Archive for February, 2008
Is a pet really, “just a pet”?
At 10:56 a.m. today I get a text from my brother letting me know that the dog is dead. I immediately tried to call, but didn’t get a response back, so I sent him a wtf back. I am still at the wtf state and will be for some time. This post isn’t about life lessons nor about we are all going to die one day, it is just about a dog. A dog I loved, my brothers, my mom really didn’t care for him much, and especially my dad. He was truly my dad’s “best friend”, it was so hard seeing him today, but I do believe it helped him get through the rest of his day. No one wanted to tell my dad because we didn’t want to mess up it, but once I told him he was devastated.
His name is/was AJ, I had several names for him because he had different personalities at any given moment and it was so cool to trigger them anytime that I wanted. He would chase you around the couch and would want to keep on going and he loved barking for no reason at all. You knew not to touch him while he was eating because he will bite your finger (he has bit every single person in my family, including my dad and 8 year old nephew). He licked his balls and cock with pride and ironically I have tons of pictures of him doing so. AJ can jump really high, at least 2 feet, which is pretty impressive for a wiener dog. He had a couple of spots in the house that he stayed in which were my brother’s room underneath his desk or on his bed and in the living room floor right next to my dad who usually lays on the couch.
The Rest Stop
This past weekend I went to San Antonio for a friend’s going away party, whom is going to Austrilia. From Houston to San Antonio it is a 3 hr drive driving normally. It is kind of ironic that me being the car guy that I am don’t really do far trips. I think the longest trip that I have been on was a 5-6 hr drive to Laredo. I really don’t like stopping, unless it is for gas, but I am back on the road with no real rest in between. I thrill for the adventure of the open road and just can’t wait to get back to driving at a nice fast speed while checking out the scenery no matter how flat or mundane it is.
But this time I just had to stop. I had very little sleep the night before and was busy during the morning running errands and playing with my nephew. I was dozing off like there was no tomorrow and felt like it was even easier to fall asleep than being in a boring ass class or at work sometimes. So I caved in and stopped, stopped at a rest stop. Hell I almost missed the detour because I was dozing off. I told myself a couple of mins will be enough, but I kept on snoozing and finally I just took the a total of 30 mins of nap time. I locked my doors, put my jacket over my head to block the sun away, and spread my legs on the passenger side and felt like a new person. I could have easily drove for another 5-6 hours after taking that nap, but it just got me thinking. Thinking about how simple it is to just stop, stop everything that we are doing, and just chill (I use this term way too much in my daily life, but it really just means do something other than what you are normally doing). I could have been on the side of the road smashed if I didn’t take a nap that lasted 30 mins.
These couple of weeks I have been in my head like no other and it is really driving me crazy. At times I really do envy and admire people who just live with no real consequences and planning. This is not a knock on the way a person lives their life, but it is different and people operate differently to life in general, there isn’t one “right” way to live. The beauty of sleeping is that you really don’t think of what you are going to do next, you either dream or just get the rest you need. For now on I am going to “chill” in ways that I haven’t tried before, old ways that I enjoyed but stopped doing, and in ways that have helped shaped my life now. I have to keep on telling myself that “a little bit” is required of me everyday. As long as I do something to better myself and others than I am on my way to completing my goals and just living in general.
Getting Your Life Together vs. Settling: So Far the Question of the Year!!!
This whole week I have been thinking about my next step. Not only career wise, but passion, purpose, travel, and life in general. I do feel that my life is changing, every single day I am changing and most of the time it is eliminating things I don’t like to do and implementing things I do love. I have a problem of always being in my head and constantly analyzing and living my life through my thoughts. It has for sure gotten better, but there is still much growth that needs to be done. Just this year I have been challenged with a question that has really got me thinking (see there it goes again).
I have been emailing my friends that I met in Japan last year, simply just to catch up with them and let them know what I am up to. But there was one little message that hit me, hit me right in my heart. Here it is: ” It sounds like you are geeting your life settled. Take it from me, when that happens it can get harder and harder to leave!” The truth of the matter is that statement and realization is so true. We are all human beings and we have a tendency to settle into a routine that does or doesn’t fit us. However, we don’t know what the future will hold for us in any situation that we choose, but we can plan our future out the best we can. For instance, we say that we are going to stay in a particular city for a year or 2, going to stay at this job to make sure I am more marketable in the future, start doing this hobby more often and see where it takes me, travel the world and see this and that. Then BAM something “life changing” happens to you that you didn’t expect, didn’t plan for, didn’t even dream of, and now you are faced with a decision: What do I do? Which direction is best for me or this person or family? Damn I really don’t know what is the right direction. I still believe in what I wrote about a month or two ago about it is totally up to you what you do for your life. But life does force you to make a decision and the longer you get settled it is really hard to break that mold.
So far my plans or things that I am thinking of changing for the future is coming along nicely and don’t have any complaints. I am still figuring a couple of things out and stressful at times, but really soon all will be moving in the direction I want. I still have some very important things I want to do that I planned months and years ago, but I can see that they are now far away from me when I dream at night. That right there is what we do way too often and we can’t be a leaf in the air swaying whatever direction the wind blows us. I do think we all know what we want to do, no matter how hard or easy, we do know and we cheat only ourselves when we let our dreams, hopes, and thoughts that move us, that wakes us up every morning start to disappear.
The question still stands, which is better, what is going to bring you the most happiness: Getting your life together vs. settling? I don’t know, everyone is different. But I think it is way easier to follow your heart, whether it be settling, getting your life together, being spontaneous, or whatever we do as human beings that gives us the most satisfaction.
What Did You Learn About the Super Bowl?
My head is spinnin and I don’t get the reason why I care so much about something that ultimately doesn’t effect me at all. It doesn’t eliminate the job that I currently have, what I plan to do tomorrow or for the rest of the week, or how I plan to live my life. But there are so many lessons that can be learned from the Super Bowl.
Forget the commercials (they were better last year) and look at what happened during the game and afterwards. A team with an okay record beat the team that wasn’t suppose to lose a game for the whole season and was suppose to be the greatest team ever in the NFL. But no it didn’t happen that way and that is why myself and many others are not going to be happy tomorrow. Lessons learned from this very game is that even though we hope and dream of things to happen it will never happen unless we go out there and get it. It really is that simple, you could see it that one team wanted it just a little more.
The other lesson shouldn’t surprise you but it might piss you off. We care way too much about things that shouldn’t effect the way we live our lives. We live, eat, breath sports and other forms of entertainment. We wear our emotions on our sleeves with someone talks bad about our team, our team doesn’t win that big game, or whatever reason. I love sports as the next person, but it hit me a year ago that sports shouldn’t be the reason why I am alive, it shouldn’t be the reason why I get out of bed, and whatever else sports may make me do. I can totally understand the athelets having these type of emotions and passion because they are the ones who play the sports, they are the ones who sacrifice their bodies to get in the best shape possible and put their lives on the line for the love and money of the game.
So when you go to sleep to night, don’t think that your life is so much better or worse because your team won or lose, but think about every single player that played their hearts out for something that they believe in. Take that lesson about the game and apply it in your life. What is the Super Bowl that you are thinking about, what are you doing to make that be a reality? Unlike most sports you don’t have to rely on others to pick up their slack for the team to complete the goal, you are the one that determines whether you complete your dream.
- @YEAdamMcFarland The full screen editor are badass, I get plenty done, but there shouldn't be a reason for so many choices. 12:37:20 PM November 13, 2009
