For the first time in over five years I took a vacation.  From everything. From my full time job, from my freelance business, from it all.

I set up an out of office message, I did my best to not check email, and I didn’t answer my phone even once.  While terrifying, it was quite rewarding, too.

Friends in tow, we set out for a long weekend in Vegas.  Rental house and airfare booked months ago, I looked forward to enjoying some quality time with those I love, without worrying about what was happening back at home.

A short snafu with the cat sitter (where she didn’t show up and then got passive aggressive when we confronted her on it) started out the trip, but thanks to awesome friends, Madison the Cat was taken excellent care of. (Thanks Brian and Lauren!)

The trip was great, despite it being the “hottest weekend in 100 years” in Vegas — we had fun despite the desert-like temperatures.  Thankfully the house we rented had a pool, so we got to spend quite a bit of time there.  Most days were too hot to sit outside for an extended period of time, though.

We hit all the touristy things — the Bellagio fountains, the canals and shops at the Venetian, some gambling, the Stratosphere, the strip.  We made our way to the Hoover Dam on Sunday, as well, though we opted to skip the Canyon, ’cause it’s super far away.

Everything went great until the flight back to Boston, where Megan and I were flying US Airways. It started out great — I upgraded us to First Class, ’cause why not?  I’d never flown First Class before, so I figured why not.  Seats 1A and 1C were ours and we were right in the front of the plane.

The trouble started when we got to the airport in Vegas and found out that our flight out would be delayed.  In short — the air was too hot and the plane couldn’t fill up with fuel all the way because it’d have been too heavy to take off.

I called the US Airways hotline and was told that we’d miss our connecting flight, but no worries, they’d put us up in a hotel.  Not a problem, we’ll get home by 9 the next morning.

To double check, I went to the desk by our gate and was told the same thing — they’ll have new boarding passes in Philly (where our connector was) and they’ll put us up in a hotel.

Once we got on the plane (on time), the staff told us the same thing — we’d be stopping in Kansas City for fuel and that it’d take about 20 minutes.

What should have taken 20 minutes actually took closer to an hour and we knew for sure we weren’t going to make our flight in Philly.  I grabbed my laptop, fired up the wireless, paid the $16.95 and started chatting with my sister.  She awesomely called US Airways for me and confirmed that we wouldn’t make our connector but was assured that we’d get a hotel and were on the first flight out in the morning.

Not wanting to delay getting home any longer, we decided to rent a car from the plane.  No problem, we have a Zipcar membership! But we didn’t have the actual Zipcar card with us.  Bummer!  Again to chat with my awesome sister!

She called Zipcar from the ground and was assured that there’d be no problem not having the keycard and to just call when we got to the car.  She said they’d be able to help us get into the car once we got there and that it shouldn’t be a problem because they keep extra cards in the trunks.

Our flight was scheduled originally to get into Philly at 10:10 (our connector was at 10:45, plenty of time).  We actually landed in Philly at 11:31.

Being the first people on the plane, we got off pretty quickly and immediately got into line at the ticket desk where it was obvious that most people on our flight missed their connectors and despite being told by three separate US Airways employees, people were not offered hotel rooms.  After a few other customers yelled and screamed, I simply went up to the desk and said “I’ll be easy, I just want to cancel our connector. We’re going to drive, I’ve got a car waiting.”

No problem, I was told, just call this number.  Money back, not a problem.

From there we hiked through the airport to the Rental Car Shuttles.  It took close to an hour to get the one we needed, find the Zipcar lot, and get Zipcar on the phone.  The Agent we spoke to told us there’d be no problem, and that she’d unlock the car for us.  We just had to stand close enough so she could hear the horn honk.

Beep beep, it went.  She unlocked the door to find out there were no extra keys in the trunk and offered us the car next to it (smaller, less eco-friendly, and more expensive) which had keycards.

She first asked if we were close enough to home to go get our card.  We told her no and that we were driving from Philly to Boston, about 350 miles.  No problem, she said, drive safely.

