Make My Day

There are somethings that just make my day. I don't always know when I'll experience one of these things, but when they unexpectedly happen, the day just seems to be better. Here are the things that recently happened to me.

I enjoy writing, but most of the time, if I don't have any direction for my writing, I'll quickly get bored with it. This is why writing short restaurant reviews seem to work very well for me. I recently work a review for a restaurant called Fez on the site Yelp, which is where I do most of my reviews. I just really did this to do a little writing and let people know what my experience with the restaurant was. The next day I found I had two new friends following my reviews! One of the guys I actually know but didn't know he was on the site. The other is a complete (at least to my knowledge) stranger, who also left a comment saying that she enjoyed my reviews. Just thinking that a things that I just did for my own enjoyment was also enjoyed by others so much so that they are looking forward to reading more of my thoughts. I don't really think the writing was that outstanding but others at least seem to find it enjoyable.

Since I started school again, I have been trying to make friends in class. It isn't really that hard. I find that if I just talk to anyone in class, they find it intriguing enough to have a conversation with me, since most people don't really try to connect with classmates. I now know at least someone in each of my classes and have talked to most of those people outside of class. One of them recently told me that she actually was really glad I talked to her cause she thought I have a nice smile. This took me back a bit because if there is one thing I don't really like about myself, it my teeth and smile. I know it sounds silly but I know my teeth have weird stains on them and, I feel, don't line up perfectly. I know that I had opportunities to get this taken care of before and didn't take them, and it honestly doesn't bother me that much. I just really found it surprising that my smile is something someone would like. I think after I was told that, I had the smile stuck on my face the rest of the day. Don't get ahead of yourself, dear reader! She was just paying me a compliment, nothing more. Even knowing this, it still made my day.

I don't think in either case it was the things themselves that made my day, it was more the fact that they were unexpected. I wasn't writing a review for other people to tell me how much they enjoyed it, nor was I smiling for someone to tell me they like my smile. Both of them I just did for my own gratification and it happened to be enjoyed by others. So much so that they thought to mention it.

Life's good.

Haiti Relief

I don't really know how many people really read this, but I just want to make sure everyone has done something to help those in Haiti. Today, I just bought a shirt with the proceeds going to the Haiti efforts. If you would like to purchase one too to help while getting a stylish shirt out of the deal, check it out here. If not there, there are many of other ways to donate. Please do. I know tragedy is all around us, but when I look at what happened to them and what I have, I KNOW I can give a little to help.

Like a Child

Sometimes, I feel a lot like a child. You know. Like, when a child wants a toy. It might be something another child has and he is just jealous, or it's something he saw on a TV ad and knows that he wants it. He thinks that that one thing will make his life better. That it is the key to his happiness. When he finally gets it, he may enjoy it for a bit, but soon enough, he will find a new thing to fancy, whether it is the box the toy came in, something another child has, or just another ad. Then that new thing becomes the key to his happiness.

Yeah, I sometimes get like that. I guess I just need to do a few things.

1) Be grateful for what I have.

2) Really consider if this new thing is something I really want. Is it worth the sacrifice to get?

3) If/when I get it, make sure I value it as much as possible.

I really believe this is an issue that more people then just me have a problem with. Hope you find these thoughts interesting/helpful.

Bobsled Time!

I was just thinking about how the Winter Olympics are starting very soon. I don't know how popular they are down here in the desert since most people haven't seen snow or ice and probably don't really get any of the events. Never the less, I was getting a bit excited about some of the events (not really interested in the figure skating, but most other blade/ice related sports are cool by me) and I started to wonder if I'll be able to watch any. Probably not because of my crazy schedule. I'll miss seeing hockey, luge, curling, speed skating, skiing, snowboarding, and bobsled.

To substitute the last one, I am going to watch Cool Runnings.

'Feel the rhythm, feel the rhyme, get on up, it's bobsled time!'

New Season.

Sunday last week, probably my favorite tv show had it's premier. Yeah, Chuck is back! I went over to watch most of the two-hour premier on Sunday to my good friend Brad's place. He is also a huge fan of the show. They also had another new episode last Monday, so he came over and watched it at my place. Man, I LOVE that show. I have been watching from the beginning and, to be honest, originally thought it didn't have much of a run in it. The story didn't seem like something that could continue for a long run. The thing that brought me back every week was the amazing characters, each of them is their own person with very good depth throughout the cast. I remember hearing once that you don't always need a groundbreaking story, if you have deep characters. If you can make a character that people care about, you can make up for some deficiencies in the storytelling.

Also, having an attractive, blond female lead who can act well doesn't hurt either.

