El Blog de Los Amigos

Day Nineteen:
Monday, May 12, 2008
I’m grateful for the little things that might go unnoticed otherwise.

Now, I am saving several things for the end of this little gratitude experiment of ours — and I can say “ours,” as there are quite a few of you folks who have joined in on the fun. Groovy stuff.

The thing that I didn’t realize is that it can become harder to keep it original as time went on. The obvious stuff I’m saving for the end. But in the meanwhile, I have ten days to go, so here’s a quick list of some stuff I might not have devoted a whole “thank you” to:

• Extra bits of change in your pocket, or “mystery money”
• Hearing your boss bragging about you when he has no idea you can hear it
• Making someone laugh
• An idea that makes it though to completion
• Bacon
• The person today who was polite enough to let me get that parking space at lunch
• You

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Day Eighteen:
Sunday, May 11, 2008
I’m grateful for day games.

I baked in the hot sun, and sunburned my knees. Humiliating, but well worth it. I love watching baseball, especially with my wife and in-laws. It was a spur-of-the-moment thing, heading out to the park, but a good day. Gorgeous weather. And the only thing that sullied it was a Rangers loss (their first in six games).

Still doesn’t feel like baseball season, though. There’s still hockey going on.

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Day Seventeen:
Saturday, May 10, 2008
I’m grateful for new acquaintances that I may never meet.

In the last fifteen years (!), I’ve made countless new friends through this ridiculous set of tubes. There was the Generation-X Discussion List, the P-1 Roundtable, the Dead Laszlo community, the Save Farscape crowd, and the Can’t Stop The Serenity crew.

The Gen-X bunch are the ones I’ve become the closest to — we’ve made road trips, taken vacations, gotten ridiculously drunk and lived vicariously through each other. Even as the list mutated into the Whatever-L group, we’ve still remained in touch. And we’ve gotten older together. The list traffic now talks about the perils of laughing when your child says something wildly inappropriate, or the way to attack medical ailments. We used to go on about underwear and purity tests.

I used to maintain a microsite about the original group, but that’s long gone now. We’ve matured moved on. Even in the Virtual World, that happens. But I’m still grateful for every person whose life touched me, even through a collection of electrons on a screen.

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Day Sixteen:
Friday, May 9, 2008
I’m grateful for laughter.

My status as a Stars Fanatic is well known around the Camp Carpenter offices of CBS Radio. So, as the Stars have advanced in the playoffs, my almost religious fervor has been a little hard to contain. Which is fine… until the Red Wings decided to show up on the doorstep and get that damned “Big Red Machine” thing going.

So, every time Chandler (Jack & Live imaging) walks by my door, he pokes his head in and yells “Go Wings!” I immediately respond “Bite me! Go Stars!” The exchanges are now autonomic. I sense his presence and issue a pre-emptive “bite me” that causes everyone around to bust out laughing.

I don’t even think Chandler likes the Wings.

But, the bottom line is, as everyone joins up in trying to poke the bear, it just gets funnier, more absurd. People try to slip a “go Wings” in to conversation. Stealth heckling. And we’re all laughing our heads off about it.

It’s great tonic for a high-pressure environment. Camp Carpenter is certainly not the textbook definition of a stress-heavy workplace, but we all know there’s a lot riding on everything we have on our action list. That’s why Chandler’s little volleys across my bow are so welcome. They break me, and those around, out of the funk we may be experiencing and allow everyone in on the gag. The more, the truly merrier.

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Day Fifteen:
Thursday, May 8, 2008
I’m grateful for peppers.

I understand there are quite a few people in the world who don’t appreciate spicy food. Who would almost want their food to be bland. Who think of something like garlic, or cilantro, or cayenne in wholly negative terms.

I feel sorry for those people. I really do.

Maybe its an extension, a projection of my personality, but I crave spicy food. When I’m getting a burrito at Freebirds, the guy behind the counter glares at me wide-eyed as I tell him to keep dashing the habanero sauce on. (In fact, the though of that made me mouth water just a little bit. Must be lunch time)

Sure, you need to try food un-spiced in order to get the “natural flavor” of it. Set the base line, if you will. But after that, lay it on, sister.