We left Philly at 12:35am on Wednesday morning.

The GPS estimated that we’d be home in 6 hours.  Six hours would get us home before the flight from Philly was slated to leave and that made me happy.

4 hours 59 minutes was all it took.  A straight through drive with just two quick stops to use the bathroom in various states (I think New Jersey and Connecticut, if I recall.)

After a quick four hour nap, I called Zipcar to explain why we were late and asked where I could drop the car off.  Lo and behold, we learn that Zipcar doesn’t do one-way rentals. At all. Ever.  Wish the Agent we talked to 11 hours earlier had said that, I’d have gladly gone inside and rented a car from Avis or Budget or Enterprise or any of the other zillion car rental places with dozens of cars that can go one way.

After putting me on hold a number of times, confused, the Agent came back and said we’d have to get the car back to Philly.  She also said that we had no choice but to have it towed.  Fine, tow it, I’ll pay for it, I don’t care.

Once Megan and I talked it over, we decided it made more sense (financially) to just drive it back to Philly.  I didn’t mind, the drive wasn’t that bad. So we called Zipcar back and spoke to a different agent.

She informed us that it wouldn’t be a problem to drive the car bank and in fact thanked us for offering to do so!  Great!  She extended our reservation and informed us that we’d need to pay for the additional hours, mileage and some other penalties.  Not a problem, it was our fault for not reading the back of the card about one-way rentals. (Don’t get me started on the fact that it doesn’t say that anywhere on the reservation confirmation I got…)

I hung up with Zipcar, went to my computer, and booked a flight home from Philly at 9:30 that night. I figured that’d give me enough time to gas up the car, drive back, and make my way back to the US Airways gate.

Wallet, keys, cell phone, sunglasses and Bruins hat in tow, I made my way back to the parking lot to head back to Philly.  Another surprise is that the car doesn’t unlock.

So we call Zipcar again.  This time we’re told that our membership has been rescinded, we’re no longer members, and we have no option but to have the car towed back.  Interesting, that’s not what we were just told.  I asked to speak to a Manager who told me the same thing — we’re out of luck.

I tried explaining that we booked non-refundable airfare to get home based on the misinformation given to us by an Agent of their company.  Again, basically told to go shit in a hat (for lack of a better term.)

I was told I could try speaking to the local Boston office, so I called and spoke to Kristin, the Zipcar employee working on our situation.  I explained what happened, but she just kept talking over me, citing that it was our fault that we didn’t bring the car back, and how we inconvenienced all of the other customers that reserved that car for the day.  I don’t deny that it was our fault, but this woman was just flat out rude.

She again informed me that they weren’t allowing us to drive the car back and that they’d come and get the car.  We’d be responsible for the fees to return the car.  I asked her to ballpark that fee, which she wouldn’t.  “We’ll either tow it, drive it back, or put it on a flatbed” was the best she could tell me.  (We also contacted independent tow companies and found prices ranging from $300-$500 for the tow.)

When asked what they’d do about the airfare I booked based on the previous Agent telling me I could drive the car back, she said “I’m sorry, we’re reviewing that call.”  I’ve worked in enough call centers to know bullshit when I hear it, but I let that go.  I knew that they’d do nothing, because I’m just one measly ex-customer.  What did they care if I was inconvenienced?  I’d already screwed over the other people who tried to rent that car today.  (Mind you, not even the car I originally reserved via Zipcar’s website!)

Around 2pm on Wednesday the 3rd, someone from Zipcar came and took the car.  They didn’t knock, they didn’t call, and despite the company saying that they’d tell us the cost before the car was taken, we heard nothing.

Here we are now, nearly 6 days later, Monday the 8th.  We’ve heard not a single word from Zipcar since.  No contact. No emails. No communication of any kid.  We just see an empty spot where their rental car once sat, waiting, wondering.  I’m astounded at the breakdown of communication all of a sudden.  Was I in the wrong in driving the car one way? Yes, I was.  For a service we’d used precisely once before, we had no idea that was a no-no.  Could it have been handled better on their end? Sure, I don’t doubt that.

