… and the weekend begins. I am celebrating the kickoff of the weekend by sitting in my cubicle, among stacks of unfinished work, well past the clock-out time of 4pm or even the overtime clock-out time of 5pm. I am killing time right now, doing nothing of note for the moment, awaiting my 6:45pm appointment five miles down the street at the Modified. My belly is still full from lunch, Justin is working, no friends are available to hang out with me in Phoenix tonight, and there are no movies around here playing (that I want to see) that fit within my time frame. So, I sit here and browse the internet, finding new blogs to read and catching up on others that I have all but forgotten about.
Last night, I was in Tempe, eating dinner with Brandon and Andrea at Pei Wei. Brandon asked me what was going on (he had been all but uninformed on the last three weeks of my life due to his Pacific Northwest adventure) and I filled him in on my schedule, even though it is regularily monotonous. However, it is a progressively responsible and productive monotonous, not Eleven Hour Plane Ride monotonous. Basically, right now I have some stories to tell and some goals to get to, and I’m not really concerned about making new stories in the meantime. Translation to many people who have asked me “Where’s Jeff in all your recent blog posts? You used to be so open”: I am boring right now, and I like it that way. Nothing different is happening. Brandon commended me on my discipline of late, as he knew some things were important.
But, just so we’re all on the same page, if you’re really interested in what’s going on with my life right now:
- I work 10-11 hours a day at University of Phoenix. I sit in a 6×8 cube with four foot high walls. I am a Finance Counselor, but am interviewing for a couple different positions within the company, as I have been here almost a year. I need to spice it up a little, kind of like a Caucasion’s salsa.
- I often stay 1-3 hours extra each day on top of those 10-11 working hours to do my homework. I am taking online classes, majoring in Information Technology with an emphasis on Visual Communication. This also helps me avoid the five o’clock traffic jam on the I-10, and all the gas-guzzling soccor moms clogging the streets in their SUV’s.
- I am still gay, yes.
- On weekends, I generally work an additional 4 hours overtime on Saturday morning. The rest of Saturday, I am much like you. Sometimes, for kicks, I will get my car washed, buy groceries, do laundry. That sort of thing. My shopping adventure for this weekend begun at Superstition Springs Wal-Mart at 1am last night, purchasing new work shoes that were desperately needed as well as American Recordings V, the final album from Johnny Cash. The. Most. Fucking. Depressing. Album. Ever.
- Usually on Saturday evenings and most all day on Sundays I plant my fat ass at a coffee shop and work on my book. This is what I meant earlier when I said “I have stories to tell, and am not too concerned with making new stories.” The new book is either entitled Avenue of the Giants or Over Israeli Skies or Peace and Destruction from the Ramparts at Damascus Gate. I haven’t decided which yet.
-I am studying for my .NET certifications. I am studying right now on basic and intermediate SQL love, but then onto the MCSD and MCSE. Yes, I am getting both. I am doing this in addition to my IT classes. The idea is to get another job within my company six months from now or so after I get those certs.
- No, I am not moving to Seattle or Portland right now. Yes, I was offered a job in Seattle making less then I do now with no free school, and yes, Justin and I went to Portland and we both fell in love with the city — for me again, for him the first time. No, neither one of us — schooling wise or finance wise — are ready to move just yet. Right now, my main focus is getting my certs and my degree — the degree for free — while working for a company that I can continually move up in and make more money in the more certs I get. Yes, I dislike Phoenix for the most part and I overtly hate the summers — however, I am in no hurry to quit free schooling and good money here to go get a gig in Seattle where I have to pay for school and struggle to pay my bills. I moved past that. That was called being 19.
-With my loathing of Phoenix firmly implanted into your minds, I am now writing about the city here.
-There are other writing projects. Project Forever (with its horribly un-updated MySpace page) is still existant; and supposedly Tim Trainor is mixing spoken word excerpts from PF’s initial offering, “Churches, Pubs & Hostels.” In other news, Dave Hart and I are still writing a short story compilation on the side of my other book project. Dave is also putting out a new Dreamerswell zine …. go get one, because Dave rocks, damnit.
-I am still apart of Monsuun.
-Maybe, maybe once a week if I’m able, I hang out with my friends Tim, Brandon, Arica (who had a fascinating discussion about why Starbucks baristas ask for the spelling of your name on the cup), Randy and Ryan.
-I make every effort to go and spend time with my grandmother. I don’t get too as often as I would like, but I love her very much and think of her very often. I hope she knows this. My grandmother takes priority over you.
Posted by sharoute 
