How Many of Us Have Them?

My Best Friend in the World

Okay... So it's been a little bit since I last wrote but at least it wasn't like 3 months or something like that...

So I've been thinking, what is a friend?

I tend to think as a society we throw around that word a lot to describe people who are mere acquaintances. I know I'm guilty of that just as much as anybody.

The question of who are my "friends" came to mind when me and the manager of our store were talking about it as we were setting up a sidewalk sale.

He's kind of like me, when I say that at my age I really don't need any new "besties"... I have my brother and my cousin who's like my sister, those are pretty much my "best" friends in the world because I would damn near do anything for them. I also have to mention my friend Paco and Matt because I've known them for awhile and they've always provided me good counsel when I needed it. (Well that and the fact me an Paco tend to have an absurd sense of humor that seemingly only we get...)

But... Here comes my fatal flaw... I'm one of those people who would give you the money in my pocket if you seemed like you needed it even if you are just an acquaintance...

One example that comes to mind is one of our cashiers who was saying she wasn't feeling well and had some cramps, I actually went and bought a bottle of water for her so she could feel better... Now mind you she's a cutie, but that wasn't my motivation for doing that... I was genuinely concerned for her well being... (Well that and the fact I really didn't want to have to call someone else to fill in for her... lol)

But it's stuff like that that makes me think, why would I do that when that person isn't even really my friend? I mean we're friends at work (hell, if she wasn't working for me I'd definitely want to date her...) but outside of that I don't really know this girl from Adam...

I want to say maybe it's because my mother has an influence in this or maybe it's the buddhism thing...

My mother who has been divorced from my father a good 10 years went into panic mode when my father had his stroke... When me and my brother talked with her it she was always concerned whether or not we went and visited my father in the hospital. I will mention that they had a VERY messy divorce and a VERY messy marriage... My father did such horrible things to my mother financially it made me feel better when their divorce was final... It was that reasoning that made me and Adam always say "Why in the hell do you even care? Dad was such a prick to you???" The answer always stuns me when she says "Yeah, he's an asshole and I have absolutely no love for him, but I still am concerned from one human being to another..."

So, I apparently inherited that from my mother and grandmother...

When it comes to a choice though between helping a "friend" or just some cat you know, I know I'm going to try my hardest to help both.

But we all make that choice whether or not we extend that kindness to strangers. I guess my choice at the end of the day is to further skew the lines and say well since this person is my "friend"(otherwise known as an acquaintance) I will do what I can do make their lives better...

So What's in the Cards?

Also gotta thank Paco Montoya of E&P Designs for our logo check 'em out!

I had a very interesting conversation with a friend of mine from my Sallie Mae days... (Matt Scheurerman in case you're wondering.... Check out his site!) I think the tone my my Twitter posts lately in addition to my gloomy blog entry about what I wanted to be when I grow up sparked some thoughts about something to take me out of my doldrums...

We had a heck of a talk and he put some good ideas into my noggin so I'll start off by saying thank you Matt for being a sounding board!

So what did I decide to do?

Well my voice has always been something of an asset to me, I've been told of my "radio voice" by customers and co-workers alike... So....

Me and my brother Adam are going to start podcasting again... It'll be a little bit since I need to find a server and a new website. So ETA is probably going to be in a couple of months... We'll still have the same silliness but we're going to set up more professionally this time (hopefully).

We've already got a name thankfully... DeauxBrahs... Adam and I figured it's already in existence and the skateboarding thing didn't work so incorporate it into our media brand...

So, there it is... Another diversion for me and hopefully we can keep it up this time... (Although Adam's out of school now so I don't have to worry about him stressing over tests anymore... lol)

Good Luck In Your Future Endeavors...

Yeah buddy... That was me... lol

I was reading some releases for the WWE and it always makes me laugh when I see "The WWE wishes so and so good luck in their future endeavors"... Really? In a business when someone gets fired I don't think I've ever heard anyone say "Oh and by the way good luck in your future endeavors..." and meant it...

Matter of fact, one fun little story I have centers around my being laid off from Sallie Mae... I laugh at this story because my cousin/big sister was more upset about how it transpired than I was... lol

I'll start off with a little back story on this... Right around 2008 when the elections were starting to heat up there was a lot of talk about student loans getting hit hard especially in the FFELP (If you don't know what that is here's a wikipedia link.... ) So like most major corporations Sallie Mae began to downsize, which is quite understandable because you gotta make that money somehow... (I guess...) My cousin who helped me get a job with Sallie Mae is eternally a "glass half-empty" type of girl... I remember she kept saying we're screwed... It only really started hitting me when pretty much most of my team was let go in a mass layoff. Leaving only 5 or 6 of us left. We were to be reassigned...

So one day I'm working on my daily reports which I sent to the VP I worked for, when all of a sudden I had to reboot my computer. Not an unusual occurrence since the laptops we used crashed or slowed down A LOT...

I'll also mention that day there was a HUGE conference call announcing more layoffs... But I didn't receive an invite to the party, so it was business as usual I thought...

Problem was I wasn't able to log back in... This was about 10 or 11... So I went ahead and called our help desk to see if it was something system related. They said they'd call back.

So I remember going to my cousin's cubicle and telling her something's wrong I don't think I work for the company anymore... I can remember the look on her face, it was a look of disbelief and she started snooping with her boss... I figured if I was getting let go might as well go to lunch... lol

I got back to the office and my cousin had this insane look on her face she looked up the help desk ticket and it said something to the effect of "We contacted Alan's boss and he said Oh he doesn't know?" Suffice it to say my cousin was a little more than pissed... (And you NEVER want to see her pissed...) She went into her bosses office and demanded him to find out what the hell was going on... All the while I'm thinking "Hmm... wonder what now?"

So I get called into our human resources office and they get my director on the phone and she begins to apologize to me about not being on the call that morning and they were letting me go... My first thought honestly was "Ok... Who the hell cares... What are you assholes gonna give me in the way of a severance package??? Dolla signs bitch!" Of course I tried to be as amiable as I could be as she finished up her speech.

So what did she end with? "I want to wish you good luck in your future endeavors" Being the smart ass, I said "Thank you and good luck in your future endeavors as well!" I to this day honestly think that caught her off guard... lol

So once that was finished, my cousin and most of my co-workers of 5 years helped me pack up what I had in my cubicle I said my abbreviated good byes and left no longer working for Sallie Mae...

Funny side note... My cousin called me after she left work to see if I was ok, and then went on a 10 minute rant about how they let me go and how they were a-holes to let me go like that... I'm thinking geez I'm the one who got let go and you're more upset about it than I am! lol (But that's why I've always said that my cousin Corrine is my big sister...)

So what's in a phrase? Especially this one? When people say that they don't give a rat's ass about you... It's really just a nice way of saying "Good riddance and don't let the door hit your ass on the way out, because we gotta pay to have that door cleaned..."