Should the initial Agent that unlocked the car told us we couldn’t drive to Boston? Yes.
Should the second Agent that I called to ask where to return the car have told me what the price to tow the car would have been? Yes.
Should the third Agent have told me I could drive the car back when I couldn’t? No.
Should the fourth Agent had been so rude in telling me it was “too bad” that I booked airfare based on what Agent three told me? No.
Should the Manager I spoke with been understanding and allowed me to return the car myself? Probably.
Should Kristin in the Boston office had been a little more understanding and listen to what I was actually saying? Yes.
Should I have known that I couldn’t drive a Zipcar one way? Probably.
Would I ever use Zipcar again even if my membership wasn’t revoked? Not even a chance.

So that’s it. That’s the story of how US Airways and Zipcar lost my business, oh and how we almost melted in the Vegas sun.

All in all, a good vacation. Getting there was rocky (with not knowing someone would take care of Madison the Cat) and the trip home sucked (with the airline lying about the hotel and the car snafu), but overall it was nice to get away.

Now if all the email in my inbox would just respond to itself, I’d be a happy guy.

When your phone rings at 10pm on a Sunday night, and it’s your mom, you know it’s usually not good news.  That was the case last Sunday, a week ago today.  My phone rang at 9:59pm, and I knew before I even answered that it wasn’t good news.

Mom told me that my grandmother, who we affectionately referred to as Weezie, had passed.  She’d been sick for about a year and a half, but even so, you never expect it.

Through tears, Mom told me that she’d passed earlier that evening. And while initially sad, I was also relieved.  Everyone always tries to console you when you lose someone who was ill by saying “at least she’s not in pain anymore”, and it’s usually bullshit.  But in this case, it was actually true. Once the initial shock wore off, I knew that she really had moved on to a better place, and she wasn’t hurting anymore.

Due to some schedule issues with the extended family, we had to push the wake out until Friday.  I got there half an hour before it was supposed to start and met with my aunts and uncles and their respective other halves, my Mom and her husband Walter.  The Priest was there and gave the initial blessing, as we all stood around soggy-eyed.  It was tough to be there, but it was good in a way.  Not so much because it felt like we got closure or got to say goodbye, but because we got to see how many people really loved her.

Weezie had turned 86 on May 3rd, two days before she passed, and I found out at the funeral yesterday that she’d lived in Arlington for her entire life.  You can imagine that over 86 years and living in one place, you tend to meet a lot of people.  And they all came out to say goodbye.

The photos from the 40s and 50s of her were amazing.  She looked so beautiful on her wedding day, which I forgot to ask someone when that was, with her father who I never met (he passed before I was born.)  Photos spanning her entire life were spread across the funeral home, illustrating not just what an amazing woman she was, but how many people loved her, and how many lives she touched.

At first I found it odd that there were no pictures from when she was a baby.  But I realized that it’s likely due to the fact that cameras were expensive in the 20s, and I doubt my great-grandparents had the money to have one.  The first pictures of her were from her teenage years.

Seeing my grandfather (who arguably wasn’t the greatest guy to my grandmother or any of my aunts and uncles) in the wedding photos was a trip.  He’s been gone for nearly 16 years now, and seeing him in his prime made me flash back to Good Fellas.

Saturday morning meant the funeral, which was admittedly tougher than the wake.  When I arrived at the funeral home at 8:30 (half an hour before it was slated to start), I was the only one there.  I had the opportunity to sit down and say my farewell to Weezie, just the two of us.  I thanked her for doing such a great job raising my mom and her brothers and sisters, virtually on her own.  I thanked her for making delicious Italian food every Sunday when we’d come visit throughout my childhood.  I thanked her for letting me stay at her house on January 21st, 1990 so I could watch the Royal Rumble.  Thanks to Uncle Franky’s magic “black box”, I watched the Royal Rumble that year for free at Weezie’s.  I thanked her for always being positive, no matter how many crappy things happened in her life.  She truly was an amazing and inspirational woman, and was without a doubt my favorite grandparent.

