Jake’s Life

Well here it is. The end of 2007. I look back and so many things have happened this year, both good and “bad.” I thought about making a list to blog but decided it’s best to keep it personal. No offence, fools!

I hope everyone has a safe New Year celebration. Please, people, please…use common sense when you’re out. There’s going to be a lot of crazy drivers and crazy people out, so don’t be one of them. And be safe!

Well the move didn’t go quite as planned, but it still went. A buddy helped me out with most of the furniture on Friday night, then I went back a few more times for smaller stuff. I finally got to bed around 5am after unpacking, then at 8am the next day I went back at it. I made a few trips to the old house, got my old car towed away, and finished clearing what was mine out of there. On the way back to the new place I looked around and saw that it was Saturday night, everyone was heading out, and all that was on my mind was getting the eff home, unloading, showering, and going to bed. I finally crawled into bed around 9pm, and now that I’ve had a chance to slow down, I really miss Sandro. He’s been in Cancun since the 22nd and with all of the packing, moving, and unpacking I really hadn’t had a big chance to stop and miss him.

Just as a side note, it’s amazing how much storage room my car has when you fold the back seats down.

At around 3am my roommate Danielle comes in the room and wakes me up, evidently because a group of people are fighting outside. About five people are yelling and pushing about fifteen feet away from our window in the parking lot. I’m no Superman at this hour, so I call the lovely agency that enforces this area:

Me: “I need to know if you’ve received calls about a fight in the parking lot of [address], [apartment name].”

Dispatcher: “Stand by…no we have not.”

Me: “Near building D-David in the Northwest area of the property, five that I can see, three male, two female, two vehicles, one female is yelling to ‘get off her,’ and one male is hitting another male. No visible weapons or injuries, a big yes on HBD, been going on for about five minutes.”

Dispatcher: “Where on the property are they?”

Me: “Northwest area near building D-David, two vehicles parked out front.”

Dispatcher: “And how many of them are there?”

Me through gritting teeth: “Five that I can see, three males, two females.”

(one of the cars leave)

Me: “One of the cars have left and it’s quieted down now, but a few more are still near the other car. Could I get your guys to do a quick area check?”

Dispatcher: “If they’ve left what exactly would you like them to check for?”

[pause]

Me:”What?”

Dispatcher:”What do you want us to check for?”

Me: “Anything related to the fight I just reported? A stab victim on the grass? People on foot? I thought an area check was to check an area to see what you can find since you never 100% know what is going on. If you’d like I can do it myself and call you back.”

Dispatcher: “I have two deputies enroute.” [click]

I have to say, through personal experience, I have never been impressed with my interactions with this agency. I know, I know, each agency has their weak links, and generally a department is a group of pretty cool and professional folks with a few asses mixed in here and there. Out of the twenty-odd members of this agency I have met, only three have been even professional to me, and only one of those two courteous.

This is one of those post-graduation conundrums. As a part of self-reflecting, one must think about the time they’ve invested in something and the return they have gotten–or likely will get–from it. Do miss school? Oh, hell no. Am I glad I did it? I am, but it wasn’t solidified until about ten minutes ago when I received a fairly nondescript package by UPS.

Well today I was planning to surprise Sandro with a day trip, then he found out, then I found out I had to wok, but we still went anyway. I took about 30 photos and took video of us driving back and admiring the shrimp stands, so stay tuned!

I heard back from that apartment and my app was approved, so I’ll be moving in effective the first of January. Between now and then I have a lot to do, mainly packing and de-cluttering (the new place doesn’t have much storage room, so I pretty much have only my bedroom to keep things in).

I’m off to sleep. Packing later.

Sorry folks, finding a place and selling a lot of my stuff has been taking a lot out of me the last few days…I just got around to approving everyone’s comments this morning. It won’t be like this for very much longer though, and I do plan on communicating with those who have e-mailed me. BTW, Eliot, shoot me an e-mail and I’ll explain why I edited your comment.

I’ll be publishing my rinky-dinky blogroll awards soon too!

I think I found a place. It’s in one area I was looking in which brings me closer to Sandro and other friends. It’s with two girls that would prefer to live there for a while, a relatively safe area (no area is 100% safe), and the apartment looks big.

