The Simple Things

Now that I've got a year at this new job of mine under my belt, I think I've had enough time to pinpoint my favorite part about my job. My lunch break. The job's not bad, it's just this is the first job I've had where I get an hour away from everything work-related. It's a pretty good feeling.

Most folks at my office take their breaks and get their lunches and hunker down at the desks and maybe chit-chat or do something important or I don't know what, but they stay at work. Not me, I do whatever I can to spend my break away from anything work related. That's why my lunch break is a good thing. What makes my lunch break even better is this:

Who's that handsome man? The picture is from last fall, and yes, it was casual Friday. About three miles from my office is Lake Ridge Marina, where among other things the local high schools play crew(?), practice crew(?), participate in crew(?)... hmmm. It's where they go to row. And it's exactly right in every way.

At lunch time, there's usually not too many people there. Sure, there are always a few people fishing... although I've never seen anybody catch a fish there... ever. There's usually the one parent with two or three kids disturbing the peace of the geese or creating a duck ruckus. And, rain or shine, warm or cold, there's always the guy with the sporty blue car, throwing a yellow plastic toy into the lake for his big brown dog to go fetch it. But all in all, it's just quiet and peaceful.

A few days ago, there was a new person in the mix. An artist - easel and all - had set up shop right where I usually sit. At first, I was a bit annoyed as I had to sit a little farther away than normal, but now I think it's kind of cool. I don't know who she was - nor am I all that curious - and the painting may not amount to much, but for me, it shows I'm doing something right. I found a place I like and somebody else liked it too. Yep, it's the simple things in life.

Now, when it rains, I go to Subway. They don't have "employees," they have "sandwich-artists." Ah, the simple things... the simple things.

Go United!

I'm hooliganizing.

It's been and slow and steady process of rising interest, but this year I've finally blossomed into the full-fledged passionate soccer fan I was bound to become. DC United is my team of choice, but lately it hasn't mattered much who is playing, it's just exciting to get to see the game. This summer, between the Confederation Cup, the Gold Cup, and the World Football Classic - or something like that - there's been plenty to watch and plenty to get excited about.

I blame my liking for the game on three things. First off, Steve Goff. The Washington Post's Soccer Insider keeps me up to date on the latest from all over, and he does so two or three times a day. It's great. If only I had something to write about two or three times a day. Anyways, I really don't think it would be the same without him.

The second reason, and arguably the biggest, is video games. I gave up on the University of Duffy and my $3 NCAA Football '05 about a year ago and took up FIFA '08, where I've lead Leeds United to glory and fame. My team is great and a few weeks ago I bought a kid name Danny Szetela, last week the real life Danny Szetela joined DC United! Oh, how I love it!

And the biggest reason in my opinion, it's what I played, and loved, as a kid. Sure, I played out dreams of hitting the buzzer-beating three-pointer or making the impossible catch to win the game, but my numero uno dream was to grow up and play for Team USA in the World Cup...

I can picture it now... (cue the non-descript European accent)

It has been an improbable run through the early stages of the World Cup this go around. The Americans have been the talk of the tournament as they have surprised everyone with their play. The team has been out-matched by every opponent they have faced, but have found a way to survive. And it's one man that all these teams have fallen victim to, one man that has carried this team on his back, one man that has the world fearing the USA soccer...

That one man would be me. John Duffy. It's kind of crazy but this summer, I think a handful of Americans are actually living that. It's so exciting for them. World Cup 2010 is going to be great. By then, maybe I'll have grown from soccer-fan to outright hooligan, but we'll have to wait and see. Until then, Go United!

Home Alone

AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

That's my Home Alone scream... you'll have to use your imagination.

It's true. I'm home alone... and trying to keep from getting lonely. Tiff's busy watching a house with many pets, which leaves me busy watching a house with one, our cat. I often think of my cat as more of a dog and not just because she plays fetch, but she'll follow you around like a dog would. And she always greets me when I come home, which is nice. All pets should do this; it's great to come home to someone who's excited to see you.

Unfortunately, the It's-Great-to-Have-Home Welcoming Party, which makes my cat above average, lasts a bit too long. After I come home and get settled, maybe watch some television, read the mail, call my wife, and start to cook dinner - mmm... hotdogs - it seems like the focus of the Welcome Home Celebration has perhaps switched. The center of attention is no longer me but it... said cat. Which makes me wonder if it was ever really about me at all.

Whatever, I think there's a lesson to be learned from it. It's great to be happy and excited and grateful and even loving, but there is a point where it gets to be too much. It's important to practice moderation.

So far in my home alone-ness, I've been trying to keep busy, at which I've been - wait for it - moderately successful. This evening I believe I've broken up my To-Do List fairly well into two categories. There's the Probably List, full of all those things that if I had to guess will probably be done at some point this week. I'll probably get around to doing the dishes. ...maybe tomorrow, who knows? Then there's the Probably Not list. It would be great if I cleaned out the garage to the point where I could park my car in it, but realistically will that happen? Probably not, but hey, ...who knows?

I feel as though this is a good first step. It's an acknowledgement that there are only so many hours in a day and I am only human. Plus, it ain't easy being Home Alone. I mean, I've already lost my voice from all the screaming...

AHHHHHHHHHHH!!

