Jake’s Life

Well, both of my roommates have moved out to go their separate ways. One recently graduated from dive school and is off to the water, the other was a bitch who could go anywhere as far as I’m concerned. The new roommates don’t move in for another week or so, which means I have the place to myself. They’re both guys, and one so far I know is gay.

The diver roommate who just moved out took care of most of the household stuff. The last two days I’ve felt somewhat like a newly divorced guy…but that’s besides the point.

My back pain is back…the muscles in my upper back are like rocks, and it’s the worst when I wake up. I’m going to keep my heating pad on it because the heat seems to help it. Honestly, it feels worse than after my big car accident a few years ago…but it hasn’t gotten so bad to walk the Troystopher road though.

Okay, mine’s higher than the picture. I’m not sure what happened, but the other day I woke up and my mid to upper spine was killing me. I was awake for a few hours, went to the store, came home, and went back to sleep. I wasn’t sleeping in a weird position or anything, just flat and normal. Nothing was sticking into my back. I wake up and I felt nearly paralyzed. I went all day yesterday feeling like that, and I woke up today feeling like that too. We’re on one night a week of mandatory overtime right now due to staffing shortages too, and which night do I pick as mine? Saturday. Of course.

It’s borderline excruciating. It hurts if I stand up straight, if I hunch over, so I have to find a sweet spot between the two to stay in. Every time I breath it hurts, and while I can turn my neck just fine, my waist is another story. I’m not really sure how I’m going to wear all my gear tonight, especially my vest.

I usually wake up around 5pm, and up until the loss of daylight savings time a few days ago it was light around that time. Now I’m back to waking up in complete darkness, which takes a toll on your perception of time. It feels weird, like my entire day is gone.

Night time is more fun anyhow.

I’m sure I already know who is going to respond to this, but I need a sounding board for a few things. They’re still processing, but once they’re done bouncing around I’d like for them to land somewhere. I know what my close friends feel about it but I’d like a few outside opinions on it.

E-mail me if you’re willing.

Don’t be fooled, I’m not in Cabo right now. But I am enjoying my short vacation from work. I go back Monday night, then go on my normal days off Tuesday through Thursday, and return on Friday night. I haven’t gotten away from work completely this week though, with the “anonymous” comments and e-mails through my web site that the Queen of the Damned sends and the short bout of clean up that I’ve done with a few things. I’ve also been e-mailing back and forth with our HR department about a few things that came up. Nothing major.

I’m picking up Gammy from the airport today and taking her to the grocery store to get her fridge stocked back up from her month of visiting in California. I’ve also spent the last three nights with Sandro, and likely tonight as well, which has been great. He brought over a “pig” (2.25 gallon keg) of beer filled with tasty Big E Brewery Scotch Ale.

I’ve got a few more things in the works to blog about, specifically the final post in my coming out story. It’s hard to round everything up and finalize it, but it’ll be done.

I am officially using vacation days from work right now. My usual Tue-Wed-Thu off has now been extended through Fri-Sat-Sun. I return to work Monday, then get my usual three nights off again after that. I should have used my fourth day for that Monday, which is sticking up like a wild hair in my calendar right now. I haven’t so much as called in sick since I have worked here,about 18 months now, and think I deserve a break. Unfortunately, the busy minds and mouths continue on while I’m away.

It’s also too bad that I’m not able to get out of town for a few days with Sandro like we originally planned, but we still get to spend time together this week which I’m going to love. And with my college career coming to a close (for now) and this time on my hands, once I finish my final project I am going to be revamping my resume, sending out some job packets, rearranging my room and decluttering, and overall try to work minimalism into my daily life. I live a bit minimally right now (financially) but nothing like I used to. I also need to start sticking to my workout routine, which is anything but routine right now.

Question: Would any of my readers be up for reviewing my resume once it’s finished? That excludes the people at work who read my blog trying to use their decoder rings found in Little Princess cereal boxes (you know, the kind with marshmallows) to find things to try to get me in trouble with.

Of course your name isn’t really Steve. I just wanted to let you know that it’s no mystery who you really are. Of course, and you know, that I would narrow your e-mails and comments down to one of two people: Faggy Bo-Jangles the Gay T-Rex (because you walk with your forearms firmly pointed forward yet your wrists cocked at a 45-degree angle toward the ground…ferocious!), or The Little Stick Of Dynamite Who Couldn’t (because you never actually seem to be able to do anything, and you tried to kill yourself and the six Tylenol PM washed down with Kool-Aid didn’t quite cut it…good-bye cruel world!).

“You can’t prove anything.”

Well, maybe not on my own I can’t. What I can prove is that I’ve received text messages which included death threats from a local cell number (Sprint/Nextel, I believe, but when my friend runs the account information at work I’ll know), e-mail threats (from specific IP addresses), and even though comments left on a web site aren’t “harassing,” they are from the same person and will be taken into account, except the text messages, who are from The Little Stick Of Dynamite Who Couldn’t’s friend.

“What sort of tirade are you going off on? Geez, I need some chap stick while I swipe at my nose a few times and clear my throat uncontrollably…”

How is it going to look having a no contact order against you? A harassment charge? Won’t that make work a bit uncomfortable? How are meetings going to be when you have an invisible 500 foot boundary? Will you be able to hear the person speaking? Will your schedule have to accommodate that? Or will they just get rid of you because it’s too much work, and would also look like they are allowing harassment to occur?

“Uh…[insert almost-middle-age gay giggles here].”

I know you can’t live off of just the little Island Rat’s pay. But then again you have so much training under your belt, so many certifications, and you are capable of so much more.

Well I had sushi with my friend today and was going over the things going on at work. I tell you what, I’m lucky I don’t have to put up with what he did. He was passed over for a position and when he voiced his concern his car was hit twice within a month inside their vehicle yard. Of course nobody copped to it (pardon the pun).

He’s a friend that I rarely see even though we live minutes from each other. Last time I saw him was when I first got my Scion in April, and believe me I let him know as soon as he got in my car today. But I always enjoy hanging out with him.

I went to get a haircut today. Usually I do it myself but my hair was getting a bit longer after the buzz I gave myself a few weeks ago so I figured I would go with the gay flip again for a while. I couldn’t seem to get across to the woman what I wanted, although to me “Straight clippers on the side fading up into a one and a half on top with it slightly longer in the front so I can flip it up” should have been enough. When I got the confused look I even said “Like a high and tight but not so high.” When I left I knew it wasn’t what I wanted but I wasn’t going to call her out in front of other customers…that’s what they make hotlines for. I got home and just looking in the mirror I can tell that I got a number one all over, the hair in the back is longer than on top because she never asked me to tilt my head down, and I count five spots where there are tufts of hair longer than the rest on the top and the sides. Now I’m working on using bare clippers all over so that I can start again to get this right in a few weeks.

Bleh.

One is good. Five is better!