Who do I still think I am??

This one's not about a serial, because nobody likes that.

30DBC PROMPT: "You are given two days to complete your most important tasks, assignments, or roles before you move to the next sphere of life. What would these tasks be?"

Hello again, friends. We're meeting at the all-important stage of the "30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS" - the not so serial portion- so why not now than a better time to pretend like I care about stuff?

Here's where I say to our man 30DBC Creator/Founder , "Don't front...these prompts are serial-related no matter how much you spin them". It's all good though. It's not like I have to bare my soul these last few days of May in hopes that I might swing the "30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS"  in my favor. As much as I'd love to spit game about not being a competitor, yes...yes I am. And I want to be better at this blogging thing than you. But I promise I won't act all butt-hurt and crazy if that's not the end result.

So about this two-day thing where I'm supposed to accomplish things...yeah, I'm having a hard time with that. I'm in a phase of life where everything that's important is out of my hands for the time being. My obligations have been fulfilled. I don't like the fact that I need to wait on others to figure out my next moves, but nobody said life was meant to be wasted waiting on jerks taken idly, or something along those lines.

If I knew in two days I wouldn't have to worry about physical therapy for my ankle anymore, well hell, sign me up! I'd immediately start plotting my return to the nearest basketball court so I could show off my smooth jumper and my crazy crossover dribble/headfake skills. But don't quote me on that...please don't quote me on that. I'm not 19 anymore, or 25, and neither are you (according to this here blog's stats and demographics).

Everything takes time, from what I've learned, and patience isn't one of my virtues. I'm still waiting on my transcripts to be sent over from my previous attendance at a location of "higher learning" to my new intended place of "higher learning". Again, this is now out of my hands...the wheels have been greased, but two days means nothing and frankly, shit's getting ridiculous regarding that. I have all the freakin' time in the world, until the end of June...and that's when everything goes to hell as far as going back to school is concerned. If everything out of my control goes wrong, I'm eff-you-say-can-you-se'd, with a hard ck at the end. Worrying now is a waste of a good worry though. I suppose in two days I might have other concerns, but it's unlikely. Minor stuff, maybe...but let's be real for every day since I thought writing was fun the time being. Two days aren't shit. Unless you're trying to make ends during the "30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS" . Then maybe you need to do some preparing, like, say, maybe in the 28 days before. Just a thought...from a guy...who's done this before...

BCF PROMPT: "Have you ever been in a natural disaster? Tell is about it. If not, tell us about someone else's storm story that fascinates you."

I don't wanna hear shit about tornadoes or hurricanes or anything else. Yeah, that's unfortunate and all, but when you live somewhere that is predestined for snow anytime between September and May, and the storm still shuts your city down, well, STFU and let me bend your listening ear again about the October Storm.

Here's all you need to know about this calamity  .

I know I was on my high horse, dealing with my girlfriend at the time who wasn't receptive to whatever bullshit I was currently spewing. I resorted to sleeping on my couch at 542 (instead of the heated waterbed in my room, where I remember waking up). It was a Thursday night, and I hear throughout the day the weather was gonna get bad, but that's not an excuse for texting a different ex during a Sabres game and then passing out on your couch but waking up in your bed the next day when it's payday.

Girlfriend hates your ex, because, well, that's life. There was a significant amount of booze passed around between us all.

So I wake up in my bed hoping to collect my paycheck, unsure of what the damage from the storm was to my big little hole in the world at 542. It was a heavy, wet snowfall that caused havoc all over. My power was out, as it was in many other places. I didn't realize the full effect of the storm until I tried to drive to work and my car got stuck twice within blocks of my house.

When I finally made it to my store, it was like no one had been there at all...no plows, no people; just a foot of snow not worth trying to drive through. The entrances to the lot were full of wet, packed-in snow from the plows that came by to take care of the streets anyway, so I just kept goin' until I hit a parking lot I could actually access. My boss was on a two-week Hawaiian vacation and technically it was my day off, but being the assistant manager of an Eckerd pharmacy I felt obligated to check up on the woman in charge that day. She was snowed in her townhouse complex without electricity, so it looked like the store wasn't opening that day.

Saturday the roads cleared enough to get to the store, even though power hadn't been restored. I let myself in to grab my paycheck, and did what any other red, white and blue-blooded Buffalonian would've done...I grabbed batteries and a battery-powered phone charger, and a couple 30-packs of beer, and stuck 'em in my trunk. At this point, who would've known how long we'd be without power? And no power meant no registers or security cameras. Even the backup batteries in the alarm and emergency lights were dying. And nobody would miss those beers but me once they hit my belly.