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Day Fourteen:
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
I’m grateful for my legion of cats.

Between Manda and myself, we have five cats. It’s lunacy. They eat us out of house and home, destroy items at will, leave us both bleeding and scarred at times… and yet, they’re indispensable.

After a long, nasty day at work, the negativity bleeds away when Petrol starts making figure eights between my legs. Watching Shamrock leap six feet in the air to chase a bug that’s outside the glass patio door is more entertaining than half of the scripted programming on TV. When Revlon scolds me for not coming upstairs sooner and skrinching her head, it melts my heart. If I’m sick (or lately, suffering from a tension headache from HELL), Kieran will sidle up next to me in bed, attach himself to my outer hip, and purr me to sleep.

They’ll make things a lot more difficult when looking for the next place to live — pet deposits are nightmarish, and we’ll likely never be able to go back to an apartment — but getting rid of any of them is not even an option. They’re members of our family. Our absurd, over-the-top family.

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(Okay, I know these were supposed to be daily. They will be from this point out… or, at least, that’s the plan.)

Day Eleven:
Sunday, May 4, 2008
I’m grateful for the ability to drop everything and hang out in a backyard with some of my friends. Especially when the backyard is an off-site parking lot for the American Airlines Center, and the friends are Stars Havoc Fanatics.

Tailgating for a hockey game with these guys is a treat — we’re starting to get to know each other, and the little inside jokes are beginning to creep in to conversation. On top of that is the deep desire to repeat the experience we had two weeks ago, where the Stars closed out the first round of the playoffs and advanced. Tonight, the team is poised to put the San Jose Sharks away and move on to a Western Conference Finals matchup with the Detroit Red Wings. It really does feel like 1999 all over again.

Day Twelve:
Monday, May 5, 2008
I’m grateful for hot tea — it helps my voice. Screaming for six hours will take its toll on you.

Overtime hockey is a blessing and a curse. While it’s some of the greatest drama in American professional sports, it is just nerve-wracking. I lost the ability to yell in the second overtime, though I was able to roll out another a capella “We Will Rock You” for the section in the third overtime. hence my need for tea today.

Day Thirteen:
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
I’m grateful for Annie.

This is all her idea. She got into blogging the exact same way I did — by following the example of Wil Wheaton (truth be told, it started with a bet she made with Wil and Shane Nickerson, where I just thought Wil’s blog was a cool idea). When her mother died of cancer in January 2006, she wrote one of the most moving, honest pieces I read that year and (even though I didn’t tell anyone) it spurred me on to attempt to be more open, and open myself up more, in my writing.

So, thanks, Annie. Having never met you, you’ve made an impact in my life. Funny thing, these beep boop Intar-Webs.

Elbow and send.

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Day Eight:
Thursday, 1 May 2008
I’m grateful for added wisdom in later years.

Bad day today. Got into a shouting match with someone at work whom I really enjoy, and the repercussions from that won’t go away quickly. (Job’s not in danger by any means, but it will be a little more difficult.) At the end of it, after stifling a torrent of screaming, I grabbed my keys and phone and stormed out of the building. Got in my car.

…and did nothing. Just sat there. Because I knew that if I didn’t pull it together, in a modicum of a hurry, and really lost it, it would start a downward spiral that leads nowhere good at all.

Instead, I did some deep-breathing exercises, tried to find my center, and went back inside. Apologized to Aaron and the other folks who caught the tail end of the debacle. And went back to work.

Don’t know if I would have been able to do that five years ago. In fact, I guarantee I wouldn’t have three years ago.

Day Nine:
Friday, 2 May 2008
I’m grateful for the gift of improvisation. If I didn’t have that, the Jack “Win An iPhone A Day In May” promotion wouldn’t be going nearly as well as it is now.

When technology fails and you’re stuck with keeping things together with bailing wire and chewing gum, you do one of two things. Let everything fail and hope you’re able to shrug convincingly, or figure out some other way to make it work. Two days in a row, we’ve been able to do exactly that. Devin FTW.

Day Ten:
Saturday, 3 May 2008
I’m grateful for a day where I’m not working, where the weather is perfect, and (after getting caught up with last night’s “Galactica” and “Doctor Who”) the only thing I need to pay attention to is the sound of the wind ruffling the leaves.