Running the Deserted Night

So it's 12:30 in the morning and I can't sleep...

I don't think any blog post anywhere has ever recovered from an opening line like that, but here we are. It's been awhile since I couldn't fall asleep, but somewhere between lights out and now, I started thinking about my old job working with juvenile delinquents. I use to replay incidents and scenarios in my head all the time and rework my response until I figured out how best to respond. It's probably a similar process to little kids when they're first starting to talk, talking in their cribs or beds or whatever, trying to sound out words and phrases. That's what I feel like at least... Except I'm usually yelling in my mind for them to shut up. In my mind they usually do! But, there's nothing like yelling at kids to get your blood pumping.

I guess the point is, Counseling did not exactly come naturally to me, so it's probably best that I've switched jobs entirely.

Anyways, I also wanted to comment on a movie I just saw... another auspicious start to blog posts. While I'm eager to see the new Harry Potter - my wife and I have been rereading the book aloud this past week - I just saw a movie that was surprisingly cool and wonderful and all around just a great movie, Running the Sahara. It's this documentary about these three endurance runners who set off to run the entire length of the Sahara desert, some 4300 miles of barren sand dunes, and what they encounter along the way. They did it with no days off for well over three months.

It really is quite spectacular to watch somebody accomplish such a huge undertaking. It makes me wonder what I'm up to with my life... if such a feat is in my cards. (As always, I like to bring the focus back to me.) The landscape was also both devastatingly harsh and insanely beautiful, so I've added to my list of places a place that I thought I would never have wanted to see. The desert would be amazing, especially the Tenere Desert, but how cool would it be to see one of these.

Money Can't Buy Happiness

I still haven't won the lottery. Not yet anyways. I stopped playing it all together for awhile. I said I was going to take a year off from playing, and maybe then I'll start back up. Yeah... that was about two months ago. My numbers didn't hit last night. Maybe next time.

I often envision what I would do if I won a huge jackpot. My daydreams don't get much further than the first day or two. First off, I have hard time guessing what my initial reaction would be. I can't picture myself as someone who would hoot and holler and scream to the world, I won!! I don't think I'd jump up and down like I just spun a $1.00 in the Showcase Showdown on the Price Is Right. It bothers me a little that I might not be that excitable. I'll probably never have to worry about it though.

One of the things that I keep coming back to is that I would want to leave work without anything on my desk. I'd like to stay for a couple of days to make sure I didn't leave any work for anybody else. I doubt that would actually happen, but it's a nice thought and I think it portrays me positively... which is important.

I've told myself that the first thing I'll do when I win the lottery is get a massage, but I've recently had the realization that I probably could have paid for a massage or two with all the money I've put into the lottery - all my $1 contributions to the fortune gods who keep me daydreaming and wondering what-if. While the one massage I've had, which was on my honeymoon in Jamaica, was absolutely amazing, I'm not sure one massage a year could replace the weekly 5 minutes of anticipation and excitement as well as the constant daydreaming that comes with the chance of winning millions upon millions of dollars.

After the first couple of days though, I imagine I'd get really bored.

Time Flies

Today my new car rolled over 15,000 miles, which means I drive about 15,000 miles a year... give or take 221 miles or so. That's right, my brand new car is a year old and sadly, it's lost that new car smell. Similarly, tomorrow will mark my one year anniversary at my job, but sadly, I still have that new guy smell.

While I admit that I have a growing fear that I'll show up at work in the morning to a little formal pink slip and the line, "this past year hasn't quite worked out," I think I'm good to go for at least another year because if this past year has taught me nothing else, it's that time flies.

I mean, I've already lived in my new house for four and a half months already!! And I still haven't gotten around to finishing up the bathroom. That's for another day though, because we love our home.

The neighborhood's a different story. It would be the perfect place for us if we had an 8 year old boy, but as it is I find myself becoming something of a grump. The kids are probably great, as our the non-kids, we just haven't found the right clique or social-code or whatever. Right now though, I'm just resisting the temptation to go out and pick up the basketball by my front door and yell out, "You see this basketball? It's mine now!" to nobody in particular. Then take it inside muttering, "That oughtta learn 'em."

I know I shouldn't though. Tomorrow's another day.

My Youtube Friend

Yesterday, I couldn't find anything interesting on the web, so I started reading through my old blog, which I'm sure is the only reason why you're here... boredom. I'll admit, I'm a little bummed with how it has trailed off so, and I even had the thought that maybe I should write something else. But I couldn't think of anything, until...

This morning I woke up and sleepy-headed and bad-breathed checked my email. I got four emails all from Youtube. I get emails from them every now and then, usually comments on my Coin Pusher video - now that was Good Clean Fun. Today though, not only did I get two comments for my Coin Pusher, I got my first (of many) subscriber and my first (and probably only) friend request. Here's his latest video:

Enterprising lad. He's hawking arcade coins... for $10 a pop. Now that's a true coin pusher.

Anyways, I thought I'd attach a video of myself as that last video wasn't about me at all. It was filmed in the last days of our old apartment, and it's officially the first in a series but so far it's one-of-a-kind. I guess this is like its pilot episode and I'm waiting to see if it will get picked up for a few more episodes.

I don't know about you but I think it's brilliant. (Thanks to Tiff the Editor by the way.)