While still sad that she’s gone, I’m relieved and happy.  Happy to know that my favorite grandparent got to live the longest, and got to be the biggest part of my life.  She watched most of her grandchildren get married.  She watched some of them have their own children.  And now she rests in the back corner of Mount Pleasant Cemetery, just a few hundred yards from where she lived for the last few decades.  Quietly in the back corner, under a row of trees, a beautiful plot.

We all bid farewell in our own ways.  Some people tossed flowers on the casket, some people knelt and prayed, some people kissed the casket.  I stood by the head of the casket after the service was over, and watched people say their goodbyes.

Flowers were tossed on top. My uncles touched the casket, and choked back tears. My mom and her sisters took flowers from around the casket, to keep and dry out.  Before I left, I solidly placed my hand on her casket, and said goodbye, whispering that I loved her and thanked her for a great life.  I took one red rose from the bunch by my left foot.  Rather than placing the the rose on top, where it’d surely be swept off as they lowered the casket into its final resting place, I snuck it in underneath.  There was a slight gap between the casket and the device that lowers it into the ground.  I slid the rose into the gap and watched as it fell into the hole, where it’d find a home under where her casket would lay for all eternity.  The expression “six feet under” never rang so true — it seemed to take minutes for the rose to hit the bottom.

It’s been a long and emotional week and one that I’m glad is over.  I’ll miss Weezie for many years to come, and hope that wherever she is, wherever she ends up, she’s peaceful.

I’ve been chugging away at things over here, I know you were dying to know.  I struggled to come up with a title for this blog post, but there it is: finding simple solutions to everyday problem.

The shower rod in the bathroom kept falling down. Apparently the bar wasn’t long enough and the spring-loaded tension bar wasn’t holding it tight enough anymore, so simple solution: I crammed some paper towels in behind one of the non-skid pads, and popped it back up. It’s held pretty well so far.

My other problem that’s been bugging me — my new drummer’s gloves. Yea, they’re awesome, and they save my hands big time.  But I play along to my iPad.  I don’t know if you’ve ever tried to touch your iPad or iPhone screen with gloves on, but it doesn’t work.  The screens react to something in your fingers – electricity, oil, I don’t know, but something. So the problem arose when I wanted to change tracks.  I’d have to take my glove off, kind of a pain in the ass.

So I decided to find a solution, which I did — I’m bringing my laptop with me, and since there’s not a whole lot of space on the laptop for music, I put my Drum Time playlist on my iPhone, and then connect via a cable.  Apparently you can use the iPhone like a harddrive, which is what I’ve been doing.  When you step back and think about it, it’s kind of obvious.

Work continues on the book.  My buddy continues to edit chapters, and I continue to incorporate his feedback and correction of my overuse of commas. (Sorry, Austin!)  We’ll get through it eventually.

I don’t remember if I posted about it here or not, but I made the decision last week that I’ll be doing an audiobook version of the book as well.  I don’t know why, but it seems like a fun process to go through so why not?  The eBook process has been such a learning experience, I figure why not? Let’s do the whole shebang, right?

I’m having my very first surgery Friday morning, and I’m kind of freaking out about it.  I’ve never had any surgery before, so I’m probably overreacting to things, but that’s how my brain works.  Don’t worry, it’s not as major as the word “surgery” makes it sound.  In short, I’m having two sinus lifts on the upper left side of my jaw, and then they’ll be doing a bone graft.  Due to some freak act of nature part of my upper jaw has deteriorated over the years, and needs to be fixed.  Once that’s all done, they’ll be putting in two dental implants into the newly reconstructed bone.

