Work

Labor Day quickie.

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I find the title funny because I am now employed! I am back in the labor force and am going to be stocking shelves overnight at a big box store. My family is in need of a little extra income to make it through the month and pay some bills off. I really wanted to be able to make my blog work on donations or my convention work to pick up the slack but that is not the case.

I hope everyone remembers to treat others as humans this weekend and not like robots. I do believe in good karma and treating our fellow man as a person and not a cog in a corporate machine. As you encounter people working this holiday weekend, go out of your way to say thank you. Make them feel special. You could help save a life.

Second Prances

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This is a quick post as life has turned VERY busy. I love writing in this blog and I have so many posts to finish but I am having to put this further down on the list. I was given a second chance at a job that I had applied for here recently. I am hoping it doesn’t error out on me again causing me to fail. My dearest wife has started a second job (YAY!) meaning I have more time at home with the kids.

#stayathomeDAD

I want everyone to know I am alive and well and even more amazingly, I am hopeful. It is rare that I get this way. It is very fragile and I hold hope very dearly. It can be strong and powerful if it comes to life for me. Until I have a chance to post what I have and life gets uncrazy, please stand by.

#hugapony

#stuffedtherapy

PS Yes I stole all the title from the most recent My Little Pony episode. I hope you bronies who follow caught that.  Hasbro please don’t sue me 🙂 

Cheap new year update.

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I am back from Ikkicon in Austin, Tx. I worked 15+ hours starting Wednesday through Sunday. I am tired. I will be updating everyone soon. I want to wish everyone a Happy New Year.

I plan on finding joy this year. Any way I can.

Even with my ponies.

Hug a plushie my friends.
I love you all.

And the wind blows.

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The East wind has come. Change is here now and I get to share it with all of you. I know I have not had a chance to update in over a week, and I apologize. I plan on a few blogs to get you all up to date.

I have left my job.

I will also share were I have worked for the past 5 years. I was a training store manager for Gamestop. Now that I am gone I have decided to share that with you (so I can be honest and truthful of my feelings.

This was not an easy decision to come to as I dif not have a job lined up. I have never tried to leave a job without another lined up. The reason for this is that my wife and I have decided that I should be a stay at home dad.

Scary huh? ( I am terrified personally)

She has been working as a sales consultant for Jamberry nails. I will probably throw a plug in here for her sometime. I am standing behind her and I am trying my best to ensure that she succeeded. It is hard for me to give up my job as the primary bread winner. I have to say that because its true. It has nothing to do with her being the “wife” but my jealousy as someone who kept the money coming in. Part of this blog is to help me admit when I am wrong or what I am thinking.

And so you get to join me on this new journey.

I will be posting over the next few days about my last days in retail and my move to be closer to family. I want to thank you all for your support and your patience in my lateness of posting.

Still hugging my ponies in a new place.

#hashtag #brony

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#Brony

I have had so much fun with this the pat weekend and week. I just got back from my manger’s conference and I totally rocked being a brony. I got to show off my love for my fandom and got to pass out some new business cards. I have a few awesome stories to tell and thought I would share here. I would like to apologize for not posting much but life is overwhelming at the moment.

First off, I had the random stranger encounter in Viva Los Vegas! I was walking through the New York New Your casino, showing my roommate how to play craps. As we were standing there, I was approached by a wonderful couple who started listening to me explain the game. The husband saw my shirt and his mouth fell open.

“Is that a My Little Pony shirt?!?”‘

I replied with an affirmative (thanking my stars that I was wearing the ONLY pony shirt I had).

“Are you a Brony?” Came next.

Again I replied with a resounding yes.

“I didn’t think that you guys existed. I thought you were an internet myth!!”

I didn’t take offense. We talked for a few minutes and I answered some questions and explained a little bit of why I joined the fandom and dispelled some of the myths (crazy what people think of us as bronies!). I gave them a card, and if you are reading this Hi you made my day, and went on my way. It was a really cool encounter. One of the reasons I am so outgoing in my support of my passions is to be that liaison that we need. I can speak both normal and fandom and I feel I am a great way to bridge the gap for those who don’t know.

This started a rash of Twitter post by me for my work. They had a nice big screen that if you put in a #hashtag of a certain word, it would show your post on the big screen. I saw this as a great opportunity to do what I do best.

Post ponies.

So the following happened to be the 4 pictures that made it to the big screen, ALL THREE DAYS OF CONFERENCE!!! I was so proud.

CN6AgzzUwAA0RF_ CNw41MEUwAADrau CN8IFBeUEAEoIX- CNvrQiJUEAAIgur

All I can say is I was super stoked! I got a few replies to my tweets and I want to give a shout out to the rest of the Bronies who posted back or came up to me in person. Thank you all! It was so much fun to share a moment at my work like this.

And now, I need to rest as my hangover passes.

