A long, long time ago I used to try and think up projects for my friend Mel to do to annoy her boyfriend Lance. Naturally she rarely did any of them and most I can’t remember, but there was one that I always wanted someone to do. It’s too late for me as the next person I live with will be able to withhold sex for stunts like this, so I’m posting it here in the hopes that someone will be inspired.

Get a brand new pair of shoe laces. Flaunt them in front of your roommate, don’t even open them. Wait for a few days, leaving the unopened package on the coffee table. Talk about them, blog about them, sing their praises. After a few days, go ahead and open them. Play with them for a few days. Tie them, untie them, have fun. Don’t put them in your shoes.

Get a second pair and repeat, only do it faster this time. Open them on the second or third day. Get a new pair the next day and open this pair as soon as your roommate see you’ve picked up another pair. Keep going until your roommate says something about it. Stop doing it in front of him but don’t stop buying shoe laces. Hide it from your roommate, but do it really poorly. Deny, deny, deny.

Keep going until there are shoe strings everywhere. Fill drawers with them, the cupboards, the fridge. Keep denying that they’re yours. Complain to your roommate about his shoelaces being all over the place.

When you’re in danger of losing your roommate, get rid of all the shoelaces in the place, including the ones in his shoes. Tell your roommate you had a problem but your getting help. Refuse to talk about it further.

My god it’s an amazing day out today.? Sunshine, blue skies and close to 70 degrees.

When I was at Lee University, towards the end of my first year, I remember sitting in a large park next to Cross Hall with a few friends; Sabrina, two Jennys, Bill and Joe.? We had a few guitars, a few books of literature and poetry, a large blanket and great conversation.? I remember sitting there with my friends and knowing that it was a special time, I knew that it was precious.

Its rare that we know a moment is special at the time it happens.? The events we look back on with nostalgia are often the smaller, everyday things.? I guess that’s why I never gripe about running errands with the people I love.? We don’t have to do anything to make a memory; a trip to the grocery store is enough.

I want to make a memory today.

So I’ve had a pretty good week.? I won’t go into all the details here as some of it’s personal and some of it I’m just not ready to go out on a limb and talk about publically, but I will give my two (count ‘em two) loyal subscribers a taste of my good week.

While my week at work started out pretty rough it seems to be ending on a pretty good note.? Things started off with some bad news coming across the email.? Another supervisor and myself approached the issue the same way, but only I was called out for our approach.

After seeking advise from various sources I decided to respond via email.? It wasn’t that I was called out but rather the public nature of the reproach.? I explained my point of view, accepted responsibility for my actions and patiently waited for a reply.? When it came it only escalated my anger.

I didn’t really take any action until the next morning when I went and spoke to the sender of the email.? After a brief conversation we saw each other’s point of view and apologized for our part in the situation.? When I returned to my desk there was an email apologizing for the incident that was sent to everyone who’d seen the original exchange.

Yesterday afternoon we had the first of what will be a weekly meeting with my operations manager.? I voluteered for a couple of tasks that no one else wanted to do and my willingness to help out was quickly noted by my boss.

I’ll briefly speak of another issue quickly.? I’ve been horribly single for quite some time, and though I can’t say things have completely changed, I have met someone I am quite excited about.

So good things are happening.

My good friend Mel sent me two (count ‘em two!) Keep Austin Weird bumper stickers. One was applied to the Saturn while the other is proudly displayed on my fridge until I get a new car. The mailman bent them, but in fairness I did have the screen door locked when he tried to deliver them. (I have a mail slot in the door.)

I’m spending the greater part of this week in a training session for work. I find it odd that in a effort to teach me how to lead my team, some nine months after I started doing it, I’m removed from them for three days.

We’re meeting in what seems to have once been a suite at a hotel room in Knoxville. The room is freezing in the back and absolutely sweltering in the front, the chairs uncomfortable and the subject matter horribly dull. I spent the afternoon playing with the pipe cleaners they’d supplied to keep our hands busy.

All in all it’s a horrible way to spend the week, but the good news is I got coach of the month. Too bad I’m not at work to enjoy it.

….my friend joe. we met at lee ‘college’. i remember the day i met him in the old dining hall. i still wasn’t sure what i thought of him when he followed me back to my dorm but soon discovered i’d just found one of the closest friends i’d ever have….

it was only a few nights later that i ditched my drom-mate and moved into a room with joe across campus. joe and i started a fake frat together. we annoyed lisette in the language lab and the writing lab. we made fun of a few people and got on countless people’s nerves. all in the name of fun….

i can’t remember what happened between joe and i. there was a missunderstanding about a flight at one point, but that couldn’t have been it. joe was my best friend through some of the best days of my life and i have spoken to the chap in close to a decade.

i miss you buddy, so tonight some toad the wet sprocket is in order….

joe had a girlfriend his first year at lee but it didn’t work out. she then dated our friend chris. one afternoon we were at chris’s apartment and he and the girl left joe and i there. we decided to move all of his furniture out onto the front sidewalk and set it up as if it was still in the apartment.

when chris and the girl returned they took things in good humor. in fact the girl wanted to go get a camera for a picture. the went off to get the camera and while they were gone we put everthing back, locked the place up, and left.

after i dropped out of school and got an apartment near campus joe spent most of his time at my place. one holiday weekend he crashed at my place. my roommate’s girlfriend sent him a box of cookies that were to be waiting on him when he got back to school from visiting her. joe and i ate the cookies…and opened the card….

joe was the kind of person who would go ahead and do things that probably were not a good idea, just to have the good story to tell later on.