-Fingers?

Today at 10am, Ticketmaster will open sales for the Hannah Montana tickets in Miami on 1/31/08.

Will I be quick enough to grab 3 tickets?

Do I know what is going to happen in a month and a half from now?

But one thing that I do know is that if I get the damn tickets, there will be an absolutely happy 4-year old in South Florida!

Till then…

Edit: Although I was trying with 3 computers, I never got anywhere close to getting any tickets and the show was sold out in less than half an hour. Too bad. Better luck next time, I guess.

Party time!

Today, the day started rather bad. The Big Boss’ secretary was having printing problems and I ended up having to take care of her. It was a nightmare since the beginning and after getting so many people involved, she seemed to be in business again. Until I got a call about an hour later and I had to rush back to see what was going on. After more poking and tweaking, everything was satisfactory and I left happy to have taken care of that for good.

Today also was our department’s end of the year party. I was a little skeptical since the beginning about the whole thing, because I thought there wasn’t a whole lot of interaction between the “4th” and the “5th” floors. In fact that is not true at all, it’s just our section that happens to be a little anti-social.

Anyway, we were assigned to take care of dessert and I brought in 3 pumpkin pies. I also had decided to participate in the Secret Santa exchange and I had drawn a male choice, so I had to find something suiting for a male. I did not want to get in the gift certificate thing because I know some people would rather have that so they can get whatever they want, but I find it highly impersonal. And since I love pens, I got a beautiful 3-pen set in blue so it could be used either by the man who was going to receive it or to the woman who would receive it as a re gifting gesture.

Everything was supposed to start at 1, but I guess for some it was going to be somewhat late so we got the call at 12:30. Catering was provided by Boston Market and I could not stop thinking about my daughter and how happy and surprised she would have been if she would have been present. (BM is her absolute favorite place, just after Panda Express.)

Right after lunch, the gift exchange started. The first person picked up one of the biggest presents on the table and got a desk lamp. He didn’t seem too excited with his pick, but that’s what he chose. The second person who was called picked up my gift and it was a woman! I knew that the instructions given did not make any sense and I was not unhappy with the choice I made. Zee was called a couple of names later and picked up this gorgeous Grey Goose set, with a liter of vodka and a beautiful shaker. She was excited about her pick but kept saying that she didn’t drink vodka. When my name was called a little later, I didn’t go for a big box, because I knew the limit was of $25 and just because the box is big does not mean it’s a better item. When I picked up my choice, it felt terribly light and if I could, I would have kicked myself in the ass. As I opened the package, I was wondering what could it be and it was a $25 Visa card! Free cash! Yeah!

Now I don’t really know how this usually works since it’s the first time I get to participate in such an elaborate event, but the rule was that if you picked a gift and someone after you liked your present, they could steal it away from you and you get to choose another gift. But you can also steal someone’s present, provided they were still up by the podium. Also, a present can only be stolen once. Sounds a little weird, but those were the rules.

So, I am standing there with my $25 card and I am thinking about what I can and will do with that money when a lady comes up and starts looking around what we had in our hands and decides that she could use the cash and steals my card! Ugh. What to do? I don’t want to get stuck with chocolates or soaps; and I like Zee but her present is the best one so far out there… And as a horrible mean guy, I steal her present! So Zee is unhappy, the ones behind me who were salivating and could not wait to steal her present are disappointed and I triumphantly go back to my seat with my trophy! I could see the looks of envy but once again, I did not make the rules and it was the luck of the draw…

In the end, it was the right decision because none of the other gifts were that nice, except maybe for the sushi set. One lady got a wrench! What kind of a twisted person would do such a thing? Granted that as I said in the beginning, we had to pull a gender out of a hat and we were supposed to buy a present according to the gender that was chosen. So this lady was hoping that someone would steal the wrench and that didn’t happen. And the first guy who got the lamp and was unhappy with it, ended with a dozen of golf balls and he doesn’t even play golf!

The rest of the afternoon was fun and games. Pictionary didn’t go too well for our team but it was fun nevertheless. Karaoke was a big flop, since the songs were not to everybody’s pleasure plus the fact that lots of people had left, having full bellies and presents for some. But someone had their own version of the 12 days of Christmas, so yeah we went ahead and sung it. For those who are really into this, here it is:

On the 1st day of Christmas my true love gave to me A helpdesk for you and me

On the 2nd day of Christmas my true love gave to me 2 server farms

On the 3rd day of Christmas my true love gave to me 3 Go Lives

On the 4th day of Christmas my true love gave to me 4 Cerner apps

On the 5th day of Christmas my true love gave to me 5 Token Rings

On the 6th day of Christmas my true love gave to me 6 apps in downtime

On the 7th day of Christmas my true love gave to me 7 kinds o’ wristbands

On the 8th day of Christmas my true love gave to me 8 WOWs a’ workin’

On the 9th day of Christmas my true love gave to me 9 Citrix servers

On the 10th day of Christmas my true love gave to me 10 barcode scanners

On the 11th day of Christmas my true love gave to me 11 printers printing

On the 12th day of Christmas my true love gave to me 12 P1s open

I know, pretty lame but to us, it’s stuff we deal with on a daily basis and it was fun to make fun of it.

There was a last raffle but I didn’t get any of the gifts. The only one that was really nice was won by someone who really needs it and I was very happy for her. Before the end, we were told to see our managers and I thought it was to arrange so we could leave early. Instead, we got gift certificates for Target. So in the end, I did get some free cash to spend!