The biggest problem was the freezers. Since the electricity was out, that stuff was gonna go bad. I had to inventory it (I had help from another keyholder and a pharmacy tech), clear out a path to the dumpsters, and get rid of it. In all, we lost over $3,000 in frozen food alone (at cost, not retail). We got that done and I headed home, where by Saturday afternoon I at least had power...many parts of WNY went as long as a week without. I checked up on the local store in my neighborhood, which was being run by an assistant manager at the time with a major drug issue. She showed up in decidedly non-work attire (she was a tiny blonde who dressed well below her age...over 40 but living a lifestyle more suited for a college kid, but the suspected meth use hadn't worn on her well). Behind the cash register was a large plastic bin...full of her pet snake. Like four feet long. You don't keep them in The 'Lo unless you're somewhat batshit crazy, as far as I'm concerned. She was more worried it might freeze in her house than she was of the condition of her store. I think she was grateful I showed up, and I probably could've romanced her a little given the circumstances, but she was weird and spacy and not the type of tiny blonde I'd normally go for mentally. Besides, I had a girlfriend and some beers waiting for me at home.

Sunday morning came and went. The streets were passable, but gas station lines were outta control. I hadn't heard from my girlfriend in a few days (so maybe I shoul've nailed the creepy assistant from the other store), so I drove past her house and her car was there and her lights were on (hello red flag! She's ignoring you again!). But she wasn't answering her phone so I let her be. Seems like everyone cares too much about themselves and then throws it back in your face when you don't, in their eyes, show that you've tried to give a shit. This should've been the unraveling of the relationship, but it wasn't...and that's on me from that point on, We should've broken up long before that, actually...between our combined infidelity, her kids, and mismatched behaviors, we were a toxic mess. Good thing I quit that job and was old by law enforcement not to contact her again after her later indiscretions.

Sorry for that ramble. I got off point, but you'll have that. Natural disasters suck, steal beer if you can, and nail dirty broads if you hafta 'cuz who knows what's gonna happen if/once the world is gonna end. As for my boss, well, she came home to a treadmill floating in her basement. Serves her right for trying to have nice things while the rest of us had to deal with broken tree limbs, power outages, and terrible weather.

MUSICAL BREAK!!

I always associate this cd with the October Storm, because it was in my car while I was stalking checking up on my girlfriend at the time. It's greater than this piece of...no wait  ...Bloodhound Gang rules 3.14x more than Neil Diamond.

THE DAILY BOX SCORE:

I have to admit I quit writing this entry halfway through it last night because it bored me and I needed some sleepytime. I'm not proud enough to feel great about admitting that, but then again it's not easy to cop to stealing booze from a former employer or wanting to cheat on your girlfriend (on the same forsaken day). If anything learned me to become a stable person, that was a good place to start.

I'm not ashamed of being a Mets fan. Regardless of how bad the team is, I'll still rock them because they're not the Yankees. MLB is better when the "other" NY team is competitive, and baseball knows no better mascots than these two. Plus, blogging helps when you have a natural rival you can talk shit with when there's a game involved. I'm looking at you, Julie D - PUBLISHED! .

Is it wrong that I think if they'd fight,
it'd be better than the games played
between the teams?

At least I'm not pregnant...according to the ultrasound I had yesterday on my once-busted leg-piece. All I know of ultrasounds is that they're done on preggers. I don't have that joy, and I also don't know why I had an ultrasound (other than my physical therapist wanting to see "what's going on in there"). I don't know how it went, other than to assume it went ok. She worked me good afterwards...I overdid it during the weekend between standing and more standing and not enough not standing.

I did manage to get back to WNY last week. We had a garage sale at my mom's to get rid of some of my grandmother's and uncle's things, and it went very well. Froze our asses off Friday, but had good weather over the weekend. Got to see some old friends along the way and overall it was a good time.

Well, I think that's all I have to say for yesterday/today. I'm now 150 entries in to this blog (I know! ) and recently flew past 9,000 views, which is pretty incredible and I can't thank you people who read this enough. You keep showin' up and I'll keep findin' a way to entertain you...that's how this mutual arrangement works, and I think we've done fairly well with it so far. Peace, heavens no, and GOODNIGHT NOW!!

Oh, the things you can find on YouTube.