It sounds a lot more serious than it is, and thanks to America’s crappy health and dental insurance that we have, it’s costing me around $18k out of pocket.  But it has to be done, so it has to be done.

Don’t worry, I’ll be fine. I have plenty of ice cream stock piled, and will be taking the weekend to relax.  I made a mistake in scheduling it, though.  Had I looked at a calendar, I’d have known that Iron Man 3 was coming out this weekend, and wouldn’t have booked the surgery for Friday.  Hopefully I’ll feel up to going to see the movie. I suppose time will tell.

When someone sets off a bomb in any major city, it’s devastating.  When it happens at an event attended by thousands of people, it’s even more devastating.  When it happens in the city that you live in close proximity to, and have lived near and loved your entire life, it hits really close to home.

People have been comparing the bombings at the Boston Marathon to the attacks that happened 12 years ago on the Twin Towers in New York.  While an act of terrorism, I don’t think they’re quite on the same level.  Terrible, yes, but thousands of people died in New York all those years ago.  To say Boston was lucky would downplay the severity of what happened, but it could have been much much worse.

Over the last week I’ve watched and listened as updates came up, first with the bombing, and subsequently with the chase that ensued late Thursday night into Friday.

I’ve never been one to watch the news.  When I was a kid, my parents would put the news on during dinner and I’d sit with my back to it, ignoring it.  But yesterday I spent from 7am to just shy of 9pm watching the news.

Once the second suspect was apprehended (which I saw on Twitter before the news aired it), I shut the TV off and sighed deeply with relief.  I didn’t watch Mayor Menino talk about all the hard work of everyone involved.   I didn’t listen to the State Police Colonel congratulate his entire team.  Once I knew that everything was over, I disconnected.

I saw this morning that they’d taken the second suspect to a local hospital for treatment, but beyond that I don’t know what else has happened.  I don’t think it much matters anymore.  Now that he’s been caught, we’ll get whatever information we can out of him.  But I think that should be for his spotlight.  His fifteen minutes of fame have come and gone, and I don’t think we should pay any more attention to him.

The 65,000+ people who started following him on Twitter in the last 3 days should stop.  I don’t think he’ll be updating anyone on anything from prison, where presumably he’ll be for the next couple of decades.

The real question, though, is why?  I think that’s what we all want to know.

All of the interviews with aunts and uncles and college classmates have led to no answers.  His family has said that they cut ties with the brothers months ago.  Students from UMass Dartmouth (where the younger brother went to school) all said they’d never expect this from him, and that he was a nice and normal guy.

Will we get an answer to why this happened?  I doubt it.  I’m extremely glad that this whole ordeal is over.  I know many people that live in Watertown, and I’m glad they’re all safe and sound.  Am I glad that he was captured alive? Yes, absolutely.  Do I feel like we, as a city and state, would have been sufficed if the police had killed him? No, not even a little.

Can we get back to normal now? No, I don’t think so. At least not right away. It’s going to be a while before we feel safe again, before we can go out at night and not look at people suspiciously.    It’ll be months, if not years, before we don’t have heightened security at public events.  It’ll be years, if not decades, of people talking about what happened on Monday and the events that followed.

We’re Boston.  We’re tough, we’re resilient, we’re hardasses.  Will we let this keep us down? Not a chance.  It’ll just take some time for us to bounce back, get back on our feet, and get back to life as we know it.

The next time you’re out somewhere, and you see a police officer, fire fighter, EMT, or anyone else that could have possibly been involved in any of the horrible things that happened in Boston in the last week — thank them.  Buy them a beer, pay for their dinner, do something nice for them.  They’re the reason we’re safe.  They put their lives on the line every day to keep us that way, and they deserve to know that without them, we’d all be screwed.

I do my best to remember things; friends’ birthdays, eating healthy, exercising, etc.

Sometimes it’s just hard, ya know? There’s so much happening in life that things slip through the cracks.  You sit down in the morning and tell yourself that you’ve gotta remember to do something.  It doesn’t matter what that thing is, sometimes no matter how important it is, you forget.