Zee was still a little upset with me but she did invite me to go to happy hour with her and other people from the IT department. I ended up having to bail out early but in all it was a pretty good day.

Oh, and that printer I was talking about in the beginning of the post? Yeah, well it’s still acting up and I get to go back on Monday and check that sucker out again. Bummer…

I think this has been the longest entry I’ve had so far here. Not bad, not bad…

Till then…

Till when?

People say you have to work hard to make a marriage work.

People say the hardest part is quitting.

People say you must explore every avenue and give the couple every chance to succeed.

Fine.

But when is it that you really realize it’s time to go? When do you realize what you’re doing is not working out and that you are wasting everybody’s time?

Did those who bailed out were cowards or lazy? Did they really try to make things work?  Are they as happy now as they were when they first fell in love? Or are they faking it for whatever reason?

I have no idea and no answer to those questions. What I know is that there are too many unanswered questions and no one has the right answer. And that sucks big time.

Till then…

Seasons? What seasons?

One of my daughter’s favorite things is to ask her parents to tell her stories of when we were little. More often, she would ask me to tell her the stories at night when she’s going to sleep and I’ve come to a point where I am running out of stories to tell her.

A couple of nights ago, I got some holiday music from the Dominican Republic and in an effort to expose my daughter to her quite varied cultural background, I told her stories about my Christmas experience in the DR.

One of the things was that it was the time where some fruit would pop up and it wouldn’t be Christmas without apples and pears. During the rest of the year, we had to make do with oranges, guavas, mangoes and other fruit considered as “exotic”. The fact that those fruit were off-limits the rest of the year made Christmas even more special.

Now, things are different. Apples can be found year round. Same for pears or grapes. And I was quite shocked to see cherries in December.

Cherries.

A symbol of summer thrown in my face at the end of the year. Sure, they are not as big and plump and juicy as they would have been in July or August, but I just had a handful of ‘em.

I don’t know if I should be happy or sad about it.

Till then…

(Holiday?) Blues

It’s Friday night and instead of being all happy because of the weekend, I am feeling different shades of blue.

It’s quite funny, because the mood is set for an intimate evening with a dirty Martini and the chilled sounds of SomaFM’s Groove Salad ambient station. Everybody else is finally in bed and the first floor is all mine, although I am nicely settled in my “Command Center”.

I guess, now that I think of it, is that I am feeling quite relaxed. I have been riding this ambient wave for a few months now since it’s the only music that can really chill me out. Until I get tired of it and move to something else…

Actually, I do feel the holiday blues. The tree has been up for 2 weeks and some people have Christmas decorations outside their homes, but I don’t feel the cheer. I haven’t done any of my Christmas shopping and I don’t really feel like doing any shopping. I did go to the mall last week, but it was just out of sheer necessity to find a pair of shoes and since I was with my daughter, there was no way for me to go and check the toy stores to get what she asked Santa. I guess I’ll have to do it tomorrow in hopes that I can find the Hannah Montana stuff she asked for.

To tell you how much I am not into this Christmas, there is an issue at work where I might lose my spot for being on call Christmas week and I will fight with all my might to keep my dates because I want to be able to do something for New Year’s. Even if it’s just having a drink. I was not happy when I first heard I was on call for that week but I figured it wasn’t such a big deal after all since what I really enjoy about Christmas is seeing my daughter opening her presents. In past years, I have been the slave in the kitchen but months ago, I said I was not going to do any cooking. And as much as I want to really believe that, I know that’s where I’ll end up December 24th, after a full day at work. *sigh*

In normal years, at this time of the year, we’d be really cold. Well, for South Florida standards. Tonight, we have the A/C on. While it’s warm enough to go to the beach, some people out there are under a blanket of snow. Is it a selective global warming? I don’t know…

It is very early or at least it is for me and yet I feel so tired. Actually, I woke up tired! :-D  Maybe I should go to sleep and try to catch up on some zzzs. Too bad I ran out of fuel…

Till then…

There MUST be something in the water…

Is it the season or something else, but there has been a tremendous wave of violence in the South Florida region. Cops getting killed, people being shot at, people being assassinated and many other atrocities.

Tonight while watching the news, there was a story that hit very close to home. A  man and his girlfriend on their way to work, stopped at a drive-in ATM to get some money. An individual with a mask and holding a gun suddenly appeared and demanded the money and the wallet. The victim gave him everything and the low-life bastard shot the guy in the chest before fleeing with $60 in cash and the guy’s wallet.

Ain’t you a stupid asshole now?

The victim leaves behind 3 children and a girlfriend. The robber most probably will face the death penalty if he’s ever caught.

All these lives scarred because of $60? Yes, times are hard and money is getting scarce, but it that a valid reason to kill someone? As the victim’s brother said, losing $60 is annoying but did he have to pull the trigger too?

The guy who was killed could have been me. Not because I was at that bank around that time to get money from the ATM but because I do stop once in a while at a drive-in ATM to get some cash. Although the bank is at the corner of a very busy intersection, there are places where someone could hide and attack me. And once again, it is not the fact that I know I stand to lose some money but the fact that nobody knows what is going through a robber’s mind. Take the cash, take the wallet but for Pete’s sake, walk away from the car and leave me the flip alive.

I guess I should think about another way of getting some cash than to stop at the drive-in.

Till then…