Hug a pony everyone!!!

Sands of time.

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I am too busy to write at the moment. A quick update is in order though to my loyal readers.

  1. My phone is broken. Most of my writing is done on there so this puts a hamper on me. I hope to have it fixed soon.
  2. I am SUPER busy at work (as in no days off in 2 weeks). I have so much going its hard to keep track of everything.
  3. I hit a very bad spot. I mean VERY bad spot. There was a moment were my friends put me on watch. I plan on going into that another time.
  4. I am in need of selling my car. I need the money and I need to make room for another car. I have been focused on that a lot.

I am sorry to all my readers about not updating as much. Please know this blog is in my thoughts which makes you in my thoughts.

Until I can write again, hug a pony my friends.

A road too traveled

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As you all have known i have been working a lot here lately. It has been very difficult for me here these last few weeks with work and with my personal life and with everything else going on and I hit rock bottom the other day.

This past weekend I managed to work myself to the point that I just literally shut down and did not want to speak or talk to or deal with anybody else. I was so tired I had to try to find ways to get my body to move and I was hurting so bad that I had my wife work on my back and she found a muscle not that one from the top of my spine to the base of my tailbone. She worked on it for about 2 hours before it just became too sore to even work on. I’ve been dealt with the soreness all the way through the rest of the weekend.

I had the opportunity to help some friends out with some plumbing issues and I was very lucky to have such close friends try and take care of me. I managed to worry them to the point that they didn’t even want me to help but I managed to go ahead and help them out and take care of their needs. They then sat me down, fed me and my family and just helped me relax and try to find ways to make me feel better. I am truly thankful to have such gracious friends.

I also found out that our apartment complex is trying to kick us out of our apartment about 4 months before our lease is up.  Between this and my pain and stress has caused my wife to have an extremely difficult time taking care of everything.

The whole icing on the cake has been my daughters who have really just been very very difficult to work with. With me being stressed out and not being able to take some extra time to deal with them has released cause them stress and just made our whole lives difficult. I love my daughters very very much but they always seem to find that one last nerve to dance on to just drive me up a wall.

I will say that I am doing better now I appreciate everyone has helped me out and I hope to have more positive news later this week as I have a few things going on in the background. I do have one really cool announcement to announce here soon that I’m hopefully going to be able to get everybody excited about.

Hug a pony my friends.

image

Down from on high, redux.

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So i got a lot of feedback on my last post. It was about my store being visited by my new VP. I wanted to thank everyone who responded and please keep it coming. I love the involvement. 

While a few people pointed that this was a good thing that I was shown the attention and dedication from a VP, I was trying to take it in the heat of moment from my point of view. I have realized since then that it was great that he did this. At the same time, with how my brain works and how I react to things, I personally tend to get freaked and psych myself out. I have broken out in hives when I was younger to the point of almost being hospitalized because of excitement/anxiety.

So yes, the visit went well, my boss reaffirmed this with me later. And I learned more than I had in a while. It just can be hard to be brought down so many pegs at once. I tend not to build myself up (I am my own worst enemy by far). So when I do and get knocked down, I take it really really hard.

But you guys helped point out the good things.

Thank you.

Hug a pony my friends.

Down from on high.

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So I recently had a store visit from a regional VP (my boss’s boss). I had some time to prep and get ready for this meeting. We cleaned, brushed up on policy, and did our general all around “lets get ready for vistors” routine.

Boy was I not prepared.

So, I like to think that I am not a dumb person. I have been tested (“My mother had me tested”) and I have performed very well in high school and college. I do well with numbers and can adapt well to almost all situations.

This was not enough.

So, the visit started off well with my boss showing me off, being a great store in most of the areas, and showing my skills. The VP seemed happy with the results. We then went into the backroom and looked at the numbers. P&L and other business acumen that I have a little knowledge on but not too much. That was about to change.

A lot.

I had my areas where I thought I could improve on and the VP asked why I had those areas. I gave my explanation and he said “Let us look at this differently.” He then proceeded to do more math than a college algebra teacher. For the next hour and thirty minutes I was shown my opportunities and strengths in ways I never even saw. I am good at math but he was GOOD at math. He made me feel dumb.

I don’t do well with that.

Now, it was never his intention to make me feel dumb but I had trouble following him. He would stop, back up and go over it slower. I would finally get it and he would drill me on it until I could teach him. It has been a long time since I have gotten schooled on things, but boy did I.

The rest of the visit is still in a fog as I was scrabbling to keep up. We did the usual, change this move that, though this time it had more purpose. I slipped up a few times with my words and managed to forget how to spell something and had to look it up with him watching me. I don’t get intimidated much anymore but my cages were rattled. Both he and my manager left and my brain turned to mush.

I have since recovered enough to post but I am still sorting it all out. Its been a week and I am still rebuilding.

There was a pony to hug. And I needed it.