Before you know it, the day’s over, and your list of things you “absolutely can’t forget” is still sitting there, unchecked, staring at you.

I bought myself a set of weights a couple of weeks ago.  They’re on the floor in my office, directly next to where I’m seated for a good portion of the day, staring up at me.  I bought them so they’d be there, and I’d grab them from time to time, do some reps, and tone my arms.

Why? Well, glad you asked.  I was finding that while I was drumming, my arms were getting tired faster and faster, probably because I wasn’t playing as much as I used to, and my muscles strained themselves faster.

So I figured rather than trying to get myself to the gym (which let’s face it, just isn’t going to happen), I’d just have the weights next to my desk, and I’d remember to grab them for 30-45 seconds on a daily basis.

And even that I seem to not remember to do on a daily basis.  My work day ends, I look down at them and remember that I forgot to reach down and grab them.

Granted, some things I just “forget” because I don’t want to deal with them.  For example, I have a task in my task manager for “Pick a new name for the company” with a due date of February 28th.  I have been ignoring it because I flat out don’t want to do it.  No matter what name I pick to replace my existing company name (MJJ Designs) it just doesn’t seem to work.

Imagine trying to pick a screenname for AOL back in the ’90s.  Remember how hard that was?  Multiply that times infinity, and that’s how much pressure there is to pick a new name to replace the one your company’s had for almost ten years.

Which brings me back to the fact that my company will turn ten in August.  I’ve been designing and building websites for my own company for ten years.  That’s an accomplishment of some sort, isn’t it?

It seems like my brain is full of all sorts of things that I really don’t need to remember; the dialog from every episode of Saved by the Bell, every word from Braveheart, a phone number that someone told me to remember twenty years ago.  But I can’t remember to take frozen chicken out of the freezer in the morning to make for dinner.  It’s baffling how the human brain works.

In case you haven’t noticed yet, this post is going nowhere.  Sometimes I write just because I want to write.  Today is one of those days. (I’m also killing time until my Chinese food arrives.)

I’ve gone a week without blogging, that seems like a lot given how much I’ve been updating the last few months. Why? Glad you asked.  I’ve got a lot going on.  Oh, you want to know what? Okay, fine, I’ll tell you.

• My love, neigh obsession, with Full House has taken a step further.  I’ve now built and have been updating a website lovingly called What The F*#k, Full House?! (http://www.wtffh.com). I’ve been pointing out fun bloopers, mishaps, and continuity issues with the show since about a week and a half ago. And it’s fun. Stupid, yes, but fun.
• I’ve also been spending a lot of time doing some code updates for a website for a fantastic charity that I work with: Boston Bakes for Breast Cancer (http://www.bostonbakesforbreastcancer.org).  They’re kick-ass, and you should support them.  Not by donating money (though that’s cool, too), but by buying desserts.  What happens is kind of genius: you (the consumer) go to a participating bakery or restaurant and buy a dessert at any point during the week in May.  That bakery or restaurant turns around and gives the money to Boston Bakes. Who then gives it to Dana Farber.  In 2011 they were one of the top donors in terms of percentage of money raised being donated (no operating costs, etc. taken out of the donation money).  It’s pretty awesome, and I’ve been working with them since 2010. (MJJ Designs, my company, built the website, and have been maintaining it ever since.)
• I started writing a book.  Well, that’s not entirely true.  I wrote a book.  It’s done, and has been done for a couple/few weeks now. (I can’t remember when I finished.)  I’ve sent it off to my buddy who does copy-editing to do a first draft proofread for me.  I’ve also been working on the website for the book.  My plan is to self-publish it through iBooks, Barnes & Noble and Kindle.  They all take a pretty big cut of the money, but I don’t mind. I’m not doing it for money.  Why am I doing it? I have no idea.  It seemed like a good idea at the time.  Note: please don’t ask me if you can read it, it’s not ready yet.  When it is, I’ll gladly refer you to where you can buy a copy though.  It’ll be reasonably priced, I promise. And if you ask nicely, and I like you, I’ll probably just give you a copy. 
  Double note: this is also the first time I’m telling anyone, really.  Though indirectly, you should feel special that you know.  I don’t know why I haven’t mentioned it, but now you know.
• I’ve been planning the rest of my Vegas Vacation slated for the end of June into July.  Probably not the best idea to go out there then, as my skin will cook off of my body. But so what.  I rented a big house just off the strip as it’ll be cheaper than renting multiple hotel rooms for everyone that’s coming.  Should be a great long weekend, and I’m looking forward to it.  I haven’t been on a vacation in five years, and I’d say it’s well deserved at this point in my life.
• I had brunch with my dad and Megan yesterday, which was interesting.  It was the first time I’d seen him since he moved way out to Fitchburg, which if you’ve never been, is like 49 hours away. (Okay, that may be exaggerating a bit, but it’s still really far away.)
• I have a ton of to-do tasks in my task manager for this week, and they’re glaring at me right now.  I hate being responsible, I really really do.

