Life: August 2011

Feel free to listen to this while you read, it will set the mood

Yeah, it sure has been a while since I updated this thing, too many times I've sat down at the computer to write a quick entry only to be sidetracked by something else. Quite a bit has happened since my last update so here's what I have been up to.

***Disclaimer**** this is going to be pretty long and I will more than likely ramble on for too long but whatever it's my blog assholes!

It's been two years. Two years since I first put up my Facebook status of "This job is going to kill me, I can't take this place much longer." That very day is when Perks sent me a Facebook message telling me that he works for an awesome company up in Vermont and that I should check it out. Two days later I was emailing him my resume, I'd had enough of Connecticut and decided that I could finally make the move to Vermont I always dreamed of. Next thing I know I have a phone interview, and I must not have sounded like too big of a dipshit because they invited me up for a sit down interview. There it was, the chance I was hoping for, the chance to get out of Connecticut. Let me just give you a bit of a background about why I was so ready to get the hell out of there.

First was my job. While I worked with a few great people for the most part I was really unhappy. I was forced into a transfer to a branch I did not want to go to, away from a branch that was very successful because of the great team we built. I had a 50 minute commute daily, so the little bit of money extra they gave me for transfer went right into my gas tank. Ever hear of the term paycheck to paycheck? Yeah that was me. Not only was I living paycheck to paycheck, but I was often times scrounging for change under the seats in my car so I could buy a dollar whopper junior from Burger King. Next was the social life, or lack there of. I had my best friend Matt (who worked with me at the successful branch, nothing like working with your best friend) and my roomate FatMike (his real name is Joe, but it's a long story)but he had a real bitch of a girlfriend who somewhat turned him against me toward the end of our time living together. I was about a year removed from one of the more serious relationships I've ever been in. It was very difficult to get over due to the fact that the girl lived a mile away from me and went to all the same places I did, so it wasn't easy to avoid and forget. I was basically trapped in the same never ending cycle. Work like a fool for 50 hours a week and get paid for 40, drive home and either go to the gym, go eat some chicken wings at Archie's or come home lock myself in my room and play video games. I needed a change.

So, I pass my phone interview (which I didn't mention was in the closet of my old job as I was at work at the time) and got invited for a sit down on Sept. 7th. I drove up for a long weekend and spent the night over at Perk's house. The first thing that I realized was, "holy shit this place is far from Connecticut". We were driving up 91N and as we finally merged onto 89 I thought we were close, little did I know we still had another hour plus of driving to get to Burlington. The sights of a mid September drive to Burlington are beautiful, just cool enough where some of the leaves are starting to change and the air has a crisp smell to it, I knew this is where I wanted to be. The morning of the interview Perks took a long lunch and we had a hamburger downtown to discuss how it would play out. I didn't mention that day was a particularly hot day in Burlington and the result of us walking around was me sweating like a whore in church and not because I was nervous, but because I am a walking carpet. Finally after sitting in the waiting area for 10 minutes I was walked up to the interview and knew I had to really kick some ass to get the job. The interview was with the director of the department,the three team leads and a woman from HR. Lets just say I was nervous and as I drove home to Connecticut I was lying to myself saying that if I didn't get the job I wouldn't be upset.

That following week was miserable! I was texting Perks every hour asking him if he knew anything, asking him if he had any updates for me and he of course had none. I was told when I left I'd receive notice on that Friday whether or not they wanted to make me an offer. Fast forward to that Friday at 3:30pm, I'm standing in line at the bank to make the daily deposit and an email hits my phone. I saw that it was from the HR woman and my heart almost jumped out of my chest. I didn't even know if I wanted to open it because I was scared it was going to say sorry pal you're a dipshit have a nice life. I decided to open it while I was waiting in line, I literally had to read the line "We'd like you to come work for us, there is an offer included with this email" three times. I had one of those moments, I'm sure almost all of you have had at least one of them in your life where you felt like you had just won at the game of life. I started shouting,"YES YES YES I GOT THE JOB." I guess i didn't realize that this is not the typical bank behavior (the bank just had bulletproof glass installed at the teller's windows because it was in a very bad part of Hartford) because the security guard walked over to me grabbed me by the arm and told me that I needed to calm myself down or I'd be escorted out of the building. I don't even remember making the deposit or driving back to my store because I was so caught up in the fact that my life would be changing. I made a quick call to my mother, she gave me her blessing telling me to "Go be happy, there's nothing holding you here" and that's when I really came to the realization that I was on my way. This was on september 15th, I had the choice to either start on Sept 21st or to wait until the next training class which was October 30th....I wasn't waiting a month to get the hell out of Connecticut. I let HR know I'd be there on the 21st six days from the date I got the acceptance letter. I put in my week's notice, used a week's worth of vacation for my second week and packed my shit inside my Accord and was on my way. I still can't believe that I had it in me to literally pack the stuff I could fit in my car and leave the life I knew for something completely new.

