fanTAGstic

This isn't really the format of this blog and this is really difficult for me to mess up my structure with a post like this, but I guess these are the rules, so here's my tag, but I'll try to keep it light-hearted unlike my political blog where it would be a rant:

20 years ago:
1. After flunking out of my first college attempt, I came back to live with my parents and with two and a half years of self-imposed celibacy I was able to graduate from an even better school Magna Cum Laude.
2. Sticking to my guns about making school a "first" priority, when my girlfriend called me from jail telling me she was pulled over with expired tag, insurance and safety sticker on the 2.5 hour drive to see me, I told her she should call someone else because I had a test next morning. I haven't talked to her since.
3. Three semesters into my new improved school experience, I was sitting in Dr. Green-Luks office crying (literally) that a C would ruin my perfect 4.0 and there must be some way to fix it. Nope, she wouldn't help me, but a year later she died of an aneurysm, so maybe her hate got the better of her.

10 years ago:
1. Married for two years, it's strange how you can know you're the luckiest person in the whole world (those of you who know Jennifer will understand), but still not realize how lucky you are. I had no idea.
2. Moving into a new house, the world was our oyster. (what does that mean?) We were traveling (internationally!) and spending all our time (when I wasn't worrying about my new job) doing fun stuff.
3. We started down the path to parenthood and I was so scared because I thought it was going to be really really hard to be a good parent. I had no idea.

5 years ago:
1. Fat, dumb and happy I thought I would be working at Motorola forever even though there were layoffs every 6 months and my group went from 175 heads to 68.
2. Even though my marriage had hit a few bumps (understatement?), we were closer than ever and decided to have more children. Another decision that seemed difficult at the time, but in hindsight how could we have considered doing anything else?
3. I started paying too much attention to all the stupid things happening in the world. I never thought we'd elect a retarded president (my apologies to retarded people), and I never thought an incompetent and corrupt boob could do so much damage (the president doesn't really do anything does he?). I suppose I should be happy I just lost my job from this son of a bitch. Many many thousands of people lost their lives so I feel lucky to still have my family with a good place to live and a decent job.

3 years ago:
1. Still in denial, I thought I would be at Motorola forever even though my group was now down to 17 people. I was irreplaceable, so how could they even consider laying off me?
2. We were so lucky to have Kate, because now with a perfect set of children it's hard to imagine our family any other way.
3. Holy crap the retarded guy stole another election. Surely nobody voted for this jerk. Four more years of hell. He's probably going to ruin the only American industry still functioning (the housing market).

1 year ago:
1. Wow! Motorola doesn't really need me because they're not really interested in their own future. Duh! I already knew they were suicidal, so why did I think they would really keep people they needed?
2. Losing my job actually made me see I was placing way too much importance on it. I still get distracted every now and then, but I see that my marriage and my family are much more important. I guess I should thank the retarded guy for helping me focus more on my family. Wasn't that was part of his platform?
3. We have a new backyard with a swimming pool, a basketball court, a nice barbecue with a grill, refrigerator and a sink and a big patio with a fire pit. Oh god we'll be paying for this forever.

Yesterday, I:
1. I found out my old group at Motorola wants me to come back and do some work for them effectively paying over twice what they were when I was there before.
2. I played basketball and at 40 I can still play as good or better than I ever could (ok, that's not saying much). Shooting 60% from the three-point line with a really tall guy guarding me! (maybe some luck there, I'll admit)
3. Took Emma, Aidan and Kate to Tempe Beach Park to play in the water area. Kids are so cool.

Today I:
1. Today is 24 minutes old, so only this blog entry so far.
2. I plan to go to the gym for a body flow (yoga) class with my wife. I hope I don't wimp out.
3. Continue on our South Beach Diet where I've lost 16 pounds so far in 20 days. Jennifer says 13 pounds but I'm going from my peak weight two days before the start, not my first weigh in. If it gives me some more incentive, then give me a break.

In 5 years:
1. I hope I'm as healthy as I am today so I can be an active part of my family.
2. I'll come up with a new idea that makes lots of money. Maybe like this one; What if we privatized the mortgage industry and made Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac publicly traded companies?
3. Hoping we don't live in that movie Road Warrior since there won't be any jobs or gasoline or air to breathe or clean water or jobs or food or jobs...

Well, I guess I'm supposed to tag someone else now, but I don't know anyone else with a blog and I really only know two people that ever read this blog (sometimes), so this is the end of the trail which happens to be the meaning of the name of the town where I grew up in Oklahoma (Owasso = End of the Trail [of Tears]). Funny that I started at the end of the trail. I'm always doing things backwards.