Riding the Unemployment Rollercoaster

It's been nearly seven months since I pulled down a regular pay check. Man, if I didn't have my folks, friends, and my regular work outs, I probably would have climbed a bell tower with a rifle and made history by now.

That last few days have been strange for me, a kind of up and down that I'm not really accustomed to. It's not that good things and bad things keep happening to me. It's more like my attitude or outlook about something changes within a matter of seconds. For example:

1) I'm estatic that my Cardinals made it to the world series. I was in grade school when they went in '87 and I remember how great it was back then. Now I'm getting to relive this excitement once again. However, they are down 2 games and I'm beginning to worry that they might blow it. I'm so wound up about it, I can't bear to watch the game on tv, even though I know it's going to be a good one.

2) Holiday season means holiday retail jobs. There are lots of opportunities out there and I'm doing my best to take advatage of them. I've spent days online and in malls just dropping applications wherever they are accepting. I even got a call for Kelly services, a temp agency, that said that I stand a good chance of getting placed somewhere soon. But will it be soon enough? Apparently Best Buy doesn't want to hire me because I failed their online application/ personality profile.

3) Even though my girlfriend is really busy with school work, we still manage to have an evening alone together now and again. True, some of that time is spent helping her run errands and other mundane stuff, but it's time spent together and when you don't have a lot of it, you learn to appreciate its value really quickly. However, my unemployment has cast a caul over our relationship. She's frustrated with me mainly because she's never had this much trouble finding a job and she doesn't understand why I'm having so much trouble. I'm frustrated because I don't understand it either, and I'm a loss as to what to do next.

Maybe I'm no different than anybody else. Pure pessimists and pure optimists are a rare breed these days. Maybe we're all riding the same rollercoaster.

Verbal Punching Bag

I enjoy joking around with friends and loved ones and spending time with them. If that weren't the case, they wouldn't be my loved ones in the first place, right? And I understand during stressful times, sometimes they say things that they really don't mean, or lash out at others for no other reason than being there. It still doesn't make me feel any better being on the receiving end of a catharsis.

I'll try and remember this the next time I want lay into someone because I've had a bad day.

Getting Worried

My girlfriend's been running herself ragged the past few days. She's constantly tired, stressed about work and school, and constantly worked up about how far behind she is in her work. I'm confidant that she knows what she's doing and that she'll pull through all right in the end, but it's hard to watch her put herself under all that stress. I wish I could just pull her to the side and take her away from all this for a weekend, but with her show fast approaching, that's going to be next to impossible. I just wish there was something more I could do.

Breaking Bricks and Other Stuff

Today I did something that I never thought I could do. I broke an inch thick concrete patio block in half with my bare hands! At the end of October, there is a tournament in Appleton and so the Sifus are putting us through our paces to gear us up for competition. There will be three events-forms, point sparring, and breaking. Both the kids and the adults practiced our forms and I was pleased to see how far along all of us have come. Of course there still is much room for improvement, but the tournament is three weeks away and I'm sure that I'll be able to work out all the kinks before then. But the real fun was when we broke out the boards and bricks!

First, we did the one inch boards. We had practiced on a plastic break away board before, but this was the first time we actually went through wood. I was amazed how easy the plank broke. I didn't even feel it when I threw my strike. However the brick was another story. It's almost four hours after the fact and I'm still feeling as I type.

It really was just mind over matter. I just focused my energy into my palm and with a downward strike, I directed it through the brick and split that thing in half. Both the broken board and brick are sitting in my trunk. I know it's silly, but I just had to take them as souvenirs. If nothing else, I can use them to remind myself that anything is possible.

All You Can Eat Beef

Wow!

Last weekend is one to remember. A couple of buddies of mine had the ultimate party weekend. First we drove down to Chicago to eat at Fogo de Chao, a South American steak house where many different varieties of meats were constantly being brought to your table. We were all a little overwhelmed at first because the second we asked for service (indicated by a red/green chip on your table) our table was swarmed by five servers at once. And the food was absolutely amazing. The filet mignon literally melted in your mouth, and the garlic beef was to die for. Never in my life have I eaten a steak without some sort of steak sauce, but to put sauce on any of this meat would be a grievous insult to the chefs there.

After we stuffed ourselves, we headed back to Milwaukee and hooked up with my girlfriend at our regular bar. My girlfriend must of had something weird for dinner because her pool game was amazing. Out of the eight team rounds we played, we won seven. Normally, I'd love to take all the credit, but the journalist in me compels me to stick to the facts.

It was a great weekend, and I have to thank all those involved for making it so. You know who you are. ;)