Changes

I never know if the decisions I make are ever really the right ones. Once, I make a decision I rarely remain confident in that decision either. I adapt to the situation  at hand and make the best of it. Adaptability has brought me very far and continues to make me successful. It's hard at times to readily accept the next chapter  and challenge. I manage though. I am not sure if taking this new store was the right decision. I say that only because I was taken out of my comfort zone. I was coasting on past successes and I was fine with that. Now, face with different expectations and different standards I have to adapt and change myself once again. That's what good managers do. That's what good leaders do. I know these moments of doubt are temporary and fleeting and it's good for me to get them out of my head. This to shall pass. I will be great because I am great. It's not arrogant if you can back it up.

The Ratchet Ness of Ant

I've been wanting to write  something for a while but could never find a topic. My mind is a jumble mess again. I always find it odd at how I can be operating  at two ends of the spectrum  simultaneously. I am at peace of sorts and yet at the same time out of balance. Is God the answer? I feel like it is. I miss being in a church, a good church. My cousin is a new believer and a pretty strong example of how far faith can take you. I need to start praying  again.

I also think I am pretty lonely. Recently,  one of my old flings just got married and let's just say she was not the cream of the crop. Not only that but I had one of the worse one night stands of my life. Typically, I wouldn't  hold back and share all the intimate details but even I think this situation was pretty ridiculous. I had a what the hell are you doing with your life moment after it was all said and done. I started to do the online dating world again. It so damn interesting the information  we put out there about ourselves  to try to foster any tidbit of a connection. I wonder how long this search will last before I am side track again. I am really going to stop  easing around with crazy women this year. Aren't they all crazy though?

Insomnia spurs review of 2014

It has been one hell of a year to say the least. My brother committed suicide. I celebrated a year of sobriety. I got the promotion that I wanted and a couple of  raises too. I spent some time in Florida with Kevo and Joe. I turned a job down with Walmart. I started school again. I met some interesting  people and I  regained some old friendships. I got a new car. Those are just a few things I can think of.

One of the things I have been really trying to grasp lately is the need to be satisfied. Happiness is something I will never find in something or someone. The year has been trying but it was filled with a lot of hope too. I think that this year's experiences has taught me some real key life lessons. Life has definitely made me a man this year. I thought that my grandmother's death in 2013 was the hardest thing I could go through. I was wrong. Losing my brother has given me a relationship and love for my nephew. It has made me reach out with more consistency to  my brothers and mother. It has made me find strength when I thought I was all tapped out. My friends or family that pulled through and donated time and money for me was the greatest gift of all that came out of that tragedy. I know that I am truly loved in this world. That is one of the best things a guy can ask for. I hope 2015 brings less hardships but if it doesn't, I know I am prepared.

School Daze

I've been laughing every time I walk on campus. The whole thing feels very surreal almost like a daze. I just remember  being on this campus of literally thousands of students and sticking out of the crowd. It's not like that anymore. I am an attention  whore and proudly admit it. This time though, it feels kind of good not to be in the spotlight. I keep my head down and do my work. I try not to talk in class unless I am forced. Even when I do I try to keep my participation to a quick and direct answer. I know my college experience is over. I'm not here to live the dream, I'm here to get that degree and move on. At times, I feel myself wanting to enter the fray  but work has been keeping me pretty busy. I juse like to stay busy nowadays. Writing all of this helps me keep the junk out of my head. I wonder where I would be if I never dropped out of school all those years ago.

Pseudo Relationships Part 2 (Updated post from 2009)

Pseudo relationships are a blight on my existence. Most relationships I have had with women tend to be of the pseudo persuasion. There are several pros but soooo many more cons to these kinds of relationships. The cons tend to be a compromising of your character i.e., a tendency to do things that go against your very nature in order to please the female in your pseudo relationship, a need to be the emotional pillow for said female, also an inherent loss of masculinity. The pros I feel are not really pros but false positive things we tend to make up in order to deal with the pseudo relationship. One of the biggest false positives we have is making up this reason that talking to the person gives us a sense of fulfillment that we could not receive anywhere else. Personally I think its bullshit. Another false positive is just having the token female presence in your life is sometimes good when you’re constantly in a sea of testosterone. The problem with pseudo relationships doesn't stem from the relationship themselves but from the people. The people that tend to get involved in these types of commitments are, let’s face it, pussies and I am talking about men and woman.