Random Encounter

Two weeks ago, I thought it would be a good idea to start going to church again. I found a Nazarene church in my area and since I had been to one in Buffalo that I somewhat enjoyed, I decided to go. Last Sunday, I woke at about 7am, not on purpose, and got ready and just went to the 9am service. I was quickly greeted by an older gentleman named Will. I found out he is a pastor there and quickly treated me to the welcome speech. I didn't mind cause it was quick and involved a gift bag with a $5.00 gift card to Starbucks. He reminded me of Pastor Dave Hill from EHWC. He tells me about a Sunday school for college-aged people that starts at 9:30am and invites me to go next week. I thank him and enjoy the service. The service was decent, nothing ground breaking to me, but I figure I'll give it another try next week.

Next week come and I am again awake much earlier than I want to be. I decide to go to the Sunday school this week. I get there and there are only 4 other people. We chat for a bit and start talking about Isaiah. More people start coming in and one of the girls introduces herself as Laura, who I think is familiar looking. The name is familiar too. A few minutes later I realize that she is actually from my hometown and the sister of a friend of mine. After Sunday school she says that I look familiar. I respond, 'Yeah, my last name is Debo. Yours is Pasieka.' She actually remembers my brothers and going to the same church my family went to for years.

How random.

Magic Music

Sometimes, when listening to music via the radio or my iPod, I will realize how appropriate a song is to a certain situation in my life. I have started to think that these devices are a little magic. I was recently upset for not having something I wanted. Mind you, this is very much something I want. I do not in anyway need this thing. I know this but still think about how much I would like to have this thing and that I might be happy if I had it.

Then the song 'You Can't Always Get What You Want' by the Rolling Stones came on. It actually took me up until the end of the song to realize how appropriate it was for me. I am very glad I have what I need and that I always seem to get what I need when I need it. That's enough for me right now.

Construction

Since I've had this delivery job that I am currently working at, the airport here in Phoenix has been under construction. I have no idea what is going on but it seems like half the lanes are closed every night for some project. I have tried to ask people working at the airport what is going on but no one seems to know what they are doing. I really wish road construction sites needed to have a sign up stating what they are doing and how long they'd have lanes closed for. I do see that every once in awhile, but I think this should be mandatory. I would like to know if they are build a new road, widening the road, repaving it, or just taking a coffee break there. If I don't see the sign, In usually just assume that last one.

Facebook Fans

I was just on Facebook, a place I spend way too much time. I don't really do much on there besides check my friends' statuses to see what their up to and if anything interesting is happening with them. I like checking it on my phone cause it doesn't give as much info in the news feed. Mostly, it's just friends' statuses and comments between common friends. When I check Facebook on my laptop, it also shows the games people are playing and people that I am not friends with but some of my friends know that I may just have not friended yet. It also shows what I think is the most annoying thing on the whole site: Fan pages.

Honestly, I do get some of these pages. If you a fan of a sport team or celebrity, you can become a fan to show that to your friends. I get why their is a fan page for things like Comic Book, X-Box 360, Harry Potter, MLIA, Christian Bale, Tupperware, The Buffalo Sabres, Green Lantern, and Sleeping In. I understand pages like that, those are things that you like and want to show others that you like them. I DO NOT get the pages like, and these are actual pages, 'I screamed your name and you didn't hear me, thanks for making me look stupid', 'I hate stupid little kids who think that they are baddasses', 'You know what? I don't care. This is how I roll, and roll I shall', 'When I was your age, we had to blow on the video games to make them work', and 'Or you can just ignore me... That's cool.' I just don't get how you are a fan of any of these things. Maybe it's just me, but I think these things are totally ridiculous. And, it seems that the people who join these groups, join all of them. Whatever, guess I should just let it go since it deally doesn't affect me at all.

(I just didn't have anything better to write about.)

Weakness

Everyone has a weakness. Some people have a weakness for chocolate, others have a weakness for sappy movies. Superman has a weakness for Kryptonite.

Me, I have a weakness for Lifesaver Wintergreen mints. Just bought a bag over the weekend and probably have eaten half of them already. Glad my weakness doesn't make me sick, powerless, or kill me like Superman's does to him.

Snow!

The other night, I was called by work. They were shorthanded and needed someone to drive to Flagstaff for them. For those of you who aren't familiar with you Arizona geography, Flagstaff is about two and a half north of Phoenix in the mountains. Having nothing better to do, I agreed. I went to pick up the package at 10pm Sunday night. I had been told it was only going to be one box for 40lbs. When I got there and found it was actually 4 packages for 170lbs, I was wondering how to get it up to my car. Luckily, a nice skycab, one of the guys with the carts that help people with their luggage came over and helped me get it to my car.