There you have it, a nice orderly list of what’s been going on in my life.  Don’t you feel better about yourself?

I remember climbing the tree in my Grandmother‘s yard every Sunday when we’d go visit her.

I remember going on my first date to the movies, to see Father of the Bride with my first girlfriend when I was 12.

I remember moving out on my own for the first time.

I remember driving back from Long Island with Leeloo for the first time.

I remember some of the oddest things, but I don’t remember where I was going with this when I started.

Sometimes I get into these reflective moods where I look back on life and remember random things.  Tonight seems to be one of those moods.  The strangest things come to mind, for seemingly no reason at all.

It’s raining tonight, but was beautiful and sunny earlier.  I knew I should have taken a walk at lunch when I had the opportunity.  The sky was beautiful and blue, the sun was out, and everything was just right for an afternoon walk.  Now the sky’s grey, the rain is pouring down and the thunder and lightning are doing their thing.  It’s kind of eerie and beautiful, sure, but it’s not the best for taking a walk.

My day’s over, and what a day it’s been.  For a Monday, I was surprisingly busy, though I suppose that’s not bad.  When I’m busy, the day goes by faster than usual.  The afternoon had its moments where I was bored, as usual, but this morning went by in the blink of an eye.

I’m on the couch now, with Commissioner Gordon (the name I gave my new laptop), typing away, watching Friends.  Yes, I named my laptop Commissioner Gordon. It fits in with all my other electronics: Batman (my iPhone), The Dark Knight (my iPad), and Alfred (my desktop Mac).  It only seemed fitting to name this something similar.

It sounds like the rain is letting up now, but I just looked and it’s not.

Most of my recent round of blogging have been focused, and I’ve had a topic to write about. This is the anomaly, which is why it’s really about nothing.  My mind’s all over the place the last week, and I think it’s coming across here.

There’s a Microsoft Surface commercial on now.  I don’t care whether or not it’s the greatest tablet on the face of the earth – I’d never buy one because this commercial is terrible.  It’s the one where they’re all dancing and clapping their keyboard to their Surface tablets.  It’s really stupid, and doesn’t do anything to sell me one of these devices.  Not that I’d ever buy a non-Apple product again anyway. (Go ahead, make your comments about how they’re overpriced and whatever else you want to say.  They’re better, who cares if they cost more.)

I remember Hurricane Gloria. It was the first time I asked my dad something that he didn’t know the answer to.  The power was out for days, and I asked when it’d come back on, and he didn’t know.

I remember the first time my dad brought home a computer for us.  The concept was baffling, and there wasn’t much you could do with it, but all these years later I’m really glad he did, and taught me so much.

I remember high school, probably a bit too well.  It wasn’t the best experience of my life, for sure.

I still don’t remember where I was going with this, though.