One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

I feel I've gone quite a bit bonkers recently.

I suppose it boils down to a fundamental dislike of making Big Life Decisions and that, within the last six months or so, it's become clear we'll need to be making some of those BLDs. Let's rehash some key points, shall we?

I received a double promotion and started a new job in April. This was awesome because I hated the role I had been forced into and I was still making the same salary that I had been hired in at.

While the subject matter of my current role is more interesting, the primary fun factor of working in this department, and in this company, is the people I work with.

That becomes problematic when those people start leaving.

I'm tired of renting. We pay a lot of money per month to avoid the responsibility of home ownership. I'm starting to question whether that trade off is worth it.

The housing prices around here are nothing short of ridiculous.

The salary vs. housing costs vs. job happiness issues become more aggravating when I learned that some of my peers, with similar enough backgrounds, job titles, and current responsibilities as I, are making quite a bit more than me. I am not a greedy individual but I do not like feeling being taken advantage of.

I was informed that there really is no hope of me "exceeding expectations" this year given my new role is primarily research-based. I disagree with this. It also peeves me off because I've exceeded expectations for the last two years when, of course, there were wage freezes.

My friends are one of the most important components of my life and I love being around them. Unfortunately, most of them reside in Waukesha/Milwaukee, with a good number of others located around Columbus and Chicago. (I'm not forgetting about those of you peppered around Green Bay, Minneapolis, etc!).

I absolutely, unequivocally, passionately hate change. Also not a fan of large scale decision making.

So this rapidly becomes a series of fundamental questions: Should I stay? Should I go? If I go, where should I go? Unfortunately, the side effect of all of this is that if my future comes up in casual conversation, I start to become irrational and, well, stupid. I start reading too much into things, as if I can discern some hint of the decision I'm supposed to make through the current conversation. Quite frankly, I've forgotten how to be awesome and how to make awesome decisions and that drives me absolutely crazy. I think it drives those around me crazy, too.

I'd much rather feel awesome than feel crazy. Unfortunately, I think that might mean I have to seriously contemplate what the hell I want to do with my life.

Or I could just have a drink and procrastinate on thinking about BLDs some more.

Auto Fail

Sometimes I fail at being male.

Unlike most of the guys in my family, I'm not mechanically inclined; changing a burned out headlight is about the extent of my car "repair" skills. Apparently, now I can't even do that right.

I went out to dinner Tuesday night with some senior leadership from work (I'll save those details for a separate post) when I noticed one of my headlights was out. The next day I popped the hood, took out the bulb and went to the store to get a replacement. Once returning home, I put the new bulb in only to find out I had erroneously removed the bulb for the brights instead of the regular headlight.

*sigh*

Of course, the two require different bulbs so I returned to the auto store the next day to get the correct one. Success!

However, that doesn't end the story. What happens next? MoPo tells me one of my brake lights is out.

ARE YOU FREAKIN' KIDDING ME?!

So, over my lunch hour today (since we're leaving for Columbus right after work), back to the auto store I go...

-KP

The in-between.

Today marks a very important date in my summer—it is officially the midpoint between two of my most awesome (and perhaps drunkest) weekends. Factor in the Green Bay scrimmage game and I’m truly having a pretty spectacular August.

Last weekend MoPo and I hightailed it out of IL for our 5th annual Team Vodka/Team Captain camping excursion. Those who know me realize that when I say “camping” I really mean “pitch a tent, build a fire, and drink all weekend.” There is very little actual camping involved (especially since we were rained out on Friday night this year and slept indoors). Amongst this year’s Rated PG highlights:

I’m a beer guy. Ever since MoPo’s oldest brother coaxed me into overdoing it with Jack and Coke, I haven’t been one for mixed drinks. I decided to break the mold and live dangerously and drink mugs of Captain & Coke. Let’s just conclude that liquor definitely takes a different toll on KP than beer does.

The copious amounts of Apple Pie did not help. But oh were they so delicious.

I got my second wind Friday night after “rudely” being awakened by two of my closest friends and their spouses, who somehow managed to stay up far later than MoPo and I. Everyone was finally asleep by 5am.

I’m surprised I didn’t kill anyone with the super-sized bull horns I found laying around the neighbor’s garage.

Most of Saturday involved sitting around the pool, recuperating from the night before (unusual in the sense that Fridays are normally our low key night). Pool time probably sounds awesome and relaxing, right? Unfortunately, the mosquitoes were simply atrocious. I got bit so bad that I look like I have the chicken pox.

This weekend we are hightailing it out of IL once again to visit JC & P* and their new house in Columbus. This is one of those things were I’m uber-excited that things worked out for them like they wanted, but at the same time things have been notably less fun around here since they left. For instance, it doesn’t really work having your work spouse be your real spouse. Having a work spouse in addition to your real spouse leads to far more fun (and frustration—I can’t forget about all that frustration!).

Now if I didn’t have to drive through that horrid state of Indiana to get to them…

-KP

Wait. I have a blog?

I am rather listless tonight so I thought perhaps giving some attention to this tremendously neglected blog may help pass the time.

This weekend proved to be a splendidly good time. On Friday evening, I proved once again that there is a higher probability of me hitting a bull's eye than hitting the gosh darned 20 when playing darts. Alas. Then MoPo and I went up to Green Bay to visit a very awesome individual who we don't see as much as we should. Oh, yes... there was also a Packers scrimmage game that the three of us then attended.





Being Family Night, Lambeau had some post-scrimmage fireworks to ooh and ahh the kiddies.



However, as the fireworks were choreographed to music, we had to high tail it out of the stadium once they played the horrendously awful Justin Bieber (whose "talent" I've avoided like the plague). This turned out to be OK because we were outside by the time the Glee version of "Don't Stop Believin'" came on:



Actually, I'm not even sure this particular picture was from "Don't Stop Believin'"; if not, we can just pretend it was.

So August is proving to be one of those rather full months, chock full of excellent activities and fun friends. This is not a complaint. I am lucky to have plenty of awesome friends (though some of them have committed a most heinous act of betrayal by moving far, far away!). It just reaffirms, however, that the work week is far too long and dull.

-KP