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Day Seven - 30 April, 11:02 pm:
I’m grateful for my job.

I work far too many hours, for not enough pay, with limited resources… and yet, it is the most enriching gig I’ve ever had. Being the Web Services Director for Jack and Live has always been challenging, sometimes infuriating, often overwhelming… and amazingly rewarding.

Just a heads-up: if you listen to 100.3 Jack FM in the month of May, you can win an iPhone — we’re giving one away each weekday. This is a promotion my team — web services, program director, promotions department, sales and upper management — put together in 24 hours. I’m reminded of Scotty telling Geordi how you get the reputation of being a Miracle Worker: you tell your captain it’ll take X amount of time, then when it takes half that time, you look like a genius.

A promotion like this should have taken BARE MINIMUM a week to properly plot out, engineer and execute.

Miracle Workers.

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Day Six - 29 April, 11:32 pm:
I’m grateful for playoff hockey, and overtime wins. On a night where the Dallas Mavericks succumbed to what they believed to be inevitable, the Dallas Stars decided they were going to write their own story. Seven down, nine to go.

Meanwhile, I’ll be a little more grateful if the Colorado Avalanche could make a dent or two in the Detroit Red Wings juggernaut…

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Day Four:
Sunday, 27 April
I’m grateful for a lazy Sunday where the most I have to do is sit around and debate the merits (or lack thereof) of pulling the goalie to add an extra offensive attacker when losing a hockey game. Love my wife, I do.

Day Five:
Monday, 28 April 2008
I’m grateful for Excedrin Migraine strength pain reliever. Otherwise, I’d go lay down in the path of oncoming highway traffic.

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Day Three - 26 April, 9:43 am
I’m grateful for long walks with my mother-in-law.

Eighteen years ago, my mother-in-law Trudy beat breast cancer. Each year I’ve known her (and her daughter), I’ve walked with her in the Komen Race For The Cure 1k walk in downtown Fort Worth.

So, each year, we get up crazy early on Race Day, head down to Sundance Square, and we walk — Trudy, my father-in-law John, Manda and I. We walk with thousands of others. We walk with people with signs pinned to their shirts that say things like “In Memory Of My Wife Susan, Who Died March 21, 2008.” We walk with hundreds of cancer survivors and their families.

We walk because we believe — we know — that cancer can be beaten.

And, when we hit the finish line and there’s dozens of people camped out there, cheering on every runner and walker, holding up signs saying “Thank You!” that’s when it hits me. And I start crying. A lot. Because I am grateful, honored and humbled by the shared experience of walking with all of these people. Because I love Trudy — I couldn’t have drafted a better mother-in-law. Because I love Manda, and I want her to always be healthy, and to not have to go through what I did with cancer treatment thirteen years ago.

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Day Two - 25 April, 5:56 am
I’m grateful to not be single anymore. I don’t know if things were that insane when I was dating, but hearing everyone’s horror stories over the last couple of days makes me appreciate finding Manda that much more.

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Annie over at Jesus’ Favorite started a little writing assignment, and I really dig the concept. So, lessee how far this can get paid forward:

For 30 days, I’ll share something I’m grateful for. Could be anything - a photo, a word, a story, whatever. You do the same, both in the comments below and (if you wish) your own blog.

Annie’s on to something. I’ve often wondered if I express enough gratitude for the things in my life that make existence worth slogging through, and feel like recognizing ‘em improve your whole outlook on life.

Let’s begin:

Day One - 24 April, 8:35 am
I’m grateful for random “how’re you doing?” phone calls from friends. Two came yesterday when I really needed ‘em.

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At the local Apple Store, swapping out a Microsoft Office suite that doesn’t have Outlook support for one that does. I’m doing two things while I wait — typing on one of the new super-svelte aluminium keyboards to find out if the key depth bugs me (it doesn’t), and wondering if using a 30-inch Cinema Display is anything close to a religious experience (it is).

There’s a nasty conversation waiting for me when I get back to the office. It’s not one I really want to have with the station’s GM, but it’s necessary. Don’t worry — no one’s going to be fired or anything, but the volume might go up a notch.

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