I could reiterate what I've done in the past two years that I've been here, or instead you could just read my older entries and relive those moments while they were still fresh within my head. Right now I'm just going to compare what life was like before I got up here to what it's like now:

Work- Work truly is amazing. I work for one of the best companies in the United States, we actually have awards to prove it. How many of you can say you can wake up, go to the gym within your work building, take a shower, walk down to the cafe get some breakfast (Cheese omelette with bacon and homefries is my favorite) then walk over to your desk get some work done, take a 15 minute break to play some basketball at our indoor gym, or maybe some tennis on our indoor tennis court, tennis not your thing? You can play a game of ping pong then on one of our three olympic pong tables. (Watch out because nearly everyone has a mean ping pong game, I get my ass handed to me daily) There are so many perks of working for a company like mine I don't have time to name them all, let me just tell you though this place kicks major ass. I have recently moved departments and could not be happier. I work with a lot of great people and am excited to learn more advanced skills associated with what I do. So yeah the comparison between jobs from then until now is night and day. I have never been so happy to go to work.

Living - I have an awesome apartment that is less than a two minute walk to work. Probably the only thing you can complain about at our company is the lack of parking spaces. We have satellite lots, but when it's raining I'm sure the last thing someone wants to do is walk five minutes in the pouring rain. Well, I don't have that problem, I could literally run to work and be through the door in 30 seconds if I had to. The apartment itself is great, two bedrooms, an pretty spacious living room/dining room area and a nice kitchen area. The bathroom is small but it works. The only thing that sucks is that it get's pretty warm in the summer and we only have two windows in the entire place the way that it's set up. Other than that I have 0 complaints. My girlfriend, who will be discussed further down is my roommate, and she's pretty easy to live with.(My apartment feels a lot smaller since she moved all her stuff in, but I hardly own a thing so most of it's needed.)

Friends - I have a few good ones up here. That's been one of the harder things in moving up here. Leaving your good buddies behind.

1. I miss Matt and Ash and our wing nights at Archies and mine and Matt's skateboard trips that mostly ended up with us sitting around shooting the shit.

2. I miss playing video games and eating ridiculous amounts of food with Fatmike and that friendship and roommate bond we formed. We lived together for over eight years of our lives and while I left with some bitter feelings, we have repaired our friendship after he dumped that terrible bitch of an ex-girlfriend of his.

3. Most of all I miss being able to easily see my mother, I love her very much and miss her terribly. Hopefully we can get her up here to stay for good soon. She was the one who told me to get my ass out of Connecticut and I'm glad I listened.

Being almost 30 years old finding a new group of friends has been a bit of a challenge but thankfully we 500+ people working for our company and they are all pretty awesome. I've managed to make some great friends and am better for it.

Lastly and most importantly I have to talk about finding the girl I'm going to marry. It wasn't an easy feat, I had to tell a little white lie in order to break the ice and talk to her. (our company door locks after 5pm, I went to the corner store to grab a snack and there she was sitting under the tree out front. I wanted to talk to her but I didn't know what to say, I had to say something. So I pretended that I didn't have my keys on me and asked her if she could let me into the door, she gladly obliged and laughed as I thanked her and called myself a dipshit for forgetting my only way back into the building. All the while my keys were in my pocket, but she didn't know that at the moment, sneaky but effective.)I couldn't be happier, we've been official since April 20th 2010 (yeah our anniversary really is 4/20 too bad neither of us are big pot smokers)and I can honestly say this is the last girl I will ever date. I've never felt a connection to a person like this, I've never been able to be around someone for this long and not need to get away from them. We have a lot of the same interests and the same humor, I'm much funnier than her though. I feel so lucky meeting her, her in my life is the icing on the cake.

I am happier than I can ever remember being. The move to Vermont was the best decision I ever made. I urge all of you to think outside of the box, if you aren't happy with your life take the steps to find that happiness. My best friend Matt put it best "If your life sucks, you suck." I don't think he realized how deep that quote of his hit me. To me it means if your life sucks you suck for not making it better. We all have the power to get ourselves out of a shitty situation and after the things we want, you just need to not let the fear of the unknown hold you back. Look at me for example, I took a chance and now my life is great. Life is too short to not take chances.

A few photos from the past two years

A Vermont Sunset