We all have problems and we try to find another person that can help us cope with our own bullshit while helping them cope with theirs. As I said before we use these particular people as emotional pillows while fulfilling that physical need with someone else. We enjoy the conversations and just genuinely being around that person so much that we won’t do anything to mess it up. Society today has been so compelled to put a label on something. However to do that, we feel we can upset the delicate balance that so many people in pseudo relationships work hard to establish. Another thing is that maybe the feelings are completely one sided and it seems like the other person likes us and likes the attention, the calls, the texts, the Facebook comments; when in reality they simply just like the attention. We, however, are so caught up in the possibility of them liking us that we are too blind to see and again we don’t want to ruin what we do have. We don’t want to turn the situation into something awkward and destroy the friendship. So we put up with it. Basically folks I am saying you’re damned if you do and you’re damned if you don’t. It honestly depends how long you can stomach the situation.
That is all.

I wrote that in 2009 and wow how relevant is it today. I think this time around the difference between the man who wrote that article and the man I am now is that I don't put up with that shit anymore. I am told old for that nonsense. I believe you are in a relationship or not. I have way to many friends. We all try to satisfy that emotional need in various ways when we are not in a relationship and it is pretty unhealthy if we allow it to be. Even the friends with benefits situation is a slippery slope. It depends on the person if you can have the physical without the emotional but depending on who you are, it aint easy. The point to this all is that be honest with the person no matter what. I also changed the name of the blog, my sponsor thought it might be time.

Happiness

    I do not really sleep well anymore. I think a majority of it has to do with my weight but there is another part that has to do with my state of mind. Sometimes, I feel like I am like a spool of thread that is beginning to unravel. I know many of my friends would probably say that I've been that way for years now. I do not write as much on my blog because I often do feel like I do not have anything to say anymore.
    My brother and grandmother are dead. I do not have any love aspirations. I am a workaholic. I am still sober and I am currently enrolled in college again. It seems like a wonderfully monotonous life.
     I think I am going to start writing more regularly. It would help with my writing and it will help empty out the random ass thoughts that get stuck in my mind.

My brothers eulogy

First and foremost I would like to take this time to publicly thank my friends that have held my family up in prayer and donations. As a result my resolve to make it through this lost has remained fortified.
This was the hardest thing for me to write the various emotions were at times overwhelming. No words that I could pen were good enough. No memory precious enough. No brotherly analogy powerful enough. I couldn't decide whether or not to blame family members. I couldn't decide whether or not to voice my anger at him. I couldn't decide to whether or not really let myself feel this pain.

It finally occurred to me the lost feeling that has been resonating in my being was from the realization that a piece of my soul has forever been removed from this world. Even right now as I stand here the thought that wont relent is not my brother. At my brothers worst I couldn't help but love him. Devin had a beautiful soul and to know him was to love him. My family has always had more drama than a Spanish soap opera. We could never agree on a solution for my brother, however the commonality that we shared was our love for him.

As a brother if i had the power to remove the obsession of drugs from his heart and mind, I testify before God that I would have done so. My brother lived a tragic life. No one in this room will ever know the daily pain that he carried with him. No one will ever know the overwhelming pain in his last moments.

The lost of my brother was a wake up sign and a call to action for me. Dereck and David I promise to you never to be distant and to always love you no matter what. I will be your champion and protector like I should have been for mumu. To my nephew and niece you lost your father but you gained three more. and you will not want for anything as long as there is breathe in our bodies. To everyone here let his death awake and fortify the loose bonds in your own families. Let his death be the push you need to seek help for drugs and depression. Let my brothers death not be in vain but to echo throughout eternity through the breaking of the shackles of addiction. Remember him that's all i ask is to remember him. Thank you.