When I first stated my current job this was my patrol area and I’ve been to this complex before, but it’s usually pretty quiet. It has the usual apartment home stuff: Fireplace, balcony, storage, parking, weight room, pool, hot tub (not sure about sitting in others’ juices though), etc.

I’m trying not to put all my eggs in one basket, but I think this is going to be the place. The current roommates have already paid the deposit so all I have to worry about is rent.

The other night my landlord called me at work and let me know that he is going to be renting the house to a family instead of more individual roommates and gave me thirty days notice. While I can understand, this doesn’t leave me much time. Thirty days has never been enough time for me, simply because I am the kind of person who would rather plan ahead for something and take it in stages instead of all at once.

So far I have looked at one house, met with another potential roommate, and sent dozens of e-mails on Craigslist. The cat is a big turn off, so I’m having to combat that. Anyway, one house I looked at was a nice house, but one room smelled like it had been smoked in for twenty years, the roommates seemed very stand-offish, the owner slimy, but the room was nice. The street was dark, the nicest car on the block was a mid-90’s Eclipse with iced out taillights. That place is out.

I had lunch with a potential roommate, and there’s a story to this one. She’s really nice, but while waiting for her I was doing some calculatin’ and realized that even penny pinching I wouldn’t be able to afford living with her, even though the area is spot on where I am looking. I called her and let her know but she still wanted to meet Sandro and I. I want to be up front and say that she seems like a great roommate. Her personality though is, and I hate to say it, too uppity for me. She’s very happy and bubbly, and I don’t know if I could handle that daily. She told me that she has a great feeling about me, loves the gay thing, loves the career field thing, and isn’t worried about money. While many people would jump at the chance for that, it makes me very uncomfortable. It’s hard for me to accept money from people in my life, let alone a stranger and for months. She said that as long as I paid close the amount that she can cover the rest, because God put me in her life for a reason.

In between looking for a new home, I’ve been posting CL ads to sell a lot of stuff my roommates have left behind: Queen and full size futons, desks, tables, TVs, a camper shell, book shelves, and some other stuff.

Stephen over at Inside Stephen recently admitted that he has been doing some reflection on his position lately, and so has Closet NS. I have to say that I have been too, and without their posts being catalysts. I am looking at two things, which are related in many aspects, and a third that is always looming over my head.

Finances. While the Holiday Season overtime is nice and certainly helps any time of the year I hate having to take away from sleep or my time with Sandro to be able to save money or just have enough to get by. With student payments looming over my head on top of other bills I’m going to be heading into rough times in the coming months.

Last year I was in a similar spot and looked at my monthly income. I owned my car, paid very little insurance, downgraded my cell phone plan, got rid of my storage unit, and took care of some other things to bring monthly expenses down. This year I’m looking again, and have financed a brand new car, pay twice the amount for insurance, will now have to pay student loans (an extra $138 per month), as well as having my rent raised. I also need new work boots and contact lenses. All of my current bills are mainly based on need or obligation and therefore cant be realistically eliminated.

What I have done is look at my daily spending: Starbucks twice a day on work days means $132 per month, on top of my stops at fast food and convenience stores while at work. That’s my loan payment right there and then some. I’ve also canceled a few…ahem, web site subscriptions…which should add about $40 per month.

Work. Travel to and from is perfect (a take home car would be better though!), and despite the previous work issues I’ve had the atmosphere is fine now.With my shiny new degree I would also like to be able to tap into more of my potential and continue upwards. Its the money that is killing me, though. Which leads me to my third item.

Fitness. I’ve covered it before but not recently, and that’s my issue! I need to test for a better job, but the physical area is the worst for me in the testing process, specifically core strength and pushups. Yeah the test isn’t that many but for me it seems very daunting. There’s really only one way to combat that though!

Every other blog in Google Reader has a title with “Thanksgiving” in it. Geez, is nobody thankful for what they have all year long? Or do you guys just not show it all year and make up for it on one day a year that you pull your head out of your ass? Well, onto what I’m thankful for:

I’m thankful for my grandmother, Gammy. She has been with me through more shit than anyone else has been.

For Sandro, who puts up with my bullshit when I’m moody, comforts me when I’m in pain, and loves me for who I am.

My friends and co-workers (often one and the same) who stick with me and haven’t given into the shit going on at work.

My job, which pays my bills. Many people don’t have them, often because they don’t want them bad enough to go get one.

And my kitty, who loves me unconditionally because she knows she would starve without me.