On the drive to Flagstaff, I was on the look out for snow the whole time. I didn't notice any until I got within an hour of the city, but I could have missed it, being so late at night and so dark. When I got to the location to drop the boxes off, I noticed there was snow there. I realized I haven't seen snow in around 374 days, since I left Buffalo after visiting for Christmas '08. Thinking I don't know when I'd see snow again, I decided to run into it. After taking one step in, I thought that was enough of that. I made a snowball, but didn't have anything to throw it at so I just threw it into the street. Enough snow for me for a bit.

Ont he drive back, I got to see a coyote and tons of stars. It's nice to get away from the lights of the city ever so often to just see the billions of stars. Made for a decent trip.

Alphabetically Thankful

I was recently thinking of what I'm thankful for. I thought of writing a whole post about how thankful I am for pants. I decided it would be fun to create an alphabetical list of what I am thankful for, one thing for each letter. This could be fun, so here goes.

A - America (I need to be patriotic every once in awhile.)
B - Buffalo (The city. Even though I left it, I am still thankful to be from there.)
C - Canada (Just cause of their contribution to hockey.)
D - Debos (The coolest 'D' I could think of!'
E - Education (I love to learn. Thankful that I can.)
F - Family (Love you guys!)
G - Green (My favorite color. Guess I should be thankful for that.)
H - Hockey (Who didn't see that one.)
I - Ice (I hate drinking warm drinks that aren't supposed to be that way.)
J - Jelly/Jam (PB and J would just be weird without the J.)
K - Katamari (Probably one of the funnest games I've played.)
L - Lights (I hate living in the dark.)
M - Muppets (Almost put Music. I love Muppets a bit more than Music, but it is certainly close.)
N - Naps (How isn't?)
O - OJ (Not the athlete, the drink. Great for mornings, good with Vodka.)
P - Pizza (Beats out pants in a close one.)
Q - Questions (How else would I get answers?)
R - Roofs (Only when they aren't on fire.)
S - Sleep (Yeah, I put Naps on the list too. What about it?)
T - Tom (What a great guy he is! So thankful to know him. Aren't you?)
U - Ukuleles (Just make me laugh. I am thankful for things that make me laugh. Ukuleles makes the list.)
V - Vanilla Pudding (I like it better than Chocolate. Might be in the minority there.)
W - Women (What can I say? I am a regular guy.)
X - X Marking the Spot (How else would I know where to meet the pirates?)
Y - Yelling (Sometimes, it's jsut what the doctor ordered.)
Z - Zamboni (Clean ice!)

Maybe this would have been best for a Thanksgiving post. Oh well. It was on my mind and now it's on the internet.

Hope and the lack of hope

I never really thought about it much before, but hope is a very powerful thing. Hope can make the whole world seem better. Even if it's just hope in a same thing, it can create worlds of difference in a person's outlook on a situation. Hope permeates. Hope in one thing can improve your outlook on other things. Problems seem smaller when there is hope.

The reverse is scary. Every little issue seems huge. You aren't looking for the sunshine to come tomorrow. You believe everyday is going to be as cold and gray as today is. It can be unbearable.

Remember, though it might not look it, the sun will come. Not everyday will be like today. It will get better. This problem is making it difficult for you to see the end, but it is there. On the other side, the world will seem brighter than it ever was.

New Year's Goals

I am the type of person who will say he is going to do something and not always follow through. Only with things that would benefit me, though. Like working out more consistently or writing a story that I've had in my head down. Yeah, those are the types of things I spend a lot of time talking about and almost always never doing. Well, after reading my brother's blog, which can be found here, and seeing him post a list of his goals, I thought I should do the same. So here it goes....

1) I am going to try to post around 200 times this year. I am not going to try to kid myself into thinking I'll be able to post every day, but 200 seems like a good number.

2) I am going to try to work out more. Not really sure how to gauge this, so I though, if I can get up to doing 15 pullups by the end of the year, I'll be good. Can't do any now. Well, maybe one, depending on how much form you are judging.

3) I am going to learn Spanish well enough to have a basic conversation with someone. Already working on it but still have a ways to go.

4) I WILL take 3 recreational trips. At least 1 of them will be to somewhere I've never been. I am thinking of Orlando, Buffalo, and either Chicago, Mexico, San Deigo, or Seattle. Just cause.

I think that's about it as far as goals go. I mean, there are other things I want to do, but I need to start small, right? Maybe I'll remember to check back in on this half way through the year. Maybe.

MLIA

Last night, I was laying in bed when I looked at the ceiling and noticed a few spots of light. Wondering if there were holes in my ceiling I put my finger up to one. I found out that I have about a dozen glow-in-the-dark stickers on my ceiling. MLIA

(Yes, this really happened to me. No, I have not posted it on MLIA)

The Other Night

So, the other night, I was having trouble sleeping. I ended up having trouble going to sleep. I remember it being some time after 3am. I then woke up at 7:30am with an awful headache and stomachache.

Shower+Aspirin+More Sleep=Better feeling Tom.

What a wonderful formula!